Doctor Who: The Thirteenth Doctor #0
Single Issue | Digital
Writer: Richard Dinnick
Artists: Mariano Laclaustra, Georgia Sposito, Ariana Florean, Claudia Ianniciello, Iolanda Zanfardino, Neil Edwards, Pasquale Qualano, Rachael Stott
Inker: Fer Centurion
Colorists: Color-Ice, Carlos Cabrera, Adele Matera, Dijjo Lima, Enrica Eren Angiolini
Letterers: Comicraft’s Sarah Jacobs, John Roshell
Titan Comics
Release Date: September 26, 2018

Beginnings, they are such tenuous times. Except on Doctor Who, where nearly every beginning is also an ending. In less than two weeks, the Doctor returns to our television screens with a new face: Jodie Whittaker. To celebrate a moment that’s only happened a dozen times in the last 55 years, Titan Comics assembled Doctor Who: The Thirteenth Doctor #0 with an intriguing premise.

Following Bill Potts (Pearl Mackie) entering the TARDIS with the Doctor (Peter Capaldi), the pair head into the future, visiting a new human settlement on Gliese 581d. But where are all the people? And what are these strange robots that talk in emoji?

During TARDISblend 101, we dive into the beginning of the new Doctor Who season, explore the dynamic character development we are seeing in the first two episodes, and drill deep into the subtexts and themes explored in this second chapter of Series 10.

All this and more on the latest TARDISblend!

Doctor Who: The Time Lord Letters
Hardcover | Kindle
by Justin Richards
Harper Design | HarperCollins Publishers
Release date: September 29, 2015

Ahhh, what would it mean to know the mind of a Time Lord? It must be something to know what a Time Lord saw. There must be wit! There must be wisdom! There must be an ambivalence, a humor about the mundane moments. There must be perspective that comes from the understanding of time and history as a sometimes malleable thing. So, we are presented with a book called Doctor Who: The Time Lord Letters. What does it tell us?

In the end, it doesn’t tell us much. It tries to create a narrative of Doctor Who history that is approachable for younger television viewers. The actual history of the show is far more complex than that, due to reasons that have little to do with good storytelling. The full-color hardcover title does little to weave together all the historical threads of the Doctor’s lives. Instead, the book’s best appeal is to provide both older and younger viewers with an excellent photo collage of the entire history of Doctor Who. That, I think, is what will keep readers coming back to this book.

Doctor Who
Season 9, Episode 2 “The Witch’s Familiar”
Directed by Hettie MacDonald
Written by Steven Moffat
Starring Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman, Michelle Gomez, Julian Bleach
BBC America
Air date: Saturday, September 26, 2015

So… how do we start? We assume we’re going to win! When we left off last week, the Doctor discovered his own part in Davros’ past; he, Missy, Clara, and the TARDIS were all on Skaro; and the latter three of those four were apparently vaporized. It was just the Doctor, Davros, and a planet full of Daleks, or as Missy put it this week “on the run, no TARDIS. No friends, no help. In other words … the Doctor, happy.” Well, I wouldn’t go that far… and neither would showrunner Steven Moffat. It’s a tangled web, to be sure! How does the Doctor escape? By creating a future that causes a past that produces his present, and showing once again that compassion is a disease for which there is no cure.

With all of the opening overture fireworks completed, the strengths of the Moffat-era Doctor Who now become more apparent. Where last week we saw almost a bewildering display of characters and plot twists, the players this week on Episode 9.2 “The Witch’s Familiar” are reduced to just five: the Doctor, Missy, Clara, Davros, and the Daleks. We know they are on Skaro, and we have some idea how they relate to one another… or do we? The brilliance of Steven Moffat the writer is to skillfully invert what we think we know about characters and situations and to do it with brilliant, economical dialogue.

Doctor Who
Season 9, Episode 1 “The Magician’s Apprentice”
Directed by Hettie MacDonald
Written by Steven Moffat
Starring Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman, Michelle Gomez
BBC America
Air date: Saturday, September 19, 2015

This is what happens when narratives attack. In 1963, a 4-week-old BBC television show called Doctor Who embarks on its second serial by visiting the world of Skaro and introducing the semi-robotic survivors of an atomic war called the Daleks. The Daleks are a huge hit, establish the format of the show, and make it a fixture on British television for decades. The Daleks re-appear on the show every couple years. In 1975, the show finally decides to expose the origin of the Daleks. The Doctor returns to Skaro, sent by the Time Lords to prevent or alter their development. In it, viewers are introduced to Davros, the evil scientist extraordinaire who is fundamentally responsible for their development. The serial is considered to be one of the best Doctor Who stories ever. In 1988, Doctor Who revisits the time and place of its first episode from nearly 25 years earlier. Davros is there, leading one of two factions of Daleks, both of whom are after a stellar manipulator called the Hand of Omega. An ancient Time Lord artifact of tremendous power, the Doctor brought it to Earth and eventually uses it to destroy Skaro. This installment strongly signals a creative return to form for the series after years of poor creative choices, changes in time slot, and alterations in format. It is too late. Just short of two seasons later, Doctor Who is cancelled. In 2015, the ninth season of a revived Doctor Who series begins with the Doctor either saving or killing a young boy named Davros who’s trapped in a minefield on Skaro … what does it mean for Doctor Who this time? Let’s find out.

Tales From The Crypt
Blu-ray
Director: Freddie Francis
Screenwriter: Milton Subotsky
Cast: Ralph Richardson, Joan Collins, Peter Cushing, Roy Dotrice, Richard Greene, Patrick Magee
Scream Factory
Rated PG | 83 Minutes
Release Date: December 2, 2014

Synopsis: “When five unwary travelers with dark hearts stumble into a series of catacombs, they find themselves in a cavern with no way out. But the horror’s only just begun as a mysterious figure appears to reveal to each person the shocking events that will lead to their well-deserved, untimely – and unavoidable – demise. Starring Joan Collins (Empire Of The Ants), Peter Cushing (Horror Of Dracula), Patrick Magee (A Clockwork Orange) and Sir Ralph Richardson (Rollerball), and directed by Freddie Francis (The Creeping Flesh), Tales from the Crypt is the original, gets-right-under-your-skin creepfest!”

Tales from the Crypt is an anthology film based on stories from EC Comics. Only two of the film’s stories, however, are from EC’s Tales from the Crypt. Three of the film’s segments – “…And All Through the House,” “Poetic Justice,” and “Wish You Were Here” – were adapted from The Vault of Horror and The Haunt of Fear comics.

Doctor Who
Season 8, Episode 2 “Into The Dalek”
Directed by Ben Wheatley
Written by Phil Ford, Steven Moffat
Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman, Samuel Anderson
BBC America
Air date: Saturday, August 30, 2014, 9pm

Here we go again, indeed. This week on Doctor Who, we engage in a revisit of a foundational myth. Some critics have said that the show is at its greatest when it is willing to retcon its very beginnings. Here we see the attempt, yet again. William Hartnell’s second serial was called “The Daleks” and completed the definition of the four key elements of the show: the Doctor, the TARDIS, the companions, and the monsters. The Daleks are the first true monsters of the series and we learned what Doctor Who was about in 1963. Now, Phil Ford and Steven Moffat attempt to let a single Dalek show us what the series and a new actor playing the Doctor are about in 2014.

Happy birthday today to Tom Baker, the 4th incarnation of the time lord from Gallifrey, possibly the best known actor of the classic era of the long-running series Doctor Who, which just celebrated its 50th anniversary on the air last year, to play that chameleonic role. The inimitable actor, who recently appeared in the 50th anniversary special, Doctor Who: The Day Of The Doctor, turns 80 today.

Baker, who landed the role in 1974 and portrayed the cheeky, curious, and inquisitive character, decked out in flamboyant dress, ala hat, which barely covered his large curled tresses of hair; flowing bold multi-colored scarf; and a long coat, injected a sort of youth mentality and attitude into the character, who had been, up to that point, been portrayed by decidedly more elder actors, who gave the Doctor a bit of English intelligentsia and class. Baker did the same, but his youthful appearance and manner endeared him and the show to a more younger generation, and it set a sort of template for the character thereafter in which he was portrayed by much younger actors, and ultimately, the Doctor took on a different and rather new dimension for having been done with the new approach.

For many, many fans of classic Doctor Who, one of the real high points of The Day Of The Doctor 50th anniversary special had to be hearing a very familiar voice say, “You know, I really think you might” and then seeing Tom Baker play the Curator opposite Matt Smith as the Doctor for a few short moments. There had been clues that Baker, who’d played the fourth incarnation of the Doctor in the 1970s, would appear in the special in the days leading up to November 23rd, most notably from Baker himself. The details of where and how this bit of magic from showrunner Steven Moffat came about were largely unknown, however, until a few days ago.

Mr. Baker discussed his involvement in The Day Of The Doctor as a part of his New Year’s message on his official web site. In it, he touches on aspects of the filming day, his working process as an actor for the role, and the publicity leading up to the first screening.

It’s taken 50 years, but Doctor Who is about to reach the end of the road, or so it would seem. One of the supposed central tenets of the Doctor Who series is that the Doctor can only regenerate twelve times.

With the recent addition of John Hurt’s “War Doctor” between Paul McGann and Christopher Eccleston during The Day of The Doctor and the admission that David Tennant used up a regeneration during the serial “Journey’s End,” Matt Smith is now the last in the sequence of twelve actors that have now played the Doctor.

Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat recently talked to the British Radio Times about this. Continue reading to see what he had to say.