Penguin Random House Children’s and BBC Studios have announced the publication of Doctor Who: The Official Annual 2021 which includes an exclusive tie-in to the Time Lord Victorious story.

 

Time Lord Victorious is a brand-new multi-platform Doctor Who story told across audio, novels, comics, vinyl, digital, immersive theatre, escape rooms and games. Time Lord Victorious will launch in September 2020, with products and experiences releasing until early 2021.

 

The 2021 annual is packed with activities, puzzles, stories, facts and illustrations, including apeek into the world of the TARDIS with a TARDIS Tour and TARDIS Trip Reviewer.

Plus more in depth fact files on episodes like Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror and multiple opportunities to get to know your enemies better with breakdowns of monsters like the Skithra, the Dregs, the CyberMasters and much more.

The 2021 annual will publish on 3rd September 2020 in hardback priced £7.99 and is the perfect collectable gift for Doctor Who fans of all ages. Fans can pre-order the annual on Amazon.

Following the wildly successful series of free downloadable audio dramas made available during lockdown, Big Finish today begins a new series of weekly freebies and discounts.

Since the coronavirus pandemic shut down a huge part of the British entertainment industry, Big Finish has continued to produce and release brand new full-cast audio dramas on a weekly basis.

Using remote recording techniques and employing actors with (often self-made) home studios, plus a dedicated team of engineers, sound designers and musicians, the company’s output during the crisis is unparalleled.

In addition, Big Finish has given away over 100,000 free downloads of stories from its various ranges, including Doctor Who, Blake’s 7, Sherlock Holmes, and Dorian Gray.

Now, a new selection of giveaways, entitled Weekly Freebies, will be made available to download exclusively from the Big Finish web site’s Weekly Deals page.

These stories can be unlocked by anyone who has registered for a Big Finish account (which is free to create) and played on the Big Finish listening app (which is free to install).

Each download will be available for one week only and comes accompanied by a special discount offer on related titles, available as either downloads or collector’s edition CDs or box sets.

This week’s Weekly Freebie is:

Jago & Litefoot: Mind Games, written by Justin Richards.

This complete, full-cast audio adventure is the first story in The Worlds of Doctor Who audio anthology, originally released in 2014. It stars Christopher Benjamin and the late Trevor Baxter recreating the “infernal investigators” double act they first established in the TV Doctor Who story, The Talons of Weng-Chiang. In this exciting tale, they are joined by Lisa Bowerman as the popular character of Ellie Higson, a London barmaid with a dark secret... Big Finish listeners can also get up to 55% OFF Doctor Who: The Worlds of Doctor Who (Limited Edition), available as a 5-disc CD deluxe slipcover book, or as a digital download, while stocks last, at the Weekly Deals page.

All offers end at 23:59 (UK time) on 02 August 2020.

Please note that Big Finish has now re-opened its warehouse and commenced the shipping of backorders. The mailout of collector’s edition CDs will still be delayed, but all purchases of these CD titles unlock a digital copy that can be downloaded or played on the Big Finish app immediately.

Cutaway Comics, an independent comic imprint based in Manchester is launching a new comic series featuring worlds and characters from Doctor Who.

Mixing writers new to comics with experienced artists, Cutaway Comics will bring a new perspective to characters using fresh British creatives.

Publisher Gareth Kavanagh, one half of the publishing duo behind Vworp Vworp, the acclaimed fanzine chronicling the history of Doctor Who comics, explains Cutaway Comics has been working with writers, artists and rights holders to deliver an ambitious chapter of storytelling with villains, aliens, and planets from the worlds of Doctor Who and beyond. The first chapter of Cutaway Comics includes a visit to the giant tower block of Paradise Towers, the rogue god Omega attempting to free himself of his black hole prison and a dimension-hopping trip to 1970’s Soho in Lytton.

Lytton features the intergalactic soldier seen in Doctor Who’s Resurrection of the Daleks. It is a brand new story written by his creator Eric Saward and featuring art from Barry Renshaw. Eric Saward is a name familiar to Doctor Who fans for being the script editor for Peter Davison and Colin Baker’s Doctors, as well as writing many fan favourite stories. Saward says: Further stories to come from Cutaway Comics include Omega: Vengeance, which sees rogue god Omega pulling the strings to escape his black hole prison. Omega also features art by the legendary John Ridgway.

Following Omega: Vengeance will be a return to the world of Paradise Towers, a giant tower block with teenage gangs, murderous old ‘rezzies’, and underground whispers that might topple the tower block once and for all. Written by Sean Mason, who has previously adapted Halo Jones and V for Vendetta for the stage, the artist will be announced shortly.

Cutaway Comics has launched a Kickstarter to raise awareness of the project, offering exclusive perks such as digital copies and the chance for you to appear in a future ​Lytton comic.

Beyond the comics, each issue ordered directly from the Cutaway Comics website will include an exclusive bonus DVD with the following content planned

• Video commentaries on the comic featuring artist Barry Renshaw and writer Eric Saward
• An introduction to the series from Eric Saward
• New interviews with Eric Saward and Barry Renshaw
• Newly recorded audio commentaries for ‘Gangsters’, the series that shot Lytton actor Maurice Colbourne to fame featuring series creator Philip Martin and BFI Historian Dick Fiddy
• A newly recorded audio commentary for ‘The Caves of Androzani’ featuring Salateen actor Robert Glenister
• Deleted pages, and concept art

You can order Lytton #1 directly from Cutaway Comics​.

It has been announced that there will be a Doctor Who Time Lord Victorious panel at San Diego Comic Con, taking place online.

Hosted by Titan Comic’s Andrew Sumner, the panel will go behind the scenes with BBC producer James Goss, writer Jody Houser, artist Roberta Ingranata, colourist Enrica Eren Angiolini, editor Jake Devine and senior creative editor David Leach to discuss the new Time Lord Victorious comic series.

The panel will go live on Saturday, July 25 from 2:00pm - 3:00pm BST.

You can sign up here 

Or watch it on YouTube 

Hero Collector – designers, manufacturers, and publishers of high-quality collectibles from across the worlds of pop culture – has announced its part in Time Lord Victorious, a multi-platform Doctor Who adventure launching in September.

Each of the four Time Lord Victorious box sets will contain two hand-painted polyresin figurines at 1:21 scale (approximately 3.5 inches tall), along with an in-depth companion magazine, highlighting the huge range of creative talent involved across the entire Time Lord Victorious adventure and packed with behind the scenes details about this untold story.

The first three Hero Collector box sets will feature brand new Dalek designs created specifically for the series, such as the Dalek Time Commander and the new Dalek Emperor. The fourth and final box, however, will include the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant), clad in ornate and war-torn Gallifreyan robes.

The first of these box sets, featuring the Dalek Emperor and Dalek Drone, will be available in late October at £19.99/$34.95 RRP. You can find them for sale at all good specialist retailers, Hot Topic and comic shops, or online from the Eaglemoss shop. Fans in the US can pre-order the first set now from Entertainment Earth or in the UK from Forbidden Planet.

Hero Collector joins partners including Penguin Random House, Doctor Who Magazine, Titan Comics, Escape Hunt, Big Finish Productions, Immersive Everywhere, Maze Theory, Demon Records, BBC Books and BBC Audio in an epic story told across several platforms.

The latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine mounts an in-depth investigation into the areas of the Doctor Who universe where our fragments of knowledge don’t quite add up, with sections devoted to the Doctor, the TARDIS, Gallifrey, the Daleks and the Cybermen.

The actor Maurice Roëves has died at the age of 83

Maurice Roëves appeared in the acclaimed 1984 Doctor Who story The Caves of Androzani, playing Stotz the mercenary hired by Morgus to smuggle arms.

Roëves was born in Sunderland in the North of England and brought up in Glasgow. In his twenties, while working in a flour mill, he became interested in amateur dramatics, leading to a course at Glasgow College of Dramatic Art.

Three months after getting a job as an assistant stage manager at Glasgow's Citizen Theatre he was playing lead roles such as Lorenzo in The Merchant of Venice. In 1966 he was cast as Martin in the film The Fighting Prince of Donegal which led to the television play Cock, Hen and Courting Pit

Many television roles followed including in Danger UXB, The Nightmare Man, Days of our Lives, Tutti Frutti, Rab C. Nesbitt, The New Statesman, Spender, Star Trek: The Next Generation where he played a Romulan captain, Vanity Fair and EastEnders.

He played Chief Superintendent David Duckenfield in the 1996 television film Hillsborough, in which his character patrolled the FA Cup semi-final in the Liverpool F.C. game where a crush led to the deaths of 96 fans.

In 2006 he starred in the BBC docudrama Surviving Disasters, portraying Sir Matt Busby in the story of the Munich air disaster.

He starred as Robert Henderson in BBC Scotland's drama River City.

His film roles include Oh! What a Lovely War, Ulysses, Hidden Agenda, the 1992 version of The Last of the Mohicans, the Judge Dredd movie and Beautiful Creatures .

Maurice Roëves death was confirmed by his agents Lovett Logan earlier today. He is survived by his wife Vanessa.

Big Finish have announced that Fifth Doctor Peter Davison will battle the Daleks in Shadow of the Daleks, a new set of audio adventures for Big Finish.

Due in late 2020 as part of Big Finish’s Monthly Adventures range, these eight Doctor Who stories, split across two releases, star Davison chasing the Daleks through time and space on a journey of ultimate terror.

Each of the stories was recorded remotely during lockdown with a small “rep company” of brilliant actors including Nicholas Briggs, Dervla Kirwan, Anjli Mohindra and Olivier Award winner Jamie Parker.

Doctor Who: Shadow of the Daleks Parts 1 and 2 are now available to pre-order as collector's edition box sets (on CD at £14.99 each) and as digital downloads (at £12.99 each) exclusively from www.bigfinish.com.

Producer David Richardson said: Doctor Who: Shadow of the Daleks Parts 1 and 2 are now available to pre-order as collector's edition box sets (on CD at £14.99 each) and as digital downloads (at £12.99 each) exclusively from the Big Finish website.

Candy Jar Books has announces its latest free-for-download short story in The Lucy Wilson Mysteries:


Written by critically acclaimed African American author, Julia Press Simmons, 8.46 has been created in response to the death of George Floyd and protests that followed. She says:
Head of publishing, Shaun Russell, felt that it was very important to tackle this subject:

Julia has written more than twenty books including The Strawberry Mansion, and the award-winning play Down There (selected by the Black Festival Emerging Playwright’s series in Nashville). 8.46 is a departure from the standard Lucy Wilson tale. Julia has written a story which is based on her real-life experiences growing up. She continued:

Tim Gambrell, who has written Lucy Wilson & the Bledoe Cadets, as well as several short stories including the upcoming The Midwife & the Alien, was involved in the editing process of this story. He said:

To download The Lucy Wilson Mysteries: 8.46 please visit the The Candy Jar website.

Candy Jar Books has announced a new non-ficton book collecting together facts and opinions from all fifty-seven years of the rich history of Doctor Who:


Candy Jar Head of Publishing, Shaun Russell, said:
Philip said:
Objects of interest include the Space-Time Visualiser, the sonic screwdriver, a talking cabbage, the Revenge of the Cybermen VHS, River Song’s diary, the BBC Sound Effects No. 19: Doctor Who Sound Effects vinyl, the 1996 Series Bible, a Bubble Shock bottle, the Seal of the High Council of Gallifrey, and a mouldy old Slitheen.

The cover has been produced by Martin Baines, who recently completed the art for Candy Jar’s hardback edition of the Downtime sequel, Child of the New World:
Philip observed:

100 Objects of Dr Who is available to order from the Candy Jar website.