Doctor Who

Fans of the BBC sci-fi series “Doctor Who” know that this season’s biggest mystery isn’t about sinister aliens or otherworldly adventures, but rather about the origins of the latest in the Doctor’s long and lovely line of traveling companions. Played by Jenna-Louise Coleman, Clara Oswald has been dubbed “the impossible girl.” Before the Doctor (Matt Smith) recruited Clara, a London nanny, to join him on his jaunts through time and space, he had met her before — or at least he met two women who looked just like her. Both women died, and Clara’s existence baffles the Time Lord. Coleman’s Clara has big shoes to fill after the departure of  Amy Pond, played by Karen Gillan, a fan-favorite companion who shared the screen with Matt Smith’s Doctor for 2 1/2 seasons. Like Amy, Clara is adventurous and spirited and not afraid […]

“Doctor Who” star Jenna-Louise Coleman has been warned. She knows that two months from now, fans at Comic-Con International in San Diego will line up in the thousands, camping overnight outside the city’s convention center to secure seats for the annual panel devoted to the BBC TV sensation. Many will wield sonic screwdrivers or wear Dalek costumes, and more than a few will come dressed as Coleman’s character, Clara. But back in March, the hype hadn’t caught up with her. “Everyone wants to know, ‘Has your life changed since joining the show?’” Coleman said over a lunch of baby beets and tangerine at downtown Los Angeles’ Lazy Ox Canteen. “And I’m like, ‘No, not really.’ I just go to Cardiff, and I do mad things and experience mad stuff on set, and then I come back to my London life, […]

Matt Smith’s Doctor will cross paths with David Tennant’s Doctor in an upcoming 50th anniversary special of “Doctor Who.” Tennant, whose vivacious performance as the time-and-space-traveling alien helped catapult the long-running British television series into the mainstream of popular culture, has joined the cast, along with Billie Piper, who played his traveling companion and love interest, Rose Tyler, the BBC confirmed Saturday morning. The show is rumored to include all 11 incarnations of the Doctor. The BBC also announced that John Hurt (“Alien,” “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”) will be guest starring in the special, which is written by Steven Moffat and begins filming in Britain this week. (“Merlin” fans will note that Hurt voiced the Great Dragon in that recently wrapped-up fantasy series.) GRAPHIC: Meet the 11 Doctors When Tennant and Piper appear alongside Smith and Jenna-Louise Coleman (who plays new companion Clara […]

Angry cyborgs bent on universal domination, the Daleks first appeared on the “Doctor Who” television series in 1963 and were quickly established as one of the Doctor’s deadliest enemies. For half a century, viewers have watched the Time Lord battle these evil beings whose singular goal is to “Exterminate! Exterminate!” Nobody should want to see the world through a Dalek’s point of view. According to the show’s lore, they have had every emotion removed except hate. But on Thursday the BBC  released Doctor Who: Eyestalk, a new app that lets you transform your iPhone, iPad, or iPod into a Dalek’s lens. ‘Doctor Who’ at 50: Meet the 11 faces of the Time Lord Eyestalk is basically a photo-filter app. You take a photo or video and then run it through one of seven filters that correspond to different Daleks that […]

“Doctor Who” returns Saturday with “The Bells of St. John,” starring Jenna-Louise Coleman as mysterious new companion Clara opposite Matt Smith’s Doctor. It’s an auspicious year for “Doctor Who” as the sci-fi series turns 50. Whovians are celebrating the anniversary with commemorative postage stamps, an audio drama, a three-day event in London and two TV movies — one about the filming of the first “Who” episode and the second an adventure rumored to feature all 11 incarnations of the Doctor. “In Britain, you can practically define yourself, your generation by which actor played the Doctor when you were a kid,” executive producer Steven Moffat told Hero Complex. To celebrate 50 years of “Who,” Hero Complex takes a look at the many faces of the time-traveling Doctor, as well as the monsters he fought and the friends who traveled with him, in […]

Want to hear what Marvel Studios guru Kevin Feige has to say about “Iron Man 3″? Or Damon Lindelof’s take on why he’s like a covert agent in Hollywood, guarding some of the most exciting “Star Trek Into Darkness” secrets? Or how about director Joseph Kosinski talking about the aesthetics of spaceship design for his upcoming Tom Cruise-starrer “Oblivion”? Then check out the spring issue of the Hero Complex magazine, available for free at Meltdown Comics in L.A. or any of the three Midtown Comics locations in New York. In addition to stories about highly anticipated films, you’ll also find details on “The Walking Dead”; a preview of the game that hopes to bring new dimension to the survival horror genre, “The Last of Us”; and a thoughtful examination of the legacy of “X-Men” writing talent Chris Claremont. The cover […]

The signs of a seismic shift became clear a year or so ago, in even the nonhipster communities of Los Angeles: a tween boy in a “Bow Ties Are Cool” T-shirt, a silver Camry with a license plate holder reading “My other car is a TARDIS,” a girl at an elementary school Halloween costume parade dressed in a homemade blue police box and bearing a sonic screwdriver. By the time TV Guide got around to putting Matt Smith on its cover, it seemed almost old news: The Doctor, ancient and perpetually regenerating Time Lord, savior of multiple universes, wearer of classic bow ties and trench coats, wielder of the multi-purpose sonic screwdriver and intergalactic protector of Earth, has at long last jumped the pond. It’s a triumph for long-term fans, the newly high profile of “Doctor Who” — now celebrating […]

PERSPECTIVE In the annals of space, time and television, there is nothing quite like “Doctor Who,” the British sci-fi series that this year is celebrating a 50th anniversary, in your Earth years. Only “Star Trek” comes close for persistence of a franchise, and it does not come close. What sets “Doctor Who” apart is that, notwithstanding the distance from its paint-and-cardboard, spaceship-on-a-string early episodes to the beautifully realized, seamlessly fantastic creation it is today, the current series is the same one that began on the BBC in 1963 — neither a sequel nor a re-conception, but the identical show. It has centered on the same character: an extraterrestrial Time Lord who travels all of creation in what looks like an old London police box and who has been played by 11 actors, each new Doctor a “regeneration” of the last, […]

“Doctor Who” returns to U.S. airwaves on March 30, and this weekend the BBC released new images from  four upcoming episodes, as well as information on what we can expect from the second half of Season 7. Here are a few hints: a dangerous cruise on a Russian submarine, a haunted mansion on the moor, and Dame Diana Rigg.  Oh, and something about how the Doctor’s greatest secret will be revealed. Intrigued? Doctor Who quiz: Test your smarts as the Doctor turns 50 “It’s the 50th year of ‘Doctor Who’ and look what’s going on!” “Doctor Who” lead writer and executive producer Steven Moffat said in a BBC release. “If this wasn’t already our most exciting year it would be anyway!” “Doctor Who” fans will also, hopefully, get some answers about the Doctor’s next companion, Clara Oswald (Jenna-Louise Coleman). We first […]

The time-and-space-traveling alien known simply as the Doctor made his first appearance on TV screens in the United Kingdom on Nov. 23, 1963. Five decades later, he’s still going strong. The second half of the relaunched show’s seventh season is set to return March 30, with Matt Smith as the Doctor and a Clara Oswin Oswald making her bow as the companion, Oswald is played by actress Jenna-Louise Coleman. The first new episode, titled “The Bells of St. Johns,” introduces new villains called the Spoonheads. Meanwhile, the Doctor investigates something sinister going on with London’s Wi-Fi. There’s reason for celebration this year as the Doctor — who has racked up quite a lot of screen time and mileage on the TARDIS –  turns 50 (or 500 … who really knows?). It’s time to question just how well you know him. […]