A kickstarter project has been launched to help recreate the 1990's Doctor Who Pinball Table in digital form.

FarSight Studios are looking to add the famous 1992 Doctor Who Pinball Table to their successful Pinball Arcade game for Consoles and Mobile devices.

The independent developer has over 25 years of experience, developing video games on consoles, phones and tablets. For the last ten years, the company has been developing modern videogame recreations of classic pinball tables. The Pinball Arcade is currently available on a wide variety of platforms: the iPhone, iPad, Android, Kindle Fire, Ouya, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, Play Station 4, PS Vita and Steam for PC and Mac, with the Nintendo Wii U version being released very soon.

The Doctor Who pinball table was originally released by Williams/Bally in 1992. It is considered one of the best designed licensed tables in pinball history. The gameplay is based around the various seven incarnations of the Doctor and each Doctor affects the rules of the playfield differently. The player must "collect" all Doctors throughout the game. After collecting a Doctor, rule changes are applied.

The Kickstarter project will allow the developers to secure the licences for the Doctor Who game, a cost of $72,000 or around £50,000. The development costs will then be met by FarSight Studios. Previous projects have raised money to recreate games based on The Addams Family, Twilight Zone, Star Trek: The Next Generation and Terminator 2: Judgement Day

For full details see the projects Kickstarter page.

David Tennant has joined BBC Director General Tony Hall and RSC Artistic Director, Greg Doran for the launch of the 2016 Shakespeare Festival, marking 400 years since the death of the playwright.

The month long season begins on Shakespeare's birthday, 23rd April, when Tennant will host a special celebration of Shakespeare's words and his enduring influence on all performance art forms - from opera to jazz, dance to musicals. The BBC Two programme will include appearances from Dame Judi Dench, ENO, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Ian Bostridge, Joseph Fiennes and Akala.

Later in the month BBC One will screen a new production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, adapted by former Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies. The production, filmed at the Doctor Who studios in Cardiff, is described as funny, exciting and with as much attitude as any theatrical interpretation. The cast includes includes Maxine Peake as Titania, Matt Lucas as Bottom, John Hannah as Theseus, Elaine Paige as Mistress Quince, Javone Prince as Snug, Nonso Anozie as Oberon, Hiran Abeysekera as Puck, Richard Wilson as Starveling and Bernard Cribbins as Snout.

Also as part of the season, BBC Two will screen the final part of The Hollow Crown: The Wars of the Roses. The production concludes the cycle of Shakespeare’s History plays on BBC Two, and will include three new adaptations - Henry VI (in 2 parts) and Richard III. Stars include Hugh Bonneville, Benedict Cumberbatch, Judi Dench, Michael Gambon, Keeley Hawes, Sophie Okonedo and Tom Sturridge.

The Hollow Crown is a Neal Street co-production with Carnival/NBC Universal and Thirteen for BBC Two. In the US, the series will be transmitted on PBS by Great Performances, produced by Thirteen Productions LLC for WNET.

Doctor Who Director Rachel Talalay has been talking about the series and how it is perceived by the TV Industry.

Talalay has written a blog inspired by the recent controversy over the Oscar nominations and their lack of diversity. In the article the director talks about award nominations, and how they are skewed to favour traditional type dramas. The director disputes the implication that Doctor Who's long history means it is not new and fresh. Rachel Talalay directed the final two episodes of both Series 8 and Series 9, including the one man episode Heaven Sent where Peter Capaldi performed solo for the majority of the story She also paid tribute to members of the production team Finally the director paid tribute to the mastermind of the series Full Blog at racheltalalay.tumblr.com

Wednesday sees the publication of the omnibus edition of the Doctor Who Comic Strip Prisoners of Time.

Prisoners of Time was originally a 12-issue comic book series, produced by IDW to mark Doctor Who's 50th anniversary.

The 12 issues were released monthly during 2013, each issue featuring a different Doctor, leading to the final, multi-Doctor issue in December.



Buy on Amazon.co.uk

Buy on Amazon.com

Doctor Who Series Nine has been voted the Best Reviewed TV Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror Series of 2015 on the review site Rotten Tomatoes.

The Annual Golden Tomato Awards are awarded to the series with the highest ratings, based on reviews submitted to the site. The 2015 Series scored an average rating of 4.5/5 and received a remarkable 100% positive rating from approved critics.

The series beat Game of Thrones; Season 5 which came second. Marvel's Daredevil came third with Ash Vs Evil Dead and Hannibal taking fourth and fifth places respectivally.

Doctor Who Series 9 was also voted as fourth in the Best Returning TV Shows Category, with Fargo Season 2 taking top spot.

The writer and producer Robert Banks Stewart has died at the age of 84.

Robert Banks Stewart is best known to Doctor Who fans as the creator of the Zygons, but his body of work encompassed far more than the shape shifting body snatchers, creating some of the most loved series on British Television.

Born in Edinburgh, Banks Stewart started his profession life as a journalist, but his interests always lay in television scripts. In the 1950's he worked for both Pinewood Studios and Thames Television providing scripts for series such as Danger Man, The Human Jungle, Top Secret, The Sweeney and The Avengers. He wrote 5 episodes of Arthur of the Britons for HTV.

In 1975 he was asked to write for Doctor Who and came up Terror of the Zygons, as story that went on to be one of the most fondly remembered of the original series. The Zygons would return for the show's 50th Anniversary special in 2013, their success ensuring a full return in the most recent series of the show.

Due to the triumph of Zygon script he was asked to write the six part conclusion to the series, coming up with The Seeds of Doom, introducing the Krynoid and the deranged horticulturist Harrison Chase.

In 1979 he created the detective series Shoestring. Set in Bristol the series was a major success for the BBC, toping the ratings and running for two series. When leading actor Trevor Eve declined to stay with the show, Bank Stewart created another series, Bergerac, set this time on the island of Jersey and starring John Nettles as the eponymous detective and recovering alcoholic who liked to drive his vintage sports car while solving crimes. The series would run for 9 years and would feature Louise Jameson as Jim Bergerac's girlfriend Susan Young.

In the 1980's he became a producer, working on the first series of Lovejoy. In 1991 he produced and adapted, H. E. Bates' novel The Darling Buds of May for ITV, which gained one of the highest ratings for a new series in the history of British Television. Banks Stewart was instrumental in casting the unknown Catherine Zeta Jones in the role of Mariette.

Robert Banks Stewart died at home on Thursday after suffering from cancer. He is survived by three sons from his second marriage and a daughter from his first.

This week sees Titan release issue three of the Eighth Doctor comic.

Including time-shifted viewers, The Husbands of River Song averaged 761,000 consolidated viewers in the five major capital cities. With 186,000 extra viewers it was the highest time-shifted program of the day (the second highest time-shifted program only had 33,000 extra viewers) and the seventh highest rating program of the day overall. These ratings do not include iview or regional viewers.

BBC America have confirmed they will be co-producing the new Doctor Who Spin off series, Class.

The eight part series is written by American young adult writer Patrick Ness, best known for his award-winning book A Monster Calls.

The series will be set in Coal Hill school in contemporary London, and is executive produced by Steven Moffat and Brian Minchin, the team behind Doctor Who, and is due to be screened in Autumn 2016.

BBC America have also confirmed they have commissioned a new original scripted series based on the Dirk Gently books.

The series is an adaptation of former Doctor Who Script Editor Douglas Adams’ comic novels, Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, and is set in the world of its hyperactive, absurdist, eponymous detective, Dirk Gently.

The books were inspired by the unfinished Doctor Who story Shada, intended for transmission in 1980 but never completed due to a BBC strike.

The channel have ordered eight one-hour episodes, scripted by Max Landis. The books were previously adapted for BBC Four, with Stephen Mangan in the title role and shown between 2010 and 2012.

Seventh Doctor Sylvester McCoy is to star in a new BBC Two travel documentary series, The Real Marigold Hotel, which takes the cast on the journey of a lifetime.

The series, inspired by but otherwise unrelated to the blockbuster film, documents the authentic experience of eight famous senior citizens as they head to India on an experimental adventure.

Joining the 72 year old McCoy will be actor Miriam Margolyes, dancer Wayne Sleep, comedian Roy Walker, chef Rosemary Shrager, darts champion Bobby George, singer Patti Boulaye and former news reader Jan Leeming for three weeks to see if they would consider spending their golden years retiring to the other side of the world.

Four thousand miles from home, the group will land in colourful Jaipur, capital of the state of Rajasthan in Northern India, to test whether they can set up a better, more rewarding retirement here than in the UK.

In the scorching heat, the group will take over a haveli - an Indian private mansion - and from the moment they arrive they will have to work out how to set up home together: from who’ll cook and clean and whether they will hire staff, to how they will get around and spend their time.

Their unforgettable Indian adventure will see the group fully embrace Indian culture, from the surprises of the capital’s largest slum to meeting Jaipur’s Royal family at the opulent Rambagh Palace. As they settle into local life, members of the group will take to yoga and learn some Hindi, experience shopping in the hectic streets, hunt for potential properties and take advantage of the medical care. We’ll see them visit the Ganesh Chaturti festival, ride elephants, make a trip to one of the holiest Hindu cities in India, Varanasi, and also test out long-distance travel by embarking on a 150-mile trip to the jewel in India’s crown, the Taj Mahal.

From the environment to the food, the transport to the customs, moving away from the UK is guaranteed to be a culture shock for our cast - as they leave routines and loved ones behind to adapt to living together and to a completely new way of life.

The series is set to air late-January 2016