Doctor Who Action Figure Review: SFX Dalek Guard from 'The Chase'

My final review from wave 2 of the SFX Daleks. Why no reviews of The Dead Planet and Genesis of the Daleks figures? Well they're exactly the same as previous releases, just with add sound effects.

Don't forget to order yours from FPI by following the adlink on the right.

Doctor Who Action Figure Review: SFX Special Weapons Dalek (Wave 2)

A look at the SFX Special Weapons Dalek from the second wave of SFX Daleks.

You can order yours from Forbidden Planet by following the adlink above or to the right.

Doctor Who - 8th Doctor Season 3 Behind the Scenes

The Doctor investigates...

Today saw the start of filming on episode six of the third and final series of 8th Doctor adventures, The Treasure of Mars. After months of not shooting much at all, filming has recommenced in earnest! Presently The Sirens of Axos parts one and two are ready and waiting for upload. The following story, War Drums, has been recorded and awaits editing. The situation at the moment is to shoot this episode and the second part of this story, as that will see the mid-season break. While this is happening editing on War Drums will commence whenever I get a spare 5 minutes to do so. 

The sequence filmed today was from the very start of the episode. It doesn't look too exciting in these behind the scene pictures, but it was very fun to shoot, especially with the ice (Ferrero Roche tub) and the inner light. Filming continues tomorrow! 

What's in the box?

Doctor Who Action Figures 3.75" - Wave Two Revealed

Here we are folks, the first image of Wave Two of the 3.75"! Now I know many people disliked Wave One, and although I only bought two figures from the wave I didn't think they were too bad. However, the same can't quite be said of this new selection. 

Regenerated Twelfth Doctor: Looks like Peter Capaldi is doing his best David Tennant impression. Seriously, what's with that expression? Granted we've seen him for a total of about 30 seconds on screen, but a more "Grrrrr! Eyebrows!" expression probably would have suited the figure more. Or maybe kids wouldn't buy the toy because he'd look like an angry old man? A few new pieces but a lot of reused parts.

Series 6 Eleventh Doctor: Well this one looks pretty good. Same head and legs, but new arms and- what the heck is he doing wearing a waistcoat!?! Seriously, what is that about? Now I get reusing parts to keeps costs down, it's a good way to do things but only when the parts actually resemble the onscreen appearance! What is this? The midway change between costumes? Whoever thought "Meh, yeah let's just release it like that" needs the sack. Now for all we know this might just be a prototype. But they look production to me, so I guess we get this bizarre variant. 

Clara: Just a new hair sculpt and possibly a new jacket? Pfff, who cares. Looks less like Jenna Coleman than ever. 

Screaming Angel: Not bad, looks pretty good. 

Zygon: Oh my... It looks like Mr Hankey the Christmas Poo has gone looking for other television work. Perhaps it's lighting, perhaps it's not this Zygon's most photogenic side... Nah, it looks like dog's mess. 

Daleks: Can't go wrong here. Nice to see the Emperor's Guard complete with canon arm thing. 

So not a good start I must say. All I have left to say is thank God they didn't put any classic Doctors/monsters in this line. Really underwhelming, which is sad because had they improved I might have been more inclined to dip into it. I'll keep my cash for other things. 

Doctor Who Action Figure Review: The Daemons Set

Eco! Eco! Azal!!!!!!!! ...Ahem, yes, anyway, here's the latest review! A set based on Jon Pertwee's favourite episode from his time as the Doctor, The Daemons!

Enjoy! Don't forget you can order your set from FPI by following the link to your right!

                     

Doctor Who: Tales of Trenzalore (Kindle Edition)

What really happened during the time the Doctor was on Trenzalore? Well if this cover is anything to go by a lot of really cool stuff. Autons! Krynoids! Ice Warriors! And... the Mara!?! Jumping Jehosophat! What did we get? Some Weeping Angels and a wooden Cyberman... So if you're more inclined to know all of the good stuff that happened on Trenzalore that we didn't get to see in what was a rather convoluted story arc, then this is the book for you! I'll certainly grab a copy should it get a physical release.

As it had been foretold, the armies of the Universe gathered at Trenzalore. Only one thing stood between the planet and destruction – the Doctor.

For nine hundred years, he defended the planet, and the tiny town of Christmas, against the forces that would destroy it.

He never knew how long he could keep the peace. He never knew what creatures would emerge from the snowy night to threaten him next. He knew only that at the end he would die on Trenzalore.

Some of what happened during those terrible years is well documented.

But most of it remains shrouded in mystery and darkness. Until now. This is a glimpse of just some of the terrors the people faced, the monstrous threats the Doctor defeated. These are the tales of the monsters who found themselves afraid – and of the one man who was not.

(Tales of Trenzalore documents four of the Doctor’s adventures from different periods during the Siege of Trenzalore and the ensuing battle:

Let it Snow – by Justin Richards

An Apple a Day – by George Mann
Strangers in the Outland – by Paul Finch
The Dreaming – by Mark Morris)

5th and 8th Doctor Sonic Screwdrivers available to pre-order

The latest classic Sonic Screwdrivers have just been made available for pre-order from Forbidden Planet.

These two new Screwdrivers have been released alongside the 10th and 11th Doctor's Screwdrivers.

You can pre-order for £9.99 by clicking the adlink on the right.

Doctor Who Action Figure Review: The Claws of Axos Set

Axos is here after nearly a year since the pre-order date! Has this set been worth the extra long wait? Find out below!

Don't forget to order your set from Forbidden Planet International by following the adlinks!

New animation images and full details on The Moonbase DVD release

A range of images from the animated recreation of episodes 1 and 3 of The Moonbase have been released, including full specifications on the DVD's contents. 

You can preorder your copy from the BBC Shop or Amazon by using the links on the right. 

• Fully remastered Episodes 2 and 4.
• Newly animated Episodes 1 and 3, using original off-screen soundtrack recordings.
• Commentary on Episodes 2 and 4: a traditional commentary with actors Anneke Wills, Frazer Hines and Edward Phillips and Special Sounds creator Brian Hodgson.
• Commentary on Episodes 1 and 3: a series of interviews featuring writer Kit Pedler’s daughters Lucy Pedler and Carol Topolski, archive interviews with producer Innes Lloyd, AFM Lovett Bickford, and Cyberman actors Barry Noble, Derek Chaffer and Reg Whitehead. Moderated and linked by Toby Hadoke.
• Lunar Landing – cast and crew look back on the making of the story. With actors Anneke Wills, Frazer Hines and Reg Whitehead, production assistant Desmond McCarthy.
• Photo Gallery – production, design and publicity photos from the story.
• Coming Soon – a trailer for a forthcoming DVD release.
• Radio Times listings.
• Programme subtitles.
• Subtitle Production Notes.

The Daleks are here! FPI have the SFX Wave 2 in stock!

After months of wondering "Where are my daleks?!" in our best David Gooderson impression, Forbidden Planet International have just revealed that they have the entire wave in stock, along with their Special Weapons Dalek.

The wave includes

Dalek - The Dead Planet (The Daleks)
Dalek Guard - The Chase
Dalek - Genesis of the Daleks

You can order them now by following the adlink to FPI on the right hand side!

To fix a TARDIS - Part One

I get asked a lot about my full sized TARDIS prop, which has recently come under some serious damage, and so I thought it would be nice to detail the prop's history, the changes we made and the changes I hope to make to it later this year.

Roughly ten years ago, my brother decided to buy a full sized replica TARDIS. He was at university, I was at secondary school. We had a replica before that, one that our late uncle had built from our old garden shed, it wasn't 100% accurate but it was a lot of fun. However, my brother decided that it would be nice to get something a bit more true to the screen, and so he purchased a Peter Cushing movie TARDIS from thisplanetearth ltd. Now you maybe wondering "Why on earth didn't you go for a TV prop?", sadly at the time they didn't manufacture them and so we settled with this. After all, it's still a TARDIS at the end of the day!

Original Metropolitan Police Box

The original Cushing movie prop was more accurate than any of the boxes used in the TV series as it was much closer to the dimensions, colour, etc of a real Metropolitan Police Box, and actually it still is to this day (say what you will about those films, they looked awesome... well maybe not the transvestite looking Thals). Our replica was brilliant! We loved it! It was made entirely of fibreglass with a few wooden supports to hold the walls and pillars to the base. The colour wasn't as dark as in the films and the light on top... didn't match the film, but it still looked brilliant. Even the St. John's Ambulance sticker didn't bother us. It looked the part! Now we opted to have the doors open inwards like the TV TARDIS, as opposed to outwards like a real Police Box/Cushing TARDIS. It's also worth noting at this point that the normally glass sections, such as the 'Police Public Call Box' signs, were not glass. Just solid fibreglass, so no chance of shining lights through it, and the little door to access the telephone did not open. It was all one solid mould.

How our TARDIS originally looked

For a while all was good. It leaked, which was irritating because you got wet feet walking inside it. Then one windy day the roof nearly came off and blew away... not a good start. Thankfully our uncle did a bit of DIY cleverness on it and managed to get the roof to stay on firmly. As the years went on the windows and window frames would get blown out, they'd smash and have to be re-stuck, and remounted. The white window frames and St. John's Ambulance sign were removed or repainted in order to look more like the traditional TARDIS prop. The sun began to discolour the white door sign, which in turn began to crack from the distress caused by sunlight. It's easy to say "You should have put it indoors", but this thing is 9ft tall and our house is not that big.

By 2013 the yale lock had fallen off, so the doors were being held shut with string. The wood connecting the door to the pillar had rotted away and so the door was hanging off. The door sign was peeling off, the wooden frame surrounding that was rotting away, and the wooden supports that kept the whole thing together were disintegrating. It became clear that in 2014 some renovations would be required to get the TARDIS back up to scratch. By this point the original Hartnell/Cushing look of the TARDIS had returned to TV when it was revealed that Matt Smith's TARDIS had adopted the original colour scheme during filming in 2009. With this in mind I decided it would be nice to return to said colour scheme with our prop. (It should be noted that the real owner of this box had left home by this point, started a family and couldn't care less what became of a prop he spent £2000 on. Yeah, go figure).

Sadly in December 2013 massive storms hit the UK, and the South West got badly hit... and it took the TARDIS with it.

Yes, the grey walls and roundels were our addition

Not a pretty sight. The wind was so strong that it tore the fibreglass away from the rotting wooden supports, nearly all of the windows were blown out, the frames shattered, and in some cases the perspex glass smashed. The door handle on the left side had torn off with the wind, taking some of the wooden frame work with it. Screws had ripped through the fibreglass frame causing holes and tears... it looked as if this would be the end.

However, my father and I were able to get the TARDIS back upright and now it is back to looking like a TARDIS, albeit sans windows and with doors hanging off, but its not as bad as the above picture. We were able to get in touch with a friend of my brother's who believes he can get the TARDIS stable again. That's the first battle done, but huge aesthetic renovations are required to get it looking like a proper Type 40-TT Capsule. Now first and foremost is getting the thing stable again. Hopefully the guys working on it will get that done, possibly strengthen in better than before, and that will be it. We put it back together, tidy it up and leave it as was. However, if these guys are capable, I would like to add a few new elements to the box.


I want to return to the original look of the Cushing movie TARDIS. White window frames, St. John's Ambulance sign, etc. I want a darker colour scheme, as seen on the original Hartnell TARDIS below, and also that lovely concrete texture effect. Now our prop does have this, but only a little bit, nothing like the original Brachacki box used between 1963-1976. I've seen a guy do this online by using polyfilla to create such an effect, and it seems incredibly easy. If possible, it would be nice to secure the windows and try and match the clear and pebbled patches of the widows as seen on the Brachacki box as ours is simply pebbled. The reason for this design change was simply because Matt Smith's TARDIS went back to it, and it looks lovely! Now I mentioned earlier how our prop is more akin to a real Police Box, well in doing some digging it appeared the designers on Matt Smith's first series had the same intention.

How cool would that have been?! An accurate police box in the show at last. Alas, it didn't happen and we got that big blocky TARDIS (I prefer the slimmer look).

Moving on to the more complicated aspects... the door sign. Cut that out, fit a real little door on hinges so it's like the real thing. Sounds easy in theory, but probably not, but it's certainly something that I'll propose to the chaps working on it. Ideally (getting into lunatic territory here) I'd like to replace the 'Police Public Call Box' signs for real glass. I don't think this is feasible, but it would be great. If they were able to properly waterproof the damn thing, I'd try and get lights fitted so it looked like a proper police box. Not holding out any hope of that, but its certainly being discussed by me and my dad.

So that's the plan! Once work begins on the TARDIS I'll be posting regular/semi-regular updates on the process and detailing how well progress is going!

Axos and Daemons on the way!

Good news! After nearly a year of being on pre-order, the Claws of Axos and The Daemons sets have been dispatched from FPI!

Hopefully both sets will be here by the weekend, and you should expect some new reviews coming up next week! Stay tuned!

Don't forget, you can order your sets from FPI by following the adlink on the right!

The new era begins... First images of Peter Capaldi

The BBC have released the first images of Peter Capaldi's Twelfth Doctor,filming the opening episode penned by Steven Moffat. This and second episode, written by Phil Ford, will be the first episodes that Capaldi films. From what has been spotted from location reports, the first episode is set in Victorian London and once again features the Paternoster Gang; Madame Vastra, Jenny and Strax.

As you can see, the new Doctor hasn't yet adopted a new set of clothes to match his new persona, instead wearing Matt Smith's costume as seen in The Time of the Doctor.

This week's issue of Doctor Who Magazine features Capaldi on the cover, as well as the first interview with the actor.

Doctor Who: The Time of the Doctor - Review

Christmas is over, another year has gone and so has another Doctor... So what did we all think of Mr Smith's final story as the Time Lord? Well you can watch Kat and I discuss our thoughts below!

Happy new year to you all!

No more from Bif Bang Pow

Bif Bang Pow has lost the license to produce Doctor Who merchandise, it was revealed today. 

Our license with BBC America to produce Doctor Who merchandise has expired. While we’ll miss the good Doctor, his adversaries and allies, we are excited to shift our resources to focus on an array of fantastic new items from other top brands and licensors.

Our remaining inventory can be found at www.entertainmentearth.com . No additional announced or unannounced items will be produced.

It's a shame that the retro style Doctor Who figures have come to an end, especially given the interesting characters they intended to release.