Former Doctor Who script editor and writer the late Douglas Adams has been honoured with an interactive Google doodle today - what would have been his 61st birthday.

The doodle, which is an alteration of the Google logo, focuses on The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy - which was undoubtedly Adams's most widely-known work - and clicking on the Guide reveals many iconic elements from it, including a towel and a Babel fish, while clicking on the lift door reveals the character Marvin the paranoid android.

Adams was the script editor for Doctor Who's 17th season, wrote two stories for the show - The Pirate Planet and Shada - and co-wrote a third, City of Death.

A great enthusiast of technology and a passionate conservationist, he died suddenly in California on 11th May 2001 at the age of 49 after suffering a heart attack.


The search engine giant says that via the doodles it "aims to celebrate interesting events and anniversaries that reflect Google's personality and love for innovation." Ideas for Google doodles can be suggested via proposals@google.com

Tom Baker, Louise Jameson, and Philip Hinchcliffe will be the special guests at next month's BFI screening of The Robots of Death.

The announcement was made at yesterday's première of the colour-restored story The Mind of Evil. Big-screen showings with guests are being staged by the BFI for each Doctor this year as part of its Doctor Who At 50 season.

The four-part adventure is being screened at BFI Southbank on Saturday 20th April at 2pm to mark the Fourth Doctor's era. Tickets go on sale to the general public at 11.30am tomorrow. They were made available to Champion members last Monday and to standard members last Tuesday. All three screenings held so far sold out to members before tickets were due to go on general release, but returns and stand-bys are possible.

It was also announced yesterday that the story marking Fifth Doctor Peter Davison's era will be shown on Saturday 4th May. The title is due to be revealed later this week.

Big Finish are running a special offer on the "Memory" Trilogy of Companion Chronicles, which feature Wendy Padbury reprising her role as Zoe Herriot. Echoes of Grey, The Memory Cheats and The Uncertainty Principle are all available at discounted prices for this weekend only. For full details see the Big Finish website.

BBC Worldwide have announced the re-issue of eleven books featuring all eleven Doctors as part of the celebration of Doctor Who's 50th Anniversary, each featuring a new cover and special introduction.

The books hail from various periods in the history of Doctor Who in print, and feature a variety of well-known authors:

• The First Doctor: Ten Little Aliens, by Stephen Cole (2002)
• The Second Doctor: Dreams of Empire, by Justin Richards (1998)
• The Third Doctor: Last of the Gaderene, by Mark Gatiss (2000)
• The Fourth Doctor: Festival of Death, by Jonathan Morris (2000)
• The Fifth Doctor: Fear of the Dark, by Trevor Baxendale (2003)
• The Sixth Doctor: Players, by Terrance Dicks (1999)
• The Seventh Doctor: Remembrance of the Daleks, by Ben Aaronovitch (1990)
• The Eighth Doctor: Earthworld, by Jacqueline Rayner (2001)
• The Ninth Doctor: Only Human, by Gareth Roberts (2005)
• The Tenth Doctor: Beautiful Chaos, by Gary Russell (2008)
• The Eleventh Doctor: The Silent Stars Go By, by Dan Abnett (2011)

A screening of the colour-restored story The Mind of Evil is to take place in Birmingham.

The event – part of the Flatpack Festival – will also see Restoration Team members Peter Crocker and Steve Roberts discussing with Paul Vanezis the meticulous work that was involved in bringing the six-part adventure back to its former glory.

The showing, presented in association with the Shock and Gore horror and fantasy festival, will be held at The Electric Cinema in Station Street on Saturday 30th March, starting at 1pm and finishing at 4pm.

It offers fresh hope of a pre-DVD-release big-screen viewing for people who were unable to get tickets to this coming Sunday’s BFI première screening in London, which sold out to members before going on public release - although returns are possible.

The new issue of Doctor Who Adventures is out now, and this week takes a look at the TARDIS, providing all the facts you need about the Doctor's "home".

Also in this issue:

• The story of Commander Strax, presented as a photo story.
• A Silence quiz to test your memory.
• Doggy doubles.
• The comic strip sees the Doctor and Decky Flamboon visiting a strange alien world – but can they stay out of trouble this time?

This week's issue comes with a build-your-own Dalek kit.

The latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine hit the shops today and features some sneak peeks of the upcoming Series 7B stories plus Steven Moffat reveals what trouble lies ahead for the Doctor and Clara in The Bells of St John.

Also in this issue:

• He was the Doctor! – In the second part of DWM’s previously unpublished interview with Jon Pertwee, conducted a year before his death in 1996, the actor who played the Third Doctor reveals his thoughts on his departure from Doctor Who, the untimely death of Master actor Roger Delgado, and his relationship with the show and its fans in later years.
• Craig A Tur! – Frazer Hines recalls his adventures in time and space in the 60s series as kilt-wearing companion to the Second Doctor, Jamie McCrimmon – and why he wants to come back…
• Completely Pointless! – DWM goes behind the scenes on the forthcoming Doctor Who edition of the BBC quiz show, Pointless Celebrities and talks to contestants Sylvester McCoy, Louise Jameson, Nicola Bryant, Bernard Cribbins, Frazer Hines, Sophie Aldred, John Leeson and Andrew Hayden-Smith!
• Setting Sail In Space… – There’s trouble aboard ship as the Fifth Doctor, Tegan and Turlough take part in a race through space, and encounter a race of Eternals! Discover a wealth of fascinating facts about the last story in 1983's 'Black Guardian trilogy' as Enlightenment is put under the spotlight in The Fact of Fiction.
• The Man Who Knows… - The big boss answers some of your most pressing Doctor Who questions in this issue’s Ask Steven Moffat – including one from one of his predecessors…
• The Good, The Bard, and The Ugly… – Hey nonny nonny! The Tenth Doctor and Martha Jones go back to Elizabethan England and meet the most famous writer in history, as The Time Team watch The Shakespeare Code.
• Masters Of The Hunt! – The Doctor is reunited with his old friends, Ian and Barbara, while flaming-skulled warriors cause havoc on the world of Cornucopia? The action heats up in Part Three of our epic comic-strip adventure Hunters of the Burning Stone, written by Scott Gray and illustrated by Martin Geraghty.
• The Trip Of A Lifetime! – DWM turns back the clock to 2005 when Doctor Who made its momentous return to our TV screens, with Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor and Billie Piper as his companion, Rose Tyler. The voyage through five decades of Doctor Who with the twenty-seventh series of the show in Countdown to 50!
• DVD Dilemmas! – Jacqueline Rayner shares the ups and downs of a family in love with Doctor Who and tackles the controversial topic of how to order your DVDs on your shelf, in this issue’s Relative Dimensions.
• A Burning Question - Wotcha! ponders just which planets in the Doctor Who universe have seas of acid in The History of Doctor Who in 100 Objects, challenges you to spot the false fact in a Shakesperian-themed Six Faces of Delusion, and consults The Stockbridge English Dictionary for some more unusual definitions.

PLUS! All the latest official news, TV and merchandise reviews, previews, a prize-winning competitions and crossword and much, much more!

The latest edition of SFX magazine has just been published, and features an exclusive interview with Jenna-Louise Coleman. who plays Clara Oswald in the second half of Series 7, which kicks off on 30th March.

Talking about how the onscreen chemistry with co-star Matt Smith was developed, she said:
The full interview is in SFX 233, in the shops now.

The BBC has announced details of a special three day event to be held in London in November to celebrate 50 years of Doctor Who.

The three day Doctor Who 50th Celebration Weekend will be held at the ExCeL centre in London, beginning on Friday, 22 November with tickets for over 15,000 fans available.

More details about the event, including guests, itinerary, ticket prices and booking information will be revealed soon with fans invited to sign up to the doctorwho.tv newsletter.

Amanda Hill, Chief Brands Officer at BBC Worldwide said:

The event follows the two day convention which took place in Cardiff last year and which saw fans get a chance to meet the current stars of the show and take a trip to the TARDIS set.

The last time the BBC celebrated an anniversary of the show with a convention was in 1983 when thousands of fans attended an event to celebrate the 20th anniversary at Longleat House in Wiltshire.

Sunday 10th March sees the broadcast of the five-part 1971 Jon Pertwee story The Daemons in Australia and New Zealand. The story is the tenth instalment in the 50th Anniversary season of classic Doctor Who stories on the UKTV channel.

The story is scheduled in New Zealand at 3:45pm and in Australia at 4:00pm. New Zealand has a additional screening on Monday 11th March at 3:40am.

The Daemons was first broadcast in New Zealand in 1985. The following year, Australians got to see it for the first time.

UKTV is showing stories every week throughout the year in the lead-up to the anniversary in November. The Daemons is the second in a set of four stories featuring Jon Pertwee's Doctor scheduled to screen in March. The next two stories are The Three Doctors (17th March) and Death to the Daleks (24th March). No story is scheduled on the last Sunday of this month.

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.