When the new series was shown in the UK on BBC One, each episode was followed by a 'support' show on BBC Three called Doctor Who Confidential which was basically a 30mins show split (roughly) between 15mins of Making Of documentary on the episode you just saw and 15mins putting the episode into context alongside the previous 26 seasons (so an episode with Daleks gets a look back at previous appearances, one that's all about Rose gets actresses who played previous companions talking about their experiences etc.)

Sci-Fi hasn't bought DWC but is is downloadable for free from the offical site (the list under "Confidential":

http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/video/index.shtml

Naturally, you should only watch Confidentials for episodes you've seen or you'll be spoiled like crazy. I just thought Americans would like the option to see them post-TX and discuss them here.

BTW, the *next* season, beginning on BBC One next month, will be supported by DWC again but also by a show for 7-12 year olds called Totally Doctor Who. Whether or not TDW will be available to download is unknown.

Unfortunately, those confidentials available for download on the BBC site are trimmed 15 minute versions mainly on the production of the new series. All the lovely old Who stuff you have to hunt for the broadcasted versions to see.

The Doctor Who: Confidential cutodown editions are also part of the the DVD Boxed set.
The US Series 1 boxed set will be released on Tuesday July 4; Canada recently released the identical Region 1 set this past February.

Wow. They didn't *used* to be the Cutdown versions, did they?

My understanding was that they were cutdown soon after the initial broadcasts. I understood that the core issue was rights, but over clips or songs am not sure.

Doctor Who: A New Dimension was I believe the half hour countdown show prior to original showing of "Rose" on BBC1.

I don't think it can be obtained legally anymore, but it had clips of the 2005 series from the first 5 episodes or so plus interviews with Russell T. Davies and other cast and crew. What was interesting was the backwards countdown of all the previous Doctors and what was happening during those eras.

The clips weren't really spoilery, since they mostly showed locations, except for the fact that they would have a Dalek.

Ironically enough it was narrated by David Tennant using his Scottish accent.

I think it was both. The cut down episodes are lacking the clips from the old show and interviews with prior cast members and the music which was previously well known pop (etc) music has been replaced with instrumentals.

The BBC now has a specific Doctor Who Confidentials page. There is a specific Confidential for each episode. I'm not sure, but some of the confidentials spoil future episodes. Also, there's a Windows Media format (which sometimes doesn't work) and Real Media format.

I'm impressed that the BBC went to all this trouble to do the Confidentials, along with the preview documentary, A New Dimension, and the finale catch-up documentary, (name???), and make them available during the run of the show. It shows a real love for the show. I believe that the CBC did a documentary series as well. Did anyone here watch that?

They might not be available to people outside of the UK because of British licencing laws...

I was able to view them fine, and I'm outside of the UK.

Last night I watched the cutdown version of Confidential 9, and I think that most of the original music was still there (at least the music used in the portions that were still there). I no longer have a copy of the full-length Confidential 9, though, so I can't check for sure.

Will the Confidentials on the DVD be full-length and still have all the original music? A lot of the songs used seem like ones that would be difficult to get licensing rights for.

I can confirm that that's not the case. They're quite scrupolous about only using footage from the episodes already tramsmitted at that point in the running order (for example, the 'evil geniuses' episode doesn't include any evil geniuses from eps 8-13). At the very most, they sometime hint in the very last shot at what the Doctor's going to be facing next week -- but it's much less than you'd see in any promo for the upcoming ep.



No, unfortunately the DVDs feature the cutdown versions too.

The Doctor Who Confidentials are back on BBC3, with "One Year On" airing last Sunday. Unlike the previous Doctor Who Confidentials this one was an hour long program and didn't show any clips of Doctors 1-8. I don't know how this will affect when and if they decide to stream it off the BBC website as the previous clips were only 15 minutes.

Bits and pieces have been covered in other threads, but "One Year On" mostly went back over the 2005 season, lots of behind of scenes of "The Christmas Invasion", cast & crew interviews, abit of the press junket in Wales and a little bit of the coming season.

One of the things that hit me while I was watching this was they spend 9 months filming 13 to 14 episodes. In the US they might spend 10 months filming 20-24 episodes. Don't get me wrong, the extra time they spend makes the series wonderful. I've read that location filming is much more complicated than set filming with the logistics and stuff that is out of your control. Doctor Who also has lots of special effects and CGI which cannot make post-production easy. Add to that fact, they like to have vastly different setting for each episode. All the episodes for the second series are done filming which I don't think happens much in the US either, with the possible exception of season 4 & 5 of 24 which they had front-load since they were going to show 4 hours in 2 days.

One really funny clip they had from the series 2 was:
after Rose and Sarah Jane Smith meet, Mickey says to the Doctor: the missus meeting the ex, every man's worst nightmare.

The new support show for kids - Totally Doctor Who - is starting up now. Each episode will be on three times: Thursday at 5pm (on BBC One) and Saturday at 6:30pm and Monday at 1pm (both on CBBC).

The kind of hilarious, kind of cute title sequence is up on the website:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/news/cult/n.../10/31130.shtml

Terrible logo, though.

I enjoyed the One Year On doc on BBC3 so much. I happened to click onto the BBC Who site, just because it's on my favourites and every now and again I check on it. Not only did I discover that new Who starts on Saturday, but that that very night (I checked it on Sunday) BBC3 were having a Doctor Who Night. Loved it. A repeat of the Christmas Invasion, which I loved (not so much the Rose/Mickey/Jackie stuff, but I liked Rose's breakdown over the Doctor being gone, and I liked any bits where the Doctor is awake. And of course, "the Sycorax rock"), plus the fabulous One Year On Confidential show. With various chunks of series 2 and a few minutes of RTD talking about Torchwood, oooh, it was just wonderful.

I don't have anything approaching the technical capability to do this, but can anyone put it online for our American brethren? The Torchwood and s2 stuff is gold.

Speaking of s2, has everyone watched the Tardisode for New Earth on the BBC site? I keep checking the site every day because it always seems to be changing. Getting very excited for Saturday now - I wonder if they'll have the external sites still, a la Clive's site and the Bad Wolf site?<--am spoilering this just in case.

I'm almost loathe to do it, but I know I'm going to start watching the Totally Doctor Who kiddy show. Yes, it's for little teeny people, but what can I say, I'm teeny at heart.

The sentiment is appreciated. I think that various bits will become available through the usual channels though.

I would expect it to be available above board from the official site in a short while. A guy I know on another board got an email from BBC.co.uk confirming they at least hoped to be able to put it up.

Just out of interest - whats the quality like for non-UK Who fans when watching video on the BBC.co.uk/doctorwho site?

Technically you should only see the dialup version (encoded at 56kbps) whereas in the UK we get the option of a broadband stream (encoded at 256kbps).

Yeah. I'm in the US and they don't give us a choice of speed. They do give me a choice of Windows Media Player (with a caution that it may not always work) and Realplayer. The screen is about 2 inches by 2.5 inches at my native resolution of 1024 x 800? I think might be alittle bit smaller than the iPod w/video but much larger than most cell phones. Its a little bit grainy, but plays smoothly (aside from the fact the Realplayer shuts down on me every couple of minutes, but I think that might be a personal problem).

For people who want higher quality there are "other" means.

Thanks for the info - I know the BBC uses Geo Location taging (or something like that) to stop people outside the UK seeing the broadband stream - just wasn't sure what actually happened on the other end :)

There are other means to get Beeb content but I was recently reading that the BBC are launching a department repsonsible for looking out for 'illegal' versions of their shows on the web - mainly because the indie producers don't like it.

Did any Beeb-viewers see the "Totally Dr Who" thing this afternoon? I completely forgot it was on, but from the blurb on the Radio Times website it looked like it really was aimed at actual kids rather than overgrown ones like me.

Anyone?

It was aimed squarely at kids - I wonder if they would find it as irritating as I did? The presenters were really overdoing it. They interviewed Noel Clarke (Mickey) and he was cool, but most of the clips were from behind the scenes of TCI. Showed a few seconds of New Earth that I haven't seen anywhere else. I liked seeing the photos of kids and their K-9 cakes and sheds painted as Tardises.

Just watched the latest Confidential ep. Did I see right? Did Mickey hit K9? *growls*

This is my unpopular opinion - I don't like K9 (that's the polite understatement) :(.
I watched Confidential grinning yet again that finally we have a fanboy Doctor. Good times are ahead!

I loved K9 as a kid :-) I'm really looking forward to seeing him reincarnated. If I was overly worried about cheesiness, I'd hardly be such a Dr Who fan in the first place ;-)

This seems to be a common reaction to Mr. Tennant. Every time I see him, I sort of want to hug him and make him a sandwich.

I loathed K9 as a child but am now strangely looking forward to seeing him again. If nothing else, he should provide a counter irritation factor to Mickey.

*Blinks* Did... the continuity announcer just Out herself over the closing credits of Confidential?

I must have missed that. What did she say?

Something about wishing Angelina Jolie was sitting on her lap, I think!

I have no food-related thoughts about David Tennant. Well, not ones I'm likely to tell you lot about, at any rate.

Well, I'm a straight woman, and I wouldn't say no to Angelina Jolie sitting on my lap. I'd switch teams for her in a heartbeat. I think she's one of those people that it's safe for both sexes to admit lusting after.

But back to the topic. I always loved that David is such a fanboy. I saw him giving answers to a very difficult Who-related trivia quiz once and man, he knows more than I do, and I'm an old-school Whovian. He is a serious fanboy. I love that he's getting to play the Doctor. And I just love him, period.

I also adore his real accent. It'll be a hoot to hear it onscreen in "Tooth and Claw."

A lot of the shipper communities are going berserkers over...well, you know. Lip action with him and Mme de Pompadour in episode four. We'll just have to see.

I was never a fan of K-9 either. Seemed like another half-hearted attempt to reassert that the show is fun for kids even if I can't imagine a kid being able to follow most of the stories. But I'm still a bit fangirl squeeish over having him back. But much more so for Sarah Jane. I'm a sucker for continuity from the classic series.

And is there another companion who's ever interacted with THREE different Doctors? She may be distinguishing herself in that way. Let's see...no wait, it's more than three! In the Five Doctor, SJ met One, Two and Five, as well! So she's interacted with One, Two, Three, Four, Five and now Ten. That has to be a record.

I like K-9, partly because he's a cute little shorthand for Dr Who, and partly because my kids like him. When they saw him shooting away in one of the trailers they were cheering. And at 3 and 5 they're pretty good at following the plots of most DW episodes, particularly the 5 year old.

Agreed. Rather her than Brad Pitt anyday.

Aaanyway. I'm no huge K-9 fan, but I'm even less of a Mickey fan. It was interesting to see TPTB commenting that they were aware they'd made Mickey too weak and annoying and were going to be tweaking & polishing him for s2.

I do like the song choices for the video montages in Doctor Who Confidential. They are usually so upbeat. Now for series 2 of Doctor Who Confidential its homepage has a song list for each episode.

Zoë on Blue Peter is making a TARDIS from a juice carton right now! ETA - instructions here

Blue Peter & Doctor Who do seem to be developing a rather incestuous relationship.

My impression is that they've always had that sort of relationship... Just look at the extras on the Dalek Invasion of Earth DVD from the mid 1960s....

I'm not interested in any of these how to make a TARDIS things unless they can prove it travels in time and relative dimensions in space. "First, take one outer plasmic shell..."

Oh please, you know they'd start out with the sticky backed plastic, a few used Fairy liquid bottles and an old toilet roll and then move onto the hard stuff.

Being Aussie, I've never actually seen BP, but I think I get your drift. Heh!

Man, I just watched the second episode of Totally Doctor Who because David Tennant would be appearing, but they really are going all out and gathering a new generation of Who fanatics. The show is intensely saccarhin, that it almost makes my teeth hurt, but between the Companion Academy and the trivia contest some of those kids are pretty die-hard fans. Does it run on a channel with commercials? If it doesn't then why does the title card pop up that often?

Those kids were so cute, weren't they, answering the quiz to win the script? Loved DT's enthusiasm :-)

No, there are no ads on the Beeb.


Hee!!! :-D

The presenters have calmed down a bit from last week, and DT was great, especially with the kids. It made me laugh when they had the Face of Boe on and said no-one outside of DW had operated him, when DT revealed on the commentary for NE that Billie Piper's boyfriend broke the last one when he was playing with it!

I don't think they've got the right idea on Companion Academy. Surely the ability to react in an over-the-top manner to loud noises would make you a prime candidate to be a companion? They should have them walking down a very shallow slope and the one that twists their ankle wins.

I just watched the Confidential for School Reunion. Does anyone know why Billie Piper never seems to show up in these things? I would have loved to have gotten her take on what Rose was going through.

She does turn up in some of the Confidentials, especially for Season One, but doesn't really "do" commentaries because she doesn't actually watch the show. She admits in the DVD commentary for the season one episode she *does* do that it's the first time she's ever seen the finished episode. Or, IIRC, any episode.

Dave Tennant and John Barrowman, though, you have to beat away from the mike with sticks.

Now why, in God's name, would you want to do that?!

Does that mean season one there are commentaries and confidentials with John Barrowman?? Oh, my! And I'm assuming Chris as well. Sigh. Those DVDs can't arrive over here fast enough!

Chris didn't do any commentaries, unfortunately. IIRC, Billie does two; Father's Day and The Parting of the Ways, and John does four; The Empty Child, The Doctor Dances, Boom Town and The Parting of the Ways.

I think I'll put a list of the S1 commentary contributers on the DVD thread.

For S2, I think it goes:

Christmas Invasion - Russell T Davies (writer/exec producer); Julie Gardener (exec producer); Phil Collinson (producer)

New Earth - David Tennant (the Doctor); Russell T Davies; Phil Collinson

Tooth and Claw - David Tennant; Derek Riddell (Sir Robert MacLeish); Simon Winstone (script editor)

School Reunion - Eugene Washington (Mr. Wagner); Phil Collinson; Helen Raynor (script editor - and S3 writer)


I do wonder if these will be the final DVD commentaries, though, or if we'll get different tracks for those in November. It seems a shame not to get a Lis Sladen/John Leeson/David Tennant commentary (particularly since Tennant would finally get to meet Leeson after being a bit gutted to find out he wouldn't be on location with them)

I was a little disappointed by the lack of David commentary for School Reunion just because I would have liked to have heard him fanboy over working with Lis Sladen.

So true, I wanted to hear that too. And we all know he did.

*nods*

Bet they knew that and are saving it for the DVDs. Meanies.

I wonder if we'll get him on the commentary next week, or any mention of the off-screen events we all know took place when they were filming Girl in the Fireplace ;)