Christian Cawley's Blog, page 232

Glow In The Dark Monsters In Doctor Who Adventures 347!

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 latest issue of BBC Doctor Who Adventures magazine is out now and comes with a free glow-in-the-dark Slitheen. It’s perfect for frights in the night!

Inside the magazine there’s a Top 10 of Cyber scares – readers can relive their most shocking moments in Doctor Who so far.

Dalek fans can find out their secrets in The Dalek Files – and there’s a chance to win a Talking Plush Dalek, too.

Also, there’s:

· Alien Babies comic fun!

· An interview with the Doctor’s Cyberhead friend Handles.

· Strax’s Guide to Davros.

· Behind-the-scenes info from Series 7.

· More trouble for the Eleventh Doctor and Clara in the comic strip.

· Awesome posters – including one of the Eleventh and Twelfth Doctor!

· Plus puzzles and loads of monster fun…

Issue 347, on sale 4 – 17 June 2014, priced £2.99. Don’t miss it!

The post Glow In The Dark Monsters In Doctor Who Adventures 347! appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Sue Malden: A Saviour Of Doctor Who’s Early Serials

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.

Scavenging lost Doctor Who episodes: it’s an amazing true tale of keen advocates breaking bureaucracy with dogged and determined passion – and no one’s tale is more fascinating than Sue Malden’s quiet yarn of changing hearts and minds at the BBC during the late seventies and early eighties.

It may be hard to believe now but when Sue started out on a student placement at the BBC film library in the mid-1970’s, there was no formal BBC Videotape archive – only a working film library which maintained the use of current productions.

Speaking to SciFiNow, Sue recalls the slow progress she and her fellow archivist had convincing the BBC to merge both units as a mutual concern:

“There was quite a protracted, drawn-out discussion at the BBC, that eventually ended up with the merge of the film and videotape [collections]. I can’t exactly remember when that happened. It must have been about ’77/’78, something like that.

Prior to that we’d just been the film library and that was because, in a way, all the film that was produced by the BBC was produced by film department and so the library looking after it was managed by film department. Videotape recordings were very much the province of VT engineers and the VT department. And the two didn’t have much to do with one another.”

The onus on changing the minds of the very production minded VT engineers fell to fellow film archivist Anne Hanford, who, arguing quite rightly, that both creative fields were the BBC’s library finally broke that barrier – however, this presented a new problem of cataloguing all the recently admitted videotape stock:

“I remember us getting printouts coming into the library, showing videotape that was being wiped. My boss at the time found out that this sort of thing was going on and managed to get into the loop so that these printouts came to us and we could then start marking them with stuff for retention – overriding the production department’s decision to get rid of it.

For the first couple of times of us doing it nobody took any notice of our decisions, but eventually we got that going… I went and spoke to all the heads of production and engineering, explaining that now we were going to be keeping more videotape and I was going to have responsibility for that.”

The first part of her job was to stop the wiping, rather than actively looking for missing episodes. Unfortunately, when the BBC first starting broadcasting programmes on videotape in 1950, almost nothing of the first ten years remained while for the next ten years prior to Sue’s arrival the records were patchy at best.

Narrowing her focus, Sue decided that she needed a seminal series; something that had touched more than one generation – and only one programme would do; Doctor Who.

During the 1970’s attitudes towards television began to change. Thanks to the a new appreciation of television as an art form in its own right and the sterling work of both the British Film Institute and The National Film and Television Archive, Sue found herself working closely with Paul Madden (their work lead to Madden’s book Keeping Television Alive), fact-checking against the BBC archive.

Discovering an anomaly between the two archives, Sue managed to track down episodes missing from the BBC’s archive to BBC Enterprises – an early incarnation of what we now know as BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the BBC.

Speaking to Paul’s contact at Enterprises, Sue made a discovery that is still being examined and studied today:

“I explained to her that: ‘You don’t realise, but some of these titles aren’t actually in the main archive.’ …They’d got no idea… They assumed that the tape had survived. It wouldn’t have occurred them to think that this film recording was unique… This woman was flabbergasted when I told her [and] agreed to let me check out everything they got back; everything that was in their store and everything that was in their catalogue… So, that became a very fruitful period… Obviously there was some Doctor Who in that.

I started to talk to Enterprises’ people asking them if they would communicate with their contacts to let them know that we’d prefer to have it back, rather than them wipe it or junk it… Sometimes they would give me lists of countries to who they knew they’d sold things and I suppose that then I was focussing specifically on Doctor Who – trying to trace specific countries where it had been sold…”

It’s down to the hard work of Sue and the BBC archive that we have now recovered and can enjoy most of the lost episodes on VHS first and then DVD – and it’s these practices started by Sue and her department that are responsible for recently turning up more of those fabled lost episodes.

Fandom owes her a great deal indeed.

The post Sue Malden: A Saviour Of Doctor Who’s Early Serials appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Vworp Vs Kasterborous Magazine: Doctor Who Fanzine Chat!

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

We’ve a special guest on this week’s Doctor Who podKast in the shape of Gareth Kavanagh, who joins us for a full hour (and the rest) of news discussion and fanzine sparring.

As well as covering Steven Moffat’s recent comments at the Hay Festival, Christian Cawley, James McLean and Brian Terranova also quiz Gareth on this thoughts about the possibility of Doctor Who ending back in 2008, the recent attempt to shift a 16mm film of The Wheel in Space part 3 on eBay and there’s even time to have a chat about the amazing Doctor Who/Rocky Horror Show mashup by The Hillywood Show, which if you haven’t seen yet should be clicked immediately in the shownotes below.

After that, we still managed to squeeze in a little preview about Vworp Vworp! issue 3 (which features an interview with renowned comic book author Alan Moore), which is still in production, and Gareth had some interesting questions for Christian and James about Kasterborous Magazine 2, which is out now.

Time to hit play!

Kasterborous PodKast Series 4 Episode 17 Shownotes

Steven Moffat at the Hay Festival:

Doctor Who needed to change


Praise for Russell T Davies


The Wheel In Space episode 3 on eBay (still)
Doctor Who Could Have Ended in 2008
Doctor Who Does The Time Warp!
Vworp Vworp! home page
Alan Moore’s Doctor Who connection
The Comic Strip Companion
Doctor Who Series 8 directors Ben Wheatley & Rachel Talalay
Recommendations: The Claws of Axos , The Quantum Archangel , The Village , The Trial Of A Time Lord: The Mysterious Planet , X-Men: First Class

The Kasterborous PodKast theme tune is arranged by Russell Hugo. We’ve got it on MP3!

Listen to the PodKast

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

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

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

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

 

The post Vworp Vs Kasterborous Magazine: Doctor Who Fanzine Chat! appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Germany Announces Series 8 Simulcast – But Who Will Follow?

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.

Doctor Who is making the history books again – FOX Germany has announced that it will as-good-as simulcast Series 8 of the show this Summer…

The channel is claiming this is a world first and I’m inclined to believe them. Following the Guinness Book of Records success with the world’s biggest TV drama simulcast, this will apparently be the first time that a TV series has been broadcast overseas at (or very near) the same time as the world premier.

FOX Germany, linked to the National Geographic Channel, broadcasts largely US and British TV dramas to Germany, Austria and Switzerland and has premiered shows such as The Sopranos, Shameless and Sex in the City. They broadcast without ad-breaks in both German and English, and I’m put in mind of this wee snippet from Series 3′s denouement…

On first hearing this announcement my initial thought was “so what?” But this might actually be a big deal. As we know, shows are usually bought and sold some time after they’ve premiered in their originating country and often aren’t made available to overseas audiences for some time later. There’s both the demand to see something NOW once fans know it’s out there, and the problem of details (or whole episodes!) leaking over the internet once they’ve been released.

So this looks like a response to customer preference and no doubt has a lot to do with the on-demand consumer culture both online and with digital broadcasting. But might there be something else going on also? There’s something very special about knowing a LOT of other people are settling down to watch a TV show at the same time as you. That slightly abstract feeling of community has been lost somewhat with the expansion of TV programming (we used to have only four channels, younger Kasterborites – and I’m told there were even fewer before that). With digital recording to catch-up and iPlayer-style features, gone are the days that EVERYONE would have seen the same TV the night before. But there is arguably a new feeling of global community from online social media.

Could this simulcast be a response to and new sense of global community too? Fans in the UK and fans in Germany will be settling down with their tea/cocoa/bier and sonic screwdrivers to enjoy the Twelfth Doctor’s adventures together. Might we see more international simulcasting in the future? Could Doctor Who be a pioneering force for cross-cultural sharing and international diplomacy? (OK: I’m kidding with the last one. Mostly).

What do you think of this news? And can any Kasterborites out there with German links feed back on how fans’ reactions over there? Have spoilers been a problem for the show? Tell us your thoughts below…

(Via Doctor Who News.)

The post Germany Announces Series 8 Simulcast – But Who Will Follow? appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Ten People Whose Doctor Who Casting Surprised Us

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.

The big news this past week was that singer/songwriter Foxes (Louisa Rose Allen) has been cast for a one off role in Doctor Who Series 8 and will contribute a track especially for the episode.

(Slightly off topic, this is pretty fantastic. She provided the hook for one of the biggest tracks in the US last year, also picked up a Grammy!) We’ll see if the acting skills are up to snuff later this year, but this is a great time to take stock of some other ladies and gents who have played a role in Doctor Who but aren’t really known as actors.

Let’s begin, shall we?

Lily Cole

You’ll remember her from the memorable role in The Curse of the Black Spot as the sea siren/computer programmed ship doctor. She never utters an actual word, but she plays the part to perfection. It would be interesting to see a story revisit the race that created the ship she was assigned to.

Cole has, apparently, since decided to focus on acting instead of modelling, so maybe the experience (as well as that on The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus) impacted on her in a positive way!

Meredith Vieira

And riding in on her personal mammoth…

Known in the US as a honored newscaster/game show host, Meredith Vieira made a guest appearance (as herself!) in the Series 6 finale, The Wedding of River Song. It’s American airing also coincided with her announcement of her departure from the Today Show, an eventful weekend to be sure!

Kenneth Kendall

Reaching back all the way to the First Doctor story The War Machines, popular news anchor Kenneth Kendall played himself in a short segment. Kendall also went on to do a similar role in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Kendall is of note because of his legacy as the first on air television newscaster on the BBC (that is to say he’s the first that was seen reading the news. There were newscasters that had read the news on the telly but not seen).

Hale and Pace

Comedian duo of Gareth Hale and Norman Pace, known for their comedy sketches, guest starred on the final Seventh Doctor story, Survival. They portrayed shop keeps Harvey and Len. After their “show closing performance,” the duo returned to sketch work, and as of last year, are touring Australia with their production company.

Ken Dodd

From stand-up to The Tollmaster, comedian Ken Dodd guest starred in the ’87 classic, Delta and the Bannermen. Dodd had only one other film role after his appearance on Doctor Who, but has sold millions of comedy albums worldwide.

Anne Robinson

“You are the Weakest Link, g’bye!”

While Robinson never had a live role on Doctor Who, she provided her voice to the role of “Anne Droid” in the Series 1 two part finale. She finished her stint as the long running host of The Weakest Link in 2012. Now, she can be seen on BBC 1, watching dogs or something.

Courtney Pine

With the casting of Foxes, it’s prudent to remember another musical guest on the show: Courtney Pine! The renowned Jazz musician played himself in the ’88 episode, Silver Nemesis. This was his only credited acting role, but if you’re doing what you’re famous for, is it really acting?

Alexei Sayle

Once told a tabloid that he wanted to be the first “Socialist Doctor,” Sayle played the DJ in the Sixth Doctor story, Revelation of the Daleks. The comedian is also noted for a minor role in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade as the Sultan.

Leee John

No, that’s not a spelling mistake.

The singer-songwriter played the one-off character of Mansell in the Peter Davison story, Enlightenment. John was a last minute replacement in the episode. He is best known for the soul classic, “Body Talk.”

And finally…

Billie Piper

Okay, okay; I know many of you read that and are confused. Was Piper technically an actress prior to playing Rose Tyler? Yes, but only two roles and was still mainly thought of as a pop star prior to her time with Doctor Who. Of course, she’s proved herself a pretty great actress and was superb as the Moment in The Day of the Doctor.

What do you think, dear reader? Did we miss any one that should have been on the list? Let us know!

The post Ten People Whose Doctor Who Casting Surprised Us appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

No DVD Release for The Underwater Menace?

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.

Prepare to get annoyed, flabbergasted and suspicious: it seems that partly-missing classic, The Underwater Menace, may not get a DVD release.

Those following the “missing believed wiped” saga will know that episode two of the Second Doctor serial was found and unveiled to eager Whovians in 2011 alongside “Airlock,” episode three of Galaxy 4. With two of the four now in the archives, we were all expecting animation to accompany them and for a DVD release to be issued to the Classic line later this year. Amazon even listed it for pre-order.

However, Steve Roberts, project leader of the much-loved Restoration Team, seems to have dashed all hopes when he told TVShowsOnDVD:

“[W]e’re the team that remasters the episodes for DVD release and even we don’t have a clue what’s going on with TUM now. From where we’re standing, it’s looking like the range is dead.”

Previously, the last we heard, animation was being halted as the studio doing it “having other higher priority projects.” Even more mysteriously, the above trailer for The Underwater Menace was included on The Moonbase DVD.

So what in the name of Rassilon is happening?!

There are a few options to ponder. Perhaps the range is dead and we won’t get to see it alongside our Second Doctor collections after all. If so, we should all be very disappointed with the BBC. But realistically, would they do that to us?

Perhaps the Restoration Team aren’t being used for this release. It’d certainly be an odd move, if so.

And finally, here’s fuel for the Omnirumour (ongoing rumblings that a vast amount of previously-missing Who has now been found, including Marco Polo): that the other two episodes have been found and they’re still trying to make a deal with Phillip Morris so have delayed the DVD.

Smoke and mirrors, or bitter disappointment? I know which I’d prefer…

(Thanks to Joe)

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The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot Headed to DVD?

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 would seem that the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who is the gift that keeps on giving! While there has been US/UK versions of The Day of the Doctor and An Adventure in Time and Space released on Blu-ray and DVD, as well as some nifty digital bundles on iTunes and Amazon that bring some extra content, including some of the exclusive BBC America programming, there is one special programme that hasn’t received it’s due.

That’s right, dear reader, we’re talking the Peter Davison conceived comedy special, The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot!

Amidst all of the other anniversary goodies, there has been little word or sign of the acclaimed one-off special since it aired in November. Of course, there were some rumblings of a 50th Anniversary DVD set back in February, but concrete details weren’t available and mention of the classic Doctors special were absent.

As always though, time and the mouth of the Sixth Doctor, Colin Baker, have provided us with new details! Speaking at the DWAS Myth Makers convention, Baker announced that the The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot would be getting a proper release as part of an unannounced set featuring the Eleventh Doctor, Matt Smith. There is no official release news from the Beebs, but this seems grounded enough to be accurate. The likely bits to be included on the set are The Day of the Doctor, An Adventure in Time and Space, and The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot. Of course, the prior released special features and minisodes will probably be present as well (also hoping that the other two parts of the Doctor Trilogy, Name of the Doctor and Time of the Doctor are included for good measure).

If the release comes to pass, it will most likely place the “have to have it on release day” Whovian in a conundrum: is The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot itself enough to justify repurchasing titles they already have in their library? Personally speaking, I’ve held off on purchasing these titles in hope of a box set release (crossing fingers for a US release as well…still bummed about that Regenerations box set) and this comes as welcome news. However, if you’ve already invested in a copy of these specials, it can certainly be a frustrating predicament.

What say you, dear readers? Are you excited to see The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot finally get a proper release? Or are you turned off by the fact that it appears to be part of the box set only?

The post The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot Headed to DVD? appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Back Extra Time, A Short Film Featuring Louise Jameson On Indiegogo

Danny_Weasel 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 always fantastic Louise Jameson has signed on to be part of an independent short film that is currently looking for backers on the Indiegogo site.

Extra Time‘s plot is still largely under wraps but what is known is that it will focus on football and time travel.

After escaping a crash that killed his football team, James receives another warning from Time Traveller Spacey of his death. Will he listen a second time?

Getting fourth Doctor companion Leela will no doubt be a massive boon to the filmmakers, who are themselves clearly big time Whovians. Mark Lever, one half of the duo behind the project lists Matt Smith, David Tennant and Christopher Eccleston among his favourite actors and Steven Moffat, Russell T. Davies and Chris Chibnall among his top writers.

But the Whovian connections don’t end there: the team have also got comedian Charlie Ross involved, who many of you will recognise from his regular appearances at the Cardiff’s ‘Regenerations’ conventions as well as several appearances in Big Finish audio adventures, most notably in a Sixth Doctor trilogy (involving the return of Troughton companions Jamie and Zoe, if you haven’t heard these yet you owe it to yourself to go grab them) in which he plays historical icon Rob Roy, and in the Paul McGann starring Memory Lane.

The campaign, hosted on Indiegogo has 29 days left to reach its target of £8,000 and boasts a considerable range of perks for backers ranging from a film credit, postcards and copies of the finished film through to invites to the premiere, tickets to a Charlie Ross stand up gig or a film talk by the writer and even the chance to appear in the film yourself (or claim the whole lot for £250).

With as many people involved in the production with such close connections to Doctor Who (and clearly large passions) the project is fascinating, and as the creators say on the pledge page, 2014 is also a World Cup year so the football element should help Extra Time reach a much wider audience. Clearly this is a project to keep your eyes on!

Do you think the film has legs? Has the episode The Lodger proven that football and time travel can go hand in hand with great success? Will you be backing the film, and if so will you take me to the premiere? Leave your thoughts and feelings (and premiere invites… what, a guy can hope right?) in the space below.

(Thanks to Mark)

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It’s Here: Kasterborous Magazine 2 Available In PDF Format!

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

Last week we brought you news that the second issue of Kasterborous Magazine – a retro-styled video games special – is available to pre-order, and today the PDF version is now available to purchase!

Compiled over the past 12 months, with a considerable volume of exclusive material, the second edition is dedicated to Doctor Who‘s 30+ year history of video games, ending with Doctor Who: Legacy.

The most in-depth feature on the development of Return to Earth you will ever read
Interviews with developers on The Adventure Games and Doctor Who: Legacy
Features on Doctor Who: Worlds in Time (RIP) and The Eternity Clock
Reviews of all classic and modern Doctor Who games
Previously unseen photographs and concept artwork
Doctor Who in Second Life
Doctor Who mobile games
A look at what is wrong – DW: Legacy aside – with Doctor Who video games. Why haven’t they been as good as we would expect them to be?
PLUS: columns from the Valeyard and Elton Townend Jones

Contributors to this issue include Christian Cawley, James McLean, Mez Burdett, Elton Townend Jones and Phil Bates – and, of course, the Valeyard!

This PDF version is available to download today, for just £2.99, and throughout the launch month of June 2014 comes with a free copy of issue 1 thrown in! Here’s a flavour:

The post It’s Here: Kasterborous Magazine 2 Available In PDF Format! appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Moffat: Doctor Who Needed To Change

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.

When do you know the time is right to change something? Steven Moffat, mindful perhaps of some of Doctor Who’s recent shortcomings, has spoken at the Hay Festival last week about how he decided to revise the format, the results of which we’ll see in Series 8.

Said Moffat:

It needed to change. One of the hardest things ever to do, is to notice when your clever new idea is now your very old idea.

We haven’t made much of a change to Doctor Who since it came back in 2005. It’s been the same show. It has maybe amped some things up and lowered some things, but it is basically the same.

This much is true. Even though the Eleventh Doctor’s introduction was seen as a brand new show, looking back you can see strong similarities between the 2010 show and the one that launched in 2005: the ability to fly the TARDIS, the Doctor’s knowledge about so much of space and time.

Moffat continues:

I just feel it needs to be a bit more different now, it just needs to be surprising again. We’ve got the hang of this, we need to change it. The rhythm has to alter, which it has.

What changes do you think we’ll see in Doctor Who Series 8? Could the TARDIS be a mystery to the Doctor once more? Could the universe be completely new to a Time Lord with a new sequence of regenerations?

And do you think the show even needs to change? We invite you to share your thoughts below…

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