Doctor Who Vortex Issue 14 (FAN MADE)

no. 14

THE

LADY IN

RED

And other things that made Series 7.1 so brilliant, epic and awesome (and sad)!

ALSO: GOODBYE PONDS, ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS... IS WHO!, NEWS, REVIEWS,

DWV is a fan made publication by Stephen Henderson (issuu.com/StephenDavidHenderson) and is no way connected to BBC. Doctor Who, The Doctor Who logo, TARDIS, Dalek (Terry Nation), K-9(Bob Baker and Dave Martin) and Cybermen (Kit Pedler & Gerry Davis) are all registered trademarks of the BBC. All photography remains the property of the original owner, generally this is BBC. Text Š Stephen Henderson.

DWV is published on issuu.com on a non-regular basis.

www.issuu.com/StephenDavidHenderson www.twitter.com/GammaMonkey www.youtube.com/StephenDHenderson

IN MEMORY OF AMELIA & RORY WILLIAMS

insideThis issue 4: Series Seven, Goodbye Ponds 7. All I Want For Christmas Is... Who 10. NEWS: You Wait All Day For A Timelord 11. REVIEW: BBC America Specials 12. The Stories of the Sontarans 13. The Lady in Red

Series Seven, Goodbye Ponds

By Stephen Henderson So, this years pittance of Doctor Who is over. But it was a question of quality, not quantity.

And by Rassilon, they were good!

Mini-movies we were promised and that's what we got – Five epic stories which end in the departure of the Ponds.

Asylum of the Daleks was the perfect start to the series the biggest Dalek story ever millions of Daleks with a clever plot and surprisingly the first proper Dalek story Steven Moffat has ever written. It took the the Daleks to a whole new level, not only Daleks but insane Daleks (as if the Daleks weren't insane enough!).

However, I can't help but feel we were cheated from “every Dalek ever” as they only appeared in one scene, but it was a welcome return for the classic Gold Daleks with even the Red Dalek (with darker metallic red paint) looks good. (More in “Lady in Red” p13)

Dinosaurs on a Spaceship was even better and the inadvertent addition of Brian was genius. He's such a great character and he had me in stitches, especially with his “just my balls” remark and when the action temporarily leaves the spaceship to the beach (which was technically still on the spaceship!) there's more hilarity including the Doctor's Santa List makes this an almost perfect episode. The action and Dino chases were all very good and I would have happily watched the Triceratops all day it was just so cute – for a Dinosaur.

A Town Called Mercy was a strange one. One minute the Doctor (no, not that one!) the good guy and then he's the bad guy and it's up to the Doctor (yes, that one) as Sheriff to decide. This episode was mainly about the action but we do get another glimpse of the Doctor's dark side when he looks as if he's about to kill Kahler. Amy reminds him that this is what happens when he travels alone.

As with all the best DW episodes there was humour too. The Doctor's line of “His name is Susan and he wants you to respect his life choices!” was superbly weird. The first show on TV to have a transgender horse would have to be Doctor Who. The ending was a bit of a let down as in the Who world 'there is always another way' rather than Kahler to blow himself up. However, I'm glad The Gunslinger became Sheriff in the end. A nice happy ending if ever there was one.

The Power of Three was my personal favourite of the series.

It was in a word – HILARIOUS! Rory in his pants with soldiers and the Doctor struggling to cope with domestication and time happening properly was

reminiscent of “The Lodger” (which I also loved). The plot taking place over a year meant Doctor Who's first (to my knowledge) slow invasion of something we thought was harmless (I-Phone anyone?). I also enjoyed the first ever canonical official appearance of Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, which was the prefect way to introduce UNIT to a world without the Brigadier. She was in everyway her father's daughter and hope we see more of UNIT in the future. Brian Williams, again, stole the show.

Well, it had to happen. It was already a fixed point in time. We had all read spoilers in the news.

But for the first time we see what happens when you see spoilers instory – made worse by the Weeping Angels. The Angels take Manhattan was the perfect requiem for two great characters.

The twists and turns of the stories (the DW episode and also the Melody Williams book, which just HAD to be River Song) had me on the edge of my seat. When you hear angels and Manhattan the Statue of Liberty HAD to be involved somewhere. The final demise of Rory was reminiscent of Rose Tyler's being sucked back in time (versus being sucked into a parallel universe). Amy's choice to be with him was what made the whole story ending so sad.

Brilliant ending.

ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS... IS WHO! This year's Christmas special will be set in Victorian times where the Doctor will meet Oswin or Clara (whatever her name is eventually going to be) for the first time. However, we all know she'll end up as a Dalek in the future... or will she? But on that occasion he never actually saw her but in Dalek form so will he remember that voice? I smell another complicated timeline !! Or one actor playing two parts!

All that remains to be answered, but we do know that she'll be looking hot in another red dress. And the Doctor will get another hat.

YOU WAIT ALL DAY FOR ONE TIMELORD... … and then two come at once.

“TWO MINUTES TO BELGIUM!!!”

Matt Smith and David Tennant were at the opening night of Arthur Darvill and Laurence Fox's (Billie Piper's Husband) new army-based play “Our Boys”.

BBC AMERICA SPECIALS Bloody BBC. BBC America buy their show to broaden the fan-base around the world so much so that even they make a special show about it. There was a show a bit like that before that the BBC had (Confidential, anyone?). So BBC America sell that special show (Three of them!) to Space in Canada and other stations all around the world.

So here's a question... Does the BBC – the organisation which Doctor Who belongs to and which is lacking in it's own DW documentaries – buy said three specials. Do they buggery! However fear not! If you look hard enough on the world wide internet (even YouTube) all four specials: The Science of Doctor Who, The Timey Wimey of Doctor Who and The Women of Doctor Who. OK, rant over! Begin review.

1. THE WOMEN OF DOCTOR WHO The usual mix of stars of the show and fans talking about said show mixed with clips of said show. It's all pretty Americanised to be honest – but this is BBC America. Most of them are out-of-work comedians (that I've never heard of) but there are a few big name fans such as Jon Culshaw and Toyah Wilcox but there is also stars such as Peter Davison (the only reference to old Doctor Who, there's not even any clips before 2005), Reggie Yates and Tracey-Ann Oberman. And Steven Moffat. That's it! It takes a good look at the women of Doctor Who: River, Rose, Martha, Joan, Jenny and Sarah-Jane each in their own section. It's a nice look at the DW world through an American viewpoint but all in all: nothing I didn't know already.

2. THE TIMEY WIMEY OF DOCTOR WHO In a similar concept to The Women of Doctor Who this time looking at all the times that time gets all mucked up.

Time travel always complicates things so this should be a good look into some complicated things. However, the same interviewees mean it's all a bit samey and to be brutally honest it never goes in-depth to the proper TimeyWimey of Blink, River Song and the Waters of Mars among others.

3. THE SCIENCE OF DOCTOR WHO This one is for the proper geeks and is much more interesting than the previous two. It shows you how close Science Fiction and Science Fact are and you actually learn something. It looks into the nitty gritty of the reality of all that science stuff actually working in the real world. From regeneration and wormholes to cloning, teleportation and cybernetics all backed up with some of the biggest science people and the usual small-name comedians that these documentaries seem to attract.

But it put the hard science, which can be a head full, into understandable terms and for the first time you realise that all this fiction could become reality one day.

Teleportation and time travel is possible (but only at a molecular level) and we all know that people have mechanical body parts. Its made all the more easier by ratings, at the end of each section, of their plausibility.

STORIES OF THE

The Last Sontaran* Revenge of the Bane*

Shakedown - Return of the Sontarans** * The Sarah Jane Adventures **Direct-to-Video spin-off (Non BBC)

THE LADY IN

RED

Jenna-Louise Coleman. Isn't she lovely?

Although she's only been in one episode I'm already in love with her. I mean look at her!

She looks great in a short red dress but she can't make a soufflé to save herself.

It was a great to see her in Asylum of the Daleks. Her cute and cheeky personality made her instantly likeable. However, it's unclear whether the companion she's about to play – from Victorian times – is the same character as Oswin as the name Clara has been bandied about for a while now.

I'm really looking forward to Christmas to see what Clara/Oswin is really like as we only got to see her a little bit and the Doctor never properly got to meet her other than as a Dalek.

Even at this early stage, I can just tell she'll be a welcome addition to the Doctor Who family.

This is the story of Amelia Pond...

And this is how it ends