TARDIS Report: End of Week UK Coverage

Some of the press clips from the past few days from the UK are below (the bulk of the coverage this week has been in America):

Eclipse Magazine featured an exclusive interview this week with John Barrowman, last year's second Doctor Who companion and now star of the forthcoming "Torchwood" spinoff. "'It was like a childhood dream, because I'd grown up watching the show,' he says with obvious excitement. 'I've loved the show even from when I lived in Glasgow. My first actual episode that I recall was about the Autons, the shop dummies which were in the first episode of the new series. ... I think those fans who are my age and older will come immediately to 'Doctor Who' and I think they'll have a great love for it, as the 'Whovian' fans in the UK have. It has every element that speaks to the kids and also speaks to the adults. The kind of subliminal stuff goes over the kids' heads and hits the adults in the face - that's the only way I can describe it and that's why the series works so brilliantly.' ... What about the British humour? Barrowman is unconcerned about the specifically British references. It doesn't matter if the American audience doesn't get them, he says. 'But,' he continues firmly, 'I absolutely think they will get them because shows like 'Absolutely Fabulous' and 'The Office' have been great successes in America. So they do understand British humour, and that's why Americans love the Brits so much - it's something quirky and different from what they are used to.' The TV viewers aren't the only fans of the show; Barrowman says that the entire cast and crew have grown up with the various incarnations of 'Doctor Who' and have loved the show since they were children. And, it seems, everyone is trying to get in on this successful act. 'Special effects people are fighting to be involved,' Barrowman says. 'They are banging down the door. I have got people who write to me and send me treatment scripts to pass on to Russell [T Davies, writer] because they want to be involved with this show. It's a huge, huge, huge, huge, big deal!' ... Even though Jack has been brought back from the dead, he won't feature in the second season of the new 'Doctor Who'. The character made such an impression on both the audience and the producers that he will be heading up a spin-off show, 'Torchwood', due to start filming in April. The show will feature three other regular characters, including Gwen Cooper, played by Eve Myles, as Jack's female counterpart. Barrowman is thrilled about this project too. 'I am just totally so excited about it,' he says. 'The script is really good.' Described as a darker, sexier, more adult science fiction show, 'Torchwood' focuses on a renegade team investigating human and alien crime, and extraterrestrial technology that has fallen to Earth. After filming the spin-off, Barrowman will be returning to 'Doctor Who' for the third season, with David Tennant continuing to play The Doctor. The two met while Barrowman was appearing in the pantomime 'Cinderella' during the winter

Something we at Outpost Gallifrey missed last week... Bonnie Langfordwas voted out of ITV's "Dancing on Ice" shortly before its conclusion. Says the ITV site, "Whatever people say about Bonnie, one thing is for sure: she has provided us with some of the most spectacular performances we've seen on the ice. But tonight, those spectacular routines were brought to an unceremonious end when you decided that Gaynor and Stefan should go forward to dance Bolero. But despite coming up short so close to the finishing line, the judges favourite refused to be downheartened. 'I'm disappointed for Matt because we had a fabulous routine,' an upbeat Bonnie babbled after Phil delivered the bad news. 'It would have been beautiful and I would have done him proud.' But bendy Bonnie rightly refused to be downbeat about coming third in the competition. 'This has been so life changing for me,' she went on. 'I've touched so many people, which has been brilliant. 'And now I'm going to play Roxy Hart in Chicago!'" Langford was one of two Doctor Who actors (the other being John Barrowman) on the program this year.

The April issue of BBC Focus Magazine, the monthly magazine by the BBC on science and technology, has a large section devoted to the science of Dr. Who. From the blurb: "The Science of Doctor Who: As a new Doctor and a new series hit our screens, BBC Focus asks the questions that really matter: could we regenerate, have cybernetic implants, or get a robot dog?"

Yesterday's LegalWeek seems to have discovered the Cybus Corporation fan site that has made the rounds in Doctor Who fandom. "Regular readers will know all about the utilitarian paradise that is the staff canteen at SJ Berwin, as well as the firm's recent move to flash new digs on the muddy banks of the Thames, where an increasing share of the City's most expensive suits -- sorry, finest minds -- have recently been gathering. Indeed, last week The Diary received an anonymous e-mail, titled ‘Reasons not to visit SJ Berwin's new office', drawing attention to the City firm's latest neighbours -- the shadowy Cybus Corporation, whose website appears to show the company's offices located pretty much next door. The Diary shuddered deep inside its anorak, however, when a closer look revealed Cybus to be home of the fearsome Cybermen, whose ruthless robot army lumbered across screens in the 1980s to bring their unique brand of unconvincing terror to Doctor Who viewers everywhere. It seems fans of the sci-fi classic put the website together ahead of the imminent new series -- which features updated Cybermen (albeit with the same silver-painted cricketer's batting gloves for hands) -- and settled on SJ Berwin as the ideal neighbour for the headquarters of the fictional business. The Diary realises that making an easy jibe about law firms converting people into mindless robots intent on world domination would be somewhat akin to shooting suicidal fish in a particularly restrictive barrel -- and will therefore resist, especially seeing as SJ Berwin is not even a magic circle firm at all."

Yesterday's Metro, the London free newspaper, has a short piece on Bob Baker, writer of the Wallace and Gromit films and co-creator, with Dave Martin, of K9 in 1977. According to the article, Baker "now plans to write a TV drama about K-9 -- the robot dog from Dr Who".

(Thanks to Paul Engelberg, Chuck Foster, Steve Tribe, Tony Bellows, and Carole Gordon)