After the traditional break for Christmas, filming on the next series of Doctor Who resumed this week. Yesterday saw the production team return to the very public location of Roald Dahl Plass - a venue last seen being blown up in Torchwood: Children of Earth!

Not to be put off by the snow that's hit the country this week, both Matt Smith and Karen Gillan were present for filming, alongside the TARDIS and guest star Tony Curran. See the spoiler section for more details on what occured!



Not surprisingly, the media were quick to pick up on such public filming - for a run-down of articles see our Doctor Who in the Media article.

TV Tonight blog reports that Part One of The End of Time will make its Australian debut on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Sunday 14 February 2010 at 7.30pm on ABC1. 'TV Tonight' also reports that Part Two of 'The End of Time' will screen the following Sunday, 21 February 2010, also on ABC1 at 7.30pm.

Thanks to TV Tonight.

The BBC has released a new image on the Eleventh Doctor Matt Smith. The image is available on the BBC Website along with an image of the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors. The new picture forms the basis for the cover to the revamped Doctor Who Magazine which is available in the United Kingdom from today.

The magazine confirms the writers for Matt Smith's first series as the Doctor.

Lead writer Steven Moffat will write six of the thirteen episodes. He will be joined by Chris Chibnall who is writing two episodes and Mark Gatiss, Toby Whithouse, Gareth Roberts, Richard Curtis and Simon Nye all writing one episode each.

Toby Whithouse wrote the Series Two story School Reunion which saw the return of Sarah Jane Smith and K9 to the series. He has also written for Torchwood and created Being Human for BBC Three.

Chris Chibnall wrote the Series Three story 42. He was head writer on Torchwood and has also written for Life on Mars.

Mark Gatiss is one of only three people to have both written and appeared in Doctor Who. He wrote The Unquiet Dead for Series One and The Idiot's Lantern for Series Two. He later went on to appear in the Third Series story The Lazarus Experiment.

Gareth Roberts wrote The Shakespeare Code for Series Three and The Unicorn and the Wasp for Series Four. He co-wrote Planet of the Dead with Russell T Davies. He has also written for The Sarah Jane Adventures.

Neither Simon Nye or Richard Curtis have written for Doctor Who before. Nye was the creator of the long running sitcom Men Behaving Badly, which was based on his first novel, for which he won a Writers' Guild of Great Britain Award and a Royal Television Society Award. He adapted The Railway Children for television in 2000 and has written many pantomimes. Curtis, whose contribution to the series was announced in September, was Oscar nominated for Four Weddings and a Funeral and is the man behind many British comedy films and sitcoms.

The new Doctor might have just uttered a few words so far, but his remark about still not being ginger has proved controversial with many grasping the wrong end of the stick. Perhaps egged on by comments in several newspapers, the BBC has received 143 complaints about the line, forcing the corporation to put out a statement clarifying that the Doctor was disappointed not to be ginger.
Further media items on this story can be found in this Doctor Who in the Media article.


Meanwhile, just 3 days after his debut on BBC America, the Eleventh Doctor turned up on the quiz show Jeopardy! The $800 question in the 1st round, under the category "Is This a Rerun?" was: "Matt Smith is the latest actor to be this Sci-fi Doctor, previously played by Peter Davison and Tom Baker". All three of the contestants appeared to know the answer.

The End of Time, Part Two set a record for BBC America getting a total of 1.47 million viewers over the three placings on the channel. This is the largest audience ever for a programme on BBC America, beating The Waters of Mars which was shown just before Christmas.

The premier showing of David Tennant's swansong, starting at 8.30pm ET, got 1.02 million watching, with the repeats getting 224,000 and 96,000 viewers respectively. The Waters of Mars had 1.1 million across the three placings.

The updated edition of The Writer's Tale reveals that Russell T Davies was approached to create a musical version of Torchwood, with music provided by Benny Anderson and Bjorn Ulvaeus from ABBA. Although the idea never proceeded beyond the initial concept stage, the Swedish duo are apparently fans of the show and were keen to take part.

The updated version of the book, which covers production of The End of Time, is released in the UK on 14th January.

The Sunday afternoon repeat of The End of Time, Part Two, was watched by 1.7 million viewers on BBC One. The programme had a share of 9.6% and an AI of 89. The later BBC Three repeat had 0.28 million and a 1% share.

Australia's ABC Television have revealed, via their Facebook page, that they will air the two parts of The End of Time in February.

TV By The Numbers reports that the BBC America showing of The End of Time, Part One had a total audience of 904,000 viewers across the episodes three placings. The rating was down on The Waters of Mars which had 1.1 million watching. It was however the most watched programme on BBC America for the week with Doctor Who: Inside Look coming second with 497,000 watching.

The cover artwork for the Winter Specials and the Complete Specials DVD Box sets is now available. See the product list on the right for release dates.

The final shortlists have been released for the 15th National Television Awards, which will take place at the O2 Centre in London later this month.

David Tennant is nominated for Best Drama Performance up against David Jason, David Threlfall and Philip Glenister.

Doctor Who is nominated as Best Drama along with Casualty, The Bill and Shameless.

Torchwood, John Barrowman and Eve Myles were nominated in the first round, but didn't make the final shortlist.

Voting is via the NTA Website.

Doctor Who has won the Best Drama award for the past four years, with a least one of the lead actors taking the Best Drama Performance or its previous actor / actress equivalents. It was during his acceptance for the 2008 award that David Tennant announced he was leaving the role of the Doctor. The winners of the 2010 awards will be announced on 20th January starting at 7.30pm and televised live on ITV1.

The soundtrack website Music From The Movies has a new interview with Doctor Who composer Murray Gold, in which Gold confirms that he will be staying on to compose the music for the 2010 series of Doctor Who.

In the interview, Gold discusses composing and recording the scores for "The End of Time" and the other 2009 specials. He also mentions that he has already begun work on a new version of the Doctor Who theme for 2010, and that the forthcoming series will feature scripts by Mark Gatiss and Gareth Roberts.

David Tennant's swansong scored an Appreciation Index figure of 89 on BBC One on Friday.

The Appreciation Index, or AI, is a measure of how much the audience enjoyed the programme. A figure of 89 is incredibly high, especially for a programme with such a large audience. The show scored well on all indicators, with viewers marking it as a high-quality programme which they made a special effort to watch. It scored highest with the female audience and with those aged 35-55.

The End of Time - Part Two is the highest scoring of the five specials. Only the last two episodes of Series Four have scored higher on their first transmission.

Earlier in the day, the repeat of The End of Time - Part One, with its lower audience of 2 million, scored an AI figure of 90.