Christian Cawley's Blog, page 324

The Day of the Doctor Trailer on 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.

The Day of the Doctor official trailer will air in the UK this Saturday just before 8pm!

Yep, we’ve all been waiting for it, and the BBC has finally obliged. We’ve been teased with that #SaveTheDay thing that bookended Atlantis and that wonderful ‘tribute’ trailer, which celebrated all eleven Doctors and countless enemies. But it’s finally here.

Airing between Strictly Come Dancing and Atlantis, we expect to see the Eleventh and Tenth Doctors interacting with John Hurt’s Not-Quite-Doctor, as well as Clara Oswald, Rose Tyler, Daleks, a Zygon, and UNIT.

The BBC caused a bit of a commotion after screening an exclusive trailer months ago at the San Diego Comic Con, so fingers crossed this will appease fans.

The trailer is sure to be all over the internet by 8:01pm (UK time), but if you wanna catch it on first broadcast, tune into BBC1 on Saturday 9th November!

The post The Day of the Doctor Trailer on Saturday! appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Smith and Tennant To Appear on Graham Norton Show!

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.

Fellow Time Lords Matt Smith and David Tennant will be making an appearance on The Graham Norton Show as Doctor Who celebrates its 50th anniversary later this month!

The Eleventh and Tenth Doctors will be joined by celebrity guests Emma Thompson, Jimmy Carr and Robbie Williams on Friday 22nd November, the night before Doctor Who‘s 50th anniversary special The Day of the Doctor.

As the timelines start to converge on Saturday 23rd, The Graham Norton Show is just one in a range of Who-related treats scheduled to hit the airwaves in the coming weeks, alongside Brian Cox’s The Science of Doctor Who, Mark Gatiss’ docudrama An Adventure in Space and Time and a special Monsters and Villains weekend on BBC Three (to name a few!) – we’ll be bringing you a full run-down on what you can expect to catch on the box as we approach the big day on Saturday.

But for Graham Norton fans, Friday 22nd is the date for your diaries, and BBC One the channel of choice, (programme time to be confirmed!)

The post Smith and Tennant To Appear on Graham Norton Show! appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

PodKast with a Muted Doctor Who 40th Anniversary

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.

In our continuing but loosely-defined run up to the Doctor Who 50th anniversary, we cast our minds back 10 years in this week’s podKast to the 40th anniversary. Yes, there was a 40th anniversary of our favourite show, but you’d be hard-pressed to recall anything particularly significant about it.

Christian Cawley, James McLean and Brian Terranova give it a go, however, mentioning Big Finish audio Zagreus, Scream of the Shalka and even 35th anniversary novel The Infinity Doctors by Lance Parkin.

Before we make it there, however, we mull over Peter Davison’s recent comments about companions, a topic that can also be found discussed at length on the current Kasterborous editorial.

Look out too for this week’s recommendations, including Summer Falls and Other Stories, as featured in the past two runs of Doctor Who.

Ready? Hit play!

Kasterborous PodKast Series 3 Episode 40 Shownotes

Mr Dalliard on YouTube
The Day of the Doctor synopsis
Where to watch The Day of the Doctor at the cinema
Creepy Doll
Peter Davison on classic era companion
Zagreus
Scream of the Shalka
The Infinity Doctors
Mara Tales boxset featuring Kinda and Snakedance
The Mutant Phase
Summer Falls and Other Stories
That editorial…

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 PodKast with a Muted Doctor Who 40th Anniversary appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Don’t Miss This Doctor Who/Mary Poppins Mashup T-shirt!

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.

Those chaps at TeeFury have brought another superb t-shirt mashup to you today, in the shape of this Doctor Who/Mary Poppins combi: “Nanny Who” by Khallion.

Available as a t-shirt in a variety of sizes and blues for men, women and children, the real draw here (along with the stunning art inspired by The Snowmen and the opening titles of Mary Poppins) is the price – a somewhat astonishing $11 plus shipping.

Best of all, TeeFury ship tees internationally, so if you’re in the UK and have spotted that $ sign, don’t worry – you can still get one!

Head to TeeFury.com to grab your t-shirt before they run out when midnight strikes in the USA!

The post Don’t Miss This Doctor Who/Mary Poppins Mashup T-shirt! appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Do You Have a Hartnell TARDIS Console?

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

We recently told you of a stage production of An Unearthly Child which is set for performance during the Who at Fifty celebrations in Manchester. Starring Phil Dennison as the original Doctor, the recreation is currently in rehearsal – but they’re missing a vital element.

Missing from their list of props and set dressing is a suitable TARDIS console. Producer Gareth Kavanagh has been in touch with Kasterborous to see if anyone reading can help.

Naturally the use of a TARDIS console faithful to the 1963 original (like the replica from the BBC’s An Adventure in Space and Time, above) would be of a massive benefit to the production. If you are able to help, please get in touch with garethkavanagh@hotmail.com as soon as possible!

The post Do You Have a Hartnell TARDIS Console? appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Joanna Page Confirms Queen Elizabeth Casting

jtbelliott 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.

It looks like the Doctor’s love affair with (and marriage to) Queen Elizabeth I might finally be afforded some screen-time in the 50th Anniversary special The Day of the Doctor…

In an interview with the Radio Times (since corroborated in the new SciFiNow and the recent synopsis of the 50th anniversary episode), future Miss Marple actress (?) Joanna Page has officially confirmed her involvement in the upcoming special.

Perhaps best known for her role in Gavin and Stacey, Page had this to say about her casting as The Virgin Queen:

I’ve always wanted to be in [Doctor Who] so I was so excited. You don’t expect when you’ve just had a baby for someone to phone and go: “Do you fancy playing Elizabeth I?” I was recovering from a caesarean but I still got on the back of a horse with David Tennant. Just as we were about to ride off my husband drove up because Eva needed feeding: I had to jump off the horse and rip open my bodice. Fortunately, David’s a dad so he’s used to it!

Good Queen Bess. And let me tell you, her nickname is no longer… mmm.

The post Joanna Page Confirms Queen Elizabeth Casting appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Did Classic Doctor Who Really Need More Sex?

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.

No, Peter. Nice try, but the problem with your era was not the lack of sex. In an interview with the Radio Times fifth Doctor Who star Peter Davison says that the writers in the Classic era,

…never quite mastered the whole companion idea… they were struggling for many years to find a better way of making the companions more rounded characters.

He bemoans the reluctance of the BBC bosses to introduce sexual tension between female companions and the Doctor and suggests it may have made it “easier to write a better [female] character”.

I don’t wish to take Davison’s statements out of context but there are several issues here. My main concern is that he is confusing sex with chemistry and good story-telling. The success of the character of Rose relied heavily on Billie Piper’s excellent portrayal of a believable woman her age. The premise and story arc from RTD was also crucial. Rose wanted to be with the Doctor, she fell in love with him and ultimately couldn’t be with him (until the awkward second trip to Bad Wolf Bay). Donna Noble was also a popular character and if anything tried to discourage any lustful advances from her ‘space man’. The reason Donna worked well was the chemistry between her and the Doctor and, again, her overall story.

Compare this to Davison’s reluctant troupe. Tegan wanted out from the word go. Yes she was strong and opinionated but who wants to watch a character, strong or not, being stuck somewhere they’re perpetually miserable? She could take or leave the Doctor, had no interest in exploring the universe and ultimately left because all she saw was the death and misery. Great. Nyssa was an introverted genius who took everything in her slightly indifferent stride. She joined (like Adric) because she was orphaned and left because she found the ultimate do-good cause and scientific challenge… [yawn] Turlough was similarly difficult to impress and, erm, wanted to kill the Doctor. And Adric. I’ll let you appraise Adric’s character yourselves…

The reason Donna worked well was the chemistry between her and the Doctor and, again, her overall story. Compare this to Davison’s reluctant troupe – Tegan wanted out from the word go!

Now I don’t blame Davison for wishing. He had some lovely ladies on board his snogging booth and, unlike the Doctor, he’s only human. But what I think he’s hit on is that things could have been better if his companions had actually wanted to be in the TARDIS and had a relatable story. And that’s not sex. (Though in fairness having designs on what was under the Doctor’s cricket whites would have been a reason to hang around!)

It’s not that successful characters in Classic or New Who have more sex on the brain nor that they’re more flirtatious – it’s that they’re interesting and relateable. Sarah Jane Smith was easily as engaging and popular a companion as Rose if not more so (who got the spin-off?) But sex wasn’t the key – it was chemistry.

Lastly, it’s 2013. I know he’s referring to television characters from the 1980s and earlier, but there is an uncomfortable asymmetry in suggesting that only the female characters could have been improved by adding a sexual tension with the male lead. Why not Turlough, or Adric?? I’m sure Davison is not suggesting that women in TV need to have the hots for the nearest chap to be ‘rounded characters’ – but he’s not complaining that the male characters should have had a love interest to be well-rounded!

Again what is needed is chemistry (not sex or sexual tension) and a reason to enjoy that character’s story. Jamie and the Second Doctor had incredible chemistry (the McCrimmon/ Troughton period has been described as a ‘three-year buddy movie’) as did Sara-Jane Smith with both the Third and Fourth Doctors. These were far from unsuccessful characters and they’re relationship with the Doctor had nothing to do with sex.

Another side to this is the sexuality of the show’s main character. (Cat released, pigeons in chaos)… Doctor Who has a significant gay following around the world. Many have commented on the comfort Doctor Who can provide younger gay fans in an otherwise at best heterocentric and at worst homophobic television landscape. The Doctor -like Gandalf, Yoda or Aslan- was not overtly sexual in the Classic series. If every other male lead and role model on television is snogging birds between martinis, you can imagine that gay viewers might feel somewhat alienated. Not so with the Doctor who represents compassion, intelligence, courage and adventure without a carnal interest in short skitrs and long legs.

I imagine this may seem OTT to many fans, including Moffat who has made his view that the Doctor is explicitly heterosexual pretty clear. The Moff has variably represented the Eleventh Doctor as awkward and avuncular at times but has had some pretty full-on kissing with River Song (his wife) and enjoys the fact that Clara’s skirt is a tad too short. But I actually think it’s important. I’m not saying that the show should exist to accommodate the needs of every minority and of course it will and to some extent should reflect the norms and expectations of the contemporary audience. But it can also challenge those expectations and as the one non-sexual male lead role on TV when I was growing up gay, it was so important to have a role model that you weren’t supposed to identify with because he was physically attracted to women.

And here’s where I open a whole cupboard-full of canned worms. Just as it was important in the 1980s that ethnic minorities were positively represented on television, it is increasingly important in the 2010s that LGBT are positively represented. RTD was accused of having a ‘gay agenda’. I’m certain he did – but no more than people writing good parts for non-white characters in earlier decades demonstrated a ‘racial agenda’. The fact that people even noticed RTD’s inclusion of occasional gay characters shows that there was an equality issue. Gay characters were noticed by the audience as deliberate rather than being incidental. In fact they had to be deliberate because they were underrepresented. The only reason to reference the Doctor’s attraction to Clara is to make the character more relatable to straight men. And now the only leading man that gay fans could watch without feeling cut-off from has disappeared. Though, in a retrospective don’t-have-it-on-screen, at least there’s Dumbledore!

So. In summary – I’m sorry Davison feels his time in the TARDIS could have been steamier. Bad luck. And yes an attraction to the Doctor could be one among many character traits for a companion – male, female, android, gynoid or other. But it’s not a necessary condition for rounded characters. Less sex, more chemistry, please.

But what do you think? Should there be more sex in the TARDIS or should it only be blue on the outside? And should our lonely god, our Space Gandalf be straight, gay, both or mysteriously neither…

The post Did Classic Doctor Who Really Need More Sex? appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Neil Gaiman Writes Nothing O’Clock for 50th Anniversary eBook Range

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 eleventh and final instalment in a sensational series of stories celebrating the  50th anniversary of Doctor Who is written by Neil Gaiman, best-selling author of The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Stardust, Neverwhere, The Graveyard Book and Coraline.

To celebrate Doctor Who‘s 50th anniversary on 23rd November 2013, Puffin and BBC Worldwide has published a series of eleven eBook shorts based on each of the Eleven Doctors. This series is priced at £1.99 and commenced January, concluding this month. With each story has been written by a different author, the range has brought together some of the most exciting names in children’s fiction, from commercial blockbusters to literary award-winners (see the list at the end of this post for details). These authors have brought their own interpretation and reimagining of their chosen Doctor, creating a unique Doctor Who adventure in their own inimitable style.

Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) is the bestselling author of more than twenty books for adults and children and has written the eleventh and final adventure in this series, based on the Eleventh Doctor played by Matt Smith (for whom he’s previously written two episodes, The Doctor’s Wife and Nightmare in Silver). Says Neil Gaiman:

Nothing O’Clock stars the Eleventh Doctor, the Matt Smith Doctor, with Amy Pond as his companion. I set it somewhere during the first season of Matt Smith, mostly on Earth, in our time now and in 1984, but also somewhere else, a very, very long time ago. I had never created an original monster for Doctor Who and really enjoyed getting to create a creepy Doctor Who monster of the kind that we haven’t quite seen before… I hope that the Kin will get out there and occasionally give people nightmares. And that you will be worried if a man in a rabbit mask comes to your door and tries to buy your house.

Here’s the book synopsis:

Thousands of years ago, Time Lords built a Prison for the Kin. They made it utterly impregnable and unreachable. As long as Time Lords existed, the Kin would be trapped forever and the universe would be safe. They had planned for everything… everything, that is, other than the Time War and the fall of Gallifrey. Now the Kin are free again and there’s only one Time Lord left in the universe who can stop them!

Nothing O’Clock is available now for £1.99. A paperback anthology (£12.99) and an audio download collection (£14.99) of the eleven stories, Doctor Who: 11 Doctors, 11 stories, will be published on 21st November 2013 and can be ordered now from Amazon for just £7.19!

If you weren’t aware of this series of books, the full list of Doctors, authors and titles is as follows:

First Doctor, William Hartnell (1963-1966) – Eoin Colfer, A Big Hand For The Doctor (Jan 23rd)

Second Doctor, Patrick Troughton (1966-1969) - Michael Scott, The Nameless City (Feb 23rd)

Third Doctor, Jon Pertwee (1970-1974) - Marcus Sedgwick, The Spear of Destiny (Mar 23rd)

Fourth Doctor, Tom Baker (1974-1981) - Philip Reeve, The Roots of Evil (April 23rd)

Fifth Doctor, Peter Davison (1981-1984) - Patrick Ness, Tip of the Tongue (May 23rd)

Sixth Doctor, Colin Baker (1984-1986) - Richelle Mead, Something Borrowed (June 23rd)

Seventh Doctor, Sylvester McCoy (1987-1996) - Malorie Blackman, The Ripple Effect (July 23rd)

Eighth Doctor, Paul McGann (1996) - Alex Scarrow, Spore (Aug 23rd)

Ninth Doctor, Christopher Eccleston (2005) - Charlie Higson, The Beast of Babylon (Sept 23rd)

Tenth Doctor, David Tennant (2005-2010) - Derek Landy, The Mystery of the Haunted Cottage (Oct 23rd)

Eleventh Doctor, Matt Smith (2010-present) - Neil Gaiman, Nothing O’Clock (Nov 21st)

The post Neil Gaiman Writes Nothing O’Clock for 50th Anniversary eBook Range appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Tom Baker: “Doctor Who Better Than Real Life”

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.

Tom Baker, that iconic fourth Doctor Who star, has admitted that he misses playing the Doctor… despite never watching the show.

But wait! Put down your pitchforks! Normally, I’m fuming when someone says they don’t watch Doctor Who, but Messr Baker has a really sweet reason:

I never watched it when I was in it so I’m certainly not watching it now… I never wanted to watch Doctor Who – I wanted to be Doctor Who, I wanted to do it.

Well, don’t worry, Tom: you are the Doctor, as are the other ten actors who have appeared on screen. And even though he’s never watched it before, he will make an exception for the 50th anniversary special, The Day of the Doctor:

I’m going to watch the big show because everybody, the whole country, will be watching it. You’ll be out of it if you don’t watch that… It will be very interesting to see what the BBC do [with it]. I’m a great admirer of the BBC – the BBC’s the sort of place that can make murder sound like charity – and so when they get to a big deal like that they’ll surely get it right. It’ll be exciting…

Tom was the Doctor for seven years, battling Daleks, Krynoids, Wirrn, the Master and so many more, and says that his final days were truly sad:

It was so much better than real life. I stayed so long because real life at the time wasn’t so terrific. Being Doctor Who, I used to look at the clock and know at half past four we were going to stop rehearsing – and that was a sad moment for me because I wanted to stay in this beautiful, unreal world.

You must excuse me; I think I have something in my eye…

(Via Radio Times.)

The post Tom Baker: “Doctor Who Better Than Real Life” appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Doctor Who Figurine Collection Announces TARDIS Special

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.

Coming November The Doctor Who Figurine Collection celebrates the sole companion who has been at the Doctor’s side through thick and thin, has been desired by his enemies and, even though it hasn’t always taken him where he wants to go, it’s always taken him where he needs to be.

That’s right, on the 18th November you’ll be able to get your hands on the Doctor’s TARDIS in the first Doctor Who Figurine Collection Special.

Standing at 150mm tall, the figurine is a highly detailed replica of the Eleventh Doctor’s ship first seen in The Eleventh Hour and was created using schematics used to build the TARDIS props in the TV series.

What’s more subscribers will be able to get the Doctor Who Figurines Collection Special issue for a discounted price of £14.99 (instead of £15.99 in the shops – having said that, the price at Forbidden Planet is much lower, seems they haven’t yet adjusted the RRP!).

Subscribers will have already been opted in automatically to receive the special.

For those who do not wish to receive the special, please contact customer services by the 15th November either on: 0844 472 5250 or email via: dw-figurines@eaglemoss-services.com and quote your subscription reference.

The post Doctor Who Figurine Collection Announces TARDIS Special appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.