BBC Books have announced that the forthcoming novelisation of the Douglas Adams story City of Death will be released on 21st May 2015.

The BBC have revealed that Michelle Gomez will be reprising her role as Missy in the two-part premiere of the next series of Doctor Who, entitled The Magician's Apprentice, and The Witch's Familiar.

Writer Steven Moffat commented:

Michelle Gomez said:
The BBC website have also presented a video message from the actress:



The premiere will also see the return of Jemma Redgrave as Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, who appears alongside UNIT in the current block directed by Hettie MacDonald. The episodes will also feature Kelly Hunter (who previously played the Shadow Architect in The Stolen Earth), Clare Higgins (Ohila in The Night of the Doctor) and Jaye Griffiths (perhaps best remembered by sci-fi fans as Ros Henderson in Bugs).

Other guest stars appearing in the series include Daniel Hoffmann-Gill, Jami Reid-Quarrell, Aaron Neil, India Ria Amarteifio, Joey Price, Dasharn Anderson, Harki Bhambra, and Demi Papaminas.

Reeltime’s Pictures cult range of Doctor Who interviews are being relaunched through a brand new website Time Travel TV.

Reeltime Pictures will be a name familiar to fans active in the 1980's. Formed in 1984 by former Celestial Toyroom editor and then BBC and Channel 4 employee Keith Barnfather, their remit was to produce high quality content for Doctor Who and Cult TV fans alike. Their direct to video output consisted of original drama, documentaries and Myth Makers - a series of in depth interviews with a whole host of classic Doctor Who stars hosted by Nick Briggs. In the days before YouTube and the internet, is was the only way for many fans to view interviews with the stars and producers of their favourite show.

The new site will initially feature fifty titles for fans to download, stream or purchase on DVD. Included in the initial releases is a brand new Myth Makers: A tribute to Anthony Ainley. With a further 11 titles - old and new - being added every month until the entire back catalogue is released.

Keith Barnfather explained Reeltime have already recorded a series of brand new Myth Makers to be released over the coming months. As well as the Anthony Ainley tribute; interviews with special effects guru Mike Tucker, composer Dominic Glynn, seventies producer Graham Williams, writer David Fisher and many more are in the pipeline

Also available will be a number of rare curiosities that have remained unreleased until now including Sophie’s Choice, an early 90’s pilot for an unmade children's documentary series hosted by Sophie Aldred. Later this year will also see the release of a brand new drama from Reeltime, White Witch of Devils End. Another sequel spawned from The Dæmons, this six episode series stars Damaris Hayman reprising her role as Miss Hawthorne.

Later this year Reeltime plan to shoot several Myth Makers with actors from the new series of Doctor Who, hopefully done live at a convention.These future plans will only come to fruition if there is enough interest in this initial re-launch.

Full details on the Time Travel TV Website

This Easter a college in Manchester is offering a crash course in the history of Doctor Who.

Historian Michael Herbert will be teaching an 11 week evening class on the history of the television programme, starting on 14 April 2015, at Aquinas College , Stockport.

This course will look at the creation of Doctor Who by BBC’s head of drama, Sydney Newman, and producer Verity Lambert, in the early months of 1963. The course will then follow its history over the following five decades, including the Twelve Doctors from William Hartnell to Peter Capaldi; the many companions from Susan to Clara; and the role of producers and script editors in the programme such as Verity Lambert, Terrance Dicks, Barry Letts, John Nathan Turner, Andrew Cartmel and Russell T Davies.

The course will examine why Doctor Who was taken off air in 1989 and how, it returned in 2005 to critical acclaim and is now watched by millions, both in Britain and abroad. Each week the course will view a number of classic episodes from each Doctor’s era.

The course will be led by historian Michael Herbert who watched the first episode, aged 8. His pamphlet “Doctor Who and the Communist” : the television career of Malcolm Hulke was published by Five Leaves Press in January 2015.

Herbert said For more information or to book places on the course, please contact Sheila Lahan at Aquinas College.

Titan have released a sneak peek at the covers and information for Doctor Who: The Ninth Doctor #2 - in stores April 8, 2015

The BBC has confirmed that filming has started on block 2 of the next series of Doctor Who, and that Hettie MacDonald will be returning to the directors chair for the session.

MacDonald previously directed the Weeping Angels’ debut in the 2007 story Blink.

Filming for the new series started in Cardiff in January and the Doctor and Clara will be back in the Autumn.

Titan Comics is set for a full Doctor Who takeover of London Super Comic Con on March 14 & 15 with the launch of the new Ninth Doctor mini series as well as a Doctor Who panel and signings.

An exclusive London Super Comic Con cover, featuring the Ninth Doctor, will be available from the Forbidden Planet Titan Comics booth.

A Doctor Who Comics Panel is planned on Saturday 14th March from 1.30-2.30pm, featuring writer Cavan Scott (Doctor Who: Ninth Doctor comics series), writer Al Ewing (Doctor Who: Eleventh Doctor comics series), Rachael Smith (Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor humour strip), Colin Bell (Doctor Who: The Twelfth Doctor humour strip), Mark Ellerby (Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor humour strip), Doctor Who comics editor Andrew James and Titan Comics senior editor Steve White who will reveal exclusive secrets from this year’s Tenth, Eleventh and Twelfth Doctor comic story lines and show never-before-seen art and concept designs.

Every person who attends the panel will receive a special Doctor Who Comics poster and the chance to win Doctor Who merchandise.

In addition from 2.45pm Cavan Scott (Doctor Who: Ninth Doctor comics series) and artist Christian Ward will be signing copies of an exclusive Forbidden Planet/LSCC variant of Doctor Who: The Ninth Doctor issue #1. You can pre-order a signed copy from Forbidden Planet.

Figures showing the Live+7 performance of the Doctor Who Christmas Special Last Christmas are now available.

The LIve+7 figure is calculated by the BBC to try to get an accurate estimate of the total unique audience for an episode of a programme. Unlike official BARB figures the Live+7 uses data to include those who watched one of the broadcast repeats of the episode and those who watched the episode on iPlayer all within 7 days of the original transmission.

Overall the episode had a audience of 9.62 million who watched either on the day of broadcast or within the following 7 days. Of that 6.29 million watched on Christmas Day, 0.53 million watched the repeat on BBC Three, 1.97 million watched a timeshifted recording while 0.83 million watched on iPlayer.

Big Finish have announced that Kate Stewart and her UNIT team from the Doctor Who Television series will be starring in a brand new series of audio dramas

The deal with BBC Worldwide gives Big Finish the right to use a character from the revived series of Doctor Who for the first time.

Kate is the daughter of Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, and Head of Scientific Research at the Unified Intelligence Taskforce, which investigates and confronts alien attacks on the planet Earth. The role is portrayed by Jemma Redgrave (Dracula, Frankie, Cold Blood) who has appeared opposite Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi on television, and returns for the audio series.

Big Finish series producer David Richardson says Executive producer Jason Haigh-Ellery added Executive producer Nick Briggs says The first box set release, due in November, comprises four hours of adventure, in which Kate and her team confront an alien invasion by the Nestene Consciousness and its army of plastic Autons. Three additional box sets will be available at six monthly intervals.

Two archive interviews are to be released on DVD and are available from Galaxy 4.

An interview with Tom Baker, conducted in 1989, was originally available on Video Cassette, published by Reeltime Pictures. It is released on DVD for the first time. Also available is a brand new title, an interview with Anthony Ainley from April 2000.

Both are released on 27th February.