The BBC have released the third preview clip from The Time of the Doctor.

Doctor Who News, in association with Big Finish Productions, is offering three signed script fronts from recent Big Finish releases, to the person who can most accurately guess the BBC One ratings for the UK premiere of The Time of the Doctor

The Time of the Doctor is being broadcast in the UK on Christmas Day at 7.30pm, later than recent Christmas Doctor Who episodes.

Previous Ratings:

For comparison, the ratings for the previous Christmas Day episodes are as follows: The Snowmen (9.87m), The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe (10.77m), A Christmas Carol (12.11m), The End Of Time: Part One (12.04m), The Next Doctor (13.10m), Voyage of the Damned (13.31m), The Runaway Bride (9.30m), The Christmas Invasion (9.84m), The Feast of Steven (7.90m).

Entering The Competition:

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

• Your name and email address
• Your country (full address will only be requested if you are a winner)
• Your guess for the final viewing figure!

Terms And Conditions:

• The competition closes at 7.30pm GMT, 25th December 2013.
• Only one entry will be accepted per person.
• The competition is open worldwide.
• BARB figures are expected around 10 days after transmission; we will contact the winner once they have been published.

An extended video featuring two of the Eleventh Hour panels at the Doctor Who Celebration has been published on the BBC's 50 Years of Doctor Who website.

Filmed at the Excel in London on the 24th November and presented by Matthew Sweet, the panel brought together Matt Smith, Jenna Coleman, Steven Moffat and Nick Hurran following the celebratory broadcast of The Day of the Doctor. The team discussed the most notable scenes in the 50th anniversary special involving Tom Baker, past Doctors, the regeneration of John Hurt into Christopher Eccleston and the brief appearance of Peter Capaldi.

Teased was The Time of the Doctor Christmas special, which executive producer Steven Moffat described as Matt Smith's "finest ever performance as the Doctor and possibly the finest performance ever by a Doctor". Moffat also talked of a world without Doctor Who (also available as a separate YouTube video).

Set over the course of three days from November 22nd to the 24th at the Excel, the event saw fans from around the world and stars from the show attending the celebration in honour of the show as part of its anniversary weekend.

Another Yuletide season, and another chance to indulge in the the tradition of pantomime ...


Other names associated with Doctor Who include: Nigel Havers (Peter Dalton, The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith) in Robin Hood at the Theatre Royal Plymouth; Leslie Grantham (Kiston, Resurrection of the Daleks) in Dick Whittington at the Grove Theatre Dunstable; Kai Owen (Rhys, Torchwood) in Aladdin at the Royal Spa Centre Leamington Spa; Susan Penhaligon (Lakis, The Time Monster) in Sleeping Beauty at the Queens Theatre Barnstaple; Tony Adams (Elgin, The Green Death) in Sleeping Beauty at the King's Theatre Southsea; Bradley Walsh (Spellman, The Day of the Clown) in Cinderella at the Orchard Theatre Dartford; and also Brian Blessed (Yrcanos, Mindwarp) in the Christmas show The Snow Gorilla at the Rose Theatre Kingston.

Other forms of entertainment are available.

Fifty years ago today on Doctor Who the companion Barbara Wright - as played by Jacqueline Hill - became the first of the TARDIS crew to encounter a Dalek, in the cliffhanger to the episode The Dead Planet.

At the time, only Barbara saw it in full and she didn't know that it was a Dalek either. The 6.9 million TV viewers could only see a plunger - as wielded by assistant floor manager Michael Ferguson - advancing menacingly on her, but this tantalising glimpse of an unknown alien horror, coupled with Barbara's piercing scream and sheer terror at what she had encountered, became an iconic moment in the programme.

The following episode would see the full introduction of the creatures that would become an instant hit with audiences and make the show a genuine talking-point, propelling it to international success and guaranteeing its longevity.

To mark today's special anniversary, though, the official site has uploaded a video of current showrunner Steven Moffat looking back at the 1975 story Genesis of the Daleks. It follows the release by the site earlier this week of a video of Moffat praising the 1988 adventure Remembrance of the Daleks. Both of them were recorded last year as part of a series in the run-up to the broadcast of Asylum of the Daleks.



Following the popularity of our An Unearthly Series feature that marked the 50th anniversaries of milestone events leading up to the broadcast of the show's first episode, Doctor Who News will be celebrating significant moments in time relating to the series after its début on 23rd November 1963.

The future of Doctor Who on audio was revealed today as BBC Worldwide announced a new partnership with Random House Audio to maintain the range alongside some 3,500 other titles including BBC Radio Comedy shows and drama such as The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

The company will have sole responsibility for sales, stock management and distribution of BBC-branded physical CDs in the UK and the rest of the world (excluding North America, Australia and New Zealand). It will also take on global responsibility for download sales with leading digital retailers, including Audible.

From next year, the company is also expected to produce new releases developed and co-published alongside BBC Worldwide.

Nicholas Brett, Director of Publishing, BBC Worldwide UK, said:

Hannah Telfer, Director, Digital Marketing and New Product Development at Random House, said:

The continuing availability of Doctor Who on audio had been in question since AudioGo entered administration in November.

Details have been revealed for the DVD and Blu-ray releases of The Time of the Doctor - with Region 2 getting a two-disc set comprising all the Eleventh Doctor's Christmas specials as well as extra content from this year's offering, which sees Matt Smith bow out as the Doctor.

To be released on Monday 20th January as a box set and entitled The Time of the Doctor + Other Eleventh Doctor Christmas Specials, the Region 2 contents will be as follows:

• The Time of the Doctor
• The Snowmen (The 2012 Christmas special)
• The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe (The 2011 Christmas special)
• A Christmas Carol (The 2010 Christmas special)
• Behind the Scenes of The Time of the Doctor - We take a peek behind the lens on this cracker of a Christmas special. With Matt Smith, Orla Brady, Jenna Coleman, Steven Moffat, Danny Hargreaves, Jack Hollington, Sheila Reid, James Buller, and Elizabeth Rider.
• Farewell to Matt Smith - Narrated by Alex Kingston, this compelling special looks back at Matt's extraordinary tenure as the Eleventh Doctor, featuring highlights from the show and copious interview footage with Matt, his cast mates, writers, producers, guest stars, and celebrity Doctor Who fans.
• Tales from the TARDIS - A look back at the full, 50-year history of Doctor Who. Eleventh Doctor Matt Smith and past Doctors David Tennant, Sylvester McCoy, Colin Baker, Peter Davison, and Tom Baker tell what it was like to be the Doctor, how they got the job, and how it changed their lives. With companion actors Jenna Coleman, Karen Gillan, Arthur Darvill and more, this special offers a unique insight into the world's longest-running sci-fi series.

The BBC Shop is also doing an exclusive T-shirt and DVD/Blu-ray offer for the release.

The one-disc Region 1 DVD/Blu-ray of The Time of the Doctor will be released on Tuesday 4th March, comprising this year's Christmas episode and the extras Behind the Scenes of The Time of the Doctor, Farewell to Matt Smith, and Tales from the TARDIS. None of the previous Christmas episodes will be included.

The BBC have released a teaser to promote The Time of the Doctor for its Christmas premiere.

The latest Strax Field Report shows Sontaran Commander Strax chronicling the Doctor's lives from his first incarnation to his eleventh incarnation.


When discussing the Eighth Doctor, the now established regeneration sequence from Paul McGann to John Hurt is shown.

Concerning the ongoing regeneration body question, Strax refers to John Hurt's incarnation as the "warrior" (War Doctor) before proceeding to regard Christopher Eccleston's as the "ninth" Doctor.

The Time of the Doctor premieres in the UK on BBC One on Christmas Day at 7:30pm.

The three winners of the Blue Peter competition to design sonic devices to be used in Doctor Who were announced today on the CBBC magazine show's Christmas special.

Last month, viewers aged between six and 15 were invited to come up with gadgets that could be used by the characters Commander Strax, Madame Vastra, or Jenny Flint - and the show received some 3,600 entries over 12 days.

The winners were revealed on today's edition as 13-year-old Connor from Somerset, 11-year-old Arthur from Hampshire, and seven-year-old Amber from Kent. (No surnames were given.) They were chosen by a panel of judges that included Doctor Who's head writer and executive producer Steven Moffat, producer Nikki Wilson, production designer Michael Pickwoad, and brand account manager Edward Russell, Blue Peter editor Ewan Vinnicombe and series producer Ellen Evans, plus CBBC presenter Chris Johnson.

Connor designed a sonic gauntlet for use by Jenny. His intricate invention included a tumbler to make locks fall apart, a radioactivity measurer and receiver dish, and a watch that shows the conductivity of metal in a lock. Moffat said that the design was a multi-purpose toolkit that fitted in your arm and could do a whole manner of things: Arthur's design was a sonic lorgnette – a pair of handheld eyeglasses - for Commander Strax. It included an X-ray lens for seeing inside people and objects, a thermal lens for detecting people, and a sonic light. Moffat called it a beautiful design that was perfect for Strax: Amber's winning device for Madame Vastra was a sonic hat pin that works as a remote control for her carriage but can also turn into a sonic sword that increases in size with the flick of a special switch, and Moffat said: In an interview recorded for the show, he said: Vinnicombe told BBC staff magazine Ariel: The winners joined Blue Peter presenters Barney Harwood, Lindsey Russell and Radzi Chinyanganya in Salford and will also be invited to Cardiff to see their devices being used on the Doctor Who set.

A video message of congratulations from actors Dan Starkey, Neve McIntosh and Catrin Stewart, who portray Strax, Vastra and Jenny respectively, was played during the show, with the trio saying they were looking forward to using the new devices in the series.

The winning designs are shown here:


and are also featured, along with the designs that were runners-up, in an online gallery, while the programme is currently available to watch in the UK via the BBC iPlayer (go to 16:44).

Two more pictures from The Time of the Doctor have been released by the BBC, with both of them appearing to show the Doctor - as played by Matt Smith - naked inside the TARDIS.


They were released to media following last night's press screening of the Christmas episode. The event was held at the BFI in London, as tweeted by Doctor Who brand account manager Edward Russell:



The episode - Smith's last as the Doctor - airs on BBC One on Christmas Day at 7.30pm.