The Thirteenth Doctor

Peter Capaldi has announced that he is leaving his role as the Twelfth Doctor. He's been a fantastic Doctor and I'll be sad to see him go. What it does mean though is that at some point in the not too distant future the Thirteenth Doctor will be cast.

Lots of people are making lists of possible Doctors but many are not very likely. It's extremely unlikely that a major Hollywood actor is going to take the role. Even very big actors who have appeared in short series are unlikely to commit to a role as big as the Doctor. It's also very unlikely they will cast someone who has had a major Who role before- a guest part in one episode maybe, but not a returning actor like Alex Kingston or Maisie Williams. And I also think they are unlikely to choose an actor of a similar age-range to Peter Capaldi.

There's lots of talk that the new Doctor could be a woman. It's certainly a lot more likely now than it was when Peter Capaldi was cast. The Master's latest regeneration is a woman and we even saw a Time Lord regenerate from male to female in Hell Bent.

Whether the Thirteenth Doctor will be a woman is largely down to new showrunner Chris Chibnall. He is the man who will probably have the major say on the new Doctor. Personally I feel it would be ambitious for a new showrunner to come along and cast a woman as the Doctor- it's a change in the character dynamic which a new showrunner may not want to make straight away.

If they do choose a female Doctor Hayley Atwell would be my top tip. She's a great actor, demonstrated a fairly Doctor-ish role in Agent Carter and has no long-term commitments (it looks like her current TV series Conviction will not be renewed). Another highly possible one is Gemma Chan, who has become more successful in recent years and has played a Synth in sci-fi series Humans.

Hayley Atwell (as Peggy Carter)

I do think it's quite likely that the next Doctor will be a different race. It's well known that a black actor turned down the role a few years ago (it's thought to have been Chiwetel Ejiofor by many). A lot of people seem to be talking about Richard Ayoade taking the role. As much as I like him it's hard to imagine him doing the serious drama parts of the role, and he's pretty busy in the near future hosting The Crystal Maze. There's talk of Game Of Thrones' Alexander Siddig taking the role but at 52 he is probably too old. My preferred non-white Doctor would be Sacha Dhawan- Doctor Who fans might know his for his role as Waris Hussein in An Adventure in Space and Time. He's a superb actor who I can really picture in the role.

Sacha Dhawan

The bookmaker's favourites for the role include Ben Whishaw and Rory Kinnear, both best known for their roles in the James Bond franchise. I like Kinnear but I fear he's a little old for the role and might Ben Whishaw be too big for the Doctor?

Rory Kinnear

A likely BBC favourite would be James Norton. He shone in Happy Valley and War and Peace and seems to be an actor in favour with the beeb at the moment. He is busy for much of the year in ITV's Grantchester at the moment but he is certainly a possible.

James Norton (as Sidney Chambers in Grantchester)

I have a couple of lesser known ideas for the role. Bertie Carvel played Jonathan Strange in Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell and I really feel would make a great Doctor. Then there's Damien Maloney, who played vampire Hal in two series of Being Human. He's a fantastic actor who I really feel ought to have a big role in something.

Damien Maloney (as Hal in Being Human)

Could we maybe have someone Chris Chibnall has worked with before? I couldn't find many people in the Broadchurch cast list who I could imagine as the Doctor but one was James D'Arcy. He played Lee Ashworth in Broadchurch, a very non-Doctor-y role. But in Agent Carter he was the butler Edwin Jarvis who was closer to the Doctor- the variation in roles really shows how good an actor he is.

James D'Arcy (as Edwin Jarvis in Agent Carter)

I also think there's a strong chance we'll get a fairly unknown actor. Hardly anyone knew who Matt Smith was when he was cast and the same could be said for the last three companions. It would be great if the show finds another amazing actor we'd never even heard of before.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see...

John Hurt

It was really sad this morning to wake up to the news that John Hurt has died aged 77. Doctor Who fans know him best as the War Doctor of course but he's been a popular British actor since the 70s. I thought it would be nice to consider some of the roles I personally know him for.

In Alien he played Kane, a.k.a as the unfortunate crew member who has an alien burst through his chest. That scene was voted one of the more memorable movie moments of all time. We're perhaps more familiar with this kind of horror in 2017 but in 1979 it was more surprising. On paper it sounds like it could be awful, but it really works. I think the visuals are fairly good but it's the acting that really makes that scene work. John Hurt was the only actor in the scene who knew what was going to happen so the reaction of the rest of the cast is hardly surprising. Hurt had to really lead that scene then and he did so fantastically.

In Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone he plays wand-maker Ollivander. This was the first time I saw John Hurt in anything and he really shines despite the little time he appears. Up until this point Harry Potter has not spent any real time with a wizard and so John Hurt has the unenviable job of being the actor has to make wizards look good. And boy does he do it! He's funny and enigmatic and owns one of the most memorable scenes in the film. "The wand choose the wizard Mr. Potter- it's not always clear why."

He then returned to the role of Ollivander in The Deathly Hallows (towards the end of Part 1 and at the start of Part 2). Here the character has been tortured by Voldemort and the Death Eaters so Ollivander is something of a broken man. And you really believe that in Hurt's performance- you can almost see the fear and self-loathing in his eyes. Ollivander is another of the film's representations of loss of innocence- he's the first proper wizard Harry meets and gives him magic through a wand and later the tables are turned and Harry has to save his life.

Hurt has a small role in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, the fourth and later film in the series. Let's face it, it's not a patch on the original trilogy. But I think Hurt's character, Oxley, is one of the few characters who really works in that film. Oxley has been driven mad by the crystal skull but was once an eminent archaeologist. Hurt's performance is a complicated one- he has to play for laughs, come across harrowed and still convince as once having been intelligent and with it. I think he somehow manages it too- there's a hint of tortured Ollivander but as if he was broken even further.

Let's not forget his wonderful voice work, including Hazel in the Watership Down film and General Woundwort in the Watership Down TV series, Aragorn in the animated Lord of the Rings, the Narrator in The Tigger Movie, the Owl in The Gruffalo and the Gruffalo's Child and memorably the mostly unhelpful dragon in Merlin. What a voice that man had, perfect for a wise and friendly mentor.

And finally, let's talk about Doctor Who. Hurt played the War Doctor in The Day of the Doctor, the incarnation that fought in the Time War and ended it (although that was sort of re-written). Hurt may only have played the Doctor for a short time but he really nailed it. He's very Doctor-ish- funny, a little arrogant and really compassionate. But he takes the dark side of the Doctor further than ever, so far it's broken him. My favorite scene is when he talks with Clara in the Black Archive, when you really understand the dilemma he's in.

Doctor Who was lucky to get an actor of Hurt's stature to appear in the 50th anniversary special and Hurt embraced it. He took it seriously and asked Steven Moffat if he counted as a proper Doctor. I really believe he does. Technically he's a regeneration and we can't ignore that but he also proves himself to be one of the very best actors to have played the Doctor. Since the special he reprised the role with Big Finish in audio, giving us a Doctor deep in the Time War. This shows how much he enjoyed the role- I havn't heard any of his audio stories yet but I am definitely going to seek them out.

The other thing that's worth mentioning about John Hurt is what a nice man he was. The Doctor Who network online has been full of praise for him, not just an actor but as a person. It seems everyone who's met him has a similar anecdote to share about how friendly and warm he was.

John Hurt's death then sad but at least he will always be remembered for his many fantastic roles, not least as the War Doctor.

Lethbridge-Stewart: Blood of Atlantis

In this book Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart , Anne Travers & the team head to the Aegean Sea to investigate strange goings-on, as ever. This time it's a damaged Royal Navy ship & a series of missing vessels.

Candy Jar books chose Simon A Forward well as a writer for this series. He really gets it, making an action story, almost James Bond like, but keeping the sci-fi Doctor Who stuff in the story. This series is about a military man and his colleagues and Forward really sees this.

All of the series' regular cast are well treated here. It can be hard to focus on the Brigadier and keep both Anne Travers & the likes of Bishop & Ware plenty to do. Forward splits them up for much of the story, and like in Doctor Who this is often the best way of showing the characters. 

Forward also creates several of his own characters, all of which are great. There's cat lady archeologist Señora Montilla, who is like the Anne Travers of a different field. Then there's Captain Bugayev, a Russian who ally's with Lethbridge-Stewart in the middle of the Cold War. I really liked this whole element to the story, the uneasy friendship between the two sides and the Brig never being sure he can trust the Russians.

The threat is a good one and a little different to what we've seen in this series before. It's can get repetitive having intelligent strong aliens being the antagonist every time and here we get something different.

There's plenty more I could praise about this book too. The bittersweet ending, the chapter titles are based on Doctor Who stories/episodes. I've enjoyed much of this series but none more than this one.

Series 10 Trailer Breakdown

At the end of The Return of Doctor Mysterio we got our first look at Series 10 of Doctor Who. I've taken some screenshots to give us a closer look at what's going on and speculate on what it might be telling us. You should be able to click on the image to see them a bit bigger

Bill says that she "serves chips". Obviously this doesn't tell us much but at least suggest Bill is from a fairly ordinary background like most recent companions. 

The Doctor is some sort of teacher or lecturer here. Maybe Bill is also a student and the chip serving is just a part-time job? That would explain how they end up meeting anyway. Is the Doctor undercover here a la School Reunion?

Nardole is still around. He doesn't appear too much in this trailer but he's certainly present. I would assume he will play a similar small role like in The Return of Doctor Mysterio and maybe doesn't leave the TARDIS in every episode.

An alien/ futuristic city. Looks pretty awesome but no idea what it actually is. 

This is one of many shots showing a historical episode. The Doctor and Bill are in historical dress for it. It's unclear exactly when/where it is but it looks maybe 18th or 19th century. 

A blue-skinned alien. Lots of shots from the trailer appear to be from this futuristic episode where the majority of the cast seem to be in some sort of spacesuit.

It's unclear where the Doctor and Bill are here. It looks to be some sort of vault or catacombs. It's enormous whatever it is.

This appears to be some sort of wooden alien. It looks a lot like the walking trees in The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe but it would be odd for them to return.

Smiley robots. These look friendly but I suspect they may end up being rather nasty. Note that their eyes are exclamation marks in this image. 

Very hard to get a clear screenshot of this. There's a big war involving the daleks and someone is thrown against a wall. It looks like a Movellan from Destiny of the Daleks. I might be tempted to suggest that it's just their hair but there are definitely two character in this shot with that hair. Maybe the Movellans are back!

Here's a closer look at those spacesuits from the futuristic episode. It's interesting that no characters are ever shown wearing a helmet so it's not clear why they are all wearing spacesuits. Nardole is here, the only time he's shown outside of the TARDIS in the trailer other than a brief encounter with a dalek.

The Doctor saves a small boy in the historical episode. What on Earth is the Doctor wearing here? It looks like a steampunk spacesuit. Maybe it's a diving suit but why is he wearing it?

Ther Doctor's wearing shades again. There's loads of people in the TARDIS here, more than ten by the looks of it, and they look like they might be monks or something similar. Has the Doctor rescued them? 

The Doctor punches someone! Full on punches them in the face! That's not normal is it? The set and costumes look historical so it is probably from the same episode we've seen a fair bit of. 

The Series looks a lot of fun in my mind and that's bearing in mind it doesn't look like we've seen much of it here. A tiny bit from a contemporary opening episode, a historical 18th/19th century episode, a futuristic in spacesuits episode and dalek war episode.Those last two may be one and the same and it's not clear where the city and the robots fit in either. Still, that's a long way a full series of episodes so there's a lot more to see!

Doctor Who Unlocked: The Return of Doctor Mysterio

The episode is based on the idea of Superman's alter-ego of Clark Kent and indeed Superman images appear in the episode. Superman was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster and permission for the images was given by Jerry Siegel's family. The creators are then namechecked straight after the credits with Mr. Brock saying that any questions "can be handled by Miss Shuster and Miss Sigel".

The episode is set in New York but most of the external New York street shots were actually filmed in Nu Boyana Film Studios in Sofia, Bulgaria.

On the street you might be able to make out the name of the film being shown at the cinema- it's Mind of Evil, named after the Third Doctor story of that name. Also on the street is Joe's Pizzas which is where Peter Parker worked in Spider-Man 2.

The Doctor references the famous Spider-Man line "With great power comes great responsibility".

The Doctor mentions how he always has invasions at Christmas. This references the various Christmas Specials such as The Christmas Invasion and The Runaway Bride where he has fought off Christmas Day invasions.

This episode follows on from The Husbands of River Song in various ways. Scratch in Husbands has similar physical characteristics and said "I represent the Shoal of the Winter Harmony" which is very similar to the company name Harmony Shoal.

Nardole returns, now with a full body again. In The Husbands of River Song his head was attached to Hydroflax but mention is made that the Doctor reassembled him.

Nardole tells Grant and Lucy about River Song and a night that lasted 24 years- he is referencing the end of The Husbands of River Song where the Doctor takes River to the Singing Towers of Darillium. He also mentions that River died in a library a long time ago. This happened in Forest of the Dead but was a long time ago for the Doctor.

The UNIT soldiers dealing with Harmony Shoal mention Osgood, the British UNIT scientist.

The episode title The Return of Doctor Mysterio is explained in the episode from what Grant calls the Doctor. In Mexico the show is known as 'Doctor Misterio' which Peter Capaldi discovered during the 2014 world tour, much to his delight. Writer Steven Moffat recalled that delight and used in for the episode.

Lethbridge-Stewart: Times Squared

The Brigadier has a much needed holiday after his recent adventures so he takes fiancee Sally and nephew Owain to visit New York. Upon arrival they quickly become embroiled in an alien plot- the Great Intelligence is back and Yeti are in the New York Subway. 

This certainly made for an interesting change to the series. Previously we've had what are essentially UNIT stories but with the Brigadier technically off-duty here and in the USA it has a rather different style. He's well out of his comfort zone and I like that. Sally has a bigger role here than in previous books as she is properly involved with the adventure. 

I did have a lot of issues with this though. Essentially it's The Web of Fear but in New York. The author has changed a few things to make it a little more interesting, notably stripping some of the Yeti of their fur and adding lots of essentially rabid rats. The plot itself is different but it's still the Great Intelligence doing the same sort of evil stuff again. 

I also felt that the book could have been shorter considering how little plot there is. There seems to be a lot of long descriptions of lots of rats approaching people which gets a bit samey after a while. Then there's the problem that this has to fit with the Great Intelligence's ever more complicated continuity- and the author even throws a time-traveling Professor Travers into the mix too. It feels like half the book is dedicated to explaining how it fits in with Doctor Who and The Forgotten Son and I still feel a bit confused. 

That said, I enjoyed plenty of bits of this book. There's an interesting character in Kramer and I'm tempted to seek out the book she originally appeared in. The rats are a really good idea and certainly creepy, it's just a shame they are overused. Owain gets a much bigger part then he's had for a while and the author really plays around with his connection to the Great Intelligence. He's great here and I am intrigued to see how he will play out in future books. 

It's not the best Lethbridge-Stewart book by any stretch but I still enjoyed it. The idea of the Brigadier in New York is as awesome as it sounds!

Lethbridge-Stewart: The HAVOC Files 2

This is the second collection of short stories from the Lethbridge-Stewart series of books.

Ashes of the Inferno by Andy Frankham-Allen: This story links the parallel worlds of  The Schizoid Earth and the Doctor Who story 'Inferno'. It's a nice exploration of parallel worlds and the idea of how they might affect those that find out about them. What I really liked from this story was the hints at how the Lethbridge-Stewart novels work with Doctor Who and why there seems to be more to the Brigadier than we ever saw on TV.

House of Giants by Rick Cross: Another story which deals with the aftermath of a Who story, this time First Doctor story 'Planet of the Giants'. It sees Anne Travers become miniaturized and the Brig attempt to clear things up. It's a lot of fun and sets up an element of The Grandfather Infestation well.

In His Kiss by Sue Hampton: A different style this one, set in 1945 and featuring a young Alastair through the eyes of his friend Jemima. It deals with the aftermath of James Lethbridge-Stewart's death and is really a dark story about a young girl dealing with grief.

The Lock-In by Sarah Groenewegen BEM: Another different style. This is set late in the Brigadier's life and sees an exchange of letters between a woman called Pearl Hammond and the Brig in his care home as she recounts an encounter with the Fifth Operational Corps and aliens. I liked the style but felt the plot didn't quite work. 

The Black Eggs of Khufu by Tom Dexter: Lethbridge-Stewart arrives at the Great Pyramid in Egypt where ancient alien activity has been uncovered. There's an alien body and mysterious black eggs but when a group of Russians get involved Lethbridge-Stewart finds himself racing across the desert on a camel. It's a decent story and I liked the alien explanation for the pyramids. It certainly made good use of the locale although it's never really explained how on Earth Lethbridge-Stewart ending up going there. 

The Band of Evil by Roger J Simmonds & Shaun Russell: An alien band called Totem Pole is brainwashing it's fans. It's a plot that has been used before but done well here. The story also introduces Captain Younghusband who is immediately a great character. 

The Playing Dead by Adrian Sherlock: Sherlock wrote a Lethbridge-Stewart novel set in Australia which I thought was never published but will apparently be next year. This follows on from that future book. Bishop and Anne Travers are in Darwin and find themselves in a zombie apocalypse. Whilst I am a big zombie fan it felt out of sorts with the feel of the series. It worked in a Torchwood novel but I don't think it works here. 

Schädengeist’s First Love by Jonathan Cooper: This is a deleted scene from The Showstoppers. It delves into how Schadengeist/ Mondegreene ended up as the villain of the book. I really liked this and felt it would have worked well in the book. 

Exodus from Venus by John Peel: The original prologue from The Grandfather Infestation. It sees a failed invasion of Venus by the grandfathers. It's a good story but I can see why it was cut as it reveals too much of the aliens of the book. 

The Lost Skin: Episode One by Andy Frankham-Allen: The first part of a longer story which is set parallel to Times Squared. Whilst the Brig is away in New York, Anne Travers, Bishop and Samson have their own problems to deal with. Harold Chorley and Larry Green are investigating the Brigadier so a distraction involved Anne's father Professor Travers is conceived. Travers inevitably finds a myth to investigate... It's a fantastic first part of the story and I am really looking forward to seeing where this goes. 

Overall, I thought this was a great collection. It's great to see how the publisher's have decided to expand it's short stories for this range and experiment with different styles and eras of the character. As with any short story collection some are better than others but I thought generally the standard was very high.