Series 7 Episode 11 Title

Another new series title has been inadvertently revealed via a guest-actor’s online CV (you’d think they’d have learnt by now). The online CV of actress Jessica Raine – recently come to light in the public eye through Call The Midwife – stated that she would be starring as a character called Emma Grayling in an episode titled…

7.11: ‘Phantoms of the Hex’

The episode will be directed by Jamie Payne, who worked with Raine on BBC One hit drama and ratings-smasher Call The Midwife, as well as directing episodes of the channel’s Ashes to Ashes and The Hour.

The episode ‘Phantoms of the Hex’ – the title of which should be taken at this stage as just a working title only – has been written by Neil Cross, a newbie to Doctor Who. The title is absolutely subject to change (for example, Series 4’s ‘Forest of the Dead’ had the title of ‘River’s Run’ until a week before its broadcast, although this is a rare occurrence), but titles discovered from online CVs have ended up being correct in the past.

> Gordon & French Agency - Jessica Raine CV

What do you think of the title? Please let us know below…

With thanks to Neil S!

So what is the Asylum of the Daleks?

With the recent official confirmation of the episode title of Series 7 Episode 1 as ‘Asylum of the Daleks’, fanboys’ and fangirls’ fan-drives have been sent into speculation overdrive at what the prospect of said “asylum” could be.

The Radio Times got their writer and resident Doctor Who fan Paul Jones onto the case…

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“The Daleks are coming back and they’re worse than ever. Just you wait until you see what they’re going to do," Steven Moffat warned us recently.

And now we know that the first episode of Doctor Who series seven will be entitled Asylum of the Daleks (as tweeted by Dalek operator Nicolas Pegg yesterday and confirmed by the official Doctor Who site).

The question is what does it mean? Are we talking mad Daleks (like there's any other kind) locked away in a mental institution? Or refugee Daleks looking for sympathy and a place to stay?

According to executive producer Caroline Skinner, the first episode to feature the tin-pot dictators since they got one over on the Doctor in 2010’s Victory of the Daleks will include “every kind of Dalek ever faced by the Time Lord – including the legendary Special Weapons Dalek.” So could that rarely seen Dalek be the key to understanding the Asylum...?

Doctor Who Magazine #449 Cover

The cover of the new issue #449 of Doctor Who Magazine has been released, only moments ago!

With the advent of the 50th Anniversary, and the recent seven-year anniversary since Doctor Who returned to our screens in 2005, DWM looks at how much our favourite sci-fi has changed in the past seven years.

The Ninth Doctor -- “I’m the Doctor, by the way, what’s your name? […] Nice to meet you Rose. Run for your life!”

The Eleventh Doctor -- “I’m the Doctor. And basically… Run!”

Doctor Who Magazine #449 is published in the UK on Thursday 28th June priced £4.50 in the UK at WHSmith and selected Tesco and Asda stores.

Caroline John dies, aged 71

British actress Caroline John, known to many for playing Doctor Who companion Liz Shaw, has died at the age of 71.

A funeral was held in south-west London on Wednesday for the Yorkshire-born actress, who starred opposite Jon Pertwee's Doctor in the BBC series. John played Liz Shaw in four Doctor Who adventures in 1970, later reprising her role in 1983's The Five Doctors.

Doctor Who chief writer Steven Moffat paid tribute to "a brilliant actress" and "tremendous co-star" for Pertwee. He said Liz Shaw was "not just a sidekick but a scientist in her own right and a match for the universe's number one know-all. The Doctor's companions should never be his assistants - they're the people who keep him on his toes and that's what Caroline did."

After training at the Central School of Speech and Drama, John spent four years with the National Theatre Company under artistic director Sir Laurence Olivier. Among her stage credits were Much Ado About Nothing, Rosecrantz and Guildenstern are Dead and as an understudy to Dame Maggie Smith in the role of Desdemona in Othello.

As Elizabeth "Liz" Shaw, John made her first appearance alongside the newly-regenerated third Doctor in the story Spearhead from Space. Her character witnessed the reawakening of an ancient race in The Silurians and stopped an insane scientist from cracking open the Earth's crust in Inferno. She also got to drive Bessie, the Doctor's canary yellow roadster, despite the actress not having a driving licence at the time.

Doctor Who Magazine assistant editor Peter Ware told the BBC News website that John's character was "a very different type of companion than any that had come before. For the first time, the Doctor had an assistant who was basically an equal and he treated her as an equal," he added.

"Intelligent, beautiful, her character was a genius and in real life she was intelligent and beautiful too.” He said that, from the 1990s onwards, John had made regular appearances at fans' conventions where she was "very kind, very warm and very generous".

"She only stayed with the show for one year but was very fondly remembered by the fans," Both John and husband Geoffrey Beevers went on to work on several Doctor Who audio and straight-to-video spin-offs. "Carry was always delighted to return to Liz Shaw and reprised the role several times in our audio series," said David Richardson of production company Big Finish. "She was a brilliant actress and a lovely, kind soul who was a joy to be around and who was interested in everyone. She will be greatly missed."

In recent years, she was seen in episodes of Doctors, Midsomer Murders and Silent Witness. She also appeared in an episode of Poirot, alongside husband Geoffrey, playing a husband and wife. In later years she performed Nightingale, a one-woman show written by her lifelong friend Lynne Redgrave, and toured with Timothy West in the The Master Builder with the English Touring Theatre.

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Caroline John

(1940-2012)

‘A Voyage To Nowhere’ Part 2: Domino Effect

The Doctor Who F.A.N. Project presents the fourth episode in our fiction series, Doctor Who: Power of the Heart.

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‘A Voyage To Nowhere’
Part Two: The Domino Effect
The Doctor and Maddy Ramos have been separated and while he investigates the copper ship Tin-Vagabond, Maddy finds herself discovering far more than she would like. A young girl called Molly knows more than she's telling, yet becomes the one person who can recover Maddy once a plan has gone horribly wrong.

A mysterious force lurks inside the ship's shadows and steam, but can The Doctor and Maddy save the ship's refugee passengers from the terror within the walls before it is too late? Only time will tell. There’s a conspiracy being plotted, and somebody is digging it up, but not the TARDIS duo…

The Doctor Who F.A.N. Project brings you Part Two of the second story featuring The Tenth Doctor (as played by David Tennant) and original companion Maddy Ramos.

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NEXT TIME -  Part Three: Ugly Memory

Multi-Award-Winning Doctor Who Experience Announces Cardiff Opening Date

BBC Worldwide today announced the official opening date for their multi-award winning attraction the Doctor Who Experience in Cardiff, the home of the BBC One show. Doors will open to the public on the 20^th July 2012 with tickets going on sale at 10AMon the 14^th June 2012.  Paula Al-Lach, Head of Exhibitions and Events at BBC Worldwide formally accepted the keys to the Experience’s distinctive new home in Cardiff Bay this afternoon and the first exhibits are already being moved in.

Philip Murphy, Managing Director of BBC Worldwide Live Events said: “The Doctor Who Experience in Cardiff is going to be just minutes away from where the BBC Wales television series is made which I’m incredibly excited about. The Experience sets out to engage visitors’ imaginations from the outset immersing them in the world of Doctor Who and what better place to do this than in Cardiff the home of the show.”

The Doctor Who Experience is the first ever interactive Doctor Who exhibition that invites visitors to star in their very own Doctor Who adventure. Arriving at the venue they will step through a crack in time to become the Doctor’s companion, taking on the challenge of reuniting the Doctor with the TARDIS whilst fending off threats from some of his most fearsome foes - entering a Dalek spaceship and finding a way through a maze of Weeping Angels. Featuring a replica of the Eleventh Doctor’s TARDIS which visitors get to fly themselves the interactive walk-through culminates in a stunning 3D finale that sets the scene for fans entering the exhibition.

The exhibition presents fans with the world’s most extensive collection of original Doctor Who costumes and artefacts stretching back almost 50 years to the very first series of Doctor Who.

The content of the exhibition is updated constantly with new items from the television series to ensure it is ever changing offering fans the chance to get up close to the incredible sets, costumes and props that feature in their favourite show.  New items to be shown to the public for the first time in Cardiff include the Doctor’s cradle seen inA Good Man Goes to War; the Silence spaceship and Matt Smith’s sonic cane from Let’s Kill Hitler with many more items being kept under wraps until the doors open on 20^th July.

Series 7 Premiere Confirmed

The Guardian has confirmed today that the first episode of Series 7 – which will feature every incarnation of Dalek from Doctor Who’s televisual history – will premiere at a press event at the Media Guardian Edinburgh International Television Festival. We are still awaiting confirmation of the TV broadcast date of the Dalek episode, rumoured to be called ‘Extermination of the Daleks’ or ‘Asylum […]’.

The news comes as The Guardian reports on a master class on BBC One’s Sherlock, held by Steven Moffat and his fellow writer and co-creator Mark Gatiss, as well as wife and Sherlock producer Sue Vertue. Among this, the broadsheet says, “there will be an exclusive preview screening of the first episode of the next series of Doctor Who.”

So date has yet been confirmed for the television debut of Doctor Who Series 7, other than the confirmation of Autumn, though it is thought to begin in mid-to-late November following the finale the Merlin Series 5.

> The Guardian article