Blah, blah, blah. Season three starts filming this week. Big press release with gushing stuff from Freema and RTD in all the papers.
The Daily Star - which should perhaps be called the Daily Start Making Stuff Up - has chosen to go one better with a 'revelation': next season is going to hint the Doctor has a son.
"Everyone knows that Time Lord's have 13 lives and then that's it, they finally die. Since there are only two regenerations left, the BBC need a plan to make sure the show can carry on."
"So the only way to stop Doctor Who from being killed off completely is by bringing on a successor."
Apparently, this news flash to the world will appear in the final episode of the season. However, as always with the Star, you have to question just how true this is likely to be, particularly given its 'source' continues:
Last year it was hinted that the Doctor had a child following a doomed love affair with someone from a forgotten planet.
Really? I must have missed that. Which episode was that in? Saying "I was a Dad once" is somewhat different from "I had a child following a doomed love affair with someone from a forgotten planet".
Also, and correct my maths here if necessary, 10+2, no matter which way you spin it, is still not 13. There are at least three Doctors left before it all falls apart - and the Master proved that doesn't have to be a permanent problem. Since we can be pretty sure there's going to be at least two seasons per Doctor, following the Eccles Cake® debacle, that's at least seven years of Doctor Who left before the wheels are going to come off. Even that's assuming that DT legs it at the end of the third season, which given his obvious relish of the role and that he no doubt has ambitions of longevity to rival Tom Baker's, I don't see that happening just yet.
And they're working on the back-up plan now? What do you think?
Incidentally, just to pre-empt future fans, I will try to claim credit for a Freema Agyeman nickname, assuming no-one's already done so. In future, if any of her fans describe her as "Sweet FA", they will have to pay me royalties. I declare that now.
Do I have to pay Stu_N royalties for my repeated use of the phrase "Eccles Cake" to describe Christopher Eccleston, I wonder?
August 11, 2006 | Reply
"Do I have to pay Stu_N royalties for my repeated use of the phrase "Eccles Cake" to describe Christopher Eccleston, I wonder?"
I expect I will have to apy up just as much...
August 11, 2006 | Reply
I am not surprised they are going down the road of revealing more about the Doctor's personal life, why else would they drop a bomb like "I was a father once" in Fear Her? Besides, I like it.
But I doubt the future of Doctor Who depends on the off spring. First of all, it's too much in the future. Two years ago Doctor Who was all but finished, and now they are planning what to do in 6 years time? Hard to believe! Secondly, the 13 regenerations thing is arbitrary and there are many ways to get around it. The offspring business is the less elegant.
August 11, 2006 | Reply
Well, it's not even a revelation. The Doctor's first companion was his granddaughter. That sort of implies a daughter or a son somewhere (unless you're into 'The Cartmel Plan' and the Further Adventures, in which case Time Lords are sterile, thanks to the curse of the Pyrrah or someone, and they reproduce using 'The Loom'). Then there was was William Hartnell's idea of 'Son of Dr Who'.
I'd always assumed the "I was a dad once" was just a nod to continuity fans, rather than part of some genius master plan to continue the show in six or nine years' time.
Plus I think RTD is already on record as saying something along the lines of "If we ever get to his 13th incarnation, we'll just invent a Jewel of Zog or something that gives him more lives."
August 11, 2006 | Reply
Actually I think you'd have to pay my friend Andrew, seeing as I think it was him who came up with it in the first place. But he works for Google, so he's not allowed to be evil, unless he's in China. So I reckon you're OK to regard it as royalty free.
The Cartmel Plan comes with its own matching anorak, doesn't it?
August 11, 2006 | Reply
Aren't they all galactically rich at Google? He doesn't need the money. I say Eccles Cake should be free for all then.
As for the anorak, it's embroidered and is actually pretty swoosh. Warm in winter, too.
August 11, 2006 | Reply
I'll never say no to a free eccles cake. The enormous ones from the bloke at Borough Market, for preference.