Hoping for a secret reveal of the never before seen #Blakes7 musical episode at the BFI today...

I don’t mean to imply that if you’re an influencer I don’t respect you I mean to state plainly that I don’t.

I hate that we're supposed to trudge through year after year after year acting like we don't already know the most effective solutions to social problems because some people don't like it. We know the best way to treat homelessness, addiction, crime, poverty, hunger, and bigotry but won't do it.

Another work week over

For UK fans and those elsewhere in the world, one final note to subscribe to my newsletter for free, especially if you like bad movies! You won't regret it. (Why am I up so late? I'm about to land in Munich.)

An interesting study into deathbots. Eva Nieto McAvoy & Jenny Kidd conclude: “while you can talk to the dead with AI, what you hear back reveals more about the technologies and platforms that profit from memory…. than about the ghosts they claim we can talk to.” theconversation.com/can-you-real...

I watched #TheTraitors final last night. No spoilers, but I think the reason this series works better than the previous ones is - because it's celebrities - neither they nor the audience *really* give a toss about the money, and that takes a lot of the cruelty out of it.

Another fine episode, but all the way through I couldn't quite remember the cover they were talking about and could only think of this fine painting. Pretty close, I reckon.

Can confirm. I was just past my 53rd birthday. And then going from knowing the biology of sex determination being a bit fuzzy (bimodal distribution, shared traits, no one single definition etc) to *living* with the fallout from it and forced to be conscious of it every day IS A COMPLETE HEADFUCK.

I watched #HowardTheDuck again, a film that regularly pops up on lists of the worst films of all time. Straight out the gate, you need to know Jeffrey Jones is in it, who is not someone you want to have had the freedom allowed by fame and fortune. That as good a reason to skip as any.

A week or so ago. Wife: what was that package you got delivered? Me: just some history books I wanted to read. Wife: what are they about? Me: oh, general stuff… what shall we have for dinner? The history books:

To all who celebrate

Go me, I suppose I scored 100% on Have I Got Phobia For You. Test yourself here www.higpfy.co.uk

Great British Railways legislation out today! 🎉A once in a lifetime opportunity To make public ownership a huge success we need 🚅fare reductions 🚅Switzerland levels of investment 🚅passenger representation 🚅no more wasteful competition 🚅rolling stock in public hands weownit.org.uk/news/new-gre...

buttondown.com/cooray_smith... New on Psychic Paper: New Doctor Who, you say?

DHL have delivered a parcel to the wrong postal code, proudly taking a picture of it on a doorstep 20 minutes away. Their solution to the problem is to suggest I bob round and nick it off the doorstep before the homeowner notices it. Might give that a miss. As always, the enemy is privatisation.

Today is the kind of gloomy, stormy autumn day when you might like to listen to a haunting Doctor Who story. My story 'Dark is the Devil That Walks' in the Short Trips 13 collection, from @bigfinish.bsky.social, is such a tale.

This is a brand new outlet for free fiction and the only source of funding for it is you guys: if you enjoy any of it, why not subscribe for a month or two? www.dreamtheory.media/support-us/

Can't believe we launched 6 months ago already! Coming up in the next few weeks: new flash fiction from @worldanvil.bsky.social (tomorrow!) and @coreyjwhite.com (Nov. 19th), as well as a new "ART of the Solar System" visual strip from Cody Schell (Nov. 12th)! Oh, and an open submission window...

We've got another free story! For the next three weeks, come check out Rich Larson's "Pod People." It's a fantastic story about found family and transcendent empathy, so you'll be glad you did.

Following on from October's Black Archive title, The Mysterious Planet by Jez Strickley, we can announce the books for the next six slots, covering the remainder of 2025 and most of 2026. Fans of the first and fifth Doctors are likely to be particularly pleased.

Sheriff of Nottingham was the one really out of position: Cross of St Ciricus was shot 8th and Sheriff of Nottingham was 10th, but shown 4th. Various other quirks as you'd imagine...

Audrey Hepburn by Norman Parkinson (1953)

The Robin / Marion thing is more an artefact of broadcasting out of order than conscious backtracking...

"It's your birthday," my wife says. "Why don't we do something ... you know: new. Exciting. That you've not done before." "...you mean ..." That's right, folks: I've watched this week's #RobinOfSherwood in the afternoon! I feel so alive!

Hi Phil 🙋

Oh look. The greens have leapfrogged us. Maybe standing up to transphobes ISN'T a stupid thing to do?

Anyone near to London on the 8th Nov. Western Sahara Campaign demonstration in front of the Embassy of Morocco on the 8th of November time 13:00 Calling on end of occupation!

I had a painter come into my flat to look at some walls my landlord wanted doing up and within five minutes he was explaining to me how he’s not a bad guy but he’s going Reform because lawyers care more about human rights for illegal immigrants than people like him. In my own home.

Are you someone who knows the #DoctorWho work of @doctoryatt.bsky.social? Then you could be in the target audience for As A Kang Should Be, the first @obversebooks.bsky.social Paradise Towers novel. It's had some amazing reviews: check dalesmithonline.com/get-asked-wr... and see for yourself.

If parties want credit for telling hard truths, they need to tell them when they're genuinely hard. If Labour had told the truth about taxes & the costs of Brexit before the election, its majority would be smaller. But it would have more real power & the public would put more faith in its judgment

New #DoctorWho author! Luke Hollands has won this year’s Paul Spragg Memorial Short Trip Opportunity. His wonderful story “The Wednesday That Wasn’t” features the Thirteenth Doctor, is read by Clare Corbett, and will be released by Big Finish in December. www.bigfinish.com/news/v/2025-...

Only two weeks left to submit your song! If selected your song will play during the Weather segment on Welcome to Night Vale. Find out more and submit your song by 11/15/25 here: buff.ly/ci0js6G

🦈NEW EPISODE!🦈 The Selachians return, in Steve Lyons's #DoctorWho PDA The Final Sanction. We discuss writing the return of his monster from The Murder Game, bringing them to audio, and much, much more! soundcloud.com/powerof3pod/...

Come work for us. The Economist is hiring a Britain political correspondent. Make the sample piece original and Economisty economist.com/britain/2025...

Suddenly when puberty blockers are given to cis kids, the Daily Mail (the same newspaper which backed Hitler btw) finally admits that "their effects are not permanent, and once a child lets their blocking treatment lapse, puberty will just continue as normal." Which is true for trans kids too.

"The Festive Big Green Book Swap" is back again! You'll get sent a mystery book, based on the kind of stuff you enjoy reading. You'll also get a bar of chocolate & pukka tea. And you can read along with a new book buddy too if you like! JOIN HERE! www.biggreenbookshop.com/index.php

Half way through listening to these wonderful people heaping deserved praise on Mags, and Iain reminds me that David Cameron was rumoured to have molested pork and handed Brexit to Farage, and yet it's still possible to have a debate about if he's in the top 3 worst Tory leaders of the 21st Century.

If we don't hit our goal (which is looking increasingly likely), we cannot make season two. Even if you can't donate, a share or review goes so far. This is a project Fio and I are so proud of, and we really want to see it through to the end. Season one is already available for free online!

The EHRC has sent a new draft Code of Practice which would lead to the exclusion of trans people from public life. The decision now is up to this government, will they sign a trans bathroom ban in secret? Use our tool to email your MP: tinyurl.com/scrap-the-ba... #ScrapTheBathroomBan

World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls now, BTW. Revenge still second.

New read: really delighted by this dropping through the letterbox this week - another excellent edition of the Black Archive & a really enjoyable exploration of a Doctor Who story I've always been really fond of. Thanks, @cooraysmith.bsky.social ! #newread #theblackarchive #silvernemesis

I mean there’s Curse of Black Spot & Rebel Flesh & Night Terrors-whose teary climaxes hinge on fathers & sons uniting. They’re only stories apart, no one minds. Because, like Remembrance & Silver Nemesis, they *feel* different. One is a grey London school brilliance, the other is summery jazz fun

Also funny as the jazz joke is it is just a moment. It would have been great to see that idea reflected in the finale somehow, jazz vs logic

Proud of myself that I recognised that it was a Virago book in Lalla’s bag just from the cover layout. On closer inspection, it looks to be The Lost Traveller by Antonia White.

@philyarrowactor.bsky.social Jealous yet?

On the one hand do the Cybermen *need* to be in Silver Nemesis? No, but then you’d lose their reaction to jazz so on balance it’s worth it

As the #DoctorWho DVDs started to come out, I sold my entire collection of VHSes and made the decision to only replace the stories I thought were actually good. This I justified with the words "I don't ever need to watch #SilverNemesis again". Which is to say, I watched Silver Nemesis again.

star trek and famous art: a thread

Want that "All your friends mocking you because you believed an April Fools joke" feeling all year round? Simply like or boost any image about how amazing real life can be on social media and wait to find out it's AI generated.