Easter Special Director Announced

Wednesday, 15 October 2008 - Reported by R Alan Siler

Director James Strong will be helming the Easter Doctor Who Special, Executive Producer Russell T. Daviesannounced in the latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine.

"We're so happy that he's returning to the fold," Davies stated. "James has handled Daleks in sewers, hordes of Adipose and Satan himself, as well as a Titanic with Kylie on board. But believe me, none of that will have prepared him for what we're about to unleash in this next script!"

The Easter special is scripted by Davies and Gareth Roberts, whose previous credits on the show include "Attack of the Graske", "The Shakespeare Code" and "The Unicorn and the Wasp".

FILTER: - Specials - Production - Series 4/30 Specials

The Prince and the Producer

Monday, 13 October 2008 - Reported by Anthony Weight

Various news sources are reporting that during his appearance at the Cheltenham Literary Festival this weekend, Doctor Who executive producer and chief writer Russell T Davies commented that Prince Charles, the heir to the British throne, had turned down a cameo appearance in the series, with Davies jokingly calling him a "swine" for having done so.

The BBC News coverage of the story also includes an embedded video of Davies's appearance on the BBC News Channel on Sunday, where he answered questions sent in by viewers.

The report says that Prince Charles did not personally see the request, which was declined on his behalf by his staff. "We receive a great many requests and it's impossible to accept them all," the BBC quotes a spokesman as having said.

The story is also being run by CBC, The Daily Express, Digital Spy, The Sun, OK! Magazine and many others.

FILTER: - Russell T Davies - Production

Tranter leaves for the US

Tuesday, 23 September 2008 - Reported by Marcus

The current BBC Controller of Fiction, Jane Tranter, is to leave her current post for a new job based in the United States. She will join BBC Worldwide as executive vice-president of programming and production, looking after its US scripted and reality business in Los Angeles.

Tranter was in charge of all BBC Drama output and was responsible for commissioning the return of Doctor Who in 2005. The current BBC Director of Vision,Jana Bennett described Tranter as an "unequalled force in British drama." She has reinvented family drama in Doctor Who, Robin Hood and Merlin and launched acclaimed contemporary series such as Spooks and Life on Mars as well as Cranford."

Tranter will be succeeded as the Controller of drama commissioning by Ben Stephenson, who has worked closely with Tranter in his current role of Head of Drama commissioning. A new Controller of Fiction will be appointed in the new year.

FILTER: - Production

The Writer's Tale Signing Sessions - UPDATED

Wednesday, 17 September 2008 - Reported by DWNP Archive

Posted By John Bowman

Russell T Davies and Benjamin Cook will be signing copies of their forthcoming book, Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale, at bookshops in England and Wales next month.

The dates, venues and times are as follows:

October 8: Waterstone's, Piccadilly, London, 6pm

October 9: Waterstone's, High Street, Birmingham, midday, and Waterstone's, Trafford Centre, Manchester, 6pm

October 10: Borders, Bristol, 12.30pm, and Borders, Cardiff, 5.30pm.

Only copies of the book will be autographed.

The 512-page tome is published by BBC Books on September 25.

FILTER: - Production - Books

Davies book preview

Monday, 15 September 2008 - Reported by Anthony Weight

The Times newspaper in the UK has today published on its website a series of extracts from "The Writer's Tale", the forthcoming book by Russell T Davies and Benjamin Cook about the making of the new series of Doctor Who. The book is due to be released in the UK on September 25th.

The same newspaper has also made a news story out of the extracts, focusing on Davies's suggestion of Russell Tovey as a candidate for the Eleventh Doctor, and the fact that he considered attempting to get Harry Potter authorJK Rowling to appear in the 2008 Christmas special.

Further extracts will be published in Wednesday's paper.

Thanks to PolyG on the Doctor Who Forum

FILTER: - Russell T Davies - Production - Books

2009 Specials Casting Rumours - UPDATED

Thursday, 11 September 2008 - Reported by R Alan Siler

The Sun is reporting inside information on some major cast news for the 2009 specials starring David Tennant. Details are found in the Spoiler box below.

Remember, consider all such information as strictly rumour until confirmed publicly by the BBC.

UPDATE - SEP 12: The BBC today rejected one of the claims. The details are in the Spoiler box.

The Sun is reporting that casting for the 2009 specials includes Catherine Tate, John Simm, Bernard Cribbins and Paul McGann.

On September 8 it wrote that insiders had revealed that Tate, Simm and Cribbins would make returns. "Fans will be delighted to see Catherine back. She was one of the wackiest companions of all time and she brought heaps of humour.

"And it’s great to have John back - he and David Tennant have a real nemesis chemistry."

Donna's return would be in light of the events that occurred at the end of Series Four, in which the Doctor wiped her mind of all knowledge of him and of her adventures in order to save her life. The Sun's source commented: "Anything can happen in Doctor Who. His assistants are always recurring and Donna is no exception. When you’re a Time Lord you can go back to any point in history and meet whoever you want."

And The Sun reported today that one of the specials would be a "flashback" tale that would feature the return ofPaul McGann to the role of the Doctor, which he played on screen only once, in 1996. "Fans loved Paul’s Doctor and feel he was never given the proper chance to shine. Reference is often made to the Time War which wiped out the Time Lords and this will give them a taste of that," The Sun's source revealed.

According to the story, flashback scenes will see him battered from the Time War and shorn of the long hair he had in the 1996 TV film.

UPDATE: According to Digital Spy on September 12, the BBC has quashed the story of the McGann casting. A spokeswoman is quoted as saying: "There is no truth to the story at all."

FILTER: - Specials - Production - Series 4/30 Specials - Press

Waris Hussein Interviewed

Friday, 22 August 2008 - Reported by Marcus

Doctor Who's first director Waris Hussein will be guest of honour at the National Media Museum's Bite The Mango film festival, taking place in Bradford from September 19-25, 2008.

As well as receiving a lifetime achievement award and being interviewed about his 40 years as a director, Hussein will be taking part in an interview specifically about directing the very first Doctor Who serial An Unearthly Child and the lost epic story Marco Polo.

The interview will take place on Sunday, September 21 at the museum in Bradford. It will be accompanied by photographs from the museum's Daily Herald archive and a screening of the 'take one' version of the episode "An Unearthly Child". Further details and tickets will be available from the museum's website.

FILTER: - People - Production - Classic Series

Execs speak out

Thursday, 14 August 2008 - Reported by Marcus

Incoming executive producer Steven Moffat will be interviewed on Saturday 23rd August at the MediaGuardianEdinburgh International Television Festival.

Moffat is replacing Russell T Davies who was originally scheduled to give a masterclass in the slot but withdrew due to work commitments.

Davies is still scheduled to appear at this year's Times Cheltenham Literature Festival along with John Barrowman. The event takes place on Sunday 12th October at Cheltenham Racecourse.

Davies is also scheduled to give an interview at the National Theatre on Friday 7th November, where he will be interviewed by Benjamin Cook about their forthcoming book Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale.

FILTER: - Steven Moffat - Russell T Davies - Production

Hugo Award hat-trick for Moffat

Saturday, 9 August 2008 - Reported by Anthony Weight

Steven Moffat has won his third Hugo Award in a row for an episode of Doctor Who, after his 2007 episode "Blink" won the Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form category in the 2008 awards, given at the WorldCon event in Denver last night. This is according to a run-down of winners on the HugoAwards.org website.

The Hugo Awards celebrate the best of science-fiction across various media. "Blink", which was directed by Hettie Macdonald, was nominated alongside Paul Cornell's two-parter "Human Nature"/"The Family of Blood" and Catherine Treganna's Torchwood episode "Captain Jack Harkness".

Moffat is pictured right at last year's ceremony, with the Hugo Award he won for "The Girl in the Fireplace".

FILTER: - Steven Moffat - Production - Awards/Nominations

News from DWM

Friday, 25 July 2008 - Reported by Anthony Weight

Issue 398 of Panini's Doctor Who Magazine was published in the United Kingdom yesterday, and contains several pieces of information of interest concerning the forthcoming special episodes of Doctor Who.

It is confirmed that the title of this year's Christmas episode - which will be 60 minutes long - is not "The Return of the Cybermen", as some have surmised from the teaser trailer at the conclusion of "Journey's End". This was merely a teaser description of the episode. It is also confirmed that actors David Morrissey, Dervla Kirwan and Velile Tshabalalawill be guest- starring in the episode, with Kirwan playing a character named Miss Hartigan. Andy Goddard directs, withSusie Liggat producing.

Of the four further specials which will follow in 2009, it is announced that Russell T Davies will write two of them solo, with the other two to be co-written with Gareth Roberts and Phil Ford respectively. Roberts penned "The Shakespeare Code" and "The Unicorn and the Wasp" for Doctor Who, while Ford wrote "Eye of the Gorgon" and "The Lost Boy" for The Sarah Jane Adventures - the series for which he is now chief writer - and "Something Borrowed" for Torchwood. His work on the special will make him the only writer after Davies to have written for all three shows.

Elsewhere in the magazine, information is given on release dates for the remaining classic series DVD releases of 2008. "The Trial of a Time Lord" comes out on August 18, "Four To Doomsday" on September 15, "The War Machines" on September 29 and finally "Battlefield" on December 29.

FILTER: - Specials - Production - DWM - Series 4/30 Specials

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