Doctor Who coming to the PlayStation Store

Sunday, 28 November 2010 - Reported by Harry Ward
The official PlayStation blog has announced that full episodes of Doctor Who will be made available on the US PlayStation Network Video Store from December.

Grace Chen, Senior Manager of the PlayStation Store wrote on the blog post:
This is all part of a new television content offering from the BBC, making classic and current seasons of popular TV shows from BBC AMERICA available on the PlayStation Network. Each week, the “Video” section of the PlayStation Store will add additional BBC AMERICA programming, including Doctor Who, the channel’s record setting science fiction series featuring the eccentric galactic protector, plus many more hits set to debut in both High Definition (HD) for $2.99 and Standard Definition (SD) for $1.99 on the PlayStation Store throughout December.

UK users can access the BBC iPlayer via their PlayStation 3 consoles by connecting it to the internet, selecting the TV icon on the XMB (Xross Media Bar) and then BBC iPlayer.

The PlayStation Store offers a range of downloadable content both for purchase and available free of charge. Available content includes full games, add-on content, playable demos and movie trailers. [Wikipedia]




FILTER: - USA - Online

Davison joins Law and Order: UK

Saturday, 27 November 2010 - Reported by Marcus
Fifth Doctor Peter Davison is to join the cast of ITV's drama series Law & Order.

Filming begins shortly on the next series of the UK produced show based on the NBC Series. Davison will play Henry Sharpe, the man taking over the job of Director of the CPS, described as a down to earth pragmatist and a great boss. Returning to the series is Freema Agyeman who played Martha Jones in Doctor Who.

Law & Order: UK airs on ITV1 in the UK and is currently being shown on BBC America.




FILTER: - Peter Davison

Doctor Whom Returns to Toronto

Friday, 26 November 2010 - Reported by Mike Doran
Doctor Whom, the improv comedy homage to Doctor Who is returning to Toronto, Canada for four shows. The show will run at Comedy Bar (945 Bloor Street West) for four Saturdays: November 27th, December 4th, 11th and 18th at 8pm. Advance tickets cost $15 and are available from the Comedy Bar website.

The Doctor and his faithful companions will dart between the past, present and future; from distant stars to our own humble blue-green planet. They will uncover hideous aliens, ominous mysteries and ultimately a sinister master-plot that – of course – threatens all of time and space!

The show is once again directed by Darryl Pring and will feature performances from veterans of Comedy Inc and Theatresports. Scott Montgomery (Second City, The Ron James Show) will appear as Doctor Whom.

Doctor Whom previously played to sold out audiences in Toronto in January of 2010.




FILTER: - Canada - Special Events - Miscellaneous

7pm for A Christmas Carol?

Friday, 26 November 2010 - Reported by Chuck Foster
The Sun reports the Doctor Who Christmas Special, A Christmas Carol, has been scheduled for 7:00pm on Christmas Day.

 5.30 TBA
6.30 TBA
7.00 Doctor Who
8.00 The One Ronnie
9.00 The Royle Family
No further information on the two "TBA" entries is known at present, though previous years have seen an edition of Eastenders and Strictly Come Dancing broadcast on Christmas Day.

Scheduling for the period has yet to be finalised, so the times/programmes might change.

Meanwhile, in the Radio Times for the 11-17th December: "Matt Smith reveals the secrets of Doctor Who's Christmas cracker". Though not mentioned in the preceeding issue, recent years have seen a cover dedicated to Doctor Who over the run-up to Christmas (you can see previous covers on the Radio Times website).

The Radio Times site also has a preview for A Christmas Carol.

It is still possible to order the Radio Times exclusive posters and Companion guide.




FILTER: - Specials - Radio Times

WhoNews iPhone App - An Update

Friday, 26 November 2010 - Reported by Harry Ward
The WhoNews iPhone app has been performing well in Apple's app store.

As we reported earlier this week, 100% of the profits made from the sales will be going to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

Paul Gee, creator of the Doctor Who News application has written on his blog about the success.

Day One

Wow what a day. I never expected this level of support from Who fans all over the world. You’ve propelled WhoNews to #2 in the UK App Store News chart, just behind one of the national newspaper apps. In the US WhoNews has soared into the top 40 of News apps which is a great achievement.

So total downloads for day 1 were 88 worldwide, which may not sound a great deal but let me tell you it is 30-40 times the normal download rate. If the momentum can be maintained for 1 week at that rate you would have raised nearly £1000 or $1500. A sum like that is beyond what I hoped to raise over the 30 days.

So a huge thank you for all your support and I intended to reward your efforts with a major upgrade which I shall be working on over the Christmas period.

Day Two

Well I’ve received the second days sales figures and we had a slight drop from 88 to 77 but this is still an amazing level of support and as a consequence I can tell you that together we’ve raised £260.55

Having looked a the UK Make-A-Wish website a sum of £200 would send a child to Florida to swim with dolphins and £50 would buy a uniform for a child to dress up as a policemen, fireman or may be even the Doctor.

It will be interesting to see the yesterday’s figures as WhoNews was constantly high in the US and UK charts throughout the day. So hopefully we can stay around the 70 downloads.

I know I mention the UK and US a lot but the rest of the world is doing it’s bit with terrific support from Australia, Canada, Sweden, Belgium, France, Estonia, Germany and New Zealand.

Tomorrow I will reveal which country has contributed the most so far..... just for a little healthy international competition :)

Thanks for all support from where ever you are and keep spreading the word.


WhoNews is available for for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. Click the button below to purchase the app via iTunes.

Photobucket




FILTER: - Online - Charities

Doctor Who Masterpiece Collection

Friday, 26 November 2010 - Reported by Chuck Foster
Titan Merchandise have released images for the first two figures in their forthcoming Masterpiece Collection range; the 8" 3/4 length busts depict the 11th Doctor and Amy Pond.




 


 
The figures are due to be released in April 2011, and will be available from specialist retailers such as Forbidden Planet, Play, and Entertainment Earth.




FILTER: - Merchandise

RTS award win for The Mill

Thursday, 25 November 2010 - Reported by Harry Ward
The Mill have won the 'Digital Effects' award at this year's Royal Television Society Craft and Design Awards.

The visual effects company were rewarded for their work on The Pandorica Opens.

The the RTS explained:

"The judges were impressed by some beautifully integrated effects and by green screen. 'This is about as good as it gets on TV' they said."

Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss's Sherlock won three awards; best picture enhancement, best tape and film editing in a drama, and best original title music.

The Mill have also produced visual effects for Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures.





FILTER: - Awards/Nominations - Series 5/31

Cybermen re-invade London!

Wednesday, 24 November 2010 - Reported by Chuck Foster
The Cybermen have been "invading" a number of locations in London in order to promote the forthcoming Doctor Who Experience, opening in London's Olympia 2 in February next year.

The modern-day Cybermen were seen to retrace the steps of their 1960s counterparts (The Invasion) along St. Peter's Steps in front of St. Paul's Cathedral, and later crossing the Millennium Bridge to the Tate Modern. Another promotion saw them boarding a Jubilee Line train, much to the astonishment of travellers!

The publicity photos have appeared on newspaper websites such as the Daily Mail, Metro and Telegraph.


Mike Paternott was on hand to capture the activity at St. Paul's and the Millennium Bridge on Doctor Who's anniversary yesterday:








FILTER: - Special Events

Doctor Who: The Mazes of Time

Wednesday, 24 November 2010 - Reported by Chuck Foster
A new game is to be released for Apple's iphone/ipod/ipad for Christmas. The platforms will see mobile games designer Tag Games release The Mazes of Time, which will be available from Apple's iTunes store.

The game will enable the player to take on the role of either the Doctor or Amy, and engage in action puzzles in which the time travellers race to save a family that has been attacked by a rogue Dalek. It is aimed for players aged six upwards, and has been written by Oli Smith, who was also responsible for the recent Nintendo games Evacuation Earth and Return to Earth.

The Head of Games Technology, Robert Henning, said:
Doctor Who is the UK's number one science fiction property, and I think it is in the BBC's top three for worldwide sales, so it is great to bring it to Dundee. Since we were established we have never done a game for ordinary retail — it has always been digital distribution. The digital model allows us to talk directly to our customers, so it is quite different from the traditional games model. We can get feedback from our customers and change and adapt things.
Doctor Richard Wilson, of games industry representatives TIGA, said:
This is fantastic news for Tag Games, and it demonstrates the level of creativity in the industry and it shows the government should be backing this important sector. But it is really encouraging to see a Dundee game company secure a licence like this.

Meanwhile, the existing Nintendo games have had mixed reviews, with the Wii version Return Earth reported by the Official Nintendo Magazine as failing to break the top ten games last weekend (it was number 11). Promotion for the titles is set to be cranked up in the lead-up to Christmas, with greater advertising on digital channels catering for children (e.g. CITV, Nickelodeon); a front-cover splash for Doctor Who Magazine has also been mentioned by promoters Koch Media.




FILTER: - Games

SPACE confirm air date for A Christmas Carol

Wednesday, 24 November 2010 - Reported by Harry Ward
The Canadian SPACE channel have confirmed via their Twitter page that A Christmas Carol will broadcast on 26 December at 9pm Eastern Time.

SPACE are only the second channel to have a confirmed air date for the Christmas special. BBC America announced last week that it will be showing the episode just hours after the UK broadcast, which is still to be announced. Also yet to have a confirmed broadcast time is Australia's ABC but they have already announced a broadcast date of Boxing Day.

SPACE will also be broadcasting a Doctor Who Christmas Specials Marathon as part of their 12 Days of SPACE-MAS, beginning at 3am ET on 25 December with The Christmas Invasion.




FILTER: - Canada - Broadcasting