The South Wales Echo reports that the city of Cardiff will be hosting a new, free exhibition based on Doctor Who starting next week, Thursday 22 December. "Doctor Who Up Close, based at the Red Dragon Centre in Cardiff Bay, celebrates the success of the latest series filmed in the capital with an exclusive behind-the-scenes look. The experience, which will cost the council £150,000 to stage, links into areas such as modern story-telling, script-writing, acting, costume design, sound and music, special effects, set construction and creative thinking. Visitors entering the display will be surrounded by a retrospective, outlining the 40-year lineage of the series and have the opportunity to view the previous incarnations of the Doctors. Among the attractions visitors can view is the Doctor’s arch enemies, the Daleks, in both their modern form and a unique example of their original 1960s design, as well as elements focusing on many other classic characters. After it is screened on Christmas Day, visitors will also get the chance to see elements of the Christmas special with some of the new props and costumes. BBC Wales Controller Menna Richards said: 'Doctor Who is a huge success and I'm delighted that we can help to bring this exciting exhibition to people in Cardiff. It’s a great opportunity to go behind the scenes and get a sense of what goes into making Doctor Who.' Cardiff council leader Rodney Berman said: 'As a big fan of Doctor Who myself, particularly the new version made right here in Cardiff, I’m looking forward to the opportunity to visit the new exhibition. It will be an exciting insight into the behind the scenes goings on of the series over the years.' An official opening ceremony is being staged on December 21 with the public able to visit the exhibition from the following day. It runs until February 26 and is open every day between 11am and 8pm, except for Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day."

Outpost Gallifrey has received a press release from the National Space Centre in Leicester, where as we announced last month the BBC Doctor Who Exhibition previously in Brighton has been transported. Doctor Who: Up Close is the name of this new exhibit; the press release is below. You can find out more information about it at the Space Centrewebsite.

The Doctor Who Exhibition reached its final day on Brighton Pier on Sunday, before moving to the National Space Centre in Leicester (website) later in the month, as reported on Outpost Gallifrey on 27 October. In addition, according to the official exhibition website, items from the exhibition will be on display at the Red Dragon Centre in Cardiff Bay, presumably to tie in with David Tennant and Billie Piper switching on Cardiff's Christmas lights in mid November. Finally, the exhibition site says that "a Slitheen will be spending its Christmas holiday at the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television in Bradford" (website).

The new SFX Best of British Magazine comes with a free Art of Doctor Who book (cover at right; click on thumbnail for a larger version). "The Art Of Doctor Who... will showcase loads of concept drawings and production art from the first season of the new show. This substantial, high quality collectable booklet is something you'll want to keep."

SciFiCollector has been granted a licence for the new series and are producing one of their First Day Cover stamp releases, being launched on March 26 to coincide with the first tranmission. The cover is a limited edition of just 5,000 and it is number 1 in the series, and they have announced they will be producing a cover to go with each new episode. Details are available at their website. Click on the thumbnail at right for a larger version. Meanwhile, SciFiCollector have confirmed that Tom Baker and Louise Jameson will be their guests at the forthcoming NEC Memorabilia fair in early April (see the events page!)

Despite reports elsewhere to the contrary, Product Enterprises is alive and well, and will be exhibiting with Alien Entertainment at the San Diego ComicCon in just a few short weeks.