Giant Freakin Robot

We’re just a week and a half away from the return of Doctor Who. The first half of season seven was weak, but the intriguing mystery of the Doctor’s new companion, Clara Oswin Oswald, looks to provide a strong througline for the rest of the season’s run. Or at least I hope so. Showrunner Steven Moffat is going to have to earn back some of my good graces after thoroughly wasting the considerable talents of Farscape actor Ben Browder. At any rate: new Doctor Who!

We shared four very snazzy posters for the first four new episodes yesterday, but today we’re focusing on the first new episode, premiering March 30th. Here’s a synopsis of “The Bells of St. John,” followed by a short clip featuring the Doctor and Clara parking the TARDIS in a very memorable place. Still not enough to sate your Who lust? Well then scroll on down and check out a gallery of pictures from the episode as well, including the return of the Doctor’s fez.

Episode 706: The Bells of St. John

Described by Moffat as an ‘urban thriller.’ The 2013 opener is set on present day Earth with the main plot centred around ‘something living in the wifi’ which is feeding on humans. This ‘sentient Twitter’ as the Doctor puts it, harvests human minds and also has the power to project an image from your subconscious.

BBC’s iconic science fiction adventure Doctor Who picks up the remainder of series seven later this month, on March 30th. This short new trailer teases the return, and from the look of this video, there’s plenty of action and drama in store for fans. We also have a peek at a quartet of movie-style posters for the upcoming episodes.

Man, what the hell is going on behind the scenes at Doctor Who?

Executive Producer Caroline Skinner worked on Doctor Who since 2011, but she has now left the show amid rumors that she and showrunner Steven Moffat got in a behind-the-scenes argument of some sort. Skinner, however, had released a public statement that seems to downplay that scuttlebutt:

I will miss them all enormously, but I’m leaving Doctor Who in fine form, with the new series starting at Easter and the fantastic plans for the 50th Anniversary already underway. I am delighted to be now returning to BBC Drama Production in London as an executive producer, and the new opportunities and projects that will bring.

And maybe that’s the whole truth of it, that she just decided to move on. However…

This isn’t the first time a Who producer has bailed out under Moffat’s tenure. Beth Willis and Peter Wenger both left the series during season six, and were also rumored to have butted heads with Moffat. When you factor in that the show has been pretty uneven since Moffat took over, I find myself wondering if Moffat is a far better writer than he is a showrunner.

There is no end in sight to the plethora of household items geared towards science fiction-loving pop culture collectors. We cover this kind of stuff on a daily basis, from lightsaber flashlights to lightsaber screwdrivers to lightsaber chopsticks. And if my memory serves me correctly, there were probably things that have nothing to do with lightsabers, like lightsaber pool sticks. Dammit!

While stickers are still a popular item to prove your fandom for a particular person or thing, they are also becoming more endangered as the removable decal revolution gains momentum. Etsy shop owner Bjorn, under the shop title Walking Dead Promotions, has for years been turning your walls, doors, Macs, and fridges into clever nods to an array of sci-fi, fantasy, and horror media. In fact, our trusty Editor Lord David showed you the TARDIS front door decals last year. So while I won’t mention that one, I’m going to showcase a few others that I hope to one day call my own and sleep next to at night.