The Wand Company’s new Twelfth Doctor’s Sonic Screwdriver Universal Remote Control to be seen for the first time at San Diego Comic-Con 2015

The Wand Company have revealed that a limited edition of their latest Sonic Screwdriver will be on sale exclusively on the BBC America Booth at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, prior to general release.



The Twelfth Doctor’s Sonic Screwdriver Remote Control is a brand new, hero prop replica which is a recreation of the Sonic Screwdriver used by Peter Capaldi in Series 8 of Doctor Who. A limited run of 168 laser-etched numbered Sonics will be available exclusively to purchase on the BBC America booth (#4129) for the first time at San Diego Comic-Con (8th-12th July 2015) prior to general sale from 7th September from BBCShop.com

The new Twelfth Doctor’s Sonic Screwdriver is a fully functioning gesture-based universal remote control which can control your TV and other home entertainment equipment. Learning the gestures and programming the Sonic Screwdriver is easy, and the intuitive gestures allow the user to become the Doctor. Flick it open and the clasps extend with a satisfying clunk; press the grip mounted button for instant light and sound action or use the Any-TV-Off function just for fun!

The Twelfth Sonic has been made in direct response to the huge number of requests that The Wand Company received from fans all over the world asking for an extending version of their famous Eleventh Doctor’s Sonic Screwdriver.

Chris Barnardo, co-founder of The Wand Company says Jason Easy, Senior Licensing Manager at BBC Worldwide, said, Product details

• 1:1 scale replica of the Series 8 Sonic Screwdriver hero prop
• Highly authentic flick-to-extend action
• Grip-mounted action button
• Press and hold button to make Sonic buzz and tip light in FX Mode
• Any-TV-off function that turns off any television at the press of a button, without having to program the Sonic first
• Stores up to 39 remote control commands
• Customisable personal lock code
• Ivory-coloured handle with subtle fleck
• Redesigned copper-plated handle end
• Gallifreyan stand for vertical presentation
• 12 new secret Morse-coded Twelfth Doctor phrases
• 12 different sonic screwdriver sound effects

The Police Box, currently situated at the Kent Police Museum in Chatham, is to be moved following the closure of the museum at the Dockyard.

The box, which is one of the few remaining original boxes in the country, was on loan to the museum from the The Civil Defence and Emergency Service Preservation Trust. It was installed in Kent in 2008. However the Museum has not been open this year and although there are plans to open a new museum in Maidstone in 2016, the Police Box will not be part of it.

The Police Box will be removed from its current location in August this year and returned to its owners in Scotland.

Until then it can be seen by visitors to The Historic Dockyard in Chatham.

Big Finish has announced production of a new range of boxsets, featuring heroes and monsters from the recent era of Doctor Who, including River Song, the Judoon, the Sycorax and the Weeping Angels.

Big Finish Productions have been producing audio dramas based on the original Doctor Who series since 1999. However their access to characters from the post 2005 series has been restricted until now. In February it was announced that they had gained the rights to use characters from UNIT, and the latest deal expands their range further.

The new wave of adventures, due next year, will feature Alex Kingston as River Song, who first appeared in 2008's Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead. River will be stepping into the era of the Eighth Doctor (Paul McGann) for Doctor Who: Doom Coalition 2, alongside Liv Chenka (Nicola Walker) and Helen Sinclair (Hattie Morahan).

Producer David Richardson says
River will then return later in 2016 in Doctor Who: The Diary of River Song, an epic four-hour adventure that takes River across space and time, seeking out the secret rulers of the universe. Paul McGann will reprise the role of the Eighth Doctor in the final instalment.

The New Series adventures will continue in Doctor Who: The Churchill Years, in which Ian McNeice returns as the fromer British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. In the four-hour saga, Churchill relates a number of encounters with the Ninth, Tenth and Eleventh Doctors in his memoirs, battling alien incursions, metamorphosing creatures... and a Dalek! The stories are told by Ian McNeice, supported by a full cast of guest actors, including Danny Horn as Kazran Sardick, in a story taking place within the 2010 special A Christmas Carol.

Executive producer Nicholas Briggs says
Finally, the Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Doctors will face a new generation of monsters in Doctor Who: Classic Doctors, New Monsters, a brand new, four-story run featuring creatures from the New Series. Peter Davison takes on the Weeping Angels, Colin Baker encounters the Judoon, Sylvester McCoy will meet the Sycorax... and Paul McGann will face a new clone batch of Sontarans on the edge of the Time War.

Executive Producer Jason Haigh-Ellery says
All four boxsets will be released across 2016, and are available to pre-order.

This month's audio books from BBC Audio feature the adaptation of Target novel The Massacre by John Lucarotti, and a boxed set release of the three original audio series to feature Tom Baker's return as the Doctor.



Novelisation adaptions for the rest of the year are currently scheduled as: Doctor Who and The Ark in Space (16th July), The Two Doctors (3rd September), The Curse of Fenric (5th November), and K9 and Company (3rd December).

As the series progressed the relationship between the kidnapper and the kidnapped changed. Circumstances had thrown them together, into danger, into life threatening situations. Over the months, respect, trust and friendship had developed. The two teachers had educated the Doctor, taught him to care and to have responsibility, and in return they had learned to trust the old man. But underneath the narrative was always the premise that Ian and Barbara longed to return home. Back to the world they knew and to friends and family. Instead they had been flung around the universe, visited alien planets such as Skaro, Vortis and Marinus, and times far distant from their own, meeting Aztecs, Romans and Crusaders. There had been hopeful moments, when they thought they might be back, but moments dashed when realisation set in and the couple resigned themselves to more adventures..

It is ironic that the travellers final return, the solution to their predicament, came not from the Doctor, but from his greatest enemy. It was the Daleks time ship that finally allowed the couple to return home. Returning to London in the 1960's. The Doctor was left with his companion Vicki. No more would the series be the constant endeavour to get the pair home. Doctor Who would now become the Doctor, travelling with his companions in Space and Time.

The loss of Ian and Barbara came about with the decision of William Russell and Jacqueline Hill to leave the series at the end of their second year contract. The series had by now run to 77 episodes, produced on a weekly basis in an almost continuous production run. It was a gruelling schedule that left the actors totally tied to the series. It was William Russell who decided to leave first, telling producer Verity Lambert in Feburary that he wouldn't be continuing for a third year. As a result Terry Nation was asked to write in an new character into the final episode of The Chase. An astronaut who would become the new male companion to the Doctor. Jacqueline Hill was more unsure about leaving, but by May has also taken the decision to go. On May 6th the couple travelled around London with a photographer taking pictures for the montage of their arrival back in London. The couple recorded their final episode on 4th June 1965 in Riverside Studio 1.

The departure of the two actors was deeply felt by William Hartnell. For an actor who like having people around whom he knew and who knew him, the loss of the two stalwarts of the series would be difficult to handle. It came after Carole Ann Ford had departed from the series and amid changes in the production team, with producer Verity Lambert planning to move on. William Russell takes up the story. On her departure from the series Jacqueline Hill took a break from acting to raise a family. She had been married to director Alvin Rakoff since 1958, a year after appearing in his BBC adaptation of Rod Serling's American TV play Requiem For A Heavyweight. Together they had two children, Sasha and John. She returned to acting the 1970's, appearing as Lady Capulet in her husbands production of Romeo & Juliet for the BBC. Other roles included appearances in Angels, Tales of the Unexpected and Paradise Postponed. In 1980 she became to first Doctor Who companion to return to the series playing a different role, when she appeared as Lexa in the 1980 Fourth Doctor story Meglos. In 1993 she died of breast cancer at the tragically young age of 63.

William Russell was the best known of the original companions, famous for his roles in series such as The Adventures of Sir Lancelot, long before he joined the TARDIS crew. As a result he quickly won a part in a new spy series Breaking Point following his departure from Doctor Who. Other roles followed including a long run in Harriet's Back in Town for Thames Television, and appearances in Van der Valk, Whodunnit?, Disraeli: Portrait of a Romantic, Shoestring, The Black Adder, Casualty and Heartbeat. In 1992 he played Ted Sullivan in ten episodes of Coronation Street. Russell has reprised the role of Ian Chesterton in various audio adventures. In 2013 he had a cameo in the drama detailing the origins of Doctor Who, playing Harry, the Security Guard, in An Adventure in Space and Time, the drama that saw Jamie Glover play a younger version of himself. In 1988 his second wife, Balbina Gutierrez, gave birth to a son. Alfred Enoch is now an actor, well known for playing Wes Gibbins in the ABC legal drama How to Get Away with Murder. Meanwhile William Russell himself celebrated his ninetieth birthday last year, and still regularly attends Doctor Who conventions.

And what of Ian and Barbara, what happened to them following their departure from the Doctor. The characters have flourished in various novels and fan fiction. In 2013 they met the eleventh Doctor in Hunters of the Burning Stone , a comic story in Doctor Who Magazine written to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the show. In the Television series itself the Chairman of the Governors of Coal Hill School, as shown in The Day of the Doctor, is one I Chesterton.

But the real clue to their future came in Russell T Davies's episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures, The Death of the Doctor. According to Sarah Jane The actors, and the characters they portrayed, left an indelible mark on the series. The Doctor was left clearly hurt and upset by their departure. At the end of the episode he spoke for us all. .

Ian and Barbara leave the Doctor:
Having come into possession of a Dalek time travel machine, Barbara and Ian sense an opportunity to go home, but the Doctor is hesitant to let them go. There are no guarantees that the machine will work, but maybe Vicki can change the Doctor's mind? 

This month's audio books from BBC Audio feature the adaptation of Target novel The Massacre by John Lucarotti, and a boxed set release of the three original audio series to feature Tom Baker's return as the Doctor.



Novelisation adaptions for the rest of the year are currently scheduled as: Doctor Who and The Ark in Space (16th July), The Two Doctors (3rd September), The Curse of Fenric (5th November), and K9 and Company (3rd December).

As the series progressed the relationship between the kidnapper and the kidnapped changed. Circumstances had thrown them together, into danger, into life threatening situations. Over the months, respect, trust and friendship had developed. The two teachers had educated the Doctor, taught him to care and to have responsibility, and in return they had learned to trust the old man. But underneath the narrative was always the premise that Ian and Barbara longed to return home. Back to the world they knew and to friends and family. Instead they had been flung around the universe, visited alien planets such as Skaro, Vortis and Marinus, and times far distant from their own, meeting Aztecs, Romans and Crusaders. There had been hopeful moments, when they thought they might be back, but moments dashed when realisation set in and the couple resigned themselves to more adventures..

It is ironic that the travellers final return, the solution to their predicament, came not from the Doctor, but from his greatest enemy. It was the Daleks time ship that finally allowed the couple to return home. Returning to London in the 1960's. The Doctor was left with his companion Vicki. No more would the series be the constant endeavour to get the pair home. Doctor Who would now become the Doctor, travelling with his companions in Space and Time.

The loss of Ian and Barbara came about with the decision of William Russell and Jacqueline Hill to leave the series at the end of their second year contract. The series had by now run to 77 episodes, produced on a weekly basis in an almost continuous production run. It was a gruelling schedule that left the actors totally tied to the series. It was William Russell who decided to leave first, telling producer Verity Lambert in Feburary that he wouldn't be continuing for a third year. As a result Terry Nation was asked to write in an new character into the final episode of The Chase. An astronaut who would become the new male companion to the Doctor. Jacqueline Hill was more unsure about leaving, but by May has also taken the decision to go. On May 6th the couple travelled around London with a photographer taking pictures for the montage of their arrival back in London. The couple recorded their final episode on 4th June 1965 in Riverside Studio 1.

The departure of the two actors was deeply felt by William Hartnell. For an actor who like having people around whom he knew and who knew him, the loss of the two stalwarts of the series would be difficult to handle. It came after Carole Ann Ford had departed from the series and amid changes in the production team, with producer Verity Lambert planning to move on. William Russell takes up the story. On her departure from the series Jacqueline Hill took a break from acting to raise a family. She had been married to director Alvin Rakoff since 1958, a year after appearing in his BBC adaptation of Rod Serling's American TV play Requiem For A Heavyweight. Together they had two children, Sasha and John. She returned to acting the 1970's, appearing as Lady Capulet in her husbands production of Romeo & Juliet for the BBC. Other roles included appearances in Angels, Tales of the Unexpected and Paradise Postponed. In 1980 she became to first Doctor Who companion to return to the series playing a different role, when she appeared as Lexa in the 1980 Fourth Doctor story Meglos. In 1993 she died of breast cancer at the tragically young age of 63.

William Russell was the best known of the original companions, famous for his roles in series such as The Adventures of Sir Lancelot, long before he joined the TARDIS crew. As a result he quickly won a part in a new spy series Breaking Point following his departure from Doctor Who. Other roles followed including a long run in Harriet's Back in Town for Thames Television, and appearances in Van der Valk, Whodunnit?, Disraeli: Portrait of a Romantic, Shoestring, The Black Adder, Casualty and Heartbeat. In 1992 he played Ted Sullivan in ten episodes of Coronation Street. Russell has reprised the role of Ian Chesterton in various audio adventures. In 2013 he had a cameo in the drama detailing the origins of Doctor Who, playing Harry, the Security Guard, in An Adventure in Space and Time, the drama that saw Jamie Glover play a younger version of himself. In 1988 his second wife, Balbina Gutierrez, gave birth to a son. Alfred Enoch is now an actor, well known for playing Wes Gibbins in the ABC legal drama How to Get Away with Murder. Meanwhile William Russell himself celebrated his ninetieth birthday last year, and still regularly attends Doctor Who conventions.

And what of Ian and Barbara, what happened to them following their departure from the Doctor. The characters have flourished in various novels and fan fiction. In 2013 they met the eleventh Doctor in Hunters of the Burning Stone , a comic story in Doctor Who Magazine written to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the show. In the Television series itself the Chairman of the Governors of Coal Hill School, as shown in The Day of the Doctor, is one I Chesterton.

But the real clue to their future came in Russell T Davies's episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures, The Death of the Doctor. According to Sarah Jane The actors, and the characters they portrayed, left an indelible mark on the series. The Doctor was left clearly hurt and upset by their departure. At the end of the episode he spoke for us all. .

Ian and Barbara leave the Doctor:
Having come into possession of a Dalek time travel machine, Barbara and Ian sense an opportunity to go home, but the Doctor is hesitant to let them go. There are no guarantees that the machine will work, but maybe Vicki can change the Doctor's mind? 

Hot on the heels of the Doctor Who Festival in London comes another for Sydney, Australia:

BBC Worldwide has abandoned plans to release the second Doctor story, The Underwater Menace on DVD.

This month's Doctor Who Magazine reports that the plan to release the two surviving episodes from the story, alongside animated versions of the two episodes missing from the archive, have been cancelled by the BBC, following financial problems with the company contracted to provide the animation.

The Underwater Menace was first shown at the start of 1967, starring Patrick Troughton alongside Anneke Wills, Joseph Furst, Michael Craze and Frazer Hines. Following the episode junking which took place in the 1970's only Episode Three remained in the archives. This episode was included in the Lost in Time DVD Box set, released in 2004. However in 2011 Episode Two was recovered alongside the third episode of Galaxy 4.

It was planned to release the two existing episodes from the story, alongside animated reconstructions of the missing episodes, with BBC Worldwide telling Doctor Who News last December that they hoped to release the disc in 2015. However this has now been cancelled following financial problems at animation company Qurios which have seen the firm cease trading. It has not proved financially viable to find another partner to take on the animation and the BBC are reluctant to release an incomplete version.

Although a DVD release now seems very unlikely, it is possible the episodes may be released at some point in the future via some other means. A commentary track has been recorded along with bonus material intended for the DVD.

Until then, Episode Two of The Underwater Menace stands as the only classic Doctor Who episode, currently in the BBC archives, which has never had a release on DVD.

The latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine has been published, and this month's cover story focusses on the unexpected return of Ingrid Oliver to Doctor Who.


Also inside this issue:

• DANNY HARGREAVES' BIG BANG! Doctor Who’s resident special effects supervisor Danny Hargreaves reveals the science behind blowing stuff up – but don’t try this at home!
• DAVID WARNER WAS THE DOCTOR? Cold War’s Professor Grisenko ­– movie and TV star David Warner – chats about his brief era as the Doctor, and shares some fascinating stories from a career spanning six decades.
• A NEW FORMAT – AT LAST! DWM’s history of Doctor Who on home video reaches its final part, with the dawn of a new shiny new format. DVD took the series into remastered territory, and made it look better than it ever had before.
• REVENGE OF THE CYBERMEN! The Fact of Fiction heads to Voga – the planet of gold – to reveal fascinating facts about the 1975 Fourth Doctor adventure Revenge of the Cybermen.
• BLOOD AND ICE! Will the Doctor and Clara defeat the macabre plans of Dr Audley, and has Winnie really betrayed them? The comic strip adventure Blood and Ice – written by Jacqueline Rayner and illustrated by Martin Geraghty – reaches its thrilling conclusion.
• STEVEN MOFFAT ANSWERS YOUR QUESTIONS! Showrunner Steven Moffat answers readers’ questions and pays tribute to 1980s Doctor Who producer John Nathan-Turner.
• COMING SOON... DWM talks to Sylvester McCoy, Bonnie Langford, novelist AL Kennedy and actor Jon Culshaw to preview upcoming books and audios from the worlds of Doctor Who.

PLUS! All the latest official news, reviews, Relative Dimensions, The Time Team, competitions and The DWM Crossword.