Trekking Along

Ok, I may get in dangerous territory today.

I love Star Trek. I’m American. It’s hard not to know about it. It’s the American equivalent of Doctor Who.

While it hasn’t been on TV as much as Who has, this year is the 50th Anniversary of the American institution.

I love imagination. That’s why I’m into Science Fiction in the first place.

So naturally I am into Trek.

What brought this up was a Concert here a couple of nights ago, call “Star Trek: The Ultimate Voyage” which was a concert in celebration of those 50 years.

True, it was only estimated to be about a 30 pieces band helped by audio recordings and not The BBC Orchestra of Wales that I have seen also but it was a great concert nonetheless augmented by visuals.

It was afterwards that the discussion really got started, and this blog’s genesis (star trek pun).

It was pointed out that the concert itself was “inspiring” and that Star Trek, in general, is more “inspiring” than Who.

And that got me thinking.

Yes, I think Trek is more “inspiring”. This may also be an American point-of-view in someways as I didn’t grow up with Doctor Who as a kid. I was 21.

But I am big fan of both. But I am a bigger fan of WHO.

WHO is ALL OVER my house. Trek isn’t.

Trek inspired me as a kid for the imagination. Not the Science.

I am not the one who thought, I want to be a Planetary Geologist when I grow up. I know several who did.

I didn’t look at the communicator and go “oh look, a flip lid Cell phone, how 00’s of you.”

I gravitated to the imagination of it all. The going where no man has gone before. To go out there and see what and who is out there.

That was my thrill. Still is.

But Doctor Who has an even broader canvas. Arguably, the broadest possible one. Not just where Man hasn’t gone. He isn’t a Man. But Anywhere in Time & Space in the whole of creation and even beyond it.

Now that’s a imagination stage like no other.

And the lead character is the same one from 52 1/2 ago!

No “Next Generation”, you get Next Regeneration. 🙂

The Borg…HAH! Doctor Who had The Cybermen in 1966 when Star Trek had just premiered!

Doctor who has the Guinness Book of World Records for most Successful TV show.:)

Nov 25, 2013 – Guinness World Records can today confirm that the special 50 th Anniversary episode of Doctor Who which was broadcast globally on Saturday has set a new world for the largest ever simulcast of a TV drama after the episode was shown in 94 countries across six continents.

So, while Star Trek has inspired Science around the world. Doctor Who inspires even more Imagination.

And we need both.

So I am a fan of both. The Apple and the Custard. 🙂

11 years ago today

The Return of a TV Legend happened 11 years ago today.

So it’s sorta the Doctor’s Other Anniversary. The anniversary of re-birth.

“Rose” was broadcast, complete with Graham Norton bleed-over to a public (https://vimeo.com/81533272) that hadn’t seen the show since the 1996 TV Movie and hadn’t been a regular BBC show since Dec 6,1989. (The BBC would make Graham infamous again in 2010 with a promo crawl at the end of an episode).

It started with “A New Dimension” before the appointed hour. A very Fan-y made history of the TV show. To remind those people and kids that this show was on before. 🙂

Narrated by future 10th Doctor David Tennant.

Ah, years of BBC bootlegs was born. 🙂

You know, with dial up at the time it took 24 hours to download the episode… 🙂

The excitement I felt was off the charts. Though as I have relayed before I was the recipient of a friend’s bootleg 3 weeks before the broadcast so by the premiere night I had already seen it and was not very impressed. The 2nd viewing was much better. Expectations were probably too high that night in early March 2005.

It will be around another year before Series 10 but we wait patiently.

So break out that copy of “Rose” and relive 11 years ago when The Doctor and his TARDIS appeared again.

 

Time They are a Changin’

 This is a sign of times we live in…

BBC Worldwide is to close the online BBC Shop, which sells Books, DVDs, BluRays and games related to BBC output.

Instead the company will concentrate on BBC Store, which launched last year and offers digital copies of BBC programs.

BBC Worldwide explained its thinking:

The DVD market has been in decline for a number of years as consumers move to digital viewing. The market no longer supports the commercial release of many of the titles we’re able to make available on BBC Store. BBC Worldwide returns profits to the BBC’s Public Service to reinvest in programming.

The shop closes on 30th March. A number of bargains, including items of Doctor Who merchandise, can be obtained while stocks last.

 ———

Peter Capaldi: ‘I’ve been asked to stay on in Doctor Who after Steven Moffat leaves’

The Twelfth Doctor says he may carry on with new showrunner Chris Chibnall

When Steven Moffat announced his departure as Doctor Who showrunner earlier this year, there was only one question on everyone’s minds – would current Doctor Peter Capaldi stay on with new boss Chris Chibnall, or hand over the Tardis keys like former Time Lord David Tennant did when Russell T Davies left the series?

Now, RadioTimes.com can reveal that the BBC has asked Capaldi to stay on as the Doctor after Moffat’s departure – but the actor himself isn’t sure whether he’ll take up their offer.

“I’ve been asked to stay on,” Capaldi told RadioTimes.com, “but it’s such a long time before I have to make that decision.

“Steven’s been absolutely wonderful, so I love working with him. Chris is fantastic, and I think he’s a hugely talented guy.

“I don’t know where the show’s gonna go then. I don’t know. I have to make up my mind, and I haven’t yet.”

He concluded: “As Steven will tell you, it’s very difficult to say goodbye.”

In summary, you shouldn’t be surprised to see a very familiar Time Lord at the Tardis controls for a few years yet…

Lizard Tales

The Silurians are one of my favorites of WHO. They are as other people have said “a movie quality” idea created in 1970 for Pertwee’s first Season.

The above video has virtually nothing on them from that era. I’m sure it’s because its old and less tech than today, focusing more on Madame Vastra than anyone.

But they have always been one of my favorites. My domain name eocenearizona.com is named after them, as Eocenes is the Doctor Who term for both the Silurians and Sea Devils.

Still waiting for the Sea Devils in Modern Who. 🙂

The idea that they were here and had a thriving civilization before humans evolved and then they went into hibernation and were awoke by Man was a great story point. But to point out that they are just as Terran/Earthling as Humans and have the same rights to the planet makes for one hell of a story.

Homo Reptilia. As the Ninth Doctor would say, “Fantastic!”

The Beginning:

 

14 in 10

So, this confirms that – after the 2016 Christmas special – Doctor Who series 10 will consist of the standard-issue 13 episodes.

The Radio Times is reporting exclusively that Doctor Who series 10 will begin filming this May. Using some fag-packet maths then, a typical nine-month run should take it all the way to early 2017.

It’s currently understood that outgoing showrunner Steven Moffat will remain in place for a further fourteen episodes, including twelve episodes of season ten and the 2016 and 2017 Christmas Specials, before new head honcho Chris Chibnall steps in in 2018.

Additionally, “senior show sources” are reportedly yet to select who will be travelling with Peter Capaldi in the TARDIS as the Doctor’s Companion. “It is understood auditions for Jenna Coleman’s replacement have still not begun”, says the RT.

Doctor Who Magazine has asked Steven Moffat if he’ll present a plethora of two-parters again this time around, as served him pretty well in season 9. “Something else will happen [in series 10],” he said in response.

The Moff explained that “each year, we try to do something different – almost out of perversity, to make things more difficult for ourselves – so that we’re not getting into a groove, we’re not becomingly boringly expert at it, because there’s nothing so boring as when you get slick.”

“I was very happy to get rid of two-parters when I did, and [in series 9 I was] very happy to bring them back,” he added, leaving us to wonder what he’ll change this year.

And now, Peter Capaldi has discussed his own wishes for his new co-lead. Specifically, he isn’t particularly keen on having a male companion.

“With the best will in the world, I don’t want a bloke,” he told Radio Times, “because I’m frightened that they’ll give him all the action and I’ll be standing around spouting scientific gobbledygook… ‘Oh, Peter’s not up to chasing those Zygons down the corridor, let the chap do it.’ And that would be awful. I want to chase the Zygons!”

“I just think that combo of the slightly strange and alien Time Lord with the intelligent, enthusiastic and inquisitive girl is a good combo. I don’t know why – but it just seems to work,” he added.

Whether Capaldi gets his wish or not, we’ll keep you up to date as we hear more on Doctor Who series 10, and the incoming new companion.

Additionally Doctor Who Magazine #496 is now on sale. I know I just got mine in the mail yesterday.

Sir John Hurt is appearing at Gallifrey One in LA this weekend.

SQUEE!

 

Post Super Bowl

Know what I was doing during The Super Bowl?
Playing Lego Dimensions Doctor Who.

Got past the glitch that had stalled the game last weekend. Then saved the progress and had another glitch.

I love the game dearly, probably the best games ever. But the glitches are very annoying.

But I have The Twelfth Doctor, Cyborg (from the Teen Titans), Smeegal (Lord of The Rings), Batman, and a Cybermen just to name a few in the same game!

Way too much fun.

Oh, and the game isn’t cheap either. So like many things, this hobby isn’t cheap.

But neither has my trips to England or Gallifrey One on THIS Friday… 🙂

Haven’t gotten to this stage yet. But I’m closing in on it.

Commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RY—mmJZmU

Metro Magazine UK:Although the bottom line here is that the Doctor Who Level Pack is great, and if you have even a passing love for the good Doctor it’s probably the most affectionate homage to the series you’ll ever get as a video game.

It should be pointed out first of all that each of these themes are in the main game as well, including a Doctor Who level. But buying the Level Pack is the only way to play as The Doctor, or use K-9 and the TARDIS. And before you ask which Doctor the answer is all of them. Each one of the 13 Doctors, including John Hurt’s War Doctor, is in the game as their own minifgure, complete with dialogue from the show, their own unique TARDIS interior (even the Jules Verne one from Paul McGann’s TV movie), and their own era appropriate version of the theme tune.

When you die you can chose to regenerate as the next one in line, and many have heir own unique props such as Patrick Troughton’s recorder or Peter Davidson’s cricket bat. Developer Traveller’s Tales are obviously huge Doctor Who fans and at least two of their previous games have featured unofficial cameos of the TARDIS, as well as a Weeping Angel in Lego Batman 3. But here they’ve been able to go all out, with references and characters from the show’s entire 52 year history.

Doctor Who Level Pack – the black & white TARDIS even has glued on wallpaper

What makes the level itself unusual is that using the TARDIS vehicle you can actually travel to the same areas at different points in history, which is used for a couple of neat puzzles involving the passage of time. To do this the TARDIS has to park on special plinths, which are actually dotted around in other levels of the parent game and give access to some surprise homages to other TV franchises not in the rest of the game (we’re trying not to spoil anything).

The downside to all this is that there isn’t really any story – just a sequence of largely unconnected scenes that end with the Daleks being defeated, again. The Doctor Who level in the main game was like that too though, and like all the Level Pack levels there’s a lot of reused assets and backdrops between the two.

What sells the Doctor Who Level Pack though is the hub world, which is gloriously indulgent in terms of its fan service. It’s a series of connected worlds that include two time zones for London, as well as Mars, the Dalek homeworld, and others. Each has the usual range of mini-quests and secrets, most of which are based around recreations of famous episodes – from the first Silurian episode of Nu-Who to 1967 classic Tomb of the Cybermen.

The hub also features voiceovers from Michelle Gomez as Missy, who isn’t in the story levels, as well as Jenna Coleman, Peter Capaldi, and Nicholas Briggs as the Daleks and Cybermen. Whether we’ll ever get a standalone Lego Doctor Who is unclear – the series probably isn’t quite popular enough abroad to justify that yet – but this will do very well in the meantime.

The Story That Never Was

Storyboards from the 50th Anniversary show of Doctor Who reveal the Ninth Doctor’s role if he had made it into the episode as originally planned.

Bleeding Cool’s Rich Johnston obtained storyboards from comic and storyboard creator Andrew Wildman at a comic convention, showing the Ninth Doctor, played by Christopher Eccleston, in three scenes.

Wildman attributed the changes to the scenes to Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat.

“My run on the show spanned three Christmas Specials and most of Matt’s final season include his ‘regeneration’. That was me pretty much done other than the huge privilege of being asked to work – albeit in a small way – on the 50th Anniversary special,” Wildman said.

“There were going to be three Doctors in this one. The current, 11th Doctor and the previous two. Ok, so it didn’t quite work out that way in the end as we all know. Contracts are an odd thing and in the end show runner and writer supreme, Steven Moffat, had to come up with something… slightly different. At my time of working on the show however it was three ‘modern age’ Doctors and the current assistant, Clara.”

Andrew Wildman, comic creator, animator, TV producer and storyboard creator was one of the people who worked on the show, and has released a collection of storyboards that he sells at shows, for The Day Of The Doctor and Nightmare In Silver. I picked up a copy at the Geek Comic Con.

In introduction to the former tells us

My run on the show spanned three Christmas Specials and most of Matt ‘s final season including his ‘regeneration’. That was me pretty much done other than the huge privilege of being asked to work – albeit in a small way – on the 50th Anniversary special. There were going to be three Doctors in this one. The current, 11th Doctor and the previous two. Ok, so it didn’t quite work out that way in the end as we all know. Contracts are an odd thing and in the end show runner and writer supreme, Steven Moffat, had to come up with something… slightly different. At my time of working on the show however it was the three ‘modern age’ Doctors and the current assistant, Clara.

Nip in and take a peek behind the curtain. You may be a little surprised at what you see.

And I was, as well as scenes we do remember, we also get aspects we don’t.

Like Clara popping a wheelie on her runup to the TARDIS.

Then we see the barn on Gallifrey, but instead of the War Doctor played by John Hurt, we get The Ninth Doctor played by Christopher Eccleston. And instead of The Moment played by Billie Piper, we get a young girl…

And from that point onwards, the Tenth Doctor seems to take the narrative role of the Eleventh…

…after a trip through the time portal…

…and bumping into the Tenth Doctor played by David Tennant…
And two Queen Elizabeth The Firsts…

This is just a smattering of the boards. You can find the rest at any convention that Andrew Wildman attends…

Andrew Wildman will be appearing at Worcester Comic Con 2016(August). Worcester, UK.

 

No Surprises

BBC bosses expect Peter Capaldi to leave Doctor Who after the next series – when writer Steven Moffat also steps down.

The 57-year-old’s tenure as the 12th Doctor is likely to end in 2017.

When new chief Chris Chibnall, who created Broadchurch, begins a new era in series 11, it is thought he will also get to choose his own Time Lord.

A source on the BBC show said: “Bosses are already discussing a fresh start when Steven leaves.

“They’ve been happy with what Peter has brought to the role but some think it might make sense to give Chris his own choice of actor to play the Doctor.

“They hope he will be able to find someone who can have the same impact as Matt Smith did when Steven Moffat kicked off his run as executive producer.”

The move would mirror what happened when Russell T. Davies – who brought the sci-fi series back in 2005 after 26 years – departed at the same time David Tennant left as the 10th Doctor.

A BBC spokesman said Capaldi was signed up for the 2017 series but beyond that said: “We don’t discuss contracts.”

“There will come a time when this is over. But I knew that when I started.

“I was thinking about my regeneration scene from the outset. That’s my terrible melancholic nature.

“When you accept the job you know there’ll come a day, inevitably, when you’ll be saying goodbye.”

(The Mirror)

 

 

NO Big Surprise

BBC bosses expect Peter Capaldi to leave Doctor Who after the next series – when writer Steven Moffat also steps down.

The 57-year-old’s tenure as the 12th Doctor is likely to end in 2017.

When new chief Chris Chibnall, who created Broadchurch, begins a new era in series 11, it is thought he will also get to choose his own Time Lord.

A source on the BBC show said: “Bosses are already discussing a fresh start when Steven leaves.

“They’ve been happy with what Peter has brought to the role but some think it might make sense to give Chris his own choice of actor to play the Doctor.

“They hope he will be able to find someone who can have the same impact as Matt Smith did when Steven Moffat kicked off his run as executive producer.”

The move would mirror what happened when Russell T. Davies – who brought the sci-fi series back in 2005 after 26 years – departed at the same time David Tennant left as the 10th Doctor.

A BBC spokesman said Capaldi was signed up for the 2017 series but beyond that said: “We don’t discuss contracts.”

This should come as any great surprise. I thought this was likely already, even before 2016 was put off until 2017.

The history of the show, and showrunners, generally says this was inevitable.

New Producer (old school term) at Hartnell Regeneration, Troughton and Pertwee.

Then it gets murky after that until 2010 when The Moffat Era began with the wholesale clean out of the Davies Era.

But the point is that is not uncommon for things to radically change when the man at the top changes.

If Capaldi wasn’t signed for Series 10 I’d think he’d could leave in the 2016 XMAS special still but new showrunners like to start fresh.

Though that does make the companion situation interesting.

Maybe now they opt for a 2009 style companion-for-the-episode instead of casting one for the series.

Or they’ll cast a one season companion like  Donna or Martha.

But Capaldi leaving is not a shock. It’s sadness because he is a FANTASTIC Doctor. But this I think was inevitable in the end.

 

Chris Chibnall: THE NEW FACE OF WHO

Check out Chris Chibnall’s Doctor Who CV (resume to us Americans): http://metro.co.uk/2016/01/23/new-tardis-boss-chris-chibnall-a-closer-look-at-his-doctor-who-stories-5640415/

Chibnallysis!

Bringing with him a wealth of showrunner experience and genuine fanboy credentials, Chibnall is a smart choice; coming as he does off the back of Broadchurch, his biggest success to date. Featuring nearly every actor to have appeared in Doctor Who, the hit ITV drama isn’t the only experience he has of being in charge of a big TV project.

He was previously involved as the de facto showrunner for Russell T Davies Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood, which he ran for two series and, crucially for Doctor Who, penned finales for both series and the series 2 opener.

Along with Doctor Who – Chibnall penned 42, The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood, Dinosaurs on a Spaceship and The Power of Three –  his time wrangling Captain Jack has given him experience of managing various tones and settings; a must for anyone looking to shape the world the Doctor inhabits.

If we were looking for themes to build a series upon, family and domesticity play an important part in most of Chibnall’s episodes – it was Chibnall who introduced Brian, Rory’s father, and took him on an adventure with the Doctor – along with a focus on celebrity historical guest stars like Egyptian Queen Nefertiti in Dinosaurs on a Spaceship.

Could this attention towards family and domesticity mean we’re heading back to Russell T Davies era home-life? And, what with the Torchwood connection, will this all be tempered with a darker, watershed baiting edge that’s become familiar under Moffat?

Outside the Doctor Who connection, he also served as a showrunner on ITV crime drama Law and Order: UK, Arthurian drama Camelot for Channel 4; was a producer or writer for BBC 1’s Born and Bred, helped develop Merlin and was the only guest writer to work on both series of Life on Mars.

Then there’s the acclaimed one-off dramas including The Great Train Robbery and United – about the Manchester United Munich air disaster staring the Tenth Doctor himself David Tennant (it’s great, a personal favourite of mine)

And, let’s face it, if nothing else comes from all this experience, Broadchurch has taught him to be discreet.

Without wanted to draw too many conclusions from his past, whatever happens in the future, Chibnall will almost certainly give us something unexpected, something familiar and hopefully, something that builds on past successes.

So what do you think of Chibnall’s appointment? What changes do you want to see under his tenure? What don’t you want to see? What’s your favourite Chibnall episode/drama? (kasterborous)