Weekend Series Wrapup

Here's an update on the events of this past weekend:

First, some ratings news for the Sunday night BBC3 repeats. Episode three,The Unquiet Dead, attracted 326,440 viewers in its Sunday repeat, according to ViewingFigures, while 217,550 viewers tuned in to see the repeat of Doctor Who Confidential. Although these figures may look quite small, says our correspondent Andy Parish, they performed really well in the multi-channel chart. "If you take out the 5 terrestrial channels available to the entire UK public, the repeat showing of 'Unquiet Dead' was only beaten by SKYONE's 'Malcolm in the Middle' and even rated higher than the popular news bulletin 'Channel 4 news'." We published the ratings for BBC1 broadcast of the episode and the initial showing of episode 3 of "Confidential" in yesterday's news update.

The 3.25am Saturday night/Sunday morning repeat showing of Doctor Who Confidential appears to be a regular thing - the Radio Times lists now lists the programme in that slot for 23/24 April, along with the regular broadcasts at 7.45pm on the Saturday and the Sunday.

Russell T Davies says he won't let a woman become the next Time Lord, according to reports printed on the ic Network. The article says that, asked if he would allow a female actor to become the next Doctor, Davies said: "Nah! Imagine having to explain that one to your kids - that Doctor Who has lost his willy!" (Er, quite.) The article also says Davies said the BBC always knew of Eccleston's intention but the announcement was not supposed to be made until the end of the 13-part series; however, he says the quest is underway to find the next Time Lord and refused to comment on rumours that actor David Tennant - star of Davies' BBC drama Casanova - is being lined up for the role. "I can't really say. All I can say is that the search is on," said Davies. "Eccleston's departure was all planned but it was not meant to come out. You were supposed to watch the series first. Then it was to be announced. But Christopher was the best Doctor in the world. He is one of the best actors in Britain." Davies also comments on the cancellation of "Mine All Mine." The comments praising Eccleston have appeared elsewhere including at Digital Spy.

Today's Guardian reviews the new series. "What was that dreadful smell at just after seven o'clock on Saturday night? Why, it was the nation's under-12s reacting as under-12s will to the opening scene of Doctor Who (BBC1), which was almost enough to make me react with them," says the review. "Mark 'League of Gentlemen' Gatiss's first stab at writing for the Doctor was a rich stew of genuine horror and gleeful cliche, with a big dollop of Eng Lit chucked in for good measure. Dumbing down? Hah! We discussed the finer points of Charles Dickens's oeuvre and Einstein's theory of relativity while chasing around in horse and cab. Billie Piper looked more than usually lovely in a Victorian off-the- shoulder number (for the dads) while Zombie Gran was there to terrorise the kiddies. We even got Simon Callow doing his Dickens turn ('What the Shakespeare is going on?'). Doctor, you're spoiling us. With all this on the plus side, it seems churlish to nit-pick, but that's what I'm paid for - so, am I the only one to find Christopher Eccleston's grinning a bit tiresome? It was all well and good to establish him as a matey, northern Doctor in the first episode, but frankly I'm hoping for a bit of depth at this point. He does look nice in a leather coat, though, which 99% of the sci-fi loving population does not."

Also in today's Guardian, an article called "Why sometimes it's clever to play dumb" about advertising in the modern era: "To look at the whole campaign we need to travel back in time to last summer. Filming starts on a new series of Doctor Who, the first since Michael Grade zapped the time lord in 1989. The new series is being created by writer-of-the-moment Russell T Davies. And the new Doctor is? Christopher Eccleston, an actor with Hollywood kudos, lured back to telly. His sidekick, ex-popstrel Billie Piper, for whom filming and celebrity marriage don't seem to be compatible. It's an irresistible stew of news and rumours and it is deftly spoon-fed to the press by the BBC's PR people. The bloggers blog, the journalists scrawl, the campaign has started. Then comes the illicit 'leak' of the first episode on the internet. Given that every hardcore Whoey is bound to be a techy and certain to have broadband internet, it is an absolutely perfect move. Too perfect, maybe, although the BBC denies responsibility. So now it is more than news, it is conspiracy fodder, too. And then in the run-up to the first episode, interviews with Eccleston and Piper on BBC Breakfast and Jonathan Ross; Chris Moyles promoting Who as part of Comic Relief on Radio 1; an elaborate website with clever downloadables, and trails aplenty on the BBC channels giving us our first glimpse of Eccleston's cheeky Doctor. Then, finally, the heavyweights swing into the ring: BBC television editorial. Doctor Who Confidential appears on BBC3, and Doctor Who Night screens on BBC2 the Saturday before the first episode. Every arm of the BBC is working perfectly with every other arm of the BBC to whip up maximum Whomania and create a very attractive product. And, at the very last moment, the poster goes up. A slightly hackneyed illustration of the Doctor and Rose emerging from the Tardis framed by shafts of romantic light like the cover of a sci-fi Mills and Boon. A poster as uncomplicated as the job it needed to do. What was the programme again? The return of Who with Eccleston and Chris Evans's ex, you know, the programme and the people that you have already heard so much about. Remind me when it's on? This Saturday at 7pm. The poster's only piece of news. Little Ant and Dec over on ITV1 didn't stand an earthly chance. The poster won't win any awards for advertising, or illustration, but it will win big for restraint, for playing the right part in a bigger whole and for showing that sometimes you don't have to show you are clever to be clever."

The Guardian had several other items of note: the television Pick of the Day is the Timeshift documentary on Russell T Davies: "Russell T Davies and Paul Abbott. No other script writer can touch them for trampoline-tight stories and spick-and-span dialogue. This documentary gives Davies, the creator of Queer As Folk, Casanova, Doctor Who, Bob and Rose, Dark Season and Second Coming the respect he is due. As a six-year-old he was entranced by Doctor Who. His first job was as a researcher on Why Don't You? He smokes a lot. He is TV-clever like no one else because he watches so much of it. People working in television who don't watch television are weird. Love him." Meanwhile, anarticlecondemning the way that "interactive" phone-in and text-in votes and so on are coming to dominate Saturday evening television notes that Doctor Who seems to have escaped the trend: "The worst aspect of this new TV tax is that it actually lets the television industry off doing its job properly. Now they have found solace in the phone-line endorsed bun-fight between individuals struggling for the right to fame, they no longer have to find formats or presenters or, heaven forbid, original ideas with which the public genuinely engage. In this televisual temperature it is almost possible to understand the hysterics the BBC put into promoting the new Doctor Who. It came as no small surprise to learn that we weren't voting for the return of the Daleks on that one."

DigitalSpy mentions a problem that has occurred this past weekend with Sky+, specifically that the showing had some technical problems that caused it to be removed from the Sky+ planner (an automated box used to record it onto the digital video recorder.) "It's a shame that the news that Chris Eccleston was leaving leaked early but I'll try not to let it spoil my enjoyment too much. I'm sure that many sci-fi fans were attracted to E4's screening of Shallow Grave on Friday as it was a rare opportunity to see The Doctor and Obi Wan Kenobi in the same movie. Add in Keith Allen, star of the Comic Strip's Sci-Fi spoof The Yob, and you have anorak heaven."

Ultimate DVD Magazine will celebrate the arrival of the new season of Doctor Who on DVD in its May issue, out this week, April 14. "With a Doctor Who cover, taken from the DVD art for Volume 1, we've got a wealth of Who coverageà Executive producers Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner talk about return the show to our screens, and what we can expect from November's TARDIS box set. Marketing manager Matthew Parkes provides more information about the DVD release strategy, and exclusively reveals news of an exciting Doctor Who box set of classic episodes for release in 2006! PLUS: An in-depth interview with Billie Piper, and Christopher Eccleston talks about taking on the role of the Doctor." Details about the issue can be found at the Ultimate DVD website and the cover is at right.

BBC News today posts the "Tory verdict on Doctor Who" interviewing MP Tim Collins, a big supporter of the series. "Never mind the election campaign, I have the answer to the question that really matters: what does the Tory Education Spokesman, Tim Collins, think of the new Doctor Who? Mr Collins is famous for his devotion and admiration for the previous incarnations of the Doctor, and is a fount of all Tardis-related trivia. His verdict could make or break the programme's revival... It's good news. Mr Collins believes the new Doctor Who is 'fantastic', adding that at least some real money had been spent on it."

Amazon has again released details of two books from the new Doctor Who series coming this summer from Penguin Books, an Intergalactic Activity Book and a Sticker Guide; you can see the books' covers and pre-order them (and support Outpost Gallifrey) by clicking on the links. We had previously been asked if we'd remove the covers as they were only mockups and not final versions (in fact, one being a simple marketing illustration used to sell the books to the BBC!) but these appear to be the final editions. Also online: the cover illustration for Mark Campbell's revised edition of his Pocket Essentials: Doctor Who due out at the end of August.

The Sunday Mirror said yesterday that Billie Piper has been chosen to star in a modern adaptation of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. "Following her role as Dr Who's sidekick Rose in the hit new TV series, the 22-year-old will play the role of Hero, a weathergirl, in the classic play, to be set in a television newsroom," says the article. The Sunday Mirror's critic Ian Hyland also mentions the series in a brief review; it's interesting to note that the reviewer watched it, because after "Rose" went out he said he would be sticking to "Ant + Dec" on Saturday nights. "But questions still surround this show. Like when did Chris Eccleston install a spray- tanning booth in the Tardis? And did the weapons inspectors in Iraq find more evidence of chemistry than we're witnessing between Eccleston and Billie Piper? And if the Doctor is such an expert on time, how come he hasn't told the producers these new episodes are 15 minutes too long?"

Today's Metro newspaper contains a review of episode three. "Those despairing of the state of 21st century telly should get a blast of Doctor Who. This is the classic stuff today's little 'uns will look back on with childhood nostalgia. And Saturday's episode was another absolute cracker, as the Doctor and Rose Tardis-ed into a Dickensian Christmas 1860, to investigate an alien invasion. ... Quilled by The League of Gentlemen's Mark Gatiss, this was darker stuff than usual, packing in all the Victorian trappings: grave-robbing, seances, Billie's bosoms wedged into a corset, but also intelligently touching on class distinctions: 'You dress like a lady but you seem a bit common' said the ... maid to Billie, while Simon Callow was clearly having a ball as Dickens."

"Doctor Who to transform London phone boxes" says today's Media Week. "A new BBC Doctor Who DVD range is kicking off in May with a massive phone kiosk advertising campaign to take over the streets of London. Beginning on 9 May, 450 phone kiosks will be overhauled to become the Doctor's Tardis time travel machine in a campaign lasting six weeks. Matthew Parkes, BBC DVD marketing manager said: 'Telephone kiosk advertising is the perfect medium for advertising a brand so closely tied with the iconic Tardis police call box.' The first DVD volume of the new Doctor Who series will be on sale 16 May, featuring the first three episodes, followed by the second volume on 13 June, volume three in August, volume four in September and a complete box-set of the series by November. The huge excitement that has been triggered by this campaign surrounding the new Doctor Who series adds to the cult of the show, which recently made the headlines when Christopher Eccleston announced that he would not be reprising his role as the infamous Time Lord in a second series for fears of being typecast. The new series of Doctor Who, which was launched on the 26 March, followed a 16-year hiatus after the show was cancelled in 1989 due to poor audience figures... but with 9.9 million viewers for its opening episode, the sci-fi drama beat off Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, in a major blow for ITV1."

An article in the Sydney, Australia newspaper the Sun Herald discusses the acquisition of the series for Australian TV, recapping much of the hype in Christopher Eccleston's casting, his departure and the rumors about David Tennant. "It appears that Eccleston is indeed tired of it, and is moving on after one season and a Christmas special. But will Tennant step into his shoes? It is too early to tell. Many actors have been tipped as the new Doctor in the past, with choices ranging from the sublime (Ron Moody, Alan Rickman, Brian Blessed) to the peculiar (Donald Sutherland, Rutger Hauer, David Hasslehoff)." It says that, according to an interview with Eccleston, the actor said that Russell T Davies was "as close to a genius as I've seen in telly."

Saturday's South Evening Post said that "who better to put Swansea on TV screens around the world than city-born writer Russell T Davies?" The article noted that "As head writer and executive producer of the new Who, Davies helped make sure that at least part of one episode was filmed in Swansea. That episode, The Unquiet Dead, is on BBC One tonight and will be screened Down Under in May," referring to last Saturday's transmission of the episode.

From yesterday's Scotland on Sunday newspaper, in a profile of Mark E. Smith of indie rock band The Fall: "And by the time he tells me to 'Get them in, Aidan - and a whisky,' he's casually mentioning how he turned down the chance to become Doctor Who. I'd just asked him if he'd seen Christopher Eccleston's reincarnation of the Time Lord and in particular the first episode where he utters a line worthy of Smith himself: 'All planets have a north.' 'Nah, I've heard he's good, like, but 10 years ago there was talk of me being the Doctor. I was down at the BBC, doing a session for Peel, and this bloke - he must have been a Fall fan - said a place on the short-list was mine if I wanted it. 'Nah, I don't do acting,' I said. Well, could you see me fighting t'Daleks?'"

Actor Rhys Ifans, in an interview he gave at the Celtic Film Festival, claimed to have been offered the role of the Doctor after Eccleston's departure, but declined it as he "didn't have the time." In the same interview, he claimed to have also turned down the role of James Bond! This was reported in the Welsh edition of the "Daily Post" newspaper last week.

BBC News commented on the ratings for the wedding of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles this weekend and mentioned Doctor Who beating it in the ratings: "As our sports colleagues might say, there was a big crowd at Windsor on Saturday. But not too many people watched the Royal Wedding on television, according to the Mail. The paper put the viewing figures at 7.3m viewers - the same as the Grand National but fewer than Dr Who - and definitely far behind the wedding of Ken and Deirdre in Coronation Street, the paper says."

The Northern Echo says of this past weekend's episode that "the Doctor's sense of direction hasn't improved. Instead of Naples, they landed in Cardiff in 1869 where the dead were having trouble sleeping. Or as the undertaker put it, 'The stiffs are getting restless.' ... Charles Dickens played his part in putting these zombies to rest in a story written by the Co Durham-born member of The League Of Gentleman, Mark Gatiss. , which continued Russell T Davies' good work of reviving the Time Lord. One intriguing aspect of the new series is the developing relationship between the Doctor and Rose. There's a look here, a remark there. I wouldn't be surprised if, so to speak, she finds herself under the doctor. "

Finally, today's Sun comments on how, once again, Doctor Who has beaten Ant + Dec in the ratings. Those poor, poor chaps...

(Thanks to Paul Engelberg, Steve Tribe, Dave Owen, Chuck Foster, Ian O'Brien, David Richardson, Paul Hayes, David Traynier, Paul Howes, Simon Mapp, David Connah, Eddie Brennan, Dan O'Malley, Mike Buckley, Chris Winwood, and Andy Parish)