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I've been a bad blogger...

Hello! I've been naughty - I hope Santa will forgive me! I haven't blogged since January and I feel very guilty. I have been very busy with work for the past six months but am now coming out of that heightened busy state to a more normal "business as usual" way of working so I want to get back to updating the blog and maintaining the news feed more regularly.

On the subject of Doctor Who, I just want to say how great Matt Smith is as the 11th Doctor. Quite easy to understand what the producers saw in him at the interview waaay back in the middle of 2008. Wasn't that a long time ago? And doesn't David Tennant seem like a distant memory now that Smith has stamped his personality all over the role?

The Sarah Jane Adventures continue to impress me more with each series. I am convinced that Clyde would make an excellent companion to The Doctor. Maybe when Amy and Rory move on, he should fill their shoes?

I have high hopes for Torchwood S4 with it being co-produced by Starz - who brought us the fabulously gory and rather rude Spartacus: Blood and Sand.

Don't forget to check out the superb "Ultimate Regeneration" book from the nice folk at Kasterborous. It is a compilation of news, reviews and articles covering the first five years of the return of Doctor Who to encompass the RTD area. 50% of the book is new material to put all the varied articles into context - with some of those articles written by yours truly. Check it out here...

WhoNews iPhone App

Paul Gee has created a WhoNews app for the iPhone and included Kopic's blog feed as one of the sources. You can find it by searching for "WhoNews" on the app store or by using this link. Thanks Paul!

The Waters of Mars

I don't know about Mars, but my waters are certainly flowing! Can't wait to see what happens tomorrow. Those of you listening in to the Christian O'Connell Breakfast show on Absolute radio this week would have heard guest host David Tennant reveal a little teaser about WOTM - he said that after a really big explosion The Doctor does or says something really out of character. We know The Doctor is aware of his impending doom and regeneration so this must be some of that angst working it's way out.

If you missed the shows, why not download the podcasts?

Enjoy!

P.S. NASA has announced that they HAVE found water on the Moon. I am unusually and rather strangely excited by this news!

Sarah Jane Adventures!

Tomorrow (Thu 15th Oct) sees the return to our screens of the fabulous Sarah Jane Adventures - and with two episodes per week shown on Thursdays and Fridays that means you can record them both and sit down to watch them in on sitting. Preferably on a Saturday tea time surrounded by the family with the cold winds blowing outside and curtains shut to keep out the dreary real world. In other words, the traditional time and place for Doctor Who! Not on a sunny summer's day when you've all been out for the day or are round at a friend's house having a barbecue.

"Prisoner of the Judoon" this week. Should be interesting, but I can't wait for "The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith" where we get to see HIMSELF take part in the story, not just a cameo. Read more about this at Kasterborous

Wicked!

For a chance to see a BIG SCREEN preview go to Liverpool ONE cinema which is hosting a Sarah Jane Adventures themed weekend event as reported by Whoviannet and SarahJane.tv

New era - new logo! New Kopic!

It's here! The all new shiny logo! Love it, retro and just the way it should be. Hooray!

Kopic has also taken this opportunity to launch the all-new looking Kopic's Doctor Who and Torchwood News site! Enjoy!

Too! Many! Exclamation! Marks!!!

The Eleventh Hour Approaches

Wow! Four months since my last blog. How time flies!

Speaking of Time, with a capital T, I've just seen the trailer (as premiered at Comic Con) for "The End of Time" - this year's two-part Christmas special and... David Tennant's last regular outing as The Doctor! And man, does it rock! Even through the shaky-vision camera style and the muffled sound it looked fab. It was sooo good it almost made me stop thinking about Series 5 next year with Matt Smith and the delectable Karen Gillan.

The Eleventh Doctor's costume was a bit of a surprise at first and, I must say, I am hugely disappointed that the Beeb didn't release a proper publicity shot ahead of the papparazzi shots we got on the day of filming. A nice shot of Matt and Karen in costume standing in front of the newly redesigned TARDIS exterior wouldn't have gone amiss. However, that candid first picture of the two of them sharing a laugh whilst sat on the steps of a trailer IS very good - it captures the chemistry between the two nicely. So good in fact that a close up of their faces now adorns my computer desktop, and accompanies this post.

Critique-wise, the Doc's costume grew on me rapidly - it reminds me of a cross between Patrick Troughton and Indiana Jones' professorial outfit. It also reminds me of how a friend of mine used to dress twenty years ago - yes, he was a big Dr Who fan!

So, it's all looking good for the future of Dr Who with some excellent looking specials coming up to cap the Tennant/Davies years and some good casting and design decisions for Series 5 and beyond!

Noooo! Not again!

News (unsubstantiated rumour?) leaked today by the bastion of truth and justice that is The Sun, reveals that not only is The Master returning (again played by John Simm - yay!) but La Piper will return and will be accompanied by Catherine Tate and Freema Agyeman.

So, what was all that tosh about the boundaries between universes not being traversable and never again will Rose and The Doc meet??? Never let the established facts or a previously good story stand in the way of another wacky idea, eh, Russell? Doomsday had a corker of an ending which is increasingly watered down by repeated returns of the one who could never return.

Anyway, it'll be great to see John Simm return as The Master, maybe toned down a notch from the manic megalomaniac madman of Last of The Timelords. And it will be wonderful to see Donna return one way or another - the only new series companion that I actually DO want to see again. Freema was fab as Martha, but I think her story really has been played out and she voluntarily left - several times!

Anyhoo... bring it on, this fan boy can't wait to see how 10 meets his end and how 11 will pick the weighty mantle of Britain's most popular icon! :-)

Reactions to the casting of Matt Smith

Kopic is happy. Its not some piece of stunt casting. Its not a woman (nothing against women - its just supposed to be a male character!).

Its "relative unknown" Matt Smith. With expressive hands and face. And weird hair. Ideal! Under the tutelage of Steven Moffat with tips from David Tennant this young lad could go far. I can't wait!

Go see what other people make of this casting announcement

Matt Smith IS the new Doctor!

Announced during the special edition of Doctor Who Confidential tonight, Matt Smith, most notably from Party Animals and the Philip Pullman Sally Lockhart mysteries (Ruby in The Smoke, Shadow in The North), IS THE ELEVENTH DOCTOR!

http://www.kasterborous.com/news.asp?ac=11&id=2028

Doctor Who @45 Competition!

23rd November sees the 45th anniversary of the first showing of Doctor Who and to celebrate this wondrous event the nice people at Kasterborous.com are offering a few choice items as free giveaways to those people lucky enough to have their names drawn from a proverbial hat. I say "hat" because I don't know yet what the actual receptacle will be for collecting the names that are sent in via email. Head on over to Kasterborous.com for your chance to win a copy of "The Time Traveller's Almanac" and/or Lance Parkins' "History of the Universe" and/or some pretty exclusive art prints from Anthony Dry - Kasterborous' own art director whose work has also adorned the pages of Doctor Who Monthly, the Complete 3rd Series box set and numerous Big Finish productions.

Good luck!

The Darksmith Legacy

Yours truly was privileged last week to be invited to the press launch of this new series of Doctor Who books from Penguin. The Darksmith Legacy will be a series of ten books (the first two to be published in January) accompanied by a website providing many opportunities to explore this new saga in print and online. The books will have puzzles and clues that enable the reader to unlock different locations on the website in order to help them complete a quest... The graphics on the website are superb and the preview of the first book, "The Dust of Ages" by Justin Richards, leads me to believe this will be a big hit.

You can read my full account of the launch event over at Kasterborous...

Musings...

The Sarah Jane Adventures have got off to a flying start with a story about the last surviving Sontaran from the doomed invasion fleet from the two-part Doctor Who S4 story "The Sontaran Strategem". Commander Kaargh demonstrated some new tricks from the tactical armoury of the Glorious Sontaran Empire, including a rather cool Predator-style invisibility shield and a not-so-cool foldaway helmet which looked rather lame and was rather unconvincing. Story-wise, we had a simple plot with Kaargh wanting revenge on the human race and using a remote radio telescope observatory as a base to try and take over the world's satellites to launch all out nuclear war. He is thwarted in the end by a stiletto shoe. I think that sort of resolution only really works on British kid's TV - and work it does, due to the character of Chrissie being given something to do for a change and relishing the chance. Where else in the world would you find a finale like that, eh???

Rumours abound on the Doctor Who front, with David Morrisey playing "the other Doctor" in this year's christmas special, entitled "The Next Doctor". Make of it what you will, but this "other Doctor" has a companion named "Rosita". My theory is that David Morrisey is in fact playing an alternate universe version of the 11th Doctor that David Tennant would have regenerated into during "Journey's End" if he hadn't aborted the process early.

More rumours have Patrick Stewart (I think he played someone in a Star Trek series, or something...) playing The Meddling Monk in a two part Dalek story next year. The Monk is another Time Lord, last seen in the 60's era of the show as played by Peter Butterworth. So, it seems that there's another Time Lord that escaped the Time War. So much for it being time locked. Thanks to Dalek Caan for messing that up! :-)

What else is on Kopic's radar at the moment? In non-Who stuff we have the excellent Fringe which started on Sky1 this weekend. Most enjoyable modern take on The X-Files, from the very talented JJ Abrams. Which reminds me... only a few more months (alright seven...) until we get JJ Abrams' version of Star Trek with the superb Zachary Quinto as Spock. Which further reminds me of a renewed and rejuvenated Heroes which has also just started airing on the BBC. Straight back in with a bang, new characters and some intriguing glimpses of heroes-turned-villains and maybe villains-turned-heroes? Who knows? Can't wait to see how this unfolds!

Russell OBE Davies

Congratulations to RTD on his being awarded an OBE for his services to TV drama!

Check Google news for widespread coverage

Don't Blink!

The Gaurdian has announced that Steven Moffat will take over as Doctor Who lead writer and exec producer from 2010 (series 5) when Russell T. Davies steps down.

Yay! Congratulations, Steven!

Kopic's Newsround

Yay! Week three already and its "Planet of the Ood" tonight. This looks like being a corker if everything I've read is to be believed. Look out for an important prophecy or two...

The latest edition of Kopic's Newsround is now up and about and looking for victims at Kasterborous.com. Here's an extract to entice you over to read more...

Nice article from The Daily Mail which talks about the ratings success of Partners In Crime and has some pictures of "The Fires of Pompeii", but what's most interesting about this article is the background it gives on Georgia Moffett (Fifth Doctor Peter Davison's daughter) who appears in episode six, The Doctor's Daughter. It reveals that she became pregnant at 16 during her GCSEs and was too scared to tell her father. Most bizarrely, though, she was best friends with sixth Doctor Colin Baker's daughter at school. How spooky is that???

The excitement builds to fever pitch!

The latest edition of Kopic's Newsround is now online at Kasterborous.com and here's a preview...

Wahey! At last the media feeding frenzy has begun! Tuesday evening saw the press preview and Doctor Who was all over the papers and the interweb the following day with some mixed reactions, but mostly positive.

Mind you, what amused me most was the fact that a few Doctor Who stories got published earlier on that day. That day being 1st April, I hasten to add. First up, we had the revelation (mentioned in the last Newsround… because it amused me so) that Sarah Jane Smith and Captain Jack would be getting it on in the next series of Torchwood! Thanks to Torchwood.tv’s mysterious correspondent for that wonderful wind-up!

The 3rd and final part of the Kasterborous Round Table 2007 should also be on line today for your perusal. Go visit. Read more articles. While you're there, why not join the forum and join in with the debate amongst a bunch of fans with a more mature view of the world than some other forums. When I say mature, I mean fans that are constructive rather than destructive towards the show they profess to love.

K.

Kopic's Newsround

I am now writing a regular feature for Kasterborous.com entitled "Kopic's Newsround" just in case you hadn't already realised... :-)

Here's the start of today's bulletin:

Series 4 news is still thin on the ground, but some lucky son-of-a-gun from TV Scoop has seen the first two episodes at a press screening recently and reckons that Catherine Tate as Donna "did a good job (or certainly a better job than I was expecting)".

I’m not sure what to make of that, personally. Is "better than I was expecting" a glowing recommendation? Apart from the first episode, Partners in Crime, which seems to be another one of those lame-ass comedy efforts like New Earth (read the article if you dare), the second episode, Fires of Pompeii, seems to have impressed the author who says that it "was just dynamite" and goes on to say... READ MORE

Don't forget to read Part 2 of the Kasterborous Round Table 2007, also written by me.

That's it. Shameless self-publicity over now!

Torchwood Ends! Doctor Who Returns!

I haven't posted any more reviews of individual Torchwood episodes... I kinda lost the impetus and didn't get fired up enough to write anything. What does that tell you? Torchwood has great "moments" but the bits in-between tend to leave one feeling cheated. Go and read Lawrence Miles' blog for an excellent summary so far. I wonder what tricks they can pull out of the hat for the season finale this week that'll make people actually WANT to watch more?

As for Doctor Who... Wow! The latest trailers look good, don't they??? Hope the show lives up to the promise. Only a few days away now. Head on over to Kasterborous.com and you'll see yours truly writing a semi-regular news roundup over the coming weeks.

Article on Kasterborous.com

Head on over to Kasterborous.com and read part one of a series of Round Table articles I've written for this esteemed organ. The knights of this round table are Brian Terranova (associate editor of Kasterborous.com), Christian Cawley (master of the web and chief writer for Kasterborous.com), Nick Brown (a vocal member of the Kasterborous forum and article contributor to Kasterborous.com), Anthony Howard (known to many as "captainjackharkness" from the Torchwood.tv and SJA.tv blogs), Matthew (editor, webmaster, head cook and bottle-washer from the wonderful EyeOfHorus website) and Steve Preston (another forum member, article writer for Kasterborous.com and half of the dynamic duo behind The Black Scrolls ‘zine).

Enjoy!