Sunday, June 19, 2011

Kopic's Doctor Who & Torchwood News

Kopic's Doctor Who & Torchwood News

Doctor Who will air in 2012 but only half a season - Examiner.com

Posted: 18 Jun 2011 11:44 AM PDT


Doctor Who will air in 2012 but only half a season
Examiner.com
"needs enough time to get that done and then start work on the next series of Doctor Who". That meant there would be "not as many" episodes of Doctor Who, he added. The scheduling of Dr Who has got NOTHING to with Sherlock. ...

and more »

Saturday @ Six: Weekly Round-Up - ATV Today

Posted: 18 Jun 2011 08:00 AM PDT


Saturday @ Six: Weekly Round-Up
ATV Today
The Metro newspaper told us to also expect less Matt Smith in Doctor Who. The reason the show was split into two series, they claim, is due to the rising costs of special effects which means less of the Doctor. In the old days the special effects ...

We now declare our Series 6: Part 1 Awards open!

Posted: 18 Jun 2011 07:04 AM PDT

Now that the first half of Series 6 has reached its thrilling climax, it's a perfect opportunity to relive the laughs, tears and scares, and what better way to do just that than with our very own awards? So, without much further ado, the polls are now open for you to vote for your Best Actor, [...]

The Original Nephew

Posted: 18 Jun 2011 06:24 AM PDT

If you ever felt like uncoiling the messy (and very Doctor Who) topic of budgets – and the ramifications of said budgets in the past weeks non-announcement of the plans for 2012 – then odds are you'd find yourself rolling up at the unassuming feet of Nephew.

Once planned to be an extravagant (ie. expensive) new monster in the Neil Gaiman penned The Doctor's Wife Nephew found himself transferred from his shiny new body and placed into the more familiar one of an Ood when those pesky budgets began complaining of malnutrition.

Now thanks to concept sketches that have appeared on Special Effects/Make Up artist David Bonneywell's Deviant Art page we can finally get a glimpse of just what Nephew may have looked like.

The pictures – first brought to the attention of the world by Gaiman himself via Twitter – are stunning- a mixture of the patchwork people design of Uncle and Auntie but with crustacean/canine features.

In Bonneywell's description of the Nephew design he elaborates a little further on his time spent designing with the Doctor:

"Originally scheduled for the 2010 series the episode got bumped to the 2011 series. During this time budgetary restrictions and some concerns that this might be a little too grotesque for the show, saw Nephew reduced to a green eyed Ood (sigh).

"It took me a little while to get into the Dr Who groove when it came to designs and I had a lot of stuff rejected for similar reasons before I started to nail the briefs to the producers liking."

Bonneywell also helped create The Silence and had previously worked on last season's Cold Blood as well as a host of Hollywood productions such as Hellboy II: The Golden Army, 24 Weeks Later and Clash of the Titans in various capacities.

He's clearly very talented, so let's hope that we get to see more from him in future series!

Dropping Trou - Queerty

Posted: 18 Jun 2011 04:17 AM PDT


Dropping Trou
Queerty
America's still obsessed with Anthony Weiner but we're moved on to this video of John Barrowman playing fetch in his swimming pool with his pooch, Captain Jack (named for Barrowman's character on Torchwood). Did we mention Barrowman was skinny-dipping ...

Theatre review: Much Ado About Nothing - News of the World

Posted: 18 Jun 2011 03:53 AM PDT


News of the World
Theatre review: Much Ado About Nothing
News of the World
Former Doctor Who duo David Tennant and Catherine Tate are brilliant as sparring partners Benedick and Beatrice in what is Shakespeare's best take on the battle of the sexes. Having tried dating each other once before, now they have decided single life ...

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Your Favourite Series 6 Moments So Far

Posted: 17 Jun 2011 11:44 PM PDT

Doctor Who TV wants to know what your favourite moments from the first half of Series 6 are. You can nominate any scen Read more ...


Merchandise round up – Posters, toys and… goo!

Posted: 17 Jun 2011 11:41 PM PDT

The series may be off our screens, but there's still plenty to keep us occupied over in the ever growing world of Doctor Who merchandise… If you've got any room left on your bedroom wall, this new Keep Calm I'm the Doctor poster – out 30th June – will help to reassure you in times of [...]

Eleventh Doctor Lookalikes Spawn!

Posted: 17 Jun 2011 10:27 PM PDT

No sooner do we dismiss one "Matt Smith Lookalike" as bearing no more resemblance to the Eleventh Doctor than a man with a head, two arms and two legs than another comes along!

Terry Dawson is the name, and he will be posing for photographs while basking in Matt Smith's reflected glow this Sunday at the ultimate Father's Day event, a sci-fi event at the North East Aircraft Museum.

Credit to the lad, though. He's only 20 and a Northumbria University English and film student, as well as being a member of both the Westovians and Cleadon Village drama clubs, and it sounds as though he is getting paid after auditioning for the gig on the suggestion of a friend.

"Quite a few people have told me that I look like Matt Smith, it was a bit of an in-joke with me and my mates at first, but then when the show started getting really big, a lot more people started to mention it.

"I've even been mistaken for him, but the people were a bit drunk at the time so I didn't take it too seriously, but when my mate told me about the audition I just thought, 'why not?'"

Interestingly, the North East Aircraft Museum was auditioning for an army of all 11 Doctors for the event which will feature Daleks, a TARDIS and memorabilia from both Doctor Who and American franchises such as Star Trek.

Tickets for the event cost £4, and it runs from 10am to 5pm on Sunday, June 19th. Visit www.neam.org.uk for more details or call 0191 519 0662.

A festival full of pride and joy - Irish Independent

Posted: 17 Jun 2011 10:20 PM PDT


A festival full of pride and joy
Irish Independent
7 In 2007, the London Pride committee erected a huge TV screen in Trafalgar Square in order to broadcast the Doctor Who series three finale, whose main star, David Tennant, had been voted 'Most Fanciable Male' in The Pink Paper the previous year. ...

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BSkyB makes push into original programming - Variety

Posted: 17 Jun 2011 10:08 PM PDT


Variety
BSkyB makes push into original programming
Variety
Similarly, the first comedy commissioned for Sky Atlantic, "This Is Jinsy," features a lineup of guest stars already familiar to BBC and ITV viewers, including David Tennant, Catherine Tate and Harry Hill. Meanwhile, new panel show "Wall of Fame," ...

and more »

Doctor Who complete reviews: Fear Her - Shadowlocked (blog)

Posted: 17 Jun 2011 10:05 PM PDT


Shadowlocked (blog)
Doctor Who complete reviews: Fear Her
Shadowlocked (blog)
Even Christopher Eccleston made a great first impression. But poor old David Tennant isn't really given that right, since the scripts in his first season are all trying to steer him in the wrong direction. He seems to be constantly fighting a battle ...

What Cohen Really Said

Posted: 17 Jun 2011 09:36 PM PDT

You don't need another recap, do you? Basically, the presence of Doctor Who in the BBC One schedules during 2012 is an unknown entity at present, thanks to station controller Danny Cohen's "interesting" responses at a Q&A session at the Church and Media conference on Tuesday.

We're not going to go over the bones again; instead, thanks to this YouTube clip, you can make your own mind up about what was said, how it was said, and what the true meaning is.

You can listen to the full interview (Doctor Who is discussed at the 49 and 56 minute points) at www.churchandmedia.net/Media/AllMedia.

Borrowers role for Misfits' Sheehan - Belfast Telegraph

Posted: 17 Jun 2011 07:35 PM PDT


Borrowers role for Misfits' Sheehan
Belfast Telegraph
The star-studded cast also includes Stephen Fry, Victoria Wood and Christopher Eccleston. Controller of BBC Drama Commissioning Ben Stephenson said: "A brilliant and bold contemporary version of this classic tale with all the charm of the original but ...

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Will Time Travel Destroy History?

Posted: 17 Jun 2011 07:06 PM PDT

When hearing the news this April that the Chinese Government had decided that its citizens were too busy indulging in frivolous time travel based dramas that played fast and loose history to pay respect to its heritage it was difficult not to scoff.

Why, if the Chinese government had its way the Doctor would travel back to Ancient China, pick up a few of its ancestors and take them to modern china where they'd discover everybody's happy, prosperous and harmonious.

Dramatically it would be a bit one note but ideologically it's a thrill a minute!

The dictatorship has already quashed such culturally divergent figures as Bob Dylan where the varnished walnut faced folk singer was asked to submit his set list to the government before performing on its turf (resulting in Dylan being called out by New York Times writer and Pulitzer Prize winner Maureen Dowd for breaking new ground in selling out) and the artist and architect of the Birds Nest, the Beijing Stadium, the still detained dissident Ai Weiwei.

Each have been on the receiving end of the Chinese governments attempts to control, distort and deny what its citizens are consuming in the wake of the "Arab spring".

Geek websites grabbed hold of the story and ran with it imagining that each time they ran a picture of Marty McFly in his anachronistic 'life reserve' the authorities would be plotting new ways to murder pop culture.

In April, the State Administration of Radio Film and Television issued new guidelines with the intention of upholding the mores of its countries heritage- a heritage that according to the SARFT discourages 'Fantasy drama, feudal superstition, fatalism and reincarnation, ambiguous values, and a lack of positive thinking.'

Speaking at the Television Director Committee Meeting the Authority made the bold assumption that time travel dramas were 'totally made-up' and 'are made to strain for an effect of novelty.'

Their beef was with a growing trend TV Dramas like Shen Hua (Myth) where a modern day protagonist is hurled back in time to ancient China where no end of hi-jinks ensue as he stumbles from fish out of water to uniting with real life figures (such as Xiang Yu and Liu Bang prominent military leaders and political figures during the late Qin Dynasty) to leading thousands of troops to battle.

As well as sounding a lot like the plot to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III, the drama spoiled many viewers enjoyment of its cultures proud history with its historical inaccuracies and blatant pandering to entertainment.

It would be like the British government banning all War based drama in the wake of Jon Bon Jovi's appearance in the Yank-tastic U-571.

The alternative for the Chinese people would be state sponsored, painfully accurate historical dramas – historical dramas already full of CCP enforced improvements/inaccuracies that would only cost them the viewer their freedom of speech.

Sure the SARFT may only be 'discouraging' the use of the TARDIS on TV but when the country's own freedom of speech is vague by definition it's difficult not to imagine a government with a history of entering newspaper offices, seizing goods and fining news agencies 'discouraging' this with the same rigour.

Although they are not alone in their attempts at censorship, we regularly hear of dissidents being treated in a questionable manner. For instance Ai Weiwei, whose handcrafted porcelain Sunflower seeds are currently on display at the Tate Modern, has been detained by the Chinese Government for 75 days without access to his lawyer and has only briefly seen his wife.

The ridiculousness of trying to police fiction by putting anything considered "frivolous" in a box marked "Danger!" has nothing to do with time travel being a threat and everything to do with the current infringements being inacted on the people's freedom of speech and basic human rights.

Something that Doctor Who counters just by building bridges with its leaps of imagination.

Cultural Olympiad: meet the Golden Nit - Telegraph.co.uk

Posted: 17 Jun 2011 07:01 PM PDT


Telegraph.co.uk
Cultural Olympiad: meet the Golden Nit
Telegraph.co.uk
As David Tennant joked when recording his two cameos: 'Are these kids on drugs?' The idea of a film made by children originated at Fallon, the award-winning creative agency that comes up with advertising, graphics and ideas for Tate. ...

and more »

BBC orders The Borrowers for Christmas - ATV Today

Posted: 17 Jun 2011 06:53 PM PDT


BBC orders The Borrowers for Christmas
ATV Today
Also amongst the cast will be Christopher Eccleston, Sharon Horgan and Robert Sharman. The new adaptation will be written by Ben Vanstone. The previous BBC adaptation was in the early 1990s starring Penelope Wilton, Ian Holm and Rebecca Callard. ...

and more »

The Joy of Alt Fiction

Posted: 17 Jun 2011 06:40 PM PDT

I've been having a really weird week, meeting my comics deadlines and preparing to move house, while coming down from having finished the novel, and thus feeling kind of lost and floppy. I haven't yet had a feeling that something was wrong in the plotting or left undone, and that's probably a good sign. It's now with my agent and various coppers who are kindly offering me research notes, before being sent to my editor at Tor. Fingers crossed.

Anyway, halfway through moving house next weekend (the movers pack on the Friday, then move on the Monday), I'll be attending Alt Fiction at the QUAD in Derby, which, if last year was anything to go by, will be excellent. There are loads of authors going (with Dan Abnett and Alastair Reynolds as Guests of Honour), and an impressive video programme too. If you're a Doctor Who fan, there's a panel devoted to the books, including authors such as Mark Morris and Sarah Pinborough. And there's also a big workshop component involved, with such luminaries as Graham Joyce helping out newbie writers. Here's my schedule:

Saturday, 10pm: Memory Lane (Your Favourite Genre Books) with Mark Morris, Pete Crowther and Juliet McKenna.

Sunday, 11am: Who Reads the Genre and Why? With Damien Walter, Jon Weir and David Thomas Moore.

Sunday, Noon: Has Genre Conquered the Mainstream? A podcast with Ian Whates, Damien Walter, Paul Kane and John Weir.

Sunday, 2pm: Comics Panel with Dan Abnett, Graham McNeill and Pat Kelleher.

Sunday, 3pm: Reading (me and Shearman!) I'll be reading from my Wild Cards story, and maybe a bit of the novel.

You can find out more about it, and buy tickets here, and check out a PDF of the full schedule of delights here. It really is one of the most impressive genre events in Britain, and if you're in range of it, it's well worth coming along.

In SF news, Sheila Williams at Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine tells me they now offer a digital subscription for Ipad users via Zinio, at only £18.16 for a year's ten issues (which is 14% cheaper than cover price), so there's another way to get the cutting edge of SF delivered to you. Check it out here.

James Bacon, the Hugo-nominated instigator of the SF Outreach project, which takes him to media conventions where he gives away hundreds of SF books and promotes Worldcon, popped over to my house the other day to take a bunch of comics and collections off my hands. These are going to go into the teen lounge at Worldcon in Reno to spread the word about the medium. Kudos for him for hauling so much stuff around the world.



And in the world of comics, that Demon Knights interview I did with CBR is up. There'll be lots more of that as we approach September, with some cool podcasts and media chats being sorted out now.

And I'm interviewed while at the Phoenix Comic Con on this edition of the esteemed Retcon Podcast. Do check it out.

There's a lot happening in the next few weeks, so, once my lethargy has left me, I'll be popping up with all sorts of things. (You should see my schedule for Reno! I'm doing some great stuff! But I can't tell you yet.) In the meantime, and I hope to see you in Derby, Cheerio!

Why Brucie is just an old knight in whining armour - Belfast Telegraph

Posted: 17 Jun 2011 06:01 PM PDT


Why Brucie is just an old knight in whining armour
Belfast Telegraph
Doctor Who revivalist Russell T Davies should be rewarded for services to UK families. Or how about Chris Morris and Armando Iannucci, whose collected works changed the face of TV satire, or Stewart Lee whose recent series raised the bar for stand-up ...

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