Les Starblazeurs

It has been eleven months since both downthetubes and Bear Alley mentioned the Starblazer Adventures role-playing game due out from Cubicle Seven.

The Starblazer Adventures core rulebook is now scheduled to be in games stores in "Autumn/Winter 2008" according to the Cubicle Seven website, which means that it may still beat their other licenced SF role playing game, Doctor Who, to the shops (but admittedly it is unlikely to outsell it). In the meantime you can download a PDF preview of the rulebook from the Cubicle Seven site.

If you cannot wait for a new dose of Starblazer then take a look at the downthetubes list of Starblazer foreign editions where, with the help of Shaqui Le Vesconte, we have added details of the French Starblazer reprints.

The Ten Doctors

(with thanks to Paul Eldridge for the link): Talk about your labours of love: in March last year Doctor Who fan Richard Morris began his epic fan story The Ten Doctors, now at one hundred pages and counting -- a complex but beautifully drawn cartoon-styled Doctor Who story, with snappy dialogue and a skilled script that sees every Doctor encountering the other, along with a host of companions to boot.

"The Ten Doctors is a geeky little thing I’ve been wanting to do for a long, long time," says Richard, aka "Captain Shipsinker", who hails from Nova Scotia and describes himself as "a director, gamer, and medievalist".

Since its initial publication on Richard's blog, The Ten Doctors has gathered a well deserved, dedicated following. Richard's pencil art -- he does not appear to work in inks on some of his strips, although inked and coloured versions of some pages of The Ten Doctors have been provided by eclecticmuse, aka Stephanie Jackson -- are well drafted, displaying considerable comic storytelling skills, especially considering the number of characters involved.

The story opens with the tenth (and current) Doctor visiting The Eye of Orion (last seen in The Five Doctors) to reflect after the events of The Runaway Bride.

He meets up with his previous incarnations, and an epic adventure, packed with uneasy alliances, acerbic exchanges between Rose and Ace, and all the kind of nastiness you'd expect from Cybermen, Daleks... and the Master.

Richard's studied his Who chronology carefully and skilfully plots a tale spanning many of the show's favourite eras. Well worth checking out - if you haven't already.

Once you've enjoyed The Ten Doctors, I also recommend checking out some of his other strips: 24fps, a delightful jab in the eye at the world of animators, animation and the general public who doesn't understand them; Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic - which recently reached its 700th episode -- and The House of Paulus, a strip set in Roman times (no Gauls in sight!).