Broadcast details for BBC Two's anniversary programme The Science of Doctor Who have been announced.

Professor Brian Cox will present the one-hour programme on Thursday 14th November at 9pm.

Cox is no stranger to Doctor Who, having had a cameo role in The Power of Three last year, as well as taking part in Doctor Who Live: The Next Doctor in August.

The Science of Doctor Who is among a host of programmes announced by the BBC to mark Doctor Who's 50th anniversary.

With exactly a month to go now to Doctor Who's 50th anniversary, the BFI today announced the final screenings in its year-long celebration of the programme.

It will be showing the anniversary episode The Day of the Doctor in 3D on Saturday 23rd November as part of the global simulcast and cinema screenings worldwide. The time is yet to be confirmed by the BBC. Tickets will go on sale to BFI members from Friday 25th October (9am online and 11.30am by phone and in person) and to non-members from Saturday 26th October from 11.30am. They can be bought via this link. (It should be noted that the start time of 7pm given by the BFI is for guidance only. According to the BFI, the exact start time will be given 10 days before the screening.)

Justin Johnson, the programmer of the BFI's Doctor Who At 50 strand, said: Then, just over a fortnight later, on Sunday 8th December at 3.45pm, it will mark the Eleventh Doctor's era by showing The Eleventh Hour and The Name of the Doctor. The guest panel for that event is yet to be announced.

Johnson, who curated the season with Dick Fiddy, commented on its culmination by telling Doctor Who News: Tickets to the Eleventh Doctor screenings on 8th December will be allocated by ballot via the members' section, which BFI Champions can enter from Monday 4th November, and Cinema Members from Tuesday 5th November. The ballot will close on Friday 8th November and will be run over the weekend of 9th and 10th November, with all entrants being notified on Monday 11th November as to whether or not they have been successful. All tickets reserved for Champions and Cinema Members via the ballot will be held for claiming by them until 8.30pm on Friday 15th November, and any that are unclaimed by then will be released for public sale on Saturday 16th November.

As has been the case with all previous events in the season, it will undoubtedly sell out to Champions and Cinema Members, but returns and stand-bys will be a strong possibility, so keep checking with the BFI.

UPDATE - 26th OCTOBER: The BFI was forced to suspend ticket sales for The Day of the Doctor yesterday because of "an issue with card payments". Sales reopened for members today at 9am (online) and 11.30am (phone), and will reopen tomorrow to non-members.

BBC America have released some new images to promote the forthcoming drama An Adventure in Space and Time, featuring the filming of iconic scenes from the early days of the series - a mysterious Doctor Foreman in a junkyard, two teachers discovering the secret of the police box, and an encounter with what would become the most memorable adversary to appear in the series!

BBC Worldwide have announced venues for the 3D screenings of the 50th Anniversary adventure The Day of the Doctor, which will be simulcast in cinemas around the world on the Saturday 23rd November.

In the UK, some 216 VUE, Cineworld, Odeon, BFI and Picturehouse cinemas will participate, with tickets going on sale from this Friday, 25th October at 9:00am.

Internationally, Germany, Russia, the USA and Canada will also have simultaneous screenings with BBC One in the UK, with some 106 cinemas in Australia and New Zealand participating later in the day, as previously announced. Further countries are expected to be announced shortly.

Full details of the announced countries and cinema chains, plus specific booking details can be found via BBC Worldwide.


Meanwhile, BBC America will announce details regarding the 3D screenings in select cinemas in the US and Canada.

Note: not all cinemas will simulcast the episode, please check the relevant cinema time for confirmation.

The twenty-sixth episode in our series telling the story of the creation of Doctor Who and the people who made it happen, fifty years to the day after the major events.

Doctor Who had finally entered regular production, with the new version of the opening episode having been completed, and a new episode being rehearsed. But the Controller of Programmes for BBC1, Donald Baverstock, worried by the financial demands of the series and particularly of the TARDIS interior set, had ordered that production be halted after the opening four-part serial. With Baverstock now on leave, Doctor Who's creators and production team rallied to reverse his decision and prevent the programme from being killed-off before transmission had even begun.

Before Baverstock had departed on three weeks' leave, in his memo to Donald Wilson asking that Doctor Who be stopped after four episodes, he added that he had asked Joanna Spicer and John Mair, from the planning staff, to look into the costs of the series and whether there might be any possibility of continuing. Mair subsequently sent Spicer a memo outlining the story of Doctor Who's production so far, and the costs that had been incurred and might be further incurred in the future. On Tuesday 22 October 1963, exactly fifty years ago today, Spicer held a meeting with some of the key figures involved in Doctor Who and from various BBC production departments, to discuss whether the series could be saved.

Among those present at the meeting along with Spicer were Mair, Wilson (the Head of Serials in the drama department, and thus directly responsible for Doctor Who), the show's producer Verity Lambert, James Bould (the Design Manager for BBC Television) and Jack Kine (the co-founder of the BBC Visual Effects Department). Between them, they were able to thrash out a plan whereby Doctor Who could be allowed to continue - at least for a time. Spicer indicated that Baverstock would be prepared to accept an initial 13-episode run of Doctor Who - returning to a decision he had previously made a week earlier, before his sudden cold feet about the show before going on leave. However, this would only happen if the series could be made within strict limitations on budget and man-hours, with per-episode budgets strictly limited at £2500 each. £75 per episode will go towards the cost of "the ship," £200 on using an outside firm to provide scenic effects, and £500 per episode as the design department's budget. The man-hours allocation is to be 500 per episode.

While more meetings would be needed to work out the exact details, Wilson and Lambert agreed that Doctor Who could produce a 13-episode run within these limitations. Given that the opening serial was due to be followed by Terry Nation's seven-part serial featuring his Dalek creatures, later in the week Lambert and her story editor David Whitaker realised that they would need to add a two-part story after Nation's tale, to create the initial 13-episode run that had been agreed to. With the limited time available, and the fact that there will be no money for additional sets or guest characters, it is decided that Whitaker himself will write a two-part adventure featuring only the four regular cast members, and set entirely on the expensive TARDIS interior set.

During the week, Whitaker also began to establish what stories would follow if Doctor Who were allowed to continue beyond the 13 episodes tentatively agreed to. Being worked on are: a historical story by John Lucarotti in which the time travellers meet Marco Polo; the latest version of the much-desired "miniscules" storyline, now being worked on by Robert Gould; The Masters of Luxor by Anthony Coburn; a possible seven-part historical tale by Whitaker; The Hidden Planet by Malcolm Hulke; The Red Fort, set during the Indian Mutiny, by Nation; and another future-set story, to be four episodes long, with a writer yet to be assigned. This would bring Doctor Who up to the 52-week run originally envisaged by Head of Drama Sydney Newman, should the programme eventually be allowed to continue that far.

By this point, no directors had been assigned to any serials beyond Nation's, on which it has been decided that Christopher Barry will share duties with the less-experienced Richard Martin, a young director who has been attached to Doctor Who for some time. Martin has become very interested in the series, and around this time sends Barry, Whitaker, Lambert and associate producer Mervyn Pinfield a lengthy and detailed memo outlining his thoughts about the TARDIS and its effect on those who travel in it, which reads in part:


Meanwhile, away from meetings and memos and debates over the future, Doctor Who's regular production is now under way. Having completed the first episode, director Waris Hussein and the cast have moved onto rehearsing "The Cave of Skulls", the second instalment of the opening serial. This was then recorded on Friday 25 October, a week after the previous episode, with Doctor Who to be recorded every Friday until at least 13 episodes have been completed. What would happen after that would depend on whether the costs could be kept down, and how those 13 episodes were received.

The immediate crisis surrounding the future of Doctor Who was over, and it would at least have a chance to make it to the screen. What impact it would have with the audience remained to be seen - but, unknown to anybody, already on the drawing board and nearing completion was a design that would help to take Doctor Who from troubled children's serial to national institution.

As previously reported, Splendid Chaps is a year-long performance/podcast project to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who hosted by comedian Ben McKenzie (Dungeon Crawl, Melbourne Museum Comedy Tour) and writer John Richards (ABC1 sitcom Outland, Boxcutters podcast).

Described by its creators as part intellectual panel discussion, part nerdy Tonight Show, Splendid Chaps is a combination of analysis, enthusiasm and irreverence. The first episode went to number 1 on the iTunes TV & Film Podcast chart in Australia, and to number 4 in the UK. The podcasts to previous episodes are now available at www.splendidchaps.com or at iTunes.

After a number of successful Melbourne shows, and requests from Sydney based fans, the chaps are now crowdfunding for a possible Sydney show on Saturday 30 November. For fans interested in supporting a Splendid Chaps show in Sydney, or wanting more information, you can visit their Pozible campaign page here. The Chaps have until 2nd November to reach their $3,000 goal.

Guests can't be confirmed until the show is locked in but they've already worded up some great possible guests, including comedian Alice Fraser, host of ABC2′s Good Game, Steven “Bajo” O’Donnell and more (subject to availability)! Like all their shows it will be a mix of intelligent discussion, irreverent banter and a musical act. The Chaps will be looking at the subject of Monsters and Villains – how does the show see them? How has it changed? And why has Who had so many baddies in wheelchairs?

A trailer celebrating 50 years of Doctor Who has premiered on BBC One this evening and is now available to watch online.

The BBC has announced that it will be broadcasting a trailer to celebrate 50 years of Doctor Who. It will go out on BBC One at 8.20pm on Saturday 19 October just after Strictly Come Dancing and just before Atlantis. The announcement was made along with artwork featuring all eleven Doctors.


The BBC has issued a press release, which you can read below.

BBC Books have released details on their forthcoming Doctor Who short story eBook series entitled Time Trips. Jake Arnott, Cecelia Ahern and Joanne Harris will join previously announced authors Nick Harkaway, A.L. Kennedy, Jenny Colgan and Trudi Canavan to write for the series. The series will launch on 5 December with The Death Pit, a fourth Doctor story by A.L. Kennedy.
Cecelia Ahern said: Joanne Harris added:

The twenty-fifth instalment of our series marking the major events in the creation of Doctor Who, fifty years to the day since they occurred.

By the middle of October, Doctor Who's path to the screen was starting to seem a little more assured and stable. The Controller of Programmes for BBC1, Donald Baverstock, had agreed to the making of at least 13 episodes, and despite the pilot episode having been rejected by Head of Drama Sydney Newman, the production team were ready for their second attempt at creating a version of the programme's opening instalment. However, on the very day the second version of An Unearthly Child was to go before the cameras, budgetary concerns led Baverstock to have a change of heart about the show's future. On Friday 18 October 1963 - exactly fifty years ago today - the Welshman dropped a bombshell. Doctor Who, still over a month away from its on-screen debut, was ordered to be brought to a halt. Production was to cease as soon as the opening four-part serial was completed...

That Friday evening, the second ever episode of Doctor Who to be made - the new attempt at the first episode - was due to be recorded in Studio D at Lime Grove, the same studio as the first attempt and, much to the chagrin of many of those working on the programme, allotted as Doctor Who's main studio for the foreseeable future. The production had the same cast, same director and mostly the same sets, although (as noted in the previous episode) the junkyard and school classroom sets had needed to be recreated by designer Barry Newbery from Peter Brachacki's plans, as they had accidentally been junked after the pilot recording.

Fortunately for all concerned, the set of the TARDIS interior had not suffered this fate - had it done so, then it is highly possible that Doctor Who would have stopped for good at this point, and never made it to the screen. The high cost of the set was already controversial, and it was this element in particular that had led Baverstock to reconsider the expense involved in producing the series.

The 18th was Baverstock's last day at work before he embarked on three-weeks' leave. Despite having given the go-ahead to a 13-episode run of Doctor Who just four days previously, by Friday he had looked further into the costs involved and had sent a memo to Donald Wilson, the Head of Serials in the drama department. Wilson was one of those most closely involved in the creation of Doctor Who, and effectively the show's "executive producer" as we might now term it.

The memo was a shock - Baverstock had decided that BBC1 simply couldn't afford Doctor Who:


Baverstock didn't entirely write-off the possibility of continuing to make Doctor Who, going on to state that he had asked the Assistant Controller of Planning, Joanna Spicer, and John Mair, the Planning Manager, to meet with all parties concerned and look into what costs might be involved in making further episodes. However, he did also tell Wilson that:


What effect this had on Doctor Who's production team on the very day they were preparing to remount their opening episode is unknown. However, Sydney Newman instantly leapt to the defence of the show he had done so much bring to life. Having been given a copy of Baverstock's memo, he immediately wrote a reply pointing out that it had never been intended for the cost of the TARDIS interior set to be spread across 13 episodes - Doctor Who had originally been conceived and planned as having a 52-week run, and the costs of the set were to be covered across 52 weeks rather than 13.

The fight for Doctor Who's future, if it had one at all, and the battle over the costs of the TARDIS set would have to continue the following week. In the mean-time, there was still a series to plan and produce, whether it would make it to the screen or not. In addition to director Waris Hussein and the regular cast going back into Lime Grove to record the first episode that evening, other work was being done on the production of future episodes. Also on Friday the 18th, director Christopher Barry was busy preparing for work on what was due to be the second Doctor Who serial, the futuristic script by Terry Nation. That day, Barry sent script editor David Whitaker a detailed note of comments on the first two episodes of the serial, and also received a reply to an enquiry he had previous made to the Post Office's Joint Speech Research Unit, about how he might realise the voices of the "Dalek" creatures featured in Nation's scripts.

The unit sent Barry a tape with examples of two different types of voice, one produced using a vocoder and the other generated entirely by computer. JN Shearne, the Post Office official who supplied the material to Barry, indicated that they would only be able to produce up to 30 seconds of computer-generated material for him, due to the amount of time and effort required to programme it. The vocoder material was of greater interest to Barry, who heard something of what he wanted for the Daleks in it, but he decided that it would need to be produced in-house at the BBC rather than sourced from the Post Office, as it could then be produced live in the studio during recordings, rather than pre-recorded on tape by the Post Office. So, Barry turned his attentions to what the BBC Radiophonic Workshop might be able to do for him.

Meanwhile, the design of the actual appearance of the Dalek creatures themselves was coming towards its realisation. Originally, BBC staff designer Ridley Scott had been assigned to handle the design work for Nation's serial, but a clash of schedules meant that he was replaced by fellow department member Raymond Cusick. Cusick had taken inspiration both from the description in Nation's script of the creatures "moving on a round base," and from his own determination that the Daleks should not appear in any way human. After discussions with BBC special effects experts Bernard Wilkie and Jack Kine in early October, Cusick was working towards the final plans for his design, which was to have a massive impact on the future of Doctor Who.

On October 18 1963, however, nobody knew that the element which would finally dispel any prospect of an early cancellation for Doctor Who was so close at hand. There was simply a television programme to produce, and the transmitted version of the very first episode was finally put onto tape that evening at Lime Grove Studios. A much smoother and more polished effort than the pilot version, with a more likeable characterisation from William Hartnell as the Doctor (as requested by Newman), there were also many other subtle differences. There was no opening thunderclap at the start of the opening titles, Susan reads a book on the French Revolution rather than drawing ink blots, and hers and the Doctor's costumes are also different.

Finally, the very first episode of Doctor Who that would be seen by viewers had been made, and the regular production of the programme was at last under way. From this point onwards, a new episode would be rehearsed and recorded every week. However, following Baverstock's memo, for how long that would be allowed to continue would be another matter.