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Month: December 2016

RETURN OF RIVER SONG AND TORCHWOOD FOR BIG FINISH IN JANUARY

RETURN OF RIVER SONG AND TORCHWOOD FOR BIG FINISH IN JANUARY

Big Finish audio adventures

As ever, Big Finish have some big stories for Whovians and in January you can find Doctors Four through Eight and the return of Jago & Litefoot, River Song and Torchwood’s Yvonne Hartman.

Check out all the details and artwork below.

All titles are initially available exclusively from the Big Finish website here.

THE BEAST OF KRAVENOS

THE BEAST OF KRAVENOS

The Doctor and Romana return to Victorian London for a reunion with Jago & Litefoot. While K9 becomes the latest star attraction of the New Regency Theatre, the travellers are embroiled in robberies committed by a mysterious thief known only as ‘The Knave’.

The Beast Of Kravenos is a 1 CD set starring: Tom Baker (The Fourth Doctor), Lalla Ward (Romana), John Leeson (K9), Christopher Benjamin (Henry Gordon Jago), Trevor Baxter (Professor George Litefoot), and many more. This title goes on general sale from Feb 28, 2017.

Order from Big Finish here.

THE STAR MEN

THE STAR MEN

Astronomical navigation is a tricky business. To help Adric with his studies, the Doctor sets course for Gallius Ultima – a planet on the edge of the Milky Way, housing one of the most impressive observatories ever constructed.

But the TARDIS arrives to find Gallius U in a state of emergency, tracking the return of the Explorer-class ship Johannes Kepler from its mission into the heart of the mysterious Large Magellanic Cloud. A mission that met with disaster…

To find out what overtook the crew of the Johannes Kepler, the Doctor and his companions must journey into the heart of the Cloud… and beyond, into the darkness of another reality altogether. The universe of the Star Men.

The Star Men is a 2 CD set starring: Peter Davison (The Fifth Doctor), Matthew Waterhouse (Adric), Sarah Sutton (Nyssa), Janet Fielding (Tegan), and many more. This title goes on general sale from Feb 28, 2017.

Order from Big Finish here.

SHORT TRIPS - THE WORLD BEYOND THE TREES

THE WORLD BEYOND THE TREES

MedTech Chenka is alone. No Doctor. No TARDIS. No Molly O’Sullivan. But the strange environment she’s stranded in is about to get even stranger, with Liv the only one who can help out. There’s a message here, for her, and for someone very far away…

Short Trips – The World Beyond The Trees will only be published as a digital download and is narrated by Nicola Walker.

Order from Big Finish here.

DIARY OF RIVER SONG 2

THE DIARY OF RIVER SONG 2

Time travelling archaeologist and adventurer River Song returns – and this time she will be stepping into the past life of the Doctor, encountering two of his incarnations at once!

From the space exploration vessel Saturnius – which is heading to a destination that never gets any closer – to a doomed planet Earth and beyond, River’s journey will bring her closer to a new foe… and an encounter with both the Sixth and Seventh Doctors.

The Diary Of River Song 2 is a 5 CD set starring: Alex Kingston (River Song), Colin Baker (The Sixth Doctor), Sylvester McCoy (The Seventh Doctor), and many, many more. This title goes on general sale from March 31, 2017.

Order from Big Finish here.

TORCHWOOD ONE: BEFORE THE FALL

TORCHWOOD ONE: BEFORE THE FALL

London, 2005. Yvonne Hartman is the undisputed head of Torchwood One. Above the government, beyond the police, she has excellent people skills; enjoys regular tea with the Queen; and effortlessly defends the British Empire from alien threats.

Yvonne Hartman is excellent at her job, and inspires devotion in everyone who works with her – until, one day, she makes a terrible mistake. We all make mistakes. But only at Torchwood can a single mistake plunge your world into interstellar war.

Yvonne Hartman’s facing the fight of her life. One she’s going to win.

Torchwood One: Before The Fall is a 3 CD set starring: Tracy-Ann Oberman (Yvonne Hartman), Gareth David-Lloyd (Ianto Jones), and many more. This title goes on general sale from March 31, 2017.

Order from Big Finish here.

All titles are initially available exclusively from the Big Finish website here.

PREVIEW: THE ELEVENTH DOCTOR YEAR 3, ISSUE 1

PREVIEW: THE ELEVENTH DOCTOR YEAR 3, ISSUE 1

Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor Year 3 #1

Titan Comics have announced details of a brand new series for the Eleventh Doctor, as played by Matt Smith on screen.

Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor – Year Three #1 is on sale from January 4, 2017 and we have an exclusive look inside the first issue and the variant covers. We also have some thoughts from writers Rob Williams and Alex Paknadel.

Click here for more details on The Eleventh Doctor adventures from Titan Comics


The Eleventh Doctor – Year 3

Same great creators – whole new flavor! The Eleventh Doctor begins his blockbuster third year with writer Rob Williams (Suicide Squad) and series artists Simon Fraser and Leandro Casco in the hot seat!

Year Three unfolds in single issue stories, as the Doctor and Alice Obiefune, seeking a fresh start after the stresses of last year’s epic mystery, set off in search of strange new worlds and amazing new sights! Every issue is packed with story and wonder! Dive deep into the unseen reaches of time and space!

Super-accessible jumping on point for new readers – come see what the fuss is all about!

Take an exclusive look inside below…

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Below you can find commentaries from the writers and variant covers you can collect.

Commentary from Rob Williams

“If you’ve been alive for a 1000 years, there’s a power in that: all those experiences. All that knowledge. That’s something we’re exploring in Season 3 of the Eleventh Doctor. He’s already the smartest being in the universe, but add everything he’s seen and done to that and you suddenly have an extraordinary treasure trove of intel. That’s something that makes The Doctor’s mind an attractive target for certain people.

It also brings home, once again, that he is not human. Despite his appearance. And that’s a theme we’re exploring in the new season. Alice Obiefune, his companion in the Eleventh Doctor comics, is very human. A brave, determined library assistant from Hackney. But what would happen if someone combined both their experiences into one being?

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(By Josh Burns)

What if they had a child?

Now, that’s not in the traditional romantic or biological sense you understand – this is Doctor Who we’re dealing with – but what if an ambitious creature attempted to steal The Doctor’s memories and Alice got in the way and somehow the whole mix got jumbled together? A Brundlefly in the TARDIS. That new being would have the same options before it that any new being would have: take the good path or take the bad path. But if a being with the knowledge of The Doctor took the wrong road… that would be a very bad thing for the universe.

Our two-part opening story sees the return of Jones, our companion from Season One, to an extent. Jones was always our David Bowie by another name. And given Bowie’s death this year it felt right to revisit him. There’s also a nefarious and rather exciting new villain, who we think adds to the Who pantheon of evil rather well. Someone very interested in memories.

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(By Will Brooks)

Season Two was a rather ambitious novelistic ‘one story over 15 chapters’ approach by myself and Si Spurrier. This season we’re returning to the ‘episode of the week’ format. We have our overall ‘A-plot’ spine for the season, but we’ll be off exploring all space and time, as you’d expect. Running into new adventures and threats. All the things we’ve come to love Doctor Who for.

And we’re bringing in new writing voices too. The bulk of the A-plot series spine has been written by myself and one of our new voices, Alex Paknadel, who’s a very exciting new sci-fi comics writer. Si Spurrier is still onboard and will be contributing some issues, and we’re also joined by George Mann, who’s written Who comics and novels and knows the Doctor inside out. In that sense this season feels far more like watching the TV show.

And there’ll be running away and vwoorping and traps and monsters. The Doctor being the smartest being alive – unless someone steals his memories, that is.”

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(By Question No. 6)

Commentary from Alex Paknadel

“Being invited to contribute to the Eleventh Doctor brain trust was so much more than I could have hoped for at this point in my career. Rob (Williams) and Si (Spurrier) recommended me for the gig, but I didn’t think I had a hope in hell of actually landing it. I’d love to show you some of the emails I received from other writers after the announcement of my participation, but sadly they’re not really suitable for an all-ages audience. I’ve loved Moffat’s tenure as showrunner, so working on the Eleventh – which affords me the opportunity to play around with some of the darker themes Moffat welcomes – is all my Christmases come at once.

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(By Simon Fraser)I can’t go into too much detail about my arcs in this season, but I will say they’re true to the spirit of Moffat’s tenure inasmuch as they pretty openly address some unpalatable aspects of human nature, particularly as they relate to what’s happening in the world right now. The puckish humour and widescreen escapism we all love about the Eleventh Doctor are all firmly in place, but if you squint you’ll see a darker edge. Rob and Andrew (James) have given me a relatively free hand in these arcs’ construction, but it’s all building to something. I’ve got to be honest, it’s a scream.”

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(By Simone Di Leo)

Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor Year 3 # 1 is released on Jan 4, 2017

Click here for more info on the Eleventh Doctor adventures from Titan Comics.

Christmas Special Breaks BBC America Ratings Record

Christmas Special Breaks BBC America Ratings Record

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It was a very Merry Christmas for Doctor Who and BBC America. The Christmas special Doctor Who: The Return Of Doctor Mysterio delivered 1.7 million total viewers, including nearly 900,000 adults 18-49 and adults 25-54, in Nielsen Live+3 ratings. It was BBC America’s top telecast of the year across all key demos, and was the No. 1 most social program on Christmas night across Facebook and Twitter.

In the special, the Doctor joins forces with a masked superhero for an epic New York adventure. With brain-swapping aliens poised to attack, the Doctor, played by Peter Capaldi, and Nardole, played by Matt Lucas, link up with an investigative reporter and a mysterious figure known only as The Ghost. The big question — can the Doctor save Manhattan and what will be revealed behind the mask?

New episodes of Doctor Who return to BBC America in 2017

 

Ken Dodd Tops The Queen’s New Year Honours list!

Ken Dodd Tops The Queen’s New Year Honours list!

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Sylvester McCoy as The Doctor with Ken Dodd as The Toll Keeper in Delta and the Bannermen. (1987)

The Gallifreyan Newsroom have just got news that Ken Dodd, aged 89, who starred as The Toll Keeper in the 1987 story “Delta and the Bannermen” has topped the list in the Queens New Years Honours List. Ken been awarded a knighthood for services to entertainment and charity.!

‘Highly tickled’

Dodd told the BBC he was “very proud and highly tickled” to be knighted.

“I’m very proud and I’d like to thank all the people who wished it for me because they’re the ones that made it (happen), so thank you very much.”

Asked if the honour was overdue, he joked: “Oh no – my library books are, but this came as a complete surprise and it’s a wonderful feeling.”

Also Honoured…

The actor Tim Pigott-Smith, who is made an OBE.
Tim Pigott-Smith acted in two Doctor Who stories. He played Captain Harker in the Third Doctor story The Claws of Axos, returning in 1976 in the Fourth Doctor story The Masque of Mandragora, where he played Marco. His most well known Television role was as Ronald Merrick in ITV series The Jewel in the Crown. He has had a long and distinguished Radio and Stage career.


The actress Helen McCrory, who is made an OBE.
Helen McCrory played Rosanna in the Tenth Doctor story The Vampires of Venice. On film she portrayed Cherie Blair the 2006 film The Queen and portrayed Narcissa Malfoy in the final three Harry Potter films. She also plays Polly Gray in Peaky Blinders.


The actor Clive Rowe who is made an MBE.
Clive Rowe played Morvin Van Hoff in the 2007 Christmas special Voyage of the Damned. He is best known for his role as Norman Ellington in BBC Children’s drama The Story of Tracy Beaker and has appeared in Disney show The Evermore Chronicles.

Class: BBC America Releases Teaser for Doctor Who Spinoff

Class: BBC America Releases Teaser for Doctor Who Spinoff

Class TV show on BBC America, BBC Three: season 1 (canceled or renewed?)
Class TV show on BBC America. Pictured: Katherine Kelly as Ms. Quill. (Photo: BBC / Ray Burmiston.)

The Christmas break is ending and BBC America has released a new Class TV show teaser. Watch it, after the jump. Class, season one, premieres on BBC America in 2017. When an exact date is announced, we will let you know.

A Doctor Who spinoff, Class stars Greg Austin, Fady Elsayed, Sophie Hopkins, Vivan Oparah, and Katherine Kelly. The current and 12th Doctor, Peter Capaldi will guest star in the Class series premiere, “For Tonight We Might Die.” Ben Peel, Anna Shaffer, Paul Marc Davies , and Shannon Murray also guest star in the first two episodes.

In UK, the eight-episode first season of Class streamed on BBC Three between October 22nd and December 3, 2016. BBC One will broadcast season one, beginning January 9, 2017.

BBC America says:

Coal Hill School* students have hidden secrets and desires. They are facing their own worst fears, navigating a life of friends, parents, school work, sex, sorrow – and possibly the end of existence.

Coal Hill School has been a part of the Doctor Who universe since the very beginning, but that has come at a price. All the time travelling over the years has caused the very walls of space and time to become thin. There’s something pressing in on the other side, something waiting for its chance to kill everyone and everything, to bring us all into Shadow.

Fear is coming, tragedy is coming, war is coming. Prepare yourselves, Class is coming.

*Coal Hill School has since been renamed Coal Hill Academy.

What do you think? Do you plan to check out the Class TV series premiere on BBC America? If you’ve already seen it, please tell us about it, in the comments. (No spoilers, please.)

Doctor Who and Star Wars stars to grace Coventry’s first comic con event

Doctor Who and Star Wars stars to grace Coventry’s first comic con event

Coventry Comic Con 2017

Doctor Who will be travelling through time to Coventry next year as part of the city’s first comic con event.

Sylvester McCoy, who played the seventh doctor, will be among special guests at the event at Sports Connexion in Ryton.

And another Doctor Who star will be making his first appearance at any comic con in the world, Peter Walshe, who starred alongside Tom Baker in the role of Erak in The Sontaran Experiment and as a Pikeman in The Masque of Mandragora, will also attend the convention next October.

Jeff Cummings, the event director, said: “We are expecting a good turnout for the very first Coventry Comic Con and we are sure that the super folk of Coventry and beyond will support us in numbers for this special event.

Doctor Who Sylvester McCoy will be at Coventry Comic Con 2017

“We are busy building a guest list that will appeal to a broad range of fans including guests who have links with Star Wars, Game of Thrones, Dr Who and even The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”

And, like most comic cons around the world, fans are being invited to take part in ‘cosplay’ (dress up in character costume). There will be a cosplay contest, with a prize for the winner.

Organisers have arranged for a changing room to be available at the start and end of the event so that cosplayers can prepare.

Jeff added: “We also want to ensure cosplayers have a great day with us so we will have professional cosplayers attending and we would love lots of cosplayers to attend.

“We will have a secure changing area and cosplay repair station just in case there is costume malfunction.”

Tickets are priced at £10 for an adult, £8 for students, £5 for kids aged five-15 and for a family of four they are £25.

The Coventry Comic Con was inspired by the highly successful comic cons which are held around the UK and the world, with the closest being staged annually at the Birmingham NEC, attracting tens of thousands of fans.

You can buy tickets here:

http://www.coventrycomiccon.uk/tickets

PREVIEW: TENTH DOCTOR YEAR 3, ISSUE 1

PREVIEW: TENTH DOCTOR YEAR 3, ISSUE 1

The Tenth Doctor Year 3, Issue 1

Titan Comics have announced details of a brand new series for the Tenth Doctor, as played by David Tennant on screen.

Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor – Year Three #1 is on sale from January 11, 2017 and we have an exclusive look inside the first issue and the variant covers.

Click here for more details on The Tenth Doctor adventures from Titan Comics

The Tenth Doctor – Year 3

It’s a brand-new season for the Tenth Doctor and his loyal travelling companions, Gabby Gonzalez and Cindy Wu! Jump on board with a two-part opening story – ‘Breakfast at Tyrannies’ that introduces a whole new terror to test the Doctor and his friends!

PLUS! A new companion joins the TARDIS – the like of which you’ve never seen!

Check out our exclusive look inside The Tenth Doctor Year 3 Issue 1 below:

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And here are the covers you can collect:

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Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor – Year Three #1 is on sale from January 11, 2017

Click here for more details on The Tenth Doctor adventures from Titan Comics

DOCTOR WHO: GHOST STORIES – WRITER’S COMMENTARY

DOCTOR WHO: GHOST STORIES – WRITER’S COMMENTARY

Doctor Who: Ghost Stories commentary

Available now from Titan Comics is an exciting new digital comic series which follows on from the adventures in the Doctor Who Christmas Special, The Return of Doctor Mysterio.

Ghost Stories issue 1 is available now and features the Ghost as featured in the most recent episode. The series comes from author George Mann, who has authored the War Doctor novel Engines Of War and many Doctor Who comic series from Titan.

Purchase Ghost Stories issue 1 here.

Today we have Mann’s commentary on this special story, check it out below along with pages from the issue.

“I’ve long been a fan of superhero comics, so when Andrew approached me about continuing the adventures of Grant in a series of digital-first comics, I leapt at the chance. We’re telling this tale over a series of chapters, so I really wanted to make it feel as though we were getting a full series of adventures, with character arcs and an ongoing story, but with a series of separate ‘episodes’, too – changing foe, location and style.

Ghost Stories

As you’ll be able to tell from the cliffhanger to the opening issue, the first thing we’re going to be tackling is a traditional ‘super villain’ story. It seemed the obvious choice to launch with – taking the character of the Ghost back into the medium that inspired him, and giving him a classic comic superhero adventure… only with the twist that this is also Doctor Who, so we’ve got the Twelfth Doctor there too – instigating events and turning everything upside down.

I also really wanted to explore Grant’s new family dynamic. When the Doctor returns to find him at the start of issue #1 to ask for his help, it’s been a good few years since the end of the Christmas Special, and Jennifer has grown up into a well adjusted, intelligent young lady. Lucy, too, is carving out a path of her own, continuing to write important journalistic pieces for the New York public.

Ghost Stories

These are not characters living in the shadow of a superhero – they’re flourishing because of it, and that’s one of the things we’ll explore as the series continues – the strength that Grant’s family lend to him, and how essential they are to his, and the Doctor’s, success. Lucy narrates the whole thing, casting her journalistic eye over proceedings, and giving us, as the reader, a little more insight into what it is to be a hero, and what it’s like to live with one, too.”

Ghost Stories

Purchase Ghost Stories issue 1 here

Pre-order Ghost Stories issue 2 here

The Return Of Doctor Mysterio Audience Appreciation

The Return Of Doctor Mysterio Audience Appreciation

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Doctor Who: The Return of Doctor Mysterio had an Audience Appreciation or AI score of 82.

The Appreciation Index or AI is a measure of how much the audience enjoyed the programme. The score, out of a hundred, is compiled by a specially selected panel of around 5,000 people who go online and rate and comment on programmes.

The score is identical to that received by last year’s Christmas Special The Husbands of River Song.

The highest score of the evening once more went to Call the Midwife on BBC One which scored 88.

Ten Things We Know About Bill

Ten Things We Know About Bill

She’s in for some incredible adventures…

Okay. Let’s get the obvious one out of the way. She’s hopping aboard the TARDIS with the Doctor which means her life is about to become more fun, more dangerous and more amazing than she could ever have imagined. Buckle up, Bill!

Inside Info

Bill is ‘…funny and geeky and vulnerable. There’s a goofiness to her and a big heart.’ How do we know that? Simple – that’s what Pearl Mackie (who plays Bill) told us!

She meets the Doctor at some sort of university…

So the Doctor works at a university now? What? And she serves chips there? Well, whenever the Doctor spends time at a school or uni or academy, it turns out to be holding some pretty dark secret. Think Daleks, Skovox Blitzer, Krillitanes… So we reckon Bill will be plunged into adventure from the moment she starts hanging with the Time Lord…

She asks questions… A LOT of questions…

Well, wouldn’t you? But we love the fact she asks the questions we’d ask if we were right there by the Doctor’s side. Like why do Daleks screech EXTERMINATE when – as Bill pointed out – saying KILL would save a lot of time!? Showrunner Steven Moffat said, ‘Bill is someone who asks the questions that nobody has asked for 53 years!’

Just what the Doctor ordered…

Bill is gonna shake it up! As Peter Capaldi revealed, the new companion ‘…will bring a universe of exciting new possibilities to the Doctor’s adventures!’

She’s got a temper on her…

Considering Doctor Who can be a bit bonkers at times, Pearl Mackie was struck by how human and ‘relatable to’ Bill will be. She’s said Bill has a temper and can make mistakes and we’re looking forward to seeing how that plays with the Doctor. Can’t help remembering that Sarah Jane Smith could really fly off the handle and she worked out pretty well!

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Even when evading the Time Lord’s mortal enemies she’s still got time for a joke or two. ‘Is there a Dalek at the back with two suckers and no gun…’ she asked the Doctor, ‘and he’s really hacked off?’

If you think you know the Doctor, Bill will make you think again!

In 2016, Steven Moffat revealed, ‘If I gave you one tone word for this series it’s new. It’s brand new. You’re getting to see the Doctor all over again through a very different pair of eyes. In fact, we went to particular pains to make sure that episode one is really episode one. It could be the first episode you ever see. It explains the entire mythos of Doctor Who — in the two minutes it takes — and you can start there!’

She’s now!

Early rumours suggested that Bill would be from Earth’s recent history, but Steven Moffat confirmed that was not the case. Bill’s right now and because of that, she’s the perfect person to be our eyes and ears on the Doctor’s adventures!

The wonders of time and space await!

As Bill says in the trailer, ‘Now we go everywhere! Any space! Any time!’ In short, Bill is about to see the universe anew… and through her, so are we!

Doctor Who returns in 2017!