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April 24, 2014

Moffat Pleased About Five(ish) Doctors Hugo Nomination!

Rebecca Crockett 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 Official Doctor Who page has posted Steven Moffat’s reaction to the show’s four Hugo Awards nominations.


Organized by the World Science Fiction Society, the Hugos recognize the best in science fiction works every year and are presented at the World Science Fiction Convention.


Episodes of Doctor Who have been nominated every year since it became eligible after the rebooted series began in 2005. Last year, the show lost to an episode of Game Of Thrones.


This year, The Name Of The Doctor, The Day Of The Doctor, The Five(ish) Doctors, and An Adventure In Space And Time have all been nominated for the Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form award.


When asked about the nominations, Steven Moffat was quite pleased.



For Doctor Who to receive four Hugo nominations in its anniversary year is completely thrilling. We are all over the moon. I’m particularly pleased about The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot as that was my acting debut. I remain available for any parts requiring a black jumper and slightly unrealistic hair.

The graphic novel The Girl Who Loved Doctor Who by Paul Cornell and illustrated by Jimmy Broxton, was also nominated.


The 2014 Hugo Awards will be presented at the 72nd World Science Fiction Convention, Loncon3, in London on 17 August.


(via BBC Official Doctor Who)


The post Moffat Pleased About Five(ish) Doctors Hugo Nomination! appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

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Published on April 24, 2014 01:44

April 23, 2014

Revenge vs Rise: We Talk Cybermen In This Week’s Doctor Who PodKast

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.


Kasterborous Doctor Who podKastPodKasting as a duo this week, Brian A Terranova and James McLean give their thoughts on a couple of recent news items before turning their attention to two Cybermen stories.


Revenge of the Cybermen in 1975 was the cyborg race’s first appearance since 1969, while Rise of the Cybermen/Age of Steel was their introduction to nuWho (a brief cameo in Dalek notwithstanding). Both stories attempted to rewrite the Cyberman legend, with varying levels of success, and also featured a Doctor with two companions.


While it is difficult to establish which story is “best”, Brian and James nevertheless have a great discussion about their likes and dislikes about the two stories.


Kasterborous PodKast Series 4 Episode 11 Shownotes



Suranne Jones fancies Idris return
Arthur Darvill & Keeley Hawes at The Time of Angels
Convention Organizers Bash Colin Baker
Revenge of the Cybermen vs Rise of the Cybermen
Recommendations:

Planet of the Spiders
The Ark In Space



The Kasterborous PodKast theme tune is arranged by Russell Hugo. It’s good, isn’t it?


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!

The post Revenge vs Rise: We Talk Cybermen In This Week’s Doctor Who PodKast appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

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Published on April 23, 2014 14:18

Confirmed: New Doctor Who Star Peter Capaldi Not In Musketeers Series 2

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.


It would seem that even with a TARDIS at his disposal these days Peter Capaldi cant manage to be in two places at once. Alas, this means an end to his  involvement in The Musketeers as the villainous Cardinal.


Naturally this leaves a burning question to fans of the show, how will they write out the cardinal? Fellow members of the cast have their own ideas about it as Tom Burke AKA Athos told the Radio Times recently:




Come the next series the Cardinal will be dead. He’ll just be gone. We’re all like, ‘Where’s the Cardinal? Oh he’s dead’.


Capaldi’s replacement as nemesis on the show is already in place in the form of Marc Warren as Rochefort.

Could this mean a longer than previously rumoured single series run for Capaldi as the Doctor, if he is willing to be killed off in a rather successful show like Musketeers one would assume he has so long(ish) term job security for the future. Could we have Capaldi still making a comeback in series three of the show, should it happen? What are your thoughts, will the loss have an effect on the viewing figures? Can you really have a Musketeers show without the diabolical Cardinal? Drop us a message below and let us know your feelings on the matter.

(Via Entertainmentwise.)


The post Confirmed: New Doctor Who Star Peter Capaldi Not In Musketeers Series 2 appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

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Published on April 23, 2014 10:01

Effects Master Mike Tucker Recalls Low Budget Doctor Who Challenges

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.


Special effects ace Mike Tucker, one of the handful of individuals to have worked on both pre- and post- 2005 Doctor Who, has done an interview with the Horror Channel, as part of their promotion of classic scary Doctor Who episodes. In the interview, he talks mostly about the challenges of working on the lower-budgeted classic series and how he is still not a fan of CGI.


On the problems presented by working within Who‘s infamous “very small” budgets:



The challenges were always producers and directors sitting down and showing you an effects sequence or model from a film like Star Wars or Alien and saying ‘I want something like that’, and then having to go away and create a similar effect for a fraction of the budget.

Tucker talks about his proudest moments on the classic series:



I’m very proud of being part of the team that did the big motion control shot for Trial Of A Time Lord, but I’m also proud of my work on Greatest Show In The Galaxy because its seamless with the live action.

And on why he prefers models over CGI:



I think people like the tactile element of models. On screen I think it’s because you are intrinsically hardwired to know that the physics and dynamics of what you are seeing is correct…It’s tricky to get the same sense of wonder when you’re looking at a wireframe model on a computer monitor, even though there’s the same level of skill that goes into its creation.

Mike Tucker is also a writer and has written several Doctor Who books and short stories.  His company, The Model Unit, continues to do work for Doctor Who – including those stunning exploding Daleks in The Day of the Doctor -  as well as many other productions. Head to the Horror Channel website for more, and also check out the latest three issues of Doctor Who Magazine (470-472) which also feature extensive interviews with Mike and his Model Unit colleagues, past and present.


Kasterborites, do you prefer models or CGI when it comes to those most special of effects?


The post Effects Master Mike Tucker Recalls Low Budget Doctor Who Challenges appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

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Published on April 23, 2014 06:30

Introducing: The Shakespeare Code

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.


If we go by educated guesses, William Shakespeare was born 450 years ago, on 23rd April 1564 (although the first record of the greatest writer in English history was at his baptism on 26th). And in 1599, he met a strange man called the Doctor and his companion, Martha Jones, all the way from Freedonia.


Written by Gareth Roberts, 2007’s The Shakespeare Code was Martha’s first foray into the past and was one of the most expensive productions due to its sets and costumes. They did film in London’s Globe Theatre, but much of the stunning surroundings were found in Coventry and Warwick.


The Globe


It was Roberts’ first work on the TV show, though he’d previously written Doctor Who novels throughout the 1990s and 2000s. He obviously has a fascination with Shakespeare as he previously wrote a 2005 comic for Doctor Who Magazine, A Groatsworth of Wit, starring the Bard. Quite right too…


Shakespeare and the Doctors

Many Doctor Who stars have appeared in adaptations of Shakespeare’s work. Though his idol was Charlie Chaplin, one of First Doctor, William Hartnell’s first roles was in April 1926’s The Merchant of Venice at the King’s Theatre, Hammersmith. He followed this with brief walk-on appearances in Hamlet, Macbeth, and The Tempest, according to Jessica Carney’s biography, Who’s There? The Life and Career of William Hartnell.


But it’s the Troughton family who actively embraced the work of Shakespeare; Second Doctor, Patrick Troughton appeared in the 1948 Laurence Olivier film of Hamlet – as Player King, the lead in the “play within a play” – and again with Olivier in Richard III (1955) as James Tyrrell. His son, David (The Curse of Peladon; Midnight) is a noted member of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), including playing the titular role in Richard III, whilst Sam Troughton, Patrick’s grandson, was nominated for the Ian Charleson Award 2001 for outstanding performance by a young actor when he played Young Talbot in Henry VI.


Fourth Doctor, Tom Baker, appeared numerous times in Shakespearian plays at the National Theatre and Bristol Old Vic, once playing Macbeth, a role Eleventh Doctor actor, Matt Smith, also wants to portray – after Karen Gillan (aka Amy Pond) revealed her desire to play Lady Macbeth!


The Shakespeare Code 2


David Tennant most famously played Hamlet during his time as the Tenth Doctor (Ninth Doctor, Christopher Eccleston, also took on that part in 2002), and since then starred as Bendick in Much Ado About Nothing opposite Catherine Tate.


Such dark roles – so it’s up to Seventh Doctor, Sylvester McCoy, to make things lighter, appearing as The Fool in King Lear (2007) with the Great Intelligence, Sir Ian McKellan, as well as Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Feste in Twelfth Night!


Dean Lennox Kelly, who plays William Shakespeare in The Shakespeare Code, also played Puck, albeit it in the BBC’s Shakespeare ReTold series. He had some great company, including: Billie Piper (Rose Tyler); Martin Jarvis (The Web Planet; Vengeance on Varos); Olivia Colman (The Eleventh Hour); Shirley Henderson (Love & Monsters); Sarah Parish (The Runaway Bride); Nina Sosanya (Fear Her); Joseph Millson (Maria’s Dad in The Sarah Jane Adventures);  Keeley Hawes (in an upcoming episode of Series 8); and Anna Hope (New Earth; Gridlock).


And finally, Twelfth Doctor, Peter Capaldi, starred in a 1983 production of Twelfth Night. But there’s one play none of them will star in…


Whatever Happened to Love’s Labour’s Won?

The Shakespeare Code 1


The Shakespeare Code revolves around the ‘lost play,’ supposedly a sequel to Love’s Labour’s Lost. Doctor Who wonders whether it was destroyed after an alien invasion (unlikely, I guess), but what actually happened is a mystery.


It was first mentioned in a list of Shakespeare’s works in Francis Meres’ Palladis Tamia, Wits Treasury, a 1598 book which is the first critical account of Shakespeare’s early plays and poems. It lists six tragedies and six comedies:


“witness his Ge[n]tleme[n] of Verona, his [Comedy of] Errors, his Love’s labors lost, his Love’s labours wonne, his Midsummers night dreame, & his Merchant of Venice”


As it neglects to mention The Taming of the Shrew, many believe it to be its alternative title in much the way What You Will is for Twelfth Night. However, Meres also omitted the Henry VI trilogy, believed written by 1591. Furthermore, The Taming of the Shrew and Love’s Labour’s Won were listed separately in a 1603 book by Exeter bookseller Christopher Hunt.


Shakespearian England


Both Hunt and Meres missed out Much Ado About Nothing, though, generally thought written in 1598 – so could the ‘lost play’ actually be an alternative title for that production? The RSC seems to think so: they’ve listed the upcoming October 2014- March 2015 run as Love’s Labour’s Won (Also Known As Much Ado About Nothing)! RSC artistic director, Gregory Doran, said:


“It’s always struck me that these plays belong together and so strong is my sense that I am sticking my neck out to say that Much Ado About Nothing may also have been known as Love’s Labour’s Won in Shakespeare’s lifetime. We know he wrote a play under this name and scholars have debated whether it is indeed a ‘lost work’ or an alternative title to an existing play. To test my theory, Christopher Luscombe will direct both with a single company of actors.”


That production will be broadcast live in selected cinemas across the UK on 4th March 2015.


Carrionites 2


The more romantic – and yet tragic (so fitting for Shakespeare) – theory is that Love’s Labour’s Won is, indeed, a lost work, detailing what happens to the King of Navarre, Berowne, Dumain and Longaville after their weddings were strangely delayed at the end of Love’s Labour’s Lost.


Make that Witch House

You’d think Shakespeare would be master of the stage – but the real guy in charge was the Master of Revels, a man who oversaw everything. And if Shakespeare, or indeed any playwright, wished for the Queen to turn up to one of their plays, the Master of Revels was the person to impress. He’d write out any scandalous parts and if it weren’t to his suiting, he could make sure the work was never performed.


It seems unlikely Shakespeare made any offense obvious, though censorship certainly did happen. He nearly got into hot water over Henry IV Part 1’s Sir John Oldcastle, but in 1590, parts of Henry VIII were marked with the warning, “Leave this in at your peril!” Measure for Measure particularly offended and was completely blotted out of a 1632 folio of the Bard’s work in Spain.


Master of Revels


Whether Love’s Labour’s Won is a lost play because the Master of Revels dismissed it or not is unknown – but in The Shakespeare Code, he’s drowned by an imbalance of the humours… or killed by witches.


Witchcraft is a subject Shakespeare was fascinated with, probably highlighted by the persecution of those supposedly dealing with the dark arts in Elizabethan England. Most notably, the Three Witches shape events considerably in Macbeth, predicting the titular character’s rise and demise when “Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill shall come against him.” Lady Macbeth might also deal in magic, though – spoilers! – she meets a grim fate, as did many suspected of witchcraft in Shakespearian times.


The Witchcraft Act of 1562 was passed early in Elizabeth I’s reign, and anyone who should “practise, or exercise any Witchcraft, Enchantment, Charm, or Sorcery, whereby any person shall happen to be killed or destroyed” was to be killed too. Lesser offences (merely being suspected) meant life imprisonment.


Author! Author!

Shakespeare


He may be the bane of many-a-student, but Shakespeare has furthered the English language so much. While Shakespeare seemingly borrows the word Sycorax from the Doctor, there are plenty of words and phrases coined by the writer. Without him, the Daleks wouldn’t be the Doctor’s arch-villain, the prefix added in Timon of Athens. Full Circle would have to be called The Planet That Slept, its true title having first appeared in King Lear.


Revelation of the Daleks’ Tranquil Repose might’ve simply been Repose if it weren’t for Othello; and the assassination of J.F. Kennedy the day before Doctor Who made its debut would’ve been the murder of JFK by an assassin. Perhaps we wouldn’t have 2010’s Flesh and Stone either if “own flesh and blood” hadn’t been coined in Hamlet. And the Empress of the Racnoss (from 2006’s The Runaway Bride) would not have said “sick at heart” if it too hadn’t appeared in Hamlet.


Shakespeare also gave science fiction some great phrases, including “once more into the breach” (Henry V) and “brave new world” (The Tempest). A Midsummer Night’s Dream gave us a great little phrase I’m sure various aliens over Doctor Who’s 50 year history would like: “What fools these mortals be.” Some of us, perhaps – but not Shakespeare.


The post Introducing: The Shakespeare Code appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

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Published on April 23, 2014 04:57

From the Pathé News Archive: William Hartnell at the British Film Festival

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.


In 1947, a young William Hartnell attended the British Film Festival, an event sponsored by the Daily Mail.


Courtesy of the British Pathé news archive, we can now see some footage of the actor 16 years before he brought the Doctor to life…


Look out for more from the archive throughout the week, including, Daleks, Cybermen and Yeti!


The post From the Pathé News Archive: William Hartnell at the British Film Festival appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

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Published on April 23, 2014 03:08

Tom Baker On Doctor Who Return: ‘Capaldi might ask for me!’

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.


For many, the appearance of the Curator in The Day of the Doctor was the high point of the Doctor Who 50th anniversary celebrations – and Tom Baker is apparently open to returning to the show.


Despite avoiding reprising his Fourth Doctor in The Five Doctors in 1983, Baker was happy to travel to Cardiff following a very early start in order to appear in a short, tear-jerking scene with Matt Smith at the end of the multi-Doctor extravaganza, and it seems he’s enjoyed the reaction…


Says the Great Man:



I wouldn’t rule anything out. If it was a nice part, with some good lines, I might deign to appear! I greatly admire [Twelfth Doctor Peter] Capaldi, he’s lovely and apparently he’s a great fan of Doctor Who – he might ask for me!

Come on, which one of you would realistically deny us the chance to see the revisited face of the Curator again?


(Via Digital Spy)


The post Tom Baker On Doctor Who Return: ‘Capaldi might ask for me!’ appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

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Published on April 23, 2014 02:07

April 22, 2014

Titan Introduces New Companion for the Tenth Doctor

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.


Comics fans looking forward Titan’s new Doctor Who series will be in at the start of a new friendship for the Tenth Doctor as he pairs up with a new companion!


Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor, to be published in July, will see the Doctor meet Gabriella Gonzalez (or Gabby for short), a New Yorker “stuck in a dead-end job in her family’s laundromat, dreaming of college and bigger, better and brighter things.”


Created by Nick Abadzis, Robbie Morrison and Elena Casagrande, Gabby will join the Time Lord after the end of Series 4, when the traumatic fate suffered by Donna left the Doctor reluctant to share the TARDIS with anyone. How Gabby will go about securing her passage to travel with the Doctor remains to be seen…


There’s nothing new, of course, about unique companions being introduced for Doctor Who comic strip adventures. Going right back to John and Gillian in the 1960′s, the Doctor has always found room in his busy life to accommodate all comers away from his televised adventures.


A new companion who isn’t from the UK will represent something of a departure with what we’ve grown used to from the new series however, on-screen at least. There was a time when producer JN-T would quite happily turn the TARDIS into a kind of United Nations of different nationalities to spice things up, but since 2005 it’s been a Brits only zone.


What do you think? Like the idea of starting from scratch with Gabby and Doctor Ten? Or would you prefer to stick with characters you’ve already met on-screen?


(Via Hollywood Reporter.)


The post Titan Introduces New Companion for the Tenth Doctor appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

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Published on April 22, 2014 13:16

Grab A Limited Edition Doctor Who Tee For Just $6!

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.


Have you ever looked wistfully at the Doctor Who t-shirts featured on Kasterborous and wished you could afford one, but felt the price was just out of reach? Today’s your lucky day…


TeeFury is offering a random Doctor Who tee for just $6, and all you have to do is head to the website, pay the low fee and wait for a randomly selected t-shirt featuring any of the Doctors and their companions in a variety of interesting designs, often mashups with other franchises. If you’re unsure how this might go down with your better half, there’s also a non-Doctor Who option, just in case they’re a bit odd like that.


So head to TeeFury forthwith where you can collect a random Doctor Who t-shirt for just $6 plus shipping (that’s three pounds sixty of your Earth pounds – and yes, they ship internationally)!


This offer ends midnight US time on Tuesday, 22nd April 2014.


 


The post Grab A Limited Edition Doctor Who Tee For Just $6! appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

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Published on April 22, 2014 12:12

Chris Addison: Capaldi Is The Missing Note From The Scale

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.


Chris Addison, Peter Capaldi’s co-star from The Thick of It, has aired his views on the Time Lord’s latest incarnation – and he couldn’t be happier!


In a recent interview with the Radio Times, Addison revealed that Peter Capaldi is an “ideal” choice to take over the TARDIS controls…



I thought Matt Smith was terrific, I loved David Tennant, Chris Eccleston, they’ve all been great, since it came back. But what I really have missed… is the mercurial, unknowable, frightening side of the Doctor. We haven’t had the Doctor where you go, ‘I don’t know if I’m safe with this person’. Peter will give it that… He’ll be this time round’s Tom Baker, the one that everybody thinks of.

But will Number Twelve be the kind of Doctor to boldly proclaim a hat’s coolness, as the Universe crumbles around him? Addison thinks not…



I don’t think that will happen. I really love Matt Smith… But I never quite felt that any of the ones we’ve seen since 2005 could be imperious. That’s a note that’s missing from the scale. Peter will bring that back. I’m beyond excited. It’s all I can do not to drive down to Cardiff.

So if any Who fans are still unsure about Peter Capaldi’s casting, hopefully these words will provide more than a crumb of comfort! These are exciting times we’re living in, and the best may yet be to come…


The post Chris Addison: Capaldi Is The Missing Note From The Scale appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

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Published on April 22, 2014 08:22

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