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The Ponds are back! Sort of. And no, Paul McGann isn't returning in 2026. Here's Ellie with the latest Doctor Who news!
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00:00Hello everybody, Ellie here for WhoCulture. You lucky lot you! Two tidbit videos in one week!
00:07What? Crazy! Obviously we did do a news tidbit video on Monday, but a few more things have been
00:13announced in this week and I didn't want to wait another week to tell you about them, so as usual
00:18there will be some timestamps so you can jump around and those of you who keep complaining
00:22about Strictly Watch, you'll be happy to know that there's not been another episode of Strictly yet,
00:26so I won't be talking about that today, but rest assured it'll be back next week.
00:30Just for you, you who doesn't like it. So the first thing that happened happened pretty much as soon
00:35as I'd finished recording Monday's video, as is usually the case for me. My relationship with the
00:41BBC is pretty much that. I'll say I don't know something, I'll say something definitive, and then
00:46five minutes later the BBC will contradict it. Woohoo! But we had some new images released from
00:51the war between the land and the sea. Firstly we have another close-up image of the new sea devil
00:57design. I did mention this in a previous video but I really really like this new design. I think I did
01:03speak again in this previous video about how I was a little bit concerned about how knowing that
01:08the war between the land and the sea is going to be a much darker, perhaps more serious tone than
01:14Doctor Who itself, and knowing what the sea devils looked like, I was a little bit concerned that there
01:19would be a bit of a contradiction going on there because they do look a little bit fake and silly
01:26in comparison to other creatures that we've seen. Especially then when we think about something like
01:32Torchwood, the monsters, for the most part, had to be a little bit more scary, a little bit more serious.
01:39So I was wondering where they were going to go with the design of the sea devils. Obviously we have seen
01:44images of Salt, the character played by Gugu Mbatha Roar, and she has a completely different look.
01:51And so there are questions about whether we've got a Silurian situation where they have masks and
01:57they look like Salt beneath those masks, or if Salt is a completely different story, if there is a
02:04storyline revolving around the fact that she looks different to the rest of them. But if we take a
02:08look at these other sea devils, I really like this design because it does stay true to that original
02:13sea devil design, but it just takes away those more comical elements and just refines it to make
02:18them look like more sinister creatures rather than maybe a little bit laughable. Then we have the
02:24other image that was released, and let me tell you, I was really excited about this. I feel as though
02:30I may be the only person who actually is all for Kate and Colonel Ibrahim, aka Colonel Sexy, being
02:39an item. I feel like most people are against it, and I can see why. I hear your reasonings. I'm still
02:45here for it. I don't know what it is. I think it's the vibe. I think a lot of people have this issue with
02:50the power balance, with her being his boss. Part of that is why I like it. It's different. I obviously
02:56don't want there to be any kind of like exploiting going on in terms of positions of power and all of
03:03those things. I get that. But just in terms of the dynamic between the female boss and her number
03:09one, I like this, right? Okay? Don't come at me. I'm allowed to like it. And this image of the two
03:19of them sat together, it's a very close moment. He's holding her hand. I'm totally here for it.
03:26What I really do hope, though, in this spin-off, and again, I did mention this in a previous video as
03:31well, is that I'm hoping we get more, a deeper exploration of them as characters, as people.
03:37Obviously, because they are secondary characters in Doctor Who, you know, the focus in Doctor Who
03:43is the Doctor, the companion. So although we do see lots of Kate, Colonel Sexy, we have all of this
03:48going on, we don't know a lot about these characters beyond the surface level of what they are in the
03:54scene as required. So what I'm really hoping we're going to see, and hopefully this sort of image kind
03:59of tells us that we are going to get those quieter moments, is that we're going to explore a little
04:03bit more of them as characters, as people. What are their stories? What are their lives like?
04:08What's going on behind the scenes for these people? And this image, to me, hopefully tells me that we're
04:15going to get some of that kind of, those quieter moments, those more character-driven moments.
04:20Um, also just, I can't stop looking at it, it's just the way he's looking at her. Ha!
04:26Get all giggly!
04:28I feel like we need a ship name for them. You know, I was thinking, is it like, Kate-bra-him?
04:34Kibra-him? Help me out here, we need a ship name for Kate and Ibrahim. Help me out here, comments.
04:41Ship name for this pair. If there's anyone else out there who actually ships them,
04:45because I can't be the only one, surely? Okay, let's move on to the next tidbit. Paul McGann is
04:51rumoured to be in the 2026 Christmas special. Yeah. Okay, here's the thing. Wouldn't it be great?
05:01Do we think it's really happening? So here's the thing, right, here's why people think this,
05:05because Paul McGann was originally set to appear at Gallifrey One, the Doctor Who convention,
05:10next year. He's now had to pull out because of filming schedules conflicting with the dates of
05:17the convention. People have taken that because he is filming early next year and people will assume
05:23that the Christmas special will be also filming around that time, that he must be unavailable
05:27because he is filming the Doctor Who Christmas special, and apparently he was recently spotted
05:31at Bad Wolf Studios. Okay, I see why people have jumped to this conclusion. But, he's a working
05:39actor. He could be in anything, and I'm sorry to have to debunk this, but there's a new Luther movie
05:46that was just announced literally yesterday, and it starts shooting next February, and Paul McGann
05:51plays a character in the Lutherverse named Mark North, so I would probably place my bets on that being
06:00what he's filming as opposed to Doctor Who. But we can still live in hope, although I have it on pretty
06:06good authority that this is not happening. Great as it would be, Paul McGann I do not think will be in
06:15the 2026 Christmas special. But we can still, yeah, we'll live in that land of hope. I mean, the thing is,
06:20of all the Doctors to reappear, he would be a good one to reappear. We haven't actually had that much
06:27from him, so it would be lovely. I think if that were the case, maybe a spin-off would be the way to go.
06:32Let's not add more complications to this Christmas special. There's already a lot of things that need
06:36to be answered and tied up in this Christmas special. Adding Paul McGann in there is just
06:40going to give you more questions. But it would be great at some point one day to see Paul McGann
06:46return properly and have a proper, proper storyline. That would be good. I'm sure lots of you have seen
06:52The Ponds Are Back! Sort of. Technically, they're not actually back. But Karen Gillan and Arthur Darville
06:58are reuniting for a podcast called The Pondcast. Good play on words there. Basically, where they're
07:05going to talk about Doctor Who and their time filming Doctor Who. Now, there's no release date
07:10for it yet. There's not much more information other than that at the moment. But they have
07:15recorded several episodes already. And they have had Stephen Moffat as a guest on the podcast already.
07:21Very exciting. The first question is, what other guests are they going to have? You would hope
07:25they would have Matt Smith on there at some point. That would make a lot of sense to have him as a
07:31guest. I'm really hoping you can't have a podcast with Karen Gillan and Arthur Darville called The
07:36Pondcast and not have Alex Kingston. Seriously, she must have been a guest. If they haven't already
07:43had her, they surely will. The Pondcast without Melody Pond. I mean, come on. That's going to be
07:49exciting. It would be exciting. We do seem to be in a time where kind of re-watch podcasts with cast
07:56members from old shows, or not even old shows, but just cast members from previous seasons and
08:02things of different TV shows come together for a discussion in a podcast. I mean, there's plenty
08:07of them. I listened to a Star Trek one, a Star Trek Voyager one called The Delta Flyers with Robert
08:13Duncan McNeil and Garrett Wong, who both starred in Star Trek Voyager. Lockdown is the cause of a lot of
08:19these as the source, the core reason why these exist. They had a lot of time on their hands.
08:23They went, you know what? Let's re-watch the episodes and talk about our experiences and what
08:27we remember. Get some guests. I would recommend that one if you are a Star Trek fan or a Star Trek
08:31Voyager fan. They are now actually doing Deep Space Nine as well. So they've moved, they've done all of
08:35Voyager. They now moved on to Deep Space Nine and they have Armin Shimmerman, Terry Farrell. Listen to
08:40that one. But there's plenty of others. There's a Scrubs one. I think it's Fake Doctors Real Friends with
08:44Zach Braff and Donald Faison who talk about Scrubs. The thing is, I think there are a lot of people
08:53jumping now thinking, oh, does this mean that Amy and Rory are going to be back in Doctor Who? Because
08:58they're closer to the show now and they're doing this podcast about it and that must mean that
09:02eventually they're going to return. I think it means that they've had enough time now to be able to
09:07look back on it with fond memories and have enough distance from it to be able to talk about it.
09:11Now, I'm not saying it's completely unheard of. The Scrubs one happened and now they're making
09:17more Scrubs. So never say never. It would be great to see Amy and Rory back at some point.
09:23I don't think now is the right time for that. I mean, I'll keep saying it till I'm blue in the
09:27face. We need to move on with some new stories. But, you know, maybe. And the thing is as well
09:32is that the Doctor Who tweet-alongs is the reason that we had David Tennant and Catherine Tate back
09:36and Russell T. Davis back. So, again, there is precedent for these sorts of things to lead
09:41somewhere. But for right now, I think it's just great that they're going to come together,
09:46reminisce about their times, tell hopefully untold stories and for us to hear about what
09:51it was like for them, hear those behind the scenes stories and kind of get that chemistry
09:57that they obviously had together back again in a conversation with guests, hopefully Alex Kingston.
10:03Surely they've got to have her. Surely with Matt Smith, with other cast and crew members
10:09that they would have worked with across their time on Doctor Who. I think it's really exciting.
10:14And I think podcasts are a great way to do it. Podcasts are a thing of the 2020s, you know.
10:21Since COVID, podcasts are a big, big thing. So I think it's going to be really exciting.
10:27I'm looking forward to hearing more about it and learning when it's going to be released.
10:31So, yeah, there you have it. A few more tidbits since Monday. I'm hoping and praying that there's
10:37going to be even more by the time we come to next week's video on Monday. Strictly Watch will be
10:42back, of course. Very exciting. Please let me know your ship names for Kate and Ibrahim in the
10:47comments down below, please. I need some suggestions. In the meantime, I've been Ellie for Who Culture
10:52and in the words of Riversong herself, goodbye, sweeties.
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