The latest edition of Doctor Who Magazine has an exclusive preview of the upcoming Doctor Who story, Legend of the Sea Devils. 

Highlights of the new issue include:

• An exclusive 15-page preview of the Easter Special, Legend of the Sea Devils, featuring contributions from Chris Chibnall, Crystal Yu, Marlowe Chan-Reeves and Arthur Lee.

• Exclusive interviews with Legend of the Sea Devils co-writer Ella Road and director Haolu Wang.

• Ray Holman reveals his costume designs for the latest Special. 

• Graeme Garden, Rufus Hound and Gemma Whelan share their experiences of playing the Meddling Monk.

• Katy Manning pays tribute to her much-missed friend, Stewart Bevan.

• Artist Jeff Cummins discusses his cover illustrations for Target Books and the New Adventures.

• Previously unpublished photographs from the set of 1964’s The Keys of Marinus.

• A look back on the life and work of the late Henry Lincoln, co-writer of The Abominable Snowmen, The Web of Fear and The Dominators.

• Collectivity meets Doctor Who’s comic-book collectors.

• The Fact of Fiction looks at 2017’s Smile.

• The third part of Hydra’s Gate, a new comic-strip story for the Doctor, Yaz and Dan.

• Previews, reviews, news, prize-winning competitions, Time and Space Visualiser, Sufficient Data and more!

PLUS!

• Doctor Who Discovers Pirates, a previously unpublished entry in the 1970s’ Doctor Who Discovers book range, is presented in full for the first time ever as a 52-page supplement.

• A download code for a complete full-cast audio adventure from Big Finish, starring Catherine Tate as Donna Noble.

• A giant double-sided poster.

Doctor Who Magazine Issue 576 is on sale from panini.co.uk and WH Smith from Thursday 31 March priced £9.99 (UK). Also available as a digital edition from pocketmags.com priced £8.99.

BBC Studios has announced that the Doctor has landed in the popular online video game Fortnite.

Players will take on new adventures, missions and battles, while exploring iconic locations from the Whoniverse, all on a brand-new Doctor Who island within the game.

The game starts on the TARDIS Landing Site where players will find the TARDIS and start their quest to gather the Dynamorphic Generator Crystals from around the hub island in order to repair it. Special rewards and surprises will keep players on their toes along the way. 

From the TARDIS Landing Site, head to one of the remaining four locations. Travel to Kerblam! on the moon of Kandoka to experience box fighting like never before, with the Kerblam Man looking on.

On the Escape Map, players must escape the QuadZone Rescue Space Craft while stopping the destructive Pting, an alien that is causing chaos by eating the ship’s systems. As the self-destruct sequence has been initiated players must find all 10 mechanical parts to repair the Life Pod and escape.

The Reality Virus has caused many realities to coexist on Gallifrey. On the Rumble Map players will choose a team and their weapon loadout to fight for either the Time Lords or the Daleks in an all-out battle.

Mat Way, Global Director, Gaming & Interactive at BBC Studios, said: 

For those interested in learning more about the Doctor’s world, they can head to the Doctor Who Museum. Here there’s more info about the famous friends and foes of the Doctor, including the Cybermen, Daleks, Weeping Angels, K9 and the TARDIS.

Players can visit the Doctor Who island for free by downloading Fortnite on their preferred device or console. From the main menu, change game mode, select “Island Code” and enter code 3610-1396-4646. The Doctor Who Island is available for Fortnite players to discover and explore. 

This is an independently created Fortnite Creative experience and is not sponsored, endorsed, or administered by Epic Games, Inc.

Data Extract, the magazine publication of the Doctor Who Club of Australia has reached its 250th issue.

The double issue 250/251 includes an exclusive interview with Katy Manning on her long connection to Australia while Pete McTighe goes behind the scenes on the short films made for the Blu-ray collection releases.

The magazine has a tribute to Louise Pajo (Gia Kelly from The Seeds of Death), written by her in her final days

Inside a look at the real world Future Library with artist Katie Paterson, and Data Extract founder Dallas Jones looking at DE history and his own fandom origins,. Aldo Craig Land’s comic as past companions team up to take on the Master,

UK correspondent Bel Bailey-Melouney goes behind the scenes of Time Fracture and tours the filming locations of Flux, while Dom Kelly looks back over series 11 and 12 to bring an exploration of the Thirteenth Doctor.

Tim Darby counts down tales of Gallifrey and Roger Reynolds introduces us to the Doctor's neighbour at 78 Totters Lane.

Data Extract is a subscription publication through the Doctor Who Club of Australia 

The Doctor Who Appreciation Society has announced a new award for writers, in memory of the much loved, and highly influential, writer Terrance Dicks, who passed away in 2019.

Terrance captured the imagination of a generation of children and young adults, many of whom are at the forefront of modern television.  Mark Gatiss said:

The award will recognise those whose writing across screen, audio, book and magazine have contributed to, and enhanced, the worlds of Doctor Who.

Elsa added:

The Terrance Dicks Award For Writers takes the form of a statue of The Master, as portrayed by Roger Delgado, crafted by Gary Glover of Mooncrest Models. The character is Terrance's most famous creation, and continues to feature in Doctor Who half a century after his first appearance in the Jon Pertwee story Terror of the Autons.

The actress Lynda Baron has died at the age of 82.

Lynda Baron was best known for playing Nurse Gladys Emmanuel in the BBC Comedy series Open All Hours. She took part in 7 episodes of Doctor Who, one of the select few who appeared in both the original and the revived series. 

Lynda Baron was born Lilian Baron in March 1939 in Urmston, Lancashire. She trained at the Royal Academy of Dance and after graduating worked in reparatory theatre and in London's West End. 

Her first television appearance was in 1958, appearing in Theatre Night, the BBC series of 45-minute extracts from plays. Small roles followed including playing June in The Rag Trade and Madame Kronstadt in the thriller Breaking Point. 

Her first encounter with Doctor Who came in the 1966 story The Gunfighters. Baron played the role of narrator. Out of vision, she sang The Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon to guide the audience through the plot. 

May small roles on television followed including parts in Z-Cars Her big break came in 1976 when she was cast as Nurse Gladys Emmanuel, opposite Ronnie Barker and David Jason, in the BBC TV sitcom Open All Hours. As the object of corner shop owner Albert Arkwright's affections, Baron was a vital part of the team, appearing in all four series of the show. 

She told The Sunday Post

The success of the series led to many more comedic roles including parts in Last of the Summer Wine,  Oh No, It's Selwyn Froggitt, Grundy and A Roof Over My Head.

Her second role in Doctor Who came in 1983, playing Captain Wrack, one of the Eternals, in the last two episodes of the Fifth Doctor story Enlightenment. 

In the 1990's she played Auntie Mabel in the 1990s BBC children's show Come Outside and played Grandma in the pre-school series Fimbals. Other appearances included roles in Doctors, The Upper Hand, Come Outside, Coronation Street, Down to Earth, Fat Friends and Chasing Shadows.

In 2000 she played opposite Bernard Cribbins in the BBC One drama Down to Earth about a couple who move to a farm in Devon.

Her third appearance in Doctor Who came in 2011 alongside Matt Smith playing Val Cane in the story Closing Time.

At Christmas 2013 she reprised her most famous role, playing Nurse Gladys in a one-off sequel to Open All Hours called Still Open All Hours. The show was watched by over 12 million viewers, almost a 40% share in audience figures on Boxing Day, and its success led to a series being commissioned. Baron would return to the role for a further 12 episodes. 

Throughout her career, she made many stage performances. In 1987 she was in the West End version of the musical Follies, and later appeared in the stage version of 2007's In Celebration alongside Orlando Bloom. Other theatre shows included An Inspector Calls, Stepping Out and The Full Monty.

She was nominated for a Bafta Award in 2011 for her role in The Road To Coronation Street, a one-off drama about the early days of the soap, playing actress Violet Carson. 

She was still working at the age of 80 appearing in the film Dream Horse, about a racehorse breeder

Lynda Baron's death was announced by her agent who said

Candy Jar Books have announced a number of book titles available to download for free on Kindle as part of World Book Day 2022, which took place on 3 March 2022; the offer features a number of their chilldrens' books, including from The Lucy Wilson Mysteries, and from today also includes some titles from the Lethbridge-Stewart series. 

The full list of titles includes:

• The Crumble Lady (by Britain's Got Talent finalist Lorraine Bowen)
• Jack Flynn and the Pirate Porthole (by Christine Perkins)
• The House on March Lane (by Michelle Briscombe)
• The Revenge of the Cannibal Chickens (by Gavin Lihou)
• Those Kids Next Door: The Battle Begins (by Alan Stott)
• Tommy Parker: Destiny Will Find You (by Anthony Ormond)
• Becky Bloomsfield: The Missing Piece (by Cherry Cobb)
• I Was a Teenage Spy (by Paul Robinson)
• Something I Should Know (by Siobhan Kalli)
• The Lucy Wilson Mysteries: Curse of the Mirror Clowns (by Chris Lynch)
• The Lucy Wilson Mysteries: The Brigadier & the Bledoe Cadets (by Tim Gambrell)
• The Lucy Wilson Mysteries: The Midnight People (by John Peel)
• Lethbridge-Stewart: The Brigadier Declassified (by Philip Bates)
• Lethbridge-Stewart: On His Majesty's National Service Coda (by John Peel)
• Lethbridge-Stewart: Home Fires Burn (by Gareth Madgwick)
• Lethbridge-Stewart: Travers and Wells (by Robert Mammone)

The giveaway continues over the next four days.

Issue 575 of Doctor Who Magazine celebrates 40 years of the Fifth Doctor

Highlights of the new issue include:

• The results of DWM’s World Cup of the Fifth Doctor, which saw his 20 television stories pitted against each other in a series of polls on Twitter.

• An exclusive look at the files of 1980s script editor Eric Saward, including new interviews with Eric and some of his prospective writers.

• A previously unpublished interview with the late Spencer Chapman, in which he discusses his design work on the 1960s productions The Dalek Invasion of Earth and The Space Museum. 

• The final instalment of a two-part interview with Doctor Who’s outgoing executive producer Matt Strevens.

• A recreation of the sets from 1968’s The Wheel in Space, featuring new CGI models.

• How to navigate the BBC’s growing online archive of Doctor Who content.

• Collectivity explores the appeal of action figures.

• Apocrypha revisits Catalogue of Events, a short story in Marvel Comics’ 1983 Doctor Who Summer Special.

• The Fact of Fiction looks at 2009’s The Waters of Mars.

• The second part of Hydra’s Gate, a new comic-strip story for the Doctor, Yaz and Dan.

• Previews, reviews, news, prize-winning competitions, Time and Space Visualiser, Sufficient Data and more.

Doctor Who Magazine Issue 575 is on sale from panini.co.uk and WH Smith from Thursday 3 March priced £6.99 (UK).

Also available as a digital edition from pocketmags.com priced £4.99.

The Doctor Who Club of Australia have released the fifth volume of their Zerinza yearbook series:

 

This volume has articles, interviews, art and stories covering every Doctor in order from one to thirteen, with the War Doctor and Jo Martin’s pre-Doctor as well! The collection includes work by writers Dom Kelly, Tim Darby, Ashley J Tuchin, John J Lodge, Jamie Boyd, Seth Hynes, Richard Lipp, Tony Cooke, Darran Jordan and more. It also features interviews with Ian Cullen (Ixta from The Aztecs), Viktors Ritelis (production assistant on The Crusade and The Daleks’ Master Plan), Alexandra Tynan (designer of the Cybermen), Louise Pajo (Gia Kelly from The Seeds of Death), Frazer Hines, Jon Pertwee, Katy Manning, Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant, Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred, writer Gary Russell, showrunner Steven Moffat, Neill Gorton (monsters and special effects creator), Mark Sheppard (Canton Delaware the third from The Impossible Astronaut and Day of the Moon) and Mandip (Yaz) Gill.

With a beautiful cover by David Blewer and covering the full range of Doctor Who history, this volume is sure to have something for every fan!

 

 

The volume is available to purchase through the DWCA Lulu store in both hardback and paperback format.

A double issue of DWCA newsleterr Data Extract (250-251) ships to all members this month:

Ten Acre Films is releasing a limited edition reprint of Richard Marson's revealing biography of Doctor Who's 1980s producer:
 

The 330 page softcover book is limited to 250 copies and is released on 14 March 2022. It is available to order from Ten Acre Films.