Christian Cawley's Blog, page 154

Moffat’s Difficulties With Female Writers & Directors For 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 Santa-in-Chief Steven Moffat has held off on his delivery of Christmas gifts this week in order to bemoan the difficulty of hiring female writers and directors.

While Rachel Talalay directed the two-part Series 8 finale Dark Water/Death in Heaven and we recently discovered that former Torchwood writer Catherine Treganna has accepted an invite to contribute to Doctor Who Series 9, these are only relatively recent wins for a show that has had just one other female director since the 1980s, and no lady writer since 2008’s The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky (by former nuWho script-editor Helen Raynor).

Speaking to Zap2It, Moffat revealed that the lack of females in these two creative roles is not for want of trying.

“Female directors and writers have a tendency to turn us down. There are fewer female directors and female writers — it’s a statistical fact — it’s shameful but it’s true. Most of the people who are desperate to do ‘Doctor Who’ are men. “It’s not that I care particularly what brand of reproductive organs you wear to work,” he says. “There’s very little reproduction that goes on on the ‘Doctor Who’ set. The reason we want women is because some of the best people for the job are women.”

As far as Treganna is concerned, Moffat certainly worked hard.

“There’s a slight tendency to think ‘Doctor Who’ is not for them. Catherine was happy to write ‘Torchwood’ — she had a very good ‘Torchwood’ run — but wasn’t as keen to write ‘Doctor Who,'” he says. “She’s turned us down in the past, but I talked her into it with an idea she really liked.”

Moffat also added that a female director is also scheduled for Doctor Who Series 9.

But what can we expect in the future?

“I think in 10 years when ‘Doctor Who’ is still triumphantly successful, a lot of those [women] will grow up to be writers and directors who are desperate to do ‘Doctor Who.'”

Let’s hope so!

(With thanks to Mark)

The post Moffat’s Difficulties With Female Writers & Directors For Doctor Who appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Robot Orchestra Plays Doctor Who Theme Tune, Theremin Included

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

Ever wanted to see a robot play the Doctor Who theme tune with a theremin as part of a pan-European robotic orchestra? You have?!

Well, despite that being really unlikely, it’s exactly what we have for you right now. From the 2014 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures on BBC Four yesterday, watch agog as 15 robotic musicians from across Europe join forces to perform the Doctor Who theme.

Sure, they may have backing from an actual orchestra, but we’re positive you’re going to love ThereminDroid and DotMatrixPrinterPercussion as much as we do.

After all, you can never get enough versions Delia Derbyshire’s amazing arrangement of Ron Grainer’s remarkable composition, can you?

The post Robot Orchestra Plays Doctor Who Theme Tune, Theremin Included appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Enjoy The Doctor Puppet Christmas Special: The Planet That Came For Christmas

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.

Remember Doctor Puppet, the beautifully designed puppet tribute to Doctor Who? Well he’s back, with a Christmas special! “The Planet That Came For Christmas” has been launched on YouTube, and you can watch it above right now.

Featuring puppet versions of the Twelfth Doctor and Clara, this mysterious Christmas adventure is made by a team of professional artists and musicians and is quite obviously a labor of love. While music and vocals are produced and recorded in England, the puppets and animation are created in a tiny New York City apartment. This particular installment was the result of a successfully funded Indiegogo campaign, which just goes to show that crowdfunding can work.

“The Planet That Came For Christmas” isn’t the only Doctor Puppet Christmas special. You can catch the previous pair below…

2012

2013

If for some reason you haven’t seen Doctor Puppet before, now is probably the time to hit YouTube and start watching. You have just enough time before Last Christmas…

The post Enjoy The Doctor Puppet Christmas Special: The Planet That Came For Christmas appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

PodKast Previews Doctor Who Special “Last Christmas”

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.

This week, the Doctor Who podKast (with a “K”) discusses the build up to the 2014 Christmas special, Last Christmas. Before that, however, James McLean and Brian A Terranova discuss the rather interesting clip from 1985’s BBC Children in Need, featuring virtually all surviving Doctor Who stars and their companions… with one very notable exception!

The show ends with sage advice concerning your expectations for Last Christmas. Until next week, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

Kasterborous PodKast Series 4 Episode 46 Shownotes

1985 Children in Need appearance by Doctor Who stars
Doctor Who: Last Christmas trailers
Is Clara leaving the TARDIS?
Voyage of the Damned
The Christmas Invasion

PodKast introduction by John Guilor; theme by Russell Hugo.

Listen to the PodKast

There are several ways to listen. In addition to the usual player above, we’re pleased to announce that you can also stream the podKast using Stitcher, an award-winning, free mobile app available for Android and iPhone/iPad. This pretty much means that you can listen to us anywhere without downloading – pretty neat, we think you’ll agree! (Note that it can take a few hours after a new podKast is published to “catch up”.)

What’s more, you can now listen and subscribe to the podKast via our Audioboo channel! Head to http://audioboo.fm/channel/doctorwhopodkast and click play to start listening. You can also comment and record your own boos in response to our discussions! Meanwhile you can use the player below to listen through Audioboo:

You haven’t clicked play yet?! What are you waiting for? As well as our new Stitcher and Audioboo presence you can also use one of these amazingly convenient ways to download and enjoy this week’s podKast.

Use the player in the top right of the Kasterborous home page, or visit the podKast menu link.
Listen with the “pop out” player above, which also allows you to download the podKast to your computer.
You can also take advantage of the RSS feed to subscribe to the podKast for your media player, and even find us on iTunes, where your reviews will help the show considerably.

 

The post PodKast Previews Doctor Who Special “Last Christmas” appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Hannah Haisman To Recall Her Doctor Who Scriptwriter Grandfather In New Interview

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 tomorrow on the Type 40 blog, Chris McKeon, co-author of the Doctor Who charity novel, Time’s Champion, conducts a follow-up interview with Hannah Haisman, granddaughter of 1960s scriptwriter Mervyn Haisman and Executor of the Haisman Literary Estate, and licensor for Candy Jar Books’ forthcoming Lethbridge-Stewart novels.

You may recall we mentioned the first interview, and we’ve been given a sneak peak segment at the second, to give you a flavour of the conversation and let you know what you can enjoy reading on Christmas Eve…

Type 40: First, how does it feel knowing that Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, a character your grandfather helped to create almost forty-seven years ago, is about to make a grand literary return for a new generation of Doctor Who fans?



Hannah: It is very exciting indeed! I am extremely proud that Lethbridge-Stewart is held in such high regard with Doctor Who fans. There has been a lot of positive feedback on social media over the release of these novels and I am truly humbled that fans old and new cannot wait for a character my grandfather co-created to make a literary comeback.



Type 40: In your previous interview with Type 40 you talked a lot about your early memories of your grandfather. Can you share with us some your earliest memories of Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart?



Hannah: To be honest, I never really had early memories of Lethbridge-Stewart. Doctor Who was a snapshot in time of my grandfather’s writing career, one that only spanned a period of a few years. The first memory I have is when organising his literary estate and compiling a record of all the works and characters he created.



Type 40: In your earlier interview you also mentioned your grandfather’s deep love for books and literature. Did he have any particularly favourite stories in his collection? Do you know of any stories that may have inspired him to help craft the character of Lethbridge-Stewart?



Hannah: Most of the books in his study were for research purposes, ranging from historical to spiritual, travel to black magic! As for stories that inspired the creation of Lethbridge-Stewart, I think that was more down to his time in the army than any book on his shelf, but I feel he based the character, as he usually did, on someone he knew or had met. Certainly when the Brigadier barks orders, I reminded of my grandfather.



Keep an eye on type40doctorwho.blogspot.co.uk throughout Christmas Eve and beyond for the full interview.

(With huge thanks to Andy.)

The post Hannah Haisman To Recall Her Doctor Who Scriptwriter Grandfather In New Interview appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Peter Capaldi On Doctor Who Series 8: “A very positive experience”

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.

Taking part in the Mr Media podcast (which you can hear above), Peter Capaldi has chatted about how he found his first year in the TARDIS, and how he would like the Twelfth Doctor to be remembered.

Speaking to Bob Andelman, Capaldi – promoting the Inside the Mind of Leonardo da Vinci 3D short – also believes that he had no chocie but to accept the role of the Doctor, recalling, “I sensed fate was at work. I would not have been being true to myself if I had turned away from it.”

Pleasingly, despite also being aware that his Doctor isn’t universally popular (none have been, it’s not an issue) he takes time to praise the production team and fellow actors. “There’s nothing about it I find negative. It’s been a very positive experience because I’m working with great people and it’s a fun experience.’

Closing on the Doctor Who topic, Peter Capaldi declared that he would like his era to be remembered as being “mysterious and magical and fun. That’s just what Doctor Who is, a mysterious piece of magic in the world.”

We wonder how “magical” Last Christmas will be!

The post Peter Capaldi On Doctor Who Series 8: “A very positive experience” appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Awesome Minecraft Doctor Who Tributes You Should See

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.

Been wondering what the fuss is about with the Minecraft Doctor Who skins on the Xbox 360 and Xbox One? Basically, they make it a lot easier to bring characters from the show’s 51 years into a digital playground.

However, there are many users of Minecraft who go beyond playing the game as it is designed (which is as an open-ended sandbox in which you can do virtually anything) and instead use the characters and landscapes in the game to create scenes and stories. One such example is this Minecraft interpretation of Doctor Who‘s current opening titles…

There’s also this touching piece that portrays the First Doctor’s departure from granddaughter Susan in 1964’s The Dalek Invasion of Earth.

And finally, we found this, to show the full extent of just what is possible in Minecraft – a full Doctor Who adventure!

(Via BBC America)

The post Awesome Minecraft Doctor Who Tributes You Should See appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Amazing: Doctor Who Celebrated in Dominoes!

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 have never seen anything like this before, Kasterborites: a tribute to Doctor Who via the medium of dominoes falling over.

If you’re a child of the 1980s then you’ll probably be familiar with the old domino rally series of games, wherein the challenge was to build a vast course of small pieces of plastic falling over. (It’s worth noting that those games were a bit of a cheek as the dominoes were mostly attached to something by way of a hinge.)

The video above takes the shape of one of those record-breaking attempts that would headline John Craven’s Newsround 30-odd years ago, and it appears StickTrickDominoDude‘s entire home was used in order to produce this jaw-dropping exercise. Says the chap behind it, “This has been one of the biggest projects I’ve ever worked on! I love Doctor Who so I decided to make a screenlink about it! Please share this with any Doctor Who fan you know of!”

Have you done something amazing with dominoes? Do you dream of domino Daleks? Let us know!

(Via BBC America)

The post Amazing: Doctor Who Celebrated in Dominoes! appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Enjoy Every Doctor Who: Last Christmas Trailer Right Here

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.

We’ve brought you a gallery and a preview of Last Christmas, but we haven’t so far shared the various trailers that have been released for the 2014 Doctor Who Christmas special.

British viewers will be able to tune in from 6.15pm on BBC One and BBC One HD to enjoy Peter Capaldi’s first Christmas episode, while US subscribers to BBC America can catch it at the usual time, 9/8c.

You’ll recognise the trailer at the top of the page, but it’s certainly not the only one. We’ve compiled the various Last Christmas trailers that are available on YouTube and present them here for you now, complete with descriptions, to get you in the mood for the 2014 Doctor Who Christmas special.

First, the Children in Need preview:



And now, the trailers…

The Doctor and Clara meet Santa in one of the Time Lord’s most incredible adventures yet!

In the North Pole the Doctor and Clara are joined by a familiar figure… and his reindeer!

Trapped on an arctic base, under attack from terrifying creatures, who are you going to call? Santa Claus!

Something sinister is afoot… does the Doctor need a helping hand from Santa?

This is our penultimate clip, a trailer of various BBC One shows; you’ll have to wait until near the end, @33 seconds, to find the Doctor Who snippet.

We’ll finish with this fan made effort, which mashes scenes from The Time of the Doctor and those from the various Last Christmas trailers. It’s an interesting take…

Now sure when to tune in? Check our guide to Doctor Who‘s 2014 Christmas special Last Christmas screenings around the world.

The post Enjoy Every Doctor Who: Last Christmas Trailer Right Here appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Out Now: Trial of the Valeyard from Big Finish [TRAILER]

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 Sixth Doctor is back in the courtroom this month he is brought face to face with his evil future self in Trial of the Valeyard!

Starring Colin Baker as the Doctor, Michael Jayston as the Valeyard and the sadly recently departed Lynda Bellingham as the Inquisitor, Trial of the Valeyard was released as a subscriber special around 12 months ago and is now available as a general release! This sequel to the 1986 season long story Trial of a Time Lord reunites the original principle cast and teases much…

There is some evil in all of us – even the Doctor. Transported aboard the Time Lords’ orbiting courtroom, the Doctor once again encounters the Valeyard, an amalgamation of the darker sides of his nature. This time, however, the Doctor isn’t in the dock. This time, the Valeyard is the defendant, accused of a crime so terrible that the presiding Inquisitor is forbidden to reveal it even to the court, nor even to his counsel for the defence… the Doctor.

If the Valeyard is found guilty, he’ll be executed. Execute the Valeyard, and the secret of his origins dies with him. A secret that the Doctor is desperate to know… and which the Time Lords will stop at nothing to protect.  

Intrigued? This trailer should help…

Yeah, that got your attention! Written by Alan Barnes and Mike Maddox, Trial of the Valeyard is available right now on CD or to download from Big Finish.

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