The folks over at IO9.com have a story with a major reveal. Now I’m trying, really trying to stay spoiler free for Tennant’s last episode. But, my dumb ass looked at the picture. Pretty cool. I didn’t read the article though, so I have no idea what was discussed. If you don’t mind spoilers, then here you go. Talk about it all you like in the talkbacks. Just be warned if you are trying to stay spoiler free.
The Sun has reported that the Eleventh Doctor’s companion has been cast. She is Scottish actress Karen Gillan. Gillan is no stranger to the world of Doctor Who. Eagle eyed viewers may remember her as one of the Sibylline Sisterhood from the fourth series episode, Fires of Pompeii (she was the one that followed the Doctor and Donna at the beginning of the episode…).
Got an email from Brian who tells us that the web comic, Legostar Galactica has started a story arc featuring the Doctor. Since I myself have been guilty of making one too many references to the Doctor in my web comic, I thought I’d share the love. You can start the arc here. Thanks for the heads up, Brian!
Den of Geek has posted some news regarding The X-Files Gillian Anderson. Apparently Anderson is up in the running to be acting opposite Matt Smith’s eleventh Doctor for Series Five. An “insider” says she’s being considered to play the evil Time Lady, The Rani. Anderson currently resides in the UK and isa bout to star on the stage with ninth Doctor, Christopher Eccleston in A Doll’s House What do you guys think?
[via Den of Geek]
So my friends and I went to this really great comic book store called Local Heroes. I when I mean comic book store, that’s what they sell, comic books. I don’t know about the rest of the world but too many of our local stores go overboard on crap that’s not comics. There’s even one that has a box of old, broken, and junked Star Wars vehicles in the middle of an aisle! You have to push it out of the way to get through! And don’t even get me started on gaming stuff and Pokemon cards. Anyway, I digress. If you find yourself in the area, check out Local Heroes. Okay, enough of the free advertising!
While we were there, I was just casually looking at the different titles. Checked out the G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra prequel comic which was a story featuring Destro (as played by former Doctor, Christopher Eccelston). Artwork looked pretty nice, don’t know about the story. I’m still calling the movie G.I. Joke for basing them out of Belgium (seriously, Belgium?). Also checked out The Lone Ranger. I’m not much for westerns, but I loved The Lone Ranger when I was a little kid. Probably would have picked that up if I could have found issue One. As we were getting ready to leave, I saw an intersting looking cover of a trade paperback. I thought it was a Vertigo comic or something until I saw that familiar oval and realized it was a Doctor Who book. So I picked it up to find out it was the TPB version of The Forgotten. Pretty cool I thought. I’ve gotten the first couple of issues, but honestly, I’m not much of a comic book collecting type of guy. I usually wait for the TPBs to come out then I read them. Plus I missed an issue and couldn’t find a backcopy… So I went ahead and snatched it up.
The story finds the Doctor and Martha Jones in a strange museum that is dedicated to the past lives of the Doctor. To make matters worse, the Doctor loses his memory and of course there’s danger lurking. So Martha has to use the various items in the museum to jog the Doctor’s memory before it’s too late. The artwork is pretty good. They had three different artists working on the comic so the art is not always consistent. I did particularly like the eight Doctor’s artwork. Plus a nice little touch is that the first and second Doctor’s stories are in shades of gray to simulate black and white television. I can’t give a review of the story as a whole as I’ve only read about half of it, but I am enjoying what I’ve read so far. To me it reads more like an episode of Doctor Who than the standard monthly comic IDW publishes. What do you guys think?
Well through a series of misadventure and miscommunication I was able to view the Planet of the Dead this morning instead of much later tonight. Sweet. On the downside, I lost a gig. Bummer. But enough of that, there’s a cat thief in a London museum! In what looks like a scene out of the first Mission Impossible film, our cunning vixen of a thief steals a golden chalice and escapes just as the alarms go off. She manages to bribe a bus driver with her diamond earrings to try and escape the police. As the bus drives off a tall, thin man in a brown suit sits down next to her, offers her some chocolate and says, “Hello. I’m the Doctor. Happy Easter.” OPENING CREDITS.
I thought that was a pretty fun and cool way to start the show. That and the fact we find out that psychic paper can be used to pay for things. The Doctor is scanning for some sort of radiation all the while the bus is being chased by police. Why the driver does not pull over is never explained. They enter a tunnel and BAM! Transported by wormhole to another planet. The planet is nothing but a vast desert. Tatooine with an extra sun. The bus was severely damaged by a crane operator (oops, I mean the wormhole) and stuck in the sand. If they can get the buss moving again they can get back. However, they are not alone and danger is coming.
There were quite a bit of elements I liked. I tried to stay spoiler-free so as to enjoy the episode outright. I was disappointed it had nothing to do with zombies. Zombies on Doctor Who would have been totally sweet and don’t deny it wouldn’t. I liked the alien flies. It was kind of a nice change of pace to see a horrific looking alien actually be benign and friendly. Though why they have bluetooth earpieces to communicate on their ship is another little oversight. Most of the action takes place in the desert (filmed in Dubai), the alien ship (BBC’s favorite disused factory) and just outside of a tunnel. I bring this up because not a lot of money seems to be spent on sets. So why is it the CGI in this episode looks no better than the CGI from the Mortal Kombat films? Seriously, remember when everyone was jumping on the CGI bandwagon in the mid-nineties and everything looked smooth and shiny? That’s how the alien stingrays looked in this. The flying bus was cool, but the stingrays… just lame. C’mon guys, we know you can do better. We’ve seen you do better. If it can’t be done right, don’t do it at all, know what I mean? Now, what can I say about Michelle Ryan as Christina? I used to DVR Bionic Woman, but never watched it so this is the first time I’ve ever seen her in anything. I liked how her character kind of took charge and it was an interesting dynamic with the Doctor. However even though she can hold her own with the Doctor it does become apparent he wont let her go with him. Oh, he tells her some BS about “always losing people” and stuff like that. Truth be told, she’s like Adam, in that she wants to see the universe for her own purposes. In Christina’s case, she craves action and adventure. She steals more for the pleasure of it and the Doctor sees right through her. Still in the end he can’t resist helping her get a head start from the police, so who knows we might see her again. Though the show ends kind of ominously when Carmen tells the Doctor his song is ending and he will knock four times…
Next up Water of Mars…
So, what did you guys think?
So today’s the big day! Planet of the Dead premiers tonight. And for you smegheads, the second part of Red Dwarf: Back to Earth”. So why we wait please enjoy this picture of three lovely young Australian ladies cosplaying as daleks.
I just finished watching the first season serial The Reign of Terror Sadly the serial is missing some episodes because of The Purge, but Loose Cannon Productions did a wonderful job of recreating what they could. The Reign of Terror is the last serial of the first season of Doctor Who.
The Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Susan after leaving the Isop Galaxy in the twenty-eight century (the Doctor and Donna would travel there themselves…) found that they have once again materialized on Earth. As they scout around they quickly find out that they are once again in Earth’s historical past. They’ve landed in France in 1794 which is what many historians say was the bloodiest time of the French Revolution. The group have unwittingly stumbled upon a safe house used by an underground movement to help rescue and hide innocent people sentenced to the guillotine. Armed soldiers arrive and capture Ian, Barbara and Susan while the Doctor is laying unconscious in the hous that the soldiers had just set alight.
Ian, Barbara and Susan are sent to a prison to be held for execution. Ian meets a dying prisoner named Webster who tells him to find James Stirling, an English spy. Barbara and Susan try to dig their way out of the prison but it proves to be fruitless and they are carried off to be beheaded. On the way they are rescued by two men, Jules and Jean, who are helping to smuggle out political prisoners. The Doctor in the meantime was rescued from the burning house, press ganged for a while into digging a trench because he did not have proper papers, and cleverly managed to disguise himself as Regional Officer of the Provinces in order to try and rescue his friends.
I thoroughly enjoyed this serial. The TARDIS crew are stranded in a purely historical time, knowing what’s about to happen and knowing that there is nothing they can do about it. A lesson learned that is recalled by Barbara when she tried to change the Aztecs. Everyone had a chance to shine as well. We see how resourceful and clever Ian can be, Barbara shows her strength and courage in overwhelming odds, Susan was too ill to do much random screaming, and the Doctor talks himself out of one sticky situation after another. It was also more of a period drama than a sci-fi show. There were no aliens trying to change the history of Earth, no anachronistic devices made from available parts by the Doctor, all they had about them was their wits. It’s something I’m hoping to see in Moffat’s tenure as Doctor Who’s showrunner. And even for a slow paced adventure there were scenes that actually made me sit up and say, “Oh, snap!” (yes I really do say that… a lot…). If you manage to find a VHS copy of this, as it is not out on DVD, pick it up. You will not be disappointed.
Kasterbours has a report indicating who will be in David Tennant’s final episode of Doctor Who. If you don’t want to know, then Don’t click this hyperlink…
In the meantime, enjoy this pretty cool retrospective video of the past eleven* Doctors…
*includes Peter Cushing’s Dr. Who…
Steve Napierski of Dueling Analogs created this little gem of a comic that I thought I’d share with all of you. I thought it was quite funny. Maybe we can encourage Steve to get this printed up on t-shirts…
Anyway, when you’re done here, go on over and check out some of Dueling’s past comics. And then when you are done with that, go read some of mine…
Yes, it’s been done before. Back in the mid-nineties, Hollywood along with the BBC tried to produce an Americanized version of “Doctor Who.” What we got was the eighth Doctor, Paul McGann. While it did very well over in the UK, it totally failed over here in the States. Why? Many have speculated bur most seem to agree: unfamiliarity with the brand name. With the resurrected BBC version of the show a big hit on the US’s SciFi (not yet the lame Syfy), producers Malcolm Blair and Jason Allen aim to create an American Doctor Who.
In an interview, Blaire states that they are going to be keeping in the spirit of the BBC show, but revamping the mythology for the twenty-first century. “Kind of like what Marvel Comics did with their Ultimate line. This is going to be Ultimate Doctor Who,” Blair said. “He’s still a Time Lord from Gallifrey who travels in a police box. He’ll still battle daleks, cybermen and a host of classic villains,” Allen states, “We’re just changing it up a bit.”
As Blair and Allen continue they let us know what they have planned for the Doctor. “The story starts off with the Doctor hiding out in a junkyard in 1960’s London. He’s being chased by an unknown entity and there is a battle. During the fight the Doctor’s TARDIS is damaged which means it will always remain a police box,” Allen says. “He escapes and when he re-materializes he hides a carefully wrapped up package outside of the TARDIS and dematerializes.”
“The package is found and it turns out to be a baby,” Blair picks up the story. “The baby is a little girl who is found to age at an exceptionally slow rate. They name her Susan and she is raised by UNIT. Her guardian is a UNIT soldier by the name of Gordon Stewart. The Doctor returns many years later to reclaim Susan and tell her of her birthright when they are attacked by the Entity. The three of them escape into the TARDIS and thus begins their adventures through time and space.
While still in the early planning stages it’s too soon to ask about the cast. “We would really love though to have Jack Davenport as Stewart,” Allen says. “One, he could pass as a young Nicholas Courtney,” (who played Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart). “And two,” Allen continues, “He’s worked with Steven Moffat who is the new showrunner for the BBC version of Doctor Who.”
Asked about the classic villains you could tell they weren’t ready to give up the goods just yet. “We’ll have daleks. You can’t have Who without daleks,” Blair says. “But,” Allen continues, “They are not just going to be hovering pepperpots. Their armor will have the ability to transform into humanoid form which will stand about ten feet tall.” When asked further they both hold up their hands saying, “No, no, we’ve told you far too much already.”
Well, we still have some time left before we get to see the “New Who.” If the pilot is picked up expect to see the show for the 2010-2011 television season. Click the video link below to see the interview…
Playwright, Simon Farquhar is searching for a family that had an unusual experience. On November 13, 1976 as the family was getting ready to watch the latest episode of Doctor Who, who should appear at the door? The Doctor himself! Well, Tom Baker specifically. It seems Tom was on his way back to London after attending a convention and he was worried about how kids were going to react to the latest episode. So Baker found a random family and asked if he could join them and watch Doctor Who. Farquhar is searching for the family for a new BBC production called Teatime with Tom Baker.
And while I have your attention… Where the heck is Series Two of Ashes to Ashes?! Seriously, the first series was ending about this time last year. I can’t find ant info on Series Two whatsoever. Any of you guys know anything?
Actress Natasha Richardson, wife of actor Liam Neeson, passed away due to injuries sustained in a skiing accident. This doesn’t have anything to do with Doctor Who but I still feel the need to write about it. Personally I’ve only ever seen one of her films (Nell to be exact), but I’ve always liked Liam Neeson as an actor. He always seemed like the “down-to-earth” type. And he’s been in some of my favorite movies, Krull, Darkman, Batman Begins, and of course Star Wars. In addition to being an actress, Richardson also helped to raise money for AIDS research. I encourage everyone to make a small donation to her charity http://www.amfar.org/.
Ok, so some if not most of you may know that we here at the Who-Philes do webcomics. Most likely you found Who-Philes because you are a reader of my friend, Steve’s comic Dueling Analogs. Myself I do Bored and Evil along with Robert Koch (who created Bored and Evil. Over my tenure at the comic I have thrown in some subtle and not so subtle references to my favorite TV show. All this got me thinking. Since I had a lot of Doctor Who artwork already done, why not adapt one of the books for fun? So that’s what I did one night this week. I decided to do The Pirate Loop by Steve Guerreir mainly because it had Martha in it and I already had Martha artwork done. That and I loved the space badgers. So what follows are four strips that I did in the vein of the teaser for the show. And just a little disclaimer: I only did this for fun not to make money or anything like that. Anyway enjoy what I’ve done after the jump.
While a frequently seen face on the British stage and television, actress Lindsay Duncan has yet to tackle Britain’s greatest TV hero, The Doctor. Until now. Later in 2009, she will star as Adelaide, the Doctor’s assistant (and maybe future companion?) in the second of this year’s Doctor Who specials, following this Easter’s ‘Planet of the Dead’.
Perhaps best known for her role as Servilia Caepionis on HBO’s ‘Rome’, she has also appeared in the award-winning TV movie ‘Longford’ and as Rose Harbinson on ‘Starter for 10.’ Said Duncan,”I’m thrilled to be involved in Doctor Who. I’ve never done anything like this before and I’m really looking forward to working with David Tennant and the Doctor Who team.”.
Outgoing Who mastermind Russell Davies has described her character Adelaide as “the Doctor’s most strong-minded companion yet.” That’s a pretty big set of shoes to fill and Who fans everywhere can judge for themselves later this year. 