Doctor Whoniverse Magazine Issue Two

PLUS: BRAND NEW COMIC! A SNOW DALEK! SILLY RUMOURS!

DECK THE HALLS....

It’s that time of year again!

DWNM EXCLUSIVELY PREVIEWS CHRISTEL DOCTOR WHO!

The Doctor sent to me ...

It’s that time of year again! And as sure as it means mince pies and mistletoe, Christmas means a brilliant festive episode of Doctor Who! So sit back on your sofa (or behind it) and enjoy the ride!

Ok, so Christmas isn’t always the best time of year for Who. We’ve had The Feast of Steven and, more recently, the in my opinion terrible The End of Time Part One. (Coincidentally, the first decent episode with the word ‘Time’ in it’s title was this year’s The Time Angels. Dimensions in Time, Time and the Rani - Gold, Bronze, Dalekanimum, Plastic, Stone...the BBC have tried all sorts it all fits!) But I think that of methods of cutting costs on the Daleks, but this takes the biscuit.

- flying sharks and all this Christmas may fall under the first category. The best one.

And on that note, I’ll leave you to read on!

© Kingston University

WHAT’S THIS THEN?

BELIEVE US...

HELP US...

FIGHT FOR US...

AUTONS...NEVER...

BUT WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

AH! OF COURSE!

AH! SO YOU’RE THE CONSCIOUSNESS YOURSELF!

BU Z

T!

BU

ZT !

RAARGH!

DON’T MESS WITH ME.

HA!

When the tabloids get it wrong....

The new Doctor, played by Billie Piper and Catherine Tate, will face his scariest adventure yet against flying sharks, the Master and the CyberDaleks. They will be assisted by Alex Kingston (River Song) who discovers Adric’s Ghost and the Fourth Doctor!

As the Fourth Doctor fights the Yeti, Zoe Tapper (playing Death, obviously) arrives, and kills River Song...again.

Obviously River Song is Susan Foreman in disguise, and Amy Pond will be revealed to be the Doctor and River Song’s daughter. Michael Gambon and Katherine Jenkins are in it too.

The Doctor Who Christmas Special, which will be adapted into a movie starring Johnny Depp in 2012, will be squeezed into one hour. A source said, exclusively, ‘This is going to be the best Christmas Special ever!’

Compiled thanks to the Daily Star and The Sun, as well as the Internet Movie Database. Thanks to Combom for his rumours list.

The second series of animated series Christel Doctor Who is due to commence filming this month. The series, created by CaptainFranko, was a hit for its original run and has been recommissioned for another set of episodes.

Tabitha Mortimer. Just an everyday newspaper reporter who got caught in the wrong place at the right time. When a young girl is murdered Tabitha dutifully investigates but soon finds herself caught up in more than she could have ever bargained for. Who or what is causing the strange deaths? Why is she next in Line?

And who is the strange man in his impossible blue box?

Viewers were about to find out, as the first episode of Christel Doctor Who came along. It was comprised of 13 episodes of fifteen minutes and by this series will have no less than three (or four, depending on how you count it) guest writers involved - Blink, Burkey and a n as-yetunannounced Other Writer. When asked about his episode, the former revealed: “I first came up with the main idea behind the story when watching the classic Tom Baker story ‘Genesis of the Daleks’, where the Doctor questions Sarah Jane if he has the right to kill something so evil and change

CHRISTEL CLEAR! the course of history. This concept sparked something in my head, and I began to think about how the world could change if, not a whole race, but a single person never existed. This led to the creation of ‘Death on the Line’, and the sequences of dilemmas which the Doctor and Tabitha have to face throughout the adventure.”

So far, so intriguing. Burkey’s episode is named Picnic at Asgard, and features the return of the enigmatic River Song. The picnic was referred to in Silence in the Library - this could be another stunning instalment.

Recently CaptainFranko has released another short series of animations - A.R.N.I.E, following the adventures of the robot who first appeared in the Christel TV story Sins of the Fathers, before having a story of his own in ARNIE. Now he has a spin-off series as well, episode two of which will be released “just before the new year”.

ARNIE and Series One are available from http://christelfilms.blogspot.com/ MORE ON SERIES TWO >>

CAPTAINFRANKO Hello. Your first series of Christel Doctor Who has received very good reviews.

What were your personal favourite bits?

I tend to have a number of different favourites for a number of different reasons. I think achievement-wise I must favour episode 1, New Beginnings. Although it isn’t the best of the episodes (in my opinion) it was the very first one and the sense of achievement when I finally got it to air was something else.

I also like episode 3, prince of the west. For me its just a typical Doctor Who story, plus its set in the wild west and started off the whole “game of Rassilon, collecting the pieces of the puzzle” plot arc.

I think the episode that I was most pleased with though was episode 10, curse of a timelord. The praise levelled at that episode was out of this world and hugely appreciated. I knew I wanted Timothy to leave but couldn’t figure out how to do it and to be honest with you I had written myself into a corner with him being stuck in a time loop. So one day I just bit the bullet and took the risk of doing the episode without an actual monster or alien. It just strips back the relationships between the three characters and seems to work on a different level to all of the other stories. The most pleasing thing was the fact that it was so well received, plus it means my audience are open to me taking risks, which is always good.

And equally, is there anything in particular you would do differently now you have the experience of Series One behind you?

Oh god definitely. And hopefully the changes I intend to make will enhance series 2 even more. The first thing I intend to do is upload through youtube instead of veoh. I wasn’t keen on doing this for a start as it meant splitting the episodes into two parts but the quality on youtube is so much better that I think it is warranted now.

I also think the episodes will benefit from being just a tad longer. I originally aimed for a 15 minute length for series 1 but towards the end of the series, as the creative juices got flowing more, I found I was struggling to fit half of what I wanted to in. This is no more apparent than with the finale episodes.

I will also continue to work on the subtitles for the episodes. I made the decision early on not to go with voice actors and so I knew I needed to get the subtitles just right. However I don’t really think I did this until the 3rd or 4th episodes and it affected the storytelling. I would like to think that this is something that has gotten a lot better now but knowing me I shall probably keep playing about indefinitely.

CONTINUED OVERLEAF >>

Probably the biggest change I have made from series 1 to 2 is the actual production of the episodes. For Series 1 I wrote 80% of the scripts before the series started and then animated each episode a few weeks before it was due to be aired. This soon came back to haunt me though because towards the end of the series I found myself doing two to three episodes a week and I cant help thinking that if I had had them all ready to start with I could have spent more time editing and fine tuning before release.

The first episode of spin-off series ARNIE has been released recently. Spill the beans!

For those of you who don’t know, ARNIE is a character that was originally featured in episode 6 of series 1. That story was called ARNIE and revolved around a highly advanced futuristic cyborg named ARNIE. ARNIE actually stands for Autonomous Robotic Neural Interface Entity and the crux of that story was his encounter with the Doctor whilst trying to find his own creator. It was actually one of the first stories I wrote for the series and so from the very early stages of planning I knew I wanted to develop the character beyond just this episode; and before long I had worked out the complete back story and plots for at least two series. I originally intended for it to be a six part series and run between series 1 and 2 of Christel Doctor Who but time and work constraints have seen it change shape drastically. Its now a five part series that takes in one story, The Hunt Begins and then two two-part stories to finish off with. I have no regular release dates for the episodes and intend to post them just when I get them done.

I eventually intend for the series to stand on its own two feet and it should be around long after Christel Doctor Who has been put to bed (If ever) but for now it is nice to have something else to work on and to be able to expand the cannon of my own Doctor Who Universe.

This series you have been joined by several guest writers. Does this take some weight off your back? Or is it harder trying to animate an episode of theirs - after all, with your own you understand what you can and can't do.

That’s a good point and the honest answer is yes and no. I knew when I began planning series 2 that I wanted things to be bigger and better than series 1 (excuse the cliché). I also knew that to do this I would have to take some of the writing responsibilities off of my own shoulders and free up some time to focus on editing and planning. Therefore, inviting guest writers to join the series was the most logical thing to do. I can confidently say however, and this is before the episodes have even aired, that it has been a great success and that I have received some fantastic scripts that are really going to be fantastic stories. As you say, probably the most difficult thing behind getting guest writers in was ensuring that what they were going to write was actually do-able on my part. I did this by ensuring that I set out straight away what could be done, what would be challenging and what would be down right impossible. From this I have received scripts that are rich in story and technical detail and the fact that they are challenging is something to enjoy personally as it helps to push the visual look of the series and will hopefully enhance it for the fans.

Tabitha is an interesting character - how did you come up with her and what are the pros and cons of having a character like that?

The creation of Tabitha came as a direct result of the Doctor that I created. I knew that it didn’t just want another ‘Damsel in distress’ and neither did I want a character that the Doctor would end up smooching all the time. Because the Doctor is more of a ‘father figure’ I tried to

cast Tabitha in the role of the rebellious young woman. She is headstrong and won’t take no for answer. Plus she is more than willing to challenge the Doctor and this is something that helps with the relationship that they have built up. The main advantages behind her character are that it adds another dimension to story telling. I can confidently write stories involving Tabitha wandering off and getting into all sorts of trouble without necessarily needing the Doctor to swoop in and save her. This can also prove somewhat of a hindrance as well though, because I am far too guilty (I think) of writing too many stories like that and it can lead to them becoming too repetitive.

I only have one small regret about Tabitha, and it is something that I didn’t really see coming.

That is the character of Timothy. I think I was so focussed on introducing Tabitha into the TARDIS and the Doctors life that poor Timothy got overlooked. I fell into the trap of assuming the audience knew as much about him as I did and I think that this left him undeveloped as a character.

Is there ever a point where you feel like giving up the project entirely? Is the fact that you have already announced it online a help or a hindrance?

At the moment I am fully committed and I really enjoy doing it. I find it a release, and a hobby of sorts. When it becomes a chore or a job then yes, I probably will give it up, but I can assure you that wont happen yet. I found out very early on that when announcing projects online you mustn't tie yourself down to a release date until you have everything finished. That’s why I am working to get series 2 completely animated and edited before announcing a release date. I have a rough idea but no doubt something will happen between now and then to change that.

It would be a sad day if you decided to quit! No pressure there then. Thanks for your time.

Haha thanks very much. To help quell any remaining fears you may have as I writing this I am also finishing plans on series 2 and drafting out a 3rd series. Thanks for allowing me this opportunity and for your support of the series. That goes for all of the fans of the series, without you it wouldn’t have worked at all!

Š Doctor Whoniverse