Doctor Who: The Gunpowder Plot Preview

The fifth installment of The Adventure Games launches on the official BBC Doctor Who site, on October 31st. Just in time for Bonfire Night, The Gunpowder Plot is written by Phil Ford, developed by Sumo Digital, and produced by BBC Wales.

The guest cast joining the TARDIS crew are: Phil Daniels, Ralf Little (as Guy Fawkes), Dan Starkey (who has played Sontarans in four TV stories, and for Big Finish), CBBC's Chris Johnson, Lizzie Hopley (see The Infinity Quest), and Emilia Fox as Lady Elizabeth Winters (also the voice of Dr Berenice Ward in Nevermore, BF, 2010).

The story is set in the London of 1605, where Fawkes and his Protestant plotters plan to destroy the House of Lords, under which a crashed Rutan (last seen in 1977's Horror of Fang Rock) ship is actually buried.

Follow this link for a trailer: Preview clip.

The Doctor has encountered Fawkes and his conspirators before, in The Missing Adventures novel, The Plotters, by Gareth Roberts (Virgin, 1996). Here, the First Doctor, Ian, Barbara, and Vicki become embroiled in a purely historical tale.

Great Doctor Who Quotes #10

"The circle of time is closing. You were there, on Skaro, at the very beginning of my creation... And the prophecy unfolds... The man who abhors violence. Never carrying a gun. But this is the truth, Doctor. You take ordinary people and fashion them into weapons. Behold your Children of Time, transformed into murderers. I made the Daleks, Doctor. You made this... Already, I have seen them sacrificed today, for their beloved Doctor. The Earth woman, who fell, opening the Subwave Network... How many more? Just think. How many have died? In your name? The Doctor. The man who keeps running, never looking back. Because he dare not, out of shame. This is my final victory, Doctor. I have shown you.. yourself."

- Davros, Journey's End (July 5th 2008)

Written by Russell T Davies

Great Doctor Who Quotes #9

"And that's how I finally met the Doctor... and realised the truth... this isn't my whole life. It's not all spaceships and stuff. Cos I'm into all sorts of things. I like football. I like a drink. I like Spain. And if there's one thing I really, really love, then it's Jeff Lynne and the Electric Light Orchestra. Cos you can't beat a bit of ELO!"

- Elton Pope, Love & Monsters (June 17th 2006)
Written by Russell T Davies

Doctor Who: Christmas Special 2011 Preview

The BBC today released details of this year's festive special, currently under production in Wales. Again written by Steven Moffat, the story's cast includes actors already featured in my Versus blogs: Claire Skinner, here playing Madge Arwell (see Vs. A Murder Is Announced); Bill Bailey
(another star of Hot Fuzz,
see here); Alexander Armstrong (see Vs. Murder Rooms); and Arabella Weir (see Vs. Randall & Hopkirk).

This new Christmas adventure (already being compared to the Narnia saga) sees the Doctor posing as the caretaker of an old house in wartime Dorset, where evacuees Lily and Cyril now live with mum, Madge. See the official site for more info:
bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/dw/news/bulletin.
New executive producer Caroline Skinner begins her tenure on Doctor Who with this story, which will be directed by another newcomer, Farren Blackburn.

The History of Pop Music

Michael Putland's studio portrait of Dusty & the Pet Shop Boys, dressed as 1960's
journalists. The shoot was for the cover of the Nothing Has Been Proved
single, recorded for the film, Scandal (December 1988).

I've only just found this article, originally published in The Guardian on June 11th this year. Caroline Sullivan's series on the Top 50 key moments in pop history, places the Pet Shop Boys at No. 33. On August 10, 1987, they resurrected Dusty Springfield's career:

"The Smiths were the first to collaborate with an iconic 60s female singer – Sandie Shaw – but the Pet Shop Boys struck gold by hooking up with arguably the most revered vocalist of her generation – Dusty Springfield. Their single together, What Have I Done to Deserve This?, was a win-win situation: the band got kudos for enticing Springfield into recording what was the classiest record the PSB ever made, her career got a new lease of life, and it reached No 2."

Tartan Noir: Glasgow

The latest part of The A-Z of Crime on ITV3 represented the letter G with 'Glasgow'. Author Denise Mina, herself a Glaswegian, said that "Glasgow is the perfect city to write crime fiction for. It's small, there's a lot of crime.. a lot of poverty, and there's so many different textures.. Everybody knows everybody else.. people talk to each other.. what could be better really?" Her book, The Field of Blood (2004) is set in the city, and was recently adapted by BBC Scotland.

The "king of Tartan Noir" Ian Rankin, also remarked that Glasgow has "got a history of gang culture, and murder, grim death.. sectarian violence.. it's a fascinating city." The programme then states that the city was put on the crime map by long-running ITV series, Taggart (1983-2011). Glasgow is described here as a character in it's own right in Glenn Chandler's stories, and is still the murder capital of Europe.

New SFX Magazine Poll

A new poll in the latest SFX magazine has been published to find readers' Top 100 Sci-Fi Icons of the 21st Century. The results include 10 characters from the Whoniverse/Torchwood, and the highlights are as follows:

• 85 - Martha Jones
• 82 - Rose Tyler
• 71 - Rory Williams
• 52 - Donna Noble
• 44 - Gwen Cooper
• 41 - Amy Pond
• 27 - River Song
• 5 - Ianto Jones
• 3 - Jack Harkness
• 2 - The Doctor

Many 'icons' come from brilliant BBC shows like Being Human, and Life On Mars, and that other giant of British culure, Harry Potter took the No. 7 slot. The highest placed American character was Buffy Summers, at No. 4. Obviously, as a Whovian I'm biased, but I was stunned to see that the No. 1 position is taken by Mal Reynolds of Firefly! At least Sheldon Cooper would be pleased.