Sarah Jane Final RatingsBookmark and Share

Friday, 11 December 2009 - Reported by Marcus
Final Ratings Data is now available for the entire run of Series Three of The Sarah Jane Adventures.

The final two episodes of the series got a rating of 0.95 million for Part One of The Gift and 0.89 million for Part Two. The audience share for both episodes was 7%.

The ratings were once again much higher than the average for BBC One at this time of day with the programmes reaching three times as many viewers as is usual for the timeslot. The audience profile was consistent with this time of day suggesting that The Sarah Jane Adventures was being seen by a substantial number of its target audience on CBBC.

A comparison with other new CBBC shows transmitted at this time shows just how well the show is doing with The Sarah Jane Adventures getting more than double the average achieved by other programmes.

The highest rated episodes of the series were the two parts of The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith, which saw David Tennant guest starring as the Doctor. This episode also scored the highest AI figure for the series with a score of 89.



Full Audience data is available on Gallifrey Base.




FILTER: - Ratings - UK - Sarah Jane

Doctor Who Adventures - 145Bookmark and Share

Friday, 11 December 2009 - Reported by Marcus
In this week’s Doctor Who Adventures you’ll find a story guide about Journey’s End. As Davros and the Daleks plan to destroy the universe the Doctor needs some of his best friends to help him stop them.

The Magazine asks why do strange things keep happening to Donna and her family? Find out in this week’s fact file.

Doctor Who Adventures also reveals ten of the most grisly goodbyes in Doctor Who. Look out for cyber shocks and the kiss of death!

All this, plus  the Tenth Doctor in this week’s Countdown to Change, as well as a free Doctor Who gift.




FILTER: - Magazines - DWA

TARDIS lands at CaerphillyBookmark and Share

Thursday, 10 December 2009 - Reported by Marcus
Several papers have picked up on the arrival of the TARDIS at Caerphilly Castle in South Wales. The appearance is to promote the castle's Medieval Christmas fayre this weekend. The blue police box is located on top of the Inner East Gatehouse tower and will be lit up during the night. It will stay there until the New Year.

The castle was used to film some scenes for The End of Time.

The story is reported in The Mirror, The Sun, Wales Online and BBC News. Thanks to ahremsee of Gallifrey Base for the pictures.




FILTER: - Press

Shada Sacrificed?Bookmark and Share

Thursday, 10 December 2009 - Reported by Marcus
BBC News have published an article looking into the circumstances leading to the cancellation of the 1979 Tom Baker story Shada.

The piece is written by Shaun Ley and is in conjunction with his Radio 4 programme Shelved, due for transmission this weekend.

The article provides new insight as to why the programme was abandoned. In the BBC Official History, being written by Professor Jean Seaton, it is suggested that the programme was sacrificed deliberately to make a political point regarding the effects of industrial action by the Broadcasting Unions.

The full programme can be heard on BBC Radio 4 on Saturday.




FILTER: - Radio - Press

The End of Time PartiesBookmark and Share

Thursday, 10 December 2009 - Reported by Chuck Foster
David Tennant's Doctor Who finale, The End of Time Part Two, will be celebrated by two free pub events, both running from 3pm to 10:30pm on New Year's Day. One takes place in London in Farringdon, with the other taking place in Manchester at The Lass O'Gowrie pub on Charles Street.

Says Doctor Who fan and Lass O'Gowrie publican Gareth Kavanagh: "We'll be using all our big screens and pub system to create a fantastic atmosphere befitting the end of an era. It's free to attend - however, it's first come, first served. Under-16s are fine to stay until 9.30pm but they must be accompanied by an adult." For more details contact Gareth at info@thelass.co.uk.

The London event is organised by Jeremy Bentham, who has arranged parties for the premiere of all four series of 21st Century Doctor Who to date; for more details on where the party will take place, contact him at jjbentham@aol.com.




FILTER: - Specials - Special Events - Series 4/30 Specials

UK listings magazinesBookmark and Share

Wednesday, 9 December 2009 - Reported by Anthony Weight
The previously-reported cover feature of the Christmas double issue of the Radio Times is by no means the only exposure Doctor Who is receiving from British TV listings magazines this Christmas. Most prominently, two other such publications have also produced Doctor Who-themed covers for their festive specials. TV & Satellite Week has a cover based around "The End of Time", while Total TV Guide's cover shows Father Christmas hand-painting TARDIS toys. The TV Times also features Doctor Who on its cover in a less prominent role, with an inset image of a Dalek promoting their own "Win a Dalek" competition.

Inside, the Radio Times is filled with Doctor Who-related material and previews. There is an in-depth interview with David Tennant, where the actor speaks about his thoughts on moving on to the next phase of his career. "Doctor Who has meant so much to me," he tells the magazine. "It's great to sign off with a flourish." Both parts of "The End of Time" are highlighted in the "Today's Choices" preview section for their respective days, with part one "Pick of the Day" for Christmas Day, described by the magazine's TV editor Alison Graham as a "thoughtful story." In the radio listings section, David Tennant's turns as interviewee (on Sunday 27th December's "Desert Island Discs") and interviewer (of Russell T Davies, on Tuesday 29th December's "Who on Who?") are also picked out as highlights of their respective days.

Both TV & Satellite Week and Total TV Guide also speak to Tennant about how he feels to be giving up the role of the Doctor. "Being a celebrity doesn't sit easily with me," he tells the former. "It's part of the job, but if that died down it would be OK." In Total TV Guide, he says of his successor Matt Smith that "I think he'll be good for the role because he has an unusual look. He could be either 18 or 40. I hope that doesn't offend him!" Both magazines make "The End of Time" their Christmas Day highlight, with TV & Satellite Week saying that "there's no doubt this year's two-part story will top all previous offerings," while Total TV Guide calls it "a fitting farewell for David Tennant's incarnation of the Time Lord." Both magazines also speak to Catherine Tate about her own Christmas special; she tells TV & Satellite Week of her appearance in "The End of Time" that: "It was sad, but I was delighted to be in the episodes. David is a brilliant actor and has brought everything he could to the role."

You can keep track of all major Doctor Who-related programmes on British TV and radio this Christmas with our broadcast summary.




FILTER: - Specials - Russell T Davies - Magazines - Series 4/30 Specials - Press - Radio Times

TV Movie re-released on DVDBookmark and Share

Wednesday, 9 December 2009 - Reported by Marcus
The latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine reveals that The TV Movie will be re-released on DVD as a special edition in 2010.

The special, which stars Paul McGann in his only television appearence as the Eighth Doctor, was first shown in 1996. The new release will be part of the "Revisitaions" box set, which will consist of new editions of stories that were previously released in the early days of the DVD range.

The TV Move special edition will include a documentary called The Seven Year Hitch, which looks at producer Philip Segal's long quest to get the project into production and talks to Segal himself, as well as writer Matthew Jacobs and the then-BBC One controller Alan Yentob.

There is no confirmed release date for the Box Set, nor is it known if the story will finally be available in North America.


Also in DWM is news that Jamie and Zoe will be reunited in a new three-part Big Finish story in 2010. Wendy Padbury will join Frazer Hines in a Sixth Doctor story starring Colin Baker. The first story, City of Spires by Simon Bovey, will be released in April and guest stars Georgia Moffett. It will be followed by The Wreck of the Titan by Barnaby Edwards and Legend of the Cybermen by Mike Maddox.




FILTER: - Audio - Classic Series - Blu-ray/DVD

Doctor Who Magazine 416Bookmark and Share

Wednesday, 9 December 2009 - Reported by Marcus

Doctor Who Magazine 416 is the biggest-ever edition and, less than a month before he leaves the role, is a David Tennant special. Tennant gives an in-depth interview about his last days as the Tenth Doctor, the forthcoming Christmas Special, The End of Time, and the reasons why he’s decided to leave his dream job.

"When the Doctor decides he’s the ‘Time Lord Victorious’, we’re making him quite unsympathetic", considers David. "Well, it’s making him more Time Lord, actually, when you consider how they turned out. When we see the Doctor behaving arrogantly, selfishly or uncontrollably, it’s then that he appears more fallible, and therefore more human?
The Time Lords were pretty fallible too. It’s hubris. It’s Greek. It needed that scale to tell the final story. It’s a tale of the gods, really but gods who are fallible and, I suppose, human."


Also in the issue:
  • AS TIME GOES BY With just two weeks to go until this year’s Doctor Who Christmas Specials, there is a taste of what’s in store, with dozens of new photos from The End of Time.
  • MASTERPIECE
    He’s the Doctor’s most persistent Time Lord nemesis – the Master is back. John Simm explains why he couldn’t miss out on the Tenth Doctor’s final party.
  • GRANDAD, GRANDAD, LOVELY!
    The Doctor’s faithful friend Wilfred Mott enters the TARDIS – and for Bernard Cribbins it’s his first trip into time and space for 43 years! Cribbins looks back over his long career.
  • A SPACEMAN CAME TRAVELLING
    The Fact of Fiction turns back the clock to Christmas 2005, and the moment when we first met the Tenth Doctor – in The Christmas Invasion.
  • IT’S THE FINAL COUNTDOWN!
    Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies has written his very last Production Notes, what will be his all-important final word?
  • SIMPLY RED!
    Majenta Pryce’s dark secrets are about to be revealed as the Tenth Doctor begins his final, epic, comic strip adventure – THE CRIMSON HAND, by Dan McDaid with art from Martin Geraghty.
  • THOSE WERE THE DAYS, MY FRIEND
    A look back at the most memorable Doctor Who moments of 2009 in the Review of the Year.
  • PARTY LIKE IT’S 1999
    THhe Time Team relive the end of the twentieth century as they turn their attention to the Eighth Doctor’s only on-screen adventure, the 1996 TV Movie.
  • EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE
    The Watcher concludes his definitive guide to the Time Lord’s many incarnations by taking a close look at The Tenth Doctor.
  • MONEY – THAT’S WHAT I WANT
    Catches up with the Sil, aka Nabil Shaban and find out what he thinks about Jonathan Ross, YouTube, weapons of mass destruction – and returning as Sil on audio.

Plus The Watcher is back with the Christmas Quiz, there is a giant-sized, double-sided poster, and a chance to win the latest DVDs, CDs, books and audios – including the Doctor Who Series 1-4 box set.




FILTER: - Specials - Bernard Cribbins - Magazines - David Tennant - Classic Series

Missing episodes documentary on Radio 4Bookmark and Share

Monday, 7 December 2009 - Reported by Anthony Weight

The Christmas edition of the Radio Times contains details of another Doctor Who-themed addition to the already-packed schedules of the BBC. On Saturday the 26th of December at 8pm, BBC Radio 4 will broadcast the one-hour documentary Doctor Who: The Lost Episodes, as part of its Archive on 4 strand. The documentary is produced by Shaun Ley, the same man responsible for the previously-reported documentary "Shelved", which looks at the abandonment of several 1970s television productions, including the 1979 Doctor Who serial Shada, and airs on Radio 4 this Saturday.

"Doctor Who: The Lost Episodes" will look at how 108 episodes of the classic series came to be missing from the archives, and how efforts have led to the recovery of several more that were also previously thought lost. The programme will also be repeated, in a shortened 45-minute form and on FM frequencies only, on Radio 4 at 3pm on Monday the 28th of December. It will also be available internationally on the BBC website.

You can keep track of all major Doctor Who-related programmes on British TV and radio this Christmas with our broadcast summary.




FILTER: - Documentary - Classic Series - Radio - Radio Times

News round-upBookmark and Share

Monday, 7 December 2009 - Reported by Josiah Rowe
The BBC's Doctor Who Advent Calendar isn't the only spot on the web with a daily Doctor Who treat this month. SFX is making a daily countdown to The End of Time on its blog. Highlights so far have included an interview with Russell T Davies, split into three parts here, here and here, as well as pieces on "27 Things SFX Loves About New Who", "How New Doctor Who Has Changed Everything" and "The Greater Spotted David Tennant"; the last includes a summary of all the places David Tennant will be appearing on UK TV and radio this month, as well as some that he probably won't but could. Meanwhile, the BBC's Director of Vision Jana Bennett, the woman in overall charge of the BBC's television services, has written a blog entry praising Doctor Who's place at the heart of the corporation's Christmas television line-up.

Speaking of Tennant, filming has begun on the pilot for Rex Is Not Your Lawyer, the American TV series starring Tennant as a Chicago lawyer who suffers from panic attacks. The Sun, The Daily Telegraph and The Daily Star have short articles about Tennant's casting in the NBC series and his future in Hollywood.

In other news, Karen Gillan's former drama coach brags about her ex-student in the Daily Record; thisissouthwales.co.uk has a brief item on an appearance by Colin Baker and 117 toy Daleks; and the Wigan Evening Post has an item on a Doctor Who fan who's built a replica TARDIS to raise funds for a local cancer centre.

Finally, in response to a fan's query on Twitter, Star Trek: The Next Generation actor Brent Spiner expressed interest in playing a villain on Doctor Who.


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FILTER: - People - David Tennant - Press