Sales of Doctor Who Adventures have slumped by nearly 50 per cent over the past year, according to latest figures released by the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

The 26 issues distributed between 1 July 2009 and 31 December 2009 had a total average net circulation of 44,664 per edition across the UK and the Republic of Ireland.

This represented a 45.7 per cent drop year-on-year - the figure for the same period in 2008 was 82,205.

Acknowledging the huge fall, Jaynie Bye, joint managing director of BBC Children's Magazines, remained optimistic, saying: "Doctor Who Adventures is down year on year, as anticipated, but is still performing well given the absence of the show from the schedules for most of this period. We are confident that circulation will increase with the return of the Doctor to our screens in 2010."

For comparative figures, see the BBC Worldwide press release.

Concept Designer Peter McKinstry has published artwork on his website featuring concepts and illustrations from his work on Doctor Who, Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures.

McKinstry has been Concept Designer on Doctor Who since series two. He is responsible for coming up with the look of the series, from planets and space ships to weapons and monsters. As well as his work on the Doctor Who and its spin-offs he has also worked on the last three Harry Potter films and the Harry Potter Theme Park.

The actor Mark Jones has died at the age of seventy.

Mark Jones played the role of Arnold Keeler in the 1976 Tom Baker story The Seeds of Doom. Keeler was a botanist, working for Harrison Chase, who during the story transformed into a Krynoid.

Jones had a long career in British Television appearing in programmes such as Casualty, Red Dwarf, Blott on the Landscape, The Onedin Line and Z Cars. He also had roles in the movies Star Wars - The Empire Strikes Back and Bear Island. He died on 14th January 2010 in Shrewsbury, Shropshire.

ZZ9, the official Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Appreciation Society, reports that BBC Radio 4 are currently preparing a documentary about former Doctor Who script editor Douglas Adams, entitled "The Doctor and Douglas". Produced by Simon Barnard and made for the BBC by the independent production company Wise Buddah, the documentary will apparently look at Adams's association with Doctor Who, from being a teenage fan of the programme in the 1960s to writing and script editing for it in the late 1970s.

This will be the fourth recent Doctor Who-related documentary to be broadcast by Radio 4, which last year transmitted programmes celebrating the Target novelisations of old Doctor Who episodes, and exploring the subject of the show's missing episodes. One of Adams's scripts for the series, Shada, featured heavily in a documentary which looked at 1970s television dramas which were abandoned during production. The network has also broadcast radio plays of the Doctor Who spin-off series Torchwood.

"The Doctor and Douglas" is expected to be aired sometime in either March or April.

Actress Neve McIntosh has revealed in an interview in the Perthshire Advertiser that she will be appearing in a two-parter for the next series of Doctor Who - the interview also mentions the role she will be playing, although characters are yet to be officially announced.

Voting is currently taking place for the Broadcasting Press Guild's 36th Annual Award Ceremony. The Doctor Who franchise has been nominated for three awards this year, with David Tennant nominated for Best Actor (Doctor Who/Hamlet), Eve Myles nominated for Best Actress (Torchwood/Framed), and finally Russell T Davies nominated for Best Writer (Doctor Who/Torchwood). The winners are chosen by members of the Guild, and takes place between the 11th and 18th February.

The Television and Radio Industries Club hold their annual TRIC Awards on 9th March at the Grosvenor House, London; Doctor Who has been nominated in the "TV Drama Programme" category, up against Doc Martin and Shameless. Winners are chosen by members of the industry.

The revived series of Doctor Who has yet to win an award from either organisation, though actress Billie Piper won the "New TV Talent" category at TRIC's 2006 ceremony.


New assistant Karen Gillan has been nominated for "Best New Scottish Actor/Actress" at the second Scottish Variety Awards, taking place at the Glasgow Crowne Plaze Hotel on 26th March.


The SFX Weekender convention took place over the weekend, and Doctor Who fared well in the various sci-fi categories: Best Actor went to David Tennant, Best Actress to Eve Myles, Best Television Episode was won by Torchwood: Children of Earth Day Five, and Best Collectable to the Journal of Impossible Things. In the SFX Choice Awards, new head writer Steven Moffat was the "Hope for the Future", whilst character Ianto Jones was chosen as "Cult Hero". Russell T. Davies was present to accept the actor and episode awards, and you can read his speeches on the SFX website. The full awards will feature in a forthcoming issue of SFX Magazine.

Carey Mulligan, who played Sally Sparrow in the 2007 Steven Moffat story Blink, has been nominated in the 2010 Academy Awards as Best Actress in a Leading Role. She earns the nomination for An Education, in which she played Jenny, an English schoolgirl who is seduced by the charms of an older man.

Paul Magrs is to take part in the Bristol celebration of the achievements of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people. Magrs has written several Doctor Who novels for BBC Books as well as plays for Big Finish and the recently released Tom Baker series Hornet's Nest for BBC Audio. His other work includes gritty teen fiction such as Strange Boy, a coming of age novel about a boy discovering and learning to accept his sexuality. He will take part in a free creative writing session to be held at Bristol Central Library on February 25 from 2pm to 4pm followed by a talk at Bedminster Library from 7.30pm to 9pm.

Dan Walker, an artist on the 2005 and 2010 series of Doctor Who, will be showing off some concept work at Teesside University's Animex International Festival in Middlesbrough, England. The event runs until the 12th February.

Nicholas Briggs, who provides the voices for several Doctor Who monsters, most notably the Daleks and the Cybermen, is is presenting The 7th Dimension on BBC Radio 7. He provides the continuity for the station’s slot dedicated to science-fiction, fantasy, and horror.

Science fiction and fantasy author Neil Gaiman has confirmed he will be writing an episode of Doctor Who for Matt Smith's second series as The Doctor.

Gaiman broke the news in a special message sent to SFX Weekender as part of his acceptance speech for winning Best Comic at the SFX Awards.
Gaiman's works include The Sandman graphic novel series, Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book. He has won a Hugo Award and the 2009 Newbery Medal. His involvement in Doctor Who has been rumoured for a while.

John Barrowman appeared on tonight's Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, during which he discussed how Torchwood was responsible for him gaining his forthcoming role in the US series Desperate Housewives. When asked about for future of Captain Jack himself:
He went on to speak about meeting Matt Smith:
Jonathan Ross also confirmed that Matt Smith would be appearing on his show in a few weeks time.

The show is available on the BBC iplayer for the next seven days.

Big Finish announced today details of the upcoming three-story season of Fifth Doctor stories, featuring Peter Davison as the Doctor, Sarah Sutton as Nyssa, Janet Fielding as Tegan and Mark Strickson as Turlough, the first time this TARDIS team had acted together since 1983.

According to executive producer Nicholas Briggs, "The three stories were recorded just after Christmas, and everyone was on brilliant form. It was quite thrilling to hear [the cast] recreating their roles so authentically. These adventures sound just like they've fallen through a time warp!"

He aded: “The mood during the recording was quite rambunctious and everyone had such a brilliant time that I wouldn’t be surprised to see this team reunited again some time in the near future…”

The series will debut in July, and the first story released will be Cobwebs by Jonathan Morris. The story guest-stars Helen Griffin (Mrs. Moore in "Rise of the Cybermen"), Raymond Coulthard of Hotel Babylon and Adrian Lukis (Peak Practice). The TARDIS crew lands on a scientific base and it becomes obvious that they've been there before...only for them it hasn't happened yet.

The second story is The Whispering Forest by Stephen Cole, set on an alien world where a colony has become obsessed with cleanliness – while strange creatures are prowling among the trees. The guest cast includes Paul Shelley (previously Persuasion in "Four to Doomsday"), Harry Melling (Dudley Dursley in the Harry Potter films...and Patrick Troughton's grandson) and Hayley Atwell (recently in the Prisoner remake).

Wrapping up the series, with the blessings of original creator Christopher Bailey, the Mara makes a welcome return in The Cradle of the Snake by Marc Platt, in which the TARDIS crew revisits the planet Manussa. “When we knew we could get these characters back together, we realised we wanted to bring back the Mara because it was an iconic monster from the Davison era,” says Briggs. "Marc Platt seemed the obvious choice to write it – because Marc does ‘weird’ so wonderfully!”

Please visit the Big Finish website to read the full story.