Dr Who storylines revealed

The next series looks more ambitious than ever

The BBC reports that some of the storylines for the next series of Doctor Who have been revealed by the show's producer and writer Steven Moffat.

He says the doctor will take on pre-historic creatures in a story called "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship."

There will also be a western-themed episode called "A Town Called Mercy."

Those storylines will follow the first episode in the new series in which he will be reunited with his oldest enemies in "Asylum of the Daleks."

Moffat and the cast were speaking about the future of the show at the Comic-Con sci-fi convention in San Diego.

Steven Moffat said: "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship - what more do you need?

"The Doctor will come face to face with some of the most monstrous creatures evolution has ever produced, on some of the most monstrous sets we've ever built."

Oddly, he added, "And Toby Whithouse's A Town Called Mercy takes us into a genre Doctor Who hasn't attempted since the 60s - it's a full-blooded western.

"We knew from the start we needed some serious location shooting for this one, and given the most iconic American setting imaginable, there was only one place to go - Spain."

Dr Who has certainly featured a Wild West theme since the sixties -- as a Dr Who animated feature. We have it on DVD, starring the voice of the inimitable and much-missed David Tennant.

If there was ever a competition for the best Dr Who, our nomination would definitely be the compulsively watchable wild-eyed version created by Tennant.

The next series will star gimlet-eyed, creepily skinny Matt Smith (pictured) again, along with that daddy-long-legs of a girl, Karen Gillan,with her rather likeable better half, Arthur Darvill.

Interestingly, Moffat, who is also the writer of that very good take of the great Conan Doyle stories, Sherlock (a series he devised in a train), announced that the fellow who plays the desperate copper Lestrade, Rupert Graves, will have a role in the dinosaur episode.  If anyone is outstandingly eligible for the next Dr Who (and he can't come soon enough for me), it is the wild-eyed and compulsively watchable fellow who plays Sherlock, that chap with the cumbersome name -- Benedict Cumberbatch