Tag Archive: Steven Moffat

Episode 367 – A “Moffatspective”

A month has passed since the official end of tenure, and we thought we’d take a look back at the “Grand Moff” Steven era. We take a retrospective look at Steven Moffat’s time as showrunner on Doctor Who with a look back at Seasons 5-10.

Also, big news from Big Finish with the announcement of more Tenth Doctor stories and a reunion of sorts by the original Torchwood crew.

Enjoy!

 

 

Transitional Scheduling

A quick look at this in “transitional schedule” for those of you that like to follow along with our homework.

If and when Glenn ever gets over being sick, we’ll get together and discuss our thoughts on the Tom Baker story “Planet Of Evil” in TTV #364. (This is also the last televised Sarah Jane Smith story we have yet to review.)  

TTV #365 is Big Finish Eighth Doctor Adventures Season 3: #2 “Hothouse” and Titan Comics 9th Doctor #11-15. 

More of the same in TTV #366 with Big Finish Eighth Doctor Adventures Season 3: #3 “The Beast of Orlok” and Titan Comics 10th Doctor Year 3 #6-8 & 10 (Notice a slight jump here, we are going to do the Lost Dimension as a separate event.)

Hard to believe it was all the way back in episode 42 that we looked back at seasons 5 and 6 with a Moffat retrospective. Well, a month has passed since the official end of the era, and we thought we’d take another crack at it. TTV #367 Grand Moff Steven – A look back at Seasons 5-10.

FEB

Really excited to get to TTV #368 and our book review of Candy Jar Books Lethbridge-Stewart: Travers And Wells by Robert Mamone. 

TTV #369 takes a look at Big Finish #102 “The Mind’s Eye” / “Mission of the Viyrans” 

One more 8th Doctor/comics match up in TTV #370 with Big Finish Eighth Doctor Adventures Season 3: #4 “Wirrn Dawn” and Titan Comics 12th Doctor Year 3 #5-7 

A bit of fun for TTV #371. We’ll talk about everybody’s favorite Brigadier via the “Liberty Hall” short film interview (this can be found as a bonus feature on “Mawdryn Undead”) and Candy Jar Books The Lethbridge-Stewart Quiz Book by Marc Jones. 

MAR

We’ll talk about last year’s huge Titan Comics crossover event “Lost Dimension” with all eight issues in TTV #372.

TTV #373 has a look at Big Finish #106 The Dark Husband 

Get Lost In Time with The Highlanders (Novelization & Recon) in TTV #374. 

And a bit more Big Finish to round out the month in TTV #375 with mainline range #97 “The Wishing Beast” “The Vanity Box”.

That’s us playing a bit of catch up. On the horizon? We may finally get to the worst kept secret in the Vortex and land on Traken… 

12th Doctor To Be Revealed on Sunday!

Stand by for an announcement….of an announcement!

Seriously though….the BBC has announced that the actor to play the 12th Doctor will be announced on a Live TV Special, entitled Doctor Who Live: The Next Doctor that will air at 7:00 PM (in the UK) on Sunday and 2 pm ET LIVE on BBC AMERICA.

Widely regarded as one of the most hotly contested roles in British television, the show’s host Zoe Ball will unveil the 12th Doctor in the first ever interview in front of a live studio audience set against the backdrop of a swirling vortex, amongst Daleks and the TARDIS.

Current Doctor Matt Smith and lead writer and executive producer Steven Moffat will both give interviews about one of the biggest roles in TV and set out just what it takes to be the Doctor.

They even made at trailer for the show. You can find out more about the special here.

Doctor Who Adventure Calendar Day 3

The Doctor Who Adventure Calendar will not be limiting it’s self to Christmas special teases. Today’s content is an interview with Steven Moffat on the Daleks.

From the website: “To celebrate the Doctor’s oldest alien adversaries we’re beginning a short series of videos which feature Doctor Who’s lead writer and Executive Producer, Steven Moffat, discussing their history. He selects a number of stories that are amongst his favourites and the most significant Dalek adventures, beginning, appropriately enough, with the Daleks’ debut from December, 1963.

He reviews stories stretching right back to the First Doctor era.”

You can watch the video here:  Doctor Who Adventure Calendar Day 3

A Madman With A Box

The following is a reprint of a blog post I did for my school blog…

This week, something extraordinary happened.

I’m not referring to a successful preseason game for a football team, or the reuniting of a loving couple, or even a political rally, thou those things too undoubtedly happened. I’m talking about the return of Doctor Who.

For the uninitiated, Doctor Who is a British science fiction series that started all the way back in 1963. Keep in mind, 1963 was not exactly a bumper year for science fiction. The heyday of films like THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, FORBIDDEN PLANET and EARTH VS THE FLYING SAUCERS was long past, Star Trek had yet to air an episode, and the juggernauts like STAR WARS and CLOSE ENCOUNTERS were far off in the future. So, without a built in audience, this was considered quite the gamble. Add to the mix that Doctor Who started (and in many ways remains) a children’s show. Dedicated to tossing in some education with it’s entertainment, many early episodes traveled back to historical Earth, and encounters with The Aztecs, or The Romans were common place. The show enchanted, captivated and scared the little ones.

And it’s been doing it for nearly fifty years.

It ran continuously on BBC from 1963 to 1989, when it was put on hiatus… and never returned. A co-produced TV movie for FOX television was made in 1996, (Steven Spielberg had a hand in bringing it back) with the idea of a new series launch, BUT, it was up against the episode of Roseanne where Dan had a heart attack. Viewing figures were not kind in the states. But it did well enough that hope remained for the show to return. Finally, it did in 2005. Not a reboot, but a continuation from where we left off, though with a faster pace and better effects.

This is the longest break between episodes since the show was revived. Partially because of the summer Olympics in London, partially because current show runner Steven Moffat has something planned for the last half of this season, which will actually air NEXT year in 2013 for the show’s 50th anniversary. Current episodes air Saturdays on both BBC and BBC America. So naturally, there’s a huge amount of hype built up right now, and many people are wondering, why?

The show is pure magic. Unlike Star Trek, which almost prides itself on it’s techno-babble, there are times when the Doctor just gives up. An example: “We’re just entering conceptual space. Imagine a banana. Or anything curved. Actually, don’t, because it’s not curved or like a banana- FORGET THE BANANA!” and then the matter is dropped. Most episodes deal with the Doctor and his friends landing on Planet X to discover Problem Y which must be solved by Time-Frame Z. The odd thing, is that at any point in time, the Doctor could just climb back into his ship and fly away. They’ve made jokes about it. But he doesn’t, because he’s curious, and because we wouldn’t have a show if he did. A hero who runs from trouble just isn’t all that exciting.

I co-host a Doctor Who Podcast, Traveling The Vortex (www.travelingthevortex.com) so I’ve been talking to a lot of newbies about the show, which is riding a crest of unprecedented popularity at the moment (last season it had the highest number of downloads from iTunes). I frequently find myself repeating some of the same things (not that I mind). So here’s my list of the 5 things you MUST know about Doctor Who, and the 5 things you MUST know before you sit down and try to delve into the new Series 7:

5 Things you NEED to know about Doctor Who

1) The Doctor is the last of the Time Lords, a race who understands, and can travel through time and space. He does this via his TARDIS, which stands for Time And Relative Dimensions In Space. It’s bigger on the inside, and its outside appearance is locked into that of a 1960’s London Police Box thanks to it’s cloaking device–called a chameleon circuit that disguises itself as something in the environment around it–or it would before it got stuck in that form.

2) Time Lords have two hearts and the ability to Regenerate their bodies depending on the extent of the injury, resulting in a new body (although sometimes the process is unpredictable). To date, 11 different actors have played the Doctor (Matt Smith is the newest), each bringing a unique set of quirks and personality to the role, but it’s always the same man.

3) The Doctor usually travels with one or more companions.

4) The Doctor is beyond intelligent, often making “Sherlock Holmes” like deductions with very little available information. Sometimes these are explained, sometimes you just roll with it.

5) Yes, there are nearly 50 years of history associated with the program, but don’t let that deter you. For the most part if you really need to know, they’ll let you know, and there are always plenty of fans to ask!

5 Things you NEED to know before you start Series 7…

1) Amy and Rory are the current companions, and are married.

2) The Doctor is presumed dead by most of the universe at the moment, which he is only too happy to play into, believing he’s gotten too big for his britches as there are legends about him.

3) One of those legends is about the First Question “It’s all still waiting for you. The fields of Trensalore, the fall of the eleventh, and the question. The First Question. The question that must never be answered. Hidden in plain sight, the question you’ve been running from all your life… Doctor… WHO?” The legend says that silence will fall when the question is asked, leading many to believe it will be the Doctor’s REAL death.

4) The show is unpredictable and quirky, and unlike most science fiction, the “WHOniverse” has things that may not be explainable. Roll with it.

5) The show is British; yes they have accents, yes sometimes they talk fast and are hard for the untrained ear to understand. Just roll with it and stick with it!

If you are really interested but afraid to jump into the middle even with the primer, then I suggest “series one” or the 2005 relaunch as an excellent jump off point to familiarize yourself with the show. And since British shows run shorter seasons, there’s only thirteen episodes for you to digest in a block.

In the words of the first… “One day, I shall come back. Yes, I shall come back. Until then there must be no regrets, no tears, no anxieties. Just go forward in all your beliefs, and prove to me that I am not mistaken in mine.”

Welcome back, Doctor. <>

Check out this awesome tribute video from LastWhovian on Youtube…

Friday Night Who 6/1

For this week’s Friday Night Who we return to “new” series and our second 11th Doctor story, the Eleventh Hour!

Hopefully you can join us at Midnight CDT, who knows maybe we’ll break out fish fingers and custard.

Follow @travelvortex, @vortexshaun & @vortexkeith (maybe @vortexglenn) for the fun and keep an eye out for the #FridayNightWho and #TheEleventhHour hashtags!

 

New Companion Ident Confirmed

** The following article contains SPOILERS **

Jenna-Louise Coleman was announced as the new companion to the Doctor today by the BBC and Steven Moffat.  We’ve known since Christmas that Amy and Rory would be making an exit from the show sometime this season, and that the Doctor would find a new companion.  Well the details are here (at least some of them, so wait no longer.)

The 25 year old from Blackpool has already made a name for herself on the soap Emmerdale, having been nominated for a National Television Award, British Soap Award, and TV Choice Award.

More details can be found here, from the official BBC Doctor Who Page, and BBC America has a fun selection of clips of some of her other work.  An interview with the actress about being chosen for Doctor Who can be found on the BBC News page.

Here’s the tweet stream from the official BBC Doctor Who Twitter Page:

Jenna-Louise Coleman announced as the new Doctor Who companion. More to come….

“I want to get started already” says Jenna. “I’m a huge fan of the show”. Of her favourite companion “Between Billie Piper & Karen Gillan”

“Matt Smith did my audition with me. It was fun and I felt like we were in it together” says Jenna.

Steven: “We saw a lot of brilliant actresses. But Jenna was the only person going faster than Matt – he had to keep up!”

There will be 6 episodes this year, including the Xmas Special. Then 8 next year. Jenna’s character will first be seen at Xmas.

No announcement on plans for the 50th anniversary given today.

Steven “Amy & Rory will leave in a final encounter with the Weeping Angels in ep 5. Not everyone gets out alive and I mean it this time”

Jenna has asked us to remind you that she does not have and doesn’t plan to have a Twitter account. Beware of imposters!

Episode 42 – Life, the Universe, and Steven Moffat

Series Six is “in the can”, as they say, and now a chance to fondly look back over the Matt Smith/Steven Moffat era thus far.

In this episode we review the last two years and take an over all look at Series Five and Six as a whole, and the state of Doctor Who with Moffat at the helm.

Also, a Galley and Chicago Tardis update, news, and of course your feedback.

Enjoy!

Links mentioned in the show:

Chicago TARDIS 2011

Gallifrey 2012: Network 23

Spike Scream Awards

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