Christian Cawley's Blog, page 135

Get Ready for Dark Eyes 4 With A New Trailer from Big Finish

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.

The concluding fourth installment of the Dark Eyes series is scheduled for release in March, and Big Finish has today released a trailer to tempt and tease you with this latest Eighth Doctor series, starring Paul McGann, with Nicola Walker as Liv Chenka.

As with the previous sets, Dark Eyes 4 is a four part serial, written by John Dorney and Matt Fitton.

4.1 A Life in the Day by John Dorney

The Doctor and Liv return to post-World War I London, where the Doctor meets Kitty Donaldson, and Liv strikes a friendship with her brother Martin. But what mysterious force is hunting them?

4.2 The Monster of Montmartre by Matt Fitton

The Doctor and Liv’s investigations bring them to Paris, where a monster stalks the streets.

4.3 Master of the Daleks by John Dorney

The Master and the Dalek Time Controller have forged an alliance. History hangs in the balance, and this time the Doctor can’t help…

4.4 Eye of Darkness by Matt Fitton

It’s the endgame. Truths will be revealed, and a hero will make the ultimate sacrifice.

Dark Eyes 4 stars Paul McGann as the Doctor, Nicola Walker as companion Liv Chenka and Alex Macqueen as the Master.

Also appearing are Barnaby Kay (Martin Donaldson), Rachel Stirling (you will recall her from The Crimson Terror back in 2013, and she appears here as Adelaine Dutemps), Sorcha Cusack (Mary), Dan Starkey (The Sontarans, obviously), Susannah Harker (Anya), David Sibley (The Eminence), Beth Chalmers (Kitty Donaldson), Charlie Norfolk (The Woman), Derek Hutchinson (Usher), Alex Wyndham (Thug), Blake Ritson (Barman), Camilla Power (Receptionist/Mademoiselle), John Dorney (Android), with – of course – Nicholas Briggs (The Daleks).

Of course, all good things must come to an end, and Dark Eyes 4 marks the end of the Dark Eyes series which first launched in 2012 and co-starred Ruth Bradley (Primeval), Peter Egan and Toby Jones (Series 5’s Dream Lord).

Head to the Big Finish website to enjoy the trailer now, and watch out for our review in the next few weeks.

The post Get Ready for Dark Eyes 4 With A New Trailer from Big Finish appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Reviewed: Contradiction – The Interactive Murder Mystery Movie

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.

You may have seen mention here on Kasterborous, or within the audio ecstacy of the podKast, of Contradiction – The Interactive Murder Mystery Movie, a game for iPad (and shortly PC and Amazon Fire TV) which is essentially a polished, modern version of the old interactive movies seen on platforms like the 3DO and CDi around 20 years ago.

Starring John Guilor (he gave Hartnell-esque life to the First Doctor’s dialogue in The Day of the Doctor and the Planet of Giants DVD missing episode reconstruction), Paul Darrow (best known as Avon in Blake’s 7, but has links to Doctor Who through The Silurians and Timelash) and Rupert Booth (a one-time fan film Doctor, and guest with John Guilor on a recent podKast) Contradiction puts you in Booth’s shoes as Inspector Jenks, sent to follow up some leads in the suspicious death of a business training student in a remote village.

But is the course, run by a company called Atlas, everything is claims to be, and was Kate Vine actually murdered? It’s up to you to find out, interviewing the people of the village and those connected with Atlas, and friends of the victim. Using a very clever compare-and-connect interface to progress through the game unlocks the next set of clues for the people you’re interviewing, and of particular interest are Darrow and Guilor as Paul Rand and his son Ryan. That isn’t to say the rest of the cast aaren’t good, as they’re rather superb and play their supporting roles perfectly (Magnus Sinding as Atlas student Simon, incidentally, has an aspect of Matt Smith about him). It all falls together like an interactive Midsomer Murder, with shades of devilry and unpleasant business practices leaving a bad taste in the mouth despite the beautiful English scenery.

To be honest, I’ve been putting writing this review off. It’s not that the game is terribly hard (more of a satisfying challenge), or that I don’t want to come down with an honest review that upsets anyone connected with Kasterborous… it’s just that I’ve been struggling to finish it! I had initially intended to review the game after completion, but now I’m stuck again, at 93%, and I think it’s time I talked you into joining in with the frustration and admiration that comes in equal parts when playing Tim Follin’s superb interactive murder mystery game.

The fact is, Contradiction is a gaming experience that you really won’t forget. Getting around the village can be a little bit of a chore at times (but hey, it’s not like you’re actually doing the walking, is it?) and matching up the contradictory clues can take a while (two weeks at one point for my good wife and I), but the sheer quality of the production and the performances means that this isn’t a game to ignore. It’s sumptuous, and should you ever get bored of the visuals (unlikely) you can turn your attention to the audio landscapes created by Tim Follin to accompany the scenes and your thinking. Here’s a nice taster:

Really, we’d love to tell you more, go in-depth. However, this would spoil a superb game and that would be criminal.

Originally released at £7.99, Contradiction is now just £3.99 and is, importantly for these things, ad-free. There’s no casual element to the game, but it isn’t really a game as you probably understand it, so don’t worry about that. Instead, turn off the TV, switch on your iPad and forget about “Bubble Blasting Fruity Jewel With Friends”, or whatever, and invest your time in this gaming masterpiece.

The post Reviewed: Contradiction – The Interactive Murder Mystery Movie appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Cover Art for Death Match Starring Tom Baker & Louise Jameson Released!

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.

Heroic producers of Doctor Who audio adventures Big Finish have released the stunning cover art for April’s Fourth Doctor Adventures release, Death Match, in which the Doctor, Leela and K9 find themselves face to face with the Master…

Starring Tom Baker, Louise Jameson, John Leeson and with Geoffrey Beevers as the Master, the sysnopsis is intriguing…

The Death-Match is under new management. The Hunt Master’s Champion has been installed. All regular players are welcomed back to the Pursuit Lounge to observe the contest in luxurious surroundings. Privacy is assured. For this reason we ask our elite guests to abide by the strict security protocols. Please note, the house has no limits.

In the Gallery, your combatants can be observed on the orbiting Quarry Station. A purpose-built environment filled with deadly traps and hidden dangers. Prizes are offered for every kill, with bonuses for rogue elements. Only an elite hunter can survive the End-Game. Do you have a worthy champion? Kill or be killed: the only rule of the Death-Match…

Available for pre-order now, the story is out in April on CD and download. Meanwhile the full fourth series of The Fourth Doctor Adventures can be bought now at a special subscription price – don’t miss out. We’ll have a review of the adventure when it hits general release.

The post Cover Art for Death Match Starring Tom Baker & Louise Jameson Released! appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Buying In and Selling Out: Has Marketing Muzzled Our Hero?

Bar Nash-Williams 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.

Doctor Who belongs to us, all of us. Peter Capaldi says so.

In the world tour event in Rio he said the show belongs to us, the fans, and I am more than happy to belong to the show, as a supporter and advocate. But I’d hate to be described as a stakeholder in the Who Franchise. Yes, I own most of the DVDs, classic and 2005 onwards, and hope to get the rest in time. Yes, I own dozens of BF audios and would love hundreds more (when I’ve saved up!). Yes, I’m accumulating reference books about the show. But I can’t claim to be a real ‘Collector’ –  My house isn’t crammed with merchandise and memorabilia; I’ve never owned an action figure, comic, or target novelisation. But I appreciate those who do ‘buy into’ Who in that way. Can you remember saving up pocket money to buy your next ‘fix?’ I trust you Kasterborite collectors to compensate for my inadequacies on this in the comments below!

The belief that a shop in a hospital would make people feel happy and comfortable rang danger bells. Am I missing some subtle subtext?

The endless, inventive creativity of Who fans is another way of ‘buying in’ for free, as it were. I can’t hope to produce the sort of mini-films that grace YouTube and occasionally get their creators invited to work with the current Who team, but have been known to knit the odd TARDIS or build a snow dalek, and I’m working on a TARDIS to store the aforementioned DVDs etc.

Though far too shy for cosplay I am thrilled at the lengths people go to honour their favourites by making a not-fashion statement.  I have been encouraged by Peter Capaldi’s emphasis on making Who accessible to all, regardless of spending power. He chose his costume to be copyable in the playground without financial outlay: take your school tie off, shove your jacket back and stick your hands in your pockets. And carry a spoon. He resisted the offer of his own model sonic. I quote the Metro: “Commenting on the lack of new sonic screwdriver for Capaldi’s Doctor’, writer Gatiss quipped, ‘I amazed they’ve missed the marketing opportunity!’ To which Peter disagreed, ‘Well I think we should side step the marketing opportunities. I don’t think we should be too focused in that direction’.”

Selling Out

But is Who swept up in the trend to commercialise and commodify everything, whether we like it or not? Or worse still, has its relationship with the hugely successful marketing wing of the Sirius Cybernetics Corpo – sorry, BBC Worldwide – blunted its cutting edge?

Though New Earth is never going to be one of my favourites, it does at least criticise the lengths to which we will go to be not only healthy, but young, beautiful and ‘pure.’

Don’t ask about our R&D dept.

But I remember feeling uneasy when the Tenth Doctor complained that the hospital didn’t have a shop (the start of a running gag in NuWho).

Doctor: Nice place. But no shop downstairs. I’d have a shop. Not a big one, just a shop so people can shop.

Sister: This hospital is a place of healing.

Doctor: Well, a shop does some people a world of good. Not me, but other people.

I would have wanted a café where I could enjoy hospitality, have a cuppa and chat with folk. But the belief that a shop would make people feel happy and comfortable rang danger bells for me. Am I missing some subtle subtext here that providing a shop so that people can be consumers goes well with consuming people so richer people can be healthy?

Okay, perhaps I’m in an ever-shrinking minority, but I was influenced by Who in the 70s and 80s, when inhuman corporate power and body-horror commodification were all the rage. When thinking of people as ‘consumers’ let alone commodities to be consumed would have been anathema. Any government, corporation or political leader (human or alien) who treated people (human or alien) as means not ends engendered the Doctor’s wrath. The Savages:

‘They have discovered a way of extracting life’s force,’ explains the Doctor, ‘and absorbing it into themselves.’

‘Why the concern?’ Edal sneers. ‘They’re only savages.’

The Doctor is furious. ‘They’re men,’ he replies. ‘Human beings – like you and me.’

Their great progress has come at too high a price: “the sacrifice of even one soul is too great.”

Sometimes it’s a more visceral use of bodies, e.g. Revelation of the Daleks (the one that really blurs the lines between them and Cybermen) A rather different take on Spare Parts.

The Doctor: But did you bother to tell anyone they might be eating their own relatives?

Davros: Certainly not! That would have created what I believe is termed “consumer resistance.”

A Grotesque Abuse: Overlooked

Sadly, when they used the same idea in Death in Heaven there was so much emphasis on the relationship between Danny and Clara, and between Missy and the Doctor that there was no time to comment on the grotesque abuse of the dead. In Dark Water the Doctor dismissed it as a con trick, but not a moral outrage, or an unforgivable use of people as a means to an end. Maybe we’re meant to infer it, but I’d like to see the Doctor angry sometimes. Capaldi’s capacity for passionate, even dangerous emotion was shown in the console room when he discovered Missy’s lie, and felt his own loss. Why not direct some of that at the attitudes, systems and PTB that cause others such pain?

Matt Smith’s wonderful little speech in A Good Man Goes to War shows he can get angry, but only because they used his friends. Let’s see the Doctor get this animated on behalf of people he doesn’t even know.

NuWho‘s trope that everyone is important (A Christmas Carol) and that ‘ordinary’ people matter (Father’s Day) is all very nice, but where does it criticise the systems that treat people as labrats, surety, or dirt?

Regular Kasterborous commenter TheLazyWomble pointed out that Flatline showed a little social comment in the set-in-stone attitude of the supervisor to Rigsy and his peers. Even a trip in the TARDIS didn’t change him. The Doctor encouraged Rigsy in his artistic talent, but said nothing about his situation. Was the story’s critique of the system that creates an underclass, writes off the young unemployed, and is slow to investigate when their loved ones go missing overt enough for many to notice? I’m not advocating for the unsubtlety of The Creature from the Pit, but where’s the moral outrage, the stirring up of the oppressed to take a stance? At least in The Savages it is made clear that the underclass was created by the system, and is not their own fault.

‘You know, my dear, there’s something very satisfying in destroying something that’s evil, don’t you think?’

(The Savages)

Now I’ll admit that the general tenor of 70’s and 80’s Who was anti-establishment, anti-corporate power, and occasionally made Arthur Scargill look right-wing. Its unsophisticated forays into the mining dispute (Monster of Peladon), tax and debt (The Sunmakers) and the Thatcher government (The Happiness Patrol) are well-known. But to me, the particular political flavour is not important; it’s the freedom of the show to critique ANY social, political or cultural status quo that I fear is softened these days.

Perhaps how we feel about this depends on what we see as the threat in the status quo. I suggest that Who shows a clear progression on the commodification threat.

The Horror of Industrial Automation

In Spearhead from Space the threat they criticised was automation, mass-production, and the products turning on us – perfectly captured by this shot of the gun-toting Autons with price-labels still attached, huge adverts on the wall, and a typical shopping street behind them.

An extra models the Pertwee death pose! So that’s where he got the idea.

By Terror of the Autons one season later the threat was not so much the product as the undiscerning consumer who preferred plastic flowers to real ones, uncomfortable blow-up chairs, and troll-dolls that took ugly to new depths.

What are these going for on eBay?

But is NuWho leading any resistance to the threat of us becoming the product? Kasterborous’ recent discussion on Christopher Eccleston highlighted this issue for me: Alongside K’s usually temperate comments were opinions that people only become actors in order to be rich and famous, celebrities ‘owing’ us (!) and even in one comment, us ‘owning’ them! The replies championing CE’s freedom as an actor and human being were a relief, but the fact that a sector of Who fandom sees the world in terms of consumerism, commodification, and ownership of persons is worrying. Consider the Spoonheads: “walking wifi base station hoovering up data, or people.”

As though they’re the same thing.

The Doctor: Imagine that. Human souls trapped like flies in the World Wide Web, stuck for ever, crying out for help.

Clara: Isn’t that basically Twitter?

Does The Bells of St John do it for you, or was it too wrapped up in the humour, tech and CGI to pack any punch? Early Who might have been ham-fisted in its moral outrage and the clarion call to take a stand, but does new, glitzy, world-touring Who just expect us to laugh?

So, come back at me people; has Who sold out to consumer culture, or are there stories in modern who that remind us that a person’s value in society is more than just their power to buy, and what  we need to make us happy is not just ‘a little shop’?

The post Buying In and Selling Out: Has Marketing Muzzled Our Hero? appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Watch Lost in the Dark Dimension (If You Dare) On YouTube

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.

Lost in the Dark Dimension – also known as Into the Dark Dimension and more simply as The Dark Dimension – was a failed 30th anniversary production of Doctor Who which had an intrigueing storyline that restored the Fourth Doctor to glory as the lead character, killed the Seventh Doctor and made a mockery of the Third, Fifth and Sixth Doctors.

We’ve talked about this bizarre production, which was mounted by BBC Enterprises (later BBC Worldwide) rather than BBC One as a straight-to-video celebration, in at least one previous podKast (in which we concluded that actually, Doctor Who dodged a bullet) and you can get a feel as to why the celebratory episode was dropped by reading Jean-Marc Lofficier’s The Nth Doctor and the most recent edition of Richard Bignell’s Nothing at the End of the Lane.

There is something of the Holy Grail about this episode, and while Shada is the real “unfinished episode of Doctor Who” there is certainly a lot of interest from certain areas of fandom (mainly those left disappointed by The Dark Dimension‘s cancellation and subsequent replacement with Dimensions in Time). As a result there are several “reconstructed” versions of The Dark Dimension floating around, such as this animated effort, complete with (non genuine) voice actors, recently released in its entirety on YouTube (it is worth noting that Ian Levine has also done a version of The Dark Dimension, but this has so far been kept private).

If you dare, you can watch this version of The Dark Dimension below, split into four parts. Keep in mind that the episode was intended as a 60 minute one-off, intended to celebrate 30 years of Doctor Who. Forget the production values, you need to watch this within the context of Doctor Who‘s 30th anniversary, a celebration of a show no longer on air. Does Lost in the Dark Dimension do the show justice?

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Part 4:

Did you make it to the end? How do you feel about Lost in the Dark Dimension now?

(Featured image by hisi79)

The post Watch Lost in the Dark Dimension (If You Dare) On YouTube appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Time Trips Released March 5th

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.

Coming soon from BBC Books is Time Trips, a collection of Doctor Who shorts by a number of well-known writers.

Originally released in 2014 as a series of individual eBooks, the eight stories in Time Trips are brought together for the first time and include a brand new adventure concealed within the rather elaborate dust jacket by none other than Jenny T. Colgan (Dark Horizons).

Thee book features the stories:

The Death Pit by A.L. Kennedy (Fourth Doctor)
Into the Nowhere by Jenny T. Colgan (Eleventh Doctor)
Keeping up with the Joneses by Nick Harkaway (Tenth Doctor)
Salt of the Earth by Trudi Canavan (Third Doctor)
A Handful of Stardust by Jake Arnott (Sixth Doctor)
The Bog Warrior by Cecilia Ahern (Tenth Doctor)
The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Time Traveller by Joanne Harris (Third Doctor)
The Anti-Hero by Stella Duffy (Second Doctor)

#DoctorWho Time Trips out March 5th

A photo posted by Kasterborous (@kasterborousdw) on Feb 12, 2015 at 2:20am PST

Time Trips has an RRP of £20 and is released on March 5th, but you can of course order your copy from from Amazon, where it is listed for just £16.00. A Kindle version is available for £8.03.

The post Time Trips Released March 5th appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

5 Moments The Pacifist Doctor Indulges In The Rough Stuff

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 man who abhors violence, never carrying a gun.” So said Davros of the Doctor, highlighting one of those inherent character traits that marks him out from so many other heroes. Except for when it, er, doesn’t. Yes, there are plenty of times when the great pacifist is more than happy to use fists, firearms or whatever else comes to hand to get him out of a tight spot. Roll up your sleeves and join us as we present the Kasterborous guide to moments when the Doctor decided to get a bit tasty!

Boff With His Head

 

The First Doctor was a notoriously tricky customer. He often looked out for number one as much as he fought injustice, and you had the feeling that his galactic travels were more about satisfying his curiosity than righting wrongs. William Hartnell’s Doctor displayed his ruthless side, famously in his very first story when he covertly picked up a rock, clearly planning to stove in an injured caveman’s head to ensure he could make a quick getaway. His propensity for bashing people on the bonce was also seen in Guests of Madame Guillotine (episode two of The Reign of Terror) when, forced to join a road crew under duress, he uses a dirty great shovel to whack the foreman on the head (so hard it makes one of his workmates shut his eyes and wince). Making no effort to put his victim in the recovery position, the Doctor then coldly places a coin on his eye and wishes him a peaceful sleep (the foreman is snoring away, as people do on television when they’re out cold) before hitting the road again.

Violent Doctor rating: 4 out of 5. Never turn your back on the Doctor…

“Hai!”

The Doctor who was most able to look after himself when it came to unarmed combat was of course the Third, expert as he was in the art of Venusian aikido. Surely influenced by the glossy ITC dramas and James Bond films of the 1960s, Doctor Who’s production team decided they needed to shake things up to drag the show into the new decade, and what better way than giving the new incarnation a previously unseen skill which looked extremely cool? Legend has it that Terrance Dicks suggested aikido to mollify Barry Letts’s unease at having an aggressive Doctor on the grounds that it has no attacking moves, but for a trained expert the uses are varied: immobilisation; paralysing an opponent; joint locks, throws and kicks… but be wary of trying it on non-humanoids (Ogrons, Sontarans) as it may well not work.

Violent Doctor rating: 2 out of 5. Self-defence, your honour…

Boycie Takes A Beating

 

Scorby, played by John Challis of Only Fools and Horses fame, was undoubtedly a thug but by crikey he was made to pay for it. Harrison Chase’s henchman in The Seeds of Doom had to endure more than one duffing up at the hands of the Fourth Doctor. A blow to the guts is swiftly followed by a stool being brought down with some force to his head. As if that weren’t enough, on a separate occasion he receives another well-aimed blow from the Time Lord who proceeds to twist his neck in thoroughly dangerous fashion. Apologists will no doubt argue that it was some kind of Gallifreyan stun manoeuvre (Scorby is seen to get up straight away). Try getting that to stand up in court when you’re on an assault charge, I say. Old Scorby must have regretted ever getting up that morning.

Violent Doctor rating: 5 out of 5. At least he didn’t throttle him with his scarf, I suppose…

Acid Bath Murderer?

Okay, there’s a long-standing myth that the Sixth Doctor kills two guards by shoving them into a huge bath of acid in Vengeance on Varos. This misconception has since been quoted many times to illustrate how misjudged the characterisation of the Doctor was in that era, but in fact Old Sixie has been the victim of an injustice here. As the clip shows, the first guard gets dunked in when his rather jumpy mate is startled by the Doctor and unwittingly pushes him in. The second guard meets his end after a tussle with the Doctor but it’s actually the other guard who pulls him in to the bath. So there you go. The Doctor is not guilty. Admittedly the Doctor doesn’t exactly rush to assist the stricken men and his flippant ‘Forgive me if I don’t join you” as he departs hardly portrays him as full of compassion but he can at least be cleared of the most heinous charges.

Violent Doctor rating: 1 out of 5. Although you can’t help feeling that if any Doctor might have dumped someone into a bath of acid it would have been this one.

Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting

 

The Ninth Doctor was, depending on how you look at it, a troubled soul scarred by guilt or a moody Mancunian who you really didn’t want to get on the wrong side of. Witness his spitting venom at his greatest foe in Dalek, or the way he relishes picking up a huge gun (“Lock and load” he says, in full-on 1980s action movie mode) in the same episode. And what about his escape from the cell in Bad Wolf? Locked up with Captain Jack and Lynda-with-a-y, the Doctor decides there’s no time for messing about. Although it’s Jack who handles most of the rough stuff when it comes to overwhelming the guards (what is it with guards being made to suffer in Doctor Who?) the Doctor can clearly be seen shoving one man against the wall so hard he collapses. I hope that chap knew a good lawyer…

Violent Doctor rating: 3 out of 5. The Doctor, believing Rose had just been killed, would surely have pleaded temporary insanity. Good luck with that one, Doc…

 

We’ve barely scratched the surface here, of course, and there’s no shortage of moments when the Doctor compromises his non-violent principles. Which are your nominations? Let us know!

The post 5 Moments The Pacifist Doctor Indulges In The Rough Stuff appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Big Finish’s 50th Anniversary Adventure in APA Award Nominations

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.

We’ve made not attempt to disguise our affection for Big Finish here at Kasterborous, and with good reason. Regardless of the property, Nicholas Briggs and company produce compelling audio releases. While I’m sure that they do what they do for the love of stories and the fans that love those stories, it must certainly be nice to have professional recognition from time to time. Today, we bring news of just that. The Audio Publishers Association (APA) have just released the final nominations for the 20th Annual Audie Awards and Big Finish has made the short list in a couple different categories!

The first of which is the nomination for Package Design and a release most Whovians will be familiar with has been nominated.

That’s right, dear readers, Big Finish’s contribution for Doctor Who‘s 50th anniversary, Doctor Who: The  Light at the End, has been chosen as a finalist for the stylish design and detail that went into the CD (pictured above) and Vinyl editions of the release, courtesy of the uber talented Alex Mallinson. Being the only Who-related nomination this year, let us keep our fingers crossed, shall we?

While I did say there isn’t any other Doctor Who releases in the nominations, there is still another Big Finish genre release up for an Audie!

While it isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when I hear the title, The Avengers, Big Finish scored another nod in the category of Thriller/Suspense for The Avengers, Lost Episodes Vol 1: Hot Snow! Again, we’ll be rooting for Big Finish in this category as well!

The 2015 Audies will be presented in New York City on May 28th. We’ll be sure to pass along the results and good tidings should Big Finish take one or both awards. You can view the whole list of nominees here.

What say you, fellow Kasterborites? Are these the nominees that best represent Big Finish in these categories? Or would you have rather a different release been chosen in their stead? Let us know!

The post Big Finish’s 50th Anniversary Adventure in APA Award Nominations appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Doctor Who Meets The Rat Pack in The Twelfth Doctor #9!

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.

The Doctor and Clara are hitting Las Vegas in the new story beginning in The Twelfth Doctor #9, by writer Robbie Morrison and artist Brian Williamson!

Released on June 3rd 2015, naturally little is being given away at this early stage.

Will the Doctor’s morals prove as alien as the unearthly invaders – or can he triumph without compromise… in ‘GANGLAND’?

The comic sees the begining of a brand new story arc, Gangland, which promises to be “the Godfather of Doctor Who stories”.

Two covers are available. Cover A: Regular Cover: Brian Williamson (Order code: MAR151539) and Cover B: Photo Variant (Order code: MAR151540).

Naturally we’ll have more details about Gangland as and when Titan Comics release them…

The post Doctor Who Meets The Rat Pack in The Twelfth Doctor #9! appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

048 The Seeds of Death

Ewan Moore 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.

Brace yourselves guys, The Seeds of Death takes Troughton era Doctor Who to new levels with… a base under siege story. Of course, this isn’t really a bad thing, and it’s far from the worst of its kind. However, great character work and genuinely interesting concepts are ultimately undermined by some glaring plot holes, and a lack of any real depth.

We’re offered an intriguing glimpse into not so distant future: It’s the end of the 21st century, and the human race has developed a swanky new mode of transport called “T-Mat”, which allows people to travel instantly between any T-Mat booths on Earth. As a result of this great invention, manned space exploration has ceased, and the human race pretty much rely solely on this new way of getting from A to B. It’s certainly a cynical view to assume that just because the human race developed a great way to get around on Earth, they’d stop trying to explore space. I for one don’t really buy into it, but it’s the way it has to be for the rest of the story to work.

At any rate, it isn’t long before things start to go pear shaped and a vital T-Mat relay station on the moon breaks down. Naturally, this disaster is courtesy of some alien bad guys in the form of the Ice Warriors, marking their second ever appearance in Doctor Who. Sadly, as far as I’m concerned it wasn’t till season nine’s The Curse of Peladon that the Ice Warriors became truly interesting characters when they were depicted as a noble warrior race with an intriguing moral code. Here, they’re just your standard B Movie alien with trippy death rays and a vague plan to destroy the Earth. We’re told their world is dying, and some kind of attempt at negotiation or reasoning from the Doctor could have given them a much more engaging story (just look at The Silurians for proof). Sadly, the Doctor is happy to fight them without much questioning. Not at all like the Doctor we know and love, but hey, we all make mistakes when we’re young.

After seeing the newer Doctors gleefully pilot the TARDIS down busy highways and manage short trips with ease, it’s refreshing to see a younger Doctor (relatively speaking) who still doesn’t really know how to fly his own spaceship.

And while the Ice Warriors are indeed one dimensional brutes, they’re undeniably well designed brutes (minus those LEGO hands). It’s little wonder that when they were brought back for Matt Smith’s seventh season, very little had changed in the basic design. A testament to the ingenuity of the production team (as it was with the likes of the Zygons and the Daleks). Those memorable raspy voices still leave a chill, and the fact that they nonchalantly bump off most of the crew on the Moonbase establish them as a cold hearted (heh) threat that aren’t to be messed with.

the Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe make their appearance a little after the necessary backstory  for the serial is established . They arrive on Earth in a private museum dedicated to the forgotten art of space travel, because rule one of Classic Who is that our heroes must take at least an episode to get to the action. Here, they meet the Hartnelleque Professor Daniel Eldred, who has a hatred of the T-Mat because it caused space rockets (his favourite thing) to become obsolete. One of the best, and most Doctorish scenes from this story comes when the Doctor manages to disarm the initially wary Professor by engaging him in a passionate chat about rockets. Troughton conveys a genuine glee as the Doctor to be having a little geek out session with the professor, while Zoe and Jamie stand in the background looking bored. It makes for a really lovely moment.

It’s not long before T-Mat bigwigs Commander Ragnor (not a great person) and Miss Kelly (a really great person) come to the Professor to ask to borrow a rocket so that they can reach the moon and fix the T-Mat, (blissfully unaware of the Ice Warriors up there, naturally) and of course they casually enlist the Doctor, a man they have never met before… to pilot this rocket… to the moon. I’ve seen other reviews that take umbrage with this point, but let’s be honest; if this kind of thing is ever going to happen to anyone, it’s gonna happen to the Doctor.

All too often in Doctor Who will we see a traitor or morally ambiguous character suddenly turn good with little to no motivation, but Seeds makes it believable and complex.

Helpfully, the script establishes that they can’t just use the TARDIS to nip to moon, because back in those days it was a well known fact that the Doctor was rubbish at flying his old girl. After seeing the newer Doctors gleefully pilot the TARDIS down busy highways and manage short trips with ease, it’s refreshing to see a younger Doctor (relatively speaking) who still doesn’t really know how to fly his own spaceship. “The TARDIS can’t manage short trips” As the Doctor continued to insist back in those days. Sure, Doctor… it’s the TARDIS’ fault.

Once the Doctor and co. reach the moon, we get properly into the standard Base Under Siege stuff. The Ice Warriors plan does little to change up the pace. While their lovely, foamy seeds of death make for an interesting break from the usual invasion tactics, the fact the foam can be neutralised by water makes our Martian friends look just a bit thick. Seriously, you’d have to assume they researched Earth before they decided to invade it, and even if they hadn’t, you can see from the Moon that there is clearly a lot more water than there is land… Perhaps the Ice Warriors are colour blind and thought all that blue stuff was land… It’s doubtful though.

But like I said, it’s the little things that make this story memorable. The Doctor gets to be sneaky, funny, frightened, and even ruthless. While he isn’t quite as essential to the story as one might like, it’s always good to see the Doctor have a range of stuff to do, and Troughton nails it all. Obviously, he’s fantastic. There are loads of great character moments scattered throughout that hold this otherwise flawed tale together: Controller Osgood’s heroic moment of defiance in the first episode, as he sabotages the Ice Warriors plans at the cost of his own life, and the panicky turncoat Fewsham’s gradual arc from snivelling coward to someone who realises he messed up badly, and tries to put it right. All too often in Doctor Who will we see a traitor or morally ambiguous character suddenly turn good with little to no motivation, and Seeds makes it believable and complex.

The Ice Warriors are suitably creepy enough to make you forgive their ridiculous plan; it’s undoubtedly in the little moments that this serial ultimately shines.

“Women” Jamie tuts depreciatingly to Zoe at one point. We’re not sure what he’s on about though, as besides the Doctor, Zoe and Miss Kelly are easily the most capable, intelligent and resourceful characters in The Seeds of Death. Actually, you know what? Scratch that. Zoe and Miss Kelly are more capable than even the Doctor, remaining cool headed and collected while everyone around them falls apart. It’s a great example of how to write a fantastic female character, and even more impressive considering the general representation of women in science fiction at that time. What we wouldn’t have given to have seen more of Miss Kelly as a companion in the TARDIS…

The Seeds of Death (awesome name for a metal band, by the way) might not be the most accomplished story to come out of the Troughton Era, but the monsters are suitably creepy enough to make you forgive their ridiculous plan, and the fully realised supporting characters help make a largely flawed premise come together. It’s undoubtedly in the little moments that this serial ultimately shines.

The post 048 The Seeds of Death appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.