France 4 have released a new trailer for this Saturday's episodes, Le Seigneur des Rêves and La révolte des intra-terrestres (1+2); they will be broadcast from 8:35pm (local time).


You can follow France 4 via their Facebook page and Twitter feed.

The BBC have officially confirmed today that the actor James Corden will be reprising his role as Craig Owens - the Doctor's landlord from last year's episode The Lodger.

Though unconfirmed, this is believed to be for a forthcoming episode to be filmed that has been written by Gareth Roberts, who also penned Craig's previous appearance in the series. Roberts was a guest at last weekend's Gallifrey One convention, and during a live commentary for The Lodger was reported as saying that his new episode would begin filming "in a week" (i.e. from next week).


The news comes after a tweet was posted yesterday unofficially revealing that Corden would be coming back to Doctor Who: "They're filming Doctor Who with James Corden the whole 2nd week of March on my street. Just saying."

The Doctor Who story Vincent and the Doctor has been nominated for the The Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation in the 2010 Nebula Awards, an annual event held by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.

The episode, penned by writer Richard Curtis, is the only television episode in this category, and is up against the films Despicable Me, How To Train Your Dragon, Inception, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, and Toy Story 3.

The winners are selected by members of the SWFA during March, with the results announced at the Nebula Awards Banquet, taking place at the Washington Hilton, Washington D.C. on 21st May.

Vincent and the Doctor had previously been nominated for a Mind Mental Health Media Award last year but lost out to Channel 4 drama Shameless.


Doctor Who has been nominated for a Nebula Award twice in the past: The Girl in the Fireplace lost out in the Best Script category to Howl's Moving Castle in the 2006 awards, and the following year saw Blink miss the award in favour of Pan's Labyrinth - both were penned by the current lead writer, Steven Moffat.

BroaDWcast is a new online resource that traces and catalogues the broadcasting of 20th Century Doctor Who throughout the world.

It is the brainchild of prominent New Zealand fan Jon Preddle, and is the culmination of many years work travelling and collating information from broadcasters etc. to create a site providing comprehensive coverage of 20th Century Doctor Who, with airdates and screening schedules from 1964 onwards for more than 70 fully-profiled countries.

The site was launched at the weekend's GallifreyOne convention in Los Angeles, with layout design by Preddle, John Lavalie and Steven Warren Hill.


It is still a work in progress - currently estimated to be around 75% complete - and the site has a plea for further assistance and information in order to create the most complete record of Doctor Who's broadcast possible:

Series Five of Doctor Who continued on France 4 on Saturday, featuring Le labyrinthe des Anges (1+2) and Les Vampires de Venise. The shows achieved 375,000 viewers, 2% of the total viewing audience at that time (8:35pm onwards). Whilst this is a drop in the total viewers from last week (453,000), the audience share has remained the same.

The evening also saw a repeat of Torchwood: Les Enfants de la Terre on NRJ 12 in the same time slot - the five episodes achieved a rating of 219,000 viewers (1%).

Audience figures for Saturday can be viewed at Premiere, which shows that Danse avec les stars on TF1 was once again the highest show on French television that day.


The first three episodes of Series Five - Le Prisonnier Zéro, La bêtes des bas-fonds and La victoire des Daleks - are repeated on Tuesday evening, from 10:00pm (local time).

Back at the beginning of the month, David Walliams revealed that he would be appearing in an episode of the next series of Doctor Who; more details have now been released regarding his role by the BBC and other media outlets:
Further casting details for episodes have been revealed through agencies over the course of February.

Spotlight lists a number of guest stars under the direction of Peter Hoar. Actress Frances Barber plays a character named Kovarian; recent roles include Elizabeth in the BBC Christmas Tale Nativity, and Janice in ITV's The Fattest Man in Britain. Christina Chong plays Lorna Bucket - she will feature as an Interpreter in the forthcoming film sequel, Johnny English Reborn. Meanwhile, Joshua Hayes takes on his first television role as a character named Lucas.
Actor Geoffrey Burton has been listed as "Nasa Man" - though no director has been listed, this credit would seem to tie in with the American-themed opening two-parter for the series written by Steven Moffat and directed by Toby Haynes. Burton is better known for stage roles, but has appeared in Law and Order and Family Affairs.

Michael Begley has been listed as appearing as Mulligan in the just finished episode three written by Steve Thompson and directed by Jeremy Webb (coverage below); the actor has recently featured as Mark the hospital chaplain in Being Human, and as Orson in the revived Minder.
Mark Jermin Management has also listed two child actors to appear in roles this series.

Edmond Moulton appeared in the two-part story written by Matthew Graham and directed by Julian Simpson, playing a character named Adam.

Oscar Lloyd's character has yet to be revealed; he appeared in the BBC's Lark Rise to Candleford as the original Sidney, and has since been prominent as Will Wylde in ITV's Emmerdale.

---

In Production

After the media-intensive, public-friendly filming for Doctor Who in Charlestown at the beginning of the month, February has since seen the production crew retreat from sight back into studio and other private locations to continue work on the Steve Thompson-penned episode three.

Though 'over the horizon', Hugh Bonneville continued to regale us with tweets on the 'high seas' during the course of his filming schedule:

07 19:07 Skulduggery on the high seas was knackering today.
         Talk about poop-decked. Well done crew.
08 12:00 *gallops up hill on charger, grabs fluttering flag, brandishes it aloft*
         BRING BACK #JustWilliam #BBC !
08 12:08 I get about *gallops off towards Tardis, horse gets wedged in Police Box door,
         hat falls off*
08 17:58 Am having a fab time running around the Tardis at the mo. 
         Congrats on the wonderful body of work. Hx 
08 22:47 me gunwales have been awash with them pirates. And none of them rinse.
08 22:53 My buckle has never felt so swashed. Having fabblass time thanks. 
         It's Dr Who - what's not to love?!
09 07:40 I'm here all weak, folks.
09 09:56 Today is a load of old bilge water. In a good way. 
12 13:54 Thanks to Steven Moffat & the brilliant #DrWho crew for a fantastic fortnight
         on the high seas. #BeardGone #ColdFace
12 14:51 Steven Moffat: What, you've shaved ALREADY??  What if we've forgotten a bit??
12 15:01 Hugh Bonneville: Too bad, land-lubber! Mwahahaha *sets sail for horizon*
12 15:03 Hugh Bonneville: Some pirates are extremely fast. I'm one of them.
         I came top in my class at Pirate Academy.
12 15:35 Steven Moffat: That's not the horizon, shipmate.
         That's the CONVENTION CIRCUIT.
12 15:38 Hugh Bonneville: yikes!

Work on the episode continued until Tuesday last week, as reported by Director of Photography Dale McCready:

13 22:46 last two days shooting on this show, it's been a nice short blast. 
15 20:18 Wrapped tonight on a fun show with a lovely crew.
         Start tomorrow planning and scheming for Merlin IV | 

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Next Time ...

Production on the next block is now under way, with a base being set up in Porthcawl this weekend in readiness for filming.

2|Entertain's Classic Doctor Who have released a trailer for their upcoming Tweetview3 for the William Hartnell adventure The War Machines, which takes place this coming Saturday (19th) at 8:00pm (UK time).


Tweetviews are an organised viewing of a particular Doctor Who story on DVD, where everybody can participate by tweeting comments as they watch the show simultaneously. Previous Tweetviews have seen Earthshock and The Horror of Fang Rock viewed and discussed in this fashion.

More details can be found by following @classicdw on Twitter.

France 4 have released a new trailer for this Saturday's episodes, Le labyrinthe des Anges (1+2) and Les Vampires de Venise; they will be broadcast from 8:35pm (local time).



You can also follow France 4 via their Facebook page and Twitter feed.

The actor T.P. McKenna has died, aged 81.

He appeared in the Season 25, seventh Doctor story, The Greatest Show in the Galaxy, playing the intergalactic explorer, Captain Cook.

Born Thomas Patrick McKenna, he made his stage debut in Summer and Smoke by Tennessee Williams at the Pike Theatre in Dublin 1954. He continued to appear in therater productions with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal National Theatre Company.

Following several years on the stage with, he began appearing in popular television dramas from the 1960s including Dangerman, Adam Adamant, The Avengers, The Saint, Jason King, The Sweeney, Blakes 7 and Minder.

He also featured prominently in other television dramas including The Duchess of Malfi, The Changeling, Napoleon and Love, Holocaust, The Manions of America, To The Lighthouse, Bleak House, Strong Medicine, Jack the Ripper, and the final episode of Inspector Morse. McKenna had fulfilled a long-held ambition to appear with John Thaw in Inspector Morse.

He had film roles in Ulysses, Straw Dogs, and A Portrait of the Artist As A Young Man. In 1985 he appeared in The Doctor and the Devils alongside Timothy Dalton (Rassilon, The End of Time).

He died on 13th February in London following a long illness. He will be laid to rest in Mullagh, County Cavan, Ireland alongside his wife May, who died five years ago. He is survived by his sons Rafe, Killian, Breffní and Stephen and his daughter Sally.

Thomas Patrick McKenna (7th September 1929 – 13th February 2011)


Media coverage by: BBC News, The Irish Times, The Telegraph.

Gallifrey One's Catch 22: Islands of Mystery, the twenty-second annual North American Doctor Who and science fiction media convention takes place February 18-20 at the Los Angeles Airport Marriott Hotel.

Featured guests from the Whoniverse are Peter Davison (the fifth Doctor), Janet Fielding (Tegan Jovanka), Sarah Sutton (Nyssa), Tracie Simpson (Producer), Matthew Waterhouse (Adric), John Leeson (Voice of K9), Frazer Hines (Jamie McCrimmon), John Levene (Sergeant Benton), Gareth Thomas (Ed Morgan, Ghost Machine, Torchwood), Cush Jumbo (Lois Habiba, Torchwood: Children of Earth), Paul Kasey (Various monsters in Doctor Who, Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures) , Neill Gorton & Rob Mayor (Prosthetics & Special Effects Designers), Ian McNeice (Winston Churchill, Victory of the Daleks), Gareth Roberts (Writer), Philip Oliver (Thomas Hector Schofield, Big Finish), Sarah Douglas (Doctor Who: The Adventure Games voiceover actress), Jane Espenson and Doris Egan (Torchwood: Miracle Day writers), Phil Ford (Producer and writer, The Sarah Jane Adventures), Joss Agnew (Director, The Sarah Jane Adventures), James Moran (Writer), Daphne Ashbrook (Grace Holloway, Doctor Who TV Movie), Gareth Skelding (Location Manager), Gary Russell (Writer & Script Editor), Jason Haigh-Ellery (Big Finish Productions), Clayton Hickman (Writer and former editor of Doctor Who Magazine) and Tony Lee (Doctor Who graphic novelist).

(Update 16/02: Gareth Thomas will be unable to be at Gallifrey 2011 due to sudden medical issues)

A special announcement by CBS Publicity was made on Monday night:

Ed Stradling announced via his Twitter account that Come In Number Five, a Peter Davison era documentary presented by David Tennant will be shown at the convention.

For a full schedule of events, visit the Gallifrey One website.

(See a full list of conventions and exhibitions on our Events page)