Actors Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton, and Janet Fielding will join director Graeme Harper and Radiophonic Workshop composer Roger Limb as the special guests at the BFI Southbank big-screen showing of The Caves of Androzani next month.

The four-part story is being shown on Saturday 4th May to mark the Fifth Doctor's era, as part of the BFI's Doctor Who At 50 season.

The adventure saw the Doctor regenerate into his sixth incarnation, played by Colin Baker, and today the BFI revealed that the story picked to mark the Sixth Doctor's era will be The Two Doctors, to be shown on Saturday 15th June at 2pm.

The three-part adventure, written by Robert Holmes, co-starred Patrick Troughton as the Second Doctor and was first broadcast in 1985, pitting both Doctors against the Sontarans. It also saw the return of Frazer Hines as Second Doctor companion Jamie. Location filming was carried out in Spain.

BFI Champions and members are entitled to priority booking for the event, whose guests will be announced nearer the time, but because of the overwhelming popularity of the Doctor Who At 50 season a ballot system will be in operation once again for tickets. Two ballots are being run - one each for Champions and members - via e-mail to memberballot@bfi.org.uk. Champions can enter from Monday 6th May, while members can enter from Tuesday 7th May. Champions can enter both ballots.

The ballots will close on Friday 10th May and will be run over the weekend of 11th and 12th May, with all entrants being notified on Monday 13th May as to their success or failure. Any tickets that have been reserved for Champions and members through the ballot will be held until 8.30pm on Friday 17th May, and those left unclaimed will be released for public sale on Saturday 18th May.

However, on Wednesday 15th May the official Doctor Who Facebook page will have a small number of tickets set aside for purchase by members of the public, whereby people will have to correctly answer a question to be in with a chance of booking.

Although all the celebratory screenings have been immediate sell-outs, returns and stand-bys are a strong possibility, so if all else fails do keep checking with the BFI!

A video of the guest panel at the BFI's screening of the colour-restored The Mind of Evil is now available to watch online.

The event was held on Sunday 10th March to mark the Third Doctor's era as part of the BFI's Doctor Who At 50 season.

Once the closing titles for the final episode had rolled, director Timothy Combe, script editor Terrance Dicks, and actors Richard Franklin, John Levene, and Katy Manning were welcomed on stage by season co-curator Justin Johnson to talk about their time on the show.


The next event - marking the Fourth Doctor's era - is a screening of The Robots of Death on Saturday 20th April, with Tom Baker, Louise Jameson, producer Philip Hinchcliffe, and visual effects designer Mat Irvine as guests. Although currently sold out, returns and stand-bys are possible.

It will be followed on Saturday 4th May with a screening of The Caves of Androzani, celebrating the Fifth Doctor.

Overwhelming demand for events in the BFI's Doctor Who At 50 celebratory season has led to a rethink on ticket allocation.

As part of the season, the organisation is showing one story per Doctor per month with an accompanying guest panel, and all events so far have sold out to members - who get priority booking - immediately after being made available to them, which has led to huge numbers of fans who are not members missing out and being left disappointed.

As a result, the BFI is introducing a ticket ballot system for May's screening onwards. The Caves of Androzani, which marked the end of the Fifth Doctor's era, is being shown on Saturday 4th May at 2pm, and seats are being restricted to two per buyer, with a ballot also being run to try to ensure the fairest possible allocation.
BFI Champions can apply from Monday 1st April and BFI Members from Tuesday 2nd April. They will be able to apply via e-mail up to 8.30pm on Friday 5th April saying how many seats they would like, but will only be allowed a maximum of two. These will then be allocated by ballot, and not on a first-come first-served basis.

Ticket applicants can ask for specific seat numbers in their e-mail and the BFI says it will do its best to meet those requests. If applicants are happy to sit elsewhere in the auditorium if their choice is unavailable they should state this in their application and the BFI will try to seat them as near as possible to where they wanted to be. If people only want their specified seats or are happy to be seated anywhere in the auditorium they are similarly asked to state this in their application.

Any tickets that are left over following the ballot plus about 25 set aside for the public will then go on release to non-members on Tuesday 9th April when, again, purchasers will be restricted to two seats each.

As in the past, returns and stand-bys are also always a possibility once an event has sold out, so keep checking back with the BFI.

The Caves of Androzani is to be shown by the BFI to represent the Fifth Doctor's era in its Doctor Who At 50 season, it announced today.

Written by Robert Holmes and directed by Graeme Harper, the four-part adventure - which first aired in March 1984 - saw the final regular appearance of Peter Davison as the Doctor.

The "regeneration" adventure will be shown on the big screen at BFI Southbank on Saturday 4th May, as reported earlier this week, with the start time for the event now confirmed as 2pm. The names of the guests for the accompanying panel discussion will be announced nearer the time.

Dates for when tickets go on sale are also yet to be announced. BFI Champions get first pick, followed by standard members and then the general public. So far, all the events in the celebratory season have sold out to BFI members in advance of tickets being released to the public, but returns and stand-bys are possible.

A video of the guest panel at last month's screening of The Tomb of the Cybermen at the BFI has been uploaded to the organisation's YouTube channel.

The event, marking the Second Doctor's era, was held on 9th February as part of the BFI's Doctor Who At 50 season, and the discussion saw director Michael Ferguson and actors Anneke Wills, Bernard Holley, Deborah Watling, Shirley Cooklin, and Michael Kilgarriff in conversation with season co-curator Justin Johnson about working with Patrick Troughton.


The next event takes place on Saturday 20th April, marking the Fourth Doctor's era, and will be a screening of The Robots of Death, with Tom Baker, Louise Jameson, and Philip Hinchcliffe as guests. Although it is currently sold out, returns and stand-bys are possible.

It will be followed on Saturday 4th May with a screening in honour of the Fifth Doctor, with the story title and guests for that event yet to be announced.

Tom Baker, Louise Jameson, and Philip Hinchcliffe will be the special guests at next month's BFI screening of The Robots of Death.

The announcement was made at yesterday's première of the colour-restored story The Mind of Evil. Big-screen showings with guests are being staged by the BFI for each Doctor this year as part of its Doctor Who At 50 season.

The four-part adventure is being screened at BFI Southbank on Saturday 20th April at 2pm to mark the Fourth Doctor's era. Tickets go on sale to the general public at 11.30am tomorrow. They were made available to Champion members last Monday and to standard members last Tuesday. All three screenings held so far sold out to members before tickets were due to go on general release, but returns and stand-bys are possible.

It was also announced yesterday that the story marking Fifth Doctor Peter Davison's era will be shown on Saturday 4th May. The title is due to be revealed later this week.

The BFI is to screen The Robots of Death to mark the Fourth Doctor's era as it celebrates Doctor Who's 50th anniversary, it was announced today.

The four-part story, which first aired in 1977, will be shown at BFI Southbank on Saturday 20th April at 2pm. The guests will be announced in due course.

Tickets go on sale to the general public on Tuesday 12th March but will be available on Tuesday 5th March to people with a standard BFI membership and on Monday 4th March to Champion members.

Screenings that the BFI organised for last month, this month, and next month - honouring the First, Second, and Third Doctors - all sold out to members before tickets were due to go on general release.

The organisation has a Doctor Who At 50 season this year, showing a story per Doctor per month as well as digitally-restored prints of the two Dalek films, with question-and-answer panels featuring special guests at each session. In addition, the BBC Two docudrama An Adventure In Space And Time about the show's genesis, written by Mark Gatiss and currently being filmed, will debut at the BFI in November.

The special guests for the screening of The Mind of Evil at the BFI Southbank next month have been announced. The announcement was made at the screening of The Tomb of the Cybermen on Saturday.

The event, which takes place on Sunday 10th March at 2pm, will see cast and crew from the episode on stage during the Q&A panels. The guests are:

• Katy Manning - companion Jo Grant
• Richard Franklin - Mike Yates
• John Levene - Sergeant Benton
• Tim Combe - Director
• Terrance Dicks - Script Editor
• Plus members of the Restoration Team

Tickets for the screening sold out within 5 minutes of going on sale to BFI members on 5 February at 11.30am.

Current costume designer Howard Burden will be giving a talk about his work later this month.

He will be at the BFI in London on Wednesday 20th February for an afternoon seminar entitled Designing For Science-Fiction, which will examine "how various screen craft disciplines work to realise fantastical science-fiction visions."

The event - the first in a new series looking at what it takes to succeed as a designer in the film and TV industries - is being presented in association with Wimbledon College of Art.

Burden has been the costume designer on Doctor Who since Asylum of the Daleks. His sci-fi pedigree also includes working on Red Dwarf from series three onwards as well as on the 1998 six-part series Invasion: Earth, which was a BBC Scotland/Sci-Fi Channel co-production.

The guest line-up for next month's celebratory screening of The Tomb of the Cybermen at the BFI Southbank was announced today.

The event, which takes place on Saturday 9th February at 2.30pm, will see seven people make up the Q&A panels. They are:

• Deborah Watling - companion Victoria in Tomb
• Anneke Wills - First and Second Doctor companion Polly
• Shirley Cooklin - Kaftan in Tomb
• Bernard Holley - Peter Haydon in Tomb
• Michael Kilgarriff - the Cyber Controller in Tomb and Attack of the Cybermen
• Michael Ferguson - director of stories during the First, Second, and Third Doctor eras
• Michael Troughton - Patrick Troughton's son and biographer

Part of the organisation's Doctor Who At 50 season to mark the show's milestone anniversary, it sold out to BFI members before tickets went on general release.

Throughout 2013, the BFI is showing a story per Doctor as well as digitally-restored prints of the two Dalek films. It will also be premièring An Adventure In Space And Time - a 90-minute BBC Two docudrama about the show's creation, written by Mark Gatiss, which is due to start shooting next month.

Marking the Third Doctor's era, the première of the colour-restored story The Mind of Evil plus a discussion takes place on Sunday 10th March at 2pm. Tickets will go on general sale on Tuesday 12th February at 11.30am. BFI members get priority booking plus discounts on ticket prices and are exempt from booking fees. An annual membership currently costs £30 - down from £40. This special offer expires at the end of February - click here for more details.