The team at the Doctor Who Bar want to wish their fans a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We hope you had a lovely Christmas and will have a very prosperous New Year.
The Bar itself will return in the New Year. Look out for our tweets.
Monday, 26 December 2011
Thursday, 22 December 2011
The Doctor Who Bar Christmas Poll
Here at The Doctor Who Bar we are gearing up for Christmas and looking forward to watching the new Christmas special "The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe" on Christmas day at 7pm.
So what better way to pass the time until then than to watch your favourite Christmas episode with some friendly fans and tweet your comments, using our hashtag, #DWBar (and following @TheDoctorWhoBar
Don't forget to vote on the poll on the left hand side!
Sunday, 11 December 2011
The #DWBarUSA is back on tonight with "The Curse of Fenric."
Sylvester McCoy’s penultimate story takes us back to the era of World War II. All is not well, as an ancient Norse god, vampires and an overzealous military leader all add to the war time turmoil. "Curse of Fenric" also marks the second of the Periville stories, the only foray the original series made into the psyche of one of the companions, the troubled teenager, Ace. Meanwhile McCoy’ s manipulative streak rises to new heights as questions are answered from plot lines developed two seasons back. Join us tonight for this deep and dark adventure. The story is available from Netflix, both on dvd and for streaming.
We'll open at 7:45 pm EST and we'll press play at 8pm EST (that's 1 am in the UK). Please remember to use #DWBarUSA in your tweets!
Monday, 5 December 2011
What Doctor Who means to me
As a kid growing up in the Eighties I was quite taken by the repeats on BBC2 of the original Star Trek, I also liked Doctor Who too, but it was with the changeover from Tom Baker to Peter Davison which really got me into the show and when I really became a fan.
I followed the show quite religiously through my teens and into my twenties. My two favourite shows of all time from this era are Doctor Who and Dallas. I loved Colin Baker's brusqueness when he took over the role, and then had to endure the 18 month suspension when Michael Grade attempted to cancel Doctor Who. It was a shame the BBC forced Colin Baker to go, citing that three years was the optimum time for a Doctor. The BBC's attitude at this time disgusts me.
What can I say about Sylvester McCoy, a very good Doctor, but unfortunately the BBC were past caring about Doctor Who and wanted well rid of it. They got their wish in 1989, when the final episode of Survival became the last Doctor Who story to be transmitted. As to the programmes future, the show was in limbo. It was heart-breaking living through the wilderness years.
I turned my attention to Star Trek: The Next Generation when it began on BBC2, and still had the comfort of watching my other favourite show Dallas, at least until 1991, when after thirteen years of being on air the continuing saga of Southfork Ranch finally rode into the sunset. My two childhood favourite shows were no more. There's an old saying that you don't realise how much you love something until it's gone, that's exactly how I felt when I lost Doctor Who back in 1989 and then Dallas in 1991.
I love both those shows, I grew up with them, they were a part of my life, and I desperately wanted them to come back. I kept the faith during the wilderness years that eventually the BBC would bring the programme back. After the failure of the 1996 Television Movie, I knew even then that sooner or later the programme would come back.
I'll never forget that day in 2003 when I read a little Stop Press article in my then latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine that the Controller of BBC1 Lorraine Heggessy had recommissioned a new series of Doctor Who. I emailed the then editor Clayton Hickman for confirmation, and he was kind enough to reply to me that yes, the BBC were bringing Doctor Who back. I cried! Tears of joy of course, but sadness too as I still mourned the loss of Dallas, because I realised there was no way they could ever bring Dallas back.
For the first series back in 2005 I must've cried every episode at the mere sight of the titles and the iconic theme music as the programme started! Thankfully I don't cry as much as I used to, but I do remember gasping with joy at the reveal of the Time Lords at the end of the first part of The End of Time, and being clutched by my boyfriend who probably thought I was having a heart attack.
Of the new series Doctor's I really liked David Tennant, but it was still a shame that Chris Eccleston only did one series, I hope he returns for the Fiftieth Anniversary. What can I say about Matt Smith, he's terrific, a worthy successor to David, he reminds me of a young Jon Pertwee, with that very Doctorish nose he's got!
I'm looking forward immensely to the new series of Doctor Who next year, even though we do have to wait till the Autumn, but it will be lovely to have the programme back in it's old traditional time slot.
I'm also very happy too that my other favourite show Dallas, which I thought could never come back is currently filming a new series in America for transmission on TNT and Channel Five next summer. So it'll be great to find out what the Ewings have been up to. Like the new Doctor Who series, this new Dallas series is a direct continuation of the original CBS Dallas series. For anyone who wants more information about the new Dallas series click on the link further down this page on the left.
Not many people get to have both their two childhood shows return, so I'm really extremely lucky. Roll on 2012, when I'll get to see both my fave shows together again, isn't it amazing they both start with a D!!
Please support the official Doctor Who DVD's from 2|Entertain and BBC Worldwide. Please support the official Dallas DVD boxsets from Warner Home Video.
I followed the show quite religiously through my teens and into my twenties. My two favourite shows of all time from this era are Doctor Who and Dallas. I loved Colin Baker's brusqueness when he took over the role, and then had to endure the 18 month suspension when Michael Grade attempted to cancel Doctor Who. It was a shame the BBC forced Colin Baker to go, citing that three years was the optimum time for a Doctor. The BBC's attitude at this time disgusts me.
What can I say about Sylvester McCoy, a very good Doctor, but unfortunately the BBC were past caring about Doctor Who and wanted well rid of it. They got their wish in 1989, when the final episode of Survival became the last Doctor Who story to be transmitted. As to the programmes future, the show was in limbo. It was heart-breaking living through the wilderness years.
I turned my attention to Star Trek: The Next Generation when it began on BBC2, and still had the comfort of watching my other favourite show Dallas, at least until 1991, when after thirteen years of being on air the continuing saga of Southfork Ranch finally rode into the sunset. My two childhood favourite shows were no more. There's an old saying that you don't realise how much you love something until it's gone, that's exactly how I felt when I lost Doctor Who back in 1989 and then Dallas in 1991.
I love both those shows, I grew up with them, they were a part of my life, and I desperately wanted them to come back. I kept the faith during the wilderness years that eventually the BBC would bring the programme back. After the failure of the 1996 Television Movie, I knew even then that sooner or later the programme would come back.
I'll never forget that day in 2003 when I read a little Stop Press article in my then latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine that the Controller of BBC1 Lorraine Heggessy had recommissioned a new series of Doctor Who. I emailed the then editor Clayton Hickman for confirmation, and he was kind enough to reply to me that yes, the BBC were bringing Doctor Who back. I cried! Tears of joy of course, but sadness too as I still mourned the loss of Dallas, because I realised there was no way they could ever bring Dallas back.
For the first series back in 2005 I must've cried every episode at the mere sight of the titles and the iconic theme music as the programme started! Thankfully I don't cry as much as I used to, but I do remember gasping with joy at the reveal of the Time Lords at the end of the first part of The End of Time, and being clutched by my boyfriend who probably thought I was having a heart attack.
Of the new series Doctor's I really liked David Tennant, but it was still a shame that Chris Eccleston only did one series, I hope he returns for the Fiftieth Anniversary. What can I say about Matt Smith, he's terrific, a worthy successor to David, he reminds me of a young Jon Pertwee, with that very Doctorish nose he's got!
I'm looking forward immensely to the new series of Doctor Who next year, even though we do have to wait till the Autumn, but it will be lovely to have the programme back in it's old traditional time slot.
I'm also very happy too that my other favourite show Dallas, which I thought could never come back is currently filming a new series in America for transmission on TNT and Channel Five next summer. So it'll be great to find out what the Ewings have been up to. Like the new Doctor Who series, this new Dallas series is a direct continuation of the original CBS Dallas series. For anyone who wants more information about the new Dallas series click on the link further down this page on the left.
Not many people get to have both their two childhood shows return, so I'm really extremely lucky. Roll on 2012, when I'll get to see both my fave shows together again, isn't it amazing they both start with a D!!
Please support the official Doctor Who DVD's from 2|Entertain and BBC Worldwide. Please support the official Dallas DVD boxsets from Warner Home Video.
Written by @Via_The_Void
Zai Bennett on Sundays Points of View
BBC3 Controller Zai Bennett appeared on Sunday's edition of BBC One's viewer opinion programme Points of View to discuss the channel's most recent commissioning policies, of which the first question raised was about the cancellation of Doctor Who Confidential, the spin-off documentary series which goes behind the scenes of Doctor Who.
Kimberley Ritchie: Being a viewer of Doctor Who Confidential made me realise how much I wanted to go into TV production as a career. I've recently begun a course. I hope you take into account the efforts we're all putting in to try to save something we love.
Zai Bennett: Doctor Who Confidential was a brilliant series that we made six series of. It's a show about the making of another show - Doctor Who - and there are only so many ways explaining how a show is made, and in these straightened times when BBC3 is actually cutting its budget we have to prioritise the shows that we think are most important to our viewers. Doctor Who Confidential was a great show, but after six series we think that it had a very good go explaining how to make Doctor Who.
In response to reports that a Christmas edition of Doctor Who Confidential has been recorded, Bennett also added:
That's absolute nonsense, there is no finished programme sitting on a shelf. That show, however, was made for lots of different people, so for DVD and for BBC Worldwide, and there was some footage, which was about ten minutes, which will end up going online - but there's definitely not a finished show.
The lacklustre brush off of Doctor Who Confidential by Zai Bennett, the current BBC3 Controller probably came as no surprise to the shows fans. Perhaps a few years down the line the programme may be revived for the parent programmes Fiftieth Anniversary.
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