Latest news with #TimeLords
Daily Mirror
31-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
More 'lost' Doctor Who episodes will be found soon, expert predicts
Of the 97 BBC episodes still missing from the early years, there are more yet to be discovered, thanks to private collectors Several more lost episodes of 1960s Doctor Who are probably owned by private collectors and will turn up at some point, an expert has revealed. At present, 97 shows starring the first two Time Lords, William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton, are missing from the BBC archives. The master tapes were believed to have been destroyed in the 1970s when it was thought no one would want to watch the black and white episodes again. But the BBC's first archive selector, Sue Malden, said she believes some copies still exist and has made a plea for their return. Speaking at the Recovered festival in Leicester, hosted by archive recovery project Film is Fabulous!, she added: "As far as Doctor Who goes, we do not have a statement or anything to make at the moment. We do know fairly certainly that there are episodes missing in private collections. Some members of the Film is Fabulous! team are in a considerably significant position to help on that. "So, when the time is right, we really do hope that it will be Film is Fabulous! that manages to return at least one or two, I don't know, of the missing episodes of Doctor Who to the BBC." Only eight episodes of the show were ever repeated during the 1960s, with copies being made for sales overseas. A source said: "There's a lot of grounds for optimism that some episodes could be returned before too long. The films will be donated to De Montfort University in Leicester, and carefully restored." Lost episodes were as earlier returned by collectors Francis Watson, Terry Burnett and Bruce Grenville. Since the early 1980s, a trickle of copies have been sent back to the BBC, with a batch of nine shows starring Troughton being recovered in 2013 after being found in Nigeria. The most likely stories to turn up are: 1 The Tenth Planet, episode 4, October 29, 1966 Final Hartnell show where he defeated the Cybermen for the first time. 2 The Daleks' Master Plan, episode 4, December 4, 1965 The Daleks' Master Plan serial was never shown outside the UK but three episodes of this 12-part epic survive. 3 Marco Polo (broadcast from 22 February - March 4, 1964) Many copies of this were sold around the world. 4 The Web of Fear, episode 3 (broadcast February 17, 1968) Featuring Troughton battling the Yeti on the London Underground, other episodes were returned in 2013. 5 The Macra Terror (broadcast from March 11 - April 1, 1967) Introduced the first set of opening titles to feature Troughton's face. Doctor and friends encounter a race of giant alien crabs.
Metro
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Metro
Doctor Who fans are convinced the show is dying – but they're wrong
Doctor Who has survived an awful lot. We've seen the Doctor fall off a giant telescope, absorb a lethal amount of radiation (twice), and even bump their head on the Tardis console, yet they still walked away to tell the tale. True, they might not have had the same face after these incidents, but that's pretty run of the mill for Time Lords. It's strange, then, that for the first time since 2005 and Doctor Who's triumphant return that it feels like the beloved sci-fi series is in peril. Low viewing figures, mixed critical reception, and growing fan antipathy have dogged the show over the last few series, and there's a fear amongst fans that the Doctor might be done for. Wake up to find news on your TV shows in your inbox every morning with Metro's TV Newsletter. Sign up to our newsletter and then select your show in the link we'll send you so we can get TV news tailored to you. Yet, do you know who else has believed the Doctor was defeated over the years? The Daleks… and the Cybermen… and The Master. In fact, countless villains over the years have considered the Doctor to be beaten, only to be proven wrong, and recent news has me optimistic that the Last of the Time Lords can do the impossible once again. On June 12, the BBC announced that they're working on a new CBBC spin-off featuring the Doctor. According to the BBC press release, this new animated show – which is aimed at the pre-school audience — will see the Gallifreyan gadabout 'solving mysteries and problems alongside their companions and other friends'. Now I know what you're thinking. Why am I excited about the news of a show aimed at people who've only just learned object permanence? Well, there's a simple answer to that, I think this demonstrates that the Beeb still have faith in Who as a brand. After all, why would they be willing to invest in the wider franchise if they weren't sure if the series still had legs (and arms, hands, ooh, fingers, lots of fingers. Ears, yes, eyes too)? I must admit, in my darkest moments, I have entertained the terror that the Beeb might shelve Who, but this recent announcement has me convinced we're going to hear news on the main series return soon. Of course, there are already rumours online about where the series might be heading. There are unverified reports online that Disney is done with Doctor Who and that they won't be helping produce another season. On paper, that sounds like a massive blow, but before you start wailing into your Tom Baker scarf, there is some good news. Supposedly, the BBC is close to finding a new partner for the beleaguered series, which will allow them to continue Doctor Who in some form or another. What form will the show take next? Who knows? To paraphrase the Doctor, regeneration is a lottery; you never know what you're going to get, and so is renewal in the TV world. What I do know is that whoever takes it over is unlikely to have pockets as deep as Disney – unless it's Apple TV Plus, they're Scrooge McDuck rich – which means Who's going to have to make some adjustments. And you know what? I think that's great. The BBC may have grand ambitions for Doctor Who to be a big-budget affair like the MCU or other modern sci-fi series, but that's not what audiences watch the show for. They watch it because they love the characters, the stories, and the incredible creativity of the writers. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video The House of Mouse's cash might have allowed the Doctor to go on bigger adventures than ever before through impressive special effects, incredible sets, and stunning CGI, but it also robbed the show of some of its underdog spirit. Now, the stereotype of every Doctor Who monster being made of a pedal bin with bubble wrap glued to it is a bit outdated, as is the belief that it's filmed exclusively in Welsh quarries. Yet it is true that the series' limited budget forced the show's writers and producers to get creative, which gave Doctor Who a certain charm all of its own. Monsters felt more real because they were just people in goofy costumes, not CGI behemoths. Alien worlds felt tangible because they weren't green screens, they were… well, to be honest, they were Welsh quarries, but they used other places in Wales too! More than that, I think the limited budgets pushed writers and producers to think their way out of problems, rather than throwing cash at them. There are plenty of examples from across the show's history, but the best example I can think of involves the iconic Tardis. Have you ever wondered why the Tardis is a blue police phone box? No, it's not because the chameleon circuit is broken. It's because the BBC didn't want to pay for a new prop every week. More Trending That's right, one of the most important pieces of iconography in British pop culture was born because some backroom accountant wanted to save a couple of quid. Glibness aside, I do think a big problem in recent years has been an overreliance on spectacle over character and plot (most notably in the last two season finales). With that in mind, I'm hopeful that whoever takes on Who will make Russell T Davies and his writers realise expensive CGI isn't a substitute for a coherent story. So what I'm saying to my fellow fans is that the Doctor might have been injured in recent months, and change may be coming, but the future of this wonderful show seems brighter than a regenerating Time Lord. Do you have a story you'd like to share? Get in touch by emailing Share your views in the comments below. View More » MORE: Sabrina Carpenter knew you'd hate her kinky album cover – that's the point MORE: Period tracking apps might sell our data – but women are trapped MORE: Race Across the World's Sioned shouldn't be sneered at for her tears
Metro
10-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Metro
The latest Doctor Who rumours give me hope the series won't die
Doctor Who has survived an awful lot. We've seen the Doctor fall off a giant telescope, absorb a lethal amount of radiation (twice), and even bump their head on the Tardis console, yet they still walked away to tell the tale. True, they might not have had the same face after these incidents, but that's pretty run of the mill for Time Lords. It's strange, then, that for the first time since 2005 and Doctor Who's triumphant return that it feels like the beloved sci-fi series is in peril. Low viewing figures, mixed critical reception, and growing fan antipathy have dogged the show over the last few series, and there's a fear amongst fans that the Doctor might be done for. Wake up to find news on your TV shows in your inbox every morning with Metro's TV Newsletter. Sign up to our newsletter and then select your show in the link we'll send you so we can get TV news tailored to you. Yet, do you know who else has believed the Doctor was defeated over the years? The Daleks… and the Cybermen… and The Master. In fact, countless villains over the years have considered the Doctor to be beaten, only to be proven wrong, and new rumours have me optimistic that the Last of the Time Lords can do the impossible once again. We'll start with the bad news. There are unverified reports online that Disney is done with Doctor Who and that they won't be helping produce another season. On paper, that sounds like a massive blow, but before you start wailing into your Tom Baker scarf, there is some good news. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Supposedly, the BBC is close to finding a new partner for the beleaguered series, which will allow them to continue Doctor Who in some form or another. What form will the show take next? Who knows? To paraphrase the Doctor, regeneration is a lottery; you never know what you're going to get, and so is renewal in the TV world. What I do know is that whoever takes it over is unlikely to have pockets as deep as Disney – unless it's Apple TV Plus, they're Scrooge McDuck rich – which means Who's going to have to make some adjustments. And you know what? I think that's great. The BBC may have grand ambitions for Doctor Who to be a big-budget affair like the MCU or other modern sci-fi series, but that's not what audiences watch the show for. They watch it because they love the characters, the stories, and the incredible creativity of the writers. The House of Mouse's cash might have allowed the Doctor to go on bigger adventures than ever before through impressive special effects, incredible sets, and stunning CGI, but it also robbed the show of some of its underdog spirit. Now, the stereotype of every Doctor Who monster being made of a pedal bin with bubble wrap glued to it is a bit outdated, as is the belief that it's filmed exclusively in Welsh quarries. Yet it is true that the series' limited budget forced the show's writers and producers to get creative, which gave Doctor Who a certain charm all of its own. Monsters felt more real because they were just people in goofy costumes, not CGI behemoths. Alien worlds felt tangible because they weren't green screens, they were… well, to be honest, they were Welsh quarries, but they used other places in Wales too! More than that, I think the limited budgets pushed writers and producers to think their way out of problems, rather than throwing cash at them. There are plenty of examples from across the show's history but the best example I can think of involves the iconic Tardis. Have you ever wondered why the Tardis is a blue police phone box? No, it's not because the chameleon circuit is broken. It's because the BBC didn't want to pay for a new prop every week. More Trending That's right, one of the most important pieces of iconography in British pop culture was born because some backroom accountant wanted to save a couple of quid. Glibness aside, I do think a big problem in recent years has been an overreliance on spectacle over character and plot (most notably in the last two season finales). With that in mind then I'm hopeful that whoever takes on Who will make Russell T Davies and his writers realise expensive CGI isn't a substitute for a coherent story. View More » So, what I'm saying is that Disney dropping Doctor Who may wound the show. It may even force Doctor Who to change its face once again, but change can be for the better. Do you have a story you'd like to share? Get in touch by emailing Share your views in the comments below. MORE: I won't risk my safety by seeing Charli XCX at Glastonbury 2025 MORE: I've applied for 38 jobs and got nowhere – I blame ageism MORE: Tom Felton was asked about JK Rowling and immediately showed his privilege
Forbes
04-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
The ‘Doctor Who' Regeneration Controversy, Explained
Billie Piper as the 16th Doctor in 'Doctor Who' 'The Reality War,' the finale of the 15th season of Doctor Who, saw Ncuti Gatwa exit the role of the Doctor, regenerating into Billie Piper, who previously appeared in the series as the Doctor's companion. Fans of the show were shocked at the reveal, as recasting a former companion as the Doctor was a first for the long-running sci-fi series. The Doctor has been played by a total of 16 different actors across the show's 60-year history, with each new actor introduced via 'regeneration.' Doctor Who is an interesting example of a sci-fi story offering viewers an in-universe explanation for the inevitable recasting that occurs during a multi-decade series. The Doctor is a member of an ancient alien race known as the Time Lords, who have the ability to regenerate into a fresh body when fatally wounded, imbuing them with a new personality and appearance. Canonically, Time Lords are limited to 12 regenerations, but of course, the Doctor was granted an exception, so that the series could continue. The ability to regenerate can result in a Time Lord changing race and sex, and the Doctor's recent regenerations have introduced more diversity to the series, but the show's latest regeneration proved controversial with fans. The backlash wasn't some tedious culture war bickering, but a debate over canon, nostalgia and the future of the show. 'The Reality War' sees Ncuti Gatwa's Doctor regenerate into Billie Piper, who first appeared in the series as Rose Tyler. Rose was the Doctor's companion between 2005 and 2013, during the eras of Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant, who both played the Time Lord. Many fans viewed the recasting of a previous companion as a desperate move motivated by nostalgia. One commentator even explained the casting through the lens of Spider-Man, so outsiders could understand the controversy. The discourse sparked a discussion about what kind of audience is still watching Doctor Who today, with some asserting that children are no longer the main audience of the series. Other commentators were disappointed to see Gatwa's time as the Doctor end so abruptly. Gatwa's Doctor was unusually short-lived, lasting a mere 18 months, and the actor never got to see his Doctor face off against the series' most iconic villains. Some viewed the modern Doctor Who regenerations as too frequent, with actors leaving the show before they could truly leave their mark on the role. Many comparisons were made to the MCU recasting Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom, a movie which was widely viewed as a gimmick among Marvel fans. Some fans even suspected that there was more to the story, and that Piper's casting was a red herring, noting that Piper was not officially introduced as the Doctor in the show's credits. 'Just how and why she is back remains to be seen,' the BBC said in a suspiciously vague statement after the finale aired. 'It's an honour and a hoot to welcome her back to the TARDIS, but quite how and why and who is a story yet to be told,' showrunner Russell T. Davies said. Despite the controversy, Piper sounded optimistic about her new role, saying that the opportunity to "step back on that TARDIS one more time was just something I couldn't refuse.'
Gizmodo
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Gizmodo
The History of Omega, the Beginning and the End of the Time Lords
If we thought all Doctor Who was going to build its upcoming finale around was the return of one classic villain from its history in the Rani, 'Wish World' told us to think again in its final moments, as it invoked the name of an all-time terror in the history of the Time Lords: the dread Omega, not seen in the show properly in over 40 years. But Omega's history is, fitting for a key player in the origins of the Time Lords themselves, paradoxically much old and yet also much more recent than that. The First History of Omega A solar engineer and a prominent figure in early Gallifreyan society—and, as later audio stories would reveal, a close confidant and schoolfriend of Rassilon, another key player in the foundation of the Time Lords—Omega first appeared in Doctor Who's first anniversary special, 'The Three Doctors,' in late 1972. There it was revealed that it was Omega's research that unlocked the key to time travel that would radically overhaul Gallifreyan society and create the Time Lords as we'd come to know them. Deploying a powerful relic known as the Hand of Omega, Omega made a star go supernova before harnessing its energies to fuel the first acts of controlled temporal manipulation. But while the Hand of Omega, and the research it bore, would be recovered by Gallifrey, Omega himself was seemingly lost in the destruction. Revered as a hero and made legend by his people as they used the Hand to become lords of Time, Omega had actually survived his experiment, flung into a black hole and deposited into a universe of pure antimatter. Not knowing that his people thought he was dead, Omega grew bitter as his acceptance at not being rescued turned to fury that he had been abandoned in his moment of triumph by the Gallifreyans. In time, Omega sought his own way out of the antimatter universe, experimenting on his power to manipulate it and even create his own life—at a cost that he failed to realize, as his own physical body broke down into nothingness. By the time the Time Lords tasked the First, Second, and Third Doctors with attempting to stop Omega from destroying the universe in his attempts to acquire more energy to fuel his escape, all that sustained Omega's form was the original suit that he wore during his experiments with the Hand. After battling with the Third Doctor in an attempt to trade places in exile with him, Omega was left in the antimatter universe as it was seemingly destroyed. But his 'death' had not stopped diehard followers of his own arising on Gallifrey, creating a legion of cultists that swore to bring one of Time Lord society's foundational forces back to reality. In the 1983 serial 'Arc of Infinity,' a member of Gallifrey's High Council, Hedin, secretly plotted to steal the Doctor's biological data to create a new physical form for Omega's will to inhabit. Although the plan was foiled, Omega managed to briefly escape his antimatter universe and emerge on Earth, only to find his form destabilizing until he was imprisoned in the antimatter universe for good… again. Omega and the Timeless Child It would take Omega almost 40 years to return to Doctor Who on-screen… technically speaking. Because while Omega's history as the creator of Gallifreyan time travel hasn't changed, his broader part in the creation of Time Lord society on a biological level did in Chris Chibnall's re-working of the Doctor's origins in the 2020 episode 'The Timeless Child', in which Omega makes a brief, uncredited appearance in flashbacks alongside Rassilon and Tecteun. Although the character is never explicitly named onscreen, the officially released production script for the episode names two Time Lord figures seen alongside Tecteun as to be assumed as Omega and Rassilon, making them aware of the true origins of Time Lord society as we come to know it in that story. As established in 'The Timeless Child', Tecteun was the scientist who found, and then successfully exploited, the genetic material of the titular child—the mysterious being who would eventually become the Doctor—to give themselves the ability to regenerate their physical form upon mortal injury. In 'The Timeless Child''s brief explanation of Gallifrey's history, Omega's discovery of time travel occurs during a golden age of advancement for the Shobogans, the native peoples of Gallifrey, during the construction of the Citadel and even before Tecteun decides to offer up the genetic inheritance of regeneration to the Citadel's denizens, formally renaming their society as that of the Time Lords. But Omega is still considered a foundational member of this triumvirate that makes the Time Lords, even if, presumably, his loss in experimenting with the Hand of Omega now comes at a point separated from his discovery of time travel. What Omega's Return Means for Doctor Who Interestingly, what little we got to see—or rather hear about, Omega is namechecked but left pointedly offscreen—of Omega in 'Wish World' keeps vague about where exactly he has been kept since we last saw him. The Rani describes Omega has having been kept in an 'underverse,' access to which required a fracture in reality itself, rather than the black holes and matter/antimatter that were previously established in Omega's prior appearances. Whether or not the underverse is intended to be the same reality that Omega was trapped in in those original stories, or somewhere else he was potentially sent to after those events, remains to be seen. But that detail aside, Omega's potential return to reality is largely irrelevant next to what the Rani intends to use him for: the resurrection of the Time Lords from their latest extinction. Again, just how remains to be seen, but if Doctor Who does once again bring the Time Lords back for a third time—after their apparent destruction during the Last Great Time War, undone during the events of 'The Day of the Doctor,' and then the Master's eradication of his own people a few years later. As far as we know, while Gallifrey the planet still exists in some form, unlike its prior fate in the Time War, the Time Lords themselves, save for the Rani, the Doctor, and the Master were seemingly all exterminated. Just how Omega's power could restore the Time Lords, again, remains to be seen. But with the revelation of the Timeless Child, and the Doctor's understanding of their connection to Gallifrey, Omega is now even more important to the foundations of the Time Lords than he already was with the invention of time travel—'Wish World' even describes him as the first Time Lord, and creator of their society. If he really is the key to their return–or a continuation of their absence from Doctor Who's current mythology—we'll find out once and for all as the current season of Who comes to its end in 'The Reality War' this weekend, on May 31.
