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 ...

The next in our ongoing features on special moments within Doctor Who sees the commencement of Season Eight, and the arrival of one of the Doctor's greatest nemeses ...

Up until 1971, viewers had only been introduced to a mere few of the Doctor's own race. Surprisingly this first occurred quite early in the show's history, when the Doctor with his companions Steven and Vicki became involved in the nefarious plans of a fellow time traveller from the Doctor's home planet, but it wasn't until 1969 when the machinations of another of his contemporaries ultimately resulted in the Doctor having to contact his own people, leading to his own 'capture', 'trial', and subsequent exile to Earth by the Time Lords.

With a new Doctor effectively earthbound, protagonists had to come to him rather than vice versa, and the production team envisaged a regular adversary, one to match his wisdom and skills, an intellectual challenger in a similar vein to that between Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty. It made sense to make such a person one of his own race, so Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks settled on an old acquaintance from the Doctor's youth, another Time Lord renegade who would be both very familiar with and considered himself to be superior to the Doctor.

There was only one person in mind to portray such a character, and today's Moment in Time focuses on the debut of the Doctor's new "old" adversary in Terror of The Autons, as played so memorably by Roger Delgado ...

BBC Worldwide has announced Doctor Who: The Best of The Doctor is to get a 3 Disc Region 4 Release Date Early January. The DVD consists of all the BBC America Documentaries "The Best of ...." and according to some sources will also include an episode to accompany each documentary, though this has not been confirmed. The specials in the series, and are expected to be included on the set, are:

• Doctor Who: The Best of the Doctor
• Doctor Who: The Best of the Monsters
• Doctor Who: The Best of the Companions
• Doctor Who: The Best of the Christmas Specials
• Doctor Who: The Science of Doctor Who
• Doctor Who: The Women of Doctor Who
• Doctor Who: The Timey Wimey of Doctor Who
• Doctor Who: The Destinations of Doctor Who
• Doctor Who: Doctor Who in America

Each of the Specials duration time is around 45 minutes. The official details are below:
The DVD can be pre-orded online from JB-HI-FI

Tom Baker has expressed his heartfelt thanks to fans around the world for their support, saying he felt 'swamped in love' following his appearance in the 50th Anniversary episode of Doctor Who.

The veteran actor, who turns 80 later this month, posted a New Year’s message on his website, reflecting on the past year and his plans for the future. He said wonderful messages came in from around the world following his cameo in the The Day of the Doctor, which he revealed was filmed in Cardiff last spring. Through the wintry darkness of April, I travelled to Cardiff where my scene was to be shot. The BBC decided that I shouldn’t stay in a hotel in Cardiff in case people guessed what I was there for. Matt and I did not discuss the scene or talk about what it might mean; God forbid! No, we started just after eight am and about four hours later I was released.

Baker also spoke of his experience at the Excel Centre in London, where he attended the 50th Anniversary Celebration along with thousands of fans."It was tumult: the fans cheered as if I had come back from the dead and the cheering did the trick... I travelled back in time: it was wonderful. I enjoyed it all."

In the message Tom Baker tells how he spent Christmas without power, following storms which hit the South East of England just before the holiday, Sue & I had to manage the best we could in the darkness, trying to be cheerful and entertaining ourselves. He looks forward to completing more recordings for Big Finish Productions in the New Year. I have never been happier at work than I am with my colleagues at Big Finish. The actors are well cast and are wonderful company.

Tom Baker thanked fans for their emails and messages on his facebook page. I am constantly touched and amazed by the personal stories people have told in my guestbook about how watching Doctor Who helped them through difficult times and inspired them to make something of their lives. Thank you for sharing these wonderful stories with me and other fans. I certainly find it very interesting.