Series 6 news & rumours & wild speculation thread

[Dino]

Already got a thread about it. Sorry, can't delete posts.

[Si Hunt]

Oh no!

Being Human creator Toby Whithouse has hinted that he may return to Doctor Who to write a new episode.

Whithouse previously wrote the episode 'School Reunion' in 2006 and returned for the most recent series to script sixth instalment 'The Vampires of Venice'.

The writer recently attended a panel at this year's San Diego Comic-Con. According to SFX, when asked if he or fellow panellist and Who writer Paul Cornell would be contributing to the next series, he replied: “We’re contractually not allowed to say.”

Another panellist, novelist China Miéville, reportedly replied: “We can apply a bit of detective work here. If Toby’s contractually advised not to say anything, that must mean he’s under contract.”

I'd have been all for this before "Vampires of Venice" but that story, and it's similarity to "School Reunion", suggested he's a bit of a one trick pony.

Si.

[Awesome Wells]

I'd have been all for this before "Vampires of Venice" but that story, and it's similarity to "School Reunion", suggested he's a bit of a one trick pony.

Si.

Happily for me, his one trick appears to be writing good episodes of Doctor Who that aren't really that alike. So this ain't sich a bad fing, realleh.

[SiHart]

Murray Gold is currently writing the music for the Christmas special, so i guess he's on board for Series 6.

Si xx

[Si Hunt]

Now Ed Thomas has gone, is he the only surviving regular cast/crew member since 2005?

Si. :mobile

[Larry]

Murray Gold is currently writing the music for the Christmas special, so i guess he's on board for Series 6.

Si xx

is Mr Gold, the only musician, employed the BBC.

[Jonno]

Now Ed Thomas has gone, is he the only surviving regular cast/crew member since 2005?

Si. :mobile

I don't think so, Si. There's a small interview with Will Cohen, the VFX producer, in the new Radio Times today and Danny Hargreaves, who does explosions and things like that, continues to pop up on Confidential. That's two off the top of my head!

Oh, and what about Ailsa Berk on the choreography?! She's a delight!

PS - why do you have a symbol of a mobile on most of your posts?!

[Alex]

Neil Gaiman's posted some interesting stuff about the Who writing process on his blog:

...And when I went home I got to work on Anansi Boys, interrupted only by the Doctor Who script which, having bounced from season 5 to season 6 (I wrote a Very Expensive Episode. I didn’t mean to. It just happened that way, and there was not enough money left in the Season 5 budget to make it) needed to change a bit, because Season 5 is not Season 6. And, because television production schedules wait for no man, they needed it now. Meanwhile Anansi Boys was ridiculously late.

Somewhere in there I decided that I would simply stop blogging until Anansi Boys and Doctor Who were handed in. The blog would be one less thing to worry about. And that blogging again would be my incentive to finish. The sixth draft of my Doctor Who script was handed in on the 19th of June...Just as the draft of Anansi Boys was handed in, the word came down from the powers behind Doctor Who that I was going to have to do another draft.

The wonderful thing about books and comics is your budget is infinite: it costs the same to draw one thing as another, to write one thing as another. That’s not true of television, where a budget might stretch to prosthetics or CGI, but not both (quick! pick one! now rewrite to make it work) or you might find yourself being told that, no, we can’t make the Undersea Dancing Mermaids sequence work because the underwater cameras would blow the budget even before you factor in the mermaid tails but we already have a bird costume so could you just make all the mermaids into birds instead? And you’re sure you can, you can’t just quite figure out how...*

Truthfully, I’m not grumbling. I’m loving writing Doctor Who, and so far, each draft really has been better than the one before. But we’re now at the point where people in Cardiff are nervously drumming their desktops and checking their watches. So I’m putting blogging again off for a few more days.



*I've learned over the last few months that any comment one makes about Doctor Who is analysed, pored over, interpreted, and for all I know held up to a mirror and then combined with something from the Book of Enoch, by Doctor Who folk on the internet, who then have much too much fun using it to Build Up Theories. So this is a Disclaimer, just for them: There are no mermaids or birds anywhere in my Doctor Who script. That was just me making something up as an example. Honest. Also, this footnote is not a clever double-bluff, and really there are birds and mermaids but I am trying to throw you off the scent by mentioning them and then saying that there aren't.

[shada pavlova]

...Cunning devil...

[shada pavlova]

Unless you hate spoilers, you should totally watch this. Now. Seriously, stop whatever you're doing and watch this. It is way more important.

[Anthony Williams]

Unless you hate spoilers, you should totally watch this. Now. Seriously, stop whatever you're doing and watch this. It is way more important.

Yes, but it's a shame it's a fake!

Ant x

[Darren]

Very good, but it was fan made.

[Larry]

Very good, but it was fan made.

how do you know that..

[SiHart]

It's very cleverly done, but it's lots of publicity shots slightly animated. It's rather convincingly done, but it's not real.

Si xx

[Anthony Williams]

Plus, the creator of the original (before a load of people re-posted it on YouTube) 'fessed up on GB!

Ant x

[SiHart]

Neil gaiman's episode had its read through today. He talks about it in his blog- http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2010/0...medium=twitter

Si xx

[Anthony Williams]

While Richard Clark has mentioned on his Twitter feed that he'll be directing a Mark Gatiss story for the next series, on a Tweet from August 4th

Ant x

[SiHart]

Doctor Who Live Tour news and series 6 stuff in interview with Matt Smith http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/11097408

Si xx

[Darren]

Ermmm a report in the Mirror claims that River Song will be killed off in Series 6. Should someone tell them she died in Series 4?

[Si Hunt]

Apparently Episode 4 is called "What Are Little Boys Made Of?"

Si.

[Larry]

Ermmm a report in the Mirror claims that River Song will be killed off in Series 6. Should someone tell them she died in Series 4?

it's the old timey wimey thing the Moff, re writting things..

[SiHart]

The official Doctor Who site has confirmed that former Coronation Street star Suranne Jones has been cast in the role of Idris in the third episode of the 2011 series of Doctor Who.

Jones is best known for playing the role of Karen McDonald in ITV1's soap over a period of four years. She has also appeared in the detective drama series Vincent, and on the West End stage in A Few Good Men opposite Rob Lowe. Other roles include the London based black comedy, Dead Clever. In autumn 2007, she toured the UK in the play Terms of Endearment and she has recently appeared in a number of plays for BBC Radio 4. In January 2009, she appeared in Unforgiven, a three-part drama on ITV1, where she plays Ruth Slater, a woman released from prison after serving a 15-year prison sentence for the murder of two policemen.

Last year Jones appeared in The Sarah Jane Adventures episode, Lisa's Revenge playing the Mona Lisa.

The third episode, which starts filming on Friday is written by Neil Gaiman who said
Suranne is marvellous. She's beautiful, funny and strange. It's the kind of role that people will remember forever, so we needed someone who was able to pull that off, and to keep up with Matt Smith. And bite him. Suranne does all three.

Jones talked about how excited she was to be given the role.
As an actor, it's hugely exciting to be cast in Doctor Who. I'm a massive fan of the show and I was blown away when I read Neil's script and uncovered what's in store for my character. I'm sworn to secrecy so viewers will just have to wait until next year to find out any other juicy details!

Si xx

[Jon Masters]

Doctor Who has become the new The Bill

Expect to see Barbara Windsor as the Rani and Ross Kemp as Rassilon in series 7.

[Si Hunt]

Doctor Who has become the new The Bill

That's actually a very good thing - for the industry, for Doctor Who, for everyone. How many shows are there where decent actors trying to prove their worth can get a break without fear of typecasting?

Si.

[Jon Masters]

That's actually a very good thing - for the industry, for Doctor Who, for everyone. How many shows are there where decent actors trying to prove their worth can get a break without fear of typecasting?

Si.

Decent actors will find good roles in a variety of places. Too many ex-soapies have to have special dramas created around them to justify their expensive contracts with TV companies. They're rarely any good.