Doctor Who Magazine 416 is the biggest-ever edition and, less than a month before he leaves the role, is a David Tennant special. Tennant gives an in-depth interview about his last days as the Tenth Doctor, the forthcoming Christmas Special, The End of Time, and the reasons why he’s decided to leave his dream job.

"When the Doctor decides he’s the ‘Time Lord Victorious’, we’re making him quite unsympathetic", considers David. "Well, it’s making him more Time Lord, actually, when you consider how they turned out. When we see the Doctor behaving arrogantly, selfishly or uncontrollably, it’s then that he appears more fallible, and therefore more human?
The Time Lords were pretty fallible too. It’s hubris. It’s Greek. It needed that scale to tell the final story. It’s a tale of the gods, really but gods who are fallible and, I suppose, human."


Also in the issue:

• AS TIME GOES BY With just two weeks to go until this year’s Doctor Who Christmas Specials, there is a taste of what’s in store, with dozens of new photos from The End of Time.
• MASTERPIECE
  He’s the Doctor’s most persistent Time Lord nemesis – the Master is back. John Simm explains why he couldn’t miss out on the Tenth Doctor’s final party.
• GRANDAD, GRANDAD, LOVELY!
  The Doctor’s faithful friend Wilfred Mott enters the TARDIS – and for Bernard Cribbins it’s his first trip into time and space for 43 years! Cribbins looks back over his long career.
• A SPACEMAN CAME TRAVELLING
  The Fact of Fiction turns back the clock to Christmas 2005, and the moment when we first met the Tenth Doctor – in The Christmas Invasion.
• IT’S THE FINAL COUNTDOWN!
  Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies has written his very last Production Notes, what will be his all-important final word?
• SIMPLY RED!
  Majenta Pryce’s dark secrets are about to be revealed as the Tenth Doctor begins his final, epic, comic strip adventure – THE CRIMSON HAND, by Dan McDaid with art from Martin Geraghty.
• THOSE WERE THE DAYS, MY FRIEND
  A look back at the most memorable Doctor Who moments of 2009 in the Review of the Year.
• PARTY LIKE IT’S 1999
  THhe Time Team relive the end of the twentieth century as they turn their attention to the Eighth Doctor’s only on-screen adventure, the 1996 TV Movie.
• EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE
  The Watcher concludes his definitive guide to the Time Lord’s many incarnations by taking a close look at The Tenth Doctor.
• MONEY – THAT’S WHAT I WANT
  Catches up with the Sil, aka Nabil Shaban and find out what he thinks about Jonathan Ross, YouTube, weapons of mass destruction – and returning as Sil on audio.

Plus The Watcher is back with the Christmas Quiz, there is a giant-sized, double-sided poster, and a chance to win the latest DVDs, CDs, books and audios – including the Doctor Who Series 1-4 box set.

The BBC's Doctor Who Advent Calendar isn't the only spot on the web with a daily Doctor Who treat this month. SFX is making a daily countdown to The End of Time on its blog. Highlights so far have included an interview with Russell T Davies, split into three parts here, here and here, as well as pieces on "27 Things SFX Loves About New Who", "How New Doctor Who Has Changed Everything" and "The Greater Spotted David Tennant"; the last includes a summary of all the places David Tennant will be appearing on UK TV and radio this month, as well as some that he probably won't but could. Meanwhile, the BBC's Director of Vision Jana Bennett, the woman in overall charge of the BBC's television services, has written a blog entry praising Doctor Who's place at the heart of the corporation's Christmas television line-up.

Speaking of Tennant, filming has begun on the pilot for Rex Is Not Your Lawyer, the American TV series starring Tennant as a Chicago lawyer who suffers from panic attacks. The Sun, The Daily Telegraph and The Daily Star have short articles about Tennant's casting in the NBC series and his future in Hollywood.

In other news, Karen Gillan's former drama coach brags about her ex-student in the Daily Record; thisissouthwales.co.uk has a brief item on an appearance by Colin Baker and 117 toy Daleks; and the Wigan Evening Post has an item on a Doctor Who fan who's built a replica TARDIS to raise funds for a local cancer centre.

Finally, in response to a fan's query on Twitter, Star Trek: The Next Generation actor Brent Spiner expressed interest in playing a villain on Doctor Who.


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"Special Project Three" has been leaked onto the internet. (Russell T Davies has repeatedly mentioned that David Tennant had worked on three special Doctor Who projects this year, in addition to the four television specials; the first two were the Doctor's appearance in The Sarah Jane Adventures and the animated serial Dreamland.) The third project consists of a special ident for BBC One featuring Tennant as the Doctor. A version of the ident for BBC Scotland has appeared on the website BlogtorWho. The official launch will be later this month, but the BBC have now released a still from the ident.

The BBC has started promoting its Christmas lineup with trails on BBC One. The drama version features several clips from Doctor Who and is available on the BBC YouTube Channel.

The Radio Times for 12 - 18 December confirms the Doctor Who edition of Never Mind the Buzzcocks will be shown on Wednesday 16 December. David Tennant hosts the special show with team captains Phill Jupitus and Noel Fielding. Guests include Bernard Cribbins and Catherine Tate, plus platinum-selling jazz artist Jamie Cullum and Radio 1's Jo Whiley.

Broadcast on December 12th is the previously reported edition of Shelved, the BBC Radio Four documentary which looks at TV episodes which were scrapped because of prevailing political and social circumstances. The Doctor Who story Shada is one of the programmes investigated and Tom Baker takes part.

Meanwhile BBC Radio Seven have scheduled a repeat of An Hour with Jon Pertwee. The show on Saturday 12 December at 5pm is a radio version of Pertwee's one man biographical show.

BBC Radio can be heard around the world via the listen now links on the websites.
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This weeks edition of Doctor Who Adventures asks what now for the Doctor?

As the Tenth Doctor’s time draws to an end the magazine answers some important questions! Who will knock four times? What is the Gate? Where is the TARDIS going next? And why did the Doctor see Ood Sigma and how can the Master be alive again? All the secrets and clues are revealed in this week’s issue.

There is also the magazine’s favourite bits from the latest series of The Sarah Jane Adventures. This Top 10 features K-9, Slitheen and the Doctor himself.

plus…

• Look back at the history of the Doctor Who logo and see how they’ve changed
• Doctor Who gift and The Waters of Mars stickers
• Find out about the Ninth Doctor

Doctor Who Adventures is out now across the United Kingdom.

Doctor Who is celebrated in a new set of commemorative medals struck by the Royal Mint.

The limited edition, gold and silver, medals feature the likeness of David Tennant as well as the Daleks, K-9 and the Tardis.

The Royal Mint of the United Kingdom was founded over 1,100 years ago and is the body permitted to manufacture, coins in the United Kingdom. As well as minting coins for the UK, it also mints and exports coins to many other countries, and produces military medals and commemorative medals. This is the first time that television characters have featured on a Royal Mint medal.

Dave Knight, Director of Commemorative Coin, praised the show's "enduring appeal", calling the Doctor "timeless" while the head of UK Licensing at BBC Worldwide, Richard Hollis said: "David Tennant's performance as the Doctor has been applauded and celebrated across the country and these medals are a fantastic way for fans to collect a lasting memento."

According to the Reader's Digest, David Tennant has admitted he has “nothing to say” to new Doctor Matt Smith.

Tennant told Reader’s Digest, in an interview for the December issue, that he’d spoken to his successor several times “but there’s nothing to say. I think we both thought we’d be able to exchange lots of ideas. But actually it’s none of my business how Matt does it and nothing I say can really help him.”

Talking about his final foray as the Doctor in this year’s Christmas special, Tennant says “This year we’ve done something different. It is still set in Christmas, but it’s perhaps not got quite as much, er… Christmas cheer as before.” Tennant adds that come Christmas Day he’ll be watching his own send off. “Just to enjoy the moment. It’s my last Doctor Who – it will be nice to witness that.”

Tennant is now the proud possessor of his own sonic screwdriver, the Doctor’s signature gizmo. “I have one of the real things! I’ve only once used it to impress a child. It was a charity thing but it was quite cool. He was only about five, so it was a nice, wide-eyed moment.”

While he “doesn’t have any regrets” about leaving the iconic series Tennant is prepared for the inevitable “pangs of jealousy” once he’s handed over the Doctor’s mantle.

Hinting at possible future plans, Tennant reveals that as a child he loved Marvel’s The Avengers, a comic about a team of crime-fighting superheroes. “It’s yet to be made into a film, although I think there are rumblings. I’d be quite happy to be involved.” Indeed the film is in pre-production, with Robert Downey Jr. and Scarlett Johansson already signed on.


Meanwhile, this week Doctor Who Adventures magazine reveals the ten biggest surprises in Doctor Who. From Rose discovering the TARDIS to the Doctor crashing through a mirror riding a horse – the magazine asks which will come top in this shocking countdown?

You can also find out lots of Gadget facts and how it saved in day in The Waters of Mars. The magazine also has an interview with Sarah Jane Adventures actress Elisabeth Sladen about the two new Sarah Jane Adventures CDs.
Also, free Doctor Who fridge magnets; find out about the eighth Doctor – what was he like and why did he regenerate?; part 2 of life-size Doctor Who poster.

The BBC Press Office has released details of the forthcoming radio programme "Who on Who?", to be broadcast on BBC Radio 2 on Tuesday the 29th of December at 5pm. The one-hour programme will feature David Tennant interviewing Russell T Davies about his career and the success of the Doctor Who revival, just days before the broadcast of the pair's final regular work on the programme.

David Tennant shows his versatility with many appearances on British television this Christmas, in addition to his swansong as the Tenth Doctor.

He takes on the role of storyteller for the BBC's channel for pre-school children, CBeebies, where Tennant will read five bedtime stories. Included in the selection is The Christmas Bear by Henrietta and Paul Strickland, which will be shown on Christmas Eve; How High Is The Sky by Anna Milbourne, illustrated by Serena Riglietti; Small Mouse, Big City by Simon Prescott; Emily Brown And The Elephant Emergency by Cressida Cowell and Neal Layton; and Miki by Stephen Mackey.

As previously reported, Tennant's critically acclaimed performance in the title role of Hamlet is also being shown on BBC Two this Christmas, and it has been revealed that the real skull of pianist André Tchaikowsky was used during the filming of the famous "Alas, poor Yorick" scene. The skull was bequeathed to the Royal Shakespeare Company in the hope it would be used on stage. It was used by Tennant in the original Stratford production of the play and also for the London run despite press releases at the time saying the version was a fake. Greg Doran, the plays director confirmed the use of the skull. He explained how important he felt the use of a real skull was to the production. "You can't hold a real human skull in your hand and not be moved by the realisation that your own skull sits just beneath your skin, that you will be reduced to that state at some stage. That is what Yorick's skull does to Hamlet. It reminds him of the very real presence of Death in Life."

Also over Christmas, David Tennant will host a special edition of Never Mind The Buzzcocks, with Bernard Cribbins and Catherine Tate as panellists. He also appears as a guest in Tate's Christmas special.

Final figures now available for the third story in Series Three of The Sarah Jane Adventures show that part one had an audience of 1.59 million, a 13% share of the audience, with part two being watched by 1.47 million – a 12% share.

The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith featured a guest appearance from David Tennant. The figures are spectacularly good for BBC One at this time of day and substantially above the initially reported overnight figures. The average audience in this time slot, for this year, is 0.37 million. Over 35% of the audience was in the 4–15 age range, roughly the same percentage other CBBC programmes achieve, indicating the programme is reaching its target audience.

Excluding bank holidays and special events such as the Olympics and the World Cup, the last time a CBBC programme scored higher ratings at this time was an edition of The Basil Brush show on 23 December 2003.

An additional 300,000 have watched the episodes on iPlayer.

Full Audience data for series three is available here.

Writing in the latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine, Russell T Davies confirms that the preview of the Christmas special, to be shown on this year's Children in Need programme, will not be the pre-titles sequence, but rather a specially packaged clip from the story. This is because the pre-titles sequence from the story is too plot-heavy to work as a standalone preview.

The title of David Tennant's penultimate episode has still not been revealed, but according to Davies it will be six words long, the longest title yet. Final casting for the final episodes took place as late as October, when what is described as a "wonderful and distinguished" Hollywood actor provided the voice for one of the aliens in the story. The voice will be used in the trail for the Christmas episodes which will air directly after The Waters of Mars.

In the run up to the UK showing of The Waters of Mars, David Tennant has been co-hosting the breakfast programme on Absolute Radio. To celebrate the fact, the station mocked up a TARDIS façade for the front of the station.

In the first programme Tennant announced that he is to auction off his own bed live, which is in is own words "a nasty old bed that's seen some action." All proceeds of the auction will be going to Children in Need.

Tennant will be with the programme for the rest of the week, and a podcast of the first programme can be heard via the Absolute Radio website, along with a photo gallery and a video diary.