The actor Neil Fingleton has died at the age of 36

Neil Fingleton played the Fisher King in the 2015 Doctor Who stories Under the Lake and Before The Flood

In 2007 Fingleton was awarded the Guinness World Record as the tallest British-born man and the tallest man in the European Union, standing at 7 ft 6in or 2.33m.

Neil Fingleton was born in Durham in 1980. An outstanding basketball player, he spent 8 years in education in the United States, winning a sporting scholarship and studying at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and later at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts.

In 2004 he made his professional debut as a basketball player for the now defunct Boston Frenzy. He later played professionally in China, Italy, Greece, England and for the spanish teams Club Baloncesto Ilarcuris and Ciudad Real.

In 2007 injury forced him to abandon his sporting career and he took up acting. He appeared in the film 47 Ronin alongside Keanu Reeves, and played the giant Mag the Mighty in the TV series Game of Thrones. He appeared in the 2015 film Jupiter Ascending, the Fox Studios film X-Men: First Class and in the Marvel Entertainment film Avengers: Age of Ultron.

Neil Fingleton died on Saturday after suffering a heart attack.

The BBC have released a teaser trailer for the forthcoming new series of Doctor Who, which starts on 15th April 2017.

A petition to try to prevent the Doctor Who Experience in Cardiff from closing, has received over 11,000 signatures.

The petition was launched after it was announced that the exhibition on Cardiff Bay is due to close this summer, when the five year lease expires.

The petition was the idea of Bex Ferriday, who lives in Cardiff. She told Wales Online The Doctor Experience opened in London in 2011, before moving to a purpose-built building in the Welsh capital. It is currently situated at Porth Teigr, Cardiff Bay, near the BBC studios where Doctor Who is made.

The site is owned by Cardiff City Council, who issues a five-year lease to BBC Worldwide to host the Experience.

A spokesman for Cardiff council said: The petition will be presented to the Doctor Who Experience next Saturday.

Koch Media are to release a collection of interviews with stars from Jon Pertwee's era of Doctor Who from Reeltime Pictures on 6th March 2017:

Out 22 February 2017

DOCTOR WHO: THIRD DOCTOR #5 (Final Issue)

Writer: Paul Cornell
Artist: Christopher Jones
COVER A: Andy Walker COVER B: Will Brooks COVER C: Brian Miller & Hi-Fi COVER D: Carolyn Edwards COVER E: Marc Ellerby

---

Out 1 March 2017

DOCTOR WHO: NINTH DOCTOR #10

Writer: Cavan Scott
Artist: Adriana Melo
COVER A: Cris Bolson & Marco Lesko COVER B: Will Brooks COVER C: Marc Ellerby

---

DOCTOR WHO: ELEVENTH DOCTOR #3.3

Writer: Alex Paknadel
Artist: Simon Fraser
Colourist: Gary Caldwell
COVER A: Claudia Iannciello COVER B: Will Brooks - PHOTO COVER C: Marc Ellerby

Three new non-fiction books are being released by Obverse Books this month.

Koch Media are to re-release the Reeltime Pictures spin-off feature Wartime on DVD on 6th March 2016:

Consolidated ratings are now available for episodes 7 and 8 of Class, shown on BBC One two weeks ago, which include details of those who recorded the programme and watched it within a week.

Episode 7, The Metaphysical Engine, or What Quill Did, which was broadcast at 10.47pm, had a confirmed audience of 0.68 million viewers, a 6.4% share of the total TV audience. The channel average for the timeslot is of 1.85 million. The figure is slightly lower than the initial overnight figure. The programme was beaten in the timeslot by BBC Two's Newsnight getting 0.81 million, however it outrated Through the Keyhole on ITV which had 0.53 million. An additional 0.20 million have accessed the episode on iPlayer since its release on BBC Three last October. The episode scored an AI of 82.

Episode 8, The Lost, followed immediately afterward, starting at 11.33pm, and had a consolidated audience of 0.32 million watching, a share 5.5% of the audience. The channel average for the timeslot is 0.82 million. The programme was outrated by Hospital on BBC Two, with 0.38 million. Around 195,000 have accessed the episode on iPlayer. The episode scored an AI of 82.

Full ratings for the BBC One screening are shown below. No information has been released by the BBC concerning the future of Class and the possibility of a second series. An online petition asking for a second series has so far received 1700 signatures.

This week sees the latest release in the Titan series featuring the Tenth Doctor.

DOCTOR WHO TENTH DOCTOR #3.2

Writer: Nick Abadzis
Artist: Giorgia Sposito, Arianna Florean
COVER A: Claudia Ianniciello - COVER B: PHOTO By Will Brooks - COVER C: Rachael Smith - COVER D: Iolanda Zanfardino

Volume 3 of Vworp Vworp! has just been released and contains an exclusive in-depth interview with comics writer Alan Moore, a free Dalek CD, new comic strips, and much more.

The special bumper 208-page edition explores Alan Moore’s Doctor Who backup strips, published in Doctor Who Weekly and Monthly in 1980 and 1981. Featuring the Cybermen, the Autons and the Time Lords, these strips were not only Alan’s very first professional work, but would go on to influence both comics and Doctor Who in ways he could never have foreseen.

Moore recalls his 1980 tale, Black Legacy:Moore also shares his idea for the ultimate Doctor Who TV story, and the magazine talks to the artists who worked on Moore’s Doctor Who strips, John Stokes and V for Vendetta’s David Lloyd.



The magazine also features a brand new full-cast audio play written by Kaldor City’s Alan Stevens, with sound design by Alistair Lock. This one-off homage is available only with Vworp Vworp! and is inspired by The Mechanical Planet, a comic strip published in 1965. The play stars David Graham, beloved as Parker from Thunderbirds, and who, alongside Peter Hawkins, provided the original voice of the Daleks from their first appearance in 1963 through to the epic story The Daleks’ Master Plan. As the Golden Emperor of the Daleks, David voices a Dalek for the first time since 1966. The cast is completed by Sasha Mitchell, best remembered as Arlen, the Federation officer who brought down Blake’s 7 in the final shocking episode transmitted just over 25 years ago. The Mechanical Planet is only available with the magazine on CD and, for a lucky few with the TV Century 21 issue cover, a proper vinyl 7-inch record, created in homage to the brilliant 1965 Century 21 record that featured highlights from the final episode of The Chase with narration by David Graham.



Also in this edition

• THE DALEK CHRONICLES RETURN:
Deadline to Doomsday, an exciting seven-part Dalek strip, was begun by the late artist Ron Turner in 1997 and completed seamlessly for Vworp Vworp! by Dalek artist supremo Lee Sullivan and Charlie Kirchoff.
• BRAND NEW COMIC STRIPS:
A bittersweet coda to TV Century 21’s Robot Agent 2K, showcasing the work of writer Tim Quinn and artist Tim Keable. Also the stunning multi-Doctor epic The Woman Who Killed the Doctor, written by Daniel O’Mahony and drawn by Steve Andrew, and The Lawman, an authentic Doctor Who Weekly-style back-up strip penned by John Peel and drawn by Baz Renshaw.
• TV CENTURY 21:
Prolific science fiction author Stephen Baxter (The Massacre of Mankind; Doctor Who: The Wheel of Ice), together with Alan Stevens and Fiona Moore (authors of The Unofficial and Unauthorised Guides to Blake’s 7/The Prisoner/Battlestar Galactica) lead us through an in-depth analysis of these extraordinary Dalek strips and their close cousins in the much-loved 1960s and 1970s Dalek annuals. There is a profile the artists, Richard Jennings, Eric Eden and Ron Turner; while Tat Wood put the strips in context with a detailed examination of Dalekmania in general; horror author Stephen Laws and Doctor Who historian Jeremy Bentham remember growing up during those exciting years; plus Matthew Sweet on TV Comic and David Quantick reflects on canon.
• TARGET BOOKS:
Remember the thrill, the smell, the feel of a brand new Doctor Who novelisation? Nicholas Pegg does, and salutes the people behind them.
• THE AGE OF CHAOS:
Journey back to 1994 to explore the creation of this memorable Marvel one-shot penned by the Sixth Doctor himself, Colin Baker, with an exclusive interviews with Colin, editor Gary Russell, and artists John M Burns and Barrie Mitchell.
• DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE EDITORS INTERVIEWED: Featuring John Freeman, Gary Russell, Marcus Hearn, Alan Barnes, Clayton Hickman, Peter Ware and Tom Spilsbury in conversation.
• BRIEF ENCOUNTERS:
Discussion on Abslom Daak with Richard Starkings, Lee Sullivan, Paul Cornell and Ben Aaronovitch; Halo Jones with Andrew Cartmel; investing in Doctor Who Weekly with Matthew Waterhouse; and illustrating the very first Dalek novelisation with legendary Hollywood graphic designer Arnold Schwartzman and Armada artist Peter Archer.

Issue number: 3 is out now price: £9.99 and can be ordered from the Magazine website.