Overdue Who Review: Masque of Mandragora

Season 14 ep 1. Fourth Doctor

Back to a 4 episode story. An energy thingy uses the TARDIS to bring it and our heroes to 15th century England for some Shakespearian noble intrigue and an evil cult (not the good kind of cult) with prophecies and ‘magic’. The resolution is pretty lackluster and again the Doctor gloats over a pile of corpses. I liked the previous one better.

Next up: The Hand of Fear

Overdue Who Review: Seeds of Doom

Season 13, ep 23, February 1976. Fourth Doctor

Not to be confused with the Seeds of Death episode from some years prior.

All the usual Who tropes, this one in particular has so many old white men it’s hard to keep track of them (at least the psychopathic killer had a goatee). 6 episodes means longer than most stories from this season (13), and there’s an excessive amount of quips in the denouement. Just like Ark in Space was Alien 4 years before Alien, this was The Thing 6 years before The Thing (but 23 years after The Thing From Another World)

Next episode – season 14 The Masque of Mandragora

Fearsome Critters – Toren’s Guide to Everything Podcast Episode 8

Around 1900 there was a tradition among lumberjacks in North America to ascribe mysterious noises and happenings to a growing menagerie of fabulous beasts that became known as ‘fearsome critters.’ If there was a strange noise in the woods, it was attributed to the treesqueak. If a windstorm knocked down a tree, it was the splinter cat. If a ‘punky’ branch fell on or near a lumberjack, it was the agropelter. In episode 8 of Toren’s Guide to Everything I go into great detail about these and many more folklore cryptids.

Listen to the podcast:

https://anchor.fm/torensguide/episodes/Fearsome-Critters-Episode-8-etqfc7

Post-Apocalyptic Miniature Crafting Stuff

for Ruin Nation: Survivors in the Wasteland