Big Finish have released details on a special Companion Chronicle for the 50th Anniversary:

BBC Books is to bring out a fact-filled Doctor Who publication next month. Entitled Who-ology: Doctor Who - The Official Miscellany, the 384-page hardcover book, compiled by Cavan Scott and Mark Wright, will be available from Thursday 2nd May.

Scott has written books, audio dramas, and comics strips based on series including Doctor Who, The Sarah Jane Adventures, Skylanders, and Judge Dredd. He has also written about the Doctor's adventures in Doctor Who Magazine and SFX.

Journalist and author Wright, who is also a regular contributor to DWM, has written audios, short stories, and comic strips featuring new adventures for the Doctor, along with tie-ins to other series such as The Sarah Jane Adventures and The Power Rangers.

Who-ology is available to pre-order.

Music heard in the first episode of Doctor Who is to be made exclusively available on vinyl as part of this year's Record Store Day.

Three Guitars Mood 2 is the song that introduces the Doctor's granddaughter Susan, who is listening to it on a hand-held transistor radio when the audience first sees her. It is attributed by her to John Smith And The Common Men, and they are the title artists of a three-track EP, Sounds From The Inferno, which is being released on Saturday 20th April on the Hysterion Records label.

The back cover of the 7-inch EP includes a guide to the hand movements performed to the song by Susan.

The B-side has the tracks Latin Gear and The Eyelash, which are two pieces of music heard in The Inferno nightclub in the season 3 closing story The War Machines.

Hysterion Records' Ronnie Shame said: The EP - or extended play - is a numbered limited edition of 1,000 copies and will only be available from independent record shops. Copies will be sold on a first-come first-served basis and cannot be pre-ordered or bought online. A list of retailers taking part in Record Store Day is available here.

Three Guitars Mood 2 was actually composed by Nelson and Raymond, performed by The Arthur Nelson Group, and originally released on the Conroy label, while The Eyelash and Latin Gear were composed by Johnny Hawksworth and included on the album The Mood Modern, brought out on the Keith Prowse Music label.

Big Finish have released details on the latest adventures for the Doctor and his companions in April ...

Competition:

Thanks to Big Finish we have five copies of The Library of Alexandria for this month's competition. To be in with a chance to win, please answer the following question:
Send your answer to alexandria-competition@doctorwhonews.net with the subject line "Was that your Mummy?", 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 30th April 2013.

Candy Jar Books are to release a new book celebrating the many assistants to have accompanied the Doctor over the last fifty years.


The book will be released on 27th June.

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To coincide with the launch of the book the publisher, Candy Jar, is asking fans to vote for their favourite Doctor Who companion. The results will be released when the book is published in June. To vote visit their website.

BBC Books are to release a new ebook to tie in with the new series episode The Bells of Saint John, which premiered this weekend.


The ebook is published on 4th April 2013.

This weekend sees Big Finish celebrate the return of Doctor Who with a special offer on a number of their recent releases.
The offer runs until Tuesday.

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There is still time to enter our Scorchies competition - see here for more details (closing date 31st March).

The second in the range of classic Doctor Who soundtracks has been announced by Silva Screen Records, this time focussing on the Second Doctor with the electronic soundscape created by Brian Hodgson for The Krotons.


The soundtrack is due to be released on the 13th May 2013 on CD and download, and will also be released as a limited edition 10" Vinyl disc on the 24th May.

Competition:

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 krotons-competition@doctorwhonews.net with the subject line "Winner-Gond!", along with your name, address, and where you read about this competition. The competition is open worldwide, and the closing date will be on the 30th April 2013. Only one entry per household will be accepted.

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There is still time to enter our The Caves of Androzani soundtrack competition - see here for more details (closing date 31st March).

Today sees special Royal Mail stamps going on sale to mark the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who.

Each of the 11 TV Doctors is represented on his own first-class stamp (60p), as is the TARDIS, while four enemies – Dalek, Cyberman, Ood, and a Weeping Angel – feature on second-class stamps (50p). The enemies and TARDIS are on a five-stamp miniature sheet, while the stamp design for the Doctors sees the face of each one set against relevant opening title sequences along with a relevant logo. Since the first two Doctors' eras were broadcast in monochrome, the first two stamps are also black and white.

As well as the stamps - which are being sold at more than 9,000 Post Office branches in the UK, online, and via phone (08457 641 641) - a wide variety of associated products is also available, ranging from first-day covers and postcards to stamp sets and stamp strips plus a pin badge of the TARDIS stamp. Some of the items on sale include series information penned by Doctor Who writer, director, and script editor Gary Russell.

Royal Mail - which said it had had an unprecedented number of pre-registrations for the stamps since they were unveiled in December - is also creating unique postmarks in the home towns of the actors to have played the 11 TV Doctors. All stamped mail sent from those locations will have a special postmark celebrating 50 years of Doctor Who, with the name of the actor who played the Doctor plus the length of time they were in the role.

Andrew Hammond, the managing director of the stamps and collectibles division at Royal Mail, said:
Fiona Eastwood, the product development director at BBC Worldwide Consumer Products, said:
Royal Mail's Special Stamp programme has been commemorating and celebrating events and anniversaries relevant to UK heritage and life for nearly 50 years itself. All UK stamp designs are approved by the Queen before they are printed.

The stamps are available to purchase from the Post Office.

Pre-issue event:

A special public affairs event marking the issue of the anniversary stamps was held by Royal Mail at BAFTA in London earlier this month, with Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Paul McGann, Steven Moffat, Jenna-Louise Coleman, Jon Pertwee's son Sean Pertwee, and William Hartnell's granddaughter and biographer Jessica Carney mingling among the invited guests, who included MPs, stakeholders, and key Royal Mail customers.

Speeches in praise of the show and the stamps were given by Moya Greene, Royal Mail's chief executive, and Steven Moffat. The showrunner also introduced a video message from Matt Smith, as the actor had been unable to make it to the function, plus an extended trailer for Series 7b.

Props made by the officially-licensed company Rubbertoe Replicas were on show, as were displays of the stamps, with Daleks and a police box also adding to the atmosphere.

Competition to follow:

Doctor Who News will shortly be running a competition connected with the release of the stamps and there's a fabulous prize to be won, courtesy of Royal Mail, so keep checking back for details!

A forthcoming biography of former Doctor Who producer John Nathan-Turner has been causing a media stir with newspapers focusing on allegations of sexual exploitation.

JN-T: The Life and Scandalous Times of John Nathan-Turner, written by Richard Marson and to be brought out in May by Miwk Publishing, is based on more than 100 interviews with friends and colleagues as well as inside knowledge by Marson, who has also had access to the entire surviving archive of Nathan-Turner's paperwork and photos.

In its review published on 10th March, SFX predicted a tabloid firestorm thanks to one particular chapter, entitled Hanky Panky, while the current edition of Private Eye, published last week, similarly warned of unfavourable headlines for the BBC, and that's exactly what has happened. A measured book review was published last Friday by The Guardian, but the tabloids have subsequently gone to town on claims that in the 1980s both Nathan-Turner and his partner Gary Downie, a Doctor Who production team member, used their senior roles to prey on male fans - some of whom were under the legal age of consent at the time (Mirror, Mail, and Sun). Marson says himself in the book that he was assaulted by Downie.

Miwk's website includes endorsements for the book from people such as director Fiona Cumming who, with Ian Fraser, says: "Some of the revelations are painful (but) we find this very rounded, well-written and honest." Drama serials manager and later producer Brian Spilsby comments: "I must say you have skewered JN-T precisely. I can vouch for all of the facts and most of the opinions. It's a very accurate - warts-and-all - picture you paint." And David Reid, who was the BBC's head of drama for series and serials from 1981 to 1983, says of the biography: "Quite wonderful on many, many levels. Gripping, fascinating, appalling – and, by the end, truly moving. Immaculate research makes the whole utterly trustworthy. A very good and very well-written book."

Responding to the allegations, the BBC has urged anyone with information to contact the police or the Dame Janet Smith Review, which was set up in the wake of the Jimmy Savile abuse scandal to look into the culture and practices of the BBC while Savile worked there.

Nathan-Turner died in 2002 and Downie in 2006.