Doctor Who DVD production company 2Entertain have released a new promotional trailer for a forthcoming release in 2011, to be formally announced on the 9th October:

The Third Doctor story The Mutants will have a DVD commentary team of seven, according to a tweet from actor Nicholas Pegg who is moderating the discussion.

Taking part will be

• Katy Manning, who played Jo Grant in the story
• Terrance Dicks, who was Script Editor at the time
• Bob Baker, who co-wrote the story
• Christopher Barry, who directed the story
• Garrick Hagon, who played Ky in the story
• Jeremy Bear, who designed the story
• Brian Hodgson, who designed the special sounds for the story

The story is due for global release in the first quarter of 2011 along with Meglos and The Ark. Details of the extras were reported here.

The actor Frank Jarvis has died at the age of 70.

Jarvis played characters in three Doctor Who stories. He first appeared in the 1966 story The War Machines as a corporal; then it wasn't until Tom Baker assumed the role that he returned to the series to play Ankh in the 1978 CSO-laden story Underworld. A year later he featured as swampie Skart in The Power of Kroll.

Outside of Doctor Who, he had a variety of roles in film and television, including the character of Roger in the original The Italian Job film with Michael Caine, and alongside former Doctor Colin Baker in the BBC series The Brothers.

Frank Jarvis died on 15th September 2010.

The writer Louis Marks has died at the age of 82.

Louis Marks wrote four stories for Doctor Who. In 1965 he wrote the first story of Season Two, Planet of Giants, the first contemporary story in the series since the first episode. He returned to the series in 1972 to plot the return of the Daleks after a gap of several years in Day of the Daleks a story which saw the introduction of the Ogrons.

For the Fourth Doctor he penned two stories, Planet of Evil in 1975 was set on the far distant planet Zeta Minor on the edge of the universe, while The Masque of Mandragora a year later was set in 15th century Italy.

His work away from Doctor Who included The Man Who Finally Died (1967) for the BBC and Special Branch for Thames Television (1970). He wrote for Danger Man with Patrick McGoohan, and for the Doomwatch series. His work as a producer included The Lost Boys (1978), Fearless Frank (1979) and the BBC's adaptation of George Eliot's Middlemarch (1994).

Louis Marks died on 17th September, 2010.

The following extras have been cleared for a future DVD release of the Jon Pertwee adventure The Mutants by the British Board of Film Classification:

00:02:55:18 THE MUTANTS - PHOTO GALLERY
00:20:36:21 MUTT MAD - THE MAKING OF THE MUTANTS
00:01:35:07 (BLUE PETER) (CLIP FROM BLUE PETER IN 1970S)
00:27:03:13 DRESSING DOCTOR WHO - JAMES ACHESON (FEATURETTE)
00:37:36:10 RACE AGAINST TIME (FEATURETTE)

The clearance of extras is usually an indication that the story is due to come out relatively soon on DVD; however, producer 2Entertain have not given an official date for release at present.

The BBFC has classified an trailer for the first Doctor story The Ark, indicating it is due for DVD release in the next few months.

The Ark was the sixth story of Season 3, and was first broadcast between 5th March and 26th March 1966. Alongside William Hartnell as the Doctor it stars Jackie Lane as Dodo and Peter Purves as the Steven Taylor.

The story is set in the 57th segment of time, some 10 million years in the future, when the Earth has been destroyed by the sun going nova. A giant spaceship carrying all the Earth's surviving plant, animal and human life is on a 700 year journey to a new home on the planet Refusis II.

The story was written by Paul Erickson and Lesley Scott and directed by Michael Imison.

The Ark was first released on VHS in 1998 and is also available on CD with linking narration by Peter Purves.

Here is the cover for The Seeds of Doom, released on DVD in the United Kingdom on 25th October. Its special features include:

• Pod Shock (The making of) 37'14"
• Playing in the Green Cathedral (Featurette) 10'02"
• So what do you do exactly? (Featurette) 15'35"
• Stripped for Action - The Fourth Doctor in comic form 20'17"
  
• Easter Egg 1'13"
• Easter Egg 0'08"
• Photo Gallery 4'45"
• TV Continuity 1'23"

A more detailed description may be found in our earlier article.


Doctor Who Magazine has revealed details on the features for January's release of Meglos:

• Commentary by Lalla Ward (Romana), Christopher Owen (the "Earthling"), John Flanagan (one of the writers), and both music composers Paddy Kingsland and Peter Howell.
• Isolated Score from the story.
• Meglos Men, a feature on the writers John Flanagan and Andrew McCulloch, with script editor Christopher H. Bidmead.
• The Scene Sync Story looks at the pioneering camera technology used in the story.
• Jacqueline Hill - A Life in Pictures celebrates the life and career of the actress.
• Entropy Explained, a short documentary by Dr Phillip Trowga.
  
• The usual production notes, photo gallery, and PDF materials

Full details in the latest DWM (#426). 

BBC Worldwide have also confirmed that the second Doctor Story The Dominators will also be released in North America in January as part of the plan to synchronise the release schedule. The Dominators was released in the UK last July.

Film and television composer Geoffrey Burgon has died, aged 69.

Burgon composed the music for the Doctor Who stories Terror of the Zygons and The Seeds of Doom.

He went on to win Ivor Novello awards for his scores to the BBC's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy in 1979 and for Granada's Brideshead Revisited in 1981.

More recently Burgon had won BAFTAs for Best Television Music to Granada's The Forsyte Saga and Channel 4's Longitude.

Amongst many other works, Burgon scored the BBC's Chronicles of Narnia adaptations and the cult Monty Python film The Life of Brian.

Alongside his commercial success, Burgon continued to produce many acclaimed serious works, two of which were an opera based on Dickens's Hard Times in 1991, and a concerto for the percussionist Evelyn Glennie in 1994.

James Rushton, of his publishers Chester Music, said: "Geoffrey Burgon was one of very few composers in recent times whose music has truly touched the hearts of the international public.

"The music and unforgettable melodies that Geoff wrote for the great classic BBC and ITV TV series over the past 40 years have established themselves as standards, both within their genre and as pure music."

Burgon was interviewed for the DVD release of The Seeds of Doom, which is due to be released in the UK on October 25th.

2Entertain have now confirmed the Fourth Doctor story Meglos will be the first DVD release of 2011. This follows on from the press item by BBC America last week which mentioned the story for simultaneous releases in both the US and UK.

The company has also confirmed that the story will also be released in Australia/New Zealand (R4) at the same time.

Classic Doctor Who DVDs will in future be released simultaneously on both sides of the Atlantic.

In the past fans in North America, Australia and New Zealand have had to wait several months after the UK release to get their own versions of Classic Doctor Who stories. BBC America has confirmed this will change for North America in the New year and it is expected that the change will also apply to Australia and New Zealand.

Starting with the January release of the Fourth Doctor story Meglos, it is expected that most Doctor Who DVDs around the world will be released the day following the UK release. In order to catch up with the backlog extra releases will be scheduled during 2011 to bring the overseas schedule in line with the UK one.