Dying to know one thing

With series 8 premiering tomorrow, I've done very well at avoiding spoilers. Now that I'm regenerating my blog to fit the new Doctor, I'm left with one burning question left by a screenshot from one of the trailers, or perhaps it was a promo picture, but it looks like a screencap. Here's the pic...

That looks like a regeneration happening inside Matt's Doctor's TARDIS. I don't see Clara anywhere, so are we going to see more on Trenzalore at the beginning? I hear there is a nice cameo, could it be Matt?

Previewing The Time Of The Doctor

We got the first trailer today. It's short but interesting.

In it we can hear Clara narrate: "And now its time for one last bow, like all your other selves. Eleven's hour is over now. The clock is striking twelve's."

The mysterious woman says, "The siege of Trenzalore has begun." and "The Timelord has entered the trap."

Clara begs someone to help The Doctor change the future.

A Dalek bleats, "The Doctor is regenerating."


Here are some of the images I found interesting. First the mysterious woman, Tasha Lem. I don't know where the name comes in, but we've been told she is someone from The Doctor's past. By the look of her, and how she has taken charge of this army, it really looks to me like it might be The Rani, the evil Timelady we last saw in "Time and The Rani." Which is good, and a regeneration episode, but not as good as "The Mark of The Rani." IMHO.

And given the other images we have seen, I wonder where this is...

Looks like The Doctor is legend on Trenzalore, but is this before or after whatever happens happens?

I was wondering what this huge Dalek gun was sticking out from the one on the left, but when looking at the second picture, it looks like it might have been attached to that tank.

Speaking of the Daleks, look in the first photo, has The Doctor become King of the Daleks? In the second pic I find the painting with a Silence in it interesting. Looks like it might be Timelord art.

Here are three of our villains. Quite a spooky image of the angel. The Silence appears to be singing a power ballad. I love the look of the wooden Cyberman. It's been put out there that they upgraded when they found out the sonic screwdriver doesn't do wood. (He has GOT to fix that) I think it could be that or to do with the gold allergy they used to have, which was brought up in "The Nightmare In Silver."

Lastly I'll share more proof of The Doctor's legend on Trenzalore. How these children would know all of these things to draw I have no idea. Mostly the images are familiar, but there are a couple I question.

Sneak Peek Into Christmas

I have a lot to cover concerning the 50th, but before we could even exhale from the special they released details and an image from the upcoming Christmas special, the name of which was also revealed, "The Time of The Doctor." A teaser trailer is also here for you to watch, and I do mean teaser.

So what do we know about the episode? We already know there will be a regeneration and we will see the departure of Matt Smith as well as the introduction of Peter Capaldi as The Doctor. In the teaser we see Daleks, Weeping Angels, The Silence and learn The Doctor's location, Trenzalore. In the new promo image above we see a tiny bit more. Behind and on either side of The Doctor's left hand there are two faces in the flames. One is Peter Capaldi, no big surprise. The other is a mystery, because it's Paul McGann! Will he make yet another appearance in Who this year, and if so in what capacity? There was that time in "The Night of The Doctor" prequel where we don't see Paul regenerate fully, and then he is asked if it is finished. I figured this was because they made him regenerate into a young John Hurt. What if something happened in between?

UPDATE! Scratch that about Paul Mcgann. There's another image that's similar that has what looks like the same face and they both look like Peter Capaldi to me.

What else? Well, I'll tell you what else. A BBC source, which makes me wary anyway, says that the 12 regeneration limit issue will be faced at Christmas. The claim is that they are counting the meta-crisis regeneration at the beginning of "Journey's End" is a regeneration, and I agree with this if it's true. With John Hurt's regeneration in place that makes Matt the 13th incarnation. (Moffat has already said the Doctor numbering stays the same so no need to get into all that mess.) Certainly he won't find Gallifrey that quickly. My guess is the return of the sisterhood of Karn. 

Then there's one more thing that just came out. Actress Orla Brady (I only know her as Peter's mother on Fringe) has told Digital spy in an interview here that she is in the special as a character from The Doctor's past. What's more is the plot is supposed to revolve around her. Who could this mysterious person be? The names Romana, Jenny and The Rani have been batted about. I would love to see The Rani, but think that would make it a bit villain heavy. Jenny is quite likely in my opinion, given Moffat asked Russell not to kill her off. I do like the Romana angle, now that Gallifrey is back somewhere. In the Big Finish audio plays she is Lord President of Gallifrey, a post I'm sure will come to The Doctor yet again at some point. 

I'm excited but still it's hard to decipher rumor from fact yet, let alone piece together a picture of what will happen, so I'll just leave you with one more piece of the puzzle, the BBC synopsis of the episode:

"Orbiting a quiet, backwater planet, the massed forces of the universe's deadliest species gather, drawn to a mysterious message that echoes out of the stars. And amongst them - The Doctor. Rescuing Clara from a family Christmas dinner, the Time Lord and his best friend must learn what this enigmatic signal means for his own fate and that of the universe."

2 Days To Go!!!

Behind The Scenes Pics And Quotes

Okay this pic is from the trailer, but it shows The Doctor at "The Moment" we first heard mentioned in "The End of Time" and I included it because of an interesting behind the scenes pic that came out....

So first it looks like the moment is a plunger to be pressed, most likely creating the time bubble? Secondly, it looks as if the three of them press it. Consider a couple of quotes from the episode:

The Eleventh Doctor, "You were The Doctor on the day it wasn't possible to get it right."

The Tenth Doctor, "What we do today, we do not out of fear or hatred, but because there is no other way."

This picture pleases me because it all but confirms the interaction we will see between them all.

These next few are from the trailer and pretty awesome:

The Day of The Doctor Promo Image and poster released

OOOOOOH they put these out today. And if you look in the images it appears we will see a broken off TARDIS door (Matt's TARDIS), the time war, with bits of Dalek about and a Gallifreyan symbol. And what's that scrawled on that wall?

50th Title Revealed, Christmas Filming & The Doctor Speaks

The BBC have finally announced the title AND length of the 50th special. "The Day of The Doctor" is what it's called. As I said before, I feel it's a stretch for them to call the 75 minutes "feature length." But a 75 minute episode sounds awesome! I'm sure it will be epic, how could they slack off at this point? Jenna Coleman has called it game changing, or something similar. Come on, it's a multi-Doctor story, so it's already ahead of the game.

John Hurt wad some nice things to say about his experience filming the 50th. In an interview with The Guardian, he said, "Of course you have to remember that the Doctors are all one person, so I'm not outside of that. I can't talk about it but I will say I was really impressed when I did it. Both the previous Doctors - Matt Smith and David Tennant - Whoa-whee! They are so quick, and there's a huge amount of learning and no time to learn it in. All that fake scientific nonsense. Terribly difficult to learn." He amusingly went on to mention how he had thought the fans would be loonies, but actually finds them charming.  Just about 73 days left. Man I thought that number would never get under 100. I am just hoping there is going to be some announcement soon about more live screenings of it in theaters other than the one in Leeds they already mentioned.

FILMING HAS BEGUN FOR CHRISTMAS

And as you can see, Matt Smith's final episode will have him sporting a wig. Albeit a good looking wig from the pictures. These are some of the pictures that have come in that I liked. Please go to the Twitter page at the links provided to see many more of their pictures.

@ryantfarr

@DrWhoOnline

And the ones I enjoyed the most came from @ClaraRYCBAR

The New Doctor Is Announced

Today at 2pm Eastern time on BBC and here in America on BBC America they have announced in a live event who the next Doctor is going to be. There were old characters on hand or on video, including former Doctors, to speculate and ponder the past and future of the show. Even Stephen Hawking and Brian Cox weighed in. Hawking actually is in favor of a female Doctor with a male companion, lol. Also on hand was the actor himself. After so much speculation, guesswork, red herrings, and absolute rubbish guesses, we know now that the role will be taken over by Peter Capaldi!! We last saw him brilliantly portraying a troubled civil servant in Torchwood series three, but he also played Caecilius in "The Fires of Pompeii" so they have gone with an older actor and based on his work I've seen already I am pleased with this!! He has also done great work on The Hour and many  other dramas and I think a mature Doctor is a welcome return. And we have the 2nd time an actor plays The Doctor having been in the show previously. Colin Baker played Gallifreyan guard Maxil in "Arc of Infinity" before going on to play the 6th Doctor.

Here is the first promo pic released and a shot of him in Torchwood and Pompeii.

Return to the Daleks

From the promotional images just released and the trailer shown at Comic Con it looks like we take a trip back to the time war in the 50th anniversary special. You can see the Daleks in the midst of battle, Gallifreyan symbols in the background. In true Dalek fashion they have managed to destroy while keeping a smooth path to travel through the rubble. I'm not going to transcribe the trailer they showed, but it sounds like there are some good shots of David Tennant's and Matt Smith's Doctors together as well as with the 'other' Doctor, John Hurt. It was an exclusive for Comic Con, and from what I understand, Steven Moffat once again asked people not to leak it. The time war aspect could always be as insignificant as the Cybermen appearance in "The Wedding of River Song," but it would be nice to see what happened finally.

Fingers crossed that the BBC will release a trailer soon that we can see. OH, and I almost forgot... It will be 75 minutes long. Just because something may be 'technically' movie length doesn't make it okay to promise movie length, but thank you for extending it as much as you did. Now the images...

More Waiting, A Review and Matt's Goodbye Message

According to a Radio Times article (click here to read full article), we are going to have to wait until just before the filming for the Christmas special to find out who the next Doctor is. They also are not starting filming until autumn, probably August or September, followed by filming for the next season. I don't mind any of this because it is going to break up the time we are having to wait for a new episode. It just means we have to put up with so many more rumors and useless speculations.

On my Classic Who tab you will find my review for "The Mysterious Planet", which is the first of four stories in the "Trial Of A Timelord" season. It features the 6th Doctor and his companion Peri Brown, and begins the story arc of The Doctor being put on trial (again) by the Timelords for meddling in the affairs of others. With a great script from Robert Holmes, the story lays a great foundation for the other 3 stories. It also sees The Valeyard in charge of the case against The Doctor, a nemesis of sorts mentioned by The Great Intelligence in "The Name of The Doctor."


The other day in Detroit, while filming his movie, Matt Smith recorded a thank you and goodbye video for Steven Moffat, his fellow cast members, crew, and most of all to the fans. This could have been just a nice gesture done in advance on a whim, but it also fuels speculation that Matt is already done. This isn't helped by the cutting of his hair, either. If he is done, and the regeneration happens at the end of the 50th special/beginning of Christmas, the Christmas special could essentially be a 12th Doctor story, which would fall in line with December being the 12th month. They have been focusing on a Doctor each month. But what if there was also a regeneration at Christmas. Say 11 regenerates into John Hurt, who then regenerates into The Doctor for season 8. This would then put us at the point where, according to Who canon, The Doctor would be out of regenerations. Just some thoughts.

Coming up, hopefully tonight, the review of the novelette, "The Angel's Kiss."

I Hope You Wanted A Regeneration For Christmas

Well, I'm not even close to being the first to report this, but Matt Smith is leaving the show. His last episode will be the Christmas special. This doesn't come as much of a surprise, given comments Matt has given about  his desire to pursue a Hollywood career.

Jenna-Louise has said she will be back for season 8, but that hasn't been confirmed to my knowledge, and given we heard not long ago that Matt would be back for season 8 who knows what's going to happen. I hope they keep Clara.

I wouldn't be surprised in the least if we learn that Steven Moffat will be leaving soon, if not at Christmas.

Buckle up, it's that time again. Finding and discovering a whole new Doctor. And that moment you realize there are only two Matt Smith episodes left :(