Monster Zero x SciFi Japan - Archive Only

And here's the first big news about Series Three, I suppose. Still a rumor, but a good one!

SPOILER AHEAD ABOUT A RETURNING CHARACTER!

According to today's Star (http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2006350567,00.html), Zoe Lucker, the evil bit... um, witch from Footballers’ Wives ... will be taking the role of the Doctor's female archnemesis, The Rani!

If you've never seen FW, it's a really smarmy soap, but I have to say that Zoe's Tanya Turner is about as evil as Joan Collins was in Dynasty! I hate to say it (heck, I hate to watch it, but it's like a car accident), but she's rather perfect for the role!
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Evil Zoe takes on Dr Who
By COLIN ROBERTSON

FOOTBALLERS’ Wives star Zoe Lucker is being lined up to play Doctor Who’s evil arch-enemy The Rani.

Show bosses are bringing back the terrible Time Lady, who was originally played by Kate O’Mara in the 1980s.

And sexy Zoe — superbitch Tanya Turner in racy ITV1 hit Footballers’ Wives — is a dead cert for the part.

An insider said: “The Rani was a classic character — pure evil. She’s ripe for a return and Zoe is perfect to play her. There are similarities between The Rani and bitchy Tanya.â€

I never really took to the Rani in the original series, and I'm a bit surprised that she would be the first of the other Time Lords/Time Ladies to be found alive after the Time War. I'd like to see a return of the War Chief from The War Games, perhaps he managed to regenerate himself after being shot down by the War Lord's guards.

Just got the new issue of Doctor Who Magazine, and in the first of a two-part interview, RTD has denied the rumour that the Ice Warriors will be back for Series Three, though he has said that a couple of classic series monsters will be returning.

Of course, he doesn't say which.

Wow. Not really Series Three, but thank ghod this got cancelled:

BBC cans Rose Tyler Doctor Who spin-off

By Lester Haines
Published Monday 21st August 2006 15:10

The Beeb has canned the planned Rose Tyler Doctor Who spin-off after series producer Russell T Davies "got cold feet" over the project.

Ms Tyler, played by Billie Piper, exited the Tardis earlier this year and has been replaced by Freema Agyeman for the next series.

The Beeb has canned the planned Rose Tyler Doctor Who spin-off after series producer Russell T Davies "got cold feet" over the project.

Ms Tyler, played by Billie Piper, exited the Tardis earlier this year and has been replaced by Freema Agyeman for the next series.

The show - called Rose Tyler: Earth Defence - "was actually commissioned by the controller of BBC One and budgeted", Davies told Doctor Who Magazine. However, he eventually decided it was "a spin-off too far" and consigned it to the bin. Davies admitted the BBC "hadn't formally approached Billie, although we'd mentioned it to her".

Davies explained: "It was going to be fantastic. We'd have had a lovely budget and done brilliant things with it, maybe one Bank Holiday special a year." He also lamented that the decision to pull the plug had cost him "a fortune".

Meanwhile, the other Who spin-off, Torchwood, will indeed hit the small screen in the autumn. The 13-part series features John Barrowman as Captain Jack and "focuses on a squad of secret agents facing human and alien enemies".

And that's not all. The doctor's former robotic companion K9 has been resurrected for the kids' market and will appear in a 26-part series for children's TV channel Jetix Europe. K9 Adventures, a mix of live action and animation, is described by the channel's Michael Lekes as "an excellent space fantasy-adventure series that we are sure will be immensely popular".

Maybe so, but not as popular as a rumoured Sarah Jane Smith come-back. Smith - played by Elisabeth Sladen who was recently reunited with the Doctor in School Reunion - may yet delight adolescent males in a possible "Sarah Jane Investigates" pilot. We shall see.

I agree with you there. Rose Tyler: Earth Defence sounds more like a fanfic than a spin-off.

I think the Zygons and the Wirrn were two aliens that appeared in only one story but I think would make great recurring villians. It's not like Fenric or someone who was defeated at the end of the story and that should be the end of him. I really felt for them that at the end of the story the Doctor hadn't seen the last of them, you know?

Since this thread is about upcoming DW I'd like to address the main complaint about RTD's handling of the new series, mainly it being to human/ earth oriented. RTD thinks that people won't watch a show if it doesn't, in some way, revolve around the (present) human race. I don't believe that to be so, personally, and that that is actually a rather bigoted way of thinking (you'd expect more from a gay man wouldn't you?). But even so, its the same reason Pertwee was, mostly, on earth for four years with a regular cast of humans. Even Pat Troughton thought that DW was best when having a present day invasion of earth.

...and lets not forget that making other, fictional cultures, especially alien cultures, just as real and likeable/unlikeable as our own is very hard to do. Maybe RTD doesn't think they've got the chops to get down and dirty and really polish something like that.

This all being said, I really do love the new Doctor Who, and (as I stated before) it's no different than the 3rd Doctor's era. The thing is Doctor Who is never ever perfect, their's always time or budget constraints, and annoyoing companion, a script editor who's stories work really well half of the time but are complete mush for the other half, ect. ect.... but we still love it. I'm sure when RTD steps down and some other guy or gal steps up to the plate we'll be introduced to an entire other set of strenghts and flaws.

BTW The Doctor's new companion being, what, a medical student, makes me fell a bit better. The Tyler gang was good people, but (and this is a horrible thing to say) I'd prefer some people with a bit more class.

^Just to clarify, I didn't mean I dislike people with "less class," but rather I think they work better in Doctor Who.

I thought about my post all day and thought about what a horrible person that last comment makes me out to be.

sorry

So do we consider runaway bride as ep 0 of S3 or ep 14 of S2?

Speaking of which, from the S2 thread, Robert mentioned the TARDIS vs car chase in Runaway Bride. Gotta say that is definately not something you see every day. How many times has it ever happened that you see the TARDIS moving within an atmosphere at all? In Tomb of the Cybermen there was a suggestion of one of the archeologists seeing the TARDIS (offscreen) coming down to land on the planet.

In the newly published there is an article about whether or not the TARDIS "flies". But of course we now know.

Sooooo even though it keeps getting denied, I keep reading persistant rumors of the return of the Ice Warriors in S3.