Doctor Who News, Articles, Cast and Crew Interviews

[Blencathra]

FOX Germany announces Series 8 "simulcast" with BBC One

http://www.doctorwhonews.net/2014/06...ce=twitterfeed

FOX Germany have announced their intention to broadcast the next series of Doctor Who at the same time as or as near as possible to its transmission in the United Kingdom - making it the first station in the world to present a series alongside its traditional "home".

The episodes, which will be available to watch in both a German-dubbed version or the original English soundtrack, will be aired as close to the actual transmission on BBC One as is practical - the UK schedules can vary from week to week depending upon other programming and events, whereas German schedules are less 'fluid' - as the press release cites, should the series air at 8:00pm in the UK then it would air at 9:00pm in Germany.

Marco de Ruiter, Managing Director for FOX, said:

Wir sind stolz darauf, gemeinsam mit der BBC Fernsehgeschichte schreiben zu dürfen und die Kultserie DOCTOR WHO erstmals als Globale Premiere in Deutschland, Österreich und in der Schweiz zeigen zu können - und zwar auf Deutsch und Englisch. DOCTOR WHO -Fans sind ähnlich leidenschaftlich wie THE WALKING DEAD-Fans, die jeder Tag schmerzt, den sie auf neue Episoden warten müssen. Wir freuen uns, ab sofort die Wartezeit gleich null setzen zu können.

We, together with the BBC, are proud to write TV history and broadcast the cult tv show DOCTOR WHO for the first time as a global premiere in Germany, Austria and Switzerland – in German and English. DOCTOR WHO-fans are as passionate as THE WALKING DEAD-fans, who are in pain every day they have to wait for the new episodes. We are very happy to reduce the waiting time to zero.

The actual premiere date and time in August has yet to be confirmed.

Back in November, the channel narrowly missed being part of the global simulcast of The Day of the Doctor, broadcasting the episode some ten minutes later at 9:00pm local time. Similarly, The Time of the Doctor was broadcast about an hour later in Germany, though FOX were the first to show the festive episode after the UK.

Doctor Who is a daily fixture on FOX, with this week seeing the run reach Series 4.

[Teddybrown]

Yeah. We should know better by now. I own several different copies of Spearhead, & similarly I've lost count of how many copies of The Lords of the Rings I own.

Yeah, that's why I'm avoiding buying The Hobbit extended editions yet... I own two sets of LOTR films...

[Blencathra]

Jenna Coleman and Matt Smith - Glamour Awards 2014

http://who-natic.blogspot.co.uk/2014...att-smith.html

Glamour Magazine's Women of the Year Awards took place tonight and Jenna Coleman won the UK TV Actress Award - presented to her by Matt Smith. Photos at the link above.

There are also some pics of Billie Piper who won the award for Best Theatre Actress

[Alan]

Foxes says possible Doctor Who album coming


Foxes has admitted that the track she will perform on the new series of Doctor Who could "might get released" as a single.

The singer, who is taking on a role in the show, would not reveal many details about the character she was playing.

"I'm not the villian," she said.

Speaking at the Glamour Women of the Year awards, Foxes, whose real name is Louisa Rose Allen told Newsbeat that she hadn't revealed that she would be appearing in the show to her own mum.

The singer's album, Glorious, entered the chart at number five earlier this month

She is hoping to get her own action figure though and added: "Yes, that would be the one, wouldn't it. That's where we want to be. No, it was really exciting, I'm a really big fan so it was great to be able to do that.

Steven Moffat, lead writer and executive producer of Doctor Who, said of the 25-year-old: "We are completely thrilled that the amazingly talented Foxes is joining us on board... Well, you'll see.

"Let's just say, the Doctor is finally catching up on his phone calls."

The Grammy award winning singer also said she thought the new Doctor, Peter Capaldi, was "really exciting and very confident".

She added: "He's got a charisma and a charm that's very exciting and fresh."

Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman star in the new series, which begins on BBC One in August

Foxes also said she isn't worried about having such a large acting role quite early on in her music career.

"I am going to stick to singing for a while. Because it's Doctor Who, I'm like sod it. It's fine."

The new series of Doctor Who will begin in August.

Link to original article here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/27691152

[Blencathra]

Series 8 casting news

http://blogtorwho.blogspot.co.uk/201...ting-news.html

Filming continues on Doctor Who Series 8 today, and two more guest stars have been added to the roster. Actors Christopher Fairbank and Joivan Wade were spotted on set in a scene

Spoiler:

set in Bristol featuring characters in a "Community Payback" scheme - directed by Douglas Mackinnon (Cold War, amongst others).

Fairbank is known for roles in telelvision shows such as Auf Wiedersehen, Pet and films like Batman and The Fifth Element whilst Wade has starred in Big School and Youngers.

Set pics also reveal Jenna Coleman

Spoiler:

using the sonic screwdriver - check out a gallery of pics here..

It is currently unclear what episode number this is in Doctor Who Series 8 but it is believed to be Episode 9.

[Teddybrown]

http://www.doctorwhotv.co.uk/series-...sion-63664.htm
More on the above here.

[Teddybrown]

http://www.doctorwhotv.co.uk/mcgann-...-off-63469.htm
McGann signed a petition for 8th Doctor spinoff

[Blencathra]

Here's a fascinating article.


Like 'Doctor Who,' Syrian Activists Hang In Limbo Post-Election

http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2...-post-election

You can listen to the story here - http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPl...62&m=319718340

A popular, British science-fiction TV show about a time-traveler would seem to have few parallels with the Syrian civil war. But one Syrian activist sees some apt comparisons.

When Syrian President Bashar Assad was re-elected for a third term in office this week — in a tightly controlled election in which official results showed 87.7 percent of voters supported him — it demonstrated Assad's confidence, even three years after much of the country rose against him.

Opposition activists say the election was a cruel farce that locks the country into a path of war; many admit they are exhausted and discouraged.

"I don't blame people for voting," says Aboud Dandachi, an activist in exile in Istanbul. "That is the fear that the regime has implanted in us for 40 years. If you step out of line there will be repercussions that you can't even imagine."

Dandachi has learned to cope with the help of a popular British TV show, .

We meet in a cafe overlooking the Turkish city. Dandachi is grateful for a relatively easy exile, considering the suffering of so many refugees. He has made himself an expert, he says, on the parallels between the Syrian revolt and the themes of Doctor Who, a program that feature a doctor, a British phone booth [sic] and time travel.

The 38-year-old, a self-described computer geek writes , a blog about the war. In February this year he published an e-book: The Doctor, The Eye Doctor and Me. (Assad was trained as an ophthalmologist.)

"People can't relate to Syria unless it's something they care about," he says, explaining his reason for focusing on the popular British show.

"Honestly, my life was reduced to living for the next episode of Doctor Who," he says with a laugh, remembering binge-watching the series. "Every day I would pray that nothing happened to the Internet so I could down load the episodes."

In the spring of 2011, Dandachi was caught up in the revolt in the city of Homs, which became the capital of the revolt. Thousands chanted for freedom, led by young activists, convinced Assad's days were numbered. Break the wall of fear, they believed, and the oppressive regime would topple, too.

"We were definitely naïve," he says about the peaceful movement he joined. "When we said freedom, (it) was just shorthand for lots of things we wanted to change, lots of things that we couldn't articulate."

As the rallies grew, the regime crackdown hardened. Dandachi witnessed friends gunned down in the streets. In April, security police killed more than 100 protesters. His brother could have been one of those casualties, but he had left the rally to charge his cellphone.

Shocked by the violence, Dandachi contacted the BBC to report. In one of his last interviews from Homs in January 2012, the gunfire is so loud that the interviewer tells him, "If you are in an unsafe position, obviously, get off the line." His voice shaking, Aboud replies: "I'm fine. I'm fine."

Even now, the memory of that broadcast makes his heart race. "Don't be a coward," he repeated to himself to keep up his nerve.

By then, the protest had become an armed rebellion. Al-Qaida had set up camp in Syria. Dandachi fled to the relative safety of the coastal city of Tartous. For him, it was "enemy territory" — . But he understood their fears.

"A bad dictator can stay in place if there are no alternatives," he says. "I understand people who are apprehensive and stuck."

Dandachi rented a small hotel room, staying in Tartous for 18 months.

"I didn't mix with anyone," he says, instead, downloading Doctor Who broadcasts. He was trying to make sense out of the chaos and the random nature of death in a brutally relentless war. It was also a way to stay sane.

"I cannot think of any time in my life that I was so engaged and tried to find so much meaning," Dandachi says.

The television show became an inspiration. In one episode, the main character prevails in a war that lasted 300 years.

"At the beginning he had so many enemies, in the end there was only one. All it comes down to in a war is resilience," Dandachi says in a bitter critique of the movement for change. "We overestimated how committed our side is, and we underestimated how committed the people around Bashar were."

This week, Dandachi watched that commitment in an election mounted only in the parts of Syria controlled by the regime. After the vote, Assad declared a mandate for Syria to manage its own affairs, ending hopes for a political solution to the war.

It was election theater, says Dandachi, not a real choice. Even hard-line opponents inside Syria voted for Assad, fearing retribution, he says.

"That is the fear that the regime has implanted in us for 40 years, that if you step out of line there will be repercussions that you can't even image," he says.

But Dandachi is unsparing about the failures of opposition, citing another lesson from the show: The hero is a skilled politician.

"Syria is what happens when a society has no political class worth a damn. Armies can fight wars forever, they can win battles, but without a political solution for framework to end the conflict, then you can keep fighting forever," he says.

Forever is only in science fiction. But Dandachi and many other activists say it is unlikely they can return home for years; becoming another generation in exile, trying to build a credible political movement.

_________

If you have a Kindle you can download the book for free here - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Eye-M...+doctor+and+me

I have it and recommend it highly.

[Nolamom]

Happy Birthday Colin Baker!

[Alan]

Happy Birthday Colin Baker!

[BruTak]

Today, 8th of June, is also the 40th anniversary of episode 6 of "Planet of the Spiders". Which saw Jon Pertwee's Third Doctor regenerate into Tom Baker's Fourth.

I remember watching it at the time. I would've been a month shy of my fourth birthday.

I feel old now...

[Blencathra]

Today, 8th of June, is also the 40th anniversary of episode 6 of "Planet of the Spiders". Which saw Jon Pertwee's Third Doctor regenerate into Tom Baker's Fourth.

I remember watching it at the time. I would've been a month shy of my fourth birthday.

I feel old now...

I remember watching it as well. I'm a bit older than you *cough* I was totally shocked as I didn't know what was happening. Who was that strange curly haired man? What had happened to the Doctor? I didn't know the Doctor regenerated and that there had been others before Jon Pertwee. (My first episode was Spearhead)

Happy Birthday Colin Baker!

[BruTak]

I remember watching it as well. I'm a bit older than you *cough* I was totally shocked as I didn't know what was happening. Who was that strange curly haired man? What had happened to the Doctor? I didn't know the Doctor regenerated and that there had been others before Jon Pertwee. (My first episode was Spearhead)

I have a vivid memory of going out to the shops with my mum on the Monday afternoon, and telling the woman at the till all about this amazing thing I'd seen on the TV on Saturday night.

That's the first time I got the "Good heavens, a talking dog" look from a non-fan.

[Blencathra]

This is quite an old video but I hadn't seen it before. Neil deGrasse Tyson talks about time. Who is closer to the truth? - Doctor Who, Star Trek or Ray Bradbury?

[Alan]

Peter Capaldi writes Doctor Who's school report: from "A+" to "hopeless"
How did the Time Lord fare in subjects ranging from history to English, decorum to Dalek fighting?
10th June 2014
http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2014-...-a-to-hopeless

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I love the grade and the comment next to it! Just perfectly the Doctor!