Peladon DVD Delayed?

Saturday, 5 December 2009 - Reported by Marcus
Amazon are advising their customers that the UK January release of Peladon Tales is being delayed by two weeks. No information is available from 2 entertain to confirm this and it is not known what effect any delay may have on the rest of the 2010 schedule.

Meanwhile TV Shows on DVD is reporting that The Next Doctor will be "upconverted" from standard definition to HD for the upcoming Blu-Ray edition of the 2009 Specials box set. This is the first time a Doctor Who episode that hasn't been produced in HD has undergone this treatment.

The website also confirms the extras which will be included on The End of Time's DVD/Blu-Ray release. The information is for the North American release, but is expected to be identical to the UK edition.
  • Doctor Who Confidential - The End of Time Part One
  • Doctor Who Confidential - The End of Time Part Two
  • Deleted Scenes
  • David Tennant Video Diary - The Final Days
  • BBC Christmas Idents
  • Doctor Who at Comic Con
  • 5.1 Surround Sound
The Specials Collection will include Doctor Who at the Proms.




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

New Christmas Promo

Friday, 4 December 2009 - Reported by Marcus
The BBC has released a new promo previewing Doctor Who and The Gruffalo, both of which will be shown on BBC One on Christmas Day.

The promo contains several new clips from The End of Time Part One.



The BBC also have a promo for Hamlet starring David Tennant.

The BBC have now released the BBC One ident along with three short stings.





FILTER: - Specials - Broadcasting

Christmas Radio Times cover

Friday, 4 December 2009 - Reported by Anthony Weight
The MediaGuardian.co.uk website has unveiled this year's front cover for the Christmas double edition of the BBC's Radio Times listings magazine. The Christmas special of the Radio Times is a festive tradition in the UK, eagerly awaited and usually the magazine's biggest-selling issue of the year. Usually the special features a generic Christmas scene on the front cover, but occasionally particular programmes are featured - as Doctor Who was in 2005, which was considered to be a great honour for the series.

This year, the magazine has produced two alternate covers, both of a similar design. One features Father Christmas and a wind-up toy of some dancers, representing the BBC's successful Strictly Come Dancing series. The second cover features a Dalek toy in place of the dancers, highlighting Doctor Who's key role in the BBC's Christmas schedules across a range of programming.





FILTER: - Specials - Magazines - Series 4/30 Specials - Radio Times

Canadian Airdate for The End of Time

Friday, 4 December 2009 - Reported by Marcus
SPACE have confirmed both parts of The End of Time will be broadcast in Canada on Saturday 2nd January 2010.

The final two episodes of David Tennant's tenure as The Doctor will be transmitted back to back with Part One at 8pm and Part Two starting at 9.20pm. Both episodes will be preceded by a repeat of the first three specials, The Next Doctor, Planet of the Dead and The Waters of Mars making a total of seven hours of Doctor Who on the channel.

And if that is not enough Doctor Who, the entire series of Torchwood Children of Earth will be shown earlier in the day.




FILTER: - Canada - Specials - Series 4/30 Specials - Broadcasting

Schedule, Promos and Ident

Thursday, 3 December 2009 - Reported by Marcus
"Special Project Three" has been leaked onto the internet. (Russell T Davies has repeatedly mentioned that David Tennant had worked on three special Doctor Who projects this year, in addition to the four television specials; the first two were the Doctor's appearance in The Sarah Jane Adventures and the animated serial Dreamland.) The third project consists of a special ident for BBC One featuring Tennant as the Doctor. A version of the ident for BBC Scotland has appeared on the website BlogtorWho. The official launch will be later this month, but the BBC have now released a still from the ident.

The BBC has started promoting its Christmas lineup with trails on BBC One. The drama version features several clips from Doctor Who and is available on the BBC YouTube Channel.

The Radio Times for 12 - 18 December confirms the Doctor Who edition of Never Mind the Buzzcocks will be shown on Wednesday 16 December. David Tennant hosts the special show with team captains Phill Jupitus and Noel Fielding. Guests include Bernard Cribbins and Catherine Tate, plus platinum-selling jazz artist Jamie Cullum and Radio 1's Jo Whiley.

Broadcast on December 12th is the previously reported edition of Shelved, the BBC Radio Four documentary which looks at TV episodes which were scrapped because of prevailing political and social circumstances. The Doctor Who story Shada is one of the programmes investigated and Tom Baker takes part.

Meanwhile BBC Radio Seven have scheduled a repeat of An Hour with Jon Pertwee. The show on Saturday 12 December at 5pm is a radio version of Pertwee's one man biographical show.

BBC Radio can be heard around the world via the listen now links on the websites.
Follow the Doctor Who News Page on Follow Doctor Who News on Twitter




FILTER: - Specials - Online - David Tennant - Classic Series - Radio Times - Broadcasting

BBC America confirms final special

Thursday, 3 December 2009 - Reported by Marcus
BBC America has confirmed they will show the final part of The End of Time on January 2nd, 2010 at 8pm ET.

The showing, just one day after the UK showing, will complete the three week run of specials with the Waters of Mars showing on December 19th and The End of Time Part One on 26th December.




FILTER: - Specials - USA - Series 4/30 Specials - Broadcasting

Waters of Mars – Repeat Ratings

Thursday, 3 December 2009 - Reported by Marcus
An additional 695,000 viewers watched the BBC Three repeat of The Waters of Mars, according to official figures issued by BARB this week. The programme rated as the 4th highest watched on the channel for the week.

Over 550,000 have now watched the programme on the BBC iPlayer. When all ratings are added together The Waters of Mars has now been watched by 11.5 million people.

Full Ratings data and Audience analysis for the Specials can be found in Gallifrey Base.




FILTER: - Specials - Ratings - UK - Series 4/30 Specials

Christmas scheduling confirmed

Wednesday, 2 December 2009 - Reported by Anthony Weight
The BBC Press Office has confirmed the scheduling of The End of Time, the two-part final adventure for David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor. Part one will be shown from 6pm to 7pm on Christmas Day, Friday the 25th of December. Part two follows from 6.40-7.55pm the following Friday, 1st January 2010 - New Year's Day.

In other news, the latest edition of Radio Times has confirmed the casting of Claire Bloom and Brian Cox in The End of Time.

Claire Bloom's casting has been rumoured in many press reports over the last few months but this is the first official confirmation from the BBC that she is in the episode. She has a long career in film and Television appearing with Charlie Chaplin in the 1952 film Limelight for which she won the BAFTA for Best Newcomer. She later won the Best Actress BAFTA for the 1986 film Shadowlands. She is a renowned Shakespearian actress who received great acclaim for her portrayal of Ophelia in Hamlet when she was just seventeen.

Brian Cox provided the voice over for the Ood elder seen in the End of Time trail at the end of The Waters of Mars and was the mystery guest star refered to by Russell T Davies in his Production Notes in DWM. Cox is best known for his role as Hannibal Lecktor in the 1986 film Manhunter as well many Hollywood films and also for his work with the Royal Shakespeare Company. He won the Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie for Nuremberg in 2001.

David Tennant's starring role in Hamlet can be seen on BBC Two on Boxing Day, Saturday 26 December from 5.05-8.10pm. and the Catherine Tate special, Nan's Christmas Carol, can be seen on BBC One on Christmas Day at 10.30pm.




FILTER: - Specials - UK - Production - Series 4/30 Specials - Radio Times - Broadcasting

Gadget on Display

Saturday, 28 November 2009 - Reported by Marcus
Gadget The Robot has gone on display at the Doctor Who Exhibition in Coventry in the West Midlands.

The exhibition, which has an extended run until January, now features the Robot along with other props and costumes from The Waters of Mars including The Water Zombie and the costume of Captain Adelaide Brooks.

Visitors to the exhibition at Coventry Transport Museum, can also see Bessie, the Third Doctor's yellow roadster car and Jon Pertwee's costume.

Chief executive of the museum, Gary Hall, said: "The Doctor Who exhibition has been a big hit, with visitors coming again and again to see the exhibition. Getting new props for Christmas provides our visitors with a fantastic opportunity to visit the exhibition during Christmas holidays. We would urge people not to miss out on seeing the fantastic new props and costumes and posing next to Bessie for a photograph."

Note that although there is a charge to see the Doctor Who Exhibition, entry to the general museum is free. Visitors can see Bessie for nothing.




FILTER: - Specials - Exhibitions - Series 4/30 Specials

Radio Times: Death of a Doctor - Updated

Saturday, 28 November 2009 - Reported by Chuck Foster
Doctor Who once again graces the front cover of the next issue of the Radio Times (5-11 Dec 2009); this edition features a three page preview for "The End of Time", including interviews with Bernard Cribbins and Russell T Davies who reveals that John Simm is back as the Master, the Doctor’s arch nemesis for nearly four decades.

Davies tells how he wasn't daunted by the inconvenience of having killed off the Master in 2007 – this is sci-fi, after all: “It’s personal for the Doctor. The Master is his enemy, his opposite, and yet so tantalisingly close to being his soul mate. There’s something epic about their sheer existence – the last two survivors of an ancient race. It’s a clash of the titans. Both of them heading for death, and yet both determined to survive – at any cost!”

Radio Times is on sale in the UK from Saturday.

You can find a gallery of previous Doctor Who covers on the Radio Times website.




FILTER: - Specials - Magazines - Series 4/30 Specials - Radio Times