Niel Gaiman Drops Doctor Who Hints

SPOILERS!!!

Neil Gaiman has revealed more details about his forthcoming Doctor Who episode.

The writer confirmed to Doctor Who Magazine that the instalment will reference elements of the show's past.

"It all starts in void-space, with something or someone we have not seen since [1969 story] 'The War Games', and a knock on the Tardis door," he explained. "The guest star... is the brilliant Suranne Jones, playing someone who is beautiful... and who bites. [She] might just turn out to be an old acquaintance with a new face."

Gaiman's episode is expected to air third in the next run, but he explained that the story was originally intended to form part of Matt Smith's first series as the Doctor.

"Steven Moffat wrote me the letter telling me that they were out of money, and that because I'd written a very expensive episode they were bouncing me to episode three of the new season," he claimed.

He added that the move required rewrites to incorporate the character of Rory (Arthur Darvill).

"I wrote another version of it, with Rory in, because now he existed again," he quipped.

Series star Matt Smith recently told DS that Gaiman's episode is "brilliant" and "a real one for the ardent Who fans".

Doctor Who will return to BBC One for a full series in 2011, following a one-off special this Christmas.

Matt Wants To Stay For Years...

'Doctor Who' actor Matt Smith admits he is keen to push the boundaries of the sci-fi show and wants to continually make it better.

The 27-year-old actor is relishing playing the Time Lord in the BBC One sci-fi series and has hinted he wants to stay in the role for years to come and make the show better with each new run. He told reporters: "I try not to rest on my laurels really, I'm trying to keep pushing the boundaries. It's kind of like Hamlet but for television because it's boundless and you can reinvent it every day. So I'm trying to push the boundaries and trying to evolve. My intention is that I've started and I want to get better, I don't know how long I'll do it for, but I want there to be a marked improvement every time."

Matt also revealed filming of the next series is well underway and is going well. He said: "We're shooting the new series. We've got another 30 weeks of filming left but it's going great. We're off and we're cooking."
The actor will be joined in the next season by Karen Gillan, who plays The Doctor's companion Amy Pond, and Arthur Darvill, who portrays Amy's husband Rory Williams.

So, my fellow Whovians, what's your opinion? Should Matt stay for years or, should he go before he becomes too stale? We all know people didn't want David to go but, at the end of the day (or time if you like!!), we all knew it was the right decision for him.

Mark Gatiss Interview

When he was a boy, Mark Gatiss loved Doctor Who; now he regularly writes for it (he’s just finished an episode for next year’s series). He also, as a boy, loved Sherlock Holmes; now he’s the co-creator, with Steven Moffat, of BBC One’s recent big hit, Sherlock. Another passion of his youth was HG Wells; now he’s adapted, and is starring in, Wells’s 1901 story The First Men in the Moon for BBC Four. He seems to be making a career out of realising his boyhood dreams. The young Gatiss enjoyed collecting fossils, too, so no doubt we can expect a palaeontological documentary series from him before long.

The BBC would probably let him do it, as well, because in television Gatiss is flavour of the month. Literally “of the month”, in fact – as well as The First Men in the Moon (Tuesday), he’s got A History of Horror with Mark Gatiss (Mondays, BBC Four), and the same channel is currently repeating his 2008 drama series Crooked House (its final part airs tonight). “At the moment, BBC Four appears to be entirely staffed by me,” he says, chuckling. Actually, it isn’t just BBC Four – on October 27 there’s a Poirot whodunit he’s adapted for ITV1, and on October 28 he’s on Radio 4 in a documentary he’s made with his old League of Gentlemen colleagues about a haunted house.

Anyway, the most interesting thing to be found in this thicket of creativity is The First Men in the Moon. In it, Gatiss plays the charmingly absent-minded Professor Cavor, who makes buzzing noises when deep in thought, cheerily bids people good night in the middle of the day, and, more importantly, has devised an ingenious method of getting to the Moon. His friend Julius (Rory Kinnear), a bankrupt writer, is keen to exploit the trip for profit. Naturally, disaster awaits. “The 1964 film of it with Lionel Jeffries [who died this year, and to whom Gatiss has dedicated his adaptation] was a great favourite of mine and I read the book when I was at school, but the circumstances of making it were quite odd,” says Gatiss. “It was brought to my attention by some friends of mine who work in special effects that unlike most of the other HG Wells titles – The War of the Worlds, The Time Machine – this one for some reason isn’t owned by one of the big Hollywood studios. It’s so much my favourite kind of thing. The sort of programme I’ve always wanted to make is the sort of programme I’d like to watch on a Bank Holiday Monday: that kind of adventure, that kind of fantasy.”

Not only is The First Men in the Moon a Gatiss type of story, but Professor Cavor is a Gatiss type of character. Time and again in his writing career, he’s drawn to weirdos: Sherlock Holmes, with his cocaine habit and violin; the Doctor, a time-travelling alien; the inhabitants of Royston Vasey in The League of Gentlemen, BBC Two’s cult comedy about inbreds, clowns and sinister butchers. “I’m drawn to eccentric characters because they’re more fun,” says Gatiss, simply. “I think one of the few faults in Dickens is that mostly his lead characters are blanks – who is David Copperfield, who is Oliver Twist? And yet he takes such joy in populating the rest of his novels with these fantastic, grotesque people like Pecksmith and so on.“Also, eccentric characters can surprise you. Something I was very keen to put in our version of Sherlock, which I don’t think had ever been done, was to combat this idea that Holmes is a complete know-it-all – so I put in this thing from the original stories that he doesn’t know the Earth goes round the Sun. There are some things everybody else knows but which he’s ignorant about. He says to Watson, ‘I don’t care.I know by looking at the mud on your shoe that you went to the Wigmore Street post office this morning but why should I care if the Earth goes round the Sun or the Sun goes round the Earth?’ When I was a kid, that thrilled me.”

It wouldn’t be too rude to say that Gatiss is a little eccentric himself. Not that you would guess this to talk to him: he’s polite and affable, with a voice as soft as slippers. But in the London home he shares with his civil partner, Ian, he did once build a Victorian laboratory (another boyhood dream fulfilled, although in the end he never actually did any experiments in it – he just liked showing it off to visitors).
Born in Durham in 1966, he grew up opposite the place where both his parents worked: a psychiatric hospital. At school, he says, he was “desperately” geeky: “I’ve got some very, very awful photos of myself when I was eight with wildly tangled red hair and terrible NHS specs.”

At drama college (Bretton Hall in West Yorkshire) he met the other three members of The League of Gentlemen; in 1997, just two years after their stage debut, they won the Perrier Award at Edinburgh. (Although there hasn’t been any new League of Gentlemen material since the 2005 film, he says they’ve never split up, and may work together again in future.) In the Nineties he also published several Doctor Who novels, which ultimately helped bring him to the attention of Russell T Davies, the producer who relaunched the TV series in 2005.

Today the work just keeps coming. When I speak to him, by telephone, he’s in Crete, where he’s supposed to be enjoying a holiday but is in fact writing a script for the second series of Sherlock.
To announce the drama had been recommissioned, he and Moffat put together a press release including hints about the episodes to come. “We look forward to Sherlock encountering lots of new enemies – whether two or four-legged – and perhaps seeing the master of deduction and reason falling – but whether in love or over a precipice remains to be seen…” You don’t need to share Holmes’s powers in order to work out which stories they have in mind.

The young Gatiss, who so loved Holmes and Wells and the Doctor, would have been delighted to know this was how his life would turn out. But he wouldn’t necessarily have been surprised. “I had a strong sense as a kid, who was constantly belittled by vile PE teachers, that I would prove people wrong who said I spent all my time daydreaming,” says Gatiss. “When I’d walk around the perimeter of the football pitch in the p---ing rain and feel the terrible smack of the football against my cheek, I had an inner conviction that I could somehow make use of my geekiness. And I’m very pleased to say I have.”

The First Men in the Moon is on Tuesday on BBC Four at 9.00pm

Steven Moffat on those "BBC is ready to ditch The Doctor" rumors.

(Edited From Original)

Doctor Who's executive producer, Steven Moffat has been busy countering rumours that the BBC’s commitment to the show is waning.

Following the announcement that there will be two series of Doctor Who in 2011, Moffat, writing in Doctor Who Magazine, Moffat addresses the issue, saying that fans worry too much: "I know this because I’ve been a fan since 1963. My favourite rumour is that this is the BBC’s cunning plan to reduce the number of episodes. Right. Okay. . . It’s the BBC’s cunning plan to reduce the number of episode, by going to the extraordinary and fiendish lengths of . . . making exactly the same number of episodes! Quite honestly, you could go over that one a million times and it still wouldn’t work. My least favourite rumour: this is the BBC’s cunning (but slightly generous) plan to give me enough time to work on Sherlock as well. Okay. . . The BBC in their cunning and generosity have decided to reduce my workload by the devilishly clever stratagem of . . . making no difference to my workload whatsoever." It was, in fact, Moffat’s idea to have two series of Doctor Who next year, in order to accommodate a “huge cliffhanger” that they wouldn’t normally consider at the end of a series, “because it would be too long before it came back this is an enormous, game-changing cliffhanger for the Doctor, Amy and Rory. It will change everything for them. 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 will return to TV screens at Christmas in what Moffat describes as “the most Christmassy Christmas story ever”. The as-yet-untitled episode also stars Sir Michael Gambon (who plays Dumbledore in the harry Potter movies) and the Welsh opera singer, Katherine Jenkins, in her first acting role. Before then viewers can see Smith’s eleventh Doctor star alongside two of his former companions, Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen) and Jo Grant (Katy Manning) in the Who spin-off drama, The Sarah Jane Adventures, in a story, Death of the Doctor, written by Russell T Davies (Torchwood). Manning – who played opposite Jon Pertwee’s third Doctor in the early 1970s – reprises her TV role after nearly forty years.

Matt Smith Comes To Karen's Rescue (If You Believe The Rumours!!)

It seems that rumours of poor Amy's demise in series six are getting more and more feverent as we approach the xmas special. Here's what The Sun - Britains best selling toilet news paper had to say:

DOCTOR: "I'LL SAVE AMY FROM AXE!!"

DOCTOR Who yesterday vowed to save sidekick Amy Pond from being killed off.
Fans feared actress Karen Gillan, 22, would be chopped from the new series now being shot.But Matt Smith, 27, who plays the Time Lord, said: "I'll rescue her." Amy was bumped off in the last series before being revived in the final episode. Fans thought that heralded her permanent death.But Matt said: "Amy Pond can't die, no way. I'd miss Karen. So don't worry, I won't let it happen."A nine-city Doctor Who Live tour begins on October 8 at Wembley Arena.

The Press Association were a little less dramatic:

Doctor Who star Matt: I'll save Amy

Doctor Who star Matt Smith has reassured fans that he won't let assistant Amy Pond be killed off - and vowed: "I'll save her." He said actress Karen Gillan - who plays his sidekick - will stay with the show because there's still "a lot more mileage" in their friendship.

There had been suggestions that fan favourite Amy would be given the chop in the new series. She was briefly bumped off in the summer but brought back to life in the final episode of the series, The Big Bang.

Matt - soon to be seen as part of a stage spin-off of the show - said: "She can't die, Amy Pond can't die. No way, I'd be sad. I'd miss Karen." He said: "I just think for this particular Doctor, his bond with Amy, I think there's a lot more mileage in it yet. I think there's a long way to go. So I can't see it happening any time soon." He added: "Don't worry, I won't let it happen - I'll save her, I'll save the day."

The new Doctor Who Live arena tour begins next month with a show at Wembley Arena.

Matt, 27, appears in specially filmed footage to be shown during the spectacular, but the monsters and narrator Vorgenson (played by Nigel Planer) appear live. The actor said he would be attending opening night on October 8 but was tight-lipped about whether he'd be making an on-stage appearance, saying: "Well, you'll have to wait and see."

Poor Karen! Only 22 and already rumours of her death are rife!!!

Suranne Jones Confirmed For Series 6 Role.

The BBC has announced that former 'Coronation Street' favourite Suranne Jones is to guest star in the new series of 'Doctor Who'. Jones will play a character called Idris in an episode written by bestselling sci-fi and fantasy author Neil Gaiman. Jones said: "As an actor, it's hugely exciting to be cast in 'Doctor Who'. I'm a massive fan of the show and I was blown away when I read Neil's script and uncovered what's in store for my character. "However, I'm sworn to secrecy so viewers will just have to wait until next year to find out any other juicy details!"

Commenting on her casting, Gaiman said: "Suranne is marvellous. She's beautiful, funny and strange. It's the kind of role that people will remember forever, so we needed someone who was able to pull that off, and to keep up with Matt Smith [the Doctor]. And bite him. Suranne does all three." The episode begins filming on Friday.

Jones previously appeared in the 'Doctor Who' spin-off 'The Sarah Jane Adventures'.

Steven Moffat Drops Hints About DW Xmas Special

Doctor Who' executive producer Steven Moffat has promised fans they are in for a ''big Christmas treat'' when the sci-fi show returns in December.

The BBC sci-fi show's executive producer and lead writer Steven Moffat is hugely excited about the upcoming episode and claims he has created a festive story he would love to watch. He said: "This episode is 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."
The episode will see opera singer Katherine Jenkins and 'Harry Potter' star Michael Gambon join Matt Smith, who portrays The Doctor, and Karen Gillan, who plays companion Amy Pond, for the adventure.

Moffat also revealed fans of the show will finally find out who the mysterious character River Song is in the 2011 series.

In an extract from 'Doctor Who: The Brilliant Book', he revealed: "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."

River Song - who is played by Alex Kingston - has been a recurring character since the series returned to screens in 2005. She first appeared in the episodes 'Silence in the Library' and 'Forest of the Dead' - opposite Tenth Doctor David Tennant - before returning last series to star opposite Matt. Speculation has been rife to what is her true identity, with one rumour she is The Doctor's wife in the future.

I Heard A Rumour....

From the good folks at TV Overmind:

It’s all about the dying in Doctor Who series 6, several websites are reporting. First, there’s the report that Amy Pond will be killed off in episode six of the new series according to the British periodical The Sun. 

Then there’s the more recent rumor that River Song will be axed next year instead, according to the Daily Star, who deny that Pond will die. “It’s news to us. As far as we’re concerned she is set to star in all 13 episodes,” they claim their sources say, but those same sources are claiming that River dies in series six.
That is, despite the fact that we’ve already seen her death.

It seems that with the torrential buzz surrounding the new series, which has recently begun filming, we’re dealing with a lot of rumors regarding character deaths — decisions that probably haven’t even been put into script form yet, much less released to anyone who would publish such. These unnamed sources aren’t reliable.

So while I wouldn’t doubt that actress Karen Gillan will be leaving the series after next season, I would also really doubt that she will be killed off. It is a family series, after all, and killing off a major character like that (who can’t regenerate) would be traumatic to children everywhere. I don’t think Who would risk it, and I hope they won’t.
As for the reported death of River, we’ve already seen her die back in series four, during her first appearance, when she sacrificed herself to save the Doctor and co. from the Vashta Nerada. All her subsequent appearances have been in reverse since that point. So if there’s one character who’s safe from death in the future of this show, it’s River.

So worry not for our two female leads — I’m pretty sure that all these death rumors are just sensationalism that will be proven incorrect once series six concludes. And, if just happen to be wrong about it, well, color me shocked.

Doctor Who's Steven Moffat and Karen Gillan on plans for new series

The new series of Doctor Who will be split into two for the first time ever, the show's executive producer and writer Steven Moffat has revealed.

Moffat also promised the programmes biggest ever cliffhanger – "an earth-shattering climax", is to come, whilst speaking at the Edinburgh International Television Festival.

Next year's 13-part series, the sixth since Doctor Who returned in 2005, will run for seven episodes and then return in the autumn for another six.

Moffat said the Easter "mid-season finale" would be a "game-changing cliffhanger".

He added that next year's Doctor Who would run as two separate series, allowing him to double the number of "event episodes" in the new run, and meant fans would never be more than a few months away from the next instalment of the hit BBC1 show.

Speaking about his plans for the show Moffat explained:"What I love about this idea is that when kids see Doctor Who go off the air, they will be noticeably taller when it comes back. It's an age for children. With an Easter series, an autumn series and a Christmas special, you are never going to be more than few months from the new series of Doctor Who.

"Tart that I am, we will now have two first nights and two finales, twice as many event episodes as we had before."

Meanwhile when we caught up with Moffat and Karen Gillan, who plays the doctor's assistant Amy Pond, we asked; if they could be a TV character for the day who would they be and why?

Being the passionate showrunner that he is Moffat replied: "I would obviously obviously be Doctor Who. What other choice is there? He can be everybody else!"

Meanwhile, the beautiful Karen Gillan opted for the slightly unusual option of David Brent from The Office, asking us "Don't you think we're similar?"

Gillan revealed the monsters she finds scariest on the show are: "the weeping angels – so far; they might be topped in the new series."

She explained "It's because you don't actually see them do anything so it's kind of left to your imagination which can run wild and it involves the dark and it involves looking at the thing you're very scared of an I just think it's a really genius invention."

Well, at least it won't be the Eurovision to blame for the break in the shows run next year!!