Posted By John Bowman

Doctor Who's co-executive producer Julie Gardner has revealed transmission details for two of next year's specials.

And in the interview in today's Daily Telegraph about the show's future, the head of drama for BBC Wales says the cutback in 2009 is a good thing for the programme.

She says: "Aside from Series Five, which will have a full 13 episodes and transmit in 2010, we are making four one-hour specials. The first, which we've already filmed, will go out this Christmas. The next will go out the following Easter. The other specials have yet to be scheduled, although one will definitely be on at Christmas 2009."

In the interview, Gardner says: "The reduced schedule for 2009 acknowledges the fact that the show should continue not just for another one or two years, but for another five or 10. It needs to be nurtured, loved and looked after."

The article states that Russell T Davies is writing two of the specials and co-writing the other two. It is not revealed who the other co-writer is.

The third of Panini's fully illustrated Doctor Who Storybooks is due out in August.

The Doctor and Donna travel to previously unseen times and places in this new collection of adventures, full of monsters, thrills and scares, and all illustrated in full colour. The time travellers face mythical beasts on a desert island in the company of Jason and his Argonauts, square up to a terrifying Ice Warrior in the wastes of the Arctic Circle, battle the cute-but-deadly denizens of a theme park gone mad, get tangled up in the mystery of the Bayeux Tapestry, and try to prevent an entire planet from being kidnapped.

The book contains seven brand new short stories, featuring writers from the TV series itself.

• Hello Children, Everywhere, written by Paul Magrs, illustrated by Brian Williamson.
• Grand Theft Planet! written by James Moran (The Fires of Pompeii), illustrated by Daryl Joyce.
• Cold written by Mark Gatiss (The Unquiet Dead, The Idiot's Lantern), illustrated by Ben Willsher.
• Bing Bong written by Gareth Roberts (The Shakespeare Code, The Unicorn and the Wasp) & Clayton Hickman, illustrated by Dan McDaid.
• Island of the Sirens written by Keith Temple (Planet of the Ood), illustrated by Adrian Salmon.
• The Puplet written by Gary Russell, illustrated by Andy Walker.
• Hold Your Horses written by Nicholas Pegg, illustrated by Jon Haward & Nigel Dobbyn.

Plus there's a comic strip, The Immortal Emperor written by Jonathan Morris with art by Rob Davis, and A Letter from the Doctor as told to new showrunner Steven Moffat (The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances, The Girl in the Fireplace, Blink, Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead).

The 80-page hardback also features a new painted cover by Alister Pearson and a frontispiece by David A Roach. It's published by Panini Books and edited by Clayton Hickman.

Final figures released by BARB give episode twelve of series four, The Stolen Earth, an official rating of8.78 million viewers.

The episode was the second highest rated programme of the week, only the second time in the series' 45 year history that it has achieved such a position. The other episode to score so high was last Christmas's Voyage of the Damned.

The programme beat all the soaps for the week and was only outrated by the the European Championship Final edition of Match of the Day, which got just 60,000 more viewers.

The Sunday repeat on BBC Three was watched by 1.01 million viewers, and was the 3rd most watched programme on multi-channel for the week. The highest rated programme on multi-channel was the Saturday showing of Doctor Who Confidential which got 1.27 million viewers.

Full ratings data, including data for iPlayer downloads, can be found in the Doctor Who Forum.

The Doctor Who News Page is delighted to be able to confirm the return of a popular and much-loved character from the classic series of Doctor Who. The character appeared in many classic series stories, and will be seen in a two-part story in the next series of spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures, starring Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith.

Posted By Brigadier Bill

The creators of Primeval, the British time-travel series coming to BBC America, told SCI-FI WIRE that they are trying to shake off any comparisons to the wildly popular Doctor Who.

"It's the one question I've been getting asked about the most: people comparing the show to that Doctor," Douglas Henshall, who stars as an evolutionary zoologist who deals with creatures from the past and the future, said in an interview at the Television Critics Association's press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif., this week.

Of course, comparisons with that other British SF series are inevitable: Primeval counts among its writing staff Paul Cornell, who wrote for the newDoctor Who TV series and authored more than a dozen novels about the Doctor and his companion, Bernice Summerfield.

But don't expect any crossovers with Doctor Who. "No, absolutely not will we have a Doctor Who character pop in on Primeval," producer/writer Tim Haines insisted. "They have very different worlds and realities. Anything can happen on Doctor Who."

The world of Primeval is more reality based, said co-creator Adrian Hodges. But he admitted that he was tempted to sneak in a few Doctor references or inside jokes. "Every time I was tempted to even put in a vague Who reference, I stopped myself," Hodges said. "The worlds are very different. ... At one point, we considered a sly Doctor reference when someone got angry at another character and threw a box set of Doctor Who at them, but we thought not."

This autumn, BBC Books will publish Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale, a close look at the work of chief writer and showrunner Russell T Davies on Series Four of Doctor Who. The book is co-written by Davies and Doctor Who Magazine journalist Benjamin Cook, and is scheduled for publication on25 September 2008. The publisher's blurb is below.

The book has a foreword by bestselling novelist Philip Pullman and an afterword by Tenth Doctor David Tennant.

Davies and Cook will participate in a discussion about the book and Davies' tenure on Doctor Who at the National Theatre on 7 November 2008, as part of the theatre's "Platforms" series.

Thanks to "Gregor" of the Doctor Who Forum.

In August, American comics publisher IDW will release the first issue of Doctor Who: The Forgotten, a new comic book miniseries starring the Tenth Doctor and Martha, and also containing flashback stories for each of the previous nine Doctors. Thecomic is written by Tony Lee, who previously wrote for the Tenth Doctor and Rose in the Doctor Who Magazine strip "F.A.Q." (DWM 369-371). It is illustrated by Canadian artist Pia Guerra, who is best known for her work on the Vertigo comic Y: The Last Man. Guerra has described herself as an "insane" fan of Doctor Who (see her studio for proof) and is a past winner of the Joe Shuster Award for Outstanding Canadian Comic Book Art. Covers for the series are provided by Nick Roche, who illustrated IDW's previous Tenth Doctor miniseries. That series, written by Gary Russell, will be available in trade paperback asDoctor Who: Agent Provocateur in August.Comic Book Resources has an interview with Lee, along with sample art from the first issue of The Forgotten.IDW also publishes Doctor Who: Classic Comics, which reprints Fourth Doctor comics from Doctor Who Weekly in full color.

Thanks to Margaret Roberts and Shane Williams.

The next issue of Doctor Who Adventures is out tomorrow, 10 July, across the UK. The cover and press release are below; click on the thumbnail image for a larger version.

What to do when Doctor Who isn't on TV!

Missing the Doctor and Donna already? Do Christmas adventures with Cybermen seem far off? Then get a copy of this week's Doctor Who Adventures! It's full of monster facts, things to make and you could even win a life-size Dalek!

The big story this issue is Donna Noble's sad farewell in last week’s episode. Doctor Who Adventures looks at the life of the temp from Chiswick, and see how she changed after meeting the Doctor.

We've also got a monstrous fact file about the creator of the Daleks, Davros.

And the issue comes with a cool FREE inflatable Toclafane AND set of Doctor Who monster Power Rollers!


PLUS:

• Four brilliant posters: Journey's End, the Judoon, Cybermen and K-9!
  
• Tales from the TARDIS: Trouble for the Doctor on the planet Midnight.
  
• Quiz:Test your knowledge on Journey's End.
  
• Make: A Supreme Dalek mask.
  
• How to: Draw a skeleton monster!
  
• Doctor's Data: The Duplicate Doctor and Rose.
  
• Comic strip: The Doctor and Donna land in a strange new world in CitiZen's Arrest.
  
• Time Teasers: Tyler Talk and Smith or Jones, along with Bloodtide and Doomfinger's Woven Word Search.
  
• Who knows!: What did the Ood mean when they were talking about the Doctor's song ending and can the Doctor marry a human?
  
• Win: Fantastic goodies up for grabs including Doctor Who DVDs!
  
• Subscription offer: Subscribe and you'll get a FREE Doctor Who – Creatures and Demonsbook!
  
• ALL THIS AND LOADS MORE!

Excellent Australian ratings continue for Doctor Whodown under with it topping the elusive one million mark for the second week in a row. Partners in Crimerated 1,112,000 viewers in the five major capital cities, coming third in its timeslot and was the the top ABCprogramme for the day (and 9th overall). TheConfidential Cutdown version of 'A Noble Return' also rated very well gaining 921,000 viewers in the five major capital cities. The record-breaking Voyage of the Damned was also the ABC's top-rating programme of the week (coming 23rd overall).

Meanwhile, Crikey has previewed 'Voyage' and Series 4 saying '[f]orget about reality and indulge in a top class piece of escapism every Sunday evening . . . Let a Doctor banish any Sunday night blues for the next 14 weeks.' Karen Brooks of The Courier-Mail also writes of the good Doctor's appeal in that 'he continues to celebrate and believe in humanity's unquenchable goodness and our ability to survive and help each other.' CitySearch also describes 'Partners' as having 'some great laugh-out-loud moments' and 'a promising start to an interesting season.'

Meanwhile The Weekend Australia has described Catherine Tate as 'lovely and talented' and Sarah Lancashire as 'superb' in its preview of 'Partners' while Scott Jenkins of 'The Daily Telegraph' also previews 'Partners', calling it 'one that should please fans and newcomers alike' and is 'great fun.'

Thanks to LanzaroteLad and Theta Sigma

In the wake of the transmission of the final episode of Series Four on Saturday, interest in Doctor Who across the British media continues to be at a high.

On Saturday evening, after the episode was broadcast, Doctor Who Confidential producer Gillane Seabourne was interviewed live in studio on the BBC News channel, explaining - and, to an extent, having to defend from an irritated-seeming presenter! - the content of the episode.

One of the presenters commented to Seabourne how he had been unable to log on to a certain fan website that evening because it had shut down due to the number of users attempting to log on.

Seabourne's interview can be seen online on the BBC News website here, as part of a report on the high overnight viewing figure for the episode.

The impressive ratings performance is also the subject of pieces from The Daily Telegraph, The Times, The Scotsman, Digital Spy,MediaGuardian, The Guardian and The Daily Record.

Reaction to the finale was by no means limited to coverage of the ratings, however. As soon as they were able to, the websites of several sources had published reports summarising what had happened in the episode, such was the interest generated: The Telegraph ran such a piece, as did BBC News,The Independent, Metro, The Observer and theSunday Express. The website of The Guardian also published a blog inviting comments on how well Russell T Davies had succeeded with the finale.

Reviews of the episode have come in from all quarters, as might be expected. While an article on the BBC News website suggests that amongst fandom there has been a "mixed reaction" to the finale, reviews amongst the majority of the mainstream media have been very positive. John Preston of The Telegraph felt that "As usual, Doctor Who served up a lot more than mere excitement. There was also plenty of heartbreak and heroism – clearly discernible emotions, even to the inhabitants of Planet Adolescence." In The Guardian, Lucy Mangan comments that " I think we can safely say there was something for everyone in that, can't we?" Andrew Billen of The Times had one or two reservations, but on the whole felt that "Davies did not sell us short in a spectacular finale." The finale is also reviewed by - among many, many others - Now Magazine, SFX, The Herald (an Irish paper), TV Scoop and theRadio Times website.

Elsewhere in the media, The Guardian has an interview with Russell T Davies, looking back at his time on the programme over the past few years, the inner workings of the BBC drama department and his own future career. He says of Doctor Who: "I am more in love with it than ever, but that's probably the best time to get out - not when you're bored." The Telegraph has a piece wherein Davies adds that: ""We don't want the audience to get bored of Doctor Who. When we come back in 2010, the amount of publicity we get will make what is happening now look like small fry." The Daily Mail, meanwhile, has an article alleging that 2,500 fans attempted to call the Doctor's mobile phone number, shown on screen in "The Stolen Earth". Sky News has picked up on the same story.

The Sun looks ahead to this year's Christmas special, based mostly on the few details seen in the teaser trailer at the end of Saturday's episode. TheLiverpool Echo wonders what to do on Saturday nights now that Doctor Who has finished its current run, while the Boston Herald generally sings the praises of the programme.

Thanks to all on the Doctor Who Forum media thread.