Let us kick off this latest From The North bloggerisationisms update with, for once, some proper good news. After what seemed like an eternity of waiting (but was, actually, a mere three months), Netflix has officially greenlit a second series of From The North favourite Neil Gaiman's The Sandman. Deadline, in what they claimed was an exclusive, said the streamer 'is bringing back the comic book adaptation after various conflicting reports started to surface online.' The Sandman, by a distance the favourite to win the forthcoming - and much coveted - From The North TV Award for the Best TV Show of 2022, launched at the start of August. You may have noticed. It has previously been covered, quite extensively, on this very blog. You may have noticed that, too. It was watched for sixty nine million hours in its first week (including this blogger), doubling this in its second to one hundred and twenty seven million, scoring seventy seven million in its third week and fifty four million in its fourth. The renewal confirmation followed an - allegedly - 'accidental' leak on Wednesday by DC Comics' official Twitter page. The, since deleted, tweet read: 'The dream continues. [The Sandman] will return with new episodes based on multiple volumes of the Neil Gaiman graphic novel to explore even more stories of The Endless.' It came after cancellation rumours had started circulating on the - always reliable - social media. The ten-episode series, based on Gaiman's DC Comics (1988 to 1995), follows Morpheus (Tom Sturridge), the personification of dreams and one of the seven Endless. A bonus eleventh episode was released two weeks after the rest of the series and featured two particular favourite stand-alone stories from Gaiman's catalogue, A Dream Of A Thousand Cats and Calliope, including guest appearances by the likes of Sandra Oh, James McAvoy, David Tennant, Arthur Darvill and Michael Sheen.
'Millions upon millions of people have welcomed and watched and loved The Sandman on Netflix, from established Sandman fans to people who were simply curious and then became obsessed with the Lord of Dreams, his family and their goings-on,' said yer man Gaiman in a statement. 'It gives me unbelievable pleasure to say that, working with Netflix and Warner Bros, Allan Heinberg, David Goyer and I will be bringing even more of The Sandman stories to life. There are some astonishing stories waiting for Morpheus and the rest of them (not to mention more members of The Endless Family to meet). Nobody is going to be happier about this than The Sandman cast and crew: they are the biggest Sandman fans there are. And now it's time to get back to work. There's a family meal ahead, after all. And Lucifer is waiting for Morpheus to return to Hell.' Variety quoted Netflix calling the forthcoming series 'a continuation of The Sandman world' which will 'expand in the next episodes.' Episode count and story details, they note, are 'still being kept under wraps.' Although previous comments from both Gaiman and Heinberg have suggested that series two, if they ever got that far, was likely to concentrate on two of Gaiman's most ambitious story strands, Season Of Mists (issues twenty one to twenty eight), in which Morpheus travels to Hell to free his former lover, Nada and A Game Of You (issues thirty two to thirty seven) about Barbie's fairytale-like dream-realm already glimpsed in one of the later episodes of the first series. There may also be scope for some further stand-alone episodes from Neil's two short-story collections, Dream Country and Fables & Reflections, including one of this blogger's particular favourites, The Parliament Of Rooks (issue forty). The Sandman Twitter account subsequently confirmed the - happy - news, on Wednesday.
For what it's worth, dear blog reader, this blogger always thought it was more likely than not that the series would, eventually, get renewed though cost was, undeniably, a major factor; the first eleven episodes reportedly cost somewhere in the region of one hundred and fifty million bucks. That's a lot of coin for a company like Netflix which has reportedly been losing a plethora of subscribers of late due to the ongoing economic crisis. Unless Neil was planning on funding the series out of his own pocket, The Sandman was always going to need to find a broadcaster and/or a streaming service with a pretty big wallet in its greatcoat for any second series to occur. No matter how well the first series did in terms of audience figures (and, of course, it did brilliantly) and how much over-eager fans tried to wish such a production into existence. This blogger believes, reading between the lines, that Netflix always wanted to do another series and have, most likely, been in active negotiations with the various production partners (including DC Entertainment and Warner Bros) over things like the budget. Seemingly, now those discussions have concluded and an agreement has been reached. Which is really good news. This blogger loved the first series of The Sandman. He thought it was great.
Following a spectacularly poorly-researched and ill-informed piece by one Craig Simpson (no, me neither) in the Daily Torygraph, some of the more panicky and naïve corners of Doctor Who fandom have been busy getting their knickers in a right twist about the recent announcement that Disney+ would be the show's new broadcaster outside the UK. The assumption of Simpson's article, various alarmist rumours started on - the, again, always reliable - social media and the subsequent 'mam, I've shat in me own pants' reaction to this nonsense was that Disney would now, effectively, be in charge of production on the BBC's popular, long-running family SF drama. And, as a consequence, not only demand changes to the show's format to fit in with some perceived 'house style' of Disney product (like, you know Pistol just to take one recent example) but, also, to cancel the North American release of any future physical media since Disney are a streaming service and don't 'do' DVDs and Blu-Rays. Apart from all of the ones that they do, do of course. As this blogger's most excellent fiend Jan noted, wearily, 'People really need to stop quoting that Telegraph article like gospel or pay[ing] attention to crappy sources like Slashfilm and Screen Rant et cetera. Everyone is running around like emo space chickens without heads screaming that the sky is falling, when it's not.' Well, this is Doctor Who fandom we're talking about, here. Some of us do that sort of thing quite a lot. You've probably noticed! They're quite a sight. 'Disney is solely the distributor for Doctor Who,' continued Jan. 'It's got no say in production (although I'm sure there might be discounts if the show does location shooting somewhere Disney has a resort ... and maybe there might be actors Disney likes on the show, but then again that hasn't been true for Marvel or Star Wars and Disney owns them).'
Astonishingly, it was left to Radio Times (which, as we know, used to be run by adults) to bring a vague bit of common sense to the hysteria with a piece by Steven O'Brien explaining the background to the deal and the likely implications thereof. 'This is the best of both worlds,' Big Rusty Davies said when the news was announced that Disney+ would be the new home for Doctor Who internationally, 'with the vision and joy of the BBC and Disney+ together we can launch the TARDIS all around the planet, reaching a new generation of fans while keeping our traditional home firmly on the BBC in the UK.' The message was meant to excite and reassure. Yes, Disney will - from November 2023 - be the platform on which the rest of the world can watch Doctor Who, but this was not a takeover. Doctor Who, for UK viewers, would still be a BBC programme, made in a co-production with Bad Wolf and broadcast on BBC1, just as it has been since 1963. Even Charlotte Moore, the BBC's Chief Content Officer, went out of her way to refer to Doctor Who as 'this very British show' when talking up the deal. 'Joining forces with Disney' she said 'will elevate the show to even greater heights and reach new audiences so it's an extremely exciting time for fans in the UK and across the world.'
This, then, would appear to be a very different proposition to when George Lucas sold the Star Wars franchise to the Walt Disney Company in 2012. Yet the fear then was similar to some of the more hysterical reactions to last week's Doctor Who news, that it would lead to Star Wars' 'rougher edges being smoothed out' and that, somehow, Disney's parentage would end up 'kid-ifying' Star Wars. Of course, that didn't happened. 'So, let's be clear,' O'Brien notes. 'Disney don't now own Doctor Who. Instead, it's a [distribution] deal between the BBC and Disney Branded Television, one that will provide a platform for the series overseas and one that should, in all likelihood, bring in a lot more dough for the programme.' 'There's certainly a lot more hands on the show now one way or another, with the BBC, Bad Wolf in which Sony has a stake and Disney all having a seat at the table,' said the Gruniad Morning Star's Martin Belam. 'Where I think the show will benefit most of all is from a global uniform publicity drive with the heft of Disney+ behind it. It should simplify the simultaneous launch windows for the show and see marketing done in a more coherent way than perhaps it was done when the BBC and the production team were dealing with multiple broadcast partners.' 'I think the main benefit of the Disney+ deal, without wanting to sound too crass, is the increase in budget,' added Heat magazine's TV Editor, Boyd Hilton. 'Doctor Who has always been a show of big ideas and vast scope but, as brilliantly as recent showrunners and producers have coped with budgetary limitations, the more money they have the less their resources will be visibly stretched. So expect more crowd scenes populated by huge gatherings of extras. Doctor Who is the ultimate concept for a sci-fi show and now it can proudly enter the global streaming space where it undoubtedly deserves to be.' Before Big Rusty signed on for his second stint as showrunner, he mused about what he might do with the programme should he ever be in charge again and that meant a vast ecosystem of Doctor Who-related spin-offs. 'There should be a Doctor Who channel now,' he said. 'You look at those Disney announcements, of all those new Star Wars and Marvel shows, you think, we should be sitting here announcing The Nyssa Adventures or The Return Of Donna Noble and you should have the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors together in a ten-part series.' Boyd Hilton thinks fans have little to worry about from this commercial tie-up. 'As for fears about how the show might be affected, I too might worry about this were it not for the key factor that genius writer ... Russell T Davies is back as showrunner. He would never compromise the integrity of the show and his vision for its future. In fact the Disney+ deal is clearly going to help him execute his ideas. It's all part of his master (sorry) plan!'
Finally - and equally as important - Disney does not control Doctor Who merchandising, that's the sole province of the BBC's Worldwide division. The idea that DVDs or Blu-Rays will not be released outside the UK because of Disney is ridiculous though whether digital sales (via the likes of Amazon or iTunes) are still a probability is, perhaps, a different matter. The only thing one can imagine which may change is the release window could be a little longer to give Disney it's exclusivity for a certain amount of time in which to exploit their streaming rights. So, if you're a Doctor Who fan of a nervous disposition who regularly acts like a former rescue dog in assuming that, because they perceive they have been done wrong to in the past the same situation will occur again, please, take a tip from this blogger. Just calm the fek down, will you? Thanks muchly.
Meanwhile, dear blog readers, here's an image from the shooting of that scene in The Power Of The Doctor which, if it doesn't melt your frozen heart to slush, proves that you're is dead inside.
Big Rusty has 'opened up' (that's 'spoken' for the mildly pretentious) to Vogue about Yasmin Finney's Doctor Who audition. Which is really fun interview that you can read here, dear blog readers. Or, for a much more in-depth interview with Yasmin herself, here.
BAFTA Scotland has honoured From The North favourite yer actual Peter Capaldi with the Outstanding Contribution Award for 2022, which will be presented to the actor at this year's ceremony. The British Academy Scotland Awards announced that Capaldi, who has won three Scottish BAFTAs, a film BAFTA and one national BAFTA (to go with his Oscar), will become the sixteenth person to receive the award, which has previously been given to the likes of the late Robbie Coltrane, Billy Connolly, Bill Paterson, Alan Cumming and Armando Iannucci. And Lorraine Kelly. 'I am deeply touched to be receiving the BAFTA Scotland Outstanding Contribution to Film and TV Award,' the Glasgow-born actor said in a statement. 'My good luck started with being born in Scotland and continued on with the opportunities afforded me within the Scottish film and TV industry. Without the support of the creative community in Scotland I wouldn't be here, so to be the recipient of this award is kindness indeed.'
Paul Verhoeven's superb piece in the Gruniad Morning Star, The Underrated Star Trek: Why You Should Watch Deep Space Nine is this week's From The North 'you must read this, it's great' recommendation. Check it out here, dear blog reader. 'Deep Space Nine is having a resurgence because it's set in a bifurcated world, much like our own - and it's one of the smartest things ever to come out of mainstream sci-fi,' writes Paul, wisely. Of course, for some of us, the Star Trek series that 'got good the quickest and stayed good the longest' was never underrated in the slightest. We always thought it was great.
And finally, dear blog reader, you may notice that this is a much shorter bloggerisationism update than usual. In fact, you will have noticed because, if there's one thing that this blog's dear readers all are, it's observant about stuff like that. There is a reason and this blogger feels in necessary to apologise for the lack of interaction both here and on his Facebook page over the last few days. Truth be told, dear blog reader, Keith Telly Topping has been feeling bloody wretched this week. In fact, even by this year's bargain basement standards, he's been really low. It's all the usual malarkey, of course. The usual fatigue and lethargy. The usual lack of get-up-and-go (which has got up and gone). The usual insomnia. The usual occasional lightheadedness. Plus the sciatica has been playing up this week something fierce. Normal service (whatever that entails - verbosity, mainly) will be resumed once this blogger gets his shit together and stops feeling as rotten as a rotten thing with rotten knobs on.
Thus ends this latest bloggerisationism update in double-quick time. It's been emotional.
