Kopic's Doctor Who & Torchwood News |
- McGee: 'Sandra should be thankful'
- My Summer Newsletter is online!
- Temptations singer Ollie Woodson dies, aged 58
- Artist Louise Bourgeois dies, aged 98
- Ferguson: 'I was drinking during sting'
- Celine Dion: 'Pregnancy is exhausting'
- Hulk Hogan sues cereal company
- The TARDIS Handbook
- Russell Brand says no to wedding presents
- Shirley Manson weds in secret ceremony
- Rob Kardashian sells SUV on eBay
- Pamela Anderson protests against BP
- Huston, Church join drama 'Goats'
- Creepshow
- 'Community' star wants 'Spider-Man' role
- Tony Jaa quits acting to become monk
- Barrymore responds to sexuality rumours
- Cheryl gives away jewellery from Ashley?
- Cameron Diaz 'not ready for family'
- 'Tintin' items fetch over $1 million
- Barrymore opens up over Lubbock death
- Kristin Davis adopts elephant from Kenya
- Lindsay Lohan reconciles with Ronson?
- More Pandorica Pics!
- Telos Win Award
- The crack is back – and this time it’s personal!
- Cold Blood - Appreciation Index
- Gaiman Gives Nothing Away
- Going Underground
- Vampires and Bumps
- May’s Fan of the Month revealed!
- DWAS Prom Competition
- The Web of Fear?
- Time for a Casualty
- How do you rate Doctor Who: Cold Blood? (5=Fantastic)
- Vincent and the Doctor Trailer (Update)
- Rate Cold Blood
| McGee: 'Sandra should be thankful' Posted: 31 May 2010 09:01 AM PDT Michelle 'Bombshell' McGee says that she did Sandra Bullock a favour "in a twisted way". 
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| My Summer Newsletter is online! Posted: 31 May 2010 09:00 AM PDT Read my latest newsletter where you will find details of my recent work - including the Nationwide World Cup commercials.  | ||
| Temptations singer Ollie Woodson dies, aged 58 Posted: 31 May 2010 08:29 AM PDT Ollie Woodson dies at the age of 58 after a lengthy battle with cancer. 
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| Artist Louise Bourgeois dies, aged 98 Posted: 31 May 2010 07:56 AM PDT Artist Louise Bourgeois passes away at the age of 98. 
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| Ferguson: 'I was drinking during sting' Posted: 31 May 2010 07:40 AM PDT Sarah Ferguson says that she was "in the gutter" while accepting money from an undercover reporter. 
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| Celine Dion: 'Pregnancy is exhausting' Posted: 31 May 2010 07:26 AM PDT Celine Dion admits that she feels as though she's been pregnant for over a year. 
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| Hulk Hogan sues cereal company Posted: 31 May 2010 06:24 AM PDT Hulk Hogan files a lawsuit against the makers of cereal Cocoa Pebbles. 
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| Posted: 31 May 2010 06:22 AM PDT If there's one thing the new run of Doctor Who has brought us and that's a plethora of colourful reference books that are packed with glossy snaps and loads of information. Usually they concentrate on the new series but some do have nods to the past which help new audience members and fans investigate the show's past. This release looks more to the past than most and is all the better for it.
Across the 128 pages are lines and lines of informative text littered with a liberal amount of glossy images. Ironically a book about something that's bigger on the inside than on the outside is actually in a small format, so some of the snap shots of the TARDIS interior look cramped and would have looked wonderful in a larger format book. Anyway, the aforementioned text is pitched just perfectly between newbie and long-time fan and packs each page with as much as it can. From the theory of its creation to how time travel has been adapted by the Daleks whilst touching on how the interior has changed during the duration of the show, author Steve Tribe keeps the reader enthralled as well as educated. The inclusion of original script and designs help make this more than just a straight forward guide, allowing the reader to appreciate the thought process that goes into each TARDIS design. There's also fun lists scattered around the book so look out for inventories of Unexpected Company (unusual travelers), Uninvited Guests (beings that have breached the TARDIS) and Blending In (TARDISes used by others and their appearance). Finest and what appears to be the most researched section is Hold That One Down, a compendium that lists all the functions, features and components the TARDIS (at one time or another) has owned or being able to do. Can you recall Automatic Drift Control, Extreme Emergency Switch or the Linear Circulator? To be honest I didn't! Obviously there's a brief history of the Police Box and a look at all the different exteriors the TARDIS has owned since 1963, again written in a friendly but authoritative style. One thing that did catch my eye is that this book should be filed under "Non-Fiction", great stuff. £12.99 does seem at first a bit steep but this is a well researched and very full book, just a shame that its pocket size. The TARDIS Handbook is out now, and can be picked up from Amazon for just £7.94!  | ||
| Russell Brand says no to wedding presents Posted: 31 May 2010 06:10 AM PDT Russell Brand says that he does not want to receive any wedding presents. 
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| Shirley Manson weds in secret ceremony Posted: 31 May 2010 05:41 AM PDT Rocker Shirley Manson marries in a secret ceremony in Los Angeles. 
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| Rob Kardashian sells SUV on eBay Posted: 31 May 2010 05:24 AM PDT Rob Kardashian reportedly puts his Range Rover up for sale on eBay. 
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| Pamela Anderson protests against BP Posted: 31 May 2010 05:09 AM PDT Pamela Anderson reportedly backs a petition to impose sanctions on BP. 
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| Huston, Church join drama 'Goats' Posted: 31 May 2010 04:49 AM PDT Anjelica Huston, Thomas Haden Church and Ty Burrell sign to co-star in drama Goats. 
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| Posted: 31 May 2010 04:44 AM PDT  Managed to pick up a Blu-Ray of the 1982 film Creepshow while in NYC recently, and watched it the other night.I remembered it as being pretty good, and overall I still feel the same about it. The release has a really good picture - sharp and good colours which helped immensely, and the stories were all good and creepy. For those not in the know, it was written by Stephen King and directed by George A Romero, and there is a certain zombie slant to the stories presented. First up is the wrap-around tale wherein a boy (played by Stephen King's real life son, Joe, now a horror novelist in his own right) has his copy of Creepshow magazine confiscated and thrown in the rubbish bin by his dad - who is somewhat against horror stories. I guess this is irony. Then we get our first glimpse of the brilliant EC-Comics inspired decayed corpse at the boy's window ... and we're off into the first story. 'Father's Day' is a lovely short piece about an aged father who was boorish by day, murdered by his daughter, and who now comes back from the grave on the seventh anniversary of his death to get his own cake. The zombie is brilliant, all decaying flesh and earth and worms ... with a cracked, horrific voice to boot. No wonder everyone who sees him screams! Next up is 'The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill' in which King himself plays a country hick who sees a meteorite fall in his field. He touches it, and starts to grow green plantlife on his fingers. The stuff spreads and soon his mouth, face and body is covered. He ends by killing himself with a shotgun as the greenery spreads across his farm, and onwards across America. King is brilliant in this, playing the hick with sympathy, and the spreading growth is pretty horrific. The third story, 'Something to Tide You Over', is a wonderful little tale of revenge and retribution. Leslie Neilson (yes, he from the Naked Gun and Airplane films) plays a man whose wife has been seeing another. So he buries both her and her lover on the beach up to their necks and waits for the tide to come in. This is horrific and creepy as the man can see his lover being drowned on a television set helpfully provided by Neilson. Once dead, the sodden corpses then return to haunt and kill Neilson. 'The Crate' is perhaps the weakest tale, if only because the monster is a little too much like a man-in-a-suit. A college professor sees the chance to do away with his nagging wife by letting a hungry creature in a crate devour her ... the effects are good, and the acting excellent, but it's totally let down by the monster. The final segment is 'They're Creeping Up On You' wherein a Howard Hughes-like recluse finds his sterile apartment overrun with cockroaches ... they take over and end up spilling from his screaming cadaver! Pretty good considering there is no CGI here to generate the bugs, and that they were all wrangled on set! The film ends back with the boy and his dad ... and it's lucky that the boy sent off for a voodoo doll from the magazine as it means he can now take out his anger on his hapless father. Overall it's an enjoyable film, if a little long, and the zombies are brilliant. I mentioned the 'Fathers Day' one above, but the two corpses in 'Something to Tide You Over' are equally excellent, squelching water as they walk, and leaking seawater when they are hit with bullets. Lovely stuff. Somewhere I still have the comic book adaptation of Creepshow ...   | ||
| 'Community' star wants 'Spider-Man' role Posted: 31 May 2010 04:27 AM PDT Community actor Donald Glover launches a Twitter campaign to land the role of Spider-Man. 
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| Tony Jaa quits acting to become monk Posted: 31 May 2010 04:18 AM PDT Ong Bak star Tony Jaa leaves the film industry and becomes a Buddhist monk. 
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| Barrymore responds to sexuality rumours Posted: 31 May 2010 04:12 AM PDT Michael Barrymore responds to speculation regarding his sexuality following a recent TV appearance. 
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| Cheryl gives away jewellery from Ashley? Posted: 31 May 2010 04:02 AM PDT Cheryl Cole reportedly gets rid of jewellery given to her as gifts by ex-husband Ashley. 
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| Cameron Diaz 'not ready for family' Posted: 31 May 2010 03:52 AM PDT Cameron Diaz says that she is not yet ready to become a mother. 
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| 'Tintin' items fetch over $1 million Posted: 31 May 2010 03:40 AM PDT A collection of Tintin memorabilia fetches over $1m at a Paris auction. 
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| Barrymore opens up over Lubbock death Posted: 31 May 2010 03:37 AM PDT Michael Barrymore reportedly admits that he was partly responsible for the death of Stuart Lubbock. 
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| Kristin Davis adopts elephant from Kenya Posted: 31 May 2010 02:35 AM PDT Kristin Davis says that she has adopted a baby elephant from Kenya. 
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| Lindsay Lohan reconciles with Ronson? Posted: 31 May 2010 02:14 AM PDT Lindsay Lohan says that she and ex-girlfriend Samantha Ronson are "friends". 
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| Posted: 31 May 2010 01:22 AM PDT Spoilerphobes, steer clear! Contains massive spoilers for the finale.  | ||
| Posted: 31 May 2010 01:00 AM PDT Telos Publishing have announced that they scooped the Silver Award in the Performing Arts category at ForeWord Magazine's Book of the Year Awards, announced at BookExpo America in New York last week.
ForeWord Reviews' Book of the Year Awards were established to bring increased attention to librarians and booksellers of the literary and graphic achievements of independent publishers and their authors. ForeWord is the only review trade journal devoted exclusively to books from independent houses. Telos Publishing been around for several years now, originally formed by David J. Howe and Stephen James Walker, whose names you may recognise from some of the best accounts of Doctor Who history. Telos – named after the Cyberman planet in Tomb of the Cybermen - have published a wide variety of works, from novellas based on Doctor Who to a range of original horror and fantasy novels, as well as unofficial guide books to popular TV and movie series. Telos Publishing's David J Howe commented on the award, saying:
ForeWord's founder and publisher, Victoria Sutherland, spoke at the awards ceremony:
The award process brings readers, librarians, and booksellers together to select their top categories as well as choose the winning titles. Their decisions are based on editorial excellence, professional production, originality of the narrative, author credentials relative to the book, and the value the book adds to its genre. ForeWord named 201 Book of the Year Award winners in 60 categories. These books, representing the best independently published works from 2009, were selected by a panel of librarian and bookseller judges. Order copies of It Lives Again! direct from Telos Publishing.  | ||
| The crack is back – and this time it’s personal! Posted: 31 May 2010 12:37 AM PDT With the Series 5 finale now just a matter of weeks away (time really is flying, isn’t it?), that pesky little crack is still very much part of the Doctor and Amy’s lives, so head over to our ongoing discussion now to share your thoughts on the latest arc developments! All through the Universe. Rips in the continuum. [...]  | ||
| Cold Blood - Appreciation Index Posted: 30 May 2010 11:17 PM PDT  Cold Blood got an AI or Audience Appreciation Index score of 85.This puts the programme once more in the excellent category. Sunday night saw Lewis outrate Doctor Who, putting Cold Blood into 19th place for the week on overnights, a position which will rise when final figures are released next Monday. The episode will be repeated on BBC Three tonight at 7pm, a day later than usual, and on BBC HD at 00.15. Saturdays's Doctor Who Confidential scored an AI figure of 81. http://gallifreynewsbase.blogspot.com   | ||
| Posted: 30 May 2010 11:08 PM PDT The new series of Doctor Who is due to start filming soon (the Eleventh Doctor's second series already!) and everyone is gagging to know about Neil Gaiman's episode that he has written.
Gaimen is the latest of quality writers to pen a script for Doctor Who, some others of note being Douglas Adams and Richard Curtis. The episode is expected to air in 2011 as part of the next series (series 2, or season 32 or series 6 or series Hootnanny). Saying that, we're still waiting for Stephen Fry's episode…  | ||
| Posted: 30 May 2010 11:02 PM PDT  The mid-season Doctor Who two-parter has not fared that well in previous years. The silly Sontaran thing was pretty dire, and the Daleks in New York scenario was disappointing to the extreme. So it's good to see that the tide has been turned, and the recent two-part adventure ('The Hungry Earth'/'Cold Blood') was exciting and well executed.I loved the first episode in particular. The setting up of the problem was nicely handled, and the idea of people being sucked below the ground very well achieved. It was scary and creepy, and I could imagine more than one child nervously asking their Mum or Dad if Amy was OK after she was taken. In a way, the opening was reminiscent of 'The Green Death' with the Welsh accents and setting, and the mining idea, also 'Inferno' with the concept of drilling deep into the earth. But of course it was really 'Doctor Who and the Silurians' which was being riffed on, with the underground reptiles being disturbed by the drilling and deciding to wage war on the humans. The idea of the humans setting up electronic surveillance all over the town in 9 minutes was ludicrous. I didn't see why that shouldn't all have been done in advance - after all, they have set up this massive mining operation there, it could have been a deserted village to start with - or cleared of people - and surveillance set up to keep unwanted intruders away. But then the kid gets taken ... and we meet the alien being.  But it's a she (how can a reptile, cold blooded, and egg laying, have mammary glands?) and her alien face is a mask ... and she speaks perfect English! And she doesn't even have a third eye ... how disappointing. The make-up was brilliant though - certainly the best reptile effect I can remember seeing anywhere (puts the new series of V to shame as well). But if these are meant to be Silurians, then you might as well take the defining characteristics - the hooting electronic voice, the third eye - and use them for the re-mix. It's a little like making the Cybermen not be silver or robotic, or having Daleks with legs ... if you're not going to use the essence of the original, then why bother to even say they're the same thing. Seemed rather pointless to me.Anyway, getting over the creature's perfect white teeth, the beings want a war, and so the Doctor has to try and stop them. In a nod to the original, there's of course two factions - one warlike, and one peaceful, and the Doctor has to try and calm things down. Except that idiot woman on the surface kills their hostage and nearly provokes the war until Stephen Moore (he of the Marvin voice) sends all the reptiles back to their cells to be frozen again. It's a shame that they didn't make use of the tonal device from the original story - it could so easily have been the thing that Amy steals to open the bracelets holding her captive ... also on the doors and other elements ... again, if you're going to bring back old monsters, then why not use some of the memorable aspects of them? What was with the venom-tongue? I didn't get that. It seemed to add nothing to the plot - surely Mrs Kumar ('pull my finger!') was always going to want to stay down there and fix everything with a pipe cleaner, a bottle of bleach, and a small aubergine? The father too ... nothing more for him on the surface anyway. He could have had cancer or any human illness for the plot to work ... I suppose the whiplash tongue was a nice CGI effect, and also gave another nod to the original source story - the idea of the reptiles wiping out the humans with an infection. And after the story had played out, some interesting revelations. I was not expecting Rory to die. Not at all. Very nicely done by all concerned. And Karen Gilan deserves a Bafta for her performance as she struggles not to forget him, only to lose at the end. Very well played, and the first time this season that I have been moved to tears. Then the Doctor shoves his hand in the crack and pulls out ... a shattered piece of the TARDIS ... interesting indeed, and very portentious for what is to come. The series is shaping up nicely, though many of the episodes are on the high good side rather than on the spectactular (like 'Blink' or 'Family of Blood'/'Human Nature'). Maybe there are more revelations to come ... and I think with the final episodes concerning the Pandorica, I guess we have more River Song to look forward to as well ...   | ||
| Posted: 30 May 2010 10:31 PM PDT You can never say that Doctor Who doesn't present a diverse selection of treats for a Saturday night. Over the last few weeks we've seen alien vampire creatures in Venice, Amy Pond getting pregnant and old lady killers, and underground monsters intent on destroying mankind! Never a dull moment. THE VAMPIRES OF VENICE  I loved the title and concept of this from the start. Being a massive horror fan, I have always advocated that Doctor Who works well when it's being scary, which is why most of Steven Moffat's previous stories were so well received: spooky gasmasked kids, tick tock clockwork robots, blinky angel statues, walking skeletons and something nasty hiding in the darkness ... all tap into buried fears. So to see vampires back on Who was a treat indeed.Such a shame then that they turned out not to be vampires at all, but alien fish creatures ... who would have thought. The lead up to the revelation of them being space-lobsters was great - the creepy white girls were beautiful and stunning in their pale vampire-ness and the teeth were really well done. The setting was magnificent - never has Venice been so well captured for a show. And the fact that it wasn't Venice at all makes it all the more impressive.  The characters were great, from the incredible vampire queen played by Helen McCrory - one of the best supporting characters of the season I feel, to Karen Gilan and Arthur Darvill (Amy and Rory) turning in superb characterisations, the whole ensemble did the production proud.Except that they were space-shrimp and not vampires ... I wonder why they felt the need to go that extra step. Why can't proper vampires be part of the Doctor Who universe - we saw them in 'State of Decay' of course, and they were creepy and well done there as well ... but to have some modern variants would have been so cool. Instead we get a lot of guff about their planet and wormholes, and the whole thing ends with a Deux ex Machina that Russell T Davies would have been proud of, as the Doctor resolves the problem by climbing up a tower (shades of 'Daleks in Manhattan') and turning off a switch to stop the storm. It was all very like 'The Shakespeare Code' as well with an alien-induced storm at the end bringing monsters through a portal to attack the earth ... or 'Planet of the Dead' which used a similar idea ... All a shame really, as the ideas underpinning it were brilliant. I loved Amy getting bitten, and would liked to have seen more of that aspect - dealing with turning into a vampire. Indeed, the Doctor having a vampire companion would have been very neat, giving the whole series a bit of a twist and a kick. But we had space-lobsters. Never mind. AMY'S CHOICE  An intriguing episode, and in retrospect, probably exactly what we should have expected from a writer new to Who and probably unfamiliar with all the backstory and history, and what could really be done with the concept. It played with the idea that the Doctor has an 'evil' twin - which could well have been the original pitch when Simon Nye was asked for ideas for the show - except that the 'twin' looks nothing like the Doctor, and styles himself as the Dream Lord for the TARDIS travellers, presenting them with two dilemmas to resolve, one of which is apparently real.The dilemmas were hardly breathtaking, though the village full of alien-infected old people was nice and original. Certainly preferable to the 'Inside the Spaceship' plot of the TARDIS falling into a sun (albeit an ice sun here, leading to some very nice frozen effects on the TARDIS interior and on the actors). The village set-up was effective, and the idea of Amy being pregnant plausable, if played for laughs. (I was disconcerted to see Doctor Who Adventures pointing out to young readers all the insults thrown at Amy for being in the family way - nice way to encourage casual cruelty around the weight gain that accompanies pregnancy. 'Chubs' indeed!) So the Dream Lord taunts the TARDIS crew, and tries to force Amy to choose ... and she chooses the reality in which Rory (poor Rory) doesn't die. But then we discover that both realities are a dream, and all caused by some psycic pollen (!) ... a shame as it was a nice idea. Are we supposed to think that this diminuitive Dream Lord, played magnificently by Toby Jones, is some alter-ego incarnation of the Doctor? Is it the Valeyard? I suspect that will keep the theorists busy for years! Overall it was an OK story, a little simplistic and stand-alone, and especially after all the stuff about the Crack in earlier episodes, a little incongruous. I'm really liking Amy though. Karen Gilan is really coming into her own, and acting her little socks off. Wonderful stuff. Rory is OK, but improving episode on episode. And the Doctor ... well Matt Smith has nailed the part completely ... now who was that guy before him?   | ||
| May’s Fan of the Month revealed! Posted: 30 May 2010 09:11 PM PDT WhovianNet’s very own Fan of the Month for May 2010 has now been selected! We recieved a record amount of entries this month and it’s a shame we can’t pick more than one, but rules are rules and the winner’s profile has now been posted online. A huge thanks to all who applied. Keep ‘em peeled, because [...]  | ||
| Posted: 30 May 2010 09:00 PM PDT
Log onto www.dwas.org.uk from the 1st June 2010 to win two tickets to the special Doctor Who Prom 2010 on Saturday 24th July 2010. Open to members of the DWAS, the competition requires you to supply the answer to just one simple question. Correct responses to this question will be placed together and one winner will be drawn. The winner drawn from the correct responses will win both tickets. The competition will run from the 1st June-30th June – visit www.dwas.org.uk for more information.  | ||
| Posted: 30 May 2010 07:08 PM PDT
www.singlessos.co.uk is an online game for Doctor Who spin off Torchwood and is one of the listed sites. You can see the full list here, but before you do see if you can match the fake websites to their TV counterparts: www.desperaterussianhousewives.co.uk The corresponding shows are: The Mighty Boosh EastEnders Psychoville Some of these sites have been created as part of ongoing storylines but the Corporation have announced to cut BBC online spending by a quarter by 2013, creating far fewer "bespoke" websites. (Via Reuters)  | ||
| Posted: 29 May 2010 11:27 AM PDT Cold Blood Spoilers - Steven Moffat explains why it was time for a casualty on the TARDIS.  | ||
| How do you rate Doctor Who: Cold Blood? (5=Fantastic) Posted: 29 May 2010 07:45 AM PDT 5 TARDIS Groans 25% (1 vote) 4 TARDIS Groans 25% (1 vote) 3 TARDIS Groans 0% (0 votes) 2 TARDIS Groans 0% (0 votes) 1 TARDIS Groan 0% (0 votes) 0 TARDIS Groans 50% (2 votes) Total votes: 4  | ||
| Vincent and the Doctor Trailer (Update) Posted: 29 May 2010 06:00 AM PDT http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVnKlJ7mIa0  | ||
| Posted: 29 May 2010 05:48 AM PDT What did you think of Cold Blood?  |
The winning title was Axelle Carolyn's It Lives Again!, an analysis of the modern horror film.
In an 
In June, the Doctor Who Appreciation Society is running a special competition – the chance to see a special Doctor Who event!
The BBC has released information on some of the bizarre website domain names that it owns. The sites are created as off shoots of popular shows. The details have been released in relation to a Freedom of Information request although the BBC declined to reveal a full list of its websites.| You are subscribed to email updates from Kopic's Dr Who and Torchwood News To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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