Everything Changes…

Oh there’s so much I want to tell you, of artists and ghosts and secret meetings and Hallowe’en (or was it Christmas?) – but I’m beginning to read like Russell T Davies’ DWM column, so I’ll refrain for now, save to mention that this week you’ll come across the words “apricot”, “”Royston” and “itchy”.

As you can see the Inferno feature is well underway, with our John Levene interview attracting much attention and Stahlman’s Video Diary already coming first in the “Funniest Article on Kasterborous Top 1”, so well done Brian A. Terranova.

Our special guest contributor Steve Preston (he of Black Scrolls Magazine!) has reviewed parts 1 and 2 of Torchwood for your pleasure – you can see his thoughts in the Reviews section.

Torchwood continues to roll, with Episode 3 providing much suspense, so keep your eyes peeled for reviews on that instalment; incidentally the Torchwood news items are currently our-ranking the Doctor Who news items. You weird lot.

Still to come in our Inferno series is “The Shape of Doctor Who… Inferno” which details how the story affected the direction of our favourite show, as well as a profile on everybody’s favourite Brigadier, um the Brigadier.

Finally… those changes I was on about last week – remember? Well, astonishingly (and I mean astonishingly – they’re about 7 months late!) they are nearly here. Now of course if things don’t work for some reason, then I’ll go all quiet and then remind you in a few months that things didn’t work out… but I’m quietly confident this time.

And thanks to all of you for your continued support over the months. We’re a short step away from our 2nd birthday – who would have though? – so I’m feeling like a proud parent at the moment. Even if the Forum did go under for 24 hours….

Spin City

Well, it has been a long time coming, it’s been part of Doctor Who lore for 18 months now – and finally Torchwood is upon us!

It has put us in a strange position, as a Doctor Who site. “Do we cover Torchwood or not?” was a question we threw around in the early days and while we obviously have and will continue to do so, it has been something of a slow burner in terms of development, and certainly doesn’t have the same coverage in the press and elsewhere as Doctor Who. Of course in covering Torchwood, we need to be fair to the other spin-offs – so watch out for some changes to Kasterborous over the next few weeks as some long-planned additions to the site are finally introduced (yay!).

But more content means more work… and while I’m busy with Kasterborous and a new comedy website, there is room for anyone wishing to contribute anything – but in particular Torchwood-related content – to have their work published on this very website. If you’re interested, drop myself or Brian a line via the Forum.

(Thanks to those who have got in touch so far!)

Finally – it’s taken almost as long as Torchwood, but this weekend sees the long-awaited first instalment of our Inferno feature. What better way to kick it off than an interview with the man behind one of Doctor Who’s best loved characters – John Levene who played UNIT Sergeant John Benton from 1969-1975.

Oh, and don’t forget to vote for Doctor Who at the National Television Awards website -voting closes on the day of the event itself, Tuesday October 31st, 2006.

I’ve already voted – guess what for…?

The Shape of Things to Come…

It is with a huge sigh of relief that I offer you this weekend the final instalment of our 2006 Round Table!

Over the last few weeks we’ve covered the character development of supporting characters, guest actors, returning elements and we conclude this week with a discussion of the Doctor himself…

A massive bunch of thanks must go out to the contributors; if you haven’t yet read any of the pieces (why not?!), then a roll call is required. First off, Kasterborous brothers in arms Anthony Dry and Brian A. Terranova; artist Nigel Parry whose work adorns several articles on this website; Black Scrolls masterminds Gareth Kavanagh and Steve Preston; Daniel Bohm of German Doctor Who website www.doctorwho.de, Simon Mills of the Doctor Who News Service; and Barnaby Eaton-Jones of the OFFSTAGE Theatre Group.

Their comments and observations have been a joy for me to edit, and I’m sure they’ve been just as entertaining for the readers; some of our most successful articles of all time!

And it is with massive amounts of pride that I announce a very special interview to be presented in the next week or so – with Sergeant Benton himself, actor John Levene who took time a few weeks ago to answer our questions!

The interview is the first of our series of articles devoted to the Jon Pertwee classic serial Inferno which will run through to November, so look out for them all!

Shakedown

We’ve heard today that Outpost Gallifrey’s much-loved news page is no more.

I don’t want to sound melodramatic, but that does constitute a big day in Doctor Who fandom. As a common or garden Doctor Who fan, I frequented Outpost Gallifrey back in the days when the banner had a police box in a snowy location. The news page was a nexus, a drip feed and a vital tool for conversation either in the OG forum, the old BBC discussion board or rec.arts.drwho.

As many of our regular readers may know, if it wasn't for the OG news pages, I would never have joined the OG forum, answered Ant's plea for a writer and built this site.

I think the fate of the OG news page has been a direct result of Shaun's success with the site, and it is something that Ant and I have been experiencing to a lesser degree - Ant with his work on the Series 2 DVD and me with my work on a new video games magazine.

I dare say that Outpost Gallifrey will continue to be successful, not least as a forum but as the biggest online repository of Doctor Who on the internet.

So while now is the time to convert your fellow fans to the Kasterborous Doctor Who News Page, it’s also the beginning of an interesting period in online fandom…

The Move

Well, with still a bit of time before Torchwood comes, I’ll keep this week’s editorial on a personal level.

This weekend I’ve moved house (a simple explanation for the lack of coherent news items over the next few days…) and it got me thinking about the whole concept of the Domestic Doctor vs the Alien Adventurer…

A couple of throwaway remarks in The Impossible Planet raised the possibility of the Doctor living with Rose, and experiencing change on a human level. You know when things change for us, people change jobs, move house, get married, have children, and die.

Our friend the Doctor doesn’t need to worry about moving house for starters (even if he does – according to some – have a house in the South East). He certainly doesn’t need to worry about earning money which he evidently sees as an inconvenience and has several neat tricks to get around the fact that he has no means of income. Things which we take for granted don’t attract the Doctor – and if we tried to live our lives in the same set of suits, travelling from one place to the next, doing odd jobs and picking up pretty girls… well, wouldn’t it be nice?

Children? Certainly a Granddaughter, and as for death, well he’s cheated it enough times in the past one way or another, and will continue to do so for a long time – certainly past his twelfth regeneration…

But with a TARDIS would you want to settle down? Would you want to stay in one place with one person doing one thing? Of course not! And that is the wonder of Doctor Who – the variety, the choice of times and places to visit. We wouldn’t hang around a car park in Ealing if we could travel to faraway galaxies.

Which brings us nicely to the topic du jour – should there or should there not be more alien planets in Doctor Who?

The answer must be "yes".

Love & Falcons...

Well, I’m sitting here with my first copy of Doctor Who Battles in Time!

There it is, sat patiently in its thick cardboard backing, cards safely wrapped up on the right hand side, waiting for me to unwrap them. But I won’t…

Not yet anyway. I want this to remain pure, unsullied and perfect. I’m not waiting for any particular moment – no I’m waiting for something else. Issue 2, perhaps?

No it’s not that either. So why can’t I open the damn thing?

Could it be… yes, yes that’s it. Fear. Fear of what this represents, should I open it and examine the cards. Oh I’ve been here before, I can tell you.

1982. Millennium Falcon. Original Millennium Falcon. Huge it was, with photos of the interior and Luke and Han and Obi-Wan Kenobi on the box. I remember the box, but luckily I’ve had my memory jogged by eBay.co.uk, which also reminded me how the actual toy looked, because I no longer have that either.

1984, meanwhile, was Optimus Prime year. I still have the old red juggernaut – in three guises – but the original is the best. I remember his box too, without the help of an online auction this time, because I cut it up! All for the special points on the back of the boxes which I saved up and bought a cardboard Autobot base with!

So, you see, opening my cards does something to my copy of Doctor Who Battles in Time. It makes it used. Its value vanishes in a blink of an eye. I won’t be able to auction it for 20 times its original value in 30 years time because the cards will be played with, and the pages of the magazine well-thumbed. It will have become part of my life, part of my relationship with Doctor Who…

…and as such, making it truly valuable. Monetary value holds know sway over love, as any fan knows – we’ll buy anything, regardless, just because it says “Doctor Who” on it.

Do you know what? Even if my Millennium Falcon and Optimus Prime were still boxed, I would never have sold them, ‘cause I loved them, and I still do.

And I love Doctor Who too.

This bloke goes into a pub...

...and whips out his mobile while waiting for some friends. It’s a really flash mobile – known as a smartphone – and he’s quickly browsing online via a wireless hotspot.

He stumbles upon the unitnews forum where someone has used the anonymous posting service there to make some comments about this blokes website…

"kasterbonkers are big dissapointment because they were so very, very promising and for some short time the one of the very best Doctor Who site out there"

”Blimey!” he thought, “What brought this on?” He read more…

'Kasterbonkers used to be the bright star of new doctor who sides in 2005, exciting new outlook, fresh snazzy design, intelligent articles - very very nice artwork and wallpapers (still have one on my pc) ...'

A quick defence later lead to a set-to with the proprietor of said forum, with some admirable defence from the Kasterborous Forum regulars, and an eventual settling of the issue.

This all took place in a short space of time on Sunday night/Monday, and concluded with this forum post, from the bloke:

I'm inviting the lady or gentleman who made the post prior to Martin closing the thread on his forum to bring their concerns to me, either via this forum or by email christian@kasterborous dot com.

Well, suffice to say that the said poster didn’t get in touch, and but this whole issue lead the bloke to wonder… “What if people could post anonymously on my forum…?”

And then he quickly saw the light – it’s frankly an idea only for someone with a very tight grip on moderation. Otherwise all sorts of trouble could erupt, such as statements like those above being made. Anonymity is very useful when bidding on expensive artefacts at auction and unnecessarily troublesome when you have a comment to make.

So, one last try, thought the bloke – and once more extended the offer to discuss the matter either in person, on the phone, via MSN, this websites forum or email.

Finally… all this has got me thinking about Kasterborous’ place in the “Doctor Who websites foodchain”. Frankly, I wouldn’t mind if K was just a little articles site with a blog attached, as long as I knew people were interested, and reading what I have to write. As it is we get a couple of thousand hits a day, no one has yet come to us and said “Do you mind? How dare you?!” or anything of the sort.
This website reflects on the large my feelings and thoughts, with large contributions from Brian A. Terranova and Anthony Dry. If I feel that a particular aspect of Doctor Who isn’t what it should be then I’m going to talk about it, highlight it and invite discussion on it.

What’s more, I’m going to continue to do so for as long as I have to.

No one pays us, we have no editorial bias, and we don’t have a quota or sales target. We can criticise positively or negatively, depending on the situation, to our hearts content and that is a good thing, because NO ONE ELSE IS DOING IT.

A quick strawpoll with other Doctor Who fans and webmasters on Monday quickly proved to me that our tone is spot-on, exactly what it should be and exactly what it was before Series 1 started.

That means that for 21 months we’ve been providing critical analysis and discussion of Doctor Who.

And had no complaints.

What a Week!

Well, when I decided to take a week off, not for one moment did I expect brand new news about Sarah Jane Investigates (now Sarah Jane Adventures!), Doctor Who: Battles in Time, the November DVD release of The Invasion, a new issue of Doctor Who Adventures and the new series of Eighth Doctor audio adventures on BBC7!

There’s only one thing for it – no more holidays for me! Big thanks to Brian A. Terranova and Anthony Dry for holding the fort in my absence, of course, and hopefully you won’t have to wait too long to witness the fruits of my labours…

Imagine, however, a world without holiday. One where we’re tied to the desk, the lathe, the sink – whatever – 40 hours a week, or even more. No entertainment for us, just work, work, work, and a bland news service that doesn’t even tell us the whole story. No music, no films, no games, and worst of all no Doctor.

Without dancing down the road of politics and big statements, I would like to take a line or two to point out that the world has changed a great deal in the last five years. I’m sure I’m not telling you anything new there; but I may be telling you something new when I suggest that perhaps rather than taking at face value what is printed in the press or broadcast on the television news, we look into things more deeply, consider things for ourselves and then make our own decisions.

I have done this myself, and come to one terrible conclusion.

It is in this weekly editorial, dear reader, that I finally come clean – I thought Rose Tyler: Earth Defender would have been bloody marvellous, despite what everybody else and the dastardly press thought.

Billie for PM!

NOTE: Yes, I was of course alluding to the 9/11 Truth Movement there, and frankly you should visit Propaganda Matrix if you need some convincing.

If you don't want to open your eyes, don't worry. The Doctor will save you...

Whose Holiday?

Ladies and gentlemen, it is that time of year once more… worn out and battered, your editor Christian Cawley (that’s me) must make merry with a few friends, plan his first wedding anniversary and spend a few days concentrating on the development of other projects.

As such, other than a further news update and part 2 of the Round Table 2006, there will be no site updates for a few days.

Yes, I know it is a little disappointing that no one else can brighten up your Doctor Who news items with pithy remarks and wild speculation, but the Kasterborous Forum remains open 24 hours a day and is open to everyone, new fans and old fans alike. Prospective new contributors should also voice their availability via the Forum or email contributions @ Kasterborous.com (without the spaces).

To make the week off worthwhile, we’ve got some great stuff coming up on Kasterborous from late September onwards, including a group of articles in typical Kasterborous manner based on the superb Jon Pertwee Season 7 story Inferno, a brand new series of articles about the Time Lords as well as a very special interview…

In the meantime, you might well have noticed some errors with Kasterborous pages recently. Well, I’m tentatively suggesting that these are behind us now, and we can all look forward to trouble-free Kasterborous browsing. If however you do notice anything, reply to my post at the top of the Kasterborous Forum and we’ll see what we can do to fix the issue.

Finally – get yourselves logged on to the BBC’s Official Doctor Who site and start reading Mark Gatiss’ excellent Nightshade which features the Seventh Doctor and companion Ace uncovering ancient alien interference in a northern village…

A Time for Reflection…

As we approach the last quarter of the year it’s a good time to consider the highs and lows of Doctor Who 2006.

Back in April we anticipated the new Doctor’s first full outing with excitement, looked forward to the return of Sarah Jane Smith and K9, expected great things from Rise of the Cybermen - but what really happened?

Mid-season audiences showed a dip when compared with the same stage of Series 1, yet the season finale pulled in a higher yield. TARDISODES and online commentaries complemented the series, as did the Doctor Who: Confidential series.

But did Series 2 work as well as Series 1? Well, we’re going to attempt to find out. Last year, our Adherents of Doctor Who "round table" articles discussed the return of Doctor Who, and this year we mull over the "difficult second season".

Joining the discussion are Kasterborous stalwarts Brian A. Terranova and Anthony Dry; Black Scrolls whiz kids Gareth Kavanagh and Steve Preston; OFFSTAGE Theatre Group auteur Barnaby Eaton-Jones; some-time Kasterborous artist Nigel Parry; Simon Mills of the essential Doctor Who News Service; and Daniel Bohm of German fansite www.doctorwho.de.

The discussions kick off this week on the matter of Sarah Jane and K9’s return, how they felt about it then, and now.

Check back every week as we move through various topics about Series 2 and establish how could Series 2 really was; click here to get started.

Torchwood Lit

We're just weeks away from a historical moment in the Doctor Who universe - a moment that sees Torchwood, the first full series spin-off airing on BBC3.

It could of course have been so different; forget Rose Tyler: Earth Defender and Sarah Jane Smith Investigates and the like - there was much talk 30-odd years ago of a UNIT spin-off, featuring the Brigadier and his men battling alien incursions without the help of the Doctor...

While a massively attractive idea, it sadly never materialised. but it was a concept of its time, one which is still fondly thought of by Doctor Who fans and isn't a milion miles from the concept of Torchwood. The world is a different place in 2006 - while we've seen UNIT as a secret ogranisation once more in The Christmas Invasion, we've seen that Torchwood is even moreso thanks to the same adventure and the conclusion of Series 2.

So what has this got to do with Kasterborous? Well, seeing as we like you all so much, expect some coverage of Torchwood over the next few weeks as we get closer to the October launch.

But also expect some UNIT coverage too over the next few months as we celebrate the release of the 1970 classic Inferno on DVD with a series of articles about the story which will build up to our interview with Sergeant Benton himself, actor John Levene!

Don't Forget...

Look out for the new series from the producers of Doctor Who!

“I’m a Slitheen, Get Me Out Of Here!” features those loveable Raxicoricartoonfartingpatorians trapped in a jungle on the planet Florana as they attempt to outwit, outsmart and basically survive in the face of a Dalek onslaught!

With the Dalek Supreme controlling the challenges from the safety of his treehouse, and the Special Weapons Daleks manning the escape routes, the Slitheen have a 40 square mile area to cross and survive in a 1 week period.

Coming face to face with the Daleks will certainly give the ropey green giants something to fart about – and don’t forget, you can pick up a special Slitheen Fart Generator toy in special issues of Kasterborous.

Executive Producer of “I’m a Slitheen, Get Me out Of Here!” is Rusty Lee Davidson, who is looking forward to seeing the challenges the Slitheen will face unfold on screen.

“You couldn’t have planned it any better! When the Slitheen told me they wanted to take part in the show I thought ‘Fantastic!’, and then all of a sudden the original concept – of Billie Piper and John Barrowman dancing on ice on the edge of a pulsar – went out of the window when the Dalek Supreme declared his interest.”

Meanwhile, that woman with the glasses is optimistic about the Slitheen’s chances… “Oh I think they can do it. They’re so wonderfully green you know, just like jungle, and well, you know they can outsmart the Daleks, I’m sure, boyo.”

Don’t forget to tune in also to “I’m a Slitheen, Get Me Out Of Here! - Unplugged” the new companion show on BBC3 which features various Doctor Who monsters singing in front of a studio audience with the threat of electrocution if they fail to make the grade. Featuring such highlights as the Mara singing “You Were Always On My Mind”, and the Eighth Doctor with “Long Haired Lover From Liverpool”, “I’m a Slitheen, Get Me Out Of Here! - Unplugged” is guaranteed to be a riot!

“It’s Marvellous!” says Rusty Lee Davidson – and who dare argue?

Too Much Spin

In this day and age it might well be normal to cash in on the success of a show like doctor who - after all we've had toys since the 1970s, books and films starring the Daleks. But in light of news that a new has been devised starring Lis Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith, as well as Torchwood, one has to wonder firstly where the money is coming from and secondly where it is going...
The process of making television shows in the UK these days is pretty similar to the rest of the world. Shows like Doctor Who are put in a budget banding, and it’s interesting to note that “Silent Witness” has similar money spent on it as doctor who. While this negates the argument that if the BBC has money for two spin offs then they have money for more Doctor Who, it allows other questions to be asked.
For instance, while torchwood looks good on paper, following the recent issues with the camera equipment, is it going to look as good on screen?
If there is a demand for a third Doctor Who spin-off series, then why is it one starring Sarah Jane Smith? Now regular readers will know how much I love Sarah Jane, but a spin off show called "Sarah Jane Smith Investigates" sounds as though it will be picking up where "K9 and Company" left off. And when we have Daleks trundling around exhibitions season after season - a group who have waited 40 years for their own spin off series - without a sniff of even a CGI adventure show... Well there's something very, very wrong.
And its interesting that these snippets of information should all come to light as the BBC Wales Doctor Who team moves into its new "Camelot" multi-million pound studio.

Is this to be some sort of albatross around RTD’s and Julie Gardner’s necks...?

Weathering the Storm

It can be a risky business, outdoor filming, especially with the notoriously unreliable British weather. How exactly can film crews get around the problems that inclement or unsuitable weather conditions place on shooting a story that requires certain elemental elements to be radically different?

We’ll take the current obvious example – filming a Doctor Who Christmas story in the beating heat of modern Britain. Cardiff is melting and it’s supposed to be Christmas 2006. David Tennant and Catherine Tate are no doubt sweating – Ms Tate is wearing a wedding dress, after all – and the sun is beating down in a way that only occurs between 9 am and 1pm at that time of year.

Rewind 34 years and we see how a January shoot of The Claws of Axos was disrupted by a snowstorm that fell between location shoots. Pigbin Josh wanders through snow for a short time, but little of it is seen later on.

What is interesting here is how the production teams deal with these issues. In 2006, apparently the Doctor and Donna suck on ice cubes before takes in order to give the impression that their breath is condensing in the cold London winter; meanwhile in 1972 (depending on your UNIT dating…) the descent of the Axos craft/being through Earth’s atmosphere caused localised disturbances in the weather, thanks to a quickly rewritten piece of dialogue that made the presence of snow completely acceptable and perhaps even appeared to be a bit of a special effects triumph…

What I would really like to know is:

How will the Christmas 2006 of The Runaway Bride be affected by the Christmas 2006 of The Christmas Invasion, and vice versa…?

So… what shall we talk about?

The history of Doctor Who is littered with lulls – 1969-1970, 1985, 1989-1996, 1996-2005 - but few will seem as long or as foot-dragging as this one. There’s around five months until the next episode of Doctor Who, and whether or not we have the Captain Jack show in the meantime, that still means lots of weekends without television.

I’m not a big television watcher. I love lots of the older serials, and particular comedy stuff, such as “Have I Got News For You”, “QI”, etc. but mostly I’m reading, writing, gaming or watching Doctor Who. And I’m really missing it at the moment. Saturday’s seem so empty…

“But hang on there!” I hear you cry, “You just spent the best part of 13 weeks slagging the show off! How can you be missing it?!”

Well, there is of course a difference between disliking a show and loving it so much that you instinctively know when something is wrong. I’m not going to dwell on the imperfections of Doctor Who 2006, suffice to say I hope most of them are ironed out by the time we see Doctor Who 2007. I mean, at the end of the day it was a damned sight better than Season 24.

While that might be a generally accepted opinion, it might not be universally accepted. One debate that has raged in the Kasterborous Forum over the last few weeks has been how Series 2 compares to Series 1. While the latest adventures garnered more viewers than the series did last year (despite being shown later), its still being discussed how the series compare. I think the jury will be out on that one for a while…

It is all based on opinion. Our likes and dislikes are shaped by our personalities, and we’re never all going to agree on anything. And it would be boring if we did – take this website for instance. If Anthony and myself agreed on everything from day one, we’d be talking about BSG, writing comic strips and writing songs in honour of Doctor Who…

Get your old DVDs and videos out!

There has not been a better time to get digging through your shelves and cupboards for old videos of Doctor Who, old New Adventures books by exciting new writers such as Paul Cornell, Mark Gatiss and Russell T Davies, and Big Finish audios starring one or four of the old Doctors.

Doctor Who is off air until Christmas, so let’s turn out attention to the shows rich history! Relive the moment that the Doctor discovered that the Master still lived in The Keeper of Traken! Watch with a tearful eye as the Doctor leaves Jo Grant’s party in The Green Death! Watch in awe as the Daleks are born and kill for the first time in Genesis of the Daleks! Cringe with shame as the Seventh Doctor struggles to keep his balance in Time and the Rani… shudder in fear at the terror facing mankind’s near future in various Second Doctor adventures and gasp in awe as William Hartnell remembers a full episode worth of dialogue without fluffing his lines!

What better time than to throw on your multi-coloured dream coat with built in variable waist size? The weather may not be perfect for such a heavy garment, but you’ll certainly be noticed! You might on the other hand prefer to rewatch such disasters as the death of Adric, or the TV Movie…

Of course, if you’re in the mood for old Doctor Who, we have lots of it between now and Series 3. We’ll be running articles on some of the best episodes, profiling a larger-than-life incarnation as well as some other Time Lords and reviewing some of the key DVD releases of 2006.

If you’ve got any suggestions for content that you would like to see or contribute, feel free to contact me at editor@kasterborous.com or post the request in the Kasterborous Forum.

Happy Holidays…

Well, well, well. That’s it until Christmas – and as such we’re moving the focus of Kasterborous away from the new series and back to Doctor Who as a whole.

Over the coming months we’ll be introducing a new series of articles, a new section to Kasterborous, as well as some in-depth analysis of some classic stories, including the Jon Pertwee Season 7 classic Inferno.

It’s a sad goodbye to Doctor Who Series 2 - despite my gripes there still wasn’t anything else new that came close to DW on the box from April to July. ITV 3 and 4 might push you in the right direction if you’re based in the UK, with repeats of the classic ITC series, whereas there’s an amazing selection of documentaries on BBC 4 and UKTV History. As for drama, the Doctor Who effect has yet to take hold completely, with a second series of "Life on Mars" currently shooting, alongside "Robin Hood", due for a return to TV screens this autumn.

As for American imports – notoriously over-rated at the best of times, "Lost" continues to baffle, perplex and frankly annoy plenty of people, and while its makers evidently expect it to carry the same sort of aura as "Twin Peaks", it’s likely to make the transition to theatrical release resolution before the planned ninth series… but if you’re in a real Who-vacuum, you could do a lot worse than pick up some episodes of "Medium", possibly the cream of the US series. Starring Patricia Arquette and Jake Weber, it follows the adventures of a lady who is employed by the local District Attorney's office. She’s also a medium, and a wife and mother. While it might sound soapier than certain elements of the recent series of Doctor Who, it’s certainly worth a try…

So, we’ve got little over 5 months until the next episode of Doctor Who, and with such a bizarre cliffhanger, there’s plenty to talk about in the Kasterborous Forum, which continues to go from strength to strength, currently averaging a new registration every other day – it’s amazing what the right forum software can do…

New Destinations

So the Doctor will get a new companion – Martha! While there are some raised eyebrows at the moniker, I think it’s a lovely name. And what a great smile!
Casting someone who dies in a key episode of the series and then casting her as fandom lets out a wistful “Well, it’s not her then after all – bloody agents…” was a typical RTD curveball, and well done to him.
But I’m a bit peeved by the whole “companion status” thing. If you listen to “respected” publications such as The Daily Mail (yeah, I know, but hear me out) and even supposed free-thinkers such as the Independent, Freema Agyeman will play Martha, the Doctor’s first black companion.
Off you go Noel Clarke, back into the shadows! You never really mattered anyway, you tin dog you!
You see with these statements, the newspapers redraw Doctor Who history with a single pen-stroke. If Mickey isn’t a proper companion, then neither is Grace, neither is the Brigadier, or Benton or Captain Yates. It’s sloppy writing, it’s irresponsible and it’s degrading to read, so I can only imagine how Noel Clarke might feel.
I sit daily scanning interesting news articles, either at home, at work or via my PDA, and do you know what? The so called “national Press” don’t know squat. They type away in ivory towers doing nothing to further mankind or challenge perceptions, instead dancing to the tunes of media hype and political spin.
This is where you find real news, on the Web. Whether it’s concerning the trivialities of a television series or the contents of an Iraqi’s Blog, the newspapers have had their day…
And welcome to Doctor Who, Freema!

It’s the end…

…But the time has been prepared for. How well prepared, though?

For months on end, we’ve had speculation about Billie Piper’s future with Doctor Who, speculation that was only resolved when the BBC – rather early in the series, considering – revealed that she would indeed be leaving the show.

Yet nothing has been said about the Tenth Doctor David Tennant.

Other than the cursory "as long as they’ll have me", his future with the show is almost as up in the air as Christopher "I’ve done the long haul" Eccleston’s. And Billie Piper’s departure could be a massive smokescreen…

A rumour – and note that it is only a rumour - has recently reached Kasterborous regarding the imminent departure of David Tennant. Now you should take this with a pinch of salt, but it is one rumour which should be given plenty of thought – after all, how exactly can the Doctor deal with a Cyberman victory and a Dalek invasion? The odds are stacked against him even more than they were in Series 1 – and that is saying something.

While he might have Mickey, Rose and Torchwood behind him, both the Cybermen and the Daleks are impervious to bullets – so the vast store of alien weapons will no doubt come in useful – I’m scratching my head and have to wonder out loud whether there could be some truth to the rumour.

If so, then this could be a serious shame for Doctor Who. The audience needs to be able to develop a relationship with the Doctor in order for regeneration to work, and I don’t feel that annual renewal is achieving this.

At the end of the day, however, the Doctor will survive regardless. If Tennant really has left the role, then best of luck to him for the future.

However if it is – as seems likely one of those cock-and-bull stories, then good luck Doctor in saving the world next Saturday!

A Storm is Coming…

…and we trust that Doctor Who will never be the same again.

Despite what various personal opinions might be on the quality of the stories this season, Doctor Who is entering it’s second end-of-season finale that promises to bring drama, shocks and revelations. The departure of Rose is being kept strictly under-wraps, and Doctor Who is subject to tighter control on plot developments than “EastEnders”.

Obviously this means that there are changes in store for the Doctor and by definition the show. A new companion, a new backstory – no more Jackie Tyler. Will this result in a refocusing of the show’s narrative on the Doctor himself?

Probably not. A new companion will bring new baggage with them, and while there’ll be no Jackie Tyler, there’ll be a special someone waiting for them to return. Concentrating more on the Doctor brings with it certain problems, such as an increased workload for the shows star (see Tom Baker) less chance of identifying with the companion and as such a lower frequency of new viewer take-up.

Of course, much of this is debateable, and what we all want to see is Doctor-centric adventures in Series 3 as the last Time Lord battles evil in all shapes and forms. It would probably be wise to avoid cartoon scribbles, although beings that exist in radio wave form (the Vardans?) and Absorbaloff’s shouldn’t be shied away from if they can be approached correctly…

We know the Face of Boe returns in 2007, and that he has a secret to tell the Doctor. We know the Doctor has a new companion, and that another classic series monster will return. Whether it’s the Silurians, the Ice Warriors, the Sontarans or the Zygons is a matter for us to look forward to – as is the surely definitive comeback of them all.

If the Face knows of other Time Lords that have survived, there are bound to be one or two up to know good. And what’s the point in creating a new Time Lord villain if there is already one out there who is something of a Master…?