TARDIS Magazine Vol 17 Issue 2

Tuesday, 19 January 2021 - Reported by Marcus

The Doctor Who Appreciation Society has published issue 2 of TARDIS magazine.

All sales will benefit ‘MIND’, the mental health charity.

TARDIS was first published in 1975 and was brought out of retirement by DWAS in 2020.

This issue runs to 64 A4 colour pages and includes:

• We speak to the Seventh Doctor himself, Sylvester McCoy, and his television co-stars Bonnie Langford and Sophie Aldred, aka Mel and Ace

• John Lucarotti’s widow Rolli provides an in-depth insight into the celebrated Doctor Who writer’s life and work

• Missing in Action: We take a comprehensive look at The Celestial Toymaker. This bumper feature includes an analysis of the camera scripts and audience research reports, viewers’ memories, set photos, an interview with dancing doll Delia Lindon, reminiscences from Peter Purves, and a study of Gerald Savory’s play George and Margaret – uncovering some surprising links to the madcap world of the Toymaker!

• Stephen Wyatt looks back at his two Doctor Who adventures – Paradise Towers and The Greatest Show in the Galaxy – and recalls his visit to the Gallifrey convention in America

• Stephen McKenna, son of T.P. McKenna, remembers his late father, who memorably portrayed Captain Cook in The Greatest Show in the Galaxy

• Jessica Martin discusses Greatest Show’s Mags and her graphic novel work. She also provides us with our back-cover art!

• Celebrating 100 years of Agatha Christie’s first novel, Mark Aldridge (author of Agatha Christie’s Poirot from HarperCollins) examines her Doctor Who connections, and Fenella ‘Agatha’ Woolgar and Daniel ‘Davenport’ King discuss the popular Tenth Doctor adventure, The Unicorn and the Wasp

• Actor Liam Rudden spills the tea on Richard Franklin and John Levene’s outrageous 1984 Edinburgh Fringe show, UNIT: The Great Tea Bag Mystery

• We celebrate thirty years of the New Adventures with The New Adventurers! Our four bookwyrms – Daniel, Kevin, Mat and Sarah – provide an illuminating commentary on the controversial Timewrym: Genesys

• Blue Kangs are the best! Suzanna Cardash reflects on her time in Paradise Towers’ not so cowardly girl gang…

• David J Howe recalls the trials and tribulations of editing his very first fanzine

• We trace the history of the annual Oxford vs Cambridge Doctor Who quiz

• In 'Masters of the Land of Fiction', Emma Reeves discusses her Big Finish audio The Moons of Vulpana,and Simon Guerrier his Tenth Doctor novel The Pirate Loop

• We discover Doctor Who’s Cricket Connections

• Director Julia Smith talks Fish People and Smugglers in an archive Tardis interview

• Mark Campbell analyses the The Twin Dilemma and Paradise Towers novelisations in our second Target Audience feature!

• The Space Museum reopens for a look at late ‘80s merchandise – including Dapol action figures and Dalek pyjamas

• Paul Magrs celebrates the Seventh Doctor in his column

• Gavin French concludes The Timeless Fan with a look back at fandom in the ‘80s

• Colin Howard discusses his Paradise Towers VHS cover

• Who is the Seventh Doctor?

• Nigel Robinson returns for another round of fiendish quiz questions!

The magazine costs £9-99 including UK delivery (airmail orders are £13-99 for Europe and £15-99 Worldwide) and may be ordered directly from the DWAS eBay store

DWAS members may purchase at a reduced price when via from the online store at the website - www.dwasonline.co.uk

FILTER: - DWAS

Time Space Visualiser: Zoom! - Starts Today

Sunday, 17 January 2021 - Reported by Marcus

Time Space Visualiser: Zoom! is bringing the Doctor Who Fantom convention experience into your home for free in 2021

Right now we are sadly not able to meet up in person as we would like to, but fear not, because we are bringing back the magic of our Time-Space Visualiser to help our Doctor Who family through lockdown.

Last year we produced ten full-length online conventions, broadcast live and for free into your homes. Hundreds of hours of Doctor Who content to keep everyone’s spirits up, with Doctors, companions, guest stars and more, all doing their part, joining in to help out. For anybody who missed it, you can still catch up with these on our YouTube channel.

This year Time-Space Visualiser: Zoom! will be a series of informal question and answer sessions, hosted on Zoom. The first session stars Katy Manning and begins on Sunday 17th January at 1700 UK time.

There is no charge for joining in with these, but you will need to pre-register your interest. It is requested that if possible a donation is made to to the Theatre Support Fund.

Sunday 17th Jan KATY MANNING
Wednesday 20th Jan MARK STRICKSON
Sunday 24th Jan TBA
Wednesday 27th Jan ANNETTE BADLAND & ERIC POTTS
Sunday 31st Jan BONNIE LANGFORD

Places can be booked here

FILTER: - Convention

New Target Releases

Thursday, 14 January 2021 - Reported by Marcus

BBC Books has announced seven new titles in the Doctor Who Target range, all publishing on 11th March 2021, each with newly commissioned cover artwork by Anthony Dry.

For Doctor Who fans, the range of novelisations published by Target Books in the 1970s and 1980s holds a special place. There was a novel published for almost every Doctor Who serial between 1963 and 1989, with just five notable exceptions.

Since 2012, BBC Books has been successfully reissuing these classic paperbacks and expanding the Target range to include all-new novelisations of modern-era Doctor Who episodes.

These latest novelisations, almost all by the original writers of the TV episodes, will help Target fans finally complete their classic-era collection, and take the Target range into its next incarnation.

They include the long-awaited Target editions of Eric Saward’s Resurrection of the Daleks and Revelation of the Daleks; The Pirate Planet by James Goss which is based on the scripts by Douglas Adams; as well as a reissue of Gary Russell’s novelisation of The TV Movie starring Paul McGann.

To complete the set are three new-era novelisations: The Crimson Horror by Mark Gatiss, Dalek by Robert Shearman, and The Witchfinders by Joy Wilkinson.

The Witchfinders is the first Thirteenth Doctor adventure to be published on the Target list, and the first to carry the new-look Target branding, with the current Doctor Who logo, that will appear on all future Target releases.

Doctor Who: The Pirate Planet Douglas Adams and James Goss The Fourth Doctor and Romana arrive at the right place to find the wrong planet. Douglas Adams is best known as the creator of The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which started life as a BBC Radio 4 series. The book went on to be a No. 1 bestseller. He followed this success with The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (1980); Life, The Universe and Everything (1982); So Long and Thanks for all the Fish (1984); Mostly Harmless (1992) and many more. He sold over 15 million books in the UK, the US and Australia. Douglas died unexpectedly in May 2001 at the age of 49. James Goss is the author of the novelisation of Douglas Adams’ City of Death, as well as several other Doctor Who books. While at the BBC James produced an adaptation of Shada, an unfinished Douglas Adams Doctor Who story, and Dirk is his award-winning stage adaptation of Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency. He won Best Audiobook 2010 for Dead Air and his books Dead of Winter and First Born were both nominated for the 2012 British Fantasy Society Awards. Amazon Link
Doctor Who: Resurrection of the Daleks Eric Saward The TARDIS is ensnared in a time corridor, catapulting it into derelict docklands on 20th century Earth. The Fifth Doctor and his companions, Tegan and Turlough, stumble on a warehouse harbouring fugitives from the future at the far end of the corridor – and are soon under attack from a Dalek assault force. Eric Saward has written for both radio and television, script edited Doctor Who for five years and also written four original stories for the show. During this time, he also novelised four scripts and wrote the first-ever Doctor Who radio serial. Recently he has completed a graphic novel based around the adventures of Lytton. Amazon Link
Doctor Who: Revelation of the Daleks Eric Saward The Sixth Doctor and Peri land on the planet Necros to visit Tranquil Repose – a funerary home where the dead are interred and the near-dead placed in suspended animation until such time as their conditions can be cured. Amazon Link
Doctor Who: The TV Movie Gary Russell The Eighth Doctor confronts the Master in modern-day San Francisco. Gary Russell, previous Doctor Who, Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures script editor, has written books on subjects such as Doctor Who, Frasier, The Simpsons and The Lord of the Rings movies. He is currently overseeing animated reimaginings of old 1960s missing Doctor Who stories for BBC Studios. Amazon Link
Doctor Who: Dalek Robert Sheaman The Ninth Doctor and Rose discover an unexpected survivor of The Time War. Robert Shearman is an award-winning writer for television, radio and the stage, as well as several acclaimed short story collections, the first of which won him a World Fantasy Award, and Doctor Who audio scripts for Big Finish Productions. Amazon Link
Doctor Who: The Crimson Horror Mark Gatiss The Eleventh Doctor and Clara investigate something ghastly afoot in Victorian Yorkshire. Mark Gatiss is one of The League of Gentlemen from the award-winning television show, and the author of the novels The Vesuvius Club and The Devil in Amber. He has also written acclaimed radio and television scripts, including episodes of Doctor Who. He co created and writes for the hit TV series Sherlock with Doctor Who show-runner Steven Moffat. Amazon Link
Doctor Who: The Witchfinders Joy Wilkinson The Thirteenth Doctor and companions battle an evil presence in 17th century Lincolnshire. Joy Wilkinson is an award-winning writer working across film, television, theatre and radio. As well as Doctor Who her TV credits include Nick Nickleby and The Watch. Her directing debut – the film Ma’am – is released in 2020. Amazon Link

FILTER: - Books

Christopher Eccleston's Ninth Doctor Audio Adventures

Saturday, 9 January 2021 - Reported by Marcus

Cover artwork and story titles for the first volume of Big Finish Doctor Who – The Ninth Doctor Adventures starring Christopher Eccleston are unveiled today.

Due for release in May 2021, Doctor Who – The Ninth Doctor Adventures: Ravagers is a full-cast audio drama box set comprising three fantastic stories all written by Big Finish’s Creative Director, Nicholas Briggs.

Joining Christopher Eccleston on his first audio odyssey through time and space are Camilla Beeput as Nova, a galley chef from the Sphere of Freedom enlisted by the Doctor to stop a dastardly plan, and Jayne McKenna as Audrey, the oldest gamer in Freedom City (although there may be more to her than meets the eye).

Doctor Who – The Ninth Doctor Adventures: Ravagers is now available for pre-order exclusively at the Big Finish website (www.bigfinish.com), from just £19.99. The stories included in this first volume are as follows:

Sphere of Freedom
Cataclysm
Food Fight

Christopher Eccleston said;

It was lovely coming back to play the role again, due to Nicholas's writing. I was surprised at how very quickly I seemed to recall the choices I made fifteen years ago. It was an odd experience; the Ninth Doctor's still hanging around.

Nicholas Briggs added:

It’s been an honour working with Chris again – it’s truly thrilling to hear him in studio, inhabiting the Ninth Doctor like he'd never been away! Writing and directing Doctor Who stories never gets old for me, and I’m so excited for people to hear what we’ve been up to.

It's been a delight to kick off The Ninth Doctor Adventures series with Chris, and I know that my fellow writers and directors are cooking up some great stuff for the next box set.”

Doctor Who fans worldwide can now pre-order all four volumes of The Ninth Doctor Adventures, which are available in three formats – collector’s edition CD, digital download or limited edition gatefold triple LP vinyl – exclusively from the Big Finish website.

Big Finish listeners can save by pre-ordering a bundle of the entire series for just £88 (as a collector’s edition box set) or £78 (as a download).

Doctor Who – The Ninth Doctor Adventures triple LP vinyls are strictly limited to a pressing of 1,000 per volume, and can be pre-ordered at £35.99 each, or £132 for the bundle of all four albums, again exclusively at the Big Finish website (www.bigfinish.com). Please note: the vinyl editions do not include any behind-the-scenes extras.

Please note that Big Finish is currently operating a digital-first release schedule. The mail-out of collector’s edition CDs and limited edition vinyl LPs may be delayed due to factors beyond our control, but all purchases of this release unlock a digital copy that can be immediately downloaded or played on the Big Finish app from the release date.

FILTER: - Big Finish - Audio

Revolution of the Daleks - Official Viewing Figures

Saturday, 9 January 2021 - Reported by Marcus

Revolution of the Daleks (Credit: BBC Studios)

Doctor Who: Revolution of the Daleks had a final official rating of 6.25 million viewers.

The final rating takes into account all those who recorded the programme and watched it within one week.

The rating confirms Doctor Who as the top-rated BBC One programme for New Year's Day, beating EastEnders which had 4.36 million watching and Mrs Brown's Boys with 4.87 million.

Overall Doctor Who was second for the day, with Coronation Street just claiming the top spot with 6.39 million viewers.

Doctor Who is likely to finish the week as the 8th most-watched programme, the same position held by the New Year 2020 programme SpyFall.

The most-watched programme for the week ending 3rd January was Happy New Year Live! with 9.92 million watching London mark the start of 2021.

FILTER: - Ratings - UK

Doctor Who Magazine: Issue 560

Thursday, 7 January 2021 - Reported by Marcus

Doctor Who Magazine Issue 560 is now on sale celebrating 50 years of the Master

Highlights of the issue include:

The results of the World Cup of the Master – a Twitter tournament to decide the renegade Time Lord’s greatest stories.
Current Master Sacha Dhawan answers questions from the TARDIS Tin.
On set with Russell T Davies and Phil Collinson as they recreate some classic 1980s Doctor Who for the new Channel 4 drama It’s a Sin.
Olly Alexander, who stars in It’s a Sin, tells DWM about working with the Daleks.
Interviews with three of the actors who appeared in Resurrection of the Daleks: John Adam-Baker, Sneh Gupta and Nigel Tisdall.
Patrick Mulkern accompanies Katy Manning and John Levene on a return visit to Aldbourne, nearly 50 years after the filming of The Dæmons.
A solution to the mystery surrounding the 1973 episode that marked Roger Delgado’s final appearance as the Master.
An exclusive preview of the Season 8 Blu-ray box set.
DWM’s review of the New Year’s Day Special, Revolution of the Daleks.
The Fact of Fiction analyses the 1999 Comic Relief Special The Curse of Fatal Death.
The DWM Christmas Quiz answers.
The second 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.

Doctor Who Magazine Issue 560 is on sale from Thursday 7 January

£5.99 (UK)

FILTER: - DWM

Doctor Who: The Fourth Doctor Adventures Series 10

Wednesday, 6 January 2021 - Reported by Marcus

Fourth Doctor - Series 10: Volume 2 (Credit: Big Finish)

The next Fourth Doctor audio release has been announced by Big Finish.

Tom Baker and Louise Jameson are plunging back into the Time Vortex for volume 2 of Doctor Who: The Fourth Doctor Adventures due for release in February 2021.

These two brand-new full-cast audio dramas follow the Fourth Doctor and Leela into an uproarious tour through time and a prehistoric encounter with an esteemed palaeontologist.

Doctor Who: The Fourth Doctor Adventures Series 10 Volume 2 is now available to pre-order as a collector's edition box set (on CD at £24.99) and as a digital download (at £19.99), exclusively from www.bigfinish.com.

The volume consists of two rip-roaring rides, as follows:

Tribulations of Thadeus Nook by Andrew Smith

It’s time for the trip of a lifetime! Come along on one of Thadeus Nook’s Time Tours. See history as it really was. Get to witness wars and assassinations! See barbarian warlords right up close!

The Doctor and Leela encounter a most enterprising young gentleman – using time travel for his own financial gain. The Doctor is horrified at the irresponsibility – but it’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Because Thadeus Nook is about to learn that history is often best left in the past.

The Primeval Design by Helen Goldwyn

Dorset, 1830. The Doctor has taken Leela to meet Mary Anning, the noted palaeontologist, but the duo immediately stumble into trouble.

A body has been found in unusual circumstances. Attacked by an animal... but one of a size unknown in the area.

It turns out some things might be better off staying buried.

Taking on the role of the Doctor for his tenth year with Big Finish, Tom Baker said:

I so love doing all this, I never ever get tired. It’s as if each one is the very first one – and the more improbable it is the more I love it because I, of course, am totally improbable myself!

Series 10 Volume 2 is now available to pre-order as a collector's edition box set (on CD at £24.99) and as a digital download (at £19.99), exclusively at the Big Finish website.

Louise Jameson / Tom Baker / Lucy Briggs-Owen / Charlotte Bate (Credit: Big Finish)

FILTER: - Big Finish - Audio - Fourth Doctor

Hero Collector Revolution Figurines and Pin Badges

Wednesday, 6 January 2021 - Reported by Marcus

Revolution of the Daleks figurines and pin badges. (Credit: Eaglemoss)

Eaglemoss have revealed the identities of their ‘mystery’ Doctor Who Revolution of the Daleks figurines and pin badges.

The identities of these Doctor Who Festive Special themed pin badges and figurines were kept largely under wraps until now, with only the Thirteenth Doctor and Revolution Dalek pin badges revealed.

The figurines depict the Thirteenth Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) and Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) in their prison uniforms, as well as the Revolution Dalek, all at 1:21 scale (approx. 3.5 inches tall).

These hand-painted figurines join Hero Collector’s existing range of Doctor Who models and will be accompanied by an in-depth companion magazine, packed with details from this exciting festive special.

The Revolution of the Daleks Figurine Box Set will launch in April 2021, but is available for pre-order now on the Hero Collector website.

The seven chibi-style metal pin badges depict the Thirteenth Doctor, Captain Jack Harkness, and the Revolution Dalek as well as four imprisoned aliens seen in the Doctor Who Festive Special – the Weeping Angel, the Ood, the Sycorax and the Silence.

The Revolution of the Daleks Chibi Pin Badge Set is available now on the Hero Collector website.

FILTER: - Hero Collector - Thirteenth Doctor - Merchandise

Revolution of the Daleks Soundtrack

Monday, 4 January 2021 - Reported by Marcus

The soundtrack for the Doctor Who New Year’s Day special, Revolution of the Daleks, is now available to download on Spotify, Amazon, Apple, Deezer and Tidal.

Composer, Segun Akinola, who has composed the score for Series 11 and Series 12 of Doctor Who, said:

Revolution of the Daleks is an emotional rollercoaster full of action, tension, old friends, old enemies and some heartfelt goodbyes, all of which are accompanied by music that utilises many of the musical themes from Series 11 and Series 12, and very often moves from a solo cello to orchestra, and much more in-between.

It’s a ‘special’ in every sense of the word which I hope those who’ve enjoyed listening to the Series 11 and 12 albums will love. So, if that’s you, thank you - this album is dedicated to you!

Segun is an alumnus of the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and part of 2017’s BAFTA Breakthrough Brit programme, with other works including Sundance 2019 favourite The Last Tree, Shola Amoo’s A Moving Image, (nominated for a Discovery Award, World Soundtrack Awards), David Olusoga’s Black and British: A Forgotten History. His work has screened at Sundance, the London Film Festival, LA Film Festival, BlackStar Film Festival and many others.

Tracklisting:

367 Minutes
A Cuppa
Something Revolutionary
Breakout Ball
The Clone
The Production Line
Stability and Security
Thank You for Being My Friend
Activate
The Death Squad
Bad Boys
Bye Fam

Doctor Who Revolution of the Daleks Soundtrack is available now from £8.99.

FILTER: - Music - Specials

Masterful from Big Finish

Saturday, 2 January 2021 - Reported by Marcus

To mark a half-century of the Master, Big Finish has created a special multi-disc release, in the form of Masterful. Eight incarnations of Doctor Who’s favourite other Time Lord unite!

Released today, exactly 50 years since Roger Delgado made his dastardly debut as the Master in Doctor Who: Terror of the Autons, the Masterful box set is a full-cast audio drama celebration of the malevolent Time Lord in all his glorious regenerations.

Masterful stars Geoffrey Beevers, Mark Gatiss, Michelle Gomez, Derek Jacobi, Alex MacQueen, Milo Parker, Eric Roberts and John Simm, featuring guest appearances from Jon Culshaw as Kamelion, Katy Manning as Jo Grant, with Abigail McKern, Aurora Burghart and Zaqi Ismail.

The Master's finally done it. He's won. He summons his other selves to a celebration of his ultimate victory. And they come – from across time and dimensions. But he's forgotten to invite someone. And Missy's not happy.

Has the Master really conquered the universe? Or has something more awful been unleashed? Something that even all the Masters cannot stop?

Missy is determined to reveal the truth. Because one fact about the Master's existence never changes.

No-one can trust the Master. Not even the Master.

Masterful is now available as a limited edition 8-CD box set (priced at £44.99), or on download (at £39.99), exclusively at the Big Finish website.

This edition contains:

Discs 1-3: Masterful by James Goss
Disc 4: Masterful - Behind the Scenes
Disc 5: Doctor Who - Short Trips: I Am The Master by Geoffrey Beevers and Short Trips: The Switching by Simon Guerrier (both previously available on download only)
Discs 6-8: Doctor Who: Terror of the Master by Trevor Baxendale, a brand new, narrated audiobook featuring the Third Doctor, the Master and UNIT.

A standard edition of Masterful (featuring only the content of discs 1-3 above) is also available, priced at £24.99 (on CD) or £19.99 (as a download).

Please note the box set edition is limited to 3,000 copies only.

Describing his own memories of the Master, Mark Gatiss said:

I have profoundly scary memories of Terror of the Autons because it affected me forever, still does! I remember the Master being such a huge part of everything I loved about the show, and it just clicked so completely perfectly.

Alex Macqueen added:

I’m biased but the Master is frankly the most terrific character, so it’s totally right to have this commemoration. It’s a massive privilege and I love it because it’s an incredibly creative experience in the booth

Of the Masterful storyline, Geoffrey Beevers said:

It’s really different but it’s really good, because it explores who the Master might have been had he taken a different course in eternity. It’s beautifully written and it’s quite a challenge doing the transition into what that sort of person might have been – and back again – and what affect it has on him afterwards.

Eric Roberts added:

As a character in the story, it’s what we all should fear – all of our worst everythings, all of our worst wants, all of our worst behaviours and, for an actor, he’s just plain fun! How often do we get to play the extreme in evil?

Of the Master’s relationship to the Doctor, Michelle Gomez said:

Doctor Who couldn’t be Doctor Who without the Master. He gives the Doctor purpose in his plight for goodness, and the Master’s always there, shining a light on the Doctor’s dark side. The Doctor is a reluctant hero really, constantly being forced to be good because he can’t help himself but try and clean up the world of evil. The Master basically gives the Doctor work to do because he’s constantly in the background, undoing things and sabotaging goodness.

Milo Parker added:

All the other characters I’ve done in the past have been relatively well-behaved, so playing the Master is an opportunity for me to broaden my horizons, to try something new, and I’ve really enjoyed it.

Of playing the War Master, Derek Jacobi said:

He has a wonderfully wicked sense of humour which is lovely to indulge oneself in. The stories are very good, he usually comes out on top... heroic villains are the best things to play.

John Simm added:

He’s an iconic character – he’s the nemesis of the Doctor, the evil Doctor, the baddie Doctor Who. He thinks he’s the equal to the Doctor; he’s a Time Lord, he’s everything the Doctor is, but evil. It’s a real honour to play him.

Masterful - Glen McCready / Toby Hrycek-Robinson / John Simm / Derek Jacobi / Aurora Burghart / Ken Bentley (Credit: Big Finish)

FILTER: - Big Finish - Audio

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