The Week's Press Clips

Today's issue of The Sun heavily features Doctor Who as it follows up the show's triumph at the National Television Awards. A TV biz double-page special on what it labels the "Telly Oscars Bash" has a single-column piece on Billie Piper(website), saying she hopes to star in a third series. Collecting her award, it says, Billie thanked her 'lovely boyfriend' Amadu Sowe and her ex-hubby, media mogul Chris Evans, at the National Television Awards, and later celebrated her win by going to dinner with Chris at a swanky London restaurant - the pair are pictured while out - and also has a shot of her as she went to buy newspapers near her north London home yesterday (Wed). According to the piece, Christopher Eccleston was booed for failing to be at the awards in person to pick up his gong. Sun cartoonist Bill Caldwell takes a humorous look at Doctor Who's success at the award here (click on "Today's cartoon" in the fourth column as of time of writing). Beneath that cartoon in the newsprint edition, there is a feature by Paul Sutherland - bylined as The Sun spaceman - which takes a look at "how Russell T Davies turned the Doctor from axed laughing stock to award-winning pride of the Beeb". Illustrated with pictures of the Tardis, a new-series Dalek, Billie Piper, Christopher Eccleston and Davies, it credits the revived show's success as being down to a bigger budget, great writing, top actors, restoring it to Saturday night transmissions, keeping it "oh so British" and including the Daleks. The piece finishes by praising David Tennant and saying "For this timeless hit programme, the future looks brighter than ever"; read the piece herefor that. Finally, TV columnist Ally Ross takes an alternative, swiping look at the awards in a piece illustrated with a photo-composite shot of the Tardis with two EastEnders actors stepping out.

During the National Television Awards, which we've covered over the past several days, the clips shown include the 'sorry I was a bit slow' sequence from Dalek, up to the extermination and Eccleston whipping off his earpiece (for the Most Popular Drama segment); Rose telling Jackie she was there when Pete died, from Parting of the Ways (for Most Popular Actress), and 'everybody lives, Rose!', complete with conversation with Dr Constantine, from The Doctor Dances (for Most Popular Actor). In addition Anthony Cotton (who won Most Popular Newcomer for his role as Sean Tully in "Coronation Street") took time in his speech to thank Russell T Davies for Queer as Folk, a series without which, he said, a gay character such as Sean 'would never be on primetime television'. Anthony played Alexander Perry in the original Channel 4 version of the series. Additionally, for the first time in three years, Dr Who arch-rival "Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway" failed to win Most Popular Entertainment Show (although hosts Ant and Dec did nab Most Popular Entertainment Presenters), being beaten by Sharon Osbourne-hosted talent show "The X Factor". MediaGuardiannoted that the National Television Awards show on ITV last night gained an average 7.1 million viewers, a 31% audience share, winning its slot between 8pm and 10.30pm last night... that's probably all you Doctor Who fans tuning in!

BBC Wales Today on Tuesday night featured a brief chat with Julie Gardner on the TARDIS set about the awards and what we can look forward to next year; while there was very little in the way of new information, Gardner did mention they had been filming at a riding school earlier in the day, and that the ‘Christmas Invasion’ is in post production.

On Wake up to Wogan on Radio 2 on 26 October, after the news report on Doctor Who's win at the NTA awards, Terry Wogan announced that the forthcoming Who segment during "Children in Need" would be 15 minutes long.

The official Doctor Who website has changed again, now back to a more familiar design that was with us throughout the lead-up to the first series, including the now-familiar visage of the Moxx of Balhoon...

UK Gold have a series of local radio ads for their Doctor Who week taking place this week, about favourite characters and monsters; at least one of them has a viewer talking about how the Face of Boe is his favourite, and how he should have his own series.

Today's Daily Mail asks, "Is that a trout pout, Billie, or just lashings of lipstick?" "She has been travelling in time and space with Doctor Who. But now some are asking if the Time Lord has turned his hand to cosmetic surgery. For as Billie Piper collected an acting award, onlookers couldn't help commenting on her apparently fuller lips. 'I could hardly concentrate on what she was saying,' said a member of the audience at Tuesday's National Television Awards in London. 'Even Angelina Jolie's lips aren't that luscious.They were just enormous, and when she smiled they became all tight and unnatural looking. Her top lip moved up, exposing all her teeth and her gums. It just looked odd and a lot of people noticed it.' Others put the look down to carefully applied lipstick, and a spokesman for the 23-year old said: 'I can categorically say that she has never had any surgery to enhance her lips.' But leading plastic surgeon Jonathan Baker commented: 'Her lips are startlingly full and plump. Personally, I have never seen anyone whose lips naturally look like that. 'Lips are not normally that full unless they have been exposed to some sort of toxin, such as collagen for example.'"

Yahoo Business notes that the SF TV series, "Firefly," was voted the world's best space science fiction work ever in an international poll conducted by NewScientist Magazine; among the items noted in the poll, "The survey also suggests that, unlike many genres, great works of science fiction transcend gender, with male and female fans voting incredibly closely. The only difference in their top ten was Isaac Asimov's 'Foundation Series,' an epic work of science fiction written over 49 years ago. 'Foundation Series' was voted into tenth place by male sci-fi fans, but did not appear in the women's top ten, its place being taken by 'Doctor Who.'"

(Thanks to Paul Engelberg, Paul Hayes, John Bowman, Phil Newman, Matt Kimpton, Mark Clapham, Rob Stickler)