Executive Producer Steven Moffat has expressed delight on the reception of the new series and the publics reaction to the Eleventh Doctor. Speaking in Los Angeles, where the Doctor Who team have been stranded due to the ash from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano, Moffat said
Moffat said how the series gets super-scary with the next three episodes which see the return of the Weeping Angels. Moffat has also written a Blog in which he describes the two-part story as a highly coloured, loud, action-movie and talks of Matt Smith's portrayal of the Doctor as halfway between Indiana Jones and Stan Laurel.

He talks about the first day of filming on the series and describes visiting the location and seeing the TARDIS sitting on the beach followed quickly by the arrival of several paparazzi and a number of fans with cameras.

BBC Gloucestershire have published an article looking behind the scenes at another location for the story, Puzzlewood in the Forest of Dean. The 14-acre site features deep gullies and dramatic rock formations known as scowles. It has also been used for location filming for the BBC series Merlin since 2008 and the same forest is said to have inspired JRR Tolkien to write The Hobbit.

Just a reminder that the new series of Doctor Who - starring Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor and Karen Gillan as Amy Pond - premieres in Australia, Canada and the US this weekend.

In the US, The Eleventh Hour, by Steven Moffat, hits TV screens on BBC America tonight (Saturday), at 9 p.m. ET. The opening episode will be preceded at 8 p.m. ET by Doctor Who: The Ultimate Guide, a documentary introducing the world of Doctor Who to new viewers.

Canada premieres The Eleventh Hour tonight (Saturday) on SPACE, also at 9 p.m. ET, with Doctor Who: The Ultimate Guide showing before it at 8 p.m. ET.

In Australia, The Eleventh Hour will be broadcast on ABC 1 on Sunday (April 18) at 7.30 p.m. The series has already premiered in Australia on ABC iView, the station's Internet broadcasting service. Also, Series 1 of K9 continues to be broadcast weekly on Saturdays on Channel Ten.

The new series is receiving masses of press attention in all three countries. Digital Journal continues its coverage, running three separate pieces for the US launch, the Canadian launch and the Australian launch.



Meanwhile, in the UK, Matt Smith's Series 1 (Doctor Who, Series 31) continues tonight on BBC 1 at 6.30 p.m. with Victory of the Daleks, by Mark Gatiss. A report on the history of the metal menace has appeared on BBC News. As reported by us yesterday, immediately after this episode, there will be a trailer on BBC 1 for the fortcoming downloadable episodes of Doctor Who: The Adventure Games. Episode 3 of Doctor Who Confidential follows on BBC 3 at 7.15 p.m.

This article asks: “Is this the Doctor Who general election? And are Labour hoping that some of the popularity of the show will rub off on them?” The forthcoming UK general election and Doctor Who do seem to be becoming evermore interlinked.

The new issue of Radio Times, harking back to its 30 April to 6 May issue from 2005 (opposite), shows the Daleks in the colours (blue, red and yellow) of the three main UK political parties, David Tennant, earlier this year, declared his support for the UK’s Labour Party and Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the party’s current leader. Earlier this week, the Labour Party turned to the Doctor and a son of the Doctor in it’s campaign to win re-election in the contest.

The first party-election broadcast of the campaign premièred on YouTube before airing on UK television channels. In the Labour Party broadcast, The Road Ahead, the third Doctor Jon Pertwee’s son, Sean Pertwee, appeared, while the tenth Doctor David Tennant provided the voice-over.

See our earlier story about this week’s Radio Times and the interview with Brown, who reveals that Tennant is his favourite Doctor, and that he saw him recently in Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

In recent months, both Russell T. Davies and Steven Moffat have separately warned against David Cameron’s Conservatives winning the election, fearing the future of the BBC would be under threat. Citing Moffat’s comments, the Daily Mirror claimed that Saturday’s episode, The Beast Below, featured a message blasting the Tories:

In February, the Sunday Times claimed that writers wove anti-Tory propaganda into Doctor Who scripts in the 1980s.

As for the Liberal Democrats, their candidate for Blaenau Gwent, Wales, is one Matt Smith!

BBC America has announced that Matt Smith and Karen Gillan, along with show-runner Steven Moffat, will make a promotional trip to New York in the week leading up to the launch of the new series in North America on April 17.

The trip will include a special screening of The Eleventh Hour on Wednesday, April 14, at 7:00 PM at the Village East Cinema in Manhattan, to be followed by a Question and Answer session with Smith, Gillan and Moffat.

The screening, which is free, will be open to the public on a first come, first served basis.

More details on the BBC America Facebook page.

Executive Producer Steven Moffat will be a guest on BBC Radio 4's Front Row on Tuesday evening to talk about taking over from Russell T Davies as show-runner of Doctor Who.

The programme is broadcast at 7.15pm BST and will be available worldwide via the BBC iPlayer.

Executive Producer Steven Moffat talks to The Guardian today about his hopes and plans for the new series. He talks about taking over one of the BBC's biggest brands and his fears for the BBC should there be a change of government this year.

Moffat speaks of his excitement in writing both the opening and closing episodes of the series and of how he wanted to do more fun, following his reputation as a writer of darker episodes. Although no past characters appear in the forthcoming series, Moffat hints he would not be averse to Captain Jack meeting Matt Smith's Doctor in the future.

In the run up to the launch of the New Series in April, Executive Producer Steven Moffat this week gives an interview to Radio Times.

Three new episode titles have been revealed by Executive Producer Steven Moffat in his Production Notes column in this month's Doctor Who Magazine.

Occupying slots 4 and 5 of the new series will be The Time of Angels and Flesh and Stone. This two-part story is written by Steven Moffat and directed by Adam Smith and sees the return of Alex Kingston as River Song. It was the first story to be recorded. It is stressed that the titles are working titles and may be changed before transmission.

Slot 6 will be filled by Vampires in Venice. This story is written by Toby Whithouse and directed by Jonny Campbell.

This month's Doctor Who Magazine reveals the secrets of casting the Eleventh Doctor Matt Smith. In the second part of a in-depth interview, showrunner Steven Moffat talks about how the new TARDIS team were chosen; the controversial new costumes; the challenges in creating the new series of Doctor Who; and, after the auditions, why it was clear that Matt Smith had to play the title role.
Also in the magazine, the Watcher returns and proudly presents his definitive guide to the greatest of all the Doctor’s many foes, the dreaded Daleks. There is an interview with Louise Page, Doctor Who’s costume designer from 2006-2009, about dressing David Tennant, kitting out Kylie Minogue and mixing materials for a menagerie of monsters!

Part three of "The Crimson Hand" sees Majenta finally reunited with her old gang, but what will this mean for her companion, the Doctor? And what terrors lie in store for the universe itself? Plus the Doctor, Tegan and Turlough tackle Tractators as The Fact of Fiction takes a close look at 1984’s Frontios.

Neil Harris asks, "Should Doctor Who be sexy?" There is also a catch up with sixties companion Peter Purves who talks about playing companion Steven Taylor both now and then.

The BBC has released a new image on the Eleventh Doctor Matt Smith. The image is available on the BBC Website along with an image of the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors. The new picture forms the basis for the cover to the revamped Doctor Who Magazine which is available in the United Kingdom from today.

The magazine confirms the writers for Matt Smith's first series as the Doctor.

Lead writer Steven Moffat will write six of the thirteen episodes. He will be joined by Chris Chibnall who is writing two episodes and Mark Gatiss, Toby Whithouse, Gareth Roberts, Richard Curtis and Simon Nye all writing one episode each.

Toby Whithouse wrote the Series Two story School Reunion which saw the return of Sarah Jane Smith and K9 to the series. He has also written for Torchwood and created Being Human for BBC Three.

Chris Chibnall wrote the Series Three story 42. He was head writer on Torchwood and has also written for Life on Mars.

Mark Gatiss is one of only three people to have both written and appeared in Doctor Who. He wrote The Unquiet Dead for Series One and The Idiot's Lantern for Series Two. He later went on to appear in the Third Series story The Lazarus Experiment.

Gareth Roberts wrote The Shakespeare Code for Series Three and The Unicorn and the Wasp for Series Four. He co-wrote Planet of the Dead with Russell T Davies. He has also written for The Sarah Jane Adventures.

Neither Simon Nye or Richard Curtis have written for Doctor Who before. Nye was the creator of the long running sitcom Men Behaving Badly, which was based on his first novel, for which he won a Writers' Guild of Great Britain Award and a Royal Television Society Award. He adapted The Railway Children for television in 2000 and has written many pantomimes. Curtis, whose contribution to the series was announced in September, was Oscar nominated for Four Weddings and a Funeral and is the man behind many British comedy films and sitcoms.