Over the course of this week everybody has had an opinion over who should be the next Doctor, it seems! Debates about whether the next owner of the TARDIS should be played by a woman popped up in several newspapers on Monday, picked up by shows like Lorraine (ITV) and The Wright Stuff (Channel 5). The Daily Star ran a front page item on Paris Jackson (daughter of the late singer Michael) being in the running on Wednesday, and Thursday saw more comment on Russell Howard's Good News (BBC3) and 10 O'Clock Live (Channel 4) - with the latter offering up David Mitchell himself. The ongoing speculation even led to politics show This Week running a Doctor Who-themed introduction. As reported yesterday, star Jenna-Louise Coleman has been inundated by questions as to who it might be, but she replied that "it's going to be a long, long search."

Meanwhile, bookmakers have consistently presented the favourite for the role to be Ben Daniels all week, with the actor's odds hovering around the 2-1 mark (though dropped to evens mid-week). However, a surprise newcomer appeared from Wednesday in the form of Skins and The Thick of It actor Chris Addison (which may have been due to this tweet from Paloma Faith), who has since then remained second favourite at 3-1. The other favourites tend to differ between bookmakers, with David Harwood 7-2 from Ladbrokes, Richard Armitage 37-13 from Betfair, and Chiwetel Ejiofor 10-1 from Coral, 13-1 from Paddy Power, and 16-1 from SkyBet. Of the other favourites reported at the beginning of the week, both Russell Tovey and Rory Kinnear had slipped to a 16-1 average.

For a feminine incarnation, Billie Piper and Jennifer Saunders averaged 25-1, with Sue Perkins (subject of a publicised campaign over the last couple of months) at 33-1, Olivia Coleman between 20-1 (Paddy Power) and 50-1 (Ladbrokes), Helen Mirren between 25-1 (Ladbrokes) and 80-1 (Coral), and Miranda Hart between 33-1 (Paddy Power) and 80-1 (Coral). Odds on a female twelfth Doctor hovers at 7-1 with Paddy Power and Coral), and 5-1 from William Hill (the male odds given by the first two are 1-20 and 1-16 respectively!).

Other names with favourable odds include: Damien Moloney (Being Human) at 14-1, Alexander Vlahos (Merlin) at 16-1, Andrew Scott (Sherlock) at 16-1, Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey) at 16-1/20-1, Daniel Rigby (Eric and Ernie) at 20-1, and James Frain (True Blood) also at 20-1.

Character have launched their new range of 3.75" figures:

Explaining the change of figures from the previous 5" collection, Character said:


In addition to the individual figures, Character have also created two "Timezone Playsets", themed around "Cold War" and "Dalek Invasion":

1983 - In the cold waters of the Southern Arctic Ocean, a Russian submarine returning from patrol takes on board a suspicious cargo, and the Doctor is reunited with one of his oldest foes. [order]

2075AD and the Daleks have invaded Earth once more and the future of the human race hangs in the balance. [order]

Jenna-Louise Coleman was one of the people honoured to speak to the Queen during a visit by the Monarch to the BBC's new Broadcasting House, which she officially opened today. After passing by the resident Dalek, the Queen was then introduced to the actress - next to the TARDIS!

Coleman later spoke to BBC News about her experience:
And did she ask who the next Doctor might be?
The full interview with BBC News can be watched in the United Kingdom via their website.

The BFI is to show the BBC's long-lost behind-the-scenes report on Daleks - Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D. that was recovered last year.

The feature, lasting about five minutes, was originally included in the edition of teen culture programme A Whole Scene Going broadcast on 16th March 1966 and will be shown on the big screen at BFI Southbank on Wednesday 3rd July during a compilation of reports from various productions.

The BFI event is entitled The Location Report and is itself part of the wider Broadcasting The Arts: Television Looks At Film strand being run by the organisation. Tickets go on sale to the public on Tuesday 11th June.

Although the master tape was wiped by the BBC, a copy of this particular edition of A Whole Scene Going ended up as part of a Welsh villager's collection of films that was eventually sold on. A timecoded and watermarked extract from the programme is available to view via the Tim Disney Archive, with the Dalek film report excerpt starting at 1 min 16 sec.

An official Doctor Who online store has been launched in Australia by BBC Worldwide.

Offering more than 400 products and with free delivery across the country, the BBC Worldwide Australia e-commerce site will also have new and exclusive products added to it as soon as they become available.

Items currently include gadgets from vortex manipulators to a nano-recorder injector, clothing from Dalek and TARDIS bathrobes to the Fourth Doctor's 12ft scarf, toys including a talking plush TARDIS, an inflatable Dalek, action figures, and the Adipose stress toy, as well as DVDs.

Other features of the site include the ability to search products by Doctor as well as price bracket, recommendations based on browsing, and the opportunity to sign up to a Doctor Who newsletter. An express delivery service is also available.

The launch of the e-commerce site follows last month's success of the Doctor Who pop-up shop in Newtown, Sydney, which BBC Worldwide said saw fans lining up for more than three hours for the opening day on 9th May. It closed after 25 days, with a lot of the products selling out. Now many of those products are on the new online store.

BBC Worldwide ANZ partnered with C8 Group for the fulfilment operations and customer service. It also designed and built the site in collaboration with C8 Digital.

Elie Mansour, BBC Worldwide ANZ's manager for licensed consumer products, said: Laurie Macolino, the director of C8 Group, added:

Sunday 9th June sees the broadcast of the 1985 Colin Baker story, Vengeance on Varos on Australian and New Zealand television. The story is presented as part of the 50th Anniversary season of Doctor Who on the UKTV channel.

The story screens at 4:30pm in both countries. New Zealand has an additional screening on Monday 10th June at 4:45am.


The UKTV billing describes Vengeance on Varos as follows:

Seeking the rare mineral Zeiton-7 to repair his TARDIS, the Doctor arrives on Varos, a world where political prisoners & their guards are all subjected to sadistic tortures.

Vengeance on Varos was first broadcast in Australia in 1985. New Zealand did not get to see it until 1989. The story was originally screened in Britain as two 45-minute episodes, but was first broadcast in Australia and New Zealand in four parts. The UKTV transmission will feature the two-episode version of the story.

UKTV is showing stories throughout the year in the lead-up to the anniversary in November. Colin Baker's sixth Doctor is the focus of the stories screened during June. The remainder of the schedule includes: The Mark of the Rani (16 June), The Two Doctors (23 June), Revelation of the Daleks (30 June).

Up-and-coming broadcasts from both 20th and 21st Century series of Doctor Who can be found via UKTV's Doctor Who sections for Australia and New Zealand.

(Note: An earlier version of this article reported that New Zealand would receive another showing of Attack of the Cybermen on 9th June. Although the story appeared on the UKTV schedule, it was not screened. Instead the episodes Bad Wolf and The Parting of the Ways were shown.)

Bernard Cribbins will be a guest of Graham Norton on his BBC Radio 2 show on Saturday 8th June.

The veteran actor, who latterly played Wilfred Mott during the Tenth Doctor era but whose link with the show stretches back to 1966 and the film Daleks - Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D., will be talking about both Dalek films of the '60s, which have recently been released on Blu-ray. Cribbins has the unique distinction of being the only actor to have appeared with the Daleks in both the cinema and TV versions of the show.

He is the latest Doctor Who-related guest on the radio programme this year to mark Doctor Who's 50th anniversary and questions - to do with Doctor Who or not - can be submitted via graham.norton@bbc.co.uk

The radio show runs from 10am to 1pm and Cribbins is scheduled to be on air at 12.30pm, but the running order is subject to change. The programme should be available to listen to worldwide via the BBC iPlayer.

UPDATE - SUNDAY 9th JUNE: The interview - which lasts more than 18 minutes - is currently available to listen to via this link. In it, Cribbins reveals there is to be a second series of his CBeebies story-telling show Old Jack's Boat, which also featured fellow former companion actor Freema Agyeman in the first series. In addition, hints are dropped about the radio show marking Doctor Who's 50th anniversary in some way, and Norton pledges that they will involve Cribbins in it.

The writer of the sixth in the Puffin Books series of e-books has been revealed as Richelle Mead, best-selling author of Vampire Academy, Bloodlines, and Age of X series.


Richelle Mead's love of fantasy and science-fiction began at an early age when her father read her Greek mythology and her brothers made her watch Flash Gordon. She went on to study folklore and religion at the University of Michigan, and, when not writing, Richelle spends her time drinking lots of coffee, keeping up with reality TV, and collecting 1980s T-shirts. Richelle lives with her family in Seattle in the USA.

Mead commented:

A video of the author will be released on YouTube by BBC Worldwide later in the month, with the book itself coming out on the 23rd June. You can also read an extract from the book via the Guardian.


The author can be found online via her website www.richellemead.com or on Twitter at @richellemead.

Germany will become the latest country to enjoy the latest series of Doctor Who, with entertainment channel FOX premiering "Series Seven Part Two" on Wednesdays at 8:15pm, kicking off on Wednesday 12th June with Die Glocken von Saint John. The episode will also be repeated later in the evening at 1:15am and Sundays at 8:15pm.


The series will be preceded by an evening of repeats of the first half of the series this coming weekend, with Der Dalek in Dir at 8:15pm, Dinos Im All at 9:05pm, Wilder Westen at 9:55pm, Zusammengewürfelt at 10:40pm and Die Macht Des Wortes at 11:25pm. The evening is finished off with the 2012 Christmas Special, Die Schneemänner at 12:10am.

Further details can be found from the FOX website and This Week in Doctor Who.

The question over who would take on Doctor Who's visual effects in the future was answered today with the announcement of a new company formed by the same creative team that worked on the show's previous series. Milk's founders are Nick Drew (Managing Director and Executive Producer), with Visual Effects Supervisors Jean-Claude Deguara and Nico Hernandez (also joint Heads of 3D), Sara Bennett (also Head of 2D), and Murray Barber, with Executive Producer and overall CEO of the company being a name and face familiar to fans through Doctor Who Confidential, Will Cohen.

Cohen released a statement about the company's aim:

As mentioned above, Doctor Who will be one of the first customers for the new effects company, with work being undertaken on the 3D 50th Anniversary Special. The company is also working on Steven Moffat's eagerly anticipated third series of Sherlock, and a new BBC One mini-series Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (due to be broadcast in 2014).

A showreel of their previous work can be viewed on the company's website.