Roundup (current series)
Friday, 2 November 2012 - Reported by Chuck Foster
In Production:
Matt Smith on the Steve Wright Show
Matt Smith was a guest on the Steve Wright Show on Monday afternoon, during which he managed to avoid giving away anything about the Christmas Special! "I can say it's set in Victorian England, we meet a Doctor who's been profoundly changed by the experiences before from losing the Ponds ... and into his life walks Jenna-Louise Coleman's character and off they go on new adventures!"
Talking about the series in general, he said: "I think that the Doctor is the same character fundamentally, that's why we tune in to watch the show, because there's a mad man who turns up and saves the universe with a ball of string and a toaster, and that's kind of it. That's why it's been going for fifty years - at its core and its heart beat that's what it's about. Of course it is going to evolve with CGI and now you get a bit more culture perhaps - but then is it more cultured, I don't know? I think sometimes there can be too much CG and 3D and all that sort of stuff can get a bit overwhelming. Hopefully you can be a bit more inventive with the stories and actually go and create space, or you can go back to Victorian England in a way that 40/50 years ago was more difficult to do."
Looking to next year, he said: "We're very fortunate to have Mr Steven Moffat, who's a complete genius, he really is. I've just read episode one of the next season and you think ... and there're some brilliant ideas in it, there's a moment in it which involves wheels - that is an exclusive, an actual honest exclusive! - and when you watch it you'll go ahhh. It's him, being brilliant."
Into the Future - 50th Anniversary:
Peter Davison talks about the 50th Anniversary: "Every day I check the phone to see if Steven Moffat has called me! I don't know what’s happening next year, I have nothing to report. I'm sure it will be something fantastic! But I don't know what. I think if [the classic Doctors] aren't invited, I'm going to make my own rival video. I'll do my own 50th anniversary special. Colin Baker's prepared to work for nothing!" [ComicBookResources, 26 Oct]Meanwhile, the special documentary for the Anniversary seems to have fallen foul of recent revelations, according to the latest edition of Private Eye (number 1326): "As the sound of stable doors slamming shut resounds around the BBC the Jimmy Savile scandal is having some increasingly bizarre after-effects. A one-off docudrama about the creation of Doctor Who scripted by Mark Gatiss is in production, to be broadcast in November 2013 in celebration of the programme's 50th anniversary. Its makers have just been ordered to excise all scenes set in Television Centre dressing rooms."
Into the Future - cast/crew aspirations:
Deep Space Nine actor Aron Eisenberg has said that he'd like to be in the show, especially if Peter Jackson does direct! "If they called me I'd be there. I want to to play some fun, interesting, crazy little character. I would love to get into something really fun and cool. It would be awesome. Doctor Who is on my Netflix queue, There's so many things on my Netflix queue, I still haven't been able to see Game of Thrones." [Waikato Times, 20 Oct]As well as Jackson, Matt Smith continues to add to his wishlist of directors for the series: "Danny Boyle, I would just have a heart attack if he came anywhere near Doctor Who. I would love it. He's one of my favourite filmmakers around. He'd be an amazing director for Doctor Who, but I don't think we'd get him. I'll tell you who I'd also think would be great. Edgar Wright. He'd do something brilliant. I think he'd do something really, really clever with it." [Digital Spy, 31 Oct 2012]
Danny Boyle's collaborator for the Olympics Opening Ceremony, Frank Cottrell Boyce, would also like to write for the series: "I'm always slightly aggrieved that I never got asked to write for Doctor Who - that's in the same league (as the Olympics). I'd jump at that." [Digital Spy, 31 Oct 2012]
(with thanks to Ruther, Sky Tyne&Wear)