Sonic Screw-ups: Doctor Who blooper reel
Compendium of often amusing Doctor Who bloopers snipped from Great TV Mistakes. Narrated by Robert Webb of Peep Show fame.
Via Blogtor Who
Compendium of often amusing Doctor Who bloopers snipped from Great TV Mistakes. Narrated by Robert Webb of Peep Show fame.
Via Blogtor Who
According to artist Ulises Farinas, “The Ninth Doctor was the hardest to draw. But K-9 was the most fun, and I like the Adipose as minifig a lot. This would be a cool theme for Lego to make.”
(via New_Universe via TDW)
Here’s a clever Doctor Who and Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy mashup.
(via Nerdcore)
New Scientist reports on the discovery of people literally able to perceive time—an ability called “time-space synesthesia.” (And no, the Doctor Who reference isn’t mine—that’s straight from New Scientist. Oh, English.)
Hey, I can perceive time… it’s that thing that new freaking Doctor Who series and spinoffs keep robbing me of.
Time Lords walk among us. Two per cent of readers may be surprised to discover that they are members of an elite group with the power to perceive the geography of time.
Sci-fi fans – Anglophile ones, at least – know that the coolest aliens in the universe are Time Lords: time-travelling humanoids with the ability to understand and perceive events throughout time and space. Now it seems that people with a newly described condition have a similar, albeit lesser ability: they experience time as a spatial construct.
Synaesthesia is the condition in which the senses are mixed, so that a sound or a number has a colour, for example. In one version, the sense of touch evokes emotions.
To those variants we can now add time-space synaesthesia.
David Tennant’s tenure as The Doctor has ended and now Matt Smith’s has begun.
Via Minds Delight
In honor of David Tennant’s final Doctor Who episodes, here’s a repeat of Richard’s interview with the outgoing Time Lord and Doctor Who executive producer Russell T. Davies, shot at the Langham Hotel in Pasadena, CA in early August for Boing Boing Video. Read the original entry here. Dangerous Minds returns in the new year with Genesis Breyer P-Orridge
It will be a bittersweet holiday season this year for sci-fi fans around the globe. On one hand we’re getting two new “Doctor Who” specials (I don’t count “The Waters of Mars” because it aired in Britain a while back. Any Who fan worth their salt downloaded that one on BitTorrent five minutes after if aired on the BBC!). On the other hand, we’ll be seeing the last of David Tennant as the 10th Doctor, when the Scottish actor hands over the keys to his T.A.R.D.I.S (that’s what his time machine is called, the one that looks like an old British pay phone booth. Long story…) to incoming Time Lord, Matt Smith.
Over at the LA Times Hero Complex blog, Robert Lloyd has an interview with Tennant that includes the surprise announcement of a U.S. TV pilot for NBC titled “Rex Is Not Your Lawyer,” which costars Jane Curtain and Jeffrey Tambor. There’s also an exclusive extended trailer for next Saturday’s special, “The End of Time.” (On reading the final scripts for his character, the actor said: “I was nervous they would somehow disappoint, but of course they didn’t. I read them in my trailer and had a wee cry. They are so beautifully written. I was just delighted to be going out with such a bang.”)
This week (see above), you can view my own interview with David Tennant and Doctor Who (and Torchwood) executive producer/writer Russell T. Davies (now a Los Angeles resident). I met up with Tennant and Davies in Pasadena in early August when I interviewed them for Boing Boing. The duo had just come from the San Diego Comic Con where both experienced what can only be compared to a geek version of Beatlemania. During the interview Tennant discusses what it’s like to walk away from the part he wanted to play his entire life and the responsibilities of taking on such an iconic role.
Just as David Tennant is about to leave the series and hand over the keys of the TARDIS to the eleventh doctor Matt Smith—the final episodes with Tennant air Christmas and New Year’s Day—the last remaining Dalek from the original series in 1963 is about to go on the auction block in Britain:
Despite the Daleks’ fearsome reputation onscreen, off it the plywood and fibreglass mutants were frequently cannibalised due to tight production budgets.
Mr Beech said: “Every time a new artistic director came in and ordered a redesign, they were re-patched and re-patched, until they got so bad they couldn’t be patched up any longer.”
Only the lower half of this Dalek dates from 1963, he said.
Also to be sold are a number of Cybermen, Sea Devils and Tractators.
They were all part of a touring Dr Who exhibition and are being sold because of the cost of conserving them.
Oh boy, do I have mixed feelings about these final moments of David Tennant’s tenure as Doctor Who. On one hand, I simply can’t wait to see the Christmas specials, I expect nothing less than an utterly spectacular, mind-bending final adventure. They’ll be the highlight of my television viewing year (along with Russell T. Davies’ genius Torchwood miniseries Children of Earth, natch, which I reviewed here) but once they’re over, David’s gone for good and this will be the end of an era. His iconic portrayal of the Doctor is as decade-defining for this one as Sean Connery’s Bond was for the ‘60s. Doctor Who will be unthinkable without him (and Russell).
I may have to lie in bed for a week to get over it!
Thank you Xeni Jardin!
HOWTO make a Tardis cake from sisters Barbara Jo and Barbara May. Barbara Jo and Barbara May say, “It’s a TARDIS! It’s bigger on the inside! It’s two feet tall (quarter scale)! And aside from the lights, everything you see is edible.”
Richard Metzger interviews David Tennant and Russell T. Davies for Boing Boing Video.
(via Cakehead Loves Evil)
It’s Doctor Who week here at Dangerous Minds! Feast your ears on one of the most iconic sci-fi theme tunes—not to mention opening credit sequences—in TV history. Composed by Ron Grainer, but actually “constructed” by BBC Radiophonic Workshop employee Delia Derbyshire (more on her later in the week), the Doctor Who theme music is considered a landmark in the development of electronic music. Its distinctly shimmering sonics, elevator cable bassline and crystalline melody were recorded many years before commercially available synthesizers were available. In this clip you can hear several permutations of the theme from throughout the years. Although I like all of them, I like the 80s themes the least. It just got over-embellished. When Russell T. Davies revived the Doctor from his long hibernation in 2005, he and composer Murray Gold wisely moved back towards the original 60s theme, but adding a nice modern orchestral twist. It’s like outer-space Wagner!
Richard Metzger interviews outgoing Timelord David Tennant and former Doctor Who executive producer Russell T. Davies at the Langham Hotel in Pasadena, CA for Boing Boing Video.
“I’m one of those guys who downloads Doctor Who and Torchwood within seconds of them hitting the torrent trackers. Just a few hours after they air in the UK, I’m watching them in Los Angeles. My wife asked me what I wanted for Christmas last year and I said “A new Doctor Who episode, but I’m getting that already.” That’s how much I love the show (She’s a fan too, but drew the line at me using the TARDIS landing for my ring tone).
“So it was great fun for me to meet Russell and David. A real treat. They’re both friendly, charismatic guys who who were really easy to interview. They clearly enjoy each others company and there was a nice, loose banter between them that I think will be fun for the fans to watch here. They’ve got their double act down pat, let’s just say.
“This interview took place at an interesting moment in time for both men as they’ve only just left behind their respective starring roles in one of the biggest television successes in the world today. As difficult as that may sound, you can only imagine how much pressure is off them after four years of practically non-stop work. I think it shows in this interview, as they’re both very relaxed and jovial. David had just come from Comic Con where he was treated with fan adulation bordering on Beatlemania and Russell is starting a new phase of his life here in Los Angeles. The week we shot this he was just coming off the double whammy career high of Torchwood practically *taking over* British television for an entire week with his brilliant Children of Earth mini-series (read my review here) and then seeing it launch BBC America’s new HD service with a resounding success right afterward here. How lucky Hollywood is to have Britain’s answer to Rod Serling in such close proximity these days and I’m sure it won’t be long before we’re reading in Variety what David Tennant will do next. He’s an interesting actor and a lot of big people will want to work with him, so expect that it will be something worth watching! Like I say, I think it’s an interesting glimpse into a transitional time for both David and Russell and these were the questions that I wanted to ask them, not as a journalist on assignment, but as a big Doctor Who fan (“David, isn’t leaving Doctor Who like Sean Connery quitting James Bond?”), so I hope other Who fans around the world will enjoy this as much as I did.”
Had a wonderful day in Pasadena, California interviewing the very charming David Tennant and Russell T. Davies for an upcoming episode of Boing Boing Video.
At first my reaction to meeting them in Pasadena was “Isn’t bringing someone from England to Los Angeles and sticking them in a hotel in Pasadena a bit like inviting a Yank to London and putting them up in Croydon?” but the Langdon Hotel (formerly the Ritz-Carlton) is in fact a lushly opulent palace on 23 nicely landscaped acres with a Michelin star restaurant. It was a great place to shoot.
I got a chance to talk with the former Timelord about what if was like to turn in his TARDIS for the very last time and ask Russell about writing his final “Who” script, the recent Transatlantic triumph of the “Torchwood: Children of Earth” mini-series and about his recent move to Los Angeles (sneak preview: he’s been here for six weeks and he already misses the rain!)
Meeting the Mighty Boosh (and seeing them in concert last night at The Roxy) and then sitting today with David and Russell has made for a very exciting 24 hours.
Look for Xeni Jardin’s Mighty Boosh interview—if you were standing in that monstrous seven block line last night, you’re probably going to see your bad self in the final piece, at least briefly—and this one to show up next week on Boing Boing Video.
A special thank you to Devin Johnson of BBC America for making this happen.
