The BBC have officially announced the return of an old foe to face the Doctor(s) in the 50th Anniversary Special.



Filming has been taking place around Ivy Tower near Neath in South Wales today, though with filming taking place on private land there has been little activity observed by fans. However, comings and goings have been seen, with this tweet by Ryan Farell becoming very popular on the social medium: "I've been waiting for three years to post this tweet: Matt Smith and David Tennant have arrived on set." Earlier, Carwyn Jones had been luckier and reported: "Just seen the TARDIS and set for Doctor Who 50th Anniversary in Ivy Tower, Neath!!!!". Later, Olivia Morgan was thrilled to say: "Just seen David Tennant filming for Doctor Who in Neath". The Ivy Tower location setting was originally spotted by Erin Rickard yesterday, who wondered: "Walked to the Ivy Tower + found this...Asked what they're up to but were very secretive, my bet is Filming! But what?"

Update: you can read a locations reports from Phillipa Collins here, plus some additional photos of the foe on set via Adrian Cole: 1 2 3 4

Hot on the heels of the one earlier in the evening, a new publicity photo for the 50th Anniversary Special's read-through has been released, this time featuring Matt Smith and David Tennant, plus Jenna-Louise Coleman and guest star Joanna Page:

Next week's adventure for the Doctor will be The Rings of Akhaten, written by Neil Cross and directed by Farren Blackburn. The episode will broadcast on BBC One at 6:15pm on Saturday.


This weekend's episode is again bookended by the news and The Voice UK; this week ITV is serving up You've been Framed Rides Again!. BBC Two and Channel 5 are showing the films Carry on Again, Doctor and Raid on Rommel respectively, whilst Channel 4 has news followed by Stephen Fry: Best of Gadget Man.




Internationally, The Rings of Akhaten will be broadcast in the United States and Canada on BBC America and Space respectively at 8:00pm ET on the 6th April, and then on the 7th it can be seen in Australia via ABC at 7:30pm, Poland via BBC Entertainment at 6:00pm, and South Africa via BBC Entertainment at 7:00pm. See This Week in Doctor Who for more details on scheduling and repeats.

The BBC have released the first publicity photo for the 50th Anniversary Special, featuring Matt Smith and David Tennant together at the episode read-through that took place today:


Filming for the special takes place over the next few weeks.

A documentary on BBC Radio 4 next Sunday will see cast and crew from 1960s Doctor Who recounting the early days of the show.

In The Reunion - billed as a series that "reunites a group of people intimately involved in a moment of modern history" - presenter Sue MacGregor brings together director Waris Hussein, actors Carole Ann Ford, William Russell, and Jeremy Young, plus actor-turned-presenter Peter Purves to look back at "the triumphs and disasters" of Doctor Who's formative period.

The 45-minute show airs on Sunday 7th April at 11.15am and should be available to listen to worldwide via the BBC iPlayer. It has been made by Whistledown, which has previously reunited Paul McGann and Richard E Grant, among others, for a special edition of the programme, broadcast in May 2008, centring on the cult film Withnail And I.

The Bells of Saint John had an Appreciation Index, or AI score, of 87.

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.

Doctor Who scored higher than most of Saturday's output. Other high scoring programmes were Casulty with 87, Richard Briers: A Tribute with 88 and Easter From Kings with 89.

The Bells of Saint John has debuted in Australia, averaging 757,000 viewers in the five major capital cities. It was the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's top-rating program of the day and the eighth highest rating programme of the day overall. It was also the fifth highest rating program in the free-to-air 18-49 and 25-54 demographics. These ratings do not include regional or time-shifted viewers.

The nominations for the 2013 Hugo Awards have now been announced, with writer Steven Moffat up against himself some three times in the Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form category (in which he lost out last year to fellow writer Neil Gaiman for The Doctor's Wife).

The episodes nominated are Asylum of the Daleks (directed by Nick Hurran), The Angels Take Manhattan (also Nick Hurran), and The Snowmen (Saul Metzstein). The other nominations in the category are Letters of Transit from Fringe, and Blackwater from Game of Thrones.

Doctor Who has won an Award nigh on every year since its return: as well as Gaiman's triumph last year Moffat has won four times previously, for The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances in 2006, The Girl in the Fireplace in 2007, Blink in 2008, and The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang in 2011, whilst original showrunner/writer Russell T Davies won in 2010 with fellow writer Phil Ford for The Waters of Mars. 2009 was the odd one out, where Moffat's Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead and Davies's Turn Left lost out to Internet musical Doctor Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.


Also nominated this year is the book Chicks Unravel Time: Women Journey Through Every Season of Doctor Who, published by Mad Norwegian Press, which is listed in the Best Related Work category. It'll be up against another Mad Norwegian title, Chick Dig Comics, The Cambridge Companion to Fantasy Literature, I Have an Idea for a Book ... The Bibliography of Martin H. Greenberg, and Writing Excuses Season Seven.


The Hugo awards are given every year for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the preceeding year, and is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories.

This year's ceremony will take place during LoneStarCon 3 in San Antonio, Texas (29 Aug-2 Sep 2013), with writer Paul Cornell acting as Toastmaster.

BBC Books are to release a new ebook to tie in with the new series episode The Bells of Saint John, which premiered this weekend.


The ebook is published on 4th April 2013.

The Bells of Saint John had an overnight audience of 6.18 million viewers, a share of 29.8% of the total TV audience.

Doctor Who was the third most-watched programme of the day, which saw old rivals Ant and Dec take the top slot with their Saturday Night Takeaway, getting 7.19 million watching. The Voice UK, which was up against Ant and Dec, came second with fractionally more viewers than Doctor Who with 6.24 million.

Doctor Who won the time slot with You've Been Framed! on ITV getting 3.6 million watching.

Overall Doctor Who currently stands at the 22nd most watched programme of the week. Final ratings will be released next week, which, if recent trends are followed, should see Doctor Who substantially increase its rating once those who timeshift the programme are factored in.