Doctor Who/Torchwood news

Okay, I’ve been remiss in getting the Doctor Who news out lately. ‘Cause I know you all depend on me alone to let you know what’s going on with that show. I mean, seriously, where else would you go? BBC? Any of the completely sci-fi focused blogs out there that cover this stuff by the minute? psshh… that’d be crazy.

Anyway… here’s what’s come across my radar.

First, a minor point: when the new season starts with Matt Smith as the 11th Doctor next year, the credits will change. I’m not just talking about the actor’s name being different, I mean the style of the credits will change. In fact, they’ll be reverting back to the old style, classic Who credits where the titular character’s face appears on screen. I imagine they’ll also change the music slightly, as they tend to do from time to time. Same theme, different arrangement.  I think that’s one way that the new Stephen Moffat-led show is tipping its hat to the classic series.

In a behind-the-scenes photo from the Christmas special this year, we get a reveal of a guest actor and a possibly major spoiler harkening back to a guess from earlier last year. In fact, this is such a major spoiler that I’m going to use the Spoiler Guard.

[if you're reading this in email or RSS feed, it's possible this won't protect you, so go directly to the article to skip over this].

click for spoiler ▼

In a post last year I reviewed an argument someone made that the season finale last year would focus on the return of Gallifrey, the Doctor’s home planet. The Doctor, you’ll remember, is the last of the Time Lords because in the Time War he destroyed Gallifrey in the act of destroying the Daleks. Well, some Daleks and the renegade Time Lord The Master escaped this destruction, as we discovered through the series. With the release of the below picture, we now have a strong hint that at the least another Time Lord has survived.

Timothy Dalton, David Tennant, and John Simm - three Time Lords

Notice two things here: first, John Simm is in the picture, which means The Master is back from the dead… again. How they’ll explain him regenerating into the same body will be interesting. Second, Timothy Dalton’s costume is very reminiscent of the Gallifreyan robes seen in the classic Who series. Is he, perhaps, another surviving Time Lord, or are we going to be treated to the full-on return of Gallifrey? If the latter, that could make things interesting for the Doctor. On the one hand, he would be far from the only Time Lord again, which would make him happy. On the other hand, he destroyed them all and it’s possible that they wouldn’t be too happy about that, which could very well make him a fugitive. Or maybe they’ll agree and make him President again. Could go either way (though I’d bet on the fugitive thing).

Or maybe the whole thing is a flashback.

So, interesting stuff there. I can’t wait!

On the Torchwood side of the house, we’ve got the newest trailer (which by now has been out for a few weeks) and a release date on BBC America (which will coincide with the channel’s switch to HD programming).

Told over five consecutive nights starting July 20 at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT, the series re-joins Captain Jack (John Barrowman), Gwen Cooper (Eve Myles) and Ianto Jones (Gareth David-Lloyd) as they are still coming to terms with the death of two of their closest friends. Yet despite their pain, they know they have a job to do. This time they are faced with their fiercest threat to date – one which throws the future of Torchwood and the entire human race spiralling into danger. Battling against the odds, do they stand a chance of saving mankind?

Here’s the trailer:

That grabs me a little bit more than the original trailer, but not much, sadly. There is just enough of a hint, though, that I think the show will be good and the trailer’s where the failure lies. Maybe it’s just high hopes. We’ll see in July.

Finally, we have a piece of Who related news that makes me sad on multiple levels:

Wales’ Sebastian Neale loved “Doctor Who.”  How much you ask?

Enough to have a “Doctor Who” themed funeral.  The 26-year old fan recently passed away.  But instead of the standard funeral, Neale had a “Doctor Who” themed one, including having his casket look like the exterior of the Doctor’s TARDIS.

Attendees to the funeral were greeted by the a line from the fourth Doctor story, “Pyramids of Mars,” saying, “I’m a Time Lord, I walk in eternity.”  And the usual comforting words from scripture were replaced with William Hartnell’s first Doctor speech from “Dalek Invasion of Earth” and later re-used in the prelude of “The Five Doctors,” saying, “Someday I shall come back, yes I shall come back.  Until then there must be no regrets, no tears, no anxieties. Just go forward in all your beliefs, and prove to me that I am not mistaken in mine.”

Related posts:

1. Torchwood – Doctor Who spinoff Torchwood Lights Up May – Slice of SciFi In a...
2. Review: Doctor Who 2008 Let’s get this out of the way: if you stare...
3. Doctor Who – The return of Gallifrey? Doctor Who — Theories, Facts, Speculations – Slice of SciFi...
4. Smallville, Dr. Who, and Torchwood facts and rumors Smallville will be back for an eighth season next year!...
5. Doctor Who Season 2 on Sci-Fi Slice of Scifi – Science Fiction TV & Movie News,...