BBC Books: Eleventh Doctor releases

Friday, 10 June 2011 - Reported by Chuck Foster
The latest in the BBC Books range of Doctor Who novels following the adventures of the Eleventh Doctor and his companions are due for release on the 23rd June 2011:

Doctor Who: Borrowed Time (available for pre-order)
by Naomi Alderman

"You want more time Mr Brown, of course you do. We all want more time. Let me make you an offer..."

Andrew Brown never has enough time. No time to call his sister, or to prepare for that important presentation at the bank where he works. The train’s late, the lift jams. If only he’d had just a little more time. And time is the business of Mr Symington and Mr Blenkinsop. They’ll lend him some – at a very reasonable rate of interest.

Detecting a problem, the Doctor, Amy and Rory go undercover at the bank. But they have to move fast to stop Symington and Blenkinsop before they cash in their investments.

A thrilling all-new adventure featuring the Doctor, Amy and Rory, as played by Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill in the spectacular hit series from BBC Television.
Doctor Who: Touched By An Angel (available for pre-order)
by Jonathan Morris

"The past is like a foreign country. Nice to visit, but you really wouldn’t want to live there."

In 2003, Rebecca Whitaker died in a road accident. Her husband Mark is still grieving. He receives a battered envelope, posted eight years ago, containing a set of instructions with a simple message: “You can save her.”

As Mark is given the chance to save Rebecca, it’s up to the Doctor, Amy and Rory to save the whole world. Because this time the Weeping Angels are using history itself as a weapon.

A thrilling all-new adventure featuring the Doctor, Amy and Rory, as played by Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill in the spectacular hit series from BBC Television.
Doctor Who: Paradox Lost (available for pre-order)
by George Mann

"The Squall feed on psychic energy. They spread like a plague and if they are not stopped they will strip the Earth clean..."

London 1910: an unsuspecting thief finds himself confronted by grey-skinned creatures that are waiting to devour his mind. London 2789: the remains of an ancient android are dredged from the Thames. When reactivated it has a warning that can only be delivered to a man named ‘the Doctor’.

The Doctor and his friends must solve a mystery that has spanned over a thousand years. If they fail, the deadly alien Squall will devour the world.

A thrilling all-new adventure featuring the Doctor, Amy and Rory, as played by Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill in the spectacular hit series from BBC Television.




FILTER: - Merchandise - Books

Big Finish Week

Monday, 6 June 2011 - Reported by Chuck Foster
As previously reported, this week sees a special offer running from Big Finish in which the first 50 classic Doctor Who adventures are on sale during the week, leading up to their convention in Barking at the weekend.

The sale runs each day from midnight to midnight (UK time), with today seeing the first ten available as both CD or download at the reduced price of £5.00; tomorrow sees the next ten adventures in the promotion, and so on throughout the week.

See the Big Finish website for full details.




FILTER: - Merchandise - Big Finish

Doctor Pooh - Qwertee T-Shirt Offer

Monday, 30 May 2011 - Reported by Chuck Foster


"Once upon a time (and some dimension in space), in the Hundred Acre Wood.."


Europe's largest daily T-Shirt website Qwertee have launched their latest Doctor Who inspired design; it is created by artist/designer robpwood.

This is a limited edition print which will only be available to purchase for two days (i.e. until 11:00pm Wednesday 1st June).



Readers of Doctor Who News will be able to take advantage of a special 40p/50¢ discount off the usual £8/€10/$13.50 price of this t-shirt - simply enter this promotional code when ordering:
 
Q-DoctorWhoNewsPage

The t-shirt can be ordered from the Qwertee website.



Meanwhile, we are once again delighted to announce a competition in association with Qwertee - full details are on the Competitions page.




FILTER: - Merchandise - Special Offers

Character Classic Figures: "The Time Warrior" set

Sunday, 22 May 2011 - Reported by Chuck Foster
Retailer Forbidden Planet continues its range of exclusive Character figures with the addition of a new set to their catalogue tying into Third Doctor adventure The Time Warrior:
In this exclusive set we present the Classic Sontaran: Commander Linx and his iconic Sontaran space ship along with the Third Doctor in Green Jacket and Sonic Screwdriver.

Journalist Sarah Jane Smith covertly gains access to a research centre where top scientists are being held in protective custody whilst UNIT investigates the disappearance of a number of their colleagues. The missing scientists have been kidnapped by a Sontaran, Linx, and taken back to medieval England, where they are working under hypnosis to repair his crashed spaceship.

The Third Doctor follows in the TARDIS, and Sarah Jane stows away. In return for shelter, Linx has provided a robber baron called Irongron with anachronistically advanced weapons to use in attacks on neighbouring castles.

The Doctor helps Sir Edward of Wessex to repel one such attack, then he and Sarah Jane conspire to drug the food in Irongron's kitchens so that the weapons can be removed while the men are unconscious. Aided by one of the kidnapped scientists, Rubeish, he then sends the others back to the 20th Century using Linx's primitive time travel equipment.

Linx shoots Irongron down and gets ready to leave in his repaired ship. Hal, one of Sir Edward's archers, fires an arrow into the vulnerable probic vent at the back of his neck, killing him. The Doctor, Sarah Jane and Hal escape just before the ship explodes, destroying the castle.
Purchase from Forbidden Planet
 
The set is due for release on the 1st June.


Earlier in the year Forbidden Planet released another exclusive Sontaran figure set, featuring the Fourth Doctor's encounter with Field Major Styre in The Sontaran Experiment - the image from that earlier set shows the variations between the two releases.
In this great gift set is the Classic Sontaran: Field-Major Styre and his iconic Sontaran space ship along with the Fourth Doctor in duffle coat and hat.

The Fourth Doctor, Sarah Jane Smith and Harry Sullivan arrive on a desolate and apparently deserted Earth to discover that a group of shipwrecked astronauts from a human colony, GalSec, have been lured there by a fake distress call. One of their number, Roth, tells Sarah Jane of an alien conducting gruesome experiments on him and his crewmates. The alien turns out to be a Sontaran, Field-Major Styre, who is compiling a report on human physical and mental capabilities as a prelude to an invasion of Earth.

The Doctor challenges Styre to unarmed combat. The Sontaran agrees but is quickly weakened in Earth's unfamiliar gravity. Harry meanwhile enters Styre's ship and uses the Doctor's sonic screwdriver to remove the vital terullian diode bypass transformer, so that when the alien returns there to revitalise himself he is drained of all his energy and destroyed. The Doctor sends a message to the Sontaran fleet, warning them that without Styre's report they cannot invade.
Purchase from Forbidden Planet
 




FILTER: - Merchandise - Character

Doctor Who Experience: Amelia figure exclusive

Thursday, 19 May 2011 - Reported by Chuck Foster
The Doctor Who Experience are currently promoting an exclusive 5" action figure from Character, featuring young Amelia Pond from The Eleventh Hour, dressed in her coat and hat, and suitcase in readiness to go on adventures with the Doctor!


Visit the Doctor Who Experience at London Olympia Two for your chance to grab the new Amelia Pond 5-inch action figure as seen in ‘The Eleventh Hour’; don’t be the Fan Who Waited - it’s available only from the Doctor Who Experience shop now!

A figure of young Amelia in her nightdress also features as part of the 2011 "wave one" of action figures from Character.

(with thanks to Mark Murphy, Brandnew Corporation)




FILTER: - Merchandise - Character - Exhibitions

Series Six Tie-In Designs

Tuesday, 17 May 2011 - Reported by Chuck Foster
A variety of designs have been released to tie in with the current series of Doctor Who; t-shirts, mugs and folder bags featuring images and phrases from the first three stories are available to order from a variety of retailers including Forbidden Planet, BBC Shop, and our own Amazon Shop.



Other designs are expected as the series progresses.




FILTER: - Merchandise

Book updates

Tuesday, 17 May 2011 - Reported by Chuck Foster
Fantom Films have released the autobiography of Fred Hamilton, a film cameraman at the BBC who also worked on Doctor Who during the Troughton/Pertwee years for stories including The Enemy of the World, The Daemons and Planet of the Spiders. Full details on the book may be found on their website.

Fred Hamilton - Zoom In When You See The Tears
30 Adventurous Years at the BBC

After emigrating to Britain in the 1950s, Fred Hamilton joined the BBC’s Film Department where he learnt the ropes and was quickly promoted to Film Cameraman. Coverage of sports events soon became his bread and butter job, followed by assignments to armed conflict areas in many parts of the world. Obtaining footage to be broadcast on Panorama and other current-affairs programmes often under perilous circumstances. He teamed up with reporter James Mossman and recordist Freddy Downton, surviving the jungles of Borneo, the battlefields of Vietnam and the Middle East.

As a member of the Film Department, he would be called to take part in various projects including iconic shows such as Doctor Who, starring Patrick Troughton and Jon Pertwee, as well as a numerous episodes of Z Cars, Out of the Unknown, Doomwatch, Colditz and Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

With colour television still in its infancy, Fred filmed the eye-opening sequences for Paul Temple with directors Douglas Camfield and Mike Ferguson. In 1977 he was brought in by director David Wickes as establishing cameraman on the BBC’s ambitious first all-film television series Target, whose production history was almost as spectacular as the on-screen events depicted. Fred became a man for ‘action scenes’ before the phrase even entered the BBC vocabulary, always on the lookout for that unusual, extra dynamic shot.

Committing his memories of an impressively colourful professional life to paper, Fred Hamilton tells the story of a man totally dedicated to his job, whose accounts are enriched by hilarious anecdotes involving many BBC legends.

This autobiography is a fascinating insider’s view of the BBC, lavishly illustrated throughout with never before seen, exclusive photographs from Fred’s personal archives

(with thanks to Dexter O'Neill)


 
Aurum Press are to release the biography of Terry Nation on the 25th May; the book by Alwyn Turner looks into the writer's prolific career during the 1960s and 1970s scripting for fantasy series, and his involvement with comedian Tony Hancock and Associated London Scripts.

The Man Who Invented the Daleks
The Strange Worlds of Terry Nation

Terry Nation was one of the most successful and prolific writers for television that Britain ever produced. Survivors, his vision of a post-apocalyptic England, so haunted audiences in the Seventies that the BBC revived it over thirty years on. Blake’s 7, constantly rumoured for return, endures as a cult sci-fi classic. And his most fearsome creations, the Daleks, ensured and at times eclipsed the success of Doctor Who.

Indeed, almost half a century after their first appearance, new additions to Dalek mythology continue to top the Saturday-night ratings, while the word itself has entered the Oxford English Dictionary, passing into the language as the name of the most famous race of aliens in fiction.

But while his genocidal pepper pots brought him notoriety and riches, Nation played a much wider role in British broadcasting’s golden age. As part of the legendary Associated London Scripts, he wrote for Spike Milligan, Frankie Howerd and an increasingly troubled Tony Hancock. And as one of the key figures behind the adventure series of the Sixties – including The Avengers, The Saint and The Persuaders! – he turned the pulp classics of his boyhood into a major British export.

Like Arthur Conan Doyle before him, Nation was frequently bemused by the appeal of his most famous creations, and similarly cavalier toward them. Now, The Man Who Invented the Daleks explores their curious and contested origins, and sheds light on a strange world of ambitious young writers, producers and performers without whom British culture today would look very different.

Alwyn W. Turner is the author of a number of acclaimed books on modern British culture, including Crisis? What Crisis?: Britain in the 1970s, Rejoice! Rejoice!: Brtain in the 1980s, Halfway to Paradise and The Biba Experience.

The book was serialised by the Daily Mail at the beginning of the month, and also reviewed by the paper last Friday.

Author Alwyn Turner will also be appearing at the Deansgate Super SF Saturday in the Manchester Waterstones on the 21st May, alongside Doctor Who writer Nev Fountain for "a discussion of all things Gallifrey".

(with thanks to Liz Somers)




FILTER: - Merchandise - Books

Character Figures 2011

Monday, 16 May 2011 - Reported by Chuck Foster
Character are to release their first 2011 'wave' of figures that tie into Matt Smith's era of Doctor Who in June; the collection features the Doctor in Stetson from The Impossible Astronaut, two versions of a Silent from the same story (one with mouth closed, one with it open), Nephew (The Doctor's Wife); additionally there is also a release of young Amelia in her nightdress (The Eleventh Hour/The Big Bang).

June also sees an exclusive release via Forbidden Planet in the form of a boxed set themed on Third Doctor tale The Time Monster; this set features the Master alongside his TARDIS in "computer bank" disguise, and also comes with the Crystal of Kronos, the Master's TCE, and the Doctor's time sensor device.


     




FILTER: - Merchandise - Character

Mirror Giveaway

Saturday, 7 May 2011 - Reported by Chuck Foster
The Mirror is running a promotion from today to give away figures from the Character Building range of LEGO-compatible toys.

Over the course of the next six days the paper will carry tokens that can be redeemed at either Sainsbury's or Toys'R'Us; Saturday kicks off with the 11th Doctor, followed by a Yellow Eternal Dalek on Sunday and Amy Pond on Monday.


You can watch an advert for the giveaway via the Mirror's YouTube channel.

(with thanks to David Brodie)




FILTER: - Merchandise - Character - Special Offers

Procrastinate - Qwertee T-Shirt Offer

Thursday, 7 April 2011 - Reported by Chuck Foster


Europe's largest daily T-Shirt website Qwertee have launched their latest Doctor Who inspired design; it is created by graphic designer Crystal, who said: "Daleks need some down time too ya know! I mean…trying to destroy the Universe is hard work!"

This is a limited edition print which will only be available to purchase for three days (i.e. until 11:00pm Sunday 10th April).



Once again, readers of Doctor Who News will be able to take advantage of a special 40p/50¢ discount off the usual £8/€10/$13.50 price of the t-shirt - simply enter this promotional code when ordering:
 
DoctorWhoNewsPage

The t-shirt can be ordered from the Qwertee website.



Meanwhile, we are delighted to announce a competition in association with Qwertee to win a t-shirt of your choice from their back catalogue - full details will appear on the Competitions page next week.




FILTER: - Merchandise - Competitions - Special Offers