Who's on first?
No, Who's on the 19th.
What?
Who. Doctor Who, that's what.
What? Who?
Right.
Whovians -- and you know who you are -- are all abuzz now that they finally have a premiere date for the beginning of Season 9 of Doctor Who. New episodes for the international cult hit begin at 8 p.m. Sept. 19 on BBC America.
It'll be a "two-fer" Saturday night with back-to-back episodes, "The Magician's Apprentice" and "The Witch's Familiar," directed by Hettie Macdonald and written by head writer and showrunner Steven Moffat.
This also will be the second season for the latest Doctor, Peter Capaldi, who is paired with his charming companion Clara Oswald (Jenna Coleman). Last year's first season with Capaldi and Coleman set record ratings for the series in the United States, with an average of 2.3 million viewers per episode.
About 8 million view the series each week in Britain.
Latest Doctor? Fans know that thanks to "regeneration" there have been 12 official Doctors Who over the years. Here's the list. How many have you seen?
In chronological order beginning in 1963, the Doctor has been played by William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann, Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant and Matt Smith.
Capaldi is the 12th Doctor. The 57-year-old Scottish actor took over the time- and space-traveling TARDIS police call box on Dec. 25, 2013.
He won a Best Live Action Short Film Oscar in 1994 for his Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life (he wrote and directed). More recently, he received critical acclaim for his role in the British comedy The Thick of It (2005-12).
The 29-year-old Coleman has portrayed Clara (each Doctor has a companion) since 2012. That means she's been sidekick to Doctors 11 and 12. Before that, Coleman was primarily known for her 2005-09 turn on the British soap opera Emmerdale.
Fans are also atwitter with the news that the new season will mark Michelle Gomez's return as Missy (a renegade alien Time Lord and the Doctor's archenemy) and -- and! -- Maisie Williams will be featured as a guest star in at least a couple of episodes.
For those who don't know her by name, the 18-year-old Williams portrays feisty Arya Stark on HBO's Game of Thrones. What she'll be up to on Doctor Who is shrouded in secrecy. All the network will reveal is that "she returns to plague the Doctor and Clara in the season opener."
Not much there.
BBC America is understandably circumspect on the new season. The publicity is generic and nebulous: "In Capaldi's second season at the helm of the TARDIS, the series sees the Doctor and Clara going on a journey that takes them to deadly alien planets, creepy underwater bases, Viking villages, a global Zygon uprising, and through hidden alien dens, to the very end of time itself."
Not much, but enough to whet appetites.
Twelve episodes are scheduled for Season 9 and a 10th season has already been ordered.
• The Doctor's Finest. Meanwhile, to ease fans into the new season, BBC America began airing The Doctor's Finest last week with host Hannah Hart.
The eight encore episodes from the modern era (since 2005) were selected, BBC America says, "to exemplify why the Doctor is the hero we all wish we could be." Special guests will discuss each episode and explain how it fits into "the Who-niverse."
Up next: "The End of Time." It's set for 7 p.m. Saturday.
• The Wiz. As you probably recall, for the past two seasons NBC has been airing live family specials during the Christmas season.
First up was 2013's The Sound of Music Live! starring Carrie Underwood as Maria von Trapp. Most critics agreed that as an actress, Underwood is a great singer.
Despite being panned, the huge ratings (18.6 million) encouraged NBC to follow up last year with Peter Pan Live! starring Allison Williams in the title role, and a rather stiff and awkward Christopher Walken as Captain Hook.
The critics hated it and only 9.2 million tuned in, but that still won the night for NBC.
Undaunted, NBC has forged ahead with plans for this year with a Dec. 3 production of The Wiz Live!, adapted from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum.
The Wiz was also a 1978 film that starred Diana Ross and Michael Jackson, with Richard Pryor as The Wiz.
NBC has finally unveiled its star. Newcomer Shanice Williams has been tapped to portray Dorothy Gale.
The 18-year-old New Jersey native joins a cast that includes Mary J. Blige as the Wicked Witch of the West, David Alan Grier as the Cowardly Lion, and Queen Latifah as The Wiz.
The TV Column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Email:
mstorey@arkansasonline.com
Weekend on 08/20/2015