Who ever said you couldn’t have a nice time working on your birthday?

We’re not sure exactly which birthday Peter Capaldi celebrated during the filming of Doctor Who this year (his 2001st, maybe?), but it certainly looks like he had a lovely time on set.

Presented with a personalised chair (in Tardis-blue of course) and a birthday cake while on set for The Woman Who Lived, the 57-year-old actor thanked the crew before promptly trying to hurl said cake at co-star Maisie Williams, aka The Girl Who (got) Pied.

We have to say, though, we’re not sure about the venue for the mini-party – standing on top of the gallows is bound to make you very aware of your increasing mortality on a birthday, even if you are a Time Lord…

Doctor Who returns this Saturday.

News Source: Radio Times

Are we getting a series next year or not?

It’s not 100% confirmation of a 10th series, but it seems Steven Moffat is working on more Doctor Who beyond the current run.

The showrunner revealed he is “just embarking on the new [series]” in an interview with The Observer.
Asked what he was particularly proud of in the show’s current run, Moffat replied: “I’m proud that we get to the end of the series and it all looks pretty and is nice. I’m just embarking on the new one and it’s terrifying. I have to make all that again.”

A 10th series appeared to be confirmed way back in July, when BBC Worldwide’s Annual Review made reference to “investments in The Musketeers S3 and Doctor Who S10”.
However, the magazine Private Eye later alleged that there would be no full series in 2016, with a BBC spokesperson insisting that it was “too early to confirm the schedule for future series”.

One thing we do know is that Doctor Who will return for its traditional Christmas special this festive season, with Alex Kingston reprising her role of space-faring archeologist River Song.
“That’s been a riot to do,” Moffat said. “That’s been sort of a big fun chase episode, really. Just Mr and Mrs Who battling their way past nonsense and that’s been great fun. Alex [Kingston] is always great value.”

Doctor Who continues this Saturday at 8.15pm on BBC One, with ‘The Zygon Invasion’.

Doctor Who is getting a Young Adult spinoff called Class from A Monster Calls writer Patrick Ness

News Source: Digital Spy

“Move over R2D2 and C3PO”……

K9, the World’s most famous robot dog traverses the dimensions of space and time to become the latest robot star of the big screen!

Having made his TV debut nearly forty years ago in the 1977 Doctor Who TV serial “The Invisible Enemy” K9 went on to become one of the most iconic characters from the BBC series.
A new look high tech K9 for today’s cinema is being prepared for film stardom.

The film “K9-TIMEQUAKE” has been written by one of K9’s original creators; Bob Baker, a renowned writer of classic Doctor Who serials. Bob went on to co-write with Nick Park the Oscar and Bafta winning Wallace & Gromit series of film shorts as well as the feature film Curse of the Were-Rabbit.

The new K9 will be appearing in a Multi-Million Dollar movie which promises to be a great action adventure set in deep Space. The film will be full of dashing heroes and heroines, Androids, monstrous Aliens and an ultimate foe who will also be familiar to Doctor Who fans everywhere; the megalomaniac OMEGA.

The film is to be a UK co-production with exteriors filmed overseas and studio work planned for the UK.
K9 is the perfect character to star in a movie with a whole new bunch of action heroes making this a home grown Star Wars come Guardians of the Galaxy style cinema must see film.

The film is currently slated for release in 2017 which will be K9’s fortieth birthday

News Source: K9 Official

Doctor Who: The Girl Who Died had an official consolidated rating of 6.56 million viewers.

The rating issued by the Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board, or BARB, includes all those who watched the programme within one week of transmission. It does not include those watching online via iPlayer

Doctor Who was the 11th most watched programme on BBC Television, and second overall on Saturday. Initial figures indicate the episode will finish at 19th in the chart.

Top of the week was Strictly Come Dancing with 10.85 million watching.

News Source: BARB

We all know Jenna Coleman is leaving (and possibly even dying) this series, and if you have any sense you’re sad about that. Clara Oswald has moved from the irksome ‘Impossible Girl’ to an actual character, with quirks and flaws and a Blackpool accent. Seriously, go back and compare her introduction to now, it’s astounding.

If the Radio Times office is going to be cut up when she leaves, just imagine what things are like on the Doctor Who set. Steven Moffat is doing his best not to rub salt into the wound.
He told the audience at London’s MCM Comic-Con: “Jenna actually asked me, ‘could you just not have the new one come in while I’m still there?’”

The request goes back to when Coleman was on the other side of it, the new companion on the block in series seven. Following her announcement in the newspapers, Coleman made her first surprise appearance in Aslyum of the Daleks, months before her expected introduction in the Christmas special.

“I remember thinking it was quite tough on Karen [Gillan] in Asylum of the Daleks,” Moffat continued, “when she came into the makeup truck and, with my usual sensitivity, there’s Jenna!”
“Hi, I’m taking your job and your time machine!”

It hurts, yes, but at the risk of sounding like an Adele lyric, sometimes it’s good when it hurts. It shows it meant something.

“We always use this awful word companions, but they’re really co-stars, the co-leads. Right from the very beginning with Barbara and Ian, that character is the core. It’s a huge thing when they leave, and it knocks the living crap out of the Doctor every time,” Moffat explained.

“Which is a thing I like about the show, we don’t just treat it as a staffing problem. When they leave, it’s a major event, and he has trouble getting over it, every time.”

He’s not the only one.

**sniff**

News Source: Radio Times

We’ve seen Steven Moffat speak at a lot of panels and screenings over the years. At almost every one, he is asked the same question. At this point he is clearly fed-up with it. Yet the question refuses to go away, especially as the press and blog reports that follow his every answer seem to disagree wildly as to what he said. This only annoys Moffat further.

The showrunner was asked the question yet again this weekend, during the Doctor Who panel at London’s Comic-Con. (In fact, he had also been asked a version of it at the earlier Sherlock panel.) Here is his response in full, printed in the hope that it records his definitive views on the matter.

Fan: Is there a possibility in the future of the Doctor regenerating as a woman?
Moffat: [Succinctly] Yes.

Audience: [Long applause]

Moffat: But there is no vacancy. I’m being really explicit in my answer here because I gave this answer once in San Diego. I was asked if the Doctor could ever be a woman and I said ‘I think there’s a subtext in the show, maybe you should read it.’ And I turned and gestured to Michelle Gomez sitting next to me as Missy, and everyone laughed.
This was reported, widely, as me saying the Doctor would never be a woman. So let me just make this very, very clear: there is no vacancy, and it may never happen. However artistically it could work. Commercially, the audience would go with it, we’ve proven that with Missy. And that’s why we did it, frankly.
Yes, it can happen. It doesn’t need to happen, but it can, absolutely.
[Asking the audience directly]
Just in case: is anyone confused, from the major blog sites, about what I said? Do you know what ‘can happen’ means? Anyone confused?
If someone reports that as me being against it, could you go and beat the [inaudible] out of them?

Audience: [Applause]

Mark Gatiss: Could you clarify please?

News Source: Radio Times

The 57-year-old, who plays the Time Lord, has agreed to stay on for at least one more series.

Peter Capaldi will fire up the Tardis for at least one more series after agreeing to stay on as Doctor Who .
BBC bosses had feared the 57-year-old Scot would not renew his contract and had drawn up a shortlist of possible replacements.
Capaldi had privately admitted finding filming 13 episodes for nine months a year tiring.

But senior BBC insiders have confirmed he will return as the 12th Time Lord next year.
A BBC source said: “Peter has made it clear he is happy playing the Doctor for as long as the BBC – and viewers – want him.

“We are very happy with him and viewers are also warming to him.”
The Glasgow-born star, who replaced Matt Smith in 2013 on a two-year contract, has agreed a new one-year deal with a further one-year option.

The source added: “He loves playing the Doctor and of course we want him to do another series.
“Peter is keen to complete three years playing the Doctor to round off his storylines. That will take us until the end of next year. After that, who knows?”

However, the new series might be made up of several feature-length episodes rather than 13 shows.
And Capaldi , foul-mouthed spindoctor Malcolm Tucker in The Thick of It, may call time on the Doctor as he is keen to direct more episodes of the political satire Veep in America.

BBC bosses had drawn up a “succession plan wish list” of potential Doctor replacements, with Lady ­Chatterley’s Lover and Game of Thrones hunk Richard Madden, 29, at the top.
The show suffered a blow when Jenna Coleman, 29, quit as Clara Oswald to play Queen Victoria in a new ITV drama series.

Ratings have slumped in the two series since Capaldi became the Doctor.
But last weekend’s episode The Girl Who Died – featuring another Game of Thrones actor, Maisie Williams – averaged 4.63 million viewers.

A BBC spokeswoman declined to comment, saying: “We never discuss contracts.”

News Source: The Mirror