Australian ratings and news

Doctor Who's Australian ratings continue to impress on Sunday evenings. Midnight averaged 1,095,000 viewers in the five major capital cities, whileTurn Left rated even more with 1,169,000. The latter episode being the Time Lord's best Aussie ratings since the record 1.248 million for 'Voyage of the Damned', 'Left' even beating Channel Seven's high-rating 'Dancing with the Stars'. The Confidential Cutdown versions of 'Look Who's Talking' and 'Here Come the Girls' also had excellent ratings gaining 853,000 and 941,000 viewers respectively, the latter being the programme's best Australian ratings ever.

Meanwhile, in the local media, Russell T. Davies has told Michael Idato of The Sydney Morning Herald that 'there is a fundamental format to Doctor Who, which should never change-he's a wanderer...You're never changing the character, you're just putting more and more material into it and a bigger range of emotions...It's not like I think of 13 ideas and pick the ones I want, it's about thinking which writers will do what ideas well and keeping things spinning...In each season you want a historical story, a futuristic story, a modern-day story; some which are funny, some which are dark and there are some things you want to revisit. There are certain tent poles in the series that help you know where you are'. He also says of his successor Steven Moffatt that while 'he's famous for writing episodes that explore darker aspects of the story...he's also written some of the wittiest dialogue...Steve will do a brilliant job.' CitySearch previews 'Turn Left' writing that 'it makes for engrossing, tense and sometimes jaw-dropping television. Tate pretty much carries this episode on her own, and what a great job she does, too. It's around about this episode that all her critics should be quietly retracting their earlier comments.' Meanwhile Pat Sheil also of 'The Sydney Morning Herald', previews The Stolen Earth and laments that while the new series has 'lost its sense of the ridiculous' this episode is 'a hoot.'

Meanwhile, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation has confirmed that it is showing the full 65 minute episode version of 'Journey's End' with the 25 minute Confidential Cutdown at the later time of 10.45pm on Sunday 28 September.

Thanks to the contributors to the Australian forums