Sad to report that writer Philip Martin has passed away.

His groundbreaking 1970s TV series Gangsters was a great influence on Kaldor City, hence the "Thanks too... Larson E Whipsnade" credit that appears on all the CD inserts.

 

Free The Robots!

By special arrangement with the Doctor Who Appreciation Society, we bring you a complete issue of their magazine Celestial Toyroom themed around "The Robots of Death" and Kaldor City, edited and written by Magic Bullet and friends. Right-click to download, or left-click to read in browser:

Celestial Toyroom 506 (portrait)
Celestial Toyroom 506 (landscape)

Driving Ambition: The Sale!

To celebrate the re-publication of Driving Ambition, a story of murder, labour relations and self-driving cars, as an independent production, the ebook will be priced at at $2.99/local equivalent for the month of November. Click the link for adventure!

Paperbacks are also still available for £7 plus P&P: email orders@kaldorcity.com if you're interested.

We're Number Three, and Number Eight!

 Telos Publishing have released their bestseller list for the month of October. Liberation: The Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to Blake's 7 (2003) is at #3, and Fall Out: The Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to The Prisoner (2007) is at #8! Find out more about these perennial favourites at the links.

50 Things About "The Web of Fear"

 Remember when the only thing we had to worry about was Yeti invasions and takeovers by sinister intelligences from beyond space? We do! Now for your reading pleasure, we have 36 Cool Things About "The Web of Fear" (and 14 Stupid Ones), where the Doctor joins the Underground movement and the Great Intelligence bypasses Victoria!

Automotive Dreams

 A collection of seven short stories by Fiona Moore, featuring robots, AI and the Internet of Things, is now available on Kindle, with a cover by Andy Lambert. For the price of a coffee you can buy it here:

A prototype self-driving car escapes from a research facility and drives off on its own— a simple programming error, or something far stranger.... 

 A cowboy whose wife, dog, and truck have all left him— and who’s not just going to write a sad song about it.... 

 A hero on a solitary quest through a fantasy world— but with no memory of how they got there or why there are no other people around... 

 Seven cyberpunk mystery stories, including the BSFA-award nominated “Jolene”. Stories of crime, artificial intelligence, and hope for humanity’s future.

Clean Version!

 And here, finally, is Andy Lambert's's superb wrap-around cover, minus the Celestial Toyroom logo and issue number.

Revealed at last!

Here is Andy Lambert's complete artwork cover (both front and back) for Celestial Toyroom issue 508/9.

 

 

CT Art Preview Exclusive: "Genesis of the Daleks"

 Here is JL Fletcher's amazing artwork for the "Genesis of the Daleks" postcard given away with Celestial Toyroom Issue 508/9.

New Entertainment for September!

 Battlestar Galactica is coming to BBC iPlayer.

Why not follow along with a useful guidebook?

Celestial Toyroom #508/9 UPDATE!

Celestial Toyroom issue 508/9 is currently at the printers and Alan Stevens' Guest Editor's Blog has now been put up online:

Once more unto the breach, dear friends...

Doctor Who fans may choose one of two roads to travel: either fretting themselves to a frenzy, or petting themselves to a purring satisfaction. And in the course of doing one or the other, they eat their way into that universe, turning cinders and flinders of stars into issues for Celestial Toyroo

m. Why do they do this? Unable to fully fathom Doctor Who, they seek to change the things they have problems comprehending into Something Utterly Fathomable. Nor will they stop until the nebulae he travels through and the planets she visits have been processed in the name of Sublime Order: for only when Doctor Who has been thoroughly catalogued and nailed down, will it be, in our sight, acceptable and wholly respectable.

So please join Dylan Rees, Ian Scales, Fiona Moore, John Darley, Mathew Peck, Dale Smith, Jez Strickley, Andy Lambert, JL Fletcher, Ann Worrall and myself as we tear up another piece of the universe in our never-ending quest to comprehend the infinite.

Kindest regards,

Alan Stevens (with thanks to Stanislaw Lem)

 http://www.dwasonline.co.uk/node/1446 

  Below is a version of the cover without the Celestial Toyroom logo!

 

Celestial Toyroom #508/9

The next Celestial Toyroom is another Alan Stevens-edited spectacular, with plenty of interest to Magic Bullet Productions fans: a reminiscence about Peter Miles, a Cool Things... on The Magician's Apprentice/The Witch's Familiar, and an incisive article about why the Cybermen are less rational than they pretend to be! Check out the full contents here.

Art History of the Daleks

New article this month: "Dalek Art" by Alan Stevens. Do the fascist mutants of the planet Skaro have an artistic side? Are they the ones behind the mysterious carvings on the planet Spiridon? And what is their strange connection with modern British sculptor Barbara Hepworth... and plagiarism-courting American artist Roy Lichtenstein?

Celestial Toyroom/Robots of Death interview

Fiona Moore was interviewed today by Southside Radio, about the Black Archive volume on the Robots of Death, Expressionist movies, and the joys of Zooming with cats. Download or listen to it here.

Vworp Vworp compendium now on sale

Missed out on early issues of the awesome Vworp Vworp! zine? No problem! Now you can order the collected, and expanded, Volumes One and Two direct from the source! Go to https://www.vworpvworp.co.uk/ to get yours.

Copied below is my Doctor Who Appreciation Society online editorial for Celestial Toyroom issue 506, plus Andy Lambert's issue cover, minus the Celestial Toyroom Logo.

And here we are again!

Physics teaches us that every single particle in the universe has a gravitational effect upon every other particle, no matter how great the degree of separation between them. This unified effect supports the theory that all events are related in some way. Synchronicity can then, in turn, be seen as merely a very personal and subjective observation of this inter-connected universe, of which we are but a small part.

The Robots of Death has always been a personal favourite of mine, and so when I was given an opportunity to build an issue of Celestial Toyroom around Fiona Moore’s critical monograph for The Black Archive, my first concern was how the hell could I pull it off?

I was the producer of Magic Bullet’s Kaldor City audio plays, and, although it’s been several years since there has been any addition to the series, the compact discs and downloads still sell, and I am frequently asked questions about the story… which is a little problematic in that Kaldor City was written to be a mystery with many possible answers, not a secret, which, by definition, can only have one.

So although an article on the Kaldor City plays was a necessity, it was not for me to write it. Equally, any piece commissioned by myself on the subject could be seen as an indirect reflection of my thoughts, which would influence the reading of the series, causing certain narratives to become more defined, whilst other possibilities vanished.

Then, as I wrestled over and over with this philosophical Gordian Knot, Ann Worrall turned up, unsheathed her sword of shining clarity, and sundered the knot with a single stroke!

“I’ve written this article about competing narrative structures in the Kaldor City audio plays,” she said.

Synchronicity or plain dumb luck?

You decide.

In conclusion, I’d like to thank Andy Lambert for his highly surreal wrap-around cover featuring a Voc robot playing a metaphysical game of chess, and JL Fletcher for yet another awesome full colour postcard, this time depicting the Fourth Doctor, Leela and the crew of Storm Mine Four.
Kindest regards,

Alan Stevens (with thanks to Chris Boucher)

Fiona's book on The Robots of Death is available here: https://obversebooks.co.uk/product/43-robots/

Here is JL Fletcher's superb giveaway postcard from Celestial Toyroom issue 506.

Glad to report our restock of Faction Paradox and Kaldor City CDs arrived from the duplicator today! These great adventures can be ordered from here.

Celestial Toyroom cover revealed

The cover for CT #506 has been unveiled! Contents can also now be found on the official site here.

Another rave review

More kudos for The Black Archive #43: The Robots of Death, from We Are Cult! Pull-quote here:

“Though very few points in the series’ history are as highly regarded as The Robots of Death, Fiona Moore’s newly released Black Archive volume about the story – the 43rd in the series – nonetheless offers a fresh and compelling analysis.”

Read the full review here, and click the title above to order the book (if you haven't already).

The Mark of Kane Art

Another magnificent piece of poster art from Damien May, this one showcasing The Mark of Kane.

The Black Archive #43: The Robots of Death out now!

Fiona Moore's book on "The Robots of Death" for The Black Archive series of Doctor Who guides/monographs is out now from Obverse Books! You can order it, in ebook or paperback format, here.

Adventures of Avon

Superb artist Damien May has taken time out to produce this dynamic piece of art inspired by 1997 Blake's 7 audio play The Logic of Empire.

Praise for "The Black Archive: The Robots of Death"

Fiona Moore's book for The Black Archive on "The Robots of Death" (including a section on Kaldor City of course) is shortly to be released. And Sci-Fi Bulletin apparently approves:

""Fiona Moore loves The Robots of Death as much as we do, unravelling the various threads that combine to create a pretty much perfect story. And as much as you might think you know there’s nothing new to say here, you might just be surprised. 9/10""

You can pre-order the book here.

End of the World?

What better article to publish this month than one concerning the writing process of Terry Nation, who wasn't obsessed with plagues in the slightest, not at all. Read World's End and get a rare glimpse at the first draft of "The Dalek Invasion of Earth", originally a much darker and more political story, and potentially featuring the first Muslim companion in the series. To quote Alan's editorial for the Celestial Toyroom issue in which the article first appears:

"One of the key aspects of Terry Nation’s original draft is its sense that the plague and the war has stopped history, causing the future to become a blank slate, no longer predicated on what has gone before."

COVID-19 Update

If you're wondering if you can still order from us during the lockdown, the answer is yes! We're coronavirus free and will ship anywhere. Here's a link to the Orders Page to help you pass the time in isolation.

Book bundle for the lockdown!

Stuck at home? Need something else besides your Magic Bullet CDs and MP3s to amuse you? Fiona Moore's AI mystery novel Driving Ambition is one of many great books in the Bundoran Buddies book bundle (with a bonus AI story, "Seal", included in the collection Lazarus Risen). For just $15, less than the price of a trade paperback these days, you get 12 books, including, as well as Driving Ambition, works by Robert Sawyer, Tanya Huff, Brad C Anderson and Madeline Ashby.

Link here:

 

https://storybundle.com/scifi

David Collings

All of us at Magic Bullet are very sorry to learn of the death of David Collings. He was a great friend and a pleasure to work with, and we will miss him very much.

More Masters!

Another piece of bonus art from the next issue of Celestial Toyroom: the first Master as a gangster by JL Fletcher (this time, ably assisted by his nephew Westley Smith).

CT cover art: The Old Master

Another bonus piece from Celestial Toyroom: the spectacular Gothic wrap-around cover of the Sixth Doctor from The Trial of a Time Lord and the Master from The Deadly Assassin. Doctor Who Appreciation Society members should be getting their copy soon!

Blog of the Plague Year

For your self-isolation reading pleasure, the Celestial Toyroom editor's blog for the latest Alan Stevens-edited issue is now up at the Doctor Who Appreciation Society website-- click the link.

Master Full

Celestial Toyroom #504, Alan Stevens' latest editorial work, is now at the printers'. Click this link for a preview of the contents, and join the Doctor Who Appreciation Society to receive it!

Treading the Boards

This month's feature is That One With The Killer Robots, all about the time when Robots of Death and Storm Mine caused a sensation at the Manchester Fringe Festival... as stage plays! Find out how and why in this retrospective from Gareth Kavanagh, the producer of the shows.

Acquiring Target!

At long last, the essay collection You On Target, covering Doctor Who fans' relationship with the Target novelisation series and featuring articles by Alan Stevens and Fiona Moore (on The Invasion of Time and Attack of the Cybermen respectively) is available to purchase from Amazon. Click the link to read what we and many others have to say about it!

Butterflies Are Free

The Doctor Who Appreciation Society's annual for 2019 is also still available for free, and has an updated version of our article on The Web Planet. Click on this link to download the DWAS Annual, and on this one if you just want to read the revised article.

Disco Inferno

Just a note to say that the Doctor Who Appreciation Society's Celestial Toyroom Annual for 2020 is out and, since the theme is the Pertwee Era, has updated versions of our articles on The Mutants and Inferno. You can download the annual for free it at this link, and we've also revised the articles on site with the new material.

Vocs on YouTube

The Voc in this video is voiced by none other than Greg de Polnay, whose autograph you will automatically receive if you buy the Kaldor City 6-CD set. The other autographs include Peter Miles, Trevor Cooper, Brian Croucher, Paul Darrow and David Collings!

And we're back online!

The website is now up and fully functional-- and with more bandwidth than ever!

Can't find the Kaldor City website? Don't worry.

Just a warning that we're changing our web hosting service at the moment: we hope this won't involve any downtime during the migration, but if you look for the site and find it's not there-- please be assured this is only temporary and we'll be back up again soon!

Doctor Who location report

Cosmic Masque issue IX is now available featuring Alan Stevens' Doctor Who Location report from Glouchester Cathedral (pages 82 to 84). Download it here.