THE 2013 TOOBITS AWARDS 3 - THE CHARACTERS

2013 TOOBITS AWARDS
 
It's that time of year again, when we all make lists and think back over the past year, in whatever field of interest concerns us, and chronicle the high points and the lows.  For the past few years I've been presenting this compilation as an awards show, the Toobits, which of course celebrates my two bits about Toobworld.
 
As it is with any such list you'll find in TV columns across the country these last few weeks, these are my opinions.  You're welcome to your own and I hope you'll share them, but I'm sticking to my weapons of choice.  (It could be you won't see something that was a favorite of yours because I just never got around to seeing it.  There's only so much time in the world - even for a do-nothing-else-anyway sort like me! - and I've only got the two eyes, even if they do operate independantly of each other at times.)
 
Unlike the Emmy Awards which will just keep handing out trophies to some shows forever, only shows, characters and what-not that debuted in 2013 can be considered.  (And by "debuted", I mean that which I first came in contact with in 2013.  It could be a few years old, but if it's my first time seeing it, it's new.)  
 
This one-time-only rule includes characters who have been recast; those are still the same characters who already exist in Toobworld.  (But there were a few notable appearances that deserved honorable mention, and they get it.)
 
So without further ado, let's have at it:

BEST RECASTAWAY
OVERALL

John Hurt as The War Doctor from 'Doctor Who' - "The Name Of The Doctor" & 'The Day Of The Doctor' & 'The Night Of The Doctor'
FEMALE

The Moment as The Bad Wolf Rose,  'The Day Of The Doctor' 
It was the same actress - Billie Piper - but she was the spirit of a sentient doomsday device that had taken the form of a future Companion of the Doctor.
MALE

Alex Sadler from 'Continuum'
In the present day, he's a techie wunderkind portrayed by Erik Knudsen.  But in the future, he'll become more jaded and world-weary - who better to play the part than William B. Davis?

BEST NEW MALE CHARACTER
DOMESTIC

Raymond Reddington, 'The Blacklist'
The writers for this show must love crafting pithy remarks for James Spader to ladle out......
IMPORT

DI Richard Poole, 'Death In Paradise'
A true fish out of water!
SPECIAL AWARD
The Curator, "The Day Of The Doctor"
Let us slay the fatted calf!  Tom Baker has returned to the fold!
 
BEST NEW FEMALE CHARACTER
IMPORT

Ellie Miller, 'Broadchurch'
It takes some doing to outshine David Tennant.  She did it in spades.  
DOMESTIC

Sonya Cross, 'The Bridge'
An Asperger's-afflicted police detective could easily have fallen into caricature.  She straddled the line better than the way she straddled the guy she picked up in the bar.

BEST NEW MALE SUPPORTING CHARACTER
Drama

Frye, 'The Bridge'
I never would have guessed from his past roles that Matthew Lillard could be so intense.
Comedy

Kyle the Intern, 'Maron'
I loved his off-beat line readings!

BEST NEW SUPPORTING FEMALE CHARACTER
Drama

Sgt. Camille Borday, 'Death In Paradise'
Technically it's more of a dramady, but people do die.....  And she was beautiful and incisive as she sparred with DCI Poole.
Comedy

Bea Chadwick (and Monkey), 'Family Tree'
You have to see them together to understand why this was a lock.
 
BEST NEW RECURRING MALE CHARACTER

Ben, 'Veep'
Kevin Dunn in a backroom political comedy?  Made in heaven.  (He also had the best line of dialogue this year.)
 
BEST NEW RECURRING FEMALE CHARACTER

Lady Olenna, Queen of Thorns, 'Game Of Thrones'
The first of two Diana Rigg appearances in the awards this year.  Here she was the Dowager Countess from the planet Mondas......

BEST NEW CHARACTER ADAPTED FROM ANOTHER MEDIUM

Ichabod Crane, 'Sleepy Hollow'
Sooner or later, this show will collapse under the weight of its mythology, but until then Tom Mison is very charismatic.  (Even if his interpretation of Crane throws the series into another dimension.)

BEST CROSSOVER CHARACTER FROM ANOTHER MEDIUM

Nick Fury, 'Marvel Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.' 
Only five minutes but Samuel L. Jackson knows how to explode across the screen in a short amoutn of time.  And it was a welcome sight for viewers gasping for a heftier connection to the comic books and the Marvel movie franchise.
 
BEST NEW CAST ENSEMBLE
Drama
'Under The Dome'
Comedy
'Family Tree'
Online & League of Themselves
"The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot"
The actors mainly make cameo roles as themselves. The summary below lists their original connection with the Doctor Who series. In order of appearance:

• Sean Pertwee – son of actor Jon Pertwee who played the Third Doctor
• Olivia Colman – who played "Mother" in the episode "The Eleventh Hour"
• Peter Davison – who played the Fifth Doctor
• Louis and Joel Davison – Peter Davison's sons
• Matt Smith – who plays the Eleventh Doctor
• Jenna Coleman – who plays Clara Oswald, companion to the Eleventh Doctor
• Steven Moffat – executive producer and lead writer of Doctor Who – fifth series onwards
• Heddi-Joy Taylor-Welch – Doctor Who runner and 3rd assistant director
• Louisa Cavell – Doctor Who assistant director
• Lauren Kilcar
• James DeHaviland – Doctor Who 2nd assistant director
• Janet Fielding – who played Tegan Jovanka, a companion of the Fourth and Fifth Doctors.
• Sylvester McCoy – who played the Seventh Doctor
• Colin Baker – who played the Sixth Doctor
• Rhys Thomas - comedian, actor and writer and Doctor Who fan.
• Georgia Moffett – Played Jenny, the Doctor's daughter. The real life daughter of Peter Davison (Fifth Doctor), and wife of David Tennant (Tenth Doctor). She also was the programme's producer, using her married name Georgia Tennant.
• Olivia Darnley
• Niky Wardley – Tamsin Drew, companion to the Eighth Doctor in audio dramas
• Marion Baker – Colin Baker's wife
• Katy Manning – Jo Grant, companion to the Third Doctor
• Louise Jameson – Leela, companion to the Fourth Doctor
• Carole Ann Ford – Susan Foreman, granddaughter of the First Doctor
• Deborah Watling – Victoria Waterfield, companion to the Second Doctor
• Sophie Aldred – Ace, companion to the Seventh Doctor
• Sarah Sutton – Nyssa, companion to the Fourth Doctor and Fifth Doctor
• Lalla Ward – Romana (II), companion to the Fourth Doctor
• John Leeson – Voice of K-9 the robotic dog and companion of the Fourth and Tenth Doctors
• Anneke Wills – Polly, companion to the First and Second Doctors
• Lisa Bowerman – Karra and Bernice Summerfield, companions to the Seventh Doctor
• Matthew Waterhouse – Adric, companion to the Fourth and Fifth Doctors
• Paul McGann – who played the Eighth Doctor
• Jon Culshaw – who impersonates Tom Baker, the Fourth Doctor, paired with scenes on a punt from the unaired 1979 serial Shada
• Jemma Churchill – who voiced Lady Forleon in the Doctor Who audio drama, Creatures of Beauty
• Lucy Baker, Bindy Baker, Lally Baker, Rosie Baker – Colin Baker's daughters
• Bruno du Bois – assistant director of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.
• Peter Jackson – director of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. McCoy plays Radagast the Brown in this movie.
• Ian McKellen – who voiced the Great Intelligence in the episode "The Snowmen".
• John Barrowman – who played Captain Jack Harkness with the Ninth and Tenth Doctors, and in the spin-off Torchwood.
• Sarah Churm - plays part of John Barrowman's secret family. She also played Sarah Braithwaite alongside Peter Davison in At Home with the Braithwaites.
• Alice Knight, Nick Jordan also play part of John Barrowman's secret family.
• Brad Kelly – commercial manager of the Doctor Who Experience exhibition
• David Tennant – who played the Tenth Doctor, and who is married in real life to Georgia Moffett, the real life daughter of Peter Davison
• Richard Cookson – script editor for the 50th anniversary special, "The Day of the Doctor"
• Elizabeth Morton – wife of Peter Davison
• Marcus Elliott - plays a security guard
• Ty Tennant – son of Georgia Moffett and adopted son of David Tennant
• Barnaby Edwards – principal Dalek operator, and director of several Doctor Who audio plays at Big Finish Productions
• Nicholas Pegg – principal Dalek operator, and writer and director of several Doctor Who audio plays at Big Finish Productions
• David Troughton – son of Patrick Troughton, the Second Doctor. Appeared in The Enemy of the World (1967-8), The War Games (1969), The Curse of Peladon (1972) and "Midnight" (2008)
• Nicholas Briggs – voice artist of several Doctor Who monsters, and director of several Doctor Who audio plays at Big Finish Productions
• Frank Skinner – comedian and self-proclaimed Doctor Who fan.[6]
• Adam Paul Harvey – former partner of Georgia Moffett
• Derek Ritchie – Doctor Who script editor
• Michael Houghton – plays a security guard
• Dan Starkey – originally played Sontaran Commander Skorr in "The Sontaran Stratagem", currently playing the character Strax since 2011
• Russell T Davies – Doctor Who writer and executive producer responsible for the relaunch of the Ninth Doctor and the Revived series in 2005
• Des Hughes – Doctor Who producer since 2012
• Gabriella Ricci – Doctor Who assistant production coordinator 2012–2013
• Sandra Cosfeld – production secretary for the episode "Asylum of the Daleks"
• Christian Brassington – voice actor who played Alfred Stahlbaum in the Doctor Who audio drama The Silver Turk

BEST INTRODUCTION OF A CHARACTER

FEMALE:
The Mother, 'How I Met Your Mother'
After so many years of build-up, it might have been so easy to get this wrong.  But they nailed it.
MALE:
The War Doctor, 'Doctor Who' - "The Night Of The Doctor"
What a coup in casting to get Sir John Hurt to embody this missing chapter in the Whovian mythos.  But then again, who was left among the stellar lights of the acting world in the UK with the age and gravitas to play the part?  It seems like everybody else has already been on 'Doctor Who' - Derek Jacobi, Brian Blessed, even Ian McKellan did a vocal role.....
 
BEST ADDITION TO AN EXISTING CAST
MALE

Steve MacAndrew, 'New Tricks'
FEMALE

Rachel King, 'Franklin & Bash'
 
BEST NEW GUEST APPEARANCE
COMEDY

Arthur Jeffries aka Professor Proton, 'The Big Bang Theory'
A well-deserved Emmy win for the legendary Bob Newhart.  The only injustice in his win is that he never received one before for either of his first two sitcoms!

DRAMA

Porridge, 'Doctor Who'
I'm a big fan of Warwick Davis and this made a nice callback to the Fourth and Bountiful Human Empire.

BEST HISTORICAL CHARACTER REVISION
Harry Selfridge, 'Mr. Selfridge'
If anything, he was rescued from the dusty halls of History.....

BEST HISTORICAL CHARACTER
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 'Mr. Selfridge'
All I asked was that he not ruin the established vision of Dr. Watson's editor in the main Toobworld.  And it worked.
 
WORST HISTORICAL CHARACTER

Queen Bess, "The Day Of The Doctor"
I love Joanna Page, but I'm not blind to the faults of her acting nor of the script in this case.  I just didn't buy her as the Virgin Queen.

BEST CHARACTER ADAPTATION
"TIE":
Irene Adler & Moriarty in 'Elementary'
A brilliant reworking of the legends for this new TV dimension.
 
BEST NEW ALIEN CHARACTER

Irisa Nyira, 'Defiance'
 
BEST NEW CHILD CHARACTER

The Raisins Into Grapes Girl, 'Sprint'
 
CHARACTER MOST DESERVING TO BECOME A REGULAR

Jojen Reed, 'Game Of Thrones'
And having said that, I know I've doomed him to die.  (I have NOT yet read the books!)
 
BEST NEW COMMERCIAL CHARACTER
SINGULAR

Sprint Zombie
COLLECTIVE

The Burns Family for Pepcid Complete

WORST NEW COMMERCIAL CHARACTER

Look at the smug look on that bastard's face after he's caused all that damage to other people's cars.  He couldn't give a damn!  That "Greed Is Good" mantra from the eighties lives on, and the disparity in our country's economics is embraced by the assholes who run Cadillac.  I would wish ill fortune on this guy and his car, but I'm afraid he'd get in a terrible accident that would kill or maim somebody with no insurance and he'd walk away without a scratch.....  (As you can tell, this commercial really bleeps me off!)
 
BEST LEAGUE OF THEMSELVES APPEARANCE
DRAMA

Val Kilmer, 'Life's Too Short' Finale Special
A note of splainin: While I enjoyed the series, I found it too cringe-worthy to consider it comedy.
 
COMEDY

Marc Maron, 'Maron'
 
BEST LEAGUE OF THEMSELVES APPEARANCE IN A COMMERCIAL

George Hamilton, CVS
"Two for one bronzer, Baby!"  I love when celebs can poke fun at their reputations.
 
BEST LEAGUE OF THEMSELVES APPEARANCE IN SKITLANDIA

Amy Poehler's return to 'Saturday Night Live' (05/18/13) - "Really?"
 
BEST LEAGUE OF THEMSELVES APPEARANCE IN THE TOONIVERSE

George Takei, 'Futurama'
 
BEST CHARACTER RETURN SPECIAL AWARD

The 8th Incarnation of the Doctor, 'Doctor Who' - "Night of the Doctor"

BEST CHARACTER RETURN
Drama: 

Connor Temple, 'Primeval: New World'
Sitcom:

'Yes, Dear' couple Jimmy and Christine Hughes in 'Raising Hope'

BEST LEAGUE OF THEMSELVES RETURN:

Bob Barker, 'The Price Is Right'
Happy 90th birthday!

BEST NEW ALIENS
The Seven Votan Species, 'Defiance':

• Castithan
• Gulanee
• Indogene
• Irathient
• Liberata
• Sensoth
• Volge (by association)

BEST ALIEN RETURN
The Zygons, "The Day Of The Doctor"
 
BEST NEW ALIEN VILLAIN

Datak Tarr, 'Defiance'
 
BEST NEW MALE VILLAIN

Big Jim Rennie, 'Under The Dome'
 
BEST NEW FEMALE VILLAIN

Mrs. Winifred Gillyflower, 'Doctor Who'
 
BEST EXIT FOR A CHARACTER
TOOBWORLD
Dr. Walter Bishop, 'Fringe'
SKITLANDIA

Stefon, 'Saturday Night Live'
 
BEST EXIT FOR A LEAGUE OF THEMSELVES MEMBER
Warwick Davis, 'Life's Too Short' Finale Special
 
BEST DEATH SCENE

Matthew Crawley, 'Downton Abbey'
Because unless you were following news stories or had an understanding of actor contracts in the UK, it was probably unexpected.  And best of all, it happened at the last moment in the Christmas special, so they didn't drag out the sturm und drang.
 
SADDEST DEATH SCENE

Lady Sybil Crawley, 'Downton Abbey'
Det. Joss Carter, 'Person Of Interest'
Brian Griffin,  'Family Guy'
 
WORST (GRISLIEST) DEATH SCENE

Ros, 'Game Of Thrones'
You can tell how it happened: First, King Joffrey teased her by shooting the area over her head. Then he tortured her by shooting the second arrow into her vagina.   And finally he finished her off with the third arrow into her breast.

MOST DESERVING OF DEATH
Walter White, 'Breaking Bad'
 
BEST NEW CHARACTER NAME
Missendei, 'Game Of Thrones'
I'm very partial to this.  The actress was cute, so it was a factor in the name's favor.  I might even name a cat "Missendei" in the future.  (I already have two - Nucky and Leela - so I hope that future is far off....)
 
WORST NEW CHARACTER NAME
George Stroumboulopoulos, 'Stroumboulopoulos'
It's his real name, not a character.  But family pride is one thing, trying to make a "name" for yourself in the business is another.  The least he could have done was make it phonetical.....

BEST NEW ALIAS

The Curator, "The Day Of The Doctor"
"The name I chose was the Doctor. It’s like a promise you make.” - The Doctor
"Doctor" as a name should mean somebody who takes care of people or things (although some cultures saw it as meaning warrior.)  And that's what he does throughout the universe - takes care.  In fact, one time he even was known as the Caretaker.

So at the very end of "The Day Of The Doctor", there was the Curator - another who takes care of things.  And he was played by Tom Baker, the Fourth incarnation of the Doctor, promising that he would live beyond his twelve regenerations and even one day revisit a few old, familiar faces.

But it was still the Doctor!

STAY TUNED!  MORE TO COME!

WHOVIANS OF THE HAT SQUAD 2017

"The Hat Squad" was the name of a short-lived detective series years ago but I have purloined the title for my tributes to those in the TV business who have passed away during the year.  (I publish the list every New Year's Eve here in the blog.)  For me, it's a reference to my tip of the hat to all of the people who contributed to this fictional world of the Toob.

This year, there seemed to be quite a few who had connections to "the Whoniverse."  I don't know if there were more than usual - Time may be wibbly-wobbly, but it still marches on and so there will always be 'Doctor Who' personnel lost as we travel forward to six decades of the show, one second at a time.

But I think I noticed it more this year with the passing of Sir John and Deborah....

JOHN HURT
From The Hollywood Reporter:
John Hurt, Oscar-Nominated Star of 'The Elephant Man,' Dies at 77.

The British actor of stage and screen also received an Academy Award nom for 'Midnight Express' and was memorable in 'Alien,' three Harry Potter films and 'Doctor Who.'

He notably played the War Doctor in the 2013-14 season of Doctor Who.

On participating in the Whovian fandom, Hurt said in 2013: “I’ve done a couple of conferences where you sit and sign autographs for people and then you have photographs taken with them and a lot of them are all dressed up in alien suits or Doctor Who whatevers. I was terrified of doing it because I thought they’d all be loonies, but they are absolutely, totally charming as anything. I’m not saying it’s the healthiest thing — I don’t know whether it is or isn’t — but they are very charming.”

DEBORAH WATLING
From The Independent:
Deborah Watling was one of the Time Lord’s shortest-running companions in the TV sci-fi drama Doctor Who, but she made a lasting impression. As teenager Victoria Waterfield, alongside Patrick Troughton’s incarnation of the Doctor between 1967 and 1968, she was prim and naïve but also courageous and stubborn, with a piercing scream – which earned her the nickname ‘Leatherlungs’ as she battled Daleks, Yeti, Cybermen and Ice Warriors.

The trademark scream was at its most shrill when Victoria helped to destroy a seaweed creature that could not survive high-pitched sounds – before deciding to remain on Earth with a childless family, having joined the Doctor as an orphan after the Daleks murdered her Victorian scientist father.

TREVOR BAXTER
From The Digital Spy:
The actor and playwright Trevor Baxter has passed away, aged 84.

Baxter was perhaps best known for his role as Doctor Who's Professor Litefoot, a hugely popular supporting character who appeared on the show in 1977.

He shared the screen with Tom Baker's fourth Doctor in the fan-favourite outing 'The Talons of Weng-Chiang' – and formed an unforgettable partnership with Christopher Benjamin as Henry Gordon Jago.

TREVOR MARTIN
From The Stage:
Although Trevor Martin performed alongside Laurence Olivier, enjoyed long relationships with the Royal Shakespeare Company and National Theatre, and appeared regularly in the West End, his claim to theatrical history rests in his being the first person to play the Doctor in a theatrical version of Doctor Who.

Having already played a Time Lord on the cult BBC show in 1969, Martin stepped in when Jon Pertwee left the role on television to play the eponymous time traveller in Terrance Dicks’ Doctor Who and the Daleks: Seven Keys to Doomsday at the Adelphi Theatre for four weeks in 1974, although a planned tour was subsequently scrapped.

KEITH BARRON
From The Guardian:He gave what one reviewer described as “a masterclass of understated menace” as Captain Striker in the 1983 Doctor Who story Enlightenment.

From the TARDIS Data Core Wiki:
Keith Barron (8 August 1934 - 15 November2017) played Striker in the Doctor Who television story Enlightenment and voiced Isaac Barclay in the Big Finish Doctor Who audio story Plague of the Daleks.

NEIL FINGLETON
From The Mirror:
The UK’s tallest man and Games of Thrones star Neil Fingleton died of a heart attack, his family has said.

The 7ft 7in star of Game of Thrones and Dr Who was just 36 when he died suddenly at his home in Gilesgate, County Durham, last month.

After a successful career playing professionally in Spain, China, Italy, Greece and England, he turned his attention to acting.

In 2014, Neil played Mag the Mighty in Game of Thrones and the villain The Fisher King in BBC ’s Doctor Who.

BRIAN CANT
From The Guardian:
“Here's a house. Here’s a door. Windows – one, two, three, four ... Ready to play? What’s the day? It’s Tuesday.” For those of us who were British, small and watching television between the mid 1960s and the mid 80s, those words, spoken by the much-loved children’s TV presenter Brian Cant, who has died aged 83, in his soothing, gently laconic baritone, are liable to provoke a Proustian rush.

For two decades from 1964 there was scarcely a BBC show aimed at little children that didn’t come with Cant’s distinctive tones. It was his voice that weekly introduced us in the late 60s to the townsfolk of Camberwick Green (1966), the puppet show created by Gordon Murray.

Later Cant appeared on TV in more grown-up fare, including Casualty, Doctors, and Doctor Who. He had two roles in the last of these and was twice killed off, first by a Dalek and in another episode by a Quark, which he recalled was “a little polystyrene box-shaped creature that contained a schoolboy. I was from a pacifist planet and I had to wear a long skirt with a long pipe stuck up it which came to just below the neckline. When I was killed off, smoke belched out of this pipe for some reason. It was rather odd.”

PADDY RUSSELL
From The Guardian:
Gender trailblazing aside, her most enduring legacy – even though she claimed no understanding of special effects – might well be her four Doctor Who stories, in the 60s and 70s, among them some of the series’ most highly regarded adventures.

She began her association with Doctor Who in 1966 with the now lost serial The Massacre. The lead actor, William Hartnell, took a dual role, as the Doctor and as a scheming Abbot, in a doom-laden tale about the mass slaughter of Protestant Huguenots in Paris in 1572. For Invasion of the Dinosaurs (1974, with Jon Pertwee), Russell and her then partner, the film cameraman Tony Leggo, rose at 4am and shot without a permit in order to capture eerie sequences for the atmospheric opening episode set in a deserted London.

Pyramids of Mars (1975) is one of the programme’s all-time greats and features alien robots disguised as Egyptian mummies stalking around a country estate to chilling effect. Tom Baker played the title role, as he did in the much admired Horror of Fang Rock (1977), which kills off its entire guest cast when a shapeshifting alien besieges an early-20th-century lighthouse.

DUDLEY SIMPSON
From The Guardian:Dudley Simpson, who has died aged 95, wrote memorable theme tunes for popular television series such as The Brothers and Blake’s 7, but was at his most prolific as the creator of incidental music for Doctor Who in the 1960s and 70s, contributing to 62 stories over almost 300 episodes – more than any other composer.

Ron Grainer’s theme tune for Doctor Who, realised by Delia Derbyshire and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, became one of the most distinctive in television history, but each programme needed original music to accompany the Time Lord from Gallifrey on his adventures. Simpson, an Australian with years of experience conducting orchestras for ballet, joined the sci-fi drama in 1964 for the first story of its second series, Planet of Giants, a year after Doctor Who began.

Good night and may God bless......