Sci-Fi Storm

Here is a neat video – when Russell T. Davies and Julie Gardner stepped down from producing Doctor Who at the end of David Tennant’s run as the Doctor, Tennant, Catherine Tate and John Barrowman said – or rather sang – their goodbyes to the pair, with a song about how the two brought back the series and overcame so many obstacles…

Pretty much as expected, Matt Smith countered last week’s rumor he was leaving Doctor Who after the next series (which suddenly exploded earlier this week with various sites saying he “confirmed” it, referencing the same report). I love playing this role, and I don’t want to give it up anytime soon,” he said. “I feel very lucky. In the current climate for actors, I’d never say, ‘This is too much’ – quite the opposite, in fact. I’d say, ‘Bring it on’.”

Again, it looks like more was read into his earlier statement than was intended. Still, it doesn’t mean that he’s under contract any longer than the next series either, so the future remains unclear…

Take this with a block of salt…SFX reports that during an interview with VH1, Matt Smith let slip that he only has a year left on Doctor Who. But it appears that it’s all in how you read it. When asked if he would think of staying in the U.S., his response was:

Well, hopefully soon, you know. I’ve got another year of Doctor Who, but then I’m certainly going to come and give it a shot – come and hang out in LA…

Now we know he’s committed to a seventh series. beyond that may not have even come up for discussion yet, the seventh series isn’t even in production yet and won’t apparently air for a year. So it doesn’t mean that he is definitely leaving – more like that when he does in fact leave, he’d consider moving to LA.

Doctor Who is over until Christmas, but there are still things to unravel more than time itself after the season ender. And for those of us in the U.S. who only get little bits of the Doctor Who Confidential specials until the [sfs=1145]Blu-ray[/sfs]/[sfs=1146]DVD[/sfs] sets arrive, we’ll have to settle for whatever we can get from across the pond. This one is a good start…thanks to the folks over at Doctor Who TV, here is the Confidential segment on River Song’s timeline, from the point of view of River Song – and narrated by River Song (Alex Kingston) herself.

BBC, needing to cut costs, has reportedly canceled Doctor Who Confidential, the behind the scenes features that aired on their BBC3 channel right after each episode aired on BBC1, as it as done since the series revived in 2005. The specials also appeared in modified form on the US DVDs, and bits of them can be seen between some commercial breaks on BBC America.

Facing the need to cut 20% of the budget, BBC decided to cut the show and focus on more original content as part of a “Delivering Quality First” initiative.

However, I suspect that behind-the-scenes features will still be featured on future DVD releases, but perhaps not as much and less produced.

The 7th series of Doctor Who apparently is being delayed as rumored, according to Doctor Who Magazine. Reportedly shooting won’t begin until February 2012, too late for the usual start in the Spring, so the start of the series will be delayed until the Fall. How it will be broken out, or if the series will be split again and some of the episodes being held until 2013.

Some belated Sci-Fi TV Store updates:

• Fringe: The Complete Third Season was released on [sfs=1154]Blu-Ray[/sfs] and [sfs=1153]DVD[/sfs] last week
• Sanctuary: The Complete Third Season is out today on [sfs=1151]Blu-Ray[/sfs] and [sfs=1152]DVD[/sfs], and also gets its own section
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars also gets its own section, with The Complete Season Three out on [sfs=1159]Blu-Ray[/sfs] and [sfs=1160]DVD[/sfs] on October 18th – and Season 4 starts on Cartoon Network Friday!
• The second half of the sixth series of Doctor Who, currently airing, will be released on [sfs=1145]Blu-Ray[/sfs] and [sfs=1146]DVD[/sfs] on November 8th, followed by the complete sixth series on [sfs=1147]Blu-Ray[/sfs] and [sfs=1148]DVD[/sfs] on November 22nd.

And the following classic episodes of Doctor Who are scheduled:

• [sfs=334]The Talons of Weng-Chiang[/sfs] – October 11th
• [sfs=1144]Colony in Space[/sfs] – November 8th
• [sfs=1149]Invasion of the Dinosaurs[/sfs] – January 10th
• [sfs=1150]The Android Invasion[/sfs] – January 10th

Don’t forget – use the links above and anything you purchase from Amazon for a time gets credited to us and helps pay for the server!

This seems rather unlikely at this point, especially with ZERO comments from either Starz or the BBC, who currently co-produce Torchwood, but after showing the conclusion of Torchwood: Miracle Day on BBC Australia, there was reportedly a tag at the end that said “JACK WILL BE BACK January 2012”. One person even took a video of the screen.

But is it real? The tag seems so – but for Torchwood to return in just 4 months (and they usually mean that’s when it returns to air) seems rather unrealistic, especially given no announcement. Torchwood: Miracle Day was announced over a year in advance and production began six months ago. It is not impossible but highly unlikely without announcements.

But does it mean Torchwood? It says “JACK” – is Captain Jack Harkness going to be back in Doctor Who, which might air in January in Australia? That also seems unlikely, given actor John Barrowman’s latest comments, but that would be more feasible if he was in this year’s Christmas episode (and it aired late in Australia). Maybe we’ll find out more in the coming days…

In case you haven’t heard (because you are somewhere stuck outside the space-time continuum), the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who is just two years away (sad that nowadays that seems to close, at least in the entertainment industry), and actor John Barrowman would LOVE to appears as Captain Jack Harkness on the show again, and appear with 11th Doctor Matt Smith (which would be his third Doctor, which I think elevates his multi-Doctor companion status to levels only exceeded by Elisabeth Sladen and Brigadier Nicholas Courtney, both of who sadly passed away this year).

But if you want to see them together, you need to ask the BBC, according to Barrowman. “I don’t think it’s a question of whether I would like to come back as Captain Jack, I’d be very happy to do that any time. I know the fans would really like that. But it’s a decision left up to the BBC and the drama department.” Captain Jack currently belongs with the Torchwood gang, which is still run by Russell T. Davies, whereas Doctor Who is now run by Steven Moffat. So it would really likely be up to Moffat to bring Jack back, and he isn’t talking about the anniversary much yet.

But it seems if you want to see it happen, it can’t hurt to start letting the BBC know…

Think River Song would make a good long-term companion for the Doctor? Matt Smith doesn’t think so. In a very brief article in The Sun, the actor currently playing the Doctor says, “I think River’s too independent to ever be a full-time companion. That’s what makes River great as a character. The companions and The Doctor are doing their thing, then whoosh – in comes the hair. It just messes The Doctor up.”