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…?

Disappointed of Kasterborous

Sirs: It is with bewilderment that I watched the last episode of Doctor Who reasonably expecting the Doctor – the shows main character – to save the day in face of astonishing adversity. Instead I got a charming yarn about cartoons coming to life and the children on the estate being saved by a blonde girl named Rose.

The benefits for and against the heroism of this character have been well documented but I find myself and the character at an impasse; one week she is portrayed as cocky, selfish and jealous and another she is the best thing since sliced bread.

Her portrayal in this series of Doctor Who has been one of several let downs from a production team which brought the show back so convincingly last year. While conceptually the Absorbaloff from Love & Monsters should be admired, it was introduced in a completely inappropriate context. And I’m saying nothing of the performance of Peter Kay, as I’m a fan; however the Roald Dahl nature of the beast and indeed the tale were the episode’s only saving grace.

In a season that promised so much, it was I think ultimately expected that we would get so far through feeling so under-whelmed. Were we spoiled last year? Did the team try harder? If so why? If the show really was better last year, and it’s not simply nostalgia getting the better of us, then could the reason for it have been down to the leading man?

I’m not for one moment suggesting that David Tennant is unsuitable; he’s slotted into the role very well. But he isn’t as highly-regarded in the industry as his predecessor, and for me at least Eccleston’s short-lived era is overshadowing this new age of Doctor Who simply because the producers of the show have failed to match the quality of last year.

Army of Ghosts has the potential to silence me, and eat the above words. Perhaps it will be that good that the budget savings on Fear Her and Love & Monsters will be made worthwhile. It might even be the best ever Doctor Who story ever. The poorer aspects of the 2006 series will be overlooked and heralded as the best ever, based on two good single-parters and two good two-parters.

They say that history is written by the victors. As such, the victors need to get it right for Series 3

Questions, Questions, Questions…

When Ant and I first got chatting on the OG Forum way back in 2004 (is it two years already Ant?!) one of the stipulations for the website we were developing was that if possible we should attempt to contact people in the world of Doctor Who in order to interview them.

(Another stipulation was that if possible we would send readers pieces of original artwork by Ant if they sent us enough chocolate. Alas, sorting offices are warm places...)

Once Kasterborous (I should add that the name was my idea – admittedly a fluke…) was finally up and running, we were in almost straight away with an interview with the artist Peter McKinstry, whose work graces the ebook version of Justin Richards’ The Sands of Time on the BBC Doctor Who site. It wasn’t long before we were recruiting other artists such as Andrew Skilleter, Darryl Joyce, Pete Wallbank and Lee Sullivan, and indeed soon we were interviewing writers, such as Jean-Marc Lofficier.

Particular favourites of mine – not having had much to do with the artists which were all Ant’s own work – include the Peter Purves interview (being the first time we had a former star of Doctor Who featured on Kasterborous), the OFFSTAGE interview with Barnaby Jones (simply for being, well, Barnaby) and of course the Mat Irvine piece, which was very satisfying as an admirer of his work on Doctor Who and Blake’s 7, as well as his appearances on Saturday morning kids TV.

But if you had told me we would get the opportunity to chat with someone working on the new incarnation of Doctor Who – well I wouldn’t have taken you seriously! So, readers of Kasterborous, head for the Interviews section of this website and witness the first part of a chat with Neill Gorton, the visual effects and prosthetics designer on Doctor Who. We’re very grateful for the time Neill’s taken from what must be an insane schedule to answer our questions, and we’re sure you will enjoy reading it.

My Rose is Leaving Me!

Well, I just knew it was leading somewhere.

When I wrote the article “My Rose Has Left Me” I confess I was pretty miffed with what I saw as poor characterisation of Billie Piper’s character this series. I was sick of her – and to some extent still am – but hopefully what I at first saw as the weakness of some of Piper’s performances where down to the fact she was being “roughed up” a little, to ease her out as it were without an uproar from the fans.

Obviously the most popular Doctor Who companion in a very long time, Rose has been everywhere with the Doctor, and their relationship is so close it just makes you wonder how they will part company. Hopefully the surprise will remain until the end of the series, even if the departure of the actress hasn’t…

Exactly how many more newspapers did the news sell, really? In the middle of a football World Cup competition, did the tabloids really have to push it? Why couldn’t they let it lie for a month until the end of the series, keep quiet and let us have our surprise – you know, the one we didn’t get when the Ninth Doctor had his day?

But it is of course a necessary evil. It would be so nice to hear RTD and the BBC having a go at the Press – but the need the papers to promote the show. Even when the TV critics were hammering Doctor Who in the 1980s, the same papers where clamouring for its return upon cancellation.

Doctor Who, you see, is magical. Everyone loves it, and those that don’t – well, I dare say imaginations will be for sale in the next 30 years the way medical science is progressing.

Rose’s departure – whether permanent or short-term – will simply allow the show to move into a new era. No longer tied to bloody Jackie Tyler and the Powell Estate, the Doctor will be free to roam the universe with a companion of his own choice, not the choice of his earlier self.

A new companion – imagine the possibilities! The one good thing that has come out of this earlier-than-intended-but-later-than-expected leak is we can play “guess the new companion” in the final story of the series/first story of the next series.

And We're Off!

Oh yes, welcome to Kasterborous as we celebrate the start of Doctor Who, 2006 style!

There are a couple of adventures in store this season as the Doctor and Rose kick off their adventures by landing on a small planet orbiting none other than a black hole! Gasp as they tackle Satan himself, then travel on for more adventures back on Earth.

Comedian Peter Kay stars in Love & Monsters as the villainous Victor Kennedy, while this 6-part series concludes with a rumoured return of the Cybermen!


Of course, it could have been so easy to give us just 6 episodes this year. Start with Episode 8 and give us a bang to the new season. But RTD instead chose to start with New Earth, and give us a start to the series arguably weaker than its 2005 predecessor, Rose.

Now I could easily go into “bash mode” here, criticising Davies and the executive production team, as well as possibly the script editors. But frankly if they can produce delights such as The Girl in the Fireplace and The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit in the same season as New Earth then there’s nothing I can say to them. They know.

I’m just an IT Analyst and part-time freelance writer. If I can see the faults in Doctor Who 2006, so can the BBC and the shows production team. In their defence, we should consider that they didn’t get it totally right in 2005, and that it is still a learning curve…

However, after the quality we’ve seen in the last couple of weeks I expect – nay demand – that the show build upon this for next season.

And You Will Worship Him

Can I come out yet? I’m scared, disturbed and shocked. I’m also considering a career in football management after last weeks team talk…


The Impossible Planet has all the hallmarks of an instant classic, and really that IS saying something, isn’t it? Claustrophobic, intense, eye-catching, chilling and thrilling all at the same time, this is the Doctor Who I’ve been waiting for since New Earth.

I’m not going to say too much about it for those who haven’t’ seen it, suffice to say there will be at least one review live in the next day or so.

The eagle-eyed among you may have noticed that when we feature a particular Doctor Who story, we do it across four articles – yet our recent-ish Caves of Androzani pieces only totalled 3… all is not lost, however – only the article was! Totally our mistake, and shortly we’ll have an appreciation of the Fifth Doctor Who courtesy of Brian A Terranova.

We’ve also got an exciting array of articles ready when the series ends… after all, we can’t fill 40 weeks of the year with reviews of the same articles, can we?!

Half Time

The Idiot’s Lantern was episode 7 of the current run of Doctor Who, and as such it’s half-way point. I have to say that at the moment things are leaving me a little cold…

What has happened to Doctor Who in Series 2? Last year had its faults, but everything seemed to be pulling in the same direction. It all reached an ultimate end with the “Bad Wolf” meme that was in various degrees successful. The overall quality in 2005 was pretty much uniform; even if the story wasn’t very good, the direction and the cast made up for it. This year however, we’ve had a marked levelling off of quality across the board, with poorer scripts, questionable casting and re-used special effects.

That last one is particular bug-bear of mine. The old Glen A Larson series of the 1980s often reused special effects – notably KITT’s “turbo boost” in “Knight Rider” or various “Airwolf” manoeuvres. It seems strange that a BBC show in 2006 is reusing explosion visuals from an episode in 2005 – in particular its most-watched episode!

Granted, the series has got darker as the season progresses, and that seems set to continue as the Doctor and Rose encounter The Impossible Planet this Saturday. Finally the new series will discard its Earthly shackles and venture out into the universe…

So in light of the impending FIFA World Cup, I present a list of manager-style objectives for the second half of the Doctor Who season:

• More consistency with the plot down the right flank
• Less mercy in front of goal – you’re supposed to be thrilling audiences, not baffling them
• A better range of guest players
• Let’s build towards a rousing finale
• Drop the Torchwood tactic. We keep getting caught out at the back…

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes....

Ah, there's nothing like a bit of a change. It's as good as a rest, apparently, and is certainly something the Doctor Who fans should not be afraid of.

We invariably are, however...

To stick to the point, however, the new forum is only the beginning of the changes that we have in store for Kasterborous. In the near future, users can expect a new dedicated fan fiction section and a couple of very secret sections...

The response to the new forum has been astonishing, actually, and hanks go to everyone who has visited and posted, and sent the emails of approval – it means a lot to us!

If you haven’t checked it out, the forum is pretty much what you would expect from a 21st century forum – polls, attachments, private messaging, custom avatars, extensive profiles as well as a special feature called "karma", which allows any member with over 50 posts to commend or denigrate other posters. Now we want to underline that this is an experimental feature, and shouldn’t be abused – it’s about establishing which forum members have a good reputation. It should be used wisely…

There have been some reports of the forum page not opening at all. They came later than expected, but the workaround is simple – use the forum URL www.doctorwhoforum.org.uk and you’ll get straight in!

Amazing!

Okay – so Rise of the Cybermen wasn’t all that, but its concluding episode, The Age of Steel was nothing short of nailbiting. It was excellent stuff on the whole, with perhaps a fraction of the faults of the previous episode.

There’s a review of The Age of Steel courtesy of Brian A. Terranova. You’ll notice that we’re alternating the reviews this year – it’s purely to provide you the readers with a different voice, as well as to allow me to divert more attention to my study…

This week’s Doctor Who is restored to its 7 pm broadcast time. Set in the 1950s during the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, The Idiot’s Lantern is by Mark Gatiss, who previously wrote last season’s The Unquiet Dead as well as the excellent Seventh Doctor book Nightshade. It promises to be a slightly unsettling episode…

[picture from http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/gallery/s2_05gallery/]

Affiliate Links...

A little bit can go a long way... we've made a small change to the forum to allow for a bit of assistance in paying the hosting fees - this post is from the new Kasterborous Forum:

It would be completely amiss of us to to implement this without informing our loyal members.

In the next couple of days, we're going to start trialling affiliate links. Words such as 'Amazon.com', "eBay.co.uk" and "Play.com" etc will be automatically hyperlinked. These links will contain affiliate codes and should anyone visiting click on the links and end up making a purchase, then Kasterborous.com will benefit.

Anthony, Brian and myself pay for Kasterborous' hosting out of our own pockets, and are happy to do so. However this isn't an ideal situation, and you will notice that there isn't a single advert on Kasterborous other than the links to Doctor Who websites.

You will find these links unobtrusive, and there is my no means any compulsion to click them. Forum users are encouraged to use full URLs for commercial websites should they intend to link to DVD, books or auctions, whatever.

For instance where you might have once simpy typed "Amazon.com" and hyperlinked it to the Genesis of the Daleks DVD, now you will need to simply type "Amazon". Typing Amazon.com will, as you can see, produce an affiliated hyperlink.

If you have any queries or observations, please feel free to let us know.

The New Kasterborous Forum

It’s finally here at last – and I have to say, not before time!

Our regular forum users will notice that I haven’t been too chatty lately – and this is the reason, a brand new forum utilising the excellent and supremely flexible SMF (Simple Machines Forum) software.

There’s added functionality and a new URL for the forum – www.doctorwhoforum.org.uk – which will enable the forum to run unhindered by Kasterborous, and vice-versa. The link in the top left of your screen will take you there!

Existing members of the forum – no doubt starved by the 24 hour downtime – have each received an email explaining the changes. Those of you who aren’t members, simply lurkers – you can join any time, and the forum is still free to view!

The new Forum has been a long time coming. Last September we knew that as the main site grew, so would the database. Two databases running the same website resulted in performance issues which now will be a thing of the past.

But why, when other Doctor Who websites use vBulletin forum software, did we choose the rarely used SMF? Economics, mainly. And flexibility. Whatever the old Snitz database could do relied on custom-made modifications - but these were becoming rarer as use of the software begins to decline. SMF meanwhile is a nice solid piece of software that is used on the www.led-zeppelin.com website. If it's good enough for one of the greatest rock bands of all time, its good enough for Kasterborous!

Cliffhanging!

Now that’s what I call a cliffhanger – no "Next Week" trailer to spoil it!

Just when we were all expecting to find out what was going to be on the table in next weeks episode, the spoon-feeding we got last series has gone! And Rise of the Cybermen was all the better for it, I would say.

But you should have all noticed that we are approaching Episode 6 –which means this time next week we’ll be halfway through the season. You could call it the unknown country – after all, most of the promotional material for this series concerned clips from episodes 1-6. We know very little of what will come towards the end of the series.

Which is just how we like it, isn’t it? Last years events were by and large unknown and surprising, for better or for worse. We also knew that fate would catch up with Eccleston’s Doctor around Episode 13 – but this year, save some rumours about Billie Piper and some unconfirmed news about Noel Clarke, we’re kept in the dark.

Spoilers or no spoilers, though, nothing can beat a Doctor Who cliffhanger without a "Next Week" trailer.

Poster Competition Update

Thanks to every single one of you who entered – it’s good to know people are reading this part of the site!

We’re sorting through the entries, and will let you lucky winners know by email when the posters will be dispatched!

Cyber Tribe

The Cybermen are coming. There is nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.

Giant augmented humans with a skin of steel – they’re everywhere! Saturday night’s Doctor Who showcases the return of the Doctor’s second most famous enemy – a re-imagined Cybermen army created on a parallel Earth. It looks fantastic, it has a great cast, it has a director who was involved in Doctor Who in the 1970s and 80s, and looks as though it might have something that Series 2 as a whole has been missing – darkness.

There’s been no edge, has there? It’s been nice so far – apart from New Earth - and cosy and very "family". But last year we were discussing the impact of the loss of Gallifrey and the Time Lords, and the Doctor’s ability to deal with the Time War.

Then there was Bad Wolf, and the sneaking "conspiracy theory" feel that the series developed. There was more talk, on the whole, outside of the Saturday night comfort zone. Will Rise of the Cybermen see the beginning of this for Series 2?
We certainly hope so…

Poster Competition Update!

Ladies and gentlemen, by midnight tonight this Poster Competition will be turned inside out.
There will be nothing left.
So get your entries in – send to competitions@kasterborous.com!

It's a busy old week...

Anthony Dry is sitting in on my blog-writing duties this week...

So, The Girl in the Fireplace comes and goes and not without its controversy. I've actually rewatched it and thought it not as bad as my immediate viewing. Ah well what can you do, shoot the reviewer? Well actually don't...

Anyway we have the small matter of The Cybermen invading our screens this weekend, in Rise of the Cybermen, something i have personally been looking forward too for quite some time and the trailer looks fantastic.

The new Radio Times is also giving out free sticker books of Doctor Who and its out tomorrow.

And thats not all.

If you are interested in grabbing yourself a free poster check out the recent competition in the news section, there's 50 to give away courtesy of the wonderful folks at Radio Times, so get your names and addresses sent in to competitions@kasterborous.com. And if you fancy trying to double your advantage, our friends at www.unitnews.co.uk have sets to give away too.

Remote Controlled Daleks...

...and David Tennant figures, Slitheen walkie-talkies, Davros cookie jars, postcards, Top Trumps decks, TARDIS playsets, mugs, noisy pens, Sonic Screwdrivers new and old, DVDs, videos, books about science in Doctor Who, guest stars, old stars, book deals at 23 and new magazines.

What do the above all have in common? They are, of course, all part of the big Doctor Who Cash Cow, The Franchise, the capitalists dream, and of course the shifting back into mainstream for everything that is Doctor Who merchandise. I'm sat with a 1990s Dapol 4th Doctor figure on my desk who is looking on aghast at the range of new material listed above - at least he would be if I hadn't blu-tak'd a photocopy of the 10th Doctor's face onto his bonce.

The main point is yes, the above are all examples of the vast amount of cash that is flowing into Doctor Who now, but there is also a key sub-point...

Kasterborous.com is unique among Doctor Who websites not only in that it features pages upon pages of original - and dare I say it well-written content, but it is also stunningly designed and features beautiful art not only by Anthony Dry but also other contributors such as Nigel Parry and Carolyn Edwards.

Rather good material for a book, you might say...