Super Cool Sontaran

Small Screen Monsters and Critics just dropped revealed a very big secret to Doctor Who fans anxious about what classic series monster is coming next year.

Christopher Ryan, best known for playing super-cool Mike in the classic comedy series The Young Ones, was cast for a guest-starring role in an upcoming Series Four “Doctor Who” adventure.

Ryan will play a Sontaran leader in the story, due to begin filming in the next few weeks, reports the BBC.

“I’m absolutely delighted to be appearing in this new Doctor Who,” Chris revealed to the BBC. “The last time I appeared in Doctor Who was in 1986, Colin Baker was the Doctor and I was still a Young One.”

“The story in question was the Trial Of A Time Lord, where Chris starred as the slug-like Mentor Kiv alongside Trevor Laird, who played Martha’s dad in 2007,” writes the BBC.

The Sontarans are amongst the greatest villains from the classic series of “Doctor Who.“

A military, warlike species, able to clone vast armies of themselves, the Sontarans are locked into an eternal struggle with their enemies the Rutans.

Now, the thing that confuses me here is that Chris is, if memory serves, a tiny fella. This made sense when he appeared as a slug in Trial of a Timelord. However, the Sontarans are large blokes similar in stature to boxers or rugby players.

How does that work?

Rumored to appear in the New Series since it’s first season in 2005, the Sontarans were created by classic series author Robert Holmes (also creator of the Master). Designed to be the ‘perfect soldiers’ Sontarans are clones based on an ideal specimen many generations ago. A statement on the futility of war, the Sontarans are locked in an eternal battle with the Rutans (which appeared in The Horror of Fang Rock as a shape-changing balloon with sticky tape clinging to it).

Appearing in four stories and battling four incarnations of the Doctor, the Sontarans are your usual Doctor Who monsters; creepy vaguely phallic creatures who shout a lot and stumble about until they get blown up or turned into green ooze.

While I enjoy the Sontarans, I hardly view them as one of the series most popular monsters. What do you think?

Details on New Titans series

Wizard Entertainment recently posted a conversation between Judd Winick and George Perez about the upcoming Titans revival series.

Here’s an excerpt:JUDD WINICK: So, George, how did you hear about the new book?

GEORGE PÉREZ: Pretty much when Wizard called me to do this interview. [Laughs] But I’m glad you’re doing this book, especially because if it’s popular, Marv [Wolfman] and I get more royalty checks. [Both laugh] After working on [New Teen Titans] for so long, I’ve had my say and it’s nice to see people picking up the characters that Marv and I created so long ago. I remember when I first drew Starfire, Cyborg and Raven hoping one day they would be there when they showed all the other DC characters, have that corporate brand on them. I remember the first time I saw Starfire in some DC montage and thinking, “My God, now I’ve got a legacy.” After a quarter of a century, for you to go back to these characters is incredibly flattering.

WINICK: Well, it’s a testament to what you and Marv created. People always come back to what you guys did as a seminal piece of storytelling. [DC VP-Executive Editor] Dan [DiDio] has been spearheading lately a lot of what fans see as darker, more realistic books with a lot of angst. But Dan said, “I want one team where it’s like a family and they get along, and I keep coming back to those original Titans.” And that’s what so many of us enjoyed about [New Teen Titans]: young people away from home who were in it together.

PÉREZ: Marv and I wanted that sense of family and brought bits from both our experiences. It was who the characters were and how they reacted to the quiet times that really made the book sing for me. I particularly liked issues like “Day in the Life” [New Teen Titans vol. 1 #8] and “Who Is Donna Troy?” [New Teen Titans vol. 1 #38] where there were no fights and just lots of drama, because the biggest challenge for a comic book artist is to make a quiet scene dynamic.

Click here for the full piece.

I remember reading New Teen Titans back in the day. As DC Comics‘ answer to the Uncanny X-Men it was a unique and welcome change from the status quo. A super hero team book where heroes are full of angst and turmoil just wasn’t done at DC Comics until this title premiered (which is very odd seeing as how DC Comics is coming under fire as being far too angst-ridden nowadays). Wolfman and Perez took a team of teenagers and told engaging and exciting stories that operated on multiple levels.

New Teen Titans was a comic book where the story wasn’t restricted by who the heroes were fighting. It’s important to note that at the time it premiered, this kind of thing was alien to DC Comics. Up to that point in time, the most character development a super hero received was Green Arrow growing a beard or Batman having a girlfriend. The super heroes were regarded as statuesque beings that never changed. Even writers of Justice League of America had to bring in lesser known heroes to work with (such as Elongated Man, Red Tornado and Zatana) so they could keep from going crazy over editorial limitations on the big guys.

I’ve been a follower of Winick‘s work on Batman and Green Arrow and look forward to seeing what he’s going to do with these characters. It’s nice to see that he respects the original creators and is interested in doing right by them. That means a lot to the fans, especially fans of this series.

I was sad to see Geoff Johns depart Teen Titans, but he was getting stretched far too thin and in my opinion it was starting to show in the quality of his work. I’m not sure if there are going to be two Titans comics (one with Robin, one with Nightwing) or what, but Winick‘s series should be worth a read.

It’s nice to know that Winick has co-creator Perez’ blessing.