It has been revealed that the first episode in the new series of Doctor Who which features the 11th Doctor (played by Matt Smith) will be a full 60 minutes long and has been called “The Eleventh Hour”.
In news of the series, the Doctor and his new companion (Amy Pond, played by Karen Gillan) will explore 16th century Venice, France around 1890 and best of all a far future UK, now floating in outer space. The Daleks are set to make a return and there is a “silent menace” that follows the Doctor and Amy everywhere they go (series long story arc maybe?).
The Weeping Angels are also returning, first seen in the rather excellent episode “blink” which has earned Steve Moffat the 2008 BAFTA craft and BAFTA Cymru awards for Best Writer and which itself won the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation and was nominated for a Nebula Award.
The new Doctor Who series, featuring Matt Smith as the 11th Doctor begins this spring, with Steven Moffat taking charge behind the scenes. The series promises a HD version, new TARDIS set and even a new logo, and to wet everyone’s appetite, you can see the first preview trailer here:
The demise of the Tenth (and arguably most popular Doctor), played by David Tennant is to be shown over the Christmas period in a special two part episode. Most of us know this already, but here we can confirm the dates and times as 6pm Christmas Day and 6.40pm New Years day on BBC One.
These promise to be very special episodes indeed, hinted by the end of Water of Mars with the strange Ood visitation, and of course the change in the Doctor himself. The Ood play a part in the episodes, with a new Ood city, that only took 100 years to build.
The Master makes a welcome return, even crazier than ever, as does Donna and her Grandfather. It’s not just David Tennant that we see depart the show, but also writer and director Russell T Davies, who wrote this special and claims it’s his best work yet.
The only unmissable TV this Christmas, lets just hope that the Eleventh Doctor series doesn’t turn into a Teeny High School Musical fop. Who would have made the perfect next Doctor really special, how about Stephen Fry, the right mix of intelligence and wit would make a fantastic eccentric 1000 year old time lord!.
Throughout the day there has been a series of news leaked about both the Doctor Who specials, the news series featuring the Eleventh Doctor, and finally confirmation of the Water of Mars airing date.
The Water of Mars will be shown on Sunday the 15th November at 1900hrs, on BBC One. Still on the subject of the Water of Mars special, there is news about the plot.
the Doctor lands on the red planet on November 21st in the year 2059. There he finds the first human colony, headed up by Captain Adelaide Brooke ( played by Lindsay Duncan) who the Doctor refers to as “The woman with starlight in her soul”.
There are also signs of slightly odd behaviour from the good Doctor, the first of which is advising everyone that he needs to leave, saying: “Whatever has started here, I can’t see it to the end”, although shortly after the water arrives and so he never gets his chance to depart.
The BBC have released this trailer for the new series of Doctor Who, Featuring the eleventh Doctor. The Logo is simplistic in design and shaped as the TARDIS (the true star of the show).
Steven Moffat, the new lead writer and executive producer of the show said:
“A new logo. The eleventh logo for the eleventh Doctor – those grand old words, Doctor Who, suddenly looking newer than ever. And look at that, something really new – an insignia! DW in TARDIS form! Simple and beautiful, and most important of all, a completely irresistible doodle. I apologise to school notebooks everywhere, because in 2010 that’s what they’re going to be wearing.”
The Eleventh Doctor premiers in 2010 (actual date to be confirmed) however we still have 2 doctor who specials to go, with “The Water of Mars” airing sometime soon and a special two parter at Christmas.
The BBC have released a few of the classic Doctor Who novels for free as e-books on the BBC website. Many of these novels are quite rare and even feature brand new original artwork and extensive additional notes written by the original authors.
Novels available at the moment include Human Nature written by Paul Cornell and featuring the Seventh Doctor., The Well Mannered War written by Gareth Roberts and featuring the Fourth Doctor and Nightshade written by Mark Gatiss and featuring the Seventh Doctor, amongst others.
A full list of these e-books, along with the full copies of the books themselves can be found here: BBC Doctor Who Novels.
The Guinness book of records has recently honoured the Doctor Who series by proclaiming it the most successful sci-fi series of all time.
The award was based on many factors including broadcast ratings, DVD sales, book sales, itunes traffic, and even estimated illegal downloads. Russell T Davies accepted the honor on behalf of the original Doctor Who creator Verity Lambert saying:
“I can hear Comic-Con war breaking out there”
Guinness editor in Chief Craig Glenday commented:
“It is too good a show to have just one record”
Doctor Who also holds the record for the longest running Sci-fi TV series, although the longest consecutive Sci-fi series is currently held by Stargate SG1.
The next Doctor Who special “the Water of Mars” has a new trailer, released in America over the weekend at the San Diego Comic Con. The trailer gives a good indication that this is going to be one very big special episode and will also set the stage for the Christmas specials.
You can see the trailer over at the bbc website here
Also confirmed at Comic-con was the rumor that the master (played by John Simms) will be returning for the final specials that see the end of the Tenth Doctor.
for those who haven’t seen the first trailer for the “water of mars, you can see it here.
Production of the new series of Doctor Who, featuring the 11th Doctor (played by Matt Smith), began this week along with his new companion Amy Pond (played by Karen Gillan).
On arrival in Cardiff for the very first day of filming, Matt said:
“I feel very privileged and proud to be part of this iconic show. The scripts are brilliant and working alongside Karen, Steven and the rest of the crew is an inspiration because their work ethic and passion for the show is so admirable. I’m excited about the future and all the brilliant adventures I get to go on as the Doctor.”
The development of the new show is being lead by Doctor Who fan Steven Moffat who will be ultimately responsible for the creative direction of the show along with the plot and character arcs.
According to SFX there are plans to create a Brand new Red Dwarf series of 6 episodes following the success of the special episodes on Dave at Easter.
Speaking at the Better than Life Red Dwarf convention last weekend, Robert Llewellyn (Kryten), Chloe Annett (Kochanski) and Danny John-Jules (Cat) all confirmed that the shows creators are planning to bring the crew back.
Danny John-Jules said: “They’re talking to Dave about doing a new series. I’ve heard they’re discussing six episodes.”
The Easter specials were a big hit on digital channel Dave, not only giving the channel it’s biggest audience yet, but also out performing the BBC. The new episodes “Back to Earth” are also released on DVD this week for any Dwarfers who missed it the first time round.
