Doctor Doodle

Friday, 14 March 2014 - Reported by Marcus
A doodle by Sixth Doctor, Colin Baker, is being auctioned for charity as part of National Doodle Day 2014.

The event is to raise money for Epilepsy Action with celebrities donating doodles to be auctioned on ebay.

Other Doctor Who related stars taking part include John Hurt, Bruno Langley; Martin Jarvis; Terry Molloy, Bill Nighy, Felicity Kendal, Honor Blackman, Ian McNeice, Martin Clunes, Maureen Lipman, Roger Lloyd Pack, Nerys Hughes, Imelda Staunton, Sylvia Syms and Sir Derek Jacobi.

The auction is open until Sunday. Bids can be made via the website.

A doodle by Colin Baker was also auctioned in 2005.







FILTER: - Charities - John Hurt - Colin Baker

Fan Roundup

Friday, 14 March 2014 - Reported by Marcus
To celebrate Doctor Who's 50th anniversary, CultBox.co.uk asked fans to re-enact their favourite Doctor Who moment. Hundreds of fans from over 30 countries sent in their videos. Here are some of their favourite entries.


Fanfilm: That Time of Night

The team behind the Spanish fanfilm The Imperfect World is following up with a series of shorts. The first installment, That Time of Night (original title Esas Horas de la Noche) features the Tenth Doctor and Rose Tyler, and can be viewed worldwide on youtube with English subtitles. Director Marta Romero says: "The script will really hook the fans, since the relationship between the Doctor and Rose is such an elemental part of the show."

The team opened a crowdfunding page to help finance the rest of the webseries and the sequel to The Imperfect World.
Whotopia Issue 27 is now available

In this issue; A serious study of all things sonic by Dave Columbus & Jurgen Pfeffer;
Big Finish's Unbound Collection comes under the spotlight with Matthew Kresal;
A tribute to the designer who created the iconic figure of the Daleks;
Bob Furnell takes account of some recent DVD viewing; Managing the merchandise with Paula Hammond;
Michael S. Collins highlights the early pioneers of Doctor Who; The epic journey reaches the end... or does it?
Nick Mellish investigates; Bob Furnell shines the spotlight on William Hartnell's swansong;
Whotopia reviews some of the special 50th Anniversary programming;
Jon Arnold assesses the 50th Anniversary Special; Dave Columbus reviews An Adventure In Time and Space;
The Science of Doctor Who with Thomas Spychalski;
Multi-national reports on The Day of The Doctor cinema showings;
Thomas Spychalski reviews the Blue Peter homages to Time Lords and TARDIS's;
Matthew Kresal reviews BBC Radio 2's special anniversary tribute.




FILTER: - Fan Productions

Keeley Hawes cast in Doctor Who

Friday, 14 March 2014 - Reported by Marcus
The BBC have announced that actress Keeley Hawes is to join the cast of Doctor Who playing a villain.

Hawes will play Ms Delphox, a powerful out-of-this-world character with a dark secret. Travelling across space and time, the Twelfth Doctor (Peter Capaldi) and his companion, Clara Oswald (Jenna Coleman), will come face to face with the mysterious Ms Delphox, when they arrive on a strange and puzzling planet.

The character will appear in the fifth episode of the series, written by Steve Thompson and directed by Douglas Mackinnon, which is currently being filmed in south Wales.

Hawes is best known for roles in The Last September, an adaptation of Elizabeth Bowen's 1929 novel, as well as playing Zoe Reynolds in Spooks, Alex Drake in Ashes to Ashes and Lady Agnes in Upstairs, Downstairs. She is currently playing Detective Inspector Lindsay Denton on the second series of the BBC Two drama Line of Duty. She was the voice of Lara Croft in several Tomb Raider video games.

Commenting on her role, Hawes said:
I am delighted to join Doctor Who and to be working with this incredible team. Ms Delphox is a great character and someone I've had a lot of fun playing.
Lead writer and executive producer Steven Moffat added:
Anyone watching Jed Mercurio's amazing Line of Duty will know that Keeley Hawes is having one hell of a year. And now it's about to get even better as she achieves the greatest villainy yet attempted on Doctor Who: she plays a banker.




FILTER: - Guest Stars - Production - Series 8/34

Classic Doctor Who on Horror Channel

Thursday, 13 March 2014 - Reported by Marcus
The Horror Channel in the UK is to broadcast 30 adventures from the classic series of Doctor Who, starting this Easter.

The channel has completed a deal with BBC Worldwide to broadcast adventures featuring the first seven Doctors, starting with William Hartnell and concluding with Sylvester McCoy. This specially curated season give fans old and new a chance to get re-acquainted with favourite companions Jamie McCrimmon, Jo Grant and Sarah Jane Smith, rogue Time Lords such as The Master, Omega and The Rani and all those iconic monsters including Daleks, Cybermen, Sea Devils and Ice Warriors.

Launching on Friday 18th April (Good Friday) the season begins with the very first story An Unearthly Child, starring William Hartnell as the Doctor. It then leads into a special Who On Horror weekend - a classic marathon featuring one story from each of the Doctors across the Easter weekend. There will then be weekday double-bills in daytime and evening slots with stories shown in chronological order starting on Easter Monday 21st April. Horror Channel is screening some of the most memorable adventures that the show produced including The Mind Robber, The Daemons, Genesis Of The Daleks, The Talons Of Weng Chiang, The Caves Of Androzani, Attack Of The Cybermen and The Curse Of Fenric.

Alina Florea, Director of Programming, said today:
Doctor Who is an iconic series and we are proud and excited to welcome this giant of British television to our channel. The line-up will include some of the most revered from seven classic Doctors – stories that terrified, thrilled and captured the imagination of children and adults through the decades. Doctor Who joins a long line of well-loved classic series we have endeavoured to showcase on Horror Channel over the last few years.
Sam Tewugwa, Commercial Director, TV and VOD Sales at BBC Worldwide commented:
This is a great new way for fans to enjoy classic Doctor Who stories. Our discovery of missing episodes of Doctor Who last year highlighted the fans’ appetite for classic episodes to be made more widely available and we’re delighted to be able to extend that through the series available on the channel
Other cult television series available on the channel are Wonder Woman, Xena: Warrior Princess, New Twilight Zone, Star Trek and The Invaders.

The Horror Channel is available on Sky 319 and 198, Virgin 149 and Freesat 138.




FILTER: - Classic Series - Broadcasting

Actor Olaf Pooley celebrates his 100th birthday

Thursday, 13 March 2014 - Reported by John Bowman
The actor Olaf Pooley is 100 years old today - making him the second person to have appeared in Doctor Who to become a centenarian.

Born in the Parkstone area of Poole in Dorset to an English father and Danish mother, he studied architecture at the Architectural Association in London and painting at the Chelsea School of Art - and is still an exhibiting painter.

His first full-time job was with Pinewood Film Studios' design department, and he then became a member of the BBC Radio Drama Repertory Company, with his prolific acting career also seeing him appearing in the West End, on film and on TV. He is one of just a handful of actors to have appeared in both the Doctor Who and Star Trek franchises.

Pooley had two roles in Doctor Who, both of them in the 1970 story Inferno, portraying Professor Stahlman and his parallel-Earth counterpart Director Stahlman in the seven-parter.

During his career, he wrote and appeared in the film The Corpse - entitled Crucible of Horror in the USA - which starred Michael Gough, and wrote, directed and appeared in The Johnstown Monster. He also wrote the screenplay for a film version of Bernard Taylor's The Godsend, which was directed by his future second wife Gabrielle Beaumont. Pooley's other writing credits include the 1982 TV film Falcon's Gold, while he was an uncredited writer on the 1985 sci-fi horror movie Lifeforce.

His TV guest appearances since the 1950s included roles in Dixon of Dock Green, Paul Temple, Jason King and MacGyver, as well as playing Lars Torvik in the first episode of The Sandbaggers.

In 1958, Pooley took part in the BBC radio play Ambrose In Paris, and he played Sebastian in a 1956 film production of The Tempest. Pooley had a major career in West End theatre, appearing in notable productions such as Noël Coward's Peace In Our Time as well as The Tempest and Othello, and he counted Sir Alec Guinness among his close friends.

He emigrated to the United States in 1986, where he continued his acting, also becoming a respected artist both there and abroad. In an interview, he said: "It is a privilege to be an artist and I am fortunate in this respect."

An avid reader, he keeps fit by taking a daily walk and doing calisthenics and makes sure that he eats healthily.

Examples of Pooley's artwork can be seen on the InHarmony Yoga website, and he will be displaying his paintings at an "open house" event at the Santa Monica Art Studios at 3026 Airport Avenue, Santa Monica, on Saturday 15th March between midday and 6pm.
With Thanks To Jackie Kaminski, Santa Monica Observer, Tony Clark




FILTER: - People - Special Events - USA

Planet 55 may leave Australia

Wednesday, 12 March 2014 - Posted By Vitas Varnas
The Australian animation company behind the re-creation of Doctor Who stories has told the Australian parliament it may need to relocate to the UK due to difficulties accessing broadband in the country.

Planet 55 Studios, which has animated some of the recent Doctor Who missing stories including The Reign of Terror and The Tenth Planet, told the Senate Select Committee for the National Broadband Network that the lack of bandwidth to the company's headquarters on the Central Coast of New South Wales was seriously frustrating the work of the company.

The organisation needs to move about 30 gigabytes of data per day. Austen Atkinson, the studio's head, told the committee the company had installed fibre to its premises and was paying AU$1,600 per month for a 50Mbps down, 50Mbps up link.
We could do with eight times that but we simply cannot get it. So we installed a line at AU$1,600 a month. We would love to install multiple ones but we cannot because there is not enough bandwidth. I will use any technology that works to get this out. At the moment it is called 'post'. That is what we are having to do. It slows down our productivity massively and costs us serious money. It would add about AU$1 million to transfer, which we could easily have spent on talent here. We could have trained more talent and spent it on animators, which I would much rather have done.
Mr Atkinson said the company was taking on more work for the BBC and so it was considering relocating to Cardiff in the United Kingdom.
The fact is that it is very attractive to look at in the UK at the moment, because the economy is booming again now; it is growing in my sector tremendously. As a result of Doctor Who's success and so forth, there is a huge culture in Cardiff.
Source: ZD Net




FILTER: - Animation - Blu-ray/DVD - Australia

Doctor Who Adventures 341

Wednesday, 12 March 2014 - Reported by Marcus
Doctor Who Adventures 341BBC Doctor Who Adventures magazine is offering readers the chance to win a trip to the Doctor Who Experience in Cardiff this Easter.

The winner gets a family ticket for 4 people (based on 2 adults and 2 children) to the Experience, plus tickets to the Doctor Who Walking Tour, where they’ll get to see loads of different Doctor Who filming locations. The winner also receives £200 of travel expenses and an overnight stay in a hotel in Cardiff.

In the latest issue you’ll also find:
  • News about a new character, as well as fantastic facts about the Sontarans.
  • How to win new Doctor Who figures, including the new Doctor and a Zygon, plus Lego Movie and Pokemon goodies.
  • An interview with the talented John Ross, who draws the comic strip in Doctor Who Adventures.
  • A quiz to decide what type of Dalek you are.
  • An exciting comic strip featuring an unseen adventure with the Eleventh Doctor and Clara – use the free app Blippar to bring the comic strip to life!
All this, plus posters, puzzles and loads of time travel fun.

Issue 341, on sale 12-25 March, priced £2.99. The issue comes with an exclusive mystery free gift.




FILTER: - DWA

The Real History of Science Fiction

Tuesday, 11 March 2014 - Reported by Marcus
A new documentary series from BBC Two and BBC America will delve into the real history of science fiction with filmmakers, writers, actors and graphic artists looking back on their experiences and on how their obsession and imagination has taken them into the unknown.

The Real History of Science Fiction will cover programmes from Star Wars to 2001: A Space Odyssey, and from Jurassic Park to Doctor Who. Each program is packed with contributors behind these creations and traces the developments of Robots, Space, Invasion and Time. Narrated by Mark Gatiss, Doctor Who writer, actor and co-creator of the BBC’s Sherlock, the series determines why science fiction is not merely a genre... for its audience it’s a portal to a multi-verse – one that is all too easy to get lost in.

Among those taking part are: William Shatner (Star Trek), Nathan Fillion (Firefly), Zoe Saldana (Avatar, Star Trek), Steven Moffat (Doctor Who), Richard Dreyfuss (Close Encounters of the Third Kind), Chris Carter (The X-Files), Ronald D Moore (Battlestar Galactica), John Landis (An American Werewolf in London, Schlock), David Tennant (Doctor Who), Christopher Lloyd (Back to the Future), Rutger Hauer (Blade Runner), John Carpenter (Dark Star, The Thing), Karen Gillan (Doctor Who), Neil Gaiman (The Sandman, Stardust), Kim Stanley Robinson (Mars Trilogy), Scott Bakula (Quantum Leap, Star Trek: Enterprise), Ursula K Le Guin (The Left Hand of Darkness), Syd Mead (Blade Runner), Kenny Baker (Star Wars), Anthony Daniels (Star Wars), Nichelle Nichols (Star Trek), Peter Weller (Robocop), Edward James Olmos (Blade Runner, Battlestar Galactica) and many more.

The four part series debuts in America on Saturday April 19 at 10pm ET. BBC Two has yet to confirm a transmission date.
EPISODE 1 – ROBOTS
What if our creations turn against us? The idea of creating life has fascinated society since the earliest days of science fiction. The first installment of the four-part series, Robots transports viewers from the first steps of Frankenstein’s monster to the threat provided by the Terminator and the world of Cyberspace. Find out how Rutger Hauer created one of the greatest speeches in all of science fiction for Blade Runner. Discover from Kenny Baker the challenge of acting in Star Wars while inside the body of R2D2, and learn how Anthony Daniels was drawn to the role of C-3PO by concept art modeled closely on the robot from the silent classic Metropolis. Douglas Trumbull (2001: A Space Odyssey, Blade Runner) discusses how he managed to create a whole new approach to robot design. The creators of the original Robocop describe how its hidden depths have given it enduring appeal and William Gibson reveals the origins of his seminal novel Neuromancer. From HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey to the Cylons of the reimagined Battlestar Galactica and the world of The Matrix, this is a journey that asks – what does it mean to be human?
EPISODE 2 – SPACE
What if we could explore the vastness of Space? Science fiction has always fed upon our need to explore – to wonder what is out there. Space journeys from Jules Verne’s earliest ideas about attempts to leave our planet, to the Star Wars far away galaxy through to Nichelle Nichols revealing how her groundbreaking role as Lt. Uhura in Star Trek led to her participation in the recruitment of NASA’s astronauts. It explores the deep sea inspiration for Avatar, finds out why Ursula K Le Guin wrote The Left Hand of Darkness and discovers how Stanley Kubrick was able to make 2001: A Space Odyssey seem so believable. In addition, the program looks at the way Dune and The Mars Trilogy embraced the challenge of world building and discusses the appeal of the beaten up ‘dirty space’ of Dark Star and Firefly. From the horrifying scenes of Alien, to the epic spectacle of Star Wars, this is a journey to the stars and the alien encounters that await us there.
EPISODE 3 – INVASION
What if aliens landed on Earth? Much of science fiction explores the moment of first contact – what will people do when the aliens land? From H. G. Wells’ pioneering The War of the Worlds to Independence Day, Men in Black and District 9, Invasion deals with our fears of alien invasions of earth. David Tennant explains the appeal of Doctor Who’s Daleks and Cybermen while John Carpenter and Chris Carter explore the rich appeal of the paranoia fuelled by hidden aliens with The Thing and The X-Files. It also asks, what if the monsters were our own creation? With the aid of rarely seen animation tests, Phil Tippett takes us behind the scenes in the creation of the dinosaurs of Jurassic Park. But not all invasions are hostile. Peter Coyote and Richard Dreyfuss discuss the creation of Spielberg’s spellbinding classics E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. There is more than one kind of invasion.
EPISODE 4 – TIME
What if we could travel not just through space, but through time itself? If you could travel through time, would you change the past or the future? What if you found it couldn’t be changed? What price does the time traveller – and the people they are closest to – pay? This is a journey from H. G. Wells The Time Machine through ideas like The Grandfather Paradox and The Butterfly Effect to the professional time traveller that is the ever popular Doctor Who. Steven Moffat, David Tennant, Karen Gillan and Neil Gaiman offer a unique perspective on the Doctor. Edward James Olmos reveals the hidden meaning of the language he created for the vision of the future that is Blade Runner. Bob Gale and Christopher Lloyd take us behind the scenes of Back to the Future, while Ed Solomon describes the joy of solving a time travel conundrum for Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure. But what would be the physical and emotional cost to the time traveller? Audrey Niffenegger explains what inspired her novel The Time Traveller’s Wife. And what if someone from the future tried to travel back in time to warn us? Would we believe them? From the apocalyptic tones of 12 Monkeys to the drama of Quantum Leap and the comedy of Groundhog Day, time travel is a subject that has been irresistible to the creators of every type of science fiction.




FILTER: - USA - Documentary - BBC America - UK - Broadcasting

The Doctor,The Eye Doctor and Me

Tuesday, 11 March 2014 - Reported by Marcus
A new book drawing analogies and parallels between the world of Doctor Who and the Syrian conflict is now available.

The Doctor, The Eye Doctor and Me is written by Aboud Dandachi, a Syrian activist and refugee from the city of Homs, The book is a unique interpretation of Doctor Who as it marked its fiftieth anniversary, and a first-hand account of the most devastating period in Syria's modern history.

It is both the story of one person's journey through the different stages of the Syrian conflict, and the lessons and insights into the meaning of the events of that journey as gleaned from parallels and analogies with one of the century's most remarkable cultural achievements.

The book is available for free at the following eBook stores; More details on the official Facebook page.




FILTER: - Doctor Who - Books

Series Eight Update

Monday, 10 March 2014 - Reported by Marcus
Production has now begun on Episode Five of Series 8, with two of the actors involved tweeting "We're on our way". The episode forms the second story to be filmed as part of Block 2, directed by Douglas Mackinnon, whose last story was the 2013 adventure Cold War.

It has been written by Steve Thompson, who returns to the series after writing two Eleventh Doctor stories: The Curse of the Black Spot and last year's Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS. Filming has been taking place this week on locations around south Wales.

Writer Mark Gatiss has been talking about writing for the Twelfth Doctor, telling how Peter Capaldi has a very different energy to Matt Smith and David Tennant, and described his first episode as thrilling. He told Digital Spy:
He's older which changes everything - it's amazing what a change does. Matt was sublime and I was very sorry to see him go, but it's also great to have a change - as it has always been with the Doctor.

The Doctor's always the Doctor - but you can have a lot of fun playing with people's expectations. Everyone knows how the previous Doctor would react in any given situation - and now you just don't know!
The series returns later this year.




FILTER: - Production - Series 8/34