Christian Cawley's Blog, page 205

Doctor Who Figurine Collection & Emperor Dalek On EBay

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.

So, the time has come: Kasterborous editor Christian Cawley is selling his Doctor Who Figurine Collection um, collection.

Up for auction on eBay right now are the Doctor Who Figurine Collection issues 1-19 plus 3 special issues, and all related figurines. Of these, some pieces have been opened, others have remained sealed. All are in mint condition in their original boxes, and magazines have been filed in the official folders.

The highlights of the collection are undoubtedly the Emperor Dalek (The Parting of the Ways), Slitheen and the Silent, although the Ice Warrior (Cold War) is particularly impressive.

The Doctor Who Figurine Collection has so far featured 3 Daleks and Davros.

As these were purchased as subscription copies, there are no marks on the magazines where the figurines were attached, as they were shipped together in boxes. You can see further images on eBay now; if you’re interested, bid soon as the auction ends on Friday evening.

At the time of writing, the auction stood at a little over £10! Also, don’t miss my other auctions, for a pair of Weta Workshop crafted limited edition statues of the Fourth Doctor and Davros from Genesis of the Daleks and the Dalek Weta Statue from Dalek.

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Peter Capaldi Interviewed in The Big Issue

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.

You’ve not got long to grab the current issue of The Big Issue, which features a Peter Capaldi interview about Doctor Who and Glasgow School of Art.

Issue #1115 is available from licensed vendors across the UK now, but be fast – the next one goes on sale Monday! The magazine, priced £2.50, boasts:

Ahead of his much anticipated screen debut, Peter Capaldi tells Adrian Lobb how he’s waited a lifetime to play the Doctor, on how it feels to have two culturally defining roles in his career and on Glasgow School Of Art’s place in creating Doctor Who.

There are about 2,000 vendors across the nation, selling roughly 82,000 copies a week. It’s a really great cause, helping people to get themselves back on their feet after nights on the streets, so if the Doctor cropping up on the (very cool) cover sells a few extra copies, that’s certainly a good thing!

In the mag, Capaldi says he’s annoyed at how the UK government treats the country’s youth. “It may sound nightmarish to some people now, but the government paid for you to be educated, because they believed it was a civic responsibility,” he says, recalling his days at the Glasgow School of Art. “I certainly would not be here, being Doctor Who, if they hadn’t done that.”

Peter Capaldi was also interviewed in Shortlist last week, and it’s nice to see the press as excited by the new Doc as us Whovians.

Lend a helping hand by buying Big Issue #1115 now.

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Doctor Who Magazine Special: The Year of the Doctor

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.

Doctor Who Magazine celebrates the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who with the new Special Edition, The Year of the Doctor.

Researched and compiled by the ever-reliable Andrew Pixley, this guide takes readers behind the scenes on arguably the most important year for Doctor Who so far. The 100-page special is chock-full of previously unpublished photos; day-to-day details from writing to casting announcement, filming to post-production; ratings; full cast and crew listings; and hundreds of fascinating facts.

The Year of the Doctor covers the 50th Anniversary Special The Day of the Doctor; the Eighth Doctor minisode The Night of the Doctor; Matt Smith’s final story The Time of Doctor; the drama based on the origins of Who, An Adventure in Space and Time; the hilarious The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot; Doctor Who at the Proms 2013; the Brian Cox lecture The Science of Doctor Who; BBC3′s Doctor Who: The Ultimate Guide; CBBC’s Me, You and Doctor Who; Doctor Who Live: The Afterparty (which should be… interesting), and then some!

Actually, isn’t it odd that the 50th anniversary DVD and Blu-ray collections reportedly don’t include Me, You and Doctor Who?

This, sadly, is the last Special Edition to focus on the Matt Smith era of Doctor Who.

The Year of the Doctor is on sale now, priced £5.99.

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Out Now: The Classic Doctor Who DVD Compendium!

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.

The physical format may be passing into the ethereal but for fans and collectors alike, the sight of a perfectly level shelf containing chronologically ordered, correctly sleeved Doctor Who DVDs is enough to make hearts sing.

When the range began in 2000, many Doctor Who adventures were still being issued on fuzzy old VHS (but who doesn’t love the old sleeves, right?) but with the burgeoning medium came superior audio and visual qualities, intuitive playback functions, episodes that were digitally restored from the best surviving source materials to bring them back to (or even exceed) their original broadcast quality.

Unshackled from the VHS spools, DVDs offered higher storage capabilities, giving producers extra space to offer fans an increasingly sophisticated range of additional features that examined the programme’s production and legacy – the Doctor Who range fast became one of a handful of DVD producers, like Arrow Film or Eureka, run by fans for fans.

Needless to say, regardless of the quality of the episodes themselves, each release was and still is a treasure trove of exclusive and, in some cases, familiar facts and features designed to enhance the nostalgic, carefully crafted feel of each disc.

Available now, The Classic Doctor Who DVD Compendium complied by Paul Smith –  a guide to the entire range (well, not quite the entire range, seeing as The Underwater Menace‘s future is in question) on DVD of the shows run from 1963 to 1996 – is the perfect companion for fans both old and new.

It’s part buying guide for those new to or still collecting the discs, helping them compare releases and select which one they want to get next, and part catalogue for long-time buyers whose collection is complete, enabling them to quickly find any item to watch again.

Providing story summaries, without giving away spoilers for those yet to see the episodes; connections to other adventures to help viewers decide what to buy or watch next; outlines of the restoration techniques used for each release; and more comprehensive descriptions of every extra than can be found elsewhere.

There are also five appendices covering supplementary releases of Classic Who episodes and related programmes; a full list of items hidden on the discs as ‘Easter eggs’ and how to find them; details of the DVDs’ releases in other countries; and more. Plus to help collectors find specific contents, there are multiple indexes cataloguing the more frequent extras, key participants in the audio commentaries, recurring features, and a full index of contributors to the special features.

Paul Smith is the author and designer of last year’s Time and Space Visualiser: The Story and History of Doctor Who as Data Visualisations and 2011’s The Wonderful Book of Dr Who 1965, a tongue-in-cheek look at the early days of the series in a modern style.

The Classic Doctor Who DVD Compendium by Paul Smith is available print-on-demand from Amazon for £14.90 or as an ebook for £9.60.

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Series 8, Episode 2: Into The Dalek Synopsis

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.

The title for episode 2 of Series 8 has finally been confirmed by the BBC: Into The Dalek promises the Twelfth Doctor battling those menaces from Skaro.

But what’s it all about?

A Dalek fleet surrounds a lone rebel ship, and only the Doctor can help them now… With the Doctor facing his greatest enemy, he needs Clara by his side.

Confronted with a decision that could change the Daleks forever he is forced to examine his conscience. Will he find the answer to the question, am I a good man?

The episode, roughly 45 minutes long and guest-starring Michael Smiley (Luther; Ripper Street), is written by Phil Ford, whose only previous credit on Doctor Who is as a co-writer on the superb The Waters of Mars. But he’s also written an episode of Torchwood (Something Borrowed, in which a pregnant Gwen goes up the aisle), and was headwriter from Series 2 of The Sarah Jane Adventures. For that show’s final series, he wrote both Sky and The Curse of Clyde Langer, the latter of which won him the Writer’s Guild of Great Britain’s Best Children’s TV Script Award.

This all bodes well for Into the Dalek!

Like Deep Breath, Into The Dalek is directed by Ben Wheatley (The Kill List), so many are expecting the start of this series to be very dark!

We’ll see what the Twelfth Doctor makes of the Daleks on 30th August…

The post Series 8, Episode 2: Into The Dalek Synopsis appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

News Blast: Leaks, Christmas… and Tom Baker: The Movie!

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

Get set for an invaluable, indefatigable, incomparable Kasterborous News Blast! Today we bring news of villainous vestments, winter with Wilmhurst, lamentable leaking, blending with Baker Street and a Baker biopic!

Don’t say we didn’t warn you…

Masterful Get-Up

You know how a photo can sometimes say so much more than the moving image? That’s very much the case with this snap of John Simm playing the Master in The Sound of Drums way back in Series 3.

Jolly nice coat he’s got there, eh? Now, where have we seen one of those…? What? What? WHAT? This surely means one of three things. 1. The Twelfth Doctor is a frugal fellow who’s not averse to wearing hand-me downs. 2. BBC budget cuts are having more of a impact than we thought. 3. The new Doctor’s costume is a none-too-subtle hint that he’s not really the Doctor at all! Gadzooks!! Can it be?!

(With thanks to Pengo Jackso)

Christmas with Paul

As we all eagerly look forward to Series 8 debuting next week, the ever fluid world of Doctor Who moves on apace. Plans are kicking in for the 2014 Christmas special with the appointment of Paul Wilmhurst to direct what will be the tenth (count ‘em) festive episode.

Wilmhurst has helmed episodes 7 and 8 of the next series and has an extensive CV, including Strike Back, Da Vinci’s Demons and Law and Order:UK. Soon be Christmas!

(Via DWTV.)

Episode 2 Leaks…

Perhaps the most tiresomely predictable news of the day is that the second episode of the upcoming run has emerged online (big sigh). Hailing from the same source as the unauthorised copy of Deep Breath, the episode is apparently in the same unfinished state, with music and effects missing.

Oh, and it’s in black and white. Seriously, don’t bother with this one…

Killjoys Blocking Crossover

The prospect of a Doctor Who-Sherlock crossover has reared its head again, with Steven Moffat suggesting that he’d be all in favour.. .if it weren’t for those pesky colleagues of his setting their jaws dead against it.

“Look I’m going to come clean on this: I would,” revealed Moffat. “Go speak to Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman, Mark Gatiss and Sue Vertue, okay? They’re all in the way. I’m not the killjoy, it’s that lot. It’s probably not going to happen.” The showrunner went on to credit Mark Gatiss for making the eminently sensible point that this kind of thing is always better in your imagination than in reality. For what it’s worth, my money’s still on a Comic Relief or Children in Need skit in a year or two…

Casting Call for Tom Baker – The Movie!

Award for most fun item of the day has to go to the news that The Letter, a low budget take on Tom Baker’s time as the Doctor, has put out a call for actors to do a day’s filming in an intriguing range of roles. If you fancy yourself as Barry Letts, Lis Sladen or Nick Courtney this could be your chance to shine. Badging itself as the story of “how a chance letter to the BBC when working as a builders labourer lead to him becoming the most iconic Doctor Who,” the producers promise food, lifts and a deferred profit share to their cast. Let us know if you get the call!

What are your thoughts on today’s news, dear readers? Think Doctor #12 is actually the Master? Think anyone watching the leaked episode 2 should be sacrificed to the Daleks? Think you might try out for a role in Tom Baker: The Movie because there are sure to be jelly babies on set? Let us know in the usual manner (commenting below, not shouting from a street corner)…

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Jenna Coleman On Her New Doctor And Danny Pink

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.

It is really quite interesting, the predicament that the incumbent companion finds themselves in when facing a newly regenerated Doctor. Indeed, the range of experiences can go from a Ted Nugent style ‘Stranglehold’ (a la Colin Baker’s Doctor and Peri) to a severe case of grief for the former and mistrust of the new Doctor (here’s looking at you, Rose Tyler).

With just under two weeks to go until Deep Breath hits our television sets, the question on our minds has to be what exactly can we expect Clara Oswald to face with Peter Capaldi’s Doctor? Fortunately for us, dear readers, the question is popular enough that the BBC has taken time to catch up with Jenna Coleman and give us some juicy insight into Capaldi’s inaugural series and what effect the new Doctor will have on Clara!

Regarding the effect the new Doctor has on Clara:

“It unbalances her and throws everything up in the air. She has gone from feeling safe – in moments of danger the Doctor would catch her – and thinking she had it all sussed, then suddenly this new guy has come along who she can’t quite access in the same way…her best friend is a changed person, and it is very difficult for her to accept that and move forward.”

On her relationship with the Doctor:

“What I think is really good about it is it’s an unlikely friendship. Even if she wanted to leave, she can’t, because she’s bonded to him. He absolutely infuriates her. He annoys her. No one else can wind her up quite like it – but she just loves him. The friendship is strange and charming.”

She also spills some details on how her travels affect her life back on Earth and what the mysterious Danny Pink has to do with Clara:

“She’s trying to keep a lid on it, and she arrives back at school soaking wet with seaweed on her shoulder for example, and she has to explain that. It’s a theme throughout the series, lying and why we lie, lying to protect someone you love. It’s this web of lies that she gets herself tangled in. She meets a man called Danny Pink – a teacher – who’s charming and lovely. He’s that perfect boyfriend really and is very supportive, but he doesn’t know anything about this double life she lives. She tries to hide it from him whilst at the same time falling in love. She becomes very torn between the two. It’s almost as if she’s having an affair, without having an affair, but the lying becomes more and more. Basically she’s trying to manage the two, and have these two men in her life. It becomes quite a hurtful thing and quite a hard thing for her because she’s totally torn between the two, and trying to have both at once without being able to do it successfully.”

For those who have unjustly said that Clara has never been fully developed as a character and only used as a plot device, it sounds like you’ll be getting the meat and potatoes of character development you’ve been wanting and perceive to be lacking in Clara as a companion. Also, Danny Pink…the smart bet is that he’s probably more than he seems. Whether that manifests as a villainous arc (some rumours surrounding his casting suggested he might be the Master in disguise, though Moffat has been publicly denying the Master’s return as of late) or as the catalyst for seeing the departure of Clara as a companion (as Coleman’s emergence on Twitter could indicate), it is yet to be seen.

The rest of the interview can be found at the link below. Deep Breath premieres on Saturday 23rd August 2014 at 7:50. What do you think about the arc the relationship between Clara and the Doctor appears to be taking? Are you buying the apparent “boyfriend” role that Samuel Anderson’s Danny Pink is supposedly playing? Let us know in the comments section!

**Writer’s note: for those of you who may not be classic rock fans, the Nugent reference is to the 1975 track, Stranglehold. It’s a pretty solid tune. Carry on!

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Stunning Series 8 Bluray/DVD Cover Listed In Australian Stores

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

It may seem strange to be thinking about buying a box set of Series 8 of Doctor Who before you’ve seen little more than snippets of a dinosaur crunching his way through London and the new Doctor making poor Clara all uncomfortable, but plans are clicking into play for the new Doctor’s first run to appear on shiny disc.

While the standard edition’s artwork (a holding image of Capaldi’s striking that pose in his first photo shoot in costume) is still labelled TBC on retailers’ sites, a Australian seller has given a preview as to what the limited collectors’ version will come wrapped in, at least in that part of the world.

JB Hi-Fi show a smart looking, understated cover featuring a architect’s drawing of the good ship TARDIS, complete with measurements. So if you want to knock up a police box after you’ve enjoyed the Doctor’s thrilling battles with Cybermen, Daleks and all those other villains we don’t even know about yet, you can.

No word yet as to what extras we can look forward to, but no doubt this information won’t be too far off. In this post-Confidential era there’s certainly room for BBC Worldwide to go to town on bumping these sets up with unscreened behind the scenes material.

The box set will hit the shops a matter of days after the conclusion of the series (November 17 in the UK, a couple of days later in Australia). A standalone release of Deep Breath is also in the offing in early September.

(With thanks to Robert)

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So, Who Wants To See The Twelfth Doctor Breakdancing?

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.

As you know, fresh from wrapping up the shoot for Series 8, Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman (does anyone else miss the “Louise”?) were whisked away on a promotional world tour.

They’ve received Big Love from the UK, South Korea and most recently touched down in Australia to meet the fans. In this clip from the OZ Q&A Jenna recalls the process of filming the Twelfth Doctor’s first moments in the regeneration scene including some alternative takes…

“That is what Peter is like as an actor as well – just trying things, throwing things at the wall, throwing different ideas. I mean, there was singing and… breakdancing, I remembered today, in some of the regeneration scene takes.”

Surprised, the interviewer summarises: “Breakdancing?!..”

The Doctor has often erratic and unpredictable immediately after a regeneration – the Sixth Doctor tried to throttle his companion and the Fourth engaged Harry Sullivan in skipping-stare contest. In fact the very first regeneration was imagined as being like a bad trip on LSD…

But breakdancing? Patrick Troughton’s first scenes from 1966 are sadly lost apart from a handful of telesnap photos and tiny snippets from a fan pointing a handheld film camera at the TV screen from when it was broadcast. This reconstruction gives a bit of an idea – hallucinations, confusion, grimacing and dubious fashion choices… but no breakdancing.

I don’t know about you, dear reader, but I MUST see Capaldi’s wilder alternative first scenes. As far as Who DVD extras are concerned nothing else matters. Who’s with me? And any favourite post-regeneration moments? First scene “dos” and “don’ts”? Tell us below…

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It Can’t Come Soon Enough: Dark Eyes 3!

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.

Perhaps my favorite quote about Paul McGann’s work with Big Finish comes from Doctor Who producer, Steven Moffat: “Recently, on TV, we saw how the Paul McGann Doctor died – now it’s time to find out how he lived.”

The quote was in regards to the award-winning Big Finish series, Doctor Who: Dark Eyes, and I am pleased to report that the third installment, Dark Eyes 3, is set for release in November. The four-part audio story finds the Doctor racing to save his friend Molly O’Sullivan (Ruth Bradley) from the fiendish schemes of The Master (Alex Macqueen):

“In his quest for universal domination, the Master plans to exploit the terrifying Infinite Warriors of the mysterious Eminence. The Doctor’s friend, Molly, is key to that plan’s execution, and now, aided by corrupted genius Sally Armstrong, the Master is close to success. Paranoid and perplexed after his recent experience, the Doctor skirts the fringes of the fifty-year conflict between humanity and the Infinite Armies. Wary of changing the course of history, he fears that to fight the Eminence would be to do the Daleks’ bidding. But when Time Lord CIA agent Narvin provides the impetus for the Doctor to act, Liv Chenka joins him in a desperate race to save their friend and stop the Master. As the Doctor goes head to head with his oldest and deadliest rival, this war is about to get very personal indeed…”

The story is written by Matt Fitton and is broken down into four parts: The Death of Hope, The Reviled, Masterplan, and Rule of the Eminence. If all of this wasn’t exciting enough, Doctor Who alum and wife of Tenth Doctor (David Tennant), Georgia Moffett, also stars in the closing chapter of the story as Engineer Tallow. It is safe to say that there has never been a better time to get in on the Big Finish Paul McGann action. To borrow from the Capaldi-led Series 8 logline, it’s time that you knew him.

Dark Eyes 3 is available for preorder now. Will you be picking this up to see “how the McGann Doctor lived?” Sound off below!

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