National convention organizer Wizard World will be hosting key cast members from across the 56+ years run of the BBC’s Doctor Whotoday as part of its Wizard World Virtual Experiences tour taking place through the summer. From the 7th Doctor and his Companion, to a memorable sort-of Doctor, to the head of Torchwood, to members of the Paternoster Gang, and notables William Shakespeare and Winston Churchill and more–fans can see them all free on a live-streamed panel and/or check out individual opportunities for photographs and autographs for a fee. It all happens today, June 17, 2020, online at noon Central Time.
It’s time for borg′s annual look at the Best Kick-Ass Genre Heroines in film and television. This year we selected 25 characters that rose to the top. Again the studios gave us more to cheer about than ever. We’re highlighting the very best from a slate of fantastic heroines, with characteristics to learn from and cheer on. Determined, decisive, loyal, brave, smart, fierce, strong (and, okay, sometimes evil), you’ll find no one here timid or weepy, but all rely on their individual skills to beat the odds and overcome any obstacle that comes their way. Over the years we have expanded the list to include any tough, savvy, gritty character played by a woman, so villains are welcome here, too. Some may be frazzled, put-upon, war-weary, or human, but all have fought, some against difficult circumstances, others against personal demons (literally, figuratively, or both), and some against gun and laser fire. And they all showed what a tough, kick-ass character is about.
In 2018 these characters broke new ground, and unlike last year’s great list, this year’s selections would not have worked as well had the characters been swapped for males. We had a former MI-5 agent, bounty hunters, assassins, doctors, defenders, advanced superhumans, superheroines, warriors, witches, and even a few cyborgs–with a roster evenly split between television and movie characters.
Better yet, here’s something we haven’t said before. Several of our selections this year were played by women over 50.
These are the Best Kick-Ass Genre Heroines of 2018:
Enfys Nest(Solo: A Star Wars Story). For the first half of Solo: A Star Wars Story, Enfys Nest was the leader of a band of pirates, a character as cool and ruthless as anyone Han Solo ever faced. But once she took off her mask, it became clear how important she was, how significant her mission was–even more so than Han Solo’s own pursuit of mere wealth. She foreshadowed what Han would later find with Leia, an early glimpse at a rogue and scoundrel who actually had some good in him. When they joined forces, it made their characters even better. And she became one of the best warriors in the Star Wars universe since the original trilogy. (Disney/Lucasfilm)
Okoye(Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War). Is there any woman warrior as powerful and impressive in a fantasy movie this year as Danai Gurira’s Okoye? We can’t think of any. A smart commander, a brave soldier, a loyal ally. Stalwart, devoted, steadfast, strong physically, intimidating and wise, with a keen unwavering ferocity, she represented the best of Wakanda, and fought bravely to defend the world at the last stand against Thanos. (Disney/Marvel)
Higgins(Magnum PI). Few television characters are as beloved as Jonathan Higgins in the original Magnum, p.i. So it was going to be risky having any actor step into the role John Hillerman made famous. So when the show honored the original character and late actor with such a finely tuned, updated character and actor, we took notice. Perdita Weeks’s Juliet Higgins is everything Robin Masters was–the character we all thought Higgins was in secret. We don’t know whether we’ll learn the truth this time around and what that truth will be, but as an ex-British secret service agent, she’s a James Bond for Thomas Magnum to partner with–literally running alongside the show’s star and fighting and shooting her way as an equal. And the result? Every episode of the first season was full of great action and fun. (CBS) Continue reading →
BBC America is airing its new season, the premiere episode for Jodie Whittaker‘s 13th Doctor earlier today than normal episodes will air on Sunday evenings going forward, at 12:45 p.m. Central Time (simulcast in the UK on BBC One at 5:45 p.m. GMT). So if you want to be among the first to see it–and avoid any spoilers online, don’t miss out.
For those who like pre-shows, BBC America is also airing a 30-minute lead-in at 12:15 p.m. Central.
Season 11 episode 1 will be re-broadcast at 2:30 p.m., 5 p.m., 9 p.m., and 11 p.m.
Following up on the first trailer that premiered this year at San Diego Comic-Con, today BBC released the next look at the new 11th season/11th series for Doctor Who. In case you missed it, we included the first trailer below, which was embedded in the Comic-Con panel video coverage here.
You’ll find more of Jodie Whittaker as the new, 13th Doctor. And more of her new companions played by Bradley Walsh, Mandip Gill, and Tosin Cole.
In addition to Doctor Who’s new “woman who fell from the sky,” there’s another new heroine arriving soon the same way…
Not many pop culture events topped Infinity War discussions in 2018. It’s probably more fun to talk about the end of Marvel’s Avengers: Infinity War with passing fans than regular comic book readers. “Wait–where did everyone go?” and “Are they coming back?” Before we learn the answers to those questions, recall that, for those who stayed after the credits (and we know many of you walked out before that, despite the warnings, you know who you are), Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury sent a last-minute pager message to someone with a strange new symbol, right before he disappeared into dust. That was the symbol we see for the next new character of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the next movie in the franchise, Captain Marvel. (For the passing fan, that’s the Marvel Comics Captain Marvel, played in the new movie by 2015 best actress Oscar winner Brie Larson, not the DC Comics Captain Marvel played by Zachary Levi in the new Shazam movie).
Wait, why does Alison Brie look so different here? No, that’s Alison Brie from Community and GLOW, not Brie Larson, who was in an episode of Community, but you probably saw her in Kong: Skull Island or 21 Jump Street, or lots of other things. Keep up!
A big roster of acting talent will appear in this movie–Jackson joins Brie, with the return of Lee Pace as Ronan, Clark Gregg as Agent Coulson, and Djimon Hounsou as Korath, with Ben Mendelsohn (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) as Talos, Gemma Chan (Humans) as Minn-Erva, and we get to see more of everyone’s second favorite British actor, Jude Law (Gattaca, Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows).
Marvel released the first trailer for Captain Marvel today–Check it out:
That’s the trouble with regeneration… you never quite know what you’re going to get!
Some things are worth stopping the presses for. This time it’s a review copy of the forthcoming first issue out of the gates for Doctor Who: The Thirteenth Doctor–Issue #0. If you’re already a fan of the 55-year-old sci-fi television series and especially if you haven’t yet jumped on the Whovian bandwagon, there’s no better way to start than with this unprecedented voyage across time. It stars all twelve regular series Time Lords plus the War Doctor, Captain Jack Harkness, River Song, and plenty of companions, all intertwined as the new Thirteenth Doctor readies to emerge from her latest regeneration. With so many reboots and remakes these days with new actors that arrive with a bit of a resounding jolt, it’s Doctor Who that best found a way to overcome the need to replace actors over time. And that mechanism was regenerating from one human form to another.
Few events are as significant in pop culture as the introduction of Jodie Whittaker as the first woman Doctor this year. In this first issue of a new monthly series, the Doctor relives previously unseen adventures from each of her past lives. The result is a book full of great Easter Eggs and special references for passing fans and diehards alike. And every incarnation of the Doctor is featured in the story by Richard Dinnick with a different well-known comic book artist re-creating the changing TARDIS, sonic screwdrivers, a companion or two, and even more fan-favorite supporting characters. Along with Dinnick’s great voice for each incarnation of the Doctor, each artist puts a special twist on their part of the story. This may be one of the biggest comic book issues of the year, to prep you for what will be without a doubt pop culture’s biggest television event of the year.
Here’s a new image promoting the new series just released by the BBC, featuring stars Whittaker, Bradley Walsh, Mandip Gill, and Tosin Cole:
So get ready for some exciting imagery in the new Doctor Who: The Thirteenth Doctor, Issue #0, from artists Rachael Stott, Mariano Laclaustra, Georgia Sposito, Arriana Florean, Claudia Ianniciello, Iolanda Zanfardino, Brian Williamson, Carlos Cabrera, and more. And borg.com readers get a first look right now with preview pages from this landmark story, courtesy of Titan Comics. Check it out:
This week Titan Comics and BBC Studios revealed a magic number of 13 covers for the forthcoming comic book series, Doctor Who: The Thirteenth Doctor. In this year’s preview lunch for retailers hosted by each of the major comic book publishers at San Diego Comic-Con, one creator’s name stood out: Jody Houser, who is writing the new Doctor Who comic book stories. The Eisner-nominated writer can be found everywhere this year from writing Dark Horse Comics’ new series Stranger Things, to DC Comics’ Mother Panic, to Valiant Entertainment’s Faith, and Marvel Comics’ The AmazingSpider-Man series. That’s five series at five publishers. Pretty awesome! We’ve already seen her work in previous Doctor Who and Orphan Black monthlies from Titan, The X-Files: Origins from IDW Publishing, Supergirl, Justice League of America, and the Batman/Mother Panic crossover for DC Comics, and Star Wars titles Forces of Destiny, Poe Dameron, and Thrawn, and the movie adaptation of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story from Marvel. She’s definitely the writer to watch for over this next year.
Artist Rachael Stott(Doctor Who, Motherlands) and colorist Enrica Angiolini (Warhammer 40,000) will be giving fans their first look at the 13th Doctor in the new tie-in stories (including all that comes with the new Doctor, like the new TARDIS, the design of that bigger-on-the-inside interior, and her trusty sonic screwdriver, which you can now order here at Amazon). You can look forward to variant covers from artists including Stott, Babs Tarr(Batgirl, Motor Crush),Sarah Graley(Rick and Morty),Katie Cook (Adventure Time), Ariela Kristantina (Mata Hari),Alice X. Zhang (Doctor Who), Sanya Anwar (Assassin’s Creed), and Paulina Ganucheau (Zodiac Starforce).
On televisions across the world Jodie Whittaker (Attack the Block, Broadchurch) will be exploring new places and time periods with new companions Graham (played by Bradley Walsh), Yasmin (Mandip Gill), and Ryan (Tosin Cole). It begins with Doctor Who: The Thirteenth Doctor–The Many Lives of Doctor Who, which you can pre-order at Amazon now here.
Take a look at all the covers below for Issue #1 and 2.
The next season of Doctor Who will be a season of firsts–with the first woman to play the Doctor: Jodie Whittaker, two companions of color: Mandip Gill’s Yasmin and Tosin Cole’s Ryan, and the first scripts from writers of color in the series’ 55 year history. Whittaker, Gill, and Ryan joined new showrunner Chris Chibnall and executive producer Matt Strevens in Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con Friday for the first public event featuring the new cast and crew for fans. They revealed no spoilers for the season but provided a first look and feel for the characters and approach for this next season. Only one of the three actors playing a new companion, Bradley Walsh, could not attend the panel, but provided a brief video message during the panel.
“The thing about this role, which is why it’s so amazing for any actor to play the role, is that essentially gender isn’t relevant, and that’s completely liberating,” Whittaker said at an SDCC press event. “I have never approached a role thinking, ‘How would a woman play this role?’ I just am one. I don’t think a guy has ever thought, ‘How do I play a guy in this scene?’ – you just are… So essentially my energy, my approach to this, is coming from a very instinctive place, which is genderless to me. The best thing about the Doctor is I’m not playing either–I’m an alien.”
Courtesy of BBC America, you can watch the entire hour-long panel from Friday showing the first public appearance of Whittaker as the new Doctor right now, along with a preview of Whittaker and three new companions in some clips from the upcoming season. Check it out:
Many books have called themselves the definitive guide to Doctor Who, but only one really can back it up. Five years ago the BBC tapped comic book writer Cavan Scott and Mark Wright to create the ultimate data source for the series’ 50th anniversary and the result was Doctor Who Who-ology: The Official Miscellany. It’s hard to believe five years have breezed by so quickly, but Scott and Wright are back again with an update in Doctor Who Who-ology: The Official Miscellany Regenerated Edition. Scott, writer of comic books and audio novels and one of the few people to have penned stories for Doctor Who and Star Wars and Star Trek, and Mark Wright, Doctor Who tie-in writer and audio actor, have filled in all the blanks leading up to the 11th Season (11th “Series” for British fans), coming this Fall.
So fans will find 55 years of encyclopedic information about everything Doctor Who in this 355-page hardcover brick of a book, nicely designed to represent the appearance of the TARDIS. For only a five-year span the updates to the 2013 edition are many, with updates representing David Bradley’s new stint as the 1st Doctor, the end of Matt Smith’s 11th Doctor, John Hurt’s appearance as the War Doctor, the entire run of Peter Capaldi’s 12th Doctor, and the beginning this past Christmas of Jodie Whittaker’s new 13th Doctor. Except for the 13th Doctor’s premiere appearance in this month’s Free Comic Book Day edition of the Doctor Who comic book, Who-ology looks to be the first book to feature Whittaker’s Doctor in an official Doctor Who publication.
Subject to the updates, the same design and organization that made Who-ology a British bestseller five years ago are back. A trivia guide representing both in-world information and real-world information, cross-references to actors, creators, and episodes of the series, plus references to the radio dramas, audio books, comic books and other tie-in stories will allow anyone to access answers to Whovian questions quickly. The scope and breadth of reference material demonstrates the reason why the series has so many fans. Do you want to see a complete list of all the famous celebrities and historical figures the Doctor has encountered? It’s broken down between people he only name-drops and personalities he encountered in his time travels throughout the series (from Alexander the Great to Shirley Bassey, and Nefertiti to Louis Pasteur). How about the Doctor’s explanations for all of Earth’s mysteries of the unknown, like the end of the dinosaurs, the fate of Atlantis, the abominable snowman, and the Loch Ness monster? And Who-ology isn’t just a big cold book of lists–Scott and Wright dig into the details of what makes all the incarnations of the Doctor and all their companions tick. It’s interesting stuff, tying in the four corners of pop culture fandom, including actors that appeared in both Doctor Who and the James Bond movies, Star Wars, Star Trek, and the Harry Potter movies.
BBC and BBC America just released a photo of new stars of the next Doctor Who series featuring the previously announced 13th Doctor, to be played by Jodie Whittaker (Attack the Block, Broadchurch). Peter Capaldi’s last outing as the 12th Doctor will be during this year’s annual Doctor Who Christmas Special. This weekend new showrunner Chris Chibnall provided actor and character names and discussed his excitement taking on the role as caretaker of the UK’s oldest genre franchise along with three new cast members. The next season will offer ten episodes, but won’t be broadcast until late next year.
Television actor Bradley Walsh (Law & Order: UK) will join Whitaker’s Doctor as a character named Graham, along with Tosin Cole (Star Wars: The Force Awakens) as Ryan, and Mandip Gill (Hollyoaks) as Yasmin. According to the BBC these are the “three new companions,” and Sharon D. Clarke (Waking the Dead) will also appear as an unnamed character.
“The new Doctor is going to need new friends,” said Chibnall. “We’re thrilled to welcome Mandip, Tosin, and Bradley to the Doctor Who family. They’re three of Britain’s brightest talents and we can’t wait to see them dive into brand new adventures with Jodie’s Doctor. Alongside them, we’re delighted that Sharon D. Clarke is also joining the show.”
Prolific stage actress Sharon D. Clarke will appear on the new Doctor Who series.
Bradley Walsh added his recollections of watching the original series. “I remember watching William Hartnell as the first Doctor. Black and white made it very scary for a youngster like myself. I was petrified, but even though I’d watch most of it from behind the sofa through my fingers, I became a fan. I then queued up for ages to get into the Carlton picture house in Watford to watch the great Peter Cushing appear as the Doctor in a full-length feature film made in glorious color (Doctor Who and the Daleks, 1965). Am I thrilled to be part of this whole ground breaking new dawn for the Doctor?? Oh yes!”
