Did Magneto (Help) Assassinate JFK?

The latest video clip intended to create buzz about next summer’s X-Men: Days of Future Past may make a few folks cringe since it tries to link Magneto (Michael Fassbender) to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy — just days after the USA marked the solemn 50th anniversary of the tragedy.

Personally, I don’t think the video crosses the line into bad taste, but I also don’t see any particular reason why it needed to be done — unless the assassination conspiracy ties directly into the plot of the new movie.

Do Clothes Make the Time Lord?

After casting an actor in the role of the Doctor, arguably the most important decision about a new Time Lord is his costume, because it becomes as identifiable as his personality.

Let’s face it, Colin Baker’s Sixth Doctor started off on the wrong foot thanks to executive producer John Nathan-Turner’s disastrous decision to go with a hideous-by-design outfit and probably never recovered. Baker had to struggle almost as mightily against his wardrobe as he did with his era’s weak writing and uninspired direction in order to establish his Doctor’s darker persona.

So now we have Peter Capaldi’s incoming 12^th Doctor. An established actor with a strong personality, Capaldi’s choice of costume will no doubt reflect his personal vision for his characterization of the Time Lord.

Chris Pratt Reveals the Secret to Landing Star-Lord

Marvel obviously had a very hard time casting the lead role for next summer’s biggest gamble, the Guardians of the Galaxy movie, and a lot of the difficulty may have arisen from the peculiar way the studio apparently went about it.

They wanted an actor sign on the dotted line to star before even reading a script! And with Marvel signing most actors to deals guaranteeing commitments of anywhere between three and six films, that was one huge leap of faith. However, Marvel found its Peter Quill/Star-Lord in Chris Pratt, who told Fandango:

“Just the fact that he was part of the Marvel brand was really exciting. I was signed up to do the movie before I was even allowed to read a script, so it wasn’t like something about this particular character that got me to do it. The fact that it was a Marvel movie is what got me to do it. Granted, once I did read it there were so many things about the character that I love, and one thing is that he’s very much a kid at heart. He’s like a man-child. And I like the idea that he’s got a false sense of bravado. Deep down inside he’s lonely and desperate. But on the outside he walks around like he’s big and tough, and I don’t think he does a great job of convincing everybody that he’s not just a scared little child.”

I am still having a bit of trouble picturing Bright Abbott from Everwood as a pistol-packing galactic adventurer, but hey, it could work. He just has to make sure Star-Lord doesn’t end up overshadowed by Rocket Raccoon!

It’s Official: Elizabeth Olsen Is the Scarlet Witch

Marvel Studios has confirmed that Elizabeth Olsen is joining the cast of Avengers: Age of Ultron as the Scarlet Witch. The Witch’s twin brother, Quicksilver, will be played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson — better known to comics fans as homemade hero Dave Lizewski of Kick-Ass.

In an interesting bit of serendipity, Olsen and Johnson play husband-and-wife in the upcoming Godzilla reboot, but they figure to spend more time sharing scenes as superpowered siblings in Joss Whedon’s sequel to the third-highest-grossing film of all time. Pietro is known for being… er, enthusiastically protective of sister Wanda.

It’s Almost Time for… ‘The Time of the Doctor’

Christmas is now less than one month away, and that means we are creeping ever closer to Matt Smith’s final story as the star of DOCTOR WHO, which makes me so sad I can barely stand to type it. The title of Matt’s swansong as the 11^th 12^th 13^th Doctor has been unveiled: “The Time of the Doctor.” And, along with that name comes a rather intriguing poster.

First things first; the official BBC synopsis describes the plot thusly:

“Orbiting a quiet backwater planet, the massed forces of the universe’s deadliest species gather, drawn to a mysterious message that echoes out to the stars. And amongst them — the Doctor. Rescuing Clara from a family Christmas dinner, the Time Lord and his best friend must learn what this enigmatic signal means for his own fate and that of the universe.”

I would like to think the planet in question is Trenzalore, because while Earth certainly is a backwater world in an unfashionable arm of Mutter’s Spiral, it is far (very far) from quiet, subject as it is to repeated (almost nonstop) alien invasions and visits from the Doctor.

Moffat Warns the Doctor Is Out of Regenerations

War Doctor

Run, you clever boy! Show-runner Steven Moffat has found a new way to delight torture DOCTOR WHO fandom: by playing with the Doctor’s regenerations. He knows there’s enough wiggle room to fuel all sides of an argument until the end of the world, so he’s taking the hot potato and running with it!

In the wake of the events of the 50^th anniversary story, “The Day of the Doctor,” the question of exactly how many regenerations the Doctor has left is wide open — meaning Moffat doesn’t have to work very hard to send Whovians into paroxysms of despair and joy.

Fancy a Christmas Vacation to Trenzalore?

It may not be his idea, but the 11th Doctor is going to spend his last Christmas in the one place he is never supposed to go — again. And he won’t be there alone, as this teaser reveals…

Daleks, Cybermen, Weeping Angels and The Silence. Uh-oh! The Doctor (Matt Smith) acknowledged that he’s buried in Trenzalore, we haven’t seen how he dies there. Yet. Silence will fall — and that’s not all.

Happy Christmas, fans!

Steven Moffat on DOCTOR WHO: the Wilderness Years

When Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred marched the Seventh Doctor and Ace off into the proverbial Perivale sunset at the end of “Survival” back in 1989, fans had no way of knowing that DOCTOR WHO would be off the air for the next seven years before popping up again in America as, of all things, a TV-movie on the Fox channel. And then it went away again. And then it came back again in 2005.

The series’ current showrunner, Steven Moffat reflected on the long hiatus and its effect on the legacy of DOCTOR WHO with Radio Times.

“That gap is important. It confers something very special on this most special of all shows: immortality. Doctor Who, for once and for all, is the show that comes back. Axe it at your peril, someone like me is going to call you a fool, and lots of people like you are going to read along and nod.

“Moffat also remarked that the audience “just said no” in way that had never happened in British television before, meaning that the programme “just kept on going.”

“While the BBC folded its arms and shook its head, there were books by the likes of Russell T Davies, Mark Gatiss and Paul Cornell. There were audio adventures, starring all the old Doctors. There was an action-packed American telefilm, and endless rumours of Hollywood movies. Doctor Who Magazine, whose purpose was to document the making of the TV show, carried on perfectly happily without the TV show being made.”

I would hardly say we fans were “perfectly happy” with no show being produced during the wilderness years, but we did get by during the production hiatus.

Moffat’s point, however — and I agree with him — is that fandom did not need a steady flow of new stories in order to continue loving what we already had. In fact, it probably deepened our nostalgia for what we once had. I also believe the fallow years were responsible for the reassessment and rehabilitation of the maligned McCoy and Colin Baker years.

It’s like that old song lyric: “You don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone.”

Marco… Polo! Marco… Polo? Marco…

The latest rumor sweeping across the interwebs is that the lost DOCTOR WHO story “Marco Polo” has been found — all seven episodes!

According to Britain’s The Mirror newspaper, the episodes were filmed off  a television screen by a dedicated fan back when it was first broadcast in 1964!

Now this is the point where I emphasize that this is an unconfirmed, unsubstantiated rumor in a British tabloid, so it may be true, or it might be a cruel hoax undertaken to sell a few more papers over the Doctor’s 50^th anniversary weekend. Remember this past summer’s big to-do over 90+ episodes that turned out to be far less than was hoped for.

‘The Last Day’ — The Time War Begins!

This DOCTOR WHO minisode is a bit shorter than “The Night of the Doctor,” and, frankly, not nearly as brilliant. It also features new characters instead of old friends. Still, it’s interesting to get a glimpse of a place that’s been mentioned in the annals of The Last Great Time War: Arcadia.

So, what did you think? At first, I was distressed at the idea that a Gallifreyan soldier would think that a single Dalek could destroy all of Arcadia, the “safest place on Gallifrey.” I mean, the Doctor alone has held off battalions of Daleks with a jammy dodger and foiled any number of diabolical pepperpots by hanging his hat on their eyestalks! And even UNIT can effectively battle them. But then I realized that perhaps the other soldier was having a little fun by following in the footsteps of the officer and scaring the rookie. He was exaggerating for effect, just to scare the n00b.

“The Day of the Doctor,” the 50^th anniversary story, will be simulcast around the planet tomorrow. Here in the USA, it will air on BBC America at 2:50 p.m. ET. #SaveTheDay