Flyers

I put together some Flyers for the new series launch on the Sci Fi channel for a convention I'm going to this weekend. It's one of those grass-roots ways to promote Doctor Who.....

More old school MN Doctor Who

I like to collect Doctor Who press from back in the mid-to-late 80s when Doctor Who was at its peak of popularity, and so here is this article is about when Colin Baker and Patrick Troughton came to town, by Keith Heiberg.

Other articles that I have previous referenced include one on the 1986 Prom Center Visit by Peter Davision, another about the Tour from late 1986 with Colin and Patrick, and the 1988 Time Festival

Linkage

I like to return the favor when we're linked to, and I noticed that Kasterborous.com linked to us in their story about Eve Myles being cast as Gwen for Torchwood.. I've been reading their feed for quite a while.

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Not only was the Doctor Who teaser on Sci Fi twice during Battlestar Galactica yesterday, it is now also on the front page of the Sci Fi site as well.

Who is....

I'm impressed. I watched tonight's Battlestar Galactica, Downloaded, and saw that Sci Fi aired their first Doctor Who trailer twice. I think it's obvious that it's only their "first" trailer, because it doesn't even explicitly name the series. In my mind, that's a sign that they expect it to do well -- and that anyone seeing that trailer will either know that it's about Doctor Who -- or that they will know very soon that it's about Doctor Who.

And wow.... Battlestar Galactica was fantastically good tonight. If you're not watching it, you should be. One of the reasons why I've been hoping that Doctor Who would end up on Sci Fi is that even though it's very different from Battlestar Galactica, they're both revivals of classic Science Fiction television concepts done in a modern style.

Sci Fi's Doctor Who Site

The Sci Fi Channel's Doctor Who site is now live.

So far, the website looks quite nice. I haven't gone into all of the details, but the trivia section is also pretty interesting. They've got the wrong picture of the Master when they're talking about Survival, but hey, Roger Delgado is the better Master anyways. And seeing that they mention David Tennant, the Christmas Invasion, a season two episode with Anthony Stewart Head, and Torchwood gives me great hope that Sci Fi will pick up both the second series and Torchwood. I know I'd like to see all of that on the Sci Fi channel.

Just as significantly, they've settled on premiering Doctor Who with the first two episodes -- Rose and The End of the World on March 17th at 9:00 PM Eastern, or 8:00 PM Central. It's a very good pairing.

Eve Myles is Gwen Cooper

The embargo has passed, and yes, Eve Myles will be joining John Barrowman in Torchwood.

This isn't the first Gwen that Eve Myles has played in the Doctor Who universe. She was in The Unquiet Dead. Since Russell T Davies is quoted as saying that the character of Gwen in Torchwood was written with Eve in mind, it seems reasonable to believe that even though they are two different characters seperated by centuries, that there may be some connection to the two Cardiff-based Gwens.

And I didn't make a Buffy The Vampire Slayer connection before -- we've got some sort of temporal scar in Cardiff, which will presumably serve much the same purpose as the Hellmouth in Sunnydale.

In other Torchwood news, the Doctor Who site story mentions the following, which adds to our behind-the-scenes knowledge.

A BBC Wales production for BBC Three, Torchwood is written by Russell T Davies and Chris Chibnall, with contributing writers including P J Hammond and Toby Whithouse. The producer is Richard Stokes and executive producers are Julie Gardner and Russell T Davies.

See the official BBC Doctor Who site for more information.

Sci fi Watching

I've heard the first reports of a Doctor Who commercial airing on Sci Fi. I haven't seen it myself, but it certainly would be about time for the first commercials to appear.

My understanding is that the Sci Fi promotions will basically be limited to their website and on-station commercials. Hopefully that'll be enough to get the word out there...

UPDATED: Confirmed! I just saw a quick promo on Sci Fi about 15 minutes ago. I had hoped to have some screenshots, but my recording didn't work. But yes, Sci Fi is running them. It looks like it's once a night at this point.

Enlightenment

I wrote a column about the sale of the new series of Doctor Who to the Sci Fi channel for the latest issue (#132) of Enlightenment, the fanzine for the Doctor Who Information Network. You can join using Pay Pal, and it's definitely a good value for your money. As there isn't really any sort of club just for the USA, DWIN is a good club for the entire continent.

(I imagine that they'll have the individual issue up for sale as well in the near future.)

More New Series Comments

There have been several positive Doctor Who references in Neil Gaiman's blog recently, and another well regarded comic book writer, Mark Waid, gave some very complementary things about the new series of Doctor Who at Wondercon '06 according to this post on Newsarama.

Anyone spotted any other positive reviews? Warren Ellis also reviewed the new Doctor Who after seeing the first epsiode last year.

Sci Fi Board

Obviously, we're all starting to wonder when we'll see things appear on the Sci Fi Website, or trailers on the channel, they've finally got the board set up on their online system.

Dalek Invasion

Both TV Shows on DVD and Outpost Gallifrey are reporting that the two June releases will logically be two excellent Dalek stories. Genesis of the Daleks has a very strong claim on the greatest Doctor Who story of all time, and Revelation of the Daleks as a claim on the best Colin Baker story.

Like March's release of The Beginning, they're also good stories to be released while the new series is airing on the Sci Fi channel -- the Daleks are a big part of the first series, after all.

Both stories also make sense for people to have seen as we turn our attention to the first David Tennant series as well, as Revelation of the Daleks shares a director with the new series, and Genesis of the Daleks has Sarah Jane Smith, who will return as well.

The Beginning has New Series Spoilers

I've heard reports that The Beginning Collection, which will be released in the US in March, has some spoilers for some of the later episodes in the first series of the new Doctor Who, which will have only just started on the Sci Fi Channel. So if you're watching it for the first time on the Sci Fi channel and don't want to be spoiled for the later episodes, best to not watch the Edge of Destruction documentary until after the you've finished watching the series on Sci Fi.

The risks of things getting in all out of order here in the US, really. Of course, the confusing thing will be that all of the issues of Doctor Who Magazine that still get imported into comic stores all have David Tennant's face on them...

Lego Who

You sort of wonder if they ever would do Doctor Who Lego when you see items like this. I'm sure specially modeled Daleks would be fun...