Saturday 30 June 2012

Dougray Scott to appear in Series 7

articleimageTV_049Doctor Who Magazine made further confirmations of more guest stars that will feature in various Series 7 episodes, including Scottish-born actor Dougray Scott. Scott is widely known for his role in blockbuster movie Mission Impossible II, and the role that got him noticed in America: his part as Ian in the third season of US hit television comedy-drama Desperate Housewives.

Scott will star in episode 11 (therefore, six episodes into Jenna-Louise Coleman’s tenure as companion)  – hotly rumoured to be titled ‘Phantoms of the Hex’ – written by Neil Cross and directed by Jamie Payne. Executive producer Caroline Skinner told DWM the episode is, “a hugely funny, and rather fabulously spooky, script”.  Also confirmed for this episode is Call The Midwife lead actress Jessica Raine.

Jenna-Louise Coleman’s first episode as companion Clara is Episode 6 of Series 7, and will broadcast on Christmas Day, meaning the subsequent episodes are likely to broadcast the following Saturdays.

What do you think of this news? Let us know below…

Planet of the Facts #3: Boom Town

articleimageTV_045FACT No.3: Boom Town

Russell T Davies wrote this episode specifically for actress Annette Badland (who played ‘Margaret Slitheen’ in human form) after watching her performance in the rushes' footage from the filming for episodes 4 and 5 ('Aliens of London' and 'World War Three'), which were the first episodes of Series One to be filmed.

Friday 29 June 2012

David Tennant & Billie Piper to appear at the Midnight Convention in December

articleimageTV_048

Both David Tennant and Billie Piper (the Tenth Doctor and Rose Tyler) have been confirmed as part of the booked line-up of guests attending next December’s Midnight Convention.

The tremendous twosome will be signing autographs, having photographs taken with fans (both individually and together) and will have their own guest talk (with Q&A). They will also be attending the closing ceremony.

Also attending will be Gareth David Lloyd (Ianto, Torchwood), Kai Owen (Rhys, Torchwood), Jim Swallow and Tony Lee (IDW Publishing’s Doctor Who comics).

The event will be taking place at the Birmingham Hilton on Sunday 16th December 2012. Entrants will have to pay £90 for a Regular Ticket and £160 for Gold, which can be purchased online.

Will you be going to this event?

Planet of the Facts #2: Open-top TARDIS

articleimageTV_044FACT No.2: Open-top TARDIS

You might think that The Doctor and Idris’ makeshift TARDIS travelling would be suicidal with a distinct lack of protective walls, but The Doctor has travelled this way before.

In the 1970 serial ‘Inferno’, the Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee) broke the mould by also travelling via ‘open-top’ TARDIS with the disconnected console of his time machine, in order to travel between our universe and the infamous parallel universe featured in the story.

Thursday 28 June 2012

Planet of the Facts #1: Susan Foreman

FACT No.1: SUSAN FOREMAN

The character of Susan Foreman was originally not envisioned by creators Sydney Newman and Verity Lambert as  any relation to The Doctor, but the producers felt uneasy with the sexual connotations that would have come with an elderly gentleman keeping a teenage girl for his companion.

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Series 7 Episode 11 Title

Another new series title has been inadvertently revealed via a guest-actor’s online CV (you’d think they’d have learnt by now). The online CV of actress Jessica Raine – recently come to light in the public eye through Call The Midwife – stated that she would be starring as a character called Emma Grayling in an episode titled…

7.11: ‘Phantoms of the Hex’

The episode will be directed by Jamie Payne, who worked with Raine on BBC One hit drama and ratings-smasher Call The Midwife, as well as directing episodes of the channel’s Ashes to Ashes and The Hour.

The episode ‘Phantoms of the Hex’ – the title of which should be taken at this stage as just a working title only – has been written by Neil Cross, a newbie to Doctor Who. The title is absolutely subject to change (for example, Series 4’s ‘Forest of the Dead’ had the title of ‘River’s Run’ until a week before its broadcast, although this is a rare occurrence), but titles discovered from online CVs have ended up being correct in the past.

> Gordon & French Agency - Jessica Raine CV

What do you think of the title? Please let us know below…

With thanks to Neil S!

Tuesday 26 June 2012

So what is the Asylum of the Daleks?

With the recent official confirmation of the episode title of Series 7 Episode 1 as ‘Asylum of the Daleks’, fanboys’ and fangirls’ fan-drives have been sent into speculation overdrive at what the prospect of said “asylum” could be.

The Radio Times got their writer and resident Doctor Who fan Paul Jones onto the case…


“The Daleks are coming back and they’re worse than ever. Just you wait until you see what they’re going to do," Steven Moffat warned us recently.

And now we know that the first episode of Doctor Who series seven will be entitled Asylum of the Daleks (as tweeted by Dalek operator Nicolas Pegg yesterday and confirmed by the official Doctor Who site).

The question is what does it mean? Are we talking mad Daleks (like there's any other kind) locked away in a mental institution? Or refugee Daleks looking for sympathy and a place to stay?

According to executive producer Caroline Skinner, the first episode to feature the tin-pot dictators since they got one over on the Doctor in 2010’s Victory of the Daleks will include “every kind of Dalek ever faced by the Time Lord – including the legendary Special Weapons Dalek.” So could that rarely seen Dalek be the key to understanding the Asylum...?

Doctor Who Magazine #449 Cover

articleimageTV_041-v2The cover of the new issue #449 of Doctor Who Magazine has been released, only moments ago!

With the advent of the 50th Anniversary, and the recent seven-year anniversary since Doctor Who returned to our screens in 2005, DWM looks at how much our favourite sci-fi has changed in the past seven years.

The Ninth Doctor -- “I’m the Doctor, by the way, what’s your name? […] Nice to meet you Rose. Run for your life!”

The Eleventh Doctor -- “I’m the Doctor. And basically… Run!”

Doctor Who Magazine #449 is published in the UK on Thursday 28th June priced £4.50 in the UK at WHSmith and selected Tesco and Asda stores.

Friday 22 June 2012

Caroline John dies, aged 71

CarolineJohn

British actress Caroline John, known to many for playing Doctor Who companion Liz Shaw, has died at the age of 71.

A funeral was held in south-west London on Wednesday for the Yorkshire-born actress, who starred opposite Jon Pertwee's Doctor in the BBC series. John played Liz Shaw in four Doctor Who adventures in 1970, later reprising her role in 1983's The Five Doctors.

Doctor Who chief writer Steven Moffat paid tribute to "a brilliant actress" and "tremendous co-star" for Pertwee. He said Liz Shaw was "not just a sidekick but a scientist in her own right and a match for the universe's number one know-all. The Doctor's companions should never be his assistants - they're the people who keep him on his toes and that's what Caroline did."

After training at the Central School of Speech and Drama, John spent four years with the National Theatre Company under artistic director Sir Laurence Olivier. Among her stage credits were Much Ado About Nothing, Rosecrantz and Guildenstern are Dead and as an understudy to Dame Maggie Smith in the role of Desdemona in Othello.

As Elizabeth "Liz" Shaw, John made her first appearance alongside the newly-regenerated third Doctor in the story Spearhead from Space. Her character witnessed the reawakening of an ancient race in The Silurians and stopped an insane scientist from cracking open the Earth's crust in Inferno. She also got to drive Bessie, the Doctor's canary yellow roadster, despite the actress not having a driving licence at the time.

Doctor Who Magazine assistant editor Peter Ware told the BBC News website that John's character was "a very different type of companion than any that had come before. For the first time, the Doctor had an assistant who was basically an equal and he treated her as an equal," he added.

"Intelligent, beautiful, her character was a genius and in real life she was intelligent and beautiful too.” He said that, from the 1990s onwards, John had made regular appearances at fans' conventions where she was "very kind, very warm and very generous".

"She only stayed with the show for one year but was very fondly remembered by the fans," Both John and husband Geoffrey Beevers went on to work on several Doctor Who audio and straight-to-video spin-offs. "Carry was always delighted to return to Liz Shaw and reprised the role several times in our audio series," said David Richardson of production company Big Finish. "She was a brilliant actress and a lovely, kind soul who was a joy to be around and who was interested in everyone. She will be greatly missed."

In recent years, she was seen in episodes of Doctors, Midsomer Murders and Silent Witness. She also appeared in an episode of Poirot, alongside husband Geoffrey, playing a husband and wife. In later years she performed Nightingale, a one-woman show written by her lifelong friend Lynne Redgrave, and toured with Timothy West in the The Master Builder with the English Touring Theatre.


Caroline John


(1940-2012)
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