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**StargateWatcher** · 15 September 2012, 06:07 AM

Originally posted by Blencathra View Post

I thought I'd start a thread for Russell T Davies new children's sci fi series as some new pics & info has appeared today.

Promo pic

Some footage is included in this trailer along with another CBBC kiddies drama Wolfblood

and some casting news

Brian Blessed joins Wizards Vs Aliens

http://www.denofgeek.com/tv/wizards-...ards-vs-aliens

Russell T. Davies' forthcoming CBBC show has gained a rollicking new cast member in Sir Brian Blessed...

It's a voice you'd recognise anywhere, a booming, projecting, thesp-y shout best known for declaiming the words "Gordon's alive?" in campy 1980 space pic Flash Gordon. It belongs of course, to Brian Blessed.

Blessed is following up his star turn as the voice of the Pirate King in Aardman's brilliantly bonkers The Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists with another voice-only role, this time for Russell T. Davies' forthcoming CBBC show Wizards Vs. Aliens. Blessed is to play the Nekross King, ruler of the race of aliens who've come to Earth to drain it of its magic, unless 16-year old wizard Tom and his science-focused pal Ben can stop them.

The great bearded one told the BBC "Wizards Vs Aliens is hugely exciting and has a feeling of total originality. It is full of vision and brilliance. The earthly realistic scenes are so heartfelt and moving, and they contrast vividly with the universal feel of the Nekross King and his subjects. I find the whole concept miraculous and I am thrilled to be part of such an exciting project."

Wizards Vs. Aliens starts this autumn on CBBC.

All in all I think this looks great for kiddies (catch them young!) and I think I'll be checking it out myself.

interesting; sci-fi beings forces vs fantasy forces a

**Blencathra** · 17 September 2012, 11:40 AM

Russell T Davies On Creating Wizards Vs Aliens

http://www.sfx.co.uk/2012/09/17/russ...rds-vs-aliens/

In the latest issue of SFX Russell T Davies talks exclusively about the creation of new CBBC show Wizards Vs Aliens. Here’s an extract:

“Phil* and I sat there having a really interesting fanboy conversation. Which genre did we want to do? Sarah Jane was science fiction, so maybe now we should do supernatural. We had a proper conversation about how funny it is that you can only write one or the other. All those years of Doctor Who and you can never cast a spell. With Harry Potter you don’t get a robot arriving. I wish we had it on record as to who said it first, but I seem to remember saying, ‘Actually, that’s a good idea for a show!’ And then Phil said ‘Aliens Vs Wizards!’ And I went ‘Oh my god, that’s it…’ It then became Wizards Vs Aliens, we swapped it around. And in that moment you could see the entire show.”

(* That’s Phil Ford, former head writer on The Sarah Jane Adventures)

The full interview is in issue 227 of SFX on sale Wednesday 19 September.

**Blencathra** · 08 October 2012, 05:17 AM

Wizards Vs Aliens: Dawn Of The Nekross spoiler-free review

http://www.denofgeek.com/tv/wizards-...er-free-review

Imaginative, enchanting, and entertaining, Russell T Davies' new CBBC series is a fitting successor to The Sarah Jane Adventures...

1.1 & 1.2 Dawn Of The Nekross

From the creative team that brought us the award winning The Sarah Jane Adventures, Wizards vs Aliens arrives laden with far more expectation and attention than your standard CBBC series launch.

Co-created by former Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies and SJA lead writer Phil Ford, WvA’s pedigree is first-rate, but does its opening adventure, Dawn of the Nekross, deliver on the promise of its brilliantly on-the-nose central conceit?

Thankfully that answer is a resounding ‘yes’, thanks in no small part to a strong script from series co-creator Ford, confident and stylish direction from Daniel O’Hara, and committed performances from series leads Scott Haran and Percelle Ascot.

Following the classic Davies template of bold storytelling filled with striking and memorable images, the series opens with a pre-credits scene involving alien first contact above an ancient stone circle. Neatly bringing together the two elements at the heart of the show – science fiction and magic – in a single sequence, this tease not only sells the central concept of the show, but also the ambition and scale of the piece in one confident brushstroke.

From this opening scene we’re then introduced to the everyday life of sixteen year old Tom Clarke (Haran), a popular and attractive schoolboy who just so happens to also be a wizard. Living with his ‘un-enchanted’ father (Michael Higgs) and his very much enchanted Grandmother, Ursula (Annette Badland), Tom practices magic in secret, but isn’t averse to using it to fix the result of a school football match or get a helping hand with his homework.

However, Tom’s life of relative secrecy and security is shattered when the alien Nekross come calling.

An interstellar race who roam the galaxy feasting on magic, the Nekross - Lexi (Gwendoline Christie), Vorg (Jefferson Hall) and their corpulent King (voiced by Brian Blessed) - have set their sights on the last planet in the universe where magic exists - Earth. The arrival of the Nekross doesn’t just push Tom towards a whole new way of practicing magic, it also opens him up to new possibilities in his everyday life.

Thrown together with school science geek, Benny Sherwood (Ascot) to foil the Nekross’ maiden plan, Tom gains not only a new and unlikely friend, but also a greater appreciation for knowledge that isn’t strictly supernatural. A natural skeptic, Benny is an effective foil for Tom and their back-and-forth throughout the episode is one of the show's real highlights.

Also making an impression is Tom and Benny’s fellow schoolmate, Katie Lord (Manpreet Bambra). Although her appearance in this first story is limited, she catches the eye with her brief screen time and it’s clear she’ll develop into a key player as the series progresses.

A rip-roaring opening adventure, Dawn of the Nekross takes us on a trip that includes orbiting mother ships, hidden Chambers of Mystery, introductions to mischievous Hobgoblins as well as a sly insight into Nekross gender politics.

However, while this opening story is sharp, confident and effective, if it does have a flaw it would be that perennial ‘pilot problem’ of attempting to establish too much in one fell swoop. While the introductory story of The Sarah Jane Adventures was a similarly jam-packed and frenetic affair, that show had the advantage of inheriting both an established lead and the series’ basic rationale from Doctor Who.

In comparison WvA is at a distinct disadvantage and a sizeable chunk of its the opening story is spent establishing the rules and laying the foundations of this brand new universe. With so many regular characters to introduce it’s perhaps no surprise that some of the characters get lost in the shuffle. This unfortunately has a slight dampening effect on the story's climax, which feels as if it’s filled with characters that we’ve met, but barely gotten to know.

But these are just nitpicks and by the end of its opening story WvA has managed to establish a tone that’s at once more muscular than SJA, while retaining the domestic intimacy that made Bannerman Road such a beguiling place to visit.

While it’s never a foregone conclusion that a show will be a hit, the omens are good for WvA and it’d be a massive surprise if this show doesn’t connect with its intended audience in a big way.

Cleverly conceived, intelligently written, lovingly produced and sumptuously scored by the Watts', Dawn of the Nekross is a strong launch for an imaginative, enchanting and entertaining series that has the potential to run and run.

Wizards Vs Aliens is due to air on CBBC in late October.

**Blencathra** · 11 October 2012, 05:16 AM

Wizards vs Aliens: recreating the magic of Doctor Who

Russell T Davies's new show is an ambitious fusion of Harry Potter and Doctor Who. It's good to see the BBC taking big-budget risks with children's programming.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-rad...rds-doctor-who

Russell T Davies's new CBBC project, arriving on screen later this month, is a simple pitch encapsulated in a Ronseal title: Wizards vs Aliens. It's Harry Potter meets Doctor Who. As Davies told the Observer earlier this year: "The only thing that could make Harry Potter better, in my view, would be if a big spaceship arrives at the door of Hogwarts, but it never does. It does in ours, in episode one."

The show, which Davies created with his Doctor Who and Sarah Jane Adventures collaborator, writer Phil Ford, is centred around a wizard called Tom (Scott Haran), a 16-year-old schoolboy who lives with his mugg … um, "un-enchanted" father and sorceress grandmother (Annette Badland). Tom is caught up in a desperate fight for the wizarding world's survival against the Nekross: an alien race that roams the cosmos to gorge on magic. It's a straightforward setup, but one that establishes its background, rules and mysteries with ease. What happened to Tom's mother, for instance? What's the Nekross king's master-plan? And just what is all this magic malarkey anyway?

Comparisons are easy, but Wizards vs Aliens doesn't feel like a replacement for The Sarah Jane Adventures, which came to an end following the death of the show's star, Elisabeth Sladen, last year. The opening two episodes seem to have their own identity: a lighter, whimsical tone more obviously aimed at 7- to 12-year-olds than the darker themes of Alzheimer's, homelessness and loss that The Sarah Jane Adventures tackled.

It went down marvellously with children at a screening of the show last week. "Can we watch it again?" one girl giddily asked Ford afterwards. Adults may also find much to like: if the Steven Moffat Doctor Who era has left you cold, then this might feel like a blast from the very best of Russell T Davies's past.

Davies and Ford came up with the idea while discussing the limitations of writing Doctor Who – a show that looks to science (believe it or not) rather than magic. The conclusion? To fuse the two. Hence the opening, in which a magic ritual is rudely interrupted by the appearance of an enormous mothership – introducing not only the central elements of the show, but also the scale and ambition of the project. For while the writing is sharp, clever and imaginative, this is also one of the biggest productions children's TV has ever seen.

The Sarah Jane Adventures was relatively high-end in terms of children's TV – but Wizards vs Aliens has set pieces (its biggest is a cheeky nod to Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets), prosthetics and special effects that wouldn't look out of place in Doctor Who itself. The only exception, oddly, being Brian Blessed's Nekross king – less Jabba the Hutt, more Jabba the Sentient Whoopee Cushion.

The show feels like an evolution of premium children's drama that began with the Sarah Jane Adventures and will hopefully go on to include other high-concept children's programmes. Because while shows such as Horrible Histories and Tracy Beaker – both adaptations – may be clever, mature examples of how children's TV has grown up, science fiction arguably brings with it more risk. At a time when CBBC has lost its BBC1 slot and original children's programming is so sparse – an "endangered species", as Davies himself has called it – that's a risk worth taking.

And here, magically, it appears to have paid off.

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Wizards vs Aliens (CBBC)

Wizards vs Aliens (CBBC)

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