The Third Edition of AHistory amends and vastly expands the work of the sold-out Second Edition, continuing to incorporate the whole of Doctor Who into a single timeline. All told, this book takes nearly 1400 full-length Doctor Who stories and dates them in a single chronology — starting with the Universe’s origins and working its way forward to the end of time.

Specifically, this Third Edition covers all Doctor Who TV episodes through Series 6 starring Matt Smith; all New Series Adventures up through The Silent Stars Go By (#50); the Big Finish audio range up through Army of Death (#155); all Torchwood episodes, novels and comics up through Series 4 (Miracle Day); all The Sarah Jane Adventures episodes, audios and webcomics up through Series 5; the K9 TV show; all Telos novellas; the IDW and Doctor Who Magazine comics; and a cornucopia of other Doctor Who spin-off series (the Bernice Summerfield novels and audios, Dalek Empire, Iris Wildthyme, Faction Paradox and more).

This book retails for $49.95, and is offered for sale off the Mad Norwegian website for $39.95 (shipping included) in the United States; international shipping rates vary.

The Table of Contents and Introduction for this Third Edition of Ahistory are available for download as a PDF by clicking here.

Release Date

November 13, 2012

ISBN

9781935234111

This book retails for $49.95, and is offered for sale off the Mad Norwegian website for $39.95 (shipping included) in the United States; international shipping rates vary.

The Table of Contents and Introduction for this Third Edition of Ahistory are available for download as a PDF by clicking here.

Release Date

November 13, 2012

ISBN

9781935234111

To celebrate Christmas and having my 1,000,000th download heres a short story - A Feast For Steven.

written as part of this years Oodcast Annual.

enjoy!

The sister book to the 2011 Hugo Award-winning Chicks Dig Time Lords…

In Chicks Unravel Time, Deborah Stanish (Whedonistas) and L.M. Myles bring together a host of award-winning female writers, media professionals and scientists to examine each season of new and classic Doctor Who from their unique perspectives.

Diana Gabaldon discusses how Jamie McCrimmon inspired her best-selling Outlander series, and Barbara Hambly (Benjamin January Mysteries) examines the delicate balance of rebooting a TV show. Seanan McGuire (Toby Daye series) reveals the power and pain of waiting in Series 5, and Una McCormack (The King’s Dragon) argues that Sylvester McCoy’s final year of Doctor Who is the show’s best season ever.

Other contributors include Juliet McKenna (Einarrin series), Tansy Rayner Roberts (Power and Majesty), Sarah Lotz (The Mall), Martha Wells (The Cloud Roads), Joan Frances Turner (Dust), Rachel Swirsky (“Fields of Gold”), Aliette de Bodard (Obsidian and Blood series) and Amal El-Mohtar (The Honey Month).

NOTE: This book is not for sale individually on the Mad Norwegian website, but is available as part of a Geek Girls box set here.

Full list of essays included in this book, also available as a PDF:

• Regeneration – Shaping the Road Ahead by Barbara Hambly
• The Doctor’s Balls by Diana Gabaldon
• A Dance With Drashigs by Emma Nichols
• No Competition by Una McCormack
• Identity Crisis by L.M. Myles
• The Still Point by Anna Bratton
• For the Love of Tom by Sarah Lotz
• Donna Noble Saves the Universe by Martha Wells
• I’m From the TARDIS, and I’m Here to Help You: Barbara Wright and the Limits of Intervention by Joan Frances Turner
• I Robot, You Sarah Jane: Sexual Politics in Robot by Kaite Welsh
• Between Now and Now by Juliet E. McKenna
• What Would Romana Do? by Lara J. Scott
• The Women We Don’t See by K. Tempest Bradford
• The Ultimate Sixth by Tansy Rayner Roberts
• Maids and Masters: The Distribution of Power in Doctor Who Series Three by Courtney Stoker
• Robots, Orientalism and Yellowface: Minorities in the Fourteenth Season of Doctor Who by Aliette de Bodard
• David Tennant’s Bum by Laura Mead
• Superficial Depth?: Spirituality in Season Eleven by Caroline Symcox
• The Problem With Peri by Jennifer Pelland
• All of Gallifrey’s a Stage: The Doctor in Adolescence by Teresa Jusino
• All the Way Out to the Stars by Iona Sharma
• Build High for Happiness! by Lynne M. Thomas
• Nimons are Forever by Liz Barr
• Ace Through the Looking Glass by Elisabeth Bolton-Gabrielsen
• Hey, You Got Science in My Fiction! by Laura McCullough
• Seven to Doomsday: The Non-Domestication  of Earthbound Doctor Who in Season Seven by Mags Halliday
• Harking Back and Moving On by Jenni Hughes
• Anything Goes by Deborah Stanish
• How the Cold War Killed the Fifth Doctor by Erica McGillivray
• Waiting for the Doctor: The Women of Series Five by Seanan McGuire
• Timing Malfunction: Television Movie + the BBC Eighth Doctor Novels = A Respectable Series by Kelly Hale
• Guten Tag, Hitler by Rachel Swirsky
• Reversing Polarities: The Doctor, the Master and False Binaries in Season Eight by Amal El-Mohtar

Release Date

November 13, 2012

ISBN

9781935234128

Dimentions 2012

My First Book Signing

How to get Whostrology...

Ken Deep has been unwell

I am so so sorry

in reply to lukes challenge....

Saturday 1st September 2012 - Whooverville 4

Whooverville 4 was held at Quad in Derby. Our fourth Whooverville convention was definately the best yet. Guests included:

• Peter Purves - space pilot Steven Taylor

Saturday, 17 November 2012

Issue 12 - OUT NOW!!!

After such a short run of Doctor Who this year, you'd think we won't have much to badger on about? Well, sadly, you'll be wrong, as here we present the biggest issue of the fanzine yet, weighing in at an unprecedented 56 pages!  It's so big, we've had offers from Celebrity Fit Club (lets face it - we're probably more famous than half of those people in the jungle with Colin Baker at the moment. And fatter)  If you're a fan of reading actual words, then this is the issue for you!  Due to the cost of producing these novels, we've only got a very limited run, so any support we get (i.e. if you buy one) will be greatly appreciated .

Here is a list of the following stuff you will find in the latest issue:

• Reviews of Series 7.1 (or whatever you call it)
• Mary Tamm - The Key To The Key To Time
• The Doctor and The Ripper - what links The Doctor with Whitechapel's mysterious murderer?
• Cyberman No3 - A brand new comic from the pen of the marvelous Mike Pearse
• To Those We Never Had - A (somewhat vindictive) look at companions who should have been
• Interview with Whostrology authour Michael M. Gilroy-Sinclair
• Plus much, much more!

If you would like to order one of our finely-prouduced propaganda you can do so by sending one of the following payments to us via PayPal (please send payment as 'a gift' and enclose your name and address) to fishcustardfanzine@googlemail.com

UK: £2.20
Rest of The World: £4.20

If you don't have a PayPal account, then you can pay by other means via our brand-new shop!  We also have 2013 subscriptions on sale, so please feel free to browse those!

Cheers and see you in 2013!

Those lovely people at Staggering Stories talked to me about my book... heres the interview. enjoy

Due for release on 12 November 2012.

Join the Doctor, the Ponds and numerous friends on their latest escapades through space and time where they puzzle over an unexpected invasion of Earth, save a spaceship full of dinosaurs, don Stetsons in a Wild Wild West adventure, and are even kidnapped by the Doctor’s oldest foe. The explosive series concludes with Amy and Rory’s heart-breaking farewell – a race against time through the streets of Manhattan. Will the Doctor really lose the Ponds forever?

There’s only one way to find out…

Bonus Features include:

Pond Life

En route to see the Ponds the TARDIS’ Helmic Regulator malfunctions, leaving the Doctor popping up everywhere in time and space. Will he ever make it back to them?

Asylum of the Daleks Prequel

The Doctor receives a message from a mysterious hooded stranger – a woman called Darla Von Karlsen wants to meet him…

The Making of The Gunslinger

Civil war has ravaged the Kahler race, but a team of scientists has found an advantage. The Gunslinger is born.

Red Dwarf (series 10)

Red Dwarf series 10
Logo for the tenth series of Red Dwarf.
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of episodes	6
Broadcast
Original channel	Dave
Original run	4 October 2012[1] –
Home video release
DVD release
Region 2	19 November 2012
Blu-ray Disc release
Region B	19 November 2012
Season chronology
← Previous Red Dwarf: Back to Earth Next → —
List of Red Dwarf episodes

The tenth series of the British science fiction sitcom Red Dwarf, commenced broadcast on UK television channel Dave from 4 October 2012.^[1] It will have six episodes and is the first full series of Red Dwarf since 1999.

Production

Dave announced it had ordered a tenth series of Red Dwarf on 10 April 2011, following the success of Back to Earth and three years of speculation.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]} Dates for filming series X were announced on 11 November 2011, along with confirmation that the series would again be shot at Shepperton Studios in front of an audience.^[11] Principal filming began on 16 December 2011 and ended on 27 January 2012, and the cast and crew subsequently returned for six days filming pick ups.^[12] On 4 May 2012 Howard Goodall, who had composed music for Red Dwarf from its beginning until series VII, was announced as composer of the score for Red Dwarf X.^[13] On 19 June 2012, the post-production process was completed and all 6 episodes were signed off ready for their broadcast in the following Autumn.^[14]

Crew

The main crew for the series was announced by Broadcast Magazine on 23 August 2012.^[1]

• Commissioning editors: Jane Rogerson and Steve North
• Writer/director: Doug Naylor
• Producer: Charles Armitage
• Co-producer: Richard Naylor
• Production Executive: Roopesh Parekh
• Line producer: David Mason
• Executive producers: Doug Naylor and Charles Armitage
• Director of photography: Andy Martin
• Production designer: Michael Ralph
• Make-up designer: Magi Virgina
• Costume designer: Howard Burden
• Post-production supervisor: Jackie Vance
• Miniature DoPs: Peter Talbot and Deane Thrussell

Returning characters and actors

The only announced returning characters and their actors are:^[1]

• Dave Lister, played by Craig Charles;
• Arnold Rimmer, played by Chris Barrie;
• The Cat, played by Danny John-Jules;
• Kryten, played by Robert Llewellyn.

Promotion

The first trailer for Red Dwarf X was released on 20 July 2012 on Dave's official Facebook page, and is followed by a new teaser released every following Friday until the series premiere.^[15] Red Dwarf X began airing on 4 October 2012.^[16]

Episodes

Plot

On Varos, a planet in the constellation of Cetes, the public torture of the rebel Jondar is taking place and being broadcast throughout the planet. Varosians Arak and Etta watch the proceedings from their room. Arak complains that they never show anything new to watch. In addition to the lack of new programming, the two must also deal with food rationing. And that night will be a punch-in vote ordered by the Governor, and voting is mandatory.

Meanwhile, the Doctor is repairing the TARDIS console. Peri complains that the Doctor has caused three electrical fires, a power failure, nearly collided with a storm of asteroids, got lost in the TARDIS corridors twice, wiped the memory banks of the flight computer, jettisoned three quarters of the storage hold, and burned her "cold dinner", all since the time-travellers left Telos (Attack of the Cybermen). Minutes later, the TARDIS unexpectedly stops, stalled in the middle of deep space. And the Doctor can do nothing to fix it.

Sil, the Mentor representative of the Galatron Mining Corporation, is negotiating with the Governor over the price of Varos’ Zeiton-7 ore. Their discussion, like many others, ends in stalemate. For many years, the Galatron Mining Corporation has swindled Varos by paying far less for the ore than its market value. And to make matters worse, the Chief Officer is in league with Sil. The Governor moves on to conduct the night’s vote. He addresses the people asking for their vote on if they should hold out longer for a fair price on the ore. The Governor loses and is forced to endure Human Cell Disintegration Bombardment. The process slowly kills the target and this is the third time his recommendations have failed to pass. The guard Bax recommends that the Governor execute Jondar to please the citizens so he can recuperate before the next vote.

Peri locates the TARDIS manual and presents it to the Doctor who quickly dismisses it. He knows perfectly well what has caused their dilemma. The transitional elements within the TARDIS have stopped producing orbital energy and they need Zeiton-7 ore to realign the power systems. And as the Doctor explains, Zeiton-7 is exceptionally rare and only comes from one planet: Varos. The Doctor manages to repair the TARDIS enough to travel to Varos and arrives right before the execution of Jondar is to take place.

The guard on station to watch over the execution believes the TARDIS is merely a hallucination caused by the Punishment Dome. The Doctor and Peri exit the TARDIS and think they are hallucinations as well. And with some help from the chained Jondar, the guard is incapacitated. The two free Jondar and make their escape, after being cut off from the TARDIS by more guards. They are then rescued by Rondel, who has defected after speaking with Areta, and decided to help them. But he is killed shortly thereafter by pursuing guards.

The Doctor, Peri, Jondar, and Areta continue on through the Punishment Dome, attempting to make their way back to the TARDIS. But during a run-in with another group of guards, the Doctor is separated from the others who are arrested. He enters a corridor that appears psychologically as a desert. And with all of Varos watching, the Doctor succumbs to the heat and collapses with his end as a close-up.

During the ordeal, Peri has been brought to the control center in the company of the Governor, Sil and the other officers. They question her as she watches them bring the Doctor’s body to an acid bath for disposal. It is also revealed that he is not dead, but his mind was influenced to make him believe he was dying of thirst in a desert. The Doctor suddenly stands up and walks over to the two attendants while their backs were turned. The surprise causes the first attendant to jump, pushing the second into the bath. A struggle ensues and the attendant is then pulled into the acid bath by the second who reaches up and grabs him. The Doctor strolls out with a morbid quip.

After making his way from the acid baths, the Doctor is cornered by Quillam, Varos’ chief scientist, and is taken away. Back in the control centre, it is decided that the Doctor and Jondar will be executed in a good "old-fashioned" way while Peri and Areta are to be reshaped with a cell mutator. The Doctor and Jondar are placed in the nooses while the Governor and Sil watch. At the last moment the Doctor questions the Governor about Sil and his extortion. Sil’s bodyguards rush the platform where the nooses are and pull the lever. But the two simply fall through the holes, the rope coming right off the support. As it turns out, there was to be no execution — it was all a way to get information out of the Doctor. The Doctor suspected this as he noticed that they were not being filmed.

The group then attempts to stop the cell mutator on Peri and Areta, but they are told it’s at too advanced a stage to stop. The Doctor and Jondar grab the weapons of nearby guards in an attempt to intimidate Quillam to deactivate the mutator. But it fails, and the Doctor resorts to shooting the entire control panel. The process has been stopped in the nick of time and Peri and Areta return to their original form. The four then escape back into the depths of the Punishment Dome towards a possible escape route. But Peri, still in a stupor after the effects of the mutator, is recaptured and taken to the control centre.

The Chief and Sil make their final move on the Governor in hopes that during the next vote he will be killed by the Human Cell Disintegration Bombardment, securing the way for them to control Varos and the Zeiton-7 ore. Meanwhile, the Doctor, Jondar, and Areta make their way into the End Zone of the Dome, where the exit is supposed to be. The vote starts and the bombardment begins, but the guard Meldak has a change of heart and stops the device, saving the Governor and Peri. The three then make their way to meet up with the Doctor through the ventilation ducts.

The Doctor’s group is then chased by two cannibals and loses them in some poisonous tendrils. The Chief and Quillam arrive on the scene but are entangled in the tendrils, killing them. They then meet up with Peri, the Governor, and Meldak. They all make their way back to the control centre and put an end to Sil’s plans of controlling Varos. The Galatron Mining Corporation also began to side with Varos; a second source of Zeiton-7 ore has been found, and Sil is ordered to obtain the Varosian ore at any price. The Doctor and Peri then bid the Governor farewell, taking the replacement ore with them.

The Governor issues a message to the citizens saying that there will be no more injustice, torture, and executions. Arak and Etta watch in disbelief, wondering what they’ll do with their new-found freedom.

Continuity

This section does not cite any references or sources. (June 2012)

• This story begins very soon after Attack of the Cybermen. Peri lists a number of problems the Doctor has caused since they left Telos.
• Sil was originally to have returned in a Philip Martin serial for the 23rd season entitled Mission to Magnus, but when the season was postponed and all planned stories scrapped, Sil's return instead occurred in Mindwarp. Martin later novelised Mission to Magnus, which was published in 1990. In 2009, Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant and Nabil Shaban returned for an audio adaptation of Mission to Magnus.
• The scenes including the Varosians Arak and Etta are completely detached from the story and the two are never encountered by the main characters.
• A long-standing myth holds that the Doctor pushes one or two guards into an acid bath. During the serial's original broadcast, the series drew criticism for being too violent. However, the Doctor does not actually push the guards into the acid. One falls in by accident and then pulls the other in.

Production

• This story was written as a replacement for a serial called Song of the Space Whale by comics writer Pat Mills.^[5]
• Working titles for this story included Domain and Planet of Fear (the latter being vetoed for being too similar to the previous season's Planet of Fire).^[5]
• The story was first written for the 1982 season, but was repeatedly pushed back and re-written. In its final draft, the story had a number of comedic sequences, most of which wound up being cut, and one of which, the acid bath sequence, was played seriously. The result was that the final story was much darker than originally intended. The more grim acid bath sequence was much criticised for its tone and for the Doctor's flippant remark at the end of the scene.
• During the first recording of the noose execution scene, part of the set collapsed under the weight of the actors. Fortunately, this did not happen when Baker and Connery actually had their necks in the nooses (although in that case, for safety reasons the nooses were not actually tied up).^[6]

Cast notes

• Features Jason Connery (Jondar), son of actor Sean Connery.
• Sheila Reid (Etta) is now better known as foul mouthed Madge in the comedy series Benidorm
• Martin Jarvis makes a guest appearance as the beleaguered Governor of Varos; he had previously appeared in the series in a story in each of the previous two decades: The Web Planet and Invasion of the Dinosaurs. And Nabil Shaban features as Sil, returning in the next season's Mindwarp, which is set on his home planet of Thoros Beta.
• Stephen Yardley (Arak) previously played Sevrin in Genesis of the Daleks.
• Owen Teale (Maldak) later appeared as Evan Sherman in the Torchwood episode "Countrycide" (2006). He also played Hayton in the audio play The Mind's Eye.

In print

Doctor Who book
Vengeance on Varos
Series	Target novelisations
Release number	106
Writer	Philip Martin
Publisher	Target Books
Cover artist	David McAllister
ISBN	0-426-20291-0
Release date	21 January 1988 (Hardback) 16 June 1988 (Paperback)

A novelisation of this serial, written by Philip Martin, was published by Target Books in January 1988. It was originally planned to be released 2 years earlier, but was pushed back after delays in the delivery of the manuscript by Philip Martin. However, it kept its original number of 106. In addition, although Target had launched a new cover design format for the books with the previous volume, Time and the Rani, reflecting the new series logo of the Sylvester McCoy era, Vengeance on Varos was published with the earlier book cover format using the neon-tube logo of the Baker-Davison era.

In 1997 the novel was also issued by BBC Audio as an audio book, read by Colin Baker.

VHS and DVD releases

• This story was released on VHS in the UK in 1993 as part of the Doctor Who 30th Anniversary celebrations.
• It was released on DVD in the UK on 15 October 2001.
• The DVD commentary is provided by actors Colin Baker (The Doctor), Nicola Bryant (Peri), and Nabil Shaban (Sil).
• A Special Edition DVD was released on 10 September 2012.^[7]

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Sixth Doctor

• Vengeance on Varos at BBC Online
• Vengeance on Varos on TARDIS Index File, an external wiki
• Vengeance on Varos at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
• Script to Screen: Vengeance on Varos, by Jon Preddle (Time Space Visualiser issue 41, October 1994)

Reviews

• Vengeance on Varos reviews at Outpost Gallifrey
• Vengeance on Varos reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide

Target novelisation

• On Target — Vengeance on Varos

Plot

The Axons land on Earth, desperately in need of fuel. They propose to exchange the miracle substance they call Axonite for some much needed energy. Axonite is a "thinking" molecule that can replicate any substance... or so they claim. As it turns out, the ship is a single organism called Axos whose purpose is to feed itself by draining all energy through the Axonite (which is just a part of itself), including the energy of every life form on Earth. The deception about the Axonite's beneficial properties was to facilitate the distribution of Axonite across the globe.

Meanwhile, the Master, who was captured by Axos and used his knowledge of Earth as a bargaining chip for his life and freedom, escapes Axos and makes his way to the Doctor's TARDIS — his own having been seized by Axos. He plans to repair it to escape from Earth.

Axos itself becomes interested in the Doctor's knowledge of time travel. It now plans to broaden its feeding base by travelling through time as well as space. The Doctor, realising this, plans to trick Axos into linking up its drive unit to his TARDIS so that he can send Axos into a perpetual time loop. After tricking the Master into completing the repairs on his TARDIS, the Doctor does just that. This results in every part of Axos dematerialising from Earth, including the Axon automatons and the Axonite.

At the end, with the Master having escaped in his own TARDIS during the confusion aboard Axos, the Doctor returns to Earth, but not of his own volition. The Time Lords have programmed the TARDIS to always return to Earth, the Doctor states that he is a "galactic yo-yo!".

Continuity

• Both the Doctor and the Master refer to the events of this serial in "Last of the Time Lords".
• "The Feast of Axos", a Big Finish audio play with the Sixth Doctor, tells the subsequent story of astronauts visiting Axos, still imprisoned in the time loop.
• The Axons reappear in the Eleventh Doctor Doctor Who Magazine comic strip "The Golden Ones", beginning in issue #425. In this story they are behind a brain-enhancing drink and associated anime show in Tokyo. The drink transforms children into Axons by "increasing the links between neurons in the brain" - in other words, the axons.^[1]

The Angel's Kiss: A Melody Malone Mystery is a 2012 mystery novel fictionally written by the character of River Song under the detective pen-name Melody Malone.^[1] The book is based on a story partially told in British science fiction television series Doctor Who episode "The Angels Take Manhattan". The Angel's Kiss is a prequel to the story shown in the episode, as well as the book The Doctor reads within the show, as The Angel's Kiss does not contain the chapter revealing Amy Pond's departure. The book was released in e-book format on October 4, 2012.^[2]

Summary

The story follows titular character Melody Malone, a detective that has been hired by film star Rock Railton. Railton believes that he is to be killed and makes mention to the "kiss of the Angel", which piques Malone's curiosity enough to take the case. Melody is further drawn into the mystery when studio owner Max Kliener notices her at a press party and insists on making her into a star. Soon Melody discovers that Kliener's intents are not entirely honest and that she must find a way to escape what he has in store for her before it is too late.^[3]

References

1. ^ Connelly, Brendon. "BBC To Actually Publish The Book That Plays Key Role In This Week’s Doctor Who". Bleeding Cool. Retrieved 2 October 2012.
2. ^ Davis, Lauren. "The detective novel from last week’s Doctor Who is now available as an ebook". io9. Retrieved 7 October 2012.
3. ^ Golder, Dave. "Doctor Who’s First E-Book Exclusive, Inspired By “The Angels Take Manhattan”". SFX. Retrieved 2

just a couple of ideas...

"The Angels Take Manhattan"^[3] is the fifth episode of the seventh series of the revived British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast on BBC One on 29 September 2012.^[2] It is the last in the first block of episodes in the seventh series, to be followed by a Christmas special. The episode was written by head writer Steven Moffat and directed by Nick Hurran. The story takes place in New York^[4] and features recurring monsters the Weeping Angels.^[5]

This is the final episode that features Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) and Rory Williams (Arthur Darvill).^[4] Alex Kingston reprises her role as River Song,^[1] the Doctor's wife and occasional companion, the daughter of Amy and Rory.

Plot

In the prologue, private detective Sam Garner in 1938 New York is hired by the shady Mr. Grayle to investigate "moving statues" at the Winter Quay, a set of apartment blocks. There, Sam finds an elderly version of himself dying in a bed. Chased by Weeping Angels to the rooftop, the man is confronted by a grimacing Statue of Liberty.

In present-day New York City, the Doctor, Amy, and Rory enjoy a picnic in Central Park. The Doctor is reading to Amy from a 1930s detective pulp novel, "The Angel's Kiss: A Melody Malone Story", while Rory leaves them to go for coffee. As he reads, the Doctor tears out the last page, noting he does this to avoid endings. Continuing, the Doctor and Amy are surprised to find Rory turn up in the plot of the novel. The Doctor and Amy continue to read in concurrence with events in the past, as Rory is joined by the book's lead character, Melody Malone, who turns out to be River Song. They are both abducted by Grayle's henchmen. River tells Rory that New York is subjected to unusual time distortions which would prevent the TARDIS from landing in this time period. As the Doctor and Amy return to the TARDIS, he scolds her to not read ahead in the novel for fear of creating a fixed point in time that they must follow, as she has already read about the Doctor breaking River's wrist.

Grayle has Rory locked up in his basement with cherub-shaped Weeping Angels with only a box of matches to protect himself, while River is taken to his secured office. Information she provides via the book allows the Doctor to signal her via the writing on an old Chinese vase, and she activates a homing beacon, allowing the Doctor to guide the TARDIS to Grayle. In the meantime Grayle has shown River a damaged Weeping Angel, part of his collection, and allowed it to grab River's wrist to gain information about the Angels from her. Amy deduces that River will write the book and correctly guesses that she would have left hints. They identify Rory's location from the chapter titles in the novel, and the Doctor sends Amy to rescue him. However, the Doctor finds the last chapter is about Amy's farewell and frets. Upset, he tells River to free herself from the Angel without breaking her wrist. The Doctor joins Amy and finds that Rory has run out of matches and with no means to look at the Angels was snatched by them. River appears, having freed herself apparently without harm from the Angel, and soon locates Rory nearby at Winter Quay: he has unusually been moved in space and not time. However, as they race to leave, the Doctor grabs River's hand and discovers that her wrist is broken. Realising the events of the book are still coming true, the Doctor uses his regeneration energy to heal River.

At the Quay, Rory is drawn to an apartment labelled with his name, just as the others catch up to him. In the apartment, they find an elderly Rory on his death bed, calling to Amy before dying. The Doctor realises that Rory's fate is now assured; the Doctor recognises that the Quay has been used by the Angels many times within the populous New York City as a battery farm, leaving their victims to live out their lives in solitude, whilst the Angels feast on their energy. Rory and Amy refuse to accept their fate, insisting they can run from the Angels forever. The Doctor and River agree, and help to distract the Angels converging on them.

Amy and Rory make it to the roof of the building, where the Statue of Liberty, a giant Angel itself, awaits to take Rory to the past. Rory determines there is another exit — were he to die by jumping from the roof before the Angels take him, a paradox would be created, ending their preying methods and wiping them from existence. Rather than pushing him as he requests, Amy opts to join him, and just as the Doctor and River reach the roof, the two jump, creating the paradox and killing the Angels.

The four find themselves in a New York graveyard in the present era again, though the Doctor notes with the paradox, he can no longer travel to that point in time for fear of destroying New York. As the others enter the TARDIS, Rory spots a tombstone with his name on it — moments before he is touched by one surviving Angel and disappears into the past. A distraught Amy convinces herself that if she were touched by the same Angel, it would send her to the same time it sent Rory. While she is still staring at the Angel she tearfully says goodbye to River. The Doctor tries to talk her out of it, knowing he can't return to the past to see her again, but River insists she goes. Amy finally says goodbye to the "Raggedy Man" - her early nickname for the Doctor - as she turns to face him and lets the Angel take her. The tombstone then changes to reflect Amy's presence in the past with Rory, both having died at an old age.

In the TARDIS, the distraught Doctor asks River to travel with him, which she agrees to do, but "not always". He considers this, and suddenly realises that while River may be the author of "The Angel's Kiss", Amy would be the one to publish the book, and may have left a final message in the afterword. He races back to their picnic spot to find the page he tore out earlier containing the afterword. In it, Amy tells him that she and Rory love him and assures him that they lived a good and happy life together. She also requests that he pay another visit to her younger self to reassure her that he will come back for her and take her on amazing journeys. As the episode ends, young Amelia Pond waits for the Doctor in her garden, looking to the skies as she hears the sound of the TARDIS engines.

Continuity

When River asks the Doctor whether the bulb on top of the TARDIS needs changing, he says that he has just changed it; flickering light bulbs have been a common motif throughout the current series, as well as a tactic used by the Angels in their previous appearances.^[6] In Amy's voice over, references are made to "The Eleventh Hour", "The Curse of the Black Spot", "The Big Bang", "Vincent and the Doctor", and "The Beast Below".

The closing view of young Amelia waiting in her garden reprises a scene from "The Eleventh Hour".

Production

Matt Smith during filming of the episode in Central Park, New York

In December 2011, Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat announced that Amy and Rory would leave in the seventh series in "heartbreaking" circumstances.^[7] Amy's exit was a mutual decision between Moffat and Gillan.^[8] Gillan wanted her character to have a final ending, and ruled out returning to the show in the future as she felt it would take away from the impact of her final scene.^[9][10] Moffat stated he felt "tremendous pressure" writing Amy and Rory's ending.^[11] He later revealed that he "completely changed" the ending as he was writing it, feeling the emphasis was wrong.^[12] Gillan refused to read the script for a few weeks after she received it because she "didn't want to make it real".^[13] She said in an interview, "I literally couldn't read it without crying. It was the most highly-charged read-through I've ever experienced. But I couldn't have asked for a better exit. I don't think it'll be what people expect."^[14] However, the final episode Gillan and Darvill shot as Amy and Rory was actually the previous episode, "The Power of Three".^[13] Moffat was also interested in coming up with a new form for the Angels, and so he introduced the putti.^[15]

Much of the episode was filmed in Central Park in New York City in April 2012.^[16] The cast and crew were met with thousands of American fans, which surprised Smith, Gillan, and Darvill.^[17] Other scenes were shot at night in the city, involving old-fashioned cars.^[18] Moffat was in New York City when he came up with the story, and thought it was appropriate for the Weeping Angels.^[19] He described the city as "a different backdrop" to shoot a Doctor Who story in, and made use of its architecture.^[20] Fellow executive producer Caroline Skinner felt that the location "has such scale and romance" which "[gave] the episode a real atmosphere and a very different tone for Doctor Who".^[19] This marks the second time Doctor Who has filmed principal photography in the United States, the first being the opening sixth series episodes "The Impossible Astronaut"/"Day of the Moon".^[21] The week spent filming in the city was done by a "small unit by American standards" according to producer Marcus Wilson. They did not take any props of Angels or the TARDIS, which were instead added in post-production.^[15] Other filming locations included University of Bristol,^[22] Cardiff University ^[23] and a cemetery in Llanelli.^[24] The New York skyline was added into the cemetery in post-production.^[15]

The Doctor Who logo in the title sequence featured a texture showing the Statue of Liberty's crown,^[25] in keeping with the varied "blockbuster" themes for each of the opening five episodes of the series.^[26]

The Angel's Kiss: A Melody Malone Story

The story that the Doctor reads in this episode is titled The Angel's Kiss: A Melody Malone Story. BBC Books is due to publish this as an ebook on 4 October 2012.^[27]

Broadcast and reception

"The Angels Take Manhattan" was first broadcast in the United Kingdom on 29 September 2012.^[28] Overnight ratings showed that it was watched by 5.9 million viewers live, an increase of 400,000 from the previous week.^[29] It also received an Appreciation Index of 88, the second highest of the series behind "Asylum of the Daleks" (89).^[30]

Critical reception

The episode received positive reviews. Dan Martin of The Guardian gave a positive review, writing, "This was a fitting end to a golden era, and bravo to Steven Moffat for telling such an involving, emotional story with such style". He also praised the concept of the cherubs and the Angels in New York. However, he noted that he was "flummoxed" as to where in River's timeline the episode took place.^[31] The Daily Telegraph reviewer Gavin Fuller gave it five out of five stars, concluding "'The Angels Take Manhattan' brought this mini-run of the series to a close with easily the best episode of the five: a powerful, taut, compelling, filmic, emotionally punchy affair which re-established the Angels as one of the standout monsters of the series and gave Amy Pond a fine send off". While he praised the four actors he felt Gillan was the star, and noted that Rory did not "get any sort of send-off".^[32] Keith Phipps of The A.V. Club gave "The Angels Take Manhattan" a grade of A, attributing its success to "the way it does double duty as a twist adventure and a highly emotional story of farewells".^[33]

Sam Wollaston, also writing for The Guardian, wrote positively of the scare factor in the episode, as well as the sadness.^[34] Neela Debnath of The Independent described it as a "wonderful swansong to the duo" and particularly praised the "stylish" cinematography and sense of danger. However, she considered the "only flaw" to be "the rule that time cannot be changed if one knows what is going to happen ... though it is probably best not to question the timey wimey side of things and just accept it and enjoy the adventure".^[35] IGN's Matt Risley rated the episode 9 out of 10, writing that it "stood strong as a heartfelt, emotional end for the TARDIS' longest serving companions (since the show's noughties' return at least), and the best episode of the season thus far". Risley also praised the three leads, though he did admit the episode "left a few nitpicky questions".^[36]

Digital Spy reviewer Morgan Jeffery gave "The Angels Take Manhattan" five out of five stars, despite noting "plotholes ... and slightly-too-convenient plot contrivances" and that Rory did not get a heroic exit. Jeffery particularly praised the build-up to Amy and Rory's departure as well as the "superb production design".^[37] Dave Golder of SFX awarded the episode four out of five stars, believing that the "bittersweet exit" of the Ponds distracted the viewer from various narrative problems, such as the Statue of Liberty. He felt that Gillan and Darvill "were on top form" as well as Smith's "brilliant performance" and a "less over-the-top River", and also wrote positively about the noir theme and the Angels using the Winter Quay as a battery farm.^[25] The Huffington Post writer Maureen Ryan was more critical of the episode, worrying that the BBC's international promotion of the show was to the detriment of the quality of the writing. She felt that Amy deserved a better exit and "was crowded out by the distracting presence of River Song and by the fact that Rory was the one to make the essential choices first". She also personally disliked the "timey-whimey" devices, and commented that the "big and operatic tone the director was clearly going for clashed with the mood of film noir" and that the Angels "felt less menacing" and the "pace was a little too frantic".^[38]

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Eleventh Doctor

• "The Angels Take Manhattan" at the BBC Doctor Who homepage
• The Angels Take Manhattan on TARDIS Index File, an external wiki
• "The Angels Take Manhattan" at Doctor Who: A Brief History Of Time (Travel)

Following a malfunction on the TARDIS console and the bleating of a klaxon indicating something is amiss, the Doctor insists the fault locator shows nothing is wrong and it is safe to venture outside. He leads his companions Ian, Barbara and Susan to the world beyond and within minutes they find a dead giant earthworm followed by a large deceased ant. They seem to have died immediately. After some deduction the travellers realise they have arrived on Earth but have shrunk in size to about an inch.

Ian is investigating a discarded matchbox when someone picks it up and he is hurled around inside. That someone is a government scientist called Farrow. He is met by a callous industrialist named Forester to tell him that his application for DN6, a new insecticide, has been rejected. In reality DN6 should not be licensed: it is far too deadly to all insect life. When they fall out over this news, Forester shoots Farrow and leaves him for dead on the lawn.

The Doctor, Barbara and Susan hear the gunshot as an enormous explosion, and head for the house. They find Ian unhurt near the dead body and surmise a murder has taken place but can do little about it. They are determined, however, to ensure the murderer is brought to justice despite their microscopic size. While avoiding a cat, the travellers get split up again with Ian and Barbara hiding in a briefcase. The giant Forester returns to the lawn and collects the briefcase, taking it inside to the laboratory. His aide, Smithers, arrives and suspects him of murder, but does not report him for fear of undermining the DN6 project to which he has given his life.

The Doctor and Susan scale a drainpipe to gain access to the house and locate their friends, braving the height as they go. Meanwhile Ian and Barbara examine the laboratory and encounter a giant fly, which is killed instantly when it contacts sample seeds that had been sprayed with DN6. Barbara foolishly touched one seed earlier and soon starts to feel unwell. Nevertheless, attracted by Susan’s voice in the reverberating plughole, the four friends are reunited.

Forester has meanwhile doctored Farrow’s report so as to give DN6 the licence he wants and, disguising his voice as Farrow’s, makes a supportive phonecall to the ministry to the same effect. This is overheard by the local telephone operator, Hilda Rowse, and her policeman husband, Bert, who start to suspect something is wrong.

The Doctor has meanwhile realised the deadly and everlasting nature of DN6 and the probable contamination of Barbara. They try to alert someone by hoisting up the phone receiver with corks, but cannot make themselves heard. Hilda notes the engaged signal, however, and she and Bert become even more concerned. Forester and Smithers return to the lab and correct the engaged handset and then Hilda rings to check things are okay. She rings again moments later and asks for Farrow and, when Forester impersonates him, immediately spots the faked voice and so knows there is something badly wrong. Bert heads off to the house to investigate.

The Doctor and his companions decide to start a fire to attract attention to the house and succeed in setting up an aerosol can of insecticide and a lab bench gas jet as a bomb. This coincides with Smithers discovering the true virulence of DN6 - it's lethal to everything - and demanding Forester stop seeking a licence. Forester spots the makeshift bomb, which goes off in his face. Smithers retrieves the gun as PC Rowse arrives and then places both under arrest.

Their work done, the travellers return to the TARDIS and the Doctor reconfigures the machine to return them to normal size. Barbara, who was on the verge of death, recovers on being returned to full size; the insecticide and seed responsible aboard the TARDIS shrinking to their real microscopic and minuscule sizes.

Production

An early draft of this story – by C.E. Webber and entitled The Giants – was originally meant to be the first story of the first season.^[5]

Episode 4

This story was originally four episodes in length. Upon viewing Episodes 3 and 4, which focused more heavily on Hilda and Bert, Head of Drama Sydney Newman ordered them spliced together in order to form a faster-paced climax (Episode 3) focusing on the core characters of the series. Episode 4 was called "The Urge to Live" and directed by Douglas Camfield (instead of Mervyn Pinfield, who directed Episodes 1-3). When Episodes 3 and 4 were edited together to make the new Episode 3, only Camfield was credited.

The decision to splice the last two episodes into one would have ramifications for the second production block of the series, when the producers were left with a one-episode space following Galaxy 4. Rather than producing a single-episode stand-alone story or extend any of the planned serials, Mission to the Unknown was commissioned to serve as a prelude to The Daleks' Master Plan without the participation of any of the regular cast. This was produced in the same block as Galaxy 4, and both were held over to be the first two serials of Season 3.^[6]

The 2012 DVD includes recreations of the original Episodes 3 and 4, based on the original scripts and featuring newly recorded dialogue and animation.^[7]

In print

A novelisation of this serial, written by Terrance Dicks, was published by Target Books in January 1990. It was the final serial of the William Hartnell era to be novelised. The novel also reinstated much of the material cut to make the televised serial into three episodes.

Doctor Who book
Planet of Giants
Series	Target novelisations
Release number	145
Writer	Terrance Dicks
Publisher	Target Books
Cover artist	Alister Pearson
ISBN	0-426-20345-3
Release date	18 January 1990

VHS and DVD releases

This serial was released on VHS in 2002; it was the first commercially-released story to receive the VidFIRE process.^[8] It was released on DVD in Region 2 on 20 August 2012.^[9]

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: First Doctor

• Planet of Giants at BBC Online
• Planet of Giants at Doctor Who: A Brief History Of Time (Travel)
• Planet of Giants at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
• Planet of Giants on TARDIS Index File, an external wiki

Reviews

• Planet of Giants reviews at Outpost Gallifrey
• Planet of Giants reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide

Target novelisation

• Planet of Giants novelisation reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide
• On Target — Planet of Giants

Former companion actress Janet Fielding is fighting cancer, it has been revealed.

No more details about her condition are known at the moment but Peter Davison, whose Doctor she appeared opposite as Tegan Jovanka, has won the support of other ex-Doctor actors to launch a charity fund-raising convention - Project MotorMouth - that aims to "not only raise money for a good cause but also keep Janet's spirits up."

Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann, and David Tennant are the first guests announced for the event, which will take place on Saturday 19th January 2013 at the Copthorne Hotel Slough-Windsor. All guests will be appearing subject to work commitments.

The profits from the convention will go to Project MotorHouse, which is seeking to convert a derelict building in Thanet into a mixed-use venue promoting sustainable technology and a place where youngsters can get help with starting their own businesses. Fielding is the project co-ordinator for the organisation as well as its community champion.

She first appeared in Doctor Who in 1981 in Tom Baker's final story, Logopolis, and left the TV series in the 1984 story Resurrection of the Daleks, but made a cameo reappearance two stories later in a regeneration dream sequence for Davison's swansong The Caves of Androzani.

She has also worked as a theatrical agent - a job that saw her representing McGann when he won the role of the Eighth Doctor - and has played the role of Tegan in a number of audio productions for Big Finish.

reprinted from gally base

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The Ambassadors of Death is the third serial of the seventh season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in seven weekly parts from 21 March to 2 May 1970.

Plot

With the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce providing security, the British space programme under Professor Ralph Cornish oversees the launch of the Recovery Seven probe. This has been sent into Earth orbit to make contact with the missing Mars Probe Seven and its two astronauts, who lost contact with Earth eight months earlier. The pilot of Recovery Seven, Van Lyden, makes contact with the Probe but is then silenced by a piercing unearthly sound. The noise troubles the Doctor who travels with his assistant Liz Shaw to the Space Centre to investigate the situation, offering insights into the origin and meaning of the sound, which he interprets as coded messages. He also identifies a reply message sent from Earth and this is pinpointed to be coming from a warehouse seven miles away. Led by Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, UNIT troops attack the warehouse and engage in a gun battle with troops organised by General Charles Carrington.

Meanwhile Recovery Seven has returned to Earth and while UNIT is transporting it more of Carrington’s troops stage an ambush and steal the vessel. The Doctor relocates it, by which time it is empty. Carrington has ensured the contents – three space suited astronauts – are detained elsewhere, feeding them radiation to keep them alive. Carrington is now introduced to the Doctor by Sir James Quinlan, the Minister for Technology, who explains that he is head of the newly formed Space Security Department, and that his actions were to protect the astronauts as they had been infected with contagious radiation. Quinlan states that they did not want the public to become panic-stricken and so Carrington had been acting with authority in his actions.

By the time Carrington takes the Doctor and his friends to meet the astronauts the situation has changed again. A criminal named Reegan has organised their abduction, killing the soldiers and scientists protecting them. When the Doctor and Liz examine the situation they work out that human tissue could not have withstood the degree of radiation emitted to the astronauts, who are still in orbit, meaning the three space suits contain alien beings instead. Reegan now engineers the kidnapping of Liz Shaw to aid his own scientist, Lennox, a disgraced Cambridge professor, in maintaining the alien beings while they are incarcerated. Together they build a device to communicate with and control the aliens, who are sent on a killer rampage at the Space Centre, killing Quinlan and others. Liz later helps Lennox escape, but his bid for freedom is cut short by Reegan’s merciless revenge.

Despite the obstruction of the authorities, Ralph Cornish is determined to organise another space flight to Mars to investigate the situation. With Quinlan dead, the Doctor now decides to pilot the Recovery Seven probe ship himself. As he prepares to blast off Reegan tries to sabotage the probe by increasing the feed of M3 variant, but the Doctor survives the attempt on his life and succeeds in piloting the probe so that it connects with an enormous spacecraft orbiting Mars. Aboard the spaceship the Doctor discovers the three original astronauts are unharmed but mentally deluded into believing they are in quarantine. An alien being now reveals itself to the Doctor and explains the humans are being held aboard the craft pending the safe return of the Alien Ambassadors. They had been sent to Earth following a Treaty between the race and mankind, but the terms of this agreement have now been broken because of the detention of the Ambassadors. The Doctor offers his personal guarantee to help return the Ambassadors to their mother ship and resolve the conflict before a state of war is declared, and is permitted to leave the alien craft and return to Earth.

When the Doctor touches down he is gassed and kidnapped by Reegan, who takes him to Liz. Reegan’s real paymaster and the real organiser of the situation is revealed to them: General Carrington. The General reveals his actions have been prompted by xenophobia driven by his own encounter with the alien beings when he piloted Mars Probe Six some years earlier. His co-pilot, Jim Daniels, was killed on contact with the aliens and the General signed the treaty with the aliens to lure three of their number to Earth, where he hoped he could unveil their real agenda of alien invasion. The use of the ambassadors to kill people was similarly done to arouse public opinion against them. The next phase of his plan is to force the Ambassadors to confess their plot on public television. Leaving the Doctor and Liz working on a new and improved communication device to translate the aliens, Carrington departs for the Space Centre, where he aims to unmask the alien Ambassador before the eyes of the world – and then call on the powers of the Earth to blast the spaceship from the skies.

UNIT soldiers raid the secret base and rescue the Doctor and Liz, apprehending Reegan and his thugs. The Doctor races to the Space Centre and he and the Brigadier apprehend Carrington before he can make his broadcast. Sadly, he is taken away, protesting he was only following his moral duty. The Doctor arranges for Cornish and Liz to send the Ambassadors back to their own people, after which the three human astronauts will be returned.

Continuity

• In the first episode, the Doctor makes a reference to the Brigadier's destruction of the Silurians.
• Sergeant Benton has been promoted from Corporal since his appearance in The Invasion (1968).^[1]
• The Mars Probe space programme appeared in two of Virgin's Doctor Who novels. Who Killed Kennedy revealed that the shuttles were developed from technology taken from International Electromatics. In The Dying Days, the programme was abandoned when Mars Probe 13 accidentally encountered the Ice Warriors and it was agreed that Earth would stay away from their territory; however, a 1997 Mars Probe mission precipitates a Martian invasion and takeover.

Production

• This story was initially developed to feature the Second Doctor and his last companions, Jamie McCrimmon and Zoe Heriot. As such, it was set well into the future, and did not include UNIT. When all three actors left the programme at the end of the sixth series, it was rewritten to fit the consequential revamp. Original script editor David Whitaker proved incapable of writing for the incoming new format and cast, hence the contributions of Trevor Ray, Terrance Dicks and Malcolm Hulke. All concerned parties agreed to leave sole credit to Whitaker and this was the last Doctor Who serial with his name on it. In an interview years later, Terrance Dicks recounted the experience of rewriting Whitaker's story:

• Working titles for this story included The Invaders from Mars (later the title of a Big Finish Productions audio drama), and The Carriers of Death.
• The opening titles of this story start with the normal music and graphics, yet immediately fade after the Doctor Who title caption. There is a short "teaser" for episode one, and episodes 2-7 feature a reprise of the previous episode's cliffhanger. Starting with the "scream", followed by a zoom-in on the words "The Ambassadors", concluding with "of Death", and a "zap" effect. The experiment was not repeated after this story.
• This was the first story to feature the sting or "scream" into the end title theme. It was added by Brian Hodgson of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop to improve and shape the closing credits.^[1]

Cast notes

• Features a guest appearance by Ronald Allen. See also Celebrity appearances in Doctor Who.
• Cyril Shaps, who plays Lennox in this serial, previously played Viner in The Tomb of the Cybermen.

Reception

Cultural historian James Chapman has written about connections between this Doctor Who serial and earlier science-fiction TV programmes.^[5] The Quatermass Experiment (1953), for example, has a similar storyline concerning astronauts endangering humanity after coming into contact with extraterrestrials.^[5] Chapman also refers to the 1960s Gerry Anderson series Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, whose eponymous aliens are another race of malevolent Martians.^[5]

Patrick Mulkern of Radio Times noted that the script revisions caused an "uneven plot" and anticlimax, and wrote that the "narrative feels extemporised, a bumpy, sometimes thrilling ride, but one with no clear end in sight".^[1] However, he praised the cliffhangers and direction as well as the acting of Pertwee and John.^[1]

In print

Doctor Who book
The Ambassadors of Death
Series	Target novelisations
Release number	121
Writer	Terrance Dicks
Publisher	Target Books
Cover artist	Tony Masero
ISBN	0-491-03712-0
Release date	21 May 1987 (Hardback) 1 October 1987 (Paperback)

A novelisation of this serial, written by Terrance Dicks, was published by Target Books in May 1987 and was the final Third Doctor serial to be adapted.

VHS, DVD and CD releases and restoration

• Although the entire story was made on colour videotape, only the first episode was retained in this format. In fact, it is the earliest episode that survives in the series' original videotaped format, either in colour or black and white. The remaining six episodes were retained only as black-and-white film recordings and poor-quality domestic colour recordings made from a US transmission in the 1970s. This recording was severely affected by rainbow-coloured patterns of interference that at times overtake the entire picture.^[6]
• In May 2002, a restoration project for the story's VHS release combined the usable colour information from the domestic recordings with the black and white picture from the film prints, creating a high-quality colour picture. All told, over half of the serial's running time is presented in colour, including all of Episodes 1 and 5, and sections from 2, 3, 6 and 7. The remaining footage, including all of Episode 4, was deemed unsuitable for restoration, and so remained in black-and-white.
• In 2009, a commentary for the future DVD release was recorded, including Caroline John, Nicholas Courtney, Michael Ferguson, Peter Halliday, Derek Ware and Terrance Dicks. The January 2011 edition of WIRED UK magazine, published in December 2010 carried a full-page article on the recolourisation of the story. It was stated in the article that the Restoration Team expect to deliver a fully restored colour version of the story to the BBC "within weeks".^[7] In issue 430 of Doctor Who Magazine the DVD was announced but later set back due to restoration difficulties.^[8] This was delayed until 2012 when Doctor Who Magazine issue 449 confirmed that the full colour version would soon be out on DVD.^[9] It was later announced that the story would be released on DVD on 1 October 2012^[10]
• The original soundtrack for this serial was released on CD in the UK in August 2009.^[11] The linking narration was provided by Caroline John.

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Third Doctor

• The Ambassadors of Death at BBC Online
• The Ambassadors of Death at Doctor Who: A Brief History Of Time (Travel)
• The Ambassadors of Death at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
• Doctor Who Locations - The Ambassadors of Death

Fan reviews

• The Ambassadors of Death reviews at Outpost Gallifrey
• The Ambassadors of Death reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide

Target novelisation

THE tdp has been nominated in the DWO pole to find the best podcast

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The Cube is a BAFTA Award–winning British game show which first aired on ITV on 22 August 2009. Presented by Phillip Schofield, it offers contestants the chance to win a top prize of £250,000^[1] by completing challenges from within a 4m × 4m × 4m Perspex cube. The show is based on the idea that even straightforward tasks become extremely challenging when confined and put under pressure in front of a large live studio audience. Once inside contestants can feel both claustrophobic and disorientated. Using "state-of-the-art filming techniques"^[2] the show aims to demonstrate the intense anxiety which contestants undergo as they progress through each task. Colin McFarlane provides the disembodied voice of The Cube, who explains the rules of the games.

"The Power of Three"^[3] is the fourth episode of the seventh series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who that will air on BBC One and BBC One HD on 22 September 2012. It was written by Chris Chibnall and directed by Douglas Mackinnon.

The story will feature Matt Smith as alien time traveller the Doctor and his companions, Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) and her husband Rory (Arthur Darvill). It will be Amy and Rory's penultimate episode. It will also feature UNIT^[1] and will celebrate Amy and Rory's time with the Doctor by telling it from their point of view and examining his influence on their lives.

Production

The episode's title was originally reported as "Cubed",^[4] but was later announced as "The Power of Three".^[3] Chris Chibnall had previously written the Doctor Who episodes "42" (2007), "The Hungry Earth"/"Cold Blood" (2010), and the second episode of the series, "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship". He was also a major contributor to the spinoff series Torchwood.^[5][6] "The Power of Three" is his second contribution to Doctor Who's seventh series, after "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship".^[7] Chibnall described "The Power of Three" as "a lovely big Earth invasion story" but different than the ones done before, as it focused on Amy and Rory's time with the Doctor and the impact of him on their lives.^[7] He stated it is told more from Amy and Rory's point of view than ever before, and is about celebrating them before they leave in the following episode.^[7] Chibnall's brief from showrunner Steven Moffat was to "live with the Doctor — The Man Who Came to Dinner, Doctor Who style.^[7] Chibnall was also inspired by the story of the MSC Napoli.^[7] Smith put disgust into the Doctor's remark concerning Twitter in the episode, reflecting his real-life decision to stay off the social network.^[8]

"The Power of Three" was filmed by itself in the series' third production block.^[9] Because of this schedule, it was the final episode Gillan and Darvill filmed as Amy and Rory.^[10] Their last scene filmed together was getting into the TARDIS with the Doctor; when the doors closed Gillan, Darvill, and Smith hugged and started crying.^[11][12] Some exterior scenes at Amy and Rory's house were re-shot in June and July 2012, with Darvill briefly returning for the June re-shoot.^[4][13]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e} "Doctor Who Series 7 News Accumulator". SFX. 14 August 2012. Retrieved 18 August 2012.
2. ^ http://www.radiotimes.com/episode/r8yg7/doctor-who--the-power-of-three
3. ^ ^{a b} "The Power of Three and The Angels Take Manhattan". BBC. 15 August 2012. Retrieved 16 August 2012.
4. ^ ^{a b} "Doctor Who Series 7: New Episode 4 Reshoot Pics". SFX. 2 July 2012. Retrieved 18 August 2012.
5. ^ Golder, Dave (8 February 2012). "Two Writers Confirmed For Doctor Who Series 7". SFX. Retrieved 18 August 2012.
6. ^ "The Hungry Earth: The Fourth Dimension". BBC. Retrieved 18 August 2012.
7. ^ ^{a b c d e} Cook, Benjamin (26 July 2012). "Life with the Doctor". Doctor Who Magazine (Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent: Panini Comics) (450): 36-39.
8. ^ Mulkern, Patrick (15 August 2012). "Doctor Who premiere — new title sequences, Matt Smith on Twitter and a Big Surprise". Radio Times. Retrieved 18 August 2012.
9. ^ Doctor Who Magazine (Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent: Panini Comics) (446). 5 April 2012.
10. ^ Hogan, Michael (14 August 2012). "Karen Gillan 'in denial' about leaving Doctor Who". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 18 August 2012.
11. ^ Eames, Tom (19 July 2012). "'Doctor Who' stars: There were tears after final scenes together'". Digital Spy. Retrieved 18 August 2012.
12. ^ Fulton, Rick (18 May 2012). "Karen Gillan talks tears at end of Dr Who and her excitement at making new Scots film". Daily Record. Retrieved 18 August 2012.
13. ^ "Doctor Who Series 7: New Official Pic & New Filming Pics". SFX. 8 June 2012. Retrieved 18 August 2012.

Format

All of the games take place from inside The Cube. Contestants are set a task to complete which can range from testing their agility to more simple procedures such as stopping a stopwatch after 10 seconds or building a tower of blocks. If they successfully complete the task, they will move up the money ladder and closer to the top prize. Each contestant is given nine lives. Each time a contestant fails a game, one life is lost, and the contestant must repeat the game. Any contestant who runs out of lives while trying to win a game loses all of the money he or she accumulated. Contestants may stop after any game and take the money they have won, but once a contestant decides to play, he or she cannot back out until after completing that game. Before each game, there is a short demonstration by "The Body", a faceless female character described as an expert in all the games. Her demonstrations allow the contestant to see how the game is played and formulate a strategy to succeed. Her face has not been seen; her outfit is a metal plate over her face, revealing just shoulder-length hair, and at one time, she lifted part of the mask, revealing her mouth and chin, to demonstrate Drift.

The Cube offers each contestant two aids, each of which may be used only once. They may use a Simplify, which will make a certain game easier to complete. It remains in effect for all future attempts of the game until the contestant completes it. They also have the aid of a Trial Run, which is only available from the second game onwards. It gives the contestant a chance to attempt the game without any consequences. Even if the contestant completes the game, to advance to the next game, they must complete it again under the usual circumstances. However, if the contestant fails to complete the game, they will not be penalised for it. To assist contestants in making a decision on whether to play a game, the host can provide the player with statistics about the game they are facing, such as the average number of lives it takes for players to win the game, the percentage of people that completed the game on their first try, or whether one group of people was better at the game than another. With the exception of four episodes (two of which are Celebrity Specials), each episode generally features two contestants.

Filming

Objective Productions first approached Channel 4 in 2008 with the format. It was made into a non-televised pilot by the channel,^[3] and was hosted by Justin Lee Collins. Channel 4 eventually decided not to commission the show because it would have been too expensive.^[4] In February 2009, ITV purchased the rights to the show and filming began during April 2009 at Wembley's Fountain Studios. The Cube is one of the first shows to use the game freeze filming technique on a frequent basis, such as when a contestant jumps. Using specially designed cameras, it allows the viewer to see one side of the Cube before the action is frozen, spun to another face of the Cube and then resumed. Slow-motion shots are again common to show action replays of the task a contestant just completed, or the critical moment of a game, to heighten the excitement of whether the contestant will succeed or fail. The show makes extensive use of CGI to project images onto the walls and ceiling of the Cube, while a screen on the floor is also capable of showing images. These film techniques make the seemingly simple tasks that are put before the contestants seem much more exciting than they would normally be.

The 5th and 6th series of The Cube were filmed from 26 January 2012. On 30 January, long-distance runner, Mo Farah took part in filming an Olympian special - which aired on Saturday 14 July. He became the first £250,000 jackpot winner with six lives remaining.^[5] Filming is known to be taking place as Schofield has annnouced it on Twitter. Additionally, filming of series 5 was announced on This Morning on 6 February 2012.

Celebrity specials

Celebrity specials of The Cube so far feature two contestants in each episode, except for two specials. Celebrity contestants that are defeated by The Cube are given £1,000 for their charities.

Dame Kelly Holmes played The Cube but only took £1,000 for DKH Legacy Trust. Jenni Falconer won £20,000 for Breast Cancer BC2000.

Joe Swash played for the Ben Kinsella Trust, he lost a game but took £1,000 away for them. Kelly Osbourne took £10,000 from the Cube for The Prince's Trust.

Coronation Street star Jennie McAlpine lost against The Cube but took £1,000 for Mood Swing. Boxer Ricky Hatton played and won £20,000 for Genesis Breast Cancer.

McFly star Tom Fletcher (the first celebrity that took a whole episode) won £100,000, splitting it between 2 charities, Comic Relief and BIRT .

In a Coronation Street special of The Cube on Christmas Eve of 2011, Julie Hesmondhalgh took £20,000 for Maundy Relief and Ryan Thomas played for Christie's and won £10k for them.

In an Olympians special Denise Lewis took away £10,000 from The Cube for her charity Breast Cancer Care and Sally Gunnell won £20,000 for Chestnut Tree Children's Hospital

In the third edition of the Olympians Specials Fatima Whitbread took away £20,000 for 21st Century Youth and Dai Greene won £50,000 for his charity.

Other celebrities who took in The Cube in January were Ashley Banjo and David Haye. These episodes will also air later this year on ITV1.

Records

In the first series, Jonny Lowery became the first person to reach the final game, having only three lives left. For his final game, he was given a more difficult version of Direction, the first game he faced in The Cube, losing three lives and using his Simplify. In the more difficult version, the path had been narrowed to just 20 centimetres. He decided to leave with £100,000.

In the second series, Paul McDonald became the second person to reach the final game, having five lives left. For his final game, he was given a more difficult version of Structure, in which he had to build a construction of blocks within a time limit of twelve seconds, three seconds less than his original attempt. He also decided to leave with £100,000.

In the third series, Tom Fletcher of boyband McFly managed to reach the final game, having four lives left. For his final game, he was given a more difficult version of Barrier, in which he had to cross three barriers instead of the original two. He also decided to leave with £100,000. The Fourth person to get to the final game was Luke who was given a more difficult version of Rebound. At the jackpot setting the target zone the ball had to land in was reduced by a significant amount but he also left with £100,000.

Teresa was the first person to retire from the game due to injuring her foot in celebration after completing Dual Reflex.

In the fifth series, Mo Farah, Olympic 5000 and 10000 metre runner, managed to not only reach the final game but also played the game, starting the final game with seven lives left (He had lost two lives in his first game Response.). For his final game, he guessed that Response would be his final game but was given a more difficult version of Barrier instead, in which he had to cross three barriers instead of the original two, which he had previously beaten on his first attempt. He won £250,000 only losing one more life in the final game.

Defeated contestants

So far, eighteen contestants have lost all their lives:

• Rhian lost £2,000 on the first episode of Series 1 playing Drop Zone.
• Martin lost £20,000 on the third episode of Series 2 playing Side-Track.
• Alex lost £2,000 on the fifth episode of Series 2 playing Descent.
• Christian lost £20,000 on the eighth episode of Series 2 playing Pinpoint.
• Zoe lost £1,000 on the ninth episode of Series 2 playing Stabilise.
• Dame Kelly Holmes lost £1,000 on the tenth episode of Series 2 playing Gradient.
• Joe Swash lost £20,000 on the eleventh episode of Series 2 playing Pinpoint.
• Jennie McAlpine lost £1,000 on the twelfth episode of Series 2 playing Blind-Shot.
• Paul lost £2,000 on the first episode of Series 3 playing new game Vault.
• Aaron lost £2,000 on the fourth episode of Series 3 playing Cylinder.
• Yolanda lost £10,000 on the fifth episode of Series 3 playing Spike.
• Debbie lost £10,000 on the second episode of Series 4 playing Tilt.
• Sarah lost £1,000 on the third episode of Series 4 playing Revolving Shot.
• Jim lost £10,000 on the fourth episode of Series 4 playing Shatter.
• Isaac lost £2,000 on the fifth episode of Series 4 playing Placement.
• Karen lost £20,000 on the fifth episode of Series 4 playing Construction.
• Neil lost £1,000 on the seventh episode of Series 4 playing Pendulum.
• Graham lost £2,000 on the fourth episode of Series 5 playing Succession.

Top prize winner (£250,000 - Beat The Cube)

• Mo Farah: Celebrity special - Mo Farah Foundation; 6 lives remaining - 14 July 2012 ^[6]

Games

The games are placed in the categories by when they were first introduced. If the game has been played at any other levels, the levels they have been played at have been placed in brackets. When The Cube was first made, 50 games were designed. However, they have added new games every new season. Currently, there are a total of 124 different games that have been played so far. Games featured in the show so far include:

On The Cube board games, there are games that aren't played on shows such as Bullseye Throw - they had to launch a ball of a catapult thrower so it goes through a small ring without making contact.

Transmissions

Ratings

Episode ratings from BARB.^[7]

Series 1

Series 2

Series 3

Series 4

Series 5

International versions

Country	Name	Host	Channel	Top prize	Premiere/air dates
China	梦立方 Dream Cube	Cheng Lei	Dragon TV	To achieve the contestant's dream[8]	13 May 2012
Germany	The Cube–Besiege den Würfel!	Nazan Eckes	RTL	€250,000	29 April 2011[9]
Italy	The Cube - La Sfida	Teo Mammucari	Italia 1	€100,000	7 September 2011[10]
Portugal	O Cubo	Jorge Gabriel	RTP	€30,000	16 May–11 July 2010
Saudi Arabia	المكعب Al Moukaab	Faisal Al Issa	Saudi TV 1	SR250,000	24 March–8 July 2010
Spain	El Cubo	Raquel Sánchez Silva	Cuatro	€150,000	8 February 2012[11]
Ukraine	Куб Kub	Maksim Chmerkovskiy	STB	₴250,000	21 November 2011[12]
United States	The Cube	Neil Patrick Harris	CBS	$500,000	2010 Pilot

• The UK version of The Cube is also currently being broadcast in Ireland by TV3, in New Zealand on TV1, and in Australia on the Nine Network. Most versions of The Cube, even those that air outside the UK, are filmed at The Fountain Studios in London.

Merchandise

An electronic board game based on the series was made available in stores from November 2010.^[13] As of June 2011, the game has been discontinued by most main retailers.^[14] The game comes with an electronic handheld system featuring games such as Time Freeze and Stop Zone, as well as 9 balls- six 18mm blow moulded balls, 1 30mm EVA foam ball, 1 25mm hard ball and one 50mm hard ball. The balls are used for different reasons and the foam ball is used for most games with a ball. For Multisphere, all balls are used unless it is being played in a room with hard floors, in that case eight balls are used. Tubes are used for almost evry physical game for starting positions, voids, tubes, towers and columns. Other equipment in the board game are track pieces, discs, clips, z shaped platform pieces, cannons, blocks, a ball flipper, a beam and card pieces,and a 7x7x7 plastic cube for playing a series of sixty physical games. The cube is used for a conatiner and to connect onto the cube platform for the electronic games. A reducer also comes with the cube allowing it to reduce the size of it. The Simplify for games with the reducer generally remove it. Many well known and classic games are here as well as new games, everyday life games and interesting and complex games. Around the time of the release of the board game, a computerised version of the series was made available via the iTunes store for use on the iPod and iPhone. This version features eighteen games from the series: Angular, Balance, Cylinder, Descent, Drop Zone, Focus, Multisphere, Perimeter, Precision, Pulse, Quantity, Reaction, Revolution, Shatter, Stabilise, Stop Zone, Time Freeze and Velocity. An update for the game was made available in January 2011, adding a further free game, Succession, and making four further games available at a cost: Exact, Pathfinder, Totalise and Tower.^[15] A second update was made available in March 2011, adding a further free game, Axis, and making four further games available at a cost: Invert, Composure, Calculate and Classify. A free online game has also been created, allowing viewers to attempt three games for free. The games that are available are Stop Zone, Cylinder and Multisphere. The player starts with three lives and has three attempts to beat The Cube. Players also have the opportunity to save their high scores in the games and also use Facebook to challenge friends.^[16] On October 5 a Cube game will be released on consoles for the first time. Nintendo 3DS has games such as Vault, Calculate, Pendulum and Pathfinder and many more. If you beat the Cube, then you unlock Extreme Mode, Where you play games never seen on TV. Features: The Body and The Voice on the Hit Show. Demonstrations of each Game. Features 33 games. Extreme Mode includes not seen challenges. Profiles letting multiple people track their wins and losses. Stats for each game. Multiplayer and Head to Head modes. The features are the same for Wii. The PS3 version is different to the 3DS and Wii because you have more ways to play. The PS3 version has games like Memory Flash, Dead Stop, Accelerate, Perimeter, Reflex, Drop Shot and many more. Here are features of the PS3 version of the Cube! Includes the Voice and the Body featured in the hit show. Cut scene demonstration for each game. Features 30 games. Extra DLC available for 10 more challenges. Extreme Mode which includes never seen challenges. Profiles making multiple players track their wins and losses. Stats for each game showing average lives used. Multiplayer Challenge and Head to Head modes. PlayStation Move compatible.

References

Black and White is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. As with all Doctor Who spin-off media, its relationship to the televised serials is open to interpretation.

Plot

The search for the Doctor continues. The Black TARDIS brings Ace and Aristedes to the setting of the classic, epic, Anglo-Saxon poem, Beowulf. The White TARDIS brings Hex and Sally to the same location, but sixteen years later.

Cast

• Seventh Doctor - Sylvester McCoy
• Ace - Sophie Aldred
• Hex - Philip Olivier
• Captain Aristedes - Maggie O'Neill
• Private Sally Morgan- Amy Pemberton
• Garundel - Stuart Milligan
• Young Beowulf - Michael Rouse
• Old Beowulf - Richard Bremmer
• Weohstan - John Banks
• Wiglaf - James Hayward

Continuity

• This is the sixth and final story in the Black TARDIS story arc.
• Aristedes was first heard in the 2010 story, Project Destiny, where she was working for The Forge, just before its destruction.
• Sally met the Doctor in the 2011 story House of Blue Fire. She also features in Project: Nirvana, alongside Captain Aristedes.
• The exterior of the TARDIS was rendered white during the events of the 2009 story, The Angel of Scutari. It remained as such in the stories, Project: Destiny, A Death in the Family, Lurkers at Sunlight's Edge and Protect and Survive.
• Ace and Hex discovered that the Doctor was missing at the start of the previous story, Protect and Survive.
• The TARDIS with the black exterior was inexplicably seen in a trilogy of solo Seventh Doctor stories, Robophobia, The Doomsday Quatrain and House of Blue Fire, which, for the Doctor, take place between Lurkers at Sunlight's Edge and Protect and Survive. It is also in Project: Nirvana, which takes place just before Black and White.
• Aristedes recalls unheard adventures with the Doctor and Sally, fighting Elder Gods such as The Animus (encountered by the First Doctor in the television story The Web Planet) and The Great Intelligence (encountered by the Second Doctor in the television stories The Abominable Snowmen and The Web of Fear). She also mentions The Mi’en Kalarash, which Sally fought in House of Blue Fire. Ace recalls her encounter with The Celestial Toymaker in the audio The Magic Mousetrap.
• The Fast Return Switch was used in the 1964 First Doctor television story, The Edge of Destruction. It has also featured in Big Finish audios such as Seasons of Fear and Neverland.
• The Doctor is heard in several scenes that take place at other points in time. He is heard obtaining the Black TARDIS, just after the events in Alaska in Lurkers at Sunlight's Edge. He is then heard taking it on its first three trips, (Robophobia, The Doomsday Quatrain and House of Blue Fire). He is also heard recruiting Sally, in a scene taken from the end of House of Blue Fire. And he is heard recruiting Captain Aristedes, just after House of Blue Fire.

Notes

• Stuart Milligan played President Richard Nixon in the 2011 Eleventh Doctor television episodes, The Impossible Astronaut and Day of the Moon.
• A alternative cover was first released, to conceal the inclusion of the characters Sally and Aristedes. The actual cover was not revealed until just before the audio's release.^[1]

External links

• Big Finish Productions - Black and White

info to follow

Synopsis

"I suppose that was one of the Doctor's most endearing qualities: the ability to make the bizarre and the terrifying seem utterly normal."
 
When Liz Shaw's friend Jean goes missing, the Doctor and U.N.I.T. are drawn to the scene to investigate. Soon Liz discovers a potential alien invasion that will have far-reaching affects on her life… and the Doctor is unexpectedly re-united with an old enemy…

Written By: Nigel Fairs
Directed By: Mark J Thompson

Cast

Caroline John (Liz Shaw), Nicholas Briggs (The Cybermen)

Synopsis

On a rare day off from her duties at UNIT, Liz Shaw decides to visit her friend Jean Basemore at Oakington, near Cambridge. However, Jean stands her up for their lunch, and is not to be found at her cottage: all that is there is Jean's cat and a television set — both extensively chewed. Liz telephones the Doctor, who is already on his way to Cambridge — UNIT is investigating several missing scientists. The investigation leads to the home of a cleaner, and the Doctor notices that both the cleaner and Jean had recently received reminder notices from their dentist. While the Doctor and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart investigate a suicide at the train station, Liz visits the dentist, Mr. Arnold. Her plans to investigate are thwarted by hypnotic music which sends her to sleep, and when she awakens, dazed and confused, she's had a new filling put in. The Doctor tells her that the dead man at the train station was the cleaner whose home they had visited earlier, and an examination of his body reveals that much of his flesh had been turned into a strange blue metal. As Liz examines the body, she notices that the flesh and bone are still transforming into the alien metal — and then she discovers that the body is full of small robots, like silverfish, which are excreting a blue liquid. One of the creatures attacks a UNIT soldier, and burrows into its flesh. Sergeant Benton attempts to shoot the creatures, but to no avail. In a last-ditch effort, Liz sprays the creatures with a fire extinguisher, which freezes them.

The Doctor identifies the creatures as Cybermats, and explains that the blue liquid is a living metal which converts human flesh into cybernetic parts — it is Cyberman technology, but the Doctor has not seen it's like before. Liz's new filling is made of the same blue metal. The Doctor synthesizes an agent, based on the phosphates in the fire extinguisher, which will halt the growth of the metal. It kills the Cybermat which had burrowed into the UNIT soldier's leg, but his leg is destroyed as well. The Doctor gives Mike Yates instructions on how to create a more precise version of the agent, which will be able to be used as an antidote to revert the conversion process.

Under a mental compulsion, Liz returns to Oakington. She awakens in a buried spaceship, standing in a Cyber-conversion chamber. There, she sees her friend Jean, half-converted into a Cyberman. Jean apologizes for missing their lunch date, and begs Liz to kill her. Horrified, Liz can only watch as Jean is transformed into a Cyberman. The Doctor converses with the lead Cyberman, and realizes that the Cyberman ship had crashed on Earth years earlier, as a scout ship intended to prepare for a Cyberman invasion. Escaping with the aid of the sonic screwdriver, the Doctor and Liz discover the bridge of the Cyber-ship, where a dead, legless Cyberman is found at the helm. The Doctor realizes that the lead Cyberman was a human who had discovered the Cyber-ship and experimented with what he found there — including the blue metal. The Doctor attempts to reach the humanity in the lead Cyberman, who was once a man named Gareth Arnold. Arnold was converted by the blue metal, an experimental Cyberman technology. As the Cybermen threaten the Doctor and the blue metal in Liz's tooth begins to spread into her jaw, the Doctor uses the crude version of his antidote on the Arnold Cyberman, killing him. The other Cybermen return to their cubicles, awaiting instructions. Liz loses consciousness.

She awakens in Jean's cottage, where the Doctor completes the treatment with the advanced version of the conversion antidote. Aside from a missing tooth and some pain in her jaw, she is fine — although somewhat upset to discover that there had been a tiny Cybermat contained in the filling. But, to the Doctor's dismay, the Brigadier has converted the early, crude version of the antidote into a weapon, and uses it to destroy the remaining Cybermen.

Cast

• Liz Shaw — Caroline John
• The Cybermen — Nicholas Briggs

"Dinosaurs on a Spaceship" is the second episode of the seventh series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which first aired on BBC One in the UK on 8 September 2012. It was written by Chris Chibnall and directed by Saul Metzstein.

The episode featured alien time traveller the Doctor (Matt Smith) and his companions Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) and Rory Williams (Arthur Darvill) accompanied by Rory's father Brian (Mark Williams), Queen Nefertiti (Riann Steele), and John Riddell, an English big-game hunter (Rupert Graves). The group landed on a large spaceship that contains dinosaurs.

Plot

When in Egypt with Queen Nefertiti, the Doctor receives a call about a spaceship which will crash into Earth in six hours. Taking Nefertiti with him, he picks up Edwardian explorer John Riddell and his companions Amy and Rory ten months after he last saw them in "Asylum of the Daleks", accidentally taking Rory's father Brian on the TARDIS as well. They land on the spaceship and come face-to-face with ankylosaurus dinosaurs.^[1]

The Doctor and his companions discover that the ship is a Silurian ark designed to carry the reptilian humanoids to a new planet along with flora and fauna from their time period. After escaping from a group of pterodactyls, the Doctor, Rory, and Brian are escorted by two robots to a human called Solomon who was injured in a raptor attack. Solomon, who had boarded the spaceship and killed its inhabitants in order to sell the dinosaurs on board, threatens the Doctor into repairing his legs and into giving him Queen Nefertiti after seeing her value.

Missiles are fired from Earth to stop the ship from crashing. The Doctor disables Solomon's robots and rescues Nefertiti before he tricks the missiles into targeting Solomon's ship and detaching it from the Silurian ark. Meanwhile, Rory and Brian pilot the ark away from the Earth.

The Doctor then takes the Ponds back home after letting Brian view the Earth from orbit. The episode ends after showing that Brian Williams has now taken to travelling across the planet.

Production

Showrunner Steven Moffat said that putting dinosaurs on a spaceship was "the secret of success".^[1] The idea to use dinosaurs in Doctor Who came from the special effects teams The Mill and Millennium FX.^[2] As "Asylum of the Daleks" was a darker opening episode, "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship" is more about fun.^[3] In Moffat's pitch to writer Chris Chibnall, he proposed, "Maybe it's a ship heading towards Earth, and Earth is on alert".^[4] Chibnall had previously written the Doctor Who episodes "42" (2007), "The Hungry Earth"/"Cold Blood" (2010), as well as work for the spinoff series Torchwood.^[5][6] The Doctor had previously encountered dinosaurs in the 1974 serial Invasion of the Dinosaurs.^[7]

Chibnall suggested including a "bonkers" gang of characters picked from around time and space.^[4] He felt that Doctor Who could have "collisions of characters that no other show in the world can do", and that it was about finding a "disparate" group of characters who would "bounce" off each other.^[3] Chibnall asked to introduce Rory's father, as Amy and Rory would be leaving in four episodes and Rory's family life had not been explored yet.^[2] Rupert Graves, who played an Edwardian hunter in this episode, previously worked with Moffat on the BBC series Sherlock.^[8] David Bradley's character, Solomon, was modelled on a "well-known nightclub owner with long hair".^[9] Chibnall described him as "half businessman, half Somali pirate".^[4]

"Dinosaurs on a Spaceship" and the following episode, "A Town Called Mercy", were the first episodes to be produced for the seventh series, both directed by Saul Metzstein.^[10] The two episodes are Metzstein's first Doctor Who credits.^[11] The production team had to be mindful of the series' budget when planning the effects and sets; Chibnall commented that "it would be very easy to spend £300m on this but we don’t have it".^[2] As such, the dinosaurs could not dominate the episode, and Chibnall had to tell "a big other' story".^[3] The episode contains one of the biggest sets ever built for the show.^[12] Some scenes were also filmed at Southerndown beach, Vale of Glamorgan in late February 2012.^[7][13][14] The beach had previously been used as "Bad Wolf Bay" in "Doomsday" (2006) and "Journey's End" (2008), and as the planet Alfava Metraxis in "The Time of Angels"/"Flesh and Stone" (2010).^[15] A preview clip of the episode was released at the 2012 San Diego Comic-Con International.^[1] Smith had to wear padded trousers when riding the dinosaurs, and recalled it was "a painful couple of hours, a laugh though and definitely worth it".^[16] The dinosaurs in the episode were built from scratch, and are a variety of "favourites".^[3]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Edwards, Richard (15 July 2012). "Doctor Who At Comic-Con". SFX. Retrieved 16 July 2012.
2. ^ ^{a b c} Mulkern, Patrick (2 September 2012). "Doctor Who - Dinosaurs on a Spaceship preview: "Fun was absolutely The Big Brief!"". Radio Times. Retrieved 2 September 2012.
3. ^ ^{a b c d} Golder, Dave (3 September 2012). "Doctor Who "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship" Writer Chris Chibnall Interviewed". SFX. Retrieved 3 September 2012.
4. ^ ^{a b c} Cook, Benjamin (26 July 2012). "Life with the Doctor". Doctor Who Magazine (Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent: Panini Comics) (450): 36-39.
5. ^ Golder, Dave (8 February 2012). "Two Writers Confirmed For Doctor Who Series 7". SFX. Retrieved 18 August 2012.
6. ^ "The Hungry Earth: The Fourth Dimension". BBC. Retrieved 18 August 2012.
7. ^ ^{a b} Berriman, Ian (2 August 2012). "Doctor Who Series 7 Trailer Analysis". SFX. Retrieved 2 August 2012.
8. ^ Jeffery, Morgan (22 February 2010). "'Doctor Who' series seven filming begins — Picture". Digital Spy. Retrieved 20 July 2012.
9. ^ Golder, Dave (27 July 2012). "David Bradley Talks About His Doctor Who Role". SFX. Retrieved 28 July 2012.
10. ^ Jeffery, Morgan (9 February 2012). "'Doctor Who' to resume filming this month, Saul Metzstein to direct". Digital Spy. Retrieved 20 July 2012.
11. ^ Golder, Dave (11 February 2012). "Doctor Who series 7: First Director Named". SFX. Retrieved 20 July 2012.
12. ^ Doctor Who Magazine (Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent: Panini Comics) (446). 5 April 2012.
13. ^ Wilkins, Alasdair (24 February 2012). "What's Next for Game of Thrones, Fringe and Doctor Who". io9. Retrieved 2 August 2012.
14. ^ McGloin, Matt (23 February 2012). "Doctor Who Season 7 Returns to "Bad Wolf Bay" Filming Location". Cosmic Book News. Retrieved 2 August 2012.
15. ^ "Southerndown beach, Vale of Glamorgan". BBC. Retrieved 2 August 2012.
16. ^ Bowie-Sell, Daisy (15 August 2012). "Stephen Moffat: bringing Daleks back to Doctor Who was easy decision". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 18 August 2012.

Ian Levine (born 22 June 1953,^[1] in Blackpool, Lancashire) is an English songwriter, producer, and DJ. He is also a well-known fan of the long-running television show Doctor Who.

Levine attended Arnold (House) School in Blackpool from 1963 to 1970. In 1996 Levine traced over 660 members of his own family on his mother's side and organised the enormous Cooklin family reunion, on 21 July in London. This has been called the biggest family reunion of all time^{[citation needed]}, and was covered on the BBC Evening News, and, extensively, in The Jewish Chronicle.

Between 1997 and 1999 Ian Levine produced and directed the documentary film The Strange World of Northern Soul, an anthology of the underground music cult. This was a video box set, containing over 12 hours of footage with booklet and CD, and incorporating 131 performances by the legendary American soul acts who had, in most cases, never been filmed before. The event premiered at the King George's Hall in Blackburn to an audience of 1300 in July 1999. The Strange World of Northern Soul was released on DVD as a six-disc box set, replete with extras, in 2003.

In May 2000, Levine organised the reunion of his entire school class from the 1960s at Arnold School in Blackpool. All 30 members of class 3A were found and brought together to experience lessons, P.E. in the gym, a rugby match, and an assembly with their original teachers, all in original style school uniform. The reunion was filmed and shown by the BBC.^[1]

Music career

Levine is most noted for his work in the music genres of pop, soul, disco, and Hi-NRG.

Earlier in his career he was a disc jockey at the Blackpool Mecca, and became an avid collector of soul, R&B, and Northern Soul records. In the mid-1970s he also produced for disco, leading into the genre's evolution into Hi-NRG.

Levine was also a resident DJ at the legendary gay disco Heaven, an important venue in 1980s gay London.

He and songwriting partner Fiachra Trench were among the main figures in the development of the Hi-NRG style and its moderate success in North America, writing and producing "So Many Men, So Little Time" by Miquel Brown (two million sales), and "High Energy" by Evelyn Thomas (seven million sales).

During the 1980s and 1990s he mixed a number of dance-pop hits for a variety of artists, including Pet Shop Boys, Erasure, Kim Wilde, Bronski Beat, Amanda Lear, Bananarama, Tiffany, Dollar and Hazell Dean. He also founded his own groups: Seventh Avenue, which featured two members of Big Fun; Optimystic; and Bad Boys Inc.

He also wrote and produced for the successful UK boy band Take That, and for The Pasadenas. He has written and produced several TV themes including "Discomania", "Gypsy Girl", "ITV Celebrity Awards Show", "Christmasmania" and "Abbamania".

In 1987, Levine began recording some former artists from Motown. By 1989 the project had grown in size and a reunion of 60 Motown stars in Detroit, Michigan, outside the original Hitsville USA building, attracted attention from several media outlets. Motorcity Records was launched as a record label, initially distributed by PRT and later Pacific, then Charly and finally Total/BMG. By the time the project ended in the mid 1990s, over 850 songs had been recorded by 108 artists who had all been formerly signed to Motown. As an album range, the project continues to be released to this day, but the most successful single was by an artist who hadn't recorded for twenty three years, Frances Nero, with "Footsteps Following Me", co-written with Levine and Ivy Jo Hunter, the man who wrote "Dancing in the Street".

In 2007, Levine formed the label Centre City Records, on which he has released four albums: Northern Soul 2007, Disco 2008, Yesterday and Tomorrow (a collection of his 30 greatest hits, re-interpreted by his current roster of artists) and Northern Soul 2008.

In 2010 Ian Levine formed a new boy band called "Inju5tice". The band launched their career with the song "A Long Long Way From Home" which was a commercial failure. Ian backed away from the project shortly after. Inju5tice later went on to become ELi'Prime.

Doctor Who

Levine is well known as a fan of the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who. Levine was, in part, responsible for the return of a number of missing episodes of the show to the BBC's archives, and was involved in stopping the destruction of further serials after he learnt that they were being discarded. He also retained many off-air recordings.

An unofficial continuity consultant during the early 1980s,^[2] some observers have speculated that the Abzorbaloff monster played by Peter Kay in the Doctor Who episode "Love & Monsters" was based on Levine and reflects his role in fandom.^[3][4] The Abzorbaloff design was created by Blue Peter "Design a Doctor Who Monster"-winner William Grantham.

"Doctor in Distress"

In 1985, when the BBC announced that the series would be placed on an eighteen-month hiatus, and the show's cancellation was widely rumoured, Levine gathered a group of actors from the series, together with a number of minor celebrities, to record a protest single called Doctor in Distress. The participants included the series' two lead actors, Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant, as well as other actors associated with the series such as Nicholas Courtney and Anthony Ainley. Also involved were members of the bands Bucks Fizz, The Moody Blues and Ultravox. Hans Zimmer was one of the musicians involved in the record's production. Levine has since claimed that the song was originally the brain child of Gary Downie, a production manager at the BBC and partner of John Nathan-Turner, the producer of the show at the time.

The single was released under the name “Who Cares?”, and was universally panned. Levine himself said later, "It was an absolute balls-up fiasco. It was pathetic and bad and stupid. It tried to tell the Doctor Who history in an awful high-energy song. It almost ruined me.”^[5]

Later history

In recent years he has claimed that he co-wrote the Season 22 story Attack of the Cybermen with series script editor Eric Saward, although the writer's credit is officially given to “Paula Moore”, a pseudonym for Saward's then girlfriend, Paula Woolsey. Levine's claim is that he wrote the story outline and that Saward wrote the script, with Woolsey contributing nothing.^[1][6]

This version of events was flatly denied by Eric Saward in a Doctor Who Magazine interview, as well as by Woolsey herself when she was interviewed by David J. Howe, Mark Stammers and Stephen James Walker for their series of Doctor Who reference books. Levine at one time worked in close collaboration with the Doctor Who Restoration Team on various DVD releases of classic Doctor Who serials, though he no longer produces documentaries for them.

Levine's efforts to locate missing episodes of Who continue. On 20 April 2006, it was announced on the BBC children's show Blue Peter that Levine would purchase a life-sized Dalek for anyone who would return one of the 108 missing episodes; details were provided on Blue Peter's website.^[7]

DVDs

Ian Levine has also been responsible for producing a number of extras on the Doctor Who DVD releases: the documentaries "Over the Edge" and "Inside the Spaceship" were included on the 3-disc set "The Beginning", while "Genesis of a Classic" appeared on the release for Genesis of the Daleks. Levine has also contributed to many other classic series DVDs, appearing as an in-vision interviewee on occasions, and by allowing the Restoration Team access to his private collection of rare studio footage and off-air recordings.

K-9 and Company

He also composed the theme music for K-9 and Company, an unsuccessful pilot for a proposed Doctor Who spin-off series featuring the robotic dog and Sarah Jane Smith.

American comic books

Levine also possesses one of the world's great collections of American comic books. He claims to have the only complete set of DC Comics in the world, with at least one copy of each DC comic book sold at retail (i.e., not including promotional or giveaway comics) from the 1930s to present.^[1][8] The last vintage comic book he obtained for his collection was a copy of New Adventure Comics #26, which he acquired at the San Diego Comic-Con in July 2005.

Although Levine's complete DC comic book collection does not include all of the hundreds of different promotional (non-retail) and giveaway comic books that DC released over the decades (the particular identifying information for many of them has been lost due to DC not retaining decades-old licensing information), his DC promotional and giveaway collection contains the vast majority of all of the DC promotional and giveaway comic books currently known to have existed, and is perhaps the most complete DC promotional and giveaway collection currently in existence.^[9] The writer and comic book expert Paul Sassienie began cataloging, grading and certificating 'The Ian Levine' collection in May 2011.

References

External links

• Ian Levine at the Internet Movie Database
• Official site (Centre City Records)
• interview by Bill Brewster

225 – "Asylum of the Daleks"
Doctor Who episode
The unique logo from the title sequence, mimicing the Daleks' distinct bodywork.
Cast
Doctor Matt Smith (Eleventh Doctor)
Companions Karen Gillan (Amy Pond) Arthur Darvill (Rory Williams)
Others Jenna-Louise Coleman – Oswin Anamaria Marinca – Darla von Karlsen David Gyasi – Harvey Naomi Ryan – Cassandra Nicholas Briggs – Voice of the Daleks Barnaby Edwards – Dalek 1 Nicholas Pegg – Dalek 2 Zac Fox – Photoshoot PA (uncredited)
Production
Writer	Steven Moffat
Director	Nick Hurran
Producer	Marcus Wilson
Executive producer(s)	Steven Moffat Caroline Skinner
Series	Series 7
Length	48 minutes
Originally broadcast	1 September 2012[1][2]
Chronology
← Preceded by Followed by → "The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe" (episode) Pond Life (mini-serial) "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship"

"Asylum of the Daleks" is the first episode of the seventh series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. This episode marks the return of the Daleks. It was broadcast on BBC One, BBC America and Space on 1 September 2012, and will be on ABC1 in Australia on 8 September 2012.

The episode features the alien time traveller the Doctor (Matt Smith) being captured by the Daleks, along with his companions Amy (Karen Gillan) and Rory (Arthur Darvill), who are about to divorce. They are sent by the Daleks to the Asylum, a planet where insane Daleks are exiled, to enable the Asylum to be destroyed before the insane Daleks can escape. The Doctor is helped along the way by Oswin (Jenna-Louise Coleman), a woman who lives on a spaceship that crashed on the planet a year ago and has been trapped there since then. Coleman makes her first appearance in Doctor Who in this episode, before returning as the Doctor's new companion in series 7's Christmas episode; her appearance was successfully kept a secret from the general public prior to the episode's broadcast.^[3]

Plot

Prequel

A prequel was released to iTunes, Zune, and Amazon Instant Video on 2 September, 2012 for US subscribers for the series.^[4][5] As the Doctor has tea, a hooded messenger informs him that a woman, Darla von Karlsen, requests his help in freeing her daughter. The messenger provides space-time coordinates to the planet Skaro.

Pond Life is a different five-part mini serial prequel to this episode, which was released serially in the week leading up to the premiere.^[6][7] The fifth part hints at Amy and Rory's divorce.^[8]

Synopsis

The Doctor is lured to the ruins of Skaro, original homeworld of the Daleks, by a humanoid Dalek "puppet", Darla, who teleports him to the Parliament of the Daleks. There he is reunited with Amy and Rory, who have been similarly kidnapped from present-day Earth, just after Rory has delivered Amy their divorce papers. Within the Parliament, the Prime Minister of the Daleks explains to them that the Daleks have a planet known as the Asylum, where they keep Daleks which have gone insane; the Daleks are unwilling to engage with the inmates themselves, as destroying such pure hatred face-to-face would contravene their sense of "beauty", much to the Doctor's revulsion. The Parliament has received a transmission of the "Habanera" from Carmen from a woman, Oswin Oswald. She is on board the Alaska, a ship which has crashed into the Asylum, and claims to have been fending off Dalek attacks for a year. The crash of the Alaska has ruptured the planet's force-field, thus risking the escape of the planet's inmates. The Parliament now wishes to destroy the planet remotely to prevent this, but the force-field is not ruptured sufficiently to allow that. The force-field can only be deactivated from the planet itself but, afraid to face such a mission themselves, the Daleks of the Parliament task the Doctor, Amy and Rory with doing so.

The three are given bracelets to protect them from the planet's nanogene cloud, which would convert them into Dalek puppets to serve the facility's security systems, before being dropped through the force-field breach via a gravity tunnel onto the surface of the planet. The Doctor and Amy land close to each other and are discovered by Harvey, another survivor from the Alaska. Rory, however, is dropped to the bottom of a long shaft into the Asylum—there he accidentally awakens some of its inhabitants, but is saved and guided to a safe room by Oswin, who has accessed the computers. Meanwhile Harvey is revealed to be a Dalek puppet, converted by the nanogene cloud. A similar fate has befallen the corpses of other Alaska survivors, who re-animate and attack the Doctor and Amy, stealing her nano-field bracelet just before the pair are saved by Oswin and guided to Rory. Now unprotected from the nanogenes, Amy begins to be converted into a Dalek puppet and begins experiencing memory loss and hallucinations.

The Doctor guesses that the Daleks will destroy the planet as soon as he deactivates the force-field, before he and his companions can escape. However, he realises that Rory's hideout is a telepad via which they can teleport onto the Dalek Parliament ship. Oswin agrees to deactivate the force-field in return for the Doctor coming to save her. While the Doctor is gone, Rory tries to give Amy his bracelet. The Doctor explained that love slows the Dalek puppet conversion, and Rory justifies that by "coldly and logically" asserting that he has always loved her more than she loves him, thus he would be converted more slowly, invoking his 2000-year vigil "The Pandorica Opens". Amy angrily replies that she loves him equally, but gave him up since she is infertile as a result of the events of "A Good Man Goes to War" and thus unable to bear the children she knows that he has always desired. They then realise that the Doctor has already given Amy his own nano-field bracelet but didn't tell them, in order to allow the two to converse and reconcile.

The Doctor makes his way to Oswin, venturing through the 'intensive care section', containing Daleks who survived encounters with him. They begin to re-activate, but he is saved from them by Oswin, who deletes the Doctor from the Daleks' collective, telepathically shared knowledge, leaving them with no memory of him. The Doctor enters Oswin's chamber only to discover to his horror that she has been fully converted into a Dalek. Unprotected from the nanogenes for nearly a year, she could not prevent herself from being converted in order to preserve her genius-level intellect for Dalek use. Unable to cope with her conversion, her mind retreated into a fantasy of survival as a human, which was picked up as the Carmen transmission. Oswin is nearly overcome by a Dalek personality at this revelation, though she still possesses human emotions and is unable to kill the Doctor. Oswin fulfils her promise of deactivating the force-field, on the condition that the Doctor remember her as the human she once was.

The Doctor returns to Amy and Rory and teleports them back to his TARDIS, which is on board the Parliament ship, as the planet is destroyed. The Daleks fail to recognise him due to his removal from their hive intelligence. He leaves the ship and drops the reunited Amy and Rory back home. He then departs alone, delighting in the Dalek Parliament's closing question to him: "Doctor who?".

Continuity

In her opening speech, Darla refers to the Doctor fighting in the Time War and then dying. The Doctor appears to die in the episodes "The Impossible Astronaut" and "The Wedding of River Song". The nanogenes are mentioned in the two-parter "The Empty Child"/"The Doctor Dances", also written by Moffat.^[9] In the closing exchange in the Parliament, the Doctor refers to one of his nicknames as "The Oncoming Storm", first mentioned in the episode "The Parting of the Ways".^[10] The final question of "Doctor who?", besides being an obvious callback to the programme's title, is the "question that must not be answered" that Dorium asks at the end of "The Wedding of River Song".^[11]

Some of the Daleks are survivors of previous encounters with the Doctor on Spiridon (Planet of the Daleks), Kembel ("Mission to the Unknown" and The Daleks' Master Plan), Exxilon (Death to the Daleks),^[12] Aridius (The Chase), and Vulcan (Power of the Daleks).^{[citation needed]}

Production

"Asylum of the Daleks" contained many variations of Daleks from the programme's 50-year history, and was intended to make them appear scary again.

"Asylum of the Daleks" contains every kind of Dalek that has ever faced the Doctor, including the Special Weapons Dalek from the 1988 story, Remembrance of the Daleks.^[13] Executive producer Steven Moffat announced in 2011 that he intended to give a "rest" to the Daleks.^[14] The reason for the rest was that Moffat felt their frequent appearances made them the "most reliably defeatable enemies in the universe".^[14] Moffat recalled that the Daleks were remembered for being scary, but due to their legacy as British icons they had become "cuddly" over the years and their true menace forgotten;^[15] with "Asylum" he intended to make them scary again, reminding the audience of their intentions.^[15][16] He thought the best way to do this would be to show Daleks that were considered even madder than usual.^[15] Gillan admitted that she had not been scared of the Daleks before working on the episode.^[17] It is also the first Dalek story Moffat has written for the show; he stated that he "couldn't resist" the opportunity.^[18]

In March 2012, it was announced that Jenna-Louise Coleman would replace Gillan and Darvill as the next companion, first appearing in the 2012 Christmas Special.^[19] It was Moffat's idea to have her appear in "Asylum of the Daleks" as the character of Oswin.^[20] He intended to keep it a secret, and thanked the press and fans that it was not leaked.^[3] Whether Coleman's later character is the same as Oswin has yet to be confirmed.^[9][21][22]

According to The Daily Telegraph, the production team located the remaining models of the various versions of the Daleks and shipped them to the studios in Cardiff Bay. This included a Dalek owned by Russell T Davies, Moffat's predecessor.^[23] Executive producer Caroline Skinner knew Davies well and asked to borrow his replica. She stated that he was "thrilled" that it was canonised.^[24] The total number of different Daleks was around 25, with models from 1963 to 2010; Skinner said that "there was just a real magic and sense of history about having them".^[25] Many of the props were built from scratch.^[26] The snow scenes on the asylum planet were filmed during the production of "A Town Called Mercy" when the production team realised they were near the snow resort in Sierra Nevada.^[9]

Broadcast and reception

"Asylum of the Daleks" was preview screened at BFI Southbank on 14 August,^[27] and at the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival during 23–25 August.^[28] On 25 August it was also screened in New York City^[29] and Toronto.^[30]

"Asylum of the Daleks" was broadcast on 1 September 2012 on BBC One in the United Kingdom,^[2] BBC America in the United States,^[31] and on Space in Canada,^[32] and on 2 September on the ABC iView service.^[33] It will premiere on 8 September 2012 on ABC1 in Australia,^[34] and on 13 September on Prime TV in New Zealand.^[35][36] Overnight viewing figures for the UK showed that it was watched by 6.4 million viewers, the lowest overnight figure for a premiere episode of the revived series; however, viewing patterns indicate that fewer people watch Doctor Who live, and it won its timeslot.^[37] It was also the most-viewed episode on BBC's online iPlayer the day that it aired.^[37] It achieved an Appreciation Index of 89, the highest for a series opener of Doctor Who.^[38]