Christian Cawley's Blog, page 317

Reviewed: The Night of the Doctor

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.

These seven minutes not only cement the Eighth Doctor in the canon, they also tell us more about the Time War than Russell T Davies ever did.

 Having spent three days wondering if the sight of Paul McGann as the Doctor, in moving pictures that weren’t recorded in early 1996 was real or the result of food poisoning, the time has come to review The Night of the Doctor.

The minisode – currently running on the BBC Red Button service and BBC iPlayer – is a mere 7 minutes long. McGann’s on-screen appearances as the Eighth Doctor are nothing if not short… oh, and loaded with quality.

McGann has long since been one of my favourite actors, since long before he was cast in Philip Segal’s brave-but-challenged attempt to get Doctor Who on air in the USA. His presence in that supposed failure (despite collecting  9.08 million viewers in the UK) single-handedly breathed new life into the show’s novels, Doctor Who Magazine‘s comic strip and features and later the Big Finish range.

The TV Movie may be widely dismissed as a failure, but it succeeded in billowing the embers of a sleeping television phenomenon long enough for Russell T Davies to take it by the scruff of the neck and bring it back in 2005.

In the intervening years the McGann Doctor became so much more than a Byron-esque wanderer, veering from paradox to destroyer of Gallifrey in the novels (long before Rose) a wily opponent avenging the death of Ace in the Doctor Who Magazine comic strip (one of the run’s greatest moments) and pitted against increasingly powerful Daleks time and again in the Big Finish audios – with eventually catastrophic consequences.

All the time there has been this question, this nagging doubt, in the back of our minds: why didn’t Russell T Davies stick with Paul McGann? Couldn’t McGann return some day? Surely the BBC could create a Time War spin-off with McGann as the Doctor?

Well, the answer to the first question is obvious – RTD wanted his own Doctor, detached from the baggage that resulted in the show being left on the shelf for over five years before the BBC started looking at it again. The answers to the other questions are less clear – but at least the Eighth Doctor has finally, at last, stepped onto our screens in The Night of the Doctor.

Who know how long this Doctor has lived? We know from the dialogue that he is aware of the Time War but has so far avoided getting involved. It’s also apparent – thanks to a single line from Steven Moffat – that the Eighth Doctor presented here is the one who has had adventures in the Big Finish range. One simple dedication to his former companions validates the Eighth Doctor Adventures on audio (although it perhaps dismisses those of the BBC novels and DWM comic strips) and suddenly this man becomes so much more than a night in San Francisco.

Paul McGann is back – and it’s about time.

From the moment of his initial dialogue (“I’m a Doctor, but probably not the one you were expecting”) the minisode is a constant journey. We learn what people of the universe think of the Time War; we revisit Karn, and the Sisterhood, first seen in The Brain of Morbius in 1976; we get cutting sarcasm so perfectly delivered by Paul McGann… let’s be honest, we get one of the most significant episodes of Doctor Who since 1989. These seven minutes not only cement the Eighth Doctor in the canon (such as it is), they also tell us more about the Time War than Russell T Davies ever did (Rose and The Unquiet Dead aside).

Seven minutes is criminally short, of course. While the in-joke leading up to the Eighth Doctor’s regeneration (“Will it hurt?”) is wonderful, and the execution and subsequent revealing of the I, Claudius era John Hurt inspecting his War Doctor features memorable, the minisode perhaps fails in its main task in bringing the Eighth Doctor’s era to a close.

It’s left us all wanting more…

The post Reviewed: The Night of the Doctor appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

TARDIS Flavoured Marshall Amp Stack For Children In Need!

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.

Marshall Amp stacks; every guitarist needs one, Lemmy knew a girl with a body like one and now, the Doctor has his very own with which to shred his foes faces off with a mean electric Pianalaika solo – courtesy of the Marshall Custom Shop.

The one of a kind TARDIS stack is currently being auctioned on eBay, and the winner will get to visit the Marshall factory to see the amp being put together.

The amp itself is a Marshall JWM 210H head, with 1960A and 1960B 4×12 cabinets. The design will be applied using Marshall’s ART technology and finished in blue levant vinyl.

Dimension shredding guitar licks sold separately.

For more information check out the official eBay listing.

(Via MusicRadar.)

The post TARDIS Flavoured Marshall Amp Stack For Children In Need! appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Celebrate 50 Years Of Doctor Who At Montacute Museum

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

The Montacute Museum of TV, radio and toys in Somerset is celebrating 50 years of Doctor Who with a variety of Gallifreyan attractions!

Over three weekends in November, visitors can enter the TARDIS and see every incarnation of the Doctor at work around the famous console, (although whether Peter Cushing, Rowan Atkinson and John Hurt will be included in the line-up remains to be seen!)

Then on the 16th and 17th November, there is an opportunity to meet the Fourth Doctor himself, (almost!), as the official Tom Baker lookalike Ian Britten-Hull will be on hand with K9 to talk about his “real life Time Lord adventures.” This precedes a special appearance of a replica K1 giant robot on the 23rd and 24th, which stands at over 7 feet tall and was first seen in the Fourth Doctor’s debut story.

The museum also promises a huge nostalgic collection of memorabilia from a range of classic television shows, as well as Dalek-shaped biscuits in its café!

Tickets are priced at £6.99 for adults and £4.99 for children, with a 49p discount available for seniors and students. There is also a family ticket option, (2 adults + 2 children), on offer at £21.99.

The museum is open from 11am till 5pm at weekends and, should you have any queries, feel free to send your question to info@montacutemuseum.co.uk, or call 01935 823024.

Enjoy!

The post Celebrate 50 Years Of Doctor Who At Montacute Museum appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Doctor Who Stars Send Messages for Herne Bay’s Unearthly Child Screening

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

The birthplace of the very first Doctor Who story, An Unearthly Child, is to host it’s very first screening of the show as part of the 50th Anniversary celebration!

BBC producers are bringing a one night only screening of An Unearthly Child to the King’s Hall in Herne Bay on November 22nd. The event will also feature a celebrity panel, and will also screen a series of messages from former Doctors and companions to mark the occasion, including the Fourth Doctor, Tom Baker, and the Sixth Doctor, Colin Baker.

Tom Baker noted that he would “love” to see the first episode in Herne Bay. Sixth Doctor, Colin Baker, had this to say about Herne Bay and the occasion:

I have spent many a happy hour in Herne Bay but today alas I am summoned by the other doctors to appear at some other minor event organised by the BBC in London to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the programme we all know and love. You are in Herne Bay. Doctor Who started in Herne Bay. What better place to watch An Unearthly Child?

Herne Bay is the home town of Anthony Coburn, BBC writer and producer responsible for the first episodes of the long running series. The event will also feature an appearance from classic Who villains the Daleks and the Cybermen.

Any Kasterborites planning on making the screening?

(Via Canterbury Times)

The post Doctor Who Stars Send Messages for Herne Bay’s Unearthly Child Screening appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

The Day of the Doctor’s Ingrid Oliver On Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Special

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.

Spoonfed, online guide to happening London, took budding comedic star Ingrid Oliver to the Wellcome collection to grill her over her role as a UNIT scientist in the imminent 50th special, Day of the Doctor. A stone’s throw from Euston station, the collection provides an appropriately weird and wonderful surrounding of scientific oddities for discussing telly, Sci-fi and filming in 3D (it really is very good – and has a lovely bookshop)…

With early performances in London’s Canal Café theatre and several successful Edinburgh Fringe appearances, Ingrid is a rising comedic star and one half of the Watson & Oliver sketch show. What the Spoonfed interview really puts across is how delightfully normal and fun she is:

Every comment she makes comes with a funny footnote, every answer comes with a warning about how actor-y she might sound. There’s a clear balance of self-awareness, humour and thoughtfulness to her conversation.

Just the sort of lady we want working on Who! On-set photos and this behind-the-scenes clip show her appearing alongside Jemma Redgrave’s head of UNIT scientific research, Kate Stewart, and sporting a rather familiar scarf…

In Spoonfed’s interview she notes how Doctor Who’s particular genre brought its own acting challenges,

“The first day on set, I had to run away from a monster and that was weird because I was thinking bizarrely: OK, if I was actually running away from a monster, how would I react? That’s just – I’ve got no reference point for that, there’s no actual experience I can draw on!

Of course had Oliver been a Who fan from a tender age, fleeing monsters or running from the exhaust-blast of a landing alien spaceship would have been a daily playground occurrence. Nevertheless she is a self-confessed telly addict and discusses her love of tv and how it provides viewers with a whole array of genres to dip in to. And this seems to have inspired much of the humour in her on-screen work going by this chortlesome, genre-warping slice…

 

 

(And if you nose around you’ll find another all-singing, all-snogging clip with a familiar name from Who’s recent history…) Comic actors have a solid history in Who. John Pertwee was well known for his radio comedy on the Navy Lark when he took on the role and various comedians have appeared over the years including John Cleese, Alexi Sayle, Richard Briers and Catherine Tate’s turn as the inimitable Donna Noble. Assuming UNIT will have more dealings with the Doctor in Capaldi’s era, do we think Oliver could make a re-appearance? Could we even be looking at future companion material?…

(Via Spoonfed)

The post The Day of the Doctor’s Ingrid Oliver On Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Special appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Mashable: JJ Abrams Should Have Moffat “On Speed Dial”

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.

Secrets. Everyone has them. Heck, sometimes I like to wear a top hat and pretend I’m the mayor of the potato people. But Doctor Who‘s secrets seem bigger than everyone else’s…and impossibly harder to keep.

Which is why Mashable‘s Chris Taylor wrote a column on Thursday commenting on Doctor Who‘s amazing ability to pull off some epic reveals, especially in our internet-obsessed information age. He compares it to something as ground-shaking as Apple unveiling a new unheard-of product, or Facebook suddenly buying Twitter:

That kind of surprise would approach what fans of the long-running British science-fiction show were feeling Thursday, when one of the show’s mini-episodes — usually a throwaway five-minute scene intended to hype an upcoming show — added one of the most significant plot developments in Who’s history, leaving long-time watchers slack-jawed.

With the release of The Night of the Doctor and it’s historic reveal-within-a-reveal, Taylor says that showrunner Steven Moffat should get all of the credit he deserves:

How did Moffat do it? With a hefty dose of misdirection. The Doctor who regenerates this time, played by Paul McGann, recently stated that he was “gutted” to not be appearing in the 50th anniversary special. Which, technically, he doesn’t. Somewhere, Moffat — variously described as the evil overlord of Tumblr fandom and king of the online trolls — is giggling with glee.

And he continues his praise of Moffat (and the Who crew), and thinks that filmmakers like George Lucas and J.J. Abrams could learn a thing or two from the wily Scotsman:

Fans have spent months speculating about where Hurt fits in the Doctor’s timeline. Most suspected that he came after McGann, but everyone was waiting for the special to reveal it. Imagine the reaction if George Lucas had casually revealed Luke Skywalker’s parentage in a short film prior to Empire Strikes Back.

Moffat, fully aware that spoilers are a fact of life in the social media age, delights in throwing fans a constant stream of curveballs. Perhaps J.J. Abrams should have him on speed-dial…

So, Kasterborites, here’s just some of the recent hits on the Moffat Secret-o-meter: Jenna Coleman appearing months early as the ill-fated Oswin Oswald, The Day of the Doctor trailer revealed at Comic Con and then kept off the internet, “Introducing John Hurt as The Doctor”, classic Doctors in The Name of the Doctor, the final fate of The Ponds, and now Paul McGann.

After all of this, what do you think has been Doctor Who‘s greatest secret?

The post Mashable: JJ Abrams Should Have Moffat “On Speed Dial” appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Steven Moffat On 50 Years Of Doctor Who [VIDEO]

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

The BBC has released a brand new interview with the current show-runner Steven Moffat.

Following an introduction from Rhodri Talfan Davies, the director of BBC Wales, Moffat is interviewed in front of a live audience by Heat magazine’s TV editor Boyd Hilton.

The feature includes a selection of clips from the classic era as Moffat summarises the show’s history for the uninitiated.

Only Doctor Who could have a cliffhanger where the dangerous and terrifying reveal is that the monster can go upstairs. That is unique!

Hmm, wonder which story he’s referring to! Have a look at the video to find out…

The post Steven Moffat On 50 Years Of Doctor Who [VIDEO] appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Radio Times Celebrates 50th Anniversary With 12 Doctor Who Covers

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.

To celebrate Doctor Who’s 50th anniversary the new issue of Radio Times (on sale from Tuesday 19 November) will feature 12 different collectable covers each with a different Doctor and monsters from their era!

Accompanying this inside will be 26 dedicated pages on the iconic show.

The first cover was premiered on RadioTimes.com at midnight and each day from Saturday until Tuesday 19 November the Radio Times DiscoverTV app will reveal three covers. You can download the app for free here.

Meanwhile, here’s the first cover in full:

More details of Radio Times Doctor Who Special will be announced on Monday 18 November.

The post Radio Times Celebrates 50th Anniversary With 12 Doctor Who Covers appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Moffat: Bringing Back McGann “A Complete Treat!”

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.

Steven Moffat has revealed that the Eighth Doctor’s appearance in this week’s astonishing prequel came about through his desire to spring a further surprise on us all in this anniversary year.

I was thinking, what else can we do for our anniversary year… I thought… Why don’t we get Paul McGann in and regenerate him into John Hurt? I’d like to see that! I’d love to see that!

Evidently a game sort, Paul was ‘dead keen’ and came in to shoot The Night of the Doctor over the last two days of the shoot for the fiftieth. Unsurprisingly, Moffat describes the secrecy surrounding the shoot as ‘phenomenal’:

I’m sure some people are a bit cross that we were so secretive but the fact is, there is only one way to ensure you keep a secret, and that’s to keep it! So, we kept it very tight and we hope it all came as great surprise to everyone.

Clearly an Eighth Doctor fan, Moffat sums up the McGann incarnation as:

He’s obviously dashing, terribly handsome and quite romantic. I always found it hard to imagine him fighting in the Time War. I’d always imagined the ‘Time War Doctor’ would be more grizzled, somehow, you know?

What do you think? Could you see the Eighth Doctor as the man to destroy Gallifrey?

The post Moffat: Bringing Back McGann “A Complete Treat!” appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Miss Children In Need’s Preview Of The Day of the Doctor?

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.

Never mind… you can catch up on the latest Doctor Who 50th anniversary treat from the BBC right here on Kasterborous – and rewatch as much as you like!

Just press play above and enjoy the scene between the Doctor, Clara and Kate Stewart as a mystery is posed…

Starring Matt Smith, Jenna Coleman and Jemma Redgrave, the clip aired on BBC One on Friday evening as part of 2013′s Children in Need campaign.

Able to donate? Head to: www.bbc.co.uk/pudsey/donate

The post Miss Children In Need’s Preview Of The Day of the Doctor? appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.