Neil Gaiman's Doctor Who series 6 ep 4 title revealed (and it's a doozie)

SFX Magazine has revealed the title for Neil Gaiman's upcoming Doctor Who episode (the fourth one) but it may not be all that it appears to be . . .

Are you guys ready?

It's . . .


THE DOCTOR'S WIFE!


However, in this episode, River Song (played by Alex Kingston, and the one we all think is the Doctor's wife but may turn up to be someone completely unexpected) is nowhere to be seen and instead we have a mysterious character called Idris, played by Suranne Jones (Coronation Street, Single Father).

About Idris, SFX reports:

In a column for Doctor Who Magazine, Gaiman described Suranne’s character as “someone who is beautiful, and who bites, and who might just turn out to be an old acquaintance with a new face…”, adding, “it starts in void-space, with something – or someone – we have not seen since [1969 Patrick Troughton story] ‘The War Games’, and a knock on the TARDIS door…”

Actor Michael Sheen (Underworld, Tron: Legacy) will also voice a character in this episode.

Will it end up being another not-as-simple-as-it-seems episode like The Doctor's Daughter or will Idris TRULY be, the Doctor's Wife?

(via SFX)

Doctor Who season 6 teasers

Yesterday, I made a Blastr post about the 2 new Doctor Who teasers that have just been released. You can go read it here.

Doctor Who US Poster and air date

Hi All! Long time no see everyone.

There's a US poster from BBC America making the rounds announcing the new season of Doctor Who and there it is!

The season premiere for series 6 will be April 23rd for both the UK and the US.

I can't wait!

(via Den of Geek)

Awesome Doctor Who Series 6 trailer!

This is the trailer that appeared at the end of Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol. As soon as I can get my hands on an HD version I'll put it up.

Enjoy!

Supernatural's Mark Sheppard to guest-star on Doctor Who!

Seems like Mark Sheppard is in every Sci-Fi series to hit television these days. From Battlestar: Galactica, Chuck, Warehouse 13 and most recently as the demon Crawley on Supernatural.

Now word is that Sheppard is guest-starring on the upcoming series 6 of Doctor Who; it's believed he will appear in the two-parter series opener penned by Steven Moffat that will have the cast and crew partly filming the episode in the US this November.

The cat was let out of the bag during this weekend's sci-fi convention ValleyCon 36 when an announcement was made that Sheppard had to pull out of the event.

"We had just booked Mark's airline tickets a week ago when less than 12 hours later he got the dream job of any kid who grew up in England. He [has] landed a huge role in the new Doctor Who."

I'm just wondering what ''huge role'' Sheppard will play, but it will be great to see him alongside Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill. And who knows, maybe he'll even get to be in the TARDIS!

Series 6 of Doctor Who is set to air in 2011.

[via Digital Spy]

Doctor Who in the US teaser video

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]

Behold! Tons of Teasers from the upcoming series 6 of Doctor Who!

The Brilliant Book of Doctor Who 2011 is now out in the UK, and someone has managed to take two scans of some AWESOME teasers from Doctor Who's upcoming Series 6 that you can view below.

I talked about some of the teasers in a much longer post I did today for Blastr which I am of course inviting you to read.

Enjoy!

[Via Spoiler TV]

HIGH quality pics from the filming of Doctor Who series 6 episode 3

Yesterday I posted a few pics from the filming of What Are Little Boys Made Of? The third episode from the upcoming series 6 of Doctor Who.

Today, SFX  has posted some VERY high quality pics from the same filming. Though most are similar to what we saw yesterday, there are a lot of different ones and the quality is really, really good.

Just click on the pics below and enjoy!

Go over to SFX for a few more of those awesome pictures!

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]

Doctor Who Series 6 Episode 3 Filming Pics Galore!

There's a slew of filming pics from the upcoming third episode of Series 6 of Doctor Who online today. Titled  What Are Little Boys Made Of? the episode is written by Mark Gatiss who last wrote the series 5 episode Victory of the Daleks.

The Doctor Who cast and crew are currently filming in central Bristol in a council estate where they also filmed some parts of the second season of Being Human (where George's single mom girlfriend lived). They apparently looked hard for a suitable place in Cardiff to no avail . . .

It's a three day shoot with specific locations including flat interiors, stairwells, corridors, and an area by the bins with an old lady and children. There was apparently some late night filming in the garage section of the estate with the TARDIS.

I only put up a few of those pics here where you can see Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor, Karen Gillan as his companion Amy Pond and Arthur Darvill as Rory Pond Williams rounding up the TARDIS crew.

I invite you to go to Bleeding Cool for a cool set of pics and some details, and to Eclectic Muse for about 39 beautiful shots (a few of the pics are the same as Bleeding Cool but a lot are new).

I don't know about you but looking at those pics is making miss Doctor Who like crazy and I'm definitely looking forward to the special episode at Christmas. But don't forget the Doctor's appearance in The Sarah Jane Adventures episode Death of the Doctor in November!

 [via Life, Doctor Who and Combom]

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 Magazine #426 Cover Features the Old Cybermen!

The new Doctor Who Magazine issue 426 is out now in the UK and it features the old style cybermen.

Interestingly, it also says that there will be ''two new seasons'' of Doctor Who to be shown in 2011. Are they saying that series 6 is two seasons? Will the split actually make it series 6 (made of 7 episodes) and series 7 (made of the back 6 episodes)? Will it be explained?

Sadly, I wont be able to read this until about a month or two since we're behind with the publication in North America.

Doctor Who Series 6 Casting News and Episode 4 Title Revealed!

There are a few casting news and tidbits about the upcoming series 6 of Doctor Who today.

The fourth episode of Series 6 of Doctor Who is called What Are Little Boys Made Of? (this is a disturbingly lame title in my opinion).

Child actor Jamie Oram has been cast as Harry in this episode. The young actor has made a few appearances in commercials in the UK but this will be his first television role. The character of Harry is described as "a troubled young boy who has a nervous disposition".

Actor Daniel Mays, who played Jim Keats in Ashes to Ashes will be playing Harry's dad. The actor will later be seen in BBC's upcoming series Outcasts.

Emma Cunniffe will be playing Harry's mother. She previously appeared with Ninth Doctor Christopher Eccleston in 2002's Flesh and Blood. She also appeared on The Bill and Casualty.

Written by Mark Gatiss, What Are Little Boys Made Of? is currently in production in Cardiff.

[Via Digital Spy]

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]

Revealed: Mark Gatiss has penned a new Doctor Who episode for upcoming series 6

It was revealed that Sherlock co-creator (and Doctor Who writer and actor) Mark Gatiss has penned a new episode for the upcoming sixth series of the British Sci-Fi show.

Richard Clark, who will be directing 2 episodes, has written on his twitter acccount that he was:

In the thick of Dr Who. New drafts coming along. Mark Gatiss story wonderful.

From what Clark tweeted, and from the fact that Neil Gaiman himself revealed that his episode will probably be the third to air, it appears that the Mark Gatiss episode will air right after Gaiman's, making it the fourth story when the series begin in the spring:

I suspect these 2 [the Neil Gaiman and Mark Gatiss episodes]with go out 3&4 as planned - splitting series in two will leave less wriggle room

There you have it. I hope the new Gatiss episode will be better than Victory of the Daleks, which was one of my least favourite episodes from last series. But having seen The Great Game, Sherlock's last episode which Gatiss wrote, I know he can be utterly brilliant, so I'm crossing my fingers for an awesome episode.

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]

Read a scene cut from Neil Gaiman's Upcoming 'Doctor Who' Series 6 Script

Over on his blog, author Neil Gaiman has posted a scene cut from his upcoming Doctor Who series 6 script which Gaiman reveals will be table read on August 31. The writer mentions that the script has arrived to what will probably be it's final form - which is the tenth draft - and that it will most likely be the one that will be used for the table read.

Since it's the tenth draft, many scenes and bits of dialogue were cut during the writing process and Neil Gaiman explains about those cuts and why they were made :

Anything that wasn't moving the plot forward has gone. Lots of interesting chatty background conversations in the TARDIS, gone. Lines of dialogue that were fun in themselves but weren't really needed? Gone. And the food scene? Very gone indeed. It's been gone since draft six. Given that it's not there any longer, and that that tells you absolutely nothing about the story except that it now doesn't have a scene with a bowl of food in it, I thought I'd borrow it back from Lucien's library.

And here is the scene that was cut from draft six, in which the Doctor has been given something possibly alien to eat :

AMY

Is it something people can eat?
(to Doctor)
Shouldn’t you scan it with your screwdriver or something?

THE DOCTOR

Why would I scan food with my screwdriver?

AMY

See if it’s safe?


The Doctor leans over, dips his finger into his bowl, tastes it.

THE DOCTOR

Some unusual trace elements, smidge too much background radiation, but, yeah, very yummy.


Amy is about to try some of his food... he stops her.

THE DOCTOR (cont’d)

No. Don’t put it in your mouth.

AMY

Not for humans?

 

THE DOCTOR

Not for you. Tastes like Marmite on socks.


[Neil Gaiman's Blog via Life, Doctor Who and Combom]