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Month: February 2015

Michelle Gomez returns to Doctor Who

Michelle Gomez returns to Doctor Who

Michelle Gomez arrives in Cardiff this week to rejoin the Doctor Who cast and reclaim the role of ‘Missy’ for series 9.

She joins Peter Capaldi (The Doctor) and Jenna Coleman (Clara Oswald) for the opening episode of the series.

Speaking in Cardiff, Michelle Gomez says: “Things have been a little beige since I left Missy behind, so I’m delighted to be putting my lippie back on. I’m positively dying to see The Doctor again!”

The second two-part episode to be filmed, The Magician’s Apprentice and The Witch’s Familiar, is written by the show’s lead writer Steven Moffat, produced by Peter Bennett and directed by Hettie Macdonald (Blink, the Hugo Award-winning Doctor Who episode).

Steven Moffat, lead writer and Executive Producer, says: “Everybody hide – Michelle Gomez as Missy was an instant hit last year, so she’s straight back to plague the Doctor and Clara in the series opener. But what brings her back into their lives is the last thing they’d expect.”

Having filmed Day of the Doctor in the series’ 50th anniversary special and Dark Water and Death in Heaven in series 8, Jemma Redgrave returns to the guest cast for series 9, alongside the Laurence Olivier Award nominee and film, television, radio and stage actress Kelly Hunter.

A familiar theatre and television actress and one of the UK’s most proficient performers, Clare Higgins also joins the guest cast for the opening of the series. Jaye Griffiths has been gracing our screens in some of the nation’s favourite TV programmes such as Silent Witness and Casualty and also takes up a guest role in the opening episode.

Other guest stars confirmed for the new series include Daniel Hoffmann-Gill, Jami Reid-Quarrell, Aaron Neil, India Ria Amarteifio, Joey Price, Dasharn Anderson, Harki Bhambra, Demi Papaminas.

Doctor Who is a BBC Cymru Wales production for BBC One and will be back on-air this Autumn.

Doctor Who: Dark Eyes 4 in March

Doctor Who: Dark Eyes 4 in March

It’s the end of the Doctor Who – The Eighth Doctor Adventures special offer… But the moment has been prepared for…

As last weekend’s special offer relating to the Doctor Who – The Eight Doctor Adventures range comes to a close, we have some news for those suffering withdrawal for the Eighth Doctor…

On Monday March 2nd we’ll be making the Download of Doctor Who – Dark Eyes 4 available, ahead of its CD release later in the month. This will be exclusive to the Big Finish site, and apply to anyone who’s bought the title on Download or CD.

Pre-order prices are still available on Dark Eyes 4, while Bundles have been set up to enable people to get the whole series in one go!

Doctor Who: Death Match Cover

Doctor Who: Death Match Cover

The cover for Doctor Who – The Fourth Doctor Adventures: Death Match is now online…

In April, the Doctor, Leela and K9 become involved in the Master’s schemes in a new story: Doctor Who – The Fourth Doctor Adventures: Death Match:

The Death-Match is under new management. The Hunt Master’s Champion has been installed. All regular players are welcomed back to the Pursuit Lounge to observe the contest in luxurious surroundings. Privacy is assured. For this reason we ask our elite guests to abide by the strict security protocols. Please note, the house has no limits.

In the Gallery, your combatants can be observed on the orbiting Quarry Station. A purpose-built environment filled with deadly traps and hidden dangers. Prizes are offered for every kill, with bonuses for rogue elements. Only an elite hunter can survive the End-Game. Do you have a worthy champion? Kill or be killed: the only rule of the Death-Match…

Doctor Who – The Fourth Doctor Adventures: Death Match is released on CD and Download in April, and can be pre-ordered now. The entire fourth series of Doctor Who – The Fourth Doctor Adventures can be bought now at a special Subscription price. Or you can get aBundle of all eight adventures along with the much regarded Doctor Who – Philip Hinchcliffe Presents…

Doctor Who: New Trailers

Doctor Who: New Trailers

With Doctor Who – Equilibrium and Doctor Who – The Darkness of Glass now out, we look forward to next month with two new trailers…

With the trailer for Doctor Who – Dark Eyes 4 premiering in yesterday’s Big Finish podcast, it’s time to make a few others available: the trailers for two of March’s other Doctor Whoreleases are now online, starting with Doctor Who – The Fourth Doctor Adventures: Requiem for the Rocket Men:

The Asteroid – notorious hideaway of the piratical Rocket Men. Hewn out of rock, surrounded by force-fields and hidden in the depths of the Fairhead Cluster, their base is undetectable, inescapable and impregnable.

In need of allies, the Master has arranged to meet with Shandar, King of the Rocket Men. But the mercenaries have captured themselves a very special prisoner – his oldest enemy, the Doctor.

What cunning scheme is the Doctor planning? How does it connect with Shandar’s new robotic pet? And just what has happened to Leela? The Master will have to work the answers out if he wants to leave the asteroid… alive…

The trailer for Doctor Who – The Fourth Doctor Adventures: Requiem for the Rocket Men can be heard by visiting the story page through the link, and the release can be pre-ordered now, either as a single release, or as a Series 4 Subscription, or Bundled with the much-praisedDoctor Who – Philip Hinchcliffe Presents…

Today’s second trailer is for next month’s main range title, Doctor Who – The Entropy Plague, which ends the most recent run of Fifth Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Turlough stories:

A Great Darkness is spreading over E-Space. Entropy increases. In search of a last exit to anywhere, the TARDIS arrives on the power-less planet of Apollyon, where the scientist Pallister guards the only way out – a mysterious portal. But the portal needs power to open, and the only power Pallister can draw on is the energy contained within the molecular bonds of all living tissue…

The Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Turlough soon learn that neither Pallister nor his ally, the space pirate Captain Branarack, will stop at murder to ensure their escape. But they’re not the only menace on Apollyon. The Sandmen are coming – creatures that live on the life force; that live on death.

Death is the only way out into N-Space. Death, or sacrifice.

But whose death?

Whose sacrifice?

Doctor Who – The Entropy Plague is available in March and can be pre-ordered on CD or Download. Click on the link to hear the story’s brand new trailer. The next story is April’sDoctor Who – The Defectors, starting a run of three stories celebrating the main Doctor Whorange reaching two hundred releases!

Subscribers get more at Big Finish: not only can you get 12 main range stories at a considerable saving on CD or Download, but also script PDFs, an extended downloadable interviews extra, and four Doctor Who Short Trips downloads exclusive to Subscribers!

And a reminder to anyone who didn’t see our News Pages or exclusive Newsletteryesterday, that there is currently a Special Offer underway on our Doctor Who – The Eighth Doctor Adventures, including Doctor Who – An Earthly Child at a special price!

Doctor Who: The Fourth Doctor Adventures: The Darkness of Glass

Doctor Who: The Fourth Doctor Adventures: The Darkness of Glass

The February release of our Doctor Who – The Fourth Doctor Adventures range is out today…

Doctor Who – The Fourth Doctor Adventures: The Darkness of Glass is out today on CD and Download, the second Doctor Who release of the day after this morning’s Doctor Who – Equilibrium. Tom Baker and Louise Jameson star as the Doctor and Leela in a new story from Justin Richards:

Cut off from the TARDIS, the Doctor and Leela find themselves stranded on a small island.  But they are not alone.  It is 1907, and members of the Caversham Society have gathered on the hundredth anniversary of the death of Mannering Caversham, the greatest Magic Lanternist who ever lived.

But Caversham was also a supernaturalist who claimed to have conjured up a demon from the depths of hell. As people start to die, the Doctor begins to wonder if Caversham’s story might have more than a grain of truth in it. Can the Doctor and Leela discover what really happened to Caversham a century ago?  And if they do, will they live to tell the tale..?

Doctor Who – The Darkness of Glass can be bought on Download or CD by simply clicking on the link to the story’s page on our website. Further details and a chilling trailer can also be found there.

The entire fourth series of Doctor Who – The Fourth Doctor Adventures can be Subscribed to at a considerable saving, or there’s also a Bundle for the series which includes the regarded release Doctor Who – Philip Hinchcliffe Presents…

Doctor Who – The Fourth Doctor Adventures continues next month with Doctor Who – Requiem for the Rocket Men, with a new trailer coming at the weekend…

Doctor Who: Equilibrium Out Now

Doctor Who: Equilibrium Out Now

The February release in Big Finish’s main range of Doctor Who stories is out today – the Fifth Doctor, Tegan, Nyssa and Turlough in Equilibrium…

Available from today on CD or Download is Doctor Who – Equilibrium, a brand new adventure for the Fifth Doctor and companions:

Still looking for a way out of E-Space, the TARDIS crashes to Isenfel – a realm of snow and ice. Snarling beasts stalk the frozen plains, a feisty princess leads the hunt, and a queen in an ice palace rules over her loyal subjects.

But this is no fairytale kingdom, and everyone in Isenfel knows the price of survival. While Nyssa and Tegan uncover deadly secrets hidden in the palace, Turlough flees for his life across the tundra.

And as for the Doctor… he only ever wants to change things for the better. But in a world such as Isenfel, such a hope may not even be possible.

To find out more details about Doctor Who – Equilibrium, to hear a trailer, or to buy on CD or Download, simply click on the link above. Next month’s story is Doctor Who – The Entropy Plague, the last of this run of three Fifth Doctor stories. After that from April we embark on three stories celebrating us reaching the two hundredth release in Big Finish’s main Doctor Who range: Doctor Who – The DefectorsDoctor Who – Last of the Cybermen, and Doctor Who – The Secret History.

Subscribers to the main range can get a heavily discounted run of six or 12 stories, as well as free downloadable scripts, extended extras, and four exclusive Doctor Who Subscriber Short Trips readings!

Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor #8

Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor #8

INFINITY AND BACK TO END A COSMIC WAR!

Interstellar dogfights still rage in the skies over London!

When Alice is forced into a high-stakes solo challenge that could end the conflict, she’ll need to muster everything she’s learned on her travels with the Doctor in order to succeed – and even that might not be enough!

Has the Doctor made a grave mistake – or is it all part of a larger plan?

Plus! We’ve heard of the fearsome Amstrons of the Great Wheel throughout the series… But what is their shocking secret, revealed this issue?!

ON SALE FROM FEB 11TH 2015

Gallifrey: Intervention Earth

Gallifrey: Intervention Earth

Big Finish is delighted to announce that Kate Stewart and her UNIT team from the Doctor Who TV series will be starring in a brand new series of audio dramas, in a licensing deal with BBC Worldwide.

Kate is the daughter of Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, and Head of Scientific Research at the Unified Intelligence Taskforce, which investigates and confronts alien attacks on the planet Earth. The role is portrayed by Jemma Redgrave (Dracula, Frankie, Cold Blood) who has appeared opposite Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi on television, and returns for the audio series.

“We’re thrilled that Jemma is on board for our brand new UNIT adventures,” says series producer David Richardson, “and we feel privileged to work within the universe of New Series Doctor Who for the first time. UNIT: Extinction will showcase all the excitement, drama and wit that viewers of Doctor Who love.”

“Having worked with the greatly missed Nicholas Courtney and his magnificent portrayal of the Brigadier since the early days of Big Finish, it is wonderful to see the return of UNIT under the Brig’s daughter,” says executive producer Jason Haigh-Ellery. “We are all very excited about bringing UNIT back to Big Finish with the next generation and look forward immensely to working with Jemma again, who appears in this month’s Doctor Who main range release Doctor Who – Mistfall.”

“I’m really excited to hear Jemma and her team battling to save the Earth,” says executive producer Nick Briggs. “They’ve been such an important part of the many exciting things to come out of the Doctor Who TV series in recent years.”

Additional cast members for the first box set, UNIT: Extinction, will be revealed later. This first box set release comprises four hours of adventure, in which Kate and her team confront an alien invasion by the Nestene Consciousness and its army of plastic Autons.

UNIT: Extinction will be released in November 2015, and is available for specially-priced pre-order, with all pre-orders getting a copy of Nicholas Courtney’s memoirs A Soldier in Time as a free download as Supplementary content in Big Finish accounts.

Three additional box sets will be available at six monthly intervals, with all four available for aBundled pre-order. For many more details, watch this space in coming months.

Doctor Who: Monthly Short Trips: Little Doctors

Doctor Who: Monthly Short Trips: Little Doctors

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s some weekend listening, as we release the second of this year’s Doctor Who – Monthly Short Trips…

Philip Lawrence’s Little Doctors is released today, the second in our new range of downloadable Doctor Who – Monthly Short Trips:

The TARDIS brings the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe to a sophisticated Earth colony. Olympos is a world of hi-tech cities, where the lives of the populace are controlled by an all-seeing, all-knowing super computer: Zeus. When the Doctor sees how the human inhabitants have been robbed of the more simple pleasures, he sets out to bring real life back to the colony. But his mental connection to Zeus has some unexpected consequences…

Doctor Who – Little Doctors can be bought either as a single title, or as part of a 12-story Subscription.

Four collected volumes of Doctor Who – Short Trips are available, and subscribers to the Doctor Who main range can be eligible to four exclusive Doctor Who Short Trip stories a year – see here.

If you’re looking for even more to read or listen to over the weekend, then the very latest copy of our free-to-download magazine Vortex is now live on our website, as is the newest podcast in Toby Hadoke’s epic project Who’s Round, in which he seeks to interview someone associated with every Doctor Who TV story in the show’s first 50 years!

Doctor Who Magazine 483

Doctor Who Magazine 483

DIRECTOR PAUL WILMSHURST REVEALS THE SECRET OF MAKING DOCTOR WHO AS SCARY AS POSSIBLE – EXCLUSIVELY IN DWM 483!

Paul Wilmshurst, director of the recent Doctor Who episodes Kill the Moon, Mummy on the Orient Express and Last Christmas, explains the challenges of working on the series, in his first major interview….

“We were all very proud of the fact that the Mummy was so scary they wouldn’t put it in the series trailer,” Paul tells DWM. “It’s always about how far can you go? I think the old joke is true: how complicated can you make it to hold a child’s attention, and how simple can you make it for adults? Can you make it scary enough for the children to be satisfied, but not too scary for the adults to be worried?”

ALSO INSIDE ISSUE 483 OF DWM…

  • Doctor Who‘s very first director, Waris Hussein, reveals how the classic 1964 adventureMarco Polo was made – with the help of unique documents unseen for 50 years!
  • Doctor Whoshowrunner Steven Moffat answer readers’ questions – including one from former showrunner Russell T Davies! – in his exclusive column.
  • Peter Purves, who played companion Steven Taylor in the 1960s, looks back at some of his most memorable adventures in the second part of an exclusive interview.
  • En garde! Discover fascinating new facts about the swashbuckling Fourth Doctor adventureThe Androids of Tara in The Fact of Fiction.
  • DWMpresents an exclusive prelude to the new series of books featuring Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart, in the form of a complete short story by Andy Frankham-Allan:The Ambush.
  • Bernard Kay, the much-loved actor who appeared in fourDoctor Who stories, is remembered by his friend Toby Hadoke.
  • The Doctor and Clara tackle both Sontarans and Rutans in the concluding part ofThe Instruments of War, a brand-new comic strip written and illustrated by Mike Collins.
  • The Time Team watch the Tenth Doctor take a bus to alien world, as they visit thePlanet of the Dead.
  • Jacqueline Rayner demonstrates the fun to be had in spottingDoctor Who actors in other roles in Relative Dimensions.
  • The DWM Reviewassesses the very latest Doctor Who audio and book releases.
  • The Watcher examines the changing nature of history inDoctor Who, in the latest Wotcha!
  • TheDWM Crossword, prize-winning competitions, official news and much more!

Doctor Who Magazine 483 is out on Thursday 5 February, priced £4.99.