Christian Cawley's Blog, page 256

Watch Peter Capaldi In Lair of the White Worm

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.

Guardian journalist, Peter Walker has flagged up one corker of a cinematic train-wreck featuring our incumbent Time Lord. Peter Capaldi starred as a young Scots Archeologist in 1988’s semi-comedic horror flick, Lair of the White Worm from director Ken Russell. I haven’t seen it. But the trailer left me speechless.

Walker sums up the plot:

…[it] revolves around an ancient monster, as much dragon as snake, which intermittently emerges from its cavern in the Derbyshire hills to feed on humans, and is hunted down by an alarmingly young-looking, floppy-haired Peter Capaldi and Hugh Grant.

He is very clear – it’s atrocious but he loves it anyway. From someone with a soft spot for Time and the Rani I can see where he’s coming from. It’s clearly bonkers, hyper-camp nonsense on a shoestring (sound familiar?) with baffled actors either playing it straight or abandoning all hope and just having a laugh.

The Guardian features a tidied-up modern trailer, but I prefer this one complete with the zany song detailing the local legend of the White Worm. You’ve gotta love a film that sets these lyrics to folk-rock:

“Now the worm got fat and good and growed an awful size, with great big teeth and a great big mouth and great big goggle eyes…”

Check it out:

Forgive me a little musing but there’s something a bit Who about the whole thing – mysterious skulls, ancient monsters haunting moors and modern-day scientist heroes battling local lunatics. This is straight out of Hinchcliffe era Doctor Who – you even wonder whether one Alan Barnes had this in mind when he penned Big Finish’s Trail of the White Worm set in the “wilds of Derbyshire”…

The whole film is available on YouTube (as you can see at the top of the page) and a sneak-peek tells me that fans of Kinda will enjoy the dramatic climax. Be warned though, if you go looking for other Ken Russell material there is some weird, saucy stuff out there that should come with a parental advisory warning. Have fun on the Derbyshire hills!

The post Watch Peter Capaldi In Lair of the White Worm appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

PodKast With Tenth Doctor Cosplaying Celebrity Brian Terranova!

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.

James McLean, Brian A Terranova and Christian Cawley bring you their weekly discussion of all things Doctor Who in the latest podKast (with a “K”). This week, Brian regales with tales of the Louisville WizardWorld Comic Con in which he appeared in his cosplaying glory as the Tenth Doctor for a panel!

We also discuss the latest casting and related rumours about Doctor Who Series 8, and offer our usual weekly recommendations.

Oh and listen out for a few recollections of late 70s/early 80s Saturday morning children’s show Swap Shop, nuclear drills and some special post-production horns…

Ready? Click play below to get started!

Kasterborous PodKast Series 4 Episode 09 Shownotes

Brian A Terranova at Wizard World Louisville Comic Con
“Robots of Sherwood” – Alan-a-Dale, Robin Hood cast

Time Bandits – Robin Hood
Robin of Sherwood DVD
All-Consuming Fire


Andrew Cartmel interview

Script Doctor reissue


April Fool Redux: Marco Polo
The Temporal Logbook
Recommendations:

Super-Power Beatdown
Meglos DVD
King Raven Trilogy


01 811 8055

 

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

(Featured image credit Jason S. Colflesh)

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 With Tenth Doctor Cosplaying Celebrity Brian Terranova! appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Moffat Explains: Why The TARDIS Dislikes Clara

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.

It seems that the TARDIS doesn’t like Clara.

Just look at The Rings of Akhaten, or Hide (in which Clara calls her a “grumpy old cow”). Or better still, grab yourself the Series 7 boxset and watch the additional minisode, Clara and the TARDIS, which sees them (sort of kinda ish) have a heart-to-heart. Then the TARDIS throws a strop again. Personally, I thought it might’ve been because Clara was there in the Doctor’s grave and jumped into his time stream – and seeing as the TARDIS didn’t want to be there in the first place, perhaps it got annoyed at her… before even going to Trenzalore!

But apparently not…

Well, in the latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine, Steven Moffat has teased the development of their relationship in Series 8:

“As the Type 40 bad girl made clear in The Doctor’s Wife, she doesn’t like him bringing home strays. The TARDIS, as we know, likes to fire her pet Time Lord at interesting moments in history and watch the fireworks. Anyone less mad than the Doctor might have noticed by now the TARDIS navigation always works perfectly when the crisis demands, but never when he fancies lunch, or tea and biscuits at the Eye of Orion.

 

Now those pesky humans who keep following him home are usually content to stumble about, saying, ‘It’s bigger on the inside,’ and remain sufficiently in awe of the Police Box magic never to question it. But clever, sceptical, hard-to-impress Clara might just cause trouble. It’s almost like it’s all building to something… Oh! What’s this I’m writing today?”

I’m looking forward to this!

And I’d definitely like to see how the Twelfth Doctor deals with a TARDIS Tantrum!

The post Moffat Explains: Why The TARDIS Dislikes Clara appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Revisit the Doctor, Amy & Rory with Three BBC Books

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.

It’s been a while, but for some of us the era of the Eleventh Doctor and the Ponds is one of the series’ high points. If you’ve worn out your Doctor Who Series 5, 6 and 7a DVDs, why not try this trio of tales in book form?

Written by George Mann, Jonathan Morris and Naomi Alderman, these titles were released back in 2011 but they make good reading, with the early years of Moffat’s era expertly recreated.

Paradox Lost by George Mann

London 1910- an unsuspecting thief finds himself confronted by a grey-skinned creature intent on devouring his mind. London 2789- a decrepit android is dredged from the bottom of the Thames; when re-activated he has carries a warning that can only be delivered to one man ‘the Doctor’.

Spanning a thousand years the Doctor, Amy and Rory have to solve the mystery. If they fail, a race of psychic energy feeding aliens known as the Squall will devour the world…

Touched By An Angel by Jonathan Morris

Touched By An Angel – a brand new BBC Doctor Who novel by Jonathan Morris – concerns an angel called Monica who is tasked with bring the word of God to people at a…no, wait…that’s the CBS TV series of the same name.

Touched By An Angel - a brand new BBC Doctor Who novel by Jonathan Morris – is an ode to the duel nature of letting love into our lives, of embracing the loneliness, of…no, wait…that’s the poem by Maya Angelou of the same name.

Touched By An Angel- a brand new BBC Doctor Who novel by Jonathan Morris – sees the Doctor once again come face to face with his deadliest adversaries: the Weeping Angels.

In 2003 Rebecca Whittaker died in a road accident. Her husband Mark is still mourning when he receives an envelope- dated eight years ago- containing a set of instructions and a message: “You can save her”.

As Mark is given the chance to save his wife, the Doctor, Amy and Rory must save the whole world from the Weeping Angels because this time they’re using history itself as a weapon.

This book has recently been reissued by BBC Books as part of its Monster Collection.

Borrowed Time by Naomi Alderman

This adventure finds the Eleventh Doctor, Amy and Rory caught up in the machinations of Mr Symington and Mr Blenkinsop whose line of business involves lending time (literally!) to people who do not have enough of it. However, things take a turn for the deadly when the loan sharks decide to collect on their investments…

Paradox Lost,Touched By An Angel and Borrowed Time can all be purchased from Amazon in print and Kindle formats. If you didn’t pick them up the first time around, now is the time!

(Additional material by Andrew Reynolds and Mez Burdett)

The post Revisit the Doctor, Amy & Rory with Three BBC Books appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Big Finish Release Fourth Doctor Adventures Details

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.

Tom Baker is back!  Big Finish Productions has confirmed that they will be doing an exciting fourth series of Fourth Doctor audio adventures, set to premiere in January 2015.  There will be eight 1-hour stories, all featuring Louise Jameson as Leela and John Leeson as everyone’s favorite tin dog, K-9.

The company has leaked some of the titles and storylines to expect each month next year:

It kicks off in January with The Exxilons by Nicholas Briggs, featuring the return of the race last seen in 1974′s Death to the Daleks.  The Darkness of Glass by Justin Richards (a strange power “in a remote house”), and Requiem for the Rocketmen by John Dorney (a second sequel featuring the Rocketmen…and also the return of Geoffrey Beevers as the Master!).

April will see the release of Matt Fitton’s Death Match (also featuring the Master), Suburban Hell by Alan Barnes (a spooky dinner party), Cloisters of Terror by Jonathan Morris in June (girls are disappearing at a college!), and the series will end with a couple of interlinked stories that are (so far) top-secret.

The various full-cast audios will also feature guest stars such as Annette Badland, Jacqueline King, Julian Wadham, Katy Wix, Rowena Cooper, and many more!

Kasterborites, will you be visiting these new Fourth Doctor adventures?  To quote a certain Curator… “You know, I really think you might!”

The post Big Finish Release Fourth Doctor Adventures Details appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Masterful Villain Casting? [POTENTIAL SPOILER]

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.

Former Primeval and Death in Paradise star Ben Miller has been cast as an unnamed villain in Doctor Who Series 8 in the episode written by Mark Gatiss.

Speaking on the BBC Doctor Who website, the actor – who has worked with Twelfth Doctor Peter Capaldi previously – observed:

As a committed Whovian I cannot believe my luck in joining the Twelfth Doctor for one of his inaugural adventures. My only worry is that they’ll make me leave the set when I’m not filming.

Miller famously quit the apparently cushy job of spending half the year in the Caribbean for Death in Paradise last year (prompting speculation he may have been cast as the Twelfth Doctor), but was adequately replaced in surprisingly competent manner by Kris Marshall, guaranteeing the show a fourth series. Meanwhile Primeval fell foul of the ITV commissioner’s sword in 2010 following the channel’s inability to offer it any support.

(Miller’s comedy partner Alexander Armstrong is probably best known for Pointless these days, although he appeared in The Sarah Jane Adventures as the voice of Mr Smith, and in 2012 Christmas special The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe as Reg Arwell.)

Says Steven Moffat of the casting:

Mark Gatiss has written us a storming villain for his new episode, and with Capaldi in the TARDIS, we knew we needed somebody special to send everybody behind the sofa. And quite frankly, it’s about time Ben Miller was in Doctor Who!

While Moffat heavily indicates that Miller is playing a villain, the big question is, what sort? We’ve had months of speculation concerning the return of the Master, after all.

Could Ben Miller be the Master?

The post Masterful Villain Casting? [POTENTIAL SPOILER] appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Ian Levine Throws Down The Omnirumour Gauntlet

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.

It is going DOWN on Twitter, dear reader. Well. It might. Nip over to the microblogging site to read some fizzing comments from Northern Soul DJ and missing episode supremo, Ian Levine.

He has challenged Philip Morris, head of the international television archive company that recently returned 1967′s Enemy of the World and Web of Fear to the BBC to a public debate:

This is an open challenge to @archives1963 to face me in a proper public debate about the right way & the wrong way to return missing DW eps

— Ian Levine (@IanLevine) April 4, 2014

This centres around the fact that a number of other finds alongside the two returned Troughton stories are suspected to have been made and we all waiting on an announcement. We’ve previously reported on the rumored discovery of Marco Polo and check out our overview of a Starburst article examining why there might be legitimate reasons to delay announcing more recovered episodes. Levine is well-known for his strong views and at times vitriolic commentary on the return of missing episodes to their original home. He thinks we should have been told more by now. Others are sure that Morris will spill the wonderful beans when the time is right. Levine replies,

@SteveHyden @archives1963

I only wish I shared your confidence.

Unfortunately I don't.

It's all become one big bad joke.

Just Sick.

— Ian Levine (@IanLevine) April 4, 2014

His challenge has prompted some less-than-impressed responses. We can understand, given his role in saving the first Dalek serial from destruction and long-term involvement in the search, that he might feel entitled to a view on these things. Like the rest of us, Ian really, really, really wants to know, like, NOW. But that doesn’t give any of us a right to demand information – however strongly we feel it.

The problem is, while it’s just old telly and doesn’t really matter at all – it also sorta does matter. Sorta quite a lot. What do you think, Kasterborites – do we need an open debate or do we need some patience and a little bit of faith?

The post Ian Levine Throws Down The Omnirumour Gauntlet appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

An Adventure in Space and Time Nominated for BAFTA

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.

Mark Gatiss’s one-off drama on the origins of Doctor Who is in the running for a BAFTA following the announcement of nominations for this year’s awards.

An Adventure in Space and Time, screened to near universal acclaim as part of last year’s 50th anniversary celebrations, has been nominated for best single drama. It will go up against Black Mirror episode Be Right Back, Complicit and The Wipers Times when the gongs are awarded on Sunday 18th May 2014 .

Doctor Who is also up for the Radio Times Audience Award, to be decided by public vote, for the anniversary special The Day of the Doctor. Other nominees are a mix of dramas (Breaking Bad, Chris Chibnall’s Broadchurch) and documentary or reality shows (Educating Yorkshire, Gogglebox and The Great British Bake Off).

Good to see the programme being recognised in the UK’s most prestigious TV industry awards, especially when all involved worked so hard to deliver a memorable anniversary year. It would have been nice to see David Bradley in with a shout for Best Actor for his portrayal of William Hartnell, although he is up for Supporting Actor for Broadchurch.

What do you think? Would Adventure be a worthy winner? Will the programme’s birthday bash get your vote?

The post An Adventure in Space and Time Nominated for BAFTA appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Jenna Coleman Gives Little Away On 12th Doctor Relationship

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.

Step back in time with the Radio Times to January this year, where, to celebrate a ground-breaking 2013 – including a new companion, the 50th anniversary, and a regeneration no less – Jenna Coleman collected not one, but two gongs for the show at the National Television Awards.

Now, hurtle back to the present day, where, gong in hand, Jenna Coleman speaks to the very same magazine about those exciting, tentative first days of Peter Capaldi’s first season as the Doctor – via this exclusive video:

We’ve just taken off like a rocket really so it’s lovely to come over and collect this and take it back to the team.

It was for her former TARDIS companion that Jenna was on hand to collect one of the shows two awards – for Best Drama Performance for the mercurial Matt Smith and for Best Drama respectively.

Asked at the time what the dynamic is like between Peter Capaldi’s Doctor and Clara, Jenna wasn’t giving too much away:

It’s far too early. We pretty much pick up where we left off at Christmas and we carry on the story straight away after the regeneration so we’re dealing with that for the first episode.

With that nascent dynamic developing as filming on Series 8 continues it’ll be interesting to see how Clara develops under the steely gaze of what has promised to an edgier, fiercer Doctor. Not to mention the hang thread of just why the TARDIS has taken a dislike to Clara.

The post Jenna Coleman Gives Little Away On 12th Doctor Relationship appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Reviewed: Once – the Musical, starring Arthur Darvill

Elton Townend Jones 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 knew him best as Rory Williams and took him to our hearts as Mr Pond, but actor Arthur Darvill is a man of many faces, many roles, and talents that his more ‘casual’ fans may not yet be aware of. Right now – but only until 10 May of this year – you can see him at the Phoenix Theatre in Once – the Musical.

Based on the 2007 Oscar-winning film, Once is the story of a struggling musician (Darvill) who fixes hoovers for a living. When he meets a Czech girl (played with great warmth by Zrinka Cvitešić) they connect, intensely, through a love of music, and she ignites in him a motivating spark that, over the course of one week, changes their lives for ever.

In many ways, it strikes me as though it might be similar to the hugely successful The Commitments (though I’ve never seen that show). But it’s about that search for success, with a big ensemble cast and lots of guitars and fiddles about the place, with misadventures in bars and recording studios.

Now, if you’re not a fan of the West End musical – and believe me, I am avowedly not – don’t be put off by the genre in this particular instance. Once is couched at a very different level. The entire drama takes place on a single Dublin bar-room set, that, by relying on the audience’s participant imagination, becomes a music shop, a couple of homes, a bank, and even an interval bar for the audience (should they be brave enough to use it). It’s clear, from this, that the budget is perhaps smaller than that of equivalent West End fare, but the focus here isn’t on spend and spectacle, but rather on story and talent.

The music that makes the show a musical, is not so much a series of ‘numbers’ (in which people suddenly start singing at each other for no definable reason) as a selection of works created by the two lead characters to play to each other, to record in studio and perform in pubs. The songs are integral to the show and to the lives of the characters, and, what’s more, they’re very good. There is, I must qualify, an occasional danger that they might descend into being the kind of wistful ‘hipster’ tripe that turns up on TV and cinema adverts for phones and computers, but overall they are strong and often interesting works somewhere in that vein tapped by the likes of Damian Rice (which made one of the show’s jokes at the expense of the execrable James Blunt seem somewhat akin to shooting oneself in the foot). The most out-standing song is an acapella/harmony piece in Act 2, as the characters look down on Dublin early one morning (though the bar-room set isn’t lit sympathetically enough to allow the audience to fully believe this).

Arthur Darvill offers a solid interpretation of ‘Guy’, often betraying the truth that Rory Williams wasn’t so much a complete performance as, rather, a selection of Arthur’s own acting tics, many of which are on display here (unless, and this is not unlikely, the director said ‘Give ‘em a bit of Rory, love’). However, it is when he performs the songs (playing acoustic guitar), that he fills the theatre with a magic that few of his fellow cast members can come close to equalling. Arthur is an incredible singer – and I don’t say that lightly. His vocal range is pretty astounding and it spans generations of mainstream rock and pop crooning. In another life he would surely be pursuing a recording career, though this may have been stemmed somewhat by the fact the he looks like, well, Rory Williams and not, say, Captain Jack. But what a revelation Arthur Darvill is – a truly mesmerising vocal talent. This guy sings – and I don’t mean he gives it the West End Wendy – Arthur Darvill gives it soul.

All that said, I hope that after 10 May, Arthur will go on to work better suited to his strong talents. As a complete piece, Once seems to be a reasonably strong – if sentimental – script (though some of the lines are a little groan-inducing, but that could be poor delivery on the part of some of the often weak ensemble) with powerful songs, desperately in search of better direction and tighter production. Sometimes it tries too hard to impress when it really doesn’t need to (the incongruous Czech stomping dance bit which looked like it was happening to some people far away, having a better time than the audience) and other times it tries to be a bit too clever (the unfocused opening that doesn’t so much jump into the drama as meander). What it really needs is focus and perhaps a fresh eye on things like lighting (generally unimaginative), sound levels (the differential between the actors and the music was often appalling), basic performances from the ensemble (that often killed the comedy, though it got laughs) and actor projection, the latter of which was pretty dire throughout. There’s a great piece in here somewhere, but it’s not quite making its way out (and even though the audience seemed to love it, there were sleepy heads in the auditorium).

There is an open-endedness to the script, which resolves the story in a brave and unexpected manner, and even suggested the possibility of a sequel. I’d joke and say the producers ought to call it Twice, but on this viewing of an undeniably vast talent lost in a murky production, I’d say that Once was more than enough.

Once – the Musical is at The Phoenix Theatre, London, and features Arthur Darvill until 11 May.

(With special thanks to Matt Hamm, Simon Harries and Jon Ritelli.)

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