Series 4 Crystal Ball
Okay then. Screencaps from the series 4 cinema trailer have begun to appear online, so now’s as good a time as any to begin rummaging through the goat entrails to see what’s in store this year. The following is a little bit of confirmed stuff, a little bit of rumour, some speculation and, I hope, not a lone voice in this exercise. It would be great if Jono was here as he used to do this bit, but British Rocket Group have got their own problems, apparently.
Needless to say, after the break there are images and there may also be spoilers.
PA
Images are roughly in sequence from the trailer.
So – guess who’s back this year?
That’s right love – it’s you! There’s not much to add to this, but it appears that from the trailer Donna actively looks for the Doctor and finds him. She’s had her hair done. Looks nice. Moving on…
Going by a) fan scuttlebutt and b) a later image, this might be the Ood planet/Ood Sphere. It’s a lovely shot with a great sense of scale, and feels weirdly Troughtonesque. And it’s an alien planet, so though it’s about two years too late to be complaining, it’s always a welcome sight.
It’s another bloody hand!!! In what appears to be green goo, prompting some to link this with a later image of Martha all wet and bothered and make five, with cloning theories and all sorts. Who’s to say? I disagree, and think that the green goo above may well be water and we might be looking at the aftermath of a car crash scene coming up…
Shut that door! A giant wasp, yesterday. Most likely from TUATW (assumed to be The Unicorn and the Wasp). Unlike the initial image of the flying vespiform ramming a window, this one looked like it was on a fishing line held out of shot, but that’s nothing that can’t be tidied up on post-prod. Right?
Mummy! It’s… well, it’s an Ood looking a bit on the defensive side. The frozen setting makes me associate it with the earlier image, and is it me or have they had some work done around the eyes? The ones here look quite realistic. Great image.
No prizes for guessing who these guys are, and there’s at least one local fan who’ll be very pleased to see the return of the Sontarans. The new helmets balance out those oversized shoulder pads from the promotional shot a few months back, and one assumes that there’ll be more than the regulation three as shown in this picture.
For a series that has never really done car chases or crashes this is pretty unusual. Who’s in the car? Not sure. Mind you, this might also be why the series doesn’t do Dukes of Hazzard-styled stunts as well.
Yes, but did he inhale? According to those who’ve watched the clip a few times the Doctor is actually exhaling smoke in this shot. Is it taken from the Pompeii episode?
Lots of speculation on this one, an image destined to please one Southland fan on the DW Forum at least. It certainly looks more like slime (or glycerine) than water on Martha and is helping to feed more of those ‘Martha the Clone’ rumors what with her not smiling in the shot (she is capable of more than one emotion, guys!). What’s it from? Not sure.
Too soon!
February 7th, 2008 at 9:08 am
1, Everyone seems happy that Bernard Cribbens is reprising his role from Voyage of the Damned, but is he also playing the same part as his role in the 60′s Dalek movie? And given he was the (very slight, in an English sort of way) love interest for the Doctor’s niece in that, does the fact that Donna refers to him as “Granddad” have any significance?**
2, OK, someone has to ask, so it may as well be me – does Martha being covered in green goo have anything to do with Torchwood and their bizare sexual predelictions. I still reckon the “grumpy face” can simply beexplained by the fact she is covered in green goo (I wouldn’t be chuffed). Either that or she has seen the trailer before us and knows Rose is coming.
3, Rose – Yes, it may be too soon, but isn’t that telling in itself. Like the “Rose is leaving” leak in season 2, or even that the Master is Saxon last year, often these “big surprises” have ever really amounted to much on screen and are usually dealt with early in the relevant episodes with the “Big Surprise” (dalek reveals, Yana, destruction of the Earth) cunningly digused behind the chatter. So what could be bigger than Rose coming back?
DGR
** Before anyone has a go at me about canon and the sillyness of this idea, bear in mind I already know
That said, RTD does have a predeliction for fannish in-jokes.
February 7th, 2008 at 7:58 pm
Ohhh, thought of something else (and got a speeding ticket as a result – Zeus Blog, the online zine that gives you demerit points)!
I hadn’t heard about the Martha Clone thing before, but one of my gripes about bringing Martha into Torchwood (similar to Jack being Boe in DW) is that because we KNOW she is going to come back for series 4 (as Jack is going to live till 5B) then she can come to very little perminant harm in the Torchwood stories, undercutting the dramatics somewhat…
BUT, if Torchwood is essentially a copy of Angel, (look they’ve even imported Spike – which leaves Owen a bit lost) then is Martha going to be a rip off of Fred/Illyria, getting bumped off for dramatic impact before coming back nastier and grupier?
February 7th, 2008 at 8:37 pm
“Script Immunity” (as I call it) is a problem, but there isn’t much you can do about it. Certainly the Doctor is always safe, and for all the BF audios, you know none of the main characters are going to die. All you can do is hope for a decent story to occupy the time.
As for your views Peter, seems to cover all the bases!
February 7th, 2008 at 9:04 pm
Jack has that script immunity, as, arguably, does the Doctor. Yeah, what are you going to do? The problem’s probably exacerbated with time travel stories set in the ‘real’ past (a thought that crossed my mind reading the recent DWM comic strip with Shackleton.
As for St Cribbens, I don’t know about PC Tom Campbell, but I’d be just as delighted if Donna’s grandad turned out to have formerly been a salesman of souvenir teaspoons (and not a hotel inspector).
February 11th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
I love teaspoons
February 11th, 2008 at 8:16 pm
Ssspooons, eh?
February 11th, 2008 at 11:00 pm
Teaspoons… well, at least it isn’t a stopwatch… just keep an open mind.
February 13th, 2008 at 9:52 pm
I was lucky enough to catch the trailer at the cinema in Manchester last night. I don’t think series 4 is being shot in HD, but the quality on a massive screen was excellent. In particular the giant wasp was stunning – a very well done bit of 3D CGI.
As far as the actual content goes… well, more of the same. More of EXACTLY the same. A companion in love with the Doctor. Classic series monster revisited. Overcooked finale.
Still, it did make me think that an actual cinematic movie using the TV cast (and sets) would be rather cool.
And it sure beat an Emmerdale cinema ad I saw last year!
February 21st, 2008 at 9:55 pm
Wow, I bet people look forward to each new series of Emmerdale in the same way I look forward to each new series of Who!
February 22nd, 2008 at 5:34 pm
I have to say that that moment of Rose seemed more like flashback-style image rather than anything current.
February 22nd, 2008 at 5:49 pm
[...] Tom, not much in it for him. (Or is there…? Is that a ring on Martha’s finger in the new series preview?) Oh the character development! Speaking of, poor Tosh being set up by those heartless writers. Bet [...]