Sci-Fi Storm

The Doctor sure does like to travel – and he will be traveling around the world this August! As part of a promotional World Tour to build up the buzz for the upcoming Series 8, new Doctor Peter Capaldi and companion Jenna Coleman (Clara Oswald) will visit 7 cities around the world in just 12 days, starting in Cardiff, Wales on August 7th and finishing in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on August 19th – presumably around the debut of the show. Showrunner Steven Moffat will appear at select cities as well.

The other cities are London, England; Seoul, South Korea; Sydney, Australia; New York; and Mexico City.

From the official release:

Following on from last year’s global smash-hit 50th anniversary, BBC Worldwide announce a major global publicity tour to launch the new series of Doctor Who and introduce Peter Capaldi as the new Doctor. Doctor Who: The World Tour will begin in the UK on August 7 and finish in Brazil on August 19.

The trip will see Twelfth Doctor Peter Capaldi, on-screen companion Jenna Coleman, and the show’s lead writer and executive producer Steven Moffat*, visit seven cities across five continents in 12 days, where they will attend fan events and media interviews, publicising Series 8 to a global audience.

The tour marks the largest ever promotional undertaking in Doctor Who’s 50-year history and will kick off in Welsh capital and home of the series’ production, Cardiff, before taking in London (UK), Seoul (South Korea), Sydney (Australia), New York (US), Mexico City (Mexico) and Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). More details of the itinerary will be available from doctorwho.tv soon, as well as reports from the tour as it happens, which fans everywhere will be able to enjoy across social and digital platforms.

Peter Capaldi has commented on his excitement ahead of the tour: “It’s fantastic that so many people across the world love Doctor Who. After 8 months solid filming deep in the world of monsters, Jenna and I are thrilled to be heading for the Planet of Fans”.

Executive producer and lead writer Steven Moffat adds: “I’ve always thought we’d all be a lot safer if the Doctor conquered the world, instead of the Daleks. Now with Jenna and Peter leading the charge, it looks like it’s going to happen. I’ll be bringing up the rear to handle the exposition scenes, and maybe carry some bags.”

Doctor Who Series 8 is due to premiere in the UK in August. US broadcaster BBC America will transmit on the same day. Doctor Who is distributed by BBC Worldwide to over 200 territories.

*Due to production commitments, Steven Moffat will be unable to attend to the entire tour. The cities he will join the tour for will be announced soon.

The official Doctor Who Twitter account broke the news Whovians have been waiting for…the Doctor will return – new face and all – in August. BBC America later confirmed it for U.S. audiences as well. Exact date yet to be determined.

BREAKING NEWS! The new series of #DoctorWho starts August, 2014! pic.twitter.com/OZN1NxGp4w

— Doctor Who Official (@bbcdoctorwho) May 23, 2014

It appears that Matt Smith can’t get enough of time travel stories…but this time he may be facing a really mean looking robot…

Paramount announced today that the actor, best known for being the 11th incarnation of the Doctor (well, depending how you count, but we’ve been through that before – let’s just use classic numbering), will join the Terminator franchise reboot, which is expected to be a new trilogy of movies and will once again feature Arnold Schwarzenegger. Reportedly Smith’s role will be major, expanding in the second and third movies. From the press release:

HOLLYWOOD, CA (May 2, 2014) – Paramount Pictures and Skydance Productions announced today that “Doctor Who” star Matt Smith will join the cast of the upcoming “TERMINATOR” reboot.

Smith will play a new character with a strong connection to John Connor, alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jason Clarke, Emilia Clarke, Jai Courtney, J.K. Simmons, Dayo Okeniyi and Byung Hun Lee.

Alan Taylor is directing the film from a screenplay by Laeta Kalogridis and Patrick Lussier. David Ellison and Dana Goldberg of Skydance Productions are producing. Skydance’s Paul Schwake, Annapurna Pictures’ Megan Ellison, Kalogridis and Lussier are executive producing.

Smith is best known for playing The Doctor on the popular “Doctor Who” television series during the 2011-2103 seasons. His other television credits include “Christopher and His Kind,” “Moses Jones,” and “The Street.” He can be seen next on the big screen in “LOST RIVER,” directed by Ryan Gosling, alongside Christina Hendricks, Saoirse Ronan and Eva Mendes.

He is represented by United Talent Agency and Michael Duff at Troika.

The “TERMINATOR” franchise launched in 1984 with Schwarzenegger as the title character and spanned three subsequent films, which have earned more than $1 billion at the worldwide box office.

Paramount will distribute the film worldwide on July 1, 2015.

The Doctor Who community has been saddened by the loss of two notable people…on Thursday directory Derek Martinus passed away at the age of 82 after battling Alzheimer’s. Martinus presided over a number of episodes spanning from 1965 to 1970 and with three different Doctors, including major serials like Galaxy 4, The Tenth Planet, The Evil of the Daleks, and The Ice Warriors, with his final serial being Spearhead From Space, notable for being Jon Pertwee’s debut and the first episode broadcast it color.

Then on Sunday actress Kate O’Mara, who played fellow Time Lord The Rani in a couple of serials in the 1980s, passed away at the age of 74 after a short illness. O’Mara appeared as the evil Time Lord opposite Colin Baker in “The Mark of the Rani”, then again in Sylvester McCoy’s debut episode “Time and the Rani”. She was also perhaps better known to U.S. audiences as Cassandra Morrell, sister to Alexis Carrington on Dynasty. Overall her TV career spanned almost 50 years.

Actor Samuel Anderson, best know for his roles in The History Boys and Emmerdale as well as a few guest appearances on Gavin & Stacey, will join the cast of Doctor Who in a recurring role in the upcoming 8th revival series of the show, with new Doctor Peter Capaldi.

Anderson will play Danny Pink, a teacher at the Coal Hill School where current companion Clara Oswald also teaches.

If you’ve heard of the Coal Hill School before, it has appeared a few times in Doctor Who already – including the very first episode, as the school from which Ian Xhesterton and Barbara Wright taught and followed home Susan into the junkyard and then into the TARDIS. It then appeared some 25 years later in Remembrance of the Daleks when the Seventh Doctor returned to the area to take care of some unfinished business. And then it appeared at the beginning of the 50th Anniversary episode Day of the Doctor, mimicking the very first scene of the very first episode, where we learn that Clara is employed as a teacher, and Ian Chesterton is listed as Chairman of Governors.

“Capaldi? He’s too old…”

Those were some of the first words I heard when they announced Matt Smith’s replacement, Peter Capaldi. He is, after all, 24 years older than Smith. But then, Matt Smith was the youngest ever to play the role – he was 27 when he debuted. David Tennant was third at 34. Ironically the second youngest debut was Peter Davison, who was 29 – and is now David Tennant’s father-in-law. Christopher Eccleston was 41. The only other sub-40 year old was Paul McGann who was 36.

But regardless of Davison’s age, all the “classic” Doctors played the character as a fatherly figure. Advisor. Friend. Protector of his companions, and of humans and the Earth in general. It wasn’t until McGann that we saw any sort of romantic side of the Doctor. And although we didn’t really see much of that in Eccleston, his Doctor was still different than previous incarnations. He appeared to be younger, hipper – a more contemporary character to Rose, where something more than a father-child relationship might appear. That certainly continued with Tennant and more with Smith.

But it isn’t just teetering-on-the-edge-of-a-romantic-relationship angle. Overall the Doctor was different. He was alone – his people gone, and as far as he knew, forever – and he was responsible for it. He’s having to come to terms with it, and is perhaps even annoyed that he survived to have to. He’s younger in appearance but hardened. Perhaps he’s becoming a rebel. He cares less about the consequences of his own actions. Beings die at his hands. He isn’t immune to them, but seems more willing to sacrifice. After all, he had to make that decision on a grand scale in the Time War. And there was no one to stop him, keep him in check – or punish him. His compassion was lost, so he needed his companions to help him feel. After “The Name of the Doctor”, the last 7 years of the “new” Doctor made more sense.

Now that the reasons for this shift in character have essentially been resolved to a certain degree, I think the shift to an older Doctor makes perfect sense. He doesn’t need to feel guilty, or alone, or be mad at the Universe that made him that way. He can return to what he was, the father, the protector.

Whether the fans will go with him remains to be seen. There is the danger of losing the chemistry that has built up since last year with Clara. But there is a potential for new angles.

And if it doesn’t work out…well, there’s always the next regeneration.

One last message from our favorite Sontaran, who wants to destroy us…this time, Strax discusses the human custom of “Christmas”…

Are you prepared for the end?

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T minus 2 days and counting…to tide you over, here are a couple of clips from the Christmas episode, “The Time of the Doctor”, showing how a time machine can be very useful for certain things…
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This latest Strax report may be the best yet…the somewhat frustrated Sontaran nurse talks about ALL of the different Doctors – generally in relation to how they’d be as warriors…
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Christmas Day, 9pm/8c on BBC America. Be there or be exterminated.
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