Doctor Who hadn’t made an appearance at Comic-Con since 2009, and was David Tennant‘s swan song. It was held in Ballroom 20, which holds 4000+ during Comic-Con and is the usual venue for the biggest tv shows. The infamous Hall H is where the biggest movies generally hold their panels, and it holds 6000+. GUESS WHERE Doctor Who held its panel, to a capacity audience?! Congrats to all involved in the show and its promotion, for filling the biggest venue at the Con.
Many Doctor-related costumes were spotted in the very long line for the panel, from a young weeping angel to Daleks to Amys and several Doctors of all numbers. You’ll see them in the SciFi Mafia SDCC 2011 Cosplay Gallery which will be posted soon. Fezzes were everywhere, because fezzes are cool. This crowd was SO READY for this panel.
And they – we – were not disappointed. Matt Smith and Karen Gillan are even more adorable in person than they are onscreen, and were easily as charming. They were joined on stage by writer Toby Whithouse, producer Piers Wenger, and writer Beth Willis.
We were presented with some clips from episode 4 (or 11, depending on how you count) which was written by Toby Whithouse – there’s a monster! – followed by a trailer for the second half of season 6, which is returning to BBC America on the 27th of August, and we have that trailer here for you right here, right now. As always with promos, there are (in a River Song voice) spoilers:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76vzfxJRByA[/youtube]
W00t! People in the audience were shouting for a replay, and were promised and received that replay at the end of the panel.
The panelists then fielded all sorts of interesting questions. Matt and Karen were both too young to have grown up with the show, but Piers and Toby both said they had – “little did I know when I was a child watching that I was researching for my future job!” The show is, of course, massive in the U.K. and has been for nearly 50 years.
It was shared that, on the script written by novelist and graphic novelist Neil Gaiman (“The Doctor’s Wife”), under the words “Interior: TARDIS” he hand wrote “I have been waiting all my life to write those words.”
The panelists were asked who they wish would write an episode. For Matt it was J.J. Abrams; for Karen, Roald Dahl; for Piers, Russell Davies. They were also asked which Doctor – excluding Matt – was their favorite. Karen said she loved Chris Eccleston.
This led Piers to claim that “Matt IS the Doctor, just slightly less competent.” He said that Matt was very clearly the Doctor immediately upon walking into the room for his first audition for the part, and that showrunner Stephen Moffat called Piers after the second audition and said that it was so clearly Matt, and that they might as well admit it right then.
Beth said that it was the same with Karen. They had seen many women but she knew that Karen would be it, and when Karen finished her audition Stephen was so excited that they had found their Amy.
Karen loves that she is Alex Kingston‘s (character’s) mum. She and Matt had no idea about that twist until Stephen called them over to give them the actual final pages, to replace the fake pages they had been given. Alex knew and had known all along, but Karen and Matt did not, and were jumping up and down when they found out. Karen still knows a secret about her own character that she has not revealed to Matt.
Matt was apparently the person who brought in a tweed jacket and the bow tie. He says he is also the reason for the fez, but that it was because he was begging Stephen for a hat, so Stephen finally gave him the most ridiculous one he could.
If they could be on any other show, Karen would love to have been on Star Trek: The Next Generation. She geeked out in front of Wil Wheaton over the weekend that she had met Brent Spiner, which of course is kind of ironic…
Matt shared that he was actually given a manual of the TARDIS on his first day on the job as the Doctor. There really is a manual, and the way things are done in the TARDIS is in fact how they always do it.
They were asked (by that child weeping angel mentioned from the line) if the Doctor could regenerate into a woman. Beth replied that she believed it was possible, but that it would depend upon the writer and casting.
Matt said that he’d love to see more of the darker side of the Doctor. The Doctor has really been surrounded by death and has a lot of blood on his hands. Matt said he thinks the reason the Doctor is so bubbly is that if he stopped and allowed himself to think about all of the death, he would go very dark.
Karen said “Rule number one: The Doctor lies” will be explored during the next part of the season…
Which made us all want to watch that clip again. Go ahead, help yourself.
It was a terrific panel, and a terrific way to celebrate the last day of Comic-Con 2011.
Doctor Who returns to BBC America with all new episodes beginning on August 27 at 9/8c.
