The Guardian newspaper in the UK has published an obituary for actor Timothy Bateson, who died in September at the age of 83. Bateson enjoyed an acting career stretching from the 1940s to the present decade, and in 1955 appeared in the first London production of the play "Waiting for Godot". He appeared in Doctor Who only once, in the 1978 serial The Ribos Operation, where he portrayed Binro the Heretic. In this role he took part in the scene where Binro explains that be believes there are other planets and other stars; this is frequently regarded as one of the most memorable scenes from Doctor Who, most recently acclaimed as such in Doctor Who Magazine's "200 Golden Moments" special edition. The serial, along with the others in the 1978 "Key to Time" series, is due to be re-released on DVD next week, following its previous limited edition issue.



Image courtesy of the Doctor Who Image Archive

Speaking at the Missing in Action convention, the actor Nicholas Courtney reported that he has just recorded a commentary for the seventh season story The Ambassadors of Death, alongside other members of cast and crew including Terrance Dicks, Peter Halliday and Derek Ware.

It should be remembered that commentaries are often recorded way in advance of DVD release (years in some cases!), so this is no indication that the story is currently scheduled to appear in the shops soon!

Restoration Team member Steve Roberts recently discussed the colour recovery process at a talk for the Doctor Who Information Network, during which he reported that recovery work hadn't been undertaken on the story at that point.

Both parts of The Eternity Trap received an AI score of 86. The score is again way above the average score for Children's drama. The scores were one of the highest on BBC One on either Thursday or Friday with only New Tricks scoring higher.

The actor and stuntman Alan Chuntz has died at the age of 81. Chuntz appeared in at least 15 stories from the classic series. He was a member of HAVOC, the team that provided much of the stunt work for the programme. He played Omega's champion in The Three Doctors and had a rare speaking role as the Chauffeur in The Seeds of Doom.

As well as his work on Doctor Who, Chuntz was a regular face on British Television in the seventies appearing in series such as Z Cars, Some Mothers Do Ave Em, The Avengers, The Persuaders, The Onedin Line, Hazel and Minder.

• The Invasion - Stuntman
• The Seeds Of Death -Technician
• The Ambassadors Of Death - Soldier
• Inferno - Soldier
• Terror Of The Autons - Stuntman
• The Mind Of Evil - Prisoner
• The Sea Devils - Stuntman
• The Three Doctors - Omega's Champion
• The Green Death - Security Guard
• Planet Of The Spiders - Stuntman
• Genesis Of The Daleks - Kaled Guard
• Revenge Of The Cybermen - Stuntman
• The Seeds Of Doom - Chauffeur
• The Face Of Evil - Stuntman
• The Talons Of Weng-Chiang - Stuntman
• State Of Decay - Guard
• The Visitation - Stuntman

This weeks Doctor Who Adventures magazine is packed with top scares from swooping Reapers to the destructive Toclafane. Everything you need to know about monsters that fly.

The story guide is all about an explosive Cyberman clash. And to find out how well you know robot dog K-9, with the quick quiz.

Also there is a look at the Fifth Doctor. What did he wear and how long was he the Doctor?

Part Two of The Eternity Trap, was watched by 0.8 million viewers, with an audience share of 6.6%.

The series, which is rating well above the average for the time slot, has received a slight legacy boast following the appearance of David Tennant in the series last week.

Final figures will be out in around two weeks time.

March 2nd sees the Dalek War box set come to North America with the release of the two third Doctor stories Frontier in Space and Planet of the Daleks.

Starring Jon Pertwee as The Doctor and Katy Manning as Jo Grant, the set includes the recently restored episode three of Planet of the Daleks, now in colour for the first time in 30 years.

Frontier in Space features a commentary with Katy Manning, as well as producer Barry Letts and script editor Terrance Dicks.

Extras Include:

• Perfect Scenario: Lost Frontier
• The Space War, the making of the story
• Roger Delgado: The Master, a biography of actor Roger Delgado
• Stripped for Action: The Third Doctor's comic book adventures

Planet of the Daleks also features a commentary with Manning, Letts and Dicks and also includes Prentis Hancock who played Vaber and Tim Preece who played Codal.

Extras Include:

• Perfect Scenario: The End of Dreams
• The Rumble in the Jungle, the making of the story.
• Multi-colourisation, a look at the colour restoration of episode three.
• Stripped for Action: focuses on the Daleks
• Blue Peter.

Also released on this day is the special edition of the seventh Doctor story, Remembrance of the Daleks.

First shown in 1988 the story stars Sylvester McCoy as The Doctor  and Sophie Aldred as Ace.

The story was first released on DVD in 2002. This special edition has a audio commentary by actors Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred as well as a number of documentaries about the programme.

• Back to School: "Making Of" documentary (32 mins)
• Remembrances: Influences and references to earlier Doctor Who adventures (15 mins)
• Davros Connections: In-depth look at the history of the Daleks' creator (43 mins)
• Extended and Deleted Scenes (12 mins)
• Outtakes (4 mins)
• Multi-Angle Sequences (2 mins)
• Isolated Music Option
• Trailers and Continuities (5 mins)
• Photo Gallery (8 mins)
• Easter egg
• DVD-ROM material: Radio Times listings
• Production Notes Subtitle Option

The Eternity Trap, was watched by 0.9 million viewers, with an audience share of 7.3%.

The rating is once more much higher than usual for this slot on BBC One, which has an average of 0.4 million.

Mad Norwegian Press has announced that Time, Unincorporated 2, the second in a series of fanzine article collections, will see print in May 2010. Previously titled "Classic Series Cornucopia," Volume 2 will actually see print under the title "Writings on the Classic Series," while the forthcoming Volume 3 will be "Writings on the New Series." Volume 2 of this series contains nearly 75 essays that examine every era of the classic Doctor Who series that ran from 1963-1989, as well as the FOX TV movie (1996). The essays stem from a wide array of venerable fanzines such as Enlightenment, Shockeye’s Kitchen, Burnt Toast, Faze, Dark Circus, The Whostorian and more. Collectively, the essays derived from these sources form one of the most diverse compilations of Doctor Who writing ever produced. As a bonus, ten of the essays were written exclusively for this volume by the likes of Matt Jones (Doctor Who, Torchwood), Simon Guerrier (The Slitheen Excursion), Pyr Books editorial director Lou Anders, and Jim Sangster (TV Heaven).

BBC Worldwide has done a deal with MSN Video to supply classic episodes of Doctor Who online. The stories are available free on the MSN website. The series is starting with the 1965 William Hartnell story, The Web Planet.

New episodes will be added on Tuesdays and Fridays from 10th November.

Video may not be available outside the United Kingdom.