The Day Of The Doctor To Be Simulcast In At Least 75 Countries

And the amazing announcement is... The Day of the Doctor is to be broadcast simultaneously in atleast 75 different countries in six different continents!!

BBC Worldwide have also announced that the 75-minute special will be shown in various cinemas in the UK and in various other countries.

CEO of BBC Worldwide Tim Davie comments: “Few TV shows can still lay claim to being appointment viewing but Doctor Who takes this to another level. In its 50^th Anniversary year we wanted to create a truly international event for Doctor Who fans in as many countries as possible and the simultaneous broadcast and cinema screening of the special across so many countries will make for a fitting birthday tribute to our Time Lord.”

Showrunner and executive producer Steven Moffat adds: “The Doctor has always been a time traveller - now he's travelling time zones. On the 23rd of November, it won't be the bad guys conquering the Earth - everywhere it will be The Day of the Doctor!”

Countries and channels:
Europe
Germany (Fox), Finland (YLE), Poland (BBC Entertainment), Russia (Karousel and NKS)

North America
USA (BBC America), Canada (Space)

Latin America (on BBC Entertainment and BBC HD)
Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Ecuador, Guatemala,  Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela

Africa (on BBC Entertainment)
Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde Islands, Central African Republic, Chad,  Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sao Tome & Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, South Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania & Zanzibar, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

Australia (ABC)

Asia (on BBC Entertainment)
Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand


This news is sure to please some people and disappoint some people. Discuss it right here on our Doctor Who forum!

Derek Landy To Write Tenth Doctor E-short

BBC Worldwide have revealed that Skulduggery Pleasant author Derek Landy is to write October's short e-book.

The e-short will be called The Mystery of the Haunted Cottage and will feature David Tennant's Tenth Doctor and Freema Agyeman's Martha Jones, and here's the synopsis:

"When the TARDIS lands on a planet that looks identical to Earth, the Tenth Doctor and Martha are amazed to find it packed with fictional characters from her childhood. But who has the power to create an entire world out of books and why? The Doctor and Martha must solve the mystery before their story ends!"

The Mystery of the Haunted Cottage is available to pre-order on Amazon and the iBookstore at the price of £1.99.

Today's Doctor Who DVD Releases

After a long wait, Tom Baker story Terror of the Zygons is finally available on DVD, and so are all six Monster Collection sets.

Monster Collection set contents:
Davros - Genesis of the Daleks, The Stolen Earth & Journey's End
Daleks - The Daleks & Asylum of the Daleks
The Master - Terror of the Autons & The End of Time
Cybermen - The Tomb of the Cybermen, Rise of the Cybermen & The Age of Steel
Silurians - Doctor Who & the Silurians, The Hungry Earth & Cold Blood
Sontarans - The Time Warrior, The Sontaran Stratagem & The Poison Sky



Buy Terror of the Zygons from Amazon here or from the BBC Shop here.
Buy the Monster Collection sets from Amazon here or from the BBC Shop here.

Doctor Who: Immortal Beloved Review

Released in April 2007, Immortal Beloved was the fourth Doctor Who audio in Big Finish's Eighth Doctor Adventures range. It stars Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor and Sheridan Smith as Lucie Miller. It is written by Jonathan Clements and directed by Jason Haigh-Ellery.

Big Finish's synopsis:

"Theosophy? Ha! Surely you mean theophany? Because we're not talking about real gods here, are we? We're talking about the appearance of gods. Your heavenly powers are a little too mechanical for my liking. And, if I may be so bold, Lord Zeus, your demeanor is not very godlike."

I started listening to this story expecting next to nothing, but I was pleasantly surprised to find out that it's actually very good.

The story starts with a loving couple, Kalkin and Sarati, umm... Standing on the edge of a cliff, about to kill themselves. Before the two get a chance to jump, they hear the TARDIS.

The entire cast is brilliant and they all provide believable performances. Paul McGann and Sheridan Smith are at their best so far, Ian McNeice does a wonderful job of Zeus, Elspet Gray's Hera is very good although a little underused, Jennifer Higham's Sararti is great, Anthony Spargo is excellent as Kalkin and David Dobson is good as Tayden. Paul's son, Jake McGann, plays Ganymede very well but he only gets one or two lines, unfortunately.

I'm not really sure what to think of the setting as we hardly know anything about it, other than the fact there's a palace. I do like what I imagined, though!

I think the engine of incarnation is an interesting idea.

Zeus is really, really, really creepy when he's in Lucie's room. After watching his comedic appearances as Winston Churchill in Series 5 and 6 of new Who, I wasn't expecting Ian McNeice to be able to act so creepily.

My favourite non-main character in this story is, without a doubt, Zeus. An excellent, chilling, performance.

Some good lines from Immortal Beloved are:
"Your clothes have gone see-through!" "As have yours', my lady. That is why we close our eyes."
"I am Zeus. Lord of the skies. Bringer of storms."
"What is this? The planet of idiots?"

Overall, the weakest story so far in this range but still incredibly entertaining. Definitely worth the money. I wouldn't recommend it as your first audio because I recommend listening to the Eighth Doctor Adventures in order. Then again, if you're already familiar with Lucie Miller, you should understand everything perfectly.

Overall Rating: 8/10

You can buy Immortal Beloved for £8.99 download or £10.99 CD here.

Doctor Who: Horror Of Glam Rock Review

Released in March 2007, Horror of Glam Rock was the third Doctor Who audio in Big Finish's Eighth Doctor Adventures range. It stars Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor and Sheridan Smith as Lucie Miller. It is written by Paul Magrs and directed by Barnaby Edwards.

Big Finish's synopsis:

"The Doctor and Lucie go glam when the TARDIS makes an unexpected landing in 1974. Slade, The Sweet and Suzi Quatro are Top of the Pops - and brother-and-sister duo The Tomorrow Twins will soon be joining them, if the starmaking Svengali Arnold Korns has his way. But will their dreams turn to dust at a service station somewhere on the M62, besieged by a pack of alien monsters?"

As soon as I saw the title and the writer, I was 99% sure this was going to be good. Well, it's not really what I expected, but I'm certainly not disappointed.

The story starts with The Doctor and Lucie landing in 1974... Then all of a sudden, they find themselves staring at a corpse. Excellent way to start a story!

The entire cast is great. Paul McGann and Sheridan Smith are good as ever, it's fantastic to see Bernard Cribbins - one of my favourite actors, the late Stephen Gately does a great and almost creepy job as Tommy and he reminds me of the kid from Planet of the Spiders, Claire Buckfield plays Trisha very well and Lynsey Hardwick does an excellent job with auntie Pat although she sounds very similar to Sheridan Smith making it a little confusing at times.

Horror of Glam Rock features what is probably the best possible Earth-based setting. Absolutely fantastic.

Some things I found out from listening to this story are that Lucie thinks the Doctor 'Always takes over' and that 1974 is as close as the TARDIS can get to Lucie's time.

I really like what they did with the ending music. Great stuff.

My favourite non-main character in this story is Arnold Korns, mainly because of Bernard Cribbins but hey. That said, it does feel kind of strange to hear him being such a bastard after watching him play Wilfred.

My favourite line is "Torn apart, just like my Bentley. Only less expensive to replace" from Arnorld. How horrible can a human being get? Another line I like is The Doctor's "Magnificent, aren't they?" - reminds me of the Tenth Doctor in Tooth and Claw.

Overall, a great story - recommended. Not exactly top notch, but still of a very high quality. Great stuff and certainly worth the money. I wouldn't recommend it as your first audio though, because I recommend you listen to the Eighth Doctor Adventures in order.

Overall Rating: 8/10

You can buy Horror of Glam Rock for £8.99 download or £10.99 CD here.

#SaveTheDay Teaser Stings

 

 

...And the hashtag is #SaveTheDay!

And that's all, for now... Get Tweeting! We'll have the graphic up later! #SaveTheDay

Nerd³ Interviews Steven Moffat

In a fantastic interview with YouTube star Nerd³, showrunner Steven Moffat has revealed that the Doctor Who team are aware of Peter Capaldi's past appearances in Doctor Who and Torchwood and that they are not going to ignore the fact.

Very interesting stuff. I highly recommend you watch the full interview.

More Info On The Day Of The Doctor!

As well as uploading this image, the BBC have revealed various details regarding the 50th anniversary special The Day of the Doctor...

Before and after Atlantis on BBC One at 8:25pm tonight, there will be 'stings' for The Day of the Doctor that reveal the ident which will be used for the episode as well as a Twitter hashtag which we will soon be familiar with.

They also confirmed that a trailer has been specially written and shot and it will be released soon.

More information coming soon.

UPDATE: BBC One have confirmed that tonight's stings will feature no footage from The Day of the Doctor trailer and will just be the official hashtag and the new graphic for the 50th anniversary.

Classic Doctor Who DVDs From Just £5.49!

The BBC Shop is currently selling classic Doctor Who DVDs starting at the cheap price of £5.49! The stories available at this price include fan-favourites such as Genesis of the Daleks, The Pyramids of Mars and Inferno.

You can take a quick look at (and maybe buy) all the £5.49 DVDs here.

Nick's Picks Big Finish Sale

Nicholas Briggs has chosen nine Doctor Who audios, along with one Sherlock Holmes audio, to go on sale for the weekend.

The Doctor Who audios on sale are:
The Condemned (Sixth Doctor)
The Girl Who Never Was (Eighth Doctor)
The Bride of Peladon (Fifth Doctor)
Max Warp (Eighth Doctor)
Grand Theft Cosmos (Eighth Doctor)
Lucie Miller (Eighth Doctor)
To the Death (Eighth Doctor)
Son of the Dragon (Fifth Doctor)
The Rocket Men (First Doctor Companion Chronicle with Ian Chesterton)
The Adventure of the Perfidous Mariner (non-Doctor Who; Sherlock Holmes)

They are priced at £5 each (CD and download) or £45 for the lot. You can buy them here. Sale ends Monday.

Rubbertoe Replicas - Behind the Scenes - Doctor Who

The official Doctor Who YouTube channel has uploaded a video showing some of the licensed Doctor Who replicas that a small company called Rubbertoe Replicas have made. You can buy the products shown in the video at rubbertoereplicas.com.

Classic Stories Confirmed For The Doctors Revisited In The UK

The Radio Times have confirmed the UK air dates for the mini-series The Doctor's Revisited, and have further confirmed that a featured story will be aired for each Doctor right after the short documentaries.

Schedule:

12th October: The Doctors Revisited: William Hartnell + The Aztecs
13th October: The Doctors Revisited: Patrick Troughton + The Tomb of the Cybermen
19th October: The Doctors Revisited: Jon Pertwee + Spearhead from Space
20th October: The Doctors Revisited: Tom Baker + The Pyramids of Mars
26th October: The Doctors Revisited: Peter Davison + Earthshock
27th October: The Doctors Revisited: Colin Baker + Vengeance on Varos
2nd November: The Doctors Revisited: Sylvester McCoy + Battlefield
3rd November: The Doctors Revisited: Paul McGann + Doctor Who: The Movie
9th November: The Doctors Revisited: Christopher Eccleston + Bad Wolf / Parting of the Ways
10th November: The Doctors Revisited: David Tennant + The Stolen Earth / Journey's End
16th November: The Doctors Revisited: Matt Smith + The Impossible Astronaught / Day of the Moon

The documentaries all start on Watch at 2PM and the episodes start at 2:30PM on the various dates.

Doctor Who: Figurine Collection Magazine - Upcoming Releases

So far, two issues of the fortnightly magazine containing an exclusive figurine have been released - issue 1 being the Eleventh Doctor and issue 2 being Davros. It has been revealed that one of the upcoming issues will feature the Tenth Doctor.

Upcoming Issues:
#3 - Cyber Controller - Out 29th September 2013
#4 - Weeping Angel  - Out 13th October 2013
#5 - Silurian Warrior - Out 27th October 2013
#6 - Dalek - Out 10th November 2013
#7 - Sontaran General - Out 24th November 2013
#8 - Tenth Doctor - Out 8th December 2013

These magazines are priced at £6.64 each.

The Light At The End - Official Video

Big Finish have uploaded this video to advertise their 50th anniversary special audio drama The Light at the End, starring Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann and various companions. The more expensive collector's edition release features Companion Chronicle The Revenants starring William Russell.

You can pre-order The Light at the End from BigFinish.com here or from Amazon UK here.

Happy Birthday To Billie Piper & Frazer Hines!

Today marks the birthdays of both Billie Piper, who played Rose Tyler and Frazer Hines, who played Jamie McCrimmon!

Billie Piper played Rose, a companion of both the Ninth and Tenth Doctors from Rose (2005) to Doomsday (2006) and has made quite a few more appearances in the show since then.

Frazer Hines played Jamie, a companion of the Second Doctor from The Highlanders (1966) to The War Games (1969), making him one of Doctor Who's longest serving companions. He later appeared in The Five Doctors (1983) and The Two Doctors (1985).

To wish the both of them a happy birthday, please use the Twitter hashtags #HappyBirthdayBilliePiper and #HappyBirthdayFrazerHines!

Sydney Newman Interview From 1966

 

Thanks to CBC, an interview with Sydney Newman (the man who initiated Doctor Who) has been made available for everyone to watch online. Very interesting stuff.

Doctor Who: Afterlife & Antidote To Oblivion Covers

The covers for upcoming Big Finish audios Afterlife and Antidote to Oblivion have been revealed. Afterlife is written by Matt Fitton, directed by Ken Bentley and stars Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh Doctor, Sophie Aldred as Ace, Philip Olivier as Hex and Amy Pemberton as Sally Morgan while Antidote to Oblivion is written by Philip Martin, directed by Nicholas Briggs and stars Colin Baker as the Sixth Doctor, Lisa Greenwood as Flip and Nabil Shaban as fan-favourite monster Sil.

Afterlife synopsis:

"Hex is dead. And a distraught Ace holds the Doctor responsible.

She forces him to take a trip to 21st century Liverpool to break the news to Hex's beloved nan and, to pay tribute to Thomas Hector Schofield, the pair seek out his family and friends to tell them of his adventures. They're helped by Private Sally Morgan, who has her own peace to find.

The Doctor, Ace and Sally must each face the fallout of the loss of their friend - to commemorate him, remember him, and finally to move on. But can they do it together, or will their attempts drive them apart?"

Antidote To Oblivion synopsis:

"Future Britain is bankrupt, its corporate owners facing financial ruin. Fortunately, the Universal Monetary Fund, and its slimy representative Sil, are willing to give its President a multi-billion credit bail-out... but terms and conditions apply, and Sil's proposed austerity measures go far beyond mere benefit cuts.

Responding to a distress call, the Doctor and his companion Flip land in a London whose pacified population has been driven largely underground. But the horrors down there in the dark are as nothing to the horrors that await them at ConCorp HQ, where a young biochemist in Sil's employ is working on a permanent solution to the nation's terminal unprofitability.

Because in the final account, Sil plans to make a killing..."

You can pre-order Afterlife for £12.99 download or £14.99 CD here. (Released December 2013)
You can pre-order Antidote to Oblivion for £12.99 download or £14.99 CD here. (Released January 2014)

Doctor Who: Upstairs Review

Released in September 2013, Upstairs was the third Doctor Who audio in the eighth season of Big Finish's Companion Chronicles. It stars Maureen O'Brien as Vicki and Peter Purves as Steven. It is written by Mat Coward and directed by Lisa Bowerman.

Big Finish's synopsis:

"When the TARDIS lands in a dilapidated attic, the Doctor, Vicki and Steven discover they are on Earth, in London… in Number 10 Downing Street.
However alien forces are at play here, affecting the very fabric of the building… and adjusting the very essence of history itself."

Believe it or not, this is the first Companion Chronicle I've listened to, seeing as I've always spent a good chunk of my money on main range and Eighth Doctor Adventure audios. Naturally, I became curious about this little range of audio drama-like audiobooks after hearing so many good things about it and I thought that, since Steven is my favourite Hartnell era companion, pre-ordering this release might be a good way to see what all the hype is about. Well, it certainly didn't disappoint me!

Like most Companion Chronicles, the cast is made up of just two actors. A lot of the time, it's one companion and one random actor but this time, it's two companions and no one else. Maureen O'Brien sounds a lot older, but of course, she was (and obviously still is) a little bit younger than Peter. She does a legitimately great job with some of the voices, and I really do like her Hartnell impression. Peter Purves doesn't sound a day older than he did in The Savages - I certainly wouldn't have guessed he was in his 70's now! Excellent performances from both actors!

The setting of 10 Downing Street in 1900 is great, and the more you learn, the creepier it gets. Not the Chimes of Midnight or The Holy Terror kind of creepy, but still, creepy. I bet conspiracy theorists are going to love the setting and the storyline.

I think the villain in Upstairs is one of the most interesting villains of all time although, to some people, it's name is probably a huge spoiler so I won't mention it. It's very wibbly wobbly timey wimey near the start of the story and actually makes you think "How are they going to get out of this one!?" near the end of the story.

My favourite line is "NUMBER 10 DOWNING STREET, AHA!" - it doesn't make an amazing quote, but Maureen O'Brien's eccentricity while saying that line was amazing.

There are some good funny moments, such as The Doctor, Steven and Vicki walking in on someone in the washroom. Even if it's not very much, I always appreciate a little humour in sci-fi!

It's nice to hear something about the TARDIS food machine for the first time in a long while. Something I really like is how the story gives us some insight on what was going on in Vicki's head during her travels with The Doctor.

Mat Coward is just one of many new Big Finish writers in recent months, and if his future scripts can live up to this standard, then I know they will all be a joy to hear. Looking forward to more from him.

I highly recommend giving this a listen. Full of great ideas, great characters and great music / sound effects. Excellent stuff.

Overall Rating: 8.5/10

You can buy Upstairs for £7.99 download or £8.99 CD here.

Jago & Litefoot Series 6 Is Out Now!

The sixth series of Big Finish's Doctor Who audio spin-off Jago & Litefoot is finally available! These audios star Trevor Baxter as George Litefoot and Christopher Benjamin as Henry Gordon Jago - the two incredibly popular characters featured in the incredibly popular Tom Baker story The Talons of Weng-Chiang. The stories are written by Jonathan Morris, Matthew Sweet, George Mann, Justin Richards and directed by Lisa Bowerman.

Synopsis:

"After returning to Victorian London, Jago and Litefoot are approached by the enigmatic Colonel and offered a role they cannot refuse – investigators by Royal Appointment to Queen Victoria!
Their missions include a mystery on the Suffolk coast where strange things lurk in the sea mist, an encounter with Freud and a threat to the realm itself… But who can save Professor Litefoot when he is accused of murder, and no one can be convinced of his innocence?"

You can buy the series 6 box set for £30.00 download or £35.00 CD here.