TARDIS Report: Late Week

Dark Horizons today featured an exclusive interview with Sophia Myleswoh is currently starring in the new film "Tristan and Isolde" and will feature this season in "Doctor Who" as Madame du Pompadour in the episode "The Girl in the Fireplace". Says Myles in a very brief mention of the series, "It was fantastic, I did one episode... I mean it is a bit like being called...when you get asked to do Dr Who it is a bit like being called to Jury service you can't really say no I mean it runs through the veins of the British public and it's Doctor Who."

The official Doctor Who website now features a short discussion with executive producer Julie Gardner about the sale of the series to the Sci-Fi Channel in the US. Gardner mentions that she went over to America just before Christmas to tell Sci Fi what the episodes were all about and what the production team's hopes were for the show. Gardner also says that she's happy Sci-Fi is carrying the show and how they "just really felt like the right people [to air the show]. They really did get it. They were happy with how British it is, they really liked the humor. They really, really got it. And that was the most important thing." She also expects about two more months of shooting for the second series (noting that they're filming episodes with Cybermen currently, and that they've been marching in formation on the streets of Cardiff) and that they expect the show to air "in the Spring," and that she's seen some finished episodes already and that they look "really really beautiful and really exciting."

TV Zone Magazine features a new interview with Russell T Davies, who "ponders the challenges of regenerating the Doctor, reviving classic monsters, and coming up with something more Christmassy than The Christmas Invasion…" "It's bizarre, isn't it?" Davies tells the magazine. "Who'd have thought, this time last year… it's just inconceivable. You've seen BBC launches; you don't get the Controller of BBC 1, you don't get the Controller of Drama standing up and giving a speech at the beginning. It's quite extraordinary; that's how much they're behind it. You ask for the time and you ask for the money, and you ask them for facilities, and that's how supportive they are. ... It would be a thrill to go to the cinema and see [a film] happen but literally there wouldn't even be time to think about it right now. I do think in the future it'd be lovely to do a middle range, Serenity-sort-of-level film – like, 'We don't need that much money, just give us enough so we can see what we can do'. It's tempting, but there's no time to be tempted by it! Like I say, maybe when it's all over, then the dust might settle – then again, the movie people would say the impetus has gone! And we wouldn't, at the moment, hand it over for them to do that. I mean, very clearly, if they poked their head in now and said, 'We want to make a film with David now,' we'd say, 'No'. ... Especially when you're used to the history of Doctor Who, and you get told those stories [about casting] about how they all gathered in meetings and decided on, 'the cosmic hobo', and things like that. We didn't! They just said, 'Off you go and write the next episode, and write the regeneration'. It's the thing about having great actors; you don't have to describe it to them; you don't have to say, 'He's left handed, he says his lines in a funny way, he says his lines sarcastically, he's sad on this line'; all those stage directions that bad writers always put in – 'brackets, he's sad, close brackets'. You do a bit of that in every script, obviously, but with great actors you just let them fill the space. Mainly what you're writing is the story... I mean, he's reborn, he's full of energy. He's got rid of some of the baggage of the Time War, he's a new man. So you don't simply go, 'What are this Doctor's habits?', you go, 'What is the story, how does he develop through the story?' It's drama writing as opposed to genre writing; you don't get hooked up on 'the cosmic hobo', and all that. You don't sit there going, 'Who is the Doctor, what is he?', you say, 'In this story, how could we fulfil the best dramatic impact?' And that's what you're writing; you wait 40 minutes for him to arrive and when he does, he gets a round of applause!"

Says ic Wales, "Drinkers would have been forgiven for spilling their pints when they saw a troop of Cybermen marching outside a pub. But the only thing the streets of Cardiff were under attack from was a film crew, as scenes for the new series of Doctor Who were shot. Fans looking through the windows of The Gatekeeper yesterday evening were able to see all the action taking place on Womanby Street, parts of which were closed off to the public. Celebrity spotters were lucky enough to get a glimpse of new Doctor David Tennant and sidekick Rose, played by Billie Piper, as scenes for the BBC Wales series were filmed around The Horse and Groom and The Gatekeeper pubs. But the metal robots, which have caused countless children to hide behind sofas, didn't seem quite so scary when the actors playing them were seen in anoraks."

Doctor Who fan Ian Levine, who for years has been involved in campaigns to locate and return to the archives classic episodes of "Doctor Who" that had been purged from the BBC archives in the 1970's, today noted on the Restoration Team forum that after years of searching, he's located a favored source. For two decades, Levine has searched for a man namedTom Lundie, whose off-air video recordings of several classic Jon Pertwee episodes, including "Terror of the Autons," "Doctor Who and The Silurians" and "The Daemons," were instrumental in their eventual restoration for video release (specifically, the colorization of these stories for video); Lundie also possessed the only color footage known to exist from "The Mind of Evil," a clip later placed on the BBC video release. Levine has contacted Lundie again to borrow his off-air recordings to see if there is anything additional that can be salvaged.

Today's Mirror notes that John Barrowman was told he was "too straight" for TV sitcom Will and Grace, "even though he's about to marry his gay partner. And the 38-year-old actor, who came out in his 20s, said the fact that the part of Will eventually went to straight actor Eric McCormack is typical of 'homophobic' Hollywood. 'And the sad thing is it's run by gay men and women,' he added. Glaswegian John - who plans to formalise his 10-year relationship with architect boyfriend Scott Gill - has become a household name as bisexual Captain Jack Harkness and even has a BBC3 spin-off Torchwood. And tomorrow, John will battle in the rink with other celebs, including David Seaman and Kelly Holmes, in ITV1's new show Dancing on Ice. 'Tonight I won't sleep,' said John. 'If you fall, you gotta get back up and finish. There's no bulls****ing.'" Other reports on this story at Ananova,Contact Music, Hecklerspray.

The latest issue of Programme Extra - a collection of interviews, previews and information that wraps around each programme in the Nimax Theatres group (London's Apollo, Duchess, Garrick, Lyric and Vaudeville theatres) - has a 2-page interview feature titled "John Barrowman: when, where and why." As well as discussing his early roles ("I created a stir"), theatrical superstitions ("If there's a ghost I'll say hello to them. A bar of soap in my dressing room when I leave the building because there's a superstition that if you leave something in the room you will return"), his most embarrassing experiences on stage and who he would invite to a fantasy dinner party (Winston Churchill, Adolf Hitler, Queen Victoria, Kevin Costner and Ann Miller), he answers the question 'What projects are you most looking forward to in 2006?' with a hint that he may yet be back for series two: "The Sound of Musicals which I've just filmed for the BBC because I am so proud to be a part of bringing musicals back to television. I cannot wait to start Torchwood which is my own spin off series as Captain Jack and also my return to the Tardis for Doctor Who."

Says Daily Snack, "Doctor Moooooo! Sexy Billie Piper has revealed how she got a real beast of a Christmas surprise when a friend gave her two cows. Billie - who plays Doctor Who sidekick Rose Tyler - sneaks off to visit the pair in between filming for the smash hit show. The 23-year-old blonde fell in love with the heifers, so they are stopping at a friend’s farm instead of heading to the slaughterhouse. Billie said: 'The best Christmas present I ever got was two cows. Yes that’s right. Cows. As in moo cows. Because it was Christmas and they are both female I called them Mary and Josephine. Seriously that’s true. The cows are in a farm and I see them now and again.' Shapely Billie has obviously been bitten by the animal bug. She’s nicknamed her new co-star David Tennant - who plays The Doctor - 'Bambi'. She thinks the 34-year- old actor is a dead ringer for Disney’s baby deer. Billie tells the official Doctor Who Magazine: 'David is a lot more different in the role of The Doctor than Christopher Eccleston was. He dances more with the role. I guess he’s a bit more like a baby deer. He’s my little Bambi.' The BBC1 show returns in the spring and writer Russell T Davies, 42, has lined up a host of top stars. Comedy favourite Roger Lloyd Pack, 61, Anthony Head, 51, of Little Britain and My Family’s Zoë Wanamaker, 56, will all appear. K-9, the Cybermen and old assistant Sarah Jane Smith (Elizabeth Sladen, 57) will also return."

(Thanks to Paul Engelberg, Steve Tribe, Peter Weaver, John Bowman, Kevin West, Gary Custer, John Hutton)