Category Archives: rumour

Capaldi, Classic Series, Doctor Who, missing episodes, New series, Omnirumour, opinion, rumour, Series 8

Capaldi Marco Polo Introduction Debunked?

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For the last little while there has been this rumour going around that Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman have recorded an intro for the missing story Marco Polo.

The scene features the pair of them in front of a blackboard full of writing (now released as a promotional shot, though at the time of the rumour it hadn’t been publicly released) with both in character, the Doctor explaining to Clara and the audience about who Marco Polo was. The idea behind it being that an introduction featuring the Doctor might entice new series and younger viewers to purchase the story.

Then the rumour exploded with more details, Tennant and Smith had recorded intros together and separately, Dan Starkey had recorded an intro as Strax. A couple hours later those with sources back tracked on their info and said it was all for the new series. Well, most of it. The consensus remained that an intro for Marco had been recorded.

Fast forward to today. The BBC announces their new Doctor Who: Extra companion programme. Apparently the show will

“take a quick dip into the archive for every edition, reflecting on how Doctor Who’s history is echoed in this current series.”

And I immediately thought that this would be the perfect explanation for the blackboard and whatever scene was recorded. Maybe something in the new series will tie into Marco? It makes more sense to me than it being an intro to a previously missing story. I guess only time will tell though. Stay tuned, we only have to wait 12 weeks to know if that ‘Marco intro’ was for one of this Extra segments.

12th Doctor, Capaldi, Doctor Who, New series, rumour, Series 8, spoilers

Vacancy in the Tardis?

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The Daily Mirror is reporting that Jenna Coleman will be leaving her role during this years Christmas special. Coleman has been playing Clara Oswald for the past 18 months. Their sources have stated:

“The conversations about Jenna’s exit have started, and a plan is in place which is being ironed out.”

“It was very much a mutual decision.”

“It’s important to keep the series moving and fast-paced, and the time is just starting to feel right and the feeling is that it could be a perfect Christmas storyline.”

So a week before we get to see Capaldi’s debut episode we already know that his companion in leaving at the end of the season. What do you think about the news? Will you be sad that she’s gone? Or are you excited to see who comes next?

Classic Series, Doctor Who, missing episodes, Omnirumour, opinion, rumour, troughton

Planet 55 Never Started UWM Animation?

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The Underwater Menace seems to be the lynch pin in the entire omnirumour and that’s why information surrounding the animating of the missing episodes is such a big deal. Well, hold on to your hat because Planet 55, the studio thought to be animating episodes 1 and 4 has recently released a statement on their Facebook page.

There have been many queries about Planet 55 Studios’s work on ‘Doctor Who’ and whether we are doing any more. To date, Planet 55 Studios has completed work on three ‘Doctor Who’ animated reconstructions for BBC Worldwide’s DVD range: “The Reign of Terror”, “The Tenth Planet” and most recently “The Moonbase”. We really enjoyed creating those but they are the only ‘Doctor Who’ stories Planet 55 Studios have worked on and there are no plans to work on any more. At the moment the company is focused on animation projects completely unconnected to ‘Doctor Who’.

So there you go. But it does raise a few other questions. Were they never commissioned to do UWM in the first place? This would go against everything that we had been hearing for the past 7 or 8 months. Why then did they wait this long before making a statement regarding the UWM animation? Why not put us out of our misery months ago? There are still plenty of ways you could parse that statement, but to me I find it pretty unambiguous.  Throw in here that we have a fairly recent Doctor Who Magazine article stating that UWM would be out later this year. What then? Recons? That has been suggested over the past couple of weeks, but there is still no evidence of a UWM dvd with recons on the horizon.

So for now it seems like the Underwater Menace remains in limbo, with episode 2 being the only episode of Doctor Who still awaiting a dvd release. How much longer will the fans have to wait?

Classic Series, Doctor Who, missing episodes, Omnirumour, opinion, rumour

PHIL MORRIS Q&A ON THE FACEBOOK PAGE

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Fans who have been following the missing episode saga are in for a treat tonight. Phil Morris himself has offered to do a question and answer session on the Doctor Who Missing Episodes Discussion Group page on Facebook.

They set up a thread to take some questions for Phil in advance of tonight’s event. Unfortunately, the deadline for questions was earlier this morning (blasted different time zones) and they are already done with that process. Not that it really matters. Honestly, there’s only a few questions most of fandom are breathlessly anticipating. The Q&A is set for 9pm UK time, 4PM my local time. Be sure to be on the facebook page all day for updates in case the start time changes. If you haven’t joined yet, seriously, what are you waiting for?

UPDATE: as an administrator for the Facebook group, I have been asked to moderate the  debate. I am honoured and can’t wait for the action to begin!

Classic Series, Doctor Who, hartnell, missing episodes, Omnirumour, opinion, rumour, troughton

Missing Episodes Update July- UPDATE

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I will preface this by saying that I don’t have any sources, I only know what has been reported on the forums and to me in private.

July 17th is a day to mark on your calendar. Will there be a reveal of some sort then? Well… maybe, probably not, but maybe. In case you didn’t know, that’s the day the BFI are announcing the details of their Sci Fi season. The season will take place from October 2nd until January 2015.

From the BFI’s website:

Expect incredible one-off events, extra-special guests and a unique BFI perspective on the genre with screenings of key sci-fi films including Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Alien (1979), Planet of the Apes (1968) and the eerily prophetic British classic The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961).

Nothing in there about Doctor Who, yet. The current rumours flying around are suggesting that perhaps the BBC will announce some of the non TIEA finds at that event, topping the speculated list so far are Power Of The Daleks and The Tenth Planet episode 4. Now, this would directly contradict previous reports that Power is slated to be one of the last releases.

There are two great things about this rumour. One, it won’t be long before we find out. July 17th is just a week and a bit away, so there isn’t going to be a prolonged and excruciating wait. Having said that, there’s always the possibility that they release the schedule with some blank spots for events To Be Determined that will have us salivating and speculating until Christmas. Two, even if there is no Doctor Who connection here, as a fan of one vintage science fiction show, surely there will  be something else scheduled by the BFI to capture our interest. So, either way, I am looking forward to July 17th!

On a side note, if you have fallen off the omnirumour bandwagon over the past few months (ever since nothing happened at Easter) now might be a good time to start diving into the forums again. It seems like things are heating up again and people are getting excited once more. Maybe, just maybe, we’re nearing the end. Just an opinion.

UPDATE:

Well, the day has come and gone with nothing ME related, though I hear there is going to be a screening of Peter Cushing’s Dalek Invasion Of Earth movie. But, omnibelievers, don’t get disheartened. The BFI’s sci fi season hasn’t even started yet, not until October, so there is plenty of time for something to happen.

Doctor Who, New series, opinion, rumour, Series 8

How much Doctor Who are we getting this year?

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Series eight of Doctor Who is almost upon us, and we’ll soon get to find out if Peter Capaldi’s Twelfth Doctor is a good man.

The BBC, as usual, are being very secretive about anything but guest stars and writers, with info slowly being drip-fed in anticipation of a big launch in August. One thing that remains shrouded in mystery, however, is the actual number of episodes we’ll be seeing this year.

Since 2005, the norm has traditionally been fourteen a year, albeit sometimes split into two shorter runs across the year. In series seven the usual fourteen episodes were joined by two more specials, but split across two years.

Back in October Steven Moffat stated that there would be “at least thirteen episodes” this year. However, it’s unknown whether this includes a Christmas Special or not.

When details of Matt Smith’s exit were leaked early by e-mail last year, the number of episodes for this year was stated as a slightly reduced twelve.

Another interesting factor is the announcement of ‘feature length’ opener Deep Breath. Feature length can mean something the length of The Day of The Doctor (75 minutes), but it could mean longer, perhaps a double-length episode to act as a big tentpole intro for Capaldi?

What is known, is that filming on the two-part finale is underway, bringing the total filmed for this year to eleven. It could be just secrecy, as the production team are playing it closer to their chests this year, particularly after some of last year’s problems with leaks, but, if you pick through what we have been told, no mention has actually been made of any further episodes yet to film. A lot of the round-ups going round at the moment online are more fan supposition based on filming photos and scant information, than cold fact. The truth is, there’s nothing firm been said.

There could be an episode or more yet to go before the cameras, from earlier in the series. Some round-ups suggest an episode ten, written and directed by TBA and TBA. If there is, we know nothing about it; who is writing, directing, who is in it…….it could be a Neil Cross episode that’s been mooted, or, less likely, a Neil Gaiman one. Or one by Frank Cottrell Boyce. If all three, then there’s your fourteen, and that’s presumably not including any Christmas special, as Moffat writes those….

Anyway, before I get carried away, until we hear it from the production team, it’s just conjecture.

So, if there is , say, one other episode to come, that makes twelve.

If a Christmas Special is to follow, then we’re up to thirteen. Does Deep Breath‘s ‘feature length’ status, mean that we will get the same run-time as fourteen episodes spread over thirteen?

Some fans argue that if there is a shorter run, we might see a leaner, more focused series. I’m on the fence about the benefits of that, but it’s also possible that we might have a season the same length as usual, but in a different format.

Whatever happens, it’s going to be exciting finding out. Who keeps count when you’re having fun, anyway?

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AM Audio Media, Classic Series, Comics, Dark Journey, Doctor Who, Fan Production, missing episodes, Omnirumour, opinion, rumour

Monday Morning News Round Up- June 16

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Happy Father’s Day to everyone out there who celebrated yesterday! I know there are a lot of proud dads who love spending time watching Doctor Who with their kids, and a couple of great dads who work on the site, myself and Gary!

So, what did you miss last week? It wasn’t a super busy week, but we did have some cool stuff!

Evil

Not only was it Father’s Day, but there was a birthday to be celebrated last week! That’s right, the omnirumour turned one! Oh I remember when it was so cute and cuddly as a newborn, now it’s running around and throwing toys and generally misbehaving…

Doctor Who Dark Journey!

Episode two of Dark Journey went live on Saturday and stay tuned for our review of that one, but here’s our review of the first episode. If you haven’t had a chance to listen to the interview I did with Mike, Andrew and Clayton, be sure to check it out. You can head over to AM Audio Media and listen to the episodes and see a quote from my review as their page header!

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Cartmel Speaks!

Former Doctor Who Script Editor Andrew Cartmel talks to TIMD’s Martin Ruddock about the omnirumour, what he did and didn’t know, Pip and Jane Baker and a whole host of other interesting topics! Talk a look, you will probably be surprised!

So, that’s what made our news over the past week. Follow us @troughtonsmy

Classic Series, Doctor Who, hartnell, missing episodes, Omnirumour, opinion, rumour, troughton

Happy Birthday OMNI!

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Oh, doesn’t time fly? One day your baby is just a newborn in tiny clothes that are too big and then before you know it they’re out of diapers and running around the house like crazy. That is the spirit in which I wish the omnirumour a Happy 1st Birthday.

That’s right. One year ago today the news hit the internet. The omnirumour was born. Oh sure, it had been kicking around the dusty ME forums for a while prior to that, but I consider that it’s conception (continuing with my analogy) while it’s true birth was one year ago today.

As we blow the candle out on that cake, and make a wish (we’re all wishing for the same thing, I am sure), I present a repeat for your reading pleasure. Here is a little piece I originally wrote for Doctor Who Worldwide back in January, celebrating a different milestone!

Dr. MEWlove Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Omnirumour

January 14th is a little bit of a milestone for me, one that I celebrated quietly on this very site. It’s not really important like my wedding anniversary or my kids birthdays, hell it’s not even something my wife wants me to talk about anymore. That’s because on January 14th my family will have been hearing my omnirumour conspiracies for a whopping seven months.

Oh, I remember June 14th very well. It was one of those warm summer days that always fill me with nostalgia. Even though I’ve been out of school for more than a decade, I still feel happy and optimistic toward the end of the semester. My brain’s hardwired to enjoy those last few weeks in June, remembering the thrill that comes when you’re set free from the confines of class and able to laze about for two months.

So I was already in a great mood when my friend Jamie came in to work. He was a recent Who convert, having spent most of his life thinking the show was more suited for his Dad than for himself. Over the course of a year my enthusiasm for the show and Matt Smith’s tenure in particular, eventually won him over and he gave it a shot, starting with “The Eleventh Hour.” I don’t know if it was love at first sight or not, but he became a fan and we’ve spent many hours discussing new episodes.

On this particular day he dropped the bombshell. “There’s a report on the internet that they found all kinds of lost Doctor Who episodes!” He said gleefully. And I stopped breathing. Literally. Even though he was a fan, Jamie had never delved into the classic series, so he didn’t really know what this news meant to me. Yes, he was aware that there were a number of classic episodes destroyed by the BBC and that my favourite Doctor, Troughton, had lost practically all of his stories. But there was a big difference between our two reactions. To him this was a “oh, that would be cool if they found them” sort of thing.

But to me it was like being struck by lightning.

A few years previous I had been sitting on my bed surfing the web. I was supposed to be writing, trying to finish up a novel that I had been working on for quite a long time. My wife was in the other bedroom trying to get our one year old daughter to sleep. It was always a challenge, the toddler hated going to bed and most nights we would have to rock her to sleep, sometimes spending hours with her in that dark room. I had hit a road block in my editing and decided to waste a little time looking at my favourite Doctor Who news site. My heart stopped when I saw the headline proclaiming that two lost episodes of Doctor Who had been found and screened at the Missing Believed Wiped event. I was so excited I fist pumped the air and hopped up and down. It was only with the utmost self-restraint that I kept myself from barging into my daughter’s bedroom and telling my wife the fantastic news. This was one of the greatest days in my life.

So you can imagine how I felt when suddenly confronted with the possibility that many episodes were found. My emotions ran free and unchecked for a moment and I doubt $50M lottery winners were as excited as I was, hopping up and down and making a complete fool of myself. After a minute I felt the tug of reality and tried to rein everything in. “That would be awesome,” I told him. “But you know you can’t believe everything you hear on the internet.” With extremely limited web access as work, I knew there wasn’t a chance of finding anything out right away. It would have to wait until I got home from work.
Those were some of the longest hours of my life. The clock ticked slower and slower as 5:30 neared, but eventually it was quitting time and I took off for home, ignoring everything and everyone on my way. Once there I burst through the door, side stepping my wife and kids to run straight for the computer, anxiously twitching as I waited for my trusted Doctor Who news site to load up. And I was devastated when it did. There was nothing. No report of missing episodes found. No rumours. Just a boring release about the latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine.

Frustrated I grabbed my phone and sent Jamie a coded text that read “…” That’s it, three dots. We had come up with the response earlier in the day. It was the fastest way I could tell him that he had gotten my hopes up for nothing.

I pouted around the house for a few hours, inconsolable. Yeah, I didn’t really think that the rumours were going to be true, but still… Eight o’clock came around and it was time for the kids to go to bed. I read them a story and tucked them in. With no other distractions I headed back online, determined to find the source of the rumours that Jamie had passed along. It only took me a moment before I traced them back to Bleeding Cool and I laid my eyes on that site for the very first time.

“Will Doctor Who Have A Very Special Surprise For Us In November?” It said and under the headline was a picture from Evil Of The Daleks.

It was a defining moment in my Doctor Who fandom, one that changed my life forever. I abandoned my previous Doctor Who site immediately. No more waiting for official news, no more being completely in the dark. It was time to embrace the speculation and love the omnirumour.

 

That’s the end of my original article. Here we are six months after I wrote that and we’re still no nearer to actually seeing anymore of those episodes. The wait has been hard on a lot of fans, some more than others, but at least something good has come from it. Friendships. I have made several awesome friends over the past few months with DWW and TIMD, and don’t forget about the Doctor Who Missing Episodes Discussion Group on Facebook. So, even though no more episodes have been announced, many of us are still better off than we were before.

Having said that, I would still like to see some more of those episodes…

Doctor Who, missing episodes, Omnirumour, opinion, rumour, troughton

Underwater Menace Dead In The Water

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Pass out the black armbands… The dvd range is, sob, dead! At least, that’s if you believe Steve Roberts, Restoration Team member and omnirumour ripperupper.

A couple of days ago the news hit the net, Underwater Menace was up for pre-order on amazon! Awesome, right? There was nothing listed as far as episodes one and four that are currently missing from the BBC archive. Would they be animated like we all thought and hoped? Or were they to be cheap reconstructions that would do nothing but anger fans who are sure there are more missing episodes to come? Certainly the original episodes 1 and 4 weren’t to be included. At least, they wouldn’t tell us yet even if that were to be the case. So the debate started back up on the forums, facebook groups and the amazon comments. It was an exciting step forward, progress that could be tangibly seen at last.

And then Steve Roberts had to rain on the happy parade with this comment on facebook

Well], we’re the team that remasters the episodes for DVD release and even we don’t have a clue what’s going on with TUM now. From where we’re standing, it’s looking like the range is dead.”

Taken from: http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Doctor-The-Underwater-Menace/19865#ixzz33alI6L00

So what are we to believe? If the BBC has cancelled the release of The Underwater Menace, and are not even attempting to do something with The Crusade then we as fans are being severely mistreated. I don’t think it’s entitlement to want something that you were told you were going to get. I don’t think it’s entitlement to be bitter and angry and incredibly disappointed if the BBC couldn’t get those last two dvd’s out for us and instead just arbitrarily declare the range dead.

But if we have learned anything from the ongoing omnirumour saga, it’s to take nothing at face value. I won’t be writing my eulogy on the dvd range just yet. Instead I am living in hope that maybe more episodes have been discovered and that we will see them someday.

Doctor Who, missing episodes, Omnirumour, opinion, rumour

Phil’s Journey Part 2

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A while ago we got an intriguing photo tweeted by the man himself, Phillip Morris. It showed him standing in front of a broadcaster in Sierra Leone. Well, I guess that wasn’t the only photo that he took while he was there. He tweeted this earlier today:

Another photographic revelation from Morris. The more active he is an twitter and facebook the more excited we get that there may be more missing episodes coming!