Christian Cawley's Blog, page 284

Will Doctor Who Get A Mention In Captain America: The Winter Soldier?

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.

What does Doctor Who have to do with the Captain America sequel, The Winter Solider?

(Aside from the fact that Who‘s own Jenna Coleman was in the first movie – see below!)

After the events of the first Captain America film, Captain Steve Rogers is trying to deal with modern life after a 65 year ice coma. Part of that is a journal detailing all of the major events he has missed, which includes some groundbreaking TV.

Thanks to a unique movie tie-in, fans will help choose which iconic television shows appear on-screen in his journal.

So will it be our beloved Doctor Who? What iconically represents the history of television other than a show that has been around for 50 years?!

As of the writing of this post, Sherlock had a small lead in the Radio Times poll. But I think we Whovians can change that! Head on over to Radio Times to cast your vote!

Captain America: The Winter Solider is due out in UK theaters on 26th March and in US theaters 4th April, 2014. Click play below to see Jenna Coleman in the original movie.

The post Will Doctor Who Get A Mention In Captain America: The Winter Soldier? appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Five Reactions To Peter Capaldi’s Doctor Who Look

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.

Does he look smart and cool or has he turned into a fool?  The debates and battles have raged (OK, maybe not “raged”…) online and in fandom in the days since the Twelfth Doctor’s look was unveiled, with what seems to be a mostly favorable reaction.

The BBC’s News Magazine Monitor page collected some of the more notable comments and put them together under five basic headings: No messing about, One step beyond, All grown up, Behind the Sofa, and Cutting a dash.  Just from the titles, a person can sense where the reactions are headed.

Fan and Who-author Jenny Colgan liked the new costume and said  that Capaldi’s look is “cool, subtle, not giving too much away”.

Empire Magazine‘s James White compared the look to Jon Pertwee and thinks some scary stories might lie ahead because of  the Third Doctor’s “vaguely gothic” look  ”with all the Hammer Horror overtones that suggests”.

The only fairly negative comment came from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy‘s Julian Bennett, who ended with, “It looks like a man having a midlife crisis and trying to relive his youth.”  But for someone who is 1200 years old, when exactly would a midlife crisis hit them?

The best part of the article, for me, is the comparison of the Twelfth Doctor’s new suit to the look of famed eccentric film director David Lynch (Dune, Twin Peaks).  The dark jacket and buttoned up white dress shirt somehow seem cooler now… even without the Lynchian sunglasses or dangling cigarette.

Do the Doctor’s clothes have an effect on how you personally enjoy the stories?  Would you be able to enjoy the upcoming eighth series if Peter Capaldi had decided that a return to the Sixth Doctor’s outfit would have been best?

 

The post Five Reactions To Peter Capaldi’s Doctor Who Look appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

This Stunning Doctor Who Catchphrase Art Pays Tribute To Each Incarnation

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.

The internet has made art-work instantly shareable and fuelled the spread of memes of all shapes and size. We have another Who-based offering from online artist ‘Agnitti’ who has combined iconic silhouettes of each incarnation with their accompanying catchphrase.

Take a look – ShortList Magazine notes that they were all painstakingly put together using the pretty basic Colorslive app and if you follow the link to Agnitti’s website you can watch an accelerated video of how he put each one together. It involves a degree of sketching and planning out and nicely demonstrates for any budding artists out there how smart results can come from otherwise simple tools!

That said – I’m not entirely sure about this catchphrase business. Agreed that the Second, Third and Fourth Doctors said theirs fairly often. But since when was “Fine” the Seventh’s catchphrase? Seven was *my * Doctor and delivered some of the best lines ever written for a leading man (in my humble opinion – I missed his dodgy first season, you see). If you’re going to choose a random word or phrase there are better examples (see Babelcolour’s spine-tingly tribute below).

What about the First, Fifth and Sixth Doctors? Convinced Kasterborites? And do we really need a catchphrase for our hero or is it a lazy substitute for good character writing?

The post This Stunning Doctor Who Catchphrase Art Pays Tribute To Each Incarnation appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Reviewed: The Light at the End

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

There will be those of you that by now have bought and listened to The Light at the End, the Fiftieth Anniversary multi Doctor story from Big Finish Productions featuring Doctors one through to eight.

But there are still some that have not, holding on for that point where perhaps the story goes on sale or maybe you’re just waiting for that payday to come where you can pick up your copy. This reviewer urges you to do so as soon as you possibly can because, in honesty, The Light at the End is one of the most wonderful and charming Doctor Who adventures to ever come from Big Finish.

Should this review break down the good from the bad, the stronger from the weaker or the rational from the absurd? Absolutely not, as this is not what this summary is designed to do. It’s not often that this reviewer will gush about a story from Big Finish, they all have their merits and all carry their own charms. Some are stronger than others, some favour character over plot and vice versa. The key to a good review is to remain somewhat impartial, most of the time.

But when it comes to The Light at the End, it has to be said that writer Nicholas Briggs has outdone himself, in fact this is the most satisfying Doctor Who story that he has ever written. Is that because it contains all of the Doctors at once? That certainly helps, but it’s the layers in the story that show the great care and attention to detail that Briggs has put into this adventure. The Master’s plan is solid; the pace of the story unfolds wonderfully and each Doctor gets a fair amount of dialogue.

The use of the Doctors in their various incarnations when they are together is also handled well, rather than sycophantically drooling over each other’s presence with congratulatory slaps on the back and winks and nods to each other’s brilliance, Briggs chooses to let them all have a strong mutual respect for one another from the start. Gone are the days of petty squabbling, it seems that as the Doctor gets older and perhaps lonelier as a result, he becomes less self deprecating. Incarnations One through to Eight work together quickly and efficiently to solve the problem of the Master and his pocket Universe.

When all is said and done, this reviewer could still talk about how wonderful The Light at the End is from beginning to end, especially the last five minutes of the story which is hilarious and moving at the same time. But the simplest way to sum up The Light at the End is that it is one of the greatest anniversary stories for Doctor Who ever created. This tale is wonderful addition to the annuls of Doctor Who, showcasing the show’s variety and endurance that it has built over the last 50 years.

Many complained that they wanted to see all the Doctors on television in The Day of the Doctor, here we’re offered something far better; the first eight incarnations of the Doctor, absolutely the same man, still saving the Universe regardless of the fact that a new generation of fans is waking up in 2014 to the Twelfth Doctor.

It’s pretty much one of the best birthday presents ever.

The Light at the End is available from Big Finish now, in standard and limited collectors editions.

The post Reviewed: The Light at the End appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Archive Interview with Terry Nation!

Dave Rudin 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 50 years this weekend since the world saw the end of the Daleks. Fortunately, the BBC had enough sense to see what a hit Terry Nation’s creations had been, and brought them back a few months later.

Key serial The Daleks (originally “The Mutants”) secured Doctor Who’s success in its early years, and launched a legendary rivalry that has spanned space, time and media. Back in 1986, occasional Kasterborous contributor Dave Rudin had the chance to chat with Terry Nation for the UNYT fanzine. He’s kindly given permission to republish the article here.

Terry Nation is a name familiar to fans of Doctor Who. With his invention of the Daleks, he created the series’ most popular and enduring aliens. He is credited with writing 62 episodes for the show, second only to the late Robert Holmes, who wrote 71. Having written the second Doctor Who story to have ever been made, and no less than five stories in the program’s first three years, Terry Nation is also one of the principal founders of the series.

On June 29, 1986, Mr. Nation was gracious enough to grant an interview to UNYT, along with Tom Beck of The Prydonians of Prynceton and Dave Smith of The Jersey Jagaroth. We wish to thank Creation Conventions for helping to arrange the interview.

Having been associated with Doctor Who since its inception, Terry described the show’s origins in the early 1960’s:

“The BBC had an enormous Saturday afternoon viewing for its sports, and the Independents didn’t have a look-in in the afternoons. They also had a good lock on about 6:30, but they lost a huge audience because that was the traditional time for children’s television to go on. So what they were looking for was a show that could be seen by children and by adults and that would hold the Saturday afternoon audience and take them into the evening programming. That was the main aim of Doctor Who.

“What Sydney Newman (the head of BBC Drama at that time) conceived was this slightly dotty old professor who had a time machine, and he wanted it to be uplifting, enlightening, educational. The Doctor should show up in old Pompeii just before the eruption, he should show up at Gettysburg and listen to the Gettysburg Address.

A whole lot of other people had a hand in this… Ray Cusick did a wonderful job… the sound people who helped come up with the voice.

It was in this context that the Daleks were born. “They wanted it to be, as I say, more educational, and he [Newman] absolutely said, ‘I do not want bug-eyed monsters.’ I had said, ‘Could I have the science fiction segments of the piece?’ That’s what I was known for at the time because I’d done some science fiction. I went away, I wrote the scripts… some things had happened and I wrote one episode a day, for seven days.

“I didn’t know this, [but] Verity Lambert, who was the producer, protected me a great deal from what then went on in the BBC when Sydney Newman said, ‘I don’t want this script, I don’t want these shows and I don’t want bug-eyed monsters, and you’re not going to do it,’ and Verity said, ‘We’re going to do it.’ This was her first show, and she was very tough; I mean, really very strong. Verity said, ‘We’re going to do it,’ and we did it, and Sydney Newman, who is an old friend of mine, now has admitted in print many times that he was so wrong, and that Doctor Who wouldn’t be on the air now had the Daleks not been in that first block. And I have no doubt about it – that show would have died after the [first] thirteen [episodes] had we not had the Daleks take off in that massive way.”

Nation described for us the manner in which the physical realization of the Daleks came about. “I described the Daleks with great accuracy in that first script and when I went in to see them I said, ‘Yeah, that’s right. They got it.’ Now this is not to diminish the role of the designer, Ray Cusick, who was terrific and made it all work. He did a wonderful job, but they were described very thoroughly. I knew how they sounded, how they moved, how they looked, and it was up to him to make that possible mechanically, which he did, and I think they were terrific. I’m not sure about the half— globes all over the body—-I don’t think I had those in, those were his——but it was a combination of my words and his visual engineering sense that put them together.”

According to Nation, certain people in Britain raised the question of who really deserved credit for the Dalek’s creation. “You see, there was a silly dispute, not between Cusick and I, at that time, but the press wanted to get hold of something to make it difficult, and there were the Daleks doing their great big thing. I mean they were enormous, remember. They were Mickey Mouse. They were the biggest thing that had happened to British television in a long time. So the press said, ‘Poor Ray Cusick, the man who designed these, didn’t get a penny out of it while Terry Nation is making a fortune out of these things.’

“The truth of the matter was that Ray Cusick was being paid as a regular staff member of the BBC and got his paycheck every week. I was a freelance writer… so my risk was always greater than his. So, I didn’t have too many concerns for Ray’s situation. I believe he got all the credit that he should have got for developing the design of the Daleks, but I have no hesitation, I don’t care what anybody else says, I described them, I invented them, I made them the characters they are.

“And having said all that I don’t diminish the tremendous thing—-and not just Cusick. A whole lot of other people had a hand in this. You know, the sound people who helped come up with the voice. I had written lines that were very specifically broken down into (Imitating a Dalek voice) ‘syl—la—bles—so—that—the—thing—would—sound—like—that,’ but then the sound people had to take that and make it sound good.

‘And all of those things. Nobody creates something all by themselves. It is a tremendous input from a lot of people. Television or movies are a group art. I hesitate to use the word ‘art,’ but they are a group product, anyway.”

Although pleased with the final physical form of the Dalek, Terry said that he would have still liked to have made some improvements had the proper resources been available. “I’d liked to have given them a better hand, a better grasping tool to work with,” he said. A set of interchangeable Dalek arms had once been tried, “but that even got too complicated.” The other improvement Nation said he would have liked to have made was in regard to the Daleks’ mobility.

“If British special effects were better, I guess I would have some kind of jet lift for them so that they could float upwards. And I think in some of the books and comics and annuals that we’ve done we’ve actually had that. They had jet platforms, but they are more easily drawn than actually made.”

When writing that first Dalek story, Nation said that he intended it to be the Daleks’ first and last appearance, having killed them off — something he later regretted “What a dummy I was,” he recalled “I then had to think very hard how to get them back And, I have had in every contract with the BBC for other people to write my things that nothing is to be killed off, nothing is to be permanent or finalized.”

That first sequel which Nation wrote saw the Daleks invading the Earth in the 22nd century. Was it his idea to have a futuristic Earth scenario? “Yeah, it was mine. You’ve got to now see what was happening socially with the Daleks. Every child in Britain was a Dalek. All they had to do was put a cardboard box over their heads and go around saying ‘I will ex—termi—nate,’ and there were schoolyards everywhere were filled with kids doing this very thing. So we had the situation I thought I wanted to relate it now to Earth so the children can actually believe these creatures are here on Earth.

 The futuristic Earth scenario was mine. Schoolyards everywhere were filled with kids going around saying ‘I will ex—termi—nate,’. I thought I wanted to relate it now to Earth so the children can actually believe these creatures are here on Earth.

“So we set it a little into the future, and had them invade Earth, and I think the Doctor comes back to a London where some odd things have happened. The Battersea power station, which had four great funnels, only has two now. There’s rubble everywhere, and they’re down beside the Thames, and we got the Dalek to come out of the water, out of the Thames. We used to work very hard on those first appearances of the Daleks: ‘How should they first show up?’”

In those early episodes it was said that the Daleks were a product of natural mutation following a neutronic war, and that they lived inside their metal casings to protect themselves from radiation. In Terry Nation’s 1975 story, “Genesis of the Daleks,” we are given a different history—that the Daleks were developed through deliberate chemical mutation by a brilliant but twisted scientist called Davros, and that the metal casings are travel devices meant for mobility, not protection against radiation. Are these views of Dalek origins consistent with each other?

“No, it isn’t consistent in any way,” Terry explained. “I have always made the excuse that history is a viewpoint. The Battle of Waterloo as seen from the hill on the east would look very different from the Battle of Waterloo seen from the hill on the west History is a perspective, and I believe when I finally revealed the history of the Daleks it was a rationalization off all the things that I then knew about them, and is probably the true history.

“I had seen the Daleks at some point in their life span in the early episodes, but the later one, I think, was the true genesis of how they came to be, and how Davros came to be, and how we moved from humanoid to slightly mechanical to [fully mechanical].

“I did not know about Davros when I wrote those early episodes Let’s say — we’re talking rationale now — that I learned about him later in my investigations into the Dalek history.” Thirteen Dalek stories have been produced to date on Doctor Who, five of them by writers other than Terry Nation, including the two most recent stories, “Resurrection of the Daleks” and “Revelation of the Daleks” by Eric Seward. Terry gave us his views regarding other people writing for the Daleks. “I’ll be honest with you — I don’t like other writers writing my work I don’t think they do it as well as I do, and that is not just straight immodesty. I know the Daleks better than anybody else. It’s my child, so I know how that kid reacts best. I think they’re very competent story writers, but it’s not the way I would do it. That’s all. I really have great regard for them as writers… but it’s probably not fair to ask me because  going to say, ‘No, I don’t like the work of the other writers who did my creation.’”

Terry spoke of one major reason why he felt other writers were not always successful in their handling of the Daleks. “The other, thing about the Daleks which not too many people know is that they are immensely boring. These creatures should never be allowed to say more than a couple of lines at a time because (imitating a Dalek voice) ‘it—is—ve—ry—bor—ing—to—hear—a—voice–say—this-and—say—we—are—go—ing—to—in—vade—the—Earth—to—mor–row. -We—arc—go-ing,’ and it goes on and on, and so it’s slow and the pacing goes from everything.

“I cut their lines down to nothing when I finally realized this… I have to find a way of somebody else making those things. That was really one of the wonderful things about Davros. He could verbalize on behalf of the Daleks and say all those longer speeches that I was never able to do with the Daleks. They should not be overseen, we should see the Daleks for only brief periods of time. Don’t let them stay on the screen too long, because again they lose their mystery and attraction, so take them off the screen as much [as possible].

“Let people know they’re there — they are menacing, they are around — but don’t overuse them. These are elements that I would try to tell to any writer who is coming up to do a Dalek show, but they miss it. They miss the truth of the matter and they think the Daleks are so powerful and they can be anytime you want them ‘Just put ‘em up there and they’ll save the day.’ That’s not true. They have to be used very carefully and very sparingly.”

Maintaining a proper image for the Daleks is something important, Terry explained, but he also told of one occasion when he decided to ease the standards in order to help out a friend .

I’ll be honest with you — I don’t like other writers writing my work I don’t think they do it as well as I do, and that is not just straight immodesty. I know the Daleks better than anybody else.

“The man who gave me my very first break in the business was a man called Spike Milligan, a wonderful guy. And when I was a starving, out—of—work comic, he gave me ten pounds ‘— a lot of money then. For nothing. He said, ‘God, you look awful, you haven’t eaten Here’s ten pounds. Now we go on fifteen years later and I was getting desperate calls. Spike had done a sketch using a Dalek. We had protected the Dalek image enormously. We didn’t let people use them in comedy sketches. We tried to not let them be seen as figures of fun. Spike rang me and said, ‘We’re in terrible trouble. I’ve got this sketch and I’m told I can’t do it because you won’t allow this to happen.’ And I was finally very happy to say, ‘Hey, be my guest. I’m paying back the ten quid now. It’s yours. Do it.’

“I believed, and I still believe, that the Daleks are strong enough to stand up to that kind of fun moment. Just as you can make fun of them in cartoons and books, they are strong enough to stand up to that .My agent said, ‘You’re crazy, don’t let them do it,’ but I wanted to do that, so that was nice to be able to do it.”

Another thing that Nation wanted to do, unknown to many American fans, was to bring the Daleks to American network television! It was following the time of the 1967 Patrick Troughton story, “The Evil of the Daleks.” Terry explains the rest:

“I raised a million dollars privately to make a picture. A spokesman for the BBC said they would become co—partners in the venture. I wrote the script. I came here to ABC, who expressed considerable interest in it. This is not to say they were making a commitment, but they were  very interested. I went back and I started in to east and get a director and a designer. The designer started working, I booked the studio, and then  my finance man went to conclude  things with BBC, and the man who had committed BBC for the other million bucks had no authority so to do and suddenly my fifty per cent backer was gone!

“The BBC actually didn’t  have that — or the man that  I had been dealing with did  not have the power to do that . Whether he realized it or not I don’t know, but I then had to cancel the studio. It  cost me personally a lot of money to pull that operation out. And I had a studio that was standing by, and I was going to be shooting in a week’s time — that’s how close it got when we lost the money — and I was not about to put up my own money, because it’s  traditional that you never finance your own things.

“They [the BBC) wanted to be partners with me at  that point. They wanted to do it, but the guy was talking without the authority. There might have been a long fight through and we might have got it [the proper authority from BBC], but my studio was gone, my dates were gone, everything was shot by that time, and so my position as a producer was put into great question because I didn’t pull it off.”

Terry was asked if he had every considered writing an original Dalek novel. “Not I, no,” he said “I don’t have time to do a novel I’m a writer of film and television. I have written two novels, but no… I don’t like to do that. I’ve never novelized any of my stories and I’ve always allowed somebody else to do that mainly because when I’ve written it, I’ve written it. I don’t want to do it all over again, so no, I don’t think I want to do that. Anything is possible, isn’t it? I mean, if somebody, a publisher, came along and said, ‘Here’s a million bucks,’ yeah, I’d write a Dalek novel. As I say, nothing is impossible, but it’s unlikely, let’s just put it like that.”

Regarding the novelization of Dalek stories not yet in book form, Nation said that he and his attorney are currently trying to work something out “I think what we’re looking to is doing almost a collected edition of Dalek books I won’t be held to this, and I’m very happy — I mean, if Eric [Saward] wants to novelize his Dalek scripts I’m very happy he should do them, but then he and his agent have to come to a deal with my agent on how we release then, and how we split whatever comes from it, and so on. It’s all money.”

On the subject of licensing and copyrighting, Terry described the effect the Daleks had on the BBC’s merchandising department.

“I can tell you that BBC Enterprises was a tiny little hole-in-the-wall operation until the Daleks. The people who were there then actually say that it was the Daleks that turned BBC Enterprises into a bigger operation, and they began to realize that they had properties to sell, they had something to go out and sell As a result they became a huge operation.”

Terry Nation, thank you!

And thanks again from Kasterborous to Dave Rudin.

The post Archive Interview with Terry Nation! appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Doctor Who Series 8 Episode 1 Script Leaked Online?

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 had a few Doctor Who leaks over the years, from fakes on IMDb (Norman Lovett as Davros in 2005′s The Parting of the Ways, for instance) to the casting of Peter Capaldi last year. The odd script has gone missing, in the meantime, and some badly kept secrets (John Simm as the Master, for instance) have kept us intrigued.

This weekend, however, it transpires that an online poster is claiming to have photographed two pages of a script from Doctor Who Series 8. How genuine the images are we cannot say, but they’re interesting enough to take a look at.

The problem for you, dear reader, is finding them.

Given recent legal action in this area, we’re going to avoid sharing either the images or the link. Below, however, is a brief summary of what has been leaked…

Doctor Who Series 8 Episode 1 Script Leaked

Labelled “Nemesis of Neglect” by Steven Moffat, the images of the script are of the cover and page one, in which the TARDIS crash lands, witnessed by a policeman.

And that’s all you’re getting from us.

(With thanks to Richard)

The post Doctor Who Series 8 Episode 1 Script Leaked Online? appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Another Amazing Capaldi Doctor Who Opening From NeonVisual [VIDEO]

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 seen some awesome Doctor Who opening titles on Kasterborous of late – by fans, for fans (or perhaps future employment) but this latest effort by NeonVisual is surely the icing on this particular vortex-bound cake.

There is little else to say, other than to encourage you, dear reader, to press play and use the full screen option to truly enjoy this stunning work.

(Logo could still do with some work, though…)

The post Another Amazing Capaldi Doctor Who Opening From NeonVisual [VIDEO] appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Awesome Steampunk TARDIS Interior!

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.

It’s not the Fourth Doctor’s old-fashioned console (seen in series 14) or the Eighth Doctor’s Jules Verne-inspired redecoration, but it’s as close to visualizing a steampunk TARDIS as Doctor Who fans are going to get…at least for now! 

An artist named wonderwig, whose illustrations can also be found on deviantart.com, posted this reimagining of the TARDIS on his/her Facebook page.

In the steampunk tradition, there’s lots of wood, glowing glass, and copper tubing instead of plastic and electronics.  One of the neatest additions is the center of the TARDIS control console, where it appears a crystalline or reflected light Idris (The Doctor’s Wife) now awaits the Doctor’s commands…or vice versa.

There are also several very comfortable-looking red velvety sofas and chairs for the Doctor and his companions to sit in while they politely sip some tea and traverse all of time and space.  A person can almost imagine the Paternoster Gang lounging about in all of their Victorian finery.

Wonderwig’s very cool illustration makes a great case for a new desktop theme inside the TARDIS.  It’s not hard to imagine the Twelfth Doctor in his dark, back-to-basics suit in these surroundings.

What do you think, Kasterborites?  Would a steampunk TARDIS interior make for an interesting setting, or is it better to stick with a more futuristic control room?

(Via Ye olde Facebook.)

(And if you’re not using Facebook’s Pirate Mode, you’re missing out!)

The post Awesome Steampunk TARDIS Interior! appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Silva Screen To Release An Adventure in Space and Time Score

James Whittington 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.

On 3rd March Silva Screen Records will release An Adventure in Space and Time, Composer Edmund Butt’s excellent score to Mark Gatiss’ inspired retelling of the birth of Doctor Who.

This special one-off drama that travels back to 1963 to see how Doctor Who was first brought to the screen. Actor William Hartnell felt trapped by a succession of hard-man roles. Wannabe producer Verity Lambert was frustrated by the TV industry’s glass ceiling. Both of them were to find unlikely hope and unexpected challenges in the form of a Saturday tea-time drama. Allied with a team of unusual but brilliant people, they went on to create the longest running science fiction series ever made.

Composer Edmund Butt’s understanding of the characters and the narrative is perfect and writer Mark Gatiss comments: “Edmund Butt’s gorgeous score is one of the highlights of the film.”

Edmund Butt is well known for scores for Sea of Souls, Murphy’s Law, Mistresses, Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes. He is the Winner of the 2011 RTS Award for Best Television Score for Garrow’s Law. In 2012 Ed was nominated for RTS Award for Best Original Title Theme for Without You. Renowned for his artful command of melody and harmony and his thrilling and unique dramatic style, Ed’s score for An Adventure in Space and Time was very favourably received.

The music is performed by The Chamber Orchestra of London and conducted and orchestrated by Geoff Alexander, and you can order An Adventure in Space and Time in advance of release from Amazon for just £9.58!

The post Silva Screen To Release An Adventure in Space and Time Score appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Wheatley’s Doctor Who Won’t Be “Savage”

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.

Way back when The Bells of St. John was waiting around the corner for us, Steven Moffat said that he tells each director to make the show their own. That’s why we’ve got such stunning episodes, including Colm McCarthy’s Sherlock-esque visuals, Skaldak storming through Alien-like surroundings (courtesy of Douglas Mackinnon), and glass-smashing mayhem from Nick Hurran in The Day of the Doctor.

But the first two episodes of Series 8 are helmed by Ben Wheatley, best-known for the horror film, The Kill List (starring The Impossible Planet actress, MyAnna Buring), so are we to expect the Doctor leading a cult into human sacrifice? Well… No.

Reece Shearsmith, who’s worked with Wheatley on Civil War epic, A Field in England, insists the show won’t turn visceral:

I’m not sure that you could ever somehow visually taint it with your style. Maybe it’d be different if he was writing it as well. There’s a very abrupt and savage streak in Ben’s work, but I don’t think it will quite filter through… with a Who script.

Showrunner, Steven Moffat, has written the two stories that introduce the world to the Twelfth Doctor, and Shearsmith – who played Patrick Troughton in docu-drama, An Adventure in Space and Time -  says of Wheatley:

I think he thought it would be an exciting project to get his teeth into. He’s learning all the time and I think he thought it would be a good challenge to do it. It’s very prestigious to do Capaldi’s inaugural episodes.

We can only agree! But we’re also lucky to have Wheatley on board. Next series will be gorgeous.

Of course, Doctor Who isn’t really a stranger to horror tropes – not even human sacrifice! The Brain of Morbius, The Masque of Mandragora, The Fires of Pompeii… So would you be up for seeing some more nightmare-inducing material?

The post Wheatley’s Doctor Who Won’t Be “Savage” appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.