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Month: April 2019

DWM Special 52: Costume Design

DWM Special 52: Costume Design

Few television programmes make the same production demands as Doctor Who. With such diverse settings as distant points in Earth’s history and alien civilisations in the far future, the series has always stretched the ingenuity – and resources – of its talented costume designers.

This unprecedented magazine features numerous rare and previously unpublished illustrations showing how the look of a Doctor Who episode evolves from sketch to screen, plus exclusive interviews with many of those designers including:

• Alexandra Tynan (costume designer in the 1960s who created the look of the Cybermen)
• Barbara Lane (the designer of Azal, Alpha Centauri, the Axons and more – this is her first interview in over 40 years)
• Lee Bender (designer and owner of Bus Stop, a boutique which supplied outfits for Sarah Jane Smith)
• June Hudson (designer of the Fourth Doctor’s final outfit and many elegant costumes for Romana)
• Colin Lavers (designer of the Fifth Doctor’s costume)
• Amy Roberts (designer of Anthony Ainley’s Master)
• Lucinda Wright (designer of Christopher Eccleston’s series as the Ninth Doctor)
• Howard Burden (designer of the Twelfth Doctor’s costume)
• Ray Holman (designer of the Eleventh and Thirteenth Doctor’s costumes, and Doctor Who’s current costume designer)

Plus, the stars who wore the designers’ creations in Doctor Who look back at their characters’ clothes:

• Anneke Wills (Polly)
• Katy Manning (Jo Grant)
• Sophie Aldred (Ace)
• Camille Coduri (Jackie Tyler)
• Catrin Stewart (Jenny Flint) 

On Sale Now!

OUT NOW! Tales from the TARDIS #2.4

OUT NOW! Tales from the TARDIS #2.4

Doctor Who

Doctor Who: Tales from the TARDIS comic issue #2.4 is on sale now.

In this issue, the Thirteenth Doctor and her ‘fam’ are taken prisoner by the Army of the Just. Plus, things get chilly between the Twelfth Doctor, the Ice Warriors and Vikings! Finally, the Tenth Doctor and Gabby arrive in London to confront The Reach. There’s also a chance to win a copy of The Macra Terror on blu-ray!


Check out the details and the amazing cover art below:

Doctor Who

Doctor Who

Doctor Who

Doctor Who

Doctor Who

Doctor Who

Doctor Who Series 4 to be released as Blu-ray steelbook

Doctor Who Series 4 to be released as Blu-ray steelbook

Doctor Who: The Complete Fourth Series will be released on Blu-ray steelbook with new and exclusive artwork on Monday 27th May and is available for pre-orders on Amazon now.

Series Four marked the arrival of the award-winning actor Catherine Tate (The Catherine Tate Show) as the Doctor’s new companion, Donna Noble.

The Doctor and Donna travel back to Pompeii on the eve of the infamous eruption where people are slowly turning to stone, investigate a series of grisly murders with the help of Agatha Christie, journey to the home world of the sinister Ood and come face to face with an old enemy of the Doctor.

Series Four sees the return of previous companions Rose Tyler (Billie Piper) and Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman) plus an array of guests including Sarah Lancashire (Happy Valley), Felicity Kendal (Inside No.9), Fenella Woolgar (Call the Midwife), Tim McInnerny (Game of Thrones), Phil Davis (Vera Drake), Tracey Childs (Broadchurch) and an early appearance of Peter Capaldi who will go on to play the Twelfth Doctor.

Bonus features exclusive to the release include Doctor Who Confidential, video diaries, commentaries, the Children In Need special Time Crash plus teasers, trailers and deleted scenes.


Doctor Who

Doctor Who

Doctor Who

The 14 episodes are:

    • Voyage of The Damned
    • Partners in Crime
    • The Fires of Pompeii
    • Planet of the OOD
    • The Sontaran Stratagem
    • The Poison Sky
    • The Doctor’s Daughter
    • The Unicorn and the Wasp
    • Silence of the Library
    • Forest of the Dead
    • Midnight
    • Turn Left
    • The Stolen Earth
    • Journey’s End

Doctor Who: The Complete Fourth Series will be released on Blu-ray steelbook, with new and exclusive artwork on Monday 27th May and is available for pre-orders on Amazon now.

Russell T Davies won’t return to Doctor Who – even for an anniversary special

Russell T Davies won’t return to Doctor Who – even for an anniversary special

Russell T Davies

It’s now been over 14 years since Doctor Who made its big 21st-century comeback when showrunner Russell T Davies successfully established a new era for the Time Lord.

However, despite earning God/Doctor-like status among Whovians after his five years helming the BBC show, Davies has vowed not to write another episode.

Speaking about a possible return to Who at the BFI & Radio Times Television Festival, Davies told us a comeback will never be on the cards – even if he had the opportunity to write a special Who 60th anniversary episode.

“It’ll be like coming back to a job I did 10 years ago, wouldn’t it? Who would do that?”

Seems like Davies’ views haven’t shifted since he penned the novelisation of episode Rose. Speaking then, he said:

“Really, think about it. Go back to the job you had 13 years ago. Or go back to your old school. Walk in, say hello, take your old seat. And start giving instructions! Watch everyone’s faces. Shortly before they call the police.

“Move on! And besides. Why look back? The future is golden.”

Although he won’t be returning to Who, Davies’ upcoming TV project Years and Years will be another time-jumping drama – but won’t include a TARDIS. Instead, the six-part series starring Emma Thompson will follow one family, the Lyons from Manchester, through events of a near and dangerous future.

“It jumps five years ahead in the first episode and then every week it goes forward another year more or less. But in the end, it will be set 15 years in the future,” Davies explained.

“The world has got madder over the past few years,” he added. “I thought of this series before the 2008 recession – before Trump, before Brexit. I sat back as the world got madder and madder and truly the night of Trump’s election, I emailed the head of drama at the BBC saying if Trump gets in I was going to write it now!”

Of course, there’s one big question many fans need to know about Years and Years: will Doctor Who still exist in this mad version of 2035?

“Of course it will!” Davies told us with a laugh. “Doctor Who is forever! It’s the one unchanging thing in the world!”

COMPETITION: Your artwork could be printed on a Doctor Who T-shirt

COMPETITION: Your artwork could be printed on a Doctor Who T-shirt

Ahead of this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, BBC Studios are giving fans the opportunity to see their own work on a Doctor Who t-shirt, with a limited quantity available for purchase at the BBC AMERICA booth at San Diego Comic-Con.

As anticipation for the next season builds, Doctor Who fans can channel their creative energy into an innovative rendition of the TARDIS and their favorite Doctor. Entrants can create anything from a candy mosaic of Tom Baker to a bow tie collage of Matt Smith – the possibilities are endless! The competition opens on April 17, 2019 at 1pm BST and closes on May 15, 2019 at 1pm BST.

A panel of judges will select one grand prize winner and four runner-up artists. The grand prize winner and a guest will receive an exclusive Doctor Who-themed weekend trip to London, which includes:

  • Flights to London
  • Two nights’ accommodation
  • Special afternoon tea for two
  • Doctor Who Escape Room activity in Reading, England (travel to Reading included)
  • Exclusive private screening of the fan’s favourite Doctor Who episode
  • Their artwork printed on a Doctor Who t-shirt sold at San Diego Comic-Con
  • A goody bag including iconic Doctor Who merchandise valued at approximately $680

All four runners-up will each:

  • Have their artwork printed on a Doctor Who t-shirt sold at San Diego Comic-Con
  • Receive a goody bag including iconic Doctor Who merchandise valued at approximately $680

Art Specifications:

Each entrant must design their own original piece of Doctor Who fan art in accordance with the following criteria:

  • Artwork must feature both the TARDIS and one Doctor
  • The Artwork may also, at the entrant’s discretion, include a background texture, splash of colour or other abstract background design, but must not feature any other design element, including (without limit) any other Doctor, character, companion, monster, robot, prop, location, building or branding element (including third party brand names and logos), whether from the Doctor Who universe or otherwise.
  • Artwork can be created in any two-dimensional medium and any colour.
  • Artwork must not include identifiers such as the entrant’s name, signature, image, likeness or any other identifier, or any reference to Comic-Con.

The competition is open to legal residents of the United Kingdom, the fifty (50) United States and the District of Columbia, Canada (excluding Quebec), Australia, and New Zealand who at the time of entry are at least 18 years of age, or the legal age of majority in the jurisdiction in which they reside (whichever is higher). The grand prize winner and four finalists will be revealed at the BBC AMERICA booth during San Diego Comic-Con in July.

Refer to the terms and conditions at doctorwho.tv/competitions/fan-art for more details on the criteria

Doctor Who: Season 10 Comes To Bluray in July!

Doctor Who: Season 10 Comes To Bluray in July!

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Doctor Who: The Collection’ returns with Season 10, featuring Jon Pertwee as the iconic Time Lord.

All 26 episodes have been newly restored for Blu-ray and packed with hours of new and existing bonus material.

Originally broadcast from December 1972 to June 1973, the tenth season of Doctor Who will be the next to receive the Blu-ray treatment, principally starring Jon Pertwee and Katy Manning but with guest appearances from Patrick Troughton and William Hartnell, returning to the roles which established the show.

Comprising of five stories, The Three Doctors, Carnival of Monsters, Frontier in Space, Planet of the Daleks and The Green Death, season ten also saw the final appearances of Roger Delgado as the Master and Katy Manning’s Jo Grant as a regular character.

As well as special features imported from the previous releases, new features include –

Optional updated effects and 5.1 surround sound for Planet Of The Daleks.

Doctor Who and the Third Man: a new feature-length documentary covering the Pertwee era.

Keeping Up With the Jones: Katy Manning and Stewart Bevan return to Wales.

The 1973 omnibus repeat of The Green Death, available for the first time.

Doctor Who: The Collection Season 10 is due for release on July 8th.

FIRST LOOK: The Runaway VR Trailer

FIRST LOOK: The Runaway VR Trailer

The new original story set in the TARDIS will see Jodie Whittaker reprise her role as the Doctor in animated form. It will run for around 12 minutes and will be available on selected VR headsets in the coming months.

Viewers will join the Thirteenth Doctor on board the TARDIS in this animated interactive story from the BBC and Passion Animation Studios. Fans will get the chance to be the Doctor’s champion and help her on this exciting adventure, as they find themselves at the centre of the action facing a deadly threat.

Synopsis:

You’ve been in a collision. You wake inside the TARDIS. The Doctor introduces you to the person, or thing, you collided with. He’s a strange and magnificent ball of living energy called Volta. Part surly teenager, part bomb, Volta is very unstable. In fact, he’s primed to explode. Big time. Unless he can be returned to his home planet, sharpish. The problem is, a squad of galactic busybodies has other plans for Volta. Bad ones. Drawn into a frantic chase, you become The Doctor’s unlikely assistant as she races against time to get Volta home to his parents. Armed with a sonic screwdriver, it is down to you to help The Doctor as she faces the forces of evil, and teenage angst, in this animated 13-minute VR adventure from the team behind Doctor Who Series 11.

Featuring new original music from series composer Segun Akinola, Doctor Who: The Runaway has been written by Victoria Asare-Archer and directed by Mathias Chelebourg, whose previous VR films include Alice, the Virtual Reality Play and The Real Thing VR. It has been produced by the BBC’s digital drama team, BBC VR Hub and Passion Animation Studios.

** Spoiler Alert (Possibly) **

** Spoiler Alert (Possibly) **

According to Wales Online, mysterious signs have started appearing around Cardiff Bay , prompting great excitement among fans of Doctor Who that the hit sci-fi series’ greatest villain is about to make a return.

Mock ballot posters emblazoned with the message ‘Vote Saxon’ have been spotted popping up in Tiger Bay and along Lloyd George Avenue, leading some to believe that the Master – or, at least the incarnation played by John Simm – is to stage a comeback on the long-running BBC show.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BwCARJendGH/?utm_source=ig_embed

If that’s true it’ll mark the first time The Doctor’s 13th regeneration  (played by the franchise’s first female actor, Jodie Whittaker) will have faced the rogue Time Lord – the previous face-off with him having taken place during Peter Capaldi ‘s stint in the TARDIS.

Played by numerous actors over the decades, The Master was first portrayed by Simm in 2007 when he was picked by show runner Russell T Davies to go up against David Tennant.

Simm debuted as the Master in a trio episodes – Utopia, The Sound of Drums and Last of the Time Lords – in the guise of slimy politician and wannabe Prime Minister Harold Saxon, who eventually went on to cause chaos after being voted into Number 10 Downing Street.

However, in the final scene of Last of the Time Lords, the Master gets killed, but his ashes were used to resurrect him two years later.

The last time we saw Simm was in 2017 when, via some time travel loophole, he was brought back to star opposite Michelle Gomez , who had succeeded him to play the role, thereby making it the first time two different versions of the Master had turned up together on the series.

And with the next season of Doctor Who currently filming around Barry Island, it certainly looks like the Vote Saxon posters could be legit.

What is more, Simm himself has never ruled out another return to the part.

Doctor Who is no longer the UK’s favourite TV theme tune?

Doctor Who is no longer the UK’s favourite TV theme tune?

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Doctor Who has one of the most iconic theme tunes of all time – it’s just one of those tunes that everyone can hum at a moment’s notice.

But now it’s been knocked off the top spot of Britain’s favourite TV tunes, as chosen by a new poll run by Classic FM, the BFI and Radio Times.

So what song could have replaced such a famous piece of music?

Yup, the Sherlock theme tune. We’ve got to admit that as much as we love the show, it’s a surprise to see it beat the likes of Who, Thunderbirds and Match of the Day, but there you go – the people have spoken.

The entire top 10 goes like this:

  1. Sherlock
  2. Doctor Who
  3. Robin of Sherwood
  4. The Persuaders!
  5. Inspector Morse
  6. Poldark
  7. The Avengers
  8. Thunderbirds
  9. The Adventures of Black Beauty
  10. Match of the Day

Sherlock: series 4

Michael Price, who composed the Sherlock theme tune with David Arnold, jokingly apologised to fans of the others shows and said that he voted for Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em.

Speaking of Sherlock, one of the show’s stars recently opened up about its future.

TRAVERS & WELLS NEW PAPERBACK EDITION & BOOK 2 (PAPERBACK & HARDBACK!)

TRAVERS & WELLS NEW PAPERBACK EDITION & BOOK 2 (PAPERBACK & HARDBACK!)

In 2017, Candy Jar Books released Travers & Wells, the backdoor pilot for a new novella spin-off of the Lethbridge-Stewart range of books. And now, over two years later, they are pleased to announce the paperback edition, and the second book in the series!

The series follows the adventures of Professor Edward Travers (from BBC TV’s Doctor Who and the Lethbridge-Stewart range of novels) and HG Wells (the father of science-fiction) as they travel across parallel worlds en route to the alien world of Karfel where the Dominator fleet is about to attack! Along the way they encounter people and situations that are strangely familiar to Travers and inspiration to Wells.

Range Editor, Andy Frankham-Allen explains:

“The potential of the series was always to be determined by sales and critical response, which, we are glad to say, have both proven to be sufficiently positive. The series itself, and the adventures contained therein, are based on the works of Wells, following the example set by the Doctor Who serial Timelash by Glen McCoy, which saw a younger Wells encounter several people and situations that inspired some of his best known works. Every book in this range will be a play on a story written by Wells, and not always the most obvious ones. Although, naturally, the first two novels pull from two of Wells’ biggest hits, The War of the Worlds and The Island of Dr Moreau.”

The author of the first book was Robert Mammone, who previously wrote the short stories Eve of the Fomorians and Time and Again (the prelude to Travers & Wells [included in the new paperback edition of the book]). After Travers & Wells, Robert went on to the write the Lethbridge-Stewart novel, The Laughing Gnome: Rise of the Dominator. Available from Candy Jar books.

Talking about the reception of his Travers & Wells book, Robert says:

“I am gobsmacked by the overwhelmingly positive reception. You hope that when the results of all that hard work venture into the world readers are at least kind to it, but the lovely reviews on the internet, and the personal comments I’ve received left me feeling giddy. When I heard the hardback had sold out so quickly I looked forward to the day when more people could pick up the paperback, and that day is almost here! Here’s to more readers enjoying the adventures of Travers and Wells!”

Travers & Wells: Other Wars, Other Worlds blurb:

“For a time I believed that mankind had been swept out of existence, and that I stood there with my friend, Edward Travers, the last men left alive.”

Edward Travers, pulled out of time by a mysterious force, finds himself on a hill with a young man called Herbert George Wells. Together the men travel across England, intent on discovering where they are; a world distinctly different from the one they know. And yet, for Edward Travers, it is one that seems vaguely familiar…

For strange, meteor-like objects have landed in the heart of England, and the inhabitants of Earth have found themselves victims of a terrible attack. A ruthless race of Martians, armed with heat rays and poisonous smoke, is intent on destroying everything that stands in its way.

Only things have not turned out the way Travers’ expected, for this is not the war of the worlds HG Wells wrote about, but something much worse.

You can now pre-order Travers & Wells: Other Wars, Other Worlds exclusively from the Candy Jar store, either on its own or as part of a limited bundle with the following book Travers & Wells: The City of Dr Moreau by Andrew Allen. This exclusive bundle is only available for a limited time, and the only way in which the second novel can currently be pre-ordered


Travers & Wells: The City of Dr Moreau blurb:

“Wells blinked a couple of times, balling a fist into his eyes to rub away the sweat trickling there. But it was no good; the room was too dark and he still couldn’t see anything. Nonetheless, he was painfully aware that someone – something – was in the room with him. He heard a snuffling, a guttural breathing, and the thing moved closer.”

Edward Travers and HG Wells are flung once again into an alternative reality: a London both achingly familiar and quite unlike the city either of them know. In the dying days of the Edwardian empire, public protests over the increasing use of vivisection in animal research collide with rising fears about looming war.

Connecting both is the mysterious Dr Moreau. Wells is fascinated by the accomplished scientist, but Travers is horrified by the dark truth of the man that he previously had believed to be mere fiction.

As the two men begin to discover the purpose behind their adventures out of time and come face to face with who is controlling their journey, they pursue Moreau to the inevitable conclusion: his very own island of creation, a perverse garden of Eden that’s very close to home…

Order one or both titles now directly from:

Travers & Wells: Other Wars, Other Worlds pre-order price is: £9.99+postage

Travers & Wells 2-Book Bundle pre-order price is: £9.99

Or order the Travers & Wells: The City of Dr Moreau hardback separately £15+postage