An archive of blog entries about British science-fiction programme Doctor Who.
The ratings are in for Sunday night and Torchwood‘s third episode lost 40% of the audience for episodes one and two, only getting 1.5 million viewers. I say only, but that still makes it the most watched multichannel show of the evening.
There’s a great big sci-fi season coming to BBC4 in early November. As well as interviews with Iain M Banks and Terry Pratchett, there’s a dramatisation of John Wyndham’s Random Quest, a three-part documentary on UK sci-fi writers and all sorts of goodies from the archives (allegedly).
There’s also going to be a series called The Cult Of… that focuses on cult British sci-fi series: Blake’s 7, Adam Adamant, Doomwatch, Star Cops, The Survivors and Tripods. I can understand all those obsessions except Tripods – Star Cops and Doomwatch were brilliant, Blake’s 7 had its moments as did The Survivors, and Adam Adamant was fun. But Tripods? Lines from the books such as “And then they went into a village and stole some bread” turned into an entire episode? Dismal. Have you noticed that loving Doctor Who is no longer considered a cult pursuit by the Beeb, though? Interesting.
To coincide with the season, BBC4 will be opening up (from today) a web site called My Science Fiction Life, where you can deposit your memories of sci-fi shows and books, some of which might be used in a “new TV programme”. They don’t mention whether that’ll be The Cult Of… or not.
So here we are already: episode three. Must be time for a verdict.
It seems the “episode without the Doctor” possibility is really driving fans nuts. We’ve already had Love and Monsters in series two, and the expectation is that there’ll be another episode that’s Doctor-lite, thanks to hellish filming schedules. So how will the production team cope?
We’ve already had one possibility thrown at us: the Doctor and new companion are regressed into children by mad scientist Mark Gatiss and so child actors will take the place of Freema Agyeman and David Tennant. Since there’s that exciting competition for some lucky fan to land a part on the show, maybe that’ll tie in nicely.
But now, we have another one, which has the virtues of a 1% chance of being true and all the hallmarks of a conspiracy theory. In this exciting possibility, Martha Jones turns round, says “Tell me all about regeneration, Doctor”, and low and behold, we have a Tennant-narrated tale of life being Paul McGann. That would fill me with joy if it happened, because it’s about time McGann got to be something more than a footnote in Who history*.
Where the conspiracy theory element comes in is the BBC7 series starting in the New Year. The idea is that that will act as a primer for the public to accept McGann as a previous Doctor and more importantly to get them used to Sheridan Smith as his companion, who will then legitimately be able to appear on-screen as the Doctor’s companion and be an audience draw. Smith, of course, has a big youth following from Two Pints of Lager (although not from Grown Ups).
Not at all plausible, particularly since the rumour also says it’s going to be set during the Time War, but I liked it anyway.
Incidentally, the Big Finish web site now has more details on those BBC7 audio plays. One thing I spotted that I hadn’t seen elsewhere: Sheridan Smith’s character is going to be with the Doctor thanks to some form of Time Lord Witness Protection Programme (very Big Finish). Even she doesn’t know what she’s supposed to have seen, though.
*Footnote: Technically, Paul McGann is the longest running Doctor, since he was the official Doctor between 1996 and 2005, appearing in the TV movie, comics, books and audio plays, all of which were licensed by the BBC.
UPDATE: The rumour mutates and combines with the earlier rumour! Now the suggestion is that when the Doctor and companion are zapped by Mark Gatiss, he turns back into Paul McGann. Now that’s the hallmark of a great rumour.
Bit of a Who theme to the blog this week, but for UK fans of the classic/old series, it’s a good “set your video” weekend coming up. SciFi is showing the movie Doctor Who and The Daleks at 8.25pm (VIDEO Plus+: 86853041), which featured Peter Cushing as an alternative version of William Hartnell’s first Doctor; on Sunday, the TV movie is on UK Gold at 10.10am (VIDEO Plus+: 26553349) – that’s eighth Doctor Paul McGann’s only outing in the role on TV.
Repeats of the series proper kick off on Wednesday 1st in no particular order with Genesis of the Daleks (VIDEO Plus+: 3097401) from Tom Baker, the fourth Doctor, at 7.25am, Colony in Space (VIDEO Plus+: 72345520) at 7.20am on Saturday and Spearhead from Space (VIDEO Plus+: 98352394) on Sunday at 7am. The latter two are third Doctor stories, Spearhead being Pertwee’s first in the role.
Enjoy, assuming you’re in the UK, have access to UK Gold and haven’t already seen them. And you get up early or can be bothered to set the vid.
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