Christian Cawley's Blog, page 322

Matt Smith Recalls The Day of the Doctor Shoot [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.

So, the countdown begins. For the next two weeks magazines, TV, radio and the web will be full of Doctor Who-related material as we reach the show’s 50th anniversary on November 23rd.

What better way to start here on Kasterborous than with Matt Smith chatting about 50th anniversary special The Day of the Doctor, in particular the Trafalgar Square location shoot?

We’ll have more interviews like this throughout the week…

 

 What is it like starring in the 50th anniversary special, one of the biggest years for the show? 

It’s a thrill to be in the 50th anniversary. I feel very proud to be part of it and it’s a credit to everyone who started the show back in the 60s that it’s come this far. It’s a great format and a great idea.

 ‘The Day Of The Doctor’ marks the return of David Tennant and Billie Piper, and we get the revelation of John Hurt’s Doctor. What was it like working alongside them all? 

It was a joy to work with David, Billie and John Hurt. I’ve worked with Billie before and I’d obviously seen all of David’s work, especially as the Doctor. He’s a brilliant actor and a brilliant Doctor. It’s quite strange, I always sort of get that surreal thing of looking at David and thinking, ‘Oh my God, there’s Doctor Who’. And John is acting royalty. Another wonderful Doctor and again, a good bloke. I think looking back over my tenure on this show, one of the great privileges has been the quality of actors that you get to work with.

 Was there any kind of competitiveness between the different Doctors and companions? 

No, we’re not competitive, I mean there’s a funny bit in the script between the 10th and 11th Doctors comparing Sonics, so there’s competitiveness in the story, but not off screen. We just had a laugh and it was exciting to see David back in the pin striped suit and Converse. John only has to move his eyes and he floors you and Billie is Billie. I adore Billie, so we had a great time.

 Were there any moments when you were standing on the floor waiting for action to be called and thinking ‘Oh my goodness, I’m actually doing this’? 

Of course, there’s always those moments in Doctor Who when you’re going, ‘Wow we’re doing Doctor Who and there’s David Tennant over there and John Hurt over there and Billie over there and there’s a Redgrave over there’. There are a lot of those moments when you make this show.

But I think the wonderful thing was there was great down time. I just enjoyed spending time with David and obviously for me as well, as I am about to leave the show, it was really interesting to talk to him about that experience and his experience on the show, because it is a very individual experience playing the Doctor. It was quite nice to go, ‘What was that bit like for you?’ and it was just sort of enlightening really.

 Moving on to stunts, some pictures have been published of you hanging from the TARDIS in front of crowds in Trafalgar Square. What was that like and did you need to be convinced to go up there? 

I was hoisted up over 90 feet, double Nelson’s Column, hanging on a wire under the TARDIS. They used the biggest crane I think they had ever brought to Trafalgar Square. I really had to persuade them to let me go up, but I had the most wonderful view of London. It was raining and really windy, but I loved it and would do it again. It was one of the rare brilliant opportunities that you only get with Who.

 As well as being shown on BBC One, ‘The Day Of The Doctor’ will be available in 3D to those with a 3D TV and in some cinemas. What was it like filming in 3D?  

The rigs for the cameras are much heavier and poor Joe, who is our wonderful cameraman, had a very tough time of it. It was like having a six-year-old or seven-year-old child on your shoulder all day. There’s just a lot more time, the technical process of filming everything is more laborious.

But also there are a lot of plusses and I’m really excited to see how Doctor Who lends itself to it, because I think as a show and a format it really suits the idea of being shot in 3D. I think it’s good for a show like Doctor Who to be at the forefront of technology and that’s what we’ve always been. It’s always been at the front of the advancement in film and even with the wobbly sets, at least they were having a go and I think it’s a good step forward. It’s an evolution.

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Special Guest Announced for DWCA 50th Anniversary Event

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.

The Doctor Who Club of Australia will be celebrating the show’s 50th anniversary with a Golden Jubilee Day on November 23rd, and have announced a special guest for the festivities: Viktors Ritelis!

Mr. Ritelis was a production assistant on some of First Doctor William Hartnell’s stories in the mid-1960s. And he may also have quite an amazing place in Doctor Who history:

“Viktor worked hard to build a strong working relationship with William Hartnell and also may have unwittingly started the conversation that led to the very first regeneration later that year (an interesting story you need to hear).”

The young Doctor Who production assistant went on to become a prolific director, on shows from Colditz, to The Sweeney, to even Blake’s 7! With all of his years in television, Mr. Ritelis will give what sounds to be a fascinating talk:

“Full of stories, Viktor will also share with us a presentation on the differences between television production then and now. How did the studio work on those early Doctor Who episodes? What has television gained — and lost — as it has evolved into the big budget high technology world of today?”

The Golden Jubilee is a special one-day event on the very special day of November 23rd, and will be held at the Adina Hotel in Sydney from 11am to 8pm.

Sounds like a party!

Ticket prices are available on the DWCA website.

(Via Doctor Who Club of Australia.)

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Toddler Is All 11 Doctors for Halloween!

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.

For a Whovian Halloween is a wonderful time, we get the chance to publicly parade around dressed in our finest scarves, waist coats and garish coats till we are TARDIS blue in the face and no one, well mostly, will bat an eyelid.

If, like myself, you have children who are also as devoted to The Doctor as you are then the fun is cranked up to 11. That was the case this year for two-year old Texan, Katie Kent who spent the time dressed as each incarnation of the Gallifreyan gadabout.

Every year Katie has several themed, fun Halloween costumes, since this year is the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who, the theme seemed obvious,

…said her father, Todd, who having sourced most of the elements for all 11 costumes from eBay, shared the pictures on his Comic Book Literacy blog.

The results are nothing short of fantastic, and the attention to detail on some of them is breathtaking. But the best part is that Katie enjoys every minute of it all.

We watch it together on the weekends when we have time and so far we have only made it to the fourth doctor.  She likes the theme song and claps along to it when we watch.

So how did your Halloween efforts measure up in comparison? Did you, like me, dress your brood up with velvet jackets or multi-coloured scarves? As always, it wouldn’t be the same without your thoughts and opinions so leave us a comment below!

(Via Metro News.)

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BBC Confirms The Day Of The Doctor Scheduling

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.

How will you be enjoying The Day Of The Doctor? If you’re watching it on TV rather than at the cinema, you’ll be happy to learn that the BBC has confirmed the time slot!

Prepare your costumes, snacks and drinks for a 7.50pm kick off on BBC One on 23 November at with the adventure concluding at 9.05pm!

The 75 minute episode promises to answer a few questions raised in Doctor Who over the past few years, as well – if the trailers are anything to go by – take us into the Time War!

The Doctors embark on their greatest adventure in this 50th anniversary special.

 

In 2013, something terrible is awakening in London’s National Gallery; in 1562, a murderous plot is afoot in Elizabethan England; and somewhere in space an ancient battle reaches its devastating conclusion. All of reality is at stake as the Doctor’s own dangerous past comes back to haunt him.

So, that’s 7.50pm on November 23rd. What else could you possibly be doing?

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Introducing: An Unearthly Child (Part One)

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.

As part of our 50th anniversary celebrations, we’ve looked back at some of the important, fan-favourite tales of all of time and space, taking on one Doctor each month, including The Ark in Space, Vengeance on Varos and The End of the World. And it all concludes with this month’s An Unearthly Child…

Eleven incredible Doctors; the loss of cast members; ever-changing production teams; controversies; cancellation; renewed hopes; missing serials; new directions: Doctor Who’s genesis is a long and winding journey.

And although Doctor Who celebrates its 50th anniversary this month, its origins arguably lie much earlier – on 22nd September 1955.

Battling The Competition With Little Green Men From Mars

The BBC Television Service launched in 1936 and was the sole broadcaster until 1955 when its first competitor, the commercial ITV, hit the airwaves. The Queen’s Coronation saw an upsurge in viewing figures and in March 1953, 2,142,452 TV licenses were given, compared to 1,457,000 in 1952. Television wasn’t just a brief phenomenon.

1954’s Conservative Government’s Bill proposed an end to the BBC’s broadcasting monopoly; a commercial station, run by the Independent Television Authority, aiming to be “predominantly British in tone and style and of high quality, and nothing was to be included which [goes] against good taste or decency or which was likely to encourage or incite crime or to lead to disorder or to be offensive to public feeling.”

The Television Bill passed in mid-1954 and one year later, ITV launched, rolling out from London, into the Midlands and the North before fourteen regional stations opened in 1962.

To cope with the competition, Director-General Edward Ian Claud Jacob was replaced with Hugh Carleton Greene, now known for modernising the corporation. Under his watch, groundbreaking shows like Cathy Come Home, Steptoe and Son, and Up the Junction hit screens, and, suggested by Eric Maschwitz (the Assistant and Advisor to the Controller of Programmes), science fiction was investigated as a potential genre to explore.

Science fiction had been broadcast before, of course: R.U.R. (that’s Rossum’s Universal Robots) was the very first piece of sci-fi TV, back in February 1938, followed by the live transmission of The Time Machine. Given the limitations of filming, sci-fi was hard to effectively achieve, though it seems an obvious choice for TV now. Fahrenheit 451 writer, Ray Bradbury famously said:

“Science fiction is the most important literature in the history of the world, because it’s the history of ideas, the history of our civilization birthing itself… Science fiction is central to everything we’ve ever done, and people who make fun of science fiction writers don’t know what they’re talking about.”

But the findings of the Survey Group tasked with exploring the possibility of broadcasting sci-fi concluded that “the vast bulk of SF writing is by nature unsuitable for translation to TV.”

Nonetheless, in 1962, ITV began showing Out of this World, a sci-fi spin-off of their popular Armchair Theatre – commissioned by Canadian producer, Sydney Newman…

Out of this Whoniverse

Many episodes of Out of this World were adaptations of stories by well-known writers like Philip K. Dick (The Man in the High Castle; Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?), Rog Phillips (Amazing Stories; World of If), and Isaac Asimov (I, Robot; The End of Eternity). The Survey Group also approached science fiction’s potential as a series of adaptations, but they actually concluded that any sci-fi writers like Arthur Clarke (2001: A Space Odyssey; The Fountains of Paradise) and John Wyndham (The Day of the Triffids; The Chrysalids) should only be collaborators, and that dramatists who specialise in characterisation should be employed first and foremost.

Out of this World was met with positive reactions, with the first episode being watched by 11 million people and beat even the ever-popular Z-Cars in the charts.

Previous sci-fi ventures on the BBC – including Nigel Kneale’s works, The Quatermass Experiment, Quatermass and the Pit, and his take on Nineteen Eighty-Four – were also popular, though the Survey group warned that:

“SF is not itself a wildly popular branch of fiction – nothing like, for example, detective and thriller fiction. It doesn’t appeal much to women and largely finds its public in the technically minded younger groups. SF is a most fruitful and exciting area of exploration – but so far has not shown itself capable of supporting a large population.”

It’s certainly interesting to compare Doctor Who to the Survey Group Report on Science Fiction.

The report noted that sci-fi is “overwhelmingly American”; Doctor Who is a British institution, filled with memorable iconography. The report found that “inherently, SF ideas are short-winded”; Doctor Who, as an idea, is simple, but certainly not short-winded. Whilst the Survey Group found characterisation “sparse,” Doctor Who focuses heavily on character – especially the lead. And of course, Doctor Who’s popularity is incredible. Then there’s the Report’s dismissive attitude towards the work of C.S. Lewis, whose Narnia series inspired 2011’s The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe and whose magical tone lends itself to Who perfectly.

The group also stated that sci-fi fell into “fairly well-defined genres,” and though Doctor Who cannot be easily defined, they go on to explain that the sub-genres include “simple adventure/ thriller” and “the Threat to Mankind, and Cosmic Disaster” – all of which describe our favourite show ably. It furthermore notes that Quatermass and A For Andromeda work solely because they give audiences relatable characters; that it’s only compulsive when “properly presented.”

The report bravely throws out the idea that science fiction might not be an instant fit for TV audiences “until perhaps [viewers] can be trained to accept something quite new.”

Troubleshooting

Sydney Newman joined the BBC as Head of Drama in December 1962; he already had a history of producing hit television, including The Avengers, Pathfinders in Space, and Out of this World precursor, Armchair Theatre. But he’s most widely recognised as the ‘father’ of Doctor Who.

Newman, like Greene, was a breath of fresh air, head-hunted by BBC Director of Television Kenneth Adam, and was granted a 40% budget increase for the Drama Department in order to accommodate for the newly-launched BBC2.

A gap in the Saturday evening schedules soon opened up between Grandstand (popular with Dads) and the ‘youthful’ Juke Box Jury; a family-friendly serial spanning 52 weeks was needed, and Newman, a fan of science fiction, instructed the head of the Script Department, Donald Wilson, to work on a format. A meeting was set up, attended by Wilson, his colleague, C. E. Webber, and two members of the Survey Group who investigated the possibility of sci-fi on TV, Alice Frick and John Braydon. Plans were drawn up on The Troubleshooters, a show about Sherlock Holmes-esque scientists featuring ‘The Handsome Young Man Hero’, ‘The Handsome Well-Dressed Heroine’ and ‘The Maturer Man’, all designed to appeal across genders and generations. These characters obviously translate into Ian, Barbara and the Doctor respectively, though the latter is noted as a ‘father-figure’, aged 35-40! He is, however, also to have a ‘“Character” Twist.’

Their Headquarters might also be a forerunner to the TARDIS, consisting of a laboratory filled with eclectic objects gathered from previous adventures, as well as a homely office.

One advantage of sci-fi is, of course, that you can comment on real-life situations either overtly or subtly. Webber elucidated some possible areas for exploration in the memo following the meeting:

“What sort of people do we want? What sort of conditions do we desire? What is life? What are we? Can society exist without love, without art, without lies, without sex? Can it afford to continue to exist with politicians? With scientists?”

But this idea – and further notions of flying saucers and telepathy – were rejected by Newman, coining them “corny” and “not based in reality”. The Troubleshooters was met with a definite “No.” Instead, Sydney expanded on the ‘Maturer Man’ notion, creating a frail old man, a runaway from a distant planet. He explained:

“Doctor Who was really the culmination of almost all my interests in life: I wanted to reflect contemporary society; I was curious about the outer-space stuff; and also, of course, being a children’s programme, it had to have a high educational content. Up to the age of forty, I don’t think there was a science fiction book I hadn’t read. I love them because they’re a marvellous way – a safe way – of saying nasty things about our own society. I’d read H.G. Wells, of course, and I recalled his book The Time Machine. That inspired me to dream up the time-space machine for Doctor Who. It was a great device which allowed my audience to be taken to outer space, to elsewhere in the world today, or back into the past.”

Sydney gave this mature character a simple name: The Doctor.

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Doctor Who: The Trial Of A Time Lord – Volume 1 Reviewed

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.

The TV version of The Trial Of A Time Lord was an overblown and tired version of the series which was only saved by some credible acting and some rather nifty special effects. I recall being disappointed by the whole effort and thought it was a sad waste of Colin Baker’s talents. The story arc was dragged out and really did test the viewer’s staying power. Anyway, that aside these adventures were given a Target book release, ones I missed when originally released so these audiobooks are the first chance I’ve had to see how much these stories could have been improved in book form.

Doctor Who: The Mysterious Planet

This was the first adventure of the 14 part serial and was written by prolific author Terrence Dicks from scripts by the legendary Robert Holmes. This should have made an explosive combination. Unfortunately it drowns in over description trying to compensate for the rather thin plot.

The TARDIS has been taken out of time and the Doctor had been brought before a court of his fellow Time Lords. There the sinister Valeyard accuses the Doctor of breaking Gallifrey’s most important law and interfering in the affairs of other planets. If the Valeyard can prove him guilty, the Doctor must sacrifice his remaining regenerations. To prove his case the Valeyard focuses on an adventure from the Doctor’s past. It is an adventure set on the planet of Revolox, a seemingly primitive world but one which the Doctor and Peri find strangely familiar…

OK, I might upset a few people here but this story is drab, boring, flat and bereft of any sort of drama at all. The constant interruption from the Valeyard or Doctor or whoever just when the story is getting to be slightly interesting becomes tiresome. Yes, I know this is a connection story arc but did it really have to stop the flow of the story so much?

I love Lynda Bellingham, she’s a great actress but her talents here are wasted and she struggles with the rather pedestrian script. She does pull off Peri’s whine perfectly which is the only real highlight of the audiobook which also suffers from some intrusive sound effects.

Doctor Who: Mindwarp

Mindwarp or Trial Of A Time Lord Parts 5-8 is a real highlight of the Sixth Doctor’s tenure. A far cry from some of his other adventures this one got it so right that it’s a shame it’s stuck as part of the Trial story arc. It gave Colin Baker’s interpretation something to chew on, to get to grips with and played a blinder by bringing back one of the finest characters of the 80s, Sil.

Accused of ‘crimes against the inviolate evolution’, the Doctor is on trial. The sinister prosecutor, the Valeyard, presents the High council of Time Lords with the second piece of evidence against the Doctor: a dramatic adventure on the planet Thoras-Beta which led to the renegade Time Lord’s summons to the Court of Enquiry. But as the Doctor watches the scenes on the Matrix he is puzzled by what he sees – his behaviour is not as he remembers. Only one thing is certain: on the evidence of the Matrix the Doctor is surely guilty as charged.

Dramatically charged with a perfectly balanced injection of satire, Mindwarp is one of those Doctor Who adventures that just gets better and better each times you watch/hear/read it. Colin Baker delivers the story with enthusiasm and wit adding the right amount of tension to the proceedings. Solid with just the right amount of effects this is probably going to be the best story from this two part set.

With an RRP of £18.35, The Trial of a Time Lord Volume 1 audiobook is available from Amazon – while stocks last – for just £9.80

.

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Anthony Coburn’s Son In Spurious TARDIS Copyright Claim

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.

As I tucked into my breakfast, tablet in hand, I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw that the son of 100,000BC writer Anthony Coburn is challenging the BBC over a breach of copyright concerning the TARDIS.

The police box shell was apparently chosen by Coburn senior as the disguise for the Doctor’s space-time ship under direction from other writers and production staff involved prior to Coburn’s involvement to create an everyday outward appearance. Son Stef claims inspiration struck during a walk in the park in which his father spotted two police boxes closely positioned.

(Whether non-fan Stef Coburn is simply confusing this event with Logopolis isn’t currently known.)

It is by no means my wish to deprive legions of Doctor Who fans (of whom I was never one) of any aspect of their favourite children’s programme. The only ends I wish to accomplish, by whatever lawful means present themselves, involve bringing about the public recognition that should by rights always have been his due, of my father James Anthony Coburn’s seminal contribution to Doctor Who, and proper lawful recompense to his surviving estate.

It would be quite wrong to suggest that the timing of this action is in any way related to Doctor Who‘s 50th anniversary. However, it does seem likely. We’ve also been informed by a couple of sources that BBC Four’s intended broadcast of An Unearthly Child and the rest of the 100,000BC serial has been scuppered by Stef Coburn, for similar reasons.

So how has this ridiculous situation been allowed to come about? In the vast majority of cases of working TV scriptwriters in the early days of TV, episodes were written as a “work for hire” with all rights owned by the contracting party (the BBC). As such, no rights would belong to the author other than characters that may be reused later – as seen in cases such as Henry Lincoln and Mervyn Haisman creating the Brigadier, or Terry Nation with his Daleks. In these situation, small fees are paid to the creators or their families/estates.

We can be 99% certain that the concept of the TARDIS was created prior to Coburn’s involvement – we have 50 years of documentary evidence, first and second hand. We also know that the Police Box shape trademark is owned by the BBC, and has been since 1998. So what case does Coburn have? After all, the TARDIS isn’t a character, is it?

Ah. Thanks to Neil Gaiman and previous BBC Books authors, the TARDIS has indeed become a character over the years. This could be interpreted as Coburn having created a character all those years ago, which has then been regularly reused. Coburn junior is claiming reparations dating back to his father’s death in 1977.

Adding to the confusion is the possibility that Coburn had a non-standard BBC writer’s contract at the time.

As money-grabbing, cynical claims go, this one is perhaps be more suited to a reality TV courtroom. Frankly, we think this guy has more chance of winning against an organization as well-documented as the BBC.

(Via The Independent | Thanks to Phil)

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The Day of the Doctor Trailer Airs on BBC One

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 evening between Strictly Come Dancing and Atlantis, BBC One aired the first TV trailer for The Day of the Doctor – and it’s not the one you saw earlier!

Click play above to watch it – you’ll notice some considerable differences with the trailer you’ve already seen.

One thing strikes us at present: is that really Rose Tyler, or the Bad Wolf?

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Moffat: Hurt Doctor Has “been around”

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.

Be he the ‘Dark Doctor’, a shadowy, earlier fallen incarnation, or even the eight and a half Doctor; one thing is for sure, Steven Moffat won’t be drawn on the specifics of just where in space and time John Hurt’s Doctor fits.

But that won’t stop him teasing you.

Speaking to SFX Moffat confirmed that this incarnation of the Doctor has been, possibly literally, through the wars; with every facet of his look and attitude tuned to reflect that battle scarred, weary soul:

John Hurt’s costume is quite striking. Is it meant to be a patchwork of previous Doctor costumes?

Not particularly. I can see why people say that. Looking at it face to face it didn’t occur to me as a patchwork of previous Doctors at all. It’s a rougher, tougher Doctor. It looks like somehow he’s been through it a bit. We are saying ‘This isn’t a Doctor who’s just appeared, he’s been around, he’s been in this form for a while.’ So one of the notes was make it look as though he’s been knocking around in this incarnation for a bit.

Hurtling through time and space; legends spread and evidence builds – it’s a contradictory existence for any Time Lord with a reputation and depending on who, or indeed, what you chat to, it might not always ring true.

The same can be said for fandom; opinions are at war, factions break out in the name of the Doctor all the time. So for someone who has their own, very clear idea of who the Doctor is (for his sins), it must have been a thrill for Moffat to final, definitively shape the cannon without contradiction:

And that includes shaping John Hurt’s face fuzz too:

And he’s the first bearded Doctor, too…

I suppose he is – apart from Tom Baker in ‘The Leisure Hive’. Well, he asked if he could keep his beard, and I looked at it and I thought actually, he looks quite good with it. And it’s another indicator that he’s not a fresh-born Doctor. We didn’t want to imply that he’d just been around for a little while. There’s a whole lot of stuff you missed! It’s a nice thing to be able to say in the show, and for no one to be able to contradict you, that there were years that you didn’t know about… we lied and lied, there’s a whole big old chapter you didn’t know.

Are you ready to change everything you thought you knew about the Doctor? Or are less accepting of Moffat’s “unseen chapter”? Are you encouraged by the changes you have seen already or are you ignoring everything and reaching for the big friendly button?

(Via SFX).

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One Fine Time Lord Premieres 14th November

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.

From the pen of former TV director and current producer of Doctor Who Online Adventures, Brendan Sheppard, comes an exciting new and original audio drama entitled One Fine Time Lord. The audio drama was produced in tandem with BBC Children In Need, Doctor Who Online, Anglia Ruskin University, and Planetary Productions.

The story focuses on Lord Archeron, the last of the “great” Time Lords, and his efforts to bring peace to the warring houses on Gallifrey. His “uneasy friendship” with a young boy will be tested when Archeron’s true plans for the people of Galifrey are revealed.

Sheppard had this to say about the drama:

“I wrote this political thriller script over a very long period of time and knew it would be a great idea for an audio drama, I never imagined the sheer amount of people that would get on board to make it happen though especially in a production that is a spin off to the hit TV series. I’d like to thank my wonderful producers, fantastic cast and Doctor Who Online all of whom dedicated their time and expertise (for free) to make this production happen and I can’t wait for you to hear it!”

A special premiere event will be hosted on the campus of Anglia Ruskin University on the 14th, with drinks and refreshments at The Bakers public house following the event. If you’re interested in snatching up some of the extremely limited tickets, you can email onefinetimelordtickets@gmail.com and make sure you put OFTL TICKETS in the subject. Tickets are limited to two (2) per guest and all requests will be placed in a lottery. Tickets are free, and if you want to make a donation to Children In Need, you can do so that evening or via the BBC Children In Need website.

The posters for the event are top notch, and dare I say, in the vein of the classic Star Wars posters that Drew Struzan designed. The trailer sounds rather exciting too, and I cannot help but wonder who that mysterious young boy is…

Even better, the whole project, in addition to celebrating Who’s 50th, is to help benefit Children In Need. Check out the trailer and let us know what you think! Also, sound off below if you are able to get tickets and check out the premiere.

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