The actor Geoffrey Bayldon has died at the age of 93

Geoffrey Bayldon was best known for his portrayal of Catweazle, the eccentric 11th-century wizard who was the star of the LWT children's series produced in the early 1970's, as well as playing the Crowman in the Jon Pertwee series Worzel Gummidge.

Bayldon was considered for the role of the Doctor twice. First when the series was commissioned in 1963. He turned the offer down, worried about playing such an old character and not wanting to commit to the then unknown series. When Hartnell left the role in 1966, Bayldon was again the frame to play The Doctor, but once more decided against joining the programme. It was not until 1979 that he eventually did appear in the series when he played Organon the astrologer in the Tom Baker story The Creature from the Pit

He would eventually voice the Doctor in the Big Finish Doctor Who Unbound stories Auld Mortality and A Storm of Angels.

Bayldon was born in Leeds in 1923. He joined the Royal Air Force and had a period studying architecture, before fulfilling his dream of becoming an actor, training at the Old Vic Theatre School. He was a regular face on British television from 1950's onwards appearing in Sword of Freedom, The Case of the Frightened Lady, An Age of Kings, The Victorians, The Massingham Affair, The Woman in White, Z Cars and The Adventures of Robin Hood where he played Count de Severne.

In 1970 he accepted the role of Catweazle, first appearing on Sundays afternoons in February 1970. It was a role that would endear him to a generation of children. The character, an eccentric medieval wizard trapped in the 20th century, amused and delighted both adults and children alike. In 2010 Bayldon spoke about the role. In 1979 he entertained another generation of kids when he took the role of The Crowman in the Southern TV adaptation of Worzel Gummidge and in 1995 played Magic Grandad, an eccentric who took his grandchildren back in time to see historical events, a concept similar to the original premise of Doctor Who.

He remained a well-known character actor working well into his eighties, with appearances in Prince Caspian and the Voyage of the Dawn Treader, All Creatures Great and Small, Blott on the Landscape, Juliet Bravo, Devenish, Fort Boyard, Casualty, Heartbeat, Waking the Dead, My Family and New Tricks.

Geoffrey Bayldon died on 10th May 2017. His partner Alan Rowe died in 2000.

German DVD distributer Pandastorm Pictures announced on their Facebook page the release of The Caves of Androzani ("Die Höhlen von Androzani") for the German market. The serial will be dubbed to German specifically for this release, as no German dub exists for any story before The Twin Dilemma, with the exception of The Five Doctors.

The Caves of Androzani has never been broadcasted on German television. In the late 80's and early 90's German TV channel RTL Plus transmitted all serials featuring the seventh Doctor. In 1995 the channel VOX aired The Five Doctors and all serials featuring the sixth Doctor. All those stories have been released by Pandastorm Pictures on DVD boxed sets in the past few years.

There will be two different versions of Die Höhlen von Androzani:

• Collectors Edition Mediabook: Limited and numbered to 1,500 copies. This edition looks like a book and will feature an extensive booklet and the English- and German-language soundtracks and subtitles. Also includes all special features that can be found on the UK Special Edition DVD. Release date: 25th August 2017
  
• Regular Edition: Will be the same as the Mediabook, only in a standart DVD slip case. Release date: 13th October 2017

All Doctor Who DVD's by Pandastorm Pictures are usually code-free. The DVD is not available for pre-order yet.

Official figures released by the Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board or BARB, give Doctor Who - Thin Ice an official rating of 5.51 million viewers.

The rating includes all those who recorded the programme and watched it within 7 days.

Doctor Who is the 25th most watched programme for the week, and 10th most watched on BBC One

Top for the week was ITV's Britain's Got Talent with 10.60 million watching. Drama's doing well include BBC One's Line of Duty with 9.92 million and ITV's Little Boy Blue with 7.17 million. Doctor Who sliped behind the soaps EastEnders and Emmerdale as well as Coronation Street.

Doctor Who was the second highest BBC One programme for Saturday night, just behind of the entertainment show All Round to Mrs Brown's

The BBC have released a number of new publicity images to promote this week's episode of Doctor Who, Oxygen
This week BBC One will show Doctor Who five minutes earlier than usual, at 7.15pm, in order to accomadate the Eurovision Song Contest which starts at 8pm.

Oxygen: Main Broadcast Details
United Kingdom	BBC One	Sat 13 May 2017	7:15pm BST
Middle East	BBC First	Sat 13 May 2017	9:20pm AST	(Sat 7:20pm BST)
United States of America	BBC America	Sat 13 May 2017	9:00pm EDT	(Sun 2:00am BST)
Canada	SPACE	Sat 13 May 2017	9:00pm EDT	(Sun 2:00am BST)
Finland	YLE2	Sun 14 May 2017	11:30am EEST	(Sun 9:30am BST)
Australia	ABC	Sun 14 May 2017	7:40pm AEST	(Sun 10:40am BST, also on ABC ME)
Brazil	SyFy	Sun 14 May 2017	8:00pm BRT	(Sun 11:00pm BST)
Latin America	SyFy	Sun 14 May 2017	10:00pm CDT	(Mon 4:00am BST)
New Zealand	PRIME	Sun 14 May 2017	7:30pm NZST	(Mon 7:30am BST)

Full listings here

Doctor Who - Knock Knock had an Audience Appreciation or Ai figure of 83

The Appreciation Index in an indication of how much viewers enjoyed the episode. It is based to the reactions of a selected panel of viewers, who rate the episode shortly after transmission.

83 is considered a good score, roughly similar to the scores achieved by the last series of the show,

The highest score for the evening on the two main channels was achieved by Casualty on BBC One which scored 85.

This week sees the latest release in the Titan series featuring the Eleventh Doctor

Doctor Who : The Eleventh Doctor Year Three #5

Writer: James Peaty
Artist: I.N.J Culbard
Cover A: Arianna Florean Cover B: Photo Cover C: LINKED SET OF FOUR By Ryan Hall Cover D: Leandro Casco

Knock Knock has debuted in Australia, averaging 417,000 viewers in the five major capital cities. The story was the second highest rating ABC drama of the day and the twelfth highest rating program of the day overall. These ratings do not include iview, regional or time-shifted viewers. The binaural edition of Knock Knock, with enhanced sound, is also now available on ABC iview.

Meanwhile, including time-shifted viewers, Smile averaged 574,000 consolidated viewers in the five major capital cities. With 110,000 extra viewers it was the highest time-shifted program of the day (the second highest time-shifted program had 104,000 extra viewers) and the eighth highest rating program of the day overall. These ratings do not include iview or regional viewers.

Big Finish has announced that Torchwood will be back for a brand new series of audio adventures with Torchwood: Aliens Among Us...

The new series, revealed at the DWAS convention The Capitol II, will follow the events of Miracle Day, and will see the Torchwood team reunited. Captain Jack, Gwen and Rhys will be joined by new characters co-created and overseen by series creator Russell T Davies.

In this series, Captain Jack and Gwen Cooper have restarted Torchwood in Cardiff, home of the original Torchwood Three. But it's in a very different Cardiff. Something terrible's happened to the city. With every day getting darker, will Torchwood need to adopt a whole new approach?

Producer of Torchwood Season 5, James Goss, talked about the new Torchwood team and Russell T Davies’ involvement. This new series of Torchwood will be released in three boxsets, the first being out in August. Torchwood Series 5.2 will follow in October and 5.3 will complete the season in the new year.

Press reaction to this week's Doctor Who episode Knock Knock is mixed. While many reviewers disagree about the strength of the writing, most are agreed on the quality of the performances in the story.

The Telegraph thought the acting plaudits belonged to the main guest star. "David Suchet playing the Landlord was brilliant casting. Just menacing enough as he mysteriously appeared without warning, smiling evilly in corners. Grey-haired and brown-suited, Suchet even looked ghostly. Never before has a tuning fork seemed so sinister."

Radio Times relished the creepy nature of the episode, but was disappointed by the ending. "For the first 35 minutes or so of Knock Knock I’m enthralled. Unfortunately, it showed signs of collapsing like a soufflé during the denouement...... I’d have been far happier with an unhappy ending. And yet I’m dismayed that, as the house crumbles, Bill loses all her knick-knacks, including the treasured photos of her mum that the Doctor sourced for her only weeks ago.

Den of Geek takes the opposite view, preferring the last third of the story. "Appreciating that some aren’t happy when Doctor Who goes emotional in its story wrap-ups, the fact that David Suchet’s mysterious landlord is actually the son of the woman we assumed to be his daughter is a very well earned, impactful piece of storytelling. I like that it works as a twist, but mostly, that it works because it adds real tenderness to the story."

The Mirror felt the episode to be the weekest of the season so far, feeling the character of The landlord was confusing. "Rather than allowing the bad guy of the week to be wonderfully creepy, he gets a 180 in the last few minutes to try and make us sympathise with him. But again, you can’t go killer madman to poor boy trying to save his mother in 3 minutes flat. Frankly, if you bag an actor of such calibre you can't waste him on a character that chops and changes."

Games Radar felt the writing was disapointing after last week's triumph. "The flat story is elevated slightly by David Suchet’s masterful acting, and Bill coming out as bluntly as possible does provide an air-punch moment. But even those stand-outs can’t redeem the overall limp writing. "

Flickering Myth disagreed. "When Doctor Who aims to frighten you, it really knows where those dark corners are in your mind, where you keep those little things you don’t like in your own cozy home, and brings them into light for everyone to see and to watch you leap two foot off your sofa. In this latest episode of Series 10, written by Mike Bartlett, you’re seriously going to be considering screwing down that creaking floorboard outside your bathroom by the end of it."

Carter Matt also enjoyed the story. "What was so fascinating about this story was that the more we saw of it, the more apparent that it became that this was not a story about good and evil; it was a story in some ways about a sacrifice, and what a father was able to do for his daughter. "

AV Club appreciated the style of the story. "Rarely does Doctor Who embrace another genre as completely as the first 30 minutes of “Knock Knock” does. For the first two thirds of its running time, tonight’s episode is a horror movie, with all the customary trappings. There’s the spooky haunted house with the still spookier landlord. There’s a bunch of thinly sketched young people who are all possibly idiots. There are loud noises and eerie music and windows and doors shutting all by themselves. If anything, it’s all a bit old-fashioned, in the best possible way."

Ars Technica praised the effects in the episode. "The storyline is a bit horror-by-numbers as one by one Bill's pals are bumped off by the alien woodlice. The on-screen effect is pretty grim, if thoroughly gripping, and reminds me of the carnivorous scarabs in The Mummy."

Digital Spy also felt the effects were well realised. "The episode is admirably daring when it comes to its scares, throwing up some genuinely disturbing visuals, particularly the sight of a pained Pavel (Bart Suavek) half-eaten by the house, and of a screaming Harry (Colin Ryan) being eaten alive by the Dryads."

Screen Rant looked at the themes behind the current series. "Weighing the life of one against the lives of many has been a recurring theme during Capaldi’s tenure as the Doctor, and with ‘Knock Knock’ the series places the Time Lord in a more intimate situation, almost like it’s a test to see what he’ll do when faced with a group of twentysomethings trapped in what appears to be a haunted house"

Nerdist also picked up the horror in the story. "One of the show’s main goals since the beginning was to scare people senseless. Monstrous aliens are part and parcel of the show’s success, and that often sends people “behind the sofa.” This week’s “Knock Knock” fits right in that genre…for good and ill."

IGN returned to the relationship between The Doctor and his new companion. "I enjoyed “Knock Knock” from the get-go, particularly -- as usual -- due to the Doctor’s interactions with Bill, as we see her here slightly embarrassed by the weird old fella around her new friends. This is her granddad helping her move, she insists, but no, he says, he’s her dad. Can’t we at least say I’m the dad?"

Link to Doctor Who News Review

Doctor Who - Knock Knock had an overnight viewing audience of 4.32 million viewers, a share of 24.9% of the total TV audience, according to unofficial figures. Doctor Who increased its audience by half a million from the previous week.

Top for the day was once more the ITV variety show Britain's Got Talent with 9.35 million viewers. Doctor Who was top for BBC One for the evening, with Pointless Celebrities getting 4.20 million watching, while Casualty managed 4.02 million.