New Doctor Who coming to BBC (sort of)
The BBC continues it's long history of criminally mistreating one of it's
most beloved (and most valuable) franchises with the online premiere of the failed pilot
for a new Doctor Who radio series. From the early days when episodes of
Doctor Who (like so many other series) were routinely wiped to reuse the tape they were
recorded on to the many years of neglect since the series cancellation - not to mention
the Fox movie version - the BBC have been kicking the good Doctor around. This time it's a
proposed Who radio show - the powers that be declined to pick it up but at least some
clever sod had the brilliant idea of recycling the pilot episode on the Internet.
On July 13th "Death Comes to Time" will be made available for
download - in six 5 minute installments - at www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho.
"Death Comes to Time" returns Sylvester McCoy and Sophie
Aldred to their roles as The Doctor and Ace. The supporting cast is quite
impressive featuring Stephen Fry (Jeeves and Wooster), John
Sessions (Gormenghast, Whose Line Is It Anyway?) and Jacqueline
Pearce (Blake's 7).
DVDWishlist update Part 2
This week we re-examine the Drama and Sci-fi lists. Unfortunatly there's been
little action on either list but what announcements have been made are big ones.
1. Upstairs Downstairs
Coming this fall! Finally !
2. Flambards
3. Danger UXB
4. Nicholas Nickleby
5. Poldark
6. Brookside (Best of)
7. Coronation Street (Best of)
8. Casualty
9. Mapp and Lucia
10. Brideshead Revisited
11. The Shakespeare Plays
12. Butterflies
So with our top spot opening up we can add Heartbeat - Nick Berry's rural/retro cop soap.
1. Doctor Who
Coming soon!
2. Blake's Seven
3. Star Cops
4. Red Dwarf
5. The Tomorrow People
6. The Tripods
7. Quatermass
8. Timeslip
9. Survivors
10. The One Game
11. Ghosts
12. Moondial
I was all set to add the Hammer's House of Horror anthology series but,
amazingly enough, it's on A&E's fall schedule so Doctor Who's spot
gets taken by another eerie anthology - Tales of the Unexpected
(which is available in a region-free box set in the UK - check back next time for a review
and a complete rundown on how you can watch UK DVDs in the comfort of your North American
home.)
Other new and future releases include:
- John Thaw in A Year in Provence
- Joan Hickson's Miss Marple
- Ardal O'Hanlon and Jane Horrock's holiday special Robbie The Reindeer
- A multi-volume collection of Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em starring Michael Crawford and Michele Dotrice.
- The feature film version of the environmental horror series Doomwatch
