In Memoriam

Friday, 6 April 2007 - Reported by DWNP Archive

Character actor George Sewell, who played Ratcliffe in Remembrance of the Daleks, has died at the age of 82. He was also well-known to cult TV fans as Colonel Alec Freeman in the Gerry Anderson series UFO. The Daily Telegraph has an obituary.

In addition, John Gill, who played Oak in Fury From The Deep, has died aged 94, and Elaine Ives-Cameron, who was Martha in The Stones of Blood and Ms Lavish/Estella in the Big Finish audio The Stones of Venice, has also passed away. Her date of birth is unknown.

(Thanks to Kenneth Parker, "Scifiradioguy", and Neil Marsh.)

FILTER: - Obituary - Classic Series

New Beginnings North America Boxed Set Details

Monday, 2 April 2007 - Reported by Shaun Lyon

Outpost Gallifrey has received the full-color cover illustrations for the forthcoming North American DVD releases of The Keeper of Traken, Logopolis and Castrovalva, the Tom Baker-Peter Davison serials that will be sold both separately packaged as well as part of the New Beginningsboxed set, due on June 5 from Warner Home Video. The cover illustrations and full details on the extras for each release are below.

New Beginnings Boxed Set (WHV #E4013)
Includes all three discs

The Keeper of Traken (WHV #E4010)
Audio Commentary: Audio Commentary by actors Anthony Ainley, Sarah Sutton and Matthew Waterhouse and writer Johnny Byrne
DVD ROM Features: 1982 Doctor Who Annual, Radio Times and BBC Enterprises literature PDFs
Documentary: Being Nice to Each Other: A new 30-minute "making of" documentary that includes contributions from Sarah Sutton, Sheila Ruskin, Geoffrey Beevers, John Black, Johnny Byrne, Christopher H. Bidmead
Interviews: Swap Shop: Noel Edmond interviews Sarah Sutton (11 mins)
Music Only Track
Other: The Return of the Master: Geoffrey Beevers, Christopher H. Bidmead and John Black talk about the return of the Doctor's arch-enemy (8 mins)
Trailers and Continuity Announcements (6 mins)
Photo gallery
Production Notes

Logopolis (WHV #E4011)
Audio Commentary: Audio Commentary by actors Tom Baker and Janet Fielding and writer Christopher H. Bidmead
DVD ROM Features: 1982 Doctor Who Annual, Radio Times and BBC Enterprises literature PDFs
Documentary: A New Body at Last: A new 50-minute documentary on the transition from Tom Baker to Peter Davison, featuring many of the actors and production team involved, plus exclusive behind the scenes footage of the regeneration
Interviews: Nationwide Interviews with Tom Baker and Peter Davison (8 mins)
Pebble Mill at One: Peter Davison interview (12 mins)
Music Only Track
Other: BBC News Reports on Tom Baker's wedding, the announcement of Tom Baker's departure and Peter Davison's arrival (1 min)
Photo gallery
Production Notes
TV Spot: Trailers and Continuity Announcements (2 mins)

Castrovalva (WHV #E4012)
Audio Commentary: Audio Commentary by actors Peter Davison and Janet Fielding, writer Christopher H. Bidmead and director Fiona Cumming
DVD ROM Features: 1982 Doctor Who Annual, Radio Times and BBC Enterprises literature PDFs
Deleted Scenes
Featurette: The Crowded TARDIS: 11-minute featurette with Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton, John Black and Christopher H. Bidmead
Interviews: Being Doctor Who: Peter Davison discusses how he approached this iconic role (13 mins)
Directing Castrovalva: 11-minute interview with Fiona Cumming
Swap Shop, Blue Peter: Peter Davison interviews (29 mins)

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

The Doctor's Trips to the Moon

Friday, 30 March 2007 - Reported by R Alan Siler

DigitalSpy is currently running a story that takes readers on a lunar odyssey throughout the Doctor's many incarnations, familiarizing Doctor Who's younger audience with all the Doctor's previous visits to or encounters with the Moon.

Beginning with 1967's "The Moonbase" the article continues on through the decades, concluding with a brief synopsis of "Smith and Jones", which kicks off Series Three on BBC1 at 7:00 pm on Saturday, 31 March.

FILTER: - Classic Series - Press

Sunday Night Ratings

Monday, 19 March 2007 - Reported by Marcus

The BBC4 transmission of the first episode of the 1968 Patrick Troughton story, The Web of Fear, was watched by 67,000 viewers, according to unofficial overnight ratings.

The story was transmitted as part of BBC4's Tube Night.

An hour later, on ITV1, Billie Piper's performance in Jane Austen's Mansfield Park was watched by 5.9 millionpeople, comfortably winning it's time slot and achiving a 28% share of the audience.

FILTER: - Ratings - UK - Classic Series

Gareth Hunt

Wednesday, 14 March 2007 - Reported by DWNP Archive

The actor Gareth Hunt, who played Arak in Jon Pertwee's regeneration story Planet of the Spiders in 1974, died of pancreatic cancer today at home in Redhill, Surrey. He was 65.

Hunt was probably most famous for the role of Mike Gambit in The New Avengers in the 1970s. He also took part in a long-running Nescafe coffee advert campaign on TV.

Among his many other roles, he played the footman Frederick Norton in Upstairs, Downstairs, which was co-created by Jean Marsh, Pertwee's former wife who played companion character Sara Kingdom in The Daleks' Masterplan.

Click here for his career summary from Funky Beetroot Celebrity Management Ltd.

Reported at BBC News, The Times and the Daily Mirror, with obituaries at telegraph.co.uk and timesonline, the latter of which (at the time of posting this) mistakenly says his Doctor Who role was in 1963.

Click here for a BBC picture gallery of aspects of Hunt's career, which includes an image from Planet of the Spiders.

FILTER: - Obituary - Classic Series

Classic series clips search

Saturday, 10 March 2007 - Reported by Anthony Weight

The website of the Doctor Who Restoration Team, the group of experts who remaster and prepare extra features for the range of classic series Doctor Who DVD releases from 2 entertain Ltd, has been updated with a new page appealing for help searching for clips connected to the classic series which might be useful as extra features on future DVDs.

The "Clip Search" page, located here, gives full details on the types of clips particularly being sought; the introduction from the page is reproduced below. Those who believe they may be able to help with the search or have clips should e-mail the specific address given on that page, rather than the generic Restoration Team e-mail address on the main page of their website.

We are keen to hear from anyone who has material recorded off-air that may not exist in official archives that would be of interest to Doctor Who fans and posterity, which we could include in future DVDs. Without help from a few fans in the past, we would not have had items on the DVDs such as any of the 'Swap Shop', 'Pebble Mill' or 'Nationwide' interviews, BSB interview segments, trailers and continuity announcements. Although we have access to a large number of items, coverage remains patchy. We are sure that there are many clips out there which we do not have, or which are in better quality than our current holdings. We want to avoid the situation where, after a DVD is released, someone approaches us with a better copy of something, or extra material which could have improved the release.

FILTER: - Classic Series

Louise Jameson interview

Wednesday, 7 March 2007 - Reported by Marcus

Former Fourth Doctor assistant Louise Jameson was a guest today on the long running Radio 4 programme Woman's Hour.

Best known for her roles in Doctor Who, Bergerac and EastEnders, Jameson told presenter Jenni Murray why she once described her own life as a soap opera and talked about her one woman play "Face Value".

The interview can be heard via the BBC Website. Follow the listen again link and select Wednesday 7th March.

Thanks to Ben Morris.

FILTER: - People - Classic Series

Costume auction results

Tuesday, 6 March 2007 - Reported by Jarrod Cooper

The Doctor Who outfits previously worn by Tom Baker and several other TV Time Lords were auctioned off byBonhams to save space and insurance premiums.

The burgundy coat, brown tweed trousers and striped scarf worn by Baker sold for 24,600 pounds (about 46,000 US dollars). This was 12 times the amount that was expected. His double-breasted frock coat went for a further 7,000 pounds.

Other Doctor Who costumes included:

Patrick Troughton's Doctor's outfit, which went for 8,000 pounds.
Jon Pertwee's Doctor's complete outfit and sonic screwdriver went for 8,000 pounds also.
Peter Davison's Doctor's outfit went for 4,200 pounds.
Sylvester McCoy's Doctor's outfit for 1,000 pounds.

Also reported at metro.co.uk, BBC News and The Sun.

FILTER: - Special Events - Classic Series

Web of Fear on Four

Tuesday, 6 March 2007 - Reported by DWNP Archive

BBC Four has scheduled a repeat of episode 1 of The Web of Fear on Sunday, 18th March.

It will be shown from 8.35pm, as part of an evening of programmes themed around the London Underground. Episode 1 is the only surviving episode in the BBC archives from the six-part Patrick Troughton story, that was originally broadcast in 1968.

FILTER: - Classic Series - Broadcasting

Details on forthcoming DVDs

Monday, 5 March 2007 - Reported by R Alan Siler

The Restoration Team has released details on the upcoming DVD releases Robot and Timelash.

The team's website describes the technical hurdles that had to be cleared in each story (such as the CSO effects in the final episode of Robot) as well as a list of special features for each DVD (listed below).

As reported earlier, Robot is due out in the UK on 28th May, Timelash on 25th June.

Visit the Restoration Team website for full details.

Robot Special Features:

Commentary by Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen, producer Barry Letts and writer Terrance Dicks
Are Friends Electric? (dur. 38' 58"), the main documentary, which looks at Tom Baker's introduction as the Doctor and the making of his first story. It features interviews with actors Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen, Alec Linstead, Patricia Maynard, Michael Kilgarriff and Edward Burnham, producers Barry Letts and Philip Hinchcliffe, script editor Terrance Dicks, director Christopher Barry and production unit manager George Gallacio.
The Tunnel Effect (dur. 13' 47"), a look at the creation of the title sequence effect
A Blue Peter feature
Photo gallery, production subtitle notes and Radio Times listings in pdf format

Timelash Special Features:

Commentary by Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant and Paul Darrow
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (dur. 25' 01"), the main documentary, which looks at the making of the story. It features actors Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant, Paul Darrow, David Chandler, Robert Ashby, script editor Eric Saward, writer Glen McCoy and journalist Paul Lang, and is narrated by Terry Molloy
This release will be the first to feature a 'Coming Soon' trail which will act as a taster for the next DVD release
Photo gallery, production subtitle notes and Radio Times listings in pdf format

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

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