The Ice Warriors: DVD details announced / Big Finish weekend offer

Friday, 12 April 2013 - Reported by Chuck Foster
BBC Worldwide have announced details for the forthcoming release of The Ice Warriors on DVD. The two-disc set has been provisionally scheduled for release on 26th August 2013 for R2 and 28th August for R4 (a R1 date has yet to be confirmed).

The Ice Warriors
Release date: 26 Aug 2013 UK

The Ice Warriors - Cover (R2) (Credit: BBC Worldwide)Starring Patrick Troughton as Doctor Who, Frazer Hines as Jamie, and Deborah Watling as Victoria
Written by Brian Hayles
Directed by Derek Martinus

Broadcast: Sat 11 Nov - Sat 16 Dec 1967

In the distant future, Earth faces a new Ice Age. While a dedicated team of scientists battle to hold the approaching glaciers at bay, a startling discovery is made deep within the ice… an alien warrior, frozen for millennia. When the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria arrive they soon discover Earth is under threat from the Ice Warriors – fearsome Martians intent on conquering our planet for themselves…
 
 

Special Features: Disc One
Special Features: Disc One
  • Cold Fusion (dur. 24’31”) – Cast and crew look back at the making of the story. With actors Frazer Hines, Deborah Watling and Sonny Caldinez, designer Jeremy Davies, and James Bresslaw (son of the late actor Bernard Bresslaw)
  • Beneath the Ice (dur. 10’31”) - A look behind the scenes of the animated Ice Warrior episodes. Producers Chris Chapman and Niel Bushnell, together with animation director Chris Chatterton from Qurios lift the lid on the process used to bring Varga and his Warriors back to life
  • VHS Links (dur. 19’19”) – the introduction to the story and linking material covering the two missing episodes, as used on the VHS release of the story in 1998. Includes the BBC Video “Adjust your tracking control” caption for a true sense of nostalgia!
  • Blue Peter Design-a-Monster (dur. 10’04”) – the competition launch and subsequent winners of the 1967 Design-a-Monster competition, which ran during the transmission of The Ice Warriors
  • Doctor Who Stories – Frazer Hines part two (dur. 13’ 48”) - the second part of this interview with Frazer Hines shot in 2004 for The Story of Doctor Who looks at his later appearances in the series
  • Photo Gallery (dur. 3’53”) - production, design and publicity photos from the story
  • Coming Soon (dur. 1 min approx) - a trailer for a forthcoming DVD release
  • Radio Times Listings in Adobe PDF format
  • Programme subtitles
A number of new stills from the animated episodes have also been published, including a recent tweet by producer Chris Chapman comparing the animation with an existing telesnap:
The Ice Warriors - animation/image comparison (Credit: Chris Chapman/BBC Worldwide)

BBC Worldwide have also released a brief video excerpt to demonstrate the animation via their YouTube channel.

Big Finish: Ice Warriors special offer

Saturday has yet more Ice Warrior excitement, as the Martians return to television in Cold War. To celebrate their appearance Big Finish are running a special offer on their adventures in audio/download over the weekend:

Ice Warrior (Credit: Big Finish)The Ice Warriors are back! This weekend sees the return of everyone's favourite Martian menace to TV screens in Doctor Who's latest episode Cold War. And what better way to celebrate than to enjoy some top Ice Warrior action on CD or download audiobook, on offer until Monday morning individually or as a bundle of all ten stories!

The complete list of titles on offer are as follows:

Doctor Who: Red Dawn
Doctor Who: Frozen Time
Doctor Who: The Bride of Peladon
Doctor Who: The Judgement of Isskar
Doctor Who - The Lost Stories: Mission to Magnus
Doctor Who - The Lost Stories: Thin Ice
Doctor Who - The Companion Chronicles: The Prisoner of Peladon
Doctor Who - The Eighth Doctor Adventures: Deimos
Doctor Who - The Eighth Doctor Adventures: The Resurrection of Mars
Bernice Summerfield: Dance of the Dead

To order a bundle, just click the 'bundles' button on one of the product pages. Please note that as Bernice Summerfield: Dance of the Dead is not available for download, purchasers of the download bundle will be sent a CD of this title.




FILTER: - Second Doctor - Classic Series - Special Offers - Blu-ray/DVD - Big Finish

Genesis of the Daleks on UKTV

Friday, 12 April 2013 - Reported by Paul Scoones

UKTV

Sunday 14th April sees the broadcast of the six-part 1975 Tom Baker story Genesis of the Daleks on Australian and New Zealand television. The story is the 14th instalment in the 50th Anniversary season of Doctor Who stories on the UKTV channel.

The story is scheduled in New Zealand at 3:25pm and in Australia at 3:30pm . New Zealand has an additional screening on Monday 15th April at 3:20am.

Genesis of the Daleks was first broadcast in Australia in 1977. New Zealand viewers didn't get to see the story for another decade - it was first screened by TVNZ in 1987.

UKTV is showing stories throughout the year in the lead-up to the anniversary in November. Genesis of the Daleks is the second in a set of six stories featuring Tom Baker's Doctor broadcast during April.

The rest of the month's schedule includes: Pyramids of Mars and The Hand of Fear (both 21st April), and The Robots of Death and City of Death (both 28th April).

Up-and-coming broadcasts from both 20th and 21st Century series of Doctor Who can be found via UKTV's Doctor Who sections  for Australia and New Zealand.





FILTER: - Classic Series - WHO50 - New Zealand - Australia

Final Australian ratings for The Bells of Saint John

Thursday, 11 April 2013 - Reported by Adam Kirk
The Bells of Saint John has picked up an additional 176,000 time-shifted Australian viewers, giving it a final, or consolidated, ratings average of 932,000 viewers in the five major capital cities.  This was the second largest number of time-shifted viewers for a program broadcast on Sunday 31 March (after Elementary with 183,000 time-shifted viewers). The final or consolidated ratings includes all 'time-shifted' viewers who record the program and watch it within a week.

Based on these final figures, Bells was the top rating drama of the day, the top-rating ABC program of the day and the fourth highest rating program of the day overall (this compares to it being the eighth highest rating program based on its overnight figures of 757,000 viewers). These ratings do not include regional viewers.
Media Links: TV Tonight




FILTER: - Ratings - Broadcasting - Series 7/33 - Australia

Next Time: The Cold War

Tuesday, 9 April 2013 - Reported by Chuck Foster
Next week's adventure for the Doctor and Clara will be Cold War, written by Mark Gatiss and directed by Douglas Mackinnon. The episode will premiere on BBC One in the UK on Saturday at the earlier time of 6:00pm.

Cold War: Publicity Poster (Credit: BBC/Adrian Rogers/Ray Burmiston)The Doctor and Clara land on a damaged Russian Submarine in 1983 as it spirals out of control into the ocean depths.

An alien creature is loose on board, having escaped from a block of Arctic ice. With tempers flaring and a cargo of nuclear weapons on board, it’s not just the crew but the whole of humanity at stake!

The Doctor - Matt Smith
Clara - Jenna-Louise Coleman
Captain Zhukov - Liam Cunningham
Professor Grisenko - David Warner
Lieutenant Stepashin - Tobias Menzies
Piotr - Josh O'Connor
Onegin - James Norton
Belevich - Charlie Anson
Skaldak - Spencer Wilding
Voice of Skaldak - Nicholas Briggs

Writer - Mark Gatiss
Director - Douglas Mackinnon
Producer - Marcus Wilson


This week continues to see the episode between the news and The Voice, with the competition from ITV once again in the form of You've Been Framed. BBC Two offers The Story of Are You Being Served? followed by an episode of the show, whilst Channel 4 has the news followed by Sarah Beeny's Selling Houses. Meanwhile, Channel 5 finishes the film Rocky III and then commences The Magnificent Seven Ride!



Internationally, Cold War will be broadcast in the United States and Canada on BBC America and SPACE respectively at 8:00pm ET on the 13th April, and then on the 14th it can be seen in Australia via ABC at 7:30pm, Poland via BBC Entertainment at 6:00pm, and South Africa via BBC Entertainment at 7:00pm. Meanwhile, New Zealand finally gets to see the new series launch with The Bells of Saint John this Thursday on PRIME at 7:30pm.

See This Week in Doctor Who for more details on scheduling and repeats.

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FILTER: - Online - Series 7/33

The Bells of Saint John: Official ratings

Monday, 8 April 2013 - Reported by Marcus
Final ratings data for the week ending 31st March 2013 released by the Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board, or BARB, gives Doctor Who: The Bells of Saint John a final rating of 8.44 million viewers.

The final rating includes all those who record the programme and watch it within a week. It does not include the BBC Three repeat, where around 390,000 watched. Nor does it include those watching on iPlayer where over 1 million people have accessed the episode so far.

The rating is the highest the series has received, excluding the Christmas Specials, since the premier of Series Six in April 2011, when The Impossible Astronaut had 8.86 million watching.

Doctor Who was the second highest rated show on BBC One for the week, only being beaten by one episode of EastEnders. It out-rated The Voice by nearly 1 million viewers, even though the two shows were level on overnight estimates. The only show to get a higher rating on ITV was Coronation Street where five episodes scored above Doctor Who. (ITV figures do not include HD viewers).

Full Ratings Data




FILTER: - Doctor Who - Ratings - UK - Series 7/33

The Rings of Akhaten AI:84

Monday, 8 April 2013 - Reported by Marcus

The Rings of Akhaten had an Appreciation Index, or AI score, of 84.

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.

Although the score is slightly lower than recent episodes Doctor Who still scored higher than most of Saturday's output. The highest scoring programmes of the day were Casulty with 87, Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway with 88 and Dad's Army with 87.




FILTER: - Doctor Who - Ratings - UK - Series 7/33

Australian overnight ratings for The Rings of Akhaten

Monday, 8 April 2013 - Reported by Adam Kirk


The Rings of Akhaten has debuted in Australia, averaging 725,000 viewers in the five major capital cities. It was the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's top-rating drama of the day and the tenth highest rating program of the day overall. These ratings do not include regional or time-shifted viewers.
Media Links: TV Tonight




FILTER: - Ratings - Broadcasting - Series 7/33 - Australia

The Rings of Akhaten: 5.5 Million Overnight Audience

Sunday, 7 April 2013 - Reported by Marcus
The Rings of Akhaten had an overnight audience of 5.5 million viewers, a share of 28.8% of the total TV audience.

Doctor Who was once more third for the day, although the gap between the series and the programmes at the top of the chart was slightly larger, perhaps reflecting the lighter evenings.

Top of the list was Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway with 7.3 million watching, while The Voice was second with 6.4 million viewers.

Doctor Who once more won the time-slot with You've Been Framed Rides Again! getting 3.4 million watching.

Final ratings will be released next week, which should see Doctor Who substantially increase its rating once those who timeshift the programme are factored in.




FILTER: - Doctor Who - Ratings - Series 7/33

The Ark in Space on UKTV

Saturday, 6 April 2013 - Reported by Paul Scoones

Sunday 7th April sees the broadcast of the four-part 1975 Tom Baker story The Ark in Space on Australian and New Zealand television. The story is the 13th instalment in the 50th Anniversary season of Doctor Who stories on the UKTV channel.
UKTV
The story is scheduled in Australia at 3:30pm and in New Zealand at 4:00pm. New Zealand has an additional screening on Monday 8th April at 3:55am.

The Ark in Space was first broadcast in Australia in 1976. New Zealand got to see it in 1978.

The UKTV billing describes the story as follows:
The TARDIS arrives on a deactivated space station Nerva otherwise known as the Ark. The Doctor, Sarah & Harry find the last survivors of the human race in suspended animation.
UKTV is showing stories throughout the year in the lead-up to the anniversary in November. The Ark in Space is the first in a set of six stories featuring Tom Baker's Doctor broadcast during April.

The rest of the month's schedule includes: Genesis of the Daleks (14th April), Pyramids of Mars and The Hand of Fear (21st April), and The Robots of Death and City of Death (28th April).

Up-and-coming broadcasts from both 20th and 21st Century series of Doctor Who can be found via UKTV's Doctor Who sections  for Australia and New Zealand.





FILTER: - Classic Series - WHO50 - New Zealand - Australia

DVD Update (R1): The Doctors Revisited / The Moonbase

Friday, 5 April 2013 - Reported by Chuck Foster
The Doctors Revisited - 3D Cover (R1)BBC Worldwide/Warner Home Entertainment have released details on a forthcoming DVD release, The Doctors Revisited (1-4), a four-disc boxed set being released as part of BBC America's 50th Anniversary celebration of Doctor Who.

This set features the first four special documentaries broadcast by the channel for William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker, each accompanied by the story that illustrated them (The Aztecs, The Tomb of the Cybermen, Spearhead from Space and Pyramids of Mars). As a bonus, each story will also feature an introduction by the show's current lead writer and executive producer, Steven Moffat.

Amazon have made the story available for pre-order, with a release date of 11th June 2013.

The Revisited trailers can be viewed online for the First, Second and Third Doctors.

 

The Moonbase

As well as the release above, Amazon have also listed The Moonbase for pre-order! The site describes the release thus:
New to DVD! Digitally remastered Doctor Who classic The Moonbase! (NOT FINAL) The TARDIS arrives in 2070 AD on the Moon, where a weather control station under the command of a man named Hobson is in the grip of a plague epidemic - in reality the result of an alien poison planted by the Cybermen. Polly realizes that as the Cybermen's chest units are made of plastic they must be vulnerable to attack by solvents. She and her friends manage to destroy all the Cybermen on the base with a 'cocktail' of such chemicals shot at them through fire extinguishers.
No other information is known about this item or its features at present, though last year special sound composer Brian Hodgson indicated that he had recorded a commentary for the story.

With thanks to TVShowsOnDVD




FILTER: - Canada - USA - BBC America - Third Doctor - Second Doctor - First Doctor - Classic Series