No Who Zone

Well, that was really nice!

A few days in the Algarve, and your editor is fully refreshed and raring to go for another few months into and beyond Christmas.

A very massive thanks to Mr Simon Mills for his Kopic's Newsround news updates to keep the candle burning in my absence, and to Anthony Dry for keeping the ship afloat.

Also, thanks very much to all of our visitors over the past few weeks, who have confirmed that there's more to Doctor Who than just new news.

So - what did I learn while hanging around Albufeira?

Well, lots of things. For instance, soft Cornettos are rather nice, strawberries taste strawberrier on the continent and swordfish is a remarkable tasting fish.

More importantly though - I didn't see any single reference to Doctor Who anywhere.

Now I'm pretty certain I've read that Doctor Who has been dubbed into Portuguese, but it seems that it doesn't translate into the same sort of fanaticism over there that it does over here.

This wasn't just a television/book/magazine thing either. There wasn't even any poorly made replicas amongst the poorly made replica Transformers and Star Wars toys.

Quite literally, Portugal seems to be a No Who Zone.

In fact, I didn't even refer to David Tennant, Daleks or the TARDIS in conversation while on holiday, and nor did I dream about Freema Agyeman. 

(I've been having that dream for a while now, and I'm starting to miss it!)

I'm delighted to say, however, that thanks to Mr Brian Terranova, I did get the Issue #1s of both of IDW's Doctor Who series, Doctor Who and Doctor Who: The Forgotten - both waiting for me on my doormat when I landed yesterday.

Cheers, Terra!

Paul McGann Back in the TARDIS!

OK - so there's no confirmation from the BBC as to whether this is true or not... but imagine it!

David Tennant's Tenth Doctor recalling in flashback the Time War... and in his flashbacks, the Doctor is as played by Paul McGann - more than likely (99% we reckon) without the curly wig.

Paul McGann, as the Doctor, fighting Daleks! Exactly how does this rumour get any better?

We Kasterborites have a lot of time for McGann - he's a bloody nice chap, for a start off, and as normal as the bloke in the pub. He just happens to be one of Britain's best character actors, certainly of his generation.

Even if McGann is in this particular special, and whatever its plot, for 5 minutes, it will be watched and rewatched over and over again here at K Towers.

"Why?" I hear you ask. "He only did one episode!"

It's simple - without McGann's Doctor, regardless of his limited screen time that will hopefully soon be doubled, many of us over say 25 wouldn't be Doctor Who fans anymore. We certainly wouldn't have stuck with the show during the downtime from 1996-2005 (see what I did there, anyone?).

McGann's portrayal was so distinct and engaging during his 50-odd minutes of screentime that a whole sub-industry of novelisations was launched on the back of it, and his popularity with fans was such that Big Finish launched a series of audio adventures for the Eighth Doctor, which continue to this day.

Even if this rumour turns out to be empty - we older Doctor Who fans who hoped for much more McGann in the TARDIS have had a magical day of mind-racing Whovian fantasy.

He's that good.

So I've got this new phone...

It's called a HTC Touch Diamond, and it's totally magic.

I haven't got hold of any Sonic Screwdriver-esque applications for it yet (although it does have a lightsaber), but it is jolly nifty for writing blog posts on.

That's how I'm writing this post.

And it's all part of the wonderful web of Doctor Who, that enables me to listen to (and conceivably record) podKasts with a K, send blog posts, view any Doctor Who website I care to on my Windows Mobile phone courtesy of the Opera browser, receive blog posts and news via a handy RSS reader and listen to Doctor Who audio adventures, view videos and even record footage of conventions and other wonderful Whoey stuff.

How the hell did we ever get by before all of this?

When I was a wee lad, it was all Doctor Who Weekly and Target novelisations, perhaps a vinyl audio adventure starring Tom Baker is you were lucky!

We have it luxurious these days, nothing like the age of transistor radios, televisions that had to "warm up", telephone boxes costing 2p and computers that took up entire rooms... in come cases buildings.

The world is marching on, and technologically speaking we're light years ahead of the mid 1990s... so it's a massive relief to see that while older, equally successful shows as Doctor Who are struggling to remain relevant or attract new fans that the Doctor is still with us, fighting injustice with the power of intelligence and ingenuity. He's gadget-mad, has the greatest vehicle in fiction and stands up for all that is right, true, and often the underdog.

Did I mention I have a new phone...?

Vworp Vworp!

Wahey! It's September - which means we're into the final stretch of the year, closer to a new Doctor Who episode and with lots of interesting stuff coming up.

Most importantly to us right now, however, is the upcoming comic appreciation event at The Lass O'Gowrie pub in Manchester.

Vworp Vworp! Comic Book Adventures in Time and Space is just 7 weeks away, taking place on Saturday October 18th - and your very own Christian Cawley (that's me, by the way) has been asked by organiser Gareth "Prof Peach" Kavanagh to look after one of the panels...

So - having not run anything like a panel or discussion in a good few years (since college) and not having sent anytime before an audience since by abortive stand-up days, I'm in the market for hints, tips, cheatsheets, reminders, encouragement and advice on how not to get too drunk before an event like this!

I can't wait to go, however - the event affords Ceri and me a weekend away for her to shop loads and me to meet up with lots of folk, new and old. And sample the wonders of draft bitter in a Manchester pub.

With a superb guest list, it's going to be a grand day!

Festival Prize

Once again, Doctor Who has been named as the top show of 2008. The highest profile industry event on the British calendar is of course the Edinburgh International Television Festival.

It was at that event that the series won Best Programme of 2008, for the second year running.

And of course, the award adds to the ridiculous tally of trophies that Doctor Who has received since 2005.

I
doubt whether anyone outside of BBC Wales is keeping a tally, but on an
average of 12 a year (which includes the rather vulgar ceremonies of
rags like TV Quick) we reckon Doctor Who has chocked up between 45 and
50 awards for acting, writing and various aspects of production as well
as being the nation's most loved show.

That's a pretty good comeback, but also testament to how the show is part of the British cultural fabric.

I Don't Have Sci Fi

This Bank Holiday weekend hasn't exactly been boring for me... but if it had, I would have been kicking myself that I don't have the Sci Fi Channel.

With hours of Doctor Who - including some real classics - padding out the regular programming, I would have been made up for the weekend, with pizza and beer and vodka all on the menu.

As it turned out, a few minor disasters from the middle of last week overspilled onto this weekend, leaving me to bemoan minor disasters and a lack of the Sci Fi Channel in my wing of Kasterborous Towers.

Now I don't want this to turn into one of those "isn't it wonderful" gushes, but how far have we come now that Doctor Who can make up a weekend of programming on Sci Fi, and a comic and actor can appear on a popular Friday night comedy panel show dressed as the Fifth Doctor without anyone batting an eyelid?

The whole Russell T Davies era has been like a parole, a reintegration back into society for Doctor Who.

I've recently been researching my family tree, and was astounded to discover that there was very few diagnoses for the myriad of now-identified mental disabilities and conditions in Victorian times. As a result pariahs were commonly identified and cast into workhouses or Bedlam.

This is in many ways what happened to Doctor Who between 1989 and 2005, give or take a few weeks for compassionate leave in 1996. Dismissed as unsound of mind and character, the show was carted off to asylum, from where it was soundly mocked and derided. It's purpose was lost.

Yet the show never really changed that much; several key themes from season 26 were continued 16 years later in season 27, notably the notion of the companion being such an important character.

So next time when we see a weekend of Doctor Who, or young children wandering around conventions with their parents, we should avoid thinking along the lines of "remember when..."; instead celebrate a 16 year moment of national lunacy being swept under the carpet in much the same way as 1980s Doctor Who was.

Oh and realise - as I now have - that having Sci Fi isn't that important.

Who On Demand

Sat watching The X Factor this evening (wiping away the tears of laughter inspired by some of the hopefuls), I realised that here we are, in the middle of the year and there's no Doctor Who until Christmas.

Saturday nights are of the light variety type until then, and there isn't even a series in 2009 to look forward to!

This got me thinking to exactly how we organise our lives around Doctor Who. For instance one Friday every month I venture into town to buy Doctor Who Magazine. I also spend a lot of time collating news for Kasterborous as well as planning articles and reviews.

Many of us of course spend 13 weeks a year looking forward to Saturdays. Suddenly however there is nothing to look forward to for at least 18 months - short of some specials - and the whole dynamic of Saturday night and in fact the calendar year is going to be unrecognisable until season 31.

So what is the solution?

As angry as I was at the news of a "gap year", it's a good time to take stock, and sit back. There's a universe of Doctor Who out there that doesn't exist solely on television - books, audios, toys, fan productions and of course Doctor Who Adventures and Doctor Who Magazine.

It doesn't have to be a gap year - make it a Who On Demand year.

Hi Lo Silver Lining

The Times Literary Supplement - bastion of what is good and what is not and if you disagree you're some sort of imbecilic pleb - has deemed a review of the Tennant-starring Hamlet necessary.

This is the Times' fourth review of Hamlet. It's also the one that would most likely put you on the back foot:

Tennant’s
television role as the Time Lord Doctor Who and as Hamlet has dominated
media coverage – and ticket sales – as an irresistibly unlikely coupling of
high and low culture.

That's right - the day after a report declares the north of England as worthless, the Times then tells us that if you don't do Shakespeare you're a proponent of what they call "low culture".

That they also include Doctor Who in this description is particularly bewildering. That there is a high and a low is also rather puzzling.

Dismissing a universe of alien foes and friends and wonder and deceit and redemption is, however, nothing more than snobbery. Small minded, self-absorbed demeaning snobbery and frankly in this day and age, with a fractured society and increasingly remote elite, the Times have done an injustice not only to one of the most successful fictional worlds ever created, but to their own credibility.

Village Green

News of The Sarah Jane Adventures second series conclusion - which features Sarah Jane and Luke thrown back in time to a 1950s village fete - reminded me of an interesting point.

Since nuWho returned, we've had fat green aliens, fat green aliens and Catherine Tate providing frivolous, and at times unnecessary comedy. We've had space opera, base under siege, TARDIS acrobatics and regenerations, returning friends, foes, future companions and whispers...

...but we haven't had a mysterious English village as seen in The Daemons or The Android Invasion.

Nice to see then that The Sarah Jane Adventures is attempting to level things out. We haven't even had a real village in Torchwood, just a small town or that bizarre cannibal episode that is better off forgotten.

So there's one thing on the list of stuff to look out for under The Grand Moff. Scary villages.

Opinions? Everyone has one...

Scottish comedian and comedy actress Elaine C Smith has a column in The Sunday Mail. She doesn't use the space very wisely.

Why?

Here, let's see:

I'VE never watched Dr Who since I was 10 and was petrified by the Cybermen.

I
don't really get the obsession but I am a big fan of David Tennant and
I understand why he is refusing to sign Dr Who memorabilia while
playing Hamlet for the RSC.

He knows most of it will end up on eBay and making money for professional autograph hunters.

Ewan
McGregor did the same when he was in Guys And Dolls but the stage door
was queued out with Star Wars geeks. What is it with sci-fi fans? Why
do they get so obsessive about it?

I suppose the truth is out there.

By her own admission, she doesn't "get it" - so why waste her and the paper's readers' time writing about it?

As for Mr Tennant refusing autographs - well I haven't seen it printed anywhere that he was behind the decision. Ms Smith would do well to note that his co-star is the face of two major US sci fi franchises over the last 20 years, and it's more than likely that both stars agreed with the RSC that this decision should be made and announced.

Jeez, would someone pay me to ponce in front of a keyboard for five minutes to fill a bit of space in their Sunday rag? Looks p*ss easy from here...

I Love Summer

As a child, summer was a time for playing in the garden, creating fantasy space adventures in my silver PVC inflatable landing capsule (Marshall Ward were out of Police Boxes…) or having a kickabout with my mates.

In later years, the summer months meant booze, birds and blasting rock music, and it was during one such summer that I and three college friends embarked upon a journey to the south of France to a resort known as Canet.

In preparation for this jaunt I picked up various reading material from the local newsagents – and happened upon Doctor Who Magazine.

The 1994 Summer Special was the first edition of the magazine in several years whose cover appealed to me, and wasn’t an awful publicity photo such as those seen on the cover of the monthly releases.

With a feature on the Seventh Doctor Cyberman adventure Silver Nemesis piquing my interest, I found myself hooked once more into the world of the Doctor, Time Lords, TARDISes and Daleks, after five years in the wilderness.

I’ve never looked back, and still get the warm shiver of excitement when I look at that 1994 Summer Special…

Time for a new Theme Tune?

We've been saddled with Murray Gold for 4 seasons of Doctor Who now, and with the incoming Grand Moff likely to stamp his own mark upon the series as much as RTD did, an easy cosmetic change is the Doctor Who theme tune.

The current version is nothing more than a facelift for the arrangement introduced in 2005, and it is long overdue a revamp.

Get rid of the strings - which are frankly sooo 1990s - and get back to the bassy, mysterious sounds of the 1960s and 1970s.

Recent BBC dramas like Life on Mars prove that while the use of pop music is important to place scenes in context, so commissioned incidental music is vital in developing tension and suspense. It's no coincidence that some of Murray Gold's best work on Doctor Who has bee in the Steven Moffat stories.

Whoever comes in to replace Gold - one of the series' greatest servants - needs to have a good look at where the series is in terms of incidental music and the use of pop tracks, as well.

Plus, they will need to be careful with their sound levels!

Musical Who

The use of popular music in Doctor Who has been pretty limited over the years, and it has only been since The End of the World that we've seen contemporary pop in the show (Britney Spears' Toxic and Soft Cell's Tainted Love)... although this wasn't the case in 1970.

In the first episode of the Jon Pertwee debut Spearhead from Space, we were lucky enough to get a passage of Fleetwood Mac's Oh Well playing on a radio in the plastics factory. As far as quality music goes, this is top notch.

Fingers are crossed for more quality blues rock in future - as well as a new arrangement of the theme tune, which I'll cover next time...

What's Next?

Kasterborous is offering you the chance to vote for the Doctor Who stories to be featured in upcoming opinion and review articles.

A quick hop over to the Kasterborous Forum will reveal a poll that you can vote in - looking something like this:

First Doctor - 100,000 BC/Unearthly Child
First Doctor - The Aztecs
Second Doctor - The Ice Warriors
Second Doctor - The Invasion
Third Doctor - The Silurians
Third Doctor - Day of the Daleks
Fourth Doctor - Masque of Mandragora
Fourth Doctor - The Leisure Hive
Fifth Doctor - Castrovalva
Fifth Doctor - Earthshock
Sixth Doctor - Revelation of the Daleks
Sixth Doctor - Mindwarp
Seventh Doctor Audio - Death Comes to Time
Seventh Doctor Book - Human Nature
Eighth Doctor Audio - Invaders from Mars
Eighth Doctor Book - The Dying Days

One story from each Doctor will be featured, so make your vote count - you'll be surprised by the current standings...

Buzz Off

Wherever you are, whoever you are, remember this - there's more to life than Doctor Who. It doesn't matter if you're a record producer, a magazine editor, a national frontist or some guy who once set up a website - each of us is capable of getting lost in the whole Whodom, but at the end of the day we've got to find some time on our own.

I mean, even TV producers can get a little bit lairy. Take friend Russell, who recently referred to obsessive fans as "mosquitoes".

He claims that a vocal minority is dominating fandom.

"They are not real fandom," Davies stated. "They are a core of mostly men who like to complain. Fandom is bigger and richer than that, and they are only about 1,000 people who give everyone else a bad name and build their life around a show."

Tell us again, Russell, what have you been doing for the last 5 years?

Seriously though, any popular show, book, movie, toy - whatever - has a movement of fans around it, each with a varying bunch of opinions. You've got to deal with it.

For instance - and this would be very presumptive on my part and only for the purposes of this example - if RTD was referring to elements on this website, or at worst me (!), it would be a simple matter to point out that everyone has an opinion, and a right to express it. To paint a very negative picture of a vocal minority of Doctor Who fans of being 1000 complaining blokes is irresponsible, and bloody immature.

As far as I am aware - and correct me if I'm wrong but I've been in online fandom for 14 years now - the most vocal segment of Doctor Who fans are found at the erstwhile Outpost Gallifrey. The forum of that site - the biggest Doctor Who discussion forum on the web - are renowned for their amazing ability to declare each successive episode of Doctor Who as "BEST EPISODE EVER!", unable as they are to apply any critical reasoning.

Plus there are several thousand members at that website, so the question remains - exactly who is RTD talking about...?

Blimey, what do I do now?

That's it then - nothing left to do but talk about Doctor Who, buy DVDs and Dalek Helmets and read the books (the old Virgin or BBC Books, anything pre-Ninth Doctor when they were "dumbed down" for kids. Never understood that - after all JK doesn't "dumb down" Harry Potter does she?) and graphic novels and listen to audios and reconstructions and...

Oh Doctor Who is on again!

And you know, we're very lucky - we've never had so much Doctor Who! Regardless of what your favourite medium is, whether its the whole text or just individual episodes or stories, Doctor Who is without a doubt one of the most interesting and deep fictional universes ever created. So it's no surprise that with just 4 new adventures to come before the next series, there is no chance of running out of Doctor Who.

On the other hand, its a good chance to unwind from Doctor Who, build a new website, find a new job, start a new career, write that book, build that greenhouse, put up those shelves, move that shed or go and get married - all safe in the knowledge that there'll be some more Who in a few months!

You can never be bored with Doctor Who!

The End of the Line

Pity the Donna. Initially an annoying, loud, OTT whinging bride, she soon won us over with her searching for the Doctor, encountering Romans, Ood, Sontarans, Agatha Christie and alternate realities.

And yet, it seems it was all part of Dalek Caan's game to rid the universe of the Daleks,his own race. He seems to have agreed with Dalek Sec in the end, albeit a bit too late.

Catherine Tate has been totally marvelous this season as Donna Noble. Prior to season 30, I had some interesting chats with various parties and we generally concurred that her presence was going to be the blight on the 2008 run of Doctor Who.

Instead she has enhanced it, and contributed a veneer of believability to a batch of episodes that in many ways have become formulaic.

At least, of course, Donna didn't die. She simply forgot everything, and will need to remain that way for the rest of her life.

So a massive thank you to Catherine Tate for a superb performance. I know she'll never return to Doctor Who, and is on stage at the moment, but my wife in particular would really love her to do another series of her character comedy sketch show.

It seems though that her career is going from strength to strength; on the back of 13 episodes of Doctor Who, it's easy to see why.

The Buzz (and I'm not talking alien bees...)

So - the regeneration issue is the matter of massive discussion across the United Kingdom this week, with Doctor Who creating a buzz that I don't think has been seen since we were introduced to Rose, back in 2005.

To say that Russell T Davies has raised his game may be an overt criticism of his earlier Doctor Who episodes. What he has done, however, is turn on the style in a way that leaves Doctor Who fans as the first point of contact for the answer to "is David Tennant leaving!?!"

The Stolen Earth was classic Doctor Who in a way that we have rarely seen in the modern era - an expansive, jaw-droppingly realised space opera with, I think you'll agree, the Earth invasion to end all Earth invasions.

I hope under the Grand Moff we get a few more rogue scientist storylines to balance off the deluge of alien races wanting a piece of Earth that we've seen in recent years.

Back to the point, however: everyone I know wants to know what's going to be the outcome of the cliffhanger. Wives and girlfriends are formulating theories in notebooks and rewatching the episode on iPlayer or Sky+; everyone wants to know what's coming!

We'll all have to wait and see, whether we know, think we know, don't know or even don't care (yes, you!).

What is likely however is that the media attention will lead to a very good turn-out in front of the box on Saturday night, maybe even beating Rose - which would be a fitting end to the (regular) Davies era.

Greatest Cliffhanger Yet?

Russell T Davies has got us all by the balls. He knows it, and we know it. With Sarah Jane about to be EXTERMINATED, Gwen and Ianto about to be EXTERMINATED and the Doctor seemingly about to be REGENERATED, the cliffhanger to The Stolen Earth - TO BE CONTINUED - lead to much analyzing and wonder, the like of which the Kasterborous Forum has never seen before.

Yes, the search for answers brought a helluva lot of people to Kasterborous.com on Saturday evening, where Doctor Who fans young and old discussed how on earth the Doctor and co would get out of this one, but mostly needing answers to the question "Is David Tennant leaving?!"

Of course, we don't know. Not really, 100% certainly with no chance of the wool being pulled over our eyes. I mean, over the years we've built a few links, and know people who know people. You wouldn't believe some of the secrets we've kept in the last 3 years.

But this time - it's just not clear.

We'll look back on this and laugh in a few weeks, and applaud how RTD and co hoodwinked us. Or we'll discuss the success with which James Nesbit has made the role his own in such a short space of time...

The Darkness is Coming....

I have to confess: I am wetting myself with excitement over the season 30/Series 4 finale.

Regular readers will know that I'm not one to get all over excited, emotional and generally "OH MY GOD!" about Doctor Who, with a few rare exceptions.

Yet with Rusty Lee Davidson raising his game terrifically in the past few weeks, and a set of teasers that would make the most ardent Who non believer curious, I can honestly say that I am ready, as well as slightly fearful.

After all, beyond the wonderful "EXTERMINATE" trailer - do they do awards for these things? - The Stolen Earth and Journey's End, that is effectively it for Davies and the Doctor Who era 2005-2009. A handful of specials that may or may not have direct input from the big man aside, we're approaching the end of an era, folks.

While they state of 2009 is still up in the air, we'll refrain from providing a detailed retrospection of The Davies Era of Doctor Who. Instead, let's put things in perspective - he had the balls to do it his way, regardless of what fans like me, fans like Mad Larry and fans like the fiercely anti-gay mob on rec.arts.drwho felt, said and wrote on the matter.

There is little more impressive than someone sticking to their guns.