For the 60th Anniversary of Doctor Who we revisit the story of Doctor Who, the occasional series written for the 50th Anniversary, explaining the origins of the programme.
Episode 31 - An Unearthly Series - The Origins of a TV Legend: First published 23 Nov 2013
Doctor Who continues this Saturday with the third and final story in the series of specials made to mark Doctor Who's sixtieth anniversary.
The Giggle can be seen on BBC One in the United Kingdom at 6.30 pm. It will be released on Disney+ and the BBC iPlayer at the same time.
The giggle of a mysterious puppet is driving the human race insane. When the Doctor discovers the return of the terrifying Toymaker, he faces a fight he can never win.
The Giggle stars David Tennant as the Fourteenth Doctor and Catherine Tate as Donna Noble. It is written by Russell T Davies and directed by Chanya Button for Bad Wolf Productions and BBC Studios.
Dancing With The Toymaker... | PREVIEW The Doctor and Donna are back on Earth - but what's happened to the human race? 😨
The BBC is releasing a Christmas single, featured in the upcoming Christmas episode, The Church On Ruby Road.
The Goblin Song, described as a fiendishly catchy song, is being released as a single, ahead of the big event. It is an original composition by Murray Gold and Russell T Davies, with proceeds going to BBC Children in Need.
The single’s music video shares exclusive content from the special as Fifteenth Doctor Ncuti Gatwa takes his first adventure through time and space in the TARDIS.
The track features in Doctor Who’s Christmas episode, where the Doctor’s companion Ruby Sunday meets the Doctor, goblins, stolen babies, and perhaps uncovers the secret of her birth.
As well as meeting Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson) for the first time – the Doctor meets Davina McCall who plays herself, Michelle Greenidge as Ruby’s mum Carla, Angela Wynter as Ruby’s grandmother Cherry and Anita Dobson as Mrs Flood.
The Goblin Song is available on BBC Sounds from Monday 11th December and will also be available via Spotify, Apple Music and Deezer.
Murray Gold said
Claire Hoyle, Director of Income & Engagement at BBC Children in Need said
Russell T Davies said
Doctor Who’s Christmas special, The Church on Ruby Road, airs December 25th on BBC One and BBC iPlayer, and streams on Disney+ globally outside of the UK and Ireland.
The BBC has confirmed that the part-missing first Doctor story The Celestial Toymaker will be the next animation to be released on Blu-ray.
The story, first shown in 1966 stars William Hartnell as the Doctor with Jackie Lane as Dodo and Peter Purves as Steven. Michael Gough plays the mysterious Toymaker, a character returning to the series this Saturday.
Only Episode Four of the four-part story exists in the BBC archives.
The two-disc set features all four episodes animated in colour using off-air audio recordings of the missing three episodes.
Special features include:
Disc One
Disc Two
The disc is available to preorder on DVD, Blu-ray and as a Steelbook.
The Celestial Toymaker: Animated Teaser The first game between the Doctor and the Toymaker - now fully animated! 🎲
The latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine introduces the readers to the fifteenth Doctor, Ncuti Gatwa.
The bumper edition includes a 32-page mini-mag of the original Star Beast comic strip and a double-sided poster.
The issue also includes a special offer to download a free audio drama featuring the Fifth and Seventh Doctors.
This issue’s features include:
An in-depth interview with new doctor Ncuti Gatwa.
Exclusive previews of new episodes The Giggle and The Church on Ruby Road with Russell T Davies.
Mum and grandma of new companion Ruby (alias Michelle Greenidge and Angela Wynter) on joining the show in this year’s Christmas Special.
The final interview with much-loved national treasure Bernard Cribbins.
The Diary of the Meep! A minute-by-minute account of the irrepressible Miriam Margolyes’ journey to becoming the Meep.
Further Than We’ve Ever Been Before – DWM’s Emily Cook on the set of Wild Blue Yonder to discover its VFX secrets.
A very special comic strip adventure featuring the Fourteenth Doctor and Donna…
80s director Andrew Morgan remembering his time on Doctor Who.
A glimpse behind the scenes on 60s Doctor Who.
Letter from the Showrunner – Russell T Davies is in the festive spirit, and even lets a few secrets about the next series slip.
Production Diary – script editor Scott Handcock on how production on Doctor Who has reached its busiest point yet!
The Fact of Fiction – all you could ever want to know about the 2015 series finale Hell Bent.
Gallifrey Guardian – all the latest official news.
Other Worlds – the essential guide to new stories in Doctor Who’s expanded universe.
Reviews – The Underwater Menace animation, Frazer Hines’s Evil of the Daleks and action figures!
The fiendishly festive DWM Christmas quiz!
Doctor Who Magazine Issue 598 is on sale Thursday 7 December from panini.co.uk and WH Smith priced £10.99 (UK).
Also available as a digital edition from pocketmags.com priced £9.99.
The first special starring David Tennant as the Fourteenth Doctor, The Star Beast, had an official 7-day rating of 7.61 million viewers in the UK.
The rating is the highest figure for Doctor Who since The Tsuranga Conundrum in 2018.
Doctor Who was the 10th most-watched programme on British Television for the week, behind seven episodes of I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here and two of Strictly Come Dancing.
The official rating includes those who recorded the programme and watched it within a week.
Globally the episode is the 61st watched movie on Disney+. It has been most successful in Australia, New Zealand and Turkey.
The Appreciation Index, a measure of how much the audience enjoyed the episode, was 84.
The second episode, Wild Blue Yonder, had an overnight rating of 4.83 million, third for Saturday behind the dancing and grub-eating reality shows. 7-day figures will be released next week. Its Appreciation Index was 83.
The BBC has released details of the Christmas episode of Doctor Who, The Church On Ruby Road.
New images have been released from the story where Ncuti Gatwa, takes over the TARDIS for his first adventure. The Fifteenth Doctor will be joined by Ruby Sunday, played by Millie Gibson, as she makes her debut as the Doctor’s companion.
Airing on BBC One and BBC iPlayer, the episode sees the Doctor come face-to-face with the mythical and mysterious goblins as his life collides with Ruby Sunday.
Little is known about Ruby Sunday as she was abandoned on Christmas Eve as a baby. Now living with her mum, Carla and grandmother, Cherry, her world is about to be turned upside down when she encounters the Doctor and the two set off on their first adventure together.
Alongside Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson is Davina McCall who will be playing herself as she joins the cast alongside Michelle Greenidge as Ruby’s mum Carla, Angela Wynter as Ruby’s grandmother Cherry and Anita Dobson as Mrs Flood.
Davina McCall said:
Russell T Davies, Showrunner adds
Doctor Who continues this Saturday with the second in the series of three specials made to mark Doctor Who's sixtieth anniversary.
Wild Blue Yonder can be seen on BBC One in the United Kingdom at 6.30 pm. It will be released on Disney+ and the BBC iPlayer at the same time.
The Tardis takes the Doctor and Donna to the furthest edge of adventure. To escape, they must face the most desperate fight of their lives, with the fate of the universe at stake.
Wild Blue Yonder stars David Tennant as the Fourteenth Doctor and Catherine Tate as Donna Noble. It is written by Russell T Davies and directed by Tom Kingsley for Bad Wolf Productions and BBC Studios.
Where are the Doctor and Donna? Where has the TARDIS dropped the Doctor and Donna this time?... ✨ Watch a preview from the upcoming 60th anniversary special 'WILD BLUE YONDER'!
The BBC has confirmed that Doctor Who will be back on BBC One on Christmas Day for the full debut episode starring the Fifteenth Doctor Ncuti Gatwa.
Doctor Who will be a key part of the BBC offering over the festive season with Gatwa taking control of the TARDIS in his first adventure following Doctor Who’s 60th anniversary celebrations.
Charlotte Moore, BBC’s Chief Content Officer says:
Doctor Who: The Star Beast had an overnight audience figure of 5.08 million viewers in the UK.
Doctor Who was the second most-watched television programme on Saturday night behind Strictly Come Dancing which had 7.67 million watching. ITV had 4.83 million watching the reality programme I'm a Celebrity Get Me out of Here.
The figure shows a large increase over the previous season of Doctor Who with The Power of the Doctor having an overnight figure of 3.710 million.
The figure is an estimate of the number of people who watched the programme on the day of transmission. It will be updated next week to include those who watch the programme on catch-up services.
The Appreciation Index for the episode, a measure of how much the audience enjoyed the programme, was 84, the highest score since World Enough And Time in 2017.
The new episode was available globally on Disney+ where it is currently classed as the 3rd most-watched film worldwide. It is currently in first position in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Turkey.
As the world gears up for Doctor Who mania, BBC Studios has launched The Official Doctor Who Podcast to accompany the latest episodes of Doctor Who.
The Official Doctor Who Podcast is a three-way panel discussion between author and columnist Juno Dawson, pop culture TikToker and movies podcaster Tyrell Charles, and cosplayer and digital creator Christel Dee, with exclusive insights from showrunner Russell T Davies. Each week the team will be reacting to the latest episode, discussing their thoughts, and diving into upcoming theories!
Watch the trailer here:
The 30-minute podcast will drop weekly straight after each Doctor Who episode airs on the BBC starting on Saturday 25th November, and can be found on all major podcast platforms globally and BBC Sounds (UK only). It will also be broadcast globally in a video version on the Doctor Who YouTube channel.
Doctor Who writer and showrunner Russell T Davies said:
BBC Studios’ digital content development director, Chris Allen said
The Official Doctor Who Podcast is produced by James Goss for BBC Studios Digital. The executive producers are Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner, Madi Woodstock and Chris Allen.
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