Steven Moffat found time in his very busy schedule at the San Diego Comics Convention to give interviews with ComingSoon.net, SciFi.comand io9.

In the ComingSoon.net interview, Moffat talks about growing up as a fan of the show, dipping into the Classic Series for ideas, tackling the enormous tasks of merchandising and continuity, and spin-offs. He also confirms that there will be five special episodes before the beginning of Series Five: one at Christmas of this year, and four more after that.

He talked to SciFi.com about the difference between his experience as a writer for the show and the responsibilities he's taking on as executive producer.

And in the io9 interview, Moffat explains why Doctor Who is a children's show and why that's not something adults should be ashamed of:

As reported by The Futon Critic website, BBC America has announced at the ComicCon convention that the first three series of the revival of Doctor Who have now been made available to purchase on the US version of the iTunes download store.

This is the first time that the programme has been available to purchase for downloading.

Fans in Australia can take advantage of ABC iview which contains a lot of ABC and international content, including Doctor Who and the cut down Confidential episodes.

Thanks to Jason Saunders

This month's Doctor Who Magazine features Davros himself, actor Julian Bleach, talking exclusively about taking on the role of the Daleks' creator.

Is the fact that other actors have played the part in the past a help or a hindrance? "That can make it harder to approach it afresh," considers Julian, "but it's more of a problem if you're trying to find a new interpretation of the character. What I was trying to do with Davros was to recreate, and match as closely as possible, a previously established character." So what’s Julian's take on Davros? Twisted megalomaniac? Mad scientist? Misguided genius? "All of those things, but I'd say the character was very probably originally inspired by Hitler, and I found that to be quite a useful reference point, particularly in some of his more dogmatic speeches!"

It's not just Davros who’s quizzed this issue, DWM features exclusive interviews with David Tennant, Catherine Tate, Freema Agyeman, Billie Piper, John Barrowman, Gareth David-Lloyd, Eve Myles, Penelope Wilton, Jacqueline King, Bernard Cribbins, Noel Clarke, Camille Coduri, Adjoa Andoh, Elisabeth Sladen, Thomas Knight, John Leeson, Alexander Armstrong, Nicholas Briggs, Julian Bleach and Richard Dawkins. Find out which former companion had to have an injection to stop her vomiting. Discover whose bottom to hold onto in a crisis, and whose gave Catherine Tate a shock. Learn which actress is happy to "mug away in the background." And establish who would win in a Dalek Crucible-based wind-breaking competition!

PLUS!

• The Doctor and Donna’s battle with the Sycorax reaches its explosive climax in the final part of the latest full colour comic strip The Widow’s Curse.
• Showrunner Russell T Davies reveals exclusively what won't be in Series Five.
• The chance to vote for your favourites in DWM’s annual Season Survey
• The latest news on the forthcoming Doctor Who Specials and Series Two of The Sarah Jane Adventures.

AND... all the latest news, exclusive photos, reviews, previews, competitions and a choice of FOUR covers to collect!

Doctor Who was the second most-watched show in the month of June on the new version of the BBC iPlayer catch-up service available to subscribers of the Virgin Media cable television platform. According to a report in The Guardian, the Virgin Media version of the iPlayer - which is also available to UK broadband internet users via the BBC website - attracted 10 million users to its programming during its first full month in operation.

The top ten most-viewed programmes were, according to The Guardian:

Doctor Who's excellent ratings in Australia continue with it topping the one million mark for the fourth week in a row.The Fires of Pompeii rated 1,101,000 viewers in the five major capital cities, while Planet of the Ood rated 1,092,000. The Confidential Cutdown versions of 'The Italian Job' and 'Oods and Ends' also rated extremely well gaining 875,000 and 936,000 viewers respectively in the five major capital cities. By way of comparison, series three of Doctor Who only averaged around 846,000 viewers in its old Saturday night timeslot with a top rating of 928,000 for 'Smith and Jones'.

Meanwhile, 'Doctor Who' continues to attract some local media. Graeme Blundell of 'The Weekend Australia' writes affectionately of a programme he and his children grew up with and where 'there is still a highly enjoyable kind of campiness at work...Tennant is perfect comic strip-style Doctor ... [while] wonderful Tate provides a nice comic turn as Donna, shades of the many characters from her own series ghosting across her face as she chases after the Doctor.'Ruth Ritchie of The Sydney Morning Herald is a bit more ambivalent about series four though, suggesting that Catherine Tate may be too much of a good thing. She writes that 'when both leads have funny bones, when the story involves an extreme dieting conspiracy where the fat is harvested from obese Britons to make babies for beings from another thingy and when the fat-babies are animated globules that leap from the back-fat of women in pubs … you can see how that sort of material might not benefit from the inclusion of a wild-eyed redhead who makes Lucille Ball look shy. This week they go to Rome - well, Pompeii - on "volcano day", as the Doctor so succinctly points out. It leans heavily towards Carry On Up The Toga territory.'Tim Hunter though praises Tate's 'down-to-earth, no-nonsense attitude that keeps the Doctor on his Time Lord toes.' CitySearch and The Sydney Morning Herald also preview recent episodes.The Sydney Morning Herald has also reprinted the 'New York Times' interview with Russell T. Davies. MeanwhileChris Hook of The Daily Telegraph says 'with the Doctor on TV, everything else should pretty much stop' thoughMelinda Houston of The Sunday Age suggests 'there's a slight shadow falling across the reinvented Doctor Who. We got a taste of it at the conclusion to the last season – that is, the elevation of the Doctor to some kind of godhead, often at the expense of irreverence and therefore its (and his) charm.'

Thanks to contributors to the Australian forums

The Mail on Sunday newspaper in the United Kingdom is running a news story titled 500,000 pounds Mr Spielberg? Sorry, I've got a date with the Beeb, says the new Dr Who writer, in which it claims that incoming Doctor Who executive producer and chief writerSteven Moffatturned down a lucrative deal to write the second instalment of the new Tintin film franchise in order to take over the running of Doctor Who.

Moffat tells the Mail that he had originally signed up to write the first two Tintin films of the planned trilogy, to be directed by Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson. However, after completing the script for the first film, Moffat was offered his new position with Doctor Who, and pulled out of the deal.

"I was offered the Doctor Who job and accepted immediately," Moffat is quoted as telling the paper. "I hope you won't make what happened sound too dramatic. I talked to Steven and he understood completely. I could not work on the second Tintin film and work on Doctor Who. So I chose Doctor Who. Steven is a fan and he understood my passion for the series completely."

"There are no bad feelings between Spielberg and me, but Doctor Who has to come before Hollywood."

Moffat further adds that current executive producer and chief writer Russell T Davies is working on four specials, and then Moffat will take over the running of the series.

UPDATE, July 21:
Moffat has described the Daily Mail report as "a bit misleading" in an interview with BBC News. Moffat told the BBC that he had planned to finish his work on Tintin before beginning his Doctor Who work, but the former was interrupted by the US writers' strike. He also says that "nothing less than Doctor Who could have torn [him] away" from Tintin. He called Tintin a "stunning project" he was "proud" to be part of, but added that it was "the proper duty of every British subject to come to the aid of the TARDIS".

Moffat also noted that although the Daily Mail report called Steven Spielberg "a fan" of Doctor Who, in fact he merely "knows and admires" the programme. Of the two directors working on the Tintin project, it is Peter Jackson who is a Doctor Who fan, according to Moffat.

Finally, Moffat told the BBC that the figures quoted in the Daily Mail article are "entirely speculative and wildly inaccurate".

The first Tintin film, directed by Spielberg based on Moffat's script, will star Thomas Sangster in the title role; Doctor Who fans will remember Sangster as Tim Latimer in last year's story "Human Nature"/"The Family of Blood".

Posted By John Bowman

Today's edition of The Sun says David Tennant is being offered one and a half million pounds to stay on as the Doctor for Series Five.

In what it claims to be an exclusive, it quotes a source as saying: "He's interested. Everyone thought he was going, but it's not as open and shut as that."

Click here for the full report - but beware, as at the end it names a character it says is returning in one of the specials.

Delia Derbyshire's extensive collection of recordings has been taken up by academics at Manchester University for cataloguing and digital conversion.After she died in 2001, the recordings were entrusted to composerMark Ayres by her estate, as he was a friend of hers and because of his involvement with the Radiophonic Workshop archive.Derbyshire, who created the original arrangement of the Doctor Who theme music, composed by Ron Grainer, left behind a stockpile of 267 tapes. Her groundbreaking work is credited as having influenced the likes of The Crystal Method and Portishead.David Butler, a lecturer in screen studies at the university's School of Art, Histories and Culture, said: "We have just started to scratch the surface. The collection includes her freelance work and really does give us a better sense of her range. Many of the tapes have no labels so it is a case of using detective work to find out what they are.
"Delia Derbyshire never really received the recognition she deserved as one of our most influential composers of the past 30 or so years.

"Though brilliant, the Doctor Who theme is just one small example of her genius which was held in high esteem by figures across music, television, theatre and film, including Paul McCartney and John Peel, the disc jockey."

Ayres told The Doctor Who News Page: "Unfortunately, it became apparent that I was not going to be able to find the many months (possibly years) of time that researching the material properly would take, so I have passed the material on to the University of Manchester and David Butler on permanent loan so that they can do it properly."

He remains the titular owner of the material on behalf of Derbyshire's estate and is working closely with Butler as a consultant on the collection.

Ayres said: "The aim is to cross-reference it with the Radiophonic Workshop archive and hopefully end up, in due course, with a definitive study of Delia's life and work."

Probably the most surprising discovery in the collection is a piece of music that sounds like a contemporary dance track which was recorded, it is believed, in the late-Sixties.

Paul Hartnoll, formerly of the dance group Orbital and a great admirer of Derbyshire's work, said the track was "quite amazing".

"That could be coming out next week on [left-field dance label] Warp Records," he noted. "It's incredible when you think when it comes from. Timeless, really. It could be now as much as then."

For the full story and to listen to sound clips from the collection, visit the BBC News website.

The story is also covered by The Times and The Daily Telegraph.

Posted By John Bowman

There are Daleks everywhere in the new edition of Doctor Who Adventures out today.

It has a fact file about the Supreme Dalek plus part three of the win a life-size Dalek competition. In addition, there is the first part of a cut-out mini mag about the Daleks.

The free gift is Ood slime and a set of Ood eyeballs.

Also in issue 73:

Three posters: The Supreme Dalek, Mr Halpen with an Ood, and Matron Cofelia

Adventures Guide: Partners in Crime. Donna meets the Doctor again . . .

Tales from the TARDIS: There's something on Donna's back in a scene from Turn Left

Quiz: A Quintus from Pompeii quiz

Make: A Doctor mask

Doctor's Data: Find out about the Sixth Doctor

Comic strip: In the year 3269, trouble is waiting for the Doctor and Donna

Time Teasers: Shadow Monsters and TARDIS Scanner

Win: Lots of goodies - including Doctor Who DVDs

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