What a busy couple of weeks its been. Despite Series 5 of Doctor Who having finished, hardly a day goes by without some sort of Who-related news popping up.

For a fuller round-up, remember to look in on Doctor Who in the Media, but, to whet your appetite, here's a summary.

On Sunday, BBC 1 premiered the long-awaited first episode of Sherlock (see our earlier story), Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss's updated version of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. It stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Holmes, Martin Freeman as Dr John Watson and Rupert Graves as Inspector Lestrade. Cumberbatch has created a bit of a stir in the last few days by suggesting, first, telling Digital Spy that he may well be appearing in several episodes Doctor Who, and, then, according to the Sun that he considered becoming the eleventh Doctor before Matt Smith was cast in the role.

Again, according to the Sun, Matt Smith is eager to leave Doctor Who to pursue a career in Hollywood. However, this has been denied by both Moffat, to BBC News, and Karen Gillan, during her visit to Veuve Clicquot Gold Cup Final at Cowdray Park Polo Club! For a less sensational take on this, see this story and this story on Digital Journal.

Nicky Wire, of the Manic Street Preachers, caused a bit of a stir when he blogged on the band's website that he was writing a Doctor Who script. He's since clarified on Twitter that it's fan fiction and not a BBC commission.

Russell T Davies has been speaking to SFX about the fourth series of Torchwood and has also dealt with the rumours surrounding a Johnny Depp as the Doctor Hollywood movie! This story covers the original "exclusive" and RTD's debunking of it.

Finally, there was plenty of press coverage surrounding the start of filming of the 2010 Christmas special (see this Gallifrey Base story), guest-starring Sir Michael Gambon and Katherine Jenkins, including here, here and here.

Happy times and places!

The actor Derek Pollitt has died at the age of 83.

Derek Pollitt had three roles in Doctor Who. In 1968 he played Driver Evans in the Second Doctor story The Web of Fear. Evans was part of Colonel Lethbridge Stewart's team, and the only survivor, other than the Colonel himself, from a fight with the Yeti. Evans always sang when scared. Pollitt returned to the series in 1970 playing Private Wright, a UNIT officer, in the third Doctor's second story Doctor Who and the Silurians. His final role in the series was not broadcast as he played A. St. John D. Caldera, a neurologist whose mind was stolen, in the cancelled story Shada.

Pollitt had a long association with Llandudno in Wales, where he and his then wife Pamela Rayner ran the Galleon Theatre Company for many years staging plays at the Grand Theatre in the in the 1960s. A keen sportsman, he played a couple of times in the 1960s for the Llandudno Second X1 cricket team and at the age of 64 he did a sponsored walk from John O’Groats to Land’s End to raise money for a London hospital. He died in hospital in Surrey on July 11.

For the third month running Doctor Who has topped the monthly iPlayer request charts with the final four episodes of the series being the top four requested programmes for June.

Top of the list was The Pandorica Opens with over 1.3 million requests during the month, followed by The Lodger, Vincent and the Doctor and The Big Bang all with over a million requests. The highest programme, not related to Doctor Who, was Top Gear with 0.88 million requests. During the month Doctor Who had 6.35 million requests in total, shared between 13 episodes, just behind EastEnders which had 7 million requests for one of the 22 episodes available.

Figures for the year so far, give Doctor Who the top nine places in the download charts, and 14 of the top twenty places. The Eleventh Hour tops the list with over 2.1 million requests, by far the highest requested programme in the BBC iPlayer history. Because the whole series was on iPlayer from transmission date until July, the early episodes of the series were available for much longer and therefore had higher iPlayer figures. The final two episodes of the series will get a boost when the July figures are available.
Full ratings for the series can be found in Gallifrey Base.

More details are available in this months DWM on the extras to be included in the forthcoming Revisitations Box set, due for release in the UK in October.

The set will consist of three previously released stories taken from remastered and restored prints and with updated extras.

Writing in Doctor Who Magazine, Steven Moffat has confirmed the key members of the production team for Series 32 of Doctor Who, the sixth series since the programme returned in 2005.

The team at the top will remain the same with Piers Wenger and Beth Willis continuing their role as Executive Producers on the series. As previously reported, Sanne Wohlenberg will take over as producer on the first two filming blocks of the series, following the departure of Tracie Simpson who has left to work on The Fabulous Baker Boys.

The new Production Designer is Michael Pickwoad who takes over from Edward Thomas who is now working on Outcasts. Pickwoad has recently been working on the ITV production of The Prisoner, for which he was nominated for an Art Directors Guild Award. Other series he has worked on include Miss Marple, Sweeney Todd, David Copperfield, Kavanagh QC and Murder Most Horrid. He designed the 1987 film Withnail & I, which starred Paul McGann.

Canada's annual science fiction awards, the Constellations, have now taken place. Doctor Who and its related shows had been nominated in a number of categories:

The Best Male Performance in a 2009 Science Fiction Television Episode category was won by former Doctor David Tennant, gaining 23% of the vote for his performance in The Waters of Mars; he narrowly beat Robin Dunne from Sanctuary at 22%. Torchwood star Gareth David Lloyd had also been nominated in this category, coming in at fifth place (8%) for Torchwood: Children of Earth.

However, Doctor Who itself did not fare so well in the Best Science Fiction Television Series of 2009 category; having won the award three years running, this time it only managed third place at 17%, behind Defying Gravity(22%) and Supernatural(23%).

In other categories, actress Michelle Ryan came fourth with 13% of the vote in Best Female Performance in a 2009 Science Fiction Television Episode for her role as Christina in Planet of the Dead; Torchwood: Children of Earth came third for Best Overall 2009 Science Fiction Film or Television Script (20%); and finally actress Aurora Buchanan came fifth(10%) in Best Female Performance in a 2009 Science Fiction Film, TV Movie, or Mini-Series for fan-made film Doctor Who: Victimsight.

The actor Richard Shaw has died at the age of 90.

Richard Shaw had three appearances in Doctor Who. In 1965 he played the role of Lobos, the Morok governor of Xeros, in the William Hartnell story The Space Museum. He returned to the series in 1973 working with Jon Pertwee on the story Frontier in Space where he played Cross the leader of a section of the prisoners at the Lunar Penal Colony. His final role in the series was in the 1978 story Underworld, where he played Lakh, a Seer on the planet which coalesced around the P7E.

Away from Doctor Who, Shaw had an extensive career in British television spanning over 40 years. He played Sladden in the 1959 classic Quatermass and the Pit, appeared in many classic plays on BBC and ITV and appeared in such series as Crossroads, Freewheelers, Dixon of Dock Green and the film Carry On Don't Lose Your Head.

Actor Toby Hadoke has posted a tribute to Richard Shaw on his website.

To mark the season finale of Doctor Who in Canada on Saturday, July 24th SPACE Channel and the program InnerSPACE are planning a special edition in front of a live studio audience. The InnerSPACE Live Doctor Who season finale and after-show will take place at 299 Queen Street West in Toronto, Ontario. The broadcast will take place from 9pm - 11pm ET. The special broadcast includes a panel discussion, interviews and a live web chat and will be hosted InnerSPACE's Teddy Wilson.

Fans in Toronto interested in attending being a part of the live studio audience call 416-384-LIVE (5483) to reserve tickets. For more information on the broadcast or the after-show please visit the SPACE Channel website. Those able to be a part of the live audience are requested to arrive by 8:15pm. You must have a ticket to attend the live show. Those not able attend can watch both the Doctor Who season finale and InnerSPACE after-show across Canada on SPACE starting at 9:00pm ET on Saturday July 24th, 2010.

NB: Press Release link contains spoilers for those who have not seen The Big Bang.

The BBC has confirmed veteran actor Michael Gambon and opera diva Katherine Jenkins will guest star in the 2010 Doctor Who Christmas special.

Production starts today and will continue until August.

Michael Gambon is one of the UK's most respected actors, best known for his role as Philip Marlow in BBC television serial The Singing Detective and for his role as Albus Dumbledore in the Harry Potter film series.

Katherine Jenkins is a Welsh mezzo-soprano who has sold more than 4 million copies of her studio albums. This will be her first acting role. Arriving on set for her first day of filming, Katherine Jenkins said

Steven Moffat, Lead writer and Executive Producer on the series commented:

Matt Smith's debut series has concluded in Australia. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation's decision to 'fast-track' the latest series of Doctor Who has been vindicated by excellent ratings, the series receiving its highest consistent Australian ratings since its return in 2005 (and probably ever). The series averaged 928,000 viewers in the five major capital cities over thirteen weeks (these figures also do not include regional, time-shifted and iView viewers) and was normally the ABC's top-rating program of the day. TV Tonight reports that The Big Bang averaged 976,000 viewers in the five major capital cities, again despite stiff competition from the commercial networks. Yet again it was the ABC's top-rating program of the day, rating higher than its popular Sunday 7pm news and Little Dorrit, being the ninth highest rating program for the day overall. The corresponding Confidential Cutdown also rated an exceptional 732,000 viewers in the five major capitals.