Today sees special Royal Mail stamps going on sale to mark the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who.

Each of the 11 TV Doctors is represented on his own first-class stamp (60p), as is the TARDIS, while four enemies – Dalek, Cyberman, Ood, and a Weeping Angel – feature on second-class stamps (50p). The enemies and TARDIS are on a five-stamp miniature sheet, while the stamp design for the Doctors sees the face of each one set against relevant opening title sequences along with a relevant logo. Since the first two Doctors' eras were broadcast in monochrome, the first two stamps are also black and white.

As well as the stamps - which are being sold at more than 9,000 Post Office branches in the UK, online, and via phone (08457 641 641) - a wide variety of associated products is also available, ranging from first-day covers and postcards to stamp sets and stamp strips plus a pin badge of the TARDIS stamp. Some of the items on sale include series information penned by Doctor Who writer, director, and script editor Gary Russell.

Royal Mail - which said it had had an unprecedented number of pre-registrations for the stamps since they were unveiled in December - is also creating unique postmarks in the home towns of the actors to have played the 11 TV Doctors. All stamped mail sent from those locations will have a special postmark celebrating 50 years of Doctor Who, with the name of the actor who played the Doctor plus the length of time they were in the role.

Andrew Hammond, the managing director of the stamps and collectibles division at Royal Mail, said:
Fiona Eastwood, the product development director at BBC Worldwide Consumer Products, said:
Royal Mail's Special Stamp programme has been commemorating and celebrating events and anniversaries relevant to UK heritage and life for nearly 50 years itself. All UK stamp designs are approved by the Queen before they are printed.

The stamps are available to purchase from the Post Office.

Pre-issue event:

A special public affairs event marking the issue of the anniversary stamps was held by Royal Mail at BAFTA in London earlier this month, with Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Paul McGann, Steven Moffat, Jenna-Louise Coleman, Jon Pertwee's son Sean Pertwee, and William Hartnell's granddaughter and biographer Jessica Carney mingling among the invited guests, who included MPs, stakeholders, and key Royal Mail customers.

Speeches in praise of the show and the stamps were given by Moya Greene, Royal Mail's chief executive, and Steven Moffat. The showrunner also introduced a video message from Matt Smith, as the actor had been unable to make it to the function, plus an extended trailer for Series 7b.

Props made by the officially-licensed company Rubbertoe Replicas were on show, as were displays of the stamps, with Daleks and a police box also adding to the atmosphere.

Competition to follow:

Doctor Who News will shortly be running a competition connected with the release of the stamps and there's a fabulous prize to be won, courtesy of Royal Mail, so keep checking back for details!

Next week's Radio Times features the now traditional Doctor Who front cover to celebrate the return of the series to television this coming weekend.

Amidst several media reports of late about how long he'll remain with Doctor Who, Matt Smith told the Radio Times:
Meanwhile, Jenna-Louise Coleman, playing his latest sidekick on the show, commented on what he's like to work with:
The full interviews are in the new edition, along with a guide to the eight episodes that comprise this run provided by Steven Moffat, plus a free Monster wall chart.

The BBC have released a couple of new publicity posters for the forthcoming The Bells of Saint John, featuring images of the Doctor and Clara together against the backdrop of the London skyline.

A special three minute minisode has been made available online as part of the Series Seven Part Two listings via Amazon and iTunes. The video is currently free, but only available to watch in North America.


The video was originally revealed by Dan Starkey in an interview in Doctor Who Magazine Issue 455, who said about his resurrection:


There is no indication as to when the video will be available outside of North America, though it is expected that it will be included in the DVD/Blu-ray release when that is released (currently scheduled for 20th May 2013 in the UK).

The nominations for the 2013 BAFTA Television Craft Awards have been announced, and sees Doctor Who represented in two categories:

• Composer Murray Gold has been nominated in the Original Television Music section for his work on Asylum of the Daleks; he'll be facing competition from Kevin Sargent for The Hour, Stephen Warbeck for Henry IV (The Hollow Crown), and Ilan Eshkeri and Andy Burrows for The Snowmen and the Snowdog.
  
  
• Visual Effects designers The Mill have been nominated in the Visual Effects and Graphic Design section; they'll be up against Tom Turnbull for Titanic, Rupert Ray and Benuts for Parade's End, and Robin Nurse, Julian Gibbs and Richard Gort for The Psychology of Winning.

The awards ceremony takes place on Sunday 28th April at The Brewery, in the City of London, hosted by Stephen Mangan.


Gold was nominated once before in 2008 for his music, but lost out to Adrian Johnston for Capturing Mary; The Mill have been nominated every year since 2007, and won in 2009 for The Fires of Pompeii. Other Doctor Who successes over the years have included both the Pioneer Audience Award and Drama Series in 2006, the Writer award to Steven Moffat for Blink, and the Editing (Fiction/Entertainment) award to Philip Kloss in 2009. Last year, Moffat received a special BAFTA award in recognition of his outstanding creative writing contribution to television.

BBC Worldwide have announced a new partnership with Sony DADC New Media Solutions to bring Doctor Who to the millions of fans with Playstation Home. The service will be provided through LOOT Entertainment, DADC’s interactive development group.

The press release stated:

Simon Hutson, senior vice president for BBC Worldwide's digital development, said:
David Sterling, vice president for business development at LOOT Entertainment, added:

Further details from BBC Worldwide indicated:
A gallery of images can be seen via their website.




The service launches on Playstation Home on 27th March.

A forthcoming biography of former Doctor Who producer John Nathan-Turner has been causing a media stir with newspapers focusing on allegations of sexual exploitation.

JN-T: The Life and Scandalous Times of John Nathan-Turner, written by Richard Marson and to be brought out in May by Miwk Publishing, is based on more than 100 interviews with friends and colleagues as well as inside knowledge by Marson, who has also had access to the entire surviving archive of Nathan-Turner's paperwork and photos.

In its review published on 10th March, SFX predicted a tabloid firestorm thanks to one particular chapter, entitled Hanky Panky, while the current edition of Private Eye, published last week, similarly warned of unfavourable headlines for the BBC, and that's exactly what has happened. A measured book review was published last Friday by The Guardian, but the tabloids have subsequently gone to town on claims that in the 1980s both Nathan-Turner and his partner Gary Downie, a Doctor Who production team member, used their senior roles to prey on male fans - some of whom were under the legal age of consent at the time (Mirror, Mail, and Sun). Marson says himself in the book that he was assaulted by Downie.

Miwk's website includes endorsements for the book from people such as director Fiona Cumming who, with Ian Fraser, says: "Some of the revelations are painful (but) we find this very rounded, well-written and honest." Drama serials manager and later producer Brian Spilsby comments: "I must say you have skewered JN-T precisely. I can vouch for all of the facts and most of the opinions. It's a very accurate - warts-and-all - picture you paint." And David Reid, who was the BBC's head of drama for series and serials from 1981 to 1983, says of the biography: "Quite wonderful on many, many levels. Gripping, fascinating, appalling – and, by the end, truly moving. Immaculate research makes the whole utterly trustworthy. A very good and very well-written book."

Responding to the allegations, the BBC has urged anyone with information to contact the police or the Dame Janet Smith Review, which was set up in the wake of the Jimmy Savile abuse scandal to look into the culture and practices of the BBC while Savile worked there.

Nathan-Turner died in 2002 and Downie in 2006.

Sunday 24th March sees the broadcast of the four-part 1974 Jon Pertwee story Death to the Daleks in Australia and New Zealand. The story is the 12th instalment in the 50th Anniversary season of Doctor Who stories on the UKTV channel.

The story is scheduled in New Zealand at 4:15pm and in Australia at 4:30pm. New Zealand gets an additional screening on Monday 25th March at 4:40am.

Death to the Daleks was first broadcast in Australia in 1975. New Zealand got to see it in 1976.

The UKTV billing describes the story as follows:

A power failure in the TARDIS draws it off course, the Doctor & Sarah Jane Smith end up stranded on the planet of Exxilon. They must find out what is draining their power.

UKTV is showing stories throughout the year in the lead-up to the anniversary in November. Death to the Daleks is the last in a set of four stories featuring Jon Pertwee's Doctor broadcast during March. The series will take a break next week for Easter.

Next month UKTV will present six Tom Baker stories in four weeks: The Ark in Space (7th April), Genesis of the Daleks (14th April), Pyramids of Mars and The Hand of Fear (21st April), and The Robots of Death and City of Death (28th April).

Up-and-coming broadcasts from both 20th and 21st Century series of Doctor Who can be found via UKTV's Doctor Who sections  for Australia and New Zealand.

The BBC have released a new trailer dedicated to The Bells of Saint John, which premieres on BBC One next Saturday at 6:15pm. The trailer was broadcast on the channel before the Pointless Celebrities Doctor Who special tonight.

The BBC have now released an introductory clip for the forthcoming return of the Doctor next weekend: