DOCTOR WHO POTENTIAL SPOILER.
THIS IS JUST A RUMOR.
This news is almost certainly not true, but I MUST report it. But, to be safe, I’ll post it in white text. Drag your mouse over the following to highlight it and make it readable.
Rumor is that Jennifer Saunders from "Absolutely Fabulous" may star in a one-off episode of Doctor Who… as the Doctor!
I am pretty sure this is just a bit of silliness, but still. That would be hawesome. I will avoid making a whole bunch of inside jokes just to make sure I don’t spoil anything.
No, I changed my mind. Highlight the following again to see.
Will the TARDIS be decked out in Le Croix? Will Eddie be the new companion? What Sontaran could face Eddie? I can imagine a scene…
Dalek: EXTREMINATE!
Edwina: There’s no bloody way I’m putting this cigarette out now! [Taps ashes onto Dalek.]
Anyway, and again, I don’t believe a word of it. But it’s fun to speculate!
Tip o’ the sonic screwdriver to the AbFab Angela Gunn.
December 21st, 2007 at 4:55 pm
I think this rumor’s been distorted a bit. Saunders is not playing The Doctor but rather another Time Lord, probably Romana, with whom the 4th Doctor traveled extensively with.
In the same way that Superman keeps discovering he’s not the last Kryptonian, the Doctor seems to keep finding Time Lord survivors of the Time War.
December 21st, 2007 at 5:01 pm
I’m wondering if someone’s mixed up something with the Comic Relief special “The Curse Of Fatal Death” a few years back, where Joanna Lumley (also from Ab Fab, of course) did indeed play the Doctor (along with Rowan Atkinson, Richard E Grant, Hugh Grant, and others – a lot of regenerations…)
December 21st, 2007 at 5:10 pm
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
December 21st, 2007 at 5:24 pm
Not a huge Doctor Who fan, but how do they explain away the different doctors as a matter of series continuity? Is he a shapeshifter, are they different time lords, or do they just not deal with it?
December 21st, 2007 at 5:49 pm
Um, the text shows up plain and visible in the RSS feed.
December 21st, 2007 at 6:02 pm
When a Time Lord nears the end of his life, usually due to some traumatic circumstance, he undergoes a regeneration. His body is renewed, and after a slight temporary disorientation, his memory remains intact. It is a wonderful mechanism to continue the series with new talent and opening new story arcs, but has led to lots of debate on who their favorite Doctor is.
I don’t think this rumor is true, but until our good BA reveals his source, I believe it to be a perversion of the “Curse of the Fatal Death” special revealed by gazza above.
December 21st, 2007 at 6:03 pm
The source is linked in the post.
December 21st, 2007 at 6:04 pm
Agree with gazza666: first thing I thought when I read this was that somebody caught the tail end of “The Curse Of Fatal Death” where the Doctor “dies” and is regenerated as Lumley. IIRC, she was the last regeneration of that episode, so a channel-flipper might have mistaken it for canonical.
It’s a great parody, if you can find it on tape.
December 21st, 2007 at 6:07 pm
Totally not your fault, but you do realize that the spoiler shows in all of its glory in your RSS feed through FeedBurner, right?
The “highlight this to see it” doesn’t survive the RSS process.
December 21st, 2007 at 6:55 pm
Man, people beat me to the Curse of Fatal Death reference…I was just going to say her first words would be, “Look–I’ve got Dalek bumps!!!” and see who got it. Oh, well…
December 21st, 2007 at 6:56 pm
The Sun is reporting that she’s taking over the role in 2010, not just doing a one-off. Which is odd, since I thought Tennant had shot down Catharine Tate’s suggestion that he might be leaving.
There seems to be something going on here, but until there’s some confirmation, I’m going to go with the one-off as more plausible. All in all, it seems a bit early for them to be fussing about 2010 already. I’m all for a woman Doctor though.
(Glad, I’m not the only one who remembered The Curse of Fatal Death.)
December 21st, 2007 at 7:26 pm
I could see it being Romana since she was left by the 4th Doctor in another universe and it has already been shown that several daleks survived the war in this fashion
also when I was a kid I had a HUGE crush on Lalla Ward, the second Romana
December 21st, 2007 at 7:51 pm
And let’s not forget that Lalla Ward is married to none other than Richard Dawkins!
December 21st, 2007 at 7:58 pm
Mouseover not Firefox compatible. The world isn’t IE only any more.
December 21st, 2007 at 9:05 pm
I have been having strange dreams about the Doctor regenerating as a woman. Weird.
I really doubt that David will willingly leave the role anytime soon. He’s always wanted to be the Doctor since he was little. Of course, the same could be said of Colin Baker (who wanted to be the Doctor for an even longer time than Tom Baker), and look where the crap writing of the time got him. I hate to see Martha go, but that whole unrequited puppy love of hers made series 3 a pain to watch at times.
And Ten thought new teeth were a bit to get used to… hehe.
December 21st, 2007 at 10:38 pm
Philip, it’s not mouse over. You have to drag it while holding down the left button. That highlights the text.
I haven’t used IE in about 4 years, and it works for me!
December 21st, 2007 at 10:44 pm
People still use IE?
December 22nd, 2007 at 1:48 am
Just remember…it’s all about…http://www.globalorgasm.org/
I…personally, think it’s a really good idea…uhm…gotta go now…
December 22nd, 2007 at 3:13 am
This story broke in the UK a few days ago. If you follow the links back you’ll find that the source is none other than a tabloid newspaper “The Sun”. They frequently start rumours (such as Tennant to be replaced by James Nesbitt which has been categorically denied) and so on, so I don’t think the story holds too much accuracy.
Mind you, I seem to recall they did get it right about Kylie….
December 22nd, 2007 at 4:15 am
I remember watching reruns of Dr. Who (Tom Baker years) as a kid and really liking them, but I can’t say the same now
.
They made a Dr. Who movie a number of years back (c. 1996) that wasn’t half bad for what it was.
December 22nd, 2007 at 4:53 am
The story is a load of (insert rude word here).
The real skinny is here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/news/cult/news/drwho/2007/12/18/51596.shtml
December 22nd, 2007 at 6:19 am
There’s a lot of rumour-mongering going around at the moment.
It appears very likely that David Tennant will leave after the next series, but the replacement probably isn’t firmed up yet.
It makes sense as a career move for him, because he’s become a very marketable commodity and must have film offers.
An announcer on BBC3, which repeated the first part of the Doctor vs Master episode last night, dropped a suggestion that John Simm might return as the Doctor.
Now that makes sense, because the way was left open when that little crystal that stores his template, slipped into someone’s palm at the denouement of the episode.
Now wouldn’t that be a nice arragement?
Simm regenerates as the Doctor, while Tennant does some movies.
Tennant returns as Doctor, allowing a career enhanced Simm to do likewise……
December 22nd, 2007 at 6:29 am
Personally based on what happened at the end of “Last of the time lords” I was thinking of the Rani.
December 22nd, 2007 at 6:32 am
I still think this sounds like an excellent bit for Comic Relief!
I thought that, since the Dr. Who producers agreed to give Tennant a year off, that he might be around for longer than a year after the the vacation. *sigh*
December 22nd, 2007 at 6:53 am
Well the rumour mill keeps on churning:
“David Tennant has dismissed speculation that he is leaving Doctor Who, blaming co-star Catherine Tate for adding fuel to the rumours.
Tate confirmed her own departure from the show, in which she plays the Time Lord’s assistant, during a phone conversation on BBC Radio 2 at the weekend. She then hinted that Tennant may be following her, saying: “I think it’s maybe David’s last series.”
However, the actor shrugged off the suggestion, saying: “Catherine Tate stitched me up good and proper. She goes on Jonathan Ross and makes up a load of old nonsense. Unbeknownst to me, she thinks I’ve made a decision – she’d clearly had too much coffee that morning.
“She said I was leaving, which was a decision I haven’t made yet. Maybe she’s made it for me, but I’m going to keep people guessing for as long as possible.
He added: “I’m doing four more specials and beyond that no one’s asked me to make any decisions and I’m quite happy to be enigmatic for as long as possible.”
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/cult/a82019/tennant-denies-doctor-who-exit.html
December 22nd, 2007 at 10:31 am
Are you getting Edina (not “Edwina”), played by Jennifer Saunders, and Patsy, played by Joanna Lumley, confused? See photos at IMDB.
December 22nd, 2007 at 11:01 am
Russell T Davies has completely denied this. http://tinyurl.com/2e4usf
December 22nd, 2007 at 12:40 pm
Slice of Sci-Fi recently reported Tennat is booked om til 2009, after that he has no plans to return. Tennant is my favorite Dr. The link the BA provided also provided nice fantasy fodder by making other suggestions of a female Dr. Gillian Anderson, mmmmmm, yummy! My own suggestion? How about everyone’s favorite Vulcan babe, Jolene Blalock? I haven’t slept properly since the episode where she and Tripp got into a little Vulcan Deep Massage Therapy sans clothing.
December 22nd, 2007 at 12:46 pm
“Personally based on what happened at the end of “Last of the time lords” I was thinking of the Rani.”
Word is that Joan Collins will be playing that role in the upcoming season.
December 22nd, 2007 at 2:18 pm
I wouldn’t read too much into what The Sun newspaper says – it is notorious for making up stories (obviously completely unlike any other newspaper!).
The actor will only ever be British – sorry, I’d like Jolene Blalock too but I don’t think she’s be convincing if she had to actually act – & we Brits often have the conversation “who do you think ought to be the next Doctor?”.
My favourites would be: (blokes) Noddy Holder or James May – both of whom already work for the BBC. (Women) Sue Perkins.
Type “female “dr who”" into the famous search engine & the top story is Russell T Davies denying there will ever be a female Dr Who…
December 22nd, 2007 at 2:19 pm
Please excuse speeling – its late at night over here…
December 22nd, 2007 at 4:31 pm
Wut? Jolene Blalock can’t act? Shame on you for such an absurd statement!
December 22nd, 2007 at 4:55 pm
[...] makes a miraculous trick on the silver screen and even the Bad Astronomer just because he’s got his groove on, to ALL BE TIME LORDS for the next series.Sheesh. No body complains about the Mary Magdalene / [...]
December 22nd, 2007 at 9:07 pm
Rumour on the set is that series 4 will be the last one, followed by a year off after which there will be 2 or 3 TV movies to tie up the loose ends.
Expresses sadness.
December 22nd, 2007 at 11:34 pm
@ Chris Sherwood:
You may have some known information mixed up. It’s already been announced that after series 4, there will be a hiatus year (2009). IIRC, this was to allow Tennant time for other projects. However, he has committed to several specials for that year, so count it series 4.5. I haven’t seen any reports about series 5 being in doubt, and even Tennant (in the link in Alex’s post above) is certainly implying a series 5 for him to be enigmatic about his role in. There’s lots of questions: Tennant’s return, the companion situation, Davies’ role, but little doubt of a series 5 in 2010. Canceling Doctor Who now would be about as dumb a move as the Beeb could make.
December 23rd, 2007 at 12:30 am
Dr. Who has been a staple of British Television since the ’60’s. It continues to grow in popularity throughout the world. I really cannot see this show being canceled anytime soon. It’s good to know that Tennant has committed to continuing. I posted a response earlier about a post I read at Slice Of Sci-Fi, where it was stated that he would not be continuing after 2009. For some reason, Alex’s post did not appear until after I posted my later response. (At least I didn’t see it.) I wonder if a Major Motion picture if going to be in the works anytime soon?
December 24th, 2007 at 8:01 pm
The spoiler text was properly hidden when I read the RSS feed with Thunderbird, FWIW.
If Saunders is the Doctor, should Dawn French be the companion? That would ROCK!
December 25th, 2007 at 10:29 am
@ragutis
You could be right, I’m only repeating what’s going around the set and what crew have been told.
In fact, I hope you are right as I would be disappointed to see the new series end after only 4 iterations. (or 4.5)
Truthfully, I would not be surprised to find this was a monetary issue and a play for a better budget.
December 26th, 2007 at 12:48 pm
Play for better budget? Their current budget has to be 1000% greater that the entire Dr. Who budget from the 60s through the 90s. That probaby came to no more than £100000 and they had to pay the cast and writers out of that.
Long live the Doctor. My Timelord and Savior.
January 2nd, 2008 at 7:48 am
i hope hi isnt gonna leave doctor.who cus he is the sexy best