The following TARDIS Report is a summary of press coverage, news items and clips from the past ten days (or so). There's still a lot more to cover from the backlog, and that'll be included as part of future TARDIS reports for the rest of the week; here are the highlights:

Television Coverage

A ten-second 'The One to Watch Tonight' trailer for The Idiot's Lanternaired throughout Saturday from 11.29am on BBC One. A slightly longer version of this trail was also shown over the closing credits for Neighbours on BBC One on Friday at just before 6pm.

Maureen Lipman was interviewed by Andrew Marr on Sunday AM the morning after 'The Idiot's Lantern', discussing the poor state of television drama today, though being very complimentary about Doctor Who. A couple of clips from Saturday's episode accompanied the piece. The programme can be seen online until Saturday on the BBC News Player, via this link, with Lipman's 5-minute appearance about 30 minutes into the programme.

K9 will be making an appearance on Blue Peter on Wednesday 31 May (5pm, BBC One).

Official site update

The Doctor Who website was updated as usual on Saturday evening after transmission of The Idiot's Lantern, with the regular downloadable commentary this week by Ron Cook (Mr Magpie), Louise Paige (Costume Designer) and Sheelagh Wells (Make-up Designer). The photo gallery was updated with ten new pictures alongside the ten available since last Tuesday, and there are three short video diaries about the location manager, art direction and period props, as well as behind-the-scenes photographs and the TARDISODE for The Impossible Planet. This week's spin-off game, Defeat the Wire!, involves finding hidden messages amongst dozens of brief clips from various television and radio shows; it can be found direct from the official site or from the Who is Doctor Who? site, updated this week by 'A Friend', since Mickey Smith is no longer around to do it. It's possible that 'A Friend' is "David R. aka DeffyD79", a pupil at Deffry Vale ('School Reunion') and "The Voice of Deffry Vale's Youth" (see here andhere).

UK ratings - latest updates

A correction to yesterday's report on Saturday's overnight ratings figures: the 5-minute breakdowns do not show a peak of 7.78m for Doctor Who. The 15-minute peak for The Idiot's Lantern was 6.7m between 7.30 and 7.45pm (against Soccer Aid's 6.8m in the same quarter hour); the 5-minute peak for Doctor Who was in fact 6.72m at 7.35-7.40pm. The figure of 7.78m was in fact the peak audience for Soccer Aid, occurring immediately after Doctor Who had finished at 7.45pm.

Sunday's 7pm rerun of The Idiot's Lantern had overnight ratings of 635,800, a 4.6% audience share and at the higher end of the ratings achieved by Doctor Who in this timeslot this year. Once again, the episode was first in its timeslot (multichannel) and third in the day's multichannel chart. The Cut Down Confidential that followed was seen by 374,000 (2.6%), eighth for the day in the multichannel chart.

Last week's early evening repeats on BBC Three had the following overnight audience ratings and shares:

New Earth Monday 22nd May 7pm: 237,000 - 1.2% share
Tooth and Claw Tuesday 23rd May 7pm: 253,000 - 1.3%
School Reunion Wednesday 24th May 7pm: 267,000 - 1.6%
The Girl in the Fireplace Thursday 25th May 7pm: 239,000 - 1.4%
Rise of the Cybermen Friday 26th May 7pm: 144,000 - 1%

The regular 9pm repeat of The Age of Steel on BBC Three on Friday was watched by 384,000 (2%). This repeat, as on the previous Sunday, had no red-button commentary for Freeview audiences, with extra material from the Chelsea Flower Show being shown across BBCi. On Sunday 28, the first repeat of The Idiot's Lantern was also missing its advertised commentary, a concert by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers being BBCi's sole extra on Freeview. (These commentaries were available for digital satellite viewers, and are of course accessible on the official Doctor Who site and on iTunes.)

Today's Media Guardian asks, "Where have the viewers gone? BBC1's Doctor Who revival has been lavished with critical praise and awards, but there are signs midway through its second series that viewers may be tiring of the time travelling sci-fi drama. Saturday's Doctor Who, the seventh out of 13 episodes in the second series, was the lowest-rated yet since the show returned last year to rave reviews and big audiences. ... A fairly typical Doctor Who storyline then, but one which only attracted 6.3 million viewers and a 32% audience share. Doctor Who has shed 2.3 million viewers and 10 share points in two weeks, since the Cybermen episode of May 13, which got a ratings boost to 8.6 million by following the Liverpool v West Ham FA Cup final on BBC1. A week later the second and concluding episode of the Rise of the Cybermen two-parter dropped to 6.9 million viewers and a 36% share. One possible explanation for Doctor Who's ratings decline could be the show's scheduling. After being delayed by 20 minutes, to 7.20pm, on May 13 because of the FA Cup going to penalties; the following Saturday's instalment went out nearly an hour earlier at 6.40pm, to accommodate the Eurovision Song Contest. Last Saturday Doctor Who was at 7pm and the show is scheduled at the same time for the next two weeks. But after that the show could face further scheduling disruption because of BBC1's World Cup coverage. Doctor Who has also faced stiffer competition from ITV1 in the past couple of weeks, with The Prince's Trust 30th anniversary concert and Soccer Aid scheduled against it. Before that, ITV1 had put movie repeats against Doctor Who, with disappointing results. Last year Doctor Who was more consistently scheduled at 7pm, with only one episode, on FA Cup final day, starting at a different time, 6.30pm." Also reported in theIndependent.

Yahoo News reports that "The BBC said it was pleased with Doctor Who's performance after Saturday's viewing figures fell to 6.3 million. The seventh episode in the second series of the show, which was relaunched last year, had a 32.8% audience share and peaked at 6.7 million viewers. The episode featured the Doctor and his sidekick Rose fighting an attempt by an alien to feed off the minds of people watching on TV the Queen's 1953 coronation. MediaGuardian.co.uk reported that the figures were the lowest-yet for the show. But a BBC spokeswoman said: "We are delighted with the viewing figures that the second series of Doctor Who has received so far. The series is proving to be incredibly popular with audiences and has continued to outperform strong competition from its competitors week on week. However, episode seven did transmit over a Bank Holiday weekend when more people are likely to be away."

The Impossible Planet Coverage

Heat's reviewer gives this Saturday's episode the max 5 stars and writes: "If you've been wondering why a Time Lord with access to all the places in the universe and the whole of time to choose from keeps ending up on Earth within a two-century range of history, blame series producer Russell T Davies - he likes to keep the Doctor close to home so that the kiddie viewers can be frightened by familiar things. But he can't keep the Doctor in Cardiff - or wherever Cardiff is standing in for - every week, so over the course of this two-parter we get one of the Tardis' occasional trips further afield. The Doctor and Rose drop in on an extraterrestrial mission group from (where else?) Earth, who have journeyed across space to visit a crummy, rock-strewn planet spinning round a black hole. With only the thoroughly ugly Oood for company (imagine an egg eating a squid - or save yourself the effort and just look at the picture above), our plucky travellers have to contend with something very old and very pissed-off living beneath the planet's surface." (reviewer: Chris Longridge). The magazine also has Doctor Who at number six in it's top 10 Best TV shows for the week.

Closer has The Impossible Planet as one of their top Choices for Saturday: "Imagine the scenario - you go into space, get stuck on a planet and end up right next to a black hole. Bummer! This is the tricky situation Rose and the Doctor find themselves in tonight, along with uptight archaeologist Toby (Strictly Come Dancing's Will Thorp) and a team of space explorers. Even worse, there's something nasty below the planet's surface that isn't happy at being disturbed."

Reveal gives this week's eppy 4 (out of 5) stars and list it as one of their 'Must Sees': "The time travellers are trapped on a desolate planet orbiting a black hole, where they encounter a sinister race of aliens and a team of human explorers." And on guest star Will Thorp: he was "last seen waltzing and jiving on Strictly Come Dancing, but the ex-Casualty star ... plays Toby, a friendly soul who has the misfortune of being possessed by a demon!"

Star magazine's preview mentions: "In the first episode of this two-part story, our poor little Rosebud finds herself stranded on the dreadfully desolate world in the orbit of a Black Hole. The weary time-travellers then have to contend with strange rumblings from beneath the planet's surface..."

People

Sky Showbiz quotes Billie Piper as wanting "to see Dancing on Ice star and former Doctor Who assistant Bonnie Langford back as a guest on the show. 'I think it would be hilarious to see the two people who have worked with him at war,' said Billie."

According to Sky Showbiz, "Dancing On Ice star John Barrowman is the man you girls want to sit in with the lovely Fern Britton on This Morning. John stepped in last month for a few days and the switchboard went into meltdown. The plan is to get him back as quickly as possible."

Another article says that "Peter Kay may have just appeared in the hit show Doctor Who as a baddie, but I hear that the Bolton-born comic is keen to land the role of the main man when David Tennant moves on. He told me: "I think the doctor should come from Bolton next time; he's always been a bit posh for me liking." This is Lancashire says, "This is Bolton comedian Peter Kay as you have never seen him before. The Phoenix Nights star has swapped Brian Potter's wheelchair for green skin and pointy ears as he plays a new Jabba-the-Hut style villain in Dr Who. The creature, named Abzorbaloff, kills its victims by absorbing them into its massive body. Their faces can be seen through its translucent green flesh. He first appears as a man called Victor Kennedy then reveals his true evil identity. ... The Bolton comic was given the role in the second series of the sci-fi hit after he wrote a fan letter to Doctor Who creator Russell T Davies saying how much he enjoyed the first series. The Abzorbaloff was designed by nine-year-old William Grantham, of Colchester, Essex, for a 'Design a Doctor Who Monster' competition held by Blue Peter last year. Kay had to endure five hours in make-up to emerge as the flabby horror. Russell T Davies said: 'We are delighted to welcome Peter onboard the TARDIS! The casting of Peter came about after he wrote me the most brilliant letter to say how much he'd enjoyed Series One of Doctor Who. 'From, that point on, we started talking about a guest appearance. However, this is not a comedy turn. Peter is a versatile actor who has appeared in Paul Abbott's Butterfly Collectors and The Secret Life of Michael Fry.' Mr Davies said the hand-written note was signed 'Yours sincerely, Peter Kay. PS garlic bread', after one of Kay's famous catchphrases. Kay joins an array of well-known actors who have already signed up to the series including; Pauline Collins, Anthony Head, Maureen Lipman, Roger Lloyd-Pack, Sophia Myles, Tracy-Ann Oberman and Danny Webb. On Monday, Kay topped a list of the 100 funniest people alive in a survey by lads' magazine Zoo." Other coverage of Peter Kay's appearance can be found in the Manchester Evening News.

The Guardian has comments from Maureen Lipman, complaining about her new haircut and wondering if she can blame it on Doctor Who! "I'm normally very happy with my hairdressing arrangements. Danny does a brilliant cut for 28 quid and I've sent so many friends to him that these days I can't get an appointment. But I shall have to grovel next time I go, or pretend the make-up girls did it on the set of Doctor Who to make me look more alien."

People says of Camille Coduri, "She's fiddled with Doctor Who's sonic screwdriver, starred as a kinky stripper and will soon sizzle as an ex-porn star. Curvy Camille Coduri even adds a certain sexiness to playing time traveller Billie Piper's mum. But the actress insists she's an old-fashioned girl at heart. Happily married and a devoted mum to two kids in real life, Camille enjoys looking sexy but has strong views on screen nudity, steamy photo shoots and pornography. 'You don't need to get your bra off to prove yourself,' says the actress who, at 40, has a string of impressive film and TV roles to her name. 'A lot of these young actresses who do it are really beautiful and talented and I just think... have a bit of dignity.' Camille's latest role - as an ex-porn star in a new BBC3 series called Sinchronicity - has also given her strong views on that subject. 'I went on the web to research the role and it shocked me 100 per cent. I didn't think that I could be shocked until then,' she explains. 'But pornography upsets me and winds me up because it is for men and as long as that is going on women will never be equal.' ... Camille also loves being part of Doctor Who. 'It has definitely been one of the happiest times in my life,' she says. 'It's hugely funny to film. More often than not you are tearing down the road screaming when you really want to be wetting yourself laughing.'" The Manchester Evening News also interviews Coduri briefly about her new show. "Doctor Who star Camille Coduri, who also happens to be a Manchester City supporter, plays pregnant mum Janice, wife of Lennie and mother of both Sammy and teenager Nicky (Nicola Bland). 'Janice is very different from Rose's mum, Jackie, in Doctor Who,' she maintains. 'It's funny how you slot right into the time and the era. Obviously, the clothing and make-up help, but we were all behaving in that London sixties way. It's all the little details that go into something like this - the string shopping bags, the retro wallpaper and so on.' Now working in Manchester on a new BBC3 drama series, called Sinchronicity, Camille has nothing but praise for young Imogen, who, along with Pickles, is the star of the show. 'The dog wasn't really interested in you, unless you had a sausage up your sleeve,' she smiles."

Yahoo News says that "Soap lovers will spot a couple of famous faces in the returning stage favourite Me and My Girl.Sylvester McCoy and Trevor Bannister are lined-up for a theatrical stint, and both have appeared in various soaps. McCoy is best known for playing Doctor Who during the late 1980s, but he's also cropped up in Hollyoaks, The Bill and Casualty. Bannister will be remembered by many for his role as Mr Lucas in sitcom Are You Being Served? Taking the lead role will be Richard Frame, who played Father Damian Harrison in Family Affairs last year. In Me and My Girl he'll be performing as Bill, a cockney bloke who discovers he's the heir to a fortune. ... The production begins its tour in Plymouth in August, and will call at such places as Sheffield, York, Edinburgh, Bradford and Brighton before finishing its run in Southampton at the end of April 2007."

Paul O'Grady interviewed Jamie Foreman on his show on 26 May before his debut as Eddie Connolly in The Idiot's Lantern. A few quotes include: 'The costumes are fantastic.' and 'It's such fun to do.' On being asked if his character was a goodie or baddie, Jamie would only say that he is: 'very misunderstood... is 53, just got back from Burma.' On the latest Time Lord: 'I think David Tennant will be one of the best Doctors ever.' On Doctor Who: 'It's like watching a Spielberg movie.' (they also showed a short clip showing a confrontation scene between Jamie Foreman's character and an angry Doctor demanding to know what's going on.)

The UK Press Association says that "Casualty veteran Will Thorp is to feature in a Doctor Who adventure beginning on June 3. He admits he was delighted to receive a couple of scripts from head writer and executive producer Russell T Davies. 'I would have said 'yes' to it whatever (the part) was,' Thorp said recently. In The Impossible Planet, the Doctor and Rose arrive on a desolate world orbiting a black hole. They find themselves trapped with Toby (Thorp), a twentysomething archaeologist. However, something ancient lurking beneath the planet's surface begins to wake, and our heroes face a race against time to prevent themselves being whisked off into oblivion. The supporting cast includes Ronny Jhutti, who played Sohail Karim in EastEnders from 1988 to 1990, and the conclusion can be seen on Jun 10. Will, a massive Doctor Who fan, had to keep pinching himself while making the episodes to check if he wasn't dreaming. 'It was like being in the playground,' he laughs. Thorp is currently working on a touring version of Strangers On A Train with another Doctor Who veteran, Colin Baker."

The Financial Times wrote on 27 May, "Tom Baker walks into a central London hotel bar wielding a walking stick, dismissing journalists as traitors and uttering emphatic expletives. He is a big man, tall and well-built, with a good head of white hair. He doesn't want to sit in a quiet corner but rather in the thick of it, where he can 'see human life'. He slides into a faux-leather armchair, catches the waiter's attention and orders a drink in his deep, resonant, theatrical voice. 'A Bombardier, thank-you, sir.' The beer arrives and Baker pours it carefully into a pint glass. 'Good health to you. Nice to see you.' Here is an actor still going strong at the grand age of 72; in fact, he is enjoying a renaissance late in life. He may always be best remembered for being one of the popular incarnations of Doctor Who (between 1974 and 1981) but in recent years Baker has become highly fashionable again. After a few decades of cameo roles in various modern TV comedies, Baker became the narrator in the phenomenally successful Little Britain. He is not quite ready, however, to discuss his work. Instead, he takes a moment to enjoy the drink then produces a copy of Philip Roth's novel Everyman and waves it in the air. 'I'm getting deeper and deeper into this new Roth. God, it's so sad. So, so sad. He's 74, I think. Usually his novels are much bigger than this. It's a meditation on death. When people don't have any religious faith, death becomes obscene.' He barely pauses for breath. 'This bar is a good place to meet a pal. [In] the pubs round here it's hard to finish a sentence without some tosser from the BBC saying 'Tom! Do you remember doing some programme or other with me?' Or some girl saying 'Don't you remember me, Tom. We used to be married?'' ... When I ask about Christopher Ecclestone and David Tennant as the most recent incarnations of Doctor Who, he says: 'I always get sweet messages - not from Christopher Ecclestone, who I was very surprised to see leave so soon; he's a very powerful actor - but from the little chap. David what? Oh yes, Tennant. When I was in Monarch of the Glen, a make-up artist friend of his asked me to send him a card, which I did. He sounds very sweet.' Whenever he's in London, Tom Baker is stopped in the street by fans of Doctor Who. Is it a relief to escape to France? 'It doesn't drive me mad. People are willing to share things with me because they think they love me. Fan love is quite different because it endures. When I used to see a disintegrating George Best or some great old cricket player like Denis Compton, the nostalgia would always catapult me back to my youth. People who talk to me in the street make quite affecting little speeches about what I meant to them. There are plenty of actors more distinguished then I am but I bet that never happens to them.' ... Would Baker like to be offered a part in the new Doctor Who? He shrugs. 'I've done my time but if the BBC had any bloody flair, if they had real genius, they'd have brought me back to play the Master.' He seems a little hurt that no one has even offered a cameo and, as is his style, quickly moves on to something else." More of the interview at the site.

The Idiot's Lantern Reactions

The Guardian blog: "This week's episode, the Idiot's Lantern, attracted 6.3m viewers, the lowest of the year to date. I'm sure it is no coincidence that it was also the worst episode of the year thus far - a satire of the brain rotting properties of television set in 1953 during the Queen's coronation. It exhibited all the worst attributes that have been turning the series into a smug pantomime. ... At least the villainous Wire on the weekend, played by Maureen Lipman, was a proper evil baddy, in the episode titled the Idiot's Lantern written by League of Gentleman co-creator Mark Gatiss, but the plot was pretty thin, with no time to develop - another major problem of the modern series - everything is so rushed. While it's pretty clear David Tennant is a better Doctor than Christopher Eccleston ever was, the series redeeming features are in danger of getting swamped by self indulgent, self satisfied output that suggests that the production team is producing the show for their mates and not the audience. Maybe success has all gone to their heads

CBBC News: "'I heard they rot your brains. Rot them into soup and your brain comes pouring out your ears, that's what television does!' So says an elderly woman in the pre-title sequence of this week's episode. Officially, I suppose I should be offended as I've spent most of my working life involved in TV, and most of my non-working life watching it. Indeed, this episode is even called The Idiot's Lantern - a nickname for TV sets. Unsurprisingly then, TVs have a key role in the plot. ... This is a very different episode, written by Mark Gatiss, who penned last season's Unquiet Dead. It rattles along well enough, but unfortunately doesn't have the energy that previous episodes have had. It has a slightly clumsy sub plot about equality between men and women, and a villain who's never really satisfactorily explained - I much prefer us to understand more about their background. That said, there's some nice stuff in here. The revelation of what's happening to the victims is fabulous (hats off to the special effects wizards at The Mill). And it's good to see Rose well entwined in the nastiness that's going on. Every series has to have its peaks and troughs though, and after the frantic excitement of the Cyberman episodes, this was always going to be a smaller, less epic adventure where the mystery was wrapped up very quickly. And many will enjoy its more intimate nature. But I'm now really looking forward to the next two-parter which Billie Piper told me was the most frightening thing they've done yet!"

BlogCritics: "After the big Tom MacRae 'Rise Of The Cybermen'-'The Age Of Steel' two-parter, Mark Gatiss' 'The Idiot's Lantern' seemed more underwhelming than overwhelming. While too many plots were happening in the former, there didn't really seem to be a plot with the latter - or at least one that was tied to everything well enough. ... There's a nice little nod to 'Logopolis' with the final chase/fight scene on the tower. Wouldn't it have been interesting to have that as a cliffhanger rather than the RTD Cybermen two-parter a few episodes away? The Doctor could simply fall off after being exhausted from fighting The Wire and cut to credits, as it appeared he was seemingly out of breath. On second thought, it probably would have been terrible given the spoilers that he would come back in the next few episodes of the next season. After being tight on the accents with the past few episodes, we return to more grumbling. This time the fault lies with Jamie Foreman's Eddie, whose language is so thick I couldn't figure out if that was a character trait or the lack of ability to convey his words. Tennant did that a few times himself, which is even more irritating since the show is about The Doctor. Understand, this is not a demand for British actors to speak clear English -- I just want to be able to hear the words coming out of their mouths. The London Police bits seemed a bit tagged on. Rather than use them to store all the faceless, Gatiss could have easily stuck them in one of the houses that had a large basement or something that wouldn't have involved having to tag on more characters. The less of them you have, the more centered you can be on the plot at hand, something Doctor Who often loses when it adds on the baggage. I almost couldn't review this episode because it seemed so blah." (BlogCritics also reviews the two part "Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel.)

Other Press Items

Influential UK multi-channel TV guide What Satellite and Digital TVannounced the results of its annual readers' awards on May 24 and Doctor Who won "Best Sci Fi Show".

The Western Daily Press noted that "They are virtually indestructible, have a fearsome arsenal of weapons and millions of them want to destroy all human beings - oh, and they raise a lot of money for charity by opening village fairs. Yes, the Daleks have arrived in the West with the formation of a new group of Dr Who-hating, terrifying machines, on a mission to raise cash for a cancer charity. Three Dr Who fans have spent months painstakingly recreating the contraptions, complete with motorised movement, moveable weapons and Dalek-voice machines. And the first on their list of communities to exterminate this summer was the normally quiet and picturesque village of West Lavington in the heart of Wiltshire. And amid the schoolchildren maypole dancers, beer tent and sea scouts displays, the three Daleks cut an eerie and slightly terrifying sight after they opened the village's May Fair."

BlogCritics says that Americans should give the new series a chance. "I haven't been on Outpost Gallifrey in months as a regular poster (I lurk mostly) - I don't need to be overwhelmed by dozens of threads that usually go over ten pages long on the same subject. Some of the subjects lose their point in petty fighting and the like, but some make valid points. One of the most eye-opening ones was merely these words: 'Why is Who doing so badly in the U.S. (United States) ratings?' There are lots of reasons given in the thread why the show is doing badly (which is currently airing on the Sci-Fi Channel with Series 1): timeslots, language differences, and the rather strange narrative that the show has had for its entire run since '63. It could just be that Americans largely dislike foreign shows because they don't have a clear and concise explanation of what their show is about right away. It requires too much energy for them (although this same audience watches the often headache-inducing 24 and Prison Break on Fox). For me, it's a matter of the script and who writes it. In my reviews of 'New Earth' and 'Tooth and Claw', one of my chief complaints was the clear lack of understanding of the words spoken by the actors, David Tennant especially. Those, however, are under the pen of Russell Davies. Under someone such as Steven Moffat, there is a sense of clarity in not only the dialogue, but even in the story itself. Things got better with his episode, 'The Girl In The Fireplace,' as well as the current Tom MacRae Cybermen two-parter that just finished. I suppose 'School Reunion' deserves a mention, too. If the show keeps displaying good work and a clear sense of what's being said and done on the screen, the show will eventually win U.S. viewers. As it stands right now with Series 1 being aired in the United States, we may not give ourselves a chance to find that out. Oh well, there's always DVD and the old VHS tapes."

The Independent says that "Doctor Who is accustomed to renaissance. He clutches at his hearts, announces that this is the end and, in a blur and blaze of Colour Separation Overlay, becomes a man with an entirely different Equity number. That's nothing, however, to the renaissance currently being experienced by Doctor Who: Russell T Davies grinning his big Welsh grin all over the BAFTAs, ratings so huge that they have altered industry prognoses about the future of TV drama; a nation enthralled by the chavvy, chipmunky majesty of Billie Piper. My tutor at university used to say that one of the most significant things about the Renaissance was that it was the moment at which it became impossible for one person to have read every book in existence. What era can we be said to have entered when it is no longer possible for a single person to have consumed every text bearing the Doctor Who logo? This month, the tally of new material includes four episodes of the new Saturday night series on BBC1, four instalments each of the cable spin-offs Doctor Who Confidential and Totally Doctor Who, one issue of Doctor Who Magazine, two issues of the Doctor Who Adventures comic, two audio-only dramas on CD, three hardback novels, one paperback novella, seven mass market non-fiction books and one academic study by the Professor of Film at Leicester University. So to participate completely in the cultural practice of Doctor Who, you would have to devote every waking hour to it. You would have to give up your job and renounce family and friends. You would have to stay hunched in your room for days at a time. (If you've just thought of an unkind joke about Doctor Who fans, hush your mouth - at least they don't go on the rampage through city centres when they don't like the result on Saturday.) James Chapman is not the first academic to subject Doctor Who to seminar-style analysis. That honour goes to a double act, John Tulloch and Manuel Alvarado, whose Doctor Who: The Unfolding Text (1983) applied the theoretical discipline of the Frankfurt school to Doctor Who's melodramas of alien invasion, alien possession and alien killer plastic inflatable armchairs. As Chapman observes, this approach caused so much amusement in the Doctor Who production office that one of the book's more impenetrable sentences made it into the series. In the 1987 story 'Dragonfire', a glum-looking heavy asks Sylvester McCoy's Doctor: 'What do you think of the assertion that the semiotic thickness of a performed text varies according to the redundancy of its auxiliary performance codes?' The Doctor, for once, is speechless. When The Unfolding Text was published, Doctor Who non-fiction existed principally to tell you what the acronym TARDIS stood for, and that Patrick Troughton played the central part in the style of 'a cosmic hobo' - whatever that was. The potential readership just wasn't ready to investigate the hermeneutic coding of William Hartnell's astrakhan hat. And, judging by Chapman's book, neither are they now. Chapman's approach is unpretentious, readable, solidly authoritative and self-consciously anti-theoretical. 'The Doctor may have conquered Daleks, Cybermen and Ice Warriors,' he argues, 'but would he survive an encounter with Foucault, Derrida or Deleuze?' ... Doctor Who isn't just 28 seasons of television drama and one TV movie with Paul McGann in a dodgy wig. It's also 43 unbroken years of comic strips, 100-odd audio dramas, 300-odd novels, thousands of web pages and a mixed bag of stage plays, radio plays, webcasts, feature films, annuals, sketches and story anthologies. More importantly, Doctor Who is something that we do as well as watch or read. Its concepts and metaphors have invaded our language. It has colonised the British consciousness more effectively than any race of rubber-skinned aliens. It is a monstrous, unstoppable, ever-growing discourse. So what would happen if, on some time-trip to the Left Bank in the 1970s, Deleuze , Derrida and Foucault encountered Doctor Who? That's easy. It would simply slide on top of them like a giant green blancmange with a four-foot phallus."

icNewcastle writes, "A Doctor Who fan's lifelong dream has become a reality after appearing on the popular TV show. Lecturer John Paul Green, 33, has watched the long running sci-fi series ever since he was in nappies. He said: 'I'd watch the show every Saturday and be captivated all afternoon.' John, who works in the arts, design, media and culture department at Sunderland University, even wrote to Jim'll Fix It as a seven year old, begging Jimmy Savile to get him a part, to no avail. But in a bizarre twist of fate 26 years later, it was an old pal who fixed it for him. Matthew Pardo, who studied at the Wearside university with John and is now a journalist living in Bath, got wind of Dr Who auditions because of links with the casting agency involved. John said: 'I was over the moon. This was my chance to become a part of Dr Who history.' He was among 40 extras who got a job and then, to his delight, was chosen as the one person to appear in a close-up with the two stars . . . David Tennant as the Doctor and Billie Piper as his assistant Rose Tyler. The 12-hour shoot took place in Cardiff in January and the result was his appearances in The Rise of the Cybermen and the Age of Steel broadcast on May 13 and 20. John plays a human in the early stages of being turned into a ruthless Cyberman. He said: 'Billie was lovely, really warm and down to earth and made an effort to talk to the extras. David Tennant's a great Dr Who. He really gets into character the moment the cameras are rolling. The hardest thing was keeping it a secret from everyone.' The only people to know about John's brush with fame were his partner Kay and his parents. Then, when the first episode he appeared in was aired, John arranged a barbecue for all his friends and then announced that watching Dr Who would be part of the night's entertainment . . . without telling them beforehand about his role. He said: 'People commented `that looks a lot like you', and then the penny dropped. They were all utterly shocked and couldn't believe I'd managed to keep it from them.' John claims he's not obsessed with Dr Who, but when his mobile rings during our interview the tone is the theme tune of the show. He also wrote his Masters degree dissertation on the programme, and got it signed by 15 former stars of the series. And he's met his favourite doctor, Tom Baker. So what's next for John? He beamed: 'I'd love to appear in the next big Bond film.'"

The Evening Express asks, "Is There a Doctor in the house? Because I know a Time Lord who is desperately in need of treatment. To describe the second series of Doctor Who as 'disappointing' is a bit like describing the Titanic as a wee mishap at sea. The storylines are already repetitive. Instead of the undead in Victorian London we get werewolves on Victorian Deeside. The menace of the Daleks is replaced with the stomping of the Cyberman. Sorry, but Trigger from Only Fools And Horses isn't what I expect in my evil genius. Tonight's episode will see eerie forces at work in post-war London, just like the eerie forces at work in wartime London. It's too early for Russell T Davies and his team to be re-treading themes. I mean, how many more times is Rose going to go running after alternate versions of her dead dad? That poignant, plinky-plonky music is grating. Last year's series was a brilliant updating of Doctor Who, giving the classic themes a new, surprising twist. But this series is just stale. And central to the problem is the Doctor himself. Chris Ecclestone brought a dark edge to his Time Lord. There was a tormented soul under that gleeful bonhomie. You were never sure what he was going to do next. But I can tell you exactly what David Tennant will do. He'll shout. He'll go all wide-eyed (one wider than the other) and stare. He'll cackle with laughter and call himself a genius. Pass the ham. The only tortured souls now are those of us who wish we had a Tardis to bring back the Doctor who breathed magic into the character."

Other press items: Bella Online comments on the recent BAFTA wins;CityPages has a brief article about the new series from the perspective of a mock fan; the Bucks Free Press covered an event with writer Gareth Roberts; Now Playing Mag talks about Doctor Who comics; the North Devon Gazette talks about a Dalek who "drops in at bookstore".

(Thanks to Paul Engelberg, Peter Weaver, Paul Hayes)

BBC Worldwide has confirmed the release of Mark of the Rani on DVD on September 4 in the UK. The story, from Season 22, stars Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant as the Doctor and Peri, with special guest stars Anthony Ainley as the Master and Kate O'Mara as the Rani. The single-disc release will contain commentaries by Baker, Bryant and O'Mara (the Doctor Who Restoration Team notes that director Sarah Hellings agreed to do the commentary but sadly couldn't make it due to scheduling reasons); "Lords and Luddites," an interview documentary featuring comments by Baker, Bryant, O'Mara, actor Gary Cady, script editor Eric Saward, writers Pip and Jane Baker and others; "Now and Then," a special look at the Blists Hill Victorian Museum where the episode was filmed; a historical segment from "Blue Peter" on the Ironbridge Gorge; a clip of Baker and Bryant on "Saturday Superstore"; plus deleted and extended scenes, a photo gallery, isolated music score as well as alternate music score for part one, and PDF copies of the 1985 Doctor Who Annual as well as clips from Radio Times.

The official BBC Doctor Who website has confirmed the UK DVD release ofThe Hand of Fear starring Tom Baker as the Doctor and Elisabeth Sladen - in her last episode as a regular on Doctor Who - as Sarah Jane Smith. The DVD is currently due out on 31 July 2006. The release will feature commentary by Baker, Sladen, Judith Paris (Eldrad), Bob Baker (writer) and Philip Hinchcliffe (producer); "Changing Times," a 50-minute documentary charting the special relationship between the Doctor and his companion Sarah Jane Smith; "Swap Shop," a very rare clip of Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen's appearance on the first ever edition of Noel Edmonds' Multi-Coloured Swap Shop, shown in October 1976; plus PDFs of the 1977 Doctor Who Annual and the Radio Times listings for The Hand of Fear, a photo gallery, continuity announcements, information text subtitles and easter egg.

Here's a quick recap of the major news items of the past few days; the rest of the press from the past eight days will be included in a proper (and quite large) TARDIS Report column on Sunday.

Latest Schedule Changes

The first showing of The Age of Steel this Saturday on BBC One is now confirmed in a 50-minute 6.35pm to 7.25pm timeslot, overlapping with CBBC's repeat of Totally Doctor Who 6 from 6.30pm that evening. Doctor Who Confidential follows immediately at 7.25pm on BBC Three, repeated on Sunday night/Monday morning at 3.25 am. A Cut Down version will be shown on Sunday 21st at 7.45pm and on Friday 26th at 9.45pm - both of these follow repeat showings of 'The Age of Steel' at 7pm and 9pm. There are also two more chances to see BBC Four's Time Shift documentary, Machine Men, on Friday 19th/Saturday 20th at midnight and 2.50am.

BBC Three's weekday evening repeats of Series Two begin on Monday 22nd at 7pm with New Earth (not The Christmas Invasion) and continue through to Rise of the Cybermen at 7pm on Friday 26th, ahead of that evening's 9pm repeat of The Age of Steel. There have been wildly different versions of BBC Three's schedule available from the Radio Times website and other online listings guides. The print version of Radio Times, however, lists five editions of Confidential Cut Down at 7.45-8.00pm each evening, covering first showings in this format of New New Doctor, Fear Factor and Friends Reunited, as well as Script to Screen and Cybermen. Since this is the schedule that seems to make the most sense, it's the one Outpost Gallifrey is using in our Broadcast Calendar on this page, although it obviously remains subject to change. It is not known whether these BBC Three repeats will include the red-button commentary now available on BBCi with the regular Sunday and Friday repeats.

Radio Times

This week's Radio Times selects The Age of Steel as its 'Drama of the Week', calling it "very possibly the best episode yet". A sequence from the episode is also Alison Graham's 'Moment of the Week', with her short write-up managing a fairly comprehensive spoiler for the scene in question. The magazine also previews the episode as "the best yet", commenting that David Tennant is "such a good actor. It's instructive to see how utterly at home he is in a role he's made his own. Frankly, it's impossible not to sigh in sheer admiration." The episode listing runs: "The continuation of last week's story. Terror mounts as the Cybermen seize London. Can a daring raid stop them in their tracks?" The accompanying 'Doctor Who Watch' feature is just one page this week, most of which focuses on Mickey Smith, with Noel Clark commenting that this is the episode "where his development really takes shape. He sees what he could become and he becomes it." The same page (and the magazine's cover, the seventh cover mention in eight weeks) promotes the latest selection of free stickers, which this week come glued to Mickey's face on the Doctor Who Watch page. There's also another letter, this time praising School Reunion and The Girl in the Fireplace as giving "a moving new dimension to an already timeless character." Finally, a three-page article on this year's BAFTA winners includes photos of and comments from David Tennant, Russell T Davies and Billie Piper. The Radio Timeswebsite has a number of photographs and video footage of the BAFTA-carrying stars at the after-show gathering. The site's Doctor Who section (link here) has been updated to include a Cybermen photo gallery and a competition running until 2 June to win Dalek posters and an iPod nano.

Blue Peter and Other TV Coverage

Monday's Blue Peter feature on the Cybermen can be seen online from the official site or from the Blue Peter site. Following that feature, K-9 made a very brief appearance on Tuesday's edition of Blue Peter to confirm that he will be accompanying presenter Gethin at the 'Bark in the Park' event - details at the Blue Peter website. In next Tuesday 23 May's edition, "Gethin investigates the real-life story of the invention which inspired the clockwork monsters" in The Girl in the Fireplace.

As Outpost Gallifrey reported on 27 April, David Tennant has donated a signed script to a charity sale in a church in Scotland, and the story has since been covered in a number of press and online reports, including CBBC Newsround on Tuesday. The next day's BBC One edition of Newsround included a quick report on the story, played over clips from The Christmas Invasion.

Noel Clarke was scheduled to "takes time out to chat about his Doctor Who character" on GMTV's Entertainment Today from 8.35am on Friday 19 May.

The Age of Steel Pre-publicity

There have, so far, been no trailers for The Age of Steel on BBC television this week, although the episode (and its earlier timeslot) has been promoted by continuity announcers during several programme links.

The official website was updated on Tuesday lunchtime, its new flash-animated homepage accompanied by the sound of marching Cybermen and links to some of the series' spin-off websites (Cybus Industries and Vitex). The photo gallery for the Cybermen story has been expanded to 37 pictures, and a range of sounds are avaiable for download, as well as Tardisode 6 and a Fear Factor rating of 5 (Terrifying).

Guest star Roger Lloyd Pack has been interviewed by BBC Norfolk, including a slide-show from the episode this weekend.

BBC One's listings for the week say of The Age of Steel: "The Cybermen take control of London and start converting the populace. While Jackie falls under Lumic's control, the Doctor, Rose and Mickey are reduced to fugitives in a world of terror. A last, desperate attack on the Cyberfactory is their only chance - but will they all survive?" (Link here) The same site says of this week's Totally Doctor Who: "Camille Coduri, better known as Rose Tyler's mum, Jackie, is back for more juicy gossip. Plus Andrew Hayden-Smith joins us on the sofa to talk acting, presenting and Cybermen! The Companion Academy turns up the heat as the cadets are put through another testing task when they are told to Face Your Fears. Liz takes a trip to The Mill, where the amazing computer generated Doctor Who effects are brought to life. And we go totally behind the scenes to see how a BIG explosion can be done on a very small scale."

In this week's Heat magazine, reviewer Chris Longridge notes that: "You won't be too shocked to learn that the gang survive last week's cliffhanger. With Trigger from Only Fools and Horses poised to take over the city via his earpods (imagine what he could do with an earpod nano), the Doctor infiltrates his robofactory - formerly known as Battersea Power Station - while Mickey literally has a word with himself and bucks up enough to finally do something useful." He gives The Age of Steel 5 stars, and Heat places it at number 9 in its Top 10 Best TV Shows of the week.

Closer magazine writes that: "The Doctor, Mickey ad Rose are still stranded in parallel London, and those pesky Cybermen are still clunking around the capital, trying to "upgrade" the population. The Doctor and his merry band of resistance fighters must launch one last dangerous assault to save the day. It's a tough episode for Rose too as she sufers not one, but two, heartbreaking goodbyes."

Star magazine has The Age of Steel as one of their Picks of the Day - "In the conclusion of this two-part episode, the dreaded Cybermen are running amok in London. Jackie is already under Lumic's control. Meanwhile the Doc, Rose and Mickey are fleeing for their lives. Their only hope for survival is an attack on the Cyber factory."

Other Press Items

Broadcast Now reports that "BBC1 is the UK’s most creative channel, according to Broadcast’s first Creative Report, an analysis of the most acclaimed British programmes, producers and broadcasters over the last year." The report says that "the channel's dominance in the drama series category is fuelled by hits such as Doctor Who and Bleak House." Doctor Who takes third place (behind Sex Traffic and Little Britain) in its chart of the top 10 most creative programmes, and topping the list of most creative new programmes (first shown in 2005). The report surveyed 300 programmes, taking into account awards wins and nominations over the 12 months to May 2006.

Great news for all Russell T Davies fans and British viewers who grew up watching Children's BBC in the early 1990s. Davies's two highly-regarded children's fantasy serials, 1991's Dark Season and 1993's Century Fallsare due to be released on Region 2 DVD in the UK by 2entertain Ltd on July 17. Dark Season, Davies's first full drama script for television, co-stars a young Kate Winslet, while according to former Children's BBC presenter Andi Peters on BBC Four's Russell T Davies - Unscripted documentary in 2005, Century Falls was regarded as so potentially disturbing for younger viewers by BBC bosses that they forbade any repeat screening. Neither serial has been released on VHS or DVD before, and while Dark Season was repeated on BBC One in 1994 and the CBBC Channel in 2001, Century Falls has remained in the vaults since 1993.

Various sources are reporting that on Saturday, ITV suffered the worst audience share in its history. Says the MediaGuardian (http://media.guardian.co.uk/overnights/story/0,,1775328,00.html subscription link): "Saturday's FA Cup final has been dubbed the greatest ever and the BBC1's near three hours of nailbiting live football helped condemn ITV1 to its worst ever daily audience share. ITV1 had a share on Saturday of just 11.8%, half a percentage point lower than its previous record low on July 2 last year, when BBC1 was showing live coverage of Live 8... Overall, BBC1 had an all-day share of 36.4% against ITV's 11.8%. Channel 4 came third, with 8.1%, followed by BBC2, 7.4%, and Channel Five, with 5.2%."

Says BBC News Online's coverage: "An ITV1 spokesman said: 'A big sporting occasion like the FA Cup Final will often cause a ratings blip.' A BBC One spokesman said: 'We are delighted that the thrilling FA Cup Final and the Cybermen's return to Doctor Who proved a winning combination to BBC One viewers.' Some 8.6 million watched Doctor Who. Last week, ITV announced plans to axe a string of programmes in a bid to refresh its main channel's schedule."

(Thanks to Paul Engelberg, Paul Hayes, Peter Weaver, John Bowman)

Rise of the Cybermen Publicity

As well as this week's Tardisode for Episode 5, a 20-second trailer for Saturday's episode debuted last Saturday night on the Doctor Who media player on the official website, as part of its update for "The Girl in the Fireplace". Composed almost entirely of footage shown in Episode 4's 'Next Time' trailer, this trailer was first broadcast on BBC One on Sunday afternoon and has been shown frequently throughout the week. Mid-week, it gained an extra line of text noting the series' BAFTA-winning success this week.

The Radio Times for 13-19 May, published on Tuesday 9 May, featured Doctor Who's fifth cover in just over a year (see OG News, May 10), with a five-page Doctor Who Watch feature with several photographs of the new Cybermen design and comments from Neill Gorton (special make-up and prosthetic effects) and Edward Thomas (production designer). "We wanted to bring the Cybermen into the 21st century ... and give them a uniformity that they didn't have previously," says Gorton. "Russell T Davies was adamant they had to look like steel ... We ended up doing it as 'cold-cast metal': you take a powdered metal, add it to a resin and brush that into your moulds, then put fibreglass behind that." Edward Thomas reveals that "The whole design concept of the episode was that it was going to be Art Deco, so we kept the very Art Deco lines [for the Cyberman design] ... it all has to feel as if it clips together." The actors playing Cybermen wear a Lcra suit underneath the cyber-costumes, and actor Paul Kasey says that "It took about half an hour [to put it all on], the first time. By the end of the shoot I'd got it down to about ten minutes." Also shown are a couple of the initial alternative designs for the new-look Cybermen. Writer Tom MacRae is interviewed, commenting, "We've gone to the root of what's scary, which is that they come and they take you and they don't kill you, but they turn you into one of them. That's the story." Alison Graham selects Rise of the Cybermen for her moment of the week: "It's the noise that attracts everyone's attention. The steady thud, thud, thud of metallic feet crunching inexorably towards a country house where Britain's powerful people are enjoying a party ... They're back, and they're terrifying." Graham also previews the episode as one of Saturday's choices: "Gripping though all this is, the real interest of tonight's episode is the return of the Doctor's old foes ... There's a big build-up to their first appearance ... If anything, they're more scary [now], and there's a geniune dread as they clump, clump, clump towards the Doctor and Rose, ready to take over the world." According to Saturday's listings, "The Tardis is trapped on a parallel Earth and an old enemy is about to be reborn." Also noted in the magazine is a Blue Peter feature on Monday 15 May at 5pm, "How [show presenter] Gethin played a Cyberman in Doctor Who", which is previewed more fully in the Kids' TV section. There's also a letter following up on last week's correspondent, correcting the idea that K9 mark 3 was not built by the Doctor.

A trailer for the episode has also been broadcast on BBC radio since midweek. It shares several scenes with the TV trailer, but also includes a brief piece of Cyberspeech. It can be heard via Radio 4's Listen Again on the BBC's Today programme for Wednesday May, about 1 hour 30 minutes in, for six days after broadcast (you can find it here).

Wednesday's regular update to the official site introduced a noisy Cybermen flash animation to the homepage, with a picture gallery of 13 photos, mostly publicity shots of Cybermen. Also, the BBC homepage has a Cyberman on the front, along with various links to Doctor Who items.

The episode preview on Totally Doctor Who on Thursday (repeated Saturday, 6.30pm, CBBC) comprised a fairly long continuous scene, with Lumic unveiling a Cyberman - which speaks to him and correctly identifies him.

The CBBC Newsround site now features several new promotional pieces on Rise of the Cybermen. A behind-the-scenesarticle appeared on Thursday, and includes an interview with Cyber-actor Paul Kasey. Lizo's weekly episodepreviewwas posted on Friday afternoon - it includes some possibly mild spoilers for later in the series, as well as some conversation with Russell T Davies, mostly confined to dismissing certain theories about the series' story arcs as "Nonsense!" Intriguingly, most of said theories appear to have originated with Davies himself, in various interviews! At the same time, aquizquiz on the Cybermen debuted at Newsround's Doctor Who mini-site (http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/specials/doctor_who/default.stm).

On the review side, Heat magazine's reviewer Chris Longridge awards Rise of the Cybermen the max five stars and writes that: "We've been lucky enough to have nothing but one-off eps so far this series, but now we have to cope with one of those cliffhanging two-parters that make us every bit as frustrated as they did when we were kids. We join the Tardis as it crash-lands on an alternative Earth, where Zeppelins are the only mode of transport for the well-to-do. Mickey is London's most wanted terrorist and Rose's dad is alive - and successful enough to have his own annoying catchphrase. As you may have read elsewhere, the big threat comes from the Cybermen - an old enemy of the Doctor's who are essentially humanoid Daleks, but instead of shouting "Exterminate! Exterminate!", prefer the altogether wackier, "Delete! Delete!" (Come on, chaps, you could have tried a bit harder there.) But where do these robo-bastards come from? Well, the episode contains a coded warning about the prevalence of a popular media accessory called an "earpod". Are they trying to tell us something?" Heat places this week's episode at number 3 in their week's Best TV Shows.

Closer comments that: "The monsters in this series of Doctor Who have been a bit namby-pamby so far.So tonight it steps up a level, when the Doc stumbles upon an old enemy, in fact he stumbles on about 100 of them. Enter the Cybermen, who are very, very scary. Rose, the Doc and Mickey land the Tardis back in London - but not London as we know it. this is the big smoke in a parallel world. The two-parter ends on a real cliffhanger, and while Roger Lloyd-Pack is brilliant as the baddie, to us he will always be Trigger from Only Fools and Horses." (reviewer: Hannah Wright).

New magazine has this week's episode at number 5 in their Top Ten Picks and writes: "The Doctor and Rose come face to face with an old enemy when they travel to a parallel Earth. There, they meet an army of Cybermen created by evil genius John Lumic. It's an emotional experience for Rose, because int his world her dad is still alive. Concludes next week." (reviewer: David Bell)

Reveal writes: "Since being handed the keys to the Tardis last year by Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant has become a firm favourite with fans of the sci-fi series. So far in this run, he's seen the return of Sarah Jane and K-9, and fought several particularly nasty baddies. In this first of a two-part adventure, hwoever, he faces his toughest challenge yet as he takes on some of his deadliest ever foes. The Time Lord and his intrepid sidekick arrive back in the rpesent day to find history has been dramatically altered, with Rose amazed to learn her father is still alive in this alternative reality. She must quickly put her elation to one side, though, as the Cybermen are planning to take over the world. Roger Lloyd-pack guest stars." The magazine gives this episode 4 stars and it's their Must See - Pick of the Day.

Star magazine gives Rise of the Cybermen four (out of 5) stars and it's their Pick of the Day. "After the Daleks, the Cybermen were teh most legendary of the Doctor's foes back in the early days. They get a revival in this mammoth two-parter. The Tardis crashes and ends up trapped in an alternative world - one where Rose's father is still alive, she is a Yorkshire terrier and the wealthy live in Zeppelins! Her father is entangled with a powerful businessman, whose enterprises involve downloading information into peoples' heads. He's dying and the only way to save himself - and spare the world from pain - is to create Cybermen, immortal, unfeeling types." (reviewer: KH) (the magazine also has this ep at number 3 in their top 10 terrestrial TV shows)

BBC Books Sales and Audiobooks News

All three Tenth Doctor novels have spent the past fortnight in the top six of the Top 20 Fiction Heatseekers chart, published by trade magazine The Bookseller. This week, The Resurrection Casket remains at number 6, while The Feast of the Drowned has moved up one place to number 4, and The Stone Rose has slipped from number two to number three. As The Bookseller notes, this was a week that saw "a feast of new entries" in the chart, but the Doctor Who sales have remained steady at around 3,000 copies of each book per week. The total sales for the three novels in the past four weeks are: The Stone Rose 12,923; The Feast of the Drowned 10,836; and The Resurrection Casket 10,699, still substantially ahead of sales figures for the initial Ninth Doctor releases in May 2005.

The next batch of novels expected in the autumn (see OG News, 21 April) are also due to be released on audiobook, according to listings at Amazon.co.uk. There is no news yet of who will be reading them, but Amazon lists all three CDs for release on Monday 2 October.

BBC Books' contribution to the Quick Reads literacy initiative, I Am a Dalekby Gareth Roberts, is now beginning to appear in shops in the UK, a little ahead of its official publication date of 18 May.

The Girl in the Fireplace Post-publicity

The official site update after Saturday's episode The Girl in the Fireplaceincluded a larger number of video diaries than have featured over the previous three weeks: there are interviews with Sophia Myles (Reinette), Louise Page (Costume Designer), and a horse (the horse), as well as features on the making of the clockwork men and the eye camera. This week's new game, via Mickey's 'Defending the Earth' official spin-off website (http://www.whoisdoctorwho.co.uk), is called 'Tick Tock' and involves defeating clockwork men to locate missing crystals from various eighteenth-century locations. As usual, it is preceded and followed by short video messages from Mickey Smith.

The commentary this week was by writer Steven Moffat and actor Noel Clarke. Available for download from the official site, it was also a red-button extra on the BBC Three repeats on Sunday and Friday evenings - now a regular BBCi extra, and listed as such in the Radio Times.

Added to the CBBC Newsround site on Thursday was an interview with Jessica Atkins, who played the young Reinette in The Girl in the Fireplace.

This week's Totally Doctor Who interviewed Camille Coduri (Jackie Tyler), Jessica Atkins and Sheelagh Wells (Make-up Designer), and had behind-the-scenes features on the fire extinguisher/ice gun used to stop the clockword droids and the costumes used for the episode.

The episode was enthusiastically reviewed by Slade's Noddy Holder on the Mark Radcliffe show on BBC Radio 2 on Thursday evening at about 11.30pm. (This should also be available on Listen Again on the BBC Radio Player).

Series Two Repeats (Already)

According to the Radio Times website, BBC Three will be running consecutive weekday repeats of The Christmas Invasion and the first three episodes of Series Two from Monday 22 May at 7pm, with a 7.45-8.00pm cut down Confidential after each episode. This scheduling is clearly provisional - The Christmas Invasion is shown incorrctly as running at 45 minutes, and the same Confidential episode is listed for all four evenings.

Other Media Items

Wednesday's Marina Hyde column in The Guardian newspaper references the episode Tooth and Claw in a piece discussing the recent revelations of Liberal Democrat MP Mark Oaten about his private life, titled Never mind battling demons and consulting a shrink. "This failure to assume anything puts me in mind of a recent episode of the majestic Doctor Who," writes Hyde, "in which the Doctor, Rose and Queen Victoria are en route to Balmoral, and use the house of a highland lord as a staging post. Little do they realise that the owner's wife has been taken prisoner and his staff replaced by psychotic, shaven-headed men, who force him to act as if nothing is amiss. Towards the end of the episode, when the day has been saved, his lordship asks the Doctor why he didn't realise sooner that something was up. 'Well,' comes the cheeky reply, 'your wife was away, you were surrounded by bald, athletic men... I just thought you were enjoying yourself.' Ah, beware the simple answer, Doctor! As the Time Lord eventually discovered, the wife and servants were in fact being held hostage by a werewolf-worshipping cult. If only Mr Oaten had cared to name the psychiatrist he has been seeing for all these years, I would call him and moot the possibility that the MP and his family were in the thrall of some terrible evil - possibly lupine - and advise him to flag down the Tardis without delay."

The website of the Belfast Telegraph newspaper is carrying a news story about David Tennant having visited the city recently, and taking in a Derry City football match while he was there. He was evidently visiting as part of the making of his forthcoming episode of the BBC geneology show Who Do You Think You Are?, and has a connection to the Derry City football team - according to the article, "His grandfather Archie McLeod was a record goal-scorer for the side in the 1930s." Derry City's Chairman, Jim Roddy, is quoted as saying that "He is a quiet, decent fellow and very proud of his roots - I think he was very humbled by the whole experience."

Outpost Gallifrey will feature a recap of the rest of the week's press coverage (nothing major, but mentions here and there) in our next TARDIS report.

(Thanks to Paul Engelberg, Paul Hayes, Peter Weaver, John Bowman, Chuck Foster)

This week's Programme Information from the BBC Press Office previews the episode The Idiot's Lantern on 27 May with an interview with Mark Gatiss on page 11 of the Features article (note: PDF file); the article includes at least one picture spoiler. Says Gatiss on how the story came about, '[Lead writer] Russell [T Davies] asked me to do a Fifties story. It was originally meant to be much more rock 'n' roll but everyone loved the notion of the Coronation – it's one of those big, gettable 'front-of-the Radio-Times' ideas so we settled on 1953. I've always loved old TV and the early BBC days at Ally Pally so it was lovely to use all that – and very appropriate to have a monster that gets at you via your telly! It's a very atmospheric episode and Euros [Lyn], the director, has shot it in a semi-noirish, Fifties style which is terrific.' Gatiss says his writing on the series is 'a dream come true. Last year it was so unreal, this year everyone's found their feet a lot more, I think, but because the show's an established hit there's that extra pressure to top the success. It's just brilliant to be part of a vibrant, modern show that's still absolutely the Doctor Who we grew up with and loved.' Gatiss notes that he loves 'the historical stories. They were always my favourites in old Doctor Who. I'm hoping that the 'Gatiss by gaslight' becomes an annual fixture! I wouldn't rule out doing a modern-day story but I do have so much fun popping back in time. Having said that, I didn't know as much about the Fifties as I do about Victoriana so I had to do quite a bit of research, but that was delightful. So many people remember the Coronation. I talked to my Dad and some older friends and they all have a version of the 'everyone crowded into one room' story which is at the heart of the episode.' He notes that 'You have to be much more aware of the feel of the whole season. You don't want the leads to be jarringly different in each story just because there's a different writer. What's great about this season is that there's so much variety, with lots of different types of adventure: scary, funny, sad and some that are very, very moving.'

The Programming Information document (also PDF) for Saturday 27 May shows the episode returning to the 7pm timeslot. Details on the episode are noted below.

Doctor Who was the main winner at tonight's prestigious industry awards, the BAFTA Awards (or British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards), taking all three of the awards for which it was nominated.Billie Piper and a Dalek accepted the award for Best Drama Series, as well as the Pioneer Audience Award for best television programme of 2005. Russell T Davies won the Dennis Potter Award for outstanding writing for television, which was presented to him by a kilted David Tennant. Davies is reported as saying, "We were told that bringing it back would be impossible, that we would never capture this generation of children. But we did it."

The BAFTA Awards ceremony will be televised from 9pm on Monday on ITV.


The show's success, alongside a number of other BBC successes, dominates much of the early coverage of the awards ceremony, with a two-minute report appearing on BBC News 24 and BBC One's evening news (also available online at BBC News); this report includes a brief clip of the Dalek arriving for the ceremony and David Tennant speaking to reporters on the programme's "cross-nation appeal". The Guardianappears to be making Doctor Who's awards front-page news, with "Doctor Who finally materialises on red carpet as TV series scoops drama prize" concentrating on the supposed previous lack of industry awards for the series, discussed by Russell T Davies in a recent Guardian podcast. (In fact, the series has won several industry awards, as previously reported by Outpost Gallifrey, although it missed out at the Royal Television Society Awards in March.)

In related news, actress Anna Maxwell Martin, who played ill-begotten employee Suki Macrae Cantrell in last season's The Long Game, won the Best Actress award for her role in BBC One's Bleak House, which also won the award for Best Drama Serial.

The results have also been reported in a second story by the Guardian, as well as The Independent, The Scotsman, The Times, Times Entertainment, The Sun, The Telegraph, This Is London, GMTV,icNetwork,NewsWire, Ireland Online, Breaking News, Irish Examiner, Evening Echo, Ananova, Newsquest.

ITV.com, ITN and Channel 4 News also cover the story but leads with the ITV network's only success of the evening, The X Factor.

TV, Radio Coverage: Tonight's evening news bulletin on BBC One at 10.30pm had a short report on the BAFTA winners towards the end of the fifteen-minute programme. There were no clips from the actual ceremony, only from the winning shows and behind-the-scenes and red carpet moments, the main event doubtless embargoed until the ITV1 broadcast tomorrow, but it was still a nice little report. Presented by reporter David Sillitoe, he opened by saying that Doctor Who was "the big winner" of the night, over a clip of the TARDIS crash-landing from The Christmas Invasion. There was a clip of David Tennant saying to the gathered press that the show had "a cross-nation appeal... unlike anything else I've ever been involved with." There was then coverage of some of the other winners, before Sillitoe finished by comparing the two main winners of the night, Doctor Who and Bleak House, describing them as "two dramas there were a gamble, but both proved that they could strike a chord with the public and the academy." The evening's triumphs for Doctor Who were also covered tonight on the BBC's news and sport talk station, Radio 5 Live, on The Weekend News programme, hosted by Lesley Ashmall and John Pienaar. The report, just after the 9.30pm news and sport bulletin at about 9.37pm. The report was from their man on the spot Colin Paterson, who opened by announcing Doctor Who as the big winner of the night. He happened to have Little Britain's Matt Lucas with him, who he asked about the show's success, although Lucas was somewhat bemused, not having been in the show as Paterson seemed to have thought he was, Paterson having assumed the comic was in it as he'd been in the premiere last year. Nonetheless, Lucas said he was glad that Doctor Who had won. Paterson mentioned that Russell T Davies had won the Dennis Potter Award for Outstanding Writing for Television, before moving onto rounding up the other winners.