Review: The Missy Chronicles

Missy is one of our favourite female characters in the Doctor Who universe. As well as proving how well a male to female regeneration can work; she’s a bold, hilarious and well-rounded character that makes us proud to love Doctor Who. Today is the launch of her very own book, The Missy Chronicles, featuring six of her adventures throughout time and space. So, what’s our verdict? Here’s the run down on each short story inside:

Dismemberment 

by James Goss

James Goss works his magic on our favourite evil time lady, with this adventure set right after her regeneration. As an introductory story, this one hooks us in straight away. After being kicked out of her favourite place to relax for being a woman, Missy decides to take revenge on all of the men that belittle her for her ‘gender’. It’s so exciting to find out more of her backstory from before series eight, and this story does a great job at both developing the character and leading in to what we see on screen. Missy is captured effortlessly with great dialogue and deaths aplenty, and an ending that brings us straight into series eight and her cunning plan for the nethersphere…

We love: The fun plot, spot on characterisation and the way it ties into the Doctor Who canon!

Lords and Masters

By Cavan Scott

Cavan Scott delivers us a classic Who style action packed adventure in Lords and Masters. Highjacking the TARDIS, The High Council rope Missy into completing a deadly mission. Getting her own feisty companion, we get another fabulous female character in the form of Yayani, a Gallifreyan prisoner doing time for her crimes. This story feels the darkest of the collection, with deep undertones and conversations between our main characters. It’s worth noting the empowering way Yayani and Missy are written, underlining the adventure with a wider subtext than first thought. Scott does this brilliantly whilst keeping it exciting all the way through.

We Love: Yayani as Missy’s companion, more evil Time Lord backstory and the continuation of Missy’s development!

Teddy Sparkles Must Die!

By Paul Magrs 

Missy dealing with children is always hilarious to read, and this story works with that brilliantly. Making full use of her Mary Poppins look, Paul Magrs gives her a governess role… but only so she can fulfil her genius plan of taking over the world. A smart, timey-wimey tale, it’s a concept that fits Missy perfectly. Using her great powers of manipulation, she designs a future for the poor children that will help her master the earth! With a talking teddy bear and a 1920’s setting, this story is an evil fairy tale perfect for cuddling up with a cuppa.

We Love: Mary Poppins Missy, a 1920’s backdrop and a talking alien teddy bear!

The Liar, the Glitch and the Warzone

By Peter Anghelides

Possibly the most timey-wimey story in the collection, Peter Anghelides brings us Missy on the run… between two time zones! She collects another unwanted companion whilst battling the Gryphons through Venice, as well as getting hundreds of innocent people killed – all in a days work for her then. In this story we’re really given a taste of how uncaring she can be, especially in comparison to the other stories where she almost shows slight empathy. An exciting tale with Missy at her most savage, the most shocking part is a surprise cameo… from the 13th Doctor herself!

We Love: Venice, exciting new aliens and THE DOCTOR!

Girl Power!

By Jacqueline Rayner

Possibly one of our favourites in the collection, Jacqueline Rayner brings us a fun, empowering tale taking place during Missy’s time in the vault. Bored with not a lot to do, Missy has some requests for The Doctor. Books, hairspray, a small campfire… After finding out about the treatment of women throughout history on Earth, Missy takes it upon herself to do something about it. With a particularly interesting format and cameo’s from The Doctor and Nardole, this story is a lovely insight into how Missy started to change during her time in the vault, and just what she did with herself for all that time.

We Love: Badass Women, Nardole and general hilarity!

Alit in Underland 

By Richard Dinnick

The last story in the collection brings us to World Enough And Time, and features not one, but two masters. Richard Dinnick brings the two to life beautifully, highlighting the differences between their characters and giving us more of an insight into the events of that adventure. Overall this is a character piece – an analysis of Missy and The Master’s relationship and where it’s going. Knowing the events that unfold by the end of World Enough and Time make this mini prequel particularly poignant, making us wish we had hundreds more adventures with ‘good’ Missy.

We Love: Missy/The Master’s banter, Topknot the Cyberman and how it leads into World Enough and Time.

This gorgeous book is a new firm favourite in our book collection, and we LOVE Lee Binding’s astonishing work for the book jacket. Focussing completely on a female character having her own adventures, it’s empowering, beautifully written, designed and fits perfectly alongside the show.

The Missy Chronicles is available now!

Facts and Fun with ‘Paper Dolls’

Always imagined what the Third Doctor would look like in the Ninth Doctor’s clothes? How Sarah Jane would style a look like Rose’s? Well imagine no more!

Paper Dolls is your number one source for costume knowledge and fun. Featuring every Doctor and their companions, each character has multiple outfits they can be changed into, complete with facts on their costumes! Introduced with cosplay tips from ‘Doctor Who: The Fan Show’s very own Christel Dee, this book covers every angle of dress up fun. Here’s some things we learnt about our favourite time ladies costumes whilst scouring the pages and dressing up the dolls…

Jo’s gorgeous high heeled boots worn in Day of the Daleks were chosen due to the height difference between Katy manning and Jon Pertwee. Katy was only 5’1 and Jon 6’3, making it much more practical for her to wear high heeled shoes!

Sarah Jane’s fun, child-like dungaree outfit from The Hand of Fear is supposed to contrast with the events of the story. Sarah is possessed by the evil Eldrad, meaning she’s not quite herself (!)

 The Blue Peter badges on Ace’s amazing bomber jacket were Sophie Aldred’s that she earned as a child.

Donna’s beautiful dress, worn in The Unicorn and the Wasp, was an original 1920s dress hired especially for the episode.

Clara Oswald often looks pretty smart during her time on the TARDIS. This is because Steven Moffat wanted her to always look like a school teacher, even in the middle of crazy adventures! We always wondered why Clara looked so classy ALL the time.

Lalla Ward hoped that having Romana wear a school uniform would make children happier to wear their own… not quite sure if that worked. Maybe if teens were allowed to wear incredible long pink coats!

Ace was originally styled in bumblebee style yellow and black leggings, amazing! They couldn’t go ahead with the look because it caused strobing on the tv cameras, drat.

Osgood’s wardrobe was a lil’ testament to all Doctor Who cosplayers! Steven Moffat wrote in her costume as a ‘sort of love letter to the Doctor Who fandom’. She’s totally one of us.

And they ALL look great in each others outfits:

Why not assemble your ideal Sarah Jane Adventures episode with all the classic Who companions? Or ever wondered what a Victorian dress would look like on Ace? Have some fun assembling some dream teams of your own and send them to us on Twitter!

For more costume facts, cosplay tips and fun, get Paper Dolls, out Aug 24th in all good book stores and online.

p.s. Look out for us Time Ladies cosplaying real soon…

5 times Doctor Who proved a female Doctor would work

As you’ve probably heard by now, series 11 will see our first ever female incarnation of The Doctor. What’s that, you didn’t notice from our multiple posts on the subject? Well we’re about to talk about it some more! Time Ladies have always been prominent in Doctor Who history; from the very first companion being a Time Lord herself, to the latest incarnation of the master regenerating into a female. If you’re still unsure about the casting of Jodie Whittaker as 13, here’s 5 times the show proved it will work!

Romana

“It’s funny, you know, but before I met you, I was even willing to be impressed.”

The above quote is from Romana I, played by the brilliant Mary Tamm. Originally Romanadvoratrelundar, Romana graduated from The Time Lord Academy with a triple first (our gal got BRAINS) and out-smarts the Doctor at every opportunity. Heck, we’d be as smug as her if we could constantly laugh at the Doctor’s stupidity. Although she grows into one of the Doctor’s closest friends during Lalla Ward’s stint as Romana II, she always stays as the Doctor’s equal and feels significantly different from his previous companions. She’s cleverer, more skilled and more charming than him in nearly every capacity and is the first glimpse of what a female version of the Doctor could be.

The Rani

“You and the Doctor are a well-matched pair of pests. You bring nothing but trouble.”

The Rani grew up with the Doctor and the Master when they were time tots and is another renegade Time Lord. This makes people automatically associate her with the Master but the Rani is a menace in her own right. A brilliant neurochemist obsessed with experimenting on the human race, the Rani tries to perfect a formula to take back to Miasima Goria, the planet she rules. Her and the Master attempt to work together to thwart the Doctor but she ends up laughing at them both whilst they show off their hyper masculinity, and subtly points out that they just can’t exist without each other. Aww. She’s the perfect mix of evil whilst having impeccable logic and reason behind her plan – a perfect villain. Her brains and wit equal her with the Doctor and Master, and proves how Time Ladies are more than a match for Time Lords.

Missy

“I couldn’t very well keep calling myself The Master now, could I?”

First appearing in Deep Breath (2014), It took the whole of series 8 for the character of Missy’s true identity to be revealed. In the explosive finale we see her once again causing havoc in The Doctors world, madder, scarier and more evil than ever before. Michelle Gomez brings a wonderful craziness to the role, proving that done correctly a change of time lord gender can work. She has been a massive highlight of The 12th Doctors era, appearing multiple times as his main adversary. There is no doubt that the character is still the master and is translated onto screen perfectly, laying the perfect foundations for a female Doctor to take to our screens!

The General

“The only time I’ve been a man, that last body. Dear God, how do you cope with all that ego?”

After being shot by the 12th Doctor in Hell Bent (2015), The male General regenerates into a woman. This is the first time we’ve seen a Time Lord regenerate from one gender to another on screen, a massive moment for the show.  There is no question that it is the same character and works flawlessly, normalising the process of regenerating into different genders. This scene is more groundwork for the future of our hero, and proves that there is no limits for our favourite race of time travelling aliens!

 

The Doctor and Bill discuss gender politics

“We are the most civilised civilisation in the universe, we’re billions of years beyond your petty human obsession with gender and its associated stereotypes!”

In the most recent series finale, World enough and time (2017), The Doctor and Bill discuss The Doctor and Missy’s history on the rooftop of the university. Casually dropping in that Missy used to be a man, the two discuss the flexibility of Time Lord genders. Bill is not phased, other than that they still call themselves Time LORDS (Well, she has a point!). Here we see an almost representation of the audience and peoples opinions on gender, including a reference to stereotypes. The Doctor is an alien from outer space who travels around in a blue box saving the universe, what does gender have to do with it? A perfect scene and incredible foreshadowing for what is to come, it portrayed finally that gender doesn’t matter, and a female doctor could indeed be fantastic.

And finally:

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