Doctor Who returns to San Diego Comic-Con on Thursday, July 9. Following his record-breaking debut season as the Doctor, Peter Capaldi will make his first ever appearance at the event with Jenna Coleman (Clara), Michelle Gomez (Missy), lead writer and executive producer Steven Moffat and executive producer Brian Minchin.

Peter Capaldi commented, ‘Tales of San Diego Comic-Con are told in awe on every set around the known fantasy/sci-fi production world. It’s become a fabled kingdom. One I am thrilled to find myself heading for. And to appear in the legendary Hall H is a further twist to the cosplay and comic madness I may never recover from.’

The new season of Doctor Who premieres later this year, opening with a two-part adventure, The Magician’s Apprentice and The Witch’s Familiar, written by Steven Moffat, produced by Peter Bennett and directed by Hettie Macdonald (Blink – the Hugo Award-winning episode that introduced the Weeping Angels). The adventure will, of course, see the return of Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman as the Doctor and Clara but it will also see Michelle Gomez back as the evil Missy…

 

News Source: BBC

Capaldi was seen rehearsing a scene for episode 7 of series 9 before he was joined by schoolchildren taking on the roles of extras during the early morning shoot.

With filming well underway for the latest series, the 12th Doctor shows no signs of tiring. In between takes he was either rehearsing or checking footage of the scenes they had already filmed.

He also greeted his adoring fans – some of whom had travelled through the night from Lancashire, just for the opportunity to meet him and watch the show being filmed.

 

News Source: Wales Online

Now we know that the Doctor loves to revisit old faces and places but twice in the space of 4 days?!

Yes, Peter Capaldi and his friends were back filming for series 9 of the hit BBC show.

But this time he had Clara (Jenna Coleman) and Osgood (Ingrid Oliver) with him, along with an Osgood lookalike.

Capaldi, Coleman and Ingrid Oliver took time in-between takes to meet the fans who had gathered throughout the day.

 

News Source: Wales Online

The TARDIS, Daleks and the Time Lord himself are all synonymous with Doctor Who.

But, for me, the true star of the show is undoubtedly the music.

And this concert at the Cardiff Motorpoint Arena was the perfect showcase for the amazing score which accompanies the drama and brings the action to life.

Hosted by former Doctor Who Peter Davison and the BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales led by the beautiful sound of soprano Elin Manahan Thomas, it was perfect way to spend a Bank Holiday Monday with all the family.

This performance was the second date of the UK tour and it really is well worth the ticket price.

Musical works of poetry
Davison’s between-music banter centred on Colin Baker and John Barrowman jokes – which went down well with an audience knowing the history.

As children we may have been really scared of the Daleks, but it was the presence of the music and the spine-tingling iconic theme tune that sent my unashamed love of the show through the roof.

 

 

This concert gave everyone the chance to hear these musical works of poetry in the flesh – along with real-life appearances from the Doctor’s enemies, who stalked the arena to good effect.

Just like the Proms spectaculars, which have previously taken place at the Royal Albert Hall in London, this is truly the best way to experience the music of Murray Gold.

BIG SCREEN SEQUENCES
Davison interacted well with the audience and was given a hero’s welcome – for many, he was THEIR doctor.

The way that he and conductor Ben Foster engaged with each other proved just how much he still loves the show and enjoys being such a big part of its 52-year history.

One of the best aspects of this big live show was the specially edited big screen sequences, which included all of the Doctor’s incarnations.

The repertoire drew heavily from the music performed during the latest series.

The current Doctor’s (Peter Capaldi) theme called A Good Man? is my favourite theme and it had everyone in the crowd spellbound.

A perfect for all Doctor Who and classical music lovers.

News Source: Wales Online

Ahead of the Doctor Who Symphonic Spectacular series of concerts, the sci-fi series’ composer takes us behind the scoring.

“I definitely was daunted taking on the theme,” Doctor Who composer Murray Gold tells me – and it’s not surprising he might have doubts when rearranging a classic. A lifelong fan of the series, Gold considers his current role on the series (which he has scored since its revival in 2005) his dream gig, with “no question he’d turn it down.”
Not that he had a lot of experience in the area when he first got the job – Gold freely admits that he had “never done anything remotely sci-fi or fantasy prior to Doctor Who,” but says that wasn’t a problem when approaching the genre for the first time.
“I think there’s a difference in scoring Doctor Who to any sci-fi series,” he says. “I approached it as if it was a story about people – and their hopes, and their dreams, and their loves, and their losses.”
“Doctor Who, while having clear sci-fi elements, is also a melodrama, a saga, a romance, a comedy – I mean, there’s very few scenes without jokes. If it were pure sci-fi, I wouldn’t score it the way I do. It wouldn’t have the romantic themes, it wouldn’t have the charm, the transparent openness and the heart. It seems different in that way to me.”
Whatever his approach it’s been a success, with Gold’s music one of the only throughlines since the show’s return and the composer’s songs a hit with fans, selling hundreds of thousands of albums.

But what’s the piece he really shares their love for – what’s his favourite?
“Judging your own stuff is like one of those robots that’s got a hidden layer of command structure which prevents it from speaking,” he demurs. “A Doctor Who robot! It’s very difficult for me to analyse, to step out of my own life.”
Surely he must have some treasured pieces, though? “The last stuff I did is always my favourite,” he relents.“So my current favourite is the music from [2014 seasonal special] Last Christmas.”
“It was a puzzle to unlock with that episode, how to play it, how to judge the tone of it. To bring the Christmassy elements of that episode out, so that it didn’t become overwhelmingly bleak.”
“And,” he goes on, “to bring out the nostalgia that everybody has for past Christmas – even though the characters are all dying, really dreaming away their lives. I tried to make it as thoughtful as possible.”
He adds: “I also love all the stuff other people respond to quickly – I know when I’ve written an anthem. I know there’s a need for an anthem. When ‘I am the Doctor’ came out, when ‘Doomsday’ came out, when the Amy and Rory leaping off the building song came out…the graveyard scene.”

“You’re building towards those moments the entire series, and when they come along you hope there’s going to be a place for you to write the music.”
For the last 10 years or so, he seems to have managed to fit it in – and now Gold’s music will be put to the public in the latest version of the Doctor Who Symphonic Spectacular, a series of natrionwide concerts (hosted by fifth Doctor Peter Davison), that will form one of the largest productions of the sci-fi series’ music yet (following previous Doctor Who concerts and proms).
“What can fans expect? Well, it’s like a rock concert,” says Gold. “It’s an epic, massive, epic rock concert with 150 people, maybe more, 85 in the orchestra, 75 in the choir, and then there’s the monsters and a rock band as well.”
“But more than that, it’s this kind of sweeping experience of gathering together and enjoying Doctor Who, and the values of the show. You know, all of the good stuff about – just travelling around the universe with your best friend.”
The Doctor Who Symphonic spectacular runs for a week across the country from Saturday 23rd May. You can find more details and buy tickets.

 

News Source: Radio Times

“I haven’t really figured out what I’m going to do after this,” says the writer. “At some point the lure of doing something else will be too strong…”

As a TV writer and fanboy working on Doctor Who and Sherlock, Steven Moffat is living the dream. Which is probably why he finds it so hard to leave the shows behind…
“I keep signing on for another year all the time,” Moffat said. “I haven’t really figured out what I’m going to do after this.”
As showrunner on Doctor Who and co-creator of Sherlock, Moffat has creative control over two of British TV’s biggest and best-loved properties, yet he admits there’s a part of him that yearns to do something less high profile and says there will come a day when he’ll bid farewell to both the Time Lord and the detective and turn his attention to other projects.
“At some point the lure of doing something else that isn’t either of those shows will be too strong – I’ll have to,” Moffat told interviewer Jaci Stephens during a Bafta talk in New York earlier this month.
“There are moments – and this is the most ungrateful remark you’re ever gonna hear from a white straight man, this is the supremacy of privilege here – I sometimes wish everything wasn’t so high profile all the time.”
“Oh all the success love, it’s such a pressure!” he joked.
“But in a weird way I do, and it would be nice to do a stage play that nobody saw. I know that is the most ludicrous thing to complain about…”
Fans hoping to see that play (that nobody sees) shouldn’t hold their breath – Moffat is currently working on series nine of Doctor Who and has just revealed that the fourth run of Sherlock will begin filming next spring…

News Source: Radio Times

The showrunner suggests he may written himself and the Doctor into a tight space ahead of the series finale.

The finale of Doctor Who series nine looks set to pose a serious challenge – not just for the Doctor but for writer Steven Moffat too.
Moffat suggests he may have written himself – and presumably the Time Lord – into a tight space in the previous episode, admitting he’s currently “in a state of panic” over it.
“I’ve got a script where I’ve set myself a ludicrous challenge,” Moffat told interviewer Jaci Stephens during a Bafta talk in New York earlier this month. “When episode 11 comes up in the next series of Doctor Who, you’ll see just how ludicrous the challenge I’ve set myself is. I’m in a state of panic about it.”
If episode 11 does indeed form part of a story with the series finale it would lend weight to the idea that the whole of series nine could consist of two-part adventures.
We already know that it will kick-off with The Magician’s Apprentice/The Witch’s Familiar, featuring a returning Michelle Gomez as Missy, which will be immediately followed be another as yet unnamed two-parter penned by Being Human’s Toby Whithouse.
Episodes five and six, The Girl Who Died and The Woman Who Lived, come next and star Game of Thrones’s Maisie Williams. And after that are two episodes both directed by Peter Harness and directed by Daniel Nettheim, suggesting they form a complete story too.
If parts 11 and 12 also come as a package, that would leave only nine and ten that we don’t yet know about.
Moffat said viewers had been getting “too acquainted with the rhythm” of single episodes and that penning series eight’s two-part finale Dark Water/Death in Heaven had convinced him it was time to mix things up a bit.
“Writing the first two-parter that I had done in years I just thought, ‘I’m liking this. This feels more unpredictable.’ Because you don’t know how far you’re going to get through the story…”
“The rule I’ve got is that you won’t be absolutely certain [from the story and tone] whether a show is going to be a two-parter or not,” he told Doctor Who magazine. “And with each of the two-parters we’re doing, there’s a substantial difference between the two halves.”
News Source: Radio Times.