This week's issue of The Stage entertainment industry newspaper contains a feature where 1970s Doctor Whoproducer Philip Hinchcliffe analyses the recent new series episode "Planet of the Ood", and compares the state of the programme now to how it was when he produced it.

The Stage's website has published a preview article for the feature, highlighting some of Hinchcliffe's comments. "It's flipping the familiar sci-fi idea of a people enslaved," he tells the paper. "Here the humans are the masters and the aliens, the slaves. It's a good, clear concept. Obviously it’s been concertinaed and compressed to fit 45 minutes, but it’s still a powerful central story.

The print issue is available across the UK from tomorrow.

News.com.au has reported that the BBC has issued a copyright infringement notice to a fan who has created knitting patterns of Doctor Who characters (including an Ood, Cassandra, the Face of Boe and two others) and shared them - for free - on the internet.

The person behind the Mazzmatazz website stated: "The patterns I created, inspired by Doctor Who, were never for sale - they were shared under Creative Commons licenses, to prevent resale, so that other fans could enjoy and share the fun too."

Mazmatazz's case has also been picked up by the Open Rights Group, an online civil liberties organisation. A statement on the ORG website said the BBC should play a role in "stimulating the creative economy" by allowing fans to alter its content in a non-commercial context. "The approach the BBC have taken with Mazz’s knitting patterns demonstrate a distinct lack of flexibility," the organisation said. "It is quite possible that through transforming the characters in Doctor Who into knitting patterns, Mazz may have infringed upon the BBC’s copyright. But it’s hard to see how Mazz’s non-commercial knitting patterns actually damage the commercial interests of the BBC."

Various bloggers have expressed disagreement that the infringement notice is in any way valid, as the knitting patterns are not "direct representations of their [the BBC's] characters", and that these patterns should rightly fall into the category of fan art.

"They are misplacing their energies pursuing a fan who has done nothing more than to display their love to the show by making a highly original design," said technology law blogger Andres Guadamuz

As reported in the Telegraph today, leaders at a church conference were encouraged to study Doctor Who and to draw upon the themes that run parallel to Christian doctrine in their sermons as a means of reaching more young people.

Andrew Wooding, a spokesman for the Church Army, which organised the conference, said that its intention was to give vicars new ideas for conveying their message. "There are countless examples of Christian symbolism in Doctor Who, which we can use to get across ideas that can otherwise be difficult to explain," commented Wooding.

In sessions with titles like "Meaningful Monsters: Daleks Through the Decades", members of the clergy watched clips of various episodes and discussed the relevance of certain scenes to Christian teachings. The Rev Andrew Myers, vicar at St Aidan’s in Leeds, commented: "We saw the Doctor persuaded to save a family of Pompeians in one of the most recent episodes, surely a reference to Genesis and Abraham’s bargaining with God over the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah."

Former Doctor Who producer Barry Letts said it was right to look at the series for religious parables. "I think it’s inevitable because of Britain’s cultural heritage that a long-running programme about the fight between good and evil will have some Christian themes as a backdrop," he said.

Today's Sunday Mail carries an interview with Douglas MacKinnon, director of just-broadcast episodes "The Sontaran Stratagem" and "The Poison Sky".

Having grown up watching Doctor Who as a young man, and remembering the Sontarans' debut appearance in 1973's "The Time Warrior" starring Jon Pertwee and Elisabeth Sladen, directing these episodes was a dream come true for him.

"To get a two-parter with Catherine Tate and Freema Agyeman and the Sontarans was just fantastic. I'd personally put the Sontarans third after the Cybermen and the Daleks as big legends in the legacy of Doctor Who villains."

MacKinnon, a Scotsman, had nothing but praise for series lead David Tennant: "He's everything people say, generous, kind and, most importantly, a very, very good actor. The thing with Doctor Who is the leading actor sets the pace to an extent and David's enthusiasm for the role is infectious for everyone."

But the production was not without incident: at one point during the shoot, MacKinnon managed to break the TARDIS.

"During filming I was working on the TARDIS and I managed to break the bit in the middle which goes up and down. I wanted it to go too fast for a dramatic scene and it just stopped working. I couldn't believe I'd broken the TARDIS! Thankfully, we managed to fix it half an hour later but I had this surreal phone call with my nine-year-old son Thomas, who is a massive Doctor Who fan, back home in Fife and said: 'You'll never believe what I did today...' And he shouted to my wife Mandy: 'Mum, dad's broken the TARDIS!'"

The BBC Press Office have released details of Episode Four of Series Four, The Sontaran Stratagem.

The episode will be broadcast on Saturday 26th April on BBC1, and features guest stars Freema Agyeman, reprising her role of Martha Jones, and Christopher Ryan.

Posted By Stephen Blake

The ratings success for the first episode of series 4 of Doctor Who, Partners in Crime, has been widely reported in the press, a selection of which can be read by following the links below.

While most of the news stories concentrate on the viewing figures for the opening episode, in its piece, "Up Pompeii: Tate and Tennant head for ancient Rome as nine million viewers watch series opener", the Daily Mailtakes a look at the forthcoming second episode The Fires of Pompeii as well as discussing Peter Davison’s daughterGeorgia Moffett and her appearance later in the series.

Adfero , AOL Entertainment, BBC News online, Brand Republic, Broadcast, CBBC Newsround, Congoo,Contactmusic.com, the Daily Star,Digg, Digital Spy, Glasgow Daily Record, the Guardian, the Herald,icWales, inthenews.co.uk, ippimail, ITN online, Joo-See.com, theLondon Paper, Metro, the Mirror, MSN News, News on Feeds, Nottingham Evening Post, Press Association, RedTram, the Scotsman,Sheilds Gazette, Stereoboard.com, the Telegraph, Teletext, This is Lancashire, This is Local London, Topix, Virgin TV News, What’s on TV,Wigan Today, Wikipedia, Yahoo! News, and the Yorkshire Post.

The MediaGuardian website has published an article by Stephen Brook previewing some of the work effects house The Mill has performed for the first episode of the new series of Doctor Who. The article looks at how the Adipose were created for the episode, including images.

Stephen Regelous, who worked on the episode, is quoted as saying that: "When I first found out that the Mill was working on Doctor Who, I was quietly hoping that Massive might be used to create hordes of Daleks or Cybermen and with series 4, I jumped at the opportunity to be involved. It's been very fulfilling to be a fan from about three or four years old and finally be able to contribute to the Doctor Who universe."

There is some spoiler content, so those not wishing to learn anything about the episode until its transmission should not read the piece.

BBC News Online features an article on the press launch of Series 4. The executive producer Russell T Davies tells how he wants David Tennant to stay on forever. When quizzed about his own future with the programme, Davies told reporters it was "none of their business. Never mind what happens behind the scenes," he said "it's what happens on Saturday night that's important." The website includes video interviews with Tennant and Tate and clips from the new series.

The launch is also featured in a number of national newspapers. The Telegraph reviews the first episode and asks Who is the best Who? The Mirror andThe Sun also review the first episode.

Ian Wylie of the Manchester Evening News posted a report from today's press launch for Series Four.

The evening began with an introduction from Controller of BBC Fiction Jane Tranter, who enthused that "this fourth series of Doctor Who is our best yet".

The first two episodes (Partners in Crime and The Fires of Pompeii) were screened, followed by a question-and-answer session with Executive ProducerRussell T Davies and series stars David Tennant and Catherine Tate.

Wylie relates some of the highlights of the evening and promises more detailed reports in days to come. The article is mildly spoiler-ridden.

Also reported by BBC News.

Posted By John Bowman

A new trailer for Series Four is now available to view online at the official website's home page as well as on the BBC's YouTube channel.

Lasting 39 seconds and given from the perspective of new companion Donna Noble, it includes three of the monsters that will be appearing in the new series.

UK TV licence restrictions may mean the trailer cannot be viewed by overseas visitors to the sites.

(NB: While hovering your mouse over the official website home page, a box currently pops up with the following text: "Watch the second new trailer tonight at 8.30pm, BBC One and online." However, this does not tally with today's schedule for BBC One.)