Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Televisual, an television industry magazine, has run an extensive piece on the new series in which producer Steve Moffat admits that the blueprint for the new series was Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Fans may remember rumors that had Buffy producer Joss Whedon being eyed to take over the re-launch of the series. In the article, Moffat states, "I don’t think the fact that we’re in the post-Star Wars era is an issue, but matching Buffy is. Doctor Who was never a space drama anyway, it was about horror: dark shadows and creepy monsters lurking just around the corner."

Executive producer Russell T. Davies concurred, adding, "in the 60s we could watch programs like Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) (known in the US as My Partner the Ghost) because we were happy with the spectacle, but now we’re more adult and we expect that emotional content."

Another element that is being introduced into the new series as a result of meetings between Davies and Julie Gardner at BBC is a rule that the TARDIS must return to Earth in every episode. "We need to return to Earth to get an emotional focus on what’s going on. If we’re on Planet Zog and Zog people are being affected by a monster, we couldn’t really give a toss. But if there’s a human colony on Planet Zog, then that’s more interesting."

Davies also had a take on his leading man, Christopher Eccleston, "He’s not like Tom Baker, but what they have in common is that they can go around being as funny and daft and as gormless as they like, but you still take them seriously because they’re fundamentally both scary, impressive men."

Designer Edward Thomas discussed the new TARDIS interior (6.5m tall and 20m wide), which is raised off the ground to get away from the studio floor feel that’s plagued past outings. "Russell and I thought the most powerful TARDIS was the first one," Thomas told the magazine. "So we kept this in mind but then went back to nature, basing designs on organic materials, the main structure being coral, with glass walls and lots of wood."

Other elements of the article discussed the problems in generating all of the effects shots for the new series. According to Will Cohen of The Mill, the effects house in charge of providing special effects for the series (no more BBC effects shop!), Doctor Who features the largest number of effects shots ever included in a UK drama. While the series uses a great deal of CGI (computer generated images), sometimes you just can’t beat the old ways. In an upcoming episode, The Mill animated a retro-looking UFO smashing into Big Ben based on designs by concept artist Bryan Hitch, but the moment of impact was best achieved using a miniature. "You could sit there and hand-animate every single particle of dust, but sometimes it’s easier to create miniatures and then just smash them up," Tucker explained.

Doctor Who Report: New Theme Music?

Theme on downloaded Who pilot may not be final.

Theme Not Final?

Thousands of fans have taken advantage of the fact that the first episode of the new Doctor Who series has been leaked to the Internet and comments have been flying all over the Internet ever since. While the episode appears to be complete and final, a UK morning radio show this week played what they claimed to be the actual Murray Gold composed theme tune for the new series. An MP3 file of the theme was posted on a few Doctor Who forums and, much like the opinions surrounding the first episode, reactions were mixed. Bits of the music have appeared during various radio and television stories about the new series so all signs seem to point towards this being the real deal.

Some fans seemed to like the updating of the Ron Grainer / Delia Derbyshire signature tune while others called it anything from "ghastly" to "annoying". One fan said they’d rather have the theme from the 1996 telefilm (composed by John Debney, Oscar nominated composer of the score for The Passion of the Christ). No confirmation or denial from BBC but others involved with the series have said that this is, indeed, the theme for the new series. We’ll all know for sure after the new series premieres on the BBC at 7PM on March 26th.

BBC Has Who Press Launch:

The BBC had a press day to launch the new Doctor Who series this week, screening the first episode for members of the press and making those involved with the production available for interviews. Not unexpectedly, the press has been filled with more Who related stories in the past week than it has for the past several years.

Among the press items was an attempt to try and add a little controversy to the upcoming series. The Sun, not well known for it’s commitment to accuracy in reporting, has announced that Doctor Who co-star Billie Piper (Rose Tyler) wants to try and use the series to jump start her singing career. Not surprisingly, several news organizations picked up a story from the Mirror that refuted those claims, stating that Piper "laughed at the suggestion that she’ll be releasing any more music. She told 3am this week: ’I don’t want to sing again. I’m happy acting — it’s something I have always wanted to do. I didn’t want to do both, I felt that one would suffer as a result, I’d be trying to do too much."

Captain Picard Replaced by Rupert Giles for Who Radio Series:

Citing scheduling conflicts, actor Patrick Stewart has had to bow out of hosting the two part Project: WHO? series for BBC Radio 2. No problem, another well known actor to SF fans has taken over, none other than former Buffy the Vampire Slayer Watcher, Anthony Stewart Head.

The two-part series will begin on March 22nd with part one, Bigger on the Inside and will conclude on March 29th with the episode, Reverse the Polarity. Both programs should be available to hear via Real Player after broadcast on the BBC Radio 2 website.

BBC Passed on High Definition for Doctor Who?

In the same issue of Televisual quoted above, the magazine ran a piece about the BBC passing on a sponsorship deal with SONY to use their HD Cam to shoot the new series, opting instead to shoot on DigiBeta. The series is still to be presented in widescreen. According to a BBC spokeswoman, the deal simply just came along too late to be considered for use in the new series. "We’d gone a long way down the DigiBeta path, although we had talked about HD," she told the magazine. The piece went on to say that HD advocates fear the decision could hinder long-term international sales.

Being shot in widescreen and on a fairly high resolution, there are a number of ways to "bump up" the masters for HD broadcast in the future when the need arises. The likelihood of that needing to happen at some point is fairly good - high definition is taking off all over the world and many programs that can’t or won’t transfer to the new format may wind up becoming footnotes in television history.

New Series to DVD Sooner Than First Thought?

The UK DVD trade magazine RRP ran a story about the new series launching on DVD this week. According to the magazine, 2Entertain, the company behind the DVD releases, is planning on a staggered, four-DVD release for the new series, to commence in May with the other releases being in June, August and September. These discs will be bare bones releases - the episodes and little else. A boxed set with all of the bell and whistles is set for release in November. "The new series promises to be one of the biggest TV events of the year and we are confident of being able to sell half a million units in 2005," said 2Entertain’s Matthew Parkes. (thanks to Outpost Gallifrey for the heads up on the news item)