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Doctor Who At Comic-Con 2012 - Matt Smith, Karen Gillan & Arthur Darvill Interview
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Doctor Who Sonic Screwdriver Remote - Demo
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Ben Browder Talks Briefly About Doctor Who at London Comic Con
Ben Bowder briefly talks about Doctor Who at around 6:00. http://dlvr.it/1rTFx3
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Doctor Who nominated for 3 TV Choice Awards
The Shortlist nominations for this years TV Choice Awards have been revealed.Doctor Who have 3 nominations but sadly Spin-off shows The Sarah Jane Adventures (Best Family Show) and Torchwood: Miracle Day (Best Drama) both failed to gain enough nominations for their respective categories.
Doctor Who is nominated in the Best Family Drama and is up against Merlin, Waterloo Road and Glee.
Matt Smith is nominated in the Best Actor category up against Sherlock’s Benedict Cumberbatch, Merlin’s Colin Morgan and Martin Clunes for Doc Martin.
Karen Gillan is nominated in the Best Actress category up against Miranda Hart for Call the Midwife, Freya Mayor for Skins and Jaye Jacobs for Waterloo Road.
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Doctor Who at Comic Con Paris - Panel Interview with Murray Gold, Caroline Skinner, Chris Chibnall and Toby Haynes
Thanks to Samy from tardib http://dlvr.it/1rFBzp
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BBC Worldwide announce Sonic Screwdriver TV Remote!
After being heavily rumoured and talked about online, BBC Worldwide have released photos of a brand new product - The _Doctor Who_ Sonic Screwdriver TV Remote! It happens to be made by the same company that brought _Harry Potter_ fans a TV Remote magic wand. The Sonic Screwdriver features a green flashing tip, an FX mode incorporating vintage Doctor Who sound effects and uses a series of 13 gestures, such as rotating, flicking or tapping to control devices.
It is full to the brim of features and can contain memory to be able to control 3 different devices which can include a TV, Blu-ray, DVD, ETC. It is due for official release on Friday 31 August 2012, which could be just in time for the new series if it airs on Saturday 1st September, or just 1 week after if it airs on 25th August .
It is listed to be on sale on the BBCShop.com and ForbiddenPlanet.co.uk
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Skaro’s Top 6 New-Who Episodes!
I have been debating if I should post this or not and after a long time I’ve decide I should, so today it’s about my favourite episodes of New-Who. Listed below is my favourite episode from each series in the order I’d also rank them with reasons reviewing why. So Please - Enjoy.
6. Vincent and The Doctor
I feel Vincent and the Doctor is one of those episodes that you have to look deep into to understand all of the beauty in the episode. The Set and prop Designers did a fantastic job making everything as accurate as possible when relating to Vincent and his life. You also get the rare opportunity in one of the scenes (pictured above) where you get to see through the eye’s of Vincent Van Gogh. In general it is one of those episodes that make you feel glad to be alive! There is so little I can say about this episode, except that it is a wonderful example of humanity.5. Blink
I always use to hate Blink, thinking it was an awful episode but that was until I saw the amazing thing that is the true genius of Moffat’s writing of the character of Sally Sparrow. But we mustn’t forget it is not just his writing but the fact that it is a Doctor (and Martha)-light episode, which sometimes can be a good thing for the series. The concept of the weeping angels has never been a scary one to me but I must say, they are in my top 10 for brilliant monsters. For that reason I have put it as my favourite for Series 3. Oh - and my home town Hull gets a very comical reference in this episode!
4. The Girl in The Fireplace
Surpringly another one of my favourite episodes happens to be one of Moffat’s, The Historical side of this episode is one which strays abit from the actual world by adding a little bit of banter and flirting between The Doctor and Madame De Pompadour (which Rose safely doesn’t see thanks to a time-window). We also have the stepping-up of the character of Mickey Smith from the average person into an actual companion who unlike Rose the male viewers feel they can associate with. I must admit I’m an avid fan of the banter between them about The Life of the Doctor (Cleopatra…). I just find that this episode sticks out above all other ones Moffat has done.
3. The Girl Who Waited
I owe Tom MacRae a serious Thank-You for creating a wonderful episode! Not only was it made on a lower budget than the rest of the series, but it was actually the doctor-light episode of the series, and it worked really well as you never actually felt that, the way its done makes you feel like the Doctor is always there. Gillans acting in this episode is also something to give huge credit to. She took on two roles (Young and Old Amy) and portrayed them in such a way that made us feel sorry for Old Amy, and possibly for some Hate the doctor because he got the ‘timings abit out’. We can’t forget the wonderful supporting actors of this episode, Arthur Darvill (Rory) and Imelda Staunton (Interface) who keep the story rolling even when Amy isn’t around. The occasional comical joke also makes it feel a very warm and light-hearted episode which really does bring a tear to my eye.
2. Turn Left
Turn left is an episode which is always viewed very badly by many fans, it doesn’t fit the template of a Normal ‘Doctor Who’ episode but that’s why I like it - It is different and provides us to an insight of what the Who-niverse would be like without the Doctor. It happens to be a Doctor-light episode and mainly features Billie Piper (Rose) and Catherine Tate (Donna) who I can safely say are both fantastic actors for this kind of sadness and tone of this episode. The Character of Parallel-Donna has alot of humour added in (which comes naturally with the character of Donna) but a little bit of fresh-edge that we haven’t seen in a companion before. It is also a very nice episode which ties in even with The spin off shows, Torchwood and Sarah-Jane Adventures. One thing to say is Murray Gold’s music in this episode is fantastic (to quote the 9th Doctor) and is full of tunes many fans remember!1. Father’s Day
Skaro: “Father’s Day, written by Paul Cornell, is an episode which in generally overlooked by the main part of Doctor Who fandom. But when you take the time to appreciate all the emotions in the episode you look at it in a completely different way. It’s about love, sadness, hope, joy and death - something which is hard to put into a 45 minute episode. The monsters in this episode may have been seen as abit ‘flimsy’ but they had a meaning and an origin that made sense, they also added an imposing pressure to the story which inevitably led to several things in the episode (such as being trapped in the church). A nice thing I like to add is how the TARDIS itself is left out of the majority of this episode (with it becoming just an empty, normal Police Box) which adds a sense of the Doctor being trapped. Generally the performance of all the actors in this episode are Amazing, Mainly that of Chris, Billie, Sean and Camille. The fact is we can learn alot from this episode and it always leaves a lump in my throat which I will never ever forget. It is safe to say that unless (very unlikely) a series 7 episode is better than this, this episode will remain my all time favourite and I personally want to take this opportunity to thank _anyone_ involved in this episode for making it amazing!”Mike’s personal opinion on my choice: “This episode wasn’t just a turning point for me as a fan of the classic series warming to the series relaunch, but hit me at a major turning point in my life as my own father’s battle with cancer was coming to an end. Like many American viewers back in 2005 we had only bootleg copies of the new series to view to see the newly relaunched show at all. When I heard the show was coming back, I wasn’t optimistic but mortified that this would be another part of my youth ruined by recycling. I was totally unprepared for Paul Cornell’s episode and how hard it would hit me. Until someone you really know, a fixture in your life be it friend or family dies you never really understand how hard that is going to be. And I have to say even early into the episode I was feeling critical, the Reapers being a clear lift of The Langoliers from the Stephen King novella.
To me “Father’s Day” was a first in “Doctor Who” to actually tackle life and death so intimately, so strongly affecting a companion. Think back to Tegan’s aunt being murdered by the Master in “Logopolis” and it never seemed to come up again after episode one of that serial. Tegan didn’t even seem to have any anger about it, though thinking back I’m trying to remember if she even knew that had happened. But surely at some point after traveling with the Fifth Doctor she must have learned what happened on that by-pass. She had seemed devoted to her aunt as they rode for the last time to their fateful encounter with the world of the Doctor, and afterword, not a jot of a reference to her aunt.
With Rose it was different, her mother worried sick for a YEAR when Rose disappeared into the TARDIS. “Stitch this mate!” was a great moment as Jackie socked the 9th Doctor in the jaw.
Up until then “Doctor Who” was more than a bit disconnected with everyday reality - companions seemed utterly content with making the TARDIS their whole existence. Some companions like Leela or Romana once could understand, but the rest like Jo or Sarah Jane behaved like orphans ready to leave every speck of their lives up until that point behind. Part of this is the velocity of television and movie story-telling - ever notice that in these mediums characters almost NEVER say “Goodbye” when ending a phone call. Just watch for it, they just hang up on one another and the audience never seems to remark how odd that is. Something is lost though when that story-telling gets so fast that characters aren’t fleshed out and never seem to have more hopes and dreams than fighting the next monster the TARDIS is going to encounter.
I think we forget how important our relationships with friends and family are to us until we are utterly cut off from them, by some remote distance or the finality of death and that’s what “Father’s Day” particularly touched upon for me. And why despite some dodgy bits like magic time-reality eating dragons - it also featured such a first, the Doctor unhesitatingly standing his ground and dying to protect Rose and the humans. That was really a heroic moment, more so than past Doctor’s knowing they might regenerate - the _Get Out Of Death Free_ card. For a moment it’s stunning; there’s no Doctor and no hope, save for Pete who works it out and saves the day and the Doctor and his little girl.
For that and the moving tenderness of it’s core story it is still one of my favorite “Doctor Who” episodes of all time. http://dlvr.it/1r3tpV
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Skaro’s Top 6 New-Who Episodes!
I have been debating if I should post this or not and after a long time I’ve decide I should, so today it’s about my favourite episodes of New-Who. Listed below is my favourite episode from each series in the order I’d also rank them with reasons reviewing why. So Please - Enjoy.
6. Vincent and The Doctor
I feel Vincent and the Doctor is one of those episodes that you have to look deep into to understand all of the beauty in the episode. The Set and prop Designers did a fantastic job making everything as accurate as possible when relating to Vincent and his life. You also get the rare opportunity in one of the scenes (pictured above) where you get to see through the eye’s of Vincent Van Gogh. In general it is one of those episodes that make you feel glad to be alive! There is so little I can say about this episode, except that it is a wonderful example of humanity.5. Blink
I always use to hate Blink, thinking it was an awful episode but that was until I saw the amazing thing that is the true genius of Moffat’s writing of the character of Sally Sparrow. But we mustn’t forget it is not just his writing but the fact that it is a Doctor (and Martha)-light episode, which sometimes can be a good thing for the series. The concept of the weeping angels has never been a scary one to me but I must say, they are in my top 10 for brilliant monsters. For that reason I have put it as my favourite for Series 3. Oh - and my home town Hull gets a very comical reference in this episode!
4. The Girl in The Fireplace
Surpringly another one of my favourite episodes happens to be one of Moffat’s, The Historical side of this episode is one which strays abit from the actual world by adding a little bit of banter and flirting between The Doctor and Madame De Pompadour (which Rose safely doesn’t see thanks to a time-window). We also have the stepping-up of the character of Mickey Smith from the average person into an actual companion who unlike Rose the male viewers feel they can associate with. I must admit I’m an avid fan of the banter between them about The Life of the Doctor (Cleopatra…). I just find that this episode sticks out above all other ones Moffat has done.
3. The Girl Who Waited
I owe Tom MacRae a serious Thank-You for creating a wonderful episode! Not only was it made on a lower budget than the rest of the series, but it was actually the doctor-light episode of the series, and it worked really well as you never actually felt that, the way its done makes you feel like the Doctor is always there. Gillans acting in this episode is also something to give huge credit to. She took on two roles (Young and Old Amy) and portrayed them in such a way that made us feel sorry for Old Amy, and possibly for some Hate the doctor because he got the ‘timings abit out’. We can’t forget the wonderful supporting actors of this episode, Arthur Darvill (Rory) and Imelda Staunton (Interface) who keep the story rolling even when Amy isn’t around. The occasional comical joke also makes it feel a very warm and light-hearted episode which really does bring a tear to my eye.
2. Turn Left
Turn left is an episode which is always viewed very badly by many fans, it doesn’t fit the template of a Normal ‘Doctor Who’ episode but that’s why I like it - It is different and provides us to an insight of what the Who-niverse would be like without the Doctor. It happens to be a Doctor-light episode and mainly features Billie Piper (Rose) and Catherine Tate (Donna) who I can safely say are both fantastic actors for this kind of sadness and tone of this episode. The Character of Parallel-Donna has alot of humour added in (which comes naturally with the character of Donna) but a little bit of fresh-edge that we haven’t seen in a companion before. It is also a very nice episode which ties in even with The spin off shows, Torchwood and Sarah-Jane Adventures. One thing to say is Murray Gold’s music in this episode is fantastic (to quote the 9th Doctor) and is full of tunes many fans remember!1. Father’s Day
Skaro: “Father’s Day, written by Paul Cornell, is an episode which in generally overlooked by the main part of Doctor Who fandom. But when you take the time to appreciate all the emotions in the episode you look at it in a completely different way. It’s about love, sadness, hope, joy and death - something which is hard to put into a 45 minute episode. The monsters in this episode may have been seen as abit ‘flimsy’ but they had a meaning and an origin that made sense, they also added an imposing pressure to the story which inevitably led to several things in the episode (such as being trapped in the church). A nice thing I like to add is how the TARDIS itself is left out of the majority of this episode (with it becoming just an empty, normal Police Box) which adds a sense of the Doctor being trapped. Generally the performance of all the actors in this episode are Amazing, Mainly that of Chris, Billie, Sean and Camille. The fact is we can learn alot from this episode and it always leaves a lump in my throat which I will never ever forget. It is safe to say that unless (very unlikely) a series 7 episode is better than this, this episode will remain my all time favourite and I personally want to take this opportunity to thank _anyone_ involved in this episode for making it amazing!”Mike’s personal opinion on my choice: “This episode wasn’t just a turning point for me as a fan of the classic series warming to the series relaunch, but hit me at a major turning point in my life as my own father’s battle with cancer was coming to an end. Like many American viewers back in 2005 we had only bootleg copies of the new series to view to see the newly relaunched show at all. When I heard the show was coming back, I wasn’t optimistic but mortified that this would be another part of my youth ruined by recycling. I was totally unprepared for Paul Cornell’s episode and how hard it would hit me. Until someone you really know, a fixture in your life be it friend or family dies you never really understand how hard that is going to be. And I have to say even early into the episode I was feeling critical, the Reapers being a clear lift of The Langoliers from the Stephen King novella.
(Edit: Skaro didn’t realize I wasn’t finished with my review - it was a first draft I had stopped working on, so I’ve dashed off a bit to complete my thoughts on the episode. I was going to try to match his list which I mostly agree with, but just didn’t have the time. Skaro’s list is a really good one that I agree with. But like potato chips I can’t love just a top five. I just don’t have time right now to do them all a review!)
To me “Father’s Day” was a first in “Doctor Who” to actually tackle life and death so intimately, so strongly affecting a companion. Think back to Tegan’s aunt being murdered by the Master in “Logopolis” and it never seemed to come up again after episode one of that serial. Tegan didn’t even seem to have any anger about it, though thinking back I’m trying to remember if she even knew that had happened. But surely at some point after traveling with the Fifth Doctor she must have learned what happened on that by-pass. She had seemed devoted to her aunt as they rode for the last time to their fateful encounter with the world of the Doctor, and afterword, not a jot of a reference to her aunt.
With Rose it was different, her mother worried sick for a YEAR when Rose disappeared into the TARDIS. “Stitch this mate!” was a great moment as Jackie socked the 9th Doctor in the jaw.
Up until then “Doctor Who” was more than a bit disconnected with everyday reality - companions seemed utterly content with making the TARDIS their whole existence. Some companions like Leela or Romana once could understand, but the rest like Jo or Sarah Jane behaved like orphans ready to leave every speck of their lives up until that point behind. Part of this is the velocity of television and movie story-telling - ever notice that in these mediums characters almost NEVER say “Goodbye” when ending a phone call. Just watch for it, they just hang up on one another and the audience never seems to remark how odd that is. Something is lost though when that story-telling gets so fast that characters aren’t fleshed out and never seem to have more hopes and dreams than fighting the next monster the TARDIS is going to encounter.
I think we forget how important our relationships with friends and family are to us until we are utterly cut off from them, by some remote distance or the finality of death and that’s what “Father’s Day” particularly touched upon for me. And why despite some dodgy bits like magic time-reality eating dragons - it also featured such a first, the Doctor unhesitatingly standing his ground and dying to protect Rose and the humans. That was really a heroic moment, more so than past Doctor’s knowing they might regenerate - the _Get Out Of Death Free_ card. For a moment it’s stunning; there’s no Doctor and no hope, save for Pete who works it out and saves the day and the Doctor and his little girl.
For that and the moving tenderness of it’s core story it is still one of my favorite “Doctor Who” episodes of all time. http://dlvr.it/1r2wcY
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New Doctor Who Character Building Action Figure sets
Two new Doctor Who themed action figure sets are being released this summer. On July 10th you’ll see the Dalek Ship _(featured in several new series episodes) _which has laser cannons, a transparent dome and two bronze Daleks. There’s also a skimmer car so they can fly in close to exterminate. This set is not yet listed on Character Options’ website but will be priced at £29.99.
The Silences space ship _(featured in The Lodger and Day of the Moon)_ is also one of the new Character Building sets to be released. It is priced at £19.99 and comes with 2 silence action figures. It is currently listed on Character Options’ website for release date of 28th July 2012. -
Matt Smith named as Patron for National Youth Theatre
Matt Smith, known best for playing The Doctor has been made a patron at the National Youth Theatre, the centre where he trained as a teenager.Smith made a surprise visit to the theatre as they were adding the final touches for their 140-strong Olympic and Paralympic welcome ceremonies.
The actor said that the theatre “completely transformed my life. No understatement. I’m proud to be a part of it still. I care very deeply about it”.
While the artistic director and chief operating officer for the theatre, Paul Roseby, who knew Matt when he attended the theatre said: ”Matt is a perfect role model for the latest generation of brave new talent. Raw, fearless and a passion for theatre is something that doesn’t just sum up our company but also the wonderful Matt Smith.
“As we continue to operate in challenging economic times, like everyone in the arts, it’s always good to have a Doctor in the house.”
