Thursday, January 31, 2013

Matt Smith in Red Nose Day Promo

Matt Smith has appeared in a promo video for this year's Red Nose Day comedy event. It is unclear what Doctor Who will be doing, but based on the video and 2011's Red Nose Day, the show might be doing something yet.

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Petition to Get Jenny Her Own Spin-Off Show

I've decided that the Doctor's daughter, Jenny, needs to get her own spin-off. I already posted about this here, but I've decided to take this seriously and get the BBC to actually make this show.

A new spin-off featuring Jenny would serve a couple of purposes. First, it would keep the fandom sane during the increasingly long waits between seasons. In the past, Torchwood and SJA have kept the fans busy between seasons of Doctor Who. Now, Elisabeth Sladen is dead and Torchwood is on hiatus. We need something to keep the fans from going crazy and doing something like forming a lynch mob. Second, as the last Time Lady, Jenny deserves to have her story told. Last we saw her, in the 2008 episode The Doctor's Daughter, she took a bullet for her dad and ended up dying. After she didn't regenerate for a while, the Doctor & his friends left. After that, she partially regenerated and went off in a spaceship to explore the universe. We never saw her again, and to this day, her fate remains a mystery.

I am hereby requesting that you sign this petition to get the BBC to listen to us. If we can get enough of the fandom onboard, we can force them to respond. So sign the petition, then share it with all your friends however you can: Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, email, etc. We can do this!

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Details on An Adventure in Space and Time

Information on the docudrama An Adventure in Space and Time
  • Written by Mark Gatiss
  • Executive produced by Mark Gatiss, Steven Moffat, & Caroline Skinner
  • Tells the story of the genesis of Doctor Who
  • First read-through took place on January 29th
  • Will air on BBC2 on Nov. 21st at 9pm, on the 24th at 8:45pm on ABC1 (Australia), and on the 22nd at 9pm on BBC America
  • 90 minutes 
  • DVD information here
  • Filming began in early February
    • Started at the BBC Television Center, then moved to Wimbledon Studios
    • Iconic scene from The Dalek Invasion of Earth recreated on Westminster Bridge
    • Filming concluded on March 1st
  • Promotional images here 
  • Filming pictures here, more pictures here
  • Starring
    • David Bradley as William Hartnell
    • Brian Cox as Sydney Newman
    • Jessica Raine as Verity Lambert
    • Sacha Dhawan as Waris Hussein
    • Claudia Grant as Carol Ann Ford
    • Jamie Glover as William Russell
    • Jemma Powell as Jacqueline Hill
    • Sarah Winter as Delia Derbyshire
    • Lesley Manville as Heather Hartnell
    • Reece Shearsmith as Patrick Troughton
    • Sophie Holt as Jackie Lane
    • Jeff Rawle as Mervyn Pinfield
    • Andrew Woodall as Rex Tucker
    • Ian Hallard as Richard Martin
    • William Russell as Harry
    • Reece Pockney as Alan
    • Sophie Holt as Jackie Lane
Synopsis:
This special one-off drama travels back in time to 1963 to see how the beloved Doctor Who was first brought to the screen.

Actor William Hartnell felt trapped by a succession of hard-man roles. Wannabe producer Verity Lambert was frustrated by the TV industry’s glass ceiling. Both of them were to find unlikely hope and unexpected challenges in the form of a Saturday tea-time drama, time travel and monsters!

Allied with a team of brilliant people, they went on to create the longest-running science fiction series ever, now celebrating its 50th anniversary.
This post will be updated as more information becomes available.

Thursday, January 24, 2013

New 50th Anniversary Site

A new site for the 50th Anniversary has been launched by BBC Worldwide. It contains info on Doctors and companions, lists of live events, games, and links to where to watch the show. As of this posting, it's still incomplete, with some info on monsters and Amazon Instant Video missing.

http://www.doctorwho.tv

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

A Big Hand for the Doctor Now Available

The first of the 50th Anniversary eShorts is now available. Entitled A Big Hand for the Doctor, it is written by Eoin Colfer and published by Puffin Books. It features the first Doctor and Susan in an adventure in 1900. There will be ten more books to follow each month on the 23rd, each featuring a different Doctor and written by a different children's author.

http://www.amazon.com/Doctor-Who-Anniversary-Digital-ebook/dp/B00AX0MRNK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1358966774&sr=8-1&keywords=a+big+hand+for+the+doctor

Series 7, Part 2 Air Date Confirmed

The BBC has officially confirmed the air date of Series 7, Part 2 as March 30th. The announcement of Easter weekend comes earlier than expected, with these things not typically announced until a couple weeks beforehand. The second part of the season should run until May 18th.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/doctorwho/articles/Date-Confirmed-for-the-Doctors-Return

Monday, January 14, 2013

BBC America to Air Specials on Each Doctor

BBC America is set to air a series of specials on each Doctor, titled Doctors Revisited. The first episode, about the first Doctor, is set to air on the 27th of this month at 9pm ET.

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Video for Eoin Colfer eBook

The video for Eoin Colfer's eShort is out now. The story, entitled A Big Hand for the Doctor, stars the first Doctor & Susan and is due to be released on the 23rd of this month.

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Big Finish Multi-Doctor Audio Drama for the 50th

Big Finish has announced the release of an audio adventure for the 50th Anniversary starring Doctors 4-8. Entitled The Light at the End, the 100-minute story features Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, and Paul McGann as the Doctor, Louise Jameson as Leela, Sarah Sutton as Nyssa, Nicola Bryant as Peri, Sophie Aldred as Ace, and India Fisher as Charley Pollard. It also stars Geoffrey Beevers as the Master, along with some other fan favorites.

The story will be released in two versions. The five-disc limited special edition comes with two hour-long documentaries and The Revenants. The standard edition is two discs with just the story.

Monday, January 7, 2013

First eShort Author Announced

Eoin Colfer has been announced as the author of the first eShort to be released later this month. Known as the author of the Artemis Fowl books, Colfer will be penning a short story featuring the first Doctor and Susan to be released on the 23rd of this month.

The story is the first of the 11 to be released in the time running up to the 50th Anniversary, each featuring a different Doctor.

Official synopsis:
London, 1900. The First Doctor is missing both his hand and his granddaughter, Susan. Faced with the search for Susan, a strange beam of soporific light, and a host of marauding Soul Pirates intent on harvesting human limbs, the Doctor is promised a dangerous journey into a land he may never forget…

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Doctor Who eShorts

Each month from now until November, Puffin Books shall be releasing a series of short stories in eBook form. Each eShort shall star a different Doctor and be written by a children's author. The first author will be announced on the Doctor Who Facebook page on January 7th. The books will go on sale on the 23rd of each month for £1.99 apiece. A paperback collection of them all will be available starting in November for £7.99.

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

2013: Looking Forward

2013 promises to be one of the most exciting years of Doctor Who yet, with a new companion, the 50th anniversary celebrations, and a Christmas special.

New Companion
2013 will hopefully provide the answers to all our questions regarding Clara Oswin Oswald. Knowing Moffat, however, we'll probably get the answers to all our current questions and several new questions on top of that. Another possibility is that she'll provide the story arc for Series 7, Part 2, and something else will provide the story arc after that. However it happens, Moffat was definitely lying when he said there were no story arcs this season.

50th Anniversary
So far, there has been essentially no major official news regarding the 50th anniversary celebrations. We don't even know if Jenna-Louise Coleman will play the companion. It's all been very hush-hush and about all we do know is that there will be something and that something will include the docudrama, An Adventure in Space and Time. About the only other thing we do know is that Matt Smith will be in whatever special is aired. More news is going to start coming in around April when filming starts.

Christmas Special
The Christmas special is a lot iffier subject. We know absolutely nothing about it, we don't even know if there's going to be one. There's been speculation that Matt Smith is going to bow out in the Christmas or New Year's special. I personally think that Matt Smith is going to stay onboard until at least the end of Series 8 in 2014, but that's just a guess.

Other Specials?
Matt Smith let slip that there might be more than one special lined up for the 50th Anniversary. Assuming that Series 7 ends in May, and with another special in November, I'm guessing that if there is another one, it's going to be sometime around July. Assuming they start filming that one in April (when filming is officially scheduled to recommence) a July air date would give them enough time to film an hour-long episode to air then, start assembling it, then start filming a 90-minute special for November. They could film the first episode from April to May, assemble it in June, then start filming another special sometime around August and have it finished in time for November with just enough time left over to film a Christmas special.