Christian Cawley's Blog, page 172

Death in Heaven: A One-Hour Finale!

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.

Death in Heaven, the Series 8 finale, will be 60 minutes in length.

Originally hinted at by director, Rachel Talalay and further penned in by the Radio Times, the episode, starring Twelfth Doctor Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman as Clara Oswald, will be broadcast on BBCOne on Saturday 8th November at 8pm, concluding at 9pm.

@DrWhoExpert I think I can #spoiler and say that ep. 12 is longer than a standard episode, but not cinema-length.

— Rachel Talalay (@rtalalay) October 27, 2014

The first part of the finale, the brilliantly-named Dark Water, will air at 8:15pm on BBCOne this Saturday (as if you didn’t know that already!), and sees the Doctor and UNIT up against the might of Missy and the Cybermen. (So good to see the Cybermen again, who were last seen in 2013′s The Time of the Doctor, although their last full adventure was Nightmare in Silver.)

According to The Gallifrey Times, Death in Heaven will also air on Saturday, on BBC America at 9/8C.

The full cast list for Dark Water has been unveiled and –  POTENTIAL SPOILERS AHEAD! - reveal at least one surprise addition: Sheila Reid as Clara’s Gran!

Can you believe we’re almost at the end of Series 8 already?!

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What You Can Expect From Titan’s Doctor Who Comics in 2015!

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.

Titan comics have showcased their upcoming releases in a November preview containing three new releases from their Doctor Who lines – complete with both regular and subscription photo cover variants.

Doctor Who: The Twelfth Doctor #5 sees the Doctor, Clara and their allies split across two time zones as the clock counts down to the resurrection of the vengeful Kali. Will an ageless cult succeed where so many villains have failed? What chance does the Doctor have against a plan that has been in motion for thousands of years?

Find out in the pulse-pounding finale of The Swords of Kali!

Written by Robbie Morrison with art from Dave Taylor and a cover variant by Alice X. Zhang, created especially for the Doctor Who world tour, The Twelfth Doctor #5 will be released February 11, 2015.

In Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor #9 the Doctor decides that enough is enough - if SERVEYOUinc won’t stop plaguing him and his friends wherever they land, he’s going to hit them where it hurts – by buying a controlling interest in the company! But what does the Doctor’s corporate career mean for Alice, ARC and Jones? Is there a place for them in the Doctor’s bold new venture? And what kind of sting does SERVEYOUinc have left to deploy?

Written by Al Ewing with art by Boo Cook and a cover variant by Brian Williamson The Eleventh Doctor #9 is released February 18, 2015.

And finally we have Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor #10 where the Doctor and Gabby are back in New York after a terrifying excursion into the past, catching up with family and friends… until THE ECHO strikes, amplifying everyday noise into ear-shattering, mind-splinteringly debilitating waves of sound. What is the Echo – and can the Doctor and Gabby solve the mystery before the cacophony drives the city mad?

Plus: “Doctor… you are coming back?”

Written by Robbie Morrison with the fantastic Elena Casagrande and Arianna Florean back on art duties all the way through to #15 and the end of the first season (along with cover art for this issue by AJ). The Tenth Doctor #10 is released March 25, 2015.

The post What You Can Expect From Titan’s Doctor Who Comics in 2015! appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Jump Through Hoops For An Intriguing New Dark Water Clip

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 BBC has released a stunning clip from the first part of the Doctor Who Series 8 finale, Dark Water – but there’s a bit of hoop jumping required to see it.

Below you’ll see the tweet that provides the instructions, and waiting 90 seconds for a clip you’re possibly extremely interested in seeing (hey, you’re a Doctor Who fan, this is a Doctor Who fan site, you see what I’m getting at?) could prove especially trying.

Especially if you’re not a “Cumberbitch” (apologies, but it is – inexplicably in this age of greater focus on cross-gender equality – a term used regularly by fans of the Sherlock and Star Trek actor).

Worse still, there’s no way of skipping forwards to the moment the words “Doctor Who” appear in the video. However, the interactive nature of the video is impressive. Once you click on the show title, you’re taken to another video, one that gives you a nice glimpse of the Doctor, the Cybermen and Missy outside St Paul’s Cathedral from Dark Water, written by Steven Moffat and directed by Rachel Talalay

For an exclusive clip from Dark Water, see the new BBC drama trailer and click on 'Doctor Who' at about 90 seconds in http://t.co/iNHLVTNsc6

— Doctor Who Official (@bbcdoctorwho) October 29, 2014

Go on – that 90 second wait was worth it, wasn’t it?

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Fiona Cumming Talks Doctor Who Credentials

Drew Boynton 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.

Female directors are suddenly in Doctor Who‘s spotlight, with Sheree Folkson helming In the Forest of the Night and Rachel Talalay overseeing the upcoming Series 8 finale episodes. One director of the classic series–who also happens to be female–is Fiona Cumming, who worked with no less than four different Doctors.

She recently spoke to The Daily Record’s Scotland Now page and reminisced about her Doctor Who experiences through the years.

Cumming actually started as a BBC production assistant and floor manager on soap operas, but moved to Doctor Who after about a year. “I was put onto The Massacre in 1965 – so it’s now 48 years since I first worked on Doctor Who. Peter Purves was William Hartnell’s assistant at that time and the director was Paddy Russell, who had such a great reputation.”

She worked on the Second Doctor adventures The Highlanders and Seeds of Death, and “loved working with Pat Troughton”. The Highlanders is now famously one of the most sought-after lost stories because it features the first appearance of popular companion Jamie McCrimmon (Fraser Hines). At one point, Cumming thought she had found some of the lost footage, but it turned out to be something different entirely: “By 1967 I became a production assistant on The Highlanders with Pat Troughton, which was one of the lost stories, but there is a relic which I think I’ve still got. It was a piece of film in a tin and in the BBC… and then one day someone forwarded this to me, along with a note, saying it was ridiculous I was leaving archive material behind! What they didn’t realise was that it was just me with the clapperboard!”

After being an assistant on Jon Pertwee’s 1972 story The Mutants, Cumming went on to other shows and started directing. After gaining experience, she returned to Doctor Who and oversaw four stories for Fifth Doctor Peter Davison: Castrovalva, Snakedance, Enlightenment, and finally, 1984′s Planet of Fire. She really enjoyed working with the show’s producer, John Nathan-Turner, and its new young star, Davison: “Nowadays, it’s far more common with the likes of David Tennant and Matt Smith as the Doctor, but back then it was very unusual to have a younger Doctor. Until then he had always been an older man, with Bill Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker. [Davison] showed it worked.”

She helped out with the Planet of Fire DVD release, but these days, is mostly retired and living with her husband in Scotland.  Fiona Cumming is important to Doctor Who‘s history not only because of her gender and her long-time ties to the show, but also because she was entrusted to oversee the debuts of both the Fifth Doctor, and later, companion Peri Brown (Nicola Bryant).  She blazed a trail for not only the female Doctor Who directors of today, but also the male ones as well.

The post Fiona Cumming Talks Doctor Who Credentials appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Impossible Girl Or Secret Villain: Who Or What Is Clara Oswald?

James Lomond 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.

What. The. Fluid-link. Is going on?!

You will be aware, dear reader, that in the Next Time trailer following last Saturday’s (already overshadowed) episode about trees, we heard the words “Clara Oswald has never existed” uttered by what looked to be Clara herself. And to a Cyberman who was pointing a gun at her.

Scooch-in closer, have a sip of tea and pull the blanket tighter around you as we wrestle with this Mystery-Bomb. The internet is melting around us and we may be the last ones left to puzzle this out…

The game is most definitely afoot.

We also heard someone who looked like Clara speak rather tartly to the Doctor and tell him in a menacing tone that he’ll “never set foot” in his TARDIS again. We heard the Doctor say “Clara, what are you doing?” sounding as perplexed as we are. And we saw Clara strolling in an arch-villain sort of way towards three Cybermen. It looked as though she’d just emerged from a sort-of-baroque stasis pod with RIP above the door and a Cyber-eye branded chair. And there were lots of these pods…

So something is up. The rumblings online have already been brushed aside with suggestions that Clara was deliberately misleading the Cyberman – she’s bluffing. Don’t take it at face value. But if that’s the case what’s she doing in that pod – did she die and go to “heaven” to RIP like the other characters in the Missy snippets? If she “died” then when did it happen? And whatever’s going on she seems to have raised one of the Doctor’s usually fearsome eyebrows…

Missy is involved.

We’re going to go from the premise that this isn’t simply misdirection. There are things – long standing mysterious things – that need to be explained about Clara, like why the TARDIS really didn’t like her. Also we know an unidentified woman gave Clara the number to call the TARDIS in Bells of St John and that someone arranged for Clara and the Doctor to meet in the body-harvesting restaurant in Deep Breath. We also know that Missy claims to have “chosen” Clara (or something to do with her) and may well be behind those two apparent coincidences.

We’ve been here before.

And if the companion is not really the companion but someone (or something) else, this wouldn’t be the first time. Back in Series 6 we saw the Doctor reduce what we thought was Amy Pond to a puddle of liquid flesh when the told her she was really a remote control avatar. The real Amy being locked away and very-preggers on an asteroid. This kind of surprise is Moff’s MO and my feeling is that there’s something big he’s been building towards rather than just teasing us with trailer dialogue.

So if we’ve been watching a fake/ faux/ decoy-Clara… when did it happen? Was there ever a real Clara? The story we’ve been spun is that when the Doctor first met her, converted into an inmate of the Dalek Asylum, she turned out to be one of the time splinters sent to save the Doctor. Not the real thing but a *causal blip* made in her image and sent back to a point in the Doctor’s timeline to save him from the Great Intelligence.

There are hints along the way that there’s been something awry with her ever since the second meeting…

How impossible exactly?

Perhaps she’s not been “real” since she was first called the Impossible Girl? We know the TARDIS felt there was something up with her, locking her out in Hide and stopping her from finding her room in the Clara and the TARDIS minisode.

What did it know or detect? Even Vastra commented that there was something not “right” about her in The Crimson Horror. But that all seemed to stop after the events in The Name of the Doctor (unless you can think of any more?) Then in the trail, She Said, He Said, The Doctor thinks to himself how Clara is perfect for him – “too perfect” in fact. We know that the splinters existed to save the Doctor, but why would the original Clara – the one that stepped into his timeline – be perfect for him? Was Clara designed for the Doctor from the very beginning? Or moulded? Is this another case of a woman being an elaborate trap for the Doctor like River Snog? (No typo). Let the theorising commence!

First things first. Or second. Or maybe first…

One particular problem is the events in Name of the Doctor – did they happen or not? Clara stepped in to the Doctor’s timeline(s) in his TARDIS-tomb on Trenzalore which was foretold to be his final resting place. But then in Time of the Doctor, Clara got the Timelords to give him a new regeneration cycle and he didn’t die there.

Does this mean that Clara being the impossible girl and being splintered throughout the Doctor’s timeline never happened? Of course the Doctor could die on Trenzalore and be buried there in the far future. So we’re not certain. The Clara we see now was the original (or so it seemed) and she either was or was not splintered and sprinkled throughout the Doctor’s previous adventures wherever the Great Intelligence popped up. So we’ll consider both options where the splinters did happen and ones where they were relegated to a parallel universe…

I’m also going to ignore Clara being an hallucination as lots of people interact with her. Can’t see Moff going for a mass-hallucination. Right!

Cyberandroid.

This is the lamest of the theories. She’s been an android programmed to be perfect and to help the Doctor but to lead him inexorably towards whatever fate Missy and the Cybermen have in store. The Cybermen used fairly basic looking androids back in Earthshock and Others have pondered that there might be wiring behind that twinkly-eyed smile. I think this’d be a bit of a cop-out and surely the Doctor would have detected it ages ago? Also it would be a bit odd for there to be no attempt to activate the Clara Master Plan in Nightmare In Silver though perhaps those Cybermen were from before the Missy era?…

She’s Missy.

Either original Clara gets older, or a splinter of Clara avoids death (“run you clever boy and remember”) and gets older i.e. Missy. Hmm. For whatever reason she becomes evil and engineers her own history, bringing about her first meeting with the Doctor. Clara from the future was the lady in the shop… Now is she evil because the Cybermen got hold of her and turned her into a weapon, or is she a splinter who came to resent the fact that she only existing to save the Doctor and sacrifice herself?… Not so sure about this one.

She’s Missy’s Instrument of Darkness (Splinter version).

Perhaps Missy, whoever she is, has not only been harvesting people who come to their notional end at the hands of the Doctor, but also harvesting ALL of the splinter Claras that ever were. An army of Claras behind those RIP pods? Certainly epic enough but is it over-complicated? (Joke – when has that ever stopped the Moff!)

She’s Missy’s Instrument of Darkness (Original Clara version).

Perhaps Missy has simply chosen Clara as a likely candidate and somehow moulded her life and character to be the perfect companion to the Doctor. And as the perfect companion she is somehow the perfect weapon – the a route to the Doctor’s TARDIS or the perfect way of stopping him from defeating a Cyber-invasion? Genetically engineered? Cyber-implants? Did the Great Intelligence leave more than just an IT-skills patch in Bells of St John? Or subtle and repeated prompts by appearing and manipulating events throughout her timeline – a bit like Faction Paradox…

She’s a TARDIS (version 1 – utterly bonkers).

We don’t know who Missy is and whether she’s a cyberspace avatar or Time Lord or something else. But one theory is that she has a TARDIS and is using it to rescue people from death a split second before they cop-it. She takes them to “Heaven” but they’re not really dead – just rescued in the same way Journey Blue was rescued at the start of Into the Dalek. Perhaps Clara is Missy’s TARDIS – one of the walking, talking sentient Type-102 TARDISes from the 1990s/ 2000s New Adventure novels and BBC books? But she’s programmed not to realise it. Perhaps Missy is collecting an army ready for Cyberconversion inside Clara? She was present near(ish) most of the “deaths”, and it would explain how Missy could control or follow her so closely. It would also explain why the TARDIS objected so much to her being onboard (though that did seem to stop happening) and it would explain how she could suddenly seem to turn bad. It would also make the “never existed” comment make sense. Bit too bonkers though?

She’s a TARDIS (version 2 – less, but still bonkers).

She’s the Doctor’s TARDIS. She’s somehow a part of the TARDIS that’s been separated from the rest of it and is either in the employ of Missy OR is trying to avert some catastrophe that means she has to go over the Doctor’s head. Perhaps the TARDIS created her to be the perfect companion and sort things out and programmed her to believe she was a human from the start. But then why would the TARDIS dislike her? Though I suppose we don’t always necessarily like every aspect of ourselves. Is the TARDIS a bit of a control freak…

She’s a TARDIS (version 3 – undetermined bonkersness).

Fans have suggested that The Name of the Doctor scene where a Clara splinter directed the First Doctor and Susan to a different TARDIS involved changing history so that he stole a different TARDIS to the one we were used to and met as “Sexy” in The Doctor’s Wife. The theory goes that “Sexy” is aware of this timeline-shifting action and that it was facilitated through the Doctor’s timeline thingy in the Doctor’s tomb on Trenzalore. The theory goes further that the TARDIS created Clara to um… no that doesn’t work. I’m really confused. Please either ignore 7 or explain it to me!

She’s an Anti-Bad Wolf (but not a “Good Wolf” if you get me…)

She’s an Uber-Complex Space-Time Event (UCSTE, from hereon) a bit like Bad Wolf. Perhaps Clara is a consequence of something we’ve missed. Perhaps there’s some kind of Ancient Evil which Missy is in fact trying to combat? Perhaps Clara is a vessel to contain this and Missy “chose” her – but perhaps Clara’s inner monster gets the upper hand? Tricky to reconcile this with how “satanic” Michell Gomez has played Missy so far – she certainly seems like a bad’un. And then there’s the whole Cybermen part of the plot. Do you think the trailer might have been misdirecting us?

She’s bluffing.

BUT as that would obviously be lame and Moffat is far to clever for that – the bluff would have to be one that Clara used to fool both the Doctor AND her Missy/ Cyberiad masters in order to ultimately save the day. Or something.

Or, perhaps Danny has more to do with this than we realise. Perhaps what we’re seeing is Clara in cahoots with Missy because something happens to Danny? We do hear Clara’s voice in the trailer saying “time can be re-written”…

Right, Kasterborites: to WORK! Lets set about de-fusing this mystery-bomb if we can… (I know. But couldn’t resist). What do you think? Have you got it all worked out? More theories – subtle clues we’ve missed or glaring errors? How do we reconcile the Cybermen vs Missy vs Clara conundrum? Tell us below, and test the Internet’s melting point…

The post Impossible Girl Or Secret Villain: Who Or What Is Clara Oswald? appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Hallowe’en Week: Ghosts

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.

HALLOWE’EN WEEK: It’s a time for scares and surprises and things that go bump in the night. Doctor Who should be watched from behind the sofa, swamped in darkness. But how does the show deal with familiar horror tropes?

Today, we try to focus on blurry photos: they look like us but they pass through this world without leaving a footprint. They could offer us a glimpse beyond the veil. How do ghosts leave a lasting impression on Doctor Who?

Ghosts seem to be an apparition of our concerns about the afterlife and the unknown, two things that recur in horror. They perhaps stem from early beliefs in an unseen world integrating with our own – shamans and other mystics were always held in high regard – but can our modern-day sciences explain these theories away?

That’s an idea Doctor Who dwells upon: that strange occurrences are merely the result of science we don’t yet understand. But actual ghostly sightings in our favourite show are few and far between…

Timely Apparitions

The first notable mention of ghosts came in 1972′s Day of the Daleks, in which the Third Doctor, Jo Grant and UNIT visit Auderly House, the site of an imminent World Peace Conference, after its organiser, Sir Reginald Styles, witnesses a ghostly assassin. The Doctor insists there’s no such thing as ghosts – and of course, the show takes a rather unusual look at this potential glimpse into the afterlife.

It’s all timey-wimey.

Time travel is a major explanation for ghosts in the Whoniverse, as is the supernatural being merely the result of advanced technology. The TARDIS lets us live through lives long since lost. Just look at 2005′s Father’s Day in which Rose is given a little extra time with her Dad: he is basically a ghost, to Rose and then to the world between the time he’s pushed from the path of the car, and when he sacrifices himself to save everyone. In that little pocket of reality, he is a dead man walking.

The same could be said about the Cybermen. In Army of Ghosts (2006), they are literally mysterious apparitions – humanity seeing them as deceased loved ones returning – but as a whole, the Doctor argues that they died when they were converted.

Parallel universes offer a further explanation for ghosts, specifically in Warrior’s Gate (1981) in which the Tharils can travel between N-Space and E-Space. With strange figures phasing in and out of the castle, this gateway becomes a typical haunted ruin in the most unusual circumstances. It is merely transference of energy from one plane to another.

Energy can be neither created nor destroyed. Maybe our fascination with the afterlife is a way of pondering what happens to our (typically spiritual) energy. It is, according to Dr. Nikola Tesla, a key to understanding: “If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration,” the futurist argued. Probably the most memorable example of a haunted house is the Seventh Doctor serial, Ghost Light: in a fine example of a paradox, the Doctor takes Ace there to exorcise her demons, and thus creates her demons in the first place! But it all occurs because of the dissipation of Light. It’s notable that this 1989 story centres on evolution, and perhaps this form of dispersal is the ultimate step: to ‘ascend’ to a higher plane of existence, released from a physical form – that was, after all, the Time Lord’s ultimate plan at the end of the Time War, according to 2010′s The End of Time!

These Four Walls

A further mention of haunted houses comes in 1977′s Image of the Fendahl; the woods around Fetch Priory were said to be haunted. But a ‘fetch’ is quite different to a ghost. A fetch is a supernatural double of a living person, commonly a sign of impending death. The idea likely originated in Irish folklore, finding traction in the 1825 book, Tales of the O’Hara Family, by Michael and John Banim (the latter of whom pondered on The Fetches, “so prevalent in this part of Ireland”).

Fetch Priory is the typical haunted house, a notion many of us believe in – to the point that, at the New York Supreme Court in 1991, it was ruled that a seller in certain circumstances had to disclose whether a house had a reputation for hauntings!

There are several instances in which a property serves the same narrative function as a traditional haunted house without the need of ghosts: Greystark Hall, the run-down orphanage in 2011′s Day of the Moon is essentially run by the Silence, figures that permeate the shadows of the endless corridors; Winter Quay in the following year’s The Angels Take Manhattan is a place no one escapes from, populated by the dead; and 1984′s The Awakening mixes time travel with psychic energy to stalk the church of Little Hodcombe.

Perhaps the most interesting examination of ghosts (and a sublime example of a haunted house) is last year’s Hide. Not only does it mull over ideas of energy dispersal but the Neil Cross-penned episode furthermore puts the whole character of the Doctor (and his relationships) in a whole new perspective.

In a chilling montage, the Doctor and Clara witness the life-cycle of Earth, and while the Time Lord is “okay with that,” his companion most certainly is not. “To you, I haven’t been born yet – and to you I’ve been dead 100 billion years,” she argues. “Is my body out there somewhere in the ground?” The Doctor agrees that it likely is. She goes on: “But here we are, talking. So I am a ghost. To you, I’m a ghost. We’re all ghosts to you. We must be nothing.”

Thanks to time travel, death becomes somewhat obsolete: to any higher species, we are all dead people walking. It really is a scary thought – but one hinted at in 1970′s Inferno. The Doctor has witnessed the deaths of his friends (or at least their parallel world counterparts) and must stop it happening again. He has seen their demise and it waits in their future. The Doctor, then, is merely delaying the inevitable whenever and wherever the TARDIS lands.

The actual ‘ghost’ in Hide is, once more, a misinterpretation of scientific theory, and talk of the screaming woman echo back throughout the history of Caliburn House. She is called the “Caliburn Ghast” (‘ghost’ coming from the Old English, gást); “The Wraith of the Lady” (‘wraith’ being a Scottish word for ‘ghost’); “the Maiden in the Dark”; and “the Witch of the Well.”

What The Dickens?!

However, its origins lie in a much-loved 1972 Nigel Kneale drama, The Stone Tape. So influential was this 90-minute tale that it became synonymous with a rationale on ghosts – and it’s a concept Doctor Who frequently leans on.

Upon hearing that Amy’s house had been broken into, the Eleventh Doctor explains in The Pandorica Opens (2010): “If they’ve been to her house, they could have used her psychic residue. Structures can hold memories; that’s why houses have ghosts.” This is known as residual haunting, that emotional events can be recorded in inanimate matter like rock and replayed: stone acting as tape. But while that’s where it gets its best-known name from, the theory was first put forward by archaeologist, Thomas Charles Lethbridge in 1961. After becoming disillusioned with his peers, he and his wife, Mina, moved to Hole House, Devon, which he soon believed haunted.

He attempted to study the paranormal in as scientific a manner as possible, and concluded that ghosts were, in fact, recordings of past or future events. He continued on this line of thinking in his book, ESP – Beyond Time and Distance, which theorised that dowsing could detect energy rays emitted from every object.

Residual haunting became more widely known when it was used in The Stone Tape – and one reason for its original cult status was the BBC’s decision to air this ghost story on Christmas Day 1972.

That definitely wasn’t the first ghost story set at Christmas, though: Winter is, without doubt, the ideal time for horror tales and they became increasingly popular in the Victorian era. Leeds Metropolitan University’s Professor Ruth Robbins has chalked this up to the rise of periodicals such as The Strand Magazine in which two genres prevailed: detective stories (like Sherlock Holmes), and ghost stories.

Perhaps Charles Dickens’ most recognised classic, A Christmas Carol was perfect for an audience gobbling up short stories and Penny Dreadfuls. It’s a novella that’s proved very influential to Doctor Who, spawning at least two stories – one of which even steals the book’s name!

In the 2010 Christmas special, the Doctor becomes a ghost, but Dickens’ first full appearance in Doctor Who came in 2005′s The Unquiet Dead, suitably battling ghosts… or so it seems. The Gelth offer an intriguing glimpse into the mind of the author, who trod the line between the psychological and the supernatural. Biographer, John Forster described him as having “a hankering after ghosts.” Indeed, his tales of ghosts, notably Four Ghost Stories, appeared in All the Year Round and Household Words. Within a month of his death, spiritualists (many of whom he had angered) claimed to have been visited by Dickens’ ghost, some even relaying the supposed ending to his unfinished work, The Mystery of Edwin Drood.

Mark Gatiss, a fan of A Christmas Carol, wanted to set The Unquiet Dead at Christmas (the sole festive episode to star the Ninth Doctor), and included a scene with the Gelth appearing on the knocker of a door, parallel to a scene in the original book. Dickens wrote:

“Now, it is a fact, that there was nothing at all particular about the knocker on the door, except that it was very large. It is also a fact, that Scrooge had seen it, night and morning, during his whole residence in that place; also that Scrooge had as little of what is called fancy about him as any man in the City of London, even including – which is a bold word – the corporation, aldermen, and livery. Let it also be borne in mind that Scrooge had not bestowed one thought on Marley, since his last mention of his seven-year’s dead partner that afternoon. And then let any man explain to me, if he can, how it happened that Scrooge, having his key in the lock of the door, saw in the knocker, without its undergoing any intermediate process of change: not a knocker, but Marley’s face.”

His deceased friend was then described as “with ghostly spectacles turned up upon its ghostly forehead. The hair was curiously stirred, as if by breath or hot-air; and, though the eyes were wide open, they were perfectly motionless.”

Isolation and Horizons

Two Doctor Who serials in particular borrow from a further ghost tale: that of the Flying Dutchman. Legends concerning ghost ships have existed since at least the 18th Century, but this ship, destined to sail forever with its doomed crew, was first noted in the memoir, A Voyage to Botany Bay (1795). George Barrington wrote:

“In the night watch some of the people saw, or imagined they saw, a vessel standing for them under a press of sail, as though she would run them down: one in particular affirmed it was the ship that had foundered in the former gale, and that it must certainly be her, or the apparition of her; but on its clearing up, the object, a dark thick cloud, disappeared.”

It was said seeing the Flying Dutchman was a portent of doom – but Barrington lived until December 1804!

The legend was expanded upon by Samuel T. Coleridge in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, and this links with 2011′s The Curse of the Black Spot where Captain Avery’s ship remained becalmed. Coleridge described this situation as:

“Day after day, day after day,

We stuck, nor breath nor motion;

As idle as a painted ship

Upon a painted ocean.”

 This ‘sitting duck’ dilemma is in opposition to Doctor Who‘s previous story focusing on ghost ships: in Enlightenment (1983), the Eternals exist beyond time and have little regard for humanity’s mortality. There is something ghostly about them – especially their plight. They may exist outside of the “small domain” of time, but their endless existence stretches out before them and they constantly look for something to entertain them, to ground them, which must surely haunt their every moment.

Tracks of Tears

Doctor Who frequently ponders over the afterlife, but not often ghosts in particular. But Hide and A Christmas Carol provide one further intriguing glimpse at ghosts, or more specifically, at our central character. We may all be ghosts to the Doctor, but maybe he is the same to us. The fact that Clara’s grave is out there somewhere foreshadows The Name of the Doctor.

In the Series 7 finale, he also tells Clara that his previous incarnations are his ghosts: after so many regenerations, so many faces all dotted around the universe, they, too, are dead men walking. But that’s a story for another day…

The post Hallowe’en Week: Ghosts appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Danny Offends, AMC Invests in BBC America, Moffat Talks Live & More!

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.

Welcome to another rousing rendition of the Kasterborous News Blast! Today, did we hear a Danny correctly last weekend, the Doctor caught with a hand in his pants, AMC gets a stake in BBC America, The Doctor comes to the Drama Channel, and more. Let’s take a look, shall we?

Danny’s Expletive and Matt’s Hand Placement

UnrealityPrimetime is running a couple of Doctor Who related news items. First up, Samuel Anderson’s delivery of one of his lines from last week’s excellent Frontline has some Whovians wondering if Danny Pink has had a sudden change in character. When speaking with Clara via mobile, Danny speaks the line, “Got our bench.” Simple and harmless enough!

However a handful of fans took to Facebook and Twitter to express their displeasure when they heard that same line, but thought they heard Danny say, “what up, bitch?” Having watched the episode twice and skimmed through to re-listen to the exchange, it’s obviously not what those fans thought (though inappropriate as it would have been, that could have been a humorous addition).

They’re also reporting that former Doctor Who star Matt Smith has been photographed with one hand down his pants adjusting…himself. The Sun is running the photo and all I can say is for God’s sake, sometimes everyone has something that they need to adjust. Move along; nothing to see here.

The Doctor and the Walking Dead?

AMC has invested 200 million dollars in BBC America and will take over the operations of the network. According to a report from Variety, this will give the American television network a 49.9% stake in the network, while BBC Worldwide retains a controlling stake at 50.1%. While this is probably a good business move for both parties, the real question is can we see a Doctor Who/Walking Dead crossover? Not that anyone was ever really hoping for that, but the Doctor taking on hordes of proper undead monsters could make for a compelling story.

The Drama Channel to Air Doctor Who

The Drama Channel has announced that they’ll begin screening Doctor Who on Sunday afternoons beginning November 2nd. Each Sunday will bring a different Doctor and story. They’re beginning with the Hartnell Doctor classic, the Aztecs. The trailer for the run of episodes can be seen here. (H/t Michael)

Full Size TARDIS Built for Marriage Proposal

It would seem that Whovian lurve is in the air for a couple that are fans of the programme. According to Design Taxi, Bill Condrich took the occasion of proposing to his girlfriend to build a replica TARDIS to aid in his efforts. Condrich was quoted as saying “there was no better reason to build a TARDIS.” For the record, she did say yes. Congratulations to the couple!

Phil Murphy Interviewed

Den of Geek caught up with Phil Murphy, the man behind the upcoming Doctor Who, Symphonic Spectacular, asked several questions about the event. The best bit is on the evolution of the music used for the show: “It has evolved, yes. And each time we’ve done the Doctor Who Symphonic Spectacular we’ve added new content. We’ve had to make difficult decisions about what goes in. This one’s going to be a really difficult one to get right, because we think the show as it stands is great, but it doesn’t have any Peter Capaldi Doctor stuff. So we have to take things out and replace it with new material.

There are some real favourites in there, particularly one or two things that I’ve identified with from watching David Tennant and Matt Smith that won’t be included. A bit like a director cutting a film. We’re going to have to lose some pieces that I really love! That’s kind of what’s exciting about this thought, that we can keep changing the content every year. If they keep making it, and bringing new things in!”

Doctor Who: Anatomy of a Hit to Feature Steven Moffat

November 11th will find a special event taking place in London taking a behind the scenes look at Series 8. The event, held by Royal Television Society, will feature Steven Moffat, Nikki Wilson, and BBC Controller Ben Stephenson detailing how Capaldi’s Doctor went from draft to televised episodes. It’s set to be hosted by Boyd Hilton, and by all accounts, should be an interesting evening for fans.

Tickets are on sale now.

That’s it for the news blast today! Hope you enjoyed the ride and feel free to share your thoughts below! Geronimo!

The post Danny Offends, AMC Invests in BBC America, Moffat Talks Live & More! appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Ahaaah: Number Four Hits Doctor Who Legacy At Last!

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 weekend is your chance to get the Fourth Doctor into Doctor Who Legacy at last! Developers Tiny Rebel Games have released a special code that can be entered into the game to unlock Tom Baker’s memorable incarnation – INDOMITABLE!

An early-access promotion (meaning he’ll be along later for everyone who misses this opportunity) the code will need to be entered before midnight PST on Sunday 26th October. In the game, open Options > Promo and then add this code:

2476-5993-9566-8387

It’s only polite to head over to Kotaku to say thank you, right?

Meanwhile, there is another Doctor Who Legacy code that you might be interested in – the TARDIS siege mode from last week’s episode Flatline! Expiring on November 3rd, the code will redress your TARDIS, although it will only work if you have the police box as an ally. It’s best to add the code anyway for when you eventually unlock the TARDIS:

2472-9796-3989-6897

Great new updates from Doctor Who Legacy’s developers Tiny Rebel Games, we think you’ll agree!

 

The post Ahaaah: Number Four Hits Doctor Who Legacy At Last! appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

“Clara Oswald has never existed” [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.

:O The Next Time trailer that followed In The Forest Of The Night has started to slowly burn the Internet, much like the coronal mass ejection that topped Frank Cottrell Boyce’s rather unusual-yet-fascinating episode tonight.

I don’t think we need to repeat that next week’s Dark Water is the first part of the Series 8 finale, but just in case: Dark Water is the first part of the Series 8 finale. This means that the stakes – whatever they are (and they might be Clara) are incredibly high.

Steven Moffat seems – from the trailer alone, or course – to have crafted an action-packed opener to the two-part finale, which welcomes back Jemma Redgrave as Kate (Lethbridge) Stewart and UNIT, and gives us the Nightmare in Silver Cybermen (time travel?)

The dialogue throughout the trailer is cryptic, and at least one person knows who Missy is. Perhaps most interesting is the theory that she perhaps isn’t the “Big Bad” of Series 8, and this trailer doesn’t exactly paint her as a villain.

But we think what will stay with you this week until Dark Water airs at 8.20 on BBC One (9/8c on BBC America) is that canon-bending statement from the Doctor’s companion:

“Clara Oswald has never existed!”

(Oh, and the flying Cybermen, of course.)

I doubt we even need to discuss exactly how that went down on Tumblr…

The post “Clara Oswald has never existed” [TRAILER] appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

What You Thought Of In The Forest Of The Night! [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.

That’s ten episodes down and two to go – but how did you find In The Forest Of The Night? Doctor Who series 8 welcomed Frank Cottrell Boyce to the show with this week’s script, but was it a case of a big name and no substance, or was this another excellent episode?

Every week, we like to poll our readers and find out just what they thought. This year, we’re hoping to compile opinions from all of the episodes into a single feature article at the end of the series, so consider the next few minutes as a means of aiding our research!

You should know the routine by now. Leave your thoughts in the comments box at the bottom of the page after voting in the poll below.

Take Our Poll

This poll will close on Sunday evening, so don’t hesitate to record your thoughts!

Remember when you leave your comments below that they might appear in our midweek audience reaction article. There is no prize, we might add, other than the warm fuzzy feeling of satisfaction brought on by knowing someone liked your comment enough to repeat it…

Finally, be considerate to other readers who may not have seen In The Forest Of The Night yet.

The post What You Thought Of In The Forest Of The Night! [POLL] appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.