Matt Smith to remain Doctor Who star until 2013?

Doctor No. 11 (Matt Smith)

Via Express.co.uk
DESPITE reports that he was set to leave Doctor Who after just one more series, Day & Night can exclusively reveal that Matt Smith is to stay on until the show’s 50th anniversary in three years.
BBC insiders now say moves are afoot to sign up the actor, 27, until 2013.

“The current team believe that Matt is the person to continue taking the show forward over the next few years and want to avoid the prospect of fans having to get used to yet another actor in the role in the near future,” says our show mole.

“Matt has made it clear he’s keen to commit himself to the series for the long-term.”

He took over from the hugely popular David Tennant at the beginning of the year and has won rave reviews.

A spokeswoman for the show says: “From Matt’s point of view he’s loving playing the part and has no plans to quit. We aren’t in a position to provide a comment as to whether he’ll be playing the part in 2013.”

After the departure of David Tennant and Russell T Davies, many feared for the future of Doctor Who. The BBC wisely embarked upon the most ambitious marketing campaign I have ever witnessed including nation wide viewing in the UK and in a private showing on the other side of the pond in NYC. The 5th series has been the best yet in this viewer’s opinion and has revived my interest in the program. Matt Smith and Karen Gillan make the best team that Doctor Who has seen since Tom Baker and Lis Sladen and bring a kind of youthful exuberance to the 48 year-old Who. Head writer Steven Moffat has been a large part of the success in this drastic changeover, the first that the new Doctor Who has had to date. I have every confidence that given the chance, Moffat will continue to steer the series in the right direction.

This also marks the first hint that Doctor Who will be renewed past 2011. The last I had heard, the BBC had extended the program’s life and Smith’s contract for an additional series but no further. Modern fans of Doctor Who lack the experience of us older fans who bit their nails clean off past the 22nd series as the future of our favorite program seemed to be under constant threat of cancellation. I haven’t heard anything that would cause me to think that the BBC are unaware of the importance and profitability of the new Doctor Who series (something that the BBC execs were apparently unaware of back in 1984 and in 1989), but that’s no reason to take the continued success for granted.

Filming has started in the last month on the upcoming Christmas Special, with a preview image of Smith in the snow hitting the web today (dressed in a new jacket).

Matt Smith in the 2010 Doctor Who Christmas Special

Recent announcements of the series 4 Specials have apparently been selling well and in the US is currently at number 10 in the Amazon Top 20 Pre-Release Chart. Let’s hope things continue to stay this positive and that Doctor Who remains the oldest and most successful sci-fi TV program on the air today.

So where are those 50th Anniversary wish lists?

Recommended:

Pre-order: Doctor Who: The Complete Fifth Series

Pre-order: Doctor Who: The Complete Specials

Order: Doctor Who: The Beginning

Order: Doctor Who: The Deadly Assassin

Doctor Who comes to Nintendo

Via DigitalSpy:

Two Doctor Who games have been announced for Nintendo systems.

Doctor Who: Return To Earth and Doctor Who: Evacuation Earth are currently in development by Asylum Entertainment for Wii and DS respectively.

Published by Koch Media, the titles will be available this winter in the UK, Australia and several European territories.

“We are incredibly excited to be collaborating with BBC Worldwide on these two new games,” said Asylum Entertainment managing director Simon Bailey.

“It is our firm belief that the franchise has massive potential on the Nintendo DS and Wii formats and it’s an honour to be bringing Doctor Who video games to the show’s huge fan base.”

While details of the titles have yet to be revealed, the covers for each game show that Daleks and Cybermen will make an appearance.

Official release info:

Doctor Who - Evacuation Earth on Nintendo DS

Preorder from Amazon
Doctor Who Evacuation Earth (Nintendo DS)

Synopsis
The Doctor and Amy arrive at the Lake District to watch the humans leave the planet. Suddenly the TARDIS gets lifted from them and bolted onto the evacuation ship. They have to make their way onto the ship before it leaves

As the ship launches it has technical problems and they realise the Silurians have built a ship underneath. The Doctor finds a solution to make the ship work.

Suddenly the Dalek ship smashes into the human one and splits the Silurian half off. It’s the Dalek ship that chased the Time Axis into the sun – they weren’t destroyed, they actually made a random jump several hundred years into the past.

The Daleks are pleased that they can exact revenge on the Doctor but first they make him fix their ship. The Doctor goes along with their plan but tricks them into bolting the TARDIS onto their ship, which he promptly jumps into and uses to fling them into the nearest black hole.

Doctor Who Return to Earth on Nintendo Wii

Preorder from Amazon
Doctor Who Return to Earth (Wii)

Synopsis
The Doctor and Amy help the SS Lucy Gray to return home to Earth, unravelling a Cyber Plot and preventing the Daleks from retrieving a lost Time Axis along the way.

The Doctor and Amy arrive on a human colony ship returning to Earth after it was rendered uninhabitable by solar flares.

Without provocation they are attacked by the ship’s maintenance robots and become separated in the struggle.

The Doctor is eventually led to the ship’s Head Quarters, where he discovers a Cyber Leader has connected himself to the ships AI and is blackmailing it into doing his bidding, or else he’ll kill the crew.

Doctor Who The Adventure Games episode 3- TARDIS

The third installment of Doctor Who Adventure Games featuring Matt Smith as the Doctor and Karen Gillan as Amy Pond is on its way hitting your screens on August 27. Developed by Sumo Digital and featuring scripts by the TV series’ writers, the series acts as a kind of extension of the television drama, allowing viewers to play an active role in their favorite program.

“Establishing new forms of drama is exactly what the BBC should be doing. By aiming these ‘interactive episodes’ at the broad audience of TV show – unique in British television, in that it encompasses at least three generations – we’re aiming to encourage the family to gather round the PC or Mac in the same way they do the television. Driving computer literacy is a keystone of the BBC’s public service remit and we expect Doctor Who: The Adventure Games to be hugely popular in the homes of Britain this year.

“Only the BBC could produce such an innovative slice of new drama. We’re offering two-hour original Doctor Who episodes to production standards on a par with the TV series, working with the very best creatives within the UK. We’re hugely proud of Doctor Who: The Adventure Games, which will establish new standards in interactive drama and allow families the country over to enjoy Doctor Who stories in unique and innovative ways.”

“Doctor Who: The Adventure Games will offer the chance for Doctor Who fans to visit places they’ve only dreamed of, facing off against monsters they’ve previously had to imagine,” concludes Anwen Aspden, Executive Producer, BBC Wales Online. “Players will visit places which have never been shown on television – and these will go on to define the look and feel of future TV episodes.”

An exciting online adventure videogame told in installments (in an homage to the classic TV program), the online Adventure Games series has seen the adaptation of the Doctor’s two most iconic monsters to date, the Daleks and Cybermen.

Episode 1: City of the Daleks

Episode 2: Blood of the Cybermen

With two of the more popular menaces out of the way, what can we expect from part three?

Karen Gillan on Episode 3: TARDIS

Official release: It will feature monsters, terrifying new dangers for the Doctor and Amy and offers an amazing insight into the world’s most famous blue box. It’s also been announced that the game will give players the opportunity to pilot the Doctor’s iconic time machine.

Lead Writer and Executive Producer, Steven Moffat, confirmed, ‘Since 1963, kids have wondered what it would be like to control the TARDIS. Now we’re handing complete control of the most powerful ship in all of space and time to a generation of children. Everybody duck!’ He also told us, ‘TARDIS is a brilliant, brilliant adventure. It’s funny, touching, terrifying, amazing – everything a Doctor Who episode should be.’
The official press release promised, ‘the game allows players to explore the Doctor’s wondrous drawing room, featuring treasures and artefacts from his many adventures – a location specially created for the game, which will go on to form part of the Doctor Who canon’.

Matt Smith and Karen Gillan return as the Doctor and Amy and once again the game is executive produced by Steven Moffat, Piers Wenger, Beth Willis and Anwen Aspden (BBC Wales Interactive), alongside Charles Cecil. Music is by Murray Gold and TARDIS is written by James Moran whose previous credits include Torchwood, Spooks and the Tenth Doctor story, The Fires of Pompeii.

It’s the third Adventure Game and will be available at no extra cost to UK households, simultaneously on PC and Mac from this site. Users outside the UK will be able to purchase and download it on its UK release date, 27 August.

We’ll be bringing you updates and interviews as we get closer to TARDIS materialising!

The new online adventure series has been a massive hit in the UK where players can enjoy the series for free. Recently unveiled in the US, the game is finally available to American fans at a small charge. Since its return in 2005, I have marveled at the unusual ways in which Doctor Who has been marketed by the BBC. From the webisodes downloaded directly to a fan’s mobile phone to the Proms, the sci-fi program has evolved from a cult series to a full on phenomenon (in much the same way as it had back in the 60′s).

For more information in the US, please visit IGN’s Direct2Drive.

UK readers, click here to visit the main Doctor Who Adventures website.