We love this because it looks really cool. It looks quite steam-punk – it looks Victorian, but looks technological at the same time, and I can just imagine Jenny Flint when she goes out in the morning needing something like that on her arm.

You feel you want to pick it up and hold it, but it's also about the other side of his life because - of course - Strax is a nurse and this allows him to examine his patients and see what's wrong with them. I think it will be very funny seeing Strax's big clumsy hands holding that.

The sonic hat pin is a glorious idea. It can actually summon her carriage just by plucking it out of her hat, and she can lock it as well. It's funny, it makes absolute sense and it's got a little dinosaur feather in it, which sells it to me.

All the finalists, they've all won because every single one of these ideas is good enough to be in Doctor Who . . They're all brilliant . . . There were so many stories there, that's what impressed me. It wasn't just the idea or the drawing or something simple, it was the whole back story to what this does, what its limitations are, what it costs you, how it gives you something. It's more than just design, it's actual narrative, and a huge exercise of the imagination.

The Doctor Who production team gave us a great opportunity. They offered us the option of three characters, which was brilliant because it gave every child a chance to design for their favourite one.

FANTOM PUBLISHES WILLIAM HARTNELL BIOGRAPHY

Saturday 23rd November 1963 saw the broadcast of the very first episode of Doctor Who. Little did they realise that some 50 years later the BBC TV programme would be one of the most popular series on television, watched by over 165 million people worldwide!

As the twelfth incumbent of the TARDIS takes charge this Christmas, our attention turns to the first actor to play the Doctor in those first black and white years…

From light musical comedy to a succession of mean crooks and bullying sergeant-majors, William Hartnell’s long and varied career included a number of iconic British films including Carry On Sergeant, This Sporting Life and Brighton Rock. However, it is for his role as a time-travelling eccentric that he is most fondly remembered.

With the broadcast of a docudrama Adventures in Space and Time, chronicling the genesis of Doctor Who and the life of William Hartnell, Fantom have published a biography of the actor, written by his granddaughter Jessica Carney entitled Who’s There.

"A fascinating and very moving account of a complicated and talented actor. William Hartnell rose from the humblest beginnings to become a heavyweight screen star and, ultimately, an unlikely hero to millions of children as the first Doctor Who.” Says writer and actor Mark Gatiss. “In this 50th anniversary year, it's wonderful to see how Jessica Carney pulls together all the threads of a tangled life in such a sympathetic but honest fashion. Bill was no saint but he emerges as a fully-rounded, difficult and fascinating personality in this splendid biography.”

Hartnell played the very first Doctor from 1963 – 1966, pitting his wits again many foes and monsters including the Daleks and the Cybermen, laying the foundations for what was to become a global institution.

Jessica Carney’s closely researched biography of her grandfather includes stories from many of the hundreds of stars of stage and screen with whom he worked, among them Richard Attenborough, Verity Lambert, Bob Monkhouse, Carole Ann Ford, David Langton and Lindsay Anderson.

Who’s There: The Life and Career of William Hartnell is now available from Fantom Publishing in hardback and on Audio, read by companion actress Anneke Wills.

An Adventure in Space and Time delves into the origins of Doctor Who and William Hartnell's involvement with the show - but on which day in 1963 was the contract issued to the man who would bring the First Doctor to life and launch a 50 year old legend?

Vinyl release

Side One:
1. Dr Who? (Time Waits For No Man)
2. Dr Who? (Radio)
3. Time Traveller (Radio)
4. Chain Reaction (Radio)
5. Funky Revolution (Radio)
6. Dark Star Angel (Radio)
7. UFO (Radio)

Side Two:
1. Dr Who? (Club)
2. Chain Reaction (Club)
3. Dark Star Angel (Club)
4. Dr Who? (Cosmic Remix) – a special remix for the BBC, made in 1984

The vinyl album has a gatefold sleeve telling the story of the making of the 1978 single, a poster, plus unpublished photos from the first Doctor Who convention in the USA, which was held in 1979 and for which a special pressing of the single was made.

CD release

1. Dr Who? (Time Waits For No Man)
2. Dr Who? (Radio)
3. Time Traveller (Radio)
4. Chain Reaction (Radio)
5. Funky Revolution (Radio)
6. Dark Star Angel (Radio)
7. UFO (Radio)
8. Dr Who? (Club)
9. Time Traveller (Club)
10. Chain Reaction (Club)
11. Funky Revolution (Club)
12. Dark Star Angel (Club)
13. UFO (Club)
14. Dr Who? (Cosmic Remix)

The CD will have the same information as the vinyl release.

So, on the Monday I think it was, we got the chart position of 25, and also the call that we had a place on Top Of The Pops. The golden prize! We would record two days later.

I called the musicians who had recorded Dr Who? and who I had named Mankind. Mark Stevens was available, so was Dave Green, but Graham Jarvis and Dave Christopher weren't. They may have been on tour with Cliff Richard.

My usual session drummer, Graham Hollingworth, was free and I called Paul Martinelli, the lead singer and guitarist from my old band Britania. He said yes, but he'd have to take a day off work.

In those days the Musicians' Union had strict rules about TV appearances. It was OK to mime but not to the original recording. I had to re-record the track using the same or replacement MU members. This was next to impossible. Although the musos were quite capable of recording the basic track in one take, Mark Stevens and I had spent days in the studio dubbing extra electronics: keyboards and synth tracks. There was no way we could do all that in a three-hour recording session!

I booked a studio and told the guys to be there early, certainly before the MU rep - who would oversee the session - arrived. You can probably guess that we were about to "pretend" to re-record the track. If the MU rep suspected anything there would be no Top Of The Pops.

Everybody turned up on time and took their places behind isolation booths. Everybody, that is, except for bass player Dave Green. The MU rep arrived and we started "recording". The MU rep stayed in the control room of course and he couldn't see all the musicians, so he was oblivious to the fact that we were one member short. I remember hitting the talkback button and giving instructions to the absent Dave. I was terrified! Any minute, Dave Green would walk into the control room and in his usual ebullient style say something like "OK, when do we start?"

I kept making my excuses to go outside. The MU rep must have thought I had a weak bladder! On one of these "trips to the loo" I encountered Dave bouncing up the stairs. Before he could say anything, I put my finger to my lips to say "Shhh". I whispered what was going on and told him to sneak into the studio and take his place. He was to mime to the track.

As luck would have it, we got away with it, and the band would now appear on Top Of The Pops.

Blue Peter and Doctor Who have collaborated many times over the history of both series and we felt that the 50th anniversary was a great opportunity to celebrate that and give our young viewers the chance to use their imagination and really get involved in the show. We can’t wait to see what great ideas they come up with for the new devices and to see them in action on the Doctor Who set.

The aim is to guess the final consolidated viewing figure, as reported by BARB to the nearest 10,000 viewers (i.e. two decimal places). This figure includes all those watching the episode within a week of broadcast, but does not include those watching on iPlayer.

Terry Nation - The Man Who Invented The Daleks
The Biography
Written by Alwyn W. Turner
Narrated by David Troughton

The Daleks are one of the most iconic and fearsome creations in television history. Since their first appearance in 1963, they have simultaneously fascinated and terrified generations of children, their instant success ensuring, and sometimes eclipsing, that of Doctor Who.

They sprang from the imagination of Terry Nation, a failed stand-up comic who became one of the most prolific writers for television that Britain has ever produced. Survivors, his vision of a post-apocalyptic England, so haunted audiences in the Seventies that the BBC revived it over thirty years on, and Blake’s 7, constantly rumoured for return, endures as a cult sci-fi classic. But it is for his genocidal pepperpots that Nation is most often remembered, and on the 50th anniversary of their creation they continue to top the Saturday-night ratings.

Yet while the Daleks brought him notoriety and riches, Nation played a much wider role in British broadcasting’s golden age. He wrote for Spike Milligan, Frankie Howerd and an increasingly troubled Tony Hancock, and as one of the key figures behind the adventure series of the Sixties – including The Avengers, The Saint and The Persuaders! – he turned the pulp classics of his boyhood into a major British export.

In The Man Who Invented the Daleks, acclaimed cultural historian Alwyn W. Turner, explores the curious and contested origins of Doctor Who's greatest villains, and sheds light on a strange world of ambitious young writers, producers and performers without whom British culture today would look very different.

Reader David Troughton is attending which forthcoming Fantom Films event in 2014?

Destiny of the Doctor: Death's Deal
Starring Catherine Tate, with Duncan Wisbey (pre-order)

Responding to multiple maydays, the TARDIS lands on the planet of Death’s Deal, but the distress calls are old, the final echoes of terrified lost souls. This is an exotic world of lethal creatures, nicknamed ‘The Deadliest Planet in the Galaxy’, and only the brave, foolhardy or greedy would ever dare to visit.

Finding themselves stranded among a motley bunch of space-tourists, the Doctor and Donna must lead a struggle for survival against the frenzied wildlife, as they slowly realise that other members of the group have very different agendas.

And soon the Doctor learns of an even bigger threat hiding on Death’s Deal. Somewhere deep below the surface, is something that must never be unearthed.

Time is running out, and only an impossible survivor holds the key...

The Trial Of A Time Lord (Vol 2)
Read by Bonnie Langford and Michael Jayston (pre-order)

Bonnie Langford and Michael Jayston read these thrilling novelisations of the final two adventures in 'The Trial of a Time Lord', featuring the Sixth Doctor.

Doctor Who: Terror of the Vervoids: On trial for his life, the Doctor defends himself by telling of an adventure set on board the Hyperion III space liner in his future. Answering a distress call, the Doctor and Mel arrive on the liner just as a series of grisly murders begins. Who is behind the murders? Do the enigmatic Mogarians have anything to do with them? Who sent the distress call to the TARDIS? And what hideous menace lies waiting in the Hydroponic Centre?

Doctor Who: The Ultimate Foe: While the Doctor asserts that the evidence of the Matrix, the repository of all Time Lord knowledge, has been tampered with, the mysterious and vengeful prosecuting council, the Valeyard, is confident that the Doctor will be sentenced to death. In a dramatic intervention the Valeyard's true identity is revealed but he escapes from the Courtroom into the Matrix, and it is into this nightmare world that the Doctor must follow - to face his ultimate foe...

Doctor Who at the BBC: Lost Treasures
Presented by Louise Jameson (pre-order)

Louise Jameson presents a time travelling journey behind the scenes of Doctor Who. Do you remember when the Fourth Doctor called in on Pete Murray's Open House? Or when Louise Jameson was menaced by a Dalek? Do you remember June Whitfield auditioning a Dalek? If not, now's your chance to catch up! Featuring rare recordings, this collection is full of gems. There are contributions from six lead actors - Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, Sylvester McCoy, Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant and Matt Smith - plus co-stars Louise Jameson, Lalla Ward, Nicholas Courtney, Karen Gillan and Jenna Coleman, and production personnel including Delia Derbyshire, Peter Howell, Pennant Roberts, Russell T Davies and Steven Moffat. There are also features on the show's theme tune; the recovery of a lost TV episode; the cancellation of Shada and the legendary Blackpool exhibition, along with clips from a radio programme broadcast live from a Doctor Who convention!

50 Years of Doctor Who at the BBC
Eight CD Collection (pre-order)

Celebrate 50 Years of Doctor Who at the BBC with this unique collection of behind-the-scenes interviews, set reports, lively discussions, comedy and drama, including items from Blue Peter, Woman's Hour, Today, Pete Murray's Open House, Nationwide, Newsbeat, I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, Dead Ringers, The Now Show, Week Ending, PM and many more. Featuring Freema Agyeman, Tom Baker, John Barrowman, Phil Collinson, Russell T. Davies, Peter Davison, Christopher Eccleston, Janet Fielding, Carole Ann Ford, Julie Gardner, Karen Gillan, Michael Grade, Anthony Head, Louise Jameson, John Leeson, Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann, Kylie Minogue, Steven Moffat, John Nathan-Turner, Terry Nation, Jon Pertwee, Billie Piper, Elisabeth Sladen, Matt Smith, Sarah Sutton, Mary Tamm, Catherine Tate, David Tennant, Patrick Troughton, Lalla Ward, Matthew Waterhouse, and many, many more. Also includes the full-cast radio plays Regenerations by Daragh Carville, Blue Sands and Golden Veils by Martyn Wade and Dalek I Love You by Colin Sharpe, plus an extended version of BBC Radio 2's 2005 documentary Project Who?

Over 17 hours of features from BBC Radio and Television, from the 1960s to the present day, presented by Elisabeth Sladen, Anthony Head and Louise Jameson.

Volume 1: 30 Years and More
Volume 2: In the Hot Seat
Volume 3: Now and Then
Volume 4: The Plays
Volume 5: Project Who?
Volume 6: The Tenth Doctor
Volume 7: A Legend Reborn
Volume 8: Lost Treasures

The Doctor has encountered Prime Ministers past, present and future over the course of his adventures, but which one was forecast by him to be the architect of Britain's "Golden Age"?