DVD News

Thursday, 27 May 2010 - Reported by Marcus
More details on forthcoming DVD releases has been published in the current issue of Doctor Who Magazine.

The August release of Revenge of the Cybermen will feature a commentary with Elisabeth Sladen, who played Sarah Jane Smith in the story and David Collings, who played Vorus, along with the producer at the time Philip Hinchliffe. Extras, which were first listed here, include a 'making of' documentary and archive news footage from the location.

Its companion story Silver Nemesis will have a commentary with the Seventh Doctor, Sylvester McCoy as well as Sophie Aldred who played Ace, director Chris Clough and script editor Andrew Cartmel. Other extras include a documentary looking at the making of the story and deleted and extended scenes.

The September release, Time and the Rani will have a commentary with Sylvester McCoy, this time paired with Bonnie Langford who played Melanie Bush. This will be the first Doctor Who commentary by Langford. They will be joined by the writers of the story, Pip and Jane Baker. Extras on the disc will include a documentary, Last Chance Saloon, looking at the pressures on the series at the time, as well as a look at the first CGI title sequence, interviews with Pip and Jane Baker and Kate O'Mara and archive footage from Breakfast Time and Blue Peter.

Full details on upcoming releases can be found in our Release Schedule




FILTER: - Classic Series - Blu-ray/DVD

SFX Vampires Collection

Wednesday, 26 May 2010 - Reported by Marcus
The latest SFX Collection is a Vampires special and features The Vampires of Venice on its cover.

Inside is an interview with Toby Whithouse writer of the latest story to feature blood sucking aliens in Doctor Who, as well as an interview with Terrance Dicks who wrote the classic series Vampire story State Of Decay.

The magazine comes with seven free gifts. Four Being Human coasters to help protect your table from hot beverages and test your knowledge of the show, a 100-page book of classic horror stories from the likes of Bram Stoker, MR James, F Marion Crawford and Rudyard Kipling, a double-sided poster featuring True Blood and sexy Hammer flick The Vampire Lovers, and a small build-it-yourself coffin.




FILTER: - Magazines

Amy's Choice - Final Ratings

Monday, 24 May 2010 - Reported by Marcus
Amy's ChoiceFinal figures for Episode Seven, Amy's Choice, published by BARB show the story was watched by 7.55 million viewers.

On BBC One the programme got 7.06 million watching where it was the sixth most watched programme for the channel for the week. An additional 0.49 million watched on BBC HD. When added together the programme totalled 7.55 million viewers and was the 13th most watched programme of the week.

iPlayer requests for Amy's Choice have been considerably higher than for the rest of the series with over 900,000 requesting the programme within two days of transmission.

The BBC Three Sunday repeat did not rank high enough to get into the top 30 for the week, although it did get into the top ten programmes on BBC Three, with 0.63 million viewers.

Full ratings for the series so far can be found in Gallifrey Base.





FILTER: - Ratings - UK - Series 5/31

BBC Worldwide - Record Profits

Monday, 24 May 2010 - Reported by Marcus
BBC
The success of Doctor Who has helped BBC Worldwide achieve record profits of around £140 million.

Director General Mark Thompson released the figure at a conference at Chatham House in London, ahead of the publication of the annual report in July. Last year the commercial arm of the BBC made £103 million.

Doctor Who is now sold to more than 50 territories, has sold over 3.3 million DVD's and in 2009 sold more than 7 million action figures.




FILTER: - Production

The Hungry Earth - AI

Monday, 24 May 2010 - Reported by Marcus
Hungry EarthThe Hungry Earth scored an Appreciation Index figure of 86.

The AI or Appreciation Index or AI score is a measure of how much an audience enjoyed a programme. A score between 80 and 85 is considered good with a score above 85 considered excellent.

With overnight ratings for the whole week now available, Doctor Who is currently 34th for the week.





FILTER: - Ratings - UK - Series 5/31

Australian ratings for The Vampires of Venice

Monday, 24 May 2010 - Reported by Adam Kirk
The Vampires of Venice has debuted in Australia to excellent ratings. TV Tonight reports that the episode averaged 938,000 viewers in the five major capital cities, again despite stiff competition from the commercial networks. However, for the first week it was not the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's top-rating program of the day, instead coming a close third to the series final of Foyle's War and the Sunday 7pm news. The corresponding Confidential Cutdown also rated an excellent 777,000 viewers in the five major capitals.

Meanwhile, the Sydney Morning Herald and TV Tonight report that, from July, the ABC will replace its high definition network with its new 24 hours news service. ABC HD currently broadcasts Doctor Who but not in full high definition, instead only in a modified 720p format. Doctor Who will continue to be broadcast in standard definition on ABC1.




FILTER: - Ratings - Series 5/31 - Broadcasting - Australia

The Hungry Earth - Overnight Ratings

Sunday, 23 May 2010 - Reported by Marcus
The Hungry EarthThe Hungry Earth was watched by 4.5 million viewers according to unofficial overnight figures.

The glorious weather across the UK on Saturday saw the series fall to the lowest overnight total since the series returned in 2005. 4.24 million watched on BBC One with an additional 0.30 million watching on BBC HD. The share remained consistent with 32.2% of the total audience.

Only 13.1 million were watching TV when Doctor Who started implying many were still out enjoying the hottest weekend of the year. The programme inherited an audience of 1.8 million viewers from Junior Apprentice and peaked with 4.8 million on BBC One.

The winner of the night was Over the Rainbow, with the results show topping the night with 6.2 million and the earlier show getting 5.8 million watching. Both Casualty and The National Lottery: In It to Win It 2012 beat Doctor Who with the programme coming fifth for the day. With Sunday's overnight figures to come Doctor Who is the 32nd most watched programme for the week. Against Doctor Who, ITV1 achieved 1.9 million for The Whole 19 Yards.

Final figures will be released next week and will include those who recorded the programme for viewing later. The lowest confirmed figure for the revived series so far is 6.1 million for The Satan Pit in June 2006.

On BBC Three, Doctor Who Confidential had 0.28 million watching and was 15th for the day on Multi-Channel Television.




FILTER: - Ratings - UK - Series 5/31

Legends of Kids TV

Sunday, 23 May 2010 - Reported by Marcus
Legends of Kids TVA new book exploring Legends of Kids TV has been published to raise money for the NSPCC Child's Voice Appeal.

The book is filled with interviews with the stars of UK Children's Television and includes such Doctor Who luminaries as Sir Derek Jacobi, Peter Purves and the legendary Bernard Cribbins, as well as other Doctor Who contributors such as Richard Briers, who also talks about his role in Torchwood, and special effects supremo Mat Irvine.

The book can be purchased online via the website.




FILTER: - Merchandise

Doctor Who and the Big Yin

Saturday, 22 May 2010 - Reported by Dean Braithwaite
Digital Journal has published a fairly extensive piece to tie in with the UK broadcast of tonight's episode, The Hungry Earth; and has picked up on an interview Karen Gillan gave recently, in which she talked about the possibility of a Doctor Who story involving Billy Connolly and the Loch Ness Monster!

Meanwhile, the original interview with Gillan can be found here; and, as mentioned by the Doctor Who News Page earlier, ReelScotland has published an interview (including spoilers) with one of tonight's guest stars, Neve McIntosh.

The Hungry Earth can be seen tonight, on BBC 1, at 6.15 p.m. It's the first of a two-part story by Chris Chibnall. The second episode, Cold Blood, will be shown on Saturday, 29 May, at the later time of 7 p.m.




FILTER: - Karen Gillan - Press - Series 5/31

News Round Up

Saturday, 22 May 2010 - Reported by Marcus
Doctor Who has been nominated for or the title of best terrestrial programme at this year’s Channel of the Year Awards ceremony, part of the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival taking place in August. The series is up against The X Factor, Harry Hill’s TV Burp, Outnumbered and Flash Forward.

ReelScotland have published an interview with Scottish-born actress Neve McIntosh who stars in The Hungry Earth on BBC One this Saturday. Interview contains some spoilers.

The Sun claims a cave painting created 7,000 years ago shows an object not unlike the TARDIS.

A new Doctor Who Exhibition opens this Saturday in Newcastle in the North East of England. The show runs until 31st October at the Centre For Life. Thanks to "Vain Sharp Dad" for the preview pictures.





FILTER: - Exhibitions - Press