News: December 2005 Archives
For those of you that missed the Doctor Who Christmas Special, or want to see it again (and haven't already found a torrent of it, presuming that there are Doctor Who torrents...), it's repeated tomorrow. that's New Years Day, 7pm, BBC3 with Attack Of The Graske on digital interactive straight afterwards.
I hope that everyone has a very happy 2006.
The browncoats site is closing down, from an email I received...
"It is with a heavy heart that I must inform you that on January 6, 2006, The Browncoats will shut down."
A new (independent) community is being set up at http://serenitymovie.org.
I'd like to wish everyone who reads Big Dumb Object a very Happy Christmas!
Amidst all of Time's best-of lists, here's a shocker, their best TV show of 2005 is Battlestar Galactica!
They say "Most of you probably think this entry has got to be a joke. The rest of you have actually watched the show."
The BBC have let their Fear Factor panel of kids watch the Doctor Who Christmas Special, the results are here. The conclusion is Fear Factor 3 which is "Very Scary"!
Entertainment Weekly (via TV Squad) are reporting that Joss Whedon has accepted the fact that the Firefly franchise has come to and end, with Serenity not making enough money for the studios to invest in any more films.
I'm sad. Very sad.
David Tennant was interviewed on BBC Breakfast this morning and you can watch it online. Worth a watch for Doctor Who fans, it includes some clips (new and previously seen) from The Christmas Invasion.
SFX has an interview with Doctor Who producer Phil Collinson.
SFX: How does the new Doctor change the dynamic with Rose?
PC: “I think the obvious initial dynamic changes because she has to learn to trust him again, and The Christmas Invasion is very much about that."
One of Google's Zeitgeist graphs shows that throughout the year more people searched for "The Force" thand "Dark Side"!
I happened by chance to catch the new Doctor Who, The Christmas Invasion trailer which was shown on BBC1 today. It isn't online yet. The trailer was 30 seconds long and showed lots more of the aliens and Rose. Everything looked very cool (including The Doctor in his pyjamas).
Via The Doctor Who website, here's some more details on the interactive Doctor Who episode, Attack of the Graske....
Attack of the Graske is a mini episode of Dr Who with a twist - it allows viewers to become the Doctor's companion.Viewers will get the chance to track down an evil alien life form by flying the TARDIS and completing a series of challenges set by the Doctor himself.
SFX have reviewed the Doctor Who Christmas special, The Christmas Invasion. They give five stars out of five and absolutely loved it, saying "The Christmas Invasion is probably the new Who’s best yet."
Cool. What a great Christmas present!
If you're a Browncoat then you can log in and see a deleted scene from Serenity which features Inara and Sheydra talking. Nothing too stunning.
Sci Fi Wire has a clip from the Serenity DVD. It features Shepherd Book and an extended look at the camp when the crew of Serenity arrived. Available in QuickTime (high, medium and low) and Windows Media Player (high, medium and low).
Some new SPOILER! pictures for Doctor Who, The Christmas Invasion are now online, which includes pictures of the Sycorax. Scary.
The BBC Press Office has more details on the Doctor Who interactive adventure that will be available via digital television after The Christmas Invasion on Christmas Day.
"Attack of the Graske is a pioneering mix of live action, state-of-the-art special effects (from multi-award-winning The Mill) and individual tasks"
Sounds interesting.
Next week BBC Breakfast will have David Tennant's first live television interview since he took on the role as the Doctor in Doctor Who. Joining David will be Russell T Davies, who has written and overseen the rebirth of the show.
BBC Breakfast has just shown an extended clip of the TARDIS crash landing from The Christmas Invasion. The Doctor stumbles out in a confused and amusing manner!
Via Emerald City, The Observer has a nice long interview on, and article with, David Tennant about his life as Doctor Who.
SFX reports that the Region 2 version of the Serenity DVD (that's UK and I think Australia) will include a special feature that's not on the US version. Called "A Film-Maker's Journey", this featurette is billed as "a journey with Joss from script to screen", and is about 20 minutes long.
Other extras include nine deleted scenes, six minutes of out-takes and a few other short featurettes.
The full Doctor Who The Christmas Invasion trailer is online. And very good it is too. Almost 30 seconds of teasing, including a big alien spaceship, the "gherkin" getting destroyed Id4 style and a crazy TARDIS crash landing (which looks awesome!). Can't wait.
The Doctor Who radio episode Shada is being rebroadcast on BBC 7 on Saturday but is also available online. It's interesting because it's written by none other than the late, great Douglas Adams, and has Paul McGann as the doctor.
The second teaser trail for the Doctor Who Christmas special, The Christmas Invasion is online now, and includes creepy trumpet playing Father Christmases!
Via Outpost Gallifrey, a BBC press release gives some more info about the upcoming new series of Doctor Who...
"...battling a host of new and returning aliens and monsters, including the dreaded Cybermen, an evil race of Cat Women, the sinister Krillitanes and maybe even a Dalek!"
It also mentions the return of Sarah Jane Smith and "his faithful robot dog", K9.
Apparently, begging for oscar votes is something that lots of people do. Lucasfilm have taken it to the extreme with several big posters listing the cast and crew.
Now via the iTunes Music Store, straight to your iPod, Battlestar Galactica episodes!
UPDATE
Masquerading as someone in the USA I've checked out iTMS for Battlestar Galactica episodes. You can get the miniseries for $15.99, season 1 for $25.87 and the 10 episodes so far of season 2 for $19.90. That's $1.99 per episode, like all other shows on iTMS.
Fed up of all that bonus DVD nonsense? Want to watch the original Star Wars trilogy on DVD? Then you want the Star Wars Trilogy DVD 3-Pack. It's exactly the same as last years orginal trilogy DVD release, but minus the fourth bonus disc. And presumably it costs less, at a guess.
Last weeks film reviews with Mark Kermode (on BBC Radio Five Live and available as a podcast), included an interview with Mark Gatiss who mentioned that the Doctor Who episode that Stephen Fry has written is going to be moved to season three because it is too expensive to make this season. He also talked about writing an episode for season two that would live up to the scariness of "The Unquiet Dead", his season one episode (which included zombies at 7pm on BBC 1!). He reckons he has done it though.
Because every home needs one (and just in time for Christmas) here's a 4 foot inflatable Dalek.
Presumably it's 4 foot and not the full Dalek size so that you can still feel dominant (and not too scared)?
The teaser trailer for the Doctor Who Christmas special, The Christmas Invasion i sonline (click "WATCH Teaser") ans also showing all over BBC 1.
It' a very short clip and it shows as spinning Christmas tree! It must be the psychotic tree that Russell T Davies mentioned in a previous interview. Funny to me, scary to young children?!
Also online are some photos from the episode, including the evil Father Christmases, looking scary with their brass band instruments.
IGN:Filmforce has a rumour that Universal is planning a straight to TV movie sequel to Serenity. Joss Whedon's people deny the rumour. Which probably means that the studio execs are trying tom think of ways to squeeze more money out of Firefly fans and make more profits.
Personally I think that if Joss is involved it will probably be okay. And at the moment he's pretty busy so I wouldn't hold your breath.
From Sci Fi Wire, Burton Cromer who is vice president of BBC Direct says that Doctor Who will definitely be shown on US TV and that they are in discussions now.
Interestingly though, they decided put the DVD out before any TV deal is finalised because "people were getting ... secondhand copies or copies from the U.K." err... or from bittorrent trackers.
That's a model that might work in lieu of global broadcasts via the interweb. Release the DVD of a TV show globally, then fans can either buy it or wait for the TV broadcast. Presumably the broadcast would still get enough viewers for the TV station to justify buying the show? Don't know but an interesting thought. (And anyway, who doesn't have a multi-region DVD theses days? So they might as well give up on region coding and regional releases).
The BBC are running a Best Drama of 2005 awards thingy, andyou can vote online. The Doctor Who site suggests that you vote for Doctor Who, which I think is a great idea, espcially if you vote for the Daleks as the best villain. Imagine a Dalek trying to get up the stairs to collect the award. That would be funny (until it exterminated the entire audience).
