March 2nd sees the Dalek War box set come to North America with the release of the two third Doctor stories Frontier in Space and Planet of the Daleks.

Starring Jon Pertwee as The Doctor and Katy Manning as Jo Grant, the set includes the recently restored episode three of Planet of the Daleks, now in colour for the first time in 30 years.

Frontier in Space features a commentary with Katy Manning, as well as producer Barry Letts and script editor Terrance Dicks.

Extras Include:

• Perfect Scenario: Lost Frontier
• The Space War, the making of the story
• Roger Delgado: The Master, a biography of actor Roger Delgado
• Stripped for Action: The Third Doctor's comic book adventures

Planet of the Daleks also features a commentary with Manning, Letts and Dicks and also includes Prentis Hancock who played Vaber and Tim Preece who played Codal.

Extras Include:

• Perfect Scenario: The End of Dreams
• The Rumble in the Jungle, the making of the story.
• Multi-colourisation, a look at the colour restoration of episode three.
• Stripped for Action: focuses on the Daleks
• Blue Peter.

Also released on this day is the special edition of the seventh Doctor story, Remembrance of the Daleks.

First shown in 1988 the story stars Sylvester McCoy as The Doctor  and Sophie Aldred as Ace.

The story was first released on DVD in 2002. This special edition has a audio commentary by actors Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred as well as a number of documentaries about the programme.

• Back to School: "Making Of" documentary (32 mins)
• Remembrances: Influences and references to earlier Doctor Who adventures (15 mins)
• Davros Connections: In-depth look at the history of the Daleks' creator (43 mins)
• Extended and Deleted Scenes (12 mins)
• Outtakes (4 mins)
• Multi-Angle Sequences (2 mins)
• Isolated Music Option
• Trailers and Continuities (5 mins)
• Photo Gallery (8 mins)
• Easter egg
• DVD-ROM material: Radio Times listings
• Production Notes Subtitle Option

The British Board of Film Classification has passed the extras for two upcoming DVD releases.

The Curse of Peladon. Confirmed UK release 4th January 2010

• The Peladon Saga:Part One:The Market and the Miners
• Jon and Katy
• Photo Gallery
• Storyboard Comparison
• Warriors of Mars

The Masque of Mandragora. Expected UK release 8th February 2010

• Bigger on the inside
The story was the first to use the wood-panelled secondary control room.
• The Secret of the Labyrinth
• Photo Gallery
• Beneath the Masque of "The Masque of Mandragora"
• Now and Then - The Locations
The Story was filmed at Portmeirion in Gwynedd, Wales.
• Trails and Continuity

With attention on the outgoing Doctor with the press launch of The Waters of Mars, incoming Executive producer Steven Moffat has been talking about the new series currently being filmed with new Doctor Matt Smith. Interviewed by Ben Cooke, at the Screenwriters' Festival in Cheltenham, Moffat described Smith as simply "the best". "He's all the things you'd expect, including ancient," and described the new Doctor as "someone you can't take your eyes off". Moffat confirmed he will be writing six episodes of the new series.
A full transcript can be found at Digital Spy


Meanwhile outgoing Doctor David Tennant will be a guest on next Monday's Graham Norton show on BBC One. Tennant has also been talking to PBS about his new role as host of Masterpiece Contemporary.

Steve Roberts of the DVD Restoration team has been giving details of the processes involved in returning colour to Doctor Who stories which currently only exist in black and white. Speaking at an event sponsored by the Doctor Who Information Network. Roberts talked about work being done on the Mind of Evil as well as discussing future plans for the classic range with all complete stories due for release by November 2013, the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who. He confirmed there are no plans for any further animated restorations of lost episodes, nor any plans to issue any more partial stories.

John Barrowman has been sitting in for Elaine Paige on her Sunday afternoon BBC Radio 2 show. He read out an e-mail asking if he knew if Torchwood was coming back or not. He said that they were currently 'in negotiations' and that he hoped Torchwood would be back some time in the future. Barrowman has released his new memoirs I Am What I Am, which covers the last three years and includes behind the scenes secrets and gossip from the sets of Doctor Who and Torchwood, complete with behind the scenes photos of the cast.

Finally, obits for Barry Letts have now been posted in the Independent as well as on the BBC Doctor Who site. As reported below, it was confirmed at the press launch that The Waters of Mars will be dedicated to Letts.

The BBFC have passed a trailer for two stories, The Space Museum and The Chase, indicating that both are being lined up for a DVD release in the next few months. The stories were part of Doctor Who's second season and were first shown between April and June 1965.

They feature William Hartnell as the first Doctor along with Jacqueline Hill as Barbara Wright, William Russell as Ian Chesterton and Maureen O'Brien as Vicki, and introduce Peter Purves as new companion Steven Taylor.

The Space Museum was written by Glyn Jones and directed by Mervyn Pinfield, who as Doctor Who's first Associate Producer was responsible for many technical innovations used on the programme.

The Chase was the final story for Ian and Barbara. It sees the Daleks return in their third story for the series, which was again written by Terry Nation. Directed by Richard Martin, it also starred Hywel Bennett. The original transmission included a clip of the Beatles performing "Ticket to Ride".

According to several on-line retail sites, the early part of 2010 will see a bumper number of Doctor Who DVD releases. The schedule looks very crowded and it is possible one of the listed releases has been delayed until later in the year, but retailers have yet to catch up.

According to the sites January 4th will see the previously announced Peladon box set on sale, to be followed on 1st Feburary by a Myths and Legends box set. No details are available for this set, but it has long rumoured to consist of the Third Doctor story The Time Monster, and the Fourth Doctor stories Underworld and The Horns of Nimon. The Time Monster was first shown in 1972 and features Katy Manning and Roger Delgado. Underworld was shown in 1978 and features Louise Jameson and John Leeson, as well as Alan Lake, while Horns of Nimon was shown over the New Year period of 1979/1980 and features Lalla Ward and David Brierly as K9, with an appearance by Janet Ellis.

One week later, the Fourth Doctor story The Masque of Mandragora is scheduled for release on 8th February. This story was first shown in 1976 and features Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith.

The Seventh Doctor's first story, Time and the Rani, is due for release on 1st March. As well as being Sylvester McCoy's first story, this 1987 adventure features Bonnie Langford as Mel and Kate O'Mara as The Rani.

Finally, fans of the new series will see a release of final episodes of David Tennant's reign as the Doctor when The Specials are released on both DVD and BluRay on 11th January.

All dates are subject to conformation by 2-entertain and are subject to change.

The two Peladon stories, The Curse of Peladon and The Monster of Peladon, will be released on DVD in January 2010.

The news was revealed by Dan Hall, commissioning editor for DVD company 2 entertain, at the Time and Again convention in London. The release replaces the King's Demons/Planet of Fire boxset which has been delayed due to clearance problems.

The Curse of Peladon was originally shown in 1972. In four parts, it stars Jon Pertwee as the Third Doctor along with Katy Manning and David Troughton.

The Monster of Peladon was Pertwee's penultimate story, shown over six parts in 1974. It features Elisabeth Sladen and Donald Gee.

Hall also indicated that a further Third Doctor story, The Time Monster, will be released in 2010 and that a "re-visitation" boxset, featuring new versions of early DVD releases, is in production.

Posters on the Gallifrey Base discussion forum report that it was announced at this weekend's "Regenerations" fan convention in Swansea that the 1971 Third Doctor adventure The Mind of Evil has been restored to colour for a forthcoming DVD release. Like a number of stories starring Jon Pertwee as the Doctor, the colour master videotapes for this six-part story were junked by the BBC in the 1970s. This left only black and white film recording copies of the episodes, made for overseas sale, in the archives. A small handful of colour clips survived on a domestic videotape recording of a transmission of the story in the United States, and were used to restore colour to scenes as a bonus feature at the end of the 1998 VHS release.

No detail has yet emerged of whether the full story has been recolourised for this DVD edition, nor for when the disc is scheduled for release. It is also not currently known whether the episodes were restored to colour using the chroma dot technique employed on the similarly-afflicted third episode of Planet of the Daleks in the forthcoming Dalek War box-set, or whether they were restored from scratch with artificial colour.

Actor Nicholas Courtney, who appears in the story as the Doctor's ally Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, is also reported to have participated in an audio commentary for the release.

(Image from Shillpages.com)

North American release dates for two more DVDs have been announced.

Both the First Doctor story The Keys of Marinus and the Sixth Doctor story The Twin Dilemma will be released on 5th January 2010.



The Coming Next trailer included on the UK release of The Dalek War boxset is for The Kings Demons/Planet of Fire, indicating this boxset will be released in the UK in January.

The second series of The Sarah Jane Adventures will be released on DVD in the UK on 9th November 2009 and in the US a day later on the 10th November 2009.

The series consists of the stories The Last Sontaran, The Day of the Clown, Secrets of the Stars, The Mark of the Berserker, The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith and Enemy of the Bane. It was first shown in the UK in the Autumn of 2008.

Extras include

• Interview with cast and crew
• Season synopses for all stories
• Investigating Tools – a gadget glossary
• Quiz with special footage prize
• Character and alien profiles
• Photo gallery
• Audio clips
• UK TV spots
• Trailers

Series Three is expected to be shown in the UK this Autumn.


2-entertain have indicated there will be no Doctor Who release in December. The Kamelion box set is now expected early in 2010. The second Doctor story The Dominators is also expected early in 2010 following an brief, unofficial release of a promo for the story on YouTube.

A new series box set consisting of the complete Series 1 – 4 will be released on 26th October.

The Doctor Who Restoration Team have uploaded full details of the extras contained in the Dalek War Box set, released in the UK on October 5th.







Full details are on the website.

Fans of Katy Manning might like to know she is currently appearing in her one woman show, Me and Jezebel at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.