Christian Cawley's Blog, page 391

Royal Visit to Doctor Who Set

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 doesn’t get much bigger than this for the Doctor Who production team, both Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, are to pay a visit to the Doctor Who set this year!

The visit forms part of the couple’s annual ‘Wales week’ tour which highlights the country’s charities and projects as well as promoting Wales in general as well.

Camilla and Charles will go to BBC Cymru Wales’s Roath Lock Studios in Cardiff, where the large majority of Doctor Who is filmed and will meet Matt Smith and Jenna-Louise Coleman as well as other members of the Doctor Who team.

One of the Clarence House spokesmen commented:

The Prince and The Duchess always enjoy their annual visit to Wales and this year they are looking forward to a varied programme of engagements including everything from Dylan Thomas’s Boat House to Doctor Who‘s TARDIS!

Coleman recently met the Queen and now she’s meeting her son and daughter-in-law, is she secretly being enlisted as part of the royal family? (Let’s hope not, poor girl’s got enough to do dealing with us lot! – Ed)

Either way, this is a major event behind the cameras for the Doctor Who production team and signifies just how importantly the 50 year old series is viewed by the BBC.

And who knows, maybe Moffat will convince the royal couple to film a cheeky scene together for the show’s 50th anniversary episode?

(Via Digital Spy.)

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A Doctor of Charity

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.

He’s a charitable fellow with his time, that Matt Smith.

When he’s not donating this time to support a worthy local cause, he’s also trying to auction off afternoon tea at The Ritz with his good self as company.

Anyone would think he was some sort of ‘lord of time’ or something.

While filming in America has prohibited his involvement in the 10th annual Cycle 4 Cynthia, that hasn’t stopped Matt from taking time out of his busy schedule to actively encourage others to get involved and to donate some Doctor Who merchandise.

The event is in support of Friends of Cynthia Spencer Hospice and Macmillan Cancer Support.

As reported in the Northampton Herald & Post Matt said:

“I grew up fairly close to the hospice so I know about its fantastic work and of course that of Macmillan, and I can’t imagine two more deserving causes.

So I’m really sorry that I can’t be there on the day as I’ve heard it’s great fun for riders of all ages and abilities. If only I actually could time-travel, I’d be there with my sonic screwdriver!”

Hospice spokesman Sue Bownass said:

“It’s such a wonderfully hectic year for Matt and of course we’re sorry that he can’t join us at Althorp for what is always a fabulous event but to know that he’s behind us and will be thinking of us on the day is invaluable.

Matt’s also kindly pledged to donate some signed memorabilia so we’ll raffle that and help raise a little more money for our two great causes.

Of course, we also award a prize for the best fancy dress so perhaps we might get a few daleks or even cyberman cycling this year, although it might be easier to knit a long coloured scarf and wear that instead!”

However the giving doesn’t end there.

Matt will be offering one lucky fan the chance to share afternoon tea with a Time Lord as part of an auction for two autism charities – Ambitious about Autism and The National Autistic Society.

As reported by Digital Spy, bidding is already underway for a fan and one friend to share some earl grey with Matt over at sellebrity.org.uk.

The website auction will be frozen at 11.10am on Monday, July 1st, where all bids will be carried over to the evening event, which starts at 8pm.

Bidding on the website prior to this means that fans will be able to telephone the auctioneer’s assistant during the auction to make their final bids.

The charity bike ride, Cycle 4 Cynthia is taking place at Althorp on Sunday September 22 with five, 25 or 50 mile routes.

Entry costs £15 for adults, £7.50 for children and £35 for families.

For more visit www.cycle4cynthia.com or call Sue Bownass at the Friends of Cynthia Spencer Hospice on 01604 678088.

To bid for afternoon tea head over to sellebrity.org.uk

The post A Doctor of Charity appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Classic Robert Holmes & Jon Pertwee on iPlayer

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.

Two BBC radio shows currently available on BBC iPlayer may be of interest to anyone who has even the slightest excitement for Doctor Who related programmes.

The first is An Hour with Jon Pertwee, a whole hour with the legend himself as he talks to a studio audience in a one man show regarding his life and career covering Doctor Who, The Navy Lark and Worzel Gummidge to name a few. It’s warm, heartfelt and hilarious as one would expect from a giant character like Pertwee. Even if you’re not a Doctor Who fan, you still need to listen to this.

The second offering form the BBC is a very interesting play called Aliens in the Mind. This story was originally submitted to the Doctor Who offices with the title Aliens in the Blood. It was to feature the Second Doctor, Jamie and Zoe and was outlined by Robert Holmes.

Although Holmes never completed the script as the story was never picked up for Doctor Who, the adventure was rewritten by one Rene Basilico and stars 2 of the biggest masters of the horror genre, Peter Cushing and Vincent Price. The Gothic setting and creepy story is also classic Robert Holmes:

On a remote Scottish island, are a community of human mutants capable of telepathy. A plan is in place to use them to control the British Government, and friends Curtis Lark (Vincent Price) and Hugh Baxter (Peter Cushing) join forces to combat them.

Both of these picks are available to listen to on iPlayer right now but remember to hurry, as they’ll only be there for the next few days.

An Hour with Jon Pertwee can be found at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00bdjh3 and the first episode of Aliens in the Mind can be listened to by visiting http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007jlt5 . There is only a day left  to listen to each of these shows, so act now!

(With thanks to Michael)

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Matt Says Goodbye – So Has He Already Left?

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.

Matt Smith has sent a goodbye message to Doctor Who fans, his colleagues, crew members and Steven Moffat through the BBC’s official website. Which seems premature unless he’s already filmed his final scenes, as we’ve already suggested….

What do you think? Hair too short to recover? A finality to his Bob Dylan inspired message?

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Scheduled Downtime: Sunday June 23rd

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 enjoy bringing you news, reviews, interviews and other great content – but on Sunday we won’t be able to. Let’s just say a big friendly button might be required…

From 3am UK time on Sunday, June 23rd to 3am Monday, June 24th we’ll be offline as we move servers (a result of our remarkable growth since last September). As such there will be no new items, or anything else, available to view.

We’ll still be active on Twitter and Facebook, however, and the news service will continue on Monday morning.

Apologies for any inconvenience this might cause. If you’re planning to download part four of Daleks’ Master Plan, we advise you do so when it is published on Saturday evening, or wait until Monday.

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Don’t Miss This Dalek Invaders T-shirt!

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.

Looking to spruce up your clothing collection this September? Fancy something that says ‘I’m a Doctor Who fan’ but without stating it explicitly?

Then perhaps we might suggest a visit to Forbidden Planet’s website where you’ll find the ultimate mix in cool, a Space Invaders style t-shirt with special Doctor Who themes on it!

You all know Space Invaders, the insanely addictive video game where you control a ship and blast aliens out of the sky as they move closer and closer towards you? Well now imagine that the ship is the TARDIS and the invading aliens are Daleks, you’ve just imagined the t-shirt!

Ranging in sizes from small to extra extra large, these t-shirts have some pretty cool Doctor Who references for you to find as well, we won’t spoil it for you but we noticed 3.

You’ll have to wait a little for the merchandise however, they won’t be available until 8th September 2013 but Forbidden Planet are currently taking pre-orders so that you can guarantee one will get to you before they have the chance to become sold out.

RRP is £17.99 but Forbidden Planet being the nice people that they are has decided to sell theirs for just £14.99, saving you a bit of money as well!

You can pre-order your t-shirt right now at the Forbidden Planet online store.

The post Don’t Miss This Dalek Invaders T-shirt! appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

TIEA Issues Statement on Lost Episode Rumours

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.

Will this statement put the rumours concerning rediscovered missing episodes of Doctor Who to bed? Television International Enterprises Archives Ltd is the company run by Philip Morris, TV archivist and film hunter.

It is also the organization said to be involved in the discovery the supposed 90 missing episodes. In a statement, TIEA makes things pretty clear:

A BRIEF STATEMENT .

T.I.E.A DOES NOT HOLD ANY MISSING EPISODES OF THE LONG RUNNING DR WHO SERIES. THE ORIGINAL VIDEO TAPES WERE WIPED SUBSEQUENT FILM COPIES WERE EITHER RETURNED TO THE BBC AND SENT TO LANDFILL ODD FRAGMENTS HAVE SURFACED TWO EPISODES ON 16MM FILM BUT THATS IT. THE PROGRAMMES IN QUESTION LIKE MANY OTHERS WERE DESTROYED AS THEY HAD NO FURTHER COMMERCIAL VALUE .THEY ARE NOT MISSING BUT DESTROYED THE END.I am sorry if this upsets some people but these are the facts.I have also become aware of the tracking of some of our clients shipments these are local cultural materials sent to us for migration to a modern format as the playback equipment in the country of origin no longer exists and as such is the best road to preserve international cultural heritage .I will be making no more statements on this subject.

Philip MORRIS Executive director T.i.e.a

The end of the dream? Perhaps – but we don’t want uncertainty during Doctor Who’s 50th anniversary year do we?

(via Television International Enterprises Archives Ltd Facebook Page | Thanks to Elton)

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Torchwood Star Among Names for the Twelfth Doctor

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.

A surprising name has emerged amongst the many actors in contention for the role of the Twelfth Doctor Who.

Former Torchwood star Burn Gorman, who played Owen Harper in the Doctor Who spin-off, is rumoured to be one of the final contenders for the role. If the The Dark Knight Rises actor is successful, it would perhaps be the closest we come to an American Doctor – the actor was born to British parents in Hollywood in 1974.

Another name also rumoured to be amongst the BBC producers’ hypothetical list of actors being considered for the next Time Lord is Green Wing star Julian Rhind-Tutt.

As reported in The Sun, Julian was rumoured to be down to the last few potential Doctors when David Tennant left the role in 2010.

Far away from the close/close-but-no-cigar stakes is former Doctor Who guest-star David Harwood (The End of Time) who unsurprisingly said that playing the Doctor would be an ‘exciting’ prospect.

Speaking on ITV’s Loose Women David said:

“It would be really difficult to turn down…It’s very exciting. It would be very exciting if the phone rang…Get the BBC on the phone. We should start a pressure group or something!”

Someone else who’s unlikely to receive a call from the BBC is Red Dwarf star Craig Charles, who is quoted in Purple Revolver as saying that he would love to be the first black Doctor:

“Yeah, having a black Doctor Who would be double cool. To be asked by the Beeb would be great, it’s such a classic show.

But I think there would probably be too much cross-over with Red Dwarf, as we’ve got a new series lined up next year.

Also, I would have to grit my teeth a bit, because the thing about Dr Who that always annoyed me was the graphics are crap.

But, even if I can’t be the first black Doctor, I am the first black man to own a house on Corrie, which is as good a claim to fame.”

 

One name that could tentatively be scrubbed from the every-growing list new Doctors is John Hurt.

As reported by Den of Geek, the man who was introduced as the Doctor in The Name of the Doctor has joined the cast of Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan’s sci-fi Vampire show The Strain, based on the pair’s book trilogy of the same name.

The pilot episode, where the Alien star will reteam with the Hellboy director to play Professor Abraham Setrakian, “a holocaust survivor who immigrated to the United States after World War II and now runs a pawn shop in Spanish Harlem”, is set to begin shooting in September – apparently ruling him out of any further appearances beyond the 50th anniversary (or perhaps the Christmas special?)

So is Burn a good fit for the Doctor? Julian Rhind-Tutt certainly has the look but does he have your vote? And should Craig Charles swap the Jupiter Mining Corp for the TARDIS? And why has Ben Miller not yet broken his silence?

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Doctor Who Experience Shortlisted!

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.

Congratulations are in order for the Doctor Who Experience which has been shortlisted in the National Tourism Awards for Wales! And it’s only been in Wales a year!

The Experience and the other shortlisted businesses in the Regional Tourism Award category were announced on Monday 17th June at the launch of the new tourism strategy for Wales by Minister for Economy, Science and Transport, Edwina Hart. The Minister said:

“It’s fantastic to see such a high number of entries for this year’s National Tourism Awards for Wales. What’s more, the quality of those entries was outstanding. We are very fortunate in Wales to have a tourism sector of such high calibre. The shortlisted businesses are prime examples of quality businesses, helping to drive higher tourism earnings for the Welsh economy. We look forward to unveiling the winners in November.”

The awards are staged by Visit Wales, in partnership with the Wales Tourism Alliance and in commercial partnership with Quadrant Media and Communications, to recognise and reward the very best in Welsh tourism.

All of the shortlisted businesses will now go through another round of judging before finalists are announced ahead of the awards ceremony at Venue Cymru in Llandudno on 21 November 2013.

Good luck to the Experience!

(Via Facebook.)

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Are Lost Episodes Among 3 Tons of Missing Tapes?

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.

After our last item and our recent podKast we thought we’d put the rumours concerning the rediscovery of lost episodes to bed. It seems, however, that it’s just going to rumble on and on…

First things first: Bleeding Cool managed to get a response from the Head of Communications, Brands, Content & Digital, BBC Worldwide, Philip Fleming concerning the story.

There are always rumours and speculation about Doctor Who missing episodes being discovered, however we cannot confirm any new finds.

Update:

The Radio Times website has unsuccessfully attempted to glean more information:

“We can’t confirm because it’s not true as far a I’m aware,” the spokeswoman adds.

But are they talking to Morris? Or anyone with lost episodes.

“I don’t think so?”

So there are no episodes?

“Not as far as we know.”

End update

Meanwhile, we’ve been told that members of the Missing Episodes forum where these things are routinely discussed (and not just for Doctor Who either) have been barred from discussing the alleged discovery.

To summarise, the rumour is that 3 tons of old video tapes and film reels have been shipped from Africa – Uganda is the popular location for these rumours – to Liverpool. Smartphone camera shots of cargo manifests have been used to “prove” the findings, although of course all they prove is that 3 tons of something was shipped to Liverpool. Whether there are 90 lost episodes in this trove is another matter entirely.

As ever we urge taking this whole business with a very big pinch of salt. Even if it is true, and the BBC is in negotiations for the return of these classic TV shows, it seems unlikely that they would be any nearer a deal now than they would have been 12 months ago.

On the other hand, even the original saviour of lost Doctor Who episodes Ian Levine has had a change of heart, going from

"There will always be 106 Doctor Who episodes missing". And yes you can quote me on that.

— Ian Levine (@IanLevine) June 15, 2013

to

I have just seen "three tons" of evidence that tells me it's all true. Saying no more. Apart from I now believe it again.

— Ian Levine (@IanLevine) June 18, 2013

Don’t know what to believe? Well, believe this: it’s the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who this year. If these episodes turn up, then fine. If they don’t, we’ve still got two more specials, a dramatisation of the show’s early years and a new Doctor to look forward to.

Discuss this story in the Kasterborous Forum.

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