It’s certainly been the week for Doctor Who announcements. Today the BBC announced that Karen Gillan will be joining Matt Smith as the Doctor’s new companion in 2010. She already had a small taste of Doctor Who; appearing as the Soothsayer in The Fires of Pompeii.
According to Variety, BBC America has acquired the five Doctor Who specials that will finish David Tennant’s run. The Christmas special, The Next Doctor, will air on June 27 @ 9 PM.
The article also quickly touches on four other BBC America scifi series; 1) Torchwood, the Doctor Who spin off; 2) Primeval, the creature driven series about rifts/portals in time; 3) Being Human, about a vampire, a werewolf and a ghost; and 4) Survivors, about the last of the human race after a virus wipes out 99% of the population. Both Torchwood and Primeval are returning series, while Being Human and Survivors are brand spanking new.
An official BBC press release announced today that David Tennant will guest star in two episodes of the Sarah Jane Adventures. Hitting its third season this Doctor Who spinoff is made specifically for children; a Diet Doctor Who or Doctor Who Lite depending on your preference. The first season has been released on dvd.
Den of Geek is reporting that the next Doctor Who animation, Dreamland, will debut in “Autumn” on BBC. This will be similar to The Infinite Quest, with seven six minute episodes. The new animation will feature David Tennant as the Doctor even though he is leaving the series in 2010.
If you haven’t seen The Infinite Quest you should definitely check it out. It was subsequently released on dvd last year. The animation is stylized, but very rich, a nice contrast that works extremely well together.
Hopefully we’ll continue to see more and more animation with the Doctor. The use of animation a few years ago to fill in the missing episodes of the 1968 story arc, The Invasion, was pure brilliance. With animation they were able to take existing audio recordings and finally tell the whole story again.
Animation would be a great way to tell new stories of past Doctors, kinda an extension of the audio stories from Big Finish. I think it could also be a great way to feature all 11 of the Doctors in one story, either as a “reunion” show or with a story that wove through all his lifetimes. Now that would be a movie.
