Fantom Events have announced a brand-new lockdown project celebrating the “unsung heroes” of Doctor Who.

Hosted by Alex Moore, this series of YouTube videos aims to tell the behind the scenes story of those members of the cast and crew whose perspective might normally go untold.

The series will be launched with a special live stream from 8pm BST on 20th May with four episodes featuring Lee Sheward (stunt co-ordinator for Doctor Who and Torchwood); Shaunna Harrison (provided the make-up for Terror of the Vervoids, The Ultimate Foe and Paradise Towers); Philip Brown (who played the Seventh Doctor double in The Day of the Doctor) and Gareth Milne (who played George Cranleigh in Black Orchid and stunt doubled for both Michael Cochrane and Peter Davison. Other credits include Warriors of the Deep, The Caves of Androzani and Vengeance on Varos).

Each subsequent episode will go live weeknights at 18:00 from 25th May and will occasionally feature as part of our regular virtual conventions Time Space Visualiser.

Series highlights include:

• Nick Joseph (Supporting Artist on The Creature from the Pit, The Leisure Hive, Black Orchid, Terminus and The Mark of the Rani)
• Ralph Wilton (Production Assistant for Shada and Production Manager on Arc of Infinity)
• Jim Dowdall (Stunt Performer on Day of the Daleks, The Sea Devils, The Time Monster, Genesis of the Daleks, Frontios)
• Rocky Taylor (Stunt Performer on The Idiot’s Lantern. He also has uncredited roles in The Daleks’ Master Plan and The Curse of Peladon)
• Alan Spalding (Designer for Revelation of the Daleks)
• Damon Jeffery (The Curse of Fenric and Survival)
• Matthew Savage (Design assistant for series 1 and 2 of Doctor Who. He was also an associate designer and assistant art director for series 1 of Torchwood)
• Mickey Lewis (Dalek Operator in Asylum of the Daleks and Into the Dalek, an alien in The Rings of Akhaten, the Third Doctor’s body double in The Day of the Doctor and a cyberman in The Doctor Falls, Ascension of the Cybermen and The Timeless Children)

Host Alex Moore said:

The interviews will be available for free at the Fantom Events website, where you can also find all of their weekend online Time Space Visualiser events and a host of other new and archive material created during the pandemic.

The latest release in the Black Archive series looks at the Fourth Doctor story Robots of Death.

The series, from Obverse Books, explores in detail the making of the story first shown in 1977.

Order on Amazon

BBC Books to publish two new novels for the multi-platform Doctor Who project Time Lord Victorious.

Time Lord Victorious will tell a new and untold story, set within the Dark Times at the start of the universe when even the Eternals were young. Following several Doctors across space and time as they defend their home planet from a terrible race, this is a story like no other.

Time Lord Victorious will feature the Eighth, Ninth and Tenth Doctor characters, companion Rose Tyler and monsters including the Daleks and the Ood, with more to be revealed over the coming months as products are announced.

An interview has been released online featuring Chris Chapman, one of the main contributors to the ongoing range of Doctor Who seasons being released on Blu-ray. The producer/director chatted about the challenges of creating fresh features and insights for the stories previously released on DVD, including those on the latest release, Season 14, and hinted about existing/potential developments planned for the future of the range.

The interview is available courtesy of Fantom Events.

Doctor Who fans around the world united in April 2020 to recreate their favourite moments during the lockdown.

The Homemade Who project was launched last month to give the Doctor Who community something creative and fun to do while everyone’s been stuck at home.

With Doctor Who celebrating 15 years since its revival, fans were asked to recreate some of their favourite scenes from 2005 onwards using whatever they could find in their house.

A compilation video featuring every clip sent in so far can be found here

Entries were sent in from England, Australia, France, Luxembourg, Argentina, Wales, Germany, Italy, the Philippines, the USA, and New Zealand!

You can watch all the complete clips on Instagram:

Due to its success, the project has been extended for another month. If you would like to take part you can find all the details here.

Animation director and producer Charles Norton appeared as a guest on last weekend's Time Space Visualiser convention organised by Fantom Events online, during which he discussed the new special edition of The Power of The Daleks with Toby Hadoke. The interview is available to watch online from the Fantom Events YouTube channel.


The Power of the Daleks: Special Edition is due to be released in July.

Jodie Whittaker has joined Brian Cox and Ewan McGregor to support the Geeky T-Shirt awareness drive and fundraiser for a charity helping terminally children in Scotland.

The current Doctor is helping launch a nationwide appeal for Children’s Hospices Across Scotland – better known as CHAS, a charity which provides vital hospice care services throughout Scotland to support the whole family.

As part of the Share Your Joy campaign, on Monday, May the Fourth, CHAS are encouraging the public to show allegiance to their favourite science-fiction, fantasy, cartoon or musical hero and by virtue the charity itself, by digging out their favourite geeky t-shirt to wear on the day. Thousands of supporters around the country have a CHAS shirt in the cupboard from a past or postponed event; CHAS asks them to wear it with pride for the day and share it with the hashtag #MayThe4thBeWithCHAS.

In order to help support the ongoing physical and new virtual hospice services provided to CHAS families, who are dealing with the most difficult of circumstances at the most impossible of times, participants are encouraged to share their efforts online and donate just £3 by texting ‘Geeky 3’ to 70450.

Laura Campbell, Community Fundraising Development Manager at CHAS, said On the evening of the 4th, The Big Geeky Quiz will be hosted by CBeebies actor James Mackenzie, who has gone on a Saharan trek and been heavily involved in fundraising for the charity throughout the last year. Questions will come from Ewan McGregor and many other figures from the worlds of Star Wars, Disney and beyond.

Now in its third year, support for last year’s Geeky T-Shirt day came from a trio of Scottish greats: Peter Capaldi, Brian Cox and Billy Boyd. The funds and awareness raised by the online event will help CHAS on its mission to reach every single baby, child and young person who needs them, despite the current situation.

Like many other charities left reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic, CHAS has had to dramatically transform the way in which it provides its increasingly important services. They have set up Scotland’s first-ever virtual hospice to support children and families who are having to completely self-isolate.

The virtual hospice is now four weeks in, offering families extensive support, whether it relates to clinical guidance, financial advice or bereavement support, by video and phone. CHAS family support teams are also offering an expanding range of interactive activities, art clubs, storytelling and conference calls to children and parents, with more in the pipeline.

Although stringent measures are currently in place to safeguard families, those needing urgent physical and end of life care are still welcome at the hospice, where staff work tirelessly to provide children with the palliative assistance they need.

Jodie Whittaker supports Geeky T-Shirt Day 2020

Doctor Who Magazine Issue 551 features former Doctor Who showrunners Russell T Davies and Steven Moffat who interview each other. Issue 551 also includes:

• Extended Production Notes from current showrunner Chris Chibnall.
• Composer Segun Akinola reveals his inspirations for the Series 12 soundtrack.
• In the first virtual Out of the TARDIS, Neil Gaiman answers questions from the TARDIS tin.
• The Fact of Fiction explores 1984 classic The Caves of Androzani.
• A tribute to the late David Collings (Revenge of the Cybermen, The Robots of Death, Mawdryn Undead), including extracts from a previously unpublished interview.
• How Doctor Who fans around the world are staying connected during the lockdown.
• A lockdown viewing guide to Doctor Who stories that are available on DVD and streaming services.
• A look at Birth of a Renegade, a short Doctor Who story from the Radio Times 20th Anniversary Special.
• A review of the Doctor Who: The Collection – Season 14 Blu-ray box set.
• Time and Space Visualiser presents a lockdown special, with contributions from former Doctors and companions.
• Public Image presents a full round-up of how Series 12 performed in the ratings.
• Part Three of The Piggybackers, a new comic-strip adventure featuring the Thirteenth Doctor and her friends.
• Big Finish previews and reviews, news, prize-winning competitions, The Blogs of Doom and much more!

Doctor Who Magazine Issue 551 is on sale from Thursday 30 April 2020 price £5.99 (UK)

The first full-cast, full-length Doctor Who audio drama to have been recorded entirely during lockdown will be released on 12 May.

Tom Baker, Louise Jameson and John Leeson star in Doctor Who: Shadow of the Sun, a Fourth Doctor mystery adventure written by Rob Valentine.

This is the first full-cast Doctor Who audio drama to have been produced using Big Finish’s remote recording techniques, and it boasts among its guest cast Fenella Woolgar (Inside Number 9, Call the Midwife) as a terminally bored socialite, Lady Malina Rigel-Smythe. She is one of many passengers onboard a luxury liner with a difference.

Doctor Who: Shadow of the Sun is now available to pre-order exclusively at the Big Finish website, from just £8.99.

Director Nicholas Briggs said Writer Robert Valentine added Doctor Who: Shadow of the Sun is now available to pre-order exclusively at the Big Finish website, as a collector’s edition CD (priced at £10.99) or digital download (price at £8.99).

Please note that Big Finish is currently operating a digital-first release schedule. The mailout of collector’s edition CDs will be delayed, but all purchases of this release unlock a digital copy that can be immediately downloaded or played on the Big Finish app from the release date.

BBC Studios have announced a Special Edition of the animated story The Power of the Daleks will be released on 6th July 2020.

An updated version of Patrick Troughton’s first story as the Second Doctor will be available on both DVD and Blu-ray

While no complete film recordings of The Power of the Daleks are known to have survived the purge of the BBC’s archive in 1975, fresh animation in high definition breathes new life into this much-loved story.

The six animated episodes replace the 2016 physical and digital release, with new and improved animation and authentic black and white visuals. The latest release also showcases a vast array of exciting new special features, in addition to all of the VAM on the 2016 release.

New additional material includes:

• Two new documentaries about Power of the Daleks
• 1993 BBC audio version of The Power of the Daleks narrated by Tom Baker
• Raw incidental music
• Photogrammetry Featurette
• Whicker's World - I Don't Like My Monsters to Have Oedipus Complexes
• Daleks - The Early Years: A 1992 documentary presented by Peter Davison
• Robin Hood - 1953 Episode: Patrick Troughton’s earliest surviving TV appearance
• BBC archive footage from BBC regional news, BBC Breakfast, Blue Peter and Newsnight
• Previously unreleased animation trailers and animatics
• Easter Eggs

And old favourites including:

• Audio commentaries by Anneke Wills on each episode
• Animation test footage
• Photo Gallery, including previously unreleased and rediscovered full colour on-set photos from 1966.
• Servants & Masters - The Making of The Power of the Daleks

You can pre-order the release from Amazon UK on Blu-Ray and DVD.