The Beeb has released the prequel to the upcoming Doctor Who Christmas special, and, as you’d expect, it leaves more questions than it answers:

• How did The Doctor come to have his finger on the dangerously big red button?
• Why does The Doctor try to call Amy for help when she left the TARDIS ages ago?
• How can The Doctor escape a space ship that has clearly blown up with him inside?

Remember, this is a prequel, so it happens before the events shown in the trailer we saw a few weeks ago, so we know he survives … right?

Read more about the episode and why Steven Moffat says you will be crying your eyes out on BBC America’s Web site.

The new episode premieres tonight at 9/8c on BBC America.

There is a new digital recorder on the block. It is an app and it is called TV Anytime.

TV Anytime is a newly launched app for iOS and Android devices that records streaming video for playback on your PC or iPad. It automatically records and syncs the content that you request to your mobile device via Wifi or USB. Currently, it is only of use to PC users and you will need a Windows 7 PC with at least a dual core 1.5GHz processor to use TV Anytime.

Overall, the concept is a pretty simple one. But, why would people be interested? Well, as we increasingly rely on mobile devices as a tool for just about everything, the ability to have our streamed content available from our favorite sites on our mobile devices, including sites like Netflix, becomes valuable – consider those long trips in the car with the kids.

But, how does it work?

The app uses a software program on your PC to record online streaming video. The recorded video then syncs with your Android or iOS mobile device. The content gets uploaded to your phone and, voila, movies and TV shows on the go, even when you can’t connect to WiFi or 3G. And because the content is preloaded, it means no more going over data plans. It also means no change in the quality of the video while you’re watching it, even if the guy next to you in the coffee shop needs to have all fifteen of his devices connected to WiFi.

Of course, there are issues. This is an app for people who are prepared. The sync time for large video files between iTunes and iOS devices means you have to consider your viewing ahead of time (which in some ways defeats the purpose of streaming). Also, those who have not bulked up on space and have the 16GB iOS device might find they run out of space quickly. Still, those are issues that will resolve over time – so the concept behind this app is one for the future. At least until ubiquitous and uninterrupted wireless broadband is available everywhere!

TV Anytime is available for download free on iOS and Android before the end of the year.

Note: Currently the app only works in the US.

Tron: Uprising features the voices of Elijah Wood and the original Tron himself, Bruce Boxleitner;  Motorcity teams some of the creative minds behind Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Megas XLR with the villainous vocal talents of Mark Hamill; and Ultimate Spider-Man comes from writer and producer Brian Michael Bendis and the group who created Ben 10.

The Beeb has released the prequel to the upcoming Doctor Who Christmas special, and, as you’d expect, it leaves more questions than it answers:

• How did The Doctor come to have his finger on the dangerously big red button?
• Why does The Doctor try to call Amy for help when she left the TARDIS ages ago?
• How can The Doctor escape a space ship that has clearly blown up with him inside?

Remember, this is a prequel, so it happens before the events shown in the trailer we saw a few weeks ago, so we know he survives … right?

Read more about the episode and why Steven Moffat says you will be crying your eyes out on BBC America’s Web site.

The new episode premieres this Christmas, Sunday Dec 25 at 9/8c on BBC America.

From the shores of Lake Silencio, Utah, to the kindness centers of Apalapucia, the sixth series of Doctor Who took fans on yet another spectacular rollercoaster ride through time and space.

A quick TARDIS trip to the future revealed the winners (“Spoilers!”) of our Doctor Who Sixth Series giveaway. Thanks to all the GeekDad readers who entered, and congratulations to:

K. MacArthur from Rochester, N.H.

A. Cruz from Toronto, Ont.

and S. Hozman from South San Francisco, Calif.

All three will receive Doctor Who: The Complete Sixth Series on DVD, thanks to our friends at BBC Worldwide.

Enjoy the trip!

Demons run when a good man goes to war. Image: BBC

As a family, we loved so many things about the most recently-concluded Doctor Who series.

The head-spinning convolutions of forking and back-flipping character timelines; the awesome creepiness of The Silence; the return of old friends like the Cybermen and Craig Owens; and of course, butt-kicking alternate-existence Amy Pond:

The Complete Sixth Series on DVD (and Blu-ray) comes with not only all those great moments, but a load of satisfying extras.

While two halves of the complete sixth series — spanning Matt Smith’s second full season in the role — have been available for separate purchase for awhile, this newly-released six-disc set not only includes the entire 13-episode arc and the usual bonuses, but the 2010 Christmas Special (“A Christmas Carol”) and several mini-episodes, including some created exclusively for this release.

For fans who like to listen to the behind-the-scenes insight, for instance, five of the episodes come with commentary tracks, and I was particularly excited to hear Neil Gaiman accompanying the fantastic episode he penned, “The Doctor’s Wife.” The set also includes 15 “Doctor Who Confidential” documentary episodes, the “Monster Files,” and trailers for the first and second halves of the season.

But if your family, like ours, just can’t get enough Doctor Who, you’re likely to find that the best extra bits are those which present new — if all-too-short — snapshots of the Doctor and his companions’ adventures. “Space” and “Time,” for example, are a pair of silly but fun three-minute episodes aired in March as part of the BBC’s Comic Relief charity telethon, and though they’ve been viewable on YouTube, this is their first official North American release.

There are also five short episode “prequels” originally released on the web and linked to “The Impossible Astronaut,” “The Curse of the Black Spot,” “A Good Man Goes to War,” “Let’s Kill Hitler,” and “The Wedding of River Song.”

The real joy of the extras, though, is found in the five mini-episodes collectively referred to as “Night and the Doctor,” written by Steven Moffat and produced specifically for this video release. They’re the perfect mix of humor and melancholy and wonder and manage to function wonderfully as both tiny, individual story-moments and pieces of the larger landscape that click neatly with the full episodes.

Every series of Doctor Who has its advocates and detractors, of course, and I know not everyone found this particular ride as enjoyable as others, but I thought the cast and writers and storytellers did an amazing job this time around, and I’m looking forward to taking the trip over and over again.

And guess what? You can, too!

BBC Worldwide has three DVD sets of the Complete Sixth Series to give away to GeekDad readers! Enter your information in the form below to enter, or if the form doesn’t work for you fill it in here instead. Only residents of the U.S. and Canada are eligible to enter, and all entries must be received by 11:59pm Eastern Time on Monday, November 28, 2011.

Disclosure: BBC Worldwide provided the DVD set for this review.

I kind of get it. As a young man I got excited about car shows on TV as well. All week, the excitement built until finally I perched in front of the tube to watch Hasselhof guide KITT through another episode of “Knight Rider” or the Duke boys jump through the windows of the General Lee. But then, it was over. The hour elapsed and the countdown clock reset for another 7 day countdown.

Not so for my sons and their “Top Gear” obsession. Our digital world makes instantly available to them ten years worth of the show — over 100 episodes — enough for a cataclysmic, personality warping binge on the politically incorrect, anti-American, paunchy, opinionated, blowhard Englishmen relentlessly peddling absurdly expensive mechanisms that will hasten the doom of the planet, all the while tossing off overcooked similes, as in, “The Porsche Cayenne is about as sexy as a camel.”

Which is to say, I love the show, too.

Or I did for the first fifty episodes anyway.

That was about the time my oldest began characterizing his “maths” homework as “rubbish” and my youngest started asking how many valves our minivan featured.

I started to wonder, what’s the real digital threat to parents? Cyberstalkers and perverts schooling through Facebook or these wonderfully snotty Brits and their seemingly endless availability?  Finally, the plummy accents and the thousand clever ways of saying a car is awful got to me. I’m uncertain if understanding scarcity and anticipation will have much value in the future, but we’re going to watch “Top Gear” once a week. Thursdays, I think.

Of course, kids being kids, by next Thursday they’ll probably be on to a show all about macrame hosted by a hippy in Portland. Until then, I’ll buckle up and enjoy the ride.