Today at 7:00pm GMT, Doctor Who fans (and anybody else who wants to join in!) all around the world are invited to join in a special global viewing of the 50th Anniversary Doctor Who adventure, The Day Of The Doctor!

Organised by Doctor Who Magazine writer, Emily Cook, the idea is to bring some cheer during the current global pandemic by fans watching episodes simultaneously and sharing their views together as the stories unfold. Back in 2013, The Day Of The Doctor achieved a world record for the number of viewers globally, and this story has been chosen to kick off this new shared experience, using the hashtag that promoted the anniversary, #SaveTheDay.


If successful, further shared viewing days could follow, with provisional ideas including the 21st Century Doctor Who premiere Rose on 26th March to celebrate its 15th anniversary, and the eleventh Doctor opener The Eleventh Hour on 3rd April in celebration of its 10th anniversary!

The biggest Doctor Who Classic collection ever streamed in the UK comes to BritBox in the UK from Boxing Day.

From 26th December, 627 pieces of Doctor Who Classic content will be available on the service. This tally is comprised of a mix of episodes, spin-offs, documentaries, telesnaps and more and includes many rarely-seen treasures. Subscribers will be able to access this content via web, mobile, tablet, connected TVs and Chromecast.

BritBox is the digital video subscription service created by the BBC and ITV. The service aims to bring the very best in past, present and future British programming and award-winning content to viewers all in one place for £5.99 per month in HD. It launched in the United States in 2017 and the United Kingdom last November.

129 complete stories, which totals 558 episodes spanning the first eight Doctors from William Hartnell to Paul McGann, form the backbone of the collection.

The collection also includes four complete stories; The Tenth Planet, The Moonbase, The Ice Warriors and The Invasion, which feature a combination of original content and animation and total 22 episodes. The unaired story entitled Shada which was originally presented as six episodes (but has been uploaded as a 130 minute special), brings this total to 28.

A further two complete, solely animated stories - The Power Of The Daleks and The Macra Terror (presented in HD) - add 10 episodes.

Five orphaned episodes - The Crusade (2 parts), Galaxy 4, The Space Pirates and The Celestial Toymaker - bring the total up to 600. Doctor Who: The Movie, An Unearthly Child: The Pilot Episode and An Adventure In Space And Time will also be available on the service, in addition to The Underwater Menace, The Wheel In Space and The Web Of Fear which have been completed via telesnaps. Spin-off drama K-9 And Company, and documentaries More Than 30 Years In The TARDIS and Doctor Who: Doctors Revisited complete the collection.

BritBox will also be curating special Doctor Who Classic collections, including ‘New to Who’, featuring one key episode from each of the first seven Doctors as an introduction to the uninitiated. Further collections will be devoted to the most memorable monsters, with Cybermen, Daleks, The Master and Sontaran each getting the limelight. Regeneration episodes have also been collated.

Boxing Day also marks the start of a longer-term collaboration with the BBC, with a shared vision of making BritBox the ultimate home of Doctor Who Classic content in 2020 and beyond, and ensuring the widest collection of content available is presented in the best possible format and quality.

Reemah Sakaan, Group Director ITV SVOD, commented: Sally de St Croix, Franchise Director for Doctor Who at BBC Studios added

SPACE have confirmed when they will be showing the New Year's Day special, Resolution:

Doctor Who Magazine has confirmed that this year's Christmas Special of Doctor Who will be shown on New Year's Day 2019.

The change is a radical change for the series which has been part of the Christmas Day schedule since the series returned in 2005. The series peaked in 2007 when Kylie Minogue joined the Tenth Doctor in Voyage of the Damned watched by 13.3 million viewers. Last year's Christmas special, Twice Upon A Time, marking the departure of Peter Capaldi as The Doctor, was watched by 7.92 million.

The episode to be shown on New Year's Day will mark the end of Jodie Whittaker's first season as The Doctor. The last episode to be shown on New Year's Day was the second part of The End of Time in 2010 where it had 12.27 million viewers.

A number of new publicity images to promote this week's episode of Doctor Who, The Tsuranga Conundrum

Episode 5 Trailer | The Tsuranga Conundrum | Doctor Who

This episode will debut on BBC One at 7.00pm.

Main Broadcast Details
United Kingdom	BBC One	Sunday 4th November	7.00pm BST
United States of America	BBC America	Sunday 4th November	8.00pm EDT
Canada	SPACE	Sunday 4th November	8.00pm EDT
Australia	ABC	Monday 5th November	6.00pm AEST

Full listings here

The BBC has released details of Doctor Who Episodes Five and Six

Press reaction to the new season of Doctor Who is overwhelmingly positive with Jodie Whittaker winning many plaudits for her first full episode as the Thirteenth Doctor

The Independent led the praise for the lead actress's performance. " After all the hype, hyperbole and inevitable internet hate, she acquits herself wonderfully in her full-length debut. Whittaker is a force of breezy nature – rambunctious, quirky but with a reassuringly familiar aura of Gallifreyan uncanniness."

The Guardian loved the interaction between the main characters. "The new Doctor and her team – 19-year-old Ryan, his old schoolmate turned police probationer Yasmin, and Ryan’s step-grandfather Graham (Tosin Cole, Mandip Gill and Bradley Walsh respectively) – have heart and soul, and are set against a comforting background of West Yorkshire women – especially Ryan’s nan – talking common sense as alien life and electrical pulses erupt around them."

Whittaker was also praised by the Telegraph who said the actress shined in a flawed but fun Doctor Who debut. "There has been a depressingly predictable knee-jerk backlash to a time-travelling, body-regenerating extraterrestrial with two hearts having the temerity to be female but this debut adventure barrelled straight past such quibbles. After mere minutes of the Doctor’s arrival – crashing through the roof of a train in Sheffield, having fallen from the Tardis at the climax of the Christmas special – you stopped noticing"

Digital Spy was sure Jodie Whittaker's Doctor is going to be everybody's new hero, and noted how her sex is irrelevant. "For all the buzz, positive and negative, that surrounded Whittaker's casting as the first female Doctor, what her first few scenes make abundantly clear is how unimportant the character's gender really is. It's completely and utterly incidental, a point which 'The Woman Who Fell to Earth' makes not through words – the transition from old to new is discussed no more here than it has been in previous Doctor's debuts – but through actions."

Den of Geek says series 11 premiere finds Doctor Who in rude health. "Whittaker certainly makes an impact in her opening scene - quite literally, as she falls through the roof of the train and meets her new companions. The script cleverly wastes no time in having her do some proper ‘Doctor business’ - fending off an alien, casually dismissing a death in favour of the mystery at hand and persuading police officer Yas not to call for reinforcements. Whittaker shines pretty quickly in these scenes, and has every bit of the quiet intensity of her predecessors."

Variety felt the episode fulfilled a difficult brief. "Striking the right balance has been a tall order for any new Doctor and showrunner to take on, as several pairs have done over the last decade, but the level of difficulty this particular team had to master is arguably the highest yet. That’s why it’s so impressive that “The Woman Who Fell to Earth” is, for the most part, an extremely typical episode of “Doctor Who."

NPR loved the characterisation of The Doctor "With her rich Northern accent (the actress was born in Yorkshire), Whittaker's Doctor isn't posh or effete — no bow ties or fezzes for her. Instead, she radiates pragmatism (if pragmatism is a thing that can radiate) and a decidedly middle-class, we're-all-in-this-together enthusiasm."

Finally, the Los Angeles Times says Doctor Who returns in thrilling fashion. "The new Doctor has both authority and energy; she is playful yet mature, a little mad but not manic, funny and agile and perhaps will turn out a shade less judgmental than some of her predecessors. Chibnall has given Whittaker a lighter brief: “I’m the Doctor,” she declares, “sorting out fair play throughout the universe.” And later, in that soft Yorkshire accent, “Sometimes I see things that need fixin’ and do what I can.”

The Doctor Who News review can be found on our reviews site.

The BBC has confirmed that Doctor Who will debut in the UK at 6.45pm on Sunday 7th October.

The first episode of the new series, The Woman Who Fell To Earth, will run from 6.45pm-7.45pm on BBC One, bringing the series to the heart of Sunday evening.

Doctor Who will air directly after Countryfile, which is watched by between 4 and 6 million viewers each week. It will be followed by Strictly Come Dancing - The Results where the public voting for the BBC One dance show will be revealed to the public.

ITV will be offering a game show in opposition, 5 Gold Rings presented by Philip Schofield. BBC Two will be showing King Arthur's Britain: The Truth Unearthed a new documentary delving into the murky historical period of the Arthurian legends, while on Channel 4 viewers can enjoy Phil Spencer's Stately Homes, where the property expert returns to look round more of Britain's stately homes, beginning with Longleat House in Wiltshire. Channel 5 is showing the 2013 feature film Jack the Giant Slayer.

BBC America has confirmed the episode will be simulcast with UK showing, making a transmission time of 1.45pm ET

The BBC has confirmed that the new series of Doctor Who will debut in the UK and the US on Sunday 7th October.

The move to Sunday evenings is a radical change for the series, which has been seen in the UK on Saturday nights since its return in 2005. The only previous times the series has been shown on a Sunday was for three episodes shown on Christmas Day and the autumn special, The Waters of Mars.

The switch means that Doctor Who will avoid direct competition with the ITV talent show The X Factor. No timeslot has been confirmed but the series is likely to be shown early evening along with the Strictly Come Dancing Results show.

BBC America has confirmed the first episode will be screened in the United States at the same time it is shown in the UK, meaning the series will debut in the early afternoon. The rest of the series will be seen in the usual prime-time evening slot.

Chris Chibnall, Showrunner said Charlotte Moore, Director of BBC Content said: Showrunner Chris Chibnall has written the first episode of the brand new series which is titled “The Woman Who Fell to Earth”.

TVNZ have announced that they have the rights to show the new series of Doctor Who in New Zealand when it premieres later this year. The announcement was heralded by the 40 second teaser trailer being broadcast simultaneously across TVNZ 1, TVNZ 2 and DUKE in the lead in to the evening’s 6pm programming.



TVNZ Director of Content, Cate Slater, said:

Irene Read, Director of Content Sales for BBC Studios in Australia and New Zealand, says:

The series is expected to air in New Zealand within the same week as the UK, but will be streamed by the channel via TVNZ OnDemand immediately following the UK broadcast.


TVNZ was the first channel to broadcast Doctor Who outside of the United Kingdom, airing An Unearthly Child in September 1964. finally ending its original association with the show with the transmission of The TV Movie in 1999. Since the show's return in 2005 it has been broadcast by Prime.