Christian Cawley's Blog, page 387

Smith & Tennant Compete for Best Actor Award!

Meredith Burdett 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 was always bound to happen and now finally, the time has come…

The TV Choice award nominations have been announced and it looks like David Tennant and Matt Smith will be in direct competition for the title of Best Actor for their roles in Broadchurch and Doctor Who respectively.

In a similar scenario, Olivia Coleman (The Eleventh Hour) is up for Best Actress for her role in Broadchurch and she faces competition from Jenna-Louise Coleman for her performance as Clara in Doctor Who.

Meanwhile in the Best Drama category, Doctor Who is nominated for an award and is up against it from the likes of Waterloo Road, Downton Abbey and Call The Midwife.

Obviously Doctor Who should win in every category but the voting comes down to the people, this is a democracy after all, so get your vote in now and make sure that Doctor Who comes out on top!

Voting closes at midnight on July 12th and can be done by visiting http://www.tvchoicemagazine.co.uk/awards/2013 .

This is Matt Smith’s final six months as the Doctor, so let’s remember all those magical moments where he’s entertained us, especially in Series 7 of Doctor Who and make sure that he, Coleman and the series in general get the recognition that they deserve!

The post Smith & Tennant Compete for Best Actor Award! appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Have Your Doctor Who Toys Soared In Value?

Meredith Burdett 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 many of you reading this article is sitting on a personal goldmine? Before you scoff, try not to, as you may very well be doing just that.

We learn this week in a Telegraph article that certain toys and collectibles from not so long ago are now retailing in the collectible market for very tidy sums of money indeed. We don’t even have to go back that far, if you have toys or collectibles from the 1960’s, 1970’s or even 1980’s, you might want to have them valued as they could be worth a lot more than you think.

According to the research that comes from Zurich:

The average value of items stored in lofts is £584.00.

And that’s not just Doctor Who collectibles; we’re talking about Action Man figures, Barbie dolls, Star Wars and even Lord of the Rings toys could be appreciating value in your house as you read this.

However, the rules have to be obeyed as John Ennals, owner of website Tortoys.co.uk, explained:

I get calls from people saying they have extensive collections they bought in the Nineties. I have to tell them they are worth a fraction of what they paid for them: it is the fact that toys could have been played with, lost or damaged that makes them valuable.

 

So perhaps you’ve got a Dalek or a TARDIS or a Seventh Doctor figure that you used to create your own stories with and have been gathering dust on a shelf for the last 20 years. If so, you might want to take another look at it and see if it’s worth anything, it could just be your ticket for an extra holiday this year!

The post Have Your Doctor Who Toys Soared In Value? appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Reece Shearsmith Not Interested in Doctor Who #12

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.

Ruling himself out of contention for the role of the Twelfth Doctor, Recce Shearsmith has said he would ‘love’ to follow up his Troughton role with an appearance in Doctor Who itself.

Recce recently played the Second Doctor in the BBC docudrama An Adventure in Space and Time – written by fellow League of Gentleman star and writer Mark Gatiss – but has said he doesn’t consider himself a potential replacement for Matt Smith:

“Oh God, no! I’ve literally not even thought about it…I’ve had a few people tweeting me that, saying, ‘You should be the Doctor’… I’m like, ‘What??’”

However that didn’t stop him speculating on who could fill Matt’s boots:

“It could be literally anyone. I can’t imagine who we’re gonna get. But it would be good to go older, I think, because they’ve done two younger ones.”

Actors who have already been rumoured to be taking on the role or have ruled themselves out of the running include Rory Kinnear, Ben Daniels, Ben Whishaw and Dominic Cooper.

An announcement on the casting of the next Doctor by the BBC is rumoured to be due in August.

An Adventure in Space and Time will air on BBC Two later this year.

(Via Digital Spy)

The post Reece Shearsmith Not Interested in Doctor Who #12 appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Doctor Who Time Trips EBooks Announced

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.

BBC Books has announced a new series of Doctor Who eBooks, known as Time Trips, the first of which will be released to coincide with the 50th anniversary.

The announcement comes following the success of of the three tie-in eBooks, published last Autumn and earlier this year (The Angel’s Kiss, Devil in the Smoke and Summer Falls) and popular Doctor Who novels (from authors such as Stephen Baxter, Alastair Reynolds, and Jenny Colgan) over the past couple of years.

Planned as a long-term series of books, Time Trips is intended to feature an exciting and impressive mix of high-profile commercial and literary writers, echoing the recent trend for the print novel series. Each eBook will be a 10,000 word adventure and authors confirmed so far include Nick Harkaway, AL Kennedy, Jenny Colgan and Trudi Canavan,

Says BBC Books Senior Editorial Director Albert De-Petrillo:

‘Time Trips is a project I have long wanted to do. There’s a unique affection for Doctor Who amongst writers and readers across genres and I can’t believe our good luck to have Nick Harkaway, AL Kennedy, Jenny Colgan and Trudi Canavan on the launch list.  It’s a truly formidable line-up, with more to come. This series really is taking Doctor Who fiction to a new level and I can’t wait for people to read these brilliant stories’

But what about the authors? AL Kennedy said

‘I was first introduced to Doctor Who when I was three or four and he has been a happy part of my life ever since. I am delighted to become in any way a part of his stories’

Jenny Colgan, also a lifelong Doctor Who fan (and author of 2012′s Dark Horizons):

‘It is such an honour to be part of the prestigous Time Trips line-up, with so many excitingly fresh perspectives on the Doctor’s life and adventures’ .

Nick Harkaway is a popular fantasy writer.

‘There is a list of calls you want and know you’ll never get. Joel Rubichon invites you to eat any time; Penelope Cruz needs a tango partner…and then someone calls and asks you if you want to write a story for a new BBC Books’ Doctor Who digital series. And that is the real thing and it feels every bit as fantastic as you would imagine. I’m sure the tango would be good too, mind you’

Following the release of the first book later in 2013 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who, further stories will be published throughout 2014, priced at just £1.99, with a print collection is following in 2014.

The post Doctor Who Time Trips EBooks Announced appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

A Doctor Who/Mr. Men T-Shirt Mash-Up!

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.

Bow ties, fezzes and Stetsons might be cool, but K Towers has discovered something potentially cooler: Doctor Who/Mr. Men mash-up t-shirts and hoodies!

Everyone loves Roger Hargreaves’ odd little creations, all of whom have strange little quirks. And everyone loves Gallifrey’s favourite little Time Lord, all his incarnations have their strange little quirks. It’s a match made in Heaven, right?

The parallels made are genius too: the Seventh Doctor is Mr. Topsy-Turvy; the Eleventh Doctor is Mr. Happy; the First Doctor is Mr. Uppity; and Mr. Tickle’s long arms are replaced by the Fourth Doctor’s scarf! What’s not to love?!

They come in a range of products, from a normal t-shirt to a ‘girly fit’ one (both priced £14.88), from a long sleeve shirt (£16.68) to a hoodie with zipper (£29.70).

The artist’s portfolio boast some impressive designs. But my favourite is an utterly brilliant Doctor Who/ The Fairly Odd Parents mix, with Timmy Turner as the Eleventh Doctor. Come along, Ponds! (That’s Cosmo and Wanda, to you.)

Visit Red Bubble now to see Mike’s Star Art’s portfolio.

(Thanks to Paul)

The post A Doctor Who/Mr. Men T-Shirt Mash-Up! appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Chris Chibnall Denies Matt Smith will Appear in Broadchurch

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.

Despite claims from the Mirror, Chris Chibnall has denied that Matt Smith will appear in follow-up season of the ITV mega hit Broadchurch.

The paper had quoted a ‘Broadchurch source’ saying that it was matter scheduling – with Chris apparently confirming the news with praiseworthy quotes about the departing Doctor:

“I’d love to work with Matt again, he’s absolutely brilliant. I’d ­absolutely work with him at the drop of a fez. Matt is a brilliant actor and he can effortlessly become an even bigger star than he is already. The thing is he’s transformative and brilliant I think it’s great he’s off doing this movie role as a little break.”

However, Chris has since taken to Twitter to rubbish the paper’s claims:

Ahem. That Mirror headline about me wanting to cast Matt Smith in Broadchurch? Not true. Quotes don’t bear it out. Recycled old interview.

— Chris Chibnall (@ChrisChibnall) June 27, 2013

While he may be busy working on the second series of Broadchurch, Chris hasn’t ruled out a return to the Doctor Who fold:

“If we can get the schedules to work I will write for series eight, but obviously Broadchurch is my priority and that’s no small commitment. If their schedule and our schedule can work together then I’ll nip in and do one. Steven (Moffat) has asked and that’s very nice but it will just depend on the detail of schedules.”

Chibnall was one of the first writers to discuss Series 8, long before it was announced by the BBC.

The post Chris Chibnall Denies Matt Smith will Appear in Broadchurch appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Eccleston Wants Mature Roles

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.

His incarnation of everyone’s favourite son of Gallifrey suffered from survivor’s guilt, haunted by the terrors of war, but Ninth Doctor, Christopher Eccleston, says he welcomes more mature roles.

The actor, who starred as the Doctor in 2005 when showrunner, Russell T. Davies, bought back the series, appeared in Song for Marion, which was released on DVD and Blu-ray last month. Eccleston plays James, the estranged son of Marion (Vanessa Redgrave) and Arthur (Terence Stamp); after the former passes away, her husband joins her choir to honour her, bringing him and James closer together.

Christopher says mature, adult (not in that way) films are becoming more and more popular, something which big-shot producers should embrace:

“The industry is missing a trick if it doesn’t exploit what is undoubtedly a growing market. Culturally it’s very, very depressing when everything is about ‘youth’ and ‘physical beauty.’”

He particularly acknowledges its strong script, which is character-driven, not merely all about CGI:

“It was a good role; they were paying me; the film was about performance rather than special effects, and I’ve always been interested in the father/son dynamic.”

Song For Marion, which also stars – steady yourselves - Gemma Arterton (St. Trinian’s; Tamara Drewe), is just £10.20 from Amazon UK.

The post Eccleston Wants Mature Roles appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Jenny Colgan Signs Dark Horizons at Forbidden Planet

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.

Popular writer Jenny Colgan – who under the pen name of J.T. Colgan wrote 2012′s Doctor Who book Dark Horizons – will be appearing at London’s Forbidden Planet Megastore on Tueday 16th July from 6 -7pm signing copies of the book which has just been released in paperback.

Here’s a reminder of the book’s synopsis:

“We need to reach out. We need to continue the line…”

 

On a windswept northern shore, the islanders believe the worst they have to fear is a Viking attack. Then the burning comes. Water will not stop it. It consumes everything in its path – yet the burned still speak. The Doctor encounters a people under attack from a power they cannot possibly understand. They have no weapons, no strategy and no protection against a fire sent to engulf them all. The islanders must take on a ruthless alien force in a world without technology; but at least they have the Doctor on their side… Don’t they?

Jenny Colgan has written thirteen bestselling novels, which have sold over 2.5 million copies worldwide. Jenny won the 2013 ‘Romantic Novel of the Year’ Award, the Romantic Novelists’ Association’s (RNA) highest accolade, for her romantic comedy novel, Welcome to Rosie Hopkins’ Sweetshop of Dreams. Aged 11, she won a national fan competition to meet the Doctor and was mistaken for a boy by Peter Davison.

As ever with this sort of event, make sure you arrive in good time! Head to ForbiddenPlanet.com for more details and to purchase by mail order.

The post Jenny Colgan Signs Dark Horizons at Forbidden Planet appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Who Is Karen in Guardians of the Galaxy?

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.

It’s around 12 months since we learned of Karen Gillan’s imminent departure from Doctor Who, and in that time she has recorded a couple of movies.

At the recent Edinburgh Film Festival screening of romcom Not Another Happy Ending, the Amy Pond actress was quizzed about what might well be her breakthrough role, playing a key – but as yet unnamed – villain in the new Marvel comics blockbuster Guardians of the Galaxy, which has already started shooting in London.

Speaking to The Scotsman, Gillan confessed that her lips were sealed.

“I can’t really say anything about it other than my character is really bad. My hands are more tied on this than they were on Dr Who!”

All we ask is that if she’s playing a bad girl, she looks damned hot…

Rumours suggest that a full casting and schedule announcement will come along this week – fingers crossed!

The post Who Is Karen in Guardians of the Galaxy? appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Lee Sullivan and the Ginger Doctor

Alasdair Shaw 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.

I first encountered Lee Sullivan’s work on the covers of Transformers UK, shortly before he started contributing work to Doctor Who Magazine. More recent fans of the series will probably be more familiar with his work in the 50th Anniversary celebration Prisoners of Time from IDW.

However there is a Doctor who falls between the old and new series that most of us may not be familiar with. This Doctor can be found on Lee’s own web page and he looks distinctly ginger.

So, given my love of unconventional Doctors I simply had to get in touch and ask more about him.

Kasterborous: So, do you smile each time the Doctor complains he isn’t ginger yet?

Lee Sullivan: Never occurred to me!

K: He is ginger isn’t he? Or should I adjust the colour on my laptop?

Davros is the creation of a writer who was either too lazy or tired of his creations to bother with the messy business of having them actually talk amongst themselves.

LS: Well, I painted it as ‘sandy’, but that is just the extreme end of the ginger scale, isn’t it? Ginger-lite?

K: Was this ginger Doctor based on anyone in particular? I certainly couldn’t place him.

LS: The only person I had in mind was Alan Rickman, whom I was a great fan of and was a fan favourite to assume the role at that time, I think, but it wasn’t modelled exactly on him, just a sort of back-of-the-mind thing.

K: This was for a BBC sanctioned publication wasn’t it?

LS: It would have been, it never got beyond focus group review. It was the concept of one of my Radio Times editors, Matt Bookman, who wanted put together a dummy magazine for a projected monthly BBC magazine, initially titled ‘Sci-Files’ but by the time it was printed in a very limited run it had become Robot. It was a mix of articles about X Files, Who, the latest SF movies etc. and had strips featuring my Who; Red Dwarf drawn by David Pugh and and an original strip by Garry Leach, who also provided a fine painting of the Lost In Space movie for the primary version of the cover. The dummy mags were numbered ’0′, and sent out to focus-groups of young people to see what they made of it.

They didn’t like it much, and my memory is that the kids didn’t rate strip art much and really didn’t know much about Doctor Who. It all seems implausible now, but these were the pre-’geek-is-cool’ kids and during the Doctor’s wilderness years. The TV Movie was two years in the past and hadn’t made much of a dent in the zeitgeist. Who was probably at its lowest point then, as it looked as if it would never return.

K: I’ve read that this Doctor was to appear sometime after your Eighth Doctor strips for the Radio Times. Was he canon for a brief period of time?

LS: No. Although, if he had made it to the newsstands, the answer would perhaps be different. Doctor Who then was rudderless; no-one at the BBC seemed to care about or even control it.

K: Do you think ‘Scream of the Shalka’ was responsible for the Ginger Doctor Adventures (I think GDAs have a certain ring to them) not being progressed?

LS: No, for the simple reason that it predates all of the webcasts, even Death Comes To Time, by three years and in Shalka‘s case, five years. The dummy run date is July 1998. Incidentally, Death Comes to Time was Official BBC new Doctor Who, by the way, and really did represent the show as a living concept at the time. Now of course it’s regarded as non-canon by people who would rather it didn’t exist, because it conflicts with subsequent ‘canon’.

A shame really. Especially as I drew the images used for the animated version.

I am still collaborating with its creator and writer, Dan Freeman, providing visuals for his connected Minister of Chance Internet audio adventures, currently being crowd-funded and starring many luminaries from the world of Who and Blake’s 7. It was nominated for a BBC Audio Drama Award, and I finally got to meet David Tennant at the ceremony, as well as being bought a pint by Sylvester McCoy, who also stars in Minister of Chance. Anyone who likes Who or fantasy adventure should listen to it – the downloads are available on iTunes and they are FREE!

K: So, how much free reign did you have in the design of this Doctor?

LS: As far as I can recall, I was given carte-blanche with the design of the Doctor. I wanted to make him a bit Regency and romantic looking, and the long coat lent itself to a lot of visual movement even when he’s standing still. I prefer the idea that his clothing should be from another time, but not a ‘costume’. I didn’t like the modern clothing idea for 9 & 10, although I suppose they too will look out of date eventually! Matt Smith is looking a bit retro, which is good.

Having just watched a bit of Caves of Fear it seems Gatiss had the same idea about costumes.

K: So, we’d have seen other looks develop then? Would he have kept the coat? (I rather like the coat.)

LS: He’d have kept the coat. I suppose we’d have done what they did with Doctors one to four. Of course, I changed the Sixth Doctor’s costume to shades of blue for Real Time.

K: I’d forgotten you were the first to do that. Was that your idea?

LS: I don’t think it was my idea, but I think I was the first to show it. Maybe it was in a book or maybe one of the Big Finish’s? Anyhow, they made a fine toy of it, which I was very pleased with!

K: And on a related note; are there any other Doctors you think in need of a make over?

LS: I always thought McGann’s costume was a bit feeble, not so much the design as the floppines of the jacket. And of course, ALL the bloody question marks

K: Your take on the Cybermen seems a lot more in keeping with their visual history than more recent TV designs. Did you receive any guidance on how they should look?

LS: There was no guidance from anyone as far as I can remember, but presumably either Matt or Stephen or I decided they would look like a rework of their original design and that’s how they came out.

K: Does Stephen Cole have a full script for the first full strip?

LS: I don’t know – I doubt it. The idea was that he didn’t know who he was and was on his last regeneration: I’m sure Stephen had an idea of where it would go, but I would doubt that he fleshed it out more than a pitch.

K: In a previous interview at Kasterborous you said you’d be disappointed if Davros turned up in New Who, stating that he “emasculated the Daleks as an independent force; downgraded them to Ogron status.” In light of Journey’s End would you care to comment further?

LS: My view stands. He is the creation of a writer who was either too lazy or tired of his creations to bother with the messy business of having them actually talk amongst themselves. I’ve always been exasperated at the tendency (even in the mighty Star Trek) to represent a whole planet’s civilisation with one individual. How would you do that with the Earth, for example? I would always point to David Whitaker’s Dalek Chronicles comic strip in TV21 as the model of treating the Daleks as a race, rather than boiling it all down to Davros.

Even though the Golden Emperor is the focal point and mouthpiece for the Daleks, he is still a Dalek, rather than a mad scientist. I enjoy some of the Davros episodes, but it’s a writer’s cop-out.

K: Your Unusual Suspects pieces are a personal favourite of mine and I know that some of the artists at In Print use them as reference points drawing multiple Doctors. Given that one draft included the Cushing, Shalka and Fatal Death Doctors do you think you could be tempted to issue a version with the ginger Doctor?

LS: Oh, I hadn’t thought of that. The Usual Suspects piece turned out to be “The Commission That Refused To Die” as far as I’m concerned, I would be quite happy to do that . . . maybe I will add Ginger Doc to it. I have a feeling that drawing and the subsequent revisions and redrawn permutations of it will follow me around forever, now. It really has taken on a life of its own. The 11 TV Doctors version is due to be released as an A3 poster along with a lot of other disparate material from many sources as a box set during this year. I’m flattered to hear that it’s a starting point for other artists, though.

We’ll be spotlighting Lee’s work further soon in our very own Whispering Gallery. As for the Ginger Doctor? Well we’ve heard of some plans for him in the future, but we’re not quite cleared to discuss them as yet…

The post Lee Sullivan and the Ginger Doctor appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.