Win a Doctor Who VIP Tour

Sunday, 8 November 2020 - Reported by Marcus

The BBC is offering one person their very own VIP tour of the Doctor Who set in Cardiff

The lucky winner will be drawn from a list of entries to a prize draw in aid of BBC Children in Need and is available to those in the UK only.

The visit will take place as soon as it’s safe to do so. In the meantime, the winner will also get a Personal Video Call from the current Doctor, Jodie Whittaker and Mandip Gill and receive a host of exclusive Doctor Who merchandise – some of which is signed by the cast.

All those who enter the draw have the opportunity to donate £10 to Children in Need

To enter you have to text the word DOCTOR to 81155.

A one-off voluntary donation of £10 will be made to BBC CHILDREN IN NEED. However, if you wish you can opt-out of the donation by replying ‘CANCEL’ to your entry confirmation text within 60 minutes.

Entry texts will be charged at your standard network message rate.

You must be 18 or over and have the bill payers permission to enter

The prize draw will close for entries at 2 PM on Monday 23rd November 2020. Please do not enter after this time as your entry will not count but you will still be charged.

The winner will be randomly selected and notified by phone on Tuesday 24th November 2020.

View full terms and conditions on the BBC Website

FILTER: - Competitions

Big Finish Offers Free Doctor Who

Monday, 27 July 2020 - Reported by Marcus

The Worlds of Doctor Who (Credit: Big Finish)

Following the wildly successful series of free downloadable audio dramas made available during lockdown, Big Finish today begins a new series of weekly freebies and discounts.

Since the coronavirus pandemic shut down a huge part of the British entertainment industry, Big Finish has continued to produce and release brand new full-cast audio dramas on a weekly basis.

Using remote recording techniques and employing actors with (often self-made) home studios, plus a dedicated team of engineers, sound designers and musicians, the company’s output during the crisis is unparalleled.

In addition, Big Finish has given away over 100,000 free downloads of stories from its various ranges, including Doctor Who, Blake’s 7, Sherlock Holmes, and Dorian Gray.

Now, a new selection of giveaways, entitled Weekly Freebies, will be made available to download exclusively from the Big Finish web site’s Weekly Deals page.

These stories can be unlocked by anyone who has registered for a Big Finish account (which is free to create) and played on the Big Finish listening app (which is free to install).

Each download will be available for one week only and comes accompanied by a special discount offer on related titles, available as either downloads or collector’s edition CDs or box sets.

This week’s Weekly Freebie is:

Jago & Litefoot: Mind Games, written by Justin Richards.

This complete, full-cast audio adventure is the first story in The Worlds of Doctor Who audio anthology, originally released in 2014. It stars Christopher Benjamin and the late Trevor Baxter recreating the “infernal investigators” double act they first established in the TV Doctor Who story, The Talons of Weng-Chiang. In this exciting tale, they are joined by Lisa Bowerman as the popular character of Ellie Higson, a London barmaid with a dark secret...

In Victorian England, Henry Gordon Jago and Professor Litefoot investigate worrying events on the streets of London – which seem to be linked to the New Regency Theatre's resident act, the mesmerist Mr Rees.

Big Finish listeners can also get up to 55% OFF Doctor Who: The Worlds of Doctor Who (Limited Edition), available as a 5-disc CD deluxe slipcover book, or as a digital download, while stocks last, at the Weekly Deals page.

All offers end at 23:59 (UK time) on 02 August 2020.

Please note that Big Finish has now re-opened its warehouse and commenced the shipping of backorders. The mailout of collector’s edition CDs will still be delayed, but all purchases of these CD titles unlock a digital copy that can be downloaded or played on the Big Finish app immediately.

FILTER: - Special Offers

Davison vs Daleks

Wednesday, 15 July 2020 - Reported by Marcus

Doctor Who: Shadow of the Daleks (Credit: Big Finish)

Big Finish have announced that Fifth Doctor Peter Davison will battle the Daleks in Shadow of the Daleks, a new set of audio adventures for Big Finish.

Due in late 2020 as part of Big Finish’s Monthly Adventures range, these eight Doctor Who stories, split across two releases, star Davison chasing the Daleks through time and space on a journey of ultimate terror.

Each of the stories was recorded remotely during lockdown with a small “rep company” of brilliant actors including Nicholas Briggs, Dervla Kirwan, Anjli Mohindra and Olivier Award winner Jamie Parker.

Doctor Who: Shadow of the Daleks Parts 1 and 2 are now available to pre-order as collector's edition box sets (on CD at £14.99 each) and as digital downloads (at £12.99 each) exclusively from www.bigfinish.com.

Part 1, due for release in October 2020, contains four one-episode adventures:

Aimed at the Body by James Kettle
Lightspeed by Jonathan Morris
The Bookshop at the End of the World by Simon Guerrier
Interlude by Dan Starkey

Part 2, due for release in November 2020, contains four more exciting episodes:

The Echo Chamber by Jonathan Barnes
Towards Zero by Roland Moore
Castle Hydra by Lizzie Hopley
Effect and Cause by John Dorney

Producer David Richardson said:

Necessity really is the mother of invention. In the very early days of lockdown, we knew we would have to adapt some of our plans for the Monthly Adventures range. What we needed were two releases that could be achieved with one Doctor and four guest cast members, recording remotely in a block. When you have a brief like that, it’s not at all restricting - it forces you to do something different, something bold, something fun.

So what we have in Shadow of the Daleks Parts 1 and 2 are eight half-hour stories, in which the Doctor lands in different times, different places... and keeps meeting the same faces, but as different people. The mystery is heightened by the oblique appearances of Daleks. And not only that - these are Time War-era Daleks!

And so we had a lot of fun with these stories - weaving them together, pushing in different directions, and getting to play with the audacious concept. And Peter Davison really enjoyed it - we had a fantastic and esteemed guest cast, and by the end of recording it was almost like we were at the studio together, sipping coffee in the green room and chatting like old friends.

Doctor Who: Shadow of the Daleks Parts 1 and 2 are now available to pre-order as collector's edition box sets (on CD at £14.99 each) and as digital downloads (at £12.99 each) exclusively from the Big Finish website.

FILTER: - Peter Davison

#DoctorWhoLockdown: The Doctor's Wife

Saturday, 11 April 2020 - Reported by Chuck Foster

DoctorWhoLockdown: Bigger on the Inside (Credit: DoctorWhoLockdown/Emily Cook)

The next shared Doctor Who viewing organised by Doctor Who Magazine's Emily Cook takes place this evening (UK):

To join in, simply pop in your DVD or Bluray disc of The Doctor's Wife, or access a streaming service such as BBC iPlayer, Amazon Video, iTunes, Google Play or Netflix, and then hit play at 8:00pm BST / 3:00pm EDT / 5:00am AEST / 7:00am NZST and share your viewing experience!

Tweet #BiggerOnTheInside

As with previous discussions, author Neil Gaiman will be giving insights on his episode, this time joined by director Richard Clark and the voice of House, Michael Sheen.

Neil Gaiman also hinted on Twitter:

Also there is an amazing secret Thing we haven't announced yet.

The Doctor's Wife: Global Simulcast Trailer

Don't forget that there is another shared viewing of Silver Nemesis with Sophie Aldred at 6:00pm BST as part of online Time Space Visualiser convention taking place this afternoon on YouTube.

FILTER: - Broadcasting - International Broadcasting - Series 6/32 - Special Events

Time Space Visualiser: Cyber Saturday

Thursday, 9 April 2020 - Reported by Chuck Foster

Fantom Events will be presenting their third online convention this coming weekend (11 Apr), this time focussing on the Doctor's silver nemeses, the Cybermen!

Time Space Visualiser: Cyber Saturday runs from 2pm to 5pm, and once again will feature a mix of new and archive interviews, and other specially recorded features, as well as live interaction with fans through YouTube and Twitter:

Interviews include Gregg Palmer, who was an original Cyberman in The Tenth Planet, as well as Matt Doman and Matthew Rohman, who have played Cybermen in the new series, including the recent series finale with Jodie Whittaker.
A special reunion for the classic serial Earthshock; we span the continents to reunite James Warwick and Clare Clifford.
And as if that wasn’t “excellent” enough, Cyberleader extraordinaire David Banks joins us for a chat.
Archive footage includes interviews from Kevin Hudson, Adam Sweet and Daz Parker, as well as Kevin Clarke who wrote Silver Nemesis. We will also be showing a panel from 2011 reuniting three cast members of The Tomb of the Cybermen; Deborah Watling, Clive Merrison and Bernard Holley.

The event will be broadcast on the Fantom Events YouTube channel, where you can also find both of their previous events and additional interviews that weren't included on those afternoons.

As with last week, Time Space Visualiser will be followed in the evening by another shared viewing of a story, this time the 25th anniversary adventure Silver Nemesis. As is usual with these viewings, fans worldwide can join in to discuss the story on Twitter, and this time will be joined by 'ace' companion Sophie Aldred!

To join in, simply pop in your DVD of Silver Nemesis, or access a streaming service such as iTunes or Britbox, and then hit play at 6:00pm BST / 1:00pm EDT / 3:00am AEST / 5:00am NZST and share your viewing experience!

Tweet #SilverNemesis

FILTER: - Conventions - Fantom - Special Events

Time Space Visualiser: Missing Episodes

Saturday, 4 April 2020 - Reported by Chuck Foster

After the success of their first online convention last weekened, Fantom Events will be presenting another this afternoon (Saturday 3rd April), this time focusing on the missing episodes of Doctor Who.

Running from 2pm to 5pm, Time Space Visualiser will include a mixture of new interviews archive material and some specially recorded features for the afternoon, with each hour following a theme:

The first hour looks back at the making of The Savages, with a 2013 stage interview with Andrew Lodge (First Assistant) and Peter Thomas (Captain Edal) together with an interview recorded this week with Kay Patrick (Flower).
The second hour looks at family connections with a specially recorded interview with David Troughton, and an archive interview with Carole Ann Ford and Jessica Carney looking at the parallels of being and playing the Doctor’s Granddaughter.
The final hour sees Andy Futter talking to Peter Purves in a brand new interview shot for this event, followed by an archive stage panel with William Russell and Anneke Wills from 2013.

You can watch the event live from the Fantoms Events YouTube channel, where you can also find the complete event from last weekend, plus individual interviews including its own "missing" recording with Nicola Bryant!

Time Space Visualiser will be followed in the evening by what's becoming a regular pasttime for Doctor Who fans, a planned worldwide simulcast viewing of a story to tweet along to; tonight's will be the most recently recovered complete story, The Enemy of the World, which will also includes tweets from Philip Morris, the discoverer of the long-lost Patrick Troughton adventure in Nigeria.

To join in, simply pop in your DVD of The Enemy of the World, or access a streaming service such as iTunes or Britbox, and then hit play at 6:00pm BST / 1:00pm EDT / 3:00am AEST / 5:00am NZST and share your viewing experience!

Tweet #Salamander

To tie in with the 'watchathon', Fantom have also made the first episode of their alternative commentary for the story available for free to listen to this weekend via YouTube.

FILTER: - Broadcasting - Conventions - Fantom - International Broadcasting - Patrick Troughton - Special Events - William Hartnell

#RTWatch: Q&A with John Barrowman and Naoko Mori

Friday, 3 April 2020 - Reported by Chuck Foster

Yesterday evening saw the Radio Times present its own "tweetalong", this time for the Torchwood episode Captain Jack Harkness; this was followed by a live Q&A with its stars John Barrowman and Naoko Mori, and is available to watch via their YouTube channel:

Radio Times: Torchwood Q&A with John Barrowman and Naoko Mori

FILTER: - Broadcasting - International Broadcasting - John Barrowman - Special Events - Torchwood

#DoctorWhoLockdown: The Eleventh Hour

Thursday, 2 April 2020 - Reported by Chuck Foster

#FishCustard The Eleventh Hour watchathon 3 Apr 2020 (Credit: DoctorWhoLockdown/Emily Cook)

The next in the Doctor Who Lockdown global 'watchathon' events will be in celebration of the tenth anniversary of the Eleventh Doctor to our screens this coming Friday 3rd April!

To join in, simply pop in your DVD or Bluray disc of The Eleventh Hour, or access a streaming service such as BBC iPlayer, Amazon Video, iTunes, Google Play or Netflix, and then hit play at 7:00pm BST / 2:00pm EDT / 5:00am AEDT / 7:00am NZDT and share your viewing experience!

Tweet #FishCustard

Once again the episode's writer Steven Moffat will be contributing to the Twitter discussion during this episode; speaking on his Instagram account, he also hinted:

There was a scene I cut I really liked. I’m trying to find it. Cliffhanger.

Update: Matt Smith, Karen Gillan, Arthur Darvill and director Adam Smith will also be participating to the Twitter discussion.

Beforehand, at 5pm BST there will also be a Q&A session, with organiser Emily Cook tweeting:

At 5pm on Friday #DoctorWho costume designer Ray Holman will be revealing the secrets and processes behind the Eleventh Doctor's outfit! Join him on Twitter for a live Q&A and celebration of the Doctor's tweed! (Did you know? 3 April is also National Tweed Day!)

The Eleventh Hour: Global Simulcast Trailer

You can also support the creative industry behind our entertainment at this time through JustGiving as detailed below:

'Vincent and the Doctor' demonstrates the power of TV. If you'd like to support the creative industry at a difficult time, please donate to the @FilmTVCharity's COVID-19 Emergency Relief Fund. #DoctorWhoLockdown has a JustGiving page to fundraise... https://t.co/lKPhu94UnI
— Emily Cook #FishCustard (@Emily_Rosina) March 30, 2020

FILTER: - Broadcasting - Doctor Who - International Broadcasting - Karen Gillan - Matt Smith - Series 5/31 - Special Events

Candy Jar Books: Short Story Competition 2020

Sunday, 29 March 2020 - Reported by Chuck Foster

South Wales Story Competition 2020 (Credit: Candy Jar Books)

Following the success of the first two Lethbridge-Stewart Short Story Competitions, Candy Jar is presenting a third competition, again open to previously unpublished writers both in and outside the UK.

Head of Publishing, Shaun Russell, said:

In these trying times, we all need something to focus on, to keep us all sane. For a lot of people that’s writing. So it’s seems the perfect time to run another competition, give people something to aim for; a chance to write something for potential publication.

Andy Frankham-Allen, editor of the Lethbridge-Stewart range, added:

This time we’re opting for a theme, something to combat the doom and gloom that threatens to overtake us all at the moment. And that theme is The Perfect Day. The challenge is, what can you do with such a theme? What kind of story does it suggest to you? How would such a story work for our characters (the Brigadier, Anne, Bill, Lucy, Hobo, etc)? And, like in the previous entries, everyone is free to use any original character from both the Lethbridge-Stewart and Lucy Wilson Mysteries ranges, plus our licenced characters. But, and I can’t stress this enough, not characters owned by the BBC or any other creator, without express permission (proof will be required).

The winning entry will receive a Kindle Fire and Lethbridge-Stewart or The Lucy Wilson Mysteries publishing deal. All shortlisted entries will be published in The Lethbridge-Stewart Short Story Collection Vol 3.

Shaun continued:

Our two previous winners are Sean Alexander and Megan Fizell, and we look forward to publishing their new Lethbridge-Stewart stories very soon (subject to world events, of course).

With the opportunity to enter the brand-new writing competition, and a much wider scope for creativity, this is an exciting opportunity for any writer or fan of the Lethbridge-Stewart world.

The entry fee is £5. Visit here to register.
Please include: Your name, age, email, address and telephone number.

Submissions can be entered from 29 March 2020 to 24 September 2020.

Submission guidelines for the Lethbridge-Stewart South Wales Short Story Competition:

Maximum of 3000 words.
You must include your name in the document, along with the title.
Word (or Word compatible) files only. We do not accept PDF submissions.
This competition is open to anybody, whether you’re a fan of Doctor Who and Lethbridge-Stewart or not. We’re looking for stories that utilise any character from the Lethbridge-Stewart and The Lucy Wilson Mysteries range of books (list of Lethbridge-Stewart characters here: http://www.lethbridge-stewart.co.uk/characters/). It is not necessary to fit within the timeline; these stories are out of the canon of the series, so feel free to let your imagination run wild!
A selection of free short stories will be sent to any applicant on request, should you need to see our characters in action.
Our license is with the Haisman Literary Estate only, therefore you CAN use any character from the Doctor Who serials The Abominable Snowmen, The Web of Fear and The Dominators, or any original character found Candy Jar Books’ Lethbridge-Stewart and The Lucy Wilson Mysteries series (except characters from Doctor Who that appeared in the ranges under express permission).
You can NOT use any other Doctor Who characters or monsters. (Unless you have proof of permission from the creator of the chosen monster/character.)
You can NOT use UNIT or any associated characters.
Any entries that feature a Doctor Who character not owned by the Haisman Literary Estate (and without express permission) will be instantly disqualified, with no refund.

FILTER: - Books - Candy Jar Books - Competitions

#DoctorWhoLockdown: Vincent and the Doctor

Sunday, 29 March 2020 - Reported by Chuck Foster

#TheUltimateGinger Vincent and The Doctor watchathon 30 Mar 2020 (Credit: Emily Cook/Stuart Crouch)

The third in the global 'watchathon' events organised by Doctor Who Magazine's Emily Cook - now entitled The Doctor Who Lockdown - will be eleventh Doctor tale Vincent and the Doctor, taking place on the titular Vincent Van Gogh's birthday, 30th March.

As with previous events, the writer for the story, Richard Curtis will be commenting live on Twitter, but this time Emily and her fellow co-organiser for this viewing, the story's script editor Emma Freud, have also announced the Doctor himself, Matt Smith, will be joining Twitter to participate in the discussion, along with his trusty companion's real-life counterpart Karen Gillan, and the actor who brought Vincent to life in this episode, Tony Curran. Not only that, but the uncredited curator of the Musée d'Orsay, Bill Nighy, will also be joining in!

To join in, simply pop in your DVD or Bluray disc, or access a streaming service such as BBC iPlayer, Amazon Video, iTunes, Google Play or Netflix, and then hit play at 7:00pm BST/2:00pm EDT/5:00am AEDT/7:00am NZDT and share your viewing experience!

Tweet #TheUltimateGinger

Vincent and the Doctor | Global Simulcast: Trailer #2 | Trailer #1

There is a new YouTube channel for these event, Doctor Who Lockdown, which features videos relating to all the events so far, and more to come!