The Doctor Who Series One Boxed Set is now in release... and there are a few reported issues with it including an authoring fault, as the episode "World War Three" is cut by several minutes while watching in the episodic mode. (A fix: it plays fine in "Play All" mode so you can skip forward to the episode start; it's only when it plays episodically that part of it is cut out.) Additionally, there are several music changes including 'classic' series music removed from one of the trailers, and the longer music cue in "Rose" (the Doctor and Rose walking back toward the TARDIS) on the 'vanilla' disc but not on the transmitted version.

UPDATE: There is word that the BBC will be replacing the faulty discs; details are forthcoming!

The official site has a brief story about the release. Meanwhile, Times Online reviews the boxed set. "Your £70 buys irresistibly cheesy Tardis packaging and five hours’ worth of extras, including cast-and-crew commentaries, the complete Dr Who Confidential, Davies’s wry video diary, featurettes on the special effects, and On Set with Billie (steady...). Travelling back a few months, the most revealing item is Eccleston’s interview for BBC Breakfast: watch his eyes as he squirms his way round the issue of long-term commitment, explaining that he’s done 13 episodes — '45 minutes, not half an hour' — and that’s really two series, and... Whatever, he’ll be missed. Four stars. Matthew Davis'. Another review inDVD Times says that 'Video-wise, the print appears to be identical to the previous bare-bones releases and it’s exceptionally clear at that... The sound quality - primarily presented in 5.1 Surround Sound - is also excellent, every nuance of Christopher Eccleston’s accent can be heard with crystal clarity... The one reason most fans will be buying this boxset is, of course, for the slew of extras. Spread over five discs, the extras comprise of the complete collection of trailers, storyboards, several video diaries and numerous 'making of' featurettes... Aside from this there is also an exclusive look at the special featurette containing behind the scenes footage of The Christmas Invasion which is sure to fascinate any fan counting down the days until David Tennant's first proper episode as the Tenth Doctor. ... Some of the video diaries are a little drawn out and repetitive in places." As previously reported, SFX Magazine has a feature on the DVD extras now on their website. Also, Restoration Team member Paul Vanezis interviewed by the online UK DVD Review podcast/magazine available here.

The BBC Shop is now listing volumes one, three and four of the Series One releases in UMD (for Playstation) format on Monday 12 December. Volume 1 and Volume 4 both have a recommended retail price of £17.99, while Volume 3, which features four episodes, retails at £19.99.

Correcting a previous DVD news item, Nicholas Courtney did notrecently record a commentary for "Inferno" (despite a misstatement by the actor) but has participated in interviews for a potential DVD release.

More coverage of yesterday's big win for Doctor Who at the National Television Awards:

Billie Piper featured on the cover of "Daily Mirror" (with the caption "Brillie!" and which was shown on the 25th October edition of BBC2's "Newsnight"), as well as the "Daily Star" and "The Sun" (with the title "Who Dunnit!"). "Doctor Who" was the main feature of the accompanying articles with "Daily Star" focussing on how Billie seemed to have 'dressed down' for the awards (in an item titled "Doctor Timelords It: Billie the scruff's night of triumph") while the item in "The Sun" was headlined "Hip Hip Who-Ray: TV gongs for Dr and Daleks".

Manchester Online reported that the reason Christopher Ecclestondid not attend was because he was suffering from the flu. The exact words of his note, read by Russell T Davies, were, "I am very sorry I can't be there tonight – a heartfelt thank you to the British public for their encouragement over the past 17 years. I’d like to dedicate this award to the memory of a little boy who loved Doctor Who and loved life, Kieran Wynne." As the Manchester Online reported, Eccleston's agent later explained that the star had met the boy before he died but could give no other details; it says that the actor had planned to attend the awards but was struck down with flu and also felt ill after having injections in advance of a forthcoming trip abroad.

Clips from the ceremony have been shown today on ITV news, including a very emotional Piper accepting her award, while clips from "Aliens of London" and "World War Three" were briefly played on the screens. Meanwhile, the websiteof ITV -- which lost its timeslot to Doctor Who earlier this year when the show beat their variety series "Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway" -- acknowledges its own winners, but doesn't note any of the BBC's! Says today's MediaGuardian Monkey column: "You can understand why ITV might be a bit miffed, after the BBC gate-crashed its National TV Awards last night and made off with the best actor, actress and drama awards for Doctor Who and the best soap gong for EastEnders. But still, it seems a tad churlish for ITV.com's report on the bash today not even to mention the BBC winners. Instead, ITV.com leads on 'X Factor cleans up at TV Awards' - although to be fair, the talent did win two gongs - and goes on to list all the other ITV winners. ITV.com - first with the news. As long as it's about ITV. "

BBC Wales Radio had quite a bit on the awards this morning, including an interview over the phone with producer Phil Collinson. He said how pleased he was and so on, and revealed that the prize will be kept in the BBC’s Drama Dept offices in Llandaff. He also mentioned that they were half way through filming the new series, and were looking for it to return to the screen at Easter time.

A run down of online press covering the event: BBC News, The Times, Media Guardian, The Mirror, Sky Showbiz, The Scotsman,The Guardian, The Sun, The Independent, CBBC News, Ananova,Digital Spy,Gay.com, GM.TV, Monsters and Critics, Hello Magazine, The Stage, In The News, ITN, Manchester Online,DeHavilland, Anorak.co.uk, This is London, Daily Record, IC Liverpool, MegaStar, RTE, IC Wales,Daily Mail, U.TV, ViewLondon,IC Liverpool, Contact Music, Unison.ie, Western Gazette,Virgin.net.

(Thanks to Paul Engelberg, John Bowman, Jamie Austin, Paul Hayes, Simon Mapp and Chuck Foster. Photo of Billie Piper is copyright to Ian West/Press Association)

In a sign that the show's fortunes have now changed from what they were a mere two years ago, Doctor Who became the big winner on Tuesday night at the National Television Awards as the show was given the Most Popular Drama award, Christopher Eccleston won Most Popular Actor, and Billie Piper won Most Popular Actress, according to a report from the UK Press Association. The BBC1 drama series beat such competitors as "Desperate Housewives," "The Bill" and "Bad Girls," while Eccleston and Piper beat such competitors as Martin Clunes and Sally Lindsay.

While PA's report suggests that Piper did not thank Eccleston stage, a later release notes that Piper thanked her "lovely boyfriend Mr E" and her co-star Eccleston "for being a fantastic Doctor and teaching me so much." She ended her acceptance speech by saying, "Thank you so much. This means so much to me, I can't even begin to tell you"; she then thanked show bosses for taking what she called a huge gamble. Eccleston was not present at the ceremony, which Piper noted later to reporters, "Chris is not here this evening, I don't know why." She said of Tennant, "He's a lot lighter on his feet and I am sure you will all be thrilled."

Russell T Davies later appeared on stage on Eccleston's behalf, reading a note of thanks from the actor: "I'm very sorry that I can't be there tonight. Thank you to everybody who voted for me, and to the British public for their encouragement over the last 17 years. They have always been honest with me and I'm very grateful." Eccleston stated in his note that he would dedicate the award "to a little boy who loves Dr Who and loves life."

Meanwhile, BBC Radio 5 covered the results from the National Television Awards this evening with presenter Dalya Raphael. The 10.30pm report carried a story on Conservative Party leadership contenders David Davis and David Cameron, who were booed when they went up on stage to present the Most Popular Drama award. Following the news and sport, at 10.38pm they went onto the actual coverage of the awards from their reported there Colin Paterson. Raphael described "Doctor Who" as "sweeping the board". Both said they liked "Doctor Who", and were pleased to be able to present the trophy to Piper. Both said Jon Pertwee was their favourite Doctor (although this was related by Paterson rather than being a direct clip.) Eventually discussion went to the actual Awards, Piper described as seeming "genuinely quite touched". Again the show was described as "the big winner on the night," and Eccleston's non-appearance was described as "maybe not surprising." Piper was said to be "almost crying" when he interviewed her by Paterson, and an interview clip was played where she said she "didn't even think I had a shot". She remarked how it was the first thing she'd won since Most Fanciable Female in Pop at the Smash Hits Poll Winners' Party many years ago. The report then moved on to talking about the other award winners.

The awards were taped this evening and will air on ITV at 8.00pm on Wednesday, 26 October.

The news coverage in the press has begun; among the online articles include BBC News, The Sun, The Independent, The Mirror(with a second article here, The Scotsman, GM.TV, the Daily Record. The photograph is from the BBC News story and features Billie Piper, Noel Clarke and Camille Coduri (photo copyright to BBC News).

(Thanks to Paul Hayes, Simon Bishop and everyone in the Outpost's Forum)

Outpost Gallifrey has obtained the ratings information for Prime TV New Zealand's recent broadcast of the first series of Doctor Who. The series screened on Prime Television 7.30 Thursdays from July 7th to September 29th (mid-winter); this is the same timeslot as Coronation Street (on TVOne), consistently the highest rating programme on NZ television. The ratings are as follows:

Note: the figures are an aggregate across 4 quarters. 'Viewers' are in 1000s; 'share' is the percentage of viewing audience. The total potential audience noted in New Zealand is currently 3,779,000.

The dip for episode 11 was caused by the fact that there was a General Election in New Zealand on September 17th, and that night the other networks carried political debates. While the numbers may look very small, Doctor Who has been a huge success for Prime TV, its second most watched programme; more importantly, its share in the 25-54 demographic equalled and surpassed that of TV3, which was forced to make several programming changes in response. Prime management apparently stated a target of 7%+, and Doctor Who has well surpassed this figure. Also, during this period, no other free-to-air networks screened sci-fi shows in prime time (TV3 played Firefly in a graveyard slot, and a pay TV network has Enterprise on Fridays).

The following is a ratings chart for BBC Three Summer 2005 repeats, as known: