Sci-Fi Storm

10th Doctor David Tennant and girlfriend actress Georgia Moffett are engaged to to be married, with a wedding planned for New Years Day 2012. The two met on the set of Doctor Who during Tennant’s third year, where Moffatt played the titular and ironic role of “The Doctor’s Daughter”, also known as Jenny. Moffett is in fact the daughter of Peter Davison, the 5th Doctor, with whom Tennant appeared in the 2007 Children In Need special short episode, “Timecrash”. Davison has already given his blessing, along with Moffett’s mother, actress Sandra Dickinson (best known in the genre perhaps as Trillian from The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy mini-series). Davison and Dickinson split in 1994.

I found the headline from this article a bit humorous though: “Harry Potter’ Star David Tennant Engaged to Georgia Moffett” As popular as Harry is, I’m not really sure Tennant’s popularity really stems from the limited screen time he had in one movie… 🙂

I’m hearing from various sources that the unofficial overnight figures show 10.3 million viewers in the UK tuned in for the Doctor Who 2010 Christmas episodes, “A Christmas Carol”, finishing second for the night behind EastEnders and getting a 39.8% share of the total audience. Last year’s special, which was also David Tennant’s last, hit 10.4 million. It will be interesting to see the US numbers with BBC America showing it the same day.

The episode was both fun and far-fetched, but also a good compelling story – not exactly a retelling of the Dickens story, but borrowing partly from it and other stories. Not without some plot holes, but it is Doctor Who after all…

Missed it? It is available for pre-order now on [sfs=1092]Blu-ray[/sfs] and [sfs=1093]DVD[/sfs], with a release date of February 15th.

It looks like the news outlets have already started their holiday, so unless something major comes up you probably won’t hear much from me either – so Happy Holidays everyone! And don’t forget – BBC America has the Christmas special Doctor Who episode, “A Christmas Carol” (don’t worry, there is more than just a retelling of the same old Dickens story) at 9PM ET on Christmas Day, and Matt Smith will appear on The Graham Norton Show immediately afterwards.

If you’ve watched both shows, you’ve seen the similarities – not just because of Steven Moffat being in charge of both, but also that you could picture Benedict Cumberbatch as the Doctor playing Sherlock Holmes for fun. So there was the natural question of the possibility of a crossover. But Moffat isn’t amenable to that. In a NY Times interview mostly about the upcoming Doctor Who Christmas special, “A Christmas Carol”, he answers about being asked about the two characters meeting: “I think everyone who’s passing me in the streets is suggesting that at the moment. I think there are problems of doing that, because then you would say that Sherlock Holmes lives in the same world as the Doctor, and there are Daleks and all sorts of things. If a Sherlock Holmes story depends on time travel being impossible, it’s quite hard if he’s a personal friend of the Doctor’s, isn’t it?” All true, but it could work – if the Doctor puts aside the advanced technology and plays along for the adventure. But then, it would be like identical twin Sherlocks solving a mystery…maybe that’s not so good.

Probably not safe for work – not because of any bad language or anything, but the horrible, horrible singing – but here are Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill giving their rendition (or butchering) of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”. Thanks, BBC…I think.

OK, I’ve mentioned this several times now…thanks to the great folks at BBC America (who also have their own giveaway), I’m giving away a prize pack which consists of the following DVD sets: Doctor Who Series 5, Being Human Series 2, and Top Gear Series 13, plus a Union Jack light switch wall plate! And it’s very easy to get a chance to win!

Note: I said following us on Facebook would work, but unfortunately that won’t work for this giveaway right now. I have to change the way I integrate with Facebook and won’t have that ready in time. Update: I’m working on at least a temporary solution to the Facebook issue, but no guarantees.

First, follow us on Twitter if you haven’t already. Then retweet any news article posted on Twitter (the ones that start with News – this article doesn’t count but feel free to retweet anyways) from today through Monday night (if retweeting the old fashioned way, make sure “@scifistorm” is in there as well as the link). Also send @scifistorm a tweet naming your favorite Doctor from the classic years (up through the seventh Doctor). If you don’t have a favorite from that era (perhaps you are too young to know), then choose one of the newer ones.

On Tuesday evening a winner will be randomly selected and announced. One entry per person, please – although retweets of articles are always appreciated. Spread the word! We haven’t been using Twitter very long, but I’d like to see us get the follower numbers up!

Update: This will be extended through Wednesday night…and I should add, this is for U.S. copies of the DVDs and is open to U.S. residents. I can’t ship the package internationally.

Fifth Doctor Peter Davison will join former Tenth Doctor companion Freema Agyeman (Martha Jones) and Jamie Bamber (Lee Adama, Battlestar Galactica) on the cast of ITV’s Law & Order: UK, the British version of the long running NBC franchise. Davison will play Henry Sharpe, the new head of the CSP, during the upcoming fourth series now currently filming.

The Doctor may be 907 years old (give or take – continuity is a problem with time travel…), but his show is 47 years old today. The very first episode of Doctor Who, “An Unearthly Child”, aired on the BBC on November 23rd, 1963 at 5:15PM GMT, running continuously for 26 years, [sfs=1083]a TV movie in 1996[/sfs], and has since been revived with 5 more series and several TV movies. What would be an appropriate drink to toast the Doctor?

The 1996 Doctor Who TV movie (a.k.a. “The Enemy Within”), a joint effort between the BBC and Fox to revive the series starring Paul McGann, will [sfs=1083]finally get a Special Edition DVD release[/sfs] on February 8th, 2011. the movie follows the Doctor in San Francisco after his regeneration due to a gunshot wound, where he meets up with Dr. Grace Holloway (Daphne Ashbrook), and pursues the Master (Eric Roberts), who has once again cheated death.

Alas, the movie created more questions and inconsistencies and didn’t really spawn the hoped for revival, but it has been absorbed into the accepted canon, earning McGann his status as the Eighth Doctor in the pantheon, and it did keep the Doctor on the minds of fans until the far more successful BBC attempt.

Here is the trailer for the upcoming Doctor Who Christmas special, “A Christmas Carol”: