Doctor Who goes 3D for its 50th anniversary

Technology has finally caught up with Doctor Who, which is to be screened in 3D for its 50th anniversary later this year.

Doctor Who will celebrate its half centenary with a special birthday edition on 23 November, exactly 50 years after its first episode An Unearthly Child aired. The 3D special will be shown in cinemas and can be watched at home on the BBC HD channel.

The BBC’s controller of drama commissioning Ben Stephenson said: “It’s about time. Technology has finally caught up with Doctor Who and your television is now bigger on the inside. A whole new dimension of adventure for the Doctor to explore.”

Stephenson said the anniversary of The Time Lord was a national event that would celebrate Britishness, and announced he wanted to make the BBC “more British than ever”.

“It is about applying the Danny Boyle vision to our work- a bold, adventurous, authorial approach that exports because of its Britishness not despite it,” he said.

The BBC has also announced more drama commissions, including another series of the popular show Call the Midwife, set to return in 2014.

Atlantis, a new 13-part drama, will take the Saturday night slot previously held by Merlin. The series is penned by Misfits writer and Merlin creator Howard Overman, and centres on an eponymous city, “a mysterious, ancient place; a world of bull leaping, of snake haired goddesses and of palaces so vast it was said they were built by giants.”

Other new commissions include an adaptation of PD James’ bestselling novel Death Comes to Pemberley, and a one-off drama Burton and Taylor starring Helena Bonham Carter and Dominic West in the roles of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.