Mad Norwegian Press have announced a new book in their range of essays about Doctor Who by its fans and focusses, as the title suggests, on how Queers Dig Time Lords: A Celebration of Doctor Who by the LGBTQ Fans Who Love It.


Their previous book in this vein, Chicks Dig Time Lords: A Celebration of Doctor Who by the Women Who Love It, received a Hugo Award back in 2011, winning the Best Related Work category.

Big Finish have announced a special 100-minute story starring all five surviving classic series Doctors to be released for the 50th Anniversary. The Light At The End will see their paths suddenly intersect when they face imminent destruction . . .

The story is written and directed by Nicholas Briggs, who said:
As well as the Doctors, popular companions will also be involved from each era: for Tom Baker's Fourth Doctor it's Leela as played by Louise Jameson; then for Peter Davison there's Nyssa (Sarah Sutton); for Colin Baker's era there's Peri (Nicola Bryant); Sylvester McCoy's sees Ace (Sophie Aldred); and from the Paul McGann Big Finish adventures there's Charley, as played by India Fisher.

And if that wasn't enough, producer David Richardson added:
Released in November 2013, two versions of the story will be available: a standard two-disc release comprising just the episodes, and a limited edition five-disc release that will have two additional documentaries, plus Companion Chronicles tale The Revenants (performed by William Russell, previously available as a Doctor Who Magazine download).

David Tennant and wife Georgia Moffett are expecting their second child together, it was revealed on The Jonathan Ross Show last Saturday (5th).

During the show, the actor also talked about how he is still recognised as the Doctor in spite of four years away from the role: "It does carry on, yeah, because people are enthusiastic about it, it's one of those shows that people love. It becomes part of what you do, it's not a difficult thing to deal with.".

Talking about filming Spies of Warsaw - which is on tonight at 9:00pm on BBC4 - he commented on how wide-reaching his recognition is: "I didn't realise Doctor Who plays in Poland – but it obviously does. I've had a few fans coming up, wanting to say hello, or get a photograph or a signature. It doesn't happen quite on the scale that it happens at home – but then I don't think I've been to a country yet where I haven’t met someone who's a Doctor Who fan ... except maybe Uganda!" [Mail, 6 Jan 2013]

Burn Gorman - who appears with Tennant in Spies of Warsaw - has joined the cast of Revenge. He will play a recurring character named Trask, a member of the American Initiative. [Hollywood Reporter, 7 Jan 2013]

Tamsin Greig and Catrin Stewart will be on stage in Longing at the Hampstead Theatre in London. Adapted by William Boyd from two Anton Chekhov short stories, the play will run from Thursday 28th February to Saturday 6th April. The venue is currently staging Old Money, with Maureen Lipman and Tracy-Ann Oberman, ending on 12th January, which will be followed by Di And Viv And Rose, with Anna Maxwell-Martin and Tamzin Outhwaite (17th January to 23rd February).

An adaptation of Tom Baker's novel The Boy Who Kicked Pigs will be performed at Jacksons Lane in north London by theatre company Kill The Beast between 5th and 16th March. The actor said: "I wondered how a small theatre company could stage my story - which has a cast of hundreds, and includes a motorway pile-up with coachloads of people. I also wondered how they would manage to make my tale of evil horror funny, as I intended it to be." [EntertainmentWise, 8 Jan 2013]

Fenella Woolgar and David Troughton are up for honours in this year's BBC Audio Drama Awards. Woolgar is nominated for Best Actress for her portrayal of Rosemary Kennedy in BBC Radio 4's An American Rose, while Troughton is in the running for Best Supporting Actor as the Earl of Leicester in BBC Radio 3's Singles and Doublets. In addition, The Minister of Chance, by Dan Freeman, which stars Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann, Paul Darrow, and Tamsin Greig, is nominated for the title of Best Online-Only Audio Drama, while Kafka The Musical, which aired on BBC Radio 3 and is by Murray Gold, has been shortlisted for the Tinniswood Radio Drama Award 2012 for Best Radio Drama Script. The winners will be announced at a ceremony on Sunday 27th January at BBC Broadcasting House in central London. [BBC Media Centre, 8 Jan 2012]

In Memoriam:

The latest edition of BBC publication Prospero (page 15) has revealed that former Doctor Who crew member Marion McDougall died last March. Her first involvement with the series was as an assistant floor manager on The War Games, and she went on to be a production assistant on a number of stories between 1971 and 1977. Other BBC productions that she worked on included The Mayor of Casterbridge, Prince Regent, Mackenzie, Smiley's People, Mansfield Park, Blott On The Landscape, and Fortunes of War.

Doctor Who and its stars have been shortlisted in three categories in this year's National Television Awards.

In the Drama section, the show itself is up against Sherlock (co-created by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss), Merlin (starring Colin Morgan), and Downton Abbey (starring Hugh Bonneville).

Matt Smith is nominated for Drama Performance: Male, for which he is competing against Benedict Cumberbatch (the title role in Sherlock), Colin Morgan (the title role in Merlin), and Daniel Mays (Ronnie Biggs in Mrs Biggs).

Meanwhile, Karen Gillan faces Sheridan Smith (Charmian Biggs in Mrs Biggs), Suranne Jones (Det Con Rachel Bailey in Scott & Bailey), and Miranda Hart (Chummy Browne in Call The Midwife) for the Drama Performance: Female gong.

In other categories, Would I Lie To You?, featuring David Mitchell, is among the nominees for Comedy Panel Show, The Apprentice (with Lord Alan Sugar) and Paul O'Grady: For The Love Of Dogs are included in Factual Entertainment, Absolutely Fabulous (with June Whitfield) and Benidorm (co-written by and co-starring Steve Pemberton) are up for Situation Comedy, Coronation Street (produced by Phil Collinson) is nominated for Serial Drama, and The Chase, hosted by Bradley Walsh, is nominated in the Daytime category.

Both Smith and Gillan won in their respective categories in last year's NTAs, but the show lost out to Downton Abbey as Most Popular Drama.

Votes can be cast via this link and must be confirmed by midday on Wednesday 23rd January, when voting closes. The ceremony - the 18th NTAs - takes place at the O2 Arena in London and will be broadcast live on ITV1 from 7.30pm the same day.

Tonight sees the return of Stargazing Live to BBC Television on BBC2/BBCHD. The series sees presenters Professor Brian Cox and Dara O'Briain bring their enthusiasm for astronomy to life, inviting viewers to appreciate the sky and the visible objects that surround us each evening.

Each show is followed by a half-hour discussion about the evening's theme and discoveries, with the two presenters joined by guests and a studio audience. This year, Back to Earth also features a special guest in the form of K9! The Doctor's second-best friend will be on hand to offer his own unique knowledge of the stars from his travels.

This week's shows look at Mars, charting history through the stars, and then meteors, asteroids and comets.

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K9 isn't the first reference to Doctor Who in Stargazing Live; back in the first series guest Jonathan Ross was quite insistent he had spotted Gallifrey in the night sky! The clip is available to watch via the BBC's YouTube channel.

As reported last week, a new series of ebooks are to be published by Puffin over the course of Doctor Who's 50th Anniversary year, with the first book in the range being announced today by BBC Worldwide via Facebook.


Eoin Colfer is the author of the hugely successful Artemis Fowl series of books, and who also penned the sixth book in The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy series, And Another Thing ... - continuing the universe and characters created by Doctor Who writer/script editor Douglas Adams (whose unfinished television story Shada is released on DVD today in the United Kingdom).

A promotional video about Colfer will be released by BBC Worldwide via their YouTube channel on Friday, with the book itself published in electronic format on 23rd January through Amazon and iTunes. A paperback version will be published on the 50th Anniversary itself in November.

Update: an extract from the book has been published by the Guardian.

Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss have been nominated for the Long Form Television category for Sherlock in the 2013 Producers Guild Awards, which take place on the 26th January. The show is up against American Horror Story, The Dust Bowl, Game Change, and Hatfields and McCoys.

Matt Smith has recorded a couple of pieces for Disney Junior's new series entitled A Poem is .... Set amongst animated clips from various Disney animations, he presents a traditional folk song De Colores on the 5th January and Jack Prelutsky's Once They All Believed In Dragons on the 19th January - a video of the latter can be found via BBC America. [BBC America, 3 Jan 2013]

Bernard Cribbins talks about working on a new story-based series Old Jack's Boat: "It was lovely to be asked, it is a bit like Jackanory - it's me, sitting telling stories, with my dog Salty beside me. And it has the bonus of a few extra characters and some animation, and we got the chance to wander about Staithes, a lovely fishing village in North Yorkshire." The series also sees two episdoes written by Russell T Davies: "I asked them if they had all the stories in place and when they said no, I approached Russell to ask if he would do it. It was a change for him, to write for such a young audience but his stories are lovely." [Evening Times, 2 Jan 2013]

Bill Pullman reveals his love of fruit in a new documentary The Fruit Hunters. The actor, who owns over two acres of Orchard in Hollywood, said: "Growing things and being able to live off the land has always appealed to me. I think in California it really blossomed. This climate is sensational for growing a lot of different variety of rare fruit plants from other climates all year-round. That idea was intoxicating to me. I would say the biggest surprise to me, the tree that I just find so cool (is) Persian mulberries; they're so fragile, the farmer's market will sometimes sell a single layer of them to gourmet chefs, but they're pretty pricey. But, if you stand under a tree and eat away, you just feel so lucky to have a sensation that very few people get to have." [USA Today, 4 Jan 2013]

The actor also continues his 'presidential' credentials in a new series from NBC, 1600 Penn; Pullman plays President Dale Gilchrist in the show, which debuts on the 10th January.

John Barrowman suffered an accident during the matinee of his pantomine Jack and the Beanstalk in Glasgow on Friday; the performer fell from a horse and was taken to Glasgow's Western Infirmary as a precaution. However, his injury was reported to be minor and that he expected to be back for the matinee on Saturday.

"The Next Doctor" David Morrissey speaks very favourably about current Doctor Matt Smith: "I love Matt; I think he's a fantastic actor. I've known him for a long time and he's a great guy. He's a really brave choice for them. There was lots of names around – and those were tough shoes to fill, David Tennant's. You know what I mean? David Tennant really made it his own, and for Matt to come in and do that is something else ... he's the first [Doctor] to really break through in America." [Paranormal Pop Culture, 6 Dec 2012]

Brian Cox is to star in the BBC Four comedy series Bob Servant Independent, in which he plays the wannabe MP for Broughton Ferry. The six-parter (originally planned to be in three parts and airing late last year) stems from the hit BBC Radio Scotland comedy The Bob Servant Emails and best-selling Bob Servant books. It begins on Wednesday 23rd January at 10pm.

Frank Skinner appeared alongside Billie Piper on The Graham Norton Show, where he confessed he'd accidentally called her Rose backstage! Talking about the show itself, he said: "I said to my manager 'Do you think you could get me a part in Doctor Who? I don't mean like a big part, I'll be a monster, I'll be a lunar rock, but I really would love to be able to say to my grandchildren I was in Doctor Who', and he said 'oh sure, it won't be a problem'. He got in touch and he got an email back from one of the senior people saying 'I'm really happy to hear that that's a thing that Frank would like to do ...' Somehow the end of the email seems to have been be cut off!" [The Graham Norton Show, 4 Jan 2013]

In Memoriam:

Daphne Oxenford died on Friday 21st December aged 93. She played two roles in Doctor Who, first as the Archivist in Seventh Doctor story Dragonfire from 1987, and then as an older Agatha Christie in the Tenth Doctor story The Unicorn and the Wasp in 2008 (her scenes in the latter were not broadcast, but can be seen on the Complete Series Four Boxed Set). She will perhaps be best remembered, however, as the voice of Listen With Mother and the immortal saying "Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin.".

The cover artwork for the special edition releases of The Ark in Space and The Aztecs on DVD have been unveiled by designer Lee Binding via the Tea Lady Design Facebook page:


The Ark in Space is due to be released in the United Kingdom on 18th February, with The Aztecs following three weeks later on the 11th March; in the United States, both Ark and Aztecs are due out on the 12th March.

Issue number 301 of Doctor Who Adventures - out today - has a distinctly slimy feel to it!

The magazine's free gift is Ood slime, eyes, and brain - plus the publication takes a look at the yuckiest monsters the Doctor has ever had to face.

Also in issue 301 are:

• A Snowman mask
• An alien quiz
• Posters
• A new comic adventure with the Doctor and Decky Flamboon
• Monster puzzles
• An alien fact file

The publication is also available as an app from the App Stores in the UK and USA.

Penguin Books are to publish a new series of ebooks in their Puffin range for children to tie in with Doctor Who's 50th Anniversary. The series will consist of eleven short stories published electronically, with the first released on 23rd January featuring a tale about the First Doctor. Each subsequent incarnation will then be published on the 23rd of each month thereafter until the Eleventh Doctor's adventure on the anniversary itself.

The range is being produced in partnership with BBC Worldwide, who will be promoting each book through their Facebook and YouTube channels. The series launches next Monday with the author of the first book being announced on Facebook, with a promotional video appearing on YouTube the following Friday.

Each author will then continue to be announced on Facebook on the first Monday of the month, with a video on YouTube on the 11th.

Juliet Matthews, Publisher, Penguin Children's, said:
The books will be published online through Penguin itself, the iBookstore and Amazon.


In addition, the anniversary itself will see all eleven adventures released together as a single book anthology.

Other books during 2013:

Other Penguin Children’s books relating to Doctor Who this year include:

• Doctor Who: Puffin Eshorts (January – November)
  
• Doctor Who: Anniversary Sticker Book (4th April, Paperback)
  
• Doctor Who: Where’s the Doctor? (4th April, Paperback Reissue)
  
• Doctor Who: Official Annual 2014 (1st August, Hardback)
  
• Doctor Who: Lost in Space (5th September, Hardback)
  
• Doctor Who: The Essential Guide to Fifty Years of Doctor Who (October, Hardback)
  
• Doctor Who: Anniversary Anthology (November, Paperback)