Doctor Who – Revenge of the Cybermen

Doctor Who - Tom Baker

Doctor Who – Revenge of the Cybermen
Story 079
April/May 1975

Once thought to be the possible inheritors of the best of the Doctor Who baddies, the Cybermen had not been seen since 1968’s Invasion starring Patrick Troughton as the Doctor (just imagine how great a Pertwee Cyberman story would have been?). The first year featuring Tom Baker featured three classic monsters (Sontarans, Daleks and Cybermen), making this reviewer wonder if they weren’t just a tad worried about losing viewers. In any case, the final adventure of Tom Baker’s first series was a bit of a let-down. After four strong stories, Revenge of the Cybermen is a bit of a dud.

Writer Gerry Davis (the co-creator of the Cybermen) returned to Doctor Who to script this adventure. If Revenge of the Cybermen is any indication, I think that Davis’s take on Doctor Who was not dissimilar to Terry Nation’s. Revenge of the Cybermen is more of a throw-back story, feeling very much of the type constructed for the 1968 series of monsters. The Doctor, Sarah and Harry find themselves back at Nerva Beacon, where their adventure began in the Ark in Space. Having been plucked out of time and space by the Time Lords’ device, they find themselves in the right place, but the wrong time. Instead of a satellite engorged with the future of humanity, this version of the Nerva Beacon is actually a beacon in space warning spacecraft of a roving asteroid called Voga. However, nearly the entire crew have been wiped out by a plague, leaving the craft a virtual ghost ship.

The Doctor and his companions are suspected almost immediately, but since the Doctor and Harry are familiar with medicine and Sarah Jane is so darned cute, they are allowed to live. A shifty civilian named Professor Kellman is actually in cahoots with the Cybermen, helping them spread a plague through the Cybermats hidden throughout the ship. After Sarah is infected, the Doctor tries a desperate gamble and uses the Transmat ( a kind of Dr Who version of the familiar transporter) system to filter the impurities out of her blood. This separates him from his friends so that only the Doctor can face his foes, the dreaded Cybermen.

The Doctor is made part of the Cybermen’s mad plan to destroy Voga by strapping a massive bomb onto his back and told to march forward until they blow him up via remote control. However, the planet Voga is actually full of these goofy alien guys who look like old biddies in house dresses. They are waging a civil war amongst each other for reasons that I can only guess at because I cannot understand them under their masks.

A word on Cybermen…

The last remnants of a dying planet named Monday, the Cybermen have replaced all of their failing organic components with cybernetic parts. This has granted them near immortality, but also turned them into cold calculating creatures, desperately in need of raw material. They pillage the living for organs and attempt to increase their race by transforming other beings into Cybermen as well.

In the past, the Cybermen adventures have centered on the monsters trying to create a vast empire by stealing bodies or whole planets. Their first televised adventure with the Doctor involved the Cybermen using their planet as a space craft to leach off of the Earth like trying to jump start a dead car battery. The trend toward presenting the Cybermen as boogie men who are just evil full stop starts here. In Revenge of the Cybermen, a small squad is attempting to destroy Voga, the planet of gold. A Cyberleader explains to the Doctor that the Cyberwars (an off-screen event) would have been a success if not for the glitter gun.

Yes, the glitter gun.

Just imagine that you had this great plan for universal conquest and you had to admit that something called a glitter gun put the kibosh on that.

How humiliating.

This leaves the Cybermen with their sites set on destroying Voga and then getting on with the universal conquest thing. The plan goes tits up thanks to the Doctor’s extraordinary luck, leaving the universe apparently free of Cybermen (if all of them were crammed aboard the spacecraft we see in this adventure).

As a Cyberman story, Revenge of the Cybermen is a real head scratcher. They Cybermen spend most of their time either trying to get a spaceship to work or gunning down goofy aliens in caves. Not exactly the model of a horrifying and dangerous brilliant monster race, is it?

Despite it all, Tom Baker is in great form and carries the story on his capable shoulders. Helped in this regard is the amazing Ian Marter as Harry Sullivan and Lis Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith. There has seldom been a better trip as the leading cast on Doctor Who.

Filling a program with goofy monsters and classic villains seems to be what nervous producers do when taking over Doctor Who and I wager that this is what happened here. I recall hearing that incoming producer Phillip Hinchcliffe was saddled with the year’s stories by Barry Letts and crew. The outgoing team must have felt that they were doing Phillip a favor and in truth season 12 is a great shorthand view of Doctor Who in general but Revenge of the Cybermen has to be the weak link of the chain here.

I don’t want to be too harsh on the story as I deeply enjoy Tom Baker as the Doctor, am a big fan of the Cybermen and enjoy the direction of Michael Briant. I think what pulls me out of enjoying this one is the planet of goofy aliens and their cute train system that runs underground. It just looks like it all belongs in a completely different program… perhaps Fraggle Rock.

The cliffhanger leads of course to the next series and the next story, ‘Terror of the Zygons.’ In that adventure, viewers were finally treated to Doctor Who of the Hinchcliffe era that they would know and love.

The Cybermen would not return until 1982’s Earthshock when fans would witness the reveal of a completely redesigned monster. They would then become a vital part of the Doctor Who mythos, all the way into the new program in 2005.

In fact, eagle-eyed viewers should spot a Cyberman in the 2010 series trailer…

Daredevil: Noir

Quick Review: Daredevil: Noir

As far back as I can remember, I have looked at Daredevil as a character that most closely resonates with me as a reader. The key to all of this was that I approached Daredevil from the Frank Miller iteration. Strongly influenced by Will Eisner, Miller turned an ailing superhero comic into a hot property by making the Daredevil into an angst-ridden pulp character.

Batman, a playboy by day who preyed on the guilty by night as a brilliant yet mad detective was hip, but Daredevil was a tortured soul. Murdock was messed up in a way that was neither cool nor was it fashionable. The brutal vigilante that stalked Hell’s Kitchen known as Daredevil was actually blind lawyer Matt Murdock who ran a profitable legal practice with his college buddy Foggy Nelson. Every woman Matt dated ended up in some horrible situation or another. Murdock’s father, an aging boxer died because he stood up to the crooks who ran the sport and payed the price by being shot dead in an alley. Matt’s life was always a disaster, his one ‘gift’ was the ability to perceive the world more deeply than anyone else, thanks to a radioactive isotope that stole his sight but gave him a ‘radar sense’ in return. Think about being the most sensitive person in a city of trash.

While he fought many costumed super villains over the years, Daredevil’s chief opponent in Miller’s run was the Kingpin, a rich financier who secretly ran the entire criminal underworld. Petty crime took Murdock’s father from him, and here was a face that he could direct his anger toward, the Kingpin. However, the Kingpin was untouchable, making Murdock’s crusade against him seem futile… but that just made him try harder.

The Marvel Noir line of comics set the familiar characters and their worlds in a film noir setting. The eight mini-series released to date have adapted the Punisher, Luke Cage, Wolverine, Spider-Man and the X-Men (Iron Man was just released last week). Alexander Irvine and Tomm Corker’s adaptation of Daredevil succeeds so well in part because the source material (or at least Miller’s version) is so closely related to the world of film noir.

In the noir version, Matt Murdock is an assistant to Franklin Nelson who runs a detective agency. Though blinded as a youth during his father’s murder, Murdock is sensitive to the world around him and picks up things others would dismiss. By night Murdock goes by the moniker Daredevil and performs a high wire act in a costume. A beautiful yet scared looking client named Eliza puts Murdock on the trail of Orville Halloran, the suspected crime lord of Hell’s Kitchen. Halloran and Wilson Fisk (AKA the Kingpin) are embroiled in a turf war. It is said that Halloran can be connected to any number of crimes, but no one is brave enough to step forward. Eliza claims she can give Murdock and Nelson Halloran, which is just too good to pass up. Murdock trails her and finds more dead bodies at each turn, left by the Bullseye Killer who never misses. In the end, he finds that Eliza herself is the Bullseye Killer and that Murdock was used by her and Fisk to eliminate the competition.

The tone is morose and somber, the artwork dynamic and fluid yet sharp like an old film seen on a faded print. Irvine captures the tragedy of Murdock, a young man just looking for someone to hit, fighting a war that will never end, and places him in a wonderfully grim noir world. The art by Corker makes the series come alive for me. In many ways, it is reminiscent of the art by Alex Maleev.

With eight mini-series adapting various Marvel characters into the noir style, this could be the best of them. The Punisher captures the crime angle, but the drama and intrigue is so perfectly captured in Daredevil: Noir. I intend to review all eight Marvel Noir series so make sure to watch this space.

Buy Daredevil Noir at Amazon

Doctor Who buzz

It’s happening again, Doctor Who is fashionable once again. It seems that this kind of thing comes in waves, with the most recent example being the very largely publicized departure of David Tennant. The arrival of Matt Smith as the Doctor and new head writer Steven Moffatt is also setting the web on fire. There has been some resistance to the new ‘regime,’ with a very vocal group of fans declaring that they will never watch again now that David is gone.

The ratings have fluctuated in the first three episodes with a noticeable slump last week. I’m hoping that the use of the Daleks early on will keep fans watching and after the revelation that the Daleks too have been redesigned and retooled (see below) there should be a spike in viewing figures. Just three adventures in out of the year’s allotment of 13 and I have to say that I am very excited. From the buzz on the web, I’m not the only one.

I’m not feeling that well this evening (hence the quick blog post), but wanted to pass on a few choice gems.

Doctor Who premiered in NYC this week. I have to say that I have never seen this much energy being directed to publicizing Doctor Who. In the UK, Matt Smith actually traveled around to English towns with a crew showing the premier episode to local viewers. In the US, they showed it to a collection of devoted fans in the Manhattan. That’s cultural differences for you!

After the screening, there was a Q&A session:

Moffat on the Doctor: “Well, Doctor Who should be funny. After all the time he’s been around, he’s absolutely, genuinely, properly mad. He’s not eccentric. He’s off the scale. He’s a bloke Who could be defusing a bomb and forget he could be doing it. He could be your best pal, but you know he might just forget to come rescue you if something good came on the telly. Other than that, he’s a lovely man.”

“A lot of the storyline is about Amy and the Doctor.” Said Moffat. “And it does take unexpected turns. It already has in the first episode. I just don’t want to say anything because it’d spoil the surprises. People always want to spoil the surprise. People always ask what happens next, and I just go ‘Oh, watch the sodding bit. There ya go.'” Pay attention to everything. Once you get to episodes 12 and 13, you’ll discover you should’ve been paying attention to everything that you think you understood. In fact, I’d recommend watching it three or four times. And you should recommend it to all your friends.”

One older fan asked, practically demanded, that the TARDIS’ chameleon circuit finally be fixed so that it could look like more than an old police box. This drew loud boos from the majority of the audience, and Matt Smith, Who also then had to explain to his sister and friends (Who flew in from Britain) what the chameleon circuit was: the technology that makes the TARDIS look like a police box and had been broken for ages.

“Let me be clear,” said Moffat. “The Doctor could have repaired it years ago. Of course he could repair it. He just likes the blue.”

Here’s an article on the history of Doctor Who and the Radiophonic Workshop. The lack of an electronic soundtrack is still something that saddens me. It is quintessential to what Doctor Who. Murray Gold’s absurdly poor orchestrations seem more like an embarrassing attempt to ape Star Wars than anything else. But there was a time when a weekly program featured the weirdest sounds you had ever heard.

It was composed by Ron Grainer, but much of the credit for the tune’s influence goes to Delia Derbyshire, then part of the Radiophonic staff. She was given the task of arranging Grainer’s composition. This was in the days before the BBC had synthesizers, so Derbyshire had to make do with what was around the studio. One thing they had in abundance was magnetic tape. So with the use of oscillators designed to test electronic equipment and some very intricate tape splicing, Derbyshire created one of the best known examples of musique concrete. A recording of a plucked string provided the bass line and the first widely heard example of sampling.

An article on iDaleks, joking about the sudden appearance of multi-colored Daleks in the latest episode. The multi-colored design seems influenced by the lavish big budget feature film from the 1960’s. Whereas Doctor Who on the small screen had been limited to black and white, the silver screen offered viewers brightly candy-colored killing machines.

The hefty bumpers on the new Daleks are consistent with the old movie models as well. It has been a very long time since the Daleks have been redesigned. I’m not sure what the fan reaction will be, but it sends a clear message that these are new menaces and that the pepper pots of the past are long gone.

And in preparation of next week’s episode (Part one of a two-parter), a primer on the Weeping Angels.

The most popular script that Moffat has worked on to date featured the Doctor seen in small doses in hidden DVD message as he struggled to pass on information about the dreaded Weeping Angels that had trapped him in the past. This two-part adventure looks to be the high point of the year.

What are the Weeping Angels? Well, they look like statues, but they’re anything but. These “angels” are actually aliens who have a built-in defense mechanism — if they come into anyone’s vision, they are  transfixed into stone. But when those people look away, the angels move incredibly quickly to grab you. Their touch sends you back in time, and the angels feed off the residual energy of the life you would have had. “They’re the only psychopaths in the universe to kill you nicely,” the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant) said of them in “Blink,” the only other Who serial in which they have appeared.

Time of the Angels – Trailer

Doctor Who and Death to the Daleks!

Doctor Who and Death to the Daleks!
Story 072
Feb-March 1974

A universe in peril, a fabled city that drains energy from passing spacecraft and the Daleks in peril. For an adventure that starts with the image of Sarah Jane Smith in a bathing suit, Death to the Daleks has a lot of off the wall action in the typical Pertwee vein.

While Hartnell owned the part with gravitas and presence and Troughton filled the role with energy and exuberance, but it was Jon Pertwee who was the first actor to bring real celebrity to Doctor Who. The program was an international hit and accepted as a national institution throughout Great Britain before Pertwee arrived, but after the dashing dandy donned his opera cloak, something really clicked for the program. Pertwee himself was a very dynamic man. A former song and dance performer, he fancied himself a daredevil of sorts and after a lifetime in the Navy, he was a rugged type. The addition of gadgets, fast cars and the forces of U.N.I.T. turned the program into something it had never been before, an action drama with the Doctor the star hero. Complete with ray guns, judo chops and spacecraft chases, this Doctor was a super hero of the comic strip variety.

In his fifth year on the program, Pertwee’s interest seemed to be waning to me. The stories are top notch for the most part and the new companion Sarah Jane Smith added a new dynamic to the duo that Joe Grant lacked. You get the sense from listening to old stories from Jon’s co-stars that most of what we see on camera was an act. A very painful back condition would cause him to seize up in agony randomly and he had a hard time remembering the techno-babble the Doctor spouted week after week. In Katy Manning, Pertwee had a skinny little girl to take under his wing and protect and explain things to. Jon needed Katy to look dashing brave and clever. With Lis Sladen as Sarah Jane, the mix is a bit different. Being a liberated woman by early 70’s TV standards, she is often abrasive and stridently independent, often placing herself in great danger just to be stubborn. Sarah Jane challenges the Doctor at nearly every turn, causing him to have to rise to the occasion and earn the rank of hero time after time. It’s a great idea and allows Pertwee to go out on a high note in his swan song ‘Planet of Spiders.’

I have mentioned before that Jon Pertwee hated Daleks. Unable to provide any facial or vocal cues, they gave an actor nothing to work with. That said, he does remarkably well in his three Dalek adventures. His last outing against the tin-plated pepper pots is Death to the Daleks and one of the last Dalek stories still unreleased on DVD. The second Dalek story that Terry Nation had scripted for Pertwee’s era, it is rather basic and retro in tone, feeling very out of place in the 1974 season. Nonethless it does have it’s moments.

The adventure takes place on the planet Exxillon, where the TARDIS crash-lands on the way to a pleasure planet. This is back in the days when the Doctor treated the TARDIS like an expensive sports car used to take young ladies to the beach. After establishing that there is something draining energy from the TARDIS (through a prolonged sequence of events), the Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith exit to explore. Exxillon is a cold inhospitable planet with gloomy skies. The Doctor gets attacked while Sarah looks for something more suitable to wear. The pair of travelers are split up in typical Terry Nation form in order to expand on several plots at the same time. It’s rather surprising then that it seems to take Nation a couple of episodes to find Sarah’s voice. While she waits to be sacrificed by some droning religious zealots, the Doctor makes contact with a crew of Space Marines from Earth.

The Space Marines are on a vital mission to procure rare minerals needed to cure a space plague. Their crash landing appears to have left their bow and arrow sets in remarkable condition but badly damaged the commanding officer’s hairpiece. The entire crew is actually very bland aside from the grumpy Galloway who seems driven by his mission and nothing else. I know that we are meant to sympathize with the other crew members who want to help the Doctor and Sarah, but it actually makes much more sense to see things from Galloway’s point of view. He just wants to grab the minerals and hang these weirdos. Thinking that a rescue ship has arrived, the space marines chase a slowly descending craft only to find that it is full of Daleks. To the Doctor’s surprise, the Dalek’s weaponry is completely useless, leaving the armored aliens just as helpless as the humans. After forming an uneasy and bizarre alliance with the Daleks; bizarre in that as they form the alliance the Doctor warns the Marines to never ever trust the Daleks. Then why ally with them?? I’m also confused by the way in which the Space Marines don’t seem to recognize the Daleks at all. After an invasion of Earth and a Dalek war, surely they are recognized as a formidable enemy.

While one set of Daleks are attacked by spears and arrows by the Exxillons, another set is busy inside their space craft developing new weapons to replace the malfunctioning death rays. The target practice scene is a good laugh as one Dalek blows a TARDIS model to pieces with a well-placed bullet. I wonder if the plan was to replace the goofy-looking weapons with these carbine models which held much more dread and menace, but then again the British are more than a little skittish about portraying weapons resembling real firearms in a program still targeted to children.

All roads lead to the mysterious city that the Doctor recognizes as on of the 700 wonders of the universe. With the help of an outcast Exxillon, the Doctor manages to crack the code of the city and finds that it houses an elaborate series of intelligence tests designed so that only those worthy of entering the center of the construct can do so. Nation offers some standard pulpy science fiction moments and logic problems that are entertaining if a little predictable. Hilariously, the Daleks follow the Doctor inside and just blast their way through each obstacle with custom-made machine guns. Despite the threat they are meant to display, the Daleks spend a lot of time getting blown up and attacked by various things such as a giant lamp living in a lake. That said, the silver and black Dalek model has to be one of my favorite designs. They look great, but burst into flames so easily that they seem to be full of kerosene.

The Doctor and Sarah spend a remarkable amount of time apart from each other in this story, with the Exxillon Belal as the connecting thread between them. That said, the moments that they do share are remarkable. In one sequence, Sarah attempts to put up a brave tough facade as the Doctor explains a terrible threat waiting for them further on. She almost immediately crumbles and admits that she is confused and terrified, allowing Pertwee to take her slight shoulders under his arm and reassure her that he has it all under control.

1974, may be his last year as the Doctor but he seems to be finding his footing in each of the season’s stories making the character seem new and vibrant again. Death to the Daleks is full of tired characters and predictable plots, but the performances from the main and guest cast are great. The direction by Michael Briant (a veteran of several productions including Colony in Space, The Sea Devils and Robots of Death) is quite nice. Briant’s first Dalek outing, he tries a few tricks to make them look interesting including a shot of the Dalek point of view through a bit of pipe placed at the end of the camera lens. This seems to imply in one scene that a Dalek is checking out a female Space Marine’s butt as she walks out, leading to intense conference with two fellow Daleks.

The Daleks themselves come off as two-dimensional monsters more than interesting characters, something that plagued Terry Nation’s creations in the 70’s in Day of the Daleks, Planet of the Daleks and here in their third outing. It took the creation of Davros in 1975’s Genesis of the Daleks to breath some life back into them for another 13 years. Without the assist of David Whittaker, Nation’s Dalek scripts seem rather plain and lack the edge that the first few Dalek stories had. Looking at his other work (Blake’s 7, Department S), I think that this is primarily how Nation approached his Dalek stories. Even so, Death to the Daleks is an interesting time capsule of vintage Doctor Who and worth watching for Pertwee and Sladen alone.

While previous Dalek stories such as Dalek Invasion of Earth, Power of the Daleks, Evil of the Daleks and even Day of the Daleks had additional layer to them, both Planet of the Daleks and Death to the Daleks are cases of what you see is what you get. As adventure serials go, both are quite good but neither hold up very well to their predecessors. In recent years, the new Doctor Who has fallen into a similar slump where the Daleks have been used as simple bug-eyed monsters rather than the sophisticated representations of xenophobia and hatred. Their last appearance even featured an over-the-shoulder look of compassion and sadness as the departing Tenth Doctor showed the Dalek on its way as one would a lost child.

This weekend, the Mark Gatiss-penned story Victory of the Daleks looks to return the villains to a semblance of menace that they once held. I wait with baited breath!

Recommended:

Buy The Official Doctor Who and the Daleks Book

Buy The Dalek Survival Guide

Buy Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure With the Daleks

Doctor Who: The Adventure Games

Since early last year, production has been underway for the Doctor Who PC video game. Working very closely with the new series production team, the development by Charles Cecil and Sumo Digital has embraced the look and feel of the 2010 season including the new TARDIS interior design and the new Doctor as well.

Details have been very scarce until this month and now that they are becoming available, it is sounding more and more interesting.

A quick guided tour of its impressive features: it’s free, it’s released in four episodic chunks, it’s on PC and Mac, its first installment is out in just a few weeks, and it’s one of the closest collaborations between Big Media and games development ever seen.

Simon Nelson, the BBC Vision’s controller for portfolio and multiplatform, is the first to admit that prior form hasn’t been brilliant for the BBC or Doctor Who. And as the man who greenlit this latest effort, he can explain the the thinking behind the new game.

“In drama, and stories in general, we have always been fascinated by the potential of the participative medium that is the internet and online – and how we can fuse the new participative features that the web enables with our traditional skills in storytelling, writing, production,” he tells Develop.

“And if the BBC is to stay relevant to younger audiences it needs to stretch its traditional content beyond TV and radio. But we had delivered some poor results in the past from not having the level of expertise to do that.”

The first three of the four adventure episodes are written by Phil Ford, responsible for Doctor Who special ‘The Waters of Mars’, episodes of The Sarah Jane Adventures, Torchwood, associated books and radio plays, and the script for Dreamland. The fourth episode is written by another Doctor Who scribe, James Moran, who wrote the series four episode that took the Doctor to Pompeii.

As for the platform, the game is being made for PC and Mac – because the BBC has to be able to address the widest audience possible as part of its public service remit, and that’s computer owners, not console owners. (That likewise explains why it’s free, because the BBC cannot charge for content.)

“Our approach is to make something that is like an interactive TV episode. You don’t get stuck, but are challenged. You have to drive people to play, but not put them off – the reward to overcome the challenge is the next chunk of Doctor Who narrative.

“Generally the gameplay is driven by stealth, minigames and a little bit of object interaction. But it’s not an adventure game where you are scratching your head trying to work out how to use two abstract objects together.”

Adds developer Sumo Digital’s creative evangelist Sean Millard: “We wanted to write a game that appeals to three generations – kids, their parents and older viewers. But that audience is so wide we can’t really have them stopping to think for more than two minutes – it’s not that your hand is held, you make your own way independently through the game. But the challenge is never about you sitting back and scratching your chin.”

“We can do things in those episodes that we can’t do in the TV show,” adds TV show exec producer Wenger, with a hint of envy. “We long to go to alien planets and to blow up the centre of London and go on the Underground in a post-apocalyptic world, but we can’t do them on TV sometimes.”

“Or if we do we’d need to have five cheap episodes after to make up for it,” jokes Moffat.

So Cecil and Sumo have been given free reign to come up with some of the most ambitious Doctor Who stories ever told visually. Yes, London gets blown up – another episode is set leagues beneath the sea.

The Cybermen will challenge the Doctor and Amy Pond in the new video game

“We got to see the set very early on,” explains Cecil. “Ed, the head of design, became very excited by our requirements and showed us the new TARDIS to be sure our vision matched what they had. Prior to then we just thought it was cool that the game would allow you to explore the new TARDIS, partly because it is so different and new. But when we saw it the second time there were these new doors and stairs. I started to panic, and asked what they were for. Ed’s reply was: ‘Hang on, that’s for you guys – you said you want to explore the TARDIS in the game’.”

So the show’s iconic set, which will be seen every Saturday night until summer, has been built with the game in mind. Players will be able to go through the very door they see on TV in the game itself to find the Doctor’s drawing room, full of artefacts from the show’s long history.

Fidell explains: “It’s a new opportunity to introduce fans to the history of the Doctor. The drawing room features lots of iconic artifacts from his travels.”

In one interactive episode, the Doctor and companion Amy visit one of the most famous planets in the show’s history – but one barely seen on TV in any real detail. That means Sumo has had to define the look and feel of it, something that the TV crew has promised to adhere to should the show itself ever go there.

“When the previous Doctor Who visited some of the iconic locations, they were shrouded in mist or very closely shot – for good budgetary reasons,” explains Cecil.

“The team here gave us free reign on those locations to just go for it, live up to the legacy and create things that are epic and menacing. Its an amazing thing – the game is defining what some of those big things in the Doctor Who mythos look like.”

Read the entire article that goes into even greater detail here

I’m still getting used to the fact that I’m enjoying the new Doctor Who series with Matt Smith and Karen Gillan. After being been very underwhelmed by the past few years of Doctor Who, it has been exciting to see the revitalization of the new series. The confirmation of a second series along with a script from comic book legend Neil Gaiman sounds like the quality will continue to hold up.

I have to note that Doctor Who has not had the best of luck in the video game world.  In 1983, the PC game debuted to cash in on the 20th anniversary. This was followed by the very strange 1986 entry Doctor Who and the Mines of Terror game starring the 6th Doctor and a shape-shifting robot cat Splinx… no kidding.

Doctor Who and the Mines of Terror

In 1992 the Seventh Doctor and Ace battled a world over-run by Daleks and Ogrons in Dalek Attack, the only game that I know of allowing the player to select a unique incarnation of the Doctor ranging from 1-7!

Dalek Attack

It wasn’t until the ‘Destiny of the Doctors’ Doom clone in 1997 (featuring an absolutely mad Anthony Ainley as the Master) that the program truly explored the 64-bit video game world… with mixed results.

Destiny of the Doctors intro

Episode 6: Silurians

Episode 7: Zygons

The close development of Doctor Who: The Adventure Games and the TV series is a unique approach that should pay off in the long run. The episodic format and the fact that the game is free is very enticing… I wonder if it will be available in the US?

Of course, i have a soft spot for this one:

Doctor Who pinball game

Quick Review: Punisher NOIR

Part of the second wave of Marvel Noir comic books, Frank Tieri’s Punisher Noir is a mad mixture of several motifs and styles that collide into a melange fit for late night consumption. The concept of Marvel Noir is quite interesting if a bit gimmicky. Taking characters and setting them in a completely alien world, that of the roaring 1930’s replete with mobsters, jazz and heroin trafficking could be a more exciting twist than zombies or monkeys put together. I read all four parts in one sitting which I highly recommend. The series feels like a short film seen late at night on a n obscure cable station. The loss of regular artist Paul Azaceta in issue 4 hurts the flow of the narrative because the comic is so very heavy on mood and tone fed directly by the artwork itself. That’s no slight on Tieri who delivers a strong re-envisioning of the skull-bedecked anti-hero even when it feels like a forced reboot.

The trick to these kind of projects is in telling a compelling story and using what works in the initial concept without making it seem like a pitch for a new ongoing Punisher book. Set in prohibition-era Chicago, the comic follows the life of a quiet shop-owner and WWI vet Frank Castelione. After surviving the Great War, Frank comes home to an ailing wife who eventually succumbs to cancer, leaving him the sole guardian of Frank Jr. Junior’s head is full of fantasy, fueled by a pulp radio drama reminiscent of the Shadow called The Punisher. Attracted to the local gangs, Junior seems destined for a life of crime, despite the best of intentions of his father. Frank junior’s love of fantasy and violence isn’t helped by Frank senior’s colorful tales from the war and his enormous skull tattoo emblazoned his chest to ward off the angel of death.

Castelione refuses to pay homage to Dutch Shultz’s mob and finally pays the price, leaving Frank Junior an orphan. Trying to do good by his father’s intentions and living the fantasy of his radio hero, junior takes a mask and his dad’s customized handguns to the street as the Punisher in a war against the mob in his father’s memory.

The comic is very entertaining and features a lot of interesting twists and historical references that are fun. It also has a kind of hyper-violent edge reminiscent of the Garth Ennis series that fans of the character should enjoy. The aforementioned change in art for the last issue is very distracting, but the story and character are strong enough to keep this series highly recommended.

Note: Today, the first issue of Iron Man Noir hits the stands, starting what may be a third wave of the Marvel Noir line.

Punisher Noir Premiere HC

New releases 4/14/10

For the complete list of this week’s comics, click here.

Not sure where your local comic shop is? Try comicshoplocator.com!

(note: all information including ad copy is from the publisher)

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Art Of Tony Harris: Art & Skullduggery HC

Celebrating 20 years in the industry, Desperado Publishing is proud to partner with IDW to present the fifth volume in its Eisner-winning series of retrospective art books featuring Eisner Award-winning artist, Tony Harris.

A co-founder of Atlanta’s Gaijin Studios, Tony’s incredible career spans everything from long runs on Ex Machina and Starman to popular work at Marvel, Innovation, Topps, White Wolf and everywhere in between. This oversize hardcover edition features a complete retrospective of his career, with character and concept notes from his journals, sketchbook and design art, personal photos, and, of course, beautifully reproduced art from throughout his career.
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Poe TPB

By: J. Barton Mitchell, Dean Kotz, Jeffrey Spokes
‘Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.’ – Edgar Allan Poe. Everyone knows that Poe created the detective genre, but few know he was a detective himself. Enter the world of Poe and follow the famous author of darkness as he tracks a supernatural killer ravaging the streets of Baltimore!This title collects
POE #1-4
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B.P.R.D.: King of Fear #4

By: Mike Mignola,, John Arcudi, Guy Davis, Dave Stewart
Beneath the ruins of the Hyperborean temple, Liz is given the most startling visions yet of the end of the world-and Abe discovers his role in it when he finds the link between himself and the frog monsters.Will Liz and Abe lead the world to apocalypse?

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Flash #1 w/Flash Ring

By: Geoff Johns, Francis Manapul, Francic Manapul
A BRIGHTEST DAY tie-in! Get in on the ground floor of DC’s next epic in the making! The Flash races out of BLACKEST NIGHT and into his own monthly title as the all-new adventures of The Fastest Man Alive start with ‘Case One: The Dastardly Death of the Rogues!’

Barry Allen runs back to his life in Central City, but when one of the Rogues turns up murdered under mysterious circumstances, it’s up to The Flash to not only solve this bizarre crime, but protect those that are still targeted by the elusive killer. Plus, don’t miss a peek into the future of the Flash universe in this special, extra-sized starting point issue!

This product comes with a Special-Edition Flash Ring!
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Jonah Hex: Six Gun War TPB

By: Justin Gray, Jimmu Palmotto, Cristiano Cucina
In this epic from issues #44-49, Quentin Turnbull is out for vengeance on the man he believes is responsible for killing his son: Jonah Hex! Guest-starring Tallulah Black, Bat Lash and more!
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Creepy Archives Volume 1

Gather up your wooden stakes, your blood-covered hatchets, and all the skeletons in the darkest depths of your closet, and prepare for a horrifying adventure into the darkest corners of comics history. Dark Horse Comics further corners the market on high-quality horror storytelling with one of the most anticipated releases of the decade – a hardcover archive collection of the legendary Creepy Magazine! This groundbreaking material turned the world of graphic storytelling on its head in the early 1960s, as phenomenal young artists like Bernie Wrightson and Neal Adams reached new artistic heights with their fascinating explorations of classic and modern horror stories.
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Star Trek McCoy #1

Space, the final frontier! And on that frontier and beyond, humans and aliens alike need medical care. Enter Leonard McCoy, Doctor of Space Medicine, late of the U.S.S. ENTERPRISE. His first assignment: save the human colonists from a mysterious plague on a distant world whose only native lifeform is a vast and suddenly hostile jungle.

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Black Widow #1

By: Marjorie Liu, Daniel Acuna
The deadly super-spy from IRON MAN 2, INVINCIBLE IRON MAN and CAPTAIN AMERICA in her own ongoing series!

Natasha Romanoff is not a super hero. She’s not psychic. She doesn’t fly. And yet as the Black Widow, she manages to hold her own against a world of incredibly powerful enemies…and allies. But now someone has tried to kill Natasha…and almost succeeded. Injured gravely, almost beyond her ability to recover, Black Widow sets out to find her attacker…with no suspects and no leads.

Who could be deadly enough to get the drop on Natasha? And what connections do they have to some of her closest super hero friends? Plus, a backup detailing the deadly history of the Black Widow!

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Iron Man Legacy #1

By: Fred Van Lente, Steve Kurth, Francis Tsai, Salvador Larroca
The Armored Avenger’s second on-going series kicks off with a bang as the WAR OF THE IRON MEN begins here!

Tony Stark’s worst fears are realized when stolen Iron Man technology is used for ethnic cleansing in a civil war-ravaged land. When he defies U.S. government orders to confront the armored assassins himself, Stark sets off an international conflagration that threatens his friends, his company, and his very life — and sets him on a collision course with China and Russia, and their champions, Radioactive Man, Titanium Man and the Crimson Dynamo!

Guest-stars galore! And a shocking last page reveal of the classic Shell-head villain behind it all you won’t want to miss!

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Super Robot Wars Og Granzon Fine Scale Model Kit

A KOTOBUKIYA Japanese import! Appearing in many Super Robot Taisen games as both an enemy and playable mecha, the mighty GRANZON always makes a big impression. Designed by Shu Shirakawa of the Divine Crusaders, the powerful robot runs on an antimatter annihilation engine and wields immensely destructive weapon systems. Burly and covered in bladed armor plates, the Granzon and its Black Hole Cluster are often the last things its enemies ever see. With snap-fit assembly (no glue required) and pictorial instructions, readying your Super Robot Taisen unit for combat has never been easier! The Granzon is composed of approximately 400 pieces cast in different colors, eliminating the need for painting, and has 30 points of articulation. Standing over 6 1/4 inches tall, the mighty robot is so big it’s scaled down to be balanced against the equally massive Cybaster. The Granzon comes equipped with two swords, and best of all its chest panels swing open to recreate the Black Hole Cluster! Scheduled to ship in February 2010.

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Savage Axe Of Ares #1

By: Greg Hurwitz, John Barber, Ted McKeever, Jefte Palo, Rafa Garres

Ares, the greatest warrior the world has ever known, has lived for thousands of years, wandering the earth and waging war on his enemies. His acts and his axe are legendary and here, in stark black and white, are four tales of how he changed the world through violence. Through brutality. Through war…

Don’t miss this all-new, all-action, all-black-and-white one-shot in the spirit of the Mighty Marvel Magazines of yore, but ALL-NOW in style!

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Spider-Man Origin Of Hunter (One shot)

By: Stan Lee, Marc Guggenheim, Steve Ditko, Mike Mayhew, Michael Lark
You know them as the sinister masterminds behind AMAZING SPIDER-MAN: THE GAUNTLET, now rediscover the origin of Spider-Man’s fiercest familial foes, the Kravinoffs!

Once the greatest hunter of all time, Kraven had single-handedly trapped and killed every type of beast that lives, until his obsession with Spider-Man drove him to his grave. Now, with his journal uncovered by his daughter Ana, witness a more in-depth look at his earliest battles with Spider-Man!

Reprinting AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #15 and #34 in fully remastered color, with all-new pages and framing sequence by Marc Guggenheim and Mike Mayhew.

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Wolverine Weapon X Vol. 01: Adamantium Men

By: Jason Aaron, Ron Garney, Adam Kubert
Catching up with the past.

Years ago, Wolverine was subjected to a battery of tests, procedures and experiments by the shadowy government program known as Weapon X. Seeking to create the perfect killing machine, the scientists added an unbreakable metal skeleton to the razor-sharp bone-claws and miraculous healing ability their guinea pig already possessed. Now, having spent a lifetime trying to distance himself from his murderous past, Wolverine learns the procedures perfected on him have fallen into the hands of a private military contractor that has utilized the Weapon X technology to enhance their team of corporate mercenaries.

Investigating the new experiments, Wolverine quickly learns he may be in over his head. While the X-Man was more than prepared to fight a group of ruthless mercenaries, he didn’t count on them all possessing his powers – right down to the claws and healing factor!

This title collects
WOLVERINE: WEAPON X #1-5 and ‘A Day in the Life’ from WOLVERINE #73-74

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Captain Action Special #1

By: Steven Grant, Tony Lee, Art Thibert, Jake Minor, Educardo Barretto, Jerry Ordway
Having just caught his breath after seemingly vanquishing the Red Crawl, Captain Action now must face the woman called Offshoot in this thrilling full length stand-alone tale!

And the action doesn’t stop with two exciting back-up stories featuring a spy thriller Lady Action tale, and Action Boy’s ferocious black panther, Khem, in a solo adventure!

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Judge Dredd: Complete Case Files Vol. 00 Zero

By: John Wagner, Alan Grant
The latest volume in the Judge Dredd Complete Case Files Collection goes back to the beginning and collects forgotten and rare gems from the Thrill-power archives. Readers can experience Dredd strips that haven’t been reprinted in over 30 years. With art from Carlos Ezquerra, Ian Gibson, and others, this collection of classic strips is a must-read for any comic fan!

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Irredeemable Special #1

By: Mark Waid, Howard Chaykin, Paul Azaceta, Dan Panosian
The first year of Irredeemable came to a cataclysmic resolution, and before the jaw-dropping second year starts, Mark Waid is delivering an original stand-alone issue!

Showcasing a never-before-seen glimpse into the Plutonian’s heroic beginnings and insights into his former teammates, the once-great Paradigm, secrets will be revealed, clues will be given, and threads will be tied up!

This is a not-to-be-missed chapter in Mark Waid’s twilight of the superheroes masterpiece. Covers by Paul Azaceta and Dan Panosian.

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The Life and Times Of Scrooge McDuck HC Vol. 02

BOOM! Kids proudly presents volume two of The Life & Times Of Scrooge McDuck in a gorgeous hardcover collection in a beautiful, deluxe package featuring smyth sewn binding and a foil-stamped case wrap!

These stories, written and drawn by legendary cartoonist Don Rosa, chronicle Scrooge McDuck’s fascinating life. See how Scrooge earned his ‘Number One Dime’ and began to build his fortune!

Collecting the last six chapters of the award-winning twelve part epic adventure.

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Muppet Show SDCC 2009 Sp Ed HC

Previously offered only at San Diego Comic-Con’09!

Offered for the first time in PREVIEWS, the hard-to-get exclusive hardcover of the first Muppets collection, signed and numbered by acclaimed cartoonist Roger Langridge, is offered here.

Limited to 250 copies, orders may be allocated.

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Doc Savage #1

By: Paul Malmont, Jason Starr, Howard Porter, Art Thibert, J. G. Jones
The Man of Bronze in his own series at last!

Doc Savage is the target of a brazen attack on New York City! Tragedy will strike one of Doc’s compatriots, and someone may not survive the opening pages of ‘The Lord of Lightning!’ Written by Paul Malmont, national best-selling author of The Chinatown Death-Cloud Peril, with art by Howard Porter (JLA)!

And don’t miss the hard-hitting JUSTICE, INC. co-feature, starring Richard Benson, the Avenger! When criminals abduct one of his own detectives, Benson’s icy heart sears with a rage hotter than any he’s ever known.

‘Worst Nightmare’ begins here, written by crime novelist Jason Starr (THE CHILL) with art by Scott Hampton (LUCIFER)!

Doctor Who story 5.3 ‘Victory of the Daleks’ trailer

After several years dreading the latest episode of the new Doctor Who I find myself actually excited about it for the first time in ages. And it’s a Dalek episode! Even for all of its strengths, the new Doctor Who has not managed to produce a half-way decent Dalek story, however the latest adventure by Mark Gatiss ‘Victory of the Daleks’ looks quite good. From the WWII-era setting to the dogfights between British Spitfires and flying saucers, this looks like an exciting episode.

In the third episode of the new season, the Doctor gets a summons from his old friend Winston Churchill. To the Doctor’s horror, the Daleks are being used as a secret weapon to end World War II. Churchill insists that the Daleks will mean the end of the war, victory posters featuring the monsters are even seen on display. It’s all like some horrible nightmare.

From the trailer, the story gives at least a passing nod to 1966’s Power of the Daleks in which a colony on the planet Vulcan is convinced that they can use the Daleks as slave labor. When the newly regenerated Doctor arrives on the scene he tries to tell all gathered what the Daleks really are but cannot be heard over the insistent cries of ‘I am you ser-vant!’ from the evil alien death machine. This is echoed in the ‘I am your sol-dier’ line from the Dalek and the screaming rants from the Doctor as he insists that the Daleks are dead.

The Doctor has a plan

Given that the Doctor has fought the Daleks five times over and erased them from existence each time… you can understand his frustration. While I was initially excited by the first solo Dalek story and a Daleks versus Cybermen romp that fans always dreamed of, none of these adventures have really done much for me. This is unfortunate as the new Daleks look amazing and sound brilliant but in the end are largely ineffectual and are side-lined for some other absurdly un-interesting story, such as a pigboy’s love for a New Yoik dancing girl. But I digress and retain hope that this one will come through.

<<<LOTS OF SPOILERS BELOW (select text to read)>>>

In a recent interview, Steven Moffat hinted that not only is there a major twist mid-way through the episode but the Daleks do survive this encounter with the Doctor, unlike the other stories which end with their apparent demise only to return again in a few weeks. Writer Mark Gatiss has said that “The reason it’s called Victory of the Daleks is cos they win. They win.”

<<<END OF SPOILERS>>>

Trailer:

Victory of the Daleks, premiering April 17th in the UK, is another extra-long episode, clocking at at 65 minutes.

Fred Van Lente leads the undead army once more in Marvel Zombies 5

From Action Philosophers to Spider-Man, Fred Van Lente has certainly come far in the past few years. I have enjoyed his work on Incredible Hercules but the place where he has been having the most fun is in the pages of Marvel Zombies. Taking over from Robert Kirkman, Van Lente has turned the concept of the zombies comic into something very unique and outlandish. After several sequels and zombie variant covers dominating Marvel’s monthly books, even the most die-hard fan has gotten bored just hearing about Marvel Zombies. Rather than take that reaction as a reason to drop the idea, Van Lente has heard it as a challenge and from the sound of the early reviews, it’s working like a charm.

Fred Van Lente talked to the folks at Comics Alliance last month about his latest foray into the realm of the fantastically horrific:

CA: You’ve got “Marvel Zombies 5” on the way – what’s coming for “Marvel Zombies” fans in the new series?

FVL: What isn’t coming, Laura? “Marvel Zombies 5″ is kind of a smorgasbord for zombie connoisseurs. We have this scenario in which the alcoholic robot Machine Man has returned, and is now tasking with hunting down and collecting samples from zombies across the Multiverse. So it’s like a United Colors of Benetton of zombiery. He manages to collect various allies along the way, including one that I think everyone will admit is the perfect person to be a member of A.R.M.O.R., the Alternate Reality Monitoring and Operational Response agency, which is charged with containing the zombies. And we go into all these different genres, so they’re going to Camelot, a post-apocalyptic War of the Worlds” Martian tripod world, a cyberpunk world from the 1980s Barry Windsor-Smith “Machine Man,” but in the first issue they go a world where the frontier was never settled, and it’s perpetually the Old West, so you get all the Marvel western characters. One of the first things I ever saw Jeff Parker write was in a book in 2006 that we both did as part of this “Marvel Westerns” event, and his story was way better than mine. So I’m going to do a sequel to it, because I’m oedipal like that. His story was about this really obscure character called the Hurricane, the fastest gun in the West, so I’m doing what happened to Hurricane after he got old story. With zombies. And robots.

CA: Dimension hopping is always so interesting, because it allows you to go literally anywhere you want to go in terms of time or place or genre.

FVL: The whole Marvel Zombies thing came about with Mark Millar and Greg Land in “Ultimate Fantastic Four” where Ultimate Reed Richards ended up in the zombie world, so it just seems to be part of the theme of the series from the beginning. And since it’s a different dimension you can kill anybody and it doesn’t affect continuity.

(Read the entire interview here)

What began as a continuation of the Marvel Comics Comics version of the Avengers by Mark Millar has developed into an all-out franchise. Van Lente has taken the zombie version of the Marvel Universe and turned it into a device to tell whacked-out stories featuring obscure characters such as X-51, Machine Man. I’m happy to hear that this exploration of the third tier of Marvel will continue as the series delves into multiple realities.

Still available:

Marvel Zombies 3

Marvel Zombies 4

Quick Review: Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons: The Heart of New York

I’m not sure what it means that I cannot bring myself to watch broadcast television and instead find solace in seeing puppets instead. I think that it’s largely due to the fact that Gerry Anderson productions are so outlandish yet painstakingly crafted that it all seems like TV from another dimension. The grandeur of a Bond film, the action of a big budget movie and the drama of a nail-biting thriller are all there… in miniature.

The big difference between Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons from Anderson’s other major success Thunderbirds is that it is a straight-forward action drama. Whereas Thunderbirds was built around rescue missions during massive disasters, Captain Scarlet is all about intergalactic counter-terrorism. On a survey mission, Captain Black mistakenly attacks a Mysteron city, thinking that their intentions are malicious. This prompts the strange shadowy race of aliens into a fit of rage. Hell-bent on revenge, they launch a series if attacks on Earth by destroying then rebuilding humans to do their dirty work. Their big mistake is in reconstructing Captain Scarlet into an indestructible being. Through force of will, Scarlet shakes off the Mysterons’ control and becomes their chief obstacle in the war in Earth.

Strangely, in ‘Heart of New York,’ the story is not about the Mysterons at all. A couple of two-bit hoodlums plan a safe job on Spectrum and find that instead of money or valuables, they have succeeded in stealing top secret files that is to them useless bits of paper. However, one of the crooks sees a silver lining in all of this and figures that if they posed as Mysterons, they could do anything they want.

By staging their own deaths and miraculous resurrections as Mysterons, the crooks attempts to rob the ‘heart of New York,’ a large bank holding millions of dollars. Due to the city being evacuated for fear of Mysterton attack, no one can stop them. As Captain Scarlet and Captain Blue try and unravel the plot, the crooks are confronted by Captain Black, the Mysterons’ head agent. After scolding them for their misplaced boldness in pretending to Mysterons themselves, he leaves them trapped in the bank vault along with explosives that blow the entire building sky high.

The whole episode seems to be a morality tale mixed with a statement from the Mysterons themselves that they are the baddest of the bad. The scene with the crooks pleading for reason from the cold and heartless Captain Black is chilling. The criminals are surrounded in more money than they could ever use, yet they are doomed. Scarlet and Blue are far too late to help the crooks even if they wanted to because the hoodlums had planned their scheme so well.

What a weird episode.