[Spoilers] Doctor Who Specials casting

[Soontir C'boath]

Crap edit: You have to register at DWF to enter the second link...

[Hillary]

Someone post the article/source about Davis coming back for series five already. You should know better.

Absolutely. It's something I've heard, not something I actually have a source for. It just made me sad to think about it; I can't confirm it. Hearing that and then hearing these terrible rumours about specials just got me all down in the pants.

And breathe..... It's not true Stark. This article is dated 23 August.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7579332.stm

Moffat is taking over from Davies, who revived Doctor Who in 2005, as the lead writer and executive producer for the fifth series of the show - due to be shown on BBC1 in spring 2010.

RTD is, however doing next year's specials

Writer Davies will remain in charge of four Doctor Who specials to be shown in 2009.

[Big Orange]

We already discussed that one, it ended with you running away and never answering my points.

Sorry, I was sidetracked and had other more pressing issues to attend to (like being injured).

High ratings is not a good sign of quality; CSI: Miami and fucking Baywatch are supposedly the most widely watched scripted shows in history, but then again many other shows that genuinely lose their audience and alienate most longterm fans do meet with steadily declining ratings (like with Voyager) but there are no wider signs of that happening to the current run of Doctor Who yet and who could blame Russell T. Davies for sticking with a winning formula for a few years? But however that said in the last two years I noticed that his build up episodes such as "Utopia", "Midnight", "Turn Left" and (arguably) "The Sound of Drums" were considerably better than the following season finales.

I personally think RTD has improved in some areas and gotten lazy in others in terms of writing, however I steadfastly believe that "Smith & Jones" was the best season opener and nothing can convince me otherwise while Donna Noble was considerably better than Martha Jones as a companion (like Patrick Degan said, it was not Tate's fault that some of her material was weak, but she was very good in S4's better episodes like "Forest of the Dead" and "Turn Left").

As for the critics, I have posts from several real authors slamming RTD, so the picture is not as uniformingly favorable as you might wish.

Can you provide the links please? The vocal minority has grown quite a bit, but "Journey's End" was not really universally panned because most people went down hard on it here.

The IMDb users gave "Journey's End" a respectible collective score of 8.6/10 while DigitalSpy have given it a four out of five star rating here (some of the comments are fairly negative though).

[Crazedwraith]

Just saw this article on The BBC:

BBC NEWS
Davies suggests next Doctor Who

Doctor Who writer Russell T Davies has suggested who he thinks should replace David Tennant as the next Time Lord.

In e-mails serialised in The Times newspaper, Davies said Russell Tovey, who appeared in Alan Bennett's play The History Boys, would fit the role.

The creator, who leaves the show next year as lead writer and executive producer, said he thought Tovey was "going to be huge" and is "amazing".

Davies also revealed he had wanted JK Rowling to star in a Christmas special.

'Spoof' idea

However, Tennant had not responded well to the suggestion.

"David doesn't like the JK idea, he thinks it sounds like a spoof, so we've paused slightly, wondering whether to win him round or just abandon something that he's not going to be happy with," Davies said.

In the correspondence between Davies and Doctor Who magazine journalist Benjamin Cook, Davies talked about Kylie Minogue's cameo.

"A read-through with Kylie Minogue! Marvellous, isn't it? She's going to watch Last of The Time Lords on Saturday with David. Madder and madder," he wrote.

Tovey, 26, had a part in last year's Christmas Doctor Who special as Midshipman Frame.

He is best known for his role as Rudge, the least intellectual of the boys in the stage and screen versions of The History Boys.

The extracts are taken from a forthcoming book, Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale. They also reveal that Hollywood actor Dennis Hopper was keen to appear in Doctor Who, but was not "available for that many days" to film.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/e ... 618537.stm

Published: 2008/09/16 10:01:40 GMT

© BBC MMVIII

When even Tennant's saying a story won't work, you've got to worry.

[Admiral Valdemar]

Rowling? I must've missed her acting debut.

If Rowling has to be in it, it should only be to serve as someone Dennis Hopper can kill (preferably as Victor Drazen).

[Thanas]

We already discussed that one, it ended with you running away and never answering my points.

Sorry, I was sidetracked and had other more pressing issues to attend to (like being injured).

I also noted that you did not go back to the debate after your injury.

High ratings is not a good sign of quality; CSI: Miami and fucking Baywatch are supposedly the most widely watched scripted shows in history, but then again many other shows that genuinely lose their audience and alienate most longterm fans do meet with steadily declining ratings (like with Voyager) but there are no wider signs of that happening to the current run of Doctor Who yet and who could blame Russell T. Davies for sticking with a winning formula for a few years? But however that said in the last two years I noticed that his build up episodes such as "Utopia", "Midnight", "Turn Left" and (arguably) "The Sound of Drums" were considerably better than the following season finales.

Is there an argument in here or are you just rambling?

I personally think RTD has improved in some areas and gotten lazy in others in terms of writing, however I steadfastly believe that "Smith & Jones" was the best season opener and nothing can convince me otherwise while Donna Noble was considerably better than Martha Jones as a companion (like Patrick Degan said, it was not Tate's fault that some of her material was weak, but she was very good in S4's better episodes like "Forest of the Dead" and "Turn Left").

Turn left....heh. Yeah, she was strongest when her character....absolutely sucked or spent doing nothing.

Can you provide the links please? The vocal minority has grown quite a bit, but "Journey's End" was not really universally panned because most people went down hard on it here.

The IMDb users gave "Journey's End" a respectible collective score of 8.6/10 while DigitalSpy have given it a four out of five star rating here (some of the comments are fairly negative though).

Again, you have to do better than appeals to popularity.

Here is what Alex Scarrow had to say:

I sat through the finale with my lad, because it's nice to do things together. But blimey...this was truly appalling.

I really don't know where to begin trying to analyse what was basically a butt-clenchingly, excruciatingly embarrassing SciFi pantomime. Coincidence piled on coincidence....exposition layered upon exposition, convenient gadget/plot device after convenient gadget/plot device, reunion piled upon reunion. Cheesey-weesey cartoon baddies monologuing like mad, naff dialogue from beginning to end. Clearly quite expensive stage set, badly over-lit with gaudy lights, MTV editing for over-sugared low attention-span kiddie-winks. The cornball romantic sub-plot with Rose, and that unfair slight of hand over the doctor's regeneration (specifically added to the story line to generate loads of tabloid press speculation as to whom would be brought in to play the next doctor) tsk tsk. Cheap shot.

Oh, I could go on and on.

Suffice to say this was the most awful example of (high budget) story-telling I've come across in quite some time. And that's saying a lot these days. About the only saving grace, were the plentiful and no doubt expensive CG shots, which were, you know...quite nice, but not anything I haven't seen before.

I know Dr Who is for kids. I know this is 'check-your-brain-in' entertainment, and believe me, I thoroughly enjoy big budget brainless sci-fi entertainment. I loved Aliens, Predator, 5th Element, Starship Troopers, Robocop, Waterworld, Independence Day etc etc. But this...this was so bad, so amateur it went sailing past being so-bad-it's-funny, to being so-bad-I-found-myself-nodding-off.

And yet, because it's DR WHO, because it's the good ol' BEEB, because it's become a British cultural icon it is forgiven everything - it's allowed to be utterly crap. In fact I suppose it's expected.

The only real silver lining to this ridiculous finale is that it marks the end of Russell T. Davies tenure as series exec' producer and lead script editor, and that job will now be passed onto to Steven Moffat (the guys who has written the better episodes eg: 'Blink').

What I shall hope for, when Dr WHO 'reboots' in 2010, is what I hoped for when the Doctor was revived in 2004(?) with Christopher Ecclestone as the timelord - something darker, smarter and basically...well, basically entertaining.

[Admiral Valdemar]

The Satellite of Love needs to be introduced to the finale we shall not speak of.

[Crazedwraith]

Russell T Davies has revealed that he thinks actor Russell Tovey has 11th Doctor potential, as and when David Tennant finally hands over the TARDIS key.

Corresponding with Benjamin Cook, co-author of upcoming hardback The Writer's Tale, Russell praises "Russell Tovey as Midshipman Frame [in Voyage Of The Damned], which is my favourite casting of the lot, because he's going to be huge, that man. He's amazing. I think I'd make him the Eleventh Doctor."

Other revelations in the book, which is based around email exchanges between Russell and Ben between February 2007 and April 2008, include an abandoned idea for Harry Potter author JK Rowling to appear in a Christmas Special.

"I thought, don't ask J.K. to write a Doctor Who, ask her to be in a Doctor Who! We've done Dickens, Shakespeare, Agatha Christie...why should kids think that all great authors are dead?"

The emails,several of which have been published in The Times this week, also reveal secrets of the upcoming Christmas special.

Stop reading now if you'd rather not know what happens at the start of the adventure yet...

"The Doctor arrives, hears a damsel in distress," says Russell. "The Doctor steps forward to save her... when this other man [to be played by David Morrissey] swings in, dashing, brilliant, amazing, clever, witty, saves the day. The Doctor says, 'Who are you?' The man says, 'I'm the Doctor!' Good scene. The Doctor becomes his companion. I like that. Sweet. There will be a beautiful woman too, of course, but really it's the Doctor paired with a new Doctor."

Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale is published by BBC Books/Ebury on 25th September.

Follow the link below to see an example of Russell's lovely cartoons, which help to illustrate the book, alongside a wealth of previously unpublished photos.

[Lord Woodlouse]

Russell Tovey is a pretty good actor, but I definitely don't see him as a Doctor. I'd like to see someone who seems or looks a bit older after DT.

[Jade Falcon]

Rowling?

WHY?

[Drooling Iguana]

Rowling?

WHY?

Because RTD thinks that she's in the same league as Shakespeare, Dickens and Christie, with the advantage of still being alive.

[DaveJB]

More likely he's looking for a repeat of the ratings success that Kylie helped bring to Voyage of the Damned. For whatever reason, I have the feeling that he wants to try and topple City of Death from its ratings throne while he's still showrunner.