Dr Who Specials

[CaptainLewis]

Tennant 'cried reading last Who script'

David Tennant has admitted shedding a tear when he read the scenes containing the demise of the tenth Doctor in his final script.

The actor told BBC Radio 1 that he is currently six weeks away from the end of filming on his final episodes of Doctor Who.

Tennant said: "I might have had a little cry. They were brilliant scripts and very moving. It was quite a big deal really.

"I sort of turned the phone off and made sure I could read it straight through without too much interruption."

He added: "Filming is now always out of schedule, so I don't know if I'll be sadder on the last day or filming the final scenes. That remains to be seen.

"It's weird because it's been four years. It's been so all-consuming and so life-changing. It's been such a big thing."

Tennant said upcoming Easter special Planet Of The Dead would be a "kind of a romp" and "the last time The Doctor gets to have fun" before the dark ending.

Website: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/cult/a15226 ... cript.html

[CaptainLewis]

Thought it was a good episode, I can't wait for The Waters of Mars.

[CaptainLewis]

The Waters of Mars Trailer:

[Blowfeld]

Thought it was a good episode, I can't wait for The Waters of Mars.

I missed a good part of it. I'll record it when it reruns. The flying bus reminded me of Iris Wildthyme.

[carl stromberg]

It was a nice episode. It reminded me of the Stephen King story The Langoliers.

Bernard Cribbins and June Whitfield are in the Xmas special: that should be fun.

[Blowfeld]

It certainly was better than the last Christmas Special.

I am sad to see the unmistakable sings they are preparing for David's departure.

Bright side is his last show may not be until New Years Day 2010, meaning he will be the Doctor from 2005 to 2010. Not bad if we take in account that his 2 immediate predecessors were one year only (1996 & 2005). Althou I know David had a lot more to give the series and could have been the Doctor for years more.

[Blowfeld]

Planet of the Dead Ratings

April 12, 2009 • Posted By Marcus
According to unofficial overnight figures, Planet of the Dead was watched by 8.41 million viewers, a 39.6% share of the audience. An additional 184,000 watched the programme on BBC HD, the channel's highest rating so far.

Doctor Who was the most watched programme on BBC1 for the day and had the second highest rating on all TV. ITV1 got the highest rating of the night with 10.52 million watching Britain's Got Talent. Up against Doctor Who, Primeval got only 2.71 million. Robin Hood got 5.26 million watching.

This makes Doctor Who the eighth most watched programme of the week so far.

On BBC3 Doctor Who Confidential, got 0.46 million watching, a 2.2% share.

Final figures will be released in 10 days time.

[Blowfeld]

May 26, 2009 • Posted By Paul Hayes

The BBC Press Office has confirmed that David Tennant is to appear as the Tenth Doctor in the forthcoming third series of spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures, due to be shown on CBBC and BBC One this autumn. This will once again reunite the Doctor with former companion Sarah Jane Smith, played by Elisabeth Sladen.

The release also confirms that the series will again be twelve episodes long, and that it will feature an appearance from Doctor Who race the Judoon. Executive producer Russell T Davies is quoted of saying of Tennant's appearance in the programme: "Viewers thought they may have to wait until November for the next full episode of Doctor Who, but this is an extra special treat. And it's not just a cameo from David – this is a full-on appearance for The Doctor as he and Sarah Jane face their biggest threat ever."

Sladen is also quoted in the release, saying: "When I heard the news that David was going to be joining us I was absolutely over the moon. Not only has it made my day but it will also make the viewers' day."

For UK internet users, the Children's BBC website has made available a video interview with Davies where he discusses the Doctor's appearance in the series, which he says will take place across episodes five and six. The series is due to start broadcasting in September. BBC News also carries the video interview with Davies.

[Blowfeld]

May 26, 2009 • Posted By R. Alan Siler

A second animated story starring David Tennant as the Doctor will be broadcast later this year.

"Dreamland", written by Phil Ford, will comprise seven episodes of roughly six minutes each. This will air as part of the BBC's red button service and Children's BBC.

Also appearing in the story are Georgia Moffett ("The Doctor's Daughter") playing a character called Cassie Rice, Lisa Bowerman ("Survival" and the Big Finish Bernice Summerfield series), and David Warner (Tron, Time Bandits). Warner is also no stranger to Doctor Who, having played the Time Lord himself in two Big Finish audio plays released in 2003 and 2008.

"Dreamland" follows 2007's animated adventure "The Infinite Quest", currently available on DVD.

Ford has written for Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures, and his other 2009 Doctor Who story, The Waters of Mars (co-written with Russell T Davies) is slated to broadcast in November. Directing "Dreamland" is Gary Russell.

More details will be forthcoming.

[Blowfeld]

May 27, 2009 • Posted By R. Alan Siler
In a turnabout from a previous arrangement, BBC America now has first US broadcast rights for the soon-to-be-aired hour-long specials of Doctor Who, Variety reported today.

The Next Doctor, the show's 2008 Christmas episode, will make its US debut at 9:00 p.m. on June 27, followed by Planet of the Dead in July (date TBA). Specific US air dates will be determined for the subsequent specials after they've aired in the UK.

BBC America - which has to bid for British shows just like any other American broadcaster - will continue its first run deal on Torchwood, airing that show's third season in July.

Other science fiction shows debuting on the network this summer include Being Human (starting July 25) and Survivors, starring Doctor Who's Freema Agyeman (date TBA). The third season of ITV's dinosaur time romp Primeval is currently airing on the network.

Current BBC America president Garth Ancier says that's the network should always have had Doctor Who. "If I'd been here [when the original deal was made]," Ancier said, "we wouldn't have sold it, to be quite honest." For the last four years, the Sci Fi Channel has held first rights, with BBC America holding second rights.

[Kristatos]

Finally, A US airdate - just as I'm preparing to move back to Blighty. Sodding typical, innit?

[Blowfeld]

BBC America has announced that their new BBC America HD channel will launch in July with the HD broadcast of Torchwood: Children of Earth and the latest Doctor Who special, Planet of the Dead. Torchwood: Children of Earth will air on BBC America HD and BBC America on five consecutive nights, beginning on Monday, July 20. Planet of the Dead will follow on Sunday, July 26. (As previously announced, the 2008 Christmas special, The Next Doctor, will air on BBC America on Saturday, June 27.)

It is not known whether earlier plans for "Children of Earth" to be aired on the same day on BBC America and BBC One are still on track. British television channels traditionally announce their schedules closer to broadcast date than American channels do, so the UK broadcast date for "Children of Earth" will probably not be confirmed for several weeks.

Full details for the launch of BBC America HD, including broadcast times and information about "Being Human" and "Primeval", are available here and here.

[Blowfeld]

New Canadian Home for Doctor Who Confirmed

June 2, 2009 • Posted By Mike Doran
The Doctor Who Blog is reporting that Canada's Space channel is now the home of Doctor Who in Canada, officially ending the series' time with former co-production partner the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Space will air Planet of the Dead on Saturday July 25th. Waters of Mars and the two other specials to follow will air on Space in late 2009 and early 2010.

Beginning in March 2010 Space will have the rights to show Series One to Four of the show as well as The Christmas Invasion and The Runaway Bride. Voyage of the Damned, which was never aired by the CBC, will be available to Space as of April 2010. The Next Doctor was already aired by Space in March 2009.

Finally, Space will be airing Series Five in 2010.

Launched in April 2005 with a great deal of publicity by the CBC just 10 days after the premiere on the BBC Doctor Who eventually found itself out of favour with changing CBC management despite continued strong ratings through all four series.

[CaptainLewis]

Wedding storylines for 'Doctor Who'?

David Tennant's Doctor Who swansong will feature three weddings, according to a report in The Sun.

The newspaper claims that former companions Rose Tyler, Martha Jones and Sarah Jane Smith will all be getting married.

Rose - played by Billie Piper - will reportedly marry the half-human clone of the Doctor in their parallel universe, while Martha (Freema Agyeman) is said to be tying the knot with Mickey Smith.

However, in the new series of Torchwood - airing next month on BBC One - it is revealed that Martha is already on her honeymoon.

Tennant will also make a special appearance in Who spinoff The Sarah Jane Adventures for the wedding of his former companion Sarah Jane.

Russell T. Davies said of the Sarah Jane episodes: "Viewers thought they may have to wait until November for the next full episode of Doctor Who - but this is an extra special treat."

Karen Gillan, 21, was recently named as the Doctor's new companion.

Website: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/cult/a15789 ... r-who.html

[Blowfeld]

Where is The Next Doctor?

Posted Jun 2nd 2009 5:05PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: TV on DVD, OpEd, Doctor Who, Reality-Free
Doctor WhoBBC Video will be releasing some new DVDs in North America come July that includes Torchwood: Children of Earth and Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead. I immediately took note of the fact that nobody mentioned releasing the last Doctor Who Christmas special which was broadcast in England in December 2008, The Next Doctor.

Way back in 1996, the BBC co-produced a Doctor Who television movie with Fox in the United States which starred Paul McGann as the Doctor. Since then, the rights regarding reproduction or broadcast of that movie in North America has been somewhat convoluted at best. In the last Christmas special, a clip of Paul McGann from that TV movie was shown, and I cannot help but wonder if that clip is holding up release of the video.

Of course, it could simply be a case of the BBC waiting until Christmas or any one of a dozen other reasons. But I have a suspicious mind and I cannot help but think that it was a mistake for the BBC to ever co-produce Doctor Who with an American company if it is such a hindrance to the American release of their own DVDs.

From TV Squad

[CaptainLewis]

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/show ... ?t=1051518

I know it is the Sun, but those photo's do look real. Is the Doctor going to go on trial?

[Blowfeld]

rumored that Dalton will be showing up,

Spoiler

playing the Chancellor of the High Council of Time Lords

Just a thought, maybe he is playing 'the Brickyard' if you know who I mean. I hope not, it was a terrible idea in Trial of a Time Lord and I like that we are well past it, him and that farce of kangaroo court

[James]

Photo of Matt Smith in costume on his first day shooting as the new Doctor.

[CaptainLewis]

Hot off the press, here's a new preview clip for the next Doctor Who special, Waters of Mars:

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/a167453/ ... -clip.html

Looks good.

[Blowfeld]

Graeme Harper On "Waters Of Mars"

Just how scary is The Waters of Mars?
Graeme Harper: “I’m not sure if it’s as scary as Blink, but it’s quite frightening – because it’s so real, I think. I hope so!”

How on Earth do you go about making water scary? And what were the challenges of shooting with that volume of water?
"I hope you think it is [scary] when you see it! It was very, very difficult. We had a difficult time trying to work out how to do the water… can you imagine, the volumes of water that we required, in a studio setting? How d’you get rid of it? If you want to do retakes, how do you get everything dry again?

“The kind of water effect we wanted was sort-of mystical, almost organic – well, it is organic, obviously! – so the difficulty was deciding with the visual FX guys which one out of the effect they were offering us was the right one. They came up with five or six different kinds of pipes, hoses and systems. And eventually there was one that we all – head of Drama Julie Gardner, Russell T Davies, Phil Collinson and I – all said, ‘That’s the one.’ There was a uniform yes to one particular effect, and that was the one we used.

“Now, how do you make it creepy? It seems to be alive, the water, by the way it follows the characters in the story. Sort of – we didn’t make a big thing of it in the story, but that’s how I shot it, so it was chasing people, following them and trapping them. The best effects you can get come out of seeing the enormity of the water, the relentlessness of it. I think where it becomes really creepy and you get the fear, is when it continues draining out of characters’ mouths.

“There was a very complex system of tubes and piping that they all had to wear within the prosthetics – and water was squeezed and pressurized through the tubes to give the volume of water we required to come out of the actors’ mouths on a continuous basis.”

“Waters” is going out in November, when the evenings are darker than during the regular series run. Did you have that in the back of your mind when you were deciding on the tone of the show?
“When I first read the script, it was originally going to be put out on Christmas Day, I think! I was quite worried that this dark, deep story, which is… well, I don’t know that it’s part of a trilogy, but it certainly will lead you into the finalé. You know something horrible’s going to happen after this story, involving the Doctor – but you don’t know what. I thought it was very dark – I mean, really dark, for Christmas. That’s not the reason they changed their minds to put it out in November – I think that was the controller of BBC One, deciding that maybe as we had three more to go, then one could be in the latter part of the year so that there wasn’t such a long gap between when the first special went out and Christmas. But when I knew it was going to go out earlier in the year, I was able to think about it in a much more dark way, rather than trying to keep the Christmas spirit!”

There seem to be some elements of foreshadowing in “Waters” – the stuff about the “four knocks”.
“I have to tell you, I haven’t seen, I haven’t read – in fact, I probably wasn’t allowed – to know how the next episodes, the final two-parter for David, starts and ends. I’ve no idea what it’s about! It’s going to end, obviously, with him regenerating into Matt Smith – but I’ve no idea what happens in it! So I don’t know to what extent the horror is in that two-parter. I knew about and read the previous script, I knew about the four knocks thing, so I understood what was going on, and what had been and what’s coming, and so on – in terms of the, “when four knocks happen, you know he’s going to die,” kind of thing. So I played on that, but I didn’t know quite what that meant and how it was going to happen in the last two episodes – and I still don’t!”

And the Doctor’s scared himself in this episode, which is a pretty unusual situation…
“Yes, but I think – with some exceptions, obviously – most fans of Doctor Who will know and feel sad and be hurt and worried and concerned – and wonder, is this the Doctor we’ve always known and loved, this ancient mariner traveling through the universe and helping people to help themselves, and being good and worthy and whatever, and showing them the way. And here he’s terrified. But I think that’s good, and I think most people will be interested to see how he gets out of this one. That what I think they think every time. But here, he really is in a very fearful state – and doesn’t want to die, obviously. I don’t think he wants to regenerate – I think he feels he’s got more to do, so how that gets resolved… well, I’m going to watch as well.”