Doctor Who auction at Bonhams

Friday, 22 January 2010 - Reported by Anthony Weight
Auctioneer Bonhams is to hold an auction dedicated to Doctor Who costumes and props from the BBC archives.

The event takes place on Wednesday 24th February at its Knightsbridge saleroom in Montpelier Street, South Kensington, London, starting at 2pm.

The catalogue is currently unavailable to view but people are advised to keep checking. The only lot that appears to be mentioned on the Bonhams site at the moment is a Sea Devil costume from 1984's Warriors of the Deep (pictured), estimated at between £3,000 and £5,000.







FILTER: - Special Events - UK - Classic Series

Australia Update

Thursday, 21 January 2010 - Reported by Marcus
The Peladon Boxset comes to Australia on March 4th when the two stories, The Curse of Peladon and The Monster of Peladon are released on DVD.

On the same day the 2 disc set featuring David Tennant's last appearance as the Doctor, the two parts of The End of Time, is released both on DVD and Blu-ray.

Maeanwhile Series Three of The Sarah Jane Adventures comes to the country when the series makes its debut on the Nickelodeon channel on February 23rd at 7pm.





FILTER: - Specials - Classic Series - Sarah Jane - Blu-ray/DVD - Australia

Myths and Legends DVD Extras

Tuesday, 19 January 2010 - Reported by Marcus
DVD extras for two stories in the forthcoming DVD box set, Myths and Legends, have been cleared by the British Board of Film Classification.

hornsofnimonFor The Time Monster, 35 minutes of extras have been cleared to accompany the six part story.
  • Between Now... And Now! Science and the Time Monster (Featurette) 23'37"
  • Episode Three (Restoration Comparison) 3'21"
  • Photo Gallery 7'59"




timemonstertFor the four part Horns of Nimon, a total of 48 minutes of extras have been cleared.
  • Who Peter - Partners in Time - 1963-1989 (Featurette) 29'55"
  • Part Two - Music Demos 2'55"
  • Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre (Easter Egg) 1'18"
  • Read the Writer - Anthony Read remembers 6'26"
  • Photo Gallery 7'51"
Details for the third story in the set, Underworld, should be cleared soon. The box set is released in the UK on 29th March.




FILTER: - Classic Series - Blu-ray/DVD

New DVD extras

Sunday, 17 January 2010 - Reported by Marcus
2entertain have given some details of a new 8 part series called Tomorrow's Times looking at contemporary press reaction to the Classic Series of Doctor Who.

The series is produced by Marcus Hern and which will be issued as part of the extras on some future DVD releases. The first part is presented by Mary Tamm who played Romana alongside Tom Baker. A rough clip had been released on the classicdw twitter account.





FILTER: - Classic Series - Blu-ray/DVD

Friday RoundUp

Saturday, 16 January 2010 - Reported by Marcus
The Doctor Who Restoration Team have published details for the forthcoming DVD release of The Masque of Mandragora. The article has details about the clean up of the story and full details of the extras included on the disc. The DVD is due for release in the UK in February.

Toby Hadoke's solo comedy show, Moths Ate my Doctor Who Scarf, continues its tour around the UK. Dates have been added for Barnsley, StocktonWhitehaven, Newport, Pitlochry and Bath. More details here.

Many papers have covered the BBC press release reporting that the BBC iPlayer has reached over 100 million requests since its launch on Christmas Day 2007, and the headline fact that a total of 1.3 million requested The End of Time.

For a full press roundup see our sister site Doctor Who in the Media.




FILTER: - Classic Series - Press - Blu-ray/DVD

James Cairncross 1915 - 2009

Saturday, 16 January 2010 - Reported by Marcus
The actor James Cairncross has died at the age of 93. He played the part of Lemaitre in the first Doctor story The Reign of Terror and Beta in the second Doctor story The Krotons.

Cairncross was born in Dunfermline in 1915. He was a well known actor and lyricist appearing in many early television programmes such as Play of the Week and Z-Cars and films such as The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner and Tom Jones. He appeared with Ian McKellan in Hamlet and with Michael Redgrave in Twelfth Night. James Cairncross died 17 December, 2009, in Edinburgh.

Scotsman Obituary.




FILTER: - Obituary - Classic Series

Creature from the Pit DVD

Thursday, 7 January 2010 - Reported by Marcus
Creature from the PitThe British Board of Film Classification has cleared the Fourth Doctor story The Creature from the Pit for release on DVD.

The story, originally broadcast in the Autumn of 1979, stars Tom Baker as The Doctor, along with Lalla Ward as Romana and David Brierley as the voice of K9. Others in the cast include Myra Frances as Lady Adrast, Eileen Way as Karela and Geoffrey Bayldon as Organon.

The story was written by David Fisher and directed by Christopher Barry.

Extras cleared for the story are
  • Christopher Barry: Director - 19'01"
  • Team Erato - 14'46"
  • Photo Gallery - 4'48"
  • Animal Magic - 2'34"

No release date has yet been confirmed.




FILTER: - Classic Series - Blu-ray/DVD

Donald Pickering 1933 - 2009

Wednesday, 23 December 2009 - Reported by Marcus
The actor Donald Pickering has died at the age of 76.

Donald Pickering was a well known British actor appearing in many classic television, film and radio roles. His television appearances included The Pallisers, The Avengers, The House of Eliott, All Creatures Great and Small, Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson, Yes, Prime Minister, The Bittas Empire and Executive Stress.

He is best known to Doctor Who fans for his three appearances in the Classic series. He fist played the role of Eyesen in the 1964 story The Keys of Marinus alongside William Hartnell. Eyesen was the Court Prosecutor, who has succeeded in persuading the Three Judges of Millennium to find Ian guilty of murder.

Pickering returned to the series in 1967, this time with Patrick Troughton, playing Captain Blade in The Faceless Ones. Blade was an airplane pilot at Gatwick Airport whose identity was taken over by a Chameleon.

His final appearance in the series was twenty years later in Sylvester McCoy's first story, Time and the Rani. In this story he played Beyus, the leader of the Lakertyan race, who was forced to serve the Rani alongside his daughter.

Donald Pickering died peacefully at home on 19th December 2009.




FILTER: - Obituary - Classic Series

Space Museum / Chase Extras

Tuesday, 22 December 2009 - Reported by Marcus
The British Board of Film Classification has passed a number of extras for the March release of the two William Hartnell stories The Space Museum and The Chase.

The Space MuseumThe Space Museum
  • Defending the Museum - 9'26"
  • My Grandfather The Doctor - 10'3"
  • The Space Museum - Picture Gallery - 4'24"
  • A Holiday for the Doctor - 13'59"
The Chase
    The Chase
  • The Thrill of the Chase - 10'24"
  • Doctor Who - Follow that Dalek - 11'58"
  • Give A Show - Slides - 12'13"
  • Shawcraft The Original Monster Makers - 16'57"
  • The Chase Photo gallery - 5'7"
  • Last Stop White City - 13'14"
  • Beyond the Screen - 21'54"
  • Easter Egg - 2'48"
  • Daleks! Conquer and Destroy - 22'36"
  • Untitled - 12' 43"
The stories are due for release in the UK on 1st March 2010.

The Board have also cleared the three documentaries Doctor Who - Greatest Moments, which were shown on BBC Three in the summer. These documentaries appear to be included as extras in the February release of Dreamland.




FILTER: - William Hartnell - Classic Series - Blu-ray/DVD

Doctor Who items on sale at Bonhams

Sunday, 13 December 2009 - Reported by Anthony Weight

Auctioneer Bonhams has a number of lots related to Doctor Who in its entertainment memorabilia sale on Wednesday 16th December at Knightsbridge in London.

Going under the hammer are the following (estimate in brackets):

Two vampire guard costumes from State of Decay (£150-£200 and £200-£300)

A Tetrap costume (pictured) from Time and the Rani (£4,000-£4,500)

Thawn's costume from The Power of Kroll labelled with actor Neil McCarthy's name (£650-£750)

Four rehearsal scripts from The Robots of Death (£250-£300) with a short, typewritten letter dated 14th October 1976 indicating that the part of SV7 was originally offered to the actor Hilary Minster.The role was eventually played by Miles Fothergill. Minster appeared in Planet of the Daleks and Genesis of the Daleks.

A Time Lord robe believed to have been used in The Deadly Assassin and Arc of Infinity (£500-£600)

A partial Cyberman costume worn by Ken Barker in Attack of the Cybermen (£2,500-£3,000)

A Shrivenzale foot from The Ribos Operation (£400-£450)

The auction begins at midday.





FILTER: - Special Events - UK - Classic Series