Winter Wonderland?

According to the South Wales report, the city of Swansea's maritime area will be "taken back in time and transformed into a scene from 1869 for the star-studded production." Says the report, fake snow is set to cover the road between Adelaide Street and Pier Street, and along the whole of Cambrian Place, Burrows Place and Gloucester Place. Period costume along with horses and carriages will help bring the scene to life. The article mentions Simon Callow's casting as Charles Dickens earlier in the week. An "insider" told the reporter, "We are currently working on the new series of Dr Who for BBC Wales. We have recognised the timeless charm of the Maritime area of Swansea and we would like to shoot some of our scenes there. The shots are snow scenes and are at night so for one night people will be treated to a Christmas scene outside their windows. We will also introduce horses and carriages, background artists in period costume and the use of braziers to take us back to Christmas 1869. We will be providing alternative parking for residents in a nearby secure car park and although road closures have been agreed and will be implemented, emergency vehicles will have access as normal." Swansea Councillor Gerald Clement, cabinet member for culture, recreation and tourism commented, "We are delighted that part of the new Dr Who series will be filmed in Swansea and extremely pleased to be associated with such a high-profile project. Our tourism marketing team works with the SWW office of the Wales Screen Commission to promote Swansea as a film and TV location and collectively, we have been successful in attracting a number of high-profile projects over the past couple of years."

The Sun, meanwhile, states (with a rather rude title) that "the new Doctor Who is to take on deadly aliens hell-bent on wiping out mankind ù by passing wind," regurgitating the Geith storyline that Outpost Gallifrey reported last week. (Indeed, we believe some of the Sun details are taken from the same source as we had.) It also mentions the Doctor faces an attack by "a race of dastardly 8ft villains called the Slitheens" which we previously reported. "The Doctor and sidekick Rose Tyler, played by Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper, must stop the Slitheens taking over the bodies of key politicians who run the country. They are part of a fiendish plot in which an alien crash-landing diverts attention from the plan to overthrow the Government." It mentions the March date again and notes that "other storylines include Rose witnessing the end of the world far in the future."