The BBC has released figures on the performance of Series 8 of Doctor Who, the first series with Peter Capaldi taking up the role of The Doctor.

The series had an average consolidated audience of 7.4m viewers every week in the UK. This an increase of 39% on the initial overnight figures reported the day after broadcast. The 9.2m average audience that watched Deep Breath, Peter Capaldi's debut episode, is the highest figure for a non-special episode (Christmas/50th anniversary) since the opening episode of series 5 (Matt Smith’s debut) in 2010. These figures show how Doctor Who has consistently achieved big audiences across the last three series – series 7a/7b combined had an average consolidated audience of 7.4m, series 6a/6b attracted 7.5m and series 5 was viewed by 7.3m.

There has been over 18.9m requests to watch Doctor Who series 8 on BBC iPlayer - an average of 1.6m requests for each of the 12 episodes.

In the US, consolidated figures for the first 10 episodes have seen Series 8 experience a 23% uplift in total audience in Live+7 on Series 7. The series 8 premiere was the show’s highest-rated series premiere ever on BBC America, and is the first BBC Worldwide series ever to simultaneously hold the #1 slot in the Main TV Season Charts across all major Electronic Sell-through platforms in the US within 48 hours of episode 1’s release on August 24th 2014.

In Canada, on the Space channel, the first 10 episodes of Series 8 have seen a 22% uplift in consolidated audience size on Series 7.

Steven Moffat, lead writer and executive producer said:Danny Cohen, Director of BBC Television added:Doctor Who Extra, which offers viewers a behind the scenes look at making one of the nation's best loved dramas has had 1.3m BBC iPlayer requests and reached 2.4m people on BBC Red Button to date.

Bellmedia PR have released a statement over how the new series of Doctor Who has been received in Canada.

A meeting is being held this Saturday in Vancouver, Canada to gauge the interest in having a convention in the area in late 2015. Who Party West III in 1990 was the last time a Doctor Who convention was held in Vancouver and organisers from that event have come together again to try and kick-start a new convention for fans. More details about the informational meeting can be found at vancouverdoctorwhoconvention.wordpress.com.

Having already been reported as the best performing episode on Canadian channel SPACE this year, BellMedia have now announced that new series premiere Deep Breath has become the second-most watched broadcast on the channel of all time - beaten only by another episode of Doctor Who, the 50th Anniversary special The Day of the Doctor.

Viewers tuned into Canadian channel Space in record numbers on Saturday night where the debut of Peter Capaldi as the Twelfth Time Lord, Deep Breath, delivered 805,000 viewers, making it the number 1 program of the day on all of television among the key A25-54 and A18-49 demographic, and the most-watched Space episode this broadcast-year-to-date, reaching nearly 1.4 million viewers overall.

On Twitter, #DoctorWho garnered more than 5,000 tweets on Saturday, creating an estimated 6.5 million estimated impressions on the social media platform in Canada. Throughout the day, multiple Doctor Who related topics appeared in the Top 10 trending list.

Fans in Canada will be able to watch Deep Breath on the big screen in participating cinemas across the country via Cineplex. The new Doctor's first adventure (and its associated cinema extras) will be shown twice during the week after its premiere on television, with presentations on Monday 25th August at 7:30pm and on Saturday 30th August at 12:55pm.

A full list of cinemas can be found on the Cineplex website, where you can also book tickets.

Canadian broadcaster SPACE have now confirmed that they will be showing the series premiere Deep Breath at 8:00pm Eastern time (5:00pm Pacific).


The currently confirmed broadcasts for the episode are:

Country	Channel	Date	Time
United Kingdom	BBC One	23 August	time tbc
Germany	FOX	23 August	9:00pm (European)
United States	BBC America	23 August	8:00pm (Eastern)
Canada	SPACE	23 August	8:00pm (Eastern)
Australia	ABC1	24 August	time tbc

It has also been indicated that BBC Worldwide's Entertainment channels will also broadcast the premiere close to its UK debut, though this has yet to be confirmed. Certainly, the Doctor Who World Tour is taking in the Asia Pacific and Latin America regions, with the latter regularly reminding its viewers of the launch date via their Facebook page.

Titan Comics have declared 26th July as Doctor Who Comics Day, to celebrate the release of the new range of comics based on the adventures of the Tenth and Eleventh Doctor.

July 23 sees the release of the new ongoing series, which Titan hope to make the biggest Doctor Who comics launch in recent times. To celebrate the company is inviting Doctor Who fans and comic readers to join in with the celebrations.

Doctor Who Comics Day will give fans the chance to celebrate everything Doctor Who with signings, events, special variant covers and promotions in stores and at shows in the U.S.A, Canada, U.K. Australia and New Zealand.

Full details will be released next week.

You can follow Titan Comics on Twitter at @ComicsTitan.

Doctor Who has won two awards at the 35th Banff World Media Festival which took place in Canada over the last three days.

The series was awarded the Rockie Award for Best Science Fiction, Action, and Fantasy as well as getting the prize for Best Scripted Programme, just beating The Big Bang Theory.

The awards jury comprises a large number of media and television executives from around the world.

Short stories are being sought for an unofficial Doctor Who anthology that will raise money for charity.

The Vancouver-based outfit Pencil Tip Publishing is bringing out The Temporal Logbook, featuring original Doctor Who fiction by new and upcoming writers. The stories will involve the first 11 Doctors - by this it means as portrayed by William Hartnell through to Matt Smith and not including The War Doctor - in a series of adventures across space and time. All proceeds will go to the Positive Living Society of British Columbia, which is dedicated to empowering people who have HIV/Aids.
The deadline for submissions is midnight Pacific Daylight Time on Saturday 28th June. They should be between 3,000 and 7,500 words, in English, and not have been published elsewhere already. Stories should be sent for consideration via e-mail to penciltippublishing@shaw.ca. The same address can be used for queries as well.

Authors must submit just one story at a time, and must also include a covering letter that includes their full name, age, e-mail address, home address, story word count, and story title. In addition, people should include a brief biography about themselves as well as their publishing history plus any other relevant information.

Full submission guidelines are detailed here, and the FAQs page is here.

The Temporal Logbook will feature one story per Doctor, and the successful authors will each receive one complimentary copy of it. Pencil Tip says that it is "tentatively aiming" to publish the book in late-2014.

Yesterday, it was announced that the editors of the compendium will be Rob Mammone, Bob Furnell and Jez Strickley.