Earnest Who?

So finally the countdown begins in earnest! This evening sees the Press Launch of the 2006 series of Doctor Who in Cardiff – and about bloody time!

I’ve been moaning dear Ceri’s socks off since Boxing Day about when the next episode of Doctor Who is actually going to be on. Even during my “Who Hols” I was jotting question marks on post it notes and leaving them in strange places like the teapot, the alarm clock, the bottle bank and Rotherham.

Thankfully, it seems as though the nightmare is about to cease for 3 months or so, as David Tennant returns as the Tenth Doctor on (probably…) Saturday April 15th 2006.

Get ready for the trailers! Gasp at the posters! Hold on tight for another trip of a lifetime! Expect yet another catchy tag line!

Of course, it’s not all good news. I mean yes, it’s great and everything, but it’s not wonderful. Ok it is wonderful, but it comes at a cost…

Sleepless nights, drinking binges, over eating – all things I’m not going to have over the next three months. So missing out on the first one isn’t such a bad thing, but – as any of the Doctor Who web-meisters will agree – there’s a lot of work to stay on top of between now and July. Press releases, reviews, endless news items, image formatting, the list goes on.

You might find we’re a wee bit late with some news, but as ever we’ll present it with (almost) total irreverence…

Let's have a nice picture of the greatest dog in the world - K9!
(Incidentally, clicking on the metal mutt will take you to a page on Kasterborous where you can download a selection of desktop wallpapers, including one of K9...)

So, why are we having a K9 pic?
Well... I've just read through an email from Mr Mat Irvine, former Doctor Who visual FX wiz and K9 keeper.

We've interviewed Mat for Kasterborous recently, and the results should be available within the next 4 weeks. But what's really stood out is what a lot he has to say...

For this interview (you may or may not know, we've previously interviewed actor/presenter Peter Purves, writer Jean-Marc Lofficier and artists Andrew Skilleter and Daryl Joyce) we approached things a little differently. Lessons learnt and all that. Open-ended questions were used, as well as plenty of time given to the subject. Having knowledge of the subject's work is of course a major plus in these cases, as well.

Previous interviews have pretty much been of a "question and answer" format. However, following last years triumphant return of Doctor Who, Kasterborous ran an article featuring the thoughts and comments of many people from the world of Doctor Who fandom, including some of those mentioned above. This article, Adherents of Doctor Who (parts 1 and 2) successfully merged comments, opinions and thoughts into an apparent discussion, and proved very successful indeed...

You'll see a similar tone with the Mat Irvine interview - fingers crossed it works!

Can it get any worse than this? The waiting is unbearable!

Still, I have at least got my collection of BBC books to keep me going, with continued adventures of the Ninth Doctor and Rose, and later Captain Jack keeping my Who fix just about ticking over.

I did the right thing, I feel, having a break from the old fella a couple of months back. Hopefully this shows in my writing in this blog, in the Kasterborous Forum and in the new series of articles on the wonderful Caves of Androzani. If you haven’t already clicked the link to see why I believe Doctor Who would never reach the heights of Androzani for around 21 years, then please click it now.

It’s articles like this that are at t he heart of Kasterborous. As suggested last time, we wanted to do something different. A quick look around the web at Doctor Who websites shows a big bunch that are similar, based on a certain long-running other site, or just plain dull. The key Who sites are those that have made an effort to be different, and we count ourselves in that number. After all, where else could you find an account of Krau Timmin’s rise to CEO of the Sirius Conglomerate?

And if that’s the sort of variety of content you’re looking for, then don’t forget to come back in future. And if you like a Doctor Who-related laugh, I sincerely hope you’ve checked the current issue of Black Scrolls, which also features a wealth of articles on the wonderful Caves of Androzani, including interviews with Maurice Roeves (Stotz) and John Normington (Morgus)

If you haven’t seen Androzani, trust us. It really is that good!

This might be my first blog entry here, but it's really an extension of the limited space I'm allowed to do this sort of thing at Kasterborous. You'll pick up the gist of that site by visiting it or just reading this blog, I guess. After all, the return of Doctor Who is imminent...

It’s all around us. The anticipation is swelling, on both sides of the Atlantic almost simultaneously. Doctor Who Series 1 premieres on the US Sci-Fi Channel this Friday night, while the 2006 Series 2 is almost upon us, almost certainly due for an Easter Saturday showing.

The hit rate for Kasterborous has slowly increased over the last fortnight as interest continues to grow, and Outpost Gallifrey reports that the series Press Launch is due to take place on March 28th – expect to see plenty of UK press coverage of the new series from March 29th onwards.

What does this all mean? Well, it means a vast swathe of daily information will come your way, and there will be a lot to wade through. Stopping off at Kasterborous will save you loads of time as I’ll read it all for you and tell you the best bits. Plus when the new series starts I’ll even tell you whether the episode you just watched was any good or not.

But you see, that wasn’t the plan, back in the beginning. The idea was I write some interesting pieces (I think I’ve mainly kept my side of the bargain) and Ant would give us some nice images to accompany them (he’s done pretty well there, too). From somewhere, Brian came on board, the new series decided to be really, really good, and Kasterborous just went mad. Of course, we couldn’t have done it without you guys…

So if new Who isn’t whetting your appetite, you’re either dead or a fan of Caves of Androzani, the closing story of the Fifth Doctor Peter Davison’s era. We're looking at that story in-depth on Kasterborous right now...