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.

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.

Actress Velile Tshabalala, who plays the character of Rosita in the forthcoming Doctor Who Christmas special The Next Doctor, has given an exclusive interview to the West Sussex Gazette, a local newspaper based in the south of England.

Tshabalala was appearing last weekend at a living history event in Amberley, West Sussex. To publicise it, she spoke to the Gazette's entertainments reporter, Phil Hewitt, and also talked about her role in "The Next Doctor", saying: "I am just so excited about it. We filmed it in April in Cardiff and Gloucester and Monmouth and so it has died down a bit, but now it is getting closer and I just can't wait.

"It is just a one-off Christmas special but out of all the episodes I could have been asked to do it is far better that it is this one."

On the subject of whether she might reappear in future episodes, Tshabalala added: "I would love to do more. At the moment I am just being positive about it, that I did it and that I had a great time. But I would love to be in it again if I can."

She also spoke briefly about her character's role in the episode, information regarding which is included in the spoiler box below.

I have to be very careful what I can say and can't say about it all. You have to bear with me! But she is an East Londoner, very Cockney.

The Doctor is faced with another Doctor. Rosita is the assistant to the other Doctor but as the episode goes on she starts helping the Doctor we know.

Infomation from the BBFC website indicates the titles of four more stories due to be released on DVD in 2009.

From the First Doctor's era The Rescue and The Romans will be released as a double set. The Rescue is a two parter featuring the arrival of Maureen O'Brien as Vicki, while The Romans is a four part romp set around the court of the Emperor Nero. Both stories were first shown in 1965.

From the Sixth Doctor's era we have The Twin Dilemma which was Colin Baker's debut story, shown in 1984 and Attack of the Cybermen, first shown in 1985.

Series Four of Doctor Who will debut tonight Friday September 19th on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation at 9:00pm EDT across Canada (9:30pm in Newfoundland). In some markets this will put Doctor Who in direct competition with Series Two ofTorchwood which is currently running on " style="color: rgb(44, 111, 154); text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; ">SPACE.

The CBC is launching Series Four with Partners in Crime. At this time there is no word on if or when the 2007 Christmas special Voyage of the Damnedwill air on CBC.

The CBC have updated their Doctor Who Websitefor Series Four.

Posted By John Bowman

Silva Screen Records is to release music from Series Four of Doctor Who in mid-November.

A news item on its website says the tracks, composed by Murray Gold, will include Song Of Freedom - the choral piece that marked the Daleks' defeat in Journey's End. The Doctor's Theme is another of the tracks, but no other titles are known yet.

The exact date of the CD's release has still to be announced.