Christian Cawley's Blog, page 221

Is The Kasterborous Constellation Real?

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.

“I’m the Doctor. I’m a Time Lord. I’m from the planet Gallifrey in the constellation of Kasterborous. I’m 903 years old and I’m the man who’s going to save your lives and all six billion people on the planet below. You got a problem with that?”

Yes, actually, Doctor. Where is Kasterborous?

Our site’s namesake first cropped up in Pyramids of Mars, the Doctor revealing Gallifrey’s binary location under the control of Sutekh the Destroyer (don’t mind him: where he treads, he leaves nothing but dust and darkness). The four-part serial was written by Stephen Harris, who has since been absorbed by the crack in time and now no longer exists. Harris is, in fact, a pseudonym for Lewis Greifer (The Goon Show; Whodunnit!) and Robert Holmes (The Ark in Space; The Caves of Androzani), the latter of whom likely came up with the constellation.

It’s been mentioned throughout the series, both Classic and Nu­Who. But what is a constellation, and what does it reveal about the Doctor and his home planet?

Most of us know what constellations are: the patterns of stars in the night sky, typically named after mythical beings. Perhaps the most widely identified are the Great Bear (consisting of seven stars), commonly known as the Big Dipper, and the Little Bear, its start-point being Polaris, located one degree off the celestial North Pole. Many can also name-check Orion, the Pleiades (or Seven Sisters), and the Dog Stars which are mentioned in 2011′s The Curse of the Black Spot.

From Big Finish’s potentially-now-canon Trial of the Valeyard, we know that Kasterborous is composed of 17 stars, but we’ve only ever seen the constellation, presumably, on the back of a previous TARDIS key design and that showed only six suns.

If we could identify Kasterborous in the night sky, would that mean the Doctor thinks of Earth as his home more so than Gallifrey? Constellations, after all, shift depending on a planet’s location in space (and even hemisphere), so whereas we can identify a shape of stars, if we were on a different planet (or if, as in The Stolen Earth/ Journey’s End, the Earth was moved), the whole sky would appear different. As Sutekh says: “Names mean nothing”. If the Doctor refers to his actual home planet as being in a constellation only seen from Earth, that would reinforce our belief that the Doctor thinks of Earth as his adopted home. Of course, Kasterborous might be a constellation seen only from a different planet, which would be like finding out he’s been having an affair all this time…

Even if the Doctor originally referred to the constellation as it would appear from Sutekh’s prison on Mars, it would still be the same celestial landscape; because the distances between stars are so great, you would have to travel very far from our solar system to see any difference.

If only the Doctor Who crew would give us a definitive account of what Kasterborous looks like, then astronomers can discover it in the night sky and we’d all be happy!

(In Gridlock, we found out that Gallifrey is in a binary star system and scientists have since located planets orbiting twin suns. They named the system Kepler 47 after the telescope that discovered it. One planet even exists in the habitable zone, allowing for water and thus some form of life – it’s likely that it’s a gas giant similar to Jupiter, though, so who knows if any life could be found there. However, the planet’s potential natural satellites, ie. moons, are another story altogether…)

Nonetheless, since 1975, Kasterborous has been mentioned as if it’s a fixed location in tales like Attack of the Cybermen (1985), Voyage of the Damned (2007), and even in the 50th anniversary episode, The Day of the Doctor – in which the Tenth Doctor threatens a rabbit. The Sounds of Drums alludes to it while talking about Gallifrey as “the Shining World of the Seven Systems.”

Since the intervention of the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors (and the one who broke the promise) in the Time War, Gallifrey is frozen in a pocket universe (okay, so it has been all the time the universe thought it destroyed), so presumably it’s no longer in Kasterborous. But wouldn’t it be great if that were the name of the pocket universe?

Why is this site called Kasterborous then? Maybe it’s because we like an air of mystery; because it sounds pretty cool; because we don’t like to think of ourselves as stuffy and backward so can’t call the site ‘Gallifrey’ (though we do all, naturally, have terrible dress sense).

But then, can you think of any other site name-checked so frequently in Doctor Who?

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SDCC 2014 Doctor Who Comics Panel and Signing!

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.

There will be no official Doctor Who panel at this year’s SDCC 2014 – but that doesn’t mean the Time Lord won’t be a strong presence at the San Diego Comic Con! A comic book panel will take place on Saturday 26th July, and will be bookended by signings.

SDCC 2014 is the place to be if you’re a comics or cult TV fan, and Titan Comics has taken the opportunity to launch their brand new Tenth and Eleventh Doctor titles after they got the license from IDW. In Room 23ABC, the panel will consist of writer Nick Abadzis, artist Elena Casagrande, cover artist Alice X. Zhang and editor, Andrew James, and attendees will be given a special Doctor Who Comics Day goodie bag plus an opportunity to win exclusive merchandise.

Titan booth, #5537, will host signings on Friday and Saturday, though times are yet to be announced.

Furthermore, there are plenty of exclusive limited covers from Diamond, Titan and (my favourite) the BBCShop, so be quick to nab them up!

It’s likely that there will be no SDCC 2014 panel from the official Doctor Who crew due to the world tour, which will kick off in Cardiff, Wales, before heading to London and then off to Seoul (South Korea), Sydney (Australia), New York (US), Mexico City (Mexico) and Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). “After 8 months solid filming deep in the world of monsters,” Peter Capaldi, aka the Twelfth Doctor, says, “Jenna and I are thrilled to be heading for the Planet of Fans.”

It’s a shame, of course, seen as previous Doctor Matt Smith absolutely loved SDCC, but I’m sure the world tour will be incredible and that Capaldi and co. will be there in 2015 instead. Don’t forget to check out full details of the panel and signing sessions.

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What Does Sherlock’s Hidden Message Mean for Doctor Who?

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.

Since Moffat and Gatiss first brought us a modern take on the most famous fictional detective of all time, fans of both Sherlock and Doctor Who have been fantasizing, nay, begging, for the two famous characters to meet on our TV screens.

Of course, this hasn’t happened yet and with Smith exiting the TARDIS, most believe it won’t. However, Radio Times is reporting a curious turn of events that will cause discerning Whovians to take notice.

End credits, aside from the “next time…” trailer, is a typically a vanilla and boring affair. And as often happens when a show from the UK is licensed in another country, a custom set of end titles is oft assembled. For example, PBS Masterpiece Theatre (not BBC America) is the primary source of Sherlock for American viewers. In order to keep with the very cool and artsy design that Masterpiece employs on their other programs, they requested that Moffat and company do a redesign to fit the Masterpiece aesthetic.

They complied and even added a little addition to the end credits of “The Empty Hearse,” the Series 3 opener. Careful observers will notice that certain letters as the end titles appear are red, whereas the majority of them are white font on the black Masterpiece background. This would be curious in itself, but there is more to the story. Those letters, when placed together in order of end credit appearance spell out something that will certainly peak a Whovian’s interest: “Weng-Chiang”.

If you’re reading this, you probably don’t need us to tell you why that’s of interest, but in case your Doctor Who experience doesn’t travel back to the classics, Tom Baker’s Fourth Doctor encountered an evil deity (in reality time travelling war criminal Magnus Greel) named Weing-Chiang in the 1977 serial, The Talons of Weng-Chiang. The serial also stands out because it’s one of the only times Baker appears without a scarf, donning a Deerstalker style hat instead.

The question before us now is why go to the trouble of placing the red letters? Is it merely a fan service, since both Moffat and Gatiss are Doctor Who fans and contributors? Is it only to bring to mind Baker’s Sherlock look in the serial? Or is it something more? Is the message meant to suggest a potential storyline in Peter Capaldi’s debut series? Marcus Greel appeared to meet his doom in the original story – but has he found a way to survive the supposed disintegration? The video below breaks down the end credit sequence.

Watch it and let us know where you stand: a fan service message or a potential return of a classic villain?

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Unusual Uses For An Old Police Box

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 outer plasmic shells go, the form that the Doctor’s TARDIS has been stuck in is one of the most recognizable on television, nay, the Universe.

The Type 40 Time capsules’ exterior exists in a different dimension to its interior and can take on any size or shape to allow it Time Lord pilot(s) to park as inconspicuously as possible. Practical, less flashy than the walking, talking sentient Type 102 TARDIS exterior. But what do you do if it gets stuck? And what if you were stuck with just the plasmic shell?..

On the Interweb a number of enterprising souls have wrestled with just this conundrum: “I have the exterior of a time machine that can’t travel in time and looks like a police box – what do I do with it?!” They might have come by these architectural gems when 20 squatter and more classical-looking Edinburgh boxes went on sale in 2012.

Now you have your plasmic shell – and you’ve followed (or disregarded) instructions to paint it a different colour, what do you do with it? A popular choice seems to be allowing the internal dimensions around the TARDIS food machine to leak to the exterior. Coffee shops and snack bars have emerged from within surviving police boxes where punters can accelerate their morning with a hot cup of trans-temporal coffee…

The Edinburgh boxes (such as the one seen above) have been in on the act too as well as one disguising itself as a miniature art gallery and performance space. Alasdair Peoples provides a potted history of the plasmic shells of the Scottish capital on his blog.

Another empty time capsule has been colonised by the Little Free Library movement. This community of, um, little free libraries, allows you to deposit/ collect a book from an -ideally- TARDIS-shaped depository/ collection box.

Other empty Timelord transports have been converted into mini-shops and the famed Earls Court box has a CCTV camera installed on top (and may or may not have a space-time machine inside).

Are there more out there Kasterborites? Have we missed some re-generated Police Boxes? Do you have one?! And what would you do with your own blue bombshell of a TV icon? Information booth? Mini nail bar? Minibar? Puppet theatre? Or would you put it to more heavy-duty good vs evil use? Tell us below…

Meanwhile, for more police box goodness, check this week’s podKast which features a chat about Brian Terranova’s collection of TARDIS photos.

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Fans’ Uproar Over Figures Price Disparity

Alex Skerratt 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.

In a quiet backwater store, a scandal is brewing. The massed forces of the universe’s most passionate fans have gathered, drawn to a mysterious message that echoes out to the stars…

“Have you seen the price?!”

That’s right. Forbidden Planet has released pre-order details of its Time of the Doctor Eleventh and Twelfth’ figurines… at an eye-watering £29.99 (reduced from £32,99, I should point out!). While that price is enough to leave any staunch Whovian in need of a new regeneration cycle, let’s first examine the positives of this admittedly cool piece of merchandise.

Here’s the description from Forbidden Planet:

“Presented here is the Eleventh Doctor in his iconic final season long frock coat. The set comes with a Twelfth Doctor regenerated head plus young and ‘aged’ Eleventh Doctor heads with 2 swappable shirt / chest pieces. It also includes 1 x walking cane, 1 x Sonic Screwdriver and 1 x ‘Handles’ accessories.

“The set is presented in a TARDIS inspired gift box with opening front panels to reveal episode information and display your collector figure. Exclusive to Forbidden Planet!”

I so wish these had been available when I was a kid. But then, my mum would have whacked me round the head if I’d asked her to pay £29.99 for them…!

Why the high price? Forbidden Planet itself is reportedly mystified, so it seems the problem originates with the manufacturer (that’s Character, if you’re planning a protest).

Moreover – and this is where the scandal reaches almost Omnirumour proportions – the same product will be available in the US at a much cheaper price – $35.00 in fact, which is roughly £20.44 according to my desktop widget! And you don’t need a badge in mathematical excellence to realise that is a staggering £10.00 less.

But you may need a time machine if you want to get your hands on one of these at the same time as our American friends, because they will be out in the States long before they’re out in the UK; the UK release date is currently September 30th, 2014.

It really is very perplexing, especially at a time when the BBC is making steps to achieve a sort of international Doctor Who synergy, with ‘simulcast’ episode transmissions being arranged for the benefit of the global audience, for example. Is it helpful, or necessary, for there to be such a price gap for this particular piece of merchandise? And why the long wait for UK fans? Are these figures being dispatched from the other side of the world on a very, very slow boat, pulled by snails, through an ocean of wallpaper paste, on a hot day? Because even then they should reach us before September 30th, surely!

On the plus side – this is a very snazzy collectible, and one that I would be happy to add to my assortment of Doctor Who paraphernalia in the years to come.

But – maybe when the price has dropped a bit…

(With thanks to Ian.)

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First Official Deep Breath Photo Surfaces!

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 very first official photo from the Series 8 premiere, Deep Breath, has been unveiled by American magazine, Entertainment Weekly.

As you can see, the Twelfth Doctor’s not quite got his look down to a tee yet, so perhaps he’s still suffering from post-regeneration confusion; Clara, nonetheless, looks as beautiful as ever.

Deep Breath sees the TARDIS set down in Victorian London with the return of the Paternoster Gang: Vastra (a Silurian), Jenny (a sometimes-leather-clad human), and Strax (a grenade-loving Sontaran). It’s written by Steven Moffat and directed by Ben Wheatley, and is known to be “feature-length”, ie. roughly 75 minutes or so. As Kasterborites may recall, the scripts for the first five episodes were leaked online earlier this week, though they were quickly taken down by an apologetic BBC.

Entertainment Weekly spoke to Jenna Coleman, who stars opposite new Doctor, Peter Capaldi and calls her co-star, “a total adrenaline junkie”!

“It’s a big introduction — he’s the new Doctor,”Moffat explains. “There’s no point pretending that it’s not the most interesting, dynamic thing that you’ve got to sell in that first episode. It’s going to be about ‘What’s he like? How’s he different?’ I suppose it feels a bit like a character piece, but there’s plenty of action and nonsense and jeopardy, as there ever is in Doctor Who.”

And he then teases the two-part finale, directed by Rachel Talalay. How will viewers feel after the finale? “Like they want Doctor Who to come back very, very quickly,” Moffat says. Well, that’s how we always feel!

Here’s that first in-action photo of the Twelfth Doctor in full, courtesy of Adrian Rogers, BBC America and Entertainment Weekly.

Excited yet? Doctor Who returns on 23rd August, and yes, it feels great to be writing that!

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Reviewed: The Brood of Erys

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

When looking at Doctor Who from an objective point of view, or in this case a critical point of view, it’s sometimes difficult to not draw parallels or similarities between certain stories. The Doctor, after all, is a man who’s been knocking about the Universe for thousands of years; he’s encountered Daleks, Cybermen, Zygons and even himself, many, many times.

It’s hardly surprising to learn, therefore, that House from The Doctor’s Wife was not the first overly large, planet sized sentient being that he encountered.

The Brood of Erys finds the Doctor and Flip attacked aboard the TARDIS by beings called the Drachee. Flip is kidnapped and the Doctor, whilst trying to rescue her, encounters a young woman called Sarra. All three find themselves, albeit split into two separate groups, on Erys, a living moon.

Erys is a particularly nasty living moon (this reviewer is presuming that there are probably many in the world of Doctor Who) and demands complete obedience and servitude. Something that the Doctor, Flip, Sarra and the locals of the planet Asphya plan to put right.

Writer Andrew Smith, whose Doctor Who writing career began with the ambitious, if somewhat lacking, Full Circle, proves with The Brood of Erys that with the correct director, actors and pacing, his creative abilities have greatly improved with his further years of experience. The Brood of Erys is a well thought-out tale with some incredibly moving moments focusing on family ties and experiences of loss whilst growing up, as reflected through the eyes of the Drachee who are effectively the children of Erys. Perhaps it’s due to personal experiences through his own life; maybe as a talented writer, Smith has taken observations from others around him: the end result is the same – the eighteen year old writer of Full Circle is gone and what Big Finish now have access to is a man that knows how to create proper, believable and highly emotional situations in a science fiction story. That’s a rare commodity that should be kept close at hands at all times.

Overall character arcs are progressing here as well; the Doctor starts to recall some of his past friends and companions, thanks to the mental might of Erys, and soon ‘old Sixy’ is pining for Peri ever so slightly. Which road this will lead the wild-coated madman on is anyone’s guess…

Flip is also challenged in this story with a lot more to do than usual. Some of her initial scenes on the Moon of Erys, alone and frightened, bullied and intimidated, work very well indeed and actress Lisa Greenwood not only clearly relishes these opportunities to act her socks off but delivers them marvellously. However, for full story resolution, her character seems to make less of an impact than was intended. Is this a deliberate act for something coming or case of her character running out of steam in the script. Time will tell with that one.

The Brood of Erys takes some very rewarding chances as a Doctor Who story. Moments of tenderness and sadness far outweigh the horror and action scenes in this story, and that’s no bad thing at all. Big Finish was one of the original players to prove that Doctor Who could be not only a science fiction show but also a drama piece as well; it’s good to hear them get back to their roots.

The Brood of Erys is available now on CD or via download from Big Finish.

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Thursday News: Scariest Who? A Lost Eighth Doctor Story? And WWSMD?

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.

Faster than a shuttle out of Galaxy 5, more powerful than a dose of Chronon Radiation, and packed with more information than the legendary Dalek mainframe: It’s the Kasterborous News Blast! Today Steven Spielberg copies Doctor Who, a lost story is found, a new writer is confirmed, and… oh, The Horror (Channel)! The Horror (Channel)!

HALLE BERRY’S BABY IS HALF-HUMAN (ON ITS MOTHER’S SIDE)

In an interview with The Telegraph, Mickey Fisher, creator of the highly-anticipated US sci-fi series Extant, said he looked to Doctor Who for inspiration when coming up with his new show:  “While I was writing the pilot, because I’m a big Doctor Who fan, I had a Post-it note on the corner of my monitor that said, ‘WWSMD; what would Steven Moffat do?’… [Doctor Who] has such a great heart at the centre of it, and I think that was really important to me. It’s not a dystopian world.”

The big-budget series stars Halle Berry as an astronaut who returns to Earth only to find that she is pregnant… with an alien’s baby! Produced by Steven Spielberg, Extant will air on CBS in the US and Amazon Prime VOD in the UK.

THE AMERICAN INVASION

Andrew Husband has an opinion piece  in which he delves into whether modern Doctor Who is becoming more and more American. The writer brings up the modern US-modeled format (13 hour-long episodes instead of the classic multi-part cliffhangers), the influence of Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the “American” Paul McGann TV movie, and the Eleventh Doctor’s many adventures in the US (Utah, Florida, Manhattan). Husband has obviously deeply Pond-ered the subject, and his closing thoughts are quite interesting (has Steven Moffat turned against the perceived Americanization of the show?).

And don’t forget to take a look at our opinion piece about American companions!

THE EIGHTH DOCTOR HAS LOST HIS NOVELTY

The writer David Bishop has posted his original pitch for a novel called The Turing Shroud. The novel was pitched to the BBC in 2001 and was actually accepted, but according to Bishop, large changes were made to his original ideas and it eventually ended up as a novel called The Domino Effect (which Bishop calls “among my worst”). The Turing Shroud was to be an Eighth Doctor adventure in which the Time Lord faced a moral dilemma on a computerless alternative Earth.

IN SPACE, NO ONE CAN HEAR YOU SCREAM!

The Horror Channel is now taking votes for the scariest Doctor Who episodes as picked by the viewers. Fans can go to the channel’s website and vote for the story they would like to see broadcast over the August Bank Holiday weekend. Voters can choose from 20 classic stories, from An Unearthly Child through The Curse of Fenric. A person need only write a small explanation of why they picked their certain story and can also register to win prizes! So, get out from behind the sofa and vote!

THE BOYCE ARE BACK IN TOWN

Children’s book and film author Frank Cotrell Boyce has now been officially confirmed as the writer of episode ten of the upcoming Peter Capaldi series.

Cotrell Boyce is a long-time Doctor Who fan who has written popular children’s novels (Cosmic, Framed) as well as films such as Millions (based on his book) and 24-Hour Party People. The Liverpool-born writer seems genuinely taken aback to be scripting our favorite Time Lord: “I was flabbergasted to be asked to write an episode – partly because I’ve been so absorbed in the last few series that I’d sort of forgotten that it wasn’t real.”

The as-yet-untitled episode will be directed by Sheree Folkson, who worked with former Doctor David Tennant on both Casanova and The Decoy Bride and Alex Kingston (River Song) on 2009′s Hope Springs!

GOND BLOGGING

And finally, the actor Terence Brown, who played Abu the Gond in the 1968 Second Doctor story The Krotons, has set up a blog page. Brown has a few other screen credits, but his appearance in Doctor Who is perhaps his most notable role, especially to fans. His TARDIS-themed blog page–just now up and running–can be seen here.

Well, that’s it for today’s big Blast, Kasterborites! Make sure to tune in tomorrow, because even when it involves all of time and space, Kasterborous has it covered!

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Doctor Who: Cybermen Monster File Ebook

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.

Fancy getting your hands on an item of the very latest in hi-tech Who merchandise, digitally speaking? Want to get it for free? Well, you can with the launch of the Doctor Who: Cybermen Monster File Ebook!

A few provisos to be clear on, however. You need to be a UK resident to get the ebook free, although if you live elsewhere you can pay to own it. You need to have a compatible device (iPad, Android or Kindle Fire) to download the ebook. And you need to be quick about it as the free offer only applies until 31st July 2014 (11:59 to be precise).

‘What is this mysterious ebook of which you speak?’ I hear you ask, in that oddly stilted way of yours. Well, the BBC promise us:

‘An interactive history of one of the Doctor’s most famous foes. Every version of the Cybermen is brought to life using clips, fabulous photos and in-depth info…’

We can also look forward to Cybermen: Status Update, a new story from Joseph Lidster which you can either read or listen to Nick Briggs doing so on your behalf. I bet he’s doing all the voices, too, the clever old so and so.

‘So what are we to make of all this?’ (Okay that’s enough with the olde worlde phrasing…) In terms of the forthcoming series – minor spoiler! - we already knew that the Cybermen are due to return in at least one of the later episodes. The fact that this is being released now, as the publicity machine gathers speed ahead of the August 23rd opener, is perhaps an indicator that we can expect the silver giants to play a more prominent role than may have been expected in Series 8. Or maybe the producers just want the young’uns and new viewers to be able to get fully up to speed before they see them again on-screen.

Aside from the implications for plotlines, it’s interesting to see the BBC once again using Doctor Who to blaze a trail for their use of new technology. In recent years we’ve seen downloadable games, online clips and various bits of web only content, all of which allowed the broadcaster to test out new approaches on viewers of one of their flagship shows. Some of these have worked better than others (who remembers the ‘TARDISODEs’ from Series 2? ‘That’s not even a word!’ as Donna surely would have said) but one can see the logic in terms of exploiting the varied audience the programme brings to see how well this kind of thing goes down.

The accompanying blurb for the download is quite open about the fact that the BBC wants ‘to explore a different platform for delivering additional content to our audiences.’ And it’s encouraging to see that, with the inclusion of clips, photos and audio content, the ebook format is being used in imaginative ways that simply wouldn’t be possible with a traditional book.

The big test for the success of this, of course, will be whether it’s any good. So let us know! Download Doctor Who: Cybermen Monster File Ebook and tell us what you think.

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Steven Moffat NOT Quitting Doctor Who for Star Wars

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.

Respected Star Wars website Jedi News claims that Steven Moffat is being linked to a future Star Wars project, probably as writer but potentially as producer or even director!

Moffat – who wrote Steven Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn movie – is said to be in the frame for either a trilogy installment or one of the standalone side projects. If it is the former, then it will probably be IX, the final part – if the latter, we can take our pick as none of them had cast or crew formally confirmed.

In case you didn’t know, Star Wars creator George Lucas and Oscar-winning director Steven Spielberg are regular collaborators, and good friends. Spielberg himself has been involved with Doctor Who in the past when Philip Segal – future executive of the 1996 TV Movie – was working with Spielberg’s production company Amblin. We’re talking two degrees of separation here, people, so don’t rule this out.

Of course, with a role that Moffat is not known for in the mix, this could have very interesting consequences for his future as the boss of Doctor Who. While we can see how he might be able to manage writing and even producing a movie (although he turned down a second Tintin movie to take the reins on Doctor Who), directing is a whole different proposition, requiring a considerable amount of time that we don’t believe is available concurrent to Doctor Who and even Sherlock.

We will have to wait and see; at this stage, the proposition of Steven Moffat quitting Doctor Who is purely conjecture, based on a rumour of is his possible association with Star Wars. It’s exciting though – after all, if anything was likely to pull the showrunner away it would have to be something just that little bit bigger, and the revived Star Wars certainly fits the bill…

(Via ComicBookMovie | Thanks to Nick)

Update: Sue Vertue Intervenes!

Sue Vertue, wife of Steven Moffat and successful TV producer in her own right, has this morning tweeted:

Just in case you've seen rumours that #stevenmoffat is doing Star Wars – that's news to him!

— sue vertue (@suevertue) July 10, 2014

So it seems that we can lay this one to rest!

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