The actor Geoffrey Palmer has died at the age of 93

Geoffrey Palmer was best known for his appearances in sitcoms including Butterflies, As Time Goes By and The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin,

Palmer appeared in 5 episodes of Doctor Who. His first appearance was opposite the third Doctor in the 1970 story Doctor Who And The Silurians. He played Edward Masters, the  Permanent Under-Secretary to the Minister of Science who became infected with the Silurian virus and brought it to London. 

Two years later he appeared in the story The Mutants playing The Administrator who was assassinated on the instructions of The Marshal

His last appearance came over 30 years later in Voyage of the Damned, becoming one of a few select actors to have appeared in both the original and the revived series. He played Captain Hardaker, the captain of the space cruise liner Titanic. 

Geoffrey Palmer was born in London. After his National Service, he briefly studied Shipping Management at Streatham Technical College. He worked as an accountant before his girlfriend persuaded him to join the local amateur dramatics society. Eventually, he became assistant stage manager at Croydon's Grand Theatrespending several years touring.

In the 1950's he started appearing on television where he would be a fixture for the next forty years. Early appearances included a recurring role in The Army Game alongside first Doctor William Hartnell.  He played a property agent in the acclaimed Kitchen sick drama Cathy Come Home.

A major break came when he appeared in John Osborne's West of Suez at the Royal Court with Ralph Richardson. He acted in several major productions at the Royal Court and for the National Theatre Company and was directed by Laurence Olivier in J. B. Priestley's Eden End. He found the play and the experience tedious preferring the more immediate medium of television. 

 Roles in the sixties included Family Solicitor, Garry Halliday, Bootsie and Snudge, The Avengers, Emergency-Ward 10, Z Cars, George and the Dragon, Softly Softly: Task Force, The Expert and Out of the Unknown

In the 1970's he became famous for his many roles in sitcoms. His two most famous being the hapless brother-in-law of Reggie Perrin in The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, and the long-suffering Ben Parkinson in Carla Lane's Butterflies. He had a memorable appearance in the Fawlty Towers episode The Kipper and the Corpse, playing the Doctor determined to have his breakfast despite a body being found in the hotel. 

Roles in the 1980s included parts in Hot Metal, Executive Stress, The Kenny Everett Television Show and Look at the State We're In!

For over a decade he played Lionel Hardcastle opposite Judi Dench in the sitcom As Time Goes By

He continued acting well into his eighties, playing the Head Geographer in the 2014 film Paddington. He is due to appear in the forthcoming Roald Dahl film An Unquiet Life, as Dahl’s Repton headmaster Geoffrey Fisher.

He was made an OBE in 2004 for services to drama.

He is survived by his wife Sally Green, with whom he had a daughter Harriet, and a son, Charles, who has directed six episodes of Doctor Who.

It’s a tale of two Time Lords in a swashbuckling new box set of full-cast audio dramas from Big Finish Productions as The War Master: Hearts of Darkness is released today.

 

This single epic adventure told across four hour-long episodes sees Sir Derek Jacobi reprise the role of the Master first seen on screen in the 2007 Doctor Who story, Utopia.

 

In The War Master: Hearts of Darkness, he is pitted once again against Paul McGann’s Eighth Doctor, in a quest to take down his mortal enemy, and take over the universe.

 

Joining the crew of rogue pilots and mercenary pirates on this perilous mission are actors Colin McFarlane (The Dark Knight), Tanya Moodie (Motherland), George Fletcher (EastEnders), Luyanda Unati Lewis-Nyawo (Devs), and Sandra Huggett (Casualty).

 

Plus, there’s the return of fan-favourite, Narvin, played once again by Séan Carlsen.

 

The War Master: Hearts of Darkness is available now at £24.99 for the collector's edition CD box set or £19.99 for the digital download, at www.bigfinish.com.

 

Find the Doctor... stop the Doctor... and, if necessary, kill the Doctor!”

Recruited by the Celestial Intervention Agency to track down his oldest enemy, the Master finds himself thrown into a mission that will take him into deepest Dalek territory.

Abandoned on the planet Redemption, he assembles a crew and acquires a ship –the journey that follows is certain to test them all... and not everyone will survive.

But space pirates and living corpses are the least of their worries. Their biggest threat remains at large: a Time Lord who likes to call himself ‘the Doctor’.

Producer Scott Handcock said:

I love these box sets. There’s something fascinating about stories that focus on anti-heroes and villains. Creatively it is more challenging because you have to find an angle that makes the audience engage with the Master –and sort of root for him –even when he’s doing the most despicable things! “It’s a nice examination of what makes the Master and the Doctor the people they are, and the unique relationship that ties them together. We veer from futuristic cities to spaceships, gothic castles to jungle planets. Each of the four episodes feels different tonally –we go from heist film to action movie, then Universal horror to race-against-time thriller. It moves along at a fair old lick

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Penguin Random House has announced the release of  Doctor Who: Adventures in Lockdown, a collection of stories written by Doctor Who writers in response to COVID-19.

During challenging months of global uncertainty and isolation, the Doctor and the TARDIS have remained a dream that drew many -allowing them to roam the cosmos in search of distraction, reassurance and adventure.

This very special short story collection brings these epic tales together, along with three brand new stories and beautiful illustrations in support of BBC Children in Need.

Current showrunner Chris Chibnall, and former showrunners Russell T Davies and Steven Moffat, present exciting adventures, alongside work from Chris Riddell, Joy Wilkinson, Paul Cornell, PeteMcTighe, Sonia Leong, Sophie Cowdrey and Mike Collins.

Also featuring three brand new stories from Neil Gaiman, Mark Gatiss and Vinay Patel, Adventures in Lockdown is a book for any DoctorWho fan in your life, stories that will send your heart spinning wildly through space and time...

Full list of stories:

1. A Message from the Doctor
2. Things She Thought While Falling by Chris Chibnall
3. The Terror of the Umpty Ums by Steven Moffat
4. Doctor Who and the Time War by Russell T Davies
5. Revenge of the Nestene by Russell T Davies
6. Rory’s Story by Neil Gaiman
7. One Virtue, and a Thousand Crimes by Neil Gaiman
8. The Simple Things by Joy Wilkinson
9. The Tourist by Vinay Patel
10. Fellow Traveller by Mark Gatiss
11. The Shadow Passes by Paul Cornell
12. Shadow of a Doubt by Paul Cornell
13. The Shadow in the Mirror by Paul Cornell
14. Press Play by Pete McTighe
15. Listen by Steven Moffat
16. The Secret of Novice Hame by Russell T Davies

Doctor Who: Adventures in Lockdown will be available to purchase from UK retailers only, with £2.25 from every copy going to BBC Children in Need

BBC Books Publishing Director, Albert DePetrillo, says:

The book will be released on November 5, 2020.and can be ordered on Amazon

The latest edition of Doctor Who Magazine included an exclusive preview of the new animated series Daleks!

Highlights include:

• An exclusive look at the new animated YouTube series Daleks!, featuring interviews with the cast and crew members.
• Voice artist Nicholas Briggs explains how he brought the Emperor Dalek to life.
• Doctor Who’s 50 scariest moments, with comments from Maxine Alderton, Chris Chibnall, Frazer Hines, Steven Moffat and more.
• Ray Holman’s guide to the creatures he designed and dressed for Series 12 – with never-before-seen sketches from the Doctor Who Costume Department.
• The second part of Time Lord Victorious: Monstrous Beauty, a new comic-strip adventure for the Ninth Doctor and Rose.
• A new regular feature on memorabilia looks at how to collect the Doctor Who Annual.
• The Fact of Fiction continues its exploration of the 1964 story Marco Polo, plus interviews with Carole Ann Ford, Philip Voss and production assistant Penny Joy.
• Apocrypha rediscovers the 1987 comic-strip The World Shapers
• Reviews of new books The Monster Vault and The Knight, the Fool and the Dead.

·        

Also includes previews and reviews, news, prize-winning competitions, Time and Space Visualiser, The Blogs of Doom and more.

Doctor Who Magazine Issue 557 is on sale from Thursday 15 October £5.99 (UK)

The world of Doctor Who is expanding with the planned release of two brand new adventures

Join Thirteenth Doctor Jodie Whittaker and Tenth Doctor David Tennant on a quest to save reality in a new console and PC game

Dive back into Blink and explore the hidden past of the Weeping Angels in a groundbreaking ‘found phone’ handheld and mobile game

Digital entertainment studio, Maze Theory, in partnership with BBC Studios, has today reveals the expansion of the Doctor Who interactive universe with two brand-new video games launching in Spring 2021. 

Coming to consoles and PC, Doctor Who: The Edge of Reality reimagines, and builds upon, last year’s VR experience, Doctor Who: The Edge of Time, with a new and compelling first-person adventure. 

With brand-new gameplay, new monsters and new worlds to explore, players will wield the Thirteenth Doctor’s sonic screwdriver on a quest to save the universe.

Players will be guided by the Thirteenth Doctor, voiced by Jodie Whittaker, and joined by the Tenth Doctor, voiced by David Tennant.

Doctor Who: The Edge of Reality features:

• A Console and PC adventure across Space and Time  - built with current and next-generation consoles in mind, Doctor Who: The Edge of Reality features new worlds to explore, new puzzles, new challenges and new gameplay.
•  
• An Original Doctor Who story - uncover a universe-spanning threat as you seek to  save reality from a series of time-breaking glitches. Continue the story that began in The Edge of Time and partner with the Doctor to unearth a greater mystery.
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• New Enemies and AI - come face-to-face with classic Doctor Who monsters including the Daleks and Weeping Angels. Experience the metal-clad terror of the Cybermen and more foes yet to be revealed…

Also revealed today is Doctor Who: The Lonely Assassins, coming to iOS and Android mobile devices as well as Nintendo Switch. 

The game is being developed by award-winning Malaysian studio Kaigan Games, renowned for pushing the boundaries of storytelling within mobile. 

The game will see players uncover and decipher the mystery of a ‘found phone’, unravelling a sinister series of events taking place at Wester Drumlins, the iconic ‘uninhabited’ home featured in the legendary Doctor Who episode Blink.

Someone is missing and a menacing new nemesis has emerged. Players will work with Petronella Osgood and other classic characters as they get steadily closer to the truth.

There is only one rule: don't turn your back, don't look away and don't blink!

Ian Hambleton, CEO of Maze Theory said: 

Kevin Jorge, Senior Producer – Games & Interactive, BBC Studios said 

Doctor Who: The Edge of Reality will launch on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and Steam in Spring 2021. 

Doctor Who: The Lonely Assassins will launch on iOS, Android & Nintendo Switch in Spring 2021.

 Doctor Who: The Edge of Reality is a Maze Theory production for BBC Studios in partnership with Just Add Water

Doctor Who: The Lonely Assassins is a Maze Theory production for BBC Studios in partnership with Kaigan Games 

The Thirteenth Doctor meets the Tenth in the latest paperback release from Titan Comics. 

The book can be ordered from Amazon

• Doctor Who: A Tale Of Two Time Lords

• Writer: Jody Houser
• Artist: Roberta Ingranata
• Colourist: Colourist

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The BBC has released two new images from the upcoming Doctor Who episode Revolution of the Daleks

The images were released today as part of New York Comic Con

The upcoming festive special will see the return of one of the Doctor’s biggest and most feared enemies – the Daleks. 

Revolution of the Daleks will air during the upcoming festive period on BBC One and BBC America.

This month's Short Trip Audio release from Big Finish, The Meaning of Red, is performed by Nicola Bryant

Available as a download only, Doctor Who –Short Trips: The Meaning of Red Is the debut Big Finish audio adventure by writer Rod Brown.

It is a story that explores friendship, survival and self-discovery. Nicola Bryant reprises the role of Peri, a companion to the Fifth Doctor (as originally seen on television in 1984); this time showing how she takes matters into her own hands when the Time Lord isn’t present.
Doctor Who –Short Trips: TheMeaning of Redis now available to download exclusively from the Big Finish website for just £2.99
 

Doctor Who –Short Trips are short stories, many written by some of Doctor Who’s most popular authors from the worlds of television, print, comics and audio, and read by a host of favourite Big Finish actors.

Writer Rod Brown said:

Producer Alfie Shaw said:

Doctor Who –Short Trips: The Meaning of Redis now available to download exclusively from the Big Finish website for just £2.99.