Posted By John Bowman

The new edition of Doctor Who Adventures - published in the UK on January 31 - is running a competition to create a monster for its comic strip.

The winner will appear with their creation in an exclusive comic strip in a future issue.

Editor Moray Laing said: "We can't wait to see loads of new monsters! From the letters and drawings we get, we know how much Doctor Who Adventures readers enjoy drawing pictures of the many creatures that appear in the series.

"But with this great new comp, readers get the chance to create their very own - plus the winner will appear in an exclusive comic strip story along with their yucky monster!"

Also in issue number 49:

News: The winner of the life-size Dalek competition is revealed
Fact file: The Fifth Doctor
Tales from the TARDIS: Debbie Chazen (Foon van Hoff in Voyage of the Damned) reveals her favourite scene from the Christmas special
Activity: Learn how to stomp like a Judoon and make your own special Judoon scanner
Comic strip: Part two of Hot Metal
Secrets: How the Doctor jumped through a mirror on a horse
Doctor's Data: The Futurekind
Exclusive posters: Martha and the Scarecrows, the Fifth and Tenth Doctors, and Morvin and Foon

Doctor Who Adventures issue 49 comes with a free monster pencil and eraser set featuring the Daleks and the Weeping Angels.

The British Board of Film Classification, the UK regulatory agency for film and video, has passed "Voyage of the Damned" for DVD release and rated it PG. The Christmas special was passed without cuts; the BBFC's consumer advice is that the special "contains moderate threat and scary scenes".

The 25th Anniversary Edition of "The Five Doctors" has also been passed and rated PG. The previous DVD of "The Five Doctors" was rated U.

UK release of "The Five Doctors - 25th Anniversary Edition" is scheduled for March 3. "Voyage of the Damned" is scheduled for release on March 10.

Inmates at the Woodford Correctional Centre have created a full size, ride-in Dalek to be auctioned off. Proceeds are going to support the Royal Children's Hospital, Brisbane. The inmates were helped by Mike Burrell, Trade Instructor from Woodford Correctional Centre.

"It took six months of occasional time when we were in between production" says Burrell. "It was made mostly out of ply but there are a lot of technical difficulties. Ply's flat and most of the Dalek is round and lumpy so it was difficult. It was set up to help them with their skills and technical abilities." The dimensions of the Dalek are 1.6m high, 1.3m front to back, and 0.8m wide. It's on wheels for easy transportation and can fit through a standard sized door.

ABC Brisbane reporter Brooke Carrigan was allowed an inside look at the finished product. "I'm inside the Dalek. And then you look up and it's got this voice-altering mechanism" Carrigan explains. "I can push and pull all these things and if you lift your feet up, we've actually been cruising through the children's hospital here, up and down the hallways".

Tegan Jones, Director of Fundraising and Development at Royal Children's Hospital, encourages fans to log onto E-bay to see the finished product. The auction closes on Friday, February 8th.


Thank you to Luke Bartolo and ABC Brisbane for the information.

Doctor Who

Doctor Who had been nominated for the The South Bank Show Awards, but lost to Channel 4's Iraq War drama "The Mark of Cain". BBC News has the story.

The Doctor Who episode "Gridlock" has been nominated for the Epiphany Prize, an award given by the conservative Christian media organization Movieguide. The Epiphany Prizes "seek to create a deeper spiritual awareness in mankind and increase man's love and understanding of God" and are awarded to "popular, entertaining movies and television programs which are wholesome, uplifting, inspirational, redemptive, and moral." "Gridlock" is up against the TV movies "Lost Holiday: The Jim & Suzanne Shemwell Story", "Saving Sarah Cain" and "The Valley of Light", and an episode of the animated Christian children's series "Friends and Heroes". Variety has a story about the nomination.

The Aberdeen Press and Journal reports that Billie Piper has been welcomed into her husband Laurence Fox's family, according to his cousin Emilia Fox.

And Colin Baker is endorsing a new Department of Transport scheme for anyone over 60 or disabled to have free bus travel during off-peak hours, reports the Bucks Free Press.

Torchwood

BostonNOW reviews the Torchwood first season DVD (calling the series "thoroughly entertaining").

The Daily Record has more excerpts from John Barrowman's autobiography, "Anything Goes", including Barrowman discussing his casting as Jack Harkness.

Doctor Who and Torchwood writer Helen Raynor speaks to the South Wales Echo about her work on the series. She tells the newspaper, "Sometimes I can get a bit precious about my work but that's healthy, the minute you get complacent about your work you're dead in the water."

The Herald has a rather tongue-in-cheek preview of "To the Last Man", which will air in the UK on Wednesday and in the US on February 9.

And last, Guardian Unlimited discusses the Torchwood alternate reality game, which is available (to UK users only)here.

(Thanks to "Caffeinejunkie", "PolyG" and "admiratio" of the Doctor Who Forum.)

TSV, the fanzine of the New Zealand Doctor Who fan club celebrates 75 issues and 20 years of publication with an issue wrapped in full colour artwork by Alistair Hughes. Paul Scoones takes us through the making of the first issue in 1987. Jon Preddle delves in the history of Doctor Who broadcasting in Singapore, Chris Skerrow continues his journey through the BBC Past Doctor Adventures, and Edwin Patterson gives us a collector's guide to buying Who merchandise online. Meanwhile, Series 3 is reviewed by the TSV Review Panel while Adam McGechan (and friends!) makes a case for the series 3 story arc not being about Mr Saxon at all, but is actually based on the Hartnell adventure The Chase. 100 pages, colour cover, 20 years. To purchase a copy visitThe NZDWFC / TSV Webpage.

The latest issues of the Doctor Who Information Network's fanzine Enlightenment include issue 143, which looks at Doctor Who spin-offs with reviews of the first season of the Sarah Jane Adventures and the 10 commandments of making good Doctor Who spin-offs, plus reviews of Time Crashand Voyage of the Damned, a tribute to Verity Lambert, a survival guide for fan wives and more. Issue 142 looks travels back to 1977 with an assessment of a golden year in the classic series, reviews of The Robots of Death and Horror of Fang Rock, a look back at Philip Hinchcliffe, a review of the 1978 Dr Who annual and more! Both issues are available from the DWIN website.

Doktor Wer?

The Sun reports that BBC Worldwide has sold the first two series of Doctor Who to Germany's ProSieben. The voices of the Ninth Doctor and Rose will be dubbed into German by Frank Roth and Maren Rainer, respectively.

The Sarah Jane Adventures

Despite Elisabeth Sladen's statement to SFX that a second series of The Sarah Jane Adventures has been commissioned, Digital Spy quotes a BBC source saying that no decision has yet been made.

Meanwhile, SFX has updated their report, suggesting that the "24 episodes" may represent two series being filmed back-to-back.

Torchwood

There are still more reviews of "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" from the American press: the Chicago Sun-Times (which calls Torchwood "pretty, witty and gay"),The Sun-Ledger (New Jersey), the Orlando Sentinel, Sci Fi Weekly andAbout.com all have largely positive reviews. (Earlier season reviews from the Associated Press and Newsday are also being reprinted in newspapers across the US.)

Eve Myles told Sci Fi Wire that the second series of Torchwood contains both action and romance. And Sci Fi Weekly has a John Barrowmaninterview, portions of which have already appeared in Sci Fi Wire.

Naoko Mori tells the Daily Record (Glasgow) what she loves and hates, and tells The Independent (London) about her week in media.

Finally, the Daily Record also has excerpts from John Barrowman's autobiography "Anything Goes".

(Thanks to "Lianne" of the Doctor Who Forum.)

Posted By John Bowman

The Restoration Team has updated its website with details about the forthcoming DVD releases of The Time Meddlerand The Five Doctors - 25th Anniversary Edition in the UK.

In it, Steve Roberts reveals why VidFIRE hasn't been employed on The Time Meddler. The process is normally used to give a video look to film recordings so that episodes appear as they did on transmission.

As previously reported by Outpost Gallifrey, extras on that disc will include a feature examining the comic strip adventures of the First Doctor, as well as a piece using audio recordings and the script to place in context the 12 seconds that are still missing from Checkmate - the final episode of the 1965 story - after they were cut by overseas censors before the print turned up.

The two-disc Five Doctors release will include the original version of the story, lasting 90 minutes, plus the special edition, which runs for 102 minutes. Screen grabs are used in the Restoration Team's feature to illustrate the improvement in picture quality of this 1983 story.

Among the extras on the Five Doctors release are outtakes plus contemporaneous appearances by assorted cast members on the BBC TV shows Saturday Superstore, Blue Peter, Breakfast Time and Nationwide.

The Time Meddler is due out on February 4, while The Five Doctors - 25th Anniversary Edition is released on March 3.

Doctor Who

Nearly all the Doctor Who press coverage from the last couple of days is related to the classic series. It's like we've gone back in time to 2003.

The Derby Evening Telegraph has a short interview with Colin Baker, who speaks about working with his ex-wifeLiza Goddard in "She Stoops to Conquer" and his visit to the filming of "Voyage of the Damned".

In the West End, Peter Davison will leave the role of King Arthur in Spamalot on March 1; his replacement in the role will be Alan Dale, who also has a guest role in an upcoming episode of Torchwood. The Official London Theatre Guide and Playbill have details.

An actual police box has been installed at the Kent Police Museum in Chatham. The Crawley Observer has the Press Association story and BBC News has video. NB: The police box, which is on loan to the museum from its home in Glasgow, will not be on public display until Sunday, February 10, when the museum reopens.

TVShowsOnDVD.com reports that BBC Video is reducing the price of two dozen classic Doctor Who DVDs in North America.

The only press items at all related to the new series are reviews of the recent adaptation of Mansfield Park starring Billie Piper, which will air in the US on PBS stations on Sunday, January 27 as part of the Masterpiece Classic series (formerly Masterpiece Theatre). The Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle and Deseret Morning News (Salt Lake City) review the production.

Torchwood

TV Guide and the Radio Times both have interviews with James Marsters about his role in Torchwood. TV Guidealso recommends the show to US viewers weathering the writers' strike.

There are more reviews of "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" from the Boston Herald, The Star-Ledger (New Jersey), the South Bend Tribune (Indiana), The Deadbolt and iF Magazine.

IGN, the Courier-Post (Cherry Hill, New Jersey) and The Globe and Mail (Toronto) have more reviews of the Torchwood First Season DVD box set; the Globe and Mail's review is on the same page as a review of the Criterion DVD release of This Sporting Life, the film which drew William Hartnell to the attention of Verity Lambert.

(Thanks to "Austin39" of the Doctor Who Forum.)

Wednesday's showing of Torchwood Episode Two, Sleeper received an Appreciation Index score of 85. This puts the programme in the excellent category and was one of the highest scores on Television on Wednesday. The edited version of Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang scored 82.

Meanwhile the Wednesday BBC3 repeat of Sleeper got an audience of 240,000while the BBC2 edited repeat was watched by 0.9 million viewers on Thursday evening, a 4.2% share of the audience. Torchwood Declassified on Thursday got an audience of 1.0 million.

SFX Magazine are currently running a feature on their website, previewing a forthcoming interview the magazine has conducted with actress Elisabeth Sladen. Sladen, who plays Sarah Jane Smith, confirms in the feature that not only has spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures been recommissioned for a second series, this time of 24 episodes, but that she will also be returning to Doctor Who itself for a guest appearance in series four.

The full interview will be printed in a special edition of SFX due out in March.