David Tennant and Catherine Tate to return to DOCTOR WHO for the 60th Anniversary

The BBC has formally confirmed that former Doctor Who regulars David Tennant and Catherine Tate are returning to Doctor Who for the 60th Anniversary in November 2023.

David Tennant played the Tenth Doctor from 2005 to 2010, becoming arguably the most popular actor to play the role since Tom Baker (who played the Fourth Doctor from 1974 to 1981). Catherine Tate played his companion Donna Noble, debuting in the 2006 Christmas Special and returning regularly in Series 4 in 2008. Her last appearance came in Tennant's swansong, the special The End of Time, in 2010. Tennant's last appearance was in the 50th Anniversary special The Day of the Doctor in 2013, where he starred alongside Eleventh Doctor Matt Smith.

Returning showrunner Russell T. Davies is penning the 60th Anniversary Special, which is also expected to mark the first full episode for Ncuti Gatwa as the Fourteenth Doctor. Davies would not be drawn on how Tennant and Tate will return, encouraging speculation that it might be a dream, a flashback or a parallel universe. It's also not entirely clear if they are returning for the 60th Anniversary Special itself, or possibly a separate special or episode airing as part of the same celebrations.

It is so far unknown if the other Doctors of the modern age - Matt Smith, Peter Capaldi and Jodie Whittaker - are returning for the anniversary as well.

UPDATE: Actor Yasmin Finney (Heartstoppers) has also been cast for the 60th Anniversary, playing a character called Rose. Russell T. Davies often has characters called Rose in his drama, including the co-lead in Bob & Rose and, of course, Rose Tyler in his first stint in Doctor Who. It is unclear if this new character is a guest star or the new regular companion.

Wertzone Classics: The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia McKillip

Sybel is the latest in a line of keepers of a group of fantastic beasts dwelling on Eld Mountain. She cares nothing for the outside world until the warrior Coren brings into her care a baby boy, Tamlorn. Tamlorn is the son of the king, but Sybel cares nothing for his heritage. A dozen years later, the outside world returns to intrude on their peaceful lives, and Sybel and Tamlorn must choose their fate.

The Forgotten Beasts of Eld was originally published in 1974 and has since become regarded as a classic, foundational volume of modern fantasy. It mixes elements of epic fantasy - armies readying for battle, politics - with elements of fairy tales, particularly the magical beasts who live with Sybel and the way that the magic works, with sorcerers gaining power over one another through the knowledge of names and stories.

McKillip's writing discipline is awesome to behold. In just 200 pages she packs in more story and more ideas than most entire trilogies. The writing is elegant and stylish for all of its tremendous pace, and the character development of Sybel, Tamlorn and Coren is superb. Particularly powerful is the discussion of the intersection of power and morality: just because you can do something does not mean you should. Sybel's grasping of how to wield great power responsibly, unlike some of her opponents who just don't care, is explored well.

The superb prose and excellent pacing does sometimes come at the expense of other elements. McKillip provides just enough worldbuilding to support the story and no more; some may feel this hurts immersion, but I never saw it as a problem (and even something of a relief). The characterisation of secondary figures aside from the big three is also more limited, due to a lack of page time. King Drede is presented intriguingly as a complex antagonist with mixed motivations, but we don't really get to know him in depth.

These complaints are slight. McKillip's writing is compelling, her storytelling is phenomenal and the way the book balances different elements is superb. It is unsurprising to learn that the novel won the inaugural World Fantasy Award in 1975, and has since become regarded as a classic of the genre. The Forgotten Beasts of Eld (*****) is available now in the UK and USA.

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AMC picks up the rights for ALAN WAKE TV series

American cable network AMC have picked up the TV rights to the cult video game Alan Wake, created by Finnish developers Remedy Entertainment.

Originally released in 2010, Alan Wake told the story of the titular protagonist, a novelist who travels to Bright Falls, Washington for a break to try to break his writer's block. However, his wife goes missing, apparently kidnapped by a supernatural force, and Alan discovers a strange dimension known as "the Dark Place" impinging on the real world. Aided by various allies, Alan tries to defeat this force and locate his missing wife. The story continued in a standalone expansion, Alan Wake's American Nightmare (2012).

In 2019 Remedy released Control, a new game about a team investigating "Altered World Events" from their headquarters in New York City. The game and its expansions eventually confirm that they take place in the same universe as Alan Wake, and events from the game play a major role in Control's second expansion, AWE. Last year, Remedy released a remastered version of Alan Wake and formally announced that Alan Wake 2 was in development, hopefully for release in 2023.

Work on an Alan Wake TV show began in 2018, with Legion's Peter Calloway set to serve as showrunner and Remedy's Sam Lake (the writer of Alan Wake) serving as producer and consultant.

AMC's previous shows include The Walking Dead, Better Call Saul, Breaking Bad, Mad Men and Preacher.

Christopher Walken cast as Emperor Shaddam IV in DUNE: PART TWO

Christopher Walken has joined the cast of Dune: Part Two, playing the role of Emperor Shaddam IV.

Walken is a legendary American actor whose film and TV credit list of note is almost too long to comfortably quote. Among his best-known films are Annie Hall, The Deer Hunter, The Dead Zone, A View to a Kill, King of New York, True Romance, Pulp Fiction, Sleepy Hollow, Catch Me If You Can and Hairspray. His TV ("More Cowbell"), stage and even music video performances (particularly Fatboy Slim's "Weapon of Choice") are also legendary.

Shaddam IV of House Corrino is the Emperor of the Known Universe, ruler of the Imperium, although he has to share his power with the Landsraad Council. The rising popularity of Duke Leto Atreides instils paranoia in Shaddam IV, leading him to plot Leto's downfall with the Harkonnens, in contravention of the law.

In the 1984 film version of Dune, Shaddam was played by José Ferrer. In the 2000 mini-series, he was played by Giancarlo Giannini.

Dune: Part Two is due to start shooting in the summer with Denise Villeneuve returning to direct. Florence Pugh was also recently cast in the role of Princess Irulan, Shaddam's daughter.

Update: It's now been confirmed that actor Austin Butler has been cast in the role of Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen. Butler is best-known for appearing in Switched at Birth, The Carrie Diaries, The Shannara Chronicles and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. His next appearance will be in the biopic Elvis, playing the titular King of Rock and Roll.

STARFIELD delayed until early 2023

Bethesda Game Studios have announced they are delaying their new science fiction roleplaying game, Starfield, to the first half of 2023. They had previously committed a release date of 11 November this year.

Starfield is the latest open-world CRPG from Bethesda Game Studios, best-known for their Elder Scrolls and Fallout games. Starfield is a brand new IP, set in the early 24th Century and seeing the player working for Constellation, the last human organisation dedicated to interstellar exploration. During the game the player becomes embroiled in a central mystery, possibly related to the discovery of alien life, and has to choose which one of several factions to work with. As usual with a Bethesda RPG, there will be significant freedom in allowing players to choose where they go and what to do next.

Starfield is also the first game to use the new generation of Bethesda's Creation Engine to create larger and more impressive environments than previously, as well as featuring new mechanics. The same engine is also being used for The Elder Scrolls VI, the long-awaited sequel to Skyrim, which is now in pre-production.

Redfall, a co-op action game from fellow subsidiary Arkane Studios, has also been delayed in the same time window.

Bethesda announced the 11-11-22 release date in June 2021, and reportedly it was already considered ambitious. However, Bethesda have always been aggressive in announcing release dates, announcing both Fallout 4 and Fallout 76 just six months before release, and Skyrim around a year. The eighteen month lead-time seemed reasonable on that basis. However, Bethesda have confirmed that the technical challenges of getting the game ready in time have proven greater than expected. Aware of the controversies of other games that were not ready and then rushed out in a buggy state (such as Cyberpunk 2077), Bethesda have chosen a more cautious approach.

Starfield's precise launch date in early 2023 has not yet been confirmed. More information on the game is expected to be revealed at the Xbox Game Showcase on 12 June.

Sales of Sir Terry Pratchett's DISCWORLD series pass 100 million copies

This isn't new news - it was alluded to in 2020 - but it did slip under the radar somewhat at the time. Sir Terry Pratchett's Discworld fantasy series has now sold over 100 million copies, making it one of the biggest-selling SFF series of all time.

Pratchett's Narrativia production company announced the figure back in 2020 (and suggested it had actually been achieved five years earlier). Sir Terry published 41 Discworld novels in total, beginning with The Colour of Magic in 1983 and concluding with The Shepherd's Crown in 2015, published shortly after the author's passing. The Discworld is a flat planet which is carried through space on the back of four elephants standing in turnon the back of an enormous turtle. The series started off as a parody of fantasy, but developed in a sophisticated literary series musing on a huge variety of subjects. Pratchett was highly-feted during his lifetime, sometimes compared to Charles Dickens for his way of using popular, well-written stories to make points about class, life, morality, religion, superstition and technology.

Selling 100 million copies of a single book series is a huge achievement. In science fiction and fantasy, this feat has only been accomplished previously by J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, Stephen King's interconnected (but loose-knit) universe of horror and fantasy novels, J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth books, Stephanie Meyer's Twilight Saga, Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles, CS Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia series and Suzanne Collins's Hunger Games saga. The figure catapults Pratchett past the likes of Robert Jordan and George R.R. Martin.

The figure puts Pratchett's lifetime sales at probably well over 110 million (Pratchett published more than 20 non-Discworld books as well, including popular collaborations with other authors, and even more non-fiction), making him one of the ten biggest-selling SFF authors of all time.

Both Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time and George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series are not far behind though, with the former estimated to have sold well over 80 million copies (and potentially more) and the latter on well over 90 million. TV adaptations of both series have helped fuel a recent boom in sales, which could also soon put them into the 100 Million Club.

Carpe Jugulum by Terry Pratchett

King Verence of Lancre has welcomed travellers from across the Disc to the naming of his daughter and heir. Amongst the visitors are Mightily Oats, of the Church of Om, and dignitaries from Uberwald who like their drinks glasses to be warm and filled with blood. This sounds like a case for the Lancre witches, but young Agnes is suffering from divided attention and Granny Weatherwax has gone to ground, prompting a search by Nanny Ogg. The undead have come to Lancre, and don't seem keen to leave...

Carpe Jugulum, the twenty-third Discworld novel, returns to the Kingdom of Lancre and the adventures of the witches' coven led by Granny Weatherwax, one of the most popular sub-series within the larger series. It's a book that has a straightforward narrative, boiling down to vampires vs. witches, but also uses its straightforward story and structure to tell, in the best tradition of Pratchett, a more complex story about good, evil, morality and responsibility.

In the novel we meet "reformed" vampires. Through years of mental training against superstition and stereotypes, they've overcome many of the weaknesses of their kind. They've also trained themselves to "sip" from victims, keeping them alive for repeated use rather than killing lots of people. The vampires claim that this is progress, and they have overcome evil in pursuit of the common good, with the best results for both vampires and humans. However, it quickly becomes clear that this has just provided them with another form of control and oppression. The overt, cliche-ridden face of evil has instead been replaced by a bureaucratic, over-explained form of it, which feels even worse. The vampires beg the question, is slavery better than murder, and if so, does that still make slavery a good thing?

This leads to one of Pratchett's best encapsulations of the nature of evil and sin: people treating other people not as complex individuals worthy of respect, but as things, reducing them to statistics and not caring about their own volition; talking at people rather than with them. It's one of the Pratchett's most powerful arguments and it resonates through the novel as he explores it from different angles.

Pratchett is at his best when he is angry about something, as he was with fundamentalist religion in arguably his best novel, Small Gods (here echoed in the character of Oats, who is also a member of the Church of Om which was central in that book). His anger here is somewhat cooler, but he makes his point extremely well.

This overcomes a potential weakness of the book in terms of its basic plot and structure. "Vampires show up, take over Lancre, and get into a struggle with the witches and their allies," is extremely close to "Elves show up, take over Lancre, and get into a struggle with the witches and their allies," which we've already seen in Lords and Ladies. Although the specific plot points are different, the overall feeling of the novel is familiar. But still, if you can't tap yourself for ideas and inspiration, who else can you? And it helps that Pratchett uses a familiar structure to make an important thematic point about morality.

There's also some nice continuity moments in the book, like the first appearance of the Nac Mac Feegle in force (a solitary example appeared previously in Feet of Clay) who go on to play a major role in later books. The book is also quite amusing, with Pratchett satirising many elements of the horror genre, and the vampire genre specifically, without relying on the most obvious (and long-exhausted) gags. If there is another weakness, it's that the book dabbles with the idea of characters with split personalities, but doesn't engage with the idea as fully as perhaps it could.

Carpe Jugulum (****½) has a familiar and somewhat predictable structure, but Pratchett uses that to his advantage to relay a powerful message about the nature of good and evil, develop his characters (especially Granny Weatherwax) and trigger some good laughs along the way. The novel is available now in the UK and USA.

Thank you for reading The Wertzone. To help me provide better content, please consider contributing to my Patreon page and other funding methods.

RIP Patricia McKillip

News has sadly broken that the hugely influential fantasy author Patricia McKillip has passed away at the age of 74. McKillip is best-known for her novels The Forgotten Beasts of Eld (1974) and The Riddle-Master of Hed (1976), which were two hugely important works of fantasy in the post-Tolkien, pre-mass-commercialisation of the genre period.

McKillip was born in Salem, Oregon in 1948 and was raised in the USA, UK and Germany. She attended San Jose State University and received a Master of Arts in English in 1973. She started writing whilst in college and published her first book, The Throme of the Erril of Sherill, a novella for children, in 1973.

The Forgotten Beasts of Eld was published in 1974 and immediately put McKillip, then 26, on the map. The book won the 1975 World Fantasy Award and was a nominee for both the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award and the Locus Award. The book tells the story of Sybel, who lives on a mountain, alone apart from a group of mythical creatures summoned by her late father. Sybel is then given the care of a young baby who holds the future of the kingdom in her hands.

The book attracted a rapturous critical reception and sold well. In 1976 McKillip repeated the feat ith The Riddle-Master of Hed, the first in her Riddle-Master Trilogy (which continued with Heir of Sea and Flame and the Hugo-nominated Harpist in the Wind). The trilogy was declared by The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction as a work of "classic stature." The trilogy tells the story of Morgon, the Prince of Hed, who is also the Riddle-Master of his world, and Raederle of An, the heir of sea and fire. The work was hugely successful.

McKillip's later work includes the Cygnet Duology, Kyreol Series and the Winter Rose Duology. She later worked exclusively in standalone novels, including Something Rich and Strange (winner of the 1995 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award), Ombria in Shadow (winner of the 2003 World Fantasy Award), and her last novel, Kingfisher (2016) and her final story collection, Dreams of Distant Shores (2016).

McKillip won a Locus Award, two World Fantasy Awards and two Mythopoeic Fantasy Awards. She was also nominated for the Nebula and Hugo.

A hugely important and influential author modern fantasy, with remarkable prose and character skills, she will be missed.

Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells

Murderbot is settling into their role providing security for their client Dr. Mensah on Preservation Station when they are asked to do something they've never done before: investigate a murder. Murderbot is more at home providing security in high-risk combat situations, rather than the finesse and subtlety that a homicide investigation requires. Still, with a potential killer or killers loose on the station and the inexperienced station security slow to find them, Murderbot takes up the case.

The sixth and (at this time of writing) most recent entry in The Murderbot Diaries returns to the novella format of the first four books, after the novel-length experiment of Network Effect. Fugitive Telemetry is set before Network Effect and sees a shift in format, with Murderbot going from security consultant to murder investigator, a task they initially seem ill-suited for but soon get to grips with. It's not a complete left-field transformation for the series - Murderbot has had to piece together mysteries and incomplete pictures before - but it's enough to freshen up the series when familiarity might be setting in.

As with the earlier books, the novella format means a tight, focused structure and an excellent pace (like the earlier books, you can easily finish this off in a single sitting). Wells writes the mystery with panache, providing enough misdirection to make it intriguing. However, she does not provide enough information for the reader to solve the mystery themselves until quite late in the day, which is a shame.

The twists and turns, brief action bursts and nice pacing make this as fiendishly readable as earlier books in the series, but arguably it's lighter on character than prior books in the series. Murderbot continues their development nicely, but there's a lack of a great foil for Murderbot like ART in prior books. Security Chief Indah has some promise, but they don't really get enough time in the sun to really fulfil the same kind of role. There's also some repetition in Murderbot, once again, having to prove its capability and volition to people keen to dismiss it as just another robot.

Fugitive Telemetry (****) is Martha Wells doing what she does best, delivering a witty, well-written slice of SF, this time more of a thriller than an action novel. The book is available now in the US and on import in most other territories. Three more Murderbot Diaries books are under contract, with the first anticipated for 2023 or 2024.

Star Trek: Picard - Season 2

Admiral Picard joins the crew of the brand-new USS Stargazer when a strange signal heralds the arrival of the new Borg Queen. A tense stand-off with Starfleet results in hostilities...and the changing of the timeline. Picard discovers the involvement of his old sparring partner Q, and embarks on a journey into the distant past to reset the timeline and find out what is going on.

The first season of Picard was highly reminiscent of the first two seasons of its label-mate Star Trek: Discovery: a highly promising start, a great cast, some solid opening episodes and lots of good ideas which were slowly compressed through the meatgrinder of confused writing, questionable attention to detail and sloppy pacing until the whole thing kind of fell over at the end in a confused mess. The most recent season of Discovery managed to just about avoid this fate and there were hopes that Picard's sophomore season might follow suit and deliver a more coherent and consistent experience.

The show certainly tries. The opening episode sees some great shots of numerous Federation starships of different types (addressing the complaint of the first season Picard finale which had a whole fleet of cloned ships) and some fun times on the brand-new Stargazer, a successor to the ship that Picard commanded before the Enterprise-D. The way the crew from Season 1 is reassembled is a little contrived, but that's been an issue with Star Trek for a long time (I remember the various stretches they had to do to get Worf involved with the TNG movies when he was also supposed to be a regular on Deep Space Nine). The show does put together its mystery for the season with some skill, resulting in a pretty strong opening episode.

However, by a few episodes in the show is starting to creak under the weight of what feels like an overload of too many ideas. Shoehorning the Borg, Guinan and Q into a Voyage Home-influenced time jump to the same time period as a Deep Space Nine episode already feels unwieldy, which is even before an ancestor of Dr. Soong shows up (so Brent Spiner can have something to do). The show also feels somewhat unkind to its own first season cast: Isa Briones and Evan Evagora are reduced to barely having cameos and the season ends with several more characters being written out.

The show does service other characters better. Santiago Cabrera has a lot more to do as Chris Rios and his storyline has a bit more emotional weight to it than others. Alison Pill and Annie Wersching also have a nice two-hander relationship going on as Jurati has to work with the Borg Queen for most of the season, and Jurati gets more development than she ever did in the first season. Seven (Jeri Ryan) and Raffi (Michelle Hurd) also get a bit more time in the sun.

For the other castmembers, it's great to see Orla Brady (a highlight of the first season) having a lot more to do this time around, but Patrick Stewart feels ill-serviced. The first season, for all its problems, gave Picard a believable reason for emotional turmoil and regret. The second season advances the idea that he is lonely and regretting the fact that he never got married or had a family, which is fine as far as it goes (although it seems to go against the Star Trek ethos of people also finding happiness and fulfilment in non-standard living arrangements), but it never really seems to find a way of marrying that to what's actually going on in the plot, some mumblings about legacy and an ancestor in 21st Century LA aside. The major retconning of his family history over what was established on TNG is also decidedly sloppy. It's also a shame he has such little material with a returning and on-fine-form John de Lancie as Q, especially given how hard their reunion was pushed in the marketing.

The season is also stretched at 10 episodes and would have been better-served as a pacier 6-episode mini-series. Although the show never dips as much into filler as the first season did, there's the definite feeling of wheel-spinning in side-stories that don't add much to the central narrative.

Against that there's some very good visual effects, some of the character arcs are decent and there's a promising story lurking around here. The second season of Star Trek: Picard (***½) is watchable and, at times, genuinely fun with a great cast, but it also overstays its welcome, doesn't seem entirely sure what story it wants to tell and sometimes over-relies on fanservice in favour of compelling storylines. The season is available now on Paramount+ in the United States and on Amazon Prime Video in most of the rest of the world.