The BFI Southbank in London is to mark Doctor Who's 50th anniversary by showing stories from each Doctor throughout 2013.
According to the latest BFI booklet, there will be something from Doctor Who every month up to and including November.
The first screening in the celebratory season will be of the programme's first adventure, An Unearthly Child, directed by Waris Hussein and starring William Hartnell, Carole Ann Ford, Jacqueline Hill, and William Russell. It takes place on Saturday 12th January at 3.30pm and there will also be guests, although they are yet to be confirmed.
Tickets go on sale to the general public on Tuesday 11th December at 11.30am, and bookings can be made via the relevant BFI programme page.
Details and dates of future screenings in the season are yet to be announced.
As mentioned earlier this month, the BFI plan to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who with special screenings each month next year in the lead-up to the Anniversary itself; the organisation has now announced details about the first quarter of 2013.
As previously mentioned, the season kicks off at the very beginning with William Hartnell's An Unearthly Child on 12th January; this will be followed on 9th February with Patrick Troughton tackling the Tomb of the Cybermen; then in March Jon Pertwee is up against The Master as The Mind of Evil is unveiled in newly restored colour! All stories are accompanied by a Q&A panel, though guests have yet to be announced.
Justin Johnson, BFI Programmer, said:
The BFI is very proud of our long relationship with both the BBC and the Doctor Who production team. We are delighted to be playing complete stories featuring each incarnation of The Doctor, supported by Q&As with special guests. As well as the TV work, we also plan to play newly digitally restored versions of the Peter Cushing films, courtesy of Studio Canal. This is the perfect opportunity for old fans and new to come and learn about the genesis of the show and its continuing jounrney.
Doctor Who's executive producer Caroline Skinner said:
To be doing this enormous and exciting project for the BFI is just a dream come true. We're delighted that in this 50th year of the show we have such brilliant support from the BFI for our celebration of Doctor Who's cultural heritage. Some of the stories we're going to show are thrilling, surprising, funny and just plain classic TV. Enjoy, everyone!
In November, the climax of the BFI's celebration will include a special preview of An Adventure in Space and Time , the drama written by Mark Gatiss exploring the personalities that brought the longest running sci-fi series to life.
The stories representing the other eight Doctors will be confirmed next year.
Special screenings at the BFI this year to celebrate Doctor Who's 50th anniversary are proving to be a massive success, with the first two events selling out before the first one has even taken place.
To mark the show's golden milestone, BFI Southbank is showing a story per Doctor as well as digitally-restored prints of the two Dalek films starring Peter Cushing, with question-and-answer panels featuring special guests at each session.
This coming Saturday sees a big-screen showing of An Unearthly Child to start the season, with the second event on the programme - a screening of The Tomb of the Cybermen - taking place on Saturday 9th February. However, in both instances BFI members, who are entitled to priority booking, have snapped up all the tickets for both shows ahead of them going on sale to the general public. Tickets for Tomb were due to go on public release on Tuesday 15th January.
Despite the overwhelming popularity of the events, there are no plans to slot in extra screenings. BFI Programmer Justin Johnson told Doctor Who News: We're delighted and a little overwhelmed at the scale of demand for the BFI's Doctor Who 50th anniversary events. They were designed to be 12 one-off events so we won't be replicating them. However, BFI Live will be filming the introductions and appearances by special guests, which means that they will be available on our website for anyone to enjoy long after the event. The guests at this Saturday's screening will be the Unearthly Child herself, aka Carole Ann Ford, director Waris Hussein, actors William Russell and Jeremy Young, Donald Tosh (the only surviving script editor from the William Hartnell era), Brian Hodgson of the Radiophonic Workshop, vision mixer Clive Doig, Jessica Carney (William Hartnell's granddaughter and biographer), and Mark Gatiss, who is writing a BBC Four docudrama about the show's genesis, called An Adventure In Space And Time, which will debut at the BFI in November.
The guest line-up for the screening of The Tomb of the Cybermen has yet to be announced. March will see the première of the colour-restored story The Mind of Evil ahead of its release on DVD. The remaining stories are still to be announced.
In addition to priority booking, BFI members receive discounts on ticket prices as well as exemption from booking fees. The BFI currently has a special offer with annual membership at £30 (down from £40). The offer expires at the end of February - click here for more details.
The BFI has changed the date of its celebratory screening of The Mind of Evil.
Originally scheduled for Saturday 2nd March at 2.30pm, it will now take place on Sunday 10th March at 2pm. The new date and time supersede the details given in the BFI brochure, which had gone to print by the time things had to be changed. It is unknown as yet why the date change had to be made. Tickets for the event have not gone on sale yet so will show the new date and time, as will the BFI's website.
The story, which has been newly colour-restored, will represent the Third Doctor's era as part of the organisation's Doctor Who At 50 season, and its big-screen showing at the BFI Southbank will be its public première in its colour-restored state ahead of being released on DVD.
Episode one of the six-part story has been "colourised", as the surviving print didn't carry enough colour information to make colour recovery possible. However, episodes two to six have been fully colour restored. The screening will take place just weeks after the work has been completed by the Restoration Team.
To mark the programme's 50th anniversary this year, the BFI is showing a story per Doctor as well as digitally-restored prints of the two Dalek films starring Peter Cushing, with question-and-answer panels featuring special guests at each session. In November, it will première the docudrama, commissioned for BBC Two, about the show's genesis. Entitled An Adventure In Space And Time and written by Mark Gatiss, it starts filming at Wimbledon Studios next month.
The first two events at the BFI sold out before the first one had even taken place. The second - a screening of The Tomb of the Cybermen - will be held on Saturday 9th February. The guests for it are yet to be announced.
The titles of most of the remaining stories to be shown during the season are yet to be revealed, although the Eighth Doctor's will, of course, be Paul McGann's sole TV outing as the Doctor (so far).
BFI members receive priority booking as well as discounts on ticket prices plus exemption from booking fees. There is currently a special offer with annual membership at £30 (down from £40). The offer expires at the end of February - click here for more details.
The guest line-up for next month's celebratory screening of The Tomb of the Cybermen at the BFI Southbank was announced today.
The event, which takes place on Saturday 9th February at 2.30pm, will see seven people make up the Q&A panels. They are: •Deborah Watling - companion Victoria in Tomb •Anneke Wills - First and Second Doctor companion Polly •Shirley Cooklin - Kaftan in Tomb •Bernard Holley - Peter Haydon in Tomb •Michael Kilgarriff - the Cyber Controller in Tomb and Attack of the Cybermen •Michael Ferguson - director of stories during the First, Second, and Third Doctor eras •Michael Troughton - Patrick Troughton's son and biographer Part of the organisation's Doctor Who At 50 season to mark the show's milestone anniversary, it sold out to BFI members before tickets went on general release.
Throughout 2013, the BFI is showing a story per Doctor as well as digitally-restored prints of the two Dalek films. It will also be premièring An Adventure In Space And Time - a 90-minute BBC Two docudrama about the show's creation, written by Mark Gatiss, which is due to start shooting next month.
Marking the Third Doctor's era, the première of the colour-restored story The Mind of Evil plus a discussion takes place on Sunday 10th March at 2pm. Tickets will go on general sale on Tuesday 12th February at 11.30am. BFI members get priority booking plus discounts on ticket prices and are exempt from booking fees.
The BFI is to screen The Robots of Death to mark the Fourth Doctor's era as it celebrates Doctor Who's 50th anniversary, it was announced today.
The four-part story, which first aired in 1977, will be shown at BFI Southbank on Saturday 20th April at 2pm. The guests will be announced in due course.
Tickets go on sale to the general public on Tuesday 12th March but will be available on Tuesday 5th March to people with a standard BFI membership and on Monday 4th March to Champion members.
Screenings that the BFI organised for last month, this month, and next month - honouring the First, Second, and Third Doctors - all sold out to members before tickets were due to go on general release.
The organisation has a Doctor Who At 50 season this year, showing a story per Doctor per month as well as digitally-restored prints of the two Dalek films, with question-and-answer panels featuring special guests at each session. In addition, the BBC Two docudrama An Adventure In Space And Time about the show's genesis, written by Mark Gatiss and currently being filmed, will debut at the BFI in November.
A screening of the colour-restored story The Mind of Evil is to take place in Birmingham.
The event – part of the Flatpack Festival – will also see Restoration Team members Peter Crocker and Steve Roberts discussing with Paul Vanezis the meticulous work that was involved in bringing the six-part adventure back to its former glory.
The showing, presented in association with the Shock and Gore horror and fantasy festival, will be held at The Electric Cinema in Station Street on Saturday 30th March, starting at 1pm and finishing at 4pm.
It offers fresh hope of a pre-DVD-release big-screen viewing for people who were unable to get tickets to this coming Sunday’s BFI première screening in London, which sold out to members before going on public release - although returns are possible.
Tom Baker, Louise Jameson, and Philip Hinchliffe will be the special guests at next month's BFI screening of The Robots of Death.
The announcement was made at yesterday's première of the colour-restored story The Mind of Evil. Big-screen showings with guests are being staged by the BFI for each Doctor this year as part of its Doctor Who At 50 season.
The four-part adventure is being screened at BFI Southbank on Saturday 20th April at 2pm to mark the Fourth Doctor's era. Tickets go on sale to the general public at 11.30am tomorrow. They were made available to Champion members last Monday and to standard members last Tuesday. All three screenings held so far sold out to members before tickets were due to go on general release, but returns and stand-bys are possible.
It was also announced yesterday that the story marking Fifth Doctor Peter Davison's era will be shown on Saturday 4th May. The title is due to be revealed later this week.
Thursday, 14 March, 2013 - Posted by John Bowman The Caves of Androzani is to be shown by the BFI to represent the Fifth Doctor's era in its Doctor Who At 50 season, it announced today.
Written by Robert Holmes and directed by Graeme Harper, the four-part adventure - which first aired in March 1984 - saw the final regular appearance of Peter Davison as the Doctor.
The "regeneration" adventure will be shown on the big screen at BFI Southbank on Saturday 4th May, as reported earlier this week, with the start time for the event now confirmed as 2pm. The names of the guests for the accompanying panel discussion will be announced nearer the time.
Dates for when tickets go on sale are also yet to be announced. BFI Champions get first pick, followed by standard members and then the general public. So far, all the events in the celebratory season have sold out to BFI members in advance of tickets being released to the public, but returns and stand-bys are possible.
A video of the guest panel at the BFI's screening of the colour-restored The Mind of Evil is now available to watch online.
The event was held on Sunday 10th March to mark the Third Doctor's era as part of the BFI's Doctor Who At 50 season.
Once the closing titles for the final episode had rolled, director Timothy Combe, script editor Terrance Dicks, and actors Richard Franklin, John Levene, and Katy Manning were welcomed on stage by season co-curator Justin Johnson to talk about their time on the show.
The next event - marking the Fourth Doctor's era - is a screening of The Robots of Death on Saturday 20th April, with Tom Baker, Louise Jameson, producer Philip Hinchcliffe, and visual effects designer Mat Irvine as guests. Although currently sold out, returns and stand-bys are possible.
It will be followed on Saturday 4th May with a screening of The Caves of Androzani, celebrating the Fifth Doctor.
Actors Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton, and Janet Fielding will join director Graeme Harper and Radiophonic Workshop composer Roger Limb as the special guests at the BFI Southbank big-screen showing of The Caves of Androzani next month.
The four-part story is being shown on Saturday 4th May to mark the Fifth Doctor's era, as part of the BFI's Doctor Who At 50 season.
The adventure saw the Doctor regenerate into his sixth incarnation, played by Colin Baker, and today the BFI revealed that the story picked to mark the Sixth Doctor's era will be The Two Doctors, to be shown on Saturday 15th June at 2pm.
The three-part adventure, written by Robert Holmes, co-starred Patrick Troughton as the Second Doctor and was first broadcast in 1985, pitting both Doctors against the Sontarans. It also saw the return of Frazer Hines as Second Doctor companion Jamie. Location filming was carried out in Spain.
BFI Champions and members are entitled to priority booking for the event, whose guests will be announced nearer the time, but because of the overwhelming popularity of the Doctor Who At 50 season a ballot system will be in operation once again for tickets. Two ballots are being run - one each for Champions and members - via e-mail to memberballot@bfi.org.uk. Champions can enter from Monday 6th May, while members can enter from Tuesday 7th May. Champions can enter both ballots.
The ballots will close on Friday 10th May and will be run over the weekend of 11th and 12th May, with all entrants being notified on Monday 13th May as to their success or failure. Any tickets that have been reserved for Champions and members through the ballot will be held until 8.30pm on Friday 17th May, and those left unclaimed will be released for public sale on Saturday 18th May.
However, on Wednesday 15th May the official Doctor Who Facebook page will have a small number of tickets set aside for purchase by members of the public, whereby people will have to correctly answer a question to be in with a chance of booking.
Although all the celebratory screenings have been immediate sell-outs, returns and stand-bys are a strong possibility, so if all else fails do keep checking with the BFI!
The BFI is to show the BBC's long-lost behind-the-scenes report on Daleks - Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D. that was recovered last year.
The feature, lasting about five minutes, was originally included in the edition of teen culture programme A Whole Scene Going broadcast on 16th March 1966 and will be shown on the big screen at BFI Southbank on Wednesday 3rd July during a compilation of reports from various productions.
The BFI event is entitled The Location Report and is itself part of the wider Broadcasting The Arts: Television Looks At Film strand being run by the organisation. Tickets go on sale to the public on Tuesday 11th June.
Although the master tape was wiped by the BBC, a copy of this particular edition of A Whole Scene Going ended up as part of a Welsh villager's collection of films that was eventually sold on. A timecoded and watermarked extract from the programme is available to view via the Tim Disney Archive, with the Dalek film report excerpt starting at 1 min 16 sec.
The special guests for the BFI's celebratory screening of Remembrance of the Daleks next month have been announced.
The sell-out event, part of the BFI's Doctor Who At 50 season, is being held on Saturday 27th July at BFI Southbank to mark the Seventh Doctor's era and will see Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred, Ben Aaronovitch, Dick Mills, and Mike Tucker taking part in the question-and-answer panel.
The BFI is running a competition to win a pair of tickets to the screening, with a copy of the BFI book 100 Science Fiction Films - to be published on Friday 28th June - also going to the winner. Enter via this link. The contest closes on Friday 19th July. Terms and conditions apply.
August's event should have seen the Eighth Doctor's solo TV venture (so far) being shown on the big screen but instead the Ninth Doctor will be honoured that month, with a story screening and guest panel being held on Saturday 24th August.
BFI spokeswoman Liz Parkinson told Doctor Who News today: Due to guest availability, we've moved our Eighth Doctor event to a little later in the year, so our Ninth Doctor event has been brought forward. The date for the TV movie screening is yet to be announced, while the story to be shown from the Ninth Doctor's era, and the accompanying guests, will also be confirmed in due course.
Because of the overwhelming demand to attend the monthly screenings, a ballot system is being run to allocate tickets and priority booking for the Ninth Doctor event will take place, as previously, via the members' section.
BFI Champions can enter the ballot from Monday 1st July and members can enter from Tuesday 2nd July.
The ballot will close on Friday 5th July and be run over the weekend of 6th and 7th July, with all entrants to be notified on Monday 8th July if they have been successful or not. Any tickets reserved for Champions and members through the ballot will be held until 8.30pm on Friday 12th July, and any that are unclaimed by then will be released for public sale on Saturday 13th July.
Although all the screenings in the season so far have been immediate sell-outs, returns and stand-bys are a strong possibility, so if all else fails keep checking with the BFI!
The BFI will be showing the episodes Bad Wolf and The Parting of the Ways to mark the Ninth Doctor's era for its Doctor Who At 50 season.
The two stories, written by Russell T Davies and directed by Joe Ahearne (who, coincidentally, was born on Saturday 23rd November 1963 - the date the first episode of Doctor Who was broadcast), first aired on Saturday 11th June and Saturday 18th June 2005 respectively. They comprised the Series 1 finale, which saw Christopher Eccleston hand over control of the TARDIS to David Tennant after an epic battle against the Daleks.
The screenings are being held on Saturday 24th August from 2pm at BFI Southbank. The special guests for the accompanying panel session are yet to be announced.
Tickets are being issued via a ballot system through the members' section, with BFI Champions able to enter the ballot from Monday 1st July and members from Tuesday 2nd July. The ballot will close on Friday 5th July and be run over the weekend of 6th and 7th July, with all entrants to be notified on Monday 8th July if they have been successful or not.
All tickets reserved for Champions and members through the ballot will be held until 8.30pm on Friday 12th July, and any that are unclaimed by then will be released for public sale on Saturday 13th July.
Although all the screenings in the season so far have been immediate sell-outs, returns and stand-bys are a strong possibility, so it's always worth checking back with the BFI.
The organisation is skipping from the Seventh Doctor's era to the Ninth Doctor's because of guest availability, with the Eighth Doctor event currently planned to be held sometime in September. The precise date plus guests are still to be confirmed and announced.
The BFI today announced details for its celebratory screenings marking the eras of the Eighth and Tenth Doctors - with both happening within a week of each other but in reverse order.
The Tenth Doctor will be honoured on Sunday 29th September at 2pm with the Series 4 two-part finale The Stolen Earth and Journey's End, while the sole TV outing - so far - for the Eighth Doctor will be shown on the big screen on Saturday 5th October at 10am.
The adventures are being shown at BFI Southbank as part of the organisation's Doctor Who At 50 season.
The Series 4 finale - written by Russell T Davies and directed by Graeme Harper - first aired on 28th June and 5th July 2008 and saw the universe crumbling and a number of planets, including Earth, having been stolen by Davros as part of his plot threatening the whole of reality. Julian Bleach took on the mantle of the Daleks' creator, with all the companions seen in the revamped series uniting with the Doctor to defeat the evil, mad Kaled scientist and the Daleks.
Meanwhile, the big-budget TV Movie - written by Matthew Jacobs and directed by Geoffrey Sax - originally aired in the UK on 27th May 1996 (although it had its global TV premiere in Canada on 12th May 1996) and saw the Seventh Doctor regenerate into the Eighth. It also featured the return of the Master and a new-look TARDIS interior.
Tickets to both events will be issued via a ballot system through the members' section. Separate ballots are being held for each event but the same dates will apply for both. BFI Champions can enter the ballots on Monday 5th August and members from Tuesday 6th August. The ballots will close on Friday 9th August and will be run over the weekend of 10th and 11th August, with all entrants being notified on Monday 12th August whether they have been successful or not.
All tickets reserved for Champions and members via the ballots will be held for claiming by them until 8.30pm on Friday 16th August. Any that are unclaimed by then will be released for public sale on Saturday 17th August.
The guests for both events will be announced in due course.
Videos of the guest panels from the two most recent celebratory screenings by the BFI were released today.
The BFI is running a Doctor Who At 50 season throughout this year, curated by Justin Johnson and Dick Fiddy, and a six-minute excerpt from the question-and-answer session at the Seventh Doctor event, held on Saturday 27th July and which saw a big-screen showing of Remembrance of the Daleks, features Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred, and Ben Aaronovitch in conversation with Johnson.
Meanwhile, the Ninth Doctor event - held on Saturday 24th August with Bad Wolf and The Parting of The Ways being screened - spawned a longer video, with Joe Ahearne, Phil Collinson, and Bruno Langley on the panel.
The next event, which will mark the Tenth Doctor's era, is to take place at the BFI on Sunday 29th September when the episodes The Stolen Earth and Journey's End will be shown and - as previously reported - David Tennant will be among the special guests. As with all the other events in the BFI season it has sold out, but returns are possible - keep checking here - as are stand-bys on the day.
Less than a week after that - and again as previously reported - Paul McGann will be the headline guest on Saturday 5th October at the sold-out event in honour of his time as the Eighth Doctor, with a screening of the TV Movie taking place. The full guest line-up, announced today, will be Daphne Ashbrook, Geoffrey Sax, Andrew Cartmel, Gary Russell, Nicholas Briggs, and Jason Haigh-Ellery. Cartmel, Briggs, Russell, and Haigh-Ellery will be forming a panel to talk about the years between the McGann movie and the show's return, while McGann, Ashbrook, and Sax will be the panel guests following the screening.
Yesterday, Ashbrook revealed on her website that she would be taking part, commenting: I can't wait to see Paul McGann, Gary Russell, Jason Haigh Ellory [sic] and Andrew Cartmel. And Geoffrey Sax, whom I haven't seen since we shot the movie in 1996! The event will be followed by a signing at the BFI Shop of advance copies of the BBC's 50th-anniversary book Doctor Who - The Vault, due out on Thursday 24th October, with author Marcus Hearn.
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: The BFI is very proud of our long relationship with both the BBC and the Doctor Who production team, and we are delighted to be able to mark the 50th anniversary, and the culmination of our year-long celebrations, with this special screening of The Day of the Doctor. 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: It's hard to believe that we're now only a month away from the official 50th anniversary and our year-long celebrations here at BFI Southbank are finally drawing to a close. With ten Doctors under our belt, there's only room for one more, and with An Adventure in Space and Time and The Day of the Doctor 3D both playing in NFT1 in November, our final time-travelling voyage is set for Sunday 8th December as we look at the most recent incumbent to grace the TARDIS.
It's been an amazing year, and if Dick and I had to turn the clock back a year and ask ourselves who we hoped would have graced our stage, we could never have predicted that we would have been in such illustrious company. 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.
The video of the guest panel at the BFI's celebratory screenings for the Tenth Doctor's era is now available to watch online.
Held on Sunday 29th September as part of its Doctor Who At 50 season, the event saw The Stolen Earth and Journey's End shown on the big screen, with David Tennant, Catherine Tate, Phil Collinson, and Graeme Harper taking to the stage afterwards for a discussion and question-and-answer session with season co-curator Justin Johnson.
A three-minute excerpt was uploaded to the BFI's YouTube channel today, with the full Q&A - just shy of 30 minutes in length - available to watch in the BFI's video section.
