Press reaction to the new season of Doctor Who is overwhelmingly positive with Jodie Whittaker winning many plaudits for her first full episode as the Thirteenth Doctor

The Independent led the praise for the lead actress's performance. " After all the hype, hyperbole and inevitable internet hate, she acquits herself wonderfully in her full-length debut. Whittaker is a force of breezy nature – rambunctious, quirky but with a reassuringly familiar aura of Gallifreyan uncanniness."

The Guardian loved the interaction between the main characters. "The new Doctor and her team – 19-year-old Ryan, his old schoolmate turned police probationer Yasmin, and Ryan’s step-grandfather Graham (Tosin Cole, Mandip Gill and Bradley Walsh respectively) – have heart and soul, and are set against a comforting background of West Yorkshire women – especially Ryan’s nan – talking common sense as alien life and electrical pulses erupt around them."

Whittaker was also praised by the Telegraph who said the actress shined in a flawed but fun Doctor Who debut. "There has been a depressingly predictable knee-jerk backlash to a time-travelling, body-regenerating extraterrestrial with two hearts having the temerity to be female but this debut adventure barrelled straight past such quibbles. After mere minutes of the Doctor’s arrival – crashing through the roof of a train in Sheffield, having fallen from the Tardis at the climax of the Christmas special – you stopped noticing"

Digital Spy was sure Jodie Whittaker's Doctor is going to be everybody's new hero, and noted how her sex is irrelevant. "For all the buzz, positive and negative, that surrounded Whittaker's casting as the first female Doctor, what her first few scenes make abundantly clear is how unimportant the character's gender really is. It's completely and utterly incidental, a point which 'The Woman Who Fell to Earth' makes not through words – the transition from old to new is discussed no more here than it has been in previous Doctor's debuts – but through actions."

Den of Geek says series 11 premiere finds Doctor Who in rude health. "Whittaker certainly makes an impact in her opening scene - quite literally, as she falls through the roof of the train and meets her new companions. The script cleverly wastes no time in having her do some proper ‘Doctor business’ - fending off an alien, casually dismissing a death in favour of the mystery at hand and persuading police officer Yas not to call for reinforcements. Whittaker shines pretty quickly in these scenes, and has every bit of the quiet intensity of her predecessors."

Variety felt the episode fulfilled a difficult brief. "Striking the right balance has been a tall order for any new Doctor and showrunner to take on, as several pairs have done over the last decade, but the level of difficulty this particular team had to master is arguably the highest yet. That’s why it’s so impressive that “The Woman Who Fell to Earth” is, for the most part, an extremely typical episode of “Doctor Who."

NPR loved the characterisation of The Doctor "With her rich Northern accent (the actress was born in Yorkshire), Whittaker's Doctor isn't posh or effete — no bow ties or fezzes for her. Instead, she radiates pragmatism (if pragmatism is a thing that can radiate) and a decidedly middle-class, we're-all-in-this-together enthusiasm."

Finally, the Los Angeles Times says Doctor Who returns in thrilling fashion. "The new Doctor has both authority and energy; she is playful yet mature, a little mad but not manic, funny and agile and perhaps will turn out a shade less judgmental than some of her predecessors. Chibnall has given Whittaker a lighter brief: “I’m the Doctor,” she declares, “sorting out fair play throughout the universe.” And later, in that soft Yorkshire accent, “Sometimes I see things that need fixin’ and do what I can.”

The Doctor Who News review can be found on our reviews site.

Obverse books have released the latest in their series of Black Archive books, looking in detail at the making of the Doctor Who story The Time Warrior

Matthew Kilburn looks at the Third Doctor story, the first of Jon Pertwee's final season and the story that introduced both the character of Sarah Jane Smith and the Sontarans.

Making extensive use of a rarely seen rehearsal script for The Time Warrior, this Black Archive looks at how the US involvement in Vietnam combined with author Robert Holmes’s experience of the Second World War in Burma and consciousness of Britain’s imperial decline to create Doctor Who’s first Sontaran, Linx.

It also explores how the serial’s medievalism invoked a shared cultural memory of Gothic and Romantic literature and cinema to launch not only one of the series’ most enduring alien races but also one of its best-loved heroines, Sarah Jane Smith.

Black Archive #24: The Time Warrior can be ordered from Obverse books as a paperback or an Electronic book.

The BBC have released the first full clip from the upcoming series of Doctor Who

FIRST LOOK: Episode 1 | The Woman Who Fell To Earth

The new series begins on Sunday 7th October.

Following the sell-out success of Big Finish Productions limited edition Doctor Who stories on vinyl earlier this year, the audio company has announced another exclusive release.

HMV will release Doctor Who: Cold Vengeance starring David Tennant and Billie Piper on Friday 5th October 2018.

Billie Piper portrayed the Doctor’s much-loved companion Rose Tyler in 2005 and 2006, returning for a number of stories in 2008. She also appeared as The Moment – which had taken Rose’s form – in The Day of the Doctor. This is the second Big Finish vinyl release that Rose has appeared in following her debut in Infamy of the Zaross earlier this year.

Nicholas Briggs, Big Finish executive producer and director of Cold Vengeance, as well as the voice of the Daleks on TV, says: The release will be a numbered limited edition on coloured vinyl, and only available in the UK. 250 copies have been made available on the HMV website for pre-order.

The Tenth Doctor Adventures Volume 2, was released in November 2017 and includes Cold Vengeance and two further Tenth Doctor adventures.

CDs and downloads are available to buy now from the Big Finish website

Doctor Who returns to television screens next month, and to mark this long-awaited event, Titan Comics are publishing The Thirteenth Doctor Vol. 0, the ultimate celebration of The Doctor’s many, many lives and a special primer ahead of Titan’s new ongoing Thirteenth Doctor comic book series this autumn.

It's said that your life flashes before your eyes when you die: as the Doctor regenerates from his Twelfth incarnation to her Thirteenth, she relives memories from her many lives, showcasing unseen adventures from EVERY version of the Doctor.

Written by award-winning Doctor Who alumni Richard Dinnick and illustrated by Giorgia Sposito (Independence Day, Charmed, Wonderland) amongst a host of fantastic artists including fan-favorite Mariano Laclaustra, this is a perfect beginner's guide and a brilliant tribute for long-term fans to enjoy.

Thirteenth Doctor - Volume 0

Writer: Richard Dinnick
Artist: Giorgia Sposito, Mariano Laclaustra and various
Cover: Claudia Iannicello

Fan project The Unofficial Dr Who Annual 1972 is to be published in February 2019 with a host of star names involved.

Katy Manning, John Levene, Mike Tucker and Alister Pearson have all contributed to the publication, joining a large number of Doctor Who fan writers and artists.

And in a further scoop, Wayne Howarth – the son of Walter Howarth, who was the main illustrator on some of the original annuals – has also lent his artistic skills to the book.

Announced on Doctor Who News late last year with an appeal for contributors, this homage to the World Distributors-produced annuals of the 1970s will be a physical publication packed with stories, puzzles and features, and is intended to fill the gap when – to fans’ great surprise and disappointment – a Doctor Who annual wasn’t published in the autumn of 1971, following Jon Pertwee’s second season in the title role.

Had one come out then, it would have seen Katy Manning’s companion character Jo Grant – who burst into the Doctor’s life on TV in January that year – featured in annual form for the first time. Instead, her inaugural annual appearance happened the following autumn, in 1972, when World Distributors, which began publishing the official Doctor Who annuals in autumn 1965, resumed their production with an annual for 1973 – the first time the cover bore an identifying year. The Manchester-based publisher continued bringing out the annuals until autumn 1985.

Terraqueous Distributors, publishers of The Unofficial Dr Who Annual 1972, said:The price of the annual will be determined nearer the time, when the precise date of publication and details of how it can be bought will also be announced.

A Facebook page for the project has been set up.

The Thirteenth Doctor, as played by Jodie Whittaker, has arrived in Sheffield for the press screening of the new series later today.

The event is preceded by a red carpet parade of stars from the show, attened by some lucky fans who won tickets in a public ballot.

The first episode The Woman Who Fell to Earth, was filmed in the city. More pictures from the red carpet event will be released later today.

BBC Books have revealed the covers for three brand new Doctor Who adventures this autumn…

Candy Jar Books have announced the second book in their The Laughing Gnome series of Lethbridge-Stewart novels, this time focussing on Dame Anne Bishop (née Travers):


The book is written by first-time novelist, Alyson Leeds, who contributed a short story to 2017’s The HAVOC Files 4; she explains being called on to contribute:

Range Editor, Andy Frankham-Allen, explains:

Alyson talks about her approach to developing the idea:

The cover is by Martin Baines, whose work was previously featured on the covers of 2016’s Times Squared, and 2017’s The Dreamer’s Lament:

The Laughing Gnome: Fear of the Web is available for pre-order now from Candy Jar Books and is due to be released at the end of September.