BBC America is celebrating Doctor Who's 50th Anniversary with the first ever live simulcast from YouTube Space Los Angeles.

The station has joined with Nerdist Industries to screen a pre Anniversary show on the station and streamed globally on BBC America's YouTube Channel. Hosted by Veronica Belmont, the Doctor Who 50th Live Pre-Show will air November 23, 2:30pm ET (1930 GMT) just prior to the premiere of Doctor Who’s 50th anniversary special The Day of The Doctor.

Doctor Who 50th Live Pre-Show will be an all-out celebration of 50 years of Doctor Who and its passionate fans. As the world awaits the global simulcast of the anniversary special, the pre-show will feature a live curation of fan-created content being shared on social media from celebrations around the globe, plus chats with special guests including YouTube star Phil DeFranco.

Perry Simon, General Manager, BBC America commented:Liam Collins, Head of YouTube Space LA. Veronica Belmont, co-host of the science fiction and fantasy YouTube video show, audio podcast, and book club The Sword and Laser, added:Following the anniversary special, BBC America’s YouTube channel will host a YouTube-exclusive post-show at 4:00pm ET. In addition, BBC America and BBC America’s YouTube channel will simulcast a primetime pre-show at 7:00pm ET, which will look at the day’s events ahead of BBC America's primetime broadcast of the anniversary special.

The Doctor Who 50th Live Pre-Show will culminate a week-long Doctor Who week on YouTube, featuring content from popular YouTube channels like Nerdist, EmergencyAwesome, Doctor Puppet, PBSideaChannel, How to Cook That, and Rugburn.

The BBC have released a spoof introduction to The Day of The Doctor, introduced by David Tennant.

Doctor Who: The Ultimate Guide had an unofficial overnight rating of 0.73 million viewers, a 2.9% share of the total television audience.

The two hour BBC Three documentary looked back over fifty years of Doctor Who and included specially shot sequences staring Matt Smith and Jenna Coleman. It was the highest rated show on BBC Three for the evening and the highest rated show for all digital TV during the transmission.

An additional 0.16 million watched the repeat at 00.45 getting a 4.9% share of the total audience at that time.

Winner of the day on digital was I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here Now with just over a million viewers.

Doctor Who: The Ultimate Guide is repeated on Friday at 7pm and is now available on the BBC iPlayer.

The first sneak preview for The Day of The Doctor has now been revealed on the 50th Anniversary #SaveTheDay website. You can watch it via the picture link below:

Doctor Who has been honoured with a reception at Buckingham Palace to mark the series' fiftieth anniversary.

The reception was attended by past Doctors Tom Baker and Peter Davison as well as the current incumbent Matt Smith and The War Doctor John Hurt.

Held at the official London residence and principal workplace of the British monarch, the reception was hosted by Sophie, Countess of Wessex, the daughter-in-law of the Queen.

Also attending were current showrunner Steven Moffat, today celebrating his 52nd birthday, and current companion Jenna Coleman. The event was held in the Bow Room of the Palace, which had been decked out with Daleks and a TARDIS in honour of the event.

Former companion Catherine Tate was also invited as well as senior members of BBC management including Director General Lord Hall and Director of Television Danny Cohen.

Also present were children from two Cardiff schools, Gladstone Primary and Mount Stuart Primary, who entered a local competition to design a Tardis for the Queen. One of the winners, Hafza Hassan, 10, had painted a gold-plated time machine with a Union flag door, while Emily Parnce, 11, had included a dog flap for the Queen's corgis and an illuminated crown on the roof.

The status of the last part of the Destiny of the Doctor series, The Time Machine, had been uncertain since the series publisher AudioGo entered administration last month; however, the series producers Big Finish have now announced that they will be releasing the final adventure on CD and download, completing the collection which kicked off in January with Hunters of Earth.


For more details, see the Big Finish website.

The extra content for the DVD and Blu-ray release of The Day of the Doctor was revealed today - including another mini-episode.

BBC Worldwide said the 50th-anniversary episode would be accompanied by the following:

• The Night of the Doctor mini-episode
• The Last Day - a second mini-episode
• Doctor Who Explained
• Behind The Lens
• The Day of the Doctor TV trailer
• 50 Years of Doctor Who trailer

The release will also contain English subtitles for the hard of hearing, audio description, and audio navigation. The main feature will have a 5.1 soundtrack.

It will be released for Region 2 (the UK, rest of Europe, and Ireland) on Monday 2nd December (pre-order DVD, Blu-ray), and for Region 1 (USA and Canada) on Tuesday 3rd December (pre-order DVD, Blu-ray/DVD combo - two discs). Please note that the Blu-ray release will play normally on both 3D and standard Blu-ray players but the 3D will only work on a Blu-ray 3D player. Release dates for other regions are unknown at the moment.

A behind-the-scenes report on The Day of the Doctor was shown on BBC One's Breakfast today.

Presented by entertainment correspondent Lizo Mzimba, the four-minute piece included interviews with Matt Smith, David Tennant, John Hurt, and Jenna Coleman.

Watch the report below. (NB: May not play outside the UK.)

The BBC and BBC America have released a number of new publicity images to promote the forthcoming The Day of The Doctor; this batch includes images of Matt Smith, David Tennant and John Hurt as the Doctor, with Jenna Coleman as Clara, Billie Piper as Rose, and Ingrid Oliver as Osgood.

Today BBC Radio Four Extra begins a week of celebrations for the fiftieth anniversary of Doctor Who with a reading of the very first Doctor Who novelisation.

Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks was first published in 1964, adapted by the series' script editor David Whitaker from the first Dalek story written by Terry Nation. The story was republished by Target Books in 1973, kicking off the range which would introduce a generation of fans born in the sixties and seventies to the eras of the first and second Doctors.

The story, intended to work as a standalone, is told from the viewpoint of Ian Chesterton and has a very different meeting between the Doctor and his future companions than that of the television series.

The Audiogo recording is read by William Russell, who played Ian in the TV series. The broadcast begins at 1800 GMT on Saturday with the first two episodes. The full adaptation is broadcast between 0000 GMT and 0430 GMT on Sunday.

The broadcast kicks off a week of Doctor Who programming on the station. Radio Four Extra can be heard worldwide via the BBC Website.

• Sunday - Protect and Survive - 1800 GMT & 0000 GMT
In this drama the Seventh Doctor (played by Sylvester McCoy) and his young companions Hex and Ace are plunged into the late '80s, where history has gone terrifyingly wrong, with the world trembling on the brink of a final terrible war.
• Monday - Fanfare for the Common Men - 1800 GMT & 0000 GMT
A four-part drama featuring the Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison). The Doctor's young companion Nyssa is unfamiliar with the Earth's musical heritage, but in a trip back to the '60s the Beatles are nowhere to be seen and their role has been taken by the Common Men.
• Tuesday - A Thousand Tiny Wings - 1800 GMT & 0000 GMT
A full-cast audio drama in which the Seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) arrives in a remote homestead during the period of Kenyan independence in December 1963 and is reunited with an old acquaintance – an ex-Nazi called Klein.
• Wednesday - Farewell Great Macedon - 1800 GMT & 0000 GMT
Based on an unproduced television script and brought to life through a combination of performance and narration. The original team of the First Doctor and companions Ian, Barbara and Susan step out from the TARDIS into the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and meet Alexander the Great.
• Thursday - Human Resources - 1800 GMT & 0000 GMT
A full-cast drama featuring the Eighth Doctor (played by Paul McGann). The two-part story explains the on-going mystery of Lucie Miller (Sheridan Smith), paired off with the Doctor in a witness protection programme.
• Friday - The Dalek Invasion of Earth - 1800 GMT & 0000 GMT
A reading by William Russell (Ian Chesterton in the original TV serial on which the story is based). This is one of the classic Doctor Who stories featuring the First Doctor and set in an occupied Britain.
• Saturday - Doctor Who special – Who Made Who - 0900 GMT & 1600 GMT
Tracy-Ann Oberman is the guide on a journey back to a time before Time Lords. Interviewees include Doctor Who writers Charlie Higson and Al Hennen and William Hartnell's grand-daughter Jessica Carney. Featured programmes include The Reunion, which gathers the original 1963 cast, and Whatever Happened to . . . Susan Foreman? which tries to solve the mystery of the Doctor's original travelling companion, his grand-daughter.
• Sunday - Lucie Miller - 0000 GMT
An Eighth Doctor adventure starring Paul McGann, Sheridan Smith and Graeme Garden.
• Monday - To the Death - 0000 GMT
The Time Lord calls on friends, family and the Monk to help overthrow the Dalek occupation of Earth. This Eighth Doctor adventure stars Paul McGann, Sheridan Smith and Graeme Garden.