Production began today on the 2011 episodes of Doctor Who, according to Doctor Who News Page:
Filming starts in Cardiff at 8am Monday morning, on the 2011 series of Doctor Who, the sixth since the series returned in 2005 and the 32nd since the series began in 1963.
The first production block is believed to consist of Episodes Three and Four, both directed by Richard Clark who returns to the series after a gap of three years. Production will start with Episode Three, penned by Neil Gaiman.
(Matt Smith and Karen Gillan talking about ‘Doctor Who’ on some chat show, and not looking terribly happy about it.)
Shooting on the Christmas episode has already been completed.
Any pressing issues you hope the upcoming season will deal with? (How to maintain a marriage on the TARDIS, perhaps?) What — or who — do you think made the TARDIS explode? Does River Song have some deep dark secret that hasn’t even been hinted at yet, d’ya think? What else would you like to see… or not see? (I could do with a rest from Daleks, I think. I know they’re iconically Who, but still…)
(If you stumble across a cool Doctor Who thing, feel free to email me with a link.)
I’ve been disappointed for a long time because they haven’t brought back Jenny, the Doctor’s daughter from the 4th series. I heard they tried to do a spin-off show with her, but it fell through – rightly, I’d say; her character isn’t strong enough to sustain an entire series. But if they brought her back for, say, a two-parter, and then killed her off, I’d be happy. It bothers me that they created this quasi-Time Lord character, and then they just dropped her. Never throw good ideas away without seeing them through.
Having said that, River Song is the most interesting part of the show by far. I’m not so much concerned about who caused the TARDIS to explode so much as I’m interested in River’s history with the Doctor, which, cleverly, is actually the future for us. I’m dying to see the adventures that they’ve had/will have.
have to totally disagree, Anthony. The Doctor’s Daughter was — while not a terrible episode in all other ways — that character of jenny was just a dreadful, awful idea. and that she didn’t die at the end… bleh! the rest of the episode had some good bits, if a la Star Trek III, but if we could erase the whole idea of the Doctor’s Daughter from the canon, i’d be content. well, maybe only *mildly* content…
*coughcoughDoctor-Donnacoughcough*
Personally, I want River to set up shop in the TARDIS all the time. Sadly, that will never happen.
River Song is evil…EVIL!! :p
Dr. Rocketscience – I know! How amazing would it be if Alex Kingston were to agree to be River as companion for a full series?
I’m quite happy in general to let this series unfold infront of me and see what happens, but I am ridiculously excited about seeing what Neil Gaiman has dreamed up.
Probably not a new suggestion but they might have brought Jenny back all along, except she now calls herself River Song. I seem to remember Jenny was supposed to die at the end of Doctor’s Daughter, but Moffat specifically requested that she survived as he had plans for her in future episodes. Then the first thing Jenny does after regenerating is steal a spaceship, so that’s in character. Also River Song was an invention of Moffat, so all those suggestions River was/is/is going to be the Doctor’s wife could just be all red herring.
I’m pretty sure that licensing agreements mean that the Daleks (and possibly the Cybermen too) have to appear in each season, or the BBC lose the rights or something.
As for what I want to see, they’ve dropped some pretty big hints that River is going to do something to really upset the Doctor at some point in the future/past.
If they’ve got things planned out that well in advance, I’d like to see the Doctor work with her more, really grow to trust her, and then she betrays him (possibly by killing him as they’re hinting, if Matt Smith gets tired of the role in a year or three. I don’t want him gone, so I’m okay with her killing someone else).
If they really had the guts, they’d then move on to reverse the roles with a younger River as a full companion for a year, who the Doctor doesn’t fully trust because he knows what she’s going to do, even though she doesn’t.
Well, depends. With good writing, the character could be rescued from the scrappy heap. The idea per se was not that bad, imho. The implementation was the problem.
Right now my enthusiasm for the show has dropped dramatically. Since series 5, I watch the show once and have no desire to rewatch the episodes. The only highlites were River’s appearances. They just don’t grab me as they did with either CE or DT. They need more standalone episodes as in the Classic show instead of focusing on a particular theme each season.
As for Jenny, she was okay but the way the character was introduced and so rushed, I really didn’t become attached to her in any way (should have been a two-parter and her character introduced much later in the first episode rather than in the first couple of minutes).
I can’t wait to watch the new season, especially Gaiman’s episode. I think I should try not to get my hopes up for it so that my soul isn’t crushed if the episode is anything less than brilliant, but Neil has never dissapointed me and I think a Doctor Who episode is perfect for him.
I wouldn’t want to watch River as a full-time companion, I love her character but I think it’s better if she just comes and goes.
As long as Rory is still around, I’ll watch. I mean of course if he dies during the Christmas Special, I’ll probably still watch, but would be VERY VERY VERY angry and frankly disappointed if that happened.
Plus, if River Song were Jenny then she would have recognised Donna. It’s only when the Doctor says Donna’s name that she realises who she is.
I was quite disappointed when I realised that ;-)
(How to maintain a marriage on the TARDIS, perhaps?)
River’s or Amy’s?