The next shared Doctor Who viewing organised by Doctor Who Magazine's Emily Cook takes place this evening (UK) in celebration of Peter Capaldi's birthday:


The Twitter discussion will include insights from writer Steven Moffat, director Rachel Talalay and the embodiment of the Veil, Jami Reid-Quarrell.



There is also a special message from the Doctor himself, Peter Capaldi, in advance of the discussion:

As promised, ahead of today's #HellofaBird watchalong with @StevenWMoffat, @rtalalay and @JReidQ...

Here's A NOTE FROM PETER CAPALDI! ⭐️#DoctorWhoLockdown pic.twitter.com/52AmBUVKhw

— Emily Cook (@Emily_Rosina) April 14, 2020

The classic series writer Pip Baker has died at the age of 91.

Pip Baker, along with his wife and writing partner Jane, was one of the best-known writers from the mid 80's era of Doctor Who, writing eleven episodes for the series. Together they created the Rani, a female Time Lord scientist who was brought to life so vividly by the late Kate O'Mara, as well a creating the companion Mel.

Pip and Jane Baker began writing together in the 1960s working on the films The Painted Smile, The Break, The Night of the Big Heat and Captain Nemo and the Underwater City. On Television, they worked on the children's thriller Circus as well as episodes of Z-Cars and Space 1999.

In 1985 they were commissioned by producer John Nathan Turner to write for the first full series of the Sixth Doctor, Colin Baker, producing the story Mark of the Rani. The story was well received and the couple returned the following year to pen Terror of the Vervoids The third segment of the Trial of a Time Lord Season, envisaged as a whodunnit in space.

Later that year the couple were called in following the departure of the then Script editor Eric Saward, who left following a disagreement with Nathan Turner. Saward had withdrawn his script for the final episode of the season leaving the Bakers to come up with an alternative ending, without access to anything already written, and without creating anything which needed a new set to be built. They had just three days to come up with a script capable of concluding a season they had very little part in conceiving.

In 1988 Pip Baker told Doctor Who Magazine about some of the problems they encountered. After the transmission of the season, Phi and Jane Baker found themselves defending their scripts on the BBC's feedback programme Open Air, facing criticism from some fans including future showrunner Chris Chibnall.

The Bakers returned to Doctor Who at the start of the next season, introducing the seventh Doctor in Time and the Rani, a script which brought back their most enduring creation The Rani.

In the early 1990's they created the children's programme Watt on Earth which ran for 24 episodes on BBC One.

Jane Baker died in 2014. Pip Baker died this morning after being ill for some time following a fall.

Last night's shared viewing of The Doctor's Wife on Twitter was introduced by a new specially written scene featuring Arthur Darvill reprising his role as Rory Williams, updating his diary with events about to occur ...


The minisode was written by Neil Gaiman with special music composed by Blair Mowat, who has also made the short score available to listen to via Soundcloud.




Recent #DoctorWhoLockdown extras have included a special introduction to The Day of the Doctor by Strax, a sequel to Rose, Revenge of the Nestene, a short story to accompany Rose, The Raggedy Doctor by Amelia Pond.

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The next shared Doctor Who viewing organised by Doctor Who Magazine's Emily Cook takes place this evening (UK):


As with previous discussions, author Neil Gaiman will be giving insights on his episode, this time joined by director Richard Clark and the voice of House, Michael Sheen.

Neil Gaiman also hinted on Twitter:




Don't forget that there is another shared viewing of Silver Nemesis with Sophie Aldred at 6:00pm BST as part of online Time Space Visualiser convention taking place this afternoon on YouTube.

As with last week, Time Space Visualiser will be followed in the evening by another shared viewing of a story, this time the 25th anniversary adventure Silver Nemesis. As is usual with these viewings, fans worldwide can join in to discuss the story on Twitter, and this time will be joined by 'ace' companion Sophie Aldred!

Candy Jar Books has announced its latest free-for-download short story:


The Serpent’s Tongue and The Two Brigadiers author, Jonathan Macho, has written this story especially for fans in lockdown:
Jonathan’s story also recognises the important job our key workers are doing for us in these difficult times:

For Doctor Who fans that are unaware of Lucy Wilson, she is the granddaughter of the iconic Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, one of Doctor Who’s longest running characters. The Copy/Paste free story also includes a message from the Brigadier, with Head of Publishing at Candy Jar, Shaun Russell, commenting:

To download The Lucy Wilson Mysteries: Copy/Paste visit the Candy Jar Books website.

Big Finish have released details on a new boxed set to be released in November 2020: The Fifth Doctor Adventures – Wicked Sisters sees the fifth Doctor (Peter Davison) reunited with an earlier companion Leela (Louise Jameson) as he reencounters Grace sisters Abby (Ciara Janson) and Zara (Laura Doddington).


The new full-cast Doctor Who audio drama box set will feature three linked adventures: The Garden of Storms, The Moonrakers, The People Made of Smoke. The stories are all written by Graceless’ creator and writer, Simon Guerrier, who wrote the very first appearance of Abby and Zara in Doctor Who: The Judgment of Iskaar.

Producer Mark Wright said:

Simon added:

Doctor Who: The Fifth Doctor Adventures – Wicked Sisters is available for pre-order exclusively from the Big Finish website.

The actress Honor Blackman, best-known for playing Bond girl Pussy Galore and Cathy Gale in The Avengers, has died at the age of 94.

Honor Blackman enjoyed a career spanning eight decades, appearing in many films and television series. She appeared in Doctor Who in 1986 playing Professor Lasky in the Sixth Doctor story Terror of the Vervoids.

Honor Blackman was born in East London in 1925, the daughter of a Civil servant. For a 15th birthday present, she was given acting lessons, a gift that would lead to her becoming one of the hardest working and most successful actresses of her generation.

Her film debut came in 1947 with a non-speaking part in Fame Is the Spur Other films include in 1948 Quartet based on short stories by W. Somerset Maugham and in 1950 So Long at the Fair in which she appeared with Dirk Bogarde. In 1958 she appeared in the film based on the Titanic disaster A Night to Remember.

Her breakthrough came in 1962 when she was cast as leather-clad crimefighter Cathy Gale in the hit British show The Avengers, playing alongside Patrick Macnee as John Steed. Her action role, which required her to learn judo, endeared her to the nation and with her distinctive dress sense, she quickly became a British icon. One side effect, a top ten single, Kinky Boots, recorded in 1964 with Macnee.

It was her performance in The Avengers which led to Albert R. Broccoli casting Blackman as Pussy Galore, opposite Sean Connery in the James Bond franchise, despite the show not being well known in America. He said, "I knew the Brits would love her because they knew her as Mrs Gale, the Yanks would like her because she was so good, it was a perfect combination".

Appearances followed in series such as Never the Twain, Bridget Jones's Diary, Jack and the Beanstalk: The Real Story, Casualty and even a stint in Coronation Street where she played Rula Romanoff

In 1990, she was cast in a regular role in the ITV sitcom The Upper Hand, playing the glamorous mother of the lead female character. Blackman expressed her fondness for the role, saying it "made women who’d just retired and felt they’d been put on the backburner realise they had a lot of life left to live".

Blackman was a political activist and a member of the Liberal Democrats. She was a committed republican declining an honour from the Queen in 2002, as she felt it would be hypocritical to accept.

Honor Blackman's death was announced today by her family.

The recent global DoctorWhoLockdown initiative organised by Doctor Who Magazine's Emily Cook was reported by BBC News in the lead-up to last night's The Eleventh Hour - you can watch the report via the DoctorWhoLockdown YouTube channel.

This is the second time the initiative has been reported on, with entertainment correspondent Lizo Mzimba reporting on the simulcast viewing of Rose back on its anniversary on the 26th March (online version).



The next planned DoctorWhoLockdown is for The Doctor's Wife on Saturday 11th April from 8:00pm BST.