Tomorrow sees several channels dedicated to coverage of the Royal Wedding; however, as an alternative, you could always experience the first few adventures of the Ninth Doctor instead, with digital channel Watch broadcasting Rose, The End of the World, Aliens of London/World War 3, The Long Game and Father's Day from 10:00am!

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Alternatively, you can watch The Doctor gate-crash a different wedding in the morning, with the CBBC channel broadcasting the compilation version of The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith between 9:00-10:00am!

Back in 1967 the Doctor was tasked with identifying the Human Factor, which was to ultimately revealed as a plan to unveil the Dalek Factor (The Evil of the Daleks). But what is the Dalek Factor in reality? Fan wisdom states that the Daleks are the first of the Doctor's adversaries to warrant the "behind the sofa" moniker, but now a Cambridge academic has written a paper on what he believes really makes the Doctor's greatest enemy so frightening.

Doctor Robin Bunce has researched how the Daleks have been used over the years and the perceived effect on viewers, eventually arriving at the conclusion that our 'fear' of them is based upon how they challenge us on what it means to be human ourselves:

For more details on the paper, see Cambridge University Research News.

Researcher Michaela Schubert is working on a book about Doctor Who and the autism spectrum, and is calling for Doctor Who fans to answer a few questions about their experiences with the show. Says Schubert,Schubert emphasizes that contributions are welcome from all, regardless of how much Doctor Who you've seen or whether you have been diagnosed with an autism spectrum condition.

Schubert is a PhD candidate at Penn State College of Medicine, and describes herself as "a Doctor Who fan and an Aspie". Information on the book project and links to a brief questionnaire can be found here; the questionnaire can also be found online in PDF or DOCX formats.

A group of fans have started a new project based on the social networking and microblogging website, Twitter.

The Doctor Who Bar, which is not a physical bar, is the name of an online group that meets every Saturday at 7pm GMT to watch an episode of Doctor Who and discuss it live on Twitter using #DoctorWhoBar to tag their tweets.

The third meeting takes place this evening from 7pm GMT and the group will be watching fifth Doctor story, Earthshock, having voted for it in an online poll. The winner was announced at 6pm GMT. To join in you need press play on your DVD,VCR or computer at exactly 7.30pm GMT so you can all stay in synchronisation with the other viewers.

You can email the bar at doctorwhobar@gmail.com for your full episode reviews and any other points of view you may wish to send. The best tweets, emails and comments will be displayed on the Doctor Who Bar website at the end of each week.

Players of the Facebook game application Farmville were in for a surprise this week as the TARDIS materialised on the Farm! Developers for the game have just launched a new expansion entitled English Countryside, and one of the gifts players can receive for qualifying for this level is a Police Box to place somewhere on their farm. To be able to receive the Police Box, you need to get 35 neighbours to travel with you. Alternatively you can spend 60 Farm Cash, which you need to buy with real money.

The majestic medieval backdrop of Raglan Castle in South East Wales will be the temporary home of the TARDIS throughout this February half-term until Sunday 27 February.

The Welsh Assembly released the news on their website earlier today:

This weekend sees UK newspaper The Guardian giving away two audio adventures of the Eleventh Doctor:

• Saturday's Guardian will come with a free copy of The Hounds of Artemis, written by James Goss and narrated by Matt Smith and Clare Corbett. This CD has yet to be released commercially (currently listed as for the 7th April).
• Sunday's Observer will come with The Ring Of Steel, written by Stephen Cole and read by Arthur Darvill. This CD was previously released commercially in August last year.
   
• In addition, throughout next week readers can find out details on how to download free episodes from the Hornet's Nest audio series, starring Tom Baker and Richard Franklin.

For more details see the Guardian website; the promotion is also being featured on commercial television and radio.

The new issue of the UK children's comic The Dandy sees its lead character, TV's Harry Hill, have a fleeting encounter with all eleven incarnations of the Doctor (plus some Daleks!) during a twelve page special of his usual madcap antics within the comic!

The issue is out on 16th February 2011.

(with thanks to Séan Baldwin. Image © The Dandy)

The Royal Mail are to release a new collection of stamps featuring six iconic images from the Royal Shakespeare Company to celebrate 50 years of the company's charter.

Each of the six stamps features a scene from The Tempest, Henry VI, King Lear, A Midsummer's Night Dream or Romeo and Juliet - the 1st Class stamp will feature Hamlet, as portrayed by David Tennant!

The stamps are due to be released on 12th April 2011, with the 1st Class stamp costing 46p at the time of issue.

News links: Norvic Philatelics, Anglotopia

South Yorkshire Police are in the process of selling off some of their disused properties in the Sheffield area, ranging from small buildings to police boxes! The agents for the sales are property consultants Knight Frank; Rebecca Schofield commented:

Nigel Hiller, Director of Finance for South Yorkshire Police explains:
David Livingstone, South Yorkshire Police’s Head of Facilities Management said:


You can read some more about the history of the police box at the Police Boxes and Mind Robber websites, and the more familiar "TARDIS" version at the Metropolitan Police website.