The BBC has released more details on the return of Tom Baker to the role of the fourth Doctor after twenty eight years.

Baker reprises his role in a new five part audio adventure for BBC Audiobooks.

Doctor Who: Hornets' Nest, is written by Paul Magrs and also stars Richard Franklin as Mike Yates, Susan Jameson as Mrs Wibbsey, Rula Lenska as the Hornet Queen and Stephen Thorne.

The first story, The Stuff of Nightmares, will be available to buy from 3rd September 2009 with the remaining four stories following in subsequent months.

The actor/agent Michael Summerton died on the 16th June 2009, aged 65.

Summerton started out in the theatre and then moved to television with a role in the BBC Soap Compact; he then went on to play one of the very first Daleks to appear in Doctor Who.

In later life he became an agent, running his own company Michael Summerton Management Ltd which specialises in choreography and dancing, and was notable is being the agent for Arlene Phillips and Bruno Tonioli, both featuring as judges in the popular BBC series Strictly Come Dancing.

The British Board of Film Classification has cleared the extras for the forthcoming release of The Dalek War box set, comprising of the Third Doctor stories Frontier in Space and Planet of the Daleks.
No official release date has been given for this set, but it is expected to be released on four discs towards the end of the year. The Doctor Who Restoration Team has an article about the preparation of the stories for DVD release.

Doctor Who has been awarded its second Guinness World Record, for Most successful sci-fi series. The award is based upon the show's perfomance in ratings, DVD and book sales, and downloading popularity.

The award was presented to Russell T. Davies by Guinness editor-in-chief Craig Glenday at the San-Diego ComicCon on Sunday. Glenday said: "It's the longest-running sci-fi show on TV. But that's not quite enough, it's too good a show to have a longest-running record. Based on things like CD sales, downloads, illegal downloads, we've realised that Doctor Who is the most successful sci-fi show on TV full stop."


The show's first record entry is for Longest running sci-fi series.

Reported by: Digital Spy, CBC, IF Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, Guardian
France: Tele7, Tout le Cine, Allocine

The actor Harry Towb has died at the age of 83.

Towb had a long and distinguished career in British film and television appearing in many classic programmes during a career lasting nearly sixty years.

Towb had two roles in Doctor Who. He first appeared as Osgood alongside Patrick Troughton in the 1969 story The Seeds of Death. He later appeared alongside Jon Pertwee in the 1971 story Terror of the Autons where, in one of the most memorable scenes of the classic series, he was eaten by a plastic chair.

More from BBC News

The official BBC Doctor Who site has confirmed that actor John Simm will be reprising his role as The Master in the forthcoming Christmas specials. Though no other details have been confirmed the site reports that they will publish an interview with Simm later in the year.

The announcement follows a special preview shown at the San Diego Comic Con, during which the character appeared with other known cast members for the episodes (Bernard Cribbens, Catherine Tate). It also confirms reports of the actor seen on location during filming for the episodes back in March/April this year.

No name has been given for the episodes so far, though Den of Geek have suggested that it might be called "The End of Time".

Update: a new BBC website article reports that as well as John Simm, Alexandra Moen will also be reprising her role as Lucy Saxon, the Master's wife from his previous appearance.

The official BBC Doctor Who website has put online, for UK users only, the new trailer for the next special episode starring David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor. The Waters of Mars is due to be broadcast in the UK this autumn, and the new trailer was shown to an enthusiastic audience at the ComicCon convention in the United States yesterday.

The UK media website Digital Spy has published a summary of today's Doctor Who discussion panel at the ComicCon event in San Diego, which featured Russell T Davies, David Tennant, Julie Gardner and Euros Lyn discussing their time working on the programme, taking questions from the audience and previewing the forthcoming special episodes.

Among the topics raised was the possibility of a Doctor Who feature film, which the panel stated is not a project on which any of them are currently working. The panel also featured a presentation from Guinness World Records, declaring Doctor Who to be "the most successful sci-fi show on TV full stop".

The comics news site ComicMix is reporting that an unnamed BBC America executive at ComicCon has confirmed that the BBC has ordered a fourth series of Torchwood. There is as yet no independent confirmation of this; however, a Torchwood panel is scheduled at ComicCon tomorrow, with star John Barrowman, writer/executive producer producer/show creator Russell T Davies, executive producer Julie Gardner and director Euros Lyn. Presumably, if the report from ComicMix is correct, the news will be confirmed at this panel.


(Thanks to poster "InigoMontoya" from Gallifrey Base.)

The science-fiction website io9 has posted a report of the roundtable discussion Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner, Euros Lyn and David Tennant took part in on Saturday at the San Diego ComicCon event in the United States. There to promote the forthcoming specials that will see out Tennant's time as the Tenth Doctor, the group discussed the future of Doctor Who with journalists, and io9's full report contains some casting spoilers for the forthcoming two-part finale to Tennant's time in the TARDIS.

Apparently debunked by the group is the idea that a Doctor Who feature film is to be announced at the ComicCon event.