Sci-Fi Storm

Here is the exceedingly cool (as in bowties and fezzes) trailer for the upcoming Series 6 of Doctor Who…less than a month away!

So the twitterverse is abuzz about the title of Episode 4 of the upcoming Doctor Who series, which is being taken as a spoiler. I’m not entirely sure myself as there could be many twists. Don’t read the below title if you don’t want any chance of being spoiled.
(continue reading…)

Watch it right here! This is the first of three “prequels”, video shorts that will lead in to three full episodes through the series. This is the prequel for the first episode, “The Impossible Astronaut”. I left it at full resolution, which gives the site theme a bit of a fit, so you may want to embiggen your browser…

Update: Alas, the BBC no longer serves it to U.S. clients. BBC America does have it though on their site.

Today was the BBC Comic Relief Red Nose Day broadcast, which included two mini-episodes of Doctor Who, called “Space” and “Time”. What happens when the TARDIS materializes within itself? Recursive comedy?

And I just found out that the BBC is also producing three “Prequels”, which will be available on the BBC web site ahead of their associated episodes, the first of which will be before the series-opening two parter. No word on if they will be available to U.S. viewers yet.
(continue reading…)

I am just learning that British actor Michael Gough, perhaps best known in the U.S. as Alfred in the Burton/Schumacher Batman movies, and is also known to Doctor Who fans as “The Celestial Toymaker” as well as Councillor Hedin in “Arc Of Infinity”, passed away at the age of 94. He most recently was the voice of the Dodo Bird in Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland.

The sixth series (in the revived reckoning) of Doctor Who will debut in both the UK and US on April 23rd, 2011. BBC America will again carry it in the US, airing at 9pm.

Finally! And we should be getting a look at the US through the eyes of the Doctor…

We are deeply saddened to learn that actor Nicholas Courtney, who for years was best known for his role first as Colonel and then as Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, known simply as “The Brigadier”, passed away yesterday at the age of 81.

Courtney was the only actor to work with all seven of the Doctor’s original incarnations, including William Hartnell (as another character), and Hartnell’s lookalike replacement for “The Five Doctors”, Richard Hurndall, as The Brigadier (his appearance with Colin Baker was for the charity special “Dimensions In Time”), and worked with the later incarnations (except Christopher Eccleston) through many Big Finish audio adventures. A fan favorite, he was often at the top of polls of classic characters that people would like to see appear in the revived series, and he did make an appearance as the Brigadier in an episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures in 2008.

He is survived by his wife and two children. He was 81.

Doing my periodic update of our Sci-Fi TV Store (if you think anything should be included, let me know!)…the next two classic Doctor Who releases will be [sfs=1107]”Frontios”[/sfs] and [sfs=1108]”Time And The Rani”[/sfs], released on June 14th; the classic Krofft show H.R. Pufnstuf gets a new [sfs=1109]Collector’s Edition[/sfs] which includes the only episode of “Horror Hotel”, a combo-spinoff featuring characters from Pufnstuff and Lidsville (along with a new [sfs=1110]standard release[/sfs]), out on April 12th; the MacGyver [sfs=1111]TV movies[/sfs], (released last June but I missed it); the CGI series ReBoot finally get’s its [sfs=1113]first two seasons[/sfs] released on DVD on March 1st; and The Twilight Zone get its Blu-Ray releases, with [sfs=1116]Season 3[/sfs] just out and [sfs=1117]Season 4[/sfs] due in May.

On the movie side, The Chronicles of Nania: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader will be released on April 8th on [sfs=1118]Blu-ray[/sfs] and [sfs=1119]DVD[/sfs].

Just a reminder that the DVD release of the Doctor Who 1996 TV movie (aka “The Enemy Within”) hits the streets tomorrow – [sfs=1083]order now[/sfs] if you haven’t already! Also released is the classic Third Doctor episode [sfs=1084]”The Mutants”[/sfs], and next week sees the release of the Eleventh Doctor holiday special, “A Christmas Carol”, on both [sfs=1092]Blu-ray[/sfs] and [sfs=1093]DVD[/sfs].

Also added to the list with a May 10th release date, the classic Third Doctor episodes [sfs=1101]”Terror Of The Autons”[/sfs] and [sfs=1102]”Planet Of The Spiders”[/sfs] – Pertwee’s final episode.

Colin Firth, who is considered a likely winner for an Oscar for his role in The King’s Speech, reported said in a Twitter interview that he’d like a role in Doctor Who – and he’d like to be a bad guy. “I’d never rule out a part in Doctor Who or Torchwood – especially Doctor Who,” he said. Now, I haven’t found an authenticated account for him on Twitter, so I don’t know how true it actually is…but to me, I could see him actually playing the Doctor himself…