September 2011

Following quickly on the heels of last month's update, September is upon us and there's a new  
Doctor Who release to mention:

The Doomsday Quatrain

Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor),
David Schofield (Nostradamus/Conclave Leader), John Banks (Brors/
Captain of the Guard/Bernardo),  
Caroline Keiff (Garilund/Computer Voice),
Derek Carlyle (Kren/Second Nuncio),  
Nicholas Chambers (Larrett/Milo/First Nuncio)

"When the river is gone, ships shall sail in the sky, monsters bring fire from the heavens. All will fall into a grey and endless sea, and Doomsday has come."

Florence, the sixteenth century. No one thought to pay much attention to the prophecies of the so-called seer Michel de Nostradame,

 otherwise known as Nostradamus. Until the canals of Venice dried. Until the soothsayer's sayings started coming true…

Because Master Nostradamus is right, in all respects. The end of the world is nigh. The ships are coming. The monsters are coming. The fire is coming. There's only one thing he didn’t see coming, in fact: the sudden apparition of a certain strange Doctor, in his even stranger TARDIS. Today, the Earth dies screaming. And all the Doctor can do is watch.

 

I'm back in the studio tomorrow evening (Michael Shanks is on Vancouver time) to continue working on the Stargate SG-1 series, which began in early June. Should be interesting...  

Update: 8th September:  ...and indeed it was interesting! Arriving at the studio, I was slightly surprised to be given scripts for two episodes of SG-1 which I'd never seen and hadn't prepared for - at least it helped to keep things fresh and spontaneous!

The delay on the line between London and Vancouver was a bit of a lark; that aside, I had ten characters to play - some of them human - and had great fun giving it 'the beans' opposite
Michael Shanks, who played Dr. Daniel Jackson.

Update: 20th September. Two more episodes 'in the can' and no delay on the line this time. By coincidence, I still had ten characters to play although, as I had previously worked on and recorded both scripts, I had a bit more of an idea of who was who and what the stories were about. Here's a tweet from producer Paul Spragg:    

'Second day with Michael Shanks and we're on episode four. Some disturbingly good chemistry with John Banks as he fills in as Vala...'

I'm sure I don't know what he means. Two more episodes left to record.

Next week I'm working on a project for Big Finish which is ultra top secret - at least for now! More anon...