The next shared Doctor Who viewing organised by Doctor Who Magazine's Emily Cook takes place this evening (UK):


As with previous discussions, author Neil Gaiman will be giving insights on his episode, this time joined by director Richard Clark and the voice of House, Michael Sheen.

Neil Gaiman also hinted on Twitter:




Don't forget that there is another shared viewing of Silver Nemesis with Sophie Aldred at 6:00pm BST as part of online Time Space Visualiser convention taking place this afternoon on YouTube.

The fiftieth anniversary episode of Doctor Who was the most accessed programme on the BBC iPlayer for the whole of 2013.

The Day of the Doctor topped the chart with 3.2 million people accessing the episode at some point. The episode had 0.3 million more requests than the second placed programme, episode 1 of Bad Education, the comedy series about the worst teacher ever to grace the British education system.

The Christmas episode, The Time of the Doctor, which saw Matt Smith leave the series, was accessed 1.95 million times in the week following transmission, enough to make it the 32nd most requested programme of the year and the most requested programme for Christmas week. Mrs Brown's Boys, which came top of the Christmas broadcast ratings, had 1.36 million requests.

Nearly a million people downloaded the iPlayer mobile and tablet apps over the Christmas period, meaning over 20 million now have the service on their mobile device.

All ten episodes of Doctor Who that premiered in 2013 made the top 50 programmes on iPlayer for the year. The Bells of Saint John came in at number 5 on the chart, with 2.64 million requests during the couple of months it was available. The Rings of Akhaten was 15th with 2.31 million requests. At 23 was The Name of the Doctor which had 2.06 million requests. Cold War was 33rd with 1.95 million requests, Hide was 35th with 1.92 million requests, Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS was 39th with 1.89 million requests, Nightmare in Silver was 40th with 1.89 million requests and The Crimson Horror was 43rd with 1.83 million requests.

Overall, the 2013 episodes were requested over 19 million times during the year. The 2012 episodes were also available on iPlayer for part of the year and were requested a total of 2.39 million times. The 14 episodes from Series Six were requested 4.51 million times and Series Five 0.67 million times.

BBC Three continuted its countdown of Doctor Who: Greatest Monsters & Villains on Saturday evening.

The format features a three minute potted history of the featured villain, followed by the screening of an appropriate episode of Doctor Who. Coming in at number 6 were the Ice Warriors and a screening on a story from the most recent series of Doctor Who Cold War. The episode had an overnight viewing figure of 0.33 million viewers, a 1.4% share of the total audience.

At five were the Cybermen, the episode shown the 2008 Christmas story The Next Doctor. It was watched by 0.58 million a 2.5% share.

Finally for the evening, at number 4 were The Silence. The Impossible Astronaut / Day of the Moon was screened and was watched by an average 0.69 million viewers, a 4.3% share. BBC Three was the second highest watched digital channel for most of the evening, with Die Hard 4.0 on E4 taking the top spot.

BBC Worldwide has announced the release of Doctor Who: The Complete Series 1-7 Box Set on Blu-ray for release in the United Kingdom on 4th November and in North America on 5th November:


In addition, the North American release will include a bonus gift in the form of the original Doctor Who Universal Remote Control Sonic Screwdriver, three artwork cards featuring the three Doctors, plus an exclusive comic book.

The 29 disc collection contains each series in its own individual Blu-ray case, and it is expected that the four remastered Eccleston/Tennant series will be available individually at a later date.

A special screening of the opening two episodes of Series 6 is to take place across Australia and New Zealand on Thursday 14th March, the BBC has announced.

In a world-first multiple cinema screening for Doctor Who, The Impossible Astronaut and Day of the Moon will be shown at selected Event Cinemas, Greater Union and Birch, Carroll & Coyle Cinemas, and Village Cinemas across the two countries, starting at 7pm on the day.

There will also be a "best-dressed" prize at each cinema for the Doctor Who fan with the most impressive costume, from Time Lords to monsters.

Sharon Wilson, BBC Worldwide Australasia's head of marketing for global brands, said: The screening has been arranged as part of the celebrations for the show's 50th-anniversary year.

Written by Steven Moffat and directed by Toby Haynes, the 90-minute two-parter stars Matt Smith as the Doctor, Karen Gillan as Amy Pond, Arthur Darvill as Rory Williams, Alex Kingston as River Song, and Mark Sheppard as Canton Everett Delaware III.

In The Impossible Astronaut, the Doctor, Amy, and Rory receive a secret summons that leads them to the Oval Office in 1969. Enlisting the help of a former FBI agent and the irrepressible River Song, the Doctor promises to assist President Nixon in saving a terrified little girl from a mysterious Space Man. In Day of the Moon, the Doctor is locked in the perfect prison, while Amy, Rory, and River Song are being hunted down by the FBI. But with the help of the president and Neil Armstrong, the Doctor is able to mount a rebellion against an alien invasion dating back to the very beginnings of human civilisation.

Tickets for the high-definition big-screen showings can be bought online at Event Cinemas or Village Cinemas (booking fees may apply) or at the box offices of the cinemas involved. The websites list the cinemas taking part in this special event.

UKTV, which is wholly owned by BBC Worldwide Australasia, is the media partner for this screening, which has been devised by BBC Worldwide Australasia.

Al Jazeera has bought Series 5 to 7 of Doctor Who, it was announced today.

The episodes were snapped up at the BBC Worldwide Showcase 2013 event and will be shown on the satellite TV broadcaster's pan-Arabic children's channel JCC, which launched in 2005 and is based in Qatar.

The showcase is a four-day international TV market being held at ACC Liverpool. It started yesterday and is welcoming some 700 TV buyers from around the globe.

Paola Tonella, BBC Worldwide's sales and distribution territory manager for the Middle East and Africa, said: Among the star names at yesterday's gala opening were Eve Myles and Mark Williams.

The showcase will also be hosting special events to both celebrate the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who and to spotlight the natural-history documentary series Africa.

Steve Macallister, the president and managing director of sales and distribution at BBC Worldwide, said:

BBC Worldwide Australasia is currently in talks with Event Cinemas to show the Series 6 two-part opener The Impossible Astronaut and Day of the Moon at venues across Australia.

However, despite Event Cinemas' website listing venues showing the episodes and giving dates for the screenings - details that were reproduced here - we have since been informed by the BBC that it has merely been holding talks with Event about the possibility of a screening, with no dates settled as yet.

Having published the details in all good faith, based on publicly available information, we regret any confusion caused and will update readers as and when.

13th Feb, 12.05pm: DWN understands that Event Cinemas is now in the process of taking down the screening details from its website.

BBC Worldwide Sales and Distribution Latin America have announced that the sixth series of Doctor Who will be broadcast in the region via the exclusive DIRECTV Latin America channel OnDIRECTV.

Willard Tressel, OnDIRECTV's General Manager, said:

Helen Jurado, VP, Sales & Distribution, BBC Worldwide Latin America, said:

Author Neil Gaiman won a Hugo Award for The Doctor's Wife last night - and revealed that he was working on another Doctor Who script.

His Series 6 story won in the Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form category, beating four other nominations that included The Girl Who Waited, by Tom MacRae, and A Good Man Goes To War, by Steven Moffat.

During his acceptance speech, Gaiman said: "Only a fool or a mad man would try to do it again . . . so I'm on the third draft."

Just when this episode might air is, of course, open to speculation. The Doctor's Wife had originally been scheduled for Series 5 but was pushed back a year because of budget pressures.

The Doctor's Wife, which was directed by Richard Clark, also won the 2011 Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation in this year's Nebula Awards.

It is the sixth Hugo for Doctor Who since the series returned in 2005. Other winners this year included Doctor Who writer Paul Cornell, who was part of the team that won the Best Fancast award.

The Hugo Awards were presented at Chicon 7 - the 70th World Science Fiction Convention - held at the Hyatt Regency in Chicago.

Moffat tweeted a congratulatory message to Gaiman and Clark, saying: "Huge congratulations to @neilhimself and @rclarkie as The Doctor's Wife bags Doctor Who's SIXTH Hugo. Not boasting or nuffing. But SIXTH!!", and Gaiman tweeted a picture of himself with his award (shown below).

The Doctor Who story The Doctor's Wife has won the Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation in this year's Nebula Awards, the annual event held by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.

Although Doctor Who was nominated for the same award last year, this is the first time the programme has been successful. In winning the award the team beat several Holloywood movies including Martin Scorsese's Hugo and Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris.

The Doctor's Wife was the fourth episode of the 2011 series of Doctor Who. It was written by acclaimed author Neil Gaiman and directed by Richard Clark.

In accepting the award, Neil Gaiman paid tribute to the creators of Doctor Who. Posting on twitter he said
Richard Clark also took to twitter to express his delight at the award.
Show-runner Steven Moffat congratulated the team