Series 8 news

[BoyScout-ManOfTomorrow]

Maybe I'm wrong but I think there's a lot Rule of Cool going around Doctor Who. Especially when Moffat's writing is involved. The end results are almost always enjoyable and inventive however so it's not that big of a problem on an episode basis. I think one reviewer over at ThatGuyWithTheGlasses did say something that's worth mentioning. It was a sort of informal message to Moffat and the show: Continuity is not your enemy.

[darkphoenix21]

Samuel Anderson (The History Boys, Gavin & Stacey) will recur on the new season of Doctor Who as Danny Pink, a teacher at Coal Hill School where companion Clara Oswald (played by Jenna Coleman) also works.

“For the fourth time in Doctor Who history, Coal Hill School is coming to the aid of the TARDIS,” previewed exec producer Steven Moffat in a statement. “In 1963, teachers Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright accompanied the first Doctor. These days, it’s the turn of Jenna Coleman as Clara Oswald. And very soon now, Sam Anderson as Danny Pink will be entering the world of the Doctor. But how and why? Answers are coming.”

http://tvline.com/2014/02/24/doctor-...l/#more-495391

[newbaggy]

Couple of interesting points:

1) Samuel Anderson is the third cast member from the original National Theatre production of Alan Bennett's play The History Boys to appear in Doctor Who (the others were Russell Tovey and James Corden). Matt Smith and Tobias Menzies (Cold War) both appeared in the cast of the National's UK touring production of the play in late 2005/early2006.

2) Steven Moffat has contrived to give us a Doctor in the first incarnation of his current regeneration cycle, played by an actor in his mid-50s who was previously known for playing an intimidating/bullying character in a sitcom, accompanied (at least part of the time) by two teachers from Coal Hill School. It's 1963 all over again!

[newbaggy]

BBC One viewers in the UK have just been treated to a brief teaser for Series 8.

"The new Doctor lands in August."

[jon-el87]

[Austin 3:16]

Yup they did one for BBC America too. Fantastic trailer and I was just saying yesterday that if it was to premiere I was pretty confident it would return/premiere in August. Happy to see I made a good guess. Did the logo at the beginning look a little bit different to anyone else or is it just me?

[BoyScout-ManOfTomorrow]

Can't really say anything about the teaser but I'm so looking forward to Series 8. I'll be starting a whole rewatch of the new Who just in time for Capaldi's Doctor.

[BoyScout-ManOfTomorrow]

[jon-el87]

[Austin 3:16]

Bring it on!

[jon-el87]

[jon-el87]

Michelle Gomez will guest star as Mary Poppins... I mean, as the Gatekeeper of the Nethersphere!

[Austin 3:16]

Loved the on set pics of Peter and other castmembers. I am getting a great vibe off them and think Peter will exceed expectations.

[newbaggy]

Following some recent announcements, it is probably worth rounding-up what we know so far. We now have confirmation that Series 8 will have 12 episodes, with a Christmas special to follow. The following is a listing by production block, since the current episode numbering is still provisional.

Block One

Director: Ben Wheatley

Several critical successes - Sightseers, Kill List, A Field In England - have seen Wheatley lauded as one of Britian's most promising movie directors, so he definitely as something of a "catch" for the series.

Episode 1: "Deep Breath"
Writer: Steven Moffat
First UK showing: 23 August 2014, BBC One

Described as "feature length" (although that probably means "somewhere between 60 and 75 minutes long"), the opener is set in late-Victorian London, with Clara seeking the assistance of the Paternoster Gang (Vastra, Jenny and Strax) as she tries to deal with the newly-regenerated Doctor.

Episode 2
Writer: Phil Ford
Guest cast: Michael Smiley, Zawe Ashton

Phil Ford finally gets a solo Who credit, having previously co-written The Waters of Mars with Russell T Davies. Ford has teased that the script includes the word "lasagne" and could be described by the phrase "behind enemy lines." There were rumours that this might be a Dalek story, but since it appears to have been shot entirely in the studio or at closed locations, we have not seen any set photos.

As for the guest cast, Michael Smiley is something of a Wheatley regular, whilst Zawe Ashton is best known to UK viewers as "Vod" in student sitcom Fresh Meat.

Block Two

Director: Paul Murphy

Murphy has been something of a regular at Roath Lock, having previously worked on Wizards vs Aliens and Casualty.

Episode 3 (rumoured working title "Robots of Sherwood")
Writer: Mark Gatiss
Guest cast: Ben Millar, Tom Riley, Trevor Cooper

One of two script commissions for Gatiss (although the second seems to have been pushed back to Series 9), location photos make it clear that this is a Robin Hood-inspired story with Da Vinci's Demons star Tom Riley as "Robin", whilst Jenna Coleman was seen in a "Maid Marian" costume. Trevor Cooper joins the list of actors to have appeared in both the "old" and "new" series, having previously played "Takis" in 1985's Revelation of the Daleks. However, the "big name" guest is Ben Miller, best known as half of comedy duo Armstrong and Miller (his partner Alexander Armstrong played the voice of "Mr Smith" in The Sarah Jane Adventures and "Reg Arwell" in The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe), as well as "DI Richard Poole" in hit BBC detective show Death in Paradise.

Episode 6
Writer: Gareth Roberts
Guest cast, Nigel Betts, Andy Gillies, Edward Harrison, Jimmy Vee

Gareth Roberts returns, but not with the continued adventures of Craig, Sophie and Alfie/Stormageddon. Instead, location photos suggest that a robot (or monster) with glowing eyes will play a major role, with Jimmy Vee (who previously played the "space pig" in Aliens of London and the Moxx of Balhoun, amongst others) inside the costume.

Block Three

Director: Douglas Mackinnon

Having directed four previous Who episodes, Mackinnon returns to the series after directing three episodes of the highly-acclaimed second season of police corruption thriller Line of Duty

Episode 4
Writer: Steven Moffat

Guest cast: Samuel Anderson, Ellis George

This story introduces new recurring characters Danny Pink (Anderson), one of Clara's fellow teachers at Coal Hill School, and his teenage sister, Courtney (George).

Episode 5
Writer: Steve Thompson
Guest cast: Keeley Hawes, Jonathan Bailey

Apparently set on a "strange and puzzling planet," where the villain is a banker, Ms Delphox - "a powerful out of this world character with a dark secret." Playing Ms Delphox is Keeley Hawes, already a familiar face on British TV from starring roles in Ashes to Ashes and the revived Upstairs Downstairs, but who joined Doctor Who after receiving probably the best reviews of her career for her stunning performance as suspected corrupt cop Lindsay Denton in the aforementioned Line of Duty.

Block Four

Director: Paul Wilmshurst

Another director new to the series, Paul Wilmshurst has an interesting CV, having been a documentary maker who switched to directing cop/action/fantasy shows (Law and Order: UK, Strike Back, Da Vinci's Demons).

Episode 7
Writer: Peter Harness
Guest cast: Hermione Norris, Tony Osoba

Location filming on Lanzarote, and the revelation that the story involves the Doctor returning to the scene of a previous adventure, have led some to assume that this episode is a belated sequel to Planet of Fire. However, that may not be the case. Further location filming on a beach near Aberystwyth did reveal that Capaldi will be wearing the Doctor's orange spacesuit (with copies worn by Clara and Courtney).

Writer Peter Harness is new to the series, but is an experienced TV writer who previously wrote episodes of Wallender (the BBC adaptations of Henning Mankell's novels, starring Kenneth Branagh), and scripted the forthcoming BBC dramatisation of the novel Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell.

Tony Osoba appears in his third Doctor Who story, following Destiny of the Daleks and Dragonfire. Hermione Norris was one of the stars of hit 1990s romantic comedy/drama Cold Feet (alongside a pre-Friends Helen Baxendale), whilst more recently played hard-as-nails MI5 agent Ros Myers in Spooks.

Episode 8
Writer: Jamie Mathieson
Guest cast: Frank Skinner, David Bamber, Daisy Beaumont, Foxes

Jamie Mathieson was one of the writers on the Toby Whithouse's Being Human so it should not be surprising that he follow his former showrunner across to Doctor Who. Mathieson was also briefly a stand-up comedian before becoming a writer, and the cast suggests a "comic" tone to this episode. David Bamber is still probably best-known for his wonderfully slimy performance as "Mr Collins" in the BBC's 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, but also starred as deputy headmaster-from-hell Eric Slatt in Steven Moffat's short-lived sitcom Chalk. Daisy Beaumont has appeared in numerous comedy show on British TV, although she was briefly a Bond Girl (in The World Is Not Enough, she is seen sitting on Robbie Coltrane's knee).

However, the "big name" is Frank Skinner, one of Britain's best-known comedians of the last twenty years. Alongside successful stage shows, he has appeared on - and hosted - numerous TV shows, from his own talk show in the 1990s to today's Frank Skinner's Opinionated and Room 101. He was also heavily identified with 1990s "lad culture", since he co-hosted (with friend and fellow comic David Baddiel) Fantasy Football League, a series that took a comedy-filtered fans' view of soccer. The success of this series led to Skinner, Baddiel and Ian Broudie of the Lightning Seeds writing and performing the official England Euro 96 team song "Three Lions" - a number 1 hit both in 1996 and 1998 (the latter following a re-release to coincide with the World Cup). Apart from all this, Skinner is a die-hard Doctor Who fan, and he appeared in Peter Davison's comedy The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot as one of the Dalek operators (alongside David "son of Patrick" Troughton and Nicholas "voice of the Daleks" Briggs).

Grammy award-winning singer/songwriter Foxes filmed a brief appearance, including performing one of her songs (which may be released as a single).

Block Five

Episode 9
Director: Douglas Mackinnon
Writer: Jamie Manthieson
Guest cast: Christopher Fairbank, Matt Bardock

A single-episode block, with Mathieson asked to do a second story on the strength of his previous script. Location photos suggest that this story is connected to a group of offenders taking part in a "Community Payback" scheme. One scene involves Clara (without the Doctor) using the sonic screwdriver to scan the area near a pedestrian underpass. Other photos suggest that the TARDIS might shrink in this story.

Matt Bardock is best known as paramedic "Jeff Collier" in BBC hospital drama Casualty (coincidentally, also filmed at Roath Lock). Christopher Fairbank has had supporting roles in numerous films and TV shows (inclkuding Alien 3, The Fifth Element and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides), but is still probably best known in Britain for playing "Moxey" in Auf Wiedersehen, Pet.

Block Six

Episodes 11 and 12
Director: Rachel Talalay
Writer: Steven Moffat
Guest cast: Michelle Gomez, Jemma Redgrave, Ingrid Oliver

A two-part finale, featuring the Cybermen, UNIT (including the return of Kate Lethbridge-Stewart and Osgood - the latter now wearing a bow tie and red Converse) and the "Guardian of the Nethersphere." Location filming this week used streets near Queen's Arcade in Cardiff to double for streets in London near St Paul's Cathedral.

Director Rachel Talalay is Who's first American director, but she describes herself as "American by birth, British by upbringing," and has been UK-based since the 90s (whilst working on both sides of the Atlantic). In terms of experience, she started out as an assistant on Nightmare on Elm Street (working her way up to director on the sixth "Nightmare" movie), produced John Waters' Hairspray and Cry Baby, only for her movie directing career to stall when Tank Girl flopped. However, she still produced movies (including the 1997 film version of The Borrowers), whist moving into TV directing - including episodes of Touching Evil, Ally McBeal[/i], Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), Supernatural, Kyle XY, Bomb Girls and the BBC's 2006 adaptation of The Wind in the Willows (which featured Mark Gatiss as "Rat"). She's done horror, she's done offbeat contemporary, she's done whimsical British children's classics - pretty much everything you would want as preparation for Doctor Who.

As for Michelle Gomez, don't let that Mary Poppinsish costume fool you. Moffat described her as "brilliant, Scottish and a bit satanic." Anyone who saw her performances as the demented Sue White in Green Wing or terrifying deputy head Miss Pickwell in Bad Education (a woman who kept a pet owl - and named him "Rumsfeld") will agree with that description. She also has a prior link to Moffat - her husband is Jack Davenport, who starred as Moffat's alter ego "Steve Taylor" in his sitcom Coupling.

Block Seven

Episode 10
Director: Sheree Folkson
Writer: Frank Cottrell-Boyce

This block might also include the Christmas Special, but no announcement has been made about that. Sheree Folkson directed Russell T Davies' Casanova (starring David Tennant), having previously directed episodes of Davies' Mine All Mine - and subsequently directed Tennant in movie romcom The Decoy Bride.

However, the big name here is that of Frank Cottrell-Boyce. British TV viewers may have watched the episodes of Brookside in the 1980s, or Coronation Street in the 1990s. Moviegoers might have seen his collaborations with Michael Winterbottom (Welcome to Sarajevo, 24 Hour Party People, Code 46, A Cock and Bull Story) or with Danny Boyle (Millions). Your children might have read one of the official Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang sequel novels that he wrote. However, there is one thing that Frank Cottrell-Boyce wrote that I can almost guarantee that everyone reading this will have seen something of - the London 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony. Danny Boyle rightly got the plaudits for leading the team organising the ceremony, but the script was Cottrell-Boyce's

What sort of story FCB has written for Doctor Who is hard to guess, given that his work ranges from gritty drama to storybook fantasy. However, the guest cast apparently largely consists of child actors, and Steven Moffat has described the script as "magical."

Additionally, the UK release date for the Series 8 DVD/Blu-Ray is confirmed as 17 November, so it will only include the 12 episodes of the series, not the 2014 Christmas Special (the BBC obviously wanting to release the box set to the pre-Christmas present buying market).

Finally - and this is really Series 9 news - Steven Moffat has dropped a big hint that he will remain as head writer for another year. In his Production Notes column in the latest Doctor Who Magazine, he reveals that he has worked out the cliffhanger for the penultimate episode of Series 9, one that he claims that no-one will see coming. Presumably, in October or November 2015, we will find out if that is true.

[jon-el87]