Doctor Who news

[wolfweed @wolfweed]

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/odd/s7/doctor-who/news/a503288/doctor-who-gigantic-dalek-straw-sculpture-in-cheshire-pictures.html

 

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/s7/doctor-who/news/a503185/steven-moffat-on-doctor-who-50th-we-didnt-have-enough-money.html

[wolfweed @wolfweed]

http://www.chesterchronicle.co.uk/news/chester-cheshire-news/35ft-straw-dalek-unveiled-snugburys-

Also, this rumour is doing the rounds…

http://news.thedoctorwhosite.co.uk/major-announcement-at-midnight/

[PhaseShift @phaseshift Time Lord]

@wolfweed

I love The Wicker Dalek (OK – I know it’s straw). Who are we going to burn?

On your second link I take it that what all the Spoiler action is about?

[Craig @craig Emperor]

@phaseshift It is. But there aren’t any real spoilers, more speculation. But best to keep it there for those who don’t want to know anything.

[Whisht @whisht]

@craig @phaseshift
which is why the Spoilers thread is such a good idea
(I for one really appreciate it as I don’t even watch trailers for films!)

thanks (yet again)

[wolfweed @wolfweed]

It’s official! The next Doctor will be revealed on Sunday!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01dlmj4

[Bluesqueakpip @bluesqueakpip]

The big announcement at midnight was the date and time of the official announcement. An announcement about an announcement.

Sunday, 4th August, BBC1, 7pm.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/doctorwho/articles/The-Next-Doctor-will-be-revealed-on-Sunday-04-August

[Bluesqueakpip @bluesqueakpip]

Now, any bets on the tin dog?

I’ll get me coat…

[Anonymous @]

@bluesqueakpip – it could, in fact, be the bunny ‘Trudy’ (or Harry, take your pick).  Oh, no, sorry, Trudy/Harry was eaten with a nice white wine sauce later on.  😀

[PhaseShift @phaseshift Time Lord]

Well let’s look at the positive.

That format sounds bloody awful and has the potential to be cringemakingly embarrassing. This can only be alleviated by pre-emptively drinking copious amounts of alcohol, which is a positive.

The other positive of course is that it’ll put a stop to some of the barmy casting speculation stories after next week.

Huzzah!

[wolfweed @wolfweed]

Zoe Ball? I think the Beeb have got Who mixed up with Strictly Come Dancing! Alcohol it is, then.

[overunder @jamesunderscore]

Oh.. Glad as I am that the announcement is going to be made, I think I may skip the live extravaganza. Half an hour’s build up to either “Oh, Him/Her?” or “Who?” is not my idea of great TV.

Think I can get away with tuning in at about 19:25, and just catch the announcement, like we used to with the National Lottery?

[TardisBlue @tardisblue]

For those of us in the states, BBC America will be simulcasting the half-hour live special:  2 pm EDT, 11 am PDT on Sunday, August 4.  I tried Google searches for CBC and ABC schedules, but couldn’t find anything right now.  ABC spokespeople say they are “investigating” broadcasting the special.

TardisBlue

[thommck @thommck]

This Sunday! That must have been what those tickets were for that I posted about last week!!!
I was already a bit sad I didn’t get any tickets allocated but now I’m devastated :'(

Ah well, will be glad to finally know, not that knowing an actor means much in terms of bonkers theorising

[Anonymous @]

@thommck – for those who don’t remember, and knowing what we know now, it’s worth re-posting what you previously found [emphasis mine]:

BBC Entertainment & Events invites you to come and join the party by being in the audience for a pre-record of an exciting new BBC One series pilot, celebrating some of the UK’s longest running TV shows.

Featuring special guests and memorable clips from the show’s history, this episode focuses on the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who.

We would like to encourage audience members to come dressed as their favourite Doctor, companion or character from the series but this is not compulsory.

Please dress to impress as this is a celebration.

All information is correct at time of publication.
Date: 4 August
Time: 6pm
Venue: BBC Elstree Studios
Under 18s must be accompanied by a parent or guardian
Minimum age: 10
Maximum tickets per request: 4

[Anonymous @]

Agree with @phaseshift and others that the format sounds terrible. I don’t see why they couldn’t have just revived Confidential for one night only and done it that way. They’d have been as well doing it like the voice — having half a dozen of the main contenders audition live on TV in front of a panel of David Tennant, Tom Baker and Sylvester McCoy and finish it off with a phone vote.

And Zoe Ball will be a terrible Doctor….

All the same, I have to admit I’m looking forward to it…

[stevethewhistle @steve-thorp]

I checked the Virgin TV scheduled of BBC1 at 19:00 on Sunday, 4th August, and the programme scheduled for that time was Celebrity Mastermind.

Surely this means that the new Doctor is John Humphrys.

🙂

[Anonymous @]

I’m in agreement with most of the comments regarding the “Live Announcement”, it sounds dreadful. I know in a recent post I was critical at the lack of Who related events in this “special” year but this really isn’t what I had in mind.

Still it could have been worse. A lot, lot worse. Just imagine, a program with a title such as “Any Doc’ll Do”, “How do you solve a problem like ‘The Doctor’?” or “Who’ll be Who?”. Shown over a number of weeks this program, hosted by ‘Uberfan’ Ian Levine, sets out to audition various actors ‘live’ as the next doctor. All of the Doctor wannabees are pretty, Beiber clones/clonettes and the judging panel is made up of the very worst of ARSE-kind!

As trashy as the planned show on Sunday seems, given the above nightmare alternative, I’ll take what we’ve been given and try my best to be pleased. At least the speculation game will be over.

But just in case any-one from the BBC is reading, the above program format and suggested titles (along with other alternatives) are copyright Fat Man In A Box Productions 2013 😀

[PhaseShift @phaseshift Time Lord]

@jimthefish @fatmaninabox

Ahh.. @fatmaninabox beat me to it. I was about to post:

They’d have been as well doing it like the voice — having half a dozen of the main contenders audition live on TV in front of a panel of David Tennant, Tom Baker and Sylvester McCoy and finish it off with a phone vote.

That was my thought – the way of light entertainment is a dangerous one. I was imagining one of those shows where Andrew Lloyd Webber was paid from the Licence fee to audition an actor/actress for one of his bloody musical runs and publicise it.

Following that format you have a group of hopefuls who are whittled down over tedious weeks by phone voting informed by a panel of experts, with the current Exec Producer, stroking his white cat, saving his preferred one. Presented by Graham Norton.

The panel would be:

The Nice one – Russel T, who would proclaim that everyone was “marvellous” and do the booming laugh.
The Female one – Michelle Collins, who is an actress. And cheap. And appeared in “42” so that makes her an expert.
The Nasty one – THE Colin Baker, who would start every appraisal with “when I was on the show” before tearing them a new arsehole. Because Colin Baker criticising performances never ceases to be funny.

The name for the show? “Trials for a Timelord”.

[HTPBDET @htpbdet]

@phaseshift

Hilarious!

I wonder if Zoe Ball being the host means anything?

If it were someone famous, would they unleash her?

[HTPBDET @htpbdet]

@phaseshift

Oh and you left out the host….John Barrowman surely??

[Anonymous @]

@phaseshift – snorted out my tea!  ‘The Nice One’, ‘The Female One’, ‘The Nasty One’.  And …

THE Colin Baker, who would start every appraisal with “when I was on the show”

As @htpbdet says, though … surely John Barrowman is the uber-host for ‘Trials of a Timelord’?

Being TV-impaired, I will have to wait on Sunday night until the gods of iPlayer deign to allow us non-license fee paying members of the unwashed public to watch.

[Anonymous @]

FatManInABox – ““Any Doc’ll Do”, “How do you solve a problem like ‘The Doctor’?” or “Who’ll be Who?””

Nice.  😀

[Whisht @whisht]

@everyone – lol

😉

To be honest, the BBC description made me think that it’d start with Matt on-set somewhere, with Zoe walking up behind him.
He turns, she gets out a big red book and says:

“The Doctor – This is Your Lives”

dahhh-dahh daaa dahhhhhhhhh.

cut to the studio, they walk on stage to audience applause.
Other Doctors and Companions are sat in rows on the right of the stage, exchanging knowing winks and nods as Matt sits down with a smirk.

Either that or Johnny Ball will jump out of a Dalek.

He’d make a great Doctor.

[Anonymous @]

@whisht — re. Johnny Ball, I’d have agreed with you until the point where he’s now gone on climate change deniery on us….

And tend to agree with everyone that announcing it like this means that it’s getting less and less likely that we’re going to go ‘who the hell’s that?’ A ‘name’ seems likely…

And this half hour show better include a godamned trailer of some kind…

[Anonymous @]

@whisht – you are thinking too much.  I don’t mean that in a snarky way, simply that, you are thinking more than the BBC does from what we’ve been ‘allowed to know so far’ on what appears to be a dire concept for a show in general (and even more dire for the reveal of the new Doctor).

I may have to hibernate until the aftermath of this monstrosity roars itself out (or whimpers itself out, more likely).

And you are targetted for extermination for the very idea that Johnny Ball would make a good Doctor.  😆

[Anonymous @]

@Shazzbot another alternative was “Doctor Who: The Next (re)Generation” 🙂

@phaseshift “Trials for a Timelord” 😀 That one isn’t on my list of alternative which is lucky for you, I’m very litigious 😈

@whisht Johnny Ball as The Doctor – Fabulous 😀 I grew up watching him on things like Playschool, Play-a-way and the brilliant “Think Of A Number”. Oh, what marvellous memories.

[Anonymous @]

@jimthefish FatManInABox  – have you completely lost your minds?!  Johnny Ball?!

Let’s go for Alan Rickman, who by the evidence of this clip, not only has the gravitas, but also the musical chops to wow the Americans.  😕

[Anonymous @]

@Shazzbot — if you’d grown up with Think of a Number and Think Again you’d understand the Johnny Ball love. For many in the UK, he was their first introduction to how science and even structured thinking could in fact be fun and interesting. In many ways, he was a decidedly Doctorish figure for many of us.

As I say his stance on climate change is disappointing (to me anyway) to say the least….

[Anonymous @]

Eeeuww, @jimthefish, that is indeed pretty dire –

Ball, 71, claimed that spiders’ flatulence was more damaging to the environment than fossil fuels, and criticised the “bad science” of global warming

[Anonymous @]

@shazzbot —

This is getting very off-topic, I realise (feel free to move or delete) but Ball’s recent pronouncements have been incredibly odd and disappointing. (And rather tinged by politics, it seems). (And odd in the sense that he doubts the polar ice caps are melting, which is pretty and fundamentally irrefutable these days, I think.)

But look at him in his heyday. The man was a legend and you can totally see where @whisht is coming from:

[PhaseShift @phaseshift Time Lord]

@htpbdet @Shazzbot @fatmaninabox

John Barrowman

I may have to consult with my fellow creative (this must be a partnership forged in TV Hell) @fatmaninabox, but my inner commissioning editor is still screaming “Graham Norton” in this case. Because he’s on payroll and Barrowman in contracted in stuff like “Green Arrow”.

I’d see Barrowman, and perhaps people like Alex Kingston, as the big guests for a week who play roles opposite the hopefuls to see if they can recreate the magic. Can you imagine:

Graham: “Last week, little Dean Gaffney impressed the phone audience with his .. unique .. rendition of the ‘Marriage on top of the Ziggurat Scene’ opposite the divine Alex Kingston. How will he cope this week against John Barrowman, armed only with a Banana, and comparing Sonic devices in scenes from ‘The Doctor Dances’?”.

[Cut to film]

John: “All this week I’ve been rehearsing this with Dean, and I’ve got pretty frustrated because Dean doesn’t seem able to summon the underlying hardness of Ecclestone [booming laugh cut into mix]. He needs to grip his sonic, or his banana, more tightly [cuts to Graham raising eyebrow at camera]..I hope he can pull it off on the night..”.. etc.

[Bluesqueakpip @bluesqueakpip]

@jimthefish

it’s getting less and less likely that we’re going to go ‘who the hell’s that?’ A ‘name’ seems likely…

It’s the tin dog! I keep telling you, it’s the tin dog!

But I agree; all this razzamatazz? Matt Smith got a documentary after one of the specials. He didn’t get prime time BBC1.

Prime time BBC1 suggests that new Doctor is either black, female or a ‘name’. Or possibly a black female ‘name’, or any combination thereof. 🙂 Whatever – this feels like the Beeb expects the audience’s collective jaws to drop and every one to go ‘Did I just hear that right? THEY’RE the new Doctor?’

Whoever (pun intended). At this point I really will take the tin dog, providing someone convinces me it can act…

[Anonymous @]

@phaseshift – Dean Gaffney aside (why does that no-talent eedjit get work?!?), I think you have posited something far more entertaining than we’ll be lumped with on Sunday night.  🙁

I admit to liking Graham Norton, a lot.  His interviews with Lady Gaga and Madonna notwithstanding.

[wolfweed @wolfweed]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/doctorwho/articles/Send-us-your-questions-for-the-next-Doctor

[Anonymous @]

@wolfweed – “The person playing the next Doctor will be introduced to the universe and will then be interviewed and some of the questions being asked will come from you!”

Oh, this is more and more sounding like crawl-into-a-hole-in-the-ground-and-die stylee ‘entertainment’.

[Anonymous @]

@bluesqueakpip – check out @wolfweed ‘s BBC link.  My heart is lower than a snake’s belly in a wagon rut.

[Bluesqueakpip @bluesqueakpip]

Actually, it sounds like they’re taking their cue from a Comic Con panel. 😈  Audience Cosplay, questions-from-the-audience/viewers, past Doctors on the panel…

But will we see the trailer?

[Anonymous @]

@bluesqueakpip – aww, bless.  Always with the positivity!

[Whisht @whisht]

hmm….. we can ask questions huh?

“As The Doctor, what will you carry around in your inside left pocket?”

well, will give us a sense of their humour and whether they see The Doctor as practical, odd or silly (or all three!)

;¬)

[ScaryB @scaryb]

@bluesqueakpip

But will we see the trailer?

Exactly!

It exists therefore it’s our RIGHT to see it! (Be nice though!) Actually this would be the perfect place to show it. (“Trail(er) of a Timelord”??!)

I don’t really mind if they make it cheesy, I can see it working for either an unknown (who needs introducing to the audience) or as a better known actor ( Ta-DAH!). Would’ve been AMAZING if @thommck had been lucky enough to get tickets. Remember discussing it.. Ha! None of us saw through its flimsy disguise! @thommck – If it helps to give you an idea of what the potential demand would be, and hopefully make you feel better, there were 45,000 fans signed up for the London convention presales info newsletter

[thommck @thommck]

@scaryb Yes the odds were probably quite slim but I keep checking my spam folder just in case!
This
whole event is an odd concept but I’m not against it. Will be great to see a room full of fans talking about it. I just hope the ‘celebs’ are actual fans not just rent-a-faces

[Whisht @whisht]

Oh, and sorry for any Johnny Ball related off-topicings!

@jimthefish – hadn’t realised he’d made those comments… hm, tis a little worrying. Hope he’s ok, but thanks for finding some footage of him in his pomp!

.

ah well, looks like alcohol is the order of the night, along with staring at the on-set Tardis, wondering how bored the new actor sitting in it is, waiting for their cue to walk out amidst dry ice, swirling lights and applause.

and inane questions about content of their pockets…

[Bluesqueakpip @bluesqueakpip]

@scaryb – true. As @Shazzbot says, my natural inclination is an optimistic ‘it’ll be alright on the night’ one – at least when it comes to anything like theatre, television or conventions. 🙂 And it could be that the BBC has decided to go all jazzy because somebody has been paying attention to complaints about the lack of 50th Anniversary events.

 

[Anonymous @]

Once Sunday’s programme is available on iPlayer, I’m thinking I’ll just fast-forward to the last 5 minutes and put myself out of my misery.  🙂

I wonder if @danmartinuk will be live-blogging it for the Guardian?

[Anonymous @]

@whisht – if I were to ask a question, it would probably be ‘So, what are your thoughts on the Doctor snogging his/her companions?’

Especially if the reveal is a female actor, and knowing that Clara is signed for another series … One ‘for the dads’ as they say.  🙂

[Bluesqueakpip @bluesqueakpip]

I wonder if @danmartinuk will be live-blogging it for the Guardian?

@Shazzbot – Hope so. If it’s an unknown actor, expect lots of ‘they’re too young/too old/ears stick out. In fact, if they’re a well known actor, expect that, plus ‘I can’t see them as the Doctor because of their performance in Role X’.

If it’s a woman, expect lots of ‘The Doctor is and always has been a MAN!!!’

If it’s a black actor/actress, expect lots of ‘I’m not a racist, but…’

And if Moffat wants to really do a Take That! at the fans, the new Doctor will be an American. 😈

Whatever happens, it’ll be fun….

😀

[Anonymous @]

@bluesqueakpip – LOL as the kids say at your ‘I’m not a racist, but … ‘

Nooooooooo!  NOT an American.  Really, that is all I ask.  Please, oh please, oh please.  I’ll take your tin dog any day over that.

[PhaseShift @phaseshift Time Lord]

I was actually considering doing an attempt at a Guardian “Live Blog” on the Next Doctor forum by using one post and updating it a lot. It may depend on how much I drink.

[Anonymous @]

@phaseshift – I think that’s an excellent idea, live-blogging Sunday’s show here on this forum.

I’m mindful that we’ll reach a limit soon on the 1000 posts (i.e., 20 pages) per topic maximum, so we might need to set up a new, ‘Part 2’ Next Doctor topic to handle the traffic.

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