Noticias

Doctor Who's 60th Anniversary specials mark Wilfred Mott actor Bernard Cribbins' last role before his passing. His scene is short but carries a lot of impact and joy for fans, especially since Cribbins has since passed on. In an on-set interview, the late actor said it was a gift from showrunner Russell T Davies to give him the opportunity to work with Doctor Who once last time.

The Doctor Who 60th anniversary specials feature many happy returns, but the greatest gift Russel T Davies gave fans and the cast was Bernard Cribbins. The actor -- who was 93 when his scenes were filmed and who passed soon after -- felt it was a gift to be asked to work again. The fans, who love his character Wilfred Mott also get to see the actor in action one more time. While a handful of scenes doesn't feel like enough, that's only...

The Tenth Doctor claiming his “reward” is one of the most moving and emotional sequences in Doctor Who. After sacrificing himself to protect Wilfred Mott in “The End of Time Part II”, the regeneration process begins, but just before he’s forced to go, the Doctor grants himself a rare gift. He uses the Tardis not to save worlds, but to intervene in the lives of people he loves and indulges in a run of rare personal victories.

Ten saves Martha from a sniper, pushes Sarah-Jane Smith’s son out of the path of an oncoming car, hooks Captain Jack up with hot space-Titanic midshipman Frame, checks in on Joan Redfern (the school nurse with whom his human self “John Smith” fell in love in “Human Nature/The Family of Blood”) and tells Rose Tyler on January 1 2005 that he bets she’s about to have a really great year.

Fittingly,...

Nine. That’s the number of Doctor Who episodes that Wilfred Mott has appeared in so far. Just nine. And he was nearly in none.

Bernard Cribbins, a legend who spent seven decades acting and entertaining after joining a theatre club in Oldham as Assistant Stage Manager aged 14, was cast in “Voyage of the Damned” as Stan, selling newspapers from a kiosk as the aliens of the starship Titanic beam down and away again. It was intended as a cameo appearance only, but Howard Attfield was ill. Due to return as Donna Noble’s dad Geoff, Attfield filmed some scenes for Series 4 opener “Partners in Crime” before retiring from the role. He died shortly afterwards.

Behind the scenes, there had been hope that Attfield would have been able to act in the Sontaran two-parter, but his condition deteriorated and his wife said he could not carry on. It was at this point,...

To end a week celebrating New Who's 10th birthday, here's a bumper list of Doctor Who titbits from Russell T Davies' The Writer's Tale...

We’ve touched on why The Writer’s Tale, the 2008 (expanded in 2010) compendium of correspondence between Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies and journalist Benjamin Cook, deserves a space on your bookshelf here.

In short, The Writer’s Tale is both a screenwriting masterclass and an unparalleled look behind the scenes of new Doctor Who. As well as following the production triumphs and emergencies as the show lurches “from one crisis to another”, it lets you witness story ideas being created in the wild. See pivotal Doctor Who moments tottering unsurely out of Davies’ mind like new-born giraffes and watch them transform into sleek, galloping beasts of majesty! Think of it like a classy David Attenborough doc on storytelling, with bonus David Tennant photos and chat about Tony from Skins.

Wilfred Mott

Portrayed by: Bernard Cribbins

Doctor: Tenth Doctor

Story: 6 stories (8 episodes), though only one as the main Companion stand-in, “The End of Time” (Jan, 2010)

Background: Wilfred Mott is a pensioner and an amateur astronomer whose love of the stars has rubbed off on his adventurous granddaughter, Donna Noble. Wilf is a veteran, having served in WWII, though without killing anyone, and he is able to relate to the Doctor as a fellow former soldier.

Family/Friends: Wilfred is very close with Donna, even more so than with his own daughter, her mother Sylvia, who is somewhat of a henpecker. Outside of these two, we know little about Wilf’s family. As for his friends, he’s shown to have a circle of fellow pensioners who help him reach out to the Doctor in “The End of Time”.

Personality: Wilf is genial, very friendly, and upbeat. He’s warm and...