If you’ve been missing the David Tennant from Doctor Who–he regenerated 11 (!) years ago into Matt Smith–and series like Broadchurch and Good Omens don’t cut it, and you don’t like your Tennant fix as a nasty villain as in Jessica Jones, then your series has finally arrived. BBC and PBS Masterpiece’s new adaptation of Jules Verne’s 1873 science fiction adventure Around the World in 80 Days isn’t your father’s or father’s father’s or father’s father’s father’s Jules Verne. But it is very much Doctor Who. It’s David Tennant in the lead role as Phileas Fogg acting his most emoting, put-upon, and frenetic Doctor Whovian. It even has two companions to accompany him on his journey, a journey already booked for two seasons.
Apparently they don’t make it–at least in the first season–since a second season is already approved. It’s the most classic piece of science fiction and adventure, coming to your PBS Masterpiece: BBC’s latest adaptation of Jules Verne’s 1873 novel Around the World in 80 Days. It’s David Tennant in the lead role as Phileas Fogg acting his most frenetically Doctor Whovian and passing to his fans the code word “companion” in its first trailer for the series. It might be the most we’ve seen Tennant in this kind of rollicking role since his last turn as the 10th Doctor. The production looks sharp, as we’d expect from the BBC, with costumes, trains, and set pieces quite up to snuff.
Some of the best Doctor Who stories can actually be found outside the television series. Take for example the hundreds of audio books from Big Finish. In what other franchise can you find spin-off dramas featuring the very stars of the franchise, as well as other award-winning actors? Another place you can find your Doctor Who fix is via Titan Comics. Doctor Who fans across the world can find comic book writer Jody Houser tapping into some of Doctor Who fans’ favorite characters and concepts in the first issue of the new series Doctor Who: Empire of the Wolf. It’s at comic shops tomorrow. Of course, that’s Wolf as in Bad Wolf. Straight out of the gates we encounter David Tennant’s alternate 11th Doctor with Rose Tyler. Better yet, the story crosses beams with the least utilized of all, Paul McGann’s fantastic eighth Doctor, (celebrating the 25th anniversary of his first appearance) plus Matt Smith’s popular 12th Doctor. And an army of short, angry potatoes with guns. And a Fez. Oh, yes, there is much fun to be found here.
Check out a preview of Issue #1 below for borg readers courtesy of Titan Comics.
It’s always a big surprise when the holiday episode of Doctor Who is a critical not-to-be-missed episode. When we last saw the Doctor, she was trapped millions of light years away in an alien prison. The New Year’s Day 2021 special Revolution of the Daleksis not a filler, out-of-continuity holiday showpiece, instead continuing after ten months have lapsed for the Doctor’s companions back on Earth, and after the Doctor has been imprisoned for years in that same relative time span. If you missed this episode you missed: the return of John Barrowman’s universal fan-favorite character Captain Jack Harkness, another Law & Order/Law & Order UK crossover/reunion, the last we’ll see of some major characters, a new Prime Minister, a preview of a new companion, and one of the best Dalek episodes in the 57 years of the series. As the studio releases word that Jodie Whittaker will be soon leaving the series, Revolution of the Daleks reflects that both her performance as the 13th Doctor and Chris Chibnall’s running of the series has finally arrived. It’s a timeless story full of important, lovely emotional beats, fantastic new sci-fi special and visual effects, and a return to the classic framework and themes of the show’s past.
Let’s take a look at why this episode was superb and offer up some candidates for the 14th Doctor…
Time Lord Victoriousis a Doctor Who event, a story which crosses over and connects all forms of Doctor Who publishing media, from books, to audio dramas, even an escape room, and comics. The implications for various incarnations of the Doctor and his companions are great–take a look at the scope of the event here. In The Knight, the Fool, and the Dead, author Steve Cole takes the 10th Doctor back to the Dark Times. In the novelAll Flesh is Grass, from author Una McCormack, the 10th Doctor must confront the 9th and 8th Doctors. The original actor behind the 8th Doctor performs on two audiobooks, He Kills Me, He Kills Me Not and The Enemy of My Enemy, both from Big Finish Productions. Check out our preview pages, cover art, and a trailer below for the comic book tie-in, a 100-page graphic novel from Titan Comics featuring the 10th Doctor.
As Tom Hardy is getting favored by the oddsmakers to be tapped as the next James Bond, the other big British genre franchise is not waning in the eyes of its fans. This past week around 50,000 fans of the Doctor Who series voted for their favorite Doctor and David Tennant’s 10th Doctor barely edged out Jodie Whittaker’s 13th Doctor by only 95 votes for the top spot, with more than 10,000 votes cast for each (Peter Capaldi’s 12th Doctor edged out Matt Smith’s 11th Doctor for the third place, followed by Tom Baker’s fourth Doctor–proving every era has its loyal fans). This is good timing, as Titan Comics just provided borg with a preview of a new Doctor Who series and story arc featuring the 10th and 13th Doctors… and the return of Rose Tyler! Check out our preview pages and look at the cover art below.
Comic book fans saw an unprecedented 13 television series based in the Marvel Comics universe since Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. in 2013. Of those the six best produced of these landed on Netflix, beginning with Daredevil and Jessica Jones. You’ll not likely find two people who can agree on which was best. My #1 goes to Luke Cage, which went beyond the typical superhero turf to show a completely unique two seasons of stories. I thought Daredevil offered nothing new, and The Punisher turned a ho-hum character into something exciting thanks primarily to the performance of actor Jon Bernthal. The team-up The Defenders just couldn’t find chemistry between its members, and the best part of Iron Fist was Jessica Henwick’s Colleen Wing and appearances by Simone Missick’s Misty Knight and Rosario Dawson’s Claire Temple. Which brings us to the third and final season of Jessica Jones, the last of Netflix’s trip through the Marvel characters at least for the foreseeable future.
Jessica Jones started out promising, and that was no small feat considering the superhero was more anti-hero than the typical Marvel story. Actor Krysten Ritter knew her character from her first episode, and in three seasons never veered from the moody, angry detective we first met in 2015. Unfortunately, in three seasons the character never changed, unless even more moody, angry, and alone is enough. The first season worked because Jones had to face a particularly unique and vile villain in David Tennant′s Kilgrave. As he’s done with this year’s Good Omens, Tennant’s energy and intensity tends to elevate even the most bland material. Season 2 of Jessica Jones had another interesting villain as Jones’ biological mother, played by Janet McTeer. The third season? It lacked a compelling villain at all, with Jeremy Bobb playing a Law & Order villain-of-the-week transplant fans were stuck with for an entire season (Bobb’s played guest Law & Order characters four times). The actual villain was the one lurking the entire time, Carrie-Anne Moss′s dying lawyer and Jones’ former comrade in sleuthing, Jeri Hogarth. Despite the talent of the actors, the story arc this season was flat. The series begged for episodic tales, and instead it dragged what could have been a single episode story. It’s Netflix ending on a sour note, and confirms new creators are needed to salvage what could be a great group of characters on the small screen.
The saving grace for the entire series, and the only reason to invest your time for all three seasons, is that it launched the character Hellcat. Just like Jessica Jones introduced Mike Colter’s Luke Cage (who returns briefly to bookend the series) and Daredevil launched The Punisher, something bigger and better than the title hero arrived. Upstaging the star, no character had a greater character arc than Rachael Taylor′s “messed-up” child star Patsy, grown up into Trish Walker, a human with powers, known as Hellcat in the comics and in the show’s credits. The writers knew they had something good, showing her struggle to help her sister in the second season to become an equal during season three. But they bungled it. Trish was loyal to her sister, trying to do what every good superhero character tries–to create good for people and try not to get corrupted. But the show tripped into the common superhero trap–superheroes, at least these superheroes, can’t cross the line of the law for any reason and kill the bad guy. In this case, even if a serial killer continues to murder relentlessly, and even if the cops have practically given up trying to catch him, and the legal system has failed. So how many opportunities are presented and skipped over by the characters? A dozen? And the result by Jones failing to let Trish act is–surprise–more dead bodies. If Jessica Jones, the character, is about anything, isn’t it getting dirty to take down bad guys? So why give her series this stale Superman/Batman/Green Arrow, etc. Boy Scout story? The question of whether superheroes can ever kill is as overdone in the genre as origin stories, and completely unsatisfying as the only dilemma here. Yet through it all Taylor as Trish/Hellcat was fantastic stuff.
With Amazon Studios releasing a new, full-length trailer for its six-part series Good Omens, showrunner Neil Gaiman discussed his creative process for the book and the show at this weekend’s South by Southwest (SXSW 2019) conference and festival in Austin, Texas. Check out his panel interview below, with Gaiman discussing the series and his creative process. Gaiman co-wrote the novelGood Omens on which the series is based with Terry Pratchett way back in 1989. Pratchett passed away in 2015, and now, led by Gaiman’s efforts, twenty-nine years after its creation the book is on its way to a TV adaptation later this spring.
In Good Omens the end of the world is coming, and opposite personalities in the form of an Angel and Demon are brought together to form an unlikely alliance to stop Armageddon. They have lost the Antichrist, an 11-year-old boy unaware he’s meant to bring upon the end of days, sending the pair to find him and save the world before… The End. The series combines the talents of Douglas Mackinnon, who directed episodes of Sherlock and Doctor Who, and it stars David Tennant(Doctor Who, Jessica Jones, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Viva Blackpool) and Michael Sheen(Passengers, Doctor Who, Tron: Legacy, Frost/Nixon, Alice in Wonderland). Other big names appearing in the series include Benedict Cumberbatch(Sherlock, The Hobbit, Star Trek Into Darkness), Jon Hamm (Baby Driver), Miranda Richardson (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Muppets Most Wanted), Mark Gatiss (Sherlock), Michael McKean(Clue, Laverne and Shirley), David Morrissey(Doctor Who, The Walking Dead), Frances McDormand(Fargo, Three Billboards, Isle of Dogs), and Brian Cox(Shetland, RED, Doctor Who).
First, take a look at the new full-length trailer for the series, followed by the discussion with Neil Gaiman this weekend at SXSW 2019, and a brief behind-the-scenes featurette:
Still aren’t in the Christmas spirit yet? With no Christmas day episode of Doctor Who this year, Netflix is filling in the gap with an episode of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina called “A Midwinter’s Tale,” another solid episode of the series taking the story forward where the first season left off, and delving into some classic tropes of American and Victorian Christmas lore. It’s all with the twist of the darker, horror-infused world of the show, but as Miranda Otto’s character Aunt Zelda says, “Christmas is the best time for ghost stories.” See A Christmas Carol, as an example.
Plenty of Christmas episodes of past genre television series are available right now, most via services you may already subscribe to, others for a few dollars (and some you may find free to watch on YouTube). How about starting with the unofficial sequel to Die Hard and Die Hard 2 starring Reginald VelJohnson(Ghostbusters, Tron: Uprising) in his third appearance as Sgt. Al Powell? He’s one of several actors guest starring in a trilogy of Christmas episodes of Chuck, available on Amazon Prime. First is “Chuck vs. the Crown Vic,” then VelJohnson and Michael Rooker(Guardians of the Galaxy, The Walking Dead) in “Chuck vs. Santa Claus,” rounded out with Brandon Routh(Superman Returns, Arrow) and Stan Lee in an early cameo as himself in “Chuck vs. the Santa Suit.” But be careful, you may end up getting sucked into the rest of the series, starring Zachary Levi (Shazam!, Psych the Movie, Thor: Ragnarok),Yvonne Strahovski(The Predator, The Handmaid’s Tale), and Adam Baldwin (Firefly, Leverage, Castle).
In the same vein as Sabrina, check out Grimm with Christmas episodes “Twelve Days of Krampus” and “The Grimm Who Stole Christmas,” both available on Amazon Prime. “Twelve Days of Krampus” provides one of the best illustrations of Krampus, the folkloric character who has been a subject of this time of year for more than 2,000 years. Ever get coal in your stocking? Learn more here. And you’ll find some familiarity with the critters in “The Grimm Who Stole Christmas” as the new Sabrina episode. Each of these Grimm episodes is among the best of Christmas episodes, and overall great episodes of the series. And if paranormal shows are your thing, don’t forget the Supernatural episode, “A Very Supernatural Christmas.” Catch it on Netflix. The Winchester Brothers pursue some pagan gods at Christmastime, revisit their own Christmas past, and try to share a Christmas together as only they could.
That brings us to six classic Christmas episodes. How about six more?
Wizard World has added some major celebrities from genredom’s biggest franchises to this weekend’s event in Des Moines, previewed here at borg.com earlier this month. David Tennant, one of Scotland’s greatest acting talents, has joined the slate of guests at the show. Tennant is probably the most famous of the 21st century era stars of BBC’s Doctor Who, plus he has appeared in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and Blackpool, as the villain in Season One of Marvel’s Jessica Jones, and he’s currently starring in Dean Devlin’s film Bad Samaritan, now in theaters.
He played the only Hobbit who could be trusted with the One Ring: Cedar Rapids, Iowa native, actor Elijah Wood is heading to Wizard World. Wood starred as Frodo Baggins in both The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit trilogy, he appeared in Tron: Uprising, Sin City, Treasure Island with Eddie Izzard, and most recently he starred in Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency. Also from The Lord of the Rings, Billy Boyd is scheduled to attend this weekend’s show. Boyd played Frodo’s Hobbit friend Pippin and he appeared with Russell Crowe in Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, among other movies and TV shows.
Along with previously announced creators including Phil Hester, Ande Parks, and Chad Hardin, Wizard World has added guests Ant Lucia, DC Bombshells creator and artist, New Challengers and Bionic Man writer Aaron Gillespie, and writer Jai Nitz, El Diablo co-creator (with show guest Phil Hester) and writer of Dream Thief, Toshiro, and other comic books.
Wizard World Comic Con events bring together thousands of fans of all ages to celebrate the best in pop culture, movies, television, gaming, live entertainment, comics, sci-fi, graphic novels, toys, original art, and collectibles. This is the fourth year for Wizard World Comic Con Des Moines at the Iowa Events Center in downtown Des Moines.
Show hours are Friday, June 1, 2018, 4-9 p.m.; Saturday, June 2, 2018, 10 a.m.-7 p.m.; and Sunday, June 3, 2018, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Kids 10 and under are admitted free with paid adult admission.
