Timelord50: 01/10/10

Sunday, 10 January 2010

Doctor Who Track Signs.

I'm not totally sure but this image might be a new track sign for the doctor who film crew.

if you can confirm this be sure to comment and let me know.

Do you trust Richard Curtis and Simon Nye with Doctor Who?

If Steven Moffat's writing choices for his first series in charge of Doctor Who look comedy-heavy, that may not be a bad thing

Martin Clunes, Doctor Who villain? The creator of Men Behaving Badly, Simon Nye, is writing an episode for series five. Photograph: Brendan O'Sullivan/Rex Features

Geronimo, indeed. David Tennant's knackered plimsolls are barely cold – but the BBC have wasted no time in cranking up the hype-o-meter for the shiny new series of Doctor Who. One week after the 10th Doctor's new year regeneration into his 11th incarnation, Matt Smith, there are significant morsels of series five info for Who fans to chew over.

The new issue of Doctor Who magazine announces for the first time the writers creating the 13-episode run due this spring. New showrunner Steven Moffat will unsurprisingly do the majority of the heavy lifting, with six episodes. Law & Order: UK chief Chris Chibnall is doing a two-parter, Toby Whithouse, Gareth Roberts and Mark Gatiss, all veterans of the Russell T Davies years, have one each.

So far, so steady sci-fi ship. But then come the eyebrow-raisers. After he blurted it out last year, it's been confirmed that the Britcom king Richard Curtis will write one alien-filled episode. Plus, in an intriguing move, there's one episode from the creator of Men Behaving Badly, Simon Nye.

Yep, Simon Nye. The man who gave us doddery DIY comedy Hardware and exhumed Reggie Perrin last year for no discernible reason. Will he fill the Tardis with drained cans of ale? Bring knob jokes to Saturday teatime? Cast Martin Clunes as a prosthetics-free alien baddie? Probably not.

Unashamedly mainstream names like Nye and Curtis will no doubt cause plenty of outraged spluttering on fan sites. But could they actually prove to be quite shrewd signings? Curtis loves a syrupy conclusion ("I'm just a Timelord, standing in front of a girl…") but has been somewhat sneeringly recast as Britain's schmaltzmonger in chief in recent years. Let's not forget this man created Blackadder. Plus his story, starring the skilful Scottish character actor Tony Curran as Vincent Van Gogh, sounds exciting.

And Nye might be more readily associated with comedy but so was Coupling creator Steven Moffat before he became Doctor Who's gong-grabbing boogieman. Indeed, Coupling had the same production company, Hartshorn Films, as Men Behaving Badly. In any case, Nye's no drooling oik: he's translated Moliere and Dario Fo for the stage.

Besides, Doctor Who is often at its best when it's zippy and gag-crammed (as the more dreary parts of Tennant's tearjerker finale proved) and the online trailer for series five looks fantastic. So do you think Richard Curtis and Simon Nye are good news for Doctor Who, or are you wondering why there's still no sign of Neil Gaiman or Philip Pullman?

RICHARD CURTIS - "Shortlist" interview reveals plot details From October 2009

Richard Curtis was interviewed by the magazine Shortlist this month and in it he revealed some plot details regarding his episode for the next series of Doctor Who. The writer confirms that the historical character is VAN GOGH and that there's a yellow monster. You can read the issue HERE.