Big Finish reveal artwork for their tenth Doctor range

Big Finish has just given us our first look at the cover art, for their Tenth Doctor Adventures, which is due out in May.

The Tenth Doctor range sees the highly anticipated return of The tenth Doctor and Donna Noble, with David Tennant and Catherine Tate both reprising their roles.

1.1 Technophobia by Matt Fitton

When the Doctor and Donna visit London’s Technology Museum for a glimpse into the future, things don’t go to plan.

The most brilliant IT brain in the country can’t use her computer. More worrying, the exhibits are attacking the visitors, while outside, people seem to be losing control of the technology that runs their lives.

Is it all down to simple human stupidity, or is something more sinister going on?

Beneath the streets, the Koggnossenti are waiting. For all of London to fall prey to technophobia…

 

1.2 Time Reaver by Jenny T Colgan

Calibris. The spaceport planet where anything goes. Where anyone who doesn’t want to be found can be lost, and where everything has its price. Where betentacled gangster Gully holds sway at the smugglers’ tavern, Vagabond’s Reach.

The alien Vacintians are trying to impose some order on the chaos. Soon the Doctor and Donna discover why. An illegal weapon is loose on the streets. A weapon that destroys lives… Slowly and agonisingly.

The Time Reaver.

 1.3 Death and the Queen by James Goss

Donna Noble has never been lucky in love.

So when, one day, her Prince does come, she is thrilled to have the wedding of all weddings to look forward to. Though the Doctor isn’t holding his breath for an invitation. And her future mother-in-law is certainly not amused.

But on the big day itself, Donna finds her castle under siege from the darkest of forces, marching at the head of a skeleton army.

When it looks like even the Doctor can’t save the day, what will Queen Donna do to save her people from Death itself?

Written By: Matt Fitton, Jenny T Colgan, James Goss
Directed By: Nicholas Briggs

All three stories are also available to pre-order in the Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor Adventures Volume 1 – Limited Edition set. Limited to just 5,000 copies and available exclusively from bigfinish.com. The lavish book-sized box set includes exclusive artwork, photography, articles and a one-hour documentary featuring interviews with the stars and production team.

You can pre-order the set now at the special price of £30 on CD or £25 to download.

#drwhodaniel update 

Most of our readers will be aware that over the Christmas period, we teamed up with the lovely guys over at Geeksynsicate to help a very ill Doctor Who fan have a truly great Christmas.

For those of you unaware, Daniel is a very ill 14-year old, who also happens to be massive Doctor Who fan. 

He suffers from Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS) and Postural tachycardia syndrome (POTS) he is totally bed bound and is fed via IV. He was admitted to a London hospital in November 2015 and is still there, as of February 2016. He’s also facing the minimum of another 3 month stay. 

We had a tremendous start to the campaign, but we have started to stall now. We’ve hit a total brick wall with David Tennant and Matt Smith, both of whom Daniel would love to meet. 

The Twitter hashtag #drwhodaniel is still running and we would appreciate it if you could spread the word.

How day of the Doctor would have looked with Eccleston 

We all know that Christopher Eccleston declined to take part in the 50th anniversary episode of Doctor Who. But, up until now we didn’t exactly know how the ninth Doctor would have fit in to the story. 

Luckily for us bleeding cool have unearthed some early concept art, with Christopher Eccleston in place of Sir John Hurt. 

What’s interesting is that had Eccleston appeared, Billie Piper wouldn’t have. Instead the moment would have taken the image of a young girl. 

   
    
   

Steven Moffat steps down 

If you follow me on Twitter, you’ll know that I’ve been tweeting for the past few months that I expected Steven Moffat to step down after series 10 and, that Chris Chibnall would replace him. I also said there would be no full series in 2016, as the BBC where keen to move Doctor Who away from the Autumn, where Strictly come dancing forces the show to broadcast after 8:30pm, which has received many complaints and has caused viewing figures to dip slightly. This move would also allow Chibnall time to finish on Broadchurch and allow him to shadow Moffat, before taking the reigns in 2018.

Well, this evening The official Doctor Who Twitter account revealed that Steven Moffat, is indeed stepping down after the show’s tenth series, which will air in 2017 and, Chris Chibnall of Broadchurch fame, is going to be taking his place.

No, I can’t give you tonight’s lottery numbers. But, my other prediction was that series 10 won’t have a full time companion and that Capaldi would leave with Moffat, allowing the new show runner to start a fresh. 

A lot of people have been speculating that the next Doctor will be a woman. Honestly, I’d have no problem with that. But, with a new show runner, a new companion and a new Doctor it will be played as safely as possible. I guarantee you the next Doctor will be a white male, aged late twenties-early thirties. 

Review-Doctor Who: The Churchill Years

Reprising his performances during Matt Smith’s era of Doctor Who, Ian McNiece is back as Winston Churchill. Big Finish’s new box set departs from their well-honed format of unmediated aural adventures, with McNiece narrating as well as performing in each episode. The narration does cover a few bits that I felt it shouldn’t, notably an action sequence in the first story and the introduction of a famous historical figure in the third. I mention this to balance what I think has been a refreshing experience and a success overall.

Churchill’s narration includes recounting the words and actions of the first three new series Doctors. This has the brilliant effect of bringing the Christopher Eccleston Doctor to Big Finish, complete with the Ninth Doctor signature tune. The Doctor changes, the title music changes. Across the stories, one can spot the different speech patterns of each Doctor, even as related (and occasionally imitated) by McNiece.

There’s still plenty of full-cast audio action aboard, moved along nicely by the ‘companions’ of Churchill. As his new secretary, Hetty Warner (Emily Atack) leads many scenes apart from Winston and works well with both her employer and The Doctor. Kazran Sardick (Danny Horn) returns from Dr Who’s ‘A Christmas Carol’ and provides a good contrast to the 20th century way in which Churchill reacts to being dropped into Roman Britain. In the final piece, another supporting artist from a Matt Smith Christmas special returns, Holly Earl As Lily Arwell. She looks after Winston at a particularly action-packed point in his twilight years.



The first story is the most conventional, with an alien object dropped into wartime Britain. The second shatters that mould as we find Churchill’s Black Dog – his controversial mental issues – woven into the story. In the third, Winston lives amid the subjects of his own history books and the statesman’s fascination for butterflies is rolled rather surprisingly into the fourth adventure. Additionally, there’s a nice bit of Nick Briggs’ Dalek voice work in this set.

Doctor Who: The Churchill Years brought a delightful, fictionalised Sir Winston into my home over a couple of winter evenings. So pleasant was it that I might just sit down with Churchill’s own writing for just a bit more time with this true-life legend from long ago.

Leela and The War Doctor

Today saw thousands of fans flock to Slough, for Big Finish day 8.

The big finish team announced live on stage, that the fourth box set in The War Doctor saga will see Louise Jameson’s classic companion Leela reunite with the War Doctor (Sir John Hurt), as the horrors of the Time War come ever closer to home.

Producer David Richardson said:

“I’d often wondered what became of Leela during the Time War, and working on these War Doctor tales has given us a wonderful opportunity to explore that. And it’s irresistible territory – the Warrior of the Sevateem reunited with an old friend, who has become a Warrior in the Time War”.

Jameson has previously reprised her role in multiple Doctor Who releases, starring opposite Tom Baker in three series of The Fourth Doctor Adventures and with fellow companion Lalla Ward in the popular spin-off series Gallifrey.

Executive Producer Nick Briggs added:

“Over the many years of working with us, Louise has brought so much extra depth to the character of Leela, and given the nature of her backstory and involvement in the affairs of Gallifrey it was a natural choice to have her involved in the Time War. And like John Hurt, she’s a genuinely uplifting person to work with.”

Doctor Who – The War Doctor 4: Casualties of War will be released in February 2017, and is available to pre-order now. You can listen to the first exclusive teaser below.

Episode 150:Gwen Stephanie Awakens

In which two mates get drunk on rum and discuss Star Wars:The Force Awakens. They also touch upon the death of Lemmy (RIP) and the disapointing Doctor Who Christmas special, The husbands of River Song.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens (also known as Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens) is a 2015  epic space opera film produced, co-written and directed by J. J. Abrams.

It is the first installment of the Star Wars sequel trilogy and the seventh installment of the main Star Wars film franchise, following Return of the Jedi (1983).

The film stars Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong’o, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, and Max von Sydow.

The Husbands of River Song is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. First broadcast on BBC One on 25 December 2015, it is the eleventh Christmas special since the show’s revival in 2005. It is written by Steven Moffat and directed by Douglas Mackinnon.

The podcast can be accessed via different places, including Audioboom, Tunein, Miro, Stiticher, Blubrry, Player fm and Itunes.

Twitter:

Martyn – @BadWilf

Pete – @BeeblePete

Gerrod – @Nerdthro_P

Email:info@badwilf.com

#drwhodaniel update video message from Christopher Eccleston and a visit from RealSFX

Well, just because it was the weekend it doesn’t mean our campaign has been resting on its laurels. Oh no.

Saturday saw Daniel receive a large Dalek, from a very kind Twitter user.

It also saw the realsfx team visit Daniel in hospital, they essentially brought the Doctor Who festival to his ward. They gave him a shed load of merchandise and even a Christmas tree. Daniel was also interviewed by the Daily Mail.


Sunday saw Daniel receive a video message from the ninth Doctor himself, Christopher Eccleston. The video is very sweet, very touching  and greatly appreciated by everyone involved in the campaign. What’s impressive is that for the most part, Eccleston did it in character.

We’ve had a great few weeks with the campaign, but we’re not yet done. We still need to get Doctor’s 4,5,6,8,10 and 11.

Keep tweeting #drwhodaniel

Update on #drwhodaniel a video message from Sylvester McCoy

As you will all be aware, along with Geeksyndicate we’ve been trying to help a very poorly Doctor Who fan have the best Christmas a fan could wish for.

Along with some other lovely fans, we’ve been spreading the word via the hashtag #DrWhoDaniel.

Over the past two weeks Daniel has been receiving gifts, cards, a visit from Frances Barber, a shed load of merch from Titan Comics, sketches by professional artists, a video message from Steven Moffat and even a visit from the twelfth Doctor himself, Peter Capaldi.

Today Daniel received a video message from the seventh Doctor, Sylvester McCoy.

https://www.facebook.com/ahugfordaniel/videos/469977023175252/
Thank you to everyone who has been helping to brighten Daniel’s time in hospital. Peter Capaldi visiting didn’t just help Daniel, it helped bring morale to the entire Children’s ward.