American fans eager to see the final installments of David Tennant’s tenure as Doctor won’t have to wait much longer. BBC America has acquired the rights to the five specials and will begin airing them this summer.
According to Variety, last year’s Christmas episode, “The Next Doctor” will air in June and the Easter special, “Planet of the Dead” will air in July. “The Next Doctor” will make its American debut on June 27 at 9 p.m EST.
The deal gives the cable channel the exclusive first window to the Doctor Who 2009 Specials (4 x 60), the final four adventures of the tenth Time Lord played by David Tennant. As part of the same deal, BBC AMERICA acquired the 2008 Christmas Special, The Next Doctor featuring David Morrissey and Dervla Kirwan. It will air Saturday, June 27, 2009.
The first of the 2009 specials, “Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead”, premieres in July. As a London red bus takes a detour to an alien world it forces the Doctor (Tennant) to work with the extraordinary Lady Christina (Michelle Ryan, Bionic Woman). But the mysterious planet holds terrifying secrets hidden in the sand and time is running out as the deadly Swarm gets closer.
“The outstanding quality of the ‘Doctor Who’ scripts from Russell T Davies and the on-screen dynamic that David Tennant brings to the role are a magic combination for our viewers. Russell’s spin-off series ‘Torchwood’ is already our highest rated show on the channel and I know the fans will follow these new specials with equal passion and support. We’re thrilled to bring this iconic show to BBC AMERICA, home of the best British sci-fi programming on television,” says President, BBC Worldwide America Garth Ancier.
The specials are part of a summer showcase of British science-fiction that includes the currently running third season of “Primeval” and the five-part “Torchwood” miniseries/third season in July. Fans can also look forward to “Being Human” debuting in late July and “Survivors” later this year.
“Being Human” is a six-episode drama that focuses on the relationships among three characters: a vampire, a werewolf and a ghost. BBC America has already acquired the rights to the second season of the show.
“Survivors” is an update of the Terry Nation penned series from the 70s that finds the world suffering from a plague that has wiped out most of humanity.
Building off the successful Supernatural Saturdays programming block, “Doctor Who” will be leveraged across multiple platforms including “Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead”, the first Doctor Who DVD to be released on Blu-ray, shortly after the U.S. broadcast premiere.
Er, ok you’re welcome. BTW I got the news from a “Radio Free Skaro” Tweet.
“…I know the fans will follow these new specials with equal passion and support.”
Translation: “Holy crap, are people downloading / torrenting these suckers! We’d better grab the broadcast rights and make some advertising dollars while we can!”
While I’m glad that BBCA has finally grokked that we want to see new Who, they’re still way behind on the timetable. (Although I’d guess that SciFi might have right of first refusal or some such silliness.) I suspect that most of us who want to see these seasonal specials have already done so through more modern means. At least they’ve been clever enough to air the new season of Torchwood concurrently with the BBC. You’d best believe I’d be streaming that as soon as it was online, otherwise.