Doctor Who on the Big Screen

To follow Matt Smith and Karen Gillan’s Doctor Who bus tour the Beeb has announced three days of special events at five BBC Big Screens across the UK. During these events fans will be able to “interact directly with the show”. According to the announcement:

The events will feature exclusive footage – including the chance to see the Doctor Who trailer in 3D – and giveaways, and fans can also get their photo taken tumbling through the giant vortex

The five lucky cities to get the Big Screen specials are London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Plymouth and Swansea.

So I guess this pretty much confirms the Saturday 3rd April date for the launch of series five.

March 9th, 2010 BBC, Doctor Who, News | no comments

Doctor On Tour

To help launch the new series of Doctor Who Matt Smith and Karen Gillan will be doing a rapid tour of the UK. According to the Beeb:

The tour will introduce the 11th Doctor, Matt Smith, and his Companion, Karen Gillan, to fans of the BBC One show and offer them a unique chance to meet the stars.

Each location will also host a regional premiere of episode one, The Eleventh Hour, for local children, working alongside BBC Outreach to enable kids to get a first look at the new Doctor in action.

The tour is being organised in conjunction with BBC Outreach and aims to visit regional locations “relatively under-served” by the Beeb. The five locations and planned dates are:

• Belfast (March 29)
• Inverness (March 30)
• Sunderland (March 30)
• Salford (March 31)
• Northampton (March 31)

Matt and Karen will be travelling the UK in a special Dr Who themed tour bus, so keep your eyes peeled.

March 9th, 2010 BBC, Doctor Who, News | no comments

Sarah Jane Adventures to Return – Twice

Despite the recent controversy regarding BBC spending it seems that the Beeb still recognises quality TV: it’s been announced that The Sarah Jane Adventures (SJA) will return. To make the news even better, the BBC has commissioned not just one but two new series of 24 thirty minute episodes.

SJA Series 4 will start shooting in Wales later this month. There’s no exact date for transmission but it should be some time this autumn. As well as Elizabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith, companions Luke, Clyde and Rani (Tommy Knight, Daniel Anthony and Anjli Mohindra) also return. Writers include Phil Ford, Joseph Lidster, Rupert Laight, Gareth Roberts and Clayton Hickman.

The fifth season will go into production next year, the casting hasn’t yet been confirmed.

CBBC Controller Damian Kavanagh said:

[The Sarah Jane Adventures has] been a huge ratings and critical success on CBBC and we hope our viewers are going to be hooked on Sarah Jane’s action-packed adventures for some time to come

March 5th, 2010 BBC, News | no comments

Dr Who Series Five Date Confusion

Matt Smith’s first season in charge of the Tardis is due to be broadcast soon – but exactly when? Despite recent reports it seems the date of the show’s emergence from the time vortex has yet to be finalised.

Last weekend the Beeb showed the new Doctor Who trailer which ended with the promise that the show would return “Easter 2010″. Many people took that to mean the first episode of series five – The Eleventh Hour – will screen on Saturday 3rd April. That view seemed confirmed when the BBC updated the trailer to include that date.

However WhovianNet now reports that the update of the trailer might have been a mistake. The official BBC Doctor Who site says “in Easter this year”, a strange turn of phrase, whilst imdb still has the first episode down for March 13th.

So for now it seems that the exact date remains uncertain. We just know it’ll be soon.

February 23rd, 2010 BBC, Doctor Who, News | no comments

Doctor Who in 3D

The BBC is turning up the heat in the publicity for Matt Smith’s first Doctor Who season. We’ve already been told there’s a new trailer to be released for the first time this Saturday (apparently it’ll be shown on BBC1 during the 18:30 programme break). Now we here that there will also be a 3D version of that trailer.

The 3D Doctor Who trailer will be shown in cinemas before the 3D version of Tim Burton’s new movie Alice in Wonderland. Apparently it’s a 3D conversion of the original trailer rather than one that’s been specially shot in 3D.

Which means no full length 3D Dr Who just yet – but it’s bound to come one day.

February 19th, 2010 BBC, Doctor Who, News | no comments