Here it is - the brand new Dr Who trailer released today, Feb 20 2010. Pretty cool too; there’s Daleks, Weeping Angels and…Silurians?

All that AND a peek up Amy’s skirt. Leave your thoughts below!!

In astonishingly brilliant news, Neil Gaiman - author of The Sandman graphic novel series and many other brilliant books - has written an episode of the new Dr. Who series. It won’t see the light of day until Matt Smith’s second season which is approximately 14 months from now, but fans - including myself - are already on the edge of their seat.

The news was revealed in an acceptance award message he sent to the UK convention “SFX Weekender” (he won Best Comic at the SFX Awards). Here it is in full:

“Over the years SFX, and its readers and their votes in the polls, have always been very kind to me. I thought I’d return the favour with what used to be called, in journalistic circles when I was a boy, a scoop. As anyone who’s read my blog knows, I’m a big fan of a certain long-running British SF TV series. One that started watching — from behind the sofa — when I was three. And while I know it’s cruel to make you wait for things, in about 14 months from now, which is to say, NOT in the upcoming season but early in the one after that, it’s quite possible that I might have written an episode. And if I had, it would originally have been called “The House of Nothing”. But it definitely isn’t called that any more.”

What are your thoughts on Gaiman’s becoming a part of the Who universe? Leave them below.

The Hollywood Reporter is saying that Russell T. Davies is writing a US-version of Torchwood for Fox. It’s just a pilot for now but the old Dr. Who production team are all on board including Julie Gardner and Jane Tranter, both of whom are now in Los Angeles. No word yet if John “I’m going to do an episode of The Cabonauts” Barrowman will be involved.

Geronimo!!!  Here it is; the first trailer for the upcoming season of Dr. Who - starring Matt Smith and Karen Gillan.

I grabbed a few moments with Torchwood’s John Barrowman - Captain Jack himself - to talk about what his favorite sci-fi shows are - and what he thought about doing an episode of The Cabonauts…!

Three crazy days are now behind us. I’m still reeling. So what happened? Here’s a few highlights:

For me, it started with one hour’s sleep on Wednesday night (don’t ask) before getting into a car with business manager Phil Ashcroft as we bundled off to San Diego at 5am. After navigating parking (a task that took almost as long as the 2 hour drive), we found our passes and started setting up a table at the huge Wizard booth.

Nichelle arrived around 10am, and the buzz and lines began immediately. So many people approached her for pictures and autographs, all full of love and respect for her and her work - it was almost overwhelming. We spent that first day, Friday, dealing with the hundreds & hundreds of people who had to shake her hand, touch her, and tell her how much she’s inspired their lives. What a living legacy!

I also had a quick word with John Barrowman - Captain Jack from Dr. Who and Torchwood - and he told me he’d like to do an episode of The Cabonauts if his schedule permits. Don’t believe me? I managed to get it on video! I’ll post it later this week.

That night we had drinner and drinkipoos with Erin Gray and her lovely daughter Sam who’s going to be starring in a new online version of Buck Rogers as…Wilma Deering! Sam seems like an absolutely terrific person and I’m sure she’s going to rock the role - can’t wait to see it!

Saturday, it all started up again only we scored a major coup at the start of the day. We were set to premiere The Cabonauts trailer at the Masquerade Ball, an annual Comic-Con event that’s attended by 6,000 people but we weren’t sure at what point in the proceedings that it would play. Once Nichelle suggested that she’d be happy to introduce it, the people at Masquerade pretty much jumped to get her on board - and within seconds, we’d locked in a time for Nichelle to get up on stage. And that night, Nichelle surprised a massive crowd as she walked onto stage to rapturous applause. The trailer got the right amount of laughs and a big cheer at the end - which was pretty damn cool. By the way, a quick word about the people who attend the Masquerade Ball in costume - WOW. The outfits were amazing, truly mind-blowing, and kudos to everyone who participated.

We also interviewed David H Lawrence - Eric Doyle from Heroes - who revealed on video that he’ll be on an upcoming episode of The Cabonauts playing…(wait for it)…a gay space pirate. We’ll be uploading that at some point soon too! And I had a chat with one of the stars of Lost who seemed quite interested in coming on board the Scarad too. He’s off to Hawaii in a few weeks, so schedule permitting, later on down the road he’ll be singing and dancing for us

Sunday was time to wind down - Nichelle and I were at the Cabonauts table for a few hours then called it a day after lunch. We all left very happy in the knowledge that we’d done a lot of word-spreading and, of course, the trailer debut will be the stuff of legend.

If you’re one of the people who stopped by the table and picked up a Cabonauts poster, thanks! Glad to have you on board too!

By the way; the picture of Nichelle above is courtesy of SciFiCrush.com who stopped by to interview her. You can check out the interview here.

Karen Gillian

 This is Dr. Who’s new companion, Karen Gillan - announced the same day we began shooting the pilot. Extermi-date! Extermi-date! (sorry about that. no, really, I am.) Best of luck, Karen.

One of the most insanely fun things about the Cabonauts is the fact that we’re getting some majorly iconic sci-fi actors and actresses to play the roles of passengers. Well that was the initial idea. You write that into a pitch and then you scratch your head and ask “how the hell am I going to do that?”. First off, as I quickly discovered, agents are more than useless. I say more than because they actively try and put the kibosh on it. When you’re on a small budget, agents don’t wanna know – not because they’re concerned about their clients (that’s the LAST thing on most of their minds) but because it means the money they’re bringing in to their agency isn’t big enough to warrant their own jobs. Actually, it’s not really the agent’s fault; it’s a plan set up by the agencies themselves and Hollywood’s now a slave to it.

But not us.

Very early on, we met with an absolute angel with a massively impressive acting resume herself. Erin Gray – you will remember her as Wilma Deering from the Buck Rogers TV series and the mom from Silver Spoons – now runs a company that represents iconic sci-fi/fantasy/horror genre actors for conventions and speaking engagements. Over a lunch at the Daily Grill (the one in Studio City, on Laurel), Erin told us that she’d never been involved in casting before. I told her I’d never done a sci-fi musical comedy - and she was in!

While talking, she mentioned a couple of big sci-fi names that she was very close to. It squirreled itself away in my mind as people we could get in our backseat. It was only a few weeks later that I had the thought “What if we got PERSON X as a regular? How unbelievably frakken amazing would that be?” So I made a call, someone else made a call, Erin made a call, and the next thing you know PERSON X said…Sounds interesting. I want to see more.

So more is what I sent ‘em. A script. An outline. And a character breakdown lovingly created 100% for PERSON X. A week later, the phone rang. PERSON X had said Yes.

They. Said. Yes.

I think I jumped up and down and screamed like a 10 year old girl when I got that phone call.

PERSON X said yes? To me? PERSON X will be saying back my lines? Singing my songs? Acting next to me? Holy shizzles. This was big. So big that we thought it best announcing at ComiCon ’09 (not that I’d ever been). And here’s the great thing about ideas, especially ones that spring up around The Cabonauts – it’s going to happen. Daily Motion’s PR firm, run by the very professional Ephraim C., made a call and voila. Looks like it’s happening.

But it hasn’t stopped there. More and more people are expressing interest on a weekly basis. People from Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Enterprise, Buffy, Dr. Who (the new series), Alien Nation, Stargate… Every week, I get to have my own personal freak out when we get a call from Erin or some of other well placed industry friends who are reaching out on my behalf (thanks to Marti R too for some massive gets!).

Who’s next? There are some people I want to work with just ‘cause I’m a huge fan, so that’ll be fun, just reaching out and asking. I also think once they see the show they’ll say yes because it’s so different – but the sky’s the limit, and there’s only one way to find out!