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.) 

Some fans are worried that the new Doctor will be too young and seem too inexperienced while other fans are waiting to see how he fares before passing judgment.

Check out the interview Matt Smith did with BBC ONE after learning he had won the part: 

Technorati Tags: 11th Doctor, David Tennant, Doctor Who, Matt Smith

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:

Technorati Tags: BBC, David Tennant, Doctor Who, Eleventh Doctor, Sci Fi, Tenth Doctor

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:
One thing I do know from various newsbites: we should be seeing at least 4 previous companions besides Kylie Minogue aka Astrid Peth this time around in various combinations – Catherine Tate as Donna Noble, Freema Agyeman as Martha Jones, Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith and Billie Piper as Rose Tyler. As if The Doctor didn’t have enough problems to deal with… LOL

Plus the DOCTOR WHO Season 4 guest star list includes:
Paul O’Grady (talk show host)
Alex Kingston (ER)
Sarah Lancashire (MURDER MOST HORRID)
Felicity Kendal (THE GOOD LIFE)
Tim McInnerny (BLACK ADDER, MI-5)
Peter Capaldi (THE THICK OF IT)
Phil Davis (NOTES ON A SCANDAL)
Tracey Childs (HOWARDS’ WAY)

However, according to various sources, this may be David Tennant’s last full season as The Doctor, at least until 2010. It’s seems that next year, we’ll only be getting 3 ’specials’ instead of Season 5. No one’s sure if it’s because Tennant is planning a run with the Royal Shakespeare Company during the summer of 2009 and so production has been pushed back or if because he won’t be coming back as The Doctor and they’ll need to get a new one before filming can start. (I hope it’s the former – I’m getting a little tired of ‘breaking in’ new Doctors for now. I’m finally used to the current one. LOL)

In the meantime, 21 Days and Counting til Season 4 starts here!!!!!

Technorati Tags: BBC, David Tennant, Doctor Who, Sci Fi, Season 4

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:

Fourth Who, New Sarah Due

SCI FI Channel has acquired the fourth season of DOCTOR WHO and its hit spinoff series THE SARAH JANE ADVENTURES from BBC Worldwide America. Both series are slated to premiere on SCI FI in April. [Since I get both channels, "double the pleasure, double the fun" for ME!]

THE SARAH JANE ADVENTURES is written and produced by the same creative team behind DOCTOR WHO, including multiple-award-winning writer Russell T. Davies. The series centers on Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen), former companion to the Doctor, who investigates offbeat mysteries with her young friends Maria, Luke and Clyde.

The fourth season of DOCTOR WHO, meanwhile, brings back star David Tennant as the 10th Timelord, joined by a new companion, Donna Noble (Catherine Tate), who reprises her role from the previous Christmas special. The Doctor’s previous companion, Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman), also makes a triumphant return in the middle of season four.

(Guess the writers’ strike IS a good thing if it means we get WHO sooner than normal, eh?!)

Time to make a BIG note on ALL my calendars!!

Technorati Tags: David Tennant, Doctor Who, Sci Fi, Sci Fi Channel, Season 4, Tenth Doctor

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!

Technorati Tags: Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant, Doctor Who, Ninth Doctor, Sci Fi, Tenth Doctor, TV