DOCTOR WHO: CHRISTMAS SPECIAL TITLE, SERIES FIVE RUMOURS, TORCHWOOD REVIEW
2008 CHRISTMAS SPECIAL
The title for the 2008 Doctor Who Christmas special has been announced. This year’s festive story, featuring Cybermen and a supposed future Doctor, is entitled, funnily enough, THE NEXT DOCTOR. Granted, it’s not going to be David Morrissey taking over from David Tennant, but it will certainly be interesting to see where this supposed ‘New Doctor’ has come from. There’s certainly more to him than initially meets the eye. This won’t be the first time a possible future Doctor has shown up in the series though… cough-Valeyard-cough. Sorry, sank into fanboy mode there. Remember, ‘The Next Doctor’ will also see the first appearance of the Cyberwraiths (or ‘Cybershades’), masked, hooded, alternate cybercreatures. It should certainly be interesting, and I do hope there will be some serious Steampunk Cybermen action on offer.
SERIES FIVE RUMOURS
The rumours are flying thick and fast for Doctor Who series 5, which will be shown in 2010 after the 2009 specials. There will be 14 episodes in 2010, namely a 13 episode series and a Christmas special, which, word has it, will feature David Tennant’s regeneration into the 11th Doctor. I’m taking this with a pinch of salt as there are a dozen rumours of the 11th Doctor every day. The film rumours are growing in strength, and they are having further fuel poured onto the fire by execs seemingly trying to sweep the idea under the carpet for the time being. That said, we all know Tennant is wanting to do more film work and a movie would be a great sendoff. New boss Steven Moffatt has stated there will be no arc to series five. What is interesting is that RTD, in his new book, has stated that there will definitely be more classic series monsters coming back in series five, and not who we would expect. We’ll keep an eye out for more news!
TORCHWOOD: LOST SOULS REVIEW
I missed the original broadcast of the Torchwood audio adventure, Lost Souls, but the BBC kindly put it up on their website for download for a while and thus I snagged it to see what happens when Torchwood go and visit CERN. Well, quite a lot more than has happened in real life! The story, about the Torchwood team being called to the LHC facility in Switzerland by Martha Jones to help with a case involving missing staff, is a bit of fluff, truth be told. That said, it is a fun story that fills the 45 minutes of audio that it has at it’s disposal. Some things that couldn’t really be done on TV were handled nicely, but the drawbacks of audio were also underlined, with characters repeatedly having to narrate what was going on in front of them. The cast handle the transition to a different medium in fine style, with John Barrowman, Eve Miles and Gareth David-Lloyd offering excellent performances as their much loved characters.
The only drawback, sadly, is Freema Agyeman’s performance as Martha Jones. Something tells me Freema hasn’t done much in the way of voice acting before (aside from the Doctor Who ‘Infinite Quest’ project) as her lines come across as a bit wooden and very noticeably read from the page. This is a shame, as it takes you out of the story a little too much for my liking. Still, ‘Lost Souls’ is a great little story that sits nicely in with the Torchwood canon. The nods towards the lost characters, Tosh and Owen, are a bit syrupy and out of place, but they are a nice addition for hardcore fans of the series. A flawed gem.