AudioGo have released details on audio titles in their spoken word range due to be released in April. The Doctor and Mel go in search of a pool but are instead appalled when they arrive at Paradise Towers. Meanwhile, Sgt. Andy Davidson has to deal with an alien virus without the aid of Torchwood in Fallout.

Both are released on 5th April on CD, or by download from AudioGo from the 1st April.

AudioGo have released details on audio titles in their spoken word range due to be released next month, with the Eleventh Doctor, Amy and Rory continuing their adventures in Darkstar Academy and Gwen and Rhys embroiled in post-Miracle Day shenanigans in Army of One. Plus, the new novelisation of Shada, reported last week.

Big Finish are to run a special sale of Eighth Doctor audio adventures over the course of this week, with a different season every day. The series features Paul McGann reprising his role as the Doctor, alongside Sheridan Smith as Lucie Miller.

Day	Season	Complete Season Price	Episode Price
Monday 20th February	Season One (eight episodes)	£35 (US $60)	£5 each (US $9)
Tuesday 21st February	Season Two (eight stories)	£35 (US $60)	£5 each (US $9)
Wednesday 22nd February	Season Three (eight stories)	£35 (US $60)	£5 each (US $9)
Thursday 24th February	Season Four (ten stories)	£40 (US $75)	£5 each (US $9)

The first Eighth Doctor Adventure Blood of the Daleks is also available to download for free until midnight tonight (Sunday), US time.

On 15th March the official novelisation of the 'incomplete' Fourth Doctor adventure Shada will finally be published, both as a hardback and as an audio recording. The new adaptation of the story is based on the original and shooting scripts by its author Douglas Adams, and has been written by long-term author (and Doctor Who screen-writer) Gareth Roberts.

The novelisation was originally announced in March last year, with BBC Books' editorial director Albert De Petrillo saying: "Douglas Adams's serials for Doctor Who are considered by many to be some of the best the show has ever produced. Shada is a funny, scary, surprising and utterly terrific story, and we're thrilled to be publishing the first fully realised version of this Doctor Who adventure as Douglas originally conceived it."

Literary agent Ed Victor (representing the Adams estate) said: "The BBC have been asking us for years, and the estate finally said: 'Why not?'" Commenting on Roberts undertaking the task, he added it was "like having a sketch on a canvas by Rubens, and now the studio of Rubens is completing it."

The 416-page book is available for pre-order in hardback and Amazon Kindle form; the audio version is read by Lalla Ward, who played Romana in the original story.

Gareth Roberts will also be signing copies of the book on 14th March at London's Forbidden Planet store in Shaftesbury Avenue between 6:00 and 7:00pm.


The story is expected to be made available on DVD as part of what is currently entitled The Legacy boxed set, along with the series documentary More Than 30 Years In The TARDIS. Although some special features have been recorded for the set, no other details on how the story itself will be presented or a release date for the DVD are known at present.

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Shada, which was not completed following industrial action at the BBC, has been the subject of other versions over the decades. In 1992 BBC Video released a version of the story with linking narration by Tom Baker, including new effects and a music score by Keff McCulloch. In 2003 it was also released by Big Finish as a new presentation starring Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor, and a webcast of this version was presented on the BBC's Doctor Who website (at the time of writing the webcast will no longer play due to Flash incompatibilities). The Big Finish audio play was broadcast on BBC7 in 2005 and 2006.

An unofficial project to recreate the story using animation to bridge the unfilmed segments was undertaken last year by producer Ian Levine, and featured a number of the original cast recording their lines based on the scripts. It has also been novelised by fans in the past, with a version in the UK by Jonathan Way (appearing in the DWAS fiction publication Cosmic Masque over issues 13-18) and in New Zealand by Paul Scoones (available to read via the New Zealand Doctor Who Fan Club).

Fantom Films are to release the autobiography of Jacqueline Pearce, who played Chessene in The Two Doctors but probably most recognisable as the elegant baddie Servalan in Blakes's 7! From Byfleet to the Bush will be published in both paperback and hardback formats, with a book launch event to take place on 11th March at the George IV Public House, Chiswick. More details can be found via their website.


Also out in March is a book written by Valentine Palmer, best known in Doctor Who circles as the rebel Monia in Day of the Daleks. In TITANIC: The Strange Case of Great Uncle Bertie, the actor, producer and screenwriter sets out to write the definite account of the Titanic’s sinking. As the 100th anniversary of that terrible day approaches Palmer follows up innumerable conflicting stories and theories that still, to this day, surround the doomed liner... with a new unique perspective through the eyes of Valentine's family and Charles Lightroller – his great uncle, the highest ranking officer to survive the sinking.

Deborah Watling's autobiography, Daddy's Girl is to have an audio release this month, with the actress herself recounting her memoirs.

Arthur Darvill stars in a new three-part radio dramatisation of Gulliver's Travels, by Jonathan Swift. The Radio 4 series, which will feature all four of Gulliver's voyages, starts on Sunday 5th February at 3pm. Also appearing in the adaptation are Matthew Gravelle, Richard Nichols, Claire Cage, and Ewan Bailey.

Eve Myles is returning to the stage in the play All New People, by and co-starring Zach Braff. It will be at the Manchester Opera House from 8th to 11th February, the King's Theatre, Glasgow, from 14th to 18th February, and the Duke of York's Theatre, London, from 22nd February to 28th April. Meanwhile, in an interview with Cultbox, she told of her hopes that Torchwood will be back in some form or another. "Nothing's going to happen in 2012, I know that much for sure. But who knows what will happen in 2013? Maybe a movie, to kinda draw a line under it. We've got such an outstanding loyal fan base. They deserve Torchwood to go ahead with something else to draw a line under it, for the fans to have a bit of closure," she said. Myles's previous stage appearance was some six and a half years ago at the National in Henry IV with Michael Gambon.

John Barrowman is a guest on the final edition of the current series of Channel 4's topical entertainment show Chris Moyles' Quiz Night on Friday 3rd February. It airs at 10.30pm - half an hour after the end of the episode of the BBC One series Hustle in which he also appears, as previously reported by this site.

Sylvester McCoy lends his vocal talents to a new release from The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing; the actor has provided a spoken introduction to the album This May Be The Reason Why The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing Cannot Be Killed by Conventional Weapons, setting the tone for "the parallel Victorian past imagined on the eleven tracks". [Alison Bateman/Work Hard PR]

Nicolas Winding Refn, director of the movie Drive, commented: I would have loved to direct Doctor Who but they didn’t want me — they turned me down last year. Maybe if they revive Blake’s 7 I could do that. I love it. It’s great. That could be fun to update. [Shortlist, 27 Jan 2012]

Russell T Davies (writing the new children's series Aliens vs Wizards) comments on television output for children: "I am passionate about children's television, but it is, as ever, an endangered species, under threat. The most shocking thing I have seen is that, apparently unnoticed, five years ago ITV dropped children's programmes. There is now the complete absence of children's programmes made by ITV on CITV. It is amazing to me, when I contrast it with all those people who were furious about cuts to BBC local radio, and they were immediately reversed. I am also amazed that people don't recognise the talent, genius, of children's writers, for example, Andrew Davenport. The creator behind Teletubbies and In the Night Garden is up there, in my opinion, with Tom Stoppard, Samuel Beckett, but no one puts him there. It's the same with Jacqueline Wilson, whose books have led to the wonderful Tracy Beaker dramas." [Guardian, 28 Jan 2012]

Writer Rob Shearman will be interviewed at the Writers and Readers Week in Wellington, New Zealand on 12th March, which forms part of the International Arts Festival. Organiser Anne Chamberlain said: "He wrote the Dr Who episode that re-introduced the Daleks. So, we're screening that episode and then we're going to have Robert talk. That will draw a completely different audience, I suspect, to the usual Writers and Readers audience." [Stuff, 26 Jan 2012]

Mark Sheppard (Canton, The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon) is due to present the Doctor Who Symphonic Spectacular in Melbourne, Australia next weekend; speaking on the music, the actor said: "I've been connected with several shows that have had fabulous incidental music as well as score, and it's such an important part of the package as a whole. You watch a show like Doctor Who without music and there's a big difference. And what's amazing is when you isolate the music and hear it performed, it's even grander. It adds another dimension." [Herald Sun, 30 Jan 2012]

A trailer for the new David Tennant film The Decoy Bride has now been released; the film goes on release from 9th March. [IFC Films]

Shadowlocked have conducted an interview with Sylvester McCoy - who stars in the Death Comes to Time spin-off audio series The Minister of Chance as The Witch Prime - alongside his former seventh Doctor sidekick Sophie Aldred.

In an short interview segment released by the site, Sophie discusses how she might have appeared in The Sarah Jane Adventures, whilst Sylvester reflects on the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who and how fans would like to see the Doctors re-united, or cast in other cameo roles ...


The full, hour-long interview will appear at The Minister of Chance website soon.

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You can also read Shadowlocked's "complete reviews" of Doctor Who, kicking off from the very start with An Unearthly Child through to The Wedding of River Song, published this week.

The first Big Finish titles starring Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor have been released.

Destination: Nerva is a two-part story by Nicholas Briggs in which the Doctor and Leela (Louise Jameson) travel to the distant future and face a new enemy in a familiar place. Raquel Cassidy guest-stars as Dr Alison Foster and Tim Bentinck plays Giles Moreau.

The first ten minutes of Destination: Nerva can be heard for free via the Big Finish website.


Also available is Doctor Who: The Lost Stories – The Fourth Doctor Box Set, a six-disc collection of two adventures previously devised for the small screen in the 1970s and now finally made on audio.

In The Foe From the Future by Robert Banks Stewart, the Doctor and Leela face ghostly apparitions and an evil enemy in a Devon village, while The Valley of Death by Philip Hinchcliffe sees the travellers join an expedition to the Amazon jungle and uncover the secret of a lost city of gold. Guest stars in the box set include Paul Freeman, Louise Brealey and Anthony Howell.


Both titles are available to purchase from our Amazon shop: Destination: Nerva / The Lost Stories.

Big Finish have announced that the Doctor is to meet up with his old acquaintances Henry Gordon Jago and Professor George Litefoot!

The company has confirmed that Christopher Benjamin and Trevor Baxter will once again reprise the Victorian investigative duo alongside Tom Baker as The Doctor and Mary Tamm as Romana in The Justice of Jalxar.

The adventure is written by John Dorney and will form part of the second season of The Fourth Doctor Adventures, to be released in 2013.


Meanwhile, Season One of The Fourth Doctor Adventures begins next month with Destination: Nerva, featuring Louise Jameson as Leela - it is available for pre-order from Big Finish.

More details have now been released on the forthcoming Big Finish audio series Counter Measures.

The series stars Simon Williams as Group Captain Gilmore, Pamela Salem as Rachel Jenson and Karen Gledhill as Allison Williams, all of which reprise their roles first introduced back in 1988's Doctor Who adventure Remembrance of the Daleks. The team are re-assembled into the new specialist organisation Counter Measures in order to investigate strange phenomena and dangerous new science.


The first season is to be released in July 2012 as a boxed set comprising four stories:

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Big Finish have a sale on throughout December, with a number of discounts available on boxed sets and collections:

• the three Doctor Who stageplays The Ultimate Adventure, Seven Keys to Doomsday and The Curse of the Daleks
• all four series of Dalek Empire together
• series one and two of Cyberman
• a complete set of Doctor Who: Unbound
• both seasons of Sarah Jane Smith
  

Visit the Big Finish website for the latest details on how to purchase the collections.