Day one of Gallifrey One has come to an end, and I have to say I enjoyed it much more than I was expecting. I’ll be honest with you, time spent on Gallifrey Base and on SyFy.com’s Doctor Who Forum had left me with a very sour impression of Doctor Who fans in general. I viewed the masses of Who fandom (I refuse to use “Whovians” – it’s pretentious and stupid) as largely hateful creatures unhappy with every new addition to lore and pining for a perceived “Golden Age” that probably never happened.

My view was quite wonderfully shattered by almost everyone I met at Gallifrey, apart from one person who, his views on Doctor Who aside, thought that The Dark Knight was a messy pile of shit.

It may not have failed to escape your notice that, although our friends in the Colonies as a whole generally tend to treat Doctor Who with the sort of indifference that a Chris Chibnall script is greeted by, there’s nevertheless a bally great big convention going on over there this weekend, with a fair few attendees who are actually, you know, relevant and exciting and whatnot.

Your trusty Unlimited Rice Pudding! editors are, of course, not in attendance. But we do have a roving reporter on the scene. Mr Ben Paddon, who – just like Hugh Laurie, Philip Segal and Torchwood – originally sprung from these fair isles but decided he’d be much better off in California, will be floating around (not literally, that would be hideous) all weekend. We’ll hopefully get some updates from him on the site itself, but in the meantime, we’ve also granted him access to our Twitter account (are you following us yet? If not, why not? Do we have to remind you to do everything?), from which he’ll be posting throughout the weekend using the #gally hashtag. Which makes me think of a ship’s kitchen, frankly, but apparently it’s the popular choice. Those crazy Septics.

Not content with giving us Sylvester in a cream coat with an Imperial Dalek, Character Options are really pulling out the stops to make us want every Seventh Doctor variant going. While the version in the much-fabled 11 Doctors boxset will apparently have a “grumpy” face, a brown coat and no hat, there’s also this little beauty being released – happy face, hat, brown coat, and…

… yes, that’s a Classic TARDIS. Fucking hell. Perhaps a bit too light a shade of blue, but still nothing other than an ENTIRELY ESSENTIAL purchase.

(apologies if this picture’s been around for a while – I know the rumour about the set has been – but I’ve just caught it for the first time, having not previously spotted it on a forum or anything)

No, don’t worry, Peter Kay isn’t returning, but this isn’t much better.  Guests stars are all fine and well, but… James Corden?  Really?

Going on the fact the episode 7 and 11 block started filming today, it’s safe to assume he’ll be in one of those which seem to be Amy and Doctor-lites.  You won’t have to delve too far into the fiery pits of Gallifrey Base to see which of those episode he’s likely to be in and in what capacity, but it’s an episode I actually really like the sound of, which is a bit of a miracle given that its writer, Gareth Roberts, is even shitter than James shitting Corden.

Still, good to see The Sun’s resident Photoshop ‘artist’ at the very top of their game.

Congratulations, Sally.

And the trailer is basically an animated version of that promo pic.

So:

- Nice to hear Smith’s Doctor speak a bit more, and Amy for the first time as well.
- That Dalek didn’t look noticeably different, but that could just be for the trailer considering what we (well, some of us) know about Victory.
- That is a Silurian, isn’t it?
- Don’t like that music, hope it’s only for the trailer and not representative of the new score.
- Also not sure I like the idea of the TV trailer being the same as the 3D cinema one, since it clearly loses something by not being viewed in 3D – it’s entirely geared towards it. Nice vortex, though.
- As a trailer, I’m not sure it did a huge amount to heighten anticipation – really, its purpose seems to be just to make the non-fans aware that there even is a new series coming soon. The lack of actual footage from the show was somewhat disappointing, as nice as the scene with them lying on the grass was. Still, though…
- OH GOD WHY HAVE WE GOT TO WAIT UNTIL EASTER?

Well, this is getting the fuck pre-ordered out of it. If there’s one thing I’ve been desperate for since Character Options started making Bloody Good Classic Who Action Figures, it’s a Sylv. And if there are two things, it’s a Sylv and an Imperial Dalek, what with Remembrance of the Daleks being the bestest Doctor Who story that ever storied (yes it is, don’t argue).

And yes – I know there’s supposed to be an Eleven Doctors boxset coming out later in the year, and that it’ll retail at an incredibly reasonable £50 compared to these Forbidden Planet Exclusive £25 packs (of which I’ve so far only managed to snag one – the Hartnell and Dalek – missing out on Troughtons and Pertwees). But if there’s one Doctor that I’m guaranteed to want to buy twice (especially when the boxset version will probably be hatless, brown-coated and possibly even umbrella-less), it’s this one. Plus, of course, I’d wager this Dalek will only be available in this set, and when they’re gone, they’re gone. And look at the thing – the redone headlights and slitted plunger are in place, and everything.

God, I love Character Options. God, I love toys.

Well, not “news”. Sorry to get your hopes up. But there wasn’t a film called “Broadcast Speculation” so it didn’t really work as a punning headline.

Anyway. The cover of the next issue of Doctor Who And The Monthly Celebratory Funtime Pamphlet has hit the internets, and despite the lack of solicitation copy (so far), with Smith and Gillan on the cover, noted Flatmate Of The Site Julian Hazeldine (who is, unlike myself, the sort of person who thinks about this sort of thing) has speculated that this could be the “first few eps preview” edition. Even though it wasn’t touted as such in last issue’s “next issue” box.

Indeed, the absence of such touting had led to pessimism on the Hazeldine-o-Meter that Series Fnarg wouldn’t get underway until early April; because it’s The Law that episodes have to be previewed by DWM, and if they’re not previewed in the issue hitting stands in early March, it’d have to be the one hitting stands in early April instead. So we were expecting that Easter Weekend would be at best the first time we’d see Matt Smith roll out of the TARDIS doors. However, if this is the preview issue, then that all changes – but given that nothing was mentioned in issue 418, one can’t help but wonder if there’s been a late change of heart, with the start date brought forward from whatever was originally planned. It certainly seems to be the established form in Who-land to keep everyone guessing about the transmission date until pretty darned close to the fact.

Obviously it’ll be much easier to get a handle on this once the actual solicitation copy for the issue is released – but for the moment, we could even be looking at seeing “The Eleventh Hour” within six weeks from now. Excited yet?

Worse than the five-sided Dapol console? Or the two-armed Dapol Davros? Or the green Dapol K-9? Or the Denys Fisher Cyberman?

Oh yes.

TV site Digital Spy has taken time out from reporting on every last fucking detail of every single American drama ever to give this tasty little exclusive:
The new Doctor Who trailer will premiere this Saturday on BBC One, it has been announced.

The promo for the new series, which stars Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor, will also simulcast on the official Who website.
Yay! During my recent expeditions into the dangerous cave system that is the spoiler section on Gallifrey Base, I’d been reading rumours that the next trailer wouldn’t come until late March, suggesting an early April première for series 5. I don’t think it will be unreasonable to assume this trailer will include confirmation of that date, which will hopefully be somewhere in the middle of March.

Despite this being something that “BBC One have announced” Digital Spy fails to link to a source for this news, so it looks like this remains a DS ‘exclusive’ until the BBC catch up and make it all official like.  And if that isn’t enough excitement for one day, DS have also posted a new promo shot (again, I can’t find this anywhere on any BBC site at the moment), which we have faithfully reproduced after this jump…