The Eaters of Light has debuted in Australia, averaging 396,000 viewers in the five major capital cities. The story was the second highest rating ABC drama of the day and the eleventh highest rating program of the day overall. These ratings do not include iview, regional or time-shifted viewers.

Meanwhile, including time-shifted viewers, The Lie of the Land averaged 497,000 consolidated viewers in the five major capital cities. With 69,000 extra viewers it was the fourth highest time-shifted program of the day (the highest time-shifted program had 164,000 extra viewers) and the tenth highest rating program of the day overall. These ratings do not include iview or regional viewers.

Press reaction to this week's Doctor Who, The Eaters of Light, is mixed, with most reviews calling it a solid, if flawed, episode.

Radio Times enjoyed the story calling the script beautifully written. "What’s often rewarding about Doctor Who is that – beyond rewrites, budget constraints, casting and performance – it allows an authorial voice to sing through. It happened for Munro in 1989’s Survival and does so again in The Eaters of Light. It’s a beautifully written script that feels at one with half-remembered Celtic myths."

Digital Spy agreed the story had a both a strong sense of place and a formidable grasp on character. "Some fantastic location work – many evocative shots of a moody, misty Scotland – helps bring Munro's script to life as she milks the 2nd-century setting for its worth. She finds both humour and pathos in the past, such as the Doctor's using a totally anachronistic bag of popcorn to frighten the natives, followed by Bill's horror at the shockingly low age of soldiers on the battlefront."

The Telegraph also appreciated the Direction. "Director Charles Palmer made full use of the sweeping Highland landscape, while the script had fun with the Scots theme, with references to the permanently damp weather and a fatal absence of sunlight being “death by Scotland”. By the end of the episode, Capaldi even wanted to stay."

The Mirror felt the story was safe filler material with some niggles. "The Light Eaters are visually glorious and using them sparingly helps build the tension for their screen appearances. This series of Doctor Who continues its tightrope act of exactly how gory can corpses get before the watershed and this is pretty gruesome. The bodies of the fallen soldiers and villagers are truly unpleasant, but more than enough to punctuate the danger for anyone who crosses the Eaters' path."

AV Club praised the script written by veteran Doctor Who writer Rona Munro "She skillfully mixes the political and the personal here: The Roman army is a weapon premised solely on overwhelming force, one that relies on taking hundreds of scared teenagers and siccing them on a bunch of peaceful farmers who are in the way. The empire is terrible and vast, but only in aggregate, and that reality makes the cowardice of the surviving soldiers all but inevitable."

Ars Technica felt the story was a good introduction to the series "There's a portal that has trapped a hungry beast between dimensions; the Doctor jigs his way through problem-solving while reminding Nardole and the audience that he's an old hand at this kind of thing and a classic Who story device features, sidekick Bill is separated from her time-travelling pals for much of the episode—leaving her to untangle yet more of the Time Lord's powers, such as the telepathic link from the TARDIS that auto-translates any language to English."

However Games Radar felt the threat in the story was confusing "Unfortunately the monsters are pretty badly explained; we know they eat light, but somehow being exposed to light in great amounts is their greatest weakness. They serve no other purpose than to be the baddies of the episode, and are (as usual) billed as a threat to the entire universe. No nuance, just lots of teeth and Medusa-y tentacles"

Den of Geek also felt the episode was missing something. "What The Eaters Of Light lacked for me was a sense of threat, a strong monster or force to push against. The creature we got was an impressive looking beast for the most part, the one who keeps popping through a portal when able and allowed to wreak havoc. But whereas there are moments in this run of Who that have really dug under the skin and been quite creepy, this time it felt like we got a decent enough creature, yet the sense of peril didn’t come across for me."

IGN praised the supporting cast "The supporting players of Romans and Scots are all pretty good and an improvement over many of the guest stars from earlier this year. Bill’s interplay with Lucius (Brian Vernel, who Star Wars fans might recognize from The Force Awakens) regarding his romantic intentions is pretty funny, and the pain of the girl Kar (Rebecca Benson), who has lost everything, rings true."

The Reel Bits felt the episode was old school Doctor Who "The Eaters of Light’ is a solid if not outstanding historical adventure. Spinning its wheels slightly, it’s reminiscent of the show’s original ethos of being an educational outing for kids. Indeed, if the special effects and outfits hadn’t been updated, a episode that primarily hangs around in a handful of locations with Roman soldiers in stock BBC costumes would fit right in with the original series."

Finally TV Fanatic felt it was a solid episode. "There was plenty to enjoy here, from Nardole "blending in" with the natives to the Doctor's speech about crows being in a huff to Bill's realization about the TARDIS's translation feature. Though once the Doctor volunteered to guard the gate, every likely viewer knew that someone else would stand up and do the job in his stead. Seriously, there are two more episodes left in this season after this one!"

Doctor Who - The Eaters of Light, had an audience of 2.89 million viewers, a share of 22% of the total TV audience, according to unofficial overnight figures.

The overnight rating is the lowest the series has received in its history, just below that received by The Lie of the Land, which was up against the Britain's Got Talent final.

Doctor Who faired relatively well compared to other programmes on Saturday with all suffering from the good weather across the UK on Saturday with the highest rated programme, BBC News, getting just 4.09 million watching. Casualty had 3.75 million while Mrs Brown's Boys had 3.40 million. Pitch Battle, which followed Doctor Who had just 2.03 million watching.

ITV peaked with just 3.11 million viewers for The Voice Kids, while the film Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason had just 1.60 million viewers.

Final figures which will include those who recorded the programme and watched it later, will be published next week.

The BBC has released a new image for the Doctor Who series 10 finale, which sees Missy (Michelle Gomez) and the Master (John Simm) together for the first time.

The pair are seen either side of the Doctor (Peter Capaldi) as they put their own chilling spin on the poster image that previously accompanied Doctor Who’s 50th-anniversary special, The Day of the Doctor.

Simm will return to Doctor Who as the Master for the first time since New Year’s Day 2010, when he was responsible for the regeneration of the Tenth Doctor. This time the Master will come face-to-face with Missy, his later regeneration, and battle the Doctor during the series’ two part finale which begins next weekend.

The episodes will also feature the return of the Cybermen - including the original Mondasian Cybermen, for the first time in over 50 years - plus Bill Potts (Pearl Mackie) and Nardole (Matt Lucas) in an adventure that promises to change Doctor Who forever.

Doctor Who’s series finale begins in the UK with episode 11, World Enough and Time, at 6:45pm on Saturday 24 June on BBC One, followed by broadcasts around the world. It concludes on Saturday 1 July with Episode 12, The Doctor Falls – an extended, 60-minute episode.

This week BBC One will show Doctor Who at the earlier time of 6.45pm.

Main Broadcast Details
United Kingdom	BBC One	Sat 17 Jun 2017	6:45pm BST
Middle East	BBC First	Sat 17 Jun 2017	9.20pm AST	(Sat 7:20pm BST)
United States of America	BBC America	Sat 17 Jun 2017	9:00pm EDT	(Sun 2:00am BST)
Canada	SPACE	Sat 17 Jun 2017	9:00pm EDT	(Sun 2:00am BST)
New Zealand	PRIME	Sun 18 Jun 2017	7:30pm NZST	(Sun 8:30am BST)
Finland	YLE2	Sun 18 Jun 2017	12:05pm EEST	(Sun 10:05am BST)
Australia	ABC	Sun 18 Jun 2017	7:40pm AEST	(Sun 10:40am BST, also on ABC ME)
Brazil	SyFy	Sun 18 Jun 2017	8:00pm BRT	(Mon 12:00qm BST)
Latin America	SyFy	Sun 18 Jun 2017	10:00pm CDT	(Mon 4:00am BST)

Full listings here

Several Doctor Who alumni have been mentioned in the Queen's Birthday Honours list.

The awards are presented by HM Queen Elizabeth on the recomendation of the British Prime Minister Theresa May.

A blue plaque has been unveiled at the childhood home of the woman who realized the original Doctor Who theme music, Delia Derbyshire.

The mark of respect is one of 47 Blue Plaques unveiled as part of BBC Music Day, to commemorate people or places that have influenced the UK’s musical landscape. Those honored include singers, musicians, songwriters, producers, and broadcasters, as well as significant locations that played a major role in the UK's musical heritage.

People commemorated include John Peel and David Bowie, while places getting a plaque include the Brighton venue where Abba won the Eurovision Song Contest.

The final list was selected from BBC Local Radio listeners’ suggestions, as well as those of a committee including music industry experts and BBC representatives.

David Holdsworth, Controller of BBC English Regions, said: The plaque honouring Delia Derbyshire was unveiled by Sixth Doctor Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant who played Peri, who joined BBC Coventry & Warwickshire's Vic Minett to officially perform the ceremony.

Delia Derbyshire's blue plaque unveiled on #BBCMusicDay pic.twitter.com/8WibGs30cX

— BBC Cov Warks (@BBCCovWarks) June 15, 2017

Koch Media have released the second in their collection of interviews from Reeltime Pictures with stars from Doctor Who, this time focussing on the second Doctor, Patrick Troughton's era.

BBC Worldwide have confirmed the Doctor Who Experience will close on Saturday 9th September 2017

The Experience, based at Porth Teigr, Cardiff Bay, opened in July 2012 after a brief run in London. During its five-year tenure, it has welcomed many fans to the welsh capital with its interactive experience and displays of sets and props from the series.

The Experience has planned a number of special events throughout the summer with tickets for the final period being released from midday on Friday 16th June.

The Filming Location Walking Tours will return from the 8th July. These are a 75-minute walk around Cardiff Bay and features sites from Series 10 and memorable locations from previous series.

Series 10 content will be brought into the Experience, with the finished exhibition being unveiled on the 8th July. This will include props, costumes and sets from Series 10, that will join the Peter Capaldi and Pearl Mackie costumes which are already part of the exhibition.

Earlier this year it was announced that the Yeti from The Web of Fear, during Patrick Troughton’s incarnation as the Doctor, was voted by fans as the Doctor Who monster they’d most like to see restored as part of the ongoing Restoration Project. So to celebrate, Model Unit expert, Mike Tucker will also be on hand on the 8th July to reveal the final, renovated monster in all its glory to visitors.

On 22nd July, the Experience will host its final Monster Event, with the Cybermen at its theme. The day will include workshops and question and answer sessions with monster-makers, Millennium FX; a chance for fans to be converted into Cybermen; as well as live Mondasian Cybermen roaming the Experience floor. The day will be completed with a viewing of the final two-part episode, first screened on BBC One on 24th June & 1st July, screened in the Experience’s exhibition area.

Later in the holidays, on the 5th August, fans can look forward to the biggest Doctor Who Experience Cosplay Celebration yet. Fans will be invited and encouraged to visit dressed as their favourite Doctor Who character or monster.

Ticket information is available from doctorwhoexperience.com