Anita Dobson and Michelle Greenidge in Series 14

Friday, 20 January 2023 - Reported by Marcus

Michelle Greenidge (Credit: BBC Studios/Bad Wolf)

Anita Dobson (Credit: BBC Studios/Bad Wolf)

The BBC has confirmed that Anita Dobson and Michelle Greenidge will be starring in the next series of Doctor Who.

Anita Dobson is best known as the neurotic pub Landlady Angie Watts in the BBC soap EastEnders, playing the role from the series launch in 1985 until 1988. Other television roles include the 1989 ITV sitcom Split Ends.

In 2003, she was nominated for the Olivier Award for Best Actress for the National Theatre production of Frozen. She has also starred in the West End as Mama Morton in the musical Chicago (2003) and Gertrude in Hamlet (2005), and made her RSC debut in the 2012 revival of The Merry Wives of Windsor. Her film appearances include Darkness Falls (1999) and London Road (2015).

Michelle Greenidge is best known for her portrayal of Valarie in the Netflix series After Life. She played Lola Okonedo Akimbo in the BBC Two comedy Mandy, PC Williams in the police comedy-drama Code 404 and Rosa Babatunde in the Russel T Davies television drama It's a Sin.

She has also worked in theatre with some of her credits including Ear for Eye, At the Feet of Jesus, Super Skinny Bitches, House, All Saints, Stopcock, Do You Pray?, The Distance Between Us, People Who Need People, The House They Grew Up In and Omega Time

Both actresses will join Doctor Who for its fortieth season, the 14th series since the show returned in 2005. The series will star Ncuti Gatwa as the Fifteenth Doctor and will screen in 2024.

Doctor Who will return in November 2023 with three special episodes to coincide with the 60th anniversary with David Tennant as the Fourteenth Doctor.

FILTER: - Series 14/20 - Production

Doctor Who Target Collection 2023

Thursday, 19 January 2023 - Reported by Marcus

BBC Books are to publish new Doctor Who Target books in July 2023

BBC Books has announced that it will be expanding the Doctor Who Target range with five new titles in Summer 2023, all publishing on 13th July, each with newly commissioned cover artwork by Anthony Dry.

The new titles celebrate Target publishing Doctor Who books for half a century. The 2023 collection celebrates the dramatic return of David Tennant and showrunner Russell T Davies to the programme.

Both The Waters of Mars by Phil Ford and The Planet of Ood by KeithTemple are Doctor Who episodes from the Tenth Doctor era.

Fans will also be able to add a Twelfth Doctor adventure, as played by Peter Capaldi, to their collection with The Zygon Invasion by Peter Harness and a Thirteenth Doctor novelisation with Kerblam! by Peter McTighe.

Stephen Gallagher’s Warriors’ Gate and Other Stories will feature the Fourth Doctor.

Launched in 1973, Target Books published novelisations of almost every Doctor Who serial aired between 1963 and 1989, with only a few notable exceptions.

BBC Books began reissuing these classic paperbacks in 2012, and in 2018 expanded the Target range to include all-new novelisations of modern-era Doctor Who episodes.

This year, the expansion continues with:

Kerblam!: Graham (Bradley Walsh), Yaz (Mandip Gill), Ryan (Tosin Cole), The Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) (Credit: BBC Studios (Ben Blackall))

Kerblam! by Peter McTighe

Kerblam! is the biggest online retailer in the galaxy – but how did it become so big? When the Doctor’s Kerblam! package includes a mysterious request for help, she heads straight to the company’s warehouse moon to investigate...

Pete McTighe is a British screenwriter, producer, and lifetime Doctor Who fan. As well as writing episodes of Doctor Who, he has written two series of hit BBC drama The Pact, alongside writer and showrunner duties on A Discovery Of Witches, The Rising, and Wentworth for which he received five Australian Writers Guild nominations. He also writes and directs acclaimed short films to promote Doctor Who - The Collection Blu-ray releases.

The Planet of Ood by Keith Temple

The Doctor and Donna learn that the planet of the Ood holds cruel and awesome secrets. As they battle for justice and survival, the fate of the entire Ood race hangs in the balance. Will the outcome be salvation – or extinction?

Keith Temple is a British screenwriter whose credits include Doctor Who, Doc Martin and the original BBC comedy drama, Angel Cake starring Sarah Lancashire. He has also written extensively for Continuing Drama including EastEnders, Emmerdale, River City and Casualty. Most recently, he wrote the screenplay for the horror feature film, Wyvern Hill. He has also written for the stage and lectures widely on screenwriting and filmmaking.

The Waters of Mars by Phil Ford

The first human colony on Mars is destined for destruction in a nuclear explosion. This tragedy is a fixed point in history. The laws of time dictate that it cannot –must never – be changed. But as the Doctor’s darkest hour comes calling, he resolves to break the rules as he never has before...

Phil Ford has written scripts for Doctor Who, Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures for BBCTelevision. He also wrote animated Doctor Who adventure Dreamland, and four Doctor Who Adventure Games. His extensive screenwriting credits include episodes of Taggart, Bad Girls, New Captain Scarlet and Coronation Street. He co-created Wizards vs Aliens with Russell T Davies.

The Zygon Invasion by Peter Harness

It took three Doctors to broker a fragile peace between Zygons and Humans. Now the Twelfth Doctor must face the fallout alone. With his alliescompromised and his companion believed dead, can he stop the world from plunging into war?

Peter Harness is an English playwright, screenwriter and actor. He has contributed to programs such as McMafia, City of Vice, and Case Histories and wrote a new miniseries adaptation of The War of the Worlds for BBC One

Warriors’ Gate and Other Stories by Stephen Gallagher

A new-to-print, expanded novelisation of the classic 1981 adventure. With the TARDIS caught in the collapsing void between two different universes, the Fourth Doctor is drawn into a dangerous alliance with a race of enslaved, time-sensitive aliens.

The consequences are explored in two further short stories, one exclusive to this volume!

Stephen Gallagher is an English screenwriter and novelist from Manchester. He wrote two serials for Doctor Who, as well as writing for Rosemary & Thyme and Bugs. He also created and wrote Eleventh Hour, a science-based series for ITV.

Each of the authors for the 2023 Target books are the original screenwriters of the TV episodes.

FILTER: - Target - Fourth Doctor - Tenth Doctor - Twelfth Doctor - Thirteenth Doctor

Two Lost Fourth Doctor Stories from Big Finish

Tuesday, 10 January 2023 - Reported by Marcus

Audio publisher Big Finish has confirmed that two unmade Doctor Who stories, starring Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor, will be released later this year.

In these audio adaptations, revisiting missing 1975 Fourth Doctor stories, Tom Baker stars alongside Sadie Miller (as Sarah Jane Smith) and Christopher Naylor (as Harry Sullivan).

Doctor Who and The Ark unveils the original script for The Ark in Space — before it was extensively rewritten by the series’ then-script editor, Robert Holmes.

In Daleks! Genesis of Terror, listeners can hear Terry Nation’s first draft for episode one of the iconic TV story, Genesis of the Daleks, with Nicholas Briggs reading the original stage directions.

DOCTOR WHO – THE LOST STORIES: DOCTOR WHO AND THE ARK

Duration: 120 minutes approx.

Released: June 2023, exclusively from the Big Finish website.

Director: Samuel Clemens
Adapted by: Jonathan Morris
Written by: John Lucarotti
Producer / Script Editor: Simon Guerrier
Senior Producer: David Richardson
Executive Producer: Jason Haigh-Ellery, Nicholas Briggs

A space station orbiting Earth has lain dormant for 8,476 years. Its systems are clogged with dust, so the human crew kept frozen in cryogenic storage have never woken up.When the Doctor, Sarah and Harry arrive to resuscitate the sleepers, they discover something else on board. A small, golf-ball like object gives Harry an electric shock, and has a more sinister impact on the awakening crew. Soon, the Doctor and his friends are battling to save the space station — and Earth — from a ravenous puffball!

Now you can hear the original version of the story that became TV classic The Ark in Space, adapted by Jonathon Morris from the scripts by John Lucarotti.

DOCTOR WHO – THE LOST STORIES: DALEKS! GENESIS OF TERROR

Duration: 120 minutes approx.

Released: May 2023, exclusively from the Big Finish website.

Director: Samuel Clemens
Written by: Terry Nation
Producer / Additional dialogue by: Simon Guerrier
Senior Producer: David Richardson
Executive Producer: Jason Haigh-Ellery, Nicholas Briggs

In a paved garden outside time, the Doctor is presented with an awful prophecy: the conquest of all time by the Daleks. To prevent this terrible fate, the Time Lords have decided on a radical course — to weaponise time themselves and destroy the Daleks before they were ever created. And they want the Doctor to carry out this extraordinary task!

Soon, he and his companions Sarah and Harry are on the battle-ravaged planet Skaro, where a war has been raging for centuries. The war is now waged by teenagers using the last surviving weapons. Everything is desperate. But the Kaled’s chief scientist has a new weapon that he thinks might just change everything…

A full cast bring to exhilarating life Terry Nation’s original draft for what became the first episode of Genesis of the Daleks — voted by readers of Doctor Who Magazine to be the greatest Doctor Who story of all time!

As a bonus extra, BBC broadcaster and journalist Samira Ahmed also interviews Philip Hinchcliffe - Doctor Who's producer at the time.

Producer Simon Guerrier said:

The Daleks! Genesis of Terror script is largely the same basic story [as seen on TV] but with some key differences that are really striking – which I won't spoil here! This has been thrilling to work on and quite unusual.“Normally, we’d adapt the original scripts to make them work on audio. But here the actors worked from the pages Terry Nation typed himself, which we’ll include with the story so you can read them yourself!

“For Doctor Who and The Ark, we've worked from the original scripts written by John Lucarotti, which are very different from what ended up on TV. The script editor at the time, Robert Holmes, effectively rewrote it from scratch. But there's a ghost of the original in what made it to TV. Plus, Doctor Who and The Ark includes one of the best cliff-hangers ever!”

Adapter Jonathan Morris added:

This is the chance to hear a Doctor Who story from the writer of [the TV stories] Marco Polo, The Aztecs, and The Massacre. It’s a story that was presumed to be completely lost and it paved the way for one of the all-time classics, The Ark in Space.“It has the same basic setting, and a couple of similar set-pieces, but it’s otherwise a very, very different story. Even if you think you know what it’s about from summaries given in behind-the-scenes guides you don’t know it at all. It is a strange and wild ride along a road not taken.”

Doctor Who – The Lost Stories: Doctor Who and The Ark is available to pre-order for just £14.99 (collector’s edition CD box set + download) or £12.99 (download only) from www.bigfinish.com.

Daleks! Genesis of Terror can also be pre-ordered from £10.99.

FILTER: - Big Finish

Series 14 Update

Monday, 9 January 2023 - Reported by Marcus

Roger ap Gwilliam (ANEURIN BARNARD) (Credit: BBC Studios/Bad Wolf)

Kate Lethbridge-Stewart (JEMMA REDGRAVE) (Credit: BBC Studios/Bad Wolf)

The BBC has revealed that Jemma Redgrave will be returning to the cast of Doctor Who as Kate Lethbridge-Stewart in the next series currently being filmed in Wales.

Redgrave has played the character, the daughter of Doctor Who legend Brigadier Alistair Lethbridge Stewart, in 9 previous episodes of Doctor Who, playing opposite the last three Doctors.

She is the daughter of the actor Corin Redgrave and has a long career in film and television as well as on the stage.

Also joining the series is the actor Aneurin Barnard.

Barnard is a welsh actor best known for playing Davey in the film Hunky Dory, and Claude in the American thriller drama The Truth About Emanuel. He played the husband of Cilla Black, Bobby Willis, in the biopic about the star's life and Tim in Thirteen, as well as the murderous King Richard III in The White Queen.

In Doctor Who he will be playing the character of Roger ap Gwilliam

The eight-part series staring Ncuti Gatwa as the fifteenth Doctor will be broadcast next year on BBC One in the UK and streamed worldwide on Disney +

FILTER: - Series 14

Doctor Who Magazine: Issue 586

Wednesday, 4 January 2023 - Reported by Marcus

In the latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine Millie Gibson talks about playing new companion Ruby Sunday.

In an exclusive interview, she talks about what it’s like acting alongside Fifteenth Doctor Ncuti Gatwa, and how she discovered she’d secured the role:

I went to get a spray tan for the NTAs [National Television Awards], and I was in the room waiting to dry off when I got this WhatsApp call, asking me to join the call with all my agents. I picked up the phone and they were like, ‘Are you good at keeping secrets?’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ They said, ‘Are you really good at keeping secrets? Cos you’ve got it.

Other highlights of the new issue include:

From Cardiff with Love – in an another world exclusive, Doctor Who executive producers Phil Collinson, Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner and Jane Tranter are interviewed together for the first time and discuss the future of the series.
Liberation of the Daleks Part Three – the adventures of the Fourteenth Doctor continue in the epic comic-strip adventure written by Alan Barnes and illustrated by Lee Sullivan.
Letter from the Showrunner – Russell T Davies reveals how and why he returned to Doctor Who.
Production Diary – script editor Scott Handcock files his latest report on the making of forthcoming episodes, direct from Doctor Who’s HQ.
Gallifrey Guardian – all the latest official news, including an exclusive update from Phil Collinson.
60 Objects, 60 Years – from Flambeaux in 1963 to Cybermats in 1967, the first part of this ongoing series tells the story of one object from every year of Doctor Who’s history.
No Time to Die – sets from The Daleks’ Master Plan are recreated in CGI, providing new insights into this mostly missing story.
The Fact of Fiction – travel back to a chilly London in the year 1814 and uncover secrets of the Twelfth Doctor story Thin Ice.
The Watchers – fans who were lucky enough to be granted studio visits in the 1980s recall the thrill of watching stories such as Frontios, The Happiness Patrol and Ghost Light being made.
Other Worlds – the essential guide to forthcoming stories in the expanded Doctor Who universe.
Previews, reviews, prize-winning competitions, Time and Space Visualiser, Public Image and more.

Doctor Who Magazine Issue 586 is on sale Thursday 5 January from panini.co.uk and WH Smith priced £6.99 (UK).

Also available as a digital edition from pocketmags.com priced £5.99.

FILTER: - DWM - Fifteenth Doctor

Lethbridge-Stewart: Spheres of Influence

Tuesday, 3 January 2023 - Reported by Chuck Foster

Candy Jar Books has announced the first book in its final series of Lethbridge-Stewart novels:

Lethbridge-Stewart: Spheres of Influence (Credit: Candy Jar Books)

Spheres of Influence
Written by Violet Addison and David N Smith
Cover by Martin Baines

An alien presence has arrived on Earth. Lethbridge-Stewart has been dispatched to determine the nature of the new arrival.

The Fifth Operational Corps is not the only one interested in the visitor. The race is on to establish diplomatic relations with the extra-terrestrial, and a top-secret military team from the Soviet Union are one step ahead of them…

If either side can successfully form an alliance with the creature, it could turn the tide of the Cold War forever, bringing it to a sudden and unexpected end – with the victor controlling the future of mankind.

Lethbridge-Stewart must call upon the brightest and the best to ensure that Britain is successful in its negotiations, as the alternative is simply too terrifying for him to contemplate… an alien menace – allied to the Soviet Union!

Failure is not an option. Not at any price.

Spheres of Influence was originally planned for release in early 2022, but real-world events unfolding in the Ukraine led to it beiing delayed; range Editor Andy Frankham-Allen explained:

We were nearing the end of editing, with the final changes just arriving from Violet and David, when the invasion began. Knowing the content of Spheres of Influence (originally called The Russian Incursion) I became a tad worried that releasing it at that time might be insensitive, not knowing how many of our readers may have been personally affected by the war in Ukraine. A long conversation was held between Shaun (Russell) and I, and we decided to hold off the book for a while. I spoke to the authors, explained the situation and they agreed.

Violet Addison said:

This book was originally written in 2020, during the height of the pandemic, and was supposed to be published in early 2022. It was designed to be something of a warning, dressed up as science-fiction. It was all going to be jolly good fun, dealing with real-world issues, using good old-fashioned sci-fi metaphors. Then real life intervened. Suddenly real-world events were dangerously close to those in our supposedly far-fetched fiction, so we chose to delay publication, until the real world settled down. Ten months later, it now finally feels appropriate to release it. We’ve not changed a single word of the text. The parallels with the real world will now be glaringly obvious – our warning far too late – but many of the underlying messages are now more pressing, more real, than ever. We therefore like to think that it’s a book with something relevant to say.

Violet and David are no strangers to the worlds of Doctor Who fiction, having previously written (individually) short stories for Big Finish’s Short Trips collections and the Bernice Summerfield collections, and together they penned a Faction Paradox short story for Obverse Books. Andy said::

Originally, the book was pitched to me as a short story for one of the HAVOC Files, but there was something in the idea I liked. And I thought it would be better served if explored as a novel. Some stories are just too big for small-form, they need more space to breathe. And so I posed the idea of making it a novel, and Violet and David jumped at the opportunity.

David N Smith said:

This is the first time we’ve written a novel. We’ve had over a dozen short stories published, in numerous anthologies and fanzines, but we’ve never had the confidence to complete 70,000 words before. There are at least four failed, half-written books stashed away on forgotten hard drives. So, when we were asked to write a novel by Andy, we gladly accepted, as we knew it would provide us with the structure we needed to actually get it done. Having a deadline, and knowing it would be published, is extraordinarily motivating. It gave us focus. And it taught us we could do it. As writers it’s been an incredibly useful process, as it means we now know with certainty, we can do it. So, one day we’ll be able to write another, because now we know we can.

Violet added:

The real joy of working on this range for us is, of course, writing for Lethbridge-Stewart. He’s such a wonderful, idiosyncratic character. A legend. An icon. In sixty years of Doctor Who, no other character has come close to making the same impact as he did, albeit in a very understated way. He never stole the show, but he always did his duty. There simply are not enough fictional characters like Lethbridge-Stewart. Reliable, dependable and professional; a good man simply trying to do the best he can. We really believe Lethbridge-Stewart will still be appearing in stories a hundred years from now. That’s what makes him important. That’s why it’s a privilege to write for him. He’s the type of person we should all aspire to be.

The cover is by popular artist Martin Baines:

I really enjoyed doing the cover for this one. It’s got a monster, snow and guns – what’s not to like. Saying that, I was slightly annoyed that the Brigadier does not have a moustache. I asked Shaun if I could add one, but he said a definite no. Apparently the Brig shaves it off before this scene. I miss the moustache, but, despite this, I hope I’ve done the Brig proud.

The novel can be ordered from the Candy Jar website, and is covered by an existing subscription with the publisher.

A short story collection has been released for The Lucy Wilson Mysteries series:

The Best Christmas Ever
Written by Chris Lynch
Cover by Steve Beckett

Christmas is the busiest time of the year, but this never seems to be a problem for the monsters and aliens that visit Lucy Wilson over the festive period!

Alongside her best friend Hobo, Lucy discovers one of her grandad’s old secrets, investigates a creepy haunted mansion, and gets a visit from a mysterious goatman called Krampus, who takes bad children away.

This is a collection of three stories set over the Christmases of 2018, 2019 and 2020. Defending Earth doesn’t stop for anything, not even Christmas!

But which Christmas is the best one ever?

Featuring A Little Lucy Christmas (previously released in 2020), The Grey Lady of Martyr’s House (from 2021), and a brand new story The Krampus Who Came to Tea.

The Lucy Wilson Mysteries is a Lethbridge-Stewart spin-off adventure and featured licensed characters created for Doctor Who by Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln.

Author Chris Lynch said:

The yearly Lucy Wilson Christmas story has become a tradition in the Lynch house, as much a part of our festive activities as putting up the tree, wrapping the presents, or closing the curtains and pretending that we're all out when my sister calls over.

Don't ask me why but Christmas just seems the perfect time of year for shrink rays, death beams, ghosts, monsters, and mysterious time travelling goatmen to all make their appearance. So, I hope you enjoy these very non-traditional, but still very festive, stories!

The collection is available to order from the Candy Jar website.

FILTER: -

BBC Audio: diamond anniversary releases

Monday, 2 January 2023 - Reported by Chuck Foster

BBC Audio have announced their plans for the Doctor's adventures on audio for digital and physical release for the diamond anniversary of the show.

Michael Stevens, Doctor Who Range Editor for BBC Audio, said:

We’re celebrating 60 years of Doctor Who by journeying with each Doctor in turn, from the series’ beginning to the present day. We’ll also be charting the history of the programme itself with Doctor Who at the BBC: The Collection and The Making of Doctor Who, and delving into the psychedelic realm of mid-1970s annuals with The Amazing World of Doctor Who. With a huge variety of readers, writers and characters, there’s something to delight the ears of everyone throughout 2023.

Highlights include

new audio titles for Doctors1-13, starting with the First Doctor in January and culminating with the Twelfth and Thirteenth in December
encounters with Daleks, Cybermen, Ice Warriors, Silurians, Sea Devils, the Master, the Toymaker and a host of new adversaries
adventures with Ian, Barbara, Vicki, Jamie, Zoe, Jo, Sarah, Harry, Tegan,Turlough, Peri, Ace, Clara and many other much-loved travelling companions – plus a few new ones
readers including Maureen O'Brien, Jon Culshaw, David Troughton, Tim Treloar, Dan Starkey, Louise Jameson, Jamie Glover, David Banks, Katy Manning and many more
two very special nostalgic releases based on legendary books from the 1970s: The Amazing World of Doctor Who and The Making of Doctor Who.

January:The Romans
Written by Donald Cotton
Read by Tim Treloar, Jamie Glover, Dan Starkey, Clare Corbett, Jon Culshaw, Maureen O'Brien and Louise Jameson
Available to pre-order from Amazon

A multi-voice retelling of historical events featuring the First Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Vicki.

The TARDIS crewmembers have taken a break from their adventures and are enjoying a well-deserved rest in a luxury villa.

But, in the gory grandeur that is Imperial Rome, things don't stay quiet for long. If the time travellers can save themselves from being sold as slaves, assassinated by classical hit-men, poisoned by the evil Locusta, thrown to the lions, maimed in the arena and drowned in a shipwreck, they still have to face the diabolical might of the mad Emperor Nero.

As if that wasn't enough, they also discover that, although Rome wasn't built in a day, it burnt down in considerably less time...

February: The Seeds of Death
Written by Terrance Dicks
Read by David Troughton
Available to pre-order from Amazon

Returning to Earth in the 21st Century, the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe immediately find themselves caught in the midst of a crisis. T-Mat, a form of instantaneous transportation essential to the smooth running of life on Earth, is going disastrously wrong.

The Doctor discovers that the T-Mat base on the Moon has been taken over by a group of Ice Warriors, led by the villainous Slaar. With their home a desolate and dying planet, the Martian invaders see Earth as a world ripe for conquest. But before they can colonise Earth they must dramatically alter its atmosphere.

And so they unleash the Seeds of Death...

David Troughton reads Terrance Dicks's novelisation of the 1969 TV serial by Brian Hayles.

March: The Time Monster
Written by Terrance Dicks
Read by Jon Culshaw
Available to pre-order from Amazon

Outside the bounds of this world lives Kronos, the Chronivore - a mysterious creatures that feeds on time itself.

Posing as a Cambridge professor, the Master intends to use Kronos in his evil quest for power. To stop him, the Doctor and Jo must journey back in time to Ancient Atlantis and to a terrifying confrontation within the Time Vortex itself.

But can even the Doctor save himself from the awesome might of the Time Monster?

Jon Culshaw reads Terrance Dicks's novelisation of the 1972 TV serial by Robert Sloman, first published by Target Books in 1986.

April: Planet of Evil
Written by Terrance Dicks
Read by Tim Treloar
Available to pre-order from Amazon

The expedition to Zeta Minor began with eight men. Seven were murdered. One survived - but he was not the murderer.

The Doctor and Sarah land on the planet at the same time as the expedition's rescue team, and are immediately taken prisoner as the suspected murderers. But even stranger things soon begin to happen...

What terrible creature inhabits this wild, desolate planet, killing mercilessly and lurking in the murky depths of the Black Pool? Will anyone ever be allowed to leave alive?

Tim Treloar reads Terrance Dicks's novelisation of the 1975 TV serial by Louis Marks, first published by Target Books in 1977.

May: Warriors of the Deep
Written by Terrance Dicks
Reader to be announced
Available to pre-order from Amzon

When the TARDIS materialises on Earth in the year 2084, the Doctor once again encounters the Sea Devils.

Formerly the masters of this planet, but now forced to live in the murky depths of the sea, their intention is to reclaim their position of domination. Aiding them in a dastardly plan to attack humanity's defences are the Silurians, also known to the Doctor of old.

With deceit and subterfuge rife among the Sea Base personnel, can there be any hope for the Doctor's attempts to broker peace between humans and reptiles?

June: The Nightmare Fair
Written by Graham Williams
Resader to be announced
Available to pre-order from Amazon

Drawn into 'the nexus of the primeval cauldron of Space-Time', the Doctor and Peri are somewhat surprised to find themselves at Blackpool Pleasure Beach.

Is it really just chance that has brought them to the funfair? Or is their arrival somehow connected with the sinister presence of a rather familiar Chinese Mandarin?

Once again the Doctor encounters his deadly adversary the Celestial Toymaker in this adventure by Graham Williams, planned but never made for the TV series in 1986.

Other releases for the first half of the year include:

January: Doctor Who at the BBC: a collection of the nine volumes released so far in the series
February: The Renegades Collection: "a collection of four classic TV novelisations featuring Time Lords who fled life on Gallifrey" - includes The Time Meddler, The Deadly Assassin, Shada and The Mark Of The Rani
April: The Amazing Worlds of Doctor Who: "Geoffrey Beevers, Louise Jameson and Dan Starkey perform these stories and features from the celebrated book of the same name"
May: The Alt Reality Collection: "the Doctor ventures into alternative dimensions in these four exciting novelisations of TV stories" - includes The Mind Robber, The Invisible Enemy, and Warriors Gate

FILTER: - Publications; BBC Audio; Novelisations

Celestial Toyroom Annual 2023

Monday, 2 January 2023 - Reported by Chuck Foster

The Doctor Who Appreciation Society have released a new annual available to download for free:

This year, the seventh annual in our series, covers the Sixth Doctor's era. Every televised story from The Twin Dilemma to The Ultimate Foe is covered along with features on the play, the audios and some of the un-made scripts.

The book features articles from 17 different contributors, including Colin Baker himself, along with cover illustrations produced especially for the book by Alister Pearson and Graeme Wey.

The annual can be downloaded from the DWAS website in both single or double page views; the previous annuals are also avaiable to read from the site.

A limited hardcover copy will be published later in January.

FILTER: - Publications - DWAS - Colin Baker

In Memoriam 2022

Saturday, 31 December 2022 - Reported by Chuck Foster

Toby Hadoke has published his annual memoriam of those who have delighted us both in front of and behind the scenes of Doctor Who and its extended worlds, who sadly passed away in 2022.

Doctor Who In Memoriam 2022
Remembering those whom we lost from the worlds of Doctor Who this year. Includes a small number from before 2022 whose deaths only came to light this year.

FILTER: - Doctor Who Obituaries

Vworp Vworp! Issue 5

Thursday, 29 December 2022 - Reported by Marcus

The acclaimed Doctor Who comics and artwork fanzine Vworp Vworp! returns with its fifth issue in January 2023.

The 148-page issue kicks off with an in-depth series of articles and script reviews focusing on the many Doctor Who animation projects that have, for a variety of reasons, been abandoned over the years.

The Canadian company Nelvana might be the best known, but as researcher Richard Bignell has uncovered for Vworp Vworp!, through a wealth of interviews, documentation, scripts and design drawings, there’s so much more to learn, including the real reason it was aborted. But what of Ruby-Spears, the company behind Scooby-Doo? Interest from a Japanese anime studio? Terry Nation’s Daleks? The BBC itself, in 2001? And who can forget Karen McCoy and her Doctor Who: The Animated Series?

Elsewhere in the issue:

Interviews with artist JOHN RIDGWAY and writer/artist STEVE PARKHOUSE, as we go behind the scenes of their magnum opus, the Voyager saga.
PHIL BEVAN remembered, with personal recollections of his brother Kit and those he worked with, offering a unique insight into this much-loved artist, who illuminated the vibrant fanzine scene in the 80s and 90s.
Packaging beauty! Graphic and packaging designer ANDREW PREWETT, who designed the beloved Doctor Who Sound Effects LP, reveals unused designs for a number of Doctor Who DVD boxsets.
ABSOLUTE DAAK: A REVENGER’S TRAGEDY – The Dalek Killer deconstructed by Alan Stevens ahead of his return in our comic strip, Paper Tiger.
New features on TERRY NATION and DAVID WHITAKER’s work on the TV Century 21 DALEKS strip and the stage play THE CURSE OF THE DALEKS.

Also, issue 5 includes several brand new comic strips and fiction:
The truly epic 22-page THE IRON EMPIRE, written by Lance Parkin and drawn by Steve Andrew. What happened to the Empire during the reign of Emperor Vesuvius? Find out in this much anticipated sequel to the Mills/Wagner great that launched Doctor Who Weekly.
Ever pondered the fate of the Thals in the TV Century 21 Dalek strips? Find out in YEAR ZERO, a new instalment in the adventures of outer space robot people, imagined by Alan Stevens, Matthew Kilburn and artist Andy Walker.
Abslom Daak gets a bittersweet coda in PAPER TIGER, written by Alan Stevens with crisp black and white art by the legendary John Ridgway.
We’re also treated to three thrilling pages of DALEK KILLERS! – an intriguing reboot (of sorts) pitched to Titan by Richard Starkings and Lee Sullivan.
Thrill to Sam Gingell's debut strip NEWTON'S SLEEP, a thought-provoking examination of the Cybermen as a reaction to societal decay and decadence. Sam crashed onto the scene in 2022 and we're sure this won't be the last we see of him.
Sixties script editor Donald Tosh’s final piece of fiction, JOURNEY TO NOWHEN, a whimsical tale of competing realities and the power of nostalgia.
Finally, we take a visit back to the scene of one of the Doctor’s lesser-discussed small-screen adventures in Graham Kibble-White’s ENCOUNTER AT CRINKLEY BOTTOM!

Plus, an exciting FREE GIFT this issue:

DOCTOR WHO: ROWEN – a full-cast audio adaptation of the 1992 initial script for the cancelled Nelvana series. Presented on CD, directed and adapted by Sean Mason and introducing ARTHUR BOSTROM as the Nelvana Doctor, this brand new drama is intended to give an authentic taste of what this new era might have been like.

Order Vworp Vworp! issue 5, price £10.99, from vworpvworp.co.uk now. Pre-orders open on New Year’s Day with shipping scheduled for early February 2023.

FILTER: - Fan Production

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