People Just Being Terribly Nice

Is Thirteen the lucky number? In this month's article, Ann Worrall gives us an exploration of what she likes and dislikes about Jodie Whittaker's first season as Doctor Who, reflecting on characterisation, agency and politics in the Chibnall Era thus far.

Paul Darrow

Avon was the ultimate anti-hero, but Paul Darrow faced death with equal equanimity. 

Let us all raise a glass to a true hero.

Logic of Empire download (time-limited)

Thank you to everyone who downloaded the file! The event has now ended.

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE: We're back in business! Many thanks to Paul Lee. To make up for the downtime, the files will be available for download until 8 AM Friday morning: click the link here to download them.

UPDATE UPDATE: We should be able to have it up again sometime this evening. Stay tuned.

UPDATE: We've been overwhelmed, literally and figuratively, at the response to this post! Unfortunately, the sheer number of people downloading the file has repeatedly maxed out our bandwidth, and we're approaching the limit of what our webhost will allow us to use at all. We've taken the file down so that we can keep the site up, and hopefully we should be able to put it up again at a higher capacity host later on today.

For the next 48 hours, as a memorial tribute to Paul Darrow, we're making the Blake's 7 audio The Logic of Empire free to download. Starring Paul Darrow as Avon, Jacqueline Pearce as Servalan, Gareth Thomas as Blake and Peter Tuddenham as Zen, Orac and Slave, this story answers the question of what Avon did next. Click the title for the link.

Paul Darrow RIP

Paul Darrow was part of the Magic Bullet team from the beginning, first reprising Avon in the independent audio “The Logic of Empire” and later taking the central role of Kaston Iago in the Kaldor City series. Here is Alan Stevens’ tribute to someone who will be missed by all:

“Paul Darrow died this morning. A very dear friend and outstanding actor who never quite appreciated his own worth. A true hero, never to be forgotten.”

Full wraparound cover of Celestial Toyroom #494

Finally, in our series of Celestial Toyroom #494 art, we have the full wraparound cover! Click to enlarge, and imagine the epic crossover story that could come to be....

The Golden Emperor Rides Again

Here's a close-up of JL Fletcher's superb artwork of the Golden Emperor of the Daleks, which was specially commissioned for the giveaway postcard that appears in the latest edition of Celestial Toyroom (issue 494)

The Golden Emperor models for Celestial Toyroom

Phil Stevens' Golden Emperor Dalek, who inspired the giveaway postcard in this month's Celestial Toyroom, poses with his free issue!