Posted in: BBC, Doctor Who, Preview, TV | Tagged: bbc, doctor who, russell t davies, the wheel

Doctor Who #WhoSpy: So What's UNIT Doing Tuesday-Thursday at 9:30AM?

#WhoSpy has an interesting teaser image focusing on what UNIT has been up to; Russell T Davies is joining The Word as a Doctor Who expert.

The updates on what's happening with the BBC, Disney+, and Showrunner Russell T. Davies's upcoming Doctor Who 60th-anniversary keep on rolling in. This time around, we have another teaser image from #WhoSpy for the David Tennant (the Fourteenth Doctor?) & Catherine Tate (Donna Noble) -starring, three-episode special event. But before we get to that, a quick update on when our very own RTD will be on our screens in the near future. With Michael McIntyre's The Wheel returning to BBC One (as well as Player) beginning Saturday, September 23rd, fans can look forward to seeing RTS appear as a Doctor Who expert on the popular game show. As for that #WhoSpy image… well, it's clearly a look at a computer screen in a UNIT facility, and there's something going on Tuesday through Thursday at 9:30 am. But what? To say what's being shown on that screen looks pretty ominous would be an understatement – or are we getting swerved?

And here's a look back at the BBC One "glitch" from Saturday that appears to have brought us a ten-ton clue as to when a trailer or some kind of extended preview could hit: "Their Time Has Come / Saturday 23 September / BBC One / 6:10 PM." Here's a look at the clip from the folks over at Tardis Central:

Joining Tennant & Tate for the anniversary episodes are Neil Patrick Harris in a big bad role (The Toymaker/The Celestial Toymaker?) and Yasmin Finney as Rose – the daughter of Donna Noble and Shaun Temple (Karl Collins), with Jacqueline King returning as Sylvia Noble. In addition, Ruth Madeley is set to appear as Shirley Anne Bingham, and Bernard Cribbins is set to posthumously appear, reprising his role as Wilfred Mott. Fans of the comics can expect to see Beep the Meep (voiced by Miriam Margolyes) and the Wrarth Warriors play a major part, and – as if all of that wasn't enough – Ncuti Gatwa is expected to debut as the Fifteenth Doctor. With all three episodes written by Davies, we learned the episode titles during this weekend's Eurovision 2023 broadcast: Special One: "The Star Beast" (directed by Rachel Talalay), Special Two: "Wild Blue Yonder" (directed by Tom Kingsley), and Special Three': "The Giggle" (directed by Chanya Button).

Button, Kingsley & Talalay on Doctor Who 60th Anniversary Episodes

Directors Button, Kingsley & Talalay shared their reactions to first reading Davies's scripts with Doctor Who Magazine. "Each special has a really different flavour. It feels like Russell [T. Davies] flexing his muscles and showing all the different things 'Doctor Who' can do," Kingsley shared – a sentiment shared by all three directors. Here's a look at some of the highlights:

Kingsley Discusses "Absolute Nightmare" Episode, Teases "Aliens" & "The Thing" Comparison: "I opened mine and just tore through it. Even as a reading experience, it was so exciting. But I kind of got to the end of it and thought, 'Well, I pity whoever has to direct that cos it's an absolute nightmare!' I was planning to email my agent the next day and say, "It's amazing, but… no way." But when I woke up the next morning, I was still thinking about it, and I started to figure out: 'Well, how could you actually do this?' Because a lot of my episode is quite weird. Even at the readthrough, Rachel, your episode went down so well, and I was really jealous of you getting to direct it. Because there are so many complicated stage directions in mine, the reaction in the room was a bit like, 'Um, sorry, what?' Which made me think it was going to be a disaster. But of course, when you come to film it, it's actually really cool. It's got a lot of similarities with two of my favourite films, 'Aliens' and 'The Thing.' It's a little bit of the DNA of those mixed in with 'Doctor Who.'"

Talalay Read All Three & Outlines Some Key Differences Between Them: "I read all three, and my first reaction was, 'Wow!' The first one is classic family 'Who.' It's bringing back that world that Russell left [in 2010] with David and Catherine. And then after that, it becomes much more expansive, with Russell really throwing his massive imagination at it while also being thoughtful about setting up the next series.

Talalay's Episode Allowed Director a Chance to Embrace "The Stuff That Scares You": "My episode features lots of people in lots of scenes. There's soldiers, there's battles, and I thought, 'I haven't always succeeded in doing the action stuff, with loads of extras, that well in the past. This is really scary for me.' So I was determined to do that part really, really well. It's all about embracing the stuff that scares you."

Button's Episode "Was Just the Most Expansive Thing" That the Director Has Ever Read: "It was just the most expansive thing I've ever read. Every page I turned, it was a different world and a different idea and a different sort of bonkers and inspiring adventure. It was just the ultimate luxury to read it and go, 'This is a writer at the very peak of his abilities, completely unbound and confident in what he's putting on the page.' Which, as a director, is really empowering. It's challenging, in the most positive way possible, for someone to go: 'Here's a big idea; let's see how you do it.'"

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