Figures showing the Live+7 performance of the Doctor Who Christmas Special Last Christmas are now available.

The LIve+7 figure is calculated by the BBC to try to get an accurate estimate of the total unique audience for an episode of a programme. Unlike official BARB figures the Live+7 uses data to include those who watched one of the broadcast repeats of the episode and those who watched the episode on iPlayer all within 7 days of the original transmission.

Overall the episode had a audience of 9.62 million who watched either on the day of broadcast or within the following 7 days. Of that 6.29 million watched on Christmas Day, 0.53 million watched the repeat on BBC Three, 1.97 million watched a timeshifted recording while 0.83 million watched on iPlayer.

Big Finish have announced that Kate Stewart and her UNIT team from the Doctor Who Television series will be starring in a brand new series of audio dramas

The deal with BBC Worldwide gives Big Finish the right to use a character from the revived series of Doctor Who for the first time.

Kate is the daughter of Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, and Head of Scientific Research at the Unified Intelligence Taskforce, which investigates and confronts alien attacks on the planet Earth. The role is portrayed by Jemma Redgrave (Dracula, Frankie, Cold Blood) who has appeared opposite Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi on television, and returns for the audio series.

Big Finish series producer David Richardson says Executive producer Jason Haigh-Ellery added Executive producer Nick Briggs says The first box set release, due in November, comprises four hours of adventure, in which Kate and her team confront an alien invasion by the Nestene Consciousness and its army of plastic Autons. Three additional box sets will be available at six monthly intervals.

Two archive interviews are to be released on DVD and are available from Galaxy 4.

An interview with Tom Baker, conducted in 1989, was originally available on Video Cassette, published by Reeltime Pictures. It is released on DVD for the first time. Also available is a brand new title, an interview with Anthony Ainley from April 2000.

Both are released on 27th February.

Next Wednesday, February 11th, ​sees the release of Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor #8, uniting writer Al Ewing (2000AD, Judge Dedd) and artist Warren Pleece (2000AD, Vertigo comics)​.

A Bedford charity is raising money for the homeless, by organising a Doctor Who Convention, with a special discount for readers of Doctor Who News.

Bedford Who Charity Con is being held on Saturday 11th April, to raise funds for Bedford Foodbank, who provide emergency food for local people in crisis. The organisers do not make money from the event; once costs are covered, all the money raised goes to the Foodbank.

Confirmed guests – subject to work commitments – are Nicola Bryant, Sophie Aldred, Anneke Wills, John Leeson, Terry Molloy, Mike Tucker, Paul Cornell, and Doctor Who’s choreographer Ailsa Berk, who will be leading an Alien Movement Workshop. As choreographer, Berk is responsible for teaching movement to the actors playing the aliens. If you want to learn how to stomp like Cybermen, lollop like scarecrows, lurch like Other Dave when he’s possessed by the Vashta Nerada, or frighten the neighbours by adopting the pose of a Weeping Angel, then this is for you. There’ll also be on stage interviews with the guests, who’ll also be signing autographs and BAFTA award-winning Mike Tucker will be doing a presentation on the special effects in Doctor Who. Plus there’ll be the chance to mingle with the Daleks and other aliens.

Prices are £40 for adults, £20 for those aged 14-18 and £12 for under 14s. Family tickets are available. If you tell the organisers you read about the convention on Doctor Who News you'll receive a 10% discount on these prices.

You can order tickets from the convention website

BBC Worldwide and Titan have announced a new UK based Doctor Who Comic will be launched later this month

The comic, featuring the Tenth, Eleventh and Twelfth Doctors in every issue, will be available from 26th February with three on-going stories in the first issue, bringing to the UK the set of stories that have previously not been available in the country. A new issue will be released every four weeks

Join the Tenth Doctor as he deals with the aftermath of Donna Noble’s heart-breaking farewell. The Doctor feels he may never again have another companion, but maybe an adventure with some psychic aliens, a New York laundrette operator and the Mexican Day of the Dead festival can help change his mind.

Then, while Amy and Rory are away, the Eleventh Doctor will play. Experience a time-twisting adventure as he hurtles down a collision course into a terrifying cosmic threat. Can the Doctor save the day once more with a grieving young woman, a 70s’ musician, and an amnesiac alien? Find out in this issue!

Finally, Peter Capaldi’s Twelfth Doctor and Clara Oswald set off on a brand new adventure in the TARDIS. The Doctor is off to his most challenging destination yet. Whether he’s battling a fearsome, millennia-old entity on a freshly-terraformed planet or fighting the forces of an ancient alien, expect shocks, surprises and time-shaking revelations.

Every issue features respected writers and artists, including Eisner Award-winning Nick Abadzis (Laika), fan-favourite Elena Casagrande (Angel, Star Trek), Al Ewing (Loki: Agent of Asgard) and Rob Williams (Trifecta), Simon Fraser (Grindhouse), Eagle award-winning writer Robbie Morrison (The Authority, 2000AD) and Dave Taylor (Batman: Death By Design, 2000AD).

And every issue comes with an original humour strip and competitions. In issue one, readers can win a set of the Tenth, Eleventh and Twelfth Doctor Vinyl figures. The first issue will also feature an exclusive code to download comic strip characters into the Doctor Who Legacy free-to-play game.

Nicholas Brett, Director of UK Publishing, BBC Worldwide, said:Issue one of BBC Doctor Who Comicwill be available on the 26th February and will be available every four weeks in supermarkets, WH Smiths and independent newsagents. Every issue is 84 pages and retails at £3.99.

The new issue of Doctor Who Magazine is officially out tomorrow, and features the first major interview with Paul Wilmshurst, director of the recent Doctor Who episodes Kill the Moon, Mummy on the Orient Express and Last Christmas.



Also inside this issue:

• Doctor Who's very first director, Waris Hussein, reveals how the classic 1964 adventure Marco Polo was made – with the help of unique documents unseen for 50 years!
• Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat answer readers’ questions – including one from former showrunner Russell T Davies! – in his exclusive column.
• Peter Purves, who played companion Steven Taylor in the 1960s, looks back at some of his most memorable adventures in the second part of an exclusive interview.
• DWM presents an exclusive prelude to the new series of books featuring Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart, in the form of a complete short story by Andy Frankham-Allan: The Ambush.
• Bernard Kay, the much-loved actor who appeared in four Doctor Who stories, is remembered by his friend Toby Hadoke.
• The Doctor and Clara tackle both Sontarans and Rutans in the concluding part of The Instruments of War, a brand-new comic strip written and illustrated by Mike Collins.
• En garde! Discover fascinating new facts about the swashbuckling Fourth Doctor adventure The Androids of Tara in The Fact of Fiction.
• The Time Team watch the Tenth Doctor take a bus to alien world, as they visit the Planet of the Dead.
• Jacqueline Rayner demonstrates the fun to be had in spotting Doctor Who actors in other roles in Relative Dimensions.
• The DWM Review assesses the very latest Doctor Who audio and book releases.
• The Watcher examines the changing nature of history in Doctor Who, in the latest Wotcha!
• The DWM Crossword, prize-winning competitions, official news and much more!

BBC Worldwide and LEGO® have announced a deal to produce a range of Doctor Who Lego, based around a proposal made by fan Andrew Clark last year:

There is a Twitter hashtag associated with the announcement, #LEGODoctorWho


You can read about Andrew Clark's proposals in our news article last year.