Sunday 26 February 2012

...watching every TV adventure of the Doctor, in strict chronological order of broadcast...


                November 23rd, 1998, was a significant date. You’re probably already clocking that it was Doctor Who’s 35th anniversary. In fact, it was the most underwhelming anniversary ever. Ten years earlier, we’d had Silver Nemesis – poor, yes, but nonetheless there. Five years earlier, we’d had Dimensions in Time – awful, yes, but undoubtedly celebratory. At least someone was trying. In 1998, there was nothing on TV – well, unless you had something called BBC Choice, and no-one I knew did. (A few years later, the channel transmogrified into BBC3, which would go on to have a healthy relationship with Doctor Who.) Even the novels didn’t produce anything noteworthy.

                In my house, things were different. It was on this date that I began a project. It went by the name of Doctor Who In An Exciting Guide Through Time And Space. More loosely, I referred to it as The Exciting Guide. More usually, I simply called it “my website”. I was creating an exhaustive website covering all of televised Doctor Who (there being no thought in 1998 that there would ever be more televised Doctor Who made).

                There was one flaw in my plan: I had no internet access. Even today, 11 and a bit years later, I don’t know how to create a website. It would have been more accurate to call it “my Word document”. But the plan always was that, once I finished it, I would turn it into a website.

                The first thing I created was the introduction, setting out my stall. I present some of this for you now.

                                                                                                *

There have been innumerable guides through the world of Doctor Who over its first thirty five years of existence, and the number and form of these seem to have taken on lives of their own since the end of the series’ regular TV appearances in 1989.  There has, however, not yet been a guide such as this.

The purpose of my Exciting Guide is to go through every TV adventure of the Doctor, in strict chronological order of broadcast, and analyse each one as if it were being viewed for the first time.  It’s all very easy to watch "The Invasion" and declaim, “Ah, look, it’s a dummy run for the UNIT years and features a very famous scene outside St. Paul’s Cathedral.”  But it seems the one perspective that has been lost is that of the first-time viewer.

For example.  While reviewing "Arc Of Infinity", I do not remark that the actor playing Maxil was later to portray the Sixth Doctor.  This is, however, noted for "Caves Of Androzani".  This enables me to take “continuity” as it comes:  rather than attempting to fit everything we know about Gallifrey into Robert Holmes’ vision, I can accrue information as I go.

                                                                                                *

                Time, alas, has been my enemy. Less than a year later, Doctor Who Magazine began their “Time Team” feature which involves four fans watching every TV adventure of the Doctor, in strict chronological order of broadcast...oh. They had the same idea. More or less. Still, mine’s a bit different. They’re just doing 2 pages of a magazine and making comments about what they’re watching. Mine’s more of an encyclopaedia.

                Oh. In 2009, Toby Hadoke and Robert Shearman embarked upon “Running Through Corridors”, in which they watched every TV adventure of the Doctor, in strict...ah. Clearly great minds do think alike. Although mine has yet to produce Moths Ate My Doctor Who Scarf or Dalek. (I still haven’t summoned up the courage to buy this book for fear that it might be too similar to my ersatz-website, but now I’ve mentioned it in my blog, guess I better had.)

                Oh. In January 2011, Neil Perryman was inspired by the aforementioned book to create his own website – using the internet and everything – which chronicles his own project, which involved him sitting his wife Sue down in front of the TV to watch every TV adventure of the Doctor, in strict...well, you get the idea. To add insult to injury, the website is brilliant. It’s now been going for 13 months and they’ve reached The Time Meddler. And just to stick the boot in, the first post on the website reads:

Watching Doctor Who from the beginning isn’t anything new.

                There’s another, very good, reason why my Word document never made it to becoming a website. I haven’t finished it. When I began in 1998, I assumed I’d be able to watch about a story a week, so I’d get to McGann’s brief blaze of glory by about Christmas 2002. Well, that festive season actually saw me on Day of the Daleks – story 60. I began well, but had reckoned without life itself. In November 1998, I was living with my mother, working 9 to 5. I was 22, had recently graduated, and wasn’t doing much with my life. During the intervening time, I moved to London, graduated twice more, moved out of London, got married, started working as a teacher and, finally, had a child. Somehow, I have had increasingly less and less free time for the website. I’m now 35 and have recently completed work on Castrovalva. Official reckoning has this as story 116 out of 224, and they’re making more all the time. If I ever finish, at current rate, I’ll be in my fifties.

                Still, I’ve got a blog now. It’s finally time for the Exciting Guide to make its bow. My next blog post will be my 1998 take on An Unearthly Child. Then, for the foreseeable future, I will drop entries from my so-called-website into my blogging routine from time to time.

                Meanwhile, here’s the rest of that intro I penned in 1998, including an explanation of the categories I was to use.

                                                                                                *

I am indebted to many different people for their influence on this work.  The style, in particular, is pilfered directly from three science fiction reference works:  "The Lurker’s Guide To Babylon 5";  Andy Lane’s "The Babylon File";  and, on more familiar ground, David J Howe and Stephen James Walker’s "Doctor Who:  The Television Companion".  This last has been invaluable as a source of information, too, as have Doctor Who Magazine Archives compiled by Andrew Pixley, and Lance Parkin’s "A History Of The Universe".  I even found myself picking up Jean-Marc Lofficier’s "Doctor Who - The Programme Guide" once in a blue moon.

A note on canonicity.  As a general rule, if it was on telly, it’s canonical.  But so is "Shada".  But "Dimensions In Time" isn’t...oh, coitus.  See individual entries.

Each entry is sub-divided into far too many different categories, none of which I could resist putting in, and all of which should see this Guide listed under “exhaustive.”  Here is a map to help you find your way.

Story Code
These are usually fairly well-documented, but where there is controversy I include all available options.

Spoiler Alert
Well, we might as well do this properly.  Stories which reveal something momentous - for instance, "The War Games" - will get a bright neon light flashing up at the top (!) to warn readers not to carry on unless they really want to.

Title
Again, where there is difference of opinion I list all possibilities.  However, I tend to plump for my own preferred option.

“Friends” Title
Can’t remember the difference between "The Seeds Of Death" and "The Seeds Of Doom"?  This might help.

Number of Episodes / Episode Titles
The latter of these only showing its face up until "The Gunfighters".

Current availability
This should only be required up to the end of the Patrick Troughton era.  Although some Pertwee stories only exist as black-and-white, I can't be bothered to list those.

Canon Fodder
Does it count? Why shouldn't it? Ah, if only it were that simple. The rot sets in round about the start of the eighties. As with most things.

Source
It is a sad fact that I can’t watch every episode over again to get a first-time perspective, as far too many of them have gone the way of the Pudding Lane bakery.  Wherever possible, I have based my observations on the original episodes as transmitted.  Some BBC Video releases and all UK Gold repeats will have been edited to some degree, at least to remove the credits.  Other sources will be listed as and when appropriate.

Date
No, not the original dates of transmission.  I have vetoed this as being far too boring.  This section will give, as near as possible, the date(s) on which the story is set.

Personal Chronology
This won’t be important for a while, but is just to point out where, for example, the first Doctor might come from in "The Three Doctors", whether the Master follows the same chronology as the Doctor, and exactly when in the Cybermen’s history we’ve now arrived.

Genre
Doctor Who fandom has developed its own language over the years to describe the various elements of the show - Doctor Who Magazine has in the past taken great glee in sending up phrases like “Bohemian adventurer” or “classic Holmesian double-act”, whilst naturally using them freely elsewhere in the issue.  I embrace this useful shorthand, and will endeavour to point out which little box each story fits into.

Plot synopsis
Exactly what it sounds like, in as brief a format as is helpful.

Pitch
It’s kind of like The Time Machine meets Perils Of Pauline.  Am I warm?  (And does anyone actually know what Perils Of Pauline was?)

The Money Shot
The one scene that really sticks in the memory...for being good or bad.  This may be difficult to choose in many stories (for both possible reasons).

The Doctor and his kind
From the initial mystery to the glut of information eventually available, teased out bit by contradictory bit.

The TARDIS log
As we learn more and more about the Doctor’s ship, it shall be duly noted here.

Past Journeys
Although many entries in this section will be noted in other sections, it seems necessary for the moment.  References to previous journeys actually seen on screen will not be included.  I shall also attempt not to refer to any journeys better covered in Name Dropping.

The history of Earth
The Doctor spends more time on our little blue-green planet than anywhere else, and if we knew nothing about its history beforehand, we surely do now.  And that includes our future history.

Alien Worlds
As the TARDIS crew explore strange new worlds and seek out new life and new civilisations, we examine their attributes in very little depth.  Flora, fauna, astronomy, population and transport, all condensed into a few bullet points.

Script Heaven
All those moments of dialogue that give intelligent science fiction a good name.

Script Hell
All those moments of dialogue that make intelligent science fiction fans want to curl up in a corner and hide.

Catchphrase
As Doctor Who gets self-referential, we note how many times the polarity is, indeed, reversed.  I would point out to William Hartnell fans that “Hmm?” is not a catchphrase.  Nor is “What?  Eh?”

Name-dropping
All those people the Doctor claims to have met.  While we’re on the subject, I have a photograph of myself with Sophie Aldred, you know.  And Jon Pertwee’s autograph.  And Tim Piggott-Smith’s, but now we’re getting a bit obscure.

Villainous Plotting
The most tortuous of Doctor Who’s villains’ plots unravelled and presented for your delectation.  For all those fans who still can’t remember who Kellman was working for really.  Sometimes I may even be able to explain why.

The Doctor’s Achievement
From the days when he managed to do squat all but observe, through to the days when he saved the Universe every other week, we note exactly what the point is of each of these adventures, when you really get right down to it.

It’s The End Of The World As We Know It!
Just recording how many times the Doctor literally saves Earth;  or some other planet;  or indeed the Universe itself.  Plus perhaps a mention for any times that he totally fails to do this.

Things I learned from Doctor Who
It started out with an educational intent, so we discover the Blue Peter-style how-to-do-its weaved cunningly into the plot.

Body Count
Is Doctor Who too violent?  We keep a record here of those offed in the cause of intergalactic do-goodery.

Screams / Twists Ankle
A guide to what we gradually learn about the Doctor’s companions (although the likes of Susan and Romana will also be covered in The Doctor And His Kind).  Also, the rubbish things they do - screaming and twisting their ankles, for starters.  This will include the Oh, I’ve Been Captured Tally.  Your true “Oh, I’ve been captured” moment (as per Mr Eddie Izzard) consists of one companion being captured, and the Doctor having to go and rescue them.  The whole crew being captured, or indeed just the Doctor, is not sufficient.

Don’t move!  Or the girl gets it!
Is the main role of a companion to be held hostage so that the Doctor can rescue her?  Let’s find out.

Hypnotised left, right and centre (and friends)
Hypnotism, possession and duplication.  What good plot devices they are to stir up a little tension amongst the cast.  Spot how they becomes more and more frequent as I tally, and try not to feel for Sarah Jane at the end of “The Hand Of Fear”.

Brig's Army
When Lethbridge-Stewart turns up running UNIT, “Doctor Who” was arguably never the same again.  Those crazy chaps are examined here.

Chekhov's Plot Device
Anton Chekhov stated that if you are going to use a gun in act three, make sure it’s on the wall in act one - this is known as Chekhov’s Gun, or, if you prefer, Byrne’s Barrels Of Hexachromite Gas.

Irrelevant Escape Attempts
Being described as those intervals within episodes where one or more characters run about futilely before ending up more or less where they started.  Fans of “Genesis Of The Daleks” may want to avert their eyes.

EffectsWatch
Great effects, awful effects...all are noted here for commendation, for condemnation or for the sake of sheer hilarity.

The TARDIS wardrobe
And on the subject of sheer hilarity...  The Doctor and his companions have worn some strange clobber in the course of their travels, and the greatest crimes against fashion are recorded here, as well as a few triumphs.

Bottomless pockets
We rifle through the Doctor’s clothing and see what he’s got hidden underneath those jelly babies.

Even the sonic screwdriver...
Charting the many usages of TV’s most famous vodka and orange.  (Oh, how we laugh!)

Dalek history
Earth isn’t the only planet whose story is told over the course of time, and the mutants of Skaro have their full story explored here.

Cyberhistory
Anything the Daleks get, the emotionless Mondasians must surely receive in kind.

Dudley!
Doctor Who is often praised for its atmospheric incidental music.  I would not want to belittle this, so its glories are presented here.  We also offer for your inspection a sample of mindless chords thrown in by in-house composer Dudley Simpson to heighten the drama.

Special categories
If anything needs discussing in more depth - a particularly thorny continuity dilemma, for example, or a discussion of certain themes or arguments - it can be slotted in here.

Wednesday 15 February 2012

"Torchwood – outside the TARDIS, beyond Doctor Who."


                For Christmas, I was given the box set of season one of Torchwood. It had been on my Amazon wish list, so I was very happy to receive it. (What did we do before Amazon wish lists?) The only odd thing about this was that this series began in October 2006 and it took me until December 2011 to own it. Five years. I hadn’t even recorded it onto VHS from the telly. I just watched it, then forgot about it.

                This isn’t like me. I grew up an avid recorder. I used to have boxes full of videos, which I’d rewatch regularly. One year (well, 1988, in fact) I watched two episodes of Delta and the Bannermen and two of Dragonfire on loop, because that’s what I had. In recent years, I would Sky+ every episode of Doctor Who, then VHS them all until I got around to getting the box sets. That’s a lot of stages, allowing a variety of watches. With repeats as well, I must have watched Day of the Moon five or six times since it was screened nine and a half months ago. Yet, here I am, watching Everything Changes for only the second time in five years.

                Good news, people. Torchwood is brilliant.

                I know, I was as surprised as anyone. Because it hadn’t made a good first impression. Up until Children of Earth, I viewed it as an interesting spin-off which hadn’t really found an identity. But watching episode 1, Everything Changes, in isolation – rather than in its original double bill – it struck me what a perfect debut this actually was, far better than either Rose or Invasion of the Bane (both good, but flawed). It sets up its newbie heroine, its Who veteran Captain and the rest of the gang effortlessly, utilising the Weevils and Cardiff so well that the self-assuredness of it staggers me.

                (If you haven’t seen season one of Torchwood, please take this as your spoiler warning. If you go any further, plot details will be revealed. You’ve been warned.)

                Conventional wisdom has it that, with all the sex and swearing, Torchwood tried too hard to be adult and instead came across as a teenager showing off. Perhaps episode 2, Day One, falls into this trap, with its alien-who-kills-with-orgasms plotline. But it’s just so witty and knowing and well-executed, especially by Sara Lloyd Gregory, that it gets away with it. The far darker Ghost Machine asks us to believe that Gareth Thomas from Blake’s Seven is guilty of rape (ironically, not dissimilar to the charges levelled at him in The Way Back), but the introduction of such real-world horrors seems to fit too, although I’ll grant you that the knife-in-the-street ending is a little too neat.

                Of course, there are tonal problems with the show, many of which back up this idea of immaturity masquerading as maturity – a charge also levelled at the Torchwood team by Gwen. The assisted suicide from Out of Time is morally suspect and out of character for Jack; the reactions to the deaths in Day One leave a slightly poor taste in the mouth; and Owen, in Everything Changes, is essentially using hi-tech rohypnol. Someone should have weeded this shit out. Oh, and Gwen’s affair with Owen (presumably chosen because their names are only one letter apart) is sordid and loses sympathy for both characters.

                I remembered Cyberwoman as a massive disappointment, but if you approach it not expecting a Cyberman episode, it’s actually a fantastic character episode, especially for Ianto. Small Worlds does the same trick for Jack, whilst being one of the season’s lesser episodes. You can forgive it that, though, because it takes a hideously inappropriate premise – fairies who prey on paedophiles – and manages to stop it from being embarrassing.

                And then there’s Countrycide, which I seem to remember getting a lot of flak. This is Torchwood’s equivalent of classic Doctor Who’s “pure historical”, except that it takes place in the present day. Er, let me put that another way. I love that the team spend the whole episode assuming they will come across an alien soon, and the director shoots it that way too, only for the whole episode to hinge on the fact that there aren’t any. Chris Chibnall has adapted The Texas Chain Saw Massacre for the Welsh and it’s scary, chilling and very effective. I didn’t like it in 2006. What was I thinking? I must have had such a narrow view of what the so-called Whoniverse could contain.

                Tosh gets a lesbian episode with her out of My Family next, which is serviceable but only really shines with a sequence indebted to the Bruce Willis movie Unbreakable as Tosh saves a mother and child from a psychotic husband using a golf club.  From this point on, though, every episode is conceptually brilliant. They Keep Killing Suzie brings back Indira Varma’s traitor, killed in episode 1, in what appears to be a straightforward serial killer hunt but turns out to have more levels than Seven. Random Shoes channels Love & Monsters by presenting a nerdy loser who’s a massive fan of our heroes and serves as our identification figure throughout, despite being dead. The ending is contrived but I cried. Out Of Time takes three refugees from the fifties and uses them to provide character stories for Jack, Gwen and, most effectively, Owen. Not an episode for those who tune in for Weevil hunts, but worth it for Olivia Hallinan.

                Christmas Eve 2006 brought us Combat, perhaps not the best episode to watch with my in-laws. Again, though, far better than I remembered, with the Fight Club moments all occurring in the final five minutes. It’s Owen’s arc which dominates, but I had forgotten about the unbelievable selfishness of Gwen in this episode, slipping her boyfriend a retcon pill so she can own up to her affair with Owen. Finally, on New Year’s Day, we were given another double bill which isn’t really one. This began with Captain Jack Harkness, a good story about a time slip back to 1941 given unnecessary gravitas by the presence of Will Young...no, sorry, of the original Captain Jack. These scenes are the least convincing of the episode, culminating in an extraordinary kiss which defies internal logic.

                And that’s as far as I’ve got. So far, season one of Torchwood is excellent, with a few disappointments and lesser episodes, but far fewer than I remembered. I only have one episode left to re-view. I shall do so now. Bear with.

                                                                                *

                I have just watched End of Days. It’s as clumsily self-important as its title suggests. Let’s face it, it’s a big let-down. Any subtleties are lost in order to up the stakes substantially. Of course, this describes a Doctor Who season finale perfectly adequately – but since when were they the best? Who prefers Last of the Time Lords to Blink? Torchwood takes this model and executes it less well. Key plot elements are glossed over – the catastrophic time leakage is somehow “switched off” by opening the rift (or “plot cop-out generator”); the intriguing Billis Manger, potentially one of the most powerful and dangerous beings ever encountered in any Who-related show, is lost in the melee; Rhys is somehow “un-killed”; and dozens of Cardiff citizens are killed without the episode having time to even refer to them afterwards. Meanwhile, one scene – where Jack confronts his team with their individual failings – is almost identical to a scene in episode 3 of Logopolis, highlighting how these characters seem to get on about as well as Tegan, Nyssa and Adric did. (Something which, I believe, the production team rectified for season 2.)

                And then there’s the monster. Really, was that it? The season had been dropping Saxon-style hints about “something coming” – from Suzie to the estate agent, everyone seemed to know Abaddon was coming. When he did, he was a reject from the Mill’s less inspired days and took approximately 2 minutes to kill off. Simply, this isn’t right for Torchwood. End of Days becomes the season’s only real mis-step – and yet, it was the final and therefore lasting impression. Could this be why I cared so little for it?

                To summarise, then. Torchwood’s original batch of episodes was yet another indication of how creative and healthy the world of Doctor Who was back in 2006. Underrated and forced to continually reinvent itself, Torchwood – outside the TARDIS, beyond Doctor Who – was almost totally unrecognisable by its fourth outing, Miracle Day, as though The X Files had become 24. But on this evidence, no reinvention was necessary. This is one box set I’ll be happy to watch again.

Saturday 4 February 2012

If I had been running "Doctor Who"...


                Do you ever play the “If I ran Doctor Who” game? Yes, you probably do. But do you play my preferred version – the “If I had been running Doctor Who” game?

                It involves imagining yourself as the showrunner of a particular season/era of the show and deciding how you would have been better. So, maybe you helm season 15 and write out K9...or maybe you fiddle the running order of season 20 to ensure it’s Arc of Infinity, rather than The Return, that gets hit by a strike.

                Today, I’d like to take you with me in a journey through TRIAL OF A TIME LORD. The story so far: Doctor Who has been taking an unprecedented 18-month hiatus, owing to being hated by the management and (let’s be honest) having recently not been as good as it used to be. It was make-or-break time and, being objective, it broke. The legacy of this season was a sacked lead actor, declining ratings and Bonnie Langford. So let’s see if the same basic material could have been improved.

                EPISODES ONE TO FOUR: TERROR OF THE VERVOIDS

                Firstly, let’s deal with that courtroom set. See how much more trouble the Doctor looks like he’s in back in The War Games episode 10. Why does season 23 put him on a cheaper version of the set from Clown Court, watched over by 12 mannequins? Let’s take some visual cues from The Deadly Assassin or, indeed, from the Matrix scenes in the final two episodes of Trial as transmitted. Darker lighting (the regular cry during the eighties), moody shadows, a hint of an ancient tradition – and let’s ditch that opening shot, too. Set the trial on Gallifrey itself and use the money for something more important.

                So, in the Valeyard’s first piece of evidence, the Doctor and Peri arrive on the Hyperion III. (I have good reasons for switching the broadcast order.) This has always been my favourite Pip & Jane Baker script and with a little more judicious script editing it could even be wonderful. I still don’t think the Vervoids look that stupid. Episode 4 ends with the Doctor crowing about saving the people of Earth and the Valeyard accusing him of genocide. Sorted. Next.

                EPISODES FIVE TO EIGHT: MINDWARP

                This could go ahead largely as broadcast, with a few significant changes. Casting, for starters. I love Brian Blessed as much as anyone and am very glad he has been in Doctor Who. But maybe not in a role that required the female lead to fall in love with him. Could he not have played Rudge? Or Gavrok? Or Light? Also, it might perhaps be good if the viewer could discern a moment when the Doctor regains his senses after the wobbling-machine cliffhanger to episode 5. I still don’t know which scenes are mad-Doctor, which are faking-Doctor and which are Matrix-lying-Doctor.

                Anyway, it ends with Peri dead. The prosecution rests. She has to die – I’m working on the basis that Nicola Bryant (no relation) was only hired for 8 episodes’ worth of filming. It’s from here on that I get really different.

                EPISODES NINE TO TWELVE: THE MYSTERIOUS PLANET

                Begins with a downcast Doctor introducing his defence. However, here’s the radical change. Don’t bizarrely dip into his future...instead, he should show an adventure from further back in his past. On comes the screen – to reveal Patrick Troughton and Frazer Hines. Well, why not? We know Troughton wanted to return to the series after The Five Doctors, and if this had been planned for season 23 it means we could all have been spared the horror that is The Two Doctors in season 22!

                So the sixth Doctor narrates a second Doctor adventure as his defence. Wouldn’t that just be brilliant? And during this defence, we witness Sabalom Glitz (who I would make a rather more likeable figure – I’ve never understood why the 7th Doctor and Mel are so happy to hang out with a conman, slaver and ally of the Master) being bleeped out when he talks about the sleepers.

                Because the whole “messing with the Matrix” plotline makes no sense when presented as part of the Valeyard’s evidence – and using this moment from the opening instalment as a plot point in episode 13 is just optimistic. So instead, the discovery of the bleep will lead fairly swiftly into the closing two-parter’s revelations.

                EPISODES THIRTEEN TO FOURTEEN: THE ULTIMATE FOE

                Much of this would stay the same – the Master, Glitz (not Mel), the revelation of the Valeyard’s true identity, the dash into the Matrix – but my major change would be the Doctor’s motivation. I would be getting Colin Baker to play him subdued and downcast ever since Peri’s death and the realisation that the Time Lords were behind the Ravalox incident would push him further downhill. So we should actually believe he is willing to surrender himself to JJ Chambers/the Valeyard.

                A lot of episode 14 would need to be jettisoned (although not the wonderful screen-within-a-screen moment) because in the Matrix, in the Valeyard’s domain, he would stumble into – Thoros Beta! He finds himself observing the events of Part 8, but how they actually happened!

                This would require extra scenes to be shot during the filming of the earlier episode, of course. Or rather, alternative versions of existing scenes. Instead of being told abruptly that Peri survives to marry Yrcanos, we should get to see her survive and see the true ending of that story: perhaps ending when Peri sees the Doctor whisked away in the TARDIS and says goodbye to the vanishing police box? When he realises she’s still alive, the Doctor’s revitalised and uses his new strength to defeat the Valeyard. He is pardoned and leaves in the TARDIS. With Glitz. Carrot juice is not mentioned.

                SEASON 24

                Of course, it’s never possible to leave it there. What happens next? With Colin Baker being unexpectedly sacked between seasons and Sylvester McCoy replacing him, the production team decided to shoot a bodged regeneration as the opening to Time and the Rani. Poor decision. How about this – we first encounter the Doctor on Iceworld, solo, having a cup of tea. He meets Ace and they begin their adventures. No explanation for the regeneration, or for Glitz’s absence...maybe until later in the season...

                I’ll stop there. So, that’ll be a glimpse into what I think about in my downtime. I hope you’re the same.