Blink

It is not terribly surprising to see Blink win the Hugo for Dramatic Presentation, Short Form. I was pulling for Paul Cornell, but that was as much because Moffat already has two of them and not anything against Blink in particular -- I think the Human Nature/Blink combination is probably the best single DVD of Doctor Who in existence -- and possibly even the best possible Doctor Who DVD in existence.

Of course, it'll be interesting to see if Moffat will be able to keep winning Hugos once he is the showrunner...

Doctor Who on iTunes [US]

Doctor Who has shown up on iTunes -- the first three series are all available. And at $1.99 an episode, it is perhaps your cheapest way to get new Doctor Who if you haven't gotten it on DVD yet.

Torchwood has been on iTunes for a while now, but it's good to see Doctor Who show up there..

Human Nature

I'm watching what may be the greatest disc of Doctor Who of all time -- I just finished watching Human Nature and The Family of Blood -- which was a very appropriate to watch today. And now I'm watching the Blink commentary track.

The more time that has passed the happier I am with the second half (in particular) of the most recent series of Doctor Who. It's all just about some of the best part of Doctor Who ever -- creepy, emotional, fan-pleasing, clever, and witty.

Fantastic.

Steampunk Dalek and Series Three.

I got my DVD set of Series Three today. I ran to check the commentary for some of the last bits of Utopia as I never get tired of seeing the performances at the end of the episode. I think the last half of Series Three is as good as Doctor Who has ever been -- and while I know some people have been critical of the season finale, it has only grown on me over time.

I leave you with this shot of a Steampunk Dalek, which comes from a variety of places

Human Nature

Well, it seems Human Nature is living up to the very highest of expectations.

I loved the book when I devoured it in a day over a decade ago [some book spoilers in the review].

Doctor Who on the Sci Fi Channel

Sci Fi has said that the third series of Doctor Who will start on July 6th.

It's the same weekend as CONvergence in Minneapolis, and I know that there's going to be at least one Doctor Who-themed party there, and several Doctor Who related panels.

SCI FI Gets Who 3 in July

SCI FI confirmed that they'll be airing the third series of Doctor Who starting in July. That was roughly the time that we had thought since Series Two finished last year.

I'm a bit disappointed that they don't list Doctor Who amongst the rockingest fan communities in their poll. Because it is, obviously. (Ok, the whole thing is silly enough...)

Martha Jones has a blog

And it is on myspace.

Counting Down

freemaagyeman.com has been great about counting down and collecting clips about the launch of
Series Three, including giving a bit more context behind Mr. Saxon, obviously this year's Bad Wolf.

The rumors behind Mr. Saxon are really out there in full force now, and I suspect by the time things get over here we won't really have any surprises left on that (if you haven't heard them already)

All of the trailers I've seen look really good so far.

Martha Jones on the Sun and Moon

Ok, that's just a silly title since the latest publicity shot on the BBC has a picture of Martha Jones on the moon.

I'm never quite sure how accurate interviews in the Sun are, but this is one of the more interesting interviews, and the picture of the Doctor, Jack, and Martha is excellent.

Seeing the future

A couple of interesting thoughts as I read this interview with Russell T Davies in the lead up to series three.

First of all, there's the (unsurprising) news that a fourth series has been commissioned. But I wonder if that'll be the last series of the Russell T Davies era. There are certainly hints that could be the case -- "This is one of the reasons why Davies is ready for a new challenge" and "If you stay too long somewhere you start missing out on chances like that."

And while we've proven that the new series can comfortably change Doctors, and I am sure that we'll show that it can change companions with the next series, the big question will be whether it can change lead writers. I don't think there's any reason to believe that Doctor Who needs to end with the departure of Russell -- it is a series designed to run and run, constantly refreshing itself.

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One other amusing thing about that article is how they over-play The Ten Doctors play as a stage production at Gallifrey One this year. It was amusing, but it was by no stretch of the imagination a serious stage production of Doctor Who. There have been a few "serious" stage productions over the years, and I've imagined that one could do something like Tomb of the Cybermen very effectively as a stage production, but that wasn't what we saw at Gallifrey.

Canadian Airdates

I saw a message on the DWIN mailing list that the third series of Doctor Who will air in Canada starting in June. That's the same timeframe as it is airing on the Sci Fi channel -- and I suspect that will also mean that we get a near simultaneous release of the inevitable series three DVD boxedset as the UK.

Perhaps more interesting is that the CBC have given a fall airdate for the first series of Torchwood. It is typical for new UK tv series to take about a year to cross over, and that looks to be similar with Torchwood even with its relationship to Doctor Who. My suspicion is that's going to end up to be the same timeframe as any American distribution deal, because the Region 1 DVDs are unlikely to be one country only.

Doctor Who Tube

The BBC has worked out a deal to put some video clips on YouTube, and that includes David Tennant's Dr Who Video Diary 1 and Freema Agyerman in the other.

And thankfully, this is something that's not UK only, so the quality is much better than we're used to seeing on video posted on the BBC site...

SCI FI Weekly Interviews David Tennant

I haven't seen a lot of interviews of David Tennant from the American side, so this SCI FI Weekly Interview is interesting from that point of view. It's pumping up the next series of Doctor Who, which is scheduled to start in the UK at the end of the month and on Sci Fi in June.

Searching For Mr. Saxon

We've got some great pictures of The Doctor, Captain Jack, and Martha Jones. Of course, the story that I'm linking to also mentions some potentially massive spoilers if they are true. But this story links to a whole lot more pictures, and doesn't have the spoilers.

Series Three on Sci Fi

It is perhaps no surprise that Sci Fi is picking up the third series of Doctor Who -- but this is the first time we've had confirmation of a rough timeline before the episodes have aired in the UK. And it looks like the delay between UK and US airings will be even less this time.

Cross Functional

It perhaps should not have been surprising that when Mark Gatiss wasn't scheduled to write an episode for the third series, he would instead be appearing in it.

Of course, Mark is not the first writer to later return as an actor in the series -- Glyn Jones wrote The Space Museum and appeared ten years later in The Sontaran Experiment. Mark has done vocal work for several audios in the past, and we've also seen a fair amount of crossover in books and audios as well, of course, with at least Ian Marter, Nick Briggs, and David Banks writing some sort of book or audio as well as their TV work with the series.