Naturally there are questions about the reasons behind his quitting Doctor Who after just 13 episodes – a decision that he has never come clean about. Suggestions have been made that he felt conditions on the show were not what he expected , but he continues to maintain a dignified vagueness on the situation whenever asked.

“I know what went on and the people who were involved know what went on – that’s good enough for me.”

On taking the job in the first place, Eccleston believes he made the right choice.

“My conscience is completely clear. I’ve lived my life, particularly my working life, on the basis that I have to be able to look at myself in the mirror about the way I behave. It wasn’t a bold move, it was an entirely natural one. I’m hugely grateful to the children who to this day come up and talk to me about the show.”

A full read of the article is thoroughly recommended!

Matt will be lead runner, meaning that he’ll be the first to carry the flame as it heads through Cardiff on its way to London’s Olympic Stadium. He’s obviously thrilled:

“To carry the Torch is an honour, one I thought I’d never get – I’m very excited!”

And who can blame him?!

Matt will carry the flame through an area near the new home of Doctor Who at Roath Lock Studios, starting his run at 6.20am by the Norwegian Church Arts Centre and making his way to the National Assembly Building.

The Olympic Torch was lit in Olympia, Greece, before being carried over to Land’s End by Anne, Princess Royal. Torch bearers have come in all shapes and sizes, many nominated by their communities to take place in the iconic event.

This is such a hugely significant moment in Matt’s life – and it shows how highly-regarded both he and Doctor Who are nowadays. The Olympic Torch, of course, featured in 2006’s Fear Her – carried by the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant) – and the recent mini-episode, Good as Gold.

The BBC tells us:

“Matt’s part of the relay begins at approximately 6.20am on Saturday, 26 May at the Norwegian Church Arts Centre, Harbour Drive, Cardiff Bay, CF10 4PA. He will hand over the Olympic Flame at the Senedd, National Assembly Building, Cardiff, CF99 1NA.

We hope to see you for this moment of history in the making.”

Let us know if you get to see two icons collide!

The mini-episode won this year’s Script-to-Screen competition, which offered primary school children the chance of writing for the Doctor and Amy. Showrunner, Steven Moffat, executive producer, Caroline Skinner and BBC Learning’s Katy Jones picked Ashdene Primary School’s entry as their favourite; the short is a fun little jaunt, with surprisingly-good dialogue, a new look for the Time Lord, and is certainly fitting for a hot and sunny summer day.

Last year’s winner, Death is the Only Answer, was written by the kids of Oakley Junior School, and featured Albert Einstein. Airing last October, it was screened as part of Doctor Who Confidential on BBC3; an option which sadly wasn’t open to this year’s entry with the show being cancelled.

But fear not. You can see Good as Gold on the ‘idiot’s lantern’ as part of Blue Peter at 4.30.

You would think that the chief marketing officer of a huge multinational company would be able to judge these things but apparently not; as Nigel Gilbert said of Tennant on Friday 18th May:

We knew he’d be good but we didn’t know quite how good.

Perhaps it’s not surprising that Gilbert was skeptical, after all,

He’s only ever done ads once before and that was 10 years ago before he became famous.

David Tennant’s success in the adverts comes after a bit of controversy last month when they had to pull one of the adverts after BBC Worldwide complained about it. Turns out that featuring Richard Branson using a time machine, the Tenth Doctor and the Doctor Who logo gives the appearance of the BBC endorsing it. Who knew?

As people with eyes might know, David Tennant is seen as easy on the eyes. Asked whether they used this in any way, Gilbert replied:

We didn’t specifically choose [Tennant] because of women, but we wanted someone who was really engaging and who wasn’t commonly used in advertising.

They seem to have found their man. As a popular actor with an easily recognisable face, he’s a natural fit for advertising. Hopefully these adverts will perpetuate and keep one of the K’s favourite actors in work!

Having only just finished filming her final ever scenes for Doctor Who (she won’t come back, she said so. Mind you, Tom Baker had the same idea after he left Doctor Who and look what he’s doing now!), the actress has publicly declared her allegiance to US comedy Community and an interview posted on SFX has her asking if the show had any space to accommodate her on a guest spot!

Yes okay, we’re sure that she doesn’t need the work and it was only a joke but it’s nice to see that the girl hasn’t developed airs and graces as she makes a public announcement that she hopes to work on Community rather than expects it.

For those of you that have not had the pleasure to watch Community, you might want to give it a try. It’s about a group of college students that form a study group run by a suspended lawyer trying to earn a bachelors degree so he can get back into his profession. It also stars Chevy Chase so, you know, ‘nuff said! This is more Spaced meets The Big Bang Theory rather than plain old The Big Bang Theory.

So, Karen Gillan coming to an episode near you soon? Let’s see her off Doctor Who first before we think about anything else!

Ha! And now I see that Americas Skinniest Town (it’s true, fact fans!) is forced to eat a Skaro sized portion of Humble Pie as, I see here, that Daily Camera reports you’ve been invaded! And you’re totally unprepared for it!

Where were the whistles? Where were the high visibility vests? I bet there wasn’t even a whistle amongst you?

A motorway sign warning of a possible Dalek sized obstruction! Pathetic!

Now, I’ve brief my militia and the warhead has been primed, ready to obliterate the threat (and possibly 99.9% of all known life on Earth).

Honestly, Boulder. It’s a good job I’m such a down to the-small- flaming-hole-in-the-universe-that-used-to-be-Earth kind of guy. So in our last few moments on this plane of existence let’s think of all the ways you can say sorry to…

What?

The sign, located at on eastbound Arapahoe before 48th Street, was in fact a prank. With the Colorado Department of Transportation having already changed to sign to warn motorists of a non-interstellar delay ahead?

Oh.

I should probably have learnt my lesson after that whole ‘Zombies ahead’ sign fiasco last year. So many graveyards unnecessarily purged with fire.

Mmm.

Any last words anyone?

Jenna-Louise Coleman has begun her adventure with the Doctor this week as filming commenced on her first scenes as the new companion, reports Doctor Who News.

Jenna was captured leaving the Welsh manor Plas Llanmihangel House yesterday by fan Garth Bundy, who rather than revealing any Moffat-baiting spoilers caught the actress in her civvies, and not  her official costume.

The eccentrically structured sixteenth century manor boasts amongst its finery; a thirteenth century Church and graveyard which perhaps confirms that this year’s Christmas special will be not only be a ghost story but a period tale – maybe, for the first time since Doctor Who returned, we’ll be getting a non-contemporaneous companion (well, not contemporary to us.)

Jenna’s first read-through for Doctor Who has already been recorded for posterity with the BBC’s official Doctor Who Twitter feed proclaiming:

History has been made! A new era begins! Jenna-Louise Coleman has just completed her first #DoctorWho read-through. One word. Brilliant!

— Doctor Who Official (@bbcdoctorwho) May 21, 2012

Doctor Who: The Wheel of Ice by Stephen Baxter

BBC Books has today confirmed details of the forthcoming publication of Doctor Who: The Wheel of Ice by Stephen Baxter, an all-new Doctor Who adventure starring the Second Doctor, as played by Patrick Troughton, with his companions Jamie and Zoe.

Speaking about the title, BBC Books’ Albert DePetrillo commented:

“Stephen Baxter is one of the leading lights of British science fiction, and I was thrilled when he decided to write for our Doctor Who list. The Wheel of Ice is a delight – a bold Second Doctor adventure with elements of the harder SF that is Stephen’s forte. It’s fitting that our first original adventure for a past Doctor since 2005 should be a book as special as this.”

Baxter is recognised as one of the world’s foremost science fiction writers. Since 1987, he has published over forty books, mostly science fiction novels, and over a hundred short stories. With degrees in mathematics, from Cambridge University, and in engineering, he is a Fellow of the British Interplanetary Society. He is also collaborating with Discworld author Terry Pratchett on a series of science-fiction novels. Stephen’s novels have been published in the UK, the US, and in many other countries, and have won several awards including the Philip K Dick Award, the John W Campbell Memorial Award, the British Science Fiction Association Award, the Kurd Lasswitz Award (Germany) and the Seiun Award (Japan) and have been nominated for several others, including the Arthur C Clarke Award, the Hugo Award and Locus awards.

As a fan of Baxter’s since he released The Time Ships (an “official” sequel to HG Wells’ The Time Machine) I’m personally boiling in anticipation!

So what’s it all about?

Resilience. Remembrance. Resolution. Whatever the cost.

She had no name. She had only her mission – she would return Home. And bathe in the light of a long-dead sun… Even if it meant the sacrifice of this pointless little moon to do it.

The Wheel of Ice: a ring of ice and steel turning around a moon of Saturn, home to a colony mining minerals for a resource-hungry future Earth. A bad place to grow up.

The Wheel has been plagued by problems. Maybe it’s just gremlins, just bad luck. But what’s the truth of the children’s stories of ‘Blue Dolls’ glimpsed aboard the gigantic facility? And why won’t the children go down the warren-like mines? And then sixteen-year-old Phee Laws, surfing Saturn’s rings, saves an enigmatic blue box from destruction.

Aboard the Wheel, The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe find a critical situation – and three strangers who have just turned up out of nowhere look like prime candidates to be accused of sabotage … The Doctor finds himself caught up in a mystery that goes right back to the creation of the solar system. But it’s a mystery that could have dire repercussions for the people on the Wheel. It’s a mystery that could kill them all.

Wow.

The Wheel of Ice will be published on 16 August 2012, as a £16.99 hardback, but you can pre-order now from Amazon and pick it up for £14.44!

Taking place on Friday 8th June, the event allows children and adults alike to have a bit of magic injected into their mundane lives.

Watch: Children get scared out of their wits by the appearance of a Dalek and a Cyberman! (These will be appearing by Emergency Temporal Shift at 10am, 11:30am, 2pm and 3:30pm.)

Take: Photos of yourself or loved ones next to some Doctor Who life-size standees!

Win: Doctor Who stuff! (This is likely to take the form of Goody bags.)

Loiter: Awkwardly as your children have the time of their lives!

As far as I can tell, this event is definitely one for the children, but that doesn’t mean that adults can’t have a bit of fun too!

Any enquiries about this slice of space and time can be directed to 01753 535166. Try not to inundate them with calls, eh reader?

Taking advantage of a once in a life time chance to write dialogue for the Doctor, Amy, and Rory primary school pupils up and down the country have working together to write an Olympic themed mini-episode of Doctor Who.

Last year’s winner Death is the Only Answer aired as part of the recently de-commissioned Doctor Who Confidential after last year’s series finale The Wedding of River Song.

Once the flagship children’s programme, Blue Peter has recently been moved over to the BBC’s dedicated children’s channel CBBC. The move has sparked fears that children’s television has been ‘ghettoised’ as the early evening time slots become prime real estate for game shows and repeats of BBC2’s daytime output.

Despite the outcry, the show has largely been a digital concern since its weekly output was cut to just one episode a week on CBBC – which was repeated on BBC1 on Friday.

One person seeking to keep our collective love of the show alive is former presenter Mark Curry who is looking for donations to finish his definitive book on the history of the show; Trust Me I’m a Blue Peter Presenter.

As reported in the Radio Times, Curry needs donations in order to travel to the four corners of the globe in order to track down former presenters who have since gone on to settle around the world after leaving the show.

Anyone who donates money towards Curry’s project, via publisher Unbound, will have their name printed in every edition of the book – with further benefits for those who are particularly generous. Head over there now to find out more and support this fascinating project!