Cold War AI:84

Monday, 15 April 2013 - Reported by Marcus

Cold War had an Appreciation Index, or AI score, of 84.

The Appreciation Index or AI is a measure of how much the audience enjoyed the programme. The score, out of a hundred, is compiled by a specially selected panel of around 5,000 people who go online and rate and comment on programmes.

The score is identical to last week's Doctor Who and scored higher than most of Saturday's output. The highest scoring programmes of the day were Casulty with 88, Walking Through History with 85 and Dad's Army with 89.




FILTER: - Doctor Who - Ratings - UK - Series 7/33

John Smith And The Common Men Out On Disc

Monday, 15 April 2013 - Reported by John Bowman
Music heard in the first episode of Doctor Who is to be made exclusively available on vinyl as part of this year's Record Store Day.

Three Guitars Mood 2 is the song that introduces the Doctor's granddaughter Susan, who is listening to it on a hand-held transistor radio when the audience first sees her. It is attributed by her to John Smith And The Common Men, and they are the title artists of a three-track EP, Sounds From The Inferno, which is being released on Saturday 20th April on the Hysterion Records label.

The back cover of the 7-inch EP includes a guide to the hand movements performed to the song by Susan.

The B-side has the tracks Latin Gear and The Eyelash, which are two pieces of music heard in The Inferno nightclub in the season 3 closing story The War Machines.

Hysterion Records' Ronnie Shame said:
These tracks were originally recorded as library music. They appeared in numerous television programmes during the 1960s, but they also have a special association with Doctor Who.
The EP - or extended play - is a numbered limited edition of 1,000 copies and will only be available from independent record shops. Copies will be sold on a first-come first-served basis and cannot be pre-ordered or bought online. A list of retailers taking part in Record Store Day is available here.

Three Guitars Mood 2 was actually composed by Nelson and Raymond, performed by The Arthur Nelson Group, and originally released on the Conroy label, while The Eyelash and Latin Gear were composed by Johnny Hawksworth and included on the album The Mood Modern, brought out on the Keith Prowse Music label.




FILTER: - Music - Merchandise - Special Events - Classic Series

Australian overnight ratings for Cold War

Monday, 15 April 2013 - Reported by Adam Kirk


Cold War has debuted in Australia, averaging 728,000 viewers in the five major capital cities. It was the ABC's top-rating drama of the day and the tenth highest rating program of the day overall. These ratings do not include regional or time-shifted viewers.
Media Links: TV Tonight




FILTER: - Ratings - Broadcasting - Series 7/33 - Australia

Cold War: 5.7 Million Overnight Audience

Sunday, 14 April 2013 - Reported by Marcus
Cold War had an overnight audience of 5.7 million viewers, a share of 26.7% of the total TV audience.

Doctor Who was again third for the day. where top honours were taken by the return of ITV's talent show, Britain's Got Talent, which had 10.5 million watching and a massive 41.5% share of the audience.

The BBC's talent show, The Voice, had 6.7 million watching.

Doctor Who once more won the time-slot with You've Been Framed! And Famous 4 getting 4.0 million watching.

Final ratings will be released next week, which should see Doctor Who substantially increase its rating once those who timeshift the programme are factored in.




FILTER: - Doctor Who - Ratings - UK - Series 7/33

The Bells of Saint John: Ratings Chart

Saturday, 13 April 2013 - Reported by Marcus
Full ratings data for the week ending 31st March 2013 is now available and puts Doctor Who: The Bells of Saint John as the eighth most watched programme in the UK for the week.

The episode achieved 8.44 million viewers had 35.8% share of the available Television audience.

The only thing to beat Doctor Who on BBC One was one episode of EastEnders. On ITV it was beaten by five episodes of Coronation Street and an episode of the detective series staring David Tennant, Broadchurch.

On Saturday 30th March, Doctor Who was the highest rated programme getting 120,000 more viewers than Ant and Dec's Saturday Takeaway, even though the ITV programme had a later start time.

On iPlayer The Bells of Saint John has so far been accessed over 1.4 million times.




FILTER: - Doctor Who - Ratings - UK - Series 7/33

The Ice Warriors: DVD details announced / Big Finish weekend offer

Friday, 12 April 2013 - Reported by Chuck Foster
BBC Worldwide have announced details for the forthcoming release of The Ice Warriors on DVD. The two-disc set has been provisionally scheduled for release on 26th August 2013 for R2 and 28th August for R4 (a R1 date has yet to be confirmed).

The Ice Warriors
Release date: 26 Aug 2013 UK

The Ice Warriors - Cover (R2) (Credit: BBC Worldwide)Starring Patrick Troughton as Doctor Who, Frazer Hines as Jamie, and Deborah Watling as Victoria
Written by Brian Hayles
Directed by Derek Martinus

Broadcast: Sat 11 Nov - Sat 16 Dec 1967

In the distant future, Earth faces a new Ice Age. While a dedicated team of scientists battle to hold the approaching glaciers at bay, a startling discovery is made deep within the ice… an alien warrior, frozen for millennia. When the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria arrive they soon discover Earth is under threat from the Ice Warriors – fearsome Martians intent on conquering our planet for themselves…
 
 

Special Features: Disc One
Special Features: Disc One
  • Cold Fusion (dur. 24’31”) – Cast and crew look back at the making of the story. With actors Frazer Hines, Deborah Watling and Sonny Caldinez, designer Jeremy Davies, and James Bresslaw (son of the late actor Bernard Bresslaw)
  • Beneath the Ice (dur. 10’31”) - A look behind the scenes of the animated Ice Warrior episodes. Producers Chris Chapman and Niel Bushnell, together with animation director Chris Chatterton from Qurios lift the lid on the process used to bring Varga and his Warriors back to life
  • VHS Links (dur. 19’19”) – the introduction to the story and linking material covering the two missing episodes, as used on the VHS release of the story in 1998. Includes the BBC Video “Adjust your tracking control” caption for a true sense of nostalgia!
  • Blue Peter Design-a-Monster (dur. 10’04”) – the competition launch and subsequent winners of the 1967 Design-a-Monster competition, which ran during the transmission of The Ice Warriors
  • Doctor Who Stories – Frazer Hines part two (dur. 13’ 48”) - the second part of this interview with Frazer Hines shot in 2004 for The Story of Doctor Who looks at his later appearances in the series
  • Photo Gallery (dur. 3’53”) - production, design and publicity photos from the story
  • Coming Soon (dur. 1 min approx) - a trailer for a forthcoming DVD release
  • Radio Times Listings in Adobe PDF format
  • Programme subtitles
A number of new stills from the animated episodes have also been published, including a recent tweet by producer Chris Chapman comparing the animation with an existing telesnap:
The Ice Warriors - animation/image comparison (Credit: Chris Chapman/BBC Worldwide)

BBC Worldwide have also released a brief video excerpt to demonstrate the animation via their YouTube channel.

Big Finish: Ice Warriors special offer

Saturday has yet more Ice Warrior excitement, as the Martians return to television in Cold War. To celebrate their appearance Big Finish are running a special offer on their adventures in audio/download over the weekend:

Ice Warrior (Credit: Big Finish)The Ice Warriors are back! This weekend sees the return of everyone's favourite Martian menace to TV screens in Doctor Who's latest episode Cold War. And what better way to celebrate than to enjoy some top Ice Warrior action on CD or download audiobook, on offer until Monday morning individually or as a bundle of all ten stories!

The complete list of titles on offer are as follows:

Doctor Who: Red Dawn
Doctor Who: Frozen Time
Doctor Who: The Bride of Peladon
Doctor Who: The Judgement of Isskar
Doctor Who - The Lost Stories: Mission to Magnus
Doctor Who - The Lost Stories: Thin Ice
Doctor Who - The Companion Chronicles: The Prisoner of Peladon
Doctor Who - The Eighth Doctor Adventures: Deimos
Doctor Who - The Eighth Doctor Adventures: The Resurrection of Mars
Bernice Summerfield: Dance of the Dead

To order a bundle, just click the 'bundles' button on one of the product pages. Please note that as Bernice Summerfield: Dance of the Dead is not available for download, purchasers of the download bundle will be sent a CD of this title.




FILTER: - Second Doctor - Classic Series - Special Offers - Blu-ray/DVD - Big Finish

Genesis of the Daleks on UKTV

Friday, 12 April 2013 - Reported by Paul Scoones

UKTV

Sunday 14th April sees the broadcast of the six-part 1975 Tom Baker story Genesis of the Daleks on Australian and New Zealand television. The story is the 14th instalment in the 50th Anniversary season of Doctor Who stories on the UKTV channel.

The story is scheduled in New Zealand at 3:25pm and in Australia at 3:30pm . New Zealand has an additional screening on Monday 15th April at 3:20am.

Genesis of the Daleks was first broadcast in Australia in 1977. New Zealand viewers didn't get to see the story for another decade - it was first screened by TVNZ in 1987.

UKTV is showing stories throughout the year in the lead-up to the anniversary in November. Genesis of the Daleks is the second in a set of six stories featuring Tom Baker's Doctor broadcast during April.

The rest of the month's schedule includes: Pyramids of Mars and The Hand of Fear (both 21st April), and The Robots of Death and City of Death (both 28th April).

Up-and-coming broadcasts from both 20th and 21st Century series of Doctor Who can be found via UKTV's Doctor Who sections  for Australia and New Zealand.





FILTER: - Classic Series - WHO50 - New Zealand - Australia

Big Finish: April update

Thursday, 11 April 2013 - Reported by Chuck Foster
Big Finish have released details on the latest adventures for the Doctor and his companions in April ...

Eldrad Must Die! (Credit: Big Finish)Eldrad Must Die! (available to pre-order)
Starring Peter Davison as The Doctor, Janet Fielding as Tegan, Mark Strickson as Turlough, and Sarah Sutton as Nyssa, with Stephen Thorne as Eldrad.

"A Doctor, curse his name, threw me down among the dead… but I endure. I am Eldrad… and I must live!

A nuclear icebreaker, foundering in Arctic waters. Seabirds washed up in the fishing resort of Ambermouth, their wings encrusted with crystals. A shining artefact of uncertain provenance, up for sale on an auction site.

All of these things are linked, as the Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Turlough are about to discover. Linked to the rebirth of a genocidal tyrant, presumed dead many years ago…

For the sake of the planets Earth and Kastria alike… Eldrad must die!
 
The Companion Chronicles: The Library of Alexandria (Credit: Big Finish)The Library of Alexandria (available to pre-order)
Starring William Russell as Ian Chesterton, with Susan Franklyn as Hypatia

The port of Alexandria, 5th Century AD.

The Doctor, Ian, Susan and Barbara have taken a break from their travels, and are enjoying a few weeks in the sunshine – and the chance to appreciate the magnificent Library of Alexandria.

Ian also takes the chance to enjoy friendship with the philosopher Hypatia - but things here will not last forever.

The time travellers know that the library will soon be lost to history.

What they are about to discover is the terrifying reason why...
 

Competition

Thanks to Big Finish we have five copies of The Library of Alexandria for this month's competition. To be in with a chance to win, please answer the following question:
The Library of Alexandria is part of Egypt's history, but what is the name of the Fifth Doctor's travelling companion who hailed from a much earlier era of the Pharaohs?
Send your answer to alexandria-competition@doctorwhonews.net with the subject line "Was that your Mummy?", along with your name, address, and where you saw the competition (the news website, twitter, facebook, etc.). Only one entry per postal address will be accepted. The competition is open worldwide, and the closing date is 30th April 2013.




FILTER: - Merchandise - Audio - Competitions - Fifth Doctor - Big Finish

Final Australian ratings for The Bells of Saint John

Thursday, 11 April 2013 - Reported by Adam Kirk
The Bells of Saint John has picked up an additional 176,000 time-shifted Australian viewers, giving it a final, or consolidated, ratings average of 932,000 viewers in the five major capital cities.  This was the second largest number of time-shifted viewers for a program broadcast on Sunday 31 March (after Elementary with 183,000 time-shifted viewers). The final or consolidated ratings includes all 'time-shifted' viewers who record the program and watch it within a week.

Based on these final figures, Bells was the top rating drama of the day, the top-rating ABC program of the day and the fourth highest rating program of the day overall (this compares to it being the eighth highest rating program based on its overnight figures of 757,000 viewers). These ratings do not include regional viewers.
Media Links: TV Tonight




FILTER: - Ratings - Broadcasting - Series 7/33 - Australia

Puffin Books: The Roots of Evil by Philip Reeve

Tuesday, 9 April 2013 - Reported by Chuck Foster
The Roots of Evil, by Philip Reeve (Credit: Puffin Books)The writer of the fourth in the Puffin Books series of e-books has been revealed to be Philip Reeve, the award-winning author of Mortal Engines, Here Lies Arthur, and GOBLINS.

The Roots of Evil
Written by Philip Reeve
Published 23rd April 2013

When the Fourth Doctor takes Leela to visit an immense tree space station known as the Heligan Structure, little do they know that the tree has been asleep for centuries, dreaming of vengeance against a man in a blue box… As the tree awakes, the Time Lord and his companion soon discover why they are such unwelcome guests.

Philip Reeve was born in Brighton and worked in a book shop for many years before becoming a full-time illustrator and then turning to writing. His first novel, Mortal Engines, won the Nestlé Smarties Gold Award (2002), the Blue Peter Book of the Year Award, and was shortlisted for both the Branford Boase Award and the Whitbread Children's Book Award. He has since won many more awards and accolades for his works including the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize in 2006 and the Los Angeles Times Book Award for A Darkling Plain and the 2008 CILIP Carnegie Medal for Here Lies Arthur. His most recent titles are GOBLINS (2012) which was shortlisted for the Roald Dahl Funny Prize and its sequel GOBLINS VS DWARVES (2013). He lives in Dartmoor, England with his wife and son, Sam. For further information and to explore the author’s own curious world visit his website.

Reeve commented:
I started watching Doctor Who during the Tom Baker era and so to me he is the ‘real’ Doctor, and it was a huge honour to be asked to write about him. I tried to imagine myself to a Saturday teatime, circa 1979: a new Doctor Who story was about to begin – where would the TARDIS materialise and what would be waiting for it?

A video of the author will be released on YouTube by BBC Worldwide later in the month, with the book itself coming out on the 23rd April. An extract from the book can be read via the Guardian.





FILTER: - Online - Books - WHO50 - Fourth Doctor