Posted By John Bowman

Production on the long-awaited spin-off series featuring K9 is due to start in Australia next month, according to the Pacific Film and Television Commission.

An article in its June newsletter says that Bob Baker is currently in Queensland, writing the 26-part show. He co-created the character of the robot dog with Dave Martin, who died in March 2007.

According to the PFTC, Baker is working on the spin-off - called simply K9 - with Queensland writers Shane Krause and Shayne Armstrong.

It is being produced by Simon Barnes, and Richard Stewart and Penny Wall from Brisbane company Stewart Wall Entertainment.

A PFTC spokesman told The Doctor Who News Page: "The series certainly is imminent! K9 is in pre-production at present in Queensland. However, exact dates for production have not yet been confirmed."

Outpost Gallifrey reported last July that an unspecified amount of funding had been approved by Australia's Film Finance Corporation.

TV distribution agent Park Entertainment has said the half-hour episodes, to be made by Jetix Europe, will be live action and CGI.

(With thanks to Anacleto.)

The most recent episode of Doctor Who, "Midnight", is reviewed in two of the British broadsheet newspapers this morning. The Times's reviewer Andrew Billen felt that the episode was "too much of a writing exercise to be really scary," however he does concede that: "It showed that even if it fails as often as it succeeds, this series is not afraid of variety. Like the passengers aboard the charabanc, Doctor Who is dead scared of repetition." Sam Wollaston of The Guardian gives a very positive assessment: "It's great. Because what we can't see is much more alarming than what we can. It's tense and claustrophobic, and it gnaws away at you."

icWales yesterday published an article examining what next for Welsh-produced drama once Russell T Davies leaves Doctor Who, claiming that Welsh drama productions are the envy of Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond. The article rather oddly refers to Davies's successor, Steven Moffat, as first English, before later pointing out his Scottish origins.

Davies's impact on television drama is also examined further afield: the New York Times and the International Herald Tribune have both published a piece by journalist Sarah Lyall, looking at Davies and Doctor Who's influence on the industry and British popular culture as a whole.

Episode ten of series four, Midnight, scored an Appreciation Index of 86, once more putting the show firmly in the excellent category. It was the 2nd most appreciated programme on BBC1 and ITV on Saturday after Trooping the Colour.

Continuing the general run of low ratings, none of Sunday's programmes were able to beat Saturday's Doctor Who, making it the highest rated programme for the whole weekend and the 5th most watched programme of the week. This position may rise when corrected figures, including numbers for those recording the programme, are released by BARB in 9 days time.

Apart from the last Christmas special, Voyage of the Damned, which was 2nd in the weekly list, the highest chart position Doctor Who has ever previously achieved is 5th for episode two of the 1975 Tom Baker story The Ark in Space.

Sunday's BBC3 repeat got an overnight audience of 0.91 million viewers. It was a 4.5% share of the multi-channel audience and the most watched programme on all multi-channel TV for Sunday.

Saturday's edition of Doctor Who Confidential was watched by 0.52 million viewers. The programme, which had a share of 3.1 %, was the most watched on multi-channel television on Saturday.

Last Friday's repeat of Forest of the Dead got an audience of 0.35 million viewers. It was the 6th highest multi channel programme, and the highest rated on BBC3.

The new edition of the BBC's Radio Times listings magazine, available across the UK from tomorrow, once again focuses on Doctor Who as its cover feature. The magazine published four alternative covers for its series four launch issue, and has also made the Sontarans cover stars during the current run of the programme.

The cover, a preview of which is shown below, promotes a feature by Russell T Davies, looking at the roles of the Doctor's recent companions. "The companion acts as our eyes and ears, our gateway into the Doctor’s extraordinary world," Davies tells the magazine. "The companion is there so that the kids watching at home can think, 'That could be me!' I hope the companions still make children think that's possible, to travel in time and space."

2 entertain, the company which produces the classic series DVDs, has confirmed there is an authoring error with the latest release, The Invisible Enemy, out this week as part of the K9-Tales disc set. The error is towards the end of Episode Three and causes the disc to skip part of the episode.

2 entertain will replace all faulty discs and have set up a helpline which will be active from Monday. Customers with faulty discs are advised to either emaildvd.support@bbc.co.uk (NOTE CORRECTED ADDRESS!) or call 020 7612 3186. Instructions on what to do are on the voicemail of the phone line and on the auto reply from the email.

The current DVD release schedule is listed below. Schedule is not confirmed and may change.

• 16 June - K9 Tales
• 21 July - The Brain of Morbius
• 18 August - Trial of a Time Lord
• September - Four to Doomsday
• October - The War Machines
• November - Battlefield

According to the latest issue of Torchwood Magazine, Executive Producer Julie Gardner has confirmed rumours that the show will move to BBC1 with a much shorter run.

The magazine reports that the third series will consist of five episodes forming one continuous story with at least one penned by Russell T. Davies.

"It's the longest and most ambitious story we have ever made, so be prepared for some shocks and surprises!" Gardner told the magazine. She added: "Life at Torchwood is never quiet or easy and the whole of Captain Jack's world is about to be turned upside down!"

The new series will begin filming in August for transmission in early 2009.

Unofficial figures show that episode ten of Series Four,Midnight, was watched by 7.3 million viewers, giving it a 37.8% share of the total television audience.

The programme was once more the most watched of Saturday, beating the second placed Casualty by 1.5 million viewers.

ITV1's highest rated programme of the day was Euro 2008 with 3.8 million.

In a week when ratings were down across the board, Doctor Who actually increased its audience over the previous week.

As a measure of how well the programme has performed, it is currently the 5th most watched of the week, ahead of editions of Coronation Street and EastEnders. Final figures will be released by BARB in ten days time.

John Barrowman is in Canada this summer to serve as a judge on the Canadian version of the hit BBC series How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?. The series is being broadcast by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and premieres today Sunday June 15th at 8:00pm across the country and at 8:30pm in Newfoundland.

Shows in front of a live studio audience will begin in Toronto on Sunday June 22nd. Tickets to be in the live audience are available from the CBC Maria website.

On the morning of Monday June 16th Barrowman will be appearing live on Breakfast Television on CITY TV in Toronto. Barrowman is scheduled to be on the show between 7:00am and 8:00am.

The mystery title of Episode Twelve of Season Four, has been released by the BBC Press Office.

Please don't click on the link if you want to avoid spoilers for the episode.

Thanks to Neil Matthews and Jack Martin

Russell T Davies, the lead writer and executive producer of Doctor Who and the man who has spearheaded the revival of the programme since 2003, has been created an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire - OBE - in the Queen's Birthday Honours List. One of the highest civilian honours available to a British subject, the OBE is awarded by the Queen, on the advice of the Government, and has been given to Davies for his services to drama.

The Times quotes Davies as saying: "I'm delighted to accept, and I hope it does the whole industry a bit of good, for the writing of television drama to be recognised." Davies is the second Doctor Who producer to have been accorded the honour - the late Verity Lambert was given an OBE in 2002.

According to the Press Association, the BBC has released a statement saying: "We are delighted for Russell - he is one of this country's greatest writers and it is fantastic that his talent has been recognised in this way."

The story is covered in many other news sources, including: The Independent, The Guardian, The Scotsman and BBC News. BBC News have also published a profile of Davies.