The BBC has released further details about the new Adventure Game, The Gunpowder Plot. The story will feature the Doctor, Amy and Rory as voiced by Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and Artur Darvill respectively. The cast includes Ralf Little (The Royle Family), Phil Daniels (Quadrophenia, EastEnders), Dan Starkey (A Good Man Goes to War) and CBBC presenter Chris Johnson. The BBC teases that one of the "UK's best-known actresses" will also have a role but say her identity will be revealed shortly. The game will be released on the BBC's Doctor Who website on 31 October 2011.

Watch the preview clip below which features interviews with Matt Smith, Karen Gillan, Ralf Little and Phil Daniels.

Doctor Who took time tonight to pay tribute to one of its longest-running characters.

Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart as played by the late Nicholas Courtney, was a stalwart of the series in the early seventies and appeared in a total of 102 episodes over the years. The actor died earlier this year after a long illness.

The 2011 series finale, The Wedding of River Song, saw the Doctor learn of the death of his former colleague in a phone call from the nursing home where the fictional brigadier spent his last days. "I'm afraid Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart passed away a few months ago," the nurse told the Doctor. "It was very peaceful. Talked a lot about you, if that's any comfort. Always made us pour an extra brandy in case you came round one of these days."

Executive producer, Steven Moffat, said of the decision to include the tribute to Courtney's character:
The character of The Brigadier first appeared in 1968 as Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart, in Episode Three of the Patrick Troughton story The Web of Fear. His last appearance in Doctor Who was in the fourth episode of the 1989 story  Battlefield.

After the series returned in 2005, viewers were told his character was in Peru until he was revived again for two episodes of The Sarah Jane Adventures, Enemy of the Bane

The seventh edition of Doctor Who Insider will be available in North America from 6th October.

This month Ian McNeice reveals his delight at being part of the extended Doctor Who family, following his return to Doctor Who as Winston Churchill in The Wedding of River Song.

Also this issue:

• ACE IN THE 80’S - Sophie Aldred shares her memories of playing groundbreaking companion Ace opposite Seventh Doctor, Sylvester McCoy.
• THE DOCTOR’S WHEELS - Whilst exiled on Earth in the 1970’s, the Doctor acquired two very different vehicles to transport him too and from his adventures – Bessie and the Whomobile. Insider investigates the real life story of both cars, revealing their origins and attempting to find out where they are now.
• DORIUM’S DELIGHT - Simon Fisher‐Becker couldn’t be happier to be playing blue man, Dorium Maldovar. Insider finds out why.
• I WAS... ADOLF HITLER - Albert Welling tells Insider what it was like to play the most hated man in history in Let’s Kill Hitler.
• NEXUS POINT - Whilst on trial by his own people, the Time Lords, the Sixth Doctor is slightly surprised to discover that his prosecutor, the Valeyard, is in fact a future version of himself!
• DATA FILE - We take a look at the life of the whimsical Second Doctor and his companions.
• TIME SCOOP - Insider follows the Doctor and his companion Romana on their quest for the six segments of the Key to Time.
• MERCHANDISE - Previews of the latest Doctor Who merchandise, including the special edition of The Talons of Weng‐Chiang on DVD. Authors Emma Beeby and Gordon Rennie tell Insider how they wrote Big Finish Productions’ new audio drama The Doomsday Quatrain, featuring the Seventh Doctor. And writer Naomi Alderman explains how she plays tricks with time in her new Doctor Who novel, Borrowed Time.
• FAN ZONE - Insider presents a special report on this year’s Comic‐Con event in San Diego where Doctor Who was featured in a big way!

PLUS! The latest official news and a giant, double‐sided poster of the Eleventh Doctor with Winston Churchill and the Second Doctor.


For subscription information, visit the USA or UK websites.

CBBC has released an exclusive preview clip of the first episode of Series 5 of The Sarah Jane Adventures. They have also released a behind the scenes video of the Series 5 screening at the BFI in London last month.

The first episode, entitled Sky, will broadcast on the CBBC channel on Monday 3rd October at 5:15 pm, with part two on the next day at the same time.


The Radio Times has a preview of the first episode. David Brown writes:

The BBC have released details for the final ever episodes of The Sarah Jane Adventures.

The Man Who Never Was will be the 27th and last story in the Doctor Who spin off, created by Russell T Davies and starring the late Elisabeth Sladen.

The two episodes are due to broadcast on CBBC on Monday 17th October and Tuesday 18th October respectively.

Final figures show Doctor Who: The God Complex was the 18th most watched programme of the week.

Final Figures include those who record the programme and watch it within seven days, but do not include those watching on iPlayer. ITV1 claimed all the top spots of the week with The X Factor, Downton Abbey and Doc Martin taking the top four spots. The main three soaps also did well pushing Doctor Who down to 18th place for the week.

The final episode of Torchwood: Miracle Day finished the week just outside the top 30 at number 32.

It's now just twenty-four hours before the premiere of the current series finale, The Wedding of River Song, broadcast at 7:05pm tomorrow on BBC1 and BBC1HD in the United Kingdom.

The BBC have released a couple of brief interviews to introduce the episode, with the first featuring Arthur Darvill discussing the script, and the second featuring producer Marcus Wilson and one of the story's guest stars:


Two new preview clips have also been published, featuring brief scenes from the episodes (warning, both previews feature encounters with guest stars that can be considered spoilers!):

Some new preview images have also been released for desktop wallpaper:

The Wedding of River Song will be on the BBC iPlayer after broadcast until the 8th October, and is repeated on BBC3 on Sunday at 7:00pm; internationally, SPACE in Canada shows the episode at 8:00pm ET, BBC America in the United States at 9:00pm ET, and on ABC1 in Australia at 7:30pm on the 8th October. New Zealand will air the show on Prime TV on the 20th October.

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Meanwhile, the final episode of Doctor Who Confidential is also broadcast on Saturday, on BBC3 at 8:35pm, and includes the mini-episode Death is the Only Answer, written by pupils from Oakley CE Junior School in Basingstoke. Last Thursday saw the school enjoy a special preview of the episode, only to find themselves joined by the surprise appearance of the Doctor himself, Matt Smith, alongside series lead writer Steven Moffat:



The episode will be available after broadcast via the BBC iPlayer until 8th October, and gets its high definition broadcast on Monday morning at 2:20am; a Cut Down version is broadcast on Sunday on BBC3 at 7:45pm.

Fiming on the Christmas Special of Doctor Who had been disrupted by a 24-hour strike called today to protest at compulsory redundancies at BBC Wales.

The dispute is over plans to cut four editors' posts and the failure of the BBC to offer redeployment to the four individuals involved.

In addition to the effect on Doctor Who, shooting on Casualty and Pobol y Cwm has also been suspended and the BBC Radio Wales breakfast show, Good Morning Wales, was replaced by arts programming.

The BBC Doctor Who page on Facebook have launched a competition for one lucky winner to win replicas of both the Eleventh Doctor's jacket and Captain Jack's coat!


The competition is open to residents of the United Kingdom who are eighteen years of age or over; in order to enter simply ensure you "Like" the Doctor Who page, and then provide your name, address and other contact details via the competition entry form by 23rd October 2011.


The winner will be announced the week after closing date.

This week sees the final items of Doctor Who artwork up for auction by Arts For Hearts, the proceeds of which are donated to the Great Ormond Street Hospital to held fund research into organ transplants.

Concept artist Peter McKinstry has donated two A2 prints of K9, both of which have been signed by the artist and the voice of K9, John Leeson. Also up for auction is a page of original comic artwork from Doctor Who Adventures by John Ross


You can bid on the two K9 prints (one, two) and the John Ross artwork via Ebay.

(with thanks to Ian Stacey)