Another post from the Doctor Who Convention via Anglophenia.
They said they “were going on a tour of the TARDIS set.”
We said: “pics or it didn’t happen.”
They responded: “pics”:
Forgive me if this post is a little light on text. I’m still a little giddy. Basically I went on a tour of the TARDIS set this afternoon, and we were allowed to touch the console and everything. THE. ACTUAL. TARDIS. SET.
So, here are just a few snaps of the stuff which has been been used to create the console. It is, in many ways, a junkshop rummage made into a spaceship, reflecting the mind of the man who flies it.
This is Anglophenia’s best roundup yet, complete with some funny bits, some adorable bits, and an audience response that we found legitimately shocking — and we don’t mean the Rory thing listed below (you have to click through to find and look for the “jarring” bit).
Here’s what else we’ve learned today:
• An interesting discovery that came out of this morning’s Meet The Stars panel is that Karen Gillan is terrified of things that buzz and fly, as a lot of people are. She’s scared of moths, she’s scared of midges, and she’s scared of butterflies. Actual butterflies. I know!
• Steven Moffat’s standard answer to any question about future episodes of the show is a delightedly sing-song “I’m not telling you!”
• Arthur Darvill told an amazing story of a man he met who said he had meticulously arranged his wedding day so that there was an hour-long break to watch Amy and Rory’s wedding, which happened to be live on TV on the same day.
• A very keen Whovian called Jordan offered a jelly baby to the panel, and got a jammy dodger in return from Matt Smith.
• Caroline Skinner was wearing a knitted TARDIS hat, given to Karen Gillan the day before by a fan.
• Due to collective silliness, all three stars of the show took to the stage for one of their Meet The Stars panels using huge balletic leaps. Matt then embarked on a keepy-uppy of a soccer ball, reaching 50 kickes, but only on the condition that people in the audience would donate money to the BBC’s Sport Relief charity.
• During an aside about the amount of times Arthur has had to play death scenes, Steven ominously rumbled: “and you ain’t seen NOTHIN’ yet!”
(This rather shocked the audience for a moment, and completely derailed Steven’s train of thought)
via Anglophenia
Click through for more.
via Anglophenia:
Let’s see, what happened?
• Arthur Darvill revealed that he was the first of the cast to work out the identity of River Song. Alex Kingston had already been told, but was sworn to secrecy by Steven Moffat. When he figured it out, he asked Alex if it was true, and she just looked deep into his eyes and said “hello Dad.”
He also said his first reaction when he found out that his friend Matt had first got the job as the Doctor was “I can’t wait to get a pencil case with Matt’s face on.”
• Community fans! Karen Gillan loves Inspector Spacetime! She had to explain it to Matt and Steven and Arthur though. Then Steven promised, as they were having an affectionate pop at his show, to “take the rip” back. The question is not whether he will do this, but when.
In answer to a question about returning monsters, he also pointed out that the Daleks must be the most easily-thwarted Doctor Who villains ever. Oh sure, they always come back trying, but just at the last minute here comes the Doctor again to wreck their plans, “with a twig.”
• Earlier in the day, at a panel devoted to the writing and production of The Girl Who Waited, writer Tom MacRae admitted his chief inspiration when developing the handbots was that they could be made into a toy. Sadly this has not yet happened.
He also offered this sage advice to anyone who wishes to write for a living: learn to touch-type. Then you can get all your ideas down in one go.
• Fact: Everyone dressed as the Tenth Doctor struts around with his (or her) hands in his (or her) pockets.
• Matt Smith was seen handing out jammy dodgers at the first Meet The Stars panel. He had clearly run out by the time of the second one, which was interrupted by the sudden arrival of a Judoon, and then a Silurian. Clearly they’d heard about the free biscuits.
The savage irony for the Tenth Doctor is that Wilfred Mott (played by Bernard Cribbins), grandfather of Donna Noble and starstruck fan of the Doctor and all of his works, is not only the exception to the rule, but the fate-sealing proof of it too.
We first encounter Wilfred as a newspaper seller in an abandoned London in Voyage of the Damned. His role was intended originally to be just a one-off, but when the actor playing Donna’s father became ill, steps were taken to re-introduce Wilf as her grandfather. Necessity being the mother of invention, this excitable, star-gazing allotment-dweller soon became a firm favorite.
Go check out Anglophenia’s great writeup of Wilf
Anglophenia has a gallery of some of the most “lovey dovey moments in Doctor Who”:
There’s clearly something about traveling in the outer realms of time and space that brings out the romantic in people (and Time Lords). How else can you explain the sheer volume of furtive cuddling, infatuation, and general doe-eyed smoochery among the Doctor’s companions? A pheromone button in the console? Ambient lighting?
Here’s a brief roundup of some of the most prominent lovey-dovey moments in Doctor Who history, starting with River Song, the Doctor’s very own snugglebunny….
Big news is rolling out on the upcoming season of Doctor Who: shooting will commence on February 20, BBC’s Doctor Who website has announced. The first director will be Saul Metzstein (Upstairs Downstairs), with executive producer and lead writer Steven Moffat joining new EP Caroline Skinner and producer Marcus Wilson on the production team.
The show will also be getting some new digs: the new series will be produced at the BBC Roath Lock Studios in Cardiff, set to officially open in March.
Writers for the new season have been confirmed. Toby Whithouse — the brains behind the original UK Being Human and the well-received Who episodes “School Reunion,” “The Vampires of Venice,” and “The God Complex” — will contribute once again. Meanwhile, Torchwood writer Chris Chibnall will also join this year’s writing team. He has previously written the episodes “42″ and the two parter “The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood.”
read more at Anglophenia
(via bbcamerica)
Twitter is a wonder of modern communication, of this we can be in no doubt. How else could you possibly discover a whole range of relatively trivial everyday information about people in the public eye, while watching them chat to friends and colleagues, and sometimes striking up conversations with them (if you are lucky), without risking some kind of court order? Nowhere, that’s where.
Of course, if you’re a new Whovian to the world of social media, or haven’t thought about who to look up, here’s a brief guide to help you on your way.
Note: currently, Matt Smith isn’t on Twitter, nor is David Tennant. Christopher Eccleston dipped a toe in for a while, and then abandoned it. But they may all come around eventually.
First, a brief sample of some of the veterans of classic Doctor Who who are actively available. And by brief I mean these are the only two I could find:
• Colin Baker (The Sixth Doctor, no less) – @sawboneshex
• Frazer Hines (the ever-faithful Jamie) – @WhoFrazer
and now on to the faces of nowadays. These people need no introduction, right?
• Arthur Darvill – @rattyburvil
• James Corden – @jkcorden
• John Barrowman – @team_barrowman
• John Simm – @john_simm
• Noel Clarke – @NoelClarke
Get the rest of the list at Anglophenia
At the start of the Third Doctor’s tenure in the TARDIS, there was a distinct plan to move the show out of the realms of the entirely fantastical, and to give it a basis in what was then modern day fact. To this end, the idea was cooked up that the Time Lords would exile the Doctor from the universe at large, confining him to Earth in the early years of the 1970s, and giving him a job, as scientific advisor to the newly-formed UNIT.
This solved quite a few production problems, not least the one of having to find a new alien landscape for every new script, but it did raise one significant issue. If the Doctor doesn’t travel any more, and he isn’t walking around explaining foreign worlds to his star-struck companions – or to be strictly accurate for the Third Doctor era, companion singular – how do we flesh out the human stories behind the action? There are no strangers to meet, no alien cultures to explore.
read the rest at Anglophenia
Anglophenia has a roundup of a bunch of Doctor Who mentions on The Big Bang Theory complete with video (click through to watch the videos):
We’ve witnessed myriad references to Doctor Who on American television this past year – on Community, Grey’s Anatomy, Free Agents, Criminal Minds, andSupernatural, just to name a few of the series that have name-checked the Time Lord.
But few TV shows have stoked the Whovian flame more than the nerdy Big Bang Theory, featuring the king of all fictional Whovians, Sheldon Cooper. The hit series most recently referenced the series in last Thursday’s episode. Hands raised – how many of you have spent a date night with the Doctor?
image via 9gag
It’s always tough to be the first replacement in a winning team. The staggering success of Doctor Who’s first series, way back in 1964, created a certain mythology around the key four characters, the Doctor, Susan, Ian, and Barbara. And when you consider this was a time before the idea of interchangeable companions (and interchangeable Doctors) the arrival of a new face among the team was a big deal.
In fact, when Carole Ann Ford elected to leave the TARDIS in 1964, the production team of the time sought to find a replacement for the young, headstrong Susan, to keep the chemistry going. Enter Vicki (a girl whose surname was never made clear), a teenage orphan from the 25th Century, who ably filled the gap left in the Doctor’s life by the departure of his granddaughter.
Of course, Susan was more used to the ways of the traveling Timelord than Vicki – played by Maureen O’Brian – and so for the first few adventures, she took a passive role, hiding behind Ian and Barbara and generally bringing the screams. But the Doctor soon took her under his wing
Read the rest at Anglophenia
With the Star Trek movie beaming up Noel Clarke (a.k.a. Mickey Smith), we look at some of the biggest celebs who’ve traveled through the Whoniverse. While the list is far from complete — we’ve left off the obvious recent Doctor Who regulars like Alex Kingston, John Simm, Bernard Cribbins, and Gavin & Stacey‘s James Corden — it provides an overview of the star-studded talent who’ve dazzled us over the series’ nearly 50 years. Also: check out our list of the five best Doctor Who guest stars from the modern era, in our humble opinion.
See all 25 videos at Anglophenia. Anglo’s list includes Simon Pegg, Carey Mulligan, Andrew Garfield, John Cleese, Anthony Stewart Head, and others. Glaring omission?
Merlin’s Colin Morgan
Anyone else missing?
gifs via theuntemperedschism, gallifreyan, justandrewgarfieldgifs, whencookiesscream, tardisbluecrayon, flapperorslapper.
It’s become a common thread in recent Doctor Who episodes to emphasize the extent to which the appearance of a time-traveling eccentric in an inter-dimensional phone box tends to play havoc with a human’s sense of self. Davros taunts the Doctor about this in Journey’s End, mocking him for turning ordinary people into killers, while affecting a morality about holding a gun.
But if you were to sit with the Doctor, and go through the effect his arrival had on all of his companions, Mickey Smith is the one he should feel no guilt about whatsoever. OK, he stole the man’s girlfriend, but if we can take anything away from Mickey’s experience meeting his parallel world doppelganger Ricky Smith, it’s that the soldier was always within him, waiting to come out….
Remember Anglophenia’s 12 Days of Who contest? They just announced their winners:
The results are in! During the 12 days leading up to Christmas, we asked you to answer a different Doctor Who-related question every day to enter to win prizes. After reading through thousands of fantastic entries, our judges have chosen the best responses to each question, and now we are happy to present the winners of the “12 Days of Who” Giveaways.
Did you enter? Then click through to see if you’ve won.
Recently BBC America and the global Doctor Who Facebook page asked fans to submit their favorite quotes from Doctor Who, seasons past, to contribute to a roundup of New Year wisdom, advice – words to live by, if you will – from the Doctor and his companions in 2012 and beyond.
As you can imagine, the response was swift and overwhelming, so here, in condensed form, is what we’re going to have to call The Tao of Who:
We’ll get started with one of our favorites: “A straight line may be the shortest distance between two points, but it is by no means the most interesting.” – The Third Doctor, The Time Warrior
From the BBC America Facebook page:
“Some people live more in 20 years than others do in 80. It’s not the time that matters, it’s the person.”
The Tenth Doctor, The Lazarus Experiment – nominated by Jennifer Phelps“For some people, small, beautiful events are what life is all about.”
The Fifth Doctor, Earthshock – Matthew Rognstad“There’s no point in being grown up if you can’t act a little childish sometimes.”
The Fourth Doctor, Robot – Melinda Botterbusch (this was a very popular choice, but Melinda was first to nominate it)“Courage isn’t a matter of not being frightened, you know. It’s being afraid and doing what you have to do anyway.”
The Third Doctor, Planet of the Daleks – Leo Sarmiento“The good things don’t always soften the bad, but vice-versa, the bad things don’t necessarily spoil the good things and make them unimportant.”
The Eleventh Doctor, Vincent and the Doctor – Courtney Davis“Never ignore coincidence. Unless, of course, you’re busy. In which case, always ignore coincidence.”
The Eleventh Doctor, The Pandorica Opens – Kathy Quinn Hertzog“One good solid hope is worth a cartload of certainties.”
The Fourth Doctor, Warrior’s Gate – Barry McCann“Nobody important? Blimey, that’s amazing. Do you know, in nine hundred years of time and space I’ve never met anyone who wasn’t important before.”
The Eleventh Doctor, A Christmas Carol – Hayley DennisFrom the global Doctor Who Facebook page:
“Always take a banana to a party, Rose: bananas are good!”
The Tenth Doctor, The Girl in the Fireplace – Bethy Barnum“You know when sometimes, you meet someone so beautiful – and then you actually talk to them, and five minutes later they’re as dull as a brick; but then there’s other people. And you meet them and you think, ‘Not bad, they’re okay,’ and then when you get to know them… Their face just sort of becomes them, like their personality’s written all over it, and they just – they turn into something so beautiful. Rory’s the most beautiful man I’ve ever met.”
Amy Pond, The Girl Who Waited – Katherine Pollock“Our lives are different from anybody else’s. That’s the exciting thing. Nobody in the universe can do what we’re doing.”
The Second Doctor, Tomb of the Cybermen – Romalee Pomi“Your life could depend on this. Don’t blink. Don’t even blink. Blink and you’re dead. They are fast. Faster than you can believe. Don’t turn your back, don’t look away, and don’t blink! Good luck.”
The Tenth Doctor, Blink – Karrie Sturgeon“If it’s time to go, remember what you’re leaving. Remember the best. My friends have always been the best of me.”
The Eleventh Doctor, The Wedding of River Song – Matt Jean-Lubin“Go forward in all of your beliefs, and prove to me that I am not mistaken in mine.”
The First Doctor, The Dalek Invasion of Earth – Phil Stewart“There’s a lot of things you need to get across this universe. Warp drive… wormhole refractors… You know the thing you need most of all? You need a hand to hold.”
The Tenth Doctor, Fear Her – Amy K Malcolm“I am and always will be the optimist. The hoper of far-flung hopes and the dreamer of improbable dreams.”
The Eleventh Doctor, The Almost People – Ned Thorne“When you’re a kid, they tell you it’s all… Grow up, get a job, get married, get a house, have a kid, and that’s it. But the truth is, the world is so much stranger than that. It’s so much darker. And so much madder. And so much better.”
Elton, Love and Monsters – Moira Weis“You don’t just give up. You don’t just let things happen. You make a stand! You say no! You have the guts to do what’s right, even when everyone else just runs away.”
Rose, The Parting of the Ways – Mia Kaim“There’s always something to look at if you open your eyes!”
The Fifth Doctor, Kinda – Earl Roggeman“One may suffer a world of demons for the sake of an angel.”
Madame du Pompadour, The Girl in the Fireplace – Will Cole
