Christian Cawley's Blog, page 356

See Mark Benton on Strictly

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.

They’ve kept it awfully low-profile, but you might’ve heard that the BBC’s second most successful show, Strictly Come Dancing, returns to screens this Saturday. (If you can’t guess the broadcaster’s most successful show, then you have no place searching this site.)

Whovians might recognise at least one celebrity taking to the dance floor: Mark Benton!

Benton appeared in the first episode of ‘nuWho’ back in 2005, Rose, in which he played Clive, a man obsessed with a certain two-hearted traveller and his constant companion, Death.

He always plays a loveable chap, and sadly, in Doctor Who, Clive was killed by an Auton. There are worse ways to go. Probably.

Or, if Rose is but a distant memory (it was a shocking 8 years ago!), you might recognise Mark from Waterloo Road, in which he played Mr. Chalk, teacher and foster parent of Kevin (actor, Thomas Knight, better known as Luke Smith in The Sarah Jane Adventures). Mark said:

“I just thought that it would be fun. I’ve never thought about doing one of these types of shows before, but out of all of them this is the one to do. I like to start a job thinking ‘I’m not sure if I can do this’ and I really love a challenge. It’s very easy to get comfortable when you are an actor, so I like to look at taking part in Strictly as an adventure.  I must also remain positive and keep my fear under wraps. It’s nice to try and learn a skill and maybe get a bit fitter too, which is another great reason to take part.”

Mark has had some dance experience, having recently starred in Hairspray, but otherwise described himself as “a blank canvas.”

Other celebs putting on their dancing shoes include Dragons’ Den star, Deborah Meaden; model, Abbey Clancy; golfer, Tony Jacklin; Dave Myers (one half of the Hairy Bikers); and Sophie Ellis-Bexter, singer of, uh, Murder on the Dancefloor.

Countdown’s Rachel Riley is the bookie’s current favourite.

Dr. Moon actor, Colin Salmon (from Silence in the Library/ Forest of the Dead), Trial of a Time Lord’s Lynda Bellingham and The Impossible Planet/ The Satan Pit’s Will Thorp have all appeared on the show previously.

The Strictly Come Dancing launch show is on BBC1 on Saturday at 6:50pm.

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Bid on Series 5 Journal for Charity

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.

Every so often a little gem from the Whoniverse worms its way on to eBay, but few are as unique, or as fascinating, as this: the diary of a Series 5 Production Designer.

Tristan Peatfield worked on the series following the departure of Ed Thomas, and before the arrival of Michael Pickwoad. His personal, on-set notebook features sketches and notes from a range of different television programmes, with at least 13 pages dedicated to Doctor Who. Savvy fans will instantly recognise his drawing of the Doctor’s rotating gizmo from The Lodger, as well as beautiful renderings of Amy Pond and the police box itself.

With bidding due to end on September 10, this may well be one to keep an eye on, not least because all the proceeds will be donated The Isabella Peatfield Memorial Fund, which raises money for children’s projects in Sri Lanka. Tristan’s daughter Isabella sadly died in the country on Boxing Day 2004, and was the youngest British victim of the Indian Ocean Tsunami.

So dig deep and bid well (it’s at £640 at the time of writing), and enjoy this truly unique slice of Doctor Who history (which can never be rewritten – not one line).

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We Need To Talk About Matt’s Hair

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.

Amid rumours and speculation as to the Twelfth Doctor’s costume, the title of the Anniversary Special and the identity of John Hurt, one of the more intriguing developments in recent months is Matt Smith’s hair.

Or the lack of it!

Matt’s recent buzzcut is currently fuelling the suspicion that the Eleventh Doctor may have already filmed his regeneration scene, despite his insistence that he’s in this year’s Christmas Special. Just how will the production team circumnavigate his missing locks?

In a recent interview, Smith explains:

 “The coif will be there for the finale in some way, shape, or form, but I think it could be quite funny to have the bald hair. I think you could have, like, that Macaulay Culkin scene in Home Alone when he, like, slaps on the aftershave – I think the Doctor could sort of wake up and be like, ‘Ah!’ I’m sure Steven will come up with something. He’ll come up with something clever.”

Perhaps he’ll shoot his regeneration scene in a wig. He certainly wouldn’t be the first Doctor!

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Who Misses Out on Hugo Awards

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.

Even though we’d like to, you can’t win them all. And we’ve had a pretty good run of wins at the Hugo Awards over the past three years. This time it wasn’t to be and three episodes from Series 7 lost out to the Game of Thrones episode, Blackwater:

Of course as an American production so it’s got a MA-HOO-SIVE budget alongside the edgy confidence that comes with a post-watershed show. It’s dark, gritty and has a healthy dose of violence, gore and ‘whoring’. Whereas Who has a public service budget, fantastical whimsy and Matt Smith’s alien Jagger-swagger. In fact, they’re two such different beasts they barely seem comparable.

So maybe it’s a shame that we lost. But you couldn’t lose out to more highly regarded, complex and thrill-instilling series. And if it were so easy to win a Hugo that we got them FOUR years in a row, it would hardly seem worth it. So, well done, Game of Thrones – enjoy the glory. Just watch your back because Who is just hitting its stride!

You can watch the full Hugo Awards ceremony below.

Live streaming video by Ustream

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Hotsy Totsy’s Who Burlesque!

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.

Forget the stupid 2013 Christmas Special and all that 50th Anniversary Special nonsense, THIS is the real show many of us have been waiting for!

The Hotsy Totsy Burlesque troupe will be putting on (or taking off?) a special tribute to the greatest show in the galaxy, called (and I’m blushing as I type this): Doctor Who: Boobies in the TARDIS! Not unlike – well, a lot unlike, really – Spearhead from Space or The Lodger, it’ll feature The Doctor stumbling into an adventure with a lot of near-nudity.

As described on Broadway World, the story of the show goes something like this:

“The Doctor is back!!!!! His Police Box has appeared in the Home for Wayward Girls and Fallen Women before, and The Doctor just can’t seem to figure out why the TARDIS keeps bringing him back. We say it just wants the Doctor to have a good time watching burlesque!”

Hey, if it’s good enough for the Doctor, who can argue? Boobies in the TARDIS, which is not Hotsy Totsy’s first spin around Doctor Who, will feature an array of female and male performers in a “high camp” fully scripted and costumed (for a few minutes, anyway) production. And, as you may have guessed, unlike the BBC program that it’s based on, this burlesque show is probably not meant to be viewed by the whole family…unless it’s from behind the sofa.

So, faster than you can say “Dalek bumps”, set your TARDIS coordinates to the R-Bar in New York City on Tuesday, September 17th 2013 – that’s a mere two weeks from now! Tickets are only $10. For more information, a person can go to hotsytotsyburlesque.com or get tickets at rbarnyc.com.

I just want a mate.

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ListLava Doctor Who Edition

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.

Ever wondered just how many Dalek stories there have been thoughout Doctor Who‘s illustrious 50 years, and maybe which one got the highest ratings? Well, wonder no more: there’s now an app for that!

ListLava Doctor Who Edition is a one-stop shop for Whovian trivia hounds. Its main selling point is its multiple filters that can be applied to the lists.

It’s easy to find a list of Doctor Who stories, or every Dalek story ever shown but how about finding a list of Doctor Who stories, starring David Tennant, featuring the Daleks, and Rose Tyler, available on Netflix?

The app currently covers every story from 1963′s An Unearthly Child right through to this years Series 7 finale, The Name of the Doctor and features 16 different filers that can be applied and combined including season number, companions, aliens, producers, writers, directors, average viewing figures and availability across several mediums.

Personally I found the most impressive of these filters one simply marked ‘Unit’. This lists every member of the international task force to have appeared onscreen ranging from Brigadiers Lethbridge-Stewart and Bambera right down to including such one time characters as Corporal Nutting from The Silurians and Private Ogden from Invasion of the Dinosaurs.

The app also allows you to save any custom lists you create and share them via Facebook. Each story also has embedded into its main listing page direct links to related content on Google (and Google images), YouTube, Flickr and Wikipedia. Handy if, like me, you happen to be running any Doctor Who themed quiz nights if nothing else.

The information included all seems solid enough; being one of those fans who loves random trivia and a good list I was eager to see what errors, if any, would pop out. I was pleasantly surprised to find that almost everything seems to be spot on. The only point I found that seemed wrong to me was the credit that Terrance Dicks, Douglas Adams and Terry Nation all co-wrote The Five Doctors. To contrast this, the entry for The Daemons credits the writers as Barry Letts and Robert Sloman rather than the fictional onscreen credit of Guy Leopold. Well played List Lava, well played.

Considering the amount of information this app crams in (including the promise of continued free updating and the potential addition of more filters), a price tag of £1.99 is fairly reasonable and should definitely be considered by any Whovians who, like myself, can’t help pausing their DVDs to look up just how many stories Mike Yates actually appears in. (The answer is ten, by the way.)

And if your still wondering, there have been 32 Dalek stories with Tom Baker’s Destiny of the Daleks scoring the highest viewing figures with 13.6 million.

ListLava Doctor Who Edition is available for iPhone and iPad, and an Android version is planned.

The post ListLava Doctor Who Edition appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Charlie Higson Writes Ninth Doctor EBook!

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.

Puffin has announced that actor, comedian and best-selling author Charlie Higson has written the ninth instalment in Puffin’s sensational series celebrating the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who.

Charlie, who is the author of the phenomenally successful Young Bond books and the cult thriller series, The Enemy - and also produced the BBC’s Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) which aired in the Doctor Who slot back in 2000-2001, not to mention being a member of The Fast Show - has reimagined the Ninth Doctor, played by Christopher Eccleston, and created a brand new Doctor Who adventure called The Beast of Babylon, to be released globally on 23rd September priced at £1.99.

Synposis: When a girl called Ali pockets a silver orb that falls from the sky, little does she realise it’s her ticket to seeing the universe! Desperate to retrieve the mysterious object, the Ninth Doctor agrees to let her join him on a dangerous trip to ancient Babylon. Together they must join forces to stop a giant Starman from destroying Earth before it’s too late!

The Beast of Babylon follows on from short stories by Eoin Colfer, Michael Scott, Marcus Sedgwick, Philip Reeve, Patrick Ness, Richelle Mead, Malorie Blackman and Alex Scarrow.

The author of next eshort featuring the Tenth Doctor, David Tennant, will be revealed on 1st October. A printed anthology of the stories will published on 21st November.

You can get your copy of The Beast of Babylon for Kindle from Amazon now, priced £1.99

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Derby’s Whooverville 5.0 Convention

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.

Fans of Doctor Who gathered this past weekend at Derby’s Quad to celebrate the 5th annual Doctor Who convention put on by the Whoovers, a local fan group. The convention, known as Whooverville 5.0, offered fans the opportunity to cosplay and meet with other fans, vendors, and actors who have previously appeared on the show.

Former companion, Anneke Wills (Polly, who traveled with the First and Second Doctors), and Annette Badland, who played villain Blon Slitheen in Series 1 of the revival in 2005, were on hand for autographs. According to the event organiser, Steve Hatcher, around 200 were on hand for this year’s event:

“A lot of people who have come have never been to conventions before so to have them here is great. Everybody has enjoyed the day and it has been good to have special guests who have appeared in Doctor Who.”

For those in the Derbyshire area who are interested in learning more about the Whoovers, click on through. If you had the chance to attend, let us know what you thought about the experience!

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Incredible Who Tube Map

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

The internet is a truly wonderful thing, especially if your a Doctor Who fan. Of all the created content on the web, this may be one of the mind blowing, fantastic things in all of Who fandom:

Behold the Doctor Who Tube Map, in all of its splendor! Its highly recommended to go here and set your browser to full screen mode. An entire timeline of each Doctor and his companions and villains is available. You even have the ability to drill down and focus on one Doctor at a time. It covers the series from its inception in 1963 to the mid-season break of Series 6.

Tube mapping has become incredibly popular and I’m glad that creator Crispian Jago put the effort and work into this amazing project. Here’s hoping the “time and enthusiasm” strikes him to update for the Twelfth Doctor and the end of the Eleventh’s time in the TARDIS.

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Paul Cornell Exclusive: Scream of the Shalka

Gareth Kavanagh 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 2007, shortly after Human Nature/ The Family of Blood aired, Paul Cornell admitted that he’d love to see Scream of the Shalka on DVD. “I don’t know what’s going on there,” he said. “I noted the BBFC Clearances a couple of years back, but no release at all. Maybe it was all cleared so they could use clips of it on the Invasion stuff?”

But finally, Scream of the Shalka, Cornell’s 2003 webcast purported to be the official continuation of Doctor Who before you-know-what happened, is being released on DVD – this very month! The story starred Richard E. Grant as the Ninth Doctor, Sophie Okonedo (she’s the bloody queen), a little known actor called David Tennant… Oh, and Derek Jacobi as the Master.

Gareth Kavanagh caught up with Paul to discuss the writer’s plans for the alternative Ninth Doctor, its links and influence on ‘nuWho,’ and how one pub was immortalised by the animators…

GARETH: Does it surprise you how people remain interested in Scream of the Shalka and how that might have panned out? I was struck, in particular by the idea of Derek Jacobi’s robot Master being onboard the TARDIS, well before he returned at the end of Series 3 and before the Doctor had the idea of imprisoning him and rehabilitating him at the close of Last of the Time Lords…

PAUL: Well, Russell said that he did actually think about Shalka when he plotted that line about the Doctor and the Master exploring together. That’s the thing I really miss most about Shalka. I would have loved to see more of that dynamic: The Master wanting to do evil things, but being incapable of doing them and having to be fairly friendly with his arch enemy because he has no other choice. I think that would be a wonderful thing to watch.

I would have loved that: for me, it’s the Blackblood in 2000AD’s ABC Warriors, its Spike in Buffy.  It’s that brilliant dynamic and all that fantastic internal turmoil generated.

But I suppose you couldn’t get John Simm to hang around for thirteen episodes as a companion.  Having said that, I think it would have been wonderful to do on the show!

So that’s where you would have gone with it. Was it just the essence of the Master in Shalka then? There’s so much mystery around it.

I had it all written down: Gallifrey had been destroyed; the planet was still there but all the Time Lords were in the Matrix. And I think the Master had been downloaded into the robot. We had one more story commissioned, which was from Simon Clark who wrote Night of the Triffids. It was such a wonderful time. We were briefly making Doctor Who! And I think it was our existence that made the BBC think, do they really want Doctor Who from now on to be a downloadable online-thing in flash animation? I think it was a tipping point. I think it was a little stone in an avalanche that eventually became the return of ‘real’ Who.

It was a hell of an experience watching Scream of the Shalka online. Shalka was pre-broadband for me, so I had to watch it in work after everyone had gone home! I’d sit there in work, turn all the lights off hunched over my flickering monitor and watch a new episode of Doctor Who again!

It took a lot of getting used to: the lighting of it, how little the animation could do. This was partially because, one of the demands of it was that people had to be able to watch it there and then, and not wait for it to download and then watch it, which limited what the animators could do a lot. But I’m very, very proud of it. It’s interesting to see the choices. The nature of the companion is very Rose [Tyler], because that’s simply the geography – if you’re bringing back Doctor Who in this day and age, that’s what she would be like.

A bored student barmaid?

Yeah, but with a family, a series of relatable figures around her. No more orphans, you know! I think I went in entirely the opposite direction with the Doctor, all aristocratic and isolated and alienating, and no; you don’t want that on Saturday night on BBC 1. You want Christopher Eccleston, who is also a bit alienating and distant, but the character and the acting tell you that he’s relatable. You feel his pain, you look straight at him and you think, ‘I know what that’s like, I know who he is.’ And with Richard E Grant’s Doctor, he was very much saying to everybody around him ‘Go away’.

Yes, it’s the same lonely traveller, but it’s less warm and approachable isn’t it?

Oh, absolutely.  I’m very proud of what we did, but very pleased that live action Who returned.

You actually made my pub famous because that’s in Shalka as well. It’s my pub that the Doctor goes into! I own a pub in the centre of Manchester, the Lass O’Gowrie, by the BBC and they pinched the image of it.

Of course, the way things are today, nothing is canonical. But then everything is canonical in a way.  If the Time War has changed everything and left continuity up in the air, then Shalka might once have happened…!

Scream of the Shalka DVD is released on 16th September and you can pre-order your copy from Amazon UK for just £13.97

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