Final ratings data for the week ending 2nd September 2012 have now been released by the Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board or BARB, putting Doctor Who as the sixth most-watched programme of the week on British television.

Asylum of the Daleks was the third most-watched programme on BBC television for the week, with the crime series New Tricks taking top place followed by EastEnders. ITV had two episodes of Coronation Street and one of The X Factor in the list above the Doctor. While BBC One BARB listings include those watching on BBC One HD, ITV listings do not include ITV HD or ITV+1 which need to be added to the main channel statistics in order to compare like for like.

The chart position of 6th is equal to last year's series opener The Impossible Astronaut.

In the long history of Doctor Who only 14 of the 785 episodes broadcast achieved a higher chart position.

The final ratings figure does not include those watching on iPlayer where over 600,000 people accessed the episode in the first three days.

The BBC have released a variety of photos to promote A Town Called Mercy, which will premiere on BBC1 next Saturday at 7:35pm.


A Town Called Mercy is due to be broadcast at these times around the world:

United Kingdom : Saturday 15th September, 7:35pm BST   BBC1
United States  : Saturday 15th September, 9:00pm ET    BBC America
Canada         : Saturday 15th September, 9:00pm ET    SPACE
Australia      : Saturday 22nd September, 7:30pm AEST  ABC (also on iView from 16th Sept)
New Zealand    : Thursday 27th September, 8:30pm NZST  Prime

Radio Times visits A Town Called Mercy

This week's Radio Times features an interview with the cast, who talk about their Wild West adventure.

Matt Smith:
Arthur Darvill:
Karen Gillan:

The full interview can be read in the latest edition, out today.
(with thanks to Radio Times)

Coming Soon: The Power of Three

Meanwhile, Radio Times has listed The Power of Three to remain in the 7:35-8:20pm timeslot on 22nd September; BBC Programme Information has yet to confirm the time, which will be finalised later in the week.

Asylum of the Daleks has debuted in Australia to good ratings. The series debut averaged 549,000 viewers in the five major capital cities. Up against the football finals, it was the top-rating drama of the day and the eighth highest rating programme of the day overall. These figures follow the episode setting a daily viewer record for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation iView internet TV service, recording 75,900 plays on its first day. All episodes of series 7 will debut on iView immediately after their broadcast in the UK.

Fans have noted that when the weekly episode is on made available to viewers on Sundays via ABC iView, it is at approximately 5am or 6am local time - making it very close to the transmission time in the UK!


Media Links: TV Tonight, Sydney Morning Herald

Doctor Who: Dinosaurs on a Spaceship had an Appreciation Index or AI score of 87 - one of the highest scores on Saturday night.

The score is a measure of how much the audience enjoyed the episode and is based on a survey of 5000 people. The score of 87 puts the programme into the excellent category.

Doctor Who scored higher than most Saturday evening shows, being beaten by the music spectacular Last Night Of The Proms, which scored 90, and Paralympics London 2012, with 88. NCIS on Channel Five also scored highly, albeit with a much lower audience.

With Sunday's overnight rating figures now available, Doctor Who finished 18th for the week, being pushed down by Sunday's X Factor and the closing ceremony of the Paralympic Games. Final figures will be released next week and should see the programme much higher in the final chart once those time-shifting the drama are factored in.

Asylum of the Daleks had a final consolidated rating of 8.33 million viewers.

The final figure includes all those who recorded the programme and watched it within 7 days of transmission. It is a large increase on the initially estimated figure and gives the show a 34.4% share of the total TV Audience.

The figure does not include those watching on iPlayer.

A full report of the week, giving Doctor Who's place in the top ten, should be issued by BARB tomorrow.

Dinosaurs on a Spaceship had an overnight audience of 5.5 million viewers, a share of 26.2% of the total TV audience.

The rating was the highest on BBC One for the day, and second overall, with ITV1's The X Factor once more winning the night with 8.2 million watching. Ratings across the evening were down on the previous week with Ant and Dec's Red or Black? taking 3rd and 4th place, achieving 3.4 million viewers against The Doctor.

The summer of music at the Royal Albert Hall concluded with The Last Night of the Proms which had 3.2 million watching.

The rating compares with last year's second story of the autumn, Night Terrors, which also had 5.5 million watching, but had a slightly lower audience share and lost out to Red or Black?

The rating for Doctor Who puts it at 15th place for the week, with Sunday's ratings still to come, although final consolidated figures, which will be available next week, should see this position rise.

Meanwhile Friday's BBC Three repeat of Asylum of the Daleks had 0.40 million watching.

A roundup of selected quotes from the media for the premiere of Dinosaurs on a Spacesship last night - links to the full review can be found via the author's name. You can also read our own reviews here and here.

Please note that as these are reviews, spoilers may be present within the text!

Telegraph

As the story drew to a close, the Doctor effectively acted as Solomon’s executioner, ensuring he was on his spaceship when it was sent to its fate as a diversion for incoming missiles. This showed a harsher side to the Time Lord’s character; yes it is not the first time he has knowingly been responsible for someone’s death and Solomon was probably getting his just desserts, but given the Doctor’s ethical stance, such instances can sit uneasily within the viewers. While it had its moments, Dinosaurs on a Spaceship veered firmly towards the sillier end of the programme’s spectrum; and while it showed that the programme can go to places that no other TV show can, it was ultimately a bit of a mess.
(Gavin Fuller)

Guardian

Well, that was fun, wasn't it? The only way this could have been more of a riot is if Samuel L Jackson had turned up. Fandom will probably hate Dinosaurs on a Spaceship. Yes, it was flimsy and, yes, it was pretty much a story built around a title. The producers have admitted as much. But second episodes are supposed to be fun – and you only have to think back to The Curse of the Black Spot to realise that this is the finest episode two from Doctor Who in some time.
(Dan Martin)

Independent

This week was a more childish and fun episode before things start getting dark and heavy again, there’s only so dark and depressing that Doctor Who can get before it becomes off-putting. For those who may be disappointed by this week, there will be far more darkness to come and Dinosaurs on a Spaceship was gentle respite from the impending tragedy that is to befall the Ponds.
(Neela Debnath)

SFX

This was fun. Big fun. Slight and fluffy and silly, with the occasional creaky bit of plotting (how handy the Doctor accidentally brings Rory’s dad along for the ride when the spaceship needs two pilots from the same gene pool) but enormously entertaining. Tonally, it’s spot on, with director Saul Metzstein showing an assured control over the material. Sensibly, with ideas so broad and outrageous he reins in the performances. Only the robots (voiced by comedy duo Mitchell and Webb) are deliberately played for laughs, and even then it’s a kind of Douglas Adams humour rather than Galloping Galaxies (and speaking of Adams, anyone else think the wave generator engines and the “Argos for the universe” system could have come straight out of Hitchhiker’s Guide?).
(Dave Golder)

WhatCulture!

If you scoop up a pick-and-mix of characters and ideas that have worked before, fling them all at the page and keep everybody quipping back-and-forth then you might make a "fun" 45 minutes of television, but at the end of it – what’s the point? If it's bracingly original, remarkably structured or features a truly astonishing turn from a major guest-star then it may not need to be high drama. But familiar components don't get any less familiar when you mix-and-match them and clumsy plotting is still clumsy plotting even if you’re lucky enough to have Matt Smith reciting your exposition. This sounds as if I didn’t like it, but it was perfectly entertaining while it was on, it’s just that – with the whole universe to explore, I’m frustrated at being given hand-me-downs. But, you know what, if this is as bad as this series gets, then this could be regarded as a classic year.
(Tom Salinsky)

Other reviews

Further reviews from: Den of Geek, Digital Spy, Entertainment Weekly, TVOvermind, Bleeding Cool

The BBC have released their latest 'confidentialette' to accompany the new episode, Dinosaurs on a Spaceship; the behind-the-scenes video takes a look at how to ride a triceratops, render a raptor, and construct a robot ... There are also galleries of production artwork and the first and second sets of storyboards available to see on the BBC website.

With just a few minutes to go before Dinosaurs on a Spaceship premieres on BBC1, here's a quick roundup of the videos released online to promote the episode over the course of the last week:

That Robot and Robot Look ...:

In addition the BBC announced two additional cast members today, comedy duo David Mitchell and Robert Webb, who will provide the voice of the two robots in the episode - the former of which keen listeners recognised in the trailer!

Executive producer Caroline Skinner said: "We were thrilled to have David Mitchell and Robert Webb on board. It's a huge adventure, a real no-holds-barred belter of an episode and having them voice these two incredible-looking robots was just perfect. It makes them funny and chilling and… But I can’t say too much now except we’re all delighted with the episode!"

Both Doctor Who and The Sarah Jane Adventures have been nominated in this year's BAFTA Cymru Awards.

The Doctor Who Series 6 opening episode The Impossible Astronaut is in the running for the Television Drama title, while the Series 6 finale The Wedding of River Song is up for a gong in the Sound category. The Curse of Clyde Langer, from the fifth and final series of The Sarah Jane Adventures, is nominated for the Children's Programme award.

The Doctor Who Adventure Game The Gunpowder Plot - available free to TV licence-holders in the UK and for sale elsewhere globally - is up for the Digital Creativity And Games title.

Meanwhile, Eve Myles is nominated for the Actress award for Baker Boys - a programme for which Helen Raynor is co-nominated (with Gary Owen) for the Writer prize.

Last year, Doctor Who won two of its categories and The Sarah Jane Adventures was presented with the Children's Programme honour.

This year's winners will be announced at a ceremony to be hosted by Alex Jones at the Millennium Centre in Cardiff on Sunday 30th September. A limited number of tickets are available to the public and are on sale from the centre.