Christian Cawley's Blog, page 30

Strangeness in Space Back in the Studio

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.

Heading back to the planet mirth, work is now underway on the third episode of Strangeness in Space –  the free to download online audio comedy which unites former Doctor Who companion Sophie Aldred with Saturday morning comedy legends Trevor Neal and Simon Hickson – and once again, joining them on the next leg of the adventure will be fellow Who alum, Barnaby Edwards.

The series sees Sophie, the manager of a NASA Space Centre gift shop, and Trev and Simon, two idiots claiming to be a 1980s styled synth pop duo called Pink Custard, thrown together with a stressy computer robot called LEMON, played by Barnaby Edwards, on board a damaged space craft, lost in a distant universe, orbiting Planet Mirth.

Trev, Simon and Sophie are racing into the future with a foot in the past (the nostalgic 1980’s to be precise). Along the way, fuelled by a diet of indigestible powdered space food, they will encounter a whole host of unusual space dwellers and aliens, all played by an exciting parade of cult actors and celebrities.

What’s more, the Strange Shop is now packed with different perks to help fund more days in the recording studio for the Strange crew – lots of them great for Christmas presents.

While we mention this yuletide season, why not give their Christmas song, Christmas in SpACE, a cheeky listen? Proceeds from purchases made via iTunes will go towards producing more episodes.

The post Strangeness in Space Back in the Studio appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

See The Eighth Doctor Perform The Twelfth Doctor’s Anti-War Speech

Simon Mills 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.

Or “The Eighth Doctor’s Twelfth Anti-War Speech Inversion”

The Radio Times have shared a video of Paul McGann from a Q&A session at Megacon in Orlando (the one in America) where he was handed a copy of the Twelfth Doctor’s epic anti-war speech from The Zygon Inversion and asked to give the crowd a reading. Now, bear in mind that Mr McGann hadn’t even seen the episode in question, we think he did an astounding job of performing it in his own style, giving it everything we would expect from the Eighth Doctor with added chilliness. It’s a great reading, considering he was reading it with fresh eyes and performing it “cold”.

We don’t get the full 10 minute shouty rant that Peter Capaldi delivered (look here if you can’t remember how good THAT was!) but we do get well over two minutes of top-notch McGannliness (the quality of being extremely McGannish)!

The Radio Times article also reminds us of the time that Sylvester McCoy (the Seventh Doctor, in case you needed reminding) was asked at another convention to do the same thing, but with the Eleventh Doctor’s also epic speech from The Pandorica Opens. You can watch the audio (or listen to the video, not sure which) here – added bonus is that the music over the top of the audio makes it even more epic-er!

What do you think, then? Better than Peter Capaldi’s rendition? or just suitably alternative?

The post See The Eighth Doctor Perform The Twelfth Doctor’s Anti-War Speech appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

An Invisible TARDIS? A Technophobic Doctor? The Original 1963 Pitch Unearthed

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.

In this business known as show, there are many creative cul-de-sacs and blind alleys to traverse before stumbling upon something that bears all the hallmarks of greatness.

While we’ve come to recognise what makes Doctor Who the show that it is – a renegade Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey who travels in time and space in his police box shaped time machine, the TARDIS, with an assortment of companions – it wasn’t always like that.

No, as documents – which include handwritten notes by Sydney Newman – unearthed by a fan have shown, during the development of the show, the Doctor was a human and a cranky old luddite who travelled in an invisible time bubble actively destroying the future by sabotaging the past.

Yes, that is a bit different and in the handwritten scrawl of Sydney Newman, it was also ‘nuts’!

Take for instance, the description of the original TARDIS. Instead of the iconic police box, we get, well, nothing.

“We do not see the machine at all; or rather it is visible only as an absence of visibility, a shape of nothingness (Inlaid, into surrounding picture). Dr. Who has achieved this “disappearance” by covering the outside with light—resistant paint (a recognised research project today). Thus our characters can bump into it, run their hands over its shape, partly disappear by partly entering it, and disappear entirely when the door closes behind them.”

But what about the First Doctor’s attempts to nullify the future?

“He can get into a rare paddy when faced with a cave man trying to invent a wheel. He malignantly tries to stop progress (the future) wherever he finds it, while searching for his ideal (the past). This seems to me to involve slap up-to-date moral problems, and old ones too.”

Then there’s the section from C.E Webber’s original treatment which provoking Sydney Newman to question his writer’s sanity.

“The authorities of his own (or some other future) time are not concerned merely with the theft of an obsolete machine; they are seriously concerned to prevent his monkeying with time, because his secret intention, when he finds his ideal past, is to destroy or nullify the future.”

It’s an interesting glimpse into the past and you can read the full pitch here or see the documents here – imagine if it hadn’t been for Newman’s general disgust with the ideas and the subsequent changes thereafter; we could have been watching William Hartnell as an angry human rallying against the encroaching evils of technology in his invisible time machine.

The post An Invisible TARDIS? A Technophobic Doctor? The Original 1963 Pitch Unearthed appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Christopher Eccleston Sings ‘Congratulations’ to Newly Engaged Fans

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.

The Doctors and their fans have a special bond. Ambassadors for the show, they generously offer their time for anyone with a question, a query and something else beginning with Q.

So when fans call upon them for a favour, they leap to their feet, bound into the TARDIS and answer that call. One such Doctor is Christopher Eccleston who gave up his time to perform as the Ninth Doctor for Lauren and Ben, who recently got engaged.

Not only did they get the Doctor but he also sang Congratulations for them (he does a mean Cliff Richards) and threw in a brother-in-law joke too! Top man!

It’s a wonderful gesture from Eccleston, who despite perhaps not leaving the show on the best of terms, has always been their for the fans.

Fantastic!

The post Christopher Eccleston Sings ‘Congratulations’ to Newly Engaged Fans appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Get a Proper Look at The Abominable Bride in New Sherlock Trailer

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.

“The stage is set. The curtain rises. We are ready to begin.”

There’s nothing quite like a good horror story at Christmastime, and if the latest trailer for Sherlock: The Abominable Bride is anything to go by, that’s exactly what we’re getting!

The special one-off episode is set in Victorian times, and sees Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock Holmes and Martin Freeman’s John Watson come up against an avenging ghost…

What if the world’s most famous consulting detective and his best friend lived in a Baker Street of steam trains, hansom cabs, top hats and frock-coats? Welcome to ‘Sherlock’ in 1895!

Some things, though, remain reassuringly the same. Friendship, adventure and especially, MURDER…

Why is Thomas Ricoletti a little surprised to see his wife dressed in her old wedding gown?  Because, just a few hours before, she took her own life…

Mrs Ricoletti’s ghost now appears to be prowling the streets with an unslakeable thirst for revenge. From fog-shrouded Limehouse to the bowels of a ruined church, Holmes, Watson and their friends must use all their cunning to combat an enemy seemingly from beyond the grave and the final, shocking truth about…the Abominable Bride!

All the regular cast are expected to return, with glimpses of Rupert Graves as Lestrade (nice sideburns) and Amanda Abbington, and we also get a glimpse of guest star, Tim McInnerny (Planet of the Ood).

The Abominable Bride airs on New Year’s Day.

The post Get a Proper Look at The Abominable Bride in New Sherlock Trailer appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Reaktion Round-Up: What You Thought of The Woman Who Lived

David Power 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.

Whoops, I got lost in the K-Towers dungeon for a bit (imagine the castle from Heaven Sent, except every monitor played In the Forest of the Night on a loop) but it’s okay now, I’m back! Where did I leave off? Oh yes, The Woman Who Lived!

(Oh, also, as I was sprinting for my life I may have tripped over a wire and broken the comments again. I believe I could be forgiven though, given what I was running from.)

Best of Series 9 so far 10.98%  (38 votes) 

Fantastic stuff! 45.95%  (159 votes)

Average Who 24.28%  (84 votes) 

Robbed of a decent episode 9.54%  (33 votes) 

Booooooring 9.25%  (32 votes)

You guys seemed to have a very similar reaction to The Girl Who Died, which is interesting because in contrast to the first part of this story, I loved this episode! Once Catherine Tregenna was announced to be writing for Series 9 I was already excited. Out of Time, Captain Jack Harkness, Meat, and Adam are some of Torchwood‘s best episodes, so I was fascinated to see what viewpoint someone who’d written the Doctor Who universe, but not for the show itself would bring to the table.

This episode felt quite different to your average episode of Who. It was more of a character piece with small bits of plots every now and again rather than an plot focused episode. Immortality is a concept already touched upon in New Who, yet Catherine manages to make it thought provoking yet again when we see the effects of the Twelfth Doctor’s “to hell with you” moment on Ashildr.

Sure, Leandro was a throwaway villain, but we wisely used his time to instead have fun with Sam Swift. More of him please. On a serious note, how stellar was that conversation between the Doctor and Ashildr, or I guess we should say Lady Me now? Anyway, her view on immortality haunted by too many memories for one brain, gave real depth to her character and the horrifying truth about the “gift” of immortality. You can never really imagine Captain Jack and the Doctor discussing it in such a way can you? I hope we get Catherine back for another episode someday.

Ratings weren’t too kind to this tale. The overnight ratings went down after the previous week, dropping from 4.85m to 4.34m. Overalls decreased from 6.56m for The Girl Who Died to 6.11m for The Woman Who Lived. The Appreciation Index score also dropped one from the preceding week, from 82 to 81.

Critically though, people seemed to love the episode!

The Daily Telegraph‘s Catherine Gee gave a flawless 5 star score, claiming:

“It was, at times, a beautifully written episode – and less clunky than some of Steven Moffat’s offerings. With an aged, well-read, worldly wise pair to play with, scriptwriter Catherine Tregenna was able to give the dialogue a literary feel.”

Alasdair Wilkins of The A.V. Club, praised the episode, saying:

“[Maisie’s] work in last week’s The Girl Who Died was very good, bringing nuance and humanity to what in lesser hands might just feel like just another random historical character with hints of deeper mystery. But her work in The Woman Who Lived is an order of magnitude better, if only because she is asked to do so much more here than she was last week.”

The Radio Time‘s Patrick Mulkern awarded the episode four out of five stars, calling it:

“A dark and beautiful study of immortality and short lives. The first 19 minutes takes place in the dead of night, the only available light coming from candles or the Moon. It all looks fabulous and is a triumph for the director Ed Bazalgette and director of photography Richard Stoddard. The philosophical interludes between the Time Lord and Ashildr are what make this sing”.

Well alrighty folks, I promise to have the rest of this season covered before this year’s Christmas special. Maybe. Also, to address the malicious rumours of me being a Zygon clone of myself, with the real me still in the K-Towers dungeon, how about we grow up just let Zygons be Zygons?

The post Reaktion Round-Up: What You Thought of The Woman Who Lived appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Doctor Who-Inspired Dance on Strictly Come Dancing!

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.

Not something anyone expected to see, but here’s The Wanted‘s Jay McGuinness and his dance partner, Aliona Vilani dancing a Doctor Who-inspired Charleston!

This was for the semi-final of hit BBC show, Strictly Come Dancing. It didn’t make up for it being the first Saturday in a long while with no new Who, but it was nonetheless appreciated!

Jay initially donned a Fourth Doctor Scarf (looks a bit like the shorter version from Lovarzi) before taking Aliona into the TARDIS and coming back onto the dance floor in a look inspired by the Eleventh Doctor. Because, as we all know, bow ties are cool.

The pair are arguably favourites for the glitterball trophy and were the first couple announced as finalists tonight. Voyage of the Damned star Kylie Minogue also sang on the Results Show, a suitably festive number.

The upbeat dance originated in the 1920s and has remained popular ever since. It’s quite a favourite for Strictly, largely for its enthusiasm.

The post Doctor Who-Inspired Dance on Strictly Come Dancing! appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

NuWho 10th Anniversary: What Is Your Favourite Series 7A Story?

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.

This year, Doctor Who has been back on our screen ten whole years. It feels like yesterday that the TARDIS materialised once more; suitably, it also feels like forever.

So join us as we celebrate a decade with the Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh, and Twelfth Doctors. Let’s find out which serials are our favourites, and shine a light on the underrated ones too. Watch us run.

And then vote on your favourites. At the end of the year, we’ll find out which serials showcase our beloved show at the height of its game.

We’ve split Series 7 into two. There’s too big a tonal shift and so many new storylines to embrace. So we start off with the final days of the Ponds. Amy and Rory have been with the Doctor for a decade (from their perspectives), but an Angel waits for them in New York. But before the Big Apple, they face Daleks, dinosaurs, the Gunslinger, and mysterious cubes…

Andrew Reynolds: Asylum of the Daleks

Her pain is real, even if she is not. We were promised an epic Dalek story to open Series 7 and Asylum of the Daleks certainly delivered that but what remains after all this time are the emotional scars – Amy and Rory’s broken down marriage (and the uneasiness of their need to be out adventuring with the Doctor in order to sustain it – a condition that would have tragic consequences for both them and other companions too. Although the initial strife between them does feel contrived; perhaps more of the writer’s need than of the heart), Clara’s heart breaking realisation that she’s a Dalek sleeper agent and that the stars will have to wait for another time (and another Clara) and, of course, the rather sad sight of the once mighty Daleks asking ‘The Predator of the Daleks’ for help.

Okay, maybe not that last one, but it’s just one of many rollicking ideas in a confident, breathless opener.

Plus, the music is great – Dalek Parliament, with its off-kilter Wizard of Oz quality, is a personal favourite.

Philip Bates: A Town Called Mercy

Oh, I was never one for a Western, not really, but then there was Matt Smith sauntering into town in a cowboy hat, and there was the Gunslinger, and then there too was Kahler-Jex. And this wasn’t a simple shoot-’em-up. This was so much more. This was about character, a topic Toby Whithouse has always excelled at.

“The Kahler! I love the Kahler!” the Doctor enthuses, and I can only agree. The Gunslinger is a wonderful creation, but so is Jex. Adrian Scarborough has got to be one of the best guest stars in recent history, delivering a touching and also troubling performance.

And here is a primetime drama asking us to mull over the atrocities and moralities of war. Coming about a year before The Day of the Doctor, it’s a solid reminder of what the Doctor has done, the acts he himself has carried out even on his own people – just like Jex. Look how relevant the tale is right now. Look how relevant it will always be.

As much as I love the Twelfth Doctor’s anti-war speech in The Zygon Inversion, I think Jex’s religious concern about carrying the souls of those he’s wronged is more powerful. It’s understated and quiet. Listen to his inner torment and watch the Doctor too, grappling with what he’s seen and done. It’s a story about weight: weighing up where the grey line separates the right and the wrong; the weight of the theme; and the gravitas of the actors.

Stunning direction and gorgeous design work top off a truly beautiful production that lingers in the mind long after that incredible twanging score comes to its end.

Jonathan Appleton: The Power of Three

I was never the biggest fan of the Amy-Rory storyline but this episode has an appealing light touch with its depiction of how this TARDIS trio get along when there’s not much happening. The return of UNIT was handled well, commanded by the Brigadier’s daughter Kate who seems a lot more competent here than she has in more recent stories. The appearance of the cubes and the long quest to establish what they are there for makes an intriguing mystery, and the sense that time is passing within the episode is a welcome change from the norm in Doctor Who.

Matt Smith handles the comic stuff well and shares a quietly moving scene with Rory’s Dad Brian who asks him what happened to all his other companions.

And we see Steven Berkoff in Doctor Who! A shame that he’s rather under-used in what is, let’s face it, a damp squib of a climax but I like to think he enjoyed himself in his costume and make-up, gibbering on about the Shakri. A fun episode that manages to stay on the right side of frothy.

James Lomond: Asylum of the Daleks

Asylum of the Daleks was just lovely and filled me with Doctor Who beans! This tale of soufflé and insanity contained some brilliant Moffat moments with Dalek-nanogenes making Amy perceive a room of certified war machines as though they were guests at a cocktail party, and the big reveal at the end on how Clara had survived (mentally) Dalek-conversion. It also gave us the Clara we never had.

There were plenty of chilling moments with Dalek-Zombies forgetting they were dead, and pepper-pot inmates reactivating to the drone of “eggs-terminate”. We had a self-destructing Dalek used as an anti-Dalek bomb, Classic icons making a dimly-lit return, and chin-jokes. There was some deeply emotional kerfuffle about Amy and Rory and babies shoe-horned into a few easily forgotten moments but everything else was zingy, exciting, and smelled of burnt metal.

This felt like proper Doctor Who with some proper monsters being properly scary and some proper jeopardy. It also left us with the most wonderful mystery – how was the new girl going to be the new girl if she was a blown-up Dalek genius?! Jenna Coleman leapt out of the screen and into our living rooms with such chutzpah and style it felt like a whole new era was starting. At this stage we hadn’t had our hearts broken again by Victorian Clara’s fall and she felt more like a character than a plot device.

And a DALEK ASYLUM?! This was *made* of win.

Becky Crockett: Dinosaurs on a Spaceship

Not a lot to go on for Series 7A, since there are only a Christmas special and 5 episodes but my favourite would have to be Dinosaurs On A Spaceship. We get to see Matt Smith doing his Eleventh Doctor’s goofy best along with the lovely additions of a queen, a hunter, and Rory’s dad. Plus an adorable triceratops who likes to chase golf balls.

The episode as a whole is very much a “Doctor Who” type show, combining an amazing adventure and serious sci-fi all in one kooky, fun package. And yes Amy, you were easily worth two men!

Thomas Spychalski: A Town Called Mercy

The series of Doctor Who that was 7A seemed almost like a return to form compared to Series 6, the promise of more stand alone stories and less ‘arc’ seemed like a damn good idea. I was honestly happy to get back to standard Doctor Who adventuring without trying to wrap my head around some confusing overall theme.

My favourite of these was definitely A Town Called Mercy, which is odd for me as I am not a big fan of the Old West genre in television or film.

However, A Town Called Mercy won me over with its plot concerning the morality of science and war and the way it reminded us that this Doctor, all bow ties and tweed, was still a man with a dark past steeped in war and blood.

The Gunslinger was perhaps not a totally fresh concept in fiction, seeking revenge on those who turned him into a monster, but it is always a plus to see aliens that do a bit more than running about threatening everything in sight.

Add to this the great guest cast and performances and some truly funny lines (“Everyone who isn’t an American, drop your gun”) made this one the most memorable for me out of Series 7A.

I suppose as I am a big Toby Whithouse supporter this should not come as a surprise but for me it is simply one of the best of modern Who and perhaps even falls into my top twenty or twenty-five episodes of all time as well.

Drew Boynton: Asylum of the Daleks

Without a doubt, Asylum of the Daleks is my favorite episode of 7A. Heck, I’d go so far as to count it as one of my favourite episodes of all time!

I know some fans have their problems with it (“Why do the Daleks have their own parliament?  Where’s the “classic” Daleks we were promised?  Why are Amy and Rory so close to getting divorced?”), but I just stick my fingers in my ears and hum loudly and ignore them. That’s because this episode is awesome.

It looks great (some great sets and special effects), it breezes right along, and to quote the Eleventh Doctor, it contains two “Whoppers”:  the surprise appearance and introduction of one Jenna (Where’d my “Louise” go?) Coleman as the delightful Oswin Oswald, and the devastating twist-ending reveal that Oswin is, indeed, a Dalek. Throw in a Matt Smith at the height of his powers, a likable Amy and Rory (I was never a big fan of the Ponds), a new title sequence, and Asylum of the Daleks was a fantastico way to kick off the first half of Series 7.

Joe Siegler: The Power of Three

I loved this story for any number of reasons. First of which is it shows Amy and Rory’s “home life”, which was a new concept mostly – that the primary companion didn’t spend all their time in the TARDIS. Definitely never happened in Classic Who. Then the Doctor came and stayed (well, tried to stay) with them. The montage of “Doctor doing stuff” sped up was funny. In fact, I like this episode more for the “funny”. The unexpected use of the ‘Chicken Dance’ music in the episode was a total laugh out loud moment for me. Same for the lines about “soldiers in my house”. Very funny stuff.

The actual drama of the cubes the first time you watch it was interesting. I remember actually having no idea what the heck they were there for. In fact, I remember at the time thinking if they sold those as toys, I would have likely bought a couple of them. In a way I’m surprised they didn’t market them substantially: it wouldn’t have cost anything to put together, and Doctor Who fans would have likely bought them at a premium. But I digress.

I loved the fact that Rory’s Dad (or as I know him better, Peterson from Red Dwarf) figured out what was going on based on the clothes they were wearing. His input was a pleasant surprise – I really wish they would have found a way to use him again after Amy and Rory left the show; he was a great character. Nice touch that it was he who basically gave Amy and Rory a “blessing” to travel with the Doctor. I also got a major laugh out of Brian’s Log.

This was also the first episode with Kate Stewart, who of course was the daughter of the classic Brigadier. That was a nice touch. I hope she keeps coming back.

Those who don’t like this episode are quick to point to the rather poor ending of the plotline. To that, I tend to agree. It’s not the best narrative ending, and it wastes a great guest star, Steven Berkoff (who I remember well from the 007 movie Octopussy). Still, I loved the strengths of the rest of the story so much, I can easily overlook a rather weak plot resolution.

A side note of production, the last scene where Amy, Rory, and the Doctor enter the TARDIS was the final scene filmed with Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill, so in a way for me, it’s their “ending”.

Tony Jones: Asylum of the Daleks

While it is perfectly possible to dismiss the curious set up of the parliament of Daleks, the idea of an asylum from the most nihilistic race ever created, and even the initial setup (why can Daleks only ever capture the Doctor when they don’t mean to kill him?) this will be forever remembered as the brilliant story that first brought Oswin Oswald to our screens. Yes, soufflé girl arrived, amidst spoiler-free reviews, Jenna Coleman was suddenly there, even if she still used the Louise back then.

The whole story of Clara’s being a Dalek and not knowing is simple, strong and frightening, like the best episodes of Doctor Who itself. Amy and Rory may have had a few more episodes to come, but had to appear opposite the character who (for all her inconsistent writing in later stories) would eclipse their time in the TARDIS in every way. The downside of all this is the first section of Series 7, the so-called 7A stories, is a set of stories marking time waiting for the change of assistant. This is an inevitable consequence of the hype surrounding the show, and with the recent departure of Clara from the programme, it will be interesting to watch the reveal of the next companion.

Those are a few of our favourites from Series 7A. Now it’s your turn! Vote below for your favourite, and we’ll find out the overall winner later this year…

What Is Your Favourite Series 7A Story?

The post NuWho 10th Anniversary: What Is Your Favourite Series 7A Story? appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Moffat: “I Love Dark, Twinkly, and Rich Red Christmas”

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.

The Husbands of River Song will be Steven Moffat’s sixth Christmas Doctor Who special, the second to star Peter Capaldi as the Twelfth Doctor.

But what will it be like?

We’ve not got long to find out, but what else can the showrunner tell the throngs of Whovians eager to find out who King Hydroflax is, if River recognises the Doctor, and what he most enjoys about writing the festive stories?

Can you give us an introduction to the episode you’ve written this year?

Steven: The Doctor is an all new man and has been for a while. It may have slipped his mind that out there, in a very tangled and complicated way, is his wife that has never seen this face before and doesn’t even know about this incarnation. We’re about to stand with the Doctor and see what River is like when she doesn’t know he’s looking. We’re about to see what River thinks of Matt Smith turning into Peter Capaldi.

What made you want to write this episode?

River Song meets the Capaldi Doctor, that’s got to be fun – I’d like to write that. That’s what made me want to write. I knew it had to be a big romp for Christmas day and there’s nothing like River Song to make that evident – River brings a whole storm of camp glamour to it.

Is it any different writing a Christmas episode of Doctor Who?

Yes, you need to have a bit of Christmas in it, but that’s never felt to me like a tremendous impediment, it’s a hook to hang it on. Sometimes we go very Christmassy – A Christmas Carol was incredibly Christmassy, so was The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe and The Snowmen had the appearance of Christmas without being very Christmassy. Last Christmas is actually the least Christmassy episode we’ve ever done, except for the fact it actually had Santa Claus in it – I rather loved Last Christmas. This year’s episode starts Christmassy and has a comedy romp!

Do you enjoy writing a Christmas episode?

I like Christmas specials – I know some people don’t. Some friends of mine don’t like Christmas specials very much and they’re always complaining about all the tinsel, the goodwill and the twinkly stars, and the lovely snow on the rooftops. I love all that, I love Christmas as a day and as a festival. I love that it’s dark, twinkly and rich red, all those things I adore so it’s no hardship for me at all.

Who is King Hydroflax?

King Hydroflax is a very bad King, who as it turns out is mostly cyborg – in fact only his head has remained. He’s a vicious, terrible and deeply stupid man and a dreadful tyrant.

The Husbands of River Song airs on Christmas Day, and we’re all very much excited about it!

The post Moffat: “I Love Dark, Twinkly, and Rich Red Christmas” appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Sneak Peek: Titan Comics’ Doctor Who 2015 Holiday Special

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 case you haven’t heard, it’s very nearly Christmas, and Titan Comics’ present to us all is a very special classic-infused festive issue starring Peter Capaldi’s Twelfth Doctor.

Written by Cavan Scott and George Mann, with art by Mariano Laclaustra, the comic came out on 9th December:

When a mysterious Christmas card materializes on the TARDIS console, Clara and the Doctor are pulled into an interdimensional adventure of astoundingly festive proportions!

Packed with impossible sights and nigh-insurmountable stakes, this special issue also contains puzzles and games woven into the story!

With three stunning covers, it really is a festive treat, as you can see from this little preview…

Doctor Who Holiday 2015 is out now from Titan, priced $3.99.

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