Awards Keep Coming for Top Time Lord

It seems the sky is the limit for Doctor Who, with the hit series being named Best TV Show of 2008, new episodes being filmed in America, and talk of an all-action movie adventure featuring the Time Lord.

The programme picked up the title of top telly show at the Edinburgh TV Festival.

The award is the latest accolade for the Doctor, who was brought back to the screen by writer and producer Russell T Davies – in April it swept the boards at Welsh Baftas, picking up six gongs.

The Swansea-born brains behind the return of the series is currently working on four special episodes to be screened next year – and according to BBC sources some of them will be set in America and will feature a new US assistant.

A BBC source is reported as saying: “Doctor Who already has a huge following in the States. It’s on the Sci-fi Channel and is watched by millions of people every week. But two specials in America, with a US setting and a US assistant, will take it to another level.”

The new episodes will be the last created by Davies, who is handing over the show to writer Steven Moffat for series five – due to be screened on the BBC in 2010.

Moffat has already written a number of episodes – including Blink in series three, which saw terrifying weeping stone angels.

During the TV Festival the new writer revealed that Hollywood producers Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson – the man who directed the Lord of the Rings trilogy – are fans of the show. And he said he said any Doctor Who film project must not get in the way of the TV series.

He said of a possible big screen outing for the Doctor: “I’m not against it. I don’t think it’s the most important thing of Doctor Who.

“A movie is one 90 minutes a year. So yes, so long as it never gets in the way of the show.”

(c) 2008 South Wales Evening Post. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.