Christian Cawley's Blog, page 123

Karen Gillan Joins HBO’s Salem Witch Trials Pilot, The Devil You Know

Rebecca Crockett 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.

Feeling a little… witchy? Karen Gillan probably does, and this week it was revealed that she’s working on a new TV show with a magical theme…

While Karen’s show Selfie may not have been as big a hit with the viewers as ABC would have liked, it was still a great first shot at being on American television for the Scottish actress. Now she’s working on a pilot for a new show, this time for the cable giant HBO.

Called The Devil You Know, the show is about the Salem Witch Trials, a dark time in American history, which saw many people falsely accused of practicing witchcraft and devil worship and then subsequently being tried, convicted, and executed by the radical, ultra, ultra conservative Puritans.

The show, co-written by Jenji Kohan, creator of the Netflix hit Orange Is The New Black,  will also star Ever Carradine, Eddie Izzard, Nadia Alexander, Ismenia Mendes, and Ewen Bremner (Snowpiercer), who plays the father of Gillan’s character.

Production is taking place in Boston and as evidenced by Karen’s tweets, has already begun!

Had the best time in Kansas with my Mum on Mother's Day! Now back to work as a Puritan. #thedevilyouknow

— Karen Gillan (@karengillan) March 15, 2015

Even for a Scotswoman, Boston is bloody cold tonight! BURR

— Karen Gillan (@karengillan) March 18, 2015

Sounds interesting! Certainly a topic and setting that isn’t widely portrayed these days. I’m so happy to see Ms. Gillan getting roles here in the US. I admit that I was afraid that once her time on DW was over, that those of us here in the US wouldn’t get to see much of her but that has yet to happen! With this new show in the works and rumors of a possible part in the eventual Guardians Of The Galaxy sequel, it looks like we’ll be seeing more of her for years to come!

(via CBR)

The post Karen Gillan Joins HBO’s Salem Witch Trials Pilot, The Devil You Know appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Filming Begins on Doctor Who Series 9, Block 3

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.

Three cheers! Filming on Block 3 of series 9 of Doctor Who has officially begun today. Filming took place at Margam Castle in Cardiff, with both Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman on set. The gothic appearance of Margam Castle may hint towards the episode currently being filmed being the ghost story that Steven Moffat teased fans with last year.

Currently being filmed for Doctor Who Series 9 is Episode 5. The writer, producer and director of the episode, is yet to be revealed. But speculation is pointing towards Peter Harness, Jamie Mathieson, Mark Gatiss or Catherine Tregenna being the possible writer for the first stand-alone episode of Series 9.

The announcement of Episode 5 beginning filming was revealed Thursday when the Doctor Who team posted a photo on their official Twitter account saying that the episode read through was to take place Thursday afternoon. The photo posted with the short tweet was of the read through room within the BBC building. The photo specifically focused in on Peter and Jenna’s scripts, with the information on the front cover of the script conveniently blurred out.

Ready to go! The read through for Episode 5 gets under way. #DoctorWho pic.twitter.com/7q7mrrrPVN

— Doctor Who Official (@bbcdoctorwho) March 19, 2015

As already mentioned, this is the first stand-alone episode of the upcoming series 9 to be put in front of the camera. The first two filming blocks consisted of two two-parters. The Magician’s Apprentice and The Witch’s Familiar, written by Steven Moffat is one, and a yet-to-be-titled two-parter written by Toby Whithouse, writing for the Twelfth Doctor for the first time.

Further information, such as the guest cast for the stand-alone episode is expected to be revealed in the coming weeks.

The post Filming Begins on Doctor Who Series 9, Block 3 appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Radio Times Celebrates Ten Years of nuWho while Poll Results Overlook Moffat Era

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.

Radio Times countdown to the tenth anniversary of nuWho continues with a staggering 280,259 voters having their say on the ten best episodes since 2005.

While it isn’t too hard to guess what came out on top (hint: it involves not blinking) and deservedly so; perhaps what is surprising is the lack of Moffat era episodes: no The Impossible Astronaut, no The Eleventh Hour, no Hide…

The only episodes from the post-2010 era to make the top ten are Vincent and the Doctor which was described as: ‘Clever, funny, strange and all with something to say, Vincent and the Doctor is everything that makes Doctor Who a show like none other,’ coming second and the 50th Anniversary special The Day of the Doctor which was praised for giving the show a new lease of life, in fourth place.

What’s more, all of the Moffat penned episodes for the Russell T Davies era have made the list. So as averages goes that’s pretty impressive, maybe more impressive than anything Moffat has done since?

The ‘winner’ if such things can be claimed, was described as ‘…beautifully written, performed, directed and scored – like everything else in Blink. Every line, every moment, every shot has purpose. No wonder Blink bagged a Best Writer Bafta for Steven Moffat and remains, eight years on, a stone-cold classic and the fans’ favourite.’

The full top 10:

10) The End of Time [5.37% of the overall vote]

9) Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead [6.09%]

8) Bad Wolf/Parting of the Ways [7.01%]

7) The Girl in the Fireplace [8.51%]

6) Army of Ghosts/Doomsday [8.61%]

5) The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances [9.99%]

4) The Day of the Doctor [13.28%]

3) The Stolen Earth/ Journey’s End [13.3%]

2) Vincent and the Doctor [13.7%]

1) Blink [14.3%]

Elsewhere, the site has several fascinating articles from 2005 and beyond, including this vintage interview from the Doctor Who-shy Christopher Eccleston which, depending on your view of Eccleston’s absence from the 50th anniversary, will either confirm or disprove your prejudices – like a Northern Rorschach test.

Choice quotes include his thoughts on taking on the role: “People are always telling me I’m too gloomy and can’t do comedy–so taking a part in Doctor Who is a gamble, and I find that exciting. It could sink my career, or take it to another level,” and his hopes for the show and its role in firing the imaginations of child: “What I really hope, though, is that Doctor Who will be watched by children and adults together. I remember when I was little, there was something uniquely revealing about watching TV with my mum, dad and two brothers. I was astonished at the way two working-class lads like my brothers just loved the surrealism in Monty Python. And with Boys from the Blackstuff, I saw out of the corner of my eye that my dad could hardly watch it because it was so painful for him. If we can get that sort of thing going on, that would be the ideal result for me.”

Stirring and passionate stuff, the whole interview, online for the first time since its publication in 2005, is well worth a read.

From one actor taking a leap into the unknown, to another literally singing and dancing his way into his childhood dream, John Barrowman, speaking in a 2005 edition of the Radio Times, shared his excitement at landing the role of pan-sexual Time Agent Captain Jack Harkness.

It’s fascinating now to look back at the embryonic Jack – free of the curse of immortality, with all of time and space to hit on, it seems like a million miles away from Children of Earth or even, shudder, Miracle Day.

A bona fide fan boy, Barrowman found out he’d landed the part after making a name for himself in such musicals as The Phantom of the Opera, Evita, Aspects of Love, Beauty and the Beast and, of course, that stint co-hosting Live and Kicking, while walking through Covent Garden: “I literally screamed and jumped around because I was so excited. After that, I had to keep pinching myself,” he said.

Not one to be upstaged by ‘Mr Musical Theatre’ even Christopher Eccleston tried getting in on the act: “He tries!” said Barrowman, “I’m sure Chris [Eccleston] was feeling intimidated because I was standing right there, Mr Musical Theatre! I could throw in a couple of tap steps and wing around there in five seconds! It was a difficult thing he did and he pulled it off.”

And finally, as Nine gave way to Ten, the Radio Times were once again there to preside key moments in the Doctors history as David Tennant donned his PJ’s in their exclusive behind the scenes look at The Christmas Invasion from 2005.

Given the closely guarded nature of the Doctor’s new personality; there’s scant information shared by the man himself – but as a blast from the past, it’s refreshing to catch up with the likes of Mickey, Rose and Jackie at this key juncture for the show – and judging by the lack of concern over the new Doctor, you may come away thinking this Tennant fellow might just catch on.

Taking stock of the bonkers world he’s about to give himself over to, Tennant said of his newest foes, namely deadly Santas and spinning Christmas trees: “They’re from another place. There’s always something disturbing about the very familiar when it goes off-centre. Like clowns – they can be very scary…That’s what’s great about the show – it brings the universe to a very domestic level.”

It’s that very domesticity that’s been missing from the show for a while but what never changes is the madness at the heart of everything: “Filming [for the new series] lasts 38 weeks. It’s relentless, certainly, but it’s not like a real job. Daily, it’s incredibly exciting because it’s so mind-expanding and bonkers!”

If only he knew what was to come!

The post Radio Times Celebrates Ten Years of nuWho while Poll Results Overlook Moffat Era appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Moffat Confirms Victorian-Set Sherlock Special, Plus Sherlock Convention News

Rebecca Crockett 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.

Sherlock news!! We have Sherlock news!!

With such a long time between episodes, anyone that is a fan of Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat’s Sherlock rejoices when even the tiniest bit of news comes out of the production. Well this time, it’s actually a big bit of news – an answer to a question no less!

Ever since they posted the photo above of stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman in what are some rather odd looking styles, the fandom has been wondering what’s up with the look – why do Sherlock and Watson look like they are wearing clothes better set in the Victorian era rather than the modern one?

Given the origins of the Sherlock stories, the Victorian era isn’t odd, per say, but for this version, it’s not something we’d expect. Have our detectives hopped in the TARDIS and gone back in time?

Well, sort of.

According to co-creator Steven Moffat, the one-off special that just recently wrapped filming is indeed set more than 100 years ago. According to Moffat, with the story they wanted to tell, there was just no getting around the time period. Here’s what he told Entertainment Weekly while in Austin, Texas, for the South By Southwest festival.

“The special is its own thing…we wouldn’t have done the story we’re doing, and the way we’re doing it, if we didn’t have this special. It’s not part of the run of three episodes. So we had this to do it – as we could hardly conceal – it’s Victorian. [Co-creator Mark Gatiss] and me, we wanted to do this, but it had to be a special, it had to be separate entity on its own. It’s kind of in its own little bubble.”

So that explains the the photos we’ve seen. But what story are they doing? So far every episode has been a take off on one of the original Conan Doyle stories. What was so special about this one particular story that Gatiss and Moffat couldn’t drag it into this day and age, like they’ve so expertly done with the rest?

And when will we actually see this special? There’s been no word yet on when it will air on either side of the pond, but speculation is that we’ll all get it sometime around Christmas, with the real three-episode series 4 sometime later next year.

If you can’t wait that long for the next time we’ll see the great detective on screen, why not go to a convention all about the show?

Are you Sherlocked?

This coming 24th to 26th April, a special convention of all things Sherlock will be taking place in London at the ExCel convention center. Star Benedict Cumberbatch and creators Gatiss and Moffat are all scheduled to attend, as well as many other fan favorites including Andrew Scott (Moriarty), Rupert Graves (Lestrade), and Lara Pulver (Irene Adler). All are set to do the typical convention fare of photos, autographs, and Q&A sessions over the course of the weekend. If you’re in the area and available to attend, I’d suggest getting your tickets now, before anything else is sold out – tickets for non-package photoshoots and Q&A sessions were released just this past Wednesday and some of them are already sold out!

Looking at all the pricing, the Platinum pass looks to be the best deal – all the photos, autographs, and other stuff you’d want for £595.00 (roughly $880US) unless you’ve got the cash to drop nearly £3000 (roughly $4400US) for the VIP package…

I wish I could go! Aside from being able to see Mr. Cumberbatch in person, I’d love to hear Andrew Scott talk about playing one of literature’s notorious villains.  He does it so well!

The post Moffat Confirms Victorian-Set Sherlock Special, Plus Sherlock Convention News appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

The Essential Doctor Who #4: ­ The Master

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.

Panini have released details of the latest issue of The Essential Doctor Who, devoted this time to the Doctor’s most dangerous opponent: the Master!

With over 116 pages of all-new material, the latest issue of The Essential Doctor Who examines every Master story – from Terror of the Autons to Death in Heaven – and profiles the actors who have brought the villainous Time Lord to life.

Writer and co-creator Terrance Dicks, Katy Manning (Jo Grant), Richard Franklin (Captain Yates) and Matthew Waterhouse (Adric) discuss their special links to the character, and there is an exclusive new interview with Michelle Gomez, who reveals what it was like to take on one of the most famous roles in Doctor Who.

Elsewhere in this issue, Andrew Pixley applies his scrutiny to The Pandora Machine and Time Inc, early drafts of better known stories that cast the Master in a new light.

“The Master has been an essential part of Doctor Who for 45 years and is central to the current episodes,” says editor Marcus Hearn. “This issue compiles his/her complete story for the first time.”

The Essential Doctor Who: The Master is on sale now at WH Smith and all good newsagents, price £9.99.

The post The Essential Doctor Who #4: ­ The Master appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Support Sophie Aldred’s New Project, Strangeness in Space

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.

Lift-off is imminent for a new online audio comedy which brings together one of the Doctor’s most popular companions with a legendary comedy duo. Strangeness in Space is the title of the new project starring Sophie Aldred, Trevor Neal and Simon Hickson which promises to be “a sci-fi comedy podcast series for kids aged 8 to 80, and beyond…”

Neal and Hickson will forever be better known as Trevor and Simon, who brightened up Saturday mornings no end back in the 1980s and 1990s swinging their pants and exploring their ‘world of the strange’ on BBC1 in Going Live and its successor Live and Kicking. The boys promise more of their distinctive brand of humour from this new production:

“We loved that parents seemed to enjoy our humour as much as their kids on Saturday morning telly and we intend to bring the same sense of family fun to this.”

Here’s what it’s all about:

What would happen if Sophie, the manager of a NASA Space Centre gift shop, and Trev and Simon, two idiots claiming to be a 1980s styled synth pop duo called Pink Custard, were thrown together with a stressy computer robot called LEMON on board a damaged space craft, lost in a distant universe, orbiting Planet Mirth?

Strangeness would happen, that’s what!

Trev, Simon and Sophie are unwittingly rocketed into the extraordinary, surreal world of space! They’re racing into the future with a foot in the past (the nostalgic 1980’s to be precise). Along the way, fuelled by a diet of indigestible powdered space food, they will encounter a whole host of unusual space dwellers and aliens, all played by an exciting parade of cult actors and celebrities, in as many episodes as we can fund through this campaign with your help!

They’ll bump into the flocking Featherheads, or encounter the hairy scary Rhinocerbikers, or shake hands with the sinister Dr Scarifium! or be shook up by a Space Ghost!

The audio series is produced by Clare Eden who was one of the brains behind the Doctor Who spin-off drama The Minister of Chance. The series will be free to listen to but like the earlier series will make use of a crowdfunding campaign, which launches on Tuesday 24th March 2015, to help with production costs. Those making pledges will be able to own artwork, scripts and T-shirts, and even get to meet the cast.

The foursome are old friends having met whilst studying drama at University in Manchester. “50 years ago in March Alexei Leonov took the first ever walk in Space,” said Sophie. “I find it hilarious that I am now heading off to Space for adventures with Trev and Simon!”

For full details on Strangeness in Space and its Kickstarter campaign head over to www.strangenessinspace.com

The post Support Sophie Aldred’s New Project, Strangeness in Space appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

053 – The Ambassadors of Death

Steven Businovski 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.

…OF DEATH

*gunshot!*

This is the one with… Alien astronauts who can kill with a touch, UNIT helping British-manned missions to Mars, Liz Shaw getting captured and escaping and then captured again, conspiracies within conspiracies, and the Doctor going into space.

It is often said that Season 7 of Doctor Who, and The Ambassadors of Death arguably more than any other, most closely came to resemble James Bond. There are, after all, helicopters and space flights, murky layered conspiracies interspersed with elaborate shootouts in abandoned factories (Action by Havoc!), along with gadgets and gizmos created all too easily by impressive scientific minds.

Except it didn’t. Doctor Who doesn’t go James Bond here. We are instead watching something else, and part of that heady smell is due to an undeniable influence of Harry Seltzman’s The Ipcress File; a film that has previously here been referred to as inhabiting an altogether more rough and ready oeuvre than Broccoli’s overly stylised offerings. Its accompanying, slightly-contrasting top note, for anyone not familiar with ‘60s British spy-fi, is The Avengers; the long-running television show where a perfectly-dressed English gentleman is aided by a very able and glamorous young woman in foiling the improbable and outlandish plots of megalomaniacal conspirators. To labour all this perfumery nonsense slightly longer, a further British classic provides the strong base note in the form of the BBC’s 1953 The Quatermass Experiment, where astronauts thought lost to space return only to endanger the entire Earth.

Another key premise of Season 7, also largely abandoned in later Pertwee serials, is the temporal setting of this era as essentially ‘one minute into the future’. With a greater emphasis on science more so than fantasy, it’s a relatively ‘serious’ season, focussing on what perils may yet befall a 1970s audience in a version of a future both forward and potentially sideways in time where technology is pursued recklessly and without any heed given to humanity. It is somewhat ironic, then, that in this classic, now almost clichéd battle of head versus heart, it’s the alien Doctor who serves as the moral centre of events – particularly so as the Third Doctor’s character seems to be the most abrasive incarnation yet (at least until our own time).

From this milieu of militaristic spy-fi with a streak of charm mixed with apocalyptic science fiction with a strong moral core rises this neglected Doctor Who classic. Dark yet defiantly optimistic, The Ambassadors of Death is a series of memorable set-pieces and iconic series imagery than it is a perfectly-crafted story. Indeed, the blurred lines of authorship between David Whitaker, the show’s genius original script editor, who originally proposed the story for the Troughton-Hines-Padbury TARDIS team along lines closer to the original Quatermass serial, and extensive reworking by Malcolm Hulke, inter alia, for a more UNIT-defined era meant that the story could only ever have been a bit of a camel designed by a committee than a thoroughbred borne from the purest stock. It hardly matters – this is one beautiful camel, due in no small measure to the stylish directorial style of Michael Ferguson, who does action so well here as he did in The War Machines and will again in next season’s The Claws of Axos.

Chief amongst the strong visual kicks in this serial are the space-suited ambassadors. Never named, they silently and impassively stalk the narrative, appearing later in the piece than their titular billing may otherwise allow us to anticipate (as all the best monsters in the show do). Their advance upon British Space Centre later in the story is particularly memorable, killing the sentry on duty when their lethal charge is transmitted first from their hands, along the boom sparking all the way, and finally to their intended victim, who meets an agonising death (curiously, Max Faulkner’s character reappears at the gates in Episode Six, but it seems that this is a mistake and that the UNIT soldier was meant to die in Episode Four).

It’s tempting to consider Carrington’s well-meaning but doomed British-centricism as a metaphor for a certain institutionalised xenophobia against economic migration into the United Kingdom at a time when negotiations began concerning admittance to the European Economic Community.

The later meeting in space between their supposed leader and the Doctor is another key image from Ambassadors, with their peaceful natures at odds with a frankly eerie 1970 BBC visual effect incorporating venetian blinds that seems utterly more sinister and ‘other’ than a great deal of more sophisticated SFX seen in the series since. 

Cruelly, however, and echoing this season’s recurring tension between humans’ quest for material progress and the very qualities that best exemplify and ennoble us, the ambassadors are the victims of unscrupulous, vicious men. Quite how unscrupulous and vicious becomes apparent when Reegan, Carrington’s off-sider in the conspiracy and, it later emerges, leading a conspiracy of his own whereby he plans to use the ambassadors for his own criminal ends, arranges the abduction of these aliens for his own purposes. He thinks nothing of killing the soldiers and scientists whom Carrington had previously stationed in their secret laboratory so as to ensure the vital supply of radiation to the ambassadors.

The ‘burying’ of these bodies under mounds callously heaped upon their still forms by Reegan at a vast gravel pit on a miserable, rainy day that is accentuated by the black and white print of this episode is a narrative detour that is allowed for by virtue of this being a seven-episode adventure. We are also treated to the entirely unnecessary but altogether gratifying moment of Reegan changing his van’s licence plates and lettering – which is admittedly very Goldfinger - all at the press of a button so as to further suggest the story’s near-future setting.  The result is that Reegan is allowed to inhabit the true central villain role far more effectively than he would otherwise have been thumbnail-sketched over four episodes. 

Carrington, the treacherous general who leads this conspiracy and played so well by John Abineri, is the head of the newly-formed Space Security Department and himself a returned Mars Probe astronaut. By direct contrast to Reegan, his motivations stem from his experience on Mars, where his fellow astronaut, Jim Daniels, was accidentally killed by the same aliens who were unaware that their touch was lethal to humans. 

Carrington’s intentions are couched in a ‘moral duty’, as he is later unreticent to make clear to anybody who will listen, that compels him to act in order that he may save the world from an external threat that, alas, does not exist. It’s tempting to consider Carrington’s well-meaning but doomed British-centricism as a metaphor for a certain institutionalised xenophobia against economic migration into the United Kingdom at a time when negotiations began concerning admittance to the European Economic Community, particularly as he conspires with that other symbol of government, Minister for Technology Sir James Quinlan (who is killed so memorably in his office by an ambassador at the end of Episode Four, played by Dallas Cavell).

The “What is the capital of Australia?”, “How many beans make five?”, and “Right, cut it open!” lines that provide Episode Two’s cliffhanger (now complete with sting) is an early and memorable ‘hero’ moment for the Third Doctor, taking charge of a situation already out of hand.

(Incidentally, and for the interest of the football fans amongst us – yes, we can be fans of both – the ‘Little England’ theme can also be seen to be obliquely reinforced through the astronauts, Van Lyden, Michaels, and Lefee, who watch what they believe is England play in an international match while they wait hypnotised in extended quarantine. England are initially 0-1 down in this fictional match, before scoring an equaliser. It should be remembered that England were holders going into the 1970 Mexico World Cup, which is still a few months away from kicking off. It is to be English football’s last moment as the dominant force on Earth. In the quarter final match against West Germany, England go 2-0 up before Sir Alf Ramsey substitutes Bobby Charlton in his last match for his country before going out 3-2. It’s a powerfully symbolic moment in time, and England must wait another 30 years before beating Germany again, while the wait for the next international cup triumph continues to this day. Up until this time, it mustn’t be forgotten, the audience at home has never, ever seen a German side beat England…)

A note, also, on some of the legion of characters that populate this story. Robert Cawdon’s wonderfully baleful Taltalian is always enjoyable to watch, in spite – or perhaps because – of that obviously fake French accent, while Ronald Allen is the wonderfully Jeff Tracy-like Professor Ralph Cornish trying to hold it all together back at ground control. The UNIT regulars aren’t so regular yet, with the Brigadier given to do whatever the Doctor demands, while Sergeant Benton is pushed well into the background (a result of John Levene not having yet been entirely conferred ‘series regular’ status), but bizarrely failing – intentionally or not – to adequately lock a cell door before later carting Carrington away at the end of the serial.

Criminally, Liz Shaw is wasted as the perpetually escaping and recaptured assistant, although Caroline Johns always performs well throughout regardless. Her scenes with fellow-scientist Lennox (Cyril Shaps, everyone!) hint at the kinds of ‘ethics of science’ conversations she may otherwise have more regularly had with the Doctor had the role of Professor Elizabeth Shaw been better realised. (Geoffrey Beevers, later to play The Master but already married to Caroline John, is also present, but blink and you’ll miss him as Private Johnson.) 

All this, together with Dudley Simpson’s perfect score throughout (at times utterly menacing and at others more suited to an act appearing on Louis Balfour’s Jazz Club, via The Fast Show), we cannot help but put us in mind of Ipcress; a story involving a conspiracy between a rogue senior army officer who heads up a hush-hush unit, and a self-serving, freelance criminal looking to make illicit financial gain from the abduction of very valuable people.

On a more personal level, however, it is Pertwee who, through a handful of scenes, is more synonymous with the serial in my memory’s eye than anything else, save the ambassadors themselves.  The “What is the capital of Australia?”, “How many beans make five?”, and “Right, cut it open!” lines that provide Episode Two’s cliffhanger (now complete with sting) is an early and memorable ‘hero’ moment for the Third Doctor, taking charge of a situation already out of hand. In doing so, it ranks alongside Hartnell staring down a War Machine, cloak billowing behind him, and Troughton insisting in The Moonbase that there are terrible evils from the darkest corners of the universe that must be fought.

The Doctor’s single-handed recapture of Recovery 7 earlier in the same episode, where he activates Bessie’s sadly forgotten anti-theft device, is another, but the Bowie-esque rocket sequence, with Pertwee as Major Tom sitting in his tin can, gurning against the G force, is the real film clip moment in the story. Space seems so adventurous and exciting to us as children, but I distinctly remember this scene – along with Space Oddity that came with my increasing love for the Thin White Duke – beginning to hint to my young mind that hadn’t quite yet twigged to the fact that it’s also a place that’s incredibly lonely, dangerous, and very far from the safeties of an after-school television show and its Target novelisations.

The story’s resolution is also a perfectly Doctor-ish moment, and detractors from the Pertwee era who cite that our hero’s willing collaboration with the military, a mechanism of violence, as a significant argument against the merits of this era in the show’s history would do well to see how the climax is handled in the expert pacifist hands of Hulke. The Doctor here, unlike the ending to Doctor Who and The Silurians, works with UNIT towards a peaceful resolution, politely asking the Ambassadors to not touch anyone in Episode Seven as they storm in to retake Space Control while equally imploring Carrington’s men to not come into contact with the astronauts in return. In the end, the baddies are gaoled and the peaceful aliens are allowed on their way.

The Ambassadors of Death is the second to last story of Season 7, and of its kind. After it, we essentially leave Doomwatch in favour of Sherlock Holmes. That isn’t to say, however, that this narrative experiment was a total failure, and that we inevitably had to track back from an evolutionary blind alley in telling Doctor Who stories (despite the fact that spy-fi as a genre had largely spent its course in popular culture by the late ‘60s, let alone the early ‘70s).

Doctor Who could well have continued in the spirit of gritty seven parters of this ilk; in fact, we get just that with The Mind of Evil the following year (albeit with one less episode and as more of a throw-back than a glimpse of things to come). Rather, the fact that it left this tact behind acts as a testament to the sagacity and implicit understanding of the show’s stagecraft exercised by the script editor and producer team of Terrance Dicks and Barry Letts, who were able to tell a season worth of stories like this one before recognising that it was time to move on. 

In that regard, Ambassadors – like the bright but brief burning white heat of ‘60s British spy-fi – is a perfect reflection of what Doctor Who was then, and may even be in some parallel version of our universe (though more on that in the next column of Doctor Who @ 50)… but is no longer.

Soon the cold, harsh pseudo-futuristic dystopian scientism of Season 7 will give way to a more folksy and familial fantasy that feels very contemporaneous with its early ‘70s production, and the mechanical hum of British Space Control’s manned missions to Mars will be replaced by the earthy feel underfoot of a patchy village green on the outskirts of Tarminster, where Rossini’s Circus and an other-worldly visitor come to town – but that’s another story altogether… 

It seems that it really is true that any story can be a Doctor Who story, and this one of Quatermass, The Avengers and The Ipcress File meets Doctor Who and UNIT both serves to prove it as it simultaneously leaves the tapestry richer for having been told.

The post 053 – The Ambassadors of Death appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

The Underwater Menace DVD “Removed From Schedule”

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.

Oh dear. What’s happening here then? It appears that The Underwater Menace may not be released on DVD this year after all!

After a second episode was discovered in 2011 (!), The Underwater Menace was supposedly due for release on DVD last year before being bumped onto this year’s schedule. But according to the BBC DVD Enquiry Line, it’s been removed from the 2015 schedule too! The BBC Consumer Products department have since released this statement:

“We appreciate that some Doctor Who fans are disappointed that we have not yet been able to release The Underwater Menace on DVD. We would like to reassure everyone that we are currently reviewing the best way to bring fans more Classic Doctor Who titles. Please bear with us – we’ll let you know more as soon as we can.”

The Classic Doctor Who DVD range ended more than a year ago now, concluding with The Web of Fear in February 2014. But Anneke Wills, who played companion Polly Wright in the serial, recently showed her frustration on Facebook.

Further annoyances came last year: despite the trailer for the Second Doctor adventure appearing on the DVD of The Moonbase, the restoration team admitted that, to them, the range appeared pretty dead; and secondly, while fans expected the remaining two lost episodes to be animated, it now looks likely that that’s not happening either…

At the time of writing, the petition to BBC Worldwide asking for The Underwater Menace‘s release has reached over 1,650 signatures. Right now, it’s probably the best we can do for now.

C’mon, Beeb. Stop all this hassle and give us what we’ve waited patiently for!

(Thanks to Chris McAleer.)

The post The Underwater Menace DVD “Removed From Schedule” appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Even More Doctor Who: Ninth Doctor #1 Variant Covers Unveiled

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.

If you’re a regular reader, you cannot have failed to notice that a new Cavan Scott-scripted five-part mini-series from Titan Comics will feature the Ninth Doctor, Rose Tyler and Captain Jack Harkness, scheduled for release on April 1st.

We’ve already given you a preview of the first issue with the help of Cavan himself, and offered you a collection of variant covers, not once but twice!

And it just so happens that more are available! First up, we have the American Dream Comics variant, with cover by Brian Williamson & Luis Guerrero.

For more information visit American Dream Comics www.americandreamcomics.co.uk. The Fan Expo variant, meanwhile, can be seen below and will be availablt at:

Toronto Comi Con – March 20/21/22

Fan Expo Vancouver – April 3/4/5

Orlando Mega Con – April 10/11/12

Fan Expo Regina – April 25/26

Fan Expo Dallas – May 29/30/31

Another variant can be found in the shape of the Pop Culture Paradise version, which can be ordered online.

 

Finally, our favourite, the Comics To Astonish store variant by artist Mariano Laclaustra

We make that something like 20 variants now, and unless you’re particularly well off, you’ll probably not be collecting them all. But if you just want a single copy, head to your local comic store and reserve your copy. UK readers can order their copy of Doctor Who: The Ninth Doctor #1 from Forbidden Planet.

The post Even More Doctor Who: Ninth Doctor #1 Variant Covers Unveiled appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Lost Records, Domain Names & Lindalee Snubs Robb Stark for Clara!

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.

Welcome to a packed News Blast, featuring more news than you can cram into the Fourth Doctor’s pockets! World records broken! Domain name crisis! It’s all here in the fantastic Kasterborous News Blast!

CSI Trumps The Doctor

First up, news that Doctor Who’s record for the world’s largest simulcast, set in 2013 by The Day of the Doctor, has been beaten by CSI. The US drama, which has seemingly had more incarnations than the Doctor himself, has been officially recognised by Guinness for the March 4th 2015 showing in 171 countries of the episode which launched the latest version of the franchise CSI: Cyber (almost sounds like a Doctor Who crossover…) starring Patricia Arquette.

Back in its 50th anniversary year Doctor Who ‘only’ managed to reach 94 countries. Ah well, records are there to be broken, and just ten short years ago the idea of the programme achieving a record for this kind of thing would have been impossible…

Frost Gets Capaldi Giggling

Nick Frost has spoken of his joy at landing the plum pudding role (sorry…) of Father Christmas in last year’s Doctor Who seasonal special and revealed how he would make the leading man laugh at inopportune moments on set. In a brief chat with The Daily Nexus he says, “I worked out what his little funny bone was, and then it was really easy just to keep making him laugh all the time. Which was great, because there were a few scenes where we just couldn’t get through it, and we had to end up shooting bits kind of separately because we were laughing so much.” Tsk, these comedians!

Abzorbaloff Hits Blackpool

Fans of Peter Kay won’t want to miss the Abzorbaloff actor’s launch of his new series Car Share at Blackpool Opera House later this month. The BBC series, his first in eleven years, sees him star with Sian Gibson as colleagues forced to share their journey to work every day. In a sign of the rapidly changing broadcasting landscape the series will debut online before a showing on BBC1 at a later date in April.

The original date of Saturday 28th March having sold out, a second has been added on Friday March 27th with all proceeds going to the Derian House Children’s Hospice.

The Doctor’s Domain Name Trouble

Fans of Doctor Who thinking of launching websites incorporating the name of their favourite show will perhaps have to think again with the news that ICANN, the body which oversees allocation of domain names, has decreed that all ‘dot-doctor’ domains must be held by “legitimate medical practitioners” only, thus ruling out any .doctor sites held by anyone who hasn’t taken the Hippocratic Oath. This news has, as you’d probably expect, not gone down without some controversy, with start-up company Donuts arguing that it’s unfair. “If this edict is allowed to stand, ‘doctors’ of all stripes – except for those ICANN finds worthy – would be frozen out of a useful gTLD,” says the company’s Jon Nevett.

Jenna Surprises Lindalee!

If anyone was looking for confirmation that six year olds prefer Doctor Who to Game of Thrones it has now officially been provided with this clip which shows roving pint-sized reporter Lindalee swiftly losing interest in Richard Madden when she catches sight of his girlfriend Jenna Coleman at the premiers of new Disney movie Cinderella. He may be playing Prince Charming but that’s clearly no match for Clara Oswald…

Awww!

The post appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.