Cryptic crosswords are a great challenge for the brain, but they needn’t be scary. They’re not as deadly as the puzzles in the Exxilon City! Below are some hints and tips on how to complete them – Code Nine Anagrams: If a clue contains a word meaning “change”, such as “upset”, or “disturbed”, that means there is an anagram to solve. The words which require your attention are usually right next to the indicator word. Read more…
Cryptic Who has regenerated! Welcome to the new Cryptic Who website! The crosswords are now interactive, meaning you can complete them on your tablet or phone on the go, making it easier to complete the challenges your erstwhile compiler sets you and to tax those little grey cells. I know change can be strange, but life – and Doctor Who – relies on change. Don’t worry, though, the old blog Cryptic Who will remain online Read more…
“Late stage capitalism” is a phrase bandied about the internet to describe our current times, implying that this mode of society is about to come to an end. In Doctor Who, however, commercial interests continue far into the future. Consider the company in The Sun Makers, for example, or Kane’s enterprise in Dragonfire. As commercial space travel in the real world quite literally takes off, could it be that Doctor Who has predicted the future Read more…
Good science fiction reflects the world in which we live, so it is perhaps inevitable that some of the antagonists in Doctor Who will be big companies and greedy CEOs out to bleed the proles dry. Famously, Robert Holmes wrote The Sun Makers as a way to stick to the man, angry over a large tax bill eating into his finances. Nowadays, the evils of powerful businessmen are reflected in Jack Robertson, and how large Read more…
“You may be a Doctor, but I’m the Doctor!” We may get the word from our titular hero, but plenty of well qualified people have travelled with the Time Lord – Harry, Martha, and Rory to name but a few. The Doctor has also visited many hospitals and met many other medical professionals, and it is these practitioners we’re considering this week. It’s time for a consultation. Oooh, Matron! – Dr. Code Nine x
Paging Doctor Who! Our favourite Time Lord has said he’s “a Doctor of everything” (including cheese making), but he also studied medicine under Joseph Lister in Glasgow. According to River Song, he’s the reason we have the word “Doctor” in the first place, to mean “wise man” or “healer”. This week, we are looking at other Doctors – and Nurses – the original Doctor has met on his travels. Look out, too, for associated medical Read more…
Doctor Who does love to scare us with monsters and ghosts and ghouls and things that go bump in the night! I rewatched Midnight recently and it was genuinely unnerving, the idea of a nameless unseen monster banging on the walls and possessing one of your number… *shudder*! In this annual Halloween crossword, you will find many creepy things to send a shiver up your spine… but what is that in the corner of your Read more…
BOO! Did I scare you? It’s Halloween again – one of your erstwhile compiler’s favourite times of the year. It is the annual excuse to curl up on crisp Autumnal nights with a glass of something nice to watch a good old horror movie or two… or a spooky Doctor Who. Our favourite programme does the spooky and unnerving so well. It is not without cause that Blink is one of those most popular episodes Read more…
