Sci-Fi Storm

The Zygons won’t be the only baddies in town…

The BBC did announce that the Daleks, who many thought the absence of which from the 50th Anniversary special episode would be sacrilege, will in fact play a part in the episode. According to Steven Moffat, “The Doctor once said that you can judge a man by the quality of his enemies, so it’s fitting that for this very special episode, he should facing the greatest enemies of all.”

Expect a trailer soon – a teaser was shown at Comic-Con, but the BBC doesn’t want it released yet. The 50th Anniversary episode airs November 23rd.

This is somewhat local to me, although I haven’t seen it yet…

The town of Salem, Massachusetts has an art program called “ArtBox”, which paints up typically drab utility boxes on streets to be nicer. One box on Bridge Street happens to have been painted as the TARDIS from Doctor Who. But it seems someone thought it might be confused for an actual Police box.

Once rumors started that they might paint it over (although it was later learned they may have only planned to alter the “POLICE” reference at the top), a “Save the TARDIS” campaign started. But now it appears that there are no plans at all to alter the TARDIS, as confirmed by Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll.

Amanda Dunham from Salem started painted the utility box two weeks ago, but received an email saying that some citizens “were concerned” it could be mistaken for the real thing – a police call box, not a time machine.

Of course, for decades in this area police call boxes were very small devices like public fire alarm boxes, not walk-in detention units with built-in telephones…

Ugh…this is just getting crazy, so this will be the last I write on the subject unless I get some reliable information that changes things…but Bleeding Cool is now reporting that TV Archivist Philip Morris, who was believed to be at the center of the episode recovery rumor, issued a statement including “THEY ARE NOT MISSING BUT DESTROYED THE END.”, that only fragments and perhaps two 16mm episodes have been found, and will not comment further.

It also quotes a tweet from Ian Levine, who just a few days ago had said he’d seen “proof”, which says, “Deeply sick, distressed, disheartend, all hopes dashed, all joy gone from the world. That’s it. DO NOT ASK ME TO SAY ANOTHER WORD” However, that tweet has since been removed. His tweets since seem a little more hopeful, but it appears he likewise does not plan to comment further.

So the search goes on…

We all know Matt Smith is leaving Doctor Who at the end of the year. But while in Detroit he took a break from filming Ryan Gosling’s How To Catch A Monster to give a very special video message to fans:

Man, what a weird few days. First our hopes are up that they may have recovered a ton of old BBC programming, including many of the remaining “lost” episodes of Doctor Who. Then it seems like the story was a hoax. We even waited a couple of days before reporting the original story, and still got burned.

But wait…maybe it’s not a hoax after all. Doctor Who superfan Ian Levine, who got the BBC to stop their practice of wiping the archives to preserve Doctor Who, said yesterday that he was certain the story was false, and talked to three people who should know and was told point blank there was nothing recovered:

Answering SKMDC on GB, I spoke at length to 3 people last Saturday, separately, and all three told me that nothing had been seen or returned

— Ian Levine (@IanLevine) June 17, 2013

But today, a sudden change:

@keefybabe I've just been given proof that backs up the entire story,from 2011. So yes I now really believe he has found 90 missing episodes

— Ian Levine (@IanLevine) June 18, 2013

From what is being said today, a full THREE TONS of film canisters were recovered in 2011, and Ian has seen proof. This reportedly includes 90 episodes of Doctor Who, which is most of the 106 lost episodes. And some details are circulating as to which have been found – but it would be easier to list what has not been found:

Mission to the Unknown (1 out of 1 episodes)
The Daleks’ Master Plan (9 of 12, none recovered)
The Ice Warriors (2 of 6, none recovered)
The Wheel in Space (2 of 6, 2 recovered)
The Invasion (2 of 8, none recovered)

Recovery of the first two on that list is considered unlikely, as they were never screened outside the UK, and were among the first to be wiped from the archives.

So Whovians, there is still hope…

[Alas…it looks more and more like this was a hoax being perpetrated by the so-called “eccentric engineer”, as some sort of negotiating ploy with the BBC…sad. Still remains to be seen what the ultimate result is, though.]

Fans of the classic Doctor Who episodes know the story well…in accordance with standard BBC practices at the time, many episodes of Doctor Who were destroyed or erased to make room in the BBC Archives – mainly because no one ever though that the material was worth keeping for long term rebroadcasting, until 1978 when they stopped the practice. Many of the serials were lost entirely. Some were lost in parts.

When the show became hugely popular, demand for the old episodes increased – but many weren’t in the archives. Over time, some episodes were discovered at other broadcasters, or in attics, saved by engineers, recorded from broadcasts, etc. It’s been a long and slow process – all episodes of the Third Doctor have been recovered. But still many remain missing. 10 whole serials still remain missing, and many more parts of serials.

That may be about to change.

Bleeding Cool reports on a reliable rumor that the BBC may have secured a large cache of videotapes/films, apparently kept by an eccentric TV engineer in Africa. Lots and lots of tapes, in fact. Possibly everything from the Hartnell years, and the entire “Evil of the Daleks” serial, where only the second of seven episodes had previously been found.

Word is that we’ll hear about it – and maybe see it – as part of the 50th Anniversary celebration.

Keep your fingers crossed!

I just got to the hotel room to find out that Matt Smith has announced he is leaving Doctor Who following the 50th Anniversary and Christmas special episodes.

Matt said to the fans:

Doctor Who has been the most brilliant experience for me as an actor and a bloke, and that largely is down to the cast, crew and fans of the show. I’m incredibly grateful to all the cast and crew who work tirelessly every day, to realize all the elements of the show and deliver Doctor Who to the audience. Many of them have become good friends and I’m incredibly proud of what we have achieved over the last four years.

Having Steven Moffat as show runner write such varied, funny, mind bending and brilliant scripts has been one of the greatest and most rewarding challenges of my career. It’s been a privilege and a treat to work with Steven, he’s a good friend and will continue to shape a brilliant world for the Doctor.

The fans of Doctor Who around the world are unlike any other; they dress up, shout louder, know more about the history of the show (and speculate more about the future of the show) in a way that I’ve never seen before, your dedication is truly remarkable. Thank you so very much for supporting my incarnation of the Time Lord, number Eleven, who I might add is not done yet, I’m back for the 50th anniversary and the Christmas special!

It’s been an honour to play this part, to follow the legacy of brilliant actors, and helm the TARDIS for a spell with ‘the ginger, the nose and the impossible one’. But when ya gotta go, ya gotta go and Trenzalore calls. Thank you guys. Matt.

After the uphill battle he faced after replacing the beloved David Tennant, Smith won over the fans with his style, winning Most Popular Male Drama Performance at the National Television Awards last year.

It will be said to see him go, and then have to get used to yet another Doctor. And we might need to find out how they will get around the regeneration limit sooner than expected…

In case you had any questions about it, the BBC confirmed today that there will indeed be an eighth series of Doctor Who, and that Steven Moffat is returning as producer.

They also mention that a lot more is planned still to celebrate the 50th AnniversaryNot many details have been given (we already know about the special episode November 23rd and the An Adventure in Space and Time telefilm about the making of Doctor Who), but they also confirmed that there will be a Christmas episode as well.

Speaking of the 50th Anniversary episode, we know that David Tennant is returning, along with John Hurt (who appeared at the end of the series 7 finale), Jenna-Louise Coleman, plus Jemma Redgrave will return as Kate Stewart, daughter of the late Brigadeer Lethbridge-Stewart, but also Billie Piper will return!

So, I think it’s time for that cut-the-cord vacation. Another cruise, maybe. If only I didn’t have to work.

It appears that due to some mixup, BBC America’s online shop shipped the “Season 7 Part 2” Blu-ray disks to pre-orders early – before the final episode has aired on the channel. This means that a lot of people can (and have) watched the season finale episode, “The Name of the Doctor” – and at least several seem to have no problems spoiling it for others. And given that the episode is likely going to answer some long-standing questions, as well as set up for the 50th Anniversary episode later this year, if you don’t want to be spoiled, you may want to be EXTREMELY careful around the Internet this week…

We’re now just one week away from the season ending episode, “The Name of the Doctor”, and it appears a number of questions will be answered…at least, according to this prequel video, called “She Said, He Said”: