This Christmas: Post Four

On Christmas Day itself, we will of course find ourselves watching A Christmas Carol. But did you know that we also have Strictly Come Dancing just before featuring John Barrowman? As well, obviously, comes the new Adventure Game, Shadows of the Vashta Nerada, downloadable from http://www.bbc.co.uk/ from 25th December.

Today's episode of K9 was Sirens of Ceres by Deborah Parsons. Tommorrow's will be Fear Itself, by by Everett DeRoche & Graeme Farmer.
More on the Who Christmas schedules here.

This Christmas: Post Three

On Friday (Christmas Eve) Matt Smith is welcomed to The Graham Norton Show. Contains exclusive information and clips about the next day's A Christmas Carol.

Today's K9 is The Bounty Hunter, tomorrow's is Sirens of Ceres by Deborah Parsons. Don't forget that it is on a 10:00 in the morning.

More on the Doctor Who Christmas schedules here.

This Christmas: Post Two

Thursday 23rd December sees the broadcast of This Morning (ITV1) containing behind-the-scenes of Doctor Who:A Christmas Carol.

Today's episode of K9 on Channel 5 was The Korven, tomorrow's will be The Bounty Hunter by Ian MacFadyen.

More of this year's Doctor Who Christmas Scheduling here.

This Christmas: Post One

It's now less than a week until Christmas, and of course there is a new episode of Doctor Who  on the 25th. But did you know about the other Christmas things this year to do with all things Who..?

MONDAY
On Monday, we meet the cast of Doctor Who in an Eggheads special. It stars Colin Baker (the Doctor), alongside Frazer Hines (Jamie), Louise Jameson (Leela), John Leeson (K-9) and Katy Manning (Jo Grant). The Doctor Who team take on the resident panel comprised of former quiz show winners. A clip can be seen here (by UK residents, it will probably be on YouTube shortly), thanks to the BBC:




Don't forget to watch this this Monday.

Also on every day from Saturday onwards for thirteen days will be K9 at 10:00 AM. Today's episode will be Liberation by Shayne Armstrong and S.P. Krause.

New Adventure Game: Shadows of the Vastha Nerada

The BBC has revealed, as the second treat on their 'Adventure Calendar', the fourth and final Adventure Game: Shadows of the Vashta Nerada.

Kicking off immediately after the cliff-hanger ending of episode three, the latest Adventure Game picks up the story of the Doctor and Amy who've materialised just south of London (and about a 1000 miles to the left), inside a sea-bed colony called Poseidon. Shadows of the Vashta Nerada features a cracking plot which surrounds a real-world conspiracy and, of course, it takes place at Christmas.


'We've gone all-out for the season finale,' says Steven Moffat, executive producer and lead writer, Doctor Who. 'Shadows of the Vashta Nerada takes place entirely underwater - something which would be impossible for the TV series, as water is so expensive. It's thrilling, terrifying, educational and fun. Just steer clear of those shadows...'


Shadows of the Vashta Nerada will be released simultaneously on PC and Mac and available for no extra cost to UK households. Users outside the UK will be able to purchase and download it - we'll have more details about this nearer the release.


The game was written by Phil Ford (City of the Daleks, Torchwood) and executive produced by Steven Moffat, Piers Wenger, Beth Willis and Anwen Aspden (BBC Wales, Interactive), alongside Charles Cecil.

And one more piece of good news! The press release announcing Shadows of the Vashta Nerada assures us that the Adventure Games will return in 2011...

Shadows of the Vashta Nerada will of course feature the titular shadows, last seen in the 2008 story Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead, and will be released on Christmas Day from www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho.

What We Know About 'A Christmas Carol' from the trailer, Doctor Who 6.X

We have now seen the trailer for Doctor Who 6.X, A Christmas Carol.

In a grand building in town, a jet of jagged lightening is coming from the top of the roof. Reminds me a bit of The Vampires of Venice...

"What's so special about Christmas?" Here we can see inside the town, and with electric star-shaped lightening, it's a safe bet that this episode is set in the modern day or near future.

Then we see, for the first time, Michael Gambon (Dumbledore in the Harry Potter films), playing a character obviously based on Scrooge from A Christmas Carol (Charles Dickens).

A young boy (Vctorian clothes?) walking through an area which looks almost like an undersea base. He looks through a porthole....

Through which he sees a woman. Who could this be? This is probably a room in which people are being kept in suspended animation.

In  his firelit living room, Gambon is sleeping. We have a close-up of the fireplace, from which tumbles the Doctor. However, he doesn't look very happy.This clearly isn'tjust for fun.

Amy announces that time can be rewritten. To which Gambon replies that 'People can't!'

The boy is again in the Stasis room. Here's where it gets interesting:  a shark fin clearly passes by. Earlier this year, the SDaily Star announced that "Even the Doc gets a fright" when a flying shark appears. Everybody scoffed, but maybe for once they may be right?

The boy runs!

In a place akin to the Stasis Room, the Doctor addresses Gambon.

We see images of Amy in her policewoman costume, and Rory as a Roman. Are these flashbacks, or something more?

Next we see a load of people at a table. The room is shaking; clearly there is something going ton and they may be trying to control it.

A close-up of Zoe Tapper.

The stasis room collapses! Somebody is trapped in there...possibly the boy? Some evil-looking man watches on.

The Doctor runs around slowly. This reminds me of the Pandorica shots from The POandorica Opens.

Christmas Time can be rewritten.

The Doctor is in a stasis pod! Maybe he is trapped in there 9in the sroy's culmination. Gambon watches on. Maybe the event that the Doctor talks about is saving the Doctor's life from the pod? Another shark fin passes. Close-ups of Tapper and Gambon.

The Doctor is 'The Ghost of Christmas Past'!

A Christmas Carol - coming Christmas 2010.

The Yeti: Lost?

Stevan Moffat recently (in DWM) joked that the script for his Christmas Special had vanished. This was, confirmed later in the issue, a joke made by Moffat as a rubbish excuse for not having finished it yet, and that's why he couldn't write Production Notes as he had to type it from memory.

So, naturally, the tabloids have spun it into a story:

Filming for the DOCTOR WHO Christmas (10) special has been thrown into jeopardy after the top-secret script reportedly went missing.

Executive producer and lead writer Steven Moffat is facing a race against time to create a new draft before filming commences next month (Jul10), according to Daily Star Sunday.

The writer reveals, "It's a flashback Christmas special."

Matt Smith currently stars at the Time Lord in the popular sci-fi show.

This is not true.
 
Neither is the bit about the flashback, come to it: that was stated way back when Moffat was joking about the universe exploding, as The Big Bang being real. Does anybody reporting this actually read DWM?

Doctor Who Christmas Special: Is It the Yeti?

Peter McKinstry's site has 'Page 19', which is displayed under the heading 'COMING SOON'...with this lovely picture!
http://www.petermckinstry.com/userimages/YETI%20final%20FLAT%20sm%20WEB.jpg
Some are speculating this is the Robotic Yeti, (appeared in The Abomible Snowmen and The Web of Fear (both Patrick Troughton episodes)) but there is no need to argue any more: Look at the URL, for goodness' sake!
So, this could either be in the Christmas Special, or another returning foe in the finale...
http://www.petermckinstry.com/page19.htm

EDIT: Does the 'final' part of the URL mean that it's actually another enemy in The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang?