Two new Doctor Who-related publications are available from Hirst Books.

Look Who’s Talking by Colin Baker
To many, Colin Baker is the sixth Doctor Who; to some, he is the villainous Paul Merroney in the classic BBC drama The Brothers. But to the residents of South Buckinghamshire he is a weekly voice of sanity in a world that seems intent on confounding him. Marking the 15th anniversary of his regular feature in the Bucks Free Press, this compilation includes over 100 of his most entertaining columns, from 1995 to 2009, complete with new linking material. With fierce intelligence and a wicked sense of humour, Colin tackles everything from the absurdities of political correctness to the joys of being an actor, slipping in vivid childhood memories, international adventures and current affairs in a relentless rollercoaster of reflections, gripes and anecdotes. Pulling no punches, taking no prisoners and sparing no detail, the ups and downs of Colin life are shared with panache, honesty and clarity, and they are every bit as entertaining and surreal as his trips in that famous police box... for a world that is bewildering, surprising and wondrous, one need look no further than modern Britain, and Colin Baker is here to help you make sense of it all, and to give you a good laugh along the way

Shooty Dog Thing by Paul Castle
Since the 1970s, Doctor Who fans have written and produced fanzines. Some of the most quirky, passionate and subversive writing is still to be found in the pages of lovingly crafted, home-spun, desktop-published fanzines, and Shooty Dog Thing is no exception.Cool and accessible, Shooty Dog Thing is inspiring a new wave of fandom. This book will make you remember why you fell in love with Doctor Who in the first place; challenging established views, covering The Doctor’s travels on TV, in books, comic strips and on audio; and finding reasons to love this very special show just that little bit more than the casual viewer. Shooty Dog Thing is louder, braver, and more loving. The best of the first 10 issues is compiled here for your enjoyment, along with some lovely, juicy new stuff, including contributions from Doctor Who writer Paul Cornell, Doctor Who historian David J. Howe and the original Doctor Who glamour girl, Anneke Wills.

Both books can be ordered, signed, from hirstbooks.com

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The BBC has confirmed our story from yesterday that David Tennant and Catherine Tate will return to Radio 2 on Saturday morning when they once more stand in for Jonathan Ross.

It will be the third time the duo have stood in for the presenter, hosting the three hour radio show. This weeks guests include Anthony Head, who appeared in the Series 2 story School Reunion playing Mr Finch, Ricky Gervais and the rock band La Roux.

We understand the programme was recorded on Friday and will not be live. Radio 2 can be heard around the world via the BBC Website. The programme begins at 1000 GMT.

Update. The programme has now aired and can be heard for the next seven days on the BBC iPlayer.

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Astronomer Dr Megan Argo has published a report on a major cosmic discovery in the form of a Doctor Who story!

The discovery relates to a powerful jet of energy seen from an exploding star in a distant galaxy observed when Dr Argo was working with an international team at Jodrell Bank. As well as the more scientific technical report on the event (to be published in Nature), the doctor, a keen science fiction and Doctor Who fan, decided to also write the discovery up in story form in order to introduce the discovery to the general public.

Megan, from Macclesfield, Cheshire, told Skymania News:

I've been a Doctor Who fan since I was a child. It was partially to blame for me becoming a scientist. I first came across an concept called entropy in a Doctor Who story called Logopolis and remember being fascinated, even though it was some ten years before it was ever mentioned in a physics lesson.

You can read the story of the discovery through the eyes of the Doctor and Martha in Doctor Who and the Silver Spiral from Megan's own blog; the official title of the paper in Nature will be: "A mildly relativistic radio jet from the normal Type Ic Supernova 2007gr".

Reported by Scientific American.

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David Tennant has attended the Radio Times Covers Party in London. The annual event is open to all those who have appeared on the cover of the UK listings magazine over the year. In 2009 Tennant appeared on three covers as the Doctor. A full report on the party is available on the Radio Times website, along with a short video shot at the occasion.

A tweet from drummer William Bowerman implies David Tennant and Catherine Tate will once more host Jonathan Ross's Radio show this weekend. This has not been confirmed by the BBC who still have Ross listed as presenter on their website.

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Filming for Matt Smith's first series as the Doctor continues with the team returning to a location they have used already for scenes earlier in the series.

Details and photos below.

The production team has returned to the Old Vicarage in Rhymney in South Wales. Filming took place at this location in October for what is believed to be episode one of the new series. The TARDIS prop is present, under a tarpaulin, in the vicarage garden. Although all the filming has taken place inside the Vicarage so far, lights have been rigged in the garden ready for a future scene. The windows of the vicarage have been blacked out. Matt Smith has been seen on location today.

We understand Location filming will take place at Stonehenge sometime next week.

Photos courtesy of ahremsee of Gallifrey Base. Information from The Silver Cloak

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The animated story Dreamland will be be released in North America on 4th May. The 45 minute story was originally made for the BBC's interactive service.

The story features the vocal talents of David Tennant, Georgia Moffett, David Warner, Stuart Milligan and Clark Peters and is set in the infamous alien hotspot Roswell. It is described by writer Phil Ford as 'Doctor Who meets a Fifties monster B-movie'.

Like the UK release, the DVD will be part of a two disc set and will feature the three documentaries looking back at the last five years of Doctor Who, Doctor Who's Greatest Moments, which were shown in the UK last summer.

More details and the cover can be seen at TVShowsonDVD

The DVD is released in the UK on 1st February.

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2 entertain have revealed, via their twitter page, that the second story to be included in the DVD Revisitations Box Set will be the 1977 Tom Baker story The Talons of Weng Chiang.

The story, which is one of the most highly-regarded of the Fourth Doctor's era, was originally released on DVD in April 2003. The updated version will contain new behind the scenes features. The other story so far confirmed for the set is The TV Movie, staring Paul McGann. The set will be released in the UK later this year.

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The Northampton Chronicle reports that the five-inch model of new Doctor, Matt Smith, has completely sold out. Shops across the actor's home county have reported queues of people trying to obtain the figure. The paper quotes Smith's mother, Lynne Smith, as saying how amazed she was at the likeness of the model to her son. "It was fabulous to see his first model, it was really exciting for us all."

Comedian and Big Finish actor Charlie Ross has launched a Facebook campaign to try to get Bernard Cribbins 1960s hit song "Right Said Fred" back into the UK charts. Ross said "After the campaign to get Rage Against the Machine to the Christmas number one here in the UK, I thought this was firstly a fitting tribute to Bernard following his wonderful performance in The End Of Time and also it would be a lot of fun!"

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DVD extras for the third story in the Myths and Legends boxset, Underworld, have been cleared by the British Board of Film Classification.

54 minutes of extras have been cleared to accompany the four part story originally shown in 1978.

• Underworld - In studio footage 17'27"
• Into The Unknown - The making of Underworld 30'41"
• Photo Gallery 5'52"

The Box set is released in the UK at the end of March.

A 23" deleted shot from the Creature from the Pit has also been cleared in preperation for that story's release and the Doctor Who Restoration Team have published details of their work on the early March release of The Space Museum/The Chase.

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Entertainment Weekly is reporting that NBC have put David Tennant's US pilot Rex is Not Your Lawyer on hold. There were reports that it was under consideration to fill a 10pm slot this spring, to help fill the space on the network caused by moving the Jay Leno show out of primetime.

However it now appears the network has passed, for now, on the show, with the sets being dismantled this week. There is a possibility that the show will be commissioned in the fall and sets are being stored in case that happens.

NBC have not commented on the story.

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The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Day One of Torchwood: Children of Earth delivered a record audience for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's digital channel ABC2. The first episode had 190,000 viewers, including time-shifted viewers.

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This last week has seen production for the 2010 series of Doctor Who continue with scenes filmed at Brangwyn Hall in Swansea, a location previously seen in "Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead", and Torchwood's "Children of Earth". See the spoiler section for some more details and cast members seen at the Hall!

Filming is taking place for the series finale, episodes 12/13. It is believed that the Hall is being utilised as a museum in the story, with Egyptian props, a polar bear, and a dinosaur seen being taken in!

Though filming took place inside the Hall, notable cast members were seen arriving/leaving, including principals Matt Smith and Karen Gillan, and Alex Kingston (River Song, who was also involved in the first block of filming last year), plus Nick Briggs (voice of the Daleks) and Barnaby Edwards (Dalek operator) - however, it should be pointed out that no Daleks were actually seen at the Hall so there is no confirmation they will feature in the finale!

Information and photos courtesy of Asti of Gallifrey Base.

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The audio documentary Doctor Who at the BBC: A Legend Reborn has been delayed due to problems clearing some of the material on the disc.

The CD was due to be released by BBC Audiobooks on Thursday. However, when compiling the master tape a small amount of material was included for which BBC Audiobooks were unable to obtain clearance. As a result the disc has been recalled and a new master is being produced.

A small number of discs were distributed before the problem was realised, giving the recipients a rare unedited version of the documentary.

The new version will hopefully be released on 11th February.

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BBC Worldwide is in talks to develop its key products into digital games in a move which could see Doctor Who appearing on many platforms such as DS, Wii, iPhone and Facebook.

The move, reported by MCV, is a turnaround for BBC Worldwide which had retreated from the games business after poor sales caused the closure of its multimedia division in 2005.

The broadcaster is now engaging with software developers to produce high profile versions of its top series such as Doctor Who, Top Gear and The Night Garden, for the games market. Neil Ross Russell, head of Children's and Licensing said the BBC owns the rights to the most well known line up of Children characters around the world outside of Disney. "We are open to conversations with anybody in games about all kinds of business models to see how we can extract more value."

To help develop the brands BBC Worldwide has recruited former EA and Yahoo executive Robert Nashak as Executive Vice President of digital entertainment.

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Auctioneer Bonhams is to hold an auction dedicated to Doctor Who costumes and props from the BBC archives.

The event takes place on Wednesday 24th February at its Knightsbridge saleroom in Montpelier Street, South Kensington, London, starting at 2pm.

The catalogue is currently unavailable to view but people are advised to keep checking. The only lot that appears to be mentioned on the Bonhams site at the moment is a Sea Devil costume from 1984's Warriors of the Deep (pictured), estimated at between £3,000 and £5,000.

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The Peladon Boxset comes to Australia on March 4th when the two stories, The Curse of Peladon and The Monster of Peladon are released on DVD.

On the same day the 2 disc set featuring David Tennant's last appearance as the Doctor, the two parts of The End of Time, is released both on DVD and Blu-ray.

Maeanwhile Series Three of The Sarah Jane Adventures comes to the country when the series makes its debut on the Nickelodeon channel on February 23rd at 7pm.

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Doctor Who Adventures celebrates its 150th edition this week and to mark the milestone unearths 150 facts about the most horrible creatures in the universe.

There are facts about everything from Daleks and Cybermen to info about creatures seen in the last Doctor Who special. The issue comes with the stickiest gift ever – Mars slime. There is a Doctor vs Master photo story, three posters and a competition.

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Three new classic stories are due to be released in North America on 4th May according to Warner Home Video. These are the two Third Doctor Peladon stories, The Curse of Peladon and Monster of Peladon as well as the Fourth Doctor story The Masque of Mandragora.

Unlike the UK release, the Peladon stories will be released as two separate titles rather than a box set.

The covers can be seen at TVshowsonDVD.

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Doctor Who has once again been successful at the National Television Awards (NTAs), held at the O2 Arena in London this evening and broadcast live on ITV1 in the UK. This was the 15th running of the ceremony, at which television programmes and personalities are given awards voted on by the British public.

The programme has now won the Drama category at every NTA ceremony since 2005, although the awards were not held in 2009. This year it won the audience vote ahead of BBC One stablemate Casualty, Channel 4's Shameless and ITV1's The Bill. The award, presented by England football captain John Terry, was collected by David Tennant, Bernard Cribbins, June Whitfield and Elisabeth Sladen, with Cribbins delivering the acceptance speech. He thanked and praised Tennant and the production team, which he named as the best he has ever worked with in British television.

David Tennant later took the award for Drama Performance, beating competition from Philip Glenister (for BBC One's Ashes to Ashes), David Jason (ITV1's A Touch of Frost) and David Threlfall (Shameless). Tennant also won this category at the 2008 ceremony, and had taken victory in one of its predecessors, the Most Popular Actor category, in 2006 and 2007 - in 2005 this had been won by his predecessor Christopher Eccleston for his role as the Ninth Doctor.

Tennant was presented with his award by Sarah Brown, wife of Prime Minister Gordon Brown. In his acceptance speech, Tennant thanked the audience and praised the incoming team of Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and Steven Moffat. He spoke about how much he loves the programme and has done so since childhood, and how he is looking forward to watching as a fan again, not knowing what is going to happen next.

Tennant also presented the award for "Star Travel Documentary" to Stephen Fry earlier in the ceremony. Fry, who guest-starred in the 2001 Doctor Who website audio drama Death Comes to Time, was also later presented with an Outstanding Contribution Award for his work in British television.

A BBC News report and media articles on the event may be found at Doctor Who in the Media.

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In what amounts to confirmation that Series Four of The Sarah Jane Adventures has been commissioned, the BBC are recruiting a new producer to take over production of the series. The successful applicant will be based in Cardiff, and assumes responsibility for the programme which begins shooting in March. The series will once again consist of twelve thirty-minute episodes.

Series Three was shown in the UK last Autumn, achieving much higher than average ratings for CBBC. Series Two has just begun broadcasting on BBC Kids in Canada.

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The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that US network Fox is developing an American version of Torchwood.

According to the site, the project is being developed with the original executive team, most of whom are now based in Los Angeles. The pilot script would be written by Torchwood creator, Russell T Davies, with Julie Gardner and Jane Tranter acting as executive producers. The whole project would come under BBC Worldwide Productions.

Tranter and Gardner moved to the US with a specific brief to develop BBC properties for the American market.

Torchwood has been shown on BBC America where it set viewing records for the channel and has a strong fan base in the US. It is likely that if the series is commissioned some of the current cast would be involved; most likely John Barrowman would reprise the role of Captain Jack.

UPDATE, 20TH JAN:
BBC Worldwide Productions has confirmed to C21 Media that a Torchwood pilot script has been written for Fox, but say it's too early to comment on any further details.

A roundup of media articles on the story can be found in Doctor Who in the Media.

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DVD extras for two stories in the forthcoming DVD box set, Myths and Legends, have been cleared by the British Board of Film Classification.

For The Time Monster, 35 minutes of extras have been cleared to accompany the six part story.

• Between Now... And Now! Science and the Time Monster (Featurette) 23'37"
• Episode Three (Restoration Comparison) 3'21"
• Photo Gallery 7'59"

For the four part Horns of Nimon, a total of 48 minutes of extras have been cleared.

• Who Peter - Partners in Time - 1963-1989 (Featurette) 29'55"
• Part Two - Music Demos 2'55"
• Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre (Easter Egg) 1'18"
• Read the Writer - Anthony Read remembers 6'26"
• Photo Gallery 7'51"

Details for the third story in the set, Underworld, should be cleared soon. The box set is released in the UK on 29th March.

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The Welsh Government has given the go ahead to develop a new Drama Villiage at a site near Cardiff Bay to be used by BBC Wales.

The proposed centre would accommodate all BBC Drama made in Wales, including Doctor Who and any future series of Torchwood and the Sarah Jane Adventures as well as other drama productions made in the country such as Casualty and the Welsh language soap Pobol y Cwm.. The proposed site is the currently derelict, former dock side land at Roath Basin. The Welsh Government will work with Igloo Regeneration to develop the area and to progress with the building of the BBC Drama Village, which would total 170,000 sq ft of television studios and ancillary accommodation, as well as a new office building.

Menna Richards, Director of BBC Cymru Wales, said "This is a fantastic opportunity to build on the success of BBC Wales drama production and the wider creative industries in Wales."

Current Doctor Who production is based just outside Cardiff at Upper Boat near Pontypridd.

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2entertain have given some details of a new 8 part series called Tomorrow's Times looking at contemporary press reaction to the Classic Series of Doctor Who.

The series is produced by Marcus Hern and which will be issued as part of the extras on some future DVD releases. The first part is presented by Mary Tamm who played Romana alongside Tom Baker. A rough clip had been released on the classicdw twitter account.

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The Doctor Who Restoration Team have published details for the forthcoming DVD release of The Masque of Mandragora. The article has details about the clean up of the story and full details of the extras included on the disc. The DVD is due for release in the UK in February.

Toby Hadoke's solo comedy show, Moths Ate my Doctor Who Scarf, continues its tour around the UK. Dates have been added for Barnsley, Stockton, Whitehaven, Newport, Pitlochry and Bath. More details here.

Many papers have covered the BBC press release reporting that the BBC iPlayer has reached over 100 million requests since its launch on Christmas Day 2007, and the headline fact that a total of 1.3 million requested The End of Time.

For a full press roundup see our sister site Doctor Who in the Media.

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The actor James Cairncross has died at the age of 93. He played the part of Lemaitre in the first Doctor story The Reign of Terror and Beta in the second Doctor story The Krotons.

Cairncross was born in Dunfermline in 1915. He was a well known actor and lyricist appearing in many early television programmes such as Play of the Week and Z-Cars and films such as The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner and Tom Jones. He appeared with Ian McKellan in Hamlet and with Michael Redgrave in Twelfth Night. James Cairncross died 17 December, 2009, in Edinburgh.

Scotsman Obituary.

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To tie in with the publication of the updated edition of The Writer's Tale, some of Russell T Davies's scripts for the series are now available online.

The episodes are available as a PDF download. Stories available are the Christmas special, Voyage of the Damned; the Series Four stories Partners in Crime, Midnight, Turn Left, The Stolen Earth and Journey's End; and the five specials leading up to the departure of David Tennant, The Next Doctor, Planet of the Dead, The Waters of Mars and both parts of The End of Time.

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The New Zealand Herald has revealed that The End of Time will air in New Zealand in February.

Part One of David Tennant's swansong is scheduled for Sunday 7th February with Part Two following a week later on the 14th.

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The leader of Britain's Conservative Party has brushed off criticism from David Tennant. Talking to Richard Bacon on BBC Radio Five, David Cameron said "You can't win them all". He added "You're never going to win over everybody. I definitely believe there's no point trying to win over everyone. Say what you think, say what you believe in, say what you believe needs to be done and if people will come with you they will come with you." Cameron said he had not watched much of the latest series but grew up with Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker as the Doctor.

TVshowsonDVD reports that is reporting that both the 1975 original and 2008 remake versions of Terry Nation's Survivors are planned for DVD release in the USA. According to the report the new version of Survivors, which featured Freema Agyeman, will be released after both seasons air in the US.

As NBC in the US scrambles to find programming to fill its 10 p.m. weeknight prime time slot following the cancellation of The Jay Leno Show, several sources report that one option before NBC is to fast-track production of Rex is Not Your Lawyer, the proposed lawyer series starring David Tennant.

Some subscription copies of this month's Doctor Who Magazine appear to have been delayed by the transport problems caused by the current cold weather in the UK. The Magazine was sent out last Wednesday, however many have still not received it. DWM assures readers that the magazine is on its way and should be with subscribers shortly.



For more press items see Doctor Who in the Media.

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BAFTA have uploaded The Regeneration of Doctor Who onto their YouTube site.

The event, which took place at BAFTA last month, features Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner talking about their 6 year working relationship as executive producers on Doctor Who and the terrifying responsibility of bringing the show back to a new generation of viewers with Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant in the lead role.

Amongst a range of illuminating insights, the pair discussed their attempt to reinvigorate of the Saturday night prime time slot, the emergence of BBC Wales as a major player on the production landscape and explored why the character of the Doctor is such an extraordinary figure for writers to work with.

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A new fanzine dedicated to Doctor Who in comic strip form is being launched. Vworp Vworp! takes an affectionate look at Marvel/Panini’s Doctor Who comic strips and the magazine that spawned them – Doctor Who Magazine.

The first issue comes in two covers, the first a jam session between fourteen of the finest artists in Who comic history and the second is a nostalgic pastiche of a Doctor Who Weekly cover, designed by DWW's original editor, Dez Skinn.

Full details can be found on the website, including ordering details. There is a Facebook Group for those interested.

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Jonathan Ross features several Doctor Who related guests on his new series. Catherine Tate appears on Friday 15th January with Billie Piper appearing a week later on 22nd January. Matt Smith is promised for later in the series.

The magazine SFX has a list of 20 Things We Learnt from The Writer’s Tale: The Final Chapter. The book is published in the UK next week.

The Peverett Phile has an interview with actor Terry Molloy, who played Davros in the Classic Series.

Finally the American ABC network sitcom Better Off Ted featured a cameo by a new series Dalek in its New Year's Day episode. "The Great Repression" featured a scene where a few office techies are seen entering a basement electronics scrap room, where all office equipment and robots go at the end of their service. As they enter the room, a new series Dalek is seen just inside the doorway, amongst the other robots, and electronic junk.


For more press items in the last few days see Doctor Who in the Media.

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Filming for the new series of Doctor Who has returned to Caerphilly Castle in South Wales. The castle has been used as a location for filming The End of Time as well as well as episodes of Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures.

See the spoiler section for more details on what occured.

The scenes appear to be from episode six, believed to be called Vampires of Venice. Filming took place in the great hall and include a scene where a number of female vampires (like those shown in the series 5 trail) were ambushing the Doctor, Amy, Rory and someone named Isobella. Amy was dressed in a pink bath robe and Rory was in period costume.

The vampires were crowding round a doorway and hissing a lot, though only one was showing her teeth. The Doctor behind the door and was shouting "Isobella, Isobella.. No... No!".

Elsewhere in the Castle grounds, there were lots of corridors that had been dressed and lit for filming.

Information and photos courtesy of ahremsee of Gallifrey Base.

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Several news sources, including BBC News and The Mirror, have today picked up on comments by former Doctor Who star David Tennant in the latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine, where he gives his backing to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the Labour Party. He also criticises the Conservative Party, particularly opposition leader David Cameron.

In the magazine, published last Thursday, Tennant is quoted as saying:

"I would still rather have Gordon Brown than David Cameron... I would rather have a prime minister who is the cleverest person in the room, than a prime minister who looks good in a suit. I think David Cameron is a terrifying prospect... a regional newsreader who will jump on whatever bandwagon flies past. I get quite panicked at the notion that people are buying his rhetoric, because it seems very manipulative to me. Clearly, the Labour Party is not without some issues right now and I do get frustrated. They need to sort some stuff out, but they are still a better bet than the Tories."

Tennant appeared in a party political broadcast on behalf of the Labour Party during the 2005 General Election campaign. Although he has made critical comments about the Conservative Party in the past, including in the Radio Times, this is the first time that his political stance has been widely reported by the mainstream media.

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Final figures released by BARB make Doctor Who the most watched programme of Christmas week.

The End of Time, Part One had a final rating of 11.57 million on BBC One, much higher than the initial overnight figure reported. This alone makes the programme the 3rd highest rated on British Television for the week.

However if figures for those watching on BBC HD are included, as they arguably should be given the programme was simulcast on both channels, then an additional 470,000 viewers are added. This gives the episode had a final figure of 12.04 million viewers for its first showing, pushing the programme into the lead as the most watched programme of Christmas week.

This makes the episode one of only two in Doctor Who's long history to have been the most watched programme of the week. It is the 3rd highest rating since the series returned in 2005, only beaten by two previous Christmas specials, Voyage of the Damned and The Next Doctor. It has the 28th highest rating in the series history.

Doctor Who was the fifth most watched programme of the year, only being beaten by the Simon Cowell talent programmes. It was the highest rated programme on all of BBC Domestic Television, the first time this has happened. The previous highest place was 2nd for the year for The Voyage of the Damned which lost out to EastEnders. It was the highest rated drama of the year.

Another 1.18 million watched the repeat of the programme on BBC Three on Sunday, double the initial overnight figure, with an additional 770,000 watching on the iPlayer during the week. If the ratings for those who watched the programme on any platform during the first week after transmission are added together the total stands at an incredible 15.99 million.

Final figures for the second part of the story will be released next week.

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This weeks Doctor Who Adventures asks Are you ready for the new Doctor?

The magazine has special lenticular cover where you can watch the the Tenth Doctor regenerate into the Eleventh Doctor. Inside, Doctor Who Adventures says goodbye to the Tenth Doctor and hello to the Eleventh Doctor, played by Matt Smith. Plus there is a look at what it takes to be the biggest and baddest monster.

Also…

• FREE stickers of The End of Time
• Fact File: What we’ll miss about the Tenth Doctor
• Top 10 Heroic Exits
• Posters from The End of Time

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The British Board of Film Classification has cleared the Fourth Doctor story The Creature from the Pit for release on DVD.

The story, originally broadcast in the Autumn of 1979, stars Tom Baker as The Doctor, along with Lalla Ward as Romana and David Brierley as the voice of K9. Others in the cast include Myra Frances as Lady Adrast, Eileen Way as Karela and Geoffrey Bayldon as Organon.

The story was written by David Fisher and directed by Christopher Barry.

Extras cleared for the story are

• Christopher Barry: Director - 19'01"
• Team Erato - 14'46"
• Photo Gallery - 4'48"
• Animal Magic - 2'34"

No release date has yet been confirmed.

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After the traditional break for Christmas, filming on the next series of Doctor Who resumed this week. Yesterday saw the production team return to the very public location of Roald Dahl Plass - a venue last seen being blown up in Torchwood: Children of Earth!

Not to be put off by the snow that's hit the country this week, both Matt Smith and Karen Gillan were present for filming, alongside the TARDIS and guest star Tony Curran. See the spoiler section for more details on what occured!

The scenes as filmed, show the Doctor and Amy arriving at the Museum, presumbly the interior of which is the National Museum. Then a sequence was filmed where the TARDIS lands again but Van Gogh is with them. The Doctor says to him: "Welcome home - Paris, 2010." Then they all walk to the building.

It was a lovely little sequence, Matt looked fantastic - he was pretending to slip and slide in all the snow. And Amy. Poor Karen, she must have been frozen.

Information and photos courtesy of Scott Frankton

Not surprisingly, the media were quick to pick up on such public filming - for a run-down of articles see our Doctor Who in the Media article.

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TV Tonight blog reports that Part One of The End of Time will make its Australian debut on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Sunday 14 February 2010 at 7.30pm on ABC1. 'TV Tonight' also reports that Part Two of 'The End of Time' will screen the following Sunday, 21 February 2010, also on ABC1 at 7.30pm.

Thanks to TV Tonight.

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The BBC has released a new image on the Eleventh Doctor Matt Smith. The image is available on the BBC Website along with an image of the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors. The new picture forms the basis for the cover to the revamped Doctor Who Magazine which is available in the United Kingdom from today.

The magazine confirms the writers for Matt Smith's first series as the Doctor.

Lead writer Steven Moffat will write six of the thirteen episodes. He will be joined by Chris Chibnall who is writing two episodes and Mark Gatiss, Toby Whithouse, Gareth Roberts, Richard Curtis and Simon Nye all writing one episode each.

Toby Whithouse wrote the Series Two story School Reunion which saw the return of Sarah Jane Smith and K9 to the series. He has also written for Torchwood and created Being Human for BBC Three.

Chris Chibnall wrote the Series Three story 42. He was head writer on Torchwood and has also written for Life on Mars.

Mark Gatiss is one of only three people to have both written and appeared in Doctor Who. He wrote The Unquiet Dead for Series One and The Idiot's Lantern for Series Two. He later went on to appear in the Third Series story The Lazarus Experiment.

Gareth Roberts wrote The Shakespeare Code for Series Three and The Unicorn and the Wasp for Series Four. He co-wrote Planet of the Dead with Russell T Davies. He has also written for The Sarah Jane Adventures.

Neither Simon Nye or Richard Curtis have written for Doctor Who before. Nye was the creator of the long running sitcom Men Behaving Badly, which was based on his first novel, for which he won a Writers' Guild of Great Britain Award and a Royal Television Society Award. He adapted The Railway Children for television in 2000 and has written many pantomimes. Curtis, whose contribution to the series was announced in September, was Oscar nominated for Four Weddings and a Funeral and is the man behind many British comedy films and sitcoms.

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The new Doctor might have just uttered a few words so far, but his remark about still not being ginger has proved controversial with many grasping the wrong end of the stick. Perhaps egged on by comments in several newspapers, the BBC has received 143 complaints about the line, forcing the corporation to put out a statement clarifying that the Doctor was disappointed not to be ginger.

We would like to reassure viewers that Doctor Who doesn't have an anti ginger agenda whatsoever. This was a reprise of the line in the Christmas Invasion episode in 2005, when David Tennant discovers that he's not ginger, and here he is, missing out again - disappointed he's still not ginger.

In addition, the Doctor's previous companion Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) and his new one Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) are both redheads.

Further media items on this story can be found in this Doctor Who in the Media article.


Meanwhile, just 3 days after his debut on BBC America, the Eleventh Doctor turned up on the quiz show Jeopardy! The $800 question in the 1st round, under the category "Is This a Rerun?" was: "Matt Smith is the latest actor to be this Sci-fi Doctor, previously played by Peter Davison and Tom Baker". All three of the contestants appeared to know the answer.

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The End of Time, Part Two set a record for BBC America getting a total of 1.47 million viewers over the three placings on the channel. This is the largest audience ever for a programme on BBC America, beating The Waters of Mars which was shown just before Christmas.

The premier showing of David Tennant's swansong, starting at 8.30pm ET, got 1.02 million watching, with the repeats getting 224,000 and 96,000 viewers respectively. The Waters of Mars had 1.1 million across the three placings.

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The updated edition of The Writer's Tale reveals that Russell T Davies was approached to create a musical version of Torchwood, with music provided by Benny Anderson and Bjorn Ulvaeus from ABBA. Although the idea never proceeded beyond the initial concept stage, the Swedish duo are apparently fans of the show and were keen to take part.

The updated version of the book, which covers production of The End of Time, is released in the UK on 14th January.

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The Sunday afternoon repeat of The End of Time, Part Two, was watched by 1.7 million viewers on BBC One. The programme had a share of 9.6% and an AI of 89. The later BBC Three repeat had 0.28 million and a 1% share.

Australia's ABC Television have revealed, via their Facebook page, that they will air the two parts of The End of Time in February.

TV By The Numbers reports that the BBC America showing of The End of Time, Part One had a total audience of 904,000 viewers across the episodes three placings. The rating was down on The Waters of Mars which had 1.1 million watching. It was however the most watched programme on BBC America for the week with Doctor Who: Inside Look coming second with 497,000 watching.

The cover artwork for the Winter Specials and the Complete Specials DVD Box sets is now available. See the product list on the right for release dates.

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The final shortlists have been released for the 15th National Television Awards, which will take place at the O2 Centre in London later this month.

David Tennant is nominated for Best Drama Performance up against David Jason, David Threlfall and Philip Glenister.

Doctor Who is nominated as Best Drama along with Casualty, The Bill and Shameless.

Torchwood, John Barrowman and Eve Myles were nominated in the first round, but didn't make the final shortlist.

Voting is via the NTA Website.

Doctor Who has won the Best Drama award for the past four years, with a least one of the lead actors taking the Best Drama Performance or its previous actor / actress equivalents. It was during his acceptance for the 2008 award that David Tennant announced he was leaving the role of the Doctor. The winners of the 2010 awards will be announced on 20th January starting at 7.30pm and televised live on ITV1.

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The soundtrack website Music From The Movies has a new interview with Doctor Who composer Murray Gold, in which Gold confirms that he will be staying on to compose the music for the 2010 series of Doctor Who.

In the interview, Gold discusses composing and recording the scores for "The End of Time" and the other 2009 specials. He also mentions that he has already begun work on a new version of the Doctor Who theme for 2010, and that the forthcoming series will feature scripts by Mark Gatiss and Gareth Roberts.

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David Tennant's swansong scored an Appreciation Index figure of 89 on BBC One on Friday.

The Appreciation Index, or AI, is a measure of how much the audience enjoyed the programme. A figure of 89 is incredibly high, especially for a programme with such a large audience. The show scored well on all indicators, with viewers marking it as a high-quality programme which they made a special effort to watch. It scored highest with the female audience and with those aged 35-55.

The End of Time - Part Two is the highest scoring of the five specials. Only the last two episodes of Series Four have scored higher on their first transmission.

Earlier in the day, the repeat of The End of Time - Part One, with its lower audience of 2 million, scored an AI figure of 90.

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10.4 million people watched the final part of The End of Time on BBC One yesterday, according to unofficial overnight figures.

The programme got a 35.5% share of the total television audience and was the second most watched programme of the day. EastEnders once more took the top place with 11.6 million, the programme benefiting from the Doctor Who inheritance. The later showing of Coronation Street on ITV1 had 9.8 million viewers while its earlier placing got 8.6 million, with Doctor Who beating the soap in the period they were head to head. Doctor Who peaked with 10.87 million watching between 7:45 and 7:50pm.

The rating makes the Tenth Doctor's regeneration the most watched regeration in the series' history.

Doctor Who was also available on BBC HD where a further 389,000 watched the episode.

On BBC Three Doctor Who Confidential had 1.1 million watching with and additional 76,000 on BBC HD, one of the highest ratings for the series and the second highest multi-channel programme for the day.

2 million viewers watched the lunchtime BBC One repeat of The End of Time Part One, where the programme comfortably won its timeslot.

BBC News has published a report on the overnight ratings for the episode, also covering some of the critical and audience reaction to Tennant's departure.

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The overnight ratings for New Year's Day have been delayed. The panel used to compile the figures was changed on 1st January. The new system from BARB has been in preparation for four years and has been run in parallel with the old system since April 2009. It was expected to seamlessly launch with the figures for 1st January 2010, however there has been an unexpected delay. The overnight figures for Doctor Who will appear on the news page as soon as they become available.

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The passing of the Tenth Doctor is covered extensively in Saturday's papers. Beware reviews do contain spoilers of the episodes.

The Times has a minute by minute description of the story which it says is a great entrance and a great exit and has a look forward to the Moffat years while The Mail has a big photo feature on the episode. The Guardian describes the outgoing production team as masters. The Sun claims there was a huge electricity surge in the UK as the population switched on their kettles as the episode finished although The National Grid's website appears to contradict this. The paper's reviewer hated the episode calling it an embarrassing spectacle of overacting.

The Herald thought the story was funny and sad, scary and uplifting, threatening and comforting while The Telegraph felt that David Tennant said farewell to the series in thrilling yet emotional style.

Online, Den of Geek says the episode was an 80 minute exercise in just how much David Tennant is going to be missed and Airlock Alpha says the real heart of the episode was the interaction between Bernard Cribbins and Tennant, with both actors able to turn even the smallest piece of dialogue into something spectacular. SFX gives the episode five stars calling it a great finale with very clever writing, and incredibly sad yet resonant final words.

Matt Smith's local paper The Northampton Chronicle says the new Doctor will make the town proud.

The episode commentary, the last with Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner, is now on the BBC website.

For more press items in the last few days see GallifreyBase's Media Summary.

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Following the regeneration of David Tennant into Matt Smith, a section of the official BBC Website has been re-branded complete with exclusive preview of the new series.

The promo, which is now also on the BBC YouTube Channel, has no spoilers from The End of Time.



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Today sees the Tenth Doctor regenerate into the Eleventh, only the tenth time in Doctor Who's forty-seven year history that the Doctor has regenerated.

It marks the last story for the Tenth Doctor as played by David Tennant, who leaves the series after four years in the role and with 47 episodes under his belt. Tennant departs at the peak of his popularity, and was recently voted the best Doctor ever by the readers of Doctor Who Magazine. His dedication to the role has been tremendous, and he has led the cast of a series that scores incredibly high in the audience appreciation figures. His popularity is such that the BBC made him the centrepiece of its Christmas schedule; he is the first Doctor ever to have featured in a BBC One ident.

Today also marks the end of the Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner era of the series. Gardner and Davies have been involved with the show since the return was first mooted in 2003. Together they have been responsible for the realisation of the revived series and have turned Doctor Who into one of the biggest BBC properties in the first decade of the 21st Century. They have been responsible for 60 episodes and have made Doctor Who must-see television which regularly charts in the top ten programmes of the week. They have cast two Doctors, Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant, and created two spin-offs, Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures, both of which have had tremendous success and are due to be commissioned for their fourth series.

All three leave a strong legacy for the new production team to build on in 2010 as the series returns with a new Doctor and a new Executive Producer in the Spring.

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