Someone on YouTube has smuggled a clip of the new Doctor Who CGI adventure that the BBC will be airing later this year titled "Dreamland". It's still the David Tennant version of the Doctor, so he gets one more go as the character before he becomes Rex.
And it looks... well, frankly, not that good. Oh, the story is great, I'm sure, and Tennant is as spot on as the Doctor as he ever was. It's the CGI. It looks primitive by today's standards. Topless Robot wrote the the style of the clip reminds them of the Reboot CGI cartoon from the 90's, and I have to agree. I recognize the BBC isn't Pixar, and I'm all for Doctor Who in other non-filmed forms, whether it's CGI, primitive animation or just plain old audio adventures. But if it's done, I'd rather it be done better than this.
However, I leave it to you to judge for yourself. What do you think of the clip?
The next Doctor Who special, The Waters of Mars, will be broadcast on BBC America on Saturday December 19th at 9 P.M. For those like myself whose cable company doesn't carry BBC America, we're S.O.L.
Of course, the BBC British broadcast date is November 15th. In that gap, I'm sure even the less technically adept fan in the United States can snag a copy of the show, and fans of the show tend to be more capable when it comes to technology. Not that I'm encouraging such behavior. I'm simply saying that a gap of a month is a LONG time in the digital world. The companies involved would have been better off with a gap of 24 hours. At that point, it's less likely that piracy will occur.
However, for those who are sticklers about this whole "copyright law" thing, you have your opportunity to see the program on December 19th. Hopefully you can wait that long.
(P.S. For those who need more David Tennant as the Doctor before his departure, he's currently appearing on the spin-off show The Sarah Jane Adventures in the U.K.)
Prepare for some spoilers. Don't say I didn't warn you. By the way, Matt Smith is the 11th Doctor (or the 12th, depending on how they spin David Tennant's extraneous regeneration) in case you didn't know.
Actually, it's not that bad. From an article posted on The Doctor Who News Page, it is learned that his new companion, Amy, is a police officer. In a few photos, he also seems to be wearing the remnants of Tennant's outfit. From the description, the Doctor is probably going through some post-regenerative trauma. When has the Doctor ever regenerated without trauma? Never, I think.
I know they film out of order, but it feels odd to know already what his outfit is going to look like. Here is one other possible minor spoiler: in the scenes filmed, the Sonic Screwdriver gets destroyed (and Matt Smith was slightly injured in the process). Between Matt Smith's age and that plot device, it's like Steven Moffat is trying to copy the Peter Davison era.
David Tennant and Simon Pegg will star in John Landis' next film Burke and Hare. Tennant will soon be stepping down as the lead character in Doctor Who and while Pegg has mostly been in movies as of late (such as the recent cinematic remake of Star Trek), he is known for co-creating the television cult fave Spaced.
It will be interesting to see them work together since Pegg is a big sci-fi fan. He appeared in the first season of Doctor Who as "The Editor," before Tennant came on board. Sadly, the movie probably has very little science fiction involved since it's about a pair of famous 19th century grave robbers. What do you expect from the man who brought us An American Werewolf in London?
It's also good to hear that director John Landis apparently isn't career-dead either and has just moved shop to England (hopefully only temporarily). Animal House and The Blues Brothers are two of my favorite movies of all time.
Every once in a while, the British television show Doctor Who is revamped. This is usually done by replacing the lead actor and his supporting crew. However, it is also done by changing the logo of the series. As a result, certain logos are associated with certain eras. Yesterday, the BBC has revealed on their website the logo to be associated with the Matt Smith era of the show. They also have a video of the historical logos of the show.
I don't have a particular favorite logo, although I liked both the "diamond" logo of the 70's, most closely associated with Tom Baker's era, and the "neon" logo of the 80's, which spanned three Doctors (Tom Baker, Peter Davison and Colin Baker). The current one isn't bad either with the cylinder thing with pointy ends (what is that shape called?).
A video preview of thenew logo is available on certain sites such as Topless Robot. What do you think of it? Which logo has been your favorite?
The new series of Doctor Who comes closer and closer, and the list of involved talent is really starting to build up. It's been confirmed that Richard Curtis will write an episode. With some of his more popular work being Four Weddings and a Funeral, Love Actually and Bridget Jones's Diary, Curtis seems like a rather unusual contributor. Of course, he also did Blackadder and The Vicar of Dibley for television, but neither of those things are very sci-fi-related or timey-wimey.
Curtis's films seem to have the most luck when working with ensemble casts, so maybe he can work this same magic on the small screen and introduce some new characters worthy of sticking around. We haven't really had that since Sally Sparrow (and maybe Nightingale, if only to complete the duo) from "Blink". Also, the new Doctor and the new companion are both young and attractive, a combination poised to perfectly fit into Curtis's romantic-comedy specialty.
Former Doctor Who lead actor (or current, depending on how you measure it) David Tennant did a quick television interview with PBS for the TV Critics Press Tour. He'll be taking over as host of their series Masterpiece Contemporary.
In the interview, he briefly glosses over his experience in Doctor Who (as well as the Harry Potter franchise) and discusses the relative importance of public television between England and America. He also discusses his Lou Reed t-shirt. I think Doctor Who has influenced David Tennant's fashion sense. In his personal television appearances, he always seems to sport a casual jacket similar to that of his former character (albeit over a t-shirt).
Any long-time Who fan is very familiar with the relationship between PBS and Doctor Who, as that was the channel that the program could be found on in the 1970's and 1980's. It's a nice interview. Tennant will be a terrific host for that program. The video follows.
Before Doctor Who fans say good bye to David Tennant in the BBC's final three specials of 2009, they'll get a little extra colorful bonus Tennant from the Beeb's Red Button service and the Who website.
Doctor Who: "Dreamland" is the show's first venture into "3D" CG animation, and that makes for a stylistic representation of the Tennant's tall, skinny Time Lord. Writer Phil Ford (a veteran of both live action Who and Torchwood) takes the The Doctor to a diner in Roswell, New Mexico where all manner of alien shenanigans are going on.
American fans won't get to see the six-part series in its first run, as they're blocked out of video feeds on the BBC's websites. If only there were other websites that showed online video (illegally) posted by fans. Oh, well.
Filming is underway for season five (called series five in the U.K.) of the adventures of everyone's favorite Time Lord, Doctor Who, and naturally, a few secrets of the next season have already been leaked.
For the benefit of those who don't wish to be spoiled, the goodies will be revealed after the jump. The rest of you can go about your business.
Outgoing Doctor Who producer Russell T. Davies and outgoing Doctor Who star David Tennant gave a 20-minute exit interview on Boing Boing Video (via YouTube). The entire video appears after the jump if you're feeling too lazy to click the link.
The interview took place around the San Diego Comic Con and is being done as a promotion for the next Doctor Who special, The Waters of Mars. There are a few spoilers (they do reveal the Master's appearance in the final episodes later this year, but that's pretty common knowledge at this point), but there is a sense of the feelings from the dynamic duo as they leave the franchise.
With 2010 edging closer and the Russell T. Davies era of Doctor Who coming to an end, the BBC is in the midst of revamping the show's website.
With 2009 offering only a few Who specials and turning the series into a sporadic event until it returns full-time in 2010, the BBC has time to revamp the show's image and identity online.
The effectiveness of their efforts so far are debatable as they seem to be looking backward more than forward to the new Matt Smith/11th Doctor era.
For example, the re-engineered Doctor Who website added a blog by Davies in which he discusses the new David Tennant-voiced, 10th Doctor CGI cartoon, Dreamland.
Earlier this month, we asked you if you wanted a season four of Torchwood. Early responses seemed to say yes, and then we got deluged with people who were fed up with their favorite characters dying and who weren't entirely impressed with theTorchwood: Children of Earthmini-series that was season three.
Well, there is going to be a season four, and Torchwood Magazinegot the scoop (Dammit! How'd they manage that?). According to the magazine, Torchwood creator and writer Russell T. Davies already has several storylines worked out, and knows what happens to the characters that did survive seasons two and three. He's not sure if it will be another mini-series or a 13-episode season, but he does know what he'd include.
In a victory for nerdy Brit-philes everywhere, BBC America has announced the acquisition of U.S. broadcast rights for the fifth season of Doctor Who starring the 11th Doctor, Matt Smith. This is on the tail of announcing record ratings for the American broadcast of the Doctor Who episode Planet of the Dead and the mini-series Torchwood: Children of Earth.
This is all the more reason to curse my cable company for not actually carrying BBC America and having to resort to other means to watch one of my favorite programs of all time. You know when a network tells you to call your cable company to carry your favorite stations? I will personally testify in a court of law that it accomplishes jack squat.
There are no other television stations that could correctly carry Doctor Who in the states. SyFy? Oh please. Their first run with the series was lukewarm at best. The Doctor is home, and I look forward to catching his new adventures however I can.
Reports flooded out of Comic Con International that a fourth season of Torchwood was all but a lock based on its spectacular ratings on both sides of the Atlantic.
That would make sense when you consider the third mini-season ("Children of Earth") pulled in north of 6 milllion viewers a night in the U.K. and is now BBC America's all-time highest rated show. Why wouldn't the BBC want to bring it back?
But, in an informal discussion in Los Angeles Wednesday, Russell T. Davies told me the fourth season has not been officially approved, despite previous reports.
When you're bombarded with one panel after the other, it's sometimes hard to figure out how to group them together. One writer I was sitting with at the BBC America panel, for instance, was blogging each individual panel, and was such a frantic blur of writing and Photoshopping that she developed what can best be described as SCTS (Sudden Carpal Tunnel Syndrome).
You gotta do what you gotta do, I guess. Me, I figured that there were three panels that could be put in what I call the "Comic-Con group": Spartacus on Starz, and Doctor Who and Being Human on BBC America. These shows got extensive showcases in San Diego over the weekend, and there wasn't many details revealed in any of these panels that you wouldn't have heard over the din at SDCC. So I'm going to go over the three of them in brief after the jump.
Let me give you a good teaser: If you were on the fence about seeing Spartacus, the prospect of a naked Lucy Lawless may convince you.
Someone on YouTube has smuggled a clip of the new Doctor Who CGI adventure that the BBC will be airing later this year titled "Dreamland". It's still the David Tennant version of the Doctor, so he gets one more go as the character before he becomes Rex.
The next 
Prepare for some spoilers. Don't say I didn't warn you. By the way, Matt Smith is the 11th Doctor (or the 12th, depending on how they spin David Tennant's extraneous regeneration) in case you didn't know.
David Tennant and Simon Pegg will star in John Landis' next film 
The new series of Doctor Who comes closer and closer, and the list of involved talent is really starting to build up. It's been confirmed that 
Before 
With 2010 edging closer and the Russell T. Davies era of Doctor Who coming to an end, the BBC is in the midst of revamping the show's website.
Earlier this month, 
Reports flooded out of Comic Con International that a fourth season of Torchwood was all but a lock based on its spectacular ratings on both sides of the Atlantic.
When you're bombarded with one panel after the other, it's sometimes hard to figure out how to group them together. One writer I was sitting with at the BBC America panel, for instance, was blogging each individual panel, and was such a frantic blur of writing and Photoshopping that she developed what can best be described as SCTS (Sudden Carpal Tunnel Syndrome).
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