2013 Hugo NominationsBookmark and Share

Sunday, 31 March 2013 - Reported by Chuck Foster
Hugo AwardsThe nominations for the 2013 Hugo Awards have now been announced, with writer Steven Moffat up against himself some three times in the Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form category (in which he lost out last year to fellow writer Neil Gaiman for The Doctor's Wife).

The episodes nominated are Asylum of the Daleks (directed by Nick Hurran), The Angels Take Manhattan (also Nick Hurran), and The Snowmen (Saul Metzstein). The other nominations in the category are Letters of Transit from Fringe, and Blackwater from Game of Thrones.

Doctor Who has won an Award nigh on every year since its return: as well as Gaiman's triumph last year Moffat has won four times previously, for The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances in 2006, The Girl in the Fireplace in 2007, Blink in 2008, and The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang in 2011, whilst original showrunner/writer Russell T Davies won in 2010 with fellow writer Phil Ford for The Waters of Mars. 2009 was the odd one out, where Moffat's Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead and Davies's Turn Left lost out to Internet musical Doctor Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.


Also nominated this year is the book Chicks Unravel Time: Women Journey Through Every Season of Doctor Who, published by Mad Norwegian Press, which is listed in the Best Related Work category. It'll be up against another Mad Norwegian title, Chick Dig Comics, The Cambridge Companion to Fantasy Literature, I Have an Idea for a Book ... The Bibliography of Martin H. Greenberg, and Writing Excuses Season Seven.


The Hugo awards are given every year for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the preceeding year, and is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories.

This year's ceremony will take place during LoneStarCon 3 in San Antonio, Texas (29 Aug-2 Sep 2013), with writer Paul Cornell acting as Toastmaster.





FILTER: - Steven Moffat - Awards/Nominations - Series 7/33

Summer FallsBookmark and Share

Sunday, 31 March 2013 - Reported by Chuck Foster
BBC Books are to release a new ebook to tie in with the new series episode The Bells of Saint John, which premiered this weekend.

Clara: "What chapter you on?"
Artie: "Ten"
Clara: "Eleven’s the best. You’ll cry your eyes out... The good kind of crying..."

Summer Falls (Credit: BBC Books) Doctor Who: Summer Falls
By Amelia Williams

"When summer falls, the Lord of Winter will arise..."

In the seaside village of Watchcombe, young Kate is determined to make the most of her last week of summer holiday. But when she discovers a mysterious painting entitled ‘The Lord of Winter’ in a charity shop, it leads her on an adventure she never could have planned. Kate soon realises the old seacape, painted long ago by an eccentric local artist, is actually a puzzle. And with the help of some bizarre new acquaintances – including a museum curator's magical cat, a miserable neighbour, and a lonely boy – she plans on solving it.

And then, one morning Kate wakes up to a world changed forever. For the Lord of Winter is coming – and Kate has a very important decision to make.

Summer Falls, a book written by Amelia Williams, is featured at the beginning of The Bells of Saint John It is being read by Artie, one of the children taken care of by Clara (as played by Jenna-Louise Coleman).

The ebook is published on 4th April 2013.




FILTER: - Merchandise - Online - Books

The Bells of Saint John - 6.2 million Overnight Viewing FigureBookmark and Share

Sunday, 31 March 2013 - Reported by Marcus
The Bells of Saint John had an overnight audience of 6.18 million viewers, a share of 29.8% of the total TV audience.

Doctor Who was the third most-watched programme of the day, which saw old rivals Ant and Dec take the top slot with their Saturday Night Takeaway, getting 7.19 million watching. The Voice UK, which was up against Ant and Dec, came second with fractionally more viewers than Doctor Who with 6.24 million.

Doctor Who won the time slot with You've Been Framed! on ITV getting 3.6 million watching.

Overall Doctor Who currently stands at the 22nd most watched programme of the week. Final ratings will be released next week, which, if recent trends are followed, should see Doctor Who substantially increase its rating once those who timeshift the programme are factored in.




FILTER: - Doctor Who - Ratings - Series 7/33

The Bells of Saint John: Media ReactionBookmark and Share

Sunday, 31 March 2013 - Reported by Chuck Foster
A roundup of selected quotes from the media for the premiere of The Bells of Saint John last night - links to the full review can be found via the author's name. You can also read our own review here.

Please note that as these are reviews, spoilers may be present within the text!

The Guardian

Moffat's writing is always hurtingly cutting-edge. This one was as if he'd sat in a dark pub for a while with Chris Morris and Charlie Brooker and analysed the Woefulness of Modern Stuff, yet somehow (as he ever is) been given a spoonful of kind honey on his way out. Oh, there were sillinesses. The other baddies were called Spoonheads because the backs of their heads look like … well, you have a guess. The great team of baddies was hiding out somewhere in London, which had been shot with many looming shots of the Shard, in somewhere which was obviously going to be high and rich with self-aggrandising uglyhood. But the complexity, the willingness to trust young brains, the actorly chemistry, and the team of writers coming up – Neil Gaiman, Mark Gatiss, the brilliant Neil Cross – prove that, eight years after it was reborn, it's a fine year to celebrate Doctor Who, possibly with a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster but certainly with a nod to brilliant young children who grow up while still not forgetting what brilliant young children want.

(Euan Ferguson)

The Guardian

The Bells of Saint John is an episode defined by such little disappointments. Maybe it's because the scheduling this series has cranked things up to the point where everything is expected to be a showstopper. The Bells of Saint John makes a hearty meal of its iconic London locations – and some of them, like the sequence on the doomed aircraft, are fantastic. But after the tour de force that was The Snowmen, it feels as though this handsome episode constantly just misses the mark.

(Dan Martin)

Radio Times

The Bells of Saint John shows Steven Moffat at his confident, playful best – a hugely entertaining episode that revels in its modern London setting. He’s turned wi-fi and the worldwide web into targets of fear – tapping into contemporary anxieties and following in the Doctor Who tradition of mining menace from the mundane (shop-window dummies, gas masks, statues, our own body fat...).

The fast-paced action and quieter interludes are nicely judged by Colm McCarthy, directing his first Who. Murray Gold’s score is palpitating but unobtrusive. Moffat’s flights of fantasy (a diving airplane, the swivelling Spoonheads, the Doctor zooming up the Shard) are spotlessly realised by The Mill. In Cardiff they must be reeling at the news that the special effects house is closing down.

But most important is the chemistry between Jenna-Louise Coleman and Matt Smith. They look good together, they spark off each other, and let’s not forget this isn’t the first episode they filmed. Coleman is a natural: warm, sympathetic, gutsy, and surely destined to become one of the most popular companions. And Smith remains a joy to watch – note-perfect, nailing every scene, every moment.

(Patrick Mulkern)

The Independent

The Bells of Saint John felt unfulfilling as a standalone episode but perhaps I’m wrong to judge it so harshly. Perhaps this is only the beginning of the Doctor’s battle with the Great Intelligence yet as a self-contained episode I ended up feeling empty and cheated. In terms of functionality the story had to reintroduce Clara to the Doctor and create a bond between the pair anew which the audience has already witnessed twice before, so by the third time it felt rather tedious. For those keeping a death count, it appeared that soufflé girl briefly popped her clogs again this week when she was being uploaded.

Yet it wasn’t all doom and gloom, visually it was a great spectacle on a cinematic scale. The shots of London were a sight to behold as were the scenes inside the Shard between the Doctor and Miss Kizlet (Celia Imrie). It was just superb to see the Capital’s skyline in the background with the gherkin et al. on the horizon.

Overall the episode did not live up to the hype and left me feeling quite dismayed. I’m hoping that this is just a blip and that the rest of the series will be better. In fact I’m really looking forward to Hide, the ghost story episode set in a scary house starring Dougray Scott, because the one thing that Moffat does flawlessly is horror. The Weeping Angels, the clockwork droids in The Girl in the Fireplace and the people in gas masks asking ‘Are you my mummy?’ all came from the mind of Moffat. There is also a new villain ‘on par’ with the Weeping Angels that will be making its debut this year which has me intrigued.

(Neela Debnath)

The Independent

The story was curiously unambitious: a sinister plot to upload human souls via the internet to a virtual cloud. At one point, Matt Smith squared up to a humanoid with a satellite dish where the back of its head should have been, took a deep breath and said: "It's a walking Wi-Fi base station, hoovering up people!" Here and there, citizens were shown logging on and dropping off on trains, in bedrooms, sitting rooms like ... well, like the glass-eyed fictional viewers in the BBC's own recent promotional campaign promoting the virtues of watching its iPlayer device on the hoof.

Perhaps Steven Moffat and his team should focus their creative talents on the show itself. The pairing of an intellectually bright but emotionally dim male with a techno-illiterate but wised up female is a tired old trope of much drama and comedy, not just Doctor Who. It has been pointed out that there are no female writers of the show. There have also been rumours that Smith's days at the controls of the Tardis are numbered. Cue a female Doctor? About time.

(Mike Higgins)

The Telegraph

Viewers in search of thrills will certainly have relished The Bells of Saint John. Set in modern-day London, the plot concerned internet users who, if they clicked on the wrong wi-fi provider, found their souls being uploaded and their minds being harvested by a malevolent force. It was a witty, cautionary tale for anyone who has ever felt overwhelmed by the internet. This was Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror for kids, a terrifying tale of information overload but without the grown-up, Dystopian despair.

Big-budget effects, a rapid pace, a sense of fun – there was much in The Bells of Saint John to enthral a 21st-century child. Yet, looking back over the 50 years of Doctor Who that led up to last night’s return, it’s hard to imagine children thrilling in quite the same way to some of the “vintage” episodes. Budgetary constraints aside, they would probably be left bemused by the theatrical configuration of scenes, the slow, even turgid plotting and the proliferation of technical dialogue.

(Ben Lawrence)

The Mirror

While The Bells of Saint John certainly had its moments, as a whole it didn't reach the heights of previous episodes. Arguably the two biggest set pieces of the episode (concerning a crashing plane and the Doctor driving up the side of the Shard on a motorbike) were impressive enough – you could even say Hollywood impressive. The only problem is that isn't much of compliment.

Yes, they were big and bold and doubtless expensive, but they felt shoe-horned in. Showy and a bit spectacle for spectacle's sake. Let's face it – Doctor Who has never been about Hollywood special effects, big bangs and crashing planes. From its humble beginnings to the present day, Who is at its most charming when it is at its most creaky, when its creativity is fully on show.

Who is the TV equivalent of comfort food. Apple crumble, onion gravy... a nice hunk of tangy, crumbling cheddar. The Bells of Saint John was more like nouvelle cuisine – flashy, expensive, but ultimately you needed a few more nibbles. Maybe some heartiness as well as a bit more heart would do the trick.

(Jon Cooper)

SFX

Surprisingly few Who stories locate their chills in the very place the audience interfaces with the programme but Moffat’s determined to mine the shiver-potential of mundane suburbia, tripping all its traditional mouse-traps for the imagination: the unexplained sounds from upstairs, the stranger at the door, the faceless figure beneath the streetlights. But there’s also a topical charge to this tale of something distinctly maggoty at the heart of our Apple-worshipping world. You can detect a definite touch of Black Mirror here, and while Moffat may not share Charlie Brooker’s culture-punching anger there are still some swift, stinging jabs at modern life, delicious pops at everything from surveillance cams to social networks to the ethics of the fast food industry (the show has rarely delivered as skewering a line as “The abbatoir [sic] is not a contradiction – no one loves cattle more than Burger King.” Now that’s taking names…).

(Nick Setchfield)

Digital Spy

The slick, striking opening to Doctor Who's 2013 debut 'The Bells of Saint John' immediately brings two things to mind - one, how far this show has come visually since its first big comeback in 2005. 'Bells' is expertly helmed by Who newbie Colm McCarthy, who's utilised time spent on location in London to impressive effect. It's all very well dressing up a street in Cardiff, but when you see those London landmarks, you just know where you are.

Packed full of action, intrigue and even a sort-of romance, 'The Bells of Saint John' sweeps the viewer along on a thrilling ride - 42 minutes has never shot by so quickly - and also provides plenty of juicy hints at what's to come in future weeks.

(Morgan Jeffery)

Los Angeles Times

I am perhaps not the most exacting critic of "Doctor Who." I watch it with a fan's desire to love everything and a willingness to blink when something I don't rears its head, or heads. I don't ask too many questions, even when they occur to me.

I might, for instance, wonder why the Doctor, when last seen, was sulkily holed up on top of a cloud in Victorian London, spurning all human requests for help. He had forever lost companions Amy and Rory Williams (collectively, the Ponds) at the end of the previous episode, it is true, but that is nothing new for him, being a thousand years old.

The answer, of course, is it gives the character somewhere to come back from, makes things feel more crucial — just as taking the Ponds to the edge of divorce (suddenly, if you didn't watch the Web mini-sodes that "explained" this, and pretty suddenly even if you did) made their love all the more palpable in the end. It also added poignancy to the Doctor's awakening interest in Clara, to whom he offered a key to his time machine before she was pulled from a cloud by a governess made of alien snowflakes and, for the time being, died.

(Robert Lloyd)

Other reports:

Further reading: The Express, The Examiner, Huffington Post, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Anglotopia, EntertainmentWise, Den of Geek, Daily Mail




FILTER: - Press - Series 7/33

David Tennant And John Hurt to star in 50th AnniversaryBookmark and Share

Saturday, 30 March 2013 - Reported by Marcus
The BBC have now confirmed that the Tenth Doctor David Tennant will star in the 50th Anniversary episode of Doctor Who.

The news leaked earlier today thanks to a mistake in the distribution of Doctor Who Magazine, which saw subscribers receive their issues 5 days early, forcing the BBC to issue a hurried press release. Tennant will join current stars Matt Smith and Jenna-Louise Coleman in the special episode.

Also joining the cast will be the Ninth and Tenth Doctor's companion Billie Piper.

Tennant played The Doctor from 2005-2010, appearing in 47 episodes of the series, while Piper played Rose Tyler for the 2005 and 2006 seasons, along with cameos in later episodes.

DWM also reports that international film star John Hurt will join the cast for the special episode, which begins filming next week.

John Hurt is one of the UK's most respected actors appearing in films such as The Elephant Man, where he played John Merrick, Nineteen Eighty-Four where he played Winston Smith and Scandal where he played Stephen Ward. On Television he is best known for playing Caligula in the renowned I, Claudius and Quentin Crisp in The Naked Civil Servant. His distinctive voice has been used in many productions such as Watership Down and the animated The Lord of the Rings.

He has received two Academy Award nominations, a Golden Globe Award, and four BAFTA Awards.

It is expected that the special episode will be transmitted on Saturday 23rd November, 50 years to the day since the launch of Doctor Who.




FILTER: - Day of the Doctor - Billie Piper - David Tennant

Doctor Who SpoilersBookmark and Share

Saturday, 30 March 2013 - Reported by Marcus
Major news about the casting for the 50th Anniversary special has been leaked, thanks to a mistake in the distribution of Doctor Who Magazine.

The official magazine is due to be published next Thursday, but many subscribers have received their copy today complete with news on the casting of the anniversary episode, due to be shown on the programme's 50th Anniversary next November.

Doctor Who Magazine and the BBC have asked us not to publish details of the casting until the news is officially released next week.




FILTER: - Doctor Who - Day of the Doctor - DWM

Doctor Who wins Institutional Peabody AwardBookmark and Share

Friday, 29 March 2013 - Reported by Chuck Foster
The winners of the 72nd Annual Peabody Awards were announced this week, with Doctor Who winning an Institutional Peabody. The presiding committee said:
Peabody AwardsSeemingly immortal, 50-years-old and still running, this engaging, imaginative sci-fi/fantasy series is awarded an Institutional Peabody for evolving with technology and the times like nothing else in the known television universe.
 

The George Foster Peabody Awards were first presented in 1941, and is administered by the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia. Nominations are considered by a panel of academics, critics, industry practitioners and experts within culture and the arts, who look to award "excellence on its own terms". As its aim is to reflect excellence in quality rather than popularity or commercial success, the Peabody is considered by many to be the industry’s most competitive honour.

Olivier Award Nominations

The nominations for the 2013 Olivier Awards have been announced, and include a few names related to Doctor Who, with Billie Piper nominated as Best Actress for her role as Connie in The Effect, Adrian Scarborough (who previously won in 2011) nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Hedda Gabler, Imelda Staunton nominated as Best Actress in a Musical for Mrs Lovett in Sweeney Todd, and Helen McCrory nominated as Best Actress in a Supporting Role for The Last of the Haussmans.

The Awards Ceremony takes place at the Royal Opera House on 28th April, and will be hosted by Sheridan Smith and Hugh Bonneville.




FILTER: - Doctor Who - Awards/Nominations

Big Finish: Easter offerBookmark and Share

Friday, 29 March 2013 - Reported by Chuck Foster
This weekend sees Big Finish celebrate the return of Doctor Who with a special offer on a number of their recent releases.
They're back! This weekend as a special Easter treat, we're rolling back the prices of the Doctor Who special releases to their pre-order states!
  • Doctor Who: Love and War - an audio adaptation of the classic New Adventures novel, featuring the Seventh Doctor and Ace's first encounter with Bernice Summerfield.
  • Doctor Who: Dark Eyes - an epic adventure across many worlds and times with an Eighth Doctor wounded from recent losses, a fearless new companion and the ever-present threat of the Daleks.
  • Doctor Who - UNIT: Dominion - The Seventh Doctor and Raine trip across dimensions while another incarnation of the Doctor teams up with UNIT to fight extra-dimensional incursions. But what's really going on?
  • Doctor Who: Voyage to Venus/Voyage to the New World: The Sixth Doctor takes his old friends Jago & Litefoot sight-seeing around the cosmos, leading to an ill-fated landing which leads neatly into the new Jago & Litefoot fifth series box set.
Available since the end of last year, the Special Releases are some of our most acclaimed audios.
The offer runs until Tuesday.


There is still time to enter our Scorchies competition - see here for more details (closing date 31st March).




FILTER: - Merchandise - Audio - Special Offers - Big Finish

The Sarah Jane Adventures arrives on LOVEFiLMBookmark and Share

Friday, 29 March 2013 - Reported by Chuck Foster
The Amazon-based LOVEFiLM streaming service will be making episodes of The Sarah Jane Adventures available to watch, as a new deal has been struck with BBC Worldwide. The package will include shows like The Story of Tracy Beaker, Balamory and Teletubbies.

Chris Bird, Director of Film Strategy at LOVEFiLM, said:
We are committed to bringing the very best in children's TV to our ever-increasing audience, and are thrilled to have secured even more brilliant BBC shows for members to enjoy. We have got some of the best family programming around and look forward to entertaining fans of all ages.

Lisa Rousseau, BBC Worldwide's Head of UK, Ireland and Pan European Television Sales, added:
More parents are turning to LOVEFiLM's kids' TV offering as a form of quality family entertainment than ever before and we are excited that this new agreement will see our award-winning children's shows available to subscribers. This is a natural partnership for us and follows on from our previous content deals.




FILTER: - Online - BBC Worldwide - Sarah Jane - Press

Media RoundupBookmark and Share

Friday, 29 March 2013 - Reported by Chuck Foster
A roundup of recent media "clippings" for Doctor Who in the run-up to the series return tomorrow.

Matt Smith (The Doctor)

On his new co-star: "You’ll see on screen she’s absolutely brilliant and it’s been a joy. I’m really proud of the work we’ve done and I think it’s exciting for the character, he’s got a new lease of life somehow. Jenna’s inventive, she works tirelessly hard. I like her, which is good because you’ve got to get on. And I’m really proud of what she’s achieved and I’m pleased that it’s gone so well for her because I think she’s brilliant in it." [Yorkshire Evening Post, 27 Mar 2013]

On how they get along: "Really well. We’re good friends, actually, which is nice. It would be really rubbish if we weren’t! I guess you guys are the critics of this, but I think she has started really well. She’s immediately likeable and popular, which is a stroke of fortune. It was always going to be difficult coming in after Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill [who played Amy and Rory] because they became really loved and admired. I think she’s made it her own and she’s been inventive and brave. It’s not an easy show to waltz into. It moves at such a pace. And there’s such a fervent following and people have such clear opinions on it." [TV Choice, 30 Mar 2013]

On riding a bike around London: "It was very exciting. I am innately very clumsy, and my mother has always forbidden me from getting a motorbike. I’ve driven mopeds before, abroad and stuff, without her knowing – well, now she knows. But that’s like a big old Harley looking bike, and I wouldn’t know where to begin… It was amazing filming those scenes. It was on a rig, and we got to sort of travel round London. Car rigs are different because you’re in a car, but being on a bike it’s like you’re on a sort of fairground ride. It was a really crisp, sunny day and we kept going around Waterloo Bridge and Westminster Bridge and Waterloo Bridge and Westminster Bridge and it was just one of those days where you think ‘This is a very privileged place to be for a day at work." [SFX, 25 Mar 2013]

On the 50th Anniversary script: It sort of does what it says on the tin. You won't be disappointed. It's my cryptic way of going ... no, the thing is, much as we'd love to tell you everything, I read it and I clapped at the end. I think it's hilarious and I think it's epic and I think it's vast. I'm telling you nothing more. But you will not be disappointed. I think it's going to be the biggest, the best, the most inventive, the most exciting year for the show. And I think this script, it delivers on all those points that you want it to for where the show is at this time. It's brilliant. It somehow manages to pay homage to everything and look forward. And I think that's the mark, the genius of it." [This is Local London, 25 Mar 2013]

Matt also spoke to BBC News about the 'vast and epic' series. [BBC News (video), 18 Mar 2013]

Jenna-Louise Coleman (Clara)

On the re-appearance of Clara: "You'll see an essence in the same way there was an essence of Oswin in Christmas Clara, there was a similar essence running through them, a similar spirit. We'll see that again with this Clara." RedEye Chicago, 27 Mar 2013]

Her take on The Bells of Saint John: "I saw it at the London screening that we did last week. It just looks brilliant because it’s such a ... from shooting the show there’s so much that happens afterwards from the CGI and the music and to make the episodes kind of as epic as they are so it’s gonna be great for me to sit there as a viewer and watch them as well. I was able to just enjoy all of the pieces of like the jigsaw coming together, and also you just realize how clever Steven Moffat is and the setup of the story that we have going through, arcing through the series, of the mystery of Clara Oswald and the Doctor trying to figure out who she is. It’s set up so brilliantly from everything that we’ve done so far through Steven. So, it’s exciting." [Access Hollywood, 26 Mar 2013]

On how the relationship between the Doctor and Clara develops: "I'm sure audiences will be looking out for it, and they have an advantage, over the two characters even, because they have experienced the Christmas special, but this series is a whole new beginning again. That sounds like such an unsatisfying answer, but one of the things that is explored in this series is that there is nothing the Doctor dislikes more than something he can't solve, something he can't explain, and that's exactly what Clara is. He can't figure her out. They are drawn together, and really like each other, but there's always this underlying feeling of them both trying to figure each other out. It's not plain sailing between them both." [New Zealand Herald, 28 Mar 2013]

On how her family keeps her grounded: "My brother is a joiner, like my dad, and they came to the Doctor Who set to see me at work. He’d never been much impressed by my acting stuff before but he watched filming and said: 'You’ve got the coolest job in the world – fighting the Cybermen.' I think he’s right." [Metro, 28 Mar 2013]

On her gran's plans for Matt Smith during filming for the 50th Anniversary: "I think she's gonna come on set when we're filming the 50th, which she's very excited about. She's gonna be patting Matt a lot. Matt's her favourite Doctor." [Access Hollywood via STV, 27 Mar 2013]

Steven Moffat (lead writer)

On the role of the companion: "We never see how the Doctor began his journey. We'll probably never see how he ends it. We'll probably never know why he embarked on it, but we know all those companions, who they were before they met the Doctor, why they ran away with him, and where they ended up. Those stories are complete. The Doctor is the enigma that enters their lives and changes them. The story is always about the person who changes the most." [Examiner, 27 Mar 2013]

On Jenna-Louise Coleman: "Well, she’s terrific! The most obvious answer is that she’s a terribly good actress. I know that’s a dull thing to say, but it’s the truth. You can be as beautiful and charming as you’d like, but if you’re not terrific at acting, it will mean nothing on the screen. She’s a terrific actress. She looks great. She has great comic timing. She looks like she belongs, somehow, next to Matt Smith. When the two stand together, they look like an instant team. They have enough in common, and yet have enough sharp contrasts, that it’s an instant poster when you stand them together." [Collider, 27 Mar 2013]


Other Media Items


Entertainment Weekly Issue #1252 Entertainment Weekly Issue #1252
Entertainment Weekly has been published with two different covers as it celebrates the return of Doctor Who this weekend. The magazine's cover story looks at how the show will celebrate its 50th Anniversary, and includes a touching tribute to the Time Lord from director Peter Jackson, who still has his eye on the Doctor: "They don’t even have to pay me! But I have got my eye on one of those nice new gold-colored Daleks. They must have a spare one (hint, hint)." [Entertainment Weekly, 21 Mar 2013]

Two associated videos have also been released, with the first featuring Matt Smith and Jenna-Louise Coleman discussing fans, whilst the second features Matt, Jenna and costume designer Howard Burden discussing the Doctor's new look. Burden commented: "When I first came into the series [on Asylum of the Daleks], we had an established look for the Doctor. As subsequent episodes came in, I was told that we could actually change the look. It was quite an intense process to actually make sure everyone was happy." [Entertainment Weekly, 22 Mar 2013]

Amongst its pages was a comment from Steven Moffat in which he said that statistically he was nearer the end than the beginning of his time on the show: "I just take it a year at a time. I think the feeling of it being done for you is quite unambiguous when it suddenly arrives.".

One name that cropped up as a potential replacement for Moffat earlier this month was that of Being Human showrunner Toby Whithouse: "I have heard the rumours. I've been hearing them for years now. In terms of my future on Doctor Who, this kind of speculation only takes place in the heads of the fans. No-one from the BBC has said anything to me. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't intrigued by the idea, but also it would be terrifying. It's definitely something I'd be really tempted by but I'm genuinely not in any hurry to do it." [SFX via Metro, 11 Mar 2013]

The Sun reported that they believed Matt Smith would be leaving the show at Christmas, with their 'sources' suggesting the BBC already had someone in mind to replace him. However, the BBC have stated: "Sorry folks but even we don’t know what's going to happen at Christmas. It's not been written yet! But Matt loves the show and is to start filming the unmissable 50th anniversary, and the new series starting on Easter Saturday." [The Sun, 22 Mar 2013]

The report came after Matt's appearance on The Jonathan Ross Show, where he said: "Doctor Who is one of of those jobs that you have to take year by year, it's ten months a year, it's all-consuming, so I don’t think you can plan five or six years ahead, or even two years ahead. It's a year by year thing, and at the moment it’s 2013 and we’ll see what 2014 holds."

The BBC statement didn't stop the Sun from polling readers for who they'd like to see next as the Doctor, with their results citing Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch as the favourite; the runners up were previous Doctor David Tennant, and comedy actor James Corden (who played Craig in the series). [The Sun, 24 Mar 2013]

Other Magazine Covers

Some other covers prominently featuring the series return:

The Big Issue 1044 (Credit: The Big Issue) TV & Satellite Week, 22-29 Mar 2013 (Credit: TV & Satellite Week) SFX Issue 233 (clean cover), published March 2013 (Credit: SFX) Radio Times (30 Mar - 5 Apr 2013) (Credit: Radio Times)




FILTER: - Steven Moffat - People - Matt Smith - Press - Jenna-Louise Coleman - Series 7/33