The latest edition to the Black Archive series investigates the Twelfth Doctor story Face the Raven.

Sarah Groenewegen looks in detail at one of the key stories of the Capaldi era, the story that saw the departure of companion Clara Oswald, played by Jenna Coleman.

In a series where violent death is prevalent but the regular characters generally immune, Face the Raven is a rarity in featuring the demise of the 12th Doctor’s longstanding companion Clara Oswald. While Doctor Who’s basis as a time-travel series means that the audience will see Clara again, everything after her death here is borrowed time.

The figures reintroduced by Face the Raven all play unexpected parts: Ashildr, a Viking woman made immortal by the Doctor, is a mayor; Rigsy, a graffiti artist befriended by Clara, is a murder suspect; and numerous monsters from the series’ past have become refugees. Scripted by Sarah Dollard, an Australian living in the UK, the story uses the tropes and imagery of Doctor Who to comment on real-world issues of immigration, asylum and the penal system, its narrative leading directly to the Doctor’s own incarceration in the following episode.

This Black Archive draws on the history of London and its presentation in fantasy, on queer and feminist theory and on the mythic and folkloric symbolism of ravens to examine this haunting story. It is the first of three books dealing with the final episodes of the 2015 season of Doctor Who.

Sarah Groenewegen BEM has written numerous essays on Doctor Who, gaming, and being queer. She obtained her Master of Arts from the University of Western Sydney in 2000 by researching into Doctor Who and its fans. Her first novel, Daughters of Earth, was published in 2017 in the Lethbridge-Stewart range published by Candy Jar. In 2016 she was awarded a British Empire Medal for her services to law enforcement and LGBT+ diversity.

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Silva Screen will release the soundtrack to Series 9 of Doctor Who on 27th April 2018

Premiering in September 2015, the ninth series of Doctor Who featured Peter Capaldi in the title role in his second season. This four-part collection features general cues on discs one and two, the complete score from the episode Heaven Sent on disc three and on disc four the Christmas Special, The Husbands Of River Song.

Five-time BAFTA nominee Murray Gold recently confirmed that he is stepping down from composer duties on the show after 12 years of providing some of the finest music to be heard on contemporary television.

It’s one of the last great morality tales out there but it also celebrates life. For that reason I think it’s a great show for kids. I couldn’t write this much music for it if I didn’t feel that way.

Underlining the breadth of Gold’s composing skill across over 149 minutes of music, this album is also the 12th Silva Screen release of his music since the 2005 Doctor Who revival.

1. The One in a Thousand
2. Davros Remembers
3. A Message from Missy
4. Meeting in the Square
5. Finding The Doctor
6. What Have You Done
7. Davros Approaches
8. Some Kind of Submarine
9. The Ghosts
10. The Bootstrap Paradox
11. Finding The Fisher King
12. Another Ghost Has Appeared
13. We Need to Get Back to The TARDIS
14. Directions from The Ghosts
15. Something in the Spacesuit
16. Two Days on a Longboat
17. I Am Ashildr
18. In a Way, She's a Hybrid
19. I Call Myself Me
20. They Need Us
21. The Last Thing We Need

1. Deep Cover
2. Just Come Inside
3. This is Not a War
4. Defending The Earth
5. The Morpheus Song
6. Saving Rigsy
7. Madam Mayor
8. Running from the Raven
9. Death is Locked In
10. Face the Raven
11. Back Home
12. The General's Regeneration
13. A Duty of Care
14. Clara's Diner

1. A Second Shadow
2. The Veil
3. A Fly on a Painting
4. A Change of Clothes
5. A Mechanical Maze
6. Digging a Grave
7. Tell No Lies
8. Two Events in Life
9. Waiting for the Veil
10. The Final Room
11. One Confession Away
12. Break Free
13. Same Old Day
14. The Shepherd's Boy

1. Carol Singers will be Criticised
2. A Dying Husband
3. The Finest Surgeon in The Galaxy
4. The Halassi Androvar
5. The Husbands of River Song
6. The TARDIS Can't Take Off
7. Time to Do it Properly
8. Harmony and Redemption
9. Hydroflax in The TARDIS
10. Whole Again at Last
11. All the Firewalls in The Galaxy
12. A Restaurant with a View
13. The Woman He Loves
14. The Singing Towers

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Silva Screen Records has announced the the soundtrack release of Murray Gold's music from Doctor Who Series 9 will be released early in 2018

The long-awaited release will be a 4 disc set.

Disc 1 will contain cues from The Magician's Apprentice, The Witch's Familiar, Under The Lake, Before The Flood, The Girl Who Died and The Woman Who Lived

Disc 2 will contain cues from The Zygon Invasion, The Zygon Inversion, Sleep No More, Face The Raven and Hell Bent.

Disc 3 will contain the score from the Series standout episode - Heaven Sent

Disc 4 will contain the score to the 2015 Christmas Special - The Husbands Of River Song

As with the Series 8 release, the first run of CDs will contain an additional booklet collecting Stuart Manning's retro poster designs for each episode.

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The Doctor Who production team have won the BAFTA Cymru award for Special and Visual Effects, Titles and Graphics for their work on the Series Nine opener The Magician's Apprentice

The Special Effects on the episode were supplied by Real SFX, led by Danny Hargreaves, while the Visual Effects were supplied by Milk VFX. Both teams have previously won a BAFTA Cymru award for their work on the 50th anniversary special The Day of the Doctor.

The BAFTA Cymru awards honour excellence in broadcasting and production within film and television in Wales. The winners were announced on Sunday, at a ceremony hosted by BBC Radio 1 presenter, Huw Stephens, at St David’s Hall, Cardiff.

#realsfx @MilkVFX won @BAFTACymru for @bbcdoctorwho !! One very happy @realsfx team!! 2 October 2016

We won!! #VFX #baftacymru #DoctorWho 2 October 2016

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Doctor Who: Heaven Sent, has lost out in the 2016 Hugo Awards where the award for Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form) went to the final episode of Marvel Television's Jessica Jones.

Heaven Sent, shown last year, was written by Steven Moffat and directed by Rachel Talalay , starred Peter Capaldi in an highly acclaimed, almost single handed, performance.

Six Doctor Who episodes have previously won a Hugo Award, The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances, The Girl in the Fireplace, Blink, The Waters of Mars, The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang and The Doctor's Wife. Last year the episode Listen was also nominated and lost out in the final voting.

On Twitter Heaven Sent Director Rachel Talalay thanked the fans for their support for the episode.

Thanks for all the lovely thoughts on #HeavenSent #DoctorWho As PCap confirms, the episode itself is the award and reward. Watch it again.

— Rachel Talalay (@rtalalay) August 21, 2016

Related Articles: Heaven Sent Nominated for Hugo (26 Apr 2016); Doctor Who loses out at Hugo Awards (24 Aug 2015); Listen Gets Hugo Nomination (05 April 2015); 2014 Hugo Nominations (20 April 2014); 2013 Hugo Nominations (31 Mar 2013); Gaiman wins Hugo (3 Sep 2012); 2012 Nominations (8 Apr 2012); Doctor Who Wins Fifth Hugo (22 Aug 2011) Doctor Who nominations in 2011 Hugo Awards (25 Apr 2011) Waters of Mars wins Hugo (05 Sep 2010) Hugo Award hat-trick for Moffat (09 Aug 2008) Moffat wins second Hugo (01 Sep 2007)

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Doctor Who: Heaven Sent, has been nominated for a 2016 Hugo Award.

The episode, shown last year, written by Steven Moffat and directed by Rachel Talalay , starred Peter Capaldi in an highly aclaimed, almost single handed, performance.

Doctor Who is competing against Universal's Grimm, Marvel Television's Jessica Jones, DHX Media's My Little Pony and Kripke Enterprises's Supernatural to win the prestigious award for Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form).

Six Doctor Who episodes have previously won a Hugo Award, including The Doctor's Wife, The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang and The Waters of Mars. Last year the episode Listen was nominated, but lost out in the final voting.

The winners of the 2016 Hugo will be announced on Saturday, August 20, at the MidAmeriCon II Hugo Awards Ceremony held in Kansas City, Missouri.

Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form): Nominations

• Doctor Who: “Heaven Sent” written by Steven Moffat, directed by Rachel Talalay (BBC Television)
• Grimm: “Headache” written by Jim Kouf and David Greenwalt, directed by Jim Kouf(Universal Television; GK Productions; Hazy Mills Productions; Open 4 Business Productions; NBCUniversal Television Distribution)
• Jessica Jones: “AKA Smile” written by Scott Reynolds, Melissa Rosenberg, and Jamie King, directed by Michael Rymer (Marvel Television; ABC Studios; Tall Girls Productions;Netflix)
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: “The Cutie Map” Parts 1 and 2 written by Scott Sonneborn, M.A. Larson, and Meghan McCarthy, directed by Jayson Thiessen and Jim Miller (DHX Media/Vancouver; Hasbro Studios)
• Supernatural: “Just My Imagination” written by Jenny Klein, directed by Richard Speight Jr. (Kripke Enterprises; Wonderland Sound and Vision; Warner Bros. Television)

Related Articles: Doctor Who loses out at Hugo Awards (24 Aug 2015); Listen Gets Hugo Nomination (05 April 2015); 2014 Hugo Nominations (20 April 2014); 2013 Hugo Nominations (31 Mar 2013); Gaiman wins Hugo (3 Sep 2012); 2012 Nominations (8 Apr 2012); Doctor Who Wins Fifth Hugo (22 Aug 2011) Doctor Who nominations in 2011 Hugo Awards (25 Apr 2011) Waters of Mars wins Hugo (05 Sep 2010) Hugo Award hat-trick for Moffat (09 Aug 2008) Moffat wins second Hugo (01 Sep 2007)

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Live +7 Figures are finally available for the whole of Series Nine of Doctor Who.

The Live+7 figure is calculated by the BBC to try to get an accurate estimate of the total unique audience for an episode of a programme. Unlike official BARB figures the Live+7 uses data to include those who watched one of the broadcast repeats of the episode and those who watched the episode on iPlayer all within 7 days of the original transmission.

The figures show an average of 60% of the audience watch Doctor Who on the day of transmission, either as a Live broadcast or as a delayed viewing via a PVR. The number is slightly higher for the series finale and the Christmas spacial. A further 26% of the audience watch the programme, via a recording, within 7 days of the original transmission. The highest delayed viewing was for The Zygon Invasion.

Around 11% on average watch on iPlayer, although this dropped to around 5% for the Christmas special.

The number watching a scheduled repeat dropped sharply this series, from an average of 4% last year, to an average of just 1.3% this year. The decline of the audience watching on BBC Three caused the BBC to cancel the regular repeat on BBC Three from episode four onwards. The only repeat was the late night. signed version on BBC Two, which had an average of 40,000 viewers.

Overall Doctor Who's total Live +7 ratings are down around 1.5 million on the 2014 figures, to average a total of around 6.7 million watching each episode.

The overall chart position for each week ranged from 13th for The Magician's Apprentice down to 30th for Sleep, the lowest chart position since the series returned in 2005. The lowest chart position in the series history was 170th for the second episode of Full Circle in 1980. The only episode this year to make the top ten was the Christmas Special, The Husbands of River Song, which came in 8th.

Full ratings data can be found on the Doctor Who Guide

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The Doctor Who Experience in Cardiff has now been updated to feature props and costumes from the latest series of Doctor Who, shown last year, including the Christmas Special, The Husbands of River Song. Costumes include those worn by the Doctor, Clara, River Song and Ashildr, alongside monsters such as the Mire, Sandmen, the Veil, and Colony Sarff. Displays also include sets such as the Davros Hospital Room and Trap Street.

(with thanks to BBC Worldwide)

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Peter Capaldi will be appearing at HMV Bond Street in London to meet fans and sign copies of the new DVD/Blu-ray release of Doctor Who Series 9.

The Twelfth Doctor will attend the launch on Monday 7 March from 5.30pm at the OXford Street superstore.

The DVD and Blu-ray contain all 12 episodes from Peter Capaldi's second series in the role, alongside companion Jenna Coleman and guest stars Maisie Williams and Rufus Hound as well as the brilliant Missy (played by Michelle Gomez).

The Complete Boxset also contains the 2014 Christmas Special, Last Christmas and this year's highly anticipated, The Husbands of River Song and more than four hours' worth of extra material.

Related Articles: The Complete Ninth Series: Blu-ray/DVD details announced (21 Dec 2015)

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Doctor Who Director Rachel Talalay has been talking about the series and how it is perceived by the TV Industry.

Talalay has written a blog inspired by the recent controversy over the Oscar nominations and their lack of diversity. In the article the director talks about award nominations, and how they are skewed to favour traditional type dramas.

Historically, the BAFTA voters have a love for “Bonnets and Bustles”...... Doctor Who seems like an obvious skip-over. Yeah, sure, Peter Capaldi is a great actor, but who cares about that kids’ show? And it’s sci-fi, not ‘real’ drama, and it’ll be around forever and we need to support new and fresh.

The director disputes the implication that Doctor Who's long history means it is not new and fresh.

Spend five minutes watching the incredible anti-war speech delivered by Peter Capaldi in The Zygon Inversion. Or a few more minutes watching Jenna Coleman’s emotional, powerful goodbye in Face the Raven. You don’t need to know these character’s history to appreciate the tremendous work here.

Rachel Talalay directed the final two episodes of both Series 8 and Series 9, including the one man episode Heaven Sent where Peter Capaldi performed solo for the majority of the story

It is an absolute acting tour-de-force, all-doctor-all-the-time, and it demands to be seen before the voters turn to the obvious dramas.

She also paid tribute to members of the production team

Credit Will Oswald’s extraordinary editing of billions of years of footage. And Stuart Biddlecombe’s stunning cinematography. All accomplished on a budget less than ¼ of an episode of Game of Thrones. These craftsmen-artists need recognition.

Finally the director paid tribute to the mastermind of the series

None of this would be possible without Steven Moffat’s immaculate, intricately plotted, remarkable script. He stated, both publicly and to the team, that this was one of the hardest things he has ever written. Love or hate the Moff, honour him for the attempt at different television and the sweat and toil for a show that could be what non-watchers assume it is: some old time-travel show with monsters.

Full Blog at racheltalalay.tumblr.com

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Doctor Who Series Nine has been voted the Best Reviewed TV Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror Series of 2015 on the review site Rotten Tomatoes.

The Annual Golden Tomato Awards are awarded to the series with the highest ratings, based on reviews submitted to the site. The 2015 Series scored an average rating of 4.5/5 and received a remarkable 100% positive rating from approved critics.

The series beat Game of Thrones; Season 5 which came second. Marvel's Daredevil came third with Ash Vs Evil Dead and Hannibal taking fourth and fifth places respectivally.

Doctor Who Series 9 was also voted as fourth in the Best Returning TV Shows Category, with Fargo Season 2 taking top spot.

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Including time-shifted viewers, The Husbands of River Song averaged 761,000 consolidated viewers in the five major capital cities. With 186,000 extra viewers it was the highest time-shifted program of the day (the second highest time-shifted program only had 33,000 extra viewers) and the seventh highest rating program of the day overall. These ratings do not include iview or regional viewers.

Media Links: TV Tonight

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Doctor Who: The Husbands of River Song, had an official rating of 7.69 million viewers.

The final rating includes those who watched the programme within one week of transmission. It is an increase of nearly 2 million on the initially reported figure.

Christmas Day saw some impressive timeshift figures. The top programme of the week was the final episode of ITV's Downton Abbey, which increased its audience by four million to finish with an official audience of 10.92 million.

A substantial timeshift was also achieved by the BBC's highest rated programme, Mrs Brown's Boys, which finished with 9.49 million watching. Other BBC programmes doing well included Call the Midwife with 9.3 million, Stick Man with 9.28 million, and Strictly Come Dancing with 8.54 million. The Boxing Day showing of the Agatha Christie mystery And Then There Were None also scored highly with 8.61 million viewers.

The Queen's Christmas Broadcast to the Commonwealth had 6.35 million watching on BBC One but, once ITV's figures were added, it just edged above Doctor Who with 7.76 million viewers.

Doctor Who was 8th for the week and 7th for Christmas Day. It achieved higher ratings than the ubiquitous soaps Coronation Street, EastEnders and Emmerdale.

Since the series returned in 2005 there have been eleven Christmas day episodes, the most successful being the 2007 episode starring Kylie Minogue, Voyage of the Damned.

In the United States The Husbands of River Song achieved a 1.242m Live+ SD Rating on BBC America.

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Related Articles: Husbands of River Song - Overnight Viewing Figures (26 Dec 2015)

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BBC America is to rebroadcast Doctor Who Series 9, complete with commentary from Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, and Facebook.

Starting Saturday January 30th each episode will be shown annotated with inside facts, fan art and comments.

Doctor's Notes

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The Space Channel, the Canadian broadcaster of Doctor Who, has given Doctor Who News an update on the final ratings for Series 9.

DOCTOR WHO remains the most watched program on Space with an average of 696500 viewers for Season 9. Season 9 is also the most-watched season of the series to date in the key demos of A25-54 and A18-49, with 415,500 and 405,900 viewers respectively.

While Doctor Who has remained their most watched program, the average viewership has gone down over the final few episodes. In November Doctor Who News reported that an average of 731,000 people watched per episode. All ratings only cover traditional television viewers including PVR, not those who watched via apps or online.

Related Articles: Series 9 Ratings Update From Space (14 Nov 2015)

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Doctor Who: The Husbands of River Song had an Audience Appreciation or AI score of 82.

The Appreciation Index or AI is a measure of how much the audience enjoyed the programme. The score, out of a hundred, is compiled by a specially selected panel of around 5,000 people who go online and rate and comment on programmes.

The BBC's highest score of the evening went to Call the Midwife on BBC One which scored 88.

On BBC Three, the Boxing Day repeat of Doctor Who was watched by 0.26 million viewers.

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The Husbands of River Song has debuted in Australia, averaging 575,000 viewers in the five major capital cities. The story was the highest rating ABC drama of the day and the tenth highest rating program of the day overall. These ratings do not include iview, regional or time-shifted viewers.

Media Links: TV Tonight

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This item contains spoilers.

Press reaction to the Christmas Special, The Husbands of River Song, mostly centers of the relationship between River Song and The Doctor. The Express loved the return of Alex Kingston. "It's easy to forget what a fantastic character she is but tonight River really makes this festive episode, which could be one of the best Doctor Who Christmas specials in years."

It was a theme picked up by The Guardian "It’s a wonderful Christmas gift from Moffat to see the old River return, with a glimpse of her naughty ways when she’s having adventures without the Doctor. Meanwhile, however bleak things might have got towards the end of the recent series, it’s faintly hilarious now to remember how Peter Capaldi was initially touted as a “dark Doctor”. His bravura form here, dancing between comedy and romance, just fizzes opposite Kingston."

The Metro called it a bittersweet rom-com. "The scene in which the Doctor realises that he gets to pretend to be stepping into the TARDIS for the first time and provide his version of ‘it’s bigger on the inside’ is a joy to behold, snapping him out of his Grinch-like mood. One suspects it’s the first time the Doctor has genuinely had fun since his memories of Clara were wiped."

Radio Times, while admitting they don't like the Christmas specials, found the main duo's interaction the most appealing aspect of the story. "The Doctor is the happiest we’ve known him, even at one point flat on his back laughing – something inconceivable in the last few episodes. He’s all loved up to find River and bemused, cheesed off and, ultimately, delighted that she doesn’t recognise him."

Wales Online also love the pairing. "There were good bits, and bad. But overall, it was lovely to see Alex Kingston back in the Tardis, as River Song". The Los Angeles Times agreed "If The Husbands of River Song is less Christmasy than most of the previous specials, it is a splendid gift to fans nonetheless. River has provided one of the longest and most tantalizing threads of the series"

TV.com had mixed feelings over the meeting between River and the Twelfth Doctor. "The emotional swell I was supposed to feel during that speech and at the moment she realized the Doctor was there—that the Doctor would always be there—fell flat for me. Him cheekily stealing her catchphrase—"Hello, sweetie"—helped however, and once the blindfold came off, everything clicked into place."

AV Club felt the structure odd. "The Husbands Of River Song is one of the strangest hours in television history. For the first 40 or so minutes of its run, it’s a deeply goofy bit of slapstick space opera whimsy. And then, in the final 15 minutes, the episode shifts tones completely, going for a poignant, melancholy send-off that directly calls back and completes a narrative circle that the show began tracing way back in 2008.". However Den of Geek thought the episode was right for its intended slot. "I don't really think that The Husbands Of River Song is Doctor Who on top form, nor do I think it amongst the best Christmas specials since the show introduced them in 2005. But fun? Yes. Enjoyable? Yes. A good, solid piece of telly? Absolutely."

411 Mania was pleased the story had moved away from the more overtly Christmassy specials of the past. "I enjoy the Doctor’s forays into the holiday season as much as anyone, but things got as Christmas-y as they could last year and it was probably a wise move to ease up on that for a bit of variety". And finally IGN felt the episode nicely complemented the recently completed season. "Steven Moffat’s The Husbands of River Song is a nice, fun, wacky change of pace that still manages to touch that sweet spot of emotional resonance that the Twelfth Doctor has done so well this year."

You can read the Doctor Who News review in our reviews section.

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Doctor Who: Hell Bent had an official consolidated rating of 6.17 million viewers.

The rating issued by the Broadcasters' Audience Research Board, or BARB, includes all those who watched the programme within one week of transmission. It does not include those watching online via iPlayer

Doctor Who was the 10th most watched programme on BBC Television, and 4th overall on Saturday, again overtaking Pointless Celebrities.

The episode finished at 29th in the weekly chart.

Strictly Come Dancing topped the ratings for the week with 11.93 million viewers. Once again the top ten was dominated by the latest series of I'm a Celebrity, Get me Out of Here taking seven of the top ten places.

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Live +7 Figures are now available for the first half of Series Nine.

The Live+7 figure is calculated by the BBC to try to get an accurate estimate of the total unique audience for an episode of a programme. Unlike official BARB figures the Live+7 uses data to include those who watched one of the broadcast repeats of the episode and those who watched the episode on iPlayer all within 7 days of the original transmission.

The figures show an average of 60% of the audience watch Doctor Who on the day of transmission, either as a Live broadcast or as a delayed viewing via a PVR. A further 26.8% of the audience watch the programme, via a recording, within 7 days of the original transmission. 11.9% now watch on iPlayer, up from an average of 9% last year.

The number watching a scheduled repeat has dropped sharply this year, from an average of 4% last year, to an average of just 1.3% this year. With on demand services now so readily available, the audience no longer needs to seek out a scheduled repeat to catch up with the programme. The decline of the audience watching on BBC Three caused the BBC to cancel the regular repeat on BBC Three from episode four onwards. The only repeat was the late night. signed version on BBC Two, which had an average of 40,000 viewers.

Overall Doctor Who's total Live +7 ratings are down around 1.5 million on the 2014 figures, to average a total of around 6.8 million watching each episode.

Further analysis of the Appreciation Index figures are available, with a marked difference in appreciation between different age groups. The 16-34 age group appeared to enjoy the series far more than the over 55 group. While there have been small differences in AI figures previous years, the contrast this year is quite large, with the lower age group scoring the series around 5 points higher than the older viewers.

The most marked difference was for the penultimate episode featuring just the Doctor, Heaven Sent, which scored an AI figure of 85 for viewers aged 16-34, but only 76 for those aged over 55.

The female viewers rated the series slightly higher than the male viewers, although the programme is now watched by slightly more male viewers than female with an average of 52% of the audience being male, in contrast to a 50/50 split in past years.

The AI panel is also asked questions on how they see the series, with around 59% thinking it is high quality and 50% felt it was fresh and new. Around 20% of the audience felt the initial stories were thought provoking, with the figure rising to over 30% near the end of the series. 1% found them offensive.

Related Articles: Series 8 Live+7 Figures (28 Nov 2014)

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