Tagged: David Tennant

Still Not Ginger – Peter Capaldi is the New Doctor

  • News
  • August 4, 2013

tumblr_mr0ricofvl1rq8cpeo6_500-9609501Announced at the climax of a globally-broadcast special, The BBC introduced the twelfth actor to play The Doctor, Peter Capaldi.

He’s a BAFTA-winning actor, winning for the role of Malcolm Tucker in The Thick of It.  He’s appeared twice on Who-related series, he played Caecilius in The Fires of Pompeii, and John Frobisher in Torchwood: Children of Earth.  In Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere, he played the angel Islington.  He is currently filming the BBC adaptation of the Three Musketeers, in which he plays Cardinal Richelieu.

Showrunner Steven Moffat says he’d considered Capaldi when he was casting the eleventh Doctor, though he decided it wasn’t quite the time.

This wasn’t  his first time traveling in time, either – He played Doug Hatton in the recurring sketch “Drunk in Time” on The All new Alexei Sayle Show.

Peter most recently appeared in World War Z, playing a physician working with the World Health Organization.  Or, as he’s listed on the IMDB, “WHO Doctor“.

No details have been yet shared as to how much a part he will played in the final two episodes of the year. Though it’s traditional for the new Doctor to only appear in the last moments of the last episode, the Christmas episode has not been filmed, and David Tennant made his first full appearance in the first Christmas episode, “The Christmas Invasion”.

Mr. Capaldi’s movements will likely be closely followed, and any appearance he makes in the Christmas episode will likely be widely reported.  The Management awaits his work with extreme interest.

A Doctor A Day – “New Earth”

new-earth-20061002001542382-8763109Using the new Doctor Who Limited Edition Gift Set, your noble author will make his way through as much of the modern series as he can before the Christmas episode, The Snowmen.

A trip to the future, a return of a foe presumed dead (get used to THAT one) and a moral conundrum.  And it all happens on…

NEW EARTH
by Russell T Davies
Directed by James Hawes

“It’s like living inside a bouncy castle!”

The Doctor and Rose travel back to the five billions, to the time after The End of The World, to New Earth, the city of New15 York. The Doctor got a message from someone via his psychic paper, asking him to come to his aid at a nearby hospital.  But someone is watching, and as soon as the pair try to enter the elevators, they are separated.  Rose is sent to the basement, and is confronted by Lady Cassandra O’Brien, the last pureblood human, and the baddie behind the events on Platform One.  Saved from her apparently grisly death by cloning a new “body” from leftover parts (parts from the …back), she barely survives in the basement of the hospital, and has made plans to move on.  And for Rose to come along, another pureblood human, specifically one responsible for nearly killing her…well, when the fates hand you an opportunity like that…  Cassandra uses a device to transplant her mind into Rose’s body, and begins to take stock of new assets.

The Doctor, meanwhile, was summoned by The Face of Boe, who he met on Platform One as well.  The Face is dying, and his nurse, Novice Hame, explains that legend says that as he dies, he will impart great knowledge to someone like him, “A traveler, a lonely god”.

Amazingly, Cassandra’s not the real threat.  The Sisters of Plenitude, a feline race who run the hospital, have been breeding clones expressly to infect with every disease known to man, for the purpose of finding cures for them.  They maintain the clones are not sentient, but as soon as they’re awakened, that’s immediately proven untrue.  The Doctor starts to investigate, and also starts to notice that Rose knows a bit more about technology of the year five billion than she should.

So The Doctor has to find out the secrets of the hospital, get Rose back in charge of her own body, shut down a sect of cat-nuns, and stop a horde of disease-ridden clones from overrunning the place.  Not a bad first day out…

The Christmas episode was a bit different from later ones would be – it was the first appearance of the new Doctor, and was more “in continuity” with the rest of the season, as opposed to being a stand-alone adventure. It also features other recurring characters, as opposed to later specials that would only feature The Doctor and all-new characters. Functionally, it’s the first episode of this season.  So this episodes starts shortly after the special, with The Doctor and Rose off on new adventures, already with a much lighter tone.

Both Billie Piper and David Tennant get to camp it up a bit as Rose and The Doctor get inhabited by Cassandra, with the requisite fun and silly accents.  Davies excels at keeping a balance between drama and humor in his stories, and this one’s a good example.

One could argue that this plot is an argument against various forms of experimentation.  I prefer to stand by Dr. Mordin Solus’ philosophy from mass Effect – “Use of sentient beings in scientific tests disgusting. Have personal standard – Never experiment on species with members capable of calculus. Simple rule, never broke it.”

We see a new emotional side to The Doctor here.  Not only is this the first time he’s “Sorry…so sorry” at the site of the clones, it’s also the first time he gives a foe who truly deserves it a merciful end.  One of the things we see him do many times is offer threatening aliens a chance to leave in peace.  Sometimes they refuse, and his judgment is swift and hard, sometimes others pull the trigger (like Harriet Jones did last episode) and he’s just as merciless on them, but sometimes, if they deserve it, he helps them.  Cassandra really did try to help at the end, and once she came to peace with her fate, The Doctor gave her a chance to at least die happy.

The payoff to the promise from the Face of Boe wouldn’t come till next season, tying into the Big Bad for that season.  So even though Moffat is doing it with more deliberation, Davies was also setting up multi-year plotlines, teasing events quite a ways off.  Looking back like this, it’s amazing how many things we ascribe to Moffat were already being done from the beginning.  More fodder for the “who’s a better showrunner” argument, certainly.

The Point Radio: David Tennant On Matt Smith

We close the door on DOCTOR WHO, for awhile anyway. But first, now former Doctor DAVID TENNANT weighs in on his favorite moments and the new guy. Meanwhile, at the Box Office THE DARK KNIGHT gets trounced by those ‘blue guys’.

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Reminder: New ‘Doctor Who’ episodes premiere this weekend on BBC America

  • News
  • December 18, 2009

Set your DVRs so you can see David Tennant and his great change.

Which is an obvious segue to this:

No, we have absolutely no shame.

The Waters Of Mars is this Saturday, The End Of Time part 1 is next week (day after Christmas) and part 2 is January 2nd.

#SDCC: Doctor Who, David Tennant and ‘The End Of Time’

  • News
  • July 26, 2009

In one of the most anticipated panels of the day, writer/executive producer Russell T Davies, David Tennant, director Euros Lyn, and executive producer Julie Gardner (not pictured) discuss their creative process and experiences working on Doctor Who, television’s longest-running science fiction series, along with a few tips and teases about what’s to come in the (sob) short time left.

While there was healthy applause for Davies, Lyn and Gardner at the beginning of the panel, the crowd went wild for the entrance of Tennant, wearing a glittering Stormtrooper T-shirt and jeans. He was a bit mock-taken aback– “they told us nobody knows Doctor Who in America.”

Pretty quickly they went stright into the trailer for Tennant’s finale on the show, “The End of Time” airing Christmas 2009, featuring the return of Donna Noble, her grandpa, and the Master. After showing of the trailer, Tennant said it went by too fast and demanded that it be played again. No one objected.

Davies accepted the Guinness Book of Records award for the series’ longevity, which he accepted on behalf of the late Verity Lambert, the show’s founding producer.

After that, the floor was opened to questions.

How they do everything on such a small budget? Julie Gardner: “We go over budget.”

Tennant says seeing his face on grocery store cakes, t-shirts and kids’ pants is not something they prepare you for in drama school.

Someone in the crowd yells that she loves Tennant. Tennant replies: “We love you — each one of you in a slightly individual way.” Tennant threw out bunches of quips in the panel, such as “Tonight you’re going to see the premiere… the legal premiere… of ‘Planet of the Dead’,” and “There’s a new rumor every day at Comic-Con. Apparently, I’m playing The Hobbit!”

Does the tenth Doctor wear a brown coat because Tennant likes Firefly? Tennant: “Never heard that one before…” but he likes that show.

Did you steal things off the set? Gardner: “I think John Barrowman just stole things off the set so he could be strip-searched on the way out.”

Would Tennant come back for charity specials or anything else? “It’s the 50th Anniversary in 2013, isn’t it? I dunno… That’s not me making an announcement. There’s no plan. Don’t Twitter that! That’s not a thing! Yet!” Waaaaay too late, David.

One of Tennant’s favorite Doctor Who memories was hearing Elisabeth Sladen, a voice from his childhood, call him “Doctor” during a table read of “School Reunion.” Tennant will be in an upcoming Sarah Jane Adventures episode, called “The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith.”

Did Tennant’s Shakespearean training prep him to play Doctor? Tennant was stumped. Gardner offered: “Well, you did meet Shakespeare in an episode…”

David Tennant on the end of his run and his replacement: “Come on the journey and cry and sing with us. And three weeks later you’ll think Matt Smith is the best thing ever. There is no one in Britain who has worked with Matt [Smith] who hasn’t raved about him. I’ve met Matt and chatted with him a couple of times … and he’s going to be brilliant. Which is annoying.”

Any regrets in leaving the show, David? “I am leaving the series
slightly sad that I didn’t get to snog Bernard Cribbins. I snogged all
the rest.”

david-tennant-3763452

‘Doctor Who’ movie with David Tennant coming?

david-tennant-2698827That’s the latest rumor kicking around everywhere across the web– that there might be a new Doctor Who movie that, if the rumors are correct, would star David Tennant as the Doctor and that the movie will be officially announced later this month at Comic-Con in San Diego, like everything else in the world.

The rumors also have former Doctor Who writer/executive producer Russell T. Davies involved in the project, and both he and David Tennant are rumored to be showing up at San Diego… are they showing up for a victory lap, or is there something bigger going on? Hmm… IDW is doing the Doctor Who comic, maybe they know something.

Who’s Hanging Around?

Sure, this is David Tennant’s last season as the Doctor in Doctor Who. But, clearly, he’s not going out quietly.

On the heels of his appearance on John (“Captain Jack”) Barrowman’s song-and-dance show Tonight’s The Night (Glenn’s got that one here on ComicMix) comes word that he will guest as the Doctor on a two-part story in the new season of The Sarah Jane Adventures, coming to the BBC this fall — prior to his terminal closing three-parter.

Executive Producer Russell T. Davies promised it won’t be just a cameo. “This is a full on appearance for The Doctor as he and Sarah Jane face their biggest threat ever.”

Ah, yes. Biggest threat ever. You’d think both the Doctor and Sarah Jane would be a bit tired of that phrase. Still, it’s a living.

Oh, and K-9, now the star of his own Australian-produced teevee series, will be back with Sarah Jane, the kids whose lives she jeopardizes each week, and their big father-figure computer.

Russell Davies Promises More than 2 Doctors

  • News
  • December 24, 2008

Doctor Who producer Russell T. Davies was interviewed on BBC Radio 5, chatting about Thursday’s Doctor Who Christmas Special. Entitled “The Next Doctor”, the special was described as "nice and scary, but healthily scary". Practically confirming word the previous incarnations will be glimpsed in the story, he said, “It’s not just the next Doctor you get to see, you get to see some old ones as well, which is rather exciting… It’s a Doctorfest.”

The inevitable question was asked about David Tennant’s successor as the Time Lord and all he would say was, “Steven Moffat and the series 5 team are casting the next Doctor, the eleventh Doctor and it’s literally nothing to do with me. Everyone keeps asking me, begging me, the money I could make out of this, but I do not know what they are planning.”

BBC Launches ‘Doctor Who’ Advent Calendar

  • News
  • December 2, 2008

Today is marked by many faiths as the beginning of Advent and once again, the BBC’s official Doctor Who website has their Advent calendar now live.  Today’s treat is a video message from David Tennant and something new will be available between today and Christmas.

 

David Tennant Officially Announces Departure from ‘Doctor Who’

  • News
  • October 29, 2008

doctor-who-tenant-5393629David Tennant announced his departure from Doctor Who during the National Television Awards broadcast.

The BBC’s Doctor Who website confirmed the news mintues later complete with a video from the actor.

The website went on to report:

David Tennant first appeared as The Doctor in 2005 and has gone on to star in three series and three Christmas specials as the tenth incarnation of the Time Lord. The BBC has confirmed that David will continue to play The Doctor in the four specials that will make up the 2009 series before a new Doctor takes over for Series 5. Tennant will also star in the Doctor Who Christmas Special titled The Next Doctor this year.

David Tennant comments "I’ve had the most brilliant, bewildering and life changing time working on Doctor Who. I have loved every day of it. It would be very easy to cling on to the TARDIS console forever and I fear that if I don’t take a deep breath and make the decision to move on now, then I simply never will. You would be prising the TARDIS key out of my cold dead hand. This show has been so special to me, I don’t want to outstay my welcome.

"This is all a long way off, of course. I’m not quitting, I’m back in Cardiff in January to film four special episodes which will take Doctor Who all the way through 2009. I’m still the Doctor all next year but when the time finally comes I’ll be honored to hand on the best job in the world to the next lucky git – whoever that may be.

"I’d always thought the time to leave would be in conjunction with Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner who have been such a huge part of it all for me. Steven Moffat is the most brilliant and exciting writer, the only possible successor to Russell and it was sorely tempting to be part of his amazing new plans for the show. I will be there, glued to my TV when his stories begin in 2010.

"I feel very privileged to have been part of this incredible phenomenon, and whilst I’m looking forward to new challenges I know I’ll always be very proud to be the Tenth Doctor."

Russell T. Davies Executive Producer of Doctor Who comments "I’ve been lucky and honored to work with David over the past few years – and it’s not over yet, the Tenth Doctor still has five spectacular hours left! After which, I might drop an anvil on his head. Or maybe a piano. A radioactive piano. But we’re planning the most enormous and spectacular ending, so keep watching!"

Doctor Who returns to our screens on BBC this Christmas. The Next Doctor starring David Tennant, David Morrissey and Dervla Kirwan will be screened on the 25th December on BBC1.

Let the speculation over the next incarnation of the Time Lord continue.
 

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