Lethbridge-Stewart: The George Kostinen Mystery.

Saturday, 14 March 2020 - Reported by Chuck Foster

Candy Jar Books have announced the next book in their Bloodlines series of Lethbridge-Stewart.

Lethbridge-Stewart: Bloodlines: The George Kostinen Mystery (Credit: Candy Jar Books)

Lethbridge-Stewart: Bloodlines: The George Kostinen Mystery
Written by Chris Lynch
Cover by Adrian Salmon

With the fate of every reality hanging in the balance, the Accord sends Lethbridge-Stewart to a brand-new version of Earth.

His mission: to find Lucy Wilson. She is the final agent the Accord needs to fix the damage done to the quantum realm, but the world Lethbridge-Stewart finds himself in is quite unlike anything he’s ever seen before.

A dystopian nightmare, the UK is caught in a power struggle between the Clown Tithe, the deadly Kruge and the ever-mysterious Volpertinger.

Lethbridge-Stewart’s only ally in this nightmare world is a sixteen-year-old boy from Ogmore-by-Sea called George Kostinen. A boy who, in the real world, should be best friends with Lucy Wilson. Only is this reality – he’s barely heard of her!

How can Lethbridge-Stewart’s mission succeed when Lucy Wilson is a nobody? A girl who’s never even heard the name Lethbridge-Stewart before…

Following last year’s crossover between the Lethbridge-Stewart and The Lucy Wilson Mysteries range of novels, comes a new crossover event. The George Kostinen Mystery is written by Chris Lynch, whose work includes The Lucy Wilson Mysteries novel, Curse of the Mirror Clowns.

Range Editor Andy Frankham-Allen says:

Bloodlines was always about taking a different look at our own characters, so this was a nice chance to offer up a unique look at the world inhabited by Lucy Wilson and her friend Hobo – only seen through a distorted mirror. The obvious choice for me was Chris – we haven’t actually worked together before, but we spent a lovely day at a convention a couple of years ago and after meeting to discuss the potential of this book, I knew he was the right man for the job. We had much success with our Lethbridge-Stewart/Lucy Wilson crossover project last year, but obviously we don’t want to hit the same beats again. The George Kostinen Mystery is a crossover quite unlike the previous one.

Chris Lynch says:

Andy and all the writers who have worked on the Lethbridge Stewart range before me have created such an intricate, well-realised universe that I have to confess I was a little nervous about stepping into it. It's somewhat like being given a very beautiful, very complicated grandfather clock and then being asked to service a number of vital parts using only a butter knife while wearing a blindfold. Thankfully, I've been let loose in my little pocket dimension where I can forget about butter knives and go at this thing with a nuclear-powered chainsaw. It's enormous fun putting Lethbridge-Stewart, George, and all other characters through the ringer, transforming jolly old Blighty into a dystopian nightmare, creating new creatures to scare people with, and revisiting my very first addition to this universe – the Clowns.”

The cover is by regular Lethbridge-Stewart contributor, Adrian Salmon. Adrian says:

This was a fascinating cover to compose because of the various components and the fact I had the honour of being only the second artist to interpret Lucy Wilson on a cover – the less said about getting her hair style right the better! The Kruge were a lot of fun to draw, and if you look closely you’ll spot the little drawings of their victims faces scratched into their armour.

The George Kostinen Mystery will be followed by Back to the Past, which wraps up the Bloodlines saga, and then the final book of series seven which will see a return to the Schizoid Earth in I, Alastair.

The book is available for pre-order now, an is including in the book subscription with Candy Jar Books.

FILTER: - Books - Candy Jar Books - Lethbridge-Stewart

Doctor Who Comes to Roblox

Thursday, 12 March 2020 - Reported by Marcus

A set of Doctor Who virtual items are available for free this month for the Roblox community to enjoy.

BBC Studios and Roblox today announced the launch of a series of Doctor Who-themed virtual items on Roblox, a global online platform bringing more than 115 million people together through play.

Players can now personalize their avatar with a variety of Doctor Who-themed items, including a TARDIS backpack, and avatars of The Tenth and Thirteenth Doctor, all obtainable for free, from the Roblox Avatar Shop.

These items are available for a limited time (12th March-26th March) and include:

The Pterrible Pting
This tiny terror from Doctor Who can eat any inorganic material. Thankfully, however, it won’t eat any organic material (meaning you).

Portable TARDIS
Funny thing about this backpack…it’s much, much bigger on the inside.

The Tenth Doctor
Two legs, two arms, two hands, BIG hair…and sideburns! This bundle is based on David Tennant’s character in Doctor Who.

The Thirteenth Doctor
This bundle, made of a bit of adrenaline, a dash of outrage, and a hint of panic, is based on Jodie Whittaker’s character in Doctor Who.

Christina Wootton, Vice President of Brand Partnerships, Roblox, said:

On Roblox your online identity is a powerful tool that helps our community express who they are and who they want to become. We are delighted to partner with Doctor Who, whose diverse set of characters inspire the freedom and creativity that help our community define who they are in the real world as much as the virtual world.

Sarah Bold, BBC Studios Global Franchise Head of Marketing for Drama, said:

The Doctor Who fan community is renowned for creativity making it a joy to take the TARDIS to Roblox where millions of fans will be able to play and create with these new items.

FILTER: - Games - Tenth Doctor - Thirteenth Doctor

Princess Anne Unveils 13th Doctor Costume Range

Monday, 2 March 2020 - Reported by Marcus

Princess Royal at Corgi (Credit: Carmarthenshire County Council)

Luxury brand Corgi and BBC Studios have today launched the range of Doctor Who knitwear worn by Jodie Whittaker’s Thirteenth Doctor.

Corgi’s Doctor Who range will include 100% cashmere socks, wool socks, a cashmere scarf, a wool scarf and a hand-made cashmere and cotton blend jumper. The luxury yarns are sourced from suppliers in the UK who use yarns from sustainable sources. The knitwear is made using traditional hand knitting techniques and hand-finished. All the products are made in the UK at Corgi’s factory in Ammanford, Wales.

The range was designed by Costume Designer Ray Holman for the Thirteenth Doctor’s costume and is now available to fans across the world for the first time.

Ray Holman, Costume Designer, said:

I chose to work with Corgi after visiting the factory and seeing the high-quality materials they use and the beautiful products they create. As a small company in the heart of Wales the craft of knitting is still very much alive and we were able to use these skills in the creation of the jumpers, socks and scarves for this range. It has been a pleasure to work with Corgi and create such a wonderful range of garments for The Doctor.

Corgi is a Welsh, family-run company producing luxury socks and knitwear. Established in 1892, the company is still located in a small Welsh mining town and has developed a reputation as a leading luxury sock and knitwear brand. Corgi was awarded a Royal Warrant by HRH the Prince of Wales in 1988, and continues to supply the Royal family with knitted goods.

The launch coincides with a royal visit at the Corgi factory in Wales, with Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal, daughter of Queen Elizabeth, arriving to meet staff in her capacity as President of the UK Fashion & Textile industry. Princess Anne was shown the new Doctor Who range as part of this visit and presented with a cashmere Doctor Who scarf as a gift.

Chris Jones at Corgi, said

We’re very excited to be working with BBC Studios on a product range for Doctor Who. Working with the creative team, we have produced a beautiful line of distinctive knitwear and socks that deliver both style and high quality that we hope fans will love!

Products are available to fans worldwide on the Corgi website corgisocks.com and range in price from £19 to £295 RRP

FILTER: - Clothing

Fugitive of the Judoon - New Pictures

Thursday, 23 January 2020 - Reported by Marcus

The BBC has released new pictures from the upcoming episode of Doctor Who - Fugitive of the Judoon.

Written by Vinay Patel
Directed by Nida Manzoor
Starring Jodie Whittaker, Bradley Walsh, Tosin Cole and Mandip Gill.

Guest starring Jo Martin, Neil Stuke and Ritu Aryać.

Ko Sho Blo! Trigger-happy space police the Judoon are targeting 21st-century Gloucester. The Doctor, Yaz, Ryan and Graham race back to Earth in order to prevent them doing too much damage to the cathedral city. But who are they looking for, and what did they do to incur the wrath of the Judoon?

The episode can be seen on BBC One at 7.10pm next Sunday. North American viewers can see it at 8pm ET, while in Australia the episode debut's is on Thursday at 8pm. In New Zealand, it can be seen at 9am, Monday morning, just a couple of hours after the UK showing.

Full broadcast details can be found here, and ongoing adventures of the Doctor can be found via This Week in Doctor Who.

COMING SOON | Doctor Who: Series 12

FILTER: - Production - Series 12/38 - Thirteenth Doctor

Doctor Who: Dark Universe

Tuesday, 21 January 2020 - Reported by Marcus

The latest audio release from Big Finish, the Seventh Doctor crossover story Doctor Who: Dark Universe is released today.

Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred and Mark Bonnar star in a brand new story that picks up the threads of the relationship between the Doctor and an older Ace, in her now grown-up role as CEO of A Charitable Earth,.

Doctor Who: Dark Universe is available now as a collector’s edition CD or on download at the Big Finish website from £12.99.

The Eleven has a plan. A grand plan. An appalling plan. A plan that endangers all life in the cosmos.

With Ace working against him, the Doctor must rely on scheming Time Lord Cardinal Ollistra for help. The stage is set for an epic confrontation.

Because the Doctor has a plan to stop the Eleven. A grand plan. An appalling plan. A plan that endangers all life in the cosmos.

Whichever one of them wins, the Dark Universe won’t want to lose

Mark Bonnar returns as the Eleven, a Time Lord psychopath in his eleventh incarnation who retains the personalities of all his previous incarnations, in his first chronological meeting with the Seventh Doctor.

Producer, David Richardson, said

I’d long planned that if ever I was in a position to make it happen, we’d do a story with the Seventh Doctor and the Eleven, and tell the lead-in to the first scenes in the Eighth Doctor series, Doom Coalition. So when Emma Haigh and I took over as joint producers on the Seventh Doctor stories this year, I leapt at the opportunity and asked script editor Matt Fitton to commission a script.

There’s a lot in Dark Universe – not only does it return to the Eleven’s story, it also shows what happens to Ace in her later life. And it features Ollistra and Rasmus, two characters who are important to our ongoing Time War series, plus it sets up other things too... It’s actually a pivotal release, for so many reasons.

Actor Mark Bonnar said

I was really pleased with the script as it gave a bit of the Eleven’s backstory. When I first played the Eleven, Sylvester was the Doctor who caught him. I’d met him previously because Sophie Aldred is a pal of mine, but it was really good to work with him as we hit it off pretty much straight away.

I really enjoyed being the Eleven with another Doctor this time – I hope there are plans to have him meet some of the other ones!

Doctor Who: Dark Universe is available now as a collector’s edition CD or on download at the Big Finish website from £12.99.

FILTER: - Big Finish - Seventh Doctor

Doctor Who Virtual Reality Experience Launches Internationally

Wednesday, 15 January 2020 - Reported by Marcus

The Runaway (Credit: BBC's digital drama - BBC VR Hub - Passion Animation Studios)

This Thursday will see the international launch of the BBC’s acclaimed virtual reality experience Doctor Who: The Runaway.

Doctor Who fans around the world will be able to download and enjoy the immersive VR special including a 360 version available on the Doctor Who YouTube channel.

The VR experience stars Jodie Whittaker voicing an animated version of the Thirteenth Doctor. The viewer crash lands in the TARDIS and is quickly recruited by the Doctor to help return a strange and potentially dangerous creature called Volta to its home planet.

Where previously the experience has only been available to view on VR headsets like the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and Samsung Gear VR, the YouTube 360 version enables anyone with an entry-level VR headset like a Google Cardboard to step into the TARDIS and try out the adventure for themselves.

The international launch will also enable the show’s fans around the world to team up with the Doctor in virtual reality. Until now, The Runaway has only been available in the UK, but is now available globally for free on the Steam store for the first time, is launching on the Oculus and Viveport stores internationally, and globally on the BBC VR app for the Oculus Go and Samsung Gear VR.

Doctor Who: The Runaway features new original music from series composer Segun Akinola, and is directed by Mathias Chelebourg, whose previous work in virtual reality includes Alice, the Virtual Reality Play and The Real Thing VR. The script was an original story written by Victoria Asare-Archer, and is being published today on the BBC Writersroom blog.

Doctor Who: The Runaway has been produced by the BBC’s digital drama team, BBC VR Hub and Passion Animation Studios. It premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival last year and has since been shown at the Sandbox Immersive Festival in China and the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in France, among many others. The BBC VR Hub has also taken it on an extensive tour of UK libraries, enabling people without VR headsets to try it in their local library.

FILTER: - Games - Thirteenth Doctor

Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror - Pictures

Wednesday, 15 January 2020 - Reported by Marcus

The BBC has released new pictures from the upcoming episode of Doctor Who - Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror.

The story is written by Nina Metivier and directed by Nida Manzoor, both making their debut on Doctor Who.

Written by Nina Metivier
Directed by Nida Manzoor
Starring Jodie Whittaker, Bradley Walsh, Tosin Cole and Mandip Gill.

Guest starring Goran Višnjić and Robert Glenister.

1903. Who or what is sabotaging Nikola Tesla's generator plant at Niagara Falls? And has this maverick inventor really received a message from Mars?

COMING SOON | Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror

FILTER: - Production - Series 12/38 - Thirteenth Doctor

Series 12 Episode Titles Confirmed

Thursday, 9 January 2020 - Reported by Marcus

Orphan 55: The Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) (Credit: BBC Studios (Ben Blackall))

The titles of the next four episodes of Doctor Who have been confirmed in the latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine.

Episode Three: Orphan 55

Written by Ed Hime
Directed by Lee Haven Jones

Exhausted and wrung out, the Doctor and her friends embark on a much-needed holiday. But it's not the relaxing break they hoped for..

Orphan 55 is written by Ed Hime and directed by Lee Haven Jones. The episode was partly filmed on location in Tenerife. It features actors Col Farrell and Julia Elizabeth Fogle.

Episode Four: Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror

Written by Nina Metivier
Directed by Nida Manzoor

Inventor Nikola Tesla is at war with his rival Thomas Edison. However, there is an even greater threat in their midst.

In Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror we are taken back to 20th Century New York.

The first script by Nina Metivier for the series continues the recent habit of the Doctor meeting famous characters from history. This time it is the scientist best known for his contributions to the design of the alternating current electricity supply system. Telsar is played by Croatian actor Goran Višnjić, best known for appearing in ER. His great rival Thomas Edison is played by Robert Glenister, who last appeared in Doctor Who in 1984 playing Salateen in the fifth Doctor's final story The Caves of Androzani.

It is directed by Nida Manzoor making her debut on the series

Episode Five: Fugitive of the Judoon

Written by Vinay Patel
Directed by Nida Manzoor

Stomping their way into present day Gloucester the Judoon are on the hunt for someone on the run. Who is this fugitive? And why are these alien mercenaries after them?

The return of everybody's favourite intergalactic policemen is in Fugitive of the Judoon.

This is Vinay Patel's second episode for the series after last season's Demons Of The Punjab. It is also directed by Nida Manzoor, and guest star's Neil Stuke and Jo Martin.

Episode Six: Praxeus

Written by Pete McTighe
Directed by Jamie Magnus Stone

The Doctor and her friends split up to investigate multiple mysteries across planet Earth. What will they find will threaten all of humanity...

Written by Pete McTighe who penned Kerblam! for the last series.

It is directed by Jamie Magnus Stone who was responsible for the acclaimed first episode of this series Spyfall, and guest stars include Matthew McNulty and Joana Borja. The majority of the episode was filmed in South Africa.

FILTER: - Series 12/38 - Thirteenth Doctor

Thirteenth Doctor #1 Special Variant Cover

Wednesday, 8 January 2020 - Reported by Marcus

A special variant Cover has been created for the latest Doctor Who Comic, Doctor Who: The Thirteenth Doctor S2 #1, which will raise money to help those fighting the Australian Wildfires.

The cover variant is by Stewart McKenny with colour by John Law, and is available exclusively through Comics Etc, one of Australia's leading comic book retailers. It is limited to 500 copies worldwide.

Stewart McKenny has been described as one of Australia's most prolifically published comic book artists. He has worked on Star Wars comics, including Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures, as well as working on Captain America. His British small press work includes contributions to FutureQuake.

McKenny revealed the news on his Facebook page.

I've been a huge fan of Doctor Who ever since I was a kid (Tom Baker was my first Doctor) - and the opportunity to create official Doctor Who artwork is something that's always been on my Bucket List! What's more, this issue really does have it all - David Tennant, Jodie Whittaker, Autons AND Weeping Angels, in a reimagining of one of my favourite episodes ever - 'Blink'!

Comics Etc is donating $5 to the New South Wales Rural Fire Service for each copy purchased of this variant comic.

Wendy and I are constantly overwhelmed by the support that you guys give us, and we're really hoping that you can get behind this comic. We're hoping that every cent donated through the sales of this comic will, in some way, make a difference, and bring some hope, to the country during this desperate time - and what is Doctor Who if not a symbol of hope?

FILTER: - Comics - Thirteenth Doctor

Doctor Who Magazine Special 54

Wednesday, 8 January 2020 - Reported by Marcus

The latest Doctor Who Magazine Special Edition is out now.

Highlights include:

An in-depth interview with Doctor Who’s executive producer Matt Strevens.
Jodie Whittaker on her second year as the Doctor.
Mandip Gill, aka Yaz, answers questions from the TARDIS tin.
Shaun Dooley and Jodie Whittaker recall the making of the charity album Got it Covered.
Terrance Dicks’ widow, Elsa, and his former Target Books editor, Brenda Gardner, pay tribute to the much-loved writer.
Twenty years since its original broadcast, Steven Moffat remembers The Curse of Fatal Death.
Highlights of the Series 12 press day.
Inside the popular YouTube series Terry Nation Army.
Digital artist Sophie Cowdrey discusses her work.
The past, present and future of the Doctor Who Blu-ray collection.
Behind the scenes of the Doctor Who Figurine Collection.
The 20 landmark Doctor Who audio releases from Big Finish.
A look back at the 2019 production of Mission to the Unknown.
Reviews of the final two Doctor Who: Infinity games and the new independent drama Sil and the Devil Seeds of Arodor.
Tributes to Doctor Who luminaries who passed away in 2019.

On sale from Thursday 2 January 2020 £6.99 (UK), $13.99 (US)

FILTER: - DWM - Thirteenth Doctor

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