The BBC has announced that the next season of Doctor Who to be released on Blu-ray is Season Fifteen first broadcast in 1977. 

The seven-disc box set stars Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor alongside Louise Jameson as Leela.  

This limited-edition set contains six classic stories packed with hours of new and exclusive material.
 

These stories include the character of trusty robot dog K9, voiced by John Leeson and builds to an epic showdown on the Time Lords’ home planet Gallifrey with the Doctor pitted against his old adversaries the Sontarans.

All episodes have been newly remastered from the best available sources – these classic adventures have never looked or sounded so good on home media.

The Collection: Season 15 Blu-ray box set also includes extensive Special Features including:

• UPDATED SPECIAL EFFECTS
  Exclusive to Blu-ray, on Horror Of Fang Rock.
• BEHIND THE SOFA
  New episodes with Louise Jameson (Leela), Colin Baker (The Doctor), Sarah Sutton (Nyssa), Janet Fielding (Tegan), Matthew Waterhouse (Adric), Katy Manning (Jo Grant),  Betsan Roberts (wife of director Pennant Roberts) and comedian and presenter Toby Hadoke.
• BLU-RAY TRAILER
  A brand-new scripted trailer to announce the Season 15 Boxset of Doctor Who.
• DARKNESS AND LIGHT
  A look at the life and career of producer Graham Williams.
• IN CONVERSATION
  Interviewer Matthew Sweet chats to Louise Jameson.
• INSIDE THE LIGHTHOUSE
  Making Horror Of Fang Rock.
• TOM TALKS
  Tom Baker muses on life, the universe and everything.
• AUDIO COMMENTARIES
  Exclusive new Audio Commentaries from Tom Baker.
• 5.1 SURROUND SOUND MIX
  On Horror Of Fang Rock.
• RARE CONVENTION FOOTAGE
• TOM BAKER BLACKPOOL EXHIBITION LINKS
• RARE ARCHIVE TREATS
• HD PHOTO GALLERIES
• INFO TEXT
• PDF ARCHIVE
• PLUS LOTS MORE!

This seven-disc box set also includes hours of special features previously released on DVD including Documentaries, Updated Special Effects, Featurettes, Audio Commentaries and more.

The set is available to preorder on Amazon. 

Leela vs the Time War | The Collection: Season 15 Announcement Trailer
Even a warrior as brave as Leela knows when it's time to leave the battlefield... 💥 #DoctorWho: The Collection returns with Season 15, the Fourth Doctor's fourth season, as the next Blu-ray release

Doctor Who: The Church On Ruby Road.had an official 7-day rating of 7.49 million viewers. 

The episode was the third most-watched programme on British television for the week ending 31st December 2023.

The only programmes to beat Doctor Who was the New Year's Eve Fireworks and the Christmas Day edition of the drama Call the Midwife. 

ITV's highest-rated programme was the drama Vera with 5.71 million watching. The BBC had all 10 places in the weekly Top Ten. 

Doctor Who was watched by 41.4% of the total viewing public. It had an Audience appreciation figure of 82. 

Doctor Who Magazine Issue 599 is out today.

In this issue:

• An exclusive double interview with Ncuti Gatwa and David Tennant – talking about bi-generation.

• An access-all-areas look at the making of the Anniversary Specials finale The Giggle.

• Production designer Phil Sims takes us on a guided tour of the new TARDIS.

• Sonic disruptors! The making of the Fifteenth Doctor’s sonic screwdriver.

• A profile of new companion Ruby Sunday.

• Join Blue Peter competition winner Verity on a tour of Doctor Who’s Wolf Studios.

• We talk to the people who worked on post-production on the latest episodes.

• Script editor Scott Handcock relives the anniversary month in his Production Diary.

• Crowd Sourcing – the concluding part of our feature on the life of extras on 60s Doctor Who.

• Letter from the Showrunner – Russell T Davies explains how the Gallifrey of the Fugutive Doctor was foreshadowed in 70s episode The Hand of Fear – now available on iPlayer.

• Sophie Aldred – aka 80s companion Ace – remembers her time on the show.

• The Fact of Fiction – we scrutinise Eleventh Doctor mid-series finale A Good Man Goes To War.

• A brand-new comic strip featuring the Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby Sunday!

PLUS!

• Gallifrey Guardian – all the latest official news.

• A new-look reviews section – covering radio, books, soundtracks, and audio dramas.

• Other Worlds – the essential guide to new stories in Doctor Who’s expanded universe.

• Win a copy of the Anniversary Specials Blu-ray, the new Target adaptations and the latest audio releases.

Doctor Who Magazine Issue 599 is on sale Thursday 4 January from panini.co.uk and WH Smith priced £7.99 (UK). 

Also available as a digital edition from pocketmags.com priced £6.99

Toby Hadoke has published his annual memoriam of those who have delighted us both in front of and behind the scenes of Doctor Who and its extended worlds, who sadly passed away in 2023.

Doctor Who In Memoriam 2023
Remembering those whom we lost from the worlds of Doctor Who this year. Includes a small number from before 2023 whose deaths only came to light this year.

The actor Richard Franklin, who played Captain Mike Yates in 43 episodes of Doctor Who, has died at the age of 87.

As one of the UNIT personnel, Franklin was a key character in the team which developed in the third Doctor era, led by Jon Pertwee, as a sidekick to Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and a love interest for Jo Grant. 

Richard Franklin made his debut as Mike Yates in the eighth series of Doctor Who, appearing in four of the series' five stories, Terror of the Autons, The Mind of Evil, The Claws of Axos and the story often designated as a favourite by members of the cast The Dæmons. 

The character was back in the following year appearing in Day of the Daleks and The Time Monster before returning in the last three episodes of series 10, The Green Death

In Pertwee's final season, the character of Yates found himself on the opposite side to the Doctor in Invasion of the Dinosaurs believing in a project to return the earth to a golden age. His final appearance in Planet of the Spiders saw the characters' redemption.

Richard Franklin died early on Christmas morning after a long illness. His death was announced by family friend Liam Rudden on Social Media

Richard Franklin was born in Marylebone, London, on 15 January 1936. He was educated at Westminster School and Oxford University before training as an actor at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. 

His early work was in the theatre where he spent six years in repertory theatre. His break into television came in 1969 when he was cast as Joe Townsend in the soap opera Crossroads, appearing in thirty-six episodes. 

Other roles included parts in Dixon of Dock Green, The Saint, Little Women, The Borgias and Blake's 7

He returned to Doctor Who in audio productions for BBC Audio and Big Finish and made a cameo in the 20th Anniversary story The Five Doctors.

Katy Manning, who played Jo Grant in the series was a good friend and collogue of Franklin, paid tribute on x.

After some six years Doctor Who has returned to Christmas Day, which of course makes it a candidate for being the most watched show on the day!

Though it is unlikely to make the top slot tomorrow - the King's Speech is almost certainly going to have that honour owing to its simultaneous showing across the major broadcasters - the bookies seem to generally agree that The Church On Ruby Road might well be the second-most watched programme of the day at 6-1! This is followed up by Call The Midwife at 8-1, and both Eastenders and Strictly Come Dancing at 9-1. ITV1 shows include Coronation Street at 16-1 and Emmerdale at 25-1.

Of course with six years between Christmas Specials, it's been six years since our ratings competition for Christmas Day, and this year you can win a copy of The Church On Ruby Road on Blu-ray or DVD. To enter, simply email us at comp-ratings@doctorwhonews.net with your name and the consolidated one week figure you expect the episode to achieve, as reported by BARB early next year.

Please specify the number in millions to 3 decimal places, for example 6.848m as achieved by The Giggle at the start of the month. For guidance, the highest rated non-King's speech programme last year was 7.814m achieved by Call The Midwife, who also took the 'silver crown' in 2021 with 7.831m.

The competition is open to UK residents, the closing date is Tuesday 26 December at 8:00am.

Doctor Who continues on Christmas Day with the first full story for the Fifteenth Doctor Ncuti Gatwa.

The Church on Ruby Road can be seen on BBC One in the United Kingdom at 5.55pm.

It will be released on Disney+ and the BBC iPlayer at the same time.

The Church on Ruby Road also features Millie Gibson as Ruby Sunday, Anita Dobson as Mrs Flood and Davina McCall as herself.

It is written by Russell T Davies and directed by Mark Tonderai for Bad Wolf Productions and BBC Studios.

Doctor Who: The Giggle had an official 7-day rating of 6.85 million viewers according to the research board BARB.

The official rating includes those who recorded the programme and watched it within a week.

The rating made the episode the 10th most-watched programme on British television for the week. All three of the 60th Anniversary specials appeared in the Top Ten for the week.

The top-rated show was the Saturday broadcast of Strictly Come Dancing with the Sunday results show taking second position. 

I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here occupied positions 3-9 in the top ten. 

The Appreciation Index, a measure of how much the audience enjoyed the episode, was 85.

Doctor Who Christmas special, The Church on Ruby Road, is now available to pre-order on DVD and Blu-ray and as a TARGET novelisation.  

The Church on Ruby Road will see the Fifteenth Doctor Ncuti Gatwa take control of the TARDIS and meet a new companion Ruby Sunday, played by Millie Gibson.  

Alongside Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson is Davina McCall who will be playing herself as she joins the cast alongside Michelle Greenidge as Ruby’s mum Carla, Angela Wynter as Ruby’s grandmother  Cherry and Anita Dobson as Mrs Flood. 

Doctor Who’s Christmas special, The Church on Ruby Road, airs December 25th at 5.55pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer, and streams on Disney+ globally outside of the UK and Ireland. 

Fans can pre-order the DVD and Blu-ray here 

As well as the DVD and Blu-ray, BBC Books will be publishing a novelisation of  The Church on Ruby Road under the TARGET imprint. Russell T Davies' original script has been novelised by up-and-coming literary talent Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson.

Jikiemi-Pearson is a science-fantasy author and co-founder of the organisation Impact of Omission, as featured in the Guardian, Huffpost, and the Channel 4 Documentary "Where's My History?" with footballer and anti-racism campaigner Troy Deeney.

An audio version of the novel will be available read by Angela Wynter

The Church on Ruby Road (BBC Books, £14.99) is out in hardback on 25th January 2024. Pre-order here

Doctor Who: Wild Blue Yonder has a 7-day official rating of 7.14 million viewers according to the research board BARB.

The official rating includes those who recorded the programme and watched it within a week.

The rating made the episode the 9th most-watched programme on British television for the week, 

The top-rated show was the Saturday broadcast of Strictly Come Dancing, however unlike last week Doctor Who had more viewers than the Sunday results show, possibly because there was no eviction this week.  

I'm a Celebrity occupied positions 2-8 in the top ten. 

The Appreciation Index, a measure of how much the audience enjoyed the episode, was 83.

The final episode or the Fourteenth Doctor trilogy, The Giggle, had an overnight rating of 4.62 million. Its Appreciation Index was 85.