Via Mr Guerrier comes this lovely factoid.

You may have noticed that Dan Brown has been in court this week defending some novel or other from the allegation that it is ripped off from a non-fiction (in the loose sense) work called The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail. His publisher is being sued by that book’s authors, Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh.

Apparently due to illness, the third co-author of The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail is not a party to the law suit (but perhaps will benefit from increased sales from the publicity without the risk of court costs if his co-authors lose the case). His name is Henry Soskin, but his nom de plume is Henry Lincoln.

Back in the swinging sixties, he wrote, with Mervyn Haisman, such Doctor Who stories as The Abominable Snowmen, The Web of Fear and The Dominators.

I will not, of course, suggest that Yetis on the Underground are a more convincing prospect than JC marrying Mary Magdalene and the church concealing their ongoing bloodline. That would be cheap.

I’ve been listening to the audio recording of Doctor Who: Galaxy 4 narrated by Peter Purves. It’s been many years since I read the script book so, hearing the actors and sound effects for the first time, the story was almost new to me.

There isn’t really 100 minutes of story to fill the four episodes, but the concept is at least intelligent and worthy. We are first introduced to the Drahvins, a race of beautiful women who are trying to escape from the planet on which they have crashed before it explodes. They claim to have been forced down by the Rills, a race of ugly monsters. However, it turns out that the Drahvins are the evil warmongers and the Rills are kind-hearted and generous, reversing the premise of the original Dalek story in which the Aryan Thals are oppressed by the nasty pepperpots.

Galaxy 4 an enjoyable enough story with amusing moments (the Drahvins’ explanation that they only have a few men on their world, with the attendant implications; the Doctor calling a Rill “young man”), although there is relatively little incident. It’s inoffensive but worth a listen for its thoughtful execution, and its moral that women are evil you can’t judge a book by its cover.

Eve Myles, who played Gwyneth in The Unquiet Dead, seems to have been cast as Gwen, the female lead in Doctor Who spin-off series Torchwood. The story briefly appeared at the BBC site, but the whole thing is on Torchwood.TV.

Update: The story is now on the BBC News site.

Via Nick I learn of the glorious site Tom Baker Says. He suggests that the sort of (hypothetical) sad person who’s been spending money sending amusing text messages to their new BT landline (not installed specifically for the purpose. Er, I imagine) might save a few bob by visting the site instead. Or they may just get ideas 🙂

I heartily recommend Video Killed the Radio Star. A work of genius.