John Bennett

Wednesday, 13 April 2005 - Reported by Shaun Lyon

Actor John Bennett passed away on April 11, 2005; he was 76. Bennett played General Finch in the Jon Pertwee serial "Invasion of the Dinosaurs," but was perhaps best known to Doctor Who fans for his role as Li H'sen Chang, servant of the god Weng-Chiang, in "The Talons of Weng Chiang" opposite Tom Baker. Bennett was a popular guest actor whose many series appearances including "Z Cars," "Casualty," "Softly Softly," "Survivors," "The Saint," "The Avengers," "Dixon of Dock Green" and "Blake's 7" as well as many film roles spanning nearly five decades. (Thanks to Neil Marsh)




FILTER: - Obituary - Classic Series

Mind Robber in Australia

Tuesday, 12 April 2005 - Reported by Shaun Lyon

According to the ezyDVD retailer, the Australian DVD release of The Mind Robber has been scheduled for May 5, 2005. Note that "Horror of Fang Rock" was just released last week as well, and "The Claws of Axos" is due out on July 7. (Thanks to Carl Davidson)




FILTER: - Classic Series - Blu-ray/DVD - Australia

Downloadable Who

Tuesday, 12 April 2005 - Reported by Shaun Lyon

BBC Worldwide has now made available most of the back collection of Doctor Who soundtracks from BBC Audiobooks on the iTunes music store system owned by Apple. The offerings include many of the narrated episode soundtracks, as well as both collections ("Adventures in History" and "Yeti Attack!"), the "Slipback," "Death Comes to Time" and "Paradise of Death" radio dramas, both "Tales From the TARDIS" volumes and "Doctor Who at the BBC". You can find them in the Music Store on iTunes; you must have the software installed on your PC to use it. (Thanks to Shawn Fuller)




FILTER: - Audio - Classic Series

New CD Covers

Tuesday, 12 April 2005 - Reported by Shaun Lyon

Amazon.co.uk now features the full cover illustrations for two forthcoming releases from BBC Audiobooks: , The Crusade, the season two classic starring William Hartnell due out on May 2 (narrated by William Russell), andThe Power of the Daleks Reconstructed, the MP3-CD release due out June 6 featuring the previously-released soundtrack for the serial as well as telesnap photos to play along with it in your CD-ROM (though for some reason, Amazon lists this as a "cassette" release). Click on the thumbnails below for each for a larger version; meanwhile, you can order them through Amazon (and help out Outpost Gallifrey) using the following links: Crusadeand Power. (Thanks to Dan O'Malley, Lonnie Readioff)




FILTER: - Audio - Classic Series

Editor's Note

Sunday, 3 April 2005 - Reported by Shaun Lyon

Hello readers! Due to the extraordinary amount of time the New Series news section has taken the past month, updates to the general Doctor Who page have been sparse... but this week I should have some time to get through a backlog of items (including our regular special events updates!) Thanks for your patience!




FILTER: - Classic Series

BFI TV Classics: Doctor Who

Tuesday, 22 March 2005 - Reported by Shaun Lyon
A new book will soon be out from the British Film Institute. Entitled "BFI TV Classics: Doctor Who", it will be a critical analysis of the series by film critic and author Kim Newman -- best known to Who fans as the author of the first Telos novella "Time and Relative". This book is part of a new "BFI TV Classics" series which will also include Buffy, The Office and Our Friends In The North (which starred none other than... Christoper Eccleston!) More details are available at the BFI website. (Thanks to Daniel O'Malley at Timelash)




FILTER: - Books - Classic Series

BBC Kids Canada Rebroadcasts

Friday, 18 March 2005 - Reported by Shaun Lyon
BBC Kids in Canada is adding the Jon Pertwee Doctor Who episodes to their late night lineup starting April 16. "Spearhead From Space" airs late Saturday April 16, while the first 4 episodes of "Doctor Who and the Silurians" air late Sunday April 17. This is the first time that Pertwee episodes have aired on the digital Canadian cable network - previously they have aired the Tom Baker and Peter Davison stories. BBC Kids airs Doctor Who 7 days a week at 2AM Eastern (11PM Pacific). 2 episodes air weeknights, 4 episodes air Saturdays and Sundays. (Thanks to Benjamin Elliott and This Week in Doctor Who)




FILTER: - Canada - Classic Series - Broadcasting

City of Death DVD

Wednesday, 16 March 2005 - Reported by Shaun Lyon
The official Doctor Who website has announced that City of Death "is likely be released in November 2005" and that for one of the DVD's special features, "Tom Baker has provisionally agreed to shoot an exclusive interview on location in Paris as part of the disc's main documentary feature." Outpost Gallifrey has learned, however, that Tom's agreement is provisional, according to our sources, and that it's subject to availability and the usual production logistics, which are much more complicated when shooting abroad; if it does happen, it will be the first authored documentary in the DVD series, to be produced by Ed Stradling. Also, our sources say that the November date isn't fixed and it could move earlier or later in the year.




FILTER: - Classic Series - Blu-ray/DVD

The Ice Warriors and At The BBC 3

Tuesday, 15 March 2005 - Reported by Shaun Lyon

The Play.com website confirms the release of The Ice Warriors narrated by Frazer Hines from the BBC Radio Collection. "Frazer Hines narrates the remastered original soundtrack of this classic six-episode television adventure, starring Patrick Troughton as the Doctor. ... This CD also features an exclusive interview with Frazer Hines, who talks about his memories of making the 1967 BBC1 serial." Also announced at Play.com is the September 5 release of Doctor Who at the BBC: Volume 3: "This third edition of archive extracts follows the highly successful first two volumes. Once again all manner of programmes from the BBC radio and television archives yield Doctor Who-themed features, from drama and comedy to interviews and behind-the-scenes items. This time round radio interviews and features on the new series will be included." (Thanks to Gary Reed)




FILTER: - Audio - Classic Series

The Claws of Axos DVD

Tuesday, 15 March 2005 - Reported by Shaun Lyon
BBC Video has finally announced The Claws of Axos, which will be released about two weeks early, on April 25, 2005, in the UK, according to the listing at the BBC Shop which now features a press relaese and cover illustration, reprinted below. Click on the thumbnail for a larger version.
THE CLAWS OF AXOS

An approaching Alien spaceship is detected on monitoring equipment at UNIT HQ, where the Brigadier is entertaining two visitors - Chinn, a civil servant making a security inspection, and Bill Filer, an American agent sent to discuss the threat of the Master. The Ship lands in England and the UNIT team, joined by Hardiman and Winser from the nearby Nuton power station, meet its occupants: beautiful golden-skinned humanoids called Axons.

The Axons claim that their ship, Axos, is damaged and that they need time in which to repair it. In return, they offer Axonite, a substance that can cause animals to grow to enormous sizes and thus end food shortages. The Doctor is suspicious, and rightly so: Axos, Axonite and the Axons - whose true appearance is hideous - are all part of a single parasitic entity brought to Earth by the Master to feed on the planet's energy. The Doctor manages to materialise his TARDIS, with the Master on board, at the centre of Axos. He offers to link the two ships together to make one giant time machine, on condition that Axos in return helps him to take revenge on the Time Lords for exiling him to earth. This is merely a trick, however, and Axos is locked in a time loop from which it can never escape. The Doctor returns to Earth in theTARDIS, where he reluctantly admits to the Brigadier that the Master may also have escaped.

DVD Extras:

* Commentary track
* Photo gallery
* Production subtitles
* Out takes/deleted scenes
* Now and Then' featurette about the Dungeoness location
* Interview with Michael Ferguson (director)
* Reverse Standards Conversion featurette




FILTER: - Classic Series - Blu-ray/DVD