Christian Cawley's Blog, page 107

Doctor Who Series 9 New Director, Swinging, River Song Sex Storm and Location Shooting Continues

Andrew Reynolds is a writer at Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews - All the latest Doctor Who news and reviews with our weekly podKast, features and interviews, and a long-running forum.

Filming is a tough old business: endless waiting around, the painful realization pages of script, the tedious wait for the right kind of sunlight – and then you get to play on the swings.

That’s no euphemism, the Doctor is literally playing on the swings. Peter Capaldi was seen climbing all over the swing set at Dumbells Road, Cardiff as he shoots scenes for Season 9. The Mirror reports that it remains unclear what the purpose of the scenes were but Capaldi was seen going down the slide twice before moving on to the swings. In later scenes, he was seen talking to two mysterious children.

But he wasn’t done with playing in the park – the Doctor was back in Cardiff Park as the Doctor Who crew return for another day’s filming on Monday, and this time he brought Clara, Osgood and an Osgood lookalike – hinting at more Zygon shenanigans for the Doctor: is she friend, foe or a fan of swings?

Between scenes Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman and Ingrid Oliver took the time to meet fans who had gathered to watch filming.

Atlantis‘ Justin Molotnikov to Direct Series 9 Story

One man who could be filming the Doctor on all kinds of playground apparatus (maybe even a see-saw!) is Atlantis director Justin Molotnikov who has been hired to take charge of two episodes. His involvement was confirmed via his client page on The Agency.

It’s unclear which two episodes he’ll direct, with two slots – episodes 9 and 10, and episodes 11 and 12 – still thought to be open.

Scottish filmmaker Molotnikov directed eight episodes of Merlin between 2011 and 2012, eight episodes of Atlantis between 2013 and 2015, and has also worked on Da Vinci’s Demons.

River Song and Twelve: “Sex Storm”, says RTD!

We’ve had people joining the crew but how about a potential cast returnee? Could River Song join the Twelfth Doctor in future episodes?

Steven Moffat hasn’t ruled out the possibility of bring Alex Kingston back to the fray but, like Captain Jack and many before him, it’s entirely based on story.

He told the Radio Times: “It entirely depends on whether we’ve got a good story. It’s certainly not ruled out. I have a sort of worry about keeping anybody around in the Doctor’s life for too long. Because he’s the Man who Leaves.”

One man keen to see her return is former showrunner Russell T Davies: “I mentioned in passing to Russell that we were probably done with River,” Moffat added, “He said, ‘You can’t be done with River! No, no, no. Capaldi and Kingston, it’s a sex storm!”

Type Phwoarty.

The post Doctor Who Series 9 New Director, Swinging, River Song Sex Storm and Location Shooting Continues appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

What a LEGO Doctor Who Video Game Might Look Like

Christian Cawley is a writer at Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews - All the latest Doctor Who news and reviews with our weekly podKast, features and interviews, and a long-running forum.

Ever played a Lego video game? They’re generally a case of jumping, blasting and hitting foes, collecting small Lego discs and special pieces, unlocking achievements and characters and generally having fun.

A bit like what you can see above, which is what a Lego Doctor Who video game might look like if it was made officially and released on consoles, phones and computers.

Let’s be fair, it looks smashing, doesn’t it? Created using the Unity game development software by YouTube user BlobVanDam (with texture help from Braxton Chassagne & Lara Forsythe) and with the voice of Jake Dudman as Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor, what you’re looking at is a real, playable game. The problem is, you’ll almost certainly never play it as BBC Worldwide and Lego would both come down extremely hard on BlobVanDam.

But doesn’t it make a superb proof of concept for a Doctor Who video game ?

The post What a LEGO Doctor Who Video Game Might Look Like appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Recent Doctor Who Series 9 Shooting and Cast News Blast

Connor Farley is a writer at Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews - All the latest Doctor Who news and reviews with our weekly podKast, features and interviews, and a long-running forum.

It has been an interesting week of filming this last week. Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman have both been filming in The Knap, Barry, a district of Barry in southern Wales, were a number of intriguing and eye-catching scenes by the beachside were recorded.

Most notable of these was the sight of Capaldi himself parachuting down onto the beach, with the parachute sporting a giant Union Jack flag print. An unintended homage to the James Bond film, The Spy Who Loved Me?

Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman brave the Barry breeze as #DoctorWho films at The Knap
http://t.co/9uql2qd0ej pic.twitter.com/S5XbnOG6XU

— Your Cardiff (@cardiffonline) May 18, 2015

 

Alongside that, another intriguing scene of note involved Jenna Coleman, who plays assistant Clara Oswald. Again filming with Capaldi no where in sight (the plot thickens!), Coleman was rather menacingly holding a UNIT certified bazooka. However, it is unknown exactly what Clara was intending to hit with the bazooka. But, in a strange twist which could spoil aspects of the upcoming series. It was clear that Capaldi was made to parachute down onto the beach because the plane he and Osgood, who was also on location were travelling in, was either going to crash, or was blown up.

Also on location was the return of Clara’s motorbike, which is seen in The Day of the Doctor, and will also feature in The Magician’s Apprentice earlier in this upcoming series. Again, it is not Coleman who is riding the motorbike. It is instead a well trained stunt driver, similar to the opening two-parter filming a few months ago.

You’ll find a full gallery of the day’s shooting at Wales Online.

In other news, Colin McFarlane, who is playing a yet unnamed character in Episodes 3 and 4, spoke to the Lincolnshire Echo about his role in the upcoming series of Doctor Who.

He said:

“It will be a two-parter forming episodes three and four of the new series which begins in September or October. I cannot say any more about the role or whether I’m a good guy or a bad guy. But I can say that I’ve had my photo taken for a potential Doctor Who toy.”

This hints towards MacFarlane playing a big part in the series, as a minor role would not always warrant a possible Doctor Who toy. Speaking of filming and his adopted son and daughter on set, he added:

“We filmed in Cardiff and while I was there I explained to Peter that my adopted children Johnny and Emma were both huge Doctor Who fans. Johnny joined me in Cardiff for his 21st birthday and Peter gave him a personal tour of the set and the TARDIS. I thought that was incredibly generous because Peter had just lost his mother.”

Peter Capaldi: what a gentleman.

The post Recent Doctor Who Series 9 Shooting and Cast News Blast appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Reviewed: Last of the Cybermen

Tony Jones is a writer at Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews - All the latest Doctor Who news and reviews with our weekly podKast, features and interviews, and a long-running forum.

With Last of the Cybermen, the Big Finish main Doctor Who range clocks up release#199. Written by Alan Barnes, it is part of the so-called locum doctors trilogy. The idea is capable of description in a few words — an incarnation of the Doctor ends up in an adventure with the companions of an earlier incarnation, possibly displacing the normal flow of events. April gave us the Seventh Doctor teaming up with Jo Grant, this month’s story has the Sixth Doctor joining forces with Jamie McCrimmon and Zoe Heriot.

In some aspects this story follows the pattern of the previous. The Second Doctor was outside the TARDIS, stumbles, Jamie and Zoe go outside and find someone they don’t know in place of the Doctor. He claims to be a future Doctor, their is some doubt, the local plot takes over, the Doctor worries about having no memory of this version of events, there is some anxiety over why he has been dropped into his own past, the plot is resolved, everything returns to normal and nobody remembers anything about the swap over. This leaves most of the two discs available to have a 1960s style story with the Colin Baker as the Doctor.

The style point is important, this is made as though for the Troughton era and Barnaby Edwards does a good job of directing and Nigel Fairs turns up in charge of the sound design and music. It is fair to say this all works very well. What also works well is the chemistry between Colin, Wendy Padbury and Fraser Hines. We knew this from a previous trilogy and although enjoyable, there was less of Jamie than we might have had, particularly towards the end. A slight gripe — there is much here that does give insight into the Doctor looking back at the time he spent with dear friends, something not addressed in the previous story.

The story is set in a gap in the story of the Cybermen and Alan Barnes introduces some plausible history into the available space. He also goes out of his way to place this in the continuity of all the characters involved, then drags in a lot of Big Finish continuity as well. The story is at heart (ignoring the exchange of Doctors) a standard one. There is a planet with a huge Cyberman relic, a scientific expedition, an array of larger than life tally-ho fighting types and even a decent excuse to connect to Zoe’s back story. All jolly good fun, though the first three discs start off almost comic before become more and more intense. The fourth disc confuses; even after some analysis it jumps forward and pivots the story around in a way that feels discontinuous. Once the listener understands what is happening it is really rather clever but does make this feel like two styles of story oddly juxtaposed.

The other oddity is very much the spectre at the feast; just what is going on with the Doctor? Why is he back in his own timeline? This is not explored and, like last month’s The Defectors, this part of the story doesn’t convince.

As Big Finish has leaked the overall concept, we expect next month’s release #200 to sort things out when the Fifth Doctor meets Vicky and Steven. I hope we are not disappointed.

Astute fans might also have spotted the August Fourth Doctor adventure Return to Telos has the Fourth Doctor re-visiting the Tomb of the Cybermen and meeting Jamie. Coincidence or actually a secret episode of this trilogy? Who knows?!

The post Reviewed: Last of the Cybermen appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Titan Comics’ Doctor Who Range Outperforms IDW’s

Jonathan Appleton is a writer at Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews - All the latest Doctor Who news and reviews with our weekly podKast, features and interviews, and a long-running forum.

The world of Doctor Who comics underwent a major change last year with Titan taking over the licence to produce new adventures featuring the Doctor in strip form.

Now that Titan’s series have had some time to bed in it seems a good time to look at how they’ve performed in the all-important sales figures. It’s positive news, with sales charts based on copies bought in comics stores showing that Doctor Who has performed strongly, according to Top 300 data gathered by ICv2.com.

The Eleventh Doctor had the best-selling debut issue of the three series (over 41,000 sales in July 2014), unsurprisingly perhaps given that incarnation’s popularity in the US. Since then, however, there’s not much in it between Doctors Ten, Eleven and Twelve when it comes to sales, with figures settling down to a steady average across the range.

Information presented by John Freeman (who certainly knows his stuff when it comes to Doctor Who comics) over at DownTheTubes.net shows that Titan’s series is holding up rather better in sales than predecessor publisher IDW’s.

While Doctor Who can probably never hope to match the sales of the high fliers in the charts (Star Wars and its various spin-offs, DC’s Convergence, Spider-Man) it looks like a strong performance for Titan, giving them their only titles in the Top 300.

It’s not all about sales figures, of course. Check out Philip Bates’s Kasterborous reviews of Titan’s Tenth, Eleventh and Twelfth Doctor series, now joined by a new run of Ninth Doctor stories. A wholly unscientific and unrepresentative analysis of reviews and comments to date seems to indicate that the Tenth Doctor series may be the pick of the bunch.

Have you tried Titan’s Doctor Who comics yet, either in the original issues or the new Doctor Who Comic reprints? Let us know what you think!

The post Titan Comics’ Doctor Who Range Outperforms IDW’s appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Why We Love City of Death!

Philip Bates is a writer at Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews - All the latest Doctor Who news and reviews with our weekly podKast, features and interviews, and a long-running forum.

To celebrate Towel Day, Lovarzi has released an infographic examining just a few reasons we love City of Death.

Though he also wrote The Pirate Planet, and was Script Editor for Season 17, Douglas Adam’s jewel in the Doctor Who crown is this 1979 serial in which Tom Baker’s Fourth Doctor and Lalla Ward’s Romana battled Scaroth, last of the Jagaroth.

Towel Day, 25th May, is a time to celebrate Adams’ work, including The Meaning of Liff, Last Chance to See, and of course, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

And if you head over to Lovarzi’s site, you can enter a competition to win a Season 16/17 Scarf. That competition closes on 26th May at 11PM!

The post Why We Love City of Death! appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

056 – The Mind of Evil

Steven B is a writer at Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews - All the latest Doctor Who news and reviews with our weekly podKast, features and interviews, and a long-running forum.

This is the one where: The Master becomes a Crime Lord, takes over a prison, and attempts to steal a missile and start World War III; Jo gets trapped in with a gaol full of rioting prisoners and saves the day with kindness; UNIT organise the security for an international peace conference, as we meet Corporal Bell for the first time; and the Doctor fights an alien parasite that feeds on the evil impulses of the mind.

The Mind of Evil contains almost all that is good – and evil – about the Pertwee period of Doctor Who. On one hand, it gives us the Master and the Doctor locked in a meaningful and coherent battle of wits relative to Saturday teatime viewing, the extended UNIT family all get a lot of cool stuff to do, and there’s an alien menace that has come to take over the Earth in what looks and feels like the glam and campy 1970s and, by Season 8, probably is, while still retaining evidence of ‘grittier’ echoes of the ‘one minute into the future’ schema more associated with Season 7.

On the other, the implicit philosophy of the Keller Machine unpopularly suggests that there is not only a dark impulse within humans but that this can be isolated to what distils down to a genetic level. The everyday implication of this theory of behaviour and of the mind is that some people are just born evil and there’s nothing that we can do about it – apart from ‘curing’ them of their evil impulses by a nameless extra-terrestrial parasitic monster.

It’s certainly an unsettling idea, essentially highlighting an uncomfortably old biblical and perhaps even Manichean understanding of Evil, and Good for that matter, which is far removed from an ‘it’s all good’ Hegelian Idealism and a Nietzschean  ‘beyond good and evil’ weird mix that are – in a very ‘rough guide’ kind of way – the antecedents to our more native postmodern philosophical frameworks.

There is also, from a post-colonial point of view, the very problematic representation of the Chinese and female characters in the story, most especially that of Chin Lee, but that may almost be expected of as pre-multicultural and feminist-reluctant a production context as 1971.

Evidence of this unthinking Euro-centrism most obviously comes to hand in a barely believable Holmesian moment, as the Doctor wildly conflates the presence of Chin Lee as to mean she is the only ‘Chinese girl’ in the whole of London, before her character is represented as a stereotypical femme fatale with all of the Fu Manchu cunning of the Orient as evident in her assassination of Senator Alcott, the American ambassador who is lured to an otherwise empty hotel room late at night. Chin Lee’s rather patriarchal duality is completed when, in an earlier scene, she serves as the docile bidder of commands to the Master’s dominant western male, all of which now feels at least a little icky.

The representation of the Chinese delegate, Mr Fu Peng, is similarly troubled, though not quite to the same extent.  While the exchange between Fu Peng and the Doctor in the delegate’s native Hokkien seems more than a little condescending to modern critical eyes, it’s also admittedly probably as much of an insight into cultural relativism as the time would likely have then allowed.

It’s arguable that his peak as a character of true malignance in the series can be chartered to the end of Episode Three, where the Master seems more in control of any situation he has created for himself on Earth than we have ever seen him, and when he is finally on an equal power footing with the Doctor, if not better.

The sidelining and outright snubbing of the authority army-figure of the Brigadier by Fu Peng, however, in favour of a chatty ambassadorial dialogue between Fu Peng and the much-travelled and seemingly Chinese-literate Doctor also serves to underscore a more progressive favouring on Beijing’s part of diplomacy over death, while simultaneously adding bit of Pertwee charm to proceedings.

It’s not certain, however, whether Pertwee plays the at-best-dubious claim that he has essentially befriended Mao Tse Tung with the ambivalent impish intent to ingratiate himself with the delegate with which it was most likely written, opting for a more standard aristocratic Third Doctor demeanour instead that basically comes across as rather arrogant. I can imagine Hartnell calling Fu Peng’s bluff and Troughton using the trick to gain his confidence in their respective, imagined playings of this line, but Pertwee doesn’t seem to have here entertained the idea and it’s played as if the Doctor did actually befriend a man whose place in history is – well, I’ll leave it for you to decide.

Until recently only available in black and white, there’s actually something to be said about The Mind of Evil benefiting from a more film noir look that the monochromatic print offers instead.  With most of the audience of the time watching it on old black and white television sets, we’re probably more in tune with how the whole thing felt at the time for one thing.

The sets and action resultantly fit in with a rather more Manchurian Candidate cold war discourse that maybe elevates the serial from having at least a certain equivalence to the BBC’s own Porridge, after all. The white noise and psychedelic visuals of the aforementioned Alcott death scene take on distinctly Soviet brainwashing techniques, again reaching back to The Ipcress File, as does the cat and mouse scene between Benton and Chin Lee in the streets of London, which are reminiscent of the scene of Michael Caine’s Harry Palmer stalking Jay in and around the British Science Museum Library before eventually allowing him to get away after being physically overcome. The final episode’s helicopter sequences, while notorious for blowing the budget such that Timothy Combe would sadly be banned by Letts from directing Doctor Who again, further give a strong element of slick Sixties spy-fi to the series.

The later scenes of the prison being taken back by UNIT (with thanks to Havoc! as well as the British Army) also add to this effect. Benton’s group entering through the tunnel underneath is well shot, all high angles and fast cutting. UNIT really do save the day here, though the brutality of the shoot-out is a little more than cartoon violence allowable for family viewing at times, with the camera angles used particularly effective in affecting the immediacy of the raid for both sides. Accordingly a question that is raised throughout the narrative is again raised here: Does one have to partake in some evil in order to do good? On this evidence one sadly must, but there is always another way…

The real star of the show, and one of the reasons why The Mind of Evil works on a variety of levels despite some of its admitted flaws, is Roger Delgado as the Master. In a longer time than we might anticipate since The Terror of the Autons, the Master seems to have built himself an impressively criminal means by which to enact his next great plan.  Wearing the same suit as we last saw him, now complete with ostentatious fur-lined overcoat and a lawyer’s briefcase while puffing on a cigar, we see him pulling the webs of intrigue in the back of a chauffeured limousine.

It is the very image of a Doctor Mabuse-styled Napoleon of Crime, and it works so well against the context of the Doctor having allied himself with the full force of the authorities. There’s something of a lost opportunity to explore and watch this Macavity dynamic evolve further in future stories, retreating to the illustration of the Master as more of a rogue element than an insidious presence that has infected the systems and structures of modern-day Earth (which we see fleetingly over the course of Series 3). The scene of the Master being chauffeured through the gates at Stangmoor after having falsely established his credentials as Professor Emile Keller as part of a long game (the Keller Machine was built about a year before the events of The Mind of Evil kick off) are perfect in giving us more of a clue as to how this might have panned out had this Crime Lord portrayal continued. If only it had.

The Master’s double plot of first harnessing the required ‘evil’ within the confines of the Keller Machine before unleashing this hate on the international peace conference as well as kidnapping the nuclear-powered nerve gas Thunderball – erm, I mean Thunderbolt – missile seems both elaborately Doctor Who as well as suitably near the plan-within-a-plan schemes the Master has up his sleeve when on his best form – even if those plans aren’t always entirely logical (aka ‘elaborately Doctor Who’) in nature.

The central protagonist against the Master’s lead here is not the Doctor, however; it is Jo Grant. Inexplicably left behind at Stangmoor by the Doctor before a riot breaks out, Jo actually goes on to single-handedly turn the tide in the favour of the Governor’s guards and restores order to the land.

It’s arguable that his peak as a character of true malignance in the series can be chartered to the end of Episode Three, where the Master seems more in control of any situation he has created for himself on Earth than we have ever seen him, and when he is finally on an equal power footing with the Doctor, if not better. “Now I’m ready for you”, he menacingly declares with reference to the Doctor after he has assumed control of the entire prison before the following showdown in the Governor’s office where the Master now sits in his throne, subverting the roles of establishment and criminal, all while in an opulent office complete with beautiful antiques.

Bizarrely, however, the Master now diverts his attention to the Thunderbolt missile.  Why? So that he can plunge it into the peace conference and Earth by extension into World War III. I guess it kinda works on a general scale of audacious villainy that we want to see out of this extraterrestrial version of Moriarty, even if it doesn’t make total sense, and despite a good escape set piece, the Doctor quickly ends up back in the processing room at the hands of the Master, handcuffed to a chair before his mind is attacked by the Keller Machine.

The Master, operatically flicking switches and turning dials, has won – but he then inexplicably excuses himself. Unwilling to stay to see his arch-enemy destroyed in the most agonising way by the machine he himself has built, the Master leaves the room. Bizarre indeed, when you consider that he will go on to regularly delay killing the Doctor in order that he may do it in as best fitting a manner and opportune a moment as possible. Surely, it would have been perfect for the Master to leave him there, laughing maniacally in triumph as the Pertwee Doctor gurns for the second of three cliffhangers? Indeed, it’s hard not to argue that, if this were a four parter, it would have been a perfect ending before the final resolution episode.

So, how is this resolved? How does the Master effectively abdicate from a position of ultimate power that we probably never actually see him in again until, what – maybe Logopolis? Sadly, in a way that we have already seen and that will cause great damage to the role of the Master as the Doctor’s Moriarty going forward; by the Master’s plan having a fatal flaw, to wit – the alien presence goes beyond his measures of planned control.

And, more importantly, because the Master cannot actually bring himself to kill the Doctor.

This extends so far in that the Master even resurrects the Doctor’s failed heart, curiously ordering lead thug Mailer out of the room before doing so, perhaps as he performs some secret Time Lord version of CPR. In addition, the Master, it turns out, again struggles to control an alien force that he seeks to use for world conquest, which again turns on him this time by projecting his greatest fear.

And what is his greatest fear? What else could it be?  The Doctor, in enormous form, standing over him, belittling him, laughing at him mockingly, in triumph. The Master’s response is to just run away, in an attempt to starve the parasite into subservience. He has already utterly lost control, and we’re a full eight minutes on from a moment when his vantage point looked entirely unassailable – and in truth it’s a moment from which the Master as a character and a first rate nemesis to the Doctor probably never really recovers.

Nonetheless, it provides for a really good set piece in the form of the Doctor and the Master shortly afterwards working together to prevent the creature from teleporting itself. A jerry-rigged nonsense with a lasso that the Doctor struggles to place over the parasite’s upright casing and the Master fiddling at a box with flashing lights provides for an iconic image.

This working together to stop the alien getting out of hand is still a fresh image it must be remembered, and one that in truth works better here than as previously in The Terror of the Auton’s finale, which is hallmarked by a much-too-quick change of heart on the Master’s behalf against the Nestene Consciousness as to be narratively plausible after four parts of plotting. Here, the creature goes from being utterly under his control to threatening his own existence, and working alongside the Doctor doesn’t mean that the Master has entirely abandoned his own nefarious plans.

The central protagonist against the Master’s lead here is not the Doctor, however; it is Jo Grant. Inexplicably left behind at Stangmoor by the Doctor before a riot breaks out, Jo actually goes on to single-handedly turn the tide in the favour of the Governor’s guards and restores order to the land. There’s a rather uncomfortable realisation that any woman in such an environment would probably in real life never have been given such a chance when locked up with hundreds of desperate armed men, but in the world of family television, we’re spared this sickening thought as the narrative instead allows Jo to save the day all while being her good self.

In fact, Jo’s best moments in this story are alongside the agreeable Professor Summers (Michael Sheard everyone – hurrah!) and the now saintly Barnham, to whom she affords the kind of human courtesy the characters deserve but do not get to any great degree from the regular cast.  In her dialogue with the professor, Jo is able to come to an understanding of what the machine does and how it affects its ‘patients’, consequently showing a level of apprehension about the Keller process that anyone that values free will should.

Despite this horrific change, analogous to the lobotomies performed on inmates in the even crueller past, Barnham’s characterisation elicits an immensely sympathetic response, with Neil McCarthy excellent in playing with such nuance the sweet lumbering oaf of a forced pure heart.

But it’s in Jo’s interactions with Barnham that we see the truth of Morrissey’s insistence that it takes strength to be gentle and kind. Never patronising, Jo seems to acknowledge the value of the character as a human while simultaneously looking after him as perhaps a teacher would a child, elevating the dignity of the innocent and the good inherent in both in a story set amongst the villainous and the violent. This is The Mind of Evil’s counter-point to the old Jesuit oath that the ends justifies the means; namely, only light destroys the dark.

Odd moments of charm aside – see, specifically, “My dear Lethbridge-Stewart, you only need to ask.  Your word is my command” followed by “Cheshire Cat, Mr Yates, Cheshire Cat…” – the Doctor is alarmingly and disappointingly abrupt here.  Having initially accessed the era of the Third Doctor through my primary school’s library – and consequently and naturally falling in love with its characters, setting, style, premise, and iconography – I was later surprised to see for myself how my impression of this Doctor as derived from musty-smelling sticky-backed cellophane-bound Target paperbacks differs from the large reality of his actual screen performance.

It’s not that Pertwee is always brusque and unapproachable; there are always moments to redeem the portrayal like the ones listed above. It’s more so that there are even more scripted opportunities to further endear the silliness and the kindness of this Doctor that aren’t taken up as Pertwee instead opts for a more straight, even at times arrogant, delivery. I guess I want to believe that this tall, white-haired Doctor dressed in a velvet smoking jacket and frilled shirt with bow tie is a kinder, more courteous man than he probably is.

Where the Third Doctor’s inability to adequately relate on a humane level with other characters most obviously shines through is in his dealings with Barnham; the first victim of the Keller Machine that we see during this story. The machine effectively turns Barnham – at first portrayed as a screaming, violent thug – into an idiot savant, except largely without the savant bit.

Despite this horrific change, analogous to the lobotomies performed on inmates in the even crueller past, Barnham’s characterisation elicits an immensely sympathetic response, with Neil McCarthy excellent in playing with such nuance the sweet lumbering oaf of a forced pure heart. The explanation to Jo of his conversion by Professor Summers that what he is now “depends on how you look at it: an idiot – or a saint” is a clear key to understanding how we are encouraged to respond to him as a character. Further, despite being a lesser light in the story, he is given more than enough by 1971 standards to win our sympathies as an audience.

Take, for instance, a moment later on in the story, when the Doctor and Jo are menaced by the Keller Machine but are inadvertently rescued by Barnham’s innocence. So we have the machine and our friend Barnham, and there is a brief moment when the Doctor treats him with such unaccustomed kindness that McCarthy as Barnham flickers with great deft a smile in recognition of this wonderfully humane act, as though validated even if he is probably merely patronised. It’s heartbreaking and beautifully acted, and in that moment I can recognise my Third Doctor, borne of childhood interpretations of Terrance Dicks’ novelisations.

But it is all too quickly undone, and not merely by the pace of the narrative and the rush to impending doom as we near the climax, but by Pertwee’s delivery at the end of the “How do you think I feel?” line. This, remember, comes after Barnham is cruelly run down by the Master making his escape in a van after he allowed both the Doctor and Jo to get close enough to the alien parasite so as to be able to defeat it in the first place. It’s the sheer severity of the delivery of the line after the tenderness with which Katy Manning delivers her own line of mourning that destroys a real moment of kindness, and which all means that Barnham’s sacrifice isn’t properly noted when it should have been sung.

It’s heartbreaking and beautifully acted, and in that moment I can recognise my Third Doctor, borne of childhood interpretations of Terrance Dicks’ novelisations.

Instead, the whole matter of Barnham is abruptly forgotten in the ensuing phone call with the Master and there’s a jokey end between Benton, the Doctor and the Brigadier. Jo, as the first and really only one to remember the idiot saint, is present in the room but has the focus shifted away from her very quickly indeed.

It’s a shame: Jo and Barnham are the two hearts at the moral centre of this story, providing a stark counter-balance to the seeming lesson of this story that, in order to do good, one must occasionally engage in evil.  Perhaps it’s emblematic of the unkinder side of this Doctor that they are sidelined at this moment in favour of the Pertwee’s Doctor typically getting the final line.

The tensions, though, serve for all their shortcomings to summarise the Pertwee Doctor and era as a whole; as a mixture of both good and bad, glam and grit, kindness and arrogance, of violence and peace. This really is one of my favourite Pertwee stories amongst many, and I want to make it clear that this period of the show’s history is as close to my heart as almost any other.

But on such evidence as this there’s always something there, contradictory and mean, that detracts from my overall high enjoyment of Pertwee’s stories, scratching away at the back of my thoughts. Maybe it’s my own mind of evil.

The post 056 – The Mind of Evil appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Roger Delgado’s Last Appearance: Found!

Christian Cawley is a writer at Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews - All the latest Doctor Who news and reviews with our weekly podKast, features and interviews, and a long-running forum.

A couple of weeks ago, Doctor Who fan, actor, comedian and presenter Toby Hadoke shared something rather wonderful on his Facebook page, concerning the last few days of Roger Delgado’s life, and the situation regarding his final acting job.

For those of you who don’t know, Delgado – the original Master – died in a car accident in 1973. The received wisdom over the years has been that he was on the way to make a film in Turkey when the accident occured, leaving the production an actor short. It would seem that this is not the case. As Toby noted:

“A brilliant researcher who isn’t me has disproved the long held notion that Roger Delgado died on his way to film his last job in Turkey. And that it was a comedy film. It was in fact a French series and he died having shot his scenes for his episode.”

The series is called La Cloche tibétaine, with Delgado making his final appearance in episode 4.

Now, having viewed the clip in a slightly compressed, scene-by-scene manner (my French is poor) by skipping on YouTube, I was initially doubtful that Delagdo was actually in it, and that the scenes he filmed must have been reshot (making the assumption that his was a character key to the adventure).

Not so.

Thanks to Kasterborous friend Gareth Kavanagh, the scene has been identified, and can be found by skipping the video above to 13:00.

The post Roger Delgado’s Last Appearance: Found! appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Fourth Doctor Adventures: Suburban Hell Out Now!

Philip Bates is a writer at Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews - All the latest Doctor Who news and reviews with our weekly podKast, features and interviews, and a long-running forum.

The fifth release of the fourth Fourth Doctor Adventures audio series from Big Finish is out now!

Suburban Hell is written by prolific Big Finish contributor, Alan Barnes, whose credits include Storm Warning, Nevermore, and Trail of the White Worm, and directed by Nicholas Briggs, aka the TV voice of the Daleks, Cybermen, and Judoon – and the audio company’s co-executive producer. The story is fronted by Tom Baker as the Doctor and Louise Jameson as Leela. Here’s what they’re getting up to:

Somewhere in a suburb of North London, there’s a crisis. More than a crisis, a positive disaster: Belinda and Ralph are expecting four for supper, and there’s no Marie Rose sauce for the Prawns Marie Rose. All in all, the evening couldn’t possibly get any worse…

Until the doorbell rings, bringing the Doctor and Leela to the dinner party. They’ve got a crisis, too – temporal ruckage has sent the TARDIS to another time zone entirely. Meaning they might have to endure a whole evening in Belinda’s company.

But the Doctor and Leela aren’t the only uninvited guests tonight. There’s a strange fog falling, out in the road. And in that fog: savage blue-skinned monsters, with dinner party plans of their own. Because it’s not Prawns Marie Rose on their menu – it’s people!

They’re joined by Annette Badland as Thelma – who you’ll know as Blon Fel-Fotch Passameer-Day Slitheen from the 2005 serials, Aliens of London/ World War Three and Boom Town – and Katy Wix as Belinda. Wix played Ianto Jones’ sister in Torchwood: Children of Earth, but most know her from the hit BBC1 sitcom, Not Going Out, in which she plays the dippy Daisy.

The cast is completed by Alix Dunmore (Penny/Acolyte), Raymond Coulthard (Ralph/Second Acolyte), and David Ricardo-Pearce (Pete/Priest).

The CD is available for £10.99, or the download is just £8.99. Why don’t you catch up with the Fourth Doctor right now?

The post Fourth Doctor Adventures: Suburban Hell Out Now! appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

The Worlds of Big Finish News Blast

Nick Kitchen is a writer at Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews - All the latest Doctor Who news and reviews with our weekly podKast, features and interviews, and a long-running forum.

For some, the mention of Big Finish only brings to mind their excellent Doctor Who lines. To a degree, that’s fair. After all, it is their most popular intellectual property. However, it would be a great loss, dear readers, if you never experienced any of the wonderful Doctor Who spinoffs or other IP ranges that are gaining popularity. Fortunately for you, this Big Finish News Blast is coming in hot with all the details you need to know Big Finish’s Worlds of Big Finish!

Today, we learn the release details for Worlds of Big Finish, recommendations from Big Finish staff and actors for the various Worlds ranges, a synopsis is released for Jago and Litefoot’s Tenth Series, some serious savings for the back catalogues of the ranges that comprise Worlds, and an update on the production of Series 3 of Survivors! Without any further ado, let us begin!

Worlds of Big Finish Available Now!

Big Finish has happily announced that their highly anticipated crossover event, Worlds of Big Finish is now available for your enjoyment. The audio set bridges many of the Doctor Who spinoffs with other characters like Dorian Gray and Sherlock Holmes. Check the trailer above and here is a brief synopsis of the release:

“From the streets of Edwardian London to the corridors of a near-infinite library in the distant future, a single book holds the key to the fate of life on Earth. Some believe it predicts our future – and the apocalypse – with unnerving accuracy. Others will stop at nothing to destroy it, and will chase it from one side of the universe to the other; from a country house in the Roaring Twenties to the casinos of Mars, and from 221B Baker Street to the terrifying desert world of Sisyphus IX…”

The audio features Iris Wildthyme, Abby and Zara,  Sherlock Holmes, Dorian Gray, Vienna Salvatori, and Bernice Summerfield. Most importantly, it’s available now!

Recommendations from the Worlds of Big Finish

Keeping with the theme and celebrating the release, various folks affiliated with Big Finish and the various spinoffs that make up the titular release, Worlds of Big Finish, have given their recommendations for folks who are interested in diving further into these properties. The entire list can be seen here, but here are some of the best ones:

Big Finish producer, Nicholas Briggs –

“My favourite release would have to be the Doctor Who: The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield box set. We have Benny, our first ever Big Finish hero, back alongside the Doctor and Ace, with Daleks and a time twisting plot that will keep you guessing until the last moments. Great fun with a really fresh, new approach.”

Executive Producer and Big Finish founder Jason Haigh-Ellery suggests Graceless: Series 1 –

“A great opportunity to do something different for Big Finish, a female centric show which pushes the envelope with regards to content and style and features fantastic performances from our two leading ladies Ciara Janson and Laura Doddington.”

Writer, Cavan Scott –

“As a certified Holmes nut, I’ve loved the fact that Big Finish’s Great Detective has embraced every type of Sherlockian story. You’ve got wonderful adaptations (yes, Hound of the Baskervilles I’m looking at you), authentic Conan Doyle pastiches like The Reification of Hans Gerber and even supernatural shenanigans with Holmes tackling Dracula in The Tangled Skein. Something for everyone!”

Check out the link above for recommendations!

Details for Series 10 of Jago and Litefoot Revealed!

The infernal investigators are back! Big Finish has released some details about the upcoming release, Jago and Litefoot: Series 10! Here’s the newly released synopsis for the four part box set:

1: The Case of the Missing Gasogene By Simon Barnard & Paul Morris

Investigating the death of Sir Hartley Harecourt’s manservant, Jago and Litefoot are caught up in an intriguing locked-room mystery. It’s a mystery that involves strange experiments, mysterious scientific formulae, our heroes’ greatest admirer, and a missing soda siphon…

2: The Year of the Bat By Jonathan Morris

When a strange package is delivered to Professor Litefoot, he has no idea of the far-reaching implications. Soon Litefoot and Jago find themselves enmeshed in a series of events that began thirty years ago – events their younger selves have already been caught up in…

3: The Mourning After By James Goss

Litefoot is surprised to meet an old friend. But celebrations are rather muted as he and Ellie have just been to the funeral of Henry Gordon Jago. But is Jago really dead? Or has he somehow been transported into a nightmarish future? The truth is both elusive and deeply worrying…

4: The Museum of Curiosities By Justin Richards

At last Carruthers Summerton – the greatest admirer of Jago and Litefoot and their would-be biographer – gets to accompany his heroes on an investigation. But amongst the bizarre murders and strange clues lies a much deeper and far more dangerous mystery. Unsure who they can trust, Jago and Litefoot will find out the truth at the Museum of Curiosities…

The set is slated for release in October but can be preordered now.

Reduced Prices on the Individual Worlds of Big Finish Ranges!

To continue celebrating the big release, Big Finish has also slashed some prices on the back catalogue of the individual ranges. Here’s the low down:

Plenty of permanent reductions for the Bernice Summerfield range: Doctor Who: The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield, the original Bernice Summerfield range, and other box sets.
A plethora of discounts for Katy Manning’s Iris Wildthyme!
An excellent price on a bundle featuring all of Vienna Salvatori’s audios!
A bundle featuring all of Dorian Gray’s adventures as well!

Series 3 of Survivors Has Wrapped Principal Recording!

Those of you who count yourselves fans of Big Finish’s Survivors (the original series having been the brainchild of Dalek creator, Terry Nation), you’ll be pleased to know the recording has completed for the upcoming release, Survivors: Series 3! Just in case you missed our early piece on the release, here is a taste of what’s to come when it releases this fall:

“It begins with just a few people falling ill. Another flu virus that spreads around the globe. And then the reports begin that people are dying… When most of the world’s population is wiped out, a handful of survivors are left to pick up the pieces.  Cities become graveyards. Technology becomes largely obsolete. Mankind must start again…”

Survivors: Series 3 releases in November but is available for preorder now.

That brings us to an end, fellow Kasterborites! Thanks for hanging with us in this new blast and let us know what you think about the Worlds of Big Finish release and all the accompanying goodness, won’t you?

The post The Worlds of Big Finish News Blast appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.