Barry Ward's blog

Nicola Bryant will be performing in the "SoundPower Orchestra's Christmas concert" at Gibside Chapel on Saturday 3rd December at 2pm.

The orchestra will be playing a piece with words and music by Nicola herself! Nicola would love people to come along. It will be a very informal concert, mince pie and mulled wine included, all for £14.

Children In Need is upon us, and this year our friends at Doctor Who Online are getting behind the cause more than ever! They have put together a fantastic collection of goodies to be auctioned on eBay that every Doctor Who fan will love with 100% of the proceeds going to Children in Need!

To commemorate the new series of Doctor Who, Time Out are releasing a special Doctor Who collectors set featuring SIX different covers. They have been granted access to the BBC's photo archive to hand pick six images from the eagarly-anticipated news series.

Inside the magazine they interview the stars and preview the new series. There is also an exclusive interview with Steven Moffat.

The only place to get a complete set is from the Time Out shop itself. The set costs £20 - including UK postage, packaging and a FREE street poster. There is only a limited supply, so pre-ordering as soon as possible is recommended.

You can order them from Time Out here: www.timeout.com/doctorwhoset

Click on the images below to view larger versions.

Our friends at Doctor Who Online have teamed up with the guys behind the hugely popular 'Will it Blend?' YouTube viral series, in an attempt to exterminate The Doctor's greatest enemy once and for all, in a Blendtec Total Blender.

OK. Series 5 is well and truly over. I'm sure that we have all been re-watching it (or part of it) - if only to see how it all fits together. 'The Big Bang' certainly raised as many questions as it answered.

I know that some of you are uncertain how to judge the last two episodes (or the season as a whole) until we eventually find out about The Silence, River Song, etc...

Ian Stacey has written to us with the following information:

In an article in this weeks Radio Times Christopher Eccleston talks about his reasons for leaving Doctor Who. He explains that he "didn't enjoy the environment and the culture that we, the cast and crew, had to work in" but that he is proud of his time in the programme as it "broke the mould and it helped to reinvent it."

We promised to add new sections to the website and I am pleased to announce that we have done just that.

Celestial Toybox
Today we opened up our Toybox and hope that you will enjoy browsing through the items therein.

I enjoyed 'The Hungry Earth'. I enjoyed the slower pace that a two-parter affords. I enjoyed the familiar Doctor Who territory of a handful of characters in an isolated location. I also enjoyed Matt Smith's performance. He really is starting to flesh out the character of the 11th Doctor - humour, sensitivity, indignation, vulnerability... Marvellous.

But...