Merchandise Roundup

Saturday, 25 October 2014 - Reported by Harry Ward
The siege mode TARDIS from Flatline is to be released by official Doctor Who prop makers Rubbertoe Replicas.

TARDIS Siege Mode Cube

The Tardis in 'siege mode' been one of our favourite prop makes of the recent series of Doctor Who. The Tardis has shrunk and is in trouble; it's just about to be flattened by a train! The Doctor pulls an emergency lever to transform the Tardis into its rawest form, no way in, no way out.
It's a beautiful prop to look at, and fits in so well with the Rubbertoe range that when we had the design we knew it was meant to be! We hope you enjoy owning it as much we enjoyed making it.

As with all Rubbertoe Replicas, the Tardis Cube is made using the same techniques and materials as the original prop. To see a detailed account of how we made the original, with step by step pictures of the prop's construction, click here.

The cube comes packed in its own Doctor Who themed gift box.


Available to order now from Rubbertoe Replicas

The Seventh Doctor's Umbrella

Most people think umbrellas are for shielding them from the elements, such as rain or sun or snow. Yet an umbrella can just as easily save you from a fate such as slipping off a sheer ice cliff. A more mundane, yet handy tool is the umbrella when used to measure objects.

You can do both of these tasks (although I wouldn’t suggest you try the former) with your new Seventh Doctor’s Umbrella, AbbyShot’s latest addition to their officially licensed Doctor Who Collection.

Precise measurements were taken and various elements were put together to get the most representative version of this umbrella. It’s made of metal, with solid fiber glass ribs, customized iconic handle with matching tip and black polyester fabric, all of which give it strength while still keeping one dry and passersby safe.

More than just a hat stand decoration, the Seventh Doctor’s Umbrella will be a great addition to any household!


Available to pre-order now from BBC Shop and AbbyShot

Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol Vinyl

Here on vinyl for the first time is Murray Gold’s immaculately crafted original soundtrack to the 2010 Doctor Who Christmas Special. Featuring opera diva Katherine Jenkins as Abigail Pettigrew, Matt Smith as the 11th Doctor, and Michael Gambon as Kazran Sardick, A Christmas Carol was the third most watched programme on December 25th 2010. Katherine Jenkins’ special appearance was crowned with her performance of Abigail’s Song (Silence Is All You Know) on Side B, Track 14.


Available to pre-order now from Amazon UK and Silva Screen





FILTER: - Audio - Merchandise - Murray Gold - Seventh Doctor

BBC Offering Day of the Doctor Blu-ray Disc Replacements

Thursday, 23 October 2014 - Reported by Harry Ward
BBC Worldwide are offering replacement discs to fans who bought the Blu-ray version of the 50th Anniversary box set. The new disc will fix a frame rate fault on Disc 2 which contains The Day of the Doctor. Fans have been expressing disappointed with the fault on forums since the release on 8 September and eventually drew attention of the BBC. One fan received the following email:
Doctor Who - 50th Anniversary Collector's Edition - Disc 2 (Credit: Amazon) Thank you for your continued patience.

We are pleased to respond to our fans’ requests for this title to be made available in its original frame rate. We are offering replacements for Disc 2 only from the 50th Collector’s Edition Blu-ray (2D version), which includes the Day of the Doctor. Customers unhappy with their original 23.98 disc can send it (without packaging) to the Freepost address below, and we will send out a 50i replacement. Remember to include your full name and postal details clearly inside the package for the return. The estimated time frame for the new replacement discs to be available is 4-5 weeks. Please allow some time for the replacement disc to reach you.

*note: the Freepost address is for UK and mainland customers only. We advise you check with your postal service before despatch.

Freepost RTEK-EJGC-ZKGX
BBC Worldwide Ltd
BBC DVD Support
33 Foley Street
LONDON
W1W 7TL





FILTER: - Blu-ray/DVD - Day of the Doctor

Gareth Roberts no longer writing City of Death book

Tuesday, 21 October 2014 - Reported by Anthony Weight
CrossCult-LogoAuthor and scriptwriter Gareth Roberts, writer of several Doctor Who books and scripts over the past 20 years, has this evening announced on Twitter that he is no longer working on a novelisation of the 1979 Doctor Who serial City of Death, the most-watched story in the programme's history. Instead, the book will now be written by author and former BBC Doctor Who website editor James Goss. Goss's previous work includes the Torchwood novel Almost Perfect, the Tenth Doctor audio book Dead Air, and being one of the first authors to pen a novel for the Twelfth Doctor with the recent The Blood Cell. He also worked as producer of the animated Doctor Who serials Scream of the Shalka and The Infinite Quest.

City of Death was originally scripted by producer Graham Williams and script editor Douglas Adams, from a story idea by David Fisher. Transmitted under the pseudonym of "David Agnew", the story gained over 16 million viewers in the autumn of 1979, but like Adams's other scripts for Doctor Who, rights issues meant that - unlike the majority of classic series stories - a novelisation was never produced under the original Target Books run.

In October last year it was announced that Roberts would finally be penning a novelisation of City of Death, following the success of his novelisation of Adams' scripts for the unfinished serial Shada in 2012. Roberts had become particularly known for his affinity with the Season 17 era of Doctor Who during the mid-1990s, when he penned three well-received books set during that season for Virgin Publishing's Missing Adventures range of original Doctor Who novels. Two of Roberts's Missing Adventures for the Season 17 TARDIS team are currently being adapted into audio plays by Big Finish Productions.

Roberts's novelisation of City of Death had originally been expected to be released this year - there is currently no information on when Goss's eventual version of the book may be on the shelves.






FILTER: - Books - Fourth Doctor

Doctor Who: The Twelfth Doctor - Comic Trailer

Saturday, 11 October 2014 - Reported by Marcus
BBC Worldwide and Titan Comics have released a trailer for the new series, Doctor Who: The Twelfth Doctor, which is released on October 15th.

The comic is written by Robbie Morrison and illustrated by Dave Taylor. Cover art is by Alice X Zhang. The comic is being exclusively previewed at New York Comic Con which takes place this weekend.





FILTER: - Comics - Twelfth Doctor

Doctor Who: The Twelfth Doctor - Comic Series

Wednesday, 8 October 2014 - Reported by Marcus
Titan Comics have released a preview of their brand-new series, Doctor Who: The Twelfth Doctor #1, which will launch on October 15.

The comic is written by Robbie Morrison and illustrated by Dave Taylor. Cover art is by Alice X Zhang. The comic will be exclusively previewed at New York Comic Con which takes place on October 9-12.
Offering shocks, surprises, and galaxy-shaking revelations, seasoned TARDIS pilot Robbie Morrison (Drowntown, The Authority, 2000AD, Nikolai Dante) and New York Times-bestselling artist Dave Taylor (Batman: Death by Design; 2000AD) mark the start of their first five-issue run by diving headfirst into the console room and pulling all the levers they can – spinning the new Doctor off to his most challenging destination yet!

Freshly regenerated and with a new head full of unanswered questions, the Doctor (as played by Peter Capaldi) whisks Clara Oswald (as played by Jenna Coleman) away to a strange and distant world.

Clara thought she was in for an evening of marking essays on the Metaphysical Poets, followed by going out on a date – or at least trying to. You know, normal stuff.

Instead, she’s facing down exotic flora and fauna in her best dress, backing up the Doctor on a trek through traumatically alien undergrowth – and she doesn’t even know what the Doctor is searching for, or what will try to kill them should they find it!

New Face! New Doctor! New Beginning!




FILTER: - Comics - Twelfth Doctor

Retro TV to air The Mind of Evil in colour

Tuesday, 30 September 2014 - Reported by Chuck Foster
Colouring The Mind Of Evil (Credit: Stuart Humphryes)American broadcaster Retro TV will air third Doctor adventure The Mind of Evil in colour next month, the first television channel in the world to do so since the late 1970s!

With the original transmission tapes long-sinced erased, by the beginning of the 1980s only black and white prints of the episodes were still held by the BBC, meaning that the story has only been available to broadcasters around the world since then in that format. However, 2013 saw the story prepared for release on DVD with a newly colourised episode one by Stuart Humphryes (aka Babelcolour) and Peter Crocker, and colour-recovered episodes two to six by Richard Russell. Premiered at the British Film Institute in March last year, the story has since been shown a number of select locations, and made available on DVD and streaming services such as Hulu; Retro's broadcast will mark the first time the story can be enjoyed in colour on broadcast television once more.

Stuart Humphryes told us:
The work required to bring this classic serial back to colour was quite mind-boggling, but the fact it has been embraced so warmly by fans and now about to receive a wider audience through TV broadcast is extremely exciting and very satisfying and makes the thousands of hours worthwhile. I hope the viewers enjoy it!
More details about the colourisation process for episode one can be read via the Babelcolour website.

Episode One airs on Retro from 8:30pm on the 15th October.




FILTER: - Broadcasting - Classic Series - International Broadcasting - Third Doctor - USA

Rare Doctor Who micro figures unveiled by Character Options

Saturday, 27 September 2014 - Reported by Marcus
Character Options has revealed details of a number of brand new super rare micro- figures amongst the latest Character Building Doctor Who Display Brix Series 4 collection, which is out now.

The assortment of 12 highly detailed and fully articulated figures features key characters Doctor Who. The first micro-figure for the Twelfth Doctor played by Peter Capaldi together with his companion Clara Oswald and many other classic characters monsters are included in the range. Each figure comes in its own transparent Display Brix casing that can be stacked and presented into one Doctor Who display.

Character Options can confirm that there are actually five further figures to hunt for; all super-rare with 100 or less of each to find.

Who to look out for…
  • 100 of Clara Oswald in Bow Cardigan
  • 75 of The Eleventh Doctor with Handles
  • 75 of The Eleventh Doctor as he was seen in the episode “The Crimson Horror”
  • And rarest of all …
  • 50 of Wooden Cybermen
  • 50 of Captain Jack Harkness
Mark Hunt from Character Options commented:
At just £1.99 our Doctor Who Character Building Display Brix are already highly collectable for fans, but we like to throw in a little extra excitement by adding a number of super rare figures to each new Series of figures. The new collection is by far the coolest we’ve released, with a wide variety of new collectibles and rarer than ever special figures which will be a huge bonus for fans who are lucky enough to find them.




FILTER: - Character Options - Eleventh Doctor

Moments in Time: the first international broadcast

Thursday, 18 September 2014 - Reported by Paul Scoones and Chuck Foster
Moments in TimeOn the 23rd November 2013 the world celebrated Doctor Who reaching its fiftieth anniversary, receiving a Guinness World Record as some 94 countries were officially recorded as having shown the anniversary episode. However, the 18th September 2014 sees another milestone celebrated as, fifty years ago, An Unearthly Child was to receive its first-ever international broadcast.

The country in question was New Zealand, with the Doctor's very first appearance outside the United Kingdom to be broadcast by Christchurch's CHTV-3. The episode was shown at 7:57pm, sandwiched between news programme NZBC Reports... and a documentary about Dr. Gordon Seagrave, The Burma Surgeon Today, and was introduced by the weekly magazine The New Zealand Listener as:

The first of a new adventure series about an exile from another world and a distant future, travelling with his granddaughter and two London school teachers through time and space. Starring William Hartnell as Doctor Who and Carol Ann Ford (sic) as his granddaughter. In tonight's episode Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright, two school teachers, decide to try and find out more about one of their pupils who is puzzling them.

You can read the country's introduction to the Doctor from the Listener below.

CHTV-3 Schedule for 18 Sep 1964 (Credit: The Listener) Article on series (Credit: The Listener) Article Image (Credit: The Listener)





FILTER: - First Doctor - International Broadcasting - Moments in Time - New Zealand

Classic DVD release schedule for Germany announced

Tuesday, 16 September 2014 - Reported by Pascal Salzmann
Siebter Doktor: Volume 1 (Credit: Pandastorm)German DVD distributor Pandastorm Pictures announced today the upcoming plans for DVD releases of the classic series in a newsletter sent out to fans. As previously reported the first volume of seventh Doctor stories includes the complete Season 24 on four discs, all the bonus features of the UK DVD's and will be released on 28th November 2015.

Additionally, Pandastorm Pictures is going to release the following sets:

  • Siebter Doktor Volume 2 (Season 25, 5 discs, release date: 27th February 2015)
  • Siebter Doktor Volume 3 (Season 26, 7 discs, release date: 24th April 2015)
  •  Die Fünf Doktoren (The Five Doctors, 2 discs, release date: tba)
  • Sechster Doktor Volume 1 (The Twin Dilemma & Season 22, 7 discs, release date: tba)
  • Sechster Doktor Volume 2 (Season 23, 4 discs, release date: tba)
  • Doctor Who - The Movie (2 discs, release date: tba)

According to the newsletter there are currently rights issues that need to be resolved before the TV Movie can be released.

There are no German dubs to any other episodes available, so further releases are unlikely. However, the distributor has told fans that it would consider dubbing more classic episodes if the DVD's are going to sell extremely well.

Der Siebte Doktor Volume 1 can be pre-ordered from Amazon Germany.






FILTER: - Blu-ray/DVD - Classic Series - Eighth Doctor - Fifth Doctor - Germany - Seventh Doctor

UK DVD: The Complete David Tennant Years

Monday, 15 September 2014 - Reported by Chuck Foster
BBC Worldwide are to release a DVD boxed set for the United Kingdom featuring all of the (regular) adventures of the tenth Doctor, as played by David Tennant:

The Complete David Tennant Years (Credit: BBC Worldwide)The Complete David Tennant Years

In this massive 26-disc collection, the BBC brings together the complete David Tennant Years! David Tennant made his debut as the Doctor in 2005 in “The Christmas Invasion” and in the four years that followed, Doctor Who grew to new heights of popularity. This collection celebrates Tennant’s tenure by bringing together every David Tennant Doctor Who episode including The Complete Second Series (co-starring Billie Piper as Rose Tyler), The Complete Third Series (co-starring Freema Agyeman as Martha Jones) and The Complete Fourth Series (co-starring Catherine Tate as Donna Noble), all eight specials and two spin-off animated adventures, totalling over 38 hours of Doctor Who plus hours of extras. This is a must-own collection for the legion of devoted Doctor Who fans.

The boxed set was originally released for the North American region (R1) in 2011.




FILTER: - Blu-ray/DVD - David Tennant - Tenth Doctor - UK