Doctor Who

Billie for Doctor Who special?

Matt Smith has sparked rumours that Billie Piper could return for Doctor Who's 50th anniversary celebration show.

The star, who plays the Time Lord, was quoted as saying that she would be his favourite companion from the past to return for next year's one-off 90-minute anniversary special.

Matt, 29, said in The Sun: "If I wanted a companion from the past I would say Rose because I am good friends with Billie."

Billie played the companion of previous Doctors Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant until she left the BBC One sci-fi drama in 2010.

Last year, she was quoted as saying: "It's totally the end of Doctor Who for me, too. I can't imagine anything would bring me back, and they're done with Rose... They've got this great new set up with Matt Smith and Karen Gillan and it works brilliantly. So there's no way in the world it will happen again for me - well not for the foreseeable future."

The special, An Adventure In Space And Time, will tell the story of the genesis of Doctor Who - first broadcast on November 23, 1963.

Doctor Who drama to mark show's 50th birthday

A special one-off drama about the creation of Doctor Who has been commissioned to mark the show's 50th anniversary.

An Adventure in Space and Time will tell the story of the genesis of the BBC sci-fi show in the early 1960s.

"This is the story of how an unlikely set of brilliant people created a true television original," said its writer Mark Gatiss.

The 90-minute drama will air on BBC Two next year.

Gatiss said the drama would also examine how actor William Hartnell - who played the first incarnation of the Doctor - moved from hard-man roles to become "a hero to millions of children".

"I've wanted to tell this story this for more years than I can remember! To make it happen for Doctor Who's 50th birthday is quite simply a dream come true," he said.

Steven Moffat, Doctor Who's executive producer, said: "The story of Doctor Who is the story of television - so it's fitting in the anniversary year that we make our most important journey back in time to see how the Tardis was launched."

Further details about the production, including the casting, will be confirmed next year.

Doctor Who was first broadcast on 23 November 1963 with a four-part adventure known as An Unearthly Child.

The show was originally commissioned by the BBC's head of drama Sydney Newman, and produced by Verity Lambert.

'Doctor Who': BBC responds to fan complaints over 50th anniversary

The BBC has responded to fan complaints lamenting a lack of new Doctor Who in the show's 50th anniversary year.

Eight new episodes, plus an anniversary special filmed in 3D, will air later in 2013, but BBC Complaints responded to one fan's concerns that not enough was being done to mark the 50th.

"Thanks for your contact regarding Doctor Who broadcast on BBC One," DoctorWhoTV quotes the BBC as saying. "I understand that you feel there are insufficient programmes planned to mark the 50th anniversary of the series.

"Whilst I appreciate your concerns, we haven't announced what we have planned to mark the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who yet, but we would like to assure you that fans won't be disappointed."

The unnamed fan also criticised the decision to air the sci-fi drama's seventh series in two parts - with the first five episodes airing throughout September 12 and the following eight to commence from Saturday, March 30 on BBC One.

"Please note that the decision to schedule series 7 in two parts was a creative one and we're sorry you are unhappy about this," the BBC replied.

"Nevertheless, please be assured that I've registered your comments regarding this issue to our audience log. This is a daily report of audience feedback made available throughout the BBC, including to the producers of Doctor Who, as well as members of senior management.

"The audience logs help to shape future decisions regarding BBC programming and output."

Doctor Who's head writer and exec producer Steven Moffat previously told Digital Spy that the decision to split the most recent series into two parts "came from the BBC" but insisted that he supported the decision.

"I've been well up for anything that we can do to shake up the transmission pattern, the way we deliver it to the audience and how long we make the audience wait, simply because that makes Doctor Who an event piece," he explained.

The BBC's controller of drama commissioning Ben Stephenson has also insisted that the show's 50th celebrations will be "absolutely enormous" and "very ambitious".