Christian Cawley's Blog, page 73

Ingrid Oliver Teases Osgood’s Resurrection

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.

Unless you’ve joined Hermits United – “Good fun! (For a Hermit)” – you’ll know that Osgood, who died in Death in Heaven, didn’t die in Death in Heaven – or at the very least, she might’ve died in Death in Heaven, but she’s back in Series 9 anyway.

Yep, the would-be companion and member of UNIT returns in a sequel to The Day of the Doctor, written by Peter Harness (Kill the Moon) and showrunner, Steven Moffat, in Invasion of the Zygons/ Inversion of the Zygons. Actress, Ingrid Oliver is remaining coy, however, on how the character seems to have cheated the grim reaper:

“There’s lots of different possibilities, and I’ve heard all of them! Even the Doctor asks me what I am, and I don’t tell him…”

In fact, she didn’t get confirmation that Osgood would be back until just before shooting commenced:

“Well they check your availability first, to see that you’re actually around, so I was like ‘Oh right, okay…’ But as with anything, with Doctor Who everything can change, so you don’t get too excited until you actually know you’re coming back. It was quite shortly before we actually started filming the eps that I knew I was definitely coming back. So it was all quite a quick turnaround, very exciting.”

Of course she acted opposite the Zygons, monsters that debuted in 1975’s Terror of the Zygons, in the 50th anniversary special, so what was it like this time around?

“On the second day of filming, I had quite a dramatic speech, quite a moving speech, and as an actor you’re used to just saying a speech like that to the other person, and there’s probably soaring music in the background and it’s all very gentle; and I realised very quickly that we won’t be able to do that because we’re also looking for Zygons! It was very odd; it’s an adjustment, but that’s the world of Doctor Who, and Peter [Capaldi] was saying that you don’t just stand there and deliver dialogue, you’re always doing something, whether it’s running from a blowing-up building or looking for monsters. It’s good fun though, it’s really good fun.”

And will there be any further appearances from the character after Series 9…? She’s not sure:

“I genuinely don’t know; anything’s possible. But I’d like to – I love it, I really do. It’s one of those jobs, it’s just ridiculous – we were on set the other day and it was like a proper Indiana Jones set, the kind of thing you’d never get to film unless it was Doctor Who, the kind of stuff that when you were a kid and you walked round Universal Studios or something you’d go, ‘One day I want to be an actor.’ It’s brilliant, so I would always come back.”

We’ll have to wait a while to see Osgood back on our screens, but fingers crossed her resurrection is a smart, intriguing story that justifies her return – which I look forward to!

The post Ingrid Oliver Teases Osgood’s Resurrection appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Titan Comics’ Twelfth Doctor #06 Reviewed!

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 Twelfth Doctor title has been on shaky ground since it launched, but issue #6 promises a brand-new storyline – a perfect jumping-on point for new readers. Can it up its game?

The Fractures takes us to present day Earth, with a very welcome face cropping up from the very first page: it’s no spoiler to reveal that it’s Kate Stewart, visiting the wife of a recently-deceased UNIT officer. Well, technically, a seemingly-deceased UNIT officer. In a brilliant sequence, Paul comes back from the dead. Possibly.

Straight away, the visuals are captivating in their realism. Brian Williamson (Torchwood; Doctor Who Magazine) has captured the Twelfth Doctor perfectly: his expressions, his mannerisms, his body language. His Clara, too, is excellent, a considerable feat as many other artists have somewhat failed to get her likeness quite right. Colours, by Hi-Fi, just add to this, lending subtlety to backdrops and stark gradients throughout.

The Fractures themselves seem like an artist’s dream. Their fluidity and ability to mimic others makes panels and pages very interesting to look at; a great fit for the comic book medium, which is largely about flow. They’re an intriguing threat, despite not having much revealed about them as yet.

There’s a thrill for UK readers who’ll see the resemblance between two victims of the Fractures, and the First Secretary of State and Boris Johnson. There’s some not-very-subtle (but nonetheless pleasing) satire, with George Osborne portrayed as a man likely to steal money from a homeless guy in order to pay for car parking. He’s literally a penny-pincher. I’m not sure whether it was Williamson’s or writer, Robbie Morrison’s idea, but I applaud the person responsible.

It was certainly Morrison who threw in a nod to producer, Philip Hinchcliffe!

The pair create an interesting new timey-wimey monster that’s just as memorable as most Series 8 baddies. Indeed, there’s something unusual about them that reminds this reader of the so-called Boneless from Flatline. This certainly is inspired by Series 8, even mentioning The Caretaker as we take a detour to Coal Hill School.

Mind you, I still think the Doctor should’ve left behind this “planet of the pudding brains” thing that never really seemed realistic to me.

The cliffhanger is nothing unusual, but works anyway. The Fractures are such a fascinating enemy, you’ll want to find out how this three-parter plays out regardless.

So yes, a definite step-up. The Twelfth Doctor series is on track, and I’m sure, under this creative team, it’ll continue to go from strength to strength.

The Twelfth Doctor #06 is out now, priced $3.99.

The post Titan Comics’ Twelfth Doctor #06 Reviewed! appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Out Now: The Gods of Winter

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 quartet of new audio tales for the Twelfth Doctor and Clara starts today with The Gods of Winter.

Written by James Goss (The Blood Cell; City of Death), the release is the latest in a long line of recent original audiobooks including Pest Control, The Empty House, and the award-winning Dead Air. Aside from the Destiny of the Doctors range that ran across 2013 for the 50th anniversary, the last release in this line was December 2012’s Snake Bite!

The Gods of Winter, then, is a good sign that the BBC hasn’t abandoned the medium completely.

Here’s the synopsis for The Gods of Winter:

On a remote human colony planet, under the cover of a protective dome, young Diana Winter summons the TARDIS. Brought to her side by the power of a mysterious calling card, the Doctor and Clara are given one of their unlikeliest assignments yet. Yet it is one that will have far-reaching consequences…

Many years later, on the homeworld of the alien Golhearn, the time travellers once again meet Diana – but this time the stakes are much higher. The Golhearn’s savage madness is threatening to destroy their own civilisation, and Diana has a personal reason to call for the Doctor once again. Is he willing to assist, or must Clara go it alone? Can anyone discover the cause of the monstrous insanity that threatens them all?

The tale is read by Clare Higgins, who played Ohila in the 2013 minisode, The Night of the Doctor, which saw a return to Karn.

The linked stories continue with October’s The House of Winter, December’s The Sins of Winter, and conclude in February’s The Memory of Winter.

With an RRP of £9.25, you can pick up The Gods of Winter now.

The post Out Now: The Gods of Winter appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Doctor Who: The Complete History Partwork Launch Date Announced?

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.

It appears the long-awaited Doctor Who: The Complete History partwork will be arriving nationwide… from next month!

Though it’s not been confirmed, the first four issues are listed on Forbidden Planet, with Issues #1 going on sale on 9th September. This volume is fronted by David Tennant’s Tenth Doctor and features analyses of Gridlock, Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks, The Lazarus Experiment, and 42.

It starts off at £1.99 as an introductory issue, while the second one increases to £6.99, before settling at it’s regular £9.99 RRP from the third volume onwards.

The partwork, a detailed look at each serial, from An Unearthly Child to at least Last Christmas, was in testing back in April, and sample volumes were issues throughout a test area across two months in order to gauge interest, and news broke via Doctor Who Magazine at the start of this month that it’d be going nationwide.

Each book includes: an Introduction (specially written  for each story, highlighting the contributions that each one has made to the mythology of the series); The Story (a full, episode-by-episode synopsis of every story, including quotes from the characters and illustrated with images from the TV broadcast); Production (detailed accounts of the production process, from scripts, through casting, rehearsals, location filming, studio recordings and editing and music); Publicity (how each serial was promoted in the papers, on TV, in magazines such as Radio Times, and by personal appearances from the cast and production team); Broadcast (when and where each story was originally shown, along with viewer ratings and repeat showings, plus the reaction from the newspaper critics); Cast and Crew (a complete listing of each story’s cast members and the characters they played, including individuals uncredited on-screen, along with the production personnel); Profiles (a biography of a key crew member, actor or author for each story); and Merchandise (the extended life of each story and its characters, featuring in reference books, full-length novels, video games, DVDs, gadgets, action figures, and toys).

They’re all beautifully designed with stunning artwork too!

The books are released fortnightly, so Issues #2 (Colony in Space, The Daemons, and Day of the Daleks) comes out on 23rd September; #3 (Deep Breath and Into the Dalek) on 7th October; and #4 (100,000BC aka An Unearthly Child, and The Mutants better known as The Daleks) on 21st October. We don’t know what volumes are coming after these initial four, but we expect them to span all the Doctors, and should be available from any good newsagent – or obviously through subscription.

Keep your eyes peeled for more news about this fascinating series as we get it – and yes, that does include reviews!

And you can pre-order the issues now!

The post Doctor Who: The Complete History Partwork Launch Date Announced? appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Is the Omnirumour Fandom’s Own Schrodinger’s Cat?

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.

Gareth Kavanagh joins Christian Cawley for this week’s podKast, discussing everything from Mission DALEK to the differences between MP3 and FLAC. But on the way, they stop off and spend some time chatting about the current state of the omnirumour, the rather optimistic collection of rumours concerning the discovery (or otherwise) of some (or all) of Doctor Who‘s missing episodes.

Watch out also for a brief chat about the Doctor Who Series 9 revelations, the Dad’s Army trailer and the Lethbridge-Stewart series’ revised schedule.

Kasterborous PodKast Series 5 Episode 28 Shownotes

Mission DALEK
Dad’s Army movie trailer
Doctor Who on Blu-ray
MP3 vs FLAC explained
Lethbridge-Stewart series revised schedule, The Forgotten Son review
Fan FiKtion “Tales from the Red Planet“
Russian Life on Mars clip from YouTube: Dark Side of the Moon
New Doctor Who Series 9 details
Colin Brockhurst’s “Changing Face of Doctor Who“
Doctor Who Comic
Recommendations: Prison Break, Game Over, Revelation of the Daleks, Death in Paradise Series 1, Merlin Series 1

(Apologies for some unusual audio interruptions towards the end of this week’s podKast.)

The podKast theme tune is by Russell Hugo. It’s good, isn’t it?

Listen to the PodKast

There are several ways to listen. In addition to the usual player above, we’re pleased to announce that you can also stream the podKast using Stitcher, an award-winning, free mobile app available for Android and iPhone/iPad. This pretty much means that you can listen to us anywhere without downloading – pretty neat, we think you’ll agree! (Note that it can take a few hours after a new podKast is published to “catch up”.)

Stitcher

Audioboom

What’s more, you can now listen and subscribe to the podKast via our Audioboom channel (formerly Audioboo)! Head to https://audioboom.com/channel/doctorwhopodkast and click play to start listening. You can also comment and record your own boos in response to our discussions! Meanwhile you can use the player below to listen through Audioboom:

You haven’t clicked play yet?! What are you waiting for? As well as our new Stitcher and Audioboo presence you can also use one of these amazingly convenient ways to download and enjoy this week’s podKast.

Use the player in the top right of the Kasterborous home page, or visit the podKast menu link.
Listen with the “pop out” player above, which also allows you to download the podKast to your computer.
You can also take advantage of the RSS feed to subscribe to the podKast for your media player, and even find us on iTunes, where your reviews will help the show considerably.

The post Is the Omnirumour Fandom’s Own Schrodinger’s Cat? appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Mission Dalek Unveiled: It’s a Competition!

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 – like many others – were questioning just what the mysterious Mission DALEK teaser was earlier this week. Now we know: it’s an opportunity to meet Peter Capaldi and visit the Doctor Who studios in Wales!

But there’s a condition: you have to create a new adventure for the Doctor, taking the clues in the video above as your starting point. To make the adventure, you’ll first need some inspiration. You’ll also need some time to download the assets that the BBC has provided.

Yes, that’s right: around 1 GB of rights cleared photos, videos and audio clips for you to use to create a 90 second clip. While the competition is only open to UK residents, the BBC hasn’t barred international fans from getting involved, and while they won’t be in with a chance of winning the prize, there is always the real prize to consider, that of creating the best adventure from the available material.

All you need to remember to do is upload to the Internet (YouTube seems a good bet, where you’ll find a small selection of entries already) and attach the #missionDALEK tag to your entries. Find out more on the BBC’s website, and here’s my entry (which irritatingly runs to 92 seconds when uploaded, despite being less when edited…)

Feel free to share your own entries!

The post Mission Dalek Unveiled: It’s a Competition! appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Back British Telefantasy Love Letter “The Imperium”

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.

Biblical Comix celebrates it’s first year of publication with the launch of an IndieGoGo campaign for it’s latest title – The Imperium!

Created by Stefano Cardoselli and Tzvi Lebetkin, the team behind the popular Ice Warriors fan strip, The Imperium takes iconic characters and deconstructs them, reassembling them in modern form before dumping each into a super group with a mind bending action and adventure. The project is looking for $5000 of funding, with the Indiegogo campaign offering a range of perks from your name in the story to a sketch cover and much more to backers.  Here’s what Stefano and Tzvi say about it.

“We sat down and thought about what IS the 1960s, as it now exists in the media-sphere. For us it’s all about Patrick Troughton charging up and down monotoned corridors. It’s monkeys in space suits. It’s sexy cat suited super spies. It’s opening doors to the windows of perception…and just so much more.

We sat down and thought what would an alien ‘cosmic hobo’ be like? What would a womanising government assassin with no conscience be like? Why would a gorgeous and insanely talented woman be a super spy, and what’s with all that tight leather? And most importantly, how would they all play together? And How would that even happen? These are the questions we address and answer in the Imperium – and at the same time stuffing it as full with as many cultural references as could possibly fit on a page.

We want our fans with us in every way. We want them with us because it’s their book as much as mine. By buying a copy on IndieGoGo, you get to be a producer, quite simply by putting your money down on the table (which, truth be told is the only thing that qualifies anybody to be a producer). One of the wonderful thing about the age we live in, is the fans have really taken control of the object of their fandom. Gone are the days of kneeling by one’s bed side and praying that a new super cool project gets green lit.”

Stefano and Tzvi tell us that along with getting all this insider stuff (which backers will continue to get for the life of the project – WAY, WAY beyond the pilot), supporters will also have the satisfaction of knowing that they were the one with the foresight to see the potential of this project ahead of everyone else, and it’s here today because of their support.

Head to http://igg.me/at/Imperium to pledge your support to this exciting project!

The post Back British Telefantasy Love Letter “The Imperium” appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Big Finish’s Short Trips Range Gets Two More Years

Katie Gribble 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.

Cheers, jubilations and street parades coincided with the confirmation of two more years of downloadable Doctor Who – Monthly Short Trips readings available from January 2016. For those of us who require a regular fix of Doctor Who action, this announcement came as welcome news amidst the flood of exciting Big Finish news to come thus far.

In the producer’s chair for the next run is Ian Atkins stating:

‘I’m delighted to be taking over from Michael Stevens on this intelligent, often thought-provoking range…It’s an honour to get that vote of confidence from David Richardson, Nicholas Briggs and Jason Haigh-Ellery and quite daunting to now have so many stories and times and places to think about in one go!’

Ian has plenty of experience with Big Finish Doctor Who writing the Fifth Doctor Short Trip Doctor Who: The King of the Dead, and producing the Doctor Who Main Range Subscriber Short Trips since 2014.

He has already sat down with director Lisa Bowerman and have a very long wishlist which they wish to pursue over the course of the next two years.

He says: ‘It’s too early to be sure or make any firm announcements, but I’m certainly planning a couple of proper Christmas stories and to explore some periods and characters in Doctor Who which may have been forgotten about – and not just with companions either…’

Oh the suspense is killing me. Doesn’t that just tickle your curiosity?

Big Finish’s other series span a wide range of award-winning, full-cast original audio dramas from the worlds of Blake’s 7, Dark Shadows, The Avengers, Survivors, The Omega Factor, Sherlock Holmes, Dorian Gray, Pathfinder Legends, 2000 AD and new for 2015, The Prisoner and Terrahawks,

The 2016 and 2017 runs of Doctor Who: Short Trips can be pre-ordered from today. Titles are available for just £2.99 each, or each year can be bought as a subscription for just £30.

The post Big Finish’s Short Trips Range Gets Two More Years appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Slap in the face: Why Doctor Who’s domestic violence has got to stop

James Baldock 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.

Picture the scene. The TARDIS’s lights glow eerily. Up at the console, the Doctor flicks switches, pulls a couple of levers in quiet desperation. Finally, with an anguished sigh, he gives up. “It’s gone,” he tells Clara. “Gallifrey. Completely gone. I’ll never see it again.”

Clara, who is feeling particularly mean this afternoon, gives a nonchalant shrug. “You were the one who lost it in the first place. Can’t leave you alone with anything, can they?” Whereupon the Doctor turns from the console, striding across the floor of the TARDIS and slapping her savagely across the face.

The inclusion of a moment like this is more or less unthinkable. Even if you could write the characters this way, the OFCOM fallout would be potentially catastrophic. The tabloids would have a field day. The Mail’s headline would be a smug “BBC GOES TOO FAR”. The forums would be clogged with debates about whether the Doctor has become irredeemably dark, irreversibly unpleasant, and whether we need to see violence against women represented at this scale – counter-balanced against the views of those who simply see it as a natural progression, a chance for the show to journey into uncharted waters.

You’ve probably already seen where I’m going with this, but just in case it needs pointing out, when the reverse happens – as it does, with increasing frequency – the net result is a string of animated GIFs and YouTube compilations and the sound of much laughter. Because slapping in Doctor Who is something that they seem to do a lot, and while it’s undoubtedly a source of much hilarity to most of the Tumblr brigade, I’m not one of them. And every time it happens, I get very uncomfortable.

There’s certainly been a history of Doctor-companion violence. Perhaps one of the most notable early stories was The Edge of Destruction, with its strangulation cliffhanger and the notorious scene where Susan attacks Barbara with a pair of scissors. It was a stage in the production history where they were still working out tone and it’s almost inconceivable that it would have happened even, say, a year later. Meanwhile, strangulation rears its ugly head again in The Twin Dilemma, as a paranoid, post-regeneration Doctor shouts poetry at Peri before trying to throttle her. I’ve had dates like this, but it’s a nasty scene in a largely ridiculous story, and we will not dwell on it.

Besides, such things seem to be anomalies in twenty-five years of comparatively chaste television, in which the relationship the companion has with their Doctor is seldom discussed openly. For better or worse, a companion-based intensity is central to the dynamic of New Who, and generally you either love it or hate it. The Ninth Doctor famously tells Rose that he doesn’t “do domestic”, but that almost feels like Eccleston himself protesting against the tide of relationship issues that clogged the show both during and after his stint in the leather jacket.

That’s a different debate, of course, but it has fallout. The Doctor is slapped by Jackie Tyler for taking away his daughter. Francine Jones slaps him because she believe he’s a threat. A bolshy, pre-enlightened Donna Noble slaps him because she thinks she’s been kidnapped (and then again when she thinks he’s making light of a serious situation). Martha slaps the Doctor to bring him out of his self-induced fugue.

Why even question the motives of the one doing the slapping, when the one being slapped is so obviously asking for it?

Some of these are understandable within the context of the narrative, even if we could question the writers’ decision to subsequently make light of them (the Doctor and Rose share a joke about Jackie on a rooftop, while a reeling Tennant remarks “Always the mothers” while he’s getting up). But that’s television. The comedy value of a good slap in the face is, apparently, worth its weight in gold, whether it’s Tasha Lem in Time of the Doctor, or Clara’s assault on the Cyberplanner Doctor in Nightmare in Silver. It would be churlish to single out Doctor Who for this sort of thing. It happened practically every week in Friends. It goes back to the golden age of television and beyond. Every short film Leon Errol ever made would end when his wife hit him over the head with a vase.

Perhaps comedy slapping has its place, given the right characters and context. But there’s been a shift over the years from a literal slapstick – the Eleventh Doctor hitting himself for his own stupidity – towards a darker, violence-as-reaction ethos, and perhaps that’s what makes me uncomfortable. I’ve mentioned the mothers, but the rot truly sets in when Matt Smith enters his second series: River’s reaction upon seeing an apparently resurrected (but actually two hundred years younger) Doctor is to slap him. She does it again when he fixes her broken wrist. Clara’s about the most violent of the lot, particularly when she’s working with Capaldi: thoughtless behaviour is punished with physical abuse in both Last Christmas and Into the Dalek, while she threatens, in Kill the Moon, to “smack you so hard you’ll regenerate”.

“But surely,” I can hear people arguing, “It’s OK, because the Doctor’s an alien?” And yes, the Doctor’s not human. He’s already demonstrated amazing resistance to injuries. He’s probably got a healing factor. He’s like an abrasive, declawed Wolverine, so that makes it OK. Besides, thumping non-human life forms isn’t a problem: if Han Solo’s response to being captured by the Ewoks had been to punch one of them in the face, I’m sure that would have been entirely acceptable to most children. It’s a poor analogy, but it illustrates that the line’s very hard to draw. To what extent do we disavow the actions of a character on the grounds that the humanoid patriarch they’ve thumped has two hearts instead of just one?

“Or,” the argument continues, “he deserves it, right?” Well, yes, of course he does. The Twelfth Doctor’s an alienating (in a quite literal sense of the word), clinically detached sociopath, at least in his worst moments. He says the horrible things we’re all thinking, only the little switch inside his head that stops you saying them out loud doesn’t seem to be working. That’s a perfectly justifiable reason for casual domestic violence. He deserves it in the same way that provocatively dressed women presumably deserve to be raped.

Why even question the motives of the one doing the slapping, when the one being slapped is so obviously asking for it?

I watch quite a lot of Jeremy Kyle on the weekday mornings I’m folding laundry instead of writing, and a couple of months ago one particular guest recounted the time he was locked in his flat by a girlfriend who supposedly beat him. The authenticity of his narrative was ultimately disputed, of course, but long before that happened Kyle had taken the audience to task for laughing. “If this was the other way around,” he said, “and if a woman was sat here and a bloke had locked her in a flat and she’d been forced to jump out and injure herself you would not be laughing. You would be saying he is a complete nightmare, he should be locked up and that’s disgraceful, but somehow if it happens to a bloke that’s funny. That’s not funny.”

If I could say that the show were making a valid point about this sort of thing, I’d probably be more tolerant. But it doesn’t: moral debate is sandwiched into inappropriate contexts where it is dealt with poorly and rapidly (Kill the Moon again) or, more often, sidestepped entirely. So by turns we’re supposed to laugh, or shake our heads in dismay and mutter “Well, he was asking for it”. We laugh because it’s a powerful Time Lord being brought down off his pedestal by a weak and feeble human. And we shouldn’t, because when it’s supposed to be funny, it usually isn’t, and when it’s supposed to be angst-ridden, it just comes across as nasty. Besides, it’s not just the Doctor. In Asylum of the Daleks, Amy slaps Rory twice. At least that’s consistent. Amy spends most of that story being an absolute bitch, whether it’s the arrogant smugness that pervades the early scenes, or the tirade of fury directed at her ex-husband for considering himself the wronged party (“Plastic man standing outside in the rain for two millennia? Pah. I THREW YOU OUT OF THE HOUSE BECAUSE I CAN’T HAVE YOUR BABIES!”).

I’m not advocating a reduction of violence. I approach many of these situations – inevitably and unavoidably – from the perspective of a parent, but that doesn’t mean I think the show is too unpleasant. I recently showed The Deadly Assassin, arguably the peak of 1970s unpleasantness, to my eight-year-old (and was thrilled when, just last week, he remembered an obscure detail while forming an analogy). The most sensible response to stories that cross your own particular line of acceptable viewing is to simply not watch them.

But I am worried about the show I’m watching. Perhaps Series 8 was Capaldi’s Twin Dilemma moment, borne out across twelve weeks, and the lighter touch hinted at in series 9 will mean Clara no longer needs to react in anger. Or perhaps not. Perhaps this is the way Moffat and the producers choose to do things; a sort of counterbalance to the sexism charges thrown his way last year. But I know we live in a world where The Sun spearheads a campaign to highlight battered women with one hand and dismisses a marital assault charge against its (female) editor as “a silly argument” with the other. I know it’s a world where domestic violence against men is granted less credence than its (admittedly more common) antipode. Once again, that’s another debate for another day. But above all I know this: it’s not the sort of thing I want to see in Doctor Who.

The post Slap in the face: Why Doctor Who’s domestic violence has got to stop appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

DWM Special: The Music of Doctor Who is Out Now

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.

For the first time in the 36-year history of Doctor Who Magazine – an entire issue devoted to the music and sound design of Doctor Who!

From Delia Derbyshire’s groundbreaking experiments in the Radiophonic Workshop, to the acclaimed performances of Murray Gold’s orchestral scores at the Royal Albert Hall, The Music of Doctor Who explores one of the most celebrated and mysterious sonic landscapes in television history.

“We think this Special Edition is unprecedented in its scope and detail,” says editor Marcus Hearn. “Writers such as Mark Ayres and Andrew Pixley have contributed a fresh insight to an aspect of the show’s production that’s been overlooked for too long.

Highlights of the issue include:

Interviews with Tristram Cary, Dudley Simpson and Orbital’s Paul Hartnoll.
Contributions from David Arnold, Neil Brand and Steven Moffat.
Sections devoted to every composer to have worked on the programme.
The strange world of library music.
The history of the Radiophonic Workshop.
The complete guide to pop music in Doctor Who.

Doctor Who Magazine Special Edition: The Music of Doctor Whos available now, price £5.99.

The post DWM Special: The Music of Doctor Who is Out Now appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.