The 1971 story The Dæmons has been confirmed for DVD release at the end of March.

The five part story stars the third Doctor, Jon Pertwee in one of the stories most loved by fans and production staff alike, with Jon Pertwee often naming it as his favorite Doctor Who story.

The Doctor is joined by Katy Manning playing Jo Grant as well as UNIT regulars Nicholas Courtney, Richard Franklin and John Levene with Roger Delgado appearing as the main villan of the piece.

Christopher Barry directed the story which was written by Barry Letts and Robert Sloman

The story was originally screened between 22nd May and 19th June in 1971, where it brought to an end the eighth season of the show. Its popularity saw it repeated the following Christmas in an omnibus form. It received a further repeat in 1992 when restored versions of each episode were repeated on BBC2 on consecutive Fridays.

Extras on the disc include:

• The Devil Rides Out - A documentary on the making of the story. (29 mins)
• Episode One Colourisation Test. (25 mins)
• Tomorrow's World Extract (5 mins)
• The BBC's Dr Who - On Location - At Aldbourne (7 Min)
• Photo Gallery (6 Min)
• Remembering Barry Letts. Feature on the much loved Doctor Who Producer. (33 mins)

The DVD is released in the UK on 26th March and around the world shortly afterwards.

Full Release Guide

This Monday sees Day of the Daleks released on DVD in the United Kingdom, and 2|Entertain have made a few clips available to illustrate some of the special features included on the the two-disc set:



A full list of the extras for Day of the Daleks DVD can be found in our previous news item, and a more technical discussion of the production of the DVD will appear on the Restoration Team website in the future.

Regular updates on the classic Doctor Who range can be found on Twitter via ClassicDW, and on the BBC's official Facebook page.

First broadcast in 1942, the popular BBC Radio 4 show Desert Island Discs has presented the favourite musical choices of hundreds of famous celebrities should they have ended up cast away. The BBC have recently made the series available in the form of a searchable archive, detailing the choices made by guests and also the actual programme to listen to in a number of cases.

In such a lengthy series it is inevitable that a many of Doctor Who's cast have featured; for example, the first Doctor himself William Hartnell was a guest on 23rd August 1965, choosing Charlie Chaplin's Spring Song as his favourite amongst other tracks like Lawd, You Made The Night Too Long by Louis Armstrong and Politsvian Dances by Alexander Borodin.

A year earlier, the third Doctor Jon Pertwee made his choices on 12th October 1964; these included two pieces by Mozart, Love is Strange by Lonnie Donegan, and his favourite being Georgia On My Mind by Ray Charles.

More recently, the 27th December 2009 featured outgoing tenth Doctor David Tennant, who cited Tim Minchin's White Wine In The Sun as his favourite, amongst items like Deacon Blue's Dignity and his favourite band The Proclaimers performing Over And Done With; this episode of the series is one of those that is also available for download.

Other notable names include 'alternative' Doctors Peter Cushing (1959) and Rowan Atkinson (1988), short-lived Master Derek Jacobi (1978), and the tenth Doctor's last fellow TARDIS traveller Bernard Cribbins (1963); explore the index for the choices of many other Doctor Who guest stars!

(with thanks to Jamie Austin)

The 1971 Jon Pertwee story Colony in Space, has been scheduled for release on DVD in the UK on 3rd October this year.

The story by Malcolm Hulke, sees the third Doctor, along with companion Jo Grant, sent to the planet Uxarieus by the Time Lords, where they discover a struggling colony being terrorised by giant reptiles.

The six part story was originally shown between 10th April and 15th May 1971. Katy Manning plays Jo Grant and Roger Delgado appears as the Master.

Other members of the cast include John Ringham in his third role in the series, Helen Worth, who went on to play Gail McIntyre on the soap opera Coronation Street, Bernard Kay and Tony Caunter.

The single disc release will contain 4 seconds which were missing from VHS & US masters of the story and which restores 2 lines of dialogue.

Details of the forthcoming classic Doctor Who DVD releases due out over the next couple of months in the United Kingdom have now been made available by 2|Entertain. April sees the final Pertwee tale Planet of the Spiders released as a two disc edition, whilst May goes back to the beginning of his era as the Doctor with a new edition of Spearhead from Space, coupled with sequel tale Terror of the Autons as part of the Mannequin Mania boxed set; also in May comes the penultimate Davison story to be released on DVD, Frontios (the final release of this era, The Awakening, is due later in the year). See our separate article on next week's Revisitations 2 release.

The company has also been keeping readers appraised via their twitter feed, which has included the following tidbits:

12 14:16 Frontios test disc in! http://t.co/Px8HoJU
14 08:58 Frontios looks & sounds beautiful on test disc. Well done Peter Crocker and Mark Ayres
15 16:04 Watching Ed Stradling rough-cut of Android Invasion doc. http://t.co/CbqFw92
16 23:29 Frontios test discs all signed off.
         Also updated production subtitles delivered for Robots of Death.
17 18:44 Watching Ed Stradling rough cuts I'd forgotten "Nightmare of Eden" was so edgy in parts.
19 08:33 Watching test disc for Mannequin Mania. Restoration beautiful.
         Well done Peter Crocker and Mark Ayres! http://t.co/hmxo6Ox
24 03:31 Viewed Clayton Hickman rough box artwork for EarthStory. Lovely!

Spring will be a bumper season for fans of the Third Doctor with Warner Home Video announcing that both Terror of the Autons and Planet of the Spiders will be released on DVD in the United States and Canada on May 10th.

tvshowsondvd.com report on the two Jon Pertwee stories, details of which were released last month.

The North American release means the stories will be released in the UK during April or the first week of May. Planet of the Spiders, which was the final story for Jon Pertwee, will be released as a standalone story, while Terror of the Autons will be paired with a remastered version of Pertwee's first story, Spearhead from Space.

A release in Australia is also expected shortly after the UK release.

For full details of the global DVD release schedule see our product page.

It has been confirmed that the upcoming DVD re-release of the Third Doctor's first story, Spearhead from Space, will include the previously missing Fleetwood Mac track, Oh Well Part One.

Steve Roberts of the Doctor Who Restoration Team posted on Gallifrey Base that the track will be included on the soundtrack of the story due for release around the world later this year.

The music was present on the original transmission, during scenes of dolls being manufactured at Auto Plastics. Because of rights issues the track was removed from the 1988 BBC Video release and the 2001 DVD Release. The track is now covered by the PPL agreement, the same agreement which allowed the missing Beatles music to be included on the UK release of The Chase.

However, unlike the release of The Chase, the Fleetwood Mac track is covered internationally and so will be included on all versions of the story.

2|Entertain have reported via their Classic Series twitter feed that two commentaries are due to be recorded in London this coming Sunday. The two remaining original TARDIS travellers William Russell (Ian Chesterton) and Carole Ann Ford (Susan) will be reunited to record the commentary for First Doctor adventure The Sensorites, whilst Third Doctor tale Colony in Space will feature Katy Manning (Jo Grant) alongside (then) assistant floor manager Graeme Harper. Both recording sessions will see additional reflections from other, as yet unnamed, guests.

As usual, this announcement should not be taken as an indication of the stories coming out on DVD imminently, as commentaries are often recorded way in advance of release to take advantage of the commentators' availability!

Wired Magazine have reported that Third Doctor Jon Pertwee's adventure from Season Seven, The Ambassadors of Death is in the process of being completed for DVD.

The story is one of a number that do not exist in the BBC Archives in full colour; though an off-air camera copy exists, this does not provide a good signal for recreating a colour version as seen in the DVD release Doctor Who And The Silurians (details of that process may be read from the Restoration Team's Beneath the Surface article). A new colour decoding strategy was deployed for episode three of the Planet of the Daleks DVD release (see article), and has now reached maturity to tackle the third Doctor's third adventure:


No other details on the future DVD release is known at present, though a commentary for the story was recorded back in late 2009, featuring members of the cast and crew including Nicholas Courtney (The Brigadier), Terrance Dicks (script editor), Peter Halliday (alien voices) and Derek Ware (stunts/fight arranger).


Follow classic Doctor Who DVD developments on Twitter: @classicdw.

This article asks: “Is this the Doctor Who general election? And are Labour hoping that some of the popularity of the show will rub off on them?” The forthcoming UK general election and Doctor Who do seem to be becoming evermore interlinked.

The new issue of Radio Times, harking back to its 30 April to 6 May issue from 2005 (opposite), shows the Daleks in the colours (blue, red and yellow) of the three main UK political parties, David Tennant, earlier this year, declared his support for the UK’s Labour Party and Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the party’s current leader. Earlier this week, the Labour Party turned to the Doctor and a son of the Doctor in it’s campaign to win re-election in the contest.

The first party-election broadcast of the campaign premièred on YouTube before airing on UK television channels. In the Labour Party broadcast, The Road Ahead, the third Doctor Jon Pertwee’s son, Sean Pertwee, appeared, while the tenth Doctor David Tennant provided the voice-over.

See our earlier story about this week’s Radio Times and the interview with Brown, who reveals that Tennant is his favourite Doctor, and that he saw him recently in Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

In recent months, both Russell T. Davies and Steven Moffat have separately warned against David Cameron’s Conservatives winning the election, fearing the future of the BBC would be under threat. Citing Moffat’s comments, the Daily Mirror claimed that Saturday’s episode, The Beast Below, featured a message blasting the Tories:

In February, the Sunday Times claimed that writers wove anti-Tory propaganda into Doctor Who scripts in the 1980s.

As for the Liberal Democrats, their candidate for Blaenau Gwent, Wales, is one Matt Smith!