AudioGo's ongoing celebration of 50 Years of Doctor Who reaches the Eighth Doctor in August, with he and Charlie facing Enemy Aliens in the Destiny of the Doctor series. Meanwhile, the Seventh Doctor performs at The Greatest Show in the Galaxy in the latest Target novelisation adaptation, and the Eleventh Doctor's former compantion Amelia Pond writes about when Summer Falls in an audio adaptation of the e-book released earlier this year.

Big Finish have released details about the latest adventures for the Doctor and his companions in July.

Doctor Who: Persuasion returns former Nazi scientist Klein to the Seventh Doctor's life as the pair become embroiled in a quest for a very dangerous object. And this time there's room for another person in the TARDIS: Klein's assistant Will Arrowsmith. It stars Sylvester McCoy and sees Tracey Childs reprise her role as Klein, with Christian Edwards playing Will. It has been written by Jonathan Barnes, author of Sherlock Holmes story The Adventure of the Perfidious Mariner, and the upcoming The Ordeals of Sherlock Holmes box set.

Producer David Richardson says:


Doctor Who - The Companion Chronicles: Mastermind takes us back to the UNIT Vault and the lives of Ruth Matheson (Daphne Ashbrook) and Charlie Sato (Yee Jee Tso), guardians of its secrets. Alongside all the artefacts, though, is a highly deadly prisoner: the Master (Geoffrey Beevers). And he has a story to tell which is certainly not guaranteed to have a happy ending. Writer Jonathan Morris locks himself back into the Vault for an in-depth look at quite possibly the Doctor's most dangerous foe...

David Richardson says:


The Fourth Doctor’s second season ends with The Final Phase, in which the mysterious Cuthbert's plan for the Proxima System is reaching its climax. The Doctor and Romana have been separated. The Doctor is aiding the Proximan fight-back. Romana and K9 are prisoners of the Daleks. And as the countdown to the opening of the Quantum Gateway begins, the Daleks reveal their true intentions.

Starring Tom Baker as the Doctor, John Leeson as K9 and, sadly, for the final time Mary Tamm as the first Romana, Doctor Who: The Final Phase brings the second series of The Fourth Doctor Adventures to a shattering conclusion. It also stars David Warner and Toby Hadoke as Cuthbert and his ever-faithful sidekick Mr Dorrick, and the incomparable Nicholas Briggs as the ever-malevolent Daleks.

David Richardson says:


Finally, the second season of Counter-Measures stars Simon Williams, Pamela Salem and Karen Gledhill reprising their Doctor Who Remembrance of the Daleks roles of Gilmore, Rachel and Allison, Counter-Measures - Series Two brings four more tales of Sixties-set 'black and white' espionage, conspiracy and derring-do. It also stars Hugh Ross as the team's mysterious boss, Sir Toby Kinsella.

David Richardson says:

Win a copy of Mastermind!

This month's competition thanks to Big Finish is to win one of five copies of Mastermind. To be in with a chance to win, please answer the following question:
Send your answer to comp-mastermind@doctorwhonews.net with the subject line "You Will Obey!", along with your name, address, and where you saw the competition (the news website, twitter, facebook, etc.). Only one entry per postal address will be accepted. The competition is open worldwide, and the closing date is 31st July 2013.

Silva Screen has announced the next of its 50th Anniversary soundtrack collection on CD, with the release of the score of the final story to be recorded in the original run of Doctor Who, the Sylvester McCoy adventure Ghost Light.


The CD is due to be released on 26th August 2013.

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Also coming out on 19th August is a 12" vinyl release of the Series 1+2 album, originally released on CD in 2006. The two records include all of the tracks from the original. Meanwhile, music from the most recent television series is due to be released as a two-disc collection on CD later in the Autumn.


UPDATE - 15th AUGUST: Silva Screen has announced that because of a problem at the factory the release date of the vinyl albums has been delayed, with Monday 2nd September now the likely date.

Win a copy of Ghost Light!

Thanks to Silva Screen we have three copies of the CD for our readers to win. To be in with a chance, simply answer this question:
Please send your answer to comp-ghostlight@doctorwhonews.net with the subject line "We all have a universe of our own terrors to face", along with your name, address, and where you read about this competition. The competition is open worldwide, and the closing date will be on 24th August 2013. Only one entry per household will be accepted.

John Barrowman has married his long term partner Scott Gill at a ceremony in California.

The couple, who have been together 20 years, entered into a civil partnership in 2006. Following the US Supreme Court’s overturning of the Defence of Marriage Act, the duo officially tied the knot at the beginning of the month, announcing the news on Whosay.

Barrowman recently told ITV's Daybreak the next Doctor should be a woman. "We’ve had great guys playing the role. The character of River Song was so popular in the last part of the series and it was such an impact, why shouldn’t we have a female doctor,” he said, adding “Give it a whirl, if it doesn’t work she can always regenerate, she can always regenerate back to a man - I’ve been there, I’ve watched them do it.”

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Actress Lynda Bellingham has revealed she has cancer.

Bellingham played the The Inquisitor in the 1986 Trial of a Time Lord season and is well known for her roles in All Creatures Great and Small, and Loose Women, as well as the Oxo TV adverts screened in the 1980s and '90s. The actress has postponed a UK tour of Kay Mellor's play A Passionate Woman to have treatment.

In a statement she said "I'm devastated not to be able to honour my commitments to the play this year, But having toured many times before, I'm aware of the sheer stamina needed and I need to prioritise my recovery. That said, nothing's going to stop me coming back next year, and I can't wait to be 'a passionate woman'.

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Author and Script Writer Neil Gaiman is doing a mini-tour of England and Scotland this August. The writer of The Doctor's Wife and Nightmare in Silver will talking about his new book The Ocean at the End of the Lane.

He will be visiting his home city of Portsmouth as well as Ely, Oxford, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Dundee and Inverness.

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The body of former Torchwood actor Richard Gent has been discovered in woods near his home in north London.

The actor, who also appeared in Casualty, Teachers and Black Mirror, went missing in April 2012 prompting his family to launch an appeal for his return. His body was discovered earlier this month. A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said his death is not being treated as suspicious. Gent's family issued a statement "The search for Richard is over and he is at peace now. We miss him more than we can ever say, and want to thank everyone for their support. Everyone’s kindness shows just how much he was loved. We are donating to the charity Missing People and setting up an acting scholarship in his name to help other young actors."

Sunday 21st July sees the broadcast of the 1988 Sylvester McCoy story, The Greatest Show in the Galaxy on Australian and New Zealand television. The story is presented as part of the 50th Anniversary season of Doctor Who on the UKTV channel.

The story screens at 4:30pm in Australia, and 4:40pm in New Zealand. The latter country has an additional screening on Monday 22nd July at 4:00am.

The UKTV billing describes the story as follows:

The Doctor & Ace head for the Psychic Circus on the planet Segonax, where they meet a disparate group of performers & visitors, including an explorer - Captain Cook.

The Greatest Show in the Galaxy was first broadcast in Australia in November 1989, and in New Zealand in April 1990.

UKTV is showing stories throughout the year in the lead-up to the anniversary in November. In July the focus is on Sylvester McCoy's Seventh Doctor. The remainder of the month's schedule includes: The Curse of Fenric and Survival (both 28 July).

Up-and-coming broadcasts from both 20th and 21st Century series of Doctor Who can be found via UKTV's Doctor Who sections for Australia and New Zealand.

Jenny Colgan has announced that she is writing her second Doctor Who book, to be published during 2014. Speaking on Channel 5's The Wright Stuff this morning, she reported that the provisional title is Into the Nowhere and that it features skeletons and snakes.


The author was at Heathrow Terminal 5 yesterday promoting the paperback release of her first book, Dark Horizons, where she posed with a Cyberman beside the TARDIS before signing copies of her books within the airport itself.


She was there as part of the Doctor Who themed day at the airport terminal - several more photos can be found on her own Twitter stream, and via the #WhereDoYouWantToGo hashtag.

Our own photos from the day can be found in our Facebook Album, plus a rendition of the theme tune as played by the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

The fourteenth in our series of features telling the story of the creation of Doctor Who, and the people who made it happen.

Production is progressing on the new series due for transmission on BBC Television in the Autumn. With key production personnel in place, attention has moved on to casting the main characters in the show.

July 1963 was mostly cool and changeable as production at Television Centre in west London continued on the new television drama, which by now had a name, Doctor Who. Producing a television drama is a complicated thing, with so many departments needing to work together and so many people all needing to make sure their part of the puzzle would fit into the whole picture. One of the most important parts of the whole is design. Design in Television is vital, especially in science fiction drama where new worlds and future landscapes need to be created. The requirements for the new programme were enormous and producer Verity Lambert thought she was not getting the best out of the BBC design department.

Lambert had been pressing the Design Manager James Bould and Head of Design Richard Levin to allocate a designer to the new series since the end of June, but it was not until Wednesday 10th July that Lambert was finally given a name. The first four episodes would be designed by Peter Brachacki. That day, Lambert and Associate Producer Mervyn Pinfield had a meeting with Brachacki. It was not a total meeting of minds as it was obvious Brachacki was not keen on working on the series. He could spare them half an hour and announced he would be unavailable for the next two weeks.

This was something that worried Lambert, and after reflecting on the situation, on Wednesday 17th July, exactly 50 years ago today, she sent her boss, Donald Wilson, a memo outlining her concerns and expressing a wish that the production should not suffer 'because of a lack of effort from the Design department'. Wilson took up the matter and wrote to the Head of the Design department. Music is another vital element in a television drama and Lambert was determined to try something different on this series. On Friday 12th July she made enquiries about commissioning the French electronic music composers Jacques Lasry and Francois Bascher to provide the title music for the series. Their group, Les Structures, were known for creating music using such techniques as glass rods mounted in steel.

By the middle of July, Script Editor David Whitaker had refined the original concept document, making significant changes to the character structure. Whitaker made clear in his changes that the main cast would be forbidden from interfering with history. The character of the Doctor was now described as 'over sixty' rather than 'about 650' and his granddaughter, Susan, was to be a 'sharp intelligent girl who sometimes makes mistakes because of inexperience'. He made notes on the spaceship that would feature in the programme. The actual scripts for the first 10 episodes, now confirmed at a duration of 25 minutes, were still being worked on by Anthony Coburn. He signed the formal contract on 8th July and would be paid £225 for each episode. The contract made it clear that the concept of Doctor Who and its four main characters would remain the copyright of the BBC and not belong to Coburn. Coburn's fee would be paid in 12 instalments.

The story structure for those first ten episodes was also outlined by Whitaker.

Doctor Who once more features heavily in the BBC Worldwide Annual Report, making clear how important the series is to the corporation and putting part of the fall in headline sales for the company down to the lower number of Doctor Who episodes produced this year.

The report details how the revenue from superbrands such as Doctor Who contribute 27% of BBC Worldwide's headline sales, which are down by 14% on the previous year, partly due to a lower volume of output from Doctor Who.

BBC Worldwide exists to exploit the BBC's commercial assets, raising money which can be returned to the corporation for reinvestment in programmes. Doctor Who has many mentions in this year’s annual report, which details the performance of the BBC's assets around the world.

Doctor Who is one of BBC Worldwide’s biggest brands, sold to over 200 territories around the world. It is named as a key part of the digital business strategy, where sales are up by 22.8% on last year.

The report details how the Series 7 premiere was the most-watched telecast in the history of BBC America, and how in Australia the first-ever cinema night of two episodes from Series 6 was number three at the Australian box office.

Other Doctor Who highlights include

• The Doctor Who Experience which relocated to a long-term residency in Cardiff Bay, following a one-year tenancy at London’s Olympia.
• Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock, the first BBC-published game on the Sony PlayStation3
• The Symphonic Spectacular which was held at the Sydney Opera House and had a total ticketed attendance of 16,144.
• The Universal Remote Control has sold 36,000 units since launch.
• Doctor Who Home for Christmas 2012, a collection of Doctor Who homewares, ceramics and stationery, designed and distributed in-house.
• A line-up of Doctor Who collectibles for the 50th Anniversary year, including a celebratory range of Royal Mail stamps.
• Doctor Who coin produced by New Zealand Mint.
• 3.1 million fans on Facebook.

Toby Hadoke is to perform both his critically-acclaimed solo Doctor Who stage shows as a double bill in the West End for one night.

The actor, writer, comedian, and Sony Gold Award nominee - who also moderates commentaries on Doctor Who DVD releases as well as being a columnist for Doctor Who Magazine - will be bringing Moths Ate My Doctor Who Scarf and its sequel My Stepson Stole My Sonic Screwdriver together for the first - and possibly only - time to the Garrick Theatre in Charing Cross Road on Sunday 17th November at 7pm.

Tickets for the double bill, which is taking place to mark the programme's 50th anniversary, went on sale this morning and can be booked via this link or by phoning 0844 482 9673 (please check with your phone service provider for call charges).

Meanwhile, My Stepson Stole My Sonic Screwdriver is being taken on tour again later this year, with the dates listed on Hadoke's website.

Visitors travelling through Heathrow Airport in London from Tuesday are to be entertained with a range of Doctor Who themed experiences including appearances from Cybermen, TARDIS photobooths, displays of props and memorabilia, and augmented reality hotspots.

The BBC worldwide event, in partnership with Heathrow, is to celebrate 50 years of Doctor Who. Travellers will be able to take pictures of themselves and friends on alien worlds and be menaced by monsters from the comfort of the TARDIS photobooths. Doctor Who passports will be available containing giveaways including a free episode to download, information about Doctor Who activities in terminal over the summer, and a free digital copy of Doctor Who Adventures Magazine.

To mark the launch of the partnership, on July 16 travellers through Terminal 5 will be able to enjoy performances by the London Philharmonic Orchestra. In addition, Doctor Who novelist Jenny Colgan, author of the recently released Doctor Who: Dark Horizons will also be signing books for fans.

Amanda Hill, Chief Brands Officer for BBC Worldwide comments. Susan Goldsmith, Operations Director at Heathrow Terminal 5 saidTravellers are invited to share their images of Doctor Who at Heathrow using the hashtag #WhereDoYouWantToGo