Category Archives: Doctor Who

Doctor Who, General, Movies & TV

April Fool?

Leave a comment

So April Fools Day has come and gone. Work managed a couple of items in the site newsletter, the funniest being a new proposal to help customers who find that their keys for their key meters have expired and can’t get to a recharging station – the use of coins!

However a couple of the funniest came from Church sources. Ian across at Youthblog posted claiming that he had a German mirror site that was proposing to produce a book of his postings. He also pointed me in the direction of an article at the Emerging Church website about the Model Railway Church. Like all the best April Fools they are close enough to reality to leave you wondering whether they just might be true!

One thing that has turned out not to be an April Fool, despite discussion about whether it was online is the news that Chris Eccleston has resigned as Doctor Who. It transpires now that there always has been a question mark over whether he would do a second series, however nobody appeared to have told parts of the BBC who have a load of merchandising ready to go in time for Christmas. However the announcement does in some ways explain Eccleston’s reaction on Jonathan Ross last week when presented with one of the Doctor Who Action Figures, methinks he’d already decided to go then!

The reactions have been interesting – I have yet to meet someone who thinks it’s a good idea and wholeheartedly supports his decision. Most range from being really angry, to just a sort of accepting but not quite understanding the decision. The question in my mind is why nobody actually discussed it with him before they started – Doctor Who has always been a big part, and the fact that Tom Baker is still remembered as Doctor Who more than thirty years after he got the part shows how deep it is in the public psyche. Having said that, most actors who have played the role have continued to make money from it for years to come, much like the Star Trek actors. However the big question now is what the announcement will do to the ratings for the new series. As has been said to me, why would anybody invest any time in the character now?

On a happier note, the current leading name for the new Doctor Who, David Tennant is a sci-fi, and more specifically a Doctor Who fan, and also regarded as a good actor, so maybe it won’t be so bad after all. He can also be seen in the restaging of The Quatermass Experiment at 8:20pm on BBC4 tonight.

Doctor Who, Movies & TV

Doctor Who Defeats Ant and Dec

1 Comment

The first outing for the new series of Doctor Who, that has been warmly recieved by the press has scored a hit for the BBC in the traditional Saturday evening ratings battle!

The first episode of the new series averaged 9.9 million viewers, peaking at 10.5 million – 44.3% of viewers watching at the time. This is well up on the levels when the series last aired back in the 80’s, and even beats the number who watched the movie in 1996. Ant and Dec attracted 7.2 million, peaking at 8.5 million viewers.

Of course the key test will be whether the series can maintain the same levels over subsequent episodes.

The other quite amusing side effect of the new series was people discovering that their partners were Doctor Who fans – have a read of Carla’s bemusement at being pushed aside. It is worth mentioning that Beth knew having looked through my video collection what she was marrying, although she shares with Carla a certain lack of appreciation for the merits of the classic series! 😮

Anyway, maybe there is the basis for a movie here – “I Married a Whovian”…. 😀

Doctor Who, Movies & TV

BBC Viral Advertising

Leave a comment

Further to my post last week about the new Doctor Who, where I said that there was suspicion that the episode had been leaked deliberately, there was an interesting news item on Wired yesterday backing up the story!

It seems that the BBC brought in a team of consultants to explore, amongst other things the use of viral advertising. The article also mentions the quality of the encoding of the episode as further evidence of it being an official leak. The BBC themselves are still sticking to their original position on the release of the episode, that it is a rough cut, and unauthorised.

However as the Wired article says, whether or not the BBC take credit for the leak, the pre-publicity and generally good response to the episode has produced a definite buzz, that is proving beneficial in raising the profile of the new series.

Doctor Who

Doctor Who

Leave a comment

If you’ve watched the news at some time today, you may possibly have noticed that a certain timelord is returning to the screens.

Doctor and Rose

The press launch for the new series of Doctor Who occured last night, and most BBC news programmes provided some coverage, with even Newsnight having Jeremy Paxman dematerialise at the end of the programme.

The prelude to the launch was the leak of the first episode onto the internet. The official line is that it leaked via CBC, the Canadian broadcaster, and partner in the show. However as quoted in this quite amusing article in the Times, they deny the leak. One suggestion though is that the leak was deliberate, a sort of viral underground marketing campaign to get everybody talking about it. Certainly the reaction of Russell T Davies which is pretty much of a “so what?” has led people to think that may be the case.

Anyway, there are now multiple copies circulating on the net, and when a CD with a copy was offered to me I accepted – having waited nine years for some new Doctor Who I couldn’t say no, and first impressions are very good. It is worth saying too that although it looks like a finished programme, it is actually a late rough cut – I’m aware of at least one aspect that has been changed for the real showing.

First off this is definitely not what finished back in the 1980’s, nor it is a rerun of the 1990’s revival. It is a new show that links back to the past, but is not tied to it. The opening sequences are great, with the focus being on Rose, as she very much comes into the middle of the Doctor dealing with an Auton invasion, rather than the traditional Doctor arrives, at the beginning of the story. You very much get the impression that he’s been busy with this for a while! The show has very much been influenced by other genre shows, and I can certainly see the discussed Buffy influences in some ways, and there are elements that if you’re expecting the old show, you won’t like at all (I can hear some of the fan backlash now!). However, like a number of reports have said, for many a fan of the old show it puts a smile on your face from the beginning to end, and I’m looking forward to seeing it on a TV screen, rather than a computer monitor when it broadcasts in three weeks time!