AudioGo's ongoing celebration of 50 Years of Doctor Who reaches the Eighth Doctor in August, with he and Charlie facing Enemy Aliens in the Destiny of the Doctor series. Meanwhile, the Seventh Doctor performs at The Greatest Show in the Galaxy in the latest Target novelisation adaptation, and the Eleventh Doctor's former compantion Amelia Pond writes about when Summer Falls in an audio adaptation of the e-book released earlier this year.

Big Finish have released details about the latest adventures for the Doctor and his companions in July.

Doctor Who: Persuasion returns former Nazi scientist Klein to the Seventh Doctor's life as the pair become embroiled in a quest for a very dangerous object. And this time there's room for another person in the TARDIS: Klein's assistant Will Arrowsmith. It stars Sylvester McCoy and sees Tracey Childs reprise her role as Klein, with Christian Edwards playing Will. It has been written by Jonathan Barnes, author of Sherlock Holmes story The Adventure of the Perfidious Mariner, and the upcoming The Ordeals of Sherlock Holmes box set.

Producer David Richardson says:


Doctor Who - The Companion Chronicles: Mastermind takes us back to the UNIT Vault and the lives of Ruth Matheson (Daphne Ashbrook) and Charlie Sato (Yee Jee Tso), guardians of its secrets. Alongside all the artefacts, though, is a highly deadly prisoner: the Master (Geoffrey Beevers). And he has a story to tell which is certainly not guaranteed to have a happy ending. Writer Jonathan Morris locks himself back into the Vault for an in-depth look at quite possibly the Doctor's most dangerous foe...

David Richardson says:


The Fourth Doctor’s second season ends with The Final Phase, in which the mysterious Cuthbert's plan for the Proxima System is reaching its climax. The Doctor and Romana have been separated. The Doctor is aiding the Proximan fight-back. Romana and K9 are prisoners of the Daleks. And as the countdown to the opening of the Quantum Gateway begins, the Daleks reveal their true intentions.

Starring Tom Baker as the Doctor, John Leeson as K9 and, sadly, for the final time Mary Tamm as the first Romana, Doctor Who: The Final Phase brings the second series of The Fourth Doctor Adventures to a shattering conclusion. It also stars David Warner and Toby Hadoke as Cuthbert and his ever-faithful sidekick Mr Dorrick, and the incomparable Nicholas Briggs as the ever-malevolent Daleks.

David Richardson says:


Finally, the second season of Counter-Measures stars Simon Williams, Pamela Salem and Karen Gledhill reprising their Doctor Who Remembrance of the Daleks roles of Gilmore, Rachel and Allison, Counter-Measures - Series Two brings four more tales of Sixties-set 'black and white' espionage, conspiracy and derring-do. It also stars Hugh Ross as the team's mysterious boss, Sir Toby Kinsella.

David Richardson says:

Win a copy of Mastermind!

This month's competition thanks to Big Finish is to win one of five copies of Mastermind. To be in with a chance to win, please answer the following question:
Send your answer to comp-mastermind@doctorwhonews.net with the subject line "You Will Obey!", along with your name, address, and where you saw the competition (the news website, twitter, facebook, etc.). Only one entry per postal address will be accepted. The competition is open worldwide, and the closing date is 31st July 2013.

Silva Screen has announced the next of its 50th Anniversary soundtrack collection on CD, with the release of the score of the final story to be recorded in the original run of Doctor Who, the Sylvester McCoy adventure Ghost Light.


The CD is due to be released on 26th August 2013.

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Also coming out on 19th August is a 12" vinyl release of the Series 1+2 album, originally released on CD in 2006. The two records include all of the tracks from the original. Meanwhile, music from the most recent television series is due to be released as a two-disc collection on CD later in the Autumn.


UPDATE - 15th AUGUST: Silva Screen has announced that because of a problem at the factory the release date of the vinyl albums has been delayed, with Monday 2nd September now the likely date.

Win a copy of Ghost Light!

Thanks to Silva Screen we have three copies of the CD for our readers to win. To be in with a chance, simply answer this question:
Please send your answer to comp-ghostlight@doctorwhonews.net with the subject line "We all have a universe of our own terrors to face", along with your name, address, and where you read about this competition. The competition is open worldwide, and the closing date will be on 24th August 2013. Only one entry per household will be accepted.

The fourteenth in our series of features telling the story of the creation of Doctor Who, and the people who made it happen.

Production is progressing on the new series due for transmission on BBC Television in the Autumn. With key production personnel in place, attention has moved on to casting the main characters in the show.

July 1963 was mostly cool and changeable as production at Television Centre in west London continued on the new television drama, which by now had a name, Doctor Who. Producing a television drama is a complicated thing, with so many departments needing to work together and so many people all needing to make sure their part of the puzzle would fit into the whole picture. One of the most important parts of the whole is design. Design in Television is vital, especially in science fiction drama where new worlds and future landscapes need to be created. The requirements for the new programme were enormous and producer Verity Lambert thought she was not getting the best out of the BBC design department.

Lambert had been pressing the Design Manager James Bould and Head of Design Richard Levin to allocate a designer to the new series since the end of June, but it was not until Wednesday 10th July that Lambert was finally given a name. The first four episodes would be designed by Peter Brachacki. That day, Lambert and Associate Producer Mervyn Pinfield had a meeting with Brachacki. It was not a total meeting of minds as it was obvious Brachacki was not keen on working on the series. He could spare them half an hour and announced he would be unavailable for the next two weeks.

This was something that worried Lambert, and after reflecting on the situation, on Wednesday 17th July, exactly 50 years ago today, she sent her boss, Donald Wilson, a memo outlining her concerns and expressing a wish that the production should not suffer 'because of a lack of effort from the Design department'. Wilson took up the matter and wrote to the Head of the Design department. Music is another vital element in a television drama and Lambert was determined to try something different on this series. On Friday 12th July she made enquiries about commissioning the French electronic music composers Jacques Lasry and Francois Bascher to provide the title music for the series. Their group, Les Structures, were known for creating music using such techniques as glass rods mounted in steel.

By the middle of July, Script Editor David Whitaker had refined the original concept document, making significant changes to the character structure. Whitaker made clear in his changes that the main cast would be forbidden from interfering with history. The character of the Doctor was now described as 'over sixty' rather than 'about 650' and his granddaughter, Susan, was to be a 'sharp intelligent girl who sometimes makes mistakes because of inexperience'. He made notes on the spaceship that would feature in the programme. The actual scripts for the first 10 episodes, now confirmed at a duration of 25 minutes, were still being worked on by Anthony Coburn. He signed the formal contract on 8th July and would be paid £225 for each episode. The contract made it clear that the concept of Doctor Who and its four main characters would remain the copyright of the BBC and not belong to Coburn. Coburn's fee would be paid in 12 instalments.

The story structure for those first ten episodes was also outlined by Whitaker.

Doctor Who once more features heavily in the BBC Worldwide Annual Report, making clear how important the series is to the corporation and putting part of the fall in headline sales for the company down to the lower number of Doctor Who episodes produced this year.

The report details how the revenue from superbrands such as Doctor Who contribute 27% of BBC Worldwide's headline sales, which are down by 14% on the previous year, partly due to a lower volume of output from Doctor Who.

BBC Worldwide exists to exploit the BBC's commercial assets, raising money which can be returned to the corporation for reinvestment in programmes. Doctor Who has many mentions in this year’s annual report, which details the performance of the BBC's assets around the world.

Doctor Who is one of BBC Worldwide’s biggest brands, sold to over 200 territories around the world. It is named as a key part of the digital business strategy, where sales are up by 22.8% on last year.

The report details how the Series 7 premiere was the most-watched telecast in the history of BBC America, and how in Australia the first-ever cinema night of two episodes from Series 6 was number three at the Australian box office.

Other Doctor Who highlights include

• The Doctor Who Experience which relocated to a long-term residency in Cardiff Bay, following a one-year tenancy at London’s Olympia.
• Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock, the first BBC-published game on the Sony PlayStation3
• The Symphonic Spectacular which was held at the Sydney Opera House and had a total ticketed attendance of 16,144.
• The Universal Remote Control has sold 36,000 units since launch.
• Doctor Who Home for Christmas 2012, a collection of Doctor Who homewares, ceramics and stationery, designed and distributed in-house.
• A line-up of Doctor Who collectibles for the 50th Anniversary year, including a celebratory range of Royal Mail stamps.
• Doctor Who coin produced by New Zealand Mint.
• 3.1 million fans on Facebook.

Visitors travelling through Heathrow Airport in London from Tuesday are to be entertained with a range of Doctor Who themed experiences including appearances from Cybermen, TARDIS photobooths, displays of props and memorabilia, and augmented reality hotspots.

The BBC worldwide event, in partnership with Heathrow, is to celebrate 50 years of Doctor Who. Travellers will be able to take pictures of themselves and friends on alien worlds and be menaced by monsters from the comfort of the TARDIS photobooths. Doctor Who passports will be available containing giveaways including a free episode to download, information about Doctor Who activities in terminal over the summer, and a free digital copy of Doctor Who Adventures Magazine.

To mark the launch of the partnership, on July 16 travellers through Terminal 5 will be able to enjoy performances by the London Philharmonic Orchestra. In addition, Doctor Who novelist Jenny Colgan, author of the recently released Doctor Who: Dark Horizons will also be signing books for fans.

Amanda Hill, Chief Brands Officer for BBC Worldwide comments. Susan Goldsmith, Operations Director at Heathrow Terminal 5 saidTravellers are invited to share their images of Doctor Who at Heathrow using the hashtag #WhereDoYouWantToGo

A special edition of Doctor Who Magazine has been published today featuring telesnaps from missing Second Doctor episodes.

Although a total of 106 Doctor Who episodes no longer exist in the BBC archives, there are pictorial records of most of them in the form of photos taken of TV screens at the time of broadcast, and The Missing Episodes – The Second Doctor Volume 1 contains images from six Patrick Troughton stories across its 116 pages.

The adventures covered are The Power of the Daleks, The Highlanders, The Underwater Menace, The Moonbase, The Macra Terror, and The Faceless Ones.

The special publication also has a feature by researcher and author Richard Molesworth, which reveals how some missing episodes of Doctor Who have miraculously been found and returned to the archives over the years. Molesworth wrote the book Wiped! Doctor Who's Missing Episodes, which was updated this year for a second edition.

It is unknown as yet when Volume 2 will be published or which stories it will cover.

BBC Worldwide have announced the release of a limited edition set to celebrate the Fourth Doctor, as played by Tom Baker. The Fourth Doctor Time Capsule will contain exclusive merchandise and memorabilia:

• An Interview with the Time Lord - a newly commissioned interview with Tom Baker.
• Terror of the Zygons - an advance "vanilla" release of the restored story, which is due out later in the year.
• Fourth Doctor Action Figure - an exclusive post-regenerative Fourth Doctor, wearing Jon Pertwee’s trademark frill-fronted shirt.
• Fourth Doctor sonic screwdriver.
• Genesis of the Daleks - an audio version of the classic Dalek "origin" story.
• Tomb of Valdemar - a novel by Simon Messingham, set during the Doctor’s search for the Key to Time.
• Art cards - featuring all the Fourth Doctor’s companions.
• A letter from Tom Baker.

The Fourth Doctor Time Capsule is limited to 5000 copies, and is due to be released in the UK only on 29th July.

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The set was subject to a Twitter campaign over the last week using the #thefourth hashtag, which also saw a couple of intriguing teaser trailers released to promote interest:

Remembrance of the Daleks is to be shown on BBC America this month as part of the channel's celebratory strand Doctor Who: The Doctors Revisited.

Airing on Saturday 27th July in omnibus form, it will be preceded by a documentary at 7pm ET/PT entitled Doctor Who: The Doctors Revisited – The Seventh Doctor, in which Sylvester McCoy, his companion actors Sophie Aldred and Bonnie Langford, plus current lead writer and executive producer Steven Moffat will be among the people examining the darker side of this particular incarnation of the Doctor. They will also be viewing some of his surreal adventures and discussing The Rani.

Remembrance of the Daleks, written by Ben Aaronovitch and directed by Andrew Morgan, was originally shown over four episodes in October 1988 and saw the Doctor return to Coal Hill School as well as the Totter's Lane junkyard first seen in the show's premier episode. In addition, it continued the story arc of the Dalek civil war, and marked the last appearance of the Daleks and Davros in the original run of the show.
BBC America is celebrating the programme's 50th anniversary by showing a story per Doctor per month.

Award-winning Children's Laureate Malorie Blackman has written the seventh e-book short story in the range celebrating Doctor Who's 50th anniversary.

The Ripple Effect, to be released on Tuesday 23rd July by Puffin Books in partnership with BBC Worldwide, sees the Seventh Doctor and Ace encountering Daleks - but these are Daleks with a difference.
Blackman said: An extract is available via The Guardian's website, and a promotional video featuring Blackman will be available on the BBC's Doctor Who YouTube channel from Thursday 11th July.

Blackman, who will be the Children's Laureate until 2015, has written more than 50 books, including the critically-acclaimed Noughts & Crosses series of novels for young adults. She is acknowledged as one of today's most imaginative and convincing writers for young readers and has been awarded numerous prizes for her work, including the Red House Children's Book Award and the Fantastic Fiction Award. She has also been shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal. In 2005, Blackman was presented with the Eleanor Farjeon Award in recognition of her contribution to children's books, and in 2008 she received an OBE for her services to children's literature.

Details about the e-short for the Eighth Doctor will be revealed on Tuesday 6th August.