The List: November 2017

Monday, 27 November 2017

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are engaged

Prince Harry, 5th in line to the throne of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and all her realms is marrying American actress, Megan Markel.

This is interesting in numerous ways. Firstly this is the first mixed race member of the British family and if the couple have children then it is likely then that we will have our first by blood royal mixed race children. She is also an American divorcee which again is interesting because that is what King Edward VIII had to give up his throne for, Wallis Simpson. How times have changed. Also she is a Roman Catholic which, until 2015, would have removed Harry from the line of succession. In the Roman Catholic faith you have to bring your children up Catholic in order to marry someone who is not Catholic, however Harry being the grandson of the Defender of the Faith probably won't convert meaning she will. If she doesn't convert and the children are brought up Catholic they will be removed from the line of succession.

This is wonderful news of course for 33 years Prince Harry, whose older brother married Kate Middleton in 2011 aged 29. They of course have two children with a third on the way. It will be interesting to see when Harry bears his first child.

Congratulations!

Sunday, 26 November 2017

A meeting with Gordon Brown

Last week I was very lucky to meet Gordon Brown, who was promoting his book - Gordon Brown - My Life, Our Times. It was very good and I got to ask him a question as well as get his autograph. I have now met two of the four Prime Ministers during my life time, the other being David Cameron.

Tom Baker Returns in Shada in the flesh!

Tom Baker, the longest serving Doctor, 1974-1981, has returned once more to play the Doctor in the final scene of Shada, the missing Douglas Adams written episode set to be released on 7th December later this year.

This is wonderful, absolutely fantastic to see him back in that scarf and in the TARDIS control room. Shada is definetly going on my Christmas list.

Sunday, 12 November 2017

Exciting New Star Wars news - new film trilogy and new live action TV series

At the D23 we were expecting some news, we didn't get it. But now comes two waves of shocking and exciting news.

Rian Johnson and Ram Bergman are putting together a trilogy completely separate from the Skywalker Saga and will explore new characters in an area completely new to Star Wars Lore.

Rian Johnson and Ram Bergman were the writer-director and producer of Episode 8: The Last Jedi respectively and are fulfilling the same roles for at least the first episode of this new trilogy. Firstly this explains why Johnson couldn't get involved in directing Episode IX, despite him being the front runner. This also shows that Lucasflm and Disney have high hopes for The Last Jedi to trust Johnson to make another film. I would like to see the creation of the Jedi Order was the focus of the trilogy.

This also means that we have films more or less confirmed up until 2025, with Episode 8 released in December this year, Solo next May, Episode 9 in December 2019 and Obi Wan in 2020 at some point and then this. I have no idea what area this trilogy will explore - some think it will be the Old Republic but that isn't new to all Star Wars lore. Some also think it could be after 9 but that means that the fourth main saga trilogy will have to rely on this one so again I don't think it will be there either. I have no idea what's going on and nor to most people - a lot hasn't been announced.

The Live action series also is going to air in 2019 on the Disney streaming service so that is also interesting news. Perhaps they will finally get around to doing the Underworld project that was originally slated for 2009. We shall see.

This means we now have 6 films for the future which is incredibly exciting. I love Star Wars of course and I love the amount of content we are getting but I do feel that if it becomes too much it will make it less special and the excitement will start to disappear. We celebrated 40 years of A New Hope earlier this year. Let's just take a look at the Star Wars universe at the time for each 10 years

1977 - 1 film
1987 - 3 films
1997 - 3 films
2007 - 6 films
2017 - 9 films, 9 seasons of 2 TV shows

As you can see a lot is happening.

May the force be with you...

Friday, 10 November 2017

Star Wars Rebels: What do I think

As there is major Star Wars news to cover I will make this brief.

Firstly I thought that Kindred was a 4/5 and the best of season 4 so far. I liked the wolves and I think they could have got Ahsoka out of Malachor. I liked that Hera and Kanan finally kissed but I thought that was a bit rushed. Ruhk was excellently animated, performed and voiced by the brilliant Warwick Davied - the character even gave me a nightmare! I liked Pryce and Thrawn having a little barmy about their leadership strategies. It is also worth noting that the only characters that are left on Lothol are ones which we don't know if they survive, or to put it more bluntly, Hera and Chopper left, and we know they survive, which does make me think everyone on Lothol will die. It is also interesting to see that there is something going on on Lothol which is greater than the TIE Defender factories.

Crawler Commandeers was a 3/5 and alright. I think that the humour wasn't great and Captain Seevor was annoying but had one of the most gruesome deaths for Rebels, which albeit still wasn't that gruesome.

Doctor Who - 13th Doctor's outfit and the new TARDIS

Lot's have happened in terms of sci-fi news so let's start with this one...

Jodie Whittaker Doctor Who Series 11 Costume Reveal

The 13th Doctor's new costume has been revealed as seen in the picture above. It seems to be a mix of previous Doctor's, the coat from Tennant, the stripes from Tom Baker's famous scarf and the braces from Matt Smith.

Now as my regular readers will no I'm not a fan of the idea of having a female Doctor so you shouldn't be too surprised that I have found a way to rant about this as well. Why would the Doctor, someone who has lived for 2195 years suddenly decide to wear make-up and have their ears pierced. It is too gender stereotyped and something I thought the BBC wouldn't go down. The Doctor himself has said that Time Lord society was way above gender stereotypes, which he obviously doesn't believe because when he regenerates he decides now is the time to put on make-up and have her ears pierced. The Doctor is someone who never does things, always has things on his to do list, why would put make up on every adventure she goes on. I dunno - my hopes aren't high for the next series - it will just rattle my cage.

What do I think of the costume? I think it's odd but then that's what its meant to be. Personally I don't mind, I don't think its great, nor bad. I do think that Jodie Whitakker is going to get hot in that coat though.

On other news given by this picture, the TARDIS has received another update, the new showrunner's touch so to speak. This TARDIS exterior is the 8th TARDIS exterior

TARDIS Exterior 1 - 1963-1966
TARDIS Exterior 2 - 1966-1976
TARDIS Exterior 3- 1976-1980
TARDIS Exterior 4 - 1980-1989
TARDIS Exterior 5 - 1996
TARDIS Exterior 6 - 2005-2010
TARDIS Exterior 7 - 2010-2017
TARDIS Exterior 8 -2017-

So what's changed since the last model

Change 1 - No more St John' Ambulance

The St. John's Ambulance logo for new who fans may have been a weird inclusion for them when it was brought back in 2010 but is something that has existed before.

St John's Ambulance: TARDIS Exterior 1 and 7
No St John's Ambulance: TARDIS Exterior 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 8

Change 2 - Panel on the side door to black

Again this isn't something that hasn't been done before it has switched from black with white writing to white with black writing many times

White with black writing: TARDIS Exterior 1, 6 and 7
Black with white writing: TARDIS Exterior 2, 3, 4, 5 and 8

Change 3 - Pull to Open Handle

This is actually a first as it is now on the left, it normally is on the right

Handle on the right: TARDIS Exterior 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7
Handle on the left: TARDIS Exterior 8

Change 4 - No more white panels

In the Matt Smith/Capaldi TARDIS the windows have white panels making a T shape, they are no gone

Panels on window: TARDIS Exterior 7
No Panels on window: TARDIS Exterior 1, 2, 3, 4, 4, 5, 6 and 8
Blacked out windows: TARDIS Exterior: 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5
No Blacked out windows: TARDIS Exterior 6, 7 and 8

Change 5 - Darker Blue

Dark Blue - TARDIS Exterior 1, 2, 3, 6 and 8
Light Blue - TARDIS Exterior 4, 5 and 7

Doctor Who - RIP Paddy Russell and Dudley Simpson

Over the past week, the Doctor Who community have lost two greats. Paddy Russel was Doctor Who's first female director and one of the first of the BBC. She died at the age of 89. Dudley Simpson is the most prolific composer in the show's history, more so than the current Murray Gold. He was almost the sole composer, bar a few episodes, from Season 8 to 17 before he was fired by incoming producer John Nathan Turner. His last Doctor Who work was Shada, completed in 1979 but to be released for the first time later this month. He died at the age of 95.

RIP Paddy Russell and Dudley Simpson

Friday, 3 November 2017

Rebels Charcters - analysing appearances

I am a huge fan of spreadsheets and one of the spreadsheets that I keep is one on Rebels Recurring Characters. This sort of information on who is in what episode is easily accessible online but I do have separate categories, one of which is solely up to me. Let me explain...
So on this spreadsheet I have three categories. 1. If they appear, 2. If they speak. For both of these I have no right to change this information - this is fact not opinion. The third category, and my favourite category, is determined by me. That is a record of main appearance. They might not be the centre of the story but they do have a large role to play. This helps single out characters who have a lot to do in an episode to those that can be seen as background characters. As this is opinionated you can argue with my article as I discuss.

The main characters principally are the Ghost crew; the spectres. There isn't a single episode in the history of Rebels, which contains 65 episodes so far that doesn't have at least one member of the Ghost crew as what I call a main character in the episode. In fact it was a shock to me in one of the episodes of Season 2 where Zeb didn't even make an appearance. That is a bit more norm now.

These characters should and do excel in each of three categories. But there are differences between them. Ezra Bridger is arguably the main character of Rebels, that is pretty clear. He has appeared and spoken in all 65 episodes to date and has a lead role in 58. Yes that's only missing 7 of 65 episodes. In Season 1, where there were 15 episodes, he had a lead role in 14, just missing in one episode, Out of Darkness. For the second season Ezra was the lead in 18, his smallest but yet still far above others, percentage in all seasons. Ezra had a lead in 18, missing out on 4 adventures of the 22 episode season. For Season 3 Ezra had the lead in 20, a rise to season 2, again out of 22 episodes. So far in Season 4 where there have been 6 episodes, he has taken the lead in all of them.

Moving on to Kanan Jarrus. Kanan has appeared and spoken in some capacity in 62 of 65 episodes. He has taken a lead role in 45 of 65 episodes. That's a lot less, 13 less to be precise than Ezra, and Kanan is second in terms of main appearance totals. In the first season Kanan features as main role in 11 of the 15 episodes, 3 less than Ezra, in the second season he features as a main role in 16 of 22 episodes and in season 3 he features in 14 of 22. He has featured in a main role in 4 episodes of season 4 so far. In terms of speaking and making any form of appearance Kanana featured in all episodes of Season 1, all par 1 of Season 2 and all bar 2 in Season 3. He has featured in all episodes of Season 4 so far.

Next of the Ghost crew in terms of main appearances is Sabine Wren, despite the fact that she is the only member of the Ghost crew to be put-on-a-bus, which happened albeit briefly from episodes 17-21 of Rebels season 3. She is of course already back and is piling on those extra episodes. Sabine has appeared in 58 episodes of 65 whilst speaking in 57 and having a main appearance in 44. In terms of main appearance she has been in 11 episodes of Season 1, 14 in Season 2 and 13 in Season 3. So far in Season 4 she has featured in a main role in all 6 episodes. In terms of speaking she has spoken in all episodes of Season 1, 19 of Season 2 and 17 of Season 3. She has spoken in every episode of Season 4 so far. All appearances looks largely the same as speaking apart from Season 2 which is 18.

Zeb is the next one to dicsuss. Zeb is the member of the Ghost crew who rarely gets an episode centred around solely on him but he does still feature in a main role in many episodes. Zeb is also the most quite of the Ghost crew - having the most amount of episodes where he appears but doesn't say anything. Zeb has appeared in 59 episodes, spoken in 55 and had a large role in 39 episodes. First with main appearances. Zeb has always had a steady run, always roughly having the same sort of percentage of episodes that he has a large role in. In Season 1 he had 10 of 15, In Season 2 he had 14 of 22, and in Season 3 he had 12 of 22. In Season 4 he is currently at exactly half with 3 of 6. Zeb appeared in in some capacity in all episodes of Season 1 like the rest of the Ghost crew. In Season 2 he appeared in 20 episodes, as he did in Season 3 and so far he has appeared in 4 episodes of Season 4. He spoke in all episodes of Season 1, 19 of Season 2, 17 of Season 3 and so far has spoken in all the episodes that he has been in in Season 4 so far.

Next to talk about is Chopper. This may be a shock to some of you as in terms of main appearances he is above Hera. Hera's low involvement on main appearances is to be discussed in her section later. First for the stats, Chopper has been in all 65 episodes of Rebels and has "spoken" in all of them too, meaning that only he and Ezra have been in every episode. Chopper has had large role to play in 38 episodes of 65. In Season 1 Chopper had a large role in 6 episodes, a tiny amount compared to the rest of the Ghost crew, and compared to his future appearances in the rest of the seasons. In fact in Season 1, Chopper is only 1 above Kallus and the Grand Inquisitor. In Season 2 Chopper improves to 11 of 22 episodes and in season 3 he storms ahead with 16 of 22. So far he has had a large role to play in 5 episodes of Season 4.

Hera is the most surprising of all of this list, and that is kind of why I wanted to do this article in the first place. As the statistics will show in a minute, Hera is no anomaly in terms of number of appearances and speaking parts but it is down to main appearances where Hera suffers. So far Hera has appeared in 60 episodes, spoken in 59 and has had a large role to play in 32 episodes, 6 less than Chopper and 25 less than Ezra. That is shocking in my mind. In Season 1 she had a main appearance in 10 of 15 episodes, no real difference to most of the Rebels crew, in Season 2 she fell drastically to less than half, having a main appearance in 9 of the episodes and in Season 3 she improved slightly to 11. So far in Season 4 she is already the furthest behind, suggesting she will be the least involved Ghost crew member of this season as well with 2 episodes. An interesting thing to point out in terms of main appearances is that she had more in Season 1 than Season 2 despite the fact that Season 1 had 7 less episodes to appear in main in. In terms of speaking appearances she has appeared in all episodes of Season 1. 19 of Season 2 and 20 of Season 3. So far she has spoken in 5 episodes of Season 4. Her total appearances is nearly the same, just with an extra one for Season 2.

Here is a comparison of numbers only of the Ghost Crew alone:
Main Appearance
All (65 episodes):
Ezra Bridger = 58
Kanan Jarrus = 45
Sabine Wren = 44
Zeb Orrelius = 39
Chopper = 38
Hera Syndulla = 32
Season 1 (15 episodes):
Ezra Bridger = 14
Kanan Jarrus = 11
Sabine Wren = 11
Zeb Orrelius = 10
Hera Syndulla = 10
Chopper = 6
Season 2 (22 episodes):
Ezra Bridger = 18
Kanan Jarrus = 16
Zeb Orrelius = 14
Sabine Wren = 14
Chopper = 11
Hera Syndulla = 9
Season 3 (22 episodes):
Ezra Bridger = 20
Chopper = 16
Kanan Jarrus = 14
Sabine Wren = 13
Zeb Orrelius = 12
Hera Syndulla = 11
Speaking Episodes
All (65 episodes):
Ezra Bridger = 65
Chopper = 65
Kanan Jarrus = 62
Hera Syndulla = 59
Sabine Wren = 57
Zeb Orrelios = 55
Season 1 (15 episodes):
All the Ghost crew spoke in all 15 episodes
Season 2 (22 episodes):
Ezra Bridger = 22
Chopper = 22
Kanan Jarrus = 21
Sabine Wren = 19
Hera Syndulla = 19
Zeb Orrelios = 18
Season 3 (22 episodes):
Ezra Bridger = 22
Chopper = 22
Kanan Jarrus = 20
Hera Syndulla = 20
Zeb Orrelios = 18
Sabine Wren = 17
All Appearances
All (65 episodes):
Ezra Bridger = 65
Chopper = 65
Kanan Jarrus = 62
Hera Syndulla = 60
Zeb Orrelius = 59
Sabine Wren = 58
Season 1 (15 episodes):
All the Ghost crew spoke in all 15 episodes
Season 2 (22 episodes):
Ezra Bridger = 22
Chopper = 22
Kanan Jarrus = 21
Sabine Wren = 20
Hera Syndulla = 20
Zeb Orrelius = 20
Season 3 (22 episodes):
Ezra Bridger = 22
Chopper = 22
Kanan Jarrus = 20
Hera Syndulla = 20
Zeb Orrelius = 20
Sabine Wren = 18

What does the future hold for the Ghost crew: Well Season 4 is the last season so we can start making guesses on where the Ghost crew will end up in terms of appearances. The last season is 16 episodes long, making it the third shortest series of the 10 animated series so far. Therefore Season 4 is more comparable with Season 1, but I still will compare with Season 2 and 3, adjusting the number of episodes in those seasons. So lets start first with main appearances. So far Ezra is doing well with 6 episodes in the bag, if he continues there way he is going it looks like it could be another high one for him as usual - possibly even appearing in every story. Sabine looks like she is here for good - until she leaves the series. They really seem to be bigging her up all of a sudden, making her as principle as Ezra. They are pairing them a lot - romance perhaps? That aside I think this will be Sabine's best season by main appearances. She was doing very well in season 3 before her initial departure. I think Sabine will only not be in a couple of episodes, probably force based ones where Kanan and Ezra take lead. Kanan, the most likely candidate to die in my opinion but that's another article - he is currently on 4, missing two. This would suggest in my opinion that we could be looking at about 12 episodes, which is similar to his Season 1 score and better than his 3rd season score. Zeb is currently on 3 so if you multiply that to the series as a whole that suggests 8 episodes but I wouldn't be surprised if it is more than that. Probably around 10. Although Hera is currently the lowest with 2 I think she will probably end up with around 10. I would be upset if she is in this series as little in comparison to the rest of the Ghost crew as the past two seasons. Chopper seems to be involved more and more, far different from the first season where he was was often told to just stay on the ship. I would not be surprised if Chopper ends up being quite high, in third place like he is now behind Ezra and Sabine. In terms of other appearances I am saddened really that already Zeb and Hera haven't been in every episode, in fact Zeb hasn't been in 2. This is saddening because it is the final series and despite me not particularly liking them at the start, I have grown to like them so it is upsetting that in the final season they still aren't all in every episode. 2 episodes of 16 is quite a lot, its 1/8, 12.5% of the series. That's more absence for Zeb then any other season solely because they also decided to cut the series down to 16.

Other Characters:

Main Apparance
All (65 episodes) - Only if in 4 or more
1. Kallus = 16
2. Rex = 11
3. Fen Rau = 7
4. Governor Pryce = 6
5. Grand Admiral Thrawn = 6
6. The Inquisitor = 5
7. Ahsoka Tano = 5
8. Admiral Konstaintine = 5
9. Hondo Ohnaka = 5
10. AP 5 = 5
11. Darth Maul = 5
12. Captain Lyst = 4
13. Commander Sato = 4
14. 5th Brother = 4
15. 7th Sister = 4
16. The Bendu = 4
Season 1 (15 episodes) - only if in 2 or more or one of the characters above
1. Kallus = 5
2. Grand Inquisitor = 5
3. Commander Aresko = 3
4. Taskman Grint = 2
5. Citakro Vizago = 2
6. Maketh Tua = 2
7. Grand Moff Tarkin = 2
8. Captain Lyst = 1
Season 2 (22 episodes) - only if in 2 or more or one of the characters above
1. Kallus = 6
2. Ahsoka Tano = 5
3. Rex = 4
4. 5th Brother = 4
5. 7th Sister = 4
6. Darth Vader = 3
7. Commander Sato = 2
8. Admiral Konstane = 2
9. Wolffe = 2
10. Gregor = 2
11. Hondo Ohnaka = 2
12. Darth Maul = 2
13. 8th Brother = 2
14. Fen Rau = 1
15. AP 5 = 1
16. Captain Lyst = 1
Season 3 (22 episodes) - only if in 2 or more or one of the characters above
1. Rex = 7
2. Kallus = 5
3. Governor Pryce = 5
4. Grand Admiral Thrawn = 5
5. Fen Rau = 4
6. AP 5 = 4
7. The Bendu = 4
8. Admiral Konstaine = 3
9. Hondo Ohnaka = 3
10. Darth Maul = 3
11. Captain Lyst = 2
12. Commander Sato =2
13. Meltch = 2
14. Wedge Antilles = 2
15. Vult Skerris = 2
16. Gar Saxon = 2
17. Click Clack = 2
18. Saw Garrera = 2
19. Tristan Wren = 2
20. General Dodanna = 2
Before I do speaking and all I will discuss the above first

Well overall Kallus is quite above others, with Rex nearly there, at the top spot for other characters who aren't part of the Ghost crew. This is not surprising because he is the only character not part of the Ghost crew that not only is the left from the first episode of Rebels but also the entire first season. Kallus also reigns supreme for the most amount of episodes other than the Ghost crew for Season 1, shared with the Grand Inquisitor and in Season 2. He is joint second in Season 3. Rex takes the crown for third season.

Looking at Kallus on his own now. He does well in Season 1, featured prominently in 1/3 of the stories. Despite the increase of 7 episodes in the next season, Kallus only increases by 1 episode, but is still the most prominent villain of that season interestingly. In Season 3 Kallus is prominent in the same number of episodes as season 1 despite the fact that there are 7 more episodes that he could feature in more - meaning there is a less of Kallus. He hasn't featured prominently in any episodes so far, and with the next two also looking like that, it might mean this is Kallus' worst yet.

Rex is the next one to talk about. In the 2nd season he featured in a lot of episodes, as I will discuss later, but in terms of featuring prominently he lacks with a total of 4. 2 of those 4 are his first two parter of Rebels. He appears again later on in the first half and only once in the second. This is surprising because he and AP 5 are two characters that I have debated about with my friends on whether or not they are actually members of the Ghost crew. Evidently not from Season 4. Rex didn't go with the crew to Lothol, which I am surprised about, as with Kallus and AP 5 but there we go. If the rumours are true that the Ghost crew will not leave Lothol for the remainder of the series it does look like Rex will be taking a back seat in Season 4, perhaps being his worst yet, other than Season 1 that he wasn't in. However because we know that Gregor and Wolffe are to return this series, Rex is bound to appear in that story, and probably in the Ahsoka one too.

Fen Rau is next on our overall list. He is a surprising one and not one that I would have initially thought would be this high. In the second half of Season 2 they started to introduce new groups of characters and in the first half of season 3 we went on a carousel of meeting these groups again. This was perhaps expected to occur again in the next half of Season 3 but instead Rau featured prominently in a two part Mandalore story which resulted in him no longer being a semi regular. His appearance in both of the opener two episodes of Season 4 boosted him again to the position that he is in now, and I presume that the Mandalorian story isn't over yet, we will be seeing more of him and see him rise.

Pryce and Thrawn can be put under the same carpet. Both characters debuted in the opening two parter of Season 3 and are the primary villains of Season 4. Other than the Ghost crew these two characters along with Kallus were joint second in terms of episdoes of main appearance in Season 3. Both characters do not feature in main appearance in the same stories, and Thrawn does prevail over Pryce when it comes to all appearances, but more than later. 5 stories of 22 is quite minimal you might think, and you are right, Thrawn's lack of screentime was a criticism by many. If you reduce their total by a third, like the total number of episdoes of Season 4, then it would suggest that Thrawn and Pryce will only feature in a main appearance in 2 episodes, suggesting by that measure that they are already half way there. This of course is nonsense. Thrawn and Pryce will definitely be in it more than that, I hope anyway. Thrawn and Pryce no longer have to "share" primary antagonist with Maul, so if we give Maul's three appearances of Season 3 to Thrawn and Pryce and then reduce the total by a third we then look at 3 appearances between them, but again I reckon it will be more and again I hope.

The Inquisitor is a character who remained solely with Season 1, meeting his end in the series finale. For only being in 1 season, and the shortest season at that, he did very well to be so high up on the overall list, so well done there. He featured in a third of episodes in a main role in that season, something that hardly any character ever does who isn't in the Ghost crew. It was done by him and Kallus in Season 1 and Rex in Season 3 and that's it. It is therefore amazing that the character remains still so high up.

Ahsoka Tano first debuted in the first season but it was the second season where she started to do main appearances. She did 5, the same as Kallus and the Inquisitor of the previous season and she comes second in the second season of non Ghost crew to Kallus. Ahsoka left the series in Twilight of the Apprentice Part 2, which also saw the last appearance of three inquisitors and Vader. However although it has been confirmed that her story with Vader is over she is however still alive, and is likely to show up in Rebels Season 4 at some point, albeit probably in only an episode or two. I do have to say that I think it is a shame that she wasn't killed by Vader but again that's something to be said for another time.

The next two characters that I will discuss is Konstance and Sato as the two, despite being on the opposite sides have a lot in common, more so than dying at the same time. Both characters appear in a semi regular basis for the second and third season, Konstance has a brief spat of a few appearances in the first season but more-or-less they are season 2 and 3 based. The reason why these two characters are linked as that they both appear in a lot of episodes but rarely in a main role. Konstance appears in a main role in 2 episodes of season 2 and 3 in season 3 whilst Sato has a main role in 2 for both season 2 and 3. These suggests that the characters aren't in the show as much as they are but as I will discuss later they are in the show a lot more than it suggests.

Hondo is the next one of the bunch to discuss. Hondo is a Clone Wars veteran and stands high with 5 under his belt. Hondo appears in 2 episodes of season 2 and 3 in season 3 and is yet to appear in season 4 so far, but probably will, Imagine. He does very well but it is possible that we won't see him again because if they want the series to do two things, one being to get the rebels characters back to where they started and to get the show closer to Rogue One and A New Hope. Hondo unfortunately fits into neither of these characteristics.

AP 5 had a lot of involvement in the 3rd season, having a main role in 4 episodes. He is however yet to have a role in any capacity in Season 4 which shocks me. He wasn't even in In the Name of the Rebellion which looked like it wanted to include every semi-regular character, but not him, he was no where to be seen. This is a surprise because as I mentioned above he and Rex are the two characters that I have had debates over with my friends if whether they are members of the Ghost crew.

Maul appeared in the last two episodes of Season 2 and after that, despite a previous statement that season 3 is moving towards Rogue One and A New Hope so there won't be any more inquisitors, we got the promise that Maul would be the primary antagonist of Season 3 - he wasn't in my opinion but he was marketed as so. Despite this he only appeared in one more episode than he did in Season 2. Like a friend said to me "If someone told be at the end of Twilight of the Apprentice that this time next year I only would see Maul three more times I wouldn't believe them" - it was a shock.

In Season 2 the 4th Brother and 7th Sister were barely in it compared to the primary antagonists, or what I deem to be so, of the other seasons. This is largely due to the "heavy" inclusion of Vader and the introduction of Rex and Maul too. This meant that the 7th Sister didn't make her debut in the series until episode 5 of Season 2 and met her climax in episode 22.

Looking at each season now. In season 1 it is interesting to see the likes of Aresko being so high, due to the fact he does die in Episode 13 of that season. It is also interesting to see the number of characters increasing as the series goes on in terms of number of seasons. Rex does well coming in at joint 3rd in season 2 and rising to 1st for season 3.

Speaking Appearanes
All (65 episodes) - All characters that have spoken in 4 or more episodes
1. Kallus = 30
2. Rex = 24
3. Commander Sato = 19
4. Admiral Konstaine = 17
5. Ahsoka Tano = 13
6. Grand Admiral Thrawn = 12
7. Governor Pryce = 10
8. The Inquistor = 9
9. AP-5 = 8
10. 5th Brother = 7
11. Fen Rau = 7
12. 7th Sister = 6
13. The Bendu = 6
14. Alton Kastle = 6
15. Ryder Azadi = 6
16. Captain Lyst = 5
17. Grand Moff Tarkin = 5
18. Darth Vader = 5
19. Maketh Tua = 5
20. Hondo Ohnaka = 5
21. Darth Maul = 5
22. Bail Organa =5
23. Citakro Vizago = 5
24. Taskman Grint = 4
25. Commander Aresko = 4
26. Jho = 4
27. Tristan Wren = 4
28. Ursa Wren = 4
29. Wedge Antilles = 4
30. Saw Gerrera = 4
31. Mon Mothma = 4
Season 1 (15 episodes) - Characters who have spoken in 4 episodes or more
1. Kallus = 9
2. The Inquisitor = 9
3. Grint = 4
4. Aresko = 4
5. Maketh Tua = 4
6. Ahsoka Tano = 4
Season 2 (22 episodes) - Characters who have spoken in 4 episodes or more
1. Rex = 12
2. Sato = 11
3. Kallus = 10
4. Ahsoka Tano = 9
5. Konstaine = 8
6. 5th Brother = 7
7. 7th Sister = 6
8. Darth Vader = 8
Season 3 (22 episodes) - Characters who have spoken in 4 episodes or more
1. Rex = 10
2. Thrawn = 10
3. Kallus = 9
4. Pryce = 9
5. Sato = 8
6. Konstaine = 7
7. AP 5 = 6
8. The Bendu = 6
9. Fen Rau = 4
All appearances is more or less the same

Not much to talk about here other than there are quite a lot of characters who only appear briefly and that's it for them - like Bail Organa.

I would like to move on to Sato and Konstaine though because I did start a point with them earlier that I wish to continue. As you can see Sato has appeared in 19 episodes and Konstaine in 17. These are both high up figures, placing them 3rd and 4th respectively of characters outside of the Ghost crew. What is interesting is that despite there regular appearances they barely make any major appearance in an episode, with Sato appearing in 2 in both season 2 and 3, despite making many more appearances in those seasons and the same goes with Konstaine, although he did have a major role in 3 episodes of Season 3, making him the third antagonist, another person above Maul.

What does the future hold. Well Kallus and Rex are likely to continue being in first and second but there is also a chance that Thrawn could over through Sato and take third place, he just has to speak in 7 more episodes of 10, actually he probably won't looking at that, but it is within his grasp.

Felix Hawes

Thursday, 2 November 2017

Nicholas Pegg has been sacked

Following a secret encoded message on is monthly regular column in Doctor Who Magazine called the Watcher, where Nicholas Pegg insulted BBC Worldwide and the publishing company, he has been sacked.

Nicholas Pegg as well as being a regular columnist in Doctor Who Magazine is also a Dalek Operator, something he has done since the show's return in 2005. He also writes, acts and directs numerous Big Finish Audio Plays, head runned by the voice of the Daleks, Nicholas Briggs and has also been behind many DVD extras of the classic series. He also appeared in Peter Davison's "The Fiveish Doctors Reboot".

Initially seeing this I thought that this was the beginning of a "reign of axing" that Chibnall was doing, replacing many of the regular contributes to Doctor Who.

Now I wonder what will happen next. Will his sacking from DWM result in his sacking as Dalek Operator? That is highly likely as DWM may enjoy some degree of independence it is still a BBC owned magazine, and therefore both of his jobs in this sense are linked. His role in the DVD extra programme will also be effected due to DVD's being soled and produced by BBC Worldwide, which received direct attack by Pegg. Due to every not lost Doctor Who already on DVD he isn't missing out on too much work there, unless Worldwide continue their current yearly release of lost adventures.

And what about Big Finsih? Big Finish are completely independent from the BBC but they do have to remain on their good books to retain the licence for both classic series and new series elements, and if a separate licence to include things related to the Doctors themselves from the modern era. Nicholas Pegg is probably the second or third largest contributor to the audios and has a large involvement. It it possibly he will be fired from that as well.

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