Christian Cawley's Blog, page 153

What Did You Think Of The Last Christmas Costars?

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.

With five key co-stars (plus a couple of elves), Steven Moffat still managed to keep things pretty tight in Last Christmas, enabling the guest cast to rise above the sort of one-line nonsense given to Tessa Peake-Jones in The Time of the Doctor or June Whitfield in The End of Time and introduce us to some interesting characters.

In our opinion they were all pretty memorable, so let’s take a look at Faye Marsay, Natalie Gumede, Nick Frost, Michael Troughton and Maureen Beattie.

Faye Marsay

Perhaps most notable was Shona, a lady with a Teesside/North Yorkshire accent (she’s from a small town called Loftus, midway between Middlesbrough and Whitby) who has set the Internet alight with her frankly awesome dance early on in the Doctor Who Christmas special. We shiouldn’t overlook her memorable, honest performance, either. Says the actress herself:

I'm going out tonight – I shall definitely be reprising the 'Shona Shuffle' after popular demand. Watch out Teesside!

— Faye Marsay (@FayeMarsay) December 26, 2014

Natalie Gumede

Best known to TV viewers as barmy husband beating copper Kirsty Soames in Coronation Street and as a runner up in 2013’s series of Strictly Come Dancing, Natalie Gumede was barely unrecognisable in Last Christmas in her role as a scientist on the polar base. It seems that the actress stuggles with claustrophobia, actually, and recalled some difficulty with the face-hugging Dream Crab prop.

“For the most part, I didn’t have to wear one. There were only a couple of moments I had to and the crew and director were really kind, only asking me to put it on at the last second. It wasn’t too unpleasant an experience, they made it as nice as they could.”

Nick Frost

Probably best known for his association with Simon Pegg (2005’s The Long Game) Nick Frost made a raher excellent Santa Claus, we thought. The star of Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, The World’s End and Paul also appeared in Spaced on TV with Pegg and Jessica Hynes (Human Nature/Family of Blood, The End of Time Part Two) so it was really only a matter of time before he ended up in Doctor Who.

Thanks for all the Santa goodwill. What smashing fun. Merry Christmas everyone… Merry Christmas…

#DrWho

— Nick Frost (@nickjfrost) December 25, 2014

Maureen Beattie

Brief flirting with Professor Fiona Bellows by the Doctor helped to push the story in Last Christmas along a little and Beattie – who eagle eyed Saturday night viewers may recognise from the early years of Casualty – made her mark on the story.

Perhaps most notable was her short “awakening” scene.

Michael Troughton

Even if he wasn’t the son of the Second Doctor, Michael Troughton would be linked to Doctor Who through his older brother David (The War Games, The Monster of Peladon, Midnight) and like Frost it was really only a matter of time before he appeared in the vicinity of the police box. As Professor Albert, he brought some inappropriate humour to the story, but his links with the show’s past (as well as reminding this writer of the late Rik Mayall thanks to his regular appearance in The New Statesman) made his casting particularly appropriate.

Oh, and he was on set for some of The Web of Fear, as he recalled in Doctor Who Extra…

Elves

You all know Dan Starkey from his regular appearances as domesticated Sontaran nurse/butler/warrior Strax, so his appearance in Last Christmas as the elf “Ian” (a slightly unimaginative name for one of Santa’s helpers) gave him some prosthetic-free screen time. Meanwhile, Wolf was played by Nathan McMullen, best known as Finn Samson in Misfits.

Samuel Anderson

Finally, and arguably the biggest surprise of the episode, was the presence of Samuel Anderson reprising Danny Pink from the afterlife in one of Clara’s dream states.

Kept this one secret!! Merry Christmas ya filthy #whovians!! And a happy new year

A photo posted by Samuel (@theblackpaddy) on Dec 12, 2014 at 12:02pm PST

There must have been a few damp eyes in the house when they said goodbye again…

So, who was your favourite Last Christmas guest character? What did you think of the supporting cast performances?

The post What Did You Think Of The Last Christmas Costars? appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Big Finish’s 12 Days: The Auntie Matter for £2.99

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.

Released in 2013, The Auntie Matter was the first of the second series of Big Finish’s The Fourth Doctor Adventures, and reunited Tom Baker with Mary Tamm for the first time in Doctor Who since 1978’s The Armageddon Factor.

Oh, and for another day Big Finish are making it available for a jaw-droppingly paltry £2.99 download!

Written by Jonathan Morris, it goes a bit like this:

England in the 1920s.

Whilst K9 is off in the TARDIS leading the Black Guardian on a wild goose chase, the Doctor and Romana are enjoying a leisurely lifestyle as the Lord and Lady of a London townhouse. But trouble never stays away from them for long, and before they know it a chance discovery of alien technology leads them deep into the heart of the English countryside where a malign presence lurks.

As the Doctor dodges deadly butlers and ferocious gamekeepers, Romana is faced with a malevolent Aunt and an even deadlier peril – marriage.

Co-stars include Lucy Griffiths (Robin Hood), and Julia McKenzie (Miss Marple). Fans may recall that Mary Tamm sadly passed away six months previously, making the release and subsequent series rather bittersweet. It is, however, a pleasure to hear the first incarnationk of Romana sparring with the Doctor once again, however.

Want to know more? Check our review of The Auntie Matter, and head to the Big Finish listing page for the story to purchase it at the sale price right now!

The post Big Finish’s 12 Days: The Auntie Matter for £2.99 appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Press Reaction To Last Christmas Is Strongly In Favour

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.

With 6.34 million tuning into BBC One for Doctor Who‘s 6.15pm broadcast according to overnights – a 27.5% audience share that saw the show defeat the ever-popular Downton Abbey – it would be fair to assume that this figure will increase considerably over the coming days, not least due to delayed views.

After all, a quarter past six in the evening is a little early for Christmas Day (and Doctor Who itself of late, now we think about it), a time when most TV viewers are either drunk, stuffed, or both.

Not so the nation’s press and other journalists, whose ability to review Doctor Who in such timely fashion owes little to their own abilities as chrononauts and everything to the BBC throwing previews at them. This single fact fails to account for how The Guardian was unable to get its act together an offer a coherent review of Last Christmas rather than a ramble about the Christmas evening’s viewing under the banner of a Doctor Who review.  To give them their due, however, they did manage to summarise the story as ” a masterful episode… which managed to be both utterly terrifying, very funny and a rather beautiful tribute to platonic love.”

They continue: “The Inception-esque dream-within-a-dream structure was clever and frightening; the Doctor’s sniping with Santa (Nick Frost, clearly born for the role) was genuinely amusing and the mystery over whether Jenna Coleman would be leaving the show made the ending a treat of a surprise.”

The Nerdist, now a multi-media behemoth rather than the amusing podcast of its inception, offers a more thoughtul review, observing the fact that (robot santas aside) Santa Claus (more commonly known in some parts as Father Christmas, a name that certainly needs some reviving in the face of onslaught from seasonal Hollywood movies) has really been overlooked in ten years’ worth of Christmas specials. Reviewer Kyle Anderson spends some time on the mechanics of the story too, specifically how dream fiction works. “The rules of the dream change throughout, and generally I call that lazy writing or plot conveniences, it’s actually completely fine within the tenets of it being dream logic. It’s the get-out-of-jail-free card of storytelling.” All in all a nice positive review, one that you should check out.

Meanwhile The Telegraph, recently purged of the majority of its editorial staff, give us a review from one Michael Hogan, whose work this writer doesn’t seem particularly familiar with. The review rewards Last Christmas a reasonable 5 stars, but all in all it reads like a rehash of various press releases and Steven Moffat interviews about the episode, with added benefit of viewing. There’s little meaningful here, with only mention of Danny Pink, the closing “cockle-warming cosy glow” and the count of film references “not just Ghostbusters and Alien but also The Matrix, The Shining, The Ring, Inception and Die Hard and Ghost,” showing that Hogan had actually watched anything beyond the BBC’s trailers.

Unleash the Fanboy is a curious blog, clearly aimed at denizens of nerdistan but with oddly pedant-baiting overuse of italic type, seemingly for emphasis in a comic-book style. They really should stop this practice, although awarding 7.5 out of 10 for Last Christmas is at least a sign that they’re moving in the direction of sanity. The conclusion summarises that “Last Christmas proves to be one of the best Doctor Who Christmas Specials in recent years, as though it doesn’t rival the more entertaining episodes of the recent series, it certainly outshines the more disappointing episodes,” and adds: “Highly recommended.”

Obviously, it is talking about a TV show and not a new restaurant or the latest Audi, but the final point in the rating breakdown is interesting: “The focus on festivity once again drains away from the flow.” We’re not certain this is the case; in fact it is arguably the only Doctor Who Christmas special where it is most certainly not, but we’ll perhaps let you decide on that in the comments…

Look out for our own considered review of Last Christmas this weekend…

The post Press Reaction To Last Christmas Is Strongly In Favour appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

The Simpsons @ 25: Doctor Who And America’s Funny Family

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.

*clouds part*

Aaaaahhhh… The Simpsons.

On December 17th 1989, television changed forever. When those crudely animated short films first aired on The Tracey Ullman Show in 1987 no one could have known the impact those shaky yellow hued characters and their love of frosty chocolate milkshakes would have upon popular culture.

561 episodes later and their influence is still being felt. From popularising ‘annoyed grunt’ to reinventing language itself – ‘Meh’ is now listed in the Oxford English Dictionary – the show continues to carry the kind of cultural cache that makes stars flock to its studio and fans sneakily quote lines in normal conversation to weed out who’s cool or not.

What’s wrong with that? It’s a perfectly cromulent thing to do!

It’s no surprise then that within that 25 year history of remoulding and repurposing the best pop culture for all kinds of yuks and guffaws; occasionally, the Doctor has been seen in and amongst the citizens of Springfield. And by Doctor of course, we mean the Fourth Doctor… because he’s Matt Groening’s favourite… and probably the most recognisable to Americans…

So sit back, pour yourself a glass of Henry K. Duff’s Private Reserve, and let’s travel back through the years to find the episodes where The Doctor met The Simpsons!

Sideshow Bob’s Last Gleaming

My favourite Doctor Who appearance in The Simpsons is also his first; in this acerbic, hidden gem from Season Seven – where Sideshow Bob steals a retro nuclear bomb from an army base during an air show and demands the end of all television in Springfield.

The episode itself had a torturous birth. As part of the Writers Guild of America’s remit for television writers, at least once a season, shows like The Simpsons would have to farm out an episode to a freelance writer. In this case, It was the fantastically named Michael Donovan “Spike” Feresten, Jr. a former intern for The Late Show with David Letterman who went on to be a staff writer for Seinfeld.

Despite his eventual credit, Feresten’s first draft was completely rewritten by the writing staff, dialogue and all, leading Executive Producer Bill Oakley to describe it as ‘one of the most arduous rewrites in the history of the show’.

Which seemed to bring out a devastating bitterness in the writers.

It’s here that we get the first appearance by Rupert Murdoch, who, as an inmate of Sideshow Bob chastises him for attacking Fox by screaming ‘Hey! I own 20 per cent of that network!’ – a move that was only approved after Murdoch himself stepped in to halt the censors who demanded the Murdoch-like figure be cut. There are multiple barbs and slings at Fox (that familiar fanfare, with all its pomposity and self-importance, is reduced to nothing more than the sad ‘wah-wah’ of a lone trumpeter) there’s no value given to both it and television as a whole.

So it comes as no surprise that when the Fourth Doctor appears, as one of the ‘esteemed representatives of television’, it has less to do with his standing and more to do with the show’s attitude towards the medium – it’s a throwaway gag in the same sense a grenade is a throwaway deterrent.

Walking into a room resembling the war room from Dr Strangelove (the whole episode is a parody of ’60s-era nuclear war movies like this and Fail Safe) alongside the likes of Bumblebee Man and Steve Urkel, it’s clear where the writers believe the true power of television lies. His appearance is borne out of a genuine love for television and the show that, for perhaps this week only, can only be expressed through exasperated anger – it’s this, to me at least, that makes this appearance stand out amongst the other cameo appearances by the Time Lord – it has an edge beyond two titans of television acknowledging each other.

However it isn’t all biting the hand that feeds you; there are a number of truly inspired gags: Milhouse being ejected from a fighter jet, the return of ‘that guy who, uh, eats people and takes their faces’ and who could forget The Stingy and Battery Show: ‘they bite and light, they bite and light and bite…’

Bart the Fink

From perceptions of the medium to perceptions of you, yes you! The fans – well one particular type of fan with this, the next reference to Doctor Who, uttered through the burrito smeared lips of Comic Book Guy.

An enduring parody (even his catchphrase “Worse. Episode. Ever” has appeared with an entirely different noun in The End of Time), Comic Book Guy, wheeling a barrow filled with said delicious Mexican food, unambiguously and rather practically assesses that: “Yes, this should provide adequate sustenance for the Doctor Who marathon.”

Like the Fourth Doctor representing a particular audience, Comic Book Guy has on occasion taken the views, sometimes quite literally, of the kind of fans sniping at the show from forums such as alt.tv.simpsons and part of his universal appeal comes from this raging self-importance which Hank Azaria, the voice actor behind the character, once succinctly described as “an adult who argues with kids as if they’re his peers.”

Behind the scenes, this episode – which sees Krusty fake his own death to avoid the IRS – is written by Simpson’s stalwart, staunch libertarian, gun rights advocate and my favourite writer John Swartzwelder. Something of a recluse, according to Matt Groening, Swartzwelder – who has written 59 episodes, the most of any writer – used to pen his scripts while sitting in a booth at a coffee shop: “drinking copious amounts of coffee and smoking endless cigarettes”. When California passed an anti-smoking law, he bought the diner booth and installed it in his house, allowing him to continue his process in peace.

A fantastic writer with a specific love of the absurd brushing against the mundane (i.e. the perfect Simpsons writer) he now writes satirical novels with titles like The Time Machine Did It (which is brilliant), Dead Men Scare Me Stupid and The Fifty Foot Detective.

Mayored to the Mob

Cometh Bi-Mon-Sci-Fi-Con, cometh the Doctor!

In a gaggle of sci-fi cameos, references and indeed perhaps the best celebrity cameo ever (take a bow Mark “Luke, be a Jedi tonight” Hamill), the Fourth Doctor can be seen signing autographs for awaiting nerds (apparently Alf was busy).

Whenever these twin elements – the Convention and Mark Hamill – are prominent, this Season Ten episode soars: the musical numbers, the references, Luke Skywalker selling Sprint; it’s never better. It’s such a shame that the main plot, which sees Homer becoming the Mayor’s bodyguard, falls flat in comparison.

Executive Producer at the time, Mike Scully, has often been criticised for starting what became a permanent turn towards the absurd for its own sake and in this and the episodes around this that you can feel it moving away from the heart of the show, the family, and more towards Homer’s oafishness; leading critics to describe perhaps the best television character to not come from Gallifrey as ‘Jerkass Homer’. These claims seem almost quaint now considering the lower standard of recent episodes but there are moments when the show basically became just another animated series (and it becomes more evident when the show starts to slide away from creating a heightened parallel of the world around us and more towards self-consciously wacky or nonsensical jokes that undermine its own history).

Albeit one that could still occasionally produce some great television.

Treehouse of Horror X

Inspired by the horror comic boom of the 1950’s – where EC Comics reigned in blood with titles like The Haunt of Fear and The Vault of Horror – before the CCA closed the casket on terrifying teens, The Simpsons grasped the flaming torch of terror and, using the model from horrifying portmanteau films, brought the tradition back from the dead.

The anthology episodes gave the writers a chance to break free of the confines of the world they had created. Nothing was considered canon; any source of reference, be it Edgar Allen Poe, King Kong or The Nightmare on Elm Street was considered fair game.

So it’s surprising that we’ve not seen more of the Doctor. In his sole appearance in Season 11’s Desperately Xeeking Xena the Fourth Doctor is encased inside a PET bag for ‘safekeeping’ by the notorious villain, The Collector aka Comic Book Guy. It’s then down to newly created superheroes Stretch Dude and Clobber Girl, aka Bart and Lisa, to free him, Yasmine Bleeth and Lucy Lawless from a fate worse than eBay.

It’s all harmless, Marvel baiting fun.

One notable piece of trivia is that segment writer Tim Long was hired by director Richard Donner to write a Broadway musical version of The Goonies (called “Hey You Guys!”… Okay, that’s not true) which feels far too close to actually being a Simpsons gag for comfort.

Springfield Up

A parody of Michael Apted’s Up series, this Season 18 episode sees documentary filmmaker Declan Desmond (played by Python Eric Idle at his most smarmiest) return to Springfield to film the next instalment of his exploratory series into the lives of Springfield’s finest (except Lenny who is too boring for film).

At one point Homer tells Declan: “Check with me in 8 years, Doctor Who. I’ll be kicking your ass with a golden boot!” Which goes to show that Homer is at least aware enough of the show (and that it exists within his universe) to know who the Doctor is and that he can travel through time.

As for the episode itself, the overall theme of appreciating what you have when it comes to family, doesn’t break any interesting or new ground for the show. It’s not a particularly good episode but neither is it poor. The concept just feels a little undernourished.

We’ll check back in eight years and see if it’s improved.

Holidays of Future Passed

This is more like it. A Christmas and far future episode and it’s one of the best of Season 23 (and possibly the best future episode since Lisa’s Wedding).

A heartfelt look at reconciliation between the different generations of The Simpsons family where each individual character and their offspring have either softened with old age or atrophied with resentment or remorse. Basically, every Christmas then: am I right? Am I right? Sigh… It’ll be lonely this Christmas…

Anyway, looking into the future (for that is where you and I will be spending the rest of our lives!) and it seems law enforcement will be handled by Daleks complete with truncheons and Policemen’s helmets because you can never be too British.

It’s a rare treat to find such an emotional episode so late in The Simpsons run. Especially one that favours honesty, such as the scene where Bart and Lisa, a little bit worse for wear, sit in the treehouse to discuss the challenges of parenthood.

The real ace up its sleeve is its treatment of Homer, who, thanks to old age, has mellowed back into the sweet, caring father that he could, on occasions, be in those halcyon early days of the show: it makes sense that, as he got older, he would be the wisest character when it came to rearing children because, for all his and their faults, they are his greatest success. Homer carries the kind of wisdom that comes with age; from knowing that, the problem you currently face is nothing that time and a little bit of forgiveness can’t cure.

It’s a brilliant piece of writing in an outstanding episode… Plus it has a Dalek too! What more do you need?

Love is a Many Splintered Thing

Love is in the air and like most airborne viruses it’s eating away at Bart.

Struggling to come to terms with pass relationships in a dead on parody of the opening of Annie Hall, Bart decides to give love another go when he discovers his long-lost sweetheart Mary Spuckler (Zooey Deschanel) is back in town. Learning that he’s been taking love for granted, Bart and then subsequently Homer find themselves cast out amongst the similarly self-inflicted down at Brokewood Apartments. Determined to win their women back, the pair force themselves through a strict diet of British rom-coms, one of which features a very familiar blue box.

This Season 24 episode benefits from having an unusually focused story… although thanks to some self-serving cameos and a reliance upon beyond tired storylines (Homer does something wrong, Marge kicks him out, yadda yadda, they get back together like there was any chance of that not happening) it’s neither satisfying or particularly interesting to watch. However, the episode does also boast a special guest appearance by Benedict Cumberbatch – who just so happened to be in the right place at the right time and managed to bag himself two roles (are you going to say no to those cheekbones?), as the British Prime Minster in the Love Actually parody and as Severus Snape (yeah, like I said, it’s a little self-serving).

Diggs

This is a strange one. It has all the makes of a classic story.

Diggs, a transfer student and an expert in Falconry who suffers from a mental illness, befriends one of the family, eventually saving both the family member and the falcons at the local show.

The problem is, the family member is Bart.

It’s not that the episode isn’t affecting; it’s just that you can imagine just how more impactful it would be in the hands of, say, Lisa – a character well known for wearing her heart on her sleeve and not for telling people to consumer her summer wear.

You can’t escape the feeling that we haven’t really learned anything new about Bart’s character – his sense of injustice is a bedrock of what makes him who he is; it’s just hard to see this encounter as being as powerful as the moment Bart accidentally kills a mother bird in Bart the Mother or the dozen or so other times he has acted out before his moral compass resets itself and he is compelled to do the right thing.

As for the Doctor Who connection, Diggs lists both the TARDIS and Dalek #7 as people who he would like to meet (what’s wrong with Dalek #6?)

The season 25 episode also has the indignity of being the lowest watched episode of The Simpsons in America with an audience at broadcast of only 2.69 million.

The Movie?

Okay, so this last one is a tenuous link but it is Christmas so please be quiet.

The Simpsons Movie was released in 2007 and looked to be devoid of Daleks, TARDISes and long scarves. But Bart might’ve referenced the Eleventh Doctor, Matt Smith. As they go to escape Springfield through a sinkhole in Maggie’s sandpit, as you do, Bart shouts ‘Geronimo!’ – which, as we’re all well aware, is frequently said by the bow-tie-wearing Time Lord in episodes like The Power of Three, Hide, and The Day of the Doctor.

That might sound too much of a stretch, but Bart doesn’t seem like a fountain of knowledge when it comes to the Apaches. Maybe he heard it off the telly. Eh, eh, eh.

Doctor Who Returns The Favour…

But not often.

Aside from the allusion to Comic Book Guy’s catchphrase in The End of Time, Doctor Who‘s other knowing nod to The Simpsons came in 2008’s Planet of the Ood: during a presentation of the enslaved aliens, one Ood has a ‘comedy classic’ option – Annoyed Grunt! Sorry, I mean: “Do’h!”

So The Simpsons is 25 years old.  What’s your favourite Doctor Who reference in The Simpsons?

The post The Simpsons @ 25: Doctor Who And America’s Funny Family appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Big Finish/ Humble Bundle Team-Up: Pay-What-You-Want Doctor Who Collection!

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 love Big Finish, or want to try their audios for the first time, the producers of Doctor Who audio have teamed up with the famed Humble Bundle team to give you the opportunity to pay-what-you-want for some of their popular audios as well as help Doctors Without Borders deliver medical assistance in concflict and warzones!

Running for 12 days (much like Big Finish’s own 12 Days of… promotion) this offer enables you to grab $399 worth of audiobooks for as little or as much as you would like.

In the basic package, you’ll get the first two runs of Dalek Empire, and three unlocked characters in Doctor Who: Legacy (we’re assuming Big Finish characters).

Paying more than the average $13.04 will unlock the third series of Dalek Empire (featuring a pre-Tenth Doctor David Tennant), while upgrading to to a minimum payment of $15 gives you the first run of Lost Stories, starring Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant as the Doctor and Peri.

As you’ll see by visiting Humble Bundle’s page, there have been some very generous contributions made so far, but we would suggest you don’t put yourself into financial difficulty over these. Only pay what you can afford, safe in the knowledge that you’ll get some great audio drama to enjoy again and again!

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Jenna Coleman: “It’s wonderful” To Be Staying On Doctor Who

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.

Doctor Who‘s Jenna Coleman has discussed the recently revealed fact that she is staying on for another full series following the events of the seasonal special, Last Christmas.

Chatting exclusively to BBC News, the actress shared her feelings at the prospect of another run in the show. “It’s wonderful,” she said. “I get a whole other series of stories with the Doctor and I couldn’t walk away with the story being unresolved.”

The Clara Oswald actress also teased: “There is so much more to do. I think they’ve finally just reached a point where they really understand each other. The arrival of the 12th Doctor has just kind of dropped this whole bombshell and allowed the dynamic to totally change, so I think just when Clara was feeling more comfortable in the relationship, it has suddenly thrown something new up.”

Meanwhile, star Peter Capaldi enthused: “Jenna has just been fantastic and such a pleasure to work with.”

On Christmas Day, viewers were treated to an episode that not only teased how the Doctor and Clara might have parted had the actress not apparently changed her mind, but also to a surprise appearance by a former cast member (Note: spoiler!), but with a couple of other characters who might have been potential companions (those played by Natalie Gumede and Faye Marsay) teasing fans in the run-up to Last Christmas, it is somewhat reassuring to consider a Doctor Who Series 9 as being a stripped-back, Doctor+Companion affair without the at times unnecessary and distracting aspects of a Clara-Danny relationship that many didn’t buy into.

How do you feel about Jenna Coleman remaining on Doctor Who and potentially becoming the longest-running companion in the show’s history? What do you think convinced her to stay?

 

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Awesome-But-Secret “12 Days of Big Finish” Sale Commences!

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.

With Last Christmas finished, it’s quite a wait until Doctor Who Series 9 commences in late 2015, so why not introduce yourself to some Big Finish produced time travelling adventure or any number of the company’s superb spin-offs and other adaptations?

If you’re yet to tip your toe into the accessible waters of the Big Finish canon, now is the time. The audio producers are currently running a 12 Days of Big Finish promotion, during which download purchases will be available for a rather remarkable £2.99!

Better still, they’re kicking off the promotion with a freebie, their Dorian Gray story  This World Our Hell, starring Alexander Vlahos and Steffan Rhodri. With 12 titles from across the Big Finish range available over the 12 days of Christmas for just 48 hours each, you will need to keep your eyes peeled for this offer, and act quickly when something that takes your fancy comes along.

We recommend that you follow their Facebook page in order to get early notice on all forthcoming offers – and, indeed, all forthcoming releases beyond the 12 Days of Big Finish!

Actually, the Dorian Gray story isn’t the only freebie from Big Finish. Why not check out their SoundCloud page for trailers and full stories, not to mention this Sherlock Holmes short starring Voice of the Monsters Nicholas Briggs!

(With thanks to Ian)

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How Did Last Christmas Measure Up For You? [POLL]

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.

Last Christmas has aired! Viewers in the UK have seen the 2014 Doctor Who Christmas special, and taken it all in: monsters, Santa Claus, the Doctor, being reunited with Clara… and more. But what did you think of it?

You should know what’s coming next – it’s a poll! But rather than ask you what you thought of the adventure on a loose 5-point scale, the task this time is a little tougher: does Last Christmas measure up to – or surpass – previous Doctor Who Christmas specials?

Take Our Poll

In addition to voting – the results of which we’ll analyse in the near future – you can leave your thoughts below in comment form. Keep it spoiler free, people, as some fans won’t be seeing Last Christmas just yet.

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What Is Your Favourite Christmas Special And Why?

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.

Merry Christmas!

It’s here again, and tonight, the Twelfth Doctor makes his first appearance in a Christmas episode, Last Christmas.

But now we turn to past glories. To celebrate this special day, we asked the team at K Towers to decide which was their favourite Christmas special, from The Christmas Invasion to The Time of the Doctor. There was much fighting (Christian got drunk – again), some sharing of Quality Street (Nick brought Celebration but they were out of date), and we all ended up watching Raymond Briggs’ The Snowman for a little bit, but we finally made our minds up…

Christian Cawley, Editor:

The Christmas Invasion. Manages to deal with regeneration and invasion in one go AND introduce an alien threat that had the legs to return (it’s still a shame they haven’t).

It’s also the last ‘Ninth Doctor story’, in that we see the Doctor with “classic Rose” as opposed to the “nouveau Rose” that she became after travelling with the Tenth Doctor between having Christmas dinner and New Earth.

I have a few others that I enjoy (Voyage of the Damned, A Christmas Carol) but this is the one I would choose to watch on Christmas Day should there be no special.

Gareth Kavanagh:

I love The End of Time, but really that’s only a Christmas tale by default so I’ve gone for Voyage of the Damned. The disaster movie and Christmas always went hand in hand for me as a kid. Boxing Day was practically owned by the Towering Inferno for the seventies and I think there can’t have been a New Year’s Eve without The Poseidon Adventure either. For this ingenious Christmas riff from RTD alone, it’s already grabbed my heart from the moment I saw it. Character, peril, plot, adventure and humour all blend perfectly into a rich and rewarding perfect Christmas punch. And it has Kylie.

Jonathan Appleton:

The Christmas Invasion for me. Still don’t think any later ones have matched it. A very bold decision to leave the Doctor out of the action for so long, but I loved the way his absence made the other characters step forward to defend the Earth. Some great effects, good alien designs and top notch jokes (‘They’re on the roof…’). And that ending! Challenging stuff for Christmas night on BBC1.

Simon Mills:

For me it’s A Christmas Carol. I’m a sucker for pseudo Dickensian charm and flying sharks. It hits all of the right buttons for me as a fan of steampunk and I love redemption stories. Michael Gambon and Katherine Jenkins were superb guest stars.

James Main:

All the pre-Moff specials featured cardboard cut-out cartoon characters, though I grant you there were some great moments in The Runaway Bride and The Christmas Invasion did handle a lot of challenges very well. A Christmas Carol was good but the Victorian Christmas on another planet tends to grate with me. The image of a wartime mother that thinks she’s a widow, piloting a sentient tree-made survival ark through the time vortex and guiding her husband’s plane home (the “Mother Ship”!) was such a wonderful idea but the rest of The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe fell flat for me.

So it’s The Snowmen – Victorian Clara was one of the most promising and exciting new potential companion introductions we’ve had. The *actual* Dickensian setting was perfect, the image and idea of the TARDIS being parked on a cloud too brilliant and the music absolutely spot-on. Snowmen is a clear winner for me – just wish Clara had survived and that the Snowmen were a bit more threatening. (I realised I’m a bit nit-picky! Bah humbug…)

Becky Crockett:

Much as I love Matt Smith, The Christmas Invasion is still my favorite. All the rushing about and drama and the Doctor is asleep for most of it! What a way to introduce the new guy – have him not be in half the episode!

Drew Boynton:

The Snowmen (great humor, tidy story, Clara dies?!), The Christmas Invasion (“It is defended!”), A Christmas Carol (Katherine Jenkins is lovely in it… I still wonder if you de-scramble Kazran Sardick if it spells something?).

Philip Bates, Assistant Editor:

Without a doubt, A Christmas Carol. It’s not just my favourite Christmas special; it also one of the best episodes of Doctor Who, period. There’s an intangible magic that hangs over Sardicktown. There is no Doctor more festive than the Eleventh. The performances are all superb. The director, Toby Haynes, remains on the best in the business. And of course, it’s so clever and warm. Then there’s the soundtrack! Murray Gold needs an OBE.

It’s just a genuinely beautiful, moving piece of art.

Special mentions must go to The Runaway Bride (a gloriously dark yarn), and The Time of the Doctor, which is intelligent and gut-wrenching: the last twenty minutes never fail to bring a tear to my eye.

Joe Siegler:

If the question were “which is your least favorite” I’d have an easier time.

I’ll go with the first – The Christmas Invasion. It was a great intro for “a new guy”, and I even liked characters I don’t normally care for (Jackie, Rose) in that one. It felt less like a “special”, and more like a standard episode. For me, most of the Christmas episodes have a weird feeling to them. For most of them I have no desire to watch them again; this one I have.

Nick Kitchen:

I know I’m probably in the minority but I’m a proud lover and defender of The Time of the Doctor. It had much to do to end the Smith era, but it doesn’t get more festive than the Doctor protecting a town called Christmas and it hit most of its marks. Close second is The Christmas Invasion: “No second chances. I’m that sort of man.”

Scott Varnham:

Favourite for me would be The End Of Time. Sure, it has flaws, but it just felt genuinely fun! None of the ‘mad man with a box who happens to have Victorian Silurian Lesbian friends’ kind of “fun” that we’ve come to expect from the Moffat era.

Matt Charlton:

The Christmas Invasion. Does what it sets out to do and does it in style. The original Christmas special and never bettered.

So there we have it! Quite a few votes for The Christmas Invasion there (despite the strange red button that suddenly makes part of the Sycorax ship break up – just saying). Admittedly, Tennant made a very strong debut and the Sycorax were brilliant. We’ve had some great festive treats since 2005.

What’s your favourite?

Oh, and incidentally, a very Merry Christmas to you at home, from the whole Kasterborous team!

The post What Is Your Favourite Christmas Special And Why? appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Doctor Who Gives You Some Great Christmas Tips

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 Christmas Eve. That’s come quickly. It doesn’t seem that long ago that we were opening up a horde of pressies in the morning, stuffing ourselves at dinner, and saying goodbye to the Raggedy Doctor in the evening. And now, we’re on the brink of another Doctor Who Christmas special.

Christmas, however, is about viewing the past with rose-tinted glasses, as well as looking to the future. To get you in the mood for some festive fun, let’s relive some festive treats. We may even learn something along the way…

Spend Time With Loved Ones

The ending to 2011’s The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe was one of the most beautiful moments in Who history, demonstrating exactly how much the Doctor cares for his companions and how much they care for him.

Even though he tricked them into thinking he was dead.

Don’t Be Afraid Of A Good Ghost Story

Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without a little bit of horror, would it? The same goes for Doctor Who. This is partially due to The Stone Tape, a pivotal Nigel Kneale drama screened on Christmas Day (and the basis for last year’s Hide).

And then there’s that other ghost story set at Christmas: A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens… who the Doctor met – at Christmastime. This is probably the nearest we’ll ever get to a Ninth Doctor Christmas Special…

Remember The Important Things

Speaking of A Christmas Carol, the Eleventh Doctor adventure from 2010 was filled to the brim with magic and wonder and fish.

It’s a crazy little yarn – a really wonderful piece of television – and there are some lovely lines. The following clip shows its warmth, humour and heart in abundance.

Stay Suspicious of Your Decorations

We all know that Doctor Who makes us see the world in a different light. It can make us more positive, more philosophical, more skeptical, more open to the unknown. Also: it can make us a little nervous around stone statues, plastic dolls, and baubles.

Most homes have a potential killer in their lounges. Christmas trees. Oh, you may think they’re perfectly harmless, but they’re just waiting for their chance. Don’t take my word for it: take a look at this clip from 2005’s The Christmas Invasion.

Stay Safe on the Roads

Everyone’s panicking: buying last minute gifts and rushing home. “Driving Home For Christmas” is blasting from the radio.

So be careful. There are some maniacs out there. Especially the nutter with that blue box. Crikey.

“I’m in my wedding dress!” says Donna in The Runaway Bride. “Yes,” the Doctor replies. “You look lovely!”

Spend Time With The Doctor

Tomorrow, a new special airs, Last Christmas, starring the Twelfth Doctor and Clara Oswald.

So there’s no better time to revisit the very first Christmas special, The Feast of Steven – albeit it briefly! Thanks to Brandon Flanagan for a bit of colourisation, here we have the Doctor wishing you – yes, you – a great Christmas.

Oh, and incidentally, have a very merry Christmas to all of you at home, from all of us at K Towers!

The post Doctor Who Gives You Some Great Christmas Tips appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.