DWAS Auction

Thursday, 11 March 2021 - Reported by Marcus

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

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 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 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

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.

FILTER: - Blu-ray/DVD - Fantom Films

The Ruby's Curse

Friday, 12 February 2021 - Reported by Chuck Foster

The Ruby's Curse (Credit: BBC Books)

BBC Books have announced a new fiction novel to be released later this year:

The Ruby's Curse
A River Song / Melody Malone Mystery

She's got ice in her heart and kiss on her lips...

1939, New York. Private Eye, Melody Malone, is hired to find a stolen ruby, the Eye of Horus. The ruby might hold the secret to the location of Cleopatra's tomb – but everyone who comes into contact with it dies. Can Melody escape the ruby's curse?

1939, New York. River Song, author of the Melody Malone Mysteries, is forced to find a reality-altering weapon, the Eye of Horus. River doesn't believe in curses – but is she wrong?

From the top-security confines of Stormcage to the barbarism of first-century Egypt, River battles to find the Eye of Horus before its powers are used to transform the universe. To succeed, she must team up with a most unlikely ally – her own fictional alter ego, Melody. And together they must solve another mystery: Is fiction changing into fact – or is fact changing into fiction?

The Ruby’s Curse is Alex Kingston’s first Doctor Who novel, and is released following the successful launch of Doctor Who adventures written by actors Tom Baker (Scratchman) and Sophie Aldred (At Childhood’s End) featuring the Fourth Doctor and Ace.

Alex said:

Having absolutely no idea of the journey I would be taking with River Song when I first uttered those words, ‘Hello Sweetie’, I cannot begin to express how excited I am to be able to continue not only River, but Melody’s adventures on the written page. A sassy private detective and a time travelling archaeologist joining forces to solve a mystery? What’s not to love!?

Albert DePetrillo, Publishing Director at BBC Books, said:

Working with Alex on this highly original new story has been such a delight, and we couldn’t be happier to be publishing her first Doctor Who novel. River Song is such an iconic character, and I think Alex’s many fans will be thrilled and amazed with what she’s come up with.

The novel is released in hardback on 20th May 2021, and is available to pre-order from Amazon UK.

FILTER: - Books - BBC Books

Lethbridge-Stewart updates

Friday, 12 February 2021 - Reported by Chuck Foster

Candy Jar Books have announced the second novel in series eight of Lethbridge-Stewart:

Lethbridge-Stewart: Fear Frequency (Credit: Candy Jar Books) Fear Frequency
Written by George Ivanoff
Cover by Adrian Salmon

Former pop star turned entrepreneur Trevor Delacy and his Electric Soundscapes company are about to launch their new synthesiser onto the market. But all is not what it appears to be.

With much fanfare, a scary new science fiction series, Fear Frequency, premiers on British television. Cheaply produced and rather schlocky, it nevertheless makes an impact in an unexpected way, attracting the attention of Lieutenant Bill Bishop, who is still recovering from the events of ‘Domination Game’.

Discovering a connection between the television series and Delacy, Lethbridge-Stewart sends Regimental Sergeant Major Samson Ware to infiltrate Electric Soundscapes. Meanwhile, Bishop is eased back into active duty with a supposedly easy investigation of strange goings-on at an old persons’ care home.

Of course, nothing is ever easy for the Fifth Operational Corps, and Lethbridge-Stewart and his men soon find themselves battling against numerous opponents and frightening new weaponry.

Fear Frequency is the first Lethbridge-Stewart novel written by Australian author, George Ivanoff, who previously wrote a short story for The Laughing Gnome anthology. Range Editor Andy Frankham-Allen says:

I’ve been in contact with George for a couple of years now, initially via Twitter, as is pretty normal these days for authors outside the UK. Over time it became clear that he wanted to write for the LSverse, so it just became about timing and finding the right slot for him. I was impressed enough by his short story in The Laughing Gnome that I immediately knew I was going to ask him to contribute to the final year of Lethbridge-Stewart novels. Indeed, Shaun (Russell, Head of Publishing at Candy Jar Books) was also impressed by the short story that he’s already got George working on a special Lucy Wilson Mysteries novel. But that, as they say, is another story.

George Ivanoff is a Melbourne author who’s written more than a hundred books for kids and teens, including the Gamers trilogy, the interactive You Choose series, the RFDS Adventures, the OTHER WORLDS series, and the non-fiction Survival Guides; as well as many of school readers and educational books. George’s books and stories have been shortlisted for numerous awards, some of which won their categories. Talking of his new book, he said:

Having written a short story for The Laughing Gnome anthology, I was eager to write more for the Lethbridge-Stewart range. So, when I was asked to pitch for a novel I jumped at the opportunity.

I’m a long-time Doctor Who fan. My favourite Doctor is Jon Pertwee, my favourite era is the UNIT era and my favourite supporting character is Brigadier Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart. So, getting to write that character has been a fan-boy dream come true.

My main objective with Fear Frequency was simply to tell a good story. But I also wanted to be faithful to the characters created by other writers, and I wanted to make sure that, while the novel needed to fit in to the timeline of events in the Lethbridge-Stewart range, it could also be understood and enjoyed as a stand-alone.

Fear Frequency brings the team back together, including RSM Samson Ware, who hasn’t been seen in the ongoing series since The Man from Yesterday, and plays on a familiar theme from the 1970s, as well as tapping into some of the real-world resistance to Doctor Who in both the 1960s and 1970s.

The cover sees the return of Adrian Salmon:

My inspiration for the Fear Frequency cover began with the original posters for Hitchcock's Vertigo and Hammer Films' Hysteria. I very much liked the idea of using concentric circles to visually show the sound. Whilst sketching I was hit by the brainstorm of centring the circles with Trev Del's single, and voila, I had a very strong central motif to hang the other images from. The Fear Frequency titles were of course a nod to 1960s Doctor Who, using wavy lines to indicate sound waves. Originally, I planned to add this digitally but decided to draw it in ink, only adding the text on the computer. The unknown woman with hands over her ears was referenced from Barbara Shelley in Quatermass and the Pit, who sadly passed away recently.I really enjoyed working on this cover as it hit so many of my personal touchstones.

A special edition version of Times Squared is to be released, featuring a brand new story by Rick Cross and updated cover by Martin Baines.

Shaun Russell, head of publishing at Candy Jar Books, said:

Times Squared is one of our most popular Lethbridge-Stewart books and has been out of print for a while now. We’ve had many emails requesting a new print and, for a while we made it available via Amazon’s POD service, but now it is time to give this wonderful book a new burst of energy.

The novel is set some eight months after The Web of Fear, transferring the Yeti from the London Underground to the New York City Subway. On bringing back the Yeti, Rick said:

I had this brilliant idea about the rats in the sewers of New York, and their connection to various plagues throughout the years. What if one such plague was the result of the Intelligence? And in these days of COVID-19, this story is more pertinent than ever.

Martin was really thrilled to revisit the artwork:

Times Squared was my first cover for the Lethbridge-Stewart range. With Yeti robots covered in rats coming out of the New York underground, I couldn’t believe my luck. When Shaun asked me to revisit the artwork for this new format, I jumped at the chance. The changes are subtle, but I truly believe that the final version is much better than the original.

FILTER: - Candy Jar Books - Books - Lethbridge-Stewart

Doctor Who Magazine: Issue 561

Thursday, 4 February 2021 - Reported by Marcus

This month's Doctor Who Magazine looks at the Target range of Doctor Who novelisations and includes an exclusive free book for those buying the physical publication

Highlights of the new issue include:

Exclusive interviews with some of the authors of the upcoming Target novelisations: Robert Shearman (Dalek), Mark Gatiss (The Crimson Horror) and Joy Wilkinson (The Witchfinders).
A celebration of the classic Target books.
Target collectors discuss their hobby.
Inside the making of the trailer for the Season 24 Blu-ray box set, featuring contributions from Sylvester McCoy, Bonnie Langford and writer/director Pete McTighe.
Patrick O’Kane discusses his portrayal of Ashad, the Lone Cyberman, in Series 12.
An interview with editor Rebecca Trotman, who won a BAFTA for her work on Ascension of the Cybermen.
Family, friends and colleagues pay tribute to acclaimed Doctor Who writer Philip Martin.
The evolution of the scripts that would eventually become Vengeance on Varos, Philip Martin’s first Doctor Who story.
A Review of the Daleks! YouTube series.
Public Image looks at the ratings for Revolution of the Daleks.
The Fact of Fiction analyses the 1978 serial Underworld.
The third part of The White Dragon, a new comic-strip adventure for the Thirteenth Doctor.
Previews and reviews, news, prize-winning competitions, Time and Space Visualiser, The Blogs of Doom and more.

PLUS a double-sided Target wallchart and a new and exclusive Target book! *

Doctor Who Magazine Issue 561 is on sale from Thursday 4 February

£9.99 (UK)

FILTER: - DWM - Books

Directed by Douglas Camfield

Tuesday, 2 February 2021 - Reported by Marcus

A book from Fantom Publishing looks at the life of Doctor Who Director Douglas Camfield.

Camfield directed some of television’s most popular and enduring drama programmes, his most notable being The Sweeney, Blake’s 7, The Nightmare Man, Shoestring as well as Doctor Who. He also worked on many other programmes, some of which topped the TV charts of their day and many other dramas long since lost and forgotten in the days when television was an ephemeral experience.

Abandoning a career with the army, Douglas Camfield entered television hoping it would be the first step towards becoming a movie director. Without any theatre experience nor the benefit of a university education, he had to prove himself through hard work, dedication, not to mention a little luck from history.

Told with the help of his friends and family, colleagues and contemporaries, this revised edition of Directed by Douglas Camfield – featuring new information and interviews – traces the highs and lows of his career, explodes myths and reveals how he overcame the many obstacles he faced in his life before his premature death in 1984.

This hardback book is limited to only 300 copies and features new cover artwork by Connor Adkins.

Each individually numbered, the book also comes with a postcard signed by the author and cover artist.

Priced £19.99.

Fantom Publishing Website

FILTER: - Books

Script Doctor Reprint

Sunday, 31 January 2021 - Reported by Marcus

Script Doctor, Script Editor Andrew Cartmel's inside account of the final years of classic Doctor Who returns for a limited reprint.

‘There are worlds out there where the sky is burning, and the sea’s asleep, and the rivers dream. People made of smoke and cities made of song. Somewhere there’s danger, somewhere there’s injustice, and somewhere else the tea’s getting cold. Come on, Ace – we’ve got work to do!’

Andrew Cartmel was the script editor on Doctor Who from 1986 to 1989. During his time on the show, he introduced the seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) and his companion Ace (Sophie Aldred) and oversaw 42 scripts written by eight writers new to the series.

With a clear mission to bring proper science fiction back into Doctor Who, he formulated what was later termed ‘The Cartmel Masterplan’, reintroducing the mystery to the character of the Doctor as the series celebrated its 25th anniversary and beyond.

Script Doctor is his memoir of this time, based on his diaries written sometimes on set and sometimes not even in the diary itself but on the backs of script pages.

With an introduction by modern-era Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat, a foreword by Sylvester McCoy, and an afterword by Sophie Aldred, this book is illustrated with 32 pages of photographs, many never published before. It is a vivid account of life in the Doctor Who production office in the late eighties.

The book can be ordered online

FILTER: - Books - Seventh Doctor - Production

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