Doctor Who ratings in perspective - UPDATED

In the last few weeks, there have been some sensationalised reports about Doctor Who's falling ratings.


For example, on 28th September  a report in the The Sun (a paper known for an anti-BBC bias) in reference to the series's second episode The Witch's Familiar, stated  "During Saturday's show ratings dipped to a paltry 3.2 million — just topping its all-time low of 3.1 million in 1989 when it was eventually axed."
This was a misleading statement because they were comparing the final rating for Sylvester McCoy's Battlefield: Part One to the lowest point during the overnight rating for The Witch's Familiar.  



Peter Capaldi's episode rose to a respectable 5.71 million once seven-day catch-up viewing rose added.  Although this was the lowest episode rating since Doctor Who returned in 2005, it is important to remember that the episode was scheduled against the England vs Wales Rugby World Cup match.

While it is true that the Doctor Who ratings have gradually been dropping since their peak on New Year's Day 2010 (David Tennant's swansong), in relation to general television viewing, they remain very respectable.  As audiences now have so much more choice in what they can watch compared to the analogue era in which the classic series aired, a better measure of the show's success is its chart position.  So far every episode of Doctor Who since 2005 has rated in the weekly Top 30.  As you can see from the table below,  some 20th century Doctor Who episodes fell outside the Top 100:

	Highest Rated Episode	Highest Charted Episode	Lowest Rated Episode	Lowest Charted Episode
William Hartnell	The Web Planet (13.50m)	The Web Planet (7th)	The Smugglers: Episode 1 (4.30m)	The Smugglers: Episode 1 (109th)
Patrick Troughton	The Krotons: Episode One (9.00m)	The Power of the Daleks: Episode One (43rd)	The War Games: Episode Eight (3.50m)	The Space Pirates: Episode Six (98th)
Jon Pertwee	The Three Doctors: Episode Four (11.90m)	Planet of the Daleks: Episode One (9th)	Inferno: Episode 3 (4.80m)	The Time Warrior: Part Three (89th)
Tom Baker	City of Death: Part Four (16.10m) - HIGHEST EVER	The Ark in Space: Part Two (5th)	Full Circle: Part Two (3.70m)	Full Circle: Part Two (170th) - LOWEST EVER
Peter Davison	Castrovalva: Part Four (10.40m)	Time-Flight: Part One (26th)	Frontios: Part Four (4.60m)	Frontios: Part Four (115th)
Peter Davison (Special)	The Five Doctors (7.70m)	The Five Doctors (54th)	N/A	N/A
Colin Baker	Attack of the Cybermen: Part One (8.90m)	Attack of the Cybermen: Part One (61st)	The Trial Of A Time Lord (The Mysterious Planet): Part Four (3.70m)	The Mark of the Rani: Part One (111th)
Sylvester McCoy	Silver Nemesis: Part One (6.10m)	Time and the Rani: Part Three / Paradise Towers: Part Four (57th)	Battlefield: Part One (3.10m) - LOWEST EVER	The Greatest Show in the Galaxy: Part Three (108th)
Paul McGann	The TV Movie (9.08)	The TV Movie (17th)	N/A	N/A
Christopher Eccleston	Rose (10.81m)	Rose (7th)	Bad Wolf (6.81m)	The Empty Child (20th)
David Tennant	Journey's End (10.57m)	Journey's End (1st) - HIGHEST EVER	The Satan Pit (6.08m)	Silence in the Library (27th)
David Tennant (Specials)	The End of Time: Part Two (12.27m)	The End of Time: Part One & Part Two (1st) - HIGHEST EVER	The Runaway Bride (9.38m)	The Runaway Bride (10th)
Matt Smith	The Eleventh Hour (10.08m)	The Eleventh Hour (3rd)	The Lodger (6.44m)	Nightmare in Silver (22nd)
Matt Smith (Specials)	The Day of The Doctor (12.80m)	The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe / The Day of The Doctor / The Time of the Doctor (3rd)	The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe (10.77m)	A Christmas Carol (4th)
Peter Capaldi	Deep Breath (9.17m)	Deep Breath (2nd)	The Witch's Familiar (5.71m)	The Witch's Familiar (24th)
Peter Capaldi (Specials)	Last Christmas (8.28m)	Last Christmas (7th)	N/A	N/A

Ratings statistics sourced from the Doctor Who Guide.

Doctor Who review: The Magician's Apprentice

Throughout its 21st century revival, most series of Doctor Who have started with an episode introducing a new Doctor or companion and therefore character building has tended to take precedence over plot.  With the Twelfth Doctor and Clara well established, The Magician's Apprentice could be ambitious in its storytelling and included the twists-and-turns usually expected of a Steven Moffat series finale.

Although the audience ratings have been somewhat disappointing (the first episode being the lowest rated opener since 2005) there was much to draw in the occasional viewer with the reappearances of Missy (the female Master), Davros and the Daleks.    The pre-titles sequence on the battlefields of Skaro was an audacious start.  When the boy trapped among the hand-mines revealed himself to be a young Davros, long-time fans knew this was going to be a ground-breaking story.  The Doctor's reaction was unsurprising although one might question how he could be sure this was THE Davros rather than another young lad with the same name!

The episode was heavy on continuity references and, while this is rewarding for long-term fans, there is a danger that this may put off some newer viewers.   Davros's henchman Colony Sarff visited the Shadow Proclamation, last seen in 2008's The Stolen Earth, and Karn which, aside from online mini-episodes, hasn't been visited since The Brain of Morbius in 1976.  The sequence at UNIT HQ also made many nods to the past and the anomaly detector picking "three possible versions of Atlantis" cleverly waved off contradictory references to the lost city in The Underwater Menace (1967), The Daemons (1971) and The Time Monster (1972).

As Missy, Michelle Gomez delivers a hugely entertaining performance.  Like the first Master, Roger Delgado, she has great charm despite being thoroughly evil.  Moffat rightly makes Missy commit unnecessary murders to remind us of her true nature.  She is also incredibly cruel to poor Clara throughout both episodes.  The planes stopping in the sky turns out to to be no more than an attention-seeking act from Missy (and the writer) designed to get in touch with Clara and then track down the Doctor.  Missy's motives are unclear throughout, as they were the last year's finale, but they may turn out to be part of a bigger plan yet to be revealed.

The Doctor's reappearance in medieval England will have annoyed fans who hoped the wackiness of the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors had been left behind.  However, the guitar playing is in a tradition of having the lead actor to show off their talents.  Just as Peter Davison and Matt Smith played cricket and football respectively, Peter Capaldi played guitar and played it very well.  The tank was perhaps an excessive miss-step though.  On the evidence of this two-partner, Capaldi appears to be a lot more fun than last series and much friendlier towards Clara (although they have few scenes together).

The Doctor's admission that he is throwing a "party" because he is facing his death is questionable.  It is difficult to understand why the two-thousand year-old Time Lord would fear death from another meeting with Davros.  Perhaps his guilt makes the Doctor feel he is doomed, as it did when he made a terrible decision in the conclusion to 2009's The Waters of Mars.   However, the trope of the Doctor facing his death has been overdone in recent years following the "he will knock four times"  prophecy of the final David Tennant specials; the build-up to the finale of Series 6 in which Matt Smith's would supposedly meet his end by Lake Silencio; the visit to his grave on Trenzalore; and the return visit to the same planet for his "final battle" when he had used up all his full regeneration.

It is only when the Doctor, Clara and Missy are brought by Colony Sarff back to Skaro that the story properly begins.  The CGI recreation of the Dalek city is impressive and very faithful to the original models from 1963.  The interiors are less interesting and although it is nice to see the classic series Daleks alongside the 2005 gold Daleks, it is unclear why they would be living together in this rebuilt Dalek homeworld.

The Magician's Apprentice ends with impressive cliff-hangers with the apparent deaths of Missy and Clara, and the flash-forward to the Doctor facing the young Davros and using the Dalek catchphrase "Exterminate" for the first time.  The scenes with the excellent Julian Bleach as a dying Davros also set up great anticipation for the next episode.  There will much more on him in the review of The Witch's Familiar which will be on the blog later this week.

Poster for Doctor Who - The Witch's Familiar

The second episode of the current series of Doctor Who is broadcast on BBC One at 7.45pm tonight. The episode titled The Witch's Familiar follows on from last week's series opener The Magician's Apprentice.  The two episodes, both written by Steven Moffat, can also be seen together as an omnibus tomorrow on BBC One at 3.15pm.

Here is the latest in the series of retro episode posters commissioned by Radio Times: 

Designed by Stuart Manning

Trailer for Jekyll and Hyde

ITV have released a new trailer for Jekyll and Hyde which confirms the series will start in October:

New Spectre featurette released

A new featurette focussing on the action scenes in Spectre has been released on the James Bond 007 YouTube Channel:

Trailer for From Darkness

The BBC have released a trailer for new psychological crime drama From Darkness.  The story focusses on ex-police officer Claire Church (Anne-Marie Duff) who has moved to the remote Western Isles to escape from her traumatic past.  Former colleagues pull Claire back into an investigation she thought she had left behind.

Listen to Sam Smith's Spectre theme song

Sam Smith's Writing's On The Wall received its first radio airplay this morning.   The theme song to new James Bond film Spectre is also available to stream on Spotify:

Poster for the The Magician's Apprentice

The Radio Times have an unveiled a new poster for tonight's Doctor Who episode:

Designed by Stuart Manning

The episode is broadcast tonight at 7.40pm on BBC One in the UK, and at 9pm EDT on BBC America in the USA and SPACE in Canada.  

Broadcasters in other territories will air the episode over the next few days.

Watch prequel "The Doctor's Meditation" on Facebook

The prequel to tomorrow's new Doctor Who episode is available for UK fans to watch on the show's official Facebook channel:
https://www.facebook.com/DoctorWho/videos/1207781699235855/

The video is also available to download from iTunes, Amazon Instant Video and Google Play and over the weekend will air on BBC America, SPACE and ABC2 for American, Canadian and Australians fans respectively.

The Doctor's Meditation follows on from the untitled "prologue" which saw the Doctor talking to Ohila of the Sisterhood of Karn:

Jenna Coleman confirms departure from Doctor Who

Jenna Coleman has confirmed the rumours that she will be leaving Doctor Who at some point during the upcoming series.  She spoke to Radio 1's Nick Grimshaw this morning:

Coleman is moving to a new role in ITV's eight-part drama series Victoria in which she will play a young Queen Victoria.

The story of Clara so far

Jenna Coleman made a surprise debut on 1st September, 2012 as futuristic character Oswin Oswald in Asylum of the Daleks: 

Another version of the character returned on Christmas Day of that year playing the Victorian Clara Oswald in The Snowmen:

At the end of that episode the present-day Clara appeared and this version of the character returned in The Bells of Saint John:

Clara then accompanied Matt Smith's Eleventh Doctor in the episodes Rings of Akhaten, Cold War, Hide, Journey to the Centre of the Tardis, The Crimson Horror, Nightmare in Silver and the Series 7 finale The Name of the Doctor.  In this episode it was revealed why there were multiple versions of Clara throughout the Doctor's timeline and that one incarnation even met the First Doctor on Gallifrey: 

Clara played an important role in the specials The Day of the Doctor and Time of the Doctor.   Her appeal to the Time Lords led to the Doctor being given a new set of regenerations and she witnessed his transformation into Peter Capaldi's Twelfth Doctor:

She has stayed on board the TARDIS for all of Peter Capaldi’s episodes to date.  Series 8 ended tragically for Clara with the death of her boyfriend Danny Pink but her friendship with the Doctor endured and their strong bond will continue into Series 9:

Doctor Who Series 9: Full Overview

The new issue of the Radio Times and website reveals all of the episode titles and enigmatic teasers from Steven Moffat.  Below is an updated overview of the series:

	Title	Writer	Director	Guest Stars	Plot Info
1	The Magician's Apprentice	Steven Moffat	Hettie MacDonald	Michelle Gomez Jemma Redgrave Kelly Hunter Clare Higgins Jaye Griffiths	Missy Daleks Kate Stewart Moffat: "Clara receives a mysterious summons and has to team up with Missy to search for the Doctor in a very, very old place.”
2	The Witch's Familiar	Steven Moffat
3	Under the Lake	Toby Whithouse	Daniel O'Hara	Paul Kaye Morven Christie Arsher Ali Colin McFarlane	Moffat: "features an underwater base plagued by creeping ghosts and an island that is about to be submerged in water. But who or what is doing this and how can the Doctor stop it? It’s very scary, atmospheric and claustrophobic, much like some classic episodes.”
4	Before the Flood
5	The Girl Who Died	Jamie Mathison Steven Moffat	Ed Bazelgette	Maisie Williams Rufus Hound David Schofield Tom Stourton Ariyon Bakare	Moffat: "The first part features Vikings fighting mercenary robots (and a dragon!) and the second one sees a group of Highwaymen dealing with a Norse god”."
6	The Woman Who Lived	Catherine Tregenna
7	The Zygon Invasion	Peter Harness	Daniel Nettheim	Jemma Redgrave Ingrid Oliver Rebecca Front Jaye Griffiths	Zygons Kate Stewart Osgood Moffat "The future of planet Earth is sealed in a box in Unit's back archive, and only the Doctor knows what’s inside. With Unit under Zygon control, and Clara lost, the Doctor and Osgood find themselves fugitives in a London where no one can be trusted "
8	The Zygon Inversion	Peter Harness Steven Moffat
9	Sleep No More	Mark Gatiss	Justin Molitnikov	Reece Shearsmith Elaine Tan Neet Mohan Bethany Black	Gatiss: "I’m delighted with how scary it is" Moffat: " a very unique Doctor Who story" "This is footage collected from a space rescue mission. If you value your life, your sanity, and the future of your species, DO NOT WATCH IT. "
10	Face the Raven	Sarah Dollard	Justin Molitnikov	Jovian Wade	Rigsy Moffat: “The Doctor and Clara, with their old friend Rigsy, find themselves in a secret alien world, folded away among the streets of London. Not all of them will get out alive. One of the three intruders must face the raven... "
11	Heaven Sent	Steven Moffat	Rachel Talalay	?	Moffat: " In a world unlike any other he has seen, the Doctor faces the greatest challenge of his many lives. And he must face it alone. "
12	Hell Bent	Steven Moffat			Moffat: " If you took everything from him, and betrayed him, and trapped him, and broke both his hearts... how far might the Doctor go? It is time, at last, for the Doctor's confession. "

New Spectre promotional artwork

Sam Smith records Spectre theme song

Sam Smith has recorded the theme song for upcoming James Bond movie Spectre.

The track is called "Writing's on the Wall" and will be released on 25 September.   It was written by Smith and Jimmy Napes with additional production done by Disclosure. 











Smith gave a big clue on Twitter yesterday before confirming the news today:

pic.twitter.com/0anlLMQSWZ

— SAM SMITH (@samsmithworld) September 7, 2015

This is one of the highlights of my career. I am honoured to finally announce that I will be singing the next Bond theme song.

— SAM SMITH (@samsmithworld) September 8, 2015

Listen to Smith talking about the track with Radio 1's Nick Grimshaw:

This will be the fifth main Bond theme which does not share its title with the film after
"Nobody Does It Better" (The Spy Who Loved Me), "All Time High" (Octopussy), "You Know My Name" (Casino Royale) and "Another Way to Die" (Quantum of Solace).