TV Appearances Guide

Tuesday, 11 April 2006 - Reported by Shaun Lyon

The following is a quick guide to the various television appearances by Doctor Who celebrities and other Doctor Who items occurring over the next few days (with thanks to Steve Tribe for compiling it):
Wednesday 12 April
John Barrowman is currently hosting ITV1's This Morning program all week, substituting for Philip Schofield. The program runs 10.30am to 12.30pm. Billie Piper was slated to be on the Wednesday show, but is now apparently no longer going to be on it.
David Tennant appears on Wednesday morning's The Breakfast Showon Virgin Radio and then later will appear on BBC Two's Ready, Steady, Cook at 4.30pm with his father.
GMTV on ITV1 says that "Doctor Who guests are on the sofa to chat about the brand new series" on Wednesday.
Rebroadcasts of series one continue all week on BBC3 as well; tonight "The Doctor Dances" and "Boom Town"; tomorrow, "Bad Wolf" and "The Parting of the Ways".
Thursday 13 April
The first episode of Totally Doctor Who screens on BBC1 at 5.00pm. Don't forget the repeats later in the week if you miss it.
David Tennant will appear today on the Jo Whiley show on BBC Radio 1; the show runs 10.00am to 12.45pm.
BBC Radio 4's Front Row will feature a review of 'New Earth' at some point on its broadcast, which runs 7.15pm to 7.45pm.
Friday 14 April
David Tennant and Billie Piper are interviewed by Nicola Heywood Thomas on BBC Radio Wales; the show runs 12.00pm to 2.00pm.
Saturday 15 April
It's time! Series two of Doctor Who begins with New Earth starring David Tennant and Billie Piper. The episode screens at 7.15pm on BBC1; don't miss it! It's followed by the first episode of the second series of Doctor Who Confidential, "New New Doctor," at 8.00pm on BBC3. They'll be rebroadcast on Sunday 16 April at 7.05pm and 7.50pm respectively, both on BBC3.
Monday 17 April
BBC Wales' radio documentary series Back in Time is back! A new episode of the occasional radio documentary about the new series airs at 5.30pm.
Wednesday 19 April
Blue Peter on BBC1/CBBC will feature "How to make a TARDIS" along with guests at 5.00pm.
All of this information is now listed on our handy Broadcast Calendar on the news page!




FILTER: - Series 2/28 - Broadcasting

Series Two Broadcast Update

Sunday, 9 April 2006 - Reported by Shaun Lyon

The publicity for the new series has been increasing this weekend, with the main series trailer (in its two edited versions) running across the BBC, alongside a 15-second trailer for the Tardisodes and a 30-second Totally Doctor Who trailer, which debuted on Wednesday and Thursday respectively. The return of the series and the Tardisodes have also been heavily promoted on the BBC.co.uk homepage, and the BBC Televisionhomepage. On Saturday morning, digital television viewers could press the red button to see a CBBC Extra show on BBCi, a 12-minute looped video package promoting Totally Doctor Who, featuring interviews with show presenter Barney Harwood and with David Tennant and Billie Piper, contributions from children, and extensive clips from the first episode, New Earth.

The final shape of the television schedules for the new series now seems clear. Each episode will likely debut at 7.15pm on BBC One on Saturdays; BBC Three will repeat the episode on Sundays at 7.05pm and on Fridays at 9pm. BBC Three'sDoctor Who Confidential will follow the episode transmissions on Saturdays and Sundays, while Totally Doctor Who will be shown on BBC One each Thursday at 5pm, with CBBC's regular repeats running on Saturdays at 6.30pm and Mondays at 1pm. There is no word yet on the possible 'red-button' availability of commentaries for the BBC Three episode repeats, mooted in the latest DWM, nor any indication of any 'cut down' versions of Doctor Who Confidential.

The full running schedule for each week (presented four weeks forward from today's date) is listed on the Outpost Gallifrey news page in the left-hand column for easy reference. Items in boldface are premieres, notably each week's first airing of the new episode, the Confidential documentary and Totally Doctor Who. (Note that the weekly US premieres are also in boldface.)




FILTER: - DWM - Series 2/28 - Press - Broadcasting

Tooth and Claw Details

Friday, 7 April 2006 - Reported by Shaun Lyon

Programme information for Week 17 (22-28 April) has now been released by the BBC Press Office, confirming that Episode 2, 'Tooth and Claw', will retain the 7.15pm timeslot established for 'New Earth' on 15 April, subject to any late running of a live football match that immediately precedes the episode.

As well as noting the launch of the new Tardisodes, the PDF documentfeatures a lengthy episode preview that concentrates on the return of Pauline Collins to the series after forty years. Commenting that Patrick Troughton (whom she worked with in 1966) was "a wonderful Doctor", Collins says that "having seen David Tennant in action, I believe he is going to be the best Doctor ever [...] He seems to combine authority and humour and quirkiness which, in a way, is an amalgam of all the very best Doctors. He’s terrific in it and I think he’ll be great." The interview also reveals that the episode's computer-generated werewolf was based on the movements of "two performance artists who demonstrated for us the sort of movements that the werewolf would do."

Further information on the episode (also a PDF) states: "The Doctor and Rose travel back to the year 1879 when an encounter in the Scottish Highlands with Queen Victoria and a band of Warrior Monks reveals a deadly trap, dating back centuries. Perhaps the local legends about a werewolf could really be true. David Tennant plays the Doctor, Billie Piper plays Rose Tyler, Pauline Collins plays Queen Victoria,Tom Smith plays The Host, Derek Riddell plays Sir Robert and Michelle Duncan plays Lady Isobel." The publicity material also includes a couple of previously uneen stills from the episode.




FILTER: - Series 2/28 - Broadcasting

Series Two Time Change, Schedule Update

Thursday, 6 April 2006 - Reported by Shaun Lyon

Finally eliminating the confusion surrounding the timeslot for the first broadcast of the series two premiere, New Earth, on BBC One, the homepage of the BBC Doctor Who site states: "Doctor Who 7.15pm, Saturday 15 April, BBC One. Doctor Who Night 7pm, Sunday 9 April, BBC Three." The Radio Times website has also now been updated to reflect this with complete schedule information for the Easter weekend debut.

The first edition of the second series of the documentary Doctor Who Confidential will be transmitted at 8pm, as soon as 'New Earth' finishes on BBC One. A BBC Three repeat of Episode 1 is now listed for 7.05pm on Sunday 16 April, and this is again followed by Doctor Who Confidential from 7.50 to 8.20pm.

There will now be three opportunities to see the first installment of theTotally Doctor Who series following its BBC One debut on Thursday 13 April: it is repeated on the digital CBBC channel at 6.30pm on both Friday 14 and Saturday 15 April, and again on Monday 17 April at lunchtime. The Digiguide listings service indicates that the Friday repeat may be a one-off, with Thursdays, Saturdays and Mondays being the regular slots for the children's show.

Note: The broadcast schedule on the news page will be updated later today.




FILTER: - Series 2/28 - Radio Times - Broadcasting

TARDIS Report: Huge Weekend Press Update

Monday, 3 April 2006 - Reported by Shaun Lyon

While your editor was away for the weekend, the press and web were hopping with a ton of new Doctor Who material:

Series Three Writers

The writers company The Agency appears to have spilled the beans on two writers assigned to pen episodes of the third series of Doctor Who. Fan favorite Paul Cornell, whose first season episode "Father's Day" was just recently nominated for a Hugo award by the World Science Fiction Society, is apparently slated to write a two-part story (which meshes with recent rumors that Cornell would be attached to the show for its third year), whileTom MacRae, author of this season's two parter "Rise of the Cybermen" and "The Age of Steel", is also signed up for one episode. The next issue of Doctor Who Magazine, due out late this month, is said to have the full list of series three writers.

Official Tie-In Sites

There's another new tie-in web site, for Millingdale's Organic Ice Creams, linked from the Leamington Spa site which we reported on late last week. The Millingdale site claims the company was established in 1860, and the main page plays the Doctor's theme (as used in the 'world is spinning' and stepping through the fan blades scenes in season one) as if it where the tune on an ice cream van.

There's now a new game linked from Who Is Doctor Who, in which Mickey asks the player to take remote control of a robot in the Leamington Spa Museum and look through the artefacts there to find one left over from the Sycorax Invasion. It's vaguely similar to the Dalek game, though the robot has no weapon.

Doctor Who Adventures

This week's launch of Doctor Who Adventures from BBC Magazines has garnered extra publicity through its poll of six- to twelve-year-olds, which has found that Winston Churchill is the historical figure most children would like to meet if they had a time-travel machine. A BBC Worldwide press release also reveals that Elvis Presley takes second place: "Winston Churchill has been voted the number one person people would most like to meet in a 'time-travel' poll conducted to celebrate the launch of Doctor Who Adventures magazine, a new fortnightly title aimed at 6 - 12 year olds, launching on 5 April. Elvis Presley rocked into second place as Churchill's closest competition, followed by Albert Einstein, Marilyn Monroe and Martin Luther King Jr. 1000 people took part in the time-travel themed survey, asking 24-45 year olds, which famous person they would most like to meet, if they could travel back in time. Other favourites included Ghandi, Princess Diana, Nelson Mandela, Isaac Newton, Queen Elizabeth I and John Lennon. The survey also asked people what time in history would they most like to be part of and the swinging sixties came in as the top choice, followed by a large number of people more than content with right now, as 2006 made it into second place. Victorian times was a strong favourite at three, with football fans voting in the 1966 World Cup as their time travel choice at four and the 1800's at five." There has been some press coverage of the poll result from the Scotsman and Sky News, and a press release was also sent to various Doctor Who fan sites about the item.

Broadcasting

The Sun on Saturday noted that ITV presenters Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly, aka Ant & Dec, "were not so pleased to meet The Sun's Dalek after Dr Who went head to head in the telly ratings with their Saturday Night Takeaway show last year. The boys hope to exterminate the Beeb with their new series." Last year's big television story regarding Doctor Who's broadcast was the defeat of the Saturday night ITV juggernaut in their head-to-head ratings battle.

Dutch broadcaster NOS will be broadcasting the second series in the Netherlands according to an announcement at a broadcasters trade show. Says the BBC Worldwide Territory Manager for the region, "BBC Worldwide has long enjoyed a successful and important relationship with audiences and broadcasters throughout the Netherlands. These new agreements further strengthen those relationships, continuing to offer Dutch audiences the best of our leading catalogue."

The new Doctor Who series will be seen in Finland starting around the end of August or beginning of September, according to a rep from TV Ohjelmapalaute in an email sent to an Outpost Gallifrey reader. "I'm sorry to let you know that Doctor Who doesn't have a fixed transmission date just yet,' says the report from YLE International Programme Acquisitions. 'It is scheduled for the autumn season. My guess would be somewhere around the end of August / beginning of September. ... As for which seasons we'll broadcast. At the moment the YLE TV2 has acquired only the first season, 13 episodes. This is more likely due to the fact that our contacts usually air their productions themselves before they start selling broadcasting rights abroad. However, I'm fairly confident that YLE will buy the second season as well in due time."

No Film For Who?

icWales also says that "Doctor Who genius Russell T Davies has put the Tardis in a spin - saying he won't work with the BBC to turn the Time Lord into a movie icon. Swansea-born Davies transformed Saturday night TV last year when he brought the Doctor back to life. But any big screen hopes have been ruled out by the writer who says he would never join up with BBC Films. Davies, now busy writing a third series, said: 'We would not have time to do a movie at the moment. Maybe if it was all over and still popular, but I would not be desperately keen to work with BBC Films myself. I'm not supposed to say this... but I can't bear them! 'I am in no rush to work with them whatsoever personally, but I suppose the BBC could have a go.' And he is in no rush to work with glamour model Jordan either. 'You open the papers sometimes and read how Jordan wants to be in Doctor Who and you think 'No chance' - bless her, but no way.' But Davies says the Tardis is always open for Charlotte Church, after dismissing reports that she is to star in the Who spin-off Torchwood. 'Charlotte was never going to do it,' he said. 'I love her though, I'd put her in.'"

Series Two

SFX Magazine features a joint interview with David Tennant & Billie Piper in which they both answer questions and joke extensively. "Fortunately we get along. We all get along, and we need to, really, because it's long months and it's quite intense and we're shooting 13-hour days," says Piper. "You're thrown together all the time. I feel like I've made a friend for life. ... Rose is growing-up. She's 20 this year and she's come on in leaps and bounds, I think, since the first series. She's a lot more proactive and she saves the day quite a few times. It's just a natural progression, really. And it's worked out really nicely." Says Tennant, their first scene shot together was "at the end of the Christmas special. We were both in it together, but we didn't have a lot to do together. It's when I tell Harriet Jones to go and stuff herself. That was the first scene we ever shot." Piper notes of Tennant and her previous co-star Chris Eccleston, "They're different men. ... Both great. I had a longer kiss with [Tennant], which I really enjoyed." About their relationship on screen, Tennant says "I think it's like all these relationships, like Mulder and Scully and Moonlighting, you know. Moonlighting jumped the shark when they got together, didn't it? I think you have to be very careful. Which doesn't mean to say that we don't see the relationship developing and becoming something that it maybe hasn't before. But I think you have to be very careful with those things." Piper says, "It's very cool being in Vogue. I like that. It's an exciting time for me to be alive and then to do something that I've wanted to do since I've been a kid. That means so much to me. And being here tonight and watching it. I just can't quite believe that it's all really happened and I'm really liking it and loving it and want to continue to do it for years. All of those things are just a bonus, really. The fact that I'm working everyday as an actress makes me really happy." Tennant says of the English accent he's donned, "It was what Russell had schemed, really, and there was an idea that the Doctor would imprint on Rose, like a sort of newly hatched chick. He would adopt Rose's way of speaking. And this was all explained in the Christmas special... The scene never got made because we ran out of time. So we're just sort of left with it now. I don't know. It's how Russell wanted to take the show and it's how he wanted the Doctor to be. ... Because Chris so brilliantly reinvented it by being Northern and being unashamed about that, it could have got a bit 'touring the regions', you know. But you're going to have to ask Russell what the thinking was behind that. ... You feel like the new boy until you start, because there was months of build up, months of waiting for it to start, months of people speculating about it and asking you about it and asking what you're going to be like and what you're going to be wearing – you didn't know." As for Tennant staying with the show, he says "Well, if I survive the end of episode 13." On Elisabeth Sladen, Tennant says, "It's interesting how the episode works, I think. If you know about Sarah Jane Smith, you kind of watch the episode from the point of view of the Doctor. And if you are younger or don't know that Lis Sladen was in the show before, you kind of watch it through Rose. And funnily enough, that was reflected in our own experience, because I grew up watching Lis in the show." Piper says that of herself and Sladen, "We have a great bitch-fight. And, it starts off... I mean, we're just waiting to go at each other. And we're both quite jealous, I think, which we find it quite hard to cope with... but we're straight in there. And it's good. And in the end Rose actually asks her questions about what it was like being with the Doctor and should she stay on as a companion. Is she going to be burnt? Is she going to be left behind? All of these things. She confides in her. So it was nice, nice to play."

Yahoo News takes something else away from the SFX Interview: "He gets to travel through time and kiss Billie Piper - but David Tennant has hinted that playing Doctor Who was not quite what he thought it would be. The Scottish actor, 34, has been a Doctor Who 'junkie' since his childhood. As a teenager, he wrote an essay about his addiction to the show and queued to meet former time-traveller Tom Baker. It was watching the sci-fi show in its early days that made the young Tennant decide to become an actor. But asked whether the reality of playing the TV icon matched the picture Tennant had imagined, he said: 'What I realised when I came to do this was that any sort of fantastic notions one might have had about this, were just that - fantastic notions.' He told SFX magazine: 'When you have to come and make real decisions about it, it's a different thing. Actors often say that the best bit about getting a job is a phone call that says you've got it, because at that moment it is all potential, and it could be anything. It's all possibilities, and as soon as you start making decisions it starts becoming reality, which is never as much fun.' Tennant also promised that the Doctor's relationship with Rose, played by Piper, would hot up in the second series. ... He said: 'It's a love story without the shagging! I think, it's explored quite deeply (in series two), certainly more deeply than any Doctor assistant relationship has been to this point ... It's great.'" Also reported on the ic Network of news feeds and in the Scotsman and This Is London.

The Sunday Mirror says that "The man who revived Dr Who says the inspiration behind his most ghoulish alien character was..film star Nicole Kidman. Writer Russell T. Davis he says he got the idea for villain Lady Cassandra - who exists only as a layer of skin with a brain tank attached - after watching the stick-thin beauty arrive at the Oscars. He feels it's wrong for Cold Mountain star Nicole, 38, to be so scrawny. 'Cassandra came about after I watched the Oscars,' he told the Sunday Mirror. 'It was horrific seeing those beautiful women reduced to sticks. Nicole Kidman struck me in particular. 'Nicole is one of the most beautiful women in the world. But she looks horrifying because she's so thin. 'It's like we're killing these women in public. We watch while you die.'"

People

Leeds Today on Saturday noted that 'former timelord Christopher Eccleston beamed his way into Leeds. The man, who played Doctor Who in the last series of the revived BBC show, was in the city for the launch of the First Floor project -- helping youngsters develop their acting skills. First Floor, which is being developed by West Yorkshire Playhouse, will provide a permanent arts facility for young people to take part in activities, including drama workshops, storytelling and dance. The star of numerous TV programmes and films including Shallow Grave, is patron of the scheme. 'I am very excited to be here to see the beginnings of what is going to be a very valuable project,' he said. 'I know how much myself and others from my background would have benefited from a much earlier exposure to the arts because as a 20-year-old halfway through drama school training in London, I struggled with seeing myself as belonging in the arts.'"

icWales says that "David Tennant may be the housewives' favourite, but it's Billie Piper who gets sent knickers in the post! Piper, who revives her role as Doctor's assistant Rose in the new series of Doctor Who, revealed all to Roast at the launch of the second BBC One series this week. 'I have had some ladies knickers in the post,' confessed Piper at Tuesday's party at the Wales Millennium Centre, where the first episode of the sci-fi fave was premiered. And her confession left her Casanova co-star red-faced, saying: 'I can only dream of women's knickers in the post.' But despite losing out, Tennant said he was chuffed to be voted a gay icon. The 34-year-old Scot was recently named the Pink Paper's 'sexiest man in the universe' in its annual poll, ahead of Brad Pitt and David Beckham. But despite setting men's pulses racing, Tennant says the only thing he gets sent are scarves. 'Somebody sent me a Tom Baker scarf. It had the right colours and everything, it is quite weird but lovely that someone spends all that time knitting it.' And on his gay icon status, he said: 'How can you react to something like that? If you start playing up to it you would immediately become less attractive to the people who thought you were attractive in the first place. It's flattering to come ahead of Brad Pitt and Beckham. It's a mystery to me but I am very proud of it.'"

Sunday's Guardian Weekend magazine Fashion section featured David Tennant, although he gives no info on the new series. 'As Casanova he donned flouncy blouses, as Dr Who he gads about the cosmos in Converse trainers, but what does actor David Tennant like to wear? Hadley Freeman finds out.' The article was accompanied with various photos of Tennant in different garments.

Miscellaneous

Media Guardian asks, "Has Doctor Who lost out to snobbery? Let me first of all acknowledge that this might appear as a most outrageous piece of corporate cross-promotion. But it wouldn't worry the BBC, so here goes. On this week's MediaGuardian podcast (available at an online iTunes store near you) lead writer Russell T Davies and BBC drama commissioner Jane Tranter complain about how Doctor Who is being treated by awards juries. Davies puts a perceived lack of nominations down to 'snobbery', contrasting the enthusiasm of ordinary viewers with industry attitudes. He says it makes him 'angry' and that if the show doesn't win some craft awards he will be 'furious'. Tranter says she is 'very disappointed' and goes on to liken making popular drama to having children - in that 'you must give and never expect to receive'. Serious stuff and no doubt there is something in what they say about the attitudes of fellow professionals. But what this little outburst really illustrates is something about the BBC in general and the drama department in particular. The BBC had historically been the home of some outstanding popular drama - All Creatures Great and Small, Bergerac, as well as Boys from the Blackstuff to name but a few. But from the late 1980s onwards BBC drama was cast into the shadows by rampantly successful ITV fare - Heartbeat, Cracker, Morse, Peak Practice, Prime Suspect, and it took on a tendency to be serious and often dark. Popular drama came to be regarded with great suspicion as akin to scraping the bottom of the barrel in search of ratings. Even the word 'popular' was frowned on. It is one of the reasons that Nick Elliott - ITV's controller of drama and one of the past masters of creating the kind of very high quality popular programming the BBC needed - only had a short stint at the corporation. But the flipside of the dominant 'snooty'culture was a kind of crusading, 'chippy' solidarity amongst those committed to the cause of popular programmes. Mal Young - ex of Brookside - was initially regarded as a barbarian invader when he became a senior executive at BBC drama. But he plugged away, kept EastEnders and Casualty in rude health, launched Holby City and went on to champion Daziel and Pascoe, Judge John Deed and Waking the Dead. Meanwhile others were creating Spooks, Hustle and other quality dramas unashamed about being popular. The fact is, BBC drama has been almost completely reinvented, not least through the efforts of Tranter, and now stands some way ahead of much of the competition in terms of popularity and quality. Having chaired the Bafta jury for drama series this year, I must say that the overall quality of entries (including Doctor Who) was fantastically high and that I can't imagine BBC drama ever having had a stronger slate. There really is widespread appreciation of how far BBC drama has travelled. I can also say that I did not detect the faintest hint of snobbery amongst the jurors but if you look at the shortlist of nominees you will see that we were spoilt for choice."

The Sunday Mail has a contest in cooperation with BBC Magazines: "To celebrate the launch of the new Doctor Who Adventures magazine, we've arranged a fantastic contest with BBC Magazines to give signed Doctor Who merchandise to five budding time travellers. Just write your own Dr Who story and you could win prizes signed by the Doctor (David Tennant), Rose (Billie Piper) and series writer Russell T. Davies. Each lucky winner will receive a copy of the first Doctor Who Adventures magazine, a DVD box set of the first series, a Doctor Who electronic board game and the Doctor Who Annual. Two runners-up will win a six-month mag subscription. ... Just send us a short story based on Doctor Who to: Dr Who Contest, Fun On Sunday, Sunday Mail, One Central Quay, Glasgow, G3 8DA, to arrive by April10. The five winning stories selected by our judges win the first prizes. The next two receive a six-month subscription to the Doctor Who Adventures magazine. Editor's decision is final."

The Daily Star proposed "some female candidates for The Doctor we'd like to see on screen" this weekend. Among the choices proposed as the Doctor by the paper (remember, last week Russell T Davies said he wouldn't be opposed) were Charlotte Church ("Voice of an Angel would be a sound hit in the Tardis"), Sigourney Weaver ("Russell T. Davies has already admitted he's a fan"), Angelina Jolie ("Would definitely give the ratings a massive boost. Brad could have a role"), Davina McCall ("A bit of a disaster with her chat show, so maybe she would like a trip in the Tardis"), Kiera Knightley ("Hottest young Brit actress would become an even bigger star") and even Billie Piper ("It would stretch the imagination a bit, but maybe Rose could somehow morph into the Doc").

The Sunday Telegraph features an article written by a fan as a set visit to the filming of the upcoming series two episode Tooth and Claw. "Transported five years into the future (by fearful imagination rather than the Tardis), I am wondering whether my newly truculent teenage son will remember that his father once took him to the set of Doctor Who, and so hate me that little less for helping bring him into the world. For the present, Louis is eight and anything but truculent at the sight of a young woman in dungarees entering a room inhabited by a dozen production staff huddled around minuscule television monitors. 'Ooh, ooh, oooooh, look, quick, it's Rose! Here. In the room. Rose! With us. Rose Tyler!' arises a counter-tenor squeal. 'For goodness sake, it's Billie Piper, not Rose Tyler,' comes the instant rebuke, 'and Dad, will you please shut up and stop embarrassing me.' Billie wanders over and welcomes Louis to the set of 'Tooth and Claw' (the second episode of the new Doctor Who series, which starts on Easter Saturday), with a handshake, a grin and a cheery 'Hello darling, you all right?' All right? We're in heaven, both of us, albeit the gauche, mumbling, foot-shuffling, face-reddening heaven of the grievously star-struck. If Billie Piper's progress from teeny pop star to world-class actress seems remarkable, it is probably less so than the regeneration of the series itself, after almost two decades in a state doubtless known to its nerdsome fans as cryogenic stasis. ... The BBC is naturally loath to give much away, but the episode we have come to watch filmed on this crisp morning involves the use, by malevolent monks (doubtless aliens in disguise), of a werewolf in a typically audacious bid at global domination. Queen Victoria, who happens to be visiting this red-brick pile on her way to Balmoral, is in grave peril. For once Her Majesty - in the form of a black-clad Pauline Collins - seems highly amused. What, I facetiously ask, is her motivation? 'My motivation,' she smilingly replies, 'is pretending to be Queen Victoria.' Collins is making a hurried return to the series, she explains, having appeared 'wearing long knickers' in a Patrick Troughton episode in the late 1960s. It's safe to declare that the production values have changed in the intervening 38 years. Where in the past episodes looked like they'd been filmed in two hours on a couple of wobbly camcorders, the process now seems as laboriously perfectionist as a medium-budget movie, and in the eight hours we spend on set only a few minutes of film are recorded. The atmosphere throughout, however, is extraordinarily jolly, thanks largely to the presence of a tall, skinny and endlessly good-humoured man in a brown-and-white striped suit and white pumps. 'David Tennant's coming over,' Louis warns me. 'Please, Dad, don't do your I'm-just-as-old-as-the-Doctor speech. It's very boring, and anyway you're 42, not 900.' ... Tennant appears to be that most precious of beings, the wholly unactorly actor who is entirely at ease with obsessive fans. After lunch in a double-decker bus parked in the grounds of the house, which doubles up as a museum of Victoriana, a middle-aged woman wanders over. 'Excuse me, I'm looking for the Morgan Room,' she says, apparently mistaking him for a tour guide, and he couldn't be more helpful. Later, a couple of theatre buffs sidle up for an autograph. When they mention having seen him on stage, he drops into a pastiche of the queeny theatrical egomaniac, inviting them to agree how simply marvellous he was. ... 'I think he's going to be the best Doctor ever, even better than Eccleston,' Louis whispers when the director is finally satisfied. Rather than the usual second-guessing of a potential audience with endless market research, the BBC has gone back decades by giving absolute creative control to people who evidently love what they are doing. It helps, of course, that Russell T. Davies, the executive producer as well as chief writer, is a rampant genius. His scripts work as well for adults as for children, seamlessly combining wit, pathos, emotional depth and cracking story lines with innate mastery of the sci-fi genre, shards of political satire, the odd slice of homosexual self-parody and a very cute way with ersatz mythologising ('Do you know what they call me in the ancient legends of the Dalek home world?' Eccleston's Doctor asks the titanium pepper pots. 'The Oncoming Storm'). The technical crew are just as passionate as Davies. Upstairs in the art department, a group of Doctor Who nuts (all male, though not all bearded) are hunched blissfully over Apple Macs refining the next tranche of monsters, most notably the new look, bulked-up Cybermen. The room is full of odd bits and bobs - telescopes, sextants, radar equipment - bought from a junk-shop owner who seems to have cornered the market in the broken-up contents of disused plane and boat cockpit consoles. 'Would you like me to show you the Tardis?' asks the head designer. 'The Tardis? Nah, I don't think we can be bother ...' A small hand interrupts my idiocy with a well-deserved pinch and we are led downstairs to the large studio that houses the time ship in its newly organic, petrified forest manifestation. Outside the room stands a Dalek, the one that took its own life in the last series after subsuming Rose's DNA and finding itself unable to cope with the loneliness of being the only one of its kind. Further along the wall is the Face of Boa, a huge, glass-encased leonine head believed to be as old as time itself, and scheduled for an important return in the spring. How could any devoted fan not yield to over-excitement on such a day as this? 'Thank you so much, that was wicked, totally totally wicked,' exclaims a squeaky voice as we shake hands with Billie Piper and David Tennant back at the house. 'Dad, please,' insists a more mature one as we leave them and the Queen Empress to their werewolf. Somehow, though, for all the embarrassment, I doubt he'll forget."

Australia's INS News says, "How sad it's been decided the legendary Dr Who has to be 'raunchy'. It has always captured the imagination of the young and the old without snogging scenes from Billie Piper and Casanova star David Tennant. The steamy scenes occur when the Tardis lands on a new planet in episode one. I suppose it's a sign of the times, however I do feel that longstanding programmes like Dr Who should stick with the same format. If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

Joking Apart, the early 1990's TV series written by Doctor Who writerSteven Moffat, will be released on May 22 on DVD, according to theJoking Apart fan site.

The latest issue of BBC's It's Hot magazine (Issue 50) is running a text poll: 'Do you prefer the new Doctor (David Tennant) to the old one (Christopher Eccleston)? Text HOT WHO to 80402 followed by YES or NO.' The magazine also has one page of 5 behind-the-scenes pictures (scan attached). It also has a one-page advert for the Doctor Who Adventures magazine with Rose at the forefront and the tag line: 'Not your average girl next door', plus 'Catch Rose's amazing adventures with the Doctor every two weeks! Doctor Who Adventures magazine is packed with the latest Who gossip, amazing time travel, stunning posters, and has a fab comic strip too. It's one big adventure you'll just love.'

Yesteray's Telegraph says that "There was a time not so long ago when the only British television programmes Americans knew or cared about were Monty Python's Flying Circus, The Benny Hill Show and the occasional costume drama shown so late at night that only insomniacs watched. But now, judging by the column inches currently devoted to British television in serious newspapers, there's a big chunk of America that's as au fait with British TV as we are with the plotlines in 24 and Will & Grace. Indeed, on a recent trip to America I spent much of my time answering questions such as: 'Is the second series of Nighty Night as dark as the first?', 'Is Joan Collins really in Footballers' Wives?' and, my favourite, 'Is the new Doctor Who [as played by Christopher Eccleston] really gay?' ... The Russell T Davies-penned incarnation with Christopher Eccleston has taken this BBC drama from nerdy cult to mainstream hit. Shown on Sci-Fi Channel. 'Affectionate, ironic, the show has an essential silliness' - New York Times."

icWales says that Wales "has become a beacon for new film and television projects. Lighting rigs, cameras, directors and A-list stars are now regular sights as the film industry realises the urban settings and sprawling countryside of Wales equals celluloid heaven. Already a host of major films have started filming in and around South Wales, with more international stars due to arrive later this year. Doctor Who star David Tennant said Wales was a perfect alternative to overused locations like London. 'In London people are so hacked off with film crews, they've no time for them,' he said. 'But one of the great things about filming in Wales is everyone is so pleased to see us.' ... Doctor Who has proved filming in Wales can be a big business. The second series alone gave jobs to a 200-strong mostly Welsh crew bringing revenue to South Wales and it has spawned a spin-off, Torchwood due to be filmed exclusively in Cardiff. Writer and producer for Doctor Who Russell T Davies said the success of the show has definitely brought more jobs to Wales. He is proud of the landscape. He said, 'I feel honour bound to show the country.'" Also, News Wales has created a map of film projects in Wales.

The home page of GMTV home page is currently running a 'Whose your favourite Dr Who' poll. As at 9.50am BST today, the Time Lords' scores were Tom Baker at 25%, Christopher Eccleston at 22%, David Tennant at 22%, Other at 18% and Jon Pertwee at 13%.

(Thanks to Paul Engelberg, Steve Tribe, Peter Weaver, Benjamin McKenzie, Steve Jones, Greg Dunn, Aidan Brack)




FILTER: - Russell T Davies - Series 3/29 - Magazines - Press - DWA - Broadcasting

New Trailer Debuts

Monday, 3 April 2006 - Reported by Shaun Lyon

The trailer for Series Two of Doctor Who made its debut this weekend in the UK. It originally debuted at 6.58pm on Saturday on BBC One in a one-minute version, which was simultaneously put online at the official Doctor Who websiteand was then shown once each by BBC Two, BBC Three and BBC Four through the evening. A shorter version of 40 seconds debuted on BBC One on Sunday morning, while a 20-second edit was first screened on BBC One at 8.59pm on Sunday. The full version is due to be shown again before EastEnders this Monday evening (just before 8pm). (Thanks to Steve Tribe)




FILTER: - Series 2/28 - Broadcasting

New Earth Release and Launch Date Confusion

Friday, 31 March 2006 - Reported by Shaun Lyon

The BBC Press Office has this morning released official confirmation that Series Two will begin on BBC One in the week beginning Saturday 15 April... but still says that the episode is "unplaced" in BBC1's schedule. The report also features a synopsis of "New Earth," the first episode, which we feature below (including a mix-up in the press release regarding actress Camille Coduri). Interestingly, on BBC1's schedule, Strictly Dance Fever is shown as running from 6.15 to 7.15pm on Easter Saturday; a live football match has been confirmed elsewhere as scheduled for 5.15pm on BBC One the following week, which is likely to run until 7.15pm (at least). It may be that 'New Earth' will launch the series in a slightly later timeslot than last year; we'll keep you posted.
Doctor Who - New Earth
The wait is over! David Tennant, the 10th Time Lord, and Billie Piper as his feisty young companion Rose Tyler, return in the eagerly anticipated second series of the award-winning new Doctor Who.
The Doctor and Rose board the Tardis for new adventures in time and space. But when they visit mankind’s new home, far in the future, they find gruesome secrets hidden inside a luxury hospital. And an enemy thought long since dead, the paper-thin Cassandra, is out for revenge…
David Tennant plays The Doctor, Billie Piper plays Rose Tyler, Jackie Tyler plays Camille Coduri, Noel Clarke plays Mickey Smith, Zoe Wanamaker plays Cassandra, Sean Gallagher plays Chip, Dona Croll plays Matron Casp, Lucy Robinson plays Frau Clovis and Adjoa Andoh plays Sister Jatt."




FILTER: - Series 2/28 - Broadcasting

UK Schedule Updates

Friday, 31 March 2006 - Reported by Shaun Lyon

There have been a couple of changes to BBC Three's schedules over the next fortnight, along with more details of the content of the Doctor Who Night on Sunday 9 April. The reruns of Series One will still begin with two double bills (episodes 1 to 4) from 7pm on Thursday 6 April and Friday 7 April, but 'World War Three' has now moved to Saturday 8 April at 7.10pm. The double bills resume with episodes 6 and 7 on Monday 10 April and conclude with episodes 13 and 14 on Thursday 13 April. (See list below.)

The Doctor Who Night on Sunday 9 April is comprised of Doctor Who Confidential: One Year On, a repeat of The Christmas Invasion, and another showing of 2003's documentary The Story of Doctor Who

There will also, as in 2005, be another airing of 1960s Peter Cushing movieDr. Who and the Daleks on BBC Two ahead of the new series; this year, the film is on Thursday 13 April at 11.10am.

Advance listings guides are also showing a CBBC repeat of the first Totally Doctor Who for 6.30pm on Friday 14 April. This contradicts the information given in the latest DWM (which suggested Saturday evenings as the likely time for a repeat), but may not reflect the final schedules. The premier of the new children's series is confirmed for BBC One at 5pm on Thursday 13 April.

The updated schedule, along with the US airings of Doctor Who on the Sci-Fi Channel, are now on the Outpost Gallifrey news page's TV schedule in the left-hand column; note that this includes the new series as assumed to be premiering on April 15 at 7pm like noted in Doctor Who Magazine, although as stated in the news story below, this seems to be a bit up in the air as of today. (Thanks to Steve Tribe for compiling this information)




FILTER: - DWM - Series 1/27 - Broadcasting

UKTV Gold Repeats

Friday, 17 March 2006 - Reported by Shaun Lyon

UKTV Gold will repeat the first season of the new series again over two days on the 8-9 April 2006 weekend, according to a report today on the official Doctor Who website. "With a brand new series of exciting Doctor Who adventures about to launch on BBC One, those lovely people at UKTV Gold have decided to give everyone a treat by repeating all of the 2005 series over the course of one weekend. From 11am to 5pm (6pm on Sunday) on 8 and 9 April 2006, viewers can watch the Doctor (Christopher Eccleston) and Rose Tyler (Billie Piper) defeat the Daleks, squash the Slitheen and grapple with the Gelth, in all thirteen episodes from the first series. So settle down with a flask of tea and a packet of biscuits and remind yourself just how good it all was... And of course, don't forget that UKTV Gold is also showing vintage Doctor Who adventures from the early 1970s every weekend. Currently screening each Saturday and Sunday morning (usually starting at 6am or 7am) are adventures from Jon Pertwee's time as the Doctor."




FILTER: - Classic Series - Broadcasting

More On Sci-Fi Channel

Tuesday, 14 March 2006 - Reported by Shaun Lyon

The US-based Sci Fi Channel, in anticipation of the series' debut this Friday, March 17, has run several additionaltrailers for the series, two of which debuted during the channel's season finale night last Friday. One of the trailers notes that the Doctor is "not here to save the universe... He's just enjoying it while it lasts". So far, at least four different trailer spots have been discovered on the channel, but at the moment, only the original is online on the website.

The channel's website has also released a quick, web-only behind-the-scenes video featuring brief interview clips with executive producers Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner and producer Phil Collinson, some of which is shot in the TARDIS control room set. The video plays in Flash animation from the front page of the website.

Sci Fi Wire, the channel's online news service, ran a feature article today calling the timing "right" for the series to return. "Russell T. Davies, executive producer of the hit British SF series Doctor Who, told SCI FI Wire that his revival of the long-running BBC series came about after years of waiting for the right opportunity. 'I think the BBC had their eye on it as a very good property that could be resurrected,' Davies said in an interview. 'And the drama department as well as the controller of BBC1, wanted to work with me, which sounds very arrogant, but it's the truth. They'd been asking me to write all sorts of things; every year, they'd phone up and say, 'Do you want to want to adapt A Tale of Two Cities? or 'do you want to write another series about gay men?' [Davies was best known for his series Queer as Folk.] Or something like that, and every year I quite confidently (and cheekily) sat there and said, 'No, I just want to do Doctor Who!' The original Doctor Who was canceled in 1989 after 26 seasons, but continued to live on in novels, radio plays, audio dramas and a 1996 TV movie starring Paul McGann in the lead role. A number of producers had approached the BBC with their own ideas for a possible revival, but Davies insisted that he didn't have a direction in mind until after he came on board. 'Once they asked me to do it and commissioned me, I came up with my take on it, and the miracle from my point of view was that I was given a clean slate,' he said. Davies added: 'My only wariness in going to work for the BBC, especially on an in-house production, is that the BBC is a labyrinthine organization. I was very wary of the red tape, the committees, focus groups and all the systems that were in place. But, to my astonishment, I discovered that the opposite was true. When I did my treatment, I didn't have to go through 27 different committees, so I was given an enormous amount of freedom, and then they followed that up by backing it with a budget, which again was my worry. I didn't want to do a cheap version of Doctor Who, but the heads of various departments and the heads of certain channels all wanted the same thing, so everyone was in the right place, and I was lucky enough to be the one they wanted.' The first season of Doctor Who will debut on SCI FI Channel with episodes one ('Rose') and two ('The End of the World') airing back to back, starting at 9 p.m. ET/PT on March 17. 'We actually asked for that in this country [Great Britain],' Davies said. 'Mind you, we only asked for it, like, two weeks before transmission, when everything was fixed in stone, so they laughed us out of the building. But I think it's a brilliant idea!' As Doctor Who begins airing on SCI FI Channel, the show is currently wrapping production on its second season in South Wales and will air in the United Kingdom soon."

Finally... could a second-season airing be in the cards this year instead of next? Sci Fi recently confirmed that its flagship original series "Battlestar Galactica" would not be returning for its third season until October 2006, though its Friday night partner series, "Stargate SG-1" and "Stargate Atlantis" will in fact be back for their next seasons in July (as Sci Fi usually splits each season in two and runs the first half in the summer.) This has led to speculation that "Doctor Who" might, if its popularity warrants, be back for more episodes as early as this summer. As always, we must stress that nothing has been confirmed on this.




FILTER: - USA - Russell T Davies - Broadcasting