Watching Doctor Who

The question this week relates to the bad elements of Doctor Who series four. Which was your favorite baddie in series four? As I was making my usual list, which you will find below, I discovered an interesting fact. Humans were at least partially involved in the badness a couple of times in this series, and in one notable case, were the baddies. So, go ahead. Consult the list I’ve compiled for you and tell me which baddie you preferred from series four. (My apologies to the folks in Australia who are still watching the series. This will be spoilery.)

The Bad and the Ugly:
1. Miss Foster (and perhaps the Adipose)
2. The Pyrovile
3. The Humans from Ood Operations
4. Sontarans
5. The Soldiers from The Doctor’s Daughter (And specifically the leader of the Humans)
6. The Vespiform
7. Vashta Nerada
8. The mysterious Shadow that takes over Sky Silvestry
9. The Time Beetle
10. Davros & The Daleks

Once again this year, I’m choosing Steven Moffat’s new baddie. As if it’s not bad enough that he’s already made us afraid of statues and blinking, now he’s given us reason to look suspiciously at dust motes too. I choose the Vashta Nerada as my favorite baddies from series four. The whole concept was dead clever. I’m betting that we encounter them in some form or other in the future. Especially considering that Steven Moffat is soon to take over Head Writer duties.

Which did you choose?

Doctor Who, baddie, Vashta Nerada

The word on the street is that the RSC is not allowing David Tennant to sign any non-RSC merchandise. The same goes for Patrick Stewart, in case you’re curious. So, leave your Sci Fi stuff at home if you are lucky enough to see the production of Hamlet.

BBC News reports that Steven Moffat is promising new friends and monsters when he takes over the show. For the record, it looks like he…er…”takes office” in May.

Doctor Who is up for some awards in the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards UK. It’s up for Favorite Family TV Show. The Daleks are nominated for Favorite Baddie. David Tennant is on the Favorite Male TV Star list. Catherine Tate and Freema Agyeman are both nominated for Favorite Female TV Star. The winners will be announced on 13 September. Keep you fingers crossed!

DVD News:
TVShowsOnDVD.com has the North American release date and the cover art for series four of Doctor Who. It is due to appear on shelves on 18 November 2008. This is good timing for Christmas lists you may note. I can’t wait!

The Infinite Quest, otherwise known as the animated adventure of The Doctor and Martha that appeared on Totally Doctor Who, is coming to DVD in North America on 18 November as well. Yes! I was hoping that it would make its way onto DVD outside of the UK.

David Tennant, Patrick Stewart, Hamlet, Steven Moffat, Doctor Who, The Infinite Quest, Totally Doctor Who

This is the Review Post for Doctor Who 4.3 - Planet of the Ood. Hey! My computer didn’t crash this time! Woo hoo! So, here in the long delayed review.

You can find the Monster Files for this episode here.
The Big Questions for the episode is located here.
If you want to read a transcript of the episode, you may do so here.

(more…)

Planet of the Ood, Review Post, Doctor Who

John and his sister Carole in SoCal for a book signing.

The fabulous TVShowsOnDVD.com is reporting that the US series one Torchwood Blue-ray DVD set release has been pushed back to 11 November. The normal DVD US release of Torchwood series two is still scheduled for 16 September.

I can hear you out there saying, “well that’s good news for Torchwood, but what about The Sarah Jane Adventures?” ha HA! TVShowsOnDVD.com has the answer. The US release of The Sarah Jane Adventures series one on DVD is scheduled for 7 October. As such, I will be putting it on my birthday list now.

Digital Spy is reporting that Chris Chibnall’s next project, the UK version of Law & Order, will star none other than Freema Agyeman. Wow. Shame she’s not keeping busy. Isn’t this the second non-Who show she’s doing?

According to the San Diego Comic-Con Website registration is now closed. So, if you are headed down to the enjoy the Torchwood and Doctor Who fun they have scheduled, I hope that you have already registered. Also, be sure to let me know what you thought when you get back.

Previews for David Tennant’s Hamlet begin on 24 July, which is…today. For those of you that can’t be there to see it, Whatsonstage.com has some rehearsal pics for you.

Torchwood, The Sarah Jane Adventures, Chris Chibnall, Freema Agyeman, Comic-Con, Torchwood, Doctor Who

So…as my computer just crashed while I was working on my review of Planet of the Ood (Ack! Scary Blue Screen of Death!) I thought I would go ahead and post this a wee bit sooner than I had planned. This way you still get a post for today, even if my poor computer freaks out again. (Yes. I am now trying to reach Donna’s typing speed…just in case.)

Recently, a couple of folks who work for the BBC had a most amusing idea. They took David Tennant’s appearance on Top Gear (posted here a while back) and mashed it together with some footage of The Doctor flying the TARDIS. The result was so popular amongst the folks at the BBC that they decided to share it with the world, which included linking it to the BBC Doctor Who website. As you no doubt know by now, that means that there are some folks across the globe who cannot see said video. Unless, of course, you go searching for it on Youtube…like I did. And here it is. Please enjoy, and I’ll try to get that review up soon.

Star in a Reasonably-Priced TARDIS:

David Tennant, Top Gear, Doctor Who

Hello all! This week I have for you not one, not two, but three videos from the Doctor Who series four Planet of the Ood page. How about that? I’ve hidden two of them beneath the cut to make loading this post a bit easier for you all.

First up we have a little video about the making of the Ood. Luckily, they didn’t have to create a whole new creature this time around, but they did have to make a few changes.

Making the Ood:

(more…)

Doctor Who, Planet of the Ood

Noel Clarke at the premiere of his film Adulthood.

(Well, this site is apparently running on its new hardware now. Sorry for the additional downtime. Here is the post I was working on when it went down again.)

Rumour has it that John Barrowman and his partner are thinking about adopting. It seems that they are building a house on the beach in Cardiff, and word is that they wish to have children to share it with. Barrowman has been talking about the possibility of adopting for a while now. I wonder if they are finally going for it.

Apparently, the BBC isn’t planning to animate any more of the missing Doctor Who episodes at this time. Luckily, there are several fan projects out there aiming to do just that. I can’t wait to see what they manage to come up with. Also, I’m hoping that the BBC will be changing their mind about this.

Rumour and Sarah-Jane.tv have it that series two of the Sarah Jane Adventures will appear on televisions in the UK this Autumn. (Yes! I can’t wait.)

Digital Spy has let us know that the series four finale of Doctor Who attracted 10.5 million viewers in the UK. Wow! I wonder what percentage pf the population that is…

And the winners are: The Constellation Awards winners have been announced! David Tennant won “Best Male Performance in a 2007 Science Fiction Television Episode” for Human Nature/Family of Blood. The winner of the award for “Best Female Performance in a 2007 Science Fiction Television Episode” was a certain Carey Mulligan (better known as Sally Sparrow) for Blink. And Doctor Who itself won the award for “Best Science Fiction Television Series of 2007.” Yay for our team!!!

Russell T Davies recently received an honorary fellowship from Cardiff University. Needless to say, he was very excited about this. I would have been, too.

Nowmagazine.co.uk is reporting that Catherine Tate will be taking it all off for her new role in “Under The Blue Sky” in the West End. Apparently, she will be playing a Math teacher named Michelle who is on the randy side. (You might want to think about getting your tickets soon. I’m just saying…)

Noel Clarke, John Barrowman, Doctor Who, Sarah Jane Adventures, Constellation Awards, David Tennant, Russell T Davies, Catherine Tate

This week I went in search of videos as shown on the Official BBC Doctor Who site in conjunction with The Fires of Pompeii. You know, the ones that you can’t see from outside of the UK, and sometimes from within the UK as well. Unfortunately, apart from the two videos that I linked to Monday’s review (The Monster Files and The Big Question) there was only one other video that I could locate on YouTube. On the bright side, that one video is “Making the Pyrovile,” which covers how the baddies for The Fires of Pompeii were created. So, here you are! Enjoy.

Making the Pyrovile:

The Fires of Pompeii, Making the Pyrovile

This is the Review Post for Doctor Who 4.2 - The Fires of Pompeii. James Moran once again lands the episode two spot, just like in this last series of Torchwood. I’m glad that I got the chance to tell him that I liked his work. Anyway, on with the review.

You can find the Monster Files for this episode here.
The Big Questions for the episode is located here.
If you want to read a transcript of the episode, you may do so here.

Have any burning questions? Why not pop past the spoiler barrier and discuss them with me.

(more…)

The Fires of Pompeii, Review Post, Doctor Who

The Official Doctor Who site has been offering videos to go with each episode from the series this year. That’s all well and good, but if you happen to live outside of the UK, or in some cases inside of the UK as well, you probably haven’t seen these videos. I will be linking some of them to each full episode review, specifically the Monster Files and the Big Questions, but there are generally more videos than that for each episode. They even have the episode available to re-watch for a while. Currently listed under Partners in Crime the official site offers twenty different videos. That’s a fair few, isn’t it? So, I’ve managed to hunt a couple of them down over on the ever popular Youtube so that the folks who have missing out can see them. Enjoy!

Making the Adipose:

(more…)

Doctor Who, Adipose

This is the Review Post for Doctor Who 4.1 - Partners in Crime. At this point, everyone in the US, UK, and Australia (I suppose also in Canada. Does anyone out there have the Canadian info?) have seen this episode. About time for a proper review, then, isn’t it?

You can find the Monster Files for this episode here.
The Big Questions for the episode is located here.
If you want to read a transcript of the episode, you may do so here.

Venture past the spoiler barrier. You know you want to.

(more…)

Partners in Crime, Review Post, Doctor Who

The is the Reaction Post for the final episode of Doctor Who series four - Journey’s End. Before I finish this write up, I’ll probably have to go watch it again. This may explain why this post was a bit delayed. Before you ask, though, I loved this episode. And I did cry.

Now, for my very scattered views on this episode come on past the spoiler barrier.

(more…)

Reaction Post, Doctor Who, Journey’s End

Picture from the filming of the 2008 Christmas Special

I’m slowly making my way through a bunch of news feeds that I neglected while this blog was down. So, you’ll be seeing a few of these news posts this week. Please bear with me as I try to get us all back up to speed.

And now the news…
Did you know that there was a UFO recently seen in Cardiff? I’m not really all that surprised. I wonder if they have a department to deal with such things. Does anyone know what is really under that water tower?

Current “next Doctor” rumours would have you believe that Robert Carlyle is next in line for the role. Bookmakers are even offering really good odds on this. Sigh. I wish that they’d leave off for a bit. I’m getting pretty tired of all of these rumours.

Speaking of rumours, it is also rumoured that Supermodel Agyness Deyn is being courted to be in a future Doctor Who Christmas Special. Apparently, this would be her first acting job. I’m thinking that this one will turn out to be false. What about you all?

Noel Clarke, better known to Whovians as Mickey Smith, has recently released a film that he wrote, directed, and stars in. Adulthood is the sequel to his film Kidulthood and contains a similar gritty, modern feel. Best of luck with the new film, Noel.

According to Digital Spy, Billie Piper’s Secret Diary of a Call Girl set a ratings record for its USA Showtime premiere. It received the best numbers yet for a new series opener. This might explain all of the ads on Buses and such that Erik has been seeing down in Los Angeles.

Robert Carlyle, Doctor Who, Noel Clarke, Adulthood, Billie Piper

Okay. At this point this is where we all stand in the series:

Australia: The folks in Oz have finally seen Voyage of the Damned. Partners in Crime will appear on Sunday 6 July.

USA: series four, episode 10: Midnight will not make it to US screens until 11 July for some reason. I mean, another TV channel is celebrating independence day with Harry Potter. I don’t see why the Sci Fi Channel couldn’t celebrate with Doctor Who instead of the Twilight Zone. I’m just sayin’…

UK: The final episode of series four (Journey’s End) taunts us all from Saturday. Remember that it will have a special running length of sixty-five minutes. There was no next week preview at the end of The Stolen Earth, but a preview was posted on the official site. As per usual, that preview has now made its way to Youtube, so I am including it here. By its very nature it is extremely spoilery. Watch at your own risk. Oh. But before you ask, no. It doesn’t answer that question. We’ll all just have to wait together to find out how that particular event turns out.

The Trailer for Journey’s End (Doctor Who 4.13):

Journey’s End, Doctor Who

Christopher Eccleston, who has already finished filming his part in the G. I. Joe movie, is now reported to be filming a part in Amelia. Eccleston will be playing Earhart’s navigator Fred Noonan. He’s quite the busy fellow, isn’t he? Sigh. It just means that I have more films to go see. I wonder when the G. I. Joe trailer comes out.

On a show called 50 Ways to Leave Your TV Lover, which contained a countdown of the the small screen’s most memorable splits. It turns out that Rose and The Doctor’s separation at the end of Doomsday came in at Number One! Yay for our show. You can see just that part of the show here.

Russell T Davies has been honored with an OBE for services to Drama! (The Late Verity Lambert received an OBE in 2002.)

Did you know that William Hartnell has recently appeared on a stamp? I wonder if the TARDIS has ever been on a stamp. They should do a whole Doctor Who series of stamps! They’d sell like hotcakes. Are you listening Auntie Beeb?

It looks like Gareth David-Lloyd is going to give Hollywood a try. Don’t worry, though. He maintains that it won’t affect his work on Torchwood. Let’s hope that turns out to be the case.

And finally, for a very spoilery look at a baddie from the end of this series you might go here (information) or here (pictures). …But don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Christopher Eccleston, G. I. Joe, Amelia, Russell T Davies, William Hartnell, Gareth David-Lloyd