Neil Gaiman For Smith Series 2

Neil Gaiman sent the following message via SFX Weekender about his involvement in Doctor Who:

"Over the years SFX, and its readers and their votes in the polls, have always been very kind to me. I thought I’d return the favour with what used to be called, in journalistic circles when I was a boy, a scoop.

As anyone who’s read my blog knows, I’m a big fan of a certain long-running British SF TV series. One that started watching -- from behind the sofa -- when I was three. And while I know it’s cruel to make you wait for things, in about 14 months from now, which is to say, NOT in the upcoming season but early in the one after that, it’s quite possible that I might have written an episode. And if I had, it would originally have been called “The House of Nothing”. But it definitely isn’t called that any more.

Read it all here

EW Best Doctor Ever

Over at entertainmentweekly There is a crop of videos from the David Tennant years, but more importantly there is a voting poll at the bottom of the page. Right now as I write this Patrick Troughton is leading the votes by 57%. I voted for Tom Baker, Thoough Jon Pertwee is my favorite. So follow the link and vote for your favorite Doctor Who

SPOILER: Series 31 Casting.

From denofgeek.com: Highlight to read SPOILER: It's been confirmed that among the guest stars for the next series of Doctor Who will be Bill Nighy. He's going to be appearing in the episode written by Richard Curtis, which itself is going to see The Doctor meeting up with Vincent van Gogh (who's going to be played by Tony Curran, of This Life fame). Digital Spy is now reporting, however, that Bill Nighy will slot into the episode, playing a curator of a van Gogh exhibition.

Matt Smith Selling Fast!

Found this on Northhampton Chronicle: He may have only appeared in the hit series for about a minute so far, but the action figure of the former Northampton School for Boys pupil is selling so quickly, fans are being forced to order the toy in advance or face missing out on the eleventh first official model. Matt's first figure is based on his first appearance in the show on New Year's Day, when he regenerated from Tennant's character.

The model shows him still wearing Tennant's torn suit, rather than the dickie-bow and tweed jacket he is due to wear when the new series of the programme starts in the spring.

While the model is on sale for £8.99 in shops, its rarity means many people who have managed to get hold of the toy are already trying to cash in on its scarcity.

On the internet auction site eBay, the Matt Smith models are currently being traded for between £20 and £30.

Who Movie on the Way?

OK People. Grain of salt time here. I found this on Entertainmentwise.com: Doctor Who has been a big hit in America and producers are hoping to cash in on the interest there with a movie.
However, it is hoped that Billie Piper who played Rose Tyler the Doctor's side kick will be reunited with the Doctor, played by David Tennant in the new film.
A source told the Star: There's been so much interest in Doctor Who since the show was sold to America that a film is the natural progression.
Top of our list is to get Billie on board not only was she amazingly popular, it would be really exciting to get her back with the Doc.
But will she be up for it?...

No More Rose, Says Piper

As if to confirm that Doctor Who is undergoing some major, major changes with its fifth series this year, Billie Piper has revealed that she won't be returning to the series.
The actress, who played the Doctor's companion (and love interest) Rose Tyler throughout the revived series, is busy starring in Secret Diary of a Call Girl, and has no intentions of reprising her role as Rose.
"I think it's done now, isn't it? I think that ship has sailed. That old, wooden ship!" Piper told DigitalSpy.
Read it all here.

And The Winner Are:

J.J. Abrams' Project for NBC

British actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw ("Spooks," "Doctor Who") has landed the female lead opposite Boris Kodjoe on J.J. Abrams' UNDERCOVERS at NBC. Abrams and Josh Reims co-wrote the pilot.The project revolves around a domesticated husband (Kodjoe) and wife (Mbatha-Raw) who are re-activated as CIA agents after years of retirement.Abrams also will direct, marking the first pilot he has helmed since LOST in 2004.

New Faces

Are these the new faces of the Silurians? We know from Doctor Who history that the Silurians were the original Custodians of Earth and during a period of great upheavel the race placed themself in suspended animation. Over sleeping and awaking to meet the 3rd Doctor during his exile on Earth in the 1980's. We also learn that the Silurians have an off shoot race that were dubbed Sea Devils, living in the deep reaches of the ocean. See Silurians

So then, can these new faces (If indeed they are the Silurians in the upcoming series) be an off-shoot of the creatures that the Doctor already discovered? Or has the new series simply changed the Silurians for the sake of change? As a fan from the series I meet the look with a bit of excitement and disapointment. I can truely say I was looking forward to the Silurians of old. But with an open mind I am excited that perhaps, (with the Silurians) change might not be so bad.

Silurians

Intelligent reptilian lifeform which ruled the Earth during the Cretaceous (136 to 65 million years BC), and not the Silurian (430 to 395 million years BC). They, and their underwater "cousins", the so-called "Sea Devils", were eventually driven to hibernate in underground shelters by some undetermined cosmic event. Theories about the nature of this event included: a wandering planetoid causing a change in the Van Allen belt; movements of the Moon; departure of Earth's twin planet, Mondas; or possibly the quasi-psychic awareness of the forthcoming crash of a space liner from the future.
The Silurians of Wenley Moor were reawakened from suspended animation in 1971 because of power leaks from the neighboring British atomic research center. The Old Silurian met Dr. Quinn, then the Third Doctor, and became convinced that his people could share Earth peacefully with Mankind. However, the Young Silurian tried to wipe out Mankind with a deadly virus. After that had failed, he and the Silurian scientist, Icthar, attempted to use a molecular disperser to destroy the Van Allen Belt, and thus render Earth inhabitable for humans. Thwarted by the Third Doctor, they returned to suspended animation. Their shelter was then blown up by UNIT.
Icthar survived, and reawakened in 2084 AD. He reanimated a Sea Devil commando, led by Sauvix, and attacked Sea Base Four. His plan was to launch nuclear missiles to provoke a war between the two blocs, and thus eradicate mankind (which had been the Young Silurian's last wish). His efforts were defeated by the Fifth Doctor, who used deadly hexachromite gas to wipe out the Silurians.

Silurian cousins The Sea Devils: Intelligent reptilian lifeform which ruled the Earth during the Cretaceous (136 to 65 million years BC), and not the Silurian (430 to 395 million years BC). They, and their "cousins" the Silurians, were eventually driven to hibernate in underground shelters by some undetermined cosmic event. A commando of Sea Devils awoke from suspended animation in 1973 and began sinking ships in the British Channel. They were contacted by the Master who offered to ally himself with them. The Third Doctor and the Chief Sea Devil talked peace, but they were thwarted by the interference of the Master and Walker, a civil servant who ordered a depth charge attack. In the end, the Doctor was forced to engineer an explosion which destroyed the Sea Devils' undersea base before any more Sea Devils could be awakened.
The Silurian Icthar reanimated a Sea Devil commando led by Sauvix in 2084 AD, and used them to attack Sea Base Four. His plan was to launch nuclear missiles to provoke a war between the two blocs, and thus eradicate mankind. His efforts were defeated by the Fifth Doctor, who used deadly hexachromite gas to wipe out the Silurians and the Sea Devils.

Series 31 Trailer Breakdown

iO9: breaks down the new series 5 trailer frame by frame. Follow the link and have a look.
If you haven't seen the trailer here it is below:

TARDIS Snowed in?

From telegraph.co.uk: While the rest of Britain's was slipping and sliding around, Doctor Who's TARDIS was flying around as normal for the latest BBC series.

Matt, 26, and new sidekick Karen Gillan, 21, were busy filming on location in Cardiff despite the Welsh capital being covered by a white blanket.

A show insider said: "A bit of snow might stop mere humans but not the Doctor.

"Filming is on a tight schedule and has to keep on going regardless of the weather. Doctor Who can work around anything."

Smith is the eleventh BBC time lord and was filming a scene based in present day in Cardiff Bay.

Smith, who has taken over from David Tennant, was on location with flame-haired assistant Karen Gillan who play new sidekick Amy Pond.

Companions: Ben Jackson

Affiliated with.....First Doctor & Second Doctor
Species.............Human
Home planet.........Earth
Home era............1966
First appearance....The War Machines
Last appearance.....The Faceless Ones
Portrayed by........Michael Craze

Ben Jackson first appears in the First Doctor serial, The War Machines, when he meets Polly and Dodo in a London nightclub called the Inferno. As an Able Seaman serving in the Royal Navy, aboard the HMS Teazer, Ben is feeling depressed and angry because he has a six-month shore posting while his ship is deployed to the West Indies, but Polly and Dodo try to cheer him up. When Polly is accosted by another patron in the Inferno, Ben comes to her rescue. Eventually, Ben and Polly aid the Doctor in his fight against the rogue artificial intelligence known as WOTAN. Afterward, Ben and Polly are the bearers of the news of Dodo's decision to stay in 1966 to the Doctor, and accidentally get carried away in the TARDIS when they try to return Dodo's key to the time machine.

Ben is a salt-of-the-Earth kind of fellow, dependable, faithful, but prone to be suspicious when kept in the dark or not understanding what was going on. He is very attached to Polly, considering her posh, giving her the nickname of "Duchess" and appointing himself as both her protector and that of the Doctor's. He is present with Polly when the First Doctor regenerates into the Second, and continues to travel with the Second Doctor.

Eventually, the TARDIS finds its way back to 1966 London (in The Faceless Ones) on the very day Ben and Polly had left (although about a year had passed for them). They decide to remain behind to resume their lives without disruption as the Doctor and Jamie travel on.

What happens to Ben after his return to Earth is not known. The Doctor seems to think that Ben will become an Admiral and that Polly will look after Ben, but it is unclear if this is a prediction or simply wishing them well.

Michael Craze (29 November 1942 – 8 December 1998) was a British actor noted for his role of Ben Jackson, a companion of the Doctor, in the long-running BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who. He played the part from 1966 to 1967 alongside both William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton.

Craze was born in Cornwall. He got into acting by chance as, at the age of twelve, he discovered through Boy Scout Gang Shows that he had a perfect boy soprano voice. This led him to win parts in The King and I and Plain and Fancy, both at Drury Lane, and Damn Yankees at the Coliseum. Once he had left school, he went into repertory and got into TV through his agent. His first television was a show called Family Solicitor for Granada which was followed, amongst others, by a part in ABC TV's 1960 series Target Luna (written by Malcolm Hulke and Eric Price and produced by Sydney Newman).

At the age of twenty Craze wrote, directed and acted in a film called The Golden Head which won an award at the Commonwealth Film Festival in Cardiff. Following Doctor Who, Craze worked on several ITV productions, including one episode (The Last Visitor) of Hammer Films' first TV series Journey to the Unknown in 1968. Other television roles include parts in Dixon of Dock Green and Z-Cars. In the 1980s Michael acted only occasionally and also managed a pub.

He was originally meant to play the role of Krelper in the 1984 Doctor Who story The Caves of Androzani, However this was vetoed by the then producer John Nathan-Turner and the part was recast.

Craze died of a heart attack on 8 December 1998. He had fallen down some steps the previous day while picking up his neighbour's paper for her, and owing to a heart condition, they were unable to operate.

Michael Craze's brother is actor Peter Craze. Coincidentally Peter Craze has also appeared in Doctor Who in a number of guest roles but never worked with his brother on the series.

Craze's name was used by comedians Matt Lucas and David Walliams for a character in their sketch show Little Britain: "Sir Michael Craze" in the programme is a theatrical agent.

Companions: Polly

Affiliated with.....First Doctor & Second Doctor
Species.............Human
Home planet.........Earth
Home era............1966
First appearance....The War Machines
Last appearance.....The Faceless Ones
Portrayed by........Anneke Wills

Polly first appears in the First Doctor serial, The War Machines, where she is working as a secretary to Professor Brett. Brett develops the artificial intelligence known as WOTAN, and Polly meets the Doctor and Dodo when they come to investigate it. Polly befriends Dodo and takes her to a London nightclub called the Inferno, where they meet Ben Jackson and try to cheer up the merchant seaman. When Polly is accosted by another patron in the Inferno, Ben comes to her rescue. Eventually, Ben and Polly aid the Doctor in his fight against WOTAN when the computer tries to take over the world. They are the bearers of the news of Dodo's decision to stay in 1966 to the Doctor, and accidentally get carried away in the TARDIS when they try to return Dodo's key to the time machine.

Polly, in contrast to Dodo, is a more sophisticated and hip young woman of the 1960s — vivacious, attractive, and alternately shy and aggressive. She and Ben make an odd couple, but she is receptive to Ben's protective urges, and he in turn finds her elegant and posh, giving her the nickname "Duchess". Polly is present with Ben when the First Doctor regenerates into the Second, and continues to travel with the Second Doctor.

Eventually, the TARDIS finds its way back to 1966 London (in The Faceless Ones) on the very day Ben and Polly had left (although about a year had passed for them). They decide to remain behind to resume their lives without disruption as the Doctor and Jamie travel on.

Polly was never given a last name in the series. According to production notes, she was meant to be Polly Wright, but this was not used in case it would be confused with previous companion Barbara Wright. In The Faceless Ones, a double of Polly is named Michelle Leuppi; an apparent mishearing of this and misinterpretation of the context led to some reference works giving Polly the last name of "Lopez". Anneke Wills suggested the name "Bettingham-Smith", after one of her friends. In the Virgin Missing Adventures novel Invasion of the Cat-People by Gary Russell, Wright is expressly given as Polly's last name, as it was supposedly given in Gerry Davis's character breakdown and audition script sample when, as story editor, he and producer Innes Lloyd created Ben and Polly in 1966. The canonicity of the spin-off novels is open to interpretation.

What happens to Polly after her return to Earth is not known. The Doctor seems to think that Ben will become an Admiral and that Polly will look after Ben, but it is unclear if this is a prediction or simply wishing them well.

Anneke Wills (born Anna Katarina Willys 20 October 1941) is a British actress best known for her role as the companion Polly in the long-running BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who.

Anneke Wills was born on 20 October 1941, in Berkshire.[1] Her parents Anna and Alaric Willys (she later changed her name to Wills) had planned to buy a house in the South of France but their intentions was ended by the outbreak of World War II. Alaric's gambling debts forced Anna to find varied work while he became a captain in the British Army and an absent figure. Anna was occupied as a companion to a blind aristocrat, gardener, teacher - moving Anneke and her brother Robin around the country.

Wills gained her first role at the age of 11 while she was living on a houseboat in Bray, Berkshire. The film was called Child's Play and she gave the £9 fee to her mother. Deciding she wanted to be an actress she then studied drama at the Arts Educational School in London and quickly became one of the busiest actresses of her generation, early roles included an appearance as Roberta in the second TV version of The Railway Children in 1957.

At 17 she began a relationship with Anthony Newley while working on the TV series The Strange World of Gurney Slade. During the sixties Anneke spent much of her time at the famous Troubadour Coffee Shop and The Establishment, and was part of the so-called Chelsea Set, counting among her close friends Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, The Alberts, Sammy Davis Junior, Angela Douglas and Kenneth More, Mary Quant, and Sarah Miles among others.

In 1966 she took the role of Polly in Doctor Who and appeared in the show into 1967 alongside William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton. Other television credits include appearances in The Avengers and as Evelyn in Strange Report (1969-70). She left the latter series when it was planned to switch filming to Hollywood.

In 1970 Anneke gave up acting and moved to Norfolk, throwing herself into motherhood and gardening. During this time she travelled to Vietnam and Laos, and spent time at Poona, India, at the ashram of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. She and her son Jasper visited the ashram many times in the 1970s and early 80s.

Wills married actor Michael Gough in 1962, but Gough's infidelity and possessive nature led to the end of their marriage and the couple divorced in 1979. She has remarried twice and lived in California and in an artist's colony on Hornby Island in Canada returning to the UK in the mid-1990s. She is still involved in the worlds of Doctor Who, being a popular guest at conventions, and being employed by the BBC and Big Finish to record various Doctor Who related audio and DVD projects.

The first volume of her autobiography, Self Portrait, was published in 2007 by Hirst Books, and a second volume, Naked followed in 2009.

Companions: Dodo Chaplet

Affiliated with.....First Doctor
Species.............Human
Home planet.........Earth
First appearance....The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve
Last appearance.....The War Machines
Portrayed by........Jackie Lane

Dodo Chaplet is introduced at the end of the serial The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve. In that story, the Doctor and Steven travel to 1572 Paris, where they witness the persecution of the city's Huguenot population. Despite befriending a young woman named Anne Chaplet, the Doctor knows he cannot prevent the coming massacre of 10,000 Huguenots, including Anne, by the Catholic French authorities. He therefore leaves in the TARDIS, taking Steven with him. When Steven finds out, he is furious and considers leaving the Doctor while the TARDIS is in 1960s [2] London.

Steven returns at the same time that a young woman wanders into the TARDIS thinking it was a real police box. The Doctor and Steven are taken aback when she introduces herself as Dodo Chaplet and reveals that her grandfather was French. The Doctor speculates that Dodo might be Anne's descendant. As some have pointed out, this would mean Anne lived to have an illegitimate offspring (unless she married a man of the same name).

In her travels with the Doctor, Dodo travels to the far future, unfortunately bringing the common cold with her to infect humanity's descendants; faces the mad games of the Celestial Toymaker; witnesses the gunfight at the O.K. Corral; says good-bye to Steven in The Savages; and is hypnotised by the rogue artificial intelligence WOTAN in The War Machines.

Halfway through that last adventure, she abruptly departs for a rest in the country after being hypnotised, and never reappears. At the story's conclusion Polly (who, with Ben Jackson, took Dodo's place as a companion) explains to the departing Doctor that Dodo has decided to remain in the 20th Century.

Jackie Lane (born 10 July 1941 in Manchester) is an English actress noted for her role as Dodo Chaplet, a companion of the Doctor, in the long-running BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who.

She played the part from February to July 1966 alongside William Hartnell as the Doctor.

She went on to become a theatrical agent, representing Tom Baker, who would play the Fourth Doctor in 1974 and Janet Fielding, who would play companion Tegan Jovanka in 1981, who in a strange twist also became an agent, representing the 8th Doctor Paul McGann.

Companions: Sara Kingdom

Affiliated with.....First Doctor
Species.............Human
Home planet.........Earth
Home era............4000
Appears in..........The Daleks' Master Plan
Portrayed by........Jean Marsh

Sara Kingdom is a Space Security Agent, the sister of Bret Vyon, another agent who is aiding the Doctor in trying to defeat the Daleks. Told that Vyon is a traitor by Mavic Chen, the Guardian of the Solar System (who was in league with the Daleks) and ordered to kill whoever is working with him, she shoots her brother and is about to do the same to the Doctor and Steven when they are transported across space to the planet Mira. There she learns, to her horror and grief, that her unquestioning obedience has not only led her to unjustly kill her brother, but also that by doing so she has prevented Vyon from warning Earth of the Dalek plot. She then joins the Doctor in his fight, briefly travelling in the TARDIS to several different locations in space and time as the Doctor and Steven try to return the ship to Kembel for a final confrontation with Mavic Chen and the Daleks.

When the Doctor activates the Time Destructor — a device that accelerates time — as part of his plan to stop the Daleks, he orders his companions back to the TARDIS for their protection. However, Sara follows him, not knowing the nature of his plan but concerned it might fail. As a result, she is caught in the field of the Time Destructor as it rapidly ages everything around it. While the Doctor, being a Time Lord, can withstand the effects, Sara, being human, cannot. As Steven and the Doctor watch helplessly, Sara ages (and is portrayed as an old woman by May Warden) and dies, her remains aging to dust.

Sara is by turns aggressive, independent and ruthless in her pursuit of what was right, a single-mindedness that blinded her to the larger implications of her orders. Meeting the Doctor changes that, and she turns her formidable skill and intellect to the defeat of the Daleks.

Jean Lyndsey Torren Marsh (born 1 July 1934) is an English actress, occasional screenwriter, and co-creator of the television series Upstairs, Downstairs and The House of Eliott.

Marsh received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her performance as Rose Buck in Upstairs, Downstairs in 1975.

Marsh was born in Stoke Newington, London, England, the daughter of Emmeline Susannah Nightingale Poppy (née Bexley), a bar employee and dresser for the theatre, and Henry Charles John Marsh, an outdoor maintenance person and printer's assistant.

Marsh made many appearances on British and American television programmes in the 1950s and 1960s, including The Twilight Zone, playing a robotic companion in the episode "The Lonely" (1959), The Wonderful World of Disney (1961), Gideon's Way (1965), I Spy (1967), The Saint (four episodes between 1964 and 1968) and UFO (1970).

She has appeared several times in the BBC series Doctor Who. She first appeared alongside William Hartnell in the 1965 serial "The Crusade" as Lady Joanna. She returned later that year as companion Sara Kingdom in the 12-part serial "The Daleks' Masterplan". Although the character was killed off at the end of that serial, Marsh reprised the role of Sara Kingdom in the audio plays "Home Truths" in 2008, and "The Drowned World" in 2009. She would also appear in the 1989 television serial "Battlefield", as well as the 2007 audio play "The Wishing Beast". Marsh was featured as Bertha Mason Rochester in the George C. Scott-Susannah York version of Jane Eyre, directed by Delbert Mann. The film was released theatrically in the United Kingdom in 1970 and shown in the United States on NBC Television in 1971.

With Eileen Atkins she created the British period drama Upstairs, Downstairs, and played the role of the house parlourmaid Rose Buck for the duration of the series, from 1971 until 1975. The program was popular in various parts of the world including the United States; Marsh received an Emmy Award for her role in 1975, and was nominated for the same award in 1974 and 1976. She also received two Golden Globe nominations for this role.

After several guest roles in television, she played a regular supporting role in the television series of 9 to 5 in 1982, however the series was not a success.

In film she had a featured role in Alfred Hitchcock's Frenzy (1972) and played Mrs. Grey in The Eagle Has Landed (1976), the villain in the fantasy films Return to Oz (1985) and Willow (1988). Marsh and Eileen Atkins created a second television series The House of Eliott, which was produced during 1991 and 1992. This time, Marsh did not act in the series, but she did write some of the episodes. In 1994, she starred in a villain role in the Nickelodeon re-make of The Tomorrow People, and appeared in the television productions of Fatherland and The Pale Horse.

From 2000 until 2002, Marsh appeared in the The Ghost Hunter, and in 2007 she played in the West End stage revival of Boeing Boeing at the Comedy Theatre. She also made an appearance in the 2007 BBC adaptation of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility. She appeared as Lizzie in Babycow Production's, Sensitive Skin in 2005 and 2007 alongside Joanna Lumley. She appeared in an episode of BBC Four's Crooked House in December 2008.