7 Interesting Facts We Learned from EW’s Doctor Who Article

If you’re a Doctor Who fan and check in on the internet every once in a while, you may have seen that this week’s cover of Entertainment Weekly featured everyone’s favorite bow-tie wearing Time Lord.

The issue, which is on stands now, covers the 25 best cult-tv shows, and to introduce that list, EW’s Clark Collis wrote a 6 page article on our Tardis-traveling hero and his companions.

Most of details given in the article regarding the show and its new season have been known for some time (Amy and Rory are leaving, we’ll be seeing multiple versions of the Daleks at once, etc.) But here are 7 interesting tidbits for all you Whovians out there that you may not have known already.

1. The first thing mentioned in the article is a video an excited Matt Smith shows
Collis on his phone. The content? A load of screaming American fans from when DW came to film in NYC. Smith was asked by the 1st AD on set to ask the crowd of fans to keep their noise level down, and he did so. By walking into the middle of the crowd, slowly spinning in a circle, and telling us all to keep the noise down. Smith filmed this scene as he spoke. (I say “us” because I was TOTALLY THERE! I’m on the Doctor’s PHONE!)

2. The decision on when Amy and Rory leave the show was left up to Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill. EP Steven Moffat asked them to just let him know when they were ready to go and he would make it happen the best way possible. Karen and Arthur together decided the middle of this season would be the best time to make their exit.

3. On three successive nights last October, different American primtime shows made reference to Doctor Who. Criminal Minds, Grey’s Anatomy, and (my personal favorite) Supernatural all paid homage to the British show. This is all not to mention the fantastic “Inspector Spacetime” references that are regularly made on NBC’s Community.

4. Grey’s Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes is such a super fan of the show that she tried to court Karen Gillan for a secret project. (Unfortunately, Gillan’s schedule was far too busy to accomodate it)

5. Moffat attributes a lot of the success of “new” Who to the fact that the people
who work on it now are fans. In the 70s and 80s he mentions that they were just
people going to work; now they are professionals who are enacting their wildest fantasies.

6. In a poll on their website, EW.com asked visitors who their favorite Doctor was. David Tennant won with a resounding 59% of the vote. Matt Smith came in second place, and Tom Baker’s fourth Doctor came in third.

7. Celebrity fan and all around hilarious human Craig Ferguson has a life size Dalek on his set for the Late Late Show, but we haven’t seen it for some time. The reason? The BBC is slightly touchy when it comes to their property and CBS is unsure of the exact licensing rights they need; the talk show has to be careful not to tread on any toes. This is also why that Dalek has never spoken.

As he notes on EW.com, the magazine is not bigger on the inside, and so Collis could not include all of the Q&As he did for the piece in print. Over the next week he’ll be posting these online. Already up on the site is a fun one with Matt Smith. He promises more to come with interviews with the rest of the cast, crew, and celebrity fans.

Have you picked up your copy yet?