Nic Frost to appear as Santa in DW Christmas Special.
*Well known and loved actor Nic Frost, normally associated with his roles alongside friend and fellow actor, Simon Pegg, will be appearing alongside Peter Capaldi as Santa. Whether Santa turns out to be a Time Lord, an alien or a three headed monster or the real Kris Kringle remains to be seen. We can reveal that the story does take place at the North Pole and does involve some sort of alien.
Clara For Christmas.
*It has been confirmed that actress Jenna Coleman will reprise her role as Clara Oswald. Even though her character said goodbye to the Doctor at the end of the series final episode, Death In Heaven, having her reappear in the Christmas Special nicely rounds out Series 8 and clears the decks for a new companion(s) for Series 9.
Steven Moffat and Peter Capaldi to return for Series 9
It's been confirmed that showrunner and scriptwriter, Steven Moffat will continue on in those roles for Series 9. Many fans have voiced a lot of criticism over the direction that Moffat took during Series 8. Some of these criticisms included, uneven story quality, too much emphasis on the Clara Oswald character and overriding the show's canon. It's hoped that the complaints have been taken on board and Mr Moffat once again gives Whovians the "wow" factor. Peter Capaldi will also be returning as the Doctor. Peter too, has come in for some criticisms. Some fans believe his portrayal of the Doctor is too dark and unlikeable but it really is important that he is given the opportunity to develop the character of the Doctor before judgement is passed. AND FINALLY.....
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DOCTOR WHO!
On the 23rd on November 2014 the world's longest running sci fi program and our favourite show turned 51. Destination Gallifrey would like to wish the show a very happy birthday and a big birthday thank you to all the cast, crew and others who made the show possible and so well loved..Cheers to the next 50 years!
For mor great Doctor Who news, reviews and interviews, visit Whoogle and Doctor Who News
The revelation that Missy is the Master has caused more than a ripple of anger amongst fans and whilst I don't have any official figures, I would assume that most of the disquiet has come from long time fans that have been watching the show during some period of the preceding fifty years.
Rather than looking at the gender change through an emotional angle, let us examine this change in terms of the impact it has/will have on the dynamics of the show in the future.
Previous DW Controversies.
This isn't the first time that the subject of regeneration has caused controversy. In the 25th Anniversary Special, The Five Doctors, the Master was asked by the High Council Of Gallifrey, and more specifically, Borusa, to go into the Death Zone and help the Doctor. In return for helping the Doctor he was to be given a full Presidential pardon for his past crimes and a whole new regeneration cycle.
Whoa! Back up, a whole new regeneration cycle? How is that possible? It was continually pointed out that Time Lords can only regenerate a maximum of twelve times before they died The 25th Anniversary Special was written by Terrance Dicks who is a previous Doctor Who script editor and writer as well as the author of numerous Target Novelisations of the show.It's very hard to believe that someone who is virtually Who royalty would've forgotten or ignored show canon.
In the Peter Davison story, Mawdryn Undead ,Mawdryn and his accomplices attempted to steal Time Lord technology in order to give themselves a regeneration cycle, instead it gave them one life with a perpetual mutation.
Mawdryn, the would be Time Lord.
In order to end their suffering they required the fith Doctor's life and as he himself pointed out, it would cost him all his remaining regenerations and would effectively finish him as a Time Lord. This is because to aid each of Mawdryn's crew as well as Mawdryn himself would require one of each of the Doctor's regenerations.
In Colin Baker's first story, the universally disparaged, Twin Dillema, the Sixth Doctor meets an old friend and fellow Time Lord, Azmael. Azmael forces himself to regenerate in order to stop a plot by the Gastropods. Peri asks the Doctor if Azmael will regenerate to which the Doctor says no, there are only twelve regenerations and Azmael had used them all.
Then we come to the first appearance of the Derek Jacobi/John Simm Master. At some stage the Anthony Ainley version of the Master may have "died" (he was no longer technically a Time Lord anymore since he now used the power of the Keeper Of Traaken to steal other people's bodies.)
The John Simm tells the Doctor that the Time Lords ressurected him to use as a weapon, presumably in the Time Wars with the Daleks.
DNA Or Consciousness Via The Matrix.
The ideas I'm about to put forward are hypothetical but I believe plausible given what we know about Time Lord technology and medical research.
We know that the Matrix contains the sum total of all Time Lord knowledge. We also know that the Master has been inside the Matrix (as has the Doctor.). It isn't beyond the bounds of possibility that the Master 'deposited' his mind and personality into the Matrix to retrieve later on to place into a new body. This sort of operation wouldn't be beyond limits of Time Lord technology. We also know that a mind/body transference is possible because we have witnessed the 6th Doctor's companion Peri, undergo it in the Trial Of A Time Lord Story, Mindwarp.
In the 10th Doctor Story Human Nature and part two of the same story, Family of Blood, we actually see the Doctor change his physiognomy to that of a human with all of his Time Lord genetic information contained inside a pocket watch. Professor Yana (The Master) also underwent a similar transformation in another story that heralded the arrival of actor John Simm as the Master.
From what has been just revealed we can see that Time Lords can manipulate the physiognomy so changing their gender doesn't seem like a total impossibility at all.
The Romana Regeneration Contraversy.
When the late Mary Tamm (1950-2012) left the show after playing the role of Romana for a year, a new actress was required to take over the role.
Douglas Adams (creator of The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy) was the shows script editor at the time and his sense of humour can clearly be seen in the regeneration scene from Destiny Of The Daleks. It should be pointed out that Mary Tamm had never refused to do a regeneration scene, she simply wasn't asked to do one as she told fans.
In the TARDIS, Romana casually informs the Doctor that she's regenerating. This one scene has caused a great deal of anger amongst fans. The anger was aimed at the way Romana paraded into the control room wearing a variety of regenerated forms including a distinctly alien looking body. Fans decried the casual way threw away bodies like she was trying on dresses. It appeared that Romana had used up (or most of ) her entire regeneration cycle in a few minutes.
It wasn't until many years later when the show had been relaunched that the controversy was finally put to rest.
Lend Us A Hand Guv.
In the Christmas Invasion, a newly regenerated Doctor was undergoing post regeneration trauma and had been asleep/comatose for a prolonged period of time before he was strong enough to deal with the invasion by the Sycorax.
In a scene that would've shocked many fans (myself included), the Sycorax leader chops off the Doctor's hand.
Now we can understand Romana's parade of bodies, because she was still within the first fifteen hours of her regeneration and because she had regeneration energy left she was able to "try" out new bodies until she decided on the one she liked and letting the fifteen hours pass. When she 'chooses' the Princess Astra look body she even tells the Doctor, "The arms are a bit long, still,I can take those in a bit."
Now, while I'm all for answering questions if I possibly can but before I'm bombarded by Whovians asking "Why hasn't the Doctor done this?" let me explain.
In part one of the series finale, Dark Water, we learnt that Missy (aka The Master), had been collecting the minds of the deceased to use as a new army of Cybermen.
In Death In Heaven, her reason for going to all this effort is revealed. No sooner have the Cybermen marched down the steps of St Paul's Cathedral, than the U.N.I.T. team arrive, led by Kate Stewart, daughter of the late, beloved Alistair Lethbridge Stewart for those who aren't familiar with that particular relationship. The Cybermen blast off into the air and explode to create an ominous looking dark cloud. To me, this make the Cybermen way too overpowered. I know we have seen flying Cybermen before but this simply makes them more like the Sentinels (Marvel comics robotic mutant killers). I've always felt that the Cybermen were far more frightening when they showed an "organic" aspect of themselves. Despite advances in make up and costume, I still find the 10th planet Cybermen and to a lesser extent, the Earthshock models far more chilling.
Both the Doctor and Missy are tranquilised and taken aboard an Air force One style aircraft where the Doctor discovers that the enactment of emergency protocols have made him President Of Earth. The minds that have been harvested by Missy are then used to seed the cloud and it begins to rain on cemeteries around the world. This "rain" is actually something that is similar to nanobots that have the complete blueprint information to turn the dead into cybermen. The Doctor informs the U.N.I.T team that there is simply no defence against an army that can weaponise the dead.
The Death Of Danny Pink (for good no kidding).
Danny Pink started off as a fairly likable character but when writer Stephen Moffat continually used the character to berate the Doctor over morality and whether the Doctor was in fact a good man, he quickly became annoying
The dynamics between Danny and the Doctor became nothing more than two Alpha males beating their chests to try and impress Clara the female, Jane Goodall would've been impressed. In 3W, Clara has been trying to convince a group of Cybermen that she is actually the Doctor in order to avoid being deleted. She gives the Cybermen the galactic coordinates of Gallifrey and a lot of other information relating to the Doctor. This scene was not thought out at all, in his attempt to write a clever scene, Moffat has ignored the fact that the Cybermen can simply scan her to see if she has two hearts. A cyberman materialises besides her and destroys the Cybermen and then teleports itself and Clara to a graveyard. Upon removing it's faceplate we see it's Danny.
I did find Danny's slightly zombie look horrifying and I give high praise to the costume and make up department for giving us this chilling vision of what it means to become "upgrated". Danny's emotional inhibitor hasn't been activated so he can still feel, especially his love for Clara. By this time the Doctor has arrived after Cybermen destroyed the plane and Missy escaped. In a really badly written scene the Doctor is falling to earth when he gets collected by the TARDIS.
The Doctor warns Clara that if she activates the inhibitor Danny will be fully Cybernised and will destroy her. Danny tells the Doctor to do it but he refuses (leading to another angry exchange between the two which nullifies any tension or sadnees from the situation).
Happy Birthday Doctor!
Missy arrives and the whole reason for her scheme is revealed. Yes it was Missy that brought the two of them together, she simply wanted to see how a control freak like the Doctor would be able to work alongside someone who couldn't be controlled. This does go towards some way to explain why I was never comfortable with the Clara character and why she was difficult to warm to but it does seem like a ridiculous reason when Moffat himself has built up the character so much.The Doctor tells Danny he needs to have the inhibitor switched off so Danny can gain access the hive mind and discover the Cyber plan. Finally, Clara switches off the inhibitor but Danny doesn't kill her because Moffat whacks us over the head with the Hallmark Card notion that loves is stronger than anything. That may have been a nice touch thirty years ago but it's been overused since then. Missy explains the Cyber army is actually a birthday present for the Doctor to prove that they really aren't so different after all and now the Doctor can go and save all the people he wants to with his own army. The fact that the Doctor actually thinks about it is disturbing, OK, we have a darker Doctor but there is no way the Doctor would use the dead in any of his incarnations. He gives the Cyber control bracelet to Danny who goes into soldier mode to order the cybermen to fly into the cloud and destroy it and themselves as well. Clara wants to kill Missy naturally, (seen that before with Martha Jone's mum). The Doctor tells her not to or she'll be no better than Missy, ho hum, been there done that etc. Missy is then conveniently killed by a lone Cybermen who turns out saved Kate Stewart from falling to her death from the U.N.I.T plane. Why did this Cyberman save her? Because it was created from the skeleton that was her father Brigadier Alistair-Lethbridge Stewart in a piece of writing that has both angered and outraged fans.
The first big revelation in Dark Water is that Danny Pink is dead, killed whilst crossing the road and talking to Clara on his mobile phone. The way characters can constantly return from limbo, death, alternative universes may make this comment obsolete by next week. I am not going to be surprised in the least if he is back sucking face with Clara next week.
In her grief, Clara attempts to blackmail the Doctor by collecting every key in the TARDIS and then throwing each one into a lava pool until he agrees to take her back and change events, preventing Danny's death.It turns out that this scene was just a "dream" (always viewed as a writing cop out when you've written yourself into a corner.) in order for the Doctor to discover what Clara's motivations were.
If writer Steven Moffat was hoping this desperate, angst riddled Clara would have the audience howling buckets of tears then he missed the mark by a long shot with this writer. That scene made me absolutely loathe Clara Oswald. Why does she believe her loss is any greater than anyone else on the planet? To see how a similar situation is portrayed take a quick look at Rose Tyler's scenes when she watches her dad's death in the 9th Doctor story Father's Day. I'm prepared to accept that grief can and does make people do strange things but it seems everything Clara does is always way over the top.
Doctor Orpheus.
In a direct reference to Greek Mythology, the Doctor offers to take Clara into the underworld to find Danny, just like Orpheus ventured into the underworld to beg Hades to release his love Eurydice. The underworld turns out to be the Netherworld, a place where the consciousness of the dead go to. In actual fact it is actually the Matrix, a Time Lord device that houses minds like a hard drive.
In a nutshell, the minds of the deceased are being kept in the Matrix whilst their bodies are saved to be used as new cybermen all with the help of the mysterious Missy.
If this story title vaguely reminds you of your high school English literature classes then you're not mistaken. The title is actually a line from the poem Tyger, by William Blake.(1757-1827)
Tyger, Tyger burning bright,
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye,
Could carve thy fearful symmetry?
This isn't the episode's only literary reference, as Maeve, the main child protagonist, runs through the forest, she leaves behind items from her school bags as clues for others to find, a direct reference to Hansel and Gretel which even the Doctor acknowledges. As the reviewer from web site Stranger Views noted, it's a little hard to be terrified of a brightly lit forest and I'd also add that it looks like a place you'd walk your cocker spaniel.
Been There..Done That.
This story isn't a chiller, it's a standard mystery, where did the forest come from? How did it grow overnight? Is it actually an alien? Whilst it's interesting for the viewer to ponder these and other questions there is no tension or even fear of the forest itself. Two wolves and an escaped tiger from the zoo only momentarily lifted the tension (but it barely got my heart rate up). What really lets this episode down is the cliche of the misunderstood child who may or may not be responsible for the predicament they all face themselves in.
Does that seem a little familiar to you? It should do, the concept was explored in the David Tennant Doctor Who episode, Fear Her where a child could bring her drawings to life. In the case of this story, it is young Maeve, who is on medication because she hears voices ever since her elder sister disappeared, and is now on medication.
Maeve's ability to communicate with the 'spirits of nature' which have protected the Earth for millenia hardly comes as either a shock or major revelation, we simply knew she would lead us (and by us read that as the Doctor.) to the truth.
The Doctor had never been a shrinking violet...until Flatline.
First Impressions.
The very first thing I thought of when I saw the cubby house (U.K readers that is Australian name for a Wendy House, U.S readers, you know this as a tree house or play house.)sized TARDIS, was the Fourth Doctor's final story, Logopolis. In that story, the TARDIS begins to shrink due to the Master's interference in the block computation transfer, but in that story it is also the internal dimensions of the time vessel shrinking which threaten to squash the Doctor, in Flatline, it is only the outer dimensions of the TARDIS which are shrinking. My question is, were the Boneless shrinking the TARDIS to convert it into a two dimensional article or where they draining the ship's energy to gain entry into this dimension?
I know this may seem like a picky point but consider this, if the Boneless were using the energy from the TARDIS to enter our dimension then what energy source were they using before the TARDIS arrived? This may be one of those questions that only pedantic Whovians like myself would ask but I believe if a writer is going to introduce a brand new (relatively) alien then these sort of details need to be made clear, especially if these aliens are ever to make a return appearance.
Doctor Clara Oswald.
With the Doctor literally having to sit this one out, having Clara taking on the investigation was very much a make or break situation for the character. I personally didn't like the way Clara parodied how the Doctor solves mysteries, by insulting everyone and telling everyone to trust him because he is the Doctor and he is terribly clever.There are many out there (and I've spoken to a few on Twitter) who dislike Clara and having her sent up the Doctor and his mannerisms may actually alienate them even further. To be fair though, this was a brave attempt to show Clara that it wasn't easy being the Doctor. When she tried to use the psychic paper on someone and it didn't work she was left to momentarily fluster her way through the situation. It is something the Doctor has had hundreds of years to get used to and bounce back from but not so easy for a school teacher.
By and large, having Clara step up to plate for this story did work, thankfully the writer didn't include too much in the way of relationship dynamics with her and Danny Pink or the whole thing may have gotten bogged down focusing on dysfunctional relationships between Clara the Doctor and Danny. The only thing I found mildly annoying was Clara's need for a 'pat on the head' from the Doctor. Her constant, "did good didn't I?" began to sound like a child looking for compliments because she cleaned her room. Other companions never seem to question the part they've played in helping the Doctor, perhaps another one of Clara's characteristics is a lack of self assurance on some level.