Doctor Who purists (and the generally curious) should take note that this soundtrack release is comprised of music from the 2005 and 2006 series of Doctor Who, the former starring Christopher Eccleston as the good Doctor and the latter starring David Tennant in the titular role. While the music focuses on the most recent incarnations of the popular character, there are trace elements of the classic Doctor Who running throughout, most prominently in the bookend tracks "Doctor Who Theme (TV Version)" and "Doctor Who Theme (Album Version)" as well as in slightly altered refrains such as "The Doctor's Theme," etc.
While composer Murray Gold is merely the latest musician to tackle the score to a chunk of the on-going Doctor Who legacy, he seems to have a wonderful knack for mining the quirky sonic theatrics of vintage Sci-Fi and then marrying them to more modern sounding elements to create his own singular aural universe that at once brings to mind the schlock laden hey days of the '50s and the as-of-yet-unexplored worlds of the future.As mentioned above, the album kicks off with the ubiquitous "Doctor Who Theme," this most recent version clocking in at a mere 41-seconds and sounding a bit unfinished (amazing how it seems so much longer when coupled with the swirling, hypnotical gases that usually accompany the opening credits of the show). Still it contains the recognizable synth flourishes that have made it one of the all-time great television theme songs of the day.With "Westminster Bridge," Gold presents a new opening number that was used to open the 2005 and 2006 editions of the series. Borrowing a heavily dog eared page from the flamboyant spy thriller song book, he whips up a swaggering guitar driven little ditty that sounds part go-go futura bam-bam and part over-the-top espionage excitement. Truly boffo. In stark contrast, "The Doctor's Theme" re-works the classic main theme with hauntingly detached femme fatale vocals and a rich sense of disembodied tonal ambiance. Mesmerizing in its deceptive simplicity."Cassandra's Waltz" dips back to that sense of never was meeting never now, a strange blend of classic dance mechanics and flittering Sci-Fi bravado turned down several notches to create a whimsically harrowing little number that is as dainty as it is ominous. And at 3-minutes and 8-seconds it's also one of the more fully realized numbers on the album. While blending a diverse pastiche of patented film and television motifs is Gold's main modus operandi, he also seems to enjoy "borrowing" from other classic television programs of years past. For example astute pop culture sonic historians will no doubt pick up on the Mission Impossible-styled thematics (both in terms of the thundering rhythms and the accentuated horn elements) lodged deep within "Slitheen."Meanwhile "Father's Day" returns to a more somber mood, relying on forlorn piano and little else. Offsetting this introspective detour is "Rose In Peril," which lives up to its theatrical title thanks to a grandiose, old school Hollywood score feel. "Boom Town Suite" keeps things within a similar vein, actually combining bits of a waltz with the more poised nuances of an emotional musical passage, dipping into restrained territory almost as quickly as the frivolity occurred at the onset. With "I'm Coming To Get You," Gold continues his emphatic big screen scoring ideas, unleashing a flourish of large orchestra energy, mixing swelling choral arrangements with a flooding wash of strings for a grand expose.By now it should be obvious that the middle portion of this 31-track disc is heavily laden with silver screen inspired grandiosity. "Hologram," "Rose Defeats The Daleks," "Clockwork Tardis," "Harriet Jones, Prime Minister," "Rose's Theme," "The Face Of Boe," "Unit," "Seeking The Doctor," "Madame De Pompadour," "The Lone Dalek," "New Adventures," "Finding Jackie," "The Daleks," "The Cybermen," "The Impossible Planet," "Sycorax Encounter" all fall under the jurisdiction of classic movie and television themeology. Granted some of these pieces fall toward the quiet and introspective end of the sonic spectrum ("The Face Of Boe," for example) whilst others lean more toward the dramatic and forceful ("Unit," being one of the best of this latter bunch), and still others go for that retro Sci-Fi-meets-Bali Hi sense of etherealism ("Seeking The Doctor"), but all in all this portion of the disc is what we shall call the more "traditional" score section.
Tucked in amongst the above listed numbers is the chaotic rhythm surge and quasi industrial brashness of "Tooth And Claw," a song that more than lives up to its name thanks to primal chanting and clattering rhythmic interphase. Sadly, it dips back into standard score terrain at the halfway mark for a bit then jumps back with a crescendoing combination of the two to round it out. The same can be said of "Monster Bossa" which starts off with promising energy then slips into a slithering down-tempo sense of surrealism. Meanwhile "Doomsday" is something of an anomaly, as well, coming off like an electric dash-off sandwiched between all the classical score elements. This is evidenced by the presence of electric bass and cooing female vocals that make it sound more like a futuristic dark lounge number than anything else on the album.
Speaking of left-of-center inclusions, Neil Hannon, the man behind The Divine Comedy, and one of Brit Pop's great unheralded talents, chimes in with no less than two vocalese tracks. Sounding not unlike a more reserved Jarvis Cocker, Hannon has one of those classic traditional pop voices that swells with emotive countenance and like much of Gold's instrumental themes provides a wonderfully hazy sense of time and place; it sounds both familiar and yet strangely new. "Song For Ten" has tinges of glam era Bowie slathered in strings and Burt Bacharachian elements. "Love Don't Roam" is a shagging jet set number that easily could have been an outtake from Austin Powers or any number of vintage '60s swingin' flicks. The retro inflammation teeters on the edge of being kitschy, but in the end Gold's swaying hipster elements meld rather well with Hannon's rich theatrical swoon. Vegas watch out, baby!The album concludes with the 2-minute and 36-second "album version" of the "Doctor Who Theme," which while containing the familiar haunting synth squiggles and ominous swirling mist-icism, also fleshes out the theme with more symphonics and a somewhat bombastically absurd passage of what can only be described as glorious jubilation from an orchestral vantage point. Or something like that. For the casual Doctor Who viewer Doctor Who - Original Television Soundtrack is far from being essential. There are some moments of near-brilliance to be sure, but like most scores and soundtracks, this is a release aimed more squarely at the faithful and fanatic than anybody else. Those intimately familiar with the 2005 and 2006 series of the show will no doubt have a much deeper emotional connection to the music. That said, the album isn't necessarily a waste of time or money, per se, it's just that if you're a full-blown Doctor Who connoisseur, then you'll probably get a lot more out of it than Johnny Television who doesn't know Tom Baker from Peter Cushing.
Definitely Download:
1. "Doctor Who Theme"
2. "Westminster Bridge"
3. "The Doctor's Theme"
4. "Cassandra's Waltz"
5. "Song For Ten"
6. "Doomsday"
7. "Love Don't Roam"
Friday, February 16, 2007
2007 Book Release additions
1st June 2007
Calling the Shots: Directing the new series... - By Graeme Harper - Reynolds & Hearn Ltd - £14.99
5th July 2007
The Corinthian Project: Decide Your Destiny - By Davey Moore - Activity Book - Penguin Character Books - £4.99
The Time Crocodile: Decide Your Destiny - By Colin Brake - Activity Book - Penguin Character Books - £4.99
Frozen Earth: Decide Your Destiny - By Kay Woodward - Activity Book - Penguin Character Books - £4.99
Arena: Decide Your Destiny - By Richard Dungworth - Activity Book - Penguin Character Books - £4.99
Doctor Who Activity Collection - By Richard Dungworth - Activity Book - Penguin Character Books - £4.99
30th August 2007
Doctor Who Family Planner 2008 - Activity Book - Penguin Character Books - £9.99
Doctor Who Desk Calendar 2008 - Activity Book - Penguin Character Books - £6.99
6th September 2007
Sick Building - By Paul Magrs - 10th Doctor & Martha - BBC Books - £6.99
Forever Autumn - By Mark Morris - 10th Doctor & Martha - BBC Books - £6.99
Wetworld - By Mark Michalowski - 10th Doctor & Martha - BBC Books - £6.99
Calling the Shots: Directing the new series... - By Graeme Harper - Reynolds & Hearn Ltd - £14.99
5th July 2007
The Corinthian Project: Decide Your Destiny - By Davey Moore - Activity Book - Penguin Character Books - £4.99
The Time Crocodile: Decide Your Destiny - By Colin Brake - Activity Book - Penguin Character Books - £4.99
Frozen Earth: Decide Your Destiny - By Kay Woodward - Activity Book - Penguin Character Books - £4.99
Arena: Decide Your Destiny - By Richard Dungworth - Activity Book - Penguin Character Books - £4.99
Doctor Who Activity Collection - By Richard Dungworth - Activity Book - Penguin Character Books - £4.99
30th August 2007
Doctor Who Family Planner 2008 - Activity Book - Penguin Character Books - £9.99
Doctor Who Desk Calendar 2008 - Activity Book - Penguin Character Books - £6.99
6th September 2007
Sick Building - By Paul Magrs - 10th Doctor & Martha - BBC Books - £6.99
Forever Autumn - By Mark Morris - 10th Doctor & Martha - BBC Books - £6.99
Wetworld - By Mark Michalowski - 10th Doctor & Martha - BBC Books - £6.99
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Press Round Up
Some stories you may have missed recently in the press...Comparisons between Doctor Who and ITV's new show Primeval have been cropping up in a variety of sources. Heat magazine said "...it's not a fair comparison - where Doctor Who is quirky, playful and very British, this glossy adventure is more in the American style, with spectacular effects, fancy locations and less larking about... For all it's slickness, Primeval would be improved by the presence of a David Tennant or a Billie Piper. But what wouldn't?". Closer magazine commented that as, "Doctor Who proved that decent sci-fi drama can be a huge family hit, so you can't blame ITV for wanting a piece of the action." John Barrowman has been 'celebrating the best of Broadway, Hollywood and the West End' by sitting in for Elaine Paige) on Sunday 11 February on BBC Radio 2 at 1-3pm, and will be carrying on the presenting duties on the following Sunday, 18 February, at the same time. You can listen again for 7 days here. The first show included radio play for Love Don't Roam and discussion of Torchwood filming, as previously reported on the News Page.A home-made Doctor Who time machine was the star attraction at a space-based literacy day on Saturday 20 January at the Langworthy Cornerstone, aimed at improving English. Doctor Who scriptwriter Steve Cole also attended, conducting a writing seminar and judging the winning entries in the story competition.The Mirror has reported on the investigation of a BBC Wales executive for fraud as "A Doctor Who Swindle", claiming the executive "was in charge of a multi-million pound budget at the Cardiff HQ where Doctor Who is made" and is under investigation for a series of payment he authorised. Any Doctor Who link is may be largely geographical however, as the executive who resigned in April 2005 was head of operations for BBC Wales, and was responsible for technology, outside broadcasts, studios, post-production, facilities management, and BBC premises.According to Sky Showbiz (A. Montini), Hugh Grant 'got offered a role in the revived version of Doctor Who. Not sure what put him off the role - the hard work or the show being shot in Cardiff... Either way he said no.'Many celebrities have been revealing their love of Doctor Who.Take That singer Mark Owen told Sky Showbiz he would like to appear in Doctor Who, saying that "I never missed it and loved the show the first time around. I think there is room for us on the show to do a concert on another planet, but we would have to return, of course."
PeopleMarc Warren (Love and Monsters) and Yasmin Bannerman (The End of the World) both appeared in the first episode of the second series of Life on Mars, broadcast on BBC 1 on the 13th February. Written and co-created by Matthew Graham and starring John Simm, episode 2 in the current series was written by Chris Chibnall (Torchwood).Peter Davison is to star in a new BBC 2 comedy Fear, Stress and Anger.
PeopleMarc Warren (Love and Monsters) and Yasmin Bannerman (The End of the World) both appeared in the first episode of the second series of Life on Mars, broadcast on BBC 1 on the 13th February. Written and co-created by Matthew Graham and starring John Simm, episode 2 in the current series was written by Chris Chibnall (Torchwood).Peter Davison is to star in a new BBC 2 comedy Fear, Stress and Anger.
Torchwood News
Rainbow Network has a list of the top ten gay kisses of all time, and Torchwood has made the list. It does contain spoilers for the episode Captain Jack Harkness, CLICK HERE to see the list.
Eccleston Joins Dark Cast
Hmmmm what happened to his turn on heroes???
Christopher Eccleston (Heroes) and Gregory Smith have joined the cast of The Dark Is Rising, 20th Century Fox and Walden Media's adaptation of Susan Cooper's best-selling fantasy books, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Marc Platt and Ron Schmidt are producing the picture, which is being helmed by David L. Cunningham. Dark tells the story of a teenager (newcomer Alexander Ludwig) who learns that he is the last of a group of warriors who have dedicated their lives to fighting the forces of the dark. Traveling back and forth through time, he hunts for clues while encountering the forces of evil and discovers that the future of the world rests in his hands. Eccleston (Doctor Who) is playing the movie's villain, the Rider. Smith is playing the teen's older brother, an edgy young man with piercings and tattoos who questions their father's authority. Also in the cast are Amelia Warner (Aeon Flux), Emma Lockhart (Batman Begins), Gary Entin, Edmund Entin, Jonathan Jackson and John Benjamin Hickey. Ian McShane and Frances Conroy have already been cast. The movie is slated to begin filming Feb. 26 in Romania. Eccleston is currently stealing scenes as an invisible man on NBC's Heroes.
Christopher Eccleston (Heroes) and Gregory Smith have joined the cast of The Dark Is Rising, 20th Century Fox and Walden Media's adaptation of Susan Cooper's best-selling fantasy books, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Marc Platt and Ron Schmidt are producing the picture, which is being helmed by David L. Cunningham. Dark tells the story of a teenager (newcomer Alexander Ludwig) who learns that he is the last of a group of warriors who have dedicated their lives to fighting the forces of the dark. Traveling back and forth through time, he hunts for clues while encountering the forces of evil and discovers that the future of the world rests in his hands. Eccleston (Doctor Who) is playing the movie's villain, the Rider. Smith is playing the teen's older brother, an edgy young man with piercings and tattoos who questions their father's authority. Also in the cast are Amelia Warner (Aeon Flux), Emma Lockhart (Batman Begins), Gary Entin, Edmund Entin, Jonathan Jackson and John Benjamin Hickey. Ian McShane and Frances Conroy have already been cast. The movie is slated to begin filming Feb. 26 in Romania. Eccleston is currently stealing scenes as an invisible man on NBC's Heroes.
Little Orphan Who
Some Doctor Who influences in the Annie comic. It starts on December 14th when Annie finds a strange door. On walking through it she finds herself in another dimension in the city of Atlantis. In the January 9th comic it is revealed how Annie arrived, a man named Vah-Lin-Tan the Roamer who has a console that can access other places it space and time. Problem is it's a bit random so he's having trouble getting Annie home. Leapin' Lizards!
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
DR WHO STAR STRIPS
TIMELORD STAR DAVID REVEALS ALL AS HE GETS KIT OFF FOR A NEW TV DRAMA
IT'S enough to make a Dalek blush as Doctor Who star David Tennant goes totally naked.
The heroic Timelord strips down to his sonic screwdriver for BBC drama Recovery - and is joined in the buff by Cutting It star Sarah Parish.
The pair play a husband and wife who are thrown into chaos after he suffers a brain injury in an accident.
David, 35, is no stranger to getting his kit off. He starred as a naked copper in the 1995 stage play What The Butler Saw and also had nude scenes in TV dramas Casanova and Blackpool.
An insider said: "Doctor Who fans are more used to seeing David in his pinstripe suit and trainers.
"But maybe he'll surprise everyone next series and take on the Daleks in his birthday suit."
In Recovery, to be shown later this month, David's character tries to regain his personality after the accident.
He and Sarah, 38, expose their behinds as she shows him how to dress himself. He grumbles: "We used to help each other take our clothes off."
David is also seen naked in hospital after he tries to take a shower but forgets to turn the water on.
Writer Tony Marchant says the film is all about identity. He adds: "The challenge is to see whether people can dramatically change and still be loved by those closest to them."
One thing's sure. Dr Who will never seem quite the same after this view of him being kecks-terminated.
IT'S enough to make a Dalek blush as Doctor Who star David Tennant goes totally naked.
The heroic Timelord strips down to his sonic screwdriver for BBC drama Recovery - and is joined in the buff by Cutting It star Sarah Parish.
The pair play a husband and wife who are thrown into chaos after he suffers a brain injury in an accident.
David, 35, is no stranger to getting his kit off. He starred as a naked copper in the 1995 stage play What The Butler Saw and also had nude scenes in TV dramas Casanova and Blackpool.
An insider said: "Doctor Who fans are more used to seeing David in his pinstripe suit and trainers.
"But maybe he'll surprise everyone next series and take on the Daleks in his birthday suit."
In Recovery, to be shown later this month, David's character tries to regain his personality after the accident.
He and Sarah, 38, expose their behinds as she shows him how to dress himself. He grumbles: "We used to help each other take our clothes off."
David is also seen naked in hospital after he tries to take a shower but forgets to turn the water on.
Writer Tony Marchant says the film is all about identity. He adds: "The challenge is to see whether people can dramatically change and still be loved by those closest to them."
One thing's sure. Dr Who will never seem quite the same after this view of him being kecks-terminated.
Mo's dishy doc ex joins Dr Who
The Sun reports Tom Ellis will appear in series three as Tom Milligan, and John Simm will also appear. To read the article CLICK HERE, but it does contain as major spoiler... maybe.
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Help???
If anyone out there has any spoilers, articles, or web sites to share please email me at badwolf_risen@yahoo.com and include in the subject what you are relaying. Any credit will be given if you would like thank you very much!!!
Watch Doctor Who online
I found a great site to watch a few episodes from a few different seasons of Doctor who. Click the link and enjoy!!!!!!
http://www.tv-links.co.uk/Classic_Doctor_Who_links.html
http://www.tv-links.co.uk/Classic_Doctor_Who_links.html
S3: 'It's all Rumour' - John Simm
Is he or isn't he? John Simm speaks to BBC6 Radio and puts the rumours to rest - for now.
It's been widely rumoured over the past couple of weeks that Life on Mars star; John Simm, is to step into the role of The Doctor's nemesis; The Master, for Series Three of the hit BBC science fiction show.
Up until now, there has been no firm denial, but it seems that Simm, speaking on Nemone's radio programe for BBC6, has made a public denial by statitng:
"It's all speculation and all rumour at this point, I think it's just journalists getting a little bit excited..."
Obviously the intriguing bit to pick up on is 'at this point'. Either way, the mystery that shrouds Series Three can only be a good thing.
[Sources: DWO; BBC6 - website; Matthew Pilkington]
It's been widely rumoured over the past couple of weeks that Life on Mars star; John Simm, is to step into the role of The Doctor's nemesis; The Master, for Series Three of the hit BBC science fiction show.
Up until now, there has been no firm denial, but it seems that Simm, speaking on Nemone's radio programe for BBC6, has made a public denial by statitng:
"It's all speculation and all rumour at this point, I think it's just journalists getting a little bit excited..."
Obviously the intriguing bit to pick up on is 'at this point'. Either way, the mystery that shrouds Series Three can only be a good thing.
[Sources: DWO; BBC6 - website; Matthew Pilkington]
New Freema Agyeman video diary online!!
You’ve probably seen the great video diaries on the series two DVDs for Doctor Who (with David Tennant and Billie Piper) - well here’s a fun preview for the Doctor Who series three video diaries with Freema Agyeman talking about her early experiences on the set as Martha Jones!
click the link to view!!!! http://freemaagyeman.com/news/2007/02/12/martha-jones-video-diary-preview/comment-page-2/#comments
click the link to view!!!! http://freemaagyeman.com/news/2007/02/12/martha-jones-video-diary-preview/comment-page-2/#comments
John Simm on BBC 6Music
John Simm appeared with his Life on Mars co-star Philip Glenister as guests on Nemone Metaxas's radio programme, broadcast on BBC 6Music, this afternoon. Simm spoke via telephone, rather than in studio with Glenister, as his wife has recently had a baby.Mainly there to promote the second series of Life on Mars, which commences its run on BBC One this evening, Simm was also asked about the recent rumours concerning his possible guest appearance in series three of Doctor Who. Although there were no spoilers, the question contained speculation about a major character rumoured to be appearing in the new series.
No Torchwood down under?
Despite earlier media reports to the contrary, the Australian TV Week magazine mentions in its latest edition that both public broadcasters, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) have passed on Torchwood. There is no indication that any of the Australian commercial broadcasters will pick up the show.
The ABC is expected to screen the third series of Doctor Who from mid-year but this is still subject to official confirmation. Sorry Mate!!!!
The ABC is expected to screen the third series of Doctor Who from mid-year but this is still subject to official confirmation. Sorry Mate!!!!
Monday, February 12, 2007
Doctor Video
A Doctor Who music video starring The Doctor, Sarah Jane, Harry, and a host of villains, creatures and science fiction cliches.
Set to Science Fiction: Double Feature from the Rocky Horror Show ... (more)
Piper to ditch 'girl next door' image to play prostitute
She is best known to thousands of children and parents as Rose Tyler from hit TV series Doctor Who.
But now former teen pop-star Billie Piper, is set to ditch her girl next door image after being lined up to play Belle de Jour - the infamous high class prostitute who made a fortune from chronicling her sexual exploits on the internet.
Belle de Jour, whose real identity is only known by a handful of people, earned a six-figure book deal after her on-line diary about her sexual adventures became a massive draw with internet users, getting thousands of hits a day.
Now Piper, 24, is set to bring to life the lurid tales - described by some as a "top-shelf Bridget Jones" with plans for the C4 drama.
In the book Belle de Jour goes into graphic detail about her sexual liaisons with a range of men - including an investment banker, a senior law enforcement officer and a psychoanalyst.
But the diaries are as much about the day to day preoccupations of Belle de Jour, who offers fashion tips and talks about mundane concerns such as having her house redesigned.
The decision of Piper, who is also about appear on TV screens as Fanny Price in an adaptation of Mansfield Park on ITV, to take the part will be seen as a clear move to make a break with her clean cut image and show the world once and for all she is a fully-grown up actress.
Friends say she is "desperate" to play the part of Belle de Jour, with Channel 4 expected to green-light the project in the coming weeks.
Piper, who shot to fame as a 15-year-old pop star, who was the youngest performer to have achieved a number one debut single and followed that up with another chart topper in the same year.
She famously tied the knot with DJ Chris Evans in 2001 in Las Vegas - they split three years later in 2004.
Piper has recently just began a new relationship with Laurence Fox, son of actor James Fox, who co-stars with Piper in current West End production Treats.
He left his live-in girlfriend of six years just before Christmas. At the same time Piper broke up with lawyer Amadu Sowe, her boyfriend of two years.
She has previously appeared in the BBC's Canterbury Tales: The Miller's Tale in 2003 and also won rave reviews for her perfomance in Bella the Boys.
Belle de Jour, named after the famous French film from the 1960's, which starred Catherine Deneuve, claims to be an English Jewish woman in her 20s who studied arts at university, who lives in Islington but is originally from Yorkshire.
She is well-educated, familiar with French and Italian classics as well as Shakespeare, wears Chanel nail varnish and shops at Harvey Nicholls while boasting a stunning array of lingerie.
The real identity of Belle de Jour has become the subject of frenzied media speculation - with many believing it to have been the work of a novelist or journalist.
But now former teen pop-star Billie Piper, is set to ditch her girl next door image after being lined up to play Belle de Jour - the infamous high class prostitute who made a fortune from chronicling her sexual exploits on the internet.
Belle de Jour, whose real identity is only known by a handful of people, earned a six-figure book deal after her on-line diary about her sexual adventures became a massive draw with internet users, getting thousands of hits a day.
Now Piper, 24, is set to bring to life the lurid tales - described by some as a "top-shelf Bridget Jones" with plans for the C4 drama.
In the book Belle de Jour goes into graphic detail about her sexual liaisons with a range of men - including an investment banker, a senior law enforcement officer and a psychoanalyst.
But the diaries are as much about the day to day preoccupations of Belle de Jour, who offers fashion tips and talks about mundane concerns such as having her house redesigned.
The decision of Piper, who is also about appear on TV screens as Fanny Price in an adaptation of Mansfield Park on ITV, to take the part will be seen as a clear move to make a break with her clean cut image and show the world once and for all she is a fully-grown up actress.
Friends say she is "desperate" to play the part of Belle de Jour, with Channel 4 expected to green-light the project in the coming weeks.
Piper, who shot to fame as a 15-year-old pop star, who was the youngest performer to have achieved a number one debut single and followed that up with another chart topper in the same year.
She famously tied the knot with DJ Chris Evans in 2001 in Las Vegas - they split three years later in 2004.
Piper has recently just began a new relationship with Laurence Fox, son of actor James Fox, who co-stars with Piper in current West End production Treats.
He left his live-in girlfriend of six years just before Christmas. At the same time Piper broke up with lawyer Amadu Sowe, her boyfriend of two years.
She has previously appeared in the BBC's Canterbury Tales: The Miller's Tale in 2003 and also won rave reviews for her perfomance in Bella the Boys.
Belle de Jour, named after the famous French film from the 1960's, which starred Catherine Deneuve, claims to be an English Jewish woman in her 20s who studied arts at university, who lives in Islington but is originally from Yorkshire.
She is well-educated, familiar with French and Italian classics as well as Shakespeare, wears Chanel nail varnish and shops at Harvey Nicholls while boasting a stunning array of lingerie.
The real identity of Belle de Jour has become the subject of frenzied media speculation - with many believing it to have been the work of a novelist or journalist.
United Kingdom: Billie Piper for Eurovision 2007?
According to information provided to us via the Oikotimes.com newsdesk, Billie Piper has been approached by the BBC to sing the United Kingdom's entry in the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest. The information comes from a post on a Doctor Who website (Billie Piper has stared in the programe as the Doctor's assistant), which says that movements between departments at the BBC have resulted in someone connected with the Saturday night television show going to the Eurovision branch of the corporation. This, according to the post, has resulted in Billie Piper being approached (becuase of the connections). We cannot stress enough that these are just rumours, but we have contacted the BBC for a second time and await a response. At the current time, nothing has been confirmed by the broadcaster.
Billie Piper shot to the top of the British charts with the song ''Because We Want To'' back in 1998, and also hit top spot with ''Girlfriend'' in the same year, and ''Day and Night'' in 2000. Many of her other songs made it into the top five. She has recently been back in the charts since BBC Radio One DJ Chris Moyles backed a campaign to have listeners to buy her song ''Honey to the Bee'' and take advantage of the new download chart rules, getting the song up to number 17! Possibly her next move could be to try her hand at Eurovision? We'll have to wait and see.
Billie Piper shot to the top of the British charts with the song ''Because We Want To'' back in 1998, and also hit top spot with ''Girlfriend'' in the same year, and ''Day and Night'' in 2000. Many of her other songs made it into the top five. She has recently been back in the charts since BBC Radio One DJ Chris Moyles backed a campaign to have listeners to buy her song ''Honey to the Bee'' and take advantage of the new download chart rules, getting the song up to number 17! Possibly her next move could be to try her hand at Eurovision? We'll have to wait and see.
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Recovery to air the week begining Feb 24th.
We have a date, and a couple of rather sweet photos on the BBC website here and here.
David Tennant and Sarah Parish star in a powerful drama for BBC One, written by Bafta award-winning writer Tony Marchant – creator of Holding On, Crime And Punishment, Kid In The Corner and The Knight's Tale.
Alan and Tricia Hamilton are very happy. He's the head of a building firm and on top of his game, while she's a part-time beautician and a mother to their two sons. But one day their perfect, if unremarkable, life is torn apart when a last-minute decision to pop out for a quick drink with a colleague sees Alan step out in front of a passing car. The accident leaves him in a deep coma but with remarkably few physical injuries. Desperately worried about him, Tricia is delighted when he comes round – only to discover that the man she loved has disappeared. His behaviour has changed; he has lost all of his inhibitions and he veers from angry and frustrated to vulnerable and childlike. Simple tasks such as making toast and getting dressed are beyond him, he is unable to hold down the job he loves and he plays and laughs with his sons as if he's a child. Alan's behaviour puts his relationship with Tricia under intolerable stress. She longs to find the husband she loves in there somewhere – but fears she may have lost him for ever.
Tony Marchant's script was partly inspired by research he undertook with the charity Headway, but also deals with the concept of identity.
David Tennant and Sarah Parish star in a powerful drama for BBC One, written by Bafta award-winning writer Tony Marchant – creator of Holding On, Crime And Punishment, Kid In The Corner and The Knight's Tale.
Alan and Tricia Hamilton are very happy. He's the head of a building firm and on top of his game, while she's a part-time beautician and a mother to their two sons. But one day their perfect, if unremarkable, life is torn apart when a last-minute decision to pop out for a quick drink with a colleague sees Alan step out in front of a passing car. The accident leaves him in a deep coma but with remarkably few physical injuries. Desperately worried about him, Tricia is delighted when he comes round – only to discover that the man she loved has disappeared. His behaviour has changed; he has lost all of his inhibitions and he veers from angry and frustrated to vulnerable and childlike. Simple tasks such as making toast and getting dressed are beyond him, he is unable to hold down the job he loves and he plays and laughs with his sons as if he's a child. Alan's behaviour puts his relationship with Tricia under intolerable stress. She longs to find the husband she loves in there somewhere – but fears she may have lost him for ever.
Tony Marchant's script was partly inspired by research he undertook with the charity Headway, but also deals with the concept of identity.
Major Spoiler revealed in Independent on Sunday {AGAIN}
As reported here weeks ago John Simm is gonna be the master...sweeeeeet
A major piece of casting appears to have been revealed for season three. With the popular cult telefantasy series Life on Mars returning for a final time on BBC1 this Tuesday, the Independent on Sunday newspaper have a profile and interview with the lead actor, John Simm, which starts off with the statement:"Travelling back through the years for hit show 'Life on Mars' has given the actor more fame than he knows how to cope with. But now he reveals to Liz Hoggard a new role that will mean seeing a Doctor." During the course of the interview the article goes on to seemingly confirm a rumour first raised in the Sun by saying the following:Although the BBC is planning a spin-off to Life on Mars - called Ashes to Ashes, set in the 1980s and starring Glenister, Simm is bowing out. "My instinct tells me not to hang around too long."He'd like to do some comedy "in warm weather - preferably on a beach. I always seem to be doing drama in horrible brick locations." And for years he's been dying to play a proper villain or a serial killer. The problem is Simm still looks 35 going on 15, but finally he's got the chance: he's just been cast in Dr Who - as the Master, the Doctor's evil nemesis. He'll be quite brilliant, of course, but heaven knows how he'll cope with a whole new horde of obsessive Tardis fans.
Torchwood Vol. 3 Cover Released
The cover and information for the third Torchwood DVD has now been released. Due to be released in the UK on March 26, this volume will include the final four episodes from the first season. Deleted scenes, Episode Guides, a Video Diary, and featurette will also be included.
http://www.gallifreyone.com/picview.php?ret=news&sub=news&id=Volume3.jpg
"The 21st Century is when it all changes and you¿ve got to be ready..." - Captain Jack Harkness.
Torchwood follows the adventures of a team of investigators, led by the enigmatic Captain Jack. Set in the UK in the present day, the team use scavenged alien technology in a very real world to solve crime; both alien and human. Separate from the government. Outside the police. Beyond the United Nations. Everyone who works for Torchwood is young, under 35. Some say that's because it's a new science. Others say it's because they die young...
Episodes:1.10 Out of Time
Countrycide1.11
Combat1.12
Captain Jack Harkness1.13
End of Days
Special Features: Making Of Featurette For Each Episode Deleted Scenes Outtakes
http://www.gallifreyone.com/picview.php?ret=news&sub=news&id=Volume3.jpg
"The 21st Century is when it all changes and you¿ve got to be ready..." - Captain Jack Harkness.
Torchwood follows the adventures of a team of investigators, led by the enigmatic Captain Jack. Set in the UK in the present day, the team use scavenged alien technology in a very real world to solve crime; both alien and human. Separate from the government. Outside the police. Beyond the United Nations. Everyone who works for Torchwood is young, under 35. Some say that's because it's a new science. Others say it's because they die young...
Episodes:1.10 Out of Time
Countrycide1.11
Combat1.12
Captain Jack Harkness1.13
End of Days
Special Features: Making Of Featurette For Each Episode Deleted Scenes Outtakes
Dalek Empire becomes FEARLESS
In a recent interview with Doctor Who Magazine, Co-Executive Producer Nick Briggs has released more information about the fourth Dalek Empire series. Entitled The Fearless, the series will take place during the first Dalek Empire series and will feature at least one of the original characters. Storylines have already been approved by the BBC, with recording slated for May. This latest serial will be released from September to December.
Torchwood Season Two to premier in 2008
John Barrowman has revealed that he expects Season two of Torchwood to premier early in 2008. Speaking on BBC Radio Two, where he was the stand in presenter for Elaine Paige, he told listeners that he will be recording Torchwood until November and the series will be shown in the New Year.John also confirmed that he is at present filming Doctor Who. He describes the new series as fantastic and full of surprises with a spectacular season finale.The programme also featured Neil Hannon's recording of Love Don't Roam The programme is also available via the Radio 2 homepage for the next seven days. The Torchwood comments are about 50 minutes into the programme.
Tennant returns to tackle Daleks
DAVID Tennant is preparing to do battle against the Daleks again in the third series of the revamped Doctor Who.
The Timelord and his new assistant Martha, who will be back in the spring, will battle it out against the psychotic robots in an episode based on 1930s New York.
In the first episode of the BBC One Wales sci-fi drama, the Doctor and Martha, who replaced Billie Piper, will meet aliens known as the Judoon.
"The Judoon are pretty extraordinary, they're sort of intergalactic storm-troopers who take Martha and I to the moon," said David.
"It's just part of the madness and brilliance of doing this show that it seems to keep bettering itself every time."
David is also excited about all the guest stars who'll be turning up when the series returns in March.
"Father Ted's Ardal O'Hanlon is in episode three and Mark Gatiss from The League of Gentlemen is in episode six - they just keep coming," he said.
But it's in episodes four and five that the Daleks return to haunt the Doctor in an art deco version of Manhattan.
Speaking on rumours that he is set to quit the show after this series, David added: "You shouldn't believe everything you read in the papers."
Tennant's commitment to the show comes as the Doctor is set to star alongside Dennis the Menace in the kids' Beano magazine.
A special Comic Relief edition sees the Doc and the Daleks encounter the Bash Street Kids with TV chef Jamie Oliver running the school canteen.
The Timelord and his new assistant Martha, who will be back in the spring, will battle it out against the psychotic robots in an episode based on 1930s New York.
In the first episode of the BBC One Wales sci-fi drama, the Doctor and Martha, who replaced Billie Piper, will meet aliens known as the Judoon.
"The Judoon are pretty extraordinary, they're sort of intergalactic storm-troopers who take Martha and I to the moon," said David.
"It's just part of the madness and brilliance of doing this show that it seems to keep bettering itself every time."
David is also excited about all the guest stars who'll be turning up when the series returns in March.
"Father Ted's Ardal O'Hanlon is in episode three and Mark Gatiss from The League of Gentlemen is in episode six - they just keep coming," he said.
But it's in episodes four and five that the Daleks return to haunt the Doctor in an art deco version of Manhattan.
Speaking on rumours that he is set to quit the show after this series, David added: "You shouldn't believe everything you read in the papers."
Tennant's commitment to the show comes as the Doctor is set to star alongside Dennis the Menace in the kids' Beano magazine.
A special Comic Relief edition sees the Doc and the Daleks encounter the Bash Street Kids with TV chef Jamie Oliver running the school canteen.
Saturday, February 10, 2007
The Guardian Unlimited's The Guide wondered how fictional TV characters would fare on the British singles scene, and Captain Jack Harkness made the li
Captain Jack Harkness TorchwoodCraigslist.org, Cardiff's casual encounters pages
"Time waits for no man. m4m - 39 Tall (6'1"), built, handsome civil servant (manager), ex-serviceman, bit of a trickster. Super humanly healthy. Flirtatious. Dark. Cut. Believes there is more on heaven and earth than is dreamed of in our philosophy. Not a great believer in monosexuality, though. Come on, take a chance. I'll surprise you"
The supernatural wonders of Torchwood fail to bear up once placed under the critical lens of the Cardiff same sex social scene. Jack's supernatural powers might aid him in his battles against the Sycorax, but it doesn't help in him getting a string free snog in south Wales.
Heart rating: 1/5
CLICK HERE to visit the site.
"Time waits for no man. m4m - 39 Tall (6'1"), built, handsome civil servant (manager), ex-serviceman, bit of a trickster. Super humanly healthy. Flirtatious. Dark. Cut. Believes there is more on heaven and earth than is dreamed of in our philosophy. Not a great believer in monosexuality, though. Come on, take a chance. I'll surprise you"
The supernatural wonders of Torchwood fail to bear up once placed under the critical lens of the Cardiff same sex social scene. Jack's supernatural powers might aid him in his battles against the Sycorax, but it doesn't help in him getting a string free snog in south Wales.
Heart rating: 1/5
CLICK HERE to visit the site.
Friday, February 09, 2007
OMG its goth Who?????
http://missjade29.livejournal.com/66973.html hard to describe just go take a peek???
What to expect from season 3
Not much news just a short article on what to expect in series 3 by mr. Tennant. Slight spoilers such as monsters etc.
David has been speaking to the TV Times about the new series of Doctor Who and revealed that in the first episode, Smith and Jones, the Doctor and Martha will meet an alien known as the Judoon.'The Judoon are pretty extraordinary, they're sort of intergalactic stormtroopers who take Martha and I to the moon,' says David.'It's just part of the madness and brilliance of doing this show that it seems to keep bettering itself everytime.'David is also excited about all the guest stars who'll be turning up when the series returns in March.'We've got Dinnerladies star Anne Reod and Roy Marsden, best known for playing Commander Adam Dalgliesh, appearing in episode one,' he reveals.'Dean Lennox Kelly is in episode two, Ardal O'Hanlon in episode three and Mark Gatiss in episode six - they just keep coming.'Speaking on rumours that he is set to quit the show after this series David said 'You shouldn't believe evrything you read in the papers.'
What to watch out for in the new series:
Martha Jones - The Doctor runs into medical student Martha at a hospital. 'She's a very different character to Rose.' says David.
A new blue suit - The Doctor has a change of clothes. 'It's an altenative suit, but that doesn't mean that we've lost the old one'. smiles David.
Shakespeare - In episode two, the Time Lord and Martha go back in time to meet William Shakespeare in the original Globe Theatre!
Art Deco Daleks - Episodes four and five will see the Doctor and Martha clas with the dreaded Daleks when they travel to 1930's New York.
A Youthful surprise - Episode six see Mark Gatiss guest as the famous Dr Lazarus, who claims to have invented a fountain of youth.
Source: TV Times Feb 2007
David has been speaking to the TV Times about the new series of Doctor Who and revealed that in the first episode, Smith and Jones, the Doctor and Martha will meet an alien known as the Judoon.'The Judoon are pretty extraordinary, they're sort of intergalactic stormtroopers who take Martha and I to the moon,' says David.'It's just part of the madness and brilliance of doing this show that it seems to keep bettering itself everytime.'David is also excited about all the guest stars who'll be turning up when the series returns in March.'We've got Dinnerladies star Anne Reod and Roy Marsden, best known for playing Commander Adam Dalgliesh, appearing in episode one,' he reveals.'Dean Lennox Kelly is in episode two, Ardal O'Hanlon in episode three and Mark Gatiss in episode six - they just keep coming.'Speaking on rumours that he is set to quit the show after this series David said 'You shouldn't believe evrything you read in the papers.'
What to watch out for in the new series:
Martha Jones - The Doctor runs into medical student Martha at a hospital. 'She's a very different character to Rose.' says David.
A new blue suit - The Doctor has a change of clothes. 'It's an altenative suit, but that doesn't mean that we've lost the old one'. smiles David.
Shakespeare - In episode two, the Time Lord and Martha go back in time to meet William Shakespeare in the original Globe Theatre!
Art Deco Daleks - Episodes four and five will see the Doctor and Martha clas with the dreaded Daleks when they travel to 1930's New York.
A Youthful surprise - Episode six see Mark Gatiss guest as the famous Dr Lazarus, who claims to have invented a fountain of youth.
Source: TV Times Feb 2007
Interview and article on the Tenth Doctor
10th Dr. Who puts new spin on old role
BY MIKE HUGHES
GANNETT NEWS SERVICE
As a stage actor, David Tennant got used to stepping into other people's roles.
He's played Romeo, after all. Others have been doing that for 411 years. He's done the classics for the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Still, something is special about his current duty: He's the 10th Doctor Who with episodes at video stores and on BBC America.
"With every new doctor, you get to start over," Tennant says. "It's not like playing Sherlock Holmes. You make it your own."
That's been the nature of the show, almost from the beginning.
"Doctor Who" was created in 1963 as a low-budget children's show about a time-traveler, simply known as the Doctor. When the star became ill three years later, the creators decided the doc had the power of regeneration.
Previous doctors have ranged afar, Roger Fulton and John Betancourt wrote in the Sci-Fi Channel "Encyclopedia of TV Science Fiction" (Warner Books, 1998).
At one extreme was William Hartnell (1963-66), who made the doctor "a rather forbidding, tetchy Edwardian eccentric." Or Colin Baker (1984-86), who made him "arrogant, brash and abrasive."
At the other was Tom Baker (1974-81). His doctor was "a wide-eyed, curly-haired, grinning ... rebel, an intellectual Bohemian in a floppy hat and flowing scarf."
Now comes Tennant leaning to the Baker side. This doc seems to enjoy himself.
"He has a joie de vivre," Tennant says. "There's the feeling that he's inside a young man's soul, even though he's 925 years old."
He's cheery, even though he often must fight to save the planet, "if not the entire universe."
Part of that may reflect Tennant's own nature. He says he grew up enjoying TV.
"As a kid, it's what I did," he says. "I particularly liked the fantasy ... That was my first storyteller."
He grew up in Paisley, a Scottish city near Glasgow. There, his father was a clergyman, "which had a certain performance aspect to it."
Tennant went to the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Dance and later joined Royal Shakespeare. That's where he did "Romeo and Juliet," "The Comedy of Errors," "As You Like It" and more.
He couldn't keep his surname, because there was a David McDonald registered with the actors' union. So he chose a new name after reading about Neil Tennant, a singer in the Pet Shop Boys.
In the United States, people have seen him as Barty Crouch in "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" and as the cop in "Viva Blackpool," a musical series on BBC America. He also shared the title role in Masterpiece Theatre's two-part miniseries "Casanova" on PBS. He played the younger Casanova and Peter O'Toole played the older version.
Now he's back on BBC, Sci-Fi and in stores.
The previous batch had Christopher Eccleston as the ninth Doctor Who, a serious action hero teaming with a stunned shopgirl. She was played by Billie Piper, who stayed for Tennant's first season.
He's busy on a new season now with each year having 13 episodes plus a Christmas special. That's more than the old British habit of six shows a year, but far from the American habit of 22.
"I can't imagine what that would be like," Tennant says.
BY MIKE HUGHES
GANNETT NEWS SERVICE
As a stage actor, David Tennant got used to stepping into other people's roles.
He's played Romeo, after all. Others have been doing that for 411 years. He's done the classics for the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Still, something is special about his current duty: He's the 10th Doctor Who with episodes at video stores and on BBC America.
"With every new doctor, you get to start over," Tennant says. "It's not like playing Sherlock Holmes. You make it your own."
That's been the nature of the show, almost from the beginning.
"Doctor Who" was created in 1963 as a low-budget children's show about a time-traveler, simply known as the Doctor. When the star became ill three years later, the creators decided the doc had the power of regeneration.
Previous doctors have ranged afar, Roger Fulton and John Betancourt wrote in the Sci-Fi Channel "Encyclopedia of TV Science Fiction" (Warner Books, 1998).
At one extreme was William Hartnell (1963-66), who made the doctor "a rather forbidding, tetchy Edwardian eccentric." Or Colin Baker (1984-86), who made him "arrogant, brash and abrasive."
At the other was Tom Baker (1974-81). His doctor was "a wide-eyed, curly-haired, grinning ... rebel, an intellectual Bohemian in a floppy hat and flowing scarf."
Now comes Tennant leaning to the Baker side. This doc seems to enjoy himself.
"He has a joie de vivre," Tennant says. "There's the feeling that he's inside a young man's soul, even though he's 925 years old."
He's cheery, even though he often must fight to save the planet, "if not the entire universe."
Part of that may reflect Tennant's own nature. He says he grew up enjoying TV.
"As a kid, it's what I did," he says. "I particularly liked the fantasy ... That was my first storyteller."
He grew up in Paisley, a Scottish city near Glasgow. There, his father was a clergyman, "which had a certain performance aspect to it."
Tennant went to the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Dance and later joined Royal Shakespeare. That's where he did "Romeo and Juliet," "The Comedy of Errors," "As You Like It" and more.
He couldn't keep his surname, because there was a David McDonald registered with the actors' union. So he chose a new name after reading about Neil Tennant, a singer in the Pet Shop Boys.
In the United States, people have seen him as Barty Crouch in "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" and as the cop in "Viva Blackpool," a musical series on BBC America. He also shared the title role in Masterpiece Theatre's two-part miniseries "Casanova" on PBS. He played the younger Casanova and Peter O'Toole played the older version.
Now he's back on BBC, Sci-Fi and in stores.
The previous batch had Christopher Eccleston as the ninth Doctor Who, a serious action hero teaming with a stunned shopgirl. She was played by Billie Piper, who stayed for Tennant's first season.
He's busy on a new season now with each year having 13 episodes plus a Christmas special. That's more than the old British habit of six shows a year, but far from the American habit of 22.
"I can't imagine what that would be like," Tennant says.
S3: 24th March Airdate?
Well folks, its that time of year again, where we all try and guess exactly when the new series of Doctor Who will start.
DWO were reliably informed for the past 2 years for the correct airdates, and their latest news informs us that Series Three will air on Saturday 24th March 2007. This is not set in stone mind you just another rumor.
DWO were reliably informed for the past 2 years for the correct airdates, and their latest news informs us that Series Three will air on Saturday 24th March 2007. This is not set in stone mind you just another rumor.
Sarah Jane assists at Sci-fi Ball
Today's Daily Echo reports that Elisabeth Sladen will be attending Bournemouth's annual Science Fiction Ball this weekend. The event, which is raising money for the Macmillan Cancer Unit at Christchurch Hospital, 'offers the chance for photo opportunities and autographs with the stars'. The Ball will be held at Carrington House Hotel in Boscombe from February 9 to 11. (For more details log on to sfball.com or call 070 9281 2101.)
more news on Sylvester McCoy to be in King Lear
Sylvester McCoy appeared on Breakfast this morning to discuss his forthcoming role in King Lear, a new play starring him as The Fool to Sir Ian McKellen's Lear, and performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company. It opens in Newcastle in April, after previews at the end of March in Stratford; it will then tour around the world, including Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and America.He said he got the role from being at a party with play director Trevor Nunn, who asked him what he'd been doing! However, he also said that he felt a little type-cast, as people have been telling him he's been playing the fool all his career!Of course, it would be impossible for the Breakfast team not to mention Doctor Who - this was the first topic of conversation! Introduced by a clip from Silver Nemesis, McCoy talked about the fun time he had in the role. When asked about his views on today's Doctor Who, he replied: "I think it's terrific, I'm so pleased - it's great to see children get their own generation of Doctor, and the enjoyment they get from it." And then on comparison with 'the humour and fun' from his own era: "That's rather flattering really, even some of our stories, they've kind of used those. But all their writers and the producers they grew up I suppose during my Doctor, so that influences in them when they create new Doctors."He is also very impressed with the renewal of the Doctor's oldest adversary: "It does also amaze me that Daleks still terrify people. I was somewhere and a Dalek suddenly appeared, and this child was shaking with fear - I've never seen that kind of real fear and I suddenly thought I've got do something so I said, 'Listen, don't worry, I am the Doctor, I will save you!' I've not been in the role for 15 years but that was all right, the child calmed down and I said, 'It's all right, that Dalek isn't going to touch you.'"Keep an eye out for more details of King Lear from the RSC's website.
Designer duo seek Doctor Who, EastEnders roles
Scottish designers Colin McAllister and Justin Ryan want to appear in EastEnders.
The pair, guest-starring in The Play What I Wrote at His Majesty's Theatre in Aberdeen until Saturday, revealed they would jump at the chance of a role in the Walford-set soap.
"We love EastEnders," enthused Colin. "But we don't want to be hidden away - background schmackground. We'd love to meet Dot Cotton. We could do her house up."
Justin added: "We adore the show, it's priceless and we'd brighten it up no end. Both of us would also love to be in Doctor Who - David Tennant is magnificent and we're big fans of Christopher Eccleston".
The pair spoke about how they ended up treading the boards. "Our agent knows we're huge Morecambe and Wise fans, and being a bit of a double-act ourselves it all seemed to be perfect. We've been working so hard over the past year, when this offer came in we knew we had to do it."
Colin confessed how the nerves kicked in once they had signed up: "When we realised who had done it before us, Kylie Minogue, Roger Moore, the great Ewan McGregor, it became really scary. We've never ever been on stage before and we'd never done anything scripted."
He went on: "We've done loads of exhibitions about fashion and property, and this was totally out of our comfort zone, but fantastic. We're supposed to be the straight men, but we just end up laughing."
Speaking about what they are supposed to get up to on stage, Justin said: "We do a song and a choreographed dance - we've been learning it all in our spare time."
His long-term partner revealed how he relished the chance to emulate Scottish star Ewan McGregor. "I get to perform a soliloqy - and it's the speech Ewan did. Touch wood, every time I've got a round of applause. I never thought I'd ever say this, but we'd love to do more."
Colin McAllister and Justin Ryan make their final guest appearance on Saturday, February 10, before returning to the show in the last week of March in Edinburgh.
The pair, guest-starring in The Play What I Wrote at His Majesty's Theatre in Aberdeen until Saturday, revealed they would jump at the chance of a role in the Walford-set soap.
"We love EastEnders," enthused Colin. "But we don't want to be hidden away - background schmackground. We'd love to meet Dot Cotton. We could do her house up."
Justin added: "We adore the show, it's priceless and we'd brighten it up no end. Both of us would also love to be in Doctor Who - David Tennant is magnificent and we're big fans of Christopher Eccleston".
The pair spoke about how they ended up treading the boards. "Our agent knows we're huge Morecambe and Wise fans, and being a bit of a double-act ourselves it all seemed to be perfect. We've been working so hard over the past year, when this offer came in we knew we had to do it."
Colin confessed how the nerves kicked in once they had signed up: "When we realised who had done it before us, Kylie Minogue, Roger Moore, the great Ewan McGregor, it became really scary. We've never ever been on stage before and we'd never done anything scripted."
He went on: "We've done loads of exhibitions about fashion and property, and this was totally out of our comfort zone, but fantastic. We're supposed to be the straight men, but we just end up laughing."
Speaking about what they are supposed to get up to on stage, Justin said: "We do a song and a choreographed dance - we've been learning it all in our spare time."
His long-term partner revealed how he relished the chance to emulate Scottish star Ewan McGregor. "I get to perform a soliloqy - and it's the speech Ewan did. Touch wood, every time I've got a round of applause. I never thought I'd ever say this, but we'd love to do more."
Colin McAllister and Justin Ryan make their final guest appearance on Saturday, February 10, before returning to the show in the last week of March in Edinburgh.
EXTERMINATE THE BASH STREET KIDS
THE Daleks don't know what they're taking on when they try to exterminate The Bash Street Kids.
The merciless mob - the Daleks, that is - make their most dangerous encounter yet in the first new DC Thomson comic in over 20 years.
Scots actor David Tennant, the latest Doctor Who, and TV's Jonathan Ross are among a host of stars who pop up in the new BeanoMAX.
As the Beano approaches its 70th birthday next year, Dundee firm DC Thomson are launching a new monthly spin-off of the favourite comic, aimed at the 9-13s.
And the first BeanoMAX edition next Thursday will be a Comic Relief special.
As well as the Doctor and the Daleks invading Bash Street, Jamie Oliver will take over the school's canteen and England stars Frank Lampard and Steve Gerrard will feature in the Ball Boy strip.
McFly and Rowan Atkinson will also drop in on Dennis the Menace in a Red Nose balloon.
And Dennis even tells Jonathan Ross not to break anything because, "That's my job".
In The Invasion of Bash Street, a Dalek arrives and The Bash Street Kids want it to help them with their homework.
But it has other ideas and tells them while they are having lunch that they need to "study or you'll all be exterminated".
The Bash Street gang turn the tables on the Dalek, breaking it in two and using the bottom half as a dustbin.
When the Doctor arrives, he jokes: "I don't know who'll save the world from Olive's (the canteen cook) cooking though."
The last comic DC Thomson launched was Hoot, which ran from 1985-86.
BeanoMAX will mix Beano favourites with more interviews and features.
In the first edition there's an interview with Harry Potter star Rupert Grint.
It's not the first time the Beano has joined forces with Comic Relief.
It teamed up with the fund-raiser in 1991 and there's been a tie-up with Sports Relief for two years.
The free gifts in the first BeanoMAX include the classic Whoopee cushion.
There's also a special phone-in competition to win the famous suit worn in past shows by Lenny Henry.
All proceeds go to Comic Relief. This year's Red Nose Day is next Friday.
The merciless mob - the Daleks, that is - make their most dangerous encounter yet in the first new DC Thomson comic in over 20 years.
Scots actor David Tennant, the latest Doctor Who, and TV's Jonathan Ross are among a host of stars who pop up in the new BeanoMAX.
As the Beano approaches its 70th birthday next year, Dundee firm DC Thomson are launching a new monthly spin-off of the favourite comic, aimed at the 9-13s.
And the first BeanoMAX edition next Thursday will be a Comic Relief special.
As well as the Doctor and the Daleks invading Bash Street, Jamie Oliver will take over the school's canteen and England stars Frank Lampard and Steve Gerrard will feature in the Ball Boy strip.
McFly and Rowan Atkinson will also drop in on Dennis the Menace in a Red Nose balloon.
And Dennis even tells Jonathan Ross not to break anything because, "That's my job".
In The Invasion of Bash Street, a Dalek arrives and The Bash Street Kids want it to help them with their homework.
But it has other ideas and tells them while they are having lunch that they need to "study or you'll all be exterminated".
The Bash Street gang turn the tables on the Dalek, breaking it in two and using the bottom half as a dustbin.
When the Doctor arrives, he jokes: "I don't know who'll save the world from Olive's (the canteen cook) cooking though."
The last comic DC Thomson launched was Hoot, which ran from 1985-86.
BeanoMAX will mix Beano favourites with more interviews and features.
In the first edition there's an interview with Harry Potter star Rupert Grint.
It's not the first time the Beano has joined forces with Comic Relief.
It teamed up with the fund-raiser in 1991 and there's been a tie-up with Sports Relief for two years.
The free gifts in the first BeanoMAX include the classic Whoopee cushion.
There's also a special phone-in competition to win the famous suit worn in past shows by Lenny Henry.
All proceeds go to Comic Relief. This year's Red Nose Day is next Friday.
Thursday, February 08, 2007
McCoy takes to the stage in Lear
Sylvester McCoy (The 7th Doctor) has been cast as 'The Fool' in the Royal Shakespeare Company production of King Lear.
McCoy appeared on BBC One Breakfast this morning to talk about his role as The Doctor as well as his upcoming performances as The Fool, alongside Sir Ian McKellen.
King Lear will be performed at The Courtyard; Stratford-upon-Avon from March 24-June 21 2007.
McCoy appeared on BBC One Breakfast this morning to talk about his role as The Doctor as well as his upcoming performances as The Fool, alongside Sir Ian McKellen.
King Lear will be performed at The Courtyard; Stratford-upon-Avon from March 24-June 21 2007.
EBOOK: Doctor who and the pirate planet
http://nzdwfc.tetrap.com/archive/pirate/
Click link above to read a fourth doctor adventure for free online.
Click link above to read a fourth doctor adventure for free online.
A Doctor Who Wikki?
http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page
Welcome to the Doctor Who Wiki, a Doctor Who database that anyone can edit.
Welcome to the Doctor Who Wiki, a Doctor Who database that anyone can edit.
The Dalek song!!!!
The dalek song is based and inspired by the Llama song. Verrry funny lol
http://artistic-insanity.net/song/daleksong.html
http://artistic-insanity.net/song/daleksong.html
Colourised Doctor Who Images
http://www.kittensdirect.com/colourise/coloured.html
Beautiful old school photos brought to glorious color.
http://babel-fish.kostamojen.com/
Same thing but with some great video. Never thought id see the first doctor in color!!!!
Beautiful old school photos brought to glorious color.
http://babel-fish.kostamojen.com/
Same thing but with some great video. Never thought id see the first doctor in color!!!!
THE DALEK CHRONICLES ARE NOW ONLINE
Click the pic above to enjoy the comics online!!!Following their first appearance in 1963, the British public were hungry for anything and everything to do with Daleks. This was forthcoming in the form, initially of THE DALEK BOOK, published on the 30th of June 1964. It was one of the very first items of Dalek merchandise. The styles of the Daleks were unlike those on the TV show, odd at first, but owners of the book came to love them. The book was said to be "Based on the Dalek Chronicles discovered and translated by Terry Nation" and was credited to David Whitaker and Terry Nation, the illustrations were by Richard Jennings, John Woods and A.B. Cornwell. It sold at a cost of 9/6- (nine shillings and six pence, 47.5p in modern day terms). The book told the story of the Daleks invasion of our solar system and their ultimate apparent defeat. This story was recently used as a vague basis for the Dalek Empire audio series by Big Finish.
Anyway, THE DALEKS comic strip told a story which was credited as another component of the "The Dalek Chronicles". It began by relating how the Dalek machine came to be created a totally different tale to that told in the TV story "Genesis of the Daleks" which told how they were created by Davros. Once again the illustrations were of the weird style used in the Dalek Book, probably because once again the illustrator was Richard Jennings, who went on to illustrate the first 49 installments of the story. Eric Eden illustrated installments 52-58, and the remainder up to 104 were by Ron Turner. The first edition was published on the 26th January 1965, but dated at 26th January 2065.
During the lifetime of the comic the two Dalek movies were released and this was reflected both in the photographs used in the comic and in the freebies that were given away from time to time. Disappointingly the original style of illustration continued only for 6 episodes...
During the lifetime of the comic the two Dalek movies were released and this was reflected both in the photographs used in the comic and in the freebies that were given away from time to time. Disappointingly the original style of illustration continued only for 6 episodes...
'Doctor Who' Producers Want Jessica Simpson Cameo
Jessica Simpson is in talks to appear in cult British sci-fi show Doctor Who, it has been reported. Bosses at the BBC are approaching A-list stars to cameo in the upcoming series in an attempt to add a touch of Hollywood glamor to the show and have contacted Jessica.
A source said: "It's a great idea. Having Jessica on the show will help sell it to the US."
Sexy Jessica Biel is also rumored to be on TV bosses' hit list. Biel - who starred in Blade Trinity and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake - was recently linked to Justin Timberlake after she joined him on a snow-boarding holiday.
Doctor Who writer Russell T Davies is desperate for Britney Spears to join the time-traveling adventurer. He said: "I'd love Britney to do it. It would be fun."
The sci-fi drama, a cult hit since the 60s, was re-launched in 2005 starring Gone In Sixty Seconds villain Christopher Eccelston and former singer Billie Piper.
The Doctor is currently played by Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire actor David Tennant.
A source said: "It's a great idea. Having Jessica on the show will help sell it to the US."
Sexy Jessica Biel is also rumored to be on TV bosses' hit list. Biel - who starred in Blade Trinity and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake - was recently linked to Justin Timberlake after she joined him on a snow-boarding holiday.
Doctor Who writer Russell T Davies is desperate for Britney Spears to join the time-traveling adventurer. He said: "I'd love Britney to do it. It would be fun."
The sci-fi drama, a cult hit since the 60s, was re-launched in 2005 starring Gone In Sixty Seconds villain Christopher Eccelston and former singer Billie Piper.
The Doctor is currently played by Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire actor David Tennant.
Take a peek at Dr. Who's diary
Christopher Eccleston only had one season of Doctor Who in him, reportedly because he was afraid of being typecast as a genre actor. Now he's joined the cast of Heroes.
Bit of a step down, but the good news is that we got an even better doctor in the bargain: David Tennant – a bit wackier, a tad darker and a lot cuter – was the result of the regeneration and makes a terrific 10th incarnation of the BBC fave.
Tennant also makes a remarkable contribution to the lovely second season (of the modern era) package. We get a two-hour video diary in which he takes us from his first nervous days on set, through watching himself as The Doctor for the first time surrounded by his opinionated family, to filming the last (tear-filled) episode of the season.
The diary is an extraordinary insight into an actor's thoughts and feelings on becoming the embodiment of a cultural icon. And sometimes it's just funny, as when a gleeful Tennant sees the prototype for his action figure: "Utterly surreal, but I'm kind of digging it...That's a very odd moment, when one becomes an action figure."
The set has fine commentaries by creators, writers, actors and producers on every episode. Five of the commentaries are "in-vision," which basically means that you can see the speakers in a corner of your screen. I fail to see the purpose of this, but at least they're wearing party hats for the Christmas special. Speaking of the Christmas episode, do yourself a favour and watch the short "Children in Need" before you start season two. It bridges that season with the first. (The commentaries must be accessed through the set-up function and subtitles are non-functioning while the commentary is on.)
We get over three hours of "Doctor Who Confidential," which are severely cut, but still coherent, versions of companion documentaries originally shown after each episode. They deal with such subjects as the writers, the set designers, how to make a werewolf, bringing back beloved monsters and finding out who would win in a fight between the Daleks and the Cyberman.
Also, eight minutes of ho-hum outtakes, 16 minutes of deleted scenes and a very short video diary from Billie Piper (Rose). 1/2
AND SPEAKING OF CULT SHOWS: One of the all-time faves, Beauty and the Beast, is finally coming to DVD courtesy of Paramount. Twenty years after Ron Perlman's beast and Linda Hamilton's Catherine put high, almost courtly, romance on the Friday schedule, the first season is out this coming Tuesday.
The show lasted two years with the Hamilton-Perlman pairing, telling the story of lawyer Catherine and her bond with tunnel-dwelling, lion-faced, Shakespeare-loving Vincent.
I'm genuinely sorry to report that it is a severely disappointing set. There is not a single extra feature to be found and obviously no one could be bothered to clean up the dusty prints or write some subtitles. The title-screen is static and has no music. Fans have been clamouring for this release for years and this is what they get? While it may have been impossible to get the stars to do commentary or interviews, there must still be someone around who can speak to the allure of the show or Perlman's intricate make-up or the dangers of fashion fads (see Hamilton's shoulder-padded outfits). Please, pick up the pace for season two.
Bit of a step down, but the good news is that we got an even better doctor in the bargain: David Tennant – a bit wackier, a tad darker and a lot cuter – was the result of the regeneration and makes a terrific 10th incarnation of the BBC fave.
Tennant also makes a remarkable contribution to the lovely second season (of the modern era) package. We get a two-hour video diary in which he takes us from his first nervous days on set, through watching himself as The Doctor for the first time surrounded by his opinionated family, to filming the last (tear-filled) episode of the season.
The diary is an extraordinary insight into an actor's thoughts and feelings on becoming the embodiment of a cultural icon. And sometimes it's just funny, as when a gleeful Tennant sees the prototype for his action figure: "Utterly surreal, but I'm kind of digging it...That's a very odd moment, when one becomes an action figure."
The set has fine commentaries by creators, writers, actors and producers on every episode. Five of the commentaries are "in-vision," which basically means that you can see the speakers in a corner of your screen. I fail to see the purpose of this, but at least they're wearing party hats for the Christmas special. Speaking of the Christmas episode, do yourself a favour and watch the short "Children in Need" before you start season two. It bridges that season with the first. (The commentaries must be accessed through the set-up function and subtitles are non-functioning while the commentary is on.)
We get over three hours of "Doctor Who Confidential," which are severely cut, but still coherent, versions of companion documentaries originally shown after each episode. They deal with such subjects as the writers, the set designers, how to make a werewolf, bringing back beloved monsters and finding out who would win in a fight between the Daleks and the Cyberman.
Also, eight minutes of ho-hum outtakes, 16 minutes of deleted scenes and a very short video diary from Billie Piper (Rose). 1/2
AND SPEAKING OF CULT SHOWS: One of the all-time faves, Beauty and the Beast, is finally coming to DVD courtesy of Paramount. Twenty years after Ron Perlman's beast and Linda Hamilton's Catherine put high, almost courtly, romance on the Friday schedule, the first season is out this coming Tuesday.
The show lasted two years with the Hamilton-Perlman pairing, telling the story of lawyer Catherine and her bond with tunnel-dwelling, lion-faced, Shakespeare-loving Vincent.
I'm genuinely sorry to report that it is a severely disappointing set. There is not a single extra feature to be found and obviously no one could be bothered to clean up the dusty prints or write some subtitles. The title-screen is static and has no music. Fans have been clamouring for this release for years and this is what they get? While it may have been impossible to get the stars to do commentary or interviews, there must still be someone around who can speak to the allure of the show or Perlman's intricate make-up or the dangers of fashion fads (see Hamilton's shoulder-padded outfits). Please, pick up the pace for season two.
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Captain Jack on Radio Two
John Barrowman will be presenting a two hour show on BBC Radio Two this weekend. He will be sitting in for Elaine Paige, hosting her Sunday lunchtime programme dedicated to musical theatre. The programme will also feature music from the 2007 Bafta nominees in advance of the Bafta ceremony that evening. There will be a phone in quiz based on musicals and entrants are requested to email via the programme's web page.The programme can be heard between 1300 and 1500 UK time. In the UK it is available on Radio on 88-91 FM. It is also available live via the Radio 2 homepage and for seven days following the broadcast via the BBC listen again facility.
BBC Somerset - Piper interview
Interview: Billie Piper in TreatsBillie Piper is starring in a new version of Christopher Hampton's Treats at the Theatre Royal Bath in February 2007 prior to her West End stage debut.
Billie's character, Ann, replaces her egotistical boyfriend Dave (Kris Marshall) with the more 'conventional' Patrick (Laurence Fox), only to find that she can't make up her mind as to what (or whom) she really wants.
Billie told the BBC's Richard Lewis that she has been nervous about making her stage debut in Treats.
"My knees knock every night. In fact, I'm going to go for some replacement ones after the show. It's absolutely terrifying.
"It's a scary job and I have the utmost respect for every stage actor I've ever watched."
Billie starred in an adaptation of Philip Pullman's The Ruby in the Smoke for the BBC, screened during Christmas 2006.
Billie's final scene as Rose Tyler, or is it?
Earlier last year, we had said goodbye to her character at the end of the second series of Doctor Who.
"I miss not doing Doctor Who and I miss Rose Tyler. I hope I made the right choice.
"It's going to be really hard when the new series [with Freema Agyeman as Martha Jones] starts - I'm going to find that quite hard to watch.
"I had a great two-year run and I'm really enjoying myself trying other things.
"And there's always the chance that Rose may return. You never know - that's the beauty of sci-fi!"
Doctor Who in Somerset >
Before travelling with the extraterrestrial explorer, she played Hero in the BBC's modern retelling of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing.
Billie in The Ruby in the Smoke
She recently published her autobiography, copies of which she signed in her home town in October 2006 - click on the link on the right to listen to bbc.co.uk/wiltshire's interview in Swindon.
Billie is soon to appear in ITV's major new production of Jane Austen's Mansfield Park.
Treats is at the Theatre Royal Bath until Saturday, 10 February, 2007
It is then showing at the Richmond Theatre between 12 and 17 February and has its West End run at London's Garrick Theatre from 20 February 2007.
Interview: Billie Piper >Audio and Video links on this page require Realplayer
Billie's character, Ann, replaces her egotistical boyfriend Dave (Kris Marshall) with the more 'conventional' Patrick (Laurence Fox), only to find that she can't make up her mind as to what (or whom) she really wants.
Billie told the BBC's Richard Lewis that she has been nervous about making her stage debut in Treats.
"My knees knock every night. In fact, I'm going to go for some replacement ones after the show. It's absolutely terrifying.
"It's a scary job and I have the utmost respect for every stage actor I've ever watched."
Billie starred in an adaptation of Philip Pullman's The Ruby in the Smoke for the BBC, screened during Christmas 2006.
Billie's final scene as Rose Tyler, or is it?
Earlier last year, we had said goodbye to her character at the end of the second series of Doctor Who.
"I miss not doing Doctor Who and I miss Rose Tyler. I hope I made the right choice.
"It's going to be really hard when the new series [with Freema Agyeman as Martha Jones] starts - I'm going to find that quite hard to watch.
"I had a great two-year run and I'm really enjoying myself trying other things.
"And there's always the chance that Rose may return. You never know - that's the beauty of sci-fi!"
Doctor Who in Somerset >
Before travelling with the extraterrestrial explorer, she played Hero in the BBC's modern retelling of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing.
Billie in The Ruby in the Smoke
She recently published her autobiography, copies of which she signed in her home town in October 2006 - click on the link on the right to listen to bbc.co.uk/wiltshire's interview in Swindon.
Billie is soon to appear in ITV's major new production of Jane Austen's Mansfield Park.
Treats is at the Theatre Royal Bath until Saturday, 10 February, 2007
It is then showing at the Richmond Theatre between 12 and 17 February and has its West End run at London's Garrick Theatre from 20 February 2007.
Interview: Billie Piper >Audio and Video links on this page require Realplayer
Adeola / Martha mystery - solved
Series Three won't be the first time we have seen Freema Agyeman in Doctor Who, as she has already featured as Adeola, who met her end at the hands of the Cybermen. But the question remains of how the striking similarity will`be explained?
The explanation comes in the soon to be released book; Made of Steel by Terrance Dicks. According to the guys at SFX Magazine, the book says the following:
'42 pages in Martha lets the cat out of the bag: "My cousin - Adeola. She worked at Torchwood Tower. She never came home after... I just wondered if you might have seen her. She looked a bit like me." '
Made of Steel is released on March 1st priced £1.99.
The explanation comes in the soon to be released book; Made of Steel by Terrance Dicks. According to the guys at SFX Magazine, the book says the following:
'42 pages in Martha lets the cat out of the bag: "My cousin - Adeola. She worked at Torchwood Tower. She never came home after... I just wondered if you might have seen her. She looked a bit like me." '
Made of Steel is released on March 1st priced £1.99.
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
The completely useless Who site
Absolutely nothing that you ever wanted to know about Doctor Who lol brand new n funny too.... http://www.geocities.com/doctorwhocue/
RTD SFX interview
A visit to Who Towers
We've just got back from Cardiff ("we" being Ian and Nick) from a chat with the Grand Overlord of Doctor Who. He gave us a couple of hours of interview time (periodically interrupted by texts and phone calls about casting, script tweaks and what not). And boy, did we learn some interesting stuff...
But you'll have to wait to find out about it. Sorry! About the only thing we're willing to share right now is that Russell had the latest SFX in his bathroom reading pile (honestly, it's great for browsing through for a few minutes if your bowels are acting a bit sluggish). And yes, before you ask, we did ask him why there aren't more alien planets.
Why is Martha's relationship with the Doctor very different from his one with Rose? Which episode of the season is the scariest one of the new series yet? What's the truth behind those Britney Spears rumours? All these questions and more will be answered in SFX issue 155, which goes on sale on Wednesday 14 March, perfectly timed to whet your appetite for the show's return...
We've just got back from Cardiff ("we" being Ian and Nick) from a chat with the Grand Overlord of Doctor Who. He gave us a couple of hours of interview time (periodically interrupted by texts and phone calls about casting, script tweaks and what not). And boy, did we learn some interesting stuff...
But you'll have to wait to find out about it. Sorry! About the only thing we're willing to share right now is that Russell had the latest SFX in his bathroom reading pile (honestly, it's great for browsing through for a few minutes if your bowels are acting a bit sluggish). And yes, before you ask, we did ask him why there aren't more alien planets.
Why is Martha's relationship with the Doctor very different from his one with Rose? Which episode of the season is the scariest one of the new series yet? What's the truth behind those Britney Spears rumours? All these questions and more will be answered in SFX issue 155, which goes on sale on Wednesday 14 March, perfectly timed to whet your appetite for the show's return...
The Gunfighters
Review: Is it a shot in the arm, or like pulling teeth?
BBC Audio continue their releases of Classic Doctor Who with this oddity from the end of William Hartnell's run as the Doctor.
It's 1881 and the First Doctor visits Tombstone with toothache, only to find himself caught up in the most famous shootout in history.
As the story has already been released on video, these CDs are primarily aimed at the Who fan on the move, with Peter Purves once again providing narration to explain the less obvious aspects of the onscreen action.
Although it certainly has its bleaker moments, The Gunfighters is mostly a farce. Whether it's the case of mistaken identity between the Doctor and Doc Holiday, or Steven and Dodo's performance at the piano, there are plenty of laughs to be had.
Although the story gains something by leaving the recreation of Tombstone to your imagination, it does highlight some decidely dodgy American accents from the guest cast. Maybe that just adds to the comedy, though? We guaranteeyou won't be able to stop humming musical treat The Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon for weeks though.
As a bonus, the release includes an interview with Purves, in which he reveals that although he loathed the story at the time, he's much fonder of it now. Just don't ask him to sing that tune!
If you want to sing along, however, all the music has been coralled together at the end of CD2. Be warned though, in one sitting it feels longer than Bohemian Rhapsody!
Listen to an interview extract.
Listen to that tune.
BBC Audio continue their releases of Classic Doctor Who with this oddity from the end of William Hartnell's run as the Doctor.
It's 1881 and the First Doctor visits Tombstone with toothache, only to find himself caught up in the most famous shootout in history.
As the story has already been released on video, these CDs are primarily aimed at the Who fan on the move, with Peter Purves once again providing narration to explain the less obvious aspects of the onscreen action.
Although it certainly has its bleaker moments, The Gunfighters is mostly a farce. Whether it's the case of mistaken identity between the Doctor and Doc Holiday, or Steven and Dodo's performance at the piano, there are plenty of laughs to be had.
Although the story gains something by leaving the recreation of Tombstone to your imagination, it does highlight some decidely dodgy American accents from the guest cast. Maybe that just adds to the comedy, though? We guaranteeyou won't be able to stop humming musical treat The Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon for weeks though.
As a bonus, the release includes an interview with Purves, in which he reveals that although he loathed the story at the time, he's much fonder of it now. Just don't ask him to sing that tune!
If you want to sing along, however, all the music has been coralled together at the end of CD2. Be warned though, in one sitting it feels longer than Bohemian Rhapsody!
Listen to an interview extract.
Listen to that tune.
Piper may live to regret quitting 'Dr Who'
Billie Piper has admitted that she misses working on Dr. Who, and claims she could yet come to regret her decision to leave.The actress, who quit the show last year after two series working with David Tennant, told the Sunday Telegraph that she pondered her career moves for a long time before coming to a decision."I loved it so much," she said. "But I knew that if I didn't go then I would always be scared to leave, and then I wouldn't have tried other things. Of course, it could still turn out to be a really bad choice. But I think it's going to be ok."Piper has been busy filming Jane Austen's Mansfield Park for ITV, and added that she is happy working in smaller projects these days, and has no longing to make it big in the film industry: "I am no longer bothered about being famous. All those dreams I had about being a big film star, or winning an Oscar - I've let go of them."
TV Times: DW returns in March, and Tennant to stay
UK listings magazine TV Times features an interview with David Tennant this week. The magazine states that the series returns in March and David's response to the rumours of him quitting is to say that "You shouldn't believe everything you read in the papers."
David says this about Smith and Jones - "The Judoon are pretty extraordinary, they're sort of intergalatic stormtroopers who take Martha and I off to the moon. It's just part of the madness and brilliance of doing this show that it seems to keep bettering itself every time."Of Martha, David says: "She's a very different character to Rose" and of the blue suit - "Its an alternative suit, but that doesn't mean we lost the old one."He also talks of guest stars coming up, all names we already know about - Anne Reid, Roy Marsden, Dean Lennox Kelly and Mark Gatiss. There is also small bits about the Shakespeare Globe, Professor Lazarus and confirmation that there will be Art Deco Daleks!
David says this about Smith and Jones - "The Judoon are pretty extraordinary, they're sort of intergalatic stormtroopers who take Martha and I off to the moon. It's just part of the madness and brilliance of doing this show that it seems to keep bettering itself every time."Of Martha, David says: "She's a very different character to Rose" and of the blue suit - "Its an alternative suit, but that doesn't mean we lost the old one."He also talks of guest stars coming up, all names we already know about - Anne Reid, Roy Marsden, Dean Lennox Kelly and Mark Gatiss. There is also small bits about the Shakespeare Globe, Professor Lazarus and confirmation that there will be Art Deco Daleks!
Michelle Collins in Doctor Who
FORMER East Ender Michelle Collins has landed a part in Doctor Who.
The actress, who played murderess Cindy Beale, will star as a member of a dying race in the new series of the BBC sci-fi show, which starts in the spring.
A source said: "She plays McConnell - a tough woman fighting for her life in the far future."
Michelle, 42, joins a string of stars in the third series which includes Sir Derek Jacobi, Thelma Barlow and Father Ted favourite Ardal O'Hanlon. Last month she quit West End musical Daddy Cool after growing frustrated with cast members and flew to Bali with her daughter Maia, 10.
The actress, who played murderess Cindy Beale, will star as a member of a dying race in the new series of the BBC sci-fi show, which starts in the spring.
A source said: "She plays McConnell - a tough woman fighting for her life in the far future."
Michelle, 42, joins a string of stars in the third series which includes Sir Derek Jacobi, Thelma Barlow and Father Ted favourite Ardal O'Hanlon. Last month she quit West End musical Daddy Cool after growing frustrated with cast members and flew to Bali with her daughter Maia, 10.
Monday, February 05, 2007
Build your own K9
These pages detail how to build a 1/4 scale model of the robotic pet K9 from the BBC TV Series "Doctor Who".
http://www.nebula7.com/K9/
http://www.nebula7.com/K9/
Doctor Who 2006, Tuesday Morning
Series 2 of the new Doctor Who, featuring The Pogues' classic Tuesday Morning
Tarbuck in the TARDIS
Liza Tarbuck will voice a character in the forthcoming Doctor Who animation, Infinite Quest.
Tarbuck said she was recording her part "this afternoon" on the Jonathan Ross Saturday show on BBC Radio 2. She added, "I'm probably not supposed to say that".
The animated adventure will form part of the Children's BBC series Totally Doctor Who, and will feature the voices of David Tennant, Freema Agyeman and Anthony Head. It will be shown over the same period as the new live action series in a weekday afternoon slot.
Tarbuck is currently starring in Bonkers on ITV1, and also played Donna in The League of Gentlemen Christmas Special in 2000.
Tarbuck said she was recording her part "this afternoon" on the Jonathan Ross Saturday show on BBC Radio 2. She added, "I'm probably not supposed to say that".
The animated adventure will form part of the Children's BBC series Totally Doctor Who, and will feature the voices of David Tennant, Freema Agyeman and Anthony Head. It will be shown over the same period as the new live action series in a weekday afternoon slot.
Tarbuck is currently starring in Bonkers on ITV1, and also played Donna in The League of Gentlemen Christmas Special in 2000.
Double O Doctor WWIII
Set to "View to a Kill" this is the latest installment in the Double O Doctor series.
Billie Piper on Top Gear
According to UK tabloid The Sun, former Doctor Who companion Billie Piper is scheduled to appear on BBC2's Top Gear programme next week as the latest celebrity to show off their driving skills in the show's Star In a Reasonably Priced Car slot.Piper will complete a timed lap, driving a Chevrolet Lacetti around the show's test track, aiming to beat the times set by previous celebrities - including Christopher Eccleston - and get to the top of the leader board.
Simon Pegg: A geek made good
Simon Pegg: A geek made good
He created the rom-zom-com with 'Shaun of the Dead' and breathed new life into British comedy movies. Can he repeat that success with 'Hot Fuzz'?
By Neil Norman
Published: 04 February 2007
Jonathan Ross once remarked that Simon Pegg had a "head like a tennis ball". The description of his close-cropped yellow fuzz, complemented by fashionably unshaven cheeks on a perfectly spherical bonce was so accurate that it made me laugh out loud. Strange to relate, Pegg, whose stock-in-trade is making people laugh at him, was not amused.
Not that it matters. Pegg's career has been on an upward trajectory since the 1999 cult television sitcom Spaced. It was the moment when all the elements that had been floating around him came together. Pegg co-wrote the scripts and starred as a twenty-something slacker - an adult male trapped in adolescent irresponsibility, clutching his skateboard like a totem of immortality and designing increasingly deranged science- fantasy, comic-book characters.
Somewhere along the line Pegg struck a chord with an audience who subsequently turned out in droves to see his debut on the big screen in Shaun of the Dead, a comic tribute to George A Romero's zombie movies. Promoted with the full panoply of advertising and the kind of media carpet-bombing usually reserved for a multimillion dollar blockbuster, this modestly-budgeted Brit film struck box office gold and took Pegg into the big league.
He claimed he would be spurning any offers from Hollywood that came his way as a result. What seemed like minutes later, he was appearing in Mission: Impossible III opposite Tom Cruise in the role of Benji Dunn, a technician with a mythical American agency, a part which had first been offered to Ricky Gervais. He was also given a part in Band of Brothers, Spielberg's massive series on the Second World War.
Pegg played Sgt Evans in the first two programmes. He got to deliver a letter to Damian Lewis before being shot down while flying over Normandy. "I have really nice memories of it," he recalls. "I spent a lot of time lying in my trailer off-set wearing full-army parachute gear, watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer between takes." He made a friend of David Schwimmer, with whom he starred in Big Nothing and with whom he will again team up in Run, Fat Boy, Run.
In London, Pegg hangs out with a cool crowd, including Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin, who invited him to be godfather to their daughter, Apple. Now he has come up with another British comedy movie called Hot Fuzz. As the title implies, it riffs around the perennial notion of comedy cops.
Pegg's secret is that he likes the genres he is parodying, which allows him a little more dramatic licence than someone who holds them in contempt. Thus, Shaun of the Dead was not just a great comedy about suburban slackers; it was also a rather good zombie horror movie or, as the tagline put it, the first romantic zombie comedy or "rom-zom-com". Whether he can pull off the same trick with Hot Fuzz remains to be seen, but so far the entrails are reading well.
Pegg is the geek made good. "I'd like to write a book about geek culture," he has said. "I love geeks. I'm a geek myself. Being a geek is such an unselfconscious expression of interest." Consequently, much of his material arises from the wry observation of his own life and obsessions. The constant references to popular culture, especially comics and science fiction movies, puts him in the same category as The League of Gentlemen. The difference is that Pegg's nice-guy ordinariness shines through the otherwise unsympathetic geek. It allowed him to move from surreal, stand-up routines to guest spots in television series and comedies like Asylum, Big Train and Six Pairs of Pants.
It was while doing the last that he met his partner in comic crime, Jessica Stevenson. Together they wrote Spaced, in which they starred as unlikely flatmates, whose fantasy lives sometimes intrude on their peculiar domestic arrangements. Spaced was a cult hit that brought him to the attention of a wider public. With one foot grounded in reality and another foot waving around in fantasy, it was a breakthrough sitcom stuffed with counterculture in-jokes and fantasy inserts that only the initiated would appreciate. Sometimes it got obscure: at 16, Pegg had been a drummer in a band called God's Third Leg and in the first episode of Spaced the covers for the band's LPs are glimpsed in a record shop. Pegg gambled that there would be enough people like him who would identify with the character and the humour, geek to geek. It was a gamble that paid off.
Born on 14 February 1970 and raised in Gloucester, Pegg was encouraged in his early acting ambitions by his parents. He moved to Stratford-upon-Avon at 16 to study A-levels, graduating from Bristol University in 1991 with a BA in theatre, film and television. "I've always been interested in acting," he says. "I studied a course in drama, but that put me off the idea of being an actor because I couldn't stand the thought of jobbing and doing things I didn't really like."
In 1993 he moved to London and gigged on the stand-up comedy circuit before breaking into television comedy. From 1998 to 2004, he featured on Radio 4's The 99p Challenge. A friend of his from the early days recalls how they met at an audition for a low-budget movie which never got made. "We were the only two who said yes. After that we used to meet for breakfast at Tesco's, and he'd always try and get me to write something with him. He had long black hair tied in a ponytail and he always wore a hat."
Even then, Pegg was desperate to get to America, believing that this was where the work was. So he made himself over, cut his hair, went blond and looked around for a writing partner. By the time he was appearing in Six Pairs of Pants, he found her in Jessica Stevenson.
Pegg likes to work with his friends and people he trusts. Largely because of the shared sense of humour, he always has his sidekick, Nick Frost, somewhere near him. Former waiter Frost plays the army-obsessed Mike in Spaced and his computer-game-playing couch potato friend in Shaun of the Dead. When Pegg got married to Maureen McCann in 2005 in Glasgow, Frost was his best man.
Edgar Wright, who directed Spaced, is another of his usual collaborators, having a similar sense of humour and shared obsessions for zombie movies and all things geeky.
Having established himself as a niche actor who can play both comedy and drama, Pegg now gets offered parts he must have fantasised about, including playing "Phone Booth Zombie" in his hero George A Romero's Land of the Dead, and appearing in Doctor Who. Slated to play Rose Tyler's father in the first series of the new Doctor Who in 2005, in the end he played an editor in a different episodebecause of a diary clash. "Doctor Who was a big part of my childhood, so it was a great honour to be in it," he said at the time. Just one of the fringe benefits of being a successful geek.
He created the rom-zom-com with 'Shaun of the Dead' and breathed new life into British comedy movies. Can he repeat that success with 'Hot Fuzz'?
By Neil Norman
Published: 04 February 2007
Jonathan Ross once remarked that Simon Pegg had a "head like a tennis ball". The description of his close-cropped yellow fuzz, complemented by fashionably unshaven cheeks on a perfectly spherical bonce was so accurate that it made me laugh out loud. Strange to relate, Pegg, whose stock-in-trade is making people laugh at him, was not amused.
Not that it matters. Pegg's career has been on an upward trajectory since the 1999 cult television sitcom Spaced. It was the moment when all the elements that had been floating around him came together. Pegg co-wrote the scripts and starred as a twenty-something slacker - an adult male trapped in adolescent irresponsibility, clutching his skateboard like a totem of immortality and designing increasingly deranged science- fantasy, comic-book characters.
Somewhere along the line Pegg struck a chord with an audience who subsequently turned out in droves to see his debut on the big screen in Shaun of the Dead, a comic tribute to George A Romero's zombie movies. Promoted with the full panoply of advertising and the kind of media carpet-bombing usually reserved for a multimillion dollar blockbuster, this modestly-budgeted Brit film struck box office gold and took Pegg into the big league.
He claimed he would be spurning any offers from Hollywood that came his way as a result. What seemed like minutes later, he was appearing in Mission: Impossible III opposite Tom Cruise in the role of Benji Dunn, a technician with a mythical American agency, a part which had first been offered to Ricky Gervais. He was also given a part in Band of Brothers, Spielberg's massive series on the Second World War.
Pegg played Sgt Evans in the first two programmes. He got to deliver a letter to Damian Lewis before being shot down while flying over Normandy. "I have really nice memories of it," he recalls. "I spent a lot of time lying in my trailer off-set wearing full-army parachute gear, watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer between takes." He made a friend of David Schwimmer, with whom he starred in Big Nothing and with whom he will again team up in Run, Fat Boy, Run.
In London, Pegg hangs out with a cool crowd, including Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin, who invited him to be godfather to their daughter, Apple. Now he has come up with another British comedy movie called Hot Fuzz. As the title implies, it riffs around the perennial notion of comedy cops.
Pegg's secret is that he likes the genres he is parodying, which allows him a little more dramatic licence than someone who holds them in contempt. Thus, Shaun of the Dead was not just a great comedy about suburban slackers; it was also a rather good zombie horror movie or, as the tagline put it, the first romantic zombie comedy or "rom-zom-com". Whether he can pull off the same trick with Hot Fuzz remains to be seen, but so far the entrails are reading well.
Pegg is the geek made good. "I'd like to write a book about geek culture," he has said. "I love geeks. I'm a geek myself. Being a geek is such an unselfconscious expression of interest." Consequently, much of his material arises from the wry observation of his own life and obsessions. The constant references to popular culture, especially comics and science fiction movies, puts him in the same category as The League of Gentlemen. The difference is that Pegg's nice-guy ordinariness shines through the otherwise unsympathetic geek. It allowed him to move from surreal, stand-up routines to guest spots in television series and comedies like Asylum, Big Train and Six Pairs of Pants.
It was while doing the last that he met his partner in comic crime, Jessica Stevenson. Together they wrote Spaced, in which they starred as unlikely flatmates, whose fantasy lives sometimes intrude on their peculiar domestic arrangements. Spaced was a cult hit that brought him to the attention of a wider public. With one foot grounded in reality and another foot waving around in fantasy, it was a breakthrough sitcom stuffed with counterculture in-jokes and fantasy inserts that only the initiated would appreciate. Sometimes it got obscure: at 16, Pegg had been a drummer in a band called God's Third Leg and in the first episode of Spaced the covers for the band's LPs are glimpsed in a record shop. Pegg gambled that there would be enough people like him who would identify with the character and the humour, geek to geek. It was a gamble that paid off.
Born on 14 February 1970 and raised in Gloucester, Pegg was encouraged in his early acting ambitions by his parents. He moved to Stratford-upon-Avon at 16 to study A-levels, graduating from Bristol University in 1991 with a BA in theatre, film and television. "I've always been interested in acting," he says. "I studied a course in drama, but that put me off the idea of being an actor because I couldn't stand the thought of jobbing and doing things I didn't really like."
In 1993 he moved to London and gigged on the stand-up comedy circuit before breaking into television comedy. From 1998 to 2004, he featured on Radio 4's The 99p Challenge. A friend of his from the early days recalls how they met at an audition for a low-budget movie which never got made. "We were the only two who said yes. After that we used to meet for breakfast at Tesco's, and he'd always try and get me to write something with him. He had long black hair tied in a ponytail and he always wore a hat."
Even then, Pegg was desperate to get to America, believing that this was where the work was. So he made himself over, cut his hair, went blond and looked around for a writing partner. By the time he was appearing in Six Pairs of Pants, he found her in Jessica Stevenson.
Pegg likes to work with his friends and people he trusts. Largely because of the shared sense of humour, he always has his sidekick, Nick Frost, somewhere near him. Former waiter Frost plays the army-obsessed Mike in Spaced and his computer-game-playing couch potato friend in Shaun of the Dead. When Pegg got married to Maureen McCann in 2005 in Glasgow, Frost was his best man.
Edgar Wright, who directed Spaced, is another of his usual collaborators, having a similar sense of humour and shared obsessions for zombie movies and all things geeky.
Having established himself as a niche actor who can play both comedy and drama, Pegg now gets offered parts he must have fantasised about, including playing "Phone Booth Zombie" in his hero George A Romero's Land of the Dead, and appearing in Doctor Who. Slated to play Rose Tyler's father in the first series of the new Doctor Who in 2005, in the end he played an editor in a different episodebecause of a diary clash. "Doctor Who was a big part of my childhood, so it was a great honour to be in it," he said at the time. Just one of the fringe benefits of being a successful geek.
Visit Torchwood
Torchwood is featured on the Cardiff Tourism website:http://www.visitcar diff.com/ Torchwood. html
Sunday, February 04, 2007
Daily Record comares time travel shows
The Daily Record compares different time travel shows and movies, featuring Quantum Leap, Doctor Who, Back to the Future, The Time Machine, and Dallas (yes, Dallas!). To read it CLICK HERE.
'Primeval' star thanks Billie for role
Primeval's Hannah Spearritt has admitted that she has Billie Piper to thank for her role on the show.The former S Club 7 star believes that Piper's success on Doctor Who paved the way for other pop stars to make the transition from music to TV. Spearritt plays reptile expert Abby Maitland on the new ITV1 series and is seen fighting time-travelling dinosaurs."When I first got the script, I thought: 'I'm never going to get this. This is too cool and they're never going to want to cast me.' I felt really nervous going for the audition but I gave myself a good talking to and gave it my best shot," Hannah told the Daily Star Sunday."I really wanted to nail it but I was feeling very unlucky at the time and never once thought I'd get the part of Abby. I felt very privileged that I was asked. As a pop star-turned actress, Billie Piper really opened doors for things like this. I don't think I would have even got an audition had she not come along. I would love to emulate her success. So if people compare me to her then it's a compliment."
Source: Digital Spy
Source: Digital Spy
Saturday, February 03, 2007
Friday, February 02, 2007
Color pics of the second Doctor
These are beautiful colorized pics of the second Doctor
http://community.livejournal.com/two_love/35028.html
http://community.livejournal.com/two_love/35028.html
John Barrowman & Ruthie Henshall - "Anything You Can Do"
This is one of my favorite Barrowman moments. Damn aint he just talented????
Sarah Jane toys and a sonic lipstick???
I've just learnt that the BBC have sold Character Options the rights to produce and sell a range of Sarah Jane Adventure toys.A press release reveals: "NEWS BRIEF: BBC Worldwide has added four new UK apparel licensees to its Charlie and Lola portfolio, while awarding the master toy licence for Russell T Davies' The Sarah Jane Adventures to Character Options. The Charlie and Lola licensees are Silver-nit, Cooneen, William Lamb and Clifton Bay. New ranges will roll out in autumn/winter 2007. The toy range from Doctor Who spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures will include action figures, play sets and 'sonic lipstick.'"It's great news then for anybody who's ever wanted to own a Sarah Jane action figure - or her fantastic 'sonic lipstick' for that matter...
Review of Billie Piper in new stage production 'Treats' in Bristol.
Billie's just a Treat
BILLIE Piper swaps the Daleks of Dr Who for centre stage at the Theatre Royal, Bath, this month, in Treats.With her egotistical ex-boyfriend, Dave, out of her life for now, Ann (Billie Piper), a young professional at a struggling newspaper, takes the opportunity to rebuild her shattered confidence by forming a 'rebound relationship' with Patrick, the office bore. Normality, of sorts, is restored until Dave returns on a macho mission to try to win her backWith a barrage of belittling mockery unleashed on Ann's new love interest, and home truths mercilessly revealed at every turn, the question is who, if anyone, will conquer the testosterone-charged battleground and ultimately get the girl. Joining Billie on stage in Bristol are TV favourites Kris Marshall and Laurence Fox. Kris is well known for playing bumbling son Nick in six hit series of the BBC comedy My Family and has also starred in Murder City and appeared in The Merchant of Venice with Al Pacino and Jeremy Irons. Laurence is probably best known as Kevin Whateley's sidekick in Lewis. Treats will be staged from Monday until February 10. Tickets, priced £14-£30, are available from the box office on 01225 448844.
BILLIE Piper swaps the Daleks of Dr Who for centre stage at the Theatre Royal, Bath, this month, in Treats.With her egotistical ex-boyfriend, Dave, out of her life for now, Ann (Billie Piper), a young professional at a struggling newspaper, takes the opportunity to rebuild her shattered confidence by forming a 'rebound relationship' with Patrick, the office bore. Normality, of sorts, is restored until Dave returns on a macho mission to try to win her backWith a barrage of belittling mockery unleashed on Ann's new love interest, and home truths mercilessly revealed at every turn, the question is who, if anyone, will conquer the testosterone-charged battleground and ultimately get the girl. Joining Billie on stage in Bristol are TV favourites Kris Marshall and Laurence Fox. Kris is well known for playing bumbling son Nick in six hit series of the BBC comedy My Family and has also starred in Murder City and appeared in The Merchant of Venice with Al Pacino and Jeremy Irons. Laurence is probably best known as Kevin Whateley's sidekick in Lewis. Treats will be staged from Monday until February 10. Tickets, priced £14-£30, are available from the box office on 01225 448844.
Goodbye Bill Meilen....
It is with deepest regret we announce the passing of Bill Meilen.
Bill was best known to Doctor Who fans for his role as the Froyn in the 1st Doctor adventure; The Daleks Masterplan.
Bill was best known to Doctor Who fans for his role as the Froyn in the 1st Doctor adventure; The Daleks Masterplan.
S3: Episode 7 - title
The latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine (#379) confirms another Series Three Episode title.
This time it's for Episode 7, which goes under the intriguing title of '42'.
This time it's for Episode 7, which goes under the intriguing title of '42'.
Survival DVD - delayed
2entertain have informed the world that the Doctor Who DVD release of 'Survival', due for release on April 2nd, has now been delayed until April 16th.
A Dog's Life
John Leeson, the voice of K-9, will be appearing at the Questors Theatre in Ealing this Sunday, February 4, at 8:00. The programme is titled "A Dog's Life: An Evening with John Leeson".Details are available at the theatre's website, and there's a cute Flash animation about the show here.
New Books Announced
The latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine includes several new titles and release dates for new series books.
Creatures and Demons by Justin Richards will be out in May and will include "the Celestial Toymaker, the Quarks, Giant Maggots, the Krynoid, and more".
September sees three new novels. Wetworld by Mark Michalowski "pits the Doctor and Martha against nasty swamp monsters". Forever Autumn by Mark Morris, who tells us to "expect something very scary". Finally, there is The Wicked Bungalow (working title) by Paul Magrs.
Creatures and Demons by Justin Richards will be out in May and will include "the Celestial Toymaker, the Quarks, Giant Maggots, the Krynoid, and more".
September sees three new novels. Wetworld by Mark Michalowski "pits the Doctor and Martha against nasty swamp monsters". Forever Autumn by Mark Morris, who tells us to "expect something very scary". Finally, there is The Wicked Bungalow (working title) by Paul Magrs.
Torchwood - the Shopping Center?
The South Wales Echo has reported that there is now a call to have Cardiff's new shopping center to be named after the Torchwood team.
It’s a secret agency committed to fighting otherwordly threats - now there are calls for Cardiff’s massive new shopping development to be named after it.
Torchwood, the team that hunts aliens from its underground Cardiff Bay HQ in the BBC sci-fi drama, should lend its name to Cardiff’s £650m St David’s 2 development, according to one city councillor.
Self-confessed sci-fi fan Councillor Richard Foley is calling for the massive shopping complex to be named Torchwood. The councillor, who represents Llanishen and Thornhill, is even raising the matter at the authority’s next meeting.
He said the development should have a name of its own to distinguish it from the city’s existing St David’s centre. Coun Foley said “If it could be called Torchwood I think it would be amazing and a boost for tourism. The programme has showcased the city so well.” Coun Foley will now press Cardiff council leader Rodney Berman for a statement on the possibility of renaming the development. And he insists there is a serious matter behind his question. “I have been told that St David’s 2 is a working title but we have still not had a debate on what the name should be, despite repeated requests from myself and other members. However, it appears Coun Foley’s name change could be dashed. City centre manager Paul Williams said he expected the new complex to be known as St David’s 2.
“People know St David’s and it’s vitally important we preserve the name and recognise the heritage, even in a 21st century development,” he said. Council leader Rodney Berman said “Torchwood is a great ambassador for the city and has helped to put 21st Century Cardiff on the map. On a personal level I have a lot of sympathy for the idea but the practicalities are not quite that simple. The council does not have the right to the name of Torchwood. That rests with the BBC and the naming of the development rests with the developers.”
A spokesman for the St David’s Partnership said “St David’s 2 is a brand name designed to differentiate it from the existing St David’s Shopping Centre during construction. The intention on completion in 2009 is for both centres to be known collectively as the St David’s Shopping Centre.”
It’s a secret agency committed to fighting otherwordly threats - now there are calls for Cardiff’s massive new shopping development to be named after it.
Torchwood, the team that hunts aliens from its underground Cardiff Bay HQ in the BBC sci-fi drama, should lend its name to Cardiff’s £650m St David’s 2 development, according to one city councillor.
Self-confessed sci-fi fan Councillor Richard Foley is calling for the massive shopping complex to be named Torchwood. The councillor, who represents Llanishen and Thornhill, is even raising the matter at the authority’s next meeting.
He said the development should have a name of its own to distinguish it from the city’s existing St David’s centre. Coun Foley said “If it could be called Torchwood I think it would be amazing and a boost for tourism. The programme has showcased the city so well.” Coun Foley will now press Cardiff council leader Rodney Berman for a statement on the possibility of renaming the development. And he insists there is a serious matter behind his question. “I have been told that St David’s 2 is a working title but we have still not had a debate on what the name should be, despite repeated requests from myself and other members. However, it appears Coun Foley’s name change could be dashed. City centre manager Paul Williams said he expected the new complex to be known as St David’s 2.
“People know St David’s and it’s vitally important we preserve the name and recognise the heritage, even in a 21st century development,” he said. Council leader Rodney Berman said “Torchwood is a great ambassador for the city and has helped to put 21st Century Cardiff on the map. On a personal level I have a lot of sympathy for the idea but the practicalities are not quite that simple. The council does not have the right to the name of Torchwood. That rests with the BBC and the naming of the development rests with the developers.”
A spokesman for the St David’s Partnership said “St David’s 2 is a brand name designed to differentiate it from the existing St David’s Shopping Centre during construction. The intention on completion in 2009 is for both centres to be known collectively as the St David’s Shopping Centre.”
Big Finish Updates for 2007
Big Finish has released information for their upcoming releases in 2007, including the 100th release for the Who range. The latest cover for the Paul McGann BBC7 series, The Horror of Glam Rock can be viewed by clicking on the link below.
March 2007 sees the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa experiencing the Renaissance of the Daleks. April sees the first 'dual' release, with the Sixth Doctor releases I.D. and Urgent Calls. The following month, the Fifth Doctor does double duty with Exotron and Urban Myths. The Seventh Doctor visits Valhalla in June, with The Wishing Beast and The Vanity Box featuring the Sixth Doctor in July. August has the Seventh Doctor experiencing Frozen Time. September has two seperate releases, starting with the Fifth Doctor meeting the Son of the Dragon in the early part of the month.
The 100th Release of the Big Finish Doctor Who range is Earthstorm by award-winning author Stephen Baxter, which features the Sixth Doctor and is due to be released late September. Baxter is one of Britain's most respected hard science-fiction novelists, his books include The Time Ships, which was an authorised sequel to H.G. Wells influential classic The Time Machine.
The Eighth Doctor will continue to have his BBC7 adventures released monthly alongside his predecessors in the main range. Also, Doctor Who Magazine reports that there is a fourth series of Dalek Empire and a second series of Cyberman in the works. The Dalek Empire series will be set during the first series but from a different perspective. There will also be a free CD with the purchase of DWM issue 380.
http://www.gallifreyone.com/picview.php?ret=news&sub=news&id=mcg03_horrorofglamrock_big.jpg
March 2007 sees the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa experiencing the Renaissance of the Daleks. April sees the first 'dual' release, with the Sixth Doctor releases I.D. and Urgent Calls. The following month, the Fifth Doctor does double duty with Exotron and Urban Myths. The Seventh Doctor visits Valhalla in June, with The Wishing Beast and The Vanity Box featuring the Sixth Doctor in July. August has the Seventh Doctor experiencing Frozen Time. September has two seperate releases, starting with the Fifth Doctor meeting the Son of the Dragon in the early part of the month.
The 100th Release of the Big Finish Doctor Who range is Earthstorm by award-winning author Stephen Baxter, which features the Sixth Doctor and is due to be released late September. Baxter is one of Britain's most respected hard science-fiction novelists, his books include The Time Ships, which was an authorised sequel to H.G. Wells influential classic The Time Machine.
The Eighth Doctor will continue to have his BBC7 adventures released monthly alongside his predecessors in the main range. Also, Doctor Who Magazine reports that there is a fourth series of Dalek Empire and a second series of Cyberman in the works. The Dalek Empire series will be set during the first series but from a different perspective. There will also be a free CD with the purchase of DWM issue 380.
http://www.gallifreyone.com/picview.php?ret=news&sub=news&id=mcg03_horrorofglamrock_big.jpg
International Greetings signs creative play licences for Dr Who, Rupert Bear
LONDON (AFX) - International Greetings PLC said its unit Alligator Books Ltd has signed the 'creative play' licences for the Doctor Who television series and Rupert Bear cartoon from, respectively, BBC Worldwide and Entertainment Rights.
Financial details were not disclosed.
The creative play formats include products such as stickers and colouring sets, said International, a maker of greetings products and film and television character-based licensed stationery.
International said the new licences fit well with its existing stable, which includes Noddy, Thomas the Tank Engine, Postman Pat, Harry Potter and Spiderman.
newsdesk@afxnews.com am/vlb
Financial details were not disclosed.
The creative play formats include products such as stickers and colouring sets, said International, a maker of greetings products and film and television character-based licensed stationery.
International said the new licences fit well with its existing stable, which includes Noddy, Thomas the Tank Engine, Postman Pat, Harry Potter and Spiderman.
newsdesk@afxnews.com am/vlb
Thursday, February 01, 2007
Fan vids galore
A Fireplace Fairytale:
Two Goodbye my Lover fan videos , ok i did tear up on on both of these bite me...
A Jack and Dotor who fan vid
A balad for dead friends, jack centric vid
a S1-3 fanvid set to the Three Days Grace song 'Pain'.
A music video with a happier look back over the tenth Doctor and Rose's relationship, through his eyes.
The song is 'Ever the Same' by Rob Thomas.
The Doctor reflects on the last few months of his life shortly before his regeneration. Will Rose accept him in his next incarnation?
Two Goodbye my Lover fan videos , ok i did tear up on on both of these bite me...
A Jack and Dotor who fan vid
A balad for dead friends, jack centric vid
a S1-3 fanvid set to the Three Days Grace song 'Pain'.
A music video with a happier look back over the tenth Doctor and Rose's relationship, through his eyes.
The song is 'Ever the Same' by Rob Thomas.
The Doctor reflects on the last few months of his life shortly before his regeneration. Will Rose accept him in his next incarnation?
A torchwood fan vid
A great fan video showing gwen learning all that happened to jack before he came to torchwood.
PJ Hammond back for more Torchwood
The element man
From Sapphire and Steel to his recent contribution to Torchwood, PJ Hammond has been responsible for some of the spookiest shows on television. In this exclusive interview, he tells Rod Edgar his highest weekend body count and more.
PJ Hammond is one of Britain’s finest TV fantasy writers, but he has been largely absent from the genre since his strange, unsettling series Sapphire and Steel reached its memorable conclusion in the early 80s.
Now he is making a comeback, however, with an episode of Torchwood already under his belt (Small Worlds), and another on the way for series two.
“I was very pleased with Small Worlds,” he says of his first foray into the Doctor Who spin-off. “I don’t usually watch things again, but I watched all three transmissions because I was just so pleased with the production.
“It was a good crowd to work with, too. It’s taken a while because the show has to find itself. So, at the very beginning, none of the writers really knew what they were writing. We didn’t know the shape – so it was a lot of work – but it was worth it.”
In recent years, Hammond has been a writer on ITV1’s offbeat crime drama Midsomer Murders. Coincidentally, his latest script for that show aired at the same time Small Worlds debuted on BBC3.
“It was a bit frustrating,” he admits. “But then, I had it to see again on Wednesday. I worked out that with three murders in Midsomer, and another three plus 15 men in the railway carriage in Small Worlds, I was responsible for 21 deaths that Sunday.”
Creepy stories
Hammond began his TV career writing crime drama. “I worked as a script editor on Z Cars,” he says in soft, genteel tones. “I wrote 27 episodes, but they were all on edges of crime. Really they were just strange, creepy stories.
“I don’t like writing about crime,” he says, perhaps surprisingly for a man whose credits also include Dixon of Dock Green and Special Branch. “I don’t like writing about guns and things,” he continues. “I like writing about things that disturb us.”
Hammond escaped into fantasy television in 1970, with the ITV series Ace of Wands, starring Michael MacKenzie as Tarot, a magician who solved mysteries.
“It let me have free reign,” says Hammond. “If you’re talking about a magician then you have to give it plenty of fantasy. That was ideal for me.”
Hammond’s 1978 instalment of the children’s anthology series Shadows also centred on a magician. However, in And Now For My Next Trick, it was a hapless magician, who found three magic eggs. The eggs could save him from ruin, but at a price.
“I was always writing psychological things,” Hammond recalls. “I could never write slashing things. One has to with Midsomer Murders, but that’s another fantasy world – another strange landscape. It’s not the things you see, it’s the things you don’t see. It’s the old Hitchcockian theory of fear.”
The Time Menders
Hammond followed Shadows with his own creation, Sapphire and Steel, in 1979. “Again, that was for Thames Television,” he says. “For Pamela Lonsdale and, I think, Ruth Boswell. They wanted me to write a first episode that could possibly develop into a series. A fantasy story for children. I called it The Time Menders.”
Thames passed on the project, after which Southern Television expressed an interest. “But before they could do it, ATV said, ‘No, we’ll do it,’” recalls Hammond. “They said, ‘We don’t need an outline. Just go for it!’
“That was David Reid, I think. He didn’t want to do a children’s show. He said, ‘Make it an adult show. And call it Sapphire and Steel, not The Time Menders.’”
Viewers have long puzzled over the titular heroes, who mysteriously arrive to tackle strange disturbances in time. But Hammond admits that he never had a firm idea of who Sapphire and Steel were, or where they came from.
“It never occurred to me,” he says. “It was all just part of the fun and the mystery.”
The show’s opening credits indicated that the characters were elements, despite the fact that sapphire is a mineral and steel an alloy.
“The producer assembled the title sequence and went a bit haywire with the elements,” Hammond remembers. “It was discussed, but by that time it was too late to do anything about it. I think it’s part of its charm.”
Shining stars
In the show, Joanna Lumley (then most famous for The New Avengers) played the ethereal Sapphire, while The Man From UNCLE’s David McCallum played the very sober Steel. But Hammond never anticipated such big names.
“That was a big surprise,” he says. “It was wonderful, wonderful casting. They took it seriously and that was important. I always had Michael Byrne [Secret Army, Force 10 From Navarone] in mind, but then they talked about star casting and that just changed it.
“I didn’t mind, because the budget was quite big. We didn’t do much location filming, but I think it was better without it. They built these wonderful sets. The railway station [from Assignment Two] was a massive set, and the atmosphere we created made it work.”
The show was produced to a tight deadline, with Hammond still writing episodes of one story as the first episodes were being transmitted. “It was like writing for live theatre,” he says. “You didn’t know how they were going to end. They just said ‘just keep writing.’
“In fact, I didn’t have the ending to the one about the railway station. That was a worry! But it came eventually.”
Hammond penned all six of Sapphire and Steels 'assignments' bar one, with Don Haughton and Anthony Reed stepping in to write the fifth.
“I was supposed to carry on writing, but by that time I had just written so many,” Hammond says. “My head had seized up and I had to take a bit of time out. They had to get a couple of other writers in at short notice. To me, it wasn’t a Sapphire and Steel story. It was a variation, but it’s not one I would have chosen.”
Cosmic café
Today, Sapphire and Steel is remembered for its slow, tense atmosphere and creepy concepts. The series came to an end on 31 August 1982, but Hammond still receives “lots of letters from people who remember being scared by it as children.”
The finale of the last assignment saw the two heroes outmanoeuvred by their enemies, and seemingly trapped forever in an empty café, floating among the stars. But it isn’t exactly the ending Hammond originally envisaged.
“As a possible get-out I wanted Silver [David Collings] to be trapped in the café with them,” he says. “I felt he could have worked a few tricks with the knives and forks.
"But I think David McCallum didn’t like that idea very much, and I think he and the producers agreed that – because the show was called Sapphire and Steel – it should be just the two of them at the end. It’s not something I agreed with but I had to go along with.
“I think by then I’d had about enough. I could see changes with what was going to happen, because ATV was going to be taken over, so I thought it would be a good idea to end it. I thought ‘I’ll just put it on hold,’ if you like.”
Recently, however, Sapphire and Steel have been taken 'off hold', in a series of new audio adventures, made by Big Finish Productions. But Hammond has not been involved in the project, which stars David Warner and Susannah Harker in the title roles.
“I was asked to do one, but I didn’t want to do that," says Hammond. "I didn’t feel it was an audio medium and I didn’t think it was for me. I just like to write visually.
“They didn’t send me any copies, so I haven’t heard them.”
Back from outer space
Hammond briefly flirted with science fiction in the late 90s, with Space Island One, but complains that the Sky One drama was too mundane. Then, in May 2006, he revealed that he was in talks with senior ITV executives about the possibility of reviving Sapphire and Steel.
“I had one or two conversations with people at ITV who wanted to assess it,” he says. “I put some paperwork together, but it reached an impasse. I’ve got a folder of things I put down, but, of course, things have moved on. The people involved have now left ITV.
"I found it difficult, because they didn’t want any reference to what had happened to Sapphire and Steel before. I felt there had to be a link of some sort, from them being trapped. Just suddenly turning up would mean you have to explain them all over again.
“The other big sticking point was that they wanted to know exactly where they came from, and I had no idea. No one’s ever asked in 27 years.
”It was definitely going away from the direction I would have wanted it to be in. I did manage to put together some good thoughts together, though, so I could always use them for something else.”
Hammond says that his experience on Torchwood would inform any revival of Sapphire and Steel. "I would know what could be done by opening it up" he says. "I would put it on a wider canvas."
As for Torchwood, Hammond is reluctant to give away his ideas for series two. “If I talk about them now I’ll probably lose interest. But I think they want me to keep to the supernatural. They probably think it’s my bag.”
From Sapphire and Steel to his recent contribution to Torchwood, PJ Hammond has been responsible for some of the spookiest shows on television. In this exclusive interview, he tells Rod Edgar his highest weekend body count and more.
PJ Hammond is one of Britain’s finest TV fantasy writers, but he has been largely absent from the genre since his strange, unsettling series Sapphire and Steel reached its memorable conclusion in the early 80s.
Now he is making a comeback, however, with an episode of Torchwood already under his belt (Small Worlds), and another on the way for series two.
“I was very pleased with Small Worlds,” he says of his first foray into the Doctor Who spin-off. “I don’t usually watch things again, but I watched all three transmissions because I was just so pleased with the production.
“It was a good crowd to work with, too. It’s taken a while because the show has to find itself. So, at the very beginning, none of the writers really knew what they were writing. We didn’t know the shape – so it was a lot of work – but it was worth it.”
In recent years, Hammond has been a writer on ITV1’s offbeat crime drama Midsomer Murders. Coincidentally, his latest script for that show aired at the same time Small Worlds debuted on BBC3.
“It was a bit frustrating,” he admits. “But then, I had it to see again on Wednesday. I worked out that with three murders in Midsomer, and another three plus 15 men in the railway carriage in Small Worlds, I was responsible for 21 deaths that Sunday.”
Creepy stories
Hammond began his TV career writing crime drama. “I worked as a script editor on Z Cars,” he says in soft, genteel tones. “I wrote 27 episodes, but they were all on edges of crime. Really they were just strange, creepy stories.
“I don’t like writing about crime,” he says, perhaps surprisingly for a man whose credits also include Dixon of Dock Green and Special Branch. “I don’t like writing about guns and things,” he continues. “I like writing about things that disturb us.”
Hammond escaped into fantasy television in 1970, with the ITV series Ace of Wands, starring Michael MacKenzie as Tarot, a magician who solved mysteries.
“It let me have free reign,” says Hammond. “If you’re talking about a magician then you have to give it plenty of fantasy. That was ideal for me.”
Hammond’s 1978 instalment of the children’s anthology series Shadows also centred on a magician. However, in And Now For My Next Trick, it was a hapless magician, who found three magic eggs. The eggs could save him from ruin, but at a price.
“I was always writing psychological things,” Hammond recalls. “I could never write slashing things. One has to with Midsomer Murders, but that’s another fantasy world – another strange landscape. It’s not the things you see, it’s the things you don’t see. It’s the old Hitchcockian theory of fear.”
The Time Menders
Hammond followed Shadows with his own creation, Sapphire and Steel, in 1979. “Again, that was for Thames Television,” he says. “For Pamela Lonsdale and, I think, Ruth Boswell. They wanted me to write a first episode that could possibly develop into a series. A fantasy story for children. I called it The Time Menders.”
Thames passed on the project, after which Southern Television expressed an interest. “But before they could do it, ATV said, ‘No, we’ll do it,’” recalls Hammond. “They said, ‘We don’t need an outline. Just go for it!’
“That was David Reid, I think. He didn’t want to do a children’s show. He said, ‘Make it an adult show. And call it Sapphire and Steel, not The Time Menders.’”
Viewers have long puzzled over the titular heroes, who mysteriously arrive to tackle strange disturbances in time. But Hammond admits that he never had a firm idea of who Sapphire and Steel were, or where they came from.
“It never occurred to me,” he says. “It was all just part of the fun and the mystery.”
The show’s opening credits indicated that the characters were elements, despite the fact that sapphire is a mineral and steel an alloy.
“The producer assembled the title sequence and went a bit haywire with the elements,” Hammond remembers. “It was discussed, but by that time it was too late to do anything about it. I think it’s part of its charm.”
Shining stars
In the show, Joanna Lumley (then most famous for The New Avengers) played the ethereal Sapphire, while The Man From UNCLE’s David McCallum played the very sober Steel. But Hammond never anticipated such big names.
“That was a big surprise,” he says. “It was wonderful, wonderful casting. They took it seriously and that was important. I always had Michael Byrne [Secret Army, Force 10 From Navarone] in mind, but then they talked about star casting and that just changed it.
“I didn’t mind, because the budget was quite big. We didn’t do much location filming, but I think it was better without it. They built these wonderful sets. The railway station [from Assignment Two] was a massive set, and the atmosphere we created made it work.”
The show was produced to a tight deadline, with Hammond still writing episodes of one story as the first episodes were being transmitted. “It was like writing for live theatre,” he says. “You didn’t know how they were going to end. They just said ‘just keep writing.’
“In fact, I didn’t have the ending to the one about the railway station. That was a worry! But it came eventually.”
Hammond penned all six of Sapphire and Steels 'assignments' bar one, with Don Haughton and Anthony Reed stepping in to write the fifth.
“I was supposed to carry on writing, but by that time I had just written so many,” Hammond says. “My head had seized up and I had to take a bit of time out. They had to get a couple of other writers in at short notice. To me, it wasn’t a Sapphire and Steel story. It was a variation, but it’s not one I would have chosen.”
Cosmic café
Today, Sapphire and Steel is remembered for its slow, tense atmosphere and creepy concepts. The series came to an end on 31 August 1982, but Hammond still receives “lots of letters from people who remember being scared by it as children.”
The finale of the last assignment saw the two heroes outmanoeuvred by their enemies, and seemingly trapped forever in an empty café, floating among the stars. But it isn’t exactly the ending Hammond originally envisaged.
“As a possible get-out I wanted Silver [David Collings] to be trapped in the café with them,” he says. “I felt he could have worked a few tricks with the knives and forks.
"But I think David McCallum didn’t like that idea very much, and I think he and the producers agreed that – because the show was called Sapphire and Steel – it should be just the two of them at the end. It’s not something I agreed with but I had to go along with.
“I think by then I’d had about enough. I could see changes with what was going to happen, because ATV was going to be taken over, so I thought it would be a good idea to end it. I thought ‘I’ll just put it on hold,’ if you like.”
Recently, however, Sapphire and Steel have been taken 'off hold', in a series of new audio adventures, made by Big Finish Productions. But Hammond has not been involved in the project, which stars David Warner and Susannah Harker in the title roles.
“I was asked to do one, but I didn’t want to do that," says Hammond. "I didn’t feel it was an audio medium and I didn’t think it was for me. I just like to write visually.
“They didn’t send me any copies, so I haven’t heard them.”
Back from outer space
Hammond briefly flirted with science fiction in the late 90s, with Space Island One, but complains that the Sky One drama was too mundane. Then, in May 2006, he revealed that he was in talks with senior ITV executives about the possibility of reviving Sapphire and Steel.
“I had one or two conversations with people at ITV who wanted to assess it,” he says. “I put some paperwork together, but it reached an impasse. I’ve got a folder of things I put down, but, of course, things have moved on. The people involved have now left ITV.
"I found it difficult, because they didn’t want any reference to what had happened to Sapphire and Steel before. I felt there had to be a link of some sort, from them being trapped. Just suddenly turning up would mean you have to explain them all over again.
“The other big sticking point was that they wanted to know exactly where they came from, and I had no idea. No one’s ever asked in 27 years.
”It was definitely going away from the direction I would have wanted it to be in. I did manage to put together some good thoughts together, though, so I could always use them for something else.”
Hammond says that his experience on Torchwood would inform any revival of Sapphire and Steel. "I would know what could be done by opening it up" he says. "I would put it on a wider canvas."
As for Torchwood, Hammond is reluctant to give away his ideas for series two. “If I talk about them now I’ll probably lose interest. But I think they want me to keep to the supernatural. They probably think it’s my bag.”
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
