Sherlock returns, and if only he could meet The Doctor

The BBC have delivered a most excellent Christmas present, in the form of a new mini-episode of Sherlock, ahead of the start of the new season next week:



And here also is the trailer for said new season:



In wholly less official realms, there is also a rather wonderful fan video doing the rounds lately, a dream crossover of Sherlock and Doctor Who. It's a pretty impressive feat of editing:



And, if you're curious how that was made, here's a behind-the-scenes video too:

The Doctor returns

The new series of Doctor Who starts in one week! I for one am intrigued and excited about the charming and curiously ever-dying new companion, Clara Oswin Oswald. The first episode is called The Bells of Saint John, and sounds like it will feature an interesting new alien threat. Here's the official synopsis, and movie-style poster:

The Doctor’s search for Clara Oswald brings him to modern day London, where wifi is everywhere. Humanity lives in a wifi soup. But something dangerous is lurking in the signals, picking off minds and imprisoning them. As Clara becomes the target of this insidious menace, the Doctor races to save her and the world from an ancient enemy.

Ahead of that the BBC have released a really cute prequel minisode, enjoy:



And here's a trailer for the episode:



Continue reading after the jump for synopses and images from the next three episodes, and a trailer for the series:

Latest Doctor Who christmas trailer

The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe, coming this christmas.

Wonderful Attenborough

David Attenborough narrating What A Wonderful World to BBC natural history footage. Wonderful:



A friend of mine pointed out this is somewhat in the style of William Shatner's "music". But Attenborough does it with so much more class.

BBC's Frozen Planet

The BBC has released a trailer for it's next big natural history series, Frozen Planet:

The BBC's Youtube channel also has several clips up from the series.

Doctor Who complete season six box set

Doctor Who News has reported details of the forthcoming Doctor Who complete season six boxset. All thirteen episodes will be included, plus cutdown versions of Doctor Who Confidential. Also included will be the last christmas speical, A Christmas Carol, the comic relief mini episode, Space & Time, the five webisodes that were released before episodes this season, and audio commentaries for four episodes. Additionally there will be a special five-miniepisode story just on the DVDs and blurays, called Night and the Doctor, with an accompanying Confidential episode.

The UK release will also be available in a limited edition Silence edition, with four lenticular prints (gifs of which are after the jump):

Doctor Who Confidential cancelled

As reported by The Guardian, Doctor Who Confidential, the behind-the-scenes companion program to Doctor Who, will not be returning with the next series, as part of the BBC's cost cutting. The BBC had this to say on the matter:

Doctor Who Confidential has been a great show for BBC3 over the years but our priority now is to build on original British commissions, unique to the channel.

I can't deny Confidential is far from perfect; it's too long, so gets padded out with fluff. But both excuses given by the BBC seem flawed to me: It must be one of the cheapest programs they can make, as everything they need for it is already in place from the production of Doctor Who; all they have to do is throw an extra crew in to film it, and pop it through an edit suite. And it is an original British commission, or is documentary exempt from that classification? What other program gives viewers such an incite in television production? An inspirational and informative look at one of the UK's biggest industries. It seems to me that the BBC should be the proud home of such programing, not removing it for poor reasons.

BBC's dinosaur season

The BBC have released a trailer for their latest dinosaur documentary series, Planet Dinosaur, which starts in a couple of weeks:



The six part series is one part of a whole season of dinosaur programing on the BBC, here's how they describe what's coming:

Planet Dinosaur

The last decade has been a golden age of discoveries for palaeontologists around the world: more dinosaurs have been discovered in the past 10 years than the previous 200 years. But the next generation of children won't be talking about Tyrannosaurus Rex or Diplodocus because bigger, badder and altogether more bizarre dinosaurs have been uncovered across the globe.

In an astonishing six-part series, BBC One brings to life the most incredible creatures that viewers never knew existed. From Spinosaurus, the biggest killer to ever walk the Earth, to the immense sea-monster Predator X, and the deadly cannibalistic Majunasaurus – dinosaurs were more monstrous, more horrific and bizarre than ever before imagined. Combining a 3D graphic world, incredible CGI and stunning photo-real fight scenes, this is a whole new perspective on dinosaurs.

How To Build A Dinosaur

Dinosaur skeletons are some of the most popular exhibitions in the world – each year, hundreds of thousands of children flock to the Natural History Museum to see the world famous diplodocus, Dippy. But how do these skeletons get from the ground to the museum hall, traversing millions of years in history to educate and entertain? For every museum, reconstructing a dinosaur skeleton is a fine balance between science and art.

Science presenter and anatomist Dr Alice Roberts guides viewers through the entire reconstruction of a museum's new dinosaur exhibition from the raw bones to the final skeleton.

Survivors

It is estimated that 99 per cent of Earth's species have become extinct. Professor Richard Fortey of the Natural History Museum discovers what allows the very few that survive to carry on going – perhaps not for ever, but certainly far beyond normal species life-expectancy. What makes a survivor when other species drop like flies?

From the jellyfish to the crocodile this series focuses on the survivors whose biographies stretch back millions of years and who can teach humans how it is possible to survive a mass extinction event.

Dinosaurs, Myths And Monsters

Prehistoric bones posed an enormous conundrum in the past. What were they? What did they signify? And what were the implications of those findings? How could they be reconciled to beliefs and myths about the origins of humans and indeed, the planet? For centuries, dinosaur and other fossilised bone remains have perplexed, challenged and amazed humans.

This film tells the story of the impact of the gradual discovery of dinosaurs. It's a story which explains how ideas, explanations and philosophies altered and evolved through time and how humans developed theories to explain the mysteries of the bones.

Some highlights from the BBC Proms

We are in the midst of the BBC Proms season (that's a series of classical music concerts on BBC radio and TV for those not familiar), and this week has been particularly good, with the first comedy Prom, the always enjoyable movie music prom, and a prom by the Spaghetti Western Orchestra. Here are clips of the brilliant Tim Michin from the comedy prom, and the Spaghetti Western Orchestra:

Chris Addison to be Mock the Week regular

According to The British Comedy Guide, Chris Addison will become a regularly weekly panellist on Mock the Week when it returns for the second half of the current series. Which is great, as he's very funny; and particularly good at the political/sociological sort of stuff Mock the Week is especially good at poking fun at.

On the flip side Russell Howard will no longer be a regular.