A River Runs Through it

River Song will meet some other incarnations of the Doctor in a new Doctor Who spin off

Big Finish have announced the second audio series of The Diary Of River Song, set for release next year.

River Song met the Doctor in the middle of his pretty boy phase, but now here’s the real test: will she still love the Time Lord when he’s wearing THIS?

Big Finish have revealed that series two of their Diary of River Song audio adventures will feature Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy bouncing off Alex Kingston’s cosmic archaeologist.

Alex Kingston with Sylvester McCoy and Colin Baker (Picture: Big Finish)

Producer David Richardson said: ‘We’re thrilled to have both Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy appearing alongside Alex in this box set. I can promise that River and the Doctor might not necessarily be working to the same agenda. In fact, the two Doctors might not be working to the same agenda either…’

Yup, the faces may change, but that sounds like River and the Doctor all right.

The four hour-long episodes are called The Unknown, Five Twenty Nine, World Enough and Time and Eye Of The Storm.

River will be meeting the sixth and seventh Doctors (Picture: BBC)

Guest starts include Anna Maxwell Martin, Jessie Buckly, Robert Pugh and Dan Starkey.

Alex is also back as River Song for Doctor Who: Doom Coalition 2 on March 3, alongside another former Doctor, Paul, McGann.

Veterans Day in The US

Today is Veterans Day here in The US.

So I want to honor our Doctor Who Veterans, UNIT. :

Greyhound One 🙂

Petronella Osgood is BACK! Only not back in the Doctor Who series – back in her very own spin-off.

Actress Ingrid Oliver will reprise her role as Osgood for Doctor Who spin-off series UNIT: Extinction.

UNIT: Extinction, an audio play, will be the first installment of a new spin-off box set which will be comprised of four hour-long episodes.

‘I literally finished filming on Friday and came straight here to do another installment of the Doctor Who journey – it’s non-stop Osgood,’ she said.

‘Jemma and I had a joke – “A spinoff series – it’s got to happen!” – so hearing that we were doing this is brilliant. UNIT – with Kate Stewart and Osgood – it feels like a formidable team!’

UNIT: Extinction is out now and available to buy from bigfinish.com. UNIT: Shutdown will follow in May 2016, with a third and fourth box-set coming in November 2016 and May 2017.

Analogies and Penquins

The UK Telegraph: “This episode, written by Peter Harness (Kill the Moon) delivered its political message with the subtlety of a brick to the head. The Zygons are living peacefully among us, indistinguishable from you and me. But a radical splinter group has emerged, hell-bent on self-determination, bearing a black-and-white flag covered in squiggly, indecipherable script.

Rogue Zygons release execution videos, in which captives are made to read lists of demands before being zapped into crackling heaps of dust and hair. They have a base somewhere called “Turmezistan”. The problem is “a radicalisation of the younger brood,” we’re told, but – as the Doctor hissed to Lethbridge-Stewart – “if you start bombing you’ll radicalise the lot!” I have the haunting feeling there was an analogy somewhere here, if we could only figure it out.”

Hmm, wonder what it was?

But what’s really interesting is that their planet was destroyed BEFORE the mention of the Time War. Watch “Terror of the Zygons” again. BBC America was very canny and showed it on Sunday morning after Part 1.

In that episode from 40 years ago they mention in that episode that their planet was destroyed and that they wanted to settle on Earth and the Zygons in that episode were the advance team sent to make way from them.

So, knowing that, why would UNIT agree to a peace treaty with aliens who still have that same agenda?

Hmmm….

But there’s a bigger question here: when is Clara going to go? We’ve known for some time that Jenna Coleman is leaving, and the rain of dark hints from minor characters – “Don’t you feel that everything is coming to an end?” – showed no sign of letting up last night. Things might conceivably wrap up next week, although it’s more likely that her final clonk on the head will be saved for the series finale. After this episode, though, I found myself hoping against hope that Osgood is being set up as the new companion. Just think of the costumes!

Yes, Please. 🙂

A shape changer for a companion…Hmmm… where have I seen (or heard) that before… 🙂

News Bits Today

The inventiveness of Whovians strikes again!

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Big Finish – Tenth Doctor

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The Underwater Menace, the (currently) last “classic” Doctor Who story which was officially released on DVD yesterday in the United Kingdom, has also been made available digitally via iTunes.

(My DVD is expected to be here by November 6th!)
In addition to the story itself (which comprises of the two existing episodes two and three and reconstruction of the first and last), the package also includes the behind-the-scenes documentary A Fishy Tale, and also both parts of Television Centre of the Universe (the first part of which originally featured on The Vistitation: Special Edition). The package is rounded off with the Photo Gallery.

The DVD itself also features commentaries and interviews presented on an alternative audio-track, and also includes the existing scenes from the two missing episodes that were recovered from Australian censor clips in 1998. The episodes themselves are presented after being restored via the VidFire process (which is not present in the digital versions).

You can read our review of the DVD here, and also purchase it via our Amazon Shop.

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The Woman Who Lived reaction:

The Telegraph thought it was a stand out episode. “In the world of Doctor Who, immortality is an everyday topic. But this episode showed how, in reality, it would be a nightmare. To watch your lovers, your friends, your family and your children die, to witness every human disaster – the loss would be almost too tough to bear, at least while retaining one’s sense of humanity.”

Spot on?

Bravo!

The 10th Doctor will return with Catherine Tate as Donna Noble in a new series of dramas from Big Finish!

Sit down. Breath. David Tennant and Catherine Tate are set to return to Doctor Who next year.

One of the very best Doctor-Companion Teams ever (no one beats Tom Baker and Lis Sladen, sorry).

The Tenth Doctor will return along with his companion Donna Noble in a brand new series of three audio dramas from Big Finish, set to be released in May 2016.

Tennant last appeared in Doctor Who for the 50th anniversary episode, The Day of the Doctor, but has not reprised his role for a full series since 1st January 2010. Tate departed her role in July 2008, but had a cameo in Tennant’s final episode.

“This is one of those dream projects where I’ve spent months pinching myself. I’m covered in bruises,’ said producer David Richardson. “With two major international stars in place, and the legacy of this era of the TV show to live up to, we’ve worked our socks off to try and make some very special stories for this box set. Expect adventure, fun, scares… and some tears too.”

The series begins with Doctor Who – The Tenth Doctor Adventures: Technophobia, set in near-future London and written by Matt Fitton. “Mankind is gradually losing its ability to use everyday technology,” the synopsis explains. “Could there be an evil force at work?”

Episode two is called Time Reaver, written by Jenny T Colgan.

The Doctor and Donna arrive on Calibris – ‘An entirely mechanical planet. Catch, hitch, fuel, fix, buy, pretty much any kind of transportation in existence.’ It’s also a world full of scoundrels, where a deadly black market has opened up in a device known only as the Time Reaver.

The third and final episode in the run, Death and the Queen, is written by James Goss.

Donna is swept along in a fairytale romance and meets the man of her dreams in the beautiful land of Goritania. What can possibly go wrong? And why has the Doctor never heard of Goritania?

The new audio dramas will be released on the Big Finish website in May 2016, and are available to pre-order from today.

 

Executive producer Nicholas Briggs says he was delighted to be collaborating with his “old chum” Tennant again: “I’ve enjoyed working with all the Doctors on TV, but David is on the only one I’d known before he became the Doctor,’ he said. “I’d worked with him on our Dalek Empire series for Big Finish and had such fun. So along with the excitement of directing new Tenth Doctor adventures, I’m so happy to be working with an old chum again.”

LEGO my Guiness

LEGO fans hope to set a new Guinness World record at the show, which is taking place at the NEC from October 29 to November 1.

A new Guinness World record is being attempted at Birmingham NEC – when LEGO fans try to make a life-size LEGO Doctor Who Tardis!

Using more than 100,000 bricks, the Tardis will stand more than two metres high once complete.

The intergalactic feat will take place at BRICK 2015, a huge LEGO show running from October 29 to November 1 during the half term holiday.

And, what’s more, show founder Warren Elsmore is calling all LEGO fans to help him build it!

He says: “With Doctor Who about to enter the LEGO community in a big way with fantastic new sets and as a character in LEGO Dimensions video game, it seemed only appropriate that we recreate one of the most iconic forms of time travel in true BRICK style.

“It will be great to get fans of all ages involved and we’re also hoping to create a new Guinness World Record in the process.”

Apart a wooden roof panel (for safety), the iconic blue Police Box will be built 100 per cent from LEGO bricks with no glue, metal or string.

It will be the largest LEGO Tardis ever built at a show.

BRICK visitors are being asked to help by building a ‘big brick’ from standard 2×4 bricks – the same brick as BRICK mascot Studley is based on – then these big bricks will be assembled into a life size Tardis during the show.

Ticket prices start at £20 in advance. For more information, visit www.brick2015.com

Katy

Born: October 14, 1946 (age 69)

If you ever get the chance to see Katy at a Convention, do it.

She is utter hilarious.

She utterly mad as a hatter.

You thought Jo Grant was out there bats, she ain’t got nothin’ on the real thing.

And you’ll smile the whole time, darling…

Putting the Hurt on Big Finish

By Susanna Lazarus

John Hurt is reprising his role as The War Doctor in a series of 12 new Doctor Who audio plays. 

First introduced for Doctor Who’s 50th anniversary special, The Day of the Doctor, the War Doctor appeared alongside David Tennant and Matt Smith’s Doctors – a secret incarnation of the Time Lord who abandoned his name in order to fight The Time War against the Daleks. 

The 12 audio episodes will be released in four instalments, the first box set coming this December and titled Only The Monstrous. It is written and directed by Nicholas Briggs who said: “The story of the Doctor who refuses to call himself the Doctor in order to do the unthinkable upon the ultimate battlefield — all of space and time — was irresistible to me.

“Such a deeply disturbing and engaging character created by the formidable talents of writer Steven Moffat and actor John Hurt. It’s such a privilege to be working on this.”

The cast of The War Doctor will include Jacqueline Pearce (Blake 7, Doctor Who: Death Comes to Time) who will play Time Lord Cardinal Ollistra – an “arch manipulator who is waging the Time War against the Daleks”.

The War Doctor has not been seen in the television series since the 50th anniversary. However, Engines of War – a novel also set in the Time War written by George Mann– was released in 2014.

Big Finish seem to be doing their damndest to make fans’ wishes come true over the next two years. 2017 will see a prequel to Only the Monstrous starring the War Doctor’s predecessor, played by Paul McGann, during the early skirmishes of the conflict. He and River Song will also appear together for the first time early next year…and even Strax is getting his own turn in the audio spotlight this November.

New Meets Old

This has sooo much comic potential. The Moffs best comic character meet The Holmesian comic duo for the first time.

The present really does meet the past. NuWho mixes with Classic Who.

Strax, the Sontaran butler to Victorian investigator Vastra and her wife Jenny, will be swapping the Paternoster Gang for a short spell with Jago and Litefoot in a new audio special from Big Finish Productions, produced under licence from BBC Worldwide.

In Jago & Liitefoot & Strax, the Sontaran suffers a disorienting attack, mistakes the two Victorian investigators for Jenny and Vastra. Together, they are on the trail of a creature that is stealing brains, which may or may not be linked to a haunted house in London.

That’s not unsual for Strax though, he’s always disoriented. 🙂

The characters of Jago and LItefoot, played by Christopher Benjamin and Trevor Baxter, were created by Robert Holmes and first appeared opposite Tom Baker’s Fourth Doctor in The Talons of Weng Chiang in 1977. Over 30 years later they were reunited on audio by Big Finish, with a tenth series due for release in October.

Producer David Richardson said

It’s a testament to the great Robert Holmes and these two wonderful actors that Jago and Litefoot remain so eternally popular, and it’s such a joy to have them set foot in the world of current TV Doctor Who as they join forces with Strax for a special investigation. Justin Richards’ script is superb, packed with excitement and wit, and it’s so fun to see the mismatched duo of Jago and Litefoot become a mis-matched trio!

Dan Starkey, who first played Strax on TV opposite Matt Smith in A Good Man Goes to War, says:

The Talons of Weng-Chiang was one of my favourite Doctor Who stories growing up, first in its form as a Target novelisation and then in the prized VHS I got for Christmas 1988. Spool forward nearly 30 years, and I’ve been lucky enough to encounter Jago and Litefoot in their audio incarnation already, with my turn as Mr. Tibbs in Series 9. Now it’s a joy to bring Strax face to face with the characters who in many ways defined how Doctor Who “does” Victorian London. I hope the sonic thaumaturgy of those clever coves at Big Finish will excite the ears and invigorate the imagination, as Henry Gordon Jago might have put it!

Jago & Litefoot & Strax will be released as a two-disc special in November 2015 and will be launched at the Doctor Who festival which takes place at the Excel On November 13, 14 and 15. It is available for pre-order.

Jago & Litefoot: Series 10 will be available in October. Series 1-9 are available now.

Still, a “Yes, Please!”

Former Doctor Who companion and Emmerdale star Frazer Hines along with former Blue Peter, Catchphrase and Screen Test host Mark Curry are currently starring in Agatha Christie’s play ” And Then There Were None” at Milton Keynes Theatre.

We caught up with them before the first night’s performance to ask them about the play and also for their thoughts about the programmes which brought them into the national spotlight.

Refreshingly, both actors speak passionately and positively about their past shows and clearly appreciate the exposure they provided them with.

In the video below, you will find out what happened when Frazer met current Doctor Who, Peter Capaldi and how he began impersonating the vocals of the Doctor he travelled most with, Patrick Troughton. The way he takes on the voice of the 2nd Doctor is eerily accurate and it’s almost like Troughton is still here with us.(bedfordshire-news.co.uk)

Also in the video, Mark Curry discusses his many roles over the years and his thoughts on how Doctor Who fans would respond to the return of Jamie.