Lethbridge-Stewart: 2015/2016 schedule update

Monday, 6 April 2015 - Reported by Chuck Foster
Candy Jar Books have announced a change in schedules for their novels based upon the character of Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart.

Owing to Lance Parkin being unavailable for the project at present, his novel Horror of Det-Sen will no longer be published in June, with David A McIntee's The Schizoid Earth now moving into that slot. Shaun Russell, head of publishing, said:
Lance is such a huge talent in the world of Doctor Who and we have left the door open for him to return. Hopefully, one day, Lethbridge-Stewart will make it to Det-Sen.
McIntee's novel will be followed by a new replacement a few months later entitled Beast of Fang Rock which, as the name implies, is a prequel/sequel to the Season 15 opener Horror of Fang Rock; it will be co-written by Andy Frankham-Allen and the original script's writer Terrance Dicks. This will then be followed by the previously announced Mutually Assured Domination by Nick Walters.

Looking to 2016, novels have been commissioned from John Peel (author of a number of Virgin/BBC Books and story novelisations), Jonathan Cooper (former Doctor Who correspondent with the Mirror), Lizbeth M Myles (author of several short stories), and Adrian Rigelsford (The Hinchcliffe Years and The Harper Classics).



Lethbridge-Stewart: Top Secret Files (Credit: Candy Jar Books)To celebrate the success of the first book in the range, The Forgotten Son, Candy Jar Books have made a 65 page e-book freely available for download from their website. Hayley Cox, senior publishing co-ordinator, said:
The response to The Forgotten Son has been fantastic – over twenty really positive reviews in just over a month! It was so nice, in fact, that we decided we wanted to give something back to the fans, and so we put together this ebook which acts as both a thank you to those who’ve already bought the first book, and an introductory pack for those who have yet to commit to the series.

Lethbridge-Stewart: Top Secret Files contains previously unpublished material, as well as an extended short story first published in Doctor Who Magazine #483 in February. It also includes a special, previously unreleased interview in which Doctor Who director Graeme Harper talks about the actor who played Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, Nicholas Courtney.
  • The Ambush! – A short story originally published in Doctor Who Magazine #438, now extended with new scenes. It is set during the Doctor Who serial The Web of Fear, and serves as an introduction to the Lethbridge-Stewart book series.
  • We Won’t Let Him Down – An extended version of the final chapter of Candy Jar Books’ Companions: Fifty Years of Doctor Who Assistants, focussing solely on the television adventures of the Brigadier.
  • What Lies Beyond – A brief look at some of the Doctor Who novels that have featured the Brigadier over the years that pertain to the future of the Lethbridge-Stewart series of novels.
  • Graeme Harper – An extended interview with Doctor Who director Graeme Harper (the only director to have worked on the classic series and the revived series) from the book Calling the Shots, in which he talks about Nicholas Courtney, the man who brought the Brigadier to life.
  • Original Prelude – Never-before-seen original prelude that was written to open The Forgotten Son, set during the final moments of the Brigadier’s life.
  • The New World – The opening chapter of The Forgotten Son, the first novel in the Lethbridge-Stewart series.
The e-book is also available for the Kindle via Amazon.





FILTER: - Books - Lethbridge-Stewart - Merchandise

Listen Gets Hugo Nomination

Sunday, 5 April 2015 - Reported by Marcus
Doctor Who: Listen has been nominated for a 2015 Hugo Award.

The episode, written by Steven Moffat and directed by Douglas Mackinnon, was the fourth episode of Series Eight, shown worldwide last Autumn, and is nominated in the Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form category.

Other shows nominated include Game of Thrones, which has triumphed at the awards in the previous two years.
Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form
  • Doctor Who: “Listen”, written by Steven Moffat, directed by Douglas Mackinnon (BBC Television)
  • The Flash: “Pilot”, teleplay by Andrew Kreisberg & Geoff Johns, story by Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg & Geoff Johns, directed by David Nutter (The CW) (Berlanti Productions, DC Entertainment, Warner Bros. Television)
  • Game of Thrones: “The Mountain and the Viper”, written by David Benioff & D. B. Weiss, directed by Alex Graves ((HBO Entertainment in association with Bighead, Littlehead; Television 360; Startling Television and Generator Productions)
  • Grimm: “Once We Were Gods”, written by Alan DiFiore, directed by Steven DePaul (NBC) (GK Productions, Hazy Mills Productions, Universal TV)
  • Orphan Black: “By Means Which Have Never Yet Been Tried”, ” written by Graham Manson, directed by John Fawcett (Temple Street Productions, Space/BBC America)
The 2015 Hugo Award and John W. Campbell Award winners will be announced Saturday, August 22, 2015, during the Hugo Awards Ceremony at the 2015 Worldcon.




FILTER: - Awards/Nominations - Series 8/34 - Steven Moffat

Horror Channel wins award for Doctor Who campaign

Wednesday, 25 March 2015 - Reported by Chuck Foster
Horror Channel has won the Design – General Image Programme Design Package award for their Doctor Who image campaign at the PromaxBDA Europe Awards 2015, which took place in Germany Thursday evening.

The iconic images and animations have been used to promote the show on Horror since it started broadcasting the series in April last year.

Horror Channel - Classic Doctors Logo (Credit: Horror Channel)

Doctor Who is shown daily on Horror Channel, and is available to watch on television in the United Kingdom via both Freeview (channel 70) and Freesat (channel 138), and on other subscription services. Episode details can be found via This Week in Doctor Who.




FILTER: - Awards/Nominations

Doctor Who Nominated for BAFTA Craft Award

Wednesday, 25 March 2015 - Reported by Marcus


Milk VFX, Real SFX and BBC Wales VFX have been nominated for a 2015 BAFTA Craft Award for their work on Doctor Who.

The teams are nominated in the category Television Craft | Special, Visual & Graphic Effects in 2015. Other nominees are the teams from Atlantis, David Attenborough’s Conquest of the Skies 3D and Ripper Street.

Danny Hargreaves of RealSFX tweeted "Very proud of my team today"

Doctor Who won the award last year for the work on the fiftieth anniversary special, The Day of the Doctor.

The winners will be announced on Sunday 26 April at the Brewery in East London.




FILTER: - Awards/Nominations - Doctor Who

Doctor Who Wins Cardiff Life Awards

Friday, 20 March 2015 - Reported by Marcus
Doctor Who has won two awards at the Cardiff Life awards.

The Cardiff Life Awards celebrate the very best businesses in the Welsh capital, as chosen by a panel of independent Judges. Any company in Cardiff can nominate its business for free, and the entrants are judged by an independent panel of Cardiff experts.

The Doctor Who Experience has been awarded Best in Leisure & Tourism at the event, beating the other nominees St David’s Hotel & Spa, Celtic Manor Resort, Radisson Blu Hotel and The Cardiff Story. The Doctor Who Experience opened in the city in 2012 and was updated last Autumn in include the Twelfth Doctor.

Meanwhile Real SFX has been awarded the prize as best Creative in the city. Real SFX is the company set up Danny Hargreaves, who has been providing Special Effects for Doctor Who since 2006. The company beat Ongl Design+Make, Hello Starling, Antti Karppinen, Design Management Partnership, Little Cake Cupboard, S3 Advertising and InspireMe, to take the award.

Twelfth Doctor in Five TARDIS Console Rooms. - The Doctor Who Experience - Doctor Who - BBC:
TARDIS ALERT! Check out the Twelfth Doctor in five TARDIS console rooms in the brand new adventure at the Doctor Who Experience, this Easter.





FILTER: - Awards/Nominations - Exhibitions - Production

Saturn Award Nominations 2015

Wednesday, 4 March 2015 - Reported by Chuck Foster
The 41st Annual Saturn Award nominations have been announced, and sees Doctor Who up for two awards for this year.

The show itself is listed in the Best Youth-Oriented Television Series category. Other nominations include The 100, Pretty Little Liars, Supernatural, Teen Wolf and The Vampire Diaries.

Jenna Coleman has also been nominated in the Best Supporting Actress in a Television Series category. Her competition is in the form of Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones), Caroline Dhavernas (Hannibal), Lexa Doig (Continuum), Emily Kinney (The Walking Dead) and Melissa McBride (also The Walking Dead).

The Saturn Awards are presented by the The Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films, and will take place this year on 25th June 2015.


Previously, Doctor Who won Best Television in 1997, and Best International Series in 2008; in 2010 the spin-off series Torchwood: Children of Earth won the Best Presentation on Television category.






FILTER: - Awards/Nominations - Doctor Who - Jenna Coleman

Samuel Anderson wins TV Award

Friday, 20 February 2015 - Reported by Marcus
Samuel Anderson  (Credit: Screen Nation Awards)Samuel Anderson has won the award for Best Male Performance in TV at the 2015 Screen Nation Film & Television Awards

The Screen Nation Awards celebrate, reward and promote products and professionals of African heritage working in the UK and global film, TV and digital media industries.

The award was presented to Anderson for his work on Doctor Who and Trollied at a ceremony held at London's Hilton Metropole last Sunday, and will be screened on the African Broadcast Network (Sky235) on Saturday 28 February.




FILTER: - Awards/Nominations - people

David Tennant honoured at National Television Awards

Thursday, 22 January 2015 - Reported by Chuck Foster
David Tennant wins a Special Recognition award at the 2015 NTAs (Credit: National Television Awards/ITV)Former Doctor David Tennant was the recipient of an award for Special Recognition at the United Kingdom's National Television Awards ceremomy that took place last night in London. The very emotional actor thanked the many people he had worked with, including his agents, and summed up with:
Anyone who’s ever given me a shot, thank you very much, and anyone who’s ever let me into their living room on the telly, it's a real honour and a privilege to get to do that, so thank you!
He also thanked his family and in particular his father, to whom he then dedicated his award.

This is Tennant's fifth NTA award, having received ones for best Actor in 2006 and 2007, and then for Drama Performance in 2008 and 2010.

Doctor Who, which has won a number of awards over the course of its ten years back on air and regained the best Drama title last year, lost out this time to Downton Abbey. The full list of winners over the years can be found via the NTA website.





FILTER: - Awards/Nominations - David Tennant

Doctor Who makes shortlist in National TV Awards

Tuesday, 6 January 2015 - Reported by Marcus
Doctor Who has been nominated for Best Drama in the final round of the 2015 National Television Awards.

The show is up against its fellow Cardiff produced rival Sherlock as well as period stalwart Downton Abbey and the Cilla Black bio-pic Cilla.

The star of Cilla, former Big Finish actress Sheridan Smith has been nominated for Best Drama Performance, however no actors from Doctor Who made the shortlist this year.

Votes can be cast by the public until midday on Wednesday 21st January via this link. The awards ceremony will take place at the 02 in London later the same day, being broadcast live on ITV from 7.30pm.

Doctor Who won the award for Best Drama in 2014, regaining a title it held from 2005-2010.




FILTER: - Awards/Nominations - Doctor Who

Lethbridge-Stewart teaser image

Thursday, 1 January 2015 - Reported by Josiah Rowe
Candy Jar Books has released the following image relating to their forthcoming Lethbridge-Stewart novel series:
Lethbridge-Stewart: Fear of Light promo image (Credit: Candy Jar Books)

Along with the image, the publisher released the following quotation, attributed to Plato: "We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light." (Unfortunately, the attribution, although widespread, appears to be spurious; it is not found in any of Plato's extant works.)

The title Fear of Light is not one of the four previously announced novels in the series. Range editor Andy Frankham-Allen promises that more information will be forthcoming.





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