"The Green Death" - Special Edition DVD Contents

The cover art and content details for the forthcoming Special Edition release of "The Green Death" have been revealed.  "The Green Death" is a cracking story - and its "green" ideology is just as relevant today.  It'll make you laugh...it'll make you cry - and this Special Edition is packed full of maggoty goodness:

Story Synopsis:

When a man is found dead with his skin glowing green in an abandoned mine, it’s not long before the Doctor, Jo Grant and UNIT head to Wales to investigate. And while the Doctor becomes suspicious of the nearby Global Chemicals factory and its mysterious owner, Jo gets trapped underground where she finds old mine tunnels crawling with deadly and sinister giant maggots…

Disc 1 Contents:

• 6 x 25 mins approx colour episodes with mono audio
• Commentary with actors Katy Manning (Jo Grant), producer Barry Letts and script editor Terrance Dicks.
• Bonus commentary with actors Richard Franklin (Captain Yates) and Mitzi McKenzie (Nancy), moderated by Toby Hadoke (episodes 3 – 5); and with actress Katy Manning and writer Russell T Davies (episode 6). 

Disc 2 Contents:

• The One With the Maggots - Cast and crew look back at the making of this story.
• Global Conspiracy? - A spoof investigative report looks at the strange happenings in the village of Llanfairfach.
• Visual Effects - An interview with the story’s visual effects designer, Colin Mapson.
• Robert Sloman Interview
• Stewart Bevan Interview
• Wales Today - Two pieces from the BBC Wales news programme – a mute 1973 film insert from the filming of The Green Death, and a 1994 item with Jon Pertwee opening the new country park that was built on the site of the colliery used in the story.
• Doctor Forever – The Unquiet Dead - In this unique interview, new series creator Russell T Davies and then BBC Controller of Drama, Jane Tranter, talk about the genesis of Doctor Who’s rebirth on television in 2005.
• What Katy Did Next - A look at Serendipity, the TV series that Katy Manning presented after leaving Doctor Who.
• The Sarah Jane Adventures – Death of the Doctor - This two-part story from 2010 sees Katy Manning reprising her role as Jo Grant and a guest appearance by Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor. Optional Commentary with actress Katy Manning and series creator Russell T Davies. 
• Radio Times listings (DVD-ROM)
• Programme subtitles
• Production information subtitles
• Photo gallery
• Easter Eggs
• Coming soon trailer
• Digitally remastered picture and sound quality

"The Green Death" - Special Edition DVD is released in the UK on 5 August 2013 and is available to pre-order from the BBC Shop and Amazon (UK).  The DVD will be released in the US and Canada on 13 August 2013.

Jenna Coleman - Recent Event Photos

Courtesy of contactmusic.com, below are photos of Jenna Coleman at the "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" After Party (25 June 2013) and attending the 2013 Glamour Women of the Year Awards (5 June 2013).  Right click and open in new tab/window for larger versions.

"Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" After Party:

BFI Screenings - Ninth Doctor Stories and Date Announced

The BFI have announced that they will be screening a two parter to celebrate the Ninth Doctor's era.  "Bad Wolf" and "The Parting of the Ways" will be screened on Saturday 24 August 2013 at 2pm.  Guests are yet to be announced.

Ticket allocations have been switched to a ballot system.  BFI Champions will be able to enter the ballot from Monday 1 July and BFI Members from Tuesday 2 July.  The ballot will close on Friday 5 July with successful entrants notified on Monday 8 July.  Any unclaimed tickets will be released for sale on Saturday 13 July 2013.

If you're unsuccessful in obtaining a ticket then it's worth keeping an eye on the Official Doctor Who Facebook page and twitter account as they usually run a competition nearer the time to win tickets for the events.

Due to guest availability, the Eighth Doctor event will take place later in the year - presumably September.

Screencaps - "Christmas Shopping with Doctor Who"

Screencaps from New York Magazine's "Christmas Shopping with Doctor Who" featuring Matt Smith and Jenna Coleman have been added to the Flickr Gallery.  Samples below - right click and open in new tab/window for larger versions - feel free to take and use:

Video - Matt Smith's Goodbye Message

We've been waiting for a while but finally it's here - a nice, personal message from Matt to the fans:

Matt Smith to Appear on "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson"

Shortly after appearing at San Diego Comic Con, Matt Smith will, once again, be a guest on "The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson".

The taping of Matt's appearance is scheduled for Wednesday 24 July 2013 at 3.30pm in Los Angeles.

Tickets can be obtained from:

1iota.com - Craig Ferguson Tickets

Royal Visit to Doctor Who Studios

The BBC have confirmed that, as part of their annual "Wales Week", the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall will be visiting Roath Lock studios in Cardiff.

They will meet Matt Smith and Jenna Coleman together with "some of the Time Lord's most famous adversaries".

A Clarence House spokesman said:

The Prince and The Duchess always enjoy their annual visit to Wales and this year they are looking forward to a varied programme of engagements including everything from Dylan Thomas’s Boat House to Doctor Who’s TARDIS! Their Royal Highnesses are also keen to highlight the vital work being done across Wales by some of the charities they are involved with.’

The BBC have also confirmed that Jenna-Louise Coleman will now be known as simply Jenna Coleman.

Alex Kingston Interview - "Lady Macbeth Freaked Me Out!"

Alex Kingston has been interviewed by "The Guardian" where she talks at length about the challenges of portraying Lady Macbeth, the difficulties of finding work in the US and, of course, "Doctor Who".

Regarding Lady Macbeth she said:

To quell her nerves, Kingston bought crystals, and is now sleeping with them beneath her pillow. "Just as a psychological pacifier," she says. "Anything would have done – it could have been a teddy." 

Actors have been talking about the curse of Macbeth since its first days on the stage in the early 17th century, when the boy who played the notorious sleepwalker Lady Macbeth was rumoured to have died of a fever. Since then, it has been held responsible for countless deaths, storms, fires and falling scenery. "I know this will probably sound very, very new-agey," says Kingston, with the glint of camp she often brings to roles, "but I think I'm also going to say some sort of prayer at the end of each performance, just to try and shut it down."

As for "Doctor Who", of course the topic that came up was that old chestnut of a female Doctor:

Over the past five years, Kingston has reached a new audience with Doctor Who, and reacts with playful, cagey laughter when asked if she'd like a woman Doctor to replace the outgoing Matt Smith. "Spoilers!" she laughs, repeating one of her character's buzzwords. "I can't say." Given that River, a time-travelling archaeologist, has been romantically involved with the Doctor, such casting could be especially progressive, creating a gay relationship for the chief protagonist. "Well, you know, I wouldn't put it past Steven," she says, referring to the show's lead writer and executive producer, Steven Moffat. She agrees this would be brilliant. "Certainly, River has always talked about 'the special one' when referring to the Doctor."

She's also very honest about the difficulties of finding work in the US:

Playing a time-traveller must have been especially pleasing in an industry obsessed with age. Now 50, Kingston says it is becoming harder to find work in the US. "When it comes to pilot season, when thousands and thousands of pilots are cast, and only eight are suitable for you – it's a really awful statistic." The year before last, she tried for a pilot "and the response was: 'She hasn't had plastic surgery.'" No plastic surgery, no part."

In fact, that year she was turned down for every role she auditioned for: "Not young enough, not old enough, not slim enough, not plastic surgeried enough ... I know people say England is absolutely going down that same path as America, and there is more pressure on women here as well, but it's not nearly as bad. Largely, that's to do with the fact that we still have theatre. And also, I think, the public want to see people they can relate to, who still look like them."

It's a very good interview and you can read the full text here:

Alex Kingston in "The Guardian"

Jenna-Louise Coleman joins the cast of "Death Comes To Pemberley"

The BBC have confirmed that Jenna-Louise Coleman has joined the cast of "Death Comes to Pemberley" - a new BBC adaptation of a PD James novel.  Jenna will play a leading role of Lydia Wickham alongside Matthew Rhys, Anna Maxwell Martin, Matthew Goode and Penelope Keith.  "Death Comes to Pemberley" is PD James' follow-up to "Pride and Prejudice"

Filming begins this month on location in Yorkshire with Chatsworth Estate one of the rumoured locations.

Kate Stewart - Science Leads

Over the years with “Doctor Who”, there have been quite a few guest characters that make such an impression that you fervently wish they would go with the Doctor at the end of the story and become fully-fledged companions. In Classic Who, the one character who, for me, stood head and shoulders above everyone else was Professor Rumford from “The Stones of Blood”. She was a fantastically eccentric old lady who took everything in her stride and was not just a perfect foil for Tom Baker’s Doctor but also formed quite a touching relationship with K9 – her very concerned “are you alright, dear” to K9 was simply adorable.

Since the return of the show in 2005, nobody really stood out until recently. A lot of this has to do with the format – one x 45 minute episode doesn’t really give the writer much of a chance to build a character in the way 4 x 25 minute episodes could. The odd character DOES sneak through – Wilf, for instance, or maybe Brian Williams but they’re mostly in multiple episodes. For me though, the one character I SO wanted to go with the Doctor – even though it would have been completely the wrong time and thrown the following episode into total confusion – was Kate Stewart.

(Beverley Cressman in "Downtime" - courtesy tardis.wikia.com)

The character of Kate Stewart was known in Who fandom prior to her first televised appearance in “The Power of Three” – she was originally created by Marc Platt for the spin-off video “Downtime” where she was played by Beverley Cressman. In “Downtime”, Kate was estranged from her father and lived on a houseboat with her son, Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart. Interestingly, in “Downtime”, the villain of the piece was the Great Intelligence who tried to use Kate via a cult at a university to lead them to the Brigadier – who, it was thought, had something the Great Intelligence needed. This led to a reconciliation between Kate and her father. Kate was mentioned in two books – “Scales of Injustice” and “The Dying Days” and then reappeared in a second spin-off video called “Daemos Rising”. In this spin-off she joined forces with an ex UNIT agent to defeat one of the Daemons – maybe this gave her the greater insight she needed in order to really understand what her father did and the sacrifices he had to make.

New Competition - Win 2 of the new 3.75" Character Options Action Figures

Our new giveaway/competition gives you the chance to win two of the new 3.75" Character Options action figures.  You could win the 11th Doctor figure and the Clara Oswald figure - both of which are pictured above.  These are given away as a set of two.

For details on rules and how to enter then please click the "Competition" tab above.

Video - BBC Interview - Jenna-Louise Coleman meets the Queen

Thanks to doctorwhotv.co.uk, here's the earlier BBC interview with Jenna-Louise Coleman.  The interview took place after Jenna had met the Queen during the official opening of the new Broadcasting House.  Jenna revealed that they had discussed time travel but that the Queen had not asked who the new Doctor was going to be.

"The One Show" - Group Promo Pic featuring Alex Kingston

Courtesy of "The One Show" Facebook page, below is a group promo pic from last night's show featuring Alex Kingston.  Right click and open in new tab/window for larger version.  If you missed Alex's appearance last night then you can watch it here.

Video - Alex Kingston on "The One Show" - 5 June 2013

The Kingston was a guest on "The One Show" tonight and had a few things to say about "Doctor Who", Matt leaving the show and her starring role as Lady Macbeth opposite Kenneth Branagh.  During the interview, Alex revealed that she had talked with Matt about the best time for him to leave the show.  You can watch the interview segments below:

Regeneration and the "Not-We"

Don't you just love it?  The reactions from the "not-we" (and bonus points for any New Who fan who gets that reference) towards fans who show any kind of emotion about an upcoming regeneration vary wildly from vaguely sympathetic to eye-rolling disdain.  They just don't get the emotional investment that most fans have in "Doctor Who" - yet, if it was football and your team got relegated then the understanding is suddenly there.  Ditto a popular band splitting up - there are even helplines to get fans through it (which is beyond all sense to me).  If you're a "Doctor Who" fan however, odds are that you'll get told that "he's only leaving Doctor Who...you'll see him in other stuff".  Yes - we know.  But that's not the point.  That's not the point at all.

They just don't see that it's not the actor we're mourning.  Matt Smith is a terrific actor.  He will go on to bigger and better things - there's no doubt about that.  We'll be seeing a lot more of him on our screens.  We thank him greatly for what he's brought to the show, will support him in all future endeavours and, basically, love him to bits.  But.  We are NOT mourning his loss - we're upset that he won't be with the show anymore but we're actually pre-mourning the loss of Eleven.  I say "pre-mourning" because he's not gone yet - we still have the 50th Anniversary and Christmas Specials to go so we're in a weird kind of limbo...a waiting zone where we can't move forward.  We're stuck in a long drawn out grieving process where we can't actually take the next step until that regeneration has happened on screen.  A lot will obviously depend on how emotionally invested you are in the show - and how attached you are in particular to the Eleventh Doctor.

Speaking personally, I'm very attached to Eleven.  I mentioned in a previous article why I consider him my Doctor and, as my previous Doctor was the Fourth then it's been a long time since I experienced the pain of MY Doctor regenerating.  It hits you at odd times - you hear a song on the radio or, in my case, see a bag of  "bow tie" pasta and instantly get teary.  And that's fine - there's nothing wrong with that.  The realisation that, after Christmas, there will be no more "bow ties are cool"; no more fish fingers and custard; no more "Geronimo"; no more Eleven speeches where you can see 900 years of pain in those young yet old eyes, is hard.  It's very hard but you'll accept it.  You'll get less emotional...you may get involved in the Twelfth Doctor speculation... and you may well get complacent and think everything is fine.  Then - as the Christmas Special gets closer and closer, it will all start to sneak back in.  You don't want to lose him and, if you're anything like me, you'll watch that Christmas Special with your emotions all over the place and I have absolutely no doubt that I will end up a complete sobbing mess when Eleven regenerates.

It's all part of the process of being a fan  - and you can try to explain this to the "not-we" until you're blue in the face and most simply won't understand.  No other fandom goes through this - hey, we're special - so I guess it's hard to relate sometimes.  Just nod your head, accept the sympathy and try to restrain yourself from bitch-slapping the ones who treat you with contempt.  It's their loss.  They don't have this in their life - they don't get to experience the highs and lows that we do.  Ours is a special kind of fandom.

However.  There's another small matter that needs to be said.  The Twelfth Doctor will come rolling in - he'll be different to Eleven - possibly even radically different - but he's still the Doctor.   Remember the hate, Smithers fans?  Remember what Matt had to contend with when he took on the role of Eleven?  Don't perpetuate the hate.  Don't get dragged down to the level of that small, vocal section of David Tennant fans who refuse to accept anyone else in the role of the Doctor and will lash out at anyone who dares disagree.

We are Matt Smith fans.  We are Eleventh Doctor fans.  And more importantly, we are Doctor Who fans - and we are a damn sight better than that.

Alex Kingston to guest on "The One Show"

Alex Kingston will be one of the guests on tomorrow's hour long edition of "The One Show" at 7pm on BBC1.

I would guess - given the events of the last few days - that questions about "Doctor Who" (and "Macbeth") would obviously be top of the agenda.

So - Wednesday 5 June 2013 at 7pm on BBC1.

Jenna-Louise Coleman talks about Matt's departure

Jenna-Louise Coleman has spoken to the BBC about Matt and his departure from the show:

"I could not have imagined coming into the show without Matt as my Doctor, holding my hand, really, quite literally. I totally lucked-out in having a creative, generous, clever, and lovely fella to work alongside day after day. 

I feel so privileged to have been part of Matt's reign, to have to been companion to what is and what I think always will be one of our greatest Doctors. 

He is so in love with the show, he works tirelessly hard, surprises me every day, always creating and discovering something new about the Doctor. A true gent, a leading man and a very special friend. 

I know it will be a very difficult goodbye for me, but I for one can't wait to see where his career takes him next.  And of course with the same welcome I was brought in with, I look forward to welcoming the next Doctor. BUT it's not over till it's over. See ya at the big 5-0!"

There will be a special video message from Matt to the fans sometime today.

Video - BBC News Report regarding Matt's departure

Thanks to Blogtor Who, here's the BBC news report about Matt's departure:

Announcement: Matt Smith to leave Doctor Who

The BBC have confirmed that Matt Smith is to step down as the Doctor after the Christmas Special.  Matt said:

 "Doctor Who has been the most brilliant experience for me as an actor and a bloke, and that largely is down to the cast, crew and fans of the show. I'm incredibly grateful to all the cast and crew who work tirelessly every day, to realise all the elements of the show and deliver Doctor Who to the audience. Many of them have become good friends and I'm incredibly proud of what we have achieved over the last four years.

It's been a privilege and a treat to work with Steven, he's a good friend and will continue to shape a brilliant world for the Doctor.

The fans of Doctor Who around the world are unlike any other; they dress up, shout louder, know more about the history of the show (and speculate more about the future of the show) in a way that I've never seen before, your dedication is truly remarkable. 

Thank you so very much for supporting my incarnation of the Time Lord, number Eleven, who I might add is not done yet, I'm back for the 50th anniversary and the Christmas special.

It's been an honour to play this part, to follow the legacy of brilliant actors, and helm the TARDIS for a spell with 'the ginger, the nose and the impossible one'. But when ya gotta go, ya gotta go and Trenzalore calls. Thank you guys. Matt."

Steven Moffat said:

"Every day, on every episode, in every set of rushes, Matt Smith surprised me: the way he'd turn a line, or spin on his heels, or make something funny, or out of nowhere make me cry, I just never knew what was coming next. The Doctor can be clown and hero, often at the same time, and Matt rose to both challenges magnificently. And even better than that, given the pressures of this extraordinary show,he is one of the nicest and hardest-working people I have ever had the privilege of knowing. Whatever we threw at him - sometimes literally - his behaviour was always worthy of the Doctor. 

But great actors always know when it's time for the curtain call, so this Christmas prepare for your hearts to break, as we say goodbye to number Eleven. Thank you Matt - bow ties were never cooler. 

Of course, this isn't the end of the story, because now the search begins. Somewhere out there right now - all unknowing, just going about their business - is someone who's about to become the Doctor.  A life is going to change, and Doctor Who will be born all over again. After 50 years, that's still so exciting."

Goodbye Matt - we're going to miss you.  But, of course, we still have the Anniversary Special to look forward to - although, I rather think I should inform my family that, due to a regeneration, Christmas will be cancelled...