'Doctor Who' Gaiman ep title revealed
Published Mar 28 2011, 17:21 BST | By Morgan Jeffery
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SFX claims that the instalment, which will air fourth in the next run, is entitled 'The Doctor's Wife'.
Former Coronation Street actress Suranne Jones will appear in the episode as Idris, previously described by Gaiman as "an old acquaintance with a new face".
Michael Sheen will voice a character in the instalment, which also stars Elizabeth Berrington and Adrian Schiller.
Gaiman recently revealed that he is "happy" with the final version of his script, adding: "They spent money on this one and it shows."
Doctor Who will return to BBC One in April.
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Oh, mark my words, all this wife business is a monstrous red herring. River's not his wife, and no other human-ish humanoid woman is either. The Doctor's great love is his TARDIS, and he's alien enough not to be looking for romantic candlelit dinners with someone in a short skirt! Moff is DEFINITELY misleading everyone, I'm certain of it.
March 31st 2011 at 11:24pm
Oh, mark my words, all this wife business is a monstrous red herring. River's not his wife, and no other human-ish humanoid woman is either. The Doctor's great love is his TARDIS, and he's alien enough not to be looking for romantic candlelit dinners with someone in a short skirt! Moff is DEFINITELY misleading everyone, I'm certain of it.
March 31st 2011 at 11:24pm
So you honestly believe that the wholesale repression of sex and themes of sexuality is the same as creative integrity? That's a pretty unhealthy and practically Victorian way to look at the subject. A lot of writers would agree with me that a story can be still be fun, joyful and thoughtful while approaching the subject of sex and even perhaps being titillating.
Loveless sex and partnering as a social imperative as you hint at has never once been shown or even inferred by any episode of Nu-Who. If anything, the show has been a shining example of tv finally taking a progressive attitude towards sex, sexuality and love. On another note, out of all the companions on the show, only Rose and Amy have showed straightforward attraction towards the Doctor while the rest of the companions like Donna Noble and Martha Jones had complex relationships with him that weren't at all based on sexual attraction. One of the widest criticisms of Classic Who is that in the majority of episodes female companions act as nothing more than stereotypical damsels in distress for the male heroes to save, conforming to the sexist male/female gender hierarchy that you accuse Nu-Who's so-called "agenda" of.
Yes, the writers of Classic Who were able to tell great stories on a shoestring budget, but you're wrong that steering clear of sexual content was a choice made on their part, the writers didn't approach sex because the show just wouldn't have been allowed to air otherwise.
March 30th 2011 at 11:25pm
There was certainly sexual tension (Lalla Ward and Tom Baker, for obvious reasons) but no snogging, shagging or pairing off occured (that my kinda perception on integrity hun, dunno what constitutes yours). The focus was on the stories and the fun and joy of it all. Even waaay back in the 70's it was okay to kiss on TV, whatever the 'politcs' were... still, for some strange reason, the production team steered clear of it and focused on story telling on a shoe string - funny that. Luckily for my argument I have the backing of old who writers who completely agree with me (very vocally too). So I guess my 'assumption' is kinda common and upheld by those directly involved :D so don't listen to me :) take it from them. But bless you for trying :)
I simply object to every single companion chucking themselves non-stop at him. It was eye-rollingly awful with Rose, now its really, really irritating and so far beyond a joke its making me switch off and I'm a life long fan. Are the BBC trying to say that one cannot lead a life without sex and romantic love? Hmmmm. The agenda is over-powering the show and it desperately needs reigning back in. Get some imagination injected back into.
Cripes, imagine Ace throwing herself at 7th Dr?!?!?! Unless it was for pure comedy effect, it would be horrible. Lol! No, wait, Mel or Tegan! Lol! Utterly beyond stupid.
March 30th 2011 at 10:32pm
Maybe new-Who has taken it too far, but in classic Who there was often implicit sexual tension between certain Doctors and companions because as you say - sex sells. And many of Classic Who's younger Doctors and Companions were sex icons back in their day, lest you forget.
You seem to be under the assumption that Classic Who didn't appeal to the masses through explicit sex appeal because they somehow had "more integrity" than the writers of Nu-Who, when the fact of the matter isn't that they chose not to, but that they couldn't. The politics of the BBC in the late 70s and especially in the 80s meant that sex on TV could be nowhere near as explicit as it is these days, especially on a Family Show like Doctor Who. It's not just that your show would get a slap on the wrist if it did something provocative like nowadays, back then your show would have more than likely been pulled right off the air.
Television is, has always been and always will be a business at the end of the day. Typical of Sci-fi shows, Doctor Who has always had to work harder than most for its ratings. If those in creative control of Classic Who at all felt that they could safely get away with having their sexually attractive main characters speak or act in a way that appealed to the hormones of the masses (which I agree is exactly what Nu-Who is doing), a surefire method of ensuring higher ratings in the long run and therefore better job security for mostly everyone involved, you're kidding yourself if you think that they wouldn't have leaped at the chance.
In fact, I'd go as far to say that if Classic Who could have gotten away with the kind of sex appeal that brings Nu-Who its high ratings, the show would have been much more successful with the mainstream and probably could have applied for a higher budget. If it had more clout, the show probably wouldn't have struggled politically and financially so much in the mid 80s and the writers of Six and Seven's run wouldn't have been forced by mandate to incorporate the kind of gimmicks and cameos that plagued Classic Who towards the end and nailed its coffin shut. Instead, writers have had more creative freedom to tell the kind of stories that they wanted to tell. So while I definitely agree that sex on tv definitely shouldn't become gratuitous, there's a strong argument that Classic Who would have been healthier, lived longer and therefore better all round for it.
March 30th 2011 at 10:17pm