Christian Cawley's Blog, page 393

Milk VFX Replaces The Mill

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.

There’s a lot of change going on in Doctor Who this year. A new Doctor is coming and that means a whole new world of adventures and exploits.

But just for a second, forget all that because there’s also a massive change coming behind the scenes that you may not have thought about.

Doctor Who is to get a new visual FX crew this year, the good people at the Mill are stepping down and a new bunch is stepping up to take their place.

Although they’re a new company, there’s some familiar faces that will realise Doctor Who’s new visuals.

Milk, the company that will get you believing that a TARDIS can fly, will consist of Nick Drew, Managing Director and Executive Producer, Visual Effects Supervisors Jean-Claude Deguara and Nico Hernandez, also joint Heads of 3D , Sara Bennett, Head of 2D and Murray Barber. They will work alongside Executive Producer and CEO of the company, someone familiar to fans through Doctor Who Confidential, Will Cohen.

Cohen gave some confident words:

Milk aims to be the most sought after visual effects team in what we believe is blossoming into a thriving industry for high-end TV visual effects. Our new venture is timed to enable us to capitalise on the new tax breaks in the UK as we expect to see an influx of TV work, as well as continued feature film work, coming to London over the next few months and beyond.

Not only will Milk be working on the effects for Doctor Who’s 50th Anniversary, they will also be working on Moffat’s third series of Sherlock as well so there’s plenty to look forward to from them.

You can see examples of their work at http://www.milk-vfx.com/ and it looks amazing.

(Via Doctor Who News.)

The post Milk VFX Replaces The Mill appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Alastair Reynolds Chats Harvest of Time

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 author of June’s hardcover Doctor Who novel Harvest of Time is Alastair Reynolds, a writer who is no stranger to sci-fi. With Hugo awards nomination shortlist mentions and a British Science Fiction Award for Best Novel for his second book, Chasm City, in 2001, Reynolds is a hugely respect writer – just like his predecessors in this range Michael Moorcock, Dan Abnett and Stephen Baxter.

It could be said that his career has already reached great heights – but then, he’s never had the Third Doctor and the Master to play with… Alastair Reynolds recently chatted with us about the book, which features Jo Grant, UNIT and a fearsome new enemy, the Sild.

It seems that the successful writer is a huge Doctor Who fan “Always have been.” And while Reynolds says that he had “no hesitation about doing the book,” he has no plans to work on any other book or TV series.

“Doctor Who seems to me to offer much more creative scope than any other “franchise” universe. You can do almost anything within the frame of a Doctor Who story.”

Then again, what could top Doctor Who? With Harvest of Time, Alastair Reynolds gets to be a part of the 50th anniversary, even if he does admit that “it’s largely accidental, I think, but I couldn’t have hoped for better timing!”

Harvest of Time is a superb adventure for both the Doctor and the Master, one that sees the Time Lords venture into time and space in order to prevent an ancient enemy from conquering Earth in the present. Back on Earth, Jo is the focus as she and UNIT try to unravel the mystery of some unusual and unprecedented events in the North Sea, and there is also a mysterious and surprising link between the two epochs.

“BBC/Ebury said that they were interested in bringing in “outside” writers to do Doctor Who books and they were open to ideas about earlier incarnations. I was immediately certain that I wanted to do a UNIT era story with the Third Doctor, Jo, the Master, Brig and so on. I think those episodes come from a time when I first connected with the series and began to understand it on some level. As it happened no one else had gone for the Third Doctor yet so that wasn’t a problem. My friend Stephen Baxter [The Wheel of Ice] is a big fan of the Troughton era so for him that was the natural one to do. I think Jenni Colgan [Dark Horizons] and Mike Moorcock [The Coming of the Terraphiles] both went for the current Doctor.

As a “hard” sci-fi writer, Reynolds has a strong reputation. In contrast, Doctor Who is essentially science fantasy… “I was pretty clear in my mind that this was not going to be a Hard SF story. That wouldn’t have worked, I think. The mere fact that the Doctor gets to where he needs to be in a transdimensional time machine is a bit of a stretch!

“But I’ve always been attracted to the notion of the Doctor as a scientist figure, with his inherent skepticism and calm rationality. That was probably never stronger than with Pertwee, whose Doctor was also into gadgets and vehicles of all sorts, but I did want to reflect it a bit. I became a professional scientist and one of the reasons for that is that when I grew up there were two strong scientific role models on TV – Spock and the Doctor.”

It’s unusual to find a convincing new Doctor Who enemy in any medium these days. With the Sild, Reynolds has created a crab-like race that are both fascinating and reckless. “The main thing I tried to bring out with the Sild is that individually they’re a bit rubbish. I liked the idea of this all-conquering alien species that you can easily kill, just by stepping on them or something. But there are so many of them that they eventually overwhelm by sheer force of numbers.

“They’re not well armoured and they don’t have powerful weapons. It’s just that there are a lot of them. We’ve not tended to have that in Doctor Who because the budget usually only stretched to three monsters at a time.”

“I’d had the name for about 20 years! I was walking through a supermarket once and I saw some fish labelled “Sild”. I thought – great name for an alien species! It turns out that there’s a Harry Hill skit based on the same fish but I didn’t know that – and I love Harry Hill!”

On the matter of writing the book, I was interested to find out how Alastair Reynolds approaches his craft. Some writers plan meticulously. Others put things together in their head first, and simply having an idea and setting off isn’t that uncoming, it seems.  “I just dive in and write,” says Alastair (I had him down as a planner…!). “I have a notional idea where I’m going but I don’t go in for a lot of outlining and planning. The Who book was a bit different in that I had to provide a fairly detailed synopsis but even then there was still a lot of making it up as I went along.

“The downside of that, of course, is that I need to do a lot of rewriting and I end up discarding a lot of material.”

What of his predecessors? Who does Alastair Reynolds admire from the 50 years of Doctor Who writers? “I’m so clueless I honestly couldn’t tell you who wrote what. I’ve been rewatching a lot of the DVDs lately and so some of the names are starting to sink in, but I can’t say it was ever a concern when I was 8 years old. It was just – are the monsters going to be any good?”

“In terms of the novelisations, though, they were a huge influence on my early adult reading. I owe Terrance Dicks a lot! As do many of us, I suspect. And the other authors, of course.”

One of the things about Harvest of Time – which you’ll love if you buy a copy – is the perfect capture of the interplay between Jon Pertwee’s Doctor and Roger Delgado’s Master. “They felt totally effortless,” recalls Alastair, “the only drawback was that I had to trim them down a lot as I got so carried away.”

If only books had special “directors cut”-style editions!

Finally, I asked Alastair for his thoughts on the current series, and whether he would be interested in an Eleventh Doctor novel.

“I like the new series a lot, with reservations of course. All three of the “new” Doctors have been terrific, I think. Matt Smith might be the best of the lot. He gives good sonic! How well I’d get on writing him I don’t know. The dialogue and interplay is a million miles from Pertwee. I’d give anything a shot, though.”

Many thanks to Alastair Reynolds for a great interview and superb book, which we’ll be reviewing shortly on Kasterborous.

Harvest of Time is out now in hardback with an RRP of £16.99 – you can buy it now from Amazon for £10.19 (a 40% saving) or download the Kindle version for £9.17. An audiobook read by Geoffrey Beevers is also available for £5.59.

Although most of the promotional events have now taken place, there are still a couple of locations where Alastair Reynolds will be signing copies of Harvest of Time in the next couple of weeks:

Thursday 20th June 6.30pm – Forest Bookshop, Coleford, Forest of Dean (8 St John’s St, Coleford, Gloucestershire GL16 8AR)
Tuesday 2nd July 8 – 9.30 pm – Toppings Bookshop Bath (The Paragon Bath, Somerset BA1 5LS)

The post Alastair Reynolds Chats Harvest of Time appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Missing Episodes Rumours Reactions

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.

A few days ago, we reported the rumours circulating on that viper’s nest we like to call ‘the internet’ that lost episodes of Doctor Who from the 1960s have been found. We weren’t the only ones.

Like a stone being dropped into a pool, the waves Bleeding Cool’s original article created were quite substantial, garnering response from many-a-news site and, of course, on Twitter. But let’s first look back at said wave-inducing stone, in which Bleeding Cool’s Rich Johnston said:

“What I’ve been hearing, and some of it is attributed to an eccentric engineer who worked for broadcasters across Africa with a taste for science fiction and a habit of taking things for “safe keeping”, is that the BBC have secured a large number of presumed-wiped episodes of early Doctor Who.

 

And there are lots. Lots and lots. Completed serials that we’ve only had incomplete before, full series that nothing existed of. Not everything. But heaps and heaps. Possibly even The Full Hartnell.

 

And come November, or before, we’ll get to see them.

 

Now promises of this kind have been made many times before. Sometimes they’ve come true, sometimes they have now. But I’m told to expect, among others, a full Evil Of The Daleks from 1967. Up till now, the BBC only had the second of seven episodes, after that film was found in a car boot sale.”

The Full Hartnell! Marco Polo, The Massacre of St. Bartholomew’s Eve, Galaxy 4, not forgetting the very first regeneration in episode 4 of The Tenth Planet… Sounds too good to be true, right?! Nonetheless, the rumblings continued over at Ain’t It Cool, who says:

“I can confirm that the recovery of missing episodes does appear to be the case.  

 

This said, I’ve been unable to glean exact numbers of episodes recovered, and I’ve yet to ascertain their condition.  Rumors of this recovery have been popping up on DW-themed message boards for a while now (I’m unable to exact links at the moment), where some rather staggering numbers have been advanced (in terms of how many episode shave been located).  The number I’m hearing is considerably less than is being represented on said boards – but is still an impressive and promising amount.  This said, the situation may be in flux and the smaller number I’m hearing may actually be escalating.”

And Johnston even updated the original post with this:

“Shortly after posting, I received further confirmation of the details listed above from another, better connected source. I don’t think I need to cross my fingers quite so hard any more.”

Okay, so this sounds like the best news we’ve received this year. But before you get your hopes up, Paul Vanezis, a key member of the Restoration Team (and partly responsible finding episodes of The Sensorites, The Aztecs and The Reign of Terror), said, as Planet Mondas notes:

“Hi all.

 

Just very quickly to nip this in the bud. Someone forwarded me the text of one of these tweets and the main gist appears to be that Tenth Planet 4 was returned to the BBC last year (untrue) and the Restoration Team are working on a lost Troughton adventure (also untrue).

 

As far as I’m aware, Tenth Planet 4 has not been returned to the BBC (and I would surely know about it). The Restoration Team are not working on a lost Troughton and readying it for release. In fact, at the moment, nothing is being worked on, on the DW front. I should also add that nothing has been returned to the BBC in the form of a missing Doctor Who since I last posted i.e. one of the known to be lost 106 eps. Nothing has changed since I last came here to say nothing has been returned.

 

What I think has happened though is that someone has pooled together all the current rumours about the so called return of lost DW and is purporting to be an insider to justify his claims. Whatever the rumour, it’s an anonymous one and not based in fact. Disappointing I know, but there you go. As usual, this will be my only comment on the matter.

 

“I want to believe”. Yeah, right.

 

Regards,

 

Paul”

This hasn’t shut many up though. Jonathan Morris, Big Finish and Doctor Who Magazine writer, also denied the rumour, as has Ian Levine, who was responsible for saving many 1960s episodes. In fact, he’s had quite a lot to say on Twitter:

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

— Ian Levine (@IanLevine) June 15, 2013

My previous tweet was not ironic. I too wanted to believe ninety episodes had been found. I now believe none have been found. A massive hoax

— Ian Levine (@IanLevine) June 15, 2013

So yes, there will ALWAYS be 106 episodes missing (unless of course someone returns 90 of them, which clearly is NOT going to happen at all)

— Ian Levine (@IanLevine) June 16, 2013

 

According to Levine, only two episodes of The Sky at Night have been recovered (which, though some are belittling this, it’s a great achievement anyway – firstly, it proves that episodes are still being found, regardless of what show it actually is; and secondly, it’s especially poignant since Sir Patrick Moore’s recent passing). Levine then has a couple of ‘last words,’ one of which may be offensive to anyone not well-versed in expletives):

My last word on the matter. On a parallel Earth 90 missing episodes are being returned. But on THIS Earth nothing but 2 fucking Sky At Night

— Ian Levine (@IanLevine) June 16, 2013

Absolute Last Word. I spent 35 years looking for episodes since I saved The Daleks from being destroyed. I am convinced none have been found

— Ian Levine (@IanLevine) June 16, 2013

Personally, I like @Manterik’s opinion here:

@IanLevine Something returned is better than nothing, Ian.

— M@nterik (@Manterik) June 16, 2013

Hear, hear!

And just in case you weren’t sure on Levine’s stance:

Look,I DO believe no episodes have been found,based on what certain people told me at the BFI. But I suppose they could have lied to my face

— Ian Levine (@IanLevine) June 17, 2013

What he goes on to explain, however, is pretty interesting stuff:

To answer loads of comments online, the rumour I heard from an impeccable source was eight thousand BBC film cans containing (continued)

— Ian Levine (@IanLevine) June 17, 2013

(cont) ninety missing Who episodes which would complete 21 missing stories. Plus duplicates or most of what exists. Leaving 16 missing (cont

— Ian Levine (@IanLevine) June 17, 2013

(cont) But however amazing that may sound, however much we all wish for it to be true, I now don't believe a word of it. But it's 90 if true

— Ian Levine (@IanLevine) June 17, 2013

And one thing you don't know is that the person came to me first, ten years ago, and it was ME who got him the paperwork to go search. TRUTH

— Ian Levine (@IanLevine) June 17, 2013

And none of the rumours I heard suggested anything at all was back at the BBC – merely had been found by one person including 90 missing Who

— Ian Levine (@IanLevine) June 17, 2013

 

He even expands on what those rumours would mean for the Whoniverse: that only 16 episodes would remain missing. These are:

Okay everbody – as I don't believe it,or was lied to, the 16 eps still missing were Masterplan-9 Mission-1 Ice Warriors-2 Wheel-2 Invasion-2

— Ian Levine (@IanLevine) June 17, 2013

DrWho-Online has since stated:

“DWO can confirm that we have been approached with news from several high-profile sources, some of which confirm these rumours and some that conflict with them and the actual figure of the number of episodes rumoured to have been found.

 

Whilst it would be easy to blurt out everything we have been told, we retain the caution from previous rumours and hoaxes, and will simply hold out for official confirmation – when and if it comes. What we will say is that *should* the rumours be true, despite the initial excitement at the possibility, it would be wise to sit back and let the BBC do what they need to do to secure these episodes *if* in fact they have been found.”

This really is a big kerfuffle, isn’t it? And the only certainty behind it all is this: we’ll have to wait to find out the truth.

The post Missing Episodes Rumours Reactions appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Doctor Who and the Queen’s Birthday Honours

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 second swathe of letters-after-their-names have been awarded by the UK’s elite ruling class to those that have been deemed worthy of recognition for the head of state’s birthday – and among them are some actors with Doctor Who connections.

So congratulations to Julian Glover, Claire Bloom, David Haig and Rowan Atkinson, all rewarded in this year’s Queen’s Birthday Honours.

Julian Glover, CBE appeared in The Crusade (1965) as Richard The Lionheart, and later in City Of Death (1979) as Scaroth, last of the Jagaroth.

Claire Bloom, CBE who appeared in The End Of Time (2009/2010) as The Woman.

David Haig, MBE, was Pangol in The Leisure Hive (1980) as Pangol has been awarded an MBE.

Rowan Atkinson, CBE starred in 1999′s Comic Relief spinoff The Curse Of Fatal Death as the Doctor. Amusingly his Blackadder co-star and subordinate Tony Robinson has been knighted.

Looks like we’ll have to wait another six months for Bernard Cribbins’ knighthood…

The post Doctor Who and the Queen’s Birthday Honours appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Richelle Mead Introduces Something Borrowed

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.

Crikey, we’re getting through the Doctor’s 50th birthday like he has no more bodies to regenerate into. It seems like only yesterday that we were all anticipating that start of 2013 and now, suddenly, we’re only 5 months away from the Big Weekend that leads up to 23rd November.

Alongside other merchandise releases in June, Kasterborous is delighted that one of the New York Times and USA Today’s best selling authors, Richelle Mead, will be the writer for the Sixth Doctor eBook release, Something Borrowed. This book continues the series of short stories that are being released every month, culminating in November 2013 with the Eleventh Doctor.

Watch Mead introduce the video below.

Those of you not familiar with Mead may want to have a look at examples of her other works of fiction which include the Vampire Academy and the Dark Swan series.

Mead has been described as an urban fantasist and you can discover a little more about her as well as her reasons for choosing to write this particular novel, her thoughts on the different characters that the Doctor has been and a small teaser from her book that may get Sixth Doctor fans excited, by checking out the YouTube video above. You can also read an excerpt on the Guardian website, or just pre-order from Amazon ahead of the June 21st release, for just £1.99!

As don’t forget, Something Borrowed follows on from short stories by Eoin Colfer, Michael Scott, Marcus Sedgwick, Philip Reeve and Patrick Ness. A paperback anthology of the eleven eshorts, The Doctor Who Collection: 50th Anniversary will be published, alongside the final eshort featuring the Eleventh Doctor, on 23 November 2013.

The post Richelle Mead Introduces Something Borrowed appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

What the Stars Say about the Next 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.

With rumours running amok, we thought you might like to get a good summary of who has said what lately concerning the role of the Twelfth Doctor.

One of the early names thrown into the ring and then swiftly, and rather wittily, tossed straight back out again was Stephen Mangan (Dirk Gently) who posted a photo of himself:

Who are you? pic.twitter.com/QrQegn71JH

— Stephen Mangan (@StephenMangan) June 1, 2013

He then tweeted

Can’t wait to start work as the new Doctor on Thursday.

— Stephen Mangan (@StephenMangan) June 2, 2013

…which was immediately followed by ‘Seriously – I’m not the new Doctor Who. I don’t know where these rumours start’ [er, with you by the look of things, Stephen! - Ed].

One RTD endorsed name that quickly scorched rumours he was about to jump on board the TARDIS was Russell Tovey (Being Human), who joined in the fun on Twitter that faithful Sunday with:

Sad to hear of Matt Smith's doctor departure, he truly is a superb actor and made the Doc proper.. Who's next tho eh? Who's next.. Hmmm x

— russell tovey (@russelltovey) June 2, 2013

‘Hmmm’ indeed but that ‘hmmm’ would only last four days where Russell used the international language of ‘Knock, Knock’ jokes to declare himself out of the running that he probably was never in to begin with:

Doctor doctor?
Who's there?
Russell Tovey?
Russell Tovey, Isn't he gonna be the new twelfth Doctor Who?

No x
:-)

— russell tovey (@russelltovey) June 5, 2013

Sensing a distinct lack of British eccentricity in the hunt to fill the country’s most eccentric role Absolute Radio’s Christian O’Connell  (via The Independent) took it upon himself to ask Russell Brand (Forgetting Sarah Marshall) to fill this hole (said the actress to the bishop); to which he replied in the affirmative:

Yeah, I’d love to be him, I’d be like a Tom Baker one, like a sort of long scarf, flouncy, wistful, quoting occasional poems, kicking Cybermen in the nuts. This is what the country needs.

I would just travel through time pinching people’s a***s. Carry on up the worm hole. Like quantum physics, so that is actually perfect. No, we can’t have that in the Tardis, ‘ere it’s a lot bigger on the inside.

Taking up the smutty baton from Brand, Matthew Rhys (The Americans) stumbled Doctor alike onto the Planet of Unintended Innuendo during an interview with BBC Radio 5 Live’s Richard Bacon:

I don’t think I could pull off Doctor Who – especially after what Matt has done with it.

Behave, missus.

Someone else who would actually love to pull off the Doctor, thank you very much is Samuel West (Mr Selfridge, Dimensions in Time) – who knowing his way around a quote or two told the Radio Times:

I’ve always wanted to play Doctor Who. Hamlet and Doctor Who – and I’ve done Hamlet.

Seeking to buck the trend of younger and younger actors taking on the role of the Doctor West wants to bring back the essential ‘otherness’ to the deeply alien Doctor:

I think he should be slightly other. I remember when I first started watching it he was a little bit like a frightening grandfather and I don’t want to be a grandfather but I don’t think he should be cuddly. ‘Other’ is the word, he should be a bit ‘other’.

And with love comes denial; for why he may love the show, he cannot be a part of it. This is the plight of Domhnall Gleeson (Dredd), a man who despite receiving the nod for the role from Starburst Magazine along with Dominic Cooper (The History Boys) and Daniel Kaluuya (Black Mirror), can’t even get his own agent to take it seriously.

Speaking to RTÉ TEN Domhnall said:

There’s nothing to [it…I heard about it from my agent [who] sent me a website, [and was] laughing about the fact that people were saying that I was being talked about. I was like, ‘That’s lovely: my own agent is laughing at the idea!’

So, it’s not true and there’s nothing you can do about people just spouting a whole load of s**te on the internet!

He’s on to me! Shut it down!

And now, with everybody that little bit clearer and with only one obvious choice left to fill the role (seriously, you’ve not guessed it?) it was left to Neil Gaiman to restore a semblance of calm to proceedings with this post on his Tumblr page:

I want to be taken by surprise. I want to squint at a photo of the person online and go “but how can that be The Doctor? Then I want to be amazingly, delightedly, completely proven wrong, and, six episodes in, I want to wonder how I could have been so blind. Because this is the Doctor. Of course it is.

So there we have it. Normalcy is restored…

You’ll never guess who I heard has been linked to the role!! Seriously!! Exclamation marks!!

The post What the Stars Say about the Next Doctor appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Tony Lee Returns to IDW’s Doctor Who!

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 Doctor is going back to the Wild West in a brand new four part IDW Comics serial by returning writer Tony Lee!

At the IDW panel at MCM London Expo, editor Dirk Wood announced Tony Lee’s return to the Whofold this September for a four part story called Dead Man’s Hand that runs from issue #13, through the 50th anniversary period.

Apparently the tale features the Doctor and Clara visiting Deadwood in 1882, and has guest stars Oscar Wilde, Calamity Jane and Thomas Edison in an adventure that pits them against undead mask-wearing gunfighters, including Wild Bill Hickok, zombies that can kill with a pointed finger, and (of course) an alien invasion.

Art duties will be filled by Mike Collins, best known for his work on the Doctor Who Magazine strips.

(Via Bleeding Cool.)

The post Tony Lee Returns to IDW’s Doctor Who! appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Daleks’ Master Plan 3: Day of Armageddon

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 here – the third installment of our adaptation of the Terry Nation classic The Daleks’ Master Plan, expertly scripted and illustrated by Rick Lundeen!

The Doctor’s discovery of Daleks on Kembel leads him to take drastic action – going undercover to discover the extent of his enemy’s audacious plan to conquer Earth…

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If you want to download and read at your own pace, the PDF is available free from the Kasterborous Store. CBR and CBZ versions will follow.

The post Daleks’ Master Plan 3: Day of Armageddon appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Would Tennant Have Made a Better Perrin?

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 Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin creator David Nobbs didn’t get where he is today by not sharing his casting wishes for Reggie Perrin, the misguided 2009 revamp of his most famous creation.

Double negatives aside, Nobbs told the News Shopper that his original choice for the role made famous by Leonard Rossiter was none other than David Tennant:

“He was very off-the-wall, you can imagine him being rude to people.”

Looking back on the show now, which he co-wrote with Amy’s Choice writer Simon Nye, Nobbs believes that the reason why the show didn’t connect with audiences was in the casting of Martin Clunes in the titular role:

“It wasn’t a failure, but equally it wasn’t a success. I now think Martin was wrong (for the role). He’s a lovely actor, but he’s too likeable. You can’t believe he’s going off his rocker to be honest.”

While the show did have its detractor’s one person who did praise Clunes’ interpretation was The Times columnist Caitlin Moran who said:

“I engage with the escalating depression and insanity of Clunes’s Perrin more than I did with Rossiter’s…”

Would you have liked to have seen David tackle one of the greatest archetypes of comedy? Do you think even he could have improved the shows middling reception?

(Via DT Forum)

The post Would Tennant Have Made a Better Perrin? appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Racegate: Rising above the Daily Mail

James Colvin 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.

James Colvin offers his considered opinion on the press storm surrounding forthcoming book Doctor Who and Race.

Doctor Who. Racism. Big topic.

As Christian has graciously conceded, Kasterborous “found itself caught up in a froth-mouthed, pitchfork-wielding mob” over this, instigated by none other than the Daily Mail.

This is easily done of course – and by acknowledging as much, Christian and Kasterborous get a great deal more respect from me than any of the many fansites, blogs and even mainstream tabloids and broadsheets that have failed to do so. It’s really important to recognise when something like this has happened and have a bit of a think about why.

The ridiculously eloquent Philip Sandifer has explained the background of the whole media blitz – and his whole post on the topic is essential reading.

Firstly: of course Doctor Who has been racist on occasion. As Sandifer points out in his article, it’s (so far) been about a white male visiting other cultures and fixing their problems for them. Further to this, it’s a mainstream entertainment from a post-colonial country. Our culture is so steeped in racism (to varying degrees of severity) that it would be astounding if a long-running television series had managed to avoid ever being even slightly racist at any point.

Our culture is so steeped in racism (to varying degrees of severity) that it would be astounding if a long-running television series had managed to avoid ever being even slightly racist at any point.

Examples: obviously there’s Li H’sen Chang. But there’s also Tlotoxl in The Aztecs, who’s investment in (a misconstrued) version of his own values of his own time is portrayed as inherently villainous – even when he’s right about the heroes lying to them all. And Toberman in Tomb of the Cyberman – a transparent racist stereotype of a physically strong and mentally limited black man. More recently, there has been a lot of debate over the characterisation of Mickey and Martha. In The Shakespeare Code, when Martha asks if she’s going to have a hard time as a black woman in 16th century London, the Doctor dismisses the problem, saying if she just breezes about like she owns the place, she’ll be fine. Obviously, this would not have been the case – and suggesting so kind of sweeps under the rug the whole issue of race at a time when the British were literally enslaving black people.

Whether or not you are convinced by these arguments is almost beside the point. Considering these viewpoints in a reasoned manner is imperative. As Sandifer points out, “the only people with something to gain by treating criticism of racism and colonialism as an outright and no-holds-barred denunciation of British culture are the people who want British culture to remain racist and colonial”.

You can recognise this and still love Doctor Who. I’d argue it deepens your appreciation for the show, if you are willing to acknowledge its faults and – crucially – expect better of it.

I love Doctor Who – and especially the twentieth century stuff. It often had an amateurish execution, combined with noble, Reithian intentions, which gave it a kind of communal abstraction that approached a shared folk culture. The nature of the programme is obviously different in the 21st century, but this kind of widely-viewed mainstream entertainment show still leaves room for people to bring their own agenda to it.

All of which means, as fans, we shouldn’t be blind to the complications that can be present.

Want to know why I think this matters so much? Please have a read of this short blogpost by Racialicious.

In particular look at the highlighted tweets to editor of the Doctor Who and Race book, Lindy Orthia. This is completely unacceptable, knee-jerk misogyny and racism from people who are happy to shut down consideration of a television show – and they can’t possibly have read the book.

So let’s rise above that – and let’s do so by not blindly dismissing complaints against instances of racism, sexism and so on. The show demonstrably has been these things on occasion, but it doesn’t have to be. Let’s give serious consideration to the uglier parts of the show – especially in classic serials that might be your personal favourites like Tomb or Weng-Chiang.

To dismiss such issues would be to share an impulse with Ian Levine, who said that when John Nathan-Turner was producer, “things went on that were horrible, corrupt, too awful to discuss”. However, despite being in a position to do something about it – or at the very least wash his hands of involvement in it – turned a blind eye in order to continue being close to the show and loving it without complication. Sandifer pointed this out in another blogpost on the comics and yearbook of the Christopher Eccleston run.

Doctor Who‘s central message isn’t a negative or racist one, and it hasn’t been racist all the time. So let’s celebrate the aspects of the show that are positive and loveable, but not ignore or apologise for the parts that aren’t. I’m very much looking forward to reading the book, and I’ll be interested to read what Christian has to say about it when he reviews it.

To close, here’s an elequent and balanced response to the press attention from the Doctor Who and Race book, Lindy Orthia.

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