The BBC have released clips looking behind the scenes of this weeks episode of Doctor Who, Under the Lake.




A full review of the episode can be found on Doctor Who Reviews

FX in India have announced that the latest series of Doctor Who reaches the country this Sunday evening!

FX took up the mantle of Doctor Who in India since May this year, after BBC Entertainment ceased transmission in the country in 2012. Shown daily, viewers have been able to experience the latest adventures of the Doctor over the last few months, leading to the debut of Peter Capaldi this weekend as the channel shows the whole of the eighth series over two afternoons - leading to the premiere of The Magician's Apprentice on Sunday 4th October 2015 at 11:00pm.

The announcement means that India is now the ninth region in the world to see the new adventures of the Doctor, currently being enjoyed by the UK (BBC One), USA (BBC America), Canada (SPACE), Asia (BBC Entertainment), New Zealand (PRIME), Australia (ABC), Benelux (BBC First), and Finland (YLE2). Denmark (DR3), South Africa (BBC First) and Germany (FOX) are due to air the series in the coming weeks.

You can keep up with the latest broadcasts of Doctor Who around the world via This Week in Doctor Who.

The BBC have released publicity imagery for the forthcoming episode, Under The Lake.

Under The Lake: Known Broadcast Details
United Kingdom	BBC One	Sat 3 Oct 2015	8:25pm
United States of America	BBC America	Sat 3 Oct 2015	9:00pm EDT	(2:00am BST)
Canada	SPACE	Sat 3 Oct 2015	9:00pm EDT	(2:00am BST)
Asia Pacific	BBC Entertainment	Sun 4 Oct 2015	10:00am SGT	(3:00am BST)
New Zealand	PRIME	Sun 4 Oct 2015	7:30pm NZDT	(7:30am BST)
Australia	ABC	Sun 4 Oct 2015	7:40pm AEDT	(9:40am BST)
Europe (Benelux)	BBC First	Tue 6 Oct 2015	9:00pm CEST
United Kingdom	BBC Two	Fri 9 Oct 2015	1:15am	(British Signed Language)
Finland	YLE2	Mon 12 Oct 2015	6:05pm EEST
South Africa	BBC First	Sat 24 Oct 2015	7:30pm SAST
Germany	FOX	Thu 10 Dec 2015	9:00pm CET	(dubbed into German)

Doctor Who The Magician's Apprentice has an official consolidated 7 day rating of 6.54 million viewers.

The rating issued by the Broadcasters' Audience Research Board, or BARB, includes all those who watched the programme within one week of transmission.

The final rating is slightly down on last year, where the majority of the season rated around 6.9 million viewers.

The rating puts Doctor Who at the 13th most watched programme of the week on all UK Television, and the 4th most watched programme on BBC One. The Great British Bake Off topped the charts with a consolidated audience of 12.35 million viewers, over 2 million higher than its nearest rival, ITV's Downton Abbey, which had 9.9 million viewers.

The figures do not include those who watched on the BBC iPlayer, where The Magician's Apprentice had over 1.3 million download requests in the week following transmission.

Doctor Who: The Witch's Familiar had an Audience Appreciation or AI score of 83.

The Appreciation Index or AI is a measure of how much the audience enjoyed the programme. The score, out of a hundred, is compiled by a specially selected panel of around 5,000 people who go online and rate and comment on programmes.

The feature length version of The Magician's Apprentice / The Witch's Familiar had an audience of 0.64 million viewers on BBC One on Sunday afternoon, a 6.4% share of the audience. The programme was once more up against Rugby on ITV, this time Scotland v USA which had an average of 2.1 million viewers.

The Saturday night showing finished as 53rd for the week. Consolidated figures should be available next Monday.

The Witch's Familiar has debuted in Australia, averaging 541,000 viewers in the five major capital cities. It was the second-highest rating ABC drama of the day and the eighth highest rating program of the day overall. These ratings do not include regional or time-shifted viewers.

Press reaction to the second episode of Series Nine is once more overwhelmingly positive.

The Independent felt much of the success of the episode was down to Julian Bleach's performance as Davros. "Steven Moffat’s dialogue was on top form this week, but it shone thanks to Bleach’s superb performance. It’s incredible how much physicality he brought to the role considering how limiting the costume is, utilising body language and facial expressions to maximum effect and pairing them with a powerful vocal performance"

The Guardian also liked the Davros/Doctor dynamic. "Peter Capaldi and Julian Bleach crackled with such warped chemistry", with Radio Times agreeing "Capaldi and Julian Bleach are superb in these moments. There’s a coup de théâtre when, for the first time, the wizened Davros opens his eyes. We’d always assumed he had none. No one but Steven Moffat would have thought to do this."

The Express said you can't help but love the villains."Missy is like a deliciously dangerous cocktail of dry wit laced with a sneaky shot of psychosis. She pulls you in with hers charms and makes you feel comfortable, then the moment you let your guard down or even consider trusting her, she'll have you strung upside down from a tree". The Registrar also loved Michelle Gomez. "Missy once again delivers some of the best lines, such as: "The friend inside the enemy, the enemy inside the friend. Everyone's a bit of both. Everyone's a hybrid.".

TV Fanatic loved the pairing of Clara and Missy "I lost it when Clara mentioned throwing a stone down into the sewers and Missy pushing her in saying. I'm sure we haven't seen the last of The Mistress, but I already can't wait for another team up like this one. " Mashable also loved the duo. "A fantastic comedy double act of psycho and straight person, fighting their way through Skaro towards the Doctor with nothing but a sharpened stick", a sentiment agreed with by 411Mainia. "I know not everyone is in love with Missy, but Michelle Gomez is a highlight of the first two episodes. She is able to have some more wicked fun, which is an important balance since the Doctor is busy being deadly serious"

The Metro loved the pace of the story. This was a thoughtful character piece in which the Doctor saves the day with an act of mercy rather than a simple wave of his sonic. I found that pleasingly old-school, while The Daily Mail loved the fact that Doctor Who can still come up with something fresh. "Seeing the Doctor’s assistant Clara Oswald strapped, trapped, inside a Dalek and only able to communicate like them was ingeniously vivid – palpably claustrophobic and perilous: the fairground ride from hell.".

Not all was positive with TV.com disliking the conclusion to the episode "this climax was dumb. Daleks turning on one another is fine enough, but the sludgey poo of not-quite-dead Daleks attacking their comrades was just... dumb.", while IGN thought the episode a bit of a letdown. "It just can’t satisfactorily resolve some of the bits and pieces showrunner Steven Moffat left dangling last week in the grand first episode."

Digital Spy however thought the episode bleak but rewarding. "Scenes between our effusive hero and a creepily still Davros are dark and uncompromising, they're also utterly scintillating."

You can read Doctor Who News's review of the episode on our reviews site.

3.7 million, a 16.6% share of the audience, watched Doctor Who, The Witch's Familiar in the UK, according to unofficial overnight viewing figures.

Doctor Who suffered by being placed directly opposite live coverage of the Rugby World Cup on ITV, where England playing Wales attracted an average of 8.3 million viewers, pushing the overnight audience for Doctor Who down to below 4 million for the first time since the series returned in 2005.

The Rugby coverage topped the day peaking at 10.8 million viewers, a 47.6% share. It pushed Strictly Come Dancing into second place for the day with 7.7 million viewers. Casualty had 3.8 million watching just ahead of the Doctor which was also beaten by the late news resulting in Doctor Who being fifth for the day.

On overnight figures Doctor Who is currently 47th for the week. Final consolidated figures, which should see Doctor Who's audience rise dramatically, will be released next week.

A feature length version of the first two episodes of the series, is being broadcast on BBC One later today.

The BBC have released clips looking behind the scenes of this weeks episode of Doctor Who, The Witch's Familiar.




A full review of the episode can be found on Doctor Who Reviews

BBC One have made a late change to their schedules on Sunday afternoon by adding a special feature-length broadcast of The Magician's Apprentice and The Witch's Familiar. The 90 minute omnibus is to be broadcast from 3:15pm, replacing the previously scheduled repeats of Eat Well For Less? and The Great British Bake-Off, with an episode of Escape To The Country following afterwards to plug the gap before Points Of View at 5:15pm.


No reason has currently been given for the repeat of Doctor Who's opening story, but it is possible that this is to enable viewers to catch up on the Doctor's adventure who might have missed Saturday's episode owing to the England vs Wales Rugby World Cup game, broadcast live on ITV from 7:15pm.

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It isn't often that Doctor Who receives an unexpected broadcast - the previous time this occured was back in 1974, when a compilation of The Sea Devils was shown in the morning of Monday 27th May instead of the scheduled cricket match coverage, which was lost owing to one of the regular BBC union industrial actions of the era.

This itself wasn't a precedent, though - owing to the tragic events that occured in the United States the day before the very first episode, An Unearthly Child, was broadcast, the BBC decided to repeat it a week later at 5:06pm, leading to a slightly truncated Grandstand and the scheduled Doctor Who episode The Cave Of Skulls pushed back from 5:15pm to 5:30pm instead.