.As previously reported, Splendid Chaps is a year-long performance/podcast project to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who hosted by comedian Ben McKenzie (Dungeon Crawl, Melbourne Museum Comedy Tour) and writer John Richards (ABC1 sitcom Outland, Boxcutters podcast)

Described by its creators as part intellectual panel discussion, part nerdy Tonight Show, Splendid Chaps is a combination of analysis, enthusiasm and irreverence. The first episode went to number 1 on the iTunes TV & Film Podcast chart in Australia, and to number 4 in the UK. The podcasts to previous episodes are now available at www.splendidchaps.com or at iTunes.

Tickets are now on sale for their Eighth Doctor show! Their eighth major episode brings them to the Doctor of the show’s “middle period” between classic and new Who - Paul McGann’s Eighth Doctor. A cult figure thanks to his starring role in Withnail and I (alongside alternate Ninth Doctor Richard E Grant), McGann was a popular choice and garnered much kudos for his performance – but almost nothing else about the American co-produced telemovie seemed to please audiences on either of the Atlantic, and no new series was produced. It’s a weird moment in the so-called “wilderness years” between old and new Who.

It is also National Science Week, so Splendid Chaps are also looking at science in Doctor Who. Ostensibly science fiction, and starting out life with an educational remit, Doctor Who originally alternated between trips to historical events and sci-fi tales that were meant to teach us about science. But amongst the mad scientists, wobbly grasp of concepts like “black hole”, “neutron” and “constellation”, and the rather more fantastical bent of the post-2005 show, does Doctor Who actually depict real science in any meaningful way? Does it champion the idea of being “sciencey”? What does it get wrong, what does it get right, and what can we learn from it about science in either case?

Hosts Ben McKenzie, John Richards and Petra Elliott will be joined by a panel of actual scientists including biologist and geneticist Jack Scanlan. Plus a musical performance, and all the usual prizes and surprises!

Space: upstairs, Bar Open, 317 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy
Time: Sunday, August 11; recording starts 5 PM
Accessibility: Splendid Chaps regret that this venue is not wheelchair accessible
Tickets: $15 (plus booking fee where applicable)
Bookings: via trybooking.com or at the door (subject to availability)
Podcast: not yet available; released 23 August 2013.

A special edition of Doctor Who Magazine has been published today featuring telesnaps from missing Second Doctor episodes.

Although a total of 106 Doctor Who episodes no longer exist in the BBC archives, there are pictorial records of most of them in the form of photos taken of TV screens at the time of broadcast, and The Missing Episodes – The Second Doctor Volume 1 contains images from six Patrick Troughton stories across its 116 pages.

The adventures covered are The Power of the Daleks, The Highlanders, The Underwater Menace, The Moonbase, The Macra Terror, and The Faceless Ones.

The special publication also has a feature by researcher and author Richard Molesworth, which reveals how some missing episodes of Doctor Who have miraculously been found and returned to the archives over the years. Molesworth wrote the book Wiped! Doctor Who's Missing Episodes, which was updated this year for a second edition.

It is unknown as yet when Volume 2 will be published or which stories it will cover.

Fans worldwide are invited to relive and discuss the 1996 TV Movie in the company of two of its stars, in a online event RegenerEIGHT.

Daphne Ashbrook and Yee Jee Tso will be providing commentary on the story, via a special event hosted at Google Hangouts, which begins at 2000 GMT Sunday. That's 9pm UK time, 4pm EDT or 1pm PDT, and 6am Monday morning for those in east coast Australia.

Daphne Ashbrook played Dr. Grace Holloway in the 1996 film, which starred Paul McGann in his only TV appearance as The Doctor and which also featured Sylvester McCoy. She’ll be bringing her own experience of the film, thoughts on her character, and stories from behind the scenes. Ashbrook also starred in four Big Finish audio dramas including “Doctor Who: The Next Life”, Companion Chronicles “Tales from the Vault” and “Mastermind”.

Yee Jee Tso played Chang Lee in the movie. His Doctor Who connection continued when he played the part of Doctor Goddard in the webcast Real Time produced by Big Finish Productions, the part of Major Jal Brant in the audio drama Excelis Decays in 2002 and the role of Warrant Officer Charlie Sato in 2011′s Tales from the Vault.

The couple will be joined by Doctor Who Podcaster Ken Deep and former editor of Doctor Who Magazine and author of the novalisation of the story, Gary Russell

To participate viewers need to have their own copy of the movie to watch. The commentary and chats will be launched from Google Hangouts on Air. Anyone with any Google account: YouTube, Gmail, G+, can participate. The event will also be simulcasting on YouTube and daphneashbrook.com. The event also has its own Facebook page.

The film A Hitch In Time starring Patrick Troughton as a time-travelling professor is to be released on DVD for high-definition viewing.

Penned by the Oscar-winning scriptwriter T E B "Tibby" Clarke and directed by Jan Darnley-Smith, the 54-minute Children's Film Foundation feature from 1978 will form part of the three-film CFF collection Weird Adventures from the BFI.

It also stars Jeff Rawle as "Sniffy" Kemp, a teacher out to spoil the fun. The art direction is by Doctor Who's current production designer Michael Pickwoad.

The other two films in the collection are Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's last collaborative feature The Boy Who Turned Yellow (1972) and Alberto Cavalcanti's The Monster of Highgate Ponds (1961).

All the films have been newly transferred for high-definition viewing from the best available elements in the BFI National Archive, having been out of distribution for a number of years.

Weird Adventures - the third volume of CFF films brought out by the BFI - will be released on Monday 17th June and is available to pre-order.

The CFF was a non-profit-making pan-industry initiative set up in 1951 by the owner of the Odeon and Rank cinema chains to make home-grown entertainment for young cinema-goers to see at the "Saturday morning pictures". Key themes included adventure, mysteries, monsters, science-fiction, shipwrecks, races, and animals, with regional content from Scotland to south-west England.

It became the Children's Film and Television Foundation in 1982, with film production ending in 1987. The CFTF is now known as the Children's Media Foundation, with the film collection preserved in the BFI National Archive.

Today sees special Royal Mail stamps going on sale to mark the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who.

Each of the 11 TV Doctors is represented on his own first-class stamp (60p), as is the TARDIS, while four enemies – Dalek, Cyberman, Ood, and a Weeping Angel – feature on second-class stamps (50p). The enemies and TARDIS are on a five-stamp miniature sheet, while the stamp design for the Doctors sees the face of each one set against relevant opening title sequences along with a relevant logo. Since the first two Doctors' eras were broadcast in monochrome, the first two stamps are also black and white.

As well as the stamps - which are being sold at more than 9,000 Post Office branches in the UK, online, and via phone (08457 641 641) - a wide variety of associated products is also available, ranging from first-day covers and postcards to stamp sets and stamp strips plus a pin badge of the TARDIS stamp. Some of the items on sale include series information penned by Doctor Who writer, director, and script editor Gary Russell.

Royal Mail - which said it had had an unprecedented number of pre-registrations for the stamps since they were unveiled in December - is also creating unique postmarks in the home towns of the actors to have played the 11 TV Doctors. All stamped mail sent from those locations will have a special postmark celebrating 50 years of Doctor Who, with the name of the actor who played the Doctor plus the length of time they were in the role.

Andrew Hammond, the managing director of the stamps and collectibles division at Royal Mail, said:
Fiona Eastwood, the product development director at BBC Worldwide Consumer Products, said:
Royal Mail's Special Stamp programme has been commemorating and celebrating events and anniversaries relevant to UK heritage and life for nearly 50 years itself. All UK stamp designs are approved by the Queen before they are printed.

The stamps are available to purchase from the Post Office.

Pre-issue event:

A special public affairs event marking the issue of the anniversary stamps was held by Royal Mail at BAFTA in London earlier this month, with Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Paul McGann, Steven Moffat, Jenna-Louise Coleman, Jon Pertwee's son Sean Pertwee, and William Hartnell's granddaughter and biographer Jessica Carney mingling among the invited guests, who included MPs, stakeholders, and key Royal Mail customers.

Speeches in praise of the show and the stamps were given by Moya Greene, Royal Mail's chief executive, and Steven Moffat. The showrunner also introduced a video message from Matt Smith, as the actor had been unable to make it to the function, plus an extended trailer for Series 7b.

Props made by the officially-licensed company Rubbertoe Replicas were on show, as were displays of the stamps, with Daleks and a police box also adding to the atmosphere.

Competition to follow:

Doctor Who News will shortly be running a competition connected with the release of the stamps and there's a fabulous prize to be won, courtesy of Royal Mail, so keep checking back for details!

BBC America continues its celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of Doctor Who by revisiting the Second Doctor and showing the classic 1967 story The Tomb of the Cybermen.

The widely-regarded story will air on Sunday 24th February at 8pm ET and will be preceded by a documentary looking back at the era of the Second Doctor, featuring contributions from Steven Moffat, Caroline Skinner, David Tennant, John Barrowman, Frazer Hines and Wendy Padbury.

The Tomb of the Cybermen was the first story of the fifth season of Doctor Who, showing in four parts in September 1967. For many years it was lost from the BBC archives, presumed destroyed, before being rediscovered in Hong Kong in 1991.

Alongside Patrick Troughton as the Second Doctor, the story stars Frazer Hines as the young highlander Jamie McCrimmon and Deborah Watling as the Victorian refugee Victoria Waterfield. It sees the TARDIS crew land on Telos, where members of an archaeological expedition are searching for the legendary tomb of the Cybermen.

The revisited series began last month with a repeat of the First Doctor story The Aztecs, which gets a repeat showing at 5pm just before the transmission of The Tomb of the Cybermen.

As previously reported, Splendid Chaps is a year-long performance/podcast project to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who hosted by comedian Ben McKenzie (Dungeon Crawl, Melbourne Museum Comedy Tour) and writer John Richards (ABC1 sitcom Outland, Boxcutters podcast).

Described by its creators as part intellectual panel discussion, part nerdy Tonight Show, Splendid Chaps is a combination of analysis, enthusiasm and irreverence. The first episode went to number 1 on the iTunes TV & Film Podcast chart in Australia, and to number 4 in the UK.  The podcast is available  at www.splendidchaps.com or at  iTunes.

Tickets are now on sale for the second live recording, which features actor Toby Truslove (ABC's Laid, Outland, The Strange Calls) and cultural theorist Dr Djoymi Baker discussing the second Doctor, Patrick Troughton, and the notion of “evil” in Doctor Who. Is it absolute? Are there cosmic forces of right and wrong? And is the Doctor always on the right side? Plus performance guest, cabaret comedian Dean Acuri – performing a song written especially for the show.


Splendid Chaps: A Year Of Doctor Who: "Two/Evil"
Space: 303, 303 High Street, Northcote
Time: Sunday, February 17; bar open from 4 PM, show starts 5 PM (note that as event is recorded, latecomers will not be admitted until intermission)
Tickets: $15 full price, $12 concession (plus booking fee)
Bookings: via TryBooking; tickets also sold at the door (subject to availability)

"One/Authority" event shows (from left to right) Ben McKenzie, John Richards, Lee Zachariah, Nerida Haycock, Alexandra Tynan (nee Sandra Reid), Petra Elliot. Photographer Robert Young.

Big Finish have announced a special 100-minute story starring all five surviving classic series Doctors to be released for the 50th Anniversary. The Light At The End will see their paths suddenly intersect when they face imminent destruction . . .

The story is written and directed by Nicholas Briggs, who said:
As well as the Doctors, popular companions will also be involved from each era: for Tom Baker's Fourth Doctor it's Leela as played by Louise Jameson; then for Peter Davison there's Nyssa (Sarah Sutton); for Colin Baker's era there's Peri (Nicola Bryant); Sylvester McCoy's sees Ace (Sophie Aldred); and from the Paul McGann Big Finish adventures there's Charley, as played by India Fisher.

And if that wasn't enough, producer David Richardson added:
Released in November 2013, two versions of the story will be available: a standard two-disc release comprising just the episodes, and a limited edition five-disc release that will have two additional documentaries, plus Companion Chronicles tale The Revenants (performed by William Russell, previously available as a Doctor Who Magazine download).

David Tennant and wife Georgia Moffett are expecting their second child together, it was revealed on The Jonathan Ross Show last Saturday (5th).

During the show, the actor also talked about how he is still recognised as the Doctor in spite of four years away from the role: "It does carry on, yeah, because people are enthusiastic about it, it's one of those shows that people love. It becomes part of what you do, it's not a difficult thing to deal with.".

Talking about filming Spies of Warsaw - which is on tonight at 9:00pm on BBC4 - he commented on how wide-reaching his recognition is: "I didn't realise Doctor Who plays in Poland – but it obviously does. I've had a few fans coming up, wanting to say hello, or get a photograph or a signature. It doesn't happen quite on the scale that it happens at home – but then I don't think I've been to a country yet where I haven’t met someone who's a Doctor Who fan ... except maybe Uganda!" [Mail, 6 Jan 2013]

Burn Gorman - who appears with Tennant in Spies of Warsaw - has joined the cast of Revenge. He will play a recurring character named Trask, a member of the American Initiative. [Hollywood Reporter, 7 Jan 2013]

Tamsin Greig and Catrin Stewart will be on stage in Longing at the Hampstead Theatre in London. Adapted by William Boyd from two Anton Chekhov short stories, the play will run from Thursday 28th February to Saturday 6th April. The venue is currently staging Old Money, with Maureen Lipman and Tracy-Ann Oberman, ending on 12th January, which will be followed by Di And Viv And Rose, with Anna Maxwell-Martin and Tamzin Outhwaite (17th January to 23rd February).

An adaptation of Tom Baker's novel The Boy Who Kicked Pigs will be performed at Jacksons Lane in north London by theatre company Kill The Beast between 5th and 16th March. The actor said: "I wondered how a small theatre company could stage my story - which has a cast of hundreds, and includes a motorway pile-up with coachloads of people. I also wondered how they would manage to make my tale of evil horror funny, as I intended it to be." [EntertainmentWise, 8 Jan 2013]

Fenella Woolgar and David Troughton are up for honours in this year's BBC Audio Drama Awards. Woolgar is nominated for Best Actress for her portrayal of Rosemary Kennedy in BBC Radio 4's An American Rose, while Troughton is in the running for Best Supporting Actor as the Earl of Leicester in BBC Radio 3's Singles and Doublets. In addition, The Minister of Chance, by Dan Freeman, which stars Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann, Paul Darrow, and Tamsin Greig, is nominated for the title of Best Online-Only Audio Drama, while Kafka The Musical, which aired on BBC Radio 3 and is by Murray Gold, has been shortlisted for the Tinniswood Radio Drama Award 2012 for Best Radio Drama Script. The winners will be announced at a ceremony on Sunday 27th January at BBC Broadcasting House in central London. [BBC Media Centre, 8 Jan 2012]

In Memoriam:

The latest edition of BBC publication Prospero (page 15) has revealed that former Doctor Who crew member Marion McDougall died last March. Her first involvement with the series was as an assistant floor manager on The War Games, and she went on to be a production assistant on a number of stories between 1971 and 1977. Other BBC productions that she worked on included The Mayor of Casterbridge, Prince Regent, Mackenzie, Smiley's People, Mansfield Park, Blott On The Landscape, and Fortunes of War.

As mentioned earlier this month, the BFI plan to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who with special screenings each month next year in the lead-up to the Anniversary itself; the organisation has now announced details about the first quarter of 2013.

As previously mentioned, the season kicks off at the very beginning with William Hartnell's An Unearthly Child on 12th January; this will be followed on 9th February with Patrick Troughton tackling the Tomb of the Cybermen; then in March Jon Pertwee is up against The Master as The Mind of Evil is unveiled in newly restored colour! All stories are accompanied by a Q&A panel, though guests have yet to be announced.


Justin Johnson, BFI Programmer, said:

Doctor Who's executive producer Caroline Skinner said:

In November, the climax of the BFI's celebration will include a special preview of An Adventure in Space and Time , the drama written by Mark Gatiss exploring the personalities that brought the longest running sci-fi series to life.


The stories representing the other eight Doctors will be confirmed next year.