US Torchwood Comic announced

Thursday, 3 June 2010 - Reported by Chuck Foster
Titan Publishing have announced a new Torchwood comic for the United States.

Issue One will feature two stories: Captain Jack and the Selkie, a story penned by John Barrowman and his sister Carole, with artwork by Tommy Lee Edwards; and Broken, penned by Gary Russell with artwork by Adrian Salmon. Both stories originally featured in Titan's Torchwood Magazine, published in the UK. (You can read more about Captain Jack and the Selkie in our article from last year.)

Each issue will feature two collectible covers, one of artwork and the other picture-based. Cover art for Issue One is by Ian Churchill, and there will be an exclusive third version by Churchill at this year's San Diego Comic Con.

The first issue is due to be published on the 10th August.




FILTER: - Torchwood - Magazines

Big Finish licence renewed

Thursday, 3 June 2010 - Reported by Chuck Foster
The audio adventures of Doctor Who are set to continue, with Big Finish announcing that their licence to produce the stories has been extended to December 2012.

Says Executive Producer Jason Haigh-Ellery:
This is wonderful news. All of us at Big Finish love making the Audio Adventures of Doctor Who, and after a decade it remains both a thrill and an honour to continue doing so.

Producer David Richardson commented on the ranges:
We have many plans for the future. The main range starring Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy and Paul McGann continues on a monthly basis, as do The Companion Chronicles. You’ll be hearing more from The Lost Stories and Jago and Litefoot. Plus… we’ve been in talks with Tom Baker, who is eager to join the audio range for a series of full cast plays.

Executive Producer Nick Briggs added:
We have a great and fruitful relationship with both BBC Wales and BBC Audiobooks, and long may it continue. Big Finish and BBC Audiobooks work alongside each other to provide the best possible range of audio productions for fans of the series. I never forget what a great privilege it is for us to be in this position.

Everything was planned up until the end of 2011, so now we can forge ahead with our plans for 2012. These are exciting times indeed!




FILTER: - Big Finish

City of the Daleks now available

Wednesday, 2 June 2010 - Reported by Chuck Foster
The first episode in the BBC downloadable game, City of the Daleks, has now been made available for the PC - three days earlier than expected!

A Macintosh version of the game is expected to be released on 15 June.

The game can be downloaded for free in the United Kingdom from the official site for The Adventure Games on the BBC's Doctor Who website. A commercial version is expected to be made available internationally in July.




FILTER: - Games

K-9 returns to Disney XD in new timeslot

Wednesday, 2 June 2010 - Reported by Chuck Foster
After a short break for school half-term, the Australian series of K-9 will return to Disney XD in the United Kingdom from Saturday 12th June, broadcasting at the new morning prime-time slot of 6:00am.

The change of time has been attributed to be more accessible to young children, who might be expected to be away from the television during summer afternoons.

The series is scheduled to broadcast on the free-to-air UK national station Channel 5 later in the year.





FILTER: - K9

Brigadier Bambera reunited with the Doctor

Wednesday, 2 June 2010 - Reported by Chuck Foster
The Doctor is to be reunited with Brigadier Winifred Bambera in a new audio adventure from Big Finish.

The character, reprised by actress Angela Bruce, will feature in the story Animal, which forms part of the second season of Lost Stories. It is written by former script editor Andrew Cartmel, and sees Bambera once again encountering the seventh Doctor, played by Sylvester McCoy.

Says series producer David Richardson:
Animal is a great, old-fashioned UNIT story, in which Bambera and her troops are investigating some strange events at a university. And then the Doctor and Raine arrive...

Recording took place in April, and the story/series is available to pre-order.




FILTER: - Audio - Big Finish

Doctor Who Magazine - 422

Tuesday, 1 June 2010 - Reported by Chuck Foster
Doctor Who Magazine 419In the latest issue of DWM the remaining episodes of Matt Smith's premier series are previewed. Readers can meet Van Gogh in Vincent and the Doctor; go house hunting as we speak to writer Gareth Roberts about The Lodger, which guest stars James Corden; then visit Stonehenge in Roman times as head writer Steven Moffat reveals what’s coming up in the season’s finale – The Pandorica Opens and The Big Bang

Talking about his forthcoming episode Vincent and the Doctor, writer Richard Curtis says:
It was a joy working on something my kids love. During the summer I was writing it, we had lots of prints of Van Gogh paintings up round the house – and a board with index cards going through the plot, scene by scene – and both of my big kids came up with ideas…

Also in the magazine:
  • Steven Moffat reveals what happened when he joined Matt Smith and Karen Gillan to promote the new series in the Big Apple – and what ‘whisking’, giraffes and babies have to do with the world of Doctor Who – in the latest Production Notes!
  • DWM catches up with Chris Chibnall, writer of the latest thrilling adventure, The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood, and finds out how and why the Silurians were revived for the twenty-first century. Plus, Meera Syal, who stars as Nasreen Chaudry, tells us about her experience of working on the show – and how her expectations were more than met…
  • The Doctor and Amy realise that a change isn’t always as good as a rest in Part Two of the latest full-colour comic strip, Supernature, by Jonathan Morris with art by Mike Collins. As Amy continues to mutate, the Doctor goes exploring, in search of a cure…
  • DWM visits Croatia and goes behind the scenes of The Vampires of Venice, with exclusive interviews with Matt Smith, Karen Gillan, Arthur Darvill (Rory) and Helen McCrory (Rosanna), executive producer Beth Willis and producer Tracie Simpson!
  • Toby Jones, the Dream Lord himself, talks candidly to DWM about his bizarre role in Amy’s Choice – and on whether his character could return to haunt the Doctor in the future…
  • It’s all aboard, as DWM joins the Wengerbus! Follow Matt Smith and Karen Gillan as Matt revisits his old school in Northampton as part of the Doctor Who tour, and discover what life is really like on the road…
  • Enter a world of Cave-Monsters, Sea Devils and savage dinosaurs as the Watcher tells you everything you need to know (and discovers quite a few surprises!) about homo reptilia – the Silurians!
  • Deborah Watling, who played companion Victoria Waterfield in the 1960s, tells us what she thinks about the current series, the pressures of writing her autobiography and meeting her fans in Who on Earth is…
Out now!




FILTER: - DWM

Richard Curtis - Radio Times Interview

Tuesday, 1 June 2010 - Reported by Marcus
Radio TimesDoctor Who is the Hamlet of the television world according to the Oscar-nominated writer Richard Curtis, who just happens to have penned the next Doctor Who episode, Vincent and the Doctor.

Speaking in this week's Radio Times, Curtis says "it is a pivotal, career-making role, to be reprised over the years with different actors, always the same, and yet metamorphosing radically with each new incarnation."

Curtis, admits he was not a childhood addict. "No, I wasn’t very dedicated. I seem to remember I liked the Master more than the Doctor, strangely enough." He says his decision to write an episode was more thanks to the nagging from his four children, now aged from 14 to six. "My kids absolutely love it. We all watched the Christmas special two years ago and my children said I had to do one. Scarlett, our eldest, pointed out that while I’d always promised I would write a children’s movie, by the time I do, she won’t be a child any more. And the great thing about telly is how swift it is by comparison with films."




FILTER: - Press - Series 5/31 - Radio Times

The Hungry Earth - Final Ratings

Tuesday, 1 June 2010 - Reported by Marcus
Hungry EarthFinal figures for Episode Eight, The Hungry Earth, published by BARB show the story was watched by 6.49 million viewers.

The figure is an increase of over two million on the initially reported overnights, implying many recorded the programme to watch it later. Although the overnight figure was the lowest reported since the series returned, the final figure beats three David Tennant episodes.

On BBC One the programme got 6.01 million watching where it was the ninth most watched programme for the channel for the week. An additional 0.48 million watched on BBC HD. When added together the programme totalled 6.49 million viewers and was the 19th most watched programme of the week.

The BBC Three Sunday repeat did not rank high enough to get into the top 30 for the week.

Full ratings for the series so far can be found in Gallifrey Base.





FILTER: - Ratings - UK - Series 5/31

Cold Blood - Appreciation Index

Monday, 31 May 2010 - Reported by Marcus
Cold BloodCold Blood got an AI or Audience Appreciation Index score of 85.

This puts the programme once more in the excellent category.

Sunday night saw Lewis outrate Doctor Who, putting Cold Blood into 19th place for the week on overnights, a position which will rise when final figures are released next Monday. The episode will be repeated on BBC Three tonight at 7pm, a day later than usual, and on BBC HD at 00.15.

Saturdays's Doctor Who Confidential scored an AI figure of 81.




FILTER: - Ratings - UK - Series 5/31

Australian ratings for Amy's Choice

Monday, 31 May 2010 - Reported by Adam Kirk
Doctor Who continues its excellent ratings in Australia. TV Tonight reports that Amy's Choice averaged 973,000 viewers in the five major capital cities, again despite stiff competition from the commercial networks and the Eurovision Song Contest final on SBS. This was the program's best overnight ratings since 1.033 million Australian viewers watched Matt Smith debut in The Eleventh Hour. Yet again it was the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's top-rating program of the day, rating higher than its popular Sunday 7pm news. The corresponding Confidential Cutdown also rated a strong 595,000 viewers in the five major capitals.




FILTER: - Ratings - Series 5/31 - Broadcasting - Australia