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BBC Renews "Doctor Who," Warns of "Gap Year" for Sci Fi Series

Fans of Doctor Who can rest assured that their beloved time-traveling series isn't going away anytime soon, though we might have to wait quite a while for the fifth season.

BBC has announced that it has renewed Doctor Who for a fifth season of aliens, Cybermen, and sonic screwdrivers, to air in 2010 (yes, we'll get to that).

Season Four of Doctor Who, which began production in July, will air in the UK in Spring 2008 for a 13-episode run, with a Christmas special--starring David Tennant and Kylie Minogue-- slated for December. It stars David Tennant, new companion Catherine Tate (reprising her role as Donna from the 2006 Christmas Special "The Runaway Bride"), and Freema Agyeman, who will return halfway through the fourth season as Dr. Martha Jones.

So why the year-long gap between Season Four and Five? According to BBC, Tennant will reportedly play Hamlet with the Royal Shakespeare Company from July to November 2008, making his schedule extremely full next year.

Instead of a traditional 13-episode run for 2009, Tennant will instead star in three Doctor Who specials, to be written by showrunner/executive producer Russell T. Davies.

One potentially sad point of interest: as of right now, the Beeb could not "comment whether Tennant would return for the 2010 series."

Ouch. Let's just hope that the lure of another trip in the TARDIS (and perhaps a sizable salary increase) proves effective enough to clinch Tennant for another season. Fingers crossed...

What's On Tonight

8 pm: Power of 10 (CBS); Singing Bee (NBC); Gilmore Girls (CW); Just for Laughs/Just for Laughs (ABC); Bones (FOX)

9 pm: Big Brother 8 (CBS); Biggest Loser: Did They Keep the Weight Off? (NBC); Beauty and the Geek (CW); i-Caught (ABC); House (FOX)

10 pm: NCIS (CBS); Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (NBC); Primetime (ABC)

What I'll Be Watching

9 pm: Eureka on Sci Fi.

Season Two of Eureka continues tonight with "Sight Unseen," in which Carter sort of disappears after getting himself involved with a science project involving invisibility. Hijinx undoubtedly ensue.

10 pm: Damages on FX.

After taking away our precious Damages for a week, FX sort of makes up for it with an-all new episode tonight (“She Spat At Me”), in which Patty pursues Greg to gain valuable information before it’s too late, Frobisher launches a rather unusual strategy, Patty has dinner with our favorite lovebirds, and the enigmatic and Cassavetes-adverse Soda Skank (a.k.a. Lila) suddenly reappears in David’s life. I cannot wait!

10 pm: Flipping Out on Bravo.

It's the season finale of Bravo's docudrama Flipping Out, on which this TV writer is hopelessly hooked. On tonight's episode, both Jeff and Ryan prepare to move into their new homes, while the assistants' "ineptitude and lack of loyalty" spark a fiery response from Jeff. Will Bowman get canned? Will Chris leave his "trash guy" title behind? Will Zoila actually do some housework? Find out tonight!
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Comments

eAi said…
It's sad that the episodes will be written by Russell T. Davies, his episodes are almost always the worst of the series.

On a related subject, I suggest you look forward to the Doctor Who episode 'Blink' (the one after the next one I think) - my personal favorite :)
9/04/2007
Danielle C.F. Maris said…
Wow. I don't know how to feel about all this. I don't expect Tennant to play The Doctor forever but I can't imagine the show without him. I really hope he returns for the 2010 season. But what a long wait! (I'd love to see him play Hamlet in the meantime!)
9/04/2007
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