Christian Cawley's Blog, page 34

Tell Us What You Thought of Hell Bent!

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.

So here we are again, old friend, on the last page. That’s it for Series 9. It flew by, didn’t it?

Can you believe we’ve had 12 weeks of time and space, taking in Skaro, Scotland, Truth or Consequences, and… oh, what was that place again? The big orangey planet? In the constellation of Kasterborous?

What did you think of Hell Bent? Our previous polls have shown considerable support throughout this run of stories, but was this a perfect finale or a complete letdown? You decide!

What Did You Think of Hell Bent?

Done? Thanks, pal. As ever, if you elaborate on why you voted the way you did in the comments section below, we’ll pick a few favourites and throw them at random strangers on the Internet in a few weeks’ time.

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Moffat: Hell Bent Will Leave Fans “Devastated”

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.

Tonight, Doctor Who Series 9 ends. Where has the time gone?! I’m sure the Time Lords can inform us about that – and they’re back in Hell Bent.

Showrunner, Steven Moffat says the episode will be devastating – but will the pain overshadow that felt when Clara got consumed by the Quantum Shade in Face the Raven? Or add to that anguish? Moffat promises that Hell Bent will leave us:

“hopefully satisfied, and pleased, and a tiny bit devastated. It’s pretty emotional stuff. We get quite dark. It’s quite a journey.”

This comes after the onslaught that was Heaven Sent, and Moffat also reflects on that already-iconic episode, and its visuals:

“[Heaven Sent] is one of the strangest, and most atmospheric, and creepiest episodes that we’ve done. And then, in episode 12, we’re in a huge, epic, big-scale Star Wars world. [Rachel Talalay]’s got a tremendous range as a director, covering all of that.”

There are so many mysteries about tonight’s episode – who really is the Hybrid? Will Gallifrey return? If so, what’s to stop the Time War starting all over again? We already know what the Doctor’s doing at Christmas, and it’s not fighting Daleks on all fronts – but a pressing matter is if we’ll see Clara one last time.

Unsurprisingly, Moffat’s keeping schtum.

Well, we’ll find out soon, as Hell Bent airs tonight on BBCOne from 8pm.

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Here’s What The PodKast Thought About Heaven Sent

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.

Some days, when the wind is in the right direction, the moon is a blue egg, and I’m feasting on advent chocolates, I wonder what the founding Kasterborous Krew are thinking about Series 9. Then I remember that Christian Cawley and Brian Terranova are sunning themselves in the Med after selling the site to a gang of international diamond smugglers, and I realise that I no longer care. (We’ve handcuffed James McLean to a desk and forced him to review Big Finish stories. The other two sold him out so they didn’t have to split the cash three ways.)

But if you’re not like me and do ponder what’s going on inside their minds, you can find out. No, not the Mind Probe! The PodKast. Yeah, I know. They’re still going, despite the debate in parliament.

The latest PodKast asks whether Heaven Sent is the best Twelfth Doctor story so far. And here it is.

I do know that Christian reckons the serial could very well be the first ‘classic’ of the Peter Capaldi era. But do you agree?

Their audio shows have a shocking amount of listeners. It’s disgusting. If you want to join their number, you can find various ramblings on AudioBoom.

Tomorrow, you can even find out what they think about Hell Bent…

The post Here’s What The PodKast Thought About Heaven Sent appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Latest Christmas Photos Focus on Hydroflax and Nardole

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.

By the end of today, Series 9 will be over. Let that sink in. Scary, huh? But this is Doctor Who – so let’s look to the future!

Unless you’ve not been paying attention for the past decade, each Christmas, the Doctor joins us for the festivities. This year is no exception. On Christmas Day, we’re meeting The Husbands of River Song, and the latest batch of photos released by the BBC focus on the guest stars, comedians Greg Davies and Matt Lucas.

Previous images have teased Davies as King Hydroflax, a lone head in need to a robotic body. In these latest pictures, we see him getting picked up… by said robot. Meanwhile, Matt Lucas, playing Nardole, waits outside the TARDIS for a certain Time Lord. Don’t take my word for it: feast your eyes on some Christmassy goodness!

The Husbands of River Song airs on Christmas Day at 5:15pm for an hour.

The post Latest Christmas Photos Focus on Hydroflax and Nardole appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

First Look at Greg Davies and Matt Lucas in Christmas Special

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

As you’ve likely heard by now, we have two comedians starring in this year’s Christmas special, The Husbands of River Song: Greg Davies and Matt Lucas.

You might know Davies from his appearances on panel shows like Would I Lie To You?, or from The Inbetweeners; while Lucas is best-known for Little Britain, narrated by the Fourth Doctor, Tom Baker! And we’ve got the first photos from the special, due to air on Christmas Day.

First look image of Greg Davies King Hydroflax (GREG DAVIES) – (C) BBC – Photographer: Simon Ridgway

Personally, I’m most excited about seeing Greg in Doctor Who, but frankly, you know what you’re going to get from both stars.

Lucas plays Nardole, while Davies is King Hydroflax, pictured above without his robotic body. In fact, the photo does bring to mind the Headless Monks, first mentioned in 2010’s The Time of Angels, but who later cropped up in A Good Man Goes To War (2011), chopping off Dorium Maldovar’s noggin – which the Doctor then picks up in The Wedding of River Song. “The Headless Monks behead you alive, remember.” Could a similar fate have befallen Hydroflax?

I guess we’ll find out in about three weeks’ time!

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The Chimes of Midnight is Your Favourite Big Finish Story

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

Since reaching the Big 2-0-0, Big Finish has been asking us our favourite audio adventure of the main Doctor Who range – and the results are in. Our favourite Big Finish is The Chimes of Midnight!

Released in February 2002, the story stars Paul McGann’s Eighth Doctor with India Fisher as Charley Pollard, a relatively-new companion back then; the pair find themselves in a Groudnhog Day-style house, full of horror. It’s Proper Good.

Hallowe’en 1938. ‘Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house not a creature was stirring…

But something must be stirring. Something hidden in the shadows. Something which kills the servants of an old Edwardian mansion in the most brutal and macabre manner possible. Exactly on the chiming of the hour, every hour, as the grandfather clock ticks on towards midnight.

Trapped and afraid, the Doctor and Charley are forced to play detective to murders with no motive, where even the victims don’t stay dead. Time is running out.

And time itself might well be the killer…

Big Finish caught up with its writer, Robert Shearman, who told them:

“The funny thing is, I’ve been thinking a lot about The Chimes of Midnight recently. Not just because it’s nearly Christmas – though it is, so plum puddings at the ready! But because I was writing it *exactly* fifteen years ago today. It was so exciting to do – we’d just got Paul McGann as the new Doctor, and Doctor Who was never, ever, ever coming back to TV – perish the thought – and I felt so privileged that I was being allowed to nudge on the Doctor’s life one adventure further.

“If I could have guessed Chimes would still be listened to fifteen years later, I think I’d never have written a word, I’d have frozen in fear! I love Big Finish. They never shy away from telling the weirdest of stories, they truly believe that the only limit to where the Doctor can go is your own imagination – they are at once both inspired and inspiring. I always feel I got so lucky with Chimes – Barnaby Edwards directs the perfect cast extraordinarily well, and Russell Stone’s music is gorgeous.

“Thank you to everyone who made my odd black comedy work, so that it’s still so fondly remembered today – and to Gary Russell for commissioning the bonkersishness of it all with only a raised eyebrow in judgement. And thank you, all of you, who bought Big Finish back then in the so-called wilderness years, and who still buy Big Finish now in the years of plenty. There are thousands more untold stories about the Doctor out there, so let’s go tell them.”

Shearman’s a dedicated Whovian and also wrote the brilliant 2005 TV story, Dalek. If you’ve not heard The Chimes of Midnight, you really need to. It’s only £2.99 to download it!

In second place was Spare Parts (2002) by Marc Platt (Ghost Light), which was inspiration for the 2006 story, Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel, and tells the tale of the genesis of the Cybermen.

It’s those gorgeously grim original Tenth Planet Cybermen, and stars Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor and Sarah Sutton as Nyssa.

And in third place, it’s Lance Parkin’s Davros (2003), all about… erm, well, you can probably guess. It features Colin Baker’s Sixth Doctor with Terry Malloy returning as the creator of the Daleks. Wendy Padbury also stars (not as Zoe), as does Bernard Horsfell.

All three of those stories are now download-only, but further stories from the Top 20 Poll including The Silver Turk, The Kingmaker, and 1963: Fanfare for the Common Men can be bought on CD too.

It’s sad that the top 3 were all released over a decade ago, but I think it’s fair to say some nostalgia influenced the decision; we’re still consistently impressed with the audio company’s output, as you can tell form our frequent reviews.

Yep, we still love Big Finish!

The post The Chimes of Midnight is Your Favourite Big Finish Story appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Jessica Jones: Is There a Hidden Doctor Who Easter Egg?

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.

Shattering your view of the Tenth Doctor one brutal crime at a time, David Tennant has been a revelation as Kilgrave aka ‘The Purple Man’ in Netflix’s fantastic Marvel adaptation Jessica Jones.

But has the show made a sly reference to Tennant’s previous role?

Entertainment Weekly scanned through the episodes and discovered a ‘blink’ and you’ll miss it reference to the ever-popular Tenth Doctor.

In Jessica Jones’ eighth episode AKA WWJD Krysten Ritter’s titular reluctant hero gives Tennant’s charming manipulator a wake-up call when he bemoans his childhood abandonment.

You see? You see what they did there? You see, it works on two levels! Because Kilgrave is not Ten and he’s not ten years-old either. You could say it was a little…TENuous.

I’ll get my hero coat…

If you haven’t fallen for Jessica Jones earthy charms just yet; you owe it to yourself to catch the adaptation of writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Michael Gaydos Alias series, where, after a tragic end to her brief superhero career, Jessica Jones tries to rebuild her life as a private investigator, dealing with cases involving people with remarkable abilities in Hell’s Kitchen, New York.

So have you caught up with Jessica Jones yet? Has it made you look at David Tennant in a whole new way? And seriously, just how good are both leads? Kilgrave is probably the best written villain in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

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“Where Has The Doctor Gone?” BBC Release New Hell Bent Clip

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

The bells are tolling, the Cloister Wraiths are amassing and The President wants to know where is the Doctor! Gallifrey is on high alert in this new clip from Saturday’s finale, Hell Bent.

Unpacking this brief glimpse of what’s to come, you get a feel for just where The President himself, the great Donald Sumpter is pitching his performance; and its glorious – he’s gone full General Zod! Gallifrey bares a certain resemblance to Coruscant from the Star Wars prequels, which is fitting and the Cloister Wraiths certainly look ominous.

Exciting stuff!

The synopsis for Hell Bent reads:

If you took everything from him, betrayed him, trapped him, and broke both his hearts…how far might the Doctor go?

Returning to Gallifrey, the Doctor faces the Time Lords in a struggle that will take him to the end of time itself. Who is the Hybrid? And what is the Doctor’s confession?

Hell Bent airs this Saturday at 20:00 on BBC One.

The post “Where Has The Doctor Gone?” BBC Release New Hell Bent Clip appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Could These be The Husbands of River Song?

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.

Even though we still have the finale to go, the biggest question, the question that must never be answered, hidden in plain sight, is just who are The Husbands of River Song?

Well perhaps going someway to either explaining/prolonging the agony are these newly released promo pictures of this year’s Christmas Special.

Giving us our first look at new characters and villains, including Flemming (blue guy played by Rowan Polonski), Ramone (Phillip Rhys wearing gloves) and that big red robot; could these new boys be the titular husbands? Yes, even the robot – because we’re nothing if not open minded.

Flemming certainly looks the part – could he be about to marry River just as the Doctor arrives on board “a starliner full of galactic super-villains,” as the synopsis reveals? Or is he just the bartender?

More importantly, what’s in the Doctor’s present? Our money, all 87p of it, is on it being the new Sonic – or perhaps the old Sonic; the one last seen in Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead. Whatever happened to that?

If it is then it’ll give some Doctor Who fans the greatest gift of all this Christmas, the end of the Sonic Shades!

Merry Christmas everybody!

The Husbands of River Song also sees Doctor Who return to it’s traditional tea time slot airing on BBC One Christmas Day at 17:15.

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Out Now: Doctor Who Adventures #9 – Let the Festivities Begin!

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.

Christmas has come early as Doctor Who Adventures issue 9 hits the shelves.

Unwrapping an early present the issue also comes complete with a free awesome hand painted mega poster of Skaro from Robot City’s Paul Collicutt.

Inside this issue, The Ministry of Time: Scream Street’s Tommy Donbavand scripts this issue’s comic strip, in which the TARDIS gets clamped for contravening several time and space laws as laid out by the Ministry of Time.

 

Then, find out if you’re up to the challenge with Festive Mayhem, a look back at some of the Christmas dangers the Doctor has faced over the last ten years, before finding out if you’ve got what it takes to Save Christmas!

Also included is River Song’s Craft Studio, let River show you how to decorate your Christmas tree with some fiendish Snowmen Baubles.

Once more we get to open the UNIT Alien Archives to find out about the duplicitous Leandro from Delta Leonis. Then there’s Strax’s Guide to the Galaxy, where, this month, Strax you to Trenzalore, Zygor, Ember and Tiaanammat for some Christmas space exploration.

Christmas isn’t Christmas without a cool board game to play, and this time you can be River or the Doctor as you race through the night to Christmas morning facing all manner of dangers including the Sycorax, the Racnoss, Dream Crabs and Robot Angels in The Night Before Christmas.

And finally, they’re out once again hitting the cobbled streets of Victorian London as The Paternoster Gang Investigates; hear James Peaty relate the tale of how the Paternoster Gang came up against the horrifying Dissolving Man!

Doctor Who Adventures is available from all good retailers now.

 

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