Aliens of London scored a preliminary viewer rating of 6.98 million overnight, with a 33.9% share, peaking at one point at 7.53 million in the last fifteen minutes. The "Ant and Dec" show beat it slightly with 7.12 million (35.5%) share (peaking at 7.8 million in the last fifteen minutes.) It is important to note that "Ant and Dec" broadcast its season finale last night, and also that the BBC has tapered back its publicity for "Doctor Who" over the past week. Final viewing figures will be out within a week.

A very brief update today...

The final BARB ratings have come in for episode two, The End of the World: the episode scored a 7.97, which made it the third-placed BBC1 programme of the week, behind "EastEnders" and "Match of the Day." As many people speculated at the time, it seems that viewing figures that week were down across the board and Doctor Who's showing in fact remained pretty constant against "Rose" the week before, in terms of both its placing and its audience share. This is by no means a show with plummeting audience ratings!

TV presenter John Leslie wants to be the Doctor, according to today's Sun. "The 40-year-old lost his job on This Morning in 2002 following a sex scandal, and has not worked regularly on TV since, but it is claimed he hopes to audition for the role. Bookies Ladbrokes, however, are reported as making him a 500-1 outsider, despite claims that he has cleaned up his act and shed weight to look trimmer. And an unnamed 'pal' is quoted as saying: 'There is more chance of him playing one of the monsters.'" This was also covered at Ananova.

Two minor links to report: a discussion of time travel at the Norwich Astronomical Society that mentions the Doctor who series in Norfolk Now, and a Guardian discussion on Cardiff Unviersity that mentions the Daleks.

(Thanks to Steve Tribe, John Bowman, Andrew Flynn, and Chuck Foster)

Episode three of the TV series, The Unquiet Dead was the top rated British television program on Saturday, April 9, according to preliminary overnight ratings figures from ViewingFigures. Doctor Who was viewed by an average 8,339,880 viewers, a 36% audience share, with a peak of 8,914,240 viewers. By comparison, its competition on ITV, "Ant + Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway," had only a 32% audience share with approximately 7,136,000 viewers. "Doctor Who" therefore won its timeslot for the third week in a row, increasing its viewership over the previous week, and won the night... even beating two of the UK's biggest events of the year so far, the royal wedding and "The Grand National." The BBC3 companion documentary series Doctor Who Confidential episode three also achieved positive notes, with 542,470 average viewers (peaking at 601,740), rating a 4 with a viewing share of 3.62% in the 7:30-8:30pm time slot.

It is interesting to note how the final viewing figures of "Rose," the first episode, skewed upwards from these, so these results could, in fact, be higher when all data is in. Meanwhile, Doctor Who continues to prove its worthiness as a Saturday night staple, once again trouncing the competition and being the BBC's Saturday evening ratings jewel. (Thanks to Andy Parish)

Contrary to previous reports, it appears that the wedding of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles will not have an impact on transmission of "The Unquiet Dead" on Saturday. BBC One seems to have dropped an earlier programme from its schedules, allowing Strictly Dance Fever and Doctor Who to start on time.

The precise viewing figures for "Rose", episode one of the new series, have finally come in from the BARB. According to their official listings, the actual viewing figure for "Rose" is 10.81 million viewers, putting it at #3 in the BBC1 chart, and #7 overall for the week, beaten only by four episodes of "Coronation Street" and two "Eastenders" episodes. ("Doctor Who" is actually #3 in the top ten individual shows for the week, combining the "Coronation Street" and "EastEnders" episodes.) "Doctor Who"'s main competition, "Ant + Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway," came in at #20 for the week (#9 on the overall individual episodes list.) These figures exclude repeat/omnibus showings (e.g. the BBC Three repeats of EastEnders and Doctor Who) but do include figures for people who have recorded the show and watched it within seven days. "Rose" is also the third most watched non-soap show in the UK of 2005 so far, behind early March's "Comic Relief" and the New Year's Day special of "The Vicar of Dibley".

Some additional ratings information: Doctor Who was a huge success inCanada this week: 989,000 viewers watched the CBC broadcast of "Rose" on Tuesday, April 5. Says the Doctor Who Information Network, "Compared to the 9.9 million in UK this number might seem small...but for Canadian television numbers, and for the CBC this is HUGE, and exactly where we wanted the show to come in at." Also, the BBC3 repeat of episode 2 of "The End of the World" last Sunday at 7pm was watched by 402,980 viewers, according to ViewingFigures, representing a 2.78% share of all multi-channel viewing within the early evening time slot (6pm-8pm) and ranked 16th out of all the available multi-channels in the UK. This is another great performance considering there are over 250 multi-channels.

Russell T Davies appeared today at the Celtic Film Festival, in fact interviewed by his co-executive producer Julie Gardner, in the Balmoral Suite of the Holland House Hotel just outside the centre of Cardiff. Russell was interviewed on stage by BBC wales Drama chief Julie Gardner. the well-attended session commenced with an eight-minute montage of clips from Russell's work - including a lengthy clip from the Aliens of London story. Russell spoke at length and in great detail about his career, from his first drama writing credit on Dark Season (which he feels particularly fond of), through Queer as Folk and its attendant controversy, the Second Coming, Mine All Mine (the failure of which clearly baffles and frustrates him) and, of course, Doctor Who. An 'open mic' session finished off the discussion and several Who-slanted questions were forthcoming from the audience. A tabloid journalist asked if Chris eccleton's leaving the show had been a disappointed and both Russell and Julie stated unequivocally that it was always planned that he would do just one season and that the end of episode thriteen was supposed to be an enormous surprise for the audience - a surprise now blown. Russell stated that he ahd a very clear vision of how he wanted to do the seriesd, he spoke of some of the difficulties on mounting such an enormous production and when asked if they had favourite episodes both Julie and Rusell said their favourites changed from day to day. Russell said that 40-somethings would love the Dalek episode for the way it answered so many questions about the Daleks and said that the two-part story about to be shown is "very dark". Julie did reveal that the last scene of "The End of the World" is her favourite scene in the entire series. No news and details about the Christmas special or season two. We have a report in the SPOILERSsection below from a clip that was shown, along with the BBC Press Release details for the next story (see next item)

The BBC Press Office has this afternoon released programme information for Week 17 (16-22 April). This includes the Penelope Wilton interview from this week's Press Pack Four among the week's highlights features here (note: PDF file) as well as a spoiler-prone preview of Episode 5, "World War Three"(finally confirmed as the title!) in the highlights for their Saturday listing here(also a PDF file) with a preview article on that week's edition of Doctor Who Confidential. Click on the SPOILER TAG at the bottom for details!

The May issue of SFX Magazine, Issue 131, in the shops on April 13, includes a set visit from episode six of the new series, "Dalek". SFX was there on "Dalek Day", as Christopher Eccleston filmed the scenes where the Ninth Doctor confronts his mortal enemy for the first time. The SFX website will also be making a full transcript of their interview with director Joe Ahearne (conducted on the day of the set visit) available online, and they're running reviews of each episode of the new series as it airs. Issue 131 also comes with a pull-out A3 poster. one side of the poster features Billie Piper as Rose!

Meanwhile, the issue of TV Zone magazine released yesterday includes interviews with Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper, and an in-depth look at the new Dalek, featuring Mike Tucker and Nicholas Briggs - and new photos from Episode Six, Dalek! The issue also includes special reviews of Rose from the TV Zone staff, plus opinions from guest reviewers Rob Grant (creator of Red Dwarf) and Sci-Fi author Stephen Baxter. The issue also includes interviews with the director of the new Quatermass Experiment, Sam Miller, and star Isla Blair, a special Flashback feature on the work of Nigel Kneale, and features on The West Wing and the new Captain Scarlet. You can order it using these links: UK Order and US Order.

The CBBC channel's Newsround Showbiz at 3.50pm on Saturday appears to be including a behind-the-scenes feature on the new series again - this is the third one, so it look like a series...

ITV Teletext today has an article titled "The monsters who take on Doctor Who" which begins by interviewing Mike Tucker who discusses working with scale models: "You do spend a lot of time making models and setting them up only to destroy them in a matter of seconds, but it's part of the job." He goes on to add: "And I got to work on the new Dalek - what a bonus!" Mike goes on to say that Doctor Who works now because it is so up-to-date. Meanwhile, 'Special effects specialist' Neill Gorton discusses how he had no idea what a big job creating monsters for Doctor Who would be. He explains that Doctor Who monsters are planned well in advance from such descriptions as "green, 8ft baby-faced monsters" and are a team effort. Discussing the challenge of designing the inside of the new Dalek he states: "It was glimpsed in an old Tom Baker episode, but only as a blob-like being, so we were really starting from scratch, and Russell T Davies had some very strong ideas about it... We went through a lot of concepts and designs. They were about 80 per cent Russell's ideas and 20 per cent mine. He always wins when he wants to!"

Buxton Today features an article about Bruno Langley, who appears in two episodes of the series playing the role of Adam. The article interviews his sister, Lakshmi Langley, who mentions that "Bruno spent two months filming the episodes in Cardiff ù which feature the Daleks ù and he had an absolutely brilliant time. He got on so well with Christopher, saying he was an amazing actor. Bruno's character is one of the good guys. He plays a sort of intellectual college boy ù a genius ù which made us all laugh." Diane Langley, Bruno's mum, said: "This will be something quite different for him. He wants to explore different sides of his profession and not just stick to the same things."

The media player on the official site has been updated to include "The Seventies", the second in the series of clips and contemporary music (and originally part of the "Doctor Who Years" video shown at DW conventions in the UK.) According to the site, the 35-minute programme includes "clips from each story, there are also some interesting off-cuts, including an almost unbelievable appearance by Tom Baker on Swap Shop." Also on the official site... very subtle additions to the BBC Doctor Who Who Spy portion of the website that may or may not be noticed by many. They are clarifying the exact placing of each photo and where it fits in to the series.

Reports in the Daily Record, Alien Online and icHuddersfield, among others, note that Patrick Stewart will be playing a role in "Eleventh Hour," a ú4.5m production being billed as ITV's answer to Dr Who and is written by Stephen Gallagher, who penned the classic Doctor Who series episodes "Warriors' Gate" and "Terminus".

The Metro's Green Room reports that the BBC will no longer put up posters for the new series, as they keep getting stolen! Says a BBC source: "... they are just getting steamed off and collectors are selling them on the Net."

Maureen O'Brien, who played Vicki in the early years of "Doctor Who," is interviewed in the Bucks Free Press as she directs the play "Structures" at the Elgiva Theatre in Chesham. Maureen admits that, although she and the cast are busy rehearsing in London, she did have time to watch the first episode of the latest of the series. "I really liked it. They really have something going for them and the casting is perfect. Christopher Eccleston reminds me so much of William Hartnell. All of the other doctors had something of a silly quality about them, that seemed to lesson the show somehow but, like Bill, Christopher is a really frightening, dangerous Dr Who. Slightly off-the-wall. And I think the reason why Billie Piper's goes off with him is great. I used to try and make my character, Vicky, a proper character but I don't think the 1960s were quite ready for that."

A snippet in the April 1 issue of Guardian, shopping section, titled "Dr Who's leather jacket": "Shame on you, Christopher Eccleston. No, not for quitting after one series. Shame on you for bringing the previously unimpeachable style of Dr Who into disrepute. Eight successive Doctors have steered the timelord's wardrobe through tricky sartorial waters, and now, after one single episode, Eccleston has stripped the Doctor of his style credentials. Gone is Tom Baker's long striped scarf legacy of the1970s. Its replacement? A shabby black leather peacoat. Nothing about this coat is stylish - it doesn't suit the cropped haired Doctor. We can only hope that now that Eccleston has bowed out, the jacket will be retired from duty too."

Express NewsLine says "The BBC's latest episode of Doctor Who is set in Cardiff, Wales, even though producers shot the sequences in Swansea. The episode set for broadcast Saturday portrays the Welsh capital in 1869, but a lack of period architecture drove the BBC team to Swansea, which has far more Victorian buildings than Cardiff, icWales reported Thursday. The show features Christopher Eccleston's battle with the eternal ghost-like aliens known as the Gelth and was written by author Mark Gatiss, who penned 'The League of Gentlemen.'"

"Who's back. And Who's looking vastly entertaining" says the Globe and Mailthis week, reviewing the first episode of the new series that was just transmitted in Canada. "Yes, the most distinctive theme music in the history of television is back, because that fella Dr. Who rides again," says the article. "Tonight's first episode of Dr. Who is terrific. It's wacky, colourful, lively and vastly entertaining. (I'll tell you here that I was never smitten with the series. Even when I saw it as a kid, I thought it was a very square drama.) In fact, it's a great example of a tired concept being expertly revived and cast. The BBC brought in Russell T. Davies, creator of the original Queer as Folk, to write it and he's done a superb job. ... Given the vast weight of the history of Dr. Who, the light, vaguely comic touch is absolutely necessary.

Manchester Online and BBC News report that Christopher Eccleston will star in the latest commercial created by the McCann Erickson agency for Manchester's Christie Hospital. The new campaign is part of a re-brand for the Christie charity and Eccleston will take part. "Scientists in Manchester say a cure for all types of cancer could be available on the NHS within five years," says BBC News. "The world's first patient trials in a technique which genetically engineers cells will take place at the city's Christie Hospital later this year."

Says icNorthWales, actor Rhys Ifans is not in line to play the Doctor, succeeding Christopher Eccleston. "I haven't the time," he jokes..

Billie Piper is profiled in Hello! Magazine, with details of her history and career to date.

Following up our story about CBBC presenter Devon Anderson wanting to be the next Doctor, BBC News is now reporting on the "campaign". "Describing himself as "a Doctor for the youth of today", Devon has been using his CBBC presenter slots to show how good he would be as the 10th Doctor."

(Thanks to Steve Tribe, Paul Engelberg, Paul Mount, Dominic May, Paul Hayes, Craig Mullin, Dan Knight, Jamie Austin, Peter Weaver, Andy Parish, Rod Mammitzsch, David Farmbrough, Tony Jordan, Eddie Brennan, Stephen Graves and Ian Berriman)

As previously reported Doctor Who was the big winner on Saturday night: the final numbers out for the top twelve Saturday night programs note that the show received 9.94411 million viewers, a 43.20% share of the audience, and at times peaked up to 10.5 million. The show's competition, ITV's "Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway" received a 31.38% share with 7.17512 million viewers to be the night's third highest rating program, after "Casualty" (with 7.45706 million viewers/33.21% share).

Also, Doctor Who: A New Dimension scored great ratings for its timeslot and genre; the 5.25pm documentary that aired on BBC1, produced by the same people as "Doctor Who Confidential," received a 26.08% share with 4.05670 million viewers, number eleven on the night's viewing charts.

Meanwhile, BBC3 scored a big night with their broadcast of Doctor Who Confidential, which according to ViewingFigures received 820,630 viewers (or 5.45% audience share). The numbers are said to be "huge" for a documentary on BBC3. BBC's Sunday night repeat of "Rose," the first episode of the new series, scored 484,020 viewers (or a 3.51% share).

With the imminent broadcast of the new series in Canada, the Canadian edition of TV Guide Magazine, the most widely-read magazine in North America, carries Doctor Who on its front cover. Click on the thumbnail at right for a larger version of the cover. Meanwhile, the Canada.com website has an article about the show; nothing really noteworthy beyond a vague description on how the Daleks have been updated in their look, and Phil Collinson stating that he thinks the series must be "adapted to the times."

Italy is the latest confirmation as a broadcaster of the new series, as a story in today's Media Guardian makes note that "the programme has been sold to CBC in Canada, Prime TV in New Zealand and Sky Italia's entertainment channel Jimmy." It also mentions Australia in the article: "Production sources said that the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, which is currently broadcasting every Doctor Who episode since the beginning, would shortly buy the series after it has viewed all 13 completed episodes."

The official Doctor Who website now has the trailer for episode 2, The End of the World, on their site; click here for the media player to watch it. They've also made some, er, changes to their "Who is Doctor Who" site... the page "formerly" run by Clive from the first episode. Go to the front page of the Doctor Who site, and look next to Billie Piper's hands for a secret entrance to Clive's site.

Doctor Who Uncovered is a radio program to be broadcast after the BBC3 repeat of "The Unquiet Dead" on Sunday, April 10 at 7.45pm. The program lasts 15 minutes (running to 8pm). There's currently no word on the content of the program.

More broadcasting updates: Christopher Eccleston is scheduled to be a guest on "The Heaven and Earth show" on BBC1 at 10.30am on Sunday, April 3. One day earlier, on Saturday April 2, the CBBC Channel will be doing a feature behind the scenes on "End of the World" at 15.50 on the programme "Newsround Showbiz".

The new edition of Radio Times (2û8 April) is published today and continues its heavy promotion of the new series. Once again, Doctor Who is at the head of the recommended viewing for the week (page 4), with a small picture of Jabe and a brief description: "Rose learns the hard way on her first time-travel trip with the Doctor in this fresh, funny romp. Bizarre aliens ahoy, including Jabe." On page 10, there is a letter from a viewer complaining that the Mastermind special was won by the contestant with the lowest score in the Doctor Who round ("I was horrified..."). This week's big "Doctor Who Watch" feature runs on pages 12 to 15 and goes behind the scenes on creating the various aliens for episode 2, with comments from Phil Collinson, Neill Gorton, Davy Jones and Lucinda Wright, as well as eight colour photographs. (There's also coverage of both Quatermass and Casanova, featuring Mark Gatiss and David Tennant.) Saturday's televison pick of the day is illustrated with the Face of Boe, and a write-up that mentions that no preview tape was available, "so we can't tell you whether the promise of the excellent thrilling opener is realised and sustained." The listing for the episode (which includes a credit for Camille Coduri as Jackie Tyler) at 7pm has another alien's mugshot. The listing for Doctor Who Confidential says that "the focus is on the memorable monsters from the past 40 years of the show". UKTV Gold is listed as showing The Creature from the Pit and Nightmare of Eden in its weekend omnibus slots; BBC1's Heaven and Earth Show (Sunday, 10.30am) has an interview with Christopher Eccleston; BBC4 is reshowing its Fantasy 60s documentary, which deals briefly with Doctor Who, at 11.40pm on Saturday. Finally, on Monday 4, at 5pm, Blue Peter on BBC1 shows "how to make a Dalek out of a garden compost bin."

Heat magazine have more support for the new series in their new issue. In the Picks for Saturday night they have a joint pick for Doctor Who and Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway: "Doctor Who/Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, BBC1, 7pm/ITV1, 6.45pm. Now that you've seen the first episode of Doctor Who, or made your mind up sight-unseen on whether it's your particular cup of Saturday-evening tea, the nation can divide itself into Who people or Ant people - so to speak. We could all just use our videos or Sky+, but we don't all have time to press confusing buttons. On BBC1, it's the year five billion AD and someone's using spider-things to bump off the alien spectators who have gathered to watch the sun explode and destroy the earth. Will the Doctor and Rose sort it out in time? On ITV1 it's 2005 AD and Emma Bunton is stitched up like a blonde, musical kipper on Ant and Dec Undercover, Ainsley Harriott joins in the Grab the Ads fun in the studio and And and Dec go head-to-head in Kirsty Gallacher's Ant versus Dec challenge from last week. Not to mention the weekly treat that is Little Ant and Dec's celeb interview. Make your choice now! "

Fans on the air: Timothy Farr of TIMELESS (the DWAS local group South Wales) and Julia Raysight of the Guardian were on the BBC Radio Wales morning programme "Good Morning Wales" at 8:55am chatting about the success of the weekend. Also, on BBC Radio Five Live, Nicky Campbell and Shelagh Fogerty discussed the series on their "Breakfast" show with Boyd Hilton, edtitor of Heat Magazine, at 8:55am. Its around 02:51:00 in on Radio 5 Live's Listen Again Service (Monday). And the Preston Doctor Who group in England appeared on BBC Radio Lancashire today to review the first episode. The 20 minute segment formed part of the Ben Thompson show at 2.15pm. It was a follow-up appearance to a show in December 2004, again discussing Doctor Who.

Monday's issue of the Daily Express has yet more coverage of the new series. A quarter-page photo of a smiling Billie Piper on the front cover is captioned: ôBILLIE HELPS YOU KNOW WHO WIN THE RATINGS WARö, promoting a full-page feature on page three which covers the ratings victory. The page three headline is ôBillie the Whizz Kidö with ôDr Who wins Saturday night TV ratings warö. The article is accompanied by a large photo of Billie, a smaller inset photo of Chris and Billie from the second promo photo, and a picture of Ant and Dec. Amusingly itÆs a recent photo of the ITV pair (Dec has his arm in a sling from a recent injury) and is captioned ôLOSING OUT: Ant and Dec were TV warÆs casualtiesö. Perhaps a little unfairly though, the article compared Doctor WhoÆs peak figure with Ant and DecÆs average, saying: ôITV wheeled out a line-up of celebrities, including soccer star David Beckham, but the BBC pulled in an audience of 10.5 million compared with Ant and DecÆs Saturday Night Takeaway at 7.2 million.ö On page 13, the paperÆs TV reviewer Charlie Catchpole gives the episode a glowing review, his only complaint being the new arrangement of the theme tune. The review is headlined ôThis Doctor is the right prescriptionö, and his comments include: ôThe Tardis has landed. The Doctor is among us and allÆs well with the world. Or pretty much all. Christopher Eccleston makes a marvellous new Doctor Whoà The special effects are dazzling, the script by Russell T Davies is sharp and wittyà The opening episode was perfectly in tune with the showÆs traditions but it could just as easily have stood alone.ö Then on page 24, the newspaper has its top 10 ôOK Magazine Celebrity Chartö, with Christopher Eccleston equalling his No. 2 position from the week he was cast as the Doctor last year, and Billie going straight in at No. 3 (they must be so proud, eh?). The write up for Chris is ôThe Salford-born actor is showered with praise as he brings Doctor Who back to television screens as the ninth Timelord.ö And for Billie: ôThere is praise too for Billie, who plays Doctor WhoÆs companion Rose û with critics impressed by Chris EvansÆ estranged wifeÆs acting talent.ö They were both beaten out by David Beckham at No. 1. Interestingly, the Daily Expres also quoted from a review posted at Outpost Gallifrey by David Farmbrough (using the words 'Billie's performance is spot-on, and very easy on the eye' from it) to indicate that fan reaction to her has been positive.

Monday's Times had a bottom-page panel with a pic of Piper and Eccleston and the headline "Happy landing" and sub-heading "New Doctor Who wins acclaim - and an audience", directing readers to page nine where it was the page lead under the headline "Who's the daddy as 10m find time to see the Doctor". Readers were also invited to e-mail their comments on the subject "Is Dr Who the way forward for the BBC?" to debate@thetimes.co.uk - a section (separate to the Letters page) where readers' views are printed. In today's debate@thetimes.co.uk section, the invite is repeated, albeit worded slightly differently, saying "What do you think of the new Dr Who?" - the responses will appear in the next day or two. Page 20 of The Times also had a cartoon utilising a Dalek chanting "Exterminate" inside Conservative HQ while someone exclaims "Crisis? What crisis?"; it's a comment on the latest Conservative party turmoil and borrowing a phrase misattributed to former Labour premier Jim Callaghan - whose death was announced straight after Rose had aired on Saturday. By one of those strange Doctor Who-world coincidences, when Callaghan (who was born in Portsmouth - where I'm writing this) was ennobled in 1987, he became Lord Callaghan of Cardiff, which, of course, nobody needs reminding is where the new series was made! Reviewing the weekend's TV in The Times, Paul Hoggart gave the show a definite thumbs-up, calling it "a joyful, exuberant reinvention".

Monday's Daily Star made the show's ratings triumph against Ant and Dec its page one splash, with the full story on page six. It was the lead piece in a two-page feature that also had two other (non-DW) programme-related stories. The headline, stretching across pages six and seven, was "Who's The Daddy!" and the strap was "New look Doctor makes dummies out of Ant 'n Dec as the fans go wild for a trip in the Tardis and another monster showdown". There was a positive review by Peter Dyke and a negative one by Iain Burchell. There was also a preview pic story for episode two that mentioned Rose likening Cassandra to Michael Jackson because of the number of cosmetic ops she's had! (I don't think that counts as a spoiler, does it?) Charlie Catchpole's piece in the Express is repeated - with a slight edit - on page 15 in the Star (both newspapers are owned by the same organisation).

Many other new series episode reviews have been published the past two days, including at the following sites: The Great Link, icWales, the Mirror (a very negative review, sadly), Leeds Today, Logicvoice, Blogcritics, two articles in the Times here and here, and the MediaGuardian. Other papers such as the Leicester Mercury and Daily Express also carried printed reviews.

Several papers have run stories about the wide variety of merchandise marketing that will be done, including some quotes of up to 70 pieces of merchandise for the new Doctor Who series alone: Daily Record, MediaGuardian (also noted for its broadcast info, above), and Telegraph (with another story here).

Lots of additional coverage of the ratings for the first episode: Times Online ("Who's the Daddy?"), the Mirror("Decterminate"), icWales, Sky News, IGN, RealityTVWorld (also here as well), Brand Republic, the New York Times, Express Newsline, This is London, Express and Star, MediaWeek, Yabedo, Leeds Today,Monsters and Critics, DeHavilland, Sydney Morning Herald, InTheNews and ContactMusic.

Some general articles germaine to the new series: The Western Mail ran an article about the various locations used in the shooting of the episode "Rose". Yorkshire Today ran some of Christopher Eccleston's comments from previous papers. The Sun ran a brief version of its paper story on a burnt up police box! And BBC News ran an article about a "Tardis builder [who] awaits new Daleks".

The April issue of the horror magazine Rue Morgue (the one with "The Amityville Horror" on the cover) is on newsstands now and contains an extensive article on Doctor Who examining the classic seriesÆ relationship to the horror genre, with particular attention to the Hinchcliffe-Holmes era, written by our correspondent Joe O'Brien. You can find out more at the website.

BBC Radio 4 still has "The Now Show" available on their 'listen again' feature. From 2 minutes to 3 minutes in they sing a nice acoustic ditty called 'Call me during Dr Who and I'll kill you...'

And finally... The Sun on Tuesday still reckons Doctor Who makes good copy, for it carries a woeful tale (apparently an exclusive) about Washington DC fan Richard Briggs, 47, who flew over to recover a plywood Tardis said to have been used by the BBC in 1983 and left behind after filming at Plas Brondanw, north Wales (presumably during the Five Doctors shoot) - only to discover that the gardener who had been keeping it in his shed had got fed up with it and dumped it on a bonfire two weeks beforehand. Story was accompanied by a pic of Briggs and a mock-up of, er, what a police box would look like if being consumed by flames. (Presumably readers' imaginations needed that bit of extra help.)

(Thanks to Paul Engelberg, Steve Tribe, Paul Hayes, Chuck Foster, John Bowman, Mike Doran, Graeme Burk, David Farmbrough, Joe OÆBrien, Robin Shannon, Michael Luchka, Paul Wheeler, Mick Snowden, Tim Harrison, Jonathan Massey, Macfadyan, Peter Nolan, Ken Moss, Robert Booth, Mustafa Hirji, David Brodie, Andy Davidson, and Liam Burch for the TV Guide scan)

Update 30 March 1625 GMT: The official Doctor Who website now confirms the second series/Christmas special story!

Today's MediaGuardian and The Stage reported that both a second year of the new Doctor Who series as well as a special episode to be aired this coming Christmas season have now been commissioned. "The BBC has wasted no time in commissioning a Christmas special and second series of its Doctor Who revival, less than a week after the time traveller returned to BBC1 after an absence of 16 years with nearly 10 million viewers," says the report. "However, the BBC head of drama commissioning, Jane Tranter, was unable to confirm whether Christopher Eccleston, the ninth doctor, or Billie Piper, who plays his sidekick, would be returning - opening up the possibility that the man with the sonic screwdriver might have to undergo yet another regeneration within a year. Ms Tranter said she had commissioned the Christmas special and a second series of Doctor Who yesterday - just three days after the sci-fi show began its new 13-part run on BBC1 with 9.9 million viewers, beating off stiff opposition from Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway. 'So now we've got to start talking to Billie and Chris about what they want to do. I want to make Doctor Who again, but there is a mischievous element to it, in that you can keep regenerating [the Doctor],' she added. 'I think Chris is fantastic as Doctor Who. But we've still got another 12 episodes to go. People will have to wait and see what happens." Tranter made her comments today at a Broadcasting Press Guild lunch, and added that Eccleston and Piper's contracts included options to do more series, which is standard practice in returning TV dramas, but that it was not yet certain that the pair would continue to be part of the show. Russell T Davies, it notes, will write the Christmas Special.

Russell T Davies told the official Doctor Who website that "It's fantastic news. It's been a tense and jittery time because the production team has been working on plans for Series Two - scripts are being written already! - without ever knowing if it would ever get made. We could all have ended up unemployed. But now we can put all those plans into action and get going. It's particularly good for BBC Wales. This is a major flagship show for the region, and their staff and crews are the best you could find. It's a tribute to them that Doctor Who is returning. Cymru am byth!"

Tranter said that Doctor Who was "probably the riskiest thing I've ever commissioned", because of the cost and the commitment to a 13-episode series, adding that she was shocked at how popular the first episode had proved on Saturday night. "In all honesty I had got myself into proverbial steel jacket as far as Doctor Who was concerned. I told myself I'd be completely and utterly thrilled if it got 6.5 million, but there was a little voice inside whispering '4.5 million'." She said that Barb's AI index, the audience research measure of how much viewers enjoyed a show, had scored 81 out of 100 for Doctor Who - above the average for the corporation's dramas, which is 78. Tranter added that the BBC had always envisaged that the Doctor Who revival would be scheduled early on Saturday evening, even though this put it head to head with Saturday Night Takeaway, one of ITV1's biggest entertainment hits. "We wanted it to be early Saturday evening, because that had been the slot before, and Russell [T Davies] had written it with that time in mind. There's something there for every adult to chew on, but also something for children. If you played it at a different time, it's just not going to work."

Breaking news from a variety of sources, which note the following:

"Cult sci-fi hero Doctor Who won the battle of prime time as 10 million viewers tuned in to watch the series return after a 16-year absence, figures revealed today.

"The much-loved time traveller beat off competition from ITV's Ant and Dec - and their guest David Beckham - to claim an average audience of 9.9 million on Saturday night.

"Salford-born Christopher Eccleston became the ninth small screen Doctor in a special effects-packed comeback, with former pop star Billie Piper starring as his new sidekick.

"The series, which was screened at 7pm, had an average audience share of 43.2% and hit a peak of 10.6 million viewers.

"Ant and DecÆs Saturday Night Takeaway, which ran against Doctor Who, had an average of 7.2 million viewers, taking a 31.4% share.

The Geordie duo peaked with an 8.5 million audience, 37.5% of the viewing public."

Further to our earlier story, The Web of Fear Episode 1 will be airing on BBC4 on Saturday June 26 at 8:50pm. This broadcast, from restored masters, is part of the BBC's Sixties event; see earlier news reports for details. (Thanks to David Harold)

A recent posting by one of the hosts on the BBC Four message boards confirms that Episode 1 of The Web of Fear, the classic Patrick Troughton serial in which said episode is the only extant segment of the story, may be broadcast as part of the forthcoming Sixties Season event on BBC4 on June 26. "We are attempting to clear The Web of Fear, but it's not been confirmed yet; we're trying," said the forum host. We know that the Restoration Team recently lent out a cleaned up episode to be transferred for broadcast; meanwhile, the Sixties Season section of the BBC Four website has had a Cyberman as part of that particular week's lineup, but no confirmation of a Doctor Who story as yet. We'll keep you posted. (Thanks to Barry Piggott)

In the UK, The Happiness Patrol was released in August. A boxed set of the E-Space Trilogy (Full Circle, State Of Decay, and Warriors' Gate) is on tap for October. 1998 will see Timelash (January), Battlefield (March, extended with previously unseen material), The Mind Of Evil (May, in black and white, but including five minutes recolorised from the extant color American clip, added at the end of the tape), The Horror Of Fang Rock (July) and Planet Of Fire (September). In November 1998, The Ice Warriors will be released as a two-tape pack. The missing episodes two and three will be replaced by short bridges making use of soundbites, narration, photos, telesnaps and graphics. The tape will be dovetailed by a 45-minute-long documentary on the junking of Sixties and Seventies episodes and the search now underway across the globe. This will also feature virtually every existing clip from incomplete episodes which could possibly be incorporated. It was previously thought that Colony In Space would also be released in 1998, but according to Restoration Team member Steve Roberts, it is not presently scheduled for release.

As part of a BBC-oriented Christmas campaign, CBS/FOX will be releasing the E-Space trilogy boxed set in North America in October. Further video releases will not take place until 1998 (possibly February), at least partly due to the fact that CBS/FOX has nearly caught up with BBC Video and wishes to have a little more choice in what they can offer next. On the Australian front, The King's Demon's/The Five Doctors Special Edition boxed set was released in July with a free deck of Doctor Who playing cards (not a trading card as was previously reported). Oddly, in New Zealand, the two were released on individual tapes (rather than as a boxed or double set), although, contrary to previous reports, the two were not the same price. The Leisure Hive is now available in Australia and will be out in New Zealand in November (though it is already available in some locations). The restored The War Machines is due in January in Australia.