Canadian Update

Friday, 16 April 2010 - Reported by Marcus
SpaceCanadian Broadcaster SPACE have announced they will be showing the documentary Doctor Who: The Ultimate Guide at 8pm ET this Saturday, immediately before the Canadian premier of The Eleventh Hour. The documentary is also being shown on BBC America and is described as an original, all-access look inside the world's biggest, most successful sci-fi television program.

The network have uploaded the recent Skype conversation with Steven Moffat, which took place at the recent screening party in Toronto. Matt Smith also gave an interview to Q, CBC Radio's mid-morning broadcast. The interview begins about 22 minutes into the podcast.

Press coverage of the imminent arrival of The Eleventh Doctor to North America continues with items in the Chicago Sun-Times, Vancouver Sun, Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail and Reuters.




FILTER: - Canada - Series 5/31 - Broadcasting

Audio Adventures with The Telegraph - Updated

Friday, 16 April 2010 - Reported by Marcus
The Telegraph is to give away a series of Doctor Who Audio adventures starting next weekend with an early release of Matt Smith reading a brand new adventure for the Eleventh Doctor, The Runaway Train. It is understood this will be in the paper on Saturday 24th April.

The news comes from Doctor Who author Peter Anghelides, whose own story, Pest Control, featuring the Tenth Doctor and read by David Tennant, will be the second story released on the 25th and 26th April.

The promotion is part of a deal with BBC Audiobooks. Commissioning Editor Michael Stevens says
It’s a thrilling collection of unique original audio stories, rarely-heard radio adventures and classic TV soundtracks, featuring the voices of much-loved Doctors, companions and monsters – including the brand new current Doctor, Matt Smith.

Other stories included are: Slipback, the Colin Baker story originally heard on BBC Radio 4 in 1985; Genesis of the Daleks and Exploration Earth featuring Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen; and finally Mission to the Unknown, the soundtrack of the 1965 story, which was the one Doctor Who television episode not to feature the Doctor or any of his companions.





FILTER: - Audio - Tom Baker - Matt Smith - David Tennant - Colin Baker

Schedule Update

Thursday, 15 April 2010 - Reported by Marcus
Flesh and StoneThe BBC Press Office has released details for the second part of the Weeping Angels story, Flesh And Stone. Episode 5 of the new series will be shown in the UK on Saturday 1st May. The episode summary contains spoilers for part one of the story.
There's no way back, no way up and no way out. Trapped among an army of Weeping Angels, the Doctor and his friends must try to escape through the wreckage of a crashed space liner.

Meanwhile, in the forest vault, the Doctor's companion, Amy Pond, finds herself facing an even more deadly attack.

Meanwhile schedules for the 24th April have been confirmed with the first half of the story, The Time of Angels, scheduled for 6.20pm on BBC One and BBC HD.

The programme is once more scheduled between Total Wipeout and Over The Rainbow. ITV1 will be offering the Best of You've Been Framed with Harry Hill. Viewers not wanting to face a Weeping Angel can face Jeremy Paxman on BBC Two in a special Saturday election edition of Newsnight with Channel 4 offering Channel 4 News. Five will be showing the 1969 film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid with Paul Newman and Robert Redford.

Doctor Who Confidential will be at 7.05pm on BBC Three and at 8:25pm on BBC HD and reports on Matt Smith being photographed, scanned and 'rotoscoped' for the new online Doctor Who Adventure Games.




FILTER: - UK - Series 5/31 - Broadcasting

North American Tour continues

Thursday, 15 April 2010 - Reported by Marcus
Matt SmithThe Doctor Who promotional tour of the states continues with Matt Smith and Karen Gillan making appearances ahead of the series launch on BBC America this Saturday.

The official site has a report on the preview showing of The Eleventh Hour at the Village East movie theatre on Wednesday night. The event, attended by Smith, Gillan and executive producer Steven Moffat, drew fans from around the country with the queue forming as early as 6.30am. The Daily Mail reports on the event, continuing its fascination with the outfits of Karen Gillan. BBC America have uploaded video of Matt Smith signing his first head to their Facebook page.

Meanwhile the Paley Centre for Media has uploaded a video of the question and answer session which took place last Monday, and there is a report on the event on Newsarama. BBC America have uploaded a video of Smith and Gillan at the Apple store in SoHo.

The stars have also given interviews to a number of local TV stations such as WCSH6 based in Portland, Maine, with Steven Moffat talking to FilmSchool Rejects.

Doctor Who was even mentioned on the BBC's flagship current affairs programme Newsnight, when a guest from Washington said the leadership debates, taking place in the UK tonight, may draw an audience as big as that achieved by the arrival of a new Doctor Who.

In Canada a special preview of The Eleventh Hour took place last week and is covered by The National Post. Steven Moffat talked to the event via Skype. We understand a 9 minute clip of The Eleventh Hour is available as a free download from iTunes Canada.

On the other side of the world the new series also launches in Australia this weekend. Fans are reporting that the ABC is so heavily promoting the fact that the first episode will be available online from midnight on Friday via its iView service that a lot of viewers are missing the fact that it will actually be shown on ABC1 on Sunday, with ABC announcers specifically mentioning the iView showing but not the Sunday one.





FILTER: - Canada - USA - Karen Gillan - Matt Smith - Press - Series 5/31

Doctor Who Adventures - 162

Thursday, 15 April 2010 - Reported by Marcus
Doctor Who AdventuresThis week Doctor Who Adventures looks at the best bits from last week’s episode, The Beast Below.

Matt Smith reveals all about the filming of the episode in his Doctor Who Adventures diary, with lots of filming facts. And the magazine asks who needs the Doctor’s help is this week’s brand new adventure? Find out in the sneak peak at episode three, Victory of the Daleks.

Plus Doctor Who gifts, Cyberman Fast Facts, Essential info on Earth Invaders and five posters.




FILTER: - Magazines - DWA

New Clips Online

Thursday, 15 April 2010 - Reported by Marcus
Three new clips from Victory of the Daleks, as well as an introduction to the story from Matt Smith and Karen Gillan, are now available on the official BBC website.

Video content may not be available outside the United Kingdom.




FILTER: - Online - Broadcasting

Auton: Shock & Awe

Thursday, 15 April 2010 - Reported by Marcus
AutonA compilation book containing the best bits of the notoriously-childish Doctor Who fanzine, Auton, is to be published by Hirst Books this September.

The book will include the best of the 19 issues originally published in the nineties, plus what is described as an absolute ton of new and previously unpublished inanity. The book will be large format (180mm x 260mm), full colour throughout and around 200 pages. The Restoration Team's Steve Roberts has written a foreword.

As with the magazine, the book contains adult themes and isn't intended for children.

All the authors proceeds and fees are being equally divided between The MS Society, Foundation For The Study of Infant Death, and The Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice.




FILTER: - Fan Productions

Doctor Who and the Son of Doctor Who

Wednesday, 14 April 2010 - Reported by Dean Braithwaite
This article asks: “Is this the Doctor Who general election? And are Labour hoping that some of the popularity of the show will rub off on them?” The forthcoming UK general election and Doctor Who do seem to be becoming evermore interlinked.

The new issue of Radio Times, harking back to its 30 April to 6 May issue from 2005 (opposite), shows the Daleks in the colours (blue, red and yellow) of the three main UK political parties, David Tennant, earlier this year, declared his support for the UK’s Labour Party and Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the party’s current leader. Earlier this week, the Labour Party turned to the Doctor and a son of the Doctor in it’s campaign to win re-election in the contest.

The first party-election broadcast of the campaign premièred on YouTube before airing on UK television channels. In the Labour Party broadcast, The Road Ahead, the third Doctor Jon Pertwee’s son, Sean Pertwee, appeared, while the tenth Doctor David Tennant provided the voice-over.

See our earlier story about this week’s Radio Times and the interview with Brown, who reveals that Tennant is his favourite Doctor, and that he saw him recently in Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

In recent months, both Russell T. Davies and Steven Moffat have separately warned against David Cameron’s Conservatives winning the election, fearing the future of the BBC would be under threat. Citing Moffat’s comments, the Daily Mirror claimed that Saturday’s episode, The Beast Below, featured a message blasting the Tories:
A livid Doctor says: “Once every five years everyone chooses to forget what they have learned. That’s democracy.”
A source said: “This almost echoes what Labour has been saying about how people should not forget what they learned in the 80s. They think the Tories will drag the country down again and it looks like the Doctor feels the same.”

In February, the Sunday Times claimed that writers wove anti-Tory propaganda into Doctor Who scripts in the 1980s.

As for the Liberal Democrats, their candidate for Blaenau Gwent, Wales, is one Matt Smith!




FILTER: - Steven Moffat - Russell T Davies - Jon Pertwee - Matt Smith - David Tennant - Series

Constellation Awards Nominations

Wednesday, 14 April 2010 - Reported by Chuck Foster
The Doctor Who bookshelf of awards eyes up Canada next, with a number of nominations in the categories for the Constellation Awards.


Former Doctor David Tennant is up for his third award for Best Male Performance in a 2009 Science Fiction Television Episode with The Waters of Mars; he previously won in the 2006 and 2007 ceremonies. This time he is up against Gareth David Lloyd for his performance as Ianto Jones in Torchwood: Children of Earth (Day Four). Other nominations include Jenson Ackles (Supernatural), John Noble (Fringe), Misha Collins (Supernatural), Robin Dunne (Sanctuary) and Ron Livingston (Defying Gravity).

The Best Female Performance in a 2009 Science Fiction Television Episode sees guest star Michelle Ryan nominated for her role as Lady Christina in Planet of the Dead. This was won last year by Catherine Tate for her role as Donna Noble in Turn Left, and in 2008 by Carey Mulligan (Sally Sparrow in Blink). Michelle's competition includes Agam Darshi (Sanctuary), Alona Tal (Supernatural), Amanda Tapping (Sanctuary), Erin Karpluk (Being Erica), Laura Harris (Defying Gravity) and Lena Headley (Sarah Connor Chronicles)

Doctor Who is (of course!) up for Best Science Fiction Television Series of 2009 for the fourth time, having won this category in all three previous ceremonies. This year it is up against the likes of Sanctuary, Supernatural, Stargate Universe, Defying Gravity, Flash Forward and Being Erica. (The series also won the Outstanding Canadian Contribution to Science Fiction Film or Television at the first ceremony in 2007.)

Best Overall 2009 Science Fiction Film or Television Script sees Torchwood: Children of Earth (Day One) nomimated; last year this was won by the Doctor Who episode Silence in the Library. Torchwood is up against Stargate Universe, Defying Gravity, Being Erica, Flash Forward and District 9.

In addition, the Best Female Performance in a 2009 Science Fiction Film, TV Movie, or Mini-Series category yields an unusual entry in the form of actress Aurora Buchanan, who has been nominated for the fan-made film Doctor Who: Victimsight. This is the only fan production to make the entire award nominations, and Aurora is up against major Hollywood actresses/entries like Emma Watson (Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince), Zoe Zaldana (nominated twice for both Star Trek and Avatar), and Dakota Fanning (Push).


The Constellation Awards are Canada's annual science fiction awards, and focus on rewarding excellence in science fiction film and television. This is the fourth year of the Awards, which are voted for by the Canadian public; it will take place at the Polaris 24 convention on 17th July 2010.




FILTER: - Awards/Nominations - Children of Earth (Series 3)

Doctor Who team hits New York

Wednesday, 14 April 2010 - Reported by Marcus
The Doctor Who team have arrived in New York as part of the publicity tour in the run up to the new series launch on BBC America this coming Saturday.

On Monday Matt Smith and Karen Gillan attended an industry screening of The Eleventh Hour at the Paley Center for Media where, along with executive producer Steven Moffat, they answered questions from the specially invited audience.

Smith talked about his audition and how he had to shoot 12 takes of the infamous fish custard scene in The Eleventh Hour. Moffat said his inspiration for the scene came from the Winnie-the-Pooh books, specifically the scene where Tigger claims to like everything, but then proceeds to reject all the foodstuffs offered to him.

Smith and Gillan had time for some sight seeing as well as attending a 'Meet the Cast' event at the Apple SoHo store and giving an interview to TV Guide Magazine and the New York Times.

The trio will attend a special screening of The Eleventh Hour on Wednesday at the Village East Cinema.





FILTER: - People - USA - Karen Gillan - Matt Smith