Christmas Is Coming - and So Is Doctor Who Series 4!

So here we are. On the verge of Christmas 2007, looking forward to the annual Doctor Who Christmas Special and, inevitably, thinking further ahead to Series 4 which will hit our TV screens in about 4 months time.

I do not plan to write much about the Xmas Special tonight since by this time tomorrow it will all be over. No, instead I have already collected much info on the rumours, gossip and chit-chat which surrounds the forthcoming new series. And now is a good time to share it with you. You may well have heard much of this yourselves, but if not here we go with much food for thought.

I will start with what must be the return of the Daleks at some point of other and possible storylines for them ....

The Daleks - sure to return
Somewhere out there is Dalek Caan having escaped from The Doctor at the end of the Empire State building edition of the Series 3 story. But WHERE will his emergency temporal shift have taken him? It was said that a possible reason that the Cult Of Skaro ended up in New York was due to them having visited NYC before. So maybe we can assume that this will be the case again in some form or another.

Given the current preference for Earth-related stories, this may take us (back) to several locations on the planet from the following stories in the past:-

• WILLIAM HARTNELL and Carole Ann Ford came across them in the "Dalek Invasion Of Earth 2164" in which they were invading London (ah HAH!). According to the Wikipedia rendition of the story, there was also an important character called TYLER there. Rings any bells? Yup, an old RTD favourite character surname! It also involved Battersea power station and "robomen" who are some kind of Dalek servants. Many parallels exist here with the 'Daleks In Manhattan' story and so perhaps this is not really a possible storyline since it would be seen as just a copy of that earlier tale.
• PATRICK TROUGHTON and Frazer Hines had a Dalek encounter in the "Evil Of The Daleks" story which was set in 1866 and involved the Daleks trying to find the secret of "The Human Factor" which was something they believed humans had which was the secret to human resistance of Dalek invasion plans. The Emperor was also involved here but was seemingly destroyed at the end.
• JON PERTWEE and Katy Manning had a very brief "Day Of The Daleks" which involved future humans coming back into the past to prevent it all happening for them. Classic sci-fi stuff of course, and this time the Daleks had the Ogrons for company.
• There was also a fairly minor appearance in the Pertwee story "Frontier In Space" in which the main villains, the Draconians, and Earth people were squaring up for a war. The Daleks aided by The Master, were hoping to pick up the pieces of this conflict which was based in the 26th century.
  
• PETER DAVISON and Janet Fielding had a battle on their hands in "Resurrection Of The Daleks". In this one, The Doctor and Tegan were dragged to Earth in 1984. Here it was not so much the Daleks who were to be resurrected but the great leader himself, DAVROS. Now this DOES have significant possibilities for our Series 4 since it has been rumoured in many places of his inevitable return (and who will play his part). More on Davros a little later. The plan this time was to clone the Doctor and his companions in order that they would eventually kill the High Council Of Time Lords on Gallifrey. There was also a rebellious Dalek element in this one with Davos' Daleks at war with Daleks loyal to the Dalek Supreme, who was a black Dalek similar in many ways to Dalek Sec. Also, they had something called a Movellan Virus to contend with.
• SYLVESTER McCOY and Sophie Aldred had their little brush with Dalek-kind in the "Remembrance Of The Daleks" story which was set in 1963. It is well-known as being a story of some complexity and so is unlikely to be referred to much apart from being Earth-bound and involving Davro again (OK, so maybe it IS significant then!). The Doctor had been looking for the Hand Of Omega when he came here. This story brings to us the Imperial Dalek and the Special Weapons Dalek as well as the warring Dalek Supreme and Davros once again.
• Last of all, PETER CUSHING played the Doctor in a movie role which was basically a movie version of a previous book. However, this movie and its storyline is not considered as being part of the 'real world' of The Doctor so it has to be discounted.
  

So the Davros-orientated stories would probably give us the most clues. His more-than rumoured comeback has been splashed across the media. And there are a number of viewer videos giving some kind of weight to this. For example, this one:-


It's a start! Not sure about Ben Kingsley and also not sure about Sarah Jane Smith's comeback either since she has her own spin-off show for the kids together with K-9.

HOWEVER, there ARE rumours abound about Ben Kingsley playing Davros in Series 4. But according to this more recent report, he denies this. But, as we well know, it was denied for ages and ages by Russell T Davies himself that we were to have Kylie in the Christmas Special this year. So any denials OR, for that matter, confirmations at this stage are interesting though unsubstantiated.

But back to where we started with Dalek Caan. Where will he turn up and in what form? Well, on the Freema Agyeman forum there is a rumour that he will meet up with Davros after or during his emergency temporal shift. Once they have met, they will concoct something evil to try to defeat the Doctor once and for all. This might form the end to Series 4 I suppose.

Or how about this. Dalek Caan wants revenge and wants to retrieve all the Daleks that got trapped in The Void by The Doctor at the end of Series 2. Well those Daleks are clever types, and they did manage to build that void ship in Series 2 so why not another? Having built it, Dalek Caan can locate the missing Daleks and attempt to retrieve them. BUT of course in trying to do this it is possible that the Torchwood in our world and the parallel Torchwood will see what is going on. This will then involve both Captain Jack AND Rose Tyler in some way and hey presto we have the Great Comeback!

This speculation in the last paragraph was adapted from a comment in a forum on SliceofSciFi.com. In particular, if you scroll down to Comment Number 42 by 'lucy' you will see a very interesting set of comments by someone who is obviously very observant in matters of Doctor Who. It is just opinion but it just looks like something very possible and carries some weight for me.

OK, I think that will do for Dalek Rumours. I will continue my search into Series 4 most lilely in a couple of days time when I will be looking into other rumoured comebacks. These, by the way, do include, The Rani, Sontarans, The Ood and maybe a Krynoid or two somewhere!

Enjoy the Christmas Special tomorrow!

And remember .... You Are Not Alone!