The Ruby's Curse

Friday, 12 February 2021 - Reported by Chuck Foster

The Ruby's Curse (Credit: BBC Books)

BBC Books have announced a new fiction novel to be released later this year:

The Ruby's Curse
A River Song / Melody Malone Mystery

She's got ice in her heart and kiss on her lips...

1939, New York. Private Eye, Melody Malone, is hired to find a stolen ruby, the Eye of Horus. The ruby might hold the secret to the location of Cleopatra's tomb – but everyone who comes into contact with it dies. Can Melody escape the ruby's curse?

1939, New York. River Song, author of the Melody Malone Mysteries, is forced to find a reality-altering weapon, the Eye of Horus. River doesn't believe in curses – but is she wrong?

From the top-security confines of Stormcage to the barbarism of first-century Egypt, River battles to find the Eye of Horus before its powers are used to transform the universe. To succeed, she must team up with a most unlikely ally – her own fictional alter ego, Melody. And together they must solve another mystery: Is fiction changing into fact – or is fact changing into fiction?

The Ruby’s Curse is Alex Kingston’s first Doctor Who novel, and is released following the successful launch of Doctor Who adventures written by actors Tom Baker (Scratchman) and Sophie Aldred (At Childhood’s End) featuring the Fourth Doctor and Ace.

Alex said:

Having absolutely no idea of the journey I would be taking with River Song when I first uttered those words, ‘Hello Sweetie’, I cannot begin to express how excited I am to be able to continue not only River, but Melody’s adventures on the written page. A sassy private detective and a time travelling archaeologist joining forces to solve a mystery? What’s not to love!?

Albert DePetrillo, Publishing Director at BBC Books, said:

Working with Alex on this highly original new story has been such a delight, and we couldn’t be happier to be publishing her first Doctor Who novel. River Song is such an iconic character, and I think Alex’s many fans will be thrilled and amazed with what she’s come up with.

The novel is released in hardback on 20th May 2021, and is available to pre-order from Amazon UK.

FILTER: - Books - BBC Books

First Look Images - Revolution of the Daleks

Thursday, 8 October 2020 - Reported by Marcus

Revolution of the Daleks. (Credit: BBC Studios)

The BBC has released two new images from the upcoming Doctor Who episode Revolution of the Daleks

The images were released today as part of New York Comic Con

The upcoming festive special will see the return of one of the Doctor’s biggest and most feared enemies – the Daleks.

The Doctor is locked away in a high-security alien prison. Isolated, alone, with no hope of escape. Far away, on Earth, her best friends, Yaz, Ryan and Graham have to pick up their lives without her.

But it’s not easy. Old habits die hard. Especially when they discover a disturbing plan forming.

A plan which involves a Dalek. How can you fight a Dalek, without the Doctor?

Revolution of the Daleks will air during the upcoming festive period on BBC One and BBC America.

FILTER: - BBC - Thirteenth Doctor

Doctor Who: The Monster Vault

Wednesday, 20 May 2020 - Reported by Chuck Foster

BBC Books have announced a new hardback book that delves into the background of one of the key elements of Doctor Who:

Doctor Who: The Monster Vault (Credit: BBC Books)

Doctor Who: The Monster Vault
The Doctor's Enemies Unlocked

Written by Jonathan Morris and Penny CS Andrews
Edited by Paul Lang
Illustrated by Lee Johnson and Ben Morris

Doctor Who's biggest and most comprehensive monster guide yet, The Monster Vault takes you on the ultimate tour of the Whoniverse, discovering and cataloguing every wonderful and terrifying creature the Doctor has ever encountered.

From the notorious Daleks, to the evil Stenza warrior T’zim-Sha and the ancient Thijarians, The Monster Vault features in-depth profiles on each monster, showing the Doctor's most dangerous enemies in their natural habitat and unveiling their secret histories. You will also discover how monsters were created and designed, through exclusive behind-the-scenes interviews, anecdotes, case studies and unseen artwork.

This lavish and visually stunning book provides an unrivalled wealth of information, allowing you to explore the rich history of Doctor Who and expand your knowledge and understanding of monsters old and new.

Doctor Who: The Monster Vault is now available to preorder, and is due to be published on 22nd October 2020.

FILTER: - BBC Books - Books - Merchandise

Time Lord Victorious BBC Books Release

Tuesday, 12 May 2020 - Reported by Marcus

Time Lord Victorious (Credit: BBC Books)

BBC Books to publish two new novels for the multi-platform Doctor Who project Time Lord Victorious.

Time Lord Victorious will tell a new and untold story, set within the Dark Times at the start of the universe when even the Eternals were young. Following several Doctors across space and time as they defend their home planet from a terrible race, this is a story like no other.

Time Lord Victorious will feature the Eighth, Ninth and Tenth Doctor characters, companion Rose Tyler and monsters including the Daleks and the Ood, with more to be revealed over the coming months as products are announced.

Doctor Who: The Knight, The Fool and The Dead
by Steve Cole

We live forever, barring accidents. Just like everyone else in the universe.

The Doctor travels back to the Dark Times, an era where life flourishes and death is barely known...

Then come the Kotturuh – creatures who spread through the cosmos dispensing mortality. They judge each and every species and decree its allotted time to live. For the first time, living things know the fear of ending. And they will go to any lengths to escape this grim new spectre, death.

The Doctor is an old hand at cheating death. Now, at last, he can stop it at the source. He is coming for the Kotturuh, ready to change everything so that life wins from the start. Not just the last of the Time Lords. The Time Lord Victorious.

Doctor Who: The Knight, The Fool and The Dead is published on 1ST October 2020 by BBC Books, priced £9.99

Doctor Who: All Flesh Is Grass (Credit: BBC Books)

Doctor Who: All Flesh Is Grass
by Una McCormack

Even a Time Lord can’t change the past.

A wasteland. A dead world… No, there is a biodome rising from the ashes. Here, life teems and flourishes, with strange, lush plants and many-winged insects with bright carapaces – and one solitary sentient creature, who spends its days talking to the insects and tending this lonely garden. This is Inyit, the Last of the Kotturuh.

In All Flesh is Grass we are transported back to The Dark Times. The Tenth Doctor has sworn to stop the Kotturuh, ending death and bringing life to the universe. But his plan is unravelling – instead of bringing life, nothing has changed and all around him people are dying. Death is everywhere. Now he must confront his former selves – one in league with their greatest nemesis and the other manning a ship of the undead

Doctor Who: All Flesh Is Grass is published on 10th December 2020 by BBC Books, priced £9.99

FILTER: - BBC Books - Time Lord Victorious

#DoctorWhoLockdown: In The News

Saturday, 4 April 2020 - Reported by Chuck Foster

The recent global DoctorWhoLockdown initiative organised by Doctor Who Magazine's Emily Cook was reported by BBC News in the lead-up to last night's The Eleventh Hour - you can watch the report via the DoctorWhoLockdown YouTube channel.

This is the second time the initiative has been reported on, with entertainment correspondent Lizo Mzimba reporting on the simulcast viewing of Rose back on its anniversary on the 26th March (online version).

BBC News | Friday 3 April 2020 (YouTube)
Doctor Who's online viewing convention 26 Mar 2020 (BBC iPlayer)

The next planned DoctorWhoLockdown is for The Doctor's Wife on Saturday 11th April from 8:00pm BST.

FILTER: - BBC - Broadcasting

BBC Books to publish a new Target novel collection in July 2020

Tuesday, 10 December 2019 - Reported by Marcus

BBC Books is expanding the Doctor Who Target range with seven new titles in Summer 2020 – some that fans have probably been expecting, and a few that should be a pleasant surprise.

After the successful hardback publication of Eric Saward’s long-awaited novelisations, Resurrection of the Daleks and Revelation of the Daleks, fans will finally be able to complete their Target collections with paperback editions. These will be accompanied by a Target edition of The Pirate Planet by James Goss, the first time this Douglas Adams story has been published in the Target range, and a reissue of the Gary Russell’s novelisation of The TV Movie.

To complete the set, BBC Books will be publishing 3 new-era novelisations: The Witchfinders by Joy Wilkinson – the first Thirteenth Doctor adventure to be published on the Target list – Dalek by Robert Shearman, and The Crimson Horror by Mark Gatiss.

For Doctor Who fans, the range of novelisations published by Target Books in the 1970s and 1980s hold a special place. There was a novel published for almost every Doctor Who serial between 1963 and 1989, with a very few (five, actually) notable exceptions, and BBC Books has been successfully reissuing a number of these classic paperbacks since 2012. In 2017, BBC Books expanded the range by publishing the first all-new batch of Target novels, filling in one of those classic-era gaps (City of Death), along with new-era novelisations from Russell T Davies, Steven Moffat, Paul Cornell and Jenny T Colgan – all five of them instant classics.

Joy Wilkinson said:

I'm thrilled to become part of the illustrious tradition of Target novels. It was so much fun dipping my toe back into prose with the Target Storybook so I'm now relishing the chance to return to the world of The Witchfinders and get fully immersed. It's a great chance to spend more time with the Doctor and fam, hang with King James, and find out more about the mysteries of Bilehurst Cragg and the mighty, muddy Morax.

Robert Shearman said:

I'm still pinching myself that I was asked to write the first Dalek story of the new series - and that was fifteen years ago! I didn't dare dream that the show would become such a big hit, and that it would still be on air now, as big and as exciting as ever - there have been so many adventures since, and so many new Doctors, and, of course, so many more Daleks. It feels like a real honour now to go back in time and relive my script... and maybe reveal a few surprises that never made it to the screen....

Mark Gatiss said:

Novelisations of the ‘new’ series are the final piece of this whole wonderful puzzle for me and to become a Target author after all these years is a complete delight! It’s been lovely to revisit one of my favourite scripts and flesh out the lurid residents of Sweetville in all their crimson finery.

BBC Books will publish all seven Targets on 23rd July 2020, each with newly commissioned cover artwork by Anthony Dry

FILTER: - BBC Books

Spyfall

Monday, 2 December 2019 - Reported by Chuck Foster

The BBC have now confirmed Doctor Who will return on New Years Day with the first part of the new series, Spyfall.

The Thirteenth Doctor is in her TARDIS on her way back to BBC One for a thrilling ten-part series which will land on New Year’s Day 2020, with subsequent episodes airing on Sundays.

Starting with a blockbuster action packed two-part episode entitled Spyfall, the Thirteenth Doctor is well and truly back with a bang. As Jodie Whittaker takes charge of the TARDIS once again, the Doctor will be joined by her friends Tosin Cole (Ryan), Mandip Gill (Yaz) and Bradley Walsh (Graham). The twelfth series will also welcome a host of famous faces including Stephen Fry, Sir Lenny Henry CBE, Robert Glenister and Goran Višnjić to name just a few.

Add to that some familiar faces including the Judoon and the Cybermen, series twelve is set to be an epic action packed rollercoaster for everyone, just don’t stray too far from behind the sofa...

Spyfall has been written by Chris Chibnall, Showrunner.

Update 3rd Dec: time of broadcast is confirmed as 6:55pm on BBC One. A new, longer trailer for the premiere has now been released:

Watch the trailer on YouTube

FILTER: - BBC - Doctor Who - Series 12/38

Children in Need 2019

Saturday, 16 November 2019 - Reported by Chuck Foster

The BBC's annual fundraising evening for Children in Need took place yesterday, and by the end of the evening raised £47,886,382 for the charity.

The evening featured a special surprise for Anastasia who, having presented a video about the work done by drame group Hackney Shed to boost confidence for herself and others, was then thrilled as her very own heroine the Doctor arrived on stage to meet her!

BBC Children in Need 2019 - Anastasia meets Jodie (Credit: BBC)

Jodie Whittaker, Tosin Cole and Mandip Gill were all on hand to make it a very special evening for Anastasia, with Jodie also presenting her with her very own sonic screwdriver.

You can still donate to Children in Need via their website.

FILTER: - BBC - Children in Need - Jodie Whittaker

The World Cup of Terrance Dicks

Wednesday, 13 November 2019 - Reported by Marcus

BBC Books to launch The World Cup of Terrance Dicks social Media tournament on Monday 18 November 2019

BBC Books is to publish a hardback collection of Target novelisations by the late Terrance Dicks next year – and they want Doctor Who fans to help with the selection.

The commemorative single-volume Collected Works of the late Terrance Dicks 2ill be published in 2020. The lavish hardback will include some of the Doctor Who writer's most popular titles from the Target range, a list to which he contributed over 60 books.

So how do you choose the best? How does The Abominable Snowmen rate against Genesis of the Daleks? How do you leave out The Planet of the Spiders to make room for The Auton Invasion? What about The Three Doctors? With so many to choose from, BBC Books is seeking some expert advice from the fans.

On Monday 18 November BBC Books will be offering Doctor Who fans the chance to vote on social media for their favourite works by Terrance Dicks, to be included in the collection.

The World Cup of Terrance Dicks will take place over five days on the Doctor Who BBC Books Twitter account(@DWBBCBooks), where 64 of Terrance’s Doctor Who novelisations will be sorted into 16 groups of 4, and each day fan votes will get us closer to a final winner.

The book will then be based around the 10 novels that make to the top of the tournament. Fans can keep track of the tournament through the hashtag #TerranceDicksWorldCup

FILTER: - BBC Books

Fury From The Deep animated teaser released

Sunday, 27 October 2019 - Reported by Chuck Foster

Fury From The Deep - Steelbook (artwork tbc) (Credit: BBC Studios)

BBC Studios have announced that the next missing Patrick Troughton story to receive the animated treatment will be Fury From The Deep, the penultimate adventure from the fifth season which features the departure of travelling companion Victoria.

The release was announced on the Animations Panel at this weekend's London Comic Con, and as well as all six missing episodes being animated in high definition in both colour and black and white it will also include the surviving clips from the serial, a new Making-Of, and other features still be be announced.

The story is due to be relesed on DVD and Blu-ray (including as a steelbook edition) during 2020, following on from The Faceless Ones, which was announced earlier this year, also for 2020.