The official BBC press launch for the forthcoming Doctor Who Christmas special, "The Next Doctor", was held in London today. A somewhat lower-key affair than the corresponding events of previous years, the event has nonetheless managed to attract a good deal of media coverage on television, radio, online and in print. Readers are warned that any or all of the following links may contain spoilers for "The Next Doctor".

SFX Magazine have posted a spoiler-free review of the episode, which they describe as "not an out-and-out classic episode, but it is great Christmas entertainment. And it does have a few classic moments." OffTheTelly describes how outgoing BBC Controller of Fiction Jane Tranter implored journalists "to promise not to tell anyone else what to make of that. The ability of Doctor Who is to ask big questions and keep everybody guessing. Please enter into the spirit of that, and allow everyone to keep asking questions."

Gareth McLean, writing for The Guardian, describes the episode as "a lot better than last year – a lot – and not just because David Morrissey is a magnificent actor and a lot easier on the eye than Kylie Minogue. For a start, The Next Doctor is about something. It has a proper story (as opposed to a surfeit of CGI), some lovely sharp lines and self-referential moments that, mostly, aren't self-indulgent." Michael Deacon in The Telegraph says the episode is "a blizzard of action... Much of the plot is devoted to the relationship – at times amusing, at times poignant – between these two Doctors, as we begin to learn the life story of Morrissey’s character."

Writer Russell T Davies appeared in the last half-hour of BBC Radio 5 Live's Victoria Derbyshire programme to discuss the special, and also popped up on television on the BBC News channel's coverage of the press launch.

BBC News reports that Doctor Who chief writer and executive producer Russell T Davies expects Tenth Doctor actor David Tennant to be fit enough to begin work next month on the first of the four specials which will end his tenure in the part.

Tennant is due to resume work on Doctor Who on the 19th of January, but has recently undergone much-publicised back surgery which forced him to pull out of several dates of the London run of his acclaimed starring role in Hamlet. However, speaking at the press launch for the Christmas special "The Next Doctor" today, Russell T Davies commented that he was hopeful Tennant would be fit to start work on schedule.

Davies did, however, comment that: "We'll have to be very careful. I don't think we'll be swinging him on a wire on his first day back." He did, however, add that no rewrites were expected to be needed to accommodate Tennant's injury.

The official BBC website has published a trailer for the forthcoming Doctor Who Christmas special, "The Next Doctor", as the gift behind the window on Day 15 of their "adventure calendar". The trailer runs to approximately 50 seconds.

Due to rights issues, the video is only available to internet users in the UK.

The BBC Press Office has confirmed that The Next Doctor will air on BBC One on Christmas Day. It is scheduled to go out at 6pm and will last an hour.

Doctor Who At The Proms, which features highlights from the concert that took place at the Royal Albert Hall in London on July 27, will be broadcast on New Year's Day on BBC One. It starts at 1.50pm and, again, lasts an hour. The programme will include Music of the Spheres - the specially-filmed scene featuring the Doctor and the Graske, which was written by Russell T Davies.

The latest issue of the BBC's Radio Times listings magazine goes on sale across the UK today, publishing on a Saturday rather than a Tuesday as the magazine's release schedule increases in the run-up to Christmas. The edition, covering December 6th to 12th, is currently previewed on the Radio Times website.

It features an extensive preview of the forthcoming Christmas special, "The Next Doctor", including a front cover picture of David Tennant and guest starDavid Morrissey, with a fold-out section including the adversaries they will face in the episode. Including multiple covers, this is the 23rd time the series has been granted the honour of the front page of the magazine since its return in 2005; the 8th in 2008 alone, and the 45th in the show's 45-year history.

As well as previewing "The Next Doctor", Radio Times also has a behind-the-scenes feature marking the return of the Brigadier to our TV screens in The Sarah Jane Adventures.

In addition, the issue looks back at 2008, with celebrities including Catherine Tate.

The pre-titles sequence of the 2008 Doctor Who Christmas special, "The Next Doctor", which was premiered this evening during the BBC's Children in Need charity telethon, is now available to view here on the Children in Need website.

If you watch the special preview, please do consider donating to Children in Need, which helps disadvantaged youngsters across the UK. You can do so via the website, here.

The BBC Press Office has announced that the first two minutes of the forthcoming Doctor Who Christmas special, "The Next Doctor", will be broadcast as an exclusive preview for the episode as part of this year's Children in Need charity telethon.

Children in Need, the telethon in aid of which is shown on BBC One every November, is this year to be broadcast on Friday 14 November from 7pm. Doctor Who has featured in the programme in various capacities before, including special mini-episodes made specifically for the telethon in 2005 and 2007. Earlier this month it had been rumoured in the media that a special production featuring all seven surviving actors to have played the Doctor might have been in preparation for the evening, but this has proved groundless.

The full episode of "The Next Doctor" is expected to be broadcast by BBC One in the UK on Christmas Day

Director James Strong will be helming the Easter Doctor Who Special, Executive Producer Russell T. Daviesannounced in the latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine.

"We're so happy that he's returning to the fold," Davies stated. "James has handled Daleks in sewers, hordes of Adipose and Satan himself, as well as a Titanic with Kylie on board. But believe me, none of that will have prepared him for what we're about to unleash in this next script!"

The Easter special is scripted by Davies and Gareth Roberts, whose previous credits on the show include "Attack of the Graske", "The Shakespeare Code" and "The Unicorn and the Wasp".

The shortlists for the categories at this year's National Television Awards - the annual public-voted poll for the most popular programmes and performers on British television, run by the ITV network - have been unveiled, with Doctor Who once again well represented.

The programme itself is nominated in the Most Popular Drama category, which it won in 2005, 2006 and 2007. This year it faces competition from ITV1's The Bill, Channel 4's Shameless and American import Desperate Housewives.

At the past three awards ceremonies, the actor and actress who played the Doctor and his main companion in each series of Doctor Who have been nominated as Most Popular Actor and Most Popular Actress respectively. Christopher Eccleston won the former category in 2005, and David Tennanttook the award in 2006 and 2007, with Billie Pipernamed Most Popular Actress in 2005 and 2006. However, as BBC News reports, in a controversial change for this year's ceremony, the Most Popular Actor and Actress categories have been scrapped in favour of a combined "Outstanding Drama Performance" category.

Tennant and co-star Catherine Tate will both compete for this single award, with Philip Glenister (BBC One's Ashes to Ashes) and Alex Walkinshaw (The Bill) also nominated.

Votes can be cast online at the National Television Awards website here. The ceremony will be held at the Royal Albert Hall in London on October 29th, and broadcast live on ITV1 in the UK.

The website Den of Geek has published full details of the forthcoming DVD box set release of series four of Doctor Who, which is to be released next month. The article contains a full run-down of the documentary features, deleted and extended scenes and audio commentaries included on the set.

The same website has also published another article detailing information gleaned from some of the new audio commentaries. This includes the note thatDavid Tennant at one point refers to new head writer and executive producer Steven Moffat as his "new boss", which the website takes to indicate that they will be working together on the fifth series of the programme, to be broadcast in 2010.