Writer would be “delighted” if the Time Lord became a Time Lady.

Speculation is rife as to who’ll replace Jenna Coleman on Doctor Who – and Mark Gatiss has suggested a male companion would be “very interesting”.

Coleman announced last month that the BBC sci-fi’s current series will be her last as Clara Oswald.
“I’ve always been a fan of the boy/girl partnership from way back when,” Gatiss told press including Digital Spy at last night’s (October 14) Attitude Awards.

“It would be very interesting if the Doctor had a male companion… but then it would be a very male show.

Gatiss, who has written episode nine of this latest Peter Capaldi-starring series, added he would be “delighted” if the Doctor became a woman in the future.
“I think the dynamic then would be really interesting,” he suggested. “It would be great.

“Doctor Who is always driven on change. All you need is a fantastic actor for the part – but I hope Capaldi stays for a very long time because he’s great.”
Capaldi is currently tackling his second series as the Doctor, after making his debut in 2013.

“I think he’s grown into it, which is what always happens,” Gatiss said. “I love the way people have responded to this series, and I love the two-parters as well.”
Doctor Who continues this Saturday (October 17) at 8.20pm on BBC One.

Doctor Who series 9: 10 exciting teasers for ‘The Girl Who Died’

News Source: Digital Spy

The 18-year-old Games of Thrones actress is appearing in two episodes of Doctor Who and loved working with Peter Capaldi.

Game Of Thrones actress Maisie Williams swapped Westeros for Gallifrey to guest star in Doctor Who – and has described how working with Time Lord Peter Capaldi was ‘a joy’.
Best known for her role as Arya Stark in HBO’s fantasy epic, the 18-year-old said: “Peter has been such a joy to work with,” she said. “My brother was so excited when he heard I got the part, as was I. He’s a wonderful, wonderful actor and I couldn’t wait to meet him. He totally lived up to my expectations and I love that!

“People say ‘don’t meet your idols as they never turn out to be who you want them to be’. That was completely not the case with Peter and he’s been wonderful and really helpful on set.”

Williams features in two Doctor Who episodes: The Girl Who Died, airing October 17, and The Woman Who Lived, airing the following week.
In the tense hour of The Girl Who Died, The Doctor and Clara (Jenna Coleman) must train a useless band of Vikings to defend themselves against the galaxy’s most deadly army.
Executive Producer Steven Moffat described this instalment, penned by Being Human’s Jamie Mathieson, as “the day when the Doctor remembers where he’s seen his own face before”.

The Bristol-born actress was approached to play a character called Ashildr, a name derived from Old Norse which means “battle god”.
“I didn’t know much about it, but I knew they were introducing a new character to work closely with the Doctor,” she revealed.
“I’d got through the second episode and absolutely loved it! I was going to do a tape but ran out of time because I was in America shooting another film, so my agent worked really hard and sent over lots of clips and videos – they liked them and gave me the role.”

The casting of Williams sparked a great deal of anticipation among fans, and the acclaimed actress also counts herself as one.
“When Doctor Who came back on television, a lot of my male friends were really excited. I didn’t know much about it, but I watched a couple of seasons with David Tennant as the Doctor,” she stated.”Since I’ve been here, I’ve been questioning Jenna: why are you in a space suit? What’s going on here? Have we met this person before? Does this link back to a previous episode? Anything I can find out. It has been really exciting working on it and I’m so glad to be a part of it now.”

The Game Of Thrones star, who has played Arya Stark since 2011, felt at home on the Doctor Who set. “It’s very nice to have that familiar bearded, hairy men setting. It’s so refreshing to have this futuristic element linked in to it too, that’s what has kept me going really, not just beards and dragons.”
She added: “There’s a whole new element that’s fed in to the sides. It just looks so great with all of us in our Viking outfits, Jenna in her space suit and the Doctor in his cool coat with his crazy sunglasses. It makes for a really cool and interesting dynamic on screen.”

Williams revealed how Doctor Who became a topic of conversation in her family. She said: “When I got the role, my mum would tell me about when she watched it before it came back more recently.”
The young star also observed how the current Doctor Who series is maintaining the legacy of the classic series, which first aired back in 1963.
“I’m not so aware of the previous Doctors, but I know a lot of the lines Peter says now relate back to other Doctors’ lines. It is so nice how they’ve incorporated the previous seasons in to the more recent episodes. I like how it all links in some way or another,” she said.

Williams also told the Radio Times she never realised how “badly written” female characters in the acting industry were.
She said: “I didn’t realise when I was younger that women were written so badly, but going further into this career I realised there are a lot of really bad characters, that it’s not common to come across females who aren’t just ‘the girlfriend’.

“You can’t pick and choose everything, but I hope to never have to play a character that is only there to benefit a male lead.”

Earlier this year she also took part in the Channel 4 documentary Cyberbully, and says being famous can be “scary, but it’s what you have to do”.
She added: “I’ve stopped reading what people think now. It’s easy for people to have an opinion online when they don’t realise that there’s actually Maisie Williams who’s reading that and crying.”
Williams isn’t certain what her future holds, but says she may return to her dancing roots.

“I’ve never really had a plan, and it’s worked out all right so far. At the moment I’m enjoying this industry and I don’t want to stop any time soon,” she said.

“But I know I want to dance at some point, because that’s what I’ve always wanted to do. Who knows what I’ll be doing in 20 years… or five years?

“I just want to be happy. That’s honestly what I want to do.”

Doctor Who airs on October 17 at 8.20pm on BBC One

News Source: Radio Times and Wales Online

Maisie Williams plays Viking girl Ashildr in this week’s Doctor Who – but just what is it about her that fascinates the Doctor?

‘The Girl Who Died’ sees the Doctor (Peter Capaldi) and Clara (Jenna Coleman) forced to train an inept band of Vikings to battle advanced alien mercenaries.
“Odin has come to visit his loyal followers, the Vikings, and reward their bravest warriors with a place in Valhalla,” revealed co-writer Jamie Mathieson, who penned last year’s popular Doctor Who episodes, ‘Flatline’ and ‘Mummy on the Orient Express’.

“There’s only one problem – the Doctor and Clara, who are having none of this and smell a rat. They are soon caught up in the middle of a war between an advanced race of mercenary aliens and a village full of angry Vikings, who don’t take kindly to having their Gods insulted.
“There is another big mystery to solve in the form of Maisie Williams, who plays a Viking that the Doctor seems to recognise. But from where? Or is it when?”

Williams, already a cult favourite for her role as Arya Stark on Game of Thrones, revealed it was “refreshing” to fuse the “familiar bearded, hairy men setting” with a “futuristic element”.
“That’s what has kept me going really, [that it’s] not just beards and dragons,” she explained. “There’s a whole new element that’s fed in.
“It just looks so great with all of us in our Viking outfits, Jenna in her space suit and the Doctor in his cool coat with his crazy sunglasses. It makes for a really cool and interesting dynamic on screen.”

Williams hinted that Ashildr is “a new character” who works closely with the Doctor – but you’ll have to tune into BBC One at 8.20pm this Saturday (October 17) to see if she’s telling the truth.

News Source: Digital Spy

The Boy Meets Girl star reveals that there’s a “mini campaign” calling for her to get the role.

Rebecca Root has admitted that she would love to play the first female Doctor on Doctor Who.

The Boy Meets Girl star told Digital Spy that she mentioned her love of the show to a journalist and has now prompted a “mini-campaign”.

“I did this talk with Kellie Maloney at the Radio Times Festival a couple of weeks ago and almost in passing, I mentioned something to the chair, a lovely journalist called Emma Barnett,” she explained.

“I mentioned something about Steven Moffat being in the next tent along, because I vaguely know Steven. I was like, ‘Oh my God, I’ve got to try and get hold of him – next time the Doctor comes up I’d love to do that’.

“And then Emma sort of outed me in the course of the conversation that we had and it was picked up and somebody tweeted it and then the Radio Times tweeted it and somebody else tweeted it and it’s gone round in this mini campaign to get Rebecca Root as the first female or even trans Doctor!”

She continued: “It was this lovely little flurry and it made me chuckle because yes, of course, although I was making light of it I would love to play the Doctor! Oh my God, what an amazing part. I really, really would love that. But who knows? You never know, do you? Stranger things have happened so never say never!”

News Source: Digital Spy

Doctor Who: Under the Lake finished with an official rating of 5.63 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

The rating makes Doctor Who the 22nd most watched programme for the week on all UK television. It was the 10th most watched programme on BBC Television.

Doctor Who ended higher than Casualty, which beat it in the initial overnight figures, and was the third most watched show on Saturday Night. The Great British Bake Off topped the chart with a massive 12.65 million watching. The most popular Saturday night show was Strictly Come Dancing with 9.27 million viewers.

News Source: BARB

4.38 Million viewers watched Doctor Who: Before the Flood, according to unofficial overnight viewing figures.

The programme had an audience share of 21.5%, up from last weeks share of just 16%, helped by the lower rating for the Rugby World Cup on ITV. This week, with England out of the competition, an average of just 3.51 million tuned in to see the host country play Uruguay.

Top for the day was Strictly Come Dancing with 8.91 million watching, while ITV’s highest audience was for the Rugby, but not for the match showing opposite The Doctor. Australia v Wales at 4.30pm had 4.75 million watching.

Casualty edged just above The Doctor with 4.42 million views pushing Doctor Who into 4th place for the day. Doctor Who is currently 33rd for the week.

Official consolidated figures will be released next week.

News Source: BARB

Doctor Who lead writer and executive producer Steven Moffat and writer Jamie Mathieson will attend the Lucca Comic and Games Festival in Italy on the 30th and 31st October.
On Friday 30th October Steven Moffat will introduce a special screening of The Magician’s Apprentice, the first episode of Doctor Who series nine atCinema Astraat 18.30.

On Saturday 31st October the duo will participate in a Q&A hosted by well-known comic writer Gabriella Cordone Lisiero where fans will have the opportunity to ask questions about the writing process and how a Doctor Who script is turned from words on a page to the series we see on screen. The Q&A will take place at the San Romano auditorium at 12:00.

Steven Moffat is one of the few writers to have written for all four Doctors in the modern revival of Doctor Who (Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant, Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi), but his first work on the series dates back to 1999 when he scripted the parody episode Doctor Who and The Curse of Fatal Death. Along with Doctor Who, Steven is also the co-creator and executive producer of the multi-award winning global sensation Sherlock.

Jamie Mathieson joined the writers of Doctor Who for series eight scripting episodes Mummy on the Orient Express and Flatline. For series nine, Jamie has co-written Doctor Who – The Girl Who Died.

First broadcast in 1963, Doctor Who is the world’s longest running sci-fi programme according to the Guinness Book of Records. The series has sold to over 200 territories worldwide and has picked up numerous awards, including BAFTAs for Best Drama and Best Writer for Russell T Davies and Steven Moffat and has been voted Most Popular Drama at the UK’s National Television Awards for five years running.

Tickets for both events are available on the Lucca Comic and Games Festival website here:

www.luccacomicsandgames.com

Doctor Who series nine will air on Rai4 Italy later this year.

News Source: BBC

Prepare to be scared as the Doctor Who Experience will be celebrating Halloween this year with the scariest of Doctor Who monster encounters, cosplay and some spooky after hours activity.

During the day, visitors will need to look out for roaming monsters as the Doctor Who Experience comes to life….literally!

This Halloween the Doctor Who Experience is also inviting fans of all ages to get into the cosplay spirit and visit as their favourite monster, Doctor or companion with the chance to win tickets to the Doctor Who Festival in London this November.

And, for those looking for something different to do this Halloween evening, then visit the Doctor Who Experience for an after hours event. Visitors will be invited to take part in an interactive adventure before a special screening of Doctor Who amongst the monsters – and feel free to come in cosplay too!

Note: The ticket release for the Halloween after hours event is scheduled for next week (week starting 5th October 2015). Tickets for the daytime activity are currently on sale.

News Source: The Doctor Who Experience

Following an explosive two part opener of Series Nine of Doctor Who, the Doctor Who Experience is celebrating the return of the Daleks with an interactive Dalek Day event on Saturday 24th October 2015.

Visitors will be able to go on an interactive adventure and visit the planet Skaro – home of the Daleks, see the actual Daleks that featured in the opening two-parter of Doctor Who Series Nine, learn how to operate a Dalek and take part in a Q&A session with a Dalek operator as well as encountering roaming Daleks.

Visitors will also see the revealing of the restored original Davros by Mike Tucker, a special effects expert who was the first person to work both on the classic series of Doctor Who and the revived series as a model work supervisor, as part of the Doctor Who Experience props refurbishment programme.

Dalek Day launches the October half term holidays, where family fun Dalek activities will continue from Monday 26th to Friday 30th October.

Dalek Day and the half term activities are free events which are included in the price of a standard admission ticket.

News Source: The Doctor Who Experience.