The press screening for Part One of The End of Time took place in studio TC8 at BBC Television Centre on Thursday evening. This was an appropriate venue, as TC8 was used for many recordings of classic Doctor Who, including a previous regeneration story, Planet of the Spiders, the swansong of Jon Pertwee's Third Doctor.

The screening was attended by Russell T Davies, John Simm and Bernard Cribbins, who answered questions from the audience.

Others at the screening included Catherine Tate, who played Donna Noble in Series 4 and who returns for the special,  David Harewood, Claire Bloom and Alaxandra Moen, as well as Steven Moffat, who has now taken over from Davies as Executive Producer of Doctor Who. Also in attendance, and marking the importance the BBC places on Doctor Who, was the man in charge of the corporation, Director-General Mark Thompson.

Reviews of the evening with reasonably few spoliers can be read on BBC News, in SFX, on freelance journalist Ian Wylie's Blog and on Total Sci-Fi Online.

This week's issue of Doctor Who Adventures comes with eight gifts – a 2010 calendar, two bookmarks, a hologram sticker sheet, three postcards and a mask of the Master.

Inside, Doctor Who Adventures reveals the Top 10 Christmas moments, there’s a preview of The End of Time, the Tenth Doctor’s final adventure, and an look at how the Doctor Who crew created a winter wonderland in the middle of July.

Readers can claim five free Doctor Who magazine files. They can also enter a competition to win a Doctor Who bedroom.

Plus the big Christmas quiz and a festive comic strip, Doctor’s Data all about Davros and Five fantastic posters.

Out Thursday in the United Kingdom

David Tennant has given a brief interview to BBC News, talking about his feelings on leaving the role of the Doctor.

The interview was recorded on the TARDIS set in May. As he nears the end of his time in Doctor Who, Tennant tells Lizo Mzimba about how the role has affected him and his thoughts on his final story.

Part of the interview was also shown on the BBC's main evening news programme, The Six O'Clock News.

The press showing of The End of Time is Thursday night in London.

The Doctor Who themed edition of Never Mind The Buzzcocks got an audience of 2.9 million viewers according to unofficial overnight figures. The programme, which was presented by David Tennant, and starred Bernard Cribbins and Catherine Tate, got a share of 14% or the total audience.

The rating is much higher than usual for the programme, which, this series, has averaged around 2.1 million viewers per programme. It is the highest rating for the programme since November 2007.

Never Mind The Buzzcocks is repeated on BBC Two next Tuesday and is available in the UK on the BBC i-Player.

The BBC Press Office have released information on the number of viewers that have used the red button facility on digital television, and revealed that the animated adventure Dreamland was watched by almost one million people.


"Traditional" broadcasting ratings are reported here.

Cable channel Space have issued a Press Release on the Canadian showing of The End of Time on 2nd January, originally reported here. As well as previewing the upcoming special the Channel will be devoting InnerSPACE on December 18th to Doctor Who including an interview with Russell T Davies. The channel also confirms it will be showing Matt Smith's first series in the Spring of 2010.

Meanwhile Australian fans are being offered the chance to download Voyage of the Damned free from iTunes courtsy of Australian paper The Age.
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Interviewed by writer and journalist Matthew Sweet in tonight's edition of Night Waves on BBC Radio 3, new Doctor Who lead writer and executive producer Steven Moffat announced the return of a race of monsters to face new Doctor Matt Smith in the next series of the programme in 2010. After discussing various aspects of what it was like being in charge of Doctor Who, at the end of the interview Sweet asked Moffat if he could reveal one piece of information known to nobody outside of the production team, as a "teaser" for the next series. Moffat's answer is given in the spoiler box below.

The BBC have released a couple of Christmas messages from David Tennant, as The Doctor, wishing viewers a Merry Christmas, both of which are available on the BBC's YouTube Channel.

The last time The Doctor gave a Christmas message was 44 years ago at the end of the episode The Feast of Steven, broadcast on Christmas Day 1965, when William Hartnell raised a glass and wished a 'happy Christmas to all of you at home.'





The YouTube channel also has a number of clips from the upcoming Doctor Who themed edition of Never Mind The Buzzcocks.

Steven Moffat, the new lead writer and executive producer of Doctor Who, will be interviewed on BBC Radio 3's Night Waves programme this coming Tuesday, the 15th of December. The programme is presented by Matthew Sweet, runs from 9.15-10pm, and according to Sweet "He's one of a series of people we're talking to next week who have also recently taken over important cultural appointments."

Sweet is himself a long-term Doctor Who fan, who has written several articles about the programme in the mainstream British press in the past decade, particularly for The Independent newspaper. He has also written professional Doctor Who fiction himself, in the form of audio dramas and short stories for Big Finish Productions.

Night Waves can be heard live worldwide on the internet, and listened to again on the BBC iPlayer. You can keep track of all major Doctor Who-related programmes on British TV and radio this Christmas with our broadcast summary.