The Podcast version of Vol 5 of THE STONE TAPES has a distinctly Doctor Who flavour and is now live to listen to and download

The show is hosted by horror writer Sam Stone, and features special studio guest Frazer Hines chatting about his time on Doctor Who, plus BBC Effects designer and writer Mike Tucker discussing his and Stephen Nicholas' new book Doctor Who: Impossible Worlds

Patricia H Ash reviews The Map of Time by Felix J Palma, Robin Pierce looks at the TV Century 21 Comic Strips, and David J Howe leads the discussion about the film Doctor who and the Daleks

The music comes from Risa Hall, Linzi Gold, The Timelords and Muse ... The show producer is Alex Lewczuk.

All episodes are available to download and listen to online with more information about The Stone Tapes and future episode details available on the Facebook Group

The BBC have released publicity imagery for the forthcoming episode, Under The Lake.

Under The Lake: Known Broadcast Details
United Kingdom	BBC One	Sat 3 Oct 2015	8:25pm
United States of America	BBC America	Sat 3 Oct 2015	9:00pm EDT	(2:00am BST)
Canada	SPACE	Sat 3 Oct 2015	9:00pm EDT	(2:00am BST)
Asia Pacific	BBC Entertainment	Sun 4 Oct 2015	10:00am SGT	(3:00am BST)
New Zealand	PRIME	Sun 4 Oct 2015	7:30pm NZDT	(7:30am BST)
Australia	ABC	Sun 4 Oct 2015	7:40pm AEDT	(9:40am BST)
Europe (Benelux)	BBC First	Tue 6 Oct 2015	9:00pm CEST
United Kingdom	BBC Two	Fri 9 Oct 2015	1:15am	(British Signed Language)
Finland	YLE2	Mon 12 Oct 2015	6:05pm EEST
South Africa	BBC First	Sat 24 Oct 2015	7:30pm SAST
Germany	FOX	Thu 10 Dec 2015	9:00pm CET	(dubbed into German)

Doctor Who The Magician's Apprentice has an official consolidated 7 day rating of 6.54 million viewers.

The rating issued by the Broadcasters' Audience Research Board, or BARB, includes all those who watched the programme within one week of transmission.

The final rating is slightly down on last year, where the majority of the season rated around 6.9 million viewers.

The rating puts Doctor Who at the 13th most watched programme of the week on all UK Television, and the 4th most watched programme on BBC One. The Great British Bake Off topped the charts with a consolidated audience of 12.35 million viewers, over 2 million higher than its nearest rival, ITV's Downton Abbey, which had 9.9 million viewers.

The figures do not include those who watched on the BBC iPlayer, where The Magician's Apprentice had over 1.3 million download requests in the week following transmission.

Doctor Who: The Witch's Familiar had an Audience Appreciation or AI score of 83.

The Appreciation Index or AI is a measure of how much the audience enjoyed the programme. The score, out of a hundred, is compiled by a specially selected panel of around 5,000 people who go online and rate and comment on programmes.

The feature length version of The Magician's Apprentice / The Witch's Familiar had an audience of 0.64 million viewers on BBC One on Sunday afternoon, a 6.4% share of the audience. The programme was once more up against Rugby on ITV, this time Scotland v USA which had an average of 2.1 million viewers.

The Saturday night showing finished as 53rd for the week. Consolidated figures should be available next Monday.

The Witch's Familiar has debuted in Australia, averaging 541,000 viewers in the five major capital cities. It was the second-highest rating ABC drama of the day and the eighth highest rating program of the day overall. These ratings do not include regional or time-shifted viewers.

Press reaction to the second episode of Series Nine is once more overwhelmingly positive.

The Independent felt much of the success of the episode was down to Julian Bleach's performance as Davros. "Steven Moffat’s dialogue was on top form this week, but it shone thanks to Bleach’s superb performance. It’s incredible how much physicality he brought to the role considering how limiting the costume is, utilising body language and facial expressions to maximum effect and pairing them with a powerful vocal performance"

The Guardian also liked the Davros/Doctor dynamic. "Peter Capaldi and Julian Bleach crackled with such warped chemistry", with Radio Times agreeing "Capaldi and Julian Bleach are superb in these moments. There’s a coup de théâtre when, for the first time, the wizened Davros opens his eyes. We’d always assumed he had none. No one but Steven Moffat would have thought to do this."

The Express said you can't help but love the villains."Missy is like a deliciously dangerous cocktail of dry wit laced with a sneaky shot of psychosis. She pulls you in with hers charms and makes you feel comfortable, then the moment you let your guard down or even consider trusting her, she'll have you strung upside down from a tree". The Registrar also loved Michelle Gomez. "Missy once again delivers some of the best lines, such as: "The friend inside the enemy, the enemy inside the friend. Everyone's a bit of both. Everyone's a hybrid.".

TV Fanatic loved the pairing of Clara and Missy "I lost it when Clara mentioned throwing a stone down into the sewers and Missy pushing her in saying. I'm sure we haven't seen the last of The Mistress, but I already can't wait for another team up like this one. " Mashable also loved the duo. "A fantastic comedy double act of psycho and straight person, fighting their way through Skaro towards the Doctor with nothing but a sharpened stick", a sentiment agreed with by 411Mainia. "I know not everyone is in love with Missy, but Michelle Gomez is a highlight of the first two episodes. She is able to have some more wicked fun, which is an important balance since the Doctor is busy being deadly serious"

The Metro loved the pace of the story. This was a thoughtful character piece in which the Doctor saves the day with an act of mercy rather than a simple wave of his sonic. I found that pleasingly old-school, while The Daily Mail loved the fact that Doctor Who can still come up with something fresh. "Seeing the Doctor’s assistant Clara Oswald strapped, trapped, inside a Dalek and only able to communicate like them was ingeniously vivid – palpably claustrophobic and perilous: the fairground ride from hell.".

Not all was positive with TV.com disliking the conclusion to the episode "this climax was dumb. Daleks turning on one another is fine enough, but the sludgey poo of not-quite-dead Daleks attacking their comrades was just... dumb.", while IGN thought the episode a bit of a letdown. "It just can’t satisfactorily resolve some of the bits and pieces showrunner Steven Moffat left dangling last week in the grand first episode."

Digital Spy however thought the episode bleak but rewarding. "Scenes between our effusive hero and a creepily still Davros are dark and uncompromising, they're also utterly scintillating."

You can read Doctor Who News's review of the episode on our reviews site.

3.7 million, a 16.6% share of the audience, watched Doctor Who, The Witch's Familiar in the UK, according to unofficial overnight viewing figures.

Doctor Who suffered by being placed directly opposite live coverage of the Rugby World Cup on ITV, where England playing Wales attracted an average of 8.3 million viewers, pushing the overnight audience for Doctor Who down to below 4 million for the first time since the series returned in 2005.

The Rugby coverage topped the day peaking at 10.8 million viewers, a 47.6% share. It pushed Strictly Come Dancing into second place for the day with 7.7 million viewers. Casualty had 3.8 million watching just ahead of the Doctor which was also beaten by the late news resulting in Doctor Who being fifth for the day.

On overnight figures Doctor Who is currently 47th for the week. Final consolidated figures, which should see Doctor Who's audience rise dramatically, will be released next week.

A feature length version of the first two episodes of the series, is being broadcast on BBC One later today.

The BBC have released clips looking behind the scenes of this weeks episode of Doctor Who, The Witch's Familiar.




A full review of the episode can be found on Doctor Who Reviews

Missing episode hunter Philip Morris, the man responsible for recovering nine missing episodes of Doctor Who, has told fans at a convention that he also located the missing Episode Three of The Web Of Fear, only for it to be stolen before it could be returned to the United Kingdom.

Previously missing episodes 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6 of Enemy of the World were recovered in 2013, alongside episodes 2, 4, 5, and 6 of Web of Fear, two stories from the fifth Season of Doctor Who, originally screened in 1967/8. The films had been found gathering dust in a store room at a television relay station in Nigeria.

These finds completed the two stories, with the exception of Episode Three of The Web of Fear, an important episode in the history of the series as it introduces the character of the Brigadier. At the time it was claimed that this episode was not located with the other finds. The third episode was reconstructed by the BBC Doctor Who Restoration Team, for the DVD release of the story.

However, speaking at the Pandorica 2015 convention, being held in Bristol this weekend, Philip Morris announced that when he initially located the episodes, episode 3 was indeed part of the collection.

The negotiations for the return of the episodes took over six months, and when the episodes were finally returned to the UK, episode three had vanished. Morris said he believed that after word of the find leaked out an offer was made to a member of staff at the Nigerian station, and that the episode had been sold to a private collector.

Currently 97 episodes of Doctor Who remain missing from the BBC archive.

BBC Worldwide America have released a Blu-ray + DVD Combo release of the 3D version of last year's season finale of Doctor Who: Dark Water / Death in Heaven

The release comes hard the heels of the recent cinema event, Doctor Who: Dark Water/Death in Heaven 3D, which saw the two-part season eight climax shown in movie theaters across the United States.

Special features on the Blu-ray 3D + DVD combo pack include The Doctor’s Meditation – the special prequel scene to the first episode of season nine – and a 45-minute extended interview with Doctor Who stars Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman, hosted by Wil Wheaton of Star Trek fame.

Order on Amazon