The full line-up has now been announced and tickets are on sale for the 11th Fantastic Films Weekend from 15 – 17 June 2012 at the National Media Museum, Bradford. Here, from the website, is just a taste of what’s in store:

“We will be schlocking and rolling you with some of the most outrageous horror and fantasy ever committed to celluloid. Fans of schlocky horror should look out for an ultra rare print of 70′s Grindhouse classic I Drink Your Blood, our Troma triple-bill, and our Saturday night special guest Harley Cokeliss talking about his career in the genre alongside a screening of the Roger Corman-produced Battletruck. Cokeliss’ career in the genre has spanned decades and features second unit directorial duties on The Empire Strikes Back.

We’ll also be proving that sisters are certainly doing it for themselves with screenings celebrating women in the genre including Grace Jones’ classic Vamp, saucy sci-fi opus Barbarella and the soon-to-be-remade Red Sonja. We will also peek behind the scenes of Hammer with Renée Glynne, script supervisor on many of the studio’s classics including The Quatermass Xperiment which will screen alongside her interview.

One of FFW’s trademarks is its love of genre retro and we have recruited guest curator, Hammer film historian, writer and publisher, Robert Simpson to programme a unique and premiere-packed Hammer strand. We are also proud to present a FFW first – a not-to-be-missed, 3-strip widescreen Cinerama presentation of The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm. While TV Heaven will be going timelord-tastic with a Doctor Who takeover celebrating every Doctor across one weekend.

FFW also teams up with Leeds International Film Festival’s Fanomenon for an evening of giallo including a rare screening of an archive 35mm print of Four Flies On Grey Velvet and an onstage interview with new heir to the giallo crown Andreas Marschall, followed by a screening of his new films Masks.”

For further programming details and to buy tickets visit the website HERE

The Minister of Chance is an audio podcast Doctor Who spin-off written and produced by Dan Freeman of Radio Static. Freeman first created the Minister (then played by Stephen Fry) in the award-winning Doctor Who drama Death Comes To Time.

“Now in his fourth incarnation, defrocked Time Lord, The Minister Of Chance, finds himself saddled with Kitty – an assistant he apparently cannot get rid of – and perilously entangled in the court intrigues and military politics of a forest planet on the brink of war. Jenny Agutter, Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann and Paul Darrow join Julian Wadham (The Iron Lady) and Lauren Crace (EastEnders) in a mould-breaking audio adventure that will take you to a spectacular world where science is heresy and magic is law…”

What’s more, downloads are FREE! For more information, visit the website HERE or download Episode 1: The Broken World from HERE

Actress Jenna-Louise Coleman has been unveiled as the Doctor’s next companion once Karen Gillan leaves the show, the BBC has reported. She is said to be a long-time fan of the show and is delighted at winning the role.

Who she will play, and how her character and the Doctor meet, is being kept firmly under wraps at the moment.

Read the full BBC report HERE

The Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Horror Films has announced the nominees for its 38th annual Saturn Awards. Leading contenders in film include Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Hugo, The Adjustment Bureau and Rise of the Planet of the Apes. TV nominations include Doctor Who, Torchwood: Miracle Day, Being Human and American Horror Story. The winners will be announced on 20 June 2012.

In additon to the Saturn Awards, filmmaker Martin Scorsese will receive The George Pal Memorial Award in recognition of his career achievements.

Full story HERE

Peter Halliday, the actor who starred as Dr John Fleming in the BBC’s A for Andromeda series in 1961, has died at the age of 87. A well-known and highly-respected character actor, Halliday played numerous roles in TV, film and theatre throughout his career, including in Doctor Who, Nigel Kneale’s Beasts, Madhouse with Vincent Price, Out of the Unknown and The Avengers.

Read the BBC’s obituary HERE

Still from A For Andromeda (c) BBC

IDW Publishing will make history when it teams up the Doctor with the crew of the USS Enterprise in comic book format for the first time in Star Trek: The Next Generation / Doctor Who: Assimilation 2.

Launching in May 2012, the comic will feature the Borg and the Cybermen as they create an unholy alliance resulting in potential disaster for all humanity. Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of the USS Enterprise find themselves joining forces with the Doctor and his companions, with the fate of the galaxy hanging in the balance.

The eight-issue series will be written by Scott and David Tipton, the authors of critically acclaimed Star Trek: Infestation, with a helping hand from longtime Doctor Who writer Tony Lee, and will feature fully painted artwork by J.K. Woodward (Fallen Angel).

Doctor Who and Star Trek are two hugely successful franchises that began as television series, and have expanded into a number of other media. Nearly five decades and 1,500 episodes in the making, this is the moment that both Trekkers and Whovians have been waiting for!

Full information from IDW Publishing HERE

DOCTOR WHO: THE COMPLETE GUIDE by Mark Campbell

Constable and Robinson, s/b, £6.99

Reviewed by Matthew Johns

Just like the old fence paint adverts said; this does what it says on the tin.  It is a complete guide to Doctor Who – the television series, books, audio plays and various spin offs.

This starts with the very first William Hartnell episode and, going all the way up to the end of Matt Smith’s first series (the 31^st), it lists the principal cast members, a brief synopsis, major crew (e.g. director, composer, writer), and then a brief dissection of each episode followed by a verdict from the author.

I’ve always been more of a casual fan of Doctor Who – I cut my teeth on the classic Tom Baker years and gave up when it descended into farce with Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy. However, I found this book absolutely fascinating – it’s full of nuggets of trivia, ranging from where the show was filmed (all around West London and the Home Counties for the early years), to guest stars, future doctors and companions’ appearances before their times.

Whether you’re a casual fan or more die-hard, this book is an excellent companion to the series and an enjoyable read. Relive your youth and the Doctor that you grew up with through these pages, or just discover facts about the life and times of everyone’s favourite Time Lord.

Sherlock actor, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Noel Clarke, who played companion Mickey in Doctor Who, are reportedly set to appear in the next Star Trek film. The follow-up to the 2009 film in the franchise will again be directed by JJ Abrams and is expected to be released in 2013.

Read the full BBC story HERE

Doctor Who fans are rejoicing at the discovery of two of the “missing” episodes from the show’s early days. The re-discovered episodes are the third of the four-part story, Galaxy Four, transmitted in the autumn of 1965, and the second part of The Underwater Menace, from early 1967.

Read the full story on the BBC website HERE

Picture (c) BBC

DOCTOR WHO: THE SILENT STARS GO BY by Dan Abnett. BBC Books £12.99

Reviewed by Jay Eales

After last year’s special Doctor Who novel, The Coming of the Terraphiles, by living legend of science fiction Michael Moorcock, and talk of upcoming books by Alastair Reynolds and Stephen Baxter, you might be forgiven for being a little surprised to see Dan Abnett penning the latest. Don’t get me wrong – I speak as an Abnett fan from the days of his Knights of Pendragon and Sleeze Brothers comics for Marvel UK, through his ongoing strips for 2000AD. As a lapsed gamer, I am well aware of his hugely successful books for the Black Library. He just writes them far faster than I could possibly read them! He has every right to be given a high profile book like this. It’s just … he’s following Michael freaking Moorcock! Hopefully he will bring along the Abnettites to the range in the same way that his predecessor drew his fan base to buy their first Doctor Who novel.

These qualms aside, and taking the book on its own merits, I can see why he got the job. Where Moorcock wrote a Moorcock story that happened to feature the Doctor, Abnett does a bravura job of capturing the spirit of the current TV series in prose. Given they’re on the cover, it’s no spoiler to reveal the return of the Ice Warriors features heavily here. Abnett’s tic of creating neologisms is present and correct, and the regular cast are given sparkling dialogue throughout. I absolutely loved Abnett’s usage of the psychic paper. If only the regular line of Doctor Who novels were at this level. Sadly, all too often, they’re pale photocopies, not helped by the extremely tight deadlines the authors are given.

If you’re a fan of the current iteration of Doctor Who, you’ll find this goes together with it like fish fingers and custard. If you’re not, the statement still stands.