The Doctor needs your help… The Daleks have engineered a supernova of epic proportions that has damaged the TARDIS, and now the devastating shock wave is heading to Earth. Only the combined power of a million micro:bits can save the TARDIS, the Doctor and the world!

On Tuesday 28th March at 11am, you can help the Doctor and join the UK’s biggest classroom with our special live and interactive Doctor Who and the micro:bit Live Lesson.

BBC Live Lessons support teachers and bring curriculum content to life. These broadcasts are streamed live from location to classrooms across the UK through the Live Lessons website. Please note the live stream will only be available in the UK.

Using their BBC micro:bit, students will be challenged to help the Doctor defeat the Daleks and save Earth in this epic 50 minute adventure. This lesson is aimed at 11-13 year olds and is devised around computational thinking skills, with guest experts from the fields of web search and computer gaming.

Find out more about the Doctor Who and the micro:bit Live Lesson and get your micro:bits ready… The Doctor needs you!

Here’s a short taster of what BBC Live Lessons are all about and another date for the diary is Monday 24th April, as the adventure will continue with lots more great new Doctor Who curriculum linked projects and another mission set by the Doctor… Watch this space (and time)!

In the latest edition of Empire magazine — issue 335, out now — Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat and Twelfth Doctor actor Peter Capaldi have been speaking about their final series together.

During the interview, there are a number of juicy nuggets of information regarding Series 10, Episode 9. Written by Mark Gatiss, we already know the Ice Warriors will return (featuring a new kind according to its writer) but now we’ve been given new information regarding the story.

Read on, if you dare!

Spoilers follow…

• Empire describes the episode as a “Jules Verne-ish spectacle”.

• With scenes on Mars, it features a Martian mine, red sand and a “giant futuristic, drill-like weapon of mysterious provenance”.

• There is a conflict between Zulu War-era British soldiers and an awakened horde of Ice Warriors.

• A “pivotal three-way face-off” with the Doctor, British troops and the Ice Warrior turns on a “key intervention” by new companion Bill.

• At one point, an Ice Warrior is referred to as an “upright crocodile”.

Read the full interview in the latest issue of Empire, out now.

Doctor Who Series 10 airs from April 15, 2017

The very first foe faced by the Doctor and new companion Bill in the upcoming series of Doctor Who will be the Time Lord’s most iconic – the deadly Daleks, who coincidentally last appeared in the first episodes of series 9.

While we already knew the pesky pepperpots would play a role in one episode this year it was unclear where exactly they’d crop up, until official BBC screengrabs (including main image) from the latest trailer revealed that it was new companion Pearl Mackie’s debut episode The Pilot that would see their reign of terror begin anew.

This also means that many Doctor Who viewers will already have seen part of the episode, as Mackie’s announcement as companion took the form of a scene where her character Bill and the Doctor (Peter Capaldi) were assailed by Daleks. Programme-makers assured fans at the time that the footage would form part of a series 10 episode, and now we know which one.

Finally, Bill’s confusion about all things sci-fi makes sense.

Other official BBC screengrabs also revealed telling information about the new series, confirming that the so-called “Wet Dalek Lady” (who appears in an apparition form yelling “Exterminate”) appears in The Pilot and is called Heather, played by actress Stephanie Hyam.

Elsewhere, it’s revealed that this giant underwater eye forms part of writer Sarah Dollard’s episode 3, while shots of a spiny spaceship and Bill in a spacesuit are listed as elements of episode 5, written by Jamie Mathieson. Those emojibots will turn up in Frank Cottrell-Boyce’s episode 2, as expected.

The screengrabs go on to place David Suchet’s enigmatic character The Landlord in episode 4 (written by Mike Bartlett), and the even more mysterious monks into a Steven Moffat-penned episode 6.

And those shots of the Doctor in his sonic shades, with soldiers who may or may not be men of UNIT? Part of Peter Harness’ episode 7, perhaps returning to the themes of the UNIT-centric episodes he wrote for the previous series.

Further on, we get confirmation that the Doctor and Bill’s trip to Mars takes place in the Mark Gatiss-scripted episode 9 (which will see the debut of a new kind of Ice Warrior), while shots of the Doctor and Nardole (Matt Lucas) held at swordpoint are revealed to be the work of classic 1970s Who scribe Rona Munro, who is returning to the series to write the tenth episode of series 10 (called The Eaters of Light).

So overall it’s clear that we have a wonderfully varied collection of Doctor Who storytelling ahead of us in series 10, including not one, not two but THREE different episodes involving oxygen suits (for space and underwater). Gotta love some alternate outerwear.

And maybe, just maybe, some fans’ raging desire to see the long-awaited series’ first episode will be quenched by the knowledge that they have in fact already seen part of it, way back in April 2016, and they can watch it whenever they want right now on YouTube.

OK, probably not. But it was worth a try, right?

Doctor Who returns to BBC1 on Saturday 15th April

A spoiler for the ending of The Husbands Of River Song lies ahead

With the tenth series of Doctor Who since its revival kicking off next month, Steven Moffat has this one more full run of the show to polish off, before handing over to Chris Chibnall from series 11 onwards. However, in a new interview with Empire magazine, he’s admitted that he wasn’t entirely sure he’d be overseeing series 10 after all, and that he suspected he might have been leaving the job a little earlier.

“I vaguely thought I’d be going last year”, he told the magazine, referring to the 2015 series of the show. “So the last scene of Christmas that year [he’s talking about The Husbands Of River Song here] with the Doctor finally making it to the Darillium, which we hear about in the episode just before I took over, was as close as I’ll ever get to making any attempt at closure”.

The end of The Husbands Of River Song saw the Doctor and River finally getting to have their long-promised meal, living happily ever after, at least for 24 years.

Moffat, however, did opt to continue, meaning he’s got a whole new sort-of-ending to write, although Chris Chibnall, he’s confirmed, will be writing the dialogue for Peter Capaldi’s replacement.

In the same interview, incidentally, Steven Moffat confirmed again too that once he departs the executive producer role on Doctor Who, he won’t return to write for the show again.

The new issue of Empire magazine goes on sale this Thursday. Its website is here.