Here is sad news regarding the reported death of Anthony Ainley. Bond fans may remember him as one of the Hong Kong policemen that discover the "dead" body of Bond in the pre-title sequence of You Only Live Twice. Dr Who fans will remember him as The Master. May he rest in peace.
Several sources are reporting the death of Anthony Ainley, best known to Doctor Who fans for his portrayal of the Master during the 1980's.
Anthony joined the series in 1981, following such actors as Roger Delgado, Peter Pratt and Geoffrey Beevers in the role of the Doctor's arch nemesis.
He portrayed the character with six Doctor's - Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy, plus Patrick Troughton and Jon Pertwee in the 20th anniversary special, The Five Doctor's.
Anthony Ainley was born in London in 1932, and first appeared on film at the age of five. Trained at RADA, Ainley featured in such films as You Only Live Twice and Oh! What a Lovely War. His other TV roles included parts in Elizabeth R, Upstairs Downstairs and Nicholas Nickleby.
Aside from acting, Ainley was a keen cricketer, playing for the London Theatres Cricket Club team.
Anthony Ainley was very much a private man who handled his own business affairs, making the story hard to verify. Following an obituary published in today's edition of The Independent newspaper, Doctor Who Magazine checked with their sources and believe the news to be correct.
I hope this news isn't correct. . .I always enjoyed Ainley's take on The Master (really, he was the true heir to Roger Delgado--the other two actors mentioned played dessicated versions of the character), and his appearances were always a real pleasure. Sad loss, if it's true.
Here is an extract from an article at the BBC's website announcing Billie Piper as the Doctor's new assistant Rose Tyler in the forthcoming series.
Billie Piper is Doctor Who helper
Former pop singer Billie Piper is to play Doctor Who's new sidekick when the cult BBC sci-fi show returns next year.
She (Piper) said: "Doctor Who is an iconic show and I am absolutely thrilled to be playing the part of Rose Tyler."
"I am also looking forward to working with Christopher Eccleston and writer Russell T Davies."
Executive producer/writer, Russell T Davies, added: "The Doctor's companion is one of the most important and cherished roles in the history of TV drama."
"I'm delighted that someone of Billie's talent is coming on board the Tardis, to travel through time and space."
Mmmmmm.... Not sure if I like the sound of this. However, I've not seen her act and I'm prepared to separate her former pop attempts and the image of Chris Evans from her go at this. After all, she is in the Calcium Kid with Orlando Bloom, is she not? Has anyone seen it? ?:)
I'm not going to judge her before I watch the first few episodes.
Agreed: she's firmly in the "could've been worse" category, rather than "yes!!!". And one of my mates put the fear of God into me this morning - he pointed out that the last time the Doctor had a actress/singer as a companion, it was Bonnie bloody Langford...:o
Quoting Moonraker 5:
Mmmmmm.... Not sure if I like the sound of this. However, I've not seen her act and I'm prepared to separate her former pop attempts and the image of Chris Evans from her go at this. After all, she is in the Calcium Kid with Orlando Bloom, is she not? Has anyone seen it? ?:)
I'm not going to judge her before I watch the first few episodes.
Billie Piper appeared in The Miller's Tale along with James Nesbitt and Dennis Waterman. It was a part of the BBC's Canterbury Tales series which was broadcast at the end of last year. Considering her lack of experience I thought that Billie Piper was pretty darn good. Regarding her forthcoming appearance as Rose Tyler in Doctor Who. Like you, I won't judge her until I have seen the first couple of episodes.
In the meantime, you can see a short preview clip (Real Player) from The Miller's Tale featuring Billy Piper by clicking on the link below.
The BBC have failed to agree editorial control of the Daleks with the late Terry Nation's estate, who own the property rights to the Daleks. So they won't be returning in the new series.
The BBC has confirmed the Daleks will not appear in its new Doctor Who series after a failure to agree terms.
Talks between the BBC and the estate of late sci-fi writer Terry Nation, who created the Daleks, broke down over issues of editorial control.
A BBC spokeswoman said: "After lengthy negotiations, the BBC and Terry Nation have been unable to reach an agreement on the terms of the use of the Daleks."
The Terry Nation estate said it was "bitterly disappointed".
The metal monsters were voted TV's most evil villains in a poll last year.
Fans had hoped to see the Daleks' return in the series, scheduled for release on BBC One in early 2005, but feared copyright issues might stand in the way.
The BBC spokeswoman said: "The BBC offered the very best deal possible but ultimately we were not able to give the level of editorial influence that the Terry Nation estate wished to have."
But an agent for the Nation estate accused the BBC of ignoring copyright laws and said the corporation was trying to "ruin the brand of the Daleks".
Agent Tim Hancock, who represents the Nation estate, said: "We wanted the same level of control over the Daleks that we have enjoyed for the last 40 years.
"If the BBC wanted to re-make any of George Lucas' films, you can bet George Lucas would have something to say about it. "
Mr Hancock accused the BBC of lying about the reasons a deal had not been made.
He said the BBC had tried to commission a cartoon series about gay Daleks for BBC Three.
He also said the corporation had allowed Warner Bros to use the Daleks in the recent movie Loony Tunes without consulting the Terry Nation estate.
"We want to protect the integrity of the brand," he said.
Mr Hancock said the estate would be willing to make a new deal if the BBC accepted the arrangement that had been in place for the last 40 years.
Writer Russell T Davies said he was "disappointed" by the decision but it would not affect the success of the series.
He said: "We are reinventing Doctor Who for a 21st Century audience with a fantastic writing team and exciting new challenges.
"We are disappointed that the Daleks will not be included but we have a number of new and exciting monsters.
"And I can confirm we have created a new enemy for the Doctor which will keep viewers on the edge of their seats."
As Doctor Who's sworn enemies, the Daleks were voted the most evil villains on television in a vote by more than 3,000 GMTV viewers in 2003.
Christopher Eccleston, star of films like Shallow Grave and The Others, has been confirmed as the new Doctor Who.
Former pop star Billie Piper has been chosen to play his sidekick Rose Tyler.
) LMAO!! Thing is, I can just see it! If you've ever seen impressionist John Culshaw on Dead Ringers as the 4th Doctor, Tom Baker, taking on the Daleks and Cybermen in The Weakest Link, or doing Wife Swap with a Cyberwoman it's all too real...
I've a lot of nostalgia for them but I can't imagine the Daleks being a particularly credible or terrifying enemy for the new Doctor. They've been merchandised and parodied for so long that the threat isn't there anymore. 'Genesis' was the last truly memorable Dalek story and, even then, producer Philip Hinchcliffe and script editor Robert Holmes (who gave us the classic early Tom Baker episodes) were reluctant to make it as they felt just about everything you could do with the Daleks had been done.
My wish would be to have some of the second string bad guys, like the Sea Devils for instance, brought back using modern make-up and effects techniques.
Quoting Roebuck:
I've a lot of nostalgia for them but I can't imagine the Daleks being a particularly credible or terrifying enemy for the new Doctor.
I agree.I do think they should be kept in our memories as a brilliantly terrifying bunch of robots.To make them credible now would mean changes them amd I would rather they were left alone and the Doctor has some new enemies to fight.
It will be a very different programme then previous ones because of the developments with special effects and 'wonderful' CGI.Hope they keep the essence of the Doctor though and plenty of hammy acting.
The new series of Doctor Who has begun filming in Cardiff, which will double for London in the first episode. It looks likely that the rumours of shop mannequins coming to life is actually the case...
The new series of Doctor Who will start in an ordinary-looking department store that turns out to be far more sinister, it has emerged.
Speaking on the first day of filming, executive producer Russell T Davies disclosed most of the show will be shot in Cardiff, which will also stand in as London.
Starring Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper, the cult series will arrive on TV screens next year.
The show had ended in 1989 after 26 years.
Most details about the latest incarnation of the timelord and his Tardis are being closely guarded, but it has now emerged that the first scene is being filmed in the department store Howells in Cardiff.
"It is a very exciting scene in the very first three minutes of episode one," said Mr Davies.
"An ordinary department store turns out to be something far more sinister, and that's all I can give away."
Mr Davies, who also wrote Channel 4's Queer as Folk, said that although information about the series would get out, he wanted to keep most of it secret.
"I hate watching stuff when I know what is going to happen.
"I hope millions will be sitting down and watch a brand new series of Doctor Who as a surprise."
The writer also explained how different parts of Cardiff would feature in the show.
"We are going to shoot 95% of the series in Cardiff.
"We are going to use Cardiff as London, we are going to use Cardiff as Cardiff.
"And we are going to be here representing 1860s, and all sorts of different periods throughout history and the future."
Of course, that means Eccleston and Piper will be spending a lot of time in south Wales over the following months.
"When I was told I would have to spend eight months of my life in Wales, I was actually quite excited because I used to come here as a child on holiday," said Piper.
"We used to come here in our caravan, so I am happy to be back."
She has been spending her spare time catching up on the old adventures of the doctor, although she said she was trying not to be pressured by the role's past.
"We are trying to create something new with the essence of the old Doctor Whos - times have moved on and so have we."
The Doctor himself tried to explain what kept the show's enduring appeal alive.
"It's an escape, it's a romp," said Eccleston.
"It's the mystery of the doctor and the mystery of the relationship between the doctor and his companion."
Hmmm. . .I recall that the first adventure of Jon Pertwee's Doctor featured mannequins that came to life. Is this a tribute? A remake? A continuation? Time will tell. . .
Quoting Hardyboy:
Hmmm. . .I recall that the first adventure of Jon Pertwee's Doctor featured mannequins that came to life. Is this a tribute? A remake? A continuation? Time will tell. . .
The rumour regarding the mennequins did quote "a recurring enemy" ...
Quoting jetsetwilly:
It's strange; I wouldn't call myself a Whovian by any means, but I'm extremely excited about this new series! I can't wait for it to start again!
Same here - I watched the Peter Davidson Doctor as a kid, and a bit of the Colin Baker series, but other than that I've rarely watched any of them, yet I'm really looking forward to this new series!
Quoting FROSTY:
I watched the show regularly, from about 1976 - 1984,
but then Colin Baker clashed with THE A-TEAM - so I barely saw any of him! ) (didn't like him much anyway!).
Me Too!! The A Team won in our house as well!
But then Dirk Benedict was much better looking than Colin baker
Iam looking forward to the new series very much and I think Billie Piper will be quite good.
Does anybody know what the things were called that were giant maggots?? I hated those.Think they were fron the Jon Pertwee era.One of my scary childhood memories!!!!
Quoting FROSTY: Quoting Lady Rose:
Does anybody know what the things were called that were giant maggots?? I hated those.Think they were fron the Jon Pertwee era.One of my scary childhood memories!!!!
I seem to remember that they were called: "THE GIANT MAGGOTS", LOL!! ) - it does what it says on the tin!. )
LOL ) .... The Giant Maggots it is then.....
As for Dirk....if we were doing 'Hereos of the 80's' he would be near the top.....
Doctor Who's arch enemies the Daleks are coming back to the series after a lengthy dispute between the BBC and the creator's estate was finally settled.
The estate of sci-fi writer Terry Nation had originally blocked their return to the classic BBC One show.
But the BBC said an agreement had been reached ensuring that the Daleks - voted the most evil Doctor Who villains of all time - would be back.
Doctor Who returns to TV in 2005 with Christopher Eccleston in the lead role.
"I am absolutely delighted that the Terry Nation estate and the BBC have been able to reach agreement on terms for the use of the Daleks in the new Doctor Who series," said Tim Hancock, agent for the Terry Nation estate.
"We look forward to working closely with the production team in the forthcoming months."
Mr Nation was a prolific TV and film writer before his death in 1997, creating Blake's 7 and Survivors and writing for The Avengers and Hancock.
There have been protracted negotiations between the BBC and the estate since it was announced Doctor Who was coming back 14 years after it was axed.
These talks eventually broke down, with the BBC saying that no agreement could be reached over editorial control and that producers had already created another villain.
Terry Nation's estate accused the BBC of trying to "ruin the brand of the Daleks" by trying to wrestle control of the image.
But fans are thrilled the two sides have settled their differences.
"We are absolutely delighted that the daleks will be back," said Antony Wainer, spokesman for the Doctor Who Appreciation Society (DWAS).
"Doctor Who without daleks would be like Morecambe without Wise or Wimbledon without strawberries."
Although the society is enthusiastic about the daleks, it is also looking forward to the series moving on.
"As much as we like the Cybermen and other characters, we want them to create new baddies and new stories.
"As long as the premise is the same, with Doctor Who as a Time Lord who can regenerate, it can change. Beyond that central character it has been completely different over the years," added Mr Wainer.
The series, written by Russell T Davies, will see former pop star Billie Piper take the role of the doctor's sidekick Rose Tyler.
Sir MilesThe Wrong Side Of The WardrobePosts: 27,762Chief of Staff
Chris Eccleston is a good actor and an interesting choice for the Doctor. It will be strange to see the new Doctor without his trademark, Edwardian style, long coat - it's all leather jackets and jeans now !
Sir Miles, did I miss something? I didn't see anything in Moonie's post that said Eccleston wouldn't be wearing late-Victorian/Edwardian togs. Anyway, great news! Huzzah, huzzah! I just hope that the show leaves Davros out this time: great villainous character, but he adds too much of a human element to the Daleks.
Vox clamantis in deserto
Sir MilesThe Wrong Side Of The WardrobePosts: 27,762Chief of Staff
Quoting Hardyboy:
Sir Miles, did I miss something? I didn't see anything in Moonie's post that said Eccleston wouldn't be wearing late-Victorian/Edwardian togs. Anyway, great news! Huzzah, huzzah! I just hope that the show leaves Davros out this time: great villainous character, but he adds too much of a human element to the Daleks.
Moonie's post didn't mention anything about the new Doctors apparel - but one daily rag here has already printed a few pictures. It showed a scene from the new series and it was reported, and showed, the new Doctor wearing a leather jacket and jeans - the blurb said that Chris was uncomfortable wearing the traditional "togs" and wanted to update the style - have we heard that before ?
The Tardis remains the same though *phew* !
Veteran Dalek actor John Scott Martin has offered to step into the costume again for the 2005 Doctor Who series.
The 77-year-old, who played the Doctor's arch villains from 1964 to 1980, said he would be happy to reprise the role if asked.
"I really enjoyed doing it before," he told BBC News Online. "I would happily run around as a Dalek again."
The Daleks will return to the BBC One series after negotiations with the estate of sci-fi writer Terry Nation.
Scott Martin, who has also appeared in I Claudius, Little Shop of Horrors and Ali G Indahouse, was one of four longstanding actors to play Daleks.
The role required them to squeeze into a wooden or metal costume, then scuttle around to simulate the Dalek gliding on three caster wheels.
Actors spoke the Daleks' lines in rehearsal, but their famous robotic voices were usually dubbed onto the scene after filming was complete.
"The device that changed my voice was obviously at the front of the costume, so if a scene required another actor to stand close to the Dalek, their voice would also sound robotic," said Scott Martin.
The heat of the costume meant that inside the Dalek's terrifying shell you would find the actor dressed in only a T-shirt and swimming trunks.
"It could be difficult at times and I'm not as fit as I used to be, but I'm sure I could do it again," Scott Martin said.
A BBC spokeswoman said Doctor Who producers had yet to decide whether Daleks would be fully automated or operated by actors in the forthcoming series.
"As we have just secured the rights to use the Daleks we have not begun work on the episodes in which they will appear," she said.
Nevertheless Scott Martin said: "I always thought playing a Dalek was as interesting as playing a cow in a pantomime - there was potential to put some personality into it.
"We had to believe that the Dalek was not a human being, yet it was still a being. That's not to say it wasn't really nasty."
And despite enjoying playing Daleks alongside Doctor Who actors from William Hartnell to Sylvester McCoy, Scott Martin refuses to name a favourite.
Instead, he adopts a Dalek voice and says: "There is no favourite. The Doctor must be exterminated."
Though I would never have described myself as a big Doctor Who fan; I watched it regularly growing up in the 80s and then lost track of it toward the end of that decade, this simple image from the set of the new series in Cardiff gives me goosebumps:
It grows more intriguing ... I'm not too sure of the format (45 minute episodes and a couple of 2-parters), but from some of the photos, it's going to be pretty dark, which for me is an essential!
I still think Billie Piper a rather odd choice as an assistant, but I'm willing to reserve judgement until next year ...
For anyone that's interested, this piece was in the Culture Magazine of the Sunday Times today. Easter Saturday, 26th March on BBC One is when the first episode will air.
For 25 years, Doctor Who’s creaky charm captivated a nation. Now Russell T Davies has polished it up, with slick effects and an even slicker script. But will we — and the anoraks — love it just the same, asks Bryan Appleyard.
“Oh, you know, ‘The people of Planet Zog are being fought by the Zognauts...’ I don’t give a toss. I go through Radio Times, reading the billings of these shows — ‘The crystals of Narthok are in danger from the blah blah blah’ — and I don’t care. The audience is so much more intelligent than that. I won’t have dumbing-down for a second.”
Travelling down to some studios in Wales, I had been vaguely wondering why the BBC had suddenly decided to remake Doctor Who. I learn the answer as soon as I walk into Unit Q2, Imperial Park, Newport. It is standing in front of me, babbling fluently and, I slowly realise, brilliantly. It is Russell T Davies, chief writer and executive producer, and previously writer of Queer as Folk and some of the best children’s television shows. Without this camp, chortling, verbal torrent, this encyclopedia of schlock TV, this genially conceited motor mouth, there would have been no point in trying to resurrect our own space opera. Nobody else could conceivably have got it right.
“I mean, I’ve watched the Harry Potters several times. I don’t say you’ve got to match them. You disappear up your own arse if you try to chase cinema on television, but you’ve got to nod towards it. You’ve got to have professionals. These scripts are better than Harry Potter scripts — good characters, good stories, good jokes, good scares.” They show me some clips of the new show, with Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor and Billie Piper as his “young assistant”. I remember when that phrase first acquired inverted commas. I was about 13 at the time.
“I never ask what he was doing with his young companion,” says Davies, with mock huffiness. “It’s the sort of thing journalists think about.”
The clips make it clear.
Davies may babble, but he also delivers. The scripts are, indeed, much better than Harry Potter. They are slick, witty and, most important of all, fresh. They also have Davies the Mouth’s fingerprints all over them. The Doctor’s slightly deranged monologue sounds suspiciously like Russell T himself.
“So, you identify with the Doctor?” I ask him between clips. “More with Billie,” giggles Julie Gardner, producer, head of drama for BBC Wales and part-time Wise to Davies’s Morecambe. He affects a juicy pout. “Oh, yeees.”
Okay, enough of this. Doctor Who began on November 23, 1963, and ended in 1989. There was a one-off TV movie in 1996. The series was silly, naff, consoling and, especially in its choice of actors to play the Doctor, brilliant. From William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton through to Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker, the doctors were batty, obsessed, dandyish and polychromatically scarved. Above all, they were British types. Compare these characters to those in the first series of Star Trek, which began in 1966. With the possible exception of “Bones” McCoy, Kirk and his crew were sensible, post-Kennedy, liberal American heroes, sane and reliable. The Doctors, in contrast, formed a portfolio of bonkers Brits. Eccleston might, in this context, be a problem. Bill Nighy had been floated, the obvious choice — if anything, he would have been the battiest of the lot. But Eccleston is just a wiry lad in a leather jacket that Davies describes as “strangely timeless”. He’s good, but is he lasting? Will Dead Ringers be impersonating him years hence, as they do Baker? Never mind: the Britishness of the enterprise is intact. “This is very, very British,” says Motor Mouth. “We’ve got the Houses of Parliament and red buses. It’s all very emphasised. The first shot is the earth from outer space, and it zooms into Britain and London. We’ve had all those yellow school buses and prom days. We’ve had enough of that.”
Actually, he hasn’t had enough of it all. He is crazy about American teen sci-fi such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer. His favourite film of all time is Back to the Future. In fact, it is exactly this kind of enthusiasm that makes him so aware of the kind of competition the new Doctor Who is up against. For the truth is that, apart from the weird excursion of Blake’s 7, which ran from 1978 to 1981, the Doctor was the only real British attempt to do TV sci-fi. We handed over the genre to the Americans and they ran with it, producing gems such as The X Files or Buffy, as well as the various, often gemlike, Star Trek iterations. The problem then became competing, not just aesthetically but also financially. American television wealth meant those shows could produce special effects good enough to convince the Matrix generation that they were worth watching. This, too, has changed. The cost of special effects has dropped and, meanwhile, we have some of the best effects people in the world. As a result, this series is replete with light and magic, all made by The Mill, the Soho outfit that did, among other things, Gladiator.
That movie, however, had a mere 100 visual effects. This new Doctor Who series — 13 45-minute episodes — has about 800, and The Mill has been churning them out at the rate of 100 a month. “I don’t know,” says The Mill’s boss, Robin Shenfield, “but I’m pretty sure nothing of this scale has ever been attempted — certainly nothing British.” This means that the beloved clunkiness of the old series — cardboard sets, crummy aliens — is to be replaced by computer-slick graphics. This is, at the very least, a sentimental loss. Mike Tucker, the miniature-effects supervisor on the new series, also worked on the old one. He used to admire its frantic overreaching. “It was always pushing against the boundaries of its budget, trying to do stuff it couldn’t possibly achieve,” he says. “They would try to make the Loch Ness monster attack a village, or they’d have an attack with a horde of Daleks when they had only three Dalek props. It was one of its great charms. But then Star Wars came along and raised the game. These days, kids are so effects-literate.”
Computer graphics had to happen, of course, but, to their credit, everybody involved is aware of the potential loss of the show’s distinctive patina. Davies insisted, for example, that the interior of the Tardis should look like a terrible, lived-in British mess, as opposed to the gleaming flight deck of the Starship Enterprise. And outside, it’s still an old-fashioned police box that disappears and reappears with that weird donkey-braying sound. The Mill people have been fiddling with this effect, but in principle it’s intact — and as clunky as ever.
The big issue, of course, is the Daleks. They are back, and they look much the same, except that they now have a harsh bronze sheen and are plainly better built. They still have the sink-plunger weapon, which, on the originals, really was a sink plunger, and they still appear to be severely restricted in their evil work by their inability to climb stairs. Davies, typically, has turned both these attributes into roguish gags. The sink plunger kills somebody horribly — a sort of face-sucking operation, I gather — and when Piper runs up a staircase to escape a Dalek, she discovers, to her horror, that they can fly. Obvious, really.
Wholly new to the series is Cassandra. She is what an American waiter would call Davies’s “signature dish”.
Several billion years in the future, she is all that remains of the purely human species, and she has definitely overdone the dieting, having become no more than a stretched film of skin with a face. Voiced by Zoë Wanamaker, she’s like Patsy in Ab Fab: bitchy and randy. “But she turns out to be murderous, and has a fantastic death,” says Motor Mouth. One other “signature dish” is the takeover of the bodies of the British cabinet by aliens.
This produces unfortunate amounts of gas, so the entire cabinet farts continuously.
What is interesting about all this is not just the campery of Davies’s imagination, but the sensitivity that makes it all work. He understands that the old formula has to change. Piper, the young assistant, for example, can’t just run around screaming: she has to have a background, and he has given her a family and a boyfriend. “She’s got a life — the old companions didn’t have a life,” he says. Equally, Davies understands that there are fundamental structural and stylistic elements that cannot be changed. The Doctor must be a little crazed, the assistant provides a curious, contemporary perspective, and the Daleks and the police box are just too much part of the brand to be discarded. The trick is to get the right balance of innovation and core values. “It’s a good idea, and good ideas never die. I love it when Disney does The Little Mermaid, and everybody says, ‘How dare they change the ending?’ But the Disney ending is better than the original. It’s like Beauty and the Beast, a great story that’s there to be told again, and they automatically become new stories. It’s a bizarre idea that they should just gather dust. Robin Hood, Tarzan, Sherlock Holmes — Doctor Who has the stature of those.”
This suggests that the shelf life of the Doctor Who idea is more or less infinite. But it requires intelligent protection. Even the best American sci-fi shows, such as Buffy and The X Files, went into decline too quickly. They, as Davies puts it, “vanished up their own mythologies”. Basically, the shows got so involved with their own setup that they became far too self-referential. “You can disappear up your own arse with your own continuity,” he says. “Those shows needed a good clean-out every three years. They get darker; they get wrapped up in their own very good stories.”
It is at moments such as these that you see the acute and intelligent critic lurking beneath the campery. But is he intelligent enough? Doctor Who is a huge gamble for the BBC. It will probably go out in its old slot, early on Saturday evening. This pitches it into the most competitive and difficult ratings moment of the week. At the moment, drama barely gets a look-in against Ant and Dec and all the other babble. The trick for the Doctor is to fight this with a show that grabs the children as well as their parents — just, in fact, what the old one did. I hope it works. Doctor Who is British sci-fi, full of native wit, charm and a strange sort of familiarity, a sense of belonging somewhere. “The thing about Star Trek,” says old Motor Mouth, suddenly wistful, “is that you can’t join in. It will never happen. But you can imagine walking home from school, turning a corner and seeing the Tardis. You could just walk in and join the Doctor. It could happen.”
Doctor Who starts on BBC1 at the end of March.
Sir MilesThe Wrong Side Of The WardrobePosts: 27,762Chief of Staff
That's a good article, Russell T Davies makes all the right noises - and his words and sentiment remind me of Martin Campbell just before he started filming Goldeneye.
I'm looking forward to this series and what Ecclestone does with the character of the Doctor. I've heard the show is running way behind schedule though.
Comments
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/3576629.stm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/doctorwho/news/drwho/2004/05/10/10973.shtml
Master actor reportedly passes away.
Several sources are reporting the death of Anthony Ainley, best known to Doctor Who fans for his portrayal of the Master during the 1980's.
Anthony joined the series in 1981, following such actors as Roger Delgado, Peter Pratt and Geoffrey Beevers in the role of the Doctor's arch nemesis.
He portrayed the character with six Doctor's - Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy, plus Patrick Troughton and Jon Pertwee in the 20th anniversary special, The Five Doctor's.
Anthony Ainley was born in London in 1932, and first appeared on film at the age of five. Trained at RADA, Ainley featured in such films as You Only Live Twice and Oh! What a Lovely War. His other TV roles included parts in Elizabeth R, Upstairs Downstairs and Nicholas Nickleby.
Aside from acting, Ainley was a keen cricketer, playing for the London Theatres Cricket Club team.
Anthony Ainley was very much a private man who handled his own business affairs, making the story hard to verify. Following an obituary published in today's edition of The Independent newspaper, Doctor Who Magazine checked with their sources and believe the news to be correct.
Billie Piper is Doctor Who helper
Former pop singer Billie Piper is to play Doctor Who's new sidekick when the cult BBC sci-fi show returns next year.
She (Piper) said: "Doctor Who is an iconic show and I am absolutely thrilled to be playing the part of Rose Tyler."
"I am also looking forward to working with Christopher Eccleston and writer Russell T Davies."
Executive producer/writer, Russell T Davies, added: "The Doctor's companion is one of the most important and cherished roles in the history of TV drama."
"I'm delighted that someone of Billie's talent is coming on board the Tardis, to travel through time and space."
For the full article click on the link below.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/3743753.stm
I'm not going to judge her before I watch the first few episodes.
@merseytart
Billie Piper appeared in The Miller's Tale along with James Nesbitt and Dennis Waterman. It was a part of the BBC's Canterbury Tales series which was broadcast at the end of last year. Considering her lack of experience I thought that Billie Piper was pretty darn good. Regarding her forthcoming appearance as Rose Tyler in Doctor Who. Like you, I won't judge her until I have seen the first couple of episodes.
In the meantime, you can see a short preview clip (Real Player) from The Miller's Tale featuring Billy Piper by clicking on the link below.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/canterburytales/episodeguide/millers_tale/index.shtml
Then click on preview clip.
No Daleks in Doctor Who's return
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/3859651.stm
The BBC has confirmed the Daleks will not appear in its new Doctor Who series after a failure to agree terms.
Talks between the BBC and the estate of late sci-fi writer Terry Nation, who created the Daleks, broke down over issues of editorial control.
A BBC spokeswoman said: "After lengthy negotiations, the BBC and Terry Nation have been unable to reach an agreement on the terms of the use of the Daleks."
The Terry Nation estate said it was "bitterly disappointed".
The metal monsters were voted TV's most evil villains in a poll last year.
Fans had hoped to see the Daleks' return in the series, scheduled for release on BBC One in early 2005, but feared copyright issues might stand in the way.
The BBC spokeswoman said: "The BBC offered the very best deal possible but ultimately we were not able to give the level of editorial influence that the Terry Nation estate wished to have."
But an agent for the Nation estate accused the BBC of ignoring copyright laws and said the corporation was trying to "ruin the brand of the Daleks".
Agent Tim Hancock, who represents the Nation estate, said: "We wanted the same level of control over the Daleks that we have enjoyed for the last 40 years.
"If the BBC wanted to re-make any of George Lucas' films, you can bet George Lucas would have something to say about it. "
Mr Hancock accused the BBC of lying about the reasons a deal had not been made.
He said the BBC had tried to commission a cartoon series about gay Daleks for BBC Three.
He also said the corporation had allowed Warner Bros to use the Daleks in the recent movie Loony Tunes without consulting the Terry Nation estate.
"We want to protect the integrity of the brand," he said.
Mr Hancock said the estate would be willing to make a new deal if the BBC accepted the arrangement that had been in place for the last 40 years.
Writer Russell T Davies said he was "disappointed" by the decision but it would not affect the success of the series.
He said: "We are reinventing Doctor Who for a 21st Century audience with a fantastic writing team and exciting new challenges.
"We are disappointed that the Daleks will not be included but we have a number of new and exciting monsters.
"And I can confirm we have created a new enemy for the Doctor which will keep viewers on the edge of their seats."
As Doctor Who's sworn enemies, the Daleks were voted the most evil villains on television in a vote by more than 3,000 GMTV viewers in 2003.
Christopher Eccleston, star of films like Shallow Grave and The Others, has been confirmed as the new Doctor Who.
Former pop star Billie Piper has been chosen to play his sidekick Rose Tyler.
Second, it's distressing to find out the new Doctor won't be battling the Daleks. Gads--that's like Batman not having the Joker to battle!
Third. . .gay Daleks?! I just don't see it. "You. . .will. . .be. . .ex-ter-mi-nated! But. . .first, Doctor. . .where. . .did. . .you. . .get. . .that. . .fabulous. . .scarf? And. . .we. . .must. . .do. . .something. . .about. . .these. . .exo-shells. . .they. . .just. . .make. . .our. . .butts. . .look. . .so. . .big!"
My wish would be to have some of the second string bad guys, like the Sea Devils for instance, brought back using modern make-up and effects techniques.
I agree.I do think they should be kept in our memories as a brilliantly terrifying bunch of robots.To make them credible now would mean changes them amd I would rather they were left alone and the Doctor has some new enemies to fight.
It will be a very different programme then previous ones because of the developments with special effects and 'wonderful' CGI.Hope they keep the essence of the Doctor though and plenty of hammy acting.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/3913205.stm
First secrets from new Doctor Who
The new series of Doctor Who will start in an ordinary-looking department store that turns out to be far more sinister, it has emerged.
Speaking on the first day of filming, executive producer Russell T Davies disclosed most of the show will be shot in Cardiff, which will also stand in as London.
Starring Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper, the cult series will arrive on TV screens next year.
The show had ended in 1989 after 26 years.
Most details about the latest incarnation of the timelord and his Tardis are being closely guarded, but it has now emerged that the first scene is being filmed in the department store Howells in Cardiff.
"It is a very exciting scene in the very first three minutes of episode one," said Mr Davies.
"An ordinary department store turns out to be something far more sinister, and that's all I can give away."
Mr Davies, who also wrote Channel 4's Queer as Folk, said that although information about the series would get out, he wanted to keep most of it secret.
"I hate watching stuff when I know what is going to happen.
"I hope millions will be sitting down and watch a brand new series of Doctor Who as a surprise."
The writer also explained how different parts of Cardiff would feature in the show.
"We are going to shoot 95% of the series in Cardiff.
"We are going to use Cardiff as London, we are going to use Cardiff as Cardiff.
"And we are going to be here representing 1860s, and all sorts of different periods throughout history and the future."
Of course, that means Eccleston and Piper will be spending a lot of time in south Wales over the following months.
"When I was told I would have to spend eight months of my life in Wales, I was actually quite excited because I used to come here as a child on holiday," said Piper.
"We used to come here in our caravan, so I am happy to be back."
She has been spending her spare time catching up on the old adventures of the doctor, although she said she was trying not to be pressured by the role's past.
"We are trying to create something new with the essence of the old Doctor Whos - times have moved on and so have we."
The Doctor himself tried to explain what kept the show's enduring appeal alive.
"It's an escape, it's a romp," said Eccleston.
"It's the mystery of the doctor and the mystery of the relationship between the doctor and his companion."
It's strange; I wouldn't call myself a Whovian by any means, but I'm extremely excited about this new series! I can't wait for it to start again!
@merseytart
Me Too!! The A Team won in our house as well!
But then Dirk Benedict was much better looking than Colin baker
Iam looking forward to the new series very much and I think Billie Piper will be quite good.
Does anybody know what the things were called that were giant maggots?? I hated those.Think they were fron the Jon Pertwee era.One of my scary childhood memories!!!!
LOL
As for Dirk....if we were doing 'Hereos of the 80's' he would be near the top.....
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/3535588.stm
Daleks back to fight Doctor Who
Doctor Who's arch enemies the Daleks are coming back to the series after a lengthy dispute between the BBC and the creator's estate was finally settled.
The estate of sci-fi writer Terry Nation had originally blocked their return to the classic BBC One show.
But the BBC said an agreement had been reached ensuring that the Daleks - voted the most evil Doctor Who villains of all time - would be back.
Doctor Who returns to TV in 2005 with Christopher Eccleston in the lead role.
"I am absolutely delighted that the Terry Nation estate and the BBC have been able to reach agreement on terms for the use of the Daleks in the new Doctor Who series," said Tim Hancock, agent for the Terry Nation estate.
"We look forward to working closely with the production team in the forthcoming months."
Mr Nation was a prolific TV and film writer before his death in 1997, creating Blake's 7 and Survivors and writing for The Avengers and Hancock.
There have been protracted negotiations between the BBC and the estate since it was announced Doctor Who was coming back 14 years after it was axed.
These talks eventually broke down, with the BBC saying that no agreement could be reached over editorial control and that producers had already created another villain.
Terry Nation's estate accused the BBC of trying to "ruin the brand of the Daleks" by trying to wrestle control of the image.
But fans are thrilled the two sides have settled their differences.
"We are absolutely delighted that the daleks will be back," said Antony Wainer, spokesman for the Doctor Who Appreciation Society (DWAS).
"Doctor Who without daleks would be like Morecambe without Wise or Wimbledon without strawberries."
Although the society is enthusiastic about the daleks, it is also looking forward to the series moving on.
"As much as we like the Cybermen and other characters, we want them to create new baddies and new stories.
"As long as the premise is the same, with Doctor Who as a Time Lord who can regenerate, it can change. Beyond that central character it has been completely different over the years," added Mr Wainer.
The series, written by Russell T Davies, will see former pop star Billie Piper take the role of the doctor's sidekick Rose Tyler.
Moonie's post didn't mention anything about the new Doctors apparel - but one daily rag here has already printed a few pictures. It showed a scene from the new series and it was reported, and showed, the new Doctor wearing a leather jacket and jeans - the blurb said that Chris was uncomfortable wearing the traditional "togs" and wanted to update the style - have we heard that before ?
The Tardis remains the same though *phew* !
Dalek veteran makes comeback bid
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/3551326.stm
Veteran Dalek actor John Scott Martin has offered to step into the costume again for the 2005 Doctor Who series.
The 77-year-old, who played the Doctor's arch villains from 1964 to 1980, said he would be happy to reprise the role if asked.
"I really enjoyed doing it before," he told BBC News Online. "I would happily run around as a Dalek again."
The Daleks will return to the BBC One series after negotiations with the estate of sci-fi writer Terry Nation.
Scott Martin, who has also appeared in I Claudius, Little Shop of Horrors and Ali G Indahouse, was one of four longstanding actors to play Daleks.
The role required them to squeeze into a wooden or metal costume, then scuttle around to simulate the Dalek gliding on three caster wheels.
Actors spoke the Daleks' lines in rehearsal, but their famous robotic voices were usually dubbed onto the scene after filming was complete.
"The device that changed my voice was obviously at the front of the costume, so if a scene required another actor to stand close to the Dalek, their voice would also sound robotic," said Scott Martin.
The heat of the costume meant that inside the Dalek's terrifying shell you would find the actor dressed in only a T-shirt and swimming trunks.
"It could be difficult at times and I'm not as fit as I used to be, but I'm sure I could do it again," Scott Martin said.
A BBC spokeswoman said Doctor Who producers had yet to decide whether Daleks would be fully automated or operated by actors in the forthcoming series.
"As we have just secured the rights to use the Daleks we have not begun work on the episodes in which they will appear," she said.
Nevertheless Scott Martin said: "I always thought playing a Dalek was as interesting as playing a cow in a pantomime - there was potential to put some personality into it.
"We had to believe that the Dalek was not a human being, yet it was still a being. That's not to say it wasn't really nasty."
And despite enjoying playing Daleks alongside Doctor Who actors from William Hartnell to Sylvester McCoy, Scott Martin refuses to name a favourite.
Instead, he adopts a Dalek voice and says: "There is no favourite. The Doctor must be exterminated."
[img=http://www.gallifreyone.com/whophotos/cuttings12.jpg]And for those of you on the other side of the Atlantic who may not have seen the new Doctor and his assistant Rose in filming stills:[/img]
I still think Billie Piper a rather odd choice as an assistant, but I'm willing to reserve judgement until next year ...
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/printFriendly/0,,2100-14413-1511000,00.html
For 25 years, Doctor Who’s creaky charm captivated a nation. Now Russell T Davies has polished it up, with slick effects and an even slicker script. But will we — and the anoraks — love it just the same, asks Bryan Appleyard.
“Oh, you know, ‘The people of Planet Zog are being fought by the Zognauts...’ I don’t give a toss. I go through Radio Times, reading the billings of these shows — ‘The crystals of Narthok are in danger from the blah blah blah’ — and I don’t care. The audience is so much more intelligent than that. I won’t have dumbing-down for a second.”
Travelling down to some studios in Wales, I had been vaguely wondering why the BBC had suddenly decided to remake Doctor Who. I learn the answer as soon as I walk into Unit Q2, Imperial Park, Newport. It is standing in front of me, babbling fluently and, I slowly realise, brilliantly. It is Russell T Davies, chief writer and executive producer, and previously writer of Queer as Folk and some of the best children’s television shows. Without this camp, chortling, verbal torrent, this encyclopedia of schlock TV, this genially conceited motor mouth, there would have been no point in trying to resurrect our own space opera. Nobody else could conceivably have got it right.
“I mean, I’ve watched the Harry Potters several times. I don’t say you’ve got to match them. You disappear up your own arse if you try to chase cinema on television, but you’ve got to nod towards it. You’ve got to have professionals. These scripts are better than Harry Potter scripts — good characters, good stories, good jokes, good scares.” They show me some clips of the new show, with Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor and Billie Piper as his “young assistant”. I remember when that phrase first acquired inverted commas. I was about 13 at the time.
“I never ask what he was doing with his young companion,” says Davies, with mock huffiness. “It’s the sort of thing journalists think about.”
The clips make it clear.
Davies may babble, but he also delivers. The scripts are, indeed, much better than Harry Potter. They are slick, witty and, most important of all, fresh. They also have Davies the Mouth’s fingerprints all over them. The Doctor’s slightly deranged monologue sounds suspiciously like Russell T himself.
“So, you identify with the Doctor?” I ask him between clips. “More with Billie,” giggles Julie Gardner, producer, head of drama for BBC Wales and part-time Wise to Davies’s Morecambe. He affects a juicy pout. “Oh, yeees.”
Okay, enough of this. Doctor Who began on November 23, 1963, and ended in 1989. There was a one-off TV movie in 1996. The series was silly, naff, consoling and, especially in its choice of actors to play the Doctor, brilliant. From William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton through to Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker, the doctors were batty, obsessed, dandyish and polychromatically scarved. Above all, they were British types. Compare these characters to those in the first series of Star Trek, which began in 1966. With the possible exception of “Bones” McCoy, Kirk and his crew were sensible, post-Kennedy, liberal American heroes, sane and reliable. The Doctors, in contrast, formed a portfolio of bonkers Brits. Eccleston might, in this context, be a problem. Bill Nighy had been floated, the obvious choice — if anything, he would have been the battiest of the lot. But Eccleston is just a wiry lad in a leather jacket that Davies describes as “strangely timeless”. He’s good, but is he lasting? Will Dead Ringers be impersonating him years hence, as they do Baker? Never mind: the Britishness of the enterprise is intact. “This is very, very British,” says Motor Mouth. “We’ve got the Houses of Parliament and red buses. It’s all very emphasised. The first shot is the earth from outer space, and it zooms into Britain and London. We’ve had all those yellow school buses and prom days. We’ve had enough of that.”
Actually, he hasn’t had enough of it all. He is crazy about American teen sci-fi such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer. His favourite film of all time is Back to the Future. In fact, it is exactly this kind of enthusiasm that makes him so aware of the kind of competition the new Doctor Who is up against. For the truth is that, apart from the weird excursion of Blake’s 7, which ran from 1978 to 1981, the Doctor was the only real British attempt to do TV sci-fi. We handed over the genre to the Americans and they ran with it, producing gems such as The X Files or Buffy, as well as the various, often gemlike, Star Trek iterations. The problem then became competing, not just aesthetically but also financially. American television wealth meant those shows could produce special effects good enough to convince the Matrix generation that they were worth watching. This, too, has changed. The cost of special effects has dropped and, meanwhile, we have some of the best effects people in the world. As a result, this series is replete with light and magic, all made by The Mill, the Soho outfit that did, among other things, Gladiator.
That movie, however, had a mere 100 visual effects. This new Doctor Who series — 13 45-minute episodes — has about 800, and The Mill has been churning them out at the rate of 100 a month. “I don’t know,” says The Mill’s boss, Robin Shenfield, “but I’m pretty sure nothing of this scale has ever been attempted — certainly nothing British.” This means that the beloved clunkiness of the old series — cardboard sets, crummy aliens — is to be replaced by computer-slick graphics. This is, at the very least, a sentimental loss. Mike Tucker, the miniature-effects supervisor on the new series, also worked on the old one. He used to admire its frantic overreaching. “It was always pushing against the boundaries of its budget, trying to do stuff it couldn’t possibly achieve,” he says. “They would try to make the Loch Ness monster attack a village, or they’d have an attack with a horde of Daleks when they had only three Dalek props. It was one of its great charms. But then Star Wars came along and raised the game. These days, kids are so effects-literate.”
Computer graphics had to happen, of course, but, to their credit, everybody involved is aware of the potential loss of the show’s distinctive patina. Davies insisted, for example, that the interior of the Tardis should look like a terrible, lived-in British mess, as opposed to the gleaming flight deck of the Starship Enterprise. And outside, it’s still an old-fashioned police box that disappears and reappears with that weird donkey-braying sound. The Mill people have been fiddling with this effect, but in principle it’s intact — and as clunky as ever.
The big issue, of course, is the Daleks. They are back, and they look much the same, except that they now have a harsh bronze sheen and are plainly better built. They still have the sink-plunger weapon, which, on the originals, really was a sink plunger, and they still appear to be severely restricted in their evil work by their inability to climb stairs. Davies, typically, has turned both these attributes into roguish gags. The sink plunger kills somebody horribly — a sort of face-sucking operation, I gather — and when Piper runs up a staircase to escape a Dalek, she discovers, to her horror, that they can fly. Obvious, really.
Wholly new to the series is Cassandra. She is what an American waiter would call Davies’s “signature dish”.
Several billion years in the future, she is all that remains of the purely human species, and she has definitely overdone the dieting, having become no more than a stretched film of skin with a face. Voiced by Zoë Wanamaker, she’s like Patsy in Ab Fab: bitchy and randy. “But she turns out to be murderous, and has a fantastic death,” says Motor Mouth. One other “signature dish” is the takeover of the bodies of the British cabinet by aliens.
This produces unfortunate amounts of gas, so the entire cabinet farts continuously.
What is interesting about all this is not just the campery of Davies’s imagination, but the sensitivity that makes it all work. He understands that the old formula has to change. Piper, the young assistant, for example, can’t just run around screaming: she has to have a background, and he has given her a family and a boyfriend. “She’s got a life — the old companions didn’t have a life,” he says. Equally, Davies understands that there are fundamental structural and stylistic elements that cannot be changed. The Doctor must be a little crazed, the assistant provides a curious, contemporary perspective, and the Daleks and the police box are just too much part of the brand to be discarded. The trick is to get the right balance of innovation and core values. “It’s a good idea, and good ideas never die. I love it when Disney does The Little Mermaid, and everybody says, ‘How dare they change the ending?’ But the Disney ending is better than the original. It’s like Beauty and the Beast, a great story that’s there to be told again, and they automatically become new stories. It’s a bizarre idea that they should just gather dust. Robin Hood, Tarzan, Sherlock Holmes — Doctor Who has the stature of those.”
This suggests that the shelf life of the Doctor Who idea is more or less infinite. But it requires intelligent protection. Even the best American sci-fi shows, such as Buffy and The X Files, went into decline too quickly. They, as Davies puts it, “vanished up their own mythologies”. Basically, the shows got so involved with their own setup that they became far too self-referential. “You can disappear up your own arse with your own continuity,” he says. “Those shows needed a good clean-out every three years. They get darker; they get wrapped up in their own very good stories.”
It is at moments such as these that you see the acute and intelligent critic lurking beneath the campery. But is he intelligent enough? Doctor Who is a huge gamble for the BBC. It will probably go out in its old slot, early on Saturday evening. This pitches it into the most competitive and difficult ratings moment of the week. At the moment, drama barely gets a look-in against Ant and Dec and all the other babble. The trick for the Doctor is to fight this with a show that grabs the children as well as their parents — just, in fact, what the old one did. I hope it works. Doctor Who is British sci-fi, full of native wit, charm and a strange sort of familiarity, a sense of belonging somewhere. “The thing about Star Trek,” says old Motor Mouth, suddenly wistful, “is that you can’t join in. It will never happen. But you can imagine walking home from school, turning a corner and seeing the Tardis. You could just walk in and join the Doctor. It could happen.”
Doctor Who starts on BBC1 at the end of March.
I'm looking forward to this series and what Ecclestone does with the character of the Doctor. I've heard the show is running way behind schedule though.