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While they may not be as popular as the TV show, Doctor Whos movies are still interesting to watch. Since Doctor Whos first broadcast in 1963, three films from the franchise have also been released, each of which features an iconic villain.

While these titles arent necessarily the greatest Doctor Who stories of all time, they are still appealing to avid watchers of the iconic sci-fi series. They are each a product of their time, but they also offer things that the upcoming Doctor Who season 15 could learn from, too.

Dr. Who And The Daleks (1965) Peter Cushing Takes On The Role Of The Doctor

Dr. Who and the Daleks

Director Gordon FlemyngRelease Date July 1, 1966Writers Milton SubotskyCast Gary Wyler, Virginia Tyler, Ken Garady, Mark Peterson, Bruce Wells, Yvonne Antrobus, Jane Lumb, Jack Waters, Barrie Ingham, Jennie Linden, Sharon Young, Geoffrey Toone, Roy Castle, Michael Coles, Nicholas Head, Martin Grace, Roberta Tovey,...

David Graham, the man behind some of children's TVs most iconic characters, including Grandpa Pig in Peppa Pig, Parker in Thunderbirds, and the original voice of Doctor Whos Daleks, has died at the age of 99. Alongside several other iconic voice roles, Graham became known across several generations, and continued working well into his 90s, returning to voice his Thunderbirds character in the rebooted Thunderbirds Are Go series.

The British actor was born in London in 1925,but moved to New York with several other family members and trained at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre after serving in the Royal Air Force. After returning to England, Graham made several TV appearances before meeting producer and writer Gerry Anderson, who was in the process of developing several puppet productions. Grahams ability to mimic accents led him to make the first of many appearances as a voice actor in western puppet series Four Feather Falls.

The series finale of Ncuti Gatwa’s debut series of Doctor Who will be shown in cinemas around the UK, here are the details.

Doctor Who being streamed to cinemas is a relatively recent phenomenon, discounting Dr Who And The Daleks and Daleks: 2150 Ad, the Peter Cushing films made for cinema release in 1965 and 1966. 50th anniversary special Day Of The Doctor was beamed to cinemas in 2013, as was Peter Capaldi’s debut episode Deep Breath in 2014. Now? There’s more!

The BBC has announced that Empire Of Light, the finale of this year’s series of Doctor Who, will be streamed to cinemas, along with preceding episode The Legend Of Ruby Sunday, courtesy of CinemaLive.

Showrunner Russell T Davies previously teased the finale of season one by saying “this is a great big rip-roaring finale with the Doctor, Ruby and friends old and new fighting the greatest enemy of their lives.

60 years is a long time. For us, if not for the Doctor, who can pass six decades in a single blink and once spent over four billion years trapped inside a coaster. For those of us on Earth though, 60 years is a very long time to have been a part of things, to have been loved and argued about and mourned and revived and then loved and argued about even more.

To celebrate Doctor Who’s miraculous longevity, below are 60 moments from its lifetime that mark it out as something special. Rather than talking about full episodes, stories or seasons, here we’re looking at individual scenes, ideas or images from the show, as well as ephemera surrounding Doctor Who: a cultural moment, a slice of life, a shared experience. This could range from toys to songs to UGNs (Unexpected Graham Nortons).

There are countless to choose from. There are countless perspectives to consider.

‘Right at the very beginning!’ – answered nobody, ever to the question of where a newcomer to Doctor Who should start watching. This is a show with almost 900 episodes, six decades of production, and a megaton of baggage.

To start with 1963’s “An Unearthly Child” now and try to watch everything, plus spin-offs, before you could get involved with the Ncuti Gatwa era? You’d need a Tardis.

So where to jump in? Now that BBC iPlayer is host to the whole Doctor Who kit and kaboodle in the UK as part of its new “Whoniverse” division, it’s a very good question. That’s why we asked it to our writhing nest of Doctor Who experts. And here’s what they recommend:

Rose (2005)

“Rose” is the first episode of the revived version of Doctor Who. Having been off air since a one-off special in 1996, this was designed as a continuation...

A few months ago, while covering Hex Studios’ fantasy film throwback The Slave and the Sorcerer, we also mentioned that Hex was also working to “build a new British horror and fantasy studio that’s inspired by the likes of Cannon, Hammer, and Aip”. Now their endeavor has taken a mind-blowing leap forward: Hex Studios has announced they’re working with the family of late producer Milton Subotsky to resurrect Amicus Productions! Hex co-founder Lawrie Brewster is set to be the president of the revived Amicus… and their first project will be exactly the sort of movie Amicus is best remembered for: a horror portmanteau (or anthology) film called In the Grip of Terror!

Milton Subotsky and Max Rosenberg founded Amicus Productions in the early ’60s, and from 1962 to 1977 they produced nearly thirty films, including Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors, Dr. Who and the Daleks, The Skull, The Psychopath,...

I think we can all agree that the 2005 redesign of the Daleks was a huge success, right? Nobody had any issues with them surely? Apart from Raymond Cusick, who originally designed them in 1963, and noted in Doctor Who Confidential ‘To them rivets and bolts are archaic.’ So obviously you can’t please everyone.

Last Thursday, which was approximately four years ago, the Radio Times was released with a new Dalek design on the cover. The slightly taller and thinner black Dalek is based on the Reconnaissance Dalek from the 2018 special ‘Resolution’, something which executive producer Chris Chibnall says is a plot point, describing the 2020 special as a sort of sequel to that episode. It looks better in the trailer than it does in a static image, and it’s been implied that the new design is a variant rather than the standard model.

The Daleks have had numerous variants and...

To quote indie rock legends The Mountain Goats, 2020’s mantra seems to be “I’m going to make it through this year if it kills me.” We will all collectively breathe a sigh of relief once New Year’s Day hits, and a side effect of wanting the calendar to change is the desire to just get the holidays over with as soon as possible. Reality being what it currently is, most of us can’t (nor should we) see our friends and family right now. But that doesn’t mean we have to humbug our way through the next month. Small seasonal commemorations, even if it is just you and a tree straight out of A Charlie Brown Christmas, will be the norm this Yuletide. And that’s not ideal, but it’s okay given our circumstances.

Online shopping makes the arduous task of gift-purchasing, for those who can this year,...

Dr. Who and the Daleks/Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.

Blu ray

Kino Lorber

1965, 1966 / 82, 84 min.

Starring Peter Cushing, Bernard Cribbens

Cinematography by John Wilcox

Directed by Gordon Flemyng

The story of Doctor Who turns on a distinctly British conceit; our hero, a grandfatherly type usually found puttering in the garden, is in fact an alien in human form who does his puttering in a time-traveling laboratory disguised as a police box—a notion Roald Dahl might have dreamed up during one of his rare good moods.

It premiered on BBC One, November 23, 1963, the day after the Kennedy assassination (the start of the show was delayed by news updating the tragedy). British character actor William Hartnell portrayed the first Doctor to man the controls of the cosmic phone booth, followed by Patrick Troughton in 1966 and Jon Pertwee in 1970 and on and on—Jodie Whittaker currently carries the mantle and made history...

Last month saw a clutch of cult British sci-fi TV added to the UK’s Britbox streaming service under the ‘Out of this World’ banner. From Thursday the 10th of September, a choice crop of new additions will be joining the likes of The Prisoner, Space 1999, Sapphire and Steel, UFO and the selection of Gerry Anderson treats already available.

Coming to Britbox in the UK will be all four seasons of Terry Nation’s Blake’s 7 plus all three seasons of Nation’s post-apocalyptic Survivors joining at the later date of Thursday the 17th of September. There’ll also be 1967’s Quatermass and the Pit, plus a good portion of 1961’s The Avengers, Hammer’s 1966 One Million Years BC, with the terrific, weird Nic Roeg/David Bowie film The Man Who Fell to Earth thrown in for good measure.

Doctor Who-wise, UK subscribers will be able to stream 1965 Peter Cushing...

Article by Jim Batts, Dana Jung, Michael Haffner, Sam Moffitt, and Tom Stockman

Peter Cushing, born on this day in 1913, was one of the most respected and important actors in the horror and fantasy film genres. To his many fans, the British star, who died in 1994, was known as ‘The Gentle Man of Horror’ and is recognized for his work with Hammer Films which began in the late 1950’s, but he had numerous memorable roles outside of Hammer. A topnotch actor who was able to deliver superb performances on a consistent basis, Peter Cushing also had range. He could play both the hero and the villain with ease.

Here, according to We Are Movie Geeks, are Peter Cushing’s ten best roles:

10. Dr. Maitland

During the 1960s, Amicus Studios had a knack for borrowing from the pool of Hammer Studios actors and filmmakers to make their own Hammer-inspired films. While...

Longtime international marketing consultant to Steven Spielberg, Gerry Lewis has died. Amblin Partners shared the news today that Lewis, 91, passed in London on January 5.

Lewis was an international movie marketing, publicity and distribution consultant who worked in both the British and Hollywood industries for the better part of a century. He consulted at majors Paramount and Universal, first meeting a young Spielberg in the early 70s when he launched an international release for the filmmaker’s Duel. The pair went on to collaborate on such films as Jaws, E.T., Schindler’s List, Ready Player One and more. He also was known for leading notable campaigns on Alfie, The Odd Couple, Love Story and The Godfather.

Said Spielberg today, “Gerry was a wealth of knowledge. He loved movies and filmmakers, and his understanding and respect of culture and the diversity of cultures made him invaluable to the distribution of movies internationally. He...

In the realm of quintessentially British pop culture staples, few have quite the sheer amount of content as Doctor Who. For over fifty years, the escapades of the time-traveling Doctor and his many companions have delighted audiences the world over, spanning countless serials, TV episodes, audio dramas, comic books, and novels. Unfortunately, when it comes to cinema, the good Doctor is a lot less prolific.

Despite many, many studio attempts (covered in the wonderful Now on the Big Screen by Charles Norton), only three adaptations of Doctor Who ever made it to film. The Canadian TV movie Doctor Who in the ’90s, starring Paul McGann as the 8th Doctor, is commonly agreed to be a weak oddity, but that’s not what this article is about. Because in the mid-60s, the British horror studio Amicus Pictures got Peter Cushing, one of the greatest horror actors ever, to step in...

Mark Harrison Dec 2, 2016

How each Doctor responds to the Daleks for the first time reveals something about them...

Pearl Mackie was announced as the new companion for Doctor Who Series 10 back in April, with a specially filmed clip broadcast during Match Of The Day's Fa Cup semi-final. Aside from befuddling Gary Lineker, the purpose of a trailer like this, as opposed to a press release or a lavish announcement programme, is to show a character in action, and there was really no better way to define the character of Bill Potts than to show how she acted in the face of the Daleks.

See related The Man In The High Castle season 2: new trailer

The Daleks are almost as old as the show itself and different Doctors respond to them in different ways. In some eras, Dalek stories have been an early fixture of a new Doctor’s run,...

Article by Jim Batts, Dana Jung, Michael Haffner, Sam Moffitt, and Tom Stockman

Peter Cushing, born on this day in 1913, was one of the most respected and important actors in the horror and fantasy film genres. To his many fans, the British star, who died in 1994, was known as ‘The Gentle Man of Horror’ and is recognized for his work with Hammer Films which began in the late 1950’s, but he had numerous memorable roles outside of Hammer. A topnotch actor who was able to deliver superb performances on a consistent basis, Peter Cushing also had range. He could play both the hero and the villain with ease.

Here, according to We Are Movie Geeks, are Peter Cushing’s ten best roles:

Dr. Maitland

During the 1960s, Amicus Studios had a knack for borrowing from the pool of Hammer Studios actors and filmmakers to make their own Hammer-inspired films. While...

*Updated with the full schedule.* Horror fans living in the Syracuse, New York area have a lot of silver screen scares to look forward to in April, as the complete schedule for this year’s annual Salt City Horror Fest has now been revealed. Eight films will be screened on 35mm prints at the event, including Creepshow, Big Trouble in Little China, Dr. Who and the Daleks, Beetlejuice, and Demons 2.

The event will take place on Saturday, April 18th at The Palace Theater in Syracuse, New York. Doors open at 11:00am and the first film screens at noon. Alcohol is being served to those 21 years of age and older, and the lobby will be filled with vendors and a number of surprises. Here’s the full schedule:

“What:

2015 Salt City Horror Fest – Eight Films including:

Beetlejuice

Clockwork Orange – Introduction by local/ national comedian Alex Bidwell

Big Trouble In Little China...

BBC

Last week, we talked about various ways in which Doctor Who could have turned out very differently than it did – either because an actor stayed on longer than he did, or a pilot went to series, or things simply worked out in other ways. We covered some of the eternal burning questions, such as what would have happened if the Daleks had gotten their own series, or what would have happened if Sarah Jane Smith had gotten her own series far, far earlier than she did. For the most part, our answers were purely speculative – no one really knows what would have happened if, say, Hartnell had been forced out of the series earlier than he was by his bosses. But in a few cases, we know what could have been, and it makes some of us tear our hair out. Or maybe that’s just us…

That list was by no means exhaustive,...

Drew Boynton is a writer at Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews - All the latest Doctor Who news and reviews with our weekly podKast, features and interviews, and a long-running forum.

Calling all “Dr. Who” fans! Calling all “Dr. Who” fans! Is Peter Cushing, who also played Grand Moff–no, not that one–Tarkin in Star Wars, your favorite Doctor? Do you think of the Doctor as a doddering old human inventor who looks good in spectacles and a mustache? Were you filled with outright disdain and disgust

The post Genuine 1960s Dr. Who and the Daleks Movie Poster on EBay appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

As someone who writes a lot about Doctor Who, I’m frequently asked the following question by friends and colleagues who are interested in starting to watch the show: “Which episode should I check out first?”

It’s a very good question—and a very difficult one to answer. The British time travel show—which returns to BBC America on August 23—was first broadcast in the U.K. way back in 1963, and there are now literally hundreds of adventures from which to choose.

Should I recommend a show which properly introduced one of the recent Doctors, like 2005′s Christopher Eccleston...

Christian Cawley is a writer at Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews - All the latest Doctor Who news and reviews with our weekly podKast, features and interviews, and a long-running forum.

Did you know that Eddie Izzard, sometime marathon runner and potential future mayor of London, used to be a standup comic? Of course you did – he still is. But did you know that the comic – who made headlines when he revealed himself to be a tranvestite, a move that enabled him to dress

The post Eddie Izzard’s Doctor Who and the Daleks Routine appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Feature Alex Westthorp 9 Apr 2014 - 07:00

In the next part of his series, Alex talks us through the film careers of the second and fourth Doctors, Patrick Troughton and Tom Baker...

Read Alex's retrospective on the film careers of William Hartnell and Jon Pertwee, here.

Like their fellow Time Lord actors, William Hartnell and Jon Pertwee, Patrick Troughton and Tom Baker also shared certain genres of film. Both appeared, before and after their time as the Doctor, in horror movies and both worked on Ray Harryhausen Sinbad films.

Patrick George Troughton was born in Mill Hill, London on March 25th 1920. He made his film debut aged 28 in the 1948 B-Movie The Escape. Troughton's was a very minor role. Among the better known cast was William Hartnell, though even Hartnell's role was small and the two didn't share any scenes together. From the late Forties, Troughton found more success on the small screen,...

This happened last month !!!!!

Super-8 Peter Cushing Movie Madness was originally scheduled for February 4th but because of the snowstorm predicted in St. Louis, it’s been pushed back one week. The new date is February 11th

Peter Cushing (1913-1994) was one of the most respected and important actors in the horror and fantasy film genres. To his many fans, the British star is recognized for his work with Hammer Films which began in the late 1950’s. Cushing’s best-known roles outside of Hammer include Grand Moff Tarkin in Star Wars (1977) and Dr. Who in Dr. Who And The Daleks (1965) and Daleks Invasion Earth 2150 Ad (1966). Peter Cushing truly was The Gentle Man of Horror and Super-8 Peter Cushing Movie Madness will be a great way to celebrate his career.

Super-8 Peter Cushing Movie Madness will take place at The Way Out Club on February 11th beginning at 8pm. Condensed versions...

Peter Cushing (1913-1994) was one of the most respected and important actors in the horror and fantasy film genres. To his many fans, the British star is recognized for his work with Hammer Films which began in the late 1950’s. Cushing’s best-known roles outside of Hammer include Grand Moff Tarkin in Star Wars (1977) and Dr. Who in Dr. Who And The Daleks (1965) and Daleks Invasion Earth 2150 Ad (1966). Peter Cushing truly was The Gentle Man of Horror and Super-8 Peter Cushing Movie Madness will be a great way to celebrate his career.

Super-8 Peter Cushing Movie Madness will take place at The Way Out Club on February 4th beginning at 8pm. Condensed versions (average length: 15 minutes) of these great Peter Cushing films will be screened on a big screen on Super-8 sound film: Dr Who Daleks Invasion Earth 2150 Ad, The Beast Must Die, Star Wars, At The Earth’S Core,...

Article by Jim Batts, Dana Jung, Michael Haffner, Sam Moffitt, and Tom Stockman

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Peter Cushing (1913-1994) was one of the most respected and important actors in the horror and fantasy film genres. To his many fans, the British star was known as ‘The Gentle Man of Horror’ and is recognized for his work with Hammer Films which began in the late 1950’s, but he had numerous memorable roles outside of Hammer. A topnotch actor who was able to deliver superb performances on a consistent basis, Peter Cushing also had range. He could play both the hero and the villain with ease.

Super-8 Peter Cushing Movie Madness takes place February 4th at The Way Out Club in St. Louis and will be a great way to celebrate the actor’s career. The event is on February 4th beginning at 8pm. Condensed versions (average length:...

Feature Andrew Blair 15 Nov 2013 - 16:37

Andrew talks us through the best of the Eighth Doctor Audio Adventures from Big Finish. No particular reason...

Contains spoilers for The Night of the Doctor and several Big Finish plays.

Now is a very good time to start investigating the Eighth Doctor stories from Big Finish audio productions. If you don't know why, you should probably look here immediately, and maybe have some coffee.

Mentioned in The Night of the Doctor are the names of the Eighth Doctor's audio companions: Charley Pollard, C'rizz, Lucie Miller, Tamsin Drew and Molly O'Sullivan. The reason this is a big deal is that the Eighth Doctor had previously only appeared in one television story (1996's Doctor Who TV movie), and as a result multiple continuities had opened up across novels, comics and audioplays. The audioplays are still ongoing, and have now been tentatively slotted into the TV continuity.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a television show in possession of a good audience must be in want of a film version. Such was the belief of producers Max J Rosenberg and Milton Subotsky who had noted the popularity of a particular villain on a new BBC television show called Doctor Who and were eager to capitalise on their iconic status.

The villains were the Daleks, a race of lethal metal pepper pots who had made their debut appearance in the second serial story of Doctor Who, and they had captured the imagination of the nation as William Hartnell, the first and then current actor to inhabit the time traveller's body, together with his erstwhile companions went up against them and pioneered a brand new way of watching television – from behind the sofa.

Dr. Who and the Daleks and Daleks: Invasion Earth 2150 Ad are available individually on Blu-ray now,...

The Unbelievable Truth | Blow Out | Doctor Who And The Daleks & Daleks' Invasion Earth: 2150 Ad | Lore | Theorem

The Unbelievable Truth

At the start of the 90s, Us independent cinema was unrecognisable from the beast it later became. Few films broke out of the small arthouse circuit, the only celebrity you'd ever see at Sundance (where this movie was a Grand Jury prize nominee in 1990) was Robert Redford, and the roost was ruled by barely a handful of directors, such as Jim Jarmusch, Steven Soderbergh, Hal Hartley and later Richard Linklater. Of that small bunch, it was Hartley who perhaps took most of the acclaim, yet he never really broke out of the indie ghetto.

Even amid such unique voices Hartley's stood out. He arrived virtually fully formed with his first feature, The Unbelievable Truth. Drenched in ambiguity and wit, it is a strangely comedic drama that casually plays with movie tropes.

News Cameron K McEwan 22 May 2013 - 06:06

Bernard Cribbins tells us he's definitely not in the Doctor Who 50th anniversay special. But he did ring up to find out...

Bernard Cribbins, who played loveable Wilfred Mott in Doctor Who alongside David Tennant's Tenth Doctor, has been chatting to us about his Dalek movie (out on Blu-ray later this month) and the television show itself.

In particular, we talked about the possibility of a return for Wilf in the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Special but it seems he is another actor we can tick off as 'not involved'.

When asked if he is starring in the special, Bernard replied: "No, I'm not. I rang Cardiff [where the Doctor Who production unit is based] a little while ago and said, 'Am I going to be involved?' and they said, 'Well no. We're shooting at the moment and maybe something later on but at the moment, no.'" Cribbins added,...

We’re all too aware that this year is the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who, but 2013 is also the centenary of actor Peter Cushing. Most famous for his regular appearances in the Hammer Horror Films he also dabbled in Science Fiction with both appearances in Star Wars as the chiseled cheekboned ‘Grand Moff Tarkin’ and rather than just simply appearing in Doctor Who he went one better, portraying the Doctor, or rather ‘Dr. Who’ in a pair of big screen adaptations of ‘The Daleks’ and ‘The Dalek Invasion of Earth’. To celebrate both of these landmark birthdays Studio Canal is releasing the two movies ‘Dr. Who and the Daleks’ and ‘Dalek Invasion Earth 2150 Ad’ in glorious, newly restored high definition, with cinema releases to follow later in the year. The Blu Rays will feature higher picture and sound quality than ever before as well as new and exclusive special features.

Interview Andrew Blair 13 Mar 2013 - 07:00

Andrew salutes seminal TV theme composer Barry Gray, whose work with Gerry Anderson became the earworm of a generation...

There are many memorable images in the shows of Gerry Anderson, and it is nearly impossible to disassociate these from the incidental music supplied by composer Barry Gray. From The Adventures of Twizzle to Space: 1999, Gray was an instrumental part of AP Films/Century 21 Productions, contributing story ideas, incidental and theme music.

Stingray's opening titles are, as previously discussed, spectacular. Typically for a Gray composition, it's brass and percussion heavy, and catchier than influenza. The March of the Thunderbirds and other pieces are played by brass bands and orchestra’s to this day. On top of this, his interest in electronica resulted in his producing effects and music for the Amicus film Dr. Who and the Daleks, utilising ring modulaters and an obscure...

Most Doctor Who fans know Peter Cushing played Dr. Who (not The Doctor) twice, in the feature film Dr. Who and the Daleks, as well as the adaptation Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. Most also know of his star turn as the unforgettably evil Grand Moff Tarkin in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.

Many may not know that between movies, TV series, video games, cartoons, and audio dramas, Doctor Who and Star Wars share many more actors in common. These ten actors have been pulled from both the the classic years and new series, as well as the original trilogy and it’s prequels.

While Doug Bradley doesn’t count in the confines of this list, due to just doing voice acting, it should be mentioned that besides his turn as Talbot in the Big Finish Productions audio drama Pier Pressure, and The Emperor in video game Star Wars: The Old Republic,...

Don Fearney, the man behind “Legend Of Hammer Vampires” documentary and Amicus style anthology movie “Grave Tales”, is preparing a feature length documentary on Amicus films. Amicus titles include The House That Dripped Blood, Tales from the Crypt (1971), Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors, Asylum, The Skull, Dr. Who and the Daleks, Daleks: Invasion Earth, The Land That Time Forgot, The People That Time Forgot, The Mind of Mr. Soames, At the Earth’s Core, Madhouse, The Vault of Horror and more. Check out IMDb under Amicus Productions for a complete list of titles.

Don is currently at the pre-production stage and is on the look out for high resolution scans from Amicus’ history. Any image from poster artwork to front of house and behind the scenes photos would be greatly appreciated.

Those who are aware of Don's previous productions or of his numerous events such as Bray Days, will...

Upstairs Downstairs

Grey Feeney

“Yes Minister” Ended 1988 – Revived 2013

The knives were out for BBC executives when it emerged that they had passed up the opportunity to resurrect the much loved political satire Yes Minister – no less than 25 years after it was last seen on the small screen. Satellite TV channel UK Gold quickly swooped in to pick up the new version of the show which is largely based upon the long running stage version of the saga. Despite the fanfare, it quickly became apparent that Britain has moved on since the Jim Hacker era. TV cameras weren’t even allowed in parliament when the original version of the show was aired so people were genuinely intrigued by the comic insight into life in Downing Street. A generation later and Rupert Murdoch, Edwina Currie and Alistair Campbell have ensured that we all know about anything and everything that goes on behind closed doors at Whitehall.

 

Before the advent of Pixar, Walt Disney Animation Studios was the leader in quality family entertainment. Now that they're both a part of the same company, it's even better. But back then, the Disney Company attempted to differentiate their movies by asking different famous actors to come in and perform their characters in a film. Inspired by Robin Williams' fantastic performance as the Genie in Aladdin, Disney Feature Animation (at the time) decided to get more ambitious with their casting. These are ten actors who were asked to be a part of a film and never got to make it; either due to scheduling conflicts, money issues or even death!

10. Joe Pesci as Mushu in Mulan

In a weird form of typecasting, Academy Award-winner Joe Pesci was originally cast as the little dragon, Mushu. After a few tries at the character, the filmmakers just felt his voice wasn't appropriate...

Doctor Who executive producer Steven Moffat has told EW that, contrary to rumors, are no current plans to turn the British sci-fi show into a movie. According to Moffat, “That was all some weird fantasy.” You’ll find a full transcript of Moffat’s thoughts on the subject below.

Last November, the hopes of Doctor Who fans that their Time Lord hero might soon be hitting the big screen were raised when Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows director David Yates told Variety he was developing a Who movie. “We’re looking at writers now,” the filmmaker was quoted as saying.

A while back, it had been announced that David Yates – the man who directed some of the best of the Harry Potter films – was planning on making a big screen version of Doctor Who. The problem being that Yates’ vision was of a completely different Doctor, absolutely separate from the established canon of the series. Many Whovians (myself included) called foul, and questioned how someone could even imagine such a thing. After all, it was attempted in the sixties, with Dr. Who and the Daleks, and Daleks’ Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D. Both films starred Hammer Studios veteran Peter Cushing as Dr. Who, an eccentric human inventor who created Tardis, which only resembled the ship on the outside, the inside looking like an indoor lab. The two films took Terry Nation’s first two Dalek stories from the original series and transposed them for the films, which little resemble the much better program.

I can only concur with Shadowlocked colleague John Bensalhia as regards the Jon Pertwee 1973 Doctor Who outing Death To The Daleks; in his review he says..

"Death To The Daleks does run, for the most part, on tried and tested lines. But it's still very enjoyable, and what’s more, does offer some interesting novelties."

Chief among which novelties are Daleks that can't exterminate. Well, not initially, anyway. When The Doctor and Sarah Jane (ah Liz, how empty the commentary room is without you!) get pulled into the energy-draining field of a savage planet that displays the remnants of an apparently dead but illustrious ex-civilisation, they find themselves far from lonely. Dodging mysterious bands of archers, our heroes are separated almost immediately for a first episode that, as the commentary notes, is extraordinarily light on dialogue and dark of picture.

Before too long it's clear that a huge and strangely...

If you’re familiar with the television program and science fiction phenomenon that is Doctor Who, you probably know who and what exactly the “Daleks” are. However, for those unfortunate few who have never seen or heard of Doctor Who, first stop everything you are doing and read Tom Salinsky’s excellent beginners piece for where you should start!

After you’ve done that, read on…

Doctor Who centers on a Timelord, aka The Doctor, who travels through time and space in a 1960s police box called the Tardis, which stands for “Time and Relative Dimension In Space.” First shown on British TV in 1963, Doctor Who has become a cultural phenomenon in this country, and since the series was rebooted eight years ago, has taken America by storm. Series Six was shown on BBC America last year to great ratings, and Doctor Who was also the number one most downloaded...

Grab a hold of the Tardis, Doctor Who is heading for the big screen! It’s not just one film we Whovians can look forward to, we’re talking about a whole film franchise being developed. So in a sense, the Doctor will be the next Harry Potter in a manner of speaking.

Variety reports that Harry Potter director David Yates has teamed up with the BBC to adapt this iconic British sci-fi series, whose history spans several decades, to the big screen.

Yates is working with Jane Tranter at BBC Worldwide Productions and they are trying to find the right writers for this project:

“We’re looking at writers now. We’re going to spend two to three years to get it right. It needs quite a radical transformation to take it into the bigger arena.”

So, how are Yates and the BBC going about this big-screen adaptation about...

A big-screen version of the iconic BBC1 drama is in the early stages of planning, with director David Yates at the helm

Dan Martin: Should Doctor Who take to the big screen?

A new Doctor Who film finally looks to be on the cards following years of rumour and speculation, and almost 50 years after the Time Lord was last transported to the big screen.

David Yates, the director of the last four Harry Potter films and TV drama State of Play, told Us entertainment industry trade magazine Variety that he has started work on a feature film adaptation of the sci-fi drama with BBC Worldwide, the corporation's commercial arm.

But fans of the current Doctor, Matt Smith, could be disappointed, as Yates said that the film would be "quite a radical transformation" from the latest BBC1 series which ended in October.

Yates and the BBC also cautioned that the project...

After directing the last 4 Harry Potter films, director David Yates has been looking for his next big project. It almost ended up being an adaptation of Stephen King’s The Stand, but a new report reveals that he is teaming up with BBC for a big budget Doctor Who movie.

While Doctor Who is a household name in the UK, it has been starting to catch on more and more in the Us, and the BBC feels it is the right time to bring the Doctor back to the big screen. In the 1960′s, two Doctor Who movies were released starring Peter Cushing, titled Doctor Who and the Daleks and Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.

According to Variety, this project is in the very early development stages, but is expected to be a “completely fresh approach to the material” and will not tie into the current TV series. David Yates...

Harry Potter director David Yates and the BBC are coming together to finally adapt the iconic sci-fi TV series Doctor Who for the big screen! I'm surprised it's taken so long for this to happen... it was only a matter of time. I'm not sure how fans of the series will take to this news, it could turn out being amazing and at the same time it could be disappointing. You are just able to tell a much larger story with a TV series.

Yates recently revealed that he was going to start developing the Doctor Who movie with Jane Tranter, BBC Worldwide's L.A.-based exec VP of programming and production. Here's what he had to say to Variety in a statement, 

We're looking at writers now. We're going to spend two to three years to get it right. It needs quite a radical transformation to take it into the bigger arena.

‘Who’ saw this coming??? According to Variety, ‘Harry Potter’ director David Yates will bring the BBC’s long-running, much-loved primetime sci-fi series Doctor Who to the cinema screen!

Yates is due to commence development on the feature very soon, alongside the Us-based BBC Worldwide executive VP of programming and production, Jane Tranter. Little is known about Yates’ ultimate plans for the franchise, but he’s revealed that this will be a deviation from the current team behind the TV show:

“Russell T. Davies and then Steven Moffat have done their own transformations, which were fantastic, but we have to put that aside and start from scratch.”

Interesting. This is the first big screen venture for the time lord since the sixties (1965’s Doctor Who and the Daleks and the following year’s Doctor Who: Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. both featured Hammer veteran Peter Cushing as The Doctor) and...

This has been a long time coming. Doctor Who, the BBC sci-fi series that has run for decades starting in 1963, with a few breaks here and there, will finally hit the big screen after several years of rumors about a new film being in development. The BBC has enlisted Harry Potter director David Yates (he made the last four Potter films and was set [1] to make The Stand for Warner Bros. before Ben Affleck took over [2]) to bring the series to the big screen. Variety [3] talked to Yates who says he's about to start work on the adaptation, and adds, We're looking at writers now. We're going to spend two to three years to get it right. It needs quite a radical transformation to take it into the bigger arena. Matt Smith is currently the eleventh actor to play the Doctor, a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey, who adventures through space and time.

Doctor Who may be just years away from returning to the big screen. And Harry Potter helmer David Yates is set to direct it. Details here.

Variety is reporting tonight that a deal has been done to press ahead with a long-mooted Doctor Who movie. It’s a bit of a bolt from the blue, this one, as the last we heard regarding a Who film was when rumours were circulating that Russell T Davies would be involved, with David Tennant starring.

This, however, seems to be a different beast, and a far bigger one.

David Yates, the director of the last four Harry Potter films, has told Variety that he’s now developing a Doctor Who film in conjunction with Jane Tranter at BBC Worldwide. Yates is quoted as saying “we’re looking at writers now. We’re going to take two to three years to get it right.

Us TV may have more money to spend on TV and big budget shows – think Lost (the pilot alone is said to have cost $12 million) and Spielberg’s latest show Terra Nova (reportedly it cost $50 million to make) - but there are just some British shows that American TV could never do as well as British TV, regardless of the budget. The reason? Because they are quintessentially British. The fact they are based in Britain is as vital to their watchability as the actors who bring the characters to life. Read on and please feel free to leave comments.

1. Doctor Who

It’s not only the iconic blue telephone box that makes this time travel treat a very British show; it’s the gentlemanly behavior of the Doctor. The Doctor abhors guns and violence. If the Time Lord were an American he’d be brash and all shock and awe,...

Angry Boys ends, Torchwood continues, and Con Air is on! It's this week's TV round-up...

Well, you can hardly accuse schedulers of spoiling us. This time last year, Sherlock was helping us get through the summer lull, but with no new series kicking off of interest, we're left with continuing shows to talk to you about.

This week, then, sees the final episode of the divisive Angry Boys over on BBC Three. And, of course, Torchwood: Miracle Day is still going over on BBC One, reaching its halfway point on Thursday night.

It's still likely to be quiet for a week or two yet, at least until Doctor Who returns at the end of the month. But we'd suggest instead you seek solace in some of the films of the week. We're certainly not going to miss a chance to flag up Ang Lee's Hulk, for instance, and no week...

Paul Merton's Birth Of Hollywood, Human Target, Lead Balloon and lots of Doctor Who in our look ahead at the UK TV week...

The holiday weekend telly schedule starts tonight, Friday, May 27th, with Paul Merton's Birth Of Hollywood at 9:30pm on BBC2. In the first of three episodes in a new series, the comedian looks at the early silent comedies of Charlie Chaplin and the pre-Police Academy Keystone Cops, and also reveals the first 'cliffhangers', for those not familiar with the serialised start of much of the earliest motion picture entertainment, with an unflinching look at the career of Dw Griffith, all in celebration of Hollywood's hundredth anniversary.

Human Target enjoys a season 2 double-bill tonight, Friday, May 27th at 8:00pm on Syfy. The first episode, Ilsa Pucci, is followed by The Wife's Tale at 9:00pm, in the first two of thirteen last ever episodes.

The new remake of The A-Team will put a modern spin on a popular television series of the eighties, bringing nostalgic feelings to old fans of the show while introducing a new generation to one of their fathers' favorites. The A-Team is just the latest in a very long line of classic TV shows that have received a big screen makeover.

The appeal of these small-screen-to-big-screen revamps is twofold. One purpose is to recapture older audiences who grew up on classic TV and who may not go to the movies very often anymore, but the lure of seeing one of the shows they grew up with on a the silver screen might entice them to visit their local theater. The second advantage is that Hollywood executives always feel safer using proven ideas rather than gambling on new ones, hence the reason so many sequels are made.

For the sake of brevity,...

British stuntman Martin Grace was Roger Moore’s stunt double throughout his run as Ian Fleming’s British superspy James Bond. He also doubled the actor in many of his non-Bond film outings.

Grace was born in Kilkenny, Ireland, in 1942. He began working in films in the mid-1960s, playing a Thal in the 1965 feature Dr. Who and the Daleks with Peter Cushing. He first became involved with the Bond film franchise as a stuntman on 1967’s You Only Live Twice starring Sean Connery. He also worked on the 007 films Live and Let Die (1973) and The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), and began serving as Roger Moore’s stunt double with The Spy Who Loved Me (1977). Grace also doubled Moore on the Bond films Moonraker (1979), For Your Eyes Only (1981), Octopussy (1983) which left him badly injured while filming an action sequence aboard a train, and A View to Kill (1985), and the...