The Doctor From Gallifrey 

After some rumours, it has now been confirmed that award-winning children's novelist and screenwriter Frank Cottrell Boyce is the final writer for Doctor Who Series 8. The episode will feature a cast of child actors including Harley Bird (the voice of Peppa Pig), alongside Abigail Eames (Harry And Paul, The Crimson Field), Ashley Foster (The Woman In Black) and Jaydon Harris-Wallace (CITV Text Santa).

Boyce said:“Of all the thrills that pen and paper have brought into my life, there’s nothing that quite compares to the buzz of unlimited possibility that rushes through your fingers and into your brain when you write the words: ‘Interior … TARDIS’.”

“I was flabbergasted to be asked to write an episode - partly because I’ve been so absorbed in the last few series that I’d sort of forgotten that it wasn’t real.”

[Source: BBC Media Centre]

Some exciting news about episode 12 of the new series from the BBC today as filming for the episode took place on the streets of Cardiff. First of all is the news that Michelle Gomez (Bad Education) will guest star in the episode, playing the Gatekeeper of the Nethersphere. Showrunner Steven Moffat is pleased about the casting and said: "I've known Michelle for years, and I'm thrilled to welcome her to Doctor Who. She's everything we need - brilliant, Scottish, and a tiny bit satanic." 

The BBC then revealed this shot from filming which sees the return of a classic Doctor Who monster, the cybermen! 

And as if this wasn't exciting enough there's a little bit more casting news, although this comes from people at the scene rather than from the BBC. Jemma Redgrave and Ingrid Oliver will reprise their roles from The Day of the Doctor, playing Kate Stewart and Osgood respectively.

Series 8 of Doctor Who, starring Peter Capaldi as the Twelfth Doctor and Jenna Coleman as companion Clara Oswald, will start airing on BBC One and BBC America from Saturday 23rd August. The first episode will be "feature-length" and is called "Deep Breath". Along with the announcement came a new image (below) and a new teaser trailer. 

Unusually we have some unofficial casting news from filming. The Doctor Who crew were filming at Maelfa Shopping Centre in Llanedryn, Cardiff today. The scene featured Jenna Coleman and a group of community playback people. Wales Online confirmed that star of E4's "Youngers" Jovian Wade was one of them. Twitter user Colin Waymark also spotted Christopher Fairbank (below) who is best known for his role in "Auf Weidersen, Pet" and Matt Bardock who plays paramedic Jeff in "Casualty". 

(Christopher Fairbank)

It is not known which episode of the series these actors will feature in but it is thought to be Episode 9.

[Source: Wales Online and @colseywolsey]

The final ratings for Asylum of the Daleks have been released. There were 8.33 million viewers, which is nearly two million more than the overnight figure of 6.38 million suggested. We always find it's best to ignore the overnights and wait for the proper figures. These figures don't include iPlayer and given the episode is still 7th 9 days later tells us that'll be pretty big too. The show had 34.4% of the audience share.

The episode did pretty well around the world too:

• In the USA on BBC America 1.5 million tuned in, making it the most watched program on the channel ever and the most watched non-sports program on cable TV in it's timeslot.
• On SPACE in Canada it reached 620,000 viewers making it the most watched program on Canadian TV in it's timeslot.
• In Australia it got 549,000 viewers in the five major cities making it the most watched drama of the day and 8th most watched TV show overall. It also set a record for the view in a day on iView (the equivalent of iPlayer) with 75,900 view in the first day. 

A teaser trailer for Episode 1 of the new series, "Asylum of the Daleks", has been uploaded to the Doctor Who website. You can view it here.

Asylum of the Daleks screend at the BFI recently, to rave reviews from those who saw it. A number of pieces of news came out, as seen below: 

• The Synopsis for Episode 1, 2 and 3 have all been revealed: 

• A series of Promotional photos have been released. See them in our photo gallery here.

 

The first casting news for the 2012 Christmas Special has been revealed. The BBC announced at Midnight that Richard E. Grant would appear, having previously teased him as an "iconic star". We thought that is probably the wrong choice of words and you might recognise him only as that guy from that thing. Grant has starred in over 80 film and television hits including Withnail And I, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Jack & Sarah, Gosford Park and The Iron Lady. But he's probably best known to Doctor Who fans for playing the Doctor, twice. Briefly during "The Curse of the Fatal Death", a comic relief spoof but for longer in an animated series called "Scream of Shalka". Grant said he is "honoured" to be joining the show.

Also appearing is Tom Ward, who you might recognise as Silent Witness's Harry Cunnigham. The special see Matt Smith's Doctor meet his new companion, played by Jenna Louise-Coleman. 

[Source: BBC Doctor Who]

The Doctor Who panel at San Diego Comic Con is now over! There isn't actually that much news on Series 7 to report we're afraid but here are the main points:

- Episode Two will be titled, as rumoured, "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship". 

- Episode Three will be titled, unlike rumoured, "A Town Called Mercy".

- Clips from both those episodes were shown. They will not be posted online though

- Moffat said the question "Doctor Who?" is very important. He refused to say whether there will be a Multi-Doctor story for the 50th anniversary. 

That's about it in terms of news, though there were lots of fun things from the cast about their lives and thoughts and things. Check out a couple of other interviews with them on the news page . We are disappointed there was no new trailer though but we expect one fairly soon!

Some great casting news for series 7 was announced today. Dame Diana Rigg will star in the Mark Gatiss penned episode, along with her daughter Rachel Stirling, the first time they have worked together. 

Character details are being kept hush hush but they will recreate their off-screen relationship and play a mother and daughter. The press release states that Diana Rigg plays a Yorkshire local, which implies Rachel Stirling will to and that the episode will be set in Yorkshire. It's also going to be a historical episode but that's all we really know at the moment. 

Diana Rigg is best known for her 60s roles as Emma Peel in The Avengers and as a Bond girl in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Speaking about the role she said: "The first time Rachie and I will be working together is on an episode of “Doctor Who” specially written for us by Mark Gatiss. How lucky is that?" 

Rachel Stirling has most recently been seen in Snow White and the Huntsman. She said: "What joy. I am looking forward to the madness of Doctor Who enormously. Mark Gatiss has written a gift of a script and an on-screen relationship between Ma and I that is truly delicious. We have never before worked together because the offers have not been tempting, but when such a funny and original script comes through you know the time has come." 

And of course Stephen Moffat had to have the last word: "Dame Diana Rigg, Rachael Stirling and a Mark Gatiss script - a combination of talents you could only get in Doctor Who! Frankly, I'm terrified already!"

For everything we know so far about Series 7 click here.

[Source: BBC Doctor Who]