Thursday 30 October 2008

Doctor Who theme performed by Ye Gods!

The Macra


The Macra first appear in the 1967 Second Doctor story The Macra Terror by Ian Stuart Black. They are an intelligent, giant crab-like species from an unnamed planet colonised by humanity in the future. The Macra invade the control centre of the colony and seize the levers of power without the colonists — including their Pilot — knowing what had happened. Thereafter the Macra only appear at night, when the humans are in their quarters, observing a curfew. They have strong hypnotic powers which alter human perception. They also have the ability to ensure messages are vocalised through electronic apparatus such as television or sensor speakers. Both these tools are used to keep the human colonists under control, believing they are blissfully happy. This provides a cover for the Macra to use the colonists as miners in a vast gas mine. The gas is deadly to the miners but vital to the Macra, enabling them to move more quickly and rejuvenating their abilities. The Second Doctor effects a revolution on the Macra planet and helps engineer an explosion in the control centre, destroying the Macra in charge.

The Macra also feature in the 2007 episode "Gridlock", becoming the only one-off opponent of the Doctor in the classic series to appear in the revived series so far. (They are also the opponent whose consecutive appearances have been furthest apart, a record previously held by the Autons as of Rose.) In the episode, some Macra are found to be alive below New New York, a city of New Earth. They live in the thick fog of exhaust gases on the main motorway under the city, tracking the flying cars by their lights and snatching at them when they get too close. The Doctor says that the species is billions of years old and once developed a mighty empire as "the scourge of this galaxy", but the Macra beneath New New York must have devolved into nothing more than beasts. The status of the Macra beyond "Gridlock" is yet to be seen.

Aw Naw!


Gary found this but I'm posting it!

Wednesday 29 October 2008

DVD classic

The final Classic Doctor Who release of the year has now been confirmed as the Sylvester McCoy-starring Battlefield. The four-parter sees the Seventh Doctor and companion Ace (Sophie Aldred) team up with the Brigadier (Nicholas Courtney) as they do battle with the forces of Arthurian legend who travel to modern day Britain to unleash the power of Excalibur for their own nefarious ends. Costarring ex-Mrs Jon Pertwee Jean Marsh as the sorceress Morgaine, this was the first story of Season Twenty-Six to air in 1989 and is the last from that season to arrive on DVD.
More info here

3rd Doctor: Babelcolour Tribute: Jon Pertwee










Sunday 26 October 2008

Book explores Doctor Who's haunts

A writer and Doctor Who expert has compiled a book in which he explores and learns more about the show's often bizarre filming locations. Nick Griffiths, who writes on the Time Lord for the Radio Times, travelled around England and south Wales visiting locations from old and new episodes.

Link

Lazarus Mutation

Saturday 25 October 2008

Music of the Spheres ( Graske )

The next Who continues


Next on the list after Paterson Joseph we now have Stephen Fry nominated by io9

Cassandra O'Brien


According to Cassandra, her parents were the last to be buried "in its soil". She had been born a male on Earth and lived on the edge of the "Los Angeles Crevasse". Married several times, her life had been extended through a series of 708 plastic surgery operations, until she was nothing but a piece of skin stretched onto a frame, with eyes and a mouth, connected to a brain in a designer jar filled with a preserving solution below. The skin had to be constantly moisturized to keep it from drying out. As the rest of the human race had long since either interbred with other intelligent species or altered themselves to the point even they don't call themselves human anymore (references are made to 'New Humans', 'Proto-humans' and 'Digi-humans'), Cassandra considered herself the last "pure" human, and all others as 'mongrels'. Rose Tyler characterized her as a "bitchy trampoline" and referred to her as "Michael Jackson".


A real life Cassandra :-)

Friday 24 October 2008

Murray Gold - This Is Gallifrey

Cheltenham Literary Festival

At this year’s Cheltenham Literary Festival, one of the biggest events was The Times’ talk with Russell T Davies and John Barrowman, on the subject of the inconceivably successful reinvention of Doctor Who and the Doctors real name.

Exclusive Doctor Who preview on Children in Need

The clip, from the special entitled The Next Doctor, will show the first two minutes of a brand new episode for the Time Lord. Starring David Tennant and David Morrissey, the two-minute piece will broadcast as part of the BBC Children in Need show on Friday 14 November, BBC One, 7.00pm.

Grant Morrison talks Doctor Who

Grant Morrison cut his teeth on the comic versions sprung from the TV version, writing three stories that 20-some years later, people still talk about. Accordingly, IDW is reprinting them, with the first issue collecting “Changes” and “Culture Shock,” now in color and currently in stores, with other early stories by Dave Gibbons soon to come. And now, Morrison wants to do more.

Cassandras beauty tips

Thursday 23 October 2008

Face of Boe


The Face of Boe is a fictional character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who that appears to consist of a gigantic, human-like head, with, in place of hair, numerous tendrils, which terminate in round, pod-like structures. He is encased in a clear, sealed container and mounted on a movable pedestal base. The Face of Boe is a wholly mechanical effect, not portrayed on-screen by an actor, and is voiced by Struan Rodger. The Face merely grunted during his appearance in "The End of the World", communicated telepathically in "New Earth" and "Gridlock", and spoke for the first and last time in the latter. He is said to be billions of years old.


Wednesday 22 October 2008

Tom Baker interviewed by Jon Culshaw

Adipose


The Adipose were seen in the episode "Partners in Crime". In the story, their breeding world was lost, causing them to turn to the alien "Miss Foster" to create a new generation. She formulated a drug that would cause human fat (anatomically: 'adipose tissue') to parthenogenetically morph into Adipose children. This process is completely harmless to the host beyond the loss of body fat. In an emergency situation the process can be accelerated by using the host's bone, hair and muscle tissue as well as fat, but this makes the Adipose ill and weak, and kills the host by completely using up their body.

Tuesday 21 October 2008

Dalek Sec Hybrid


The Dalek Human race were created by the Cult of Skaro in New York in the year 1930. They were human bodies, with Dalek minds inside. The Daleks were relying on a gamma strike from the Sun to release the energy needed to splice the human and Dalek genomes together, and it was later revealed that the Empire State Building was constructed under the order of the Daleks by a human called Mr Diagoras, who was then merged with Dalek Sec, giving him a mind and a conscience. However, Dalek Sec, with the Doctor's help, wanted to change the process to give them emotions, as he believed that the creator of the Daleks, Davros, had been wrong all those years ago, when he determined that having no emotions made them stronger than their enemies. However, the rest of the Cult of Skaro - Daleks Thay, Jast and Caan, believed that he was no longer a Dalek. They turned on him, but the Doctor escaped, and held onto the spire of the Empire State Building as the gamma strike occurred, giving each of the Dalek Humans a potential for free will. Daleks Thay and Jast confronted the Doctor in an empty theatre. They tried to kill him, but Dalek Sec sacrificed himself to save the Doctor, losing his own life in the process. This potential for free will later asserted itself when they were ordered to open fire on the Doctor, and they turned on Daleks Thay and Jast, killing them both. Dalek Caan then deemed that the experiment was a failure, and put all of the Dalek Humans to death in an act of genocide.


Paul McGann Opening (1996)

Monday 20 October 2008

Weeping Angels


The Weeping Angels are a group of hunters featured in the Tenth Doctor episode "Blink". Because their physiology is quantum-locked, they only occupy a single position in space when seen by an observer (see Schrödinger's Cat). When they are not observed they become a "quantum wave form" that occupies many positions in space, thus they cannot move while being observed; but when they are not they can appear to travel exceedingly quickly. They use this ability to approach and attack unwary prey. They turn to stone when observed, acting as a defense mechanism. While in their locked state they appear as stone statues, often covering their eyes so that they will not see themselves, and lock themselves forever. This defense mechanism is what gave them the name "Weeping Angels".



According to the Doctor, the Angels are as old as the universe (or very nearly) but no one really knows where they come from. He also describes them as "creatures of the abstract", "the lonely assassins", and "the only psychopaths in the universe to kill you nicely", because their method of killing doesn't do anything of the sort: a touch sends their victims into the past to live out their lives before they were even born; the Angels then feed on the "potential energy" of the lives their victims would have lived in the present.

Sylvester McCoy Opening (1987)

Slitheen Through The Ages

Friday 17 October 2008

Doctor Who regenerations

The Goodbye Song (Doomsday)

Silurians

The Silurians are a fictional race of reptile-like humanoids in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The Silurians were Earth's first sentient species, were scientifically advanced, and lived during prehistoric times. At some point, the Moon approached close to Earth, threatening to cause geological upheaval, and the Silurians went into self-induced hibernation to survive.






Doctor Who and the Silurians: 31 January–14 March 1970
Warriors of the Deep: 5–13 January 1984
The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood: 22–29 May 2010

Thursday 16 October 2008

The Ood


The Ood are a humanoid species with coleoid tentacles on the lower portions of their faces. In the distant future (circa 42nd century), the Ood are a slave race to humanity, performing menial tasks, and it is claimed that every human has an Ood servant. According to human characters in their first appearance, the Ood offer themselves for servitude willingly, having no goals of their own except to be given orders and to serve. It is also claimed that they cannot look after themselves, and if they do not receive orders, they pine away and die. However, mention is made of a group called the "Friends of the Ood" who are apparently lobbying for Ood freedom. Ood also have purple blood.

The Ood require a translator device, a small sphere connected to their "mouths" by a tube, to facilitate speech between them and humans. The tube was originally connecting their external brains to their body, but to use the creatures, far future humans would amputate the brain and instead fix the translator sphere where the brain used to be. There appears to be no gender differentiation among the Ood, and they say they require no names or titles as they are "one", but they do have designations such as "Ood 1 Alpha 1". The Ood are empaths, sharing among themselves a low-level telepathic communication field, rated at "Basic 5" (with "Basic 30" being the equivalent of screaming and "Basic 100" meaning brain death). When reaching out with their telepathic fields, it can be heard as singing. According to the Official Doctor Who Annual 2007 the Ood live on a planet in the Horsehead Nebula where they were governed by a Hive Mind but it was destroyed by Human colonists.


Would you like a Jelly Baby?

Peter Davison Opening (1982)

The next Who


Paterson Joseph has joined the ever
growing list of Who could be the next Who
..more info here

Wednesday 15 October 2008

Seven Doctors in the Tardis

It (according to a few newspapers) looks like we might get to see all the seven surviving Doctors in a TV Special for Children in Need on November 14th.
In the Tardis would be (if all goes well) Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann, Christopher Eccleston and of course David Tennant.

Davros through the ages

Daleks through the ages

Daleks are organisms from the planet Skaro, integrated within a tank-like mechanical casing. The resulting creatures are a powerful race bent on universal conquest and domination, utterly without pity, compassion or remorse (as all of their emotions were removed except hate).[1] They are also, collectively, the greatest extraterrestrial enemies of the Time Lord known as the Doctor. Their most famous catchphrase is "EX-TER-MI-NATE!", with each syllable individually screeched in a frantic electronic voice


Tuesday 14 October 2008

We are not amused!

Prince Charles turned down a chance of a life time to be on the show.
Russel T Davies told the BBC that the Prince of Wales had declined a request to guest star on the series and was “a miserable swine” for doing so. According to the BBC, a spokesman for Prince Charles said, “We receive a great many requests, and it’s impossible to accept them all.”

Late In: a Clarence House spokeswoman told Reuters the Prince himself had not actually seen the request.
"We did receive a request from 'Doctor Who's' producers," she said. "It was not turned down by Prince Charles but by a Clarence House official. We receive hundreds of requests and he doesn't see them all.It's not uncommon for people to resubmit requests with different criteria and if it was resubmitted we would look at it again."

Tom Baker Opening (1980)

Tom Baker Opening (1974)

Dalek Sec Joanne

Monday 13 October 2008

Cybermen

Dr Who all 10 doctors in three minutes

I got an email full of suggestions for links for this site from my friend Tim and one of the things he mentions was a video called 43 years, 10 Doctors, 5-and-a-half-minutes but after a look around YouTube it seems the video has been removed unless any of you know better. So you will have to have "Dr Who all 10 doctors in three minutes" instead.




Tim also mentions the Project Dalek, how to build a 1/4 scale model of the robotic pet K9 and The TARDIS Library who have plans to build your own Tardis. And finally this picture of the TARDIS door currently on his desktop. Thanks Tim.

EDIT: Thanks to Gary for finding the video I was on about. It is now called Doctor Who 45th Anniversary 1963-2008.