0/5

Rumour: Doctor Who down under?

Could Doctor Who be planning to film episodes in Australia?

Could Doctor Who be planning to film episodes in Australia?

TV Tonight is hearing whispers from the UK that the long-running science-fiction series is considering a move to film multiple episodes in Australia in mid-2012.

That’s enough to get any Who fan, anywhere, excited…

Last season the show featured two episodes filmed in the US, “The Impossible Astronaut” and “Day of the Moon.” It has previously filmed in international locales including at Rome’s Cinecittà studios for “The Fires of Pompeii” and the United Arab Emirates for “Planet of the Dead.”

But Australia would be another first.

There’s still much that needs to be sorted before an Aussie sojourn becomes a reality, but it’s certainly a tempting idea.

Next year the show will screen in the UK’s autumn season, but filming in mid-2012 would likely be for episodes in 2013.

Writer Steven Moffat told the Daily Beast, “The only thing that’s happening is that we’re moving a bit later. There’s lots of reasons for that that will become clear quite soon.”

Who reaches its 50th Anniversary in November 2013.

23 Responses

  1. Yup, I can see the plot: lizard aliens have taken over the country and are running it into the ground. One lizard pretends to be Prime Minister, the other pretends to be Opposition Leader… No, wait, that’s in Real Life.

  2. That would be filming in mid-2012, surely?

    “Next year the show will screen in the UK’s autumn season, but filming in mid-2011 would likely be for episodes in 2013.”

  3. @camo, not to cheaper the discussion, but wouldn’t mind if Karen Gillan/Amy Pond did a sort of homage to Nicola Bryant/Peri in The Planet of Fire.

    Seriously this could be good for Who and Australia, the tourist dollars, and the ABC has pitched money some for Who before, during the 20th Anniversary Special The Five Doctors, they gave AUD$60K for production.

  4. Could be a lot of fun if this is true. I just hope that the story won’t be set in the present; there’s more than a few past Australian eras that would offer a unique and exciting backdrop to a Who episode. The goldrush comes to mind…

  5. Hooray! A sequel to ‘Enemy of the World’ perhaps?

    With Terra Nova filming here, and the UK crews out here for ‘I’m A Celebrity…’ I do wonder whether coming to film here is as expensive as we might think it is. I am sure there are some economies in there somewhere – not to mention state government grants to encourage local film production.

    Will they need extras? And how do we find out?!?
    Squee.

  6. Im Sure BBC Worldwide channels have enough money to throw in the direction of a bit of a tour. With UKTV and BBC Knowledge on subscription telly here they would love the promotional opportunity that will help people consider subscribing to their channels.
    They wouldn’t need to bring full production out here, they could use local crew to make it work… surely

  7. With how Matts doctor usually interacts with people, he’ll probably make a stereotype Australian reference or joke and everyone around will laugh and he will take a second to realize what he’s done, sounds good.

  8. Coming to australia would only be done if it was a cheaper option for what they want to do than staying in the UK.

    Which i might be if they are factoring using different kind of locations than the usually do.

  9. Love the idea. But where would they get the money? Not Australia and certainly not Britain. The BBC is going to get less money every year as they’ve frozen the licence fee. Europe including Britain are a financial disaster zone. They’ve cancelled a whole lot of programmes already. Just lucky Doctor Who is one of their money spinners but it hasn’t stopped them cancelling Doctor Who Confidential.

    Interesting fact that John Nathan-Turner in the classic Doctor era of the eighties created an Australia hostess character (Tegan Jovanka ) in hopes of going to Australia to film here. Never worked out although they did go to Europe sometimes. But that’s as far as they got. It took the 21st century plus money from BBC America to go to the United States. So I repeat where’s the money going to come from to get here?

Leave a Reply