2014 – A New Dawn (Part 2)
John Hussey concludes his look back over the major news, rumours and developments of 2014.
Biggest Announcements
Twelfth Doctor’s Costume Reveal
One of the biggest pieces of news early on in the year was the announcement of the Twelfth Doctor’s costume which left many fans stunned with its simplicity but nevertheless many exclaimed with cheer. This piece of news was talked about by the fandom and the news for weeks.
A Character in Pink
It was announced that a new character would be joining the Twelfth Doctor and Clara in Series Eight. Danny Pink was left in the fandom’s speculation for months as to who he was and how he would fit into the new dynamic. Some claimed it was too early for a new companion as they wanted to see Twelfth and Clara alone for a while in order to get used to each other. Some also wanted Danny and Clara to stay clear from the romance angle. As it turned out Danny more served as a recurring character, but as a romantic interest to develop Clara’s character and to add new dilemmas into the narrative that pushed the character into darker situations.
Classic Cinema Screening
To coincide with the DVD release of the recently returned lost Classic serial ‘The Web of Fear’, the BBC decided to have a special marathon cinema release for both the newly released episode and ‘The Enemy of the World’.
Return of Osgood and Stewart
It was revealed that both Kate Stewart and Osgood would be returning for the two-part Series Eight finale along with the UNIT, aka the Unified Intelligence Taskforce.
The Cybermen Finally Have a Finale to Themselves
Many fans have wanted this little idea to happen for many years now and they finally got their wish of seeing the Cybermen being the dominant threat of a New Series finale. This time they were a true threat, with many chilling moments to say the least, and weren’t interrupted by the unexpected arrival of the Daleks.
Classic Who on the Horror Channel
The Horror Channel made a deal with the BBC so that the Classic Series could be broadcast on their channel for both new and old viewers to enjoy the wonders of the first 26 seasons of the show.
9 Year Celebration
In honour of 9 years since the revival returned to screens, the BBC released three specially made desktop pictures featuring the Ninth Doctor and his companions Rose Tyler and Captain Jack Harkness.
50th Anniversary Collector’s Box-set
After the shoddy standalone releases of both ‘The Day of the Doctor’ and ‘The Time of the Doctor’ the BBC announced that a special 50th Anniversary Collector’s Edition box-set was to be released. This glorious box-set included the entire Doctor Trilogy, including ‘The Night of the Doctor’ along with all the bonus features from the previous DVD releases with the addition of new features including most of the 50th Anniversary programmes. Even ‘An Adventure in Space and Time’ was added to the collection. This was certainly a nice little gift for the fandom, although it was only produced in limited numbers.
Doctor Who Takes the World by Storm
Doctor Who’s greatest achievement this year was travelling across the globe on a grand World Tour. The tour managed to not only promote Capaldi as the new Doctor but also proved that Whovians are everywhere and they all greeted the show, the cast and the staff with a warm welcome. The World Tour travelled from Wales, to England, to South Korea, to Australia, to the USA, to Mexico before ending it off in Brazil. Both Capaldi and Coleman enjoyed their experience, merely finishing filming a few days prior to the tour’s start, and were joined by Moffat to compliment the energy of the fans worldwide.
Another Moffat Tease
The sly old Moffat gave us some interesting insight to how his timey-wimey brain works by stating he had already got a clear idea of where Series 9 will go, even to the point of having a dreadful surprise in wait during the penultimate episode.
No Comic-Con for Doctor Who
Sadly Doctor Who didn’t get to go to the San Diego Comic-Con this year as it had done for the last three years running. At least the show got to have a World Tour instead.
Series 8 Leaks
The saddest news to hear this year was the leaking of the first five episodes. What started off as entire scripts being leaked later turned out to be much worse with whole unfinished episodes appearing online for anyone desperate enough to download. Needless to say most of the fandom joined together in preventing the leak growing out of control and for that Moffat and the BBC were most grateful,
15 Years of Big Finish
This year saw the Big Finish audio adventures turn 15-years-old after their first released narrative, ‘The Sirens of Time’, back in 1999. Since then they have gone to create their weekly range of adventures which consists of Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Doctor stories, later including the Eighth Doctor before he moved on to his own series. In recent years they even got Tom Baker to return as his iconic Fourth Doctor for his own series, similar to McGann. They have achieved multiple spin-off series through existing Classic companions and their own creations. Last year Nicholas Briggs, best known for his voice-acting work for the main show, wrote the 50th Anniversary story ‘The Light at the End’ featuring all five surviving members of the Classic Series for the very first time. Big Finish has a lot to answer for in the case of keeping the show going, especially back during the later Wilderness Years.
Fan Title Sequence becomes reality
For Capaldi’s debut, Moffat decided to have yet another new title sequence and them arrangement. The beauty of this change was the sequence was that it was inspired by a fan-made title sequence created by Billy Hanshaw. This is a huge credit to Whovians and shows that their dedication through their own projects can be noticed by the fans that run the show and incorporated into it.
Invading Minecraft
Doctor Who made the official leap into the pixelated world of the hugely popular video game Minecraft this year and it has allowed millions of fans to incorporate the Doctor’s world into their building block world.
The Big Screen: Take a Deep Breath
Like with ‘The Day of the Doctor’ in 2013, ‘Deep Breath’ got released at the cinema for fans to enjoy Capaldi’s first moments onscreen on the big screen. Accompanied with this was a live streaming of the Q&A broadcast after the episode’s airing consisting of Capaldi, Coleman and Moffat. From experience, I can say it was a fantastic experience and I’d happily do it again if the occasion occurs.
Encouragement from the Past
Matt Smith made a sneaky return near the end of ‘Deep Breath’ through pre-recorded scenes that encouraged Clara through a phone call to accept the new Doctor and to help him during his change, signifying one last favour and a final farewell from her Doctor.
Doctor Who Extra
Although Doctor Who Confidential seems gone for good, at least Moffat and co. have been doing something about that. Through their combined efforts, with aid from the short behind-the-scene videos for Series 7, they created a new short series, Doctor Who Extra. It’s not much but it’s certainly better than nothing.
Missy is the Master
The biggest revelation of the year was not only the return of the Master but also the change of gender. It has been rumoured all year that the Master could be returning in Series Eight’s finale, with some claiming that Charles Dance would be taking over the role from John Simm. All these rumours were turned on their head upon the final moments of ‘Dark Water’. Michelle Gomez brought about a whole new take on the character and although I don’t fully agree with this approach by Moffat, it has to be said it was a daring move that seems to be paying off within certain parts of the fandom.
Death of Osgood
Another shocking value of this year’s finale was the sudden and unexpected death of Osgood at the hands of the Master. Some fans are so upset by this that they’re convinced that she may still be alive with the Osgood killed onscreen being in fact her Zygon duplicate seen within ‘The Day of the Doctor’. Despite these wishes Moffat has gone on record to say she is dead and this move was to demonstrate that the Master was dangerous and that not all characters make it out alive.
Another ‘Terror of the Autons’ Incident
Another outcry against Doctor Who’s darker nature was made this year concerning Moffat’s approach to Heaven. His interpretation had the Master collecting the minds of the dead and then converting them to Cybermen before returning them to their graves to rise up as cybernetic killers. This forced the BBC to warn viewers of the content and even set the DVD release of Series 8 back by a week due to having to change the certificate from ‘PG’ to a ’12’ due to this episode.
The Doctors’ Kindness
Both Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi displayed kind gestures to ill/injured fans this year through poetic speeches via video recordings. It just proved how dedicated they both are to their fans and how much they value their support.
Beyond the Whoniverse
Cardinal No More
It was announced that Peter Capaldi would no longer be working on the BBC’s new hit drama The Musketeers due to his commitments on Doctor Who. His sinister portrayal of the villainous Cardinal would be killed off off-screen at the beginning of the second series due to be broadcast early January 2015.
Gillan Becomes a Bad Girl
Karen Gillan was announced to be starring in this year’s hit-film Guardians of the Galaxy as one of the villains of the story called Nebula.
Terminated
Matt Smith is going up in the world as it was announced this year he would be starring alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger himself in an important role within the new Terminator trilogy.
Awards
Matt Smith won Best Drama Performance and Doctor Who won Best Drama at the National Television Awards.
Milk VFX, Real SFX and The Model Unit were honoured in the Special, Visual & Graphic Effects category in this year’s BAFTA Craft Awards. An Adventure in Space and Time won a similar award in the category Makeup and Hair Design.
‘The Day of the Doctor’ won at the BAFTAs in its category for the Radio Times Audience Award.
The ‘Doomsday’ farewell was declared the greatest Science-Fiction moment ever.
Peter Capaldi won TV Personality of the Year.
Lost Heroes of the Whoniverse
Sadly, this year has seen its fair share of losses within the Doctor Who world. We’ve lost Roger Lloyd-Pack, John Lumic from ‘Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel’.
Christopher Barry, famous for directing Classic serials The Daleks, The Rescue, The Romans, The Savages, The Power of the Daleks, The Daemons, The Mutants, Robot, The Brain of Morbius, The Creature from the Pit.
The most shocking of all was Kate O’Mara who was famous for role as the villainess the Rani.
Derek Martinus, another Classic director, also sadly passed away. He was famous for directing: Galaxy 4, Mission to the Unknown, The Tenth Planet, The Evil of the Daleks, The Ice Warriors and Spearhead in Space.
Lynda Bellingham, the Inquisitor from ‘The Trial of a Time Lord’, was another actress to be announced to have passed this year.
R.I.P. to everyone we have lost.
