Actress Jenna-Louise Coleman was impressed by the high levels of secrecy surrounding Doctor Who after her role was given a code name to throw off fans.

Producers used the phrase Men On Waves when auditioning actresses to replace Karen Gillan as Time Lord Matt Smith's assistant - but Coleman managed to crack the code.

She tells the Radio Times, "I worked out that Men On Waves is an anagram of Woman Seven, because this is the seventh series (since the show re-launched in 2005). Weirdly, seven is my lucky number and this is my seventh job."

The former British soap opera star was also ba...

A British soap star has been chosen to step into the coveted role of Doctor Who's assistant in the next series of the hit sci-fi TV show.

Actress Jenna-Louise Coleman will replace Karen Gillan, who has played Time Lord Matt Smith's onscreen companion since 2010.

Gillan decided to leave last year after reaching a mutual agreement with BBC bosses.

Coleman, who appeared in U.K. soap Emmerdale, says, "I am beyond excited. I can't wait to get cracking."

After last week’s River Song/Melody Pond reveal, the Powers That Be have allowed us all a breath. Thank Heavens! The roller coaster ride of the “Let’s Kill Hitler” episode nearly did me in! I’m glad to say that this week’s episode is much less all encompassing. Although if you were afraid of puppets before, you won’t be attending any Punch and Judy fairs in the near future!

In a dark, but nevertheless, rather ordinary, row of council apartments, a bunch of very ordinary tenants prepare for the evening. In one apartment, however, a young boy named George balks at going to sleep. He’s fright...

After a summer off, while the producers of Doctor Who apparently awaited the growing of corn, the Doctor has returned. And what a return it is! Finally, we learn how Melody Pond became River Song … and it’s a heck of a story!

“Let’s see, you’ve got a time machine, I’ve got a gun. What the hell, let’s kill Hitler.”

We begin with Rory and Amy barreling through a lush corn field, with Amy shouting coordinates. With a flourish, they pull into a clearing, and before you can say, “Doctor Who?” the blue box has appeared. A petulant Doctor demands to know why they have been signaling him with cro...

If you're still missing Doctor Who, and BBC Books' dozen recently-released novels aren't enough, BBC Home Entertainment has sent home Doctor Who: Series Six, Part 1 on Blu-Ray and DVD. Here's my review of the DVD version.

The Show

This is the second series of Doctor Who under the stewardship of Steven Moffat, and I have to say that I've enjoyed it. To be fair, I've liked Moffat's work since Coupling, but I don't see what's apparently got some Whovians up in arms about this series. That doesn't mean that they're wrong, but I didn't feel as major a sea change as others did when Moffat t...

Missing Doctor Who as we wait for the second part of series six? BBC Books has given you some solace as Who novels are arriving on bookstore shelves...twelve of them, in fact.

Six new print adventures featuring Matt Smith's Eleventh Doctor are headed your way. They are Touched By An Angel (written by Jonathan Morris), Paradise Lost (by George Mann), Borrowed Time (by Naomi Alderman), Hunter's Moon (by Paul Finch), Dead of Winter (by frequent Who/Torchwood novelist James Goss), and The Way Through The Woods (by Una McCormick). The new slate of adventures also features companions Amy Pond ...

Mea Culpa. I honestly thought that I could get away without recapping Episodes 5 and 6 “The Rebel Flesh/The Almost People” while I wrestled with the larger philosophical implications of the ‘Gangers.’ I was terribly wrong. You do need to know a bit about the Gangers before we can go on.

In a nutshell, in the future, people are using bio-engineered, sentient duplicates, made from a compound called The Flesh. These duplicates, called ‘Gangers’ (as in doppelganger,) are exact clones of the original person, right down to having the same heart, soul and mind. These clones are used to go into d...

Years ago, I was in a band with a drummer who lived, ate, and breathed Sci-fi. On one of those long journeys to a gig, I asked him what his ideal woman would look like, and he said, “She’d be covered in soft blue fur, from head to toe.” He had no real reason, he just liked the idea.

Well, this week, the Doctor gets to live out a Sci-Fi geek dream, when the , standing before him in the body of a beautiful woman. And to add even more geek-cred, the writer of this particular episode is none other than Neil Gaiman, author of The Sandman, the film “Coraline,” and other Sci-Fi/Fantasy classics....

You can’t help but love the Doctor. Never one to miss a party, or to put a glum face on things, the Doctor loves to be in the middle of an impossible situation. This week, the Doctor pops up on a 17th century pirate ship, Amy and Rory in tow. And apparently, real pirates don’t say ‘Yo Ho Ho,’ much to the Doctor’s chagrin. Prepare to enjoy every cliché on the bounding sea – walking the plank, a child stowaway, treasure, mutiny, and a storm at sea, a ghost ship, a babe with a cutlass, and a curse. But no parrot!

With guest stars Hugh Bonneville (Captain Henry Avery) and Lily Cole (Sea Sir...