People Roundup (current series)
Thursday, 20 September 2012 - Reported by Chuck Foster
The following round-up includes interview discussion of the current series which may be considered spoilers for upcoming episodes.
Matt Smith is a guest on Alan Carr: Chatty Man this coming Friday on Channel 4, 10:00pm. The show was recorded on Tuesday, during which the actor commented about his lack of interest in the Internet, daytime television and insomnia. A woman taking on the role inevitably cropped up too, with host Carr commenting: "I'd like to see Julie Goodyear as The Doctor. After all, she has been around for 900 years like he has." [Daily Star, The Sun, 20 Sep 2012]
Speaking of Internet technology, Steven Moffat has abandoned Twitter for the time being. His wife Sue Vertue commented: "For all asking he is well and currently having a family lunch but he's got a huge amount on and twitter was proving a distraction." [Twitter, 9 Sep 2012]
Ashley Walters has revealed that he got into trouble with the show's producers on his first day of filming for episode 11: "I wasn't even allowed to tweet pictures or anything, I was really upset about that. I did tweet one picture in my trailer and I got in huge trouble with the producers on my first day so I'm not saying anything any more about it. But it was amazing working with Matt Smith for a few weeks." [What's On TV, 19 Sep 2012]
Lora Munro, creative director at The Theatre Workshop, commented on young actress Daniella Eames and her casting in Doctor Who alongside Matt, Karen and Arthur: "Daniella is a gifted actress who really loves to perform. This is a great opportunity for her and we are all really excited Daniella will be gracing our television screens very soon." [Portsmouth News, 13 Sep 2012]
Business tycoon Alan Sugar is to have a cameo in this weekend's The Power of Three, with a 'reality' segment based around the popular show The Apprentice. An insider said: "Getting someone like Lord Sugar on the show was a real coup for us. He is a big fan and thought it was a giggle to film a clip from The Apprentice for it." [The Star, 13 Sep 2012]
Toby Whithouse talked about the origins of A Town Called Mercy: "It was Steven's idea – he said he wanted to do a Wild West episode because this year, certainly for the first half of the series, it's these big kind of movie marquee ideas. The pitch he gave was just, "There's a town that is being terrorised by some kind of robot." I thought about what it was in the town that the robot wants. What if it’s a person? Then the idea kind of fell out from there." [SFX, 10 Sep 2012]
Meanwhile, Chris Chibnall talks about what makes The Power of Three a little different to the normal narrative: "It’s Doctor Who from Amy and Rory's point of view. We're in the last days of the Ponds as everybody keeps saying, and it was really a chance to see where they've got to in their lives since The Eleventh Hour, and to see what it’s like to be them. And I think what’s interesting is that the companion/Doctor relationship in this series is very different to any we’ve seen before because really, they're part-time travellers. They’re living at home, and the Doctor pops in and goes, "Shall we go somewhere?", and they're off. That's very new, because they're not permanently with him, and I wanted to see what that would mean. I think it's very different to pretty much any other episode of Doctor Who ever, which is both wonderful and terrifying." [SFX, 16 Sep 2012]
Matt Smith seems to be angling for another continental filming experience "I think New Zealand would be an absolutely wonderful place to film Doctor Who... there's clearly a great film industry out there. It’s something I would be very interested in it’s just whether we can persuade the producers to fly us all over." With the country home to The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, he also said: "Hey, let's get Peter Jackson to direct one and go and make it in New Zealand. I would love to, I will campaign endlessly to come over and film there." ... to which the director responded: "Do it mate, do it. Come on.. I'm a huge Doctor Who fan, and I think Matt’s fantastic. Just name a time and place, and I'll be there!" [Waikato Times, 19 Sep 2012]
The cause has been taken up by Australian-based writer Neil Cross (whose second script for the 2013 half of the new series is about to go into production): "It would be awesome to see the Tardis materialise here - I suspect Steven and I will have a long conversation about this, one way or another. We will drink gin and talk a lot about bringing Doctor Who to New Zealand. Matt Smith and I just talked about what an amazing place New Zealand is and said it was amazing how this country did not have the biggest film industry in the world. He is such an extra-ordinary human being. I am not actually convinced that he's not actually the Doctor." [Waikato Times, 21 Sep 2012]
Smith has also been hinting at plans for next year: "Steven Moffat was pitching the 50th anniversary at the end of this series and what everything was going to be about and it was a very exciting meal. No doubt he’ll come up with something brilliant because that’s the sort of man he is... I hope that we mark it in the best way possible and we honour the people that have been in the show before us and we make it as grand and brilliant and inventive and as much an occasion as possible. What that is, I may have an idea, but I can’t tell you I'm afraid." [Waikato Times, 19 Sep 2012]
Back to the current series, and he commented on events in the finale of the current run of adventures, The Angels Take Manhattan: "I love the Weeping Angels and I loved filming in New York - the city added scale to the whole episode, which is just brilliant for Doctor Who. It was great to have River back, and to use filmic locations like Central Park and Times Square. It is a fitting ending for the Ponds, especially as the Weeping Angels are a Moffat creation." Steven Moffat himself added: "It is a heart-breaking farewell to Amy and Rory. We see the Doctor and his little Amelia Pond race through the streets of Manhattan to save Rory with help along the way as River Song charges back on to our screens, just in time to say goodbye. All stories have to end, and painful though that is, the most important thing about a story is how it finishes. I had over a year’s warning to get this sorted out, and I’m very proud of what we’ve done. A fitting end to the mighty era of the Ponds!" [BBC Press, 16 Sep 2012]
Matt Smith is a guest on Alan Carr: Chatty Man this coming Friday on Channel 4, 10:00pm. The show was recorded on Tuesday, during which the actor commented about his lack of interest in the Internet, daytime television and insomnia. A woman taking on the role inevitably cropped up too, with host Carr commenting: "I'd like to see Julie Goodyear as The Doctor. After all, she has been around for 900 years like he has." [Daily Star, The Sun, 20 Sep 2012]Speaking of Internet technology, Steven Moffat has abandoned Twitter for the time being. His wife Sue Vertue commented: "For all asking he is well and currently having a family lunch but he's got a huge amount on and twitter was proving a distraction." [Twitter, 9 Sep 2012]
Ashley Walters has revealed that he got into trouble with the show's producers on his first day of filming for episode 11: "I wasn't even allowed to tweet pictures or anything, I was really upset about that. I did tweet one picture in my trailer and I got in huge trouble with the producers on my first day so I'm not saying anything any more about it. But it was amazing working with Matt Smith for a few weeks." [What's On TV, 19 Sep 2012]
Lora Munro, creative director at The Theatre Workshop, commented on young actress Daniella Eames and her casting in Doctor Who alongside Matt, Karen and Arthur: "Daniella is a gifted actress who really loves to perform. This is a great opportunity for her and we are all really excited Daniella will be gracing our television screens very soon." [Portsmouth News, 13 Sep 2012]
Business tycoon Alan Sugar is to have a cameo in this weekend's The Power of Three, with a 'reality' segment based around the popular show The Apprentice. An insider said: "Getting someone like Lord Sugar on the show was a real coup for us. He is a big fan and thought it was a giggle to film a clip from The Apprentice for it." [The Star, 13 Sep 2012]
Toby Whithouse talked about the origins of A Town Called Mercy: "It was Steven's idea – he said he wanted to do a Wild West episode because this year, certainly for the first half of the series, it's these big kind of movie marquee ideas. The pitch he gave was just, "There's a town that is being terrorised by some kind of robot." I thought about what it was in the town that the robot wants. What if it’s a person? Then the idea kind of fell out from there." [SFX, 10 Sep 2012]
Meanwhile, Chris Chibnall talks about what makes The Power of Three a little different to the normal narrative: "It’s Doctor Who from Amy and Rory's point of view. We're in the last days of the Ponds as everybody keeps saying, and it was really a chance to see where they've got to in their lives since The Eleventh Hour, and to see what it’s like to be them. And I think what’s interesting is that the companion/Doctor relationship in this series is very different to any we’ve seen before because really, they're part-time travellers. They’re living at home, and the Doctor pops in and goes, "Shall we go somewhere?", and they're off. That's very new, because they're not permanently with him, and I wanted to see what that would mean. I think it's very different to pretty much any other episode of Doctor Who ever, which is both wonderful and terrifying." [SFX, 16 Sep 2012]
Matt Smith seems to be angling for another continental filming experience "I think New Zealand would be an absolutely wonderful place to film Doctor Who... there's clearly a great film industry out there. It’s something I would be very interested in it’s just whether we can persuade the producers to fly us all over." With the country home to The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, he also said: "Hey, let's get Peter Jackson to direct one and go and make it in New Zealand. I would love to, I will campaign endlessly to come over and film there." ... to which the director responded: "Do it mate, do it. Come on.. I'm a huge Doctor Who fan, and I think Matt’s fantastic. Just name a time and place, and I'll be there!" [Waikato Times, 19 Sep 2012]
The cause has been taken up by Australian-based writer Neil Cross (whose second script for the 2013 half of the new series is about to go into production): "It would be awesome to see the Tardis materialise here - I suspect Steven and I will have a long conversation about this, one way or another. We will drink gin and talk a lot about bringing Doctor Who to New Zealand. Matt Smith and I just talked about what an amazing place New Zealand is and said it was amazing how this country did not have the biggest film industry in the world. He is such an extra-ordinary human being. I am not actually convinced that he's not actually the Doctor." [Waikato Times, 21 Sep 2012]
Smith has also been hinting at plans for next year: "Steven Moffat was pitching the 50th anniversary at the end of this series and what everything was going to be about and it was a very exciting meal. No doubt he’ll come up with something brilliant because that’s the sort of man he is... I hope that we mark it in the best way possible and we honour the people that have been in the show before us and we make it as grand and brilliant and inventive and as much an occasion as possible. What that is, I may have an idea, but I can’t tell you I'm afraid." [Waikato Times, 19 Sep 2012]
Back to the current series, and he commented on events in the finale of the current run of adventures, The Angels Take Manhattan: "I love the Weeping Angels and I loved filming in New York - the city added scale to the whole episode, which is just brilliant for Doctor Who. It was great to have River back, and to use filmic locations like Central Park and Times Square. It is a fitting ending for the Ponds, especially as the Weeping Angels are a Moffat creation." Steven Moffat himself added: "It is a heart-breaking farewell to Amy and Rory. We see the Doctor and his little Amelia Pond race through the streets of Manhattan to save Rory with help along the way as River Song charges back on to our screens, just in time to say goodbye. All stories have to end, and painful though that is, the most important thing about a story is how it finishes. I had over a year’s warning to get this sorted out, and I’m very proud of what we’ve done. A fitting end to the mighty era of the Ponds!" [BBC Press, 16 Sep 2012]
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