The Sarah Jane Adventures - Series Four

Wednesday, 23 June 2010 - Reported by Marcus
Doctor Who Magazine has revealed the episode titles for the fourth series of The Sarah Jane Adventures, due to be shown in the UK this Autumn.

The series will again consist of six, two-part stories. A number of guest stars are also announced including Julian Bleach, who is playing the Nightmare Man, Cheryl Campbell, Cyril Nri, Julie Graham and of course Matt Smith and Katy Manning.

  • 1: The Nightmare Man
  • by Joseph Lidster
  • 2: The Vault of Secrets
  • by Phil Ford
  • 3: Death of the Doctor
  • by Russell T Davies
  • 4: The Empty Planet
  • by Gareth Roberts
  • 5: Lost in Time
  • by Rupert Laight
  • 6: Goodbye, Sarah Jane Smith
  • by Gareth Roberts and Clayton Hickman




FILTER: - Sarah Jane

Doctor Who: The Big Bang - Clip

Wednesday, 23 June 2010 - Reported by Marcus
A new clip from the final episode of the current series of Doctor Who, The Big Bang, has been made available via the official website.

Please don't click on the link unless you have seen The Pandorica Opens as it contains a major spoiler from that episode. The link is here.

An introduction to the episode from Matt Smith is also available.




FILTER: - Matt Smith - Series 5/31 - Broadcasting

Doctor Who - The Adventure Game - Part Two

Tuesday, 22 June 2010 - Reported by Marcus
Doctor Who: The Adventure GamesThe second instalment of Doctor Who: The Adventure Game, will be called Blood of the Cybermen and will be available to download in the UK from Saturday 26th June via the BBC Site.

The details were announced at a special press launch in Scotland where writer, Phil Ford, one of the Executive Producers, Charles Cecil and voice of the Cybermen and Daleks, Nick Briggs, answered questions from around the country.

Two script extracts are available from the official site.

Extract One

Extract Two

The first part of the Adventure was released earlier in the month and has been downloaded over half a million times.




FILTER: - Games - Animation

The Lodger - Final Ratings

Tuesday, 22 June 2010 - Reported by Marcus
Doctor Who: The LodgerFinal figures for Episode Eleven of Doctor Who, The Lodger, published by BARB show the story was watched by 6.44 million viewers.

On BBC One the programme got 5.98 million watching where it was the sixth most watched programme for the channel for the week. An additional 0.464 million watched on BBC HD and when added together the programme totalled 6.44 million viewers.

Final figures for ITV1 HD are not available, so a full top thirty programmes of the week can't be calculated. Doctor Who stands at 21st for the week without HD figures added. If HD figures are included, it would almost certainly rise to be the 20th most watched programme of the week.

The BBC Three Sunday repeat did not rank high enough to get into the top 30 for the week.

Full ratings for the series so far can be found in Gallifrey Base.




FILTER: - Ratings - UK - Series 5/31

Doctor Who: The Pandorica Opens - Appreciation Index

Monday, 21 June 2010 - Reported by Marcus
Doctor Who: The Pandorica OpensThe Appreciation Index figure for Episode Twelve of Doctor Who, The Pandorica Opens, was 88, highest of the series so far.

The Appreciation Index or AI is a measure of how much the audience enjoyed the programme. Any score over 85 is considered excellent. The score was the joint highest on any of the four main channels for the day.

The Sunday repeat on BBC Three was watched by 0.47 million viewers, with the last part winning its timeslot amongst the multi-channel stations.

With Sunday's overnight figures now available, Doctor Who is currently 16th for the week. This should rise considerably when the final figure is released next week.

Doctor Who Confidential recieved an AI of 85 on Saturday and the Sunday repeat was watched by 0.30 million viewers.




FILTER: - Ratings - UK - Series 5/31

Australian ratings for Vincent and the Doctor

Monday, 21 June 2010 - Reported by Adam Kirk
Vincent and the Doctor has debuted in Australia to strong ratings. TV Tonight reports that the episode averaged 895,000 viewers in the five major capital cities, again despite stiff competition from the commercial networks. It was the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's second-highest rating drama of the day coming a close third behind the series final of Agatha Christie's Poirot and the Sunday 7pm news. The corresponding Confidential Cutdown also rated an excellent 714,000 viewers in the five major capitals.




FILTER: - Ratings - Series 5/31 - Broadcasting - Australia

The Pandorica Opens - Overnight Ratings

Sunday, 20 June 2010 - Reported by Jarrod Cooper
Episode Twelve of Doctor Who, The Pandorica Opens, got an audience of 5.9 million viewers for episode 12, The Pandorica Opens, according to unofficial overnight figures. 5.4 million watched on BBC One with an additional 0.5 million watching on BBC HD.

The episode was the most watched show of the day, with the World Cup on ITV1 only bringing in 5.2 million for the Cameroon v Denmark match.

Overall Doctor Who stands as the 14th most watched programme of the week, with just Sunday's figures to come. The programme is likely to get a boost when the final figures, including details for those who recorded the program for later viewing, are released next week and a top ten place is distinctly possible.

Doctor Who Confidential rated well with 0.62 million watching the programme on BBC Three, making it the 5th most watched programme of the day on multi-channel Television. An additional 0.14 million watched on BBC HD giving a total of 0.78 million viewers.





FILTER: - Ratings - Series 5/31

The Pandorica Opens - Press Reaction

Sunday, 20 June 2010 - Reported by Marcus
Doctor Who: The Pandorica OpensNB: Some links contain spoilers from the episode.

Press reaction to Doctor Who: Episode Twleve, The Pandorica Opens, has begun appearing with the Daily Telegraph calling the episode "Sensational, propelling the viewer on a gripping adventure with plenty of shocks and surprises, leavened with more emotional and humorous material for a heady mix."

The Express calls the story "classic fairytale, aimed, as always, at a family audience, with Matt Smith and Karen Gillan now complete in their respective roles". They make a plea to the BBC to safeguard the budget for the series saying it is one of the crown jewels and should be protected.

Den of Geek say "How good was that? We’ve been salivating at the thought of what Steven Moffat could do with a finale two-parter since he first got the top job on Doctor Who. The answer? A lot". The Guardian blog says you need to watch this episode at least three times to get a proper handle on every little bit that's going on. Thing is, you'll want to.




FILTER: - Press

Doctor Who: Adventure Game - Episode Two

Saturday, 19 June 2010 - Reported by Marcus
Doctor Who: Adventure GamesDetails of the second instalment of Doctor Who: The Adventure Game will be released at a special event next Tuesday.

Lead writer and Executive Producer Steven Moffat will join Nicholas Briggs, voice of the Daleks and Cybermen, at a special Question and Answer event being held at Gavinburn Primary School in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland. The duo will take Questions from pupils at the school at the event which takes place at 10am. Other schools in Scotland can participate via the Glow Scotland site.

A further Question and answer session with the Doctor Who team will take place in the afternoon and will be streamed on the BBC Website.

The second game in the series is set in the Arctic and features an army of Cybermen.




FILTER: - Animation

DVDs lose "Next Time" trailer

Friday, 18 June 2010 - Reported by Chuck Foster
A decision has been made by DVD production company 2Entertain to release the eleventh Doctor's adventures without the "Next Time" trailers, as (not) seen on the recently released Volume One; this impacts both the DVD and Bluray formats.

According to emails sent to Radio Free Skaro, the decision was made "at executive level" in 2009.

Another difference to the original broadcast has been specified as: "a slight change to the sound effects used on the transmitted version. Lightning sound effects were added, particularly as Matt and Karen’s names appear, just prior to TX that only the TX version would have." This change is expected to be corrected for the Boxed Set version due out later in the year.




FILTER: - Merchandise - Blu-ray/DVD - Series 5/31