Tamm-tastic 2

Oh yesh, if there was som sort of duel for the top rated Doctor Who actress, it would be settled with a jelly fight between the two finalists, Mary Tamm and Nicola Bryant.

Bonkers fantasies aside, Mary Tamm is a smashing looking (Time) ladyand I for one am looking forward to the upcoming Key To Time season boxset, which features commentaries from Ms Tamm and he costar (some bloke called Tom).

She's had a varied and diverse career, surprisingly successful compared to most Doctor Who actresses, and of course she still looks fantastic. And she's got huge following among straight Doctor Who fans (there's more of us you know, we're just not as noisy as the other lot), headed by Kasterborous' own Anthony Dry, who even has a Mary Tamm tattoo!

Oh and visit www.marytamm.com, you know you want to.

Sarah Who

So - a result of the Time War was that the Doctor was left without any other Time Lords to talk to other than the Master, the Daleks somehow survived (three cases so far) and Sarah Jane Smith (or Sarah as we used to call her, regardless of her Sunday name) turned into a female version of the Doctor.

Sarah Jane Adventures is with us from Monday 24th September, and it's interesting to see how the series is being marketed. First off, let's look at the obvious bit - Lis Sladen returns to play Sarah Jane Smith, who has gone from companion of days of yore to a female microcipher of the Doctor. How has this happened? Why does she need a "Sonic Lipstick"?

Then we've got "Mr Smith" the battle computer which plays such a part in the BBC's Sarah Jane Adventures website. That must have been like a dream come true at first for the website designers, until they realised that the site would have to be redesigned as a web based Mr Smith is just too unwieldy.

SJA is part of the CBBC imprint of BBC One, which also has it's own channel, so don't expect to miss any of it - although the CBBC budget may well begin to tell by episode 3.

Of course, placing the Slitheen into their rightful home is a masterstroke by Gareth Roberts and RTD, who seems to be having better luck in measuring the tone of this series than he did Serioes 1 of Doctor Who.

Try to ignore the fact that a 57 year old lady playing what is basically a female version of the Doctor completely laughs in the face of Davies' assertion that an over 40 male couldn't lead Doctor Who in this day and age...

The Doctor's Rocket

Since Doctor Who returned, it has been repeatedly suggested that he had a "thing" for Rose Tyler.

Without stepping on the toes of the chaps who debunked the asexual nature of the Doctor following the TVM, the Time Lord has ben a long term fan of nookie.

Exhibit A - his granddaughter, Susan
Exhibit B - his reaction at Jo Grant leavinghim for a "younger version". She'd hardly be so hot for Clifford if the Doctor had no idea how to set himself to vibrate, would she?
Exhibit C - Sarah Jane Smith and the Fouth Doctor were best friends - but she would hardly have hung about on busy busy Earth for 3 decades if he wasn't givn her regular tours of his fluid links.
Exhibit D - Romana II and the Fourth Doctor were clearly at it, as evidenced in Warriors Gate, and going all the way back to City of Death.
Exhibit E - we jump forward to the Eighth Doctor, the dashing, girly poet looking one who just wanted that pretty blonde Doctor to hold his hand. And his neutron ram.

Rose wasn't the first, and she won"t be the last...

The 11th Doctor

It's that time of year again - guess the 11th Doctor!

With no confirmation of David Tennant appearing in Series 5 coming from the BBC, the press have been tossing names around.

But what do they know? That's right! Nothing!

We on the other hand are a Doctor Who website so we can answer all of the important questions - and this is one of he biggest. So hold on to your hats for our Top 10 choices for the 11th Doctor...

10. Roland Rat - already has a trademark pink Ford Anglia, his catchphrase "Yeaaaahhh!" would be preferable to "That's IMPOSSIBLE!"

9. Edward Scissorhands - early screen tests revealed that the stainless steel fingered one had difficulty with the TARDIS door, the TARDIS controls, the sonic screwdriver...

8. Lis Sladen - appears to be playing a female Doctor in Sarah Jane Adventures...

7. Paul Daniels - only joking.

6. David Beckham - his posh sidekick would be a major diversion for a companion since... well, Rose.

5. Jeremy Vine - the BBC news man would be excellent in the TARDIS, with his strong opinions and complete lack of technical nuance the time machine could end up anywhere

4. Tony Blair - unfortunately, the former PM has a date with history/destiny/bible prophecy, and is thus too busy.

3. Benny Hill - sadly now deceased, if ever there was a time for more naked lady flesh in the TARDIS, it was now. That closing titles speeded-up chase around the TARDIS console would be the highlight of the week.

2. Jon Bon Jovi - the gobsh*ting rock singer with the crap hair, I don't know why the two-faced, lying little nob is in this list. Bed of Roses my arse - you take girls firmly up the rear.

1. Sean Connery - the former James Bond has already played an immortal in Highlander, and his aging take on the ancient Time Lord would be the stuff of legends.

So there you have it. Sean Connery for Doctor Who!

Well we got our wish...

That's right, the BBC have finally come clean and although I'm desperately unhappy about 2009, at the moment it isn't disastrous.

However how fans can claim to be "happy" is beyond the pale. 10 episodes short in 2009 and you claim to be satisfied. What the hell is wrong with you people?

It's nothing to be happy about. Having the show back from the abyss is great, sure, but that doesn't mean Russell T Davies and the BBC are necessarily serving us and Doctor Who well. The very notion of reducing the series to 3 specials in 2009 is ridiculous. It places the subsequent series in jeopardy before scripts are even written.

So have a bloody word with yourselves. Wake up and smell the coffee, open your eyes and stop living in the insane, blinkered world where TV execs are gods and you are their blind followers.

The world doesn't work like that, it works on a foundation of power and money, and with three episodes of Doctor Who in 2009, how is a high media profile going to drive merchandise sales?

If no one is buying the toys, then the core audience has evidently stopped watching - do we want that?

I suspect it is too late to ask for a rethink, but I can at least ask all you half-full fans who insansely label this as "good news" to actually try thinking about it, what the news actually means and be honest with yourselves instead of pretending it is A Good Thing.

It is A Bad Thing.

Rusl? I that you?

As you might have seen in the news section, we've found a letter in an old copy of DWM that appears to have been written by Russell T Davies back in 1981. He signs it "Rusl Davies, Glamorgan" - evidently a shortform or Welsh spelling of the name.

So in effect Russell T Davies uses a pseudonym - as we know the T is made up to distinguish him from the radio presenter Russell davies - but how many other Doctor Who personalities over the years have used nom de plumes?

Most obvious would be current Doctor David Tennant, who is of course really called David McDonald, and Fifth Doctr Peter Davison, known to his family as Peter Moffett.

Conversely, Lalla Ward (Romana II) was of course a Lady, and used her family name rather than title on stage and televsion.

And of course my real name is Bigby Marilyn...

I need your help...

Kasterborous has had its current look for over 18 months now, and we've decided that it is time for a change.

As such, Anthony Dry will be embarking on a redesign when the series 4 boxset is out of the way, and redesigning Kasterborous. I've also got a very tsty forum redesign in mind...

However, Kasterborous needs to continue growing and developing which is why we're asking you, our readers, for your suggestions to make te site more relevant.

You might think a brief preview of the forum on the front page of K would be better, or a greater focus on news. Whatever you think of drop int the forum and let us know, and if we like it (and we're liking them all at the moment) we'll use it!

Spiders from Mars?

Excellent news – the latest Doctor Who rumour from The Scum claims that Thin White Duke and supermodel husband David Bowie is being lined up to play a villain in Series 4.

 

Will he be playing an alien prince who steals Agatha Christie?

 

Is it even true?

 

And how seriously should we take rumours printed in a “news”paper as ridiculous as The Sun?  Should we even bother repeating them, let alone believing them?

 

We all seem to want something newsworthy where Doctor Who is concerned, more information in order to attempt to satiate our information lust. This way, every topic can be pulled, twisted, turned inside out, and thoroughly digested and discussed.

 

I wonder where this leaves our descendants, knowing that we were fed on a diet of misinformation?  Will they know – will they even care?

 

And will they be watching lost episodes of Doctor Who starring David Bowie?

 

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If it keeps on raining...

Funny old weekend. A Bank Holiday without rain, it nevertheless seemed that if the amount of work that I had given myself to complete didn't start to go down, the levee might just break.

It seems that I'm not the only one. Just one year on from relenting to the voice of fans, Shaun Lyon has finally decided the time has come to radically change Outpost Gallifrey, and minimise his input to the most famous of Doctor Who fansites.

Without OG there would be no Kasterborous, and very little else that was visually appealing for Doctr Who fans online. It is at the very hub of Doctor Who fandom, and is tus a very important entity.

Best of luck to the chaps looking after the surviving parts of Outpost Gallifrey, and to Shaun in everything he has planned for the future.

Totty

You know I get amazed that we don't come in for any flack with Kasterborous' "bordering on the sexist" attitude to women.

Taking a step back from my own insanse creation, it would seem on first impression that Kasterborous is "that Doctor Who site with the nice art, news and opinion pieces and totty".

I would feel that it was a mixed opportunity however to report about Kylie Minogue or Nicola Bryant without slipping in a picture of their lovely faces. Similarly, you don't get many chick pics on Outpost Gallifrey or unitnews.co.uk because the site owners aren't interested in doing that.

You could say then that we're fulfilling a niche which strangely hasn't been touched by anyone else.

Come on DWM! You did an interview with McFly - let's have a burlesque Kylie centre pages pullout!

Modded World

As I posted in the Kasterborous Forum today, I discovered some mods for various popular games to give them a Doctor Who theme.

For instance years ago someone made a Doom 2 DW mod, complete with sound effects, which was pretty cool. There have also been Quake mods, Jedi knight and Star Trek mods (go figure) but nothing that really, trulycaptures the spirit of Doctor Who.

I can't help thinking that a Civ 3 based mod might offer a plyable time war, but at the end of the day these mods are done BECAUSE THERE IS NO COMMERCIAL ALTERNATIVE!

So come on BBC, give us the Doctor Who video game we want, NOT "Snap in Space"!

Board

The weather recently has turned bizarrely wintery, leading kids to start playing indoors and spend time preparing their Christms lists (or is that just me?)

One thing I always used to love receiving at Christmas was a good board game. Not your MONOPOLY or CLUEDO but a good one, like Game of Life... Something with depth.

This year however it seems that despite my protestations I am going to be the otherwise willing recipent of DALEK OPERATION !

It's not quite RISK, you'll agree.

Back In Time(Lords)

One of the great things about a more regular blog is that I can squeeze in stuff I wouldn't say in the news items; they can be difficult to angle in the right way when there is lots to get through.

The touted return of the Fifth Doctor and the Rani, however, is another mattr entirely. I have loads to say on the matter, more than I could squeeze into a news report. For instance, are they related castings, if both true? If the Rani story is false, who in the press is sad enough to want to see a retun of the big shouldered one? Who is this 'Peter Jackson' Sylvester McCoy referred to? The director? The writer? The rugby player?

Peter Davison might look good for mid fifties, but how is the Fifth Doctor's aging going to be explained? Perhaps the tale will take inspiration from The Dark Dimension?

As for the Rani, well, Doctor Who was never camper than when Kate O'Mara appeared. I had reservations about the return of the Master... The Rani in comparison is such a non-entity that I don't want to even entertain the idea.

The Meddling Monk would be preferable...

Farewell WhoCentral...

There seems to be loads more Doctor Who websites around these days, but the departure from the web of www.whocentral.co.uk Is a sad one.

Whocentral was one of the fledgling Kasterborous' reference points back in 2005, being as it was the only source of interesting, well written opinion pieces and articles.

Updates had been fantastically rare in the meantime, however, and even an offer from Ksterborous to republish and link back to the originals was met with wall of silence.

So farewell WhoCentral. You may have gone largely unnoticed, but Kasterborous will always remember you.

Who knows, they might come back one day...

Game of the Summer

Charlie Croker in the Kasterborous Forum has unearthed the very first Doctor Who computer game thanks to http://www.justyce.org/atari.html.

I'm proposing a mass download of the game, with reports back and assistance posted in the forum.

Maybe it *is* 26 years old... It will still be better than a videogame Top Trumps...

Is Fanfic Dead?

Doctor Who in the 21st century is, it's fair to say, built on both the fandom and the potential of the original run.

These two things were developed and maintained to an extent from 1991 to 2003 by two long-running series of original adventures from Virgin Books and later BBC Books.

They took the Doctor and companions to places new and old, in both physical, mental and emotional terms, and many of the authors were first time writers.

With the arrival of twenty first century Who, however, I find that the current run of novels that accompany the series lack spark and imagination. In fact they're a pretty turgid and disappointing companion to the Doctor's on-screen adventures.

My attempts to find anything of interest online have also proved unsuccessful as I have no interest in reading about the return of the Ninth Doctor or what happened when the Doctor met Rose again.

So in time-honoured manner, I'm planning my own series of spin off stories set in the Doctor Who universe.

Stay tuned...

Doctor Tube

Exactly how much rubbish is there on YouTube? I was watching a selection of "classic" adverts the other day, before stumbling into a Harry Sullivan-starring fan edited video to The Village People's "In The Navy." Camp doesn't cover it.

It is reassuring to know however that fans love the show so much that they spend time and effort creating such work, desperately editing clip selections to fit the chosen tune. Or not, as the case may be.

There are also countless fan movies/adventures on YouTube, as well as the first Kasterborous vidKast. Brian and I are currently developing a follow up, you might be interested to know - stay tuned...

What on Earth is Happening?!

Back in the real world, it seems that things aren’t what they seem.

Apparently, Ben Kingsley is to appear in Doctor Who Series 4 (30). Ben, who prefers “Sir Ben”, is touted as a potential Davros, creator of the Daleks, although at the moment it is unclear whether this would be a pre-disfigurement or post-desperate escape from the mothership in 1963 Davros. The former would avoid messy prosthetics work for the Oscar winner, currently on his third wife. (When I say “currently on”, I don’t mean… oh forget it…)

Meanwhile, we’ve got good word that the Doctor and Donna and perhaps Martha (hey why not get Rose back too?) are set to visit both Agatha Christie and ancient Rome. Which era of Rome isn’t clear, but as a fire has recently devastated the HBO/BBC set for the series Rome in Italy, which is used for many a Roman visual (Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, CBBC’s The Fall of Rome…) we suspect it might be the age of the Emperor Nero.

So far, despite the Tate announcement, Series 4 is looking interesting. Perhaps we’ll get a slick combination of Series 2 (28) and Series 3 (29).

Actually, on this matter, you might see fewer references to “Series 1, Series 2” etc in Kasterborous.com from now on. Let’s face it, it is the same show. If the series is still going in 15 years time, a fiver says they retroactively rename the series/seasons in line with the classic format.

So let’s start now.

Shakespeare's Stamp

There seems to be much to-do about the potential casting of Sir Ben Kingsley in a possibly prominent role in Doctor Who Series 4.

Some fans think it's highly unlikely that the Oscar winner would trouble himself to portray the insane geneticist Davros after delighting us all with his perfect interpretation of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. However, despite other successes (Schindler's List, for example) it's worth pointing out that Kingsley enjoys his work, and needs to earn money.

I would refer you all to exhibits a, b and c: BloodRayne, Species and Thunderbirds.

So now we've established why Sir Ben would bother his arse appearing in Doctor Who without mentioning Sir Derek Jacobi.

Of course I could have gone on to mention Kenneth Branagh, a man once heralded as the "New Olivier". A role for this particular thesp could be even more interesting for the young'uns watching Doctor Who as none of them will know Sir Ben, or Gandhi - but they all know Harry Potter...

Aha! I caught you looking!

A colleague pointed out that the previous post was rather near the knuckle.

It was meant to be - there is no excuse for resting on your laurels, and accepting hand-fed scraps when the real meaty stuff is published elsewhere.

A case in point - Mr Dry and myself were involved in a proposal to produce an unlicensed Doctor Who calendar and magazine (I can hear eyebrows raising around the web. This would have been completely legal, let me assure you, pay no heed to those that say the BBC has a firm grip on everything Doctor Who. No logo, no Doctor Who in the title, no grief. It's UK law, look it up.)

Anyway, the product would have been heavily based on Kasterborous tonally and visually, and things looked pretty tasty. Except that time scales were being cut, promises being forgotten, questions being ignored, that kind of thing.

So you see, we dumped the idea, and got out while we could, and soon discovered that it was probably best that we did so.

The point? Well, we were offered what seemed perfect, but what's being thrown at you isn't always what you want or need...