United Kingdom: The National Media Museum in Bradford will play host to an 'invasion' of Daleks during the October half-term (26 Oct - 3 Nov). Doctor Who Family Fun will give visitors the chance to learn about the Doctor's foe in the Science of the Daleks event, and will also be able to participate in making a light-up TARDIS, a moving Dalek or even create their own monster to take home. Other events include behind-the-scenes on the making of the show, plus a screening of this year's Nightmare in Silver. Learning programme coordinator Elaine Richmond said: "We hope families will join us this half term to help keep the Museum from the clutches of the dreaded Daleks. We’re very excited about this event and promise a lot of Doctor Who-themed fun and activities in anticipation of the 50th anniversary episode next month."

UK: The University of Central Lancashire are planning a special event on the 16th November: Doctor Who: The Science Behind The Scenes will be a day of presentations about the show and the science it uses, including topics like Science Fact or Science Fiction?, The Psychology of Doctor Who and Is Time Travel Possible? There will also be workshops, make-up, costumes and mask-making, and a area to have memorabilia assessed and valued! [EventBrite]

UK: The popularity of Doctor Who Experience at Cardiff Bay has led to the town council to consider additional parking space in order to ensure that the perceived lack of space is leading to a drop-off in number of visitors to the area. A BBC Worldwide spokesperson commented: "An improvement in parking in Cardiff Bay will support increased visitor numbers but there is no suggestion that visitor numbers at the Doctor Who Experience are falling. We do receive comments from potential visitors and visitors post-event about the lack of parking in the Bay and we welcome the move to improve the situation." [Wales Online, 19 Sep 2013]

UK: Special Events Group Limited are arranging for a mass Doctor Who themed wedding which is expected to take place at the Bloomsbury Ballroom in London on 24th November. [Doctor Who Wedding]

UK: As part of the BBC's plans to simulcast The Day of the Doctor across cinemas in 3D, Cineworld in Crawley Leisure Park aim to host a special day to celebrate, including an appearance by Simon Fisher Becker, who played Dorium in the series. Money raised from the day will be donated to the charity Autism All Stars. [Crawley Observer, 2 Oct 2013]

UK: Doctor Who features as a session at next weekend's Film and TV Conference in Norwich; Doctor Who and Beyond: Science Fiction & Fantasy TV takes place on the 12th October at 11:15am and is expected to feature writer Phil Ford amonst panel speakers. [Norfolk Eastern Daily Press, 27 Sep 2013]

UK: Three fans have set off on a round-trip from Pontllanfraith in Wales to Munich in Germany - each dressed as the Doctor - in order to raise money for Parkinson's research. Richard Shelton said: "Three years ago I took part in a similar rally across Europe to Croatia. We want to raise between £1,000 and £2,000 for Parkinson's UK and have £800 so far." [South Wales Argus, 20 Sep 2013]

UK: A Dalek ended up "chasing" a pensioner in Southampton as fan Chris Baker was in the process of moving home. Tony Holland had in fact offered to pull the prop along; as Baker observed: "This dalek is worth quite a few thousand pounds and I wasn't sure it would survive being pulled along by a mobility scooter! But Tony was very keen to assist and I saw no harm in giving it a go. He did a great job. We kept having to stop as people wanted to have their picture taken with the dalek." [Daily Star, 25 Sep 2013]

UK: Chester Zoo have released a video featuring their penguins - all with Doctor Who related names! [YouTube, 25 Sep 2013]

United States: The Norman Public Library in Tulsa is to hold a Doctor Who event on the 4th October to celebrate the show's 50th anniversary. The library website states: "The event is open to all ages and features games, crafts, Doctor Who-themed snacks and a chance to look at and check out the library’s collection of Doctor Who books." [Pioneer Library System, 1 Oct 2013]

US: Fans are attempting to have the Empire State Building in New York lit for the 50th Anniversary; an online petition states: "We are asking the Empire State Building to light up “TARDIS Blue” on November 23rd to celebrate 50 great years of Doctor Who. The Empire State Building regularly uses their spectacular light show to celebrate special moments in pop culture, such as sports events, the 15th anniversary of The Lion King, and Wrestlemania, as well as all the holidays and occasions it’s more known for being lit up for. As far as we know, however, they’ve never lit up to celebrate a SciFi show. What better place to start than the iconic series Doctor Who?" [Change Petitions]

US: Fans from the Tech Valley Center of Gravity in Troy, New York, have built a "TARDIS photo booth" for use at community events; creator Mick Cipollo said: "There was a concept for Troy night out first for a video booth for 30 second clips of 'why you enjoy Troy.' Then Laban Coblentz, founder and chairman of Tech Valley Center of Gravity, thought it should be in a TARDIS. I thought is was a good idea also." [All Over Albany, 27 Sep 2013]

Canada: A candidate in the Edmonton council elections has turned to Gallifrey for inspiration; Jim Gibbon used the Doctor's language to make up his campaign signs, Vote Gibbon Ward 5. Gibbon said: “You need to take your time and see what the person (a candidate) is all about”. [Canoe, 2 Oct 2013]

Australia: The Thuringowa Library in Townsville, North Queensland has had an exhibition of Doctor Who memorabilia courtesy of fan Robyn Gandini, who will also be making a presentation about her collection on the 5th October. [ABC, 30 Sep 2013]

AU: Actor and fan Santa Strohfeldt has been building his own TARDIS, and aims to have it completed in time for Peter Capaldi's debut at Christmas. His creation can be found in Southport on the Gold Coast. [ABC, 25 Sep 2013]

New Zealand: Another TARDIS builder, Michael Fenton from Inglewood, Taranaki, explains how his prop now helps him to teach school children: "What started as a gimmick for the careers expo became really cool for kids when I was teaching science and mathematics at high school. The whole idea is to show that stuff you're learning at primary and high school can be useful in the real world. I was trying to show students that you don't have to wait until you're older, you can actually do this stuff now." [Stuff, 19 Sep 2013]

Writer Gareth Roberts has confirmed on Twitter that he is currently writing a novelisation of the 1979 serial City of Death:

KippyWoo: Will you be doing any more novelisations after Shada e.g. City of Death?
Gareth Roberts: Oh, I feel like blabbing ... I'm writing City Of Death right now, should be out next year.

Most Doctor Who serials from the series' original run (1963–1989) were novelised between 1964 and 1993, except for two Dalek serials by Eric Saward and three serials written or cowritten by Douglas Adams. In 2012, BBC Books published a novelisation of the uncompleted serial Shada by Roberts. The televised version of City of Death was credited to the pseudonymous "David Agnew", because Adams (who was then serving as Doctor Who's script editor) heavily rewrote the original script by David Fisher. Adams later used elements of both City of Death and Shada in his 1987 novel Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency.

As indicated above, Roberts' novelisation of City of Death is expected to be published in 2014.

Back in July BBC Worldwide announced its intention to take the broadcast of the 50th Anniversary special, The Day of The Doctor, worldwide. Tonight, it was announced that so far some 75 countries have signed up to make the broadcast a global phenomenon, which as well as the USA (BBC America), Canada (SPACE) and Australia (ABC), also includes places in Europe that currently show the series, such as Germany (FOX) and Finland (YLE), and worldwide through the BBC Entertainment channel. Other networks are expected to be announced in due course.

In addition, over 200 cinemas around the United Kingdom are set to simulcast the episode, many of which will broadcast the adventure in 3D - which will also be available for compatible television sets through the BBC's HD Red Button service.

Tim Davie, chief executive of BBC Worldwide, said:

Brendan Dahill, Controller ABC1 said:

Writer and executive producer Steven Moffat said:



Though the premiere date of 23rd November is embedded in every Doctor Who fan's mind, the actual time of broadcast has yet to be confirmed; however, ABC have announced that their prime-time repeat broadcast of The Day of The Doctor will be on the Sunday at 7:30pm AEDT. Meanwhile, PRIME in New Zealand have reported that they will show the episode within 24 hours of its broadcast in the UK (the episode's usual PG censor rating means it unfortunately cannot be shown on the terrestrial channel in the early morning).

The award-winning Derek Landy has been named today as the author of the tenth and penultimate short story in Puffin Books' e-range celebrating Doctor Who's 50th anniversary.

The Mystery Of The Haunted Cottage, featuring the Tenth Doctor and Martha, will be published globally on Wednesday 23rd October.
An extract can be read via The Guardian's website.

Landy, who has penned the Skulduggery Pleasant series of children's books, commented: Landy's first book, Skulduggery Pleasant, won the Bord Gais Energy Irish Book of the Decade Award as well as the Red House Children's Book Award, while his second, Playing With Fire, won an Irish Book Award for Children's Book of the Year.

The author and title of the series' final instalment, to feature the Eleventh Doctor, will be announced on Tuesday 5th November. It will be published on Thursday 21st November alongside a paperback anthology of all 11 stories - to be called Eleven Doctors, Eleven Stories and which can be pre-ordered here - plus an audio collection.

A Doctor Who-themed trailer promoting the return of comedy panel quiz show Have I Got News For You has been made available to view online by the BBC.

The trailer, which has been airing on TV, shows the TARDIS arriving in front of the Houses of Parliament - and a visibly aged BBC News political editor Nick Robinson! - in the year 2063 and team captains Ian Hislop and Paul Merton emerging in Fourth Doctor-style garb to glean from a copy of a final print edition of a newspaper what has changed in the world. (Not much, apparently!)


This isn't the first time the show has had such a strong Doctor Who connection - and, indeed, a Fourth Doctor one at that. Tom Baker was the guest presenter on the third edition of the 36th series, which was first broadcast on 31st October 2008. (Staying in the sci-fi world, William Shatner also made a memorable appearance as guest host on the seventh edition of the 43rd series, first broadcast on 25th May 2012.)

Have I Got News For You will start its 46th series on BBC One on Friday 4th October at 9pm, with David Mitchell as the guest presenter and Danny Baker and Cathy Newman as the guest panellists. The series will comprise 11 episodes.

AudioGo's ongoing celebration of 50 Years of Doctor Who reaches its penultimate adventure in October with the Tenth Doctor and Donna embroiled with Death's Deal. Meanwhile the Sixth Doctor's trial continues in the second part of the Target novelisations of The Trial of a Time Lord, whilst Louise Jameson takes listeners on a trip into the BBC Radio Archive to find Lost Treasures.


All eight of the Doctor Who at the BBC series of CDs are also to be released in a boxed set:

BBC America is to mark the era of the Tenth Doctor by showing the episodes The Stolen Earth and Journey's End on Sunday 27th October as part of its celebratory season Doctor Who: The Doctors Revisited.

They will be preceded at 8pm ET/PT by the special documentary Doctor Who: The Doctors Revisited - The Tenth Doctor, which will feature David Tennant, Freema Agyeman, and current lead writer and executive producer Steven Moffat among those discussing how and why the Tenth Doctor became one of the most popular Doctors of all time.

Written by Russell T Davies and directed by Graeme Harper, the episodes - which were originally broadcast in June and July 2008 - comprised the epic finale of Series 4 and saw the Doctor, companions, and friends unite to take on the might of a new Dalek empire and Davros.

UPDATE: The associated DVD, which will be released on Tuesday 3rd December and is available to pre-order, will comprise three discs and will have the Revisited stories shown for the Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh Doctors, as well as the accompanying documentaries plus special introductions by Steven Moffat to each two-parter. The product description states that the episodes for the Eleventh Doctor's era will be The Impossible Astronaut and Day of the Moon. Their broadcast date is still to be announced.

The twenty-second in our series telling the story of the creation of Doctor Who, from conception to broadcast.

By the end of September 1963, Doctor Who finally existed as a television programme. After months of meetings, format documents, script development and occasional arguments, a production team was in place, the four leads had been cast, and the début serial had been decided upon as Anthony Coburn's four-parter mainly set in the Stone Age. On Friday 27th September, director Waris Hussein had shot the opening instalment of Coburn's serial at Lime Grove Studios – the very first episode of Doctor Who to be made.

However, it was an episode that would not be transmitted on British television for another 28 years. 

It had always been part of the plans for the production of the series that the opening episode could, if necessary, be remounted if it was deemed not sufficiently strong for the launch of the new programme. The costs would be met from the BBC Pilot Fund, and the production team would be given the opportunity to have another attempt.

By Monday 30th September 1963 – exactly 50 years ago today – it was clear that this would indeed have to be the case. The BBC’s Head of Drama Sydney Newman, the man who had driven forward the creation of Doctor Who, had viewed the studio recording from Friday evening, and he was not impressed.

Newman’s thoughts on the pilot episode survive in the BBC Written Archives, scribbled down on the back of two pages of script for An Unearthly Child while he viewed the recording. Newman had concerns or observations about many aspects of the production, such as the music, the camera work and the end credits, but his biggest concern – and the aspect that would perhaps show the strongest change between the pilot and the transmitted version of An Unearthly Child – was with William Hartnell’s characterisation of the Doctor.

“Old man – not funny enough,” reads one of Newman’s notes, jotted while the action unfolded in front of him. And again, later – “Old man ain’t cute enough.” Newman decided that the character of the Doctor needed to be softened and made more sympathetic, along with other changes to the episode, and made the decision that producer Verity Lambert, director Hussein, the cast and crew would simply have to try again. As Newman later told Doctor Who Magazine:


More than 40 years after the pilot recording, in the Doctor Who: Origins documentary released on DVD in 2006, Hussein recalled how the news was broken to him and Lambert.


Ian Chesterton actor William Russell remembered the events of the pilot’s rejection somewhat differently, telling Doctor Who Magazine that the cast and crew had all been gathered together to watch a showing of the recording, along with Newman:


Whatever the exact circumstances, what was clear was that work on Doctor Who's first episode would have to start afresh. Incredibly for a series of which 106 transmitted episodes from the 1960s are currently missing, from an era when even broadcast television programmes of high esteem were regarded as ephemeral and disposable, in the late 1970s a 16mm film recording of the complete studio session for the pilot episode was found to exist in the BBC Film Archive. In the early 1990s this session was edited together into a finished episode for the first time, and finally given a television broadcast on BBC2 on Bank Holiday Monday 26th August 1991, as part of a special day of programming called The Lime Grove Story, marking the closure of the studios.

While the first episode would have to be remade and improved, that didn’t mean that work on subsequent episodes had ceased. On the afternoon of Monday 30th September 1963, Lambert held a meeting in her office to discuss the special effects that would be required for the story that had now been promoted to second in the running order for Doctor Who – the post-apocalyptic science-fiction tale written by Terry Nation.

Nation’s serial would ultimately help to cement Doctor Who’s legacy, and ensure the series would still be around and popular 50 years later. However, at this stage there was still no certainty that it would even make the screen. Despite the ambitious plans for a 52-week run, by the end of September the Controller of Programmes for BBC1, Donald Baverstock (as he now was, with BBC2 having its own separate controller in Michael Peacock, despite being some months away from launching), still hadn't guaranteed Doctor Who a run of any more than four episodes.

Doctor Who was at last under way, but its existence was already hanging by a thread.

Doctor Who failed to win either of the categories for which it was nominated at the BAFTA Cymru Awards tonight - but the programme's 50th anniversary was marked with a clips montage and a number of people with connections to the show and its spin-offs still walked away with gongs.

It had been put forward for Sound and Editing honours but lost out to, respectively, The Gospel Of Us and Stella.

However, the event - held at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff - saw Julie Gardner presented by Russell T Davies with the TLWS Sian Phillips Award, which recognises a significant contribution made by a Welshman or woman in a network television programme or major feature film. Gardner worked as an executive producer on Doctor Who, The Sarah Jane Adventures, and Torchwood.

Michael Sheen was named best actor for The Gospel Of Us, Sara Lloyd-Gregory carried away the award for best actress for Alys, and Ruth Jones made up for losing out in the actress stakes for Stella by being named best writer for the same series.

Arwel Wyn Jones won for production design on Sherlock - having also been nominated for Wizards vs Aliens - but Ray Holman, who had been nominated for costume design on Wizards vs Aliens, lost out to Chrissie Pegg for The Machine. Brian Minchin, who had been cited in the Children's Programme (Including Animation) category for Wizards vs Aliens, saw the prize go to Nia Ceidiog for Dwylo'r Enfys. However, Huw Edwards took best presenter for The Story Of Wales.

Myth Makers Presents: Golden Years celebrates the timeless elements of Doctor Who that have appealed to the show's followers for half a century.

Monsters, time travel and exotic alien worlds. Horror, drama and humour. Golden Years celebrates the many eras of the series, featuring the Doctor in his many aspects: whether magician, scientist, wanderer, battle-scarred survivor or Machiavellian chess-player.

Featuring 11 Doctors across 12 stories, penned by BBC Books, Short Trips, Obverse Books and Myth Makers alumni: Violet Addison & David N. Smith, Pete Kempshall, Samuel Marks, Daniel Tessier, Kelly Hale, Blair Bidmead, Matthew James, Chris Kocher, Andrew K. Purvis, Stephen Hatcher and Cody Quijano-Schell.

The anthology is 92 pages, with artwork by Carolyn Edwards, Andy Walker and Iain Robertson.

It includes 50-Word Memories from Robert J. Sawyer, Piers Anthony, Stephen James Walker, Stuart Douglas, Graeme Burk, Arnold T. Blumberg and is edited by Matt Grady and Andrew Kearley. Layout by Arnold T. Blumberg.

Ordering information available at clarksbury.com

Golden Years is a non-commercial publication. All proceeds will be donated to St John Ambulance Canada.

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The New York Sci-Fi/Fantasy Meetup group is currently in talks with the authorities at the Empire State Building to light up the building TARDIS blue on 23 November.

The building lights up a different colour every night to celebrate different events. Paperwork has been filed and the group have an online petition to help demonstrate interest.