Videos of the guest panels from the two most recent celebratory screenings by the BFI were released today.

The BFI is running a Doctor Who At 50 season throughout this year, curated by Justin Johnson and Dick Fiddy, and a six-minute excerpt from the question-and-answer session at the Seventh Doctor event, held on Saturday 27th July and which saw a big-screen showing of Remembrance of the Daleks, features Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred, and Ben Aaronovitch in conversation with Johnson.


Meanwhile, the Ninth Doctor event - held on Saturday 24th August with Bad Wolf and The Parting of The Ways being screened - spawned a longer video, with Joe Ahearne, Phil Collinson, and Bruno Langley on the panel.


The next event, which will mark the Tenth Doctor's era, is to take place at the BFI on Sunday 29th September when the episodes The Stolen Earth and Journey's End will be shown and - as previously reported - David Tennant will be among the special guests. As with all the other events in the BFI season it has sold out, but returns are possible - keep checking here - as are stand-bys on the day.

Less than a week after that - and again as previously reported - Paul McGann will be the headline guest on Saturday 5th October at the sold-out event in honour of his time as the Eighth Doctor, with a screening of the TV Movie taking place. The full guest line-up, announced today, will be Daphne Ashbrook, Geoffrey Sax, Andrew Cartmel, Gary Russell, Nicholas Briggs, and Jason Haigh-Ellery. Cartmel, Briggs, Russell, and Haigh-Ellery will be forming a panel to talk about the years between the McGann movie and the show's return, while McGann, Ashbrook, and Sax will be the panel guests following the screening.

Yesterday, Ashbrook revealed on her website that she would be taking part, commenting: The event will be followed by a signing at the BFI Shop of advance copies of the BBC's 50th-anniversary book Doctor Who - The Vault, due out on Thursday 24th October, with author Marcus Hearn. Check here for returns for the Eighth Doctor event or try for stand-bys on the day.

A rare Auton carnival mask from the Third Doctor story Terror of the Autons fetched more than £5,000 when it was auctioned on eBay.

The painted fibreglass head, with felt eyes, was sold on the online auction site by London-based miss-p73, who said in the item description that it had been given to her family in the late-1970s when her father worked for a studio transport company. She added that the accompanying foam rubber hat had long since perished, and said that the mask had been "much loved and played with" in her youth, which had led to it being "a bit chipped and scraped".

After 51 bids the prop - which was only available to buyers in the UK - finally went for £5,154 when the auction ended on Thursday 5th September just after 10.25pm.

The carnival masks were worn by the Autons to disguise their true nature as they handed out deadly plastic daffodils to unsuspecting members of the public.

The four-part adventure started Jon Pertwee's second series as the Doctor. Written by Robert Holmes and directed by Barry Letts, it aired between 2nd and 23rd January 1971. Not only did the story feature the second appearance of the Autons in the show, it also marked the debuts of Katy Manning, Roger Delgado, and Richard Franklin as, respectively, Jo Grant, the Master, and Captain Mike Yates.

The episodes Bad Wolf and The Parting of the Ways are to be shown by BBC America on Sunday 29th September when the channel marks the Ninth Doctor's era in its celebratory strand Doctor Who: The Doctors Revisited.

The stories, which formed the finale of the show's first series on its return to TV, marked the end of the Christopher Eccleston era, and saw his Doctor - aided by companions Rose, played by Billie Piper, and Captain Jack Harkness, portrayed by John Barrowman - taking on the might of the Daleks.

Preceding the episodes will be the special documentary Doctor Who: The Doctors Revisited – The Ninth Doctor, featuring Steven Moffat, Neil Gaiman, Noel Clarke, and Barrowman among the participants discussing Eccleston's portrayal of a no-nonsense, hard-hitting, and straight-talking Doctor. The documentary will air at 8pm ET/PT.

The stories, written by Russell T Davies and directed by Joe Ahearne, originally aired in June 2005.

BBC Worldwide has announced the release of Doctor Who: The Complete Series 1-7 Box Set on Blu-ray for release in the United Kingdom on 4th November and in North America on 5th November:


In addition, the North American release will include a bonus gift in the form of the original Doctor Who Universal Remote Control Sonic Screwdriver, three artwork cards featuring the three Doctors, plus an exclusive comic book.

The 29 disc collection contains each series in its own individual Blu-ray case, and it is expected that the four remastered Eccleston/Tennant series will be available individually at a later date.

Hot on the heels of the report that Matt Smith starts filming on Sunday, the BBC reported that the read-through for this year's Christmas Special took place today, with a report on Twitter stating: "Christmas starts early for the #DoctorWho team! Here’s Matt Smith at today’s Christmas Special read through."


The BBC's Doctor Who website added:

Tweets on the read-through were also made by DWM editor Tom Spilsbury: "The Doctor Who Christmas readthrough was lovely - and rather moving. Matt Smith has been a terrific Doctor, but he's also a true gentleman." Make-up designer Claire Pritchard said: "Quite an emotional day at the doctors today he was reading a story." Having been working on Steven Moffat's other series, Sherlock, she added: "Is it rude and disloyal to leave a consulting detective for a Doctor I feel dirty!xx"

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With principal photography due to kick off on Sunday, the first indication of a filming location came from Labour councillor Dilwar Ali, who said: "Dr Who will be filming at Llandaff North next week."

Matt Smith has confirmed that he begins shooting for this year's Christmas Special from this coming Sunday.

Speaking to Daybreak's entertainment correspondent Richard Arnold at last night's GQ Men of the Year Awards, the actor responded to a question about his current hair style and on how this would impact filming:

This month sees the stage production Every Episode of Doctor Who Ever performed at the Sydney Fringe, and Doctor Who News is able to offer two double passes to any of the performances courtesy of the Factory Theatre and Pat Magee. In order to win one of the pairs please answer the following question:
Send your answer to comp-theatre@doctorwhonews.net with the subject line "Are you doing Dimensions in Time?", along with the names for the two tickets and the performances that you are able to make, plus where you saw the competition (e.g. the news website or on Facebook). The competition is open to anybody who is able to confirm that they can make the performances requested.

Closing date is Wednesday 11th September.

Performances of Every Episode of Doctor Who Ever take place at The Factory Theatre, Sydney, Australia on the evenings of the 18th, 19th, 25th and 26th September.

A new Fanzine called Cygnus Alpha is now available.

Cygnus Alpha is a continuation of an old 1980s Fanzine which originally featured Paul Cornell and Gary Russell. It's been brought up to date by Simon Brett ( phonic Screwdriver radio host, Phonicon organiser, Star Burst podcaster and Star Burst illustrator), Lee Rawlings ( Phonic Screwdiver radio host, Phonicon organiser and Star Burst podcaster), and Paul Griffin ( 80s & 90s fanzine illustrator, DWM illustrator and BBC Doctor Who book cover artist for The Devil Goblins From Neptune).

It features the likes of JR Southall ( You & Who books ), the original writers George Sik, Rolo Paloma, Paul West (the original editor), John Davies ( Big Finish Short Trips) , Simon Breeze ( fantasy artist), Lee Rawlings, Simon Brett and Paul Griffin.

It's A5 and features colour artwork. This issues has articles on Peter Cushing, Gerry Anderson & Captain Scarlet, a colour comic strip, short story by JR Southall and an exclusive interview with the director of Doctor Who's Kings Demons Tony Virgo.

It is now available priced at £2.50 plus p&p.

Details from the Fanzine's Facebook page.

Puffin Books have announced that the author of the ninth in their series of Doctor Who e-books will be writer, actor, and comedian Charlie Higson.


Though primarily associated with writing comedy series in the United Kingdom for both radio (Down The Line) and television (The Fast Show), Higson's writing credentials encompass a variety of other genres, including a series of Young Bond novels and the creation of his own cult thriller series, The Enemy. Now taking up the Doctor's cause, he said:


The e-book is due to be released on 23rd September 2013, with BBC Worldwide to upload a brief interview with the writer the the Doctor Who YouTube channel later this month.

The original script for William Hartnell's last story, The Tenth Planet, has been found, with one key difference from the transmitted version. The Doctor does not regenerate at the end of the story.

Michael Seely, author of the forthcoming biography of Dr Kit Pedler ‘The Quest for Pedler’ unearthed the original draft script, along with draft scripts for The Moonbase, known then as The Return of the Cybermen, among a very large collection of Pedler's papers which one of his children had kept in their attic.

The relevance of this early draft, and the date it was prepared goes some way to illustrating the hasty nature of Hartnell’s departure:
Michael Seely is no stranger to the work of Dr Kit Pedler, he has previously written two books (‘Prophets of Doom’ and ‘Deadly Dangerous Tomorrow’ – both available from Miwk Publishing) on the subject of Doomwatch.
Seely’s biography of Pedler will be released in early 2014 by Miwk Publishing. Authorised by his family and produced with their assistance, the book will tell the full story of Dr C.M.H. Pedler, MB. BS., Ph.D, M.C. Path. A research scientist well known to Doctor Who fans as the co-creator of the Cybermen, but in also a leading activist and campaigner for more sociably responsible and sustainable scientific research and understanding.

Pedler’s role in Doctor Who is also clarified:
The Quest for Pedler: The Life & Ideas of Dr Kit Pedler By Michael Seely is now available for preorder.