Christian Cawley's Blog, page 136

Unmissable February Doctor Who Releases from Big Finish

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.

February is often known as the month of love, what with Valentine’s Day coming this weekend. With that thought in mind, there’s a lot to love when it comes to Big Finish’s Doctor Who selections this month: a follow up to a Fourth Doctor adventure, the second part of the new E-Space trilogy, and a new short story featuring the Second Doctor. Whether your looking for a gift for a beloved Whovian or an opportunity to treat yourself, this trio is an excellent place to start. Let’s take a closer look, shall we?

Doctor Who: Mistfall

We recently ran an article that touched on Andrew Smith’s thoughts on writing a follow-up to his Fourth Doctor serial, Full Circle, for Big Finish. The end of January saw the release of that adventure, Mistfall, which not only features a return to E-Space, but the return of the Marshmen:

“Drawn off-course, the TARDIS passes through a CVE into a closed universe – a hugely improbable event with a tragically obvious cause. In order to escape inescapable E-Space, the Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Turlough are forced to venture in the wilds of planet Alzarius. But they’re not the only unwanted visitors to this strange world. A Starliner has landed, captained by Decider Merrion – but why would Merrion risk rousing the Planet that Slept, and the monsters in its marshes? Mistfall is coming. The Marshmen are coming. But while Nyssa and Turlough find themselves caught in the open, in the hands of fanatics who model themselves on the legendary Outlers, the Doctor and Tegan discover that the supposedly secure Starliner affords them no protection from monsters both within and without…”

Mistfall is available for purchase now. Our review of this first chapter of the new E-Space Trilogy is forthcoming, so be on the lookout for that, dear reader!

Doctor Who: Equilibrium

While I admit that mentioning Mistfall may have been cheating a bit (as it did technically release last month), February’s main range release, Doctor Who: Equilibrium, is fair game. This adventure continues the new E-Space Trilogy and here’s an idea of what the Doctor and companions are up against:

“Still looking for a way out of E-Space, the TARDIS crashes to Isenfel – a realm of snow and ice. Snarling beasts stalk the frozen plains, a feisty princess leads the hunt, and a queen in an ice palace rules over her loyal subjects. But this is no fairytale kingdom, and everyone in Isenfel knows the price of survival. While Nyssa and Tegan uncover deadly secrets hidden in the palace, Turlough flees for his life across the tundra. And as for the Doctor… he only ever wants to change things for the better. But in a world such as Isenfel, such a hope may not even be possible.”

It’s a generally known fact that you should never trust an ice queen. That being said, I am interested in finding out what revelations Isenfel brings forth (if it’s Idina Menzel singing, “Let It Go”, there will be hell to pay). Equilibrium is available now!

Doctor Who – Short Trips: Little Doctors

As much as I like Davison and his TARDIS crew, I think I am most looking forward to this second installment in the Short Trips range, Little Doctors. It’s not every day a Whovian gets a fresh Second Doctor adventure, featuring Jamie and Zoe to boot! The trio find themselves on an Earth colony and up against a controlling super computer:

“The TARDIS brings the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe to a sophisticated Earth colony. Olympos is a world of hi-tech cities, where the lives of the populace are controlled by an all-seeing, all-knowing super computer: Zeus. When the Doctor sees how the human inhabitants have been robbed of the more simple pleasures, he sets out to bring real life back to the colony. But his mental connection to Zeus has some unexpected consequences…”

This release is narrated by Jamie himself, Frazer Hines, and should be a welcomed addition to fans of that era of Doctor Who. Little Doctors is also available for download now.

There you have, dear readers! Have any of these releases captured your interest? Have you already indulged in them? Let us know your thoughts below!

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Now Filming: Series 9 Block Two!

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.

It’s official! Filming for Block Two of Doctor Who Series 9 has begun!

All we know is what you can see above, courtesy of the BBC. As previously reported, Hettie MacDonald will be back in the director’s chair, the first Doctor Who serial she’s helmed since 2007’s fan-favourite, Blink. Since then, MacDonald has directed Wallander, Law & Order UK, and Marple, as well as Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case.

Block One, which commenced shooting at the start of this year, is likely to have featured a two-parter, possibly set on a Russian base, written by Toby Whithouse (Vampires of Venice; The God Complex) and directed by Being Human‘s Daniel O’Hara. Showrunner, Steven Moffat admitted that his scripts were still to be filmed (probably including Series 9 opener, The Magician’s Apprentice), so perhaps Hettie is paired with Moffat once again for this year’s run of stories.

Obviously, Series 9 sees the return of Peter Capaldi as the Twelfth Doctor and Jenna Coleman as Clara Oswald – and we’re yet to find out when it’ll air. Our money’s on September.

That photo above does bring to mind the Series 4 serial, The Sontaran Stratagem/ The Poison Sky. Could UNIT be making a comeback…?

Block Two began filming yesterday, and it’s unknown how many episodes it will comprise of.

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Harrop Figurines Tenth Doctor & TARDIS Look Amazing

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.

News continues to filter through about the new range of Doctor Who figurines, soon to be released by collectables specialist Harrop Figurines.

As we reported in July last year, designers have been hard at work sculpting various Doctors and monsters for the eagerly awaited launch of the range. The latest prototypes to be snapped are a Third/Fourth Doctor era TARDIS and a somewhat stern looking Tenth Doctor.

It’s difficult to go wrong with a good old fashioned police box, of course, although the news that this new version will also serve as a music box adds an interesting twist and will certainly provide a conversation topic when your neighbour pops by to borrow some sugar (what will it play do you suppose? Greensleeves?).

At first glance David Tennant’s likeness, complete with glowing eyes, looks almost creepy but it’s always difficult to judge these things properly before the fully painted version is available to view.

No news yet on a release date for the ceramic figurines, although the company’s limited edition pewter range which so far features a Cyberman (Revenge-era), the Fourth Doctor, Varga the Ice Warrior, a Silurian and a Sontaran are available now. With prices staring at over £100 they’re not exactly pocket money items but they will undoubtedly look rather splendid in any discerning fan’s display cabinet.

Harrop Figurines have certainly built up a considerable portfolio of items related to popular culture with Wallace and Gromit, Supermarionation, Beano and Dandy and Camberwick Green all having featured in their range. They clearly have high hopes for the new Doctor Who set and are certainly putting the hours in to get the detail right. Roll on the launch!

Are you tempted by this new ceramic Doctor Who figurines range? Let us know!

(Thanks to The DW Site.)

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Doctor Who Course In Stockport

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.

Historian, Michael Herbert will be teaching an 11-week evening class… about Doctor Who!

The course will cover the 51-year history of the show, from its creation in 1963 with William Hartnell at the controls of the TARDIS, through his regenerations, and examining the behind-the-scenes crew that shaped the programme, including Verity Lambert and Sydney Newman, Terrance Dicks and Barry Letts, John Nathan-Turner, Andrew Cartmel, and Russell T. Davies.

It’ll also look at why Doctor Who was cancelled in 1989 (hopefully encouraging the class to shake their fists in the air and shout, “Michael Grade…!”), as well as its return in 2005.

Naturally this sort of course wouldn’t be complete without watching some classic episodes from each Doctor’s tenure!

Michael Herbert has been watching Doctor Who since he was 8, so we reckon he knows his stuff – especially as he wrote the recent pamphlet, Doctor Who and the Communist: the television career of Malcolm Hulke, published last month by Five Leaves Press.

The class will take place at Aquinas College, Stockport, starting on 14th April 2015, from 6:30pm to 8:30pm.

“I am delighted to be presenting this course at Aquinas College,” Michael says. “I am hoping that viewers become fans of the programme since 2005 will come along and find more about the history of the programme. I also hope that viewers of my generation would like to revisit their memories of Doctor Who.”

This should be a popular course, so if you’re interested, contact Sheila Lahan at Aquinas College, Stockport, either by phone (0161 419 9163) or email sheila@aquinas.ac.uk.

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Interested? Doctor Who Audio Drama Looking for New Castings

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.

We here at the K are always on the looking for new and interesting takes on our favourite Doctor and his friends and foes. We love to hear and see all the creative ways fans make the Doctor their own. Today’s find is just such an endeavour!

The fan community 5WF (Five Who Fans) have produced a whole slate of their own audio adventures, called Aimless Wanderings, with their own takes on the Doctor: one who is quite pompous, one who is apologetic, one who is rather explosive – all qualities that the Doctor of official cannon has shown.

They are currently in production a a new story arc, War Of The Doctors, in which all of the Doctors have to work together to stop one of their own who has gone rogue.

Here’s the first part!

Doctor Who – War of The Doctors by 5WF

The third part of the story is currently in production, and while they have cast their man original role, they are always on the lookout for new voice talent to add to their stories.

Have you been told you have a face for radio? Then why don’t you drop the 5WF crew a line? If you’re interested in being considered, email them at contact@5wf.co.uk and they’ll let you know what roles they currently need to fill. They’ve got an ambitious schedule planned for this year so they might need some new voices!

Check out more of their audio dramas at AimlessWanderings.

(via Voice Acting Alliance)

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Vienna Series 2 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.

As Ultravox sang: Oooooh, Vienna! The second series of Vienna from Big Finish is out now.

Star Trek‘s Chase Masterson is back as glamourous bounty hunter, Vienna Salvatori, across three new stories in one weighty boxset. Co-starring Samantha Béart as Lieutenant Jexie Reagan, Harry Ditson as Chief Doran Curtis, and Dalek‘s John Schwab as Anders, here’s the official synopsis:

Tabula Rasa by James Goss

Ever woken up and can’t remember where you are? What if you couldn’t remember who you are? Or why there’s a dead body outside your door?

Vienna Salvatori is hunting for a killer – but can she be sure it’s not herself?

Underworld by Cavan Scott

Something bad is lurking down in the Undercity. Innocent citizens are turning on each other, baying for blood.

Vienna must team up with jaded cop Lieutenant Jexie Reagan. She’s never had a partner – but will either of them make it through the night alive?

The Vienna Experience by Jonathan Morris

Ever wanted to experience the life of an assassin? Longed to feel the thrill of the hunt? Now is your chance to get beneath the skin of Vienna Salvatori . See what she sees. Hear what she hears.

And pray she never finds out.

All three writers have much experience with Doctor Who: Goss is working on the adaptation of City of Death (out in May), Scott has written the upcoming Ninth Doctor comic series for Titan, and Morris is prolific in his work for Big Finish and the Doctor Who Magazine comic strip.

Vienna debuted in 2012’s The Shadow Heart opposite Sylvester McCoy’s Seventh Doctor, though Chase also appeared in the Fourth Doctor story, Night of the Stormcrow.

You can already pre-order the third series of Vienna, released February 2016, while Series 2 is available for £20 as a CD or as a download for £15!

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047 – The Krotons

docwhom 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 were growing a little weary of the repeated base-under-siege stories of the Troughton era, then The Krotons might have brought welcome relief by presenting us with a tremendously gullible race who believed without question and without evidence that it was dangerous outside just because they’d always been told so, until the Doctor and co arrived to disabuse them. It’s a real pity that this refreshing motif was never repeated in Doctor Who.

What The Krotons needs most from the viewer is patience: the patience to tolerate the race of people we see on this planet. It requires the tightest of photo-finishes to separate the Gonds from the Dulcians (The Dominators) when awarding the title of the dullest and blandest race in the Doctor Who universe. The Gonds’ struggle to overcome the domination of their Kroton overlords is nothing compared to the viewer’s struggle to care what happens to these people. I’ve dictated administrative memos with more histrionic verve than the Gond actors show in delivering their lines. Only two stand out from the crowd. Beta the scientist is at least given things to do. Head and shoulders above the rest is Philip (for it is he) Madoc and he isn’t even breaking a sweat. The mere stillness of his performance gives his character presence.

Possibly the sole interesting thing about the Gonds is that, if you reel off their names fast enough (selrisbetatharaeelekaxusabuvana), you get the same rhythm and number of syllables as when you say “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” which I suspect is no coincidence. Their names have been given as little thought as their characters.

However, if you apply the patience I’ve recommended, there’s much about The Krotons to enjoy. Everything brightens up as soon as the TARDIS crew arrive. Surely this is by far the most interesting  TARDIS crew of the Troughton era. There’s a simple way to ensure that female companions aren’t written as helpless idiots. Just give them a decent job right from the start (Barbara was a teacher, Liz was a scientist, Sarah was a freelance journalist, Zoe is a technological genius) and you create a glass floor of intelligence and competence below which it becomes very hard to write them. Alternatively, write Polly as a model and Jo as someone who only got into UNIT on nepotism after failing her exams and you’re asking for them to be written as useless screamers. By the time of The Krotons, Zoe has also had four stories in which to get rid of her rather irritating intellectual condescension towards Jamie. Now they’re starting to work well as a pairing, even taking alternate sentences during an explanation of something complicated.

Jamie almost takes on the stereotyped role of the female companion here, in that the Doctor assigns him the non-job of giving Vana her pills when she wakes up in order to keep him occupied while the competent members of the TARDIS crew go off to do something clever and exciting in tackling the teaching machines. Far from Zoe being the companion who needs to be picked up by a man when she sprains her ankle while running, here it’s the Doctor and Zoe who need to keep remembering that Jamie needs rescuing from danger. This makes for a great relationship between the trio as the writers are forced to give Zoe interesting things to do and say while Jamie’s appeal has always lain in his slightly naïve gung-ho (that’s English for creag-an-tuire) character which can almost write itself.

“The quality of the acting has always been what lifts Doctor Who above the sometimes dodgy effects so it can’t have been that difficult to get hold of some decent voice actors.”

It’s easy to dismiss the Krotons themselves as another unwieldy monster but some thought has been given to making them new and interesting beyond their costumes. If we ignore the directorial decision to shoot that one shot of them below what we assume is their waist, necessitating a silly skirt to cover the actor’s legs, then the realisation of the Krotons isn’t that bad. They are crystalline, after all. It’s a nice idea that the Krotons haven’t actually been around for the thousand-plus years that the Gonds have been dominated by them but have been dormant in their chemical tanks. Their presumed need to return to those tanks when they “exhaust” adds credibility to their urgency in capturing the Doctor and Zoe. Converting mental power into mechanical energy is another unusual idea which works well. The writer is even brave enough to make a virtue of the Krotons’ immobility by their requiring detailed directions when one of them leaves the Dynatrope. As repetitive as all the “radius 179 vector 5” and “direction point” can be, this also gives Jamie the chance to escape from the machine while one Kroton is busy guiding the other.

Their voices, however, cannot be excused. When the machine first addresses the Gonds (“this is a warning”), the booming voice is very effective and it’s disappointing when we discover it was the voice of the machine and that the Krotons themselves are Brummies. The quality of the acting has always been what lifts Doctor Who above the sometimes dodgy effects so it can’t have been that difficult to get hold of some decent voice actors.

Surprisingly for a Robert Holmes story, as a piece of drama, The Krotons isn’t up to much. Fundamentally dull characterisations, plot and script are enlivened by interesting ideas and by character moments from the TARDIS trio. The byplay between the Doctor and Zoe when he gets confused at the teaching machine and when they’re playing for time inside the Dynatrope is as good as any comedy in the Troughton era.

The Krotons isn’t as dire a story as its reputation would have you believe. It’s just that, when you contemplate the wealth of the Troughton era which has been lost to us, whoever decided that these four episodes merited keeping over, say, another two of The Invasion or even one of Power of the Daleks deserves an appointment with a Thuggee scarf.

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6 Extended Media Characters Who Became Doctor Who Canon

Barry Rice 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.

When Big Finish announced this week that Jemma Redgrave would return as Kate Stewart in a new UNIT audio series, it represented a historic new precedent — the first time a character from new series Doctor Who (or NuWho, as we’re keen to call it) would be allowed to be used in extended media. What you may not have realized, though, is that Kate Stewart already represented a rare case in Who-dom: she’s one of the few characters to actually originate in extended media and then become canonized by the show itself.

So let’s take a look at those few characters who’ve made the leap from fandom to canon, starting with Ms. Stewart herself:

Kate Stewart

Jemma Redgrave first appeared on-screen as the Brigadier’s daughter (and now head of scientific research at UNIT) in 2012’s The Power of Three. The character herself, though, goes back much further than that. In 1995, Reeltime Pictures produced a direct-to-video feature titled Downtime, which starred Nicholas Courtney, Elisabeth Sladen, and Deborah Watling in their Doctor Who roles of the Brigadier, Sarah Jane Smith, and Victoria Waterfield, respectively. The production was not licensed by the BBC, so there were no direct references to the Doctor himself. One new character, however, was the Brig’s young daughter Kate, here played by Beverley Cressman. The following year, author Gary Russell borrowed the character for a brief appearance in his Virgin Missing Adventure novel, The Scales of Injustice. Cressman returned to the role in 2004 for another unlicensed direct-to-DVD production from Reeltime titled Dæmos Rising. Since inheriting the role, Redgrave’s Kate Stewart has since reappeared in the the 50th anniversary special The Day of the Doctor and in the Series 8 finale, Death in Heaven. Now that the character is appearing in her own extended media Big Finish audio series, she’s essentially come full circle.

Professor Arthur Candy

At the very end of the Series 6 episode Let’s Kill Hitler, we see River Song applying to study at Luna University in the year 5123. When the professor conducting her admissions interview asks why she has an interest in archaeology, River famously responds, “I’m looking for a good man.” Well, the man sitting in front of her is Professor Arthur Candy, and he was actually created 15 years earlier by showrunner Steven Moffat. His short story Continuity Errors appeared in 1996’s “Decalog 3″ collection and was Moffat’s first professionally published Doctor Who story. In it, Professor Candy attempts to give a lecture about the many harmful effects the Doctor has had on history but is interrupted when the Seventh Doctor himself whisks the professor away in an attempt to prove otherwise. Paul Cornell then used the character in 1997 when he wrote Oh No It Isn’t, the first of Virgin’s Bernice Summerfield New Adventure novels. The following year, an audio adaptation of Oh No It Isn’t became the first commercial product ever released by Big Finish Productions, with Professor Candy voiced by James Campbell.

Coloured Daleks

“Coloured Daleks” sounds weirdly racist to me, but I’m not sure what else to call them. In the mid-sixties, when Doctor Who was loosely adapted into the Peter Cushing films Dr. Who and the Daleks (1965) and Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. (1966), many visual changes were made to accomodate the larger budget and the wider technicolour screen. The most notable change was that the formally black-and-white Daleks were now brightly coloured in hues of red, black, and blue. Those props were later purchased by the BBC and used on the classic show itself. Now, fast-forward to 2010 and Series Five’s Victory of the Daleks. Steven Moffat and writer Mark Gatiss attempted to reinvent the Daleks for Matt Smith’s newly minted Eleventh Doctor by introducing “The New Dalek Paradigm.” In contrast to the dark bronzed Daleks of the Russell T. Davies era, the new Daleks were taller and, like their big-screen predecessors, featured brightly coloured armor, this time in hues of red, blue, yellow, orange, and white. Fortunately, the redesign was widely reviled by the fanbase, and Series Seven’s Asylum of the Daleks put the rainbow Daleks out to pasture.

Human Nature

The eighth & ninth episodes of Doctor Who‘s Third Series are unique in that they not only bring in characters from extended media, but the entire story itself is actually an extended media adaptation. “Human Nature” originated as a 1995 Seventh Doctor novel, part of Virgin’s New Adventures line. Russell T. Davies was a fan of the story, and asked author Paul Cornell to adapt it for television. A few changes later and it became the two-parter Human Nature/The Family of Blood. The most notable character to make the leap from page to screen was nurse Joan Redfern, the love interest of John Smith (AKA the Doctor). Joining her in translation were young student Timothy Latimer (known in the book as Timothy Dean) and headmaster Mr. Rocastle.

Charley, C’rizz, Lucie, Tasmin, Molly

Okay, technically that’s five separate characters, but bear with me. In 2013, just prior to the release of the 50th anniversary story, The Day of the Doctor, fans were given a special treat: the on-screen return of the Eighth Doctor, as portrayed by Paul McGann. The mini-episode The Night of the Doctor featured the never-before-told story of the Eighth Doctor’s regeneration. Before succumbing to his injuries, the Doctor accepts a chalice of Elixir from the Sisterhood of Karn and declares that the universe no longer needs a Doctor. But just before drinking the potion that will transform him into John Hurt’s “War Doctor,” the Eighth Doctor pays tribute to his former companions: Charley, C’rizz, Lucie, Tasmin, and Molly. Since the Eighth Doctor’s only other on-screen appearance was The TV Movie in 1996, all of those companions were actually created by Big Finish for their Eighth Doctor audio series. In one fell swoop, Steven Moffat single-handedly made them all (and, arguably, the adventures in which they appeared) canon.

Abslom Daak

The Series 8 episode Time Heist featured the Twelfth Doctor and Clara conned into a mission to rob the ultra-secure Bank of Karabraxos. In one scene, a photo montage of the worst criminals in history is flashed on a computer screen, including Torchwood‘s John Hart, A Town Called Mercy‘s Kahler-Tek, The Sarah Jane Adventures‘ Androvax, and a black-and-white drawing of a man named Abslom Daak. Daak first appeared in a four-part comic strip for Doctor Who Weekly called (appropriately enough) “Abslom Daak… Dalek Killer.” A human from the 26th century, Daak was convicted of “twenty-three charges of murder, pillage, piracy, massacre and other crimes too horrible to bring to the public attention.” As punishment, he was given the choice of being vaporised or being exiled as a Dalek killer. Not surprisingly, Daak chose Dalek Killer. Armed with his trusty chainsword, the ruthless Abslom Daak has had several encounters with the Doctor over the years. Time Heist made him the first Doctor Who comic character to become canon.

Did I miss anyone? Which extended media character would like to see made canon?

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Titan Comics Ninth Doctor Mini Series Launches At London Super Comic Con!

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.

Titan Comics is set for a full Doctor Who takeover of London Super Comic Con on March 14 & 15 with the launch of the new Ninth Doctor mini series, panel and signings.

Writer Cavan Scott (Doctor Who: Ninth Doctor comics series), writer Al Ewing (Doctor Who: Eleventh Doctor comics series), Rachael Smith (Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor humour strip), Colin Bell (Doctor Who: The Twelfth Doctor humour strip), Mark Ellerby (Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor humour strip), series editor Andrew James and Titan Comics senior editor Steve White reveal exclusive secrets from this year’s Tenth, Eleventh and Twelfth Doctor comic story lines and show never-before-seen art and concept designs. Plus, go behind-the-scenes of the brand new Ninth Doctor mini series! More guests to be confirmed.

Perhaps most awesomely, every person who attends the panel will receive a special Doctor Who Comics poster and the chance to win cool Doctor Who merchandise!

Taking place in the London Super Comic Con Main Panel Room, Saturday March 14th 1.30-2.30pm, note that all signings will be held at Titan and Forbidden Planet Booth #D115- D121. Here’s the schedule:

 

DOCTOR WHO: THE NINTH DOCTOR #1

Date: Saturday March 14

Time: 2.45pm

Cavan Scott (Doctor Who: Ninth Doctor comics series) and artist Christian Ward will be signing copies of an exclusive Forbidden Planet/LSCC variant of Doctor Who: The Ninth Doctor issue #1.

DOCTOR WHO: THE ELEVENTH DOCTOR VOL 1

Date: Saturday 14 March

Time: 11.30-12.30

Writer Al Ewing will be signing advance copies of Doctor Who: Eleventh Doctor Vol. 1.

PORTFOLIO REVIEWS

Date: Saturday March 14

Time: 11.30am

Titan Comics editor David Leach will be available to review your portfolio.

 

Can’t make the show? You can pre-order a signed copy of Doctor Who: The Ninth Doctor #1 Forbidden Planet/LSCC variant by Cavan Scott and Christian Ward from Forbidden Planet.

The post Titan Comics Ninth Doctor Mini Series Launches At London Super Comic Con! appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

046 – The Invasion

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.

The Invasion. The definitive article, you might say….

Which one is this again?

The Brigadier, Benton, and U.N.I.T. appear for the first time
Tobias Vaughn makes a deadly pact with one of the show’s greatest monsters
Cybermen emerge from London‘s sewers and down the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral

(So not the one with dinosaurs invading contemporary London, whose first episode is labelled onscreen as “The Invasion” nor Invasion from The Web Planet. But you all knew that, right?)

The TARDIS comes under attack in near-space and narrowly escapes the threat of disaster by force-landing on Earth. Meanwhile, London is the scene for an invasion by some form of malevolent intelligence from beyond this world. Somebody is working with this unknown enemy, helping them to slowly gather their forces in secret. It’s up to the Doctor and his friends to stop an old foe, with a little help from new friends in the form of a military organisation led by one Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart.

Even as fans, you cannot deny that critical voice at the back of your head when it tells you that, from a strictly chronological point of view, we’ve seen all this before. And, of course, we have with the recently-recovered The Web of Fear and, even more recently from the standpoint of early 2015, in the cliff-hanger to the penultimate episode Series 9 recreating that scene. But that’s all rather beside the point, isn’t it, because The Invasion is just so much fun.

It’s fair to say that there couldn’t be many Doctor Who fans that do not adore The Invasion – and quite right, too. The combination of elements as fundamentally integral to the lore of the show as Cybermen and U.N.I.T clashing in contemporary London means that only the most cynically jaded of fans would argue against this serial’s classic status. Some stories are so loved that they are always worth telling at least twice. So what makes this one so great, other than the ingredients listed on the tin? Let’s take a closer look, shall we?

Like all good supervillains, Vaughn sits at the centre of a web that reaches into the dark recesses of an unseen nefariousness that is nonetheless cloaked with a veneer of public respectability.

The initial premise sees the TARDIS crew land Somewhere In the South of England (BBC Television ©) in modern times for only the sixth occasion in the show’s by-then burgeoning history. They do so with a set-piece of beautiful whimsy; the TARDIS invisibly materialises in a field of cows. Yes, cows. We’ll see this again later in Tom Baker’s Image of the Fendahl, but for now it’s a singular moment of bovine-inflected charm as the regulars join the viewing audience in a world both very familiar and so made all the less mundane for the travellers’ arrival.

Troughton’s Doctor is supremely watchable here, and his double double-act with both Fraser Hines and Kevin Stoney significantly add to the overall enjoyment of this adventure. Of the former, the friendship between Troughton and Hines is in vintage display mode. Whether madly rushing about London from point to plot point or attempting to infiltrate and then escape from Vaughn’s International Electromatix headquarters, we are privileged in seeing a perfect illustration of one of the finest bonds between Doctor and Companion ever witness in all of Who, and an exceedingly rare example of one shared between the Doctor and a male companion.

But it is Troughton’s scenes with Stoney – appearing in Doctor Who for the second time after his previous, villainous portrayal of the corrupt Guardian of the Universe, Mavic Chen, in the Hartnell epic, The Daleks’ Master Plan – that we are treated to the kind of good v evil dialectics that the show has so memorably provided over its fifty-plus years. It’s difficult to suggest a counter-point to Philip Sandifer’s observation in his most excellent Tardis Eruditorum that, in Tobias Vaughn, the Second Doctor meets his only human-villain match; at least, one not played by Patrick Troughton himself (see The Enemy of the World)…

Placing the super-intelligent Zoe in London with Mary Quant bob and, initially at least, dressed in a catsuit can’t help but call to mind that other 1960s wunderkind, The Avengers‘ Emma Peel.

Vaughn is an imposing opponent, with a network of singularly brutish minions, memorably led by the curiously incompetent Packer (how could he still be working for someone so intolerant of failure?), and an array of impossibly advanced technology alike at his disposal. Like all good supervillains, he sits at the centre of a web that reaches into the dark recesses of an unseen nefariousness that is nonetheless cloaked with a veneer of public respectability, possessing both a potentially endless series of places in which to hide bodies (and Cybermen) and the reputation of his company’s brand as world leaders in mid-twentieth century technology. In private consistently shouting maniacally at the utter ineptitude of the ham-fisted Packer, Stoney equally laces his performance with the more familiar nuances of a Bondian sociopath when in the presence of company, and we see the steel fist holding a (silver?) gun presented as though swathed in silk. There is more than a hint of the Doctor Nos about Vaughn, too, through the revelation of his part-cybernisation, and the cold manner of a man who has become too alike, too close to his machines. The cat-and-mouse to-ings and fro-ings between the Doctor and Vaughn unfold with an anticipatory suspense entirely in keeping with the spy-fi genre of the Sixties, and is a particular highlight of The Invasion.

Interestingly, Tat Wood and Lawrence Miles in About Time touch briefly upon the influence of the spy-fi genre on the piece. Early on, we see Benton and a fellow U.N.I.T. off-sider menacingly trail the Doctor through the back streets of a London still visually regenerating post war, evoking the rough and tumble oeuvre of 1965’s anti-Bond film, The Ipcress File. Equally, there are bugs in newly-developed transistor radios and scientists working on very secret things in basements, which all the while foreshadow the Doctor’s own personal future concerning Earth-bound pseudoscientific adventures faced with the aid of paramilitary organisations. Indeed, Rank Organisation films of this genre continue to influence Doctor Who through to at least Season 7, with its last hurrah arguably coming in The Mind of Evil where that next great opponent of the Doctor’s is played so memorably by the great Roger Delgado.

Modern London is as much a guest star of this serial as any other. To know The Invasion is, after all, to never know St Paul’s Cathedral as primarily much else than a site sacred in the mythos of Doctor Who.

Zoe sparkles throughout The Invasion, and she is handed a couple of set pieces to prove her brilliance. Aided by the relaxed tempo of the plotting inherent of an eight-parter, there is a quaint exchange early on in the piece with the receptionist-computer at the London HQ of IE that results in its meltdown after it is unable to solve Zoe’s equation. Later on in the climax, Zoe is able to calculate the trajectory required for the successful diversion of intercontinental ballistic missiles in order that they may obliterate the advancing Cybermen force – in seconds. Placing the super-intelligent character in London with Mary Quant bob and, initially at least, dressed in a catsuit can’t help but call to mind that other 1960s wunderkind, The Avengers‘ Emma Peel. The vibrancy and Nausicaa-like precocious youthfulness in Wendy Padbury’s performance very much seems to reflect a love for her character, and it all adds up as to why she remains such a firm favourite amongst convention-attending fans.

Zoe otherwise has an opportunity to form a believable friendship with London’s girl about town, Isobel Watkins, who is handily the niece of the missing scientist (another plot point borrowed from The Ipcress File) last seen entering International Electromatix, and whose disappearance kicks off the gang’s investigation into Vaughn’s enterprises. It’s quite tempting to wonder what kind of companion Sally Faulkner’s Isobel Watkins might have made. An aspiring photographer with a kooky enough personality that manifests itself through her writing on her own walls to acting as her own model, Isobel helps to convey a hint of London as it was during the Swinging Sixties; or at least, in so far as the BBC allowed it to family viewers in those days. In fact, it is also worth noting that ‘modern’ London is as much a guest star of this serial as any other. To know The Invasion is, after all, to never know St Paul’s Cathedral as primarily much else than a site sacred in the mythos of Doctor Who.

Courtney looks the part at the helm of a collection of extras and props provided by Her Majesty’s Armed Forces.

It is with hindsight’s favour that fans are able to look more fondly than the serial’s contemporary audience could have on an early appearance by Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart. Nicholas Courtney is a beloved and important member of the Doctor Who family, with the seeds of the character we come to know more fully during the reign of Troughton’s successor apparent here also (minus the curiously informal habit of calling his 2iC, Captain Turner, as simply Jimmy). The newly-promoted Brigadier is instantly likeable, with a network of his own to command and with which to counter Vaughn’s own forces.

There is genuine warmth between the Brigadier and the Second Doctor, and Courtney looks the part at the helm of a collection of extras and props provided by Her Majesty’s Armed Forces, though it must be conceded that his role here is more of an expeditor of the off-screen happenings of the plot, with most of his dialogue recounting the supposed actions taken by U.N.I.T. on the advice of the Doctor. Courtney’s Brigadier is nonetheless and already most definitely the man for the job going forward, and it may not be all too far from the truth to suggest that this served as a pilot for what the show was soon to become in a relatively short span of time. The swag stick and swagger is already there, as is the pencil moustache and the twinkle of the eye, and the army man who would soon come to stand on the shoulders of the giant called ‘the Doctor’ has already here embarked upon his own journey before, in turn, becoming a giant himself. Whatever your views of it may be, there is some manner of symmetry in the Brigadier’s recent salute goodbye to Peter Capaldi’s Doctor in the light of the symbolism and iconography of this, his first outing as the Brigadier.

All of which leads us nicely – or not – on to the Cybermen, who are here perhaps at the height of their sinister menace. What makes them work so well? Well, firstly, there is the fact that their presence is led up to via a satisfactory slow burn reveal. Episode One closes with the revelation that Vaughn is in communication with some kind of mechanistic intelligence, with the wise-enough amongst us being able to identify the rasping vocals of the ghost in the machine as belonging to a certain creation of Mondas. Or is that Telos? It’s hard to keep track of these things…

Indeed, it is not until the end of the fourth part, at exactly the halfway point of the narrative, that we see our first glimpse of a reviving Cyberman in a clear harkening back to The Tomb of the Cybermen. But as the re-viewing of many stories attest, the Cybermen aren’t as impassively indomitable as the memory may cheat. They are arguably at their best, as they are here, when their dream of empire and conquest is still merely potential, and when they are confined to the liminal spaces that sit between the dark corners of the universe and our own sunlit world. This is borne witness to so perfectly when they emerge only briefly from the sewers that have hidden them and on to the streets of modern London at the end of episode six, appropriately enough at dawn.

The Cybermen’s power lies in the horror of the grotesque corruption of their own humanity and their forcing of it onto all others.

The Cybermen actually don’t have much to do in The Invasion but scheme from afar, lurk in shadows underground, and creep us out, which they achieve so memorably in doing that it counts in the serial’s favour rather than to its detriment that they are largely absent and inactive. Is this the true allure of the Cybermen? For all their stomping about in Earthshock and Age of Steel/Rise of the Cybermen – both in their own rights classic entries into Who- and Cyber-lore – and even their bullet-time dashing about and improbable flying around in more recent outings, their visible potency seems lost somehow in the translation into action. Perhaps it’s their impassive, stone-like immobility in those famous stills from long-lost Troughton episodes that chills us more than the moving image of a man in a plastic suit ever could. It may also help to explain why, between the idea and the reality, some actually felt disappointed with The Tomb of the Cybermen when it was reclaimed for all the waiting world to watch in 1992. (It really isn’t that bad at all – quite the contrary, in fact…) The Cybermen’s power lies in the horror of the grotesque corruption of their own humanity and their forcing of it onto all others, which from a story-telling point of view, is only ever really effective in frightening us when that threat is implicit, imminent, but delayed. It seems to be the secret behind the success of this Cyberman invasion of contemporary London.

A brief word, finally, on the Cosgrove Hall animation of the missing episodes released in 2006: Wow! Faithful recreations in style and tone, and perhaps the best of the animated episodes released so far, if we are to never have the missing episodes again, then these would be a very adequate substitute and present perhaps the best way to access the stories that suffer from having lost some of their treasures.

As podKast co-host James McLean may say, I’d like to recommend to Kasterborites The Invasion…

The post 046 – The Invasion appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.