The BBC has given a few details about the release of the Hartnell story "The Gunfighters" on CD scheduled for 5 February. The release, which features linking narration by Peter Purves, will also include a special interview with Purves on the making of the episode. As a special there is a 10-minute bonus track of the original recordings of Lynda Baron singing "The Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon" from the story. This is the first ever release of the soundtrack that is sure to set the toes tapping.

ITV broadcast the first part of their new series, Raiders of the Lost Archive, last night; presented by Paddy McGuinness, the show features clips for famous television personalities that were thought to be lost to the archives.

The programme has been made through searches through industry archives and private collections, and the show has also made an appeal for other shows to be returned, in a similar vein to the BBC's own Treasure Huntappeal. This new more general initiative has its own website to accompany the show, and includes a section for the 50 most wanted television shows - of which Doctor Who is listed (number 12 in the alphabetical list). Says the site: "Over 100 episodes of this ever popular series are missing or part missing – all from the black and white 60s era of the show. Doctor Who fans are particularly interested in recovering “The Tenth Planet” Episode 4 which was first broadcast on October 29, 1966. It was the final story of the first Doctor, William Hartnell’s era and the first story to feature the Cybermen. Patrick Troughton also makes his first, uncredited appearance as the Second Doctor. Many classic gems now survive only as soundtracks and photographs. Additionally, some Jon Pertwee 70s episodes made in colour only survive in b/w. Do you have “The Web of Fear” episodes 2-6 or “Fury from the Deep”?"

The next show will feature a very young David Tennant (above) in an early television appearance!

BBC DVD/2Entertain has announced full details of the DVD of "Survival", which will be hitting the British retail shelves in a 2-disk, heavily specials-laden release on 3 April 2007. The final story of the original Doctor Who series, "Survival" (starring Sylvester McCoyas the Doctor, Sophie Aldred as Ace, and Anthony Ainley as the Master) is also the 40th Classic Doctor Who DVD release.


Special features include:

Disc 1

• Main commentary withith Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred and script-editor Andrew Cartmel.
  
• Second commentary (episode three only). Fan commentary from the winners of a recent Doctor Who Magazine competition.
  
• Cat Flap - a two-part documentary covering the making of Survival. Part One covers set-up and pre-production, Part Two covers shooting and post-production. With Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred, Lisa Bowerman, Will Barton, Sakuntala Ramanee and Adele Silva, script editor Andrew Cartmel, director Alan Wareing, visual effects assistant Mike Tucker, composer Dominic Glynn and costume designer Ken Trew. Narrated by Paul Ewing.
  
• Deleted and Extended Scenes - material from the first edit of the story that didn't make the final cut, plus comparisons of some of the scenes before and after the video effects were added.
  
• Out-takes and comedy moments from the production of the story.
  
• Continuities and trailers from the original BBC1 transmission.
  
• Photo Gallery - production and behind-the-scenes stills from the making of the story.
  
• Isolated Score - option to view the story with synchronous isolated music.
  
• Radio Times listings in Adobe pdf format for viewing on PC or Mac.
  
• Programme subtitles and subtitle production notes.
  

Disc 2

• Endgame - Why was Doctor Who cancelled at the end of Season 26? What might have been in store for the Doctor and Ace if the series had continued into Season 27? With Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred, script editor Andrew Cartmel, writers Ben Aaronovitch and Colin Brake, BBC Head of Drama Series Peter Cregeen, composer Mark Ayres and visual effects designer Mike Tucker. Narrated by Paul Ewing.
  
• Search Out Science - a schools programme featuring the Doctor and Ace, with Stephen Johnson and K9.
  
• Little Girl Lost - A retrospective look at the development of Sophie Aldred's character, Ace, from her first story, Dragonfire through to her last, Survival. With Sophie Aldred, creator Ian Briggs and script editor Andrew Cartmel.
  
• Destiny of the Doctors - Anthony Ainley's last appearance as The Master, in these links from the 1997 computer game.
  

For complete details on the release, please visit the Restoration Team's website.

Billie Piper could make a big impact return to the top 40 charts on Sunday, and all without singing a note.

Radio 1 breakfast presenter Chris Moyles announced to his listeners on Monday that he was planning to conduct a test to see if he could exploit a change in the way the charts are counted, where downloads are included alongside singles.

He played Billie's 1999 hit Honey to the Bee, which charted at number 3, to see if hearing the old hit would encourage people to download it and get it into the charts.

And download sales have already picked up with the song making it into the Top 75 midweek chart and today climbing into the iTunes Top 20.

This high profile marketing has somewhat eclipsed the similar promotional campaign we reported on last week. That campaign, started in our forums and echoed on many Dr Who sites since, is promoting downloads of the song Love Don't Roam, from the Dr Who Soundtrack album. Undeterred, and with all the enthusiasm of fandom, that purchasing drive continues all this week.

Doctor Who writer Paul Cornell will be a guest at the monthly meeting of the British Science Fiction Association, in London, on the evening of Wednesday 24th January, where he will be interviewed by science fiction critic and fan Graham Sleight. The meeting is upstairs at a pub called the Antelope on Eaton Terrace (nearest tube Sloane Square). The interview starts at 7pm, but fans will be milling about downstairs from 5pm.

As well as being the writer of the episode "Father's Day" from the 2005 Doctor Who series and two episodes of the upcoming 2007 series Paul has written many Doctor Who books and audios as well as other novels and comic books.

The results have been published for the BBC website's Best Drama Awards for 2006. The awards have been comprehensively won by Doctor Who, where it won each category with a clear majority of votes cast. The site features quotes from voters and video clips. The votes are revealed over a number of pages, but are summarised below.

Best Drama:

1: Doctor Who (31.33%)
2: Robin Hood (19.38%)
3: Jane Eyre (12.08%)
4: Life on Mars (6.37%)
5: Holby City (5.29%)

Best Actor:

1: David Tennant (39.96%)
2: Jonas Armstrong (13.25%)
3: Toby Stephens (10.49%)
4: Richard Armitage (4.97%)
5: John Simm (3.09%)

Best Actress:

1: Billie Piper (42.74%)
2: Ruth Wilson (16.01%)
3: Lucy Griffiths (11.03%)
4: Amanda Mealing (5.65%)
5: Lacey Turner (2.69%)

Favourite Moment:

1: Rose's exit [Doctor Who] (27.25%)
2: Jane and Rochester's Reunion [Jane Eyre] (4.11%)
3: Daleks v Cybermen [Doctor Who] (4.08%)
4: Ruth's exit [Spooks] (2.49%)
5: Robin hears Marian accepting Guy's proposal [Robin Hood] (2.05%)

Best Drama Website:

1: Doctor Who (36.90%)
2: Robin Hood (18.17%)
3: Spooks (6.79%)
4: EastEnders (6.70%)
5: Torchwood (6.45%)

Actress Billie Piper appeared on Breakfast on BBC1 this morning to promote her west-end debut in the Christopher Hampton play Treats. Also featuring Kris Marshall (My Family, Murder City) and Laurence Fox(Lewis), the play opens at London's Garrick Theatre on 28th February (previews from the 20th) and runs until 26th May.

The play is also on tour beforehand, appearing at the Theatre Royal in Windsor (16-27 Jan), Malvern Theatre (29 Jan - 3 Feb), Bath's Theatre Royal (5-10 Feb), and London's Richmond Theatre (12-17 Feb).

More details on the play may be found at theatre.com and the London Theatre Guide.

British tabloid newspaper The Sun has picked up the story previously reported by the MediaGuardian about Doctor Who fans attempting to get the song "Love Don't Roam" from the Christmas special soundtrack downloaded enough times to see it enter the UK Top 40. (See yesterday's news story).

The Sun's report, which features on the "TV Biz" page of their print edition published in the UK today, runs: "Doctor Who fans are plotting to get a song used in the hit BBC show’s Christmas special to Number One. Love Don’t Roam — sung by The Divine Comedy’s Neil Hannon — featured in the Runaway Bride episode. And because the new singles chart includes downloads of old songs, fans are urging each other to download the track for 79p."

The story has also been reported at the Entertainment Wise website.

The MediaGuardian's Media Monkey diary column has featured Doctor Who for the second time this week (requires free registration to view). This time the reference is to Outpost Gallifrey, and specifically a plan apparently being put together by fans on this website's forum to use the new download rules of the UK pop music singles chart to propel Murray Gold's song "Love Don't Roam" into the Top 40. The song, which was sung by Neil Hannon of the band The Divine Comedy, featured in the recent Christmas special episode "The Runaway Bride", and as well as being included on Gold's Doctor Who soundtrack CD is also available to buy online from music downloading sites such as Apple's iTunes service.

"The world of Doctor Who fans is awash with plots and rumours at the moment," claims the report. "The Outpost Gallifrey fan site is cautioning that Monkey's suggestion on Wednesday that Jason Statham will be the next Doctor is mere speculation. Anyway, now a new conspiracy has been hatched: now that the singles chart takes account of downloads, Whovians have spied an opportunity to send a ditty of their choice into the charts."

The report further quotes Outpost Gallifrey forum users "Christopher M Wadley" and "Perfecto" on plans to organise mass downloads of the song, before concluding that: "Given the power of these campaigns - remember the 390,000 people who classed themselves as Jedi in the 2001 census - expect Love Don't Roam to materialise into the top 40, or the hit parade as they called it in William Hartnell's day.