Christian Cawley's Blog, page 94

Is a Lack of Compelling Villains Killing Moffat’s 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.

When was the last time a one-off Doctor Who villain really grabbed you? And is CGI going OTT in the cinema and on TV? These are just two of the topics under discussion in this week’s podKast which also features a one-off very different theme tune…

Christian Cawley and Brian A Terranova are your hosts.

Kasterborous PodKast Series 5 Episode 21 Shownotes

Tom Baker voices BT’s SMS service
‘I Am The Doctor’ by Jon Pertwee
The PodKast Season 1
Jon Pertwee in World War II
Wink Taylor as Jon Pertwee
River Song, Winston Churchill and nuWho monsters join Big Finish
Ian and Barbara leave the TARDIS
The SDCC trailer that annoyed Doctor Who fans in 2013.
Terminator Genisys
Is CGI killing Hollywood blockbusters?

PodKast theme tune this week is NOT by Russell Hugo. We’ve given him a rest, and called in Jon Pertwee instead. Yes, that’s right: JON. PERTWEE.

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 a Lack of Compelling Villains Killing Moffat’s Doctor Who? appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Rachel Talalay Confirmed as Doctor Who Series 9 Finale Director

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.

Director Rachel Talalay has today confirmed on Twitter that she will be directing episodes 11 and 12 of Doctor Who Series 9, the series’ finale. This follows her previous work on the Series 8 finale, Dark Water and Death in Heaven.

Recovering from a case of The Silence. #DoctorWho
I am so fortunate to be asked back for the finale S09.
#DontScrewItUpPt2

— Rachel Talalay (@rtalalay) July 1, 2015

Despite some criticism to the way the story concluded, Talalay’s direction of the Series 8 finale was virtually perfect. However, her appointment this time around gives Doctor Who its most female season ever, with Hettie MacDonald helming the two part opening story, Catherine Treganna writing episode 6 (The Woman Who Lived) and Sarah Dollard penning episode 10, which like the finale is currently unnamed.

Nice to find the show finally landing in the 21st century in 2015!

The post Rachel Talalay Confirmed as Doctor Who Series 9 Finale Director appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Reviewed: Paul Magrs’ Brenda and Effie

Alex Fitch 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.

Tangentially connected to the Doctor Who universe, The Brenda and Effie Mysteries from Bafflegab Productions (creators of The Scarifyers) is an ideal listen for any fans of Paul Magrs’ Iris Wildtyme audio adventures. Written by Magrs himself, t’BaEM features the adventures of the Bride of Frankenstein and a white witch who respectively run a B&B and an antiques shop in Whitby, encountering such fantastical foes as the ghost of a deep fried cat, a murderous cousin of the Elephant Man and various wizards and warlocks.

Brenda and Effie first appeared in Magrs’ 2007 novel Never the Bride, which was adapted a few years ago as a three part radio serial by BBC Radio 7 (now called 4 Extra) with Joanna Tope and Monica Gibb as the duo, but no prior introduction is needed to the characters as the new audio adventures recap any info you might need to know from the first book, and squeeze in extra adventures for the pair in between the existing ones. Anne Reid is the main performer of the Bafflegab series, best known to Doctor Who fans for her memorable parts in a pair of the best Vampire themed Who stories, 1989’s Curse of Fenric and 2008’s Smith and Jones. Here Reid plays Brenda and Effie, giving the latter a broad Northumberland accent that makes her a dead ringer for comedian Sarah Millican and different enough to her own voice that you accept the two as separate characters, much like Katy Manning playing both Iris and Jo Grant in Companion Chronicles (the format of which these releases recall); indeed the silhouette on the ‘covers’ of these stories looks like a mash-up between Millican and Elisa Lanchester in her most famous role.

Elsewhere the cast of t’BaEM is filled out by Alex Lowe, Chris Pavlo, Stephen Critchlow and Dan Starkey, with each of these actors – including everyone’s favourite Sontaran – playing a variety of different roles. Although these plays can be enjoyed by anyone who likes Magrs’ arch wordplay and camp humour as heard in his various Big Finish plays, if you’re looking for connections to the writer’s Doctor Who stories, the third story – Spicy Tea and Sympathy – contains a reference to The Scarlet Empress and the planet Hyspero. These crossovers continue in the Brenda and Effie books: The Bride that Time Forgot is a follow up to Doctor Who: The Boy that Time Forgot, both featuring the character of time travelling Victorian Adventuress Beatrice Mapp (and should Bafflegab do another series of Brenda and Effie, it would be great to hear her in another audio), while The Wishing Beast reworked a plot strand from Never the Bride.

The Bafflegab series contains four feature length adventures set during Brenda and Effie’s first year as supernatural investigators. The Woman in a Black Beehive has the pair preventing multiple murders by monstrous moggies (sorry, Magrs’ alliterations are addictive) while the legacy of Effie’s witchcraft comes back to haunt her via a kitsch oil painting. Bat out of Hull sees the duo battling demonic toys, while Spicy Tea and Sympathy mixes Egyptian mummies and spiked tea which make Brenda’s flashbacks to vignettes from her past two hundred years of existence break the fourth wall even more than usual. The series concludes with Brenda has Risen from the Grave in which Effie falls for a Victorian serial killer while Brenda looks on with horror and seems destined to repeat the events of Frankenstein’s Wedding night…

This is a terrific, entertaining series that mixes horror and comedy deftly with the literary references and camp humour that has typified much of Magrs’ work. If I had to recommend one episode, Spicy Tea and Sympathy is the best of the quartet, starting with Brenda strapped to a gurney in a madman’s lair and works backwards and forwards from there, but all four come highly recommended, with the second episode – Bat out of Hull – recently picking up the Gold Award for the Best Audiobook (Fiction) 2015. If you subscribe to the series, Bafflegab will also throw in Vince Cosmos: Glam Rock Detective by the same author, starring Julian Rhind-Tutt and Katy Manning, which is also part of the extended Magrs-verse that encompasses his Iris and Doctor Who stories.

The only one complaint I’d have of the series is that it’s download only (when I’d very happily buy a CD boxset of the four stories) but at £6.99 per episode or £25 for all four (+ Vince Cosmos and an art print), it’s still good value for money for the mp3 / FLAC file bundle.

Find out more at www.bafflegab.co.uk.

The post Reviewed: Paul Magrs’ Brenda and Effie appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Patrick Macnee, Star of Sydney Newman’s Other Great TV Show, Dies Aged 93

Billy Garratt-John 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.

Patrick Macnee has passed away at the age of 93.

The British born actor and star of iconic 60s TV series The Avengers died of natural causes at his home in California with his family around him. His television credits also include The Twilight Zone, Columbo, the original Battlestar Galactica and appearances as Dr. Watson in two Sherlock Holmes TV movies, as well as Holmes himself. Macnee’s most memorable roles on the big screen were alongside Roger Moore in his final outing as James Bond in A View To A Kill and as Sir. Denis Eton-Hogg the previous year in This Is Spinal Tap.

A staple of British pop culture, it’s a wonder that Macnee never appeared in Doctor Who, considering the impact that both Doctor Who and The Avengers had at around the same time and that the latter (in which he starred between alongside The Crimson Horror‘s Dame Diana Rigg) was of course the brainchild of Doctor Who’s creator, Sydney Newman.

Kasterborous’s condolences go out to Macnee’s family at this time.

The post Patrick Macnee, Star of Sydney Newman’s Other Great TV Show, Dies Aged 93 appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Radio 1’s Doctor Who/Minions Parody

Connor Farley 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 Radio 1 host Greg James last week released a Doctor Who/Minions parody onto the youth station’s website. Featuring James and the popular Minions from the Despicable Me movies, and now their own spin-off titled Minions exploring the BBC headquarters that houses the acclaimed radio channel, the video shows three Minions on the loose with the DJ chasing them, whilst desperately trying to get them to their appearance on BBC’s The One Show in time (the Doctor Who segment starts at the 2 minutes 25 seconds mark).

Things go a bit pear shaped for the Radio 1 presenter however, as the pesky trouble making Minions find their way into the TARDIS from Doctor Who. And not just one TARDIS at that – oh no.

The parody saw the appearance of three different TARDIS console rooms from various eras of the show, which included William Hartnell’s TARDIS from 1963-66. As well as Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant’s TARDIS console room, which was used between the show’s revival in 2005 and 2010, when Tennant bowed out as the Tenth Doctor and of course the current Doctor Peter Capaldi’s console room was the most heavily featured.

Other British television shows come under the spotlight, as the Minions are chased through the sets of popular news shows by the BBC, such as BBC News and BBC Sport. On top of that, the TARDIS also travelled to the set of ITV produced Coronation Street to pay homage to one of the most watched shows on TV today.

Is this the most locally-targeted promotion for a movie yet?

The post Radio 1’s Doctor Who/Minions Parody appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

How I Learned To Enjoy Love & Monsters

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.

Two of my four sons have, in the last few years, learned to play the violin. If you have ever been in the same house as a small child who has just picked up a stringed instrument, you will know what excruciating torture this is, at least in the first couple of weeks. It is how I imagine a cat sounds when it is being strangled. But I never say anything. As a parent, you don’t. You smile and nod and offer supportive words of encouragement, and part your hair so that the earplugs don’t show.

The truth is that parenting makes you lower your standards. You find yourself watching films and TV programmes that, ordinarily, would be given the sort of wide berth that you usually reserve for charity collectors outside the supermarket. If you have ever sat through Horrid Henry: The Movie you will understand what I mean. Oh, I’ll bitch about these things afterwards. But at the time you join in with your children’s enthusiasm, because your engagement clearly means a lot to them. (I make an exception for stereotypical gender-based advertising, which I’ll routinely deconstruct, in the hopes that they’ll follow suit.)

Why am I telling you all this? Well, I have a very good friend who’s forgotten more about Doctor Who than I’m ever likely to know, and whose acidic quips and insightful observations turn up regularly on my blog. By and large his attitude towards nuWho ranges from general indifference to active dislike, and he’s annoyingly right about most things. But I occasionally wonder whether his worldview might be different if he had children.

Let me unpack this: one of the things you have to deal with as both a fan and a parent of fans is the tendency for children’s views to not only conflict with your own but actively influence them. For example, when prepping for this article I asked two of my children (age 5 and 9) to pick their favourite nuWho stories. Both chose In the Forest of the Night – an episode I disliked intensely, partly because Frank Cottrell Boyce threw in all sorts of amusing gags and Gaiaist philosophy, but forgot to add any sort of plot; and partly because for the third time in Series 8, “Do nothing” becomes the answer to the problem. At the same time, the kids (particularly Maebh) are brilliant, and it’s hard not to join in with my eldest’s riotous laughter when Ruby shouts “Oh my God! Maebh’s lost in the forest! MAEBH’S GONNA DIE!!!!”.

I hold A Good Man Goes To War in higher regard than perhaps I should, because it plays on fears of losing a child.

And the funny thing is, when you’re watching a bad story with young people who are clearly enjoying it, you occasionally find their enthusiasm infectious. I don’t think there are many out there who would rate Fear Her among their top ten episodes – unless you turn the list on its head so you can read it upside down – but even I can’t stop myself grinning from ear to ear when the Doctor mounts that podium in front of the cheering crowd to light the Olympic Torch. Would I be reacting this way if I didn’t have children? Perhaps. But sometimes I don’t think so.

I’m not saying being a parent makes you more appreciative of bad episodes of Who. I’m simply saying I’m inclined to be less fussy than perhaps I would have been otherwise. That’s a personal benchmark, not a yardstick with which to generalise. Sadly there’s no litmus test. Somewhere there’s a parallel universe (several, in all likelihood) in which my wife and I never sired any descendants, and it would have been interesting to see our reactions to everything since 2005 in that sort of circumstance. As it stands, the only thing I had to go on was the Eccleston series – which wrapped up shortly before my eldest child popped out of the womb, two weeks late – and even that’s atypical in many respects.

But the patterns I see on forums and Facebook pages – “I hated it, but my children liked it” – and so on do suggest that having children present for both the series itself and the media storm that surrounds it makes for an entirely different viewing experience. As parents, we’re the ones who complain when the Beeb goes too far (which I’ve never done, although I did have serious gripes about the 2014 Christmas Special that I’ll save for another day). As parents, we’ll often find we relate to the weirdest things (I hold A Good Man Goes To War, for example, in higher regard than perhaps I should, because it plays on my fears of losing a child). And as parents, we’re the target market (or a part of it) for the stuff in the show that’s Obviously Geared Towards Children.

The Abzorbaloff is the token fat monster in the short story homework assignment of every kid under twelve…

Let’s take the Slitheen. To a great many of us, the Slitheen were ridiculous; about as irritating as the Ewoks, and as popular. Let me tell you something: if you’re ten or under (and perhaps even older than that) the Slitheen are hysterical. More to the point, if you’re the parent of someone who’s ten or under, and if you squint, the Slitheen are hysterical. They’re comically bulbous aliens who fart a lot. They make jokes about nakedness. They spend entire stories acting like children, and Davies deliberately writes them that way. The idea that the grotesque, clinically obese teacher you despise might secretly be an alien is one that finds its way into most playground games, and beyond. (I have almost forgiven my now six-year-old for the time we visited the Cardiff exhibition a few years back, and he pointed up from his buggy at the enormous Slitheen mounted on the podium, pointed, smiled in recognition and shouted “Daddy!”.)

And while we’re at it, let’s deal with a very large, Peter Kay-shaped elephant, because there’s a moment in Doctor Who Series 2 that seems tailor-made (although it frays at the edges) for the younger members of the audience, and I think it’s unfairly maligned as a result. Here’s the truth: whatever anyone says, Love & Monsters really is an episode for kids. You can say that it isn’t – you can talk about the darkness of a man losing both his mother and the memory of the occasion, or the in-jokes about fandom, or the fact that the death toll almost reaches Eric Saward proportions, but it’s clearly designed for that post-Sarah Jane Adventures audience.

Doctor Who is billed as a family show, much like the BBC itself; both feted and cursed to be all things to all people.

Love & Monsters opens with a chase from Scooby Doo, for pity’s sake. Marc Warren monologues to camera in the manner of a Saturday morning children’s TV host (for fairly obvious reasons, he reminds me more than a little of Boogie Pete). And the Abzorbaloff is the token fat monster in the short story homework assignment of every kid under twelve – and designed by a nine-year-old to boot. This may be the reason why the love scenes feel off (although the lack of chemistry, which I suppose is part of the point, between Coduri and Warren doesn’t help). It’s light and relatable and it’s a great shame when Davies undoes much of his good work in the closing scene with a completely unnecessary oral sex gag.

But I just mentioned The Sarah Jane Adventures, and I do wonder how much of this is about expectation. Because my other half and I blanche at dreadful plot holes and ridiculous dialogue when they occur in Who, whereas when silly things happen in Sarah Jane we’re far more inclined to let it go (and you didn’t read that, you sang it). The fact that Doctor Who is billed as a family show – therefore, much like the BBC itself, both feted and cursed to be all things to all people – is the very thing that sometimes undermines its success. It has to be funny and scary and often succeeds in doing neither: it is lukewarm television, of the kind that I am inclined to spit out of my mouth. So perhaps that’s why the episodes that are clearly geared towards children work better, because they can be appreciated on a different (not better) level. It’s just a level that – irrespective of empathy – you may not be able to relate to fully unless you’re watching it in a house where you can’t hide behind the sofa, because the kids are already there.

The post How I Learned To Enjoy Love & Monsters appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

This Is Colin Baker

Jeremy Remy 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 September, Big Finish will be offering, This Is Colin Baker, a candid two-hour interview with the Sixth Doctor and Big Finish regular, Colin Baker. A companion piece to Doctor Who: The Sixth Doctor—The Last Adventure, this conversation, hosted by Nicholas Briggs, will discuss Colin Baker’s life, career and achievements as an actor and author. Available in CD and digital formats, this release will be launched at Big Finish Day 7, and all copies of the CD ordered prior to 3 September 2015 will be signed by Colin Baker.

Colin Baker has previously given fans glimpses into his life through his regular feature column in the Bucks Free Press, collected in his books Look Who’s Talking and Second Thoughts. Yet, Big Finish’s past offerings—including Benjamin & Baxter, and Tom Baker at 89—have demonstrated adoration and enthusiasm for the lives of their subjects, ensuring any fan will find something new to enjoy.

More details on this and other releases can be found on the Big Finish website.

In addition to the Sixth Doctor, what’s your favorite Colin Baker role? What are you hoping to hear in The Last Adventure, and are you planning on picking up your own copy of This Is Colin Baker?

The post This Is Colin Baker appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Doctor Who Changes Forever: Ian and Barbara Leave in The Chase

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.

50 years ago this weekend, Doctor Who changed forever when the very characters who we followed into the TARDIS, Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright, finally made their way home, back to London in 1965.

Leaving the Doctor with Vicki (Maureen O’Brien) and a stowaway Steven Taylor (Peter Purves), the final episode of The Chase sent the Doctor and his friends – and the audience – in a whole new direction, as the two driving characters of the show went off on their own, and eventually (presumably) back to Coal Hill School. We would, of course, have encountered Ian Chesterton again in Mawdryn Undead had the actor been available; as it was, the story was rewritten to accomodate the Brigadier, thereby screwing up the UNIT continuity.

Funny old show, isn’t it?

“I shall miss them. Silly old fusspots,” said the Doctor, and thanks to the performances of William Russell and the late Jacqueline Hill, fans missed them too, their strong performances delivering believability to even the most imaginative and unlikely situations. Even now, 50 years later, fans would like to see Russell back in the TARDIS for one last adventure with the Doctor, especially following the actor’s appearance in 2013’s anniversary docudrama An Adventure in Space and Time.

Until the ultimate return happens, we’ve got the DVDs, we have William Russell’s work with Big Finish… and we have this, Ian and Barbara’s final scene in Doctor Who…

The post Doctor Who Changes Forever: Ian and Barbara Leave in The Chase appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

River Song to Meet the Eighth Doctor!

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.

Awesome news – Big Finish has announced a new range of boxsets, featuring River Song, Winston Churchill and and monsters from the modern era of Doctor Who!

Leading this new wave of adventures is a fantasy team up starring Alex Kingston as River Song, the fandom-splitting, time-traveling archaeologist who first appeared in 2008’s Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead.

River will be stepping into the era of the Eighth Doctor (Paul McGann) for Doctor Who: Doom Coalition 2, alongside Liv Chenka (Nicola Walker) and Helen Sinclair (Hattie Morahan). But how can River help her husband if, in this incarnation, she must never actually meet him?

“The idea of River meeting previous Doctors was actually proposed by Steven Moffat,” says producer David Richardson, “and it’s just irresistible, isn’t it? Alex embraced the idea of returning to the role, and so she will be starring in no less than two box sets next year. And yes, we are still pinching ourselves!”

River will then return later in 2016 in Doctor Who: The Diary of River Song, an epic four-hour adventure that takes River across space and time, seeking out the secret rulers of the universe. Paul McGann will reprise the role of the Eighth Doctor in the final instalment.

Churchill Returns!

The New Series adventures will continue in Doctor Who: The Churchill Years, in which Ian McNeice returns as the indomitable Winston Churchill. In the four-hour saga, Winston relates a number of encounters with the Ninth, Tenth and Eleventh Doctors in his memoirs, battling alien incursions, metamorphosing creatures… and a Dalek! The stories are told by Ian McNeice, supported by a full cast of guest actors, including Danny Horn as Kazran Sardick, in a story taking place within the 2010 special A Christmas Carol.

“Ian has played Churchill in just four episode on TV, and yet it feels like it was many more,” says executive producer Nicholas Briggs. “It was such a brilliant, definitive performance, and how wonderful that we will be continuing Churchill’s adventures with the Doctor on audio.”

Classic Doctors, New Monsters!!

Finally, the Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Doctors will face a new generation of monsters in Doctor Who: Classic Doctors, New Monsters, a brand new, four-story run featuring creatures from the New Series. Peter Davison takes on the Weeping Angels, Colin Baker encounters the Judoon, Sylvester McCoy will meet the Sycorax… and Paul McGann will face a new clone batch of Sontarans on the edge of the Time War….

“It’s the ultimate mash-up,” says executive producer Jason Haigh-Ellery, “and we have some great scripts lined up for these landmark stories. There is no doubt that 2016 is going to be a brilliant year for Big Finish!”

All four boxsets will be released across 2016, and are available to pre-order today from the Big Finish website. Doctor Who: Doom Coalition 2 will be released in February, and is available as part of a special bundle of all four Doom Coalition boxsets.

Doctor Who: The Diary of River Song, Doctor Who: The Churchill Years and Doctor Who: Classic Doctors, New Monsters can be pre-ordered for just £20 each on CD or Download, and are also available as part of our Doctor Who New Series bundle.

(Via Big Finish)

The post River Song to Meet the Eighth Doctor! appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Steven Moffat Feels the Haters

Jonathan Appleton 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.

Steven Moffat has written about how criticism aimed at him by online critics hits home at times… but he’s reassured that people care enough about Doctor Who to get so hot and bothered about it. In his latest Q&A for readers of Doctor Who Magazine, the showrunner is asked for his thoughts on 1980s producer John Nathan-Turner (someone who knew a fair bit about vocal criticism from the show’s fans).

“JN-T was the first boss of Doctor Who to have a tiny little number of (sort of) fans who were waging entirely ineffectual campaigns against him, in their twos and threes. Russell had a bit of that, and so do I. So what? Pick an online newspaper, go to the comments section below, read the ranting horrors there. It will turn your hair white. Dear God, who are those people? I don’t know. I don’t care.”

“The fact is, you don’t judge the newspaper, or people in general, by the standards of those comments sections, so why would you judge Doctor Who fandom by the occasional attention-seeking ranter? I have always found [fans] to be clever, funny, articulate and more than usually friendly. And perfectly and humorously aware that knowing every detail about an early Saturday evening adventure serial is a pleasant but extremely daft thing to do. May it be daft forever. It is now, and always has been, a game for the civilised and kind. Lone exceptions don’t change that.”

Revealingly, Moffat goes on to admit that, on occasion, it’s impossible not to feel hurt by the criticism:

“I suppose, being honest – because we’re all human and fragile – some of the blows do land. You know, when you’re tired, in the dark watches of the night, when that hand is grasping for your ankle from under the bed. I guess it must have been hard for JN-T, sometimes, back in the day. I remember, not long ago, feeling a bit grim myself, about some vicious remarks. Stupidly and childishly, I’d let them get to me (ranters rejoice, your aim was true). Neil Gaiman dropped me a gentle note. He said (something like), “They love your shows so much, they think they own them.” I think the point – and the kindly admonishment – was that it’s a privilege to be making shows about which people care so much, and that honour should take care of everything else.”

Doctor Who has always been a programme that prompts an unusual level of passion among its dedicated followers, but that kind of devotion can surely be its greatest weakness as well as its most important strength. Is Neil Gaiman correct with his words of comfort – that it’s because people feel a sense of ownership? Or is it more to do with the anonymity the internet affords people to write whatever they like and not have to answer for it? What do you think? Share your thoughts below!

Doctor Who Magazine 488 is available now.

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