DVD Update (R1): The Doctors Revisited / The Moonbase

Friday, 5 April 2013 - Reported by Chuck Foster
The Doctors Revisited - 3D Cover (R1)BBC Worldwide/Warner Home Entertainment have released details on a forthcoming DVD release, The Doctors Revisited (1-4), a four-disc boxed set being released as part of BBC America's 50th Anniversary celebration of Doctor Who.

This set features the first four special documentaries broadcast by the channel for William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker, each accompanied by the story that illustrated them (The Aztecs, The Tomb of the Cybermen, Spearhead from Space and Pyramids of Mars). As a bonus, each story will also feature an introduction by the show's current lead writer and executive producer, Steven Moffat.

Amazon have made the story available for pre-order, with a release date of 11th June 2013.

The Revisited trailers can be viewed online for the First, Second and Third Doctors.

 

The Moonbase

As well as the release above, Amazon have also listed The Moonbase for pre-order! The site describes the release thus:
New to DVD! Digitally remastered Doctor Who classic The Moonbase! (NOT FINAL) The TARDIS arrives in 2070 AD on the Moon, where a weather control station under the command of a man named Hobson is in the grip of a plague epidemic - in reality the result of an alien poison planted by the Cybermen. Polly realizes that as the Cybermen's chest units are made of plastic they must be vulnerable to attack by solvents. She and her friends manage to destroy all the Cybermen on the base with a 'cocktail' of such chemicals shot at them through fire extinguishers.
No other information is known about this item or its features at present, though last year special sound composer Brian Hodgson indicated that he had recorded a commentary for the story.

With thanks to TVShowsOnDVD




FILTER: - Canada - USA - BBC America - Third Doctor - Second Doctor - First Doctor - Classic Series

Doctor Who Revisited: The Third Doctor

Wednesday, 27 March 2013 - Reported by Chuck Foster
BBC America will broadcast the next in their Doctor Who Revisited series on the 31st March, covering the Third Doctor's era.

BBC AMERICA celebrates the third Doctor, Jon Pertwee, in a new special of Doctor Who: The Doctors Revisited. Lead writer and executive producer Steven Moffat, executive producer Caroline Skinner, Tenth Doctor David Tennant, Season Six guest star Hugh Bonneville (Downton Abbey), among others, discuss how the third Doctor brought action and stunts to the series.

It is followed by the classic storyline Spearhead from Space. In the story, a swarm of meteorites fall on the sleepy English countryside, bringing with them a terrible new threat to mankind: the Nestene consciousness - a disembodied alien intelligence with an affinity for plastic. The Doctor is forced to race against time, in order to stop humanity from being replaced by a generation of terrifying plastic replicas.




Doctor Who: The Doctors Revisited – The Third Doctor premieres Sunday, March 31, 8:00pm ET/PT.




FILTER: - Steven Moffat - USA - BBC America - Third Doctor - David Tennant - Caroline Skinner

Demon's Run - Two Days Later

Monday, 25 March 2013 - Reported by Chuck Foster
Strax, as played by Dan Starkey (Credit: BBC Worldwide)A special three minute minisode has been made available online as part of the Series Seven Part Two listings via Amazon and iTunes. The video is currently free, but only available to watch in North America.

Demon's Run: Two Days Later

In the aftermath of the battle of Demons Run, a battle-scarred Strax lies dying on the floor - or has he just fainted...

Featuring Dan Starkey as Strax, Neve McIntosh as Vastra, and Catrin Stewart as Jenny.

The video was originally revealed by Dan Starkey in an interview in Doctor Who Magazine Issue 455, who said about his resurrection:
There will be a little Easter Egg thing about that. We recorded a scene between Jenny, Vastra and Strax, set two days after the Battle of Demon's Run, before they're taken back to their time zones. I don't know if it's going to be a preview online, or a DVD extra or what, but it's a lovely little scene. Inevitably, when it came out that Strax waas returning in the Christmas Special, I was getting a lot of people tweeting me 'But you're dead! Why are you alive?' I'd tweet back: 'As much as I'd like to answer that, I really can't.


There is no indication as to when the video will be available outside of North America, though it is expected that it will be included in the DVD/Blu-ray release when that is released (currently scheduled for 20th May 2013 in the UK).




FILTER: - Canada - USA - Online - Series 7/33

The Third Doctor Revisited On BBC America

Monday, 11 March 2013 - Reported by John Bowman
Spearhead From Space has been chosen by BBC America to represent the Third Doctor in its Doctor Who: The Doctors Revisited celebratory season.

A documentary entitled The Doctors Revisited: The Third Doctor will air on Sunday 31st March at 8pm Eastern/7pm Central, followed by the four-part story that ushered in the Jon Pertwee era.

The documentary will see Steven Moffat, Caroline Skinner, David Tennant, and Hugh Bonneville discussing how the Third Doctor brought action and stunts to the series. It will also feature other as-yet-unspecified contributors.

A swarm of meteorites falls in the English countryside, bringing with it a terrible new threat to mankind: the Nestene Consciousness - a disembodied alien intelligence with an affinity for plastic. The Doctor is forced to race against time in order to stop humanity from being replaced by a generation of terrifying plastic replicas.
The adventure - which originally aired in 1970 - was the first in the series to be made in colour and it saw the newly-regenerated Doctor, freshly exiled by the Time Lords, team up with new assistant Liz Shaw, played by Caroline John, and the British section of UNIT, headed by Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart (Nicholas Courtney). Because of industrial action at BBC TV Centre, the story ended up being made entirely on location and on 16mm film - the only time this has ever been done on the show so far.

BBC America is paying tribute to the programme's 50th anniversary by showing a story per Doctor per month.





FILTER: - Steven Moffat - USA - BBC America - Third Doctor - David Tennant - Caroline Skinner

The Second Doctor Revisited on BBC America

Tuesday, 12 February 2013 - Reported by Marcus
BBC America continues its celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of Doctor Who by revisiting the Second Doctor and showing the classic 1967 story The Tomb of the Cybermen.

The widely-regarded story will air on Sunday 24th February at 8pm ET and will be preceded by a documentary looking back at the era of the Second Doctor, featuring contributions from Steven Moffat, Caroline Skinner, David Tennant, John Barrowman, Frazer Hines and Wendy Padbury.

The Tomb of the Cybermen was the first story of the fifth season of Doctor Who, showing in four parts in September 1967. For many years it was lost from the BBC archives, presumed destroyed, before being rediscovered in Hong Kong in 1991.

Alongside Patrick Troughton as the Second Doctor, the story stars Frazer Hines as the young highlander Jamie McCrimmon and Deborah Watling as the Victorian refugee Victoria Waterfield. It sees the TARDIS crew land on Telos, where members of an archaeological expedition are searching for the legendary tomb of the Cybermen.

The revisited series began last month with a repeat of the First Doctor story The Aztecs, which gets a repeat showing at 5pm just before the transmission of The Tomb of the Cybermen.




FILTER: - USA - Patrick Troughton

Regional roundup

Wednesday, 6 February 2013 - Reported by Chuck Foster

United Kingdom

Marc Stonham with his Dalek in Helston. Photo: Falmouth PacketThe recent snowfall across the United Kingdom brought forth an array of snow sculptures, including Daleks! Areas reported include Leicester and Faversham, plus a number of photos published by the official Doctor Who Facebook page.

Speaking of Daleks, another was to be found at a chip shop in Helston! It was built by proprietor Marc Stonham, who said: "I've been thinking about it on and off for the last 40 years. It wasn’t until last (year) that I actually did it. People do mention it and come and have a look." [Falmouth Packet, 17 Jan 2013]

The islanders of Cumbrae in Scotland hope that John and Carole Barrowman's Hollow Earth books will boost tourism. Paul Watling, of Visit Cumbrae, reported: "We've had visits from a number of Hollow Earth fans and last week, a group of about 14 came over. They were from all across France and Germany and were very keen to see the island. I showed them some of the locations used in the book and they loved their visit. We hope the books will do for Cumbrae what (tv series) Balamory did for Mull." [Daily Record, 13 Jan 2013]

The Rainbow pub in Digbeth has been re-opened with a retro theme, including a photo booth masquerading as a police box! Other features include a "Del Boy" cocktail bar and a Scalectrix set to play with! [Birmingham Mail, 1 Feb 2013]

United Kingdom / Australia

A Doctor Who postcard has sailed the seven seas from Sunderland (England) to Perth (Australia)! Schoolboy Cade Scott released the card in a bottle in August 2011, and was found by Matthew Elam this last Christmas Day, who responded back in January. Cade said: "I had got some Doctor Who postcards in a magazine and decided to use one of them to put in the bottle. I was just amazed it had gone so far. I thought it had sunk in the North Sea." [Sunderland Echo, 18 Jan 2013]

United States

Two special screenings of Doctor Who are to take place at the Rockland Public Library in Maine, as part of a series of literary, film and music evenings. The Sun Makers is to be shown on the 7th February, with Blink the following 14th. Admission is free. [Penobscot Bay Pilot, 28 Jan 2013]

The Eleven (Crochet) Doctors. Photo: Allison HoffmanCrochet versions of each of the Doctors have been made by Allison Hoffman from Austin, Texas; she explained: "I made the dolls for a woman that wanted to give her husband a Christmas present that would blow him away. He is a huge Doctor Who fan and she knew he’d love these toys. He’s actually building a custom cabinet to display them now! Before taking on this project I had only seen the newer Who and not very many episodes, but now I feel like I know all of these people personally!". No prizes for guessing her favourite: "Tom Baker - I loved making that scarf!" [Metro, 29 Jan 2013]

Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson recently discussed "What is Time?" on his StarTalk Radio, comparing views of how Time travel is portrayed as linear, branching and, in Doctor Who's case, wibbly wobbly! [StarTalk Radio via YouTube, Jan 2013]




FILTER: - USA - UK - Miscellaneous - Australia

Doctor Who returns 30th March

Wednesday, 23 January 2013 - Reported by Chuck Foster
The BBC have announced that the first of the eight episodes that comprise the second part of Series Seven will premiere on BBC One from Saturday 30th March - back in its 'traditional' Easter weekend slot! Though Doctor Who Magazine had already reported that the series would be on during April, this is the first time the BBC themselves have confirmed the date of a regular series of episodes so far ahead of its intended schedule - normally it is only announced a few weeks beforehand.

The time of broadcast has yet to be confirmed.

Both BBC America and SPACE (Canada) have confirmed that they, too, will launch the second part from the 30th March; no announcements have been made for the series to premiere in the other main countries as yet, though based on recent years they are likely to be close to transmission of the series in the United Kingdom.





FILTER: - Canada - USA - BBC America - UK - Leading News - Broadcasting - Series 7/33

The First Doctor on BBC America

Tuesday, 22 January 2013 - Reported by Marcus
BBC America is to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Doctor Who by showing one story from each of the first eleven Doctors, as part of a strand titled Doctor Who: The Doctors Revisited.

The channel will screen one story each month, starting with the 1964 story The Aztecs, starring the First Doctor, William Hartnell.

The story features the original TARDIS crew of the Doctor, his granddaughter Susan (played by Carole Ann Ford), and two of her teachers, Barbara Wright (played by Jacqueline Hill) and Ian Chesterton (played by William Russell).

The story sees the TARDIS land in 15th-century Mexico, where the crew get caught up in the local politics of blood sacrifice.

Originally shown over four weeks, the complete story will air on BBC America on Sunday, January 27 at 9pm ET.





FILTER: - USA - William Hartnell

Regional Roundup

Friday, 11 January 2013 - Reported by John Bowman

United Kingdom

Wimbledon Studios in Deer Park Road, London, is being used for the forthcoming docudrama An Adventure In Space And Time, it has been revealed. Written by Mark Gatiss for BBC Two, the 90-minute special will detail the genesis of Doctor Who as part of the celebrations for the 50th anniversary of the series. The casting for the programme, which will be shown in November, is still to be announced. [Wimbledon Guardian, 10 Jan 2013]

Still in the capital, a wooden police box is to be built at Kensington Palace to bolster the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's security. The box, measuring 1.6 metres square, will be dark blue and will have a glazed door. It will stand on the lawn on the south side, between the Grade I-listed building's high perimeter brick wall and iron railings. [Evening Standard, 3 Jan 2013]

Australia

Ex-patriate fan Michael Lauder, originally from north Kent and now living in Melbourne, Victoria, has been talking about the thrill of building two Daleks for his personal collection, using his carpentry knowledge and learning new skills along the way, having discovered the Project Dalek forum. He said: "You never get over the thrill of having a Dalek of your own in your house." His Daleks form part of the Invasion exhibition, which is at the Warrnambool Art Gallery until Monday 28th January. [ABC South West Victoria, 7 Jan 2013]

A cleric is looking to sell his prized collection of Doctor Who videos and magazines. Father Paul Kelly, of Maryborough, Queensland, said: "I've collected them since 1983 and they're in boxes in my carport and I have made a New Year's resolution to clear my clutter." [The Gympie Times, 5 Jan 2013]

USA

A Doctor Who club is being set up at River East Public Library in Illinois. The first meeting will be held on Tuesday 29th January at 7pm. [NorthWest Herald, 6 Jan 2013]

California-based technology expert Greg Kumparak has built a miniature TARDIS that enables an augmented reality app on his smartphone to create the illusion that the model of the police box really is bigger on the inside than on the outside. Buoyed by the positive reaction to it on Twitter and YouTube, he said: "The feedback has been resoundingly positive so far, almost shockingly so, really. Doctor Who fans might be some of the nicest people on the internet." [BBC News, 24 Dec 2012]
Acknowledgements: With Thanks To Tony Clark




FILTER: - USA - UK - WHO50 - Australia

The Snowmen Breaks BBC America Ratings Record

Thursday, 3 January 2013 - Reported by John Bowman
The Snowmen has given BBC America record ratings, with the Christmas Day special being watched by 1.434 million people either live or within seven days.

This was a rise of 54 per cent on the BBC America ratings for last year's Christmas episode, making it the channel's second most-popular programme, beaten only by Asylum of the Daleks, which garnered 1.555 million viewers in September.

Perry Simon, BBC America's general manager, said:
It feels exactly right to be ending the year on a ratings high with Doctor Who. The show has really delivered for us this year on every level. Cinematic scale, superb acting, cracking storylines, and a growing band of dedicated fans – we can't wait for the next series in spring 2013.
According to TV By The Numbers, it was the 70th most-watched programme on cable on the day and 17th in its transmission slot.

Doctor Who has also been voted TV Guide cover of 2012, having made the front last month as last year's Fan Favorite.




FILTER: - USA - Ratings - BBC America - Series Specials - Series 7/33