Doctor Who Adventure Calendar 2010

[Chris3123]

I thought there should be a thread on the official website's holiday tradition. The Doctor Who Adventure Calendar is a yearly feature where each day of December they reveal a new goodie for fans, such as an image, a video, or a game. Some relate to the upcoming Christmas special, but not all. I'll start us off with the first entry on the calendar.


December 1st

What it is: A downloadable PDF of instructions for a game called "Doctor in the House". Basically it involves you trying to slip any of the given Doctor Who quotes into ordinary conversation, and earning points if no one gets it. Not a very structured game, but it sounds amusing enough. They had this game on the calendar last year, though this time the quote list is updated to include quotes from Series 5.

Available for non-UK fans? Yes.

[23skidoo]

I like the idea of marking them as available outside the UK or not. Most text and picture-related items, including (importantly for me) the exclusive short stories are OK everywhere. It's the video-related stuff that we can't get. Which is a pain if they decide to do a mini-episode like they did last year with A Ghost Story for Christmas.

They seem to be a little slow adding the Dec. 2 item. It's about 2-3 PM over there as I write this and it still hasn't appeared.

Alex

[Chris3123]

December 2nd

What it is: A Christmas-themed wallpaper based on the Adventure Games, in addition to the announcement of the fourth installment of the series to be released on Christmas Day, "Shadows of the Vashta Nerada".

Available for non-UK fans? Yes.

[Chris3123]

December 3rd

What it is: Clips from the Cardiff Christmas lights lighting event featuring the cast, including discussion of the show.

Available for non-UK fans? Being video, no.

ETA: I found a couple amateur videos of the lighting on Youtube for those who can't watch the videos on the BBC website:

[captcalhoun]

"we can't tell you because then we'd have to kill you. and there's 50,000 of you and that'd take a long time"

[Chris3123]

December 4th

What it is: Ten wallpapers for "The Christmas Carol".

Available for non-UK fans? Yes.

[captcalhoun]

"santa hats are cool."

[Chris3123]

December 5th

What it is: Four printable Christmas cards.

Available for non-UK fans? Yes

[23skidoo]

Many props to Chris for keeping us in the loop on the BBC calendar. I'm going to jump in here and add one additional link. The fan blog Whovian.net has also launched it's own adventure calendar, and I think it's worth mentioning here as well because they've also done stuff like create their own Christmas cards and they have also started uploading a serialized short story as well. This shouldn't be confused with the official BBC-related material, so I won't plug the thread with links. The Whovian advent calender can be found on the site's homepage at http://www.whoviannet.co.uk. Day 3 is of particular note as it contains Part 1 of the short story "A Leadworth Christmas". So far, all the material has been accessible internationally; since they are not connected to the BBC, I would assume this won't be an issue with whatever they end up posting.

They seem to be following the same type of schedule as the BBC, though, in that they don't actually update the calendar until later in the day.

I'm also keeping an eye on Paul Cornell's blog (paulcornell.com) as last year he did a 12 Blogs of Christmas in which he snuck in an exclusive short story called The Last Doctor.

Alex

[Chris3123]

December 6th

What it is: A game where they show you an image with someone's head obscured by a fez, and you have to guess who it is.

Available for non-UK fans? Yes.

[Chris3123]

December 7th

What it is: Two screensavers: one based on Series 5 and one based on the Daleks.

Available for non-UK fans? Yes.

[Chris3123]

Sorry for missing the past couple days.

December 8th

What it is: Part 1 of Matt Smith's Cracking Christmas Challenge:

When we caught up with the Doctor himself, Matt Smith, we got into the seasonal spirit with some yuletide questions, tasks and tests. Matt reveals his fave Christmas songs and movie and with the help of some prized props, he recalls moments from shooting the past series.

Available for non-UK fans? No.

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December 9th

What it is: Part 1 of the Christmas themed story Snowfall, by Gavin Collinson.

Available for non-UK fans? Yes.

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December 10th

What it is: Part 1 of Snowfall: Cold Snap, by Mark B. Oliver. It's the story that one of the characters began to tell at the end of Snowfall Part 1.

Available for non-UK fans? Yes.

Me and my family are going out of town tomorrow for about a week (Orlando ), but hopefully I'll be able to use my dad's laptop or my iPod Touch to update this thread every day. Even if it is just for two people.

[23skidoo]

Hopefully Chris is enjoying sunny Orlando! To help us keep up, here are the Adventure Calendar bits for the last few days.

Unfortunately, for some reason I am unable to get the link feature to work, so I'll have to be a bit messy about it:

December 11th
http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/dw/ne...alendar_day_11

What it is: Trailer for A Christmas Carol

Available for non-UK fans? No. (As I haven't seen it reposted all over the place, I'm assuming it's probably the standard trailer.)

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December 12th
http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/dw/ne...alendar_day_12

What it is: The Christmas Questions: The Adventure Games Edition. Text Q&As with Nicholas Briggs, Barnaby Edwards and Phil Ford.

Available for non-UK fans? Yes.

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December 13th
http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/dw/ne...alendar_day_13

What it is: Katherine Jenkins Christmas Questions. Text Q&A with the co-star of A Christmas Carol, plus a new publicity photo of the singer-turned-actress.

Available for non-UK fans? Yes.

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December 14th
http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/dw/ne...alendar_day_14

What it is: Shadows of the Vashta Nerada - First Look. Slideshow of images from the fourth Adventure Games release, plus downloadable wallpaper and screensavers for PC and Mac.

Available for non-UK fans? Yes. (The screensaver can be downloaded, too, but I haven't tried installing it.)

Alex

[23skidoo]

December 15th

http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/dw/ne...alendar_day_15

What it is: 4 video previews from A Christmas Carol.

Available for non-UK fans? No. However, check it out anyway for the really cute screengrab of Karen Gillan! Be warned that the picture might be considered a bit of a spoiler.

Alex

[23skidoo]

December 16th

http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/dw/ne...alendar_day_16

What it is: Matt's Cracking Christmas Challenge Part 2. A video of more "Big Questions"-style Q&A with Matt.

Available for non-UK fans? No.

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December 17th

http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/dw/ne...alendar_day_17

What it is: Two short stories: Part 2 of the short story "Snowfall: Cold Snap", and "The Thaw", continuing the framing story from earlier.

Available for non-UK fans? Yes.

Alex