Fifty years ago today a new character entered the world of Doctor Who when, in Terror of the Autons, we met the Doctor's nemesis, The Master.

Created by producer Barry Letts and script editor Terrance Dicks, the character was devised as a foil to the Third Doctor as played by Jon Pertwee. Given an academic name. The Master, to counterpoint the name of The Doctor, the character was to be the Moriarty to Pertwee’s Holmes, a character very much the equal to the Doctor in terms of intelligence and background. 

The character outline was sketched out in an internal BBC document sent to the writers of Season 8 of the series, a document which also introduced the characters of Jo Grant and Captain Mike Yates, played by Richard Franklin and Katy Manning. 

Only one actor was considered for the role of the Master, Roger Delgado, an actor known for playing sinister villains and a personal friend of Jon Pertwee.

The Master would appear in every story of season 8, becoming just as much a fixture of the series as The Doctor and Jo, somewhat to the chagrin of Jon Pertwee. 

He was used less in season nine but still appeared in two of the five stories. In season ten he was used just once and it was decided to write the character out at the end of season 11 in a big final story.

That final story never happened as on the 18th June 1973 Roger Delgado was killed in a car accident in Turkey. The death stunned the production team and helped Pertwee to his decision to leave the series at the end of the eleventh series. 

The actor may have died but the character he created was so strong it would return to the series in many incarnations. A mutilated Master at the end of his regelation cycle was seen in the 1976 story The Deadly Assassin. 

In 1981 new producer John Nathan Turner decided to bring back the character as a regular with a look based on the original Delgado character. Played by Anthony Ainley, The Master would appear regularly until the cancellation of the series in 1989, appearing with the fifth, sixth and seventh Doctors. It was perhaps fitting that the last story of the classic series featured the Doctor and Ace in a battle with The Master. In the story Survival.

The TV movie in 1996 saw the arrival of the eighth Doctor and The Master was there to welcome him, this time in the body of American actor Eric Roberts. 

When Doctor Who returned in 2005 there was much talk about reprising characters from the original series and The Master was high upon most fans wish lists. They had to wait until the series 3 before show-runner Russell T Davies obliged, and the story Utopia saw the character reappear in no less a body as that of veteran actor Derek Jacobi. At the end of the episode John Simm took over the role and a mad hyperactive Master took on the mad hyperactive Tenth Doctor. In 2010 the character helped bring about to the demise of the Tenth Doctor. 

The next showrunner Steven Moffat put his own spin on the character when he created Missy, played by Michelle Gomez, in 2014 to taunt the Twelfth Doctor as played by Peter Capaldi. Much speculation about the real identity of the character was ended at the end of Series 8 when she was revealed to be a female incarnation of The Master.

Although Gomez was the incumbent Master, John Simm hadn’t quite finished with the role as he returned at the end of series ten to take part in a memorable Master v Master battle with Missy and The Doctor

The strength of the character is such that just last year another incarnation arrived when Sacha Dhawan took on the role of The Master in the 2020 Chris Chibnall story Spyfall.

The character of The Master is the most enduring in Doctor Who apart from that of the Doctor himself. Today, 50 years on, we pay tribute to all the hugely talented actors who have made the character such an essential part of Doctor Who lore. And we pay tribute to the numerous writer and Directors who have helped create such a fascinating and enduring character. 
 

Doctor Who - Revolution of the Daleks had an overnight viewing audience of 4.69 million viewers.

The figure made Doctor Who the most-watched programme on BBC One for New Year's Day. Doctor Who had a 21.1% share of the total TV audience.

Top overall was ITV's Evening News with 5.5 million viewers while Coronation Street came second with 5.0 million watching. Against The Doctor, Emmerdale had 4.6 million watching.

On BBC One Eastenders had 3.3 million while the comedy Mrs Brown's Boys had 3.7 million viewers. 

Final official figures should be available next week.

A post-credit teaser for a new companion to join the Doctor for Series 13 was broadcast straight after this year's New Year's Day special, Revolution of the Daleks ended.

Welcome to the TARDIS...

The BBC have issued a press release to introduce the actor playing the new character, Dan.

The Thirteenth Doctor and Yaz are set to welcome a new face to the TARDIS later this year as actor and comedian John Bishop joins the cast as ‘Dan’.

 

If I could tell my younger self that one day I would be asked to step on board the TARDIS, I would never have believed it.
— John Bishop

As he becomes embroiled in the Doctor’s adventures, Dan will quickly learn there’s more to the Universe(s) than he could ever believe. Travelling through Space and Time alongside the Doctor and Yaz, he’ll face evil alien races beyond his wildest nightmares.

Speaking about joining the show, John says:

If I could tell my younger self that one day I would be asked to step on board the TARDIS, I would never have believed it. It’s an absolute dream come true to be joining Doctor Who and I couldn’t wish for better company than Jodie and Mandip.

Chris Chibnall, Showrunner, adds:

It’s time for the next chapter of Doctor Who, and it starts with a man called Dan. Oh, we’ve had to keep this one secret for a long, long time. Our conversations started with John even before the pandemic hit. The character of Dan was built for him, and it’s a joy to have him aboard the TARDIS.

Piers Wenger, Controller, BBC Drama, says:

We are beyond thrilled to have John Bishop joining Doctor Who. Alongside Jodie Whittaker and Mandip Gill, John is a wonderful addition to the show and we have no doubt that series 13 is going to be another thrilling set of adventures for the Doctor.

The 13th series of Doctor Who began filming in November 2020. John has already begun filming and will make his first appearance when the 13th series starts on BBC One later in 2021.

The actor Mark Eden has died at the age of 92.

Mark Eden played the title character in the 1964 Doctor Who story Marco Polo. The seven-part story, completely missing from the BBC archives, was the first in which the Doctor met a famous figure from history. The character of Marco Polo, the famous Venician explorer, narrated the story which saw the TARDIS crew join the caravan of the adventurer as it travelled through the Gobi desert to Cathay and the court of Kublai Khan.

Mark Eden had a career of over 50 years in British Television with his first credited role in  1958 in the Sci-Fi story Quatermass And The Pit.

Eden decided to become an actor after falling in love with Shakespeare while a teenager. However, his career was delayed after contracting a serious illness in his twenties.

He is best known in the UK for playing the villain Alan Bradley in the soap Coronation Street. He appeared for eight years leaving after his character was killed by a tram in Blackpool, in one of the most memorable scenes in Coronation Street history. The episode was watched by 21.4 million viewers. Eden later unveiled a plaque at the tram stop where the scene was filmed.

He appeared in the 1965 film Doctor Zhivago, as well as the TV show The Avengers  In The Prisoner he played Number 100 and had a role in The Newcomers. Other roles included parts in Z-Cars, Clouds of Witness, Murder Must Advertise, The Top Secret Life of Edgar Briggs, London Belongs to Me, Poldark, The Detective and Crown Court.

One of his last roles was playing BBC Executive Donald Baverstock in the 2013 docu-drama about the creation of Doctor Who, An Adventure in Space and Time

The actor, who had been living with Alzheimer's disease died early on New Year's Day. He is survived by his third wife the actress Sue Nicholls, his daughter Polly, his stepson Saul and grand-daughter Emma.

With this year's New Year special making its debut later today, viewers in the UK will be able to watch the programme in 4K resolution and high dynamic range (HDR) colour via iPlayer.

When Revolution of the Daleks is broadcast, viewers will be prompted to switch to the higher quality streamed version by pressing the red button.

To take advantage of the facility, households will need a compatible TV and a relatively fast internet connection. The BBC recommends a minimum of 24 megabits per second (Mbps) connection.

By contrast, regular 1080p high definition (HD) programmes require a 6.3Mbps connection and standard definition (SD) content 1.1Mbps.

Ultra-High Definition (UHD) - the other name given to 4K on TVs - delivers four times as many pixels as HD video. The benefits are that images can appear sharper and more detailed, although this is not always apparent if the screen is not large enough or viewers are sitting too far away.

HDR produces pictures that typically appear to be more vivid and colourful. It takes advantage of the fact screens can go brighter and/or darker than they used to be able to, providing a greater dynamic range.

As a result, the shadows of an image can be made less murky while the highlights - including sparks from special effects - can have more impact.

The BBC first publicly tested 4K HDR on iPlayer in 2016 when it offered four minutes from its Planet Earth II series. It has subsequently offered a limited range of full-length programmes including Dynasties; His Dark Materials; and Dracula, as well as sport including Wimbledon and Fifa World Cup 2018 matches.

Doctor Who has been broadcast in many different formats during its 57-year history.  The first episode being broadcast in the 405-line monochrome analogue format. The definition improved in 1967 when the 625 line format was used to record The Enemy of the World. Colour arrived in 1970 with Spearhead from Space.

By the time the series returned in 2005 the series was recorded digitally rather than on analogue tape.  The programme was first made available on iPlayer in 2007 with the Christmas special Voyage of the Damned. The first episode available in HD was Planet of the Dead, the 2009 Easter special.

Previous episodes have been made available in 4K on Blu--ray but Revolution of the Daleks is the first to be made available in this format on the iPlayer on the day of transmission,

As Doctor Who makes a welcome return to television on New Year's Day, so too does our festive Predict the Ratings competition! This year readers have the chance to win a copy of Revolution of the Daleks on Blu-ray/DVD upon its release date (currently scheduled for the last week in January 2021).

The four screen viewing figure includes television, PC/laptop, tablet and smartphone devices - these may be updated as the week progresses, we will be using the initial total released by BARB.

Friday's episode is broadcast in the UK at 6:45pm on BBC One; ITV will broadcast Doctor Who's 'traditional' competition in the form of Emmerdale from 7:00pm (preceded by the News), with BBC Two showing the film Mr Holmes. Channel 4 The Greatest Showman, and Channel 5 continuing The Battle of Britain. Other highlights of the evening are BBC One's new drama The Serpent, ITV's Dancing on Ice with Torvill and Dean, and a festive Taskmaster on Channel 4.

For comparision, 2019's Resolution was watched by 7.13 million viewers, and 2020's Spyfall part one achieved 6.87m viewers - top of the charts for the first week of 2020 went to the Fireworks with 10.84m.

To enter our competition, please send the following details to comp-ratings@doctorwhonews.net with the subject, "Counting down the days":

• Your name and preferred email address
• Your country of entry (full details will be requested only if you are the winner)
• Your guess at the final viewing figure to the nearest 10,000 (eg.9.99m)
• Your guess at the final position in the chart (eg. 1st) - this will only be used in the event of a tie-break
   

Terms and Conditions:

• The competition closes at 08:00 GMT, 2nd January 2021
• Only one entry will be accepted per person.
• The competition is open worldwide
• BARB final figures are expected in early 2021, we will contact the winner once they have been published
• The prize is a copy of Revolution of the Daleks on either DVD or Bluray; we will confirm the format with the winner at time of notification.

The writer Philip Martin has died at the age of 82.

Philip Martin was an acclaimed television writer who worked in British television for over forty years.

He contributed two scripts for Doctor Who, both during the era of the sixth Doctor.

His first was Vengeance on Varos in 1985. The script dealt with a world where torture and executions were broadcast live to peoples homes. Martin created the character of Sil for the story, played admirably by Nabil Shaban.

Sil proved so popular the character returned for Martin's second script for the series, Mindwarp in 1986. Part of the Trial of a Timelord series, the script also dealt with the departure of Peri, played by Nicola Bryant, from the series.

A third script, Mission to Magnus was never filmed when the show was put on hiatus in 1985. It was later novelised by Martin in 1990 and recorded by Big Finish. 

Philip Martin was born in Liverpool in the North West of England. His early work included scripts for Z-Cars. A play for today set in Birmingham's underworld was developed into a series, Gangsters. 

Later work includes Tandoori Nights, Star Cops, Virtual Murder and several episodes of Hetty Wainthropp Investigates.

In 2019 Martin revisited the character of Sil to much acclaim in an independent broadcast television series from Reeltime Pictures Ltd., Sil and the Devil Seeds of Arodor.

The actor Jeremy Bulloch has died at the age of 75.

Jeremy Bulloch appeared in seven episodes of Doctor Who. 

His first appearance was in 1965 when he played alongside First Doctor William Hartnell in the story The Space Museum. Bulloch played Tor, one of the  Xeron rebels.

He returned to the series in 1973 playing Hal the archer in the Third Doctor story The Time Warrior. 

Jeremy Bulloch was best known in science fiction circles for playing bounty hunter Boba Fett in the Star Wars franchise appearing in the films The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.

Bulloch has a long career in film and television, first appearing at the age of 12 in a breakfast cereal commercial. As a child actor, he had many appearances in early television productions including roles in Billy Bunter of Greyfriars School and The Chequered Flag as well as the films Carry on Teacher and Spare the Rod

In the 1960's he appeared with Cliff Richard in the fun-filled musical Summer Holiday. and had a regular role in the soap opera Compact. Other roles included parts in George & Mildred, The Professionals, Agony, Jenny's War, Robin Hood, Casualty, The Bill and Starhyke. He appeared in the James Bond film Octopussy. 

In recent years he has been a regular at Star Wars conventions. 

Jeremy Bulloch died in hospital on Thursday from health complications following his many years living with Parkinson’s disease”, according to his agent.

He is survived by his wife, three sons and 10 grandchildren.