Frazer Hines in New York

Friday, 3 June 2011 - Reported by Josiah Rowe
Frazer HinesFrazer Hines, who played the Second Doctor's companion Jamie McCrimmon from 1966 to 1969, will be performing his one-man show "The Time Traveling Scot" in New York City on Friday, July 8. The performance will be held at The Producers Club Theatre on West 44th Street, between 8th and 9th Avenues in Manhattan. The evening will also feature autograph signing and a short Q&A hosted by Ken Deep of Doctor Who Podshock.

The event is hosted by Who York; tickets are available via the Who York website for $25 in advance, and will be $30 at the door.




FILTER: - People - Special Events - USA

Torchwood novel titles confirmed

Friday, 3 June 2011 - Reported by Chuck Foster
Yesterday we reported on the three Torchwood novels to be released this summer; we can now confirm the titles of the books as First Born by James Goss, Long Time Dead by Sarah Pinborough, and The Men Who Sold The World by Guy Adams.

The novels are set after Children of Earth, and are a direct prequel to Miracle Day; Davies described the stories in Doctor Who Magazine as being able to "exploit the narrative gap in a way which would be impossible for radio".

The series will be published on a fortnightly basis, but the dates have yet to be confirmed, being dependent upon when Miracle Day is broadcast in the United Kingdom.
(with thanks to Steve Tribe)





FILTER: - Torchwood - Books

A Good Man Goes To War - clip scam warning

Friday, 3 June 2011 - Reported by Chuck Foster
A number of Internet Security sites have reported that several marketing scams are in progress using the promise of a clip from this Saturday's mid-series finale A Good Man Goes To War as a premise to visit their sites and potentially collate personal information.

The scams running on YouTube purport to point to a video elsewhere that is too large for the site, but then require the visitor to perhaps fill out a survey or sign up to an offer before gaining access to the alleged clip.

GFI Software security researcher Chris Boyd commented:
The same thing happened when the last series finale was due to air. There was also a bit of an issue with various Doctor Who games doing the rounds, too. As always: avoid.

Everything we’ve seen so far is the usual fake video/survey nonsense, but there could well be malware in the offing between now and Saturday.


Please note: the only official clips from A Good Man Goes To War are available free to watch courtesy of the BBC.





FILTER: - Online

Competition Roundup (3 June 2011)

Friday, 3 June 2011 - Reported by Marcus
Here is a list of the currently known open competitions related to Doctor Who - if you come across any competitions not listed please feel free to let us know!
 
Doctor Who News4 JunWin one of two "Doctor Hoo" t-shirts from Threadless.
Doctor Who News11 JunWin one of three t-shirts from Qwertee. Open Worldwide.
DW Action Figures Online12 JunWin a Sonic Screwdriver Projector.
BBC13 JunScript to Screen competition. Open to UK primary schools only.
Eye of Horus25 JunWin one of ten copies of Earth Story on DVD (R2). Open Worldwide.
DrWho Online30 JunWin one of three copies of Earth Story on DVD (R2). Open Worldwide
DrWho Online30 JunWin one of three copies of Ghostlight on CD. Open Worldwide
Watch13 JulWin tickets to the Doctor Who Experience. UK residents only.
Eye of Horus30 JunWin a back catalogue of Classic Who Tales on DVD (R2) and Audio. Open Worldwide.
Eye of Horus25 JulWin one of ten copies of Paradise Towers on DVD (R2). Open Worldwide.
 




FILTER: - Competitions

Qwertee: T-Shirt Competition

Friday, 3 June 2011 - Reported by Marcus
Qwertee, Europe's largest daily T-Shirt website, have just completed their latest campaign featuring a Doctor Who inspired design, Doctor Pooh, and are offering readers of Doctor Who News a chance to win a t-shirt from their back catalogue!

In order to enter the competition, please answer the following question:

Qwertee's recent t-shirt design featured Pooh Bear, the well known teddy of Christopher Robin. One of the Doctor's companions also had their own bear for company - simply send us the names of both the companion and the bear.

Closing date: Saturday 11th June. Open Worldwide.

Email your answer to this competition address with the subject line "Qwertee Competition" - we will contact the three winners with details on how to choose and receive their prize from Qwertee after the competition has closed.

Please also make sure you follow both DWN and Qwertee on Facebook!


Note: the t-shirt designs illustrated reflect a sample of the previous campaigns and may not be in stock as a prize for this competition.




FILTER: - T-Shirts - Competitions

Torchwood Radio Dramas - titles/cast update

Friday, 3 June 2011 - Reported by Chuck Foster
The titles of the three new Torchwood radio plays recorded in May have now been revealed by Russell T Davies in the latest edition of Doctor Who Magazine; these are Submission (Ryan Scott), House of the Dead (James Goss), and The Devil and Miss Carew (Rupert Laight). The three episodes are separate stories, though all based on the theme of possession, and Davies reported their settings ranging from an old folk's home, a haunted pub, and the depths of the Mariana Trench.

The plays are set before Children of Earth and so enables popular character Ianto Jones to have further adventures with Jack and Gwen - voiced of course by his off-screen persona Gareth David Lloyd. The actor had previously been rumoured to be involved with the plays after his band Blue Gillespie had to pull out of Live and Unsigned in May, citing "Gareth has got to go to America for a couple of weeks and the trip unfortunately falls over the time of the gig."

Davies has also reported that Torchwood would team up with UNIT for their first official joint mission!

No transmission date has been announced at present, though BBC Drama indicated that they would be broadcast later in the summer.


As well as the radio adventures, three new novels will also be published during the summer, with Davies explaining that they would "exploit the narrative gap in a way which would be impossible for radio". For more details see our follow-up article.





FILTER: - Torchwood - Radio

A Good Man Goes To War - Previews/Interviews

Thursday, 2 June 2011 - Reported by Chuck Foster
The BBC have released a couple of previews for this Saturday's episode, A Good Man Goes To War:


Preview One: A Good Man Goes To War, BBC, via BBC Website



Preview Two: A Good Man Goes To War, BBC, via BBC Website


Digital Spy talked to Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill about what to expect in the mid-series finale:


Matt Smith, Karen Gillan, Arthur Darvill interview, Digital Spy, via YouTube



Karen Gillan chatted to TV & Satellite Week over the impact of Amy's revelation last week:
It is really, really emotional for Amy what she goes through. I think any woman watching will really feel for her. It is something that I actually found quite difficult to understand so I had to speak to my mum about the labour scene and just tried to make it really horrific. ... (Giving birth) is going to change her in a big way for the long run and I think we are going to get to see Amy in a really different light.

I didn’t know until we started shooting it because everything is really last minute on Doctor Who, so you just get the script. Then there was a dummy ending on the episode seven script so none of us knew what was actually going to happen until the readthrough when Steven Moffat took us outside and showed us on his laptop.

There are lots of monsters in this one and it really feels like a finale. There are lots of old familiar things coming back and lots of storylines that have been going on for many years will be resolved.

Read the full interview via What's on TV.

Guest stars Simon Fisher-Becker and Danny Sapani spoke to Cultbox about their characters and appearances in the episode:
Dorium is at heart a good guy, but he lives in the murky depths. Think of him as Arthur Daley. Oh, you’re probably too young to remember Arthur Daley! He works in the murky world of black marketing, so that’s why River Song went to him to get the vortex manipulator.

Everyone always talks in code - and I’m very bad at picking up code - everything is kept quite secret, so any development of the character I have to find from the page and in-between the lines.

Because my character is in it throughout, I did have a complete script. Our very first scene that we filmed, we were all together, but it was all out of context, it was all in the wrong order, so it was all very confusing. We had no idea what was going on, but it was an absolute hoot!

What I will say is that a lot of questions will be answered, but then a whole bucket load of new questions will come forward. And the cliffhanger is very good, as you would expect!

Read the full interview, including details on episode thirteen, on the Cultbox website.
Manton is a powerful leader, a scary man and a fearsome soldier. He understands and respects the religious, but is more interested in power. He is obsessed with killing the Doctor.

It is a very complex story with many strands involving many characters from the past and present. I felt it really challenged my need for a back-story, to flesh out the character and know how they relate to the story as a whole, but in the end it made for a more spontaneous experience. I trusted the direction. I am sure it will be great.

Read the full interview via the Cultbox website.





FILTER: - Series 6/32 - Online

The Reign Of Terror episodes to be animated

Thursday, 2 June 2011 - Reported by Chuck Foster

Early character study from REIGN OF TERROR based on available promotional still (2|Entertain, via yfrog)


2|Entertain have announced that the missing episodes four and five of the William Hartnell adventure The Reign of Terror are to be animated as part of the forthcoming DVD, which the company previously reported would provisionally be released late 2012.

The animators for the project have been named as Big Finish - long-term Doctor Who audio producers, and whose Real Time and Shada adventures were animated for the BBC Doctor Who website - and animation company Theta Sigma, whose Thetamation is described as "a totally new style of animation, a hybrid of the classic anime styles of the 80s and high-technology".


The release of this story's surviving episodes on DVD leaves only those of the incomplete The Tenth Planet and The Ice Warriors still to be scheduled. Prior to this, The Invasion received a similar treatment in 2006 when its missing episodes one and four were re-created by award-winning animators Cosgrove Hall.





FILTER: - Classic Series - Blu-ray/DVD

Torchwood: Web of Lies update

Thursday, 2 June 2011 - Reported by Chuck Foster
Eliza Dushku. Photo: Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic.com
Eliza Dushku
BBC Worldwide Productions
(photo: Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic.com)
Entertainment Weekly have published a few more details about Torchwood: Web of Lies, and have confirmed the hints by writer Jane Espenson that actress Eliza Dushku would be starring in the web-based tie-in series.

The series is being produced by BBC Worldwide Productions and will be made up of ten three-minute episodes, written by Espenson and Ryan Scott. The episode format has been described as animated "motion comics" (believed to be similar in style to previous BBC web-based presentations like Death Comes To Time or Scream of the Shalka).

Russell T Davies spoke about the project in the latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine:
This is a hugely exciting innovation, a fully-scripted animated adventure with interactive elements, with fantastic voice talents - John Barrowman and Eve Myles reprise their roles as Jack and Gwen, alongside special guest star Eliza Dushku, and co-starring Bob Harris.

The adventures will run in weekly installments, parallel with the event of Miracle Day, adding new clues, new insights, and new dangers, as everyone races to find out the truth behind the mysterious Miracle...

No other details are known at present, or whether the series will have a restricted audience or be made available worldwide.





FILTER: - Torchwood - Online - Miracle Day (Series 4)

Doctor Who Magazine 435

Thursday, 2 June 2011 - Reported by Chuck Foster
In the latest edition of Doctor Who Magazine (out today), actress Alex Kingston talks about River Song, and about having to keep the secret of her back-to-front identity:

Right up until the reveal, people are enjoying trying to guess. Is she really on the Doctor’s side? Or is there something more to her? Is she actually not such a good person? Even once we know who River is, I don’t think we’ve lost her potential for adventure.

Also in this issue:
  • And Baby Makes Four! DWM takes a peak at what we can expect from Steven Moffat’s game-changing episode, A Good Man Goes to War. Where is Amy? Who is the Eye Patch Lady? What is River’s secret? All will be revealed... or will it...?
  • Have You Met My Wife? Suranne Jones talks exclusively to DWM about what it was like to play Idris – the TARDIS given physical form, in the amazing episode, The Doctor's Wife, written by the award-winning Neil Gaiman.
  • Goodbye Sarah Jane... Following the sad news of the death of Elisabeth Sladen, DWM commemorates the much-loved actress and the character of Sarah Jane Smith that she created. Doctor Who’s commander-in-chief, Steven Moffat reflects on the enduring popularity of the character in his latest Production Notes; and former Doctor Who showrunner and executive producer of The Sarah Jane Adventures, Russell T Davies shares his fond memories of working with Elisabeth. Plus, an obituary and a selection of the many letters received from readers.
  • Seeing Double! DWM braved the biting cold to report on the disturbing two-part adventure, The Rebel Flesh/The Almost People and was able to talk exclusively to the cast and crew, including author Matthew Graham, actor Raquel Cassidy, and director Julian Simpson.
  • Gentlemen Adventurers From 1977’s The Talons of Weng-Chiang to their own series of adventures on audio, actors Christopher Benjamin and Trevor Baxter talk exclusively to DWM about playing Victorian detectives Jago and Litefoot.
  • End Of An Era As the 60s draw to a close, so too does the tenure of the Second Doctor as COUNTDOWN TO 50 reaches Series Six which introduced both UNIT and the Time Lords to Doctor Who mythology.
  • Running Out Of Time! Amy and the Doctor confront nuns with guns when they land inside an abandoned alien vessel where time is the enemy in Apotheosis, the first part of a new comic strip adventure by Jonathan Morris with art by Dan McDaid.
  • Return Of An Old Acquaintance... The Time Team take a trip to the subterranean layer of tycoon and extraterrestrial collector, Henry van Statten to see the Doctor confronting an old enemy. Will Dalek be to their taste?
  • Gone To Pieces... Summoned by the White Guardian, the Doctor is charged with the mission of finding the six segments of the Key to Time and the Time Lady Romana is assigned to help him in his task. Fact of Fiction examines The Ribos Operation from 1978, and tracks down some fascinating facts about the adventure.
  • Of Gods And Men... Should the Doctor be an all-powerful, god-like being or just a clever chap with an inquisitive streak? Toby Hadoke and Johnny Candon take sides and fight their respective corners in A Battle Of Wits...

PLUS! A FREE giant-size, double-sided poster, all the latest official news, previews, reviews, competitions, more madness from the Watcher, another prize-winning crossword, and much, much more!


Doctor Who Magazine is available from all good newsagents and supermarkets from Thursday 2nd June.





FILTER: - DWM