Christian Cawley's Blog, page 85

Amusing Doctor Who Misconceptions Discussed in the PodKast

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 misconceptions can be amusing; they can also be embarrassing. We’ve all had them, those moments where our internalised canon (also known as “headcanon”) betrays logic. But non-fans also have this, such as the notion that the Doctor is actually called “Dr Who”, or that the Daleks are in every single episode (which would be slightly dull, right?)

Backed up by a useful collection of Doctor Who misconceptions on Reddit, Christian Cawley, James McLean and Brian A. Terranova discuss these and other, similar, confused logic and understanding about Doctor Who over the years. And we’re looking forward to reading about yours, too!

Kasterborous PodKast Series 5 Episode 24 Shownotes

Doctor Who misconceptions on Reddit
Interference: Book One  and Interference: Book Two by Lawrence Miles
The Mark of the Rani
Recommendations: Resurrection Of The Daleks , The X-Files on Amazon Prime, Millennium on DVD
Fan Fiktion on Kasterborous

The rather wonderful podKast theme tune is by Russell Hugo.

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Tales from the Red Planet: Corrosion

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 survivors had died a couple of years ago now, but that wouldn’t have made a difference anyway. The Indian Space Agency had been ploughing ahead on the project, strictly off-the-radar, half a decade or more. Now, they were finally here.

Corrosion was the key. The ruins around them had begun turning rusty. The atmosphere was largely carbon dioxide, but that alone wasn’t enough. You needed… Well, exactly what they were looking for. The old reports were right.

The survivors never properly spoke out about the circumstances of the explosion. The pair solely talked about their captain – how wonderful she was, how capricious she was, and how she took Action Five. They were too scared to say why, or how they got back to Earth, alive and (mostly) well.

Indira looked back at their shuttle, a black monolith framed by the distant crimson stars, and gave a thumbs-up. She’d found it. Because it wasn’t just the ruins. There was so little left anyway. It was scarred and blackened right at its heart, but towards the edge was a structure, foundations too deep to completely destroy. There had been main hubs then endless corridors leading off into the dark. She slowly descended into the crater. The dust lifted from underneath her, minute rocks tumbling down. Rocks that hadn’t moved for so long now.

The spacesuit would protect her from any trace radioactive elements. The Agency had assured her of that. The soil – no, the rock – was barren, but not useless. If they were right, the human race could take that next step.

As she reached the bottom of the slope, she reached into her external pockets and picked out the scanner.

She could see that glistening, cracked white surface, so close, like a mirage on the blood-hued desert. It was impossible, but there it was. There it was.

A probe extended from the scanner, and she checked the levels around her. Not bad. A bit high, but she’ll be alright. The crews back on Earth could do wonders now.

She put the probe to the sheet of ice. It drilled in, vibration shaking up into Indira’s shoulder, and then whirred with activity. This had to be proof that they could come back here. They could do it. Indira’s name would be heralded as a great space explorer.

When the scanner had finished its analysis and she looked at the readings, a tear ran down her cheek – which was annoying. She couldn’t exactly wipe it away. Nonetheless: it was possible. This was confirmation. She clicked on her internal communicator and the gruff tones of Mohinder echoed in her helmet: “Have you found it, Indira?”

“Yes. Yes, I found it. No radiation detected. The ice field is safe to use. We have water.”

The Earth-based crew at the Indian Space Agency also heard the message, beamed across some 33 million miles:

“We’ve found the remains of Bowie Base One.”

The post Tales from the Red Planet: Corrosion appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Capaldi Hints at Caecilius Return in Doctor Who Series 9?

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.

Prepare to ‘Whaaat?': Peter Capaldi has hinted that ‘Caecilius’ – his other Doctor Who character – may make a return in Series 9. Capaldi played Caecilius in Series 4’s The Fires of Pompeii (2008), a dream part for the lifelong Whovian at the time – little would he know he would return to Doctor Who later, however, as none other than the Doctor himself. It’s long been suggested that Capaldi’s other appearances in the Whoverse would be addressed onscreen, but how the showrunner intends to do so has so far remained a mystery; this is the first time that it’s been hinted that Caecilius might return.

At the Apple ‘Meet the Cast’ event, Peter Capaldi himself noted that ‘with regards to my Roman alter-ego, there will be a…’ he paused, concluding, ‘he may appear again.’ Capaldi also said that Caecilus ‘will certainly be invoked,’ – whatever that means. A bad case of hypnotism? A hallucination? A well choreographed dance routine spelling out his face? Erm…

Series 8’s Deep Breath saw Capaldi’s Doctor briefly musing about his face, a face he’d ‘seen before,’ questioning whether his face is a personal message from himself – a message he couldn’t tell himself in person.

Steven Moffat, Doctor Who showrunner, already teased last year that Capaldi’s earlier parts in Doctor Who would not go ignored, saying ‘we’ll play that one out over time. It’s actually quite neat.’ The explanation for the reoccurring faces, as Steven explains, comes from an unusual (and exciting) source: Russell T Davies, former showrunner.

‘When Peter Capaldi turned up in Torchwood Russell said he had a plan in his head on why he looked like the guy in The Fires of Pompeii. So I emailed him and said what was the explanation and does it fit with the new Doctor? And it sort of does.

‘So in a very low-key way we’ll address it. It won’t be a major deal because in the end people know the real reason is he’s played by the same actor.’

– Steven Moffat, 2013.

With some fans speculating that Caecilus might return during Episode 4-5, due to the former’s reported Viking theme, I wonder if perhaps Caecilius might be the reason that the Doctor (according to the recent trailer) dusts off the ol’ two thousand year diary. No word yet on whether the appearance will also address St Bartholomew’s Eve‘s Abbot of Amboise… Salamander…Commander Maxil…

The post Capaldi Hints at Caecilius Return in Doctor Who Series 9? appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Titan Reveals All Issue #1 Covers For Doctor Who Crossover Event Series

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 Comics Day is now just under a month away! This year’s event takes place on Saturday, August 15, 2015, to tie in with Titan’s Doctor Who crossover event series – Doctor Who: Four Doctors!

This spectacular 5-part weekly comics series is penned by Paul Cornell (Wolverine) and illustrated by Neil Edwards (Assassin’s Creed), and stars the Tenth, Eleventh and Twelfth Doctors and their comics companions! The first issue hits comic stores on Wednesday August 12, supported by Doctor Who Comics Day on Saturday August 15!

Titan Comics has put together an astonishing collection of variant covers for issue 1, which you can view below…

We like the Queen-themed cover…

Doctor Who: Four Doctors #1 variant covers can be found on Doctor Who Comics Day from stores including: Alien Entertainment; Books-A-Million; Borderlands; Cafe Anime; Forbidden Planet; Geppi’s Entertainment Museum; Hastings; Hot Topic; Jester Comics; Newbury Comics; Third Eye; Twilight Comics; and The Who Shop.

The post Titan Reveals All Issue #1 Covers For Doctor Who Crossover Event Series appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Colin Baker Discusses Regeneration in Doctor Who Magazine 489!

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 new Doctor Who Magazine is available in shops from Thursday, 23rd July, in which Colin Baker chats about his Big Finish regeneration story!

The Sixth Doctor never had a proper regeneration story on television – so now Colin Baker has returned to record The Last Adventure for audio production company Big Finish…

“Big Finish came to me, and said, ‘If we write you a really good story, and if we released your seven cats which we’ve kidnapped, which are suspended above this flame getting lower and lower, will you perhaps do this story?'” Colin jokes, “and I reluctantly agreed, and my cats are safe!”

“I did require a little persuasion,” he admits, more candidly. So what changed his mind? “Oh, the idea of a release. A release from the tension of saying ‘no’ repeatedly. And… it’s Big Finish! That’s what changed my mind.”

ALSO INSIDE ISSUE 489…

UNDER SURVEILLANCE!

DWM tells the remarkable story of writer Malcolm Hulke, the creator of the Time Lords, Silurians and Sea Devils – and why he came under under scrutiny by MI5…
TROUBLED TEEN

Ellis George, the actress who plays cheeky schoolgirl Courtney Woods talks to DWM about travelling in the TARDIS, and what its like to be a teenager starring in Doctor Who.
TOP OF THE POPS!

The much-anticipated results of the 2014 DWM Season Survey are in! Discover which story from Peter Capaldi’s début season  topped the poll, and who won the accolade for best writer, what was the favourite monster, and more…
THE MONSTER OF PELADON!

The Fact of Fiction takes a close look at the 1974 serial The Monster of Peladon, and digs deep to unearth fascinating new facts about this Third Doctor adventure.
JUNGLE TERROR!

There’s ghostly goings-on for the Doctor and Clara in a brand-new comic strip adventure, Spirits of the Jungle by Jonathan Morris, illustrated by John Ross.
HELLO, YOUNG MAN!

Doctor Who‘s showrunner Steven Moffat answers readers’ questions – and comes face-to-face with his 10-year-old self!
TIS THE SEASON?

Jacqueline Rayner considers what time of year it’s traditional – and best – to watch Doctor Who – and comes to a surprising conclusion…
THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES

The Time Team fight for space behind the sofa as they watch David Tennant’s penultimate, chilling story: The Waters of Mars.
ON THEIR WAY…

DWM talks to the people involved in the latest Doctor Who CD releases, including Bonnie Langford, Nicholas Briggs, Lisa Bowerman and Mike Tucker.
PLUS! All the latest official news, reviews, competitions and The DWM Crossword.

Doctor Who Magazine 489 is on sale from Thursday 23 July 2015, price £4.99.

The post Colin Baker Discusses Regeneration in Doctor Who Magazine 489! appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Unmissable Big Finish: The Ratings War

Peter Webb 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 concept of a society enslaved by television has been played out many times. See 1980s horror flick Terrorvision; Rocky Horror follow-up Shock Treatment; and Doctor Who stories like Vengeance on Varos, where audiences control the fates of political prisoners, and Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways, which, 20 years on, reinvented that idea for the Big Brother/The Weakest Link age. The societal impact of television has been a subject of debate for decades, with many influential essayists like Marshall McLuhan and Noam Chomsky emerging with unique perspectives.

So – perfect subject for a Doctor Who story then!

Unlike Bad Wolf, the focus isn’t on reality television as a gladiator-esque death contest, but as an evil plot to turn the world into mindless murderous maniacs – a world run by television executives like Roger Lowell (Robert Jezek, who previously portrayed DWM’s shapeshifting penguin companion Frobisher), waiting to find out who are the winners of the unimaginatively named Audience Shares. Well done, Todd and Lucy. It’s very much in the spirit of the Doctor Who Magazine comic strips of the period, which embraced its medium to give us a diverse range of stories from the silly (like Polly the Glot) to the darker and more mind-bending (like Voyager). And likely stands as the only place in the programme’s history in which we get to see the Doctor in the bathtub.

The Sixth Doctor in The Shape Shifter / Script: Steve Parkhouse / Art: John Ridgway

The Sixth Doctor is a malleable character, and this story is about as colourful as the Sixth Doctor’s coat. It’s an unusual story for Lyons, whose name I associate with more grounded stories, time paradoxes, Selachians, retcons and Grant Markham.

The villain of the piece, the freaking adorable yet undeniably evil Beep the Meep, comes straight from the early days of DWM, having been introduced in Pat Mills’ 1980 story The Star Beast, which also introduced the Doctor’s companion Sharon. He could almost pass for Totoro – and has now become the subject of a children’s cartoon series, Beep and Friends, complete with cuddly toys ready to launch immediately.

Toby Longworth is an absolute joy as the psychopathic Beep the Meep, taking him right off of the page, phasing between adorable and cuddly to deplorable perfectly. The bonus episode on this disk (also with the download) features the first part of Invaders From Mars, and the bonus material at the end of that story (designed for back when people actually used CDs – having it in iTunes rather ruins the surprise) enhances the whole thing even more, with Longworth singing the full lyrics to the Beep and Friends theme song:

“Put your dog in the blender and close the lid / Cut your hamster to pieces to feed your kid / Cut the fur off your cat / Deep fry him in some fat / You are Beep’s friend / Kill them all”

…and so on.

Beep’s inaugural appearance in The Star Beast / Script: Pat Mills & John Wagner / Art: Dave Gibbons

Admittedly, it’s perhaps not the easiest listen for pet lovers, although it does somewhat embody the black humour of Season 22 from stories like Varos and The Two Doctors.

Yet beyond Beep, it’s a mediocre way to spend half an hour. Whereas Last of the Titans worked its constraints to its favour, this story instead becomes a duologue between the Sixth Doctor and Beep, cut against a TV studio scene featuring television presenter Robbie McHale (Alistair Lock), followed by an entirely unsatisfying deus ex machina ending. From the outtakes it’s clear it was a lot of fun in studio: but is it fun for the listener?

The story is essentially plotless, instead relying on extended exposition. Beep the Meep’s masterplan would make for a great story, yet it is foiled before we can see the Doctor reacting to loud angry audiences and children murdering animals. It seems better suited to comics, where the Doctor and Meep can monologue all they like without inducing boredom, visual transitions to the studio could make for a cleaner structure, and by default would result in a larger cast. There’s so many other things that would look amazing on the page, like the onomatopoeia of Beep’s gun, bolded text for every time Toby Longworth screams into the sky, panels of Todd and Lucy recovering in the ambulance rather having that information relayed by the presenter, etc. And yes, definitely scenes of mind-controlled children too.

It’s  ironic, because the Doctor concludes the story by making the argument that he needs a medium he can be “louder” on. Beep and Friends has been put on hiatus for 18 months *wink wink nudge nudge*; the Doctor’s appearance is mooted to be turned into a TV Movie *wink wink nudge nudge*, the phonelines are jammed (remember the Doctor Who fans who spent the 90s begging the BBC to continue the series?), and a Doctor who finds TV too limiting in “its present state”, walking off to cries from McHale: “Are you ever going to come back?”

Forget about these mindless reality TV nobodies everyone will have forgotten about in a few months: we have a protagonist with an actual story behind him right here.

And indeed, as the Doctor says, we definitely heard a lot more from him: both on audio and TV. Russell T. Davies turned around a TV seemingly littered with reality TV, docudramas, “quiz shows for the intellectually challenged” and soap operas that barely fulfilled the PSB’s mandate of “inform, educate and entertain” (another *wink wink nudge nudge* from Colin Baker) into an exciting science fiction series that wasn’t just an American import, and paved the way for Merlin and many more series. The outlook of TV today is very different to how it was in 2002: more personalised, Netflix, iPlayer, social media, and series that executives wouldn’t have dreamed of back then. And that’s one of the issues with listening to this story 13 years on: it just isn’t relevant anymore. Even the “HUMANITY IS CONTROLLED BY MOBILE PHONES/THE INTERNET/INSERT VICE HERE” type stories seem somewhat dated.

The Sixth Doctor is well suited to this debate, being both the Doctor at the knife of Michael Grade and as a showcase for Big Finish, now with many original companions to his name and the recipient of the “greatest Doctor” title in a 2001 poll by Doctor Who Magazine for his reprised role in the audios. It’s worthy satire, yet it transforms into a half hour argument to justify the existence of Big Finish, with the only plot strand being justifying the existence of Big Finish.

It’s a poor representation of what the company are capable of, yet for completists and Beep the Meep obsessives, it may well be a hidden gem.

Written by Steve Lyons, directed by Gary Russell, and starring Colin Baker,  Toby Longworth and Robert Jezek, Doctor Who: The Ratings War is available as a download from Big Finish.

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Australian Doctor Who Festival Welcomes Writer and Actor Mark Gatiss and Special Effects Team

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.

Famed writer and actor Mark Gatiss and one of the special effects teams who work on the iconic series, will join current Doctor Peter Capaldi and writer and executive producer Steven Moffat at the Doctor Who Festival in Sydney on the 21st & 22nd November, 2015.

Mark will host a special writers’ master class, where fans will be given the opportunity to ask questions about how a Doctor Who script is crafted, as well as hearing the techniques behind the art of dramatic scriptwriting and how to get work published.

The BAFTA award-winning Real SFX team, led by Danny Hargreaves, will offer festival attendees the chance to witness first hand some of the spectacular effects seen in Doctor Who such as explosions and fireballs, elemental and atmospheric effects, mechanical rigs and pyrotechnics. Interactive sections of the demonstration will also offer audiences the chance to participate in the action.

Mark Gatiss, like Steven Moffat, is one of the few writers to have written for all four Doctors in the modern revival of Doctor Who (Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant, Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi). Mark was also the writer and executive producer of An Adventure in Space and Time, a 90-minute dramatisation of the genesis of the series.

Along with Doctor Who, Mark is the co-creator and executive producer of Sherlock, which he stars in as Sherlock’s brother Mycroft Holmes. Audiences will also recognise him from his recent acting roles as Stephen Gardiner in the critically acclaimed Wolf Hall and as Tycho Nestoris in Game of Thrones. Mark was also part of the comedy troupe The League of Gentlemen, where he both wrote and appeared on screen.

Mark Gatiss says: “Watching Doctor Who as a child made me want to become a writer and actor – I used to jot down ideas in my school exercise book. Doing it for real for the past ten years and four Doctors is a dream come true. At the Doctor Who Festival you can come and hear the stories behind my stories!”

Along with Mark Gatiss and the special effects team, festival attendees will be given the opportunity to show off their best Doctor Who-themed outfits with a Cosplayers’ Showcase. A Doctor Who expert will judge the costumes, with a special prize awarded to the best-dressed fan.

Fans can also test their knowledge in two separate quizzes, with the chance to win an array of prizes. The fan challenge offers fans of all ages a chance to test their knowledge of the series, whilst the Doctor Who Quiz provides the ultimate challenge, with in-depth questions on the Doctor, his adversaries and the many adventures he’s had through space and time.

To date the festival includes the following, with more talent and activities to be announced shortly:

· Q&AS -see the writers and cast from the series as they talk about how to make an idea become reality on a series as big and bold as Doctor Who.

· PHOTO AND AUTOGRAPH OPPORTUNITIES – A limited number of opportunities for photos and autographs with selected talent.

· WRITERS’ MASTERCLASS – ask Mark Gatiss how a Doctor Who script is crafted and discover the techniques behind the art of dramatic scriptwriting and how to get work published.

· SFX DISPLAY – witness first-hand some of the spectacular effects seen in the series such as explosions and fireballs, elemental and atmospheric effects, mechanical rigs and pyrotechnics.

· WARDROBE DEPARTMENT – a fantastic exhibition of costumes and props.

· COSPLAYERS’ SHOWCASE- fans can showcase their impressive Doctor Who-themed outfits with a special prize awarded to the best dressed.

· DOCTOR WHO QUIZ – this is the ultimate Doctor Who quiz, where fans can show off their in-depth knowledge of the Doctor, his adversaries and the many adventures he’s had through space and time.

· THE FAN CHALLENGE – Fans young and old can battle it out and test their Doctor Who knowledge.

The Doctor Who Festival will be held at the Hordern Pavilion and the Royal Hall of Industries on the 21st and 22nd November.

Tickets can be purchased at Ticketek, and you can find out more by looking for the #DWFestAu hashtag on Twitter.

The post Australian Doctor Who Festival Welcomes Writer and Actor Mark Gatiss and Special Effects Team appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Cult Worlds Collide in Revival of The Master’s Favourite TV Show, The Clangers

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.

Retro TV Meta-Crisis Alert! The barriers between cult TV shows are dissipating! All worlds will soon be one! And what, you may ask, is the harbinger of our doom? Why it’s nothing more than a humble, whistling Clanger…

While you may be rushing towards your nearest interstellar library to consult the ancient ones long forgotten star charts (Section 2, aisle 6 – the shelves next section on The History of Unusual Cheeses) to discover what our fate maybe, you needed look no further than The Guardian to see the oncoming storm.

For, heading back out to space once again, William Shatner will narrate the US version of the recent Clangers update. Now, you may ask ‘why do the puppets whistle the end times?’ well, if we consult the charts…or the BBC Press Office, we know, the UK version of The Clangers reboot which wrenched Mother, Major, Tiny, Small and Granny out of their status field and back onto our screens is narrated by Monty Python alum Michael Palin, who, as rumours have it, turned down the part of the Eighth Doctor for the Doctor Who TV Movie (or at the very least one of the movies that were in constant development beforehand).

Already you can see different worlds slowly encroaching upon ours: Star Trek begins to bleed into The Clangers, Monty Python bleeds into Doctor Who, and then finally, we come to the endgame – the most disturbing evidence yet – the clearest sign that these plans, this disintegration of carefully maintained canons, has been in hiding in plain sight for decades; the ancient ones knew it, the star charts foretold it, and the Master saw it.

All we need now is some sort of Star Trek/Doctor Who crossover to happen – possibly in comic book form – or perhaps one of the crew of the various Star Trek vessels to make an appearance – say that nice Mark Sheppard chap or that lovely Daphne Ashbrook – and then all hope is lost…

What’s that you say? Oh no!

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Tales from the Red Planet: The Colour of Dried Blood

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.

Marcus Scarman died three times.

He first died on Earth when he entered Sutekh’s prison. It was the crowning moment of his archaeology career at All Soul’s College. His heart pounding, he entered the ancient chamber picturing his colleagues’ faces. The next moment his own soul was torn out through his eyes by an Osirian god.

He died for the second time on Mars. Using his body as a puppet, Sutekh sent him there to destroy his psychic chains – a telepathic field generator in a Martian pyramid. When you trap death in a box, you put the key far away. But death sent Marcus Scarman. With the generator gone, Sutekh’s mind released him. Scarman’s mind returned to his body momentarily before it dissolved into ash.

Servicer robots guarded the pyramid. The were covered in layers of bioengineered skin like wrappings on a mummy. The Prime Servicer guarded the generator chamber. Unlike the others it had its own power supply and a larger positronic brain. It could plan and react. It could almost think.

Destroying the generator created a burst of telepathic energy. As his body burnt, ricocheting psychic energies imprinted Marcus’s consciousness. And with the generator gone, the Servicer’s duties were over. The pyramid fell silent and it opened its telepathic receiver for new instructions. It found Marcus Scarman’s mind waiting in the dark.

And so a middle-aged Professor of Egyptology, one hundred million miles from home, took refuge in the brain of an abandoned robot. He walked the deserted corridors and remembered. He remembered his childhood and the school that he and his brother, Laurence attended. He remembered the old Priory; hiding in the priest hole with toffee apples; his first dig; his professorship. He remembered the letters from Laurence he stopped replying to. And he remembered the blood on his hands.

As Sutekh’s puppet, Marcus had strangled his brother. And he remembered what Sutekh had seen: The look in his brother’s eyes the moment that kind and timid man realised he was going to die. Laurence had begged, “Marcus, please.” And this haunted him.

A Servicer power pack lasts for hundreds of years. And Marcus Scarman spent this time thinking about Laurence. Eventually he discovered the Pyramid’s psytronic transmitter. He projected unconscious messages back in time to his brother. Laurence Scarman, unaware of the distant influence, built a radio telescope in his living room forty years before anyone else knew how.

Marcus sent a message. It began “Beware Sutekh,” telling him to flee, to escape. He spent the next five hundred years wondering whether Laurence heard his message. Whether, in another timeline, his brother had escaped that death.

The All Souls professor of Egyptology died for a third time as a soul misplaced in the oldest pyramid in the Solar system. His robotic body slowed and stopped in the dark stone corridors, bandaged hands clenched in regret. Outside there was a storm. Martian sand lashed at the sides of the pyramid, with walls the colour of dried blood.

The post Tales from the Red Planet: The Colour of Dried Blood appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Techno! Techno! Tech-NO! Future Technology Predictions in Doctor Who

Nick May 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 feature in the Doctor Who Annual 1974 predicted that, by 2003, we would have ‘miniature pocket computers’, and be able to ‘send Christmas greetings by video message’ while cooking meals using ‘cold heat’ microwave technology. Plastic Christmas trees also seem to trouble the writers, but that’s neither here nor there. It’s an article of a lot of foresight, still grounded in the ideas of the time- for instance the video message will be on tape, but the ‘tapes will… be a lot thinner than the ones we have today’. They’d be about the only thing that’s thinner now, thanks to all the microwave meals.

But I digress: Doctor Who is a series that came of age in what Harold Wilson called ‘the white heat of technology’. As a self-confessed gadget fiend, I wanted to look at not only the technological advances the show predicted but how close the Who versions are to what eventually became reality…

The Dalek Invasion of Earth (1964)

Stumbling across a ‘dead’ Roboman (the actor makes heavy weather of falling out of a box before making an even worse fist of staying still), the Doctor and Ian examine the lash-up on his head before the Doctor deduces that humanity has developed a form of portable communication. Technology-wise, this example of ‘wearable tech’ will be quite a retrograde step. Even my first mobile wasn’t that cumbersome. The ‘office bin-and-bean cans’ arrangement is endearingly post-war British and suggests that the current penchant for ‘vintage’ will still be going in 2167.

Replaced by: any mobile phone you’ve ever owned.

The War Machines (1966)

Predicting the rise of supercomputers and self-governing automated devices by decades, not to mention the link-up of all world computers (granted, more than the six in the story), Ian Stuart Black’s The War Machines is as relevant now as it was then. The War Machines themselves would probably be more drone-like in a modern take on the idea. Importantly, Stuart Black and uncredited co-writer Kit Pedler’s glimpse of the future redeems the former from having invented the ‘reacting vibrator’ in the story previous, though its name alone presages the business model of Ann Summers decades later. Truly visionary.

Replaced by: network computing, the ‘Internet of things’ (remote control of things with no obvious requirement to be hooked up to the ‘net- in this case Dodo), drones and/or driverless vehicles. Few, if any, of them have been designed with a comedy face a la WOTAN, though.

See also: BOSS in The Green Death, The Robots of Death

The Invasion (1968) & The Deadly Assassin (1976)

Returning to wearable tech, Castellan Spandrell and his guards stay in touch via communicators on their gloves. Likewise, Packer and his heavies at International Electromatics are linked by wristwatch-sized two-way radios that you speak into and then hold to your ear to listen. The common theme is that both appear remarkably silly, a look currently being replicated by people with more money than sense who are finding out that spending the best part of a grand on an Apple Watch isn’t going to stop people down the pub or at work making “KITT, I need you” jokes.

Replaced by: Respectively, the Apple Watch and derision.

The Deadly Assassin (1976)

Part Three of the same story sees the Doctor plugged into the APC Net, the sum total of the knowledge of the Time Lords, living or dead, as he battles Chancellor Goth who is hiding in the Matrix. Fortunately, Tim Berners-Lee’s take on ‘the Matrix’ doesn’t require us to physically plug into it to access a world of knowledge contained therein, but some of the weirdness the Doctor finds once he’s in there is redolent of either a MMORG or at least those fan sites run by people who claim to have seen release schedules for all those episodes they didn’t find in 2013.

Replaced by: Take your pick: t’ interweb (the APC Net), online gaming (the Master’s ‘world’) and the Oculus Rift (Goth’s nifty headset).

See also: Warriors of the Deep’s sync operator Maddox, Omega in Arc of Infinity, The Master of the Land of Fiction in The Mind Robber, and The Trial of a Time Lord‘s final two episodes.

K9 (1977-81, 1983, 2006)

No article of this sort would be complete without mention of the Doctor’s very own supercomputer. A repository of considerable knowledge, wrapped in a metal body with a slightly condescending electronic voice, K9 was one of the ‘three brains’, alongside the Doctor and Romana, whose reliance on facing down danger with undergraduate wit and know-all attitude was instrumental in the decision to replace that humour with postgraduate physics and know-all script editors in Season 18. Of the ‘three brains’, K9 was the only one that could fire lasers from his nose.

Replaced by: The Aibo (remember them?), by way of Cortana/Siri/OK Google (delete according to personal OS fealty), smartphones, and that taser attachment some lunatic developed for the iPhone. Yes, really.

See also: Either Kamelion or the irate-sounding computer in The Seeds of Death

Robot (1974/5)

The Turing Test and the Singularity are two of key tenets of computing: the former is a means of gauging whether artificial intelligence has developed to the extent that it could pass for human. The latter is the idea that artificial intelligence will eventually become ‘self-improving’ and no longer require us. The film Ex Machina tackles these ideas through the protagonist’s interaction with an artificial intelligence.

Robot takes a different tack: Professor Kettlewell creates a massive robot with the personality of a stroppy teenager and then makes the mistake of letting it hang around with bad influences (the SRS). Things just gets worse when it discovers girls. The ensuing lovelorn sulk nearly sparks World War Three, as well as seeing a toy tank getting smashed in a fit of hormonal rage. The day is saved when the Doctor throws a bucket of something cold over the grubby metal blighter in a move that doubtless gained the approval of parents up and down the nation.

Replaced by: Hopefully nothing, as the prospect of annihilation by an enormous angsty-yet-horny robot as it stomps around leaving pretty, plucky journalists on roofs is not one I particularly relish.

As with anything like this, hindsight is a wonderful thing. Look at the modern series- Clara, and Rose before her, stays in touch with the Doctor by mobile. Things are always being rebooted, the Doctor has referred to the console room being ‘reskinned’. Which stories from the modern run do you think are particularly products of their time, visions of the future embedded in the here and now? Which episodes will we be revisiting years from now and commenting on ‘how 2010s’ they were? Are there any faves of yours from the classic series that I’ve missed?

Answers on a postcard, please – but only if you’re feeling particularly analogue…

The post Techno! Techno! Tech-NO! Future Technology Predictions in Doctor Who appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.