Andrew Reynolds is a writer at Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews - All the latest Doctor Who news and reviews with our weekly podKast, features and interviews, and a long-running forum.
Today’s News Blast goodie bag contains: LEGO, a triumphant Rose Tyler, Video Game woes, TV Licence dodging, monosodium glutamate, Yellow Dye number Five and a generous portion of satire.
Michael Kerrigan (1952- 2014)
Firstly, Kasterborous says goodbye and pays its respects to director Michael Kerrigan, who passed away at the age of 61.
Kerrigan was one of only two directors (with Graeme Harper) to have worked on both the original and new incarnations of Doctor Who franchises, having directed the 1989 serial Battlefield and four episodes of The Sarah Jane Adventures in 2008.
He had a wide range of credits on British television, working on a number of well-known dramas, including: Coronation Street, Captain Mack, The Basil Brush Show, The Famous Five, and The Bill.
LEGO Eleven
Following on from previous Doctor Who Lego sets currently seeking approval by the almighty LEGO Gods, the Doctor Who: Dalek Attack mini set – featuring some of the best Dalek designs so far – needs your approval to take its place on toy shelves across the known universe.
The set includes mini-figures of the Eleventh Doctor, Clara, Two Daleks (white and black), a UNIT Soldier and a park centre with monument, park bench and TARDIS (although, as Master Builder atiesinga6 comments; you’ll have to forgive the size – maybe it’s bigger on the inside?).
To cast your vote and peruse the rest of the Doctor Who range, head over to LEGO Ideas.
A Rose By Any Other Name
In a revelation surprising no one, Rose Tyler has triumphed in the Radio Times Companion Championship – beating pan-sexual time agent Captain Jack Harkness after five rounds and more than 2.3 million votes.
Tyler ‘rose’ to the top after seeing off favourites including Strax, River Song and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. Her final bout with Captain Jack attracted more than half a million responses alone, with a late push snatching victory for Tyler by a mere 2,000 votes.
Piper thanked fans for voting, saying Rose was “still a very precious character to me.”
Very Funny Who
‘Astute’ and always ‘very funny’: that’s how author Pete May describes Doctor Who’s prickly relationship with authority in his new book, Whovian Dad: Doctor Who, Fandom, Fatherhood and Whovian Family Values.
In a piece in The New Statesman, May charts a potted history of satire in Doctor Who, including: the ‘sieg-heiling’ Daleks of the First Doctor, Pertwee’s ‘Friends of the Earth’ concerns in the likes of The Daemons, Tenth Doctor’s whispered takedown of Harriet ‘don’t you think she looks tired?’ Jones, and, then right up to date with the ‘lizbian kiss’ of the Peter Capaldi era.
Whovian Dad: Doctor Who, Fandom, Fatherhood and Whovian Family Values by Pete May can be downloaded now from Amazon Kindle Books for £2.48.
How To Make A Good Doctor Who Game…?
As we all know, Doctor Who video games are terrible. No, I’m sorry but let’s face it, when it comes to pixelating the Doctor’s adventures, be it on console or PC, most efforts have spectacularly failed to truly capture the imagination and scope of the show.
So how do we fix this mess? Well Edward Price over at Gaming Lives has a few suggestions of how best we can push start and continue making Doctor Who games befitting the licence.
Perhaps his best point concerns the disconnect players feel when taking control of the Doctor: “Instead of an exuberant Matt Smith who bounces across the screen, enjoys confusing his enemies and who knows when to stand and fight, you’re instead forced to play a man who keeps talking to himself, avoids all conflict and takes it all so seriously that he can’t even make a joke to break the tension,” he says. “In fact, the only similarity is that both versions use the Sonic Screwdriver for absolutely everything to the point it’s basically a short-hand deus ex machina.”
His solution? Well, you might not like it.
“My fix for this problem is a simple one: don’t base the Doctor on a pre-existing personality. In other words, have the story begin during one of his regenerations. It can all start at the end of a big conflict of sorts, as long as it’s not the bloody Time War, or even in the middle of one. Actually, I think that works better. Okay, hold on a second, I’ve got this. So, the Doctor has arrived at the scene of a giant conflict between him and the main antagonist(s) and he’s given them a final ultimatum: surrender and leave, or face the full force of the mightiest Time Lord in the universe.”
A Doctor Who game where you create your own Doctor – much like creating your own playable character in, say, Mass Effect – but isn’t it just swapping one poor facsimile of the Doctor for another one albeit one that you got to dress?
Anyway, the whole piece is worth reading, especially if, like me, you are desperately hoping one day the BBC does actually give the franchise licence over to Biomass. And don’t forget to check out Kasterborous Magazine #2, which looks at Who games throughout the ages. It’s a great read – not that I’m biased at all.
Oh Good. The TV License.
And finally, the never contentious issue of TV Licences.
A review of how the TV Licence is paid will be undertaken by ministers due to concerns over court appearance figures – Court Appearances being the ghastly over priced £200 million drama series starring John Simm as John Straightedge; a lawyer dragged into the murky underworld of magic-based crime: ‘Appearances can be…deceptive.’
Or it’s the equally horrifying statistic stating that 10% of all cases heard by Magistrate Courts are TV licence related… with 50 people going to prison over non-payment of their licence.
It will occur just as Rona Fairhead, the ministers’ preferred chair of the BBC Trust, faces questions from the Commons Media Select Committee about her thoughts on the regulation and funding of the BBC.
Both the Conservatives and Labour have voiced calls for the decriminalisation of non-payment of the licence fee.
Culture Secretary Sajid Javid commented at the Royal Television Society:
“When over 10% of magistrates’ court cases concern this one offence, you have to ask whether the current system is really working. So that’s exactly what I’m going to do.
The government is committed to launching a review of decriminalisation once the Deregulation Bill receives Royal Assent. But we can’t afford to wait that long. This needs to begin now.”
Crikey. That got a bit heavy there, didn’t it?
Tune in soon for another News Blast which promises to not contain any information about TV licenses. Probably.
The post Friday News: Goodbye to Michael Kerrigan appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.