Christian Cawley's Blog, page 60

See The TARDIS in the LEGO Dimensions Launch Trailer

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.

Doctor Who fans are in for an exciting few months, but while the majority of us are overjoyed that Series 9 starts very very very soon, gamers are getting further excitement from the impending LEGO Dimensions game. The trailer’s just been released and it looks pretty darn awesome.

Why should you care? Because Doctor Who is part of it, of course!

Krusty the Clown, Gandalf, Owen from Jurassic World – and about 20 seconds in, the TARDIS too: this is a cool launch trailer.

Aside from nipping into the space-time ship with the Doctor, LEGO Dimensions will allow players to immerse themselves in the worlds of DC Comics, The Lord of the Rings, The LEGO Movie, LEGO Ninjago, Back to the Future, The Wizard of Oz, Scooby-Doo!, LEGO Chima, Jurassic World, Ghostbusters, The Simpsons, Portal, and Midway Arcade… as all these franchises collide!

The Starter Pack includes the video game (duh), bricks to build the LEGO Gateway, three Minifigures (including Batman, Gandalf and The LEGO Movie‘s Wyldstyle), plus the Batmobile, and the special Toy Pad, which allows players to transport LEGO Dimensions minifigures and models into the game, as well as control in-game action and solve puzzles by moving the physical toys.

Available for Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3, and Nintendo’s Wii U, LEGO Dimensions launches on 29th September, while the Doctor Who Level Pack comes out on 22nd January 2016. A Dalek and Cyberman Fun Pack, containing two minifigures, is released on 6th November 2015.

The post See The TARDIS in the LEGO Dimensions Launch Trailer appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Capaldi, Coleman, and Moffat Introduce Series 9!

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

The Series 9 premiere is almost upon us! While there are a host of ways to get ready for Saturday, the BBC have given us a brand new introduction for the series, featuring the big three: Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman, and Steven Moffat! Without any further ado, take a peek above!

Not a lot to dissect here. We’ve already heard that the Doctor is now more sure of who he is and that Clara is no longer balancing TARDIS life and life on Earth. We’re revisiting old monsters and introducing new, and two parters and cliff hangers are the new “norm.” All good things. However, in my opinion, I get a sense of more excitement and confidence for Capaldi’s sophomore effort. Obviously, Capaldi is no longer a rookie in the TARDIS now and writers know how to write specifically for his Doctor. This has to make Capaldi and company more excited and comfortable.

That being said, as always we’re starting with bold claims about where we’re going with the Doctor. “Darker” was a bit of a buzz word for Series 8 and we find it being used in this promo. Depending on your opinion of the last series, this is may or may not be a good thing. Time will tell and not much time to go to find out!

Series 9 premieres this Saturday on BBC One and BBC America. What say you, dear readers? Are you ready for the premiere? What do you think of the introduction? More excited or less so? Let us know!

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Preparing for Series 9: Daleks Invade the London Underground!

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.

In London today? Be careful. Don’t take any unnecessary risks, like taking public transport. “Why?” I hear you ask. “There’s nothing wrong with the underground except its stuffiness and potential for body odour transference.” Well, you’d be wrong.

The Daleks have invaded!

Yep, Skaro’s irradiated nasties have taken over the Transport for London (TfL) network and trying to exterminate all in sight. Fortunately, the Doctor seems to have blocked their power signals meaning they can’t actually turn fellow passengers into skeletons. But they still look frightful, and can probably yell pretty loudly. You have been warned.

The Daleks were spotted at Westminster London Underground Station, patiently waiting for a train. Don’t believe me? Here’s proof!

They made their debut nearly 52 years ago, and they’re back this Saturday in The Magician’s Apprentice and its concluding episode, The Witch’s Familiar.

What’s more, they seem to be preempting their full-scale invasion of Earth by being photographed in front of parliament.

More news as we get it of this terrifying alien force ripping through London. Keep your eyestalks peeled for more news on how the Daleks have infiltrated London Transport this week…

 

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Death in Heaven ReKapped! (Part One)

James Lomond 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.

Danny Pink is dead and being given a guided tour of the afterlife.

Clara is trapped beneath St Paul’s Cathedral surrounded by Cybermen emerging from the water-tombs.

The Doctor has just discovered that his nemesis has returned as Missy and has Master-minded the emergence of Cybermen from 3W mausoleums across the world.

Much of what we know from subsequent events is from UNIT records from the Black Archive…

UNIFIED INTELLIGENCE TASK FORCE

INCURSION EVENT FILE

Code: S9.12PC, a.k.a. “Dark Water”

* * * Top Secret * * *

Extract 1:

1.1 Interrogation of Cybermen data-implants recovered from the St Paul’s area indicate that Clara Oswald survived the cathedral’s Catacombs by claiming to be an incarnation of the extra-terrestrial known as the Doctor. She stated Clara Oswald was “a cover story, a disguise… Clara Oswald has never existed…”

1.2 It was while Ms Oswald attempted to deceive the Cybermen underground that covert and uniformed UNIT troops attended the Doctor and the Extraterrestrial hostile known as “Missy” [highly dangerous, mauve warning] outside the Cathedral. Cybermen were patrolling public areas and civilians attempting to interact with them.

1.3 Science Corps. agent Osgood appropriated Missy’s teleport/ communications/ projected energy weapon/ accessory.

1.4 The hostile known as Missy was apprehended. She reported using the alias “Queen of Evil.”

1.5 Chief Scientific Officer, Kate Stewart addressed the Cybermen and made contact with the Doctor. His ongoing contract with UNIT from the Lethbridge Division was confirmed. Salary and terms were not discussed.

1.6 A severed Cyber-Head from the International Electromatics Incursion was presented to demonstrate Terrestrial military effectiveness.

1.7 Conflicting with intelligence from previous event files, the Cybermen responded by becoming airborne.

1.8 St Paul’s Cathedral’s dome had been covertly engineered to deploy a total of 91 Cybermen into British airspace. Agent Osgood suspected this correlated to the 91 areas of significant population density in the British Isles.

1.9 The Cyberman airborn above London vaporised to leave a dark, expanding cloud. Extraterrestrial, Missy, claimed it was “pollinating”…

Extract ends.

In the Nethersphere, Danny’s preserved consciousness was informed by the hospitality interface that they were “going home”. Lights in the simulated city dim as the interface explains that the afterlife is in fact more of a datacloud – and it was about to rain…

UNIT Extract 2:

2.1 Extraterrestrial Missy stated to the Doctor that the human race would cease to exist in twenty-four hours.

2.2 As the Doctor attempted to interrogate the hostile, Missy, both Extraterrestrials were neutralised with tranquilisers. The First Protocol was implemented.

2.3 Prior to losing consciousness, the Doctor stated to agent Osgood, “Guard the graveyards”. The significance of this was initially unclear.

Extract ends.

A dark cloud forms over Brompton Cemetery and confused onlookers watch the rain fall only inside the graveyard. Water from the Cybercloud runs into the ground where bodies are buried.

More water rises from the drains and seep into Chaplet funeral home where a lone mortician listens to radio reports. The “flying cybermen are here on a global scale” but don’t seem to be attacking anybody. Meanwhile the water drips upwards and into the morgue refrigerators. The mortician stares as something inside starts trying get out. Behind him a fully-formed Cyberman rises from a post-mortem slab. The Cyberman is distracted and confused by a mirror and finds a frontsheet with the words “known as Danny Pink”…

UNIT Extract 3:

3.1 St Paul’s had been locked down, agent “Doctor”, hostile “Missy” and the Doctor’s Time Capsule, TARDIS were secured on the Boat One aircraft.

3.2 Officer Stewart informed the Doctor that once on board his word constituted law and that he was now the President of Earth according to internationally agreed Incursion Protocols.

3.3 The initial First Protocol laws were i) Clara Oswald was to be found and brought to the President; and ii) The President was not to be saluted.

Extract ends.

Clara is in the water-Catacombs holding an audience with three Cybermen. She lists several details about the Doctor’s background. Another Cyberman approaches from behind and asserts that she is Clara Oswald. It knows her date of birth and the names of her parents. Clara tells them that she made these details up as she is an “incredible liar”. The new Cyberman quietly agrees, “correct”. It then anaesthetises her prompting the other Cybermen’s realisation that this one is not under Cyber-Control. “Correct,” it states before blasting them.

On Boat One the Doctor is having a one-to-one with his old enemy, who had woken to find herself in Hannibal Lecter-style restraints. Missy taunts the Doctor that she knows where Gallifrey is and won’t tell him. The Doctor leaves reminding Missy of all the times that she’d tried achieving world domination and noting that it had just been thrust upon him. “Piece of cake…”

Osgood impresses the Doctor by deducing who Missy is and that as the clouds hadn’t dispersed they could continue to pose a threat. The Doctor replies “all of time and space”, noting that this is something for her bucket list…

Kate Stewart briefs those aboard Boat One that Cybermen are emerging from every cemetery, every funeral home, and every hospital where there are dead. Meanwhile Clara wakes to find herself apparently alone in a cemetery far from the centre of London. She calls out,  but can’t find whoever brought her there. Metal hands begin to rise from the graves.

Aboard Boat One the Doctor explains that the rain contains all of the information needed to convert any appropriate biological material into a Cyberman. He explains that the sinister 3W exploited the wealth of its clients to develop a new form of cyberconversion and now every corpse on the planet would be under Cyber-Control. “How can you win a war against an enemy that can weaponise the dead…?”

In the graveyard Clara is surrounded by Cybermen struggling up from under grave stones.

Colonel Ahmed informs the Boat One crew that worldwide the Cybermen seem to be wandering but not attacking. The Doctor notes that they’re still “newborns” with minds downloaded from Missy’s Gallifreyan hard-drive storage into the newly animated Cyber-bodies. It seems that Missy has been doing this for some time – perhaps as long as the human race has had a concept of the afterlife…

Missy is playing cat and mouse with Osgood in the hold. Googly eyed and, “bananas”, she goads Osgood into coming over then whispers that she is going to kill her. “Why does one pop a balloon?” With Osgood dead, Missy crushes her glasses under foot and activates her wrist-band. Boat One suddenly lurches…

In the cabin a Cyberman suddenly appears at a porthole. A group of them are flying after the plane, responding to Missy’s summons. In the hold the Doctor finds Osgood’s remains. Missy taunts him, “Do you have any more friends I can play with?”

In the graveyard, Clara wanders between lumbering and hesitant Cybermen until she finds the one that brought her there. It asks where the Doctor is and she says she won’t betray him, “He is the closest person to me in the whole world; the one man I would never, ever lie to.”

The Cyberman raises its gun arm aiming at Clara. Its arm is trembling. It lowers the weapon and removes its face plate to reveal Danny’s face, scarred and pierced with implants. He shows Clara his emotional inhibitor which hasn’t been activated and asks her to help him activate it. “Please, I don’t want to feel like this.”

TO BE CONTINUED…

The post Death in Heaven ReKapped! (Part One) appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Pre-Order Series 9 on DVD and Blu-ray Now!

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.

Series 9 starts in just two days’ time, and from today, you can pre-order the the first half of the run on DVD and Blu-ray!

Part 1 will be released on 2nd November, and Part 2 coming early next year, with each part supposedly at £25.52 for DVD and £30.63 for Blu-ray – although they’re just £16.99 and £19.99 respectively from the BBC Shop. This is the same release model as 2012/13’s Series 7, as in addition to these two-part DVDs/Blu-rays, a complete box-set collecting the full series will come out later in 2016.

Order from the BBC Shop and you’ll also get exclusive art cards.

Part 1 collects The Magician’s Apprentice/ The Witch’s Familiar, Under the Lake/Before the Flood, The Girl Who Died, and The Woman Who Lived starring Peter Capaldi’s Twelfth Doctor and Jenna Coleman as Clara Oswald, as they come up against Daleks, Missy, ghosts, and vikings! Also starring Jemma Redgrave, Clare Higgins, Paul Kaye, and Maisie Williams, these episodes are written by Steven Moffat, Toby Whithouse, Jamie Mathieson, and Catherine Tregenna.

The DVD and Blu-rays will also include three exclusive extra mini-documentaries about how each two-parter (yes, that’s what the BBC are billing The Girl Who Died and The Woman Who Lived as) was created, called Doctor Who Extra.

The series will also be available to download weekly from 27th September.

So are you pre-order either set…?

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Paul McGann to Attend Withnail & I Screening in Home City of Liverpool

David Power 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.

Withnail & I is a British black comedy cult classic starring Richard E. Grant (Walter Simeon/ The Great Intelligence in Series 7B, and the Doctor in Scream of the Shalka) and Eighth Doctor actor Paul McGann. Fans of the movie are in for a special treat on September 26th when Paul McGann returns to his hometown of Liverpool for a special screening of the film.

The film is being shown as part of the Liverpool Comedy Festival, which is running until the 4th of October. The showing is in the Odeon in Liverpool One and will be followed by a live Q&A session where the audience can ask the star about the making of the film and his life and career.

Lewis Wright from the Odeon in Liverpool One said:

“We are honoured to have Paul McGann attending to give fans an in-depth, personal look into Withnail and I. It will be a night not to be missed.”

The showing is at 7:30pm on the 26th of September, tickets are £15 and can be bought from right here.

So, are you excited? Have you seen Withnail & I? Are you going to the showing? Let us know!

(Thanks to Carolyn)

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DWM 491 Previews First Chunk of Doctor Who Series 9 Episodes

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.

Doctor Who Magazine exclusively previews the first four episodes of the new series: The Magician’s Apprentice and The Witch’s Familiar, and Under the Lake and Before the Flood…

Under the Lake and Before the Flood form Toby Whithouse’s first two-part Doctor Who story – and it hinges on time travel – and fairly mind-bending time travel at that. While plotting and writing, did Toby ever come to regret taking the wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey route?

“Oh never, I loved it! I’ve always wanted to do a timey-wimey episode,” he says. “In fact, it was going to be a lot more timey-wimey, but we lost some of that before we started filming. It’s enormous fun to deposit something in a script, then have the reason for it happen later.”

This is also the first story that Toby’s written to star Peter Capaldi as the Doctor.

“I think he’s the most ‘alien’ Doctor we’ve had since the show came back,” says Toby. “Even though the essentials of the character remain the same – his heroism, his brilliance, his enthusiasm – he feels to me like much more of an outsider than Chris Eccleston or David Tennant or Matt Smith were. He’s more strange and otherwordly. That’s really interesting to play with.”

 

ALSO INSIDE THE BUMPER 100-PAGE ISSUE 491…

TARDIS TAKE-OFF!

The Doctor’s days off and the TARDIS’ take off – showrunner Steven Moffat answers readers’ questions.
CLARA OSWALD’S 100 IMPOSSIBLE FACTS

She has been something of ‘a mystery wrapped in an enigma’ but we’ve got to know Clara better than you might think. Jonathan Morris summarises everything we know about the Impossible Girl.
MONSTERS OF THE MILLENNIUM

How do you go about making monsters for Doctor Who? Millennium FX prosthetic effects supervisor Kate Walshe reveals all!
LEGO DIMENSIONS!

Official Lego products and a brand new video game…. Doctor Who is about to enter a new dimension. DWM talks to the team behind the project.
BEST DRESSED TIME LORD

DWM interviews costume designer Ray Holman, the man behind the Twelfth Doctor’s new look.
“GOOD GRIEF!”

As the Third Doctor returns for a brand new series of audio adventures, DWM talks to the man who is recreating the role made famous by Jon Pertwee: Tim Treolar.
THE WAR GAMES

The Fact of Fiction explores the Second Doctor’s final story, a 10-part epic which threw the Doctor and his companions back into the events of the First World War.
JUNGLE FEVER!

The adventure continues in the brand-new comic strip adventure, Spirits of the Jungle, by Jonathan Morris, illustrated by John Ross.
WHO HOMEWORK

Jacqueline Rayner makes her kids’ summer homework fun with an exciting Doctor Who project in her regular column, Relative Dimensions.
MISSING IN ACTION

Graham Kibble-White reviews The Macra Terror, a Second Doctor story missing from the BBC archives.
COMING SOON

DWM talks to the people involved in the latest Doctor Who CD and book releases, including Justin Richards and Miranda Raison.
THE UNEXPLAINED

The Watcher reflects on past Doctors and anticipates the new series of Doctor Who in Wotcha!.
PLUS! All the latest official news, reviews, competitions and The DWM Crossword.
AND! A giant-sized, double-sided poster!

The 100-page Doctor Who Magazine 491 is on sale from Thursday 17 September 2015, price £5.99.

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Reviewed: Terror of the Sontarans

Tony Jones 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 Terror of the Sontarans, Big Finish brings to an end a trilogy of main range stories for the Seventh Doctor and Mel Bush. The story is the joint creation of both John Dorney and Dan Starkey; Dan being the actor behind comic TV Sontaran Strax and a Big Finish regular.

The story is set on a mining facility, now being used as a Sontaran research base. The Doctor and Mel arrive in response to a distress beacon and find the base all but deserted. As they explore they free a bunch of highly eccentric characters from the bowels of the base and also realise there is something even Sontarans are scared of. As exploring Sontaran Field-Major Kayste points out, nothing should make a Sontaran afraid.

Amidst the action, this is the core of what makes this story; the writers have found an intriguing angle on the Sontarans and the exploration is powerful. What makes this even better is the fabulous characters they also find, including Jon Edgley Bond as the hero Anvil Jackson. As a point of trivia, Jon Egley Bond is founder of the Fitzrovia Radio Hour, and Dan Starkey is an occasional member of the company. Anvil is a larger than life, boy’s own character and in many ways takes the central Strax Sontaran role despite begin a human. He is bullish, comic and without any self-awareness. The others are no less interesting, including the very well realised Ketch (Daniel o’Meara) who has a particularly useful special power.

The rich and varied cast take on multiple roles; not only Dan Starkey, but also the versatile John Banks – between them they take five parts. The story gives the Doctor and Mel enough to do without them dominating the telling. What is pleasing here is how both Bonnie Langford and Sylvester McCoy are very relaxed throughout, and Ken Bentley’s direction needs commending (as ever!)

There is, of course, a deeper mystery afoot, and the whole piece is well realised and satisfying. We are promised more Seventh Doctor and Mel next summer; if they are anywhere near as good as this, I for one can’t wait.

Order Terror of the Sontarans today on CD or MP3 from Big Finish!

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Does Missy Remind You of Delgado’s Master?

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.

No incarnation of the Master exists outside of the lineage; each one, no matter what the actors take on the role, reflects upon those that have been, and, eventually, those that are yet to come.

However, there’s on interpretation that casts a long shadow over the others; one that brought a magnetic intensity, and a cunning, evil charm – and it’s also the first.

The debt that each subsequent performance owes to Roger Delgado is great; so it comes as no surprise that a little of that Delgado magnetism finds its way into the current incarnation of the Master.

Speaking to Stuff in advance of Doctor Who’s return with The Magician’s Apprentice, both Peter Capaldi and Michelle Gomez have been sharing their thoughts on the Master’s previous manifestations.

“I think in Steven’s writing, each Doctor and each Master is somehow still imbued with where that character came from,” Gomez says. “I didn’t go back and look at all the other Masters because I often get intimated by other people’s greatness, and it was a big deal going from male to female, so I didn’t really take a look at those other Masters, except a little bit of Delgado.”

It’s unsurprising that, come the change from the Master to Missy, that Gomez would go back to the first, and perhaps most iconic, version of the Master, “But I feel that was done for me,” she adds. “It’s on the page.”

Capaldi considers the point for a moment, and agrees. “I think that’s very interesting, I think you do carry Roger Delgado. There is something in your face, your very fine structure, your eyes,” Capaldi says. “You have a very distinctive and powerful look and Delgado had a very distinctive and powerful look.”

Those relationships, Capaldi says, are central to Doctor Who. “It doesn’t work without the companion, or the nemesis. It’s the nature of the drama. He doesn’t want to roam [time and space] on his own, he wouldn’t have anyone to talk to.” “Or witness,” Gomez says

“And in one way he needs to be humanised, which is one of the roles of the companion,” Capaldi says. “But the companion also makes him more alien. And obviously,” gesturing to Gomez, “he needs a Moriarty.”

So does Missy remind you of Delgado’s Master? How does her performance compare to other Master’s? How would you like to see Capaldi’s Doctor and Missy relationship develop?

Doctor Who returns this Saturday with The Magician’s Apprentice on BBC 1 at 7.40pm but you knew that, right?

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New Gallery Images for The Magician’s Apprentice Released!

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 BBC has released an avalanche of new images from The Magician’s Apprentice for your enjoyment, dear reader, as the first episode of Doctor Who Series 9 draws ever nearer…

We cadn’t really tell you anything about this lot, other than tell the utterly spoilerphobic to just back off and read something else. For the rest of you, enjoy!

Starring Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman and Michelle Gomez as the Doctor, Clara and Missy/the Master, The Magician’s Apprentice hits British TV screens on Saturday, September 19th at 7.40pm and BBC America at 9/8c.

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