The official BBC Doctor Who website has posted a clip from the forthcoming Christmas special, "The Next Doctor", as the treat behind the door of day 21 on their "Adventure Calendar". The calendar counts down to Christmas with a variety of special material made available each day in December.

The new 50-second video clip, only available to UK users of the site, features the character of Miss Hartigan (Dervla Kirwan) interacting with the Cybermen.

The Next Doctor will make its Australian debut on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Sunday 25 January 2009 at 7.30pm on ABC1. This contrasts with previous years when the Christmas specials have debuted on ABC TV several months after the UK. This may also suggest that the ABC will 'fast-track' the other Doctor Who specials to be broadcast in the UK in 2009.

The ABC has also confirmed the Australian broadcast details of the 2008 Christmas special on its website.

Thanks to TV Tonight and the contributors to the Australian forums.

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.

Posted By John Bowman

As the 45th anniversary of the start of Doctor Who approaches, the BBC has put online an archive collection of documents and images detailing the programme's genesis.

It includes a 1962 report into whether the BBC should make a sci-fi drama, concept notes written in 1963 forming a summary of ideas for just such a programme, and background notes by C E Webber and Sydney Newman in which they outline the format for the new series that had been christenedDr. Who.

Click here to access the archive.

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 website of the Doctor Who Restoration Team has published information on the forthcoming DVD release of the 1989 Doctor Who serial "Battlefield". The four-part adventure, which opened the final season of classic Doctor Who, stars Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh Doctor and Sophie Aldred as his companion Ace. It is due to be released on Region 2 DVD in the UK on December the 29th.

This is the first ever commercial release of the transmitted version of the story, the VHS release having included various extended and deleted scenes edited back into the action. For this DVD release, the transmission version is presented on one disc, with a movie-format extended edition with new CGI special effects included on a second disc.

Other extras include a commentary track with Aldred, Nicholas Courtney, Angela Bruce, writer Ben Aaronovitchand script editor Andrew Cartmel; documentaries on the making of the story, BBC trailers from the time and various other features.