Christian Cawley's Blog, page 365

Paul McGann Confirmed for Comic Con

spikeombre 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 Eighth Doctor will be a guest at this year’s London Film and Comic Con, it has been confirmed.

Paul McGann will join a host of other Doctor Who guests, including companions Sarah Sutton, Bonnie Langford and Richard Franklin, as well as Karen Gledhill (Alison Williams from Remembrance of the Daleks), and Dick Mills of the Radiophonic Workshop.

The London Film and Comic Con, which is the second of 2013, will take place in the Olympia Grand Hall on the 5th and 6th of October, with the Eighth Doctor in attendance on the Sunday. Keen fans will be given the opportunity to meet Mr McGann for an autograph and photo, and maybe learn the answer to an age-old question, hidden in plain sight: what does a Beryllium chip actually do?

Perhaps not. But, just in case, you can book your tickets for the event on the LFCC website.

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Google Maps TARDIS Easter Egg Found!

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.

You’re wandering down Earls Court, you pass a familiar blue and suddenly you find yourself hurtling through time and space at the behest of an eccentric madman pursued by a galaxy of rogues out to annihilate your very existence.

You know your average Thursday.

That’s the tantalising prospect dangled in front of our collective eyes by Google Maps, who have sneakily tucked away inside the genuine Police Box outside Earls Court, the interior of the TARDIS!

The actual interior of the TARDIS!

Complete with Streetviews now signature panoramas!

You can explore the TARDIS!

Why are you still reading this!

To find the Easter egg you can follow these simple instructions as laid out by the geeking out folks at TechCrunch:

Click this link

Move your mouse around a bit. The standard Google Maps directional arrows should pop up, with one little addition: a pair of double arrows. Click those. Note: If you’re enrolled in the new Google Maps UI beta, the arrows might not appear. Instead, hit the up arrow on your keyboard…

Bam! You should now be in the TARDIS’ bigger-on-the-inside (smaller-on-the-outside) interior.

This isn’t just a static interior shot, oh no! You can wander around the full interior, explore the console room and absorb the heart of the TARDIS, regenerate and do the whole thing again as a new person (okay maybe not the last one.)

The one thing that you can’t do is wander off down the hallways…which is probably for the best, we do want to see you again.

Of course this now opens up a world of reality-bending possibilities for fictional dwellings.  Imagine it; you could hover over Crowsley Park Receiving Station and catch a glimpse of a dangling Fourth Doctor, spot a familiar blue box at Masters Pit or even catch the Special Weapons Dalek menacing taxi cabs down Wootton Street.

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Ten Things You Need to Know About Kasterborous Magazine

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 we put this magazine together, and to be honest it has been tough. However, it has been a wonderful experience, a steep learning curve for designer James McLean (he of the podKast) and myself, and we’re now delighted to be able to offer the print version of Kasterborous Magazine for sale right now – indeed, it is just £4.99 until 6pm tonight!

It strikes us though that you might just not get what the magazine is. So here are ten things you should know about the magazine itself and why we decided to produce it (and why we’re working on issue 2).

1. Kasterborous Magazine is written by Doctor Who fans. Christian Cawley, the editor of this site and the magazine, has spent a lot of time making sure that the contributors are passionate fans with something interesting to say. Actor and writer Elton Townend Jones has his own column; James McLean (who also designs and works on the Kasterborous podKast) reviews Tom MacRae’s rarely-seen Crash of the Elysium show. Philip Bates manages to interview Matt Smith.

2. Kasterborous Magazine is about Doctor Who fans. Gareth Mugridge is a Dalek builder. Christine Grit went on holiday to Wales just to visit Portmerion, where location shooting of 1976′s The Masque of Mandragora was recorded. Paul Hanley is an astounding artist and illustrator with many memorable images to his name, and John Guilor is the voice artist who brought the First Doctor back to life in the DVD reconstruction of Planet of Giants.

3. We interview Matt Smith at the Doctor Who Experience. There isn’t much more you can say than that. It’s a great interview.

4. Have you ever wanted to build a Dalek? We show you how. Doctor Who Magazine has never paid much attention to prop building. We do; we love it!

5. As well as the new print format that you can now own and add to your collection of Doctor Who stuff, ready to open and read whenever you see fit (while sniffing the paper and admiring the artwork), Kasterborous Magazine is available in PDF with other electronic formats arriving imminently.

6. Hey, we interview Karen Gillan! Thanks here go to our website’s associate editor Brian Terranova, who was able to attend 2012′s premier of Asylum of the Daleks.

7. Our interview with Tom MacRae tells you everything you need to know about The Crash of the Elysium, a live Doctor Who show/experience that ran in 2011 and 2012.

8. We interview Matt Smith. Again. As with the Karen Gillan interview, this is from the Asylum of the Daleks premiere in New York

9. We’re paying our contributors. Strictly speaking Kasterborous Magazine isn’t a traditional fanzine as we’re paying contributors a modest fee (based on sales, so hurry up and order your copy!). Naturally we don’t have the resources of Doctor Who Magazine, SFX or Doctor Who Adventures, but we aim to be able to publish several copies a year. In case you didn’t realise it, this is pretty exciting. Although pitches must be thematically relevant to future issues, this is an open shop, (small) paying market, unlike DWM and DWA.

10. We want Kasterborous Magazine to be renowned as an accurate reflection of fandom, focussing on rarely-touched upon topics and areas. In future issues we’ll be looking at fan films, fan fiction, RPGs, video games, the early days of fandom and fan artists, to name just a few.

This, dear reader, is essentially ten reasons why you should care about and buy Kasterborous Magazine. We’re on the brink of doing something remarkable here!

Our limited time offer of just £4.99 (plus p&p) has now been extended to 6pm tonight. If you want a copy of Kasterborous Magazine issue 1 and to be here at the beginning as we enter a new era of this website and Doctor Who fanzines in general then please don’t miss out – head to the Kasterborous Store now!

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UKTV Gets Doctor Who Revisited

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.

Four of BBC America’s Doctor Who Revisited specials are set to hit Australia’s UKTV channel this Sunday, August 18 from 4:30pm as part of the 50th anniversary celebrations.

Running back to back over two hours, the shows provide an introduction to each of the previous incarnations of the Doctor and are designed to work alongside a specially curated selection of stories. They feature:

interviews with key cast and crew,
classic clips,
a montage of the Doctors’ key moments, iconic lines and monsters and contributions from Steven Moffat, John Barrowman, David Tennant, Caroline Skinner and Neil Gaiman, among others.

The first four shows are naturally about each of the first four Doctors.

The First Doctor

Played by William Hartnell 1963-1966 

Fifty years ago on the BBC the adventure began with The First Doctor, William Hartnell. Explore the TARDIS, meet his companions and confront his most famous foes the Daleks.

Edition features: Steven Moffat, David Tennant and John Barrowman.

 

The Second Doctor

Played by Patrick Troughton 1966 – 1969

For fifty years the BBC has thrilled fans with Doctor Who’s adventures in space and time. Meet The Second Doctor, Patrick Troughton..

Features: Frazer Hines and Wendy Padbury.

 

The Third Doctor

Played by Jon Pertwee 1970 – 1974

Meet The Third Doctor, Jon Pertwee as he consults for UNIT and faces the Master.

Features: Steven Moffat, Caroline Skinner and Hugh Bonneville.

 

The Fourth Doctor

Played by Tom Baker 1974-1981

Meet The Fourth Doctor, Tom Baker as he visits Gallifrey and meets Davros, creator of the Daleks.

Features: Steven Moffat and Louise Jameson.

 

These specials are the perfect companion pieces to some of the classic and newer Doctor Who series. Although when they’ll be screened in the UK is anyone’s guess. Enjoy, Australia!

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Is The Missing Episode Rumour Just Blowing Smoke?

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.

And here we go again! A little while back, Rich Johnston of Bleeding Cool ran with the rumors that several of the missing Doctor Who episodes had been returned to the BBC, which forced the BBC to publicly say that there was nothing to report at this time.

However, Rich also initially reported that along with those long sought after episodes of Doctor Who, there were also missing episodes of Dad’s Army and Morecambe and Wise in the reported findings. Where it gets really interesting is that Bleeding Cool is reporting that the BBC’s site for Dad’s Army’s second series has a teaser that indicates the missing three black and white episodes from series two are coming soon.

Where does this leave us? Is this Rich’s smoking gun? Maybe, maybe not. The question that really needs to be asked is what would benefit would come from denying the finding of the lost episodes, if in fact, they have been found?

A couple of initial thoughts; firstly, being the big 5-0 year for Who, a finding of this magnitude should be cause for celebration at the BBC, especially if these episodes can be restored in time to air before the end of the year, not to mention the revenue from subsequent DVD releases. Secondly, isn’t it possible that this a coincidence and that even though they were initially rumored to be tied to the haul allegedly containing the Who episodes, the Dad’s Army episodes are returning from a different source? Given that the website teased that more information would be forthcoming, hopefully we’ll know more soon. Lastly, if the BBC is staying mum on the fact that these episodes have returned, is the silence another (and rather cost effective marketing) way to keep Doctor Who in internet news and speculation while we barrel towards November? Given the problem with leaks and unintentional early shipments lately, you can only hope the payoff is worth the work that they would be putting in to keep it under wraps.

You can read the whole thing over at Bleeding Cool. What do you think? Smoking gun or blowing smoke?

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The Perfect Introduction to Doctor Who for Newbies [INFOGRAPHIC]

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.

Hot off the back of our own infographic at the weekend (nice work by Joe Siegler) here’s a visual look at every important aspect of Doctor Who that a newcomer to the show could possibly need… Doctor Who turns 50!

Doctor Who Turns 50 is brought to you by www.DirectSelectTV.com

We’re big fans of infographics on Kasterborous, and reckon this is one of the best we’ve seen – a lovely tribute to the show and the perfect introduction!

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Fifth Doctor to Appear at Gen Con Indy 2013!

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.

Peter Davison is globetrotting some more during 2013, with appearances down under now being followed up with a trip to the USA, where he’s be appearing at Gen Con Indy 2013 as its first named Media Guest of Honor, among others…

Here he is chatting to Indystyle.tv (after the advert, that is…):

As we’ve learned from Wish.TV, the Fifth Doctor actor who left the show in 1984 will also be taking part in other events across North America, overseen by Who North America, Inc. These are yet to be confirmed, but will be announced in the coming weeks at www.whona.com.

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Casting Call for Fan-Produced 50th Anniversary Audio

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

The official 50th anniversary episode may be safely in the can and secured with a deadlock seal that no sonic screwdriver can break, but it won’t be the only special we can look forward to in November.

Doctor Who – The Exiles is an audio drama, soon to go into production, which will tell the story of the very beginning of the Doctor’s travels when he first steals the TARDIS (although some would say it stole him…) from its repair bay on Gallifrey.

Project supremo David Burgess has released a trailer and is inviting anyone who fancies appearing in the episode to audition. With the Doctor and Susan cast, David still needs to find talented performers to fill the roles of Ian, Barbara and ‘the odd time lord or two’.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfRduK...

Listen to the trailer on YouTube, where you can also contact David about auditioning. Auditions close September 10 2013.

 

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Coleman’s Christmas: Mostly Missing Matt

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.

To know Matt Smith is to love Matt Smith. Indeed, it is arguably the actor’s greatest superpower when it comes to his time as the Eleventh Doctor. No matter how a person feels about these last few “Grand Moff” years, it can’t be denied that Smith has brought a personal air of friendship and comraderie to both fandom and the show itself, possibly even on a world-wide scale.

Whether it’s fans or co-stars, men or women, or people young and old, Smith effortlessly piles up new friends wherever he goes.

And that, of course, includes Ms. Clara Oswin Oswald herself, Jenna (“Hey, where’d Louise go!?”) Coleman. It seems that her friendship with Smith isn’t just limited to the Doctor-companion relationship we see on our TV screens. Speaking recently to Zap2it.com, she talked about Smith’s impending departure and what it will mean to lose her co-star and friend:

I will miss him. I will so miss him. We don’t say things like that to each other. But I just can’t imagine it yet.

And the actress had nothing but praise for Smith’s portrayal of The Doctor:

The Eleventh Hour’ is one of my favorite episodes, and it’s one of Matt’s as well. I think he’s been such an incredible, amazing Doctor.

What do you think, fans and friends? Will you feel just as Ms. Coleman does, and have a Matt Smith-shaped hole in your heart come Christmas? Or will the looming Mr. Peter Capaldi be your new biggest bestest mate in the whole wide universe?

(Via Zap2it)

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Novelist Picks Hartnell’s Doctor as Cultural Highlight

Jonathan Appleton 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.

Historical novel writer CJ Sansom has selected William Hartnell’s Doctor Who as his choice for the Cultural Exchange feature in BBC Radio 4’s Front Row.

Interviewed by Mark Lawson in the Tuesday August 13 2013 edition of the nightly arts round up, Sansom, who wrote the Shardlake historical crime series, said of Hartnell’s portrayal:

He anchored everything. All the other characteristics that all the others have built on; he was mysterious, he was vulnerable, arrogant, mercurial, all those core characteristics…

Cultural Exchange is a regular Front Row slot which sees leading creative minds choose their favourite work. Rather wonderfully, Sansom says the programme’s early historical stories inspired his own vocation:

I was fascinated by the idea of these people who found themselves wandering about in history, and while the companions would be at sea… the Doctor could always make himself at home…

Really that started for me the idea of what it would be like to go wandering about in history, which is what I do now.

Sansom displays an impressive knowledge of the programme’s early years in an interview covering Hartnell’s casting, the tough shooting schedule, and how his declining health came to affect his performance. He also doesn’t shy away from Hartnell’s well-known (and deeply unappealing) views on race, but does attempt to place the man in the context of his time.

Well worth a listen, the interview concludes with Lawson nominating Sansom for the job of writing a Doctor Who story featuring an encounter with Henry VIII!

Listen to the interview at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p016p5mb/profiles/cj-sansom

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