[From 10 Fan-Posters Doctor Who SPOILER | Graphiste / Illustrateur Rock - Karma Orange (dot) com]

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[From Doctor Who - the Daleks - Radio Times]

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[via Japanator via Topless Robot]

[From Macross-Inspired Doctor Who Anime Exterminates Our Eyeballs [Doctor Who]]

Listening to: Boat Behind from the album “Declaration of Dependence” by Kings of Convenience

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Smith arrived on set this morning to start filming the fifth series of Doctor Who since its revival in 2005. He commented “The scripts are brilliant – I’m excited about the future and all the brilliant adventures I get to go on as the Doctor.”

New show runner Steven Moffat is pretty fired up about the new pair and the new series in general. “Matt and Karen are going to be incredible, and Doctor Who is going to come alive on Saturday nights in a whole new way,” Moffat enthuses.

It is going to be along wait until Spring 2010. Luckily there are still some David Tennant episodes to go until then.

A large desktop version of the image can be found here http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/medialibrary/images/wide-screen/karen_matt_1440x900.jpg

via BBC NEWS | Entertainment | New Doctor Who costume revealed.

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So where do we go now? I’m open to suggestions. So many of the other sites are just either so noisy or boring. There are rumours of the moderators of DWF spinning off their own forum called Gallifrey Base. I’m sure more news will come out about that very soon.

This news reminds me of when my favourite pub closed when I was a youth. A great big group of people used to use the same pub, you always knew where to find people (this was in the days before mobile phones). When it closed things were never quite the same, in order to meet up with same group of people you had to visit several different pubs in town. People still mourn the loss of that pub, I recently found a Facebook group dedicated to that very purpose.

Still, ears to the ground, if you hear of a good Doctor Who forum let me know…

Outpost Gallifrey and the Doctor Who Forum, the most popular Doctor Who fan website on the Internet, will be closing for good as of July 31, 2009. The announcement was made in the Forum and the Doctor Who News Page on June 2 by owner/operator Shaun Lyon, whose statement about the closure is below. The closure of the site has been planned for a couple of months.

via Outpost Gallifrey: Doctor Who RSS News Feed.

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Well the time has come, the waiting is over, and so on. The Moff has cast another relative unknown in the BBC’s flagship Saturday night show. I know absolutely nothingg about Karen Gillan except that she is fierce pretty and celtic looking. Two of my favorite things.

Looking forward to seeing how this pans out. Apparently she was in the show before in the Fires of Pompeii. I must have had my eyes shut that day I’m sure I would have noticed.

Only a few weeks before this new series starts filming and all sorts of horrible spoiler things come out and ruin everything. I’m going to cover my eyes and ears with sticking plasters until March 2010.

Little-known actress Karen Gillan has been unveiled as the next assistant in Doctor Who.

The 21-year-old will star alongside new Time Lord Matt Smith in the new series, to be broadcast next year.

via BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Doctor Who assistant is unveiled.

###UPDATE: Nothing else to say apart from I think I’m going to enjoy Series 5

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Gillian Anderson

The media are having a feeding frenzy again about who is cast opposite Matt Smith’s 11th Doctor. SFX have posted a story about a story that ran in the Telegraph. Are you keeping up with this? Apparently it pained them to post this rumour because they don’t normally do that sort of thing. Be that as it may, it sounds like someone somewhere may have seen one and one and made eleven or three. Both of which are sort of right depending on who you ask. Chinese whispers can be a dangerous thing. I’ll wait for a proper announcement from Mr Moffatt and Co.

Here is an excerpt from their article.

Normally we don’t bring these kind of stories to your attention, because the British press so often gets the wrong end of the stick (or in the case of some newspapers, make things up entirely). But we thought this story from The Telegraph was worth mentioning because a) it’s The Telegraph, not usually prone to reporting utter bobiins and b) because, to be honest, we want it be true: The X-Files’ Gillian Anderson to play The Rani opposite Matt Smith’s Doctor.

via SFX: the leading science fiction, fantasy and horror magazine.

The Rani? Why o why o why would anyone bring back that 2 dimensional piece of crap character. In the Telegraph article they mention first that there were going to be new monsters and villans, then in the next breath come out with this horse chestnut. If she was going to to be a companion… now  that would get my vote.

Kasterborous, also keeping up their usual standards of high quality journalism have also run the story peppered with the standard amount of daft comments and practically insulting remarks. This immediately caught my attention. My emphasis…

An appearance by one of the hottest women in sci-fi is another matter entirely of course, especially if this is only half a rumour, and Anderson is in fact lined up as the visibly mature companion to young-looking Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor.

Visibly mature! What is that supposed to mean? Gnash gnash snarl snarl. I used to really like that site but most times that I go there these days I come back with something else that pisses me off.

The original Telegraph article is here http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/doctor-who/5204395/Gillian-Anderson-being-lined-up-for-Doctor-Who-appearance.html I’m off to put my head in the sand until it all goes away.

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The Doc and Christina hunt for the plot

Two things will be clear by this post a) I am something of a fan of Doctor Who b) this is a bit of a rant. Apologies that I haven’t edited it at all for content.

I have liked Doctor Who for a good number of years, since I was “knee-high to a grasshopper” in fact. In the history of the show there have been many high and low points but overall I have stuck with it because, in general, it is rollicking good TV. Since Russell T Davies (RTD) brought Doctor Who back in 2005 the show has become the yardstick by which all “family” entertainment is judged, such is the quality of the writing (mostly), production values (practically always), and the acting (without exception). There have been occasions where the show produces an episode that somehow misses the mark, leaving the viewer with a mild feeling of dissatisfaction that cannot quite be placed. “Planet of the Dead” was just such an episode.

Billed as an Easter special and slightly longer than a normal episode, “Planet of the Dead” is the beginning of the end for the Tenth Doctor (still played by the ever wonderful David Tennant) who will be regenerating at the end of the year after 3 more specials. The weight of the need to really pull something wonderful out of the bag is clearly heavy on RTD and so it should be as his tenure in the top spot will soon be up. Enough exposition already, you know all of this.

The main thing missing from this episode of Doctor Who was originality. This in itself is not strange Doctor Who has a long tradition of “borrowing” from Sci-Fi. During the original run there were many references and complete steals from Quatermass for example, there are more but I might digress again. “Planet of the Dead” was “Midnight” meets “Pitch Black” via “Tomb Raider” and yawn. I could go on, but I won’t.

Furthermore, and perhaps this is the crux of my dissatisfaction, with the exception of Christina (a good performance from Michelle Ryan) none of the characters had any meat to them. Not only did I not know anything about any of the guys on the bus, I’m not sure that I really cared what happened to them. Since the ressurection of Doctor Who I’m not sure that I can say that about any of the stories. The set up of folk on a bus put in danger was used brilliantly by RTD in “Midnight”, the small group of characters was exceptionally well defined and utilised. Not so here, the rest of the cast was left alone in the bus while The Doctor and Christina go off wandering around in the desert in search of I don’t now what. The giant fly people looked rubbish and served no purpose other than to add a few laughs. I never felt that anyone was in any danger at all.

Actually, that is it! Simply and in one sentence, there was no sense of danger. That is completely what was missing. Where “Midnight” had a sense of danger and claustrophobia, “Planet of the Dead” had neither. When the oncoming swarm got to the flying bus (if you haven’t seen the episode yet, well you’ll see) it just sort of hovered there for a while before setting off as if they weren’t that bothered about the manta ray aliens either. Were the boys at the back of the bus mooning them before they pushed through the wormhole? Perhaps it was the sight of those bare bottoms that meant only 4 manta ray aliens (MRA) followed them through the wormhole. Even once the MRA got to earth  they were not even a bit of threat. Rather than going off to devour the planet like you’d expect they circled around waiting to be shot by UNIT (who appear to have had some shooting lessons since the 1970s by the way).

POTD has been described as a romp (mostly by RTD). That it was, it was a pointless, frolicking gambol of an episode that, while fun, left one feeling that something was missing. One vital Doctor Who ingredient, danger.

However, the trailer for the November episode (do we really have to wait that long?) looks fantastic. According to RTD things are about to get very difficult for the Doctor as he reaches the end of his tenth regeneration. I can’t wait.

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So I couldn’t contain myself. Spoilers be damned, the trailer is below and it is making me wish that it was Easter already. Enjoy. [EDIT - Also in the good news category the air date and time for Planet of the Dead have now been confirmed. See this post.]

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Doctor Who - Planet of the Dead

The BBC press office confirmed that Doctor Who – Planet of the Dead will air week 15, which bizarrely starts on Saturday April 11th and ends on Friday April 17th. The show briefly showed up on the schedule for Saturday 11th  but that has since disappeared. That date still seems likely though in fairness.

The press release, as expected gives little away about the show so spoilerphobes will not mind me posting it here below. Not long to wait now.

Doctor Who – Planet Of The Dead

Unplaced

Day and time to be confirmed BBC ONE

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho

When a London bus takes a detour to an alien world, the Doctor must join forces with the extraordinary Lady Christina, in this one-off seasonal special. But the mysterious planet holds terrifying secrets, hidden in the sand. And time is running out, as the deadly Swarm gets closer.

Planet Of The Dead features David Tennant as the Doctor, Michelle Ryan as Lady Christina and Lee Evans as Malcolm. It is written by Russell T Davies and Gareth Roberts.

The link is below:

BBC – Press Office – Network TV Programme Information BBC Week 15 Unplaced 2009.

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