h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Speculation (some might call it gossip) seems to play a great part in human life. Some would say that it is one of its worst parts.

Bad Wolf created a lot of interesting speculation, so, as we have a while to speculate, I thought it would be interesting to take a thread which started on POV over here, and look at various speculations about both the Christmas Episode and the next series. While I would not want to preclude "Fact", I would ask that, if somebody does have spoilers, please follow the correct protocol for spoilers; what I would like here is rumour and speculation more than spoilers.

(Gossip from the mouth of RTD, that is already in the public domain is also welcome.)

More curiosity than speculation - CE was contracted for 13 episodes plus a Christmas Special. Since his (sad) demise in epi.13, has his Christmas Special been lost, or can we look forward to seeing him again? Time being as it is, can we flip back to the past when CE was doctor, just for Christmas? That would be nice!

The Christmas Invasion

by Russell T. Davies The Doctor

Rumoured to feature the newly-regenerated Doctor and Rose battling against a race of aliens from the Doctor's past...

David Tennant (Doctor Who), Billie Piper (Rose Tyler), REST OF CAST TBA

Directed by James Hawes
Produced by Phil Collinson
Executive Producers Russell T. Davies and Julie Gardner
A BBC Wales production

Further to which, my posting on pov copied over:
Words of and from the Christmas Special (as supplied by RTD, and that is true):

"Guinevere", "Venezuela", "pork pie" and "remote control"

Words of and from School Reunion:

"paradigm", "Aberdeen", "Secret Squirrel" (The new Bad Wolf?(I think I am joking) "So now what do we do?"

The reason I post this is that I'm from Aberdeen. Was it Doctor Who #4 who talked about the natural background radiation in Aberdeen being quite high? higher than that in a Nuclear Power Station. Maybe Ms Slitheen should have built her one up here. Piece of cake. Nuclear radiation! We glow in the dark. In fact it never gets really dark here.

Reminds me of somewhere? Nuclear Radiation, The Doctor, Daleks, Exterminate, Bridgehead from Skaro, the Royal Davros Hotel. Got to get out of here quick, No! it's too late, they're coming to get me, NO, NO, NO......
..
..
..
..
\../(Crash!!)
Good job that window was on the ground floor.

It+*















































OK so it's David Tennant then. It isn't that I don't like David Tennant, or don't think he'll be good, but CE grew into the part so well. On repeated watching of tapes, when you have time to absorb rather than just watch the action, his acting, expression, was just so good. Mind, I'd rather Dr Who without CE than not at all, so I'm eagerly awaiting the next one. Roll on Christmas!

OK so it's David Tennant then. It isn't that I don't like David Tennant, or don't think he'll be good, but CE grew into the part so well. On repeated watching of tapes, when you have time to absorb rather than just watch the action, his acting, expression, was just so good. Mind, I'd rather Dr Who without CE than not at all, so I'm eagerly awaiting the next one. Roll on Christmas!

Rumours from around the world for which I take no personal responsibility.

Series One had the Bad Wolf theme, and according to RDT, series two will also have a theme - and the 'clue' word for this has already been said in Series One. The same word will also appear in 'The Christmas Invasion'.

The theme will be Jack Harkness's missing 2-years, and the 'clue' word is Villengard, the Time Agency's weapons factory that the Doctor blew up.

Some reckon that the Series Two arc theme will be to do with the words: "HIGHER FORMS" which the Gelth mentioned only once and only in "The Unquiet Dead". The Gelth are one of the higher forms that were devastated in the Time War which went mostly unnoticed by lower beings like humans.

1. It looslely relates to the arcing Time War theme of series one, so will reward viewers of this series, may entice people to buy the DVDs when watching the second series, but will still be acceptable to the casual viewer since 'higher forms' is a self contained concept which can be explored without much (if any) reference back to the previous episodes.

2. The Gelth are essentially ghosts - so if just them or even some or all of the higher forms ended up like them, then they could make up an "Army of Ghosts", which fits in with one of the series two episode titles.

3. The higher forms have a grudge to bear against the Time Lords and the Daleks after their Time War devisated them. Since the Doctor is the only example remaining of either of these races and a prime protagonist in this Time War, they would naturally like a piece of him!

To clarify - here's what RTD said: About a story arc for the second season, like the "Bad Wolf" stuff: "Yes there is, and that word has already been heard on screen. And that's all I'm saying. You'll have to go back and trawl through 13 episodes to realise what I'm on about. You'll hear the word in the Christmas special though"

Rumors abound, mostly in a report in Saturday's The Sun, that the BBC has approached Elisabeth Sladen to reprise the role of Sarah Jane Smith along with her robot dog K-9 in next year's Doctor Who season. The Sun quotes Russell T Davies as saying "Talks are under way with Elisabeth Sladen to revive the iconic character Sarah Jane Smith, who is remembered by a whole generation of Doctor Who fans." However, there's no additional confirmation about this quote or the report itself.

I don't tend to believe any Who rumours (Whomours?) that are printed in the British tabloids -not after teh Mirror's announcement that "Bill Nighy IS the Doctor" which was printed on the day that CE was officially named - but having that kind of link to the classic series would be rather nifty.

Lis Sladen returning as Sarah Jane Smith would be interesting, but I don't think K9 would cut it with a modern audience.

One thought that occured to me was a crossover story a la Three/Five/Two Doctors. Peter Davison and Nicola Bryant could probably get away with appearing in it as there's nothing about either of them that a bit of work in make-up couldn't fix.

Traveller in Time robogies everywhere
"It occurs to me the toy robot dogs have quite some resemblance with K9 "

But rumour does seem to be part of the lifeblood of many a Whovian. Go to ANY Doctor Who site and you will find rumour. I think we really like specualting about the meaning of Bad Wolf, whether, this or that person is going to appear in the last episode, whether the cybermen are going to look this way, or that depending on who, in the production team you ask, and what is the new word going to be. And we all want to know what the Doctor meant when he reversed the polarity of the neutron flow.

As to the rumour(?) about Sarah Jane Smith; while the source is not exactly reliable, I do think that it would be good if Sarah Jane came back, with, or without K9. I even think that, now that we have got away from the interminable squabbling and convoluted storyline creation process of the JNT days, it would even be interesting to bring back some of the characters of the later series. Big Finish, especially, has shown what can be done. Even .... (If you're there TD, this thought is for you.)

Rumours/announcements from around the web but not yet posted on the BBC web site:

The writers for the second season will be a mix of returning and new.

The former include:
- Mark Gatiss (one episode),
- Steven Moffatt (one episode)
- Russell T Davies (six episodes, two of which form a two-part story).

Those tackling Doctor Who scripts for the first time are:
- Matt Jones (two episodes, one of which reportedly has the working title The Satan Pit; he wrote the Doctor Who: The New Adventures novel Bad Therapy as well earning credits on the TV series Coronation Street and Love In The 21st Century, and was script editor on Davies' Queer As Folk)
- Tom McRae (two episodes; he wrote the series School's Out)
- Toby Whithouse (one episode; he's the creator of No Angels and is an actor as well, appearing in films such as Bridget Jones's Diary).

The first three directors for the new season will be:
- James Hawes (Block One, which includes The Christmas Invasion, Episode 15, and School Reunion; he was the director of The Empty Child & The Doctor Dances)
- Euros Lyn (Block Two, which will include two episodes; he directed The End Of The World and The Unquiet Dead)
- Graeme Harper (Block Three, consisting of four episodes; he helmed the Fifth Doctor story The Caves Of Androzani and the Sixth Doctor adventure Revelation Of The Daleks).

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/article/ds23443.html With thanks to BouncyCastle on POV.

Aliens invade Clearwell
TV's most famous time traveller visited Clearwell Caves recently to film a top-secret Christmas special. BBC Gloucestershire's Andy Vivien grabbed his sonic screwdriver and went to investigate.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/gloucestershire/content/articles/2005/08/30/who_clearwell_feature.shtml