Doctor Who has won the ratings war every week against ITV after all: according to the BARB final numbers on the ratings for Aliens of London, Doctor Who had 7.63 million viewers, compared to 7.37 million for the season finale of "Ant and Dec". Originally, Doctor Who had fewer reported viewers in the overnights, but the BARB figures - the final total ratings for each broadcast - add in timeshifted viewing. This means that Doctor Who has won its timeslot in every broadcast since the debut on March 26.

In Canada, yesterday's ratings for episode four, "Aliens of London," scored 849,000 viewers on the overnight reports, a small slip from the previous week's 878,000 but nothing major. "Doctor Who" is still #2 for the timeslot across Canada and #4 in all of primetime for Tuesday nights.

According to Yahoo News (and also mentioned in the Independent),Christopher Eccleston is becoming an ambassador for the learning disability charity Mencap. "Learning disability used to be known as 'mental handicap' but times change and people with a learning disability now find the old term offensive," says Eccleston. "I am very proud and excited to become an ambassador for Mencap and will do my best to justify such an honour." Eccleston first became aware of the issue when he researched his role in the 1991 film, Let Him Have It.

Issue 14 of British Cinematographer, the April 2005 edition, features a two page piece: "On the job - behind the scenes of the new Dr Who series with Ernest Vincze BSC".

The Brighton Evening Argus yesterday noted that "Daleks will invade pier in summer" discussing a Doctor Who exhibition taking place at Brighton's Pleasure Dome from May until October. We hope to bring you further details on this exhibition shortly. The Daleks will also appear at an exhibition at the Churnet Valley Railway this bank holiday weekend; a full-size Dalek will be looking for humans to exterminate in the waiting rooms of the railway's Cheddleton, Kingsley and Froghall stations on Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday, and details on that are available at the railway website.

Newsquest Media Group today has a story about an extra in next week's "Dalek" episode. "Aspiring actor Oliver Hopkins gets exterminated on his first-ever television appearance - and he couldn't be more delighted. For 19-year-old Oliver's assassins are none other than the deadly Dr Who villains, the Daleks! Meeting his fate at close proximity to some of the small screen's most famous baddies has been a thrilling experience for the former Greenhill School and Pembrokeshire College student. 'I'm on the book of Phoenix Agency in Swansea and had a day's work as an extra for the filming of Dr Who, in Newport,' explained Oliver, of Cambrian Cottages, Stepaside. 'It was really good fun.' As well as meeting the show's stars, Billie Piper and Christopher Eccleston, Oliver was able to see the workings of a Dalek and stood inside the famous Tardis. Now he is keeping his fingers crossed that his TV debut gets screened. 'I'm pretty realistic about the fact it could be edited out, or you might only get to see my arm,' he admitted. 'But even so, I've had a brilliant experience and it won't look bad on my CV.'"

David Tennant was interviewed briefly by phone on the XFM radio station this morning. Amongst other things, he suggested that Casanova was his audition for Doctor Who and he didn't actually need to audition for the Doctor. He's excited but daunted by being the Doctor, thinks Eccleston and the new series are fantastic, and managed to plug Big Finish in the same breath as knocking the 'rubbish' that's appeared in the press in the last few weeks. You can hear the full interview at the XFM website.

Other press mentions: a vicar is ready to swap the pulpit for the TARDIS according to the Northwest Evening Mail; more reports of Peter Davison's comments about Christopher Eccleston, which we reported yesterday, atDigitalSpyand WaveGuide; the Sun comments further on the ratings win over Celebrity Wrestling and the upcoming "Dalek" episode; "Let Doctor Who give us a fright" says the Bristol Evening Post; and more news about ABC's pickup of the new series in Australia at the Courier Mail.

(Thanks to Paul Engelberg, Rod Mammitzsch, David Guest, Steve Tribe, Chuck Foster, John Bowman and Mike Noon)

A year ago, a new radio series of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy secured the front cover of the Radio Times; this week, the next batch of radio episodes, a rerun of the 1981 television series and the release of the movie - along with the UK general election - all have to make way for VOTE DALEK! The foldout cover recreates one of the classic 1964 "Daleks invade London" shots (and is also being made available as a double-sided "giant" poster available to readers in exchange for a couple of tokens from the magazine. Daleks are everywhere in this week's edition, beginning with the Editor's Letter (page 3), which reckons that the real choice next week is not whether to re-elect the government but whether to cast your vote for the Daleks by pressing the button for BBC1 on Saturday. "The week's best television" (page 4) is headed by Saturday's episode: "One of the television's greatest icons is back on the box - and it's not very happy. But we are, just to see a Dalek head to head with the Doc once more." There are a couple of reader's letters (page 9) of interest, one complaining that Aliens of London's cliffhanger "was immediately spoilt by the preview of the second half of the story", another noting that the final moments of Casanova were ruined when "some crass programmer decided that was the moment to plug the return of Phil Mitchell to EastEnders." (This issue is also commented on by Alison Graham on page 61, with a nice photo montage of Phil Mitchell apparently attacking Casanova.) David Tennant, kilted, glass in hand and leaning against a poster of the Radio Times TARDIS cover of six weeks ago, is the main photo in a feature on the Bafta TV awards; he "revealed that he'd landed the role [...] months ago: 'It's been very hard keeping it a secret.' And would he last longer than Eccleston? 'I would love to do hundreds of episodes, but let's get through the first year before we think about that.'" (This may well be the first accurate transcription of what he actually said that night!) The big feature on Dalek begins on page 18 - four pages of photographs, details about the new Dalek design, an interview with Rob Shearman and comments from Bruno Langley, Christopher Eccleston, Billie Piper and Nick Briggs. "When I wrote the first Dalek episode, I wasn't sure that 'Ex-ter-min-ate!' wasn't a bit silly. So I put it in a couple of times but I didn't really want it to be ranted," says Shearman, who admits his "softly softly" approach didn't go down well with executive producer Russell T Davies. "Russell's notes came back saying, 'Why not? I want to have kids in the playground saying Ex-termin-ate! all the time.' Of course, he was right." There's also a plug for BBC Books' Monsters and Villains paperback, available to order from RT Direct (ú7.99 incl. p&p). Dalek also restores Doctor Who to Pick of the Day in Saturday's Choices (page 62), with a large photo and preview: "So, the story we've all been waiting for, and it's a dream set-up [...] The mechanised monster has been majestically refurbished, and has some new tricks hidden under its beefed-up carapace [...] It's full of intriguing backstory and cool effects, but it's also quite intense [...] How great to see the Dalek back, though. CE-LE-BRATE!" The same page has a short piece ("The Inside Story") on the brief period last year when "it looked as if the Daleks would never be back". Rob Shearman is quoted again, saying, "We came up with a major villain that would have made the series slightly different [...] I daresay Russell will bring it back. He won't want that surprise spoilt." A Dalek heads the BBC1 listings column for Saturday (page 64), the blurb for the episode itself reading: "Rose finds herself caught in the middle of a fight to the death when the Time Lord's oldest and deadliest enemy rises once again." Doctor Who Confidential is listed on the facing page: "The Daleks have been the nemesis of the Time Lord since they first appeared - complete with sucker, ray gun and bad attitude - in 1963. Sylvester McCoy, Colin Baker, Peter Davison and Christopher Eccleston are among the Doctors talking about four decades of attempting to avoid extermination."

Ratings are in for the weekend's other broadcasts: according to ViewingFigures, Doctor Who Confidential on Saturday night had 425,350 viewers, with 355,500 watching the Sunday repeat, while the repeats ofWorld War Three (episode five) scored 168,000 viewers in the overnight broadcast (shown after midnight on early Sunday morning) and 477,030 viewers for Sunday at 7pm. Once again the figures were high in the multi channel ratings; "Confidential" was second in its timeslot with a 3.35% viewing share, beaten only by "The Simpsons" on Sky One, while the repeat showings on Sunday of "World War III" and "Confidential" were placed third and fourth with a 3.50% and 2.34% viewing share, again beaten only by programs from Sky One. We are also told that the figures on BBC3 for Doctor Who are the best the channel have had since it was launched.

Dalek, episode six coming this weekend, is reviewed by this week's The Observer. "At last we have an episode of Doctor Who to cherish and it's no coincidence that it features the return of one of the Doctor's oldest and most ruthless foes: a Dalek (above).... Veteran Who writer and Dalek enthusiast Robert Shearman has delivered a polished script which eclipses all those which have preceded it in this series.... Excellent." Yesterday's News Of The World also had an article about 'Dalek' which included two picture spoilers, one of which was a large image of the Dalek with its casing open.

The Press Association newswire featured a story today interviewing Bruno Langley, who plays Adam in the next two episodes of the series. "Not everyone can claim to have been chased down a corridor by a Dalek screaming `Exterminate!', but for Bruno Langley - best known for his role as Todd Grimshaw in Coronation Street - it was all in a day's work on the set of Doctor Who," says the article. As Langley says, "When they brought the Dalek onto the set, it was really exciting and everyone was taking photos. I do remember [Doctor Who] being on, but it was a bit before my time. I liked Alien and Terminator and stuff like that." Langley notes that his character, boy genius Adam Mitchell, notes that stairs aren't a problem for the Daleks. "I get the Doctor and Rose into a bit of trouble because I like meddling with things. Him thinking he's a genius gets him into bother." He also notes that the door is left open for Adam. "There's a chance of me coming back if the storyline allows it. I'd love to do it." He and Billie Piper "got on great - I was working with her for two months. She's a great girl. I think she's really got a lot going for her. She should probably make her way to America soon. I think Adam's more interested in technology side of things. Of course he fancies Rose, she's a gorgeous girl, but he's got more on his mind."

In today's Express: "BBC bosses, obliged to advise under-eights to watch the new Doctor Who with their parents following complaints that the show was too scary, should have extended the warning to yellow-bellied MPs. Shadow education secretary Tim Collins, 40, a well-known fan of the Timelord, admits: 'I love the new series - I find it scary. I'm still running behind the sofa in the same way I did when I was a child.'" The Express on Sunday, meanwhile, printed spoilers this past weekend about the forthcoming episode, but also comments from Christopher Eccleston: "The Daleks are burnt into our consciousness as children, " says Eccleston. "I must admit, the first day I walked on set and was confronted by a Dalek, my heart missed a beat." Mark Gatiss, who wrote "The Unquiet Dead," sayid that "No series would be the same without [the Daleks]. When Chris Eccleston tells you they're terrifying, they're terrifying." And Nick Briggs, who did the voices, says, "I love the Daleks because they're truly scary. Of course, if a dustbin came into this room, you'd laugh but if it then spoke in that terrifying voice about exterminating you and blasted away at you with its ray-gun, you wouldn't be laughing any more."

Christopher Bidmead, former Doctor Who script editor in the late 1970's/early 1980's, wrote an article for today'sDaily Telegraph. "'This is quality television,' my 13-year-old daughter Evie cried out in the middle of episode three of the new Doctor Who series. Like me, she's been impressed by the delicious special effects, the fast-moving action and the witty juxtaposition of street cred and fantasy sci-fi. Yes, OK, quality television indeed. But is it 'Doctor Who'? I ask her. And, of course, she doesn't understand the question. At the end of 1979, as Tom Baker was nearing the end of his time as the Doctor, the BBC invited me in to talk about the post of script editor for the upcoming series. I'd been scriptwriting for a commercial TV soap opera, and had done a few science features for New Scientist. Somebody at the BBC had jumped to the conclusion that this combination might equip me to steer the Doctor in his adventures through time and space for a season or two. That someone turned out to be executive producer Barry Letts. I got the job, I think, because Barry and I saw eye-to-eye on one important point - during the '70s Doctor Who had become just too silly. A distinguished producer of the show in earlier days, Barry recalled the ideas behind its launch: the Doctor exemplified for young viewers the power of scientific thinking to solve problems. Science stretched into fantastic future shapes, yes, but the show had a serious social purpose. It must never be silly, never be mere magic. In the following months, I sweated away behind a row of telephones in Union House, Shepherd's Bush, recruiting my contingent of writers. (Nigel 'Quatermass' Kneale, the first candidate on my ambitious list, hated the show and hung up on me.) Inevitably, the influence of earlier seasons still hung over us, and much of the work was stripping out those tendencies from the new scripts. Instead of 'bafflegab' that allowed the good Doctor to rescue his party by deftly 'reversing the positron flow', we tried to build our stories on solid, if fancifully extended, scientific ideas. Ironically, the previous Doctor Who script editor, Douglas Adams, had crammed his own Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy with real scientific concepts, although stretched to their breaking point and beyond. But, when it came to Doctor Who, it seemed he was happy for the show to continue along the psychedelic course set for it through the '70s. Our purging of silliness from the show wasn't just political correctness. It made the stories much better. The Doctor's 'sonic screwdriver', for example, was magical baggage we had to lose. A pen-sized gizmo that could blast through tempered steel, translate Azurian into English, and fend off the Karturi by generating an impenetrable neutron dome might be just the ticket in real life, but in fiction was a sure-fire story-killer. We didn't want our audience shouting out from behind the sofa 'where's the sonic screwdriver?' whenever peril threatened. We wanted a strong narrative line, and we relished the way our storylines could arc over four episodes, bristling with cliffhangers. All of which seems to be missing from the current season. Perhaps it's fear of a short audience attention span that has contracted the stories to single or double episodes. To compensate, we get snappy dialogue and a couple of cracking lead actors who do a lot of running around. If a quarter of a century ago the first two laws of Doctor Who were 'Science' and 'Story', then the third was 'Keep It Special'. It might be a super sight gag, or a spooky spine tingle, but if it had shades of Benny Hill, or The Prisoner, out it went. And that, for me, is why today's Doctor Who just isn't Doctor Who. But every time my daugher Evie spots this season's debt to something like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, for her it just adds to the fun. So what do I know?"

The Mirror notes that Christopher Eccleston "has come under fire from former Doctor Who star Peter Davison for quitting after just one series. He accused the 41-year-old actor of 'letting down' the show as fans won't enjoy it as much knowing that he is leaving. Davison, 54 - who played the doctor from 1982 for three series - added: "He is letting down the programme. His commitment should have been for at least a couple, maybe three, series. I hate to see, after all the effort that went into getting the programme back on TV, Doctor Who scuppered by an actor saying 'I don't want to do this anymore'. ... It is now difficult for people to watch knowing he has walked out on the show. I don't think you can engage with the new doctor in the way you should be able to.'" Sky News, Contact Music and Ananova have also picked up the article.

Today's Mirror also notes that "Billie Piper hasn't been studying her Dr Who handbook. The actress was quizzed by Christian O'Connell on his Xfm breakfast show about the return of the Daleks in next week's episode. But, embarrassingly, the 22-year-old - who plays the Timelord's sidekick Rose Tyler in the hit BBC1 show - didn't have a clue that Davros was the evil creator of the Daleks. Billie said she hadn't watched any of the series. 'I'm usually out socialising. I'm going to wait and watch the whole box set in one go,' she said. But when Christian asked her if Davros is still in charge of the Daleks, she answered: 'Who's that?' O'Connell replied: 'Oh Billie! Have a word with yourself.'"

An interesting letter in yesterday's South Wales Echo corrects information reported earlier in the paper about location filming on "The Unquiet Dead," episode three. "I would like to point out that not all the episode was filmed in Swansea... A great deal of the internal and some external scenes were actually filmed at the Headlands National Children's Home in Penarth," writes school principal Dave Haswell. "We would like to thank the BBC production team for allowing our children and staff here at Headlands to view the film sets and props that were used, our children found them amazing. The principle actors Christopher Eccleston, Billie Piper and Simon Callow were only too happy to sign autographs and chat with our children between filming. We at Headlands wish the Doctor Who series all the best for the future."

The Sunday Times political gossip column, "Atticus" reported yesterday that the Labour Party had made an informal approach to Christopher Eccleston to elicit his support for the election campaign, but had been politely refused û on the grounds that as a high profile BBC TV star, he had to remain neutral. It also suggested that the Tories thought he might support them (!) on the grounds that Tim Collins had thrown his weight behind the show. Also, in the Time's "Culture" magazine, Doctor Who is selected as one of the "Set Your Video For This" items, with the simple tagline: "One Word For You: Daleks"!. It also appears in the picks of the day for Saturday 30th April, with a mention of the Daleks ability to go up stairs.

Russell T Davies is interviewed in the May edition of Gay Times magazine. In the two-page article he discusses the ratings success of the new series ("No-one ever expected those viewing figures. No-one in even the most drunken meeting ever thought that."), why he didn't watch 'Rose' when it aired on BBC1, the Dr Who-obsessed character Vince from the original U.K. version of Queer As Folk, the appeal of Dr Who to gay men, and the presence of sexuality in the new series. On the first showing of 'Rose' on BBC1 he says: "Some friends asked me to come over so I ended up going to their house and getting pissed. We didn't watch it. The week before, we screened the first episode for the DVD trade mags - and that was the 373rd time for me. That's when I thought, 'I'm sick of seeing it'. But I'd shown it to my friends a couple of months before, and they really liked it." On Vince from Queer As Folk: "He was an easy character to write because I knew what he'd go home and do. And I was sick of seeing Doctor Who fans on TV with long scarves, so I wanted to take a really sexy young man and make him a Doctor Who fan - and, most importantly, have all his friends know about it. He wasn't in the closet about it at all, he could talk openly about how he really loved 'The Tenth Planet'." On sexuality in the new series, he says: "We do get someone calling the Doctor 'gay' for the first time in Doctor Who's history. He's moaning about just being slapped by someone and he's going on about it, so Rose says, 'You're so gay'. There we are: that's a first. The whole thing is set in 2005, so there's a much more open understanding of sexuality [than in the original series]." And he makes a couple of comments about one of the characters from later in the series, Captian Jack: "The story doesn't discuss it explicitly, but quite obviously he'd sleep with anyone. One of my favourite bits is where Jack thinks he's going to his death, and he does a big 'goodbye' speech to Rose and gives her a kiss, then does a big speech to the Doctor and gives him a kiss. Just a little kiss. His character's from the 51st century, so I thought, 'If we're not like that in the 51st century, when will we be?'. No-one's made a fuss about it, because it's been done really naturally and it's really funny, as well." Russell also praises up-coming guest star Bruno Langley, and then finally concludes that, "The whole show is stunning; it's everything I ever wanted to make. It's so colourful; so big and bold - and you wouldn't think it was shot in Cardiff."

The Guardian says that "BBC1 floors Celebrity Wrestling," reporting on the weekend's ratings debacle for ITV: "ITV1's audience share fell below 17% on Saturday when its two new entertainment shows were trounced in the ratings. Celebrity Wrestling, despite all the pre-launch hype, failed to topple BBC1's Doctor Who, while ITV1's Hell's Kitchen sank to its second lowest audience so far. ITV's decision to replace Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway with a string of grappling D-listers failed to pay off - Celebrity Wrestling attracted just 3.8 million viewers and a scant 21% share. Ant and Dec signed off with a bang last week, beating Doctor Who for the first time in four weeks and helping ITV1 to an all-hours share of 20.8%. Saturday Night Takeaway, averaging an audience of more than 7.1 million, nudged ahead of Doctor Who, which pulled 7 million viewers, its lowest audience to date. This week, however, BBC1's timelord attracted nearly twice as many viewers as Celebrity Wrestling." Broadcast Now also covers this.

A CBBC News poll shows that Doctor Who and The Simpsons are tied for first place on "What is your favourite TV programme?" (at least, at press time). Both shows lead with 15.25% of the vote.

The Daily Star said yesterday that Billie Piper "got her revenge on estranged husband Chris Evans - by setting the Daleks on him. She got one of the telly baddies to shout: 'Exterminate! Exterminate!' down the phone at him. The sexy actress kept playing the prank on the 38-year-old media tycoon at the height of their marriage troubles while she was filming the hit BBC sci-fi series. Billie, 22, who plays the Doctor's sidekick Rose in the show, kept asking the man behind the Daleks' voices on the show to speak into her mobile. He would give callers - including Evans - a shock by uttering the evil Daleks' notorious catchphrase. Actor Nicholas Briggs, 35, revealed: 'Billie came up to me on set with her mobile and she'd tell the person on the other end, "There's someone to speak to you." Then she'd hand over the phone and I'd go, "Exterminate! Exterminate! You are an enemy of the Daleks!" She did it with all her friends. Billie also asked me if I'd record her voicemail message, so she could tell callers they'd be exterminated if they didn't leave a message." It also notes that Barnaby Edwards, who operated the Dalek, said Billie spent hours chatting to him about her life - while he was stuck inside the mechanical monster. "Billie was great. She would lean on the Dalek and we'd chat about all sorts. I can't reveal what, though!"

"Take me to your earth leader. Exterminate!" says today's Times. "So what has Russell T. Davies, chief writer and executive producer of Doctor Who, got against Tony Blair?" the newspaper asks, discussing a plot point about the aliens in the two-part story "Aliens of London" and "World War Three"... and saying that the aliens have a habit of "only revealing their true selves when they lie." We must wonder exactly who at the Times is watching the show... since the idea that the aliens reveal themselves when they lie was a rumor reported last summer -- and it's not true, as the rumor was later debunked by Russell T Davies!

Some additional press clips today: the Guardian notes that "Christopher Eccleston's replacements are already auditioning on ITV," discussing the ITV series "Hit Me Baby One More Time" which shows on Saturday nights; today'sDaily Record repeats interview comments from David Tennant; the Cool Stuff section in this weekÆs Sci Fi Weekly is all about the new Dr Who miniatures, written by fan writer Sean Huxter; the Ask Men website currently features a Doctor Who montage as their video of the day from April 18 (but it's still available now); Leeds Today discusses the police box that has "put a little corner of Yorkshire in the spotlight," noting that "Wetherby Police Station's old-fashioned 1950s style police box is a dead ringer for Dr Who's Tardis û and is attracting a flow of visitors and fans of the time lord"; theDaily Record says that "Billie Piper wishes she had a sofa to hide behind as a Dalek has her in its sights" discussing this weekend's new episode; and theofficial Doctor Who Website has once again been updated to include photos and details on "Dalek" in advance of the broadcast.

(Thanks to Paul Engelberg, Steve Tribe, Andy Parish, Simon Mapp, Adam Williams, Steven Perry, Assad Khaishgi, Sean Parnell)

The BBC Press Office has posted new program information and highlights for Week 19 (7û13 May). The Featuresdocument (a PDF file) does not have a Doctor Who article this week, although it does include a short snippet on David Tennant: "David Tennant, confirmed as the 10th Doctor Who, declares: 'I grew up loving Doctor Who and it has been a lifelong dream to get my very own TARDIS.' Tennant, whose recent credits include BBC Three's Casanova, BBC One's Blackpool and He Knew He Was Right, will star alongside Billie Piper, who returns as Rose Tyler." The 7-day document ofhighlights (again, a PDF file) previews Saturday 7 May's The Long Game, in usual spoiler-ish manner... which we've placed in the SPOILER tags below for your convenience. (This is also available as part of the smaller Saturdaydocument).

BBC News has a great article up about next weekend's episode, "Dalek", including several photos from the episode. "The new series of Doctor Who has seen Christopher Eccleston fight living dummies, restless spirits and aliens disguised as MPs, but he has yet to face his mortal enemies The Daleks," says the article. "That will be rectified in a forthcoming episode entitled simply Dalek, in which the Time Lord finds that one of the metal killing machines has been collected by an unsuspecting billionaire." It notes the licensing problems that nearly prevented them from appearing in the series, as well as quotes from several people involved in the production. "The Daleks of the 1960s and 1970s would not make the grade today," says director Joe Ahearne. "They would be seen as comical rather than frightening. We couldn't have that." Mike Tucker of the model unit says, "We have taken all the perceived weaknesses of the Dalek and made them deadly," while Barnaby Edwards, who occupies the Dalek model itself, says, "I was inside the Dalek for as many shots as possible, so Chris had someone to play off rather than just talking to an empty shell." Says Nick Briggs, who voices the Dalek, "Roughly a third of the lines in the episode are either spoken by the Dalek or Rose. It never shuts up!" And cast member Bruno Langley, who plays Adam, says, "It was great to appear in such an important episode. My character gets on very well with Rose, which of course makes the Doctor jealous."

Interviewed on GMTV on Friday, Noel Clarke (Mickey) says he'll return for the second season. No word as yet on who else will be joining the cast for the second year...

The tenth Doctor... in a kilt? The Sunday Mail says that David Tennant "wants to be the first Time Lord to wear the kilt. The Paisley-born actor, 33, said it was time the character had a new dress code." "I would love to be the first Time Lord to wear a kilt," Tennant says. "And I intend to speak with a full Scottish lilt when I make it into the Tardis." Also reported at Digital Spy,

From what we can gather, BBC Radio One and BBC television will be doing some rather extensive publicity for the forthcoming Dalek episode starting today (Monday). The BBC have begun to promote next Saturday's episode with a 30 second trailer. The trailer opens with the TARDIS in the vortex, before moving into a clip of the Doctor's first encounter with the Dalek. As the Dalek is revealed and speaks the theme comes in. The trailer ends with a shot of Billie and Chris in the TARDIS from one of the specially shot trailers. The trailer was shown Sunday, immediately after "Points Of View", at approx 5.05pm.

Play.com are running a "Doctor Who" DVD promotion which is highlighted on their DVD home page with a small picture of Tom Baker and Terry Molloy's Davros, under the banner "Doctor Who Classics". Following the link opens a page headed with the line "Doctor Who? Remind yourself of why we all love the time travelling dalek-fighter so much with these timeless classics!"

On 24th April BBC Ceefax ran a 5-page TV Feature entitled "New Guise For The Doctor's Assistant" which was an interview with Billie Piper, opening with: "For singer-turned-Dr Who actress Billie Piper, coming to terms with the scale of her new show was a gradual process." Billie is quoted as saying: "I did have an idea of how big it was going to be... But I made a conscious effort not to think about the sheer amount of work and all the anticipation and expectation surrounding the show. It's only now I'm starting to see it. And it's quite scary." The item moves on to discuss her split with husband Chris Evans ("I would never ever say that Doctor Who is responsible for my divorce"), acting opposite alien creatures ("It was quite funny...to see all those grown men just fall to the floor when they saw the Dalek"), missing out on other high profile roles ("I audition a lot and there's so much I don't get") and her close friendship with Christopher Eccleston ("Me and Chris shared a lot together... The last eight months have been heavy both in terms of schedule and personal life. So we've been forced together and joined at the hip. It's been a very intense relationship").

Saturday's The Guardian reported on Christopher Eccleston doing a voiceover for the Channel 4 documentary "Porn Shutdown," which airs Monday at 11.05pm, "as lucid and informative an introduction to the Californian sex industry as you could want. If you knew absolutely nothing about modern pornography this programme could leave you speechless and disturbed." Eccleston narrates the very frank documentary.

The MediaWatch website reports on a story that ran in the 18 April 2005 edition of the Daily Express. Under the headline "Dr Who crucifixion really spoons Beyer off", the story reads: "TodayÆs Express reports that episode six of the BBCÆs hit series Dr Who contains some foul language and offensive imagery, despite its pre-watershed scheduling. According to The Express, 'Media watchdogs' - ie John Beyer of Mediawatch UK - have condemned the show, which depicts an evil character telling one of his henchmen to 'canoodle and spoon' with the DoctorÆs assistant, Rose. Van Stratten also tortures the Doctor by binding him to a crucifix with metal shackles. Beyer has branded the BBC 'irresponsible' for including such inappropriate imagery and language: 'This is not a programme designed for children [à] I am surprised the BBC have gone with this, they should have been more attentive to youngsters....Apparently a certain religious group believe they have a patent on that particular form of torture, and regard anything resembling it as a breach of copyright. This grants them the opportunity to take public offence."

The current edition of the Pink Paper (issue 871) - the national UK free LGBT newspaper - has a story on page 3 entitled "Who-ray! the doctor is in" (accompanied by a colour photograph of the TARDIS). The story reports that a fund-raising auction is to be held on 1 May at the Cardiff Mardi Gras Pink Ball: "One lucky Doctor Who fan is to get a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to visit the infamous Tardis and meet the cast of the new BBC series courtesy of Cardiff-Wales Lesbian and Gay Mardi Gras." The story goes on to say that postal bids for the prize are also welcome, which must be sent by 25 April together with name, address and telephone number to Matthew Bailey (Doctor Who auction), Safer Cardiff, 2nd Floor, Terminus Building, Wood Street, Cardiff, CF10 1EQ. The story is also highlighted at the top of the front page of the paper - again with a (part)photo of the TARDIS - under the headline "BLUE IS THE COLOUR: Gays to win trip in Tardis. The online version of the Pink Paper, is currently running an edited version of this story on its front page under the headline "Who-ray- the Doctor's in".

The May edition of the magazine "Cult Times" carries a 3-page interview with Billie Piper: "Billie Piper on her hopes for a musical episode" states the cover. On the musical episode itself Billie says: "I love Buffy. And I love Buffy the musical. That's a really great show. I'm trying to convince Russell to write one, and I think he will as long as he can star in it."

Saturday evening's new series "National Lottery Come And Have A Go", which immediately followed "World War Three", showed a clip from next week's Dalek episode. Several trailers have been seen playing on BBC stations in the UK. Meanwhile, "Doctor Who" references continue to crop up on ITV's "Ministry Of Mayhem". On Saturday's edition characters used a bigger-on-the-inside MFI cupboard to 'transport' themselves from the studio to the car park, making the "Doctor Who" link obvious with the line "Who needs a TARDIS?".

Doctor Who has once again appeared on the BBC's popular satirical news quizHave I got News For You. This time the series appeared as part of the "Odd one out" round where the four choices were Andrew Marr, Peter Purves, The Beatles and Rodrey Morgan. Any fans watching will have telegraphed the Doctor Who connection immediately, as did Paul Merton who is slowly revealing some whovian leanings. He also mentioned how much he enjoyed last weeks episode, provoking regret from Ian Hislop for not seeing it himself upon hearing that the Prime minister disapeared - something he and a lot of us really wish might happen. (Oh and the odd one out was Rodrey Morgan, as the others have appeared in the series and he almost appeared when mistaken for an extra a while back...)

The CBBC's Newsround website has the poll "How Scary Is Doctor Who?" ("Do you hide behind the sofa or laugh your socks off?") on its homepage, allowing site visitors to vote in four categories: Terrifying!, Quite Scary, A bit tame or It's rubbish! . As of Saturday, the winning vote was Quite Scary with 39.50%.

ITV Teletext's "TV Plus" section had Saturday's episode as it's 'pick', billed as "Dr Who's Timeless Excitements" and contained a brief preview in which it describes last week's episode as "vintage Dr Who" and ends with: "Peppered with in-jokes, hilariously hum-drum details and Russell T Davies's trademark dialogue, this is pacy, satisfying television, which remains just the right side of kitsch.". In addition the letters page of the same section is headed "Brit sci-fi is TV's future" and contains a letter in praise of "Doctor Who".

Some other weekend press mentions: another Scotsman article about David Tennant, about his role in "Horace Can't Help It"; icWales interviews someone whose grandfather may be the real creator of the Daleks; theicSouth Londonsite discusses reactions to Eccleston's departure from some local viewers and fans, the Sutton Whos; a review of this weekend's "World War Three" can be found in the Herald; and the Sun reports on today's ratings debacle for ITV's Celebrity Wrestling, Doctor Who's competitor in the 7pm Saturday time slot.

(Thanks to Steve Tribe, Paul Engelberg, Jamie Austin, Chuck Foster, Dean Braithwaite, Bill Albert, Faiz Rehman, Robert Booth, Tim Austin)

The official ratings for The Unquiet Dead were released by BARB: 8.86 million viewers officially watched the show; it was the fifth most watched program of the week, beaten only by multiple episodes of "Coronation Street," "EastEnders," "Emmerdale" and "Heartbeat." The show actually came in at number 15 for the week, though three of the other four series (except "Heartbeat") show multiple episodes weekly. These final ratings include viewers who recorded the program for viewing later in the week.

Overnight ratings from the Tuesday airing this week of "The Unquiet Dead" on CBC in Canada show that 878,000 viewers tuned in for the episode, down very slightly from "The End of the World." Once again Doctor Who was #2 in it's timeslot and #4 in primetime; the Tuesday night winner was "The Amazing Race" which switched places with last week's winner "American Idol," which now sits in second place for the night.

In Australia, ABC television has started its campaign promoting the new Doctor Who; on Wednesday, April 20, just after they screened the BBC comedy "Nighty Night," they showed a general "trailer" for their broadcast of the new series in May, which included clips from Doctor Who (only from Rose, it seems). Just before the next program, local comedy news commentary "The Glasshouse," they played a five-second teaser which was simply a shot of the TARDIS materialising with green text typing itself on the screen saying "Guess who's back!"

Radio Times will be releasing a Doctor Who special, focused on the Daleks, next Tuesday, to coincide with the broadcast of the forthcoming Dalek episode of the new series. (Radio Times will have a direct advert link from these pages during that time so you'll be able to order it directly if you don't already get it!)

Today's Sun features spoilers for the forthcoming episode "Dalek" which we've reproduced in the spoiler tag at the end of this column. Accompanied by a picture of Rose with the chained-up Dalek and a smaller picture of Billie Piper, both story and headlines give extensive plot details about the episode - due to air in the UK on April 30 - and there are huge spoilers.

Channel 4 chat show Richard and Judy had a 14-minute slot on Thursday featuring Sylvester McCoy and Nick Briggs to promote "Dalek." The section started with a clip from the next episode - World War Three - with the Doctor confronting the Slitheen, which was followed by a pre-filmed insert of a vox pop of members of the public saying how much they liked Doctor Who both old and new style. Asked for his thoughts on the new series, McCoy was generally in favour, commenting that he was envious of the equipment and technology now available. He said that he became hooked after being sent a DVD of the first episode to review for BBCi, but added that he wasn't very keen on the new interior of the TARDIS. Briggs, who voices the Dalek in the episode to be shown in the UK on 30 April, told of the "really lovely atmosphere" on set, and said that there was "proper character stuff" in his dialogue exchanges with the Doctor and Rose. The ring modulator device, used to produce the distinctive Dalek speech pattern, was shown, then later demonstrated, followed by a clip from McCoy's adventure Remembrance of the Daleks. Viewers were reminded that the Daleks' ability to "fly" was shown in Remembrance, and then an "exclusive preview" clip - lasting one minute seven seconds - from Dalek was shown. McCoy was asked what he was doing now (touring in Arsenic and Old Lace) and Briggs managed to get a quick mention for the Big Finish range of audio CDs. The new DVD and BBC CDs were briefly highlighted. At the end of the slot, it was announced that Billie Piper would be appearing live on the show on Friday 29 April. Richard and Judy normally airs at 5pm.

Blue Peter will also have another Doctor Who event on the same day, April 29. "The gang go behind the scenes of Doctor Who, the destination for this year's summer expedition is revealed, Rooster perform in the studio and Meg has an exciting piece of news."

The lead story for TV Biz in today's The Sun says that the stars of top British comedy series Little Britain - David Walliams and Matt Lucas - are to have cameo roles in the next series of Doctor Who, which begins filming in July. According to the Sun story, Lucas - who appeared in Russell T Davies's period romp Casanova - is pals with David Tennant. Walliams is also said to be a Doctor Who fan. Lucas and Walliams won two Baftas on Sunday, and a source was quoted as saying: "David Tennant was mobbed at the Baftas on Sunday night. He had a long line of celebs queuing [sic] up at his table to congratulate him on getting the part. Everyone was begging, 'Get me on the show.'" The story was accompanied by a mock-up picture of Lucas and Walliams sitting in Davros casings, with Lucas in character as Little Britain gay character Dafydd and saying: "I'm the only gay in the Daleks" - parodying his character's catchphrase "I'm the only gay in the village." Walliams's image merely says: "Ahem!" There was no sign of the story being posted on The Sun's internet site. Walliams was also pictured as Little Britain character hotelier Ray McClooney. Little Britain already has a strong Doctor Who link in Tom Baker, who has provided the narration for both series, and both Walliams and Lucas have appeared in "Big Finish" audios ("Phantasmagoria" and "The One Doctor," respectively). The story has also been reported on Ananova which reports that pop star Will Young also wants to make a comedy appearance in the new series, as well as on Sky News.

A clarification about Eve Myles, which we reported the other day was going to appear in "Belonging," a BBC Wales series, according to reports in the Daily Star. Says our correspondent Dean Braithwaite: "The Daily Star piece makes it sound as if this is a new, one-off part for her, which is not the case. Eve has played Ceri Lewis - one of the main characters in Belonging, a BBC Wales drama - since it began in 1999. The current series - series 6 - is airing on BBC1 on Wednesdays at 10.50 pm and the digital channel BBC2W on Thursdays at 9 pm. Series 7 is currently in production. (NB: not to be confused with the one-off ITV1 drama Belonging, starring Brenda Blethyn, which aired in 2004.) Eve Myles is lovely and her character very feisty. Anyone intersested can read more about Belonging at its BBC website where there are biogs and photos of all the characters. Belonging is a brilliant series that, unfortunately, does not air in the rest of the UK. Anyone living in Wales, however, should seek this series out!"

Could Billie Piper leave the series sometime during the next season? That's the rumor on the Popbitch gossip column site, which reportedly notes that actress who plays Rose might leave at some point next season, following in the footsteps of Christopher Eccleston. However, we should stress that this is only hearsay and rumor and hasn't been confirmed anywhere. Piper, meanwhile, was named on the "World's 100 Sexiest Women" poll in FHM magazine this week, coming in at number 62.

Next week's Radio Times features an article regarding the ratings of "The End of the World" and the departure of Christopher Eccleston. "It was inevitable that the second episode of Doctor Who would shed a significant proportion of its viewers. Doubtless, a great number of the 2.6 million people who decided not to bother with episode two had satisfied their curiosity the week before, while others were perhaps enjoying some 'unseasonably hot weather' and doing whatever people do in 'unseasonably hot weather'. But I wonder just how many of those 'missing' 2.6 million people had walked away after taking umbrage with the show's star Christopher Eccleston, who, we learnt just days after his Doctor Who debut on BBC 1, won't be returning to the role for a second series. The outcry after the BBC confirmed that Eccieston wouldn't do a second series was immediate and spectacular. Venom was tipped by the bucketload. Eccieston was pilloried on internet fansites, called 'the most hated man in science fiction', and became the subject of disproportionately huge, spiteful features in national newspapers. The news was disappointing, of course, and the timing of the announcement was poor, leaving viewers to sit through the remaining 12 episodes knowing full well that its star has no wish to return. (It turns out the BBC made the revelation as a response to journalists' questions, and without consulting the actor first about the nature of its official statement.) But treating Eccleston almost as if he's a war criminal shows an absurd lack of perspective, particularly in an age when the 13 episodes he's filmed would amount to two series of most other dramas. Still, despite all the nonsense, there are some lessons here. Audiences can be very proprietorial about their TV heroes, and Doctor Who devotees are probably the most committed of all. (On radio, The Archers is similarly treasured by its fans, who take very personally what happens in Ambridge.) And no one likes their heroes to be slighted or mucked around. If there's one thing to be learnt about the extreme reaction to Eccieston's decision, it's that audiences' affections are not to be trifled with. But the point about heroes is that they endure. Doctor Who survived years in the wilderness after being kicked off air, and he will return in another incarnation. In short: calm down, dear, he's only a Time Lord."

Is Toby Whithouse writing for the second season of the new series? There are rumors that suggest that he might be one of the writers from several sources, although nothing has been confirmed. Whithouse was one of the creators and writers of the Channel 4 series "No Angels" as well as a writer on "Attachments" and "Where the Heart Is"; he's also an actor who appeared in "Bridget Jones' Diary" and "RKO 281". We report only for the sake of completeness...

There has been a small update to the official Doctor Who website, introducing a panel of children aged four to twelve, which they call their "Fear Forecasters," who are giving ratings for the scariness of the episodes.

The BBC Press Office has today released the fifth phase of its Doctor Whopress pack, featuring interviews with Rob Shearman, Bruno Langley and Nick Briggs, with three new colour photographs from episode six. The interviews contain mild spoilers for the episode.

A reporter for the Northern Echo noted this week that seeing Prime Minister Tony Blair on "Ant and Dec" caused the journalist to think to himself, "He should've gone on Doctor Who on the BBC because that programme gets a bigger audience". "But any publicity is good publicity during an election campaign, even if the Doctor shouted, 'If you want aliens, you've got them - they're in Downing Street'," he noted.

The Daily Star notes that the next Doctor, David Tennant, is now involved with Sarah Parish of "Cutting It." "The couple couldn't hide their fast-developing relationship at Sunday's TV bash where they chatted and cuddled in the plush ballroom. And after David, who hails from Paisley, had blagged some freebies they left at midnight to start celebrating his 34th birthday... in private. Sarah, 35, fell for the charming thesp when they played lovers in musical drama Blackpool. They only became an item after filming finished, but the chemistry on set was there for all to see. A source told us: 'All the singing and dancing in the show really lowered inhibitions. It had to because most of the actors had never done anything like it before. ... There was such a rapport between them after that. Everyone was saying they should get together."

The Daily Record comments that Doctor Who has always been a thriller. "So what if kids were so frightened they had to hide behind the sofa?," writes a reader to the paper, discussing the reports about comments that "The Unquiet Dead" was too scary. "Millions of us were scared witless in the '60s, '70s and '80s and were, at times, hiding behind the sofa. As far as I know, it didn't do any of us damage. The real problem is the adults who complained. If they really have an issue about the show why didn't they just switch off immediately? Doctor Who is back for a reason - to entertain, excite and frighten. Surely the adults who complained knew beforehand about the episode, there was plenty in the Press and clips on the TV, even after the previous episode. Doctor Who is here to stay - fresh, exciting and scary. It's fantastic." We say bravo to the writer, C. Watson of Ayrshire.

Yesterday's National Post in Canada printed an article (which was also included in many local papers including the Edmonton Journal and the Montreal Gazette) called "That Dickens of a Doctor" that called Charles Dickens an "action hero" in "The Unquiet Dead." In its review, the National Post said that "watching the confident revival of one of the UK's most silly and beloved serials has been one of the pleasures of the TV year so far. ... Not so long ago, Doctor Who was presumed dead and buried. No one could have anticipated the magnificent journey it has become. Like the hapless Sneed, Doctor Who writer Russell Davies has succeeded in bringing the dead back to life. Who knew?" Also, theToronto Star ran a piece noting that ratings in Canada are up for "This is Wonderland" on CBC, which airs Tuesdays at 9pm, thanks to its new lead-in, Doctor Who. And this week after the broadcast of "Unquiet Dead" on CBC, as usual Christopher Eccleston made recorded comments ("hope you liked this week's Doctor Who"), then introduced some behind the scenes clips while the credits rolled... and during the credits it was noted that the production credit was "BBC Wales in association with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation," perhaps the first official indication of co-production that's been displayed.

Some other stories of note: FilmForce discusses the rumors about Tennant's salary; the TypePad, Monsters and Critics and Sky Showbiz sites all discuss Eccleston's casting in the "Da Vinci Code" movie (which we've reported about this week); and the Forbidden Planet website has a collection of images of items they state will be official Doctor Who merchandise released later this year.

(Thanks to Steve Tribe, Paul Engelberg, John Bowman, Chuck Foster, Steve Hatcher, Mike Doran, Chris Winwood, Ian O'Brien, Dean Braithwaite, Graham Kibble-White, Robert Booth, Michael Davoren, Mustafa Hirji, Simon Burt, Benjamin McKenzie and Rod Mammitzsch)

The official site has metamorphosed again, changing slightly (but keeping the "BBC News" theme) for the next episode, "World War III". Note: there are spoilers on the front page including what the aliens look like and a spoiler on two of the characters, so if you haven't seen the episode, it's probably not a good idea to look. (They've also got a link to that UNIT website we reported on yesterday...)

Update on this weekend's viewing figures: Doctor Who Confidential on April 16 had 497,660 viewers (3.59% viewing share), while the BBC3 Sunday night repeats of Aliens of London and Confidential had 598,800 viewers (3.98% share) and 405,030 viewers (2.54% share), respectively. The good news here is that, even though "Ant and Dec" beat "Doctor Who" for the first time, these figures performed really well again. "Confidential" was only beaten by Sky One's "The Simpsons" and was second in the multi channel time slot Even better, the repeat showings on Sunday of "Aliens of London" was number one in its time slot, "Confidential" at number five.

According to the Daily Mail, David Tennant's salary will be around half of what Christopher Eccleston's was. "David Tennant may be the Casanova of telly but he's in a Tardis as far as money is concerned," says the Mail. "It's been revealed that the Beeb will only pay him half the salary Christopher Eccleston got to play Doctor Who. Shallow Grave star Christopher, 41, announced he was bowing out straight after the first episode of the comeback series had aired, after a 16-year hiatus. David, 33, will only get around half of Chris' ú600,000 to become the tenth timelord. According to the Daily Mail, with all the cutbacks at the BBC, Doctor Who's producers were also under intense pressure to cut costs. A source said: 'There was some relief that Chris went as he was so expensive. The show was only going to be recommissioned if the costs were cut." There is considerable speculation that finances had something to do with the change of lead actors, as noted in this article.

Friday's Broadcast (dated 15 April), the broadcast industry trade magazine, features some comments in their ratings section with regard to the first episode of the new Doctor Who series and the mention of a new peak rating. The ratings section itself (p.30) features the by-line at the top: "The new Doctor Who materialises into seventh place with 10.8 million viewers - but can it continue to hold its own among the soaps?" There is then an article about the week's ratings generally, titled "Old favourites from the 1970s put BBC1 ahead." The article begins: "The climax of the film 'The Last Samurai' has two ill-matched armies facing up to each other for a setpiece battle - the Samurai, armed with bows and arrows, their enemy with cannons and rifles. This week, Saturday night was a bit like that - the light entertainment Samurai forces of ITV verses the high-tech new generation of 'Doctor Who.' The result - 10.8 million for BBC1's 'Doctor Who' and 7.5 million for ITV1's 'Ant and Dec', both at 7pm. At its peak, 11.3 million people were watching 'Doctor Who.'The magazine also shows ratings for multichannel only and places Doctor Who Confidential in third place with 0.87 million viewers for Saturday 26th March, behind Tsunami Football Testimonial at 1 (Sky One) and Meet the Parents at 2 (BBC Three). Doctor Who: A New Dimension is at 67 in the list of network programmes with a final rating of 4.02 million and a 25.55% share.

Today's Mirror has reworked David Tennant's comments at the BAFTA ceremony at the weekend as an "interview". Apparently, "Tennant confessed to 3am [showbiz gossip column] that he's terrified of messing up the biggest role of his career", although there are no quotes to back this up, and the rest of the piece is more concerned with innuendo about his love life and drinking habits.

The Guardian today includes an article by Zoe Williams, "It's the 1980s, but don't panic", which comments on the return of Doctor Who and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: "If you're old enough for your formative years to be the focus of all cultural retro-thrusts, then the chances are that you're the ones in charge, and it's your fault, not your parents' at all, that everything's going wrong." The same paper's round-up of media coverage in this morning's press notes the Mirror story and that the Daily Mail is claiming that David Tennant "has been forced to accept a cut-price deal from the BBC".

"Exclusive: Doctor Who Monsters in the Making: meet the Slitheen!" says the front cover of the new edition of Radio Times, which, for the fifth consecutive week, has Doctor Who as its top recommendation for Saturday in its selection of the week's best television (page 4), with a small photo of the Doctor walking past a police car. This week's letters include a response from Karen Davies (page 9) defending her win in the Mastermind Special last month: "Surely I'm not the first contestant to win on the strength of their general knowledge as well as their chosen subject?" This week's full-colour, two-page spread (pages 12 and 13) shows Neill Gorton making Slitheen outfits and a smaller Slitheen model, accompanied by a brief interview with Gorton. This weekend's episode is again one of Saturday's Choices (page 62), described as "a strange but enjoyable brew of body-snatching horror (unsuitable for the very young), political intrigue and flatulence gags [...] Nifty effects and Russell T Davies's wry one-liners keep things humming, while references to weapons of mass destruction and the future prime minister keep the chaotic action nicely grounded. But you sense that the best is yet to come in this series." Also selected is the next edition of the "terrific" Doctor Who Confidential: "Comparisons between the old and new series are often amusing, and fans will smile to see some old faces." Finally, "Next week in RT... They're back! Don't miss our Dalek special, and free giant poster offer!"

Prospect magazine says that "First came University Challenge and the return of Parkinson. Now we have got the return of Doctor Who, Come Dancing, Ask the Family, The Two Ronnies and Quatermass-all retro-television. There is no doubt which has had the most impact. Over the past weeks you could not escape the Dalek jokes, Ron Grainer's haunting music, the forty-something nostalgia. Part of its secret was the format which gave the writers the freedom to take the doctor and his companion(s) anywhere, any time. Yet it was always very much about one place at one time: 1960s Britain. The first episode of the revived series, like the last episode in 1989 and the very first episode in 1963, is set in contemporary London. As executive producer and chief scriptwriter, Russell T Davies, said the doctor and his new companion "are deliberately running past Big Ben, they're on Westminster bridge, there are double decker buses, because that's a great big signal at the start saying, 'This is British.'" But what kind of Britain? Trafalgar Square and black cabs or Rose's single mum, glued to daytime television, tower blocks and Cockney accents. This uncertainty about Britishness was always at the heart of the original Doctor Who. ... British television, like Britain in the 1960s, is lost in time, without a positive sense of identity. What is BBC1 for? Or ITV? As they haemorrhage viewers, they keep looking back to a lost, golden age when everyone knew what the big networks were there for. Wheeling out the Daleks is just a symptom of a loss of nerve."

According to today's Daily Star, Eve Myles (Gwyneth in "The Unquiet Dead") will next play an underwear model in "Belonging," a BBC Wales series.

Some other press reports: CBBC Newsround Showbiz had a brief mention on the Sunday (17 April) edition, which was voiceover about the series being 'too scary for kids, after 63 complaints were received' (which contradicts the number reported by BBC News), over a clip from the Doctor Who main titles buried in their 'other news' section. In today's (19 April) METRO newspaper, a letter from Darrell Mlynarz, Manchester, headed 'JUST ZIP IT' asks: "After viewing Saturday's episode of Doctor Who, I think someone should check out John Prescott's (Deputy Prime Minister) forehead for signs of a zip?" And today at 12:25 a Dalek asked a question in relation to eligibility to seek election on the BBC Daily Politics Election Special, in the Ask Daisy section.

More links from stories the past few days: the casting of David Tennant at theHerald Sun, New York Times, Chud News, BBC News, Variety(subscription needed); Christopher Eccleston in "The DaVinci Code" story reported at Film Fodder, Contact Music, FemaleFirst, Film Guardian; Tennant at the BAFTA's reported at Kerala Next.

(Thanks to Steve Tribe, Paul Engelberg, Chuck Foster, Andy Parish, Mark Williams, Richard Estep, Richard Allison, Mark Stammers, Steven Laing)

News items from Saturday through Monday. (Note: we're still awaiting ratings news for Saturday night's "Confidential" and yesterday's BBC3 repeats...)

David Tennant was at last night's BAFTA awards ceremony, though he was not nominated. He did, however, speak briefly about his role, noting that "The expectations are fierce." Asked how long he had signed up for, he said: "Let's get through one at a time. I'd love to do 100 years but they might sack me". He also noted that Tom Baker wore a long scarf but they havenÆt worn one since so I donÆt know if I will wear one." Asked if he was going to play the part in a Scottish accent he said: "All of that is up for grabs at the moment but Dr Who is the best show ever and I canÆt wait." Tennant also noted that he was delighted that Billie Piper would continue in the role as his assistant Rose: "SheÆs not going to get away from me, I think sheÆs a very good actress." You can view news stories at the following sites: BBC News,Hello Magazine, Vogue, Evening Times, Scotsman.

Lots of coverage of the David Tennant casting news the past two days. Here's an updated list of everywhere we know of with links, although no new information in any of them: Times Online (updated link), FilmForce, ABC Australia, Dark Horizons, CNN, NineMSN, Contact Music,InTheNews, TV New Zealand, The Herald,Sydney Morning Herald,Evening Standard, RTE, , , CBC News, TV Squad, Stuff.co.nz, NZ Herald, BBC Radio 1, Zap2IT, The Stage, Regional Film and Video Ireland, Ananova (with second story here),icNetwork, MegaStar,MyTelus, Yabedo.

The official site's parody site Who Is Doctor Who? (glimpsed in the first episode, "Rose"), now has at least two companions. The BBC has opened theunit.org.uk UNIT website and has registered the site badwolf.co.uk. Keen-eyed viewers may start recognizing clues as to what that last site will entail...

The BBC has begun to trail Saturday's episode in tandem with "Strictly Dance Fever". Starting with "Strictly Dance Fever" the voice-over runs: "An entire nation desperately trying to stay in time...and a Time Lord who's biggest problem is just staying alive! Saturday from six on BBC1." The "Doctor Who" segment contains a mix of the specially shot trailer (Eccleston walking to the TARDIS console and Rose and the Doctor standing facing the camera) along with clips from the upcoming episode: the Doctor's "Oi! You want aliens? You've got 'em!", a Slitheen smashing through a door and chasing Rose and Harriet Jones through another door, two Slitheen and the Doctor running through a corridor, and Rose/Harriet Jones hiding behind furniture as a Slitheen crows "Where are you?". The whole trailer runs to 20 seconds and was transmitted this evening at 10pm straight after "Casanova" (Strange that...!).

Christopher Eccleston is to star as "an albino killer monk" alongside Tom Hanks in the movie version of "The Da Vinci Code," according to news reports. "Insiders say he will play brainwashed monk Silas whose life is controlled by the Opus Dei religious sect in the best-selling novel about the Holy Grail," says theMirror. "A movie insider said: 'As soon as film producers spotted Chris on Doctor Who they knew they had to go for him - he has everything they want. He is a very serious and respected actor who always gives a great performance. He would be brilliant as Silas. Some big names have already signed up for the film. Chris has now been sent a script and is mulling it over - but he has been told he may have to wear a long white wig.' Oscar winner Hanks plays the book's hero, American academic Robert Langdon, while French beauty Audrey Tatou will be codebreaker Sophie Neveu. British film veterans Sir Anthony Hopkins and Michael Caine are tipped for the role of eccentric Holy Grail hunter Sir Leigh Teabing and craggy French star Jean Reno has been cast as police chief Bezu Fache. The movie will be directed by American Ron Howard and is due to be released in May next year. Shooting is about to begin in Paris and will also include locations in London and Scotland." Sites covering this includeMovieHole, Dark Horizons, Digital Spy,FilmForce, The Hollywood News.

One of the telephone numbers from the episode "Aliens of London" turns out to have been real. Says the Behind the Sofa Again site, "As well as the episode being set in a year's time, there are a couple of other things I noticed (and I don't think anyone else has mentioned) on watching it again: The housing project in which Rose lives is called The Powell Estate. Could this be a reference to the controller of the BBC who actually cancelled the show in the late eighties? Although neither of the telephone numbers for the Alien Helpline on the Rose posters work, there is another one on the doors of the army vehicle which are block The Doctor's sight of the craft and what's happening. If you call it, there is an answering machine which thanks people for calling what sounds like the Freephone Army Driving line (whatever that might be)." Of course, we'd rather you don't call it...

New Zealand Broadcaster Paul Holmes talked to UK correspondent Malcolm Stuart on Holmes' weekday morning Breakfast show on 15/04/05 on NZ Radio Station Newstalk ZB. Amongst the topics discussed was of the reaction from the New Series amongst many parents who believe that it is too scary for their children to watch. An audio link can be foundhere; scroll down the page and look for the heading marked 'Dr Who spooks kids'.

From our correspondent Prakash Bakrania regarding our report about televised announcements (or, a lack thereof) of the Tennant casting: "I just read the following about News 24 not covering the Tennant announcement much. Admittedly there wasn't much because of Rover but I did leave the DVD Recorder running from 3am to 9am and it did record about five news instances of Tennant's arrival as the Tenth Doctor."

Additional discussion of the ratings report from yesterday at Sky News, theMirror, the Guardian and the Daily Record.

The Guardian reviewed the latest episode: "Doctor Who (Saturday, BBC1) has picked up a lot of publicity in the last week for terrifying the nation's tots - just in time to promote the best episode yet. It was called Aliens in London, and it actually lived up to that marvellous title. A spaceship crashed into Big Ben, and this was such an audacious opening, fraught with echoes of 9/11, that we watched the rest in delighted disbelief. A pig in a spacesuit ran down a corridor into a hail of bullets, sinister farting fat people took over 10 Downing Street, and, best of all, some horrible baby-faced aliens were unleashed to terrify yet more kiddies. Now that's what I call entertainment." "Aliens of London" was also the Pick of the Day yesterday in the Times: "Davies's cartoonish sense of humour is one of the main obstacles standing in the way of the current series improving on the Pertwee and Baker eras. His reliance on noisy bodily functions (the burping bin in the first episode, the farting lizards here) might appeal to the eight-year-old in him that he aims the new show at, as will the Benny Hill style chases through No10 that really require a Yakety Sax soundtrack (and somebody who is able to run and can stand in for Billie Piper). He also seems overly proud of one of the best lines from the pilot episode ('Lots of planets have a north'), so that gets wheeled out again. Fortunately, however, there is something for an adult audience, too, including political satire -naughtily smuggled into a normally escapist drama shortly before a general election. As the Doctor tries to prevent nuclear destruction, aided by Rose and an earnest MP (Penelope Wilton), the PM's grounds for making war mockingly echo Tony Blair's: somewhere in space there are 'massive weapons of destruction' that can be 'deployed in 45 minutes'. Fortunately, the Doctor remembers how Hannibal managed to cross the Alps with his elephants, so the world may yet be saved."

Today's edition of Blue Peter contained a report on the Wray Village Scarecrow Festival and began with presenter Simon Thomas' introduction: "Now, today the Blue Peter garden has been invaded by some very strange things. Not aliens from the brand-new Doctor Who series...". However, despite Simon's promise, a small mock-up of a Black Dalek could clearly be seen throughout most of the item on scarecrow building...

In today's edition of The Sun TV critic Sara Nathan chooses "Casanova" as one of her TV Picks, ending her preview with: "Fans of David Tennant, fear not, pretty boy will return...in a Tardis." Also, in today's edition of News Of The World is an article in which it is claimed that Christopher Eccleston is splitting from his Cardiff-based girlfriend as he "needs more space". It is also reported that the Labour Party is attempting to recruit Eccleston, with his 'working class' background, for their General Election campaign.

(Thanks to Paul Engelberg, Steve Tribe, Chuck Foster, Jamie Austin, Prakash Bakrania, Paul Hayes, Faiz Rehman, Jamie Austin, Stuart Ian Burns, David French, Alistair Moore, Ben Goudie, Mark Oliver, Rich Kirkpatrick, John Bowman, Chris Wischer, Matt Kimpton, Mustafa Hirji, and Jon Preddle)

A wrap-up of the most important articles from the past two days (sorry for the delay; the editor's been under the weather with a cold). There's more, and that'll come tomorrow; in the meanwhile, this is the most critical...

Under-Eight Controversy

Following Wednesday's press coverage of the "too scary for kids" statement from the BBC's complaints website, nowBBC News is reporting that the "not for the under-eights" advice has been withdrawn: "The BBC has withdrawn advice about Doctor Who being too frightening for under-eights to watch. A statement on the BBC's complaints website on Wednesday saying the show was not for children under eight had been 'a mistake', said a spokesman. Monsters in the early evening show 'may be scary' but content was 'carefully considered' for all of the pre-watershed audience, he added. 'We leave it to parents' discretion to ultimately decide.' The original statement said the series 'had never been intended for the youngest of children'. 'We would suggest that only children aged eight and above should watch with their parents,' it went on. ... The advice followed 91 complaints from viewers about the third episode in the new series... The corporation had not meant to advise against younger children watching the series, the BBC spokesman added. 'The programme sets out to balance the right amount of humour, drama and suspense in each episode,' he went on. Comedy and bravery had been incorporated to create 'the right context' for the ghost story, he said, adding that the BBC would be vigilant about the balance in each week's episode." The retraction has been picked up by the Times, which notes that there is now a BBC investigation into future episodes to see how scary they are, and also notes an Ofcom investigation as well.

Other sources covering this: BigNewsNetwork, ICWales, This Is South Wales, Evening Standard, Radio One,CBBC News.

Mark Gatiss, writer of "The Unquiet Dead," appeared on both BBC Radio Five Live and BBC Radio Four to address the comments about the scariness factor of his episode. Gatiss was questioned about "confusion at the BBC about whether Doctor Who is suitable for children under 8". Was he surprised by the reaction? "Quietly thrilled," says Mark, observing that Doctor Who is about healthy scares--"a ghost-train thrill" that the programme has always done. He describes the show as being about "the living dead inhabited by gas creatures", and that it wasn't as scary as the show had been in the 1970s (referencing elements of the two original Auton stories). The Radio 4 announcer also read some supportive e-mails, which delighted Gatiss. "Children can be too cosseted these days" says Mark, observing that Harry Potter is also successful but contains the scary fact that "people do die". He mentions his niece Olivia is "desperate to see the series", even though she hasn't apparently slept for three nights! Asked whether he'd been asked to tone the story down, Mark clarifies: early drafts of the story had been "too grim rather than too scary", and that he'd therefore not toned down the monsters but instead had toned down the undertaker elements which had been "not very Saturday nights". Gatiss' comments are addressed briefly in another BBC News report.

The day before, various UK newspapers ran versions of the report on the BBC's findings on complaints about "The Unquiet Dead." The Daily Express claims that the BBC has been "forced to slap an age warning on Doctor Who". According to The Sun, "The BBC has warned that Doctor Who should not be watched by children under eight." The Daily Star says that "Doctor Who is to get an age warning after ghoulish scenes terrified young viewers." TheGuardian has a piece online drawn directly from the BBC's report and from interviews with Mark Gatiss and Russell T Davies, which also notes the high overnight ratings for the episode. Also covering it: This Is London,MegaStar, MSN, Contact Music,Daily Record, CBBC News,Morons.org, ic Huddersfield. Yorkshire Coast Radio claimed in their 7pm bulletin on April 14 that 91 complaints had been received by the BBC.

Manchester Online addressed this "too scary" factor (also noted in theScotsman) with quotes from Tim Collins, Tory education spokesman and "Doctor Who" fan, denying that the show is too scary. "Shadow education secretary Tim Collins said the revived series, starring Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper, was perfectly suitable for children as young as six and defended the "right" of children to be scared by Dr Who after the BBC suggested the programme was not suitable for youngsters under eight. Dr Who is about the battle between good and evil, Mr Collins said, adding: 'I was watching it and thoroughly enjoying being scared out of my wits when I was six or seven.' ... Mr Collins said he would not let 'very young children' watch Dr Who but it was 'perfectly appropriate' for six-year-olds. He said: 'I think the programme has always been intended to provide a legitimate scare to children, an enjoyable scare. 'It's about the battle between good and evil. Good always triumphs in the end. There are monsters in it but they are always vanquished,' he said."

Broadcasting Updates, Press Releases

The BBC Press Office today has previews up in a press release (note: Adobe Acrobat PDF file!) for "Dalek," the sixth episode of the season, written by Rob Shearman, and that night's corresponding "Doctor Who Confidential" episode. We've put them in spoiler tags so click on the spoiler link at the very bottom of today's news summary, below.

Radio Times and other online listings report a schedule change on BBC Three for Saturday 23 April. Late Saturday 23 April on BBC Three, there will be a repeat of the episode "World War Three" at 12:05am BST and a repeat of the BBC4 documentary "Doctor Who Confidential". It is too soon to tell if this will be a new weekly broadcast of the series, or a one time special. BBC Three's schedules have proven particularly erratic and subject to change.

Doctor Who will have a new adversary beginning on April 23... no, not the Master or the Daleks, but "Celebrity Wrestling." The current run of "Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway," the ITV show run opposite Doctor Who, ends tomorrow, April 16, and "Celebrity Wrestling" starts the following weekend. But the time that the program will start on ITV is up in the air; "Doctor Who" has beaten "Ant and Dec" every weekend for the past three weeks, and according to April 13's Daily Star, the success of our show has ITV concerned. "It is very difficult to pin down the time when Celebrity Wrestling will be screened," the Daily Star quotes an ITV spokesperson. "The date has been confirmed now but there is still a bit of last-minute indecision over the time slot. This has come about because of the massive success of Doctor Who, which has even been beating Ant and Dec in the ratings. The action in the ring is also quite feisty, so some people working on the show think it would be better later at night." BBC News published an article about the wrestling show: "The latest celebrity reality show pits stars against one another as they literally wrestle for the attention of Saturday night viewers... In doing so it brings the hot air and razzmatazz of US wrestling to ITV's prime time schedule, reviving the flamboyance of hit 1990s game show Gladiators and challenging Doctor Who's dominance in the process." Presenter Kate Thornton is quoted as saying: "There's a massive appetite for shows like this. The viewing figures will tell you that. Television is all about spectacle and drama. If audiences continue to grow for shows like Celebrity Wrestling then more will be made."

Additional News and Reviews

SFX has a spoiler-free review of "Dalek," the sixth episode, which it meets with glowing praise: "Hold on to something sturdy; youÆre just about to be rocked by hyperbole measuring 10 on the Richter scale. 'Dalek' is the best episode of Doctor Who ever," says the review. "This is hard-as-nails Who. This is the Who the fans were clamouring for. This is the Who that will silence the critics of the 'silliness' of the episodes thus far. This is the episode that will have kids kicking their parents out from behind the sofa. ... ItÆs hard to conceive that Doctor Who can get much better than thisà" Check out SFX's website for the full review.

The Law Society Gazette, the trade paper for solicitors, featured an article on April 14 with an accompanying photo of the Moxx of Balhoon. "The post-Clementi [the recent review of all legal practice in England and Wales] world may be an alien and ugly one for some, but surely not as alien and ugly as the revived Doctor Who speculated the other week. In an episode where the Doctor and Rose travelled five billion years into the future to witness the end of the world as the sun expanded to consume it (don't worry - there's nobody living on Earth by then and it's being looked after by the National Trust), a variety of interesting and rich aliens were enjoying corporate hospitality to watch the 'artistic event' that was the spectacular explosion from the safety of a protected observation station in space. Among them was the Moxx of Balhoon, announced as being from the solicitors Jolko and Jolko. He had an unpleasant squeaky voice and his present to fellow passengers (each was required to provide something) was 'the gift of bodily salivas', whereupon he spat in Rose's eye. Talk about inadequate professional service. The Doctor, of course, saved the day when at literally the last second he managed to reverse the sabotage which dropped the station's defences and would have seen it destroyed too. But the extravagantly monikered Moxx was sadly a casualty of the crisis, and didn't even have the chance to put in a bill for his time either."

This week's edition of the BBC internal newsletter Ariel has a small Doctor Who article called "Be careful not to scare the voters" along with a photo of a Slitheen from this weekend's episode, "Aliens of London." "Those who have long-suspected that there are aliens at the heart of the British government will have suspicions confirmed by this Saturday's Doctor Who," says the article. "In a recent interview Russell T Davies admitted tha programme makers had to check with editorial policy before screening the episode Aliens of London because it clashed with the general election. The episode also features a spaceship crash-landing in the Thames as well as several reptilian-like aliens, the Slitheen (pictured), roaming the corridors of power. Perhaps David Icke was right after all..."

"Another hit from Doctor Who" raves the Evening Standard as it discusses the new series' effects. "Dramatic moments in Doctor Who were traditionally accompanied by wobbling scenery and cut-price props," says the article. "But when viewers tune in to the latest incarnation of the BBC1 series this Saturday they will see special effects convincing enough to send adults as well as children scurrying behind the sofa. The episode sees an alien spacecraft crash-landing in the Thames, taking a chunk out of Big Ben as it does so. The scene where the wing of the spaceship strikes the 318ft-tall St Stephen's Tower was created not by computer, but by hand. Model-makers used a 1/ 14thscale silicone model of the clock tower to create plaster castings, then filled them with bells and rubble to make the impact look real. These days every other Hollywood blockbuster features sophisticated computer-generated imagery, but Mike Tucker, an expert in models and miniatures, believes some effects should be kept real. 'It was actually easier for me to swing a model of a spaceship wing into a breakable Big Ben and put it all on camera,' he said."

'Media View' by Maggie Brown, an article on the website of The Stage, has a brief, positive mention of the new series. The article discusses the recent performance of ITV ratings-wise, and Brown suggests that "...if ITV had the ability, with hindsight, to cherry-pick dream acquisitions to graft onto its triumphant soaps, I'd say it would be Jamie's School Dinners and Doctor Who, which are both examples of bravery being rewarded and going against received wisdom - revivals rarely work or can be sustained. A pointer to the future?"

This week's Variety covered the show and, more specifically, the series as part of a larger shift away from London. "Every generation of Brits, it seems, gets a Doctor Who to embody the spirit of its age. So it's apt that the eighth and latest incarnation of the immortal time lord from planet Gallifrey is not a Southerner like most of his predecessors, but the unmistakably blue collar Lancastrian Christopher Eccleston. ... Although set everywhere from London to Salt Lake City and outer space, the 13 episodes were shot almost entirely in South Wales, and produced by the BBC's Welsh drama department. The new "Doctor Who" proves that there is life, and entertainment, outside London. It also reflects a wider psychological and constitutional shift that started when Prime Minister Tony Blair took office eight years ago, with a promise to give a greater voice to the nations and regions that make up the United Kingdom." The article goes on to discuss the rise of regional programming.

Variety also has a special report from some celebrities called 'Why I live outside London' and speaks to Russell T Davies about it. "I moved to Manchester because it was the heart of television drama and in those days Granada still trained people. Granada sits at the heart of the city and remains a very powerful influence in Manchester. For 40 years it has made 'Coronation Street,' the No. 1 show in the U.K. I like the fact that you can bump into members of the 'Street's' cast in the supermarkets. Red is another very important company locally because it only uses northern writers and northern crews. I have a second home in Cardiff because of 'Doctor Who.' Cardiff is where I started my TV career as a producer of children's shows." Variety then reviews the current series: "The fiercely loyal fans of British sci-fi character Doctor Who have had a long wait to see their hero back on the small screen. While there are bound to be dissenting voices, the BBC looks like it has got the elements in place to re-establish this cult classic. The Beeb's hefty marketing campaign hyped the return of the Time Lord, pitching the Easter Saturday bow of the 13-episode series as a must-see television event. While the opener --- titled "Rose" --- didn't quite meet expectations, it did grab a 44% share and almost 10 million viewers. It also hints at great things to come and breathes welcome life into a great character. As far as prospects abroad, it is a series that can easily travel and makes for easy fantasy viewing for all ages... This latest incarnation of "Doctor Who" is a wry fantasy hero who should appeal to all generations --- from those who grew up watching the early series to a younger generation with higher expectations in terms of special f/x and more sophisticated storylines."

Channel 4's Teletext service runs a weekly "celebrity horoscopes" column by Henri Llewelyn Davies called star'scope, and is currently featuring the "astrological chart" of Christopher Eccleston! "A week before the BBC revealed Chris Eccleston would only do one series of Dr Who, Teletext asked me how long he would last as the new Time Lord. I replied (check with Teletext if you must): 'I don't think he will last long.' Born Feb 16 1964 he has four planets in Aquarius, making him exceedingly independent. Such a heavy Aquarian presence ensures he will never allow himself to be typecast in anyway. Aquarian Dr Who star Eccleston has Mercury in Venus which makes him a persuasive speaker, a sweet talker. Dreamy planet Neptune is strong in his chart at the moment, making him more confused but enabling him to play a phantasmagorical role like Dr Who. With his Sun conjunct Saturn, Chris Eccleston must make up his own mind about matters and can rarely be swayed by other people. With his chart, he hates any kind of restriction - so his alleged fear of being typecast by Dr Who makes sense astrologically. He hopes people will get out of his way and he always wanted to be as free as possible. 'I intend to keep the variety going,' he has said of his work. Eccleston is notoriously secretive - a result of having his Saturn in Aquarius. He seems very upfront but has developed a secret internal life. This conjunction also makes him self-disciplined, highly professional, honest and rebellious. We know little of Eccleston's emotional life, but with his Venus in Aries he is likely to be impulsive in love. This placement also makes him quite outspoken. Only last year he said of The Frank Skinner show: 'It doesn't seem to be about anybody who's on it. It just seems to be about Skinner and his small-minded approach. He used to be funny but not any more.' Nor does Parkinson impress him - finding some of Parky's views 'disturbing.' Aquarian Eccleston is a truth-seeker, self-contained and likes to surround himself with numerous people. Perverse ideas appeal to him, such as playing Dr Who when he didn't see the point in reviving a 'knackered' old sci-fi series. Expect the unexpected."

Some other tangential articles over the past two days: "Dr Who made my 3-year-old scared of shopping" says an article in The Times; the Guardianmentions mistakes in the calculation of Earth's rotation, citing the Doctor Who novel "The Suns of Caresh"; Brand Republic reports on the phone boxes decor for the DVD releases; and icCroydon discusses how Billie Piper "regenerated" the show.

(Thanks to Paul Engelberg, Steve Tribe, Chuck Foster, John Bowman, Simon Pedley, Peter Hart, Paul Hayes, John Leacy, Jamie Austin, John Tait, Alan Morton, Darren Ross, Benjamin Elliott, David J Howe, Rowan Bridge and Peter Anghelides)

Just a brief series update today...

The official site has once again been updated with a new motif -- that of a BBC news report -- for the next two episodes, "Aliens of London" and "World War Three."

The new Radio Times published today (16-22 April) again heavily promotes the new series: Aliens of London is the first choice for Saturday in the magazine's choice of the week's best television (page 4), with a photo of Rose and a Slitheen ("After an alien spaceship crash-lands, the Doctor must save the world û but not before facing the wrath of Rose's mum..."). A letter praising David Tennant's performance in Casanova elicits the response, "Watch this space û David Tennant may rematerialise as the new Doctor Who..." on page 9 (and there's also an opportunity to get preview tickets for the new Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie). A double-spread shows several pictures of Mike Tucker's team creating the models and effects for the destruction of Big Ben ("Killing Time", page 12). TV Editor Alison Graham leads her "Television" column (page 69) with a discussion of Christopher Eccleston's departure from the series û she specualates that the news may have contributed to the expected drop in rataings between episodes 1 and 2 ("I wonder just how many [...] walked away after taking umbrage with the show's star"), observing that "The outcry [...] was immediate and spectacular". She criticises that response as showing "an absurd lack of perspective", although she recognises that "Audiences can be very proprietorial about their TV heroes [...] And no one likes their heroes to be slighted or mucked around. If there's one thing to be learnt [...] it's that audiences' affections are not to be trifled with." She points out that Doctor Who will return û "calm down, dear, he's only a Time Lord." This week's episode misses out on being Saturday's pick of the day, but is still one of the day's top choices (page 70), as is the next edition of Doctor Who Confidential, both getting very positive write-ups, particularly for Penelope Wilton. Saturday's "On this day" (page 71) notes the shared anniversaries of the final part of Genesis of the Daleks and the start of Terry Nation's Survivors. Finally, another Slitheen photo heads the BBC1 listings for Saturday evening.

A press release from the BBC Press Office yesterday notes that, "On the eve of MIPTV, BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the BBC, has concluded two major deals for the brand new first series of Doctor Who... Following a deal struck at this year's BBC Showcase, Thomsonfly (formerly Britannia Airways Ltd) will broadcast episode one of the new series to passengers from 1 May on each of its video-equipped planes, on all routes around the world." The story also confirms the sale of the show to Italy to the Jimmyentertainment pay-TV channel, which we previously reported. Interestingly, the press release notes that "Doctor Who is a co-production with CBC in Canada," perhaps the first time this relationship has truly been quantified.

Last night saw the broadcast of Russell T Davies: Unscripted, a documentary/interview on BBC 4. Today'sGuardian noted that it was "a timely tribute to a man who's done more than anyone to drag television drama into the 21st century, but it did have a slight whiff of editorial control," noting that Davies' recollection of his career was "one long series of happy accidents. ... All of which is true, but I couldn't help longing to hear about the setbacks. The pre-Queer years, in which he did journeyman work at Granada, were glossed over with a few clips from The Grand, his somewhat overblown period piece. But there was no mention of Revelations, the rambling, crazy tale of a country bishop and his sexually precocious offspring, shunted out in the graveyard shift, watched only by a handful of slavering fans who recognised genius when they saw it. And there was no discussion of Davies's spectacular falling-out with Channel 4, who, unbelievably, passed on his first post-Queer project, which must have been a body blow at the time." (As an aside, the Guardian's Education section here has a brief feature on Simon Pegg, which notes his "Cameo appearance as a villain in the new series of Doctor Who.")

Richard Franklin, who played Captain Mike Yates alongside Jon Pertwee and the "UNIT era" cast of 1970's Doctor Who, had a sharply-worded letter in today's Brighton Evening Argus, in which he lambasts Christopher Eccleston's decision to leave the title role of the new series. "An actor is like a balloon," writes Franklin, "nothing, no one, until someone else breathes air into him. He is dependent upon the writer, the director and the lesser members of the cast who support their star on his or her imaginary pinnacle." Franklin says that in the case of Doctor Who, "fandom is absolutely crucial. This new series of Dr. Who would not have happened at all but for the continued pressure of fandom" since the cancellation in the 1980's. Franklin pays homage to fan support over the years before he takes Eccleston to task for what he feels is the latter's consideration of the role as "no more than a stepping stone. I find this insulting and ungrateful to the fans, who would have taken him to their hearts, and to the BBC, who have given him the accolade of a unique television role... His departure is not much thanks for a leg-up most actors would have given their right arm for and a glaring example of the greed, selfishness and cult of celebrity which blights modern Britain."There are apparently Doctor Who viewers in the American media. According to a report on the MSNBC website, one of their on-screen reporters made a comment during the nightly Keith Olbermann show about the series. Referring to the recent Charles-Camilla nuptials, reporter Michael Okwu said, "...Fewer than 8 million British watched the event on television. Fewer than sporting events and even a popular science fiction spoof here called 'Dr. Who.'" Olbermann, quick on the uptake, replied "Well, I can understand that, the whole TV ratings thing, because if I had my choice of a wedding or watching 'Dr. Who,' I'd watch 'Dr. Who' every time."

ABC Australia has announced it will round out the hour of broadcast of the new series (which only runs 45 minutes) with shortened versions of "Little Britain" narrated by Tom Baker. According to Australia's Daily Telegraph newspaper, the 15-minute 'episodes' will be called "Very Little Britain," and will debut with the series. Meanwhile, ABC will broadcast the Christopher Eccleston miniseries "The Second Coming," written by Russell T Davies, on May 1.

The Daily Politics show has "invited some of the nation's favourite celebrities and regular programme guests" to take part in commentary during the forthcoming political campaign. Says the report on BBC News, "Even one of the Daleks from Dr Who gets in on the act!"

Note to North American readers: both the SFX Doctor Who Special andDigit Magazine with the Doctor Who cover story have hit bookshelves as of today, at least in the major chains such as Barnes and Noble.

On the BBC's Entertainment page today, front section: " Imagine If... Rose from Doctor Who chose her top four web sites. Where on earth would she want to go?" There are links to four separate sections of the BBC site from that blurb... BBC History, Women's Health, Science and Space... and of course, the Doctor Who section. Of course, Rose is quite popular right now... in today's Daily Record, "former Doctor Who Colin Baker says he would have preferred to share the Tardis with Billie Piper, who stars as Rose Tyler, below, than any of his sexy female sidekicks. He said: 'My two assistants were great, but Billie is amazing. She's beautiful.'"

(Thanks to Paul Engelberg, Steve Tribe, Mark Rushford, Ian O'Brien, Alan Siler, Stephen Laing, Paul Hayes, Christopher Scott, and David Guest)

Here's an update on the events of this past weekend:

First, some ratings news for the Sunday night BBC3 repeats. Episode three,The Unquiet Dead, attracted 326,440 viewers in its Sunday repeat, according to ViewingFigures, while 217,550 viewers tuned in to see the repeat of Doctor Who Confidential. Although these figures may look quite small, says our correspondent Andy Parish, they performed really well in the multi-channel chart. "If you take out the 5 terrestrial channels available to the entire UK public, the repeat showing of 'Unquiet Dead' was only beaten by SKYONE's 'Malcolm in the Middle' and even rated higher than the popular news bulletin 'Channel 4 news'." We published the ratings for BBC1 broadcast of the episode and the initial showing of episode 3 of "Confidential" in yesterday's news update.

The 3.25am Saturday night/Sunday morning repeat showing of Doctor Who Confidential appears to be a regular thing - the Radio Times lists now lists the programme in that slot for 23/24 April, along with the regular broadcasts at 7.45pm on the Saturday and the Sunday.

Russell T Davies says he won't let a woman become the next Time Lord, according to reports printed on the ic Network. The article says that, asked if he would allow a female actor to become the next Doctor, Davies said: "Nah! Imagine having to explain that one to your kids - that Doctor Who has lost his willy!" (Er, quite.) The article also says Davies said the BBC always knew of Eccleston's intention but the announcement was not supposed to be made until the end of the 13-part series; however, he says the quest is underway to find the next Time Lord and refused to comment on rumours that actor David Tennant - star of Davies' BBC drama Casanova - is being lined up for the role. "I can't really say. All I can say is that the search is on," said Davies. "Eccleston's departure was all planned but it was not meant to come out. You were supposed to watch the series first. Then it was to be announced. But Christopher was the best Doctor in the world. He is one of the best actors in Britain." Davies also comments on the cancellation of "Mine All Mine." The comments praising Eccleston have appeared elsewhere including at Digital Spy.

Today's Guardian reviews the new series. "What was that dreadful smell at just after seven o'clock on Saturday night? Why, it was the nation's under-12s reacting as under-12s will to the opening scene of Doctor Who (BBC1), which was almost enough to make me react with them," says the review. "Mark 'League of Gentlemen' Gatiss's first stab at writing for the Doctor was a rich stew of genuine horror and gleeful cliche, with a big dollop of Eng Lit chucked in for good measure. Dumbing down? Hah! We discussed the finer points of Charles Dickens's oeuvre and Einstein's theory of relativity while chasing around in horse and cab. Billie Piper looked more than usually lovely in a Victorian off-the- shoulder number (for the dads) while Zombie Gran was there to terrorise the kiddies. We even got Simon Callow doing his Dickens turn ('What the Shakespeare is going on?'). Doctor, you're spoiling us. With all this on the plus side, it seems churlish to nit-pick, but that's what I'm paid for - so, am I the only one to find Christopher Eccleston's grinning a bit tiresome? It was all well and good to establish him as a matey, northern Doctor in the first episode, but frankly I'm hoping for a bit of depth at this point. He does look nice in a leather coat, though, which 99% of the sci-fi loving population does not."

Also in today's Guardian, an article called "Why sometimes it's clever to play dumb" about advertising in the modern era: "To look at the whole campaign we need to travel back in time to last summer. Filming starts on a new series of Doctor Who, the first since Michael Grade zapped the time lord in 1989. The new series is being created by writer-of-the-moment Russell T Davies. And the new Doctor is? Christopher Eccleston, an actor with Hollywood kudos, lured back to telly. His sidekick, ex-popstrel Billie Piper, for whom filming and celebrity marriage don't seem to be compatible. It's an irresistible stew of news and rumours and it is deftly spoon-fed to the press by the BBC's PR people. The bloggers blog, the journalists scrawl, the campaign has started. Then comes the illicit 'leak' of the first episode on the internet. Given that every hardcore Whoey is bound to be a techy and certain to have broadband internet, it is an absolutely perfect move. Too perfect, maybe, although the BBC denies responsibility. So now it is more than news, it is conspiracy fodder, too. And then in the run-up to the first episode, interviews with Eccleston and Piper on BBC Breakfast and Jonathan Ross; Chris Moyles promoting Who as part of Comic Relief on Radio 1; an elaborate website with clever downloadables, and trails aplenty on the BBC channels giving us our first glimpse of Eccleston's cheeky Doctor. Then, finally, the heavyweights swing into the ring: BBC television editorial. Doctor Who Confidential appears on BBC3, and Doctor Who Night screens on BBC2 the Saturday before the first episode. Every arm of the BBC is working perfectly with every other arm of the BBC to whip up maximum Whomania and create a very attractive product. And, at the very last moment, the poster goes up. A slightly hackneyed illustration of the Doctor and Rose emerging from the Tardis framed by shafts of romantic light like the cover of a sci-fi Mills and Boon. A poster as uncomplicated as the job it needed to do. What was the programme again? The return of Who with Eccleston and Chris Evans's ex, you know, the programme and the people that you have already heard so much about. Remind me when it's on? This Saturday at 7pm. The poster's only piece of news. Little Ant and Dec over on ITV1 didn't stand an earthly chance. The poster won't win any awards for advertising, or illustration, but it will win big for restraint, for playing the right part in a bigger whole and for showing that sometimes you don't have to show you are clever to be clever."

The Guardian had several other items of note: the television Pick of the Day is the Timeshift documentary on Russell T Davies: "Russell T Davies and Paul Abbott. No other script writer can touch them for trampoline-tight stories and spick-and-span dialogue. This documentary gives Davies, the creator of Queer As Folk, Casanova, Doctor Who, Bob and Rose, Dark Season and Second Coming the respect he is due. As a six-year-old he was entranced by Doctor Who. His first job was as a researcher on Why Don't You? He smokes a lot. He is TV-clever like no one else because he watches so much of it. People working in television who don't watch television are weird. Love him." Meanwhile, anarticlecondemning the way that "interactive" phone-in and text-in votes and so on are coming to dominate Saturday evening television notes that Doctor Who seems to have escaped the trend: "The worst aspect of this new TV tax is that it actually lets the television industry off doing its job properly. Now they have found solace in the phone-line endorsed bun-fight between individuals struggling for the right to fame, they no longer have to find formats or presenters or, heaven forbid, original ideas with which the public genuinely engage. In this televisual temperature it is almost possible to understand the hysterics the BBC put into promoting the new Doctor Who. It came as no small surprise to learn that we weren't voting for the return of the Daleks on that one."

DigitalSpy mentions a problem that has occurred this past weekend with Sky+, specifically that the showing had some technical problems that caused it to be removed from the Sky+ planner (an automated box used to record it onto the digital video recorder.) "It's a shame that the news that Chris Eccleston was leaving leaked early but I'll try not to let it spoil my enjoyment too much. I'm sure that many sci-fi fans were attracted to E4's screening of Shallow Grave on Friday as it was a rare opportunity to see The Doctor and Obi Wan Kenobi in the same movie. Add in Keith Allen, star of the Comic Strip's Sci-Fi spoof The Yob, and you have anorak heaven."

Ultimate DVD Magazine will celebrate the arrival of the new season of Doctor Who on DVD in its May issue, out this week, April 14. "With a Doctor Who cover, taken from the DVD art for Volume 1, we've got a wealth of Who coverageà Executive producers Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner talk about return the show to our screens, and what we can expect from November's TARDIS box set. Marketing manager Matthew Parkes provides more information about the DVD release strategy, and exclusively reveals news of an exciting Doctor Who box set of classic episodes for release in 2006! PLUS: An in-depth interview with Billie Piper, and Christopher Eccleston talks about taking on the role of the Doctor." Details about the issue can be found at the Ultimate DVD website and the cover is at right.

BBC News today posts the "Tory verdict on Doctor Who" interviewing MP Tim Collins, a big supporter of the series. "Never mind the election campaign, I have the answer to the question that really matters: what does the Tory Education Spokesman, Tim Collins, think of the new Doctor Who? Mr Collins is famous for his devotion and admiration for the previous incarnations of the Doctor, and is a fount of all Tardis-related trivia. His verdict could make or break the programme's revival... It's good news. Mr Collins believes the new Doctor Who is 'fantastic', adding that at least some real money had been spent on it."

Amazon has again released details of two books from the new Doctor Who series coming this summer from Penguin Books, an Intergalactic Activity Book and a Sticker Guide; you can see the books' covers and pre-order them (and support Outpost Gallifrey) by clicking on the links. We had previously been asked if we'd remove the covers as they were only mockups and not final versions (in fact, one being a simple marketing illustration used to sell the books to the BBC!) but these appear to be the final editions. Also online: the cover illustration for Mark Campbell's revised edition of his Pocket Essentials: Doctor Who due out at the end of August.

The Sunday Mirror said yesterday that Billie Piper has been chosen to star in a modern adaptation of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. "Following her role as Dr Who's sidekick Rose in the hit new TV series, the 22-year-old will play the role of Hero, a weathergirl, in the classic play, to be set in a television newsroom," says the article. The Sunday Mirror's critic Ian Hyland also mentions the series in a brief review; it's interesting to note that the reviewer watched it, because after "Rose" went out he said he would be sticking to "Ant + Dec" on Saturday nights. "But questions still surround this show. Like when did Chris Eccleston install a spray- tanning booth in the Tardis? And did the weapons inspectors in Iraq find more evidence of chemistry than we're witnessing between Eccleston and Billie Piper? And if the Doctor is such an expert on time, how come he hasn't told the producers these new episodes are 15 minutes too long?"

Today's Metro newspaper contains a review of episode three. "Those despairing of the state of 21st century telly should get a blast of Doctor Who. This is the classic stuff today's little 'uns will look back on with childhood nostalgia. And Saturday's episode was another absolute cracker, as the Doctor and Rose Tardis-ed into a Dickensian Christmas 1860, to investigate an alien invasion. ... Quilled by The League of Gentlemen's Mark Gatiss, this was darker stuff than usual, packing in all the Victorian trappings: grave-robbing, seances, Billie's bosoms wedged into a corset, but also intelligently touching on class distinctions: 'You dress like a lady but you seem a bit common' said the ... maid to Billie, while Simon Callow was clearly having a ball as Dickens."

"Doctor Who to transform London phone boxes" says today's Media Week. "A new BBC Doctor Who DVD range is kicking off in May with a massive phone kiosk advertising campaign to take over the streets of London. Beginning on 9 May, 450 phone kiosks will be overhauled to become the Doctor's Tardis time travel machine in a campaign lasting six weeks. Matthew Parkes, BBC DVD marketing manager said: 'Telephone kiosk advertising is the perfect medium for advertising a brand so closely tied with the iconic Tardis police call box.' The first DVD volume of the new Doctor Who series will be on sale 16 May, featuring the first three episodes, followed by the second volume on 13 June, volume three in August, volume four in September and a complete box-set of the series by November. The huge excitement that has been triggered by this campaign surrounding the new Doctor Who series adds to the cult of the show, which recently made the headlines when Christopher Eccleston announced that he would not be reprising his role as the infamous Time Lord in a second series for fears of being typecast. The new series of Doctor Who, which was launched on the 26 March, followed a 16-year hiatus after the show was cancelled in 1989 due to poor audience figures... but with 9.9 million viewers for its opening episode, the sci-fi drama beat off Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, in a major blow for ITV1."

An article in the Sydney, Australia newspaper the Sun Herald discusses the acquisition of the series for Australian TV, recapping much of the hype in Christopher Eccleston's casting, his departure and the rumors about David Tennant. "It appears that Eccleston is indeed tired of it, and is moving on after one season and a Christmas special. But will Tennant step into his shoes? It is too early to tell. Many actors have been tipped as the new Doctor in the past, with choices ranging from the sublime (Ron Moody, Alan Rickman, Brian Blessed) to the peculiar (Donald Sutherland, Rutger Hauer, David Hasslehoff)." It says that, according to an interview with Eccleston, the actor said that Russell T Davies was "as close to a genius as I've seen in telly."

Saturday's South Evening Post said that "who better to put Swansea on TV screens around the world than city-born writer Russell T Davies?" The article noted that "As head writer and executive producer of the new Who, Davies helped make sure that at least part of one episode was filmed in Swansea. That episode, The Unquiet Dead, is on BBC One tonight and will be screened Down Under in May," referring to last Saturday's transmission of the episode.

From yesterday's Scotland on Sunday newspaper, in a profile of Mark E. Smith of indie rock band The Fall: "And by the time he tells me to 'Get them in, Aidan - and a whisky,' he's casually mentioning how he turned down the chance to become Doctor Who. I'd just asked him if he'd seen Christopher Eccleston's reincarnation of the Time Lord and in particular the first episode where he utters a line worthy of Smith himself: 'All planets have a north.' 'Nah, I've heard he's good, like, but 10 years ago there was talk of me being the Doctor. I was down at the BBC, doing a session for Peel, and this bloke - he must have been a Fall fan - said a place on the short-list was mine if I wanted it. 'Nah, I don't do acting,' I said. Well, could you see me fighting t'Daleks?'"

Actor Rhys Ifans, in an interview he gave at the Celtic Film Festival, claimed to have been offered the role of the Doctor after Eccleston's departure, but declined it as he "didn't have the time." In the same interview, he claimed to have also turned down the role of James Bond! This was reported in the Welsh edition of the "Daily Post" newspaper last week.

BBC News commented on the ratings for the wedding of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles this weekend and mentioned Doctor Who beating it in the ratings: "As our sports colleagues might say, there was a big crowd at Windsor on Saturday. But not too many people watched the Royal Wedding on television, according to the Mail. The paper put the viewing figures at 7.3m viewers - the same as the Grand National but fewer than Dr Who - and definitely far behind the wedding of Ken and Deirdre in Coronation Street, the paper says."

The Northern Echo says of this past weekend's episode that "the Doctor's sense of direction hasn't improved. Instead of Naples, they landed in Cardiff in 1869 where the dead were having trouble sleeping. Or as the undertaker put it, 'The stiffs are getting restless.' ... Charles Dickens played his part in putting these zombies to rest in a story written by the Co Durham-born member of The League Of Gentleman, Mark Gatiss. , which continued Russell T Davies' good work of reviving the Time Lord. One intriguing aspect of the new series is the developing relationship between the Doctor and Rose. There's a look here, a remark there. I wouldn't be surprised if, so to speak, she finds herself under the doctor. "

Finally, today's Sun comments on how, once again, Doctor Who has beaten Ant + Dec in the ratings. Those poor, poor chaps...

(Thanks to Paul Engelberg, Steve Tribe, Dave Owen, Chuck Foster, Ian O'Brien, David Richardson, Paul Hayes, David Traynier, Paul Howes, Simon Mapp, David Connah, Eddie Brennan, Dan O'Malley, Mike Buckley, Chris Winwood, and Andy Parish)

BBC7 is repeating The Ghosts of N-Space on Sundays from 24 April at 6pm, with a midnight repeat, according to the Radio Times website.