The seventh Doctor story Battlefield is set to be released in the UK December 29th. The story is from the final season of the original series, and is the last story to feature the Brigadier (although sharp-eyed viewers could spot the actor, Nicholas Courtney, in a cameo in the previous season’s Silver Nemesis).
This story is one of my favorites from McCoy’s (televised) era, and blends Arthurian legends with science fiction. It was another story to continue the trend that began in season 25 of reintroducing mystery into the Doctor’s character (see Remembrance of the Daleks, which is also written by Ben Aaronovitch, for the first example of this trend).
The story involves characters from Moraine Le Fey from the legends of King Arthur, who have traveled from a parallel Earth to this one. In this story, it is established that at some point in his own future, the Doctor would be known as Merlin in that parallel world, and it’s one of the few stories I can think of where the Doctor intrudes (indirectly, by leaving himself a note) in his own timeline.
The DVD is noteworthy in that it will be the first time the broadcast version of the story will be released, as the 1990s VHS release was an extended cut taken from the “71 edits” (a BBC term for footage that ran too long to be broadcast in full), although interestingly enough the “broadcast version” was actually rebuilt from the longer 71 edits.
A second disk will contain a movie-format extended version with updated special effects.
No word yet on the American release of the story, but we should see it in a few months if it follows the usual schedule.
A more technical article on the restoration process can be found here.
The rumors we’ve all heard for a while now about David Tennant leaving Doctor Who are true. It’s official: According to the BBC, David Tennant has announced he will no longer be playing the role of the tenth Doctor once filming of the 4 Doctor Who specials in 2009 has been completed.
Tennant said the following during his announcement:
“I’ve had the most brilliant, bewildering and life changing time working on Doctor Who. I have loved every day of it. It would be very easy to cling on to the TARDIS console forever and I fear that if I don’t take a deep breath and make the decision to move on now, then I simply never will. You would be prising the TARDIS key out of my cold dead hand. This show has been so special to me, I don’t want to outstay my welcome.
“This is all a long way off, of course. I’m not quitting, I’m back in Cardiff in January to film four special episodes which will take Doctor Who all the way through 2009. I’m still the Doctor all next year but when the time finally comes I’ll be honoured to hand on the best job in the world to the next lucky git - whoever that may be.
“I’d always thought the time to leave would be in conjunction with Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner who have been such a huge part of it all for me. Steven Moffat is the most brilliant and exciting writer, the only possible successor to Russell and it was sorely tempting to be part of his amazing new plans for the show. I will be there, glued to my TV when his stories begin in 2010.
“I feel very privileged to have been part of this incredible phenomenon, and whilst I’m looking forward to new challenges I know I’ll always be very proud to be the Tenth Doctor.”
It’s always sad to see a Doctor go, especially one who did as brilliant a job as David Tennant. But the show, as always, must be about change. While I’ll miss the 10th Doctor, I can’t wait to see where Stephen Moffat and the 11th Doctor take the show in 2010.
A video of David Tennant discussing his reasons for leaving Doctor Who can be found here.
The 8th Doctor, played by Paul McGann in the 1996 Doctor Who TV movie, will start filming one of the forthcoming feature-length specials set to broadcast next year, according to British newspaper The Sun.
The new series of Doctor Who, which began in 2005, picked up the story of the Doctor an unknown time after the events of the TV Movie, and it was strongly implied that the 9th Doctor (Christopher Eccleston) had just regenerated not long before the events of “Rose”.
It seems we may learn more of the 8th Doctor’s story and perhaps the events of the Time War, as an unnamed BBC insider reported “Fans loved Paul’s Doctor and feel he was never given the proper chance to shine. Reference is often made to the Time War which wiped out the Time Lords and this will give them a taste of that.”
The 8th Doctor will appear battered by the events of the Time War, and will have short hair (as he appears in the 1996 publicity shot at right) rather than with the long hair he had in the TV movie.
This last comes as no surprise as McGann, who has continued playing the 8th Doctor in a series of audio dramas — has said for some time that he’d like to return to the role on TV, but only on the condition that he didn’t have to wear a wig again.
This story follows closely on the heels of other 2009 Doctor Who specials casting rumours that Catherine Tate will return as Donna, Bernard Cribbins will return as her grandfather Wilf, and that John Simm will be returning as the Master.
Personally, I’m keeping my fingers crossed on this one, and I know I’m not alone in having wanted to see Paul McGann return to Doctor Who for a long time now.
According to various UK news ranging from the Telegraph to the Sun, tenth Doctor David Tennant may appear in a Doctor Who movie. Tennant has not yet signed on for series 5 in 2010 and is apparently using a feature film as a bargaining chip — offering to do series five…
But only if he can land the role of the Timelord in theaters.
The rights to make a Doctor Who movie have been held by BBC Worldwide, but plans got put on hold when the TV series returned. But now with the popularity of the show as great as it’s ever been, now might be the right time to make a film.
It wouldn’t be the first time Doctor Who was in theaters, of course, since in the 1960s two films were released featuring the Daleks. Personally, I don’t really consider them to be real Doctor Who movies since they featured a human being named Dr. Who,played by Peter Cushing. The character was an inventor who somehow cobbled the TARDIS together in his garage.
Then of course there was the Doctor Who movie of 1996 — the TV movie featuring Paul McGann as the 8th Doctor.
If a Doctor Who movie is made, it’s likely to get Hollywood involvement, so hopefully whoever works on the film will learn from the mistakes made with the 1996 TV movie, and focus on telling a good story that’s faithful to the series, but not weighed down by too much continuity.
Despite some fans’ complaints, Doctor Who seems to be in good hands, so hopefully the right people will be making creative decisions, and not some Hollywood producer who doesn’t understand the show.
Maybe the creative team behind the upcoming Tintin films — Stephen Spielberg and Steven Moffat?
Just as long as I can go see it in theatres here in the States…
I’ve been enjoying a show on ABC Family called The Middleman, which I forget how I found out about since it’s on a channel I’d normally not watch, but I’ve been enjoying a lot.
Very silly sort of almost an updated Avengers (definitely making nods to it anyway — the first episode had an extended sequence that was a spoof recreation of the opening theme to the Emma Peel Avengers — a shortened form of this serves as the opening titles for each episode of The Middleman) It’s also *kind* of like Torchwood but less angsty, “dark” and self-consciously “adult” the way Torchwood tends to be (to it’s detriment IMO).
Every episode is packed with references to science fiction of various genres, music, cult TV and film, etc., all layered into this really fun fast-paced dialogue that reminds me of an old ’30s or ’40s film (and also reminds me in a different way of the deliberately stilted dialogue in Pushing Daisies, which you *really* need to watch if you haven’t. Best new series in the last couple of years).
There’s a recurring character who is an android that’s supposed to blend in with a kind of “chameleon circuit” if you will (they don’t use that term) but which got stuck on the “cranky librarian setting. I’d been suspecting it *might* be a very sly Who reference, but now I know it is.
Last night’s episode featured no less than 6 references to classic Doctor Who (plus a line about a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster). In almost every episode the two main characters will bluff their way into different situations using fake IDs, and in this one they pretend to be from NASA, and the Middleman identifies himself as Commander Benton (a reference to Sgt. Benton from UNIT) and refers to his assistant Wendy Watson as “Specialist Harriot” (a reference to the 2nd Doctor companion Zoe Harriot)
He then grabs the ID of the person who he’s bluffing (someone who actually *is* from NASA) and reads the last name off the tag: Lethbridge-Stewart (as in Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart who heads UNIT in the classic series).
Two minutes later the Middleman wheels out a “Zygon-rated” containment unit (see above for image of a Zygon), and later in the episode someone mentions the name “Peri Perpugilliam” (referencing the 5th & 6th Doctor companion Peripugilliam “Peri” Brown), and finally a “McCrimmon University” is mentioned (like 2nd Doctor companion Jamie McCrimmon).
I admit I’m a sucker for Doctor Who references in TV and movies, but it’s especially satisfying to hear them on American TV — and not even a full week after the repeating “Doctor Who? I love that show!” reference in last week’s time loop episode of Eureka.
A Doctor Who fan named Alex Day has invented a new genre of music… Time Lord Rock, or “Trock” for short.
It seems Alex tried to get into “Wrock” which apparently is “Wizard Rock” for Harry Potter fans. I’d never heard of it before, but then I’m not really into Harry Potter, so there you are.
Alex tells the story of how he invented a new type of music just for Doctor Who fans in his YouTube video below, as well as demos the first Trock song.
Oh, and apparently his band’s name is Chameleon Circuit, which is a great name.
Doctor Who has been awarded Best Program for the second year running at The Edinburgh TV festival’s annual awards, confirming what Who fans worldwide knew anyway — Doctor Who is the best show on TV.
BBC One, where Doctor Who airs in the UK, also won best terrestrial channel of the year. Like Doctor Who in its category, this is BBC One’s second win in a row.
All of the winners at the festival were chosen by a panel of television executives, as well as journalists.
Guess there’s a lot of Doctor Who fans in the panel.
It’s a great time to be a Doctor Who fan in the United States — for so many years it was next to impossible to see Doctor Who, and it was incredibly obscure outside of fan circles. These days, with the modern series airing on Sci Fi, BBC America, a few PBS stations, and even getting mentions in TV guide and other mainstream publications, it’s a different world from the long lonely days of the 90s.
Now a new option is available for American Doctor Who fans who want to watch the show — the iTunes Store.
2-3 weeks or so ago, iTunes made series 1-3 of the current Doctor Who available to download through the store, and more recently they’ve started adding stories from the classic series, including ones not available anywhere else (unless you hunt down an old VHS copy) which is really cool.
Their choice of stories is something of a mixed bag — classic stories such as The Green Death and The Ark in Space alongside a story like The Krotons…. Despite being notable as Robert Holmes’ first story, it’s hardly Patrick Troughton’s best serial…
But presumably this is just the beginning, so hopefully we’ll be seeing more and more stories added in the future. Either way, very cool.
Incoming Doctor Who producer Steven Moffat has been announced as the winner for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form for the Series 3 episode “Blink”, according to the offical Hugo site.
This makes the third Hugo award Moffat has won in a row for Doctor Who episodes. His first award was for his 2005 two-parter “The Empty Child” & “The Doctor Dances”, his second was for the series two episode “The Girl In the Fireplace”.
The creepy episode featured the Weeping Angels, who threatened the life of Sally Sparrow and others in that year’s “Doctor-lite” episode which turned out to be one of the best of the series.
The seventh Doctor story Battlefield is set to be released in the UK December 29th. The story is from the final season of the original series, and is the last story to feature the Brigadier (although sharp-eyed viewers could spot the actor, Nicholas Courtney, in a cameo in the previous season’s Silver Nemesis).
The rumors we’ve all heard for a while now about David Tennant leaving Doctor Who are true. It’s official: According to the BBC, David Tennant has announced he will no longer be playing the role of the tenth Doctor once filming of the 4 Doctor Who specials in 2009 has been completed.
The 8th Doctor, played by Paul McGann in the 1996 Doctor Who TV movie, will start filming one of the forthcoming feature-length specials set to broadcast next year, according to British newspaper 
According to various UK news ranging from the Telegraph to the Sun, tenth Doctor David Tennant may appear in a Doctor Who movie. Tennant has not yet signed on for series 5 in 2010 and is apparently using a feature film as a bargaining chip — offering to do series five…
Then of course there was the Doctor Who movie of 1996 — the TV movie featuring Paul McGann as the
I’ve been enjoying a show on ABC Family called The Middleman, which I forget how I found out about since it’s on a channel I’d normally not watch, but I’ve been enjoying a lot.
He then grabs the ID of the person who he’s bluffing (someone who actually *is* from NASA) and reads the last name off the tag: Lethbridge-Stewart (as in Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart who heads UNIT in the classic series).
Now a new option is available for American Doctor Who fans who want to watch the show — the iTunes Store.
Their choice of stories is something of a mixed bag — classic stories such as The Green Death and The Ark in Space alongside a story like The Krotons…. Despite being notable as Robert Holmes’ first story, it’s hardly Patrick Troughton’s best serial…
Incoming Doctor Who producer Steven Moffat has been announced as the winner for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form for the Series 3 episode “Blink”, according to .jpg/350px-Blink_(Doctor_Who).jpg "Doctor Who Producer Steven Moffat Wins Third Hugo With Blink")