Colin Baker Blog

Monday, 4 June 2007 - Reported by Marcus

The thoughts of the Sixth Doctor are now available online via the Colin Baker fansite colinbakeronline.com

Baker has agreed to post regular blogs under the title Thoughts of a Timelord. The first one, posted Sunday, talks about his current UK tour ofBedroom Farce along with previous companion Louise Jameson

The fansite aims to keep up to date with all of Colin Baker's activities, both past and present. There is also a guide to Colin's hit BBC series from the 1970'sThe Brothers.

FILTER: - People - Classic Series - Colin Baker

Sea Devils Planned For DVD

Friday, 25 May 2007 - Reported by DWNP Archive

The Sea Devils is being prepared for release on DVD, the latest edition of the Royal Navy's official newspaper has revealed.

Navy News was contacted on behalf of the Restoration Team in the hope of tracking down naval personnel involved in or who witnessed the story's filming - in particular, the team hopes to find a rating believed to have shot some cine footage.

The June edition of the publication says that as part of the DVD, a documentary is being produced on the making of the Jon Pertwee six-parter. The adventure originally aired in 1972 and the location work was carried out in the Portsmouth area in October 1971.

A story about the location filming was done at the time by the local daily paper, The News, which photographed Pertwee chatting with three ratings at the Fraser gunnery range.

One of the ratings, an Able Seaman David King, pictured above right, who was then aged 26, appears to be capturing the moment for posterity on a cine camera.

In the Navy News piece, project team member Richard Bignell says: "If Mr King did take any cine film of the shoot, we would be very interested in talking to him!"

The documentary-makers also hope to track down people who took still pictures.

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

Click on the thumbnail below for a larger version of the picture showing Pertwee with the ratings.

(Photo courtesy of and copyright The News, Portsmouth)

FILTER: - Jon Pertwee - Classic Series - Blu-ray/DVD

Timelash Cover

Tuesday, 22 May 2007 - Reported by Shaun Lyon

The official Doctor Who website has revealed the cover illustration for the forthcoming UK DVD release of Timelashstarring Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant. Click on the thumbnail for a larger version.

FILTER: - Classic Series - Blu-ray/DVD

Planet Of Evil Planned For DVD

Thursday, 17 May 2007 - Reported by DWNP Archive

Hot on the heels of the announcement that The Time Warrior and theKey To Time season will be out on DVD in the UK later this year comes the news that 2Entertain is planning to release the 1975 Tom Baker four-parter Planet of Evil.

The British Board of Film Classification yesterday cleared just over 60 minutes of extras for the DVD of Planet of Evil, although a release date is unknown.

The extras, which have a PG rating, include three features entitled Hidden Hinchcliffe, A Darker Side andPlanetary Performance - Acting In Doctor Who.

(Thanks to Tony Clark.)

Time Warrior And Key To Time Season On DVD

May 18, 2007 • Posted By John Bowman

The Time Warrior and the Key To Time season are to be released on DVD in the UK by 2Entertain later this year, says the official programme website.

September 3 will see The Time Warrior available. This story launched Jon Pertwee's final season as the Third Doctor and saw the debuts of companion Sarah Jane Smith, as played by Elisabeth Sladen, and classic monsters the Sontarans.

According to the British Board of Film Classification site, the extras will include a 30-minute documentary entitledBeginning The End - Making The Time Warrior, as well as a trailer, two Easter eggs and a photo gallery.

Sixteen new CGI shots have also been created, spanning all four episodes.

A box set of the six-story Season 16, with Tom Baker as the Doctor andMary Tamm as assistant Romana, will apparently be out on September 23, although that date is a Sunday.

The Key To Time season has already been available on DVD in the USA and Canada for a number of years, although its UK release will include "the full extras it deserves", according to the BBC website.

Further details of those extras will be announced at a later date.

(With thanks to Scott Kinnaird.)

UK DVD Release Schedule

28 May 2007 - Robot - Tom Baker
25 June 2007 - Series 3, Volume 2
9 July 2007 - Timelash - Colin Baker
23 July 2007 - Series 3, Volume 3
6 August 2007 - Time Flight/Arc of Infinity - Peter Davison
3 September 2007 - The Time Warrior - Jon Pertwee
23 September 2007 - Key to Time - Tom Baker

FILTER: - Classic Series - Blu-ray/DVD

North America DVD Releases

Wednesday, 9 May 2007 - Reported by Jarrod Cooper

TvShowsOnDVD.com have announced August 14th as the North American release date for Robot and Survival.

FILTER: - Canada - USA - Classic Series - Blu-ray/DVD

DVD Update

Friday, 4 May 2007 - Reported by Jarrod Cooper

The Doctor Who Restoration Team have released updated information on the extras for their upcoming releases. The schedule for the DVD releases from late July has been altered, with Series 3, Volume 2on June 25th, Timelash now out on July 9th, and Series 3, Volume 3released on July 23rd. A box set of Time-Flight and Arc of Infinity is currently slated for release on August 6th, with the special features listed below.

Time Flight:

Commentary featuring Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, Sarah Sutton and Eric Saward
Mouth on Legs - Interview with Janet Fielding
Deleted and Extended Scenes
Jurassic Larks - Behind the scenes action
Outtakes
Peter Grimwade interview from 1987
Photo Gallery
Coming Soon trailer
1983 Doctor Who Annual / Radio Times listings in PDF format
Subtitles / Production Information

Arc of Infinity:
Commentary featuring Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Janet Fielding and Sarah Sutton
Anti-Matter from Amsterdam - Making-of Documentary
The Omega Factor - A look at the various Omega stories
Deleted Scenes
Under Arc Lights - Behind the Scenes studio footage
CGI effects option
BBC 1 Trailer
Continuity announcements
Photo Gallery
Coming Soon trailer
Subtitles / Production Information.

FILTER: - Classic Series - Blu-ray/DVD - Radio Times

The future of animated episodes

Sunday, 29 April 2007 - Reported by Chuck Foster

Daniel Hall, commissioning editor for DVD publisher 2Entertain, has recently made an announcement concerning the future for animated episodes of Doctor Who. Speaking on the Restoration Team's Technical Forum, he stated: "After due consideration and for the foreseeable future, we are withdrawing from co-commissioning and co-producing any "classic" Doctor Who animations. I feel our energies will be better spent working on existing stories. With the New Series such a success, and the forthcoming animations for Totally Doctor Who, the BBC is in a far superior position to develop this idea. After all, the original commission of The Invasion came from them."

Having recently made a request for animators to get in touch with them, 2Entertain have now said that they will pass any details on to the BBC. Says Hall: "Please continue to express your support for this excellent and innovative idea. The quality of creative response from my earlier post was thrilling, and bodes well for the future possibilities of animated stories."

FILTER: - Classic Series - Blu-ray/DVD

Robot DVD Cover

Friday, 20 April 2007 - Reported by Shaun Lyon

From our friends at Tenth Planet, we've received the cover illustration for the forthcoming UK DVD release of Robot, the first Tom Baker serial from 1974. The DVD will be issued on 4th June 2007. Click on the thumbnail for a larger version of the cover.

FILTER: - Classic Series - Blu-ray/DVD

Classic Series Downloads

Friday, 13 April 2007 - Reported by Marcus

Following a deal between BBC Worldwide and the P2P company Azureus, fans in the USA can now download several episodes of the classic series.

The programmes are available for rent from the Vuze website for a small fee; the first episodes of The Three Doctorsand The Talons of Weng-Chiang are available for "free rental". As well as classic Doctor Who episodes, other BBC material such as Red Dwarf and Steven Moffat'sCoupling is available.

NB: For copyright reasons, these downloads are currently only available in the United States, and because of the digital rights management software with which the files have been encoded, they can be played only on Windows computers running Windows XP or Vista (i.e. not on computers running Macintosh or Linux).

FILTER: - USA - Online - Classic Series

Dave Martin

Wednesday, 11 April 2007 - Reported by Marcus

Outpost Gallifrey has learned the sad news of the death of Dave Martin, long-time Doctor Who writer and co-creator of K9.

Martin had a long and distinguished writing career, working mainly with his long-term writing partner Bob Baker.

Together they wrote several stage plays before moving into television in the early sixties, working on popular series such as Z Cars. In 1971, they were asked to write their first story for Doctor Who. The Claws of Axos was the first of eight stories over nine seasons creating some of the series most iconic characters and most loved stories.

Their best-known character was created in 1977 for the Tom Baker storyThe Invisible Enemy. K9 was originally intended for this story only, but the production team made a late decision to have him join The Doctor in the TARDIS where he stayed for the next four years.

K9 later returned in the 1981 story K9 and Company and the twentieth-anniversary story The Five Doctors, and made a memorable appearance in the 2006 story School Reunion.

Martin was diagnosed with lung cancer earlier this year. He is survived by his wife and three children. He was 72.

(Thanks to David Goodman.)

The Claws of Axos » Writer GGG - TV - Season 8
The Mutants » Writer NNN - TV - Season 9
The Three Doctors » Writer RRR - TV - Season 10
The Sontaran Experiment » Writer 4B -TV - Season 12
The Hand of Fear » Writer 4N - TV - Season 14
The Invisible Enemy » Writer 4T - TV - Season 15
Underworld » Writer 4Y - TV - Season 15
The Armageddon Factor » Writer 5F - TV - Season 16
School Reunion » K9 Originally Created By 2006-03 TV - Series 2/2006

FILTER: - Obituary - Classic Series

Previous 10 Stories

Colin Baker Blog

Sea Devils Planned For DVD

Timelash Cover

Planet Of Evil Planned For DVD

North America DVD Releases

DVD Update

The future of animated episodes

Robot DVD Cover

Classic Series Downloads

Dave Martin

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