Christian Cawley's Blog, page 253

Awesome Con hits Washington this Easter!

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.

Washington DC is very much the place to be for sci-fi fans this Easter weekend with the incredible extravaganza that is Awesome Con!

Said to be a convention that ‘embraces all aspects of geekdom and pop culture’, Awesome Con features guests, discussion panels, costume contests, gaming tournaments, and a whole lot else.

Kasterborous‘ very own Brian Terranova will be in attendance, so if you’re attending be sure to get yourself along to the Doctor Who / Torchwood Cosplay and Fanfilms Panel on Saturday at 4:45, where Brian and friends will be presenting their fans series Legacy, before hosting a Q&A on the making of the show.

Guests listed to attend the event include Billie Piper and Simon Fisher-Becker, whilst fans of The Walking Dead and various Joss Whedon shows will also have plenty to look forward to with a number of stars present.

Other highlights are sure to be the Blast-A-Trooper session (shoot at Stormtroopers for charity), Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse 101 (an important educational lecture that might just save your life) and the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Q&A (take a wild guess what that one’s about).

Awesome Con runs at Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Washington DC from April 18-20 2014. Head over to their site for full details.

If you just can’t get enough of Brian, head to Zenkaikon at the Lancaster County Convention Center, Lancaster, PA on April 26th where he’ll be hosting the dating game and judging the costume contest. Full details on their official site.

Do you never sleep, Brian?!

(Image credit Jason S Colflesh Photography)

The post Awesome Con hits Washington this Easter! appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

PodKast Talks Redesigns, Philip Morris & Matt Smith’s Era

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.

Well, here we are, dear listener. A day later than intended, the podKast is now available. You can blame the people who claim to administer our servers for the delay of your fix of weekly Doctor Who discussion with Christian Cawley, Brian Terranova and James McLean.

In this week’s podKast, we discuss the many redesigned monsters to have appeared in Doctor Who over the years, from Daleks and Cybermen to Sontarans, Ice Warriors and Silurians. There’s also chat about Tom Baker launching a run of classic Doctor Who on the Horror Channel and some missing episodes omnirumour talk!

Oh, and we talk about milkshakes, too. In fairness, that’s probably the highlight of the podKast, and we left it at the start, so click play to enjoy .

Kasterborous PodKast Series 4 Episode 10 Shownotes

Philip Morris/T.I.E.A. statement.
Tom Baker launches classic Doctor Who on the Horror Channel.
Matt Smith’s thoughts on Series 5.
Recommendations:

The Dark Planet
The Brain of Morbius

The Kasterborous PodKast theme tune is arranged by Russell Hugo. We’re still digging 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 PodKast Talks Redesigns, Philip Morris & Matt Smith’s Era appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Karen Gillan: Christmas Return was “Surreal”

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.

The Doctor has often been known to hallucinate towards the end of his life; Tom Baker had visions of K9, Peter Davison saw Adric, and I like to think Colin Baker caught a glimpse of Frobisher before breathing his last.

Therefore, in-keeping with Time Lord tradition, it was only fitting that the Eleventh Doctor should come  face to face with one of his most faithful companions – Amy Pond – before his swift regeneration into Peter Capaldi. And now Karen Gillan, who played the Pond in question, has spoken out about what it was like to return…

“It was such a surreal experience, because those were three very important years of my life on that TV show, and then to go back and be on someone else’s TARDIS was a really weird sensation. sort of… on the outside looking in. But also knowing that life is okay after you leave Doctor Who. It was just a really interesting experience and important to me that I was there for Matt’s final moments in character.”

Apparently, though, the experience was quite an emotional one…

“Everyone was crying! Everyone! Me and Jenna [Coleman, who plays current companion Clara Oswald] were hugging. Oh my God!”

So that’s Karen Gillan, Jenna Coleman, Matt Smith, Peter Capaldi and (presumably) Steven Moffat all in the same room at the same time, crying.

It’s a wonder the universe didn’t implode!

(Via UnrealityTV.)

The post Karen Gillan: Christmas Return was “Surreal” appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Tom Baker Launches The Horror Channel’s Classic Doctor Who With Typical Humour

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.

It’s a pivotal moment: crouched down at the Fourth Doctor’s side, Harry and Sarah, eyes fixed on their time-traveling companion, where, clasped between his fingers, two wires, held just inches away from each other and, ultimately, the total annihilation of the Daleks.

Those familiar blue eyes, made all the more striking by the six LCD monitors showing perhaps the Doctors greatest, and most horrifying adventure,  Genesis of the Daleks, betray a man caught in two minds: Does he do what no time traveller should ever do? Does he irrecoverable alter the history not only of this race, but the hundreds of others, crushed under the weight of Dalek oppression?

It’s enough to make anyone gulp on their Prosecco.

I was persuaded by a girl called Caroline Skinner… she came to meet me in Rye, in some little hotel, The Mermaid Hotel, a lovely antique place, and she begged me to be in it, you see… she was a very persuasive girl, very charming, and said I could tamper with the script and whatever; so I said yes to her. Then the script arrived two months later and I didn’t much care for it…”

Canapes held to lips, the audience, gathered in front of the screens inside the Loft at the Ivy, are momentarily transported back to a time when all their nightmares were kept at bay by a man who could carry this kind of weight as freely as one might carry a bag of Jelly Babies.

Those gathered in the crowd who are not as familiar with why all this matters so much, are too caught up in the drama to really question why he has such a long scarf and just what exactly is a Dalek because that’s what has always been. As long as Doctor Who has existed somewhere; there’s always been a man in an improbable scarf and there will always be Daleks to torment him.

Or will there?

The Doctor hovers the wires perilously close to doomsday; Sarah, caught up in the horrors of both this and of past encounters, screams for him to do it; wipe out the Daleks once and for all. With sweat forming on his brow; those blue eyes take in the enormity of the wires before him; his hands steady, the words tumble from his lips as though he were thinking aloud:

“Do I have the right?” Booms out of the sound system. A hush pervades the expectant crowd.

“AH! HA! HAAAHA!”

From inside the room, a laugh as infectious, rambunctious and familiar as it’s always been echoes from a small stain glass alcove.

Leaning on his walking stick, Tom Baker, watching his younger self wrestle with the mother of all ethical debates, can’t help but laugh.

He laughs. Then you laugh (it’s that kind of laughter)

Then his younger self, momentarily caught in two minds, fades back into the time vortex; a familiar theme rings out and the great man rises; taking stock of the warm introduction and rapturous applause, before seating himself comfortably next to Horror Channel queen Emily Booth; to tell us a little about the past, his past, your past and why this all has something to do with making your Easter a truly terrifying one…

 

It’s earlier that day; rows of empty tea cups sit turned over on saucers awaiting the command of ‘when’ from thirty journalists – jagged cubes of sugar are pressed to the sides of their glass bowls. The bar is mostly just for leaning on. For someone who devoted several paragraphs of his own autobiography Who on Earth is Tom Baker? to just how an actor should cross a threshold; it’s almost disappointing that no one sees him enter the Loft at The Ivy.

First, there’s a low hum of electricity as excitement and nerves oscillate; Tom Baker is before us. Simple commands like: ‘gather round, take a seat’ seem complex and beyond reason: how can a man move in a coherent fashion when the Fourth Doctor just happens to be in front of you?

Seats catch us and a Question and Answer session quickly forms; the stories that unfold are familiar to anyone with a passing interest in Tom Baker but they are also different; with small embellishes here and there as though they were tailored specifically for, what is, a very accommodating crowd.

You quickly get the feeling that if he were talking to you alone; the story would expand and contract; alter and change, based solely on how you react to what’s before you – you almost want to dump great chucks of memory just to react anew to old stories. Just to see where this born performer might take them.

Take, for instance, the familiar tale of an out of work jobbing actor; working on a building site to make a little extra scratch, who writes a letter to the BBC’s Head of Serials Bill Slater, which somehow, after a long, circuitous route through the bowels of the Beeb results in his name ending up on the list of actors to replace the departing Jon Pertwee in Doctor Who.

These are the stories that defy repetition:

“And, as in the BBC, the cruelty, when I got it, they said: ‘right, you’re on’ and I said: ‘oh that’s marvellous’. I was working on a building site, making tea, that’s all I was good for, and, the guy said: ‘However, Tom…’ – there’s always a chilling ‘but’ when you get good news – he said: ‘you can’t tell anyone for a fortnight’ I thought: ‘Christ, I haven’t worked for twenty weeks’ you know, I’m working on a building site, and I had to keep my mouth shut for two weeks that I was going to play a big part. It was very painful. But I was happy to do it, that’s why I stayed so long.

His enthusiasm for the part is matched in intensity of his die hard fans; now grown up and with children of their own – they still thank him on a daily basis, be it in person or via handwritten mail, for the way he shaped their formative years:

“A man stopped me at Oxford Street and said: ‘Tom Baker, I can’t believe it’ and I caught a glimpse of myself in the shop window and I couldn’t  believe it either.

He kept saying: ‘I can’t believe it’ and so he said: ‘Look when I was a boy, I was in care, in Wales somewhere, in a home’ and he said: ‘Nobody wanted us, nobody wanted me’, he said and then his eyes filled with tears, he said: ‘And you made a difference.’ And I was terribly touched by that and I went to speak to him and he couldn’t speak; he just gave that little eloquent punch that sometimes people do. A little bang like that and he was gone – I couldn’t pursue it.”

However, firstly, there’s the grisly business of Horror. Namely, the Horror Channels fantastic season of classic Doctor Who episodes, Who on Horror – seven episodes, one from each of the classic Doctors starting on Good Friday (18th April) – designed to add a little bit of the horrific to your hot crossed buns.

For a Doctor who was so steeped in Gothic overtones; which serials truly terrified the great man himself?

“Ah, I thought they were all great comedy when I was doing them but I suppose but they’re going to talk about; they are very obvious aren’t they? It’s going to be The Talons of Weng-Chiang and things like that. They’ve taken their time to discover them. I mean it’s only been 32 years since I finished it. It seems like only yesterday.

Now the elder statesman of Doctor Who; have the encroaching years made him any less aware of the daily horrors that pervade our existence?

“I’m mean I’m very interested in Horror. I mean not so much now because horror is an actuality with me now. We like to be frightened and we like to suspend our thoughts…We all want to get away from sanity and chastity and virtue and be frightened into another world. When in reality, of course, we want nice neighbours and no crime.”

But what of the man himself? With his wide eyes; maniacal grin and quicksilver mind – did he ever feel frightening? Could the hero to all those children occasional scare them too?

“I mean that idea of being frightened; children like playing at being frightened don’t they? And the other thing is, in television, you can go much further than in the cinema because in television they are watching in a domestic context – that’s why it’s so powerful, I suppose and when they look from what’s frightening them, they can see Fish Fingers or whatever it is that their mother is giving them. Or Muesli nowadays.

So I never heard anyone complain that I frightened them; I mean just look at me and try and imagine me forty years ago if you can; I wasn’t at all frightening. Even now as an old man I can’t do frightened.”

He isn’t wrong. There’s something, to use a Tenth Doctor phrase, indomitable about Tom Baker – he has taken on all comers and has outlived them all; which is why his opinion is so highly sort after – take for instance, his most recent predecessor, Peter Capaldi – what does he make of the new man and what advice does he have to share?

“Ah, no. No, I don’t have any advice for anyone. Not for anyone; certainly not someone who’s going to be playing Doctor Who. He’s a very accomplished actor; I’ve seen him do those mean things, you know, swearing into his mobile.

Nobody has ever failed have they? Nobody has ever failed, so there you are. He’s going to be alright.

I mean, we nod to each other, you know at conventions, we nod but we don’t really….no we don’t.”

Later on that day, there’s something of a scrum – it was always bound to happen – if you put the iconic hat and scarf in the same room as Tom Baker, someone will always ask him to try it on; and who is he to refuse a request from his adoring crowd?

Now, before a gaggle of onlookers; with phones held high, images shake in and out of focus as first the hat, and then the scarf are placed upon him – he stands, impossibly tall, even with the slight stoop to accommodate the cane; the Doctor and the actor, reborn.

What makes it all the more fascinating is, standing either side of a man completely in his element are the costumes of his predecessors, the Fifth and Sixth Doctors – you get the feeling that even if his flesh and blood counterparts were filling those other iconic threads, all eyes would still be on Tom Baker.

It’s no disrespect to his fellow Doctors; but this professional, if slightly telling,  relationship with his counterparts was a topic Tom kept coming back to; with obvious delight:

“It’s only recently dawned on me that there were other Doctors! I don’t know them, I’ve got no desire to know them. I’ve never watched them. I thought it was only fair never to watch them because I didn’t watch myself. All I wanted to do, was do it.”

For Tom, the humdrum day to day trudge paled into insignificance when compared to the wonders that Doctor Who could create for an actor who was always felt a bit ‘alien’:

“You see, the thing is, I can say it now because it doesn’t matter what I say now; I was playing Doctor Who before I got the part and that’s why it made me so happy when I did get it. And I didn’t watch myself because, I was so opinionated about which shots we used: ‘we did a better take than that’ and so I just celebrated coming out of obscurity and into being a children’s hero. Not to get soppy about it, it really gave me enormous pleasure and I did a lot to promote the programme, and still do.”

With this sense of, not ownership, but actual inhabitancy of the Doctor; it begs the question; did he feel any sense of propriety when he briefly worked with the then current Doctor Matt Smith while filming for the 50th anniversary?

“I mean going to Cardiff, on a winter’s morning, at four o’ clock, couldn’t possibly be fun. He was nice, and I didn’t understand the cameras anymore, because of the HD and I didn’t understand that. I was a bit uneasy, you know. But Matt Smith was a charming young man, and we did this little scene, which people liked a lot.

But there were thousands of people there, thousands of thousands of people. It’s, I have to tell you, and also I have a big, poor background in Liverpool, so, I wanted to be, everybody wants to be loved and admired and everything; and I always wanted to be adored. Like lots of people who like to be adored.

So when it happened, and suddenly I was adored, I was ready for it… I’ve never recovered from it and also, of course, I’m still playing the part for Big Finish –Big Finish productions, I think I’ve got sixteen or eighteen adventures; so it’s still going on.”

But even that devotion to the part of the Doctor comes with a price; there was, for a brief dark period, a time when Tom Baker contemplated not appearing in the celebration of that character’s legacy; The Day of the Doctor:

“I was persuaded by a girl called Caroline Skinner [former Executive Producer]…she came to meet me in Rye, in some little hotel, The Mermaid Hotel, a lovely antique place, and she begged me to be in it, you see.

And she was a very persuasive girl, and she was very charming about it, and said I could tamper with the script and whatever; so I said yes to her.

Anyway, then the script arrived two months later and I didn’t much care for the script, so I rang the BBC, and said: ‘Listen, get me Caroline Skinner’ and they said: ‘Who?’ and I said: ‘Is that the Doctor Who Production Office?’ and they said: ‘yeah’ and I said: ‘You are asking me who Caroline Skinner is? The Producer’ ‘Oh, I’m so sorry, she’s not with us anymore.’ And it was only later that I found out she had been murdered by someone else at the BBC, who was after her job but I never heard of her again and at that time you see, I’d agreed to do it.

So, I’m not sorry now. I missed meeting with Caroline, she was very sweet.”

So what did Tom make of the enigmatic Curator? Was he an elderly Fourth Doctor or something else entirely?

“Well, typical of the BBC, nobody knows. I mean he could be anything; the next Director General for all we know…you’ve really got to be able to suspend your disbelief; I mean anything can happen at the BBC.  I mean the monster on Doctor Who are never so amazing as the monsters on the sixth floor.”

Ever the tease, his casting undoubtable caused friction with some of the other Doctors; a fact that again brings forth that recognisable, puckish grin:

“Oh, I hope so, yes! Thanks a lot for reminding me of that! Yeah, that really pleased me!

This playful, barbed sense of entitlement is suffused in his recollections of that last time the Doctors were to united together at ExCeL for the Saturday of the 50th anniversary celebration weekend:

And the other thing that was a terrible mistake made was actually they introduced us all at ExCeL, Nick Briggs, who is a charming man who does those lovely friendly interviews, well, there were about 3,000 people in there, and what he really should have done was, the curtain should have gone up, he should have called us all on the stage and then introduced us but he didn’t.

He quite reasonably start with the old man in case he’s dead by the time he gets to him, and he said: ‘ladies and gentlemen, Doctor number four, Tom Baker’ now, I walked on into the light, and it was ecstasy; the applause was tumultuous, absolutely amazing; I hope this never stops…

…I kept thinking, if this goes on, the other boys are going to come out in silence. So naturally I went on.”

It wasn’t just older Doctors that Tom was offered the chance to appear with again. Before the untimely passing of Elisabeth Sladen, there were rumours that this much-loved pairing would reunite in The Sarah Jane Adventures – and like most of the Doctor Who community, Tom still bears her loss:

“Well, Elisabeth Sladen was a terrible blow to me when she left because she mistakenly thought, a new producer would, at the end of her first year contract, want to choose his own girl, apparently that’s very common – she anticipated that by resigning, and it was a terrible shock to me, because we got on so well and she admired me so much and people who admire me, really, you know, can be quite influential with me.  I can really be quite persuaded by giving up admiration. She was so good about it.”

So shocked was he by her departure, it initially soured his burgeoning relationship with new companion Louise Jameson:

“It also, of course, changed our physical relationship, because with Elisabeth Sladen, I used to be able to throw her into a tunnel and scramble after her and it would be absolutely great. But when Louise arrived, playing the character Leela, wearing very few clothes, I couldn’t throw her into a tunnel and scramble in afterwards without at least raising, at least, eyebrows.”

But which role would Tom have played if this reunion had gone ahead?

“I think it was being muted, at a time when Elisabeth began to be ill, I’d never seen it you see. She was so thrilled; I always had a terrific, tenuous thing for her, you know.I never met her out of the studio except around the time she was doing that but I never got around to doing that; but I don’t accept many jobs now because the thing is, I can’t be bothered and what’s the point of having a rich wife and chasing cheap jobs at the BBC?

Of course I’ll be playing the Doctor, Christ man; after I left Doctor Who, when I played Macbeth, of course I did it in the style of Doctor Who because I felt I had to do it because all the audience were Doctor Who fans. The other actors didn’t like that. Afterwards, one of the reviewers said: ‘I had no idea that Macbeth was such a nice fellow?’”

So let’s end where we began with genesis – namely the Genesis of the Daleks – which now plays out behind the mingling crowds as music drowns out Terry Nations horrifying account of perversions of spirit and of will that moments ago kept lips from wine glasses.

Early, at the Q & A, Tom considered the political and social ramifications of his larking about in very analogous waters:

“I mean, the character that I played, the Doctor is rather priggish I think. So my job was often to hide that. He was always terribly politically correct and I notice still in scripts that it was there… So I tried to hide that all the time.

But all that stuff about whether I was going to blow up the Daleks and then I had to say that lovely line: ‘do I have the right?’ which was a cue for a song really.

The reason why I didn’t have the right was that Terry Nation would have absolutely had me murdered! It was his living!

Again, Tom seems happier just occupying the world of the Doctor; the jester who crashed the party – the ramifications were for those who took the responsibility on; the writers, the directors, the crew – Tom was just visiting, a friendly traveller:

“I just tried to play the way I was really. I’ve always felt myself a kind of a benevolent alien really.”

My word, don’t you just love him?

British audiences can catch Doctor Who on the Horror Channel from April 18th 2014 (Good Friday) – check listings and EPGs for details.

The post Tom Baker Launches The Horror Channel’s Classic Doctor Who With Typical Humour appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Kasterborous Down: The Show Goes On!

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.

Dear readers, as you’ve probably noted, things have become a bit wibbly-wobbly at K Towers in the last day or so. Apologies for the inconvenience! Technology is fantastic, but alas, even the best tech falters on occasion. However, even when we’re down, we’re never completely offline!

Here are a few ways to make sure you can keep with Kasterborous if the site goes down:

- Facebook: That’s right, if you were unaware, we’re live on the social media juggernaut and would love for you to connect with us. Plus, it’s an additional way to connect with other like-minded Whovians.

- Twitter: If 140 characters or less is your medium of choice, you can find Kasterborous on Twitter here. Also, many of our writers are on Twitter as well (including yours, truly), so feel free to connect with us there as well.

- Instagram: Pics, videos, and comments all through the oh so popular filters of Instagram; what’s not to love?

- Audioboo: to the uninitiated, we have a fantastic weekly PodKast (with a K, of course!) featuring Christian, Brian, and James, who cover the major points of Who news from the week and tackle relevant and entertaining topics. One of the best things we have going here at K Towers, in my estimation. It can be found here at Audioboo.

Again, we so appreciate your patience and, as always, thank you for being part of our community and readership! Allons-y!

The post Kasterborous Down: The Show Goes On! appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

How Much More Proof Do You Need, Internet: Peter Capaldi Is AWESOME!

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.

Few months ago, some fans had an idea to show support to Peter Capaldi and welcome him to his role on Doctor Who. Following the lead of the owner of the Tumblr blog F***YesPeterCapaldi, people created drawings and artworks to be combined into a scrapbook to be sent to Capaldi in December as a Christmas gift.

As with loads of other fanmail sent to stars, those sending it don’t necessarily expect to get anything in return. There are some celebs who make it a point to look at all or part of the mail the public sends them. Sometimes, the assistants or others the star employs will send back a postcard or quick letter or maybe even a nice photo signed by the star.

But this tribute apparently touched Mr. Capaldi and he felt the need to do a little more…

He didn’t just send back a nice signed photograph or letter. He went a little further.

At least 2 of those that contributed to the book have received signed postcards, each with a different bit of artwork drawn and painted by him behind the promotional image of him as the Twelfth Doctor!  

One of those that received a postcard, Erin, wrote on her blog something that seems to completely sum up Capaldi and his fan interactions and just who he is in general -

Point is, Peter Capaldi is not just taking on his dream role; he’s aware that he’s just inherited a huge worldwide fanbase, and is trying his very hardest to do right by them. It’s a masterclass in class, so shoutout to the Doctor, for being the Doctor for us, before series 8 has even aired.

Now this isn’t to say that every fan that sends something to Capaldi will get such a lovely item back from him. But it goes a long way in showing all of us what a lovely person he is and I think even how excited he is to have this role! Peter Capaldi is AWESOME!

Check out the F***YesPeterCapaldi blog to see a short video of what the book sent to Capaldi looked like!

(via DoctorWho on Tumblr. F***YesPeterCapaldi)

 

The post How Much More Proof Do You Need, Internet: Peter Capaldi Is AWESOME! appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Tom Baker Has Faith in Peter Capaldi!

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.

Kasterborous recently – I mean, really recently – caught up with Fourth Doctor, Tom Baker, to chat about his time on the show… and beyond.

With a new Doctor waiting in the wings, Tom was asked if he had any advice for Peter Capaldi, and responded with a vote of confidence:

“I don’t have any advice for anyone. Not for anyone; certainly not someone who’s going to be playing Doctor Who. He’s a very accomplished actor; I’ve seen him do those mean things, you know, swearing into his mobile.

 

Nobody has ever failed have they? Nobody has ever failed, so there you are. He’s going to be alright.”

Tom agrees with us Whovians: all the Doctors are amazing! He’s only the latest in a long line of stars praising the Twelfth Doctor actor, who is expected to debut in the Autumn.

The 80 year old star (can you believe he’s 80?!) was promoting the launch of Doctor Who on the Horror Channel, beginning this Friday. We’ll have that full interview for you very soon…

The post Tom Baker Has Faith in Peter Capaldi! appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Here’s Series 8 Guest Tom Riley As… [SPOILER]

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.

If your one of those who want to know absolutely nothing about Series 8 then this may not be the news item for you. Why hot have a look at that lovely piece over there about Big Finish instead?

Still here?

Then I guess you must want to know more about actor Tom Riley turning up as a special guest in the upcoming series of Doctor Who. For those of you who don’t know, Tom Riley is the lead in the BBC/Starz production Da Vinci’s Demons and he was recently snapped on the set of Doctor Who in full costume by @DWSR on twitter.

DWSR Another from today's doctor who filming Peter C and @thisisTomRiley ~dwsr pic.twitter.com/xjM7cHuxVU http://t.co/39r1uq2yeq

— DWSR tweets (@DWSRtweets) April 14, 2014

Now, I may be clutching at straws here but a guy in decidedly medieval garb and fetching green tights in the middle of what looks like a forest implies a certain folk hero to me.

The Doctor is, of course, no stranger when it comes to galavanting with some of histories big names – Shakespeare, Madame De Pompadour, Emperor Nero, Elizabeth I (and Liz X for that matter) – but with the exception of Sylvester McCoy’s encounters with the Arthurian legend in Battlefield the semi-historic folkfore folk have never put in much of an appearance.

Could the inclusion of Robin Hood signal the start of a trend? Can we expect to see the Doctor hook up with Lord Lambton to take down the famous Worm from the Wear (I still pray for that one to happen) or perhaps an adventure with William Tell? What are your thoughts: should we see more fantastical historical figures or should we leave them out and stick to mucking about with real history? Let us know your views below, or maybe just set off a sing-song about the Lambton Worm… just me then?

The post Here’s Series 8 Guest Tom Riley As… [SPOILER] appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Tom Baker: “Doctor Who Almost Makes Me Immortal!”

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.

In preparation for Doctor Who coming to the Horror Channel on 18th April, Tom Baker has spoken about his time as the Doctor.

Tom’s reign as Doctor Number Four lasted from 1975 to 1981, making him the longest-running Doctor… But how does he feel about that?

“Well, it’s a bit daunting really. I’m now 29,200 days old. It’s a pretty daunting thing. I can’t believe it, you know – all that time has passed. Isn’t it amazing; it almost makes me immortal – people are still stopping me in the street and saying: ‘you were really influential in my life.’ I like that a lot…”

And in the minds of many-a-generation, Tom will always be their Doctor. He’s right, of course: it’s a sort of immortality!

Keep an eye on Kasterborous for an extensive interview with the great man.

The post Tom Baker: “Doctor Who Almost Makes Me Immortal!” appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Doctor Who Series 8 Casting You Might Have Missed

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.

Doctor Who’s filming schedule has been traditionally broken down into “blocks” of episodes, with certain directors and writers involved in the filming process.  Peter Capaldi’s upcoming series as the Twelfth Doctor is no exception, with Block Three recently getting under way.  This block is composed of episode three, written by Mark Gatiss, and episode six by Gareth Roberts.  Both episodes will be directed by Paul Murphy (Casualty, Wizards vs. Aliens).

According to Doctor Who Magazine, the supporting guest cast has now been set for these episodes.  The Mark Gatiss-penned story will see roles played by:  Roger Ashton-Griffiths (Mace Tyrell on HBO’s Game of Thrones), Trevor Cooper (who appeared in 1985′s Revelation of the Daleks), David Benson (Goodnight Sweetheart, Little Britain),  Sabrina Bartlett (Suspects), Adam Jones, and David Langham.

The Gareth Roberts episode will feature Nigel Betts (who was on Emmerdale during the same time as Jenna Coleman in the mid-2000s), Edward Harrison (Wreckers), Ellis George, and Andy Gillies.  Returning to Doctor Who will be Jimmy Vee, who played aliens such as The Moxx of Balhoon, Bannakaffalatta, and The Graske during the Ninth and Tenth Doctor’s eras.

Kasterborites, are there any actors you’d like to see come in and play a supporting role in an upcoming episode?

The post Doctor Who Series 8 Casting You Might Have Missed appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.