Richard E Grant is Doctor Who — but only on the internet. Grant has taken over the role for a webcast on BBCi called Scream of the Shalka, which remains the only new Doctor Who produced for the anniversary year ...except for Shada, the other webcast earlier this year, featuring Paul McGann (see below). Oh, and the books published by BBC Worldwide. And audio plays, and fan gatherings ...
Scream of the Shalka is special, though. It's a BBC production, rather than the work of an independent company like its online predecessors. It has animation from Cosgrove Hall, the people who gave us Danger Mouse and others. It's also the first to introduce a new Doctor—its predecessors all had established TV Time Lords. Written by Casualty scriptwriter Paul Cornell, it's being webcast in six weekly parts, having begun on 13 November, via www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho. In terms of new Who, however, it's only part of the picture.
The fans are, of course, in a frenzy over the 2005 TV series, but the amount of new Doctor Who has never been greater. In the 1980s, Virgin Books started publishing new adventures of the Doctor (two a month). BBC Worldwide has now taken over with a monthly schedule.
There's other new material, too, much of it stemming from the huge fanbase. (The first convention was in the late 1970s, when Tom Baker met enthusiasts in a church hall. Larger gatherings are now attended by thousands worldwide.) In 1999, fans Gary Russell and Jason Haigh-Ellery formed Big Finish, a company licensed to make new audio episodes with existing Doctors. They have spent the past four years putting Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy and Paul McGann into stories that often surpass those in which they originally appeared — listen to Spare Parts or Davros if you doubt it.
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