Christian Cawley's Blog, page 82

Christopher Eccleston: “I’m Always There in Spirit”

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.

Hands up – who misses the Ninth Doctor? Yep, I think many of us do, whether introduced to the show via the 2005 series, or a fan since Classic Who.

Christopher Eccleston is on many-a-wishlist for coming back, but the actor says what’s important isn’t that he solely did the one series as the Doctor:

“I don’t think it’s important that I left. I think it’s important that I did it in the first place. I’m still there: I was in David Tennant, I was in Matt Smith, I was in Peter Capaldi. I’m always there in spirit.”

What’s so nice about this quote is that Eccleston reaffirms the fact that he really does get Doctor Who. Capaldi, when he took on the role of the Twelfth Doctor, said that his incarnation is infused with the previous regenerations, and Eccleston seems to echo this sentiment.

Looking back on his time with the show, he says he might do one thing in particular differently:

“I think I over-pitched the comedy. If I had my time again, I would do the comedy very different – but I think where I did possibly succeed was in the tortured stuff – surprise surprise!”

I don’t know – I think the humour was spot-on.

As ever, Christopher wouldn’t be pressed on why he left Doctor Who, instead saying:

“Myself and three individuals at the very top of the pyramid clashed so off I went… They’re not here to say their side of it so I’m not going into detail.”

Which is a very respectable response.

Maybe we’ll never truly know. But as the Ninth Doctor says, that’s not really the point. The point is, he did it. He introduced millions to the show. He’s the Doctor.

The post Christopher Eccleston: “I’m Always There in Spirit” appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

DVD Production Notes will Change How You Watch Dimensions in Time! [VIDEO]

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.

Dimensions in Time is a much-derided piece of television, and for some very good reasons, mainly because it’s terrible. Largely unwatchable, with an inpenetrable script.

Shot in 3D, and with the EastEnders cast and set shoehorned in, the episode aired as part of Noel’s House Party on Children in Need weekend in 1993, a bare excuse for a 30th anniversary of Doctor Who, and a pale replacement for Lost in the Dark Dimension. it even features some horrendous CGI heads of the First and Second Doctors.

On the other hand, it does unite Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy and a host of companions including K9 and Nick Courtney as the Brigadier, up against a bizarre plan by the Rani, and is relatively well shot, although on balance this was to engineer the 3D effect. So if you haven’t seen Dimensions in Time, you’re missing little…

Until now. This version has DVD-style production note captions, and amazingly makes the rather ramshackle production almost watchable.

Almost.

The post DVD Production Notes will Change How You Watch Dimensions in Time! [VIDEO] appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

New Zealand Fans Can Catch Peter Capaldi in Conversation this November!

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.

BBC Worldwide ANZ has announced that Peter Capaldi in Conversation, a special Doctor Who event, will be held at The Civic, Auckland for one night only on Tuesday November 24.

This will be the first time ever a current Doctor has visited New Zealand and, with a limited number of seats available, fans are advised to purchase their tickets early to avoid missing out. In this special one-time-only event, hosted by Adam Spencer, Peter will reveal how he approaches the role of the Doctor, with footage and stories from behind the scenes of the world’s longest running sci-fi television series.

He’ll take questions from the audience and give them an insight into what life is like inside the TARDIS. As well as discussing the unique perspective he brings to the role of the Doctor – a style that is direct, humorous and increasingly vulnerable. Peter will also share some of the adventures he’s had both in his role as the Doctor and throughout his career.

Tickets are on sale now and start from $89.00 through Ticketmaster. Meanwhile, Doctor Who Series 9 will premiere in New Zealand on Prime in September.

Follow the Twitter hashtag #DWCapaldiNZ to stay up-to-date with this event.

The post New Zealand Fans Can Catch Peter Capaldi in Conversation this November! appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Fan Artist’s Eighth Doctor Titan Cover Tribute

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.

This is a treat! Inspired by Doctor Who: The Eighth Doctor covers from Titan Comics, previewed recently ahead of a series of stories for Paul McGann’s version of the Doctor, popular fan illustrator Carolyn Edwards has given the concept her own treatment…

Carolyn is particularly a fan of McGann’s Doctor, and has drawn and painted the character on numerous occasions. We’ve chatted to Carolyn a couple of times on Kasterborous, first back in 2008 and more recently in 2012 as part of our Whispering Gallery series, when she shared this lovely piece:

We think her Eighth Doctor comic cover is rather smashing, and wouldn’t look out of place on the newstands…

(Carolyn’s cover is of course a fan produced mockup, which will not be available to buy!)

The post Fan Artist’s Eighth Doctor Titan Cover Tribute appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Doctor Who: The Ninth Doctor #3 Preview

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.

Today, Cavan Scott and Blair Shedd’s superb Weapons of Past Destruction continues with the Ninth Doctor, Rose and Captain Jack Harkness in peril…

The hotly-anticipated Weapons of Past Destruction continues, as the Doctor, Rose and Jack are trapped in an alien bazaar, caught in a heavily-armed standoff between the overpowered Unon and the Lect – as the nearby star threatens to go supernova!

Interested? Well the, here’s a few preview pages!

Doctor Who: The Ninth Doctor #3 from Titan Comics is available from today, Wednesday 29 July, in all good comic stores in North America and the UK.

The post Doctor Who: The Ninth Doctor #3 Preview appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Production on Doctor Who Series 9 Shoot Continues [UPDATED]

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.

So, Doctor Who Series 9 is almost in the bag, with broadcast of the first episode scheduled for Saturday, September 19th on BBC One and BBC America. You’ll be surprised to learn, then, that this week, scenes from the finale are being shot…

Here you can see the decorated 200th slate of block six of Doctor Who Series 9, somewhere in the Rachel Talalay-directed episodes 11 and 12.

Now, that’s our kind of clapperboard! http://t.co/oh1EDQByqz #DoctorWho pic.twitter.com/EJl8k1Op4b

— Doctor Who Official (@bbcdoctorwho) July 28, 2015

However – amazingly – there is still a long way to go. Remember that production took a two week break? Well, it seems that in addition to the finale, there is still work to do on Mark Gatiss’ episode 9. Could it be that rewrites or changes of personnel behind the scenes have necessitated these delays? We can’t say, but if TV production interests you, the making of Doctor Who always seems to be a fascinating story.

Meanwhile, we’ve also been “treated” to the happy dance of Ingrid Oliver, who you can’t have failed to notice is returning to Doctor Who following her character Osgood’s death in Series 8’s Death in Heaven at the hands of Missy. Perhaps it was the Zygon duplicate; I’m not sure I really care enough.

Source: Osgood returns to Doctor Who, does happy dance

That wasn’t annoying at all, was it? I’m saying I hope that Osgood dies again, but, well, I do.

So there.

(Thanks to Twitter users @MingMong006 and @dawnlestaffs)

The post Production on Doctor Who Series 9 Shoot Continues [UPDATED] appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Reviewed: The Fate of Krelos

Chris Swanson 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.

Allow me to state out the outset that I quite liked this story. It’s not the best, but it was decent, solid entertainment, and I very much enjoyed it.

The story does, however, suffer from the problem of being part one of a two-part story, and I therefore have to evaluate it as such. As a reminder, here’s the synopsis:

There are dark skies on Krelos… and something gigantic is descending.

Meanwhile, the Doctor and Leela set off for some fishing in the mountain pools of Krelos. K9 has interfaced with the TARDIS and has reactivated the architectural configuration from the days of the Doctor’s second incarnation. In passing, the Doctor notes it could do with a good clean. And there’s a familiar piece of material snagged on the console.

Far up the mountain, an aged explorer is in trouble. Will the Doctor and Leela be able to save him and his planet? And what is it that K9 has discovered in the TARDIS?

We find the Doctor and Leela (Tom Baker and Louise Jameson) arriving on Krelos, where they plan to do a spot of fishing. Meantime, K9 has been interfacing with the TARDIS computer and has somehow managed to reset the desktop theme to that of the Second Doctor. Conveniently, this theme also includes a fragment of Jamie’s kilt. Out on the surface of Krelos, they encounter a man who is also heading off to do a spot of fishing, and all appears to be well.

OR IS IT?!

Of course it isn’t, and I must say that the part leading up to the “it isn’t” is rather slow and at times seems to lose focus. It picks up quite a bit, however, once all heck starts to break lose, as the Doctor and Leela find out that over the course of only a few minutes, the planet’s primary city appears to have been completely destroyed; and that destruction seems to have happened some time ago.

The identity of the adversaries in this story is pretty obvious from the beginning, but that’s okay, because it’s fun to see how they make their appearance and how they interact with the TARDIS crew. It also makes K9’s final line in the story rather a bit chilling and does an excellent job of setting us up for the conclusion next month.

The acting in this story was, of course, excellent as always. Baker and Jameson continue their fantastic efforts, as does the too-often underused Leeson. The guest actors (including Caves of Androzani and Ghost Light‘s Michael Cochrane) did well, too, though they weren’t really given that much to do.

Written and directed by Nick briggs, as a partial, stand-alone story, The Fate of Krelos (which is available now from Big Finish) works out okay, but I strongly suspect it will be vastly improved by the second part…

The post Reviewed: The Fate of Krelos appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Will Bad Wolf TV Stalk You Through Space and Time?

Richard Forbes 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.

Who’s afraid of the Big Bad Wolf? Jane Tranter and Julie Gardner aren’t! The former BBC executives praised for overseeing the revival of Doctor Who in 2005 have launched a new production company which aims to produce quality TV and film programming for the global market – the name of the company? None other than Bad Wolf.

Bad Wolf, of course, an omnipresent meme from Series 1, was, among many things, the name of a dystopian television station, Bad WolfTV from the year 200,000. Television programs produced by the Bad Wolf Corporation in the Series 1 penultimate episode, included ‘killer’ versions of The Weakest Link, Big Brother, and What Not to Wear. But something tells me that Tranter and Gardner have something different in mind with their Bad Wolf…

The company will maintain offices in both South Wales and Los Angeles with production centered in South Wales. Gardner will work in LA while Tranter oversees production in South Wales. The new production company meanwhile is set to rake in £100 million for the Welsh economy over the next decade. With profit for the region on the horizon, it comes as no surprise then that Bad Wolf has received a loan from the Welsh government; the size of the loan, however, has yet to be released due to “commercial reasons.”

Tranter spoke on this partnership with the Welsh government earlier this week:

“TV has changed beyond all recognition in the past decade,” says Tranter. “Huge international productions made on movie scale budgets have put British TV at the forefront of this revolution. We are delighted to be working with the Welsh government to grow this industry and continue to benefit the economy of Wales.”

Gardner adds, “Jane and I have filmed all over the globe and know, first hand, that the talent base in South Wales is world class. We are thrilled to be embarking on this new venture surrounded by such shared talent and passion.”

According to several reports, Bad Wolf is close to reaching some exciting development deals with U.S networks and discussions are under way with various broadcasters from the UK and EU.

The post Will Bad Wolf TV Stalk You Through Space and Time? appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Just What Would It Mean to Have a Female Doctor Who?

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.

In a diverse collection of discussions, this week’s podKast swings from Ripper Street series 3 to Colin Baker’s apparent fall out with Doctor Who Magazine, and largely concludes – thanks to recent comments by Sylvester McCoy – with some in-depth thoughts about what introducing a female Doctor Who would mean to the show and what it might reflect in society.

No, really.

Christian Cawley and Brian A Terranova are your hosts, with tardy boy McLean rolling in late. Students, eh?

Kasterborous PodKast Series 5 Episode 25 Shownotes

Paul McGann Estrogen Brigade
LI Who 2015 convention
The Sixth Doctor: The Last Adventure
Colin Baker bemoans polls in Doctor Who Magazine
Colin Baker talks to the podKast
Eleventh Doctor cosplayer in Sixth Doctor outfit
The podKast on iTunes – leave a review!
Sylvester McCoy unhappy with female Doctor Who ideas
Recommendations: Ripper Street Series 3, The Invasion , House Season 5 , The Robots of Death
Doctor Who Series 8 hits Netflix

The rather 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 Just What Would It Mean to Have a Female Doctor Who? appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

3D Series 8 Finale Screenings for US Fans, PLUS Doctor Who Series 9 Prequel!

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.

BBC Worldwide North America and Fathom Events have announced a two-night special theatrical event, Doctor Who: Dark Water/Death in Heaven in spectacular 3D throughout the USA in September!

Doctor Who: Dark Water/Death in Heaven, the show’s two-part eighth season finale, will be presented in RealD™ 3D and Dolby Atmos sound (where available) on September 15 and 16 at 7:30 p.m. (local time). The event will feature The Doctor’s Meditation – a special prequel scene to the first episode of season nine – and an exclusive interview with Doctor Who stars Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman, hosted by Wil Wheaton (Big Bang Theory, Star Trek: The Next Generation), in addition to the two-part season eight finale.

Tickets for Doctor Who: Dark Water/Death in Heaven in 3D can be purchased online beginning Friday, July 31 by visiting www.FathomEvents.com, or participating theater box offices. Fans throughout the U.S. will be able to enjoy the event in approximately 700 movie theaters through Fathom’s Digital Broadcast Network. For a complete list of theater locations visit the Fathom Events website (theaters and participants are subject to change).

Meanwhile, Sci-Fi Bulletin has received confirmation from the BBC that there will be no screenings of Dark Water/Death in Heaven in the UK.

“Due to the number of events taking place for Doctor Who this year including the Symphonic Spectacular and the Doctor Who Festival, we decided against showing the episodes in UK cinema.”

Bit of a shame, but hopefully The Doctor’s Meditation will be available to UK fans in some shape or form…

(Via Connor | Tumblr)

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