Rob Shearman, writer of the 2005 Episode Dalek, is scheduled to appear this evening on Tuddle Talk, on WTKS 104.1 in Orlando, Florida. The start time of the show is 7pm Eastern Time. Fans around the world will be able to listen via the station's website, and call in via the phone number on the website.

Posted By John Bowman

The new edition of Doctor Who Adventures - out tomorrow in the UK - gives readers the chance to win a Roboform head worth 350 pounds.

The Roboform worked for the Empress of Racnoss in The Runaway Bride, and issue 79 carries the first of a three-part competition for the prize.

Also in the magazine:

•  Free Sontaran notebook and pen
  
•  Find out why Dalek Caan was the maddest Dalek of all time
  
• Actor Ryan Sampson, who played Luke Rattigan in The Sontaran Stratagem and The Poison Sky, talks about working with Sontarans and his time on Doctor Who
  
•  More Ood facts
  
•  Tales from the Tardis takes readers back to when Rose first met the Doctor
  
•  The Adventure Guide looks at Warriors of Kudlak from The Sarah Jane Adventures
  
• In part two of comic strip Attack of the Mange Mites, the Doctor has been sucked into space
  
• Doctor's Data is all about Bannakaffalatta - the little cyborg from Voyage of the Damned
  
•  Books and the latest Doctor Who DVD can be won.

Posted By John Bowman

With filming having begun on Series Three of Torchwood, the BBC Press Office today said the team would be engaged in a "battle for the future of the human race against the fiercest force they have encountered".

Co-executive producer Russell T Davies said: "The new series of Torchwood is hugely bold and promises to be bigger and better than ever - the audience is in for an amazing ride.

"This series is one big serial and the most ambitious story we've ever made, and we've got plenty of surprises in store."

Fellow co-executive producer Julie Gardner said: "We hope to make Torchwood a gripping and surprising TV event with storylines that push our team into greater danger and sacrifice.

"Joining our main cast are some fantastic guest artists who will only add to making this unmissable TV."

The guest stars are Peter Capaldi - Caecilius in the Doctor Who story The Fires of Pompeii - playing a civil servant called Mr Frobisher "who is hiding a terrible secret", Paul Copely and Liz May Brice.

The five-part series - called Torchwood: Children Of Earth - is being written by Davies, John Fay and James Moran, and directed by Euros Lyn. Produced by Peter Bennett, it will air over one week next year.

Posted By John Bowman

Doctor Who has been named the show that people would most like to see adapted for the cinema.

A Radio Times online poll in July and August saw some 2,300 readers take part, and they put the revamped series top of their movie hopes. Torchwoodcame ninth.

A breakdown of the figures isn't revealed but Friends came second, Red Dwarf third, Heroes fourth, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation fifth, Spooks sixth, 24 seventh, Lost eighth and The Prisoner tenth.

Star Trek was voted the show that had made the most successful move to the silver screen, and Helen Hackworthy, the editor of radiotimes.com, said: "While Trekkers have had a number of big-screen delights, Who fans are hoping that the success of the new incarnation of Doctor Who will see it make the jump to a cinema near them."

The news follows comments made by incoming showrunner Steven Moffat at the Edinburgh International Television Festival at the weekend in which he said he had no objections to a Doctor Who film - but it would have to be "great and fantastic".

Giving cautious backing to the notion, he emphasised that if it did happen filming should not interfere with the series.

In the BBC News report, Moffat said: "I'm not against it. I don't think it's the most important thing for Doctor Who.

"A movie is one 90 minutes a year. So yes, so long as it never gets in the way of the show. If it gets in the way of the show that's appalling.

"It's been in the cinema, with Peter Cushing. It would be good to see it in the cinema so long as it's great and fantastic."

At the festival, Moffat also ruled out having an older actor play the Doctor as and when David Tennant leaves. "It's a practical issue. This is a show that's hard for even the young, super-fit David Tennant to keep up with. It might kill someone over 60," he said.

Doctor Who has been named best programme of 2008 at the Edinburgh International Television Festival, a significant annual gathering of members of the British television industry.

According to the report on the BBC News website, the show's parent channel, BBC One, was named terrestrial channel of the year. Doctor Who Confidential broadcaster BBC Three took the prize for best digital channel.

The winners of these awards are selected by a panel made up of journalists and television executives. This is the second year in a row that Doctor Who has won the award for best programme.

Doctor Who Magazine 399

There is an exclusive interview with the unforgettable Donna Noble, when Catherine Tate talks exclusively to this months Doctor Who Magazine, released this week in the United Kingdom.

"What's weird is, I was going into an established, loved, successful show, so part of me was thinking, oh God, there's a responsibility there to that," Catherine tells the magazine. "But you can't go on set every day and think, I really hope I don't ruin this for everyone else involved! You just have to realise, yeah, I've taken this job, and the people around me wanted me to do it. Once you get down to the nuts and bolts of making the show, it was absolutely, and I can say this for certain, one of the best experiences of my professional life. Absolutely brilliant. There was just no down point."

Also in the Magazine.

• She was the the original feisty redhead! Bonnie Langford, aka companion Melainie Bush, talks candidly about her turbulant time on Doctor Who in the 1980's
• Manga Doctor Who? Miss Saigon? And the Doctor and Donna at extra-fast speed? Find out what it all means as Executive Producer Julie Gardner tells us what happened when she went to the USA with new showrunner Steven Moffat, in Production Notes.
• There's a multitude of adventures for the Doctor and Donna in a very special 10-page comic strip, The Time of My Life, written by Jonathan Morris with art by Rob Davis.
• It's a close shave for Peri, as The Time Team get their minds warped by The Trial of a Time Lord!
• Pomp and circumstance, and Cybermen! DWM takes an exclusive look at August's Doctor Who Prom and talks to composer Murray Gold and the people who made it happen.
• Some of the Doctor's most fondly remembered companions are back in an all-new series of audio adventures! DWM investigates the range and chats to the Doctor’s very first companion Susan, Carole Ann Ford.
• An alien killer on a space bus? The Doctor on a less-than-relaxing holiday? And bees that are far more intelligent than they appear? It can only be Delta and the Bannermen! Fact of Fiction examines one of the Seventh Docto'’s most extraordinary adventures.
• Neil Harris discovers the possible future of Doctor Who in You Are Not Alone
• Plus all the very latest news, reviews, previews and competitions!

Doctor Who Adventures 78

This week’s Doctor Who Adventures comes complete with an inflatable Sontaran. Guarding the Sontaran on the cover is an angry Judoon. Inside you can find out more about them and the outer-space police, the Shadow Proclamation.

Also in the issue

• Monster music! Read about the team’s trip to the recent Doctor Who prom.
• Posters of the Doctor, The Sarah Jane Adventures gang, Judoon, and a Sontaran.
• Ultimate Ood: Part two of the guide to the Ood!
• Adventure Guide: Trouble for Sarah Jane in Eye of the Gorgon.
• Tales from the TARDIS: The Doctor and Donna are captured in Planet of the Ood.
• Secrets: How the face of Davros was created!
• Who’s where? Take a trip to Camp Caan and find the Time Beetles.<li>
  
• Comic strip: Part one of a new adventure for the Doctor and Donna – Attack of the Mange Mites.
• Doctor’s Data: Facts about the Seventh Doctor.
• Time Teasers: Puzzles to strain your brain.
• Woven wordsearch: Win some books!
• Win: DVDs and a radio-controlled car up for grabs.

Doctor Who's first director Waris Hussein will be guest of honour at the National Media Museum's Bite The Mango film festival, taking place in Bradford from September 19-25, 2008.

As well as receiving a lifetime achievement award and being interviewed about his 40 years as a director, Hussein will be taking part in an interview specifically about directing the very first Doctor Who serial An Unearthly Child and the lost epic story Marco Polo.

The interview will take place on Sunday, September 21 at the museum in Bradford. It will be accompanied by photographs from the museum's Daily Herald archive and a screening of the 'take one' version of the episode "An Unearthly Child". Further details and tickets will be available from the museum's website.

Doctor Who's excellent ratings in Australia continue despite tough competition from the Beijing Olympics. It has now passed the one million mark for an unprecedented eight weeks in a row. The Doctor's Daughter rated 1,008,000 viewers in the five major capital cities, while The Unicorn and the Wasp rated even significantly more with 1,074,000. TV blogger David Dale also notes that the Australian Broadcasting Corporation 'has reaped the benefits of offering an alternative to [Olympic generated] nationalism. Its most popular shows barely suffered a dent in audience - ABC Sunday news andSpicks and Specks drew 1.1 million, Dr Who drew 1 million and a repeat of Agatha Christie's Poirotdrew 994,000 on Friday before the great writer herself met The Doctor himself on Sunday night.'

The Confidential Cutdown versions of 'Sins of the Fathers' and 'Nemesis' also had solid ratings gaining 721,000 and 692,000 viewers respectively in the five major capital cities. By way of comparison, Perfect Day: The Millennium only garnered 500,000 viewers for the ABC at 8.35pm after 'Nemesis'.

Meanwhile, in the local media Conrad Walters of The Sydney Morning Herald describes 'Unicorn' as 'quite spiffing.'CitySearch also praises 'Unicorn' noting the 'amazingly flexible format Doctor Who has. One week, it's an action thriller with aliens invading Earth, the next it's pure science fiction and DNA replicators, and then it's a murder mystery set in 1920's England! And it all works!...It's not often Doctor Who goes as blatantly comedic as it does here - look out for Agatha Christie titles littered throughout the dialogue - but it's a refreshing mid-season breather, especially given the rest of the season looks to be heading into much darker territory.' Meanwhile, Chris Hook of The Daily Telegraphgives 'The Doctor's Daughter' the 'pick of the day' and describes 'Unicorn' as 'another instalment in what is shaping up to be a cracking season.' Fergus Shiel of The Age also calls 'Unicorn' a 'spiffing mix of the English sci-fi and mystery traditions...And as [Russell T.] Davies prepares to blast off from the show that he reinvented so spectacularly, we ought to thank you for the memories and for making the Time Lord timely again and funnier than ever before.'

Meanwhile, the TV Tonight blog reports that Channel Ten will start broadcasting series two of Torchwood on its high definition channel on Monday 1 September 2008 at 10.30pm.

Thanks to contributors to the Australian forums

Just a couple of weeks following the release of complete seasons of new series Doctor Who on iTunes in the USA, a selection of classic Doctor Who adventures are now available on the download service as well.

While most of the titles released so far have already been made available on DVD, such as "Carnival of Monsters", "Mark of the Rani" and "The Ark in Space", a number of stories have been released that are avaiable nowhere else (with the VHS releases now long out-of-print), like "The Krotons", "The Sun Makers" and "Planet of the Spiders".

The stories are avaiable episodically, and cost $1.99 per episode.