Doctor Who Adventures - 161

Thursday, 8 April 2010 - Reported by Chuck Foster
Doctor Who AdventuresIn this week's edition of Doctor Who Adventures, find out all the facts on Prisoner Zero in this week’s ‘Fast Facts’, and Matt reveals his favourite bits from episode one and how he managed to eat fish fingers and custard!

Plus, the Doctor and Amy make their first appearance in the comic strip, and there's the chance to win a life-size Dalek.




FILTER: - Magazines - DWA

Week Three - Schedules (Updated)

Thursday, 8 April 2010 - Reported by Marcus
Victory of the DaleksSchedules for the 17th April have been changed slightly with Episode Three of the new series, Victory of the Daleks, now being broadcast on BBC One at 6.30pm.

NB: The BBC HD showing will be delayed until 8.25pm because BBC HD will be showing live football earlier in the evening.

On BBC One the programme will again be preceded on BBC One by Total Wipeout and followed by Over the Rainbow.

On ITV 1 Doctor Who is up against You've Been Framed, Extreme, a series with Harry Hill featuring the best camcorder and mobile phone calamities, the last showing of which was watched by 5 million viewers on 20th March. The last half is up against a new game show The Whole 19 Yards. 19 yards is the distance the contestants have to travel to reach their buzzer - over, under, across and through a gruelling obstacle course. The big hitter in the ITV lineup is the return of Britain's Got Talent at 8pm, the series which launched the career of Susan Boyle last year and the programme which is likely to win the night in ratings terms.

BBC Two offers football with Match of the Day Live and the game between West Bromwich Albion and Middlesbrough, while Channel 4 has Channel 4 News. On Five you can see the 1965 film Major Dundee, an offbeat western starring Charlton Heston and Richard Harris.

Doctor Who Confidential is on BBC Three at 7.15pm, with story writer Mark Gatiss meeting the curator of the Cabinet War Rooms and Churchill Museum to see what the conditions were like at the epicentre of the British war effort. Confidential is repeated on BBC HD at 9.10pm.




FILTER: - Broadcasting

Doctor Who - The Adventure Games

Thursday, 8 April 2010 - Reported by Marcus
The Adventure GamesThe BBC has announced the production of four new 'interactive episodes' of Doctor Who which will be available from the official website, bbc.co.uk/doctorwho.

These four new adventures will take the form of downloadable computer games available for PC and Mac, in which players assume control of The Doctor and Amy as they embark on new adventures which complement the new TV series. The games have been produced by a team drawing on the very best talent from TV and gaming. The interactive episodes are executive produced by Steven Moffat, Piers Wenger, Beth Willis and Anwen Aspden from BBC Wales Interactive, alongside Charles Cecil, one of videogaming's most revered creators.

The games are being developed by Sumo Digital, one of the UK's best game designers. Stories and scripts are by Phil Ford, who co-wrote The Waters Of Mars and James Moran who has written for Torchwood.

The project has been commissioned for BBC Online by the Vision Multiplatform team, headed up by Simon Nelson, and is being driven by BBC Wales Interactive.

Matt Smith and Karen Gillan have been digitally recreated in-game, and have provided full voice-overs. Music has been provided by TV series composer Murray Gold. An additional cast will portray original characters and classic enemies.

Steven Moffat, executive producer, Doctor Who, says
Children don't just watch Doctor Who, they join in. They make up games, invent their monsters, create their own stories. Now, there's something else – now, they can be The Doctor in brand-new episodes.

By developing these games alongside the new TV series, we've been able to weave exciting narrative strands with the very finest game design to create a new kind of Doctor Who, which can be enjoyed by the whole family.

Piers Wenger, Head of Drama, BBC Wales, and executive producer, Doctor Who, added
There aren't 13 episodes of Doctor Who this year, there are 17 – four of which are interactive. Everything you see and experience within the game is part of the Doctor Who universe. We'll be taking you to places you've only ever dreamed about seeing – including locations impossible to create on television.

Simon Nelson, head of BBC multiplatform in Vision, said:
A few years ago, we couldn't have dreamt of commissioning such an innovative form of drama. By integrating the creation of these 'interactive episodes' with the development of the TV series, we've been able to create amazing two-hour dramas, in which you control the action. We've all imagined what it would be like to come face to face with some of the universe's most terrifying monsters – now, viewers can find out for themselves.

Establishing new forms of drama is exactly what the BBC should be doing. By aiming these 'interactive episodes' at the broad audience of the TV show – unique in British television, in that it encompasses at least three generations – we're aiming to encourage the family to gather round the PC or Mac in the same way they do the television. Driving computer literacy is a keystone of the BBC's public service remit and we expect Doctor Who – The Adventure Games to be hugely popular in the homes of Britain this year.

Only the BBC could produce such an innovative slice of new drama. We're offering two-hour original Doctor Who episodes to production standards on a par with the TV series, working with the very best creatives within the UK. We're hugely proud of Doctor Who – The Adventure Games, which will establish new standards in interactive drama and allow families the country over to enjoy Doctor Who stories in unique and innovative ways.

Anwen Aspden, executive producer, BBC Wales Online, concludes:
Doctor Who – The Adventure Games will offer the chance for Doctor Who fans to visit places they've only dreamed of, facing off against monsters they've previously had to imagine. Players will visit places which have never been shown on television – and these will go on to define the look and feel of future TV episodes.

The exact titles of the four episodes are being kept secret for the time being, but the four original stories will take players on a journey throughout time and space, including one location from the Doctor Who series which has never been seen before on screen. Players will encounter new and original monsters, in stories which form part of the overall Doctor Who canon.

The first episode of Doctor Who – The Adventure Games will be available to download for PC and Mac from bbc.co.uk/doctorwho in June 2010. Its title will be revealed at a special press event on 21 April in Sheffield.






FILTER: - Online - Games - Matt Smith

BBC America Launch Day

Thursday, 8 April 2010 - Reported by Marcus
BBC America has cleared its schedules to bring its viewers nothing but Doctor Who in the run-up to the new series launch in the United States on Saturday April 17.

Starting at 5am ET, the channel will show the final half of Series 4, starting with The Doctor's Daughter and going right through to Journey's End. From 1.30pm it moves onto the gap year specials with The Next Doctor, Planet of the Dead, The Waters of Mars and The End of Time, taking viewers to the end of the Tenth Doctor's time on the show.

At 8pm it will show Doctor Who: The Ultimate Guide, described as a "BBC America original, all-access look inside the universe of the world's biggest, most successful sci-fi television program", before launching Matt Smith to the American public with The Eleventh Hour at 9pm ET.

After an hour's 'Who' break, the channel will repeat The Ultimate Guide and The Eleventh Hour at 11pm, with a further repeat for West Coast viewers at 2am.

The Eleventh Hour gets a further repeat on Sunday April 18 at 5pm, although this will be a cut down version to fit into an hour slot, complete with commercials. A further repeat will be shown on Saturday April 24 at 8pm ET before the US premiere of Episode Two, The Beast Below at 9pm.




FILTER: - USA - Broadcasting

Lancaster Exhibition

Wednesday, 7 April 2010 - Reported by Marcus
Kings DemonsAn new exhibition dedicated to memorabilia from the classic series of Doctor Who, has opened in Lancaster in the north of England.

The exhibition consists of items from the remarkable collection of Dr Peter Jewell, a life long fan of the series. Over the years he has has amassed a huge number of rare and vintage items based the show, a number of which are now on view at Judges Lodgings in the centre of Lancaster.

The exhibition opened on Good Friday and runs until the end of October.

A full list of Doctor Who events can be found on our Events tab. If you know of an event which should be added to the list, please email the news page.




FILTER: - Exhibitions - Classic Series

Art for Hearts

Wednesday, 7 April 2010 - Reported by Chuck Foster
Mike Tucker artworkA special auction is being organised to raise funds for research by Great Ormond Street Hospital into organ transplantation. Featuring artwork from illustrators of children works to sketches from Doctor Who designers and artists, the auction takes place during National Transplant Week, 5th-12th June 2010.

The research being carried out by the hospital is into how, in organ transplantation, these organs do not survive for as long as those that haven't been transplanted.

Works up for auction include the sketch made by model-maker Mike Tucker for the 1997 Doctor Who Night "TARDIS" background (pictured here), and other Doctor Who contributors such as Colin Howard, Lee Binding, Adrian Salmon and Peter McKinstry.

For more information on the auction, visit the Art For Hearts site.




FILTER: - Special Events - Auctions

Crash Doctor Figure

Wednesday, 7 April 2010 - Reported by Marcus
The new Matt Smith action figure has been released, and ITN have reported on how the figure was made. The character comes in two versions, one showing the Doctor's crash outfit as he appeared in the majority of The Eleventh Doctor and one showing the Doctor in his new outfit.



Reviews on The Eleventh Doctor continue to be published and you can find a full list in Doctor Who in the Media.

Neil Gaiman has blogged about watching the episode and his daughter's reaction to the story. In his blog he reveals that the story he has written for Matt Smith's second series was originally planed for inclusion towards the end of the current series. He is now rewriting it to fit in its new slot.




FILTER: - Merchandise - Matt Smith

The Beast Below - Trailer

Tuesday, 6 April 2010 - Reported by Marcus
The BBC has released a trailer for Episode Two of the new series, The Beast Below.

The episode, which stars Sophie Okonedo, Terrence Hardiman, Alfie Field and Catrin Richards, can be seen in the UK next Saturday at 6.15pm on BBC One and BBC HD.





FILTER: - Series 5/31 - Broadcasting

Sarah Jane Adventures: Filming begins

Monday, 5 April 2010 - Reported by Chuck Foster
Filming commenced on the fourth series of The Sarah Jane Adventures last week, and today saw the production back at the Sarah Jane Smith residence on Bannerman Road, aka Clinton Road in Penarth.

The old team were here for filming, i.e. Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith, Tommy Knight as Luke, Daniel Anthony as Clyde, and Anjli Mohindra as Rani.

K9 was also spotted on location, which appears to be first confirmation that Sarah's long-time companion will be back in Series Four (he wasn't mentioned in the press release).

The scene being filmed appeared to involve Luke leaving home




 




FILTER: - Filming Reports - Sarah Jane

Eleventh Hour - AI and Repeat Ratings

Monday, 5 April 2010 - Reported by Marcus
Eleventh HourThe Eleventh Hour scored an Appreciation Index score of 86 making it one of the most enjoyed programmes of the weekend.

The Appreciation Index or AI is a measure of how much an audience enjoyed a programme. Figures are based on ratings from a selected panel of 5000 people. The average score for BBC One is 80 with the average for the current Doctor Who timeslot being 82, and the average for Drama being 85.

The score is higher than previous Doctors' premieres: David Tennant's first appearance in The Christmas Invasion scored 84, and Christopher Eccleston's first story, Rose, scored 76. AI figures tend to grow throughout a series as the audience becomes familiar with the characters and the concept. Doctor Who's highest score so far was 91 for The Stolen Earth and Journey's End.

The programme was most enjoyed by female viewers who rated it significantly higher than males watching. It also scored highest in Scotland and with the 35-54 age group. Viewers generally found the programme high quality, original and different with some missing David Tennant.

Overnight figures for Sunday show nothing could approach the success of Doctor Who on Saturday, with the highest rated show being A Touch of Frost on ITV1 with 7.2 million watching. So The Eleventh Hour was the highest rated show of the Easter weekend and the eighth highest of the whole week.

The Sunday BBC Three repeat was watched by 0.67 million viewers and was the third rated show on multi-channel for Sunday.




FILTER: - Ratings - UK - Series 5/31