Big Finish are running another of their special offer weekends, with ten titles available at a discounted price:


The complete list can be found at the Big Finish website.

Competition:

Thanks to Big Finish we have five copies of the latest Companion Chronicle, The Scorchies, up for grabs. To be in with the chance to win, please answer the following question:
Send you answer to this email address with the subject "Catch 22", along with your name and address. The competition is open worldwide, and the closing date is 31st March 2013.

The BBC have now confirmed the time of the series "7B" premiere of Doctor Who: The Bells of Saint John will be broadcast on BBC One at 6:15pm on the 30th March 2013.

The episode launches the new early evening line-up for BBC One, with the new series of The Voice following it at 7:00pm. BBC Two broadcasts Easter from Kings until 6:30pm, whereupon there is a repeat of The Good Life leading into a tribute at 7:00pm to Richard Briers, who died last month. Meanwhile, ITV are broadcasting the news followed by You've Been Framed, Channel 4 have racing followed by the news, whilst Channel 5 are showing the film Police Academy 4.

Competition:

To celebrate the return of the series, Doctor Who News are offering readers the chance to win one of two copies of Series 7 Part 2 when it is released (currently scheduled for 20th May in the UK).
To enter the competition, please send your answer to this email address with the subject line "Run, you clever boy!", along with your name and address, plus your preferred format (Blu-ray or DVD) and region. The competition closes at 6:15pm GMT on Saturday 30th March.

Publicity Images:

New publicity images have been released for the story which can be viewed below, along with the other images from earlier in the week:

The first in a new range of classic Doctor Who soundtracks will be released next week by Silva Screen Records, delving back to the end of the Fifth's Doctor's era with Roger Limb's score for The Caves of Androzani.


The soundtrack has been restored by Mark Ayres, who explained to us the differences between these new CD presentations and the isolated scores that have been presented on some of the classic series DVDs in the past:


The Caves of Androzani is released on the 25th March 2013 and is available for pre-order.

Competition:

We have three copies of the CD up for grabs, courtesy of Silva Screen. To be in with a chance to win a copy, please answer the following question:
Send your answers to this email address with the subject "curiousity has always been my downfall", along with your name and address. The competition is open worldwide, and the closing date is the 31st March 2013.

AudioGo have provided details for April's classic novelisation release, The Rescue; it is read by Maureen O'Brien who played Vicki, the Doctor's companion who was introduced in this story on television.

Competitions:

We are pleased to announce that we have three copies of The Rescue to give away in a competition, courtesy of AudioGo. In order to win, please answer the following question:
Send your answers to this email address with the subject "Rescuing Vicki!", along with your name and address. The competition is open worldwide, and the closing date is the 31st March 2013.

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We are also pleased to be able to offer the next instalment of Destiny of The Doctor, the Fourth Doctor tale Babblesphere featuring Lalla Ward as Romana as a separate competition. In order to win this please answer the following question:
Send your answers to this email address with the subject "Who is this God Person Anyway?", along with your name and address. The competition is again open worldwide, with the closing date of 31st March 2013.

The Professional Publishers Association are celebrating their centenary this year, and as part of this ten covers are to compete to become Cover of the Century, one of which is the Radio Times issue covering the week 30th April to May 6th May 2005 - otherwise known as Vote Dalek!

The magazine is up against covers from the Beano, Cosmpolitan, Empire, Harpers, MacUser, NewScientist, Time Out, Vogue and Woman's Weekly, all of which were chosen by a panel of experts as being the most iconic over the century.


Head of the PPA, Barry McIlheney said

Voting is open daily to the public via the PAA website until the 30th September, with the winning cover announced on the Association's actual centenary on 21st November.

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This isn't the first time the Radio Times cover has been up for an award - in 2008 it won the coveted title of Best Magazine Cover Of All Time in a poll that was also conducted by the PAA!

Circulation director at the time, Nicola Rowe said of its successback then:

It is now traditional for the Doctor to entertain us on Christmas Day - and for Doctor Who News to run its Christmas Ratings Competition!



This year, The Snowmen will be broadcast at 5:15pm, and will be facing ITV1's New You've Been Framed (5:00pm), Emmerdale (5:30pm), and Paul O'Grady: For the Love of Dogs (6:00pm). Other programmes include films The Fellowship of the Ring (Channel 4 from 5:40pm) and The Santa Incident (Channel 5 from 5:25pm), and a documentary Sister Wendy and the Art of the Gospel (BBC2, from 5:25pm).

The Prize:

We are delighted to be able to invite the winner to a recording of a Big Finish audio adventure - the recording, which will feature Sylvester McCoy as the Doctor, will take place on 21st January 2013 (see terms and conditions below).

An alternative prize will be available to the winner should they be unable to attend the recording.

Entering The Competition:

To enter the competition, please send the following details to xmas-competition@doctorwhonews.net:

• Your name and email address
• Your country (full address will only be requested if you are a winner)
• An alternative contact number (in case we cannot reach you through email)
• Confirmation of being able to attend the Big Finish recording (see terms and conditions)
• Where you read about this competition
• And of course ... your guess for the final viewing figure!

Previous Ratings / Current Odds:

For comparison, the ratings for the previous Christmas Day episodes in recent years are as follows: The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe (10.77m), A Christmas Carol (12.11m), The End Of Time: Part One (12.04m), The Next Doctor (13.10m), Voyage of the Damned (13.31m), The Runaway Bride (9.30m), The Christmas Invasion (9.84m).

The Snowmen is currently considered to be the second-most favourite to top the Christmas TV ratings, according to William Hill. Odds given at the time of writing are 4/1 (up from 5/1 earlier in the week), with the runaway favourite being EastEnders at 1/2. Downton Abbey is third at 5/1, with the other major soap Coronation Street at 8/1. Other shows expected to do well are The Royle Family (10/1) and Call the Midwife (14/1). For the ITV1 programmes in direct opposition to Doctor Who, New You've Been Framed is 100/1, Emmerdale is 40/1, and Paul O'Grady is 50/1.

Terms And Conditions:

• The competition closes at 6:15pm, 25th December 2012
• Only one entry will be accepted per person.
• The competition is open worldwide - however, please note Big Finish details below.
• BARB figures are expected in early January; we will contact the winner once they have been published.
• In the event of a tie, the winner will be chosen from random from out of our fez.
  
  
• The Big Finish recording will take place at their studio near Hammersmith, London - however, travel and accommodation is not included. You must confirm in your competition entry whether you are able to attend the recording or not - an alternative prize will be offered instead should you be a winner.
• Entrants under the age of 16 must be accompanied by an adult.
• If you do confirm you will be attending, you are also agreeing to keep the confidentiality of any plot details or other information unveiled by Big Finish or the cast.

The BBC have launched a new festive daily game for UK residents to win presents on Facebook:

BBC Worldwide is giving UK fans to win a PlayStation 3 and a copy of the game Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock.

The competition, on the official Doctor Who Facebook page, also offers five runner prizes of a copy of Doctor Who Playstation game.

The promotion closes at 11.59pm UK time on 2nd July 2012 and is open to those resident in the United Kingdom who are at least 18 years of age. The winner will be the first entry drawn at random from all eligible entries.

The winning entry in this year's Script To Screen competition has been revealed as coming from Ashdene Primary School in Wilmslow.

The theme of the contest was the Olympics, and the team's mini-episode, which stars Matt Smith and Karen Gillan and sees the return of the Weeping Angels, is to be shown on today's episode of Blue Peter, airing on CBBC at 5.45pm.

Irene Spawton, Year 6 teacher at the Cheshire school, said the pupils involved, named only as Emily, Libby, and Rebecca, pictured above, left to right, with Smith and Gillan - click on the thumbnail to expand, were thrilled and surprised to have won the competition:
In a short piece last week in the school's newsletter, head teacher Keith Wadcock congratulated the trio on their victory.

The three-minute adventure, called Good As Gold, was filmed at Roath Lock studios the week before last, and Keith Gaskin, the father of Emily, tweeted about it on 8th May: "I've just wished my daughter luck as she's off to Cardiff to have her script made into a Dr Who episode after winning BBC comp. Good luck Em!", 9th May in reply to a comment about the win probably blowing her mind: "It certainly did thanks. The worst part was she knew a while back but couldn't tell anyone! Blue Peter are filming as well" and 10th May: "I've just picked up my daughter after their script was made into a Dr Who episode. Brilliant time apparently & Matt Smith fantastic with them."

The girls' script was chosen by Doctor Who supremo Steven Moffat, BBC Learning executive producer Katy Jones, and Doctor Who executive producer Caroline Skinner, who praised the quality of all the entries, saying:
Jones said:

A behind-the-scenes item on how Good As Gold was made will also feature in today's Blue Peter, which is repeated tomorrow on BBC One at 4.30pm and will be available via the BBC iPlayer here within the UK following today's broadcast.

Thursday sees a brand new mini Doctor Who adventure, Good as Gold come to BBC Television, when the results of this year's Script to Screen competition are broadcast as part of the children's programme Blue Peter.

The 2012 competition was launched in January and was open to UK pupils aged 9-11, who were asked to collaborate on a script that takes the Time Lord on a new quest travelling through space and time.

The lucky winners were invited to the Doctor Who set in Cardiff to see their mini-episode being recorded and the results can be seen on Thursday's Blue Peter, broadcast at 5.45pm on the CBBC channel. The programme is repeated on Friday at 4.30pm on BBC One.