We’re just so happy to see Gillian Anderson coming back to TV. No, she’s not returning to her iconic role of Agent Dana Scully of X-Files fame. At least not yet.
What she is doing is playing another investigator, this time in a BBC series called The Fall. The psychological thriller debuts on BBC Two on May 13 and all five episodes will be available in the U.S. and Latin America exclusively on Netflix starting May 28.
The series follows the lives of Anderson’s highly driven detective Stella Gibson and the sexually motivated serial killer she’s tracking in Belfast. Once Upon A Time‘s Jamie Dornan also stars along with The Good Wife‘s Archie Panjabi.
Looks pretty interesting. Judge for yourself by watching the new promo for The Fall after the break. Guess the truth is in Belfast.
What could be better than a third season of the BBC’s awesome Sherlock series starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman as a modern-day Holmes and Watson? Why, a fourth season of course.
That’s right, during and interview with UK’s Radio Times today, Cumberbatch said he and co-star Freeman have agreed to do two seasons after Season 2.
“We’ve agreed to two more series but I could get into trouble for saying that,” Cumberbatch said during the interview. “All I know at the moment is I’m doing these three and another three.” Which, translated to how we do series here in the U.S. means he’s currently filming season three of three episodes and then would go on to do a fourth season of three episodes.
He also said in the interview that he and Freeman would like to do more seasons, but as always it depends on their schedules and that of co-creator Steven Moffat, who also runs the BBC’s Doctor Who.
So yeah, that’s pretty cool. We could all use more seasons of this excellent show. And more Cumberbatch and Freeman isn’t a bad thing either.
Look for season three of Sherlock to hit the U.S. later this year.
Geronimo! BBC America has released images from the first four episodes of the second half of season seven for the show that takes viewers through all of time and space. The pictures show not only Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor but also Jenna-Louise Coleman’s companion Clara and guest stars Dougray Scott and Jessica Raine. Warning! Spoilers may follow!
Doctor Who returns with the thriller episode, The Bells of St. John, which introduces a new enemy known as the Spoonheads. Seven more episodes are set to finish out the 7th season of the timey whimey show. Since this is Doctor Who’s 50th anniversary we can expect some surprises.
In a press release from BBC America, lead writer and executive producer Steven Moffat said: “It’s the 50th year of Doctor Who and look what’s going on! We’re up in the sky and under the sea! We’re running round the rings of an alien world and then a haunted house. There’s new Cybermen, new Ice Warriors and a never before attempted journey to the centre of the TARDIS. And in the finale, the Doctor’s greatest secret will at last be revealed! If this wasn’t already our most exciting year it would be anyway!”
Catch Doctor Who when it returns on March 30 8 p.m. ET on BBC America.
The recent five episode run to kick off the seventh season of Doctor Who ended with the bittersweet send off of the Ponds. The second longest running companions for the Doctor in the new run, and the thus far only traveling mates of the Eleventh Doctor, the Ponds were fan favorites whose presence on the show will be missed.
That last paragraph contained no spoilers, as it was well publicized that they would be ending their run in the 5th episode of this current season. Going forward there will be spoilers for that episode, so if you somehow missed how the Ponds met their ends you might want to bookmark this story and come back once you watched the episode.
Some how the great Steven Moffat managed to essentially kill these two beloved characters while at the same time giving them the happiest ending possible. Even though they were trapped in the past during a time the Doctor is unable to ever visit (which were sure will be retconned sooner rather than later), they were both given full, seemingly normal lives to live together for decades and decades. The love story of Amy and Rory Williams, which has seen their love forged over thousands of years, over several deaths and over a parallel lifetime finally settles long enough to let them live out the rest of their days in loving peace.
That is where the show left us, a sucker punch to the gut that had the sweetest of aftertastes. However, the Doctor Who writing crew is not one to leave well enough alone, and that has been proven once again in this newly released story board animation of an unfilmed coda scene to that episode.
It will come as no surprise to those who read us with regularity that this is a very pro Doctor Who site. The big season seven premiere is this weekend and there is more than a little bit of who mania around these parts in anticipation. Thankfully the BBC has delivered unto us a little morsel in the last few hours of waiting.
All this week BBC has debuted a daily, short mini-episode online. Pond Life, as the mini-mini-series has been dubbed, is all about what the Ponds are up to in the five months leading up to the September 1st premiere. Each episode provides only the slightest of glimpses of our favorite characters doing what they do, but it is enough to make us excited about them all over again.
It is also important to note that today’s episode, which is the last of the bunch, actually seems to bring with it some rather important information about where our characters are at when the season begins. All told the roughly six minutes total of the five shorts provide a rather meaningful prologue to the next season, so anyone who is on the Who bandwagon really should check these out.
You can check out the first part of Pond Life after the jump, and be sure to head over to BBC’s YouTube channel for the rest of the series.
Doctor Who is almost back, and what better way to get you jazzed for the next batch of new episodes than with some rather impressive promotional artwork. These theatrical one-sheet inspired banners highlight each of the first five new episodes of the upcoming season.
There is some pretty major stuff happening in this first set of shows which will be ushering in some change. What that change will be is common knowledge, but on the precipice of the new season we wont spoil it here, especially as these posters do a good job of alluding to what will happen without overtly telling you.
One thing that is really interesting is how Steven Moffat has approached this new season. He has said in the past that he was trying to make each episode stand a little more on its own like a little movie. This was the same creative directive that Bruce Timm used in the early seasons of Batman: The Animated Series and look how well that turned out.
The focus on making these episodes more like self-contained mini-movies within a larger, interconnected world might be one of the better moves Moffat has made. Every episode we have seen clips from looks stunning, and if these episodes can deliver on their promise we are all in for a little over a month of pure television awesomeness.
Take a look at all the new banners after the jump.
Say what you will about American TV structure vs. our brethren across the pond, but when it comes to the big time shows you usually know what and when you are getting them. One of the biggest shows on BBC is, of course, Doctor Who and up until now we have only had a vague sense of when it was returning.
It was announced that the seventh season premiere will air on Saturday September 1st. As of now this is only official for the BBC broadcast, but starting last year the show aired day and date with BBC America, and there is no indication that will change now. The seventh season begins with a five episode run before it fractures around Christmas, allowing the second half to play out in 2013.
In addition to the air date, BBC also released the official synopsis for the first three episodes:
Episode 1: Asylum of the Daleks
“Kidnapped by his oldest foe, the Doctor is forced on an impossible mission – to a place even the Daleks are too terrified to enter… the Asylum. A planetary prison confining the most terrifying and insane of their kind, the Doctor and the Ponds must find an escape route. But with Amy and Rory’s relationship in meltdown, and an army of mad Daleks closing in, it is up to the Doctor to save their lives, as well as the Ponds’ marriage.”
We love spies and spy shows. We especially love spies and spy shows that feature kick-ass lead characters played by actresses we really like (who also happen to be hot).
The upcoming BBC spy show Hunted has all of those elements, and more. Written and directed by Frank Spotnitz (The X-Files), Hunted is an eight part series starring Melissa George as Sam Hunter, a skilled operative for a private intelligence firm.
According to the BBC, the character of Sam is “a complex and mysterious Bourne style female spy.” Sounds good to us.
We’ve got the first trailer for the show, which will air on both the BBC and Cinemax here in the U.S., and it’s chock full of spy action and everything else you would hope to see. We like it. Let us know what you think.
Hunted is set to premiere on BBC One and Cinemax this fall.
Some of us here at The Flickcast are fanatical fans of the BBC’s long running show Doctor Who. Others are not quite as enthusiastic, and that’s okay. To each his or her own.
Still, no matter your thoughts or feelings about the show, there’s no denying it’s very popular with millions of people around the world. Obviously, the BBC knows what they’ve got and are giving fans of the show a little something extra to celebrate Doctor Who‘s 50th anniversary.
That’s right, the show — who’s last season was the most-watched series ever on BBC America and the most downloaded on iTunes — is getting a TV-movie. The special will be called An Adventure In Space And Time and will highlight the genesis of the character. It will air next year.
Until then, the latest Doctor Who series (season) starts in the UK this month and comes to BBC America in the Fall.
Martin Campbell’s particular skill set seems to be geared towards remaking something. He is best known for his two James Bond reboots, Goldeneye & Casino Royal, both of which routinely rank among the best Bond adventures.
When he tries to make an original movie, or at least one with out cinematic forebears to stand on, he makes Green Lantern. So consider it a positive turn of events when Deadline reports that Campbell is getting back in the reboot game:
Martin Campbell [will] revive the cult 1978 adventure/sci-fi series Blake’s 7. Writer Joe Pokaski will pen the re-imagining of the original series created by Terry Nation, a prolific UK TV writer who also created the Daleks for the classic BBC series Doctor Who. Campbell is attached to direct the Blake’s 7 reboot, which is being shopped to U.S. networks.
If Campbell’s revival can connect with modern thematic elements and topical stories like the Battlestar Galactica relaunch did, this has all the makings of a great new show. There is a reason why those classic old series still resonate today, and if given the proper respect we could see something special.
Or we could see dreck, the man did do Green Lantern after all, and he still has some time left on his director jail sentence for that one.
Stay tuned to The Flickcast for any future updates on this potential project as it makes the rounds at US networks.
Next season Doctor Who is going to feature the passing of the guard to a new companion, set the stage for the 50th anniversary year and now, play host to an Avenger. Which Avenger you might ponder? You know, the sexy one who has a penchant for wearing skin-tight jumpsuits and can kick your ass… Emma Peel!
The famed female lead of the classic British TV series The Avengers has just been announced by the BBC to be taking on a role in the second half of series 7:
Mother and daughter Dame Diana Rigg and Rachael Stirling are set to star side by side in the BBC Wales drama Doctor Who, the first time the pair have ever worked together on screen. Character details remain under wraps, but the episode penned by Mark Gatiss will see Dame Diana and Rachael recreate their off-screen relationship on-screen, as they play a mother and daughter with a dark secret.
This guest casting is just another intriguing notch to an upcoming season that is shaping up to be an interesting one. The Matt Smith era has been as much the Matt/Karen/Arthur era as anything else, it will be interesting to finally see Smith play his variation of the Doctor with some one new helping him on his adventures.
Doctor Who is set to return in the fall, and be sure to follow The Flickcast in the coming weeks as The Doctor will have a presence at Comic-Con again this year and will likely bring news and a new trailer with him.
My affinity for Doctor Who has to be well-known at this point in time, but there is another Brit series that really floats my boat these days. Coincidentally, or more likely not, both shows are currently headed by the same mad genius, Steven Moffat.
Sherlock co-stars one of my favorite british actors, Martin Freeman, and introduced me to the wonder that is Benedict Cumberbatch. But the show has another secret weapon that I am excited to dig into today, a wonderful score by David Arnold and Michael Price.
The name David Arnold should ring a few bells for a few of you, he is most well-known for his many recent James Bond scores, in fact he the second most frequent Bond composer right after the legend, John Barry. Aside from Bong, Arnold also has several other geek cred credits, most notably writing the scores to Independence Day and Startgate.
The official Doctor Who convention in Cardiff over this past weekend brought with it a lot of news and announcements about Season Seven, including who will be the next companion after Rory and Amy depart mid-season. It also featured the first promo video for the new season, and BBC has just officially released it online. Whovians, rejoice!
In the promo, The Doctor wears a hat, rides a horse, and generally causes trouble, flanked as always by Amy and Rory. As previous set photos indicated, The Doctor and his companions will visit the wild wild west, the snowy tundra, and an ancient civilization, and will content with old and new foes alike. The promo even features guest stars Mark Williams (known best as Arthur Weasley) and Ben Browder of Stargate. We also learn that Amy Pond isn’t too great at handling a gun, and what exaclty The Doctor really would like for Christmas.
Amy and Rory will depart from the series in the fifth episode of the season in an episode featuring the Weeping Angels. The new companion, played by Jenna-Louise Coleman, will first appear in the Christmas Special.
Doctor Who returns to BBC One and BBC America this fall. You can watch the new promo after the jump.
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