With rumours rife that Clara could be about to jump Tardis, will the actress use her appearance on Nick Grimshaw’s Radio 1 Breakfast Show as a platform to clarify her future?

Jenna Coleman’s Doctor Who future is once again in question after reports emerged today that the 29-year-old has filmed her last scenes for the sci-fi show and is leaving to star as Queen Victoria in a lavish new ITV drama (a role RadioTimes.com reported she was in the running to play back in June).

Both the BBC and ITV have so far declined to comment on the matter, but with Jenna scheduled to appear on Nick Grimshaw’s BBC Radio 1 Breakfast Show on Friday morning, it seems hard to imagine how Coleman will be able to avoid directly answering the question on Grimmers’ (and everyone else’s) lips once and for all…

If Coleman, who joined the show three years ago, were to leave she’d need to make it to episode 10 or beyond to overtake Karen Gillan as the longest serving companion of the modern era.

This latest news comes after years of speculation over when the actress would exit the show. Tabloid rumours originally had her leaving in last year’s Christmas special, before eventually flip-flopping to say she would in fact be staying on for series nine. Showrunner Steven Moffat later confirmed that she had indeed originally been due to leave at the end of series eight finale Death in Heaven.

“That was her last episode,” he told Doctor Who Magazine. “And then she asked me if she could be in Christmas? So I said, ‘Okay, I’ll write you out in Christmas.’ She came to the read through and did the ‘write out’ version – and again changed her mind. But the truth is I never wanted her to go… She’s an amazing actress, and she never stops working to make Clara better. I was very happy to go the extra mile to make sure we could keep her.”

When asked about her future on the show, Coleman told this week’s Radio Times, “you never feel you’ve arrived… which is a good thing. It would be quite scary to feel safe. You’re in Doctor Who knowing it will never last. It’s constantly regenerating, so you want to make your time count and enjoy the adventure for the fleeting time you’re here.”

Jenna Coleman made her Doctor Who debut in 2012 episode Asylum of the Daleks, where she popped up as the mysterious Oswin Oswald, the sole survivor of a crashed starship who is later revealed to be a Dalek. Following a second role as Clara Oswin Oswald in 2012 Christmas special The Snowmen, she would make her first proper appearance as the “impossible girl” Clara Oswald in 2013 series seven part two opener The Bells of St John. The mystery of her alternate versions would later be solved in The Name of the Doctor, where she jumped into the Doctor’s timestream, creating various incarnations of Clara spread throughout history.

Her time with Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor is not commonly viewed as Clara’s best, with the ‘impossible girl’ mystery limiting how far her character could develop. Instead, it was with Peter Capaldi’s older, more abrasive Doctor that Clara began to soar; their dynamic was clever and funny, her life and interests were fleshed out. Along with giving her a romance with the sadly doomed Danny Pink (Samuel Anderson), it was here that the show put Coleman front and centre, with her cheekily exclaiming at one point, “I’m the Doctor, but you can call me Clara.”

And if it is her last, her fate in series nine, however, is unclear. Will she die? Will she be trapped in a parallel dimension? Have her memories wiped? Get stuck in 1940s New York? Or, more simply, just leave? We’ll have to watch and find out.

And, of course, speculate on who will be her replacement…

News Source: Radio Times

The BBC today launched The Doctor Who Game Maker, allowing fans to create and share their own adventures in time and space. It gives users the chance to manipulate the Doctor Who universe like never before, creating their own action-packed games featuring the Doctor, Clara, and a huge range of other heroes, monsters and worlds from the series.

Within minutes users can create a fun game from scratch, or use one of a selection of templates to help them get started. Templates include classic game formats with a Doctor Who twist, including platform games, puzzles and racers. There is a huge range of assets on offer to help fans create their own unique games – including stunningly designed environments, monsters new and old, friends, foes, and spaceships from across the galaxy.

Commander Strax is also on hand to offer advice, with a range of helpful guides that show users how to get started, change a game’s physics to make things fly, animate objects and even add special effects. There will soon be an Arcade area letting people play games made by users from around the world.

The Doctor Who Game Maker follows on from the success of The Doctor and the Dalek coding game, putting a wide range of the game’s digital assets – and plenty of new ones – into the hands of the fans. All the characters, crafts and objects featured in The Doctor and the Dalek are available in the Game Maker, alongside new additions including Clara, Missy, Weeping Angels and more, plus some new creatures from the latest series.

It requires no technical knowledge, no download and works on desktop and tablets, allowing fans to get creative whenever they feel inspired, building something simple in minutes and moving onto more complex ideas as their skills develop. Fans will also be able use the arcade feature on their mobiles so they can play games on the go.

Jo Pearce, Creative Director, BBC Cymru Wales Interactive, says: “The Doctor Who Game Maker rounds off a big year for Doctor Who as part of BBC Make it Digital. Our game introduced our audiences to coding basics, Mission Dalek competition encouraged fans to create stories using digital technology, and now we’re giving fans the chance to make their own games. It’s hugely exciting and we can’t wait to see what people come up with.”

Launched as part of the BBC’s Make it Digital season, the Doctor Who Game Maker gives young people the chance to get creative with digital technology and introduces them to game design. The Game Maker was produced in collaboration between BBC Cymru Wales, BBC Digital, Aardman Animations, Aerian and BBC Connected Studio, and is built using the BBC’s new mixital technology.

News Source: BBC

The actor revealed the biggest challenge comes from having to snap between different emotions and style “within a single scene”

Peter Capaldi still doesn’t feel like he’s “nailed” playing the Doctor.

The actor has starred in Doctor Who since 2013, but he admitted the “mysterious” nature of the Time Lord makes it a difficult role to master.

Speaking to the Telegraph, he said: “I don’t feel like I’ve nailed it yet – from an acting point of view, I mean.

“I don’t yet feel that I know how to do this. Quite who the Doctor is remains mysterious to me – which is of course as it should be.”

He added that his biggest challenge playing the iconic role comes from the range of emotions and style he has to tap into due to the tone and audience of the show.
He explained: “You have to be able to go from pantomime to tragedy, from domestic to epic, within a single scene.

“You have to remember that, as much as you want to apply your mature acting instincts, there are actually lots of children watching.

“You’ve got to cover all these bases and make it exciting and interesting, too. It’s a great challenge – and, by the way, I really don’t say that lightly – and one which I care very much about getting right. Because it’s big, isn’t it? It’s really big.”

Accepting that his time as the Doctor won’t last forever, Peter is going to make the most of it – and he joked he wants to enjoy it before it’s too late.

He teased: “One day I’ll just be an overweight has-been, trying to get a meeting with Jenna Coleman and being ejected from a Doctor Who convention in Bolton for being drunk and disorderly.”

News Source: The Mirror

The 57-year-old father said it would be “inappropriate” for the Time Lord to start a relationship with Clara, played by Jenna Coleman, 29

Peter Capaldi has ruled out a romance between the Doctor and his assistant Clara as it would be “completely creepy”.Co-star Jenna Coleman is 29 and Capaldi is 57.
He said: “It’s fine if you have young men like Matt [Smith] and David Tennant but as a father I felt it would be inappropriate.”

Having made a name for himself as The Thick Of It’s Malcolm Tucker, he says the lack of romance between the Doctor and his assistant has “forged a huge bond” between him and Coleman.

“There’s no romance,” he explains, “But there’s deep love.”

Coleman, also known for her role as Jasmine Thomas in Emmerdale, says starring alongside the 12th Time Lord Doctor was exciting, but scary.

“The Doctor, who is my best friend, is not only in a different body, but he’s also getting to know himself,” she says.

“Age made no difference. He’s an alien. We’re not lovey-dovey. Everything is more about what is unsaid, rather than said.

“Clara may seem like a control freak, but she’s trying to control the uncontrollable.”

The ninth series of the hit BBC One show starts again on 19 September, with Steven Moffat at the helm once again.

A lot has been made of the relationship between the Doctor and his assistant, given that in the last series their relationship was really put through its paces.
The show is a phenomenon all over the world, with audiences in the USA and South Korea tuning in to watch it.

“I’m amazed at the audience reaction and don’t really know why it is,” Capaldi says.

It’s well-known he was a huge fan of the show, even before landing the lead role.

As for its popularity on other shores, he reckons: “Unlike other sci-fi, Doctor Who has a domestic element – the Tardis could turn up in the Mall or a coffee shop – but it catches fire abroad, in culturally different places, particularly with students and young adults. I suppose it offers escapism.”  Not unlike the escapism acting offered a young Capaldi, who grew up in Glasgow and says he was mocked relentlessly and called Moon Man.

“It was the Apollo landings and I spent my entire life writing letters to Nasa who sent pictures to me. I was a geek before the word was invented.”
Geek has turned into chic for him though, as he joins a long list of stars who’ve earned themselves “sex symbol” status.

“I’m the same person I was when I wasn’t a sex symbol. Fame is such a privilege and any downside is a small price to pay. It’s slightly different, though, because people think they’re meeting Doctor Who, an icon, and not me,” he says.

Coleman herself ventured to Los Angeles at 22, to seek fame and fortune there. She returned after four months feeling “great and fearless”. Neither she nor Capaldi though will estimate how much longer they think they will be in the series.

“You never feel you’ve arrived,” she says, “which is a good thing. It would be quite scary to feel safe. You’re in Doctor Who knowing it will never last.

“It’s constantly regenerating, so you want to make your time count and enjoy the adventure for the fleeting time you’re here”.

The Doctor shows off his dry sense of humour by commenting on the “upset” caused when lizard woman Madame Vastra kissed her human wife, Jenny Flint, on-screen in the last series.  Viewers complained the BBC was promoting a gay agenda.

Capaldi says: “I think it was good… Actually it’s not just lesbian. It’s across species, which is even worse, presumably. It’s crazy if people get up in arms about it.

“There should be lots more kissing in Doctor Who. So long as it’s not the Doctor and Clara.”

News Source: The Mirror

Jenna Coleman is reportedly set to quit Doctor Who after three years in the TARDIS to front a prestigious new ITV drama.

Coleman will be written out of her role as The Doctor’s intrepid companion Clara Oswald prior to this year’s Christmas special, according to The Mirror.

Her reported departure from Doctor Who apparently coincides with the actress landing a major role, starring as a young Queen Victoria in a new ITV drama with a reported budget of £10m.

Earlier this year, ITV announced it was partnering with novelist Daisy Goodwin and the producers of Poldark for an eight-part series about Queen Victoria’s reign.

Digital Spy has reached out to a spokesperson for Coleman about her Doctor Who future, in addition to contacting ITV about her potential casting in Victoria.

Coleman made a surprise debut in Doctor Who in the 2012 series opener ‘Asylum of the Daleks’, before officially kicking off her stint as The Doctor’s companion later that year in the Christmas special ‘The Snowmen’.

Following a full series with Matt Smith and key involvement in 2013’s 50th anniversary special, Coleman lent stability to Doctor Who when Peter Capaldi took over as The Doctor in summer 2014.

Rumours of a departure for Clara Oswald dogged the sci-fi series through its eighth series, but Coleman surprised viewers last Christmas by revealing that she’d be staying on for the 2015 episodes.

Her character has played a major role in shaping The Doctor’s life, having encountered all of his past incarnations by entering his personal time stream in ‘The Name of the Doctor’.
Clara will be back at The Doctor’s side for a new series beginning this weekend, as the duo face off with classic enemies Missy, the Daleks and the shape-shifting Zygons.

Before the return of Professor River Song this Christmas and an inevitable new companion joining the TARDIS, Capaldi and Coleman will reunite for ‘The Magician’s Apprentice’ on Saturday (September 19) on BBC One in the UK and BBC America in the US.

News Source: Digital Spy

The BBC have now revealed the full compliment of episodes titles for series 9 of Doctor Who, which are as follows:

News Source: BBC

Doctor Who Series 9 starts here, with this prologue to episode 1.

The prequel for the ninth series opener The Magician’s Apprentice has landed – and it’s all very sombre and enigmatic…

BBC One has confirmed the airtime for Peter Capaldi’s return in Doctor Who series nine opener ‘The Magician’s Apprentice’.

The episode will air at 7.40pm on Saturday, September 19. At around 50 minutes in length, the episode will finish at 8.30pm.

This means that ‘The Magician’s Apprentice’ kicks off only 10 minutes earlier than last year’s curtain-raiser ‘Deep Breath’, which was the latest time slot for a new series launch since Doctor Who returned in 2005.

‘Rose’ aired at 7pm on March 26, 2005, while ‘New Earth’ was shown at 7.15pm on April 15 the following year and ‘Smith & Jones’ opened the third series at 7pm on March 31, 2007.

Series four’s ‘Partners in Crime’ aired 6.20pm on April 5, 2008 – with Matt Smith’s debut ‘The Eleventh Hour’ occupying the same slot on April 3, 2010.

Series six marked the show’s earliest start to date, with ‘The Impossible Astronaut’ transmitting at 6pm on April 23, 2011.

‘Asylum of the Daleks’ kicked off series seven at the later time of 7.20pm on September 1, 2012.

‘The Magician’s Apprentice’ has been written by showrunner Steven Moffat, and is directed by Hettie Macdonald and produced by Peter Bennet.

As well as Capaldi and Jenna Coleman as Clara, the guest cast features Michelle Gomez returning as Missy, alongside Jemma Redgrave, Kelly Hunter, Clare Higgins and Jaye Griffiths.

News Source: Digital Spy