Hey y'all! I am LIVE at San Diego Comic-Con and sitting in Hall H for the “Doctor Who” panel beginning at 2:15pm PDT. Follow along for all the breaking news from the cast and crew!
[2:04PM PDT]: Still waiting to be allowed inside. Above us, a robotic drone is buzzing in direct defiance of the rule technology rules. It sounds like a thousand angry bees trapped in a mechanical shell. Slightly uncomfortable.
[2:10PM PDT]: We remain outside. An employee/volunteer just came out to assure the antsy press that we are in the right place and will not miss the panel. Ahhh, the joys of trying to herd hundreds of people into a confined space in a timely manner!
[2:16PM PDT]: We're inside! The panel is running a few minutes behind and the wifi is atroicious but NO MATTER! I will soldier on!
[2:22PM PDT]: The lights go down and the trailer comes up. “No TARDIS needed” they say and everyong cheers until we realize they're being serious. This is a trailer for “The Last Kingdom.” The bass is so loud my lungs are vibrating.
[2:24PM PDT]: Chris Hardwick takes the stage to set the mood, complete with TARDIS shoes! We begin with a video highlight reel from last season to refresh our memories. HAHAHAHA, have they MET fans?
[2:26PM PDT]: Steven Moffat, Michelle Gomez, Jenna Coleman, and Peter Capaldi take the stage to thunderous applause. The lightbulb flashes are fast and furious.
[2:27PM PDT]: Peter Capaldi says he”s never been in front of 7,000 people before and eggs the audience into a round-robin of cheers. <3
[2:30PM PDT]: Steven Moffat says, “Peter Capaldi is Scottish which is automatically better.”
[2:32PM PDT]: “It”s the only show that”s in my bones,” says Capaldi. He”s been following the show since he was six years old. He was so excited to be there just in the episode in Pompeii. He turned up on set and excitedly asked David Tennant “Where the TARDIS?” and he never thought he”d be the man inside the big blue box.
[2:35PM PDT]: Jenna Coleman says they”re in the middle of filming Series 9 and while last year the characters were figuring each other out, this year it”ll be more as equals. Clara”s control freak nature got her character in a lot of trouble, trying to live two lives. This year she”s just head first in the TARDIS with the Doctor.
[2:37PM PDT]: Michelle Gomez says “Doctor Who” is one of the best jobs she”s ever had because she shows up and gets the script and she”s as in the dark as to what Missy”s end game is as the audience. “The rules don”t apply to [Missy], and that makes her fun to play.”
[2:39PM PDT]: Steven says the Doctor and the Master/Missy are best friends and that”s what makes them interesting. Missy isn”t an arch-enemy and it”s a complicated relationship. Michelle Gomez chimes in “The Doctor kills a lot of people and so does Missy. She just doesn”t feel bad about it.” Huge laugh from the audience.
[2:41PM PDT]: On the Doctor thinking he was the last of his kind for so long and discovering another Time Lord survived but then it”s THAT Time Lord. You know, the murderous one. “Life is shit. Business as usual,” says Capaldi. “Scottish philosophy.”
[2:43PM PDT]: HERE COMES THE TRAILER!
[2:46PM PDT]: Open on stars in space, the TARDIS wings by. Bright eyes, the light”s go out in an underground cavern. Eyeless man, two-faced man, Daleks, Missy”s mirror, the Doctor shrugs. Clara in a spacesuit, Missy staring, ghost dude, the Doctor in pjs, at the Doctor on guitar, the Doctor with sunglasses, “I”m the Doctor and I save people.” September 19th is the premiere.
We end with Maisie Williams in a spacesuit. “You,” says the Doctor. “What took you so long old man?” she says.
AND MUCH, MUCH MORE!
[2:48PM PDT]: Capaldi first felt like the Doctor when they threw a rubber spider in his face and said “Fight it!”
[2:52PM PDT]: Chris asks what”s up with the TARDIS” new open-door policy last season. “You go to school here? Sure get in.” Steven Moffat says the Doctor has gotten more lenient as he”s aged.
[2:54PM PDT]: Jenna Coleman says Clara teaches the Doctor social skills this season about how to interact with humans instead of being as brash and alien. “Do I look bored?” is probably what the Doctor is thinking, according to Capaldi.
[2:55PM PDT]: They open the floor to questions and the first one is from a puppet. I love Comic-Con so much, you guys.
[2:57PM PDT]: The trailer is up!