The Return of Doctor Mysterio to air in US theatres

Thursday, 17 November 2016 - Reported by Chuck Foster

The Return of Doctor Mysterio (Credit: BBC)

BBC Worldwide North America and Fathom Events have announced that they plan to show this year's Doctor Who Christmas Special, The Return of Doctor Mysterio in movie theatres across the United States at 7:00pm on Tuesday 27th December and Thursday 29th December.

Join the Doctor, played by Peter Capaldi, as he teams up with an investigative journalist, played by Charity Wakefield (Wolf Hall, The Player), and a superhero to save New York from a deadly alien threat. Written by Steven Moffat, the special stars Justin Chatwin (Orphan Black, Shameless) as Grant, along with Matt Lucas (Alice in Wonderland, Bridesmaids), Adetomiwa Edun (Lucifer, Bates Motel), Aleksandar Jovanovic and Logan Hoffman.

As well as the episode itself, the event will include two exclusive bonus features:

A New Kind of Superhero, giving a special inside look at Doctor Who’s concept of a modern superhero
Doctor Who Extra, showing the making of this year’s special, with appearances by stars Peter Capaldi and Matt Lucas, and showrunner and executive producer Steven Moffat.

Soumya Sriraman, EVP, Franchise and Digital Enterprises, BBC Worldwide North America, said:

The Return of Doctor Mysterio will be an excellent way for fans to celebrate the holidays in true Whovian style.

Fathom Events Vice President of Programming Kymberli Frueh said:

Doctor Who fans are one of our most dedicated audiences, and we expect they will show up in full force for this holiday special. There’s no better way to enjoy this content than on the big screen and among fellow fans.

Tickets for the Special will be available to purchase online from tomorrow, 18th November via the Fathom Events website or participating theatre box offices.

The episode is due to air on BBC America on Christmas Day.

FILTER: - Cinema - Special Events - USA

Doctor Who Magazine 506

Thursday, 17 November 2016 - Reported by Marcus

This month's issue of Doctor Who Magazine celebrates fifty years of the Second Doctor, Patrick Troughton.

In November 1966, Doctor Who undertook its trickiest challenge to date. Could it survive with a brand new lead actor? Half a century later, DWM celebrates the lasting legacy of Patrick Troughton!

ALSO INSIDE THIS ISSUE…

WE WILL GET OUR POWER!

The Power of the Daleks

ASK STEVEN

Steven Moffat

THE MAN WHO BUILT THE TARDIS

Peter Brachacki

THE ART OF THE DIRECTOR

Daniel O’Hara

Ed Bazalgette

Daniel Nettheim

Douglas Mackinnon

BLOODSPORT

Mark Wright

Staz Johnson

THE PANDORICA OPENS

The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang

THE END OF THE WORLD

Russell T Davies

COMING SOON
WOTCHA

PLUS! All the latest official news, reviews, competitions, and The DWM Crossword!

Doctor Who Magazine 506 is on sale from Thursday 17 November 2016, price £5.99.

FILTER: - DWM

New Series 10 Writers Announced

Wednesday, 16 November 2016 - Reported by Marcus

Pearl MacKie and Peter Capaldi (Credit: BBC / Ray Burmiston)

The BBC has confirmed that classic series writer Rona Munro and new series writer Jamie Mathieson have both written episodes for series Ten of Doctor Who.

Rona Munro wrote the final story in the original series of Doctor Who, Survival, first shown in 1989. She has since become a highly respected scriptwriter working across the industry. She wrote the script for Ken Loach's Ladybird, ladybird as well as Oranges and Sunshine and Aimee and Jaguar. She has been prolific on the stage and written eleven Drama's for BBC Radio 4's Stanley Baxter Playhouse.

Munro becomes the first classic series writer to write for the revived series. She has written Episode 9, The Eaters of Light, for the upcoming series which is currently being shot in Cardiff, as part of the fourth recording block

Munro tells the new edition of Doctor Who Magazine

Writing Survival was my dream job, but it was a mournful time in the show’s history. This has been a very different experience. There’s more of everything; people, resources, confidence, success... but the same constantly renewing and indefinable wonder that is Doctor Who. When I was very small and watching the First Doctor, I had a special cushion known as ‘Rona’s Doctor Whocushion’. I would hide my face in it when the Daleks or other monsters appeared on screen! The Eaters of Light is my version of other stories that have haunted me for almost as long.

Also being filmed at present is Episode 5 by Jamie Mathieson, who previously contributed the 2014 stories Mummy on the Orient Express and Flatline as well as co-writing last year's The Girl Who Died. Mathieson tells DWM

I’m back baby, and beyond stoked to be once again putting words in the mouths of the TARDIS crew. So what can I tell you? Well, my episode this year is very, very scary. Like, seriously so. ‘Let’s go behind the sofa and just stay there until it’s over’ scary. It’s got more shocks and tense scenes than anything I’ve ever written. And that’s coming from a man who once wrote an episode of My Parents Are Aliens. It’s also a taut thrill ride, a gag fest, a pitch black satire and, for the first time – [notices Steven Moffat approaching with cosh marked ‘no spoilers’] – I’m writing for Bill and Nardole!

The end of the fourth recording block marks the half way point in the production of series ten,

FILTER: - Production - Series 10/36

Comics Out This Week

Tuesday, 15 November 2016 - Reported by Marcus

This week sees Titan Comics release the latest Doctor Who comic featuring the Twelfth Doctor as well as the final of the 2016 event Supremacy of the Cybermen.

DOCTOR WHO: SUPREMACY OF THE CYBERMEN #5

Writers: George Mann & Cavan Scott
Artist: Ivan Rodriguez
Cover A - Alessandro Vitti, Cover B - Photo Cover, Cover C - Fabio Listrani

The storming conclusion to the 2016 Event! Universes will live and die, and timelines will be changed for ever. You MUST NOT MISS this staggering finale!

DOCTOR WHO: SUPREMACY OF THE CYBERMEN #5 (Titan)

DOCTOR WHO: THE TWELFTH DOCTOR YEAR TWO #11

Writer: Robbie Morrison
Artist: Mariano Laclaustra
Cover A - Verity Glass, Cover B - Will Brooks , Cover C - Simon Myers

ALL-NEW STORY ARC BEGINS! Robbie Morrison returns for more adventures with the Twelfth Doctor, with a new comics companion in tow! Who can stand alongside the Doctor on an intertemporal romp of piracy, peril, and paranoia? And what affect will they have on the Twelfth Doctor's future?!

DOCTOR WHO: THE TWELFTH DOCTOR YEAR TWO #11 (Titan)

Both comics are published on Wednesday 16 November

FILTER: - Comics - Twelfth Doctor

Class - Detained - New Pictures

Tuesday, 15 November 2016 - Reported by Marcus

The BBC have released a new set of pictures from the sixth episode of Class, Detained.

The episode is released on BBC Three next Saturday, after which it will be released around the world. Full Details

Class Episode Six - Detained

The whole gang is thrown into detention by Miss Quill. Locked in her classroom, they are terrified when an explosion propels them out of space and time: trapped, claustrophobic and floating in blackness with no way of escape.
Although a mysterious asteroid fragment may be their key to freedom, it forces the gang to confess their deepest, darkest secrets to one another. As ugly truths come out, fractures start to appear in the friendship group.
And then they make a chilling discovery. They're not alone. There's somebody in there with them.

FILTER: - Class - Publicity

USA: Win tickets to see The Power of the Daleks in theatre

Thursday, 10 November 2016 - Reported by Chuck Foster

The Power of the Daleks in US theatres 14 Nov 2016 (Credit: BBC Worldwide/Fathom Events)

We are delighted to be able to offer readers in the United States a chance to win tickets to see the new animation of The Power of The Daleks at a participating theatre on Monday 14th November, courtesy of Fathom Events.

The competition is free to enter; all you need to do is send us the following details to comp-fathom@doctorwhonews.net with the subject "Power Giveaway":

Your full name
Your preferred email address (to receive the ticket from Fathom Events)
Your preferred theatre location (enter your zip code here to find your nearest participating theatre)
How many tickets you require (one or two)

Please note this competition is open to readers in the United States only, and ends at
MIDDAY Pacific Time/3PM Eastern Time tomorrow (11th November).

Full details of the event can be found on via the Fathom website.

FILTER: - Cinema - Competitions - Second Doctor - Special Events - USA

The Pirate Planet novel to be published in January

Thursday, 10 November 2016 - Reported by Chuck Foster

The Douglas Adams 1978 story The Pirate Planet is to be published as a new novel on 5th January 2017. Based on the original script, it is written by James Goss, who previously adapted last year's City of Death. The novel will also be released as an audiobook on the same day, narrated by Jon Culshaw.

The Pirate Planet
Written by James Goss, based on the script by Douglas Adams, and narrated by Jon Culshaw
Published by BBC Books and BBC Audio 5th January 2017 [pre-order the novel and audiobook from Amazon UK]

The hugely powerful Key to Time has been split into six segments, all of which have been disguised and hidden throughout time and space. Now the even more powerful White Guardian wants the Doctor to find the pieces.

With the first segment successfully retrieved, the Doctor, Romana and K-9 trace the second segment of the Key to the planet Calufrax. But when they arrive at exactly the right point in space, they find themselves on exactly the wrong planet – Zanak. Ruled by the mysterious ‘Captain’, Zanak is a happy and prosperous planet. Mostly. If the mines run out of valuable minerals and gems then the Captain merely announces a New Golden Age and they fill up again.

It’s an economic miracle – so obviously something’s very wrong...

The Pirate Planet (novel) (Credit: BBC Books)

The Pirate Planet (audiobook) (Credit: BBC Audio)

Featuring Tom Baker's Doctor, THE PIRATE PLANET is a novel based on a long-forgotten draft of the script found in the Douglas Adams archive in Cambridge. Unseen for 40 years and vastly different from the classic TV show, this is a work by The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy author that no-one has ever read...

FILTER: - Audio - BBC Audio - BBC Books - Books - Merchandise

BBC Audio: audiobook / competition updates

Tuesday, 8 November 2016 - Reported by Chuck Foster

BBC Audio have released details of the audio adaptions taking them up to the end of the year, with two further Target novelisations and a collection of previously released readings:

Doctor Who and The Day of The Daleks (Credit: BBC Audio)

Doctor Who and The Day of The Daleks
Written by Terrance Dicks, read by Richard Franklin
Published by BBC Audio, 10th November 2016 [order from Amazon UK]

An unabridged reading of this classic novelisation of a 1972 TV story featuring the Third Doctor, as played on TV by Jon Pertwee.

Mysterious humans from 22nd Century Earth 'time-jump' back into the 20th Century, so as to assassinate a high-ranking diplomat on whom the peace of the world depends. The Doctor, Jo Grant and the Brigadier are soon called in to investigate. Jo is accidentally transported to the future; the Doctor follows, eventually to be captured by his oldest and deadliest enemies: the Daleks.

Having submitted the Doctor to the fearful Mind Analysis Machine, the Daleks plan a 'time-jump' attack on Earth in the 20th Century.

Duration: 4 hours and 30 minutes approx

Doctor Who: The Space Pirates (no narrator announced) (Credit: BBC Audio)

Doctor Who: The Space Pirates
Written by Terrance Dicks, read by Terry Molloy
Published by BBC Audio, 1st December 2016 [order from Amazon UK]

An unabridged reading of this novelisation of a classic 1960s TV serial, featuring the Second Doctor.

When space beacon Alpha One disintegrates into lumps of metal, General Hermack of the Space Corps realises that space pirates have discovered a new source of precious aragonite. After witnessing further destruction, the General leaves a squad of guards on beacon Alpha Four - just as the TARDIS materialises.

Suspected by the Space Corps of being pirates, then pursued as spies by the pirates themselves, the Doctor, Zoe and Jamie attempt to unmask the mastermind behind the thefts of aragonite.

In doing so they risk execution, explosion, and asphyxiation in the vacuum of space.

Duration: 4 hours approx

Tales from the TARDIS - Volume One (Credit: BBC Audio)

Tales from the TARDIS - Volume One
Published by BBC Audio, 10th November 2016 [order from Amazon UK]

Twelve stories of excitement and adventure in distant times and places including:

The Curse of Peladon by Brian Hayles, read by Jon Pertwee. The Doctor and Jo encounter a delegation of aliens, including the Ice Warriors, on a primitive planet.
Kinda by Terrance Dicks, read by Peter Davison. A serpent at the heart of paradise poses danger for the TARDIS crew and a human survey team.
Attack of the Cybermen by Eric Saward, read by Colin Baker. The Cybermen are intent on a plan to change history by crashing Halley’s Comet into Earth.
Out of the Darkness, read by Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant. The Sixth Doctor and Peri fall into danger in three gripping original short stories by Dave Stone, Guy Clapperton and Michael Collier.
Short Trips, read by Nicholas Courtney and Sophie Aldred. Familiar Doctor Who characters are caught up in intriguing and original situations in six short stories by Steve Lyons, Jonathan Blum, Tara Samms, David A McIntee, Robert Perry & Mike Tucker and Paul Magrs.

Duration: 9 hours 30 minutes approx

December also sees the release of an adaptation of Gary Russell's Scales of Injustice, originally published by Virgin Books as part of their Missing Adventures series in 1996:

Scales of Injustice
Written by Gary Russell, read by Dan Starkey
Published by BBC Audio, 1st December 2016 [order from Amazon UK]

An unabridged reading of this original novel featuring the Third Doctor, as played on TV by Jon Pertwee.

When a boy goes missing and a policewoman starts drawing cave paintings, the Doctor suspects the Silurians are back. With the Brigadier distracted by questions about UNIT funding and problems at home, the Doctor swears his assistant Liz Shaw to secrecy and investigates alone.

But Liz has enquiries of her own, teaming up with a journalist to track down people who don’t exist. What is the mysterious Glasshouse, and why is it so secret?

As the Silurians wake from their ancient slumber, the Doctor, Liz and the Brigadier are caught up in a conspiracy to exploit UNIT’s achievements – a conspiracy that reaches deep into the heart of the British Government.

Duration: 8 hours approx

Win Doctor Who and The Day of The Daleks

To be in with a chance to win the audiobook courtesy of BBC Audio, simply answer the following question:

Which time travel priciple was first mentioned by the Doctor during this story?

Please send your answers along with your name, address and where you heard about the competition (news site, news app, other website, etc.) to comp-day@doctorwhonews.net with the subject "No complications". The competition is open worldwide, closing date 4th December 2016. Only one entry per household will be accepted.

Win Tales from the TARDIS

To be in with a chance to win the audiobook collection courtesy of BBC Audio, simply answer the following question:

Name another audiobook based on a Target novelisation read by Jon Pertwee

Please send your answers along with your name, address and where you heard about the competition (news site, news app, other website, etc.) to comp-tardis@doctorwhonews.net with the subject "Time will tell". The competition is open worldwide, closing date 4th December 2016. Only one entry per household will be accepted.

It is still possible to enter competitions to win September and October's audiobooks here, closing date 13th November.

FILTER: - BBC Audio - Competitions - Fifth Doctor - Merchandise - Second Doctor - Sixth Doctor - Third Doctor

Class- Brave-ish Heart

Tuesday, 8 November 2016 - Reported by Marcus

The BBC have released a new set of pictures from the fifth episode of Class, Brave-ish Heart.

The episode is released on BBC Three next Saturday, after which it will be released around the world. Full Details

Class Episode Five - Brave-ish Heart

Battling through the Shadow Kin realm, April knows that there is no going back: she has to defeat Corakinus.
On Earth, the invasion of the petals is rapidly snowballing. Confronted with the threat of the planet's extinction, new headmistress Dorothea attempts to force Charlie into making a transformational decision. But Miss Quill has other ideas for him.
As Charlie, Matteusz and Tanya try to stop the petals from annihilating the human race, April must fight the terrifying force of Corakinus, light years away from home.

FILTER: - Class

Doctor Who Experience to Close

Monday, 7 November 2016 - Reported by Marcus

BBC Worldwide have confirmed that the Doctor Who Experience in Cardiff is expected to close next year.

BBC Worldwide told Doctor Who News that the lease for the building that holds the exhibition, which opened in Cardiff in July 2012, will expire next summer.

The Doctor Who Experience has enjoyed a fantastic five-year run in Cardiff Bay but, sadly, our five-year sub-lease from the City of Cardiff Council will come to an end in Summer 2017

The Doctor Experience opened in London in 2011, before moving to a purpose-built building in the Welsh capital. It is currently situated at Porth Teigr, Cardiff Bay, near the BBC studios where Doctor Who is made.

The site is leased from Cardiff City Council and currently features sets and costumes from the 54-year history of Doctor Who. It is not known if BBC Worldwide will attempt to open the Experience at a different location.

An online petition has been launched to try to save the Experience, as well as a twitter account.

FILTER: - Exhibitions

Previous 10 Stories