Unofficial overnight figures show that Part Two of The Last Sontaranachieved an audience of 0.6 million. The Sarah Jane Adventuresprogramme got a 6.1 per cent share of the audience.

The average is slightly down on the previous week's, probably because the episode had already been shown on CBBC.

Final figures for the BBC1 and CBBC showings will be released by BARB next week.

The Appreciation Index for the episode was 86, putting the programme firmly in the excellent category. It was the highest figure on BBC1 for the day.

According to a post this morning on the Doctor Who Forum from Derek Hambly at Tenth Planet Events, Ian Collierpassed away. Collier was well known to fans as Omega, the renegade Time Lord villain from "Arc of Infinity," a role he later reprised in a special audio appearance for Big Finish Productions, the aptly titled "Omega". Collier also played Stuart Hyde in "The Time Monster" during the Jon Pertwee era, and also appeared in two additional Big Finish audios: as Bernice Summerfield's father Isaac in "Death and the Daleks," and Commisar Erco Sallis in "Excelis Decays" at the behest of the story's writer, the late Craig Hinton. Collier was a popular guest at conventions. He died October 1 due to unspecified causes.

Actress Velile Tshabalala, who plays the character of Rosita in the forthcoming Doctor Who Christmas special The Next Doctor, has given an exclusive interview to the West Sussex Gazette, a local newspaper based in the south of England.

Tshabalala was appearing last weekend at a living history event in Amberley, West Sussex. To publicise it, she spoke to the Gazette's entertainments reporter, Phil Hewitt, and also talked about her role in "The Next Doctor", saying: "I am just so excited about it. We filmed it in April in Cardiff and Gloucester and Monmouth and so it has died down a bit, but now it is getting closer and I just can't wait.

"It is just a one-off Christmas special but out of all the episodes I could have been asked to do it is far better that it is this one."

On the subject of whether she might reappear in future episodes, Tshabalala added: "I would love to do more. At the moment I am just being positive about it, that I did it and that I had a great time. But I would love to be in it again if I can."

She also spoke briefly about her character's role in the episode, information regarding which is included in the spoiler box below.

I have to be very careful what I can say and can't say about it all. You have to bear with me! But she is an East Londoner, very Cockney.

The Doctor is faced with another Doctor. Rosita is the assistant to the other Doctor but as the episode goes on she starts helping the Doctor we know.

Both The Guardian and The Independent newspapers in the UK have today published reviews of Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale, the new book by Russell T Davies and Benjamin Cook.

The Guardian's review is written by Veronica Horwell, who delivers a very positive verdict. "Fifteen chapters of that should be far too much even for us fundamentalist Doc-venerators," she writes. "But it isn't far too much. It's the Doctor Who Annual for adults, and it's not nearly enough, should have been 1001 pages, because Davies doesn't need to be writing fiction, shaping stuff retrieved from the flux of his Great Maybe, to be a storyteller. He's the Scheherazade of Cardiff Bay. He's making this up as he goes along."

The Independent's piece is combined with an interview with Davies, conducted recently at BBC Television Centre. "There's such goodwill towards Doctor Who," Davies comments. "Which makes it much easier for us. It's not like someone really famous will come on and have to play a murdered prostitute, like in Prime Suspect. They have fun and it's seen by kids and that's what really registers with people and means they're up for it."

This year's Flip Animation Festival, held in the city of Wolverhampton, features a special screening of the animated episodes from the 1968 Patrick Troughton story The Invasion.

The episodes were lost but in 2006 they were meticulously reconstructed using audio recorded off-air by fans mixed with newly created animation courtesy of Cosgrove Hall. These animated reconstructions have been warmly received and this is a chance to see them on the big screen.

The screening will be followed by an opportunity to find out more about how and why the animated episodes were commissioned, whether there may be further productions in the future and to meet some of the people responsible for making them. The talk will also highlight the world of Doctor Who fan animation.

Speakers Include

• James Goss, who ran the BBC's Doctor Who website for seven years and as part of this he produced the BBC's first webcasts, and commissioned the Invasion animations. He produced the BBC One animation Doctor Who: The Infinite Quest and has written a Torchwood book.
• Jon Doyle, from Firestep Productions, 2 x Bafta winning Animation Producer/Director/Artist whose work includes the animated series Scream of the Shalka, The Invasion and The Infinite Quest.
• Rob Ritchie, fan animator and producer of a raft of well received Doctor Who clips. Rob is contributor to the Who3d feature film project and he created Doctor Who 3d visuals for the stage play, The Trial of Davros.
The panel will be chaired by Myles McLeod, of animation duo The Brothers Mcleod.

The showing is on November 8th and is scheduled to start at 11.15pm. Please note this is a free event, and places will be allocated on a first come first served basis, so please arrive early to pick up a ticket.

Posted By John Bowman

A talk about the Doctor Who and Torchwood art department is to be given in Cardiff later this year.

This free event, looking at the creative use of locations in Cardiff, will be held at the Millennium Centre on Sunday, December 7 between 6pm and 7pm, and will be followed by a question-and-answer session with production designerEdward Thomas and his team.

Tickets must be booked in advance by calling 08700 40 2000 or visiting the main ticket desk.

The talk will coincide with an exhibition of Doctor Who concept art on Level 2 in the Glanfa foyer of the centre, running from December 5 to January 4.

There's an opportunity to meet the writers behind the new Doctor Who Storybook in London this Saturday, 4th October at 1pm.

James Moran, Keith Temple, Gareth Roberts, Clayton Hickman, Jonathan Morris and Gary Russell will be signing copies of the book at Forbidden Planet, 179 Shaftesbury Avenue.

Entry to the signing is free. Please note that all guests appear subject to work commitments.

Posted By John Bowman

A multi-platform Doctor Who book project called The Darksmith Legacy will be launching next year.

The 10-part collectable series will see the first two books out in January, followed by a new "episode" every month after that.

Published by BBC Children's Books in association with Penguin Books, it will offer the adventure of a book serialisation, complete with cliffhangers, plus interactivity and content only obtainable online.

Book One is entitled The Dust of Ages and is by Justin Richards. Book Two is called The Graves of Mordane, by Colin Brake, while Book Three is The Colour of Darkness, which has been penned by Richard Dungworth. No more titles are known as yet.

People will be able to receive an exclusive preview of The Dust of Ages by visiting www.thedarksmithlegacy.com

The website will not be live until mid-November, although it is hoped that a holding page will be up soon once final approvals are given by the BBC.

More information, from the press release, is given below.