Wednesday, December 30, 2009

If Gallifrey is back... can he live?? - Speculation about how Season 4 ends




Okay, first of all, I'd like to apologise for the lack of posts these last few days. I've been extremely busy and on top of that, it has been proving quite hard for me to assimilate all I've seen and heard in 'The End of Time Part 1'. I shan't post any more of the Adventure Calendar days as I had planned to due to the lack of time to do so. You would never get them in time, and I'm terribly sorry. If you want to follow the rest of the days, go to www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho and you'll find it all there. And... Happy New Year, guys!
Back to TEoT... OMG, what an excellent episode. it was witty, it was funny, it was sad and incredibly touching. David and John were superb as the Doctor and the Master, and I'm expecting the last episode (sniff) to be equally brilliant. I must (!) mention that one scene in which Wilf and the Doctor are sitting on the café... with the Doctor saying he is going to die. That is probably the most amazing scene in the whole episode. 'Don't you dare' - both men crying and expressing what they feel at that precise moment, as if time and space had suddenly stopped. A burst of honesty fills the Doctor's soul and Wilf is there as his listener... and as his Guardian. I find that truly beautiful (opinion shared by my good friend FanaticalWhovian - http://www.fanaticalwhovian.blogspot.com/ - check her blog out, it is astonishingly fantastic. Filled with Who goodies!) and rather unexpected, I must confess. Never, in the whole history of Who, have I seen something like that. It's powerful, it's witty, and it's raw. And it's BRILLIANT, as the Doctor would have put it.
Well, if I'm allowed to say, I'm quite puzzled with this all Gallifrey returning thingy. How can it be back? Why is it back? To fight? To reestablish order in the Universe? Maybe, JUST maybe, they are there because the Doctor went backwards in time. Or maybe he didn't, we didn't see the TARDIS going all the way through time and space back to Gallifrey. Maybe we'll going to witness the Time War: the fall of Arcadia? We didn't actually see it. If Gallifrey is back on the screens, it can only mean two things: either we've gone backwards and Timelords are still alive or they have survived the TW. But how did they do that? Does Jenny have something to do with that? She regenerated, right? She must have, she's a Timelord, like the Doctor, her father. But we never saw her regenerating... as we didn't see the Master actually die... We saw his body, the flames... but he was brought back. Maybe they brought all Gallifreyans back as well!? Oh, that would be superb, splendid! And tell you what: in June's issue of Doctor Who Magazine (if I'm not mistaken), we were told several ways for the Doctor not to 'die'. And one of them was doing a favour to Timelords so that they would give him a whole new life cycle. Remember 'The Five Doctors'? Borusa and the other Timelords promised the Master that if he obeyed to their demands (rescuing the Fifth Doctor and all his incarnations). Could the Doctor do the same? Evidently, he's going to regenerate, but given that a Timelord only possesses 12 incarnations, what next? Matt Smith, and then another guy and then WHAT? No more Doctor Who? No more TARDIS, no more sonic screwdriver, no more Master, no more Gold, no more Moffat, no more adventures? What then? Sorry, I'm ranting here. It's just... the thought of losing DW is heartbreaking.
@valentineskid (on Twitter) and myself (@Britparsley) thought we had an answer to why Wilf and Donna didn't change to the Master. Maybe it was because they know him as the Master and not as Harold Saxon, like everybody else does. Donna is still the Doctor Donna, so it makes sense. They are the only ones who know the truth, right? So maybe that would explain it. *shakes fist* BARROWMAN!! :) I spend far too much time on Twitter. Fun times.
Oh, and for the record... I don't think the Master's powers are Buffy-ish at all. That is good old Doctor Who, and you know it. Remember Roger Delgado? Telepathy? Yeaaaah...

Friday, December 25, 2009

I Don't Know Where To Go From Here... (The End of Time final thoughts - prebroadcast)


With less than half an hour to go to 'The End of Time Part 1', this is my final chance to actually say what is going on my mind. I'm petrified, I'm scared. The Timelord Victorious haunts my dreams and I don't want the Doctor to suffer. Although the Master is back, I truly, truly hope that the Doctor doesn't succumb to his darker side. Is it the end? Yes, yes, we all know that. But what are we supposed to do? I guess I'm being silly, even utopic, but David Tennant IS the perfect Doctor. Even better than Tom Baker (in my opinion, that is). He brought so much joy to the show... He made me laugh and cry so hard during episodes, made me wonder whether I can do something to change the world, and most importantly... he made me dream. More than any other incarnation of the Doctor, Ten made me realise that I'm special in a way. That I'm unique. That you're unique. And that fear is crucial to help you go through several stages of your life. I really am scared. And I don't know what to do. I keep staring at my little TARDIS and my DW figures, thinking that this era is coming to an end. I look at my DW poster with David on the front and think it's wrong. I look at my DVDs and think that soon they will be history, joining the Classic Series in its appropriate shelf. The thought of even saying 'Tenth Doctor' instead of being able to say 'Actual Doctor', or just 'The Doctor' is something I'm not remotely prepared for. I can't imagine what it will be like, having a different Doctor. This is my 'first' regeneration: I saw all the others, but I knew it was going to happen. This... I... I guess I was being silly again. 'DT leaving? Don't be ridiculous!', I used to think, whenever that popped into my mind. But it's the truth: Timelords must regenerate, and the show must go on. I know Matt will do a great job, but it's the wait that is going to kill me. How will he be? How is the first episode gonna do? 'Rose' did quite well; 'New Earth' was great. And now what? The only thing I'm sure of is that Moffat will do one hell of a job. He always does. But I'm scared. So, so scared, that my fingers are turning numb as I write this. That my feet start to get cold and I just want to curl up in my chair and cry, listening to the Doctor Who Soundtracks, sobbing to those poignant songs. I'm glad Murray is there... at least, great and genuine music is guaranteed. Now, the point stands... Will I watch DW after this? Most definitely. I will, it's my favourite show in the whole wide World. But will I relish every episode as much? We'll see... Matt has his work covered for him... poor lad, I bet he's nervous as well.

Alas, poor Matt.

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Hamlet airs on Boxing Day - Tennant fans, keep your eyes peeled!

The Royal Shakespeare Company's award-winning production of Hamlet, directed by RSC Chief Associate Director Gregory Doran, and with David Tennant in the title role.

Hamlet will air on Boxing Day on BBC Two at 17:00pm. Don't miss it! :)






David Tennant and Catherine Tate - Partners in... Time!


David will be teaming up with Catherine Tate to stand in on Jonathan Ross' Radio 2 show on Saturday 26th December from 13:00pm.
You can also catch David as the Ghost Of Christmas Present on Catherine Tate: Nan's Christmas Carol on 25th December at 22:30pm on BBC One.
Catherine Tate: Nan's Christmas Carol airs on 25th December at 22:30pm on BBC One.

David & Catherine On Radio 2 airs on 26th December at 10:00am.

David Tennant Gets An 'Out of this World' Badge! - Blue Peter

Don't forget: WOM rerun and QI tonight!




Doctor Who: The Waters Of Mars
24th December 19:00pm BBC Three UK
Mars, 2059. Bowie Base One. Last recorded message: "Don't drink the water. Don't even touch it. Not one drop."...

QI
24th December 22:00pm BBC One UK
Christmas special of the comedy quiz, featuring David Tennant.


Happy Holidays, Whovians!!




Uncanny Resemblance to the Weeping Angels... Scary!

This is THE Weeping Angel: (one of them)

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Because of today's 'Adventure Calendar' prezzie, I looked up on the Internet pictures with the name 'Doctor Who' and 'Weeping Angels' related to them. To my surprise, I found several pictures taken by photographers with angel statues that bring the WA to mind. Mind you that I don't own the pictures, I'm simply posting them for your enjoyment.

Day Twenty-Four! Doctor Who Adventure Calendar


Christmas is a perfect time for scary stories that send a shiver down your spine and put a smile on your face! It's good to have a touch of terror in the tinsel and we've got a tale for you now that'll make you go brrrrrr!
But a warning to the curious... it's about a strange and terrifying race known as the Weeping Angels. Enjoy their story but whatever you do, don't blink!


I looove the Weeping Angels. I'm glad they brought 'em back for Christmas!!

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Day Twenty-Three! Doctor Who Adventure Calendar


Yes, it's Part Two of the exciting 'The Doctor On My Shoulder!'

Mason and the Doctor stood in shocked silence for a moment. "Doctor," Mason croaked, a lump forming in his throat, "Is Ana... did that thing just..?" Mason couldn't even complete the sentence.
The Doctor pulled the magic wand out of the robot's lifeless hands and examined it. "I don't think so," he began. "This kind of technology isn't made for destroying things, it's made for moving them. It's a transmat beam. A tiny transmat beam for a toy robot that reacted when I activated my sonic device. Whoever is controlling these machines is looking for some kind of alien technology."
"What do we do, though, Doctor?" Mason pleaded. "Ana can't just be gone forever."
"You want to find her," the Doctor said, twirling the wand in his hand, "then we have to go wherever she went. And the only way to do that is..." the Doctor pointed the wand at Mason.
"How do you know that won't just land us straight into danger or out into the vacuum of space or something?" Mason said, concerned. "I've watched enough telly to know that zapping yourself with the alien ray gun is a very bad idea."
"Bad idea? Oh, but those are my favourite kind," the Doctor grinned. "Come on, Mason. Nobody ever said saving the world would be as easy as popping round the neighbour's for a cuppa, did they?"
Mason nodded and braced himself.
"Off you go then!" the Doctor said, zapping Mason. Then, with the moment to himself, the Doctor breathed a heavy sigh. "Humans," he said before firing off a shot at himself. The wand he'd been holding dropped to the ground and the Doctor was gone.
Mason hit the ground with a thud. Looking around him, he had no idea where he was. He stood on a grated, metal platform at the end of a long hallway. Piping and long, gray wires travelled along either wall. The air was acrid and Mason could see steam circling beneath the dim, crackling lights. Before Mason could take another step he heard the buzz of an electrical current.
Spinning around, Mason saw the Doctor, his tiny legs slipping through the cracks in the grated floor. "A little help here, Mason!" the Doctor groaned. Mason obliged, picking the Doctor up and placing him back on his shoulder.
"Now what?" Mason asked.
"Judging by the electrical infrastructure," the Doctor said, "this could be... well, it could be anybody, really. We could be anywhere... No distinctive markers or symbols. In fact, if it weren't for the artificial atmosphere, I'd say the only thing on board this cargo vessel was robots like the one we found back at Ana's."
"Well Ana isn't anywhere I can see," Mason whispered, just in case anyone or anything was within earshot. "We'd better try and find her. Should we have a look round, you know, do a bit of investigating? Maybe we can figure out where we are."
"Yeah," the Doctor said, through his teeth. "Let's do a bit of snooping, find out the where's and the why's and the whom's and the, oh, you get the picture. Quiet, though, like a mouse. Or a teeny, tiny Doctor."
"You," Mason said, biting back a laugh, "are the polar opposite of quiet like a mouse." With that, Mason crept slowly down the long corridor. Terrified of the sound of his own footsteps, he nearly leaped when steam shot out at him suddenly. The Doctor, having almost tumbled to the floor, grabbed onto the fabric of Mason's jumper and climbed back upon his shoulder.
As Mason was about to poke fun at the Doctor's predicament, a robot walked out from round the corner. Nearly gasping at the sight of a very human-sized metal man, Mason ducked into a tiny alcove in the side of the wall and waited for it to pass. Once it had, Mason slowly peeked round the corner to see if there were any other robots to be seen. Seeing that the coast was clear, he checked down the corridor where the robot had come from.
There, behind glowing beams that acted like an electric prison, was Ana. She sat, head in her hands, in an oddly plush, almost regal chair. In fact, aside from the fact that she was imprisoned, Mason could easily have mistaken her surroundings for a kind of make-shift throne room.
"This is all really familiar," the Doctor mumbled. "It's right at the edge of my mind..." He scratched his head furiously.
"We've got to get her out of there," Mason said. "Looks like there's some kind of controls over here." He hurried over to an elevated panel and was greeted by all manner of buttons, knobs, and screens. "Don't think I've ever played this video game before," Mason mused. "You reckon there's just an off switch or something?"
"Not likely..." The Doctor's brow furrowed, deep in thought. "Although... Mason," he said, "Can you jimmy open the panel on the top left?"


Finding it interesting? Read the rest at

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Day Twenty-Two! Doctor Who Adventure Calendar


It's the long awaited return of WhoSpy! For those new to this parish, every year we provide tantalisingly obscure sneak peeks behind the scenes of the next adventure. So these images don't contain spoilers... simply food for thought and wild speculation. In fact, the wilder the better. This is Christmas, after all!
The End of Time, Part One debuts on BBC One on Friday at 6.00pm. Merry Christmas!
I'm glad WhoSpy is back. It is so much fun trying to understand all those sketches and images. It's brilliant! Well done, Beeb!


Monday, December 21, 2009

David Tennant: It just feels scary… all the time...



Last month David Tennant sold off his bed. It was, he admitted, "not the most delicious piece of furniture". - I bet some girls thought otherwise.It sat in reception at London's Absolute Radio looking every one of its 15 years in age, its wonky wrought-iron headboard accessorised by a Dalek bedspread - David Tennant, you FANBOY! and a handwritten sign: "Do not sit on this: prone to collapse".
Tennant was hosting Absolute's Breakfast Show alongside regular presenter Christian O'Connell. By 10am he'd played ping pong in the back of a Ford Galaxy, answered a series of questions from 12-year-olds and encouraged the actor Anthony Head to call in and sing "Lean on Me". Then there was his bed, being auctioned off for Children in Need. Fiona from Tadworth - Fiona... you've done what every single Tennant fan wanted to do. :D had pushed the bidding to £2,001, but off air O'Connell had a confession to make. The previous night he'd hosted a corporate do for the show's sponsors, British Gas. Things had got a bit carried away and everyone had climbed on the bed for a photo. "And it just sort of went 'poot'," O'Connell explained. "It was 10 of them. They were all trashed."
"There's never been more than two people on that bed," said Tennant. - Shall I comment on this?
Now its slats were snapped, the frame buckled beyond repair. "It's not the kind of thing you can just bend back into shape," noted Richie, the show's producer. "I felt bad; I told them it was for Children in Need," O'Connell said. "But you've seen the state of that bed – it's got 'Prone to collapse' all over it!"
"It wasn't prone to collapse," Tennant said.
On air O'Connell came clean, and someone from British Gas called in to do the honourable thing: take the now-useless bed off their hands for £5,000. "How's your head this morning?" Tennant asked.
Four hours of breakfast DJing behind him, he signed off with the Proclaimers' "King of the Road" and went outside to sign autographs and accept gifts from fans. Some had been waiting in the rain since 3.30am. - Bless us, Tennant fans! I would've done the same thing.
"That's quite good," he said, unwrapping one in the car that sped him towards his next appointment, at Radio 1. It was a Housemartins T-shirt, one of his favourite bands. "I bet it's extra large – they always think I'm big. And I'm only little."
Tennant was spending the day promoting his final three episodes of Doctor Who, the culmination of which will see him "regenerate" into a new Doctor, played by Matt Smith. After a chat with Radio 1's Fearne Cotton, there was a round of interviews with the TV listings magazines. Tennant asked his publicist which journalist would be attending from one particular title. "Hmm," he said. "She'll always go for the 'Who-are-you-shagging?' type question."
At Radio 1, he bumped into Chris Moyles. "So handsome," Moyles said to him by way of a greeting. We want to be Chris Moyles, don't we, girls? Tennant explained he'd come from hosting a rival station's breakfast show. "According to the papers I seem to be leaving every week," said Moyles. "So you might as well have mine."
Fearne Cotton appeared. "We'll get you in just after the news; some questions from listeners – nothing bizarre." Tennant explained he'd been doing the promotional rounds. "Do you ever get tempted to make stuff up?" Cotton asked.
"So tempting," he said. "'Have you given Matt Smith any advice?' That's all I get asked. What am I supposed to say?"
"That's ridiculous," said Cotton. She consulted her notes. "Cross that one off." - Teehee.
Tennant wondered about the listener questions. "Are there rude ones? Do you get sent rude pictures?"
"All the time," said producer Stuey. "A lot of penises."
"Especially if you ask for something specific," said Cotton. "We did this thing asking people to send in pictures of their teddy bears – 50% were cocks. You get willies and boobs all the time."
On air Cotton asked Tennant about a poll that had voted him Britain's Sexiest Man, above Daniel Craig and Ewan McGregor, but also Jeremy Paxman ("Well, that's taken the sheen off"), discussed manual vs electric toothbrushes (Tennant's an electric man) and asked how his "complete army of fans" would cope when he's no longer on Doctor Who. "You know what will happen? Everyone will go: 'Oh, it'll never be the same.' And then two weeks in [to the new series] they'll go: 'Matt Smith: he's brilliant.'
"That's what happened when I was a kid, when Tom Baker left," he said. "That's just how it works." Indeed, it has happened before... but can we cope with that?
It's possible, of course. But even Matt Smith must figure Matt Smith's got his work cut out. Though it was Christopher Eccleston who jump-started Doctor Who's regeneration from 1970s wobbly setted laughing stock to one of the BBC's biggest properties, a brand now reckoned to be worth £100m, it was surely David Tennant who sealed the deal. Not only has the role seen him surpass even the immortal Tom Baker as "The Best Doctor Ever", as voted by readers of Doctor Who Magazine, and there's no sterner jury, it's seen him become one of our most respected, most loved actors. - Hell, yeah!
"David is arguably the most popular actor in England," says Patrick Stewart, who appeared with him earlier this year in the Royal Shakespeare Company's Hamlet, the film of which is on BBC2 this Christmas. "There was more anticipation for that production and David's performance than anything I've ever been in."
Famously, it was Doctor Who that made the three-year-old Tennant want to act. At school he'd carry around a Tom Baker doll (though he was too shy to ask his parents for Baker's assistant, Romana). - That's cute. As a teenager he wrote Who-themed essays called things like "Intergalactic Overdose", as his English teacher, Mrs Robertson, helpfully showed the News of the World recently. Even when he got the role, he lobbied the producers to change the credits to correct a longstanding inconsistency that had always bugged him – everyone knows the lead character is called "The Doctor", never "Doctor Who". (One afternoon I recalled how Jon Pertwee's Doctor used to dispatch foes with a neat line in kung fu. "Actually I think you'll find it was Venusian aikido," he corrected, not entirely humorously.) While all of this might have made him ideally suited to the job, leaving it has traditionally proved rather harder. None of the other actors who've played the Timelord have ever really lived it down. Baker has confessed that everything since has been "a muddle and a disappointment, an outrageous failure", and fear of typecasting led Eccleston to crash back to earth after just one series. It was a problem not lost on Tennant – or his agent, who suggested that even a bit part on the show would mean "I'll never work again."
"It did take me a few weeks to think it through," says Tennant, 38. "But the only other option is you don't do the job. I remember waking up one morning thinking: 'I can't turn this down. Even if it's the wrong thing to do.'" - Poor guy... I bet it was really tough making that decision.
Yet his acting credentials already put him in a different league to his predecessors. Olivier Award-nominated at 31 and a veteran of the RSC, he has managed to fill the three remaining months of the year when he's not been in Cardiff filming Doctor Who with an impressively wide range of boldface gigs: the lead in Hamlet and Berowne in Love's Labour's Lost running on stage concurrently, a Harry Potter film and several weighty TV dramas, including playing Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington in Einstein and Eddington. As well as Doctor Who and Hamlet this Christmas, there's the Stephen Poliakoff film Glorious 39 and the role of dastardly Lord Pomfrey in St Trinian's 2: The Legend of Fritton's Gold. Which certainly shows range. "It's all the same thing," Tennant smiles. "It's all acting. I think Shakespeare was a man of the people."
"When I started out, if you got known for one role, forget it," says David Morrissey, who co-starred with Tennant in Doctor Who and the 2004 TV musical-drama Blackpool. "But David's Doctor won't be the millstone around his neck that it's been for actors in the past. It might weigh him down in a personal way – walking down the street and stuff – but he's so gifted it won't ever restrict him professionally." - I couldn't agree more with Morrissey, he's absolutely right.
What's more, Tennant's popularity is now such that he occupies a fairly unique position among his peers. He is as likely to give an interview to the University of Cambridge's Shakespeare journal on Mark Rylance's 1989 production of Hamlet for the RSC as he is to appear on Top Gear's "Star in a Reasonably Priced Car", or turn on the Blackpool Christmas lights. In February he presented Comic Relief with Davina McCall – a remarkable thing for an actor to be asked to do. "Yes, but that's to do with Doctor Who," Tennant says. "I don't imagine I'll be in the frame for things like that any more. I'm sure in two years' time they'll want Matt Smith to do Comic Relief. I suspect I'm just passing through, really."
Perhaps. When he joined Doctor Who in 2005 it made the BBC News At Six. It may be no exaggeration to say his departure is a national event. "David is very sad to leave," says his friend, the actress Arabella Weir. "But when do you leave the party? When everybody has stopped asking you to dance and is going: 'Look at that sad old cow, he's still here'? You don't know, is the short answer. You just have to make that judgement." Tennant's final episodes will be broadcast on Christmas Day and New Year's Day. Because filming happens non-sequentially, the last scene he recorded as The Doctor has actually already aired – an episode of spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures, which went out last month. His final words were an unprepossessing: "You two, with me, spit spot." "It couldn't have been less memorable or less significant," he says. "It was robbed of any epic quality, but that was probably best. There are a lot of scenes in the final story that are very sad, and were very sad to play. If one of them had coincided with the actual final day, I'd have been a puddle."
Come 1 January, writer and executive producer Russell T Davies is counting on us feeling the same way – greeting the New Year in cheery fashion, watching Tennant expire at the hands of The Master. "I can't watch it without crying, literally," says Davies. "I was checking it for the music cues the other night, which must have been the 17th time I've watched it, and I ended up crying. It's heartbreaking." - I bet it is. Just watching the previews makes me cry, let alone watching the episode. It will be heartbreaking.
BBC Wales makes Doctor Who in several large hangars in Upper Boat studios near Pontypridd – Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures are also filmed here. One stage houses a vast permanent set of the Tardis interior, and round the back there's an endless props area, an I-spy of half-exploded Daleks, killer Christmas trees, Ood heads. A fortnight before filming each episode begins, the cast and crew meet in a nondescript Cardiff hotel for a script read-through. There is some secrecy surrounding these meetings, for reasons best illustrated by the time they had to eject a journalist from the Sun who'd been discovered sitting among them, mid-read-through.
In early February I watched the cast read "The Waters of Mars", an episode transmitted in November, arranged around a long table with Tennant, boyish in a Dennis the Menace-style jumper. Two weeks later the script was being realised in three dimensions. Set aboard a Nasa-style base, it required Tony Award-winning actress Lindsay Duncan – last seen playing Margaret Thatcher in TV drama Margaret, today playing space-suited ball breaker Captain Adelaide Brooke – to be thrown around amid various explosions. "I can't roll on the floor because of the gun," she worried to director Graeme Harper.
"Dare I say it?" wondered Harper. "But are your knickers going to be OK?"
"I'm wearing an all-in-one," she advised.
Tennant was in the canteen ("The Blue Box"), not required for filming until after lunch. "You do get slightly institutionalised here," he said. "For four years I've always been going back to Cardiff at some point in the near future, so when I leave it will be like leaving campus. I don't mean to get things out of proportion, but I was keenly watching George Bush leaving the White House, and the thought of how his life is going to change… I'm not saying his life is like mine. I'm not the leader of the Free World, I'm really not…"
Which would make Matt Smith Obama, of course.
"Oh, that's not really worked out very well for me, has it? It's just the thought that you hand over… and it stops. Maybe I'll be whisked up into something equally all-consuming."
One thing he may adjust to more quickly is a reduction in his own visibility. "We always thought when the honeymoon period was over it would settle down, but with every series it seems to get more attention. The viewing figures went up last year considerably. It's sort of bewildering." While Tennant fully appreciated the level of attention Doctor Who would bring him personally, it's not necessarily something he regards as a perk. He was in the role for a matter of weeks before a tabloid reporter had him out of bed at 7am, threatening to run a story involving a brothel, prostitutes and drugs. "Funnily enough, they didn't have photographs." It's not what he joined Equity for. - That's outrageous.
"You know you're going to have to cope with it on some level, but until it happens to you I defy anyone to really know what it feels like," he says. "When I saw people who were famous, and people whispered and pointed, it felt as though a very powerful individual had walked by. And actually, once you are that person, it just feels scary. All the time." - I love the fact that he is so down-to-earth. Thank God he's not one of those men who are full of themselves.
He says he was helped enormously by having Billie Piper with him for his first year, playing the Doctor's companion Rose Tyler. "She'd been through it for years. And she had it much worse – women tend to. She had become such a great friend and a real help through the madness that was beginning to explode. And then losing her, and thinking: 'I'm on my own!'" - They really were good friends...!
If Doctor Who saw Tennant join the select group of males favoured by the gossip pages, unlike, say, James Corden or Russell Brand, he's done a remarkable job of keeping his personal life just that. He's adept at giving nothing of himself away while remaining a charismatic personality. - Very true.
He apparently dated Sophia Myles, who played Madame de Pompadour in the show, and has been linked to his assistant director and another BBC Wales staffer. It's likely he's currently seeing Georgia Moffett, who played the Doctor's daughter in one episode and is ex-Doctor Peter Davison's daughter in real life (at which point you may think he's taken his enthusiasm for Doctor Who as far as it can go – "It can be odd when David comes round for Sunday lunch and we all sit at the table; me, an ex-Doctor, with my wife, and David, another Doctor, and my daughter," Peter Davison revealed). And years ago he went out with Anne-Marie Duff, now married to James McAvoy. But you won't hear that from him. "Relationships are hard enough with the people you're having them with," he says, "let alone talking about them in public." - Quite right. Leave that to him, for God's sake... Let him have his privacy.
"I resisted jumping his bones," says Billie Piper, "but women really fancy him. He's got a gorgeous face, and an energy that's contagious – the spirit of a child. My girlfriends were all in love with him." One female critic described his Doctor as "the first Timephwoard". - Now I won't forget that word. :D His favoured trick for dealing with the inquisitor who inches towards the aforementioned "Who-are-you-shagging?" type question is a kind of reproachful look. "He's avoided any scandal because he keeps shtoom," says Piper. "He very rarely talks about anything that isn't related to his career or acting. You never see him falling out of clubs. He's never off his face. He's got far more patience than I have," Piper adds. "I don't mind signing autographs, but it becomes the topic of conversation at every social event you go to. It starts off: 'So how are you?' Then it's: 'Anyway, about Doctor Who…' It's at that point I start reaching for the wine." - Billie, Billie... tsk, tsk. I love her.
In April, Tennant was at BBC Television Centre to promote the first of 2009's Doctor Who specials, "Planet of the Dead", to air that evening. It was 8am on Easter Saturday morning, yet BBC reception was uncharacteristically busy. Specifically, it was uncharacteristically busy with children. Tennant was due on BBC Breakfast and arrived cheerful as ever, wearing a jacket and thin tie. "You're on after the Association of British Drivers," said Kate, Breakfast's producer. "The people who blow up speed cameras."
"I didn't know there was such a thing," Tennant said.
Julia, the editor of programmes, appeared with five children. "It's my day off," she explained. "But I came in especially."
Tennant signed autographs for everybody and posed for photos. He was ushered into the green room. "This is Frederick," said Kate. "He's reviewing the papers just before you."
"Can I be the first to ask," Frederick said. "Would you mind signing this for my sister? She's desperate to have your autograph."
Then Maxine ap-peared. "I'm one of the holiday newsreaders," she said. "Would you – I mean, you're probably fed up of doing this – would you sign this for my nephew?"
Tennant went on air and was interviewed by presenters Sonia Deol and Charlie Stayt. I watched from the control room. Stayt suggested that while the previous Doctors had been "interesting, quirky characters", Tennant was the first to be a sex symbol. "Lots of snogging you've done," he said.
"Not lots," countered Tennant. "More than Jon Pertwee did." - :D David is a sex symbol, I'm afraid. Not an expression I like, though.
He was asked what he found scary in real life ("I'm not a fan of a rodent"), about changing his birth name from McDonald to Tennant for Equity by picking Neil Tennant's name from Smash Hits ("I could have been David Kajagoogoo") and whether he is ever able to go out in public and "be normal".
"Has he talked about the next Doctor?" asked someone in the control room.
"No. Can we ask him about the next Doctor?"
They went on Wikipedia. "It's Matt Smith."
"Matt Smith," it was relayed to Deol's ear. "The new Doctor. Very young."
"What about the new guy?" she said on air. "What advice have you got for him?"
"I don't think you can give anyone advice about stuff like that, can you?" said Tennant.
Afterwards he was collected by producer Kate. She was holding a pile of paper. "I shouldn't have walked through the newsroom," she said. "More requests."
"More requests? We're not going to be allowed to leave, are we?" said Tennant, not unkindly.
Kate seemed to be chewing something over. "I don't care. I've lost all dignity," she said to me. "I'm going to ask for a photo."
The smell that reminds David Tennant of childhood is his father's homemade chicken and leek soup. - That's sweet. He grew up in Paisley, near Glasgow, the youngest of three. His dad, Sandy, was a minister and later moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. His mum, Helen, devoted her life to charity work and helped found Paisley's Accord hospice. She died of cancer in 2007, aged 67 (bless her soul). There's a gap of six and eight years between him and his siblings, Blair, who works in the music business, and Karen, a nurse and teacher. His upbringing was grounding. "Not all men of the church are necessarily good human beings, but my dad happens to be. My mum was, too," he says. "I feel very thankful for that."
He gained a place at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama at 17 – their youngest pupil. It was a combination of this and moving to Glasgow with his sister that brought him out of his shell. "Leaving home was one of the best things that happened to me. I was a bit green. I wasn't a particularly worldly 17-year-old." At drama school he was "surrounded by all these exotic older people who seemed to know about life. So it was a really brilliant time." He acted Ken Scott off the screen in Takin' Over the Asylum, the 1994 TV mini-series set in a Glasgow psychiatric-hospital radio station, playing bipolar DJ Campbell ("This is for all you having ECT tomorrow: hope you get some 'Good Vibrations'!"). On set he met Arabella Weir, moving to London the following year to spend five years as her lodger. He complained she never put the heating on; she teased him about alphabetising his CDs. Tennant was soon being talked up as a rising star of theatre, notably for comic roles – Touchstone in As You Like It, Captain Jack Absolute in Sheridan's The Rivals. "Even aged 22 he had an unusually strong sense of self," says Weir. "Most actors are in the business of wanting people to like them. He was: 'This is what I can do; I'm not interested in doing other jobs.'"
He was mesmeric as love-struck policeman DI Peter Carlisle in 2004's Blackpool and head- turning as Russell T Davies's Casanova a year later. "No one could get it right," says Davies. "Everyone was playing the swarthy romantic lead – and here was this man who simply danced all over the script."
"I think I've just been lucky, really," Tennant says, "because I'm not conventional leading-man stuff. I'm slightly left of centre. I remember going up for Casanova thinking: 'I haven't got a chance – the other people are much more traditional square-jawed types.'"
Plus, everyone agrees he's a generous team player. "When you're playing the leading role in a play, you have responsibilities that go beyond saying the lines," says Patrick Stewart. "You lead the company; you set an example. The stress of Hamlet must have got to him, but it never seemed to. You'd see him in the wings beforehand and you would have thought he was preparing to go out for dinner, he was so relaxed."
"Everyone said I would adore working with David, and they were right," says Kylie Minogue, one-time Doctor Who companion Astrid Peth. "He made me feel at ease. I also felt he trusted me, which was important – it was a step back into acting for me. My time on Doctor Who was hard work, but I felt somehow I was 'home'."
Tennant was back at Upper Boat in May, filming his final two Doctor Who episodes, "The End of Time". "Three weeks to go now," he said. "Three weeks and counting." On set John Simm was doing something terrible as The Master that it would be wrong to reveal. "What have you done, you monster?" shouted Bernard Cribbins, who's returning as Wilfred Mott, father of Catherine Tate's Donna Noble. Tennant was feeling good about his final scenes. "It's all very heroic," he explained. "My final 100-yard dash." They were being even more wary than usual about leaks. Some on-location photographs had appeared that week, to everyone's disappointment. "And someone was discovered here the other day with a scanner," Tennant tutted. "They had tuned themselves into the radio mics inside the building and were writing down the dialogue."
In June, the month after filming their finale, Tennant, Davies and John Barrowman travelled out to Comic-Con, the annual "popular arts" convention in San Diego. (Doctor Who has a US fanbase, while Torchwood has become the top-rated show on BBC America. Davies now works for BBC America in LA.) While he was there, Tennant found himself an American agent and did some auditioning. "Just sniffing around, vaguely seeing what was out there." This resulted in him being cast as the lead in comedy-drama Rex is Not Your Lawyer, a role NBC had been trying to fill for months. Tennant will play Rex Alexander, a panic attack-prone Chicago litigator who starts coaching his clients to represent themselves. The pilot's being directed by David Semel, who did House and Lost. "I went to bed one night having had conversations that we could come to terms for this pilot, woke up, and it was on the front of the Hollywood Reporter," he says. "It's a different world in America."
"I'm sure Hugh Laurie's success with House is an appropriate comparison," says Catherine Tate. "David's a brilliant comic actor. America would be mad not to love him."
He's also likely to play opposite Simon Pegg in John Landis's black-comedy remake of Burke & Hare, about the 19th-century body snatchers, and the internet is convinced he'll be the Riddler in the next Batman. "I probably should be," he says. "But you'd think my agent would have mentioned something if it was true."
Tennant finished his chat with Fearne Cotton, remembering to plug the upcoming episode. That evening he was off to Stratford to see his friend Richard Wilson in Twelfth Night. In 10 days' time, visa permitting, he'd be filming his pilot in LA. But first it was off to Television Centre and Simon Mayo's Radio 5 show. Down one corridor he ran into a class of schoolchildren being given a guided tour. They couldn't have been more stunned if Tennant had stepped out of their own TVs. "And they've just seen the Tardis outside," their teacher beamed – a replica prop lit up outside reception.
"That's how I got here," mugged Tennant. "I've just arrived."
A lady from BBC promotions appeared. "If you don't mind, I've got a 16-year-old niece in Australia. She loves three men: you, some Australian footballer and Roger Federer."
"What an interesting combination," said Tennant.
"So if you could just sign…"
On Mayo's show they discussed the upcoming Glorious 39 and St Trinian's 2 with film reviewer Mark Kermode. "Did you like St Trinian's 1?" Tennant teased. "It was one of the worst things that's ever happened to me," said Kermode.
But what everyone really wanted to talk about was Doctor Who. Tennant explained he'd just watched his final episode, with some key crew (more tears). Beforehand he'd been nervous. Afterwards he realised they'd done what they'd come to do. They were handing it over in rude health.
"I feel like I've done all right by my eight-year-old self," he said.★

Day Twenty-One! Doctor Who Adventure Calendar

Hurray! Earlier this year we caught up with Executive Producers Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner plus the Doctor himself, David Tennant. It was a busy old time for them as they were in the midst of recording The End of Time, Part Two but they kindly agreed to share their thoughts on everything from their fave moments working on Doctor Who to how it feels to be leaving.
We'll be bringing you more of the interview over the days ahead but as December 25th and The End of Time, Part One approaches, here's Russell, Julie and David discussing what makes a great Christmas Day.
Big thanks to them... and Merry Christmas!

David Tennant and QI



Co'mon, David looks GORGEOUS!!! :D He looks dashing... that suit and the hair... Yummy! *Sorry, squeeing like mad right now*
Thanks to the BBC for this preview.

This episode is broadcasted on the 24th December 2009, at 22:00 on BBC One. Don't miss it!

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Day Twenty! Doctor Who Adventure Calendar


If we could change one thing about Christmas what would it be? Busy shops? The fact that we don't really like mince pies? No! It would be the standard of jokes you get in Christmas crackers. To combat this and to spread a little festive cheer we're providing a load of Doctor Who related jokes for you to memorise and share...
Thanks to everyone who sent in their gags... sorry there are a few groaners... But Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without a few terrible jokes...
The Doctor Who web team came up with these:

Q: Did you know that chefs all over the world are worried about a shortage of herbs over Christmas?
A: It's because many people are predicting we'll see The End of Thyme. - This one is well funny.
Q: Have you heard that Sigma, the Master and the Abzorbaloff are making a new movie?
A: It's called The Ood, The Bad and The Ugly. - Okay... not so funny.
Q: Who is the scariest Time Lord?
A: Doctor Boo! - Definitely not funny. Well, maybe for kids!

And thanks to everyone who sent these in...
Q: What is the Cult of Skaro's favourite food?
A: Darlick bread! - Makes sense, alright.
Q: Why do Judoon officers go around in threes?
A: One reads, one writes, and the third keeps an eye on those two dangerous intellectuals! - My fav so far. Yep, it's bloody true!
Q: Why do Daleks like apples?
A: Because an apple a day keeps the Doctor away! - A tad predictable.
Q: How does a Dalek keep its skin soft?
A: Exfoliate! Exfoliate! - Okay... a bit old, but still funny (ish).
Q: Why did the Dalek apply for a job in pest control?
A: He liked the job description - "Exterminate! Exterminate!" - This is a good 'un! :)
Q: What do you call an angry Dalek creator?
A: Davcross - *rolls eyes*
Q: Hey, did you know that Daleks have special make-up for their eyestalks?
A: Yeah, they call it Ma-Skaro! - Not that funny, but brilliant.
Q: What happened when Father Christmas decided to playfully belt my friends and me with a rubber hatchet?
A: The Claus Soft-Axed Us (The Claws of Axos!) - Okay...
Q: What happened when a stupid pub devoured my friends and me?
A: The Dumb Inn Ate Us (The Dominators!) - Not bad, not bad.
Q: What happened when a popular music publication went global?
A: It became The NME of The World (The Enemy of . . . oh, you get the picture!) - Good.
Q: Why does the Doctor regularly visit the dentist?
A: Because he doesn't want to lose his K9! - A bit lame?!
Q. What do you get if you cross Dizzee Rascal and Doctor Who?
A: The first of the Grime Lords! - Alright!
Q: What do you call a frightened Time Lord?
A: A Gallifreydee cat! - Okay. Not bad. Well... maybe... nevermind.
The Doctor: I say, I say, I say, K-9's been damaged on a nearby star.
Sarah Jane: Sirius?
The Doctor: No, he'll be fine. - Ahah! This one cracked me up :D
A Dalek went to the job centre looking for a job, but in the end he didn't apply for any because there wasn't any temporal-shift work... - True, true. Good!!
And finally, it wouldn't be a collection of Doctor Who related jokes without this antique and much-loved gag...
Knock, knock!
Who's there?
Doctor!
Doctor who?
You said it! - A bloody classic.

Thanks to everyone who sent in their jokes, and in particular....
Philip, Adam, Steve, Tommy, Hannah, Kate, John, Karan, Harvey, Lewis, Emily, Hannah, Aisling, James, Will, Luke, Rebecca, Aisha, Anoushka, Sarah, Dave, Steven, Harry, Amber, Brodie, Melanie, Hannah-Rose, Charlotte, Stephen, Bella, Nathan, Sam, Matt, Kevin, Izzy, Hannah and James.

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Day Nineteen! Doctor Who Adventure Calendar


Something different today... It's a game of skill, judgment, wisdom and luck... it's Partners in Time! You can either play the game or simply print out and use the ten cards as Christmas cards, or thank you cards, or invites. The choice is yours!
How do you play?
Mix your cards so they're well and truly in a random order. Make sure you can't see which Doctor is on each card! Now place seven cards in a row, face down on a table. Turn over the first card on the left hand side. You now have to decide whether the next card in the row shows a higher or lower Doctor.
What do we mean - higher or lower? Easy. If the Doctor on the next card came after the Doctor on the current card, it's higher. So the Ninth Doctor is higher than the first eight Doctors but lower than the Tenth Doctor. Told you it was easy!
When you make your choice, shout 'higher!' or 'lower!' so everybody knows. Then turn over the next card to see if you are correct...
If you guessed correctly move on to the next card in the row - does it show a higher or lower Doctor than the card before it? The aim of the game is to correctly predict higher or lower all the way along - up to and including the seventh card.
If you guess incorrectly your opponent takes over - meaning they get to guess the next card and continue along the line. Whoever turns over the seventh card is the winner. You can play to best of three games or best of five.
House Rules
Who starts? This can be decided on the toss on a coin.
If you get two cards in a row which are the same Doctor, unlucky! Control of the cards automatically goes to the other player.
Control of the cards can go back and forth between players. The most important thing is who predicts the turn of the seventh card. If they're correct they win the game. If they're incorrect the other player wins that game!
Create those cards!
To make your cards simply download each card in turn by clicking on your selection to the right of this feature. Then print them out, preferably from a colour printer, onto A4 pieces of paper. Fold across the middle so you're left with the picture and the logo facing you, then fold again.


This is so much fun. Try it!

http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/adventure_09/partners_in_time.pdf

Friday, December 18, 2009

Day Eighteen! Doctor Who Adventure Calendar

Executive Producer and Lead Writer Russell T Davies and the Doctor himself, David Tennant, will be discussing Doctor Who in a special one-hour show for BBC Radio 2.
In Who on Who? Russell and David give a unique insiders' point of view about their hugely successful time on the show, discussing the adventures they created and the stories they were asked to make but didn't... They reflect on why they've chosen to move on and look ahead to the future - both their own and that of Doctor Who.
It's a fascinating and entertaining show and to give you a taster we've an exclusive extract. Who on Who? was produced by Malcolm Prince who previously produced Project: Who?
You can catch Who on Who? on BBC Radio 2 on Tuesday, 29 December at 5.00pm.
Big thanks to Malcolm Prince for providing us with this extract... and Merry Christmas!

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Day Seventeen! Doctor Who Adventure Calendar



The Doctor on My Shoulder, Part One by Daniel Roth


It had been nearly four hours since Mason Valentin managed to convince his mother to let him stay home from school. Every moment since then seemed to tick away with the weight of eternity. He wasn't sick exactly. His fifteen year old heart though was very sick. Love sick, that is. Staring out the bay window, his thoughts wandered to Ana Comparetto, the American girl who'd only just transferred that year.

Since the first day Ana arrived, Mason drank in every detail about her: the streaks of purple that shocked through her otherwise long, brown hair, her unfettered laughter that rang above everyone else's, the incredulous way she would say "What!?" at even the least astounding of revelations. While she longed for something called "Swiss Miss" he longed only for her. She lived just across the way and, gazing towards her house, he ran through all the countless times he'd nearly spoken to her but never quite could. "Coward," he thought to himself.

Before he could dwell a moment longer, Mason caught a glimpse of something peculiar out of the corner of his eye. It didn't seem like much at first, just a few vans passing down the road, but a few turned into a fleet, a seemingly endless parade travelling along every street for as far as the eye could see, white, nameless, and all identical. That wasn't normal at any time, certainly not midday when everyone was at work or school. It was almost as if it were planned that way, something so strange in plain sight but only when no one was looking.

It wasn't long before several of the vans pulled to the side of his street. The drivers all filed out simultaneously with a synchronicity that was almost eerie. Fear growing in the pit of his stomach, Mason's instincts took hold as he dove from the couch, dashed up the stairs, and perched himself silently beneath his parent's window, his eyes peeking out ever so slightly from beneath the curtain. The obstructed view was a small price to pay for Mason to feign at least a hint more safety.

A few moments later, the sound of barking dogs began to ring out in the cold air. Unaffected by the cacophonous warning, the drivers methodically went from house to house, dropping a single parcel at every doorstep. Mason could feel the hair bristle at the back of his neck. As one of the couriers walked towards Mason's front door he instinctively drew in a sharp breath and held it. Mason waited, quiet as he could, for what might happen next. "What if the man tried to enter?" Mason thought. Casting his gaze away from the window, Mason looked to see if there was something he might use to defend himself. A lamp shade, a heavy book, a cricket bat, anything would do.

The sound of doors slamming snapped Mason out of his panicked planning. As the vans' engines revved, Mason clambered back towards the window just in time to see a few remaining cars slowly disappear around the corner. The entire bizarre event had ended almost as quickly as it had begun and, thinking it over, Mason felt incredibly silly crouched in the corner of his parent's bedroom. "No wonder I can't even work up the courage to talk to a girl. Scared of a few vans... I really am a coward," he moaned aloud. With that final, self-pitying thought, Mason crept back down the stairs to retrieve the package that had been left on the front stoop.


The lock on the door made what felt like an unnecessarily audible 'click' as it turned. Finally pushing back his unwarranted fears, Mason opened the door. There, at the top of the steps, was a small, brown, thoroughly unremarkable box. Its only distinguishing feature was an envelope taped to its side. Retrieving it, Mason, having had enough of fear for one day opened the envelope and emptied its contents. In it was a simple note that read: DO NOT OPEN 'TIL XMAS.
What a laugh! What sort of kid would ever heed such a warning? "You are so opened, box!" Mason announced, addressing the package as though it were a defendant to be sentenced. He picked the box up with triumph and closed the door behind him.
Crumpling into the sofa, Mason heard the tinkling bell of Max, his Himalayan cat. "You reckon this present's meant for you, Max?" Mason asked as Max curled up beside him looking on curiously. Mason didn't spare another moment, tearing into the tape that sealed the hidden treasure within. Pulling aside the tissue paper, Mason finally laid eyes on his prize: a tiny figurine about six inches high. "What's this meant to be then?" Mason thought aloud, "Some sort of action figure?" Picking it up in his hand, Mason was astonished at all the points of articulation it had. In fact, inspecting it closer, it was almost like a doll. Its brown suit with blue pinstripes was all real cloth as were the white trainers that adorned its feet. Even the hair was incredibly lifelike. It was like holding a tiny, sleeping person which was no end of weird, Mason thought.
Not all that sure of what to do with the doll and thoroughly unimpressed with the final result of all the earlier drama, Mason plopped the figurine back into its brown, cardboard home. "All yours, Max," he said, turning himself round to flip on the telly for a while. As the screen sparked to life, Mason heard the familiar music from "The Snowman". "This again?" Mason muttered. "How many times in a day do I need to see a flying snowman before the entire planet knows it's Christmas?"
As Mason stared, dully, at the dancing snow people, Max crept slowly towards the box, tail bouncing back and forth with each step. Peering in, there was the tiny man in his rumpled suit seemingly curled up in a ball, wrapped in a blanket of tissue paper. Cautiously, Max nudged the figure with his paw. To the cat's absolute shock, the miniature doll responded by batting away the paw and muttering, "Oye, can't a Time Lord rest in peace?" Max's tail shot up to attention and he let out a low, burbling "meow".
Mason turned round at the sound of Max's agitation. "What are you on about then?" Mason said as he slouched over to investigate. "It's just a stupid doll. Nothing to get riled up about." Mason patted Max on the head reassuringly as he turned his gaze towards the inside of the box. That's when he saw what Max was so upset about. The doll was moving! Mason actually rubbed his eyes in disbelief but there, plain as day, was a living doll slowly coming out its slumber. After a long pause, Mason finally managed a weak "Hello?"
The doll wiped away the sleep from its eyes and yawning, responded, "Hello, I must've fallen..." He paused suddenly. The figure's eyes were wide open now. Struggling to get to his feet, amidst the soft tissue paper, the doll pulled out a pair of glasses from his coat pocket and squinted at Mason. "Oh, dear," he said. "I don't suppose there's any chance I'm dreaming, is there? Or, alternatively, woken up on a planet of giants?"
Mason stared blankly for a moment, not quite sure of what to say. "Who are you?" was the only response he was able to muster.


"Right." The doll retorted. "Not actually an answer to the question but never mind. Hello! I'm the Doctor and, hold on..." The Doctor paused, "Are you watching The Snowman? Oh, love The Snowman, me." He smiled. "Flying around, dancing with Father Christmas, it's brilliant but, if you're watching The Snowman, then that means I'm on Earth which is definitely not a planet of giants. Well, not last time I checked, anyway, which means that I've been shrunk. How did I get shrunk then?"
"I dunno," Mason said, finally finding his voice. "I just got a package and you were inside it. Is there one of you in every box?"
"What do you mean?" the Doctor asked, looking very concerned suddenly. "Cuz there's only just the one me and, believe me, I've checked."
"Well, there were these vans," Mason explained, "and they left a package just like yours at every house. If there's only one of you then what's in all those other packages?"
"No idea," the Doctor said, "but, whatever it is, I can guarantee it isn't good." The Doctor paused a moment, sighing, and then reaching out his arms towards Mason. "Look, this is a bit embarrassing but do you think you could help me out of this box?" Mason smirked and reached out to pick up the Doctor. "Careful there, Gulliver!" the Doctor moaned. "Blimey, I suppose this is how a Lilliputian feels." Mason lifted the Doctor and perched him on his shoulder.
"My name's not, Gulliver, Doctor, it's Mason and if there's people in danger then I reckon we..." Mason paused, uncertain. "Well... oughtn't somebody do something about it?"
The Doctor smiled. "Yeah. Who knows how many people could be in danger? What do you think, Mason? Fancy saving the day with me?"
Mason stared at the Doctor for a moment before suddenly finding himself smiling. "Yeah," Mason said. "Yeah, I think I would."
The Doctor pointed towards the front door. "Only one thing for it, then. Time to find out what the neighbours got for Christmas. Allons-y!"
There was no turning back now. "Ana," Mason thought to himself. "One of those packages was left outside of her house, too! We'll start there." Stealing away his trepidations, Mason opened the door while the Doctor hung on for dear life.
Running across the street, Mason noticed immediately that there was no brown box in front of Ana's house. That didn't make sense. There were boxes at every other house he'd passed. That meant that someone else had already picked it up and brought it inside! Fear sent a shiver through him. Not only was there a mysterious danger lurking beyond the door but it was also the home of the girl he'd spent countless hours mooning over. Hesitant but determined, Mason reached out to knock on the door just as it opened seemingly of its own accord. There, standing in her jim jams, was Ana.


"Mason?" she asked, scratching her head "What's up? I didn't know you were home sick too. And why is there a doll on your shoulder?"
"You know my name?" Mason replied in shock. "But I haven't ever..." Mason's voice trailed off as he peered passed Ana to see an open, brown box sitting on the table behind her. "This is the Doctor." Mason gestured to his shoulder as the Doctor waved. "He's very small. Do you mind if we pop in for a mo'?" Ana, dumbfounded, nodded as Mason was already rushing past her towards the package.
Peering into the box, Mason and the Doctor saw another figurine. This one, though, was decidedly less human looking than the Doctor. Its metal body was cloaked in a long, black robe, its face looked distorted like it had been melted, and a long, reptilian tail stretched out from behind like a metal whip. Tight in its grasp was what appeared to be a magic wand.
Mason carefully placed the Doctor in the box so he could inspect the tiny monster that lay within. "Oh, look at you!" the Doctor said. "Robot mercenary all trussed up for, what, some sort of fancy dress party? What's with the robes, eh? And a magic wand? Seriously? What's that all about?"
"Just looks like a normal toy to me," Ana said.
"Well, he does, doesn't he?" the Doctor said, scratching his head. "Oh!" the Doctor shouted. "I am so thick. Of course he looks like that. Think about it: how else do you trick someone into letting a robot into their house? You shrink them down and make them look like something everybody knows. Oh, that is clever. But what's it all for?" The Doctor brandished his sonic screwdriver. "If I can just work out where it came from," he said, scanning the robot, "then maybe..."
Suddenly, the eyes of the robot opened and glowed red. Its arm extended as it aimed its weapon directly at the Doctor.
"Uh oh, that's trouble", the Doctor said, changing the settings on his sonic screwdriver in an attempt to send the deadly toy back into its slumber. No luck. The wand began to make a low humming sound. "Get out of the way!" the Doctor exclaimed as he ducked and rolled to get out of the way.
A sliver of electrical energy bolted out of the robot's weapon with a loud "Zap!"
With only seconds to react before another round went off, the Doctor swapped settings again. "Come on, come on, come on!" he growled to himself, tinkering with the sonic screwdriver, looking up just in time to see the robot looming over him, ready to attack again.
"A ha!" the Doctor shouted as he leapt to his feet and jammed the sonic screwdriver into the monster's face. The blue, ghostly glow of the sonic screwdriver lit up against the robot's cheek, sending it into a fit of convulsive shock before it finally powered down. "That was close," the Doctor said, breathing a sigh of relief.
"Doctor..." Mason murmured, sounding as though he'd just seen a ghost.
"It's alright now, Mason. The mechanism must've reacted when it detected my alien technology."
"No, Doctor," Mason said again, more forcefully this time. "It's Ana - she's vanished."
The Doctor finally spun around to see Mason standing on his own. "What?!" the Doctor exclaimed.
"That thing," Mason began, "it shot her and then she was just gone!"

To be continued...

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Day Fifteen! Doctor Who Adventure Calendar

Only ten days to go until The End of Time, Part One! With Christmas almost here we have festive greetings from Executive Producers Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner, along with the Doctor himself, David Tennant.
But that's not all! We launch a new section today where everything relating to The End of Time, Part One lives. You'll find it's filled with wallpapers, preview clips, a quick catch up from The Waters of Mars along with the trail from the end of that special. We'll be adding to it regularly over the next couple of weeks so it's worth visiting from time-to-time to check out what's new.
In the meantime, enjoy today's video and the new section for The End of Time, Part One... and Merry Christmas!
Here's the clip:




Thank you, janettheweevil, for the video!

Monday, December 14, 2009

Day Fourteen! Doctor Who Adventure Calendar


A choice of two goodies for you today, or rather one goodie and one baddie...
We're offering two screensavers. The first is packed with images from The End of Time, Part One... green aliens, tense Time Lords, Wilfred Mott and more!
But we're also preparing for the return of the Master with a screensaver that celebrates his various guises though the years... from his new look that you'll be able to see in The End of Time, Part One right back to when he first faced the Doctor in the 1970s.
So The End of Time, Part One or some Masterful memories... the choice is yours!


Never Mind The Buzzcocks... David Tennant as Host













David Tennant hosts a very special Doctor Who themed episode of Never Mind The Buzzcocks on 16th December at 22:00pm on BBC Two. - That's Wednesday, peeps! Woohoo!

David Tennant and Jamie Cullum: this is PARADISE TO ME!!! My fav actor together with my fav musician! I've died and gone to heaven.




'The End of Time' - Thoughts


God, it's getting so close. Dangerously close. As we dwell across time and space watching (or rewatching, in my case) episodes we missed or didn't bother to watch, time runs out. Four times knocks give me the chills and if somebody mentions the Ood I go crazy. I love the Ood... and, obviously, I'm super excited that they are back. I have to say... I had no idea they were returning. I wanted them too, but I think that, as many DW fans, we all thought it would have something to do with Daleks. Well... wrong. We've all seen the premiere of the trailer, didn't we? At Comic-Con - how I envy the chaps who were there! The Master is BAAAAACK! Oh, that is so exciting. (sorry, I'm ranting a bit) I kept thinking... 'who on Earth took the ring?' I would say... Lucy Saxon. But that's too obvious. Because of the red nail polish. That's, well... obvious! And RTD obvious doesn't exist.

The Doctor is angry, he wants revenge. Is that all this is about? 'Cause that's not my Doctor. What happened to our lovely Doctor? He's so angry now. No wonder, though. He lost everybody he cared about. And that's terrible. He must feel miserable and... well, poorly, really. I don't even know what to say... I'm just ranting a bit. It feels good... from a DW perspective. I'm having a rough day so far and talking about DW soothes my mind. Well... kind of.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Huh? 7 Things I don't know about David??


1) Born David John McDonald on April 18, 1971 in Bathgate, West Lothian, he grew up in Ralston where his father, Rev Sandy McDonald, was the local minister. He became the Moderator of the Church of Scotland, equivalent to the Archbishop of Canterbury. - I was born on April 18 as well, and that is really special and unique.


2) At the age of three he told his parents he wanted to become an actor because he was such a fan of Doctor Who. He took the surname Tennant, inspired by Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys, as there was already a David McDonald in Equity. - Yep, that's true. He looked names up in "Smash Hits", the teens magazine. He was 16 when he joined Equity.


3) After several failed attempts to get a part in Taggart, one of David’s first TV roles was playing transsexual barmaid Davina in Rab C Nesbitt. One of his early major roles came as a manic depressive patient in the BBC drama Takin’ Over The Asylum alongside Ken Stott. - Davina is phenomenal. Rab C Nesbitt is a laugh... and David was perfect... even as a woman! Takin' Over The Asylum is still one of my favourite DT shows. Campbell (his character) is so incredibly funny and this role really cast a whole new light on David. He was PERFECT, and he was so young by then.


4) In 1998, David starred with Johnny Depp in the film LA Without A Map. He played a Bradford undertaker who falls in love with a Hollywood actress and follows her to America. The pampering LA treatment included someone following him round the set with a chair in case he needed to sit down. He says: “I thought it was very embarrassing – I mean, I can sit down by myself – but it was their job.” - He often mentions this. He thought people were a bit too... well, you know. He said he didn't feel comfortable.


5) David flinches when you mention his one flop – the ITV sitcom Duck Patrol with Richard Wilson. “It seemed such a good idea at the time, but there’s only so much you can do with the script.” - Not a flop... it was just not as good as he actually is.


6) David describes the way he looks as “a skinny streak of nothing”, but gay readers voted him the Sexiest Man in the Universe over David Beckham and Brad Pitt. - Aw, he's too humble. Sexiest Man in the Universe... I couldn't agree more!


7) Because the drama was filmed out of sequence, the last words he recorded as Doctor Who will actually be shown halfway through an episode of spin-off show The Sarah Jane Adventures. They are: “You two, with me, spit spot.” David says: “I guess it was robbed of any epic quality. That was probably best because it was very emotional saying cheerio.” - This strikes me as awkward. It's the end of an era... And 'you two, with me, spit spot' isn't up to it... Oh, well.


In a nutshell... there was nothing new about this article. I was excited when I saw it on the Net, but I should have known better. It's a Wikipedia/IMDB summary. Not too good, I'm afraid...


The Doctor Who story you never got to see


Why spend thousands of pounds to make an episode of one of the most popular TV series of the time, only to leave it gathering dust in the archive?
Thirty years ago, with only three channels to choose from, Doctor Who and Secret Army on BBC One and The Professionals on ITV routinely delivered audiences bigger than even the most successful programmes do today.
Yet between 1978 and 1979, the producers of all three programmes shelved a story from each.
The explanation has much to do with that period: economic decline, political inertia and industrial unrest creating a combustible combination.
Doctor Who
A strike does help explain the non-appearance of Shada - a six-part Doctor Who story - yet this is perhaps the most inexplicable of the three.

Shada was formally droppped from the 17th season of Doctor Who in December 1979
It was officially cancelled in June 1980
A version of the story was eventually released on video in 1992 with Tom Baker providing a narration to cover the missing scenes
At the time, just as now, Doctor Who was a major part of the BBC's schedule.
Shada was the climax of the season and location filming took place in Cambridge, which lead actor Tom Baker recalls with great affection.
"We were staying just outside St John's College in a pub called the three tons or three nuns and the music scholars, the singers, would come to me in the pub and I would buy all the drinks and they would sing to me, in harmony. It was a very happy time," he says.
The broadcasting unions, however, targeted the programme for industrial action. A planned night shoot was disrupted when the technician in charge of the lighting was ordered to withdraw his labour.
Studio recording was disrupted by the strike but it was all over the day before Shada was due back in the studio. Yet it never made it. The programme was left two-thirds finished and then dropped altogether. Thousands of pounds-worth of work came to nothing.
Christmas specials
So why did the BBC abandon six weeks-worth of programmes for one of its most popular series?
Until now, the conventional answer has been that the strike in autumn 1979 so disrupted the recording of programmes that when the studios were back in action priority had to be given to Christmas specials. Doctor Who's slot went to Morecambe and Wise.
But Professor Jean Seaton who is writing the latest volume of the BBC's official history suggests a different reason. She sees Shada as a line in the sand.
In the past, programmes disrupted by strikes were simply re-mounted afterwards and therefore the industrial action had no visible consequences to the outside world.
This time, thinks Professor Seaton, the BBC decided enough was enough. It scrapped a key peak-time programme in order to demonstrate to the unions that strikes have consequences. So Shada was not just shelved; she believes it was sacrificed as well.
The Professionals
The Professionals followed the adventures of Bodie and Doyle, a former mercenary and an ex-policeman who worked for a shadowy government department.

The Professionals ran on ITV from December 1977 to March 1983
But spies and fisticuffs aside, the show's co-creator Brian Clemens wanted to use the series as a vehicle for social comment.
The last episode of the first series, Klansmen, was scheduled to air in spring 1978. Its subject was racism - very topical at the time. The National Front was very active, provoking confrontation on the streets.
At the last minute, LWT - the ITV company which commissioned the show - took fright. It was dropped from the schedule. Clemens, who also wrote the episode, has never understood why. "We were making an episode which was hopefully going to change attitudes not reinforce them," he says.
"And anyway, if it had been controversial, if there had been complaints and letters, so much the better because all these racist things, you have to bring them out from under the stone and air them," he adds.
One former LWT employee suggested it was not the racist language which would have stopped it being aired, but more likely she suspected that it might have been the wrong kind of series in which to debate such sensitive questions.
Whatever the reason, Klansmen has never been shown on terrestrial television in the UK. As recently as the autumn it was dusted down by ITV with a view to broadcasting, but once again the decision was taken to return it to the archive.
Secret Army
What Did You Do in the War, Daddy? was planned as the final episode of Secret Army. Set in occupied Belgium during the World War II, the series chronicled the bravery of the resistance, who smuggled out allied airmen shot down over the country.

Secret Army ran for three series from 1977 to 1979
Uniquely, the last episode was set 25 years after the liberation and centred on a reunion involving the main characters. It questioned the whole point of the resistance and went so far as to suggest that fighting the Nazis had led the allies to miss the main threat - communism.
The official explanation as to why the episode was dropped was that strike action had made it impossible to finish editing in time for its scheduled broadcast in December 1979. In fact, What Did You Do In The War, Daddy? was finished. So why was it suppressed?
Professor Seaton thinks the real reason was that the tone would have offended many who had fought in the war, not least many BBC executives.
You can hear Shelved, on Saturday 12th December at 10.30am on BBC Radio 4 and on BBC iPlayer.

Day Thirteen! Doctor Who Adventure Calendar


Louise Page, Costume Designer since The Christmas Invasion, tells us the best thing about working on Doctor Who. Prepare for tales about Billie Piper, Alex Kingston and small, cramped cupboards... With big thanks to Louise Page for her help with this... and Merry Christmas!


Friday, December 11, 2009

Day Eleven! Doctor Who Adventure Calendar

Have a Merry and Musical Christmas!
With many thanks to David and The Proclaimers.

Teehee, this is SOOOOO much fun!