Kopic's Doctor Who & Torchwood News |
| Posted: 02 Apr 2008 03:03 PM CDT In this week's Radio Times, Russell T Davies talks about how he goes about casting Doctor Who. "You can't really write with a guest star in mind - well, only in very exceptional cases. Kylie Minogue was one. There's a great danger in writing for someone and then they get offered a film, or they just don't fancy it. So it's dangerous territory to enter." One of the things I love about this job is working with actors. It's such a strange process where...  | ||
| Time Slot will change later in Series Posted: 02 Apr 2008 02:28 PM CDT The start time of Series Four of Doctor Who is likely to return to 7.00pm around Episode Five or Six according to the BBC's internal magazine Ariel. The show's Executive Producer, Russell T. Davies, interviewed at the Series Four Press launch, admitted he would have preferred a later time slot, but was diplomatic about the scheduling decision which he said last week could lose the show a million viewers. "It's not a time slot I agree with, but...  | ||
| Posted: 02 Apr 2008 01:50 PM CDT BBC News Online features an article on the press launch of Series 4. The executive producer Russell T Davies tells how he wants David Tennant to stay on forever. When quizzed about his own future with the programme, Davies told reporters it was "none of their business. Never mind what happens behind the scenes," he said "it's what happens on Saturday night that's important." The website includes a video interview with Tennant. The launch is also...  | ||
| Reviews: Something Borrowed: Reviewed Posted: 02 Apr 2008 10:10 AM CDT After the shock and angst of the last few episodes, Torchwood returns to camp melodrama in Something Borrowed, as Gwen finds herself heavily pregnant on her wedding day. Explaining this away will take a bit of time, but suffice to say that there was an alien intervention, and Gwen's very attractive bump was caused not by a miracle, but an alien baby waiting to hatch and be reclaimed by its mother (a rather foxy Colette Brown). Eve Myles and Kai Owen get a lot of the danger to themselves...  | ||
| Dr Who opener is a stonker - The Sun Posted: 02 Apr 2008 08:51 AM CDT
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| Posted: 02 Apr 2008 07:36 AM CDT With just two days to go before the Torchwood Series 2 finale, we couldn't keep it in any longer... As revealed at the end of Fragments, Captain John Hart has lead Torchwood a merry dance, leading them into the rigged building that could have blown Captain Jack, Toshiko, Ianto and the rather fragile Owen to pieces. He takes Captain Jack prisoner, and sends him back in time for a long overdue reunion with his "lost" younger brother, Grey. Meanwhile, Torchwood are faced with a city...  | ||
| Doctor Who, 2008: Getting the Disappointment Out of the Way in Advance Posted: 02 Apr 2008 07:34 AM CDT A pre-emptive round-up of the new season, based on looking at the episode guide in the Radio Times, then looking away and saying "no, I don't want to know", then looking back and saying "mind you… have you seen the state of that Sontaran?", then sort of half-squinting at the text for a bit, then looking away again, then skim-reading it and hoping there aren't any really big spoilers with capital letters. 1. "Partners in Crime". Here we see the rapidly-brewing crisis in Doctor Who's relationship with CGI, a relationship which began as a torrid romance, but which has since become a kind of masochistic slavery. We live in an age of what a great man once called "the casually miraculous": thanks to CGI, every ad-break is infested with cars that turn into giant robot spiders or monsters made of human body-parts, and an absence of special effects seems more remarkable than a glut of them. Just as the Chinnery-Beast in "The Lazarus Experiment" was supposed to make us go "ooh", but was actually less impressive than the Sony commercial with all the Play-Doh, Big Russell now gives us an army of chubby little potato-monsters - which sounds good in theory, a neat subversion of what people expect from the series - without realising that they'll just end up looking as if they should be singing jingles for Walker's Crisps. We've already established that much of Doctor Who now looks more like a Celebrity News Bulletin on Sky TV than a drama programme, but those parts of the series that don't go for full-on showbiz are starting to look like the adverts between the Celebrity News Bulletins. The worst part is knowing that this is the fault of the modern world rather than the fault of BBC Wales. 2. "Fires of Pompeii". You would have thought that with a volcano erupting, temples collapsing and Roman imperial majesty on all sides, we might finally get a twenty-first-century "historical" with no bloody aliens in it. Would the world really stop if we had a single episode without a monster? Is an army of legionnaires really less audience-friendly than a villain in prosthetic make-up? What's most galling is that when Big Finish used the same setting for "The Fires of Vulcan", they did it without any sci-fi elements other than the TARDIS, and Big Finish is hardly known for its subtlety: it's as if this is a sexed-up, give-the-punters-what-they-expect treatment of the same material, complete with extra-manic priestesses. The funniest part is that David Walliams, the other grotesquely overrated sketch-comedian who's been mistaken for a serious actor by the BBC, appears in this week's Radio Times dressed as Frankie Howerd in Up Pompeii. They really shouldn't be reminding us of that right now. 3. "Planet of the Ood". I've said it before, I'll say it again: "Get your stinking hands off me, you damn dirty Ood." You have to feel that something's amiss if Tim McInnery is considered to be a big-league Radio Times-cover guest star, although I like the idea of him riding topless along a post-apocalyptic beach and realising that this is actually Earth in the future. 4 / 5. "The Sontaran Stratagem" / "The Poison Sky". Potato-monsters are "in" this year. And now do you see why I find "modern-day Earth gets invaded by aliens" stories so objectionable? "The Sound of Drums" was wholly surplus to requirements, a mumbling repeat of "Aliens of London" with nothing to distinguish it but its own (rather inflated) sense of media-savvyness. That was pushing our patience, but since then we've had an entire series of The Sarah-Jane Adventures and thirteen episodes of Torchwood, both of which started to get on our nerves because - among other things - they couldn't get away from alien-infested Britain circa 2008. Surely the spin-offs should be left to shoulder the burden of the "contemporary" stories, leaving the deluxe-sized Doctor Who budget to do bizarre alien worlds and erupting volcanoes? Yet when they give themselves the task of resurrecting the Sontarans, the programme-makers eschew the possibilities of period-Sontarans (which is how they work best, q.v. "The Time Warrior") or far-future-Sontarans (we've never really seen this done properly), and give us another bleeding UNIT story. And it's another two-parter. 6. "The Doctor's Daughter". Now Lance Parkin knows how I felt after the Time War. Here we're promised the Boy Tennant's "most spellbinding performance yet", which hints at this being one of those "Fire in the Girly-Place" episodes that's deliberately calculated to make the audience cry, even if the supporting characters have all the depth of bubblewrap. Assuming that Georgia Moffett is playing the Daughter in question, I'm disappointed to see that the Doctor's offspring is a tough, blonde, conventionally-attractive street-fighting girl, who's even decided to do Buffy-pose in the publicity photo. A fat bird would have been nice, just to buck the trend. Voted "character most likely to come back and die in the end-of-season two-parter, or otherwise turn up as a guest-star in the next season of Torchwood, should there be one". 7. "The Unicorn and the Wasp". Late one night, in the drawing room of his lavish mansion, millionaire playboy Russell T. Davies sat in front of the fireplace and reflected on his future. "I need to create a new monster," he mused. "Something that will strike terror into the hearts of the viewers. It must be a creature entirely hostile to our way of life, a creature with no mercy and no human qualities, like a… a…" Suddenly, his thoughts were interrupted by a huge insect, which flew through the open window as if responding to some eerie summons. "A wasp!" cried Davies. "That's it! It shall be a wasp!" Well, it might have happened that way. Alternatively, he might have a list of Monsters We Haven't Done Yet pinned to the wall of the office, like Innes Lloyd did in the 1960s. More troubling, though, is the thought that Gareth Roberts may try to inject the same embarrassing over-enthusiasm into the Doctor's meeting with Agatha Christie that he put into the Shakespeare get-together. And the sad truth is, Christie just wasn't a very good writer: it'll be rather hard to cope with David Tennant shouting about "human genius" when faced with the woman who turned crime fiction into a branch of crossword-puzzle-setting. Still, since Christie effectively created the "trad" detective story, it's perhaps apt that Gareth should get the gig. 8 / 9. "Silence in the Library" / "River's Run". I once wrote a Doctor Who script, y'know. It was at the end of last year, in the days before "Voyage of the Damned" made me cold and hard and wretched, and it was fairly clear that nobody was ever going to want it. But after mouthing off about the increasing laziness of "proper" writers (c.f. my "I could piss that in my sleep" comment after "Blink"), I felt I should challenge myself to write a fully-operational 45-minute script in less than three days, just so I could hold it up and say 'a-ha!' if anyone queried my competence. I was quite pleased with the result, and even entertained the possibility of recycling it into something useful one day. Except that… it was set in a scary otherworldly library, which means it'll be completely unsalvageable in eight weeks' time, for f***'s sake. It had to be Moffat, didn't it? And oh look, he's using "shadows" as this year's gimmick to creep out the kids. If I hadn't just proved my superiority by solving the Radio Times' Enigma Code puzzle in one-third of the target time (even though it's difficulty level 19/20 this week), then I'd actually be annoyed. 10. "Midnight". Nothing to see here, move along. 11. "Turn Left". One of the many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many problems with hiring Catherine Tate as this year's companion - or "sidekick", as the RT puts it, perhaps realising that this is more like a comedy double-act than a serious relationship - is that we're inevitably going to have to deal with her family. Bernard Cribbins aside, this really isn't something we want to do. We're told that the Nobles will be "devastated" by this point in the series, but consider Donna's appalling mum in "The Runaway Bride", and ask yourself whether you'll be able to feel any compassion in your rapidly-withering soul. Even so, the thought of a "character" episode about Donna seems almost pleasant, compared to the notion that any alien possession, mind-altering technology or parallel universe in this series will give Tate the opportunity to break character and do funny voices. Just think… with the role of Doctor Who's Assistant being one of the most sought-after jobs in the country, they could have hired anybody for this season. They could have got Elaine Cassidy, for God's sake. And instead, they went for the female Harry Enfield. 12 / 13. "TBA" / "Journey's End". You might sense that after "The Parting of the Ways", "Doomsday" (the episode that should be called "The Parting of the Ways") and "Last of the Time Lords", the Big Man's running out of climactic-sounding titles for Episode 13. You might also sense that he's running out of ways to keep us interested in the end-of-season pay-off, since the nation has started to take the epic two-part catastrophe for granted, and 2007's effort didn't exactly make things easier for him: this year's preview includes various questions designed to pique our interest, but he tried exactly the same thing in last year's preview ("who are the Toclafane?" and "what terrible secrets are stored at the heart of the Valiant?"), and the answers turned out to be disappointing all round ("some floaty robot things" and "the TARDIS wired up to some machinery", respectively). This year we get "who are the Children of Time?" and "what is the secret of the Vault?", but as if realising that he needs to give it an extra kick, Davies adds: "And surely, this time, not everyone can get out alive…?" Personally, I'd bet money that Donna's going to be fine, for the same reason that you just knew Jar Jar Binks would survive to the end of Revenge of the Sith. George Lucas was wise enough to know that otherwise, too many people would cheer during the death-scene. All right, so what's the catastrophe going to be this time? I'll make a small wager that the walls between parallel universes will collapse a la Crisis on Infinite Earths, releasing Daleks, Cybermen and Time Lords of all denominations, possibly even a parallel-universe Davros who never had the accident and still has the use of his legs (played by a reasonably hunky well-known actor rather than an old man in a rubber mask, so let's have a stab at Robert Carlisle). Unless Davros is the secret in the Vault…? No, that'd be rubbish.  | ||
| Spinoffs: Torchwood Trading Cards Posted: 02 Apr 2008 07:27 AM CDT Thanks to EyeOfHorus.org.uk for the following exciting news for Torchwood fans... Following the amazing success of the Doctor Who Battles in Time card collections, GE Fabbri is proud to introduce the new Torchwood Trading Card Collection, aimed at the adult collector. With amazing new images of aliens and monsters from both series of the TV show, 200 exciting brand-new trading cards will be launched in shops across the UK on Wednesday 16th April 2008, priced £2.99 per pack. Each pack...  | ||
| B-52s: the love shack shakes again - Telegraph.co.uk Posted: 02 Apr 2008 06:05 AM CDT
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| Posted: 02 Apr 2008 05:41 AM CDT Seeing as most movies are in production for well over a year, making a film in two days is a pretty daunting task. It's the challenge facing anyone entering SCI-FI-LONDON's 48 Hour Film Challenge, a competition that asks you to write, shoot and edit a...  | ||
| Posted: 02 Apr 2008 04:57 AM CDT  | ||
| Posted: 02 Apr 2008 04:45 AM CDT Anyone worried that US TV bosses might be falling out of favour with SF and fantasy needn't worry. Just check out the following list for proof. These are the pilots (and, indeed, in some cases full series) that have already been ordered by the major networks....  | ||
| Will Tennant and Davies Return For Doctor Who's Fifth Season? - Anglophenia Posted: 02 Apr 2008 04:41 AM CDT
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| Week One Reviews - Philadelphia citypaper.net Posted: 02 Apr 2008 03:58 AM CDT
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| Calendar listings for April 3 Preview - North County Times Posted: 02 Apr 2008 02:43 AM CDT
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| Posted: 02 Apr 2008 01:38 AM CDT What have a bunch of creatures who look strangely like the miscreants in a famous car advert on TV, an...  | ||
| Posted: 02 Apr 2008 01:17 AM CDT There's another TV series that needs a Season Finale. eZPUcwXguDY  | ||
| Posted: 02 Apr 2008 01:08 AM CDT S4: More Publicity Pictures DWO have received some more Publicity Pictures for Series Four of Doctro Who. [To view images - Check out the DWO News page] ** All images are copyright to the BBC and can not be reprinted without permission. [Source: BBC Pictures]  | ||
| Posted: 02 Apr 2008 12:43 AM CDT Are we ready? Here at Vote Saxon we're terribly excited about the new series of Who. What a weekend!! First...  | ||
| Alkin to leave C4 for indie world - Stage Posted: 01 Apr 2008 11:52 PM CDT
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| Doctor Who Stars Gather to Launch New Season - Wired News Posted: 01 Apr 2008 10:29 PM CDT
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| HD 'Who' 'would mean rebuilding Tardis' Posted: 01 Apr 2008 10:08 PM CDT Russell T Davies is cynical about Doctor Who going HD - but admits it could convert in 2010.  | ||
| Ex-Corrie star Sarah Lancashire lines up with who's who of stars ... - Daily Mail Posted: 01 Apr 2008 10:06 PM CDT
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| Posted: 01 Apr 2008 09:38 PM CDT The new series of Doctor Who was launched in front of the press on Tuesday evening at a packed venue in which regular stars and crew were joined by cast members from series four, such as Peter Capaldi and Tim McInnerny. Also on show were former Doctor Who villain Simon Pegg, Radio 1 DJ Jo Whiley and Elisabeth Sladen. On the matter of the Doctor's relationship with Donna, new companion Catherine Tate said: "Donna knows he's an alien," joked the comedienne and actress. "She knows he's...  | ||
| Davies keen for Tennant to stay on as 'Who' Posted: 01 Apr 2008 09:22 PM CDT Russell T Davies is keen for David Tennant to "stay on forever" in Doctor Who.  | ||
| THE wait is finally over. Doctor Who is back. - The Sun Posted: 01 Apr 2008 09:09 PM CDT
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| Posted: 01 Apr 2008 08:10 PM CDT
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| New Doctor Who is an event for all - ic Wales Posted: 01 Apr 2008 08:06 PM CDT
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| Lancashire speaks about 'Who' role Posted: 01 Apr 2008 07:44 PM CDT Sarah Lancashire reveals that she plays a "warped Mary Poppins" in Doctor Who.  | ||
| Amy Winehouse To Star In Doctor Who As Villainess - AHN Posted: 01 Apr 2008 07:38 PM CDT
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| Doctor Who series four preview - Den Of Geek Posted: 01 Apr 2008 05:15 PM CDT
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| Dr Who fourth series actors revealed, Tate at doctor's side - InTheNews.co.uk Posted: 01 Apr 2008 05:13 PM CDT
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| Seen Who's the nanny - Manchester Evening News Posted: 01 Apr 2008 05:13 PM CDT
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| Dr Who fourth series actors revealed, Tait at doctor's side - InTheNews.co.uk Posted: 01 Apr 2008 05:07 PM CDT
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| David joins forces with Catherine for more out-of-this-world ... - hellomagazine.com Posted: 01 Apr 2008 05:05 PM CDT
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| Review: Dr Who is back, but is it time for him to go? - Telegraph.co.uk Posted: 01 Apr 2008 04:42 PM CDT
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| Doctor Who star Catherine Tate jokes about her new character not ... - Sleaford Today Posted: 01 Apr 2008 04:39 PM CDT
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| DOCTOR WHO - DR WHO FOURTH SERIES ACTORS REVEALED, TAIT AT ... - Contactmusic.com Posted: 01 Apr 2008 04:27 PM CDT
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| Estonia defends NATO from cybermen - Inquirer Posted: 01 Apr 2008 04:20 PM CDT
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| Invasion of Earth led by Sarah Lancashire - Corrieblog Posted: 01 Apr 2008 04:17 PM CDT
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| HD 'Who' 'would mean rebuilding Tardis' - Digital Spy Posted: 01 Apr 2008 04:14 PM CDT
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| Love your library in Wiltshire - Gazette & Herald Posted: 01 Apr 2008 04:01 PM CDT
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| Doctor Who - David Tennant's warped enemy revealed - MyParkMag Posted: 01 Apr 2008 03:47 PM CDT
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| Davies keen for Tennant to stay on as 'Who' - Digital Spy Posted: 01 Apr 2008 03:36 PM CDT
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| Doctor returns for series four - Channel 4 News Posted: 01 Apr 2008 03:30 PM CDT
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| Posted: 01 Apr 2008 03:15 PM CDT
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| Doctor returns for series four - ITN Posted: 01 Apr 2008 02:55 PM CDT
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| Galaxy of stars to appear in new series of Dr Who - Glasgow Daily Record Posted: 01 Apr 2008 02:52 PM CDT
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| More Dr Who for Tennant? - TeleText Posted: 01 Apr 2008 02:48 PM CDT
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| Doctor Who series four: Sarah Lancashire gets new series off to flying start Posted: 01 Apr 2008 02:45 PM CDT Sarah Lancashire best known for roles in Coronation Street Clocking Off and Rose 7 Maloney ensures the new BBC One series of Doctor Who starts with a bang.  | ||
| From Corrie to Doctor Who - Irish Independent Posted: 01 Apr 2008 02:38 PM CDT
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| Catherine 'not bovvered' by the Timelord - Metro Posted: 01 Apr 2008 02:33 PM CDT
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| Who's who of stars to appear in new series of Dr Who - Glasgow Daily Record Posted: 01 Apr 2008 02:04 PM CDT
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| Tate's Donna doesn't fancy Timelord - Burnley Express Posted: 01 Apr 2008 01:30 PM CDT
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| Doctor Who star Catherine Tate jokes about her new character not ... - Lancashire Evening Post Posted: 01 Apr 2008 01:29 PM CDT
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| TATE'S DONNA DOESN'T FANCY TIMELORD - Daily Star Posted: 01 Apr 2008 01:21 PM CDT
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| Tate's Donna doesn't fancy Timelord - Deeside Today Posted: 01 Apr 2008 01:10 PM CDT
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| ‘Any guest actors have to be good’ - ic Wales Posted: 01 Apr 2008 01:10 PM CDT
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| A guide to the new episodes - ic Wales Posted: 01 Apr 2008 01:10 PM CDT
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| Tate's Donna doesn't fancy Timelord - Garstang Today Posted: 01 Apr 2008 01:08 PM CDT
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| Doctor Who star Catherine Tate jokes about her new character not ... - North Wales Chronicle Posted: 01 Apr 2008 01:03 PM CDT
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| Doctor Who star Catherine Tate jokes about her new character not ... - Peterlee Mail Posted: 01 Apr 2008 01:00 PM CDT
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| Torchwood Declassified: The End Posted: 01 Apr 2008 01:00 PM CDT Don't miss the final instalment of Torchwood Declassified.  | ||
| Old friends return to Doctor Who - CBBC Newsround Posted: 01 Apr 2008 12:45 PM CDT
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