It’s called 'A Christmas Carol '- is - 'A Christmas Carol'

In this interview published by The New York Times Steven Moffat talks about a few things we've all been worrying or, if not worrying at least wondering about. Starting with the Doctor mysteriously marrying Marilyn Monroe, or how he managed to write his first Christmas special in mid-April, up to whether Moffat is planning to do a Doctor Who-Sherlock cross-over, or not.

Well, I suppose you read it yourself...

On Reading Moffat's Continuiy Errors

In the very unlikely case that you aren't sure what I'm talking about, there are a few rumours that Moffat's very first Doctor Who Xmas special might have something in common with a story ('Continuity Errors') he once wrote featuring the 7th Doctor and the biggest library of the universe having every single book ever known, at least up to 2668. (So, strictly speaking, the events took place long before Moffat's 'Silence in the Library' 2-parter.)You can give it a read-through here. And believe me, it's worth it.

To sum it up, it's about the Doctor manipulating a librarian's past to get hold of a 'restricted' book. And oddly enough, reading the story now is some sort of a continuity error in its own. From the very beginning you think you know what is going to happen, for example we know that and how the Doctor will answer Gwen's question, without the question actually being part of Andrea's first 'memory-draft'. But we just know these things from Moffat's episodes, from - I don't know how to put it -  it's like reading a deja-vu. It's as if we were knowing the hard facts before them taking place but without being familiar of the details. Or vice versa. And that's what keeps us interested into the story this such.

And it's not entirely impossible that the Doctor might end up doing something different this Christmas, manipulating Mr Scrooge's life... Well, I'm pretty sure that there won't be this 'deja-vu feeling' about it, but I'm afraid, it will be only after having watched 'A Christmas Carol' that we'll know for sure.

Just for the Record...

Today Doctor Who, you know, very likely the best TV serial on this tiny blue planet, is having its 47th anniversary. But as this is the first official Doctor Who Day, there aren't any established 'rituals' yet. So we have the freedom of being creative, and freedom is, as facts prove, one of the biggest enemy of creativity in the first place. But let's ignore that side-mark.

Wish you a happy Doctor Who Day then.

Children In Need - A Christmas Carol

Here is the link.
Don't be disappointed, it is only a trailer and not the opening minutes as I at least was hoping for. But it is nevertheless a very promising one, however, there isn't much to speculate about, at least not yet.

So, what did we get then?

We are already told that 'A Christmas Carol' is not set on earth, for what we can assume that, let's call him Mr Scrooge, is an alien who is not too fond of Christmas, which is, we remember, a very human feast and quite popular on earth but even there not everyone is happily celebrating it. Furthermore, he doesn't seem to agree about the Doctor's 'Time can be rewritten' theory. I guess it is not wrong to suppose that's why the Doctor gives him a visit, and I hope Moffat has a very sensible reason why the Doctor uses the chimney to do so. Oh, this might be just after the scene where we see him standing on the roof looking through a giant window at something that might be Mr Scrooge's home...

Additionally, that blond woman the boy (young Mr Scrooge?) is staring at in the beginning might be dead, or something similar to it, and it's not too hard to guess that somehow he is connected to her past. Just as the girl, the one saying one of the Doctor's most favourite lines. And it wouldn't surprise me if somehow Mr Scrooge were also connected to those spooky white corridors which don't seem to exist for much good.

Besides, Amy and Rory appear to end up in some trouble. I hope they won't need the Doctor's help too much, because we also know in this episode they won't spend a lot of time with him.

So, for the next month the Whoniverse has something to look forward to.

About Moffat's And A Certain Blue Box's Secrets...

This Steven Moffat interview by NYMag just made my day, at least some sort of.

First, ignore its title, I couldn't find a single line referring to Sherlock, or is this just me?

The interview as such starts with Moffat answering a few questions about the Doctor's love-life, and yes, thanks for mentioning him having a grand-daughter. But what about Liz, pardon, Queen Elizabeth I?

Then they are addressing Moffat's soft spot regarding killing main-characters and the famous 'Flesh And Stone' 'continuity error' which, as it has to be added, many suspected as part of the story even back then, because it was actually crying to get some attention. Come on, you let the Doctor wandering around in a tweet jacket he had lost just a few minutes ago AND then you also gave him a different watch, so you really shouldn't have expected us not to notice that you wanteed us to notice something going on.

The final part is about the bad, bad internet. We shouldn't forget about Moffat having a twitter account to which he seems to be at least some sort of devoted*. Oh, and people writing blogs do have a life, dates and relationships and all this kind of stuff, it's only that they also happen to have a hobby. But hold on a second – there is an entire blog dedicated to Matt Smith's hair? Really? That's new to me, but then again I also didn't know that River was polarising Doctor Who fans. Gwynne Watkins might simply not know the right sites.

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* EDIT: at least Moffat shows here that he is also aware of this small paradox...

A Mad Man with a Box...

This is a Matt Smith interview by The Telegraph about how Doctor Who has changed his life, how he has been dealing with its fandom and there is also a paragraph mentioning the old 'How Did Matt Smith End Up As An Actor' story, which might be already familiar to more than just the vast majority of the people who are going to read that article.

A bit of a downer is how Matt Smith refers to the name of his character, or is this just The Telegraph quoting him in a wrong way? It is still, just as for the last 47 years, 'the Doctor' and not 'Doctor Who', latter one is the name of the show. Oh, and is it worth mentioning the whole TARDIS vs Tardis stuff?
Probably not.

However, apart from these points in my humble opinion it manages to be a surprisingly entertaining interview. Matt Smith has certainly the right idea of presenting his role. Thanks for that.

Furthermore, he also talks about why this show is still so immensely popular (yep, it does have 'the best ever TV drama format'). And I hope when saying 'everything is possible' he does not include to forget about a certain set of rules which would really appreciate if someone would actually care about them. That's rather Steven Moffat's job, though.

And finally we have to agree uncompromisingly to the last statement, we’ll never tire of watching the Doctor saving the day again and again, at least not as long as someone screws things up really badly.

You make All Of Space & Time Your Backyard...

... and what do you have? A back yard.

If you haven't come across two extraordinarily nice scenes which haven't made it into the actual episodes (and yes, I AM talking about Doctor Who) then these links might be quite interesting to you:
this one took place between The Eleventh Hour and The Beast Below and this one was intended to be between Flesh and Stone and Vampires in Venice.

They are quite adorable, but if you are actually waiting for your box-set to arrive, don't blame me for serving you surely one of its biggest highlights. So, it's your choice.

Oh, and BTW, there is a tiny chance that you might find the second one quite entertaining. Well, some of it is just stupid, nevertheless, in my humble opinion it's a pity that it's not in the actual episode. Because I think it's quite revealing, come on, the Doctor tells Amy why he likes to have a companion on board of the TARDIS. Additional it's hard not to love the tiny Donna reference 'No, forget mates...' At least it makes more sense to me than Flesh And Stone's actual last minutes.

Every Doctor, Every Me...

That was actually good, or is it only the nostalgia coming through?

It wasn't a surprise that part 2 of The Death of the Doctor (link) was better than part 1 because that's where the actual story took place, just like in last year's The Wedding of Sarah Jane. Basically, it even had the same structure, with the Doctor doing a lot of dashing between two places and running as about a year ago.

Nevertheless, this time it was different, in a brilliant way. For if there is one thing RTD is good at, then it's reuniting companions. Sure, there was a bit of a lot hugging and and all that stuff going on, but I suppose that's just the way people are.

I'm glad that this time RTD even addressed the 'why didn't you come back' question, which is not the easiest one to answer, I guess. But RTD handled it in one of the best ways possible. We some sort of suspected Ten going back to each of his former 'companions' before regenerating, and RTD just told us what we wanted to hear. I think also the line 'I don't look back, because I can't...' didn't take many of us by surprise (although we may want to attach an 'Explanation Needed' sign to it.)

Still, there were at least two things fans won't be too found of. First, how that Memory Wave device could have worked in the first place, because even New-Who fans might know that the Doctor uses to change the TARDIS key here and then. So Jo and Sarah Jane weren't exactly remembering the same key. Additionally, why didn't the Doctor just snap his fingers for opening the TARDIS to save them? We know that he knows that he can do that...

The second thing was RTD's attempt of rewriting the good old regeneration rule. In my humble opinion RTD didn't rewrote any sort of canon, because the Doctor was obviously lying. It isn't the first time that he would do that when confronted with a let's call it rather unpleasant question. He just didn't want them to worry about him too much. Besides, he also didn't told Jo about Gallifrey not existing anymore.*

However, all in all, this turned out to be a surprisingly enjoyable episode. Sure, we have to take in account that The Sarah Jane Adventures isn't only officially made for children. It actually IS made for them.
And RTD, thanks for the Doctor not taking himself too seriously. 'Cos between you and me, if that day ever comes, I think the whole universe might just shiver.' is the perfect amount of drama all of his episodes should have.

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* EDIT: By the way, Russel T Davies himself encourages us in this SFX interview not to take that '5o7 statement' too seriously.

The Wait Is Over...

How do you write a proper introduction to a post about a 26 minutes long episode which's main purpose was to introduce its next part?

So, with The Death of the Doctor (link) we had again a very long intro to about 6 interesting minutes just as last year... and I guess they could have solved this a bit differently. Furthermore, actually I'm not too comfortable about the Doctor insulting his former companions for, well, ageing, despite Jo was not exactly nice to him either. Then again this wasn't the first time Eleven has insulted someone... poor Rory.

Furthermore, this episode might be the reason why children will be afraid of big soft-toys in the future. Loved Jo's reaction to those 'Giant Vouchers', though.

And yes, it's undeniable that RTD delivered us a cliffhanger, the part of which The Sarah Jane Adventures has become quite famous for. But in my humble opinion this wasn't exactly RTD's greatest one, it seemed to be a bit forced to me. Basically he just cut a scene into two parts, and I'm sure he could have done better than that...

Nevertheless, after there hasn't been any Doctor Who-ish episode on for about 6 month I think I've been missing it too much to be critical. So, I'm really looking forward to part two. And I'll keep my fingers crossed for RTD explaining that somewhat *cough* ridiculous *cough* 'very complicated biological swap' properly. Additionally I may not be the only one looking forward to Jo and Sarah Jane firing questions at the Doctor.

Interviews...

Sorry, but I just can't come up with a proper title for this one...

It has been for a very long time that I've seen more interviews by David Tennant within a day than yesterday. Well, I'm not complaining for when it comes to giving an interesting but still diplomatic interview there are certainly a few people who might learn form him...
So, here are the bits.

Thanks to Combom and someone calling herself Timelady the pages of David Tennant's recent Radio Times interview have made it to flickr (page 1, page2). It's mostly about his time after Doctor Who, Fright Night, the American Rex Is Not Your Lawyer pilot, Single Father and other stuff.

Furthermore, Blogtor Who was so nice to upload the 5Live interview with David Morrisay and David Tennant to YouTube (part1, part2, part3) which's main part is again about Single Father and Morrison's project Thorn. They also talk a bit about politics, David Tennant's experiences in thee US and the time when he and Morrison were working on Blackpool and The Next Doctor.
Enjoy.

Russel T Davies can't keep his Hands off Doctor Who

According to this Digital-Spy article RTD is about to deal with one of the most important question of Doctor Who, namely, how many lives does the Doctor really have... However, RTD isn't going to deal with this in that TV series which's main-elements he is going to re-write, but in that show's The Sarah Jane Adventures - spin-off.
Disappointed?

Me too.

The Ghost of Christmas Past...

First, I'm sorry for being late.

Right, let's get started... About one week ago the BBC released its showreel for the next months. And thanks to this we get a really short glimpse of Steven Moffat's very first pretty Christmas-y Christmas-Special for Doctor Who. Looking at those 4 seconds it might seem to be sensible for certain rumours popping up saying its title being 'A Christmas-Carol', last but not least because of Steven Moffat's son thinking its title is a cheesy one (as can be found on the Big Moff's twitter-page). And there is also no doubt that copying Mr Dickens is something cheesy to do.

Personally, I think it's strange that the idea of combining Dickens' story with the Christmas-special hasn't popped up earlier in certain editors' minds. Because that's one of those few classical Christmas stories which deal with Doctor Who's most important element...

The Big Moffs's Perfect Christmas & Other Stuff

According to SFX or rather a Steven Moffat interview to be found in The Brilliant Book about which SFX happened to drop a few lines, the next Christmas-special is going to be the one the Big Moff himself would 'like to see.' Actually, I liked Doctor Who's former Christmas-specials for giving me a break from those cheesy Christmas-y and consume-advertising films and episodes. Although I'm pretty sure that as a fan Moffat doesn't need much advise... And even if he spoiled it, at least we would get to know his definition of 'the perfect Christmas'.

Another point the Big Moff mentions (and SFX is so nice to write about) is the quite big 'Silence-Will-Fall'-story arch. So finally he tells us that Silence is a 'they'... (which is at least grammatically speaking also the politically correct term for referring to a female or male being alike. BTW.)

Last but not least there are also a few sentences about River Song. Well, I guess it's not really necessary to mention that Moffat has come up with a very clever story for her, but fans are always grateful for letting them know. And thank you so much for not making her an android... That's something we can put off our immensely long list then.

This changes everything...

Again.

Digital Spy tries to shorten the time to this year's Christmas special by giving us something we could consider as some sort of remarkable news.

This article is mostly about season 6, and to be honest, it's a quite mouth-watering one despite a certain lack of ... let's call it information.

First, it ensures us that, as we already might know, Moffat isn't only madly in love with 'game-changing cliffhangers', but if he weren't already married he might consider getting engaged to one of them. Furthermore, we are told (twice!) that the next season 'will change everything', whatever that is supposed to mean.

At least the last paragraph is finally giving some spoilers away... Well, I hope in spite of Rory stumbling 'to the brink of a tragic mistake' this won't make him the most often killed character of this show. Hold on, that's the Doctor. Although, Rory has already died twice this season, so he is undeniably catching up.

The Big Split...

Oh my dear. Am I the only one thinking that there are a few things Steven Moffat shouldn't mess with? I know, there aren't many arguments supporting my automatic disfavour of his idea of dividing Doctor Who's oncoming seasons into spring and autumn-ones (source), on the contrary, it's not hard to spot at least 3 almost positive points why he has come up with this. I only want you to know that somehow I am going to miss the old schedule, despite writing the following paragraphs...

So, here we go. Moffat's official reason for this, as he says, is that he thinks waiting almost 6 month for the Christmas-special and then another 4 month for the next season is not exactly child- or audience-friendly. I think there aren't many fans disagreeing with him about this. (Although, in my humble opinion it will be more than just odd to have a break after 6 or 7 episodes.)

Secondly, it was really hard not to notice that Steven Moffat was also quite involved into Sherlock's first season, and he makes the impression of being pretty found of writing detective stories. Well, it might be possible that after finishing 6 Doctor Who episodes and giving it a break after that, he hopes to get some extra time for his new project. Again, those who have watched Moffat's 'Study in Pink' might like these news.

And last but not least, is it just me thinking it's odd that the Christmas-special was the only episode which wasn't filmed under winterish-springish conditions?

Or are Moffat's news rather about the bad ratings after all, as our all time favourite series has a slight problem with 2 reality shows...