Spyfall

Monday, 2 December 2019 - Reported by Chuck Foster
The BBC have now confirmed Doctor Who will return on New Years Day with the first part of the new series, Spyfall.

Doctor Who Series 12 (Credit: BBC)
The Thirteenth Doctor is in her TARDIS on her way back to BBC One for a thrilling ten-part series which will land on New Year’s Day 2020, with subsequent episodes airing on Sundays.

Starting with a blockbuster action packed two-part episode entitled Spyfall, the Thirteenth Doctor is well and truly back with a bang. As Jodie Whittaker takes charge of the TARDIS once again, the Doctor will be joined by her friends Tosin Cole (Ryan), Mandip Gill (Yaz) and Bradley Walsh (Graham). The twelfth series will also welcome a host of famous faces including Stephen Fry, Sir Lenny Henry CBE, Robert Glenister and Goran Višnjić to name just a few.

Add to that some familiar faces including the Judoon and the Cybermen, series twelve is set to be an epic action packed rollercoaster for everyone, just don’t stray too far from behind the sofa...

Spyfall has been written by Chris Chibnall, Showrunner.

Update 3rd Dec: time of broadcast is confirmed as 6:55pm on BBC One. A new, longer trailer for the premiere has now been released:





FILTER: - BBC - Doctor Who - Series 12/38

Official Series 12 Trailer released

Saturday, 23 November 2019 - Reported by Chuck Foster
The BBC have released the first official trailer for the next series of Doctor Who, due to air from New Year's Day.


The trailer was launched across the BBC's social media channels at 3pm, before its television premiere on BBC One as the lead-in to Strictly Come Dancing at 7pm.




FILTER: - Doctor Who - Jodie Whittaker - Series 12/38

The Unofficial DR WHO Annual 1987

Monday, 18 November 2019 - Reported by Marcus
The Unofficial DR WHO Annual 1987 (Credit: Terraqueous Distributors  )The Unofficial DR WHO Annual 1987 has now materialised and is ready to order.

Earlier this year, Terraqueous Distributors transport fans back to the 70s with the release of The Unofficial DR WHO Annual 1972, as 'World Distributors' elected not to bring one out for that year, creating a gap in many peoples collections. 34 years ago 'World Distributors' ended their run of Doctor Who annuals. So this time Terraqueous Distributors are taking us back to the 80's. The Unofficial DR WHO Annual 1987, is another bumper edition at 122 pages. and contains 11 stories, 2 comic strips, 10 features, 4 games, and more.

The annual also includes celebrity contributions from Frazer Hines, Alister Pearson, and David J Howe.
We are so proud and honoured to have our heroes, take part in the annual - although this time we also have a villian gracing the pages. Sil, is quite possibly the greatest villian the sixth Doctor has ever faced. And thanks to the kindness of Keith Barnfather, and Sil's creator Philip Martin, Sil has a couple of pages dedicated to him.
The Unofficial Dr Who Annual 1987 is published by Terraqueous Distributors and available from Lulu at the print-on-demand price of £21.64 plus shipping costs. None of the money paid by purchasers goes to the publisher or to any of the contributors.

The Unofficial DR WHO Annual 1972 is also available, but will be retired in January 2020.

Next year, Terraqueous Distributors will be releasing The Unofficial Master Annual. Details on the Terraqueous Distributors FaceBook page:




FILTER: - Fan Productions - Sixth Doctor

Big Finish Takes the First Doctor Back to Skaro

Thursday, 7 November 2019 - Reported by Marcus
First Doctor Adventures volume four (Credit: Big Finish)David Bradley, Jemma Powell, Jamie Glover and Claudia Grant return as the original, yet slightly different, TARDIS team in the fourth volume of audio drama series, The First Doctor Adventures, due for release in March 2020.

And this time they’ll be facing the Doctor’s greatest foe – the Daleks.

Doctor Who – The First Doctor Adventures Volume Four is available for pre-order now at £24.99 on collector’s edition CD or £19.99 on download.

Actor David Bradley expressed his delight at battling the Daleks
To record audio scenes with Daleks you have to have met them in real life – which I did in An Adventure in Space and Time and in Twice Upon a Time. The first time I encountered one on set it brought back that prickle on the back of the neck as I remembered them from when I was a child. The fact that they couldn’t go upstairs didn’t matter, they were still terrifying! To meet the man inside was funny and touching – it took me back to being young and terrified!
Script Editor John Dorney adds
I’ve always been a big fan of the first few years of the series – it’s still figuring out what it is and is willing to go anywhere and do anything. And this new batch of stories does pretty much that. From a perfectly pitched Terry Nation tribute to a morally complex historical, I think this box set covers the full gamut of what the first Doctor’s era can do.
First Doctor Adventures volume four (Credit: Big Finish)The First Doctor Adventures Volume Four contains two stories – one historical and one set in the future:
  • Return to Skaro by Andrew Smith
  • A new plan to return to Earth actually returns the TARDIS to another place its crew have recently visited - Skaro, home world of the Daleks. But it is some time after their previous visit. The Thals have moved on with developing their species... Yet the shadow of the Dalek city always looms large over them. Venturing into the abandoned metropolis, the Doctor and his friends discover the Daleks aren’t as dead as they might have thought... and it isn’t only their enemies who have secrets.
  • Last of the Romanovs by Jonathan Barnes
  • The TARDIS lands on Earth near to an eerie and familiar house... with the only witness a regal man watching from inside through a broken window. Leaving the ship the crew immediately find themselves in trouble - because they have landed in Ekaterinburg early in the twentieth century. The man inside the house is Nicholas, the last Tsar of Russia, imprisoned with his family... and one of the most notorious crimes in history is just about to happen.
Doctor Who – The First Doctor Adventures Volume Four is available for pre-order now at £24.99 on collector’s edition CD or £19.99 on download.




FILTER: - Big Finish - First Doctor

Doctor Who: At Childhood’s End

Friday, 1 November 2019 - Reported by Marcus
Doctor Who: At Childhood's End (Credit: Penguin Random House UK)Doctor Who: At Childhood’s End, the first novel from Sophie Aldred who played the Seventh Doctor’s companion Ace, is to be published 6th February 2020.

Once, a girl called Ace travelled the universe with the Doctor – until, in the wake of a terrible tragedy they parted company. Decades later, she is known as Dorothy McShane, the reclusive millionaire philanthropist who heads global organisation A Charitable Earth.

Dorothy is haunted by terrible nightmares, vivid dreams that begin just as scores of young runaways are vanishing from the dark alleyways of London. Could the disappearances be linked to sightings of sinister creatures lurking in the city shadows? Why has an alien satellite entered a secret orbit around the Moon?

Investigating the satellite with Ryan, Graham and Yaz, the Doctor is thrown together with Ace once more. Together they must unravel a malevolent plot that will cost thousands of lives. But can the Doctor atone for her past incarnation’s behaviour – and how much must Ace sacrifice to win victory not only for herself, but for the Earth? Past or future, which path do you choose?

Sophie Aldred said
I was thrilled and honoured to have been asked to create this opportunity for the Thirteenth Doctor and Ace to meet each other. I had always hoped to be able to offer classic fans an encounter between Ace and a current Doctor in some form or other and I hope fans of the present team will enjoy the blending of two eras of the most amazing programme in the Universe.
Doctor Who: At Childhood’s End by Sophie Aldred is published by BBC Books on 6th February 2020. RRP £16.99.

It will also be available as an audiobook in CD and digital download narrated by Sophie Aldred.




FILTER: - Books - Seventh Doctor

Fury From The Deep animated teaser released

Sunday, 27 October 2019 - Reported by Chuck Foster
Fury From The Deep - Steelbook (artwork tbc) (Credit: BBC Studios)BBC Studios have announced that the next missing Patrick Troughton story to receive the animated treatment will be Fury From The Deep, the penultimate adventure from the fifth season which features the departure of travelling companion Victoria.

The release was announced on the Animations Panel at this weekend's London Comic Con, and as well as all six missing episodes being animated in high definition in both colour and black and white it will also include the surviving clips from the serial, a new Making-Of, and other features still be be announced.

The story is due to be relesed on DVD and Blu-ray (including as a steelbook edition) during 2020, following on from The Faceless Ones, which was announced earlier this year, also for 2020.






FILTER: - Animation - BBC - Blu-ray/DVD - Missing episodes - Second Doctor

The Unofficial Dr Who Annual 1987

Sunday, 13 October 2019 - Reported by Marcus
Unofficial Dr Who Annual 1987This November sees the release of the Fan project The Unofficial Dr Who Annual 1987.

The publication is the latest project from Terraqueous Distributors, who earlier this year released The Unofficial Dr Who Annual 1972
It proved to be far more popular than we anticipated. Even before its release, people started to ask "what's next?

Well, we love the sixth Doctor, so the decision to do another classic-style annual was very easy. This time continuing from where World Distributors finished their run of Doctor Who annuals.

As children growing up in the eighties, collecting those wonderful books. A lot of fans were disappointed when after 21 years, the annuals stopped being produced. Those original 28 books (including two omnibus', a spin-off, four Dalek Annuals, and a k9 annual). hold such fond memories for us, that we felt the need to celebrate them.

Like our previous release, we have been blessed by the kindness of such well-known names from the worlds of Doctor Who, Frazer Hines, Alister Pearson, and David J Howe have all contributed to the publication, joining a large number of Doctor Who fan writers and artists.

We are so grateful to everyone who has supported this project.
The Unofficial Dr Who Annual 1987 is a not-for-profit publication and is released through LULU.com's print-on-demand service at a price to be determined.

Please visit the Terraqueous Distributors facebook page for further details and updates.




FILTER: - Fan Productions - Fourth Doctor

Mission to the Unknown - Reconstruction - Available Now

Wednesday, 9 October 2019 - Reported by Marcus
The reconstruction of the lost Dalek episode of Doctor Who, Mission to the Unknown is now available on Youtube.





FILTER: - First Doctor

Official 13th Doctor Scarf

Tuesday, 8 October 2019 - Reported by Marcus
13th Doctor Scarf (Credit: Lovarzi)13th Doctor Scarf (Credit: Lovarzi)The first ever officially-licensed Thirteenth Doctor Scarf is released this week by Lovarzi.

Inspired by the colourful t-shirt worn by Jodie Whittaker's incarnation of the Time Lord, this rich blue scarf is edged with a stylish rainbow pattern based on the t-shirt the Thirteenth Doctor proudly acquired at the end of her first full episode, The Woman Who Fell To Earth (2018).

This exclusive design is made from 100% high-quality Acrylic.

Maninder Singh Sahota, Director of Lovarzi, says
We think the Thirteenth Doctor’s outfit is the perfect look for this new era of the show. It's bright, bold, and colourful, so our specially-designed scarf is similarly eye-catching. But it's sure to sell fast, so best get a shift on!
Lovarzi's Doctor Who line launched in 2012 with the best-selling multi-coloured Fourth Doctor Scarf. Since then, the company has catered for cosplayers, collectors, and casual fans with items such as the TARDIS and Dalek Christmas Hat and Scarf, Seventh Doctor Sweater, and The Pandorica Opens Scarf. The Winter 2019/20 range also includes the TARDIS Laptop Bag.

The Thirteenth Doctor Scarf (25 x 175cms) will be available to order on 11th October, priced £24.99, from the official Lovarzi website

If you join LOVARZI Doctor Who Fan Club now and enjoy savings of 15% at time of launch plus get early exclusive access to buy the scarf.




FILTER: - Merchandise - Thirteenth Doctor

Mission to the Unknown Reconstruction

Wednesday, 2 October 2019 - Reported by Marcus
A recreation of a long lost Doctor Who episode is to be released on the official Doctor Who YouTube channel, exactly 54 years after it was first screened in the UK.

Mission to the Unknown was first screened on BBC One on Saturday 9th October 1965. Sometimes known as The Dalek Cutaway it was a prequel to the upcoming 12 part story The Dalek Masterplan and is the only Doctor Who episode in history in which neither The Doctor or any of his companions are featured.

The original episode was destroyed by the BBC many years ago, but the story has been faithfully recreated by a team of students, graduates and staff of the University of Central Lancashire.

The new production will be premiered on the Doctor Who YouTube channel at exactly 5.50pm BST on the 9th October to mark the anniversary of the original broadcast of the episode.

The project was masterminded by Andrew Ireland, Pro-Vice Chancellor of Digital and Creative Industries at the university, and brought together a dedicated group of students from a wide range of disciplines including film and television, acting, fashion, music, design and dance to recreate the episode from the original script as authentically as possible, carefully researching and reproducing as faithfully as possible the original 1960s production techniques to re-create the classic look of the series.

The recreation caught the imagination of several Doctor Who luminaries including Nicholas Briggs, who has provided the Dalek voices for the recreated episode, and stars including Peter Purves, who played 1960s companion Steven Taylor, and Edward de Souza, who played Marc Cory in the original episode, visiting the new set to lend their support.

The episode will be followed by a making-of documentary short created by YouTuber Josh Snares.

Luke Spillane, Digital Publishing Manager for Doctor Who at BBC Studios, said:
I’m delighted that we will be bringing the story of Space Security agent Marc Cory to our 1.3 million subscribers on the Doctor Who YouTube channel as it is such a fantastic recreation, made lovingly with real craft and expertise by everyone at the University of Central Lancashire. I hope audiences around the world can imagine that it’s tea time on the 9th October 1965 as they rather excitingly watch a black and white episode of Doctor Who premiere on their television sets, mobile phones and tablets.
Andrew Ireland, Pro-Vice Chancellor of Digital and Creative Industries at the University of Central Lancashire, said:
It is such a loss to our cultural heritage that so many episodes of 1960s Doctor Who are missing from the BBC archives. This project presented us with an exciting opportunity to address that, to explore a new way of bringing these missing slices of TV history to life, and in the process, help students learn their craft by comparing contemporary production methods with historical approaches. The project gave so many people great experiences, and it is wonderful to see the Daleks menacing a black and white jungle once more.




FILTER: - Blu-ray/DVD - First Doctor - season 3