The Time of The Doctor: posters

Thursday, 5 December 2013 - Reported by Chuck Foster
The BBC and BBC America have released some posters to promote The Time of the Doctor.

The Time of the Doctor (poster). Image: BBC/Ray BurmistonThe Time of the Doctor (poster). Image: BBC America/Ray Burmiston/Lee BindingThe Time of the Doctor (poster). Image: BBC America/Ray Burmiston/Lee BindingThe Time of the Doctor (poster). Image: BBC/Ray BurmistonThe Time of the Doctor (poster). Image: BBC America/Ray Burmiston/Lee Binding




FILTER: - Specials - BBC America - Time and the Doctor - Press - Publicity - BBC

The Time of The Doctor: new images

Thursday, 5 December 2013 - Reported by Chuck Foster
The BBC have released some publicity images to promote this year's Christmas special, The Time and The Doctor, featuring Matt Smith as the Doctor, with Jenna Coleman as Clara.

The Doctor (Matt Smith) and Clara (Jenna Coleman). Image: BBC/Adrian RogersThe Doctor (Matt Smith). Image: BBC/Adrian RogersClara (Jenna Coleman). Image: BBC/Adrian RogersThe Doctor (Matt Smith). Image: BBC/Adrian Rogers

A further set of images will be published on Saturday.


The evening line-up for British television on Christmas Day shows that this year Doctor Who is up against its old adversary, Coronation Street, also on between 7:30pm and 8:30pm on ITV. Other programming on the main channels include The Two Ronnies 1987 Christmas Special on BBC2, the film Home Alone 2 on Channel 4, and a repeat of The Greatest Ever Christmas Movies on Channel 5. The BBC/ITV 'battle' then continues with Eastenders (8:30pm) and Mrs Brown's Boys (9:30pm) up against Downton Abbey.

In case you need something to watch as your Christmas lunch settles, BBC2 will be repeating this year's Doctor Who at the Prom at 3:15pm, and the anniversary drama An Adventure in Space and Time at 4:30pm.





FILTER: - Time and the Doctor - Matt Smith - Jenna Coleman - Publicity

Panic Moon issue 8 published

Wednesday, 4 December 2013 - Reported by John Bowman
The new edition of paper-and-ink pocket-sized fanzine Panic Moon is now available - and is the publication's biggest offering to date.

Issue 8 of the A6 monochrome magazine comprises 44 pages, with writers including Toby Hadoke plus original artwork.

It welcomes the casting of Peter Capaldi and reviews The Day of the Doctor, An Adventure in Space and Time, the "missing-no-more" stories The Web of Fear and The Enemy of the World, plus all of Series 7's episodes, prequels, and minisodes.

The magazine also considers race in Doctor Who, looks at the latest redesigns of the Cybermen, Ice Warriors, and TARDIS console, pays tribute to Dalek designer Raymond Cusick, and revisits An Unearthly Child from three different perspectives.

To order it, visit the fanzine's website.




FILTER: - Fan Productions

Paul McGann on his return to Doctor Who

Wednesday, 4 December 2013 - Reported by Marcus
The BBC have released a short video featuring Eighth Doctor Paul McGann talking about his role in The Night of the Doctor.



McGann will appear in An Evening With Paul McGann at the Ritz Cinema in Lincoln on Friday 20th December.

The charity fundraising event in aid of the Ritz Regeneration fund will see the actor take part in an evening of Q&A. The evening will finish with a screening of the cult classic Withnail & I, co-starring Richard E Grant.




FILTER: - Paul McGann

Guests announced for BFI's final DW anniversary event

Wednesday, 4 December 2013 - Reported by John Bowman
The special guests for the BFI's final event in its Doctor Who At 50 season were announced today.

Taking place on Sunday 8th December and starting at 3.45pm, it will feature big-screen showings of
The Eleventh Hour and The Name of the Doctor, celebrating the current Doctor's era of the show as it approaches its end.

These will be followed by showrunner Steven Moffat, director Saul Metzstein, and actor Dan Starkey taking to the stage for the question-and-answer session.

Although a sell-out, stand-bys and returns are possible, so keep checking with the BFI.

Curated by Dick Fiddy and Justin Johnson, the year-long season has been phenomenally popular and has scored some impressive successes, including the first public showing of the colour-restored Third Doctor adventure The Mind of Evil, as well as the world première of the drama An Adventure In Space and Time.

UPDATE - MONDAY 9th DECEMBER: Mark Gatiss was a subsequent addition to the guest panel line-up, although this was not made public.




FILTER: - Steven Moffat - Special Events - UK - BFI - WHO50

The Time of The Doctor: BBC America confirms US broadcast time

Tuesday, 3 December 2013 - Reported by Chuck Foster
The Time of The Doctor - Promotional Image (Credit: BBC/Ray Burmiston)BBC America have now confirmed that they too will be broadcasting The Time of The Doctor on Christmas Day, in the primetime evening slot of 9:00pm EST/8:00 CST.

SPACE in Canada have yet to confirm their time, but it is expected that they will also broadcast the episode during the evening of the 25th.





FILTER: - Specials - USA - BBC America - Season Specials - Peter Capaldi - Matt Smith - Broadcasting

The Time of the Doctor confirmed

Tuesday, 3 December 2013 - Reported by Chuck Foster
The Time of The Doctor - Promotional Image (Credit: BBC/Ray Burmiston)The BBC have confirmed that the world premiere of Matt Smith's final adventure starring as the Doctor, The Time of the Doctor, will be broadcast on BBC One at 7:30pm on Christmas Day. The one-hour festive adventure will also herald the much-anticipated debut of Peter Capaldi in the title role.

Orbiting a quiet backwater planet, the massed forces of the universe’s deadliest species gather, drawn to a mysterious message that echoes out to the stars - and amongst them, the Doctor.

Rescuing Clara from a family Christmas dinner, the Time Lord and his best friend must learn what this enigmatic signal means for his own fate and that of the universe.

The Christmas Day line-up sees Doctor Who preceded by a festive episode of Call The Midwife, and evening entertaiment including Eastenders and a Mrs Brown's Boys Christmas Special.


The only other channel to confirm a time so far is FOX in Germany, which will broadcast the episode just over an hour later at 9:35pm CET (8:35pm GMT).





FILTER: - Specials - UK - Time and the Doctor - Matt Smith - Broadcasting - BBC

Doctor Who Experience

Tuesday, 3 December 2013 - Reported by Marcus
The Doctor Who Experience in Cardiff has now opened its Day of the Doctor exhibit.

Props that feature in the exhibit so far, include:
  • Matt Smith's TARDIS, David Tennant's TARDIS, John Hurt's TARDIS plus their costumes from the anniversary episode
  • The Time Lords’ War room and costume
  • Billie Piper’s costume
  • Joanna Page’s Elizabeth 1st costume
  • Moment Box
  • The returning Zygons
The experience is open throughout the Christmas holidays (excluding Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day). Full details here.




FILTER: - Doctor Who - Exhibitions

The Day of the Doctor - number 1 for the week

Monday, 2 December 2013 - Reported by Marcus
With full figures now available for the week ending 24th November 2013, The Day of the Doctor has been confirmed as the highest-rated programme on British television for the week.

The final confirmed rating of 12.8 million viewers puts the programme firmly at the top of the chart, more than a million ahead of the final rating for Strictly Come Dancing, which edged ahead of the Doctor in the overnights. ITV's chart was dominated by the reality show I'm a Celebrity, Get me Out of Here, which took the top five positions for the channel. The highest programme was Monday's, which had 10.04 million watching on ITV plus an additional 1.7 million on ITV HD and 0.7 million on ITV +1. Even when all these figures are taken into account, though, it still did not outperform Doctor Who.

The Day of The Doctor is now officially the 16th-highest-rated episode out of the 799 episodes of Doctor Who which have aired. Only two episodes, Voyage of the Damned and The Next Doctor, from the post-2005 series have outrated it. The remainder charting above Day of the Doctor all come from the classic era, and the period when BBC One was one of just three channels broadcasting.

Only three other Doctor Who episodes can claim to be top of the charts for the week: Journey's End - the series 4 climax broadcast in 2008 - and, provided the BBC HD simulcast figures are included in the total, both parts of David Tennant's swan song, The End of Time.

BBC Drama controller Ben Stephenson paid tribute to the production team.
The Doctor Who 50th was a hugely ambitious event on the BBC and it's only fitting that it has taken the top spot as the highest rating drama across all channels this year. It's a fantastic tribute to both Steven Moffat and the creativity of all those involved in the show throughout its history. Next stop, the regeneration at Christmas!
Figures do not include the cinema screenings, or those who watched the programme on iPlayer.




FILTER: - Ratings - UK

Merchandise Roundup

Monday, 2 December 2013 - Reported by Marcus
The December issue of BBC Focus Magazine, the leading science and technology title, is celebrating Doctor Who's golden jubilee with a ten-page feature on the incredible science behind the real and hypothetical technologies that have featured in the show.

The feature, by best-selling writer and Who fan Brian Clegg, unpicks the science behind the TARDIS, Daleks, sonic screwdrivers and more, and takes a look at which of the show’s ideas have become science fact. Plus science fiction writer Stephen Baxter reveals how the show’s storylines have always been a product of the age in which they were born.

The magazine is on sale now.

The November issue of the magazine Dance Today includes an article on Dance and Doctor Who. It's an overview of how the show has used dance - from monster movement to dance-trained guest stars - and includes interview with creature performer Paul Kasey.
When we first started filming the Cybermen, people would say, 'I just can't come over to you, because they scare me. Even on set, people have those memories of those characters, from their childhoods. In the 1960s, Doctor Who used movement to suggest the sheer weirdness of past or alien worlds. In the 1965 story The Web Planet, dancers wriggled through "insect movement" choreographed by Roslyn De Winter, while wearing fibreglass ant suits or huge translucent wings. In The Underwater Menace (1967), the Fish People perform what is basically an Esther Williams water ballet on a BBC budget.
The magazine is available online.

A charity collection of classic Doctor Who short stories and reviews first released earlier this year is now available as a 50th Anniversary Special Edition.

Fourth Dimension, by British fan Steven Miscandlon, collects short stories and reviews that were first published in various Doctor Who fan magazines in the early 90s, and also includes “The Gallifrey Incursion”, a previously unpublished novelette-length story written in 1995. The new edition – available in hardback and as an ebook – sports revamped cover art and features a new story written to celebrate the show’s 50th anniversary.

Steven Miscandlon
Since it first went on sale in May, Fourth Dimension has seen some success – peaking at number three in Lulu’s sci-fi bestsellers chart – and raised money for Unite Against Cancer. As the 50th anniversary month approached, I wanted to mark the occasion by producing a special hardback edition of the book. To make this new edition a bit different, I decided to write a new story for inclusion in the collection – ‘Blood and Bones’ features Paul McGann’s Eighth Doctor, and the story also ties in directly with the post-2005 run of Doctor Who.
The Fourth Dimension 50th Anniversary Special Edition is available in hardback from Lulu, and in various ebook formats directly from the author. All profits from sales of the book will be donated to UK charity Unite Against Cancer, which was set up in 2012 to fund research into new cancer treatments.

Now available in the iOS App Store is a free app called QuizUp. It describes itself as "the biggest trivia game in the world" and has already had more than 1 million players since its launch on November 7th.

The game is a fast-paced trivia quiz where you compete one-on-one against another player in a lightning "mini-quiz" of 7 questions. Your opponent can either be one of your Facebook or Twitter friends, or else a randomly-chosen user.

The game contains over 100,000 trivia questions, across more than 250 trivia categories covering Art, Geography, Literature, Movies, Music, Science, Sport, TV... including of course our favourite British programme about a peripatetic Time Lord! Yes, there is a dedicated Doctor Who category with over 500 questions, most of which were written by Gallifrey Base member Dan O'Malley.

Apart from Who, other cult TV or movie series with their own question categories include Star Trek, Star Wars, Buffy, The X-Files and Game of Thrones, plus on the literature side, The Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy, the Harry Potter series, plus an entire category for The Doctor's Wife & Nightmare in Silver scribe Neil Gaiman.

The best part is that for every quiz you win, you gain "experience points" and your score is recorded on the global league table for that category. So you can prove once and for all if you're the king (or queen) of Doctor Who trivia!

The Ultimate Doctor Who Quiz Book is now available.

Are you a big fan of Doctor Who? Have you watched all of the series from years gone by through to the present day? Can you name the various actors who have played the Doctor from William Hartnell to Matt Smith?

If you can tell a Hath from the Heavenly Host and a Sontaran from a Slitheen, you are certain to enjoy this fun new quiz book? What was the title of episode one of the first Doctor story, The Daleks?

Who played The Siren in the eleventh Doctor story, The Curse of the Black Spot? What companion has appeared in the most episodes of Doctor Who since its return in 2005? The answers to these brain-teasers and more can all be found inside The Doctor Who Quiz Book. As the iconic series celebrates 50 years of production, have a go at the 500 questions in this book to find out how much you really know about the Doctor. This is a must-have tribute for Doctor Who fans of all ages.

CableTV.com have published a complete timeline of Doctor Who from 1963 to present, including episodes, seasons, companions, villains, and more.




FILTER: - Merchandise