Eleventh Hour clip

I'm very happy with Matt Smith's performance as the Doctor..

More BBC Promotion for #11

It really is nice to see that BBC America is putting together some nice things for the 11th Doctor launch on BBC America in a little over two weeks.

DOCTOR WHO STARS TO LAUNCH NEW SERIES IN NYC

I got this press release from BBC America -- I'm very jealous and wish I could go!

BBC AMERICA announced today the stars of its new Doctor Who series will make their first U.S. visit together to New York the week of April 12, ahead of the broadcast premiere on Saturday, April 17.

Launching the new era of the iconic series from BAFTA-winning writer Steven Moffat (Steven Spielberg's upcoming Tintin, Jekyll, Coupling), Matt Smith (The Doctor) and Karen Gillan (Amy Pond) will join Steven in New York for press interviews and a series of events. The launch kicks off on April 12, with a Paley Center for Media and BAFTA East Coast member screening and discussion moderated by Entertainment Weekly’s senior writer Clark Collis. On April 14, fans can join Matt, Karen and Steven at the Village East Cinema for the official premiere screening followed immediately by a Q&A moderated by USA Today’s pop culture columnist Whitney Matheson, author of the Pop Candy blog.



Wednesday, April 14

7:00 PM: A special premiere screening event of the new Doctor Who series, immediately followed by a Q&A with actors Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and lead writer and executive producer Steven Moffat at the Village East Cinema. The Q&A session will be moderated by USA Today’s Pop Culture Columnist Whitney Matheson, author of the Pop Candy blog. The event is open to the public and seating is on a first-come, first served basis on the day of the event. Facebook Event Page.

American Torchwood

I can see how Torchwood could possibly get American treatment, especially with Julie Gardner, Russell T Davies and Jane Tranter all based in California now.

And honestly, I'd so much rather have an American Torchwood than an American Doctor Who remake. Which is something that really does scare me, after all. Especially if it is one not also trying to serve the UK market, which the 1996 TV movie did.

I really don't have a massive opinion about it. After all, it's a genre show on FOX -- it will get canceled after at most a dozen episodes anyways.

Doctor Who success on BBC America

According to the Doctor Who News page The End of Time Part 2 set another record for BBC America, with about 1.47 million viewers across the three showings.

We've also seen The End of Time do well on iTunes, with both parts being in the top ten for the last day or two.

Even more promising than all of this is seeing that they're promoting the future of Doctor Who as well -- with the new series trailer prominently displayed promising new Doctor Who for us this spring, with the pages already getting updated with the new look.

I'll miss David Tennant as the Doctor -- but, well, Geronimo!

David Tennant in Review

Here we have a new clip from BBC America about David Tennant -- one thing that is especially clear after seeing something like this is how much Tennant has made this role his own over the last four years and has been quite an achievement. This might very well be the sort of ephemera that I would send back to the teenage David Tennant to see as a clip where it says that he'll be Doctor Who and Hamlet and work with Derek Jacobi would almost certainly be the sort of thing that would mess with young David McDonald

Inside the TARDIS

One of the things that I find interesting about this clip is that it's an introduction to the TARDIS for a "new" audience. One thing that the new series hasn't had a lot of is very good *specific* American marketing or materials in the past -- it has always been aired, but there hasn't been any solid attempt to expand the audience of the series besides the natural expansion that it would normally have.

The End of Time - on BBC America December 26th!

And we have a special, new sneak preview of it for you here:

The final two specials, Doctor Who: The End of Time, Part One and The End of Time, Part Two, will premiere over the holiday season starting December 26 on BBC AMERICA. Guest stars John Simm, Timothy Dalton, Catherine Tate and Bernard Cribbins join Tennant on his final journey.

Doctor Who: The End of Time, Part One premieres Saturday December 26, 9:00pm ET/PT on BBC AMERICA. The End of Time, Part Two premiere date will be announced very soon.
The finale to the era of David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor, is one of the most eagerly anticipated adventures in the history of Doctor Who. As previously announced, the next special, Doctor Who: The Waters of Mars premieres Saturday December 19, 9:00pm ET/PT on BBC AMERICA.

More on BBC America's December Doctor Who Airing

I've heard a bit more about what BBC America plans to do when Waters of Mars and The End of Time air in the upcoming month or two.

Television’s longest-running science fiction series, shot in HD, has just three episodes to go before a new Doctor arrives on screen next year!

The next special, Doctor Who: The Waters of Mars airs on BBC AMERICA, Saturday December 19th at 9pm/8c. All will be revealed as the Doctor and his companion Adelaide face terror on the Red Planet in one of the scariest adventures yet. It stars David Tennant and British stage and screen actress Lindsay Duncan (Rome, Langford) as Adelaide, his cleverest and most strong-minded companion.

An extended inside-look and other bonus content will air immediately after Doctor Who: The Waters of Mars. Immediately preceding the special, BBC AMERICA will be airing Inside The Tardis (8/7c), a catch-up special on the series through the eyes of the Doctor’s companions.

Doctor Who: The End of Time, Part 1 and The End of Time, Part 2 will air on BBC AMERICA during the holiday season.

And here are some trailers:

Doctor Who on iTunes [US]

Doctor Who has shown up on iTunes -- the first three series are all available. And at $1.99 an episode, it is perhaps your cheapest way to get new Doctor Who if you haven't gotten it on DVD yet.

Torchwood has been on iTunes for a while now, but it's good to see Doctor Who show up there..

Shocking - Merlin on NBC!

It's probably because of the recent writers strike, but it is highly unusual that something like Merlin would get a first run on one of the major american networks like NBC. Obviously, NBC and the BBC have an existing relationship, in fact, that's probably one of the reasons why Doctor Who ended up on NBC's Sci Fi channel.

In a way, I can only imagine that it's because of the success of Doctor Who on Sci Fi that something like this would even be possible. It's obvious that Merlin is being done "for the Doctor Who slot" on the BBC -- all the more important with the year off for the series -- but I suspect that it also helped make it easier for NBC to take the risk of airing a first run UK program like this. (Though it's probably less of a risk than repeats due to the lack of development.)

Very, very interesting.

Primeval bought by BBC America

It has been called the ITV answer to Doctor Who, and I've heard good things about it, so I'm happy to see that it has been bought by BBC America.

There's one episode by Paul Cornell in the bunch, and I've heard some positive reviews -- so I'm happy to see it cross over as well.

The Sarah Jane Adventures on SCIFI

The Sci Fi channel has a web page up with the press release about the The Sarah Jane Adventures starting on Sci Fi in April. Apparently they've also purchased some little known program called Doctor Who to air in April as well.

From what I understand Sarah Jane starts on April 11th and the new series of Doctor Who starts on April 18th.

The American Success of Doctor Who

Considering how long it took the first season to cross over -- Doctor Who fans have long memories, after all -- it's very nice to see an article about the success of the Doctor Who franchise in the US.

It's interesting that the success of Torchwood on BBC America is what led The Sarah Jane Adventures to Sci Fi. When it first was in production, we were led to believe that Sarah Jane wouldn't be exported at all, and certainly a children's show is going to be an interesting sell on Sci Fi.

My favorite quote from the article is that Doctor Who has "a loyal viewership so fanatical that most of the show's entry on Wikipedia actually appears to be correct".

The other big part is that like Torchwood series two, the window between the UK and US airings of the next year of Doctor Who has shrunk a great deal. This is certainly a good thing -- for example, the window means that the cover of Doctor Who magazine won't be a spoiler, as it takes DWM a couple of weeks to get on the shelves over here.

James Marsters on Torchwood

James Marsters makes his first appearance when Torchwood premiers on BBC America tomorrow. Good, interesting interview about his experiences.

Torchwood Series Two In US --- Tommorow!

In the shortest difference in the Doctor Who television franchise since the new series started up, new episodes of Torchwood start tomorrow on BBC America. The first episode is the James Marsters episode, to make the episode especially appealing to Buffy, Angel, and slash fiction fans.

My impression is that this series of Torchwood will be an improvement on last years -- so if you were one of those people that found the first series a disappointment, it might be worth trying again. And if you liked the first series, you'll probably continue to do so...

Torchwood sets record for BBC America

Apparently Torchwood sets record for BBC America - this doesn't actually surprise me, since I think it's also been one of the most heavily promoted BBC America shows in quite a while. But it's still a good thing -- not just for Torchwood, but the Doctor Who "family" in the US generally.

Jekyll on DVD

One thing that is pretty obvious is that they like to make sure that the DVD sets come out as quickly after their first American airing as possible for a lot of shows -- Doctor Who has appeared on DVD as soon after it completes its airing on Sci Fi as possible. So I really shouldn't be surprised that Stephen Mofatt's Jekyll is going to be out on DVD as early as the middle of next month, only a couple of weeks after it finishes its BBC America run.

And of course, we're already aware that the first Torchwood set will come out in the first month or two of 2008, after it wraps up its own BBC America run. The biggest issue on much of this is the turnaround time -- Jekyll is on BBC America pretty quickly, but it's taken a year for Torchwood to cross over.

The Doctor Who Channel

It is really amazing -- with BBC America now airing Stephen Moffat's excellent Jekyll, and also giving heavy promotion to Doctor Who and Torchwood's upcoming runs starting in September, BBC America's Saturday night has been taken over by the Doctor Who family.

I finally watched the first two episodes of Jekyll, and it goes without saying that it is excellent. Moffat's episodes of Doctor Who have been some of the best, and so to see him take on this sort of material is excellent, and is a part of the resurgence of the UK's telefantasy tradition.

Torchwood America

Outpost Gallifrey Newspage reports that BBC America is running trailers for Torchwood, saying that it will start airing on Saturday, September 8th.

This actually makes a fair amount of sense -- I thought it was strange for a while that we wouldn't see Torchwood on American television until after Series Three of Doctor Who aired on the Sci Fi channel -- but I presume it'll be between when series two and series three air on BBC America.