Paul McGann In 'The Night of the Doctor'

With just nine days to the 50th Anniversary Doctor Who episode The Day of The Doctor, the BBC has released the mini-episode The Night of The Doctor, which features the return of Paul McGann as the 8th Doctor.

It appears the battle between the Time Lords and Daleks is threatening to destroy the galaxy, but the Doctor appears not to be involved. He answers a distress call only to discover the girl, Cass, he intends to rescue, does not want Time Lord help and is willing to die before she will. Her ship crashes on a planet, killing her and the Doctor.

But the Doctor has arrived on Karn, home to the Sisterhood and The Sacred Flame, which produces The Elixir of Life. The sisterhood is remnants of the matricidal legacy that was the old ways of Gallifrey, long before the rise of Rassilon and have dealt with the Time Lords for eons (the fourth Doctor spent some time here during the TV adventure The Brain of Morbuis) ever since. The Sisterhood resurrects the Doctor, only to give him a grim reality: he cannot avoid the battle and the galaxy will fall if he does not help. So death or regenerate (with help from the Sisterhood) and fight in the Time War. The Doctor knows, of course, there is only one choice…

Star Wars: Episode VII set for December 18, 2015 Release

Just last month, when Kathleen Kennedy announced that Oscar winning writer Michael Arndt was off Star Wars: Episode VII script after nearly a year of writing it and that director J.J. Abrams and The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi writer Lawrence Kasdan were now scripting the movie, some began to worry that the film would need to be delayed from 2015 planned release. And it’s been rumored for a while that Abrams was hoping to delay the film until 2016 due to the scripting issues, while Disney was still wanting –probably- a summer 2015 release date (the six previous films all launched in May). 

Abrams –doing press for Bad Robot’s new FOX series Almost Human- hinted that Arndt’s departure had to with when Disney wants to release the film. "It became clear that given the timeframe, and given the process, and the way the thing was going that working with Larry in this way was going to get us where we need to be and when we needed to be."

But the hiring of Kasdan –who is known as a great and more importantly, a fast writer- may have elevated Abrams worries a bit, so Disney finally pulled the trigger on the release date, announcing what was probably a compromise, of a December 18, 2015 date. 

"We're very excited to share the official 2015 release date for Star Wars: Episode VII, where it will not only anchor the popular holiday filmgoing season but also ensure our extraordinary filmmaking team has the time needed to deliver a sensational picture," said Alan Horn, chairman of The Walt Disney Studios.

Preproduction on Star Wars: Episode VII continues in London and the film is set to begin lensing in early Spring 2014 at Pinewood Studios.  

Disney, Marvel Studios and Netflix Team Up for 4 New Shows

What was first hinted at a few weeks ago now comes to fruition as Marvel Television, Disney’s ABC Television Studios and the online streaming provider Netflix will team up and launch 4 brand new serialized TV shows that culminate in an epic miniseries event. The four Marvel properties will be Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist and Luke Cage. Those four series of at least 13 episodes each will then lead into The Defenders,  reimaging a dream team of self-sacrificing, heroic characters who maintain order around New York's Hell's Kitchen.

The advantages of Netflix as a distribution hub will mean each series can expand its premise beyond broadcast TV scope and their limitations –such as what’s happening to Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on ABC which has failed to light up many folks interest. Which means the shows can –depending on showrunners –actually follow close to their comic book storylines without too much worry of demographics, censors and dictated set pieces that follow a same business model that TV has been churning out for 60 years. 

This may give Daredevil a chance at redemption following 2003’s Ben Affleck led film, which suffered more due the fact that 20^th Century Fox wanted a family friendlier version of the character. Since then, there had been hope to reboot the franchise, but all things considered, TV may be the more viable option for it. And being on Netflix can make it better, where it can return to some of its darker roots.

Disney’s Marvel and Netflix Join Forces to Develop Historic Four Series Epic plus a Miniseries Event Based on Renowned Marvel Characters

 Landmark Deal Brings Marvel’s Flawed Heroes of Hell’s Kitchen, led by “Daredevil,”

to the World’s Leading Internet TV Network in 2015

Burbank, Calif. –  Nov 7, 2013—The Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) and Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) today announced an unprecedented deal for Marvel TV to bring multiple original series of live-action adventures of four of Marvel’s most popular characters exclusively to the world’s leading Internet TV Network beginning in 2015. This pioneering agreement calls for Marvel to develop four serialized programs leading to a miniseries programming event.
Led by a series focused on “Daredevil,” followed by “Jessica Jones,” “Iron Fist” and “Luke Cage,” the epic will unfold over multiple years of original programming, taking Netflix members deep into the gritty world of heroes and villains of Hell’s Kitchen, New York. Netflix has committed to a minimum of four, thirteen episodes series and a culminating Marvel’s “The Defenders” mini-series event that reimagines a dream team of self-sacrificing, heroic characters.

Produced by Marvel Television in association with ABC Television Studios, this groundbreaking deal is Marvel’s most ambitious foray yet into live-action TV storytelling.

“This deal is unparalleled in its scope and size, and reinforces our commitment to deliver Marvel’s brand, content and characters across all platforms of storytelling. Netflix offers an incredible platform for the kind of rich storytelling that is Marvel’s specialty,” said Alan Fine, President of Marvel Entertainment. “This serialized epic expands the narrative possibilities of on-demand television and gives fans the flexibility to immerse themselves how and when they want in what’s sure to be a thrilling and engaging adventure.”

“Marvel’s movies, such as Iron Man and Marvel’sThe Avengers, are huge favorites on our service around the world. Like Disney, Marvel is a known and loved brand that travels,” said Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos. “With House of Cards and our other original series, we have pioneered new approaches to storytelling and to global distribution and we’re thrilled to be working with Disney and Marvel to take our brand of television to new levels with a creative project of this magnitude.”

This new original TV deal follows last year’s landmark movie distribution deal through which, beginning with 2016 theatrically released feature films, Netflix will be the exclusive U.S. subscription television service for first-run, live-action and animated movies from the Walt Disney Studios, including titles from Disney, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar Animation Studios, Marvel Studios,

The 50th is called "The Day of the Doctor' and Smith's new wig for the Christmas Special

The BBC has finally confirmed the title for Doctor Who's 50th Anniversary Special, which will air -simultaneously- across the globe on November 23. Called The Day of The Doctor, the story will see the return of David Tennant as the tenth Doctor and Billie Piper as Rose. John Hurt also guest stars as some unknown version of the Doctor -somewhere between his 8th and 9th regeneration (or is Hurt really the 9th Doctor, with Eccelston, Tennant and Smith being shuffled down by one slot?).

Whether BBC America will air the other programming associated with Doctor Who is unknown, though they do plan to air An Adventure In Space and Time, a special 90 minute TV movie about the creation of the series that stars David Bradley, of the Harry Potter films, as William Hartnell – who was the first Doctor in 1963.

It's also possible BBC America will air (beyond current episodes of Doctor Who) An Unearthly Child, the series original premier serial, which the BBC is re-airing in November. This will be a restored version of the 4 episode debut, not previously broadcast in the UK (as well as the US).

Meanwhile, production has begun on the Christmas episode, which will see the end of Matt Smith's tenure as the Doctor and will pave the way for Peter Capaldi's Doctor (though the BBC says that the 8th season will not begin until August of 2014). Much like The Day of the Doctor, not much is known about this episode, though the Cybermen appear to be involved. As has happened over the last few years, this holiday special is expected to air here on BBC America on Christmas Day.

Peter Capaldi is to be the Twelfth Doctor

The bookmakers were right and at last we know the name of the actor who will take on the twelfth incarnation of the Doctor. His name is Peter Capaldi, a veteran actor of both TV and movies and now one of the oldest actors to play the traveling Time Lord. 

Scottish born Capaldi first movie was 1983’s Local Hero, which then followed with roles in Lair of the White Worm and Dangerous Liaisons. He would go onto to various roles on British Television and in the theater. In 2005 he began playing political spin doctor Malcolm Tucker on the BBC sitcom The Thick of It, which ran until 2012. He won a BAFTA Award for Best Performance in a Comedy Role and two British Comedy Awards for his performances. During down periods between The Thick of It, Capaldi also appeared in The Hour, Skins, Midsomer Murders and Doctor Who –where he played Caecilius in 2008 David Tennant Tenth Doctor episode, The Fires of Pompeii.  A year later he would appear in the Doctor Who spin-off show Torchwood, playing civil servant John Frobisher in Torchwood: Children of Earth.

His casting as the Twelfth Doctor indicates a new direction for the fifty year-old franchise, considering since Tom Baker’s fourth Doctor, each actor seemed to getting younger and younger. It also indicated that the BBC is not afraid of the odd idea that older people will not appeal to the youth market –though I would suspect that the series (finally) might introduce a good male companion, some young and attractive to do the action work for the Doctor. 

But Capaldi is a strong actor, with the capable gravitas the series will need following the successful run of outgoing Doctor, Matt Smith. Still, the longevity of the series is predicated on its ability to reboot itself every few years and despite some stumbles in the 1980s that eventually lead to its 16-year hiatus, it has successfully survived and thrived despite that since its return in 2005, three actors have played the Doctor. 

He’ll debut as the Doctor sometime in the December 25^th Christmas Special before assuming the full time in 2014.

CW set's an 'Arrow' spin-off 'The Flash', 'Supernatural' is doing one as well

With the CW unable, unwilling or just not really caring to bring Wonder Women to their network after years of development, they have decided to bring The Flash to Arrow and then spin him off into a series for 2014-15 TV season. 

Barry Allen will debut on Arrow’s eighth and ninth episode this season and then again in the twentieth before (hopefully) landing a spin-off for the fall of next year.  With Amazon stuck in Developmental Hell, it seems odd that Arrow, created by Greg Berlanti and Andrew Kreisberg, would add a super powered hero to their show, after saying (taking a page from Smallville) that their series would not have anyone with superpowers. 

But apparently, The Flash was Berlanti’s favorite character when he was growing up. And this origin story, told in the three episodes, will be “grounded and realistic as possible,” said Kreisberg at the TCA’s happening in Pasadena this week. “That’s how we’ll get to know him. Then his life will get a bit faster.” The surrounding characters in Arrow will react to Allen “in a very realistic way,” noting that they “won’t be treated as commonplace on the show but as extraordinary events.” Kreisberg added: “It will be fun for the audience to see how we do our take on The Flash’s powers. Some will feel very familiar to those who know the comics, and other stuff will feel different yet fresh and exciting.”

Meanwhile, Berlanti noted, “That said, he does need powers to become The Flash. And he will be The Flash. He will wear a red costume, and he will go by that name.”

Berlanti, Kriesberg and series writer Geoff Johns will write all three episodes of The Flash arc and David Nutter, who helmed Arrow’s pilot episode, will do the same for episode 20.

Meanwhile, another CW series is mounting a long gestating spin-off. Supervising producer Andrew Dadd will write an episode for Supernatural that will also be a backdoor pilot for a potential series that will air in the spring. While in the early stages of development –no title, or cast-, this spin-off will not be as wide roaming as the mothership, instead it will focus on a clashing hunter and monster culture of Chicago (I wonder if it’ll film in Toronto, which many say shares many similarities with Chicago). So it sounds like it could be the Deep Space Nine of this franchise, where the bad guys come to the heroes instead of them searching for them.

'Glee' star Cory Monteith 1982-2013

Cory Monteith may not have been the strongest singer on Glee, but what he lacked there, he shined in other places, in particular his ability to shift easily from dumb jock to lovelorn Finn in one of the shows few center pieces, the on/off again relationship with Rachel. 

I started to give up on Glee after season two, though I continued to watch it through season three. When FOX moved the show opposite the ones I watched on NBC Thursday for its fourth year, I almost never watched it. But on occasion, I would get caught up in the show if I was flipping channels. 

Part of the reason was I left the show was –even in the hyper-reality that is all TV series- because it had stepped away from its premise. Season one’s struggles of Kurt coming out, of Finn’s love for Rachel, despite (what I felt anyway) her really not seemly to care; nothing was going to stop her from going to New York and Broadway, and how bully Puck became the man he is destined to be was central to that season, along with other great stories. By season two and three, the show moved away from some of these character-centric ideas and became more story driven. 

Still, while I believe Kurt and his coming out, his relationship with Blaine remains the series heart, the soul of the show solely belongs to Monteith and his unique ability to keep the show and Finn firmly planted in reality –something the show in its current incarnation needs desperately. Some will say he was never a strong actor either, but I would disagree with that. He clearly had a talent that made you frustrated with Finn and his naivety about his love for Rachel. The fact that the producers never made it creepy was perhaps because of Monteith. Just look at his performance from season 4’s The Break Up episode where he finally and sadly realizes that Rachel had moved past him. It was a terrific, grounded accomplishment from an underrated actor.

His death leaves a big hole in the series for season five, which will soon go back into production –though this tragedy may delay that, as well, perhaps, the season opener which is scheduled for September 19. And even though Finn had graduated, Monteith was still a main cast member. I have faith that the producers and writers of the show will do an appropriate tribute to Cory Monteith, and perhaps in doing so, bring the shows concept back to the reality that made season one of the show its best.

As for Monteith’s family, his friends and fellow cast members of Glee, I send my condolences. It is always sad when addiction wins, and you want to hit someone, or something, just to understand the reasons why it does. But life, as always, is fragile and at times, unfair. Love sometimes is not enough to keep people from the grip of addiction. And that, in the end, is saddest part of all.