Tag: Doctor Who

Episode 146:Noel Clarke interview

In this episode of the podcast, Martyn sits down with acclaimed actor, writer, and director Noel Clarke to talk about his latest creative venture – the comic book series, The Troop.

Noel takes us on a journey through the creation of The Troop, explaining how his love for comics began as a child and how he was inspired to bring his own story to life in this medium. He discusses the challenges of writing for comics and the differences between that and screenwriting, as well as his collaboration with illustrator Joshua Cassara.

We delve into the world of The Troop, a group of young people with extraordinary abilities who are tasked with saving the world from a mysterious threat. Noel shares with us the characters and their unique powers, as well as the overarching themes of the series.

Beyond The Troop, Noel reflects on his career in the entertainment industry, sharing his insights on the challenges and opportunities that come with being a writer, director, and actor. He also discusses his experiences with diversity and representation in the industry and the importance of creating opportunities for underrepresented voices.

Join us for a fascinating conversation with Noel Clarke about his creative journey and the exciting world of The Troop.

The Troop can be ordered from Titan Comics. Read our review here.

The podcast is available from all good podcast services, such as but not limited to; Amazon Music, Podchaser, Player FM, Stitcher, and Apple Podcasts.

If you’d like to support the show, then please shop via our Amazon link. A small percentage goes our way, at no extra cost to you.

Twitter:

Martyn – @BadWilf

Pete – @BeeblePete

Gerrod –@InGerrodsMind

Email:info@badwilf.com

Noel Clarke is @NoelClarke

Sean Pertwee talks about playing the Third Doctor 

Doctor Who fans have long debated and demanded that Sean Pertwee pick up his dad’s cape, jump in Bessie and play his dad’s incarnation of The Doctor. Last Halloween we got a glimpse of it when he went to a party dressed in an improvised third Doctor costume. 

 
After that, a fan mocked up a very realistic image of Sean in the role.

  

Well, speaking to the radio times the question of playing the Doctor came up. 

Pertwee Jr. said:

“It would be an honour, but I think I would be completely terrified,“ he explained. “They’re large boots to fill. My dad would have absolutely split his sides if I did that, I’m laughing just thinking of his reaction.”

“Doctor Who was a huge thing in my life, but the thing is my father was just an actor. I was surrounded by extrodinary people all my life. The people he was interested in weren’t actors, they were artists, pirates, smugglers, butchers, florists, whatever. My recollection of being brought up by my dad was in Ibiza, so I remember this idyllic bohemian lifestyle.”

Read the full interview here. 

Big Finish review-Doctor Who:Criss-Cross

Pete and I had a chat about Doctor Who: Criss Cross, by Big Finish.

Martyn: With over 16 years of audio adventures, the biggest problem with the Doctor Who range used to be ‘where do you start?’

Pete: In a way, everyone jumps into Doctor Who in the middle; there’s a certain joy to discovering the world we’re dropped into, in our own order.

M: It can still seem daunting for new listeners to climb on board the Big Finish train. Recently they’ve decided to play down the continuity of the first 200 and provide a fresh jumping on point for new listeners. The first three focused on the Seventh Doctor and Mel.

P: Return of the Sontarans was really fun; I liked your review.

M: Criss-Cross kicks off a brand new trilogy for the Sixth Doctor and Constance Clarke. In a very time-wimey way, we met her in The Sixth Doctor: The Last Adventure.

P: The extras for that mention how Colin Baker needed some convincing to sign his character’s death warrant. But he needn’t have worried; it just left me wanting more. It must have helped him, though, to have a glimpse of the future in there.

M: Written by Matt Fitton, Criss-Cross tells the story of the ‘Wrens’ working at the Bletchley Park codebreaking facility in World War II. They start out dealing with and becoming suspicious of the eccentric ‘Doctor John Smith.’

P: This is super timely, too. There’s a new book by Tessa Dunlop about the women of Bletchley Park, BBC2 have just done a doco on somebody besides Alan Turing and of course there’s the Imitation Game film with Cumberbatch.

M: This one’s a gripping war-time story – suspicion and espionage, with hints of sci-fi thrown in. The characters are spies, double agents, Nazis and code-breakers. Matt Fitton manages to perfectly encapsulate the horrendous situations people in war often found themselves. The period feels authentic and Constance Clarke is very much of her time.

P: They’ve given her an absent husband like Emma Peel had, but perhaps not like that; we’ll see. Mrs Clarke is both a foil and an asset, which is really good for ‘old sixie.’ Miranda Raison pitches it just right; I remember her from Wreck of the Titan. I’m also hoping to see her in A Winter’s Tale, a new live HD theatre project Kenneth Branagh is doing.

M: Colin is at the top of his game here, the chemistry with Miranda Raison is impeccable, it’s up there with the Seventh Doctor and Ace, or Ten and Donna.

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John Hurt returns as The War Doctor for Big Finish

Big Finish announced today that John Hurt will reprise his role as The War Doctor for a series of audios.

The adventures of The War Doctor will be told over four box sets, each containing three linked hour-long episodes. The first is titled ‘Only The Monstrous’ and is written and directed by Nicholas Briggs.

“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,” says Nicholas. “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 also includes Jacqueline Pearce, who plays Time Lord Cardinal Ollistra — an arch manipulator who is waging the Time War against the Daleks. Jacqueline starred in The Two Doctors as Chessene and she is known to many science fiction fans for her role as Servalan in the cult classic Blake’s 7.

Only The Monstrous will be released in December 2015 and will be followed in February 2016 by the second volume, Infernal Devices, which is written by John Dorney, Phil Mulryne and Matt Fitton. Volumes Three and Four are currently in pre-production.

In addition to The War Doctor, November 2017 also sees a prequel box set to the saga, Doctor Who: The Eighth Doctor — The Time War, which will follow the early stages of the Time War from the Eighth Doctor’s perspective. Paul McGann stars, alongside characters first introduced in the War Doctor box sets.

If you only listen to one podcast with John Hurt, listen to the one he did with Big Finish. If you listen to two podcasts with John Hurt, then listen to my podcast with John Hurt.

Doctor Who spin-off in development 

Breaking News, not content with their 3 hit shows set in a school (Waterloo Road, Big School, Bad Education). The BBC announced today that they’re making a Doctor Who spin-off set in a school.
Class will consist of 8 x 45-minute episodes and will be written by Young Adult author Patrick Ness (Chaos Walking trilogy and A Monster Calls). Class is a Young Adult (teenager) series set in the contemporary Coal Hill school, in London.
Current Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat, will act as executive producer on Class.

He said:

“No one has documented the dark and exhilarating world of the teenager like Patrick Ness, and now we’re bringing his brilliant story-telling into Doctor Who. This is growing up in modern Britain – but with monsters!”

Ness added:

“I’m astounded and thrilled to be entering the Doctor Who universe, which is as vast as time and space itself. There’s so much room there for all kinds of amazing stories, and to work with Steven Moffat and Brian Minchin to find a place to tell one of my own has been an absolute joy. I can’t wait for people to meet the heroes of Class, to meet the all-new villains and aliens, to remember that the horrors of the darkest corners of existence are just about on par with having to pass your A-levels.”

Class is expected to air towards the end of 2016.

Review-Doctor Who: The Third Doctor Adventures

The natural impulse for genre fans granted new material, before they’ve even enjoyed it, is to put it on the shelf. Its ability to ‘fit in’ seems so important at first but why would we want exactly what we have? What we get with these Third Doctor Adventures isn’t a lonely replay of a dusty videocassette. It’s the fresh sound of a graduate Doctor.

From Peter Davison to David Tennant we’ve seen our favourite performers return in victory laps on audio that have become regular gigs. The actors don’t sound quite like they did on telly but before long the wonder of the experience takes over. Suddenly we’re not reliving the past; we’re experiencing a special sort of future.

The occasional sibilant ‘s’ of Jon Pertwee’s Doctor, the easy confidence, that delightful vocal texture, they’re all there but so is Tim Treloar. The Welsh actor has certainly taken on the southeast England style of Jon Pertwee but most importantly, he’s gone beyond the skill of the impressionist to give us a character that fits right in with the remarkable animal that is this 21st century return to the Pertwee years.

Alongside are Katy Manning as Jo Grant and Richard Frankin as Mike Yates. Having been delighted with their performances as Iris Wildthyme and the retired Captain Yates, it was lovely to hear them cast their voices back a few decades into the characters that made them famous. Of course, we’re getting a graduate Classic Jo and a graduate Classic Yates but this should be no surprise (or worry) to regular listeners to Big Finish audio drama.

Before long, The Doctor is disturbing the room as he upbraids a bureaucrat, Jo is making battle armour out of her faith in him and Yates is, well, getting chances to be more heroic than ever. Big Finish is generous like that. And the gap in the shelf behind me is forgotten completely.



Having dropped five paragraphs on why things shouldn’t slavishly imitate our best-loved Pertwee adventures, I must mention that the music is absolutely spot on. Prisoners of the Lake has the musical style of The Sea Devils but with a very welcome melodic quality and Havoc of Empires has a Dudley Simpson style with friendly tones evocative of the Third Doctor’s first serial on TV.

The only true oddity is the narration sprinkled throughout the stories which might have been Big Finish treading carefully, couching Treloar as both narrator and Doctor. They needn’t have bothered but certain action sequences play quite well-narrated, whereas in dialogue the characters would have had to illustrate the action for us in odd sorts of ways.

Big Finish know well each era of classic Doctor Who and their output is forward-thinking, waxing creative and progressive in precisely the areas of the old series that we’d like expanded or redressed. The Third Doctor Adventures continue this trend. Roll on, Doctor Treloar!

Doctor Who: The Third Doctor Adventures at Big Finish

Check out our other Big Finish reviews.

Episode 145:Snakes on a wizboard

In which Martyn and Pete discuss Doctor Who: The Magicians Apprentice/The witches familiar.

The Magician’s Apprentice” is the first episode of the ninth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was first broadcast on BBC One on 19 September 2015. It is the first episode of a two-parter, the second of which is “The Witch’s Familiar“, both written by Steven Moffat and directed by Hettie MacDonald.

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

Twitter:

Martyn – @BadWilf

Gerrod – @Nerdthro_P

Pete – @BeeblePete

Email:info@badwilf.com

David Tennant and Catherine Tate heading to Big Finish?

You may or may not be aware that the audio production company Big Finish have recently secured the rights to use modern Doctor Who characters, in their audio adventures. Kate Lethbridge-Stewart is getting a Spin-Off, as is River Song, Churchill and most recently, Torchwood. 

But currently, they haven’t used any new Doctors. Well, according to well-known fan site Blogtor Who that’s about to change. They’ve reported that both David Tennant and Catherine Tate are going to reprise their roles as The Doctor and Donna in 2016.

Until Big Finish confirm, this should be treated as a rumour. They haven’t posted anything on their site yet. Check out the full story here. 

Big Finish review-The Yes Men

The Yes Men is the first in a new four part series of full cast audio stories called ‘Early Adventures’. These adventures are focusing on the second Doctor and his various different companions.

Fan favourite Frazer Hines reprises his role as Jamie and also plays The Second Doctor. Anneke Wills acts as narrator as well as reprises her role as Polly.
As Michael Craze sadly passed away in the late nineties, the role of Ben Jackson has been recast with Elliot Chapman.

The story starts with the Doctor wanting to visit his old friend Meg Carvossa, on the Earth colony of New Houston. Shortly after arriving, team TARDIS find that Meg has died in a mysterious way. That’s not the only problem, the helper robots have started acting a bit shifty.

What follows is a suspenseful tale of suspicion and death.

I know a lot of hardcore fans are unhappy with the recasting of pivotal roles, I am not one of them. I want Early era Big Finish stories and this is the only way we’re going to get them.

Elliot Chapman is phenomenal as Ben. It’s as if Michael Craze never left us, Chapman plays the role with the upmost respect for Craze, yet he also manages to make the role his own. The result is mesmerising.
I’m a huge fan of Frazer Hines, so I hate to type this. But, I don’t rate his turn as The Second Doctor. He can do a really decent impression of Patrick Troughton but that doesn’t really work for a 2hr audio play.
Other than that, everything else is up to the high standards we’ve come to expect from Big Finish. The script is solid, the direction is flawless and the music adds to the atmosphere. Stephen Critchlow is excellent as the mono toned Yes Men.

I look forward to hearing what the next set of Early Adventures brings us, but I’m especially intrigued to see what Elliot Chapman does with Ben Jackson.

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Jenna Coleman IS leaving Doctor Who

After a week of speculation, Jenna Coleman announced on Radio One today that she has indeed filmed her final scenes in Doctor Who as Clara Oswald. She revealed to presenter Nick Grimshaw that she will leave at some point during the series, which starts on BBC One tomorrow night. 

It was also revealed today that she will be playing Queen Victoria in the new ITV drama series, Victoria.
How do you feel about her leaving? Let me know @BadWilf