The Stage entertainment industry newspaper reports that actor John Scott Martin, veteran of countless roles in over 100 episodes of the classic series of Doctor Who, died on January 6th at the age of 82. His daughter Catriona has penned an obituary for the paper, outlining his career.

Martin is best remembered by fans as the main Dalek operator across the 26 years of the classic series, but he also played various other monsters opposite the first seven Doctors, and had a more visible role as the miner Hughes in The Green Death. In 2004, he told BBC News how he would love to play a Dalek again for the new series.

In addition to his Doctor Who work, Martin appeared in BBC series such as Quatermass and the Pit and I, Claudius, as well as in films (including Little Shop of Horrors) and the theatre. In 2004, he appeared as the old man who inherits all of Swansea in the Russell T Davies comedy-drama serial Mine All Mine for ITV1.

UPDATE - 23 JANUARY: The Press Association has reported Martin's death, including a comment from his widow, Margaret. She said he enjoyed the Dalek role, adding: "It was a good thing, because being a Dalek nobody saw your face. He was able to do other things without people recognising him. That was useful." According to the PA report, Martin had had Parkinson's disease for a decade.

The Telegraph, The Times and The Daily Mail have printed obituaries describing his long standing work on Doctor Who.

Michael Jensen of AfterElton.com has revealed tentative plans for the broadcast of the five-part Torchwood miniseries, Torchwood: Children of Earth. Please bear in mind that these comments represent early plans, which may change.

If the report is accurate, it may disappoint some British Torchwood fans, who had been hoping that the miniseries would air in the spring. But the report has good news for American Torchwood fans, who may not have to wait as long as usual to see the latest episodes:

Planet of the Daleks is due for release on DVD this year as revealed in this month's Doctor Who Magazine. Episode three of the 1973 Jon Pertwee story previously only existed in the BBC archive as a black and white film recording. However, using partly the same process recently used on an old episode of Dad's Army ("Room at the Bottom", broadcast on BBC2 last month in colour for the first time in 39 years) using information contained in the film print, and partly artificial re-colouring in the United States, colour has been restored to the episode. The story will be released as a box set with Frontier in Space, which sees the Doctor meet the Draconians and features the last appearance of Roger Delgado as the Master. Full details of the restoration of episode three of Planet of the Daleks can be found in an article on the Restoration Team website.

Other stories due for release in 2009 are the swansong of the Second Doctor, The War Games, the Fourth Doctor stories The Deadly Assassin and Image of the Fendahl and the Seventh Doctor story Delta and the Bannermen.

The New Year's Day repeat of The Next Doctor was watched by 2.2 million viewers according to unofficial overnight figures. The programme, shown at 2.45pm, had a 15% share of the total television audience and was just out-rated by Agatha Christie's Poirot on ITV1 which had 2.4 million watching. Overall, Doctor Who was the 21st most-watched programme of the day. The Doctor Who Prom was watched by 1.7 million, with a 12.6 % share of the audience.

The Next Doctor had an Appreciation Index figure of 86 making it the second most enjoyed programme on mainstream television on Christmas Day. The only programme to score higher was Wallace and Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death which scored 88.

The Appreciation Index, or AI, is a measure of how much the audience liked the programme. It is a score out of 100, based on responses from a carefully selected panel. The average score for drama on BBC1 and ITV1 is 77. A score in excess of 85 is regarded as excellent while a score below 60 is poor.

With overnight figures now available for the whole of Christmas week, Doctor Who stands as the second most watched programme of the week, a position it is expected to retain when BARB releases the corrected figures next week. If so this would be the fifth top five place in succession, a record for the programme.

Following the broadcast of last night's Christmas special episode of Doctor Who, "The Next Doctor", on BBC One, various newspapers and websites have been publishing their reactions both to the episode itself and its high position in the Christmas viewing charts.

The Telegraph's Christmas television review praises the episode, claiming that "As Morrissey's Doctor said, it was complete and utter nonsense, but wonderful nonsense, nevertheless." In The Mirror, critic Jim Shelley wrote that BBC One's Christmas schedule as a whole "From 2pm through to 11.35pm... was perfect viewing." He wrote of "The Next Doctor" that: "David Morrissey threw himself into the part and showed that if he gets the call he has the gusto to make a classic old-fashioned Doctor Who... Up against all this, the other channels simply rolled over." TV Scoop, meanwhile, was less impressed, calling the episode "something of a swing and a miss."

The high viewing figures attained by the episode have been covered across a wide variety of media. BBC News, along with several other outlets, has ranked the Christmas Day programmes in order of peak rather than average viewing figures, placing Doctor Who third rather than second. The main thrust of most media reports of the Christmas ratings, nonetheless, is BBC One's resounding victory over their main rival, ITV1. This is the angle taken by the Daily Mail. Other outlets covering the ratings results include The Guardian, The Sun, TeleText, CBBC and Digital Spy.

Unofficial overnight figures show The Next Doctor was watched by 11.7 million viewers, a share of 50.5 per cent of the audience.

The rating is the highest achieved by the programme in 2008 and the second highest since the programme returned in 2005, only being beaten by last year's Christmas special.

The programme was the second-highest rated of Christmas Day and of Christmas week so far, beating EastEnders, even though the soap was shown in a much later slot. The highest-rated programme of the day was Wallace and Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death with a massive 14.3 million watching.

BBC One ruled the day with the top seven places. The highest rating ITV1 could achieve was an average of 7.4 million for Coronation Street. Against the Doctor, Emmerdale could only manage 4.8 million viewers.

Doctor Who is now the tenth-most-watched programme of 2008, although this position could rise when final figures, including for those who recorded the programme and watched it later, are released by BARB in about two weeks' time.

On BBC3 Doctor Who Confidential had an audience of 0.46 million and Doctor Who: Top 5 Christmas Moments was watched by 0.48 million viewers. Gavin and Stacey: 12 Days of Christmas was the highest- rated programme on multi-channel television.

Confirmed on tonight's broadcast of "The Next Doctor"... the next Doctor Who special will be Planet of the Dead, starring David Tennant. It will air at Easter 2009. More details when available.

BBC One magazine programme The One Show has put online its behind-the-scenes look at The Next Doctor from last Friday.

The four-and-a-half-minute video exclusive is presented by famed Tom Baker impersonator Jon Culshaw, who goes on set and interviews David Tennant and David Morrissey.

Click here to watch the extract. (NB: May not be available to view outside the UK.)