Up Chuck

In what appear to be 55,000 and 60,000 seater stadiums.

Sheamus, Big Show and Cody look ace. Not keen on the Punk one though, body shape looks all wrong.

It's true, looking back now as good as Tennant was, there was nothing really 'alien' about him, he just ran around a lot being a witty action hero. Now Matt Smith's Doctor, even down to his little subtle mannerisms, are all entirely alien and you can totally believe he is from a different planet.

You can also believe that he's 900/1100 years old. Nobody before has given the Doctor as much AGE as him.

75 days until the Christmas special, apparently...

Which (I don't think this has been mentioned here) will feature Bill Bailey and Alexander Armstrong.

Well that's just fantastic.

Just watched it. Totally called the question. And Daz summed it up for me: Brilliant, insane fun. Absolutely loved it, and won't ruin it by unpicking it just yet (that can wait til I get bored waiting for the Christmas special).

The issue isn't how you write it, it's more how the individual fan reacts to it. The Five Doctors special works because its not a serious attempt at telling the story, its just a bit of a fun reuinion really. It kind of works on the assumption that the individual doctor carries on after their death, or at least that's vaguely hinted at, which is a completely bollocks idea anyway, but whatever idea you come up with to explain it is going to be bullshit. Which is fine because its soft sci-fi, and most of the audience should expect that anyway. Of course inevtiably you'll get some twats who worry about whether its cannon or not, which doesn't really work for these stories. I'd just put in some shit about how nobody involved will ever remember any of it because of a time bubble or some nonsense. It ultimately doesn't matter and isn't really the point. The only joy that comes out of them is the fact that there's different Doctors hanging out with each other. If you make it more complicated than that you'll ruining the simple essence of the damn thing.

I'm going to have to disagree. For me, the intrigue in Doctor Who is the how and the why. And if there's any writer who can pull off complexity without sacrificing entertainment value, it's Steven Moffat. Better to have it all make sense and leave no grey areas over canon. Canonicity of spin-off material is one thing, but if it's a big TV episode with more attention than the rest of the usual series (as this one would be), every effort should be made to make it fit nicely, because that gives you all the more chance of hooking people in to whatever comes afterwards. Worrying about whether it's canon should not work for this stories, but that's because it shouldn't even be an issue - it should be all canon, all making sense, all fitting in, and continuity should be the absolute last thing they sacrifice.

Matt Smith is apparently pulling for a multi-Doctor episode for the 50th anniversary (2013).

And yeah, McGann would be ace, and is probably one of the few who'd actually do it. Wouldn't bet against Tennant and either of the Bakers being up for it either. Be interesting to see how they write it in, though - Smith's Doctor could never tell Tennant's he was the next one, because in The Eleventh Hour it's quite a key point that the Doctor doesn't know what he looks like.

That questions been asked a lot though. Not to say it wont be, but you know...

Asked a lot, never answered, which fits rather nicely with the idea of silence falling when it's asked again. Unfortunately, that doesn't really bring many clues as to the why and how, but hey, we'll get all that on Saturday.

I don't buy the Ganger Doctor theory. When shot the Doctor goes to regenerate. Not sure a flesh could do this.

Remember at the start of 'The Almost People' when the Ganger Doctor first popped out and was babbling lines from former Doctors? The non-flesh Doctor said it was coming to terms with "our former selves", which illustrates rather nicely that the Flesh can and will take on the implications, and thus presumably the ability, of regeneration. Plus they invested a lot of time in those episodes having the Doctor insisting that Gangers were completely legitimate life forms.

On the flipside, however, if they were to explore the idea of Gangers not being quite the real thing, there could be another way in - perhaps Gangers can't take on the aspect of being unkillable during the first 16 hours of the regeneration cycle, hence why the Astronaut would be able to kill a Ganger Doctor mid-regeneration.

There are many routes open. I almost hope it isn't a Ganger Doctor that gets killed now that everyone and their dog has called it, but if it's not, I haven't got a bloody clue what's going to happen.

Maybe it's a touch too obvious, but my money's on the question being:

And that hardly detracted from the episode. In fact, I'd say that was the best episode of the series so far.

Throwaway episode, light on any meaningful substance, but a fun romp well acted all the same. Seriously, Matt Smith is absolutely incredible, his delivery has a capacity to affect me like no other TV actor at the minute. He's not even primetime BBC good, he's genuinely brilliant. The scene with the baby under the simulated stars was beautiful; 'promise me, you'll have as much fun as I did.'

Absolutely agreed, I thought it was one of his best performances yet. I'm torn between hoping he sticks around for as long as possible on Doctor Who, and hoping that he can try his hand at other things and not get typecast. But whatever, he's not even 30 yet, branching out can come later when he's even fucking better than he is now. He could be incredible in the future given the gravitas and emotional range he already has.

The scene with the baby was wonderful, and even though it wasn't especially memorable in and of itself, I thought the scene where he was trying to stop noticing stuff and get back to the Tardis was also really well acted.

So yeah, fun detour episode which will likely be used as the root of a more significant Cybermen comeback later on. I thought they'd play into the finale more, to be honest, but that's probably because we're used to the two-parter episode closing the series out. Can't wait for next week - this whole series has been a tremendously satisfying package, and I'm looking forward to the wrap-up. Although I doubt it'll be completely tidy.

And I REALLY hope (and think) that this won't be the end of River Song - there's a lot more they can do with her yet. Such as meeting Captain Jack. Who just HAS to be back soon, doesn't he? Unless something happened to him in Torchwood (which I haven't been watching).

NHS reforms passed in parliament by 65 votes.

Solid stuff from England today, then. Tuilagi's try and his break before half-time showed what a threat he is when he spots a gap, and his tackling was fantastic too. I thought Wigglesworth and (surprisingly) Tindall had really good games too.

Wilkinson, however, was patchy for me, despite his goal-kicking being spot-on as ever.. I thought giving Flood a mere 6 minutes was ridiculous, but he was up there getting stuck in at the breakdown straight away. Clearly playing with a fire in his belly. Needed more time to stake his claim for the 10 shirt.

I'm fairly confident of England going 100% in the pool stage now. Our pack should handle Argentina's just fine, and I think we're developing a backline that will be able to do enough to see off the rest of the pool. But we'll see. It does seem to go between extremes week by week with England these days.

Ireland team for Saturday:

15 - Geordan Murphy (Leicester)

14 - Tommy Bowe (Ospreys)

13 - Keith Earls (Young Munster/Munster)

12 - Gordon D'Arcy (Lansdowne/Leinster)

11 - Andrew Trimble (Ballymena/Ulster)

10 - Ronan O'Gara (Cork Constitution/Munster)

9 - Eoin Reddan (Lansdowne/Leinster)

1 - Cian Healy (Clontarf/Leinster)

2 - Jerry Flannery (Shannon/Munster)

3 - Mike Ross (Clontarf/Leinster)

4 - Donncha O'Callaghan (Cork Constitution/Munster)

5 - Paul O'Connell (Young Munster/Munster) Captain

6 - Stephen Ferris (Dungannon/Ulster)

7 - David Wallace (Garryowen/Munster)

8 - Jamie Heaslip (Naas/Leinster)

Replacements:

16 - Rory Best (Banbridge/Ulster)

17 - Tom Court (Malone/Ulster)

18 - Donnacha Ryan (Shannon/Munster)

19 - Denis Leamy (Cork Constitution/Munster)

20 - Conor Murray (Garryowen/Munster)

21 - Jonathan Sexton (St. Mary's College/Leinster)

22 - Fergus McFadden (Old Belvedere/Leinster)

This has gotta be the first time Murphy's played against Wilkinson in years. Murphy's been absolutely phenomenal under the high ball for Tigers the last couple of seasons. Seeing how he deals with Wilkinson's kicking game will be very, very interesting.

SUPER MIKE TINDALL! Is he really going to be wearing the armband at the WC? If so... I dunno what to say. Amazed to see Wigglesworth getting so many chances over the past few weeks, but I've hardly seen him since he played for Sale so he's probably come on leaps and bounds since then.

Lewis Moody will probably be captaining when he's fit. So, uh, yeah, probably Tindall. Who, by the way, needs two more caps to become England's most capped centre EVER. Which is a touch terrifying. Hopefully Tuilagi tears it up and a viable, consistent, hard-working 12 turns up somewhere before the Six Nations (*coughAnthonyAllencough*).

I wouldn't be surprised if they give Wigglesworth and Simpson 40 minutes each on Saturday. Danny Care, now injured, has had the lion's share of game time at 9 in the warm-ups, and with questions over Youngs being fit for Argentina, Wigglesworth and Simpson desperately need a run-out. Hopefully one of them will be on decent form.

England team vs Ireland:

15 Ben Foden (Northampton Saints)

14 Chris Ashton (Northampton Saints)

13 Manu Tuilagi (Leicester Tigers)

12 Mike Tindall (Gloucester Rugby, captain)

11 Mark Cueto (Sale Sharks)

10 Jonny Wilkinson (Toulon)

9 Richard Wigglesworth (Saracens)

1 Andrew Sheridan (Sale Sharks)

2 Steve Thompson (London Wasps)

3 Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers)

4 Louis Deacon (Leicester Tigers)

5 Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints)

6 Tom Croft (Leicester Tigers)

7 James Haskell (Ricoh Black Rams)

8 Nick Easter (Harlequins).

Replacements: 16 Dylan Hartley (Northampton Saints), 17 Matt Stevens (Saracens), 18 Simon Shaw (Unattached), 19 Tom Wood (Northampton Saints), 20 Joe Simpson (London Wasps), 21 Toby Flood (Leicester Tigers), 22 Delon Armitage (London Irish).

Johnson continuing his great faith in Shontayne Hape by picking Mike Tindall ahead of him. Hilarious.

Final World Cup squads are coming from all sides today. Here's England:

Backs: Full-backs: Delon Armitage (London Irish), Ben Foden (Northampton Saints). Wings: Chris Ashton (Northampton Saints), Mark Cueto (Sale Sharks), Matt Banahan (Bath). Centres: Shontayne Hape (London Irish), Mike Tindall (Gloucester), Manusamoa Tuilagi (Leicester Tigers). Fly-halves: Toby Flood (Leicester Tigers), Jonny Wilkinson (Toulon). Scrum-halves: Joe Simpson (London Wasps), Richard Wigglesworth (Saracens), Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers).

 

Forwards: Props: Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers), Alex Corbisiero (London Irish), Andrew Sheridan (Sale Sharks), Matt Stevens (Saracens), David Wilson (Bath). Hookers: Dylan Hartley (Northampton Saints), Lee Mears (Bath), Steve Thompson (London Wasps). Locks: Louis Deacon (Leicester Tigers), Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints), Tom Palmer (Stade Francais), Simon Shaw (London Wasps). Back row: Tom Croft (Leicester Tigers), Nick Easter (Harlequins), James Haskell (Ricoh Black Rams), Lewis Moody (Bath), Tom Wood (Northampton Saints).

Utterly dumbfounded that Flutey has been cut while Hape is still there. I can only hope Johnson remembers the benefit of having Catt play at 12 outside Wilkinson in 2003, and pulls a similar combo with Wilkinson at 12 outside Flood, although I get the feeling that if that was the plan, there'd be another fly-half in the squad. Balls. Let's hope the very exciting prospect of a Tuilagi/Ashton combination can inspire the backline a bit.

Anywho, other squads out today include Wales...

Forwards: Gethin Jenkins (Blues), Lloyd Burns (Dragons), Huw Bennett, Ryan Bevington, Adam Jones, Paul James (Ospreys), Ken Owens (Scarlets), Craig Mitchell (Exeter), Bradley Davies, Sam Warburton (Blues, capt), Luke Charteris, Danny Lydiate, Toby Faletau (Dragons), Ryan Jones, Alun Wyn Jones (Ospreys), Andy Powell (Sale Sharks).

 

Backs: Michael Phillips (Bayonne), Lloyd Williams (Blues), Tavis Knoyle (Scarlets), Jamie Roberts (Blues), James Hook (Perpignan), Jonathan Davies, Stephen Jones, Rhys Priestland, Scott Williams (Scarlets), Leigh Halfpenny (Blues), Lee Byrne (Clermont Auvergne), Aled Brew (Dragons), Shane Williams (Ospreys), George North (Scarlets).

... Ireland, with surprise omissions in Tomas O'Leary and Luke Fitzgerald...

Backs: Isaac Boss (Terenure College/Leinster), Tommy Bowe (Ospreys), Gordon D'Arcy (Lansdowne/Leinster), Keith Earls (Young Munster/Munster), Rob Kearney (UCD/Leinster), Fergus McFadden (Old Belvedere/Leinster), Geordan Murphy (Leicester Tigers), Conor Murray (Garryowen/Munster), Brian O'Driscoll (UCD/Leinster) (capt), Ronan O'Gara (Cork Constitution/Munster), Eoin Reddan (Lansdowne/Leinster), Jonathan Sexton (St. Mary's College/Leinster), Andrew Trimble (Ballymena/Ulster), Paddy Wallace (Ballymena/Ulster)

 

Forwards: Rory Best (Banbridge/Ulster), Tony Buckley (Sale Sharks), Tom Court (Malone/Ulster), Sean Cronin (Leinster), Leo Cullen (Blackrock College/Leinster), Stephen Ferris (Dungannon/Ulster), Jerry Flannery (Shannon/Munster), Cian Healy (Clontarf/Leinster), Jamie Heaslip (Naas/Leinster), Denis Leamy (Cork Constitution/Munster), Sean O'Brien (Clontarf/Leinster), Donncha O'Callaghan (Cork Constitution/Munster)

Paul O'Connell (Young Munster/Munster), Mike Ross (Clontarf/Leinster), Donnacha Ryan (Shannon/Munster), David Wallace (Garryowen/Munster)

... Scotland...

Backs: Joe Ansbro (London Irish), Mike Blair (Edinburgh), Chris Cusiter (Glasgow Warriors), Simon Danielli (Ulster), Nick De Luca (Edinburgh), Max Evans (Castres), Ruaridh Jackson (Glasgow Warriors), Rory Lamont (Toulon), Sean Lamont (Scarlets), Rory Lawson (Gloucester), Graeme Morrison (Glasgow Warriors), Dan Parks (Cardiff Blues), Chris Paterson (Edinburgh).

 

Forwards: John Barclay (Glasgow Warriors), Kelly Brown (Saracens), Geoff Cross (Edinburgh), Alasdair Dickinson (Sale Sharks), Ross Ford (Edinburgh), Richie Gray, Dougie Hall (both Glasgow Warriors), Jim Hamilton (Gloucester), Nathan Hines (Clermont Auvergne), Allan Jacobsen (Edinburgh), Alastair Kellock (captain, Glasgow Warriors), Scott Lawson (Gloucester), Moray Low (Glasgow Warriors), Euan Murray (Newcastle Falcons), Ross Rennie (Edinburgh), Alasdair Strokosch (Gloucester), Richie Vernon (Sale Sharks).

... and France, with no Sylvain Marconnet or Thomas Domingo:

Forwards: Fabien Barcella, Julien Bonnaire, Luc Ducalcon, Thierry Dusautoir (captain), Imanol Harinordoquy, Guilhem Guirado, Nicolas Mas, Romain Millo-Chluski, Raphael Lakafia, Lionel Nallet, Fulgence Ouedraogo, Pascal Pape, Louis Picamoles, Julien Pierre, Jean-Baptiste Poux, William Servat, Dimitri Szarzewski.

 

Backs: Vincent Clerc, Patrice Estebanez, Cedric Heymans, David Marty, Maxime Medard, Maxime Mermoz, Alexis Palisson, Morgan Parra, Aurelien Rougerie, David Skrela, Damien Traille, Francois Trinh-Duc, Dimitri Yachvili.

Thoughts? Butch, what d'you make of Sam Warburton as captain for Wales?

Thoughts on England from yesterday:

- Flood's kicking seems to be back on form. He wasn't quite the sheer pro that Wilkinson was last week but I think talk of the no.10 shirt being handed back is a touch premature. I'd say start him against Ireland, give him the first half, and if he performs, keep him on til 60 minutes in to give Wilkinson a bit of a run-out. I am concerned, though, that Flood doesn't seem to have a truly world-class game without Ben Youngs inside him, and Youngs isn't at his best unless the pack is on the front foot. It's a nasty trickle-down effect if something goes wrong up front.

- Tindall didn't look bad for his age, but that's a suffix one shouldn't have to append at international level. Looks like Tuilagi's time is now, and His Royal Highness will suffice as solid cover in a pinch.

- I'm completely turned around on Danny Care, he looks a million times more dangerous than he did in the Six Nations. I think Youngs' reliance on the pack moving forwards could play into Care's hands and get him a few starts against teams with on-form forwards. Ideally, Youngs'll come back strong from the injury and they'll push each other hard for the 9 shirt. But we'll see.

- Matt Banahan and Shontayne Hape... hard to know what to say at this point. I get the feeling Banahan will always stick around based on sheer bulk, but you get the feeling there are better guys out there. Obviously he was a last minute inclusion here, but Sharples coming in for Ashton would have been a far more interesting prospect in my mind. As for Hape... well, I really don't mean to harp on and on about Leicester guys, but come ON, even Hape himself must be wondering how he got into the squad ahead of Anthony Allen. It's unbelievably harsh that Allen's mediocre England games seem to have tarnished him forever, because he was magnificent for Tigers last season. He's not spectacular, but he's a true grafter and knows how to play outside Flood and, crucially, inside Tuilagi. I imagine he'd feed just as well off Wilkinson too. Ah well. Tuilagi and Flutey would definitely be my starting centres now.

I'm sure I had more to say but I'll leave it for now. Fair play to Wales, that was a match won fair and square. Hook was absolutely excellent. They should make the quarters in NZ without too much trouble. As for England, I'm downgrading my prediction of losing to NZ in the final, to squeezing past France in the quarters and going out to Australia in the semis.

While I'm at it, Wales' squad:

Forwards: Huw Bennett (Ospreys), Lloyd Burns (Newport Gwent Dragons), Richard Hibbard (Ospreys), Matthew Rees (Scarlets); Scott Andrews (Cardiff Blues), Ryan Bevington, Paul James (both Ospreys), Gethin Jenkins (Blues), Adam Jones (Ospreys), Craig Mitchell (Exeter), John Yapp (Blues); Luke Charteris (Dragons), Bradley Davies (Blues), Alun Wyn Jones (Ospreys), Lou Reed (Scarlets); Gareth Delve (Melbourne Rebels), Toby Faletau (Dragons), Ryan Jones (Ospreys), Dan Lydiate (Dragons), Rob McCusker (Scarlets), Andy Powell (Sale), Jonathan Thomas, Justin Tipuric (both Ospreys), Josh Turnbull (Scarlets), Sam Warburton (Blues), Martyn Williams (Blues).

Backs: Tavis Knoyle (Scarlets), Dwayne Peel (Sale), Lloyd Williams (Blues), Richie Rees (Blues); Stephen Jones, Rhys Priestland (both Scarlets), Jason Tovey (Dragons), James Hook (Perpignan); Andrew Bishop (Ospreys), Jonathan Davies (Scarlets), Gavin Henson (unattached), Jamie Roberts (Blues); George North (Scarlets), Aled Brew (Dragons), Morgan Stoddart, Scott Williams (both Scarlets), Shane Williams (Ospreys); Lee Byrne (Clermont Auvergne), Leigh Halfpenny (Blues).

And Scotland's:

Backs: Joe Ansbro (Northampton); Mike Blair, Ben Cairns (both Edinburgh), Chris Cusiter (Glasgow), Jack Cuthbert (Bath), Simon Danielli (Ulster), Nick De Luca (Edinburgh), Max Evans (Glasgow), Ruaridh Jackson (Glasgow), Greig Laidlaw (Edinburgh), Rory Lamont (Toulon), Sean Lamont (Scarlets), Rory Lawson (Gloucester), Graeme Morrison (Glasgow), Dan Parks (Cardiff), Chris Paterson (Edinburgh), Hugo Southwell (Stade Fran

Right, the preliminary World Cup squads are all coming out now, so I figured it was time to bump this bad boy.

Here's the England squad, anyhow:

Forwards: Mouritz Botha (Saracens), George Chuter (Leicester Tigers), Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers), Alex Corbisiero (London Irish), Tom Croft (Leicester Tigers), Louis Deacon (Leicester Tigers), Paul Doran-Jones (Northampton Saints), Nick Easter (Harlequins), Hendre Fourie (Sale Sharks), Dylan Hartley (Northampton Saints), James Haskell (Unattached), Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints), Lee Mears, Lewis Moody (both Bath), Tom Palmer (Stade Fran

Hasn't she got a future version of a sonic screwdriver so I would guess she could fix it herself.

Not yet she hasn't. She gets that on (from her perspective) their penultimate meeting, before she goes to the Library. And it's explicitly stated that the Doctor gives it to her, which means he has to have it first.

Usually with TV shows, this type of discussion would be considered as looking way too deeply into what is going on, but only with Doctor Who can you really expect the story to get this complex. Some interesting theories, and I'd like to see Captain Jack return in the future, and I hope it's in the latter half of this series. What are people's thoughts on the regenerating girl at the end of episode 2, I think it was?

Barrowman hasn't been spotted at any tapings for this series. I think he's busy with the US reboot of Torchwood.

Don't know who the girl is yet (well, not for certain), although it's worth noting that it's the same girl that played Alex Kingston's daughter in Marchlands. There are some enormous spoilers going round about Amy's kid that I won't repeat here, but they're out there if you want to find them.

As a side note, I like to pretend that the "handsome young time agent" off whom he stole the vortex manipulator for River was Captain Jack, and that the Maldovarium was the bar in which we saw Jack in 'The End of Time'. But that's probably just me, especially on the latter.

I think Moffat basically said as much in Confidential, IIRC. River has both Jack's squareness gun and vortex manipulator.

It might be just me, but I love that. Gives some nice opportunities for banter should the two ever meet (and Moffat has said he'd love Jack to meet the Eleventh Doctor). That reminds me, the Doctor disabled Jack's vortex manipulator at the end of Journey's End. Did he fix it or get a new one during Children of Earth? Or, has River fixed it herself? We've seen she's got TARDIS flight down perfectly. Just how much about time travel tech does she know?

We've seen the blue man before, though, i'm thinking last series in a bar with River...

According to the CV of Simon Fisher Becker, who plays him, the character's name is Dorium Maldavar, which is probably a misspelling of Maldovar, given that the bar we saw him in with River was called the Maldovarium. Plus, in that prequel, he claims to hear and see everything that happens there, so I'm guessing he owns the place. Wonder how much of a part he'll play in this series...

As a side note, I like to pretend that the "handsome young time agent" off whom he stole the vortex manipulator for River was Captain Jack, and that the Maldovarium was the bar in which we saw Jack in 'The End of Time'. But that's probably just me, especially on the latter.

Or am I looking too deeply into it?

This is Doctor Who. Ergo, there is no such thing as looking too deeply into it. On that note, it's worth mentioning that we also saw River in a forest last series too.

However, I think that line's more likely to be a reference to something yet to come in this series - especially as it was mentioned in The Brilliant Book in a list of teasers about this series. No point setting up something you've already paid off, after all.