It has been confirmed that the Peter Davison story Black Orchid will be released in the UK on 14th April 2008.

Posted By John Bowman

Events

Colin Baker will be returning to Gladstone Pottery Museum in Stoke-on-Trent - the filming location for The Ultimate Foe section of The Trial of a Time Lord - on Sunday, May 18. This was where he filmed his last two episodes as the Doctor. Davros actor Terry Molloy will also be there. More details can be found at Colin Baker Online.

Interviews

Comic Book Resources has an interview with Pia Guerra, who is an artist for IDW Publishing's Doctor Who comic.

Newsarama has had a chat with Burn Gorman, while iF Magazine currently has the first part of a two-part interview with Naoko Mori.

Freema Agyeman's 23-minute appearance on Simon Mayo's BBC Radio 5 Live show on February 20 is available to download as a podcast here until February 27.

John Barrowman and Freema Agyeman have been speaking to BBC Oxford.

Merchandise

ComicMix has a piece about Doctor Who Minimates finally being approved for production by Underground Toys, namely David Tennant's Doctor, Martha Jones and Cybermen.

DVDs

The Patrick Troughton ten-part epic The War Games is being prepared for DVD release. Both the Eastbourne Herald and The Argus in Brighton carried appeals from the Restoration Team this week for people to come forward with reminiscences, photos, etc, for accompanying features.

Covers for the 25th anniversary edition of The Five Doctors have been released. There appear to be two versions of the front. Click on the thumbnails below for larger versions. The DVD is out in the UK on March 3.

(With thanks to Rob Cope, Shane Williams, Steven Stearns, Adrian Behennah, Iain Campbell, Jonathan Barlow, Carl T Davies, Matt Evenden, Tim Bowers, Richard Harwood, and 'spiderfrommars'.)

DVD bonus material listed as classified by the British Board of Film Classification on their website reveals that the 1986 14-episode Doctor Who storyThe Trial of a Time Lord is to be released on DVD later this year. The serial, which saw the Doctor being placed on trial by his fellow Time Lords, encompassed the entire twenty-third series of Doctor Who, and was the last to star Sixth Doctor Colin Baker.

So far only the extras for the second segment of the serial, popularly known as Mindwarp, have been classified. These include a 20-minute "Making Of" feature; the 1985 Children in Need night feature which saw the largest ever single gathering of regular cast members from the series; and a Lenny Henry Doctor Who sketch.

Posted By John Bowman

The Den of Geek website has published interviews with Peter Davison, Louise Jameson and Sophie Aldred.

In the individual pieces, Davison talks about wobbly sets, Time Crash, typecasting, and his opinion on the worst Doctor Who monster ever, Jameson chats about working with Tom Baker, why she turned down returning to play Leela on TV, her view on her character now, and meeting David Tennant, while Aldred discusses working with John Nathan-Turner, along with her career spanning the pre- and post-Who days.

EADT (Suffolk and Essex Online) is currently running an interview with Doctor Who legendTerrance Dicks.

Few people have been as active in the world of Doctor Who as author and former script editor Dicks, and in this interview he talks about his long career with the series as well as his most recent project, the Quick Reads book series, featuring his newest title Revenge of the Judoon.

In the interview, Dicks talks about his first writing jobs (with an advertising agency), how his landlord Malcolm Hulke got him started in writing for television, the new projects that he currently has on his plate, and his feelings about the current state of Doctor Who starring David Tennant.

You can read the article here.

UPDATE: Terrance Dicks will be visiting Brentwood County High School on March 12 as part of the Essex Book Festival.

Assistant headteacher Richard Davies said: "With Doctor Who so popular once again, this is a real coup for the local area and a great opportunity to listen to and meet an author who has had a big impact on the science-fiction genre."

The ticket-only event starts at 7.30pm.

(Additional reporting by John Bowman.)

The Digital Spy website is currently featuring an interview with Louise Jameson, the actress who portrayed the companion Leela in the mid-70s alongside Tom Baker's Doctor. The interview mainly focuses on Louise's return to the role of Leela in the Big Finish audios. She talks about the differences in playing Leela now and in the '70s, working with Lalla Ward, and her desire to be invited to work on the new series.

You can read the interview here.

Our friends at TV Shows on DVD have acquired cover illustrations for the North America (US/Canada) release of theBeneath the Surface Boxed Seton DVD, due on June 3. Below are the individual covers for "The Silurans," "The Sea Devils" and "Warriors of the Deep", the three releases in the boxed set; larger covers will be made available when we get them. Click on each for a larger version. Says TVShowsonDVD, "Costs are confirmed to be $34.98 SRP for the 2-DVD release of Doctor Who - Story #052: Doctor Who And The Silurians (CA$43.98 SRP in Canada); the single-disc releases of Doctor Who - Story #062: The Sea Devils and Doctor Who - Story #131: Warriors of the Deep will be $24.98 SRP each (CA$30.98 SRP each in Canada); and the 4-DVD box set of Doctor Who - Beneath The Surface will be $59.98 SRP (CA$74.98 SRP in Canada)."

Further information about the DVD extras of the forthcoming release of The Brain of Morbius has today been revealed on the BBFC website. Along with a documentary, "Getting a Head", and features such as "Designs on Karn", "A Letter to Robert Holmes" and "Set Tour", the disc contains a trailer for the forthcoming releases of 1977's The Invisible Enemy - which saw the first appearance of the robot dog K9 in Doctor Who - and the 1981 spin-off K9 and Company, which stars Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith.

It is not yet clear whether or not this joint trailer indicates that the two stories will be released together in a double pack.

Posted By John Bowman

The British Board of Film Classification today passed more than 32 minutes of extra features for the release of the six-part Fourth Doctor story The Invasion of Time, giving them a U rating.

Among them are five deleted scenes: one from episode five and four from episode six.

There will also be two mini-documentaries: The Elusive David Agnew and The Rise and Fall of Gallifrey.

'David Agnew' was a pseudonym for producer Graham Williams and script editor Anthony Read, who wrote the story together.

This site reported last month that a release of The Invasion of Time was in the pipeline. A date for it has yet to be announced.

Posted By John Bowman

The Fourth Doctor story The Brain of Morbius is to be released on DVD in the UK.The British Board of Film Classification today passed three episodes of the 1976 four-part story, giving them a PG rating.

They were passed without any cuts ordered. Consumer advice given for episodes one and two was that each had "scary scenes".

The fourth episode will, undoubtedly, be passed shortly.

A release date for the DVD has yet to be announced.

UPDATE (February 7): Episode four of The Brain of Morbius was today passed uncut with a PG rating by the BBFC, with the consumer advice that it contained "mild fantasy violence and horror".

(With thanks to Tony Clark)