A special auction is being organised to raise funds for research by Great Ormond Street Hospital into organ transplantation. Featuring artwork from illustrators of children works to sketches from Doctor Who designers and artists, the auction takes place during National Transplant Week, 5th-12th June 2010.

The research being carried out by the hospital is into how, in organ transplantation, these organs do not survive for as long as those that haven't been transplanted.

Works up for auction include the sketch made by model-maker Mike Tucker for the 1997 Doctor Who Night "TARDIS" background (pictured here), and other Doctor Who contributors such as Colin Howard, Lee Binding, Adrian Salmon and Peter McKinstry.

For more information on the auction, visit the Art For Hearts site.

The new Matt Smith action figure has been released, and ITN have reported on how the figure was made. The character comes in two versions, one showing the Doctor's crash outfit as he appeared in the majority of The Eleventh Doctor and one showing the Doctor in his new outfit.



Reviews on The Eleventh Doctor continue to be published and you can find a full list in Doctor Who in the Media.

Neil Gaiman has blogged about watching the episode and his daughter's reaction to the story. In his blog he reveals that the story he has written for Matt Smith's second series was originally planed for inclusion towards the end of the current series. He is now rewriting it to fit in its new slot.

The BBC has released a trailer for Episode Two of the new series, The Beast Below.

The episode, which stars Sophie Okonedo, Terrence Hardiman, Alfie Field and Catrin Richards, can be seen in the UK next Saturday at 6.15pm on BBC One and BBC HD.

Filming commenced on the fourth series of The Sarah Jane Adventures last week, and today saw the production back at the Sarah Jane Smith residence on Bannerman Road, aka Clinton Road in Penarth.

 

The Eleventh Hour scored an Appreciation Index score of 86 making it one of the most enjoyed programmes of the weekend.

The Appreciation Index or AI is a measure of how much an audience enjoyed a programme. Figures are based on ratings from a selected panel of 5000 people. The average score for BBC One is 80 with the average for the current Doctor Who timeslot being 82, and the average for Drama being 85.

The score is higher than previous Doctors' premieres: David Tennant's first appearance in The Christmas Invasion scored 84, and Christopher Eccleston's first story, Rose, scored 76. AI figures tend to grow throughout a series as the audience becomes familiar with the characters and the concept. Doctor Who's highest score so far was 91 for The Stolen Earth and Journey's End.

The programme was most enjoyed by female viewers who rated it significantly higher than males watching. It also scored highest in Scotland and with the 35-54 age group. Viewers generally found the programme high quality, original and different with some missing David Tennant.

Overnight figures for Sunday show nothing could approach the success of Doctor Who on Saturday, with the highest rated show being A Touch of Frost on ITV1 with 7.2 million watching. So The Eleventh Hour was the highest rated show of the Easter weekend and the eighth highest of the whole week.

The Sunday BBC Three repeat was watched by 0.67 million viewers and was the third rated show on multi-channel for Sunday.

The 2010 Hugo Award ceremony will take place at Aussiecon 4 in Melbourne Australia this year, and sees Doctor Who nominated three times in the Best Dramatic Presentation — Short Form category! The Next Doctor, Planet of the Dead and The Waters of Mars — all penned/co-penned by former series show-runner Russell T Davies — are vying for the award, and are up against American series Dollhouse and Flash Forward.

Doctor Who has fared well in this category since its return to television. In 2006, new series show-runner Steven Moffat's story The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances won the award (with Father's Day and Dalek also nominated). Then the following year saw Moffat's The Girl in the Fireplace succeeding (this time against Army of Ghosts/Doomsday and School Reunion). And then in 2008 — you guessed it — Moffat triumphed again with Blink (up against Human Nature/Family of Blood and Torchwood's Captain Jack Harkness). Last year Moffat narrowly missed out with Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead (along with Russell T Davies's Turn Left) to Buffy and Dollhouse creator Joss Whedon's Doctor Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.

Will Davies finally triumph this year with three stories up for the award? The award ceremony takes place at Aussiecon between 2nd-6th September — only those registered for the convention are eligible to vote.

The website Nebula One has launched a new fanzine, available as a free download from the site.

Issue One features a comprehensive history of Davros, asks where the Tenth Doctor is going and has an exclusive interview with author Daniel Blythe.

It features competitions and quizzes and looks ahead to Doctor number Eleven.

Unofficial overnight figures show The Eleventh Hour was watched by 7.7 million viewers on BBC One with another 0.3 million watching on BBC HD, giving a total audience of 8.0 million viewers.

The programme has a share of 36.8% of the total viewing audience.

The programme was by far the most watched on British television on Saturday night, beating second placed Casualty by nearly 2.5 million viewers. The BBC comprehensively ruled the night with the top six programmes and eight out of the top ten. Ant & Dec's Push the Button scored highest for ITV 1 with just 3.9 million watching while Harry Potter had an average of 2.9 million viewers.

With one day to go, Doctor Who is the 8th highest programme of the week in a top ten which, apart from Doctor Who, consists entirely of the soaps EastEnders and Coronation Street.

On BBC Three, Doctor Who Confidential was watched by 0.88 million viewers. The programme had a 4.3% share of the audience and was the second most watched multi-channel programme of the day.

Final figures will be released in about 10 days time.

The Eleventh Hour made its debut in the United Kingdom earlier this evening and reviews of the episode are appearing online.

Warning: Some of the reviews may contain spoilers for those who haven't seen the episode.

The Telegraph says Matt Smith has taken up the mantle as the alien Time Lord perfectly, giving an A+ to the casting director and an A+ to Smith, while it describes Karen Gillan as a fine foil. The Mirror breaths a sigh of relief with the headline Phew.. a brilliant new Doctor Who saying the Beeb’s best franchise is in safe hands while The Guardian said some of the plot devices were a brilliant conceit that puts a new spin on a 50-year-old dynamic. The Mail says this was a deft first episode, packed with one-liners and an even more fantastical feel than of late, but with that old reassuring combination of intense Britishness, quirkiness and a sense of the macabre. And The Independent thinks Moffat has clearly picked the right leading man saying he is the Doctor. And he might be more the Doctor than anyone who was the Doctor before.

Fan reaction has been overwhelmingly positive with over 80% of contributors to the Gallifrey Base poll rating the episode 8/10 or more. Doctor Who and Matt Smith have both been trending topics on twitter.

To mark the transmission the BBC Doctor Who website has been updated with behind the scenes material, a clean version of the theme music and a tour of the new TARDIS interior.

Overnight ratings will be released Sunday morning and will be available on the News Page.

The countdown continues to the launch of Series 31 of Doctor Who later today, 46 years, 4 months and 11 days since the series first graced British television screens in November 1963.

To mark the day The Daily Telegraph has compiled an A-Z of Doctor Who facts, from Aliens to Z-Neutrino Energy, full of useful information from the series long history.

Meanwhile Den of Geek has gone behind the scenes to give a list of what it regards as the best ten Doctor Who producers over the years.

The Sun concentrates on a preview of Karen Gillan and the way her life will change after the transmission of The Eleventh Hour. It has a slideshow of Doctor Who companions over the years. MTV quizzes Steven Moffat, while the Times talks films and fans with Matt Smith.

Digital Journal follows up its story on the fifth anniversary of the show’s return with a look forward to the opening episode – while bemoaning the fact that America will need to wait another fortnight – and also takes a look at the UK and Australian première of K9.

The Eleventh Hour can be seen on BBC One and BBC HD at 6.20pm tonight.