Greetings and salutations fellow Fridge Nukers! Your Nuke the Fridge Whovian in Residence, Bradfield here, reporting from right in front of my television. I’ll be here all week.
“You Knew the Job Was Dangerous When You Took It…”
…or “Don’t get attached to anybody,” should be up there with, “The Doctor lies,” as one of the defining maxims of the Who-niverse. [CAUTION: Spoilers Ahead!] The UK’s Daily Mail reports that Jenna Coleman will be leaving Doctor Who as of the Christmas 2014 episode. To use a couple recent examples, Amy Pond and Rory Williams were sent into the past by the Weeping Angels, and Rose Tyler ended up trapped in another dimension just as she confessed her love for the 10th Doctor. As surely as the Doctor will regenerate, he will go through many Companions in the process. “The Impossible Girl,” Clara Oswin Oswald’s — played by Jenna Coleman (Captain America: The First Avenger) — story arc started with her virtual death, unaware that she had been converted into a Dalek in the future. Her next incarnation, a barmaid/governess in “The Snowmen” ended with her actual death, being pushed off the edge of a cloud by The Master. Clara is currently living in the present, accompanying The Doctor on his contemporary adventures, and has just gone through not only a regeneration, but a regeneration into a darker, more sinister version of him. That, for starters, apparently has no idea how to fly the TARDIS… which is in the middle of, as usual, careening through a time vortex.
Down With Love
Though an unlikely culprit in Ms. Coleman’s reasons for departing, it’s been widely reported that 12th Doctor Peter Capaldi insisted that the Doctor’s relationship with Coleman’s Clara Oswald be purely platonic. In a nutshell, romance is an element with which DWv2.0 has struggled, especially during Smith’s and Tennant’s respective runs. And in the larger story of the Gallifrean Time Lord and his association with the human race, the very idea of falling in love with a human is mostly un-Doctorly. It was perhaps best handled with the 11th Doctor and Amy Pond (Karen Gillan), the latter realizing that her attraction was more or less the remnants of a childhood crush. The moment when #11 kisses Clara seemed more like an uncomfortable nod to new fans (many of whom wanted to see a romantic sub-plot) than a new direction for the Doctor and his Companion.
So basically, ageists and old school fans can breathe a sigh of relief. According to Doctor Twelve, there shall be no canoodling on the TARDIS.
Pass the Jiffy Pop
Doctor Who Series 7 has finally been added to Netflix, Hulu, and most mainstream streaming media hubs. BBC America has the trump card, however, with an entire week of Doctor Who programming – or, Doctor Who Takeover Week. Fans of Top Gear, Star Trek the Next Generation and Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares reruns are sure to be as disappointed as Whovians will be elated to know that, until Saturday’s premiere of Series 8, when it comes to BBCA’s programming slate, if it ain’t the news, it’s Doctor Who. Unlike the streaming media services, BBCA — and its OnDemand channel — not only will be showing Series 7 in its entirety, but a cornucopia of Doctor Who Specials, the histopic An Adventure In Time and Space, and of course, dozens of key episodes, including 12th Doctor, Peter Capaldi’s first appearance as a Roman in The Fires of Pompeii. [Which also features an early appearance by former Companion, Karen Gillan, who much like Capaldi, went on to play a lead in the series.] Consult your local listings for times.
At the Movies…
Well, movie theaters. Last year, Fathom Events brought the Doctor to the Big Screen with global simulcast of The Day of the Doctor, continuing with a Cybermen double header to promote a documentary David Tennant narrated, and now, Fathom with a midnight showing of the Doctor Who Series 8 premiere in theaters around the world. Though it isn’t an early screening of the show — depending on how you can/want to see it, you could watch it as early as noon on Saturday — there will be an exclusive prequel scene, and the added fun of watching the premiere with a couple hundred or so fellow Whovians.
Reading Material
At this point, it should go without saying that Doctor Who‘s lack of presence at San Diego Comic-Con International 2014 was, in a word, disappointing. Apparently, Matt Smith showed up for the Entertainment Weekly party, and John Barrowman made his traditional appearance at an autograph kiosk. Of the two DW related panels, I sat in on the panel for the new Doctor Who comics, featuring the continuing adventures of the 10th and 11th Doctors, and eventually got to reading both Titan Comics series about a week after the convention. For those who are still a little “new to Who,” the great thing about the Doctor is that, even when he regenerates on the small screen, the adventures of any given actor in the role continue to live on – in comics, audio books, print books, and of course, the occasional “multiple Doctor storyline.” So to make a short story long, if you’re experiencing a little separation anxiety from the 11th, or even 10th, Doctor(s), definitely pick up the Titan Comics.
I don’t know if, living in a country that caught up to Doctor Who about forty-five years into its existence, I can say, with a straight face, that the cover of Entertainment Weekly is really a “milestone” for a show that never needed it in the first place. However, you can probably still pick up last week’s issue of Entertainment Weekly pretty easily, and Doctor Who/Peter Capaldi is the cover story. My only gripe is they call it a “cult hit.” In a nutshell, you could describe, for example Islam, in the same way. Just because Americans are still kind of new to the idea doesn’t really make it a “cult.” We were just decades late to an ongoing party.
Additionally, BBC Books is not only publishing the first novel featuring the “War Doctor,” played by John Hurt in Day of The Doctor, but will be releasing three new paperbacks featuring the 12th. So on September 9th, hit your local book shop early and often in search of:
- Engines of War (“War Doctor”)
- The Crawling Terror (Twelfth Doctor)
- Silhouette (Twelfth Doctor)
- The Blood Cell (Twelfth Doctor)
The latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine should be available now, or will be soon. At this point in its spotty release schedule in the US, it could either be issue 474 or 475. Issue 474 features the 100 Greatest Moments in Doctor Who – so, I don’t know, make of it what you will. It does wrap up, in the comics section the “Blood of Azrael” storyline. Issue #475, which, depending on the outlet in which you buy it, may be out two weeks ago, or two weeks from now, maybe longer, features the onscreen actors that make up the “Paternoster Gang,” [“Hail Mary” being one way to translate “Pater Noster.”] AND the beginning of a monthly comic feature spotlighting the Sirullian Detective (and according to DW lore, the real Sherlock Holmes), Madame Vastra, her human wife, Jenny Flint, and their Sontaran manservant, Straxx, will feature heavily in the 12th Doctor’s first adventure.
In the meantime, your Nuke the Fridge “Time Team” will be surfing the outer fringes of time and space to bring you the latest Whovian News.