Awards Success

There was success for Doctor Who at the Royal Television Society's Craft & Design Awards 2009/2010, presented on 24 November at The Savoy, London.

The Mill triumphed in the 'Effects - Digital' category, winning the award for their work on The Pandorica Opens. Discussing the award, the RTS explained, "The judges were impressed by some beautifully integrated effects and by green screen. 'This is about as good as it gets on TV' they said."

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Dr who A Cristmas carol lenth

A Cristmas carol is going to be 1 hour long it is confirmed in Tv and satellite 

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SPACE confirm air date for A Christmas Carol

The Canadian SPACE channel have confirmed via their Twitter page that A Christmas Carol will broadcast on 26 December at 9pm Eastern Time.

SPACE are only the second channel to have a confirmed air date for the Christmas special. BBC America announced last week that it will be showing the episode just hours after the UK broadcast, which is still to be announced. Also yet to have a confirmed broadcast time is Australia's ABC but they have already announced a broadcast date of Boxing Day.

SPACE will also be broadcasting a Doctor Who Christmas Specials Marathon as part of their 12 Days of SPACE-MAS, beginning at 3am ET on 25 December with The Christmas Invasion.

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michael-moorcock-interview-dr-who-the-coming-of-the-terraphiles

The Doctor as a character has a lot in common with some of your characters: he's something of a dandy; he's something of an anarchist while also being a bit of an authority figure… you can stretch it to say he's an exile from a decadent empire…

MM: Yeah, well, also… I mean, it's purely coincidental, but both Jerry Cornelius and Dr Who can regenerate. In Cornelius' case of course he can change sex; he's more like Captain Jack than Dr Who in that sense.

I think it would be good to have a female Dr Who at some point.

MM: Yeah, I thought they might have one this time. I think Karen Gillan, who plays Amy Pond, would've made a good Dr Who, so it's a shame she didn't get the job. It could've been the other way around, you know.

I've not had a chance to read The Coming of the Terraphiles yet, but I know that in your previous books you've used time travel a lot, you've explored the nature of time and identity; have you used the book to explore those ideas further, or have you just had fun with it?

MM: A bit. And I've had fun with it. But in a way it enabled me to reclaim stuff that had filtered into Dr Who from stuff that I'd originally done. That happens when you're my age and working in popular fiction; it spreads through the genre. But some of the stuff, I felt that it was like a tool that I'd invented for a specific purpose, which gets into a genre and then gets, in my view, wasted. Like the whole multiverse thing. It's fine, but when it goes into DC comics and becomes an excuse to explain why Superman is in two places at the same time or whatever, that's when it gets a bit irritating. But I actually did the same thing with DC in that they asked me to do a bible, a sort of cosmology, so I basically did the same thing that I did with Dr Who: I thought okay, you pinched it from me, now I'll take it back, and make it coherent at least - or as far as I can do. It's not something that keeps me awake at night or anything, but it's just a good chance to deal with it.

But Dr Who is a comedy; it's predominantly comedy, but with a big idea, and that's what I like about Dr Who. When it's at its best it seems to have both those angles. So what I wanted to do is... I'm a great PG Wodehouse fan, I was reading PG Wodehouse since I was a kid, and I wanted to do a space opera in the manner of PG Wodehouse. So far, people who've read it seem to have found it funny, and that's all you ask for.

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Q+A with Danny (Clyde) and Anji (Rani)

To cap off Series Four, Danny (Clyde) and Anjli (Rani) came in to answer your questions and comments.

On the 18th November, Danny and Anjli joined us to answer your questions and take on your challenges in a live web chat. If you missed it, check it out.

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Q+A with Danny (Clyde) and Anji (Rani)

To cap off Series Four, Danny (Clyde) and Anjli (Rani) came in to answer your questions and comments.

On the 18th November, Danny and Anjli joined us to answer your questions and take on your challenges in a live web chat. If you missed it, check it out.

Watch it Here

Q+A with Danny (Clyde) and Anji (Rani)

To cap off Series Four, Danny (Clyde) and Anjli (Rani) came in to answer your questions and comments.

On the 18th November, Danny and Anjli joined us to answer your questions and take on your challenges in a live web chat. If you missed it, check it out.

Watch it Here

Q+A with Danny (Clyde) and Anji (Rani)

To cap off Series Four, Danny (Clyde) and Anjli (Rani) came in to answer your questions and comments.

On the 18th November, Danny and Anjli joined us to answer your questions and take on your challenges in a live web chat. If you missed it, check it out.

Watch it Here

Philip Murphy interview: The Doctor Who Experience, Doctor Who Live, and the 50th anniversary

The BBC has just opened ticket sales for its latest Doctor Who event, The Doctor Who Experience, which will be running at London’s Olympia Two from February next year. We got a chance to ask the head of BBC Live Entertainment, Philip Murphy, just what it’s all about…

Can we start with something a bit basic? What is it exactly that you do?

Basically, the Live Entertainment business unit is part of BBC Worldwide, and what we do is put on shows, whether they’re touring shows or one offs. Plus there’s exhibitions, events, attractions, and we do that in relation to a variety of properties owned by the BBC itself. So BBC Worldwide is the commercial arm of the BBC, and we exploit properties to generate profits for the BBC, which we pay back, because the BBC owns all of our shares.

And yeah, we sell the DVDs, we organise live events. We’ve done Doctor Who: The Arena Tour, Doctor Who: The Experience, which we’re talking about today, Top Gear Live, Strictly Come Dancing, Planet Earth concerts.

We’ve got lots of things in the pipeline, all based around giving people the chance to interact in some way in a live moment. And hopefully generate some really exciting memories to do with that property, which they don’t get from watching the TV.



Clearly, Doctor Who has moved firmly onto your radar in the last 12 to 18 months, with the arena tour and the exhibition. I’m assuming from what you’re saying that the interactivity is the key for you?

It’s the thing that most excites us about live events. With TV and radio, you obviously broadcast the stuff out. With digital mediums, you have the opportunity to have people come back to you. And live is just the same.

TV entertainment is changing, the way people consume the products that the BBC is making is changing. One of the things that I’m really excited about, in relation to live events, is creating the opportunity for two-way stuff between the audience and the programme makers.

The Doctor Who Experience, and I know it sounds like marketing who-ha, is a real demonstration of that. The reason for it is fan generated.

When we asked people what they wanted to get from Doctor Who, the number one answer was people wanted to go inside the Tardis. So that’s how we built the immersive adventure part of the Experience from the ground up, to deliver that.

So what we said is it’s not good enough to just have people step inside the Tardis and move on, it’s got to do something. It’s got to be the Tardis. You need to fly it, it needs to take you somewhere. That leads you to the immersive experience part.



I’ve been to a few Doctor Who exhibitions over the years, but my concern with the Experience, with flying the Tardis, is that it’s the kind of thing that sounds, when you get there, there’s a massive queue and you can get nowhere near it, because it’s the centrepoint of the event. What kind of things are you doing to manage the demand, to give everyone a fair crack at it?

It’s a time entry experience, so there’s a limited number of people per hour who can go in. We sell tickets on that basis. If you turn up, you can queue for tickets if there are any available on that date. But there’s no question of you not being able to get inside the Tardis.

We came up with [the story] to enable you to do something with the Tardis, that we then developed with Steven Moffat, who then wrote the script for Matt Smith’s scenes within the adventure.

The general plot, I won’t give it all away, is that the Doctor has been trapped and separated from the Tardis. And he’s got a plan to make sure it’d all be alright, because he saw it coming. But he needs you to fly the Tardis, and Amy Pond is not around. It runs from there.

It wouldn’t be any use if you couldn’t get in there and touch the Tardis.

There's not going to be people preventing you from getting to it. Obviously there will be a lot of people coming through the day, but it is a timed entry thing. Our expectation is that you’ll spend around half an hour in the immersive experience, and then around an hour in the exhibition afterwards. But that’s down to your personal choice, obviously.



It is a two-tier event. How big is the exhibition at the other end of it, which is presumably what’s bringing the legacy Doctor Who stuff in?

What we’ve tried to do really hard is to do stuff that’s fresh and relevant to the current Doctor, and the current production in Cardiff, to cater to the TV viewing audience.

But also we want to cater to fans and uber-fans as well, so the exhibition part is much bigger than anything that’s been done before. Having actual Tardis sets in it, for instance. So the David Tennant set, that was blown up at the end of The End Of Time, has been rebuilt, and it’s right there. We’ve also got the Peter Davison Tardis set. Loads of props. We are also displaying stuff that people will have seen at previous exhibitions, all of which have been much, much smaller than this.

We’re running about 4000 square metres for this thing, which is getting on towards the size of a football pitch. Nothing like this has been done before.

Is the longer term plan to take this around the country, once it’s completed its run in London?

The current plan is that we will move it to Cardiff in 2012, and it’ll have a permanent home there. And when I say permanent, you’ll measure it in years and not months.

The attraction of Cardiff, obviously, is that it’s where the series is filmed, and it gives us access to new props, to cast and crew, and for events. It’s also something that Cardiff as a tourist destination is very excited about, having this connection with Doctor Who.

I’m not anticipating touring it elsewhere. But once we’ve opened our doors and launched this, we’ll be looking at what we do with Doctor Who next.



You’ve mentioned that Matt Smith and Steven Moffat have been involved in the Doctor Who Experience. Is there any involvement from anyone else in Doctor Who past or present?

In relation to the Experience, the existing Cardiff production team were all involved in it, because we had to get it all right. We had to build an exact replica of the Matt Smith Tardis, and lots of people on the technical side have got involved with it.

There aren’t other companions, or actors from the series, involved in that side of it, no.

Can I go back to the arena tour that you ran earlier in the year, and it’s a question of value for money I want to put to you. Because there was some dissatisfaction that even kids were being changed over £40 apiece in some instances to go along to that. And there’s been middling feedback from it.

What do you say to people who do question the price of these events? Because in my view, personally, for all the merits of the arena tour, I don’t think it managed to offer full value for the price that was being charged.

Well, I’m not sure I agree with all of those comments about the arena tour. I haven’t had lots of complaints about pricing. In fact, what I have had is lots of very, very positive comments and compliments from families, because I’d say we created a really great piece of family entertainment, that the families who went to it loved.

Leaving that point aside, there is a big difference between the ticket pricing of the arena show, which as you say is very expensive, with lasers and flying Daleks. You can’t put that on on the cheap.

The costs [for the Experience] are on a different scale, and our ticket prices are on a different scale. Family tickets start at £42 for a family of four for the Doctor Who Experience. It is a very different scale of cost.

I challenge you to go to an arena show, though, and not pay [that amount]. I think the arena pricing was very competitive, and I think that the arena tour, and I think it’s competitive against other attractions on similar budgets.



I suppose I can only relate my point of view here, where I paid nearly £150 to take three of us along, and we walked out wondering if we’d really had £150 of entertainment for that money? But then you must have had an abundance of differing feedback.

We’ve had almost entirely positive feedback, genuinely. With people taking their families to a Doctor Who show, and what a great way it was to experience that. The music, and the excitement, and being in that room with something that a lot of people loved.

Finally, Doctor Who is very much in your crosshairs for the Live element of BBC Worldwide. The Experience is the second big event in two years. What do you have planned next?

Well, it’s fair to say that we have designs on doing more stuff with Doctor Who in the future. But what we don’t want to be doing is hitting Doctor Who fans over the head 18 times a week. We do very much want to develop what we did in live entertainment outside of the UK. A lot of the things we do with Walking With Dinosaurs, for instance, have worked well internationally. We haven’t done much with Doctor Who outside of the UK, and we do have strong audiences there, so we do want to look at that.

And I think we’ve got some good ideas as to what we can do with Doctor Who over the next couple of years. I can’t give anything away about that, but obviously we are coming up to the 50th anniversary, so we’ll need to do something special for that.

So a 50th anniversary event is somewhere in the thinking?

Well, we’ll be doing some more Doctor Who stuff in 2013, but I can’t say any more than that!

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Nev Fountain and Nicola Bryant signing The Mervyn Stone Mysteries

Nev Fountain and Nicola Bryant will be signing The Mervyn Stone Mysteries at the Forbidden Planet Megastore, 179 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, WC2H 8JR, on Thursday 25th November 6 – 7pm

From Big Finish, these are a mix of comic detective fiction and cheesy old TV sci-fi. Described by David Tennant as ‘Fiendish and funny, Columbo meets Blake's 7 with gags – and sex!’, they open out the world of Mervyn Stone, former script editor of Vixens from the Void, a science fiction TV show from the 1980s. Mervyn now spends his time going to conventions, doing DVD commentaries... and solving murders. A gloriously funny satire on the idiocies of television, Mervyn’s script editor just won’t switch off. He just keeps spotting plot-holes and discovering whodunnit.

Nev Fountain is a multi-award winning writer, who has worked mainly in radio and television. He was a principal writer on the award-winning Dead Ringers, and has contributed to shows including Have I Got News For You, The Impressions Show, 2DTV, The News Quiz, Loose Ends and his own radio sitcom Elephants to Catch Eels.

Best known for the part of Peri Brown in Doctor Who, Nicola has had a long and varied acting career. A television and stage performer, Nicola has appeared in numerous West End productions – as well as in the hit series Holby City.

*You may bring your own products to be signed by Nicola, but please note that, depending on the size of the queue, there may be restrictions on the numbers of those items. Thank you.

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Nev Fountain and Nicola Bryant signing The Mervyn Stone Mysteries

Nev Fountain and Nicola Bryant will be signing The Mervyn Stone Mysteries at the Forbidden Planet Megastore, 179 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, WC2H 8JR, on Thursday 25th November 6 – 7pm

From Big Finish, these are a mix of comic detective fiction and cheesy old TV sci-fi. Described by David Tennant as ‘Fiendish and funny, Columbo meets Blake's 7 with gags – and sex!’, they open out the world of Mervyn Stone, former script editor of Vixens from the Void, a science fiction TV show from the 1980s. Mervyn now spends his time going to conventions, doing DVD commentaries... and solving murders. A gloriously funny satire on the idiocies of television, Mervyn’s script editor just won’t switch off. He just keeps spotting plot-holes and discovering whodunnit.

Nev Fountain is a multi-award winning writer, who has worked mainly in radio and television. He was a principal writer on the award-winning Dead Ringers, and has contributed to shows including Have I Got News For You, The Impressions Show, 2DTV, The News Quiz, Loose Ends and his own radio sitcom Elephants to Catch Eels.

Best known for the part of Peri Brown in Doctor Who, Nicola has had a long and varied acting career. A television and stage performer, Nicola has appeared in numerous West End productions – as well as in the hit series Holby City.

*You may bring your own products to be signed by Nicola, but please note that, depending on the size of the queue, there may be restrictions on the numbers of those items. Thank you.

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Nev Fountain and Nicola Bryant signing The Mervyn Stone Mysteries

Nev Fountain and Nicola Bryant will be signing The Mervyn Stone Mysteries at the Forbidden Planet Megastore, 179 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, WC2H 8JR, on Thursday 25th November 6 – 7pm

From Big Finish, these are a mix of comic detective fiction and cheesy old TV sci-fi. Described by David Tennant as ‘Fiendish and funny, Columbo meets Blake's 7 with gags – and sex!’, they open out the world of Mervyn Stone, former script editor of Vixens from the Void, a science fiction TV show from the 1980s. Mervyn now spends his time going to conventions, doing DVD commentaries... and solving murders. A gloriously funny satire on the idiocies of television, Mervyn’s script editor just won’t switch off. He just keeps spotting plot-holes and discovering whodunnit.

Nev Fountain is a multi-award winning writer, who has worked mainly in radio and television. He was a principal writer on the award-winning Dead Ringers, and has contributed to shows including Have I Got News For You, The Impressions Show, 2DTV, The News Quiz, Loose Ends and his own radio sitcom Elephants to Catch Eels.

Best known for the part of Peri Brown in Doctor Who, Nicola has had a long and varied acting career. A television and stage performer, Nicola has appeared in numerous West End productions – as well as in the hit series Holby City.

*You may bring your own products to be signed by Nicola, but please note that, depending on the size of the queue, there may be restrictions on the numbers of those items. Thank you.

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Nev Fountain and Nicola Bryant signing The Mervyn Stone Mysteries

Nev Fountain and Nicola Bryant will be signing The Mervyn Stone Mysteries at the Forbidden Planet Megastore, 179 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, WC2H 8JR, on Thursday 25th November 6 – 7pm

From Big Finish, these are a mix of comic detective fiction and cheesy old TV sci-fi. Described by David Tennant as ‘Fiendish and funny, Columbo meets Blake's 7 with gags – and sex!’, they open out the world of Mervyn Stone, former script editor of Vixens from the Void, a science fiction TV show from the 1980s. Mervyn now spends his time going to conventions, doing DVD commentaries... and solving murders. A gloriously funny satire on the idiocies of television, Mervyn’s script editor just won’t switch off. He just keeps spotting plot-holes and discovering whodunnit.

Nev Fountain is a multi-award winning writer, who has worked mainly in radio and television. He was a principal writer on the award-winning Dead Ringers, and has contributed to shows including Have I Got News For You, The Impressions Show, 2DTV, The News Quiz, Loose Ends and his own radio sitcom Elephants to Catch Eels.

Best known for the part of Peri Brown in Doctor Who, Nicola has had a long and varied acting career. A television and stage performer, Nicola has appeared in numerous West End productions – as well as in the hit series Holby City.

*You may bring your own products to be signed by Nicola, but please note that, depending on the size of the queue, there may be restrictions on the numbers of those items. Thank you.

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Cybermen Storm London

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Cybermen Storm London

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Cybermen Storm London

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Cybermen Storm London

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A Verity Lambert Biopic

A short film about Verity Lambert and her struggle to get Doctor Who made will broadcast online in early December.

The film is written by two film students from the University of Central Lancaster. Thomas Cowell and Joey Guy have produced the ten minute biopic which will focus on the key stage of production for the very first episodes of Doctor Who between August and December 1963. More details about the production of this film can be found here.

London, 1963. Verity Lambert, the woman in charge of the BBC's new children's show, is facing somewhat of a struggle. Not only has she got to make a TV show with the entire scope of time and space (on a small budget), but she also has to face bitchy co-workers and arrogant male peers.

"Verity" shows how she fought for the Daleks right to exist on TV, battled against jealous co-workers and ended up triumphant with a national success on her hands. It will be broadcast on YouTube in early December.

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Watch Online–DW–S1–World War 3

November Podcast 3 - Bumper Edition! - 24 November 2010

The third November 2010 podcast from Big Finish comes to you in a bumper package.

'Think of it as an early Xmas present!' says Nick Briggs. As well as the usual line-up joining Nick (David Richardson, Paul Spragg and special Head of Cartoons guest Alex Mallinson), the main podcast is followed by a special, extra podcast featuring Katy Manning (aka Jo Grant, companion of the third Doctor).

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November Podcast 3 - Bumper Edition! - 24 November 2010

The third November 2010 podcast from Big Finish comes to you in a bumper package.

'Think of it as an early Xmas present!' says Nick Briggs. As well as the usual line-up joining Nick (David Richardson, Paul Spragg and special Head of Cartoons guest Alex Mallinson), the main podcast is followed by a special, extra podcast featuring Katy Manning (aka Jo Grant, companion of the third Doctor).

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November Podcast 3 - Bumper Edition! - 24 November 2010

The third November 2010 podcast from Big Finish comes to you in a bumper package.

'Think of it as an early Xmas present!' says Nick Briggs. As well as the usual line-up joining Nick (David Richardson, Paul Spragg and special Head of Cartoons guest Alex Mallinson), the main podcast is followed by a special, extra podcast featuring Katy Manning (aka Jo Grant, companion of the third Doctor).

Source

November Podcast 3 - Bumper Edition! - 24 November 2010

The third November 2010 podcast from Big Finish comes to you in a bumper package.

'Think of it as an early Xmas present!' says Nick Briggs. As well as the usual line-up joining Nick (David Richardson, Paul Spragg and special Head of Cartoons guest Alex Mallinson), the main podcast is followed by a special, extra podcast featuring Katy Manning (aka Jo Grant, companion of the third Doctor).

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Dr who tenth doctor quotes The Poison Sky

Colonel Mace: Latest firing stock. What do you think, Doctor?
Doctor:Are you my mummy?
Colonel Mace:If you could concentrate...
Staal: The planet is going nuclear! I admire them; the bravery of idiots is bravery nonetheless!
Staal: You impugn my honour, sir.
Doctor: Yeah, I'm really glad you didn't say belittle, 'cos then I'd have had a field day.
The Sontarans: Sontar-ha! Sontar-ha! Sontar-ha! 
Luke: Sontar, ha! 

Cowboys & Aliens, 1966 Style

The Doctor ( William Hartnell) in desperate need of a dentist to cure an aching tooth, arrives in Tombstone, Arizona in October 1881 with his companions Steven Taylor (Peter Purves) and Dodo Chaplet (Jackie Lane) and soon encounters Wyatt Earp who offers them protection. The Doctor finds a dentist, none other than Doc Holliday. Meanwhile Steven and Dodo dressed as cowboys arrive at a local hotel to book rooms and encounter the Clantons who mock their appearance. Steven and Dodo book 3 rooms which arouses the Clanton’s suspicion. The pair explain the other room is for The Doctor causing the Clantons to suspect that The Doctor is Doc Holliday himself.

After his tooth is removed The Doctor heads to the hotel and a possible trap with the Clantons believing he is Doc Holliday. Holliday hides in the hotel, firing his guns and soon a fracas ensuses, but just in time Wyatt Earp arrives at the hotel with Bat Masterson and and breaks up the fracas, taking The Doctor into custody for his own protection.

Steven meanwhile arrives at the jail to offer The Doctor a gun to defend himself but The Doctor refuses to be armed. A mob arrives fired up by the Clantons who are intent on lynching Steven as an associate of Doc Holliday. Earp and Masterson advise The Doctor and Steven to get out of town as soon as possible. They then go looking for Dodo, only to encounter Johnny Ringo who takes Steven to the Clantons ranch.

The situation becomes worse and it soon appears that despite efforts by The Doctor to defuse the situation a showdown will soon be happening at the OK Corral. After the gunfight at the Corral, The Doctor, Steven and Dodo leave Tombstone in the Tardis.

These episodes in Black and White and titled The Gunfighter series, were shown in 4 parts beginning 30 April 1966. A Holiday for the Doctor, Don’t Shoot the Pianist, Johnny Ringo and The OK Corral.

Watch the Trailer for the above story