Posted By John Bowman

Russell T Davies is to reopen the new-look Doctor Who Up Close Cardiff exhibition on Thursday 30 October.

The event starts at 6pm and marks a revamp that has also seen the arrival of the Supreme Dalek to join the creatures, costumes and props there.

Doctor Who Up Close has been at The Red Dragon Centre in Cardiff Bay since December 2005. It is open every day from 10.30am to 7.30pm except on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day.

Unofficial overnight figures show that Part Two of Day of the Clownachieved an audience of 0.7 million. The programme got a 6.1 per cent share of the audience.

Meanwhile final figures available for the premier of part One of the story, show it was the highest rated programme of the week on the CBBC channel, with 0.51 million viewers

Posted By John Bowman

Tickets to the press launch of multi-platform Doctor Who book project The Darksmith Legacy are up for grabs in a contest.

The event takes place at the Earls Court Doctor Who exhibition on November 6 from 6pm to 8pm, and the winners will be among the first to preview the books, test the interactive Darksmith online destination, and interview a panel of writers from the 10-part series, which launches to the public in January.

They will also get free admission to the exhibition plus a Doctor Who goodie bag.

Published by BBC Children's Books in association with Penguin Books, The Darksmith Legacy will offer the adventure of a book serialisation, with cliffhangers, plus interactivity and content only obtainable online.

The contest is only open to 13-to-18-year-olds and closes on November 3. Click here for more details.

Click on the thumbnails below for larger images of the covers for the first two titles: The Dust of Ages and The Graves of Mordane.

The Doctor Who Exhibition at Earl's Court will be extending a special value to visitors on Halloween weekend, 31 October - 2 November.

Any child under the age of 16 who dresses up as a Doctor Who character or in any Halloween costume will be given free admission into the exhibition.

"The exhibition has proven to be a really big hit over the summer holidays and it's great to offer families and young Doctor Who fans something a little bit different for Halloween," said EC&O venues managing director Nigel Nathan.

The exhibition features props, costumes and monsters from Doctor Who. Taking center stage in the exhibition on Halloween night is Davros, creator of the Daleks. There's also a sound and light Dalek Zone for visitors to enjoy.

The exhibition, which started in March, ends on 9 November and is organised by Experience Design and Management.

Billie Piper and husband Laurence Fox are proud parents to their first son, who was born about 1am on Tuesday 21 October at the private Portland Hospital in London.

6lb 11oz Winston James Fox was delivered following a reportedly traumatic 26-hour labour and an emergency Caesarean procedure. Mother and child are "well and happy".

Read the full article in the Daily Mail.

The BBC Press Office information for Children in Need night, Friday the 14th of November on BBC One, contains the claim that the evening's entertainment will feature "Children In Need-themed scenes from Doctor Who and Ashes To Ashes," among the various other attractions on offer.

There is no information given as to what form this scene might take. In 2005 and 2007, Children in Need featured specially-commissioned Doctor Who scenes (such as Time Crash, pictured, in which the Tenth Doctor met the Fifth), although neither of these were "Children in Need-themed" in and of themselves, suggesting that this particular production may be of a different format.

Doctor Who has long enjoyed a close relationship with the Children in Need charity, being featured in various capacities on several of the annual telethon evenings. Since its return, Doctor Who has also been the focus of several special events to raise money for the charity, such as the 2006 concert in Cardiff and this year's set visit competition.

This year, in addition to the Doctor Who scene, the press office information also reveals that Captain Jack actor John Barrowman will be performing live, as he did in last year's telethon when he sang Elton John's "Your Song".

Edition 401 of Doctor Who Magazine is out now across the United Kingdom
Press Release

Davros, creator of the Daleks is reborn

DWM talks exclusively to the people responsible for Davros' recent return, including Head Writer Russell T Davies and prosthetics expert Neill Gorton.

Was Russell tempted to use Davros’ revival as a means to finally reinvent and clear up some of his complex backstory, once and for all?
"I never really worried about tying his history together," Russell admits, "except I was convinced he had to have a metal hand, because it was so clearly blown off in Revelation of the Daleks. So no, I didn’t do any research as such. I didn’t rewatch Genesis, because I wanted to act off my memories. Somehow, that seems a more creative state to be in. I did worry that we never had a proper explanation of his injuries, but then realised that Genesis never did that either, so it was good company to be in! Although I did write a sort of creation story"
"There was one scene where you were going to see an explosion, and Davros was injured," recalls Neill. "We weren’t actually going to show his face burnt and disfigured in its full gory glory, because it would have been just a little extreme, so I think you were only going to see glimpses of his head, with smoke rising, and his hair burnt off"


ALSO THIS ISSUE:

• The Fourth Doctor!
  Tom Baker's Doctor was the first to meet Davros. And Davros and the Doctor would meet again, many, many times. Philip MacDonald traces the life and times of everybody's favourite megalomaniac and asks just what is it that drives Davros' insane ambitions?
• The Fifth Doctor!
  The Fact of Fiction is whisked down a time corridor to 1984 and takes a close look at Davros' encounter with Peter Davison's Doctor in Resurrection of the Daleks.
• The First Doctor!
  His era introduced the Daleks, the best-known monsters of them all. Neil Harris pays tribute to the man who really created the Doctor’s iconic enemies, writer Terry Nation, in You Are Not Alone.
• The Sixth Doctor!
  The children of Davros have returned – and this time it's personal! DWM exclusively talks to the people behind a brand new audio adventure for Colin Baker’s Doctor, Brotherhood of the Daleks.
• The Tenth Doctor!
  Can he save Magenta Pryce from the horrors of the Space Gulag? And just who are the monsters lurking in the depths of the jail? Find out in Part Two of the latest, full colour, comic strip adventure – ThinkTwice.
• The Eighth Doctor!
  He’s back – and he's about to encounter Zygons, Autons, Morbius and more! DWM goes behind the scenes of the latest series of Doctor Who radio adventures, and speaks exclusively to the cast, including Paul McGann, Sheridan Smith, Graeme Garden, Art Malik, Clare Buckfield and James Fleet.
• The Seventh Doctor!
  It's Time Team and The Rani, as the gang go back to 1987 and get to grips with giant brains and glittery drains in Sylvester McCoy’s frankly unbelievable début adventure.
• The Third Doctor!
  We first met Sarah Jane Smith during Jon Pertwee's years as the Doctor... and her story continues to this day, in the The Sarah Jane Adventures! Join DWM as we watch the filming of the intrepid journalists' latest series, and talk to the cast and crew.
• Er... the Ninth Doctor!
  Okay, we’re getting a bit tenuous now. He's the one that Russell T Davies introduced us to in 2005. Russell takes us backstage at the TV Quick & TV Choice Awards in Production Notes and reveals what happened when the teams who make Doctor Who, Life on Mars and, um, Loose Women met up!
• The Second Doctor!
  He gets a mention on page 6!
• The Next Doctor!
  DWM reports the latest news on the forthcoming Christmas Special – and has news on the Specials of 2009!

Plus! Competitions, reviews, and an exclusive chat with the kids from The Sarah Jane Adventures

Doctor Who chief writer and executive producer Steven Moffat (pictured right) has been nominated in the "Best Writing for Film or TV" category at the BAFTA Scotland Awards, according to a report in the Daily Record newspaper. Moffat, who earlier this year won the equivalent categories at the BAFTA Craft (UK as a whole) and BAFTA Cymru (Welsh) Awards, will be up against Bryan Elsey, creator of the series "Skins", and Greg McHugh, who wrote "Gary's War".

The BAFTA Scotland Awards reward film and television productions made in Scotland or by Scottish people. They have been given annually since 1997.

The official BAFTA Scotland website's nominations page - which manages to misspell both his first and surname! - cites Moffat as being nominated specifically for his work on Doctor Who. The BAFTA Scotland year runs from August to August, meaning he has been nominated for his 2008 series episodes "Silence in the Library" and "Forest of the Dead".

Posted By John Bowman

Silva Screen Records has announced the full listing of the forthcoming soundtrack CD for Series Four of Doctor Who. The information was sent out by e-mail today to people who subscribed to its newsletter.

The 27-track disc will be released on November 17 but can be downloaded earlier from the company's website. The tracks are as follows:

Unofficial overnight figures show that Part One of Day of the Clownachieved an audience of 0.5 million. The programme got a 5.3 per cent share of the audience.

The Appreciation Index for the episode was 82,one of the highest scores for the day.

Meanwhile final figures available for the premier of part Two of The Last Sontaran, show it was the highest rated programme of the week on the CBBC channel, with 0.48 million viewers.