TARDIS up for auction

Friday, 18 June 2010 - Reported by Marcus
Doctor Who: TARDISThe TARDIS used by ninth Doctor Christopher Eccleston is on of many Doctor Who releated items to be auctioned at Bonhams on June 23rd.

The prop was created in 2005 and has an estimate of £8,000 to £12,000. A smaller model measuring 5ft tall, created for an exhibition has an estimate of £300 to £400.

Also up for grabs are some of the oldest props from the series ever to appear at auction, including one of the earliest surviving Daleks and a Cyberman helmet from the second Doctor stories, The Moonbase and The Tomb Of The Cybermen, which is set to sell for £3,000 to £4,000.

A number of props made specially for exhibitions are also available.

Lot No: 142W
Doctor Who: Christopher Eccleston as the Ninth Doctor,
A complete Tardis prop, circa 2005,
of painted rasped wood panel and glass construction, the base having painted parquet effect floor, panels fastening using bracket and bolt, having a pair of hinged doors, on with Yale® lock, with windows to doors and signage to front, top section of Tardis with removable 'Police Box' signs, interior of Tardis roof with a number of miniature lights, and further interior lighting, the roof with removable lamp to top, height approximately 10ft

Estimate: £8,000 - 12,000
Lot No: 126
Part believed to be from Dr. Who And The Daleks, 1964 and The Chase, 1965
A Dalek, with back section removed to reveal interior,
of wood, plastic and metal, the skirt section heavily overpainted in grey, with blue hemispheres, with quilted fabric to removed rear section edges, the shoulder, neck and dome sections created for exhibition purposes, plunger missing, slats of plastic with impressed foam between, height approximately 64 inches.

Thought to have been acquired by the BBC from the film company Aura after completion of 'Dr. Who And The Daleks', the Dalek was then used during the 1965 William Hartnell era story 'The Chase'. Subsequently, the piece was altered for exhibition purposes, including the removal of the back section.

Estimate: £2,000 - 3,000
Lot No: 127
Doctor Who: The original cover artwork for 'The Dalek Book', 1964,
watercolour and gouache on paper, unsigned, mounted, framed and glazed, together with an original copy of the annual, artwork 31.5 x 42.5cm (12½ x 16¾in)

Estimate: £500 - 700
Lot No: 128
Part believed to be from The Evil of the Daleks, 1967
A Dalek (heavily altered for Exhibition purposes),
of wood, plastic and metal construction, distressed overall, with black body and blue hemispheres overpainted grey (all now flaking), with narrow single panel set of hemispheres to rear skirt, the neck and dome sections created for exhibition purposes (plunger and eye missing), slats of metal, much of dome section missing, height approximately 61 inches

Estimate: £2,000 - 3,000

t is believed that the skirt and shoulder sections of this Dalek were used on 'Evil of the Daleks' in 1967.

The rear of the skirt section reveals a single panel of hemispheres, however Daleks skirt sections ordinarily feature two rows of hemispheres. The single panel section were used during this particular episode, it has been suggested, so that the Daleks could travel through doors whilst on set.
Lot No: 129
Moonbase and The Tomb of the Cybermen, 1967
A Cyberman helmet,
of silver painted fibreglass, having removable panel to back with hook and catch fastening, tape applied round eyes and mouth, eight drilled holes in circular shape to either side of helmet and two drill holes to neck, eyes internally covered with wire mesh, clear plastic poles to either side of head covered in silver paint (now flaking), some cracking and loss to fibreglass, interior with one foam ear protector and elasticated loop to top, height 16 inches (40.5cm)

Estimate: £3,000 - 4,000
Lot No: 130
The Seeds of Doom, January - March 1976
A Krynoid pod,
of moulded and painted resin, together with a copy of 'The Doctor Who Monster Book', signed by all of the cast and many members of the crew from the episode including Tom Baker inscribed 'Who is this Tom Baker?', Elisabeth Sladen, John Challis, Tony Beckley, Keith Gilbert, Mark Jones, Douglas Camfield and Philip Hinchcliffe a copy of the VHS of the episode and the 'Doctor Who And The Seeds of Doom' paperback by Philip Hinchcliffe, height 4 inches, width 4½ inches

Estimate: £350 - 400
Lot No: 131
Resurrection Of The Daleks, February 1984
A Dalek Guard costume, worn by Rula Lenska as 'Styles',
comprising; fibreglass helmet and chest and backplates, heavy cotton boiler suit with black and yellow vinyl patches, neck inscribed in ballpoint Rula Lenska 88=34'', black rubber gloves and moulded weapon

Estimate: £800 - 1,200
Lot No: 132
Dr. Who: a Cyberman costume,
the heavy cotton boiler suit with stud fasteners, sprayed with silver paint and with applied tubing and net panels, label to inside neck faintly inscribed Ken Baker (sic), with certificate

Estimate: £1,500 - 2,000
Lot No: 133
Doctor Who - The Ultimate Adventure (Stage Play), 1989
A Zog costume,
the headpiece, hands and feet of moulded foam latex, with plastic eyes, the body heavily applied with faux fur fabric, on mannequin and base, height 62 inches




FILTER: - Auctions

People News

Friday, 18 June 2010 - Reported by Marcus
Ninth Doctor, Christopher Eccleston will star in an episode of a new BBC One six-part drama Accused, by Jimmy McGovern. Eccleston plays lapsed Catholic Willy in the series which also stars Mackenzie Crook, Juliet Stevenson, Peter Capaldi and Andy Serkis. Meanwhile Eccleston's portrayal of John Lennon in Lennon Naked, will be shown as part of the BBC Four Fatherhood season on Wednesday 23rd July.

Tenth Doctor David Tennant has been cast in a remake of the 1985 film Fright Night. Tennant will play a character originally portrayed by Roddy McDowall in a Dreamworks production, which will also star Toni Collette and Colin Farrell.

Fourth Doctor Tom Baker has written the foreword to the new AA book of Haunted Britain due to be published in September 2010.

John Barrowman is to return in his entertainment series Tonight's the Night. The show will be recording at BBC Scotland's headquarters, at Pacific Quay in Glasgow, over the summer for an autumn transmission.

Sophie Okonedo been awarded an OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours list. Okonedo, who played Liz 10 in The Beast Below, described the award as 'the cherry on the cake'. It's not known if the award will be presented to the actress by Liz 2.




FILTER: - People - Christopher Eccleston

The Big Bang - Schedule

Thursday, 17 June 2010 - Reported by Marcus
The final episode of the current series of Doctor Who, The Big Bang, will be shown at 6.05pm according to the BBC Press Office. The programme will run for 55 minutes, 10 minutes longer than normal.

The early start is to avoid clashing with one of the two World Cup matches taking place on the day. One match will be on BBC One and one on ITV, but which on which will not be determined until the results of the first round matches are known the day before transmission. If England win their group, their match will be shown immediately after Doctor Who on BBC One.

ITV1 will be offering You've Been Framed! in opposition to the Doctor, with BBC Two offering Tennis as the first week of Wimbledon 2010 draws to an end. Channel 4 has Come Dine with Me while Five offers the 1970 film Chisum, staring John Wayne.




FILTER: - UK - Series 5/31 - Broadcasting

Half a Million Download City of the Daleks

Thursday, 17 June 2010 - Reported by Marcus
Doctor Who: City of DaleksOver 500,000 people have downloaded the new Doctor Who Adventure Game, City of the Daleks, in the two weeks it has been available.

Simon Nelson, controller of portfolio and multiplatform at BBC Vision told games magazine MCV.
The result is a lot more than I was expecting, We had set ourselves some fairly stretched targets on this and we’ve blown them away.
The game is the first of four which will be released over the summer.




FILTER: - Games

The Pandorica Opens - BAFTA Screening

Wednesday, 16 June 2010 - Reported by Marcus
Doctor Who: The Pandorica OpensFans in London were given a special preview of the penultimate episode of the current series of Doctor Who, The Pandorica Opens, at BAFTA earlier this evening. The screening was attended by Steven Moffat, Matt Smith and Karen Gillan who answered questions at the end of the screening.

Introducing the episode Ben Stephenson, Controller, BBC Drama Commissioning, paid tribute to the current prodcution team. In a speech which left no doubt to the high regard the series is held in by BBC Management, he paid particular tribute to Steven Moffat saying how no other broadcaster in the UK or the USA had such a brilliant writer producing such high quality family drama. He called The Pandorica Opens a tremendous piece of television.

Following the episode a wide range of questions were put to the team. Matt Smith revealed he had had initial doubts about the way he was playing the Doctor and often spoke to his dad for advice. He was delighted when a six year old, dressed in tweed jacket and bow tie presented him with a gift of a picture. Smith revealed he had been to a costume fitting for the next series earlier today and he was looking for something warmer to wear in the future.

Steven Moffat was asked about Steven Fry's comments yesterday, where he described Doctor Who as Children's Television. Moffat said Doctor Who always was, and always will be, family television. Designed for that special period when both children and their parents could watch together. When asked about the move of viewers from watching the programme as broadcast to watching later, either on harddisk or via the iPlayer, he called on BBC One controller Jay Hunt who was also in the audience. She confirmed the BBC was aware of the massive reach the programme had and said she didn't mind when they watched it as long as they did.

He paid tribute to the classic series, singling out Waris Hussein who was in the audience. Hussein directed the very first episode of Doctor Who, screened in November 1963. Moffat called it a wonderful half an hour of television and urged anyone who had not yet seen it to view it.

The Pandorica Opens has its début on BBC One and BBC HD this Saturday evening.




FILTER: - Special Events

Doctor Who tops May iPlayer figures

Wednesday, 16 June 2010 - Reported by Marcus
Amy's ChoiceThe first four episodes of Doctor Who to première in May, were the top four most requested programmes for the month on the BBC iPlayer according to BBC iStats.

Top of the list was episode 7, Amy's Choice, with nearly 1.4 million requests. Episode 5, Flesh and Stone was second, followed by Episode 6, The Vampires of Venice and Episode 8, The Hungry Earth. The four episodes were the only programmes during the month, to have over 1 million requests each.

Episode 9, Cold Blood, came in at number 8 despite only being available for the last two days of the month.

Overall Doctor Who was the second most requested programme of the month with over 6.5 million requests for one of the nine episodes available. The top programme was EastEnders with over 8 million requests, although these were spread over 33 episodes. Doctor Who had the highest downloads per episode.


Episodes of the current series are available in the UK on the BBC iPlayer from transmission date until Saturday 3rd July.




FILTER: - Ratings - UK - Series 5/31

Eccleston talks departure

Tuesday, 15 June 2010 - Reported by Chuck Foster
EcclestonThe new Radio Times features an interview with former Doctor Christopher Eccleston. The article focusses on his role as John Lennon in the BBC film Lennon Naked (BBC4/BBHD, 9:30pm Wed 23rd), but he also discusses his departure from Doctor Who after just the one series:

I was open-minded but I decided after my experience on the first series that I didn't want to do any more. I didn't enjoy the environment and the culture that we, the cast and crew, had to work in. I wasn't comfortable. I thought "if I stay in this job, I'm going to have to blind myself to certain things that I thought were wrong."

And I think it's more important to be your own man than be successful, so I left. But the most important thing is that I did it, not that I left. I really feel that, because it kind of broke the mould and it helped to reinvent it. I'm very proud of it.

The Radio Times (19-25th June 2010) is out now.




FILTER: - Christopher Eccleston - Radio Times

The Pandorica Opens - Radio Times Cover

Tuesday, 15 June 2010 - Reported by Chuck Foster
Radio TimesThe new issue of the Radio Times (week commencing 19th June) joins the collection of those that feature Doctor Who on the cover; this issue promotes Karen Gillan, who is interviewed inside the magazine about playing the part of Amy Pond, and acting alongside Matt Smith.

We just kind of bounce off each other. The banter that you see on screen – that’s what we’re like all day on set. I sometimes wonder if it’s our way of keeping our energy up between scenes, but it’s all subconscious. And I think we might have been like that if we’d met in any other situation.

The one thing I never wanted to do with Amy was to base her on any kind of formula, to conform to what works – or what has worked – in a companion; you know, the whole, likeable, girl-next-door business. Amy is likeable, I hope, but she’s not ordinary. She’s quite complicated and there are layers to explore. So I was taking a few risks with her and I think it works.

This year has previously seen Radio Times covers for The Eleventh Hour and three versions for Victory of the Daleks.




FILTER: - Magazines - Series 5/31 - Radio Times

Vincent and the Doctor - Final ratings

Monday, 14 June 2010 - Reported by Marcus
Vincent and the DoctorFinal figures for Episode Ten, Vincent and the Doctor, published by BARB show the story was watched by 6.76 million viewers.

On BBC One the programme got 6.29 million watching where it was the second most watched programme for the channel for the week, just being beaten by Tuesday's EastEnders. An additional 0.47 million watched on BBC HD and when added together the programme totalled 6.76 million viewers.

Final figures for ITV1 HD are not available, so a full top thirty programmes of the week can't be calculated. Doctor Who stands at 18th for the week without HD figures added. If HD figures are included, it will almost certainly rise one place to be the 17th most watched programme of the week.

The BBC Three Sunday repeat did not rank high enough to get into the top 30 for the week.

Full ratings for the series so far can be found in Gallifrey Base.




FILTER: - Ratings - UK - Series 5/31

Eleven Doctors in Character

Monday, 14 June 2010 - Reported by Chuck Foster
Character, makers of the successful Doctor Who figures, are to release a new, combined set featuring all eleven Doctors, presented in a "TARDIS" box. All of the figures are newly moulded with different costumes/head sculptures to those previously released individually or in other sets.

The set will also be released in the USA by Underground Toys.



The Eleven Doctors set is due out in the UK in August.




FILTER: - Merchandise - Character