Doctor Who returns as a specialist subject for the long-running knowledge quiz show Mastermind this coming Friday (8:00pm, BBC2). The questions will be based around the show between 1963 and 1989, while the topics for the other contestants are the geography and history of Arkansas from 1836, football manager Terry Venables, and the story of Moses in the King James Bible.

The show has featured as a specialist subject a number of times in the past, such as in 2004, and notably when the Telegraph's resident Doctor Who reviewer Gavin Fuller became champion during Doctor Who's 30th Anniversary in 1993.

There was also a special Doctor Who-themed version of Mastermind on 19th March 2005 as part of BBC2's Doctor Who Night the weekend before Rose was to herald the triumphant return of the show on television. The questions were set by John Leeson and the winner, Karen Davies, received the trophy from the Doctor himself, Christopher Eccleston. The actor also appeared on Junior Mastermind nearly a year later, where he was interviewed by the young contestant Sam who had chosen Doctor Who's premiere year as his specialist subject on 26th February 2006.

In addition, David Tennant had Doctor Who as his specialist subject on a celebrity edition of Mastermind for Comic Relief on 13th March 2009.

Meanwhile, back in 1988 the New Zealand version of Mastermind featured Doctor Who as the specialist subject from long-term fan Jon Preddle - you can read more about his 'adventure' on the show via the New Zealand Doctor Who Fan Club.

Doctor Who scooped the Best Family Drama title last night for the third year in a row at the TV Choice Awards.

Series Six saw off stiff competition from Merlin, Glee, and Waterloo Road to take the prize, with showrunner Steven Moffat accepting the honour at the ceremony, which was held at The Dorchester in London.

Matt Smith and Karen Gillan, who had been nominated in the Best Actor and Best Actress categories, lost out to, respectively, Benedict Cumberbatch (for Sherlock) and Miranda Hart. Gillan was named Best Actress last year but it was a successive disappointment for Smith, who in 2011 was beaten in the Best Actor category by David Tennant for Single Father.

Sherlock, created by Moffat and Mark Gatiss, was named Best Drama Series at last night's awards.

Big Finish have released the covers for some of the forthcoming stories due towards the end of the year.

November sees the release of a sequel, as producer David Richardson comments:

December's regular adventure stars Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor and Sarah Sutton as Nyssa, 1001 Nights will comprise four one-episode stories with a linking theme. Guest stars include Alexander Siddig (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), Nadim Sawalha (Syriana) and Malcolm Tierney (Terror of the Vervoids).

Subscribers to the regular range that includes 1001 Nights will be eligible for this year's free adventure, Night of the Stormcrow, which stars Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor and Louise Jameson as Leela. David says:
The story will be released commercially in December 2013.

Canadian broadcaster SPACE has reported another ratings success with its broadcast of Dinosaurs on a Spaceship last Saturday.


Canadian viewers can catch up on Doctor Who at SPACEcast.com.

Final ratings data for the week ending 2nd September 2012 have now been released by the Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board or BARB, putting Doctor Who as the sixth most-watched programme of the week on British television.

Asylum of the Daleks was the third most-watched programme on BBC television for the week, with the crime series New Tricks taking top place followed by EastEnders. ITV had two episodes of Coronation Street and one of The X Factor in the list above the Doctor. While BBC One BARB listings include those watching on BBC One HD, ITV listings do not include ITV HD or ITV+1 which need to be added to the main channel statistics in order to compare like for like.

The chart position of 6th is equal to last year's series opener The Impossible Astronaut.

In the long history of Doctor Who only 14 of the 785 episodes broadcast achieved a higher chart position.

The final ratings figure does not include those watching on iPlayer where over 600,000 people accessed the episode in the first three days.

The BBC have released a variety of photos to promote A Town Called Mercy, which will premiere on BBC1 next Saturday at 7:35pm.


A Town Called Mercy is due to be broadcast at these times around the world:

United Kingdom : Saturday 15th September, 7:35pm BST   BBC1
United States  : Saturday 15th September, 9:00pm ET    BBC America
Canada         : Saturday 15th September, 9:00pm ET    SPACE
Australia      : Saturday 22nd September, 7:30pm AEST  ABC (also on iView from 16th Sept)
New Zealand    : Thursday 27th September, 8:30pm NZST  Prime

Radio Times visits A Town Called Mercy

This week's Radio Times features an interview with the cast, who talk about their Wild West adventure.

Matt Smith:
Arthur Darvill:
Karen Gillan:

The full interview can be read in the latest edition, out today.
(with thanks to Radio Times)

Coming Soon: The Power of Three

Meanwhile, Radio Times has listed The Power of Three to remain in the 7:35-8:20pm timeslot on 22nd September; BBC Programme Information has yet to confirm the time, which will be finalised later in the week.

Asylum of the Daleks has debuted in Australia to good ratings. The series debut averaged 549,000 viewers in the five major capital cities. Up against the football finals, it was the top-rating drama of the day and the eighth highest rating programme of the day overall. These figures follow the episode setting a daily viewer record for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation iView internet TV service, recording 75,900 plays on its first day. All episodes of series 7 will debut on iView immediately after their broadcast in the UK.

Fans have noted that when the weekly episode is on made available to viewers on Sundays via ABC iView, it is at approximately 5am or 6am local time - making it very close to the transmission time in the UK!


Media Links: TV Tonight, Sydney Morning Herald

Doctor Who: Dinosaurs on a Spaceship had an Appreciation Index or AI score of 87 - one of the highest scores on Saturday night.

The score is a measure of how much the audience enjoyed the episode and is based on a survey of 5000 people. The score of 87 puts the programme into the excellent category.

Doctor Who scored higher than most Saturday evening shows, being beaten by the music spectacular Last Night Of The Proms, which scored 90, and Paralympics London 2012, with 88. NCIS on Channel Five also scored highly, albeit with a much lower audience.

With Sunday's overnight rating figures now available, Doctor Who finished 18th for the week, being pushed down by Sunday's X Factor and the closing ceremony of the Paralympic Games. Final figures will be released next week and should see the programme much higher in the final chart once those time-shifting the drama are factored in.

Asylum of the Daleks had a final consolidated rating of 8.33 million viewers.

The final figure includes all those who recorded the programme and watched it within 7 days of transmission. It is a large increase on the initially estimated figure and gives the show a 34.4% share of the total TV Audience.

The figure does not include those watching on iPlayer.

A full report of the week, giving Doctor Who's place in the top ten, should be issued by BARB tomorrow.

Dinosaurs on a Spaceship had an overnight audience of 5.5 million viewers, a share of 26.2% of the total TV audience.

The rating was the highest on BBC One for the day, and second overall, with ITV1's The X Factor once more winning the night with 8.2 million watching. Ratings across the evening were down on the previous week with Ant and Dec's Red or Black? taking 3rd and 4th place, achieving 3.4 million viewers against The Doctor.

The summer of music at the Royal Albert Hall concluded with The Last Night of the Proms which had 3.2 million watching.

The rating compares with last year's second story of the autumn, Night Terrors, which also had 5.5 million watching, but had a slightly lower audience share and lost out to Red or Black?

The rating for Doctor Who puts it at 15th place for the week, with Sunday's ratings still to come, although final consolidated figures, which will be available next week, should see this position rise.

Meanwhile Friday's BBC Three repeat of Asylum of the Daleks had 0.40 million watching.