Belated Verity Birthday

Yesterday, 27th November 2013, would have been Verity Lambert's 78th Birthday.

Verity was born in Hampstead, London in 1935. She is best known of course for producing the longest running science fiction and worldwide phenomenon that is Doctor Who from 1963 to 1967. 

 

Verity owned her own production company, Cinema Verity. She was awarded an OBE in 2002 for services to film and television, making her the first producer of Doctor Who to be made an OBE. She was due to receive a lifetime achievement award at the Women in Film and Television Awards in December 2007, but died before the award could be presented to her. It was awarded posthumously. She died the day before the show's 44th anniversary in 2007.

As part of the 50th anniversary celebration, Jessica Raine (Call The Midwives and Doctor Who episode Hide) played Verity Lambert in Mark Gatiss' An Adventure In Space And Time, which told the story of the creation of Doctor Who.

Doctor Who has paid  tribute to Verity Lambert at least three times since it's Russell T Davies brought the show back in 2005. In 2007's episode Human Nature, the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant), when he was made human by the chameleon arch, and became John Smith, identifies his mother by the name Verity. The 2007 Christmas special Voyage of the Damned ends with an on-screen dedication to Lambert, who had died in November that year. In the 2009 episode The End of Time included a character named Verity Newman (as an homage to both Verity Lambert and series creator Sydney Newman), the great-granddaughter of Joan Redfern from Human Nature and the author of A Journal of Impossible Things.

 

Happy Birthday Gillan

Happy 26th Birthday to former Doctor Who companion Karen Sheila Gillan who is 26 years old today!

 

Karen is best known for playing Amy (Amelia) Pond/Williams alongside outgoing Doctor Matt Smith from 2010 until 2012. Her cousin Caitlin Blackwood portrayed young Amelia on first meeting the Doctor.

Karen Sheila Gillan was born on 28th November in 1987. Born and raised in Inverness, to parents Raymond John and Marie, Karen stayed here until the age of 16, when she left home to go to Edinburgh to study acting. Whilst in Edinburgh, Karen attended the Telford College to study acting, and later moved to London to the prestigious Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts. However, before achieving her degree, Karen left to star in Rebus – she needed to be a member of Equity, which isn’t possible whilst in College.

Karen got her first career break in modelling, and has modelled in a number of shows including 2007′s London Fashion Week for designer Allegra Hicks’ autumn/winter catwalk show. Karen has also modelled for the Dainty Doll make-up range launch party, which was founded by Girls Aloud member Nicola Roberts – this was shown in the television episode The Passions of Girls Aloud, and originally aired on 4th April 2008.

In 2009 it was announced that Karen would be the new companion to the newly announced Eleventh Doctor, Matt Smith, for Series 5 of Doctor Who. Her character was to be called Amy Pond. The first episode of this new series aired in April 2010, to a mostly positive response both for Matt and Karen. However, some fans were unhappy with the new direction, particularly Amy Pond’s wardrobe choices which were deemed a little risqué for family viewing. But, as Karen pointed out several times in interviews, Amy’s choices only mirrored what girls of her age were actually wearing on the streets of the UK.

Read more on Karen at her fan site here

Jenna Coleman in Death Comes To Pemberley

Current companion to out-going Doctor Matt Smith, Jenna Coleman will be starring in the P.D. James adapatation period drama Death Comes To Pemberley which will be aired at Christmas on BBC One. Jenna stars alonside Matthew Goode, Matthew Rhys and Anna Maxwell-Martin.

The story is a continuation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and stars Matthew Rhys as Mr Darcy, who says he will be portraying a very different character to that portrayed by Colin Firth. 

Although far removed from the original tome, international bestseller Death Comes To Pemberley imagines the marriage of Elizabeth Bennett - played by Anna Maxwell Martin - and Darcy (Rhys) six years on from their initial union. 

Jenna Coleman is to star as Lizzie’s sister – and Wickham’s wife – Lydia, who arrives at Pemberley one night, six years after the conclusion of Austen’s novel, screaming that her husband has been murdered.

The three-part BBC adaptation of the novel will air over the Christmas period, and was timed to coincide with the 200th anniversary of the publication of Jane Austen classic, Pride and Prejudice.

Below is the first official picture of the cast

Death Comes to Pemberley will air at 8.15pm on Boxing Day.

  

Christmas special Update

The BBC have now revealed the title and details for the Doctor Who 2013 Christmas special. The episode, which is Matt Smith's final as The Doctor, will indeed be entitled The Time of the Doctor and will air on Christmas Day on BBC One, time to be confirmed.

I have to say, it is not as very imaginative title now is it. I'd have put money on it being The Fall Of The Eleventh, which is a far better title.

 Synopsis:

Orbiting a quiet backwater planet, the massed forces of the universe’s deadliest species gather, drawn to a mysterious message that echoes out to the stars.  And amongst them – the Doctor.  Rescuing Clara from a family Christmas dinner, the Time Lord and his best friend must learn what this enigmatic signal means for his own fate and that of the universe.

Steven Moffat: "Matt's Doctor is ...." Spoiler Alert

Doctor Who will face the end of a 50 year story in the Christmas special - when Time Lord Matt Smith reveals he is actually the 13th and 'final' Doctor.

Actor Matt, 31, has long thought to have been the Eleventh Doctor on the hit BBC sci-fi show, which can only regenerate 12 times according to the show's folklore. Fans have worried for years that the show will have to end once the 13th Doctor dies.

But on December 25, current theories among millions of fans will be exterminated once and for all when Matt says in a dramatic speech he is the 13th Doctor and adds: "I'm dying and there is nothing I can do about it."

On Saturday night at the end of the show's 50th anniversary special, all the Doctors lined up, including John Hurt who was previously not thought to count. David Tennant's Time Lord also used up an extra regeneration to save himself in an episode called Journey's End.

Asked about the Christmas episode and the regeneration of Doctor Who, Steven Moffat confirmed Matt was the 13th Doctor and told the Mirror: "The 12 regenerations limit is a central part of Doctor Who mythology - science fiction is all about rules, you can't just casually break them.
 
Speaking at the Doctor Who 50th Celebration at London's ExCel, the showrunner said that John Hurt's version of the Time Lord does not alter the numbering of other incarnations:

"He has no more ever called himself the 11th Doctor than he would call himself Matt Smith. The Doctor doesn't know off the top of his head [what number he is].

"If you worry about such things, and I do, then I specifically said John Hurt's Doctor doesn't use the title. [Matt Smith's Doctor] is in his 12th body but he's the 11th Doctor, however there is no such character as the 11th Doctor - he's just The Doctor, that's what he calls himself.

"The numbering doesn't matter, except for those lists that you and I have been making for many years. So I've given you the option of not counting John Hurt numerically - he's the War Doctor."

"So if the Doctor can never change again, what's Peter Capaldi doing in the Christmas special?"

A show source explained: "There have been two David Tennant Doctor Whos technically and with John Hurt playing another Doctor in the film, it basically means he can't regenerate again. The riddle of the regeneration problem, something fans have talked about for decades, will be faced head on at Christmas. There is going to be another huge cliffhanger and somehow Peter Capaldi has to join and the series has to continue. The show's big fans, known as Whovians, won't believe their eyes at Christmas."

Full article

Christmas special title revealed(?)

This year's Doctor Who Christmas Special, is apparently called The Time Of The Doctor. The episode will be the swan song of current Doctor Matt Smith, as he regenerates into Peter Capaldi.

Bleeding Cool have seen what is to be the outline of the special, and as we all know, there are spoilers and there are spoilers. Take the following with a pinch of salt…

A bell tolls across the Universe. Many are afraid, The Doctor and Clara are… curious.

You will come to Christmas Town, a place of peace, welcomed by Rob Jarvis and Tessa Peake-Jones.
You will come to Trenzalore, a planet of war.
You will find out where Gallifrey went.
You will discover what the Silence are.
You will see who the voice in the TARDIS was.
The episode will be nine hundred years long.

There will be Daleks, Cybermen and Weeping Angels. Some of them will be wooden. So will The Doctor.
He always has Handles. And grab hold, as you will find out what the hell that crack in space and time actually was. Because The Time Of The Doctor will be going right back to The Eleventh Hour.

John Hurt's Sonic Screwdriver

The 'Other Doctor' is the Doctor's dark chapter, an _hitherto unknown incarnation whose existence he has spent centuries repressing, a secret he wants no one to know of. He is a relic of the past, part of the great Time War, when he spent centuries fighting alongside his fellow Time Lords against the Daleks and made the final decision to end it with a desperate act that cost that incarnation the right to use the name "Doctor". This haunted and battle-worn Other Doctor is finally forgiven after helping find a new solution to end the war, giving the Eleventh Doctor a new purpose as he heads into further adventures.

The Other Doctor's Sonic Screwdriver, as seen in the 50th anniversary episode: "The Day of the Doctor". Includes sound and light FX.

Requires 2 x AG13/LR44/L1154 button cell batteries, Demo batteries included. Ages 5+.

Price: £19.99

Forbidden Planet