Doctor Who Magazine: Issue 563

Thursday, 1 April 2021 - Reported by Marcus
Doctor Who Magazine: issue 563 (Credit: Panini)

The latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine is now available. 

 

Highlights of the new issue include:

 

  • An exclusive in-depth interview with Christopher Eccleston – his first with DWM in 16 years!
  • Former showrunner Steven Moffat on writing for the Ninth Doctor.
  • A preview of Ravagers, the new box set of audio adventures starring Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor.
  • Jonathan Morris explores the gaps in our knowledge of the Ninth Doctor – where could new adventures take place in his timeline?
  • Collectivity celebrates the merchandise released in 2005 after Doctor Who’s revival.
  • DWM tracks down some of the real soldiers who formed part of UNIT in the 1960s and 70s.
  • Members of the Doctor Who Restoration Team reveal the secrets of making old episodes look better than ever for their release on Blu-ray.
  • Apocrypha remembers BBC Books’ 2005 novel The Monsters Inside.
  • The Fact of Fiction looks back at 2005’s Father’s Day.
  • Reviews of the Season 8 Blu-ray box set and the new Target novelisations
  • Sufficient Data crunches Doctor Who’s numbers.
  • Previews and reviews, news, prize-winning competitions, Time and Space Visualiser and more.

 

Doctor Who Magazine Issue 563 is on sale from store.panini.co.uk and WH Smith from Thursday 1 April, priced £5.99 (UK).

Also available as a digital edition from pocketmags.com priced £4.99.





FILTER: - DWM - Christopher Eccleston

The Ninth Doctor vs the Cybermen!

Tuesday, 30 March 2021 - Reported by Marcus
Christopher Eccleston (Credit: Big Finish / Joe-lee Coupe)

Christopher Eccleston’s Ninth Doctor will encounter some old friends and foes in the forthcoming volumes of Big Finish’s Doctor Who –The Ninth Doctor Adventures.

The Ninth Doctor will soon face off against one of his greatest enemies –the Cybermen, as voiced by Nicholas Briggs.

The final episode of volume three, due for release in November 2021, features one of the menacing Mondasian monsters on the set of Fritz Lang’s celebrated 1927 motion picture, Metropolis.

Writer John Dorney said:

“I know everyone was very keen for the Ninth Doctor to have an encounter with the Cybermen, and as they were the only Doctor and monster I hadn’t written for at Big Finish, I was very keen to be the one to write it! It was a real honour getting to script their meeting... particularly as it gave me the chance to dive into my love for the movies and write a bit of a celebrity historical.”

In volume four, due for release in February 2022, the Doctor is reunited with Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, as played by Jon Culshaw, in an adventure that takes the Time Lord to the Firth of Forth.

Writer Roy Gill said:

“The Brigadier is an iconic character from the Classic Series, whereas the Ninth Doctor arrives at the very forefront of the New Series. They may initially seem very different, but there’s an interesting connection: both forthright and deeply decent, they’ve been through conflict and arestill fighting for what’s right... It was a privilege to write their first meeting for Big Finish.”

Producer David Richardson added:

“It’s been so enjoyable creating a whole new era for the Ninth Doctor, and I think the scripts really succeed in defining that bold new start. We are talking the Ninth Doctor pre-Rose. These are the adventures some time after his regeneration, travelling alone, starting to discover himself after all that time being the War Doctor.”

Doctor Who fans worldwide can now pre-order all four volumes of The Ninth Doctor Adventures, which are available in three formats –collector’s edition CD, digital download or limited edition gatefold triple LP vinyl –exclusively from the Big Finish website at bigfinish.com.





FILTER: - Big Finish - Ninth Doctor

Doctor Who: The Collection - Standard Range

Wednesday, 24 March 2021 - Reported by Marcus
The Collection - Season 19 (Credit: BBC Studios) The Collection - Season 12 (Credit: BBC Studios)

BBC Studios has announced a new standard packaging range to Doctor Who: The Collection  

The first titles to join this standard packaging range will be Season 12 and Season 19, which are available to pre-order now.  

Doctor Who: The Collection offers fans the opportunity to build their own home archive of classic content, and has proved hugely popular with collectors and fans of the TV series. The new standard packaging range is being introduced in response to this success, offering fans a second opportunity to fill gaps in their collection, and enjoy the classic era of Doctor Who.  

New releases within the Collection range will be marketed as Doctor Who: The Collection Limited  Edition Packaging, with the standard edition range marketed as Doctor Who: The Collection.  

Releases within the Doctor Who: The Collection Limited Edition Packaging range will continue to offer fans bespoke, premium packaging featuring a beautifully presented box containing the discs and a  full-length, premium-printed booklet that includes illustrations and in-depth, behind the scenes insight.

Releases within the new, standard packaging Doctor Who: The Collection range will feature a  standard, plastic Blu-ray case inside a slipcase, with a condensed, standard-printed 12-page booklet featuring disc-breakdowns and selected illustrations. The new range will include all of the watchable content and special features included in the Limited Edition Packaging release and will be available ongoing.  

Season 12 sees Tom Baker’s first outing as the Doctor and features five stories over 20 episodes,  including The Ark in Space and Genesis of the Daleks. The Doctor is accompanied by Sarah Jane  Smith (Elisabeth Sladen) and Harry Sullivan (Ian Marter) and was first broadcast on the BBC between  December 1974 and May 1975.  

Season 19 introduces fans to Peter Davison’s first series as the Fifth Doctor, and sees the Doctor and his companions Tegan (Janet Fielding), Nyssa (Sarah Sutton) and Adric (Matthew Waterhouse) face off against The Master, the terrifying Mara, the Terileptils, the Plasmatons, Monarch and the revamped Cybermen, in seven stories across 26 episodes. 

Doctor Who – The Collection: Season 12 (£51.05 RRP) and Doctor Who – The Collection: Season 19  (£51.05 RRP) can be pre-ordered now from Amazon and will be available from Monday 31 May  2021.  

 




FILTER: - Blu-ray/DVD - Season 12 - Season 19

Big Finish Win Audie Award

Tuesday, 23 March 2021 - Reported by Marcus
Hattie Morahan, Rebecca Root, Tom Price, Paul McGann,  Nicola Walker, Tony Whitmore (Credit: Big Finish)

Big Finish has won the Best Audio Drama award at the Audie Awards 2021 with the Eighth Doctor story Doctor Who: Stranded 1

The Audie Awards is the premier awards program in the United States, recognising distinction in audiobooks and spoken-word entertainment, with a prestigious annual awards ceremony which took place last night.  

Big Finish Creative Director, Nicholas Briggs said:

It’s particularly gratifying that Stranded 1 has received this award, as it represents some of the most ground-breaking work produced in our Doctor Who range. It puts the Doctor in an entirely new context with a group of new and exciting characters

Producer David Richardson, script editor Matt Fitton and director Ken Bentley have done wonders with this strand of stories, with really strong sound design from Benji Clifford and great music from Jamie Robertson.

Doctor Who: Stranded 1 opens with the Eighth Doctor, Liv Chenka and Helen Sinclair seeking refuge in Baker Street after the TARDIS has gone. Stranded in one time and place, the Doctor and his friends face their greatest challenge yet: living one day after another, in 2020 London. 

David Richardson, the producer of Stranded, said of the win:

I’m so absolutely thrilled to see Stranded recognised with this very prestigious award. It’s a project close to my heart – those actors! Those scripts! All magically woven together by director Ken Bentley, sound designer Benji Clifford and musician Jamie Robertson. It felt very special to me throughout the whole production process, and it feels even more special now. What an honour!

Details of all the finalists and winners at this year’s Audio Awards can be found here:  





FILTER: - AWARDS/NOMINATIONS - Big Finish

10 Objects of Dr Who

Sunday, 21 March 2021 - Reported by Chuck Foster
10 Objects of Dr Who (Credit: Candy Jar Books)

To coincide with the upcoming  release of 100 Objects of Dr Who, Candy Jar Books have released a free PDF book, 10 Objects of Dr Who. Written by Philip Bates, this forty-three page freebie is an introduction to his original take on the Doctor Who universe.

The eclectic lists of objects covered in the free PDF are: St John’s ambulance sign, asteroid 3325, Cyberman head, fossils, the shadow, Time Lord court, robot cleaner, chalice, a Spoonhead, and a matchbox.

Author Philip Bates was thrilled to be asked to select ten objects from the hundred featured in the book. He said:

Like my piece in Candy Jar’s Brigadier: Declassified book, the reader is taken around a museum on the SS Shawcraft. Along the way I introduce them to objects of interest from Doctor Who’s history. It was very difficult to choose ten to sum up the book, but hopefully the reader will not be disappointed.

100 Objects of Dr Who is not a straight chronology of the series, but more a temporal quide, jam-packed with fascinating information for the distinguished Doctor Who fan. Philip continued:

Both 10 and 100 Objects feature the behind-the-scenes trivia you would expect. I also go off the beaten track, jumping backwards and forwards in Who history. This is a book about Doctor Who. But probably not the one you’re expecting.

Head of publishing at Candy Jar, Shaun Russell, said:

100 Objects is fascinating adventure through Doctor Who history and, in some ways, intriguingly reads like a ‘make your own adventure’ book. It is also a fantastic cover and wonderful internal illustrations by Martin Baines. In my opinion the book is wildly original, and I’m sure all Doctor Who fans will absolutely love it.

The PDF can be downloaded from our website.

 

100 Objects of Doctor Who is currently only available to order from the Candy Jar website.. It will be released on 2nd April.





FILTER: - Candy Jar Books - Books

DWAS Auction

Thursday, 11 March 2021 - Reported by Marcus
Alister Pearson Artwork (Credit: DWAS)

The Doctor Who Appreciation Society is auctioning a piece of Alister Pearson’s artwork from the Keeper of Traken audio book to raise funds for the Anthony Nolan Trust.

This charity was chosen by the Master himself Geoffrey Beevers. 

This print is an XL version and will be signed by Alister of the winning bidder. It can also be dedicated at the buyer's request.
 
The auction can be found on the eBay site
 
It closes on 14th March




FILTER: - DWAS - Charities

Doctor Who Magazine: Issue 562

Wednesday, 3 March 2021 - Reported by Marcus
Doctor Who Magazine: Issue 562 (Credit: Panini)

Issue 562 of Doctor Who Magazine is out this week. 

Highlights of the new issue include:

  • Some of Doctor Who’s most renowned illustrators discuss their techniques: Chris Achilléos, Colin Howard, Martin Geraghty, Stuart Crouch, Anthony Dry and Anthony Lamb all speak exclusively to DWM.
  • Television producer John Lloyd discusses his never-realised 1979 four-parter The Doomsday Contract ahead of its Big Finish release.
  • Meet the collectors committed to acquiring the autographs of their favourite stars.
  • Behind-the-scenes insights into the interactive game The Lonely Assassins, including an interview with one of its stars, Ingrid Oliver.
  • New CG images recreate the sets from the lost episodes of 1967’s The Moonbase. Plus an analysis of the serial’s original studio floorplans and a tribute to its designer, Colin Shaw.
  • Doctor Who guest star Chris Noth talks about working with the Daleks, the art of villainy and why he’s flying the flag for the series in America.
  • Apocrypha investigates The Mystery of the Marie Celeste, a story from the 1970 Dr Who Annual.
  • Reviews of the new Target novelisations Dalek, The Crimson Horror and The Witchfinders.
  • The Fact of Fiction analyses 2012’s Dinosaurs on a Spaceship.
  • The final part of The White Dragon, a new comic-strip adventure for the Thirteenth Doctor
  •  New regular feature Sufficient Data crunches Doctor Who’s numbers.
  • Previews and reviews, news, prize-winning competitions, Time and Space Visualiser and more.

 

Doctor Who Magazine Issue 562 is on sale from Thursday 4 March £5.99 (UK)





FILTER: - DWM

Doctor Who: Chronicles – 1965

Wednesday, 24 February 2021 - Reported by Marcus
Doctor Who: Chronicles – 1965 (Credit: Panini)

Doctor Who: Chronicles is a new series of bookazines from the makers of Doctor Who Magazine.

Examining the landmark years of the show’s history in unprecedented detail, the first issue looks at 1965, when the most popular episodes of Doctor Who attracted more than 13 million viewers and Dalekmania reached its peak with the release of the first feature film based on the series.

This 116-page bookazine features newly discovered images and all-new features, including a summary of the year’s most significant events in the Doctor Who universe (both on and off-screen); the rarest items of Dalek memorabilia; designs for Galaxy 4 toys that never went on sale; the untold story behind a Dalek-voiced TV commercial; how Doctor Who was reported in the popular press; insights into the BBC’s Audience Research Reports; a look at the first Doctor Who annual, a tribute to The Daleks comic-strip artist Richard Jennings; The Curse of the Daleks, the first theatre production based on the series; special effects and production techniques; overviews of The Rescue, The Romans, The Web Planet, The Crusade, The Space Museum, The Chase, The Time Meddler, Galaxy 4, Mission to the Unknown, The Myth Makers and The Daleks’ Master Plan – and much more.

Doctor Who: Chronicles – 1965 is on sale from 24 February, RRP just £9.99 from store.panini.co.uk and selected branches of WH Smith. It’s also available digitally from pocketmags.com priced £8.99.

 




FILTER: - DWM - First Doctor

Daleks and Matt Smith's Doctor Join Build-A-Bear Range

Friday, 19 February 2021 - Reported by Marcus
Build-A-Bear (Credit: BBC Studios)

Build-A-Bear Workshop and BBC Studios have today revealed new additions to their Doctor Who range, launching a brand new Dalek plush, and Tenth and Eleventh Doctor costumes.

Keep your furry friend on its toes with the new Dalek plush, the perfect evil companion for fans and collectors. Complete your Doctor Who Bear’s look with the Eleventh Doctor Costume & Sonic Screwdriver Set, featuring the Eleventh Doctor’s iconic red braces, bow tie and fez. Or treat your bear to an all-new Tenth Doctor Costume & Sonic Screwdriver Set featuring the Tenth Doctor’s brown suit, coat, glasses and trainers. Both costumes come with a sonic screwdriver wristie that recreates the famous gadget by making sounds when you press it

The new additions join the Doctor Who Bear, Thirteenth Doctor and blue Tenth Doctor costumes launched last year. The Doctor Who Bear features branded blue paw pads and a blue heart on its chest.

Anjali Khosla, Senior Manager of Brand Management, Build-A-Bear Workshop said

We’re thrilled to continue our partnership with BBC Studios to bring these great new additions to Build-A-Bear Workshop.  Fans are sure to love this unique spin on the beloved series, making this the perfect addition to your collection or gift for the Doctor Who enthusiast in your life!

 

Julie Kekwick, Senior Licensing Manager, BBC Studios said

The launch of the Doctor Who Bear and Thirteenth and Tenth Doctor outfits was such a big success with fans last year, and we’re excited to bring them even more outfits and plush to add to their collection.

The Dalek plush (£15/$13.50 RRP), Eleventh Doctor Costume & Sonic Screwdriver Set (from £15/$20 RRP) and Tenth Doctor Costume & Sonic Screwdriver Set (from £15/$20 RRP) will be available in the UK and US and can be bought exclusively on the Build-A-Bear website from 19 February 2021.

The Doctor Who Bear is available online now from the Build-A-Bear website for £21.50 /$29.00 RRP.

 





FILTER: - Merchandise

New Who Talk

Friday, 19 February 2021 - Reported by Marcus
Sontar-Ha (Credit: Fantom Publishing)Warriors of the Deep (Credit: Fantom Publishing)
Who Talk is back with the series from Fantom Publishing providing new commentaries for Doctor Who stories. 
 
The first covers the often derided 1984 serial Warriors of the Deep, the season opener of Peter Davison’s last year as the Time Lord.
 
Producer Paul W T Ballard explains 
Warriors might not be the most obvious of choices, given its standing in fandom. However, what we have produced is actually a really affectionate and positive commentary, which not only goes some way into explaining what ended up on screen, but also celebrating it too. Even the Myrka!

Warriors of the Deep is moderated by Toby Hadoke, and features Mark Strickson, Vincent Brimble, Tara Ward, Michael Darbon and Eric Saward.
 
The second release of the month is a selection box collection featuring Sontaran episodes. Sontar-Ha! is available as a standard version or special edition with a bonus disc.
 
We’ve got a good variety of Sontaran episodes on this release, both classic series and new. A Good Man Goes To War was actually the first new series episode we tackled, although Empress Of Mars ended up being released first. Although it’s alarming quite how long ago even a ‘recent’ episode can be!

We quite often double bank recordings based on availability, which means we have a track on here that we recorded some time back. Whilst covering The Space Museum, we also took the opportunity to show Jeremy Bulloch an episode of The Time Warrior, and that is a fitting tribute on this disc to a lovely and much-missed man.”

For the special edition, there is also a very unique commentary for The Sontaran Experiment.
Anyone can get people actually in the episode to watch it, but what we’ve done is to sit Dan Starkey with Toby Hadoke for both episodes of The Sontaran Experiment. And it works really well; there’s a lot to be discovered about their fan experiences, and even more about Dan’s approach to the Sontarans on-screen and audio.
 
Sontar-Ha! is moderated by Toby Hadoke and features Dan Starkey, Frances Barber, Jeremy Bulloch, Chris Tranchell and Marcia Wheeler.
 
The limited-edition sets are available to purchase exclusively online priced at £39.99. Limited edition sets come with a bonus CD and covered signed by Tara Ward and Dan Starkey.
 
Individual CDs are also available at a discounted price of £10.99 each ahead of their trade release in a few months time.
 
Credit: Fantom PublishingCredit: Fantom Publishing




FILTER: - Blu-ray/DVD - Fantom Films