Who's Down Under

Tuesday, 31 December 2013 - Repported by Connor Johnston

Matt Smith (The Eleventh Doctor) and Karen Gillan (Amy Pond) are both heading down under for a special tour around the country next March. The Hub Productions' Whoniverse: The Doctor is in event will see them live on stage talking about the phenomenon of Doctor Who and their lives as the Doctor and his companion. There will also be merchandise as well as rare collectibles available to purchase from dealers. Limited autographs and professional photographs will be available with the guests. The tour dates are as follows:

>>> SYDNEY MARCH 1st 2014
>>> PERTH MARCH 2nd 2014
>>> ADELAIDE MARCH 8th 2014
>>> MELBOURNE MARCH 9th 2014

Additional guests as well as venues and ticket info will be announced mid-January from the Hub's website.

Other Australian appearances include Billie Piper (Rose Tyler), who will be touring with Oz Comic-Con in Adelaide and Perth throughout March and April 2014. Tickets can be purchased from the Official Oz Comic-Con site.

Also travelling to Australia and New Zealand is Fifth Doctor Peter Davison to host the Doctor Who Symphonic Spectacular.

FILTER: - Karen Gillan - Matt Smith - Billie Piper - Peter Davison - Australia

Peter Davison to host Symphonic Spectacular

Tuesday, 17 December 2013 - Reported by Connor Johnston

BBC Worldwide have today announced the host for the 2014 Australian and New Zealand tour of the Doctor Who Symphonic Spectacular will be the fifth Doctor himself, Peter Davison.

The show runs in Melbourne from 31st January to 1st February before moving to Brisbane on 8th February and Wellington from 21st February to 22nd February.

Peter Davison, who played the Doctor for three years between 1981 and 1984, said today

I am really looking forward to coming to Australia and New Zealand as part of the Doctor Who Symphonic Spectacular tour, as well as coming face to face with any Daleks or Cybermen who may turn up along the way. The music of Doctor Who is amazing, and nothing can compare to hearing it performed live by orchestras of the calibre of the Melbourne, Queensland and New Zealand Symphony Orchestras.

Joining Davison will be conductor Ben Foster, who has conducted almost all of Murray Gold's music for the revived series since 2005. He also shared his delight in returning to the tour from his involvement last year:

I am delighted to be back on tour with the Doctor Who Symphonic Spectacular. Doctor Who has been such a big part of my life for such a long time – it’s great to share this experience with so many fans.

The content that will be performed in the live shows will include music spanning across the whole 50-year history of the show, many recent favourites as well as music from this years Christmas Special The Time of the Doctor.

FILTER: - Music - Special Events - Peter Davison - New Zealand - Australia

Tom Baker - Happiest Time of My Life

Sunday, 24 November 2013 - Reported by Marcus

Tom Baker has told the BBC that playing the Doctor was the happiest time of his whole life.

The veteran actor was interviewed for the BBC Three show Doctor Who Live: The Afterparty , screened directly after the 50th Anniversary episode in which Baker made a surprise cameo appearance playing The Curator. It's been my entire existence. I'm delighted to be celebrating it, he said. The fans give me the credit for making Saturday more fun than it really was, in between the football, Basil Brush and Bruce Forsyth. I was right up there with all those legends and I'm grateful..

The live show featured interviews many previous Doctors and Companions from the series including Carole Ann Ford and William Russell, both of whom appeared in the first episode, An Unearthly Child, fifty years ago.

Earlier in the day five Doctors, Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy and Matt Smith received a standing ovation at the Doctor Who Convention at London's ExCeL Centre. When asked about their favourite Doctor most cited Patrick Troughton. He always managed to sort things out without you knowing he'd done it, said Colin Baker, without Patrick none of us would be here.

FILTER: - Tom Baker - Matt Smith - Peter Davison - Sylvester McCoy - Colin Baker

The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot

Sunday, 24 November 2013 - Reported by Marcus

The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot - a star-studded special written and directed by Peter Davison and starring Davison alongside Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy, with Paul McGann appearing too - is now available on the BBC iPlayer.

With the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who about to film, the 'Classic' Doctors are keen to be involved. But do they manage it? (BBC iPlayer)

It is also scheduled to be broadcast again tonight via the Red Button service, between 9.25pm and 10.35pm.

FILTER: - Steven Moffat - Peter Davison - Sylvester McCoy - Colin Baker

The Five Doctors(ish)

Friday, 22 November 2013 - Reported by Chuck Foster

The BBC have revealed a new Red Button video this coming Saturday evening:

The Five Doctors(ish)
BBC Red Button, Saturday 23rd November, 10:05pm
Duration 30 minutes

A star studded special written and directed by Peter Davison. With the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who about to film, the 'Classic' Doctors are keen to be involved. But do they manage it?

The project, as noted above, has been driven by Peter Davison, and also has an associated Twitter account to follow, DayOfTheFishDr.

The Five Doctors(ish) (Credit: Day Of The Fish Dr/Twitter)

Davison, Sylvester McCoy and Colin Baker were spotted filming a "protest" outside BBC Television Centre during the summer, sporting signs such as "No Classics? No 50th!!" and "Have A Heart. Classic Doctors Want A Part". As Conor Keegan observed on Twitter at the time: "Sylvester McCoy and Peter Davison outside TVC right now! Protesting that they aren't in the 50th ann Doctor Who! Mental."; and "Colin Baker has arrived. Outside BBC Television Centre right now, protesting.". Other names associated with the spoof drama include Sean Pertwee, who tweeted an apparent call sheet with his, Paul McGann and Olivia Colman's names listed.

FILTER: - Online - Peter Davison - Sylvester McCoy - Colin Baker

Celebration guests announced but possible disappointment over Day of the Doctor

Friday, 1 November 2013 - Reported by John Bowman

A host of guests for the BBC's Doctor Who Celebration was announced today - but fans going to the event on the anniversary itself face missing the special episode.

Fifth Doctor Peter Davison will be at the convention at ExCeL in London for all its three days - 22nd to 24th November inclusive - and joining him there on the actual anniversary day, Saturday 23rd November, will be William Russell and Carole Ann Ford who, as Ian Chesterton and Susan Foreman, were companions to the First Doctor and were in the first episode of Doctor Who when it was originally broadcast exactly 50 years earlier. In addition, Waris Hussein, who directed the first story, will also be there on the Saturday.

Arrangements have been made for a free 2D showing of the simulcast of The Day of the Doctor that day, but not everybody going to the event on 23rd November will be able to get into it.

BBC Worldwide said:

The Doctor Who 50th Celebration's opening hours will also be extended on Saturday evening so visitors can enjoy a free 2D simulcast screening of The Day of the Doctor together. Saturday attendees will be emailed shortly with details about how they can reserve a seat. Visitors should note that the screening will have limited availability and tickets will be allocated on a first-come first-served basis.

Saturday attendees who miss out on tickets to the screening and who want to see the episode as it is broadcast will therefore have to make alternative plans to watch it as it goes out - if they can.

Also appearing on all three days will be special sounds wizard Dick Mills and visual effects supremos Mike Tucker and Mat Irvine. The rest of the additional guest line-up and their appearance days is as follows:

Friday 22nd November

Anneke Wills (Polly)
Richard Franklin (Capt Mike Yates)
Matthew Waterhouse (Adric)
Sarah Sutton (Nyssa)
Terry Molloy (Davros)
Kate O'Mara (The Rani)
Gabriel Woolf (Sutekh)
Fiona Walker (Kala/Lady Peinforte)
Barry Newbery (designer)
Michael Ferguson (director)
Fiona Cumming (director)
Ian Fraser (production manager)

Saturday 23rd November

Frazer Hines (Jamie)
Deborah Watling (Victoria)
Katy Manning (Jo)
Louise Jameson (Leela)
Janet Fielding (Tegan)
Nicola Bryant (Peri)
Sophie Aldred (Ace)
Daphne Ashbrook (Grace)
Yee Jee Tso (Chang Lee)
Geoffrey Beevers (The Master)
David Collings (Poul/Vorus/Mawdryn)
Terrance Dicks (script editor/writer)
June Hudson (costume designer)

Sunday 24th November

Maureen O'Brien (Vicki)
Peter Purves (Steven)
Wendy Padbury (Zoe)
John Leeson (voice of K-9)
Lalla Ward (Romana II)
Mark Strickson (Turlough)
Bonnie Langford (Mel)
Michael Kilgarriff (Cyber Controller)
Julian Glover (Richard I/Scaroth)
Stephen Thorne (Omega/Azal/Kastrian Eldrad)
David Graham (Dalek voices/Kerensky)
Donald Tosh (script editor/writer)
Anthony Read (script editor/writer)
Andrew Cartmel (script editor/writer)
Andrew Morgan (director)

As previously reported, current Doctor Matt Smith, Sixth Doctor Colin Baker, and Seventh Doctor Sylvester McCoy will also be there on all three days, while Fourth Doctor Tom Baker will be there on just the Saturday.

FILTER: - Special Events - UK - Conventions - BBC Worldwide - WHO50 - Peter Davison

The Light at the End released early

Thursday, 24 October 2013 - Reported by Josiah Rowe

Big Finish Productions have released The Light at the End, their 50th anniversary Doctor Who story, one month before the programme's actual anniversary:

Light at the End special edition cover (Credit: Big Finish)

We’re very pleased to announce that today is the day we’re beginning the release of our 50th anniversary Doctor Who story The Light at the End. We’re beginning with the Limited Edition CD box set.

It's the 23rd of October, one month ahead of the anniversary of Doctor Who on the 23rd of November, and as of today, the digital download releases for all versions of Doctor Who: The Light at the End will be made available. This includes the Limited Edition, the Standard Edition and the Vinyl Edition.

Mailing out of the Limited Edition CD version has begun today.

Nick Briggs, executive producer: ‘The Standard Edition CDs should start to be mailed out this coming Friday, and the Vinyl Edition will start mailing on November 2nd.

‘With the anniversary of Doctor Who imminent,’ continues Nick, ‘and everyone champing at the bit for the celebrations to begin, we thought it only right and proper that our special anniversary full-cast audio should be released a tiny bit early. Our plans for this very nearly went awry when the company responsible for the physical production of our CDs (and LPs!), Key Productions, experienced a series of unforeseeable problems beyond their control. This is what has caused the slight delay on the Standard Edition and the slightly longer delay of the Vinyl Edition. But for all our customers who can access the digital versions of all these releases, they can listen straight away.

‘We know that those customers who favour listening to the CD or the LP rather than downloading a digital version, might find this a little frustrating, but we thought this course of action would benefit the vast majority of our loyal listeners. We offer our sincerest apologies to any customers who find this decision doesn’t suit them, and hope they will understand our reasons for going ahead with the releases now.’

So, for Big Finish Productions, the 50th anniversary has started early. And for any of you who haven't yet ordered your copy of Doctor Who: The Light at the End, it will be on sale at the Dimensions 2013 convention (all tickets now sold) in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, where the Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Doctors (Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy and Paul McGann) will be making guest appearances.

When Big Finish announced on Facebook and Twitter that The Light at the End was available for download, their website was temporarily overloaded by the sudden, strong demand. These problems were subsequently resolved, but Big Finish requested that customers wait to download the story if possible:

As you may have seen, the BF Website is back up and running again. But we would ask that if you can possibly wait a few hours to download The Light at the End, please do. The problem we have discovered is that although we have ample bandwidth to support the download of the quantity of data needed (loads of downloads of The Light at the End) another issue has emerged. The problem is being caused by the sheer number of customers visiting the site at the same time. We have to confess that this is the unforeseen circumstance we simply didn't anticipate. It is because the demand is so unprecedentedly huge that we didn't know to check this before releasing. The analogy that's been used to explain this to us is that it's a bit like having one shop assistant and thousands of customers all arriving at once. Our IT people will continuing monitoring the site and will make all efforts to correct any hold-ups as the hours pass. But, as we said, if you can possibly manage to wait to initiate your download, we would very much appreciate your patience. Huge apologies from all of us here at Big Finish.

FILTER: - Audio - Tom Baker - WHO50 - Peter Davison - Sylvester McCoy - Paul McGann - Colin Baker

BFI: The Fifth Doctor Panel

Wednesday, 15 May 2013 - Reported by John Bowman

A video of the guest panel at this month's BFI celebration of the Fifth Doctor's era is now available to watch.

As part of its Doctor Who At 50 season, the BFI screened The Caves of Androzani, which was followed by a question-and-answer session featuring actors Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton, Janet Fielding, and Matthew Waterhouse, as well as the story director Graeme Harper.

Doctor Who: The Caves of Androzani event (via BFI YouTube channel)

The event, held on Saturday 4th May, saw the discussion led by season co-curator Justin Johnson.

As reported last month, the next celebratory screening - marking the Sixth Doctor's era - will be The Two Doctors, taking place on Saturday 15th June at 2pm. Because demand for all the events has been so high, tickets are now being allocated via ballot.

FILTER: - Special Events - Online - BFI - WHO50 - Fifth Doctor - Peter Davison

The Fifth Doctor on BBC America

Wednesday, 8 May 2013 - Reported by Josiah Rowe

BBC America has chosen Earthshock to represent the Fifth Doctor in its Doctor Who: The Doctors Revisited celebratory season.

A documentary entitled The Doctors Revisited: The Fifth Doctor will air on Sunday, May 26 at 8pm Eastern/7pm Central, followed by the four-part story that reintroduced the Cybermen after an absence of nearly seven years.

The documentary will see Peter Davison, Steven Moffat, Hugh Bonneville, Sarah Sutton, and Mark Strickson discussing the Fifth Doctor. It will also feature other as-yet-unspecified contributors.

Earthshock first aired in 1982. As well as the return of the Cybermen, it featured the death of the Doctor's companion Adric, the only long-term television companion to die since the First Doctor's era.

BBC America is paying tribute to the programme's 50th anniversary by showing a story per Doctor per month.

The Doctors Revisited: The Fifth Doctor (via YouTube)

FILTER: - Steven Moffat - USA - BBC America - Fifth Doctor - Peter Davison

BFI Screenings: Fifth Doctor Guests And Sixth Doctor Title Announced

Wednesday, 24 April 2013 - Reported by John Bowman

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.

Patrick Troughton and Colin Baker in The Two Doctors. Picture: BBC.

Patrick Troughton and Colin Baker in The Two Doctors. Picture: BBC.

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!

FILTER: - Special Events - Sixth Doctor - UK - BFI - WHO50 - Peter Davison

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