Once Upon A Geek – Doctor Who Lucie Miller and 2025 Gallifrey One Pregame

11 responses to “Once Upon A Geek – Doctor Who Lucie Miller and 2025 Gallifrey One Pregame”

1. Hello Shag! I’m A Doctor, NOT the definite article! So great to hear you & David geek out about my longest-standing fandom!

   Eight Doctor – I was soooo excited to see this Special; I was in my first six months of my very first post-qualification hospital job when this aired on a public holiday in May. Massive problem: I was the on-call doctor for my ward that day and I could be paged and interrupted at any time. So I bought the VHS tape a week early and watched it several times before it actually aired on BBC1 – one of the first Doctor Who videos I bought, and – boy, howdy – was *that* where a lot of my subsequent income went in the following years! As it happened, I managed to engineer time with one of my younger patients, who just happened to have Doctor Who showing on his TV, so I got to see almost all of the TV Movie live on air whilst on duty! At the time I was devastated that the Special went no further, but in retrospect, rather glad that the show didn’t get picked up and FOX-ified. One of my Hot Takes is that I think Paul McGann’s as an actor is *better* served in the audio realm rather than the Eighth Doctor might have been on TV – you may discuss!

   Companions: I am a bit biased against Lucie Miller as – at the time – Sheridan Smith was in a rather bawdy youth- targeted sit-com on the BBC called Two Pints of Lager And A Packet of Crisps Please, in which she played a gobby, opinionated chav character. To have her as a gobby, opinionated chav Doctor Who companion just did not appeal. I may have to give the whole era a shot when it hits the Big Finish sales. My list of companions was exactly the same as David’s. Fitz, Liv Chenka (I don’t think you mentioned ‘Stranded’ – a truly excellent series) and Charlie is my definitive Eighth Doctor companion. Another Hot Takes? OK: Charlie is on the same tier as Sarah Jane Smith for me as companions go: they share the same ferociously brave attitude when faced with some really very scary situations, but retain a core vulnerability. Both characters play so perfectly against their respective Doctors – again, feel free to discuss!

   Big Finish: I’ve more into the audio adventures than the books or comics, and would wholeheartedly endorse anyone interested in Doctor Who to try out. My first Big Finish disc was Zagreus – an audio multi-Doctor story that I listened to under very particular circumstances. (I’ll save that story in case you ever invite me back on the show .. hint hint! )

   Posh characters: Rose & Lucie are definitely not posh. Third Hot Take… neither is Donna. Donna (and Catherine Tate is so good at this) puts on a posher persona most of the time, but when she’s riled or angry, the mask slips and her true class slips out. The Classic series is beset with companions who speak terribly, terribly properly, but Received Pronunciation was the normal accent for British drama school graduates at the time – Ace was probably the first companion to break that mould.

   Conventions: I’ve never been to a Doctor Who convention; I’m a big introvert (sounds like David might be too), so the thought of socialising with strangers is very intimidating – how nice to hear that Gally is so welcoming. Hope you boys have a great time!

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2. I’ve only heard two eight doctor stories
   A earthly child and the story from old doctors new monsters set where it’s the time war version of him . I’ve also seen the made for tv movie . I’m more a third doctor guy the only Lucie story I’ve heard is the one with Krotons and she with Colin baker I think . Have great day.

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   1. Bucky,

      Last year, Big Finish started a podcast called “Into The TARDIS”. Every Friday, it serializes a Doctor Who story. Some stories take two week to complete and others four.

      If you’re a fan of the audios that Big Finish and Anderson Entertainment produce together – they have a similar podcast called “Anderson Audio Adventures”.

      Both are great ways to listen to Big Finish audios for free.

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3. Thank you both for this episode. I’m now 120% hyped for Gally this weekend!

   My path with the Eighth Doctor is an odd one. I remember going to a friend’s house to use his dia-up modem to access Rec.Arts.DrWho to see the announcement, leading to a huge reaction of “…Who?”. I was able to watch the TV movie live and found myself underwhelmed.

   As an aside, the New Adventures brought me back to fandom and were incredibly special to me. Knowing Virgin lost the publishing license soured me on the new endeavor before even seeing a commercial.

   I read the first half of the EDAs and found them a mixed bag. Fitz and Compassion were both top notch companions. It felt like Lawrence Miles’ books made for interesting in their own right, but a bad road map to build a line around.

   It wasn’t until 2012 that I really gave BigFinish a chance. Titles being available digitally made it a much more cost-effective prospect. I knew there was a line of “new adventures” with McGann folks seemed to like, Situation Vacant seemed like a jumping on-point with a new companion (Tamsin!), and work had me on the road a fair bit. By The Book of Kells, I quickly realized I loved these audios and was in way over my head!

   Night of the Doctor really pushed my appreciation of McGann over the top. I’ve listened to most everything between Lucie’s debut up to Stranded. Eight’s interactions with his companions is refreshing, especially as a recovering edge lord Seventh Doctor fan.

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4. I feel a bit of a fraud commenting in this one – I’ve never heard a single audio adventure. I did, though, enjoy the episode loads as it gave me a bit of an introduction to the Eighth Doctor.

   I was shocked to hear how many audio companions Eight alone has had – and most of them, apparently, young women; I try not think too much about the 900-year-old guy’s fondness for 20-year-old women. They may as well cast Leonardo DiCaprio. (Didn’t one of the Doctors hang out with a penguin… Frobisher?)

   I somehow missed the Paul McGann TV movie when it came out, though I instinctively took against it on hearing details – made by AMERICANS?! The Doctor KISSING?!HALF-HUMAN?! I finally watched it about five years ago and it was quite fun. Like Chris, I’m pleased it never went to series, though, given how non-British the revamp was. I’m glad to hear the Eighth Doctor was so well served in his audio afterlife, as I did feel terribly sorry for McGann, one of our best screen actors, not getting a good shot at the role, at the time.

   One of the reasons I came to comment was to protest that Rose and Donna weren’t remotely posh, they were solidly working class (that would be middle class in the US, I think). And it’s a long time since Liverpool was considered cool. Anyway, Chris made my point re: Rose nicely. It’s weird that the writers would have a supposedly working class kid from Blackpool not only named Lucy (posh) but Lucie with IE (terribly, terribly parwsh).

   I did like Sheridan Smith in Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps, being a gobby, opinionated chav character myself. The sitcom was very underrated and its young stars are now middle-aged stalwarts of British entertainment.

   I must be naive, it wouldn’t cross my mind that ‘bleedin’ was filling in for the F-word, maybe it’s because I learned the word from kids’ comics, (‘Duck Nipper, it’s the bleedin’ Hun!) so ‘bleedin’ was a perfectly decent exclamation all on its own.

   I really loved David’s description of Charlie – ‘an engine of daring’. And is Ace from Doctor Who the reason David’s nickname is ‘Ace’? I was hoping it was a Bat Hound thing!

   India Fisher is a Doctor Who companion? India Fisher the Masterchef voiceover? Legend!

   ‘Condor yourself’ – I learned a new expression!

   I get so sick of New Who companions being ‘The Most Important Person in the Universe’. And Clara was the worst, far too posh!

   One thing I would appreciate when you’re talking about various incarnation is a quick actor namecheck rather than simply ‘The Twelfth Doctor’ or whoever – I can’t remember offhand what number any Doctor is once we pass Colin Baker (Number Five, yes?).

   For a future episode, Shag, I’d love to know what you thought of Tales of the Tardis.

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   1. Agree with you there, Martin: “Bleedin’” is completely appropriate for Lucie, and F**k isn’t a straight replacement… at least in the UK. Bleedin’ is a bit more sassy than that.

      India Fisher plays Charlie and is an exceptional audio companion, although she is now more famous for describing plates of food in voiceover on Masterchef UK.

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      1. Extra points for the other Doctor Who Masterchef connection!

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         1. I mean… Greg Wallace is clearly a Sontaran.
            Is that what you meant?

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            1. Not a terrible guess, but the Celeb – or is it the Pros? – version has commentary by… Sean Pertwee

5. Reversing the polarity of a king prawn bonbon with kumquat jus.

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6. GREAT EPISODE!

   I’m so happy to hear you finally talking about Big Finish!!!!

   I hope you two had a wonderful time at Gallifrey One.

   Every time David guests on a podcast, I have the same question – Why doesn’t David have his own shown on the network?

   As you can probably tell from my opening, I’m a fan of Big Finish. I’ve been visually disabled for over a decade and a half. I’ve never seen modern Doctor Who and have only seen about 30% of classic who. For context, the last time I saw Doctor Who, the Doctor had just gotten a new companion nicknamed Ace.

   I discovered Big Finish from a Christmas Humble Bundle sale somewhere around a decade ago. To me Big Finish is Doctor Who. I’ve never seen episodes with Paul McGann, Christopher Eccleston, River Song or Jago and Lightfoot but I’ve become fans of each one.

   The longer Big Finish is in business the more confident they get with their storytelling. I’ve listened to stories with space ship battles, sword fights and pirate ships sailing in the time vortex. In each case, they’re storytelling was so good that I could figure out exactly what was going on. Absolutely amazing.

   Unfortunately, I’ve purchased much less Big Finish in the last 12 months than I was planning to. Last year’s problems with the website and app left me unable to listen to anything I’d purchased for months. So, I didn’t purchase anything during that time.

   There are a lot of releases I’d like to get this year, but the current exchange rate and Big Finish’s policy of increasing an items price after it has been out for a month or two, has almost priced Big Finish out of my budget.

   Thankfully, I have a big library and Big Finish occasionally has fantastic sales.

   THANKS again for a wonderful episode!

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