Sad news today for the forty-fourth anniversary of the first episode of Doctor Who, with the news that Verity Lambert, the first producer of the series, has passed away aged 71. When she got the job back in 1963 she was the youngest, and only female producer at the BBC. Known for standing up to her superiors, and one of the people most often credited with the early success of the programme, probably the best example is when she introduced the Daleks, despite being specifically advised not to by Donald Wilson, head of serials. One of the great unanswered questions – would Doctor Who still be so well known forty-four years later had she done what she was told?
Category Archives: Doctor Who
“Oh No, You’re… A Fan!â€?
First off, for those of you outside the UK, the special episode has been posted to YouTube – well at least until it gets taken down again!
So I’ve just watched our little November snippet of Doctor Who in the form of Time Crash, this years Children in Need special. Now it has to be said that in the annuls of Children in Need there have been some real stinkers in terms of Doctor Who crossovers – Dimensions in Time anyone? But as with the special two years ago, this one has been produced by the current Doctor Who and fits into the established continuity, in this case it sits in the cut shortly before the end of the last episode.
This time round the mini-episode is written by Steven Moffat, who in the course of the seven minutes provides some laughs – including a couple of jokes about the celery, the glasses, and Belgium – a plot that vaguely makes sense that fits in with it’s point in the series, and even explains how the Titanic can crash into the TARDIS – something that caused much discussion in fan circles earlier in the year. He also manages to come up with an plot explanation as to how Doctor number five looks twenty-five years older, plus chucks in a stack of back continuity for the fans too. From a long time fan point of view it was great, and a good few were probably wiping away a tear at the “you were my Doctorâ€? line at the end.
Hopefully it was entertaining for the non-fans and the new fans too – and of course hopefully raises a goodly amount of money for Children in Need too. If anything it certainly cements Steven Moffat as the best of the new series writers in managing to pull it all off. Incidentally, you can also check out the special behind-the-scenes video as well, where you can see several of the current team drop into total fanboy mode…
“To days to come…”
Looks Like I’ll Have to Watch Children in Need
So after getting Doctor Who fans watching two years ago with the special post-regeneration episode, Children in Need are doing it again this year with another mini-episode called Time Crash. It also confirms the rumours floating around that Peter Davison would be appearing, which the announcement that the Fifth Doctor will be appearing alongside the Tenth – as shown by the official publicity shots released today.
Details of the episode are fairly slim so far, aside from the news that Steven Moffat has written it. He’s not without experience at this sort of thing either, as he also penned the Comic Relief special, The Curse of Fatal Death.
So the interesting question (for the fans at least) are whether this will actually fit in with the official stories. The previous special slotted in quite neatly, following directly on from Parting of the Ways and leading straight into the Christmas Invasion. Since the last episode left the action with what appeared to be a straight lead in to Voyage of the Damned it might be more difficult to slot it in. Having said that, it won’t have to try too hard to fit in compared to the first Children in Need special, Dimensions in Time which probably wouldn’t have made sense even if it hadn’t had about two minutes of the final episode cut…
Anyway, whether it is canonical or not, with Steven Moffat writing it should hopefully be pretty entertaining. Definitely looking forward to it.
80’s Flashback
It’s odd what stuff you can find on You Tube when you’re not really looking for it!
Tonight after hearing the news of the death of Ronnie Hazlehurst, the former BBC musical director who was responsible for composing a number of well known TV themes, I was browsing around You Tube to see what clips they had of him and his music at the BBC.
One of my searches turned up this fascinating clip with another BBC composer, Peter Howell explaining how he put together the version of the Doctor Who theme used in the early eighties – for those people used to sequencers and the like, it shows how much things have changed – this version was painstakingly assembled over five and a half weeks with a multi-track tape recorder. By way of comparison this is another composer Keff McCulloch doing a similar children’s TV spot explaining how he put together another version of the theme seven years later.
Now although there are complaints about the music that Murray Gold provides for the new series of Doctor Who it’s not a patch on the low esteem in which the music of Keff McCulloch is held in fan circles – although I tend to think that it’s always worth remembering that Murray Gold has the benefit of an orchestra for his music, with the eighties budget for the series it was one man and his drum machine. As if to prove the point, linked off the Keff clip I came across this set of videos, which pair a number of scenes from the new series with the eighties music, allowing you to compare the difference. Check out this, the opening of the Unquiet Dead, but with genuine eighties Doctor Who incidental music replacing the Murray Gold score…
Confirmation that Tennant is Leaving Doctor Who?
We got back from Canada to what is possibly confirmation that David Tennant is leaving Doctor Who at the end of the next series – Beth being a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company had a copy of their 2008 brochure sitting waiting, confirming this Daily Mail story from July, David Tennant is to play Hamlet, and also, somewhat ironically appear as Berowne in Love’s Labour’s Lost, the play at the centre of the Shakespeare Code. The Royal Shakespeare Company issue publicity to their members a month or so before publicity is generally released – so the productions aren’t even listed on their website yet.
Since his performances run from July 24th to November 15th 2008 it seems unlikely that he will be able to film for Doctor Who unless the BBC were willing to do some significant rescheduling.
Having said that, he’s not the only TV sci-fi star appearing in the productions, playing Claudius alongside David Tennant will be none other than Patrick Stewart. Tennant and Stewart together on stage – I guess I might just have to join Beth when she goes up to see that one…
Update: An interesting news release from the BBC today describes as unconfirmed that Tennant will play Hamlet – although obviously the Royal Shakespeare Company members have been told otherwise.
However the news that he will be appearing in three specials during 2009, whilst he is at the RSC, with full scale Doctor Who production resuming in 2009 for a 2010 series does hold out the prospect, even if they aren’t fully confirming that he will appear in the 2010 series, that Tennant is not leaving, and the BBC are adapting their schedules to accommodate him. I can’t see that the BBC would want to deliberately rest one of their top rated, and most financially successful series for any other reason as to accommodate their star – so I can certainly see Tennant climbing up from his position as 24th most influential person in the recent Media Guardian List if that is what has happened!
Update 2: Questioned after winning an award at the TV Quick/TV Choice awards Tennant will neither confirm or deny whether he will be appearing in the series in 2010.