The next issue of Doctor Who Magazine is due out this Thursday, and talks exclusively to the Twelfth Doctor, Peter Capaldi.


Also in this issue:

• Doctor Who's executive producer Steven Moffat talks candidly to DWM in an in-depth interview.
• A look at 60s monster-makers Shawcraft, with never-before-seen colour photos.
• A preview of The Moonbase DVD with exclusive images.
• The Curse of Fenric – an in-depth guide to the classic Seventh Doctor adventure.
• Steven Moffat answers readers' questions on The Day of the Doctor.
• Pay the Piper – the Doctor and Clara in Part 2 of the latest comic strip.
• Author Jacqueline Rayner writes about a world inspired by Doctor Who.
• The Time Team watch Series Two of Torchwood.
• The opportunity to vote in the Ultimate Doctor Who survey – with a huge prize at stake!
• Reviews of all the latest DVDs and Cds.
• Competitions, puzzles, and much more!

Production on the eighth series of Doctor Who in the 21st Century is now in full swing, with filming taking place in Cardiff at the Roath Lock studios and on location in Cardiff. The BBC have announced details of the first couple of episodes to be filmed, alongside the first official image of new Doctor Peter Capaldi alongside Jenna Coleman:


Arriving on set in Cardiff to begin filming, Peter Capaldi said:
Steven Moffat, Lead Writer and Executive Producer, added:
Ben Stephenson, Controller of Drama Commissioning, said:
Charlotte Moore, Controller BBC One, commented:

Moffat has written the first episode of this series, which is directed by Ben Wheatley. Wheatley is a newcomer to Doctor Who, but his previous work includes The Wrong Door and Ideal. The director will also undertake the following episode, which has been written by Phil Ford, whose previous credits include The Waters of Mars for Doctor Who, as well as several episodes of Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures. Other confirmed production crew include Brian Minchin (The Time of The Doctor) as executive producer alongside Moffat, and the return of producers Nikki Wilson (The Waters of Mars, The Sarah Jane Adventures) and Peter Bennett (several episodes from Series 5 and also Torchwood: Children of Earth).

Filming is expected to continue until August 2014.

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As reported above, filming has commenced on location in Cardiff, which revealed other characters involved with the opening episode.

A video of part of the guest panel session from the BFI's final event of its Doctor Who At 50 season was uploaded to the organisation's YouTube channel today.

Held on Sunday 8th December to mark the Matt Smith era, it featured big-screen showings of The Eleventh Hour and The Name of the Doctor followed by an on-stage interview with Steven Moffat, Mark Gatiss, Saul Metzstein, and Dan Starkey, conducted by season co-curator Justin Johnson.

The 12-minute extract from the discussion can be seen below:

Doctor Who has made two of the categories in the shortlist for this year's National Television Awards. The show itself is one of four nominees in the Drama section, finding itself competing with Broadchurch, Downton Abbey, and Call The Midwife, while Matt Smith as the Doctor is nominated for Drama Performance.

In a change to the system this year, male and female actors were combined for Drama Performance, and although Jenna Coleman was included in the longlist she failed to make the shortlist. Smith will be facing challenges from Martin Clunes (as Dr Martin Ellingham in Doc Martin), Maggie Smith (as Violet Crawley, the Dowager Countess of Grantham in Downton Abbey), and Miranda Hart (as Chummy Noakes in Call The Midwife) for the gong.

Other Doctor Who luminaries in the running for awards are as follows:

TV Detectives - David Tennant (Det Insp Alec Hardy in Broadchurch), Olivia Colman (Det Sgt Ellie Miller in Broadchurch), Suranne Jones (Det Con Rachel Bailey in Scott & Bailey), and Bradley Walsh (Det Sgt Ronnie Brooks in Law and Order: UK) against Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock Holmes in Sherlock) and Idris Elba (Det Chief Insp John Luther in Luther).

Daytime - Pointless (presented by Alexander Armstrong and Richard Osman) as well as The Chase (hosted by Bradley Walsh) against This Morning and The Jeremy Kyle Show.

Documentary - Penguins - Spy In The Huddle, narrated by David Tennant, and Paul O'Grady's Working Britain against Inside Death Row With Trevor McDonald and Educating Yorkshire.

Votes can be cast by the public until midday on Wednesday 22nd January via this link. There are 13 categories in all and categories can be skipped. The awards ceremony will take place at the 02 in London later the same day, being broadcast live on ITV from 7.30pm.

Doctor Who failed to win any awards last year, in spite of nominations for the programme, Smith, and Karen Gillan.

The Time of the Doctor had a final official rating of 11.14 million viewers, according to figures published by the Broadcasters' Audience Research Board.

The consolidated figure includes those who recorded the programme and watched it within seven days, and is a substantial increase on the initial overnight figure. The episode is confirmed as the second-highest rated programme on British television for Christmas Day, and the third-highest rated programme for the whole week. Only three programmes in the week rated more than 10 million.

Top of the list for the week was the revived sitcom Still Open All Hours, which had 12.23 million watching, while Mrs Brown's Boys topped the charts for Christmas Day itself, with 11.52 million viewers. ITV's highest-rated programme was Coronation Street, scheduled directly against Doctor Who, where it had 9.83 million watching.

Doctor Who was accessed on the BBC iPlayer around 1.9 million times in the week after transmission.

Congratulations to Alan Chapman from Scotland who predicted the ratings for The Time of the Doctor exactly. He wins three signed script fronts from recent Big Finish releases.

To finish off their 2012/13 festive offers, Big Finish are offering adventures 51 to 75 of their regular Doctor Who range at a special price until the 13th January for both CD and download.


For full details and to order any of the adventures, visit the Big Finish website.

Doctor Who Adventures has launched a competition to give away a life-size Dalek worth more than £3,000.

To enter, readers must collect three tokens, with the first one available in the current issue - on sale until Tuesday 14th January.

The second token will be in the next edition of the fortnightly magazine - issue 337 - which goes on sale on 15th January, and token three will be in issue 338, on sale on 29th January. All three tokens need to be sent in with a completed form. Full terms and conditions can be found in the magazine.

Editor Moray Laing said: The latest edition - issue 336 - also comes with a pack of Alien Attax cards, a Make Your Own Model kit, and a surprise gift.

The latest in our ongoing features on special moments within Doctor Who sees the show undergo a major transformation . . .

As five million viewers watched the second Doctor spiral away towards his exile, little did they realise that it would be over six months before they would be able to enjoy the Doctor's travels once more. Changes in BBC broadcasting were afoot; the show had already been using the new 625 line standards since The Enemy of The World, and now the BBC was to commence a full colour service from November 1969. As Doctor Who would be made in this way, the series itself would be effectively delayed to both enable the transition and also provide something familiar to herald in the new year - though this led to its biggest break off air since the show's beginning in 1963.

Behind the scenes, co-producers Derrick Sherwin and Peter Bryant had implemented several changes to the format of the show, with their UNIT organisation introduced in The Invasion coming to the fore and how the Doctor would become the Brigadier's leading expert on "the odd, the unexplained, anything on Earth, or even beyond." However, diminishing ratings, the general audience reaction to the sixth season, and the departure of lead actor Patrick Troughton had put the show at risk, though without a suitable replacement programme the seventh season was commissioned with a new Doctor in the form of Jon Pertwee.

Fears for the show's continuation proved unfounded, however, as when the new series started 44 years ago today, some 8.4 million viewers tuned in to watch the new Doctor arrive on Earth and assist UNIT in thwarting the Spearhead From Space, and the overall audience appreciation of his adventures with Autons, earth reptiles, alien paranoia and an alternative Britain over the next 25 weeks were strong enough to ensure the Doctor's adventures would be safe for another 15 years . . .

And so our Moment in Time today is the arrival of the new, colourful series of Doctor Who!

Gareth Roberts has revealed that he will be returning to the Doctor Who team this year. Issue 139 of Quench, a Cardiff student lifestyle magazine, features an interview with Roberts and reports that he is "currently working on the new Peter Capaldi episodes for Doctor Who Series 8". The whole interview can be found here.

Roberts has written five episodes for Doctor Who in the past: The Shakespeare Code, The Unicorn and the Wasp, Planet of the Dead, The Lodger and Closing Time, as well as writing a number of episodes for spin-off series The Sarah Jane Adventures. Outside the Whoniverse, his other writing credits include Wizards vs Aliens and Emmerdale.

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Gareth Roberts is currently the fourth writer confirmed for Peter Capaldi's debut season, joining Steven Moffat, Mark Gatiss and Neil Cross.

The ninth day in Big Finish's special offers for Christmas is for The Nicholas Courtney Memoirs, which is available to purchase for download at a special price for the next couple of days only.


The offers continue tomorrow with a puzzling case for the first Doctor ...