Louis Trapani's blog

Sonic Newsdriver (16 October 2010) -

The Sonic Newsdriver 20101016
Selected Doctor Who related news delivered sonically.
For Earth-date: Saturday, the 16th of Oct. 2010

After showering and cutting my hair (and worrying if I had cut it too short), I was pretty much set for another all-nighter editing Doctor Who: Podshock 224. Then to my surprise, I received an invite via Twitter from (DWP Correspondent) Tara Wheeler @TARDIS_Tara to join her and others to listen to David Tennant on Absolute Radio in the UK. Tara said they were all "dancing." This must had been around 1:30 AM (EDT).

Ok, I could do that. I hadn't heard David Tennant interviewed since his returning to the UK after working here in the States. I figured I would pop over to the live streaming audio of the radio station with the simultaneous webcam view (when it wasn't failing) and see what David Tennant had to say in what I assumed would be a quick interview.

Little did I know once I got there, there was no Mr. Tennant to be found. One of the webcams had a view of an empty chair. So I assumed since they had been dancing before, I must had just missed his interview. I was about to say, "Oh well" and get back to work when I was informed that he had yet to come on. That they were still waiting for him.

"Good news everyone…" (I say in a Professor Fransworth voice from Futurama), The Sonic Newsdriver podcast is back and it's about time (and space of course). The latest episode is now available a week prior to the launch of the 4th series of The Sarah Jane Adventures, and as such, there's plenty of coverage about it in this episode, along with of course news about Doctor Who itself and more. It is a great way to stay on top of selected Doctor Who related news while on the go!

• Sonic Newsdriver 20101003 (MP3, 10.2 MB, 15:50)

Sonic Newsdriver (03 October 2010) -

The Sonic Newsdriver 20101003
Selected Doctor Who related news delivered sonically.
For Earth-date: Sunday, the 3rd of Oct. 2010

Cheers to Doctor Who: Podshock Correspondent Tara Wheeler @TARDIS_Tara on her new transdimensional tattoo. We all watched last night via Twitter as she, her DH (David Wheeler), and Emily @emilyooo documented Tara's adventure. Tara being Tara of course brought colour samples of the scarf for Jon Reed, the tattooist to use... Yes, I said scarf. As you can see, a scarf is also included in the TARDIS (police box) image.

No, I already asked if dematerializing ink was used on it. She said that is on the other shoulder.

Was it painful?

It is with sadness that I am once again talking about the passing of another listener and friend of Doctor Who: Podshock. It was only this past June in which we dedicated Doctor Who: Podshock 207 to the memory of Alexei Kondratiev who had passed away unexpectedly a couple weeks after attending our live show in NYC in May. Today to my surprise and shock I learned of another passing. I didn't know him that well as I have only communicated with him via Twitter and on Second Life. His name is David Jennings, but you may know him as @AdricAntfarm — the name he used on Twitter (and Second Life). In fact he was a regular at our Doctor Who: Podshock meet ups and I was just tweeting with him as recently as last week.

The most recent and last posting on his blog by a good friend of his, Amalia Broom had broken the news today:

(The following has been re-posted from my blog at arttrap.com)

After a long hiatus, Hitchhiker's Guide to British Sci-Fi has returned. Dave Cooper @daveac joins me, Louis Trapani @LouisTrapani as co-host in this episode in which we discuss the new Torchwood series coming to Starz in the US, series 4 of The Sarah Jane Adventures, we invite our younger listeners for their reviews of K9 - The Series, plus we discuss Sherlock, The Deep, Ashes to Ashes, Merlin, and more. It also features part of an interview with Brian Croucher (Travis (2) on Blake's 7) that can be heard in full in Doctor Who: Podshock 219.

For more details, see Episode 8 of Hitchhiker's Guide to British Sci-Fi. If you are subscribing to the podcast, it is already in the feeds, or alternatively, you can download it directly here: Hitchhiker's Guide to British Sci-Fi - Ep. 8 (MP3, 39 MB)

Last month Graeme Sheridan @The2ndDoctor reported on the new Doctor Who games coming for the Nintendo Wii and DS game systems. We also spoke about it in Doctor Who: Podshock 220. Now news has broken that Blue Ocean will be releasing a new Nintendo Wii remote controller device as well as a stylus and slipcases for the DS based on the 11th Doctor's sonic screwdriver.

Doctor Who has won Best Family Drama by the TV Choice Awards 2010. Karen Gillan (Amy Pond) and Steven Moffat (Lead Writer and Executive Producer) were there in person at the ceremony Monday evening hosted by Alexander Armstrong (voice of "Mr. Smith" on The Sarah Jane Adventures).

This comes on the heels of another award granted to Doctor Who, this time a Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form) for last year's Doctor Who special, The Waters of Mars(Amazon US link).

Out of the handful of Doctor Who specials transmitted last year, I enjoyed Waters most.

Paul Cornell was at the Hugo Awards ceremony presenting an award.

Congratulations all around!

According to various (unconfirmed) reports on the net, the new 4th series of The Sarah Jane Adventures will be returning to the BBC and CBBC on Monday, 11 October 2010 (with part 1 of The Nightmare Man by Joseph Lidster).

It is unclear whether the new series is back to one episode a week or will it be similar to last year which transmitted two episodes a week. Remember, each story takes two half-hour episodes to tell in The Sarah Jane Adventures. The BBC had commissioned two new series (24 x 30-minutes episodes), this is the first of the two (12 episodes telling six stories). No details as of yet pertaining to this series outside of the UK.

Another Doctor Who related music video from Ed Stockham and features the music of the band, Chameleon Circuit, the same folks that brought you An Awful Lot of Running. I still prefer the latter, but this is interesting nonetheless.

Thanks to @AdricAntfarm for bringing it to my attention.

Watch the full session from the Edinburgh International Television Festival with Doctor Who Executive Producer and Lead Writer, Steven Moffat and Karen Gillan (Amy Pond) from 29 August 2010 chaired by Richard Bacon.

Follow the link below and then click the right sidebar for Doctor Who: A Masterclass. Special thanks to @terrylightfoot for the heads up on it.

MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival - MGEITF 2010 - Full Sessions:

More news coming out concerning the 2011 Doctor Who series (or set of series as it is now) is that we may get a reprieve from the Daleks stories. This according to what executive producer and lead writer Steven Moffat hinted at the Edinburgh TV Festival:

Moffat: 'No Daleks in next Who series' - Digital Spy:

"Speaking at the Edinburgh TV Festival, the Who showrunner admitted that there are currently no plans for the famous aliens to reappear, although work on the 2011 series is not yet complete.

Here is Sarah Douglas talking about her role in the Doctor Who Adventure Game as the "blob-like entity" / Professor Meadows in this short video. You may recall we broke the story of Sarah's role in Doctor Who when we interviewed her earlier this year at I-CON. If you didn't catch it, it was Doctor Who: Podshock 189. DW: Podshock 189At that time she and we were unsure of exactly what her role was going to be, only that it was for an interactive animated story. We had assumed it may have been another BBC "Red Button" interactive Doctor Who episode before learning of the new Doctor Who Adventure Game series.

On a personal note, it was a real delight spending time with Sarah this past spring. We had her on our show when she during the early stage of this video game project, we would love to have back to speak more on it sometime in the future.

If you haven't seen this yet, it is a real hoot (did I just say, "hoot"?), what better way to start the the school year off than with a TARDIS appearing on the roof of your university?

The TARDIS at MIT | Flickr - Photo Sharing!:

"The TARDIS at MIT

Hack on the Little Dome, 25 August 2010 A visit from The Doctor: 'It's bigger on the inside.'

For viewers not intimately familiar with MIT Culture, this is a 'hack' (prank) for the start of the academic year at MIT. New student orientation begins this week. The MIT website has a gallery of hacks from over the years: hacks.mit.edu/ 'The word hack at MIT usually refers to a clever, benign, and 'ethical' prank or practical joke, which is both challenging for the perpetrators and amusing to the MIT community (and sometimes even the rest of the world!).'"

There is another Doctor Who stage show in the works, but Trevor Martin won't be returning for the title role. The Press Association reports the following:

The Press Association: 'TV hippy' in Doctor Who stage show:

"Actor Nigel Planer - best known for his role as TV hippy Neil in The Young Ones - is to take centre stage in the new live-action Doctor Who tour.

The hit BBC One show is being adapted for the stage in a nine-city arena tour which will begin next month with Daleks and Cybermen among the evil creatures which will be brought to life.

Now Planer has been unveiled as the star who will act as the production's lynchpin, starring as a travelling showman Vorgensen.

This past Saturday, the 21st of August 2010 was not only our seasonal meet up on Second Life, it also marked the 5th anniversary of the Doctor Who podcast, Doctor Who: Podshock. (We used our last meet up last May to mark the 25th anniversary of the Gallifreyan Embassy).

People from all corners of the world came together to have fun and to meet Doctor Who: Podshock hosts, correspondents, supporters, and other Doctor Who fans. As usual, Victor led the much anticipated TARDIS tours, a staple of our meet ups on Second Life in which he takes a TARDIS load of people to other Doctor Who themed areas of Second Life. This time, he even allowed me to pilot a Jon Pertwee style TARDIS for one trip. It was very exciting indeed.

The TARDIS Tours took us to Who Island which had a replica of Stonehenge with 'underhenge' which we discovered the Pandorica (and it opened)! We also got to see the console room seen in this year's 'The Lodger' episode and as always the tour concluded in the Doctor Who Museum. The virtual museum chronicles all of Doctor Who throughout its long history.

As reported in Doctor Who: Podshock, the Doctor Who spin-off series, Torchwood is being relaunched in the US on the Starz network.

The HollywoodReporter.com has an article reporting that name of the rebooted series in the US is Torchwood: The New World. Like last year's acclaimed Torchwood: Children of Earth I would suppose. It is to be ten episodes which to my understanding are telling a story much the same way as Children of Earth did with its five episodes run.

‘Torchwood’ gets new title: ‘The New World’: "Starz' 'Torchwood' reboot will be titled 'Torchwood: The New World' and creator Russell T Davies gave some insight into the storyline.

The new story will follow a CIA agent (Rex) and analyst (Ester) who tackle an alien-related global issue. Torchwood, having been destroyed and disbanded, is 'like a legend now ... it's like something that's ceased to exist and is now spoken of only in whispers.' Soon, Rex and Ester are on the run and are seeking out the help of Captain Jack and Gwen.

One of our LA Correspondents (I can't say which just now) give me word early Monday morning of this article in the LA Times concerning the release of the Blu-ray and DVD of the latest series of Doctor Who (starring Matt Smith). We always suspected it would be November as that has been traditionally the release month of the series box sets in the past, just in time for the holiday shopping season. According to this article by from the LA Times, that date will be November 9, 2010.

In addition, they will include extra content shot for this release.

The date was 23 April 2009. The Telegraph runs the following story about Gillian Anderson being cast as The Rani in Doctor Who (see link and quote below). Since that time we have seen a year of specials starring David Tennant and a whole new series starring Matt Smith. Where's Gillian Anderson? We are still waiting...

I meant to post this a couple weeks ago, but with series 31 wrapping up and with all of our live shows reviewing it all at the time, I never had a chance.

Even in this day of podcasts and other new media, the art of the fanzine is still around. As evidence is the launch of a new one covering Doctor Who, Fish FIngers and Custard.

In the premiere issue, it features a review of The Eleventh Hour, an article about the infamous 'PBS hijacking incident', Invasion Convention review, 'Cracks', an original 11th Doctor story, 'The Doctor in Wonderland', "It Could Have Been a Spin-off", a column by actor Harry Sedgewick, and what else?

Oh yes, an interview with some bloke named, Louis Trapani. There's much more, so check it out.