The BBC have released a new clip from the forthcoming The Bells of Saint John, featuring The Doctor within the new TARDIS console room (first introduced in The Snowmen).

The Bells of Saint John will make its New Zealand television debut on Thursday, 11 April at 8:30pm, on Prime.

Prime made the announcement on Twitter and Facebook today, saying:

We are pleased to finally announce that we will begin the new season of Doctor Who on Prime on Thursday 11 April at 8.30pm!!

Prime is promoting the story as follows:

This is it, the 50th anniversary year! Join the Doctor in all new episodes as he sets out to solve the mystery of new companion Clara. Expect explosions, aliens and running, lots of running!

The episode will be screened 12 days after its UK debut. This is the same delay that New Zealand viewers experienced with last year's series of five episodes. Prime has only once screened a Doctor Who episode sooner than this: The Snowmen was broadcast on 26 December 2012, less than one day after the UK.

Next week's Radio Times features the now traditional Doctor Who front cover to celebrate the return of the series to television this coming weekend.

Amidst several media reports of late about how long he'll remain with Doctor Who, Matt Smith told the Radio Times:
Meanwhile, Jenna-Louise Coleman, playing his latest sidekick on the show, commented on what he's like to work with:
The full interviews are in the new edition, along with a guide to the eight episodes that comprise this run provided by Steven Moffat, plus a free Monster wall chart.

The BBC have released a couple of new publicity posters for the forthcoming The Bells of Saint John, featuring images of the Doctor and Clara together against the backdrop of the London skyline.

A special three minute minisode has been made available online as part of the Series Seven Part Two listings via Amazon and iTunes. The video is currently free, but only available to watch in North America.


The video was originally revealed by Dan Starkey in an interview in Doctor Who Magazine Issue 455, who said about his resurrection:


There is no indication as to when the video will be available outside of North America, though it is expected that it will be included in the DVD/Blu-ray release when that is released (currently scheduled for 20th May 2013 in the UK).

A forthcoming biography of former Doctor Who producer John Nathan-Turner has been causing a media stir with newspapers focusing on allegations of sexual exploitation.

JN-T: The Life and Scandalous Times of John Nathan-Turner, written by Richard Marson and to be brought out in May by Miwk Publishing, is based on more than 100 interviews with friends and colleagues as well as inside knowledge by Marson, who has also had access to the entire surviving archive of Nathan-Turner's paperwork and photos.

In its review published on 10th March, SFX predicted a tabloid firestorm thanks to one particular chapter, entitled Hanky Panky, while the current edition of Private Eye, published last week, similarly warned of unfavourable headlines for the BBC, and that's exactly what has happened. A measured book review was published last Friday by The Guardian, but the tabloids have subsequently gone to town on claims that in the 1980s both Nathan-Turner and his partner Gary Downie, a Doctor Who production team member, used their senior roles to prey on male fans - some of whom were under the legal age of consent at the time (Mirror, Mail, and Sun). Marson says himself in the book that he was assaulted by Downie.

Miwk's website includes endorsements for the book from people such as director Fiona Cumming who, with Ian Fraser, says: "Some of the revelations are painful (but) we find this very rounded, well-written and honest." Drama serials manager and later producer Brian Spilsby comments: "I must say you have skewered JN-T precisely. I can vouch for all of the facts and most of the opinions. It's a very accurate - warts-and-all - picture you paint." And David Reid, who was the BBC's head of drama for series and serials from 1981 to 1983, says of the biography: "Quite wonderful on many, many levels. Gripping, fascinating, appalling – and, by the end, truly moving. Immaculate research makes the whole utterly trustworthy. A very good and very well-written book."

Responding to the allegations, the BBC has urged anyone with information to contact the police or the Dame Janet Smith Review, which was set up in the wake of the Jimmy Savile abuse scandal to look into the culture and practices of the BBC while Savile worked there.

Nathan-Turner died in 2002 and Downie in 2006.

Sunday 24th March sees the broadcast of the four-part 1974 Jon Pertwee story Death to the Daleks in Australia and New Zealand. The story is the 12th instalment in the 50th Anniversary season of Doctor Who stories on the UKTV channel.

The story is scheduled in New Zealand at 4:15pm and in Australia at 4:30pm. New Zealand gets an additional screening on Monday 25th March at 4:40am.

Death to the Daleks was first broadcast in Australia in 1975. New Zealand got to see it in 1976.

The UKTV billing describes the story as follows:

A power failure in the TARDIS draws it off course, the Doctor & Sarah Jane Smith end up stranded on the planet of Exxilon. They must find out what is draining their power.

UKTV is showing stories throughout the year in the lead-up to the anniversary in November. Death to the Daleks is the last in a set of four stories featuring Jon Pertwee's Doctor broadcast during March. The series will take a break next week for Easter.

Next month UKTV will present six Tom Baker stories in four weeks: The Ark in Space (7th April), Genesis of the Daleks (14th April), Pyramids of Mars and The Hand of Fear (21st April), and The Robots of Death and City of Death (28th April).

Up-and-coming broadcasts from both 20th and 21st Century series of Doctor Who can be found via UKTV's Doctor Who sections  for Australia and New Zealand.

The BBC have released a new trailer dedicated to The Bells of Saint John, which premieres on BBC One next Saturday at 6:15pm. The trailer was broadcast on the channel before the Pointless Celebrities Doctor Who special tonight.

The BBC have now released an introductory clip for the forthcoming return of the Doctor next weekend:

BBC Worldwide have provided some more detail on the new features to be included in the two disc special edition version of Fifth Doctor story The Visitation:

• Grim Tales (dur 45’09”) – cast members Peter Davison, Janet Fielding and Sarah Sutton are taken on a trip back to the filming locations used in the story by fellow TARDIS travelling companion Mark Strickson. A slice of a very impressive cake awaits them at the manor house in return for their memories of the time...
  
  
• The Television Centre of the Universe – Part One (dur 32’12”) – Blue Peter presenter Yvette Fielding takes Peter Davison, Mark Strickson and Janet Fielding on a trip through BBC Television Centre, meeting up with old friends and colleagues as they reminisce on their time spent working in the iconic building. With film traffic supervisor Neville Withers, assistant floor manager Sue Hedden, costume designer Odile Dicks-Mireaux, production assistant Jane Ashford, make-up artists Joan Stribling and Carolyn Perry, and BBC producer and writer Richard Marson.
  
  
• Doctor Forever – The Apocalypse Element (dur 27’29”) – the latest instalment of our new series looks at the work of those who kept Doctor Who alive in the form of audio adventures following the TV’s show’s cancellation in 1989. With actors Colin Baker, William Russell and Lisa Bowerman, new series executive producer Russell T Davies, Big Finish executive producers Jason Haigh-Ellery, Nicholas Briggs and Gary Russell, Big Finish producer David Richardson, BBC range editor Steve Cole, writers Mark Gatiss, Robert Shearman, Paul Cornell, Joseph Lidster and Justin Richards, and AudioGO commissioning editor Michael Stevens. Introduced by Ayesha Antoine.

The DVD is due to be released in the United Kingdom (R2) on 6th May 2013 and in North America (R1) on 14th May 2013.