The eighth season of Doctor Who doesn’t premiere until August, but we’re hearing more and more news about it all the time. For example, comedian and actor Sanjeev Bhaskar (pictured above) is apparently going to be a part of the finale episode, which is pretty rad. Oh, also, we heard this really weird rumor about Steven Moffat and Star Wars that we obviously need to discuss, because what now?
First up, Bhaskar, who’s probably best well known to British audiences for his work in The Kumars at No. 42 and Goodness Gracious Me (and, to theatergoers, for his stint in West End’s Spamalot as King Arthur). He will reportedly have a brief role in the season finale, along with Bad Education star Michelle Gomez and
While Bhaskar has been in some of the Big Finish Doctor Who radio plays, and his wife Meera Syal played Nasreen Chroudhry in the season 5 two-parter about the Silurians, this is his first time playing a canonical Who character.
“I’m thrilled to have made a small contribution to and now be part of theem Doctor Who universe,” he said in a statement. “Another dream box ticked!”
On the other side of production, the final writer for this season has been announced: Frank Cottrell Boyce, a film writer and children’s novelist. True to the overall style of Moffat’s showrunning sensibilities, his script reportedly has a lot of parts for children. Don’t worry, they’ve all already been cast: Harley Bird (Peppa Pig), Abigail Eames (The Crimson Field), Ashley Foster (The Woman in Black) and Jaydon Harris-Wallace (CITV Text Santa). Just going from a Google search, each of them is the tiniest and adorable-est. I can’t wait to see them all scared out of their minds by evil space toys, or whatever the episode actually ends up being about.
But don’t expect to see them saved in the nick of time by any other doctor but Peter Capaldi; in an interview with Flicks and the City, eighth doctor and most-distinguished-cravat-wearer-ever Paul McGann admitted that the chances of him coming returning the show are slim to none.
“I’ll probably never come back,” he said, “but if I did, I wouldn’t mind at all if it was like the last time. Five minutes every 15 years or something, I come in and steal the glory.”
So no spin off? “I think it’s wishful thinking,” he added. “I don’t see why it should happen. Not unless the story and ongoing mythology deserves it. I’m not expecting anything.”
Okay, so now we’ve hit the part of the news roundup you’ve all been waiting for: that completely out-of-left-field rumor about Moffat being linked to the latest Star Wars films. We can’t quite tell where the rumor is coming from, but Moffat, Steven Spielberg, and Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy all worked together on The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, which is where the connection most likely lies. It also wouldn’t be the first time a New Who writer ‘s been tapped for a possible Star Wars project, either, as Russell T. Davies was once approached for (and famously declined) the now-defunct Underworld TV series.
As of now it all appears to be moot, however: Sherlock producer Sue Vertue, who is married to Moffat, completely denied the rumor on Twitter:
Just in case you’ve seen rumours that #stevenmoffat is doing Star Wars – that’s news to him!
— sue vertue (@suevertue) July 10, 2014
With all the rumors swirling around Star Wars—and given J.J. Abrams’ involvement and his penchant for denying things that end up being true anyway—I honestly won’t know what to believe until I’ve got my butt in a theater.
(via Digital Spy, BBC America, DoctorWhoTV, Jedi News, image via Isabelle Adam)
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