Doctor Who - the End of Time figures

Just announced new Doctor Who action figures based on the final two part tale that saw the end of David Tennant's tenure as the Doctor, there's a set of End of Time figures coming soon, with the injured Tennant Doctor, the blonde Master, Timothy Dalton's impessive, be-robed Time Lord and - wait for it! - the first Matt Smith Doctor Who action figure, with him right after the regeneration, still in the previous incarnation's clothes.







And on the fun side there's also a new Time Squad set of Doctor Who figures coming, with the collection coming together to assemble a Master figure. Funky!

Who has the time?

I see a lot of different Doctor Who merchandise coming out, but I especially love this replica of the fob watch from the two-parter story Human Nature/Family of Blood from last season, written by the brilliant Paul Cornell (himself a lifelong Who fan as well as screenwriter, novelist and comics scribe). It was the one where the Doctor is seemingly posing as a teacher at an Edwardian boy's school just before WWI, but it turns out he is doing more than posing - he is human. Too escape the tracking of the Family of Blood he's altered himself both physically and mentally from Time Lord to human and the watch contains his real essence. Meantime the human Doctor has strange dreams of travelling in time and space and also finds himself falling in love with the school matron - a romance he could never have as the Time Lord. Paul also uses the story to explore the price the Doctor pays for being who he is, the toll on him emotionally to stand apart and be the one who saves the day, to be the hero in a dangerous universe. Its wonderfully emotive material and a nice take on the old Joseph Campbell exploration of the Hero; one of the best stories from the new series so far.