Combom Interview - Final Part

Here is the final part of the fascinating interview with Combom. It has been a great pleasure talking to him and I just want to say thanks again Combom and also thank all of you who have taken time out to read it (and there have been many of you).

Nick - Moving on now I want to ask you about the series return in 2005. I myself was one of the naughty ones who couldn’t wait for the transmission and found the leaked copy on the internet. I was also lucky that my son was getting to an age whereby it meant that we could watch it together and suddenly I was transported back to my childhood again but living it through his eyes. What did it mean to you when it returned and was it everything you had hoped it would be considering you’re long time love of the show going right back to the Pertwee era?

Combom - when Christopher Eccleston was announced I was very pleased, when Billie Piper was announced I was very worried indeed, fortunately she’s not too bad, although she will always be "the clingy girlfriend" and the doctor did more than we would to get rid of one, sending her to another dimension, now that’s class :) I do hope she doesn’t return too often now, every 3 of 4 seasons is enough! Tennant is a good doctor, he has made the part all his own, but I look forward to Matt Smith too, doctor who is about change, if you don’t like change, try neighbours :)

 I downloaded the rose leaked version, but then thought "what am I doing", and waited for its transmission, concerned I had a unfinished cut and it would spoil it for me :) when I watched rose on BBC1 I was happy they hadn’t messed it up :)

 The Pertwee era had a lot of stories set on earth, I’d like to see a return to that, lots of monster shows, and Katy manning at the time *sigh* :) the Pertwee/Manning/Delgado/UNIT was indeed the dream team :) modern unit are nowhere near as good :)

Nick - Well it's great to get to know some of your thoughts and to learn more about your Blog and it's great to see it getting so many hits so you must be doing something right. I would just like to says thanks again for taking the time to do this interview and is there anything else you would like to say to your readers before we go?

Combom - thanks for the interview, and thanks to everyone who contributes to the Blog, your input is appreciated :) now for a shameless plug, I have 4 blogs (count them) http://lifetheuniverseandcombom.blogspot.com http://dvdmoviemaniac.blogspot.com http://combomphotography.blogspot.com and http://combom-amazingfacts.blogspot.com they all need readers and followers :)

 Thanks nick, here’s looking forward to the end of time :)

Martin/Combom

Combom Interview - Part 3

Here is a continuation of my interview with Combom which you all seem to be enjoying as we're getting more hits than ever :-)

Nick - I agree, branding is important and your logo is distinctive although I’m glad we’ve cleared up the myth about it being a picture about the back of your head. What would you say has been the highlight of the last 18 months since you started and are there any breaking news stories which you have been one of the first to publish? Personally I love all the location pictures you manage to get permission to post, especially if it has a new or returning monster in it for the new series.

Combom - the best TV in the last 18 months has been Torchwood Children of Earth, it’s just better than Doctor Who, yeah I know, but it’s good to see the son excelling the father :), the best event to Blog, well the death (twice) of the thorn in my side was very good (some people won’t know what I’m on about here). I was first to publish about Lee Evans in Planet of the Dead, but I got that from a comedy site, so first doctor who site but not first site! I am the first Blog with a lot of set pictures and reports, but most are from forums although people like SLRPAP do give them to me before anyone, which I appreciate very much, as I keep saying - sharing is good!

Speaking of returning monsters, I’m still not convinced they are Silurians from a couple of weeks ago, they are too different. We also need to remember the BBC policy on this, every time they bring any monster/character/etc back, they have to pay the creator, so although they do pay for Daleks and Cybermen, they do try to not bring back too much, they end up paying for a name and that’s a hole in the shows budget. I like to see the return of classic monsters though.

Nick - I think this year’s series of Torchwood was one of the boldest most thought provoking pieces of television I have ever seen but I’m still not sure it beats Doctor Who. For anyone reading your last answer and wondering about “the thorn in your side” I am assuming you’re referring to the Blog which was basically copying all of your posts and claiming all the glory themselves for all your hard work. It must be frustrating when this happens? I know that you have strong links with the Planet Gallifrey Blog site and each of you link to each other, can you explain a little about the relationship there as that is another popular Blog?

Combom - I love the Jack Harkness character, he is the best other than the doctor, IMHO he is a progression of the 1970s Harry Sullivan character (Ian Marter sadly died), but I dislike John Barrowman (yes really!) he is always on TV, from chat shows to some rubbish about dancing :) lol there was a lot of upset over the death on Ianto in TWCOE, but they all seem to have missed the point, if you play with fire someone’s going to get burned, an occasional death means not only character and story rotation, but its more realistic, people would die if it was a real world scenario, but I think I’ll miss tosh more, I’m pleased Gwen survived - those eyes, it’s a life’s work looking into them :)

Yes it was very frustrating about RDW and his methods of doing nothing and taking everything and no credit, I’m happy to listen to anyone, if I’ve used anyone’s work by accident, I’m happy to add credit to them (I don’t do this knowingly), or remove it if they ask me to (hence some deleted jigsaws recently!), or come to some mutual agreement to suit us both!

With Planet Gallifrey, I helped Jess with some international versions of videos from the BBC site, then I made a few Cybershade images a lot clearer, she liked that, and when I wrote theory’s etc to cut a long story short is we linked each other :) Jess takes a few photographs of recent filming and writes the plot around them, and often gets it pretty close, so I respect her work, she’s not about a lot now, someone else seems to maintain PG and it’s not like it was :( but people grow, they move onwards and upwards, and have lives of their own, I’d like to see her stuff come back, but at the moment it’s not so likely, but hi Jess, wherever you are, I’m sure what you do you’re very good at :)

I like Fantaical Whovians stuff too, she takes another look at things and sometimes has a new angle to look at (she reminds me of me 18 months ago lol), and is good at playing with videos, anyone who makes me think, I like :) http://fanaticalwhovian.blogspot.com/ . we can’t forget everyone’s grandfather (in internet terms of course) http://tardisnewsroom.blogspot.com/, although he isn’t about as much as he was either, but 4 or so updates a week still :( and there’s http://doctorwho76totterslane.blogspot.com/ who links Facebook to his blog, and of course all the DW bloggers, if I’m aware of your blog, I do read it.

Once again, thanks to Combom for sharing his thoughts and make sure you tune in tomorrow for the final part of the interview.....

Combom Interview - Part 2

Nick - Wow, you really know what you’re doing and the number of hits you’re getting proves how popular it is. So, what drives you to put all the effort in? Are you going for as many hits as possible or are you a Doctor Who fan who just loves the show and wants to find out as much information as possible and share it with others? Also do you have any ambitions to make it the highest rated Who Blog on the internet and if so how would you measure it. For example is there a Bloggers chart?

Combom - What drives me? Well, Blogging is better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, but I suppose its hits! When Waters of Mars was transmitted, the Blog got over 13,000 hits in 24hours, which pleases me a lot. It’s great to see you're not talking to yourself, which many Bloggers are, but I admire them for their dedication, and who knows where it will take them?

I am of course a big DW fan, the first DW story I saw transmitted was SPEARHEAD FROM SPACE on our b/w TV, and since then I was hooked, that’s why Pertwee is my favourite doctor, your first doctor always seems to be your favourite, but I do like Eccleston and Tennant, I wish we saw more of Mcgann, and i had a soft spot for McCoy, and Tom Baker is well, Tom Baker and he is always great, lets not speak of Colin though! I have faith in Matt Smith too, after all DW is the BBC's flagship show, they aren't going to choose a loser as the new Doctor. Since then I have bought almost all the DVDs, and intend to fill all gaps too, and in my honest opinion Torchwood is as good as DW, as the X Files was another of my favourite shows, and Torchwood is like the two combined!

I am now very weary of "Bloggers charts" you enter one and your 6,000 hits a day Blog is beaten by a 200 hits a day Blog "because he has a prettier side bar" or something, and he got all his news from you in the first place, so that adds insult and injury! I'm a firm believer in "bums on seats" (hits to the rest of you lol), if you don’t like, you won’t call!

Being the biggest DW blog? My friend here has just said I already am, is he right I haven’t checked? Not that I'm into being the most popular, there is room for us all, and I do help other Bloggers if I am able to, being friendly and helping each other is much better than being selfish and arrogant, when you reach the top, the only way you can go is down. I think the chances of me becoming the "highest rated Blog" period is very slim (and that’s being generous lol).

I like to find out what’s going on in the Whoniverse, for this I look in a lot of places, and I know others want to know too, and many don't have time to do this, so it’s all collected here, and I share! It's good to share :) some have complained about "I wish you hadn't told he that" but my Blog is a spoiler, if you don’t want to know, read it with your eyes tightly closed :) yeah it’s hard not to isn’t it?

Nick - It’s great that you’re willing to share and I know that a lot of people really appreciate what you’re doing. Just getting onto the technical side of things, I noticed that you use a standard Bloggers template and as long as I have been visiting it has never been changed. Can you tell us why?

Combom - when I started the Blog, I wanted it to look like a newspaper or book, so it was easy to read, that is black text on white paper, and I’ve stuck with it. IMHO all these white on black blogs look like 1990s hacker sites! also you get blog owners who spend days designing a new blog, but they are forgetting something - the content, I feel the content of the blog outweighs the look of the template, a crappy blog with a great template is still a crappy blog, spend your time writing good content :) i have never changed the logo either, AND ITS NOT A PICTURE OF MY HEAD lol, I got it off a freeware clipart CD and have heavily edited it! I can't see me changing the template or logo, unless someone comes up with something fantastic for me, but even then... :) I have continued to use the template and head logo on my other blogs too, there’s a lot to be said about BRANDING :)

Thanks again to Combom for taking the time to do this. Part 3 is due tomorrow with the final part the day after, and don't forget to check out his site here.

Famous Who Blog Writer Interview

Life, the Universe and....... Combom....??? What is this I hear you ask? Well, about one year ago I was browsing one of my favourite Doctor Who news Blog and stumbles across a link to Combom’s Blog and I have to say that I have been hooked ever since. With no new series this daily fix of Doctor Who news, trivia and all round fun articles has gone in some way to bridging this “gap” year. After contributing a few articles to the site myself (and Combom has always been kind enough to credit me) I plucked up the courage to approach the enigmatic man himself and ask for an interview. Luckily for me and all you reading this he agreed to share some of his views, thoughts and experiences. What follows has taken place via email exchanges in mid November 2009 and will be posted in 4 parts........

Nick - Hi there Combom, many thanks for giving up your time to speak to me. Firstly I would like to ask you a little bit about your Blog so, when did it all start and what made you decide to start your wonderful Blog also how did you come up with name for it?

Combom - I started the Blog about 18 months ago and, like everyone else does, I had no readers! So my first task was to get readers, so I wrote articles that bigger Blogs may like so they link to me, then got talking to the Blog owner, and then got them to exchange links etc. It is slow at first, the first 6 months are the worst! I didn’t have a "business plan" towards all this, it just happened this way.

Making friends in the "Blog scene" helps too, people like yourself, Fanatical Whovian, Rebecca Wright (an artist who does great who stuff), plus a lot of others, and I exchanged daily email with jess from Planet Gallifrey until she moved on too. I learned a long time ago to always name my sources; it’s no good reporting something massive if no one believes you! The URL is a little different to the Blog name now, it was originally about all kinds of stuff, but its 95% Whoniverse now, I have moved the DVD reviews and photography to new Blogs.

The Blog name is a corruption of a Douglas Adams title, who wrote for Doctor Who by the way and he is worth reading.

Nick - I myself usually have a look at what’s going on in the universe of Combom several times a day and I have to say that there is always so much content on a daily basis. I know that people such as I contribute from time to time but it still must take up a lot of your time as well. How do you manage to fit it all in?

Combom - I don’t do as much as you may think, for example I do all the Doctor Who of the days on a Sunday, and the jigsaws too, then they are auto posted by blogger over the week, a lot of stuff I pre-prepare, such as the recent SJA synopsis, I write all except the actual synopsis itself before its on TV, then at 5pm it is complete and posted! Although I don’t want to give everything away, over the months I have found a lot of shortcuts, so I now find stuff easily, and unlike many, I rarely take from other peoples Blogs. Yes a fair share of people does contribute or point me in the right direction too, which I appreciate - it’s good to share! Don’t get me wrong I do spend a lot of time on the blog though.

Furthermore I have 2 other blogs and contribute to a local flickr group too http://www.flickr.com/groups/gainsborough/pool/ and I’m active on a couple of forums, and I don’t live on the internet, I have a life.

Part 2 of the interview will be posted tomorrow and don't forget to check out Comboms fantastic Blog here.