The Day of the Doctor

 

The BBC have at last revealed the transmission time for the Anniversary Special.  The Day of the Doctor will premiere on BBC One at 7.50pm GMT on the 23rd November, 2013.

The Doctors embark on their greatest adventure yet in this Fiftieth Anniversary special. In 2013, something sinister and terrible is awakening in London’s National Gallery; back in 1562, a murderous plot is afoot in Elizabethan England; and somewhere in deep space an ancient battle reaches its final devastating conclusion. All of reality is at stake as the Doctor’s own dangerous past comes back to haunt him, and the only way to fix it is for him to get help from himself!

Starring Matt Smith and Jenna Coleman, David Tennant with John Hurt and Billie Piper. The Special features appearances from the Zygons and the Daleks.  

Not much else is known about the Anniversary Special as it's been very carefully kept under wraps until transmission, but we do know that the ancient battle mentioned in the synopsis is likely to be the Time War!

So will we get to see any of the Doctor's from the shows original television run? Will the dastardly Daleks triumph over the Doctor by destroying his home planet Gallifrey?  Or will the Doctor himself cause Gallifrey's destruction?

Not long to go now as we countdown the Days to the Anniversary. 

List of Missing Episodes Recovered

Fans of the original run of Doctor Who know that many stories were wiped by the BBC.  Some of these were returned to the BBC and luckily the entire Jon Pertwee run has been in the archive for quite some time albeit some of it in Black and White only.  Those episodes have been painstakingly restored to colour as best as possible by The Restoration Team.

108 episodes were missing until the BBC announced the recovery of The Underwater Menace episode 2 and Galaxy 4 episode 3.

After whispers before and after that find, we have had months of speculation and rumour about possible discoveries, on Tuesday the BBC website stated that a number of episodes had been returned to the BBC.  The official announcement has just been made about which episodes have been returned.

The Enemy of the World episodes 1-2,4-6.  Episode 3 was already in the BBC archive.  The Web of Fear episodes 2, 4-6  This just leaves episode 3 missing as episode 1 is already in the archives.

The BBC have released these Patrick Troughton episodes via iTunes as downloads.

A DVD will be released on the 22nd November of The Enemy of the World and The Web of Fear follows in early 2014.

There is speculation that this is not all the episodes that have been returned and there will be a further announcement at some point.

We at The Doctor Who Bar are very glad these episodes have been returned and we give grateful thanks to all those involved in returning these to the archives.

We also look forward to watching them in the Bar soon.

Weekend Matinees With Watch

Join us for some weekend matinees with Watch as they screen Classic Doctor Who omnibuses on Saturday's and Sunday's starting the 12th October.

They will also be screening The Doctors Revisited specials already seen in America, Australia and New Zealand.

The Bar will open at 1:45pm (UK) and we will tweet along with these specials at 2pm (UK) followed by the omnibuses after at 2:30pm (UK).

The dates and stories are as follows:

Saturday 12th The Aztecs
Sunday 13th Tomb of the Cybermen
Saturday 19th Spearhead from Space
Sunday 20th Pyramids of Mars
Saturday 26th Earthshock
Sunday 27th Vengeance on Varos

I would imagine we will get the Seventh and Eighth Doctors on the 2nd and 3rd of November.  We will probably also get Ninth and Tenth Doctors on the 9th and 10th and Eleventh Doctor on the 16th.

We will confirm that when listings are avaliable.

Please join us if you can.

Classic Doctor Who on Watch

I haven't seen this news anywhere else yet and I have just posted this information on Twitter.

As has been previously announced the UK channel Watch will be showing The Doctors Revisited specials.  Watch is part of the UKTV Network of channels and BBC Worldwide have a 50% stake in UKTV.

Looking at future listings I have seen that they are also going to be showing serials from the original series as Omnibus editions.

These are all October dates and will start at 2:30pm:

Saturday 12th The Aztecs
Sunday 13th Tomb of the Cybermen
Saturday 19th Spearhead from Space
Sunday 20th Pyramids of Mars
Saturday 26th Earthshock
Sunday 27th Vengeance on Varos

I would presume they will show a Seventh Doctor story on Saturday 2nd November and possibly the Eighth  Doctor TV Movie on Sunday 3rd November however no listings are available for these dates.

Watch is available in the UK on Sky 109 & Virgin 124.

Whilst I personally own all these serials on DVD I will watch them on TV to support the broadcasts and hopefully gain more in the future.

Views on 50th Coverage in UK

Disclaimer: This post is my own opinion and does not reflect the views of The Doctor Who Bar.  Despite being the 2nd in command of the bar I am writing this as purely a columnist.

The BBC have announced what wonders we can expect for the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who.

I am completely underwhelmed and unsurprised by the poor output they are providing.

Here is a list of it courtesy of the BBC One Facebook page.

ON BBCTWO:
- In a special one-off programme, Professor Brian Cox will try to answer the classic questions raised by the Doctor – can you really travel in time? Does extra-terrestrial life exist in our galaxy? And how do you build something as fantastical as the TARDIS?

-The Culture Show will present ‘Me, You and Doctor Who’ with lifelong fan Matthew Sweet exploring the cultural significance of the BBC’s longest running TV drama, arguing that it’s one of the most important cultural artefacts of modern Britain.

- BBC Two will then wrap up its coverage with the previously announced ‘An Adventure in Space and Time’ written by Mark Gatiss

ON BBC Three:
-'Doctor Who: Monsters and Villains Weekend’ will countdown to the top Doctor Who monster as voted for by you.

- 'Doctor Who: The Ultimate Guide’ will introduce those less familiar to the show to a wealth of archive material and act as a guide to all things Who.

- We also have one further exciting commission to be announced later this year which will see the celebrations finish with a bang.

ON #BBCFOUR:
- Audiences will be introduce audiences to the first Doctor, William Hartnell, with a special re-run of the first ever story, which marked the start of 50 years of history. The four episodes are being shown in a restored format, not previously broadcast in the UK.

There will also be programmes across #CBBC including two live #BluePeter specials.

ON BBC Radio 1:
- A documentary will look at 'Time Lord Rock (TROCK)' as a genre of music inspired by the Doctor and his journeys through space and time.

ON BBC Radio 2
- 'Who is the Doctor' will look at the lasting appeal of Doctor Who and ask how much of its continued success can be attributed to its basic formula.

- In ‘The Blagger’s Guide to Doctor Who’, David Quantick will give the iconic Doctor the Blagger’s treatment. He’ll be finding out the answers to questions such as why do Americans think Tom Baker is still Doctor Who? How many Doctors have there really been? Were the Daleks really named after an encyclopaedia?

- Finally, Graham Norton will be broadcasting his weekly Radio 2 show live (Saturday 23 November, 10am) from the Doctor Who Celebration in London.

I think the Graham Norton bit will annoy a few fans in the UK who remember his voice being heard during Rose and also his animated image popping up on screen in other episodes to advertise what was on next.

Some of those things appeal to me more than others but I am not posting this to slate what the BBC are saying they are showing.  Merely I am saying is that all?  Some may say what more do you want surely that is a lot.  Perhaps it is but let me explain about other countries 50th celebration of the show.

Australia and NZ have shown the following serials from the shows original run:

An Unearthly Child, The Aztecs, The Dalek Invasion of Earth, The War Machines,  The Tomb of the Cybermen, The Dominators , The Mind Robber  The Seeds of Death Spearhead from Space, The Daemons, The Three Doctors, Death to the Daleks, The Ark in Space, Genesis of the Daleks, Pyramids of Mars, The Hand of Fear, The Robots of Death, City of Death, Kinda, Earthshock, Snakedance, Frontios, Resurrection of the Daleks, The Caves of Androzani, Attack of the Cybermen, Vengeance on Varos, The Mark of the Rani, The Two Doctors, Revelation of the Daleks, Paradise Towers, Remembrance of the Daleks, The Greatest Show in the Galaxy, The Curse of Fenric, Survival and the Eighth Doctor TV Movie

America has seen:

The Aztecs, The The Tomb of the Cybermen, Spearhead from Space, Pyramids of Mars, Earthshock, Vengeance on Varos, Remembrance of the Daleks and the Eighth Doctor TV Movie.

These markets have also seen a series of specials entitled The Doctors Revisited.  These specials as the name suggests have been looking back at each Doctor and are set to continue with 3 more specials for the Ninth to Eleventh Doctors.   The 1st 4 have also been released on DVD in America and 5-8 are scheduled for release at the start of October, with the final 3 being released in December.  I should also add these countries have aired the specials and repeats on BBC owned channels.

The UK has had none of this.  I have to ask why?  When we have a) probably paid for these specials to be made with our licence fee and b) when we pay for the show in itself to be made with our licence fee.  Yet we are getting treated like we do not count or matter.  I applaud the BBC for making the programmes for the UK mentioned above which may or may not get shown in other countries but why not show the revisited specials and why not make BBC Four a home for more repeats from the original run.  I run a Facebook page here which was originally set up after The Hand of Fear was repeated as a tribute to Elisabeth Sladen but now in the shows 50th year it really is something they should be doing.

Animate The Crusade for DVD release

The Crusade, like many stories from the 1960s, is incomplete in the BBC's archives. This four-episode adventure, first broadcast in 1965, is a victim of the BBC's junking of many Doctor Who episodes in the 60s and 70s - which has left 106 still missing.

Luckily, audio recordings were made by a handful of fans at the time of transmission, so while the original moving pictures of episodes two and four of The Crusade are gone, the soundtracks survive.

If you're a collector of the BBC's classic Who DVDs, you will have noticed a few stories with animated episodes springing up. The latest is The Ice Warriors, which has been released in the UK this week.

Some fans have launched a social media campaign to support a DVD of The Crusade, with its two missing episodes completed with the same technique. But why single out this story? Ian Redman, one of the fans behind these efforts, explained to The Doctor Who Bar:

Over recent months, we've heard that the budget for a classic Doctor Who DVD release can accommodate two animated episodes to fill the gaps of an incomplete story. (It would be great if that one day becomes three, but time will tell!) We're at the point now where almost all of the stories with one or two episodes missing have either been released, or announced for release, with animation used to complete them.

The only two stories which have not yet had such an announcement made are The Underwater Menace and The Crusade - both of these are four-part stories with two episodes missing. We know that The Underwater Menace will be receiving its own DVD release, but there has been no official word on plans for the two missing instalments. My gut feeling is that they will be animated, though - it seems very likely.

The Crusade, on the other hand, is looking like it might be running out of luck. The Doctor Who Restoration Team have said that they have not been commissioned to do any work for that story. This doesn't necessarily make it impossible for animation plans to be getting into motion in other quarters, but it's really not looking good. This is sad, because we are facing the very real possibility that The Crusade might end up being the one and only story with two episodes missing, that does not receive a DVD release with animation.

That brings us to the campaign. I'm really hesitant to call it a 'petition', and I would probably reject that description if anyone tried to apply it! What we are doing is attempting to politely demonstrate that there is support for the idea of animating The Crusade's two missing episodes. The Restoration Team themselves have recently encouraged people to write to BBC Worldwide to express support of further classic DVD releases.

But at the end of the day, I think this is one of those things that might just do some good, but it can't really do any harm. (Or a DVD might come out, but with this campaign having had nothing to do with it... but we wouldn't complain!) We're not standing outside the BBC's headquarters with pitchforks (not a petition, remember!), but if it gets thoughts ticking over in the mind of someone in the commissioning loop (and Worldwide do know about the campaign), then you never know! Of course, in the event that all this has no effect (and I'm not going to sugarcoat it - that's the most likely outcome!), we have done nobody any harm. We shall see!

Facebook:

www.facebook.com/animatecrusade

Twitter:

#AnimateCrusade

this mondays duke box

after being unable to host the duke box last monday (19th) i am going to host a session on monday the 26th instead.

for this story we are going to listen to one of big finish's numerous outputs.

august release (so its a new one guys).

starlight robbery 

starring sylvester McCoy. this infact will be a new story for me as i have as of yet not been able to listen to it, however reliable sources tell me its a bit on the good side.

hope you can join us in the bar from 8.00pm monday for this story. and if you don't have it yet then scurry on over to bigfinish's site and spend your pennys on it.

http://bigfinish.com/releases/v/starlight-robbery-7144

look i've even posted the link to where you can buy it either as cd or as download. because i'm nice like that :)

hope you can join us for this session and also don't forget to join us tomorrow for captain void's and simon's excelent new run through of the sarah jane adventures.

all the best 

The Sarah Jane Adventures.

Following on from her successful return to Doctor Who in 2006 for the episode School Reunion.  Elisabeth Sladen was given a second chance at her own Spin-off show.

The Sarah Jane Adventures had its pilot episode air on New Years Day 2007 and it was a hit, unlike K-9 and Company.

With a couple of tweeks a series of 10 episodes began airing in September that year.  A second series of 12 episodes was commissioned and aired from September 2008 this series sadly (in my opinion) saw the departure of Yasmin Paige who played Maria Jackson.

Series 3 containing 12 episodes aired from October 2009, this series had a guest appearance by David Tennant as The Doctor, the first time The Doctor had appeared in a spin-off show.  In October 2010 a 12 episode 4th Series began and this series had a guest appearance of Matt Smith as The Doctor.

A 5th series of 12 episodes was commissioned however sadly Elisabeth Sladen died in April 2011 whilst this series filming was underway.  Due to the way the filming to date had taken place, the first 2 stories along with the final story of the season had been completed.  These were screened in October 2011.

The reason for this article is not just to praise Elisabeth Sladen (although if it were I doubt many would object), it is to announce that The Doctor Who Bar Saturday sessions will be The Sarah Jane Adventures.  This will start this coming Saturday (24th August) with Invasion of the Bane and Revenge of the Slitheen.

We will continue to watch 2 stories (that is 4 episodes) every Saturday until the 16th November.  On that Saturday we will watch the 3 stories (6 episodes) that made up the final series.

I know primarily The Sarah Jane Adventures was children's show but I and I know many other Doctor Who fans enjoyed it.  This is a big step for The Doctor Who Bar to show this spinoff and I want to thank Captain Voidy :) (aka Via_The_Void) a bar founder for his faith and willingness to allow me (SimonGa) to put on and host these sessions.  I hope as many of you as you can will join me for these sessions.  As I would like to remind you that everyone is welcome to join in our sessions, even if you have never joined a session before or if you haven't joined in a session for a while you are welcome to join us.

In closing on behalf of myself as 2nd in command of The Bar and David (Via_The_Void) as a founder of it, thank you for all your support.  We really appreciate it.

the duke box not on tonight

Hi guys I know this is very late in the day but i am unable to host tonight's session of the doctor who bar duke box.

Had a bit of a hectic few weeks recently with stuff going on so not really been able to put the time into planning. 

However the session in 2 weeks will be held by SimonGa, and its power of the Daleks

"its a good one that" :)

Anyways guys once again I'm sorry but do continue checking back to the site for sessions etc etc 

Take care all and hope you will join us in future duke box sessions also in regular bar sessions.

The Dukebox Continues

The trial session of the Dukebox will continue.  We decided to try a couple more over the course of the next month.

Next Monday (19th August) will see us have a Big Finish Audio (To be confirmed) hosted by Legion Henderson.

Then on Monday 2nd September I (SimonGa) will be hosting the session and we will have the The Power of the Daleks.  This sadly missing serial from the BBC Archives is of course Patrick Troughton's first full story as The Doctor.  You can join in this session with either the BBC/AudioGo audio or if you have it the Loose Canon reconstruction.

I hope you can join us for either one or both of these sessions.

The Next Doctor Announced

After all the speculation the time has finally arrived and moments ago on BBC One in the UK and simulcast in the USA on BBC America, Space in Canada and in Australia on ABC 1, The Next Doctor was announced.

When Matt Smith bows out at Christmas Peter Capaldi will take over the TARDIS as the Twelfth Doctor.

For those who may be unfamiliar with Peter he may be best known to British TV Viewers as being Randall Brown in The Hour or Malcom Tucker in The Thick of It.   To Doctor Who fans he will be known as playing Caecilius in The Fires of Pompeii during David Tennant's third series.  He also appeared as John Frobisher in the Torchwood: Children of Earth serial. 

Obviously not all fans will be pleased with the choice and I hope those who have threatened to boycott the show if someone they did not approve of got the role, do not boycott it.

I will give him a chance as I have with every other Doctor.  Aside from Peter Davison and now Peter Capaldi, I had not heard of any Doctors before they were cast (of those cast in my lifetime) Davison coincidentally being the first and I knew him as the guy I liked on All Creatures Great and Small.

I know there will be (as always) people wondering how long he will stay.  The question that will need answering, either during Capaldi's reign or when the Thirteenth Doctor is cast, is will these be the final two incarnations of The Doctor.  I am sure there are many ways the production team can get around the twelve regenerations/thirteen live's situation.  However I guess that is a question for another time.

In the meantime on behalf of everyone at The Doctor Who Bar I would like to welcome Peter Capaldi to Doctor Who as The Twelfth Doctor.

Dukebox 4 (Possibly the last one)

Monday could be your last chance to join in a Dukebox session.

If you have not heard of it before, we either listen to a BF Audio or BBC/AudioGo Missing Story release. Of course you also can watch the Loose Canon recons if you have them for the Missing Story sessions.

In this session it is going to be The Moonbase. We open at 7:45pm and Play at 8pm BST

Episodes 2 & 4 of this 4 part story are in the archives and are on The Lost In Time collection and like the Hartnell story The Crusade on the same release (unless you have the R1 separate releases) the 2 missing episodes have the audio version as well.

The plan will be as follows: 8pm we play episode 1 audio (or again watch the Loose Canon recon of it if you have it). We will take a few minutes break after each episode to allow you navigate to the next one.

Please do support the Dukebox on Monday if you want it to stay. Barfleet Command are making a decision on the future of it after Monday's session.

SimonGa will be the host with the most for this session and everyone both old and new are welcome to join us in the #DWBar for this or of course any of our sessions.