Christian Cawley's Blog, page 46

Doctor Who Pop-Up Shops Open in Sydney

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.

The Doctor Who pop-up shop has materialised once again in Sydney, Australia – perfect for getting Christmas presents!

The shop opened on Wednesday 4th November at the Broadway Shopping Centre, and will stay there until January 2016, following the overwhelming popularity of previous stores in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane!

The shop stocks swathes of Doctor Who merchandise, including the new Twelfth Doctor Sonic Screwdriver Universal Remote, and a brand new range of Pop! Vinyl figures (they’re the ones with the giant heads).

Other products will include clothing such as skater dresses, shirts and t-shirts, stationary; and homeware like mugs and teapots.

Fans also have the chance to step inside the famous blue box with the TARDIS photo booth, where they can have their photo taken on a choice of backgrounds to share with friends on Facebook. Pretty sure there’ll be a hashtag promoted too.

The pop-up shop comes ahead of the first ever official Doctor Who Festival in Australia, taking place at the Royal Hall of Industries and Hordern Pavilion on Saturday 21st and Sunday 22nd November, which will be attended by a host of cast and crew including the Twelfth Doctor himself, Peter Capaldi. This comes after the UK’s Doctor Who Festival which is held at London’s ExCel next week.

It’s not solely selling Who products, however: in addition to BBC brands including Top Gear, Sarah & Duck, and Sooty, the shop hosts a ‘Sherlock Corner’, stocking a range of Sherlock goods including a brand new Pop! Vinyls, as well as featuring a dress up box for fans to disguise themselves as the Consulting Detective.

The Doctor Who Pop Up Shop is located at: Ground Floor (next to Aldi), Broadway Shopping Centre, 1 Bay Street, Sydney, open 10am- 7pm weekdays (extended hours on Thursdays, closing at 9pm instead), 9am- 6pm on Saturdays, and 10am- 6pm on Sundays. It’s open 10am- 6pm on public holidays… presumably not on Christmas Day.

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Yes, There WILL BE 12 Episodes in Doctor Who Series 10

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.

Ignore those pesky rumours: Steven Moffat says Series 10 will consist of 12 episodes, plus the Christmas special!

Not only has Moffat called speculation by the tabloids “bunk” but also says he can “confirm absolutely” that he’s not making fewer episodes in the next series. And we also have Peter Capaldi’s word for that!

Moffat told the Radio Times:

“We’re making a full series. I can confirm that. I’m making a full series of 12 episodes, plus a Christmas special. I don’t know when it goes out. That’s up to someone else. And even if I did know – which I genuinely don’t – I wouldn’t be allowed to say so as I have absolutely no say in it whatsoever.

“[But] it’s not being reduced in size. We’re not making fewer episodes. That’s all complete bunk. I can confirm that absolutely.”

So no, he’s not saying it’ll be broadcast in 2016, but if it doesn’t, that means Series 10 would be on in 2017 – having 2016 sans Who doesn’t seem likely.

Capaldi says:

“That’s not what I’ve been told… That’s not what I’m contracted for.”

Peter Capaldi, talking to @lizo_mzimba, denies reports there'll be half the number of @BBCDoctorWho episodes in 2016 pic.twitter.com/oqwQ83jKle

— BBC Ents News Team (@BBCNewsEnts) November 6, 2015

Rumour had it that only specials would be aired throughout next year, similar to 2009 which saw only three specials broadcast – Planet of the Dead; The Waters of Mars; and The End of Time: Part One.

Since that initial report in Private Eye (which has been right in the past – it’s not like the random guessing games done by newspapers) in August, various sources have claimed reduced runs, including The Mirror‘s reckoning that the series would only be six episodes long.

Yes, we can all look forward to 12 episodes in Series 10.

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Out Now: Titan Comics’ Eighth Doctor #01 [PREVIEW]

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 new limited miniseries is out now from Titan Comics – starring Paul McGann’s brilliant Eighth Doctor!

Written by George Mann (Engines of War), the five-issue series features new stories each month, drawn by Emma Vieceli (Manga Shakespeare Collection: Hamlet). Here’s what to expect:

“I’M THE DOCTOR, AND I’D VERY MUCH LIKE TO KNOW WHAT YOU’RE DOING IN MY HOUSE…”

Get ready for an all-new season of comics adventures featuring the Eighth Doctor, as played by Paul McGann in the Doctor Who movie, fan-favorite minisode Night of the Doctor… and over fourteen years (and counting!) of astounding Big Finish audio spectaculars!

Five amazing, interconnected new stories take the Doctor on a rollercoaster of threat and misadventure, as he investigates the mysteries surrounding his new companion Josie. Victorian magic shows, murderous trees, lost books, crystalline life-forms, barges in space crammed with the undead… and the grand journey all begins in a sleepy Welsh town… besieged by living paintings!

Buckle up for a wild ride that embraces all the Gothic Romance and interstellar terror of the Doctor’s eighth incarnation!

Sound good? Of course it does!

The first issue is shipped with a shed-load of variant covers, so we present with pleasure a collection of these… and preview art of inside:

Titan Comics

You’ll note that the Time Lord is wearing the outfit he adorned in Night of the Doctor (2013), so these stories are likely to be set in this incarnation’s later years.

The Eighth Doctor #01 is out now from Titan Comics, priced $3.99.

 

The post Out Now: Titan Comics’ Eighth Doctor #01 [PREVIEW] appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Possible Sherlock Fan Theory Confirmed in Colouring Book?

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 may only need black, grey, white and the occasional use of the red crayon but there’s a Sherlock colouring book because, well, reasons. However, could this book help add some shade to a popular fan theory?

Now, you don’t need to be Holmes himself to spot that speculating on potential series four story lines using a colouring book is stretching it a bit but, hey ho, here we are, so let’s try to stay in the lines and crack this conundrum.

The potential twist was spotted by one eagle-eyed tumblr user who caught an interesting detail concerning Watson’s wife, Mary – who many fans have long suspected might actually be villain Sebastian Moran, accomplice and ally to Moriarty, based solely around their similar names and not much else.

Now, the colouring book features a series of clues that need to be found in each of the settings that feature in the show. The items range from Sherlock’s deerstalker hat to Watson’s gun. One such item is Mary’s wedding ring and it can be seen in the location long since thought to unite Moriarty and Moran: the Swimming Pool.

Why is this significant? Well Sherlock once faced off against Moriarty in the swimming pool where his arch nemesis claimed to have some highly trained marksmen pointing standing by to blow Sherlock away – a highly trained marksman like Moran: could the ring be a clue to the true identity of Mary Morstan?

Yeah, it’s clutching at straws. We can’t imagine someone revealing a key bit of character information in a colouring book but, we can imagine someone planting that information to keep the speculation alive – it’s those kind of ‘colourful’ details that make Sherlock so much fun.

Sherlock: The Mind Palace – The Official Colouring Book by Mike Collins is available to buy now from Amazon for £6.99 

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How Moffat’s 1995 Fan Theory Became Canon

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.

Cast your mind back to the dark and distant year 2011 – where we reported the rumour that in 1995, fan turned show runner Steven Moffat, took to a Doctor Who forum to share his theory on the origin of the term ‘Doctor’.

Sound familiar? Well if you’ve seen A Good Man Goes to War, you’ve already heard it – and, after the Radio Times did a little digging, it turns out, it’s completely true. The magazine got in touch with Moffat and he confirmed, that yes, he turned his fan theory into canon 16 years after coming up with the idea.

Posting the idea to the chatroom rec.arts.drwho, Moffat suggested that the Doctor’s name may have actually been the inspiration throughout the universe for healers and wise men to call themselves doctors.

Here’s the post.

“Steven Moffat (100043.121@CompuServe.COM) wrote: Here’s a particularly stupid theory.  If we take “The Doctor” to be the Doctor’s name – even if it is in the form of a title no doubt meaning something deep and Gallifreyan – perhaps our earthly use of the word “doctor” meaning healer or wise man is direct result of the Doctor’s multiple interventions in our history as a healer and wise man.  In other words, we got it from him.  This is a very silly idea and I’m consequently rather proud of it.”

It’s interesting stuff – now here’s the words spoken by River during A Good Man Goes to War.

“River: Doctor. The word for healer and wise man throughout the universe. We get that word from you, you know. But if you carry on the way you are, what might that word come to mean? To the people of the Gamma Forests, the word Doctor means mighty warrior. How far you’ve come.”

It’s nothing if not a clarion call for all budding writers with fan theories to share. Keep up and one day you too could spend 20 years becoming a TV writer, get the top job writing Doctor Who and then convince everyone that your ideas are amazing and then turn them into canon.

It’s really that simple.

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Doctor Who on NES: How to Make a Playable Who Console Game

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.

Let’s face it, Doctor Who console games have been pretty poor – The Eternity Clock was a wind up, Return to Earth should have been returned to sender and Top Trumps:Doctor Who dealt us a losing card.

There’s been some success in licensing out characters to established gaming franchises, like Traveller’s Tales, the developers behind the hugely popular Lego games – with LEGO Dimensions about to add a Doctor Who Level Pack to the toys-to-life game that’s already drawing positive responses.

Still, as the problem of what to do when it comes to his own games goes, perhaps the answer is; if you can’t beat it, cheat.

Well, maybe not cheat, more hack.

Pressing start and entering the game, Dave Clark, the creator of Doctor Who on the NES, who after tinkering with classic NES games, may very well have found a way to make a playable Doctor Who console game.

Speaking to Retro Gaming Magazine, Clark, a Doctor Who fan, has been sharing just what it’s been like to bring the Time Lord to the classic Nintendo system.

Taking an existing game – in this case Cosmo Police Galivan, a sci-fi side scroller with elements of RPG which was never released in the states, Clark has crafted a Doctor Who adventure featuring the Eleventh Doctor.

“I’ve been a fan since I was eleven or twelve, “said Clark. “The Fourth Doctor will always be my favorite. However, the reason I went with Matt Smith is because I wanted to appeal to the new generation of Whovians out there. I love giving the player a real NES experience, with newer things you wouldn’t except to see on a 30 year old console.”

So just what can you expect?

“The Doctor starts the game with his Sonic Screwdriver, and can add several different attachments to enhance it along the way. The gameplay is similar to that of Zelda 2: The Adventures of Link. A 2D side scroller that has plenty of action and also makes you think as you play.”

The game is available to purchase from Clark’s Etsy page.

 

 

 

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Rumour: Series Ten HALVED So Capaldi Can Take On Other Work

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 Mirror are reporting that Doctor Who will return with only half the usual episodes next year when the Twelfth Doctor, Peter Capaldi is granted leave to focus on other projects.

Nothing has been confirmed yet but rumours suggested by The Mirror say that the BBC pushed for more than the usual 12 episodes but Capaldi wants the freedom to do other projects.

The actor is quoted as saying that the work schedule was too much for him and the ‘exhausted’ crew.

“If you did the series all year there’d be casualties – and one would be its quality,” he said. “There’s a point where you can’t drive people any harder.”

The paper goes on to quote Doctor Who insiders who say – as with Matt Smith – the series will be greatly reduced to allow Capaldi the time off and that next year’s run will be supplemented by a Christmas Special.

Capaldi is said to direct a film loosely based on his time in Glasgow punk band The Dreamboys and two episodes of the US TV series Veep.

In the past, Capaldi has talked about the punishing schedule.

“Playing the Doctor takes up so much time. It doesn’t leave much room for other things.”

So with Moffat promising Capaldi won’t be going anywhere and a five year business plan for the future of the show in circulation, is now, with ratings stalling around the 4 million mark, the right time to rest the show?

Does Capaldi’s concern over a dip in quality reflect a genuine concern with quality or a worry that no show can keep up this momentum? What do we make of the suggestion that Matt Smith also insisted on having time away? So does the addition of the Christmas Special mean we’re getting more than the promised three feature length specials? Does this mean a return to Series 7 style half seasons or  more specials?

What do we make of this rumour?

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Peter Capaldi Hints Sonic Screwdriver Will Be Back, Confirms Maisie Williams Returns

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.

Beaming in for a quick chat on BBC Radio 1 yesterday, Peter Capaldi let slip that those with an aversion to the sonic shades need ‘fear not’ as the future doesn’t look too bright for the Doctor’s own brand of Ray Bans.

During the chat (which takes place around the 2hr 24 mins mark), Capaldi also confirmed that Maisie Williams will be returning in episode 10 – Face the Raven – as Ashildr, the girl given mortality by the Doctor who, after she spends years of torment along the slow path of existence, begins to harden and weary of existence. At the end of The Woman Who Lived, she had made a vow to protect those that the Doctor leaves behind.

Speaking of leaving things behind, there’s no need to fret, the Sonic Screwdriver will return.

“I think those fans of the sonic screwdriver should not fret. Fear not,” Capaldi said. “If I was a fan of the screwdriver I wouldn’t lose any sleep. But I do like the shades, I think they’re fun.”

Capadli also gave a vague answer when asked when his next lot of filming would take place.

“Next year at some point,” he said, which doesn’t put those rumours that the show might not have a full run come 2016 to bed.

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Buy and Download Classic Who With BBC Store

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.

Doctor Who fans will now be able to buy and download episodes – as well as long lost gems from the whole of the BBC archive – as the corporation launches a new online service: BBC Store.

The site features around 7,000 hours’ worth of content and bosses said they would add about 3,500 more over the next year. The store also includes new programmes soon after they have aired, as well as classic content from the BBC archives.

After setting up an online account, users will also be able to browse collections of programmes such as Blackadder, Top Gear and Peaky Blinders, and then buy and keep digital versions of single episodes or full series. The content, which includes both classic and new episodes of Doctor Who, will be permanently available for fans to download and watch or stream.

The launch video even includes a brief clip of Peter Capaldi introducing the new service.

The digital store is intended as a long-term replacement for DVD sales, the market for which has halved in the last three years, said Marcus Arthur, UK managing director for the broadcaster’s commercial arm, BBC Worldwide.

While the BBC Store would be an “opportunity to create new revenues”, it’s believed it wouldn’t make a huge contribution to the £1.2bn Worldwide has promised to return to BBC coffers over the next five years.

It’s unlikely that it would serve as an exact replacement of DVD Sales as download to view will only be worth half the value of the DVD business by 2019. However, those sales goes straight to the bottom line because there are fewer manufacturing and distribution costs.

The service will be curated by BBC staff and, where an editorial decision is taken within the public service section of the BBC to revoke programming, it will also be taken down from BBC Store and customers refunded, said Arthur.

BBC Worldwide’s e-commerce boss, Steve Wind-Mozley, said some content that was now deemed inappropriate for broadcast because it was perceived as being racist or sexist, such as It Ain’t Half Hot Mum, would be included in an “of its time” section.

He added that the service focuses primarily on drama, entertainment and factual programming, but he was keen to add more content for children, as well as music programming. However current affairs and sports programmes would be ‘nearly impossible’ to include in large qualities.

The service is integrated with the BBC’s iPlayer, which will continue to offer content for free. Users will be prompted if they choose to buy something that they don’t have to pay for on iPlayer.

What’s more, you’ll still be able to watch Doctor Who on subscription services like Amazon and Netflix. BBC Worldwide confirmed that their place on the rival services would not be under threat because the business models are different.

Marcus Arthur reiterated: “BBC Store is not a subscription service. It is about opening up the archive. For me they are separate markets. BBC Store is about buy-to keep.”

The costing will vary – prices for a single episode start at £1.89 and the average for a six-part series is £7.99. The BBC says it will be flexible about pricing and will be keeping an eye on the market price points of other content suppliers like Amazon and Netflix.

BBC Store will be available on PCs and Macs, but not immediately on televisions. A “series pass” function will also deliver episodes of current series automatically after they have aired.

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Will The Doctor to Appear In The Lego Movie 2?

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.

Following on from the deal with the BBC that saw Doctor Who join the ranks of the LEGO Dimensions game – as well as getting his own cool playset – it looks like the Doctor could be about to make the leap to the big screen, joining Wyldstyle and Emmet in the LEGO Movie 2.

The follow up to the awesome LEGO Movie – which was stocked to the gills with cameos from various pop culture universes including DC and Star Wars – will be directed by Robert Schrab, who, while making an appearance on this week’s Harmontown podcast (which is sadly subscribers only) teased that Warner Bros are currently in negotiations with the BBC for the Doctor to appear in the sequel.

Schrab wasn’t forthcoming as to what role the Doctor will play – whether he’ll make a small cameo like Han Solo or Lando in the first movie, or that he’ll have a more substantial role more akin to the film-stealing turn of Will Arnett as Batman – who’ll be getting his own standalone LEGO movie in 2017, just to tease you that little bit more.

The Doctor Who Level Pack comes out this Friday, giving fans the chance to play as the Twelfth Doctor in a specific adventure for the LEGO Dimensions game. Not only does it feature the voice of Peter Capaldi, but it also includes a ‘Doctor Regenerate’ option, allowing you to play as other Doctors; complete with chosen audio clips from the classic serials.

It’s kind of cool when you consider that we’ve spent the past few years discussing the possibility of a Doctor Who movie – the most recent being the David Yates attempt to wrest the Doctor from continuity and bring him to cinemas – and now, thanks to those wonderful blocks, we may have actually see the Doctor on screen, albeit it animated minifigure form.

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