Tagged: Matt Smith

Doctor Who Series 6 Part 1

Doctor Who, under producer Steven Moffat, feels very different than that of the shows from Russell T. Davies. In some ways, it feels as if Moffat needs to top Davies so we go from the terrifying Weeping Angels to The Silence. And we go younger, with Matt Smith as Eleventh Doctor, the youngest yet. Everything old is new again, it seems, while a show once aimed strictly at kids is now being criticized for being too scary for the audience.

The new season, Series 6 of the reboot, is the first to be shown in halves, a marketing device that cable channels in the USA have been quite successful using, nabbing viewers during major network lull periods. It also provides a dramatic cliffhanger, which may be thrilling for viewers but no doubt causes headaches for the producers.

Speaking of commercial, BBC Video, distributed here through Warner Home Video, today releases Doctor Who Series 6 Part 1, collecting the seven episodes aired to date while we eagerly await part two this fall (with Part 2 and Complete Series 6 DVDs no doubt to come).

Moffat has introduced meta arcs and mini arcs that require a fair amount of attention and makes the series increasingly difficult to attract newcomers. Miss an episode and vital clues to the Big Picture are absent, potentially confusing the viewer the next time a story is watched.

At this point, the Doctor, along with Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) and Rory Williams (Arthur Darvill), has settled into a comfortable relationship. The couple continues to act like newlyweds and the Doctor delights in having them around.  As a result, it’s business as usual with the opening two-parter “The Impossible Astronaut”/ “The Day of the Moon” which sets up the big threat, that of The Silence, referenced in previous seasons and made manifest here. They are an eerie addition, for sure, but what they want and how they’ll be defeated seem saved for the second half season. We also learn Amy is pregnant and the little girl, who manages to call President Nixon and ask for help, leads audiences to believe she is Amy’s child. The story opens with the Doctor being shot dead but we discover he’s a Doctor from 200 years into the future so the duo conceals this information only to fret about it in every subsequent episode. (more…)

If you’re waiting for “Doctor Who”, we have Comic Relief

If you’re waiting for “Doctor Who”, we have Comic Relief

  • News
  • April 23, 2011
Doctor Who (series 5)

Image via Wikipedia

For those of you chomping at the bit for the premiere of the new season of [[[Doctor Who]]] on BBC America in just a few hours, here’s a little preview you may not have seen. This is from this year’s Red Nose Day, which is a fundraiser for England’s Comic Relief. These bits were broadcast on a telethon over there back in March, and as you might expect star Matt Smith as the Doctor, Karen Gillan as Amy, and Arthur Darvill as Rory.

I’ve taken these and shown them with movie preview panels at Lunacon and I-CON this year, and have raised about $300 in contributions from the audience. So if you’re going to watch, you should donate as well.

And now, for your dining and dancing pleasure…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51JtuEa_OPc[/youtube]

(more…)

Doctor Who Invades New York (Again)

Doctor Who Invades New York (Again)

  • News
  • April 6, 2011
doctor who logo 2010-

Image via Wikipedia

We understand there are Doctor Who fans reading this site, so we should give you a heads up: the Doctor and his companions are coming to America earlier than you thought.

Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill will be making an in-store appearance this Friday at the Barnes & Noble store at 555 Fifth Avenue, New York, to sign copies of Doctor Who: The Complete Fifth Series boxed set. You will need a wristband to join the signing line for this event. Wristbands will be distributed starting at 9AM on Friday, April 8 with the purchase of the Doctor Who: The Complete Fifth Series boxed set. Call the store at 212-697-3048 for more details.

Then on Monday, BBC America will host a free premiere screening event of the first two episodes at the Village East Cinema, 189 2nd Ave at 7 PM. The event will be hosted by Chris Hardwick, with guests Matt Smith, Karen Gillan, Arthur Darvill, Alex Kingston, Steven Moffat, Piers Wenger and Beth Willis. Following a screening of the two-part season premiere (The Impossible Astronaut and Day of the Moon) Chris will lead a discussion and Q&A, which he’ll record for a special Nerdist Podcast.

Last year, Matt, Karen and Steven Moffat went to New York for a publicity tour to promote Series 5. They attended a ‘Meet the Cast’ event at the Apple store in SoHo and did an episode premiere event, and ComicMix contributor Alan Kistler shamelessly flirted with Ms. Gillan at both events.

And of course, if you can’t make it, BBC America will premiere the show on April 23.

See The Lost ‘Doctor Who’ Cold Open From ‘The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson’

See The Lost ‘Doctor Who’ Cold Open From ‘The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson’

  • News
  • December 2, 2010

This was the planned opening of November 16’s episode of The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson with special guest star Matt Smith that was killed about five minutes before airing because it turned out they didn’t have the rights to use the Doctor Who Theme on the air.

Craig was quite put out about it, as you can see from the cold open that actually aired:

And yet, somehow, thanks to the magic of the Internets and Wikileaks (hey, it could happen) the original rehearsal footage has gotten out. So take that, all of you <aycaramba!> at CBS and BBC!

Hat tip: Ross Vincent.

Monday Mix-Up: Daleks invade ‘Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson’

Monday Mix-Up: Daleks invade ‘Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson’

  • News
  • November 16, 2010

Well, I wasn’t expecting this to be staring at me last night after Letterman’s show ended:

This is all a precursor to Matt Smith appearing on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson tonight on CBS, check your local listings. Let’s see how long the robot skeleton lasts in a fight.

And remember: real Daleks don’t climb stairs– they level the building.

New ‘Doctor Who’ Trailer

New ‘Doctor Who’ Trailer

  • News
  • February 20, 2010

Complete with dialogue from new guy Matt Smith, new girl Karen Gillan, the first of what will probably be many apologies, and the mandatory Doctor joke. All coming for Easter 2010– six weeks and counting.

ComicMix Quick Picks – February 19, 2009

ComicMix Quick Picks – February 19, 2009

Today’s list of quick items that don’t fill a full post on their own:

  • If you haven’t read it yet, you simply must: about DIGITAL COMICS by ~Balak01 on deviantART. Now this is the way to think about digital comics, none of this clutch cargo animation going around. Marvel, take note.
     
  • Matt Smith locked into Doctor Who role with £600,000 deal. And most importantly, it’s a five year deal.
     
  • Missed this one: Two more actors reported to be in line for The Flash — and one of them is Neil Patrick Harris, who already voiced the Flash in New Frontier.
     
  • And speaking of Neil Patrick Harris, Trinity College in Connecticut is running live performances of Dr. Horrible. Everybody, sing along!
     
  • “Spider-Man” Arrested In Israel:

    “Cops were called to the scene after receiving a flurry of calls from gridlocked commuters near the Rosh Ha’ayin intersection who reported a man in a Spiderman costume throwing ropes at cars, the improvised lassos presumably meant to substitute for the web-crawler’s famous mechanical web-shooters.”

    When the individual woke up in the hospital, he said that he had no idea where the costume came from.

    Clearly, this is going to be the evil costume’s fault. Via Haaretz

  • My favorite non-comics story of the day: Police: TV exec beheads wife who filed for divorce.
     
  • Joss Whedon to receive SFWA Bradbury Award. Created in 1992 by then-President Ben Bova and named after famed author and screenwriter Ray Bradbury, the Bradbury Award is a special president’s award presented for outstanding genre-themed work in a dramatic medium. "Like everyone who picks up a pen, I was a rabid Bradbury fan and as greatly influenced by him as any other writer I read," Whedon said. "To receive the award named for him is an honor I’d not dreamed of. In my defense, it didn’t exist back then. What did exist were the very lovely, very twisted and very human stories that warped my impressionable mind, and that I have tried, in whatever medium they will let me, to measure up to." Whedon will be honored during the Nebula Awards Weekend in Los Angeles, California, April 24-26, 2009.

Anything else? Consider this an open thread.

And the next Doctor Who really is…

And the next Doctor Who really is…

  • News
  • January 3, 2009

…Matt Smith?

Yes, apparently. Putting an end to all the rampant speculation, the 26 year old will be taking over the role of the Doctor in 2010.

A relative newcome to the scene, Smith already has experience working opposite companions to the Doctor, having played opposite Billie Piper (Rose Tyler) in TV adaptations of Philip Pullman’s Sally Lockhart novels The Ruby in the Smoke and The Shadow of the North as Jim Taylor, and again in Secret Diary of a Call Girl.

Now let the ritualized mocking of Rich Johnston commence.

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