Doctor Who News, Articles, Cast and Crew Interviews

[kiwigater]

Spoiler:

Voyage Of The Damned Promo
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=m3fZU0ipyOc

Okay. This isn't the official promo that was show about a day ago (im still looking because I havnt seen it) but this fan made trailer has bits from the new promo. Im only guessing since it was defiantly new DW footage. Looks like this episode takes place before the Titanic's maiden voyage.

I'd be suprised if it took place after.......

(sorry, apparently I'm feeling sarcastic today )

Love the countdown clock on the Dr. Who section of the BBC website.

Liking the Advent-ure Calendar as well, although yesterday's surpise (a quiz) left a lot to be desired IMO.

i never could resist a ticking clock.....

[Alipeeps]

Just picked up this week's copy of The Radio Times which has the Doctor Who Christmas Special as its cover feature with a short interview with David Tennant giving some details about the episode:

Spoilers:

Spoiler:

"Oh, Doctor. Remember to put your shields up!" Those memorable last words from Peter Davison's Fifth Doctor in November's Children In Need special go some way towards explaining how the Titanic comes to crash not into an iceberg, but into the TARDIS, setting up this year's Doctor Who with jingle bells on.

"It's sort of a disaster movie," says current Doctor David Tennant, "Which, I suppose, as we're talking about a sinking ship, is what you'd expect. It's got a bit of the Poseidon Adventure, a bit of Titanic, a bit of Doctor Who and a bit of The Towering Inferno."

However, the Titanic is not the only icon to co-star in the show. The Doctor's companion for this one-off adventure, little waitress Astrid, is played by Kylie Minogue.

"The Doctor and Astrid find each other quite quickly," explains Tennant. "He helps her out and she ends up helping him out, and very quickly they become inseparable." In real life, the meeting was more protracted: "It kind of emerged gradually," says Tennant, "because Will Baker, her creative director, is a great Doctor Who fan, and he midwifed the whole get-together. So it emerged over a few months, like, 'Oh, don't know if she will... She'd quite like to... She'd love to... Can we make it happen..? Will it work?'"

They could, and it did. "It was just a very nice meeting of the planets," notes the man who should know. Which is all undeniably marvellous. Yet there remains one essential ingredient that's as yet unconfirmed. Tennant is aware of that, too:
"Obviously, there has to be some sort of monster. It wouldn't be Doctor Who on Christmas Day if there wasn't something to freak you out."

So there are monsters? "There are."

And they're all-new. No Sycorax or Empress spider this Yuletide. These aliens are referred to as "the Hosts". How scary are they? It's hard for Tennant to say, as he's yet to see the finished episode at the time of this interview, but he does say this:

"A lot of what's particularly scary is added afterwards [by CGI experts at special effects studio The Mill], so you'd probably need to go to the Mill to find out how scary they're turning out. There's a blankness to them that's definitely fairly creepy. But all the scarier is what's behind them..." Which is where we hit the wall of unavoidable secrecy.

So what else can we say about Voyage of the Damned? Much was filmed on location. The first-class part of the Titanic was actually the Swansea Exchange and the Cardiff Coal Exchange, while the engineering levels were filmed at an industrial complex in Pontypool. The bridge of the ship was built as a studio set. "In the tradition of great disaster movies," says Tennant, "you get to see life on all social levels aboard intermingling; people having to get along - or not - as the situation gets worse and worse."

The cast, a good old-fashioned ensemble, comprises other names besides those of Tennant and Minogue that should warm the heart to festive levels: Geoffrey Palmer plays the captain, supported by the like of Bernard Cribbins, Clive Swift (Keeping up Appearances) and George Costigan (the Bob in the 1987 comedy Rita, Sue and Bob too).

Geoffrey Palmer and Bernard Cribbins, incidentally, have appeared in Doctor Who before: Palmer twice in the 1970s with John Pertwee and Cribbins on the big screen in 1966, playing companion Tom to Peter Cushing's Doctor in Daleks - Invasion Earth 2150 AD.

"He was great, just a ball of energy when he showed up," Tennant recalls. "He must be in his 70s [Cribbins turns 79 four days after Christmas] but there's nothing elderly about him. He was terrific. There's just something about Bernard Cribbins: he's the voice of our childhood [Cribbins played Perks the station porter in The Railway Children, and was the voice behind The Wombles and the Tufty public information films of the 70s]. He's one of those people who didn't disappoint in any way; he was exactly as you wanted him to be. You'd be chatting to him and you'd think: 'That's Bernard Cribbins!'"

No doubt there were also moments on set where Tennant suddenly thought to himself: "That's Kylie Minogue!" Which brings us to the crux of the matter: a well-travelled rumour that the Doctor and Astrid share a kiss. Tennant, necessarily cagey, puts it like this: "Well, if you had Kylie in the Christmas special, would you have her kiss the Doctor?"

[BruTak]

To quote our favourite Time Lord - What? What?? What???

Am I the only one baffled by today's surprise on the Advent-ure Calendar? I don't get it...

[Hulabaloo]

Yea, it is pretty odd. I'm going to assume its to do with the Christmas festival.

[BruTak]

Well, it does say to check back again later...

[Hulabaloo]

CHECK THE HOMEPAGE LATER
(7TH DECEMBER) FOR A SPECIAL ADVENT BONUS!

Hmmm, I wonder what. Maybe it's this.

[The Signal]

A quick teaser for VOD has been posted up on the DW website (behind door 8). Interesting...

EDIT: Direct link below (in spoiler tags to prevent stretching the page)

Spoiler:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check/doctorwho/ram/40x_trailer?size=16x9&bgc=CC0000&nbram=1&bbram=1&nbwm=1&bbwm=1

[Trek_Girl42]

A quick teaser for VOD has been posted up on the DW website (behind door 8). Interesting...

Woah.....interesting indeed.

[Flyboy]

To put it simply.

Blimey O'Reilly.

[Missster.Freeman]

Well blow me down with a sonic screwdriver!

[Billz]

Spoiler:

Damn. I was so hoping it was a episode based on the original RMS Titanic. Ah well.

[Missster.Freeman]

Spoiler:

Damn. I was so hoping it was a episode based on the original HMS Titanic. Ah well.

[Admiral Mappalazarou]

I WAS RIGHT!!

[Flyboy]

I WAS RIGHT!!

I hate you. I hope you know this.

[BruTak]

Damn. I was so hoping it was a episode based on the original HMS Titanic. Ah well.

Oh, not wanting to be pedantic or anything, but... It's RMS Titanic, not HMS. Only Naval vessels get an HMS.