The BBC are gearing up for three new, 90-minute, Sherlock Holmes films.

This new Sherlock mini-series was co-crated by Steven Moffat (in charge of the Matt Smith season of Doctor Who) and Mark Gatiss (who played Doctor Lazarus for the Tenth Doctor and who wrote Victory of the Daleks). It’s being produced by Sue Vertue – who worked on Coupling, as did Steven Moffat.

Sherlock Holmes will be played by Bendict Cumberbatch and Watson by Martin Freeman (known for his role in the original The Office and the attempted Hitchhiker’s Guide To the Galaxy film).

There’s a bunch of other writers on the project; including Euros Lyn who’s worked on Doctor Who and Torchwood.

Spotting a trend yet?

I wonder there will be any time travelling!

The BBC say this will be an “unique adaptation” but promise the iconic details will be the same.

Here’s what Steven Moffat told the press;

“Everything that matters about Holmes and Watson is the same. Conan Doyle’s stories were never about frock coats and gas light – they’re about brilliant detection, dreadful villains and blood curdling crimes and frankly, to hell with the crinoline.

“Mark and I have been talking about this project for years, on long train rides to Cardiff for Doctor Who. Quite honestly, we’d still be talking about it if Sue Vertue, of Hartswood Films, hadn’t sat us down for lunch and got us to work.”

The writer who helped invent the new style “large Daleks” also gets a press coment. Gatiss said;

“The fact that Steven, myself and millions of others are still addicted to Conan Doyle’s brilliant stories is testament to their indestructibility.

“They’re as vital, lurid, thrilling and wonderful as they ever were. It’s a dream come true to be making a new TV series and, in Benedict and Martin, we have the perfect Holmes and Watson for our time.”

What do you think?

Sound good or should these guys be keeping their focus on Doctor Who?

It’s certainly due that both Russel T Davies and producer Julie Gardener left the the series to work on projects for BBC America. In fact; they’re both believed to be in LA.

At the time, he said;

“Bringing the Who franchise to the theatres is a regeneration for the character beyond the usual one,”

“A theatrical release has a greater range and can reach millions of more people than just the fans. There will be brand new concepts and the film will be just as adventurous, scary and humorous as the television programme.”

Not all the rumours stand up as strongly, though, as much of the chat talks about a 2012 release and that’ll be quite a challenge to Depp’s filing schedule as he’s supposed to be working on more Pirates of the Caribbean films.

What do you think? Do you believe the gossip? Would you want to see another Doctor Who film?

Would he be the twelve Doctor? What would happen to Matt Smith?

(Image credit goes to Cheilita. He’s not the real Johnny Depp; could you tell?)

That’s right; Venn diagrams have never been so cool (or blue – and this one’s borrowed, it’s newly posted here and yet old elsewhere…).

There’s an extra story here too. I wanted to make sure I gave the blog I found this Doctor Who Venn diagram on full credit – so I searched for it. This week I’m trying to use Bing.com rather than Google.com because Bing’s actually quite good.

I searched for [doctor who venn] and got a rather funky map result. Turns out there’s a place called Venn and Bing seems to think there are three locations for “Doctor Who” matches all in a rather, er, Venn, like arrangement!

A search for something like [Harry Potter Venn] doesn’t produce the same results. No funky map.

Cool, huh? What do you think is going on?

(By the way; it was Sci-Fi Wire who introduced me to the diagram.)

Amid the excitement in South Africa, the final episode in the current series of Doctor Who had only moderate success.

Saturday’s series finale was seen by an average of 5.1 million people – down on the 8 million who watched new Doctor Matt Smith‘s debut in April.

It was also less than half the audience who tuned in to watch former Doctor David Tennant‘s final episode on New Year’s Day.

Where to start – I don’t think it’s surprising that the dratted football has depressed viewing figures. People were out drowning their sorrows.

I actually think a 5.1 million showing for Matt Smith’s first season as Doctor Who compares very well to the 10 million, during a New Year’s Day special final season.

It’s not just that David Tennant had years to build up his following. It’s also because the New Year special was widely trailled and shown at a time when people had time off work.

What do you think?

Turns out it was Matt Smith – however, he’s the actor. They also had Doctor Who on-stage because, amazingly, they played an electro version of the famous music.

In fact, Mr Smith played the synthesiser alongside Orbital. No wonder the crowd was pleased!

Don’t you think the head spotlights in the rave sometimes give the impression of a Doctor Who alien?

On his website he’s published a new concept art image. It looks rather impressive.

What’s more – the concept art has sparked speculation. Could this be a Yeti?

The Yeti were a foe of the Second Doctor (played by Patrick Troughton). They might look like a hairy biped on the outside but are actually alien robots serving the Great Intelligence.

McKinstry’s art certainly seems to depict a hairy outside and a robot on the inside. If this is a return of the Yeti then it’ll be the first time we’ve seen one of the Second Doctor’s foes for over 40 years.

What do you think?

This is a PDF. Normally I’m okay with that – in many ways PDFs have become slightly more preferable than books which take up space on my groaning shelves. In this case, though, I rather missed the ability to leaf through pages of aliens. For me, monster manuals (let’s just use that term for now) are a visual treat. I’m not the sort of gamer who plots improbable tactical accounts with an ever more thinly connected series of monsters but I do enjoy having the option. I enjoy the quasi-academic side of reading up, learning and understanding how these creatures fit into the game’s environment.

If we look at Doctor Who: Aliens and Creatures as mainly a monster manual then we can define things even more precisely. This is a new Who supplement for seasons one through four. In other words the aliens and creatures are from the ninth Doctor (Christopher Eccleston) to the tenth Doctor (David Tennant). The good news is that this means we’ve got the Weeping Angels. The bad news is that even with this supplement we don’t get to cover the Matt Smith aliens and creatures.

Credit goes to Cubicle 7 for putting together a stunning layout for the book. We’ve a healthy dose of Doctor Who imagery and these are blended into the text very well. This isn’t just a collection of stats either – for each alien and creature there’s a wash of useful text. By “useful” I mean it helps the GM understand how, when and why these creatures can be added to a scene or campaign.

One of the challenges any RPG of a movie or TV franchise faces is that it has to document some of the mysteries. In doing so some of the mystery is destroyed. For example, in Doctor Who: Aliens and Creatures we’ve the stats for the Beast. That’s right; that devil (like) creature the tenth Doctor face down in the pit before it was (apparently) crushed by a black hole. Should we know how well the Beast would do in an arm wrestling match with a Cyberman? Probably not – but if you buy this supplement and you’ll have an idea.

Doctor Who: Aliens and Creatures is actually 6 books in 1. Pay once (and it’s about £20) and the download will open up into PDF files A through to F. In fact, even Book A – Aliens and Creatures – there’s more than just a list of aliens. Dave Chapman and the other authors have ensured that any GM for Adventures in Time and Space has what’s needed to help define and balance their own aliens. The first PDF contains a number of building blocks that the storyteller and piece together to help build out an encounter that’s in proportion with the official monsters. No wonder it’s 138 pages long.

The second PDF is the Adventure book. Just as the Aliens and Creatures book finishes by ensuring we can define our own aliens (or even worlds) as does the Adventure book finish by running through a whole list of ideas. However, many readers will get a lot of value out of the two fully fledged adventures; The Next World by Steve Lyons and The Rosetta Plague by Alasdair Stuart.

The other books are smaller; there’s a few which are only a page or two long but these are designed to be printed out and cut up like the Story Points or handed out to players.

One of my favourite hand outs are the Creature Cards (46 pages). These are designed to be a handy quick reference resource. Not just easy to look at and add that visual element to an RPG based on a TV show but also they provide an easy way to quickly access the creatures’ stats.

All in all I’m not disappointed with my purchase. I would have rather had access to an equally cost effective hardback but it is easy to appreciate the iconic Doctor Who images in the PDF and with the addition of the Creature Cards (and a bit of pre-planning as the GM) I know I won’t be scrolling through an annoyingly slow Adobe Reader looking for what I need.

One last word; aren’t the Adipose incredibly cute?

A word to the not-so-wise. If you’ve not seen the drama up to the end of the season then these videos could contain spoilers for you.

It seems like the Doctor is gone, locked away, that the Tardis is destroyed – or about to be and the universe is falling in on itself. What hope is there? Amy? Is she dead. What has happened to her? Does she still believe in the stars.

In fact, let’s mash The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy with Daleks. Yes. That would be awesome – and it is.

This is a golden oldie (from late 2009!)

(Via those kindly folk at Nerd Bastards. Hurrah!)

I’ve selected a few examples below. Please to visit the artists galleries and make sure they get the credit they’re due.

All eleven Doctors by Pu Sama.

The seventh Doctor and Ace by The Cosmic Dancer.

The second Doctor and Jamie by The Cosmic Dancer.

The eleventh Doctor by Doctor Hoo.

Inspiration for this post comes via Bleeding Cool and Rich Johnston.