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DVDs in the Works

Archive for the ‘Doctor Who’ Category

Who are the Fades?

The Fades

One of the most talked about BBC series this fall was The Fades, which premieres on BBC America this Saturday, January 14, at 9pm ET. Created by Jack Thorne (Skins), The Fades is firmly in the horror genre, but with a strong thread of mystery surrounding who the Fades are and why they are appearing now. Within the mundane world of suburbia and school, the story unfolds with the heightened imagery of graphic novels. Iain De Caestecker stars as Paul– bewildered seventeen-year-old, reluctant hero and social pariah. Daniel Kaluuya (Skins S1 and S2) plays Paul’s best and only friend Mac, who applies everything he’s learned from the movies to the crisis at hand (with mixed results). The Fades producer Caroline Skinner is also one to watch. She’s the new executive producer for this year’s series of Doctor Who, replacing Piers Wenger and Beth Willis.

A brand new Nerdist special follows Episode One on BBC America at 10:15 pm ET. Devoted to the horror genre, the special features Lily Lovelace (Skins S3 and S4) talking about her role as Paul’s mortified sister, Anna. The cast of The Fades also includes Natalie Dormer (The Tudors, Captain America), Johnny Harris (Whitechapel) and Daniela Nardini (This Life, Reckless). In Canada The Fades premiered January 3rd on BBC Canada, which will air it through Feb 7th on Tuesdays at 8pm ET. The DVD and Blu-ray will be available on February 21st, the Tuesday after the series finale airs on BBC America.

Dramaville Fan Alert: Remember that The Hour and Luther Season Two are in the running for Golden Globe Awards. The ceremony, hosted once more by the irrepressible Ricky Gervais (The Office, An Idiot Abroad) airs this Sunday, January 15th, at 8pm ET on NBC. As we mentioned before, The Hour is up against Downton Abbey, which made its much anticipated return to Masterpiece last Sunday. Series Two is already available for pre-order, delivering February 7th.

Christmastime with the Doctor

Doctor Who: The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe

When we last mentioned this year’s Doctor Who Christmas Special, The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe, the North American air date was still unconfirmed. We are happy to report that the much-anticipated special will air on December 25th at 9pm Eastern / 8pm Central on BBC America and in Canada on Space. But that’s not all, in both countries the lead-in at 8pm Eastern / 7pm Central will be Doctor Who: The Best of the Christmas Specials. This will be the first time the Specials have reached back to cover the David Tennant years, and we hear that the Tenth Doctor has quite a few fans among the regular commentators.

Speaking of the Best of Specials, the first three (shown last summer on BBC America) will be DVD extras when The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe comes out on DVD and Blu-ray on February 14.

Fan Alert: On December 24th at , BBC America will air a Year in Review special of The Nerdist, with exclusive pieces filmed in London with David Tennant and Simon Pegg (Spaced).

The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe

Doctor Who Christmas 2011

Hmmm… the title of this year’s Doctor Who Christmas special sounds a bit Narnia-inspired. From the trailer we posted last week, it also looks a bit Narnia-inspired, especially with that line about a “forest in a box.” That’s Claire Skinner (Outnumbered, Sense & Sensibility [2008], Lark Rise to Candleford [S1]) as the widow, and some of you may have spotted Bill Bailey (Black Books, Spaced). Christmas certainly came early for Bill Bailey, who is a lifelong fan of Doctor Who. Check out his brilliant Belgian jazz version of the Docteur Qui theme.

Colin Firth fan alert: Imagine attending the premiere and after party of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy as the guest of Mr. Firth himself. Click here to find out more about this charity auction on ebay. But time is of the essence, the bidding ends today, November 23rd, at 6 pm ET.

Celebrate the holidays with BBC specials

Lark Rise to Candleford

As BritCom fans, we often return to our favorite Christmas specials for holiday viewing, but we concede that it can be a hassle to track those down in multi-disc sets, not to mention trying to glean several favorites out of several collections for a full night’s entertainment. This year we decided to take the guesswork out, and pack these specials together into comedy and drama collections.

Now any night can be a spectacular BritCom night with the BBC Holiday Comedy Collection, which brings together four and a half hours of holiday-themed specials from Are You Being Served?, Good Neighbors, To the Manor Born, Allo Allo, Last of the Summer Wine, Keeping Up Appearances, Blackadder and The Vicar of Dibley. If you’ve ever tried to find the All Creatures Great and Small episode in which Siegfried (Robert Hardy) sets up a skeleton in a locked room to keep Tristan (Peter Davison) from raiding the Christmas champagne, it’s in the BBC Holiday Drama Collection along with specials from Ballykissangel, Monarch of the Glen, Lovejoy and Lark Rise to Candleford. For fans of both genres, you’d have to get up pretty early on Black Friday to find a more perfect gift (and better value) than the combined  BBC Holiday Comedy & Drama Gift Set.

And to really get you in the spirit, stop by our newly launched BBC All-stars and Staff  Holiday Reflections and Wishlist pages, this year with video messages from Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and Ricky Gervais!

Doctor Who Fan Alert: Speaking of Christmas, we just got the trailer for this year’s Doctor Who Christmas special. Be one of the first to see it!

Top Gear 17, or Richard Hammond the Lionheart

Top Gear 17

Behind that tinted windshield is Richard Hammond, testing the durability of the 10-ton Marauder in conditions typical to South Africa. Meanwhile Clarkson celebrates the 50th anniversary of the legendary Jaguar E-type, with a party checklist that includes live music, classic fighter planes and a group of Royal Marines. In James May’s challenge (evocative of the minis-in-the-ice-rink sequence famously cut from The Italian Job), the latest Mini rally car pits its reputation in a downhill race with gold medal winning British Olympian Amy Williams on her skeleton sled. And that’s just Episode One of Top Gear 17. Stars in a Reasonably Priced Car include rock legend Alice Cooper, LiveAid’s Bob Geldof, Formula 1 world champion Sebastian Vettel and Rowan Atkinson (Blackadder, Mr. Bean), who is very much a racing enthusiast in private life. Special Features include extra chats and laps plus a sample episode from the American version of Top Gear. Look for Top Gear 17 to arrive on DVD and Blu-ray before Spring 2012.

Doctor Who fan alert! BBC America is looking for talking heads to appear in its next Doctor Who Special, The Best of the Christmas Specials, set to premiere on December 24th. This is an exclusive, can’t-miss chance to be featured on-air in the program alongside the musings of celebrity Whovians.

First, check out this video:

Then, grab your camera and record your wittiest, most festive answers to the any of the Christmassy questions listed below – and submit it as a response video on YouTube! Your video might just appear in the “Doctor Who: Best of the Christmas Specials” show on BBC America, or online.

  • Would you rather go sleigh riding with a Dalek or make snow angels with an Ood?
  • Would you rather ride with Santa in his sleigh or The Doctor in his TARDIS?
  • Would you rather find yourself under mistletoe with a Weeping Angel or The Silence?
  • Would you rather spend Christmas traveling with the Doctor or relaxing at home with Amy and Rory?
  • Would you rather eat fish fingers and custard or a traditional Christmas dinner?
  • Would you rather see Santa Claus come down your chimney or the Doctor land in your yard?
  • Would you rather find a Sonic Screwdriver in your stocking or a TARDIS under your Christmas tree?

The deadline is November 23rdClick here for full instructions on how to submit a video response on YouTube.

Spine-tingling stuff in the works

With a whole weekend ahead of us to get in the mood for Halloween, we have monsters on the mind. BBC America is getting in on the act by running a marathon of Ghoul Britannia films starting Sunday at noon ET with Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein with Kenneth Branagh. It’s worth a revisit if you were lucky enough to catch one of the National Theatre Live feeds last spring with Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller alternating as Doctor Frankenstein and the Monster.

Online, BBC America will be counting votes until 11:59PM ET on Sunday, October 30th in its costume contest. Vote here for your favorite finalists in five different categories. Looks like this is Doctor Who’s year, and if you’re wracking your mind for something completely different in festivities, BBC America is brimming with ideas on how to throw a Doctor Who party.

In the coming weeks, DVDs of Bedlam: Season 1, Whitechapel: The Ripper Returns and, of course, Doctor Who are guaranteed to extend the chills of the season. Looking forward to next year, the next volume of Primeval is on its way, and if you like your monsters prehistoric, Planet Dinosaur will breathe life into the latest discoveries.

On the film front, we have been following a little Hammer production of The Woman in Black, currently scheduled for February 3, 2012. The modest two-character play based on the 1983 Susan Hill novel has been packing London houses for more than a decade, and we’re told that it’s still the scariest show on the boards. The film, which promises to be more elaborate, stars Daniel Radcliffe with Janet McTeer and Ciaran Hinds. We’ll keep an eye out for that DVD as well.

Doctor Who Complete Sixth Series

Matt Smith, Doctor Who

As we count the minutes until the Doctor Who finale airs tomorrow night on BBC America and on Space in Canada, it’s a good time to take stock of what goodies will be in Doctor Who: The Complete Sixth Series. As promised, the set includes Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol and its accompanying Doctor Who Confidential. Sadly, we weren’t able to include the Doctor Who at the Proms concert from the Christmas Carol single, but the disc will have the much-desired “Space” and “Time” Comic Relief sketches for last March’s Red Nose Day. Audio commentaries are available on “The Impossible Astronaut,” “The Rebel Flesh,” “A Good Man Goes to War,” “The Wedding of River Song,” and best of all, Neil Gaiman recorded commentary on “The Doctor’s Wife” when he was in London for his Neverwhere commentary sessions. Along with prequels, Monster Files and the customary disc devoted to Doctor Who Confidential, there are five newly filmed scenes called “Night and the Doctor” that are exclusive to Doctor Who: The Complete Sixth Series, and even an exclusive Doctor Who Confidential on filming these scenes. (We were sad to hear this week that Doctor Who Confidential was being cancelled following Series Six. Everyone who relied on this series’ unique behind-the-scenes access will feel its loss.) Doctor Who: The Complete Sixth Series will release on November 22nd, but can be pre-ordered now. Also coming in time for the holidays are two new Doctor Who ornaments, the TARDIS glass ornament, and the festive red Dalek glass ornament.

Supernatural fan alert: Bedlam (in which the hippest address in London is a renovated insane asylum teeming with the malevolent spirits) premieres tomorrow night after Doctor Who on both BBC America and Space.

Sarah Jane Adventures

Sarah Jane Adventures

We were deeply saddened last spring when we heard that Elisabeth Sladen had passed away. Her Sarah Jane Adventures series was forging a delightful bridge between the classic and new eras of Doctor Who, and will be sorely missed. Thankfully we can still enjoy Sladen’s clever performance as Sarah Jane in Season Four (coming this fall) with guest appearances by Eleventh Doctor Matt Smith and Katy Manning (Colony in Space, Day of the Daleks) as Jo Jones (nee Grant).

Elisabeth Sladen also co-stars in both UNIT-themed Doctor Who Classic DVDs coming out in January: Invasion of the Dinosaurs with Third Doctor Jon Pertwee and The Android Invasion with Fourth Doctor Tom Baker. Invasion of the Dinosaurs launches a new extra “Doctor Who Stories,” beginning with interview footage that Elisabeth Sladen recorded in 2003 for the 40th anniversary special, The Story of Doctor Who.

The David Tennant Years in a gift set

Doctor Who: The Complete David Tennant Years

David Tennant is on our minds this week because his first made-in-America film, Fright Night, opens in theaters this Friday. He will play Peter Vincent, the role Roddy McDowall played in the 1985 film, and we’ve been trying to spot him in the trailers for weeks. Just when we feared that David and the delightful character of Peter were languishing on the cutting room floor, he began showing up in revamped trailers last week. As you may have gathered, we’re fans.

It was just with those true David Tennant fans in mind that we put together Doctor Who: The Complete David Tennant Years. Totaling 26 discs of the Tenth Doctor, it includes every episode, every Christmas Special and even the two animated adventures. The video content remains as previously released, but packaged in a commemorative, compact album in time for the holidays, and already available now for pre-order.

Neverwhere: 15th Anniversary Edition

This is becoming a banner year for novelist Neil Gaiman. He fulfilled a lifelong dream to write for Doctor Who with “The Doctor’s Wife,” Episode 4 of Series 6. His bestselling novel American Gods marks its tenth anniversary, and it’s the fifteenth anniversary of Neverwhere, Gaiman’s first foray into television writing. (Like The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the original project was for the BBC, and the novelization came later.) Neverwhere is set in the fantastical world of London Below, which bears a skewed connection to station names in the London Underground: Earls Court, Knightsbridge, Blackfriars… There’s even an angel Islington played by Peter Capaldi (Torchwood: Children of Earth, The Thick of It). Who knows the factual origin of the Angel Islington station name?

We felt that this early series was overdue for a special edition, and launched a quest for special materials. After much rummaging, we found a map of “London Below” from the 1996 press kit and reprinted it on cream paper for a DVD insert. The original cover concept was located in artist Dave McKean’s deep storage and reinstated on the new DVD’s front cover. Best of all: last week we recorded a brand-new commentary with co-writers Neil Gaiman and Lenny Henry (Chef!) and producer Clive Brill (who may be better known to Judge John Deed fans as Sir Percy Thrower). In addition, we are retaining all the extras from the original North American DVD plus a highly requested option for subtitles. To pump up the picture quality, we are using masters that were restored for the 2007 UK DVD. Neverwhere will be available in time for Christmas.