Doctor Who

Bill has been attending lectures at St Luke’s University in her spare time. However, her lecturer tends to go off on random tangents about physics and poetry, and has incredibly strange mannerisms. Sound familiar? As it turns out, the Doctor has been working at this university for 50 years, for some mysterious reason. Matt Lucas’ faithful, bumbling Nardole is back as well, along with his small, humorous interjections. Lucas hasn’t got all that much to do as of yet, but we can be certain that his role as the Doctor’s Butler is going to end up being much more crucial a little later on.

But it is Pearl Mackie as Bill who is the true star of the episode, and she successfully solidifies Bill as a real, complex character. Her backstory as an orphan living with an oblivious foster mum slides in smoothly with the rest of the story, and it’s likely we will revisit this at some point later on. She is quick-witted and asks the questions no one has asked before:

TARDIS! If you’re from another planet, why would you name the box in English? Those initials wouldn’t work in any other language!

For once, the Doctor is caught off guard and doesn’t know how to react to her onslaught of questions.

Her sexuality, just like her family life, effortlessly slots in with the plot too. Her instant romantic attraction with the introverted Heather fuels the narrative and pushes it forward through to its bittersweet end. Heather is insecure, anxious, and wants nothing more than to escape her life. So of course, because Bill is the happiest she has been in a while, the ‘Monster of the Week’ is going to turn up.

This week, it’s some sort of space engine oil that leaked out of a passing spaceship, formed a puddle on the ground, and must now choose a living being to possess as a means of transport. Unfortunately for Heather, she is selected to be its host, and her life is sadly cut short just as she promises Bill she won’t leave her.

After a ghostly encounter with the now-possessed Heather, Bill runs straight to the Doctor with whom she has now developed a close student-teacher type relationship. He lets her into his TARDIS to protect her, but it takes her a little longer than usual to realise that it isn’t just a funky room extension to the Doctor’s university office, or a lift. This is a fun scene, leading the audience on to wait for the exact moment she speaks those immortal words:

It’s bigger on the inside than it is on the outside!

The Doctor heads straight for the university basement with Bill, anxious that this creature is prying into something it shouldn’t—and here is where the series’ story arc is revealed.

For the past 50 years, the Doctor and Nardole have been guarding a large, mysterious vault. Not much is revealed here, but we are sure to find out more about this later on. The focus shifts away from the vault as the Doctor realises that the possessed Heather is following them wherever they travel, so he decides to test exactly how far it will go. And that is how the Doctor FINALLY ends up in Australia, after all these years! Watching this in a cinema was worth it, if not for anything else then at least for the cheers that went around the room when the Sydney Opera House was revealed onscreen.

As it turns out, space-engine-oil-Heather is a pretty persistent monster, even following them to the other end of the universe. The Doctor rationalises that the only way to destroy her is to lead her directly into “the deadliest fire in the universe” – which is, as it turns out, a raging Dalek in the middle of a war zone.

There is a great Classic Who throwback here as we very briefly see the android race of the Movellans again for the first time since 1979. More importantly, possessed Heather appears to be immune to the Daleks’ ray gun and just as well because at this moment Bill figures it all out.

Heather’s last living words were a promise to Bill that she wouldn’t leave her, and so now Bill needs to give her permission to go her own way and move on. It is a suitably bittersweet ending as both Bill and Heather let go of each other and move on with their own journeys.

After all this adventuring, the Doctor concludes that Bill’s memory must be wiped. But Bill isn’t that easily fooled and catches on pretty quickly what the Doctor is trying to do. She’s seen sci-fi movies, and she isn’t letting the Doctor think for one second that he’s the only smart one in the room. In fact, she turns it back on him:

Just imagine how it would feel if someone did this to you.

Cue a subtle, beautiful interlude of Clara’s theme, and the Doctor almost remembering that his own mind was wiped in a similar way not too long ago. Small references like these make this show worth watching, and it’s always exciting when it happens.

In the end, the Doctor quite literally just says “what the hell” and officially invites Bill aboard the TARDIS. And right there, we have the beginning of a beautiful Doctor-Companion relationship that is original, smart, and full of potential.

In this series premiere, Moffat strikes an awesome balance of new ideas and familiar references to past stories. It is by no means a perfect episode, but it has left plenty of room for the rest of Series 10 to develop and flourish in its own right, and that is something I can get behind.

Next Up | Evil robots that speak emoji, robot birds, a bunch of skeletons, and the Doctor impulsively blows up a city.

Coming Up In This Series | Mondasian Cybermen, Missy returns, the Doctor regenerates, an Ice Warrior, zombies… and John Simm back as the Master in all his glory, but this time with a goatee.

The post Doctor Who Recap: 10.01 ‘The Pilot’ appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

The 30-second teaser picks up right where we left off at the tear-jerking end of Season 2 with Claire travelling back through the stones into her own time. For Jamie, he remained behind in 18th century Scotland to participate in the Battle of Culloden.

Throughout the teaser, we unfortunately see Claire and Jamie living their separate lives in both very different times and places. We see Claire watching something with hospital staff, Bree graduating as Claire and Frank beam with happiness and also celebrate her birthday, a sad Claire clutching her Scottish pearls, Jamie traversing through the Highlands and shooting someone in France, Claire running down a hospital hallway, and then, most importantly, Jamie screaming Claire’s name!

While all of these exciting snippets are shown, Jamie’s “Lord, ye gave me a good woman” speech from last season plays overhead, which ties in nicely with the visuals. The combination makes you damn excited for the two lovers to reunite and boy will it be a fantastic reunion!

Season 3 of Outlander premieres in September, but no specific date has been set yet.

What did you think of the teaser? Let us know in the comments below!

The post Outlander: First Look Teaser of Season 3 appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

In 2013, BBC produced The White Queen mini-series, which was based on Philippa Gregory’s historical novel of the same name. Four years later, STARZ is now tackling another novel from the Cousins’ War series titled The White Princess.

The White Princess is set three days after the events of The White Queen, but sees a new generation ascend the throne in 15th century England. The series follows the daughter of the “The White Queen”, Princess Elizabeth of York (played by Jodie Comer) as she pledges to marry the recently anointed King Henry Tudor (played by Jacob Collins-Levy). Like all historical and royal marriages, they hope to bring peace to a war-torn country, but with England now unites, their marriage becomes divided. Rumours begin to circulate that Elizabeth’s long-lost brother, Prince Richard, is alive and planning to take the throne. Elizabeth now faces may choices: between being a Tudor wife and York princess and also between her new husband and a boy who claims to be her own blood and the true heir to the crown.

Starring Jodie Comer (My Mad Fat Diary), Jacob Collins-Levy and Michelle Fairley (Game of Thrones).

The 8-episode mini-series premieres Sunday on STARZ and recaps of each episode will be available right here on The Nerd Daily!

Will you be watching? Let us know in the comments below!

The post New to TV: The White Princess appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

The first images for Season 3 come in anticipation for the teaser trailer debut which will be released this Sunday. The sneak peek will air before the new STARZ television series The White Queen, but there’s no doubt it will be up on social media minutes after its premiere.

In the new images, we see our Outlander trio in two very different places. Sam Heughan as Jamie Fraser looks to still be in 18th century Scotland, while Caitriona Balfe and Tobias Menzies as Claire and Frank Randall smile together in the 1960s.

At the end of Outlander Season 2, Claire travelled through the stones at Craigh na Dun while Jamie stayed behind to join the Battle of Culloden so we will be seeing more of the two different time periods again this season.

The cast and crew are still currently filming and earlier this year, they moved their production to the Cape Town Studios in South Africa, where STARZ’s other television series Black Sails had been filming. The series will be utilizing the old ships from Black Sails to create the second half of the 3rd season where Jamie and Claire set sail for the Caribbean.

The third season will be based on the third novel Voyager and the author, Diana Gabaldon, is currently in South Africa consulting on the series. She has been dropping a few teasers of the cast working on the series.

Outlander Season 3 premieres on Starz in September, but until then, the #droughtlander continues.

Are you excited for more Outlander? Let us know in the comments below!

In the Company of Giants…again! pic.twitter.com/dJKJdHmJLl

— Diana Gabaldon (@Writer_DG) April 4, 2017

The post Outlander: First Photos From Season 3 appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

A few months ago, BBC announced they would be adapting Philip Pullman’s bestselling His Dark Materials trilogy into a television series. The trilogy follows a young girl named Lyra Belacqua who lives in an alternate Oxford, England which is filled with magic and science. The book’s perspective is shared between Lyra and Will Parry as they traverse through parallel universes featuring witches, armoured polar bears and dæmons, which are the animal embodiments of their inner-selves.

In 2007, the first book was adapted into a movie titled The Golden Compass and starred Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman. However, like most book-to-screen adaptions, it didn’t do too well with all fans and the following sequels were cancelled due to various reasons.

As for the upcoming adaption, there has been little announced yet with no release date or any casting announcements. It has been rumoured that Dakota Blue Richards, who played Lyra in the film, may be linked to the series, but there is nothing more on that yet.

But what we do know is that the first season will be made up of eight episodes, although it’s unclear whether these episodes will cover the entirety of the first book, or whether it will be broken in half. Another rumour is also circulating that BBC is planning on producing 40 episodes and will spread across five seasons, but this still remains unconfirmed.

@beckprot It takes a long time to put a big thing like this together. But it’s started well and it’s moving smoothly.

— Philip Pullman (@PhilipPullman) November 4, 2016

It has been reported the series will be adapted by Jack Thorne, who recently co-wrote the script for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Along with Thorne, Philip Pullman will also be working with the writers and BBC to bring the series to life.

In February this year, Pullman announced he is writing a new companion series titled The Book of Dust, which is scheduled for release in October. The series will feature Lyra again in the first two books—the first will see Lyra as a baby and the second will take place ten years after the events of His Dark Materials. With this new series in the works, there’s a high chance the content and storylines could be carried over into the new television adaption.

Hopefully we will be hearing more news about the upcoming series this year as the project continues to move forward and you bet we will be posting the latest updates here on The Nerd Daily!

Are you hopeful about the new His Dark Materials adaption? Let us know in the comments below!

The post ‘His Dark Materials’: The Latest On The Upcoming TV Adaption appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

The first trailer for Spike’s television adaption of The Mist has been released and looks like the characters are in for a ride.

Based on the 200-page novella written by Stephen King, the series is set in a small town when a creepy fog suddenly rolls into town filled with otherworldly predators and wreaks havoc on the townies. Since the original source material focused on the town taking shelter in the mall, the series will instead expand further and feature multiple locations to allow for more point of views.

In an interview with EW, show creator Christian Torpe spoke about the differences between the book and the 2007 film.

“I wanted to be respectful to the source material, but my feeling was there was already a great adaptation out there by Frank Darabont. The novella is 200 pages and one location, and we needed to change that to make an ongoing series. But we wanted to remain faithful to the heart of the story.”

The trailer depicts religion and the talk of judgment day, mind control, sex, bloody faces and of course, the creepy mist as it rolls into town.

Starring Alyssa Sutherland (Vikings), Isiah Whitlock Jr. (The Wire), Darren Pettie (Mad Men) and Frances Conroy (American Horror Story). The Mist premieres June 22 on Spike.

What did you think of the trailer? Will you be watching? Let us know in the comments below!

Image Credit: Spike

The post First Trailer for Stephen King’s ‘The Mist’ TV Series appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

I don’t know about you, but I think television and books go really well together. Maybe not always book adaptions (because we all know they can sometimes be a disappointment), although the trailers for Anne and The Handmaid’s Tale may be a glimmer of hope for the growing world of book-to-screen adaptions.

If you fancy skipping your next Netflix binge, we’ve paired a few television shows with some YA books so you can still enjoy your favourite themes but read all about it instead!

Let us know if you’ll be reading one of these books in the comments below!

Agent Carter >>> Code Name Verity/Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein
Agent Carter is one of my all-time favourite shows and Rose Under Fire is one of my all-time favourite books. These two go hand-in-hand as this duology written by Elizabeth Wein is about female spies and pilots in World War II, so naturally there’s a connection between these books and Agent Carter. Not to mention, the characters are as badass as Peggy and they have just as much heart to them.

Downton Abbey >>> The Gemma Doyle trilogy by Libba Bray
This one may be a little bit of a stretch as The Gemma Doyle trilogy is more Downton Abbey meets Merlin perhaps. It has all the historical, scandalous and intriguing elements of Downton Abbey, but with a touch of magic and witches. The first book, A Great and Terrible Beauty is set in a London boarding school for Victoria ladies. It’s a fun series, but it also explores and features some serious topics, great female friendships and some incredible world-building and magic. The main character Gemma could be considered as a cross between Mary and Sybil and not to mention, the author Libba Bray is incredibly talented so it’s worth checking out.

Game of Thrones >>> Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes
Although I personally am not much of a fan of Game of Thrones, the Falling Kingdoms series is fantastic read for those who are. Like Game of Thrones, there are quite a few characters that the story follows and they are all very intriguing in their own ways, just like how the characters greatly differ in the television series. Being a fantasy series, the world is complex and rich, which always makes for fascinating read.

Sherlock >>> Every Breath
Every Breath is an Australian YA trilogy by Ellie Marney which tells the story of Rachel Watts and her best friend, James Mycroft. You may have notices it’s loosely based around Sherlock Holmes, but the modern Melbourne setting sets it apart from the rest. James is very reminiscent of Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock—absolutely brilliant, but slightly less knowledgeable when it comes to people and communicating. Rachel is not a sidekick to Mycroft at any point, and she has a bigger purpose than merely making him look smart since she’s brilliant in her own way, and I think many readers can appreciate that.

The post If You Like, You’ll Like: TV To Books appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

The Season 7 finale of The Walking Dead opens with a chilling introduction of Sasha listening to music in the darkness—is this some kind of twisted torture like we saw Daryl go through earlier in the season? She dreams she is with Abraham again, and already we can guess the devotion he has to Sasha will cause him to be the first to die in the episode.

Negan reaches a comprise with Sasha: only one has to die when he attacks Alexandria to pay for their rebellious plans. Meanwhile, the Hilltop group discuss their plan of action. Again.

We then cut to where we left off last episode, with Rick having Dwight at gunpoint. They aren’t too pleased he killed Denise, but Dwight reveals Negan knows about Rick’s plan to fight against him. Dwight comes up with his own plan to sneak out and attack the outpost while the group goes to Alexandria to get the workers to join them, then attack each outpost and thus ending a season-long fight against Negan.

Out in the streets, Carol and others of the Kingdom find Morgan outside; he too has a death wish and decides to attack Negan alone. Remind you of anyone? Ezekiel asks Morgan to join them on their journey to make an alliance to Alexandria.. About time too!

Cutting back to the main group, the Dumpster Group of women with one-word utterances join Alexandria and take position. The leader even makes a suggestion that she sleeps with Rick when it’s over, to which Michonne quickly says to get back to work.

Sasha’s dream of Abraham continues to manifest, where she begs him to sit this one out. She walks with Eugene and they prepare to leave the Saviours’ camp to attack Alexandria once and for all. With the amount of time dedicated to Sasha, the chances of her character being killed off is increasing by the second!

Negan’s group arrives with Eugene asking Rick’s group to comply or risk being attacked. After some hesitance, the group plans to set off the explosives they’ve planted around the place. But there’s nothing and then the Dumpster Group pull their guns on them, telling Rick they found a better deal with Negan.

Negan’s group arrives with Eugene and his speaker, asking Rick’s group to comply or risk being attacked. After some hesitance, the group plans to set off the explosives they’ve planted around the place. But there’s nothing. And then the Dumpster Group pull their guns on the group, telling Rick they found a better deal with Negan. I wish we could say we’re surprised, but honestly, we’re not.

Negan steps out and draws attention to a coffin they’ve brought with them and unsurprisingly, Sasha is inside. Negans wants their guns, Daryl and the life of one of their group so Rick demands they open up the coffin to confirm Sasha is alive.

But Sasha is now a Sasha-walker, so it looks like she took Eugene’s pill after all, or ran out of air. She lunges for Negan, which takes him by surprise. Although it was obvious she would be the first to die, it was still done rather well with some fantastic visual effects. Cue Rick’s group as they fight against the Dumpster group, but Jadis still has Rick at gunpoint, and she kicks him from the rooftop and shoots him.

Negan and Jadis team up and they take the others hostage, while Michonne intensely fights one of Jadis’ minions. Negan hovers over Rick with Lucille, and suggests as punishment he kills Carl and cuts off Rick’s hands. Again, we wonder why Negan doesn’t simply kill Rick, since we know he’s killed many for far less.

But just before he hits Carl, Ezekiel’s tiger lunges out and the Kingdom attack the Saviours, firing bullets everywhere. I cannot express how satisfying it is to finally see the fight, even though it’s strange that Rick’s bullet wound hasn’t seemed to affect his ability to fight.

Negan manages to escape and disappointingly, this season isn’t going to be the war we’ve been waiting for and the fight only lasts for a few minutes. Rick and Carl find Michonne, heavily injured but alive. It appears all is well, with only the minor civilians killed off.

Back at Negan’s camp, he asks Eugene how it was possible for Sasha to die in there. Eugene suggest she ran out of air, but it’s clear Negan is suspicious. He then turns and addresses his large group: “So, we are going to war!”

The episode ends with a hopeful montage of Alexandria and the Kingdom together, and a promise for a much better season next time.

This season was slow, even slower than last season (which is saying a lot). While there were highlights and some episodes did have great character development, a large portion of it was repetitive. Characters seem to blur together, and may of the show’s badasses have been reduced to cardboard cut-outs with a simple death wish. This season has been all talk and no game, but hopefully next season will bring some better writing to the show with more action and twists.

Season 8 of The Walking Dead has been confirmed for later this year.

What did you think of the Season 7 finale? Let us know in the comments below!

The post The Walking Dead Recap: 7.16 ‘The First Day of the Rest of Your Life’ appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

The games are about to begin! If you’ve been under a rock, the Game of Thrones season 7 teaser dropped two weeks ago. The teaser opens with Daenerys talking about her father, along with the appearance of the 3-headed dragons of the House of Targaryen. We also see the family sigils, voice-overs and a recap of the deaths from the previous seasons. The house sigils begin to crumble and they are soon covered in snow, signifying the coming of the Night Walker. The official promo was then released which depicted Cersei, Jon and Daenerys all walking to their respective ‘thrones’, when Cersei begins to breathe ice and ends with the Night King’s face.

It seems as if it’s going to be a wild season since all the pawns are in their places, especially with this season also being the penultimate season. Since July is still three months away, let’s predict what we might see in this season!

Read on to see our predictions and let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

The Key Player

From both the teaser and promo, we already know the key players in this season are Cersei, Daenerys, Jon, and the Night King. The first three did the voiceover on the teaser and walked together to their respective thrones on the promo. As for the Night King, both the teaser and promo ended with snow and his eyes, so we can know for sure he will be one of the main issues in this season.

Watch Out 7 Kingdoms

With Cersei on the Iron Throne, Daenerys coming with all her forces, and The North rising, the war for the Iron Throne is happening. Even if Daenerys doesn’t reach Westeros by the seventh season (will she ever?), she already has allies there: The Tyrells and Dornes. Whatever happens, her plan for the Iron Throne will start next season. The war against the Night Walker is about to get even more exciting, since they have breached the wall.

Shift In Allegiance

The main change will happen to Jamie and Sansa as Jamie didn’t look happy during Cersei’s coronation. Sansa and Jon’s relationships are under strain since he hasn’t been listening to her and Littlefinger’s influence; she didn’t look very happy either in the season finale.

Winter Is Here!

The White Walkers are surely coming for the wall and whether the families will come together to beat the White Walkers, or if they will work separately and fight as small forces is still unknown. Also, there’s this issue of Cersei’s ice breath from the promo. She’s the only one who has it, so it may be that something will happen to her relating to the White Walkers: either she can use them to her advantage, or finally meet her tragic end, because it isn’t Game of Thrones without a few deaths.

Revelations

Bran powers in season six have given us viewers a lot of insight: how the White Walkers came to be and most importantly, Jon’s true heritage. Currently, it’s shown that only Bran and Ned know of Jon’s heritage, but it’s more than likely it will be made public knowledge in this season. If there are people in the 7 Kingdoms who know about this secret, our bets are on Littlefinger, Varys (he has a network of spies, remember?), and Tyrion (he’s one of the smartest guy in Westeros). Another revelation that could come to light in the next season is how dragonglass could kill White Walkers. Everyone is in their place for a reason, so Sam as a maester is no coincidence and he may even figure out how the White Walkers were created and how to kill them.

Reunion

The big 3 are bound to come together at some point, which means Jon will meet Daenerys; Tyrion will meet Cersei and Jamie; Theon will meet Sansa and Jon; Sansa will meet Cersei and Tyrion; and so on. The Starks are also bound to reunite in this season, with Arya and Bran coming back to the 7 Kingdoms. Other than the main players, we hope to see more of some of the minor characters: The Hound, Benjen Stark, and Gendry. They have obviously survived seven seasons for a reason, and with the Hound’s status as a Clegane, Benjen as half-zombie and Gendry’s status as Baratheon’s bastard, their characters are too good to be ignored. Also, you can’t expect the Red Woman to stay away forever right? She’s destined to be back at some point.

The Death List

The teaser showed us all of the house sigils crumbling together. The promo showed us that Cersei, Daenerys, and Jon would be at the helm of a power struggle. This means bad things for the other Houses as it could indicate they will be either destroyed or damaged in the upcoming battles. The inevitable casualties could also come from the three big Houses—The Targaryen’s are left with Jon and Daenerys; The Starks are left with (as for now) Jon, Bran, Sansa, Benjen, and Arya; and The Lannisters are left with Cersei, Jamie, and Tyrion. If there’s one thing we know from six seasons of Game of Thrones, nobody is safe. We’ve seen the Stark and Lannister families die one-by-one over the course of six seasons so their numbers may dwindle even further in this season.

The Iron Throne

Currently, Cersei is on the throne. While Daenerys is the direct descendant of the Mad King, Jon is also the descendant of Mad King through Rhaegar, the crown prince, so technically both of their claims are legitimate. We also have the presence of Gendry, Robert Baratheon’s bastard to worry about, but let’s not count him as a nobody first since we all thought that about Jon, and look where he is now. However, this will most likely be the issue of the eighth season, if there’s still an Iron Throne left to win after the war with the White Walkers.

Seems as though we’re in for another action-packed season, so if you haven’t caught up yet or you need to re-watch, you have three whole months to do so!

The season premiere of Game of Thrones airs July 16th on HBO.

The post What Can We Expect from ‘Game of Thrones’ Season 7? appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

Anne is Netflix’s reimagining of the classic Anne of Green Gables novels by L. M. Montgomery. The coming-of-age story is about an outsider who, against all odds and challenges, fights for love and acceptance to find her place in the world.

Set in the late 1890s on Price Edward Island, Anne Shirley is a young orphaned girl who has had an abusive childhood spent in orphanages and the homes of strangers. She is mistakenly sent to live with an ageing sister and brother but the 13-year-old soon transforms the lives of Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert, and eventually the entire small town with her unique spirit and brilliant imagination. Her adventures reflect the timeless issues we continue to face including themes of identity, feminism, bullying and prejudice.

All eight-episodes of Anne hit Netflix on May 12th.

Let us know what you think of the trailer in the comments below!

The post ‘Anne’: The Fiery Redhead of Green Gables Gets Her First Trailer appeared first on The Nerd Daily.