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Some news about the Christmas Doctor Who Special . . .
The BBC has confirmed veteran actor Michael Gambon (Professor Dumbledor of Harry Potter Fame) and opera diva Katherine Jenkins will guest star in the 2010 Doctor Who Christmas special.
The Christmas episode will be set on a Victorian planet (some filming scheduled today until the 23rd July at The Coal Exchange in Cardiff) and loosely follows the Christmas Carol story with some extra twists and turns. Apparently there is a Yeti which will be making an appearance and the story will feature a 'Doctor' of christmas past, though which one is being maintained a tightly-guarded secret.
Production starts today (Monday 12 July) on the 2010 Doctor Who BBC One Christmas Special in which the thrilling adventures of the Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith) and newlyweds Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) and Rory Williams (Arthur Darvill) will continue in a fun-filled and heartfelt festive story.
In the grand tradition of Doctor Who Christmas specials, this year the show has once again attracted stellar guest stars as veteran actor Michael Gambon (Harry Potter, The Singing Detective) and opera diva Katherine Jenkins, in her first acting role, join the Time Lord for what might be his most Christmassy adventure yet!
Arriving on set for her first day of filming, Katherine Jenkins said: "I'm over the moon to be involved in the Doctor Who Christmas Special – I can't quite believe it as it's a part of the family tradition at the Jenkins household. I heard the news that I got the role on my 30th birthday and it was the best birthday present ever!"
About the series, lead writer and executive producer, Steven Moffat, commented: "Oh, we're going for broke with this one. It's all your favourite Christmas movies at once, in an hour, with monsters and the Doctor and a honeymoon and – oh, you'll see. I've honestly never been so excited about writing anything. I was laughing madly as I typed along to Christmas songs in April. My neighbours loved it so much they all moved away and set up a website demanding my execution. But I'm fairly sure they did it ironically."
The Christmas special follows on from Matt Smith's first series as The Doctor, which attracted huge critical acclaim for Smith, his companion, Gillan, and lead writer Moffat, from press and legions of fans alike.
Filming on the Christmas special will continue until August 2010.
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That episode was most entertaining and did wrap up the season with a big bang. It starts as the universe is gone with only a remnant of Earth left at it’s core. The Doctor is locked within the best prison ever built, Amy is gone and River is trapped in a dying TARDIS. Can the Universe be restored?
It starts with the young Amelia saying a prayer to Santa, similar to the first episode of this series. A quick shift in gear and some discussions about the stars not really existing at all except in Amelia's imagination and artwork. Amelia finds some mysterious notes directed to her, which instructs her to see the Pandorica exhibit at the National Museum. So she does, and and finds another note telling her to stick around. One sees some Dalek artifact displays by-the-way in the museum. Anywhoos, when everyone’s left the museum, the most amazing thing happens. The Pandorica opens and out comes ... the older (current?) Amy! wait, what?
Cut back 1894 years, to 102 AD. Rory is talking to Amy’s corpse when the Doctor appears, tells Rory to get him out of the Pandorica, and then disappears and reappears multiple times. What the heck is going on? So after Rory helps the Doctor out, the Doctor puts Amy in the Pandorica, where it will revive her in 1894 years time. Aaaah, right. After Rory saying he won’t go with the Doctor to the future, there’s another jump cut back to 1996. Amy discovers that Rory is probably dead, after protecting the Pandorica all those years. Random Dalek encounter, and the Doctor jumps into action and hides the Amys behind the Pandorica, when suddenly the Dalek gets shot. By who - yep - plastic Rory who ditched his centurion garb for the museum security uniform - he's still alive after all this time !
The plot after this takes quite a few crazy tuns. After time travelling various times using River's time vortex manipulator timey-wimey thingy, he meets his dying self who passes along a message. Then he rescues River, who is stuck on a time loop in the TARDIS (smart machine is trying to save itself and occupant. The random Dalek shoots the Doctor after the rescue and he travels back in the past to meet himself and give a warning, and then River kills the Dalek while Amy and Rory check on the Doctor. His corpse is gone. He wasn’t really dead at all, apparently, and was using them as a diversion so he could get to work to effect the second Big Bang happen to recreate the universe.
After lots of discussion, he lifts off in the Pandorica into the TARDIS, and is starting to be wiped from existence. The Doctor then travels through to the past several times and finishes with meeting young Amy and tucking her in bed. The Doctor now enters the quickly closing crack and is popped from existence. The scene now shifts to Amy and Rory's wedding, where suddenly, several things assist her memory of the Doctor. She now quite amazingly imagines him back into existence. Not sure how this really happens but we're certain fans liked it anyways.
The episode ends with Amy and Rory joining the Doctor in the TARDIS, there is a call from the Queen and then they prepare to investigate an issue with a Sphinx (?) on the Orient Express in Space.
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The Big Bang
18:05, Saturday 26 June, BBC One
The Doctor is gone, the TARDIS has been destroyed, and the universe is collapsing. The only hope for all reality is a little girl who still believes in stars.
The Big Bang is a dramatic finale to the Eleventh Doctor's first incredible series. Find out more about it now.
nuff said already - let's watch the preview trailers . . .
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On Saturday, if you were geographically blessed (in the UK), you took in a very exciting episode - part one of two in the Doctor Who Series 5 finale. If you do not live the UK, you have to wait another three weeks or sneak it on line somewhere (that's what we did).
How was it ? Let's have a look at the numbers - this Doctor Who episode averaged a respectable 5.9 million viewers for BBC One on Saturday evening, according to early overnight data.
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If you do not want spoilers, escape now before we roll into the episode details from wiki . . .
The Doctor and Amy Pond travel to the oldest planet in the universe where a legendary message turns out to be another "calling card" of Dr. River Song. Following the coordinates from the message, they arrive at Roman Britain in 102 AD and find River posing as Cleopatra. River explains that she has received warning of the destruction of the TARDIS from a painting by Vincent Van Gogh ("Vincent and the Doctor") that in 1941 reached Winston Churchill and Professor Bracewell ("Victory of the Daleks"). Churchill had attempted to warn the Doctor himself, but the TARDIS instead connected his call to River; she subsequently escaped from prison and encountered Liz 10 ("The Beast Below"), who had Van Gogh's painting in her collection, and then used a Vortex Manipulator to transport herself to the oldest planet then to the coordinates in the painting. The Doctor realises the painting and destruction of the TARDIS may be connected to the "Pandorica", a fabled prison for the universe's deadliest being, and rationalises that it must be stored in a memorable location, the site of Stonehenge.
At Stonehenge, the Doctor, Amy, and River find a passage to an underground area, which the Doctor terms "Underhenge". Inside, they find the Pandorica, a room-sized metal box outfitted with every type of lock imaginable. The Doctor and River become concerned when they discover that the Pandorica is opening from inside and transmitting a message across time and space, drawing many of the Doctor's foes to Earth. River warns that "everything that ever hated [the Doctor] is coming tonight". The Doctor refuses to flee and instead enlists the help of some of the nearby Roman soldiers, led by a mysterious centurion who volunteers.
Back underground, while Amy questions the Doctor about the engagement ring she has found, the pair are attacked by the debris of a Cyberman's suit trying to find a new host. The Doctor is stunned and Amy sedated with a flechette. She runs away and is rescued by the mysterious centurion, who turns out to be Rory Williams. The revived Doctor is baffled to find Rory alive, since he is supposed to have been erased from history by the crack in the universe ("Cold Blood"). Rory is even more confused and says he simply remembers dying one second and being a Roman soldier the next. Rory tries to connect with Amy using the engagement ring that he had left aboard the TARDIS, but she is still unable to remember him.
As more enemies gather in orbit, the Doctor temporarily delays the aliens and instructs River to bring the TARDIS to Stonehenge. Although shown to be an expert TARDIS pilot ("The Time of Angels"), River now finds the machine impossible to control and gets locked on course for Amy's house on June 26, 2010 - the very date the explosion is to happen ("Flesh and Stone"). Whilst she ventures outside, the scanner screen suddenly cracks in the familiar shape, while an ominous voice declares "silence will fall". River finds huge foot prints in the garden and explores Amy's bedroom, still full of representations of the Doctor and the TARDIS. She also finds elements such as Pandora's Box and the Roman soldiers within Amy's drawings and books. She relays this to the Doctor, who starts to worry they might all be imaginary constructs taken from Amy's mind to entrap him, and believing their own cover story until they are activated. Amy meanwhile has an emotional conversation with Rory who is attempting to get her to remember him. The TARDIS begins to malfunction dangerously. Upon discovery of the date to which River has been taken, the Doctor orders her to get out of that timezone, but the TARDIS is now controlled remotely. He urges her to get out, as the TARDIS engines are supposed to shut down automatically when no one is on board, but she finds herself locked in.
Suddenly, Rory and the 'legionaries' with the Doctor are activated: they are Autons. 'Rory' remains with Amy, struggling to retain his human consciousness and stop himself from killing her. Shortly after she remembers who he is, he loses control and shoots her. Meanwhile, the other Autons capture the Doctor and take him to the now-open Pandorica, which proves to be empty. Daleks, Sontarans, Cybermen and others arrive and reveal that they have formed an alliance and built the Pandorica as a prison for the Doctor, as they believe he is about to destroy the universe. The Doctor pleads that they have made a mistake and the TARDIS, not him, is about to destroy the universe but the Daleks refuse to believe that anyone else can fly the TARDIS.
River frantically manages to hot-wire the TARDIS door, but finds her way blocked by a stone surface. She declares, "I'm sorry, my love," as the TARDIS goes critical and explodes. Rory is still cradling the apparently dead Amy. The Pandorica closes on the Doctor, and a dramatic reveal shows explosions surrounding the Earth.
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Time Travelling Tardis Among Doctor Who Props for Sale at Bonhams
Bonhams are to sell the TARDIS used to transport Christopher Eccleston as the ninth incarnation of Doctor Who in the Entertainment Memorabilia auction on 23rd June 2010 at Bonhams, Knightsbridge.
The TARDIS was created for the programme in 2005 and is expected to fetch £8,000-12,000. A more affordable miniature TARDIS model created for exhibition purposes and measuring 5ft high is also on offer, with an estimate of £300-400.
Some of the oldest Doctor Who props ever to appear at auction will also go under the hammer. Daleks from the sci-fi programme always prove popular with bidders, and this sale includes the two of the oldest examples to come to auction. Lot 126 is believed to be the earliest surviving Dalek – it first appeared in 'Dr. Who And The Daleks', 1964 and 'The Chase', 1965 and is estimated at £2,000-3,000. Lot 128 featured in 'The Evil of the Daleks', 1967 and is also expected to fetch £2,000-3,000.
A Cyberman helmet from 'Moonbase and The Tomb of the Cybermen', 1967 is estimated to sell for £3,000-4,000.
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You may recall a large auction earlier this year (February) where Bonhams had a great number of Doctor Who items of interest -
In a packed saleroom 163 lots from the BBC archive of Doctor Who memorabilia were sold this afternoon at Bonhams, Knightsbridge, many selling for three, four or five times their pre-sale estimate. The sale achieved a total of £253,158 with 100% of lots sold. As the world's longest running science fiction television programme, Doctor Who has attracted a cult following. The sale saw fans and collectors entering bidding wars in an attempt to acquire authentic, screen-used props. Competition was fierce and the top lot was an Imperial Dalek (Mk 1) which achieved an estimate-busting price of £20,400 (estimate £2,500-3,500). A second Imperial Dalek (Mk 2) made an equally impressive £15,600 – both going to telephone bidders. Cybermen, who featured regularly in the Classic series proved very popular with the most expensive achieving £9,600 – nearly five times its pre-sale estimate of £1,800-2,500. Two versions of the Malus from 'The Awakening' episode were also bought for high prices. Lot 114 – a large Malus mask went for £3,000 and the Malus miniature made £1,920. David Tennant was a highly popular Doctor with more than 10 million people tuning in to see his last adventure over Christmas. A pale blue shirt worn by him in various episodes was snapped up for £1,260 – nearly five times the pre-sale estimate. Several items from Voyage of the Damned – the 2007 Christmas special in which Kylie Minogue starred as his assistant, Astrid Peth, were also on offer. Astrid's waitress outfit was bought for £3,120. Stephanie Connell, Entertainment Memorabilia Specialist at Bonhams, comments: "This is a fantastic result proving what an iconic show Doctor Who is. Collectors for both the new and classic series were out in force today – demonstrating the continuing popularity of both series - and Bonhams are delighted to have held such a high profile sale." Bonhams
Bonhams, founded in 1793, is one of the world's oldest and largest auctioneers of fine art and antiques. The present company was formed by the merger in November 2001 of Bonhams & Brooks and Phillips Son and Neale UK. In August 2002, the company acquired Butterfields, the principal firm of auctioneers on the West Coast of America. Today, Bonhams offers more sales than any of its rivals, through two major salerooms in London: New Bond Street, and Knightsbridge, and a further five throughout the UK. Sales are also held in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Carmel, New York and Boston in the USA; Toronto, Canada; and France, Monaco, Hong Kong, Australia and Dubai. Bonhams has a worldwide network of offices and regional representatives in 25 countries offering sales advice and valuation services in 57 specialist areas. By the end of 2009, Bonhams had become UK market leaders in ten key specialist collecting areas.For a full listing of upcoming sales, plus details of Bonhams specialist departments, go to www.bonhams.com (February 2010).
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Things are really starting to heat up with 'The Pandorica Opens' début just right around the corner on BBC One and BBC HD. Make certain you have your priorities in order this Saturday evening.
Righto - onto the title of today's post . . .
We have some additional tidbits as to what to expect during the next show from a recent (Wednesday 16th June) screening of 'The Pandorica Opens' at The British Academy of Film and Television Arts. BAFTA hosted this special preview screening of the episode yesterday which was followed by a question and answer session with members of the cast and crew including Matt Smith and Karen Gillan.
Matt Smith has suggested that The Doctor may wear a new outfit when Doctor Who returns next year. Matt also made these comments after the press screening, when he was asked who came up with the jacket-and-bow-tie combination he has sported in the past series.
Next up . . .
Some teasers from Digital Spy from the screening -
1. Hello sweetie writ large. Literally.
2. "This is royal collection and I'm the ****** *****!
3. Cleopatra's comin' atcha!
4. Drahvins, Zygons, Draconians, oh my!
5. A nifty new Cyber-feature is revealed.
6. An unlikely alliance is formed.
7. The Pandorica opens. And closes.
8. We finally find out where those pesky cracks are coming from.
9. Death. A whole lot more death than you probably anticipated.
10. But don't despair, the last word of the episode is "love".
While we are on teasers, we might as well have some from SFX :
1. Steven Moffat’s on top form with a brilliantly crafted episode – the perfect start to a two-parter.
2. The Doctor and Amy visit the oldest planet in the universe, where the first words in history have a familiar ring to them.
3. The stakes are every bit as high as in an RTD season finale.
4. Characters from earlier in the series make surprise appearances before the opening titles – and we’re not just talking about the series recap.
5. There’s something funny going on at Stonehenge.
6. If you thought “The Lodger” looked like a money-saving episode, you soon realise where all that spare cash went.
7. There’s a scene in a bar rather reminiscent of the Star Wars cantina.
8. There’s an armada of alien spacecraft.
9. The Doctor gets to deliver one of his “Get out of here!” speeches.
10. There’s a brilliant scare involving a human skull.
11. You could market an entire range of action figures on the back of this episode alone.
12. Amy’s engagement ring is crucial.
13. It’ll make you want to go back and watch the whole series again.
14. Someone other than the Doctor pilots the TARDIS.
15. The Doctor and Amy face a foe reminiscent of fembots.
16. There’s a fantastic nod to The Thing.
17. The Pandorica does indeed open.
18. It also closes.
19. The episode ends in a cliffhanger so devilish that it seems utterly inescapable. It’s going to be a very, very long week.
20. 26 June 2010 is a very important date indeed – and not just because it’s the day of the series finale.
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Hello my pickles,
We have from Popping Vicodin, some very interesting images from the upcoming Doctor Who season finale. These images are from episode 12 (The Pandorica Opens) and episode 13 (The Big Bang). If you do NOT want to see these Doctor Who Spoilers, we suggest that you pull the chute now.
What will happen ?
(from a variety of sources such as TV Times, Radio Times, What's On TV, etc.)
The Doctor takes Amy to the very first planet in existence where they find a message from River Song.
The couple find River Song is dressed as Cleopatra.
A painting by Van Gogh, found in Winston Churchill's bunker, reveals something about The Doctor's fate, a "desperate message." It has been passed along by Churchill through River Song and Liz Ten - who all return in the finale.
Dark forces gather at "under Henge"; returning monsters include: Daleks (the new kind), Cybermen, Sycorax, a Blowfish (originally from Torchwood), Weevils (originally from Torchwood), Autons, a Hoix, Sontarans, Judoon, a Kudlak (originally from The Sarah Jane Adventures) and Silurians (new series).
Lets go . . .
That's some crowded real estate above Stonehenge - looks like an inter-galactic party and every one of the Doctor's nemesis has come.
Who exactly is invited ? Looks like the Silurians and the Weevils (from our other fav show, Torchwood). Oh right - might as well have the Romans come too.
Speaking of Romans, we see here that Rory (who we thought took a dirt nap after being hit by a Silurian weapon in 'Cold Blood' has made a miraculous recovery and has acquired some spiffy wardrobe.
Also - a blast from the recent past - the Sycorax ! These critters were last seen during the Christmas Invasion special.
And who could not invite the Daleks, now available in red, white and Kill Bill jumpsuit.
And finally, it looks like Amy Pond (the child version) is rather enthralled by the Pandorica thingy.
Looks like this season finale is heating up to be epic . . . don't blink, don't miss it.
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The Lodger, 5x11
Synopsis
There's a house on Aickman road, and a staircase that people go up, but never down, as the time-travelling drama continues.
To solve the mystery of the man upstairs, the Doctor faces his greatest challenge yet – he must pass himself off as a perfectly normal human being, and share a flat with Craig Owens.
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Mini-Plot
The Doctor lands the TARDIS in present-day Colchester but before Amy can emerge, the TARDIS dematerializes due to the Doctor forgetting to lock the time settings; this causes the TARDIS to abort the landing and continually re-try but fails to do so as some unknown interference is causing issues.
Left temporarily stranded in Colchester while he determines the source of the interference, the Doctor needs somewhere to stay. The Doctor decides to crash at Craig's main-floor flat (played by James Corden), where he proceeds to be a less-than-welcome houseguest.
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Vidcaps
Clearly what we can see here is a very clever reference to the 'Vincent and the Doctor' episode.
Hello - I forgot to put the parking break on my TADIS and it's rolled away somewhere (erm - I mean sometime). Anyways, can I crash at your pad and spy on your neighbour upstairs ?
Odd things are afoot upstairs - apparently it might be like an apartment full of sticky flypaper except for humans - they go up and never come down.
The Doctor is rather brilliant at whatever he tries his hand at, much to the envy of his flat-mate Craig who is really starting to dislike the Doctor.
Have you ever done this ? Taken a sip of a lovely rosé only to have to spit it back into your wine glass on account that it was so absolutely horrid. Here the Doctor shows his contempt for Tesco Brand wine while he entertains his flat-mate and his (almost) girl-friend.
After too much wine Craig is bedridden for the day - actually he just touched the radio-active indoor mould which seems to have originated upstairs.
Apparently, the Land Lord has not been charging appropriately for the lovely space-age flat upstairs.
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For those in the UK (or slithering on-line), you watched another great episode (The Lodger - 5x11) but were also treated to the 'Next Time' preview at show's end . . . let's have a look.
(if you don't want to read Doctor Who spoilers, we suggest heading somewhere else now)
“The Universe is Cracked” says the voice over for the ‘Next Time’ trailer for Doctor Who as two-part finale is right around the corner. We will be able to finally discover about those mysterious cracks in time, which have haunted the Doctor and Amy since The Eleventh Hour.
We will also learn just what the Pandorica is, mentioned by River Song amongst others, and we think it will not likely be very nice for the Doctor. The trailer for the next episode does look great and we are certainly filled with anticipation. Here's the vid . . .
A Van Gogh painting ferried across thousands of years, communicating a disturbing prophecy to the Doctor, a message on the oldest cliff-face in the universe and a love that lasts a thousand years. In 102 AD England, Romans receive a surprise visit from Cleopatra. Nearby, Stonehenge conceals the Pandorica, a prison-box of legend. As it slowly unlocks from the inside, terrible forces gather in the heavens above. The fates are drawing close around the TARDIS – is this the day the Doctor falls? But there is just one certainty: Silence will fall...
Stay tuned Whovians.
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Issue 170 of Doctor Who Adventures magazine is now out (Thursday 10 June) for the small price of only £2.20
Inside, you can read about the attack of the alien granny (nasty Mrs Poggit and her third green eyeball), we challenge you to find your way round the Maze of the Dead without blinking, and you can check out what adventures lie in store for the Doctor this Saturday in our top-secret sneak preview of The Lodger!
All this, plus Matt Smith’s exclusive diary from the set of Vincent and the Doctor (find out what was on his MP3), an exciting new comic, four awesome posters and some amazing comps.
Best of all . . . Issue 170 of Doctor Who Adventures comes with a free squad of mini Daleks who are determined to invade your bedroom!
Doctor Who Adventures is a weekly magazine for young boys and girls who love Doctor Who. The magazine immerses readers into the world of the Doctor, taking them on an adventure into time and space.
Full of monsters and creatures, excitement, action, adventure and humour, it is a must-have for young fans of the successful BBC series.
Doctor Who is copyright © British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) 1963, 2010.
No infringement of this copyright is either implied or intended. 'The Tardis Times' is not affiliated with, endorsed, sponsored, or specifically approved by the BBC. All use of videos, names, text & images are for journalistic and informational purposes only.
The BBC has confirmed veteran actor Michael Gambon (Professor Dumbledor of Harry Potter Fame) and opera diva Katherine Jenkins will guest star in the 2010 Doctor Who Christmas special.
