William Hughes, the actor who played the Master as a young boy, has died at the age of 20.

William Hughes played The Master in the 2007 story The Sound of Drums. At the age of eight, he was the youngest actor to play the renegade Time Lord. He also appeared in the 2008 Torchwood story Sleeper.

Hughes, from Mumbles in Swansea, Wales, gave up acting shortly after appearing in Doctor Who. His interests turned to Boxing, joining the Bonymaen ABC boxing gym in Swansea.

Fighting for the club he won 3 Welsh titles, before winning gold and bronze at the Great Britain championships. He won Gold at the 2017/18 British Universities and Colleges Sports Championships.

He was described as tremendously talented by former World Champion boxer Enzo Maccarinelli, who mentored the young athlete. Hughes studied at Bishop Vaughan Catholic School in Swansea, where he was described as an exceptionally talented sportsman. Hughes had just completed he first year of a finance degree at Queen Mary University in London. It is believed he died on 9th July while on holiday on the Greek island of Corfu. A spokesman for the Foreign & Commonwealth Office confirmed their staff were supporting the family of a British man following his death in Corfu and were in contact with the Greek and UK police.

BBC Worldwide have announced that Series Three of the revived series of Doctor Who will be the latest to receive the blu-ray Steelbook treatment, with the release due on 7th May. The three-disc set features HD-upscaled episodes of the series plus the extras originally released with the 2007 DVD collection.

The exploits of the Tenth Doctor are coming to Disney XD in North America, from Saturday, May 9.

Disney XD, which is home to top-rated action adventure programming including Lucasfilm's Star Wars Rebels and Marvel Television's animated series, has picked up Doctor Who Series 2 to 4, starring David Tennant as the Doctor.

The series will begin st 9:00 p.m., ET/PT with a preview airing of New Earth following the Disney XD premiere of Fantastic Four. In "New Earth," the Doctor and Rose board the TARDIS for new adventures in time and space. But when they visit mankind’s new home, far in the future, they find gruesome secrets hidden inside a luxury hospital. And an enemy thought long since dead, the paper-thin Cassandra, is out for revenge.

Season Two, "Adventures in time and space," will continue to rollout on Disney XD beginning Saturday, June 13. The special week-long programming event will give fans eight episodes airing daily Saturday, June 13 through Saturday, June 20. Beginning June 14, episodes will also be available on the WATCH Disney XD app, which allows consumers to watch on tablets, phones, computers and connected TVs.

Marc Buhaj, Senior Vice President, Programming and General Manager, Disney XD said, Matt Forde, EVP Sales & Co-productions, TV, BBC Worldwide North America added

BBC Worldwide has announced a new collaboration with content distribution service BitTorrent to mark a decade of new Doctor Who.

To celebrate ten years since the series reboot, the file sharing network will be offering a ten story box set featuring specially selected highlights from the modern era of Doctor Who for $12 globally.

The package will include exclusive video content from incumbent Doctor Peter Capaldi who gives his insight into some of his favourite Doctor Who episodes as well as Doctor Who: Earth Conquest – the documentary about the 2014 global tour which saw Capaldi and companion Jenna Coleman travel the world to meet their fans.

Julia Kenyon, Director of Drama Brands, BBC Worldwide comments: Matt Mason, Chief Content Officer at BitTorrent adds: The ten story box set will be available globally to stream or download from the BitTorrent Website.

The $12 Download / Stream Package includes

• Series 1: Rose
• Series 1: The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances
• Series 2: The Girl in the Fireplace
• Series 3: Blink
• Series 4: Special - The End of Time (Parts 1 & 2)
• Series 5: The Vampires of Venice
• Series 6: The Doctor’s Wife
• Series 7: The Rings of Akhaten
• 50th Anniversary special: The Day of the Doctor
• Series 8: Listen

BBC Three finished its countdown of Doctor Who: Greatest Monsters & Villains on Sunday evening with the top three Monsters and Villains as voted for by viewers to the channel.

The format featured a three-minute potted history of the featured villain, followed by the screening of an appropriate episode of Doctor Who. Coming in at number 3 was the Master and a screening of the 2007 story Utopia. The episode had an overnight viewing figure of 0.51 million viewers, a 1.9% share of the total audience.

At number two were the Weeping Angels, the episode the 2007 story which introduced the Angels Blink. It was watched by 0.66 million, a 2.4% share.

Finally for the series, at number 1 were the show's longest-running villains the Daleks. The episode shown was the 2005 story which introduced the menace to a whole new generation of fans, the Christopher Eccleston story Dalek. It was watched by an average 0.69 million viewers, a 2.6% share. BBC Three was the highest-watched digital channel during the transmission of the series.

Doctor Who has overwhelmingly won the vote held by See Saw and as a result the entire Series One of Doctor Who will be available  to rent from  their website from Tuesday 28th September for 99p. Although the series needs to be purchased today, viewers then have up to 90 days to watch the series.

Because the competition was so popular, SeeSaw, has announced a second Tight Tuesday promotion, just for readers of The Doctor Who News Page.

Voting will be between Doctor Who Series 2, Doctor Who Series 3 and Doctor Who Series 4.
It was intended to have Torchwood as the fourth option, but this has had to be removed due to admin reasons. Instead the three Doctor Who Series are up against Series One of Battlestar Galactica.

Votes need to be made at www.seesaw.com/gallifrey.

The commentary track for The Last of the Time Lords featuring David Tennant, Freema Agyeman, and John Barrowman, is currently available for download from BBC America. The track was available on the Region 2 release of the Series Three DVD set, but was left off of the Region 1 release due to rights issues. There is also a feature on the site that will allow fans to run the commentary in sync to the episode as it airs on April 19th.

Steven Moffat has been nominated in the Best Writer category at the BAFTA Craft Awards for his work on Doctor Who, it has been announced. The British Academy of Film and Television Arts will be hosting the ceremony on May 11th. The awards honour those who work behind-the-scenes in the television industry, and composer Murray Gold is also nominated for his work on Doctor Who.

Moffat's competition consists of Jimmy McGovern (for The Street), Tony Marchant (The Mark of Cain) and Heidi Thomas (Cranford). Doctor Who also receives nominations in the categories of Interactive Fiction Contribution, Sound (Fiction / Entertainment) and Visual Effects.

Doctor Who has received two nominations and Torchwood one nomination for the prestigious Hugo awards.

The Hugo Awards are given every year by members of Worldcon, the World Science Fiction Convention, and have been presented since 1953.

The full list of nominations in the Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form category are.

• Doctor Who - Human Nature/Family of Blood, written by Paul Cornell and directed by Charles Palmer
• Doctor Who - Blink, written by Steven Moffat and directed by Hettie Macdonald
• Torchwood - Captain Jack Harkness, written by Catherine Tregenna and directed by Ashley Way
• Battlestar Galactica - Razor, written by Michael Taylor and directed by Félix Enríquez Alcalá and Wayne Rose
• Star Trek New Voyages - World Enough and Time written by Michael Reaves & Marc Scott Zicree and directed by Marc Scott Zicree

This is the third year running that Steven Moffat has been nominated for the award, having won in 2006 for The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances and in 2007 for The Girl in the Fireplace. Paul Cornell was previously nominated in 2006 for Father's Day.

The Winners will be announced at Denvention 3 in Denver, Colorado in August.

Thanks to Jason Snell

The script for the 2007 Doctor Who episode "Blink" by Steven Moffat has been placed on the preliminary ballot for the Nebula Awards. The Nebula Awards are awarded yearly by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) for the best science fiction written in the previous two years, using a system of "rolling eligibility". Moffat was nominated last year for his script for "The Girl in the Fireplace", but lost to the Hayao Miyazakianimated film "Howl's Moving Castle".

This year, the other entries for Best Script are the screenplays for the films "Children of Men", "The Prestige", "Pan's Labrynth" and "V for Vendetta"; an episode of the television anthology "Masters of Science Fiction" written by Harlan Ellison; and an episode of the fan-produced Internet series "Star Trek: The New Voyages".

CLARIFICATION: "Blink" is on the preliminary ballot, which is the first part of a two-stage voting process. The final ballot will be released in March.

(Thanks to Alex Frazer-Harrison.)