Dr Whoot and 89 other giant owls came together for one last time at a special Farewell Weekend at Birmingham's Millennium Point on Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 October before being auctioned to raise funds for Birmingham Children’s Hospital Charity.

Artist Stephen Mckay is a long time Doctor Who fan, his Police Box/Owl design was inspired by the conventions he attended in Birmingham in the early 1980s. Mckay has fond memories of meeting passed Doctors Jon Pertwee and Patrick Troughton in the city.

The Police Box owl with its working lamp, hand made by Mckay, has attracted a lot of interest in the UK and America and with a starting price of £5000 is hoped will raise substantially more for the Children's Hospital. The top price previously paid for a work by Stephen Mckay was £25,000 in aid of Bristol Children s' Hospital in 2013.

The Big Hoot Auction takes place on Thursday the 15th of October. If you are interested in bidding for Dr Whoot or any other of the Big Hoot owls or owlets , details are available on the Big Hoot website

The premiere of Series Nine, The Magician's Apprentice, is to receive a special screening in Italy on Friday 30th October as part of the Lucca Comic and Games Festival. The episode, which will be dubbed into Italian, will be shown at 6:30pm at Cinema Astraat, and will be introduced by its writer, Steven Moffat.

The series' lead writer is at the event for the weekend, and will feature in a Q&A alongside fellow writer Jamie Mathieson in the San Romano auditorium at 9:00pm on Saturday, which will be hosted by comic writer Gabriella Cordone Lisiero. Fans will have the opportunity to ask questions about the writing process and how a Doctor Who script is turned from words on a page to the series seen on screen.

Tickets for both events are available on the festival website website (English version of the site here).


The series itself, also dubbed into Italian, is expected to be shown in the country within the next few months on RAI4; full details will be available via the This Week in Doctor Who website and on Facebook once known.

DALEK WEEK

The Experience will also be holding a Dalek Day later in the month:

More details about the Dalek Day/Week will be available shortly.

Russell T Davies has made a strong defence of the BBC and the licence fee and the values it stands for, but warned the battle may already be lost.

Speaking at the Radio Times Festival, he urged people to consider the alternatives to the compulsory licence fee, such as a subscription model and to look at the schedules of current subscriber services such as the American premium cable network HBO and see what subscribers get for their money. He said: "couple of high class dramas. No news. No soaps.no weather, no radio stations. Google their schedules and see if that is what you want?"

Davies was being interviewed by Alison Graham for the first ever Radio Times Festival, which is being held at Hampton Court in West London. He said his favourite memory of working on Doctor Who was the laughter he had. "It was hard work but we did have fun". He revealed he most enjoyed writing dialogue for Daleks. "They are so clever. I love them".

He also spoke of how proud he was of Doctor Who. "It's indestructible. Imagine if they tried to cancel it now. There would be riots in the streets".

Speaking on writing for the Doctor: "you get the secret of writing for the Doctor when you realise he is much cleverer than you are. Then it falls into place".

He talked about how he started in the industry and advised aspiring writers to just write. "get all the experience you can, not necessarily on your pet project but say for your local youth theatre".

He talked about his current project, a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream for the BBC. "It's something I've always wanted to do, he told the audience. It has a fantastic cast, and the whole play finishes with a joyous dance choreographed by Arlene Phillips. It's going to be on Saturday night in prime time. Only the BBC would do that".

Davies finished the session by talking to fans and signing autographs.

BBC Worldwide has announced further guests to the Australian Doctor Who Festival. Sylvester Mccoy, Billie Piper and Dan Starkey will join Peter Capaldi, Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss in Sydney on the 21st and 22nd November 2015. Piper and McCoy will appear on stage at the festival in a series of fan Q&As hosted by Adam Spencer. Billie Piper’s attendance at the Doctor Who Festival is subject to her filming commitments.

Sylvester Mccoy said:

Dan Starkey said:

Fresh from their invasion of Westminster on Thursday, the Daleks selected Liverpool Street Underground Station as their next target on Friday, taking over announcements and noticeboards as part of publicity for the return of Doctor Who this weekend.

Commuters in London would have been in for a surprise this morning as the Daleks took over London's transport network! The "Masters of Earth" could be seen today in and around Westminster Underground Station, in celebration of their (and the Doctor's!) return to television this weekend.

BBC Worldwide have announced additional guests for the London Doctor Who Festival, taking place in November.

Writer and actor Mark Gatiss will be appearing on the Friday of the three day event, which takes place at London's Excel Centre, in November.

Also joining the line up is guest Nicholas Briggs, voice of the Daleks and Big Finish stalwart, as well as presentations from Real SFX LTD and Millennium FX, the companies that supply the Special Effects and Prosthetics for the series.

Events confirmed:

• Meet the cast panel led session. Featuring the Doctor himself, Peter Capaldi and stars of the latest series, Michelle Gomez and Ingrid Oliver
• Meet the Writers – led by Steven Moffat and featuring the Series 9 writers including Mark Gatiss on Friday only
• Special effects supervisor Danny Hargreaves and his team at SFX reveal the tricks of their trade in a live show.
• Millennium FX reveal their trade secrets as they show how a monster is created, from the beginning briefing stages to the creation itself
• A display of costumes and props featured in the latest Doctor Who series
• Experience a day in the life of a production member. Try your hand at a variety of jobs that go into producing a series for Doctor Who
• Learn the techniques and secrets the actors use in the filming of Doctor Who
• Show off your best Doctor Who cosplay outfits at the Doctor Who Festival Cosplay showcase.
• Think you’re the ultimate Doctor Who fan? Test your Doctor Who knowledge in the Doctor Who Festival’s specially-themed fan challenges

The Festival runs from 13-15 November in London and from 21-22 November in Sydney.

The BBC have announced a special preview of the forthcoming series premiere will be taking place in Cardiff on the 10th September; the event will see both The Magician's Apprentice and The Witch's Familiar presented by BAFTA Cymru:


Tickets can be booked via the event page.

The two Doctor Who Symphonic Spectacular shows set for New York have been cancelled. The shows were scheduled for 7 October 2015 at Barclays Center in New York and were to be hosted by Michelle Gomez.

An email was sent to ticket holders with the following message:
A message on the Barclays Center website states: "there are no plans to reschedule them at this time."