The BBC have now confirmed the dates for the first five DVD releases of 2012, along with the Region 2 cover art.

The U.N.I.T. Files 9th January 2012 pre-order

The Sensorites 23rd January 2012 pre-order

Revisitations 3 13th February 2012 pre-order

The Face of Evil 5th March 2012 pre-order

The Dæmons 26th March 2012 pre-order

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Since our last update, the extras for Tomb of the Cybermen have now been classified by the BBFC: The Lost Giants - Making of Tomb of the Cybermen (26m51s), The Curse of the Cybermen's Tomb (14m24s), The Magic of Vidfire (5m56s), Cybermen - Extended Edition (32m25s), Sky Ray Advert (30s), Photo Gallery (3m23s), plus an easter egg (1m8s).

In addition, three intriguing items have also been classified as additional material for a future release: Best of the Doctor (43m29s), Best of the Companions (43m21s), and Best of the Monsters (43m31s). A recent press statement from Warner Home Video indicated that these three titles would appear as extras on the Region One release of The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe (due 14th February), and were previously broadcast by BBC America in the run-up to Let's Kill Hitler, so it is possible the BBFC classification is for the UK release as well.

The BBC have reported some news about developments in the next series of Doctor Who, as revealed at tonight's press screening of The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe.

The following may be considered a spoiler for the next series, and appeared on the official BBC Doctor Who Twitter feed:


More details are expected to be announced tomorrow (Friday).

The BBC revealed today that two complete episodes of Doctor Who have been returned to the BBC Archives.

Firstly, the complete third episode of the William Hartnell story Galaxy 4, Air Lock has been recovered - prior to this only a short segment from the first episode remained in the archive with no telesnaps taken to show how the third episode and its characters would have looked.

Secondly, the complete second episode of Patrick Troughton's third story The Underwater Menace has also been recovered - making this the earliest complete episode for the Second Doctor to now exist in the Archives (alongside the existing episode three).


Both episodes were found via former TVS engineer Terry Burnett, who bought them at a school fête in Marchwood, Southampton back in the 1980s! Restoration Team member Ralph Montagu told the Radio Times how they came to his attention:
Both episodes were shown this afternoon at the British Film Institute's Missing Believed Wiped event - the first time they've been seen in the United Kingdom since their original transmission! (Air Lock was originally seen on 25th September 1965, with The Underwater Menace episode two on 21st January 1967) Screen shots from the episodes may be seen in the BBC's Doctor Who Adventure Calendar Day 11.


The episodes will require restoration work before they can be commercially released, with film damage to be repaired and missing censored clips to be re-instated. An announcement will be made by 2|Entertain next year as to when they are likely to appear on DVD. Meanwhile, the previous existing material for both stories can be found on the Lost in Time DVD boxed set.


These are the first full episodes to have been recovered since the 1965 Daleks' Master Plan episode Day of Armageddon turned up back in 2004, and brings the total missing episodes tally to 106.

Time to search those attics for more episodes!

Doctor Who returns to Germany this December when Series Five begins broadcasting on the pay TV FOX Channel.

The first episode Fünf vor zwölf, which translates as Five to Twelve will screen on the channel on 21st December at 8.15pm CET with episode two following later the same evening. The network has launched a website to tie in with the series

Series 5 will also be made available on iTunes Germany in both German and English beginning December 22nd.

German fans have yet to see broadcast the third and fourth series starring David Tennant.

serienjunkies.com has a report detailing the somewhat chequered history of Doctor Who broadcasts in Germany.

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Meanwhile Televisió de Catalunya, has begun transmitting series 6 in Catalan on Canal 3XL. The series continues this Friday with La maledicció de la taca negra.

A clip from the forthcoming DVD of The Android Invasion has been released on the BBC Classic Doctor Who YouTube channel, featuring producer Philip Hinchcliffe discussing the design of the Kraals' costumes in the story.


Several clips from the accompanying Pertwee story in the UNIT Files Boxed Set, Invasion of the Dinosaurs, are also available to watch via the company's YouTube channel.

The BBFC have classified several features for forthcoming DVDs in the Doctor Who range.

January's release of the UNIT Boxed set has been reported before, but the feature lengths have now been confirmed as follows. The Android Invasion (classified 11th November): The Village That Came To Life (30m56s), Life After Who - Philip Hinchcliffe (29m35s), Weetabix advert (31s), Photo Gallery (4m51s), Easter Egg (7m48s). Invasion of the Dinosaurs (classified 9th November): People, Power and Puppetry - Remembering Invasion of the Dinosaurs (32m41s), Now and Then (13m40s), Billy Smart's Circus (1m41s), Doctor Who Stories - Elisabeth Sladen (13m58s), Deleted Scenes - Episode One (44s), Deleted Scenes - Episode Three (3m59s), John Levene Commentary - Part Five (10m13s), Photo Gallery (6m10s), Easter Egg (26s)

The Sensorites is believed to be released in February, and its features were classified on 9th November as: Secret Voices of the Sensorites (2m3s), Vision On (7m2s), Looking for Peter (21m17s), Photo Gallery (4m35s)

March is the expected date for the next Revisitations boxed set, which contains the following three stories. The Robots of Death (classified 23rd/25th November): The Sandmine Murders (32m22s), Robophobia (11m47s), Studio Sound (1m1s), Model Shots (7m38s), Continuity (42s), and Photo Gallery (5m35s). The Three Doctors (classified 23rd November): Happy Birthday To Who (23m10s), Girls, Girls, Girls - the 1970s (21m15s), and Was Doctor Who Rubbish? (13m59s). No features have been classified for Tomb of the Cybermen at this time, though two audio commentaries were passed for the story on the 25th November.

Finally in this round of classifications comes The Face of Evil, which on 25th November saw the following features passed: Into The Wild - The Making of The Face of Evil (25m9s), From The Cutting Room Floor (9m2s), Multi-Coloured Swap Shop (4m26s), Doctor Who Stories - Louise Jameson (17m19s), Denys Fisher Toys advert (30m11s), Tomorrow's Times - The Fourth Doctor (14m4s), Photo Gallery (5m40s)

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The latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine provides more detail on the features, and also confirms the commentaries: The Sensorites features William Russell (Ian), Carole Ann Ford (Susan), Joe Grieg (Second Sensorite), Martyn Huntley (First Human), Giles Phipps (Second Human), Frank Cox (director), Raymond Cusick (director), Sonia Markham (makeup); The Tomb of the Cybermen's new commentary features Deborah Watling (Victoria), Frazer Hines (Jamie), Bernard Holley (Haydon), Shirley Cooklin (Kaftan), Reg Whitehead (Cyberman), Victor Pemberton (script editor); The Robots of Death also features a new commentary with Tom Baker (The Doctor), Louise Jameson (Leela), Pamela Salem (Toos), and Michael E. Briant (director).

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Some other DVD tidbits that have been mentioned on Twitter over the last couple of months include:

• People interviewed for The Face of Evil documentary Into The Wild include producer Philip Hinchcliffe, designer Austin Ruddy and visual effects designer Mat Irvine.
• The Shada documentary has been renamed from Death Comes to Time to Taken Out of Time
• Other forthcoming feature titles include The Military Mind, Battle for Mars Probe 7.
• Nicholas Briggs has provided Dalek voices for a forthcoming feature.
• There are no current plans for a CGI Skarasen for Terror of the Zygons

Silva Screen have released the tracklisting for the soundtrack to Series Six of Doctor Who, due for release in the UK on 19th December, 2011.

The two-disc set includes music from throughout the series, composed by Murray Gold and played by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, conducted by Ben Foster. The CD is available to pre-order on Amazon.

The TARDIS has landed at Westfield Stratford City bringing the Doctor and his companions to the shopping complex to launch the Series 6 Box Set released in the UK today.

Matt Smith, Karen Gillian and Arthur Darvill will all be attending the event held at the brand new mega complex adjoining the 2012 Olympic site in east London.

The three stars will be signing copies of the box-set at HMV before attending a question and answer session in the Gallery Area. Fans around the world can view the experience via the BBC Worldwide YouTube channel from 1600GMT (4PM UK, 11am ET) today. The three stars will be answering questions in a panel hosted by DJ Jo Whiley.

They'll also be updates from the event on the BBC Facebook page and Doctor Who is also taking over the BBC Worldwide Twitter channel. Fans are encouraged to tweet with the hashtag #doctorwho all day.

Doctor Who was one of only two programmes to be accessed over 1 million times on the BBC iPlayer during October.

The series conclusion The Wedding of River Song, was requested 1.30 million times during the period it was available. It was beaten to first place for the month by the new natural history series, Frozen Planet which had 1.48 million requests.

Episode 1 of Young Apprentice was third with 0.91 million.

With all the excitement brewing for the Doctor's latest appearance tonight in Children in Need, we thought it would be worth providing a brief reminder of the cause it is in aid of:

Doctor Who has often featured as part of the Children in Need evening, including the premier broadcasts of the special episodes The Five Doctors (1983), Dimensions in Time (1993), "Born Again" (2005) and Time Crash (2007), plus a Dead Ringers special (2003) and a number of previews, including the forthcoming Christmas Special whose name is to be revealed tonight. Last year featured a special tea party within the TARDIS, and tonight the Doctor is even losing his clothes for the cause!