The Doctor In The TARDIS

Monday, 2 January 2012

Doctor Who at the NTA's

The nominees for the National Television Awards have been announced with Doctor Who leading the pack alongside Downton Abbey with 3 nominations.

The Show itself is up for the prestigious Best Drama Series award, which in a surprise turn of events was last year taken home by school drama Waterloo Road.

Matt Smith will be competing for the title of Best Actor again this year alongside Karen Gillan who is nominated for Best Actress.

The awards will be announced on January 25th.

Series 7 News Roundup

With Series 7 being moved to the Autumn schedules and filming on the new series not due to start until February, new news is a little on the thin side, but thanks to Moffs appearance at the BFI screening of The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe as well as little hints in DWM, there are a few interesting facts about the next series that are worth looking at. As we haven't been around much to report on the updates, here is a roundup of what we know so far:

Amy and Rory will be leaving the show 'at some point' during Series 7 in what Steven Moffat has described as a 'heartbreaking' end to their story. It has been speculated that it will be Rory's (final) death that brings an end to their travels, though of course this is speculation and the details are likely to be kept top secret.
With the departure of the latest companions must come the arrival of the newest. Absolutely nothing is known about who will be taking the place of the Ponds, but it has been hinted that it will just be one companion this time around.
Although not confirmed officially, Moffat has said that he expects River Song to return in the new series.
Moffat has also revealed that he has no plans for Series 7 to contain any two part stories, saying "At this stage, everything is a single episode, and the only reason anything will become a two-parter is if we think it needs to be; not so much that the story is too long for 45 minutes, because nothing is too long for 45 minutes, but if it feels as though there are two distinct stages to the story."
He also gave us a tiny hint about what to expect from the opening story of Series 7. "The first episode I’m writing is called '_____ of the _____' and it’ll feel a bit like Die Hard, that first episode."
Marcus Wilson, who acts as producer on the show, has revealed that Series 7 will see the return of 'a couple' of classic villains/monsters from the 1960's and 70's. Leading the popularity stakes on the forum so far is the Zygons and the Ice Warriors, but which would you like to see make a return? Let us know below.

And for more news, spoilers and updates check out The Doctor In The TARDIS Forum

Review: Third Doctor Audio - Paradise Of Death

Our latest forum review comes from the brilliant Vampyros Adric who this time has shifted his focus to the Third Doctor in the audio story The Paradise Of Death.....

I've held off from this one as it lays open a can of worms "canon-wise". But no, I must look straight into the eye of the time vortex and think that if the movie is canon, then this story must be at least half canon. Although the "Blurb on the back of the box" man must have been paid by the word for this, I will still give you the benefit of his wisdom to set the scene.

"When a horrific and inexplicable death occurs at Space world, a new theme park on Hampstead Heath, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and UNIT are called to investigate."

The Paradise of Death was like a life-belt, tossed into the barren, Who-Free waters of the early nineties. A full cast audio adventure..with Jon Pertwee... And UNIT...written by Barry Letts.... YES PLEASE!!! Therefore when you listen to this, try and see it in that context and the whole thing becomes easier to love. I must confess, although this story gets a fair bit of stick from the fans, I really enjoy it. It has a tangible beginning, middle and end. The bad guys are fairly bad and the good guys are awesome. Special little mentions must go to the three "stars" Pertwee, Sladen and Courtney who are all utterly brilliant - having been written for radio, some of the dialogue can be a little ponderous at times, but this is all necessary exposition. The pacing is generally good and the beginning and the ending of the story belts along.

To be sure, it is not without its problems. This is undoubtedly "Who-by-Numbers" with very little to surprise or shock. Lis Sladen's dialogue is especially clunky given her role of our "eyes and ears" in the Whoniverse. Furthermore, towards the middle there is a little feeling of padding. This could easily have been a four parter and had it been so, would have been perfectly paced.

Nonetheless, this is a perfectly enjoyable romp which suits being an audio adventure. It will never shake any trees, but is a great way to spend a couple of hours with some old friends.

For more merchandise news and reviews, check out The Doctor In The TARDIS Forum

Doctor Who Comes To Playstation 3

Due to our recent downtime we are a little late reporting on this, but it's better late than never. Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock is the brand new game being created in full high definition by BBC Worldwide for digital download platforms and is set for release in early this year on Playstation 3 and PC platforms.

Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock will immerse gamers in the universe of Doctor Who, allowing them to take on the role of the Doctor and River Song as they travel across time and space to save the Earth. Gamers must learn to master the complexities of time travel with exceptional time based game play, changes made in one time will impact another creating multiple possibilities and challenging players to solve puzzles across the centuries.

A wholly new storyline has been developed especially for this new Doctor Who console game franchise, written in collaboration with the BBC Wales team. Photo-real graphics, television quality scenes and highly realistic characters will bring the world of Doctor Who to life immersing fans completely in the twists and turns of an action filled plot. The stars of the series Matt Smith (the Doctor) and Alex Kingston (River Song) have recorded full voiceovers for their characters in Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock and motion capture has been used to create in-game characters that are incredibly realistic providing the ultimate Doctor Who gaming experience. The game is being developed by Supermassive Games.

Two more Doctor Who console game titles are already in development and are planned to follow this release. More details are expected to be released in the Spring.

More Classic Novel Rereleases

Following on from the successful relaunch last year by BBC books of their classic range of novelisations, one of which can be seen on the left, six more have been announced for May 2012

The range of new releases will cover the first four Doctors and will include the following novelisations:

- Doctor Who and the Day Of The Daleks

- Doctor Who and the Three Doctors

- Doctor Who and the Tenth Planet

- Doctor Who and the Ark In Space

- Doctor Who and the Loch Ness Monster

- Doctor Who and the Ice Warriors

Amazon have the books ready for pre-order, but as yet none of the covers for the releases have been revealed, so keep your eyes peeled for more info.

Keep it with The Doctor In The TARDIS Forum

Sunday, 1 January 2012

Sarah Jane Comes To DVD

February sees the release of not one, but two DVD box sets from The Sarah Jane Adventures.

Both DVDs are scheduled for release on February 6th. The first is The Complete Fifth Series and covers the final adventures of Sarah Jane Smith.

All three two-part episodes from the fifth series of the ‘Doctor Who’ spin-off, created by the award-winning writer, Russell T. Davies.

The programme follows the adventures of one of the Doctor’s most famous former companions, investigative journalist Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen), as she faces all manner of alien life-forms and restores Earth’s cosmic balance with the help of her young assistants Clyde (Daniel Anthony), Luke (Tommy Knight) and Rani (Anjli Mohindra). Episodes are: ‘Sky’, ‘The Curse of Clyde Langer’ and ‘The Man Who Never Was’.

The second set due for release is the Complete Series 1-5 set

All two-part episodes from the first to fifth series of the ‘Doctor Who’ spin-off, created by the award-winning writer, Russell T. Davies. 13-year-old Maria Jackson (Yasmin Paige)’s life gets a lot more exciting when one of the Doctor’s most famous former companions, investigative journalist Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen), moves in next door. Soon the young girl is coming face-to-face with all manner of alien life-forms, as she helps her new neighbour restore Earth’s cosmic balance.

The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe Watchathon

This Wednesday, January 4th at 8pm GMT we will be holding our regular episode watchathon, looking back at and discussing the latest new episode of Doctor Who, and this time it is the turn of the 2011 Christmas Special, The Doctor The Widow and the Wardrobe.

We would love for you to come and join in with us in discussing the episode and sharing your thoughts, so pop on over this Wednesday to join in the fun. If you don't already have a posting account on the forum, registration takes just 2 minutes and as always is completely free.

We hope to see you there.

The Doctor In The TARDIS Forum

Join The Infinite Quest - The Gunfighters

This week over on the forum, the featured story is The Gunfighters. Come on over and give us your thoughts and opinions on this classic First Doctor adventure from 1966.

Arriving in the town of Tombstone, the First Doctor finds himself involved with gunmen, out to kill Doc Holliday...

The Gunfighters was the eighth story of Season 3 of Doctor Who. Its final episode, "The O. K. Corral", was the last individually-titled episode until The Five Doctors, the ninety-minute 20th Anniversary special.

This story saw Doctor Who's take on the gunfight at the O.K. Corral. William Hartnell would later claim that the Wild West setting was his idea, a statement which was confirmed on the DVD bonus features. The director, Rex Tucker, was originally chosen to direct An Unearthly Child but filming interfered with a holiday he had booked. This was Tucker's only Who credit.

The Gunfighters was the only serial to have a song written especially for it until The Greatest Show in the Galaxy, decades later. "The Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon" was sung off screen by Lynda Baron who would later appear in Enlightenment and Closing Time.

The role of Johnny Ringo was offered to veteran actor Patrick Troughton, but he was too busy. Troughton would later be asked back, and won the role of the Second Doctor. The actor playing Doc Holliday, Anthony Jacobs, brought his son, Matthew Jacobs onto the set. Matthew would later write the telemovie.

The poor AI ratings received by The Gunfighters strengthened Donald Cotton's argument that historical stories should be axed.

The Doctor In The TARDIS Forum

Happy New Year

We would like to take the opportunity to wish all of our readers and followers a very happy new year and best wishes for 2012.

You may have noticed that over the last few months things have been a little quiet on our news page, Twitter feed and Facebook page. Unfortunately these things were unavoidable and we would like to apologise to everyone for not keeping you as updated as we would have liked, but things are back on track now so keep your eyes peeled for all the latest updates and developments from the worlds of Doctor Who.

Once again, a very happy new year to you all.