The Whoniverse Round-Up October 2016

 October 2016

Happy Birthday Torchwood

October sees not only Halloween at the end of the month, but also the 10^th Birthday of BBC Torchwood on 22^nd. Spanning 4 series’ plus comic books and novels and now Big Finish, Torchwood doesn’t look set to disappear from our lives any time soon. And why should it?

Torchwood is as much a household name as good old Doctor Who. It’s more for the grown ups, than it is for the kids, and as the seasons progress, and the cast list begins to dwindle, we do hope Torchwood builds on its team members and enlists a few more to replace those who have gone on to the realms far beyond our reach…. for now. Although we do love to hear from Toshiko, Owen, Ianto and Suzie in the audios. Perhaps I’m being a tad cynical, but I’d like to hear the newer stories from Torchwood, that tell of the story so far, with the Miracle Day behind us, just what is Jack up to and where is Gwen and Rhys? Or if it’s true that Eve has hung up her Gwen costume for good, then we can only hope that Jack will continue to fly the Torchwood flag for as long as is humanely possible.

Now keeping on the Torchwood theme a while longer. We asked our Torchwood fans if they would like to see a Torchwood film featuring Jack and Angelo. It was a unanimous YES. If, however, the filming and locations were in the UK for some, but most were happy if we at least saw more Torchwood, and as many had loved the scenes between Jack and Angelo, albeit short lived, many classed it as romantic as those between Jack and Ianto.  

So fingers crossed Daniele.

In other news.

Ian Edginton was signing today (1^st October) at Infinity and Beyond Comics in Shrewsbury. Next week sees the launch of his Assassins Creed: Locus series, and from November 5^th-6^th you’ll find him and his illustrator D’Israeli at the New Dock Hall, for the Thought Bubble Festival at table 49. Doors open to the public from 10am-5pm. If you’re a comic book fan you’ll want to get to this convention in Leeds.

http://thoughtbubblefestival.com/new-dock-hall-floor-plan/ This link will give you more details on their website, from floor plan to guest list.

Jâms Thomas is joining the touring company of the National Theatre’s Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time in January 2017. He’s currently filming Series 8 of Gwaith/Cartref for S4C.

Nathan Sussex has two short films coming out soon which will be seen on BBC Wales. Ludo for It’s My Shout where he plays Shane. In the Iris prize winning film D-Ice and Pansy he plays Ioan. So look out for these.

Cavan Scott has a new Doctor Who story coming out on BBC Audio called The Lost Angel and stars the 12^th Doctor. It’s due out in January 2017. This is the fantastic new cover released by the BBC to whet our appetite. So many months to wait!

John R Walker is finally relaxing in the hot tub after being extremely busy with his projects of late. His Amityville theatre has a nationwide release in the Philippines. His new film Ouijageist is with the editor. As an extra, he’s in the film ‘Girl With All The Gifts.’ John is also currently writing a new Extras Memoir book. He was also 1^st AD on the current DVD movie Cry Wolf which both he and his wife also have roles in. So while also enjoying parenthood with their 20 month old baby and juggling the ‘real’ job, John has definitely earned the long hot soak.

It’s also the 50^th anniversary of the Cybermen plus the very first regeneration of our dear old Doctor.

Credit -  Ed Sinclair

September saw the trailer release of the Anoraks new online 5 minute drama series featuring three fans of the Classic Who, or as they’re also known as – ‘Men Behaving Sadly’. In 10 episodes lasting five minutes each, the story features mainly around one of the characters – Damien and his girlfriend Rachel. There are plans for further characters in later episodes with the final episode planned to be around 20 minutes long with a guest star and extras. These will be crowdfunded, so watch out for the links on our social networking pages.

Anoraks is Three Middle Aged Doctor Who fans. The politics. The Obsessions and the In jokes. To find out more, visit their website.

www.anorakstv.com

Interviews Freelance author Cavan Scott by DJ Forrest

Captain Jack is back with the Doctor

The Doctor Who Titan comic comes out in March how many stories have you planned for the 9th Doctor and Jack, and will there be any stories involving the 10th Doctor with Jack, or is there a point of order with the Titan comics where you can only write one series of stories for one Doctor at a time?

Cavan: Well, at the moment it’s just one story that stretches over the five-issues of the mini-series, although I must admit I have a little batch of potential stories stored up just in my head in case Titan ask for more!

There’s no rules that you can’t write for more than one Doctor – Robbie Morrison writes for both the Tenth and the Twelfth. I’d certainly love to have a crack at Doctor number 10!

How much fun was it writing the 9^th Doctor story involving Jack Harkness?

Cavan: Oh, more than you can imagine. I love Jack and the Doctor together – there’s lot of banter, between all three leads. And Jack’s such a great contrast to the 9^th Doctor, although they’re more similar than either will admit.

You’re signing copies of the comic at Forbidden Planet in March for the launch of the new Who stories, when and where is that?

Cavan: It’s happening at the Bristol Forbidden Planet Megastore at 6pm on March 18. I’ll also be at the London Super Comic Con signing comics on March 14, as well as appearing on a special Titan Doctor Who panel.

When Jack was with the Doctor his character was so much darker than when he was with Torchwood, will he be like this in your story too?

Cavan: Absolutely. Our Jack is definitely a cheeky chappie, yet to be weighed down by immortality.

From the covers I saw on your website there are more than one 9^th Doctor story, will Jack feature in these too?

Cavan: It’s just the one story, although every issue has multiple covers. Variant covers have become a big thing in comics these day, with fans trying to collect as many as they can.

Whose decision was it to bring Jack back to Doctor Who?

Cavan: As far as I recall, Jack was part of the conversation from the get-go. We saw so little, relatively speaking, of the Doctor, Rose and Jack together in the 2005 series, but it’s obvious from Boom Town that they’ve been travelling together for a while. This seemed too good an opportunity to miss.

Captain Jack Harkness back in Doctor Who is fantastic news and with the prospect of Torchwood radio plays in the near future, it’s almost a sweet revival of the time travelling agent.  How will he fit into the stories and given his time line, the novels, audios and tv episodes for Torchwood and Who?

Cavan: The comic takes place just after The Doctor Dances, so it’s early in his relationship with the Doctor.

Also with time lines and Who fiction novels involving Jack with the 9^th, were you given instructions as to when and where you could base the stories?

Cavan: Not really. Editor Andrew James was kind enough to ask me which Doctor I’d like to pitch for. The Ninth Doctor was a bit of a non-brainer for me. I loved writing for him – and Jack and Rose – in the Big Finish / AudioGo 50^th Anniversary story Night of the Whisper. I always said that if I had a chance to write for that TARDIS team again, I’d jump at it, so here I am!

You’ve been involved in a lot of spin offs from Doctor Who over the years, which must keep you busy!  Plus also writing for one of my favourite comics, (Beano) how do you manage your time when you’re writing and meeting your deadlines and being a family man?

Cavan: Writing is my full-time job so I make sure I treat it as such. I’m sat at my desk at 9am and work through until 5.30. I used to be a magazine editor so I’m pretty hot on deadlines and keeping plates spinning. Most of the time, none of them smash – although some of them get a little chipped from time to time!

Can you divulge what the story will be about or must we wait and see?

Cavan: Well, I can’t give too many spoilers, but the thrust of the story is that the Doctor and his friends get caught in the middle of a battle between two alien races called the Unon and the Lect. It soon becomes clear that there are weightier issues at hand. Someone is attempting to replace the Time Lords in the pecking order of the universe – and the Doctor isn’t happy about that at all!

Big Finish Reviews+ Masters of Earth by Jeffrey Zyra

Written by Mark Wright and

Cavan Scott

The Doctor and Peri land on Earth in Scotland no less, in the year 2163, one year before the First Doctor appears in the events of The Dalek Invasion of Earth.   The Doctor is adamant that they get back to the TARDIS and leave after they help someone from a hanging but it is too late as the Daleks arrive and take Peri as part of the work force.   This is troublesome for The Doctor as he has to be careful not to damage the web of time and prevent the events of his first incarnation to not happen which would harm his own personal timeline. In essence he has to let the Daleks win and let history take its course.

Masters of Earth was a pretty interesting audio story and the moral dilemma that the Doctor was put in.  The Doctor had to be careful not to let on to The Daleks that he knows their history as they do not know who he really is yet.  So The Doctor has to be careful what he says to the people of Earth about the future events of their victory against the Daleks in a year’s time.  It is interesting how the Sixth Doctor goes about this even if he is arrogant enough to play the I know something you don’t card.

What I really liked about this Big Finish audio is that it was a runaway from the Daleks story.  It was a big chase as The Doctor, Peri and Moira are running away from the Daleks.  What was pretty neat were the dangers they had to encounter. From the Vagra plants to the Slither things that you see in The Invasion of Earth story line.  What made the chase even more tense was that Peri got stung by the Vagra plant and was slowly turning into one of them.   The way The Doctor had to help Peri by using his voice and getting her to remember who she is.  It was a dramatic scene that was made perfectly by Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant as they made it really easy to visualize the action going on.  I love when Nicola Bryant is able to do evil Peri voices.  It sounds so evil and freaky coming from her.

Big Finish can be so creative and take more chances with the Daleks that the television series just can’t afford to do.  Like this story Masters of Earth the television series could not do a story like this justice with its limitations.  Big Finish can and does it proper and give us a really good story.  What Big Finish gives us is a story that does have a few surprises and does revisit the Genesis of the Daleks theme of stopping the Daleks but instead doing it for the advance type of Robomen controlled by Moira.  Masters of Earth has a bit of a twist ending that will leave some of the true fans in disbelief but when you think about it, it does work.  I was a bit surprised by the ending but I did love it as it was really the only solution The Doctor could do.

I really enjoyed Masters of Earth as it was a different take on the traditional Dalek story and had an interesting premise of happening a year before the events in The Dalek Invasion of Earth.  It had great performances by Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant and everyone involved in the cast.  The story was top notch as it gave the chase story a new dynamic that made listening to Masters of Earth a whole lot of fun.

Grade A