March 2nd sees the Dalek War box set come to North America with the release of the two third Doctor stories Frontier in Space and Planet of the Daleks.

Starring Jon Pertwee as The Doctor and Katy Manning as Jo Grant, the set includes the recently restored episode three of Planet of the Daleks, now in colour for the first time in 30 years.

Frontier in Space features a commentary with Katy Manning, as well as producer Barry Letts and script editor Terrance Dicks.

Extras Include:

• Perfect Scenario: Lost Frontier
• The Space War, the making of the story
• Roger Delgado: The Master, a biography of actor Roger Delgado
• Stripped for Action: The Third Doctor's comic book adventures

Planet of the Daleks also features a commentary with Manning, Letts and Dicks and also includes Prentis Hancock who played Vaber and Tim Preece who played Codal.

Extras Include:

• Perfect Scenario: The End of Dreams
• The Rumble in the Jungle, the making of the story.
• Multi-colourisation, a look at the colour restoration of episode three.
• Stripped for Action: focuses on the Daleks
• Blue Peter.

Also released on this day is the special edition of the seventh Doctor story, Remembrance of the Daleks.

First shown in 1988 the story stars Sylvester McCoy as The Doctor  and Sophie Aldred as Ace.

The story was first released on DVD in 2002. This special edition has a audio commentary by actors Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred as well as a number of documentaries about the programme.

• Back to School: "Making Of" documentary (32 mins)
• Remembrances: Influences and references to earlier Doctor Who adventures (15 mins)
• Davros Connections: In-depth look at the history of the Daleks' creator (43 mins)
• Extended and Deleted Scenes (12 mins)
• Outtakes (4 mins)
• Multi-Angle Sequences (2 mins)
• Isolated Music Option
• Trailers and Continuities (5 mins)
• Photo Gallery (8 mins)
• Easter egg
• DVD-ROM material: Radio Times listings
• Production Notes Subtitle Option

Following the release of the UK transmission date, BBC America has confirmed The Waters of Mars will air in the US on Saturday December 19 at 9:00pm ET/PT.

Tennant's final two stories will then air over the holiday season as a two-part special. Airdates will be released in early December.

The BBC will release The Waters of Mars and the two-part finale on DVD and Blu-ray on Tuesday, February 2, 2010 both as individual releases and also as part of a 5 disc specials collection including The Next Doctor and Planet of the Dead.

North American release dates for two more DVDs have been announced.

Both the First Doctor story The Keys of Marinus and the Sixth Doctor story The Twin Dilemma will be released on 5th January 2010.



The Coming Next trailer included on the UK release of The Dalek War boxset is for The Kings Demons/Planet of Fire, indicating this boxset will be released in the UK in January.

The second series of The Sarah Jane Adventures will be released on DVD in the UK on 9th November 2009 and in the US a day later on the 10th November 2009.

The series consists of the stories The Last Sontaran, The Day of the Clown, Secrets of the Stars, The Mark of the Berserker, The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith and Enemy of the Bane. It was first shown in the UK in the Autumn of 2008.

Extras include

• Interview with cast and crew
• Season synopses for all stories
• Investigating Tools – a gadget glossary
• Quiz with special footage prize
• Character and alien profiles
• Photo gallery
• Audio clips
• UK TV spots
• Trailers

Series Three is expected to be shown in the UK this Autumn.


2-entertain have indicated there will be no Doctor Who release in December. The Kamelion box set is now expected early in 2010. The second Doctor story The Dominators is also expected early in 2010 following an brief, unofficial release of a promo for the story on YouTube.

A new series box set consisting of the complete Series 1 – 4 will be released on 26th October.

BBC America has announced in a press release that Torchwood: Children of Earth and Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead helped the cable channel to its best ratings week:



The press release also confirms that BBC America has acquired the next season of Doctor Who, starring Matt Smith as the Doctor. The series will air on BBC America in "Q2, 2010 following soon after its UK premiere"; "Q2" refers to the second quarter of the year, or April, May and March.

America's Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) has announced that the Royal Shakespeare Company's recent production of Hamlet starring David Tennant and Patrick Stewart will air in the US as part of the network's "Great Performances" series in 2010. The RSC says that the television adaptation "will retain the quality and tone of the critically acclaimed stage production but filming will take place on location"

The BBC announced earlier this year that the film would air in the UK on BBC Two later in 2009.

Tennant will also be seen on PBS as host of the "Masterpiece Contemporary" series, which returns on October 25.

Press coverage of the PBS broadcast of Hamlet can be seen at Playbill, Variety and wire service articles from The Associated Press and the UK's Press Association, each of which were picked up by many newspapers.

The website tvshowsondvd.com has revealed that The War Games and The Black Guardian Trilogy will be released in North America on November 3rd.

Final figures released by BARB put all five episodes of Torchwood – Children of Earth in the top twenty programmes of the week.

The figures include those who record the programme and watch it within one week. The highest charting episode was Day Four, which, with 6.76 million watching, was the 11th most watched programme of the week. If figures for the HD showing were included in the BBC1 figures, then Torchwood would have had a top ten place, with episode four beating Emmerdale. All five episodes achieved over 6 million viewers.

The series dominated the chart for the BBC HD channel with the five episodes of Torchwood taking the top eight places. Not only did the original five showings take the top five places, but the midnight repeats took places 6, 7 and 8.

The BBC Three repeats also fared well with all five episodes appearing in the top ten programmes for the week. All episodes had a final rating over double that of the initial overnight figure.



Meanwhile, in the United States, Multichannel News reports that the premiere episode of "Children of Earth" was watched by 1.4 million viewers on Monday, the highest ratings of any programme on BBC America.

(Thanks to poster "InigoMontoya" from Gallifrey Base.)

Torchwood: Children of Earth comes to North America this week, with the series being broadcast in Canada and the United States.

BBC America will be screening the series at 9pm Eastern time from Monday to Friday. The series has been given a 75 minute slot, meaning American viewers will see the full version of the episodes. The 10pm showing of BBC World News America has been shortened to accommodate the series. As well as the main episodes, BBC America will be showing a number of documentaries going behind the scenes of Torchwood. Each episode will be repeated several times throughout the day.

In Canada, The Space Channel, will be broadcasting the series at 10pm Eastern time, also in a 75 minute slot. The series is repeated at 2.15am the following day.

In addition Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead comes to Canada on Saturday, with The Space Channel broadcasting the episode at 9pm Eastern, followed by a repeat of The Next Doctor.

A roundup of news for the broadcast of Torchwood: Children of Earth around the world.

United Kingdom (BBC1, 6th-10th July)
BBC Press Pack

• The Radio Times website has now listed Torchwood as being broadcast from Monday 6th July from 9:00pm, and will be broadcast over consecutive nights.
• The Guardian used Children of Earth's broadcast as the basis for an article on the role of the story-arc in science fiction.
• The Examiner reports on the soundtrack for Children of Earth to be released in the UK on 7th July.
• Press Pack coverage from io9, who also commented on the UK broadcast of Children of Earth ahead of the US broadcast (and spoilers revealed in the BBC Week 27 Information. Other articles on broadcast date from C21Media, Brand Republic, Rapid Talent, SF Crow's Nest, Coventry Telegraph, and Fantasy France.

United States (BBC America, 20th-24th July)

• BBC America have provided an Inside Look video for the series. Details on the series that they produced were covered by Pop Culture Zoo
• SF Universe carry an interview with John Barrowman; they also have an article of
  'fun facts' about Torchwood. Another interview with John Barrowman from the Chicago Tribune, whilst Eve Myles was the subject of Wired.

Canada (SPACE, 20th-24th July)

• Channel Canada report that the SPACE channel will broadcast the five-part series on consecutive days from the 20th July, and will be followed on the Saturday by the Canadian premiere of Planet of the Dead.

Australia (UKTV, BBC HD, 7th-11th July)
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