The BBC will be releasing a number of items related to Doctor Who over the coming weeks, with today seeing a new short story featuring the thirteenth Doctor written by showrunner Chris Chibnall.

The writer said:

You can read the short story via the official BBC Doctor Who website.

Fantom Events are planning a special event to take place online this coming Saturday, 28th March from 2:00pm. Time Space Visualiser will be streamed over the Internet for free, enabling any fan around the world to join in. Company Director Dexter O'Neill explains:

Activities will include a mixture of pre-recorded and live interviews, plus some specially commissioned and performed short stories, a dip into the Fantom archive for some convention panels, and a couple of surprises too! Guests participating include Sophie Aldred, Bonnie Langford, Nicola Bryant, Mark Strickson, Katy Manning, Annette Badland, Ian Hallard and Mark Gatiss - with a few still to be revealed.

You can follow the event via the Fantom Events website on Saturday, and further news about the event can be found on social media using #timespacevisualiser and #tsv, or by joining their mailing list.

Following on from the popular global viewing of The Day Of The Doctor last Saturday, a followup event featuring the first episode of 21st Century Doctor Who, Rose is planned for this coming Thursday, 26th March at 7:00pm GMT - the exact time of its fifteenth anniversary! As with #SaveTheDay, viewers around the world are invited to watch the episode and comment along.

With Steven Moffat getting involved last weekend, original writer and showrunner Russell T Davies has announced he too will be rejoining Twitter to join in the fun on Thursday, revealing something special to mark the occasion via his Instagram account:

Issue 550 of Doctor Who Magazine is part of a bumper package that includes a poster magazine, a TARDIS control-room diorama, six 1970s-style collectors’ cards, a Talons of Weng-Chiang poster and a download code for a four-part Big Finish adventure starring Tom Baker and Louise Jameson.

The retail price for this unique issue is £9.99, but a new offer from publisher Panini includes the issue as part of a six-month subscription with large savings on cover prices. The offer includes issues with exclusive, subscriber-only covers, DWM Special Editions and free delivery, very important in these difficult times.

For a limited time only, you can receive a six-month subscription to Doctor Who Magazine and its Special Editions for just £32.50. If you take out a new subscription by 5.00pm ON TUESDAY 24 MARCH, you can receive issue 550 as part of this special offer.

Editor Marcus Hearn says To take advantage of this limited-time offer, simply head to Panini Subscriptions. The 30% discount is open to UK direct debit subscribers only and is valid from 23 March to 23 April 2020. Minimum subscription term is one year. There are two payments of £32.50 during the first year of subscription. Subscriptions are charged at £37 per six months following the first year of subscription.

Issue 550 celebrates Doctor Who’s mid-70s classics. Highlights include:

• Showrunner Chris Chibnall and former producer Philip Hinchcliffe – together at the Doctor Who studio!
• Director Michael E Briant describes the making of his 1977 classic The Robots of Death.
• Sadie Miller remembers her mother, Sarah Jane Smith actress Elisabeth Sladen.
• The Doctor Who Magazine review of Series 12 – every episode from Spyfall to The Timeless Children!
• A diary and scrapbook of 1976-77 – the extraordinary months that spanned the broadcast of Season 14.
• A new presentation of Dr Who and the Hell Planet, a 1976 short story by Terrance Dicks.
• A review of the new, animated version of The Faceless Ones.
• How Robert Holmes reimagined the Time Lords for his 1976 story The Deadly Assassin.
• The Fact of Fiction explores the 2006 story Tooth and Claw.
• A look at Exploration Earth: The Time Machine, a 1976 schools programme starring Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen.
• Updates on Doctor Who luminaries, past and present, with Time and Space Visualiser.
• Public Image analyses the ratings for the final episodes of Series 12.
• Part Two 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!

PLUS:

• 1977-style poster magazine
• TARDIS control-room diorama
• Talons of Weng-Chiang music-hall poster
• Six collectors’ cards
• Four-part Big Finish download

Doctor Who Magazine Issue 550 is on sale from Thursday 2 April 2020£9.99 (UK)

Actor David Collings has died at the age of 79.

David Collings had a number of memorable appearances in Doctor Who appearing in eleven episodes of the Classic series between 1975 and 1983.

His first appearance was in the Fourth Doctor story Revenge of the Cybermen. Collins played Vorus, leader of the guardians on Voga. His performance as the proud renegade, trying to assert his races sovereignty but nearly bringing about their destruction was a tour de force.

He returned to the series in 1977 playing Poul in the story The Robots of Death. A very different role Poul was an undercover agent for the Kaldor City Company, eventually succumbing to Grimwade's Syndrome, the fear of Robots.

His final appearance came in the fifth Doctor story Mawdryn Undead, playing the title character Mawdryn, desperate to get the Doctor to give up his remaining regenerations.

David Collings was born in Brighton in East Sussex in 1940. His first television appearance came in 1964, playing Raskolnikov in a live production of Crime & Punishment. Over the next thirty years, he was a regular of the British screen appearing in such programmes as Dr. Finlay's Casebook, Point Counter Point, The Possessed, Canterbury Tales, Elizabeth R, By the Sword Divided, Miss Marple: A Murder Is Announced, Sapphire & Steel and The Shadow of the Tower.

He played William Wilberforce in The Fight Against Slavery and Blind Pew in Treasure Island. In 1981 he appeared in the final episode of Blake's 7 playing Deva. He played Monkey in the late seventies adaptation of a Chinese folktale.

Film roles included Bob Cratchit in the classic 1970 film musical, Scrooge, as well as roles in The Thirty Nine Steps and The Outsider, while Radio listeners heard him as Legolas in the acclaimed BBC dramatisation of The Lord of the Rings.

In recent years Collins had worked for Big Finish appearing in several Doctor Who related productions.

David Collings died suddenly earlier today. He is survived by his children and by his wife, Karen Archer, who announced the death on Twitter.

A new, specially written scene is to be released online tonight at 6:30pm GMT to introduce the #SaveTheDay initiative for an international viewing of the 50th Anniversary story The Day Of The Doctor.

The scene has been written by the story's writer and former showrunner Steven Moffat; organiser Emily Cook told Radio Times:
Details of the scene, and who will present it, are being kept under wraps, but the writer has briefly returned to Twitter to celebrate the event, saying:

The worldwide "watchathon" takes place at 7:00pm GMT/3:00pm ET/6:00am AEDT/8:00am NZDT.
Tweet #SaveTheDay

Today at 7:00pm GMT, Doctor Who fans (and anybody else who wants to join in!) all around the world are invited to join in a special global viewing of the 50th Anniversary Doctor Who adventure, The Day Of The Doctor!

Organised by Doctor Who Magazine writer, Emily Cook, the idea is to bring some cheer during the current global pandemic by fans watching episodes simultaneously and sharing their views together as the stories unfold. Back in 2013, The Day Of The Doctor achieved a world record for the number of viewers globally, and this story has been chosen to kick off this new shared experience, using the hashtag that promoted the anniversary, #SaveTheDay.


If successful, further shared viewing days could follow, with provisional ideas including the 21st Century Doctor Who premiere Rose on 26th March to celebrate its 15th anniversary, and the eleventh Doctor opener The Eleventh Hour on 3rd April in celebration of its 10th anniversary!

Due to the recent advice from Government about the spread of the Corona-19 virus, Big Finish has taken the decision to temporarily suspend the recording of audio dramas.

Speaking about the precaution to pause recording sessions, Chairman of the production company, Jason Haigh-Ellery, said: