Filming begins on He-Man and the Masters of the Universe

A new menace is making its way on to my channel in the form of Skeletor's Evil Warriors! Filming for the twenty minute pilot began on February 17th starting with the opening scene where Trap-Jaw, Tri-Klops and Beast Man pay a visit to Tornal, the supplier of magical implements.

The filming is now taking place in a new location too. A makeshift studio has been put together in the attic to make filming easier and to also allow for greater shots and larger sets.

Tonight will see filming continue in Snake Mountain...

Doctor Who AFA 8th Doctor Season 3: The Final Days - Part One

Part One of the two part season finale: After years of war, the Time War has reached its end. Arcadia has fallen to Dalek occupation, led by the mysterious Cult of Skaro. While Gallifrey awaits a final invasion from the Emperor Dalek, Rassilon begins to put his own plans into action, and the Doctor must decide the ultimate fate of the universe...

Doctor Who AFA 8th Doctor Season 3: Rise of the Time Lords

The Daleks have invaded Gallifrey and intend to use the Time Lord's own super weapon against them! Can the Doctor and his companions deactivate the device before it falls into the Dalek's grubby protuberances? Will the Time Lords be able to push back the tide of the Dalek armies?

Doctor Who AFA 8th Doctor Season 3: Miller and I

The Doctor finds himself in a spot of bother when his companion gets replaced by a young woman known as Lucie (bleedin) Miller... Meanwhile the Time Lords search for a way to resurrect Rassilon with the help of the Master...

Doctor Who AFA 8th Doctor Season 3: The Gates of Elysium - Part Two

Davros has opened the Gates of Elysium and the Web of Time is still out of his reach. The Doctor will make an uneasy alliance to ensure the safety of the universe, but something else is lurking within the Gates...

Doctor Who AFA 8th Doctor Season 3: The Gates of Elysium - Part One

Episode one is here! The Doctor and Leela are on an endless search to locate Emily, while Davros and the Daleks create a replacement sixth segment to the Key to Time...

Doctor Who: 8th Doctor Season Three - Final Trailer

My final series of Doctor Who returns next Saturday at 9 AM! Check out the final trailer below!

Doctor Who - 8th Doctor Season 3 Behind the Scenes: War comes to Gallifrey

Masters of all they survey

I apologise for the somewhat spoilery title, but it's the Time War, it's not like there wasn't going to be a load of fighting at home on Gallifrey.

The Daleks ravage the streets of Gallifrey

If you had watched my previous update video, you will already know that the first three episodes are complete. At the time of typing this (in fact, the reason I'm typing this) I have just finished the rough assembly on episode eleven, Rise of the Time Lords. The following images I am sharing with you are not final. Many of them are a work in progress as they require heavy special effects work, from the addition of smoke to laser blasts to extermination negative filters. On top of that there's a ton of sound work to do, including the arduous task of adding footstep sounds, so it's not over yet!

That's a lot of Daleks...

Emily, Romana and K-9 Mk II go searching under the Panopticon

I wonder what this could be? Hmm...

So here is an example of some greenscreen work that I shot on the 11th October. Yes, I know I finished filming months ago, but sometimes reshoots are required and in this case I fancied using a new toy on the market: The Dalek Patrol Ship and Pilot.

What you can see here is the 'almost' final image of the Dalek and ship being composited on to an animated sky background. Below this is the original image before the chroma key effect was applied. As you can see, there was only one toy to film with and as such the green screen enabled some duplication.

As ever, we have sterling work from Chris Clark in the CGI department. He has provided some fantastic aerial battle sequences between the Time Lord fleet and the Dalek saucers, as well as increasing the size of the limited physical Dalek figures.

From episode 10 (with the unrevealed title), we have some finished shots. Alas, I cannot share too much as it will spoil the episode. Practically every part of that story has something in it that is best kept as a surprise, so you'll just have to wait until the air date!

He's blowing stuff up again

The Doctor contemplates recent events

The Castellan looks over his handy work

That's it for now, folks! I shall return with more images and info as production continues. At the moment all I can say is that I am thrilled with how this series is shaping up. I wholeheartedly believe that it is the best set of episodes I have produced  with some of the best scripts I have written. I cannot wait to get them to you and hear your thoughts on them too. That's always my favourite part of the process.

Until next time!

Doctor Who: 8th Doctor Season 3 Part Two - Teaser

A new teaser for the final episodes of the third series of 8th Doctor adventures due for release later this year!

Doctor Who: 8th Doctor Season Three - Filming Concludes

I can almost hear the soundtrack of Logopolis playing in my ears like a funeral march. However this time it's not Tom Baker lying on the floor, in fact there's no lying down to be had whatsoever but the sentiment remains as this evening I filmed my last scene of Doctor Who.

I was expecting there to be a huge sigh of relief when this eventual ending came, after all I have been filming this particular series for over a year and it has had its fair share of problems from the off, but in actuality there is an air of sadness. No longer will I record the Doctor walking out of the TARDIS, using a piece of blutack to prop open those bloody spring loaded doors. Never again shall I make a Dalek spin around as its eye stalk gets blown off by Staser fire. For now, this really is the end...

But not really, I still have tons of editing to do as post-production concludes on The Gates of Elysium part one! I'm going to have Daleks and all sorts blaring in my ears for at least another month or so! I am incredibly excited about this final series, and I hope and pray that when these last episodes hit YouTube you fine folks at home will enjoy them just as much as I have enjoyed producing them. Only three people other than myself know how the series ends, which is pretty damned good seeing as this series has such a larger cast and crew than normal! Even Chris Clark our CGI animator had no idea what was going on in the stories he was providing sequences for!

So for now I share with you behind the scenes shots from my last scene. Nothing too exciting, but then if I left the exciting bits in you'd have nothing to look forward to! So as we prepare to meet our new Doctor in the form of Peter Capaldi, prepare to say goodbye to the 8th Doctor... It's going to be a bumpy ride...

Who or what will fill this frame?

London's litter is a real problem

'Run' - The Guardian Trilogy Begins!

A new trilogy of adventures begins this friday from Doctor Who Online Adventures! Run is a three part special that will be released consecutively over three nights, with the following adventures, Betrayal and Sacrifice back in their usual Friday night time slot of 7pm.

Visit the link below to catch the new trailer for the trilogy as well as the full press release!  

http://doctorwhoonlineadventures.wordpress.com/2014/06/28/6-3-doctor-who-run/

BatmanMarch and Doctor Who Online Adventures Cross Promotion

A big update for the site as BatmanMarch is now cross promoting with Doctor Who Online Adventures!

Matthew Toffolo of BatmanMarch Productions says: “As two of the longest running action figure series on YouTube, it seems fitting that Doctor Who: Action Figure Adventures and Doctor Who: Online Adventures should come together to promote the alternate adventures of our favourite time traveller. While the 7th Doctor battles new evils in DWOA, the 8th Doctor is forced to take sides in a war that only he can end in DWAFA - 2014 is a big year for both of the Doctor’s incarnations!”

Brendan Sheppard, Series Producer of DWOA and owner of Planetary Productions says “When people first saw action figure stories on YouTube I’m sure they must have thought that the format wouldn’t work or be engaging people both young and old, I think BatmanMarch and Planetary Productions have proven time and time again that in fact this method of producing programmes maybe new and have certain limitations but it can be engaging and it can be entertaining. We are so excited that BatmanMarch and DWOA have come together like this – who knows – with Matthew starring in an episode a little later in Series 6 it maybe time for a team up… Ooh that would be interesting!”

You can now access DWOA site via the link to the right or by clicking the banner below:

8th Doctor Season 3 Behind the Scenes: A Universe at War

It's been some time since we've had an update on what exactly is going on with the second half of series three, so allow me to break the silence and fill you all in on what's going on! Now as many of you will know, Part Two of The Treasure of Mars was the final episode of the 'first half' of the season; this wasn't an ideal situation, but if I hadn't have decided on the split series route the most recent episodes would not be on YouTube. For those of you who have missed the first half of the series, you can find a complete playlist here.

Presently I am halfway through filming the second half of the series, in fact it could be slightly over that. There are a few more scenes that need to be filmed from Rise of the Time Lords and then it's full steam on the grand finale, The Final Days. With regards to editing, I am halfway through a rough assembly of part one of The gates of Elysium. I had hoped to have been further into the editing by this point, but a series of other commitments has meant that has been pushed on hold. However, I hope to make greater progress with the editing during this week.

It's no secret that this final half of the series will see a new look for the Doctor, in particular his look from Big Finish's Dark Eyes series of audio adventures. So why the change? Well you can hardly fight a war for centuries and keep up the pomp and circumstance of a frock coat and cravat!

"But what about The Night of the Doctor?" I hear someone shout at the back there. Despite saying this until I'm blue in the face, people still ask me where does the 8th Doctor's recent TV appearance fit into this series and as such, where does the War Doctor fit in. The answer? Nowhere! This is an alternative universe where the 8th Doctor was not the pacifist we saw in The Night of the Doctor. There is no John Hurt regeneration to do the dirty work for him. This is a version of the 8th Doctor that is ready to get his hands dirty in the pursuit of finding and rescuing Emily, and of course to rid the universe of the Daleks once and for all.

Alongside a new look for the Doctor comes a new look for the title sequence! Yes, I know we already had one, but if Series 7 started off with a different logo week in and week out then this is no big deal. Created by Dave Hartnell of Cloister Productions and with a new theme arrangement by Ned 'Gwylock1' Warren, the new titles reflect the darker element of this half of the series.

Of course the series would not be complete without the incredible CG sequences of Chris Clark. The response to War Drums was staggering, and I believe that was in no small part due to Chris' amazing Dalek Saucers vs Bowship sequences. They took that story to a whole new level. As such, Chris is back on board with even more impressive work from Gallifreyan Mother Ships, Battle TARDISes and Daleks invading Gallifrey. It has been a joy editing these sequences alongside the stop-motion animation.

The latter half of the series will also see the return of Leela, who was last seen in Rebirth and name checked in War Drums. As the new Commander of the Chancellery guards, Leela finds herself on the front line with the Doctor.

And of course there's lots of stuff blowing up and lots of people being exterminated. Time Lords, alien civilisations, even planets get obliterated as the Dalek menace spreads throughout the universe. How will centuries of battle be condensed into a few episodes? Well this is a whistle stop tour of the Time War focusing on all of the major events, so don't expect to see everything you heard about in the TV series, although they might get a name check as an 'unseen adventure'.

And finally we have the Key to Time and the Gates of Elysium... Something that is going to cause havoc with the Doctor and time and space...

When will the second half air? The plan is to begin some time in August, either before are new Doctor, Peter Capaldi, starts on TV or around the same time. It would be nice to be able to tie up my series on YouTube just before the real series starts on BBC One, but at the moment I'm doing what I can to just get it out in August.

Thanks for reading folks! Stay tuned for more updates!

Doctor Who AFA 8th Doctor Season 3: The Sirens of Axos - Part Two

Axos has returned, but how? With the Doctor and Grace in the clutches of Axos, it is up to Emily and the Brigadier to find a solution to the siren's song that is consuming humanity...

Special thanks to Thomas Chapman, Chris Clark and Philip Lawrence/AFT Downloads.

Doctor Who AFA 8th Doctor Season 3: The Sirens of Axos - Part One

The Doctor is back and the Axons aren't far behind! With help from the Brigadier, and a surprise encounter with Grace Holloway, the Doctor must trace the source of a mysterious signal that is placing all those who hear it into comas...

Doctor Who AFA 8th Doctor Season 3: Part One - Trailer

The first half of the final season is on the way, next Saturday in fact! The final season continues with 5 new episodes. As the Dalek threat looms, the Doctor and the Time Lords prepare themselves for a mighty conflict the likes of which the universe has never seen. Can the Doctor stop the battle before events get out of hand?

Tune in on the 5th April!

Doctor Who - 8th Doctor Season 3 Behind the Scenes: Here come the Drums!

The drums of war are getting closer! In fact, editing on War Drums has concluded! Another story ready and waiting to be released soon!

I must apologise that I have been very silent the last week or so, the reason for that was very much down to editing. War Drums is a single 18 minute episode, however due to the content of the story there was a ton of special effect work that needed to be done. I'll be honest, it was far more than I anticipated. I intended to have this story concluded by the 2nd, but sadly I was unable to hit that deadline. It's those Dalek dome lights, they're a nightmare.

For your enjoyment I have released a few images from the finished story, and I apologise for the Windows Media Player bar across the bottom, but they are behind the scenes pics after all! Along with these I am very pleased to announce the addition of Jonathon Carley to the cast! Jonathon is playing... well you'll just have to stay tuned for that one...

Back on Gallifrey, the Castellan prepares the troops! Inspired by the more heavy metal, arse kicking warrior Time Lords seen in The Day of the Doctor, Gallifrey now has a proper set of warriors to do battle with the Daleks. Don't worry though, the traditional Chancellery Guards are still staying put! 

What's this? Star Wars vs Doctor Who? No, those aren't B-Wing fighters attacking Dalek Saucers! Those are Bowships! 

Despite rotoscoping elements of the Mill's impressive CGI work, alas my own space battles aren't so impressive. But suspend your disbelief as the TARDIS works its way through the Dalek blockade. 

That's it for now folks! Stay tuned for more news and info over the coming weeks! I've said it before, but the trailer will now even more likely be out in April! So it's not long! That's giving me time to get editing on The Treasure of Mars, which will begin tomorrow! I'll have a proper date for you as soon as possible! 

Salvage Mission - Revisited

Daleks are a bugger to write. Now this isn't the case for some people, but I've always found them tricky. However, for this story I didn't want it to be about the Daleks. I wanted it to be more focused on Davros. Now before we go on I must admit my love for Davros. He is one of my favourite Doctor Who villains. Big Finish's I, Davros certainly added to my love for this character as it fleshed out his history and revealed the disturbing lengths this loopy scientist would go to insure the success of his experiments. Along with that I was always impressed by Davros and the performances given by both Terry Molloy and Colin Baker. For whatever reason, the Sixth Doctor and Davros seem to have a very good rapport, and I loved the idea of having a Davros story where the Daleks aren't key. Many fans will argue that where Davros is involved, the Daleks become nothing more than tin-can foot soldiers, lacking personality and guile. I can understand this, but I can understand why writers like Eric Saward put more focus on Davros simply because he's a more interesting character. Although I wanted to keep Daleks to a minimum, I wanted to make sure that the Daleks weren't just foot soldiers and that they were just as crafty and manipulative as ever. When I started out with this idea I had no intentions of showing how Davros created his Imperial Daleks as seen in Remembrance of the Daleks. That just sort of evolved from the story as I planned it (ignoring Big Finish's The Juggernauts, simply because my stuff didn't consider their tales to be canon. But it's definitely worth a listen).

I have no idea where the deadly nebula and the salvage crew concept came from, but I like the idea of the Renegade Dalek shuttle from Revelation of the Daleks being caught there, with Davros a prisoner of his creations. I also wanted Davros to be terrified of these Daleks, after all they were experimenting on the Daleks he had created on Necros. The idea was that the Daleks were going to new levels of horror that even he was unaware that they were capable of. And that scared the pants off him. Then in true Dalek fashion, not unlike Power of the Daleks and Victory of the Daleks, the Renegade Daleks pretended to be nice, with only Davros, the Doctor and Peri aware of their true nature. Davros would finally get his own back by experimenting on the Renegade Dalek captor, ultimately turning him into the Special Weapons Dalek. This was inspired by what I had heard of the Special Weapons Dalek from Ben Aaronovitch's novelisation of Remembrance of the Daleks, that this Dalek was insane and feared by all the others. I think it had something to do with radiation or something, but instead I decided that if Davros was to mutate a Dalek that hated his guts into his personal bodyguard, that would drive said Dalek even more around the bend. Trapped in his casing, unable to do nothing but follow orders. After all, he never speaks on TV.

Another element to this story was Davros' claw hand. This was taken from one of the comics, Nemesis of the Daleks perhaps? Not sure. Never read it. I just remember seeing Davros with the claw of a movie Dalek and thinking "What a cool idea", so I nicked it! The claw was quite tricky to make out of Milliput, it didn't want to retain the shape and trying to get it flat like the movie claws was nigh n impossible. So what I ended up with was a claw that kind of resembled the one from the comic/movie. I added a few lines and dots to make it look more mechanical and painted it silver. The whole thing was constructed around a cocktail stick ,which was trimmed down and secured with blu tack in Davros' wrist socket.

This was a really fun story to write and perform, especially the Davros bits, and the Sixth Doctor is always a real pleasure to write. It's also the first story to feature Kat! The first of many appearances! Charlotte returned as Peri, who still impresses me with her impersonation of Nicola Bryant, and Cameron Robb and Jonathan made up the rest of the salvage crew. I was overjoyed with the response this story received and continues to receive. Certainly a favourite of mine. If I'm not mistaken there is now a Big Finish story out which has a similar theme to this story, a rescue ship picking up lost ships... Who's been watching my videos, eh?

Hell on Earth - Revisited

Whenever I'm asked "What's your favourite story out of the ones you've made?" it's always Hell on Earth. This story came into my head in an instant, which is a rarity. Usually I'll come up with a basic idea or scenario and then structure out scenes in my head before typing, but this hit me like a cricket ball to the groin. I wanted to do another Peter Davison story, but I didn't want to do anything with the Daleks or the Cybermen, which is a problem when you look at the Davison era of the toy shelf!

I make no reservations in admitting this story was based on The Woman in Black (the play, not the film with Daniel Radcliffe), which I had gone to see in London with two friends. I've always been freaked out by the paranormal and that sense of otherness, and this play was full of shocks and scares galore. So it was from that I decided I wanted to do a haunted house story. Other than the setting I plucked two things from that play, the first was the blood curdling shriek of a woman (which I think only happens once or twice in my story) and the name Mr Kipps. Come on, that's a great name for a butler.

So what of the Master and the return of the Mara? Where did that come from? Well I wanted to use the Anthony Ainley figure, and although it grinds my gears he's in that ruddy tux it actually works here. He was always popping up in Davison stories in some pointless disguise, so it fit. The Mara on the other hand, well I'm not sure. I guess I knew I wanted to do something paranormal and creepy, and Kinda has some really mad, creepy, what-the-hell-is-happening moments to it, and so that's what I wanted to replicate. All of this came to me as we were walking from the theatre. The bare bones were there and then I went home and wrote it. There wasn't much to think about, it just sort of flowed and wrote itself within about a week. Very fun to write, and even more fun when you imagine the real actors and the real settings. I've never written a script and thought how it would look with toys. I cross the toy bridge when I have to film it!

If you watch Part One its mainly just "weird stuff is happening", and that's what I was after. I wanted the people watching to be scratching their head's going "What the frig is going on?", but I wanted them to want to know what's going on and tune in next week, and I think the Master cliffhanger added to that. The scenes set within the Darkness of the Inside were shot to resemble the scenes in Kinda as much as possible. Although Snakedance gets mentioned and the crystal link idea is used, I wanted to keep it closer to Kinda as that is the best of the two Mara stories. I was also keen to work Adric (which was needed for The Honour of War, which was produced not long after) as well as some other monsters to reflect the Doctor's fears and inner demons.

This story also featured a few new customs, namely Turlough, which was fashioned out of the head of an Auton on a Primeval figure's body, and Tegan, which used my original Peri custom. New hair, destroy the old Milliput and repaint! Yes, painting her dress did take ages. Another special addition was the Mara. Now when I wrote this story I just assumed I'd find a decent looking snake toy online and use that... well if I still had the original rushes with the snake toy you would see it looked worse than the Kinda snake! I don't think any footage of the rubber snake made it into the story, or if it did the real Mara from Snakedance overlays it. Yes, it was so horrendously awful that I had to rotoscope footage of the real Mara puppet onto a green background and chroma key it into the footage. Not ideal, and I don't think it looks too bad. Certainly better than that rubber toy.

Overall, this was an enjoyable story to film, but by Jove it was a fun story to write and edit. This story got a really lovely response when it went out, and I was thrilled. Sadly, the BBC took umbrage to my use of the title sequence and took a lot of the episodes down, and with it those lovely comments. So when you see the title as 'Copy of Doctor Who...', that's because it is. And for those wondering why I used Davison's console for the Master's TARDIS rather than the one made by AFT, well that's simply because it's what the BBC used to do!

Matt

Farewell Hickok, hello Dark Eyes: Filming Wraps on First Half of 8th Doctor Season 3

After filming 6 hours a week for the last three weeks on The Treasure of Mars, filming has finally concluded on the first half of the season. Huzzah! But unfortunately for me there's still three episodes to be edited, so I'm just swapping one form of production for another.

Filming will recommence as the editing on Treasure comes to a close, which will be roughly March/April if I stay on top of things. The first thing to be shot is a huge sequence that will barely get any screentime, but it's an absolute necessity! This will take several evenings to shoot before I can get into the real nitty gritty again, and I'm telling you now, the hard stuff hasn't even begun. Lot's of hard work ahead producing the final six episodes.

Finally, as the title suggests, I have now completed filming using the TV Movie 8th Doctor figure. After several episodes produced using this figure over the last three or so years it seems odd to just plonk him in the cabinet, but that's the way the story goes...