On November 14, Graham Norton welcomes the star of Doctor Who, David Tennant to the program along with comedian Johnny Vegas and singer Alison Moyet. David talks about his final days shooting as the tenth Doctor, if he has any scenes with the new Doctor, Matt Smith and reveals if he’ll be tuning in to the new season.

He also discusses the experience of auditioning for the first time in years and takes questions from the audience – revealing who he thinks is more talented, Shakespeare or Russell T Davies…

If you’ve never seen Graham Norton, you’re in for a treat. I’m sure he and David will have a rousing good time, so don’t miss it.

The Graham Norton Show airs Saturdays, 10:00 p.m. ET/PT on BBC America.

Photo: BBC America

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The show is called “Rex Is Not Your Lawyer” and it revolves around a top Chicago lawyer who suffers from panic attacks so he teaches his clients to represent themselves in court. Sounds like Monk in the courtroom and that could be great fun.

The pilot is being shot for NBC and they could use a big hit right now. I’d watch. Would you?

Photo: Newscom.com

London, England 06 November 2005.David Tennant at the “Harry Potter” after-party.at the Natural History Museum

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in a phone interview with the Chicago Tribune

In a clever ploy that allowed the series to run for so many years, The Doctor has the ability to regenerate — taking on a new face (as in a new actor) every few seasons. But this time around, it’s not a new body for The Doctor, but another Doctor all together (or is it?)

Here’s how the BBC describes Doctor Who: The Next Doctor:

It’s Christmas Eve in 1851 and Cybermen stalk the snow of Victorian London.  When the Doctor (David Tennant) arrives to investigate a spate of mysterious deaths, he’s surprised to meet another Doctor (David Morrissey, State of Play, Viva Blackpool), with his own sonic screw driver.  How could this be possible? Could this Doctor be a future regeneration?  But if so where are his memories?  The two must combine forces to defeat the ruthless Miss Hartigan (Dervla Kirwan, Law & Order UK, Ballykissangel), who is the Cybermen’s human ally.  But are two Doctors enough to stop the rise of the CyberKing?

It’s the first of five Doctor Who specials, with the next one, Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead airing on BBC American on July 26. Planet of the Dead was the first special shot in HD and it will help launch the new BBC America HD channel along with Torchwood come July 20.

But for tonight, it’s Doctor Who: The Next Doctor, Saturday, June 27 at 9:00 on BBC America.

Photos: BBC

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BBC America has announced their lineup for this year’s scifi / comic lollapalooza and it’s a biggie.

David Tennant, will appear alongside writer/executive producer Russell T Davies, executive producer Julie Gardner and director Euros Lyn for a Doctor Who panel on Sunday July 26, 10:00-11:00am PT. (Just before Supernatural!) They’ll be showing sneak peeks from Tennant’s upcoming specials and offering photo ops.

Then, John Barrowman, will take the stage with Davies and Julie Gardner to discuss the new Torchwood: Children of Earth special.  During the same panel, we’ll be introduced to the new BBC America series Being Human. On hand for that will be creator and writer, Toby Whithouse, plus stars Russell Tovey, Lenora Crichlow and Aidan Turner who will talk about what it’s like to play three twenty-somethings with secret double-lives – as a werewolf, a vampire and a ghost. All four panelists will be signing exclusively at the BBC AMERICA booth, Saturday July 25, 3:00-4:00pm PT.

There will also be special screenings of Doctor Who and Torchwood with introductions by the stars and you’ll get a chance to buy a new limited edition Comic-Con only action figure from Doctor Who.

Here are the details so you can start planning your (already jam packed) weekend!

Saturday, July 25

3:00-4:00pm Being Human: creator Toby Whithouse and actors Russell Tovey, Lenora Crichlow and Aidan Turner signing at the BBC AMERICA booth (#3629).

7:30-10:00pm Torchwood/Doctor Who: Key talent from both shows introduce the last episode of the five part series Torchwood: Children of Earth and an advance viewing of Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead, the first of four specials starring David Tennant. Room 6A

Sunday, July 26

10:00-11:00am Doctor Who: actor David Tennant, writer/executive producer Russell T Davies, director Euros Lyn and executive producer Julie Gardner discuss their creative process and experiences working on BBC AMERICA’s Doctor Who with exclusive clips and a Q&A session. Ballroom 20

2:15-3:45pm Being Human/Torchwood: Being Human creator Toby Whithouse and cast members Russell Tovey, Lenora Crichlow and Aidan Turner, are on stage to give an inside look at BBC AMERICA’s U.S. premiere sci-fi drama about the lives of three twenty-somethings and their secret double-lives – as a werewolf, a vampire and a ghost. Following that actor John Barrowman, creator/writer/executive producer Russell T Davies, executive producer Julie Gardner and director Euros Lyn talk about the making of the epic five-night television event Torchwood: Children of Earth as well as take questions from the fans. Room 6BCF

Photo: BBC America

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We’ve had a bit of a break, but BBC America is about to get its Who on again with the acquisition of five new specials. The deal includes the four 2009 specials; the final episodes of the tenth Doctor as played by David Tennant. The first of the specials, Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead will premiere in July. As a London red bus takes a detour to an alien world it forces the Doctor (Tennant) to work with the extraordinary Lady Christina (Michelle Ryan, Bionic Woman). But the mysterious planet holds terrifying secrets hidden in the sand and time is running out as the deadly Swarm gets closer.

BBC America also acquired the 2008 Christmas Special, The Next Doctor featuring David Morrissey and Dervla Kirwan. That special will air Saturday, June 27, 2009.

“The outstanding quality of the Doctor Who scripts from Russell T Davies and the on-screen dynamic that David Tennant brings to the role are a magic combination for our viewers. Russell’s spin-off series Torchwood is already our highest rated show on the channel and I know the fans will follow these new specials with equal passion and support. We’re thrilled to bring this iconic show to BBC America, home of the best British sci-fi programming on television,” says President, BBC Worldwide America Garth Ancier.

The second special, Doctor Who: The Waters of Mars, and two additional untitled specials will premiere later in 2009 and early 2010.

Torchwood, the companion series to Doctor Who will have a very short, five episode run for the season, also starting in July on BBCAmerica.

Photos courtesy of BBC America

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I have a terrible confession to make. Possibly it might even be seen as heretical – but here goes.

The very first Doctor Who episode I ever watched was ‘The Runaway Bride’.

And now I pause this commentary so readers can pick themselves up off the floor, reach for a stiff drink and possibly the phone to call for an ambulance.

You good now? Good. Alons-y!

As a child, I remember my uncle loved Doctor Who. I remember him watching it whenever he was visiting. I remember that I loved the theme music, but that otherwise I just wasn’t interested. Fast forward a few decades and oh look! I still wasn’t interested. Friends told me I should watch the rebooted version of the show but no, no, no, I knew better. I caught one glimpse of stupid silver men lurching through a kitchen or something and I said, Ha! That silly nonsense is not for me!

But they kept saying I should watch it, so at last I gave in. I saw that my local tv station was screening an episode called ‘The Runaway Bride’ and I thought: I will watch it, I will hate it, and I will shut them up.

Me and my big mouth.

I watched it, and fell spectacularly in love with this skinny boy in a suit, who broke my heart grieving for some bird called Rose about whom I knew bugger all. And five minutes after ‘The Runaway Bride‘ ended, I was online ordering Seasons 1 and 2, and panting for Season 3 to air.

When I think of ‘Doctor Who’, it’s David Tennant’s face that rises before me. And when I got my dvds in the mail and watched Season 1 I enjoyed it enormously, but with the knowledge that Christopher Eccleston wasn’t staying. That he was going to morph into David Tennant. And I was okay with that. It was Tennant’s Doctor who got me hooked on the show. And I have loved watching him for three seasons now. Laughed with him. Cried with him. Been astonished with him. Terrified with him. Humbled with him. In my heart, David Tennant is the Doctor.

And now he’s leaving. Which makes me very, very sad. Because I have loved his Doctor so much. In fact, I dedicated a book to Tennant, and to Russell T. Davies, to thank them for the wonderful roller coaster ride they’ve taken me on these past few years.

But as sad as I am to lose Tennant – and I really am, did I mention that? – I find myself kind of intrigued and excited too. Because as of next year there’ll be a new Doctor in town. Matt Smith, his name is. They’ve just announced his casting, you might’ve heard something about it. I’ve never seen him act, all I’ve seen is a photo of him, and you can’t tell a damn thing from a photo. Actors are chameleons. They whip in and out of characters faster than you can say ‘Sybil’.

So while I am intrigued and excited, I’m also feeling a bit discombobulated … because now I’m a Who fan and I don’t want to stop loving the show. I don’t want this to go wrong. I don’t want to be crushed and mangled and have to sleep with the Tennant Who DVDs under my pillow, weeping for what can never be again.

The central brilliance of Doctor Who, I think, always was this genius solution to keeping the show going while allowing actors to move on with their careers or even possibly, inconveniently, die. But I am a Who virgin. This is my first time to lose the Doctor who was, well, the Doctor. For me. And judging from the fan reaction to the news of Matt Smith’s casting, I ain’t the only one.

So to my fellow virgins – and to the fans who liked Eccleston’s Doctor but who also, like me, fell in love with Tennant’s — can I just say this? Let’s all of us take a slow, deep breath and chill, shall we? Let’s not rush to judgement. Let’s not kneecap young Mister Smith (lucky his first name isn’t John, eh?) before he’s even set foot out of the Tardis. Let’s give the poor bloke a chance to show us what he’s made of. By all means, we’re free to not fall in love with him once we see him in the part. But let’s not go building the gallows quite yet, what do you say?

Because this is Matt Smith’s introduction to Who fandom. And I, for one, don’t want him to feel hated just because he isn’t David Tennant. I, for one, want to feel proud I’m a fan. To quote another brilliant SF show – This has happened before, and will happen again. It’s the nature of Who. Companions change, and so does the Doctor.

On with the adventure, I say!

Karen Miller is a writer of speculative fiction. In addition to her mainstream epic fantasy novels, she writes ‘The Rogue Agent’ fantasy series under the pen-name K.E. Mills, and sometimes plays in other people’s universes. So far she’s romped with Star Wars and Stargate. Her website is: www.karenmiller.net

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Take it away, Keith. . .

*   *   *   *   *   *

I am now going say something that violates all the rules of the Internet and blogging.

I have no opinion on the casting of Matt Smith as the Doctor.

Yes, he’s replacing the incredibly popular David Tennant. That doesn’t concern me in the least, because he’s the eleventh guy to play the part (thirteenth, if you want to toss Peter Cushing and Richard E. Grant in there). There is nobody on television more replaceable than whoever is playing the Doctor. The folks who have been saying that Tennant was impossible to follow in 2008 were the same ones saying that Christopher Eccleston was impossible to follow in 2005. They were wrong in 2005 and they were wrong in 2008.

As for Smith himself, I must again violate a sacred Internet tenet by saying I’m going to reserve judgment until I, y’know, see him in the role. Or any role, as the only work of Smith’s I’ve seen is The Ruby and the Smoke, and I have no recollection of it, due to TR&TS having bored the living crap out of me.

But Smith impressed Steven Moffat, which is really what counts. A hallmark of Moffat’s prior productions, Coupling and Jekyll, has been picture-perfect casting. Also, there are few writers who have shown the care and understanding of Doctor Who that Moffat has, and this goes all the way back to 1996 when he had a brilliant short story called “Continuity Errors” in one of Virgin’s Who anthologies, Decalog 3: Consequences (which also had a story by some hack named DeCandido—wonder whatever happened to him?), through to The Curse of the Fatal Death and his magnificent episodes of the 21st-century TV show. I think we should give him a little credit based on what he’s done to date.

Yes, in his pictures Smith looks like an emo teenager, but that’s a big look right now, and one that has probably gotten him work. Besides which, if you look at some of David Tennant’s publicity photos from 2005, he looks like a mod poofter. In fact, take the suit off, and Tennant still looks like a mod poofter. But he’s been a most excellent Doctor, despite being the second-youngest person to take on the role.

Well, third-youngest now. And that’s another thing. The last time there was a hue and cry over how will they ever replace this incredibly popular Doctor who’s won over the hearts and minds of so many fans (Tom Baker), he was replaced with the youngest person ever to play the role (Peter Davison). It’s tradition! Or, uh, something.

In any event, I’m going to not play by the rules and refuse to form an opinion until it’s an informed opinion.

So there.

Keith R.A. DeCandido is the best-selling author of many many many novels, comic books, short stories, novellas, eBooks, and nonfiction in a wide variety of media universes, most recently the novel Star Trek: A Singular Destiny and the ongoing Farscape comic book from BOOM! Studios. He was the first native-born American citizen to write official Doctor Who prose fiction with his short story “UNITed We Fall” in 1996’s Decalog 3: Consequences, which also had a short story by some guy named Moffat (wonder whatever happened to him?), and his story “Life from Lifelessness” was in the Short Trips anthology Destination Prague; he also edited the 2008 Short Trips anthology The Quality of Leadership. Read his regular ramblings at kradical.livejournal.com.

Photo Source: Newscom

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Dr Who Series Four – Press…

LONDON – APRIL 01: (UK TABLOID NEWSPAPERS OUT) Actor David Tennant arrives at the press launch of ‘Dr Who’ series 4 at the Apollo West End on April 1, 2008 in London, England. The first episode of the new series is due to air on BBC 1 on April 5 at 18.20 GMT. (Photo by Dave Hogan/Getty Images)

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Doctor Who fans are bracing for another regeneration, as David Tennant has dropped the bombshell that 2009 will be his last year aboard the Tardis. BBC News reports the wildly popular actor made the announcement after winning the Outstanding Drama Performance Award at the National Television Awards.

Tennant told the BBC News that he wanted to go while there was a chance people might miss him, rather than overstaying his welcome. Nobody will likely miss him more than the BBC, who have reaped the ratings bonanza of the revamped Who series. Almost 10 million viewers watched as the doctor began the process of “regeneration” that usually signals the casting of a new actor, although he didn’t complete it.

Tennant will appear in a Christmas special and film four more specials before closing that chapter of his career. He joked that if he doesn’t make this leap now, they’ll have to wheel him out of the Tardis in his bath chair.

The series will continue and there will be immense pressure on the next actor to play the famous Time Lord. A 2006 poll in Doctor Who magazine crowned Tennant the favorite Doctor of all-time. Bookmakers Paddy Power have already placed odds on the next actor to step in and they think Joseph Paterson will become the first Black Doctor Who.  They’re offering 3-1 odds on that happening. Other favorites include Life on Mars star John Simm and David Morrissey from the political drama State of Play.

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Reuters UK reports that The Doctor himself, David Tennant, is earning rave reviews in the most talked about production of Hamlet in recent memory. It’s become the talk of England because not only because it stars the man the Daleks call The Oncoming Storm, but because Patrick Stewart plays Hamlet’s uncle/stepfather Claudius.

Some theatre purists’ eyes rolled into the backs of their heads with this one, but it’s not like they’re pulling these castings out of the Neutral Zone or something. Stewart was an acclaimed theatre star long before he “made it so” as Capt. Jean Luc Picard.  He was nominated for a Tony this year for Macbeth. Tennant has appeared with the Royal Shakespeare Company before, so this wasn’t nearly as big a risk as say, casting P-Diddy in A Raisin In the Sun.

Of course, the production has been deluged by rabid sci-fi fans looking to get memorabilia signed. The RSC has now banned the stars of the show from signing anything other than theatre-related items. OK, I know the original set piece from Star Trek:Generations would command a hefty price on eBay, but surely a program signed by these two stars is valuable as well? Not that there would be any online speculators in the crowd (cough, cough), right?

I think both these castings are inspired though. If it gets people that wouldn’t otherwise see The Bard into the theatre, that’s awesome. By the same token, if regular theatre goers start wondering what the heck a Romulan is and tune into some sci-fi that wouldn’t be a bad thing either.

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In season four of Doctor Who, David Tennant reprises his role as the tenth Timelord. For his latest adventures he is joined by a brand new companion, Donna Noble, played by award-winning actress Catherine Tate (The Catherine Tate Show, BBC AMERICA) who appeared as ‘the runaway bride’ in the previous season. ‘Martha Jones,’ played by Freema Agyeman, the Doctor’s most recent companion, who had a dramatic role last season’s finale, makes a triumphant return in the middle of season four.

In addition, SCI FIC Channel will be running the popular spin-off series The Sarah Jane Adventures (Sarah Connor Chronicles, anyone?) which will also premiere in April.

Candace Carlisle, EVP Sales and Co-productions, BBC Worldwide Americas commented, “The imagination of Russell and the rest of the production team in Cardiff who have produced these two incredible shows is outstanding. We are so pleased that the loyal fans of the SCI FI Channel will be able to meet a whole new range of characters and aliens that are intrinsically linked to the Doctor’s history. Both ‘Sarah Jane Adventures’ and the new season of ‘Doctor Who’ are jam packed with some of the most creative storylines ever produced by the BBC’s brilliant team.”

The Sarah Jane Adventures is written and produced by the same creative team behind Doctor Who, including multi-award winning writer Russell T. Davies. Having traveled the universe with The Doctor, Sarah Jane is used to alien encounters. Accompanied by her new young friends Maria, Luke and Clyde, she becomes embroiled in an offbeat world of mystery and danger.

Pictured: (l-r) David Tennant as The Doctor, Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith — SCI FI Channel Photo: BBC/Adrian Rogers

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