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Tag / Doctor Who
Jun
3
2009
1Some sad n
ews came in on Google Reader today. Shaun Lyon, the big cheese behind the successful Outpost Gallifrey, Doctor Who Forum and Gallifreyone conventions has decided to close the news and forum sites down for ever on 31st July 2009. This decision is bound to send fandom into a spin as DWF was simply the best place to go for Doctor Who news, even if you did have to wade though countless crappy arguments sometimes in order to get to the good stuff.
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.
May
29
2009
0
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
Apr
23
2009
0
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.
Apr
12
2009
3
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.
Apr
1
2009
0Some of you may have heard that the Doctor Who – Planet of the Dead trailer will hit UK TV screens tonight before The Apprentice. However, some kind soul has got hold of it early and placed it on YouTube much to my delight. Fandom is going crazy. The production values look great. There is loads of sand. The bloke with the fly hat on looks just a little bit like a bloke with a fly hat on. But… we all know that it is going to be fab.
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.]
Mar
27
2009
1—[EDIT 1st April 2009 - It has now been confirmed that Planet of the Dead will air on BBC One at 18:45 (BST) on Saturday 11th April 2009. Bah to those of you that said it would be Sunday. I told you so. Only 10 days to wait now and the trailer is on tonight. It's just too exciting.]—
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.
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.
Mar
5
2009
0Kasterborous a usually entertaining Doctor Who related website is reporting a story on the Doctor who special that is currently being filmed. Apparently Peter O’Brien is filming scenes for the episode.
However, I’m disappointed to report that not only are they very quick to disrespect another fan site they are very keen to be convince us, based on purely circumstantial evidence, that a fan favourite alien is returning to the series. They say…
Referring to the Sydney Daily Telegraph, Den of Geek (whose hit rate took a tumble recently when they paid too much attention to Twitter) explain that O’Brien is playing a villain in a story set on Mars.
Surely any Doctor Who story set on Mars can only feature the return of The Ice Warriors?
Yep, that’s right the only Doctor Who villains that came from Mars were the Ice Warriors. They seem to be forgetting that there was also that small altercation in the Pyramids of Mars. The planet has in fact had numerous mentions in the show, probably because it is the nearest planet to Earth. Proximity might also explain why the planet Mars seems to feature so strongly in Science Fiction in general. Don’t get me wrong I’d love to see those scaly fellas back but let’s not jump to any conclusions too quickly.
If you feel the need to read the “article” then the link is below.
Feb
28
2009
0So now the Doctor Who specials have been filming for a few weeks and because I have a damn Internet connection I have been sucked into the Spoiler Zone yet again. Why can’t I just not look? Why do I have to search for these bits of information? As I said here I would enjoy the whole experience much more if I knew nothing. Still, I can’t seem to help myself. It is like poking at that scab that never heals. I know that if I leave it alone I’ll get better but there is something compelling about its crusty exterior that I can’t resist. Ahem…
It makes me want to share the stuff that I have found too, but that is also bad because I make the circle of pain that much wider. Then other people discover things that they don’t want to know and that makes them unhappy. That said, this site never recived so many hits as when I published that photo of Davros. That should be no excuse. Aaargh dammit, you twisted my arm, if you want to know then read further… (more…)
Jan
3
2009
0
Matt Smith
So finally the wait is over. After much speculation the actor playing the mysterious Time Lord known only as The Doctor in the BBC hit show Doctor Who is Matt Smith. Who?
That was such a painful wait. It is not really possible to judge him based on his earlier work but I have every faith in Mr Moffat that he has made the right choice. To be fair the real test will be how good the scripts are and how good the direction is when production actually starts. With a new show runner, new producer, and a new lead actor there is everything to play for. Also, let’s not forget that a new companion also needs to be cast… Sally Sparrow anyone?
But wait… David Tennant is still the main man until at least this time next year. There are still quite some exciting adventures to come our way before Mr Smith takes over the role.
Dec
15
2008
0The wait until the broadcast of the new Doctor Who Christmas special is seemingly endless. Ten days to go. Ten whole days… However, Auntie Beeb has given us a new trailer to keep us going. Sadly, it is only available to those in the UK via the Official Doctor Who site, here. Honestly there is no other way to watch it. Well, unless of course you don’t mind this You Tube version that I have embedded below. It looks fantastic. The 25th can’t come quick enough.