A number of activities are taking place during the course of the UK's school half-term week, not least of which are tours of the BBC Television Centre in London (the home of Doctor Who production for many years). Tours are available throughout the year, and further details can be found on the normal and special CBBC versions from the BBC website.

Entering its last few days in London, the Doctor Who Experience at Olympia has a number of activities planned during the course of the week - see our earlier news article for full details.

On Valentine's Day (14th February), the Ashley Centre in Epsom will be teaming up with the British Heart Foundation to present some free activities: "The Ashley Centre's David Tennant lookalike (the 10th Doctor) will be joined by two daleks and will be sharing some good advice on heart health with visitors to the Centre." [Ashley Centre, 11 Feb 2012]

Monkwearmouth Station Museum in Sunderland will play host to Meccano madness on Thursday 16th February as part of half-term celebrations, including Daleks, the TARDIS and K9! The constructed exhibits are courtesy of the North East Meccano Society, who will also display creations like buses, trains, and fairground rides. Manager Jo Cunningham said: "These models are amazing and so big. I think the adults will enjoy the day as much as the children." [Sunderland Echo, 11 Feb 2012]

A number of "Doctor Who"-related activities are taking place at the Explosion Museum in Gosport, where visitors can "follow our time travelling Doctor back to the Blitz and discover the real reason that Priddys Hard didn't get bombed." Plus, Tardis Making in the Museum Coffee Shop". [About My Area, 12 Feb 2012]

In the run-up to its release next week, BBC Worldwide have provided a number of preview clips on their Classic Doctor Who YouTube channel for the Revisitations 3 boxed set, reflecting some of the features available on the stories contained within.

The Tomb of the Cybermen

In the first clip, cast and crew share their memories of seeing the Cybermen, and the work that went into creating them:

Actor Michael Kilgarriff discusses what it feels like to be inside a large and looming costume:

In the next clip, second Doctor companions Frazer Hines and Deborah Watling reflect some of their challenges and the more light-hearted moments during the production of the story:

The Robots of Death

In this clip, the origin of the look and feel for the story's setting and characters is revealed:

Pamela Salem and Louise Jameson share their memories of working with the director on the story:

The Three Doctors

In this clip, Terrance Dicks and Barry Letts discuss how they tackled bringing the original Doctor, William Hartnell, into the 10th Anniversary Special:

In this clip, Terrance and Barry alongside Stephen Thorne (Omega) chat about the acting styles of Patrick Troughton and Jon Pertwee:

Finally, Caroline John, Katy Manning and Louise Jameson give their thanks to Doctor Who for helping to kickstart their careers:

Eagle-eyed readers will notice a subtle change in the covers of DVD releases from the spring, as the old 2|Entertain identity is finally retired.

The company was created in 2004 with the merger of the BBC Video and Video Collection International, with a 60% stake held by BBC Worldwide and the remaining 40% by the Woolworths Group. With the collapse of the latter in 2008 BBC Worldwide eventually acquired the whole of 2|Entertain in 2010, and as of this year has fully integrated the company into its Consumer Products division, which is responsible for the company's DVDs, download business and licensed product brands.

With regard to Doctor Who, BBC Worldwide told us:

United Kingdom

A charity Dalek squad will be displaying its dubious singing abilities in a contest labelled "The X-terminate Factor" at Royston Arts Festival later this year. The monsters will also be seeking and locating donations in aid of Home-Start Royston and South Cambs at the Hertfordshire town event, which takes place on Saturday 29th September. Festival chairman Graham Palmer said: "This is really something different and we hope it captures people's imagination, as the adventures of the Daleks and Doctor Who cover several generations." [Royston Weekly News, 2 Feb 2012]

More Daleks will be in attendance at the Aspire 2 Achieve Olympic Activities Showcase in Alnwick, Northumberland, on Sunday 10th June. The organisation aims to raise awareness, confidence and productivity of youths through sport and other activities. Co-founder Alan Hoyle said: "The whole day will be fun for the whole family. With all the different events we have going on there will be something new for everybody to try, along with the cheerleading group and, of course, the Daleks and the All-Star game. We are hoping to put on an entertaining show for people of all ages." [Blyth Journal, 2 Feb 2012]

Keeping with the theme, the snowfall over the last week brought out the snow sculpturers, with Lyn and Neil Cooper creating a Dalek in Coombelands, Royston. Lyn said: "We're not really fans of the show we had to go and google a picture of what it looked like. It was just something to do rather than make a bog standard snowman." [Royston Crow, 6 Feb 2012]

Trallwn councillor Mike Powell recently visited Ynysangharad Park in Pontypridd, and commented on the conditions of some parts of the site, including the old lido in which he discovered a Dalek sculpture made from drinks cans, a relic from the recent Love Where You Live Day, had been abandoned and left to fall apart. He warned that the rundown site posed possible dangers to curious children. "It is an open invitation to any child to explore what is behind, especially when a look through the gap reveals an abandoned Dalek," said the Lib Dem councillor. (The lido also featured in Torchwood's From Out Of The Rain) [Pontypridd Observer, 2 Feb 2012]

The team behind Karen Gillan's next film, Not Another Happy Ending, are offering northern businesses an opportunity to back the production. [Press and Journal, 9 Feb 2012]

United States

The Los Angeles based GallifreyOne convention will soon be upon us, with Alysia Gray Painter of NBC looking forward to it: "What you'll find: celebrities, plus all sorts of panels and cosplay and people selling sci-fi-y frippery. Last year a bunch of people showed up in fezes and bow ties. Fingers double crossed that there will be a whole slew of curly-headed River Songs in the house this year, ready to fete one of television's longest running shows and a jewel in the genre series crown. "In the house" is the Los Angeles Airport Marriott, not some distant spaceport, note. That's so thoughtful, we think, bringing the party to this planet." [NBC Bay Area, 8 Feb 2012]

Australia

Twelve-year-old Keelan Mast from Warrnambool has amassed a sizeable Doctor Who merchandise collection, part of which will feature as an exhibit at the WRAD Collecta-Bool event, which raises funds for non-profit organisation The Western Region Alcohol and Drug Centre (WRAD). He said: "My dad got me into Dr Who. I just like collecting and my focus is on Dr Who. I go to bookshops and all the antique shops. There's a place called Gifts For The Geek in Melbourne where I found a Dalek helmet and remote-control Dalek. That’s my favourite collectable, but I've only used it once." [Warrnambool Standard, 3 Feb 2012]

Pharmacist Irwin Lowe from South West TAFE decided to build a police box for his cabinet-making class: "We were assigned a free project to demonstrate some of the skills we had learnt during our first year. I thought 'oh well, I might just make a TARDIS'. It ended up requiring more than what we’d learnt. I think the teachers were thinking more along the lines of a coffee table or small stool." [Warrnambool Standard, 10 Feb 2012]

The BBC and 2|Entertain have given further details about the forthcoming DVD releases of The Dæmons, Nightmare of Eden, and the Ace Adventures box set comprising Dragonfire and The Happiness Patrol.

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A reminder to our readers that the Revisitations 3 DVD box set, comprising special remastered, repackaged and reappraised editions of The Tomb of the Cybermen, The Three Doctors, and The Robots of Death is released on 13th February 2012 and is available for pre-order. The special features for each story are as follows:

Doctor Who finished as the 7th most accessed programme on the BBC iPlayer for December 2011 and the 5th most accessed programme in Christmas Week, according to figures released by the BBC.

The Christmas Special, The Doctor The Widow and the Wardrobe, was accessed 0.85 million times in the last seven days of the year following its broadcast on Christmas Day. The top requested programme of December was the Top Gear India Special, which had 1.32 million requests. Frozen Planet and the Christmas episodes of EastEnders also scored highly along with Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow.

The BBC iPlayer hit record levels in 2011, with 1.94 billion requests across all platforms during the year. Doctor Who: The Impossible Astronaut finished as the 3rd most requested programme of the year, with 1.93 million requesting the episode at some point. Top of the list was Episode 1 of the David Attenborough Natural History series Frozen Planet, To the Ends of the Earth, which had 2.42 million requesting it. Second was Episode 2 of the comedy series Come Fly With Me.

Each episode of the 2011 series of Doctor Who finished in the top 50 for the year, with Torchwood: Miracle Day - The New World just scraping in at number 50.

As a brand Doctor Who had over 25 million requests during the year. The top brand was EastEnders with 114 million requests, albeit spread over many more episodes. Top Gear had 29.6 million requests and The Chris Moyles Show had 26.3 million requests.

For Doctor Who, Season 32/Series 6 accounted for 18.9 million requests with the previous year accounting for another 3.8 million requests. Doctor Who Confidential Series 6 accounted for 1.1 million requests.

The first Matt Smith episode, The Eleventh Hour, remains as the most accessed programme ever on iPlayer with over 2.62 million requesting it since its transmission. Frozen Planet: Episode 1 is now the 2nd most requested programme and The Impossible Astronaut is currently the eleventh most accessed programme.

Hot on the heels of the Netflix deal reported last month, Amazon-owned LoveFilm have now signed deals with the BBC and ITV in order to be able to stream video-on-demand content to subscribers, dipping into both the archive and new programming including Doctor Who, Spooks, Marchlands, Cold Feet, Prime Suspect and Above Suspicion.

The company has also signed up BBC Worldwide, enabling access to their portfolio of shows, including Whitechapel, Life on Mars and Planet Earth. BBC Worldwide's UK/Ireland Sales and Distribution Head Lisa Rousseau said:

The deal will enable recent shows from both broadcasters to be accessed via the LoveFilm Instant online service, available on PC, Apple iPad, Xbox 360, Sony PS3 and internet-connected TV platforms.

The two companies will be in competition to encourage subscribers to their services; LoveFilm's announcement indicates an advantage over Netflix currently, who have yet to link up with ITV.

The fifth and final series of The Sarah Jane Adventures will be released in the UK on DVD and Blu-ray on Monday 6th February 2012.

The set will contain a special tribute to the late Elisabeth Sladen featuring contributions from those who worked closely with her, including the Eleventh Doctor, Matt Smith. Goodbye Bannerman Road was filmed on location and also features Sladen's co-stars Daniel Anthony & Anjli Mohindra.

Also released on the same day is a 12 disc Box Set containing the entire five series of The Sarah Jane Adventures.

Doctor Who News Shop. Series 5 / Box Set

Doctor Who, The Doctor, The Witch and The Wardrobe had a final official rating of 10.77 million viewers.

The official rating takes into account those who record the programme and watch it within 7 days. It is much more accurate than the initial overnight figure. It does not include those watching on iPlayer, where over 700,000 accessed the episode within five days of transmission.

The final ratings saw ITV1's Downton Abbey leap to the top of the list to claim the prize as the most watched programme of Christmas Day with 11.60 million watching. EastEnders was second with 11.33 million and Doctor Who came in third. It overtook ITV1's Coronation Street which was the 4th most watched programme of the day.

Christmas Day dominated the ratings for the week, making Doctor Who the 3rd most watched programme for the week. In the history of the programme only eight episodes of Doctor Who have made the top Three for the week.

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Congratulations to Daniel Elkington of Brunswick, Victoria, Australia who guessed 10.79 million in our Christmas Competition.
Other winners are Bridget Walker of Rockhamption, Queensland, Australia (10.71), Matthew Boorman of Warwick (10.82), Morag Bennett of Telford (11.11) and Lee Higgins, Shrewsbury (11.3)

The Tuesday repeat of the Doctor Who Christmas Special, The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe had an audience of 1.1 million viewers according to unofficial overnight figures.

The show had a 9.5% share of the audience available, winning its timeslot. All Star Family Fortunes, which was scheduled against Doctor Who again, also had an average of 1.1 million watching, however Doctor Who had the higher ratings while the shows were pitted against each other.

Meanwhile more details have emerged about the Christmas Day showing. Among children aged 4-15, as well as adults aged 45-54, Doctor Who was the most watched programme on Christmas day. The only group for which Doctor Who lost out to All Star Family Fortunes was viewers aged 65+.

Doctor Who was the only programme on Christmas Day post-3pm which had an exact 50/50 male/female split.