Yes, this Saturday is the start of the new season of Doctor Who, and the premier of the new series Orphan Black on BBC America. If that wasn’t enough, Chris Hardwick will be following that block up with the new season of The Nerdist. I have already programed my DVR to grab all 3 shows each week, and I am really curious to see how Orphan Black works out. It is a new BBC America production, and I was quite impressed with what they did with Copper, I am hoping this new show will be every bit as twisted and convoluted.
The 50th anniversary of Doctor Who is coming up in November, and they are making a ton of wonderful specials for it, on top of the actual new episodes in both audio and video format. One of those specials is An Adventure in Space and Time, about how Doctor Who came to exist. David Bradley gets to play actor William Hartnell for this one, while Jessica Raine is the show’s producer Verity Lambert. Check out the exclusive Radio Times photo of Dave as Hartnell, and enjoy this video snippet of the recreation of the pivotal scene from the very first Daleks episode.
The new Doctor Who season kicks off on March 30th according to the folks at TOR, and I am certainly ready for the ride. Just to get you in the mood, here is the latest trailer.
Or at least new to me; they have been running The Sarah Jane Adventures: The Glittering Storm over on BBC4 Extra this week, with Liz Sladen doing the reading. I am hoping they have a bunch more from her, so there are still more new adventures even though she is gone. If you missed any of the episodes you can still catch them on their Listen Again service each day, or you can hear the whole thing in one go tomorrow at the first link I gave. Or you could even listen to it live as it aired in London tomorrow. Now if only they offered that service with their TV programming. They have been promising it for years, but there is still no subscription package available for watching the full BBC TV programming outside of the UK in real time that I am aware of. If anyone knows if they now have that service in place, I will be delighted to be wrong about that.
Tom Hanks showed up recently on the late night talk show hosted by Craig Ferguson and briefly discussed Doctor Who. Based on this my best guess is he saw a Tom Baker episode involving the Daleks, got completely confused, and never watched another episode. Of course, it would have been even more amusing had he said the Doctor was the British equivalent of Captain Picard, but I take my amusement where I can find it.
A quite tasty series of givaways centering around the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary have begun, and you can join in over at BBC America’s Anglophenia site. This week’s entry runs until midnight Saturday, the 8th of December; they are looking for your favorite quote from the new season seven opening episode, Asylum of the Daleks. But just giving them the quote isn’t what helps you win; you have to tell them WHY it was your favorite quote, and looking at the answers already posted, it looks like a very stiff conpetition indeed. The prizes are itunes downloads and bragging rights, and this weeks winner gets the Best of Christmas Specials program; good luck!