Tagged: Doctor Who

Four New Characters Join ‘Torchwood’

Four New Characters Join ‘Torchwood’

  • News
  • October 14, 2008

Torchwood Magazine has the first scoop on the newest members joining season three of the popular spinoff from Doctor Who. The five-episode serial, Children of the Earth, has been shooting since late August with a 2009 airdate to be announced,

Producer Peter Bennett walked readers through the four starting with Lucy Cohu (Cape Wrath) who will play Alice, "a woman keeping many secrets from the past".

Susan Brown (The Riff Raff Element) will be Bridget Spears – "a character vitally connected to the government, which plays an important part in this story".

First-time performers complete the cast: Cush Jumbo as Lois Habiba, "a secretary who hacks into some vital information", and Rik Makarem, playing Doctor Rupesh Patanjali, a "junior doctor at St Helen’s hospital who gets drawn into Torchwood’s investigations".
 

Seven Doctors, No Waiting

Seven Doctors, No Waiting

  • News
  • October 13, 2008

We mentioned a rumor that the annual BBC charity special for Children in Need this year might feature a reunion of previous doctors along with the current Doctor, David Tennant.  Now London’s Telegraph is report that the seven surviving actors who have played the Doctor will be reunited for the special, to air November 14.

An insider at the BBC told the paper, "It’s a pretty ambitious idea and it’s still being finalized. Everything is being kept under wraps but Doctor Who fans are in for a big treat."

The Doctor has been seen on the special for the last several years and the producers have carefully woven his short escapade into the current dramatic series continuity.  Last year, for example, saw Peter Davison meet Tennant.

Reportedly joining those two will be Tom Baker, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann and Tennant’s predecessor in the current revival, Christopher Eccleston.

The first trio of performers to essay the role — William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, and Jon Pertwee – have all passed away.

Davison’s daughter, Georgia Moffett, has been seen on the current series and is currently dating Tennant.

In related news, Tennant and his most recent companion, played by Donna Tate, have been nominated for the National Television Awards’ Outstanding Drama Performance. Tennant has won twice before and will go head-to-head with Tate who played Donna Nobel.  There’ll be no Doctor Donna winner in this, the first time male and female stars will compete in the same category. The Doctor Who stars face competition from Ashes to Ashes’ Philip Glenister and The Bill’s Alex Walkinshaw.
 

Road to Ultimatum

Road to Ultimatum

  • News
  • October 10, 2008

Last week, Marvel released a free comic enitlted March on Ultimatum Saga, a basic guide to the history of the Ultimate Marvel Earth and its heroes. Although one or two of the facts reported are in question (as I discussed in my article Where Have All The Editors Gone?), it is an appropriate release when you consider that the Ultimate Marvel titles are supposed to suffer a dramatic change as a result of the crossover Ultimatum.

But in case you missed out on this issue, don’t worry. Marvel has put it up as a digital comic on their website. So if you’re a paid subscriber to Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited, this issue is just a few clicks away.

Didn’t read the story arc featuring Ultimate Carnage? Missed out on what’s been revealed so far in Ultimate Origins?Curious where the heck Ultimate Nick Fury disappeared to? The answers are all there.

ComicBookResources.com has also posted preview pages of Ultimate Origins #5, which will lead into Ultimatum.

Ultimatum #1, written by Jeph Loeb and illustrated by David Finch, will be on sale the first week of November. If you missed out on the free comic and don’t feel like paying for the online subscription, here’s a quick rundown of just a couple of the recent major events that you should be aware of.

 

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G.I. JOE Relaunches with IDW

G.I. JOE Relaunches with IDW

  • News
  • October 9, 2008

Back in the 1960s, the first doll to be called an "action figure" was created. The "G.I. Joe" line (named after a term used to describe a generic soldier) was a popular toy and depicted soldiers from different U.S. armed forces. In the 1970s, it was re-tooled as the Super Joe Action Team.

In the 1980s, the line was re-launched by Hasbro as "G.I. JOE: A Real American Hero" and now there was a story wrapped around the action figures. It was said that the different characters were all part of a group called G.I. JOE, essentially a counter-terrorist strike force involving the best agents from all branches of the military. Their primary enemy was said to be Cobra, an organization bent on world domination, led by the vicious Cobra Commander and aided by the Scottish war profiteer James McCullen Destro.

This new storyline ignited an interest among fans that has continued for years, inspiring multiple cartoon series, a new live-action movie coming out next year, and a comic published by Marvel and written by Larry Hama (Wolverine), who also wrote the "history files" of the characters for their trading cards and who was no doubt aided by his own experience in the military.

The series spanned 155 issues from 1984 to 1994, along with a few spin-off titles, all of which added deep layers of history and characterization to the JOEs and veered heavily away from the more light-hearted cartoons. Stories ranged from flashbacks to Vietnam to high-flying action in exotic locales to epic struggles between ninjas and battles with science fiction super-villains. In 2001, Devil’s Due Publishing began their own G.I. Joe series, picking up years after the Larry Hama series had ended and lasting over 130 issues, not including spin-offs.

Now IDW has taken the property and has new plans for their own G.I. JOE comics. But rather than continuing the original series and dealing with years of history, they’ve decided to reboot the entire universe from scratch, re-imagining the world and introducing the players to a brand new audience. And this isn’t just one new series. IDW is actually launching three titles under the G.I. JOE banner: G.I. JOE, G.I. JOE: Cobra and G.I. JOE: Origins. The third title will be written by Larry Hama himself.

The three titles will be edited under the direction of Andy Schmidt, who was Marvel’s editor for the cosmic crossover Annihilation. Schmidt spoke to CBR about the new titles and how they will relate to each other. Although each title will reflect the same people and occasionally reference events featured in the other books, the intention is to keep them separate so that readers can follow just one line if they so wish without feeling like they’re only getting part of a story. Likewise, a story that begins in one will not directly continue into one of the other titles.

Andy Schmidt remarked, “[G.I. JOE] has a large cast and will focus on characters and character beats but it’s more the ‘big action movie’ style title. If you really want to get to know Duke, Stalker and the other JOES, then Origins is the book for you. If you’re looking for more of a suspense-thriller feel then Cobra is the way to go. None of the titles is the lead book. Together they all form a strong foundation." Schmidt added, "Obviously, I’m hoping fans will want to try all three and I think those that do will be very happy, but I don’t want to twist anybody’s arm. Each book can be read on its own, but if you’re reading all three you’re going to get some extra layers."

To kick-start the relaunch, IDW is releasing G.I. JOE #0 this month to the tune of one dollar. "It’s not preview pages," Schmidt assured. "There’s actual story content in the issue, so you can see which one or two or three of the books you want to buy.”

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Where Have All The Editors Gone?

Where Have All The Editors Gone?

  • News
  • October 8, 2008

Something is going on in comic books. Have you noticed? It’s been happening for a few years now. For some reason, certain comics are not making sense with the rest of the established universe and history. For some reason, things that don’t make sense have been running rampant throughout the fictional realities of DC and Marvel.

Have you noticed it? Sure you have. I’m not the only one, right?

Have you checked out DC Decisions #2? It’s very interesting. Guy Gardner is on Earth rather than Oa. And Power Girl is around instead of still trapped on the new Earth-2. Does this story take place before the current JSA storyline? Or afterward? It would be nice to be told in a brief footnote.

Then there’s the recent Hawkman Special where Carter Hall was told that his memories of being the Ancient Egyptian Prince Khufu were a lie and it basically was said that Khufu couldn’t have existed. Okay, um, wait a second. Black Adam and the wizard Shazam were both there and lived alongside Khufu. And the JSA actually went on a time travel mission a couple of years ago and worked with Khufu against a younger Vandal Savage. How can all of that be explained by false memories? Has the entire JSA been infected with identical delusions?

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The Big D, by Elayne Riggs

The Big D, by Elayne Riggs

  • News
  • October 8, 2008

Back in the spring during my job hunt, I took care of my annual checkup. I’d gotten fed up with my New Rochelle physician who’d kept up a steady drumbeat of “you need to lose weight” as the answer for everything from my heart scare to high blood pressure to allergies (the allergy advice seemed to always be supplemented by free samples of Flonase, from which she was doubtless getting a kickback), and heck if I wanted to schlep into New Rochelle again anyway. So I went to a local doctor who was listed as a fat-friendly health professional. But while this local doc was certainly friendly, she turned out not to be terribly fat-accepting, especially considering the results of my first workup.

Her office called me when the test numbers arrived, asking me to return, which I did, shortly before I was offered my current position. Nobody said why I had to come in again, but I was misled to believe it was because they needed to retake the blood test since I hadn’t fasted prior to the first test (not that they’d reminded me I should have). Well, as it turns out, I was greeted with the kind of news that pretty much rocked my life in a dramatically deeper way than did my atrial fibrillation scare of Aught-5. That was the overnight hospital stay which gave me a wake-up call at age 48 that I could no longer eat anything I wanted and not suffer the consequences. So I commenced with a salt-restricted lifestyle, missed potato chips and pickles for awhile, but could more or less deal with it just fine.

This one was different. The diagnosis was diabetes.

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Could Velile Tshabalala be the Next Assistant?

Could Velile Tshabalala be the Next Assistant?

  • News
  • October 7, 2008

Velile Tshabalala will guest star in 2008’s Doctor Who Christmas special, “The Next Doctor”.  In a profile published in West Sussex Today, she revealed some details about her character Rosita, "I am just so excited about it. We filmed it in April in Cardiff and Gloucester and Monmouth and so it has died down a bit, but now it is getting closer and I just can’t wait.

"It is just a one-off Christmas special but out of all the episodes I could have been asked to do it is far better that it is this one. The Doctor is faced with another Doctor. Rosita is the assistant to the other Doctor but as the episode goes on she starts helping the Doctor we know."

Will she follow the debut of Donna Nobel in a special and become the Doctor’s next assistant?

"A lot of people have been saying that it hasn’t yet been decided who the next assistant will be. But obviously I would love to do more. At the moment I am just being positive about it, that I did it and that I had a great time. But I would love to be in it again if I can."

Tshabalala is a comedic actress who debuted first appeared on CBBC’s Kerching! fdollowed by three season of Tittybangbang and had an appearance on ChuckleVision.

Her film work includes 2004’s Streets.

Patrick Stewart May Make it So

Patrick Stewart May Make it So

  • News
  • October 7, 2008

What was first discounted as a rumor has gained heft and may actually be a reality.  Actor Patrick Stewart may well be beaming aboard the TARDIS for the next season of Doctor Who.

According to a report in the UK’s Daily Star, Stewart has reportedly been offered the role of the Meddling Monk, a Time Lord once featured on the series. Apparently the BBC has offered him the role and are willing to wait for Stewart’s schedule to clear so it may happen for one of the 2009 specials or the new season beginning in 2010.

British fans have been treated to David Tennant, the current Doctor, and Stewart, formerly known as Captain Jean-Luc Picard, performing Hamlet together.  The two have become fast friends and Stewart is an avowed fan of the series.
   
The Monk was introduced as someone who encountered the first Doctor, back in the early 1960s.  As portrayed by Peter Butterworth, he was a comical fellow and appeared in two stories, “The Time Meddler” and “The Daleks’ Master”.  The character disappeared from screen but has been used in other media through the years.
 

The Theory of Webcomics: Superstar Theory

The Theory of Webcomics: Superstar Theory

  • News
  • October 6, 2008

In my last entry, I discussed a number of the ways that webcomics make money and mentioned that only a few of the thousands of webcomic artists are able to actually do so. There are a number of factors that play into which comics make money (and for that matter, which attract the most readers, and which work best with each type of business plan), but I think a critical one is what economists know as “Superstar Theory”.

Aside: I am an economist by schooling, and years ago, this was a major point in my undergraduate thesis paper. I didn’t invent the phrase—that honor goes to actual economists like Sherwin Rosen—but I suspect I was the first person to use it in reference to webcomics. I’m going to assume you have a basic idea of how economic supply and demand works, here: As people demand more of a good, the price goes up; as producers make more of it, price goes down, and everything else pretty much flows from that.

The classic model would be a baker: If more people want cupcakes, and start lining up at his door to buy them, then he can raise the price and make more money. If a second bakery opens up down the street, people can buy cupcakes from either of them, and the first baker will need to lower his prices or he’ll see his business go to the competition.

In most modern artistic fields, there are a small number of artists that grow huge followings and tend to get the majority of the word-of-mouth “buzz.” This concept is known as the Superstar phenomenon, in which a relatively small group of people earn significantly more money than most in their field, and, in fact, dominate that field in general. Performers, writers, and sports players of the first rank command huge incomes, and there is a large gap between their salaries and those of people of the second rank—though the difference in skill between first and second rank may be minute. (Think of what Harrison Ford makes versus what his “unknown” female co-star makes.) For an economist, this can be complicated to examine with your classic supply-demand model, because that model assumes that products are undifferentiated—one is as good as any other. What’s missing is an account of “box office appeal,” or the ability of a single person to attract a large following.

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Davies says Tennant Won’t Leave ‘Doctor Who’

Davies says Tennant Won’t Leave ‘Doctor Who’

  • News
  • October 5, 2008

Russell T. Davies suggested to Britain’s Sunday Express that the current Doctor, David Tennant, may remain in the role for quite some time.

“David has brought everything to Doctor Who. I remember exactly where I was when I saw him audition for Casanova, I thought, ‘Here is someone saying the lines exactly as they are written.’ But mainly it was the sense of humor. A lot of straight men don’t handle humor well, but he can do the tragedy, too,” he told the paper.

"David may never leave; he could go on forever… I haven’t talked to him about leaving. Maybe it will never happen. Maybe he’ll be 70 and have to be taken off set."

The outgoing producer of the popular series then discussed the 2008 Christmas special and revealed, “It’s called The Next Doctor’, and there is a major plot twist at the end. We’re even thinking of not having a press screening, because we don’t think anyone will be able to keep it secret. For the first time we have two men together as leads. It’s a small focused idea, a little different.”

The Cybermen arrive to spoil a Victorian era Christmas and will guest star David Morrissey and Dervla Kirwin.

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