TCA 2013: All About "Doctor Who" and a Low-Key HBO - Ed Martin

Beverly Hills, CA -- BBC America at the Summer Television Critics Association gathering yesterday continued the 50^th Anniversary of "Doctor Who"/Farewell Matt Smith Combo Tour that began last week with a massive session in the cavernous Hall H at the San Diego Comic-Con. The network opened the second day of this tour with two "Who"-related panels and hosted a party featuring the current cast last night at the ritzy Soho House in West Hollywood.

All this attention to "Doctor Who" is certainly justified. The franchise, which has continued through avariety of different television series, movies and specials in England and the United States since the Sixties, will mark its 50^th anniversary in November. ("Doctor Who" premiered on November 23, 1963, the day after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.) That will be the same month that Matt Smith, who has played the Doctor for four seasons, will leave the show in a special episode marking the 50^th anniversary.

Episodes that revolve around the arrivals and departures of actors portraying the Doctor, who re-generates and takes on a new appearance from time to time, are always events on their own, but this one will be something special. In addition to marking Smith's exit, it will feature the return to the show of David Tennant, the actor who portrayed the Doctor before Smith, and it will herald the twelfth and last re-generation for the character, who according to "Who" mythology can only undergo these transformations 12 times. (In other words, the actor who steps into the role after Smith will have to be the last unless the writers alter the rock-solid mythology that has been in place and honored by everyone involved with the franchise since it began in 1963.)

BBC America also offered a panel for "An Adventure in Space and Time," a made-for-television movie about the creation of the first "Doctor Who" series at the BBC way back in 1963. It will premiere in November. David Bradley stars as William Hartnell, the first actor to portray the Doctor. Bradley was the center of a seismic Twitter blow-up just a few weeks ago when Lord Walder Frey, the sinister character he portrays on HBO's "Game of Thrones," orchestrated the instantly infamous red wedding massacre that resulted in the grisly deaths of two main characters. (Richard Madden, the actor who portrayed the doomed Robb Stark, one of the red wedding victims, was at the party with a friend, a happy circumstance that excited critics as much as the opportunity to have a final chat with Matt Smith.)

Smith has been the first of the Doctors to truly experience the full effect of the franchise's power at Comic-Con. In fact, last weekend during his third appearance there he had to walk around the San Diego Convention Center wearing a Bart Simpson mask to avoid being recognized and mobbed. "Nowadays, you know, with all the cos-play [dressing up in costumes] and all that, 'Doctor Who' has a real presence there," Smith reflected. "It's, like, the closest you'll ever get to being a rock star."

BBC America, whose TCA panels and parties have in recent years been among the most eagerly anticipated by critics and journalists, rounded out its morning with sessions for two other noteworthy series: "Atlantis," a fantasy-drama set in ancient times that re-imagines Greek myths and legends; and "Broadchurch," a gripping mystery that centers on the shocking murder of a young boy in a quiet seaside town. The latter has won numerous awards in England, and it is certain to be one of the most talked about television programs of the year once it makes its debut next month on BBCA.

Later in the day, HBO offered a series of sessions that were rather low key by the network's usual TCA standards. That is to say, with the exception of sports legend Mike Tyson and director Spike Lee – on hand to promote "Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth," a film of his one-man Broadway show – and LarryDavid, a TCA regular over the years for the HBO comedy series "Curb Your Enthusiasm" who came by this time to take questions about his upcoming made-for-HBO movie "Clear History" – it was a relatively quiet afternoon for the pay-cable giant. The other programs HBO promoted were "Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight," a movie about Ali's historic Supreme Court battle when he declared himself a conscientious objector after being drafted into the Vietnam War, starring Christopher Plummer; the upcoming Stephen Merchant comedy series "Hello Ladies," about an awkward British web designer who relocates to Los Angeles, and "Seduced and Abandoned," a movie filmed by and starring Alec Baldwin and James Toback as they navigated the 2012 Cannes Film Festival looking for financing for a film project.

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