Doctor Who Triumphs at the 2014 NTA

Wednesday, 22 January 2014 - Reported by Marcus

Doctor Who has triumphed at the 2014 National Television Awards, with the show winning Best Drama and Matt Smith winning Best Drama Performance.

Smith, who won the award for Best Actor in 2012, triumphed in a category that now includes both male and female actors, beating Martin Clunes, Maggie Smith, and Miranda Hart.

The actor is currently appearing in American Psycho at the Almeida Theatre, London, so the award was collected by Jenna Coleman and Steven Moffat on his behalf. However, Smith did record a video message thanking the NTA for the marvellous award.

Thank you to everyone who voted. You made my time on Who the best and most brilliant and most audacious part of my career to date. I am forever grateful.

A Message from Matt Smith: The National Television Awards 2014 (BBC YouTube)

Doctor Who won the award for Best Drama for the first time since 2010, regaining a title it held from 2005-2010. It beat Broadchurch, Downton Abbey, and Call The Midwife. The award was collected by Coleman.

Fifty years and still going strong. Well done Who!

I think this award absolutely belongs to the team, the cast and crew who are grafting away in Cardiff as we speak. The genius and mastermind that is Moff, and of course Matt Smith. Thanks to everyone who voted.

The awards were presented at The O2 in London. Other winners included Benedict Cumberbatch, who won Best TV Detective in the Moffat and Mark Gatiss series Sherlock.

FILTER: - Doctor Who - Matt Smith - Awards/Nominations

Tales of Trenzalore

Wednesday, 15 January 2014 - Reported by Josiah Rowe

On 27 February 2014, BBC Digital will release the ebook Tales of Trenzalore, a collection of four novellas set during the Eleventh Doctor's centuries defending the planet Trenzalore, as seen in the Christmas adventure The Time of the Doctor.

Tales of Trenzalore (Credit: Mark Morris)

Tales of Trenzalore

As it had been foretold, the armies of the Universe gathered at Trenzalore. Only one thing stood between the planet and destruction — the Doctor. For nine hundred years, he defended the planet, and the tiny town of Christmas, against the forces that would destroy it.

He never knew how long he could keep the peace. He never knew what creatures would emerge from the snowy night to threaten him next. He knew only that at the end he would die on Trenzalore.

Some of what happened during those terrible years is well documented. But most of it remains shrouded in mystery and darkness.

Until now.

This is a glimpse of just some of the terrors the people faced, the monstrous threats the Doctor defeated. These are the tales of the monsters who found themselves afraid - and of the one man who was not.

(Tales of Trenzalore documents four of the Doctor's adventures from different periods during the Siege of Trenzalore and the ensuing battle:

Let it Snow - by Justin Richards

An Apple a Day - by George Mann

Strangers in the Outland - by Paul Finch

The Dreaming - by Mark Morris)

Each novella features a classic Doctor Who monster. Justin Richards' story features the Ice Warriors (first seen in the 1967 serial The Ice Warriors, and most recently seen in Cold War), George Mann's story features the Krynoid (from the 1976 serial The Seeds of Doom), Paul Finch's features the Autons (first seen in 1970's Spearhead from Space), and Mark Morris's features the Mara (from the 1982 serial Kinda and its 1983 sequel Snakedance).

With Thanks To Mark Morris, George Mann and Paul Finch

FILTER: - Merchandise - Books - Eleventh Doctor - BBC

Moonbase animation clip

Wednesday, 15 January 2014 - Reported by Josiah Rowe

BBC Worldwide's doctorwho.tv site has released an exclusive clip from the forthcoming DVD of the 1967 Patrick Troughton serial The Moonbase. Episodes two and four of this story remain in the BBC archives; episodes one and three have been animated to the original soundtrack for this DVD release. The clip, from the animated episode three, shows Cybermen marching across the surface of the Moon in preparation for their attack on the eponymous moonbase.

The March of the Cybermen: The Moonbase

The Moonbase DVD will be released on January 20 in Region 2 (Europe, Japan, Middle East, South Africa), on January 22 in Region 4 (Australia, New Zealand, South and Central America) and February 11 in Region 1 (US and Canada).

FILTER: - Second Doctor - Animation - Blu-ray/DVD

National Television Awards 2014 shortlist revealed

Tuesday, 7 January 2014 - Reported by John Bowman

Doctor Who has made two of the categories in the shortlist for this year's National Television Awards. The show itself is one of four nominees in the Drama section, finding itself competing with Broadchurch, Downton Abbey, and Call The Midwife, while Matt Smith as the Doctor is nominated for Drama Performance.

In a change to the system this year, male and female actors were combined for Drama Performance, and although Jenna Coleman was included in the longlist she failed to make the shortlist. Smith will be facing challenges from Martin Clunes (as Dr Martin Ellingham in Doc Martin), Maggie Smith (as Violet Crawley, the Dowager Countess of Grantham in Downton Abbey), and Miranda Hart (as Chummy Noakes in Call The Midwife) for the gong.

Other Doctor Who luminaries in the running for awards are as follows:

TV Detectives - David Tennant (Det Insp Alec Hardy in Broadchurch), Olivia Colman (Det Sgt Ellie Miller in Broadchurch), Suranne Jones (Det Con Rachel Bailey in Scott & Bailey), and Bradley Walsh (Det Sgt Ronnie Brooks in Law and Order: UK) against Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock Holmes in Sherlock) and Idris Elba (Det Chief Insp John Luther in Luther).

Daytime - Pointless (presented by Alexander Armstrong and Richard Osman) as well as The Chase (hosted by Bradley Walsh) against This Morning and The Jeremy Kyle Show.

Documentary - Penguins - Spy In The Huddle, narrated by David Tennant, and Paul O'Grady's Working Britain against Inside Death Row With Trevor McDonald and Educating Yorkshire.

Votes can be cast by the public until midday on Wednesday 22nd January via this link. There are 13 categories in all and categories can be skipped. The awards ceremony will take place at the 02 in London later the same day, being broadcast live on ITV from 7.30pm.

Doctor Who failed to win any awards last year, in spite of nominations for the programme, Smith, and Karen Gillan.

FILTER: - Doctor Who - Matt Smith - Awards/Nominations

The Time of the Doctor - Final Ratings

Monday, 6 January 2014 - Reported by Marcus

The Time of the Doctor had a final official rating of 11.14 million viewers, according to figures published by the Broadcasters' Audience Research Board.

The consolidated figure includes those who recorded the programme and watched it within seven days, and is a substantial increase on the initial overnight figure. The episode is confirmed as the second-highest rated programme on British television for Christmas Day, and the third-highest rated programme for the whole week. Only three programmes in the week rated more than 10 million.

Top of the list for the week was the revived sitcom Still Open All Hours, which had 12.23 million watching, while Mrs Brown's Boys topped the charts for Christmas Day itself, with 11.52 million viewers. ITV's highest-rated programme was Coronation Street, scheduled directly against Doctor Who, where it had 9.83 million watching.

Doctor Who was accessed on the BBC iPlayer around 1.9 million times in the week after transmission.

Congratulations to Alan Chapman from Scotland who predicted the ratings for The Time of the Doctor exactly. He wins three signed script fronts from recent Big Finish releases.

FILTER: - Ratings - UK - Time and the Doctor

Moments in Time: a colourful adventure in space and time

Friday, 3 January 2014 - Reported by Chuck Foster

The latest in our ongoing features on special moments within Doctor Who sees the show undergo a major transformation . . .

As five million viewers watched the second Doctor spiral away towards his exile, little did they realise that it would be over six months before they would be able to enjoy the Doctor's travels once more. Changes in BBC broadcasting were afoot; the show had already been using the new 625 line standards since The Enemy of The World, and now the BBC was to commence a full colour service from November 1969. As Doctor Who would be made in this way, the series itself would be effectively delayed to both enable the transition and also provide something familiar to herald in the new year - though this led to its biggest break off air since the show's beginning in 1963.

Behind the scenes, co-producers Derrick Sherwin and Peter Bryant had implemented several changes to the format of the show, with their UNIT organisation introduced in The Invasion coming to the fore and how the Doctor would become the Brigadier's leading expert on "the odd, the unexplained, anything on Earth, or even beyond." However, diminishing ratings, the general audience reaction to the sixth season, and the departure of lead actor Patrick Troughton had put the show at risk, though without a suitable replacement programme the seventh season was commissioned with a new Doctor in the form of Jon Pertwee.

Fears for the show's continuation proved unfounded, however, as when the new series started 44 years ago today, some 8.4 million viewers tuned in to watch the new Doctor arrive on Earth and assist UNIT in thwarting the Spearhead From Space, and the overall audience appreciation of his adventures with Autons, earth reptiles, alien paranoia and an alternative Britain over the next 25 weeks were strong enough to ensure the Doctor's adventures would be safe for another 15 years . . .

And so our Moment in Time today is the arrival of the new, colourful series of Doctor Who!

FILTER: - Third Doctor - Moments in Time

The Time of the Doctor wins BBC America and Twitter records

Saturday, 28 December 2013 - Reported by Melad Moshiri

Christmas Special 2013 - Promotional Image (Credit: BBC/Ray Burmiston)

The Time of the Doctor Christmas special has been named the most watched programme in BBC America's history.

The 800th episode in the show's run attracted 2.47 million viewers overnight, the highest ever audience achieved on the channel, beating The Day of the Doctor's record of 2.4 million viewers.

It was however beaten by showings of The Big Bang Theory (3.96m) and Duck Dynasty (2.69m), all broadcast in a 9:00pm slot on cable.

The Farewell to Matt Smith special, broadcast before the incumbent's final adventure however, drew in a respectable audience of 1.54 million.

In the UK, Time was the second most watched on Christmas Day while becoming the eighth highest rated show of the day in Australia.

On Twitter, 183,550 tweets were generated, becoming the most tweeted show of the day on the social network and beating previous Christmas special The Snowmen's 64,049 total. Peter Capaldi's entrance, meanwhile, brought in 18,844 tweets.

Figures thanks to: TV By the Numbers, Radio Times

FILTER: - BBC America - Time and the Doctor - Peter Capaldi - Matt Smith

Time of the Doctor - AI score

Saturday, 28 December 2013 - Reported by Marcus

Doctor Who The Time of the Doctor achieved an Appreciation Index score of 83

The Appreciation Index is a measure of how much the audience enjoyed the episode. The score of 83 puts the programme in the good category, even though it is one of the lowest scores of the Matt Smith era.

Highest scorers of the day included Call the Midwife and Mrs Brown's Boys, both of which scored 87.

The BBC Three repeat had an audience of 0.35 million viewers, a share of 1.5% of the total TV audience. The repeat had an AI score of 84.

FILTER: - Ratings - UK - Time and the Doctor

Overnight Australian ratings for The Time of the Doctor

Friday, 27 December 2013 - Reported by Adam Kirk

The Time of the Doctor averaged 686,000 viewers in the five major Australian capital cities. It won its timeslot (beating the T20 Big Bash Cricket), was the highest rating drama of the day and the eighth highest rating program of the day overall. These ratings do not include regional or time-shifted viewers.

Media Links: TV Tonight

FILTER: - Ratings - Time and the Doctor - Broadcasting - Australia

The Time of the Doctor: press reaction (international)

Friday, 27 December 2013 - Reported by Chuck Foster

Here are a selection of excerpts from reviews published by the international press as The Time of The Doctor made its way around the world yesterday.

The most powerful moments in The Time Of The Doctor didn't involve a stand-off against intergalactic bullies and mad despots - they involved the Doctor reflecting on his time, and slowly giving in to the ravages of age. In this vein, Smith managed to wring genuine emotion out of his final on-screen appearance, but also nailed the quieter moments: the shutdown of a disembodied cyber-head is also the loss of a trusted friend.

(It) is a celebration of the recent past, and a dedication to the Eleventh Doctor, and his time in the Tardis. Time marches on for everybody, even Doctor Who, and everything eventually ends. While there is comfort in the fact that the story goes on, the Eleventh Doctor's time is over. It might have been silly sometimes, and the time-travel shenanigans often got overly complicated, but it was another fine chapter in the lives and times of Doctor Who. The next one is about to begin, but there is plenty of fun and emotion in the Eleventh's chapter that is worth celebrating.

Robert Smith, New Zealand Herald

I shed a tear in the knowledge that possibly the best Doctor the show has seen in its half century is no more. Smith had the ability to persuade his audience that he was, indeed, a millennium old man in a very young man's body. Well, on Boxing Day night on Prime, he discarded that body like a favourite suit too worn and raggedy to patch anymore. RIP 11. We are already missing you.

Smith is at his glorious best in this special, with plenty of reminders of why he might just be the best Doctor yet. Scrub that, he is the best yet and I'm going to miss his portrayal terribly.

Chris Gardner, Stuff

The episode is ripe with writer/producer Steven Moffat's leitmotifs: messages sent across space and time, gatherings of The Doctor's rivals, small towns and sheriff badges. And some of the show's classic tropes: broken technology, the TARDIS telephone and lots of lovely one-liners. The risk, of course, is that the episode is so laden with in-universe references and nods to past episodes, moments, characters and aliens than it becomes almost impossible to navigate for someone without even a cursory knowledge of Doctor Who lore.

This is a pensive finish, but not gut-wrenching in the way that Davies wrote previous Doctor David Tennant's farewell. This is gentler, with only a cameo from his beloved Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) who says goodbye to her "raggedy man". Even Smith's lovely scene with old-school Fourth Doctor Tim Baker in the anniversary special was richer, and more touching. (And tearful, for Baker-era fans anyway.)

But salvation comes in the form of a gift, once promised (but never delivered) by the Time Lords to The Master in the 20th anniversary special The Five Doctors: a new life cycle of twelve regenerations. Which means that Peter Capaldi's Doctor becomes not the Twelfth Doctor, as previously thought, but the First Doctor, beginning a new chapter of life for the universe's most beloved Time Lord. And the comfortable assurance that his hope, his strength and, best of all, his eccentric madness, remains a light which will never be extinguished.

Michael Idato, Sydney Morning Herald

Even though the date of Smith's leaving and the identity of his successor, Peter Capaldi, had been known for some time, watching the episode knowing it was Smith's last kept at least one American viewer anxious and sad, with a finger on the pause button for when things got too heavy. Possibly there are still viewers, avid viewers even, who have never quite cottoned to him — Tennant continues to cast a long shadow — but I have loved his work. Elegant and heartfelt, authoritative and playful, swashbuckling and intimate, alien and familiar, Smith's acting has accommodated and, as it were, humanized every oddball, paradoxical, high-concept, low-humor passage Moffat has thrown at him.

Robert Lloyd, Los Angeles Times

It was always going to be so when facing the long-standing question of regeneration limits. Precedent for more regenerations being granted had been established before, and Steven Moffat led just about enough crumbs to the key moment to deal with the issue, without dwelling too much on it. Job done, whether you like the way it was done or not.

The Time Of The Doctor, then, brought the curtain down on what has to be classed as a successful 50th anniversary year for Doctor Who, that's had its bumps, but also given us some absolute treats. The Time Of The Doctor in itself is unlikely to go down as one of the Who highlights of 2013 in truth. We quite enjoyed it, but it still felt a bit underwhelming. Still, Smith's performance as the Doctor is undoubtedly one of the year's highlights, and it's very clear that the show is going to miss him a lot. What's also clear is that there are further exciting times ahead.

Simon Brew, Den of Geek