Doctor Who Adventures returns to its usual Thursday publication schedule today with issue 302 as it takes a look at all the Cybermen from their first appearance in 1966 onwards.

The magazine's free gift is a pack of Cyber playing cards, while also in issue 302 are:

• An interview with the Gunslinger from A Town Called Mercy
• A guide to the Doctor's Christmas styles
• The game Snowflakes And Ladders
• Posters
• More comic adventures for the Doctor and Decky Flamboon
• Brainteasers

As well as being available in print form, the publication can now also be downloaded as an app for the iPhone and iPad from the App Stores in the UK and USA.

The latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine - in the shops from today - takes readers on an exclusive tour of the new TARDIS interior, and speaks to production designer Michael Pickwoad about his inspiration for the Doctor's home's makeover ...
Also in this issue:

• Questions that must never be answered...? Doctor Who's showrunner and head writer Steven Moffat provides cool answers to burning questions from DWM readers in his new regular column.
• Direct Action: he's directed dinosaurs on a spaceship, cyborgs in the Wild West and snowmen in Victorian London! DWM interviews Saul Metzstein about his work, and discovers behind-the-scenes secrets from Doctor Who...
• The Year of The Doctor: 2013 marks the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who – and there will be plenty of ways to celebrate! DWM reveals what's planned in the worlds of Doctor Who books, audios, screenings and much, much more...
• Revolutionary Animation: the First Doctor adventure The Reign of Terror is released on DVD this month, with brand new animation to bridge the gap left by its two missing episodes. DWM investigates how this remarkable reconstruction was achieved, with exclusive notes and images from the team that created it.
• The Holiday from Hell: DWM turns the clock back to 1980, and looks at a Fourth Doctor story which featured reptilian criminals, cutting-edge science and a brand new look for Doctor Who. Prepare to be amazed as The Fact of Fiction enters The Leisure Hive
• An Ace Year: it was the year that saw Haemovores and Husks, the Brigadier and the Master and the Doctor become Merlin... and it would be the last regular series of Doctor Who for nearly 16 years! DWM takes a nostalgic look at the Seventh Doctor's final TV adventures as Countdown to 50 continues with a look at 1989.
• Sarah Jane Investigates: The Time Team takes a sideways step to look at The Sarah Jane Adventures, the popular CBBC spin-off from Doctor Who starring Elisabeth Sladen as the investigative journalist on the look out for extra-terrestrials.
• Comic Strip: The Doctor is on the trail of stolen goods – and gets the shock of his life! – in Hunters of the Burning Stone, the brand new comic strip by Scott Gray, and illustrated by Martin Geraghty.
• Relative Dimensions: Doctor Who is now being enjoyed by a whole new generation. But how will their experience as fans differ from their parents? Doctor Who author and dedicated mother of two Jacqueline Rayner finds out...
• Wotcha! The enigmatic Watcher recalls the golden years of Radio Times listings, challenges readers with The Six Faces of Delusion and champions another Supporting Artist of the Month in Wotcha!
  

PLUS! All the latest official news, the latest DVDs, books and CDs reviewed, a prize-winning crossword and competitions and much, much more!

Special screenings at the BFI this year to celebrate Doctor Who's 50th anniversary are proving to be a massive success, with the first two events selling out before the first one has even taken place.

To mark the show's golden milestone, BFI Southbank is showing a story per Doctor as well as digitally-restored prints of the two Dalek films starring Peter Cushing, with question-and-answer panels featuring special guests at each session.

This coming Saturday sees a big-screen showing of An Unearthly Child to start the season, with the second event on the programme - a screening of The Tomb of the Cybermen - taking place on Saturday 9th February. However, in both instances BFI members, who are entitled to priority booking, have snapped up all the tickets for both shows ahead of them going on sale to the general public. Tickets for Tomb were due to go on public release on Tuesday 15th January.

Despite the overwhelming popularity of the events, there are no plans to slot in extra screenings. BFI programmer Justin Johnson told Doctor Who News: The guests at this Saturday's screening will be the Unearthly Child herself, aka Carole Ann Ford, director Waris Hussein, actors William Russell and Jeremy Young, Donald Tosh (the only surviving script editor from the William Hartnell era), Brian Hodgson of the Radiophonic Workshop, vision mixer Clive Doig, Jessica Carney (William Hartnell's granddaughter and biographer), and Mark Gatiss, who is writing a BBC Two docudrama about the show's genesis, called An Adventure In Space And Time, which will debut at the BFI in November.

The guest line-up for the screening of The Tomb of the Cybermen has yet to be announced. March will see the première of the colour-restored story The Mind of Evil ahead of its release on DVD. The remaining stories are still to be announced.

In addition to priority booking, BFI members receive discounts on ticket prices as well as exemption from booking fees. The BFI currently has a special offer with annual membership at £30 (down from £40). The offer expires at the end of February - click here for more details.

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.".