BBC AudioGo have announced Destiny of the Doctor, the name for their series of brand new audio dramas to celebrate the Doctor during the 50th Anniversary year. Produced by Big Finish, there will be a story for each Doctor next year in the run up to the anniversary itself in November.

The series kicks off in January with Hunters of Earth, a story featuring the First Doctor and his granddaughter Susan in an adventure that takes place in Shoreditch prior to the events that unfold in the first televised episode, An Unearthly Child. Written by Nigel Robinson, the story is performed by Carole Ann Ford and Tam William, with sound design by Simon Hunt.

Details on further adventures will be announced during the course of 2013, which will feature a number of familiar Doctor Who related names lending their vocal talents to the range.

The BBC have released a further two interviews with stars of the Christmas Special, The Snowmen, as part of their Adventure Calendar. The short videos are with Richard E Grant, who plays Dr Simeon, and Dan Starkey who reprises his role as the Sontaran Strax.

Other interviews:

The Radio Times features the eponymous Snowman by Raymond Briggs on its cover for this year's legendary Christmas double issue; inside, however, it does feature interviews with Doctor Who's stars Matt Smith and Jenna-Louise Coleman about their similarly named The Snowmen!

Smith also discusses his plans to stay with the series for 2013 and its fiftieth anniversary - and how his mother doesn't want him to give up the role! Talking about the influences on his Doctor, the actor said:

Meanwhile, BBC America conducted an online Q&A with the duo during a promotional visit to the United States last weekend, featuring questions that were submitted by the Tumblr community and answered via their official Doctor Who page.

Entertainment Weekly have also recently interviewed Jenna, during which she discussed getting the role, and how she dealt with the two characters Oswin and Clara.

A PC system modelled on the TARDIS has been launched by a UK firm.

Bolton-based Scan Computers has been officially licensed by BBC Worldwide to produce the aluminium scale model, which has been finished in the Pantone blue of the Doctor's Ship.

It comprises 45 pieces of individually-cut brushed aluminium, all of them based on the prop model, and measures 205mm x 205mm x 430mm.

The basic tech spec includes the following:

• Intel Pentium G2120 dual-core processor
  
• 8GB of Corsair Vengeance 1,600MHz DDR3 memory
  
• 500GB hard drive
  
• Blu-ray reader
  
• Microsoft Windows 7
  

The PC system, which has been developed with Dorset-based design house Head Cases, is also available to order with a variety of specifications.

Character have released details on five rare micro-figures that have been included within the regular range of Series Three packs that are now in shops.


The figures include only 500 of the Eleventh Doctor in tuxedo, 250 each of Rory in his nurse's uniform and River Song in a catsuit, and just 100 each of Amy with tally marks and a space-suited Tenth Doctor. Each also comes with a golden ticket of authenticity.

Mark Hunt, Brand Manager for Character, commented:

The presenter, writer, and astronomer Sir Patrick Moore has died, aged 89.

Born in Middlesex but brought up in Sussex, Moore became fascinated by astronomy at an early age. He joined the British Astronomical Association aged 11, and by the age of 14 he was running a small observatory in East Grinstead. During the Second World War he served as a navigator in the RAF, achieving the rank of flight lieutenant, and during his training in Canada he met both Albert Einstein and Orville Wright.

Returning to his love of astronomy after the war, Moore published his first book Guide to the Moon in 1953, followed by Guide to the Planets and a fictional book, The Master of the Moon. Eventually, over sixty books were to follow in both genres.

On 26th April 1957, the UK was introduced to the very first edition of The Sky at Night, a show Moore would continue to present up until his death - having only missed one show in July 2004 due to illness, he appears in the Guinness World Records as the world's longest-serving television presenter. Highlights of the show include many of the manned missions into space and reaching the Moon. Also, on 1st April 2007 a spoof 50th anniversary version was broadcast, featuring Moore presenting as a Time Lord with impersonator Jon Culshaw and guitarist/astrophysicist Brian May.

As well as The Sky at Night, Moore was a regular on news and other magazine programmes throughout the decades, seldom to be seen without the trademark monocle he'd worn since he was 16. As a presenter, he could be seen during the 1990s on the computer/video games programme GamesMaster. He was also not afraid to poke fun at himself, with light-hearted appearances in shows such as The Morecambe and Wise Show, The Goodies, and Have I Got News For You.

On 3rd April 2010, he appeared in Matt Smith's first full episode, The Eleventh Hour, playing himself as one of the experts contacted by the Doctor to help design a computer virus to alert the Atraxi to the whereabouts of Prisoner Zero.

As well as being one of the world's most famous astronomers, Moore was also a keen musician, regularly to be seen playing the xylophone, including appearances at the Royal Command Performance and The Royal Variety Performance. However, he had to give up performances in his later years as he suffered from arthritis, which had plagued him throughout his life. He was also a keen sportsman, playing cricket, golf, and chess.

Moore never married. His nurse fiancee was killed by a bomb that hit her ambulance in the Second World War, and he subsequently stated that "there was no-one else for me."

He received many honours thoughout his life, including - in 2001 - his knighthood for services to the popularisation of science and to broadcasting. The following year, Buzz Aldrin presented him with a BAFTA for services to television.

A statement from his family today said:

The first trailer for Doctor Who was broadcast on BBC One this evening - of sorts!

A brief teaser of the series logo appeared just before Merlin and after Casualty, promising the show for Christmas Day at 5:15pm - the first official confirmation on television of when The Snowmen will be broadcast.

The Radio Times preview of The Snowmen has revealed another very familiar special guest star will feature within the festive adventure.

With the first quarter of 2013 announced, speculation continues over which stories will be released over the course of the rest of the year in the lead-up to Doctor Who's Fiftieth Anniversary in November.

The currently confirmed stories include the final two complete adventures Terror of the Zygons (June) and the as-yet unscheduled The Mind of Evil. Also confirmed is a special edition release of Inferno - producer Dan Hall reported in September that four special editions were on the way, and with The Visitation recently revealed this completes those initial commissions (the others being February's The Ark in Space and March's The Aztecs). At least one additional (currently unnamed) special edition has now been commissioned, though whether this would be released next year has yet to be confirmed.

With regard to animations, though there have been no formal announcements post January's The Reign of Terror, Hall had explained that stories with a maximum of two episodes missing were being considered as commercially viable: stories meeting this criteria are The Crusade, The Tenth Planet, The Underwater Menace, The Moonbase and The Ice Warriors. Of those, sound designer Brian Hodgson indicated in June that he'd recorded a commentary for The Moonbase (and possibly The Underwater Menace), and Frazer Hines told the audience at the Dimensions convention that he'd recorded a documentary for The Ice Warriors alongside Sonny Caldinez - the latter story also had a trailer passed by the BBFC on 5th December, suggesting this adventure might well be out sometime next year.

The Ark in Space (SE):

The BBFC have classified extras for The Ark in Space special edition, currently scheduled for the 18th February; as well as a brand new "Making Of", the release will also include the Omnibus version of the story, originally edited for a repeat broadcast on 20th August 1975.

Movie Version:
    01:09:48:01 DOCTOR WHO - THE ARK IN SPACE
DVD Extras:
    00:29:51:23 A NEW FRONTIER - MAKING THE ARK IN SPACE
    00:07:04:00 THE ARK IN SPACE - PHOTO GALLERY
    00:01:03:17 (THE ARK IN SPACE - CGI SEQUENCE A)
    00:00:22:22 (THE ARK IN SPACE - CGI SEQUENCE B)
    00:00:18:12 (THE ARK IN SPACE - CGI SEQUENCE C)
    00:00:16:03 (THE ARK IN SPACE - CGI SEQUENCE D)
    00:00:16:21 (THE ARK IN SPACE - CGI SEQUENCE E)
    00:00:07:11 (THE ARK IN SPACE - CGI SEQUENCE F)
Audio Commentaries

The Aztecs (SE):

The BBFC have classified extras for The Aztecs special edition, currently scheduled for the 11th March. As previously reported, this release contains the recovered Galaxy 4 episode Air Lock, and the extras reveal that reconstructions of the missing episodes (originally planned for The Time Meddler) will also be presented on this release. In addition, a 1969 episode of archaeology series Chronicle has been included which looks into the history of Mexico at the time of the Spanish conquest.

Value Added Material:
    00:28:08:06 DOCTOR WHO - GALAXY 4 
    00:24:19:14 DOCTOR WHO - AIR LOCK 
    00:12:10:01 THE EXPLODING PLANET 
Special Edition - Added Material:
    00:49:49:14 CHRONICLE - "THE REALMS OF GOLD" 
    00:07:20:06 IT'S A SQUARE WORLD 
    00:04:31:07 (A WHOLE SCENE GOING) 
    00:22:33:15 DR. FOREVER! - THE CELESTIAL TOYROOM

A fresh set of production information text has been written for the episodes by Matthew Kilburn.

Terror of the Zygons:

Slated for June next year, extras for the DVD release were classified by the BBFC back in July; one of the items passed was a "director's cut" of episode one, of which more detail is now known. Originally filmed but then cut due to grading issues, the opening scene with the Doctor, Sarah and Harry arriving in Scotland by TARDIS was discovered amongst the collection of the story's film editor Ian McKendrick, consisting of partial colour, partial black and white footage and soundtrack. The clip, lasting around a minute and a half, has had the monochrome sections colourised for the DVD by Stuart Humphryes (aka Babelcolour), who also worked on the colourisation of episode one of The Mind of Evil. The finished scene, which also includes its incidental music as composed by Geoffrey Burgon (featured on the CD soundtrack of Terror of the Zygons and The Seeds of Doom released in 2000), has been incorporated back into episode one and viewers will be able to select which version of the episode they wish to watch.

As Restoration Team member Steve Roberts puts it:

Meanwhile, since original classification a couple of new developments have been announced for the two-disc release. Firstly, a contemporary interview conducted by the south coast regional BBC news programme South Today was recently rediscovered, and fortunately there has been time to include the three minute item on the DVD.

Steve Roberts also reported that the late inclusion of the above has meant that it should be possible to include a 35 second clip from Disney Time, presented by Tom Baker in character as the Doctor, onto the DVD as an Easter Egg (previously to be included on a different release).

The Visitation:

Confirmation of the commissioning of this story came via the latest edition of Vortex Magazine from audio producers Big Finish. In an interview with Fifth Doctor Peter Davison the actor mentioned filming the documentary, joking over titling the story The Re-Visitation:
The documentary is produced by a newcomer to the DVD range, Russell Minton.

Clarifying some of the restoration work on the episodes themselves, Steve Roberts explained that the picture quality of this release had already been greatly improved for the original 2004 release:
Nicholas Pegg confirmed that there will be a fresh set of production information text to accompany the episodes, too.

The Radio Times has launched a new campaign to find any of the episodes of Doctor Who that are still missing from the BBC's Archives. At present there are 106 still to be recovered, and though some are unlikely to ever resurface there is continued hope that at least some of those lost William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton adventures might yet be enjoyed once more.

The magazine's historian Ralph Montagu was involved with the discovery of last year's recoveries, Galaxy 4: Air Lock and The Underwater Menace: Episode Two:

You can find the list of missing episodes via our Doctor Who Guide.

The BBC has released a press pack containing interviews with the main cast of the 2012 Christmas Special, The Snowmen.