Voyage Items To Go On ShowBookmark and Share

Saturday, 22 December 2007 - Reported by DWNP Archive

Items from this year's Christmas special, Voyage of the Damned, are due to go on display in London from next Easter, according to the Doctor Who Exhibitions and Museum website.

They will be among other costumes, props and monsters from the series on show at the Museum Hall, beneath Earls Court Exhibition Centre.

This is not the first Doctor Who connection for Earls Court. In 1997, the Metropolitan Police put up a Tardis-style police box just outside the Underground station, with a closed-circuit TV camera in place of the rooflight.




FILTER: - Specials - Exhibitions

Tennant, Simm and Minogue's HootenannyBookmark and Share

Saturday, 22 December 2007 - Reported by DWNP Archive

David TennantJohn Simm and Kylie Minogue will help welcome in 2008 on Jools's Annual Hootenanny.

The pre-recorded BBC2 programme includes Minogue singing, with Tennant and Simm among the audience - and Tennant reportedly dancing and singing by the stage of rising star Kate Nash during her performance.

Several news sources cover the Hootenanny: Hello! magazineThe Daily Mirror and the Belfast Telegraph all mention Tennant, while the Sun,Sunday Express and Liverpool Echo all focus on Minogue's duet with Sir Paul McCartney.

The show airs from 11.05pm on New Year's Eve until 1.15am on New Year's Day.




FILTER: - People

The Hopes and Fears of All the YearsBookmark and Share

Friday, 21 December 2007 - Reported by Josiah Rowe

Paul Cornell's new Doctor Who Christmas story, The Hopes and Fears of All the Years, is now available on the Daily Telegraph's website. Only one of the three illustrations by Mike Collins accompanies the web version; to see the other two, you'll have to buy the newspaper.

As previously reported, Cornell is running a competition to win the original art of Collins' illustrations on Facebook.





FILTER: - Books - Press

Tennant on Top GearBookmark and Share

Friday, 21 December 2007 - Reported by Anthony Weight

David Tennant will this weekend appear on BBC Two's highest rated programme, the motoring show Top Gear, as the guest on the regular "Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car" feature. The feature involves Tennant being tutored in driving a Chevrolet Lacetti around the programme's test track by their resident expert driver, the mysterious, always-helmeted "Stig". Tennant will then complete a timed lap of the circuit, which he will then analyse and discuss in studio with presenter Jeremy Clarkson, and his time will be ranked against those of other celebrities to have taken part in the feature.

Both Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper have previously taken part in the same item on the programme, although Tennant's time will not be directly compared with Eccleston's as his lap took place when a different model of car was being used for the feature.

Top Gear is on BBC Two this Sunday at 8pm. It is repeated at 12 midnight on Wednesday 26 December, and then again on BBC Three on Saturday 29 December at 7.20pm. It will also be available, to UK viewers, on the BBC's broadband iPlayer "watch again" service.

Tennant's participation is reported in several sources, including an article in the Daily Mail.




FILTER: - David Tennant

The Master reborn... in polystoneBookmark and Share

Friday, 21 December 2007 - Reported by Josiah Rowe

Weta Collectibles has revealed the latest in their line of Doctor Who statuettes. The statue depicts the Master, as played by Roger Delgado in the character's first appearance, Terror of the Autons. The one-sixth scale miniature shows the Master in his black suit, holding his Tissue Compression Eliminator and standing over the body of an inanimate Auton.

Weta has previously released a Dalek and Cybercontroller from the new series; the Master statuette is the first Weta release to depict an element from classic Doctor Who.

To see larger photographs of the statue, please click on the thumbnails below.

Thanks to Paul McDermott.




FILTER: - Merchandise

Who's in the Hot 100?Bookmark and Share

Friday, 21 December 2007 - Reported by Josiah Rowe

Broadcast magazine, the weekly magazine of the UK's television and radio industry, has released its "Hot 100 of 2007" list, and several Doctor Who people are on the list.

In the Talent category, Billie Piper comes in at #6 (the highest-ranking woman on the list). The magazine mentions her forthcoming return to Doctor Who, as well as her roles in "The Diary of a Call Girl", "Mansfield Park" and "The Shadow of the North".

In the Writers" category, Steven Moffat gets a nod at #11. Broadcast praises his "ingeniously playful" series "Jekyll" and his Doctor Who scripts, and notes his upcoming work on the Stephen Spielberg/Peter Jackson film adaptation of "Tintin". Moffat is also quoted about his first series, "Press Gang": "I'd love to do a return visit to the characters," he says. "They'll all be sad and fat, decaying in middle age."

Russell T. Davies has previously appeared in the Writers section of the Hot 100, but this year Broadcast recognizes his contributions as a producer, listing him at #1 in that category. The magazine notes Davies' hands-on involvement in every stage of Doctor Who and its spin-offs, and credits him with turning Doctor Who into one of the BBC's biggest brands. Jane Tranter says that Davies is "brilliant, totally rooted, extremely wise, irreverent and great fun to be with. And he's incredibly kind. His non-judgmental understanding of the nature of the human condition is written large in every piece of work he's ever done." (Tranter, who as Head of Drama at the BBC in 2003 was responsible for commissioning the return of Doctor Who to BBC television, is also in Broadcast's Hot 100. Now the BBC's Head of Fiction, she's the #1 entry in the Commissioners category.)

Finally, leading the field in Craft and Post-Production is Will Cohen of The Mill. The Mill contributed 2,897 effects shots to Doctor Who in 2007, and Cohen ensured that each of them was "better than good". Cohen says, "You've got to compete with computer games, the internet and DVDs. Viewers don't care whether effects are made for the cinema or TV - the work either stands up and holds its own or it doesn't."

Broadcast also listed Doctor Who as one of the top-rated dramas of 2007, excluding soaps. Based on overnight figures, the 31 March broadcast of "Smith and Jones", with 8.2 million viewers and a 39.5% share of the audience, was the eighth most viewed television drama of 2007, and the third highest ranking for a BBC program (surpassed by "Waking the Dead" and "New Tricks").

Broadcast requires detailed but free registration to read articles.




FILTER: - Steven Moffat - Russell T Davies - Press

Classic Cybermen On DemandBookmark and Share

Thursday, 20 December 2007 - Reported by Josiah Rowe

US digital on-demand network Illusion on Demand has announced that they will be adding classic Doctor Who stories to their offerings, beginning with the 1967 Patrick Troughton story Tomb of the Cybermen. Their press release is below.
Illusion on Demand is bringing classic Doctor Who back to American television in January '08 with the series "Tomb of the Cybermen". This marks the first national return of classic Doctor adventures since the popular new series has been airing.

In honor of the event Illusion is premiering their Doctor Who micro-site this morning. Features include video clips, a brand new parody by The Action Room, quizzes, a buying guide and an image gallery of Doctor companions.

www.illusiontv.com/classic-doctor-who.php

Illusion will continue in to the year with "Genesis of the Daleks" with more series to be announced.




FILTER: - USA - Online

Early "Voyage" reviews and more from the pressBookmark and Share

Thursday, 20 December 2007 - Reported by Josiah Rowe

Today's news round-up begins and ends with CBBC's Newsround. Newsround's Lizo Mzimba was the first journalist to review "Voyage of the Damned". Mzimba says that David Tennant and Kylie Minogue "have great chemistry" and that the story as a whole, though "not a perfect episode", "beautifully juggles different elements ranging from tragedy to comedy."

Gareth McLean of The Guardian says that this year's offering is "the best of the three Christmas specials", but sniffs that Kylie is "blank and insipid". However, Nick Sketchfield of SFX calls Kylie's performance "unshowy but winning", and says that "Voyage of the Damned" is "the sixpence in the pudding, a perfect Christmas Day adventure that blends the disaster movie trappings of The Poseidon Adventure with the kind of madcap, quasi-2000 AD flavourings of those old Doctor Who Weekly comic strips."

There's one more video of David Tennant speaking at Tuesday night's premiere, this one from The Press and Journal. Speaking to Swansea's Evening PostRussell T. Davies was full of praise for Tennant, saying, "He's literally Britain's finest actor. I honest to God think that, so when you're writing for him you want him to do anything and go anywhere, and he's capable of anything."

In a survey of young men sponsored by Zoo magazine, Tennant came third in a list of the 100 Coolest Men in Britain. He was behind musician Noel Gallagher and football (soccer) player Steven Gerrard, but ahead of James Bond actor Daniel Craig. John Simm came 51st. Simon Pegg and Peter Kaywere first and fourth respectively in Zoo's top five of funny blokes, while Ricky Gervais, who plays a Doctor Who extra/slug monster in the ExtrasChristmas special, was second in that particular poll. Pegg, Gervais and Kay came seventh, eight and 17th respectively in the Zoo poll to find the coolest bloke of 2007.

Kylie Minogue's involvement gets "Voyage of the Damned" column-inches from Australia's Nine News (which quotes one "Robert T. Davies") and The Sunalso has a story claiming that Madonna turned down an invitation to appear in Doctor Who as "The Last Cassandra". The item appears, appropriately enough, in the newspaper's "Bizarre" section, accompanied by a mock-up of Madonna as Cassandra. (Presumably the photo editors were bored with sticking celebrities' heads onto Davros' body.)

The Times reports that some Christian groups are upset at the use of religious iconography in "Voyage of the Damned". Only one such group is named: the evangelical organization Christian Voice, which previously objected to the BBC's broadcast of "Jerry Springer: The Opera". However, a Church of England spokesman dismissed the concern, saying, "Science fiction at its best helps to illuminate eternal themes, and that’s something the Church can happily work with."

One Doctor Who star who will be found in a church soon is Billie Piper. Piper, who has recently been in Wales filming for the return of Rose Tyler to Doctor Who, will marry actor Laurence Fox on New Year's Eve. The Midhurst and Petworth Observer reports that the two will wed at the parish church in the West Sussex village of Easebourne, where Piper owns a home. The Daily Mail notes that the reception will be held at a pub owned by Piper's ex-husband, Chris Evans.

And finally, we circle back to Newsround. The parents of George Baker, 10, have decorated his bedroom as the TARDIS console room -- complete with a rather impressive console. Fans of all ages can surely envy young Mr. Baker.

Thanks to "PMount" of the Doctor Who Forum and Paul McDermott.




FILTER: - Specials - Press

Freema rings in the new year on Radio 1Bookmark and Share

Thursday, 20 December 2007 - Reported by Josiah Rowe

Freema Agyeman will appear on BBC Radio 1 on New Year's Day as one of the presenters of "New for 2008", a Radio 1 special featuring "top tips for forthcoming new music, films, fashion, TV and technology." The program will air on January 1 from 7pm to midnight (GMT); Agyeman will be the host from 10pm to 11pm. The show also contains an interview with producer Phil Collinson.

Worldwide fans can hear the program via the BBC's live Radio 1 stream or, for one week after broadcast, via the Listen Again service on the BBC's iPlayer.




FILTER: - People

The ProducersBookmark and Share

Wednesday, 19 December 2007 - Reported by Josiah Rowe

The official Doctor Who website has posted an interview with the series' producers: Russell T. DaviesJulie Gardner and Phil Collinson. The Three Who Rule discuss "Voyage of the Damned", the return of Donna, filming in Rome, autographing babies and Steven Moffat's brain.

SFX also has the second half of their interview with Phil Collinson, in which he talks about bringing back the Sontarans and Catherine Tate.

Thanks to Ian Berriman of SFX.




FILTER: - Russell T Davies - Production - Julie Gardner