The BBC Radiophonic Workshop would have been 50 years old this month. Disbanded a decade ago, the Workshop - based at the BBC's Maida Vale studios in London - was the in-house audio special effects team responsible for the majority of the special sounds, sound effects and electronic music heard in the classic series of Doctor Who.

To commemorate the anniversary of the Workshop, the BBC News website has today published a feature looking back at its work, including embedded video content. Interviewed are Dick Mills and Mark Ayres, both of whom worked extensively on Doctor Who, with Ayres still being involved in the sound restoration for classic series DVD releases.

Speaking about the creation of the iconic voices of the Daleks, Mills says: "We tried to give the impression that whenever a Dalek spoke, it wasn't speaking like we do, it was accessing words from a memory bank, so they all sound the same - dispassionate, mechanical and retrievable."

Both Mills and Ayres are scheduled to appear on Breakfast on BBC One tomorrow. According to a posting by Ayres on the Restoration Team forum today, they will be on about 9.45am. He adds: "In other words, any time between 9.30-10.00am, as long as a more important story does not break."

(Additional reporting by John Bowman, with thanks to Tony Clark.)

Posted By John Bowman

David Morrissey has been reunited with his Blackpool co-star David Tennant for this year's Doctor Who Christmas special.

According to a report by the Press Association, the pair appeared on set yesterday in the grounds of Gloucester Cathedral.

Further details are given in the spoiler box - which may contain information you do not want to know. The PA report - with pictures - was carried today by the Daily Mail. Again, do not click on the link if you want to remain spoiler-free.

Posted By John Bowman

The BBC's commercial arm won a High Court battle today concerning a book about the Daleks.

Publisher JHP, which brought out four Dalek-related books in the 1960s that had input from Dalek creator Terry Nation, claimed that BBC Worldwide's The Dalek Survival Guide, which was published in 2002, had infringed its copyright by using material from one of the books.

But according to a report on BBC News, Mr Justice Norris said that although JHP had the licence to bring out the original books - three annuals plus The Dalek Pocketbook and Space-Travellers' Guide - it did not own the copyright.

In 2001, both sides had started working together on a new venture involving the original books plus fresh material, but it foundered after JHP disliked BBC Worldwide's plans.

JHP had claimed that the subsequent Dalek Survival Guide copied The Dalek Pocketbook and Space-Travellers' Guide material. However, the judge ruled that no substantial copying had taken place, and said it was "inherently improbable" that Nation, who died in 1997, would have assigned copyright to JHP.

While the rest of the world is fighting Adipose and travelling to Pompeii, the BBC has begun filming for this year's Christmas special.

The South Wales Argus has published a photo of filming taking place in St Woolos cemetery in Newport. Please be aware that this article containsMAJOR SPOILERS for the forthcoming Christmas special.

Posted By John Bowman

The title of episode nine of the new series has been changed to Forest of the Dead.

Earlier this week, all Series Four episode names bar the penultimate one were announced in a Radio Times feature. In it, the ninth episode - the concluding instalment of this series' second two-parter - was named as River's Run, but CBBC Newsround now says it has exclusively been told of the title alteration.

The story has been written by Steven Moffat and has Alex Kingston and Colin Salmon as the guest stars.

This year's nominations for the BAFTA Cymru awards have been announced, and sees Doctor Who and its spin-offs nominated in several categories:

• Best Drama Series: Doctor Who (Voyage of the Damned);Torchwood (End of Days); Belonging (which also stars Torchwood's Eve Myles!)
  
• Best Childrens Programme: The Sarah Jane Adventures(Whatever Happened To Sarah Jane?); Atom; Young Dracula
  
• Best New Media TV or Film Related: Doctor Who Comic Maker; Coal House Interactive; Planed Plant Bach
  
• Best Director of Photography - Drama: Ernie Vincze (Doctor Who - Voyage of the Damned); Richard Wyn (Caerdydd II); Jonathan Bloom (Daddy's Girl)
  
• Best Sound: Doctor Who (Voyage of the Damned); The History of Mister Polly; Y Pris
  
• Best Design: Doctor Who (Voyage of the Damned); Caerdydd II; The History of Mister Polly
  
• Best Costume: Doctor Who (The Shakespeare Code); Torchwood (Captain Jack Harkness); The History of Mister Polly
  
• Best Make-Up: Doctor Who (The Shakespeare Code); Calon Gaeth; The History of Mister Polly
  
• Best Screenwriter: Steven Moffat (Doctor Who - Blink); Ed Talfan (Caerdydd II); Tim Price (Y Pris)
  
• Best Original Soundtrack: Ben Foster (Torchwood - End of Days); John Rea (Coal House); John Hardy/Rob Love (Y Pris)
  
• Best Director - Drama: James Strong (Doctor Who - Voyage of the Damned); Gilles Mackinnon (The History of Mister Polly); Gareth Bryn(Y Pris)
  
• Best Actress: Eve Myles (Torchwood - End of Days); Rebecca Haries (Belonging); Anne Marie-Duff (The History of Mister Polly)
  

The award ceremony takes place at the Millennium Centre in Cardiff on Sunday 27th April; you can find out more about it from the BAFTA Cymru website inEnglish or Welsh.

BBC Internal magazine Ariel has reported that Executive Producer Russell T Davies is unhappy with the news series time slot.

The 6.20pm position is the earliest the series has been placed since it returned in 2005. In previous years earlier time slots have resulted in a decrease in viewing figures for the programme.

Update

This is now also being reported by Broadcast.

Steven Moffat has been nominated in the Best Writer category at the BAFTA Craft Awards for his work on Doctor Who, it has been announced. The British Academy of Film and Television Arts will be hosting the ceremony on May 11th. The awards honour those who work behind-the-scenes in the television industry, and composer Murray Gold is also nominated for his work on Doctor Who.

Moffat's competition consists of Jimmy McGovern (for The Street), Tony Marchant (The Mark of Cain) and Heidi Thomas (Cranford). Doctor Who also receives nominations in the categories of Interactive Fiction Contribution, Sound (Fiction / Entertainment) and Visual Effects.

Doctor Who Executive producer Russell T Davies has spoken exclusively to SFX about the future of Doctor Who.

The show returns this Spring for a fourth series, and will encore as four specials in 2009 before returning for a fifth full series in 2010. While there has been no official comment on the future of Doctor Who beyond that, Davies reveals that the establishment of this transmission pattern will help to ensure the show's longevity.

"Doctor Who is now one of the BBC's biggest flagship shows," he tells the magazine. "And this sort of pattern will guarantee it being on air for twenty years. It's no good looking at that American pattern of making seven years if you're lucky - that's just not going to work. Who wants it to die after seven years? It's much bigger than that. It needs looking after, in the sense that it needs pauses, it needs its legend revamping every so often. If you build these pauses in now and say this will always happen, that's part of the plan now - it's literally a twenty year plan, which can't be guaranteed, because different people will be in charge in years to come - but if you present them with something rock solid, that is working, and has a unique transmission pattern that shouldn't be interfered with, then it will stay."

In the interview Davies also tackles such topics as the casting of Catherine Tate, the rise of the online critic and the true story behind the return of Billie Piper. In addition, he confirms that UNIT, the fictional military organisation returning to the show in the new series, is now the Unified Intelligence Taskforce, and not the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce as it was previously known.

The full interview is in SFX 168, on sale across the UK on Wednesday 12 March.

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.)