Actor Gareth David Lloyd - Ianto Jones from Torchwood - has penned a new comic strip to appear in Issue #21 of Torchwood Magazine.


This is not the first time an actor has penned a story; back in 2009 Captain Jack himself John Barrowman co-wrote Captain Jack and the Selkie with sister Carole for Issue #14.


Torchwood Magazine #21 is released in the United Kingdom on 15th April, and in the United States from 11th May.

The BBC has published a number of documents from its extensive written archive, detailing audience reaction to the arrival of a new Doctor, as it occurred over the years.

Viewer comments are contained in various letters and reports contained in the archive, showing viewers' reaction to each new face of the Time Lord. The papers, which span 40-plus years and are published online for the first time, reveal the difficulties of bedding in the new Doctor. Internal memos show that his first transformation was originally envisaged as a drug trip. "It is as if he has had the L.S.D. drug and instead of experiencing the kicks, he has the hell and dank horror which can be its effect", said one memo.

The change from William Hartnell to Patrick Troughton didn't please some viewers. "Once a brilliant but eccentric scientist, he now comes over as a half-witted clown," said one viewer of Troughton's new role, although another praised Troughton for rescuing the show from the "mess it had degenerated into". Some viewers were fed up with the Daleks and felt they were no longer a novelty.

When Jon Pertwee came along in 1970 some viewers complained it didn't measure up to another Science Fiction programme. 'Hardly an adequate substitute for Star Trek, and by comparison rather childish' was one comment, although most thought Pertwee had made a most acceptable and satisfactory 'new' Doctor. The debut of Tom Baker, who went to to be one of the most highly regarded Doctors, also drew much criticism. "General opinion was that the new Dr Who is a looney," said one viewer. Others however said the new Doctor had "more life and humour" than the last and seemed likely to "buck the series up".

Peter Davison's arrival in 1982 was met with general approval although there were a couple of suggestions that he should stick to being a vet. Colin Baker was met with mixed reaction with some viewers feeling the new Doctor was so totally different in character from others who had gone before him that he seemed 'unreal'. Sylvester McCoy had one of the most difficult starts with poor appreciation figures. The report noted that there are "a core of loyal and enthusiastic fans of Doctor Who remaining", although it said, "their number seems to be decreasing with each successive series".

The site also has a gallery of actors who nearly became the Doctor.

The new items available join those already online looking at the Genesis of Doctor Who.

Roly Keating, the BBC's director for archive content, said: "As we welcome Matt Smith and Karen Gillan into the Tardis, it's the perfect moment to remember his predecessors and also to celebrate the work of the BBC Archive in preserving these documents and photographs for future generations."

The material can be found at bbc.co.uk/archive.

In just a fortnight since gracing the front cover of the Radio Times for the series launch, this week sees not just one but three covers devoted to the Doctor's greatest enemy, the Daleks - with the three main political parties engaged in the current UK election campaign reflected in red, blue and yellow livery!

Inside, the magazine chats to Victory of the Daleks writer Mark Gatiss about his fascination with the Daleks, and explores their timeless appeal. Plus, an exclusive first look into the BBC’s online archive to find out its top Doctor Who secrets - the first ever access to audience research reports on previous Time Lords from Jon Pertwee to Sylvester McCoy.

This week also sees an interview with current Prime Minister Gordon Brown, plus a quickfire round of questions including Doctor Who:

To celebrate the fifth anniversary of Fantom Films, readers of the Doctor Who News page are being offered a special opportunity to win a variety of their products!

Utopia is their flagship event of the year, and takes place over the weekend of 15th/16th May at Heythrop Park in Oxfordshire. We are pleased to be able to offer a pair of tickets to the convention as first prize in a competition, with a number of items of merchandise produced by Fantom for the runner ups.


To be in with a chance of winning, simply answer the following question:


Entries should be sent to Fantom Films at the competition address - please include your answer, name and daytime contact number.

Entries must be received by 12 noon, 18th April 2010, and winners will be picked at random.

Final figures for The Eleventh Hour have today been published by BARB and give Matt Smith's debut story an final rating of 10.08 million viewers.

This total is over two million higher than the initial overnight figure of 8 million which implies a large number of viewers time shifted the programme by recording it and watching it later in the week.

On BBC One the story had 9.59 million watching, enough to make the story the second most watched on the channel for the week and the fourth most watched on all British television. However an additional 494,000 people watched the simulcast on BBC HD, giving the story a total audience 10.08 million and making it the third most watched overall. It was only beaten by two episodes of Coronation Street. The programme got nearly 4 million more viewers than any other programme on Saturday.

The Eleventh Hour has the eighth highest rating since the series returned in 2005. If the HD figure is included it is the first episode in the programme's history to be the third most watched of the week. Only twelve out of 757 episodes have ever made the top five. It is the third highest premier story with only Tom Baker and Christopher Eccleston's first stories rating higher.

The episode has also spent most of the week in the top ten list of iPlayer requests, with nearly a million downloads so far.

The Beast Below achieved an AI score of 86.

The AI or Appreciation Index or AI score is a measure of how much an audience enjoyed a programme. The score was the same as that for The Eleventh Hour and is classed as excellent. Doctor Who had the joint highest score on BBC One and ITV 1 for the day, along with Casualty and Harry Potter.

The Sunday repeat was watched by 0.75 million viewers, where it was the 5th most watched programme of the day on multi -channel television. The share was 3.1%. On the main channels, Sunday's Coronation Street got 40,000 more viewers than Saturday's Doctor Who, pushing Doctor Who down to thirteenth place for the week. The position will almost certainly rise when final consolidated figures are published next week.

The BBC has released a trailer for Episode Three of the new series, Victory of the Daleks.

The episode is written by Mark Gatiss and stars Bill Paterson, Ian McNeice and Nicholas Briggs. It can be seen in the UK next Saturday at 6.30pm on BBC One and at 8.25pm on BBC HD.

The Beast Below was watched by 6.7 million viewers, according to unofficial overnight figures.

The programme had an audience of 6.4 million on BBC One, with an additional 330,000 watching on BBC HD. The programme's share was 34%. Although a drop on the previous week, the programme was still the most watched of the day, beating the second-placed National Lottery by 0.8 million viewers. It is very rare for a programme placed so early in the evening to top the ratings for the day, especially on what was, wether-wise, one of the Saturdays of the year so far in the UK.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix performed the best for ITV1, with 5.7 million watching the network premiere. The FA Cup had an average of 3.3 million viewers, with a peak of 4.9 million against Doctor Who.

The highest peak of the day was between 4.15pm and 4.30pm when 7.6 million watched the Grand National horse race on BBC One.

Overall, the programme currently stands as the twelfth most-watched of the week, with Sunday's ratings still to come. A top ten place is still a possibility once the final ratings are calculated next week.

On BBC Three, Doctor Who Confidential was watched by 0.56 million viewers, a 2.7% share of the audience.

Two alumni of the classic series of Doctor Who have recently died.

Hubert Rees had three roles in the series working with two different Doctors.

He first appeared in the 1968 story Fury from the Deep, working alongside Patrick Troughton. He played the Chief Engineer, the head of engineering at a Euro Sea Gas refinery who assisted the Doctor in his efforts to defeat the Weed Creature. Rees returned to the series the following year in Troughton's swan song, The War Games, in which he played Captain Ransom, an officer in the British Army. His final appearance was in the 1976 Tom Baker story The Seeds of Doom, playing John Stevenson, a botanist at a scientific expedition in Antarctic.

Outside of Doctor Who he had roles in many well-known dramas, including Paul Temple, The Sweeney, The Duchess of Duke Street, By the Sword Divided and Howards' Way.


Max Faulkner, born in 1931, was a stunt man and actor who has small roles in six Doctor Who stories. He played a UNIT soldier in the 1970 Jon Pertwee story The Ambassadors of Death, and a miner in the 1974 story The Monster of Peladon. In Jon Pertwee's final story, Planet of the Spiders, he played the Guard Captain.

Faulkner appeared with Tom Baker in three stories. In the 1975 story Genesis of the Daleks he played a Thal Guard before returning later in the year in The Android Invasion as Corporal Adams, a UNIT officer stationed at Devesham. His final appearance in 1978 was in The Invasion of Time where he played Nesbin, the leader of a group of Outsiders.

He was the fight arranger in the 1976 story The Hand of Fear.

Faulkner appeared in many British dramas such as Ivanhoe, The Adventures of Robin Hood, Richard the Lionheart, Colditz, Lorna Doone, Little Lord Fauntleroy, Secret Army, Blake's 7 and Robin of Sherwood.

The BBC has published a blog on the recent relaunch of the official BBC Doctor Who website.

Written by Andy Dudfield, the Delivery Manager, Future Media & Technology in BBC Wales, the blog explores the brief for the relaunch and the work done to try to make the official site the no.1 destination to experience the world of Doctor Who.

As well as introducing brand new sections for viewers to explore and learn more about characters and monsters from the series, the site will be bring a higher level of production news and will be used to break important Doctor Who stories.

The blog singles out the Fun and Games section of the site as a major priority. A brand new look and feel has been given to this section and it is hoped this will help keep it visually engaging and entertaining. There is also a significant piece of work underway to unlock the archive and move content from the old into the new site.