Doctor Who: Series Nine Prequel Images - THE DOCTOR'S MEDITATION

BBC America have released two new images from the prequel to the opening episodes of the new series The Magician's Apprentice / The Witch's Familiar, called The Doctor's Meditation. Alongside Peter Capaldi is actor Daniel Hoffmann-Gill who also stars in The Magician's Apprentice as the same character, Bors.

 

 

 The Doctor's Meditation will air on September 15th and 16th in US Cinemas. As for the UK, we can assume that the BBC will release the prequel onto the internet at the same time.

Series 35 (9) Found footage episode confirmed

Episode 9 of Series 9 of Doctor Who will reportedly feature a story told entirely using “old phone and camcorder footage.

 

The episode will be shot similar to found-footage movies such as  Paranormal Activity and The Blair Witch Project, and will involve “the Time Lord’s followers filming their attempts to fight a monster.

The episode is written b y Mark Gatiss an will star former Legue Of Gentlemen and Inside No 9 Reece Shearsmith and Cucumber / Banana actress Bethany Black. 

Steven Moffat on each of the episodes from the new series:

 

THE MAGICIAN'S APPRENTICE / THE WITCH'S FAMILIAR

 

“This is the opening two-parter. It features lots of Daleks and this time we mean it! Clara receives a mysterious summons and has to team up with Missy to search for the Doctor in a very, very old place.”

 

 

Episodes 3 & 4

“This two-parter is written by Toby Whithouse and features an underwater base plagued by creeping ghosts and an island that is about to be submerged in water. But who or what is doing this and how can the Doctor stop it? It’s very scary, atmospheric and claustrophobic, much like some classic episodes.”

Episodes 5 & 6

“Those two are exceptional! Doctor Who meets Game of Thrones! Well, only because Maisie Williams is in them. The first part features Vikings fighting mercenary robots (and a dragon!) and the second one sees a group of Highwaymen dealing with a Norse god”.

 

Episodes 7 & 8

“This one is written by Peter Harness and Day of the Doctor acted as a prologue to it. In it, the Zygons made peace with the Humans, but not every Zygon decided it was okay so they’ve been raising an army, silently and now they’re rising against UNIT! We’ve been planning this forever and Osgood is in it! But how is that possible you’d ask? Missy killed her! Who knows? Well, we know.”

Episode 9

“This is a very unique Doctor Who story from Mark Gatiss. It wasn’t possible to do such an episode ten years ago, when the show came back and Mark has been rewriting it over and over again to make it perfect. It’s a beautiful story, very eerie and special, I think it’s going to be an instant classic.”

Episode 10

“An episode which leapt out as “why haven’t we done this already? This is so Doctor Who we should be doing this immediately”. And when Sarah Dollard walked in with the finalised script, it was even better! Really, this is going to be a fan-favorite, everyone will want to rewatch it.”

Episode 11 & 12 (Finale)

“A challenge. I won’t say anything else because it would be too spoilery, but when you’ll watch it, you’re going to ask how exactly the Doctor and Clara are going to pull it off.”

Source

Happy Birthday McCoy!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY 

SYLVESTER McCOY! 

 

Born Percy James Patrick Kent-Smith in Dunoon, on the Cowal peninsula, to an Irish mother and English father, killed in action in World War II a couple of months before his son was born.

 

He came to prominence as a member of the comedy act "The Ken Campbell Roadshow". His best known act was as a stuntman character called "Sylveste McCoy" in a play entitled An Evening with Sylveste McCoy (the name was coined by actor Brian Murphy, part of the Roadshow at the time), where his stunts included putting a fork and nails up his nose and stuffing ferrets down his trousers, and setting his head on fire.

As a joke, the programme notes listed Sylveste McCoy as played by "Sylveste McCoy" and, after a reviewer missed the joke and assumed that Sylveste McCoy was a real person, Kent-Smith adopted this as his stage name. Some years later, McCoy added an "r" to the end of "Sylveste". Notable television appearances before he gained the role of the Doctor included roles in Vision On (where he played Pepe/Epep, a character who lived in the mirror), an O-Man in Jigsaw and Tiswas. He also appeared in Eureka, often suffering from the inventions of Wilf Lunn and as Wart, assistant to StarStrider in the CITV series of the same name. McCoy also portrayed, in one-man shows on the stage, two famous movie comedians: Stan Laurel and Buster Keaton. He also appeared as Henry "Birdie" Bowers in the 1985 television serial about Scott's last Antarctic expedition, The Last Place on Earth.



McCoy also had a small role in the 1979 film Dracula opposite Laurence Olivier and Donald Pleasence, and has sung with the Welsh National Opera.

 McCoy became the Seventh Doctor after taking over the lead role in Doctor Who in 1987 from Colin Baker. He remained on the series until it ended in 1989, ending with Survival. As Baker declined the invitation to film the regeneration scene, McCoy briefly wore a wig and appeared, face-down, as the 6th Doctor. He played the Doctor in the 1993 charity special Dimensions in Time, and again in 1996, appearing in the beginning of the Doctor Who television movie starring Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor.

 In his first series, McCoy, a comedy actor, portrayed the character with a degree of clown-like humour, but script editor Andrew Cartmel soon changed that when fans argued that the character (and plots) were becoming increasingly lightweight. The Seventh Doctor developed into a much darker figure than any of his earlier incarnations, manipulating people like chess pieces and always seeming to be playing a deeper game. A distinguishing feature of McCoy's performances was his manner of speech. He used his natural slight Scottish accent and rolled his rs. At the start of his tenure he used proverbs and sayings adapted to his own ends (e.g. "There's many a slap twixt cup and lap" — Delta and the Bannermen), although this characteristic was phased out during the later, darker series of his tenure.

Newly regenerated Seventh Doctor revealing his choice of suitable attire

The Sixth Doctor - The Last Adventure - Out Now

A very special story which at last provides a heroic exit for Colin Baker's much-loved Time Lord. Four hour-long episodes, connected by the presence of the Valeyard, the entity that exists between the Doctor's twelth and final incarnations.

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Price: £40 CD

          £20 Download 

Purchase from Big Finish

Hayley Atwell: "I'd like to BE Doctor Who"

 

The debate about whether the Docetor should regenerate into a woman has been ongoing since the original series. The question is; is  the time right to cast a woman in the lead role of the Doctor in the long running science fiction show? And if so, is the star of Marvel's Agent Carter, Hayley Atwell that woman?

 The Agent Carter star threw her name into the ring during an impromptu Twitter Q&A with fans, saying that she wouldn't just want to be in Doctor Who, she wants to be Doctor Who. 

 

 

 But is the show ready for such a change? Asked recently by Salon why he didn't cast a woman as the Twelfth Doctor, showrunner Steven Moffat said:

"Because I wanted to cast Peter Capaldi. If there is any other player on the board other than the person who excited you the most in the role, Doctor Who would go off the air, so that’s what you have to do.

"Was the time right? I don’t know. I think it would have been a disaster if we’d cast a female Doctor when David [Tennant] left. I believe. Disaster. Possible, this time. I think I should get a little more credit for being the only person who’s made it possible. It wasn’t part of the fiction of the show until I wrote it [with gender-swapped Master, Missy]. And I keep establishing it. But I think when that day comes – whatever showrunner that is – then the BBC will say, 'Tell me how this is definitely going to work.' Because, I tell you, there are two venomous packs here. A lot of people in the middle, sensible enough to say, 'If it’s good, I’ll like it; if it’s not good, I won’t like it.'

Back in 1999, current showrunner Steven Moffat, wrote a Doctor Who sketch for Comic Relief - Doctor Who And The Curse Of Fatal Death; whereby the Doctor regenerated into a woman. The role of the Doctor (ninth) was played by comedy actor Rowan Atkinson. During the sketch, the Doctor regenerated from Rowan to Richard E Grant (quite handsome Doctor) to Jim Broadbent (the shy Doctor) to Hugh Grant (the handsome Doctor) and finally into Joanna Lumley (the female Doctor).

At the time, I was still a teeneager and the idea that the Doctor could regenerate into a woman intrigued my young mind. I grew up in a time where Joanna Lumley was a huge name and face on television (she still is), and I was ready to accept her as the Doctor albeit, in a Comic Relief sketch. 

However, since Doctor Who returned to our screens back in 2005 - Ten fantastic years and four wonderful incarnations, I have toiled with the concept again and again. How do I feel about our greatest anti-hero The Doctor regenerating into a woman? I feel that Steven Moffat has made it work with Missy - formerly the Master and is marvellously portayed by the equally cookie and mad Michelle Gomez; so why not the Doctor? 

I've always maintained that the Doctor should remain male but I am coming around to the idea of a female Doctor. Maybe it is because I am now middle aged and there is an increased demand for more high profile female roles on our television screens. I have become to think that with the right woman in the role, our beloved Doctor can regenerate into a strong, witty, mad, intelligent Time Lord. 

Will the 14th incarnation be a woman? Wait and see but I doubt it.

DWO invite you on a mission: MISSION DALEK

Mission DALEK is your chance to create brand new adventures for the Doctor! It’s an opportunity to bring battles with the Daleks to life and share all those brilliant, bonkers ideas you’ve had about Doctor Who! And on top of that, it might just propel you into the Time Lord’s real world where you’ll encounter Daleks and meet the Doctor himself – Peter Capaldi!

So, what do you need to know?

 Mission DALEK is part of the BBC’s Make it Digital season and we’re inviting you to use your imagination and digital skills to create an adventure for the Doctor. We know many Doctor Who fans make amazing videos or are fantastic at cosplay and love to get involved in a million marvellous ways. For those guys, this is a chance to hone and harness your passion and showcase your digital skills to the universe!

But what if you’ve never dabbled in digital, never shot a video or made up a story?

DON’T WORRY! We’re here to help with loads of down-to-earth videos offering top tips from the Doctor Who team as well as a range of digital tools to get you started. We would LOVE you to take your first steps with us and the Doctor… To unleash your creativity and to have as much fun as humanly possible as you make it digital!

What next?

Easy as pie! Just visit our gleaming Mission DALEK site where you’ll find all the info you’ll need about what sort of adventure we’re after, how you can make it, and what prizes you can win! It’s all there. Right now. Wow. It’s a roller coaster, isn’t it?

Tom Baker: "I'm in new Star Wars"

Tom Baker revealed to fansat the Day Of The Doctors convention in Slough, UK, that he is voicing a new Star Wars character.

 "I’m going to be in this new Star Wars thing, you know?” Baker said while signing autographs, “I’m going down to record some voices for this new character they’ve created for me, very soon."

At present, it is not known whether the character will be in one of the forth-coming Star Wars trilogy, Rogue One or the animated Star Wars Rebels.