Big Finish have revealed the cover for The Sands Of Life, the second story in the Tom Baker/Mary Tamm season of The Fourth Doctor Adventures, which also see the duo re-united with K9 (as played by John Leeson) for the first time this series.

Producer David Richardson said:

Written and directed by Nicholas Briggs, it is due to be released in February 2013.

This week's Doctor Who Adventures magazine comes with a Doctor dress-up set which includes a bow tie, a physic-paper notebook, the eleventh Doctor's sonic screwdriver and a TARDIS key.
Issue 285 of Doctor Who Adventures is out in the UK from 6 September.

Canadian broadcaster SPACE have announced that as well as being the highest rated programme for its timeslot on Canadian television last Saturday, season opener Asylum of the Daleks also become the second-highest rated episode in the show's history on the channel!

The channel's press release said:

The highest rated episode (so far) is last year's Let's Kill Hitler, which managed 834,000 viewers, with a peak of 977,000 and some 1.2m unique viewers in all.

AudioGo have released details on audio titles in their spoken word range due to be released in October.

The adaptation of Target novelisations continue with the Fifth Doctor adventure The Visitation, which is read by Matthew Waterhouse (Adric). Meanwhile, the television series soundtrack range sees the release of Fourth Doctor adventure The Pirate Planet, with linking narration by John Leeson (K9). In addition, two compilation collections are also to be released, themed around Earth invasions and Dalek encounters. Finally, a collection of six Eleventh Doctor adventures are also to be released in a special "TARDIS" box.

The audio releases are all due on the 4th October.

The BBC have released a variety of photos to promote Dinosaurs on a Spaceship, which will premiere on BBC1 next Saturday at 7:35pm.


Dinosaurs on a Spaceship is due to be broadcast at these times around the world:

United Kingdom : Saturday  8th September, 7:35pm BST   BBC1
United States  : Saturday  8th September, 9:00pm ET    BBC America
Canada         : Saturday  8th September, 9:00pm ET    SPACE
Australia      : Saturday 15th September, 7:30pm AEST  ABC (also on iView from 9th Sept)
New Zealand    : Thursday 20th September, 8:30pm NZST  Prime

A Town Called Mercy

Meanwhile, the Radio Times has listed A Town Called Mercy to remain in the 7:35pm timeslot the following week; BBC Programme Information has yet to confirm the time, which will be finalised later in the week.

Big Finish have revealed the cover for The Auntie Matter, the first story in the second season of The Fourth Doctor Adventures; it stars Tom Baker with the late Mary Tamm, and is due to be released in January 2013.

Producer David Richardson says:

The story concerns how, whilst the two time travellers are hiding out at the Doctor's house on Baker Street in the early 20th Century, Romana attracts the attentions of Reggie, who is very eager to introduce her to his Aunt...

The cast includes Robert Portal as Reggie, Lucy Griffiths as Mabel, Alan Cox as Grenville, with Julia McKenzie as the sinister Aunt Florence.

Doctor Who: Asylum of the Daleks had an Appreciation Index score of 89 - the highest score by far on either of the main two channels on Saturday night.

The score is a measure of how much the audience enjoyed the episode. It is based of a survey of 5000 people. The score of 89 is the highest achieved by Doctor Who since The Big Bang in 2010. It is the highest ever AI score for a season opener.

Author Neil Gaiman won a Hugo Award for The Doctor's Wife last night - and revealed that he was working on another Doctor Who script.

His Series 6 story won in the Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form category, beating four other nominations that included The Girl Who Waited, by Tom MacRae, and A Good Man Goes To War, by Steven Moffat.

During his acceptance speech, Gaiman said: "Only a fool or a mad man would try to do it again . . . so I'm on the third draft."

Just when this episode might air is, of course, open to speculation. The Doctor's Wife had originally been scheduled for Series 5 but was pushed back a year because of budget pressures.

The Doctor's Wife, which was directed by Richard Clark, also won the 2011 Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation in this year's Nebula Awards.

It is the sixth Hugo for Doctor Who since the series returned in 2005. Other winners this year included Doctor Who writer Paul Cornell, who was part of the team that won the Best Fancast award.

The Hugo Awards were presented at Chicon 7 - the 70th World Science Fiction Convention - held at the Hyatt Regency in Chicago.

Moffat tweeted a congratulatory message to Gaiman and Clark, saying: "Huge congratulations to @neilhimself and @rclarkie as The Doctor's Wife bags Doctor Who's SIXTH Hugo. Not boasting or nuffing. But SIXTH!!", and Gaiman tweeted a picture of himself with his award (shown below).

A prequel to Asylum of the Daleks written by Steven Moffat has been made available to season pass subscribers on the North American iTunes store and Amazon Instant Video. The prequel can also be found on YouTube via unofficial sources.
Dalek operator, Barnaby Edwards, plays the mysterious hooded stranger who informs the Doctor - via a dream message - that his help is required and that he must meet Darla Von Karlsen on Skaro.

The synopsis for the prequel is: