New talent is needed for DW

Since the return of Doctor Who to British television, there have been many opportunities for UK children to participate in the programme, from the Blue Peter contests that gave us the Abzorbaloff and young Creet in "Utopia", to the "Doctor Who Backstage" contest held for Children in Need last year. Now older Doctor Who fans will have an opportunity to appear as an alien in a special Doctor Who scene.

John Barrowman is hosting a new programme called "Tonight's the Night", in which members of the public will be able to reveal their hidden talents and perform in a professional venue. According to an earlier press release, "this could mean duetting with a favourite pop group, singing with a big band or tripping the light fantastic with the cast of a hit West End musical."

Now the BBC's Doctor Who website has revealed that "Tonight's the Night" is holding a contest for Doctor Who fans over the age of 18 to appear as an alien of their own creation in a specially written scene.

The contest will be held in several stages. For the first stage, contestants are asked to create a costume for a new Doctor Who alien and submit a photograph of themselves in the costume to the programme makers.

They must also create a name, home planet, powers, weaknesses and other details about their alien and submit them with the photograph.The judges will select 50 "aliens" to participate in the second stage, an "Alien Activity Day".

There, the contestants will compete in several group and character tasks and be judged by the programme's panel. Ten semi-finalists will be selected and will meet the judges individually and be assessed on their "vocal, movement and scene stealing abilities", and three finalists will be chosen.

The finalists will complete a series of "alien oriented challenges", and a winner will be chosen. The winner will appear in a Doctor Who scene exclusively written for him or her, which will air on "Tonight's the Night" in April or May.

Full details and the application form are available at the BBC's Be on a show website. The photograph and application must be submitted by 28 March 2009, so get to work!

Maybe they have an overwhelming desire to conquer the Universe? Perhaps they have travelled through time and space or survived the Rift only to be stranded on Earth..
Well, this is your chance to prove it. If you know an adult with the skills and creativity to invent their very own alien, then maybe they could become part of the Doctor Who Universe and even appear in their very own Doctor Who special scene.

That's right! If you know of any mature aliens with an original name, home planet and background story who can design their very own home made alien outfit, why not get them to enter this exciting Alien Talent Search.

They could be the lucky winner, and if so, experience a chance of a lifetime to work with an award winning BBC team spending several hours on set filming their very own special scene. This will appear on 'Tonight's the Night' BBC One in April/May 2009 (subject to scheduling).
How to get involved?

The first phase is to get your mature alien to enter the 'Online Selection' stage, this is where the fun begins and they get the chance to show how creative they are by making an original alien outfit.

This could be a papier-mâché painted head combined with a clever or funny selection of old clothes.

Maybe they could build and paint a unique armoured suit or turn into a feathered foe with the help of just a few old pillows.

Remember, these are just ideas to get the cosmic creativity going and are not necessarily what the team will be looking for in their shortlist!

Once all the entries have been received, they will be judged by a team of BBC programme makers with up to 50 of the most outstanding applicants being invited to Phase Two of the competition which will take place in London.

This will be the 'Alien Activity Day' where the lucky few will get a chance to impress the Doctor's assistants in his search for a new alien race!

Could it get any better? Oh yes, the final ten aliens will be required to face the expert panel individually and may be assessed on vocal, movement and scene stealing abilities. Three finalists will then face a final series of alien orientated challenges, but only one will win this once in a life time experience.

Do you know someone up for the challenge? If yes, find out more about this amazing competition on the Be on a Show website.

Don't forget - it's important to remember that entrants must be over 18 to participate in this competition. The closing date for all entries is 23:59 on Saturday 28th March 2009.