Official Synopsis for Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol

The official synopsis from the BBC for the upcoming Doctor Who Christmas special titled A Christmas Carol is out!

Amy and Rory are trapped on a crashing space liner, and the only way The Doctor can rescue them is to save the soul of a lonely old miser, in a festive edition of the time-travelling adventure, written by Steven Moffat. But is Kazran Sardick, the richest man in Sardicktown, beyond redemption? And what is lurking in the fogs of Christmas Eve?

In the meanwhile, you can also watch the first trailer here.

[via BBC Press Office]

First 2 episodes of Doctor Who series 6 to be filmed in the US + spoilers

And so it's official: The TARDIS will land in the good Ol' US of A to film parts of the first two episodes from series 6 of Doctor Who!

Matt Smith, Karen Gillan, Artur Darvill, and the entire cast and crew will leave Wales around mid-November to film the opening episodes of Series 6 in Utah. Though it's not the first time a Doctor Who story has taken place in the US, it will be the first time the series is actually filmed there.

In 1996, Doctor Who: The Movie, which featured the Eight Doctor played by Paul McGann and whose story took place in San Francisco, was actually filmed in Canada.

Written by Steven Moffat, the first two episodes, deemed to be a ''spectacular'' two-parter, will mark the return of everyone's favourite mysterious Doctor Who person ever -- River Song!

This is the press release that reveals the basic plot for the story:

DOCTOR WHO TO FILM IN THE U.S. FOR THE FIRST TIME

Upcoming season's first two episodes to be set in the U.S.

The BBC announced today that season six of Doctor Who, which delivered record ratings for BBC AMERICA earlier this year, will open with a spectacular two-parter set in the U.S. and penned by 'Who supremo' Steven Moffat.

In the special two-parter co-produced with BBC AMERICA, key scenes will be filmed in Utah for a story set in the late '60s in which the Doctor, Amy and Rory find themselves on a secret summons that takes them on an adventure from the desert in Utah - right to the Oval Office itself.

Production on episodes one and two of the new season starts in Cardiff this month and Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill will then travel to America in mid November to shoot pivotal scenes. They will also be joined by Alex Kingston who reprises her role as River Song.

Showrunner and lead writer, Steven Moffat, said: "The Doctor has visited every weird and wonderful planet you can imagine, so he was bound get round to America eventually! And of course every Doctor Who fan will be jumping up and down and saying he's been in America before. But not for real, not on location - and not with a story like this one! Oh, you wait!"

Piers Wenger, Head of Drama BBC Wales and Executive Producer, added: "Steven's scripts generally inspire us to go that extra mile - this time we're going that extra four thousand. Thanks to our friends at BBC AMERICA and to the continuing ambition of our lead writer and production team, the first two episodes of Matt Smith's second season as the Doctor are going global and look set to become Doctor Who's most action-packed and ambitious season opener yet".

The new season follows on from the Doctor Who Christmas special guest starring Katherine Jenkins and Michael Gambon which is due to premiere at Christmas. Season six will start airing on BBC AMERICA in spring 2011 and has been split into two blocks, with the second block airing in autumn 2011. By splitting the series Moffat plans to give viewers one of the most exciting Doctor Who cliffhangers and plot twists ever, leaving them waiting, on the edge of their seats, until the autumn to find out what happens.

2010 has been a breakthrough year for the Doctor Who franchise across all platforms since BBC AMERICA became the official home of the series. The series reached the number one spot on the "Top TV Seasons" chart on iTunes and now Doctor Who: The Complete Fifth Season hits stores on Blu-ray and DVD on November 9.

Doctor Who was co-commissioned by Ben Stephenson, Controller, BBC Drama Commissioning for BBC One and Jay Hunt, Controller of BBC One and will be produced by Marcus Wilson (Life on Mars) and Sanne Wohlenberg (Margaret). Steven Moffat is Lead Writer and Executive Producer (Sherlock Holmes) with Piers Wenger, Head of Drama, BBC Wales and Beth Willis (Ashes to Ashes), also Executive Producing.

Filming is taking place in Cardiff until March 2011.

[via BBC America]

Steven Moffat Teases Series 6 ''enormous, game-changing" cliffhanger

Everyone knows by now that upcoming the series 6 of Doctor Who will be split in two next year with the first part made of 7 episodes airing in the spring, and the second part of 6 episodes airing over the fall. And mostly everyone also knows that the split will be marked by a huge cliffhanger (I don't know about you but I really, really hate those).

In an article with Doctor Who Magazine, Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat revealed that:

"There will be a huge cliffhanger... that we wouldn't normally do at the end of a series of Doctor Who because it would be too long before it came back. [It is] an enormous, game-changing cliffhanger for the Doctor, Amy and Rory. It will change everything for them."

He also promised that there will be revelations involving the Doctor's friendship with Amy Pond in upcoming episodes.

Moffat also teased that:

"You will see the Doctor's life change forever, you will gasp in astonishment at the true nature of his relationship with Amy and you will cry out in horror as Rory Williams stumbles to the brink of a tragic mistake."

Doctor Who is set to return to BBC One this Christmas.

[Via Digital Spy]

Steven Moffat Teases Doctor Who Christmas Special, Series 6 and River Song!

SFX has gotten their lucky little hands on the upcoming book Doctor Who The Brilliant Book 2011 coming up next month in the UK. They managed to dig into it and brought out a few not too spoilery revelations to light coming from Doctor Who sowrunner Steven Moffat.

Below is what SFX reports from the book.

About the Christmas special Moffat said:

“This one’s incredibly Christmassy. That’s true of the previous ones but I wanted to go for broke. It’s easily the most Christmassy thing you’ll ever see. It’s a huge, sentimental, lovely, jeopardy-driven story. It’s the Christmas special I’d like to see. It’s like a compilation of every Christmas movie. A big Christmas treat. But that doesn’t mean it’s without scares, and that doesn’t mean it’s without heartbreak. It has genuine tragedy in it.”

About the mysteries that will take place during Series 6 - basically we're talking the story threads picking up right from series 5 - the Doctor Who showrunner revealed:

“Nothing will be left hanging forever. Some things will be addressed relatively quickly. We’re going into the silence and what they [our italics] are… There’s been a sort of tradition, which I semi-followed through with the crack, of there just being a sort of meme through the series, and I think, actually, a bigger mystery and a bigger story is possible now. I’m going to handle it slightly differently next year.”

Moffat also adressed the whole River Song thing and that we will soon know about her identity, saying that:

“That’s absolutely coming. You’re going to find out very soon, and that means we have to do it next series, really… The critical thing here is I want to explain who she is, not explain away who she is. If you don’t deliver on most people’s expectations, and you just say, ‘Ooh, she’s a specially programmed android who believes she’s the Doctor’s wife,’ people will go, ‘That‘s a cheat.’ You can’t do that… It’s a really good story, and it’s sort of the story of next year.”

Well I do hope they wont come up with something so cheesy as someone programmed to be the Doctor's wife or something similar!

Are we Christmas yet AND next season yet?

[Via SFX]

Doctor Who series 6 starts filming!

It has been announced earlier today that series 6 of Doctor Who has begun filming. In fact, filming started at 8am in Cardiff, Wales.

Series 6 will see the return of Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill on the sci-fi show. Alex Kingston is also set to return as River Song, and according to Steven Moffat, the mystery as to who she truly is will be revealed during the course of this series. However, whether it will happen before the mid-season break is up in the air.

The first episodes being filmed are episodes three and four, written by Neil Gaiman and Mark Gatiss respectively, and this block is being directed by Richard Clark.

Doctor Who will return at Christmas on BBC One and BBC HD for the one-hour special. However, the next appearance from the Doctor will be in an episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures called Death of the Doctor which is set to air in November.

[Via Digital Spy]

Neil Gaiman talks about his Doctor Who episode table read

Left to right - Neil Gaiman, Matt Smith, Steven Moffat, director Richard Clark

Author, writer, and all around Sci-Fi God Neil Gaiman, just put up a post on his blog about the first table read of his upcoming Doctor Who episode. In it, Gaiman reveals that his episode is still set to be the third to air in the spring (So YAY! we wont have to wait in the fall to see it!).

Neil Gaiman said :

the table read was pretty amazing, the guest star or stars will be fabulous, Matt's great, Arthur's wonderful and I never got to say hullo to Karen (who was amazing).

I had a meeting after the readthrough with the producers and director, pinpointing stuff that needs fixing or clarifying ("So we need to change that without making it longer or spending any money. Right."). But nothing that needs rewriting is anything other than cosmetic, and I should get it done tomorrow or Thursday.

(Favourite quote from S. Moffat: "Look, you understand that, and I understand that, but we're Science Fiction people. The other 100% of the audience may not get it.")

Source

Steven Moffat says No Daleks for Series 6 of Doctor Who

So no Daleks for series 6 of Doctor Who? That's apparently what will happen (or not happen depending on how you see it) according to the Moff himself.

Speaking at the Edinburgh Television Festival, Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat has indicated that there are no plans to have the Doctor's most famous enemies return for the next series, though production is not yet complete.

Steven Moffat said:

There will be a Dalek story when we've got a good idea for a Dalek story. [When that happens], there will be lots of different kinds of Daleks.

Have they run out of good Dalek stories then?

It's true that many fans have criticized the fact that the Daleks have appeared quite a few times on the series over the course of the past 5 years - ever since its return in 2005 under former showrunner Russell T Davies.

But there is something else that has me pricking my ears; its that Moffat says that when the Daleks DO return, there will be ''lots of different kinds.''

Now, is Steven Moffat talking about the different Daleks we saw emerge last season in Victory of the Daleks (the blue, yellow, white, orange and red ones)? The ''old'' ones? A mix of all of them? Could they even be completely new Daleks?

That's certainly food for thoughts.

So what do you think? Are you ultimately disappointed to see that the Daleks may not appear in series 6, or do you think that the Doctor needs a breather from everything Dalek?

[Via Digital Spy]

Series 6 of Doctor Who to be Split in Two!

In a surprising and quite unexpected move, the BBC has announced that it will split the transmission of series 6 of Doctor Who in 2011 in two separate blocks.

According to the press statement, the first half of the series will air in the spring, with the second half set to air in the fall.

This is what the BBC said:

The split transmission is the result of a request from Steven Moffat to write a new Doctor Who story arc which involves a big plot twist in the middle of the series. By splitting the series Moffat plans to give viewers one of the most exciting Doctor Who cliffhangers and plot twists ever, leaving them waiting, on the edge of their seats, until the autumn to find out what happens.

Steven Moffat said: "The split series is hugely exciting because viewers will be treated to two premieres, two finales and more event episodes. For the kids it will never be more than a few months to the next Doctor Who! Easter, Autumn, Christmas!!"

Right now all I can think to say is Noooooooo. I hate cliffhangers and I hate being made to wait months to resolve a story. Personally, I'm quite disappointed with this decision to split the season in half and make us wait months again to see the rest of the series -- and I'm not so sure that it will turn out to be a good move.

But what do you guys think about the BBC and Steven Moffat's decision to split series 6 of Doctor Who in two? Good or bad idea?

[BBC Press Office]

'Doctor Who' - Ever wanted to fly the TARDIS? Well now you can!

Remember those Doctor Who: The Adventure Games? Well the first two ones have already been released and they appear to be a resounding success, with over 1.3 million downloads in the UK only.

In these adventures - which are proper episodes and part the fifth series -  players got to go head to head against two of the Doctor's most dangerous enemies and try to defeat them.

They faced the Daleks in the first game titled City of the Daleks, and the Cybermen in Blood of the Cybermen, the second game to be released.

So what else could Executive Producer Steven Moffat and writer James Moran (Doctor Who, Torchwood) come up with to beat those two experiences? How about finally getting to fly the TARDIS!!

The BBC has just released the upcoming third game's description and title today on their website:

The title of the next Adventure Game has been confirmed as TARDIS and it's released on this site on Friday, 27 August.

It will feature monsters, terrifying new dangers for the Doctor and Amy and offers an amazing insight into the world's most famous blue box. It's also been announced that the game will give players the opportunity to pilot the Doctor's iconic time machine.

Lead Writer and Executive Producer, Steven Moffat, confirmed, 'Since 1963, kids have wondered what it would be like to control the TARDIS. Now we're handing complete control of the most powerful ship in all of space and time to a generation of children. Everybody duck!' He also told us, 'TARDIS is a brilliant, brilliant adventure. It's funny, touching, terrifying, amazing - everything a Doctor Who episode should be.'

The official press release promised, 'the game allows players to explore the Doctor's wondrous drawing room, featuring treasures and artefacts from his many adventures - a location specially created for the game, which will go on to form part of the Doctor Who canon'.

Matt Smith and Karen Gillan return as the Doctor and Amy and once again the game is executive produced by Steven Moffat, Piers Wenger, Beth Willis and Anwen Aspden (BBC Wales Interactive), alongside Charles Cecil. Music is by Murray Gold and TARDIS is written by James Moran whose previous credits include Torchwood, Spooks and the Tenth Doctor story, The Fires of Pompeii.

It's the third Adventure Game and will be available at no extra cost to UK households, simultaneously on PC and Mac from this site. Users outside the UK will be able to purchase and download it on its UK release date, 27 August.

We'll be bringing you updates and interviews as we get closer to TARDIS materialising!

So will you be downloading the game just to get a chance to fly the TARDIS while sitting in the comfort of your computer chair? Do you think you can do better than the Doctor himself?

source, source

'Sherlock' Star Benedict Cumberbatch Not offered 'Doctor Who' Role after all?

British actor Benedict Cumberbatch, who just finished a first and very successful run as Sherlock Holmes in the Steven Moffat - Mark Gatiss co-created BBC series Sherlock (series 2 has been confirmed last week), made some very interesting revelations in regards to the Doctor Who role.

Talking to the Sunday Times, the 34 year old actor revealed that he never turned down the role of the Doctor simply because he never was offered a shot at the Tardis contrarily to what was previously reported here.

Even if he had been offered the role, Cumberbatch says he would have refused it :

“I’d turn it down anyway. Jumping onto school stages and giving out prizes and saying ‘I am the Doctor’, it’s not where I want to go.”

[Sunday Times]

For those of you who were still holding out hope that the actor could still play the Doctor when current Eleventh Doctor Matt Smith chose to quit the role, time is to face the fact that Cumberbatch will never be the Doctor.

Still, it doesn't rule out the rumour that he is set to appear in an undisclosed amount of Doctor Who episodes in a guest stint for series 6 (you can read the original post here). Maybe Cumberbatch will be playing the mysterious villain we heard in the Tardis in the penultimate episode of Series 5, The Pandorica Opens, rumoured to be Omega?

Whether he does or not, it looks like the future is shining brightly for Benedict Cumberbatch who has just won the part of Peter Guillam, George Smiley's (Gary Oldman, Batman Begins ) MI6 protégé, in the remake of the movie Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by Swedish director Tomas Alfredson that will come out in 2012; and he will soon start filming on the Steven Spielberg war movie War Horse about Michael Morpurgo’s story of the Devonshire farm horse taken to France in the first world war.

What do you think? Are you disappointed that Cumberbatch was not offered the role of the Doctor after all?

'Sherlock' Coming to North America on October 24th!

I've been talking a lot about Sherlock these past few weeks, putting up pictures and some video interviews. Now I have some good news for my North American readers.

You will be happy to know that Sherlock is finally coming to PBS Masterpiece Mystery with the first episode, A Study in Pink, set to air on October 24th.

Episodes two and three, The Blind Banker and The Great Game, will follow on October 31 and November 7 respectively.

Co-created by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, Sherlock is a modern re-imagining of the adventures of the popular Sir Arthur Conan Doyle detective hero, Sherlock Holmes (Benedict Cumberbatch), and his ever faithful sidekick Dr. John Watson (Martin Freeman).

[PBS]

Elementary my Dear Watson! 'Sherlock' is returning for a second Series!

Good news everyone! Sherlock Series 2 is a go!

According to Sherlock producer, Sue Vertue, the show will indeed return for a second series.

This is good and perhaps not so unexpected news, following the critical and popular success of the BBC One series.

Vertue, who appeared on BBC Breakfast alongside her husband and show co-creator Steven Moffat, revealed that an agreement has already been made with the BBC :

There will be more.We're having a meeting, just to sort of talk about how many and when really. Steven and Mark [Gatiss] are both busy. Obviously Steven is doing Doctor Who as well so it's just when we are going to do them.

The sad news is that the BBC head of drama, Ben Stephenson, recently said that any new episodes of the show will not air for "at least a year".

I say leave Doctor Who into capable hands and do the second series of Sherlock now Steven!

Sherlock's last episode, The Great Game, ended the series' three-episode run last Sunday night in the UK and was watched by 7.3 million viewers.

[Digital Spy]

'Sherlock' - Coming Up? - Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss BBC Video Interview

'Sherlock' - Who is Sherlock Holmes? - Martin Freeman BBC Video Interview

'Sherlock' - The Sherlock Scripts - Benedict Cumberbatch BBC Video Interview

Steven Moffat on the 'Doctor Who' Christmas Special, Getting Michael Gambon, and Disinformation

Steven Moffat recently sat down with Premium Hollywood and opened up just a little tiny bit about a few small things regarding the upcoming Doctor Who Christmas Special that will air on Christmas day in the UK, and hopefully around the same date in North America.

The casting of Michael Gambon for the special certainly was a great casting coup, and when asked how he managed to get the great actor on board, Moffat said:

We sent him a script, asked him to do it, and he said, ‘Yes.’ Simple as that.

Steven Moffat also said that he didn't know if the Harry Potter actor was a fan of Doctor Who per say, saying :

I don’t know, I didn’t get the impression that he was a fan of ‘Doctor Who,’ except insofar as everyone in Britain is at the moment, but it’s really…with these guys, send them a good part and there’s a really stonking chance they’ll do it. I mean, if it’s a good script…and you think it is…they’re being offered prime-time on Christmas day, really, so there’s a real chance you can get anyone for that. But it’s very exciting. He’s brilliant. Of course he’s brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. What a voice.

When pried to specifically reveal a few things about the Christmas special like that 'Orient Express in space' line that was mentioned by Matt Smith's Doctor in the final episode of series 5, Moffat made a very funny revelation:

You wouldn’t really want to know, I can tell. Also, what you have to keep in mind that I genuinely lie. I do. I actively lie to people about what’s going to happen in ‘Doctor Who.’ I’m not officially employed with the BBC. I can say any old thing I like. Even if I told you something, there’s no guarantee that it’s true. Disinformation and the white noise of nonsense is how we get through this!

[Premium Hollywood]

It was a well-known fact that Russel T Davies, the previous showrunner, had been in the habit of doing the same thing, giving disinformation about the show. He even admitted it in his book The Writer's Tale, so no surprise at all here that Moffat is doing the same thing.

New Pics for 'Sherlock' Episode 3 'The Great Game'

The Great Game is the last episode of the new BBC series Sherlock by Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat and Doctor Who writer and actor Mark Gatiss.

As I mentioned a few days ago here, in the wake of very good ratings and positive reviews the BBC now seems keen for more episodes so The Great Game certainly wont be the last. Still, it will be a long wait for us in the meanwhile.

Enjoy the pics!

[Den of Geek]

'Sherlock' - Martin Freeman Talks 221b Baker Street - BBC One Video Interview

'Sherlock' - Benedict Cumberbatch Talks Sherlock and Watson - BBC One Video Interview

'Sherlock' - Who is John Watson - Martin Freeman BBC One Video Interview