Doctor Who News Update

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So, we have a new Doctor.  In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past year, well firstly congratulations on choosing such a fine place to try and wait this whole year out but secondly let me introduce you to Jodie Whittaker, the woman who be the Doctor.  If you’ve been under that rock for more than a year and have no idea what Doctor Who is let me just congratulate you on bravely clicking this link regardless of your own ignorance, have some knowledge.  

Doctor Who is a British sci-fi TV show from the ‘60s that persisted through into the late ‘80s before going on a 10-year hiatus and re-emerging in 2005.  Since then, the show has slowly increased in popularity, peaking around 2012-2013 during the show’s 50^th anniversary/height of the 2010s’ British Cultural Invasion.  

The premise of the show is about a time-traveling alien named the Doctor who meanders through time and space with some human companions having various adventures.  The show’s cleverest wrinkle has always been that the Doctor will, at times of extreme injury, regenerate into a new person, which is used as an excuse to swap lead actors.  Jodie Whittaker is the 13^th such actor to take up the role and first woman to play the character yet and she’s bringing some interesting changes to the show with her. 

Cover Story - Top 12 Star Trek: The Next Generation Covers

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And so we come to year two of the Star Trek celebration.  If you haven’t been following along, 2016 was the 50^th anniversary of Star Trek’s first airing, an event I celebrate with a whole bunch of articles.  2017 marks both the 30^th anniversary of Star Trek: The Next Generation as well as the premiere of the all-new ongoing series Star Trek: Discovery.   

As both of those events are in the upcoming week I’ve elected to honor them the only way I know how: a deep dive into cover art.  I already dedicated a whole Cover Story to Star Trek covers last year but the great thing about Star Trek is they keep giving you options so while last year I looked at Original Series related covers this year will be Next Generation related covers.  Presumably, come 2021 we’ll mark Enterprise’s anniversary the same way- assuming we make it that far.  And on that oh so cheerful note let’s dive into the top 12 Next Generation comic covers.

Judge Dredd Show Coming to TV

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It’s an odd time for British nerd exports.  America and the UK have always had an awkward relationship in terms of our nerdy cultural exchange, with a lot of Britain’s genre creations never making it to our shores.  This is mainly the result of “nerdy media” existing on the fringes of popular consumption for 50 years or so.  Certainly, things opened up a bit more thanks to the Internet, but even then, America has long held the premium on exporting nerd culture. 

As such, it’s taken a long time for British genre creations to ever make inroads to American audiences, but all that changed in the early 2010s.  I mainly point to 2012 and 2013, when James Bond and Doctor Who both enjoyed significant anniversaries and found mass popularity here in the states.  Since then, even as the popularity around those two has died down we’ve continued to import UK creations like Taboo or Sherlock. 

However, the one UK staple that has never truly found his way into American hearts is Judge Dredd.  Despite a Stallone film and a movie of his own in the 2012-2013 boom Judge Dredd just can’t find that sweet spot for American audiences like Bond, Sherlock, or The Doctor.  However, it looks like everyone’s favorite Justice will get a third chance to arrest our hearts with an upcoming TV show: Judge Dredd: Mega City One. 

Doctor Who/Class News Update

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Edited by Robert Beach 

It’s been a little under a year since Doctor Who left our screens, but if you think the show runners have been dormant in that time, think again. Firstly, the proposed Doctor Who spin-off show Class went into development with plans to premiere sometime later this year. Secondly, Doctor Who is now primed for his triumphant return for this year’s Christmas special ‘The Return of Doctor Mysterio.’ Both productions have more or less wrapped, and the major details are now starting to filter through in the form of some production stills, a behind-the-scenes video for the Christmas Special, and a full on trailer for Class, though the spin-off still lacks any release date. 

Panel Vision - Who Are The New Mutants

With X-Men: Apocalypse already slipping into the background of the national conversation, Fox has already starting teeing up the next installments of the franchise.   That’s more or less just how things work in the wake of Avengers monster success and the continuing domination of the MCU.  Nowadays, most action films, but especially superhero movies, need to make it clear to audiences there’s some kind of larger syndicated plan in store. 

That’s part of why Amazing Spider-Man was already teeing up Sinister Six and Bryan Singer was already trailing Apocalypse before Days of Future Past came out.  Currently, the X-Men’s future is a little more uncertain with the next confirmed X-Men film coming out in 2018.   Fox’s already talking Phoenix for that installment but there are two more Fox mystery movies in between.  It’s starting to look like one of those two is going to be the long rumored New Mutants movie as it finally has a character line-up, let’s meet them. 

Cover Story - Top 12 Rip Hunter Covers

You know, I’m really going to have to figure out some way to thank CW because I’ve managed to wring so many articles out of Legends of Tomorrow it’s ridiculous.  That’s one of the glorious things about a show with as many superheroes with rich and vibrant heroes as Legends of Tomorrow, though it certainly helps having a lot of avenues to discuss the various heroes on the series.  For now it’s time to look at covers once more, this time zeroing in on the leader of the Legends: Rip Hunter. 

Originally created in 1959, Rip Hunter enjoyed a fairly successful solo run in the early ‘60s before fading into obscurity till the 2010s when he popped up in the massively successful 52 comic.  Since then, Rip has been elevated to a constant of the DCU and the comic book equivalent of Doctor Who, that is until Silver Surfer replaced him in that category but that’s a story for another article.  For now, let’s dive into the shallow end and get the cover story on Rip Hunter, Time Master.

Analyzing Bill: The New Doctor Who Companion

Edited by Robert Beach

Well, it’s been a long time since we were here. For the new comers in the audience, Doctor Who is the story of a time-travelling alien named the Doctor and his human companion who have adventures throughout all of time and space. It started in the ‘60s and has persisted to the modern day, barring a decade-long hiatus throughout the ‘90s. Personally, I’ve got a strained relationship with the show at this point. More accurately, a strained relationship with show runner Steven Moffat.  

Moffat’s almost single-handedly responsible for the show’s American success and has penned plenty of great episodes, but he’s got a lot of flaws ranging from a constantly failing at diverse representation to his terribly executed finales that lack any sense of restraint or editing. In any event, the question of Moffat’s pros and cons has become a moot point now that he’s announced he’s leaving the show after Doctor Who’s next season, which will be in 2017 to build up some mystique for Moffat’s departure. However, the hype train is already building now with the premiere of Moffat’s final new companion Bill, played by Pearl Mackie. 

1st Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them Set Photos Debut

Edited by Robert Beach 

The importance of the Harry Potter franchise to the modern age of fantasy, blockbuster, and cinematic landscape cannot be overstated. This franchise is a pop culture phenomena second to none; a tremendously popular book series that was translated in something close to its entirety to the big screen in a radical cinematic experiment of letting the actors age through the films over the course of an entire decade.  

Modern pop culture, geek and nerd pop culture specifically, just doesn’t make sense without Harry Potter. Especially for Warner Brothers, the company that spent nearly 10 years dominating the entire fantasy genre thanks to the double barrel blast that was the Potter films and the Lord of the Rings movies. And now, with the fantasy power vacuum still unaddressed since the recession of Game of Thrones’ influence over the medium, and the Hobbit films having run their disappointing course, WB is returning to the Harry Potter well one more time for a prequel series all their own entitled Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and we’ve just received the first set photos.

Doctor Who - The Girl Who Died Review

Maisie Williams of Game of Thrones fame makes her debut on Doctor Who with this fun 5th episode, check out my full review on Front Towards Gamer:

http://ftg.operationsupplydrop.org/2015/10/21/doctor-who-the-girl-who-died-review-tv/

Doctor Who - Before the Flood Review

I review the best episode of Doctor Who in this decade over on Front Towards Gamer, check it out here:

http://ftg.operationsupplydrop.org/2015/10/18/doctor-who-before-the-flood-review-tv/

Doctor Who - Under The Lake Review

Check out my review of last week's really good Doctor Who over on Front Towards Gamer

http://ftg.operationsupplydrop.org/2015/10/08/doctor-who-under-the-lake-review-tv/

Static Thoughts - Doctor Who Spin-Offs

Let’s deal with the formalities right out of the gate: Doctor Who is a British sci-fi show about an alien, his human companion, and their shenanigans through time and space inside their ship that looks like a police box.  The actors playing both roles have come and gone numerous times in the show’s 50 year history with the human character just leaving while the alien, named The Doctor, regenerates into a new actor whenever he’s catastrophically injured.  It’s a good show, very imaginative and enjoyable, massive history, I’ve talked about it before.  What we’re here to discuss today is Doctor Who spin-offs.  A new spin-off of the show was announced last week entitled Class, the idea being that it would revolve around the Coal Hill School that was initially featured in the show’s pilot and then never again until the 50^th anniversary.  However, that got me thinking about Doctor Who’s previous spin-offs so I’m going to talk about them because I made a column about geeky television and that’s what we do.

The Martian Review

I saw The Martian over the weekend and raved about it over on All-Comic, you can see the full review here:

http://all-comic.com/2015/the-martian/

New Doctor Who Spin-Off Announced

Doctor Who is an incredibly long running and very popular British sci-fi TV show.  It started in the ‘60s, running more or less consecutively till the late ‘80s when the show went on a decade long permanent hiatus.  There was a brief attempt to revive the series in the ‘90s that failed very hard.  Then, in 2005 the show returned to British television to massive success and, more recently, the show has found a major following in American audiences as the perfect confluence of 21^st centuries trends of globalism and increasing nerd culture dominance.  In that 50 year history Doctor Who has produced a number of spin-off materials, some of which I’ve already talked about at length.  Now, it’s been announced that a new spin-off is coming in 2016 called Class.

Doctor Who - Witch's Familiar Review

I take a look at the serious ups and downs of Doctor Who Season 9's 2-part opening with Witch's Familiar, see it over on Front Towards Gamer: http://ftg.operationsupplydrop.org/2015/09/29/doctor-who-witchs-familiar-review-tv/

Movie Monthly - Daleks – Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D.

And so we come to the end of another Movie Monthly, this month a bit more sparse and transitional than I might’ve hoped it’d be.  Next month things will ideally run a bit more smoothly but at the very least I can say I achieved my central goal of this month by getting to today’s film.  At the start of September in Time and Space I said the reason I chose time travel for this month was to celebrate the return of Doctor Who to television, today I celebrate Doctor Who’s rich film history with Daleks – Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D., a film so nice they named it thrice.  Also yes, you read that sentence correctly; this is a Doctor Who feature length film, one of two produced by a major American studio in the mid ‘60s.  How?  Why?  Is it any good? Let’s dive in. 

Doctor Who - Magician's Apprentice Review

I'm resuming my ongoing review series of Doctor Who over on Front Towards Gamer, starting with Sunday's premiere episode The Magician's Apprentice, check it out here

http://ftg.operationsupplydrop.org/2015/09/22/doctor-who-magicians-apprentice-review-tv/

Movie Monthly - Project Almanac

Previously in Movie Monthly I’ve stated my serious affection for found footage films.  However, I do realize this particular claim needs a bit of clarity.  When I say I like found footage films what I really mean is that I like found footage horror movies, mainly because the horror genre has a lot of interesting and engaging subgenre and elements that rarely get explored because they aren’t considered profitable.  So, if dressing up your Bigfoot horror movie in the clothes of a found footage flick both as a cost cutting measure and a way to convince investors and audiences this is a film worth their time I’m all for it (don’t worry, we’ll get to the Bigfoot films another time.)  However, I am aware that found footage horror isn’t the only aspect of this particular formatting tool in existence, there’s also the far less often employed Sci-Fi found footage film like Chronicle or today’s offering Project Almanac.  

Static Thoughts - Doctor Who Ranking

Edited by Robert Beach 

It’s Doctor Who time again with the show returning for its 9^th season under the new series banner.  This will be the second outing for 12^th Doctor Peter Capaldi and the final season for companion Jenna Coleman. At the time of writing, I haven’t watched the premiere, but all noises are pretty good, so I guess we’ll see.

Last season was intermittently decent, so I’m moderately hopeful about this latest season of England’s longest running show. So to mark the occasion, I came up with my list of the best Doctors, because this is the Internet and list making is what we do.  Here we go, every actor to have played the Doctor ranked from top to bottom. 

Movie Monthly - The Time Machine (2002)

Edited by Robert Beach 

Welcome back to Movie Monthly where we spend a whole month looking at movies of one particular theme. To celebrate the return of Doctor Who later this week, we’re dedicating September exclusively to time travel flicks. Even though this genre seems broad, there are actually very few worthwhile entries in it. We’ll be looking at the weirder portions of that spectrum starting with the time travel story that started it all…sort of. In 1895, H.G. Wells penned what is arguably the first major pop cultural time travel story with The Time Machine. 

It’s an interesting speculative future story that’s honestly more of a fantasy adventure tale than a sci-fi story, especially when compared to the heavy social commentary inherent to the works of Wells’ contemporary Jules Verne. Wells’ novel was a pop smash at the time that influenced a lot of future tales through its unique blend of sci-fi affectations with Victorian fantasy adventure. That was the same basic blend that would eventually inform Doctor Who. Given that pedigree, The Time Machine has been adapted multiple times including an excellent B-movie version from 1960 and today’s subject: a 2002 feature film starring Guy Pierce.