18 replies to this topic

[knightone]

From the Sci-Fi channel's preview of the upcoming season finale of Doctor Who, it appears that the good Doctor's journeys are coming to an end. Is this true? Is there going to be another season after this one or is this it?

[JulesLuvsShinzon]

I would imagine that this isn't the end!

Anyhoo, I'm off next Friday to see David Tennant play Hamlet with the RSC ~ Patrick Stewart's playing Claudius. Jean-Luc Picard and Doctor Who onstage together has to be the must-see gig of the year!

[JMW326]

Yes there is going to be another series. But Steven Moffat (one of the main writers of Dr Who) will be taking over the production from Russell T Davies. It is not yet confirmed if David Tennent will be back as the Doctor but is heavily rumored that he has been offered the job. I realy hope he does. I liked Eccleston at first but the more I watched DT the more I couldnt see anyone else playing him. I just watched the first half of the finale last night and all I can say is WOW!!!!!!! It is probably my favorite of any Dr. Who I have seen to date. Just amazing. I cant wait for the second half next week.

[knightone]

Cool. Thanks for the info. I figured it was too soon for the end of the series.

Hope you enjoyed the play, Jules. Let us know how it was.

[DS9_Fan]

David Tennant has signed on to star in all four of the Specials next year, however, has not yet signed on to play the Doctor in series 5 in 2010. Moffat takes over from 2010 for series 5, all four special episodes in 2009 are produced by Russel T Davies and Julie Gardener. I got the latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine yesterday, all this info came from there.

[Artistix]

Jules, you lucky bird, that would be awesome to see! Stewart & Tennant on stage at the same time!!

I would be gutted if Tennant left Who. I really liked Eccleston as well, but Tennant has such a great way of playing the character. He's fantastic.

I saw the finale a few weeks ago & loved it. A beautiful episode. Made me cry.

[JulesLuvsShinzon]

Well, guys, it's Monday and I only have to wait until Friday evening!

It seems as though the RSC are anticipating this production turning into something of a media event. I booked the tickets ages ago ~ just about as soon as they went on sale to the general public and I've had them for yonks. Last week, very unusually, I recived an email from the RSC reminding me that if I couldn't use the tickets to return them to the theatre ~ in other words, please don't flog them on ebay for a huge profit (as if I would!), and also reminding me that anybody found taking photos of the performance or attmepting to record it in any way will be swiftly ejected from the audiorium (as if I would ever engage in such yobbish behaviour!). I've never recieved such a communication from them in the past run-ups to performances, and I can only assume that this has to do with David Tennant's fame as the Doctor.

Also, I caught a news item on the radio yestderday that the RSC has forbidden Tennant from signing any Doctor Who merchandise that might be handed to him by eager fans, he is restricted, apparently, to signing only RSC-related merchandise.

Anyhow, I'll be sure to let you know how it goes when I get back to Bath. In the meantime, you can see pictures of Hamlet rehearsals here: http://trekweb.com/s...p;topBrowse=all

[knightone]

David Tennant has signed on to star in all four of the Specials next year, however, has not yet signed on to play the Doctor in series 5 in 2010. Moffat takes over from 2010 for series 5, all four special episodes in 2009 are produced by Russel T Davies and Julie Gardener. I got the latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine yesterday, all this info came from there.

The recent finale was for the fourth season, right? So are the specials going to be the only Doctor Who productions for 2009? No full season until 2010?

How about Torchwood and the Sarah Jane Chronicles?

[ncc1701toy]

Since they seem to gave given away the meaning of Bad Wolf to be the end of the world, and it seems all the Doctor's lady partners were needed to save everything, I wondered if there was a signal here things are coming to a close for now - but I don't know. Waiting for next week's episode since this weeks the doctor got injured and started to regenerate. But then they showed coming attractions of next week and David Tennent was still there. Hmmmmm.

PS: Hi FHC ! Like the forum. I be a newbie here.

ncc1701toy

[DS9_Fan]

The recent finale was for the fourth season, right? So are the specials going to be the only Doctor Who productions for 2009? No full season until 2010?

How about Torchwood and the Sarah Jane Chronicles?

The recent finale was the 4th season. The 4 specials in 2009 are just one off spescials. 3 Specials through the year, and one at Christmas. Before that we have the 2008 Christmas special to come. Because DT is doing Hamlet, he didn't have the time to do a full season, so the next 13 episode season will be 2010.

As for Torchwood, it recently started filming it's 3rd series with a view to being released in January in the UK. It takes on a different format this season. It'll be screened as 5 1 hour episodes shown on consecutive nights and will be a 5 episode long story. Speculation is that Mickey Smith and Martha Jones with repleace the now dead Toshiko and Owen as series regulars.

Not sure about Sarah Jane. The first series didn't do too well over here and I havn't heard if it is coming back with another series yet.

[slayerone76]

Since they seem to gave given away the meaning of Bad Wolf to be the end of the world, and it seems all the Doctor's lady partners were needed to save everything, I wondered if there was a signal here things are coming to a close for now - but I don't know. Waiting for next week's episode since this weeks the doctor got injured and started to regenerate. But then they showed coming attractions of next week and David Tennent was still there. Hmmmmm.

PS: Hi FHC ! Like the forum. I be a newbie here.

ncc1701toy

Welcome to the forum! We like it here too! Glad to have you with us!

[knightone]

As for Torchwood, it recently started filming it's 3rd series with a view to being released in January in the UK. It takes on a different format this season. It'll be screened as 5 1 hour episodes shown on consecutive nights and will be a 5 episode long story. Speculation is that Mickey Smith and Martha Jones with repleace the now dead Toshiko and Owen as series regulars.

Are the five episodes it? Weren't the other Torchwood series 13 episode seasons? Five would be more standard, I suppose, for the BBC, though.

[JulesLuvsShinzon]

Filming 13 epsiodes of Doctor Who back-to-back muct be very time consuming and I imagine that Tennant ~ for the good of his career ~ would like more opportunities to do other things (like Hamlet). In some ways, a few specials would be better than having to slavishly produce 13 new stories for a complete season, and would make Doctor Who even more of a TV event than it is now.

[DS9_Fan]

Are the five episodes it? Weren't the other Torchwood series 13 episode seasons? Five would be more standard, I suppose, for the BBC, though.

Yeah, just the 5. Aparently John Barrowman didn't wanna sign on for another 13 so they opted for 5, with a view to more if the new format is a success. Torchwood series 2 didin't do as well her as series 1. I personally loved it though!

[JMW326]

Personaly I like season 2 much better than season 1 of Torchwood. It wasnt quite as dark and self loathing as Season 1 was (which I enjoyed too). The Doctor however I thought was great from Season 1 and just keeps getting better. I hope the new format for next ear does not hurt the chances of either show gettng shown in the US.

[The_Donster]

Hopefully if they don't show on Sci-Fi, they'll show on BBC America JMW326. My wife and I were able to meet Capt Jack and Ianto Jones at SDCC this year. We missed Tosh signing at another booth, but hope to catch here another time. Both of them were pretty cool and even personalized the signatures, even though they weren't supposed to Between this and Avery Brooks, my wife was in heaven, which made my day.

[DS9_Fan]

Hopefully if they don't show on Sci-Fi, they'll show on BBC America JMW326. My wife and I were able to meet Capt Jack and Ianto Jones at SDCC this year. We missed Tosh signing at another booth, but hope to catch here another time. Both of them were pretty cool and even personalized the signatures, even though they weren't supposed to Between this and Avery Brooks, my wife was in heaven, which made my day.

I met John Barrowman post a performance of a few good men in London a while ago. He seemed like a very nice guy. He happilly signed autographs and posed for pictures (which still bugs me to this day as i forgot my Camera). He's a top guy.

[JMW326]

That is awesome that you guys got to meet Barrowman. He seems like a realy nice guy and has quickly turned a secondary charactrer into a great lead in no time. Captain Jack is one of my favrite characters on TV.

[JulesLuvsShinzon]

Well, I'm back from Stratford-Upon-Avon!

And it was probably one of the whackiest visits I've ever made to theatre. The "proper" Shakespeare theatre has been gutted in preparation for a complete renovation and where I sat feet away from Patrick Stewart two years ago is now a gaping black chasm. The so-called "Courtyard Theatre" looks like a giant rusty container that fell off some giant container ship and is ~ one would hope ~ only a temporary structure. Even though it's the RSC, it can hardly be the classiest setting Patrick Stewart and David Tennant have played in given that the inside is kitted out with kind of tiers of temporary seating that you normally find in the Birmingham NEC, and seats that were clearly designed by aliens who have never had to sit down before ~ and definitely not for more than three hours! And talk about hot, we were all sweating like pigs because there was no aircon. Goodness knows how the actors were feeling under the hot lights on stage!

It was a quirky experience indeed since it was what is known as "theatre in the round" and the stage projected out into the audience with walkways that took the actors through the audience in two places (we were only feet from Patrick Stewart and David Tennant when they made their exits and entrances, and then we could hear them both legging it round behind us as they had to enter stage from a different direction!), and what would normally be strictly "backstage" was right behind where we were sitting which we had to pass through on the way to our seats. There were open cupboards where all the props were kept and we could see them close up as well as thr running orders stick on the walls. There was also a make-up station with a lighted mirror and some classy Tesco's wet wipes on hand!

Even though the play was three hours long and we were seated on torture chairs, and I had some dork with a really fat head sitting in front of me for the first half (we had a seating reshuffle after the interval because we all suspected everybody else had a better view, and in my daughter's case I was right!), the performance went really quickly which I guess is an indicator of how good it was. The theatre was packed out. David Tennant pretty much played Hamlet the way you might expect from him and played many of the madness scenes for laughs, which is great because Hamlet is the kind of tragic character that makes you mainly want to kick his head in by around Act Two if he's played completely straight. Tennant appeared to be having a good time in his role and the cast really emphasised the comic parts. By golly, is DT lanky in the flesh! He's very, very slender indeed! Patrick Stewart was great as Claudius and makes great acting look easy. However, the role didn't really give Stewart a lot to do although it's a big part and he's onstage a lot. The only exception is when Claudius tries to pray for forgiveness and runs through his feelings of guilt ~ shades of Jean-Luc in TNG Sarek there, but really it's Tennant's show ~ as the titular Hamlet. The sets were very simple and effective and the costumes were modern dress.

It was raining cats and dogs when we left the theatre at 10.45pm. I was trying to spot who the fellow nerds might be (it's the RSC so nobody is crass enough to wear anything Trek or Who related!) and overheard a gaggle of girls behind me talking about FedCon (a bit of a giveaway that!). I didn't do the hanging around the stagedoor for autographs thing because it was raining, I had four members of my family with me and I'm...too cool!

It was a great weekend all round...