Doctor Who’s Greatest Moments

Tuesday, 11 August 2009 - Reported by Dean Braithwaite

Doctor Who’s Greatest Moments is a new three-part documentary series from the Doctor Who Confidential team.

Patrick Mulkern, in the new issue of the Radio Times has this to say:

With 58 Doctor Who Confidentials already under their belt, Gillane Seaborne and her team deliver a trio of themed docs – a fast, fun celebration of all that has made Doctor Who a storming success since its rebirth in 2005. [Parts 2 and 3] Companions and Enemies will follow, but this week it’s the Doctor’s turn in the limelight. What makes the Bachelor of Time tick? Why does he need reigning in occasionally? And who are his own heroes?

As well as clips from the series, there’ll be interviews from the “nearly departed” David Tenant, Freema Agyeman, Georgia Moffett, “next Doctor” David Morrissey and Captain Jack himself, John Barrowman.

Each episode is an hour in length, and the first, The Doctor, will be shown in the UK on BBC3 on Thursday, 20 August 2009 at 8:00 pm.

FILTER: - Documentary - Radio Times

BBC America press release: Best week, more Who

Tuesday, 11 August 2009 - Reported by Josiah Rowe

BBC America has announced in a press release that Torchwood: Children of Earth and Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead helped the cable channel to its best ratings week:

Torchwood: Children of Earth is BBC AMERICA's most successful series ever, reaching 3.3m in Live+SD across the week. It delivered an average audience of 705,000 viewers per episode, with Friday's finale attracting 847,000, the largest average audience in the channel's history. Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead also performed strongly with 657,000 viewers in Live+SD.

In the Monday-Friday, 9-10P hour among A25-54, BBC AMERICA ranked #13 in coverage rating (.51) and #22 in delivery (380k) among the 75 Nielsen-rated ad supported cable networks. For the week, July 20, in the 9-10P hour, the channel - available in 64 million homes - outperformed, in Live+SD A25-54 delivery several nets with significantly higher distribution, such as MSNBC, Animal Planet, Bravo, BET, Travel, Oxygen, Hallmark, TV Land, Soap, MTV, E!, WE, and Headline News.

The press release also confirms that BBC America has acquired the next season of Doctor Who, starring Matt Smith as the Doctor. The series will air on BBC America in "Q2, 2010 following soon after its UK premiere"; "Q2" refers to the second quarter of the year, or April, May and March.

FILTER: - USA - Children of Earth (Series 3) - Series 5/31 - Broadcasting

The Writer’s Tale – New edition

Friday, 7 August 2009 - Reported by Anthony Weight

Details posted on Amazon.co.uk reveal that a new edition of The Writer’s Tale, Russell T Davies and Benjamin Cook’s detailed account of the making of series four of the new Doctor Who, is to be released in January 2010. The book, which takes the form of collected e-mail correspondence between Davies and Cook, proved extremely popular on its original release in late 2008. The new edition will contain over 300 pages of new material, detailing the conclusion of Davies’s time on the programme, culminating in the final special episodes to star David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor.

FILTER: - People - Russell T Davies - Books

Tennant/Davies on BBC Radio Wales

Friday, 7 August 2009 - Reported by Chuck Foster

BBC Radio Wales featured one of its regular "radio postcard" broadcasts from Russell T Davies in Los Angeles this morning, and was joined by Julie Gardner, David Tennant and Euros Lyn to discuss the recent ComicCon. The broadcast will be available from BBC's iplayer for the next seven days (approx 2hrs 20min into the show).

There will be another 'postcard' on Monday.

See: BBC Wales Press Release

FILTER: - Russell T Davies - David Tennant - Radio - Broadcasting

Dalek War in October

Friday, 7 August 2009 - Reported by Marcus

The Dalek War Box set, featuring the third Doctor stories Frontier in Space and Planet of the Daleks, will be released in the UK on the 5th October.

The release was originally expected in December, but it is understood a slot became available in October when the release of Torchwood - Children of Earth was moved to a release date immediately after transmission.

Details of the extras included in the release are posted here.

It is not known whether another release will take the slot now available on 28th December. A trail has recently been classified for the release of the Fifth Doctor stories The King's Demons and Planet of Fire, indicating a Kamelion box set could be on the way.

FILTER: - Classic Series - Blu-ray/DVD

Tennant's Hamlet comes to PBS

Wednesday, 5 August 2009 - Reported by Josiah Rowe

America's Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) has announced that the Royal Shakespeare Company's recent production of Hamlet starring David Tennant and Patrick Stewart will air in the US as part of the network's "Great Performances" series in 2010. The RSC says that the television adaptation "will retain the quality and tone of the critically acclaimed stage production but filming will take place on location"

The BBC announced earlier this year that the film would air in the UK on BBC Two later in 2009.

Tennant will also be seen on PBS as host of the "Masterpiece Contemporary" series, which returns on October 25.

Press coverage of the PBS broadcast of Hamlet can be seen at Playbill, Variety and wire service articles from The Associated Press and the UK's Press Association, each of which were picked up by many newspapers.

FILTER: - People - USA - David Tennant

John Barrowman enters UK Music Charts

Monday, 3 August 2009 - Reported by Chuck Foster

Actor and singer John Barrowman's song I Made it Through the Rain is the highest new entry in the UK's official Radio 1 Top 40 charts, entering at number 14.

Speaking on Fern and Reggie's Chart Show yesterday, Barrowman said:

It's kind of like a phenomenon. The album was released in November of last year, and you think, okay, it's had its life, and if it sells something beyond that you're really chuffed and happy and pleased, but you do not expect something like this to happen, for a song to go into the chart!

The song has been championed by BBC Radio 1 DJ Chris Moyles through his Radio 1 Breakfast Show and Twitter posts. Moyles has previously influenced chart entries, with a promotion back in the 2007 New Year to use new download rules to get former Doctor Who companion Billie Piper's song Honey to the Bee into the charts - famously overshadowing a similar attempt by fans aiming to enter Doctor Who music composer Murray Gold's song Love Don't Roam.

FILTER: - People

Hornets' News – BBC Press Release

Thursday, 30 July 2009 - Reported by Marcus

The BBC has released more details on the return of Tom Baker to the role of the fourth Doctor after twenty eight years.

Baker reprises his role in a new five part audio adventure for BBC Audiobooks.

Doctor Who: Hornets' Nest, is written by Paul Magrs and also stars Richard Franklin as Mike Yates, Susan Jameson as Mrs Wibbsey, Rula Lenska as the Hornet Queen and Stephen Thorne.

The first story, The Stuff of Nightmares, will be available to buy from 3rd September 2009 with the remaining four stories following in subsequent months.

The Dead Shoes – 8th October
The Circus of Doom – 5th November
A Sting in the Tale – 3rd December
Hive of Horror – 3rd December

As well as being available on CD, the series will be available for download from audible.co.uk

Writer Paul Magrs said,
'This is the first adventure with the Tom Baker Doctor since Logopolis. And it feels fantastic to write for him. I would say he's a brilliant mixture of everything the Fourth Doctor ever was. He's dark and sombre at times; other times he's gleefully macabre and mischievous.'

To support the series a dedicated webpage will launch on 10th August. The page will contain exclusive content and material such as a Q&A with Tom Baker, photographs from the recordings, audio clips and a poll on Tom’s best moments as the Doctor.

Doctor Who: Hornet's Nest – The Stuff of Nightmares

Responding to an advert apparently worded for him alone, Captain Mike Yates (retired) is reunited with a ghost from the past. But why has the Doctor, that mysterious traveller in Time and Space, sent for his former UNIT acquaintance?

Trapped by a horde of vicious creatures in an apparently innocuous English country cottage, the two old friends are on the brink of an enormous adventure.

As the Doctor relates his recent escapades, it becomes clear to Mike that they – and the Earth at large – are facing an enemy of unimaginable power and horrific intent. The nightmare is only just beginning.

FILTER: - Audio

Michael Summerton (1943-2009)

Thursday, 30 July 2009 - Reported by Chuck Foster

The actor/agent Michael Summerton died on the 16th June 2009, aged 65.

Summerton started out in the theatre and then moved to television with a role in the BBC Soap Compact; he then went on to play one of the very first Daleks to appear in Doctor Who.

In later life he became an agent, running his own company Michael Summerton Management Ltd which specialises in choreography and dancing, and was notable is being the agent for Arlene Phillips and Bruno Tonioli, both featuring as judges in the popular BBC series Strictly Come Dancing.

From The Telegraph Obituary:
His agent told him he would not need to learn any lines for the casting, and when he arrived at the BBC workshops he was asked to strip down to his underpants and sit in what appeared to be a tub on castors. Summerton (who was one of the four original Daleks) was instructed in how to move this apparatus about, the director saying: "We want to test this prototype for manoeuvrability. We want you to move forwards, backwards, sideways. Quickly, slowly." Presently the director lowered a lid over him with a plunger sticking out of it. Summerton found himself in total darkness. He would later relate: "When the lid went on I knew my career as an actor was over."

FILTER: - People - Obituary - Classic Series

Dalek War – DVD Extras

Tuesday, 28 July 2009 - Reported by Marcus

The British Board of Film Classification has cleared the extras for the forthcoming release of The Dalek War box set, comprising of the Third Doctor stories Frontier in Space and Planet of the Daleks.

Items include

The Space War – remembering Frontier in Space
The Rumble in the Jungle – remembering Planet of the Daleks
Stripped for Action – The story of the Daleks in Doctor Who Comic
Stripped for Action – The story of the Third Doctor in Doctor Who Comic
The Perfect Scenario – The End of Dreams
The Perfect Scenario – Lost Frontiers
Roger Delgado – The Master
Blue Peter
Multi Colourisation
Photo Gallery
Easter Egg

No official release date has been given for this set, but it is expected to be released on four discs towards the end of the year. The Doctor Who Restoration Team has an article about the preparation of the stories for DVD release.