The BBC have announced the guest cast for the forthcoming Christmas Special, which will almost certainly follow tradition and be broadcast on Christmas Day:

With an 8:30pm timeslot for the new Doctor's sixth adventure The Caretaker announced by the BBC earlier this week, German broadcaster FOX have now confirmed that they will amend their schedule to accomodate the later time. The channel has to date aired the series at 9:00pm European time, a little later than the BBC One broadcast, but from the 27th September German viewers will be able to enjoy the episode simulataneously with those in the United Kingdom.

FOX told us:

The series is currently broadcast in English on Saturday evenings, preceeded by the previous episode with subtitles; the entire series is due to be repeated with a German soundtrack from the 15th November.

The new edition of Doctor Who Magazine was published today, and features an exclusive interview with Mummy on the Orient Express guest star, comedian Frank Skinner, who discusses his role as Perkins in the episode:

Also in this issue:

• Extensive previews of Episodes 5 to 8 of the new series – Time Heist, The Caretaker, Kill the Moon and Mummy on the Orient Express. DWM talks exclusively to writers Steven Moffat, Stephen Thompson, Gareth Roberts, Peter Harness and Jamie Mathieson.
• Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat answers readers’ questions in his exclusive column.
• DWM talks to Billy Hanshaw, the man who inspired the brand new title sequence for this year’s series of Doctor Who.
• DWM investigates the nature of ‘spoilers’ and asks if they really spoil anything?
• Into the Dalek writer Phil Ford talks about getting to know a Dalek from the inside out!
• In-depth reviews the twelfth Doctor’s first four adventures: Deep Breath, Into the Dalek, Robot of Sherwood and Listen.
• As audio company Big Finish celebrates its 15th anniversary with an epic audio adventure, The Worlds of Doctor Who, DWM talks to its stars including Colin Baker, Louise Jameson, Lalla Ward, Christopher Benjamin, Trevor Baxter and Jamie Glover.
• The Doctor and Clara’s comic strip adventures continue in The Eye of Torment written by Scott Gray, illustrated by Martin Geraghty.
• The Time Team comment on the 2008 Tenth Doctor adventure Turn Left.
• Jacqueline Rayner finds unexpected inspiration for her Relative Dimensions column at the breakfast table...
• A look back at August’s Doctor Who World Tour which saw Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman travel round the globe to promote the new series.
• The Watcher eloquently explains why Doctor Who belongs in the Autumn in Wotcha!
• The DWM crossword, prize-winning competitions and much more!

Doctor Who Magazine issue 478 is out now.

On the 23rd November 2013 the world celebrated Doctor Who reaching its fiftieth anniversary, receiving a Guinness World Record as some 94 countries were officially recorded as having shown the anniversary episode. However, the 18th September 2014 sees another milestone celebrated as, fifty years ago, An Unearthly Child was to receive its first-ever international broadcast.

The country in question was New Zealand, with the Doctor's very first appearance outside the United Kingdom to be broadcast by Christchurch's CHTV-3. The episode was shown at 7:57pm, sandwiched between news programme NZBC Reports... and a documentary about Dr. Gordon Seagrave, The Burma Surgeon Today, and was introduced by the weekly magazine The New Zealand Listener as:


You can read the country's introduction to the Doctor from the Listener below.

Silva Screen have announced that a double LP version of the soundtrack from Ghost Light, the final recorded story from the series' original run. (Re)Released on CD last year, the soundtrack is presented more closely to the original broadcast. Composer Mark Ayres says:
The soundtrack is due out on the 13th October, and can be purchased from Silva Screen's website.

With the return of Strictly Come Dancing to Saturday evenings from the 27th September, the BBC have confirmed that the sixth episode in the current run of Doctor Who, The Caretaker, will air from 8:30pm in the evening. On the other main UK channels the episode is scheduled against ITV's The X Factor (which airs from 8:00pm to 9:20pm), The Ryder Cup on BBC2, Grand Designs on Channel 4, and World War II in Colour on Channel Five.

This is only the second occurrence in the history of the show that a new episode has ever been scheduled so late in the evening, with only the singular outing for Paul McGann in the TV Movie being broadcast at the same time in 1996.

The later time-slot does not impact the North American broadcasts on BBC America and SPACE, and the early morning Australian simulcast on ABC will be adjusted accordingly - however, FOX in Germany currently have the episode scheduled for 9:00pm (8:00pm UK time) - it is expected that this will be revised shortly.

Peter Capaldi's debut story Deep Breath is now available to buy on Blu-ray and DVD, and the BBC have release a short clip from the story's 'prequel' which was originally shown alongside the episode in cinemas last month.


The release also includes behind-the-scenes material and the live programme Doctor Who Live: The Next Doctor which introduced the world to Capaldi as the latest incarnation.

The episode is available to buy from our Amazon shop on Blu-ray (UK/US/CA) or DVD (UK/US/CA).

The Complete Series Eight boxed set is also available for pre-order, due out on the 17th November in the UK (BD/DVD) and on the 9th December in the US (BD/DVD) and Canada (BD/DVD).

Figures released show that the US theatrical screening of Doctor Who Deep Breath achieved top spot at the US Box office.

The screening, organised by BBC America and Fantom Events, broke box office records on 25th August. According to Rentrak, the event was screened in more than 650 theatres nationwide where it ranked No. 1 at the box office compared to all other films that Monday night.

In addition, Doctor Who Season Premiere: Deep Breath stands as the No. 1 alternative content event in U.S. theatres this year.

Soumya Sriraman, BBC Worldwide North America’s EVP Home Entertainment and Licensing said Fathom Events CEO John Rubey addedIn addition Doctor Who ranked number One in the Rentrak TV engagement rating, also known as the Stickiness Index, which ranks primetime ad-supported cable and broadcast telecasts by level of viewer engagement. Doctor Who was the programme with the highest viewer engagement on Cable TV for the week ending 24 August.

German DVD distributor Pandastorm Pictures announced today the upcoming plans for DVD releases of the classic series in a newsletter sent out to fans. As previously reported the first volume of seventh Doctor stories includes the complete Season 24 on four discs, all the bonus features of the UK DVD's and will be released on 28th November 2015.

Additionally, Pandastorm Pictures is going to release the following sets:


According to the newsletter there are currently rights issues that need to be resolved before the TV Movie can be released.

There are no German dubs to any other episodes available, so further releases are unlikely. However, the distributor has told fans that it would consider dubbing more classic episodes if the DVD's are going to sell extremely well.

Der Siebte Doktor Volume 1 can be pre-ordered from Amazon Germany.