Doctor Who news

[wolfweed @wolfweed]

@Shazzbot – Re: http://www.doctorwhonews.net/2013/08/anniversary-party-190813130017.html
People that want to go & can get to London should apply ASAP.
I myself won’t be able to go as I live in a far distant country called Scotland…

[Anonymous @]

@wolfweed – already applied for 10 tickets.  But cringingly suggested that whatever they can allocate to our mighty forum (yes, I name-checked us in the email) would be gratefully appreciated.

Y’know, the independence vote isn’t until next year, so even if y’all do secede, it’ll be well after November 2013 and I believe transport links will still be viable.  🙂

[Bluesqueakpip @bluesqueakpip]

Well, I’ve just applied for four tickets on the assumption that more than one of us meeting up will want to go – because if it’s anything like as oversubscribed as the Excel Convention, getting tickets is going to be a bit of a lottery.

🙂

 

[Bluesqueakpip @bluesqueakpip]

Drat! I should have namechecked the forum.

 

[wolfweed @wolfweed]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6-OksJQAKQ
5 Questions with… Neil Gaiman

[Anonymous @]

@wolfweed (and @ everyone) – last month on your blog, you name-checked Charlotte Moore and provided a way to contact her.  I said that I’d written a complaint that this 50th anniversary year was, so far, a damp squib:

Well, because my embarrassment threshold appears to have dropped to dangerously low levels over the years, I did indeed send an email to the [presumably fragrant] Ms Moore.  I got an automated out-of-office reply saying she’s incommunicado until Monday 22 July, but with a suggested alternative of Dan McGolpin and which also mentioned her assistant Joanna Morgan.

So, yes, I forwarded my original message to Dan, cc’d to Joanna, and now await any kind of response.

Well … guess what?!  I got a response today from Kate Phillips, Channel Executive BBC1 and BBC3:  “there will be a raft of programmes to celebrate the 50th which will be announced shortly.”

[wolfweed @wolfweed]

@Shazzbot Cool! I wonder if we’ll get another antiques roadshow? Or indeed what else might said raft contain?

[Anonymous @]

@wolfweed – ahhh, Wolfster, I had to edit my comment, because the reply I got from the very cogenial Kate Phillips was actually longer than that, but came with a standard BBC caveat that I could not copy said email contents anywhere.  🙁

Suffice to say, I wasn’t best pleased; because for the BBC to say that ‘early September’ will start the magical proceedings wasn’t actually answering my complaint that so far in this 50th anniversary year, we’ve had bupkiss.  (and not least in comparison to what BBC America and Australia have provided for their loyal viewers)

Said ‘raft’ is probably more like this:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Raft_of_the_Medusa

[janetteB @janetteb]

Given that the Raft of the Medusa was certainly a contributing factor in the demise of the French government of the time that might be a very bad omen indeed @Shazzbot.

The BBC do seem to be taking the stance, (with their heals dug firmly into the ground & hands placed hard on hips) that the anniversary does not begin until November. I suspect it will end in November too.. In one of the clips that have been linked to recently, (I don’t recall which particular one) someone associated with  the BBC (and I also alas don’t recall which particular someone) remarked that the anniversary had not yet begun.

I am certain that it would nto be too difficult to produce a few documentaries on the history of the show and I am certain that they would be “cost effective”.

Cheers

Janette

 

[Anonymous @]

@janetteb –

The BBC do seem to be taking the stance, (with their heals dug firmly into the ground & hands placed hard on hips) that the anniversary does not begin until November. I suspect it will end in November too

You and I are suspecting the exact same thing.  In fact, the reply I got from Kate Phillips (and again, I want to stress how nice she personally seemed) said that they would announce things in early September – not that those ‘things’ would start then.

I may have to go back to @wolfweed‘s blog and vent some more.  🙁   After all, that blog was set up so we wouldn’t clog up the forum topics with grousing about what a non-celebration this 50th year has been.  I did want to announce my reply (5 weeks later) from the BBC to my original request for information, though.

[Nick @nick]

@Shazzbot @janetteb

I don’t think it would be a problem if the anniversary year ran from November 13 to October 14 (although it would be nice to have known before). However, if the anniversary starts in September and ends in November, that’s quite a different thing. Its rather looking like the BBC’s interpretation fits more into the September/November time window though ?

Cheers

Nick

[TardisBlue @tardisblue]

Oh, mighty Topic-Dalek, please lower your 1960’s bathroom plunger …
I wasn’t sure whether to post this in Doctor Who News or the Next Doctor. Or whether to post this at all. So whisk it away if it’s out of place, but please allow me to vent …

Coulda, woulda, shoulda, … now it’s reported that actor Rupert Everett pitched himself for the role of The Doctor, but was not cast. Thanks to Neil Gaiman, we have heard that, according to him, a black actor was offered the role of The Doctor but turned it down. Bill Nighy said he was approached about the role, but turned it down. And I’m waiting for the shoe to drop, or at least the next bit of gossip to alight on some desparate-for-copy-and-eyeballs website.

Am I the only one who’s getting a bit tired of this? Or, am I the only person on this whole planet who was neither approached nor auditioned for the role?

Maybe in a few years time it’ll be fun to develop bonkers theories about an alternative series with Chiwatel Ejoifor or Ron Moody or Rowan Atkinson or Cate Blanchett or Sophiya Haque or Tiny Tim and Twiggy or …

Right now, though, I’d be much happier without an ever-ending parade of Could-Have-Been-Doctors with their armies of Coulda-Woulda-Shoulda-But-Weren’ts. I’m looking forward to seeing what Peter Capaldi brings to the role (and hoping that enough people in the BBC’s primary audience watch the show so it’s not cancelled).

TardisBlue (who is getting off the soap box and returning you to your regular programming)

[Anonymous @]

@tardisblue – I’m not sure that all of the people who have so unclassily talked about Doctor casting were in fact talking about the 12th Doctor – some of the things I read implied that they were referencing past decisions.

[TardisBlue @tardisblue]

@Shazzbot.

Yeah, I know that the latter two I mentioned were likely for the role of the Eleventh Doctor. But still. Capaldi, a lifelong Whovian fanboy, has just been announced as The Twelfth Doctor, and before the ink on the press release is dry (or the digital equivalent thereof), there’s everyone else and his uncle thrusting themselves into the spotlight. (Well, not everyone. I admit Nighy was well-mannered, and none of the names floated after Gaiman’s announcement have added to the cacophony. But still.

Although,

the part of me which does skim through gossip magazines while in line at the supermarket is actually dying to know if Gaiman was asked or encouraged to leak the black actor offer, or if he’s just ensured he’ll never be hired to write another Doctor Who script. Inquiring minds, and all that.

TardisBlue

[wolfweed @wolfweed]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Summer-Falls-Stories/dp/1849907234/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1377006457&sr=8-3&keywords=doctor+who+summer+falls

[Bluesqueakpip @bluesqueakpip]

@tardisblue – I suspect it was intentional; they were probably getting a bit sick of the ‘Why is the Doctor always white?’ articles this time round and wanted to point out that it wasn’t for lack of asking.

And since David Tennant and Matt Smith were roaring successes as the Tenth and Eleventh respectively, well – if they’ve worked out that another actor turned the role of their Doctor down, they can now afford to laugh about it.

🙂

 

[Charlie Cook @cookgroom]

Apologies if someone else has mentioned this but Whovians might like to visit earls court tube station on Google Maps. Street View of the blue box is illuminating 🙂

[Anonymous @]

@cookgroom-Yes, it was on the page just before this one:

http://www.thedoctorwhoforum.com/forums/topic/doctor-who-news/page/18/#post-16042

[Anonymous @]

http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2013/aug/22/doctor-who-rediscovered-william-hartnell-interview

A 1967 TV interview with the actor who played the first Doctor, previously thought lost, has resurfaced.

It will appear on November’s BBC DVD release of The Tenth Planet – Hartnell’s final Doctor Who story.

 

[Anonymous @]

Re @wolfweed‘s posts in the Spoilers thread, here’s a non-spoilery clip from the Frank Skinner interview with Steven Moffat which tickled my funnybone:

Regarding the casting of an older actor being cast as the next Doctor (Peter Capaldi, in case you’d forgotten), Frank Skinner suggested: “I hope it will stop Steven’s temptation to make it all flirty between The Doctor and the companion,” to which Steven Moffat replied sarcastically, “Yeah, ‘cos older blokes – they just don’t ever flirt with girls, do they?”

Now, now, Steven.  Didn’t that attitude get you [allegedly] in trouble once?  😀

[Anonymous @]

This thread has been closed due to nearing its posting limit, and a new Doctor Who News thread has been opened …

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