The fifth series of Doctor Who is set to begin on the BBC on April 3, but what about those of us in the U.S.?
BBC America has announced that the U.S. premiere for the show will be on Saturday, April 17, 2010.
Good that the airings are so close, but if BBC America would like to stop U.S.-based viewers from finding less legal ways of seeing the show, they really should try to run them simultaneously.
Here’s the BBC America press release:
THE NEW DOCTOR WHO ARRIVES ON BBC AMERICA IN APRIL
Starring Matt Smith with lead writer Steven Moffat
New York – February 25, 2010 – BBC AMERICA announced today that the new era of the BBC’s iconic BAFTA-winning drama, Doctor Who, will make its U.S. premiere on Saturday, April 17, 2010, soon after the UK broadcast.
Doctor Who, BBC AMERICA’s highest rated series ever, continues its tradition of rebooting with new lead actors and creative team. Matt Smith debuts as the new, Eleventh incarnation of the famous Time Lord alongside a new travelling companion, the enigmatic Amy Pond (Karen Gillan).
“Britain has a tradition of reinventing its iconic characters, like James Bond and Sherlock Holmes – and Doctor Who. In introducing the Eleventh Doctor, writer Steven Moffat is opening the show to a whole new audience, while serving fans with an exciting mix of inter galactic, time travelling adventures. We can’t wait to meet his new Doctor!” comments Richard De Croce, Senior Vice President Programming, BBC AMERICA.
BAFTA-winning writer Steven Moffat, creator of some of the most frightening and award-winning Doctor Who episodes to date, takes over as lead writer and executive producer. Writers for the new series include Richard Curtis (The Boat that Rocked, Love Actually), Chris Chibnall (Law & Order UK, Torchwood), Toby Whithouse (Being Human, Torchwood), Mark Gatiss (The League of Gentlemen, Sherlock) and Simon Nye (Men Behaving Badly, Hardware).
Guest stars include SAG Award winner Alex Kingston (ER, Flash Forward), Oscar nominee Sophie Okonedo (The Secret Life of Bees, Hotel Rwanda) and Tony Curran (24).
Traveling both through time and space, the new series has the mysterious Doctor and Amy Pond together exploring sixteenth century Venice, France during the 1890s and the United Kingdom in the far future, now an entire nation floating in space. The first three episodes of the 13-episode series have been confirmed as The Eleventh Hour, written by Steven Moffat, The Beast Below, also by Moffat and Victory of the Daleks by Mark Gatiss.
Moffat’s work includes the hit comedy Coupling, the critically-acclaimed thriller Jekyll, the new BBC series Sherlock and along with Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish, the screenplay for The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn – which is being directed by Steven Spielberg.
Piers Wenger (Ashes to Ashes) and Beth Willis (Ashes to Ashes) are the executive producers. It is a BBC Wales production for BBC ONE and distributed by BBC Worldwide.
BBC AMERICA brings audiences a new generation of award-winning television featuring news with a uniquely global perspective, provocative dramas, razor-sharp comedies, life-changing makeovers and a whole new world of nonfiction. BBC AMERICA pushes the boundaries to deliver high quality, highly addictive and eminently watchable programming to viewers who demand more. It is available on digital cable and satellite TV in more than 66 million homes.
