Classic series actor Bernard Archard has died at the age of 91.

Archard created two memorable roles in the series. In 1966 he played the role of Bragen, the security chief seeking complete control of a colony of humans on the planet Vulcan, in Patrick Troughton's first story, The Power of the Daleks.

He returned to the series in 1975 to create the classic role of Marcus Scarman in the Tom Baker story Pyramids of Mars a story highly rated by fans.

Bernard Archard had a long and distinguished career appearing in such series as No Hiding Place (1962), The Avengers (1968), The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes (1971) and Bergerac. A detailed obituary is available in the Independent.

Thanks to Trevor Smith

Classic Series composer Tristram Cary has died at the age of 82, at his home in Adelaide, South Australia.

Cary worked on many of the earliest stories of Doctor Who, providing incidental music for some of the most memorable episodes. He scored the very first appearance of the Daleks in 1963 and his last contribution for the programme was for The Mutants in 1972.

Cary holds a unique place in contemporary music. While serving as a wartime naval radar officer in 1945, he independently conceived the idea of electronic and tape music, and was a world pioneer in this field. His work ranged from concert and entertainment musical repertoire to pure electronic music and from instrumental solos to orchestral and choral works covers.

He provided the scores for many well known British films including the Ealing comedy The Ladykillers in 1955 and the Hammer productions of Quatermass and the Pit in 1967 and Blood from the Mummy's Tomb in 1971.

Cary was a citizen of both Australia and Britain, and in 1991 was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for services to Australian music. In 1999 he received the SA Great Music Award for the year, and in 2001 he gained the degree of Doctor of Music at Adelaide University.

Posted By John Bowman

David Morrissey has been reunited with his Blackpool co-star David Tennant for this year's Doctor Who Christmas special.

According to a report by the Press Association, the pair appeared on set yesterday in the grounds of Gloucester Cathedral.

Further details are given in the spoiler box - which may contain information you do not want to know. The PA report - with pictures - was carried today by the Daily Mail. Again, do not click on the link if you want to remain spoiler-free.

Posted By John Bowman

David Tennant and Catherine Tate will be star speakers later this year at the Times Cheltenham Literary Festival, it was announced today.

They will talk about working with the Royal Shakespeare Company as well as on Doctor Who.

The event runs from October 10 to 19. Precise dates for appearances have yet to be announced.

Reported by thelondonpaper and the Press Association.

Professor Richard Dawkins, the celebrated biologist and writer, is to appear as himself later in the current series of Doctor Who. Executive Producer Russell T Davies made the announcement in an interview with the Independent on Sunday. He said the show's crew were delighted to see Dawkins on set: "People were falling at his feet ... We've had Kylie Minogue on that set, but it was Dawkins people were worshipping."

Dawkins is the author of many best-selling non-fiction works, fromThe Selfish Gene and The Blind Watchmaker to The God Delusion, and is apowerful communicator of both Darwin's evolutionary theory and the merits of atheism.

He holds the Charles Simonyi Chair for the Public Understanding of Science at the University of Oxford, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society, though he is perhaps equally well known amongst some Doctor Who fans as the husband of Lalla Ward, who played former companion Romana! He was also a close friend of former script editor Douglas Adams, to whom he dedicated The God Delusion.

Several sources are reporting the death yesterday (April 3) of Johnny Byrne. Byrne penned three stories for the classic Doctor Who series: The Keeper of Traken starring Tom Baker (in which the character Nyssa, played by Sarah Sutton, eventually became a companion), Arc of Infinity and Warriors of the Deep starring Peter Davison.

Byrne also penned a film script for the series which was not used. In addition, he wrote eleven episodes of "Space: 1999" as well as episodes of "All Creatures Great and Small", which co-starred Davison, and "Heartbeat" as well as other series and miniseries.

According to his entry on Wikipedia, Byrne "traveled extensively in his youth as a traveling poet. In the 1960s he worked as a literary editor and wrote poetry and short stories which was [sic] published in Science Fantasy Magazine.

"His other works include Groupie (1969), Season Of The Witch (1971). and the scripts for the films Adolf Hitler, My Part In His Downfall (1972), and Rosie Is My Relative (1976)."

Born in 1935, he died on April 3 due to undisclosed causes.

David Tennant was interviewed by Simon Mayo on BBC Radio Five on Wednesday. APodcast of the interview is available for the next seven days.

A reminder that David Tennant and Catherine Tate will be guests on Friday nights Jonathan Ross show on BBC1.

Thanks to Daniel Smith

The schedule for BBC Four's tribute season to Verity Lambert has been revealed.

The evening of Saturday 5th April will look back at the work of Doctor Who's first producer and feature classic episodes from some of the major series for which she was responsible.

The first three episodes of the second Doctor Who story, The Daleks will be shown. Written by Terry Nation and directed by Christopher Barry andRichard Martin, the story was first shown in December 1963 and featured the debut of the Doctor's greatest foe.

The evening will feature a documentary, Verity Lambert: Drama Queen, in which friends and colleagues - including John Hurt, Alan Davies, Lynda La Plante and David Renwick - pay their respects to the woman who helped transform the face of popular television.

BBC Four - Saturday 5th April 2008
• 7.10pm The Naked Civil Servant
  Emmy award-winning film biography of Quentin Crisp
• 8.30pm Doctor Who: The Dead Planet
• 8.55pm Doctor Who: The Survivors
• 9.20pm Doctor Who: The Escape
• 9.50pm Verity Lambert: Drama Queen
  Tribute to the woman whose work ranged from the original Doctor Who to Jonathan Creek and included The Naked Civil Servant, Edward and Mrs Simpson, Minder, May To December and Eldorado.
• 10.50pm Minder
  Senior Citizen Caine
• 11.45pm Jonathan Creek
  The Scented Room

The season continues over the next week with the remaining four episodes of The Daleks as well as an episode of Adam Adamant Lives.

• Monday 7th - 7.35 pm Doctor Who: The Ambush
• Monday 7th - 11.20 pm The Cult of... Adam Adamant Lives!
• Monday 7th - 11.50 pm Adam Adamant Lives
  A Vintage Year for Scoundrels
• Tuesday 8th - 7.35 pm Doctor Who: The Expedition
• Wednesday 9th - 7.25 pm Doctor Who: The Ordeal
• Wednesday 9th - 7.55 pm Doctor Who: The Rescue

Posted By Nathan Baron

Former Doctor Who Christopher Eccleston is set to star in the up and coming Stephen Sommers-directed film G.I. Joe, based on the Hasbro toy line and Devil's Due comic. He will play Destro, COBRA's arms dealer and love interest of the Baroness. The film also stars Ray Park (Darth Maul) as Snake Eyes. The film is an origin story and Sommers says he plans to explain various strange aspects - from Destro's metal mask to Snake Eyes' lack of speech.

The film is due to open on August 7th 2009.

Doctor Who Executive producer Russell T Davies has spoken exclusively to SFX about the future of Doctor Who.

The show returns this Spring for a fourth series, and will encore as four specials in 2009 before returning for a fifth full series in 2010. While there has been no official comment on the future of Doctor Who beyond that, Davies reveals that the establishment of this transmission pattern will help to ensure the show's longevity.

"Doctor Who is now one of the BBC's biggest flagship shows," he tells the magazine. "And this sort of pattern will guarantee it being on air for twenty years. It's no good looking at that American pattern of making seven years if you're lucky - that's just not going to work. Who wants it to die after seven years? It's much bigger than that. It needs looking after, in the sense that it needs pauses, it needs its legend revamping every so often. If you build these pauses in now and say this will always happen, that's part of the plan now - it's literally a twenty year plan, which can't be guaranteed, because different people will be in charge in years to come - but if you present them with something rock solid, that is working, and has a unique transmission pattern that shouldn't be interfered with, then it will stay."

In the interview Davies also tackles such topics as the casting of Catherine Tate, the rise of the online critic and the true story behind the return of Billie Piper. In addition, he confirms that UNIT, the fictional military organisation returning to the show in the new series, is now the Unified Intelligence Taskforce, and not the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce as it was previously known.

The full interview is in SFX 168, on sale across the UK on Wednesday 12 March.