The new edition of SFX will feature a specially-commissioned 3D cover celebrating the return of Doctor Who to television at Easter. Produced in full co-operation with the BBC and the Doctor Who production team, the cover features the Doctor and Amy with a couple of Weeping Angels. The magazine includes an exclusive look at the new series, including interviews with Matt Smith, Karen Gillan, and Steven Moffat.

Issue 194 is on sale from 10th March - see the SFX website for more details.


(please note our cover illustration is an animated simulation of the 3D effect - if you didn't see it when reading this article, simply click on the image to see the larger-scale version)

The Northampton Chronicle reports that the five-inch model of new Doctor, Matt Smith, has completely sold out. Shops across the actor's home county have reported queues of people trying to obtain the figure. The paper quotes Smith's mother, Lynne Smith, as saying how amazed she was at the likeness of the model to her son. "It was fabulous to see his first model, it was really exciting for us all."

Comedian and Big Finish actor Charlie Ross has launched a Facebook campaign to try to get Bernard Cribbins 1960s hit song "Right Said Fred" back into the UK charts. Ross said "After the campaign to get Rage Against the Machine to the Christmas number one here in the UK, I thought this was firstly a fitting tribute to Bernard following his wonderful performance in The End Of Time and also it would be a lot of fun!"

BBC Worldwide is in talks to develop its key products into digital games in a move which could see Doctor Who appearing on many platforms such as DS, Wii, iPhone and Facebook.

The move, reported by MCV, is a turnaround for BBC Worldwide which had retreated from the games business after poor sales caused the closure of its multimedia division in 2005.

The broadcaster is now engaging with software developers to produce high profile versions of its top series such as Doctor Who, Top Gear and The Night Garden, for the games market. Neil Ross Russell, head of Children's and Licensing said the BBC owns the rights to the most well known line up of Children characters around the world outside of Disney. "We are open to conversations with anybody in games about all kinds of business models to see how we can extract more value."

To help develop the brands BBC Worldwide has recruited former EA and Yahoo executive Robert Nashak as Executive Vice President of digital entertainment.

Doctor Who is celebrated in a new set of commemorative medals struck by the Royal Mint.

The limited edition, gold and silver, medals feature the likeness of David Tennant as well as the Daleks, K-9 and the Tardis.

The Royal Mint of the United Kingdom was founded over 1,100 years ago and is the body permitted to manufacture, coins in the United Kingdom. As well as minting coins for the UK, it also mints and exports coins to many other countries, and produces military medals and commemorative medals. This is the first time that television characters have featured on a Royal Mint medal.

Dave Knight, Director of Commemorative Coin, praised the show's "enduring appeal", calling the Doctor "timeless" while the head of UK Licensing at BBC Worldwide, Richard Hollis said: "David Tennant's performance as the Doctor has been applauded and celebrated across the country and these medals are a fantastic way for fans to collect a lasting memento."

A revised autobiography of Frazer Hines's autobiography (originally published as "Films, Farms and Fillies" by Boxtree in 1996) entitled Hines Sight is being released; the hardback book is being published by Frazer Hines himself, with assistance from David Howe and Sam Stone, and also features 16 pages of photos from the actor's own collection covering his life and career, plus a foreword by variety entertainers Ian and Janette Krankie.

For full details and ordering information visit the Frazer Hines website.

Big Finish have announced a new range of audio adventures based on "lost stories" of Doctor Who - the series has launched this month with audio adaptions of the Sixth Doctor's adventures after Revelation of the Daleks, the unmade Season 23, kicking off with Graham Williams' The Nightmare Fair.

Big Finish plan to release another series of stories next year, following the Seventh Doctor's adventures post-Survival - these are made in collaboration with the then script editor Andrew Cartmel. Says range producer David Richardson:
The twenty-seventh season would also have introduced a new companion in the form of safe-cracker Raine; the character has been cast, with the identity to be revealed next year.

The early years of Doctor Who will also be represented, with two boxed sets covering the first two Doctors. The Hartnell Years will feature the scripts of Moris Farhi, "Farewell Great Macedon" and "The Fragile Yellow Arc of Fragrance", both of which were published recently by Nothing at the End of the Lane; these will be presented as audiobooks with narration by William Russell and Carole Ann Ford, with a guest actor to portray Alexander the Great in the former. The Troughton Years will feature adaptations of "Prison in Space" by Simon Guerrier from Dick Sharples's original script, plus an audio version of Terry Nation's unmade US TV Dalek pilot show, "The Destroyers". The two boxed sets are expected to be released in November and December next year respectively.

Mad Norwegian Press has announced that Time, Unincorporated 2, the second in a series of fanzine article collections, will see print in May 2010. Previously titled "Classic Series Cornucopia," Volume 2 will actually see print under the title "Writings on the Classic Series," while the forthcoming Volume 3 will be "Writings on the New Series." Volume 2 of this series contains nearly 75 essays that examine every era of the classic Doctor Who series that ran from 1963-1989, as well as the FOX TV movie (1996). The essays stem from a wide array of venerable fanzines such as Enlightenment, Shockeye’s Kitchen, Burnt Toast, Faze, Dark Circus, The Whostorian and more. Collectively, the essays derived from these sources form one of the most diverse compilations of Doctor Who writing ever produced. As a bonus, ten of the essays were written exclusively for this volume by the likes of Matt Jones (Doctor Who, Torchwood), Simon Guerrier (The Slitheen Excursion), Pyr Books editorial director Lou Anders, and Jim Sangster (TV Heaven).

Nothing at the End of the Lane have just published Farewell Great Macedon, a 258-page, A4-sized, perfect bound softcover book, available for order exclusively via themselves. Details below:

November sees the release of the autobiography of Barry Letts. The book covers the producer/director's career up to and throughout his time as producer of Doctor Who during Jon Pertwee's tenure as the Doctor, and features additional material that didn't appear in the previously released audio book version.

The book will be published by Fantom Films, and will have both a paperback and limited edition hardback version with additional interviews with Letts, Terrance Dicks and Katy Manning.

The company has also just released an audio book version of actress Mary Tamm's autobiography.

Mad Norwegian Press has announced the forthcoming publication of "Chicks Dig Time Lords: A Celebration of Doctor Who by the Women Who Love It." Slated for March 15 release, this essay collection ---designed for male and female readers alike --- features a host of award-winning female novelists, academics and actresses discussing their involvement with "Doctor Who" fandom, critiquing various characters and aspects of the series, and examining the more extraordinary aspects of what it's like to be a female "Doctor Who"enthusiast.