That Was The Week That Was 31.3.13

First of all, I hope you are all having a nice Easter.
The Bells of Saint John debuted last night on BBC1 and the overnight viewing figures are a healthy 6.18 million. It was the third most watched programme of the evening. It is already doing very well on i-player - so expect a huge increase when the consolidated figures are released in a week or so's time.

The biggest news of the week is obviously that David Tennant and Billie Piper are returning for the 50th Anniversary story. This was supposed to be a big exclusive for DWM - due in the shops on Thursday 4th April - but subscription copies went out early and the BBC were forced to issue a press release.
Everyone is assuming that this means the Tenth Doctor - but of course it might be Doctor 10.5 - the half human one from the alternative universe.

Matt Smith is now stating that he will be playing the Doctor in 2014. I wouldn't read too much into this as David Tennant played the Doctor into 2010. One day of 2010 that is, as he regenerated on January 1st.

Thursday saw the issue of 12 Doctor Who stamps to mark the 50th Anniversary.

Amazon customers who ordered the unintentionally hilarious "Doctor Who Character Encyclopedia"  received their copy yesterday. See my post of 30.3.13. On the same day I received the latest issue of SFX magazine - which contains a feature on Doctor Who in the 1970's.

Bad news of the week was the postponement of the much anticipated DVD release for The Terror of the Zygons. (Again, I have posted about this already). I sincerely hope the delay is in order to finalise a CGI Skarasen. I am still waiting to see what the make up of the "Regeneration Box Set" is.

Further bad news with the announcement that The Mill will no longer be contributing to Doctor Who. They are having to cut back to their core business of advertising, after losing out on a couple of contracts for new shows. A great shame. This is the second FX house connected to the programme to hit financial hard times this year.

Lastly, I would just like to say that this little blog of mine got a mention on the Guardian newspaper website through the week. Their TV blog was looking at The Mind Robber as part of their countdown of the top 50 Doctor Who stories and they were kind enough to refer readers here for my own review (posted back on 7th December).
Next week we have the new issue of DWM to look forward to, and the second episode of the second half of Series 7 - The Rings of Akhaten - and there is that e-book release on Thursday for "Summer Falls" by one Amelia Williams.
Remember that tomorrow is April Fools Day - so don't believe everything you read on other sites. No doubt every lost episode will have been found and everyone who appeared in the classic series will be joining the anniversary story...