Tag Archives: Tardis

SILENCE WILL FALL…New Doctor Who Villian Arrives

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SILENCE WILL FALL…

THE SILENCE

ARRIVING AT THE

DOCTOR WHO EXPERIENCE

ON FRIDAY 13th MAY

{above picture} One of Doctor Who’s most terrifying enemies, The Silence, stands behind an unsuspecting Welsh Guard in Pall Mall, ahead of their arrival at the highly-acclaimed Doctor Who Experience at London’s Olympia 2 venue. The fully interactive themed experience and exhibition invites visitors to step through a crack in time to become the Doctor’s companion on an adventure. Their challenge will be to reunite the Doctor with the TARDIS whilst fending off threats from a Dalek spaceship and Weeping Angels along the way, before exploring the wonders of Doctor Who at an out of this world exhibition.

This Friday 13th May Doctor Who Experience will prove monsters are real by giving you the opportunity to come face-to-face with one of Doctor Who’s most terrifying of monsters to date as The Silence arrive at the Doctor Who Experience.

The Silence will be on show in the walk-through part of the Doctor Who Experience following their appearance in the opening two episodes of the award-wining series, The Impossible Astronaut and Day of the Moon.

Fans will be able to encounter these terrifying monsters for the first time, who, with their powers of telepathy and eerie ability to erase themselves from your memory have been cited as one of the Doctor’s more frightening foes.

Glimpse one of these creatures at Doctor Who Experience and you may feel slightly unsettled the moment it’s out of view but the real question is… will you remember?

Come fly the TARDIS and dare to meet The Silence, by taking a starring role in your very own Doctor Who adventure at the Doctor Who Experience. Step through the crack in time and become the Doctor’s companion in this exhilarating walk through experience that recreates all the best parts of the hit TV series. Come face to face with some of the scariest monsters seen on the screen including Daleks, Cybermen and the latest addition from series 6: The Silence.

There’s fun for family and fans alike with the largest collection of authentic Doctor Who props and artefacts including all the previous Doctor’s iconic costumes, the original David Tennant TARDIS set and even interactive lessons in how to walk like a Cyberman!

Tickets on sale at www.doctorwhoexperience.com

Door Price / Advance peak / Advance off-peak

· Adult: £20.00 / £18.00 / £15.50

· Child (5 to 16): £15.50 /£14.00 /£12.50

· Under 5’s are free

· Family of 4: £62.00 / £52.00 /£46.00

Schools/Groups/Tour Operators: separate pricing.

Doctor Who's Elisabeth Sladen – A Tribute

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By Jack Bowman

Last night was a terrible shock. I came out of the tube, switched on signal, checked the Twitter feed and saw the news, over and over, that honestly you wouldn’t have believed you were due to read for many years to come.

“Lis Sladen, our Sarah Jane. RIP.”

Elisabeth Sladen, most famous for being the definitive Doctor Who companion, had passed on, aged 63, after battling cancer. The news didn’t – and still doesn’t – sit right; from the very start of her career as an assistant stage manager at the Liverpool Playhouse, to the very end as a children’s TV lead playing a character she gave life to just shy of five decades, Lis was a hard-working, strong, modesty, energetic individual. If anyone would beat this, it would have been her. It should have been her.

They often say the “Doctor Who girl” falls into two categories, the screamers and the fighters. Sometimes though, you get something else – an actress able to bring depth and beauty to the role. A lot of people credited Billie Piper for doing this when the BBC took a gamble and brought back the show in 2005. However, Billie had big shoes to fill as Lis Sladen was the one who absolutely did it first, back in 1973. Not only was she a phenomenally actress who made the companion role in Who an equal to the star and a lead role like none before her – not an easy task when working with Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker – she was also a wonderful, wonderful person.

I was lucky enough to first meet Lis when I was asked to step in at the last minute and do some panel interviews for a convention in Newcastle in 2001. Admittedly Lis was a little wary of being interviewed by someone she’d never met, as we all are as actors, yet within seconds that wariness gave way to a natural warmth, generosity, charm and effortless grace that lead brilliantly fun hour of conversation about her career to date. It also lead to an on-off friendship that lasted many interviews – she was gracious enough to always be complimentary and ask me back for her panels – and the next few years with occasional phone calls, always asking after myself and the then-house mate, about my career, what was new, always offering an ear and advice.

We lost touch in 2005, just as BBC Wales were making overtures to bring her back for what was then to be a one-off appearance opposite David Tennant in the episode School Reunion. And it was heart-warming to see her back on prime-time BBC One. And then punch-the-air-brilliant to see her get a long-overdue spin-off, which became The Sarah Jane Adventures. And every year the SJAs were recommissioned, like others I’m sure, the heart would swell a little with pride at her continued success. And then came the awards, which not only were much deserved, also felt long-overdue for such a brilliant, natural, talented screen actress.

I had hoped that even though we’d drifted, one day our paths would cross again and she’d make me laugh with her stories and give that unbeatable smile across a room once. Sadly, it is not meant to be, and all we can do is take our memories of her and offer our thoughts to her husband, Brian and daughter, Sadie in these desperate sad times.

Possibly the greatest tragedy in her death is that she would have been thoroughly bemused, by natural modesty, about the out-pouring of affection, love and tributes across Twitter, Facebook, the Internet and the national and international press, from her youngest fans to those who remembered her first time. If anyone had said to Lis back in 2005 the exciting crescendo her career would reach by 2011, she would never have believed you due to that trademark modesty. Yet that, with her ferocious acting talent, is why she deserved it. And here we are talking about her passing at no age at all. The country and the business has lost one of its national treasures.

There are many memories of Lis to share, to many in fact, so I will leave you with one. It’s the one that started the whole adventure and brought Lis into all of our lives: her casting in Doctor Who. She told me that the day of her audition went like this. She came in, and read for the producer, Barry Letts. He was impressed, so took her down to meet Jon Pertwee on the studio floor. While she and Jon got chatting, Barry walked behind her and gave Jon two thumbs up. Jon finished the conversation and Lis turned to Barry, who started another conversation. Then Jon gave Barry another two thumbs up behind her back. That is how a TV legend was born.

It’s said that occasionally, just occasionally, there’s a perfect human being. Elisabeth Sladen was one of those.

Goodbye, our Sarah Jane.

Stefans TV Picks; 21st June

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Monday 21st – Five, 23:00
What happens when a crew of anonymous criminals is put together to pull off a perfectly planned bank heist, only for it to go horribly wrong with pretty gruesome results? Only Tarantino knows. The films that Quentin has released into the world have often been viewed as masterpieces but his 1992 breakthrough movie still stands out as one of the best. I am of course talking about Reservoir Dogs. With brilliant writing and outstanding camera work (tracking shots that rival Goodfellas’ restaurant entrance for all you movie buffs out there) Dogs is an absolute must!

Tuesday 22nd – E4, 22:30
Any fans of Family Guy will know that the last few seasons of a once great cartoon started to run dry. The creator/writer, Seth McFarlane, needed to come up with a new concept to save the franchise and so he gave us The Cleveland Show. A spin off from Family Guy, The Cleveland Show follows the adventures of long suffering character Cleveland Brown as he moves back to his hometown of Stoolbend, Virginia with his 14 year old son (who is constantly hopping between genius and idiot) and meets up with old friends and his highschool sweetheart. As part of E4’s Toonsday, they are showing the entire first season again, so make sure you catch the first episode and get reminded of what good cartoons are like and don’t worry about the danger of spin-offs, this is much more Frasier than Joey.

Wednesday 23rd – BBC 1, 14:15
I know, I know, not everyone is digging the football, but this is an important game. After Robert Greens terrible butter covered hands and last weeks game that made me realise that even someone like me could be a professional footballer, today’s Match of the Day Live will show the game that will decide whether England are in the rest of the tournament or not. As we face Slovenia I shall be wearing the three lions on my shirt, singing along to The Great Escape theme and asking all, even if they don’t like the game, to cross their fingers for our boys to win. EN-GER-LUUUUND EN-GUR-LUUUUND EN-GUR-LUUUUUND

Thursday 24th – BBC 4, 21:00
Ever since I’ve been a teenager I’ve loved the band The Eels. The creative force behind the band is that of lead singer Mark Oliver Everett known simply as E. Always one to shy away from the spotlight until he is on stage, in Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives: Mark Everett we see a rare glimpse into the life and history of E as he travels America finding out more about his father, a genius who developed the theory of parallel universes, yet was unable to build a relationship with his son who saw him as a stranger with whom he lived. For fans of the band, Parallel Worlds will help identify the meaning behind E’s deeply personal lyrics, for those not familiar or who don’t like The Eels, this show will be like a brilliant version of Who Do you Think You Are!

Friday 25th – BBC 2, 21:00/Channel 4, 22:00
What’s all this then? Two selections? That is right my friends, a nice double bill for you tonight. Starting on BBC 2 in Are You Having A Laugh? David Walliams presents a documentary all about the use of disability in TV. With input from actors and comics including Stephan Merchant, Dom Joly and Ben Miller, we’ll see the attitude towards how disability has been portrayed over the years and how it has changed to become, sometimes questionably, used in comedy today. Straight after over on Channel 4 we have the glorious return of The I.T Crowd. The BAFTA award winning sitcom is back for season 4. Once again we shall get to join the (primarily basement situated) adventures of Moss, Roy and Jen. This week Jen decides she wants more from her job and applies as Entertainment Manager and asks the boys from I.T to help her find ways to amuse her boss’ business connections.

Saturday 26th – BBC 1, 18:05
His enemies have formed an alliance against him, his assistant has been shot, his Tardis has been destroyed, the stars are all going supernova and the Doctor is trapped in the Pandorica. The finale of Doctor Who promises to be action packed and full of answers to so many questions and my inner geek is waiting with huge anticipation for the last episode. Although after this I’m really not sure how I’m going to fill the hour between 6 an 7 on the following Saturday evenings!

Sunday 27th – E4, 23:00
This week opened with one of my favourite filmmakers and I felt it would be nice to close it with another, that filmmaker is Kevin Smith. Dogma (the fourth in Smith New Jersey Chronicles) tells the story of two angels, Bartleby and Loki (Ben Affleck and Matt Damon) who are trying to find a way back into Heaven after being banished for reasons including getting drunk and flipping God the bird, while Bethaney Sloane (Linda Fiorentino), after being given a Holy Quest by the angel Metatron, tries to stop them. It is as much a study in, and questioning of dogmatic faith as it is an outlet for Smiths love of dick and fart jokes. This was the first of his films I saw and instantly got me hooked on Smiths writing style and his returning characters Jay and Silent Bob. Cleverly written and thought provoking when your not laughing, Dogma shows the side of religion you never see in church.