Ingrid Pitt 1937 - 2010

Tuesday, 23 November 2010 - Reported by Marcus

The actress Ingrid Pitt has died at the age of 73.

Ingrid Pitt had two roles in Doctor Who. She played the role of Galleia in the 1972 third Doctor story The Time Monster. Galleia was Queen of Atlantis and the wife of King Dalios. In 1984 she returned to the series to play Solow in the fifth Doctor story Warriors of the Deep. During the eighties she also co-wrote a Doctor Who story The Macros with her husband Tony Rudlin which, though it never progressed into a televised production at the time, was later produced by Big Finish as part of their Lost Stories series.

Pitt was best known for her work in horror films of the 1960s and 1970s. She was born in Poland on 21 November 1937 as Ingoushka Petrov. She had a German father and a Jewish mother and as a result she and her family were imprisoned in a concentration camp during the second World War. In 1965 she made her film debut in Doctor Zhivago, playing a minor role. In 1968 she co-starred in the low budget science fiction film The Omegans and in the same year played in Where Eagles Dare opposite Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood.

Her work with Hammer Film Productions elevated her to cult figure status. She starred in The Vampire Lovers, and Countess Dracula, as well as having a small part in the cult film The Wicker Man. She founded her own theatrical touring company and starred in successful productions of Dial M for Murder, Duty Free, and Woman of Straw.

Pitt made her return to the big screen in the 2000 production The Asylum. The film starred Colin Baker and Patrick Mower. In 2003, Pitt voiced the role of 'Lady Violator' in Renga Media's production Dominator. The film was the UK's first CGI animated film.

She died earlier today at a hospital in south London after collapsing a few days ago.

FILTER: - Obituary - Classic Series

WhoNews iPhone App

Tuesday, 23 November 2010 - Reported by Harry Ward

A Doctor Who News iPhone application will be donating 100% of its profits to the Make-A-Wish Foundation from today until the 23rd December 2010.

WhoNews was created by Paul Gee and offers time ordered news from over 30 websites including The Doctor Who News Page. For a full list of features please click here.

WhoNews all profits to Make-A-Wish Foundation 23rd November to 23rd December

Recently the cousin of my step-children was diagnosed with Leukaemia. Andrew Brown is only 12 years old and recently underwent chemotherapy for the condition which thankfully seems to be in remission but Andrew still has to have a lot of treatment. The Make-A-Wish Foundation grants wishes to children and young people fighting life threatening illnesses.

For an insight into what Andrew and his family have been through in the past month click here

HOW CAN YOU HELP?

I'm donating 100% of the profits from the sale of WhoNews for a month from the 23rd November to 23rd December which marks the 47th anniversary of Doctor Who. The profits will be donated to the Make-A-Wish Foundation to help other children like Andrew.

Just by purchasing WhoNews from the App Store either via iTunes or on your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch you will make a donation of £1.45 in the UK or $2.80 in the US to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Just click the App Store image below.

Alternatively if you wish to make a donation direct to the foundation you can do so here make-a-wish.org.uk/getinvolved/donations

FILTER: - Online - Charities - Miscellaneous

Happy Birthday, Doctor Who

Tuesday, 23 November 2010 - Reported by Dean Braithwaite

Doctor Who is 47 today!

The first-ever episode of Doctor Who, An Unearthly Child, was broadcast on this date in 1963.

The official Doctor Who site has a small feature to celebrate the show's 47th anniversary, including a clip featuring the original TARDIS crew of William Hartnell, Carole Ann Ford, William Russell and Jacqueline Hill.

BBC Archive has a feature on The Creators of Doctor Who.

AOL Television has put up an ultimate guide slide-show so "you can reminisce about all those wonderful Doctor Who filled times and characters".

Digital Journal has a piece, "Happy 908th Birthday, Doctor Who", about the confusion surrounding the Doctor's actual age.

FILTER: - William Hartnell - Classic Series - Press - BBC

DVD Updated Release Schedule

Tuesday, 23 November 2010 - Reported by Marcus

The third Doctor Who DVD release of 2011 has been confirmed as the First Doctor story The Ark. This will be released in the UK on 28 February with a release in the US and Canada following a week later on 8 March. A release in Australia is expected soon after.

The first release of the year is the Fourth Doctor story Meglos, which following its previously announced release in the UK on 10 January and in the US and Canada on 11 January, has now been confirmed for an Australia release on 20 January helping to fulfill the desire of 2|entertain to release all titles worldwide within a much smaller timeframe.

The second release will be the Third Doctor Story The Mutants released in the UK on 31 January and in the US/Canada on 8 February.

As part of the catch up, the Fourth Doctor story, The Seeds of Doom, released in the UK in October, will be released in the US/Canada on 8 March.

For full details see our release schedule.

FILTER: - Classic Series - Blu-ray/DVD

The Doctor tops Lollipop Poll

Monday, 22 November 2010 - Reported by Chuck Foster

This week sees the launch of Road Safety Week, organised by charity Brake in order to promote awareness of being safe on the roads. The theme for this year is 'Kids say slow down', and involves thousands of participants from schools, companies, emergency services and community groups.

As part of this week, a poll was undertaken by Kwik-Fit Insurance to see which celebrity children would most like to see as their local lollipop man/woman. Some 3000 children were surveyed between the age of seven and fourteen, of which 27% were in favour of The Doctor supervising their crossing of the road!

The runners-up were singer Cheryl Cole (21%), official Children in Need record singers JLS (12%), and footballer David Beckham (also 12%).

Managing Director of Kwik-Fit Insurance, Brendan Devine, said:

The competition is all about celebrating lollipop people and the work they do in keeping our young people safe as they cross the road, and it was interesting to see which famous face was the most popular choice for this important job.

This isn't the first time the Doctor has been associated with road safety, of course; back in 1976 Jon Pertwee featured in the Splink! road safety campaign for the Green Cross Code (you can watch the advert and read all about it on the BBC News site).

FILTER: - Matt Smith - Miscellaneous

Matt Smith on the Nerdist Podcast

Monday, 22 November 2010 - Reported by Harry Ward

The latest Nerdist Podcast which features an interview and chat with Matt Smith has been released.

Smith talks briefly about a new monster that appears in Episodes 1 and 2 of Series 6 which Smith says "is on par with The Weeping Angels" and is part of a story arc from Series 5. Other topics discussed include Smith's audition to play The Doctor, his early career before the Who role, playing with Orbital at Glastonbury earlier this year and his short stories that he wrote about The Doctor and Albert Einstein.

Smith recorded the podcast with the host Chris Hardwick on the same day the two of them were guests on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.

Please note that this podcast does contain some strong language.

FILTER: - Online

Sarah Jane Ratings - Lost in Time

Monday, 22 November 2010 - Reported by Marcus

The Sarah Jane Adventures continues its strong run on the digital Children's channel CBBC with final figures for the fifth story, Lost in Time, showing the series at the top of the weekly charts.

According to BARB, part one of the story had 0.98 million watching with part two getting 0.68 million viewers, slightly down on the previous week.

The Alien Files had 0.48 million watching.

Lost in Time was repeated later in the week on BBC One and figures for these showings will be available later this month.

Final Ratings - Series Four
-	-CBBC-	-BBC Two-	-BBC One-	-Total-
The Nightmare Man - 1	0.59m	0.28m		0.87m
The Nightmare Man - 2	0.67m	0.38m		1.05m
The Vault of Secrets - 1	0.73m		0.43m	1.16m
The Vault of Secrets - 2	0.61m		0.49m	1.10m
Death of the Doctor - 1	0.92m		0.48m	1.40m
Death of the Doctor - 2	0.96m		0.47m	1.43m
The Empty Planet - 1	0.99m		0.51m	1.50m
The Empty Planet - 2	0.81m		0.58m	1.39m
Lost in Time - 1	0.98m		TBC	TBC
Lost in Time - 2	0.68m		TBC	TBC

FILTER: - Ratings - UK - Sarah Jane

A Christmas Carol: Synopis Released

Monday, 22 November 2010 - Reported by Chuck Foster

The BBC have now released details for programmes being broadcast over the Christmas period, including the forthcoming Doctor Who story, A Christmas Carol:

Doctor Who Christmas Special – A Christmas Carol
BBC ONE and BBC ONE HD
www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho

Amy and Rory are trapped on a crashing space liner, and the only way The Doctor can rescue them is to save the soul of a lonely old miser, in a festive edition of the time-travelling adventure, written by Steven Moffat. But is Kazran Sardick, the richest man in Sardicktown, beyond redemption? And what is lurking in the fogs of Christmas Eve?

Amy Pond is played by Karen Gillan, Rory Williams by Arthur Darvill, The Doctor by Matt Smith and Kazran Sardick by Michael Gambon.

Doctor Who is simulcast in HD on BBC One HD on Freesat channel 108, Freeview channel 50, Sky channel 143 and Virgin Media channel 108.

No time or date have been published for the story at present.

FILTER: - Specials

Paradise Towers coming to DVD

Monday, 22 November 2010 - Reported by Marcus

The Seventh Doctor story, Paradise Towers is due for DVD release in 2011 according to a blog by the story's writer Stephen Wyatt.

First shown between 5th October and 26th October 1987 the four part story stars Sylvester McCoy as The Doctor with Bonnie Langford as Melanie along with guest stars Richard Briers as the Chief Caretaker, Elizabeth Spriggs as Tabby, Judy Cornwell as Maddy and Howard Cooke as Pex.

The story was the second story of Season Twenty Four and was directed by Nicholas Mallett.

In his blog Wyatt confirmed he has recorded an interview for inclusion on the disc as well as being part of the commentary team.

A novelisation of the story, written by Wyatt, was published by Target Books in December 1988 and it was released on VHS in October 1995.

FILTER: - Classic Series - Blu-ray/DVD

Whotopia: Issue 19

Sunday, 21 November 2010 - Reported by Harry Ward

Details of the latest issue of WHOTOPIA, the free online Canadian fan magazine have been published. To find out when this issue is released you can follow their blog at WhotopiaMagazine.wordpress.com

COMING SOON

WHOTOPIA steps outside the TARDIS to take a look at some of the characters and concepts that have spun-off from the good Doctor's adventures

Including...

THE MICHAEL E. BRIANT INTERVIEW
Jez Strickley sits down and interviews the man who directed six classic adventures including The Sea Devils and Robots of Death.

FAN FILMS: WHOTOPIA INTERVIEWS THE PRODUCERS OF DOCTOR WHO: VICTIMSIGHT
Bob Furnell talks with Eldon Letkeman and Robert Westendorp, the producers of the Canadian Doctor Who fan film "Victimsight"

THE NEW-ISH ADVENTURES
A look back at the era of the Virgin New Adventures by A J Gulyas.

DREAMLAND AND BEYOND: DOCTOR WHO GETS ANIMATED
Nancy Gross takes a look at the specially made animated episodes of Doctor Who

DALEK'S ADVOCATE: K9 AND COMPANY
Grant Bull takes a serious in-depth look at this 1981 pilot starring Elisabeth Sladen and John Leeson

QUIT SLAMMING THE 1996 TV MOVIE
Bob Furnell asks fans to quit being so harsh in their assessments of the TV movie

THE DEATH OF FICTIONAL CHARACTERS IN DOCTOR WHO: JACK AND IANTO
Emily Jones delves into the complex relationship between two of Torchwood's most popular characters.

REASONS TO LOVE THE SARAH JANE ADVENTURES
What makes the Sarah Jane Adventures so great? Grant Bull examines why.

TORCHWOOD OVERVIEW
Joe Ford takes and in-depth look at all three series of Torchwood

TORCHWOOD: IMPRESSIONS OF AN OUTSIDER
Bob Furnell discusses why Torchwood has failed to make an impression on him

K9'S NEW ADVENTURES
K9's back in his own series and Bob Furnell examines the very first episode

FICTION: THE MEMORY OF DARKNESS PART III
Original fiction by Julio Angel Ortiz

THE SARAH JANE ADVENTURES: SERIES THREE EPISODE REVIEWS
Our panel of experts reviews each episode of series three

TORCHWOOD: CHILDREN OF EARTH REVIEWS
What did our reviewers think of the most recent season of Torchwood

THE WATERS OF MARS REVIEWS

PLUS OUR REGULAR COLUMNS - Screwdrivers, Scaries & Scarves/Target Trawl/Parallel Lines, FEATURES AND MORE

Whotopia was published as a hard copy publication from October 2003 to mid-2009 and after much debate amongst its editorial board. The decision was taken to make Whotopia a free downloadable publication with its seventeenth issue in July 2009. The fanzine is currently edited by Jez Strickley with help from assistant editors Nancy Gross and Samantha Warner. The magazine is published on an average of 3 to 4 times per year.

FILTER: - Fan Productions

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