The brand new Twelfth Doctor's Sonic Screwdriver has been added to the official Doctor Who Sonic Screwdriver app,

The new sonic was revealed in the final seconds of the season finale, Hell Bent, and will feature in this year's Christmas Special.

Useless Creations have worked closely with the BBC to make the virtual sonic screwdriver as close as possible to the real prop.

It's available now on both the App Store and Google Play.

Everyone hangs a stocking up for when Santa arrives,
But the Doctor's hung a stocking for each one of his lives!

Willy Phantom, 24th December 2015

Television

ABC have confirmed that they intend to make this year's Christmas special, The Husbands of River Song, available in Australia staight after the United Kingdom on their iView service, from 5:15am (AEDT). This makes the country the first to be able to watch the story after its premiere (at least for early risers!).

FX in India have also confirmed that they will indeed show the special on Sunday in the usual Doctor Who premiere slot of 11:00pm IST.

The Husbands of River Song: Known Broadcast Details
United Kingdom	BBC One	Fri 25 Dec 2015	5:15pm
Australia	ABC iView	Sat 26 Dec 2015	5:15am AEDT	(6:15pm GMT)
United States of America	BBC America	Fri 25 Dec 2015	9:00pm EST	(2:00am GMT)
Canada	SPACE	Fri 25 Dec 2015	9:00pm EST	(2:00am GMT)
Asia Pacific	BBC Entertainment	Sat 26 Dec 2015	10:00am SGT	(2:00am GMT)
New Zealand	PRIME	Sat 26 Dec 2015	7:35pm NZDT	(6:35am GMT)
Australia	ABC	Sat 26 Dec 2015	7:30pm AEDT	(8:30am GMT)
South Africa	BBC First	Sat 26 Dec 2015	6:00pm SAST
Europe (Benelux)	BBC First	Sat 26 Dec 2015	8:05pm CET
India	FX	Sun 27 Dec 2015	11:00pm IST
United Kingdom	BBC Two	Tue 29 Dec 2015	2:50am	(British Signed Language)
Finland	YLE2	Sun 3 Jan 2016	7:10pm EET
Germany	FOX	Thu 28 Jan 2016	9:00pm CET	(dubbed into German)

Cinema

As well as the small screen, The Husbands of River Song will have a number of cinematic screenings, with the presentation including an exclusive interview with Alex Kingston plus a 15-minute behind-the-scenes "making of" featurette:

• In the United States, Fathom Events are showing the episode in cinemas all over the country over the course of 28th-29th December.
  
  
• In Canada, Cineplex will be showing the episode in select cinemas on the 28th December.
  
  
• In Denmark Cinemaxx are showing the package at 4:45pm and 7:00pm on the 28th December at their Copenhagen, Odense and Aarhus cinemas.]
  
  
• In Germany, Cinemaxx will be showing the package on 28th January at the same time as its premiere on television on FOX (the cinema will be presented in its original English soundtrack); theatres showing the episode are in Augsburg, Berlin, Bielefeld, Bremen, Dresden, Essen, Freiburg, Göttingen, Halle, Hamburg-Dammtor, Hannover, Heilbronn, Kiel, Krefeld, Magdeburg, Mülheim, München, Offenbach, Oldenburg, Regensburg, Sindelfingen, Stuttgart an der Liederhalle, Trier, Wolfsburg, Wuppertal, and Würzburg. (updated 26 Dec)
  
  
• In Austria, the Haydn English Cinema in Vienna will also be showing the episode on 28th January at 9:00pm.

Wednesday sees the publication of brand new tales from The Eleventh and Twelfth Doctor.

Candy Jar Books has released a brand new Lethbridge-Stewart short story online for Christmas: The Fright Before Christmas (written by Tom Dexter with cover artwork by Shaun Russell, Adrian Salmon and Nathan Hudson) features alien spheres, Santa Claus and Buckingham Palace, and is available to download for free via their website here.

Hayley Cox, Senior Publishing Coordinator at Candy Jar Books, said:

Various bundles are available for the book series, both for the four published this year and those due to be published in 2016 (kicking off with Moon Blink by Sadie Miller): see the Candy Jar website for full details.

It's time for our traditional "Predict the Ratings" competition, and this year you will be in with a chance to win The Husbands of River Song on Blu-ray or DVD ... alongside the latest adventures of the twelfth Doctor when The Complete Ninth Series is released next year!


Last year ratings on television were down across the board, with none of the Christmas Day shows managing to break the 10 million mark - Last Christmas ended up in sixth place with 8.28m viewers. In previous years, you can view the final ratings for The Christmas Invasion, The Runaway Bride, Voyage of the Damned, The Next Doctor, The End of Time part one, A Christmas Carol, The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe, The Snowmen and The Time of the Doctor via This Week in Doctor Who.

The show's best position occured in 2009 when The End Of Time (part one) arguably achieved the top spot with 12.05m viewers (11.57m on BBC One and 0.47m on BBC HD). However, it was the 2007 special, Voyage of the Damned that achieved the best rating in the decade of specials, reaching 13.31m viewers (but pipped at the post by Eastenders at 14.38m!).



To enter the competition, please send the following details to comp-ratings@doctorwhonews.net:

• Your name and preferred email address
• Your country of entry (full details will be requested only if you are the winner)
• Your guess at the final rating to the nearest 10,000 (eg.9.99m)
• Tie breaker: also send your guess as to what the final rating for the BBC3 repeat on Boxing Day might be - this figure will only be used in the event of a tie!

Terms and Conditions:

• The competition closes at 08:30 GMT, 26th December 2015.
• Only one entry will be accepted per person.
• The competition is open worldwide.
• BARB final figures are expected in early 2016; we will contact the winner once they have been published.
• The winner will be able to confirm the region and format of the boxed set they'd like nearer release date.

Odds on Who

At the time of writing, the (average) betting odds for the main channels are as follows:

Time       BBC One                                Odds    ITV                                Odds 
 3:00pm    The Queen                                                                         34/1
 3:10pm    Brave                                  69/1    Cameraman to the Queen               -
 4:10pm                                                   Countrywise Winter Wonderland     100/1
 4:35pm    BBC News and Weather                     -
 4:45pm    Stick Man                             100/1
 5:00pm                                                   For The Love Of Dogs              130/1
 5:15pm    Doctor Who                             28/1
 6:00pm                                                   ITV Evening News                     -
 6:15pm    Strictly Come Dancing                   9/1    You've Been Framed With Bells On  100/1
 6:45pm                                                   Emmerdale                         109/1
 7:30pm    Call The Midwife                       14/1 
 7:45pm                                                   Coronation Street                  77/2
 8:45pm    Eastenders                              9/2    Downton Abbey                       9/2
 9:45pm    Mrs Browns Boys                         7/10
10:45pm    Michael McIntyre's Big Christmas Show  62/1    Our Cilla                          91/1

Having been in the top spot three years running, Mrs Brown's Boys remains the favourite for this year. Eastenders, which topped the charts in 2010 and 2011, and the final episode of Downton Abbey are currently joint second, followed by Strictly Come Dancing and Doctor Who.

Christmas day on Skaro usually is a sad affair,
So Davros has decided to brighten up his chair.

Willy Phantom, 23rd December 2015

Everybody's ears are stinging,
At the sound of Strax's singing.

Willy Phantom, 22nd December 2015

BBC Worldwide have released details for the forthcoming on The Complete Ninth Series, due out in the United Kingdom on Blu-ray/DVD from 7th March 2016 and in North America from 5th April 2016.


The Complete Series Nine will be available to pre-order from our Amazon Shops in the UK (Blu-ray/DVD), USA (Blu-ray/DVD) and Canada (Blu-ray/DVD), and can also be purchased from the BBC Shop and other retailers. (please note that at the time of writing only Amazon in the USA have the item up for pre-order, the others are expected to have it available shortly)

Titan Comics have announced a series of variant covers for three of their ongoing Doctor Who comics. The variants are drawn by Japanese artist Question No. 6. She has previously worked on Doctor Who comics at a fan level, being involved with a webcomic adaptation of AM Audio Media’s award winning Doctor Who Dark Journey audio play.

The comics featuring Question no. 6’s art will be available early next year. The Tenth Doctor Adventures Year Two #2.6 and The Twelfth Doctor Adventures Year Two #2.2 will be available January 13th, 2016 with The Eleventh Doctor Adventures Year Two #2.6 hitting shelves on February 3rd, 2016.