Christian Cawley's Blog, page 320

Return of the Sisterhood?

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.

The official Doctor Who Twitter feed has released a sneak peak from The Night of the Doctor – and it seems to indicate a return of  The Sisterhood of Karn!!!

Expected on Saturday evening on the BBC Red Button digital channel, The Night of the Doctor is a minisode prologue to The Day of the Doctor the show’s 50th anniversary episode.

Here’s how the photo was shared.

The Bringer of Darkness, the Oncoming Storm, the Doctor, the Warrior – A Time Lord! http://t.co/Pk1OHkldZy pic.twitter.com/A12ju5CfZ3

— Doctor Who Official (@bbcdoctorwho) November 13, 2013

Now, if that isn’t the Sisterhood – last seen in The Brain of Morbius (although some say the old lady seer in The End of Time was one of their number) back in 1976 – then they’re certainly keen on the same fashions…

If you don’t have the Red Button, you can catch the minisode online when it is released.

The post Return of the Sisterhood? appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

An Adventure In Space And Time Preview Screening

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.

You may not have been aware but Tuesday evening was the BFI’s preview screening of An Adventure in Space and Time, Mark Gatiss’ much-anticipated dramatisation of Doctor Who‘s early years, focusing on William Hartnell’s time on the show.

Before we get to that, though, don’t miss an excellent Radio Times interview with actor Brian Cox in which he describes a scene in which Sydney Newman (who he plays in the film) sacks William Hartnell, as well as his recollections of working in the 1960s – a time when he even met Newman himself!

He was very different from the other people around. In 63 when Doctor Who started, everybody was still very much in BBC suits and waistcoats, pipe-smoking. He had this aspect particular to him that made him brash, kind of mogul-like. He had this Canadian Jewish accent. He’d say, ‘How are you, kid? Are you OK? Enjoying yourself. That’s good, GOOD.’ It was not what you were expecting.

So, onto the screening, held at BFI Southbank and attended by many fans and industry personnel. Among those there was, of course, writer Mark Gatiss, for whom An Adventure in Space and Time has been a pet project for many years.

Said Gatiss:

Obviously if I was writing a film about [BBC TV police series] Z Cars, I would feel a bit more dispassionate, so I had to put my anorak away and treat it very straight.

Anyone could watch this and hopefully be very moved by it because it’s a universal story in that we all discover we are replaceable.

Among the guests (alongside Carole Ann Ford, Anneke Wills, Louise James and Sophie Aldred) was Jessica Carney, William Hartnell’s real life granddaughter. After the screening, she spoke to BBC News about her memories of her grandfather’s time as the star of Doctor Who, specifically during the recording of The Web Planet in 1965.

I sat in the dressing room with my grandfather, and it was fascinating to watch the wig and make-up being put on.

On the main set there were actors wandering around in very odd costumes. The cameras were so cumbersome and there were loads of huge cables everywhere.

Because there were so few TV channels the numbers of people watching were huge. On Monday in the school playground everyone would be talking about the programme.

All my early memories of my grandfather are muddled up with Doctor Who because he was Doctor Who and I watched him every Saturday on the television.

Carney also thanked David Bradley “for playing my grandfather so wonderfully.”

One of Kasterborous’ occasional contributors Adam Chamberlain attended the screening, and has this spoiler-free summary to tease us…

Whether you’re an ardent Whovian or bemused at quite what all the fuss is about, please save the day and consider watching An Adventure in Space and Time when the BBC premieres it (on both sides of the Atlantic) next week. I was lucky enough to be in the audience for a preview screening this evening at the BFI, just across the aisle from writer Mark Gatiss, star David Bradley, and even William Hartnell’s (somewhat overcome) granddaughter!

 

A beautiful realisation of the myth behind the series’ birth, it is also a moving human drama about the actor who found himself at its heart, and something of a meditation on both the potential and inevitability of change. Funny, sad, and inspiring by turns, it is not only a “love-letter” to Doctor Who, but also something of a celebration of the legacy of BBC TV Centre. It had this fan frequently in tears, and a rapt audience on their feet as the credits rolled. A note-perfect, early anniversary gift to us all.

An Adventure in Space and Time hits screens next Thursday, 21 November 2013 on BBC Two.

The post An Adventure In Space And Time Preview Screening appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Event Whorizon On Radio: Tune Into Doctor Who At 50 Coverage

Danny_Weasel 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.

As if we weren’t spoilt enough at the minute with documentaries, dramas, some 3D episode that seems to have gone unnoticed and a deluge of countdown shows on BBC 3 all heading our way we can now add the radio to our list of places to attach ourselves to!

BBC Radio 4 Extra, who many of you may know regularly play a selection of Big Finish’s output as part of their ‘7th Dimension’ programme, will be treating us to a small season of some of the companies finest output.

From the 17th of this month the station will be playing a selection of adventures including the Lost Story Farewell Great Macedon as well as William Russell reading the novelisation of Doctor Who and the Daleks, through to the first time broadcast of new Big Finish adventure Fanfare for the Common Men, part of the company’s incredible 50th anniversary celebrations and starring Fifth Doctor Peter Davison and companion Nyssa, played by Sarah Sutton as well as adventures from Doctors Seven and Eight, including the spectacular two part finale Lucie Miller and To the Death and Who made Who, in which Tracy-Ann Oberman, comedy star and sometime Doctor Who enemy, celebrates the minds behind a Time Lord. Featuring The Reunion, Dance of the Daleks and Whatever Happened to Susan?

But that not all folks, Radio 2 are also getting in on the action as they broadcast two back to back documentaries about the show on the night of the 21st. ‘The Blagger’s Guide To Doctor Who’ and ‘Who Is The Doctor?’ will run back to back from 10pm till midnight and both promise to give a wonderful insight into the history of the show.

Full radio listings for the week are as follows:

Sunday November 17

Doctor Who At 50: Doctor Who And The Daleks (12am, Radio 4 Extra)

Monday November 18

Doctor Who At 50: Protect And Survive (12am, Radio 4 Extra)

Tuesday November 19

Doctor Who At 50: Fanfare For The Common Men (12am, Radio 4 Extra)

Wednesday November 20

Doctor Who At 50: A Thousand Tiny Wings (12am, Radio 4 Extra)

Thursday November 21

Doctor Who At 50: Farewell Great Macedon (12am, Radio 4 Extra)

The Blagger’s Guide To Doctor Who (10pm – 10:30pm, Radio 2)

Who Is The Doctor? (10:30pm – midnight, Radio 2)

Friday November 22

Doctor Who At 50: Human Resources (12am, Radio 4 Extra)

Saturday November 23

Who Made Who (9am-12pm, Radio 4 Extra)

Doctor Who At 50: Dalek Invasion Of Earth (12am, Radio 4 Extra)

Sunday November 24

Doctor Who at 50: Lucie Miller (12am, Radio 4 Extra)

Sunday November 25

Doctor Who at 50: To the Death (12am, Radio 4 Extra)

 

So what do you fine folk think of the choices that have been selected? Are any of your favourites being played, or are you brand new to the world of Doctor Who on audio and simply looking forward to seeing what all the fuss is about? Leave your mark below and give us your views.

(Via BBC Radio 4 Extra.)

The post Event Whorizon On Radio: Tune Into Doctor Who At 50 Coverage appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Don’t Miss This 1960s Replica Cyberman Helmet!

Danny_Weasel 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.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have been one of the early Cybermen? Have you spend large amounts of time pondering just how they managed to get down the steps outside St Pauls without killing themselves?

Just me then?

Regardless, you could recreate that very scene if you were the lucky winner of an auction on ebay for a wonderful replica of that very Cyber helmet, as seen in the 1968 serial ‘The Invasion’.

The helmet itself is a fan made replica rather than an official reproduction but going by the listing pictures it looks as good as you could ever ask for from what is, in my opinion, the most iconic helmet for the cybernetic menace from Mondas.

At present the bid is at £99 and has six days to run, the seller mentions that there are a few scrapes but these seem negligible at best - start bidding today and win this helmet in time for November 23rd!

Tempted? Think that such things are madness to buy? Leave us a message below and fill us in on your thoughts about prop replicas in all their glory.

Oh, and if anyone is feeling flush, Christmas is coming and I have been a good boy all year.

The post Don’t Miss This 1960s Replica Cyberman Helmet! appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

The Milwaukee Time Lords Hold Anniversary Event

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.

Listen up  American Kasterborous readers! Do you live in or around or near Milwaukee? It seems that there is quite a bit of British influence around the town. From the local indoor soccer team to a number of British pubs, pockets of Brit culture are thriving in Milwaukee.

So of course one would expect to find some Time Lords!

The Milwaukee Time Lords, started in 1989, are a local social group primarily dedicated to the love of all things Who! They have regular meetings and events and will be holding a special event for the 50th anniversary of the show on 23rd November. The event, scheduled for a 6am start time at the Sci-Fi Cafe, 532 Pine Street, Burlington, WI, will include a screening of every regeneration episode leading up to the event we’ve all been waiting for – the anniversary episode titled The Day Of The Doctor.

If you already have plans for the 23rd but will be attending Chicago TARDIS at the end of November, the group plans to have a fan table at the convention. So stop by and say hello!

To read up on some other British culture influences in Milwaukee, check out Anglopenia’s ‘10 British Things About Milwaukee, WI.

 

(I’ve been to Milwaukee and some other parts of Wisconsin and didn’t know they had such a love for things from the other side of the Pond!)

The post The Milwaukee Time Lords Hold Anniversary Event appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

The Minister of Chance Film Campaign Update

Danny_Weasel 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.

Well those wonderful folks behind The Minister of Chance have done it.

They have now finished filming the prologue for the film version of their phenomenal audio series of the same name (itself a spin off of sorts from Doctor Who if you didn’t know) which, if you haven’t checked out by now, you really should.

The campaign page for making a pledge, donation or purchasing any of the special merchandise  such as t-shirts and posters or perks such as funding the building of the rocketship the team have created ends today so get in quick while you still can and help to fund the project.

You can keep up to date with the progress on the film through either Twitter or the Facebook page once the Make the Film site goes down at midnight tonight.

The post The Minister of Chance Film Campaign Update appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Night of the Doctor Premieres This Saturday

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 Saturday, a special minisode, The Night Of The Doctor, will be available via the Red Button service.

It’s due to premiere on Saturday 16th November (just one week before the 50th anniversary) and is described as:

“The 50th Anniversary features Matt Smith, David Tennant and a mysterious incarnation played by John Hurt. Only one appears in this mini episode, The Night Of The Doctor. But which?”

Considering previous minisodes have been considerably ‘mini,’ this one runs for 6 minutes and 54 seconds, which is quite…uhm… considerable! The British Board of Film Classification has awarded it a PG rating due to:

“Scenes of mild violence, including attacks on a city and its residents, as well as scenes of threat from attacking forces.”

Attacking forces, eh? I’m thinking the threat of extermination…

(via Mirror Online.)

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Anthony Coburn Also Invented The PodKast

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.

This week’s Kasterborous podKast (with a “K”) covers a lot of ground, so gird your loins dear listener and prepare yourself for a journey through time, space and vague grasps of copyright law!

We kick off this week’s show with a chat about the wonderful new trailers for The Day of the Doctor before focusing our sharp legal brains at Stef Coburn’s claim that his father invented the TARDIS and could the BBC kindly pay up.

As unlikely as that might sound, we urge you not to get too upset about his attitude – after all, Brian Terranova will be regaling you with tales of chats with Simon Fisher-Becker, Ian McNeice and Sylvester McCoy at last week’s L.I.Who event!

While the interviews themselves require a little tidying up before we can present them to you, fear not – we have an interview this week with Manchester impresario Gareth Kavanagh in which he gives us a summary of the coming events in the Who at Fifty festival over the next couple of weeks.

Frankly, dear listener, there is a lot to get through, so let’s get started!

Kasterborous PodKast Series 3 Episode 41 Shownotes

Giveaway 1
Giveaway 2
The Day of the Doctor trailers
Anthony Coburn’s Son’s TARDIS Copyright Claim
L.I. Who
Manchester’s Doctor Who at Fifty events

Listen to the PodKast

There are several ways to listen. In addition to the usual player above, we’re pleased to announce that you can also stream the podKast using Stitcher, an award-winning, free mobile app available for Android and iPhone/iPad. This pretty much means that you can listen to us anywhere without downloading – pretty neat, we think you’ll agree! (Note that it can take a few hours after a new podKast is published to “catch up”.)

What’s more, you can now listen and subscribe to the podKast via our Audioboo channel! Head to http://audioboo.fm/channel/doctorwhopodkast and click play to start listening. You can also comment and record your own boos in response to our discussions!

Meanwhile you can use the player below to listen through Audioboo:

You haven’t clicked play yet?! What are you waiting for? As well as our new Stitcher and Audioboo presence you can also use one of these amazingly convenient ways to download and enjoy this week’s podKast.

Use the player in the top right of the Kasterborous home page, or visit the podKast menu link.
Listen with the “pop out” player above, which also allows you to download the podKast to your computer.
You can also take advantage of the RSS feed to subscribe to the podKast for your media player, and even find us on iTunes!

Incidentally, if you are listening on iTunes, please take the time to leave a rating and review and help us to bring in new listeners to the podKast!

The post Anthony Coburn Also Invented The PodKast appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Doctor Who ‘Sexualised’? Matt Smith Disagrees

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.

Has Doctor Who been sexualised?

So says veteran Who director Waris Hussein.

But current star Matt Smith disagrees, and recently spoke about the allegations in The Mirror.

I strongly disagree. Doctor Who is just rollicking good fun with the odd snog here and there. For sure, Karen [Gillan] is hot, so too Billie and Jenna but is that a bad thing? I don’t think so.

What’s he want us to do, put everyone in straitjackets? Look at the history of the show, there were women in Tarzanian outfits, were there not, back in the early days?

I personally agree with Matt on this point. While there has been a bit more romance added to the show than was done in the episodes of the Classic era, I don’t think the show is by any means overtly sexual. Both Leela and Peri at times wore much less than Amy, even with her short skirts.

Frankly, having characters that are couples like Amy and Rory as well as the Doctor and River – who is supposed to be his wife, after all – kissing, is something that would naturally happen! To never see any of them kiss would almost feel as if their relationships were trying to be hidden. There are a number of moments in the episodes from the original series where a quick snog would have been more than appropriate, but where such a thing wasn’t done because it was felt it would change the characters or quite possibly because those creating the show were scared to add such a thing to something ostensibly labeled as a children’s show.

I’m not advocating for turning the show into a full on snogfest (a snog box indeed!) but here and there when appropriate to the story? The Doctor and his companions can always use a few more lighthearted moments. And for a relationship like the Doctor and River have, where the audience hasn’t seen all of their romance played out on screen? A kiss shows us just how strong a connection they have for each other.

(via MTV UK)

 

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Don’t Miss 50th Anniversary Doctor Who Magazine 467!

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 the show’s 50th anniversary Doctor Who Magazine 467 is the biggest issue ever, at 116 packed pages! It also comes complete with a very special 1960s-themed mini issue, which imagines how DWM might have celebrated the series’ first anniversary.

PLUS! There’s also a set of 12 amazing art cards, featuring all 12 Doctors, and NINE free audio downloads of Doctor Who stories!

ALSO INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

Matt Smith and David Tennant – two Doctors interviewed together!
The Day of the Doctor – a preview of the 50th Anniversary Special, with exclusive new photographs!
Jenna Coleman (Clara Oswald) interviewed!
An Adventure in Space and Time – huge behind-the-scenes feature!
A fascinating feature on Anthony Coburn – Doctor Who’s greatest unsung hero!
An Unearthly Child – the draft scripts of Doctor Who’s very first episode revealed!
The Watcher’s Guide to Anniversaries!

The Wonder of Who – a guide to Doctor Who’s supposedly ‘indefinable magic’!
The Five Doctors – a fascinating guide to Doctor Who’s 20th anniversary adventure!
Mary Peach – the guest star of The Enemy of the World reacts to the story’s recent recovery!
Production Notes – showrunner Steven Moffat is joined by someone from his past…
John Smith and the Common Men – a special anniversary comic strip!
The Time Team watch Last of the Time Lords and Time Crash!
The Watcher’s 50th Anniversary Quiz!
Competitions, puzzles, and much more!

Celebrate 50 years of Doctor Who with DWM 467, out Thursday 14 November, price £7.99!

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