Final figures issued by BARB show the UK premiere of The Waters of Mars was watched by 10.32 million people.

On BBC1 the programme got 9.94 million watching, making it the second most watched programme of the week on the channel, just behind Strictly Come Dancing. However an additional 376,000 watched the simulcast on BBC HD. If these figures are combined then the rating is pushed above ten million and makes the programme the 5th most watched on British Television for the week. It got higher ratings than all the Soaps and was only beaten by the ratings juggernauts The X Factor, Strictly Come Dancing and I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here.

If the HD figures are included in the total then the rating makes The Waters of Mars one of only 9 out of 754 episodes of Doctor Who to have made the top five programmes for the week. In terms of raw ratings, it is the episode with the 95th highest rating on first showing. Since the series returned in 2005 only four episodes have beaten this rating.

On Multichannel Television the HD showing is the biggest audience ever achieved by BBC HD, nearly 100,000 higher than the second placed programme. On BBC Three, Doctor Who Confidential was watched by 0.63 million with an additional 100,000 watching on BBC HD. This gave the episode a total rating of 0.73 million and made it the 19th most watched programme on Multi Channel TV for the week.

Karen Gillan's cousin has won a role in the next series of Doctor Who. Caitlin Blackwood, who is nine years old and comes from Inverness in Scotland, landed the role over hundreds of hopefuls. A pupil at the city's St Joseph's Roman Catholic Primary School, she has just returned from Cardiff, where the first series to star Gillan and Matt Smith is currently being filmed.

Blackwood is quoted as saying: "It was really exciting. Doctor Who was really nice and good fun." Christine Cameron, St Joseph's headteacher, said the whole school was delighted for Caitlin, adding "Everyone involved in the production of Dr Who is impressed with Caitlin, her ability to listen to and follow direction, be flexible in her approach, and get on with new people."

The Inverness Courier has a full report on its website.

It was also announced on the Paul O'Grady show today that actor Meera Syal will appear in two episodes of the new series. Syal rose to prominence as one of the team that created Goodness Gracious Me and became one of the UK's best-known Indian personalities portraying Sanjeev's grandmother, Ummi, in The Kumars at No. 42.

The BBC Press Office has published its official preview of Christmas programming on the BBC, including a heavy emphasis on the forthcoming two-part Doctor Who special, "The End of Time", which will see the departure of David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor. The release states:

Highlights of this year's offering include David Tennant's final farewell in a two-part special of Doctor Who called The End Of Time. The Doctor's oldest enemy – the Master (John Simm) – returns alongside former companion Donna (Catherine Tate) and old favourite Wilf (Bernard Cribbins), as the entire human race faces its last ever Christmas – unless the Doctor can save the day.

A fuller preview of both episodes appears in the Network TV Programme Information release for weeks 51 and 52. This is available here, and contains some minor spoilers. It is also reproduced in the spoiler box below.

The special preview clip of The End of Time, shown as part of the BBC Children In Need appeal is now available on the BBC YouTube channel.

BBC America have also posted their clip on their website and revealed that the full episode will be shown in the USA at 9pm EST on the 26th December 2009 a day after the expected UK showing and 1 week after the US showing of The Waters of Mars.


The charity Telethon also featured an appearance from fifth Doctor Peter Davison with a dog and John Barrowman dancing in his boxers.

The BBC official site has confirmed the title of David Tennant's penultimate episode will be The End of Time, Part One. It is the first time since the series returned that a story title has been split into two parts. Previous two-part stories have always had their own title.

BBC Children in Need will feature an exclusive 2-minute scene from the episode on Friday night, at some point between 8.00 and 8.30. The official site has a short audio clip from this scene here.

A photo of David Tennant taken from the Children in Need scene has now been issued.Follow the Doctor Who News Page on

The Wednesday BBC Three repeat of the Waters of Mars was watched by 470,000 viewers according to unofficial overnight figures.

BBC Worldwide have released a number of Classic Series episodes onto their YouTube Channel.

Stories uploaded so far are

• 1st Doctor - The Edge of Destruction
• 2nd Doctor - The Krotons
• 3rd Doctor - Carnival of Monsters
• 5th Doctor - The Caves of Androzani

The clips are usually blocked in the UK as under the terms of the BBC Charter it is not allowed to operate commercially in the UK. However viewers in the UK can view classic episodes on MSN Video, which is currently showing The Web Planet, The Tomb of the Cyberman and Planet of the Spiders, and BlinkBox which is also showing Tomb of the Cybermen and The Krotons.

The Waters of Mars scored an AI of 88.

The score was the second highest of the weekend, only beaten by Foyle's War on ITV1.

The AI - Appreciation Index - score is a measure of how much an audience enjoyed a programme. The average score for drama is 77. For any programme, a score in excess of 85 is excellent. Any score in excess of 90 is exceptional. Any programme that falls below 60 has received a poor AI.

Meanwhile, Sunday has been dubbed "Super Sunday" by the media, as the total TV audience for peak hours was the highest since January 2000.

A forthcoming BBC Radio 4 documentary is to examine what led to the cancellation of Shada - the six-part Fourth Doctor story originally intended to end Doctor Who's 17th season.

Shelved takes a look at three TV programmes that were made in 1979 but which never aired because of socio-political, industrial or cultural problems. The three comprise a particularly violent episode of ITV show The Professionals, the last episode of BBC series Secret Army, and Shada.

Interviewees for the Shada segment are Tom Baker, director Pennant Roberts and Jeremy Bentham - the Doctor Who historian, author, former associate editor of Doctor Who Magazine and co-founder of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society. The story, which was never completed at the time because of a BBC strike, would have been broadcast in January and February 1980.

The 30-minute documentary is scheduled to be broadcast on Saturday, December 12 at 10.30am, and it is understood it will make a key revelation relating to Doctor Who through documentation unearthed by producer/presenter Shaun Ley. Recording of the documentary took place at the BBC's Westminster studio on Thursday, November 5.

Incoming Doctor Who producer John Nathan-Turner tried to remount Shada, but those attempts failed and production was formally abandoned in June 1980. In 1992, the recorded footage was released on video with linking narration by Tom Baker completing the story. It was subsequently reworked as an audio play by Big Finish Productions, featuring the Eighth Doctor and with Paul McGann in the lead role. This version was webcast on BBCi in 2003 and broadcast on digital radio station BBC7 in December 2005, with a repeat the following year. The webcast is currently available to listen to on the official Doctor Who website (may only be available within the UK).

9.1 million watched last night's BBC One showing of The Waters of Mars, according to unofficial overnight figures.

The programme had an audience share of 33.9% and was the third most-watched programme of the day, behind The X Factor and I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!, both on ITV1.

The audience built throughout the programme, with 9.6 million watching the final quarter-hour. On ITV1, All Star Family Fortunes had 6.1 million watching at the same time as Doctor Who was on.

An additional 310,000 watched the programme on BBC HD. If confirmed on the final figures this will be the highest ever rating for BBC HD

On BBC Three 590,000 watched Doctor Who Confidential with an additional 100,000 watching on BBC HD. It was the 8th most watched programme on digital TV for the day.

The overnight figures put Doctor Who as the 6th most watched programme of the week. This is likely to rise when the final figures, including those who timeshift the programme, are published in 9 days time.