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Dan Rider
Actor and Whovian Dan Rider, clad in bowtie and suspenders, has posted his own “trockapella” version of the Doctor Who theme song… with lyrics. He’s not the first person to attempt such a thing, but he’s one of the precious few to boast the express approval of Steven Moffat. On Friday, the Doctor Who scribe tweeted a link to the clip with the words, “Made my day!”
Watch Rider’s video – it has a certain “wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey” charm:
• Doctor Who is known for its mind-bending, intellectually complex plots. Even Matt Smith admits that, yes, sometimes he doesn’t really get what’s going on at first, but it’s fine.
He told the Express: “I do have to read the scripts a couple of times myself. I’d be a really bad actor if I didn’t.”
Not that he’s remotely bothered. He continued: “Isn’t it good to raise questions? Isn’t it brave to have a TV show on at half-past six that challenges audiences, challenges children, that doesn’t set out to spoon-feed anyone? I’m so tired of TV that’s patronizing and simple.”
And Steven Moffat certainly won’t be the man who dumbs the show down. He had this to add: “It’s a character for whom time travel is a given. I think if something’s good, people won’t mind if they don’t completely understand it.
“Who says we have to understand everything? You either enjoy it or you don’t. I didn’t understand a word of The West Wing but I loved it all the same.”
Rory sonics a bin (possibly) in 'The Girl Who Waited'
• The trouble with the overlapping story arcs in the current Doctor Who is that you can never be sure, in previewing a new episode, whether any detail is minor or not. That’s something SFX has discovered in trying to write about the next episode, “The Girl Who Waited,” premiering Saturday, September 10 at 9/8c. If you wish to see how they got on, you can read it here.
• Den of Geek has taken a pretty decent stab at it too.
• And Digital Spy has pictures.
• But we’ve got the trailer! Do we need to point out that it may contain spoilers? We HAVE? OK.
• The Doctor is truly the “King of the Cons.” Doctor Who created a stir earlier this year at San Francisco’s WonderCon, and, of course, Matt Smith and Karen Gillan brought out legions of loyal viewers with their debut at July’s San Diego Comic-Con.
And just this past Labor Day weekend, over 1,400 fans packed a room at Atlanta’s Dragon*Con for the U.S. premiere screening of “Night Terrors,” Episode 9 of the new season of Doctor Who. (BBC America partnered with Xfinity to hold the premiere.) We’ve got photos! How do Whovians hold it down in the Dirty South? See below – and yes, that’s the line for entry in Photo No. 3. Apparently, it wrapped around a corner. Photos by Jennifer Stamm.
• Here’s the latest Doctor Who Insider, focusing on the scary dolls in this past weekend’s “Night Terrors” episode. If you haven’t seen it yet, there’s an encore presentation that airs Saturday morning (September 10) at 1 ET.
• Matt Smith doesn’t think River Song should ever be (or have been) a permanent companion for the Doctor, as it would lessen the impact of her appearances. He told Bang! Showbiz: “I think River’s too independent to ever be a full-time companion; I think that’s what makes River great as a character. The companions and The Doctor are doing their thing, then whoosh – in comes the hair.
“It just messes The Doctor up and makes him go, ‘Oh Christ, River’s here’, and it frightens him. And weirdly he’s going, ‘Why the hell am I attracted to her? What’s that?’ That’s the woman who makes him go whoa.” (via Gigwise)
• This week’s companion piece is about Susan Foreman, the Doctor’s Grand-daughter, who was the subject of the very first episode, back in 1963. She’s the one who named the TARDIS, and no, she didn’t call it “Sexy.”
• The men’s Anglo Fan Favorites tournament has wrapped, with David Tennant taking an impressive third place behind winner Alan Rickman and runner-up Colin Firth.
Now vote in the women’s tournament. Karen Gillan, Alex Kingston, Billie Piper, Freema Agyeman, Catherine Tate, Carey “Sally Sparrow” Mulligan, and Torchwood‘s Eve Myles are all competing for this year’s title, against heavy-hitters such as Emma Watson, Helena Bonham Carter, and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge.
• We’ve all imagined the various Doctors as if they were cats, haven’t we? No? Well now we don’t have to, TARDISCat at the Deviant Art website has drawn it for us.
Seriously, please do check out the cats. They’re quite something.
6 Comments
As Matt Smith points out above, “…Isn’t it brave to have a TV show on at half-past six that challenges audiences, challenges children…”. Too bad that isn’t the case in the States. Evidently when the show travels across the pond it suddenly isn’t a children’s show anymore and therefore is scheduled to run at 9:00pm! Too bad the kids here can’t have one intelligent show. Guess it’ll be iCarly instead….
I’m also across the pond and the kiddo watches here, too–as it’s on saturday nights…they stay up to watch just as I did as a small child watching on PBS–(Least they don’t get to watch Benny Hill like WE did right before it! ~LOL~)
Barring allowing them to stay up late–since it’s on BBC America, which is a cable network–why not DVR it and let them watch saturday mornings?
Err..I really meant to say SUNDAY mornings….~toddles off in search of caffeine~
Dan Rider, you are my new hero. That was great!
I have the feeling that I am NOT the only person who “Woooo…ooooo.ooooh’s it with the theme song cut offs at commercial breaks!!! I LOVE this show and love that it both challenges and confounds me. I also admire that it really is a kid’s show that manages to be scary and grown up all at the same time…no pandering allowed! I never knew I had geek in me until Dr Who and will happily debate Whovian topics and plot lines for hours with anyone who wants to engage!
Love the song!