Wednesday, 16 February 2011 - Reported by Chuck Foster
The new issue of the UK children's comic The Dandy sees its lead character, TV's Harry Hill, have a fleeting encounter with all eleven incarnations of the Doctor (plus some Daleks!) during a twelve page special of his usual madcap antics within the comic!
Tuesday, 15 February 2011 - Reported by Harry Ward
Gallifrey One's Catch 22: Islands of Mystery, the twenty-second annual North American Doctor Who and science fiction media convention takes place February 18-20 at the Los Angeles Airport Marriott Hotel.
Featured guests from the Whoniverse are Peter Davison (the fifth Doctor), Janet Fielding (Tegan Jovanka), Sarah Sutton (Nyssa), Tracie Simpson (Producer), Matthew Waterhouse (Adric), John Leeson (Voice of K9), Frazer Hines (Jamie McCrimmon), John Levene (Sergeant Benton), Gareth Thomas (Ed Morgan, Ghost Machine, Torchwood),Cush Jumbo (Lois Habiba, Torchwood: Children of Earth), Paul Kasey (Various monsters in Doctor Who, Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures) , Neill Gorton & Rob Mayor (Prosthetics & Special Effects Designers), Ian McNeice (Winston Churchill, Victory of the Daleks), Gareth Roberts (Writer), Philip Oliver (Thomas Hector Schofield, Big Finish), Sarah Douglas (Doctor Who: The Adventure Games voiceover actress), Jane Espenson andDoris Egan (Torchwood: Miracle Day writers), Phil Ford (Producer and writer, The Sarah Jane Adventures), Joss Agnew (Director, The Sarah Jane Adventures), James Moran (Writer), Daphne Ashbrook (Grace Holloway, Doctor Who TV Movie), Gareth Skelding (Location Manager), Gary Russell (Writer & Script Editor), Jason Haigh-Ellery (Big Finish Productions), Clayton Hickman (Writer and former editor of Doctor Who Magazine) and Tony Lee (Doctor Who graphic novelist).
(Update 16/02: Gareth Thomas will be unable to be at Gallifrey 2011 due to sudden medical issues)
A special announcement by CBS Publicity was made on Monday night:
The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson is sending The Nerdist' Chris Hardwick as a special correspondent to the 2011 Gallifrey One Convention at the LAX Marriott on Saturday, February 19. Chris will be shooting video and interviewing Dr. Who fans for a segment to air on the show. The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson airs weeknights at 12:37 am ET/PT on CBS.
Ed Stradlingannounced via his Twitter account that Come In Number Five, a Peter Davison era documentary presented by David Tennant will be shown at the convention.
Monday, 14 February 2011 - Reported by Chuck Foster
The Royal Mail are to release a new collection of stamps featuring six iconic images from the Royal Shakespeare Company to celebrate 50 years of the company's charter.
Each of the six stamps features a scene from The Tempest, Henry VI, King Lear, A Midsummer's Night Dream or Romeo and Juliet - the 1st Class stamp will feature Hamlet, as portrayed by David Tennant!
The stamps are due to be released on 12th April 2011, with the 1st Class stamp costing 46p at the time of issue.
Sunday, 13 February 2011 - Reported by Chuck Foster
Matt Smith debuted as the Doctor in France last night, with the first three episodes of Series Five broadcast on France 4
Le Prisonnier Zéro, La bêtes des bas-fonds and La victoire des Daleks were shown together during the evening and achieved a rating of 453,000 viewers, representing 2% of the audience watching television in France (viewing figures for the evening as a whole may be seen via Ozap).
Series Five has started off well, gaining more viewers than David Tennant's swansong, La Prophétie de Noël, which achieved 416,000 viewers over Christmas Day (but was pipped to the post by La Conquête de Mars with 504,000 viewers in October).
French viewing for the rest of the month consists of Le labyrinthe des Anges (pts 1+2) and Les Vampires de Venise next weekend, and Le Seigneur des Rêves and La révolte des intra-terrestres (pts 1+2) on the 26th.
France 4 trailer for Matt Smith's first series (via YouTube)
(we leave our readers to enjoy translating the French titles!)
Saturday, 12 February 2011 - Reported by Chuck Foster
Friday 11th February saw the launch of National Doodle Day 2011, the eighth event organised by the charities Epilepsy Action and The Neurofibromatosis Association. As with last year, a number of doodles from stars associated with Doctor Who join others to help raise money to help those afflicted by those illnesses.
Doodles from previous years can be purchased on t-shirts and other items in support of the charities from PhotoBox; last year included items from Catherine Tate and Elisabeth Sladen, with previous years including Colin Baker and Louise Jameson.
The auction is currently running on Ebay, and a full list of the celebrity doodles are available on the National Doodle Day website.
Saturday, 12 February 2011 - Reported by Chuck Foster
The French Doctor Who fansite Beans on Toast have published an exclusive audio interview with David Manet, the former French voice of the Doctor.
Entitled "The End of an Era", the Belgian voice artist - who portrayed the Doctor's voice throughout his Ninth and Tenth incarnations - talks candidly about his interpretation of the role, and also of his career in dubbing.
In a translated extract below, Manet talks of his best memory of dubbing Doctor Who:
What I remember is the pleasure of working on Doctor Who, the surprises that came in the scripts and the quality of this show. I enjoyed working on the series with David [Macaluso, artistic director]. At times, it was exhausting - really - and sometimes it was frustrating because we couldn't quite match the original performance. Because Doctor Who is very British, in the way it is made, its spirit, language and energy. So, as a voice actor, you do get frustrated when you think "this is not quite as good as it could be". In a dub, there's bound to be a big part of betrayal of the original. But what I'll remember the most is what a pleasure it has been. I regret that I could not continue to dub Doctor Who, even if I think Marc [Weiss, voice of the Eleventh Doctor] is doing an excellent job, but I'd have continued - very gladly - for one more year of Doctor Who!
The full interview was recorded in Belgium on the 1st February, and is available to listen to in French from the Beans on Toast website, alongside photos of Manet receiving some special gifts to thank him for his work at the end of the interview.
You can also read an interview with the actor from 2009 on site here.
Saturday, 12 February 2011 - Reported by Chuck Foster
As work continued on the first block of filming in the UK, production resumed in Los Angeles, with prep-work on Monday 31st January taking place in readiness for director Bill Gierhart to oversee the second block from Tuesday 1st February.
The fortnight saw more of the cast assembled to play their parts, with scenes featuring Bill Pullman (Oswald Danes), Dichen Lachman, Lauren Ambrose (Jilly Kitzinger), Arlene Tur (Dr. Vera Juarez), Alexa Havins (Esther Drummond), Daryl Crittenden, and Rachel Leah Cohen (Laurie). Having finished their UK scenes, Mekhi Phifer returned to the States on Wednesday 2nd, with John Barrowman flying back on Thursday. By the following Thursday (10th), the BBC Production Office had reported: "EVERYONE IS BACK IN LA! The UK shoot was outstanding. What honor to collaborate with the original TW Crew."
Filming during the two weeks saw much activity on set at the Warner Bros Studios, though the production did venture out to a number of locations, with a return to Los Angeles City Hall, filming at the Title Insurance & Trust Company Building, the Golden Gopher bar, and an 'alleyway' Frank Court for location work. The crew also 'checked into' a 'seedy' motel for other scenes!
The US version of the on-location base signs has now been spotted at filming - a completely different design to the 'traditional' UK "BM" style!
Times cited within the reports are in Los Angeles local time.
Monday 31st January - Wednesday 2nd February
Monday saw prep-work get started for episode three of Miracle Day, with the crew re-assembling after a week or so off thanks to concentrated action in the UK. Not that everybody was happy with the thought of more early mornings!
11:09 ST Back home and back to Torchwood Everyone well rested ready to rock n roll :-) 11:46 BBC Julie is back! The US crew is prepping. 15:19 AS Back to the grind at 4:42am 17:33 BG Torchwood fans....we start the US filming of the 2nd block tomorrow. Starting off with an easy day then it'll get crazy! 19:27 BG 6am crew call on Torchwood tomorrow. Which means 4:42am for hair, makeup, wardrobe and 2nd A.D. Yikes. 4am for catering.
Tuesday saw day one of filming begin, though you'd think the chairs were the stars judging by the crew!
07:11 JE We've got sweet chair backs at Torchwood! 08:24 JE names are on the other side 08:29 JE Here's one with a name... 08:41 JE mine just says "producer". So boring! 12:14 DL By @BillyGierhart Torchwood
Meanwhile, Bill Pullman was on set today, impressing everybody with his acting!
14:05 AS Dear Mr. Pullman, how do u act so creepy when u are actually a nice NOT creepy guy? I know that it's 'acting' but where does it come from? 15:43 AS (What sort of costume is his character wearing...?) he has had like 5 changes so far... For the most part they r what u would expect/imagine.
Another early morning on Wednesday, with Shawna Trcpic finding herself around 6:00am back on the stage where she worked on Doctor Horrible and Angel, a set she termed "The evil league of evil :-)"
The day also saw costume fitting for both Lauren Ambrose and Rachel Leah Cohen, whilst Mekhi Phifer was on a flight back to L.A. alongside Russell T Davies (both of whom had been on location the previous evening). As the Production Office noted:
09:31 BBC RTD and Mekhi are on a plane back to LA! Not going to lie, the US crew wants RTD back can you blame us? Safe travels gentlemen. 09:35 BBC Currently we are shooting EP 2/3 together. We've got a seriously great cast and crew (UK/US) pulling this off, very well may we add. 09:38 BBC With the time change we just realized that Torchwood is shooting AROUND THE CLOCK.
Thursday 3rd February
"Doesn't this make u wanna take a nap?" Photo: Alana Stone (via Twitpic)
The Torchwood production hits the streets once more, returning to Los Angeles City Hall, with a day shoot running from 7:00am to 10:00pm; documentation revealed they are filming under the name Bad Wolf Productions LLC! (See our previous article for more details).
The Production Team indicated that today was the first day that Lauren Ambrose (Jilly Kitzinger) would be on set with Arlene Tur (Dr. Vera Juarez).
Shawna Trpcicreported that she wouldn't be able to reveal details on costumes like Jack's new coat until after the press photos are released (they were taken in the UK the previous Friday), though she did clarify that the lining of the coat was rayon in order to accomodate the heat in California!
Made another trip to an on location filming of Torchwood. Again they were at City Hall in Downtown Los Angeles which is SUCH a great location; the building and the city are really beautiful. Today wasn't quite as eventful as my last trip out, but of course anything Torchwood has me excited!
So here's the rundown. Last week I got a message from a friend saying he heard they were filming this time and location. And the details of the filming were HILARIOUS. It said: "Bad Wolf filming in L.A. Thursday, Feb 3, 2011 Bad Wolf Productions" Ha, Bad Wolf, that's amazing. Of course he saw this and knew it was Torchwood, especially since it was at the same location as last time.
I was actually considering not going because I didn't have anyone to go with but this morning my friend Jenni said that she and her husband Jeff could come. I jumped at the chance and we were off! When we got there we saw the set up shown in the picture. And that was pretty much our view the rest of the night. The only recognizable cast member on set was Lauren Ambrose who is playing "PR guru" Jilly Kitzinger. Let me tell you guys, she is GORGEOUS in person, her hair, her wardrobe was adorable, I bet this is gonna turn into a cosplay look. Heck maybe I'll grab a wig and try it sometime. Good on her being so pretty and well done to costume, hair and makeup, just aces.
The scenes filmed outside were rather uneventful. Mostly just walking and talking with some woman, couldn't tell you more if I wanted to. That being said, we had fun it was great being on the set none-the-less. They also spent about 2 hours filming inside the building which we couldn't watch so it's POSSIBLE other cast members were there, but we didn't see if they were. Also, we got shushed at one point, from across the street! I think maybe we were having too much fun, but can you blame us? It's Torchwood!
Today's filming took place at a motel, somewhere in the Los Angeles county area, as Alana Stoneteased, "So tell me... Where r we shooting today?"
The night shoot involved Lauren Ambrose and Bill Pullman, plus another character played by Daryl Crittenden (Heroes, Days of Our Lives). On-set gossip included:
16:03 DC on Torchwood today.... going to be a BLAST! 16:44 ST Just getting started on set after long day in the office. Probably shoot till 7am Sat. Just as long as I'm up for Superbowl :-) Go Steelers! 17:40 BBC We've got a wonderfully long night ahead of us here in the US with Bill and Lauren. Gotta love night shoots. Coffee is your life partner! 20:44 DC Here we go... 02:53 DC Phone died while on set... :( here's all I'm going to show you... amazing night!
After a weekend off(!), it was back to work on set at Warner Bros Studios for the production team. From Monday the cast were joined by Rachel Leah Cohen (Laurie), and also Alexa Havins (Esther Katusi) - the latter was reported to be accompanied by a special guest who's intimated to be Jurassic Park's Wayne Knight(see our earlier article for details).
10:20 AS back to school... and work... 12:20 BBC We've got Alexa Havins here with us today with a special guest, here's a clue "uh uh uh didn't say the magic word". 12:59 RLC I got straight hair! !!! 13:28 RLC with an hour to kill..... just walking around the Warner brothers lot 15:30 RLC still waiting to shoot with a super fun guest star! 16:22 RLC just waiting to go to set 16:44 RLC great set. great people! 20:37 AS "Dodgson! Dodgson! We've got Dodgson here! See? Nobody cares. Nice hat!"
Tuesday continued with more intrigue happenings on-set:
13:04 JE Oh my! Sexy happenings on the Torchwood set today 16:00 BBC Go team Torchwood !
22:54 RLC the hair a tad wind blown...but by my trailer.
And finally on Wednesday it seems a wrap for Rachel, at least for now, whilst the cast and crew hit the streets once more for the following day ...
20:45 RLC Had a blast. Great cast and crew! 22:43 JE Back on location for Torchwood tomorrow. And it's a creeeepy scene. Can't wait! Sleep now!
Thursday 10th February
The cast and crew were back into Los Angeles today, using the Title Insurance & Trust Company Building (former government offices) on South Spring Street, which has been closed for a while now and up for sale. Filming was scheduled to run between 7:00am and 10:00pm, so not quite such a late night for a change!
"TW-Spy!" saw writer Jane Espenson present us with some doughnuts! However, as she pointed out, "Don't eat them; they're working". She also confirmed that in general writers are usually on-set during filming for shows in the States, though her writing commitments had meant that she hadn't been on the Torchwood shoot as much.
Meanwhile, costume designer Shawna Trpcicreported that she'd had an interview on the re-design of Captain Jack's costume with AOL's television critic Maureen Ryan: "asked if I was nervous changing it but I have experience with great Captains coats". She also responded to a question about the series, saying that it is a "US continuation of BBC".
As one might expect, access to see filming wasn't likely with an internal shoot.
Torchwood - Face of Building
Get it? Face of Building? Like Face of Boe? I really struggled with a title on this entry. Filming tonight was in an office building so I thought about doing a play on the "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang" office scene...I almost went with "don't want you getting over-excited" but it seemed a bit wordy. It would have been fitting though because honestly I have very little to report. My friend Jenni and I made the trek down to Downtown LA where we saw the outside of a building! Very exciting I know. The picture there is from across the street but really we didn't see anything. I assume they were filming indoors and there was security at the entrance. Tomorrow we're going to check out two locations as well, maybe we'll have more luck. I'll be sure to keep you updated.
(with thanks to Dana Shukartsi from Barrowman Day - read her full blog entry on-site)
00:47 BBC Our apologies for the suspense. EVERYONE IS BACK IN LA! The UK shoot was outstanding. What honor to collaborate with the original TW Crew. 00:54 BBC Gave RTD a grand welcome back hug on set today, we missed him. Our call tomorrow is late at a night club, break out your dancing shoes!
Friday 11th February
Mystery man with me and John Barrowman Shawna Trpcic (via Twitpic)
Friday saw a long day's filming in not one but two locations in Los Angeles! Scheduling showed that the crew were filming in the Golden Gopher - a bar that holds a licence hailing back to 1905! - on West 8th Street between midday and 3:00am; later, filming took place in/around an alleyway called Frank Court behind South Spring Street between 3:00pm and 6:00am.
John Barrowman was back on set for today, flamboyant as ever, as caught by Shawna Trpcic during a break in filming.
11:45 AS Trying to prepare for another Fr-aturday... 18:07 JE On Torchwood, it's still three hours until lunch. I'm staring at food truck anyway. 18:31 BG Gratzia! 20:09 ST Hey what Torchwood fans r watching our production meeting :) 20:49 JE (we call a food truck in Texas "the roach coach") We call them that too, but this is actually the truck of the on-set caterer. Delicious hi-qual food! Yummy!
The best thing I saw today was THIS cone, the cone right there, I cannot tell you the amount of joy I got out of the TorchCone. To be fair by the time me and my companion (ha) Jenni got to the TorchCone we had already walked a couple of miles, searching locations and generally getting lost. We were exhausted and I am inclined to believe the TorchCone was more amusing to us than it actually was.
Filming today was...uneventful for the observer. As far as we could tell all the filming was taking place indoors so we didn't get to see anyone, but I had a bit of fun in seeing the buildings and imagining Jack atop them.
We did actually have some exciting fan moments. We were in viewing distance for part of a production meeting. We couldn't hear anything but it was cool seeing certain faces like RTD and Jane Espenson. We saw a lot of emphatic gesturing but nothing to be given away certainly. it looked like a fun group and Jane was kind enough to come mingle with us mere mortals; she was very sweet. Oh and we got a twitter wave from Shawna Trpcic who does the costumes and earlier tonight tweeted a pic of her and John on set, which I'm sure has made rounds by now.
All in all we had a lovely time, which was, as always, enhanced getting to talk to the lovely folks on set. We met a particularly kind security guard who chatted with us, Danny I think his name was. He did a fine job, hopefully we helped make his shift a little more enjoyable. As for spoilers to share, afraid I don't really have any and you know from past reports how I am about that.
Meanwhile, back at the studios, Russell T Davies goes beyond the call of duty once more ...
11:41 BBC Russell went up to greet a fan who was fixing our air conditioning here at Warner Bros. AWESOME!
Key to initials: AS - Alana Stone (fashion designer); BBC - BBC Torchwood (production office); BG - Bill Gierhart (director); DC - Daryl Crittenden; DL - Dichen Lachman; JE - Jane Espenson (writer); RLC - Rachel Leah Cohen (Laurie); ST - Shawna Trpcic (costume designer)
The filming schedule for the next week or so is currently unknown, though - with Kai Owen and Tom Price having been cited as pulling out of next weekend's Gallifrey One convention due to the "UK filming schedule on the next series of Torchwood" - expectation is of more sightings of the cast and crew in action in South Wales soon!
Friday, 11 February 2011 - Reported by Josiah Rowe
The BBC's Doctor Who website has confirmed that actress and model Lily Cole will appear in the forthcoming series. The site says that Cole will play "a mysterious creature that haunts a pirate ship", indicating that she will appear in the current episode being filmed, opposite Hugh Bonneville as Avery.
Cole became famous as a model, but in recent years has appeared in films including St. Trinian's and The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus.
The story of her casting was first reported by The Sun, which interpreted her "sea creature" role somewhat creatively.
A special wi-fi service is to operate inside the shop which will enable customers to use their smartphones to access special promotions and additional facts and figures about the exhibition. The wireless network will also be able to provide subtitling facilities to assist the hard of hearing, which includes vocal command from the Doctor himself!
The functionality was part of the remit of the Brandnew Corporation, who are running the Experience on behalf of BBC Worldwide. Alex Johns, MD for Brandnew, said:
After the exhilaration of the Doctor Who Experience the area of the shop and café provide an opportunity for fans to catch their breath. Inspired by what they’ll have seen and experienced, our retail offer makes it both easy and pleasurable to turn their excitement into tangible rewards.
The Wi Fi platform will considerably enhance the immersive experience for all Doctor Who lovers while maximising footfall and sales in the shop. It is an important part of our ‘from the till backwards’ approach to retail planning.
This is a fabulous project and we are enormously proud to have won the commission. The Doctor Who Experience is a flagship initiative for BBC Worldwide so, as you’d expect, we were up against some of the best advisors in the business. Complementing our knowledge of temporary retail, we challenged ourselves to deliver ideas in keeping with the event – watch out for one or two out-of-this-world developments!
Over 400 different items of Doctor Who memorabilia are expected to be on sale, ranging from books, toys, games and other licensed merchandise items. The shop, which will be open to the public separately from the Experience, is circular in design and takes up some 130 square metres of floor-space; the checkout area is arranged within the centre of the shop so as to mimic the TARDIS console!
The shop will open to the public alongside the Doctor Who Experience from 20th February.
Wednesday, 9 February 2011 - Reported by Chuck Foster
Hirst Publishing have provided details on their forthcoming publication of a biography on the actor Patrick Troughton, who played the Second Doctor. The book has been written by his son, Michael Troughton.
Book Cover
Author Michael Troughton
A long overdue biography of the second Doctor Patrick Troughton is in preparation. The actor’s son Michael is writing the book, due for release in November.
Publisher Tim Hirst says “Michael’s research is comprehensive and meticulous and his enthusiasm for the project is contagious! This book will be a real treat for Doctor Who fans.” Patrick Troughton had many film and TV roles, before and after his three years as the Doctor, and was also a Commander in the Royal Navy during the Second World War.
Michael Troughton, known to UK TV viewers as Piers Fletcher Dervish in the classic Rik Mayall comedy The New Statesman, contributed two fondly remembered articles to DWM some years back, in which he discussed growing up with Patrick.
The book will be in hard-back, and is available for pre-order from Hirst Publishing's website.
The new issue of the UK children's comic The Dandy sees its lead character, TV's Harry Hill, have a fleeting encounter with all eleven incarnations of the Doctor (plus some Daleks!) during a twelve page special of his usual madcap antics within the comic!
The Royal Mail are to release a new collection of stamps featuring six iconic images from the Royal Shakespeare Company to celebrate 50 years of the company's charter.
Each of the six stamps features a scene from The Tempest, Henry VI, King Lear, A Midsummer's Night Dream or Romeo and Juliet - the 1st Class stamp will feature Hamlet, as portrayed by David Tennant!
Matt Smith debuted as the Doctor in France last night, with the first three episodes of Series Five broadcast on France 4
Friday 11th February saw the launch of National Doodle Day 2011, the eighth event organised by the charities Epilepsy Action and The Neurofibromatosis Association. As with last year, a number of doodles from stars associated with Doctor Who join others to help raise money to help those afflicted by those illnesses.
The French Doctor Who fansite Beans on Toast have published an exclusive audio interview with David Manet, the former French voice of the Doctor.
"TW-Spy!" saw writer Jane Espenson present us with some doughnuts! However, as she pointed out, "Don't eat them; they're working". She also confirmed that in general writers are usually on-set during filming for shows in the States, though her writing commitments had meant that she hadn't been on the Torchwood shoot as much.
The BBC's Doctor Who website has confirmed that actress and model Lily Cole will appear in the forthcoming series. The site says that Cole will play "a mysterious creature that haunts a pirate ship", indicating that she will appear in the current episode being filmed, opposite Hugh Bonneville as Avery.
Further to our article yesterday, some more details on the Doctor Who Shop at the Doctor Who Experience have emerged.
Over 400 different items of Doctor Who memorabilia are expected to be on sale, ranging from books, toys, games and other licensed merchandise items. The shop, which will be open to the public separately from the Experience, is circular in design and takes up some 130 square metres of floor-space; the checkout area is arranged within the centre of the shop so as to mimic the TARDIS console!
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