It’s Official – The 11th Doctor is Who?
January 6, 2009 by Spotlight-On WM
Filed under ACTORS, David Tennant, Doctor Who, TV SHOWS
The BBC has done an about face in its search and picked an almost virtual unknown to be the 11th Doctor for DOCTOR WHO (Series 5):
Matt Smith (PARTY ANIMALS, THE SHADOW IN THE NORTH) will take over the reins of the longest running sci fi character on TV from David Tennant who will be leaving the series after the 2009 season. Smith, age 26, will be the youngest actor to ever play The Doctor to date. (Peter Davison previously held the record – he was 29 at the time he played the part.) Read more
David Tennant to Leave DOCTOR WHO
November 2, 2008 by Spotlight-On WM
Filed under ACTORS, David Tennant, Doctor Who, TV SHOWS
While accepting the outstanding drama performance award at the National Television Awards (NTA) in the UK, David Tennant, the current and Tenth Doctor, announced he’ll be leaving DOCTOR WHO in 2009. “I love this part, and I love this show so much that if I don’t take a deep breath and move on now I never will, and you’ll be wheeling me out of the Tardis in my bath chair,” said Tennant to the audience at the Royal Albert Hall. Tennant will still portray the Doctor for the 2008 Christmas special (along with the Cybermen) in "The Next Doctor" and will film an additional 4 specials to be aired throughout 2009. Actors including Russell Tovey, James Nesbitt, Paterson Joseph, John Simm, Robert Carlyle and David Morrissey have been mentioned in the media as frontrunners to portray the 11th Doctor but only Russell T. Davies, who’s also leaving the series, and Steven Moffat, the new executive director, probably know who’s got the part at this point. Whoever it is, they’ll have big shoes to fill: Tennant was voted the most popular Doctor in a reader survey in Doctor Who magazine in 2006 and he’s won the NTA award for most popular actor in both 2006 & 2007. (Personally I think he ties with Christopher Eccleston, but they didn’t ask me…) Russell T. Davies told BBC News on the end of the Tenth Doctor and his work with Tennant: “I’ve been lucky and honored to work with David over the past few years – and it’s not over yet, the Tenth Doctor still has five spectacular hours left! After which, I might drop an anvil on his head. Or maybe a piano. A radioactive piano. But we’re planning the most enormous and spectacular ending, so keep watching.” Currently Tennant is performing theatre roles with the Royal Shakespeare Company, and has received praise for his work in Hamlet and Love’s Labour’s Lost. For David Tennant’s take on leaving the Doctor after 3 years, check out this interview he did with the BBC:
DOCTOR WHO – Starting Apr 18th on SCI FI
March 28, 2008 by Spotlight-On WM
Filed under David Tennant, Doctor Who, TV SHOWS
The powers that be at SCI FI Channel have finally picked a date and it’s April 18th – that’s the day DOCTOR WHO Season 4 will premiere here in the U.S. according to the commercial I just caught. They’ll be starting with the third ‘Christmas’ episode ‘Voyage of the Damned’ starring Kylie Minogue as The Doctor’s companion Astrid Peth (along with a ship named the Titanic) and then they’ll segue into the main Season 4 shows.
This looks to be a very interesting season. I’ve been trying to avoid seeing too many spoilers online, but it’s hard when other countries who get BBC UK have already seen it and can’t wait to share every little tidbit. (Turnabout’s fair play, eh? After all the years the U.S. got shows first and posted their own spoilers everywhere, hmmm?)
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Potential Spoilers of My Own: Read more
DOCTOR WHO – It’s Official – April 2008
February 4, 2008 by Spotlight-on WM
Filed under ACTORS, David Tennant, Doctor Who, TV SHOWS
Here’s the info, straight from the SCI FI WIRE the official newsfeed from SCI FI Channel, so it’s gone from rumor to fact now:
Read more
WHO Do You Prefer: Tennant or Eccleston?
January 30, 2008 by Spotlight-on WM
Filed under ACTORS, Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant, Doctor Who, TV SHOWS
After watching DOCTOR WHO for the last 3 seasons and counting, I find I like both “new” Doctors, ninth and tenth in the overall series, but since Christopher Eccleston was “my” first Doctor, I think I’ll always like him the best.
According to an excerpt of his autobiography ANYTHING GOES at the DAILYRECORD.CO.UK, John Barrowman (Captain Jack Harkness) had this to say about the two doctors:
“I found the set to be a lighter one with David than it had been with Christopher in the lead role. I think David is a happier person, whereas I found Chris to be a bit angsty.”
However, part of the reason he may have found Chris to be a little “angsty” (besides the fact that he’s a serious, intense, focused actor most of the time to begin with) is that John also says,
“On the December day in 2004 when I walked on to the Doctor Who set in Cardiff for the first time, I was bursting with energy, while Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper were exhausted and ready to break for the Christmas holiday.”
I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t be very bouncy either after 16 hour days of filming over the course of a few months… (LOL) Of course, John Barrowman says about himself, “At the best of times I make a subtle first impression.” (Uh, huh.) No doubt, being of Scots origin, John feels a bit more kinship with Tennant than Eccleston, too, saying, “The hardest part for me was to resist speaking to him [Tennant] in a Scottish accent.”
While I like David Tennant as the Doctor, I fear he sometimes strays a bit too far into campiness with the character. (Writing? Acting? Combo of both?) Happy is one thing, but manic is a bit much. (He did crazy/manic/evil well, though, in HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE.) I like Eccleston’s more restrained, drier wit (again, Writing? Acting? Best of Both?) With his Doctor, the peril in each episode felt more real, less cartoony than it can with Tennant’s Doctor.
What I would really like to see in DOCTOR WHO Season 4 or 5 is an episode on the alternate Earth, where Tennant’s Doctor meets up with the Doctor of that universe, played again by Christopher Eccleston. (He’d most likely still be the Doctor there since Rose never existed in that universe, except as a dog, so he wouldn’t have had to suck the Time Vortex out of her, causing him to change…) Add back in Rose, top off with a dash of Captain Jack, make it at least a 2 hour episode, maybe even a 3 part arc, and that would be heaven!
