Various interviews with Moffat and other stuff from SDCC:


http://io9.com/5028464/exclusive-interview-with-doctor-whos-steven-moffat
(This one has a spoiler for the end of season/series four.)


http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=0&id=58032


http://www.comingsoon.net/news/tvnews.php?id=47147


about Barrowman and a possible future movie role:
http://www.superherohype.com/news/topnews.php?id=7531

As promised, a review of the Collector's Edition Doctor Who Top Trumps. There's no Nine or Ten. There's nothing from the Rusty era at all. It's AAAALLLLL Classic Who.

( cut for people not as obsessive as me )

Anyway, am still full of squee that The Kandyman is in there, which ameliorates the lack of Davrosness somewhat. And still hoping for Davvy and The Brig as specials (grandma is photographed and prepared for eBaying). Would absolutely recommend the deck, though. They are great for the geeky Classic!Who fan among us, but also edjamacashunal for those of us with gaps in our Classic!Who knowledge.

Any of the rest of you bought this, or plan to buy it? What would you guys include?

Writers for the specials announced at Sarah Jane TV. Plenty of spoilers for SJA at the link!

( Spoilers for the locale of one of the specials )

You might know that there are a number of sets of Doctor Who Top Trumps available. Today, I obtained two of them on a Purely Scientific Basis in order to review them for you guys, and not at all because I wanted them, not in the slightest.



I got the set pictured above (set2/series3) and the set in the red box (set3/series4). Have yet to obtain the yellow box (set1/series2) and there don't appear to be Ecclescake Who Top Trumps at all :(. I was a little bit wary having previously bought the Top Gear Top Trumps - Cool Cars set and been a bit disappointed with it - basically, whoever gets dealt the Koenigsegsgegsgsgssgeegg is going to win because it can't be beaten on pretty much anything. They should have a fuel efficiency option so that the small cheap cars aren't going to always lose...

Anyway, the Who trumps are much better. They have a good balance of good and bad and random stats than the Top Gear ones, so any one character has the possibility of beating pretty much every other one, and the game is much less predictable. The two Doctor cards are slightly different in ratings, I guess to show how he changes as a character. I want to get set 1 now, and see if he is different again...

The set in the purple box is particularly nice, and has shiny, silver letters and highlights. The Ood and Mr Zed have red glowy eyes, which are fab, and shrublette was particularly impressed with those. The red box ones, however, have Grandad Wilf in! This adds massively to their coolness factor.

The card stock and boxes are great, as you'd expect from a reputable company like Waddingtons, and most of the values are dead on (e.g. Donna is very brave, but only of average intelligence). In fact, I have very few problems with the values. I'd make the Doctor's "darkness" rating a bit higher, and there's NO WAY Pete Tyler is braver than Captain Jack and Grandad Wilf, but these are minor quibbles. I love the little details like Captain Jack's Courage rating being 69 (fnarrfnarr).

All in all, I'd say these were a great use of three quid each, and now all I really need are THESE:

The BritTrak is Dragoncon's British media track. Mostly, the track focuses on TV and movies, often of a science fictional nature, but also examines the written word, dealing with characters such as Sherlock Holmes and authors like H. G. Wells.

Dragoncon takes place in Atlanta, GA, USA, from August 29th to September 1, 2008.
http://dragoncon.org/

Find information on the guests and the schedule under the cut:

( Read more... )
****************


NOTE: I'm not on staff, just doing some PR. :)

Small article here about casting for the fifth series. There's also a spoiler for a returning character for one of the specials.

( spoilers be here )


ETA: My HTML sklz suck today. Sorry for any inadvertent spoilage.

I think that most of the Doctor Who-related guests for the Boston Jumpcon, like Mary Tamm and John Levene, had already cancelled or been cancelled by the con, but getting the word out is important.

That's three Jumpcons cons in a row, cancelled. I can't imagine that any of the others will be a "go". Folks in Boston can go to Readercon this weekend, but it's a totally literary con, with no media guests. Can't say that I wasn't expecting this. Blast! Between this debacle and FedCon in Dallas, fans, especially those new to organized fandom, could be doubtful about other cons, and it could hurt long-established cons. :(

Total article about the cancellation is under the cut.

( Read more... )

Apparently, intro posts are encouraged round this neck of the woods. Seeing as how I'm never one to pass up an excuse to talk about myself, I thought I'd make one...

I'm seph_hazard. Yes, I'm that seph_hazard. Got that out of the way? Good. On to more important things.

I'm too young to remember Who in its heyday; I caught the tail-end of McCoy when I was too small to be paying much attention but by and large it passed me by. I was one of the lucky few, however: I have a Whovian for a father. An honest-to-God dyed-in-the-wool Whovian who still speaks fondly of that time he sat agape and watched Hartnell cavorting genteelly in a wood (or something) in that first-ever episode of Doctor Who way back when. So I grew up with it; as a child on Saturday nights I'd hide behind the sofa with the best of them, despite the fact that this was the nineties and my Daleks were all on VHS.

Nonetheless I perhaps betray my age in that Sylvester is My Doctor and Ace is My Companion. Incidentally Sophie Aldred lives near me and I bump into her in the street on occasion; I doubt she has any idea who I am but she always smiles back and once had a whole five-minute conversation with me when I was taking my sister (ten years my junior) to the local park and she happened to be there with her son.

The only reason we have a TV licence is because Who came back. Before that we'd stuck to videos and DVDs, but when the announcement came in 2005 we rushed off to get ourselves a Freeview box. There was no way we were going to miss this. By and large it hasn't let me down, either; I have my misgivings of course, but I'm still enjoying the ride. I also fell head-over-heels for Donna, possibly even dislodging Ace from my Top Spot. But shhh, don't tell.

For context: feministsf have given their verdict on the fate of Donna in the season finale of Who and it doesn't make for pretty reading (with spoilers, obviously).

( Spoilers under the cut too )

What are your thoughts on this? Does new Who treat women badly? Is it better or worse than Old Who in this respect?

ETA: So many intelligent and well-argued points. I was totally worried when I posted it that we'd end up on Fandom Wank... You guys make me so proud.

thank you! And now for the introduction post.

I'm Ith [waves] Great to be here!

My Who travels started back in the 80s with Tom Baker's Doctor. At the time DW became one of my major fandoms. I went to cons, belonged to the official fan club, stayed up late Sat. night/Sun. morning to watch episodes since this was long before we had one of those newfangled VCR dealies. It was a much fun! I love the new series as well, along with the two newest Doctors. And I've enjoyed getting friends into the show and the fandom.

Fave Doctor: Tom Baker and Peter Davison.
Fave Companions: I like all of them for the most part, but have a special fondness for Tegan and Nyssa.

Other Stuff: I'm pretty much an all around fangirl geek. I love genre movies and TV, and am also an avid SF reader. I write fic in the Highlander, Forever Knight, and Iron Man fandoms, with a smattering of Pirates of the Caribbean. I love crossovers! A lot. I make icons, and have an addiction to creating LJ communities and email lists. And I probably spend way too much time on the internet.

Again, thanks for having me, and I look forward to my time here on this comm.

When we were seated in the auditorium waiting for the show to begin I confided to purple_pen that I was having some misgivings about my commitment to the comm to write this review, because I wrote the rule about posts with low content, and I had the feeling my review would be mostly incoherent squee... It turns out those misgivings were entirely well-founded. I loved the show very much, but am finding it hard to express in words just how wonderful it was without being utterly spoilery and just typing bits of it out and saying see? See how fab it was?.

There were so many fannish injokes, so many things for me to identify with, so many times when I applauded loudly because what Toby Hadoke was saying was so right. I was reminded in a lot of ways of Alex Wilcock's excellent "How Doctor Who made me a Liberal" essay. There were also a number of times when something went wrong. To be honest, I think this only added to the show: Toby's adlibs were hilarious. At one point he accused the faulty microphone wire of being CGI...

The show also touched me very much as a parent. Toby's relationship with his parents, and with his son, were so affectingly detailed... I used to watch sci-fi stuff, including Who, with my dad as a child, and Toby evoked so many powerful memories. As for my daughter's relationship with the doctor, well...


(link here)

Those of you who told me I would cry at the end? You were right. You were so right. I cried happy, joyous tears, and so did matgb and burlesque_bunny and purple_pen. I think I felt how people feel when they go to evangelical religious gatherings. I felt all warm and squishy, but I also wanted to shout from the rooftops how happy I was to be a Doctor Who fan.

I urge any of you who get the chance to go and see this show. And buy the CD.

I've been lurking here for a while, but since lots of people are posting intro posts, I thought I might as well jump on the bangwagon!

( This is me )

Hello, dw_academy!

( Have an introduction. )

So here's my question: what are the best historical stories in Old Who and why?

I noticed that we're encouraged to make introductory posts here, so...hello one and all.   

I hadn't seen this posted on any Who comm (but then I'm only a member of a scant few), and I thought I'd share it here. Mainly because I know that there are people who don't watch SJA (and why don't you?!!) and I'm sure they'll want to watch this upcoming series.

Casting spoilers for SJA series two. I'm terribly excited and giddy and bouncy and all other kinds of happy feeling!!

*waves to all and sundry*

This is acciochocolate, finally getting around to making an intro post. (If I did one back in the Dark Ages, oh well). I was pointed back over here recently by bibliophile1887 . Putting this under a cut, because it's rather long. ;)

( Read more... )

http://www.comic-con.org/cci/cci08_prog_thu.php

12:00-1:00 Doctor Who—Writer Russell T Davies (Doctor Who), executive producer Julie Gardner (Torchwood), and writer Steven Moffat (Doctor Who) discuss their creative process and experience working on the BBC's Doctor Who—Britain's most successful sci-fi franchise—with exclusive clips and a Q&A session. Ballroom 20

1:00-2:00 Torchwood—Writer Russell T Davies (Doctor Who), executive producer Julie Gardner (Torchwood), writer Steven Moffat (Doctor Who), and actors John Barrowman, Gareth David-Lloyd, Naoko Mori and Burn Gorman discuss their creative process and experience on working on BBC America's highest-rated show ever—Torchwood— followed by a Q&A session. Ballroom 20

Note that these are both on Thursday, one right after the other. According to their FAST FAQs, "Rooms are not cleared between events."
http://www.comic-con.org/cci/cci_fastfacts_2008.php

The more I think about Journey's End, the more the ending infuriates me.

( Read more... )

First, a few weeks ago, I was pointed to this entry on the BBC DW site:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/s4/faq/plot_continuity.shtml


*************

Now, though, we have this, quite new, of course:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/s4/episodes/?episode=s4_13&action=factfile


***********

So what are we supposed to think now?

I've watched City of Death three times this year, and still hadn't written a review - so here is one, finally!

( Four & Romana's Paris Honeymoon... )

For those of you who may not know me, I'm Andi, also known as gilesgurl and I found this group when snapesbabe asked me to affiliate this group with my Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart Community 5roundsrapid. I have been a Doctor Who fan for a very long time, at least since the early 1980's when I can conciously remember my father turning it on every Saturday afternoon on one of the PBS stations (or in the evenings during the week on PBS). My dad taped a lot of the episodes and I remember watching some episodes over and over again when I was home on summer holidays from school as a kid.

As for favourite companions, please refer to my icon for one of them. Besides Sarah Jane Smith, my favourites are Jamie, Tegan, Adric, Leela, Donna Noble, Mickey, Martha (even though I had to get my respect back for her after she stopped pining), Jack Harkness, and K-9 (who cares if he's a robot dog, K-9 is awesome!) My favourite Doctors, Three, Four, Five, Nine, and Ten, I have to watch more of One, Two, Six to pass judgement and I have to listen to the audios fro judgement on Eight.

Two of my prized posessions are a Three/Sarah Jane button and The Doctor Who Illustrated A-Z, both of which belonged to my father.

Anything else you would like to know, leave questions for me in the comments section and I will be more than happy to answer them.

...is this the right place/way of introducing one's self here?? *doesn't want to tread on toes and cause riots the minutes she's got here*

Anyway. Hello. I'm Muffin. A long time Who fan and a resident on snapesbabe's friend list for a while also. Most of my details are on my user page, which you can read freely.

First memory of Doctor Who? I was 10 and the Pertwee era was on The Beeb. As far as I can remember, it was the Auton's story, but I really can't remember. It was 8 years ago that I watched it :P However, it was captivating telly and I skipped into school the next day to hear my best friend shout 'DID YOU WATCH DOCTOR WHO LAST NIGHT?!?!' at me. Oh, how that phrase has continued :)

I'm still vaugley interested in Doctor Who. The Eccleston series was superb (in my opinion) and then Tennant (and his pretty face) turned up and I was hooked. I haven't watched much of Series 4/30, because Im not a big Catherine Tate fan (and subsequently get annoyed when people on Facebook try to convince me otherwise), but I did watch Turn Left/The Stolen Earth/Journey's End and I wrote a blow by blow review on my LJ of the latter of the three which is avalible to see publicly.

Oh, and my Doctor Who claim to fame is that Colin Baker not only lives near me and writes a column in the local rag, but is a Parent Govener at my school. I suppose thats my Marmite moment for the Colin Baker fans (sorry SB *hides*)

So yes. Thats Muffin in a nutshell (or a muffin shell? Whatever. You get the jist)

( spoilery poll is spoilery )

Please take a moment to go over the rules, which have now been added to the profile page. We've gone for clarity over brevity, but hopefully they won't make your eyes glaze over too much. I don't think there's anything in there that's too unreasonable...

Have been having a post-finale chat with options3000, and he made a terribly awesome suggestion that made me quite happy and excited. ( Cut for spoilers ) I really want to fic this, but I don't have time at the moment, but it certainly is a fascinating idea!

http://www.marytamm.com/page2.htm

(This is from Mary's website. I haven't found out yet which other British guests she is talking about.)

2008 Doctor Who conventions in THE STATES

NEWSFLASH RE JUMPCON
Due to circumctances beyond my control, I will not , along with several other British guests, be appearing at the Boston convention, as the organisers have lost their backing.There are postings on the net about this. I will keep you informed of the future events I was booked for this year as soon as I have info.
Mary

Then there's this from John Levene's site:

http://john-levene.com/main/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=35&Itemid=1

"Currently Jumpcon is doing a bit of reorganizing. Once John's schedule is updated, we will post his appearances. Until then, please visit the JUMPCON site."

( here be Pictorial Spoilorz! )

Please feel free to comment to this post with your immediate reactions, links to your blow-by-blows on your own journal, express your squee and woe, what you thought was the best bit, what you thought was the worst bit, and where you think the show will go from here. And vote in the poll!

Poll #1218116 Journey's End
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

I thought Journey's End was

It was

dw_academy

dw_academy

- so I figured I'd say "Hello" properly.

( A rambling intro from a new member... )

(This is from the UK newspaper, the Daily Telegraph. There's pictures at the site, evidentially. And there's nothing for C. Baker or Pat Troughton, which doesn't seem fair. The emphasis is on T. Baker, not surprisingly.)

SPOILERS in the article if you haven't see these shows/series/episodes. You have been warned. Here be dragons.


The 10 greatest episodes of Doctor Who ever at

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/exclusions/doctor-who/top-10-doctor-who-episodes.xml

Hi everyone, I'm Ani, and I've just joined the comm. I really like Dr Who, but have limited knowledge of Old Who either because I haven't seen it since it was originally televised, and I was only young, or because it was on TV before I was even born and I still haven't seen any of it.

Thanks to snapesbabe I've seen the two Dr Who films where the Mighty Cush played The Doctor, so I'll use my default avatar here. :D

I can remember watching Dr Who during Five, Six and Seven's time, but I remember Ace as Seven's companion more than anything from those years. Perhaps because I had a similar coat to the one she wore at that time.

I like New Who, I don't like RTD, but I'm looking forward to seeing where Steven Moffat takes things once RTD has left.

I like The Sarah Jane Adventures, and I love K-9, although I know not everyone does for one reason or another.

I don't really like Torchwood, although I only watched one episode of that with the Cyber woman in, and I just didn't enjoy it as much as Dr Who, so I haven't bothered with it really.

Mostly I'm looking to increase my knowledge/appreciation of Dr Who and learn more about Old Who, and to discuss New Who as well. I look forward to making some new friends here. :D