Returning for a sixth series, Doctor Who will premiere April 23 at 9pm ET on BBC America. This is the same date as the UK premiere.

The premiere is titled “The Impossible Astronaut” and will be part one of a two-part story written by showrunner Steven Moffat, with part two being titled “Day of the Moon“. Set in America, the story will take the Doctor (Matt Smith) from the Utah desert to the Oval Office in 1969.  Mark Sheppard (Supernatural, Battlestar Galactica) will be guest star with returning companions Amy and Rory (Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill) along with Alex Kingston, who is returning  again as  River Song.

Excitement!

…And just like that, it turns out that the file was UK only, and was yanked down. False alarm, apparently.

Next Week: The Eleventh Hour!!

As discussed in the episode, Blink:

Next Week: Regenerations Part 2 (for real this time)

Hello fellow TV fans. Sorry for the delayed absence. Some real world issues got in the way for a few months, but the worst seems to have passed. So now it’s time to talk television. And just when we thought the summer had nothing to offer us, along comes the good ol’ BBC.

Torchwood: Children of Earth (henceforth, T:COE), was a week long event that basically crammed the entire third series (season) into five nights. And they were some brilliant nights of television to be sure. I could sum up the plot, but at this point, I’m sure you’ve seen it and already know all of the heartbreaking details.

So let’s talk about some of the incidentals. First, let’s discuss the pacing. Trying to cram what would typically be a season long arc into 5 nights could make the viewer feel like things were rushed. I never got that impression with T:COE. As a matter of fact, each hour or so long episode moved with such grace that they felt much more fulfilling than a mere hour. I never felt shortchanged by the end of the hour.

Ok, plot. Here’s where some of the flaws sink in to T:COE. Overall, it is an amazing idea, and a classic tale re-told with some amazing panache. The deal with the devil that proves to never really be over. And in Torchwood, the devil is instead a race of drug-trafficking aliens known only to us by a frequency: The 456. It’s the brazenness of Torchwood that confounded me in this story though. Jack and Ianto bursting into Thames House all John Wayne-like to save the day. Is this surprising for Jack? No. Captain Jack Harkness is confidence and brazenness personified. It’s Ianto’s presence that confused me. We all know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jack cannot die. But bringing Ianto on what is sure to be a suicide mission? I know it was a plot device to bring Jack down a few hundred notches. Does it make it any less meaningless? No, I don’t really think it does.

That being said, the performances of T:COE were up to and probably over par of anything we’ll see coming from the Emmys and Oscars this year. Ianto’s (Gareth David-Lloyd) death scene was one of the most tragic and heartbreaking moments on television this year. And that was only the first of many to come. Eve Myles, probably one of my favorite actresses today, gave Gwen a new depth of pain and humanity that I didn’t think was possible. Gwen has always been one of my favorite characters, but the moment she stares into a camera and says, “I want to know about that Doctor of his. The man who shows up and saves the world. Only sometimes he doesn’t . . . Sometimes the Doctor must look at this planet and turn away in shame,” you can’t help but feel the complete and utter hopelessness that this finale is going to offer.

The series’ regulars were not the only performances that were astounding. Peter Capaldi plays middle-man John Frobisher who is asked the un-askable after 30 years of service to his country, and who is left to make the only choice he feels he has left: to keep his family safe, he must remove them from the equation. The sheer horror of knowing what was coming, yet watching his resolution as his the room to his daughter’s door slowly swung closed was nearly unbearable.

Undoubtedly the acting in T:COE was remarkable; however those performances wouldn’t have been much without the writing. While there were indeed some awkward moments and obvious plot devices, the sheer scale of the writing left the viewer emotionally drained by the end of the finale. The realization of what the Prime Minister is going to ask of Frobisher, to the council’s meeting to decide how the sacrificial children should be chosen, to the understanding that Jack has had to sacrifice his lover and his family to save the world, to the final realization that The 456 didn’t need the children to survive, but rather just to get high. The writing was compelling, powerful and emotional.

And I loved it. Was it hard to watch at times? Yes. Am I upset at how Ianto was killed? Yes. Do I want to punch Jack in the face for running away from all of it? Yes. But is it all true to character? Absolutely. Is it what we’ve come to know and love about Torchwood? Without a doubt. Jack makes the hard choices (remember “Small Worlds” from series one when he sacrifices a child to save the world against the rest of the group’s wishes?). This idea is not new to Torchwood. It’s why we love Torchwood.

Now we are just left to hope that they…are…coming. Back.

Primeval was honestly a series I was not crazy about from the start. A lot of people raved about the series, but it just seemed like Torchwood with dinosaurs instead of aliens. And basically, that is the premise of the show.

Nick Cutter, an evolutionary biologist, is called in by the goverment to help with a rash of strange animals randomly appearing throughout the city. It is discovered that there is an event called an anomoly that allows creatures from the past to slip into modern day. These creatures have to be hearded back through their anomoly and back to their own time before everyday citizens catch on to just what is happening.

Cutter assembles a team from the university that works together to assist the goverment, return the animals to their timelines, to study the creatures, and the anomolies. His team inlcudes: his right-hand man, Stephen (James Murray); herpetologist Abby (Hannah Spearritt); and Connor (Andrew-Lee Potts), the equipment and tech specialist. They also have a department liason, Claudia (Lucy Brown), a love interest for Cutter, whose wife was presumed dead eight years ago.

As I mentioned, the show was a little slow to start. I had a hard time rooting for Nick, played by Douglas Henshall. There was something about him that I just couldn’t get behind in the beginning. The episodes themselves were pretty formulaic and the effects were impressive, for a television budget.

And then we started to learn more about the anomolies. They weren’t just portals to the past, but also to the future. And when a future creature is released onto the populus that is the most honed and evolved hunter imaginable, the show got interesting.

Not only did we learn that the anomolies could open up a path to the future, we also discover how the smallest mistake can change things indefinitely. At the end of Series 1, Claudia and Cutter are finally starting to realize their feelings for one another when one tiny mistake through an anomaly removes Claudia from existence. And replaces her with her doppelganger, Jenny. And what was brilliant about it, is that it stuck. Series 2 wasn’t all about finding out how to get Claudia back. She is gone and no one but Cutter remembers who she is.

Even the way Cutter’s group worked with the government changed. Rather than at University, they were in a modern building and state-of-the-art lab with resources and facilities they were never privy to previously.

More intrigue is added to the show by Cutter’s presumed dead wife, Helen, played by Juliet Aubrey. She is almost a Gaius Baltar type character – there is something about her that just makes me seethe disgust. She is a character you love to hate, and yet, are never able to really figure out what exactly she is up to.

Series 1 is just six episodes, and Series 2 is seven. I believe Series 3 has already begun on ITV in Britain, and according to the BBC America website, will be coming to BBC America sometime this year. With limited runs on Torchwood and Doctor Who this year, British sci-fi fans are itching for a return of some really enjoyable television. And Primeval has proved to be just that – well worth the wait.

The amazing British series Life on Mars has a sequel. This time she’s back in the nick of time.

A few weeks ago I wrote about Life on Mars, a British import now on ABC. And a week or so after that article, ABC decided to not renew Life on Mars for a second season. Well, at least they’ll finish out their season and hopefully conclude the series in an original and imaginative way.

But throughout that article I mentioned that though the import was a fun and entertaining watch, the original BBC series was the superior show.

And now that series has a sequel.

Ashes to Ashes picks up eight years later in 1981. DCI Alex Drake (Keeley Hawes) is a single mother who has risen through police ranks through psychological profiling. One of her cases, that of a now deceased Sam Tyler, introduces her to his world of time travel. She believes it to be a case of psychological trauma. That is, until the psychosis becomes her own.

She is kidnapped by a gunman before her daughter’s birthday party. He shoots her, and she wakes up in 1981. She believes she is stuck in her mind, just as Sam Tyler had been. And the arrival of some familiar faces does nothing to dissuade her.

Back on the scene, DCI Gene Hunt (Philip Glenister), DS Ray Carling (Dean Andrews), and DC Chris Skelton (Marshall Lancaster), reprise their original roles from the original series. And I’ve got to say, it’s great to see Hunt back in rare form.

The immediate chemistry between he and Drake is palpable. The relationship is such an immediate change from Hunt’s relationship with Sam that it is at first jarring. You expect animosity and instead get curiosity. It seems as though Hunt’s been through this before and rather than fight her “craziness” he’s going to get wrapped right up in it.

As in the original we get jarring visuals. In this series, Alex is stalked by a creepy clown (similar to David Bowie’s clown on his Ashes to Ashes album cover). The clown seems to be giving her clues and leading her to the reason why she is stuck in 1981. The same year her parents were murdered by a car bomb.

There are still the same weekly crimes to solve and new mysteries to reveal, but the tone of the show is much more laid back. The viewer gets so wrapped up in the relationship forming between Drake and Hunt that her reason for being there is almost secondary.

If you’re a fan of the original BBC series, you’ve got to give Ashes to Ashes a chance. And, if you tried the American series and are looking for something to fill your crime-drama-time-travel niche, then tune in to Ashes to Ashes. Because if nothing else, Glenister’s Gene-the-Genie is such a delight to watch, you won’t be able to turn away.

With a few exceptions, BBC television imports really work when they are retooled for American television. I was a fan of the original BBC show, Life on Mars, starring John Simm (the Master from the seires three Doctor Who finale) as desperate detective Sam Tyler and the fabulously grumpy Philip Glenister as the horribly comical DCI Gene Hunt. When I heard it was being done for ABC television, I thought there was no way this wonderful and intriguing show would work for American audiences.

And I was almost right. Originally the first Life on Mars pilot was filmed in cheesy 70’s style in bright and sunny L.A. And it was horrid. So show runners re-cast some of the major characters and transferred the location to New York City.

And much to my amazement, it actually worked.

So what is Life on Mars? On the surface it’s a weekly crime serial set in 1973. Detective Sam Tyler (Jason O’Mara for the US version) and the 125th precinct, led by Lieutenant Gene Hunt (Mr. White himself, Harvey Keitel) solve a crime-of-the week (murder, mobsters, general mayhem) with a few over arching character plots that tie the episodes together.

“But that doesn’t sound very sci-fi” you say. And here is where I say, “Now here is where it gets interesting.”

In the pilot, Detective Sam Tyler is a NY city detective breaking a major case, in 2008. As he heads back to his car and radios in his location, an oncoming vehicle mows him down. When he comes to, it is 1973, and he walks into a life that has been set up for him: A job transfer to the 125th and a tiny apartment in the East Village. Sam has no idea how he has gotten there and no idea how to get back home. And now he’s a modern cop having to make-do with archaic equipment and pre-politically correct mentalities.

Now let me add in here that the US show has gone in a completely different direction than its BBC predecessor. Which is ideal. While the BBC series ending was by far one of the most amazing I’ve seen, if the show runners want the series to last longer than one season, things were going to have to change.

And the change has been for the better. O’Mara, who I was highly skeptical of from the first images I saw of him, dives right into the role of Sam Tyler. He plays Tyler’s confused and obsessive personality with realism and without being melodramatic, rarely seen in major network prime time these days. He pulls off drugged, insane, devastated and desperate in such a convincing way, it’s hard not to root for him.

Even Keitel, not usually one of my favorite actors, brings a vulnerability to Hunt that was never seen in the BBC series. Part of that is the different writing staff, but also, part of that is Keitel. Though he does bring a brash sense of humor to the show, he still can’t beat Gleister’s wonderfully brutuish version of Hunt.

In the episode, “Home is Where You Hang Your Holster,” we begin to see that Sam is not the only time-traveler around. When he captures a Councilman during a prostitution sting, the Councilman confesses that he’s not even supposed to be here, that he’s from 2009. Once he convinces Sam that he is from the future, the Councilman also reveals that he’s found a way home. Of course he dies before Sam can find out how, but it’s opened up the mystery even further behind Sam’s predicament.

The best thing I can tell you about Life on Mars is the fact that every week after watching this show I always have to say, “I can’t believe how GOOD this show is!” I am endlessly surprised not only that a BBC show is really working over here, but that even with the re-tooling of the show, it is still so well done.

Michelle Ryan (Bionic Woman) has been rumored to be the Doctor’s new companion. She has allegedly been in secret talks with the BBC and could be announced as taking the role very soon. Ryan, 24,  originally auditioned to replace Billy Piper in the role, but lost out to former companion, Freema Agyeman.

Ryan has worked with Steven Moffat before, starring as Katherine Reimer in the BBC mini series Jekyll. There have been previous rumors of Moffat bringing in actors he has worked with previously into Doctor Who, most notably Patterson Joseph and James Nesbitt, but we all know how those turned out. So this may end up being just another rumor, but an interesting one none the less.

She also starred in NBC’s Bionic Woman, a remake of the 1970s TV favourite, but audiences did not take to it and its run lasted for just eight episodes.

He is a relative unknown actor, although he has had several leading roles and starred in the BBC drama ‘The Ruby in the Smoke’ with the one and only Billie Piper (maybe she put in a good word). He will be the youngest actor to play the Doctor at 26 years old.

He was cast over Christmas and will begin filming for the fifth series of Doctor Who in the summer. David Tennant is filming four specials in 2009.

His first full episodes as the Doctor will not be until 2010. Will the transformation from David Tennant to Matt Smith take place this year ?

Just thought I might add a few pictures of Matthew Smith from The Ruby in the Smoke that I was able to find. -Ben

Well according to numerous sites (such as here and here) not only has the BBC offered the role to an actor, but he has accepted. Keep reading…

The Eleventh Doctor will be Paterson Joseph.

It was revealed last month that Joseph was new showrunner Steven Moffat’s favorite choice for Tennant’s successor, coming as a surprise to no one due to the two working together on 2007’s Jekyll starring James Nesbitt. Doctor Who fans might know Joseph best as “Roderick” (Rose’s fellow contestant on The Weakest Link) in the episodes ‘Bad Wolf’ and ‘The Parting of Ways’ in season one.

Also revealed is that the Doctor isn’t going to be the only thing regenerating in 2010, the TARDIS console room will also be getting a redesign. This could, if true, facilitate the shooting of the show in high definition for the first time, something that the BBC and current showrunner Russell T Davies had held back on due to the amount of work that would need doing on the key sets.

The best news is that NBC has already picked up the rights to the series for America, and it will air in spring 2009.

Merlin premieres this month on BBC One.