Doctor Who

[fenris]

Watched 'The Runaway Bride' again yesterday, when it was repeated on BBC Three. It was only the second time I'd seen it after it's initial screening last Christmas.

It's made me even more convinced that Donna has the potential to be the best companion seen in New Who so far.

Bring on Season Four.

[WarrenWitchesRule]

I know it's not really proper Doctor Who news, but I thought I'd mention it as t does concern David Tennant. His Mum passed away on Sunday of Bowel Cancer, it just goes to show that celebrities are still human and have the same problems the rest of us do.

[Beattie~Babe]

Rumours abound on the good ship Dr Who again about who is going to take over from David (as & ) when he decides to leave .....

WORD has reached TV Biz that the Beeb have found the man to take over as Doctor Who from David Tennant - Cold Feet star James Nesbitt.

David, 36, is expected to quit at the end of the next series and insiders say Irishman James, 42, is a cert to get the Tardis key.

The Jekyll star is pals with Doctor Who writer Steven Moffat, tipped to replace show chief Russell T Davies when he also stands down at the end of the next series.

Our mole said: "Moffat has worked with James on Jekyll and the talk in BBC Drama is that he’s a shoo-in as the next Doctor.

"First a Scottish Doctor - now we could have a Northern Irish one."

James is in the US filming a new BBC show.

Knowing the rep of the source I wouldnt read too much into it .......

Anyhoo ....... ****SPOILER ***

DOCTOR Who bosses are set to sign up Gandhi star Sir Ben Kingsley — to play the Daleks’ creator Davros.

Sir Ben, 63 — who won an Oscar for his movie role as India’s peace-loving spiritual leader — is in final negotiations to play one of the most dangerous baddies in the galaxy.

A source said: “Ben’s agent has been in talks for a while now and he’s very keen to play the part of Davros. A deal will be signed any day now.”

Fans will be delighted that insane half-man, half-machine Davros is returning for the fourth series of the hit BBC1 show, which stars David Tennant as the Timelord.

The alien scientist — who first battled the Doctor in 1975 — is hell-bent on destruction with his army of exterminating Daleks.[/quote] ........


Outpost Galifrey.com

[DreamDangerously]

Can you do any spoilers in spoiler font please. You just colour the text black with a warning above.

[Beattie~Babe]

OK ..... (Oops )

[DreamDangerously]

no worries...it's not a big deal...it just makes it a little fairer on people...in fact everyone could do with being a bit careful about spoiler warnings on TV shows that haven't aired yet I know I forget myself sometimes

[Beattie~Babe]

dreamdangerously said:

no worries...it's not a big deal...it just makes it a little fairer on people...in fact everyone could do with being a bit careful about spoiler warnings on TV shows that haven't aired yet I know I forget myself sometimes

I can understand that ....

Ive found a 'spoiler button' script that could be added ( link added to 'suggestions thread') ....

[Beattie~Babe]

BBC America is repeating Dr Who (Chris Eccleston & David Tennant) in a marathon starting Sat 1st Sept at 1pm ET .....

[Beattie~Babe]

Tennant takes a break from the Tardis

To be Doctor Who or not to be...? David Tennant is to take a break from the Tardis to deliver his Hamlet for the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Producers have allowed Tennant, 36, to fulfil his Shakespeare ambitions. He will play the Danish prince in a Stratford-Upon-Avon production, due to run from July to November next year. It will rule him out of filming a 2009 series of Doctor Who.

The BBC feared Tennant would leave Doctor Who altogether after next year’s series, which is currently being shot. Tennant wishes to pursue further stage and screen projects.

Under a compromise agreement, Tennant is expected to return to the role for the sci-fi show’s fifth series since its revival, in 2010. He has agreed to film three extended bank holiday specials to keep fan’s happy during 2009.

However such long-term planning is rare in the fickle world of television and both the BBC and Tennant may have different plans come 2010.

BBC One is seeking new “family drama” hits for Saturday night. Merlin, a revival of the King Arthur legend, is already in production. A new series of Robin Hoodis set to challenge the dominance of ITV1’s The X Factorthis Autumn.

The award-winning Tennant, installed after Christopher Eccleston left after one series, is now firmly established as the Doctor. He recently completed an HBO film, Einstein And Eddington, in which he plays the British scientist, Sir Arthur Eddington.

In a further sci-fi twist, Patrick Stewart, the former Star Trek star, will play Hamlet’s uncle Claudius, alongside the screen Time Lord at Stratford.

Catherine Tate returns to the Tardis as the Doctor’s assistant in the Spring series, reprising her role as Donna from last year's Christmas special. Kylie Minogue guest stars in this year’s Titanic-set festive episode.

Jane Tranter, Controller, BBC Fiction, said: “Doctor Who is one of the BBC’s best loved and most successful dramas. I’m delighted to be able to confirm not only three exciting specials for 2009, but a fifth series in 2010.”

Times Online

[orokiah]

I was a bit surprised by this. I know David Tennant is hugely (and deservedly) popular but it seems like a big compromise to make considering Doctor Who is the BBC's in-thing at the moment; a guaranteed ratings winner as well as one of their main cash cows.

I'll miss the 'event' of a new series of Who coming around and I'll really miss having a full series but overall I can't say it bothers me that much. Shaking up the format is an opportunity to try new ideas that budget constraints might not have made possible in a full thirteen episode series. And at the end of it there's still a full series to look forward to in 2010.

The companion situation is the thing that interests me most. I wonder if they'll go for a series of stunt castings for the specials (first there was Kylie...can Madonna be far behind? ) or if Donna and/or Martha will stick around for those.

I'd really love to go and see that performance of Hamlet though... David Tennant playing alongside Patrick Stewart is bound to make for an amazing production but the sci-fi connection means the competition for tickets is going to be fierce.

[fenris]

Considering it's strongly rumoured that Russell T. Davies is leaving New Who after the fourth season, this could actually be a positive thing. Rather than having to hit the ground running with a full 13 episode fifth season, the three specials in 2009 will enable the new showrunner (whoever that turns out to be) to learn the ropes and ease into the role gradually.

Predictably however, since this news broke the vast majority of on-line Who fans have reacted negatively, complaining bitterly about not having a full season in 2009. Some have even suggested that Tennant should quit, purely to free up the role for someone else (talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face!). Have to confess I've lost a lot of respect for much of Who fandom after the extremely childish over-reaction that many had to the announcement that Catherine Tate was joining the show.

Personally I'm not bothered about a (relatively speaking) slight gap between seasons. Considering that Who previously vanished from our screens for a entire decade and a half, this is a small price to pay, especially as we have the specials to enjoy in the interim.

[Beattie~Babe]

DVD Releases .......

The Complete Third Series has another exclusive retailer cover confirmed – this time for Woolworths.

This goes alongside the Amazon "Master" exclusive cover. (His promo changes to "I Am the Master" depending on the viewing angle)

Also the latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine has a huge interview with 2|entertain and the features are confirmed.

Disc One
* The Runaway Bride Commentary by writer Russell T Davies and actor David Tennant
* Doctor Who Confidential: Music and Monsters (presumably the full hour, like on the "vanilla" release)
* Freema Agyeman's Tour of the Studio
* Series Three Out-Takes
* Series Three Deleted Scenes
* David Tennant's Video Diary for The Runaway Bride

Disc Two
* Smith and Jones Commentary with Russell T Davies and David Tennant
* The Shakespeare Code Commentary with David Tennant and Lilith Actress Christina Cole
* Gridlock Commentary with Executive Producer Julie Gardner, Milo Actor Travis Oliver and Visual Effects Producer Marie Jones
* BBC One Trailers
* David Tennant's Video Diary for Episodes 1-3

Disc Three
* Daleks In Manhattan Commentary with writer Helen Raynor, Tallulah Actress Miranda Raison and Costume Designer Louise Page
* Evolution of the Daleks Commentary with David Tennant, Dalek Voice Nicholas Briggs and Visual Effects Producer Barney Curnow
* The Lazarus Experiment Commentary with Visual Effects Producer Will Cohen and Leo Jones Actor Reggie Yates
* 42 Commentary with Russell T Davies and Writer Chris Chibnall
* BBC One Trailers

Disc Four
* Human Nature Commentary with Director Chris Palmer, Writer Paul Cornell and Composer Murray Gold
* The Family of Blood Commentary with Producer Susie Liggat, Art Director Arwel Jones and Production Manager Tracie Simpson
* Blink Commentary from writer Stephen Moffat and Murray Gold
* David Tennant's Video Diary for Episodes 4-9 (and the Weakest Link Special) Note: No Blink Video Diary
* Easter Egg (Blink Easter Egg)
* BBC One Trailers

Disc Five
* Utopia Commentary with Russell T Davies and David Tennant
* The Sound of Drums Commentary with Julie Gardner and Producer Phil Collinson
* Last of the Time Lords Commentary from David Tennant, Actress Freema Agyeman and Actor John Barrowman
* David Tennant's Video Diary for Episodes 11-13
* BBC One Trailers

Disc Six
* 13 Episodes of Doctor Who Confidential Cutdown

They also revealed the contents of the Davros Boxset

* Previously released versions of Genesis of the Daleks, Resurrection of the Daleks and Revelation of the Daleks. Plus all-new Destiny of the Daleks and a new "Special Edition" of Remembrance of the Daleks

Bonus Disc (yes, just 1 apparently)
* Davros Big Finish Audio Play
* The Juggernauts Big Finish Audio Play
* Terror Firma Big Finish Audio Play
* I, Davros: Innocence Big Finish Audio Play
* I, Davros: Purity Big Finish Audio Play
* I, Darvos: Corruption Big Finiah Audio Play
* I, Davros: Guilt Big Finish Audio Play
* All-new Exclusive Big Finish Audio play The Davros Mission starring Terry Molloy as Davros and Miranda Raison as Lareen (reportedly set between Revelation of the Daleks and Remembrance of the Daleks explaining how Davros became the Dalek Emperor)
* I, Davros Making of Documentary
* Davros Connections – 45 minute documentary on the character of Davros featuring Terry Molloy, David Gooderson, Peter Miles, Gary Russell, Ken Grieve, Eric Saward, Ben Arronovich, Gary Hopkins and Joseph Lidster. Narrated by Terry Malloy.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Davros_audio_plays
Information on the Big Finish Audio Plays featuring Davros

Destiny of the Daleks
* Commentary with Actors Lalla Ward and David Gooderson and Director Ken Grieve
* Terror Nation - 30 minute documentary on writer Terry Nation with contributions from Barry Letts, Philp Hinchcliffe, Terrance Dicks, Richard Martin and Nicholas Briggs
* Directing Who with Ken Grieve
* CGI Effects – Optional
* Original Continuity Trailers and Announcements (Including a special shot one for the return of the Daleks)
* Photo Gallery
* Prime Computer Adverts starring The Doctor and Romana
* Coming Soon Trailer
* Easter Egg
* Radio Times Listings as PDFs
* Subtitle Production Notes (I assume – these are left off the announcement)

Remembrance Of the Daleks: Special Edition
* Existing Commentary with Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred
* Back to School – All-New 30 minute documentary on the making of the story
* Remembrances – All-New 15 minute featurette on the story's references to other Doctor Who adventures
* Extended and Deleted Scenes – now with Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred Introduction
* Out Takes
* Multi-Angle sequences – now multi-angle not sequential
* Original Continuity Trailers and Announcements
* Photo Gallery
* Isolated Music Track
* Easter Egg
* Radio Times Listings as PDFs
* Subtitle Production Notes

In addition, the missing incorrect special-effect shots on the current PAL release of this story have been corrected and most importantly, due to changes in UK licencing laws the original soundtrack has been restored too – including the snippet from the Beatles song!

This is presented in a special digi-pack and limited to 10,000 copies.


Finally the January Boxset has been announced! It's also the first non-sequential Doctor Who boxset! (But will contain three Aramay cases so the stories can still be put on your shelves in sequential order if that floats your boat).

'Doctor Who and the Silurians, The Sea-Devils and Warriors of the Deep'

[matsee]

Saw the Children In Need special Time Crash.

Running at only 8 minutes there is not much to say except that it was quite a fun little scene.

[DreamDangerously]

I thought it was suprisingly sweet and powerful given the short time slot and goes to show what great actors both men are and yet again, what a brilliant writer Stephan Moffat is.

[fenris]

I'm old enough to actually have dim memories of Jon Pertwee as the Doctor, although Tom Baker is the first Doctor I'm able to remember clearly. However, it wasn't until Peter Davison was playing the role that I reached an age where I could really appreciate the show as intelligent science-fiction. Therefore, I really enjoyed 'Time Crash'. Yes, it could be argued that it was nothing more than an entertaining bit of fluff, but at only eight minutes long, it couldn't be much else.

It was great seeing Davison as the Doctor again, and Moffat produced a script crammed full of clever lines and sparkling dialogue. I loved the fourth Doctor looking around the new, improved Tardis interior and muttering about it being "the desktop setting" (genius!!), plus the wonderful in-joke about the Master's beard/wife.

When the tenth Doctor told his predecessor that "you were always my Doctor", it was clearly Moffat and Tennant talking instead of the character, but who cares? I'm not ashamed to say I found quite touching.