Doctor Who takes a mid-summer break after next week - but not before A Good Man Goes To War! The mid-series finale is due to be broadcast at 6:40pm in a 50 minute time slot, and the BBC have now released the third in their online "prequel" episodes to set the scene for the episode, alongside its trailer:

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A Good Man Goes To War will premiere on BBC1/BBC1HD at 6:40pm, 4th June in the United Kingdom; it then follows a week later (11th June) on SPACE in Canada at 8:00pm ET, BBC America in the United States at 9:00pm ET, and on ABC1 in Australia at 7:30pm.

101,760 viewers tuned in to watch the debut of Day of the Moon on Prime in New Zealand last night, according to overnight figures. This is a drop of 44,760 from last week.

Against Doctor Who, Lorraine Kelly's Big Fat Challenge on TV One had 375,450 viewers, No Ordinary Family on TV2 with 298,840 and Bones on TV3 got 297,100 viewers.

Prime is the seventh national free-to-air television station in New Zealand and is owned by Sky Network Television. TV One and TV2 are operated by the state-owned Television New Zealand and TV3 is owned by MediaWorks New Zealand.

The BBC Doctor Who website has confirmed that Piers Wenger, currently one of three executive producers on Doctor Who, is leaving the BBC.

Wenger commented:
He replaced Julie Gardner as Head of Drama for BBC Wales in January 2009 and in July of that year became executive producer of Doctor Who and took a central role in the casting of Matt Smith as the eleventh Doctor. His other executive producer credits on Doctor Who include The Adventure Games and Doctor Who Confidential. Away from Doctor Who, he worked on Ashes to Ashes, Christopher and His Kind and Upstairs Downstairs.

In March 2011 Wenger stepped down as Head of Drama but remained at BBC Wales to continue as a creative developer. His position will be filled by Faith Penhale from Kudos in June.


Wenger is leaving the BBC to join Film4 in September, where he will become the senior commissioning executive under Tessa Ross, Channel 4 controller of film and drama, who commented:

His successor as executive producer of Doctor Who will be filled in the coming months by head writer Steven Moffat and the BBC's controller of Drama Commissioning, Ben Stephenson, who said:

Doctor goes up against Doctor in the 2011 Constellation Awards, with both Matt Smith and David Tennant nominated for their role as The Doctor in the Best Male Performance - Television category.

The Awards, now in their fifth year, are Canada's premier awards rewarding excellence in science fiction film and television. Because they cover programmes broadcast in 2010, both the Tenth and Eleventh Doctor's are eligible. Tennant for his performance in The End of Time - Part Two, and Smith for his performance in last year's Christmas special, A Christmas Carol. David Tennant was given last year's award for his performance in The Waters of Mars. Also nominated is Tony Curran for his portrayal of Vincent Van Gogh in Vincent and the Doctor.

Karen Gillan is nominated for Best Female Performance - Television for her role in Amy's Choice and faces Katherine Jenkins nominated for A Christmas Carol.

Doctor Who is also nominated in the Best Science Fiction Television Series category, a category it has one three times before although it lost out in last year's awards to Supernatural, which has also been nominated for 2010.

Murray Gold earns a nominaton for Doctor Who's music in the Best Technical Accomplishment category, with Steven Moffat and Richard Curtis both being nominated for Best Overall 2010 Science Fiction Film or Television Script, Moffat for The Eleventh Hour and Curtis for Vincent and the Doctor.

For a full list of nomanees see the awards website.

The awards will be announced at a Ceremony on July 16, 2011 at the Sheraton Parkway Toronto North hotel.

Doctor Who will face the double peril of live football and Britain's Got Talent, for the final episode before the mid season break, according to schedules published today.

A Good Man Goes to War, which showrunner Steven Moffat promises will contain a 'game-changing cliffhanger', has been given a 50 minute slot between 6.40 and 7.30pm on Saturday 4th June. It will follow So You Think You Can Dance Live on BBC One and is followed by The National Lottery: Who Dares Wins.

As Doctor Who goes on air, ITV1 will be showing England playing Switzerland with live Football Coverage of the Euro 2012 Group G qualifier at Wembley Stadium, although the match should be over before Doctor Who starts. At 7pm they go into the Britain's Got Talent - Final, the show that has been winning the ratings on Saturday nights, but which has not yet been placed directly against The Doctor. BBC Two will show Dad's Army while The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is the film on Channel 4.

The BBC has issued more information about the episode. Steven Moffat has confirmed that everything on the BBC Website is approved and not a spoiler, but those wishing to avoid all information about the forthcoming episode should avoid the news below.

Big Finish has announced a series of one-day sales called "Big Finish Week". The weeklong sale starts on 6th June and features a selection of Doctor Who CD releases which are available to buy from the Big Finish website for just £5.00 each for one day only. These one-day sales are as follows:

• 6 June – Doctor Who releases 1-10
  The Sirens of Time, Phantasmagoria, Whispers of Terror, The Land of the Dead, The Fearmonger, The Marian Conspiracy, The Genocide Machine, Red Dawn, The Spectre of Lanyon Moor and Winter for the Adept
• 7 June – Doctor Who releases 11-20
  The Apocalypse Element, The Fires of Vulcan, The Shadow of the Scourge, The Holy Terror, The Mutant Phase, Storm Warning, The Sword of Orion, The Stones of Venice, Minuet in Hell and Loups-Garoux.
• 8 June – Doctor Who releases 21-30
  Dust Breeding, Bloodtide, Project: Twilight, The Eye of the Scorpion, Colditz, Primeval, The One Doctor, Invaders from Mars, The Chimes of Midnight, Seasons of Fear.
• 9 June – Doctor Who releases 31-40
  Embrace the Darkness, The Time of the Daleks, Neverland, Spare Parts, …Ish, The Rapture, The Sandman, The Church and the Crown, Bang-Bang-A-Boom!, Jubilee
• 10 June – Doctor Who releases 41-50
  Nekromanteia, The Dark Flame, The Pirates, Creatures of Beauty, Project: Lazarus, FlipFlop, Omega, Davros, Master, Zagreus

The sale will end on 11 June, with the Big Finish Day Convention in Barking, Essex. Guests in attendance will include Colin Baker, Sophie Aldred, Katy Manning, Miles Richardson, Nicholas Briggs, Lisa Bowerman. More details on this event can be found on the 10th Planet Events website.

A number of actors from Doctor Who will be attending Collectormania in Milton Keynes over this coming weekend (Saturday 28th to Monday 30th May 2011).

Former Doctors Peter Davison and Colin Baker will join Alex Kingston (River Song), Stuart Milligan (President Richard Nixon, Colonel Stark, Tannoy), Anthony Head (Mr. Finch, School Reunion, Baltazar, The Infinite Quest) John Leeson (K-9), John Challis (Scorby, The Seeds of Doom), Roger Lloyd-Pack (John Lumic, Rise of the Cybermen / The Age of Steel), Dean Lennox Kelly (Shakespeare, The Shakespeare Code), Nigel Planer (Vorgenson, Doctor Who Live), Christopher Ryan (General Staal / Commander Stark), Miranda Raison (Tallulah, Daleks in Manhattan / Evolution of the Daleks), Darren Morfitt (Marco, The Time of Angels / Flesh and Stone), Ralph Morse (Foster Guardian, The Keeper of Traken), Les Conrad (Various - uncredited), Stephen Calcutt (Various - uncredited), Dean Mitchell (Armed Soldier, Aliens of London - uncredited) and Jill Curzon (Louise, Daleks – Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D.).

You can find a full list of guests and show information on the Collectormania website.

After the controversy raised by Scottish media last weekend over the commercial sale of replicas of the Doctor's coat, Canada's premier news agency Postmedia investigated further from the perspective of the country where replica producer AbbyShot Clothiers are based.

BBC Worldwide spokesperson Emma Finlay clarified that AbbyShot approached them with the proposal:
The agency also confirmed that the adapted jacket worn by Matt Smith for the current series was not a Chinese replica as intimated in the earlier reports, but was actually tailored into a warmer version for the actor by a Saville Row shop - though using a substitute for true Harris Tweed. The replica being produced by AbbyShot is a wool-acrylic blend based on that design.

Last year, AbbyShot received a Canadian SME Innovator of the Year award from Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters. The company specialises in making screen-accurate representations of popular iconic clothing seen on television and in movies.

Alex Kingston will be a guest on The Graham Norton Show this Friday (27th May) at 10:35pm on BBC One. Other guests on the show are Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Rob Lowe.

Following transmission, the show will available in the UK on the BBC iPlayer for the next seven days.

The official BBC YouTube channel has uploaded three preview clips from tonight's episode but none of them feature Alex Kingston.

Matt Smith appeared on the The One Show this evening, where he chatted about finding football more nerve-wracking than the BAFTAs, his stunt work in Doctor Who, and of course next week's The Almost People - as much as could be revealed at any rate - during which he also described the Doctor as the "cleverest and vainest man in the world, sadly". The item was accompanied by a previously unseen clip from Saturday's episode.

When asked if he's carrying on in the role, Matt answered he would be for the foreseeable future, and on next season: "I hope so! If not then I'm panicking!". A short Q&A session occured at the end, in which Matt said Day of the Moon was his favourite episode (so far!), the Silence were the scariest monster, and the Silence/Weeping Angels as his favourite (host Matt Baker also commented on how he'd been lambasted by fans for calling the character "Doctor Who" when soliciting for the questions Twitter earlier in the day!).

The programme is available to watch in the UK on the BBC iplayer for the next seven days.

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The BBC have now the made the clip available to watch online: