Exclusive Doctor Who Desktop Wallpapers

The official Doctor Who website has been updated with four brand new desktop wallpapers, designed by Stuart Manning. The designs have been made with classic twists on recent adventures, including ‘Victory of the Daleks’, ‘The Hungry Earth’, ‘The Lodger’, and the exclusive Christmas story ‘Snowfall’.

The four designs are available to download here.

House of horrors...

The results of the poll for 'The Lodger' showed that the average star rating was 4.8 stars, meaning that this episode was thought of as 'Excellent'.

The Blink Review: The Lodger

No matter how hard I try, every week I seem to write paragraphs and paragraphs of information for my review. The reason for this is simple; there are so many brilliant scenes in every episode, which really deserve to be praised! ‘The Lodger’ was no exception, and followed on from the spectacular ‘Vincent and the Doctor’ last week.

The episode gets off to an interesting start when The Doctor is trapped on Earth, after being thrown out by the TARDIS, and is forced to lodge in a house owned by a pleasant man named Craig. This scene sets up the entire story and the unusual relationship between Craig and the Doctor, when his first line on meeting is ‘I love you’, intended to be said to Sophie.

James Corden and Daisy Haggard really excel in their roles as Craig and Sophie, making their obvious love for each other very realistic whilst funny, (before they realise that Matt Smith is spying on them – naughty Matt!) Speaking of ‘Naughty Matt’, I would like to confirm here that you do not see the Doctor’s – how should I phrase it? – manly instrument in the shower scene, and that he is in fact wearing boxers!

This shower scene was also a good flash-from-the-past, mimicking one of Jon Pertwee’s first scenes as the Third Doctor in ‘Spearhead from Space’, where he is seen singing in the shower of a hospital – and no, you didn’t see his manly instrument either. Another fan-pleasing moment was the revelation of what the spaceship actually looked like from the outside, which was highly reminiscent of the Jagaroth spaceship from ‘City of Death’.

As for bad points, I can’t think of any this week. Blimey, now I know I’m getting old! The only bizarre factor was that the winning Blue Peter TARDIS wasn’t shown, although it may appear in the finale. (Everything else is appearing in the finale!) Apart from that though, it was a faultless episode with a great cast, great writer, and –
dare I say it – great special effects! Time to open the Pandorica…

Rating: 5/5 stars

You can also give your rating in the new poll, ‘House of horrors…’

Overnight Viewing Figures

Overnight viewing figures for ‘The Lodger’ show that the programme was watched by 4.6 million viewers, the fourth poor result this series.

However, this was because many people had tuned in to ITV to watch England’s first match of the world cup, so there were not many casual viewers watching Doctor Who. The show received a lower audience share than normal as a result, with 22.3%.

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House of horrors...

A new poll is now available on 'Blink', where you can give your star ratings for 'The Lodger'.

Fact File: The Lodger

The exclusive 'Fact Files' page on this blog has now been updated, with a fact file for the upcoming episode 'The Lodger'.

A new fact file for every episode will be uploaded weekly, after the transmission of the previous episode.


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BBC Press Office: The Lodger

The BBC have confirmed that episode 11 of the new series, currently 'The Lodger', will air on 12th June 2010, although the time is subject to change.

“There's a house on Aickman road, and a staircase that people go up, but never down, as the time-travelling drama continues.

To solve the mystery of the man upstairs, the Doctor faces his greatest challenge yet – he must pass himself off as a perfectly normal human being, and share a flat with Craig Owens.”

Are you excited yet?

The Story Never Ends: The Lodger

PREDICTED BROADCAST: 19/06/2010

The eleventh episode of the upcoming series was written by Gareth Roberts, whose previous contributions to the show include ‘The Shakespeare Code’, ‘The Unicorn and the Wasp’ and ‘Planet of the Dead’, and directed by Catherine Morshead. This was the last episode of the series to be filmed, and made up the second of two stories to be filmed in the final Block 7. As a result of the filming only taking place a couple of weeks ago, with some interior scenes yet to be filmed, not much is known about the actual story.

However, thanks to some photos and footage of location shooting in Victoria Park, a few details of the plot have emerged. The story is set in the present day, where the TARDIS lands in the middle of a park. The Doctor opens the door to see where they have landed, but a strange force throws him out of the police box, slamming the door shut behind him.

It is believed that this story is based on Gareth Robert’s comic strip ‘The Lodger’, which originally featured the tenth Doctor and Rose. It appears that the TARDIS will dematerialise with Amy Pond still onboard, and the Doctor is stuck on Earth waiting for the TARDIS to return again. In the meantime, he lodges with a couple of housemates, one of which is played by James Corden, famous for his character of Smithy in ‘Gavin and Stacey’.

The enemy of this story is unknown at the moment, as it was not seen during the location filming, suggesting that if an alien race does appear, it will only be in studio-based scenes. However, some photos of filming showed the Doctor and his housemates running from their house, possibly from an alien race. The title has also not been confirmed yet, but ‘The Lodger’ is highly likely considering all that we know so far.

Things to look out for:

• The Doctor being propelled out of the TARDIS, and calling after Amy who is still trapped inside.
• The Doctor playing a football match, where he wears the number ‘11’ shirt.
• The line, “I’ve been inside your head remember.”
• The Doctor collecting a trolley full of junk, such as an old wheel.
• James Corden’s character, a female housemate and the Doctor running out of their house.

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