The Blogtor Who Review of 2014

What a year it's been! After the 50th anniversary, who would've thunk the following year was to be just as exciting? Check out the twelve months below and click on the links included within for further info.

JANUARY

The new year was barely a week into 2014 when we were treated the debut promo pic of Peter Capaldi as The Twelfth Doctor in a behind the scenes image with Jenna Coleman. A few weeks later the BBC released the first image of the new Doctor in costume. Capaldi was also starring in the first series of The Musketeers when filming on Doctor Who Series 8 began.

Matt Smith, who older readers may remember played The Eleventh Doctor, won a National Television Award though wasn't there to pick up the gong - instead this video was posted.

In merchandise news, the Patrick Troughton story The Moonbase was released on DVD (with animated episodes) - Blogtor Who review HERE. And the documentary film Who's Changing - An Adventure in Time With Fans also hit the world, gaining great reviews and would go on to be screened at numerous film festivals around the world. Check out the trailer above.

Actor Samuel Anderson was announced for Series 8 as a recurring character whilst Bad Wolf guest star Paterson Joseph discussed his Doctor Who audition in an interview. Titan Comics released details about their Tenth and Eleventh Doctor titles and The Web of Fear hit the streets on DVD (review HERE).

Blogtor's book The Who's Who of Doctor Who also appeared in book stores around the world (and thanks to everyone who tweeted pics!) - details HERE.

MARCH

In bizarre telly news, The Tenth Doctor and Rose found themselves represented in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (see below) whilst former companion Arthur Darvill starred in the London show, Once: The Musical, and chatted about a musical episode of Doctor Who. In soundtrack news, the brilliant An Adventure in Space and Time was released, review HERE.

Quiet month this one. The Horror Channel began airing classic Doctor Who in the UK and former companion Billie Piper popped up on The Late Show with Craig Ferguson.

The first teaser trailer for Doctor Who Series 8 was released and some filming pics from Kill The Moon and Robot of Sherwood hit the internet. Frank Skinner had begun talking about his upcoming appearance on the show, saying he felt like a competition winner, whilst Doctor Who got another mention on popular US sitcom, The Big Bang Theory.

JUNE

Another trailer was released for Doctor Who Series 8 (see below) and Michelle Gomez was announced as starring as The Gatekeeper of the Nethersphere (coughs). The BBC also released new promotional pictures of Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman in anticipation of the series.

As the weather hotted up, so did the world of Doctor Who in the immediate run-up to Series 8. The BBC treated us to THREE new trailers (HERE, HERE and HERE) and released promo pics from the first episode, Deep Breath. The promotional train kicked off with great features in Empire magazine, Entertainment Weekly and The Sunday Times.

The Doctor Who Series 8 finale was filmed on location and Blogtor stopped by St Paul's Cathedral for an exclusive report HERE and also nabbed an exclusive interview with Kate Stewart herself, Jemma Redgrave.

The first Doctor Who comics from Titan, featuring the Tenth and the Eleventh Doctors hit the shelves, as did the books, The Shakespeare Notebooks and Tales of Trenzalore.

AUGUST

The World Tour kicked off with a screening of Deep Breath in the home of Who, Cardiff, and then later the same day in London. Check out pics HERE and the post-screening Q&A at the BFI HERE. Capaldi, Coleman and Moffat would go on to enthral fans in South Korea (with fans turning out in force in Seoul), Australia, New York (getting up to some fun up high), Brazil, Rio, and Mexico.

And then, finally, Series 8 began with Deep Breath (including cinema screenings around the world, hitting No.8 in the UK chart) and then one week later, Into The Dalek. As an added bonus, the BBC released behind-the-scenes footage in the form of Doctor Who Extra. The Blogtor Who audio commentaries also returned, check them out HERE.

Big Finish got in on the action and released The Fifth Doctor Box Set, two brilliant audio adventures from Peter Davison and the gang.

SEPTEMBER

Doctor Who Series 8 continued and episodes broadcast this month were Robot of Sherwood, Listen, Time Heist and The Caretaker. Deep Breath was released on DVD and Bluray whilst the rather poor 50th Anniversary Collection also hit the streets (review HERE). Oddly, the David Tennant Years box set was made available too.

Promoting the show, Peter Capaldi turned up on The Graham Norton Show where some rather embarrassing old pictures of him were paraded in front of the audience (see player below).

Elsewhere, Doctor Who materialised on Minecraft and author Joanne Harris penned The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Time Traveller. It was a bumper month for Big Finish too with the delightful  Tom Baker at 80, and the boxsets The Worlds of Doctor Who and Philip Hinchcliffe Presents.

A corker of a month in terms of great episodes with Kill The Moon, Mummy on the Orient Express, Flatline and In The Forest of the Night all hitting our screens. The Twelfth Doctor also got an outing in the comic world in the first of a new series from Titan Comics and in the video game world with The Doctor and the Dalek.

Old-skool fans could get high on some merchandise action with the official replicas of The Fifth Doctor sweater and a Fourth Doctor S17/8 scarf whilst a trip to the Doctor Who Experience in Cardiff would see it too had regenerated (see below).

Series 8 came to a climactic, not to mention controversial, end with finale of Dark Water and Death In Heaven. Of course, we were also treated to a glimpse of the then untitled Christmas Special in a teaser.

The latest run of episodes had just finished when they hit the streets on DVD and bluray, and the BBC launched the release with a special Q&A hosted by lovely Frank Skinner with Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman, Michelle Gomez and Steven Moffat, watch highlights HERE.

Blogtor also announced his second Doctor Who title, The Big Book of Lists - due for release in early 2015.

Christmas! Woop! The BBC got in the mood and created a special Doctor Who ident for the holidays, watch it HERE, and Last Christmas itself brought so much joy to fans with the news that Jenna Coleman was staying in the show. We also discovered that the first ep next year is titled The Magician's Apprentice.

Blogtor got the chance to interview the Christmas Special guest stars, check them out HERE, whilst Peter Capaldi attended his very first Doctor Who convention. 

This month also saw the 40th anniversary since the first Tom Baker story, Robot, read tributes from fans and those who work on Doctor Who HERE and watch Blogtor's video tribute, featuring 40 of the best quotes, below.