Doctor Who

It's that time of the year again and we are just weeks away from a new Doctor Who Christmas special. Due to arrive on December 25th on the BBC and BBC America, the new special starring Matt Smith titled The Doctor, The Widow, and the Wardrobe was written by Steven Moffat. The following video is a "prequel" to the special.

To follow up on our panel discussion about the possibility of a Doctor Who feature movie in Doctor Who: Podshock 261, Executive Producer and Lead Writer, Steven Moffat has responded to the David Yates comments about bringing Doctor Who to the big screen. He dismissed Yates comments as speaking off the cuff on the red carpet. He also agreed with my assertion that if a feature movie is produced, it should star the current actor playing the Doctor and it would not be a "Hollywood reboot."

Doctor Who: Podshock - Episode 261
Running Time: 1:25:04

Our special panel discussion on the many possibilities of a Doctor Who theatrical movie. Recorded live at our November meet up with a stellar line up of panelists consisting of Graeme Sheridan, Dave Cooper, Victor 1st Mornington (Doctor Who Exposition & Katrina), Dave Lewis (TARDIS Newsroom & Paradox Island), Mike Rall (Who Island), and Saffia Widdershins (Prim Perfect Magazine), hosted by Louis Trapani.

In case you missed it (as I had), here is the Doctor Who segment with Matt Smith from this year's Children in Need charity which also includes a 'trailer' preview of this year's Christmas special titled, The Doctor, The Widow, and the Wardrobe. The special is slated for Christmas Day in the UK.

Donate at www.bbc.co.uk/pudsey

A new tradition to our seasonal meet ups on Second Life now are our live panel recordings. The panels are made up of people from our show as well as prominent people in the Doctor Who online community. They are recorded for inclusion in upcoming episodes of Doctor Who: Podshock.

As we were deciding on this panel's topic, news broke concerning the development of a Doctor Who movie. It became readily obvious to us what the topic would be this time.

The panel for this Saturday's meet up is once again a stellar line up consisting of familiar names to long time listeners to our show. The panelist are Graeme Sheridan, Dave Cooper, Victor 1st Mornington (Doctor Who Exposition & Katrina), Dave Lewis (TARDIS Newsroom & Paradox Island), Mike Rall (Who Island), and possibly Saffia Widdershins (Prim Perfect Magazine) (still unconfirmed), hosted by Louis Trapani.

The upcoming 2011 Doctor Who Christmas special is once again about Christmas to no surprise. It appears to finally have a name too, Doctor Who: The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe. Here is the video promo for it:

Evacuated to a house in Dorset from war-torn London, Madge Arwell and her two children, Lily and Cyril, are greeted by a madcap caretaker whose mysterious Christmas gift leads them into a magical wintry world.

Starring: Matt Smith and Claire Skinner. Executive Producers: Steven Moffat, Piers Wenger and Caroline Skinner

It's that time again... Yep, news of a Doctor Who movie is abound again. Though this time the source is coming from Variety. Today the entertainment industry paper has broken the news that director David Yates is working with Jane Tranter of BBC Worldwide to bring the Time Lord to the big screen.

They are looking for writers for the project currently and their sights are not limited to just the UK.

Unfortunately, as I had always feared when this topic comes up as often as it does, the movie would not be in sync with the established television canon (then again, the television series itself is often not in sync with its own canon, but that's another story). Yates who has directed the last four Harry Potter films told Variety, "Russell T. Davies and then Steven Moffat have done their own transformations, which were fantastic, but we have to put that aside and start from scratch."

Let's hope they don't rename the Doctor character to "Dr. Who" like the two feature films of the 1960s did starring Peter Cushing.

Yes, once again fans of Doctor Who, Torchwood, Sarah Jane Adventures and alike are coming together for what has become the legendary Doctor Who: Podshock seasonal meet ups on Second Life. It is all happening on Saturday, the 19th of November 2011.

Today marks the 29th birthday of the youngest actor to play the lead role in Doctor Who, the 11th and current Doctor... Matt Smith. So a big spirited happy birthday wish goes out to Matt who is big spirited himself.

Now I believe he is at the age that Peter Davison was when he took on the role, the previous title holder for youngest actor to play the role in the series. Smith was still 27 when we met and interviewed him in April 2010 which is when I took these photos here of him.

Doctor Who: Podshock - Episode 259 EXTRA Edition
Running Time: 1:43:28

In this Extra Edition of Doctor Who: Podshock we give our overall review of the 2011 series of Doctor Who (both spring and summer halves), plus Doctor Who related news.

Thank you supporting subscribers!

Hosted by Louis Trapani ( @LouisTrapani ), Ken Deep ( @kendeep ), Dave Cooper ( @daveac ), and Graeme Sheridan ( @The2ndDoctor ).

Doctor Who by the numbers… Track the Doctors through time and see how they each fared with viewers. Which Doctors do fans favour? Which episodes were the most viewed? Which episodes are the fans' favourite? How many on-screen adventures did we see for each Doctor? These questions and more are answered and visualized in the inforgraphic below.

(Special thanks to James at cabletv.com for offering us to share this with you).

Doctor Who: Podshock - Episode 258
Running Time: 1:57:55

We review Doctor Who: The Wedding of River Song live over the net with live listener feedback.

Hosted by Louis Trapani ( @LouisTrapani ), Dave Cooper ( @daveac ), and Ken Deep ( @kendeep )

"Death is the Only Answer" is a mini episode produced as a result of a 'Script to Screen' competition geared to children (9 to 11 years old) which you may had seen documented on Doctor Who Confidential. The winning entry resulted in having their script produced into a mini episode which was shown in the finale episode of Doctor Who Confidential on Saturday. This is that mini episode.

Doctor Who: Podshock will be once again be taking to the net this Sunday, 2 October 2011 for a live-over-the-net show reviewing episodes of the new series with your live feedback, this time it's the finale episode of the 2011 series, The Wedding of River Song.

Doctor Who: Podshock - Episode 257
Running Time: 1:43:37

We review Doctor Who: Closing Time live over the net with live listener feedback.

Hosted by Louis Trapani ( @LouisTrapani ) and Dave Cooper ( @daveac )

As of Saturday the 1st of October, Doctor Who Confidential is no more. After six years of coverage of the production of Doctor Who and background information, Confidential comes to an end, but it goes out with a bang, not with a whimper.

As followers of the British Schools Writing Competition should know, Confidential has been following the process and on Saturday it comes to a climax as the finished episode "Death is the Only Answer" is transmitted on Confidential. 

So thank you Doctor Who Confidential for all your information, past and present. You shall be missed.

Doctor Who Official Website: Original Story

Doctor Who: Podshock will be once again be taking to the net this Sunday, 25 September 2011 for a live-over-the-net show reviewing episodes of the new series, this time it's Closing Time.