BBC Worldwide has announced the closure of the Doctor Who Exhibitions currently running in Cardiff, Newcastle and Land's End.

A new and larger attraction is being developed at a new location in Cardiff.

A statement from BBC Worldwide says
The current Cardiff Exhibition has drawn over half a million visitors since it opened in December 2005 at the Red Dragon Centre, Cardiff Bay. It will run until 27th March 2011. The Land's End exhibition will close on 2nd January 2011 and the Newcastle one on 31 October 2010.

Further details regarding the new Cardiff attraction will be published shortly.

Issue 2 of the fanzine Fish Fingers and Custard is out now and be downloaded or purchased in print from the website.

In the Issue:

• Series 5 Reviews
• Proms Report
• Fives
• Where Should Classic Doctor Who Have Ended?
• Memories of PBS Pledge Drives
• The Latest Tabloid Newspaper Rumours

And Much More.

The BBC has released synopsis for The Nightmare Man, the first story in the new series of The Sarah Jane Adventures.

The series will premiere on CBBC on Monday 11th October at 5.15pm, with Part Two being shown the following day.

In a change to the DWM infomation, the BBC One repeats will now be on Wednesday and Thursday at 4.30pm.

Doctor Who has overwhelmingly won the vote held by See Saw and as a result the entire Series One of Doctor Who will be available  to rent from  their website from Tuesday 28th September for 99p. Although the series needs to be purchased today, viewers then have up to 90 days to watch the series.

Because the competition was so popular, SeeSaw, has announced a second Tight Tuesday promotion, just for readers of The Doctor Who News Page.

Voting will be between Doctor Who Series 2, Doctor Who Series 3 and Doctor Who Series 4.
It was intended to have Torchwood as the fourth option, but this has had to be removed due to admin reasons. Instead the three Doctor Who Series are up against Series One of Battlestar Galactica.

Votes need to be made at www.seesaw.com/gallifrey.

The writer Louis Marks has died at the age of 82.

Louis Marks wrote four stories for Doctor Who. In 1965 he wrote the first story of Season Two, Planet of Giants, the first contemporary story in the series since the first episode. He returned to the series in 1972 to plot the return of the Daleks after a gap of several years in Day of the Daleks a story which saw the introduction of the Ogrons.

For the Fourth Doctor he penned two stories, Planet of Evil in 1975 was set on the far distant planet Zeta Minor on the edge of the universe, while The Masque of Mandragora a year later was set in 15th century Italy.

His work away from Doctor Who included The Man Who Finally Died (1967) for the BBC and Special Branch for Thames Television (1970). He wrote for Danger Man with Patrick McGoohan, and for the Doomwatch series. His work as a producer included The Lost Boys (1978), Fearless Frank (1979) and the BBC's adaptation of George Eliot's Middlemarch (1994).

Louis Marks died on 17th September, 2010.

The following extras have been cleared for a future DVD release of the Jon Pertwee adventure The Mutants by the British Board of Film Classification:

00:02:55:18 THE MUTANTS - PHOTO GALLERY
00:20:36:21 MUTT MAD - THE MAKING OF THE MUTANTS
00:01:35:07 (BLUE PETER) (CLIP FROM BLUE PETER IN 1970S)
00:27:03:13 DRESSING DOCTOR WHO - JAMES ACHESON (FEATURETTE)
00:37:36:10 RACE AGAINST TIME (FEATURETTE)

The clearance of extras is usually an indication that the story is due to come out relatively soon on DVD; however, producer 2Entertain have not given an official date for release at present.

Staff and students had a surprise last week when they discovered a Dalek in their school, West Exe Learning Centre in St. Thomas, Devon. The prop appeared to have been abandoned, with no clue as to where it had come from.

Sue Willey, deputy manager of West Exe Learning Centre, said:

Police were also involved in the incident but were unable to trace the owner. Detective Constable Caroline Prince, of Exeter's burglary team, said:

With no owners having come forward to claim it, the Dalek now resides at a film and television memorabilia store in Exeter. Shop owner and Doctor Who enthusiast John Hadlow said:

If you have any information as where this Dalek may have come from, you can contact Detective Constable Prince at Exeter burglary team on 08452 777444.

Underground Toys have announced that entertainment store Hastings will be selling an exclusive Yellow Dalek action figure as part of a promotion that will run in association with BBC Worldwide.

Stores in the North American chain will feature a special 6x4ft display unit to highlight key merchandise from Doctor Who.

For more details, see the Undergound Toys and Hastings Entertainment websites.

Doctor Who Magazine reports that The Sarah Jane Adventures will return to BBC Television on Monday 11th October 2010.

The series will be shown twice each week, with episodes first being shown on CBBC on Mondays and Tuesdays before being repeated on BBC One on Thursdays and Fridays.

Dates are subject to change and will be finalised the week before transmission.


The Sarah Jane Adventures - Series Four.

• 1: The Nightmare Man
by Joseph Lidster
• 2: The Vault of Secrets
by Phil Ford
• 3: Death of the Doctor
by Russell T Davies
• 4: The Empty Planet
by Gareth Roberts
• 5: Lost in Time
by Rupert Laight
• 6: Goodbye, Sarah Jane Smith
by Gareth Roberts and Clayton Hickman

The official Doctor Who site has confirmed that former Coronation Street star Suranne Jones has been cast in the role of Idris in the third episode of the 2011 series of Doctor Who.

Jones is best known for playing the role of Karen McDonald in ITV1's soap over a period of four years. She has also appeared in the detective drama series Vincent, and on the West End stage in A Few Good Men opposite Rob Lowe. Other roles include the London based black comedy, Dead Clever. In autumn 2007, she toured the UK in the play Terms of Endearment and she has recently appeared in a number of plays for BBC Radio 4. In January 2009, she appeared in Unforgiven, a three-part drama on ITV1, where she plays Ruth Slater, a woman released from prison after serving a 15-year prison sentence for the murder of two policemen.

Last year Jones appeared in The Sarah Jane Adventures episode, Lisa's Revenge playing the Mona Lisa.

The third episode, which started filming this week is written by Neil Gaiman who said

Jones talked about how excited she was to be given the role.