Titan Magazines has released the first issue of Torchwood Magazine this week. Full details are reported elsewhere on this page (scroll down to January 16 for the press release); the publishers also have created a Facebook group and a YouTube video to promote the magazine.

On Thursday, two UK radio stations broadcast interviews of people connected with Doctor Who. Colin Baker spoke toBBC Radio Ulster about his role in "She Stoops to Conquer"; near the end of the interview, he talks about how the revival of Doctor Who has given him new respect in his own household. The interview can be heard here (it begins approximately 10 minutes 6 seconds into the program).

And Gary Russell, script editor on the new series and author of Doctor Who in many different media, spoke toResonance FM's "Panel Borders" about the new Doctor Who comic book from IDW and the history of Doctor Who in comics. The interview is available as a podcast here.

Thanks to Brian Deane and Alex Fitch.

Episode two of Torchwood, Sleeper, achieved an overnight rating of 3.4 millionviewers, a 14% share of the television audience. The programme was the highest rated for the day on BBC Two and the 18th most watched programme across the channels.

The edited repeat of episode one, Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, attained an audience of1.1 million, while Torchwood Declassified gained 1.0 million viewers.

With figures available for the whole of last week, episode one finished as the highest rated programme on BBC Two for the week, beating the second placed Masterchef by 800,000 viewers.

The BBC Press Office has announced that Alex Kingston and Colin Salmon will appear as guest stars in writerSteven Moffat's two-part story for the fourth series of Doctor Who, which is currently filming.

Kingston, who will play a character named in the press release as River Song, is best known for her regular role in the American television drama series ER. In the UK, she starred in the one-off dramas Moll Flanders and Boudecia for the ITV network. Salmon has been seen in a variety of roles in British film and television, including as the supporting character Charles Robinson in the James Bond films Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough and Die Another Day. His character in Doctor Who has not yet been named.

BBC News and The Sun have stories about the casting announcement.

BBC Worldwide has launched a video channel on MySpace TV which contains clips from new and classic Doctor Who, Doctor Who Confidential, Torchwood and Torchwood Declassified.

The clips can be embedded in webpages and blogs

A full catalog of the Doctor Who and Torchwood-related videos can be seen here.

The news of the BBC/MySpace deal is covered by many sources, including the Guardian, the Financial Times, theAssociated Press, Reuters,Business Week, TVWeek and news.com.au, all of which mention Doctor Who in their coverage of the deal. (The CBC illustrates the story with a still from the Peter Cushing Dalek films, which are not included on the MySpace page.)

This deal is similar to an arrangement the BBC has with YouTube; however, the BBC's YouTube channel is restricted to users from the United Kingdom. The BBC Worldwide YouTube channel, which is accessible worldwide, has clips from classic Doctor Who, Doctor Who Confidential and Torchwood Declassified, but no content from 21st century Doctor Who or Torchwood. Full episodes of classic Doctor Who are also available for rent on Vuze and, for US viewers, on Amazon Unbox, but these services are available only to users with Windows XP or Windows Vista (or TiVo, in the case of the Amazon content).

Posted By Brigadier Bill

In an interview with Sci Fi Wire John Barrowman spoke candidly on how long he will stay as Captain Jack.

"If I was asked to do Jack for the next five or six years I would do it with a big smile on my face, because I absolutely love playing him," Barrowman said in an interview. "When the time comes for us to close the page on Torchwood and Jack Harkness, I'm also then happy to do that when that decision is made. But I think it's got a bit of a life out there. Let's hope we get [season] three, [season] four and, hopefully, [season] five."

Barrowman also talks about the direction of series two and the differences between time travel on Doctor Who andTorchwood.

The heavy press coverage of Torchwood continues, particularly in the United States as BBC America leads up to the January 26 debut of Torchwood's second season.

iF Magazine and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette both have interviews with Eve Myles. Sci Fi Wire has a brief interview with Burn Gorman and one with John Barrowman(mentioned in more detail below). And the Kansas City Star also has some Barrowman quotes.

Entertainment Weekly, USA Today, the Chicago Tribune, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, San Jose Mercury News and AfterElton.com have reviews/previews of "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang", while Newsday raves about the series as a whole. Back in the UK, Digital Spy has a review of the second episode, "Sleeper".

There are also more reviews of the Torchwood Season 1 DVD set, from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and News Blaze.

Finally, AfterElton.com has a review of John Barrowman's autobiography, Anything Goes.

(Thanks to Sean Elliott and "Lianne" of the Doctor Who Forum.)

Doctor Who

On Monday, The Times published a cartoon by Morten Morland portraying Hillary Clinton as a Dalek, with Bill Clinton pushing her up a flight of stairs as she tells him, "Expiate!" It's odd that cartoonists still assume that Daleks have trouble with stairs, nearly 20 years after they were first shown levitating up them.

Sir Michael Lyons, chairman of the BBC Trust, visited Cardiff on Tuesday to celebrate the success of Doctor Who and Torchwood, and to promise continued investment in BBC Wales programming.BBC News has the story.

Readers of the Guardian's Organ Grinder blog have voted Doctor Who as their favorite TV show of 2007. This is the third year in a row Doctor Who has won the Organ Grinder poll.

Scottish novelist and comedian A. L. Kennedy, whose novel Day won the prestigious Costa Book of the Year award on Tuesday, told The Scotsman that she'd love to write a Doctor Who episode: "She's entirely serious about this, having been a fan of the series ever since she was four. 'I write asking them every six months, and I get increasingly high-ranking reject letters, each time explaining there's nothing they can do, and it's all down to [series writer] Russell T Davies.' "

The Daily Star's story about guest appearances in Series Four has been picked up by several sources, including The Press and Journal of Aberdeen and the Evening Post of Nottingham.

The Paisley Daily Express has a story about David Tennant's work as a celebrity patron for the Scottish-basedAssociation for International Cancer Research.

And Australia's New Idea magazine claims that Kylie Minogue is "putting the final touches on a deal" to return to Doctor Who as a series regular.

Torchwood

The TV Today blog at The Stage previews Wednesday's new episode of Torchwood, "Sleeper", saying that the series as a whole is "massively improved" and that "Sleeper is "sensitively, quietly told" but [feels] "the need to throw blood around with gay abandon."

The Western Mail lists Eve Myles in the "Championship" category of their "Fantasy Fame League" of Welsh celebrity -- the same level as Catherine Zeta-Jones and Charlotte Church. Gareth David-Lloyd is in "League One", the next level down.

TV Guide, The Boston Globe, The Star of Toronto, The Province of Vancouver, iF Magazine, MSN TV andMonsters and Critics all review the Torchwood Season 1 DVD set, which was released in North America on Tuesday.

The Boston Phoenix and the City Weekly of Salt Lake City preview "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" for their readers (Torchwood's second season debuts on BBC America on Saturday, January 26). Many news sources, including the San Francisco Chronicle, the Arizona Republic and the CBC carry anAssociated Press article about the season. And the Star-Telegram (Fort Worth, Texas) recommends Torchwood to viewers hungry for heroic characters during the writers' strike.

(Thanks to "PolyG", "Darnall42", "Xtatoo", "outforawalk", "aaaa" and "admiratio" of the Doctor Who Forum.)

Sixth Doctor Colin Baker is currently playing Mr. Hardcastle in a UK tour of the eighteenth century comedy She Stoops to Conquer. The play is co-produced by the Birmingham Repertory Theatre (where the play opened last year) and the Touring Consortium, which has an education programme about the play available here. Dates and links to theatres' websites are listed below.

22-26 January: NOTTINGHAM, Theatre Royal

29 January - 2 February: BELFAST, Grand Opera House

12-16 February: EDINBURGH, King's Theatre

19–23 February: GLASGOW, Theatre Royal

26 February-1 March: ABERDEEN, His Majesty's Theatre

4-8 March: EASTBOURNE, Devonshire Park Theatre

11-15 March: CARDIFF, New Theatre

18-22 March: RICHMOND, Richmond Theatre

25-29 March: CAMBRIDGE, Cambridge Arts Theatre

1-5 April: GUILDFORD, Yvonne Arnaud Theatre

8-12 April: CHELTENHAM, Everyman Theatre

15-19 April: DARLINGTON, Civic Theatre

21-26 April: BATH, Theatre Royal Bath


The Nottingham Evening Post has a brief review of the production.

People

Hello! magazine's readers have voted David Tennant the third most attractive man, after Sean Bean and Hugh Laurie.

Catherine Tate spoke to the Toronto Star about her comedy series and her return to Doctor Who as Donna Noble. "What's great about doing Doctor Who is that it has a narrative, so it means that I can approach it more as a straight acting role," says Tate. "It's just nicer to have a story arc that lasts longer than, like, four minutes."

Contactmusic.com quotes Russell T. Davies as saying that being gay helped give him "an edge" over other aspiring writers.

Eighth Doctor Paul McGann was one of the celebrities on hand for the official opening of Liverpool's year as the European Capital of Culture, reports theLiverpool Echo.

And Johnny Depp has denied rumors that he was seeking a role on Doctor Who, reports Teletext. (The story is no longer available on Teletext's website.)

Torchwood

Several news sources have published reviews of Torchwood's second series debut, "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang". These includeThe Times ("good, salacious knockabout fun"), The Times again ("funny, fast and daring"), The Daily Telegraph("leaden gags" and "a fantastically ungripping plot") and The Guardian ("parts of it were very, very funny").

American media are also covering the series ("Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" will debut on BBC America on Saturday, January 26); the Los Angeles Times calls the series "grown-up, dark, energetic and sometimes hard to keep track of." TheOrlando Sentinel (Florida), The Courier-Journal (Louisville, Kentucky), the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel(Wisconsin), the Akron Beacon-Journal (Ohio), the Erie News-Times (Pennsylvania) and the Fresno Bee(California) all report on the second series debut and/or Tuesday's DVD release of the first series.

The Huddersfield Examiner has an interview with John Barrowman.

The South Wales Echo has excerpts from an interview Eve Myles gave to Iconz magazine, in which she speaks of her love for Cardiff.

James Marsters' girlfriend enjoyed watching him kiss John Barrowman, according to The Sun andcontactmusic.com.

Miscellany

An article in The Sunday Times about the state of children's television in Britain quotes Russell T. Davies and notes that while television labelled as being for children is suffering, "family" programming like Doctor Who is thriving. Another column points to the success of Doctor Who as a model for adapting classic adventure novels to the screen.

Indeed, Doctor Who is such a success that BBC bosses are looking to apply its lessons beyond the realm of drama. In an interview with The Guardian BBC director general Mark Thompson used Doctor Who as an example of the sort of "creative energy" which the BBC should use in political coverage. Covering Thompson's remark, the Belfast Telegraphsuggested that BBC reporters covering Northern Ireland might already feel like time travelers.

Young Doctor Who fans in the Midlands can participate in a craft competition at the Stourport Library in Stourport-on-Severn, Worcestershire. There are three age groups for the competition: ages 5 to 7, 8 to 10 and 11 to 13. Entrants can color a Doctor Who picture (available at the library) or make a Doctor Who-themed model. The Kidderminster Shuttlehas details of the competition.

The West Sussex Gazette has a feature article about classic Doctor Who filming in West Sussex.

The Doctor Who Up Close exhibition in Cardiff will be adding costumes from "Voyage of the Damned" to its collection, reports the Western Mail.

A columnist in The Scotsman notes that "apart from reality shows and similar swill, Doctor Who is the only programme that brings the nation together simultaneously: ironic, given that the Doctor is a Time Lord."

Technology website The Register describes a small flying robot being developed by the US military as a "proto-Dalek".

Doctor Who news shows up everywhere these days. Materials Handling World has a short article about the forklift featured in "Voyage of the Damned". No matter what your field is, there's nothing like a Doctor Who story to spice up your trade news, eh?

And the South Wales Echo has a story about a dad who built his kids a five-foot TARDIS replica to keep their toys in. Bless.