WELCOME TO THE TARDIS! THE NEW 'DOCTOR WHO' - PETER CAPALDI!

The new Time Lord on the block: Peter Capaldi is DOCTOR WHO. Image: BBC.

And so, after several hotly anticipated months and tremendous speculation, the identity of the twelfth actor to play the world popular sci-fi hero/ icon DOCTOR WHO in and after the shows Fiftieth Anniversary year, and the sad departure of Matt Smith, was finally revealed to expectant fans across the globe. His was a name that suddenly took prominence online and in magazines like RADIO TIMES a week or so ago-and he's a damned good choice in my book!- Scottish actor/writer/director Peter Capaldi, no stranger to drama and comedy, taking well-deserved control of the hexagonal TARDIS console at the end of this years likely apocalyptic Christmas special. And after experiencing several on and off years of disappointment with modern WHO seasons and its storytelling, KOOL TV feels very optimistic with the news and can't wait to see what happens next.

BBC One - Doctor Who, Peter Capaldi is Introduced to the World as the Next Doctor!

He may have been dubbed a safe choice in some circles, but Capaldi has the ranger and a perfect sense of the Doctor-ishness about him- he's tall, has a great expressive face and serious eyed, visually a mixture of WHO legends Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker about him, and, at 55, is just the right age in my opinion- they were getting too young. It's nice to get back to the spirit of the first four classic era Doctors- a more seasoned and commanding presence to play the role-hopefully the comedy and face guernying of the last two incarnations, no matter how beloved they were, will be played down and this new portrayal will have a more serious edge to him- a bit more of the dominant steel-eyed glance, but with room enough for some laughs along the way alongside the shows current perky companion, Clara.

New wave sci-fi/fantasy/TWILIGHT-esque female fans missing their David Tennant and Matt Smith's will be aggrieved by it all, but its time to abandon the youngism of TV when it comes to DOCTOR WHO, at least for this incarnation and a new exciting period of the shows history. Steven Moffat and the BBC have picked a winner of an actor with Capaldi -well done- and I can't wait to see him face down the Daleks and Cybermen. Though let's also hope that, having a very reputable lead star, with his OSCAR winning grounding as a writer and director in his own right, he'll have some great and classic adventures worthy of his incarnation and presence. As for how long he'll stay in the role, let's cross our fingers for three years, but considering his always in-demand status, though, worst case scenario, we could all settle for two full-length seasons and a couple of Xmas specials.

Regardless of the long and short-term, a hearty CONGRATULATIONS from KOOL TV to Mister Capaldi and the BBC Production Team!

KOOL TV REVIEW: 'DOCTOR WHO' - SERIES 7 PART 2 DVD SET

A smashing entrance for the Doctor (Matt Smith) and Clara (Jenna-Louise Coleman) in the latest series of DOCTOR WHO released on BBC DVD. Images: BBC.

Fans of Matt Smith's incarnation of the heroic space wanderer DOCTOR WHO must surely be gutted by the sudden news of his departure from the long running sci-fi show, scheduled this coming Christmas, but they can at least console themselves for the time being with the recently released BBC DVD and Blu-ray set of part two of his third season in the role, containing nine stories that will surely prove a tonic.

Doctor Who: Coming Soon in 2013 trailer - BBC One - YouTube

Up above the London skyline: the Doctor and Clara.

My own personal enjoyment of this new era for the show, however, continues to be erratic, and I found this season once again something of a mixed bag. As always the series is well made and Steven Moffat's writing/producer-ship reign is inventive and surely pleasing for the Harry Potter generation, but the series just doesn't quite have the heart it used to, and the storytelling often seems all over the place, with style sometimes very clearly overriding substance. Last years Xmas story, The Snowmen, is a case in point- better than the previous years saccharine and abysmal effort The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe, the menace of the titular creatures and the emergence of villain Richard E, Grant as a returned old nemesis from the Second Doctor's past, The Great Intelligence, was a good idea lost in a storyline that actually proved to have very little at its core and once again felt painfully overlong, though the proper introduction of sexily perky Jenna-Louise Coleman, as the first of many incarnations of new companion Clara, was solid. Moffat's next entry, The Bells of St. John, launching Series 7 part 2 in Easter, was thankfully an improvement in some respects- a zippy chase through modern day London to stop a wi-fi invasion of London and the world by the revenge seeking Intelligence, bolstered by a good guest appearance from popular comedian/actress Celia Imrie. However, the subsequent The Rings of Ahkaten, written by Neil Cross, featuring Clara's first trip to an alien society, and seeing her and her Time Lord partner saving the life of a little girl songstress from being a sacrificial lamb to an an angry planet, would sadly prove a complete nosedive in terms of storytelling, and proved a rather twee and dated fantasy that failed to ignite mine, and many others, viewers imaginations- truly a low point of the season and the series in general.

Clara gets personal with an Ice Warrior in Cold War.

Fortunately, the returning presence of a bulky and dangerous enemy- the intimidating hostile form of a martian Ice Warrior in regular series contributor Mark Gatiss's atmospheric, 1983 set cold war drama, aptly enough titled Cold War, was a tonic to all the Ahkaten nonsense,  Bolstered by a lot of visual atmosphere, a hunt the monster plot that evoked the early ALIEN films, and a brilliant redesign for the classic monster-again, another great invention from the Troughton era- plus great guest star performances from Liam Cunningham and David Warner, the story, despite running out of plot in its last ten minutes or so, proved welcome relief and a reminder that the show could recapture its former classic era glories, whilst also setting the scene for a future rematch with the creatures on a hopefully bigger scale. The seventies-set Earth-bound horror/romance Hide would continue the overall quality upscale with its haunted house setting, and Neil Cross improves his WHO reputation with this second script, though the plots transition from edgy ghost story to sci-fi MILLS & BOON ultimately robbed it of its early scares and full impact, as well as easily wasting a strong guest star presence in the form of film actor Dougray Scott.

Lost in infinite danger in Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS.

Lofty ambition and lots of hype almost get the better of the next story, the expeditionary romp Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS, slightly hampered by some poor guest star acting from Ashley Waters, one of three salvage worker brothers capturing the TARDIS for scrap metal value, but ultimately forced to assist the Doctor in saving a trapped Clara and the now critically unstable time vessel from death. This promised and most anticipated look inside the legendary and mysterious TARDIS had a few choice moments of inspired cgi wizardry, but proved nowhere near as spectacular as expected, though the idea of the "creatures" running around the ships fiery core were well handled by director Mat King, as were some nice continuity love-letters from the classic series.

Having broken the Ice Warriors back into the series, Mark Gatiss returns next with a second WHO script that proves a far more experimental and not altogether successful mix of ultimately high camp comedy with occasional chills- the period tale The Crimson Horror, which sadly failed to live up to my expectations and desire for a genuinely serious and disturbing horror story, becoming a poisoned chalice of sorts in the way that legendary actress Diana Rigg and her lovely daughter Rachael Sterling, both of whom were well cast and excellent in the story, stole the show rug out from underneath Smith and co's feet. With some additionally nice visual touches, and occasional, genuinely funny laughs from the returning Sontaran warrior Strax (Dan Starkey), the final reveal of the alien creature influencing the villainous plans of the Gillyflower family ultimately turns out to be a damp squib, looking like a cheap rate version of the Pepperami animal stick creature fom the funny British TV commercials!

The Cybermen lose some of their horror credibility in Nightmare in Silver.

Bigger, but not necessarily better, monsters came with the return of another classic villainous race- DOCTOR WHO's number two nemesis, the Cyberman, in Nightmare in Silver, written by acclaimed fantasy author Neil Gaiman, though this proved to be a "number two" of a very different kind by the time the end credits rolled. Nightmare for the Viewers would have been a more apt title! Pretty much everything about this other highly anticipated tale would turn out to be a savage disappointment- a tragic shame and waste of time and money, especially considering how good Gaiman's previous story, the nostalgic and often haunting The Doctor's Wife, had been. The plans by the production team to make the redesign-improved Cybermen scarier than ever are ultimately unsuccessful, within a story whose intergalactic fairground setting just doesn't work, alongside poorly written characters you just don't care about- easy cannon fodder for the now running metal monsters, and lots of unwise trick guest casting (Tamsin Outhwaite as a soldier? Please!). Plus two annoying, cringe-worthy school children, currently looked after by Clara, accompanying her and the Doctor in this hopefully one-off visit, who just can't act for toffee! Even Matt Smith gives a laughably poor performance when he's fighting against the controlling influence of the ambitious Cyber Planner, in scenes that should have been scary and terrifying- a rare moment when the Doctor is possessed by an alien force. Ultimately, only LIFE'S TOO SHORT actor Warwick Davis, as a diminutive leader in exile, manages to emerge from this mess with any dignity intact, whilst also proving he has the talent to make a good Doctor himself.

The Great Intelligence (Richard E. Grant) returns for the series finale.

Fortunately, away from the criminally disappointing, very smelly mess, there is a  redemption of sorts for the season with Steven Moffat's ultimately triumphant season wrap-up and lead-in to the all-important 50th Anniversary Special, coming November 23rd. The Name of the Doctor is the evocative, ultimately misleading and misdirecting title to this planetary sized tease of a story, which shows us the Doctors seemingly final demise on the war torn graveyard world of Trenzalore, his beloved TARDIS equally destroyed, its interior dimensions now outwardly spread across its surface, as Richard E. Grant's Great Intelligence returns to threaten the Doctor's entire timeline and absorb it into himself. as if the hero had never lived, whilst the mystery of Clara is finally revealed in a way that proves ultimately obvious from the start (well, at least to me anyway!). Its all enjoyable enough, though, with the return of the Victorian- era alien investigator favourites Lady Vastra (Neve McIntosh), her lesbian servant Jenny (Catrin Stewart) and hot-headed, blaster-toting Sontaran Strax back to aid the weakened Doctor, and helping Clara reach the finishing line in her long time-spanning journey to save her friend (though Alex Kingston's guest contribution as the Doctor's real wife, River Song, is seemingly a waste of time and the actresses talents).

As with previous Moffat efforts, Name was yet another complex puzzle to unravel- so complex I'm surprised many Average Joe viewers could follow it, but there were many slots of classic series nostalgia dotted along the path that could be enjoyed, especially the way the story cleverly mixed classic old Doctor footage with stand-ins (nice to see the colourful Sixth Doctor once again striding down the TARDIS corridors-bit where was Paul McGann's incarnation?). The opening footage, giving us William Hartnell's original and iconic Doctor, alongside Granddaughter Susan, stealing a Type-40 TARDIS on his home planet of Gallifrey, aided by a little hint from Clara, was easily one of the best moments of the new series, whilst John Hurt's mysterious figure of a future, possibly battle-scarred and corrupted version of the Doctor looming on the horizon looks intriguing-oh, how I wish that Hurt wasn't just a guest star and was actually the Doctor for the next couple of years. I wouldn't mind the series having a shorter season run just to accommodate the character actor's busy career...

Special features (DVD): Clara's White Christmas, Vastra Investigates, BBC Children in Need Special: The Great Detective, and The Bells of Saint John - a prequel.


KOOL TV RATING (overall episodes and extras): 3 out of 5


Get the set here: Doctor Who - Series 7 Part 2 [DVD]: Amazon.co.uk: Matt Smith, Jenna-Louise Coleman, Richard E. Grant, Dan Starkey, Catrin Stewart, Neve Mcintosh, Ian McKellan, Dougray Scott, Diana Rigg, Warwick Davis, Tamzin Outhwaite, Nicholas Briggs, Alex Kingston, John Hurt, Saul Metzstein, Colm McCarthy, Farren Blackburn, Steven Moffat, Mark Gatiss, Neil Gaiman: Film & TV

DON'T HAVE NIGHTMARES! 'DOCTOR WHO's EASTER MONSTERS UNLEASHED!

Martian menace- the Ice Warriors return in DOCTOR WHO. Images: BBC.

"There are some corners of the universe which have bred the most terrible things. Things which act against everything we believe in. They must be fought."

Now that our Time Lord protector, the Doctor, has become far too human, showing an almost MILLS & BOON-esque obsession with his companions (and vice versa) in order to pull in new audiences who've never previously watched the series, my time watching modern DOCTOR WHO, starting up again on BBC 1 tonight, has now seen me more interested in saying Bring on the Monsters! than ever before, and this final batch of weird and wonderful aliens/creatures from the pen of Steven Moffat and his writing team, leading into the show's fiftieth anniversary 3D special later in the year, look set to be some of the most interesting yet, at least via the trailers and promotional images so far released by the BBC: the almost faceless top-hatted Whispermen (truly giving funeral parlour men a bad name!), the Crimson Horror (whatever that is-plague, possession?), the mummy-esque figure threatening The Rings of Akhaten, and a supernatural beastie that will surely make us all want to run and Hide.

The fearsome Whispermen, to be seen later in the run.

Silver terror. The Cybermen look more scary than ever.

And for fans of the above quote from the Second Doctor era, a time much beloved by star Matt Smith (his performance more a tribute to that fine character actor, Patrick Troughton, than ever before), there's the return of three of that monochrome period's distinctive and iconic nemeses: the formless Great Intelligence, which returned last Xmas to wage war on our hero with The Snowmen, and those formidable green Martian reptilian adversaries hissing and breathing long before Darth Vader made his booming entrance: The Ice Warriors, one of whom will be trapped with the Doctor and new companion Clara in a claustrophobic Das Boot'ish episode full of atmosphere and hopeful carnage: The Cold War. Finally, the survival driven Cybermen get the excellent new metal and silver makeover they deserve (is there an intergalactic version of Gok Wan out there doing this for them?), looking more suitably menacing and tear-drop eyes emotionless than ever before for the modern series, in what will hopefully be Neil Gaiman's exciting, and hopefully shocking, Nightmare in Silver...

Trailer: Doctor Who: New Series 7 Launch Trailer 2013 - BBC One - YouTube

KOOL TV BABE OF THE WEEK: 'DOCTOR WHO's JENNA-LOUISE COLEMAN

You can never get enough red! Jenna-Louise Coleman heats up the screen in the new series of DOCTOR WHO. Images: BBC.

Despite her general mass audience appeal, I can't say that I ever particularly warmed to the fiery character of Amy Pond, accompanied by her mostly wet husband Rory, when they travelled in adventures far and wide with Matt Smith's incarnation of the Eleventh DOCTOR WHO for two and a half years. At best, I preferred her on her own with the Doctor in the stories, in a duration that might have worked best at a year and a bit. Perhaps she was just a bit too modern for my tastes, with that in your face and often sarcastic attitude. The idea of an at first mentally troubled companion, whose problems were created from childhood by the Time Lord, also left me a little uneasy. I like intelligence and the ability to stick up to baddies, as has been seen in everyone from the monochrome era's Barbara Wright to Freema Agyeman's underrated Martha Jones, but a bit of charm and a twinkle in the eye is essential in the companions just as much as within the Doctor-they have to be likable, and there were times when I thought Karen Gillan's performance was anything but. Amy Pond/Karen Gillan may have shaken up the series and the way the companions are ultimately portrayed in Producer /writer Steven Moffat's revisionist blueprint for the series, but it definitely shook me up too much.

Hold on tight! The Doctor and Clara: a fun new pairing for 2013 onwards.

Impressive new baddies for the Christmas Special: the Snowmen.

So I'm delighted to say that the recent casting of the petite and rather lovely Jenna-Louise Coleman in the new companion role of the seemingly upbeat and enthusiastic Clara has cheered me up no end as we approach another new look for the long-running series. The Lancashire born actress may have previously played a completely different (?) character in the series than the one that she will ultimately be appearing in from the upcoming Xmas Special, The Snowmen, onwards, but Coleman's talents as an actress, after years in soap operas but showing potential with roles in the Titanic mini-series and a brief appearance in the Captain America movie, really shined with on-screen promise, what with her truly surprise appearance with a twist as the lone survivor of a spaceship crash, the burnt souffle making character of Oswin Oswald in Season Seven's acclaimed opener Asylum of the Daleks, as Coleman lifted the story greatly above an enjoyable if wasted opportunity for the metal meanies in the fast approaching anniversary year. Now playing the big skirted, Victorian era persona of a children's nanny, caught in the terror filled gaslight streets alongside the stove piped hatted Doctor's investigations of the evil Doctor Simeon (Richard E. Grant) and the monsters he unleashes upon London in the shape of the evil, fanged teeth bearing Snowmen (voiced with relish by iconic actor Sir Ian McKellen), Coleman's bubbly and clever personality as both an actress and as an emerging character, often to be seen in the new series taking the initiative with her Gallifreyan buddy, looks set to shine brightly in this charming time of the year, as further epic, mini-movie adventures are promised for the new and charismatic pairing from April 2013 onwards, leading to the apparently epic Fiftieth Anniversary Special, promised by Moffat and his team as a wonderful tribute and confectionery to the past...

Trailer: Doctor Who: The Snowmen - Christmas Special Trailer - BBC One Christmas 2012 - YouTube

Exclusive DOCTOR WHO: THE SNOWMEN BBC America Trailer Xmas 2012 - YouTube

BBC One - Doctor Who, The Snowmen, Vastra Investigates – A Christmas Prequel

A recent publicity shot celebrating major filming on Season Seven for Smith and Coleman.

KOOL TV wishes Miss Coleman all the best of success for the series and beyond...

KOOL TV REVIEW: 'DOCTOR WHO: 100 SCARIEST MONSTERS'

Dare you look inside? DOCTOR WHO: 100 SCARIEST MONSTERS! Images: BBC CHILDREN'S BOOKS.

DOCTOR WHO -100 SCARIEST MONSTERS

Compiled and written by Justin Richards

Published by BBC CHILDREN'S BOOKS

Reviewed by Scott Weller

It’s a well known fact that five generations of DOCTOR WHO fans from childhood to adult (or even Kid-ulthood!) have always watched the show because they adore the series concept and the lead role of the exciting, time and space traversing Time Lord (in all of his eleven guises so far) as well as his multitude of accessible, spunky and equally brave companions. But, most importantly for the younger viewers often watching it on tenterhooks, they enjoy WHO because they like to be scared by the incredible and diverse monsters that our heroes encounter on a weekly basis (with mum and dad close by to reassure them if it all gets a little bit too scary for them), as their diabolically evil, often very carnivorous and decidedly ambitious plans are just about stopped by them with their courage and often spare of the moment ingenuity-a morality battle of good and evil wrapped up satisfactorily in forty-five minutes, or, as seen in the not too distant past, over four to six serialised adventurous episodes.

Now, uberWHO fan and keeper of its literary flame at BBC Books, Justin Richards, armed to the teeth with bags of Jelly Babies, a handy scarf to distract and topple over baddies, and a seemingly unstoppable Sonic Screwdriver, has braved the far intergalactic reaches of the galaxy to bring us a veritable cornucopia of the most revolting, mechanical, scaly, winged, dribbling, mutated, land and sea traversing creatures ever seen in the show-monsters of past, present and future, and of all shapes and sizes- for a fine and scary celebration that is DOCTOR WHO: 100 SCARIEST MONSTERS!

Perennial favourites like the Cybermen return...

And in its legend as the longest-running science fiction show in the world, WHO has certainly bred some of the most inventive and successful monsters ever conceived for the analogue and digital television age; many of its big-gun creations making lasting and terrorising impressions on family viewing in return performances, well-realised in such a way that they have become household fright icons, with lots of the series classic monsters undoubtedly from the shows second to fourth incarnation eras of Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker: who can forget the sinister emotionless Cybermen, the green scaled Martian’s: the Ice Warriors, the plastic Auton killers, the squat, war-mongering Sontarans, or the cuddly but killing androids, the Yeti. Some creatures may only have made singular appearances but their vividness lingers in the mind’s eye (like the original versions of Jon Pertwee’s water-rising Sea Devils, the foetus-like Zygons (who may be returning to the show soon) and their Skarasen beast, the art deco VOC Robots of Death, the insect-like Wirrn, or eighties villains like the slithery and devious Sil, or the colourful bird/reptilians with designs on historical plague-ridden London: the Terileptils). With its invigorated rise to the top of the ratings charts from 2004 onwards, new enemies from the fertile minds of re-imaginors Russell T. Davies, Steven Moffat and the like have added to the impressive monster roster: CGI creations that flex their muscles and claws beyond anything ever conceived and capable from the classic shows effects departments, building on the originals firm and innovative for its time foundations. Modern WHO representations in the book include such gruesome delights as the memory forgetting inducers that are part of The Silence, the stone creepies that are The Weeping Angels (“Don’t blink!”), the infectious water creatures of Mars that are The Flood, the ravenous Slitheen, the warrior Sycorax, etc, etc. And let’s not forget human enemies like the classic and modern WHO series leaping Time Lord villain, The Master, who also gets a fine look in within its packed pages…

Dominating this historic monster-mash, though, must be the shows most iconic, seemingly unkillable, always coming back for more (despite often incredible defeats) pepper pots with x-ray laser blasters: the vicious and all-dominating fearsome residents of Skaro who have plagued the Doctor since his second story way back in 1963 and helped launch the show into being what it is today-the grand-daddy villains of them all: the Daleks. Created by Terry Nation and designed by Raymond Cusick, these emotionless killers still reign supreme: their eventual re-appearances over the years always much welcomed by fans worldwide, within tales that also become more ambitious and ground-breaking -their shrilling, merciless war-cry voices getting kids enthusiastically imitating them in the playground now as they did in the sixties prime. The Daleks are well represented within this book, in sections that are a worthy primer for their colourful and legion return later in the year; firmly getting us in the mood for the old and new designs coming back to wage war against the Doctor in the opening episode of Season Seven, from writer/producer Steven Moffat.

...whilst newcomers like The Silence are well showcased.

Beyond the Daleks, a few of my own personal monster choices from the Classic era sadly, and disappointingly, don’t make the book grade (like Jon Pertwee’s lethal Drashigs, or Peter Davison’s excellent Mara snake creature (recently given over a very effective CGI makeover in its DVD episode releases), but overall there’s truly something for everyone here, managing to successfully deliver and capture readers with its tentacled grasp with its wide cross section appeal.

Accompanied with brief but informative notes, stats and all-important fear factor ratings, the majority of the design spreads for the books are very good, often inspired (especially for some of the CLASSIC WHO monster sections), but some linked to the new series prove to be a bit of a mixed bag visually, smaller episodic imagery occasionally gets swamped or absorbed by overall too dark templates. Some of the selected monster images are also too firmly centred in the middle stapled area and damage their overall effectiveness. These designs surely looked great when seen in layout form on a computer or PDF, but suffer when seen in their finished printed form.  Still, I think it’s the adult buyers of the book who’ll be more concerned by such niggles rather than the intended younger reader audience that this book will clearly delight: they won’t have such concerns and will, no doubt, spend hours and hours fascinatedly pouring over the diverse and intriguing creatures just as older fans did with the now more basic looking DOCTOR WHO MONSTERS books that the great Terrance Dicks did for TARGET BOOKS in the mid-seventies. 100 SCARIEST MONSTERS continues the tradition and is a welcome purchase for any die-hard fans collection, too.

BBC CHILDREN'S BOOKS, keeping their fingers firmly on the pulse (or should that be shielding their jugulars?), have another accomplished tie-in winner. Firmly to be in the entrenched grip of young readers during the summer holidays and the return of the series to the Autumn BBC schedules, 100 SCARIEST MONSTERS is best read behind a sofa, peering over it with hands outstretched turnings its pages: a fine compilation and tribute to the series writers and production teams both old and new: the designers, the make-up and creature builders, and the great actors, who have brought them all to vivid reality: those weird and wonderful aliens, monsters and robots that have fascinated and terrorised us marvellously, and so potently, over the years, even more appreciated now as DOCTOR WHO approaches its all important, and iconic, 50^thanniversary.

KOOL TV RATING: A fangs for the memory 8 out of 10


Check out our KOOL TV FACEBOOK photo gallery of old and new WHO monsters here: DOCTOR WHO-MONSTERS OLD AND NEW