The latest in our ongoing feature centring on significant Doctor Who occasions sees the show accorded a very special publishing honour - but just like the programme itself, it wasn't without wrangles before and after . . .

In the run-up to Doctor Who starting, hopes had been high that the first episode would be given a prestigious publicity boost by the BBC's much-respected listings magazine Radio Times in the form of a cover feature. This was, after all, a show like no other: it was innovative and ground-breaking, with skills, experimentation and imagination pushed further than ever.

However, it was not to be. After initial interest, the magazine had a change of heart at the last minute, falsely believing that the corporation itself didn't have much faith in the programme, and despite protestations by head of serials Donald Wilson editor Douglas Williams ditched the idea, although the show was granted a mention on the relevant cover and an article was included that gave a taster of what adventures might lie ahead - with one of them being the possibility of a journey "to far Cathay in the caravan of Marco Polo."

And it would be that very journey that would see Radio Times finally give in and award the much-coveted prime spot on its cover to Doctor Who - in all probability helped by the fact that with the arrival of the Daleks a few weeks previously, the show had rapidly seared itself into the national consciousness.

With The Roof of the World going out on 22nd February 1964, the cover of the corresponding week's Radio Times - number 2102, volume 162 - depicted lead actor William Hartnell with guest stars Mark Eden as Marco Polo and Derren Nesbitt as Tegana. It was accompanied by an unbylined feature on page 7 that set the historical scene after a brief recap of the previous two adventures. (It should be noted that back then Radio Times also printed its publication date at the top of the pages, hence the references to "February 20, 1964".)

Although the feature's picture included all the companions, the fact that the three actors hadn't appeared on the cover with Hartnell caused some upset. The day after the broadcast of The Roof of the World, William Russell, who played Ian Chesterton, contacted his agent, T Plunkett Green, with a number of concerns relating to the programme as a whole, one of them being the fact that the co-stars had been bumped in favour of the guest stars on the cover of the listings magazine. This grievance would be relayed to Wilson, who subsequently apologised to the agent, saying it had been "confidently expected" by the production team that one of the photos including all the regulars taken at the photocall would be used as a cover image. Wilson assured Plunkett Green that he would complain about it to the magazine.

From a somewhat hesitant start, Doctor Who and Radio Times would, over the years, continue to have something of a love-hate relationship, ranging from the highs of the stunning artwork by Frank Bellamy gracing its pages during the early-to-mid-1970s, as well as special editions, to the lows of the Tom Baker era when it would merit few articles and no covers at all, back to the embarrassment of riches we have in terms of coverage in the 21st century. Today, though, on the 50th anniversary of the broadcast of the opening episode of the seven-part epic - ironically, the earliest Doctor Who story to be missing from the archives - we mark an auspicious event in that relationship between programme and publisher with Doctor Who's first Radio Times cover . . .

Veteran director Christopher Barry has died at the age of 88.

Christopher Barry was responsible for some of the most admired stories from the classic series of Doctor Who, where he was the longest serving director, responsible for 43 episodes spanning the years 1963-1979. He directed all of the first four Doctors - one of only three directors to do so.

He joined the Doctor Who team in the late summer of 1963, when he was assigned to direct the second story, The Daleks, replacing Rex Tucker who had left after artistic differences with producer Verity Lambert. The script he would bring to life would see the introduction of the Daleks and ensure the success of the fledgling series. Barry would end up directing episodes 1,2,4 and 5 of the story, creating the 'sink-plunger' cliff hanger at the end of episode 1 which would see the nation on the edge of their seats until the full revelation of the Dalek machine in episode 2. He was in the studio directing episode 2 when the news of President Kennedy's assassination broke.

Barry returned to the series a year later, directing The Rescue, the story which saw the introduction of the first new companion since the series start, Vicki, played by Maureen O'Brien. He stayed on to direct the next story The Romans, a historical romp which saw much more humour introduced to the series. Having introduced a companion, his next Doctor Who assignment was to see the departure of another, as his final story with William Hartnell, The Savages, was to be the last story to feature Steven Taylor, as played by Peter Purves.

In 1966, Barry masterminded the introduction of a new Doctor, when he directed Patrick Troughton's first story, The Power of the Daleks. The story, long missing from the archives, had the difficult job of introducing a new lead actor to the series and cementing the long term success of the series.

His next outing was with the third Doctor, Jon Pertwee, when he directed the 1971 story The Dæmons. Long regarded as a classic, the story is often cited as a favourite by members of the cast and production team. Barry returned the following year to direct the six part story The Mutants.

Having overseen the debut of one Doctor in 1966, Barry was able to do so once again when, at the end of 1974, he directed Robot, introducing the world to the man who would become the longest-serving (continuous) on-screen Doctor - and arguably the most famous in the public eye from the 'classic' era - Tom Baker. The story was one of the first with all location work recorded direct onto video tape using a BBC OB unit. The following year he directed another classic, The Brain of Morbius, which saw the fourth Doctor encounter the eccentric surgeon Solon and his Time Lord secret. It was in this story Barry featured on screen alongside other production team members as one of the faces projected onto the screen during the Doctor's mind battle with Morbius.

Barry's final story for classic Doctor Who came in 1979 when he directed the four part story The Creature from the Pit, with the DVD release of that story containing a retrospective of his work. While the series was off air he also directed the 1995 story Downtime, a direct-to-video story produced by the independent production company Reeltime Pictures.

He began his film and TV career in the movies, working as an assistant director on star vehicles including Meet Mr. Lucifer (1953), The Love Lottery (1954) and The Ship That Died of Shame (1955). By 1958 he was directing, working on the BBC’s Starr and Company, the crime drama Private Investigator and the long-running soap opera Compact. He directed episodes of Paul Temple, Moonbase 3, Poldark, Angels, Nicholas Nickleby, The Onedin Line, Z Cars, All Creatures Great and Small, Nanny and Juliet Bravo. He also directed eleven episodes of the TV adaptation of John Christopher's The Tripods.

UPDATE - 16th FEBRUARY: It has emerged that Barry died on Friday 7th February after falling down an escalator at a shopping centre in Banbury, near his home in Oxfordshire, earlier that day. He was taken to hospital but while there he suddenly stopped breathing and doctors could not revive him. An inquest into his death will be held on Thursday 5th June.

A biography of Doctor Who's first producer is to be published next January. Drama and Delight: The Life and Legacy of Verity Lambert is being written by Richard Marson and will be brought out by Miwk Publishing Ltd.

Not only was Lambert the show's first producer, it was also her first TV programme as a producer, having been poached from commercial rival ABC by drama boss Sydney Newman. At the time, she was also the youngest and only female drama producer at the BBC.

Lambert went on to have a hugely successful and influential career in TV production, becoming a head of drama herself - at Thames Television - and later setting up her own production company. She received an OBE in the 2002 New Year Honours for services to film and television production, and that same year also saw her presented with BAFTA's Alan Clarke Award for Outstanding Contribution to Television. She died of cancer in 2007 at the age of 71.

Marson wrote for Doctor Who Monthly/Magazine between 1983 and 1988, and after graduating from the University of Durham in 1987 joined the BBC, progressing from floor assistant to producer/director. Along the way, he worked on many iconic programmes including Top of the Pops, That's Life!, Going Live!, and Wogan. He went freelance in 1994, with stints at companies such as Planet 24, Chatsworth, and LWT. A return to the BBC in 1997 to direct series of Record Breakers and Tomorrow's World led to his appointment as a producer on Blue Peter in 1998, where he remained for almost a decade. He spent four years as the programme's editor.

In 2007, he was the executive producer of BBC Four's Children's TV On Trial, while more recently he produced and directed the 90-minute documentary Tales of Television Centre for the same channel. He is currently with TwoFour, producing a major 15-part "fixed-rig" documentary (where the cameras are stationary) for CBBC called Our School.

Marson is the author of several books, including Inside Updown: The Story of Upstairs, Downstairs, Blue Peter 50th Anniversary, and JN-T: The Life and Scandalous Times of John Nathan-Turner, which caused a media stir when it was published last year.

Veteran BBC costume designer Ken Trew, the man who designed the Seventh Doctor's costume as well as revamping the Third Doctor's costume and creating the first costume for The Master, played by Roger Delgado, has died at the age of 77.

Kenneth Trew was born in Newport, South Wales and attended Newport College of Art. He left college and worked in repertory theatre as a set designer before moving to London. He joined The Festival Ballet for six months, which included a tour to Barcelona and Lisbon. It was during this tour that he applied to become a Costume Designer at the BBC. He joined the corporation in 1964 as a dresser and at the end of 1965 became an Assistant Designer working on such productions as Z Cars.

His first involvement with Doctor Who was on The Myth Makers (1965) with William Hartnell, which was recorded at Riverside Studios. He assisted Designer Bobi Bartlett on the Patrick Troughton, Cyberman story The Invasion (1968).

Trew designed the opening story of Jon Pertwee’s second season, Terror of the Autons (1971) introducing a more colourful version of Pertwee’s costume originally designed by Christine Rawlins.

Producer John Nathan-Turner used Trew regularly in the 1980s for the Peter Davison story Snakedance (1983) and the first part of Trial of A Time Lord – The Mysterious Planet (1986) with Colin Baker. He established the look of The Seventh Doctor, Sylvester McCoy for Time and the Rani (1987), and then worked on Remembrance of the Daleks (1988), The Curse of Fenric (1989), Ghost Light (1989) and Survival (1989). He was also the designer for the Children in Need Special Dimensions in Time (1993).

Other design work included A Very Peculiar Practice, Bergerac, The Prisoner of Zenda, Strangers and Brothers, The Onedin Line and Anna Karenina.
The designer died on 11th January of Sporadic CJD, a very rare condition affecting only 1-2 in every million people each year in the UK.

Pam Trew, Ken’s wife said, I always knew that Ken was one in a million!

Fifty years ago today on Doctor Who the companion Barbara Wright - as played by Jacqueline Hill - became the first of the TARDIS crew to encounter a Dalek, in the cliffhanger to the episode The Dead Planet.

At the time, only Barbara saw it in full and she didn't know that it was a Dalek either. The 6.9 million TV viewers could only see a plunger - as wielded by assistant floor manager Michael Ferguson - advancing menacingly on her, but this tantalising glimpse of an unknown alien horror, coupled with Barbara's piercing scream and sheer terror at what she had encountered, became an iconic moment in the programme.

The following episode would see the full introduction of the creatures that would become an instant hit with audiences and make the show a genuine talking-point, propelling it to international success and guaranteeing its longevity.

To mark today's special anniversary, though, the official site has uploaded a video of current showrunner Steven Moffat looking back at the 1975 story Genesis of the Daleks. It follows the release by the site earlier this week of a video of Moffat praising the 1988 adventure Remembrance of the Daleks. Both of them were recorded last year as part of a series in the run-up to the broadcast of Asylum of the Daleks.



Following the popularity of our An Unearthly Series feature that marked the 50th anniversaries of milestone events leading up to the broadcast of the show's first episode, Doctor Who News will be celebrating significant moments in time relating to the series after its début on 23rd November 1963.

With the 50th anniversary of the first appearance of the Daleks on TV screens fast approaching, a video tribute by Doctor Who's current showrunner Steven Moffat to their last story during the classic era - Remembrance of the Daleks - was posted today by the BBC on the programme's official site.

In the piece, he says of the 1988 four-parter: Moffat's comments were recorded last year as part of a mini series in which he talked about the Daleks in general to publicise their return in Asylum of the Daleks and, in subsequent video posts, looked at what he considered to be the best and most significant Dalek adventures.

BBC Worldwide have released the artwork, trailer and details for the forthcoming DVD of the second Doctor story The Moonbase, which is due for release in the United Kingdom early January next year.

The DVD was originally due to be released this October, with animated versions of episodes 1 and 3. However, this was later put on hold to allow further work on the animation to be completed.

Starring Patrick Troughton as the Doctor, Michael Craze as Ben, Anneke Wills as Polly, Frazer Hines as Jamie and guest-starring Patrick Barr, Andre Maranne and Michael Wolf, The Moonbase was originally screened in February and March 1967, and with episodes 1 and 3 animated it will become the earliest complete Troughton story available on DVD. Special features on the DVD include:

• Fully remastered Episodes 2 and 4.
• Newly animated Episodes 1 and 3, with original off-screen soundtrack recordings.
• Commentary on Episodes 2 and 4: a traditional commentary with actors Anneke Wills, Frazer Hines and Edward Phillips and Special Sounds creator Brian Hodgson.
• On Episodes 1 and 3, a series of interviews featuring writer Kit Pedler's daughters Lucy Pedler and Carol Topolski, archive interviews with producer Innes Lloyd, assistant floor manager Lovett Bickford, and Cyberman actors Barry Noble, Derek Chaffer and Reg Whitehead. Moderated and linked by Toby Hadoke.
• Lunar Landing – Cast and crew look back on the making of the story. With actors Anneke Wills, Frazer Hines and Reg Whitehead, plus production assistant Desmond McCarthy.
• Photo Gallery – Production, design and publicity photos from the story.
• Coming Soon – A trailer for a forthcoming DVD release.
• Radio Times listings.
• Programme subtitles.
• Subtitle production notes.

The DVD is available to order at amazon.co.uk and amazon.com.

The actor Barry Jackson has died at the age of 75.

Jackson played three roles in Doctor Who, appearing in six episodes of the series. In 1965 he played Ascaris in the William Hartnell story The Romans, a mute assassin who tried to kill the Doctor believing he was the lute player Maximus Pettulian. He returned to the series in Mission to the Unknown where he played Jeff Garvey, a member of the expedition to the planet Kembel.

His final appearance in the series was as Drax - a renegade Time Lord and previous friend of the Doctor on Gallifrey - in the 1979 story The Armageddon Factor.

Away from Doctor Who, Jackson was best known for playing pathologist Dr George Bullard in Midsomer Murders for more than 10 years. He appeared in the first episode of the detective drama, staying until 2011.

His long career on television began in 1960, with the role of the Earl of Surrey in the BBC series An Age of Kings. Countless roles followed in other shows, including Doctors, Heartbeat, The Bill, A Touch of Frost, Bernard's Watch, Three Seven Eleven, All Creatures Great and Small, Hard Cases, Coronation Street, The Onedin Line, Blake's 7, Crown Court, Secret Army, Poldark, Z Cars, Dixon of Dock Green, The Adventures of Black Beauty, Harriet's Back in Town, Spy Trap, Adam Adamant Lives! and A for Andromeda.

Films that he appeared in included Ryan's Daughter and Barry Lyndon.

Jackson's agent said the actor died at home in north London surrounded by his family.

November sees a packed line-up of Doctor Who on the UKTV Australia and UKTV New Zealand channels.

Eleven months of Doctor Who anniversary screenings on UKTV conclude with stories featuring Matt Smith's Eleventh Doctor, as well as two full days of episodes and specials scheduled for the weekend of the 50th anniversary.

The Eleventh Doctor episodes are as follows:

3 November:
The Eleventh Hour - AU: 3:20pm (repeated 11:50pm); NZ: 5:20pm (repeated 4 Nov, 4:50am)

10 November:
The Time Of Angels & Flesh And Stone - AU: 2:35pm (repeated 11:50pm); NZ: 4:50pm (repeated 11 Nov, 4:25am)

17 November:
Amy's Choice - AU: 2:25pm; NZ: 4:35pm (repeated 18 Nov, 3:50am)
Asylum of the Daleks - AU: 3:25pm; NZ: 5:30pm (repeated 18 Nov, 4:40am)

Following these screenings, a Doctor Who marathon screening of episodes and specials running for more than 24 hours in total will be played out over the weekend of the anniversary.

One story from each Doctor will be screened, arranged in chronological order, each preceded by the corresponding instalment of Doctor Who Revisited. The episodes of Revisited featuring the three most recent Doctors have never before been screened in Australia or New Zealand.

23 November:
Doctor Who Revisited: The First Doctor - AU: 5:30am; NZ: 6:35am
An Unearthly Child - AU: 5:55am; NZ 7:00am
Doctor Who Revisited: The Second Doctor - AU: 8:00am; NZ: 8:40am
The Tomb of the Cybermen - AU: 8:30am; NZ 9:10am
Doctor Who Revisited: The Third Doctor - AU: 10:35am; NZ: 10:50am
The Three Doctors - AU: 11:05am; NZ 11:20am
Doctor Who Revisited: The Fourth Doctor - AU: 1:10pm; NZ: 1:05pm
The Hand of Fear - AU: 1:40pm; NZ 1:35pm
Doctor Who Revisited: The Fifth Doctor - AU: 3:45pm; NZ: 3:20pm
The Caves of Androzani - AU: 4:15pm; NZ 3:50pm

24 November:
Doctor Who Revisited: The Sixth Doctor - AU: 6:10am; NZ: 7:20am
Revelation of the Daleks - AU: 6:40am; NZ: 7:50am
Doctor Who Revisited: The Seventh Doctor - AU: 8:45am; NZ: 9:25am
The Curse of Fenric - AU: 9:15am; NZ: 9:55am
Doctor Who Revisited: The Eighth Doctor - AU: 11:20am; NZ: 11:35am
Doctor Who: The Movie - AU: 11:50am; NZ: 12:00pm
Doctor Who Revisited: The Ninth Doctor - AU: 1:35pm; NZ: 1:30pm
Rose - AU: 2:05pm; NZ: 1:55pm
Doctor Who Revisited: The Tenth Doctor - AU: 3:10pm; NZ: 2:45pm
Blink - AU: 3:40pm; NZ: 3:10pm
Doctor Who Revisited: The Eleventh Doctor - AU: 4:45pm; NZ: 4:00pm
Asylum of the Daleks - AU: 5:15pm; NZ: 4:30pm

In addition, Doctor Who 50th: Vivid Sydney will screen on 23 November (AU: 6:15pm, repeated 24 Nov 6:15pm; NZ: 5:40pm). This ten-minute programme features the Doctor Who musical projections that illuminated Sydney's Customs House for the anniversary.

UKTV is also screening four Doctor Who America Specials on Sundays, including The Timey Wimey Stuff of Doctor Who (AU: 10 Nov, 4:30pm); The Science of Doctor Who (NZ: 17 Nov, 6:30pm); The Destinations of Doctor Who (AU: 17 Nov, 4:25pm) and The Women of Doctor Who (NZ: 24 Nov, 6:30pm).

Further episodes scheduled to screen on UKTV in Australia during November include stories from Series One to Three on weekdays at 9:20am, and the first half of Series Seven on Sunday evenings at 5:30pm .

Meanwhile, New Zealand also has screenings of episodes from the first half of Series Seven, on Sunday evenings at 6:30pm, with all five episodes repeated twice daily weekdays from 18-22 November.

Upcoming broadcasts can be found on UKTV's Doctor Who guide for Australia and New Zealand.

A new Fanzine called Cygnus Alpha is now available.

Cygnus Alpha is a continuation of an old 1980s Fanzine which originally featured Paul Cornell and Gary Russell. It's been brought up to date by Simon Brett ( phonic Screwdriver radio host, Phonicon organiser, Star Burst podcaster and Star Burst illustrator), Lee Rawlings ( Phonic Screwdiver radio host, Phonicon organiser and Star Burst podcaster), and Paul Griffin ( 80s & 90s fanzine illustrator, DWM illustrator and BBC Doctor Who book cover artist for The Devil Goblins From Neptune).

It features the likes of JR Southall ( You & Who books ), the original writers George Sik, Rolo Paloma, Paul West (the original editor), John Davies ( Big Finish Short Trips) , Simon Breeze ( fantasy artist), Lee Rawlings, Simon Brett and Paul Griffin.

It's A5 and features colour artwork. This issues has articles on Peter Cushing, Gerry Anderson & Captain Scarlet, a colour comic strip, short story by JR Southall and an exclusive interview with the director of Doctor Who's Kings Demons Tony Virgo.

It is now available priced at £2.50 plus p&p.

Details from the Fanzine's Facebook page.