The new Doctor Who Magazine (out 15th December) previews The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe, and goes behind-the-scenes to see the episode brought to life by the cast and crew, including Matt Smith who said:

Also this issue:

• Docteur Qui - He was scared of the Sea Devils and performs a Belgian jazz version of the Doctor Who theme tune as part of his act. Life-long fan Bill Bailey tells DWM that it’s a dream come true to be playing Commander Droxil in The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe.
• Time Lord Land Lord - Tenth Doctor, David Tennant was once her lodger, now she’s an armour-clad soldier in the Christmas Special. DWM talks to Arabella Weir about playing Billis.
• The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas - Nine-year-old Maurice Cole, who plays young Cyril Arwell in The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe, tells DWM all about living out a Christmas fantasy with the Doctor – but he still has to find time to do his homework.
• Christmas Holly - Teenage Lily Arwell gets a Christmas that she will never forget when she meets the Doctor in The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe. Actress Holly Earl talks to DWM about confronting monsters and keeping secrets.
• Chocks Away! He was the voice of Mr Smith in The Sarah Jane Adventures but now he’s in front of the cameras as RAF pilot Reg Arwell in the Doctor Who Christmas Special. Alexander Armstrong takes flight with DWM.
• You're asking the Questions ... Doctor Who showrunner, Steven Moffat turns over his regular Production Notes this issue to answer some of the burning questions put to him – via Twitter – by you, the readers!
• Yuletide Who - How many Doctor Who Christmas Specials have there been? More than you might think, as the Watcher points out in his festive Watcher's Guide to Christmas!
• Looking Back - It’s the final issue of 2011 and DWM takes a moment to look back at the events – both happy and sad – that have come our way in The DWM Review Of 2011.
• Yonder the Yeti... Alan Barnes wraps up warm for a Tibetan escapade as he scrutinises the 1967 story, The Abominable Snowmen in Fact of Fiction.
• I'm Asking the Questions... The Watcher is back to tax your brains once more with his annual, fiendishly festive Christmas Quiz!
• 13 – Lucky For Some! DWM’s COUNTDOWN TO 50 reaches Series Thirteen and sees the last remnants of the past being cast off to make way for a new, darker and more frightening version of Doctor Who.
• In With The New! The Time Team relive Christmas past! Emma, Michael, Chris and Will say ‘Hello’ to the Tenth Doctor as he makes his début in The Christmas Invasion and defends the world against the alien Sycorax.
• New For Old? Is it right to recast old Doctors with new actors? Or can no-one ever replace the originals? Toby Hadoke and Johnny Candon once again find themselves at loggerheads as they each fight their corner in A Battle of Wits.
• Beware of Greeks... The Doctor, Amy and Rory come over all classical when they take a trip ancient Greece. But it’s not long before they feel the wrath of the gods, in the first part of a brand new comic-strip adventure, The Chains of Olympus by Scott Gray, with art by Mike Collins.
• Top Of The Pops! It's that time again! DWM invites you to cast your vote for your favourite episodes, CDs, books, DVDs and DWM features in the annual DWM Season Survey.

PLUS! Three free collectable art cards, all the latest official news, TV and merchandise reviews, previews, competitions, a prize-winning crossword and much, much more!

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The magazine's cover reflects one of the earliest covers to feature on the television listings magazine The Radio Times. DWM's editor Tom Spilsbury said:

The two covers can be seen side-by-side on the Radio Times website.

David Tennant is to narrate an hour long show dedicated to everybody's favourite ogre; Shrek: Once Upon A Time will see the actor reveal how "an ogre with a Scottish accent single-handedly changed the face of animation". The show will be broadcast on BBC3 on 23rd December and repeated on the 29th. [Teen Now, 13 Dec 2011]

John Barrowman is urging people to carry a donor card - the actor is one of a number of celebrities backing the For Cole campaign: "Get signed up and save a life. Everyone should be on it. I've carried a donor card for years. It's so easy to do now online or even by text." [Scottish Sun, 14 Dec 2011]

The actor also revealed that his favourite Christmas movie is 2003's Elf. [Digital Spy via YouTube, 13 Dec 2011]

Simon Callow (Charles Dickens, The Unquiet Dead/The Wedding of River Song) will be performing excerpts from his new book Charles Dickens and the Great Theatre of the World in Portsmouth on Tuesday 7th February 2012 - exactly 200 years after the birth of the author in the self-same city. The performance takes place at the New Theatre Royal, which has previously staged semi-professional productions of Fury From The Deep, The Evil of the Daleks, and The Dalek Masterplan (based on The Daleks' Master Plan). [reported by John Bowman, 12 Dec 2011]

Neil Gaiman (writer, The Doctor's Wife is to appear on BBC America's Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!: Royal Pain in the News, which will be broadcast on 23rd December. The writer also reveals his favourite moments from the last series of Doctor Who during a behind-the-scenes video. [BBC America, 13 Dec 2011]

Naomi Alderman (writer, Borrowed Time) talks about the Doctor and the influence of religion: "In fact, there has been some portrayal of actual religion, including a positive portrayal of Buddhism in Planet of the Spiders. But I suspect that the answer is that the UK is a fundamentally not-very-religious country, and that Doctor Who accurately represents our suspicions and our non-confrontational but deep-rooted agnosticism. To go back in history and have the Doctor ‘prove’ that Moses, Jesus and Mohammed didn’t exist would clearly be offensive and far too confrontational for British people. But to have him meet the ‘prophet’ or ‘god’ of an imaginary civilization and find that they are either misguided or plain manipulative I think is a way of saying what - dare I say it? - most British people quietly think about religion: that it’s fine as long as it’s comforting, but shouldn’t be taken too seriously or followed blindly. The Doctor is an atheist hero." [Jewish Journal, 13 Dec 2011]

Steven Moffat has reported that the trailer for the Doctor Who Christmas Special, The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe is to be broadcast on BBC1 at 8:00pm tonight! This will be first appearance of a full trailer for the episode in this year's "Consider Yourself" Christmas theme, and will be shown between Eastenders and Holby City.

The trailer is also now available to watch online, and is a different version to the one seen during last month's Children in Need:

United Kingdom

Aldbourne resident Mr. Beattie came up with a novel idea to tackle a litter problem on the village green by creating a TARDIS bin to make throwing litter away responsibly more interesting! "We threw some ideas about (with young litterers) and they came up with the idea of a Tardis. We involved some of the youngsters in the early stages and they helped with the drawings and with the painting. One person I know has suggested the next one could be a Dalek and has agreed to pay for the parts" [This is Wiltshire, 9 Dec 2011]

Pupils at Coalbrookdale and Ironbridge CE Primary School in Shropshire got a surprise when a Dalek 'gatecrashed' their Christmas Fair! Headteacher Susan Blackburn said: "“The Dalek came into school and was fully functioning. It was very life-like. The children were asked to disarm it but it then escaped. The children have been so enthusiastic and the parents have been very supportive. A letter also went home in case children were anxious or distressed about the Dalek and all the children were told that it could not hurt them. But the week has been amazing and very dramatic." [Shropshire Star, 9 Dec 2011]

An army of festive Daleks are on display in Waterlooville, Portsmouth! Charlesworth Drive resident Ian Beazley dressed his own collection up for the season, and is very happy for people to have their photos taken with a small donation to Cancer Research. "Although I wasn’t a big Dr Who fan I found the Daleks fascinating. I used to hide behind the sofa terrified of them but although they scared me I wouldn’t turn the telly off. One year the Radio Times printed instructions on how to build one. I put them away and I remember thinking to myself, "I’m going to make one of those myself when I’m older". A few years ago I was medically retired and I had a go. It was so much fun I thought I’d have another go." [Portsmouth News, 10 Dec 2011]

The Devon hotel that former Doctor Who producer Graham Williams ran after leaving TV and up until his tragic death in a shooting accident in 1990 has been at the centre of a furore involving a stag's head. The head of the animal - believed to be the "Exmoor Emperor", the UK's largest wild land animal, which was shot in October 2010 during the rutting season - has been taken down from the hotel wall after phone and email threats were made. The hotel had been lent it about a month ago. [BBC News, 12 Dec 2011]

United States

Javier Grillo-Marxuach, creator of The Middleman comic book series, has recently written a new story where his character meets the Doctor! The author talked about his love of the Doctor: "I became a fan in the late '70s. I grew up in Puerto Rico, where they ran the Tom Baker adventures as a strip at 7 on weekdays. They called the show "El Doctor Misterio." At the time, I probably missed a lot of the subtleties of the stories, but I fell in love with the iconography of the show: the scarf, the TARDIS, K-9, the companions, all those things. After my family moved to the States in the '80s, I continued to watch the show on PBS, and then devoured the movie with number eight. (I even worked with director Geoffrey Sax on my first pilot the year after the Fox TV film!) Suffice it to say, I was thrilled when the show came back in '05 and have been a die-hard ever since. I even cosplayed the Master at last year's Gallifrey One Doctor Who convention... do with that information what you must." [CNN Geek Out/KSAT, 7 Dec 2011]

More details have now been released on the forthcoming Big Finish audio series Counter Measures.

The series stars Simon Williams as Group Captain Gilmore, Pamela Salem as Rachel Jenson and Karen Gledhill as Allison Williams, all of which reprise their roles first introduced back in 1988's Doctor Who adventure Remembrance of the Daleks. The team are re-assembled into the new specialist organisation Counter Measures in order to investigate strange phenomena and dangerous new science.


The first season is to be released in July 2012 as a boxed set comprising four stories:

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Big Finish have a sale on throughout December, with a number of discounts available on boxed sets and collections:

• the three Doctor Who stageplays The Ultimate Adventure, Seven Keys to Doomsday and The Curse of the Daleks
• all four series of Dalek Empire together
• series one and two of Cyberman
• a complete set of Doctor Who: Unbound
• both seasons of Sarah Jane Smith
  

Visit the Big Finish website for the latest details on how to purchase the collections.

The much acclaimed London production of William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, starring David Tennant and Catherine Tate is now available to stream or download from Digital Theatre.

The production, which ran to full houses at Wyndham's Theatre in the West End, breaking all previous Box Office records for the theatre, was directed by Josie Rourke and saw David Tennant play Benedict with Catherine Tate as Beatrice.

48 hour rental costs £5.99, or you can download the play for £8.99 (£10.99 HD)

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Simon Callow, who played Charles Dickens in The Unquiet Dead and The Wedding of River Song, will be performing excerpts from his new book Charles Dickens and the Great Theatre of the World in Portsmouth on Tuesday 7th February 2012 - exactly 200 years after the birth of the author in the self-same city.

The performance takes place at the New Theatre Royal, which has previously staged semi-professional productions of Fury From The Deep, The Evil of the Daleks, and The Dalek Masterplan (based on The Daleks' Master Plan).

This competition has now closed.

The winner was James Bolander, from Crescent City, California.

The correct answers were the name of the fictional lake in North America where the Eleventh Doctor lost his life was Lake Silencio, and the name of the lake where the scenes were filmed was Lake Powell AZ.

The BBC America shop is offering one lucky reader of the Doctor Who News Page a bumper giveaway package featuring merchandise from the series.

The store is inviting fans of their shows to consider BBCAmericaShop.com while looking for great gift ideas during this holiday season.

To help promote the merchandise they are offering prizes in a competition where the winner will receive the following: Doctor Who Series Six, Part One and Part Two, a Doctor Who Tardis Mini Set, Doctor Who Suit Shirt, Doctor Who Talking Pen, action figure and playset.

All you need to do is to tell us the name of the fictional lake in North America where the Eleventh Doctor lost his life and the name of the lake where the scenes were filmed.

To enter send you answers to bbcamerica-competition@doctorwhonews.net

Please note we can only accept entries from people living in the United States. Closing date is 26th December 2011.

BBC Radio 4 Extra has begun broadcasting The Hornet's Nest, the BBC Audio Play which saw Tom Baker return to the role of the Doctor after nearly 30 years.

The series will be broadcast in 10 parts over the next two weeks and thanks to the BBC iPlayer it will be available globally for 7 days after each transmission. Each episode is first broadcast at 1800GMT and 0000GMT.

The series from BBC Audiobooks is written by Paul Magrs and also stars Richard Franklin as Mike Yates, Susan Jameson as Mrs Wibbsey, Rula Lenska as the Hornet Queen and Stephen Thorne.





Hornet's News will be followed by the BBC Audiobook version of Pyramids of Mars, read by Tom Baker.

The BBC revealed today that two complete episodes of Doctor Who have been returned to the BBC Archives.

Firstly, the complete third episode of the William Hartnell story Galaxy 4, Air Lock has been recovered - prior to this only a short segment from the first episode remained in the archive with no telesnaps taken to show how the third episode and its characters would have looked.

Secondly, the complete second episode of Patrick Troughton's third story The Underwater Menace has also been recovered - making this the earliest complete episode for the Second Doctor to now exist in the Archives (alongside the existing episode three).


Both episodes were found via former TVS engineer Terry Burnett, who bought them at a school fête in Marchwood, Southampton back in the 1980s! Restoration Team member Ralph Montagu told the Radio Times how they came to his attention:
Both episodes were shown this afternoon at the British Film Institute's Missing Believed Wiped event - the first time they've been seen in the United Kingdom since their original transmission! (Air Lock was originally seen on 25th September 1965, with The Underwater Menace episode two on 21st January 1967) Screen shots from the episodes may be seen in the BBC's Doctor Who Adventure Calendar Day 11.


The episodes will require restoration work before they can be commercially released, with film damage to be repaired and missing censored clips to be re-instated. An announcement will be made by 2|Entertain next year as to when they are likely to appear on DVD. Meanwhile, the previous existing material for both stories can be found on the Lost in Time DVD boxed set.


These are the first full episodes to have been recovered since the 1965 Daleks' Master Plan episode Day of Armageddon turned up back in 2004, and brings the total missing episodes tally to 106.

Time to search those attics for more episodes!

Matt Smith reflects on the cancellation of Doctor Who Confidential: "It's a pity as I think it's a show which can reinvent itself year on year and it's one of the biggest shows on BBC3. But I guess people come in and have new ideas and want to have their own fresh take on it but, hey, some you win, some you lose..." [What's on TV, 8 Dec 2011]

Arthur Darvill was on hand to open a new PlayPod in the playground at Whitehall Infant School, Walsall. Installed by charity Children's Scrapstore, the play area was made with the practical application of scrap material. The actor said: "“It’s simple-looking from the outside, but a world of magic and wonder within. Watching the children playing with all this stuff I wonder how we haven't thought of it before. It's fantastic to see the kids having so much fun with things that would otherwise be thrown away." [Birmingham Mail, 10 Dec 2011]

Elisabeth Sladen has featured in the Top Ten Actresses to trend during 2011 on the social communication network Twitter. The actress, who died in April, was the fifth most discussed of the year, with Elizabeth Taylor topping the trend category. [Twitter Year in Review: Hot Topics, Dec 2011]

John Barrowman has appeared in a video promoting pet travel with Virgin Atlantic, during which he talks about his three dogs and how he feels about the service provided by the airline. [Virgin Atlantic via YouTube, 8 Dec 2011]

Paul McGann will be the subject of In Conversation With ..., to take place at Liverpool's St George’s Hall Concert Room in February. The interview includes clips and photographs of the actor's life and work, and will also see his five favourite songs performed live on stage. The event is rounded off with a Q&A from the audience. McGann said: "I was thrilled to be asked, then bashful terror set in until my mate David Morrissey calmed me down and assured me, having done it himself, that you can’t actually die from talking about your life and work in a beautiful room surrounded by friends and family and your favourite music. Guess I will just have to trust him!" [Click Liverpool, 8 Dec 2011]