The BBC has confirmed that Ninth Doctor Christopher Eccleston has decided that he will not take part in the 50th anniversary episode.

The statement follows reports in the tabloid press that the actor had pulled out of the story just as filming was due to begin. However, the BBC makes clear the actor was never contracted for the story, which is currently in production.

A BBC spokesman explained:

Eccleston played the Ninth Doctor when the series returned in 2005, staying with the show for just one season. In 2011 he gave an interview saying he left the series because of politics and because he did not see eye-to-eye with senior members of the production team. He has stated how much he enjoyed the role and fans had hoped he could be persuaded to make an appearance in the 50th anniversary special.

An appearance from the Ninth Doctor in the story may still be possible using archive footage from the series.

Filming has continued this week, with Gelligaer Common north of Caerphilly playing host to the TARDIS (times two) yesterday. Jenna-Louise Coleman was present for recording scenes involving her on the Doctor's anti-grav bike, and a helicopter was also present during the morning. You can read a summary of events up in the hills via the She-Goat: blog.

Meanwhile, John Hurt was at the BAFTAs yesterday, with the BBC report saying: "Hurt revealed he had come to the event from filming Doctor Who, for its 50th anniversary, in Cardiff."

This month sees the publication of Nemesis of the Daleks, the fifteenth volume in the ongoing series of Doctor Who Graphic Novels, published by Panini Books. The Graphic Novels are collections of comic strips that originally appeared in the pages of Doctor Who Magazine and other related titles.

Nemesis of the Daleks, named after the book’s opening strip, is the second volume of Seventh Doctor comic strips (picking up where A Cold Day in Hell!, published in 2009, left off). The stories in this collection originally appeared in 1989 and 1990. At that time the strips not only ran in Doctor Who Magazine but also in a second Marvel Comics UK title, The Incredible Hulk Presents. Comic strips from both titles are included in this book, with a number of stories reproduced for the first time since their original publication.

The book includes the popular ‘back up’ strips featuring Abslom Daak from 1980 issues of Doctor Who Weekly and Doctor Who Monthly, to tie-in with the character’s appearance in the Nemesis of the Daleks story. There is also a detailed commentary by former Doctor Who Magazine editor John Freeman, featuring input from the writers, artists and editors who worked on these strips, with reproduced script pages and rough pencil drawings.

Here is the full list of strips included in the graphic novel. (Titles marked * are reprinted for the first time in this collection.)

• Nemesis of the Daleks (Doctor Who Magazine #152-155)
• Stairway to Heaven (Doctor Who Magazine #156) *
• Once in a Lifetime (The Incredible Hulk Presents #1)
• Hunger from the Ends of Time! (The Incredible Hulk Presents #2-3)
• War World! (The Incredible Hulk Presents #4)
• Technical Hitch (The Incredible Hulk Presents #5)
• A Switch in Time! (The Incredible Hulk Presents #6)
• The Sentinel! (The Incredible Hulk Presents #7) *
• Who’s that Girl! (The Incredible Hulk Presents #8-9) *
• The Enlightenment of Ly-Chee the Wise (The Incredible Hulk Presents #10) *
• Slimmer! (The Incredible Hulk Presents #11) *
• Nineveh! (The Incredible Hulk Presents #12) *
• Train-Flight (Doctor Who Magazine #159-161)
• Doctor Conkerer! (Doctor Who Magazine #162)
• Abslom Daak: Dalek Killer (Doctor Who Weekly #17-20)
• Star Tigers (Doctor Who Weekly #27-30, Doctor Who Monthly #44-46)

Doctor Who Magazine is out now and sssssuggests that there's sssssomething very sssssspecial in the new issue.

Writer Mark Gatiss tells DWM how excited he was to bring back one of Doctor Who’s iconic monsters in Cold War:

Also in this issue:

• The New Series- full previews of the episodes to hit screens over the next few weeks.
• Hide and Seek - Jessica Raine, soon to be seen as Doctor Who’s original producer Verity Lambert in An Adventure in Space and Time and star of Call the Midwife, reveals all about guest-starring in the forthcoming episode Hide – and how she believes in ghosts!
• Where There's a Wills - Anneke Wills looks back on her time as glam-girl Polly, companion to the First and Second Doctors – and how thrilling it was to be present at the first-ever regeneration.
• The Martian Chronicles - As the Ice Warriors return to menace the Eleventh Doctor, DWM winds back the clock to 1967 and the Doctor’s first encounter with the Lords of the red planet. Discover a wealth of fascinating facts about what happened to the Second Doctor, Jamie and Victoria when they fought Varga on Britannicus Base as The Ice Warriors is thawed out in The Fact of Fiction.
• Man At The Top - Doctor Who lead writer and executive producer Steven Moffat answers more of your questions – including what Blink and his his other stories were originally called...
• Road Rage - The Tenth Doctor and Martha Jones get stuck in traffic when they travel into the future for a visit to New Earth. The Time Team get caught in the Gridlock, but what will Will, Emma, Chris and Michael make of it all?
• Tribal Dance - The Doctor faces his past in more ways than one as the Hunters are revealed to be the unearthly Tribe of Gum! The Doctor, Ian and Barbara attempt to unravel the mystery in Part Four of our epic comic strip, Hunters of the Burning Stone, written by Scott Grey and illustrated by Martin Geraghty.
• Second Helpings - it’s 2006 and Doctor Who has become the most talked about show on TV! David Tennant is the new Doctor, Billie Piper plays Rose – and the sky's the limit on the trip of the a lifetime. DWM's trip through five decades of adventure reaches Series 28 in Countdown to 50!
• Practical Parenting - What do you do when your children swap Time Lords for another interest? Jacqueline Rayner soothes the fevered brow of Doctor Who-loving parents everywhere in Relative Dimensions
• Caught in a Vacuum - The Watcher ponders the triangular nature of one of Doctor Who’s greatest design innovations in A History of Doctor Who in 100 Objects, jumps to the left for a Rocky Horror-themed Six Faces of Delusion and dazzles with more entries from the Stockbridge English Dictionary. Its WOTCHA!

PLUS! All the latest offical news, reviews and previews from the worlds of Doctor Who, prize-winning competitions and crossword, and, much, much more.

BBC Careers have published details for the role of Executive Producer for Doctor Who, which was vacated by Caroline Skinner last month.

The role is advertised as a 20 month, fixed-term contract at the Roath Lock Studios in Cardiff, and is described thus:


Job requirements include:


The closing date for the role is the 14th April.

Terrance Dicks is to be feature in a special event as part of the Belfast Film Festival. The writer will be interviewed about his career in television and his prolific output as a writer, with his association with Doctor Who forming a central part of the discussion.


The event takes place in the Belfast Waterstones on Friday 18th April at 7:00pm. Tickets can be purchased via the Festival website.


The author will also be introducing the event's showing of The Mind of Evil on the 18th April, though this is sold out!

Waterstones in Piccadilly, London are to hold a special event in celebration of Doctor Who’s 50th Anniversary, featuring several of the authors represented in the recent re-issue of classic novels by BBC Worldwide.

Steve Cole (Ten Little Aliens), Terrance Dicks (Players), Ben Aaronovitch (Remembrance of the Daleks), Justin Richards (Dreams of Empire), Jonathan Morris (Festival of Death) and Gary Russell (Beautiful Chaos) will be in the store on Saturday 6th April from 3:00pm, where they will be discussing their classic Doctor Who novels and the world of the Doctor, plus signing copies of their respective novels.

Entrance to the event is via a ticket, which are redeemable against the price of one of the books on the day. They can be booked in person in Waterstones Piccadilly, via Facebook (subject to booking fee), or by phoning 02078512400. Tickets will also be available on the day, but anyone wishing to attend should arrive early to avoid disappointment.

Candy Jar Books are to release a new book celebrating the many assistants to have accompanied the Doctor over the last fifty years.


The book will be released on 27th June.

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To coincide with the launch of the book the publisher, Candy Jar, is asking fans to vote for their favourite Doctor Who companion. The results will be released when the book is published in June. To vote visit their website.

The BBC have officially announced the return of an old foe to face the Doctor(s) in the 50th Anniversary Special.



Filming has been taking place around Ivy Tower near Neath in South Wales today, though with filming taking place on private land there has been little activity observed by fans. However, comings and goings have been seen, with this tweet by Ryan Farell becoming very popular on the social medium: "I've been waiting for three years to post this tweet: Matt Smith and David Tennant have arrived on set." Earlier, Carwyn Jones had been luckier and reported: "Just seen the TARDIS and set for Doctor Who 50th Anniversary in Ivy Tower, Neath!!!!". Later, Olivia Morgan was thrilled to say: "Just seen David Tennant filming for Doctor Who in Neath". The Ivy Tower location setting was originally spotted by Erin Rickard yesterday, who wondered: "Walked to the Ivy Tower + found this...Asked what they're up to but were very secretive, my bet is Filming! But what?"

Update: you can read a locations reports from Phillipa Collins here, plus some additional photos of the foe on set via Adrian Cole: 1 2 3 4

Hot on the heels of the one earlier in the evening, a new publicity photo for the 50th Anniversary Special's read-through has been released, this time featuring Matt Smith and David Tennant, plus Jenna-Louise Coleman and guest star Joanna Page:

Next week's adventure for the Doctor will be The Rings of Akhaten, written by Neil Cross and directed by Farren Blackburn. The episode will broadcast on BBC One at 6:15pm on Saturday.


This weekend's episode is again bookended by the news and The Voice UK; this week ITV is serving up You've been Framed Rides Again!. BBC Two and Channel 5 are showing the films Carry on Again, Doctor and Raid on Rommel respectively, whilst Channel 4 has news followed by Stephen Fry: Best of Gadget Man.




Internationally, The Rings of Akhaten will be broadcast in the United States and Canada on BBC America and Space respectively at 8:00pm ET on the 6th April, and then on the 7th it can be seen in Australia via ABC at 7:30pm, Poland via BBC Entertainment at 6:00pm, and South Africa via BBC Entertainment at 7:00pm. See This Week in Doctor Who for more details on scheduling and repeats.