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Monday 30 June 2008

Journey's End - 5 Days...


The Countdown!
It's only 5 Days until the Finale of Series 4!


Planet of the Ood – ‘The Ood Can Sing!’/‘I think you song must end soon’

Torchwood Series 2 - Boxset Out Today!


Debuting at number 1 in many charts across the country, the complete second series of Torchwood was released on DVD today in the United Kingdom. The boxset contains 5 discs, the contents of which can be seen below;



Disc 1
Episodes: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, Sleeper and To The Last Man



Disc 2
Episodes: Meat, Adam, Reset and Dead Man Walking



Disc 3
Episodes: A Day In The Death, Something Borrowed and From Out Of The Rain



Disc 4
Episodes: Adrift, Fragments and Exit Wounds
Extras: Deleted scenes, Outtakes and The Lives & Deaths of Captain Jack



Disc 5
Extras: Torchwood Declassified Cut Downs


 - Thanks very much to Tardis and Torchwood Treasures

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Press Round-Up

The British press has been full of comment and speculation following the broadcast of "The Stolen Earth" on Saturday. As might be expected, many of the articles published in the past couple of days contain spoilers for the series to date, so the rest of this report should not be read - and the links contained herein certainly not followed - if you have not yet seen series four in general or "The Stolen Earth" in particular.

Various newspapers carry reviews of Saturday's episode. Sam Wollaston of The Guardian felt that "It's going to be hard to top this episode. It had everything - Martha, Rose, the Torchwood lot, impending darkness, daleks - even cameos from Paul O'Grady and Richard Dawkins." Andrew Billen of The Times had mixed feelings - although he wrote that the series is "almost as pleased with itself as David Tennant's performance", he did concede that "For the first time for a while, I am actually looking forward to the next episode." Thomas Sutcliffe of The Independent was more critical: "My brain began to lock under the repeated assault of the kind of lines that could be scattered at random over any Doctor Who episode at all without seeming out of place: "But... that's impossible!"; "It can't be!"; "Exterminate! Exterminate!" Change the record, guys."

The viewing figures of the series are the subject of several other media reports. Both Digital Spy and the MediaGuardian mention Doctor Who's strong performance at the weekend in connection with the rival ITV1 channel achieving what is believed to be the lowest Saturday all-hours share in its history, with just 10.2% of the watching audience across the day, compared with 26.9% for BBC One. The Sunday Telegraph, meanwhile, turns its attention towards predicted ratings for next Saturday's climactic episode, claiming that the BBC expects 10 million people to watch "Journey's End".

The Sunday Telegraph's sister paper, the Daily Telegraph, has run a feature tipping Scottish film star Robert Carlyle as Tennant's successor in the role as and when he leaves the series. The Daily Mail has a similar story. The subject of the departure of David Tennant has become a hot topic of conversation after the cliffhanger ending to Saturday's episode: the Guardian's website features a blog posting from Stephen Brook speculating about whether a new Doctor is about to be cast, as well as another piece from Gareth McLean, praising the unexpected plot twist.

Finally, the Wimbledon Guardian carries a report of Catherine Tate opening a summer fair at the weekend, in aid of a local primary school. She was greeted by several children in Doctor Who-related costumes.

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Rose Joins the Trailer Maker!

With Doctor Who coming to the end of Series Four, we want to remind you of the new content we've added to the Trailer Maker over the last few weeks.

So far, these exciting new clips include :

  • Episode 8: River Song - "River Song, Archaeologist."
  • Episode 8: Library Breached - River Song enters the library.
  • Episode 9: The Doctor - Flying to the core of the database.
  • Episode 9: Vashta Nerada - Stay out of the shadows.
  • Episode 10: The Doctor - Midnight.
  • Episode 10: Sky Silvestry - "It's coming for me."
  • Episode 11: Rose - "It's coming Donna, the Darkness."
  • Episode 11: Donna - "Activate."
  • Episode 12: Rose - "Now we're in trouble."
  • Episode 12: The Doctor - Regeneration.
  • Episode 12: Dalek Saucer - Flying over London background.

This includes Rose's first appearance in the Trailer Maker to date.

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Doctor Who: The Stage Plays

Big Finish will also open the curtains on Doctor Who’s theatrical past with audio adaptations of the three Doctor Who stage plays. Curse of the Daleks, a Doctor-less adventure was written by David Whitaker and Dalek creator, Terry Nation and was originally performed in London in 1965. The two subsequent stage plays were written by former Doctor Who script-editor, Terrance Dicks. 1974’s The Seven Keys to Doomsday starred Trevor Martin as a new incarnation of the Doctor and The Ultimate Adventure in 1989 initially starred Jon Pertwee and later Colin Baker. The Daleks were the Doctor’s opponents in both adventures.

‘These won’t be massive rewrites,’ explains executive producer Nick Briggs, ‘because we want to stay as faithful as possible to the originals and present, for the first time, a lasting, dramatised record of the Doctor’s stage adventures. Terrance has adapted his two plays, and I’ll be making minor changes to Curse, simply to make it more audio-friendly.’

In keeping with this, The Ultimate Adventure will even include the songs that were featured in the theatrical version.

Each play will be released as a double CD with The Ultimate Adventure being available from September, The Seven Keys to Doomsday in October and The Curse of the Daleks in November. Colin Baker will star as the Doctor in The Ultimate Adventure with Nicholas Briggs as the voice of the Daleks in all three. Further casting details are yet to be confirmed.

Doctor Who: The Stage Plays replace Cyberman 2 in the Big Finish schedules, with the Cyber mini-series now to be released in February 2009.

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The Key 2 Time Mini Series - January 2009

The Key 2 Time, a three-story mini series, is set for release between January and March 2009 as part of Big Finish’s main Doctor Who audio adventures range.

Peter Davison's Fifth Doctor will be joined by new companion Amy, one of two sentient humanoid ‘Tracers’, created to find the six segments of the Key. Ciara Janson (Nicole Owen in Hollyoaks and voices the new animated Famous Five) plays Amy, while the role of her twin sister Zara is portrayed by Laura Doddington, who was recently seen as PC Wood in Prime Suspect: The Final Act. The Key 2 Time, sees the Fifth Doctor on a new hunt for the six segments of the all powerful Key, but this time his task might not be quite as easy as it was the first time around…

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The Stolen Earth - AI and Digital Ratings

Episode Twelve of Series Four, The Stolen Earth has received a record breaking Audience Appreciation figure of 91. This is not only the highest score the programme has ever received, but is one of the highest figures ever achieved for a mainstream television programme.

Sunday's football was the most watched programme of the week making Saturday's Doctor Who the 8th in the list. This position may rise when corrected figures, including numbers for those recording the programme, are released by BARB in 9 days' time.

Sunday's BBC3 repeat got an overnight audience of 0.78 million viewers. It was a 3.4% share of the multi-channel audience and the most watched programme on all multi-channel TV for Sunday.

Saturday's edition of Doctor Who Confidential was watched by 1.13 million viewers. The programme, which had a share of 6.8 %, was the most watched on multi-channel television on Saturday with double the audience of the second placed Poirot. The Sunday repeat had 0.53 million watching.

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Record Australian Ratings for VOTD!

Voyage of the Damned has scored the highest Australian ratings ever for Doctor Who in the modern era. According to David Dale 'Voyage' rated 1,248,000 viewers in the five major capital cities. The record breaking Christmas special, starring Australian Kylie Minogue, was only beaten in its timeslot by Channel Nine's 60 minutes which was the top-rating programme of the day with 1.8 million viewers ('Voyage' was the top ABC programme for the day and 7th overall). The previous highest rating Doctor Who episode for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation was 'Rose' which scored 1.1 million Australian viewers back in 2005. As way of comparison, the ABC's top programme for the preceding week was 'Spicks and Specks' which received 1.35 million viewers.

The return of Doctor Who has also received some significant media coverage down under.

The Sydney Morning Herald gave 'Voyage' its show of the week and their online TV guide also gives the show a positive review while Kylie Minogue's return to acting has also received some local attention. The Sun-Herald gives 'Voyage' four stars saying there 'is a lot to love about this story, which is part Titanic, part-The Poseidon Adventure.' Melinda Houston of 'The Sunday Age' also previews 'Voyage', analysing 'the enduring sex appeal of the ever-changing Time Lord' noting that the Doctor 'loves smart women', is 'mature', 'saves planets', 'maintains a childlike sense of fun, is 'practical and hands-on', 'a man of mystery, and increasingly swahsbuckling' but perhaps 'most importantly, is kind. A little dotty and thoughtless occasionally, but immensely kind. And that, gentlemen, is a quality consistently underestimated by the Mars-dwelling gender, and valued immeasurably by we Venus types.' Ian Warden of 'The Canberra Times', who claims to have seen every series since 1963, says David Tennant 'is the best doctor there's been' even if he says we should 'respect' the show 'for being . . . easily the longest-running TV science-fiction pantomime in the world.' Meanwhile, Crikey TV commentator, Glenn Dyer, also describes 'Voyage' as 'the highlight of the night.'

As previously reported, the ABC has also confirmed on its online TV Guide that it is indeed showing Doctor Who Confidential Cutdown on ABC1 after each episode of Series 4 starting with "A Noble Return" on Sunday 6 July 2008.

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The Daemons - CD Cover & Info

Doctor Who and... The Daemons

Featuring: The 3rd Doctor

"Doctor Who" is strangely concerned about Professor Horner's plan to cut open an ancient barrow near the peaceful English village of Devil's End; equally worried is Miss Hawthorne, the local white witch, who foretells a terrible disaster if he goes ahead.

Determined that the Professor should is Mr Magister, the new vicar (in truth the MASTER) whose secret ceremonies are designed to conjure up from out of the barrow a horribly powerful being from a far-off planet...

The Brigadier and Jo Grant assist Doctor Who in this exciting confrontation with the forces of black magic!

Doctor Who and... The Daemons is released on 14th August 2008, priced £17.99.

Sunday 29 June 2008

Journey's End - To be watched by 10 million!

The BBC expects viewing figures for the fourth series, starring David Tennant and Billie Piper, to peak for the 13th and final episode on Saturday, eclipsing the 9.1 million who watched episode one.

The broadcaster has even banned the production of preview tapes of the final instalment, called Journey's End, to makes sure its plot is not prematurely revealed.

The 12th episode in the series - called The Stolen Earth and watched by 7.4 million people on Saturday - was a cliffhanger  

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Journey's End - 6 Days...


The Countdown
Its only 6 days until the Series Finale of Series 4! 

Here are my favourite scenes of each episode of Series 4 leading up to the finale, and I'll put them on each day leading up, as if it's a countdown like it was on every week! Here are Partners in Crime and The Fires of Pompeii!

Partners in Crime - Rose!
The Fires of Pompeii - 'Save Someone...'

Journey's End - TV Trailer


It just goes to show! That Davros is a little bit... well... MAD! But it looks absolutely fantastic!!!

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Time's Up!

If you've just watched the thrilling cliff-hanger to The Stolen Earth, you're probably wondering how we could possibly wrap things up in just one more regular episode.

The answer is - we can't. That's why next week's, episode, Journey's End, will run for an amazing 65 minutes! That's almost 50 per cent longer than a regular episode, and even longer than the first two Christmas Specials.

Make sure you're glued to your TV at the slightly earlier time of 6.40pm on Saturday 5th July so you don't miss a moment of epic action.

If you can't wait that long, however, tune in to BBC One tomorrow just before 1pm to see a bonus trailer for the episode. We'll have it online here at the Official Site straight afterwards too.

The Stolen Earth - Overnight Ratings

Unofficial figures show that episode Twelve of Series Four, The Stolen Earth, was watched by 7.4 million viewers, giving it a 38.3% share of the total television audience.

The programme was the highest rated on Saturday, beating Casualty by nearly 2 million viewers. BBC1 had a drop of over 3 million viewers when Doctor Who finished.

ITV!'s highest rated programme of the day was Who Dares Sings with 3.7 million.

Doctor Who is currently the 7th most watched programme of the week. Final figures will be released by BARB in ten days' time.