Doctor Who takes over Twitter

Tuesday, 6 August 2013 - Reported by Marcus
Doctor Who Live: The Next DoctorThe BBC has revealed the extent to which Sunday's announcement of the next Doctor took over the twitter-sphere, with the Corporation counting a total of 542,000 tweets reacting to the news that Peter Capaldi would be taking on the role come Christmas.

During the live show, Doctor Who Live; The Next Doctor, the number of tweets averaged 9,000 per minute, jumping to 22,081 a minute as the new Doctor was revealed, the highest TV tweet minute peak recorded this year.

The tweet with the first photograph from the official site was re-tweeted over 25,000 times.

For most of Sunday, during the build up to the announcement, #DoctorWho trended in the UK. Showrunner Steven Moffat trended number 1 in the UK and worldwide while former Doctor David Tennant trended at number 3 worldwide. The Twitter domination continued and at one point 7 of the ten UK’s trends were Doctor Who-related.


The audience for the live show peaked at 6.9 million in the UK and scored an Appreciation Index of 73.




FILTER: - Doctor Who - Ratings - Peter Capaldi

Peter Capaldi the Fan

Monday, 5 August 2013 - Reported by Marcus
As mentioned in earlier articles, Peter Capaldi is a self-confessed fan of the show. With the Radio Times report of his letter from 1974 posted last week, Doctor Who News reviewer and correspondent Matthew Kilburn has discovered in his own fanzine archive an article by Capaldi dating from May 1976.

DWIFC Magazine -  Issue 2, May 1976 (Credit: Matthew Kilburn)




FILTER: - Doctor Who - Fan Productions - Peter Capaldi

Doctor Who LIVE: Guest Details

Sunday, 4 August 2013 - Reported by Marcus
With less than 20 hours to go before the Twelfth Doctor is named, more details have emerged of some very special guests taking part in the show, scheduled to be screened live on BBC One, BBC America, SPACE Canada, and ABC Australia.

Current Doctor Matt Smith will be on hand in the studio to offer advice to the newcomer, where he will be joined by Fifth incarnation Peter Davison. Former Doctors will also be sending advice by video message, with Radio Times reporting Tom Baker will be taking part, and BBC One on Facebook indicating Colin Baker will be sending a message.

Current showrunner Steven Moffat will be in the audience, as one of only ten people who know the identity of the new Doctor, a closely guarded secret. Even the series brand manager Edward Russell has said the he genuinely doesn't know who has won the role, adding that "it's brilliant that we've kept the secret".

Former companions Katy Manning, Anneke Wills, Janet Fielding and Bonnie Langford will be hopefully be adding their input, along with veteran actor Bernard Cribbins, who played Wilfred Mott alongside the Tenth Doctor. A video message will also be screened from Doctor Who writer and actor Mark Gatiss.

The show goes on air at 1800 GMT on Sunday evening. That is 7:00pm in the UK, 2:00pm East Coast and 11:00am West Coast for North America, and 4:00am ET on Monday morning for those die hard fans in Australia (repeated at 8:30pm for those who aren't!).




FILTER: - Doctor Who - Special Events - Twelfth Doctor

Put A Question To The 12th Doctor

Saturday, 3 August 2013 - Reported by John Bowman
People are being given the chance to put a question to whoever is playing the 12th Doctor when the big reveal takes place tomorrow.

The identity of the actor who has landed the title role will be announced on BBC One in the programme Doctor Who Live: The Next Doctor - which starts at 7pm and is being simulcast by BBC America, Canadian channel SPACE, and ABC1 in Australia - and the official site is offering fans the opportunity to be part of the show by having their questions put to the actor when the person is interviewed.
What would you like to ask the next Doctor? Email us your questions and we'll send a selection of them to the team making the show and some of them will be put to the next Doctor.

We obviously can't guarantee that every question you give us will be asked so try to think of the most original question, or the funniest, or something that you feel might interest people but may not have been asked before. We want great questions from you, so have a think about what you want to know and we'll make sure the next Doctor answers some of them live on air during Sunday's show.
The subject line should be Next Doctor Questions and people have until midday BST tomorrow to submit their questions, which should be sent to thedoctor@bbc.co.uk. The messages should also include the sender's first name, their age, and where they are from. A full address is not needed, just the sender's city, town, or village.




FILTER: - Doctor Who - Twelfth Doctor - Broadcasting - BBC

Doctor Who Nominated For BAFTA Cymru Awards

Friday, 2 August 2013 - Reported by John Bowman
Doctor Who has been nominated in two categories in the BAFTA Cymru Awards for 2013, it was announced today.

The programme's sound team are jointly up for the Sound gong, facing competition from Bang Post Production for Sherlock - co-created by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss - and from the sound team for The Gospel of Us.

In addition, William Oswald is in the running for the Editing award for his work on the 2012 Christmas special The Snowmen.

Meanwhile, Michael Sheen is nominated for the Actor title for The Gospel of Us, and Ruth Jones and Sara Lloyd-Gregory are both vying for the Actress award for, respectively, Stella and Alys. Brian Minchin - appointed in April as an executive producer on Doctor Who - is cited for Wizards vs Aliens, co-created by Russell T Davies and Phil Ford, in the Children's Programme (Including Animation) category, with Arwel Wyn Jones receiving two nominations for Production Design for his work on Sherlock and Wizards vs Aliens. In addition, Ray Holman is nominated for Costume Design for Wizards vs Aliens.

Doctor Who failed to make the Television Drama category this year, having been nominated last year but ultimately losing out on the title.

The 22nd annual awards will be held on Sunday 29th September at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff, with the winners announced at a ceremony hosted by Sian Lloyd and Matt Johnson. The nominations cover 26 programme, craft, and performance categories, recognising excellence in broadcasting and production within film and television in Wales between 1st January 2012 and 31st March 2013.




FILTER: - Doctor Who - Special Events - Awards/Nominations

An Unearthly Series - The Origins of a TV Legend

Wednesday, 31 July 2013 - Reported by Marcus
Sign on the dotted line
The sixteenth in our series of features telling the story of the creation of Doctor Who, and the people who made it happen.

Production is now well underway on the new science-fiction series, and with the first filming just a couple of months away it was time to announce the cast.

It was on Wednesday 31st July 1963, exactly fifty years ago today, that the four main cast members were issued with their contracts.
William Hartnell will play The Doctor

William Hartnell is a film and Television actor well known for his 'tough guy' performances in several British films of the 1950's.

He was born William Henry Hartnell in the St Pancras district of London on 8th January 1908. England, His mother was unmarried and he was brought up partly by a foster mother. Through his membership of a boys' boxing club he met the art collector Hugh Blaker, who took an interest in the lad and became his unofficial guardian. As a keen follower of the theatre, Blaker helped the young Hartnell enter the Italia Conti Academy.

Hartnell entered the theatre in 1925 as a general stagehand. He appeared in a number of Shakespeare plays, including The Merchant of Venice (1926), Julius Caesar, As You Like It, Hamlet, The Tempest, Macbeth. He also appeared in She Stoops to Conquer, School for Scandal and Good Morning, Bill, before performing in Miss Elizabeth's Prisoner in 1928. It was in this play he worked with the actress Heather McIntyre whom Hartnell married the following year.

Hartnell made appearances in more than sixty British films, taking his first role in the 1932 film Say It With Music. Other roles included Freddy Fordum in Swinging the Lead , Pat Spencer in Nothing Like Publicity and Stubbs in Midnight at Madame Tussaud's. The outbreak of war in 1939 saw Hartnell join the Tank Corps where he served for eighteen months before being invalided out as the result of suffering a nervous breakdown.

Hartnell returned to acting playing a number of bit parts in several war time moves. In 1944 his career reached a turning point when he was cast as Sergeant Ned Fletcher in Carol Reed's film The Way Ahead. His success in playing the tough Army sergeant led to a career playing mainly policemen, soldiers, and thugs. He played the eponymous Sergeant in the first ever Carry on film, Carry on Sergeant. Other roles included a town councillor in the Boulting brothers' film Heavens Above! and Will Buckley in the film The Mouse That Roared alongside Peter Sellers.

In the early 1960's he was best known to British TV audiences for another army role, as Sergeant Major Percy Bullimore in The Army Game. In 1963 he won the role of 'Dad' Johnson in the film This Sporting Life. In the film he played an aging rugby league talent scout, a performance which caught the attention of Doctor Who producer Verity Lambert and Director Waris Hussein who asked Hartnell to play The Doctor.
Carole Ann Ford will play Susan

Carole Ann Ford is a film and Television actress who has appeared in several British TV dramas.

Carole Ann Ford was born in June 1940 and first appeared in a film at the age of eight. After appearing in a number of commercials and walk-on work, her first proper role was in the play Women of the Streets.

She appeared in the TV Movie Expresso Bongo and had roles in Horrors of the Black Museum, Probation Officer, The Ghost Train Murder, Emergency-Ward 10, Dixon of Dock Green, No Hiding Place, Crying Down the Lane, The Day of the Triffids, Mix Me a Person, Harpers West One, The Punch and Judy Man and Z-Cars.

It was her performance in Z-Cars that let her to being tested for the role of Susan in Doctor Who.
Jacqueline Hill will play Barbara

Jacqueline Hill is a British actress known for a number of character roles on television.

She was born Grace Jacqueline Hill on 17th December 1929 in Birmingham. She trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and made her stage debut in London's West End in The Shrike.

Hill first appeared on TV in 1953 playing Maureen in The Blue Parrot. Other roles included Grace Carney in Blood Money, Carrie Dean in Joyous Errand and Ellen Ferguson in The Flying Doctor.

In 1958 she married top director Alvin Rakoff, who cast her opposite Sean Connery in one of ABC TV's Armchair Theatre plays. In 1962 she played Sally Walker in The Six Proud Walkers . She also appeared in Out of This World and in an episode of Maigret.

Jacqueline Hill was friends with Doctor Who producer Verity Lambert, who suggested she should go forward for the role of Barbara.
William Russell will play Ian

William Russell is best known for playing the title role in The Adventures of Sir Lancelot the 1956 ITV series.

William Russell was born William Russell Enoch on 19 November 1924 in Sunderland. He was involved in organising entertainments during his national service in the Royal Air Force and then, after university, went into repertory theatre. He appeared in Hamlet in London's West End.

His first TV appearance came in 1940 in God Gave Him a Dog. Several other roles followed including playing Leslie Gowland in The Gay Dog, St. Ives in St. Ives and Count Rene D'Albert in Sword of Freedom.

His big break came in 1956 when he was cast as Sir Lancelot du Lac in The Adventures of Sir Lancelot. The series was made in colour and screened on ITV in the UK and on the NBC network in the United States nine days later. It is one of the very few British television series ever to have been screened on one of the major broadcast networks in the US and gave Russell recognition on both sides of the Atlantic.

Further success followed with the title roles in Nicholas Nickleby and David Copperfield as well as playing Hamlet in 1961. In 1963 he played St. John Rivers in Jane Eyre and also had a role in the feature film The Great Escape.
Next EpisodeThe Delia Mode
SOURCES: Hartnell, William Henry (1908–1975) by Robert Sharp, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press; The Handbook: The First Doctor – The William Hartnell Years: 1963-1966, David J Howe, Mark Stammers, Stephen James Walker (Doctor Who Books, 1994)




FILTER: - The Story of Doctor Who

BBC Worldwide to include 'Widow' on Series Seven Box Set

Wednesday, 31 July 2013 - Reported by Marcus
BBC Worldwide has bowed to fan pressure and agreed to include the 2011 Christmas special, The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe on the UK version of the Complete Series Seven DVD Boxed Set.

Although the episode has always been included on the North American version of the DVD set, it was excluded from the UK version on the grounds it was already available as a standalone product. However after lobbying from fans BBC Worldwide have reviewed their position and will now include the episode, originally shown on Christmas Day 2011, in the Series Seven Box set.

BBC Worldwide issued this statement explaining the position
Originally the decision was taken not to include this release on the box set as it had previously been released as a standalone product. However after listening to feedback from our fans we have decided to include the episode and its prequel on the set. The price of the set will not be altered as a result of the change of contents
 

Complete Series 7 - Cover (Credit: BBC Worldwide)The revised five disc set has a number of new features that were not orginally announced:
  • Audio commentaries for episodes: The Snowmen, Cold War, Hide, and The Crimson Horror
  • Prequels for: The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe, Asylum of the Daleks, The Snowmen (The Great Detective, Vastra Investigates, Demons Run: Two Days Later), The Bells of Saint John and The Name of the Doctor (She Said, He Said, Clarence and the Whispermen)
  • Pond Life
  • As Good as Gold (exclusive to the UK version)
  • Featurettes: The Making of the Gunslinger , Creating Clara, Rain Gods, Clara and the TARDIS, Inforarium, and Clara’s White Christmas
  • Behind the scenes featurettes for every episode (except The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe)
  • Additional features: Last Days of the Ponds, The Science of Doctor Who, The Companions, and Doctor Who at Comic Con






FILTER: - Doctor Who - Blu-ray/DVD - Series 7/33

Radio Times Exhibition

Sunday, 28 July 2013 - Reported by Marcus
The new exhibition marking Radio Times's 90th anniversary opens at the Museum of London this week, complete with a special section dedicated to Doctor Who.

Covers of the listings magazine, which launched on 28 September 1923, will be displayed at the museum. Doctor Who was denied a cover for its launch in 1963, so first graced the front of the magazine in February 1964 for a cover promoting the historical story Marco Polo. Since then the series has been featured a number of times.

The exhibition will contain a life-size Dalek against a backdrop of Westminster Bridge, recreating the famous 2005 "Vote Dalek" Radio Times cover, which was voted the Cover of the Century by the Periodical Publishers Association.

Other highlights in the exhibition include a 1920s Marconi valve radio and a 1941 Luftwaffe map that pinpoints the Radio Times's Waterlows printing plant in London as an air-raid target alongside transport hubs, factories and national landmarks.

The exhibition runs from 2nd August until 3rd November 2013 at the Museum which is located at London Wall in the City of London. Entry is free.




FILTER: - Doctor Who - Exhibitions - Radio Times

Entertainment pilot show

Thursday, 25 July 2013 - Reported by Marcus
BBC Entertainment & Events is piloting a new show paying tribute to 50 years of Doctor Who.

The show will feature special guests and clips from Doctor Who and is looking for fans to be part of the audience. The show records at the BBC studios in Elstree on Sunday 4th August at 6pm. The production team is encouraging audience members to come dressed as their favourite Doctor, companion or character from the series but stress this is not compulsory.

Tickets, which are free, can be obtained from the BBC website. Under 18s must be accompanied by a parent or guardian and the minimum age is 10.




FILTER: - Doctor Who - Special Events

An Unearthly Series - The Origins of a TV Legend

Tuesday, 23 July 2013 - Reported by Marcus
Coming Soon...
The fifteenth in our series of features telling the story of the creation of Doctor Who, and the people who made it happen.

With the production team now working hard on the new science-fiction series, thoughts in the BBC turned to how the series would be promoted.

It was on Tuesday 23rd July 1963 - exactly 50 years ago today - that Richard Bright, the Television Publicity Organiser, circulated a memo to members of his department. He attached the format document for Doctor Who that gave a brief rundown of how the series would be broadcast, referencing The World of Tim Frazer, a Francis Durbridge crime series that had aired in 1960.
This is the first time we have undertaken a 52-part serial. It will be rather on the Tim Frazer pattern - a series of stories of varying lengths, each one starting during the last episode of the previous one. It will go on the air at 5.20-5.45 on Saturdays and is planned for family viewing with special attention to the 11-14 group.
The format document gave the planned recording times and indicated the series would start mid-November. The date of the first episode was now planned to be broadcast on Saturday 16th November, having recently been pushed back a week thanks to unplanned coverage of athletics from Moscow earlier in July, which had knocked the schedule back a week..
  • Story 1: Written by Anthony Coburn. Directed by Waris Hussein
  • Four Episodes. The story begins the journey and takes the travellers back to 100,000BC and Palaeolithic man. In this story the 'ship' is slightly damaged and forever afterward is erratic in certain sections of its controls.
  • Story 2: Written by Anthony Coburn. Directed by Rex Tucker
  • Six Episodes. This story takes the travellers to somewhere in the 30th Century, forward to the world when it is inhabited only by robots.
  • Story 3: Written by John Lucarotti. Directed by Waris Hussein
  • Seven Episodes. The travellers join the explorer Marco Polo on his Journey to Cathay.
Bright gave his team some details of the people behind the new series.
Verity Lambert is a twenty-seven year old girl who has done a lot of commercial TV over here and has worked in the USA for David Susskind. She has been put on programme contract for a year to handle this new serial. The two directors, Waris Hussein and Rex Tucker, will be in charge of alternate stories beginning with Hussein on No. 1. Anthony Coburn is writing the first two stories and the third will be by John Lucarotti who has written a lot of television in the USA, Canada and commercial over here.
While the press department was being briefed on the new serial, a new dispute was being settled by Ronald Waldman, the General Manager of Television Enterprises, and R G Walford, the Head of Copyright. It involved a company called Zenith Film Productions Ltd which had contacted the BBC, claiming the idea for Doctor Who had originally come from them. Their claim related to a puppet series they had proposed to the Corporation called The Time Travellers, which the BBC had turned down because of its similarity to Doctor Who. Zenith now claimed that the BBC had stolen the idea and used it to create their own series. On Thursday 25th July, Walford wrote to the company to refute the allegations.
The first important point I must make is that this Dr Who series was devised jointly by Sydney Newman and Donald Wilson, and I have ascertained that at the time when they worked it out they had no knowledge whatever of the suggested puppet series The Time Travellers. The scriptwriter of the first ten episodes of Dr Who is Anthony Coburn who likewise had no knowledge whatever of The Time Travellers....

... while the idea of the two programmes is similar, ie the idea of crossing time borders, the two series are themselves completely different, one being for puppets and the other being for live actors, and there could be no possibility of there being plagiarism of any sort.
The BBC did offer Zenith a special ex-gratia payment of 100 guineas as an offer of goodwill, on the understanding that it was without prejudice and that the offer made no admittance of legal liability.

Next EpisodeSign on the dotted line
SOURCES: The Handbook: The First Doctor – The William Hartnell Years: 1963-1966, David J Howe, Mark Stammers, Stephen James Walker (Doctor Who Books, 1994)




FILTER: - The Story of Doctor Who