.As previously reported, Splendid Chaps is a year-long performance/podcast project to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who hosted by comedian Ben McKenzie (Dungeon Crawl, Melbourne Museum Comedy Tour) and writer John Richards (ABC1 sitcom Outland, Boxcutters podcast).

Described by its creators as part intellectual panel discussion, part nerdy Tonight Show, Splendid Chaps is a combination of analysis, enthusiasm and irreverence. The first episode went to number 1 on the iTunes TV & Film Podcast chart in Australia, and to number 4 in the UK. The podcasts to previous episodes are now available at www.splendidchaps.com or at iTunes.

Tickets are now on sale for their Tenth Doctor show! Their tenth major episode brings the Splendid Chaps to many people’s first (and favourite) Doctor, David Tennant. Phenomenally popular, and quickly establishing his own fanbase independent of the show, Tennant stayed in the role over five years, all the way to the end of Russell T Davies time as showrunner, cementing the programme's success and becoming "the" Doctor for a whole generation of viewers.

Seemingly a big part of Tennant’s success was his sex appeal – something foreign to many fans of the classic series. The Doctor of the Old Time (and most of his friends) seemed uninterested in sex, save for the occasional bit of flirting, but in the new series he clearly romances Rose, spurns Martha, fends off Amy and perves on Clara; he’s snogged every female companion, and “danced” with or married a slew of historical figures. Then there’s future pansexual Captain Jack; Amy and Rory, who spend their honeymoon in costume and their wedding night in the TARDIS; and the love affair that lasts lifetimes between the Doctor and Professor River Song. Is this weird? Is it awesome? What does modern Doctor Who say about sex, relationships and sexuality, and did the classic series have anything to say about them?

Hosts Ben McKenzie, John Richards and Petra Elliott are joined by writer, broadcaster and critic Richard Watts (artsHub, RRR’s SmartArts) and erotica writer and burlesque performer Aimee Nichols. Plus music from Melbourne geek rock band Blue Turtle Shell, giveaways from their lovely sponsors, and all the usual tomfoolery! (But no hanky panky.)

Space: The Gasometer Hotel, 484 Smith Street, Collingwood (corner of Alexandra Parade)
Time: Sunday 13 October; recording starts 5 PM
Accessibility: Splendid Chaps regret that this venue is not wheelchair accessible.
Tickets: $15 (plus booking fee where applicable)
Bookings: via trybooking.com or at the door (subject to availability)
Podcast: not yet available; released 23 October 2013.

The BBC will be showing "stings" for the forthcoming anniversary episode The Day of the Doctor tonight, the official site announced earlier today.

Revealing the ident and hashtag that will be used for the story, they will be shown on BBC One immediately before and after Atlantis - the BBC's new fantasy drama - which starts at 8.25pm.

Viewers can also look forward at some point to an all-new trailer that has been specially written and shot for the episode and is currently in post-production. In the meantime, an image has been released from behind the scenes of making the trailer.


The Day of the Doctor will air on Saturday 23rd November.

UPDATE: And here are those "stings":

The twenty-first in our series of features telling the story of the creation of Doctor Who, and the people who made it happen.

After five days of rehearsing, the cast were ready to go before the electronic cameras for the recording of the first episode of Doctor Who, which took place on Friday 27th September 1963 - exactly 50 years ago today.

Later known as the pilot episode, this recording was intended to be shown as the first episode of the new series.

Doctor Who was to be recorded in Studio D at Lime Grove in west London. Opened in 1914 by the Gaumont Film Company, Lime Grove was a film studio converted for television. Bought by the BBC in 1950, it would be home to some of the nation's most-loved programmes for over 40 years.

Studio D was 5,300 sq ft, about 83ft x 64ft. Long-running series broadcast from here included What's My Line?, Sooty, Dixon of Dock Green, Blue Peter, Steptoe and Son, whose theme was composed by Ron Grainer, and Britain's first soap, The Grove Family, which took its title family from the studios, was created and written by Jon Pertwee's father and elder brother, Roland and Michael, and whose cast included Peter Bryant.

Television production in the 1960s followed a strict pattern. Overnight, the sets for Doctor Who were rigged following the plans drawn up by the designer, Peter Brachacki. Over half the studio was taken up with the interior of the Doctor's time and space ship, the TARDIS. Built by freelance contractors Shawcraft Models (Uxbridge) Ltd, the set featured a large hexagonal unit strung from the ceiling. The main console took up a large space, consisting of six instrument panels and a pulsating central column. Other sets included the school classroom and the junkyard, which featured the TARDIS prop.

Once the sets were rigged they needed to be lit. Television lighting is a skilled art which takes years of training and experience. Sam Barclay was assigned to light the episode, having just finished working on the drama Jane Eyre. As well as creating the atmosphere of the show, the lighting director also needs to make sure the characters are correctly lit by careful positioning of key lights and back lights.

Camera rehearsals took place in the afternoon. The show would be recorded as live, with just one camera break at the point the crew entered the TARDIS. This was the first time the studio crew would have a chance to run through the complete show. The senior representatives of the crew would have attended the final rehearsal the previous day and made notes to pass on to their teams. The director, Waris Hussein, supplied a camera script, with all the shots he would require listed by shot number. However, it was not until the crews started rehearsing with the cast that the pieces started to come together. In a small studio such as Lime Grove, everyone needed to be totally aware of what they should be doing, from camera operators and cable bashers, to sound boom operators, to floor managers and assistants who were responsible for making sure everyone on the studio floor was where they should be.

In the studio gallery the vision mixer, Clive Doig, would need to make sure he knew exactly which camera to cut to the recording line at each point, guided by the production assistant who would call out the camera shots. The sound supervisor, Jack Clayton, would make sure the right microphones were faded up and would mix in the special music and effects played in by the grams operator at the back of the sound booth. The technical manager would need to make sure all equipment was running correctly and in the lighting gallery all cameras were constantly adjusted to ensure they produced pictures of the same quality. Co-ordinating everything was the director. Because the show had to be recorded as live, it was essential that everything was rehearsed as much as possible to reduce the possibility of mistakes.

The cast were made up by the make-up department headed by Elizabeth Blattner, and William Hartnell was fitted with his wig. Costumes were supervised by Maureen Heneghan.

After a supper break the recording of that first episode began, with the first person to step in front of a camera being Fred Rawlings playing a policeman who, while on night beat amid mist and as a clock bell is heard to strike three times, shines his torch over the gates of a scrap merchant called I. M. Foreman, at 76 Totter's Lane . . .

It is difficult to imagine the pressures in the studio as the team brought that first episode to life. For such an innovative drama, though, problems were inevitable. The recording for that pilot episode is available to watch in full on The Beginning DVD box set. One of the biggest problems was with the doors on the interior of the TARDIS set. They refused to close and can be seen flapping open behind the main characters. Because of the problem, Hussein made the decision to retake the final half of the show. The section from the break where the crew entered the TARDIS to the end of the episode was performed again, this time to the satisfaction of the director and producer.
It had been a long process but, to the relief of Hussein and Lambert, the first episode was now in the can. It would be shown to the bosses the following week. The cost of the recording session was later estimated to have been £2,143, 3 shillings, and 4 pence (£2,143.17).

This month's Doctor releases from Big Finish feature the start of the 1963 trilogy, an adventure for the First Doctor, Steven and Vicki, a further "lost" adventure for the First Doctor, and a new set of adventures for the Victorian investigators Jago and Litefoot.

Win a copy of Upstairs

This month's competition thanks to Big Finish is to win one of five copies of Upstairs. To be in with a chance to win, please answer the following question:
Send your answer to comp-upstairs@doctorwhonews.net with the subject line "Yes, I know!", along with your name, address, and where you saw the competition (the news website, twitter, facebook, etc.). Only one entry per postal address will be accepted. The competition is open worldwide, and the closing date is 6th October 2013.

October sees the broadcast of nine episodes featuring David Tennant’s Tenth Doctor on Australian and New Zealand television. These screenings are part of the 50th Anniversary season of Doctor Who on the UKTV Australia and UKTV New Zealand channels.

The selection includes four episodes each from the 2006 and 2008 series, with the 2007 series represented by just one episode. All four of Steven Moffat's Tenth Doctor episodes are included.

The schedule for the month in both countries is as follows:

6 October
School Reunion - AU: 4:35pm; NZ: 4:45pm (NZ repeat 7 Oct, 4:20am)
The Girl in the Fireplace - AU: 5:30pm; NZ: 5:35pm (NZ repeat 7 Oct, 5:05am)

13 October
The Impossible Planet - AU: 3:35pm; NZ: 3:50pm (NZ repeat 14 Oct, 3:25am)
The Satan Pit - 4:30pm; NZ 4:45pm (NZ repeat 14 Oct, 4:15am)
Blink - AU: 5:30pm: NZ: 5:35pm (NZ repeat 14 Oct, 5:05am)

20 October
Silence In The Library - AU: 2:25pm; NZ: 4:45pm (NZ repeat 21 Oct, 4:10am)
Forest Of The Dead - AU: 3:25pm; NZ: 5:40pm (NZ repeat 21 Oct, 4:55am)

27 October
The Stolen Earth - AU: 2:25pm; NZ: 4:30pm (NZ repeat 28 Oct, 3:50am)
Journey's End - AU: 3:25pm; NZ: 5:20pm (NZ repeat 28 Oct, 4:40am)

Episodes featuring other Doctors also scheduled to screen on UKTV during October include in Australia, a screening of Series One (2005), weekdays at 9:20am beginning Thursday 17 October, and Series Seven (2012-13) Sunday evenings at 5:30pm from 20 October. New Zealand has The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe at 6:30pm on Sunday 6 October, followed by Series Seven, also on Sunday evenings at 6:30pm from 13 October.

Upcoming broadcasts can be found on UKTV's Doctor Who guide for Australia and New Zealand.

The twentieth in our series of features telling the story of the creation of Doctor Who, and the people who made it happen.

With the first scripts now complete and work well under way on the titles and music for the new series, the cast and crew began the start of the long process of turning the thoughts and ideas of the production team into a television play.

It was on Thursday 19th September, exactly 50 years ago today, that the first dramatic filming for an episode of Doctor Who took place.

In the days before video editing, complicated sequences, or items that required a lot of setting up, would always be recorded on to film. Film was a much more flexible medium than video tape, primarily because it could be easily edited.

Film was also used for sequences that needed a large set, one that would not be practical in the confines of a television studio. It was used for sequences that would not be allowed in an electronic studio, such as those involving fire or water.

The downside of film production was the cost. It was more expensive than video recording and took much longer to produce. Camera set-ups and lighting took time and sequences had to be repeated many times to get the required shots. Film then had to be developed and edited before it was transmittable.

Any film sequences needed to be complete before the studio session took place in the electronic studio, as film insets needed to be played through the studio, in real time, to become part of the complete recording. For the first episode of Doctor Who just one film sequence was needed: the shot at the very end of the episode when the TARDIS is seen having landed in prehistoric times, being overlooked by the shadow of a human.

One actor was required for this, and Leslie Bates provided the shadow of the caveman overlooking the TARDIS after it had landed, thus becoming the first actor to have his image recorded for Doctor Who, albeit only as a shadow and uncredited.

---

The following day, the four principal cast members met at BBC Television Centre at 3pm to take part in a photocall for Radio Times. A small mock-up of the junkyard set and the classroom had been rigged, and it was hoped by the production team that the series would be awarded the cover of the relevant Radio Times, but this was not confirmed.


It was the first time the four cast members had met, and Carole Ann Ford remembers her feelings on the day:

---

The next day, on Saturday 21st September 1963, that first TARDIS team met in a West London hall, where they would begin the very first rehearsals for the very first episode of Doctor Who.

The location was the Drill Hall at 117 Walmer Road, London, W2. The part of Walmer Road where the local Territorial Army base once stood no longer exists. The street was split in half during the late-1960s to allow a new housing project to be built, and the location where those first tentative rehearsals took place - and where Doctor Who was first brought to life - now lies in Kingsdown Close, the site occupied by a block of flats sandwiched between the Hammersmith and City Underground Line and the Westway.

Any drama had to be recorded in as near to real time as possible. Although it was accepted that a drama as complex as Doctor Who would need some recording breaks, these were very limited and had to be agreed with the programme's producer. A thorough rehearsal of each episode was needed to ensure that each recording proceeded as seamlessly as possible.
While the cast were establishing their characters, decisions were being taken on the running order of the series. By mutual consent, David Whitaker and Anthony Coburn agreed that Coburn's story The Robots should swap places in the series running order with the Terry Nation story, originally planned to be fifth in the series run. The main reason was that the scripts for The Robots were still not finished, while Nation's scripts were ready. Design work needed to be started on the story.

Looking much further forward, it was now decided to complete the first year's run with two seven-part stories and one four-part story. Nation was commissioned to write one of the seven-part stories, The Red Fort, which would be set during the Indian Mutiny.

A pack shot has now been released for the forthcoming 50th Anniversary audio adventure The Light at the End from Big Finish. Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy and Paul McGann unite as the Doctor(s), accompanied by Louise Jameson, Sarah Sutton, Nicola Bryant, Sophie Aldred and India Fisher as their companions. Geoffrey Beevers plays The Master, and there are also cameo appearances by Carole Ann Ford, William Russell, Maureen O’Brien, Peter Purves, Jean Marsh, Anneke Wills, Frazer Hines, Wendy Padbury, Katy Manning, Mark Strickson and Janet Fielding.


The five disc box set, which includes deluxe packaging and a lavish booklet, comprises:

• Discs 1 and 2 – The Light at the End
• Disc 3 – The Making of the Light at the End, featuring interviews with the actors and production crew
• Disc 4 – This is Big Finish, a look at the current Doctor Who audio output of the company, with interviews with the actors and producers.
• Disc 5 – The Companion Chronicles: The Revenants – William Russell performs as Ian Chesterton in a First Doctor story originally released as a download with Doctor Who Magazine.

Producer David Richardson said:

The Light at the End is available for pre-order.

BBC Worldwide have released details on their collection of DVDs featuring the monstrous foes of the Doctor.


The collections are due out in the United Kingdom on 30th September 2013.

The BBC America series celebrating each of the actors to have played the Doctor will be shown on Watch, the channel's schedule has revealed.

The Doctors Revisited will be broadcast at weekends, with the premiere of The First Doctor to be shown on Saturday 12th October at 2:00pm, followed by the accompanying story The Aztecs; Sunday will then see The Second Doctor at the same time, accompanied by The Tomb of The Cybermen. The following weekend then sees The Third Doctor on the Saturday alongside Spearhead From Space, and The Fourth Doctor alongside Pyramids of Mars on Sunday.

The documentaries were orginally broadcast monthly by BBC America, and were shown in Australia and New Zealand during August by BBC Worldwide's UKTV.

Other programming to accompany the launch of Doctor Who Revisited on the 12th October includes the documentaries The Companions at 4:30pm and Doctor Who Explained at 5:30pm, both of which are repeated before The Second Doctor on the Sunday.


Watch's schedules don't currently extend beyond the 20th October, but based on the pattern above the Fifth and Sixth Doctors are expected for 26th/27th October, Seventh and Eighth on 2nd/3rd November, Ninth and Tenth on 9th/10th November, and the Eleventh on the 16th - completing the series one week before the 50th Anniversary itself!

The nineteenth in our series of features telling the story of the creation of Doctor Who, and the people who made it happen.

Production on the new series was progressing. The main cast were under contract, scripts were being finalised, and work was well under way on the title sequence.

An experimental session, testing new electronic effects for the series, had originally been planned for Friday 19th July, and it finally took place on Friday 13th September 1963, exactly 50 years ago today.

The place was Lime Grove Studio D, the studio which would become the main home of Doctor Who for its first few years of production. The main purpose of the day was to try to achieve an effect of the Doctor's spaceship, the TARDIS, dematerialising. The TARDIS prop had been built in the shape of a Metropolitan Police box, as specified in the script by Anthony Coburn. Police boxes were a common sight in 1960s London, with more than 650 in the capital. They played an important role in police work, providing a means of communication in the days long before the two-way radio. Designed by Metropolitan Police Surveyor Gilbert MacKenzie Trench in 1929 specially for the London police, the boxes were made of concrete with a door of teak. The interiors of the boxes normally contained a stool, a table, brushes and dusters, a fire extinguisher, and a small electric heater.

The replica, built by the BBC, was made of wood. On arrival at the studios on the morning of 13th, though, it was found that the prop was too big to fit into the service lift needed to transport it to the studio on the fourth floor.

One of the crew assigned to the studio that day was Dave Mundy, who remembers:
Meanwhile, after the months of behind-the-scenes work that had so far been carried out on Doctor Who, details of the new series were finally beginning to be released to the public for the first time. The BBC had held a launch for its autumn television season with Controller of Programmes Stuart Hood in Blackpool on September 12th 1963, and the following day a report on the event and the new season's shows appeared in The Times newspaper. The article mainly concentrated on the return of the controversial satirical series That Was The Week That Was, but at the end mentioned in passing:
While only a small acknowledgement in a report on a whole season's worth of programming, this is believed to be one of the first mentions - if not the first mention - of Doctor Who in the media.

Progress was being made on the scripts for the new series. The launch date had now been delayed for a further week and the show would now debut on Saturday 23rd November 1963.

On Monday 16th September, script editor David Whitaker updated the production team on the latest running order for the first few months of the show. The first three stories were unchanged. The series would begin with Tribe of Gum, followed by The Robots, and A Journey to Cathay. A story based on miniaturising the crew, favoured by Whitaker, was now slotted in at number four and had been assigned to author Robert Gould.

The fifth slot was now assigned to Terry Nation's story The Mutants. It had been commissioned by Whitaker after Nation submitted a storyline entitled The Survivors about a race of aliens who had survived an apocalyptic war. Nation's agent, Beryl Vertue, the future mother-in-law of showrunner Steven Moffat, had succeeded in negotiating a higher-than-usual fee for the writer and he was paid £262 per episode.

The sixth story had now been allocated to another established writer, Malcolm Hulke, who had proposed two stories for the series. One, The Hidden Planet, featured a world identical to Earth but hidden on the opposite side of the Sun. The other, the one that was accepted, was set in Roman Britain, just before the departure of the occupying forces.

Rex Tucker, who had been due to share directing duties with Waris Hussein, had left for a holiday in Majorca and it was decided he would not return to the project. Tucker had never been happy working on Doctor Who and it was agreed that when he returned from holiday he would move to other projects. In his place the young but experienced staff director Christopher Barry was pencilled in to direct the second and sixth stories of the series. Richard Martin was assigned the fourth.

Whitaker set out his thoughts about the series as follows:
Doctor Who Story Plan

• Tribe of Gum: Written by Anthony Coburn. Directed by Waris Hussein
Four Episodes. The story begins the journey and takes the travellers back to 100,000BC and Palaeolithic man. In this story the 'ship' is slightly damaged and forever afterward is erratic in certain sections of its controls.
• The Robots: Written by Anthony Coburn. Directed by Christopher Barry
Six Episodes. This story takes the travellers to somewhere in the 30th Century, forward to the world when it is inhabited only by robots.
• A Journey to Cathay: Written by John Lucarotti. Directed by Waris Hussein
Seven Episodes. The travellers join the explorer Marco Polo on his Journey to Cathay.
• Miniscules [sic] story. Written by Robert Gould. Directed by Richard Martin
Four Episodes. The TARDS transports Doctor Who back to 1963 but reduced in size to one sixteenth of an inch.
• The Mutants. Written by Terry Nation. Directed by Waris Hussein
Seven Episodes. The TARDIS crew land on a planet inhabited by survivors of an atomic war.
• Story Six: Written by Malcolm Hulke. Directed by Christopher Barry
Six Episodes. The travellers are set down in AD400 where the Romans are just about to leave Britain. The crew are involved in a struggle at a time when the blank pages of history occur, in an adventure full of excitement and action.

With a pilot planned for recording on Friday 27th September, work had been completed on the score for the first story. The incidental music was written by Norman Kay, a well-known television and film composer. The music was performed by a group of seven musicians and recorded at the Camden Theatre on the evening of Wednesday 18th September.