News Update

Haven't said anything about "news" for a while - mainly because there wasn't any really, but the last week has seen some major announcements.
First of all, I was naturally devastated to hear of the passing of John Hurt at the weekend. One of my favourite actors, it was wonderful to see him become part of this mad old show that we all love - and as a Doctor as well. Apparently he was overjoyed that he got to play "Doctor Who". As much as I loved The Day of the Doctor, there is so much of his earlier work I admired - be it his appearance in Alien, or his take on Caligula in I, Claudius, or his performance as Timothy Evans in 10 Rillington Place, or as that infamous naked civil servant Quentin Crisp. So many other performances of note. He'll be sadly missed.

Then, just a day or two later, Peter Capaldi announced that his next season will be his last. A great shame, as he will only have done the three series, and I would have liked to see more of him.
He bows out at Christmas this year.
Mark Gatiss has announced that the Doctor will be meeting up with the Ice Warriors (hopefully plural this time) at some point in Series 10. BBC America says this commences on April 15th - so the UK should look to that date as well.
It has also been made known that Chris Chibnall's Series 11 won't be shown until the Autumn of 2018. Filming won't start until the New Year, with the new Doctor making his first appearance on December 25th and the regeneration.
An announcement as to who this might be won't be made for 6 months or so, so don't bother with all the bookmaking / odds-on favourites stuff going on at the moment. All the usual suspects have been dragged out - including the ones from when Capaldi got the gig. Because of her Broadchurch connections, if they do go for a female Doctor, Olivia Colman obviously stands a very good chance.
Back in November, one UK newspaper quoted one of those fabled "insiders" as saying that Bill would go out with Capaldi and Moffat, to give the new show-runner a blank page with his new series.
Interesting times ahead.