Christian Cawley's Blog, page 290

Doctor Who Mashup Tees Available Today!

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.

“Decisions, Decisions” and “Ultimate Space Fleet” are today’s awesome $10 Doctor Who mashup t-shirts available until midnight Pacific time from RIPT Apparel.

Showing the TARDIS lined up along other space-faring legends of sci-fi (including Star Trek, Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica), “Ultimate Space Fleet” by: Melee_Ninja is certainly striking.

However, it is “Decisions, Decisions” by RebelArt that we particularly like as a Star War stormtrooper attempts to identify the droids he was looking for.

Available in sizes for men, women and children, don’t forget that RIPT Apparel also offers designs on hoodies, laptop cases and more. Don’t miss this sale, it ends at midnight!

The post Doctor Who Mashup Tees Available Today! appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Doctor Who Treats You Can Expect From Big Finish In 2014!

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.

2014 has officially arrived at Big Finish productions with the release of their January Doctor Who stories but what does the rest of the year hold for the main range adventures of the good Doctor?

Big Finish was only too happy to reveal its plans…

January 2014 starts the year with a trilogy of Sixth Doctor and Flip Jackson adventures, the first of which features the return of the villainous Sil in Antidote to Oblivion, which is available to buy now! Their adventures continue on February with The Brood of Erys and conclude on March with Scavenger, which sees the TARDIS twosome come up against an orbiting threat against the Earth.

April, May and June 2014 will be filled with adventures for the Fifth Doctor, this time however he will be travelling with a skeleton crew of only Nyssa of Traken. Moonflesh has the TARDIS land in 1911 and finds the Doctor and Nyssa:

In a private, tiger-infested estate of a globe-trotting big game hunter, who’s brought together a small group of individuals for a weekend’s shooting party. But one of them is not all they seem…

The striking cover can be seen here.

May’s offer is Tomb Ship, a claustrophobic tale where:

The Doctor and Nyssa find themselves trapped inside a floating space pyramid, along with a family of ruthless treasure-seekers and a horde of man-eating insectoids…

Finally, June 2014 will see their adventures come to a close with Masquerade, a story by the legendary Stephen Cole:

The TARDIS travellers become engaged in very dangerous liaisons at the country chateau of the famous Marquise de Rimdelle, where dead men whisper through the cellar walls and a steam-powered man runs amok in the gardens.

Before we get to the Seventh Doctor adventures, there will be a small break in July for the Sixth Doctor to return, this time accompanied by his old friend Peri. This particular story will be an anthology release of four single episode stories. The adventure’s script editor Jonathan Morris spoke briefly regarding the theme of this release:

The theme for this anthology is stories about perception…using unusual perspectives and fractured narratives, and features three writers new to Doctor Who on audio.

Big Finish Productions went on further to give a detailed breakdown of what each of the mini stories will be about:

Nev Fountain returns with The Curious Incident of the Doctor in the Night-Time, a very touching story told from the point of view of a teenage boy on the autistic spectrum, involving homicidal garden gnomes.

Highly-regarded playwright Mark Ravenhill has contributed Of Chaos Time The, a story in which the Doctor becomes unstuck in his own time stream and has to piece together the sequence of events as they occur in a discontinuous jumble. Una McCormack has written a murder-mystery set in a women’s college in the 1930s called An Eye For Murder. From LM Myles we have Breaking Bubbles, a science fiction story about a deposed empress held captive in a prison where nothing is quite what it seems, and finally Nev Fountain returns with The Curious Incident of the Doctor in the Night-Time, a very touching story told from the point of view of a teenage boy on the autistic spectrum, involving homicidal garden gnomes.

Normal services resume from August 2014 with a brand new trilogy of adventure for the Seventh Doctor and Ace, joined once again by their Liverpudlian friend Hex (Phillip Oliver)!

The series starts with Revenge of the Swarm, which features a return from an old foe- the Nucleus of the Swarm, a foe that we all thought had been defeated in the Fourth Doctor story The Invisible Enemy. Writer Jonathan Morris added more detail to this sequel:

The Invisible Enemy is one of the first Doctor Who stories I ever watched and so when I had the chance to choose a new ‘returning foe’, the sinister Nucleus of the Swarm was top of my list. It has an unusual modus operandi and a memorable voice, and would work well on audio without the distraction of the visual.

September 2014 will give a double helping of Seventh Doctor adventures as Big Finish will be releasing two titles in the same month. Mask of Tragedy by James Goss, which is set in ancient Athens, and concerns the Doctor dropping in on his old friend Aristophanes who is trying to rehearse a play in the face of interruptions from zombie hordes, an alien locust and the imminent threat of a Spartan invasion and Signs & Wonders by Matt Fitton in which the Doctor, Ace and Hector return to Liverpool in the near future, where a messianic figure called Rufus Stone is gathering people together in anticipation of the apocalypse. There are angels in the skies and giant alien slugs in the Mersey. Apparently this story marks the end in a chapter of Doctor Who and is a season finale reminiscent of Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Supernatural!

The final offerings for the main range of Doctor Who adventures for the year will be a new trilogy of stories for the Sixth Doctor and Peri and promise to feature the return of at least two old foes, one of which will be making its Big Finish debut!

Consider all these stories and then add in the other Doctor Who releases that Big Finish have already revealed and we have a very exciting year ahead of us, remember to get your subscriptions sorted out now at www.bigfinish.com now!

The post Doctor Who Treats You Can Expect From Big Finish In 2014! appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

The Day YOU Met Tom Baker

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 don’t usually waste bandwidth with Doctor Who birthdays, but today is a particularly special one. It’s Tom Baker’s 80th!

Born in 1934, the Fourth Doctor actor has become an increasingly popular character in his post-Who years, with recent appearances in the Big Finish range – and of course as the Curator in The Day of the Doctor – cementing his place in the hearts of fans and many non-fans.

There are few ways we could celebrate Tom’s big day without it sounding like an obituary, so after browsing Facebook for a few moments and reading some of the greetings there, I decided to ask you, the readers, to share your memories of meeting The Great Man at book signings (perhaps for Who On Earth Is Tom Baker or any 50th anniversary events), readings (there were some for The Boy Who Kicked Pigs), or even when Tom Baker was the Doctor.

Those comments below are for you – please use them and share a moment in the life of today’s birthday octogenarian, Tom Baker!

Tom Baker taken by Legend Photography

The post The Day YOU Met Tom Baker appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Tom Baker’s 80th Birthday Interview

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.

Today, The Great Man of Doctor Who, Tom Baker, is 80.

To commemorate the event, DoctorWho.TV has shared the interview below, in which Tom recalls how his life was very different before taking the role for which he became famous, and how once again his life has changed since joining Big Finish and appearing in The Day of the Doctor…

listen to ‘Tom Baker: "I became a hero"’ on Audioboo

From all of us at Kasterborous, Happy Birthday, Tom!

The post Tom Baker’s 80th Birthday Interview appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

The Time of the Doctor Out on DVD Today!

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.

I’ll be honest: I struggle to watch The Time of the Doctor. I was pretty devastated when My Doctor, Matt Smith regenerated – and still am (even though I look forward to Capaldi).

But now you can relive the heartbreak with the official DVD and Blu-ray, released today!

The episode is packaged with the other Matt Smith-helmed Christmas episodes; immensely enjoyable and engaging adventures like A Christmas Carol and The Snowmen, as well as the polarising but charming The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe, which sums up the Christmas spirit perfectly.

Starring Karen Gillan, Arthur Darvill and Jenna Coleman as his companions, Matt’s performance is always something special, and this DVD/Blu-ray release includes a couple of extras that bid the bow-tie-wearing alien adieu: Farewell to Matt Smith; and the behind-the-scenes feature, Tales of the TARDIS.

Time revolves around Trenzalore, and the little town of Christmas, written by Steven Moffat and directed by Jamie Payne (Hide). A mysterious message broadcasts throughout time and space, and of course, the Doctor brings Clara along to investigate – alongside a Cyberman head called Handles! Guest starring Mistresses‘ Orla Brady, Hustle‘s Rob Jarvis and Only Fools and Horses‘ Tessa Peake-Jones, as well as Sheila Reid (Vengeance on Varos) as Clara’s Nan, The Time of the Doctor is also the swansong of producer, Marcus Wilson, who has been with us every step of the way since 2011′s The Impossible Astronaut/ Day of the Moon.

The DVD and Blu-rays are £12.00 and £16.75 respectively from Amazon UK, so essentially you’re getting the previous three Christmas specials for the price of The Time of the Doctor!

Yes, times change and so must the Doctor. Excuse me, I think I have something in my eye…

The post The Time of the Doctor Out on DVD Today! appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Daleks’ Master Plan Dispatch Update

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.

Following delivery of the Daleks’ Master Plan unofficial charity graphic novels 10 days ago, I’ve been working hard to get copies packaged and dispatched.

I expected to have sent out the first 50 in the past week, but due to reports of a damaged copy being received, some changes have been made to the process, necessitating a pause. At this stage, 40 have been sent out.

Dispatch will recommence tomorrow (Monday 20th) but I’d like to share a couple of things…

1. Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Word mail merges do not create labels based on the chronological order they were added to the table. 

I has come to my attention that despite previous assurances that copies would be sent out in the same order that they were purchased, the labelling system has not permitted this. Where possible we will try to ensure those who ordered their copies in November get Daleks’ Master Plan before those who ordered in December or January.

2. Packaging isn’t postman proof.

Following a report of a damaged envelope containing a slightly wet and mashed copy of the book, I’ve introduced some additional packaging (secure plastic envelopes). The main impact of this pause has been our overseas buyers, but I expect a good chunk of these will be dispatched this week.

So to summarise: dispatch has commenced. A packaging issue has necessitated a brief pause and rethink, with dispatch to recommence on Monday.

I would like to thank everyone for your continued patience. I know it will be worth it, and the feedback I’ve had from those who have received their copies has been very strong.

The post Daleks’ Master Plan Dispatch Update appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Cute Powerpuff Girls-style Doctor Who!

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.

Pop culture is ever evolving, changing what is popular and what is part of the public consciousness, sometimes locally, sometimes globally. Many pop culture favorites like superheros and science fiction worlds have a long legacy, with their fanbases aging as the years have gone by, and coming to new generations of fans as their stories get retold, reworked, and reinvented.

Doctor Who is no different, having been a part of British and world culture for the last 50 years.

With the advent of technology and what feels like an ever shrinking world where we are connected to each other in more and more ways, the collective fan bases of pop culture icons come together more and more often to share their stories, their ideas, and their love of their favorite things.

So mashups – taking two (or more) sometimes unrelated pieces of pop culture and blending them together – were almost an inevitable consequence.

With that, I present to you Doctor Who in the style of the Powerpuff Girls.

Created by Tumblr user and digtal artist Lumos5001 (Lumos5000 on deviantArt) for the 50th anniversary of Who last year, every Doctor, including the newly introduced War Doctor and the new 12th Doctor, has been Powerpuff-ized. While there have been plenty of cartoon or comic type versions of the Doctor, these have to be one of the cutest…

As someone who was a teen when the Powerpuff Girls cartoon originally aired, and as a fan of the cartoon, I love these. While the cartoon hasn’t been on the air for nearly 9 years, the Girls still remain a small part of popular culture, with the Girls themselves or their style translated to many other fandoms. (A favorite is turning them into the heros and villians from DC Comics) I also really enjoy seeing all the fandom cartoon mashups that have been made in the last few years. I grew up on cartoons of all kinds and still love them as an adult. (Interesting side note – the Powerpuff Girls will be back on tv soon! A special will be airing sometime in the next month!)

(via FlickFilosopher)

BONUS!

Other artists have taken to drawing the Doctor and his companions in the PPG style. Most recently artist NikHolmes had his Tenth Doctor with Rose, Donna, and Martha on a t-shirt over at RIPT Apparel (in a design now sadly unavailable).

For the David Tennant fans – found in the wilds of Tumblr, this is someone’s idea of how the wonderful Tenth Doctor David Tennant was brought into this world, Powerpuff style.

 

 

The post Cute Powerpuff Girls-style Doctor Who! appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Kasterborous Magazine #2 – Doctor Who Video Games Special!

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.

Revealed on the Kasterborous Magazine Facebook group last night, here is a run-down of what you can expect in the forthcoming second issue, dedicated to over 30 years of Doctor Who video games!

Although the following is subject to change, in the next issue of Kasterborous Magazine you should find….

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

Contributors to this issue include James McLean, Mez Burdett and Phil Bates.

There is more to add to this – keep checking the Facebook Group for the latest!

The post Kasterborous Magazine #2 – Doctor Who Video Games Special! appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Surprisingly Good Doctor Who/Friends Mashup

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.

What if The Day of the Doctor wasn’t Doctor Who’s 50th anniversary special, but an episode of hit US comedy series Friends (you know, the one I started watching from the first episode then gave up with after three series when everyone else started watching)?

We expect the opening titles would be something like the superbly edited compilation above, featuring Matt Smith, Jenna Coleman, David Tennant, Billie Piper and John Hurt.

Enjoy!

The post Surprisingly Good Doctor Who/Friends Mashup appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Doctor Who: Tales of Trenzalore eBook

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.

We all watched, with anticipation, to see how the Doctor might meet his regeneration in The Time Of The Doctor. We learned that he bravely stayed to defend the town of Christmas on Trenzalore for some 900 years from the fiercest foes in the galaxy, all in an effort to stop another Time War from happening.

But for all those 900 years, we only saw a small portion of his time on Trenzalore. Many have wondered what else happened while the Doctor defended the town.

A new book is set to try and answer some of those questions.

Doctor Who: Tales Of Trenzalore: The Eleventh Doctor’s Last Stand, available as an e-book from BBC Books on 27th February, will tell tales of the Doctor’s time in the town of Christmas.

The book is broken down into four stories from different time periods during the Siege of Trenzalore and the battle that followed, written by four different writers who have all previously published stories of the Doctor’s adventures - Let it Snow by Justin Richards,  An Apple a Day by George Mann,  Strangers in the Outland by Paul Finch, and The Dreaming by Mark Morris.

If you’d like to pre-order, we’ve found it available on Amazon, for the pre-order price of £2.49! No word yet on an international release date or price.

(I hope they announce it soon! I can’t wait to read this!)

 

The post Doctor Who: Tales of Trenzalore eBook appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.