Doctor Who
What? The last Time Lord continues his travels in a post Time War universe, on his own for now… but not for long
Who? David Tennant, Freema Agyeman, Ardal O’Hanlon, Hugh Quarshie, Miranda Raison, Ryan Carnes, Mark Gatiss, Roy Marsden, Anne Reid, Jessica Stevenson, Carey Mulligan
From? Russell T Davies stays at the helm, with scripts by Paul Cornell, Stephen Moffatt, Helen Raynor and Gareth Roberts
Showing? Starting Easter (tbc), BBC1
Why? As if you need us to tell you by now. The Doctor Who juggernaut powers on – no official news of returning monsters this time round (but they have a three-year option on the Daleks, so expect them somewhere), but we’ll see the return of Captain Jack and learn the Face of Boe’s secret, which might just have something to do with the Doctor’s new found willingness to name his homeworld. Plus, there’s an encounter with Shakespeare, rejuvenation experiments, Ardal O’Hanlon as a cat-like space trucker, and a new companion, medical student Martha Jones, introduced in the cunningly-titled Smith and Jones…
Primeval
What? As the unexplained appearances of dinosaurs in supermarket car parks lead to the discovery of anomalies – holes in time – a team is pulled together to deal with these events, led by Professor Nick Cutter, a man whose wife disappeared mysteriously some years before…
Who? Douglas Henshall, Lucy Brown, Andrew Lee Potts, Hannah Spearitt, Juliet Aubrey, James Murray, Ben Miller
From? Writer Adrian Hodges (The Lost World, Rome, The Ruby in the Smoke)
Showing? February (tbc), ITV1
Why? ITV1 makes its grab for some of the Doctor Who Saturday night treasure chest with a series that’s reminiscent of the 1974 Who story Invasion of the Dinosaurs, except with decent CGI replacing the Chewits monster. But is it any good? Well, yes – we’ve seen it, and it barely puts a foot wrong. Even the pop star casting and the cute pet monster work!
The Dresden Files
What? Harry Dresden is the only fully-qualified wizard available for hire as a private detective in the Chicago metropolis
Who? Paul Blackthorne, Valerie Cruz, Rebecca McFarland, Conrad Coates, Elizabeth Thai
From? Based on the books by Jim Butcher, adapted by Deep Space Nine veterans Robert Hewitt Wolfe and Hans Beimler
Showing? January 21st, Sci-Fi (US)
Why? Part of Sci-Fi’s bid to draw in the crowds with more accessible contemporary series, The Dresden Files has a successful literary franchise (seven books so far) to draw upon, and looks to be making surprisingly faithful use of it, with plots drawn directly from the novels. The mix of detective work and magic against a realistic background could well fill the gap left by Buffy and Charmed… With… Stargate SG-1
Life on Mars
24
Jekyll
Heroes
Shameless
Five Days
The Verdict
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