Doctor Who News, Articles, Cast and Crew Interviews

[rushy]

K-9 vs Omega seems like a really random pairing. The only thing to connect them is the writer. Not sure this is going to be a good thing.

[Blencathra]

Doctor Who Series 9: Sarah Dollard talks Face The Raven [SPOILERS]

http://blogtorwho.blogspot.co.uk/201...ard-talks.html

Writer Sarah Dollard was a guest at MCM London Comic Con earlier today, with Steven Moffat, Mark Gatiss, and director Rachel Talalay (Dark Water/Death In Heaven). During the panel she revealed some new facts about her upcoming story, Face The Raven (Series 9, Episode 10)

Spoiler:

Sarah told a packed audience at the London ExCel, after some prompting by Executive Producer Steven Moffat, that her instalment would feature the return of Maisie Williams (Ashildr in The Girl Who Died and The Woman Who Lived) but would not include any guitar playing from Peter Capaldi.

[Teddybrown]

Dammit, Ive just realised Im at a wedding next week, so will miss this live...

Interesting above...

[Flyboy]

I have to say I'm really scratching my head over this one. They have a fantastic major villain in Omega, in a multi million dollar movie, and yet they waste him by getting him to fight it out with K9??? Plus there is no involvement from the BBC, and presumably they won't be able to reference Gallifrey or the Time Lords or the Doctor. I really don't know what to make of this.

I mean I love K9, but I really don't like the updated look the modern spin off TV show gave him. Is John Leeson going to be involved? It's all so bizarre.

*clutches Gallifrey: Intervention Earth to chest*

I'm with you....

I'm actually surprisingly pleased about a K9 movie... but not Omega... please... one of the greatest threats to Time Lord existence should not be pitted against the (loveable) tin dog...

[Blencathra]

Big Finish: The Tenth Doctor Adventures!

http://www.bigfinish.com/news/v/doct...tor-adventures


Click for bigger.

David Tennant is returning as the Tenth Doctor alongside Catherine Tate as his companion Donna Noble in three Doctor Who Audio Dramas!

David Tennant portrayed the Doctor on screen from 2005 until 1 January 2010, returning to play alongside Matt Smith and John Hurt in the 50th Anniversary special The Day of the Doctor in 2013. Catherine Tate made her debut as Donna in December 2006, and after a series and two festive specials she made her last appearance alongside David on 1 January 2010. Their on-screen partnership is generally regarded as one of the great high-points of the enduring science fiction phenomenon.

'I still remember the sense of joy I had when I heard that David had been asked to play the Doctor,' says Big Finish executive producer Jason Haigh-Ellery. 'We were all so pleased for him — as we knew how much Doctor Who meant to him. And now David comes full circle, back doing Doctor Who with Big Finish — except that this time he’s playing the Doctor! It’s the same but different — it’s wonderful to have him back!'

Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor Adventures will be released in May 2016 and comprises three thrilling full cast audio adventures.

The series opens with Doctor Who – The Tenth Doctor Adventures: Technophobia by Matt Fitton, which is set in a London slightly in the future, where mankind is gradually losing its ability to use everyday technology. Could there be an evil force at work?

In Doctor Who – The Tenth Doctor Adventures: Time Reaver by Jenny T Colgan the Doctor and Donna arrive on Calibris - ‘An entirely mechanical planet. Catch, hitch, fuel, fix, buy, pretty much any kind of transportation in existence.’ It’s also a world full of scoundrels, where a deadly black market has opened up in a device known only as the Time Reaver.

Finally, in Doctor Who – The Tenth Doctor Adventures: Death and the Queen by James Goss, Donna is swept along in a fairytale romance and meets the man of her dreams in the beautiful land of Goritania. What can possibly go wrong? And why has the Doctor never heard of Goritania?

'I’ve enjoyed working with all the Doctors on TV, but David is on the only one I’d known before he became the Doctor,' says executive producer Nicholas Briggs. 'I’d worked with him on our Dalek Empire series for Big Finish and had such fun. So along with the excitement of directing new Tenth Doctor adventures, I’m so happy to be working with an old chum again.'

Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor Adventures is produced by David Richardson, script edited by Matt Fitton and James Goss and directed by Nicholas Briggs.

'This is one of those dream projects where I’ve spent months pinching myself. I’m covered in bruises,’ says David. ‘With two major international stars in place, and the legacy of this era of the TV show to live up to, we’ve worked our socks off to try and make some very special stories for this box set. Expect adventure, fun, scares... and some tears too.'

Doctor Who – The Tenth Doctor Adventures will be released in May 2016 - exclusively on the Big Finish website. Each of the three titles are available to pre-order separately today for just £10.99 on CD or £8.99 to download. A bundle of all three titles is also available for £25 on CD and £22 to download!

All three stories are also available in the Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor Adventures Volume 1 – Limited Edition set. Limited to just 5,000 copies and available exclusively from bigfinish.com, and the lavish book-sized box set includes exclusive artwork, photography, articles and a one-hour documentary featuring interviews with the stars and production team. You can pre-order the set today at the special price of £30 on CD or £25 to download – offering a £5 discount against the standard price!!

A whole universe of further Doctor Who releases are also available from Big Finish, with upcoming productions featuring John Hurt's War Doctor, Alex Kingston as River Song and Jemma Redgrave leading the forces of UNIT.

http://www.bigfinish.com/ranges/comi...ed-10th-doctor

[rushy]

who.jpeg

And you lot said they wouldn't do a 10th anniversary celebration.

[Alan]

Outlander author Diana Gabaldon: it would be "interesting" to write an episode of Doctor Who
The woman behind the smash hit time travel drama wouldn't rule out a date with The Doctor, whose companion inspired the show in the first place!
By Sarah Doran
Monday 26 October 2015 at 3:53PM

http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2015-...-of-doctor-who

Diana Gabaldon has eight Outlander novels and one smash hit TV adaptation of the time travel saga under her belt already but could she see herself writing an episode of Doctor Who, the show that gave birth to her beloved Jamie Fraser?

"That would be interesting. Yes, I probably could" says Gabaldon as we discuss the inspiration for Sam Heughan's highland heartthrob, who was based on kilt wearing Doctor Who companion Jamie McCrimmon.

"It would be a different approach though, a different endeavour because Doctor Who is not drawn from original source material which means that the episodes are straight out of the writer’s imagination, not needing to be adapted from an existing body of stuff, where you have to say 'I must include this and I must include that', which in a way is much easier but in another way, you’ve nothing to go on."

Gabaldon enjoys telling RadioTimes.com the tale of the day Jamie McCrimmon brought the concept of "Scottish male pig-headed gallantry" into her mind.

The then historical researcher had intended on "writing a book for practice" and was searching for a time in which to set it when she spotted Frazer Hines' character, Jamie McCrimmon in an old episode of Doctor Who – Second Doctor Patrick Troughton's The War Games.

Gabaldon was struck by the image of the man in the kilt and went on to create Claire Randall and Jamie Fraser. When she had completed her first novel she decided to send Hines a copy: "His manager/PR person at the time very kindly wrote back and sent me a signed photo of him. Then the manager wrote again a few months later and said "you know Frazer does these charity things, would you mind sending him a couple of signed books?'

"And I said yes, of course, so we kept in touch in this indirect way and in 2009 when they had that Gathering thing in Scotland [a two-day event celebrating Scottish culture], I know the organiser of that who had invited me to come and take part so I did and much to my surprise Frazer came along to the Gathering and that’s where we met in person for the first time," she continues.

"We did a joint interview for the BBC about our respective works in conjunction and all that so we kept in closer touch after that, via email and so forth. I didn’t talk to him all the time, just periodically.

Then along came Outlander and Gabaldon suggested that Hines make an appearance in the Starz adaptation "just to tie back into the beginning, so to speak." The show's producers agreed and he was cast as the Governor of Wentworth Prison. "He was fabulous," recalls the author.

So if Gabaldon was to pen a Doctor Who story, who would she cast? Hines, or Heughan – who incidentally has already informed RadioTimes.com how keen he is for a role in the long-running BBC series.

"I love Doctor Who – I'd love to do sci-fi," he told us earlier this year, revealing that he'd been trying to persuade his friend and Doctor Who writer Mark Gatiss to get him a part.

"Maybe there's a crossover there as well," he added, suggesting that Outlander and Doctor Who could easily combine. "It would work. I could come out of the Tardis – that'd be awesome. Let’s make this happen! If we could do that, that’d be great.”

Over to you Team Doctor Who...

Outlander Season 1 is now available on Blu-ray and DVD

[BruTak]

Hmmm... No.

[rushy]

Hmmm... No.

We might get a Frazer Hines cameo. Whatever Outlander is(sorry, haven't read), I think it'd be worth it.

[iiradned]

We might get a Frazer Hines cameo. Whatever Outlander is(sorry, haven't read), I think it'd be worth it.

Outlander is the story of modern-day woman Claire happily married while travelling with her husband in 1945 Scotland who somehow travels back to the 18th century and has adventures with a Highlander who she also marries. Claire switches back and forth between the 18th and 20th centuries. Never got beyond the first book of the series myself.

[Alan]

We might get a Frazer Hines cameo. Whatever Outlander is(sorry, haven't read), I think it'd be worth it.

Outlander is a show based on a book of the same name. It starts off in post-World War II Britain. A nurse that served in the war goes to Scotland with her husband for a second honeymoon. The nurse then finds herself thrown back in time to the 1743 and struggling to live and survive during the Jacobite risings.

I've seen all of series 1 of Outlander and thoroughly enjoyed it! And having the wee guest appearance of Jamie McCrimmon actor Frazer Hines was a really nice touch. To think the show was inspired by Diana Gabaldon's watching of Jamie in Doctor Who is...well its remarkable! I'd be very pleased if Diana wrote an episode Doctor Who!

[BruTak]

Basically, it's "Highlander" without the decapitations.

[rushy]

That sounds pretty awesome, I think I'm gonna check it out.

[Blencathra]

Interview: Steven Moffat Has Next-Leveled ‘Doctor Who’

http://observer.com/2015/10/steven-m...ed-doctor-who/

Spoilered for length

Spoiler:

Steven Moffat needs you to know something. If you’re not watching Doctor Who, you’re a foolish snob. Mr. Steven Moffat, the showrunner, writer, and producer of Doctor Who—he is also a co-creator and writer of Sherlock—is a lifelong fan of the characters he now gets to re-invent. Mr. Moffat – who’s won a constellation of Nebula and Hugo Awards – began writing for television with a show called Press Gang and later created Joking Apart and Chalk. When Doctor Who came back to television in 2005, it was Mr. Moffat’s writing that ushered in its Aureate Age of Glory. Five years later, he was in charge of Doctor Who and had invented Sherlock.

Since Mr. Moffat took charge of the show in 2010, Doctor Who has become the crown jewel for the BBC. Those who grew up on the show now watch with their children. In America, Doctor Who has more teen viewers than dramas on network and cable television, and is regularly among the top ten most discussed shows on social media.

It’s become a fad to ask Moffat about the state of women in his shows. It’s a stupid trend. Steven Moffat is a writer who loves women. Example: his gorgeous “The Girl in the Fireplace.” His version of Madame de Pompadour is one of the most exciting, fully-realized characters on television in recent years. She’s dazzling, of course, but the character is also brilliant, deeply perceptive (she is the only character who ever sees inside the Doctor’s mind), and courageous when faced with death. Mr. Moffat’s award-winning “Blink” rests solely on Sally Sparrow; the Doctor barely appears in the episode. It’s Sally (played by Carey Mulligan) who saves the day as well as the TARDIS. And why isn’t there a female Doctor yet? Because there already is! Kind of. If you’ve been watching, you know that the character of The Master, who is a Time Lord, is now played by Michelle Gomez. That doesn’t make her a Doctor – only the main character is the Doctor and all twelve generations have been male. But still, women can clearly do what men can do and now we can call The Master Mistress, or Missy.

I began watching Doctor Who during its early days. We had a long, skinny wood-paneled room with a flowered couch, a stereo, and a black and white set that got four channels. This is where my mom and I would watch TV together, sometimes for hours. She would be reading her textbooks from law school while I read, sipped Pelican Punch tea, and watched everything from Masterpiece Theater to Laverne and Shirley. Not a lot of viewing options for a single parent and her loner kid back in the mid-70s. Doctor Who was always on PBS. Yes, it was the era of Tom Baker (scarf guy), the Fourth Doctor. The sets were absurd; the Daleks appeared so ridiculous I assumed they were made from bubble wrap. Exterminate!! But we watched it anyway.

Now I binge watch Doctor Who, gorging on the brilliance of the writing and the acting. Even the once-ridiculous sets have been replaced by sophisticated props (the Daleks are much improved) and impressive cinematography. Still, my favorite episode, “Midnight,” is perfectly low-tech and takes place on a stranded bus. Most of the action is small and unsettling: a few knocks on a bus wall, a woman who won’t move but simply echoes the dialogue (the brilliant Lesley Sharp as Sky Silvestry), which makes the cramped setting even creepier. When Sky begins to control the conversation, it is genuinely shocking. It’s like watching the horrible moment when RNA takes over for DNA during reverse transcriptase. This is how a retrovirus gets made: when the falconer cannot control the falcon. This is how a perfect episode is structured.

OBSERVER: You’ve pointed out that Doctor Who in the UK is a family show, and is shown at a family time. But in America, it’s sort of marginalized to science fiction geeks. Do you have any idea why that might be?

MOFFAT: None at all. You’ll probably have to ask the schedulers. I think in the end, it could be nothing more than it goes later there, doesn’t it? But there aren’t enough sci fi geeks to account for the very good ratings we’re getting on BBC America, so it’s not marginalized entirely to them. But maybe it’s a cultural difference, in that we perceive it to be a quite children’s family show but is an adult drama over there. I don’t know. At the moment in the UK, we’re going out at 8:25, which I think is a bit late, so there you go.

OBSERVER: I’m fascinated that Americans tend to cling to the same actor year after year, to the point where someone like Captain Kirk is practically in a walker, but it’s perfectly acceptable for Doctor Who to change every few years, and everyone loves it.

MOFFAT: Well, first of all, there have been TWO Captain Kirks, and they’re both very good Captain Kirks, Chris Pine and William Shatner. As for Doctor Who, I think we’ve got the same tendency to cling in the UK. I don’t think we like it when unaccountably someone turns up with a different face and nobody notices. In the case of Doctor Who, in order to honor that need to cling to the original actor, we developed all those years ago a brilliant idea for re-casting that allows you to accept a different pattern, a different performer, and a different face in the same role. And in a way, the fact that Doctor Who has had to alter its entire mythology to account for recasts points to the fact that we are just as nervous as a group as everybody else is.

OBSERVER: In “Waters of Mars” and “Vincent and the Doctor,” two of my favorite episodes and very big fan favorites, the Doctor has such a wave of compassion for humans, to the point where in “Waters of Mars” he truly breaks the rules with devastating consequences. But why is he essentially incapable of real love?

MOFFAT: Well, we don’t know the answer to that question. We don’t know the extent to which he’s capable of real love. This is a thing we have to discuss sometimes on the set, about what he is feeling right now. What did he feel for River? What did he feel for Rose? The answer always has to kind of be, we don’t know. That’s all locked in a box somewhere. We know that he’s wired like any other Time Lord, and they all do that sort of thing. We know that as an incontrovertible fact that he’s been a father in his life, and it’s not something you can dismiss or ignore. He’s capable of all that. I think he just doesn’t. This is my theory, and just the fact that I write it right now doesn’t make it more important than anyone else’s theory. I don’t think he’s incapable of feeling real love at all, in fact I think he’s quite badly susceptible to crushes, but he doesn’t seem to do anything about it. He seems to have taken the position that that is no longer what he does. He’s something of a gentleman, really, and to do all that would mean proper commitment, in his book, and he’s not really good at proper commitment. He can’t even stay on the same planet. It’s hard not to assume that there’s tremendous heartbreak from way before we knew him, since we first encountered him traveling with his granddaughter and nobody else. It’s reasonable to assume that there’s something awful back there. The answer I tend to prefer is not that he’s incapable, but that’s he decided not to, but at times those hearts are at war with each other. He wants what he thinks he shouldn’t have. It’s much more dramatic if it’s that way. He’s made a decision that as much as he might fall in love now and then, he never does anything about it. I think you see him fall in love quite a lot. You don’t see him embark on a fool relationship and all that that entails. As far as we know. Heaven knows what he gets up to between episodes—I’ve never asked him.

OBSERVER: What do you think attracts you to shows in which someone is emotionally distant?

MOFFAT: I’m not sure the Doctor is emotionally distant. He’s romantically distant, perhaps. He’s quite emotional, in fact terribly driven by emotions. He’d like to occasionally pretend that any of his incarnations are aloof and above it all, but then he loses his temper or bursts out crying. He’s quite an emotional man, and he doesn’t particularly think that emotions are a bad thing. He’s got nothing against them. Sherlock is also an emotional man, but he decided not to be, to clarify his mind. But as regards me, I’ve got no feelings about the matter. I’m certainly not an emotionally distant man at all. Like most people, I very terribly emote. So I’m not especially attracted to that, no. I think what’s interesting in both cases, with the Doctor and Sherlock Holmes is that they’re both emotional people, they just handle it in different ways.

OBSERVER: There’s a wonderful moment in Extras where Andy Millman heroically quits his show and he keeps being offered a role as a slug on Doctor Who, which he finally accepts. Does it ever bother you that other shows ignore the brilliance and the seriousness of the themes and the writing on the show?

MOFFAT: That’s not true. I loved “Extras,” but that joke was sort of out of date. Look at the guest stars we’ve had. People are falling over themselves to be on Doctor Who. It’s completely untrue that people regard us like that. People get very excited when they walk onto the TARDIS set.

OBSERVER: That’s because it’s bigger on the inside.

MOFFAT: Yeah. It’s not at all true that people regard our show as slumming it. It’s the one job they can ever take that will impress their kids. That’s simply an untruth. I don’t think Ricky has actually watched Doctor Who. They’re talking about it maybe in the days of old, maybe in the ‘60s and ‘70s, it would seem that way. It was a much-loved show even then. But now it’s BBC 1’s flagship drama. It’s not seen that way at all.

OBSERVER: Is there a big David Bowie fan in the writer’s room? I was thrilled that “Waters of Mars” takes place on Bowie Base One. I read that Peter Capaldi also asked for the Thin White Duke to be cast next season.

MOFFAT: “Waters of Mars” wasn’t a show I had anything to do with because it was before I took it over. I’m sure there is somebody else. People could sneak millions of references past me and I wouldn’t even know. I don’t know music that well, I’m sorry.

OBSERVER: I must ask: Are we going to see Missy again?

MOFFAT: Well, yes, I would think so. We’ve officially re-installed that character as the quasi-archenemy who turns up now and then.

OBSERVER: Sometimes she’s a friend.

MOFFAT: She’s never exactly a friend. She’s just never exactly an enemy. She’s complicated. That’s nothing new that I’ve introduced. You can go right back to the first appearances by The Master and they clearly get on. That’s just the weird thing about them, they just happen to be on different sides. That’s not new. What’s new is Michelle Gomez.

[Blencathra]

continued...

Spoiler:

OBSERVER: She’s just the most marvelous character, wonderful. Her interaction with the Doctor crackles, she’s just delightful.

MOFFAT: She is.

OBSERVER: What hope does a young Steven Moffat have? How would an aspiring Doctor Who writer get to be where you are?

MOFFAT: First of all, by becoming a writer. I did want to write for Doctor Who, that was absolutely my ambition. But what actually happened is that I got to write my own shows. I wrote my own stuff for years and was actually doing quite well by the end of that. That’s the point at which somebody from the Doctor Who office might get a whiff that that person is a Doctor Who fan and they might say yes to a Doctor Who episode. The wrong ambition to have is to only write Doctor Who. You should want to write everything and then Doctor Who is something you might get as an extra surprise. I was writing television for a long time before I wrote for Doctor Who.

OBSERVER: Does the Doctor sleep? I’ve seen him eat on occasion, and Rory once asks him where his room is, but the Doctor doesn’t answer.

MOFFAT: Yeah, he does sleep. We’ve seen him sleep in the show actually. He does like to have a nap. I don’t think he sleeps in the same pattern we do because he lives much longer. It would be odd if he did. Yes, he sleeps. He more or less, generally speaking, except for the very obvious exceptions, seems to be at human prowess in most things. He needs to eat, sleep, drink water. He’s not physically much stronger than a human being. He doesn’t run faster. Essentially, if he’s horrifically injured, he can turn into a different actor. But that sort of is the extent of his superpowers. But otherwise, he’s kind of in the story the function of a human. But he has to do all of these things. So yes, we work with the assumption that he does all of those things. He does like to preserve his mystique, the Doctor. So he might not wish to admit that he’s off for a snooze.

OBSERVER: It must be wonderful to write two different shows with a character you’ve followed your whole life.

MOFFAT: It’s very exciting. You can sort of claim that tiny bit of the picture I’ve filled in, look at that tiny bit over there. That’s my piece in the mosaic.

OBSERVER: I have a superfan question. Are we ever going to see the sonic screwdriver again? At one point, many seasons ago, River Song has a very advanced screwdriver, so clearly it has to come from the future. Will we ever know which Doctor gives it to her?

MOFFAT: Well, I’m not answering your second question! That has to be the answer to that. As to whether or not we’ll see the sonic screwdriver again, of course we will!

OBSERVER: I happen to like the sunglasses, but I’m sure others are wondering.

MOFFAT: It just occurred to me with the sonic glasses, you know, it’s kind of cool because that means every kid with glasses has now got a superpower. Every kid whose parents don’t want to run the expense of a toy, they just have to go get some sunglasses. Even more importantly, every celebrity ****** who thinks they’re looking cool because they’re wearing sunglasses is now cosplaying as Doctor Who. It tricks pomposity, it confers magic on an everyday household object, and it turns an eye defect into a superpower. How much more Doctor Who do you get?

The screwdriver will be back. We’re just messing about and having some fun. Surely that’s allowed.

OBSERVER: I thought the line about “wearable technology” was quite hilarious.

MOFFAT: It’s the sort of silly thing that Doctor Who would do. And it sort of resurrects the old joke that we’ve all forgotten about. The words “sonic screwdriver” together are ridiculous. Why would you make a screwdriver sonic? Well, sonic sunglasses is just going back to that. The ones that care about this kind of stuff enough to get angry are insisting that our sonic sunglasses are silly but sonic screwdrivers, well, that makes perfect sense. Are you mad? This is about a man with two hearts who lives in a telephone box — can we just straighten ourselves out here a bit. Get with the program.

OBSERVER: Is there anything you’ve been especially proud of in the most recent season?

MOFFAT: Well, what have we done lately? I’m proud that we get to the end of the series and it all looks pretty and is nice. I’m just embarking on the new one and it’s terrifying. I have to make all that again. We got some new writers in who I thought were really great. Jamie Mathieson and Peter Harness, and thank God for voices of new people writing. I love that, having new writers this year. Sarah Dollard, Cat Tregenna, so it’s always good getting people who are new to the show. I like that we did a show called “Listen,” which is about the only show we’ve made in the modern series that you could absolutely have made in 1963, because it was so low tech. I loved “Mummy on the Orient Express.” I’ll just say this, I shouldn’t, but I thought it was the best mummy ever put on film. I thought it was terrific. A brilliant mummy. All the things you’d expect me to be fatuous and proud of, it’s a bit of a trap because you always end up with a big head. Those are things that I love.

OBSERVER: Is there anything to say about the Christmas episode?

MOFFAT: I think that you probably know that we’ve got River Song back at Christmas.

OBSERVER: That’s exactly what I was hoping to hear.

MOFFAT: We confirmed that a while back. We’ve shot that one with the 12th Doctor. That’s been a riot to do. And that’s been sort of a big fun chase episode, really. Just Mr. and Mrs. Who battling their way past nonsense and that’s been great fun. They’re lovely together, they are. Alex [Kingston] is always great value. It’s time we saw her back being a kick ass hero instead of playing mums and sisters and all that. It’s a waste of her.