The BBC have released a number of new publicity images for the Christmas special, The Husbands of River Song, featuring Peter Capaldi as the Doctor, Alex Kingston as River Song, Matt Lucas as Nardole, Greg Davies as King Hydroflax, plus Phillip Rhys as Ramone and Rowan Polonski as Flemming.

In a previous article Doctor Who News reported that The Underwater Menace would be getting a January 19, 2016 release date in North America. At the time BBC Home Entertainment and Warner Home Video, the North American distrubutor for Doctor Who, hadn't confirmed a release date. Tvshowsondvd.com is now reporting that Amazon.com has updated The Underwater Menace page to show a March 1, 2016 release. No official confirmation has been received from the BBC or Warner Home Video so all release dates will be considered tentative.

The complete list of stories in the package are: The Tomb of the Cybermen, Spearhead from Space, Genesis of the Daleks, The Talons of Weng-Chiang, Earthshock, Rose, Blink, The Day of The Doctor, and Mummy on the Orient Express. Keen-eyed readers will note that the very first story An Unearthly Child isn't available either in this set or on the BBC Store in general at present, which has been down to ongoing rights issues; BBC Worldwide told us:

The BBC have released a couple of images featuring Matt Lucas and Greg Davies, who guest-star in this year's Christmas special, The Husbands of River Song, playing Nardole and King Hydroflax respectively.



The hour-long episode premieres on BBC One at 5:15pm.

The 9th Doctor really is a clever guy,
Using nanogenes to write a message in the sky...

Willy Phantom, 4th December 2015

It was on Saturday 4th December 1965, exactly fifty years ago today, that Katarina sacrificed her life to save the Doctor, and became the first companion to die as a result of their travels with the Doctor.

It had been a very short stay in the TARDIS for the character, who only joined the team four weeks previously. Katarina had been a handmaiden of the prophetess Cassandra in the ancient city of Troy, when she met the Doctor. The character was intended as a replacement for Vicki, however it was soon realised that Katarina was so uneducated, so naive, that it was almost impossible to write for the character.

The decision was taken therefore, to write her out in the most spectacular way possible, and Katarina was destined to die in an airlock, sacrificing her life to stop the Doctor being blackmailed, and forced to return to the Daleks.

The character of Katarina was played by Devon born actress Adrienne Hill, in her first role for Television.

In 1986 she gave an interview to Doctor Who Magazine and talked about what it was like to join the series Hill also described filming her departure Following her appearance in Doctor Who, Hill acted in several small roles, before moving to the Netherlands, and then America. She later returned to England where she retrained to be a drama teacher.

In 1985 she appeared alongside many other Doctor Who actors in the BBC Children in Need programme.

Adrienne Hill died of Cancer in 1997 at the age of 60.

The traditional December Entertainment Memorabilia auction at Bonhams takes place on Thursday 10th December this year, and amidst the usual array of props, scripts, etc. from film and television are a number from Doctor Who, Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures. Some of the highlights to bankrupt you this Christmas(!) include:

Full list of related auction items

Doctor Who:
Lot	Description	Estimate
69	An original Yeti homing device from The Web of Fear	£2000-3000
70	Prop Eggshell Proton Drive from The Creature From The Pit	£1000-1500
71	Collection of scripts/construction drawings from Resurrection of the Daleks	£500-700
72	Camera script from Mysterious Planet and rehearsal script from The Five Doctors	£500-700
73	Circus posters from The Greatest Show in the Galaxy	£500-700
74	Scripts and production drawings from The Greatest Show in the Galaxy	£500-700
75	Scripts, designs and production paperwork from The Curse of Fenric	£500-700
76	Chemical bomb and construction paperwork from The Curse of Fenric	£500-700
Torchwood:
77	Collection of costumes as worn by John Barrowman (Jack)	£500-700
78	Collection of costumes as worn by Kai Owen (Rhys)	£300-500
79	Collection of costumes including as worn by Indira Varma (Suzie)	£400-600
80	Collection of costumes as worn by Eve Myles (Gwen)	£500-700
81	Collection of costumes including as worn by Nerys Hughes (Brenda)	£400-600
82	Collection of costumes as worn by Burn Gorman (Owen)	£400-600
83	Collection of costumes as worn by Gareth David-Lloyd (Ianto)	£400-600
The Sarah Jane Adventures:
84	Collection of costumes as worn by Anjli Mohindra (Rani)	£500-700
85	Collection of costumes as worn by Daniel Anthony (Clyde)	£400-600
86	Collection of costumes as worn by Sinead Michael (Sky)	£400-600
87	Collection of costumes as worn by Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah)	£500-700
88	Collection of costumes including as worn by Julie Graham (Ruby)	£400-600
89	Collection of costumes as worn by Tommy Knight (Luke)	£300-500
90	Collection of Bubbleshock Factory costumes from Invasion of the Bane	£200-300

The full catalogue can be downloaded from the Bonhams website.

The following Doctor Who News competitions are currently available to enter, check each one for their closing date.

Clara's finished all her shopping but she cannot believe her eyes,
I don't think she was expecting to receive this Christmas surprise!

Willy Phantom, 3rd December 2015

The BBC have released some promotional profile photos of characters who appear in this year's Christmas Special, The Husbands of River Song. The images portray Peter Capaldi as the Doctor, Alex Kingston as River Song, Rowan Polonski as Remming and Phillip Rhys as Ramone.