After the death of Elizabeth Sladen, the star of the hit CBBC show The Sarah Jane Adventures, the Doctor Who spin-off was cancelled.
Russel T Davies, who was in charge of the program, and ran Doctor Who itself before passing the torch to current show runner Steven Moffat, was asked to develop a new children’s fantasy adventure show to take its place in the line-up.
The CBBC recently confirmed the new show will be dubbed “Aliens vs. Wizards.”
Yes, it may sound like a silly idea just from the title, but with Davies behind it, it will likely be very clever.
“Writing for children is the biggest challenge of all and I think CBBC stands right at the heart of broadcasting,” Davies explained.
“So I’m delighted to launch this show, a true nationwide collaboration – a Salford commission from a BBC Wales team. We’re joining genres too: the show’s a wild, funny, thrilling and sometimes scary collision of magic and science fiction… Wizards have never met aliens before, and when they do, the result is spectacular! The mysterious Nekross know exactly what to do with magicians. Eat them! Let battle be joined!”
We also have this official synopsis of the program:
From the dark side of the moon, aliens are scanning the Earth searching for magic and are prepared to destroy everything in their path to get it. All that stands in the way of Earth’s imminent destruction are two 16-year old schoolboys, Tom and Benny. It’s ray guns vs wands; science vs magic and aliens vs wizards.
Tom Clarke lives a seemingly ordinary life with his dad and grandmother. However he hides a deep secret – Tom’s family are wizards and when the Nekross arrive, hungry for magic, they find themselves on the menu. The Nekross may be equipped with ray guns, teleports and high-tech robots but they haven’t reckoned on Tom and his friend, science super-brain Benny. They form an extraordinary duo, using Tom’s magic and Benny’s science to battle the Nekross and save the Earth.
Currently a season of 12 half-hour episodes is planned for Aliens vs. Wizards. They’ll be written by Davies himself along with collaborator Phil Ford. We have no word if the show will air on BBC America, but it will hit the UK airwaves in Fall 2012.
