Welcome back to our look into Torchwood‘s 2008! This time we ask our panel “What would you LIKE to see?”, in other words: what they think SHOULD be a feature of next season in terms of story, continuity, character development, tone, et cetera. We’ve a slightly shorter installment today, with Dave sitting this one out (but look out for his expanded comments in RTP 25)

In our first part you’ll recall that the character of Owen took some hits as something the panel would like to see attended to, improved, or just mutilated in some horrible way. Sadly, as a ‘need-to-have’ Owen doesn’t get off lightly today either. JE:”Owen has been infected by the Weevil, and starts turning into one. In fact, that’s how they are created!” and “Rhys will find out about Owen”. So, either way, a world of pain for Torchwood‘s resident wide-mouth frog. That said, the show’s signature alien race has clearly made an impression, with Al wishing to see “The origin of the Weevils dealt with (are they the slave race of another species?)” Perhaps Al will get his wish – who knows?

Origins were a key feature of our last panel of course, and this time our experts continue to express the urge to poke and pry into the wider world of Torchwood beyond The Hub. Jon suggested “The first episode needs to acknowledge and deal with the (world-wide shattering) ramifications following the violent deaths of both the US President and PM (as seen in Sound of the Last Time Lord Drums), rather than shrug if off with a ’X Months Later’ caption and no mention of it by the Torchwood team”. He’d also like to see “more revealed about the Rift and how it works. We don’t fully understand how it functions, or what it actually is – is it natural or ‘man-made’? (From the Time War?)”, which was also briefly (and more directly) covered by Jamas last time. Foo thought “Some history / background to Torchwood Cardiff itself, how it was built, when, and by whom?” would be a good place to go as well.

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Fresh off the interwebs today…

Pure evil distilled, the enemy of all that is right and good. Pictured here with John Simm.

 Greetings, and welcome to another instalment of Crystal Ball. This time looking at the curiously-anticipated forthcoming second series of Torchwood. I say curiously-anticipated because since last year’s run the show has had, to put it kindly, mixed reviews. Far beyond the ‘Marmite’ label, the series has issues – with common complaints of poor writing, a juvenile sense of what ‘adult’ drama actually entails, unsympathetic characters and uninspiring storylines. A lot was riding on this series, and one idea that came out of what eventuated was that too little preparation was given to the programme, resulting in a mish-mash of styles and treatments. The series is premiering in the USA, and Ain’t It Cool News caught wind of it. The talkback speaks for itself… Series two arrives early next year, so it’s time to ask our panel what they’d like to see.

In fact, we’ll be asking the panel three things – what they’d LIKE to see (their wish list where anything goes and indulgence of the fan is the order of the day); what they WANT to see (the things they think ought to return or be introduced to improve the series); and what they think we WILL see. Because the panel’s answers make for a lenghty article we’ve chooped this one up into three sections, with each section arriving on a different day. Today it’s LIKE’s turn. Our panel consists of: DR (David Ronayne), JP (Jon Preddle), AB (Alden Bates), AH (Alistair Hughes), JE (Jamas Enright) and SB (Stuart ‘Foo’ Brown). 

Q: ‘What Would You LIKE To See?’

Straight off the block on this one, our panel held very little back, some using this category to suggest improvements. Which, strictly speaking, can be a wish list in itself, so here goes. “Competence!” cried JE, while DR wanted Torchwood the series “To grow up”. Some of the storytelling got a fair whack as well, including: “No more deux ex machina solutions” (JP) and to expand from SB: “Well written stories which don’t have cop out or Deus Ex Machina endings”. Honestly, it’s like we’re on the same page here, people! “An episode free of annoying characters. (hmm… not sure who would still be around.)” – that was JE again, and “Plots that work – rather than the weekly alien thingee falls through the rift, stuffs some people up, the team shag, and Jack pulls a solution out of a hat.” from DR. JP was even more specific with “More care taken with internal continuity : date-wise, series 1 seemed to cover mid-2007 to mid-2008, which is nearly a whole year, and yet from a character development point of view, it seems to be only a few months.” Okay, enough negativity guys; what would you like to SEE?

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Hello!

Well apart from the worst tube strikes in a decade, all is well in Ing-Ge-Land.

Only been here four days and have done much! Seeing John Simm in a Westend (well… Whitehall) comedy tomorrow which should be good – been getting rave reviews.
A few pics attached, including one from Hamleys – super Who section.

Jono

So then. Season Five is on – but not until 2010, and it’s unconfirmed whether David Tennant will be returning. In the mean-time we’ve a full year of the Tenth Doctor plus three one-off TV movies (well, two and the now traditional Christmas Special). What form those movies will take is yet to be revealed, and we may well expect it to be some time before anything concrete emerges. Perhaps they’ll be self-contained, perhaps they’ll be linked, perhaps these movies will way-lay any concerns over flagging audience figures by featuring ‘big gun’ monsters and villains? Perhaps it’s too early for predictions. But the reactions are coming in thick and fast, as you’d expect.

Kasterborous don’t like it.

BehindtheSofa are a little more balanced

And the NZDWFC Message Board is buzzing. As it should be.

It all comes down to how you interpret the news and the BBC spin. There’s cause for concern – a possible loss of momentum, fewer stories, the Doctor a little less outside of centre stage (although in a fifth year the show would be doing well to be still occupying that spot, surely?) On the other hand, it’s very encouraging to see the BBC display such faith in the show’s lead character that they will seemingly give him leave to pursue some work with the RSC. Maybe that’s a sign of a healthy franchise. And who knows – we may still have Torchwood and Sarah Jane to bide us over in the mean-time (that’s a BIG may!)

The series has changed before, and the new series was a change in itself. Telly ain’t what it was when the Doctor last took a hiatus. Here’s hoping the signs will be right for a happy return for season five.

PA

Hello gentle reader and welcome to our month in review for August 2007. As we’ve been down this road already this month, it’s an abbreviated, slightly less-silly summary of the month’s events. Read and enjoy – and don’t forget to join us at the end of September when Jono will have his snaps back from the UK!

RIP OUTPOST GALLIFREY

Well, we can’t say we didn’t see this coming. Oggie as we’ve known it is a site not long for this world, soon to inhabit a multitude of various new guises with name that just aren’t as cute to abbreviate as ‘Oggie’. It’s all been said before and we’ll not continue the initial chest-beating as a year’s planning has obviously paved the way for a better future for Shaun Lyon and his collaborators. But… damn! And vale Outpost Gallifrey. The days of the great one-stop Who fan site will soon be behind us.

FAREWELL CLAYTON

What? What? WHAT? Nothing happy ever came of that repeated phrase, and yes, ’tis true. Long suspected as happening soon by one of us, erstwhile DWM editor Clayton Hickman has announced his departure for bigger and brighter things (fantattle says Big Finish), with erstwhile deputy Tom Spilsbury jumping into a well-warmed editor’s chair. Longtime readers will remember Clay as being the last editor of fandom’s showless years, managing the difficult task of keeping the magazine viable and entertaining while for a long time having not a lot telly-wise to report. And he did a smashing job. Well done Clay, and all the best for future endeavours.

RTD’s 80s TV

Now is it me or is there a vague vibe going on with the rumours being concocted leaked put about from Rusty these days? Believe them all and you’d be forgiven for thinking series 4 will be largely made up of hat-tips to 70s and 80s TV. Kylie, Joan Collins, cruise liners and lady detectives. Can’t you just hear the pitch? “It’s Neighbours meets Dynasty… and then it’s Murder She Wrote - on The Love Boat!”

DOB-IN-A-DOC!

Earlier this year we had news of series 3′s Big Bad spoiled by none other than Gene Hunt from Life on Mars (well okay, Philip Glenister). But who could have foreseen that the alleged involvement of Sir Peter of Davison in an alleged Comic Relief skit and/or series 4 would be revealed by… Sylvester McCoy? To Peter Jackson? Here in NZ? Bonkers. It’s got to be a conspiracy, or a red herring to throw us off or something. Either that or some King Lear-vs-Spamalot theatrical rivalry hitherto unspoken and now realised in the form of- oh God I don’t know. You couldn’t make this stuff up!

MEME PEOPLE SUCK

Poor Adam Rickitt. A Coro star in the UK, then sent to our shores to play mixed-up could-still-be-murderer Kieran Mitchell on Shortland Street (and play very well this week it has to be said!). He’s ours for a while, it would seem, and a welcome guest to our little local telly scene. BUT. On Outpost Gallifrey’s Forums he’s an institution. A weird, you’re-in-on-the-joke-or-you’re-completely-bewildered institution. We’re not in. We’re not sure we want to be in. Some folks go on Who and move on to Coro (Mark Eden, William Russell, Helen Worth); some go on Coro and progress to Who (Thelma Barlow). And then there’s ‘teh interweb’ in all its mad glory, doing the job for them. Weird. And a little obsessive.

It’s one of the little pleasures stemming from the ever-increasing output over the last few years – we’re finally getting to see some well researched, well produced documentaries on our DVDs.

The best of which recently has been Endgame on the Survival DVD, which looks at what would have happened had the series continued beyond Season 26. Fascinating in its ideas, its revelations (sorry fanboys… there was no masterplan) and its interviewees (particularly with Peter Creegan – the man who swung the axe), the doco benefits greatly from focussing on a relatively recent period of time, and includes pretty much all of the key players.

Other notable successes have also been the various New Beginnings docos (when did we EVER think we’d see footage of Tom Baker throwing tantrums on set!), the Invasion animation presentation, and the ‘how it all began’ on the Beginning box-set, which is the model for how to make a documentary interesting when there really isn’t much to show.

This is a far cry from the first DVD documentary that I saw – the talking head-fest that was the Seeds of Death retrospective. Sssssssnore. Essentially a group of talking heads, it sits at a bloated 40-something minutes, when a tight 15 would have been of much more interest.

Luckily though, it does seem like the DVD team have sorted themselves out and we’re now getting more than just a collection of cobwebbed anecdotes. Personally, I’d love to see an indepth Season 23 one, perhaps tied in with a Trial box set, and how about some focussing on the early years, such as the tumultuous season 6, or a certain aspect of the show like console room design, or even the history of that stalwart of Doctor Who production – CSO!

They don’t need to be long… they just need to be good.

JP – creator of the most groan inducing heading ever.

WE’RE GONNA PARTY LIKE IT’S 1987!
Truly, we are living in a Golden Age. A Doctor Who is touring the country with Gandalf and has made the time to stop by and see us. And TSV enters its third decade. It’s all here in our special bumber-sized bijou edition of Fast Return…

ORCINI’S CAREER SAVED BY ZEUS BLOG!
You read it here first, folks.  And then you probably read it here.

IT WAS TWENTY YEARS AND A WEEK OR SO AGO TODAY!
July 1987. Where were you? Were you even born yet? On this month in history future-TARDIS anagram Kylie Minogue put her singing career into motion with, er, ‘The Loco-motion’. The world’s population turned five billion. TSV‘s readership was two. It all began there though. How did you mark the event? A moment’s silence? Hugging the nearest Xerox machine? Thinking of Ken Dodd’s casting in Delta and the Bannermen and clenching your fists? We camped out at the Auckland University Library to find the original photocopier that made the dream a reality, but it’s been sent to that service depot in the sky, the original photocopier bay refitted to include computer terminals. Our balloons may have shrunk, the Miami wine cooler gone flat and the Cheezels gone stale, but the dream lives on. Happy birthday TSV!

THE HISTORY OF TSV REVISED!
It was tantalisingly promised on the Armageddon website, then cruelly corrected – revised, even. So in order that a few fans are traumatised as possible by this loss, here’s what our research boffins came up with:

• The first issue of TSV was actually discovered in the form of some microfilms found embedded in some glass cubes dug up in Terry Nation’s back garden. Translated by David Whittaker and resized to A5, they became the quarterly fan newsletter we enjoy today.
• The Christchurch years of the NZDWFC never existed, but were in fact a crafty way of utilising the Garden City’s lighter tax regime. It’s all obvious when you realise that Andrew Poulsen is an anagram of LAUNDER NEW SOP – that ‘sop’ being of course the TSV coffer. Thought you’d get that one past us, eh Paul?
• Volumes 1 through to 5 (plus volume 9) of the Doctor Dictionary were in fact composed and published, but were incinerated by BBC Archives in 1974 and now rest somewhere deep underneath the Johnsonville Landfill.
• With the imminent departure of TARDIS Tales fromthe TSV roster the zine’s editorial team was put into an intense panic. By chance during the turmoil Junior Editor Matthew Dentieth knocked over a table of Banana Man and Viz comics, and Erato was born.
• Plans for TSV 70s editorial to be made available as a podcast from the NZDWFC website were shelved at the last minute, when it was discovered that playing the audio backwards revealed the phrase “Paul is Dead” repeated throughout the recording.

AND FINALLY…

William Shakespeare’s King Lear, directed by Trevor Nunn.
Westpac St James Theatre, Wellington 13 August 2007.

While it might initially seem odd for a Doctor Who blog to be reviewing a production of the Royal Shakespeare Company, let’s not beat about the bush – undoubtedly a major drawcard for the sell-out season of Lear in New Zealand has been its star Sir Ian McKellen. No stranger to the worlds of screen fantasy, his tenure as Gandalf a few blockbusters ago most definitely moved some ticket sales. Given the buzz on the NZDWFC Message Boards then, it’s only a small step to assume that the casting of Sylvester McCoy as Lear’s Fool didn’t hurt in the telefantasy fandom stakes either.  

But to give the production its due beyond the interest of fans, I was very impressed. Lear is one of the ‘big’ plays of Shakespeare, carrying with it the tradition of older actors having aged into the lead role (but not too far, given the physical demands evident in this production) and no less demanding roles of Gloucester and Kent. It’s been said that McKellen could be a little young for the role at 68, but I had no concerns. His Lear ages through the play convincingly; a tremor in places, hoarseness in the voice, a wounded stoop – all a shadow of the character’s entrance in military regalia and compliment of retainers. His king is a notably physical being from the outset – setting on servants and striking his daughters. The character’s inevitable descent into isolation and madness maintains a solid continuity through McKellen’s performance, despite the parallel Gloucester storyline and subplot of Goneril and Regan.

In these no lesser characters we have also been spoiled – Frances Barber’s Goneril is reliably cold and manipulative, more than a match for her sister, as ably played by Monica Dolan. Barber’s star turn is apparently in the companion play from the RSC tour, Chekov’s The Seagull, but her Goneril is prize stuff indeed. If any of Lear’s daughters do disappoint it is Cordelia who distinctly doesn’t shine but grates; a shrill performance by Romola Garai doesn’t offer the opportunity to infer a doting relationship between father and favourite daughter, and so it’s left to the Fool, mourning her departure after the fact, to convey some of what that opening scene could not.

And so to Sylvester McCoy’s Fool. When I read about McCoy’s involvement in the play I confess I was a little concerned. Knowing his work primarily from Doctor Who I imagined him at a disadvantage among the play’s leads – but he’s great! Another demanding role, Lear’s Fool is burdened with a large number of lines, songs, moods and – in this production at least – spoons. McCoy’s scenes with McKellen alone are playful, but certainly achieve the mounded performance this Fool is duty-bound to continue. The actor’s past life as a stage ‘shock’ performer certainly is used here as well; his hanging by Regan’s men is done onstage and is indeed disturbing. Falling at the conclusion of the first Act, the curtains remained open with McCoy’s body hanging stage left, slowly turning while the audeince rose to seek out refreshments. Creepy.

 Finally, the third of four drawcards for me to this tour: William Gaunt. His Gloucester begins the play much like the king – at the height of his powers with treacherous offspring waiting in the blocks. Gaunt’s voice is as mellow and commanding as ever, and his physical performance as a father betrayed, wounded, blinded and cast out of home is every bit as moving and compelling as McKellen’s. Gloucester’s reunion with his king was heartbreaking stuff, and was the key moment for me in a performance which was well worth admission.  I’m very glad to have seen it.

After three hours the cast received a standing ovation; the greatest applause reserved for the play’s star, but not much less for his fellow leads, Sylvester McCoy’s Fool (who had received warm laughter and applause from a decidedly non-fan appearing house) among them. Well deserved.

PA

1.      Mockney Doc
Most British actors seem to be Londoners who have to attempt Scots accents when necessary.  With typical lunacy, our favourite programme has it the other way around.

2.    Upgraded
From the ‘crustacean abs’ to the sensibly scaled-down earmuffs, the new series Cybermen are yet another design triumph.  Bang up-to-date while still honouring all the best bits of the original – possibly the mantra for the series as a whole.

3.      Freema Agyeman
Not only is the latest Time-totty gorgeous and talented, but she’s even been to Science Fiction conventions – as an attendee!  (Certainly none that I’ve ever been to, though…)

4.      It’s Christmas-time, there’s no need to be afraid…
A Who Christmas Special?  How was that ever going to work?  Thank you ‘Christmas Invasion for being so perfect.  And as for The Runaway Bride, well, see below…

5.      It also travels in space…
There’s nothing more fun than the TARDIS crash-landing on your loo in Tooting Bec, as a wise man once almost said.  And then there was that wonderful motorway chase…

6.      Musicians call it the ‘b part’
The ‘middle 8′ might also be ‘the bit that the announcers talk over’, but thank you Murray Gold, for restoring the full closing credits theme – music to our ears.

7.      Torchwood
An original touchstone which gave us the wonderful Yvonne Hartman, and Freema a foot in the door.

8.      Surprise!
So The Beast really was Satan?  There were Daleks in the Sphere? Last of the Time Lords is set one year later?
Despite spoilerage in the magnitude of the ‘Mr Sec-agoras’ Radio Times cover, the programme can still pull a Kaiser Söze on us every so often…

9.      Late series random one-offs
Blinkin’ Love & Monsters!  Our regulars get a break and we get alternative charismatic leads for a week.  Everybody wins while the programme explores new possibilities in story-telling -  and we all know how important that is.

10.  The Pits.
When Tennant arrived so did the promise that the programme would leave Cardiff and space stations, and visit alien worlds.  And so a distant planet orbiting a black hole and humanities’ last outpost at the end of time look suspiciously like – quarries!
Hoo-ray!  The more things change…

AH