Series 7 news & rumours *spoilers*

[SiHart]

From the BBC website:

Information about the Christmas Special is starting to emerge and judging from the details below, it's going to be the best one yet with an incredible cast and intriguing storyline...

We'll be bringing you more on the story as it emerges, but for now, here's that press release in full...

Doctor Who Christmas Special
Starring
Matt Smith, Claire Skinner, Bill Bailey, Arabella Weir and Alexander Armstrong

1 x 60' drama produced by BBC Wales for BBC One

Cardiff, 21 September 2011: Production has started on the 2011 Doctor Who Christmas Special in which the Doctor (Matt Smith) finds himself in war-torn England embarking on a magical and mysterious adventure with a young widow and her two children.

A stellar guest cast including Claire Skinner (Outnumbered), Bill Bailey (Black Books), Arabella Weir (The Fast Show) and Alexander Armstrong (Armstrong & Miller), join Matt Smith in the emotional festive special, packed full of Christmas thrills and chills.

Steven Moffat, Lead Writer and Executive Producer, commented: "The Doctor at Christmas - nothing is more fun to write. Maybe because it's so his kind of day - everything's bright and shiny, everybody's having a laugh, and nobody minds if you wear a really stupid hat. Of all the Doctors, Matt Smith's is the one that was born for this time of year - so it's the best news possible that he's heading back down the chimney."

The special, set during World War II, sees Madge Arwell and her two children, Lily and Cyril, evacuated to a draughty old house in Dorset, where the caretaker is a mysterious young man in bow tie, and a big blue parcel is waiting for them under the tree. They are about to enter a magical new world and learn that a Time Lord never forgets his debts...

Claire Skinner said: "I am thrilled to be in Doctor Who playing Madge who is a bit of super-mum. It's a magical part."

This marks Matt Smith's second outing as the Doctor at Christmas time and will follow hot on the heels of the successful 2011 series, currently airing on BBC One until October.

The Christmas special was commissioned by Ben Stephenson, Controller, BBC Drama and Danny Cohen, Controller BBC One. Steven Moffat is Lead Writer and Executive Producer with Piers Wenger and Caroline Skinner, also executive producing.

Filming on the Christmas special will continue until mid October 2011.

[Si Hunt]

I'd love it if instead of "It's the best one yet" they said "It's going to be not quite as good as last years but slightly better than "The Christmas Invasion".

Si.

[Dino]

I'd love it if instead of "It's the best one yet" they said "It's going to be not quite as good as last years but slightly better than "The Christmas Invasion".

Si.

Although Bill Bailey, eh? Well the cast sounds interesting. Be interesting to see how it all pans out.

[WhiteCrowNZ]

I loved the Christmas Invasion ... it was last years which was a bit dull ...

[Si Hunt]

Isn't World War II a bit old hat now? It'll be Moffatt's third episode set there.

Si.

[SiHart]

WWII is the new Victorian era!

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

Isn't World War II a bit old hat now? It'll be Moffatt's third episode set there.

Si.

Well at least it's not Dickensian again (for all that it was the far future last year's setting was very similar to the Victorian setting of The Next Doctor).
I like the suggestion that there may be a touch of big old haunted house about this year although I suspect my hopes of a proper ghost story for Christmas will have to wait for another year... (Something halfway between a TV version of The Chimes of Midnight and Christmas Spirits )

[Dirk Gently]

I'd love it if they did a Chimes of Midnight/Christmas Spirits story. Think of the royalties Paul would get.

[Dave Tudor]

I'd love them to do a remake of 'The Chimes of Midnight' - it'd make a change, just once, to do a really creepy Christmas story, rather than the festive, heartwarming one. Not that there's anything wrong with festive and heartwarming.

WWII is the new Victorian era!

Just think - timewise, we're now nearly as far away from the end of the Second World War, as those who saw 'The Talons of Weng-Chiang' in 1977 were from the end of the Victorian era. If that makes sense.

[SiHart]

That's a very scary thought Dave.

[Simon R]

I was genuinely hoping for "Christmas of the Daleks". They've not used them at Yuletide yet.

[WhiteCrowNZ]

Isn't World War II a bit old hat now? It'll be Moffatt's third episode set there.

Let's not forget the USS Enterprise was always running into Nazi-world somewhere out in space 45 years ago. You have to feel that genre has been and gone.

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

I was genuinely hoping for "Christmas of the Daleks". They've not used them at Yuletide yet.

That'll probably be Matt's leaving story in a couple of years time

I'd agree that there are plenty of stories in Who, Trek and elsewhere featuring Nazis (which is one reason I was pleased they were used so sparingly in Let's Kill Hitler) but I somehow doubt they're randomly going to turn up in WWII England (also just remembered they did that in SJA last year).
I am intrigued by the suggested links to The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, although hopefully not too much recycling of the DWM comic strip from last Christmas.

[Darren]

I'd love it if instead of "It's the best one yet" they said "It's going to be not quite as good as last years but slightly better than "The Christmas Invasion".

Si.

Or vice versa.

[Anthony Williams]

Well, now that 7.X (2011 Christmas Special) is definitely being recorded, it's high time that we had a thread for all sorts of news and rumours relating to the next series of Doctor Who.

So far, it's looking like we'll have the 2011 Christmas Special, and then the rest of Series 7 to follow in Autumn 2012

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

I'm quite pleased that the main body of series 7 doesn't start recording until January as it means that as far as who's actually in it apart from Matt (assuming he doesn't die/regenerate on Christmas Day which seems unlikely) is still very much up for grabs.

[Llordllama]

If this year's Xmas special ISN'T "Christmas of the Daleks" I'll make that for Doctor WHeasel. We've already had "Figgy Pudding of the Cybermen" (aka The Next Doctor)...

[Darren]

I reckon Matt Smith's Doctor will be killed by Daleks in an Easter Special.

Eggstermination of the Doctor

[Dirk Gently]

Egg puns, you can't beat 'em.

[Larry]

Isn't World War II a bit old hat now? It'll be Moffatt's third episode set there.

Si.

maybe - but it certainly sounds like a story line that could of been set at any time.

[Andrew Curnow]

Based on tonight, my guess (and it is just a guess, not based on rumours or anything) is that next year will be very much standalone episodes (as Moffat's already indicated) - mainly because after 'faking his own death' tonight, it would be a bit pointless if the Doctor goes right back to being a player in BIG, universe-spanning events. But then the following year, I'd expect it to be back to a more arc-led run, filling in more details on the Silent, and ending in "the fall of the Eleventh" which I take to be Smith's swansong in, probably, November 2013.

But as ever, I love to be wrong!!

[shada pavlova]

Based on tonight, my guess (and it is just a guess, not based on rumours or anything) is that next year will be very much standalone episodes (as Moffat's already indicated) - mainly because after 'faking his own death' tonight, it would be a bit pointless if the Doctor goes right back to being a player in BIG, universe-spanning events. But then the following year, I'd expect it to be back to a more arc-led run, filling in more details on the Silent, and ending in "the fall of the Eleventh" which I take to be Smith's swansong in, probably, November 2013.

Do I smell an epic 50th anniversary special?

[Zbigniev Hamson]

2013 - the year Doctor Who finally disappears up its own anus. Stay tuned.

[Larry]

Do I smell an epic 50th anniversary special?

yep it's going to be called The 11 Doctors , written by Terrence Dicks...

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

yep it's going to be called The 11 Doctors , written by Terrence Dicks...

I favour The Golden Child myself. Although I've actually had the plot of that one inside my head for years and it would be a multi-part story so probably wouldn't work as one off special.

Another observation - not The 12 Doctors either as I really don't think the 50th Anniversary story should feature a regeneration.