TV Times Readers' Awards

Monday, 4 December 2006 - Reported by Anthony Weight
The latest edition of the UK listings magazine TV Times - the longtime rival of the BBC's Radio Times - has the results of its reader-voted television awards for 2006. Doctor Who was voted Best TV Show, with David Tennant taking the award for Best Actor.

(Thanks to 'PolyG' from the Outpost Gallifrey forum).




FILTER: - Magazines - Radio Times

Journalists aim strike for Christmas Radio Times

Monday, 4 December 2006 - Reported by Kenny Davidson
The Christmas double issue of the Radio Times is under threat of disruption and delays due to a planned strike by journalists from midnight tonight.

According to Media Guardian, "NUJ members at BBC Worldwide's magazines division met today and agreed to go ahead with the 48 hour strike from midnight, threatening to halt publication of the Radio Times' bumper, two-week Christmas and New Year edition for the first time in its 83-year history."

However, a BBC spokesman told the MediaGuardian — which illustrated the story on its index page with an image of the 2006 Doctor Who series launch week cover — that: "We'd like to reassure our readers that Radio Times' Christmas and New Year double issue will be appearing on UK shelves on December 9 as planned and will not be affected by December 5 and 6's 48-hour strike action."

This issue of the Radio Times would clearly be a major part of the pre-publicity for The Runaway Bride.

(Additional reporting by Paul Hayes)




FILTER: - Magazines - Radio Times

CBC Canada: Impossible Planet Screening December 4th

Monday, 4 December 2006 - Reported by DWNP Archive
Canada's CBC Television online shows Eps 8 - The Impossible Planet (Part 1) scheduled to air on CBC at 8PM EST tonight (December 4th) across Canada. The CBC is airing all of Series 2 every Monday. cbc.ca/doctorwho




FILTER: - Canada - Series 2/28 - Broadcasting

Short Trips Contest

Monday, 4 December 2006 - Reported by Jarrod Cooper
Big Finish has announced a writing contest in which the winner would see their story published in an upcoming volume of Short Trips. The contest is open to anyone, of any age, who has never had a work of fiction published that they have been paid for. In the past Big Finish has held similar competitions for their Bernice Summerfield range, but this is the first time that the door has been opened to the Doctor Who range.

Submissions should be less than 2,500 words. Participants are free to use any of the Classic Series Doctors and their companions. The Theme for entries will be: "How the Doctor changed my life."

A full list of rules and restrictions is available at the Big Finish website. Deadline for entries is January 31, 2007.




FILTER: - Audio

Bernice: 15 Years and Beyond!!

Monday, 4 December 2006 - Reported by Jarrod Cooper
2007 marks the 15th Anniversary of Bernice Summerfield. To celebrate this landmark achievement, Big Finish Productions has announced their releases for the year.

February sees the release of the long-awaited Bernice Summerfield - The Inside Story by Ian Farrington and Simon Guerrier. This book with track Benny from her first appearance in Doctor Who Magazine #192 to the explosive events of her eighth audio season.

February also sees the publication of Missing Adventures, an anthology edited by Rebecca Levene which will be focused on Bernice's early adventures.

Season Eight releases start in February with The Tub Full of Cats by Daniel O'Mahony. April sees The Judas Gift by Nick Wallace, with Freedom of Information by Eddie Robson following in June. Dave Stone takes us to The End of the World in August, while Joseph Lidster's The Final Amendment comes out in October. The Audio Season ends with The Wake by Simon Guerrier in December.

Also seeing publication in 2007 are two more books: The Two Jasons by Dave Stone, War Stories by Jonathan Blum, Kate Orman and Philip Purser-Hallard.

More Details are available at Big Finish's Bernice Summerfield homepage.




FILTER: - Audio

Piper's Autobiography: A 'flop in bookshops'

Monday, 4 December 2006 - Reported by DWNP Archive
The Daily Mail has run an article about star autobiographies that do not sell well. Billie Piper's book 'Growing Pains' is mentioned. The article does not go into details on her book sales, but a quick look atamazon.co.uk list it as 283 in Books. Amazon's synopsis of the book includes the following passage:'Billie Piper has won over the critics and the British public for a second time by re-inventing herself as an actress in BBC productions of Much Ado About Nothing, The Canterbury Tales and, of course, Doctor Who . So how did she get from there to here? This is the funny, honest and insightful story of an extraordinary young life.'.




FILTER: - People - Billie Piper - Press

Cover Art for upcoming Big Finish Releases

Monday, 4 December 2006 - Reported by R Alan Siler
Big Finish has released the final cover design for the upcoming Seventh Doctor release, Noctorne, starring Sylvester McCoy as the Doctor, Sophie Aldred as Ace and Philip Olivier as Hex.

Also available is the cover art for the upcoming Fifth Doctor adventure Circular Time, starring Peter Davison as the Doctor and Sarah Sutton as Nyssa.

Circular Time is scheduled for release in January 2007, Nocturne in February.
Circular Time

Summer to winter, the seasons turn.

In the springtime of a distant future, the Doctor and Nyssa become embroiled in Time Lord politics on an alien world. During the stifling heat of a summer past they suffer the vengeful wrath of Isaac Newton. In the recent past, Nyssa spends a romantic golden autumn in an English village while the Doctor plays cricket. And finally, many years after their travels together have ended, the two friends meet again in the strangest of circumstances.

Four seasons. Four stories.

Now close the door behind you, you're letting the cold in...


Nocturne

On the human colony planet Nocturne, there is suffering and blight, tragic symptoms of an ages-old war. Never the less, Nocturne is also one of the Doctor's favourite places in all of time and space, because it is here that a late, great flowering of human art - the High Renaissance - is taking place.

He has been back here, many times. It is a place of music and art which he finds inspirational and uplifting. It is a place he wants to share with Ace and Hex. It's always been a safe haven for him, a world of friends and laughter.

But with strict Martial Law imposed on the front-line city, and the brutal scourge of interstellar warfare vicing the system, how safe can anyone really be?

There is a note of death in the wild, midnight wind...




FILTER: - Audio

First Sarah Jane Adventures Publicity Photo

Monday, 4 December 2006 - Reported by R Alan Siler
The BBC has just released the first publicity photo for the upcoming Doctor Whospin-off, The Sarah Jane Adventures. Pictured left to right are Porchsha Lawrence Mavour (Kelsey), Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane Smith), Yasmin Paige (Maria Jackson) and Thomas Knight as The Archetype/Luke. The first installment is rumoured to be airing on January 1st.

In an earlier press release, the BBC released a synopsis of the first episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures and was previously posted here on the OG News Page (protected in a Spoiler Tag for those who don't want to know in advance).




FILTER: - Sarah Jane

10th Doctor reaches North American shore

Sunday, 3 December 2006 - Reported by Jeremy Bement
For those of you in the US and Canada, the Tenth Doctor novel The Price of Paradise by Colin Brake will be available at your local comic book retailer this Wednesday December 6th. If they don't have a copy, ask them to order you one from Diamond Distributing (item #SEP063808).




FILTER: - USA - Books

No Conventions for Billie

Sunday, 3 December 2006 - Reported by DWNP Archive
According to Sky Showbiz (Anne Montini's Gossip 29/11/06): 'Don't expect to see former Doctor Who actress Billie Piper at any sci-fi conventions. She told me: "I loved playing Rose Tyler but I won't be going to any Doctor Who-style conventions. They're just not for me."'




FILTER: - People