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David Walliams announced on BBC Radio 2's Breakfast Show that he is to have a part in Doctor Who in the upcoming series. All that he's willing to reveal is that he's an alien and shooting starts soon. David is better known for his character comedies "Little Britain" and most recently "Come Fly with Me" which was being shot at Stansted Airport in September as I was visiting the UK. In which he stars with comedy partner Mat Lucas. David is also know to Who fans from sketches he did with Mark Gattis for Comic Relief (UK) in 1999, which ended up as extras in "The Beginnings" boxed set and is well worth a watch. The YouTube clip is below for your perusal.

Today saw the release of the soundtracks collection to lost episodes Volume 2.

Still within the Hartnell Era, this set comprises of "The Masacre of St Bartholomew's Eve" "The Celestial Toy maker" "The Savages" and "The Daleks Master Plan" three of the story's contained within, are considered by many to be black and white era who at it's best. And so the boxed set worth having in every Who fans collection. Not forgetting that the Daleks master plan is the longest Doctor Who story ever, taking place in twelve parts. All of these Story's are from the original series (season) three, which in it's self is largely missing.

Once again I am chiming in here to give everyone a heads up that Doctor Who: Podshock 236 is on its way. In the meantime, if you haven't heard it yet, the latest Hitchhiker's Guide to British Sci-Fi is out. Dave and Graeme who helped with DWP 235, also co-host in this episode.

Today is the birthday of David Jason (voice of Danger Mouse and recently recognized in UK's National Television Awards). What better way to celebrate his birthday, than listening to this episode of HHGTBSF. See the links below:

Danger Mouse Discussed and News on Torchwood, Doctor Who, Outcast, Red Dwarf and More in this Hitchhiker's Guide to British Sci-Fi -

What does the title of this entry mean? It's simply a fushion of what about to speak about here:

First off, both Dave Cooper @daveac and Graeme Sheridan @The2ndDoctor joined in as co-hosts for this week's recording of Doctor Who: Podshock (235) and Hitchhiker's Guide to British Sci-Fi. Expect both episodes on your feeds soon.

Secondly, you can hear me in the most recent episode of The Chronic Rift podcast in which I speak about the Gallifreyan Embassy. See my post about it below on arttrap.com:

Riding The Chronic Rift -

The BBC has announced that Hugh Bonnerville has been cast as a Pirate Captain for Series 6 in the Spring. 

Hugh Says "When I was a boy THAT music had me peeking out from behind the sofa every Saturday night...although the Pirate's fears and demons are different to those of the young lad who watched through his fingers, they are no less terrifying; this new adventure is not for the faint-hearted" 

It's a busy time with Gallifrey 22 now less than a month away. As with past years, we will have a special episode of Doctor Who: Podshock previewing the annual premier North American Doctor Who convention coming soon. Coming sooner than that will be Doctor Who: Podshock 235.

In the meantime, the latest episode of The Sonic Newsdriver has been released bringing you up to date on selected Doctor Who related news.

Sonic Newsdriver (25 January 2011) - Doctor Who News -

The Sonic Newsdriver 20110125
Selected Doctor Who related news delivered sonically.
For Earth-date: Tuesday, the 25th of Jan. 2011

Through an Interview with DWM The releases for 2011 came to the fore. And now 2entertain have listed them. The list is subject to change but should be as is.

Planet of the Spiders

Mannequin Mania which comprises of: Spearhead from Space and terror of the Autons.

Frontios

Earthstory which comprises of: The Awakening and The Gunfighters.

As painful as it is to mention the next one,....... Paradise Towers. 

Revisitations 3 which comprises of: Tomb of the Cybermen, The Three Doctors and The Robots of Death.

The Solar System, which comprises of: Ambassadors of Death and The Sunmakers

And finally on the list, the much awaited Day of the Daleks-Special Edition.

This week is the annual CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas, which means there is a tremendous amount of tech related announcements coming out of the show. As often is the case, there is some crossover between tech and sci-fi. The Panasonic booth had a special "most impressive" (as they termed it) announcement of (pre-orders for) the Star Wars films coming to Blu-ray. I had heard there would be a TARDIS speaker system at the show, but didn't have much details on it. Engadget has come to the rescue (since I am not at the show myself) with this report of hands-on prototype of the new Speakal TARDIS speaker dock and Bluetooth speaker and IR remote control system.

I am assuming it will work with the iPhone as well as the iPod. The photos show an iPhone in the dock (a white at that). If the speakers are shielded enough to prevent GSM radio noise interference from the iPhone, it should work.

Wow - what a cool series of portraits, and they can be yours!  An amazing group including Paul McGann, Sheridan Smith, John Simm, Catherine Tate, Richard E. Grant, Mark Gatiss, Noel Clark, Benedict Cumberbatch, Tim Pigott-Smith, Sylvester McCoy, Michelle Ryan and David Morrissey:

http://www.31thirtyone.com/portraits/

This is all for charity too.  Win-win (see below:).

There are a couple new Doctor Who: Podshock episodes on their way (coming soon), in the meantime the latest episode of The Sonic Newsdriver will feed your hunger for Doctor Who related news.

Sonic Newsdriver (06 January 2011) - Doctor Who News -

The Sonic Newsdriver 20110106
Selected Doctor Who related news delivered sonically.
For Earth-date: Thursday, the 6th of Jan. 2011

This Week In Doctor Who – January 6, 2011
Section A
By Benjamin F Elliott

Welcome to the weekly guide to Doctor Who and spinoffs. Sarah Jane, K9, and the PBS Doctor Who broadcasts are in Section B. Torchwood schedules are in Torchwood This Week.

Happy New Year! Welcome to 2011 – the year Doctor Who does a split series! Well, the first year – if it works I’m sure they’ll want to make it a regular feature.

I hate relaying this kind of stuff reported in The Sun from an unnamed "source."

To quote the source in The Sun, "They (David Tennant and Georgia Moffett) are besotted with each other and can't wait to tie the knot." It doesn't exactly say they are engaged though. I would file it under rumour for now until there's some sort of official confirmation.

If it is true, we wish them all the best. Georiga Moffett had just turned 26 this past Christmas (Happy Birthday, Georgia Moffett). We interviewed her last year at Gallifrey 21 in Doctor Who: Podshock 187.

The following is from the article that ran in The Sun:

As reported in Wired magazine the restoration of Ambassadors of Death has gotten a boost due to a new editing computer. 

"Their method is a refined version of that trialled on the 2009 Planet of the Daleks re-release; it is now being deployed on a seven-part 1970 Jon Pertwee adventure, The Ambassadors of Death. "It seemed almost recordings, they didn't filter off the colour carrier [encoded as a 'chroma dot' pattern in each frame], which for the last few decades has been nothing more than an annoyance." Team member Richard Russell used the signal to reverse-engineer raw colour pictures that could be retouched frame by frame. "It's very, very labour intensive -- several hundred man hours' work every episode," says Steve Roberts. Luckily, a new "quadrant editor" is helping them to produce better source material upfront, so they hope to deliver the Ambassadors episodes to the BBC within weeks."

BBC Worldwide have announced a Classic DVD Doctor Who Channel, to come today.

BBC Worldwide have announced a Classic DVD Doctor Who Channel, to come today.

The Idea is that snippets and trailers are to be released on a regular basis, the official line is this:

"BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the BBC, will be launching a Classic Doctor Who channel on YouTube on 4th January.

The new channel, featuring a mixture of classic clips and exclusive previews from forthcoming Doctor Who DVD releases, will appeal to existing fans and give new viewers an opportunity to sample some classic Doctor Who. The channel will complement the Classic Doctor Who Twitter account @classicdw run by 2entertain. 

Once again, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (on CBS in the US) will be having a Doctor Who related guest this Thursday (6th January 2011). This time it is Alex Kingston (River Song). Although she is not listed (at the time of this writing) in the upcoming shows for free tickets (they are actually recording two shows on Thursday according to their website, one at 3pm with actor Gary Sinise and one at 4:15pm with actress Mila Kunis - the latter being sold out), it was announced that "River Song" would be on Thursday's show via Craig Ferguson's Twitter feed. In addition, the Doctor Who musical opening number ("cold open") which could not be aired last November has finally been cleared for this show.

I wouldn't be too concerned about her absence on the website, as with the last time when Matt Smith was scheduled to appear on the show (16th November 2010), he was not showing up on the site for the longest time. Perhaps this show was pre-recorded on another day? @CraigyFerg tweeted the following tweet on Monday:

Finally, the HUGE hit of 1978 is available on iTunes!

Album: Gallifrey And Beyond (Remastered) - Mankind

Two songs from the above album:

Dr Who? (Club) - Gallifrey And Beyond (Remastered)

Dr Who? (Radio) - Gallifrey And Beyond (Remastered)

If you want to see what people looked like when I was... well, a mere infant, check this out:

Every year, for the last few years, just in time for the holidays, 'TardisTimegirl' releases an animated Doctor Who related video on YouTube. A holiday treat for all Whovians. Last year, it was the immensely popular, '2001: A Who Odyssey' in which she combines the classic 1968 Doctor Who serial 'The Wheel in Space' with the film '2001: A Space Odyssey' which was released the same year. So when the holidays rolled around this year, I checked her YouTube channel and was disappointed not to see any new animated shorts for this year's holiday season. So I was surprised and delighted to see that a new short was released over the New Year's Day holiday.

Once again, using the 2nd Doctor story, 'The Wheel in Space' as the backdrop, she poses the question of what would a trailer look like for it if the once BBC set designer, Ridley Scott (who later went on to direct Alien among other films) made it? What follows is another awesome computer animated (CGI) trailer for Doctor Who: The Wheel in Space done in the style of 1979's Alien film by Ridley Scott. Thank you, 'TardisTimegirl.'

Turn off the lights and watch this in full screen mode. Enjoy!