Neil Gaiman returns to 'Doctor Who'
The season seven premiere, 鈥�,鈥澛爀licited a mixed response from some fans and critics (read our ) 鈥� with a few of story beats that were off-putting for certain longtime viewers. However, many Whovians still enjoyed the episode and are eagerly looking forward to the remaining season seven chapters.
As we mentioned in our recent feature, it鈥檚 a great time to get started with the series 鈥� especially considering executive producer Steven Moffat has promised that this season will be the in the near-50 year old show. To that point, we鈥檝e got a number of intriguing season seven details 鈥� including the return of celebrated comic book writer, novelist, and screenwriter, Neil Gaiman, as well as several new new images and a trailer for the highly-anticipated 鈥淒inosaurs on a Spaceship鈥� episode.
Gaiman is well known for a myriad of reasons 鈥� including The Sandman comic book series, Stardust and novels (later adapted into feature films by directors Matthew Vaughn and Henry Selick, respectively), as well as one of the most memorable episodes in Doctor Who聽history,聽鈥漈he Doctor鈥檚 Wife鈥� (originally titled聽鈥漈he House of Nothing鈥�) 鈥� which, paired with intriguing standalone plot points, provides canon backstory for The Doctor鈥檚 TARDIS (a聽time machine/spacecraft).
The episode recently won Gaiman a Hugo Award for聽Best Dramatic Presentation in the Short Form category beating out two other Doctor Who nominees,聽鈥漈he Girl Who Waited鈥� (written by Tom MacRae) and聽鈥滱 Good Man Goes to War鈥� (written by Steven Moffat) as well as the聽Community episode聽鈥漅emedial Chaos Theory鈥� (written by Dan Harmon and Chris McKenna) and聽鈥淭he Drink Tank鈥檚 Hugo Acceptance Speech鈥� (from Christopher J. Garcia and James Bacon).
During his acceptance speech, Gaiman took an opportunity to tease viewers with confirmation that he鈥檚 already writing a future episode of the iconic sci-fi series:
鈥淥nly a fool or a mad man would try to do it again鈥� so I鈥檓 on the third draft.鈥�
As for when Who (along with Gaiman) fans will get to see the episode, as well as what they might be able to expect, 聽managed to prod the famed writer into revealing that his next Doctor Who installment is scheduled for the second half of season seven (which will air in 2013). That said, much like 鈥淭he Doctor鈥檚 Wife,鈥� which was pushed from season five to season six (for a bigger budget), the next Gaiman episode is expected to be similarly expensive 鈥� and could, as the writer pointed out, be bumped into a future Who season. As a result, it may be awhile before we learn any concrete story details 鈥� plus whether or not the episode could feature a flesh and blood return of the TARDIS matrix.
Ben Kendrick blogs at .
