Since then, two cast members have now been confirmed for this episode, forming what seems like another duo in the series.
The episode itself is currently unknown in the running order for the series.
CHARLIE BAKER
DAN JOHNSTON
According to Vic Murray Talent, Dan Johnston will feature as a character named Thin Man; the actor has previously appeared as regular Jonty in Sold, a journalist in Hotel Babylon, and featured in two pilots for Thames Television, Team UK and Navelgazing: 4Tissimo.
Debi Allen Associates lists stand-up comedian Charlie Baker as Fat Man. Baker's television credits include being a panellist on Channel 4's Beer and Pizza Club and BBC2's Never Mind the Buzzcocks, and appearing in The IT Crowd; he also featured as a band singer in the film The Boy in the Striped Pajamas.
FRANCES ENCELL
FERN DEACON
Two artists have been credited for another unknown story; Spotlight lists child actresses Fern Duncan and Frances Encell as providing voice overs for Doctor Who (filmed in 2010).
Fern has had roles on television in Poirot and in the film Gulliver's Travels, and has appeared on stage in The King and I and Annie Get Your Gun. Meanwhile, Frances has appeared on television in Emmerdale and The Royal, and on stage in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and The Sound of Music.
Monday, 17 January 2011 - Reported by Chuck Foster
2011 has seen filming continue on Doctor Who, with work being completed on Matthew Graham's two-parter during the first week of January. Filming took place at Atlantic College in Welsh St. Donats, picking up from filming that needed to be completed from an earlier visit during December. This was followed in the middle of the week by pick-ups back at Cardiff Castle, and then finally at the end of the week at the Senedd at Cardiff Bay.
Graham commented on the 4th about the impending completion of his episodes, via Twitter:
16:20 So wished I could've spent more time on set. Lovely team. Very friendly and very Up. Oh and very, very cold. 20:34 My DW 2-parter finishes shooting end of this week. They will be glad to come in out of the perishing cold. Poor dears.
Ryan Farrell, 3rd January: Followed the signs to St Donats, where they've resumed today. Went round the back of the castle to the beach, then walked back towards the castle and heard a familiar Highlands accent before seeing Karen being escorted into the castle. Nothing to add to that, other than trailer 3, which I think is Arthur (he says which number trailer he uses on his video diary).
Ryan Farrell, 5th January: Filming was back at Cardiff Castle today. Saw an actress with Cleo-style black hair with a straight fringe, 100% Sarah Smart. There was also a "Mark" and I googled Mark Bonnar who's down to be in this story and that's also 100% him. Finally, there was a "Leon" and that was Leon Vickers. The only new bit of info is that I think Leon or Mark (who we don't have names for yet) is called Timmy/Jimmy/something similar.
Alun Vega, 8th January: Seems it was a night shoot at the Senedd. Spotted Karen and several smart-suited supporting artists leaving. Base packing up.
Last week saw production begin on Block 4, concentrating on the spring series climax episode seven and the new episode three from Steve Thompson. Steven Moffat commented on the 13th:
13:59 Okay. Episode 7 of the new series, is the 777th episode of Doctor Who. 14:01 Oh, and we just started shooting it.
Filming took place at Lafarge Aberthaw Cement Works on the 11th January, during which an old adversary of the Doctor's was spotted! With Moffat's comments above, it isn't clear whether this filming is for the new Block 4, or the final batch of filming for Block 3. However, the 13th certainly did see episode seven filming taking place at a (currently unknown) power station.
There was a day's set-up on the 10th at the works, before filming itself took place on the 11th. The interior of one of the buildings was dressed to represent what looks like a makeshift military medical centre, in somewhat disarray. Alien writing could be seen on trolleys, and throughout the set were a stylised cross that looked a little like those of the Knights Templar!
Outside, the TARDIS was set up, which appeared to be menaced by a Sontaran trooper!
Power station filming on the 13th, reported by Paul Hebbard the following day on Twitter:
08:34 Doctor Who filmed at power station overnight. Loads of trucks and weird looking monks 20:53 Re doctor Who, all I can say is monk aliens and teleporters. 16 hours set up and 9 hours filming, all done and gone Thursday
Steven Moffat has announced changes to the episode order for the 2011 series of Doctor Who.
Speaking to Doctor Who Magazine, the executive producer revealed he has shuffled the running order of the series with the Mark Gatiss penned story moving into the second half of the season, due in the Autumn.
The story was originally scheduled to run in the first part of the series due in the spring. The empty slot will now be filled by an episode written by Steve Thompson. Although new to Doctor Who, Thompson is an established writer who is best known for his work with Moffat as the author of the second Sherlock episode, The Blind Banker. He won the Arts Council's Meyer-Whitworth Award for new writing for his first play, Damages, in 2004.
Thompson's script will run as the third episode in the series, with the long awaited Neil Gaiman script moving into position four.
Moffat told the magazine the changes are purely to balance out the look of the series and to combat worries in the production team that there was "not enough outside" in the first half of the series.
Wednesday, 5 January 2011 - Reported by Chuck Foster
Filming for the Matthew Graham-penned episodes five+six returned to Cardiff Castle today, where three of its guest stars were spotted on-site in the story being directed by Julian Simpson.
As previously reported, Sarah Smart is playing a character named Jennifer Lucas. Her recent on-screen credits include Wallander (Anne-Britt Hoglund), Casualty 1906/1907/1909 (Ada Russell), and Five Days (Sarah Wheeler). [Smart's entry at Conway - Van Gelder - Grant Voices]
Leon Vickers is a new actor, having just graduated from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. His television credits include Garrow's Law (John Davis) and Being Victor (Carl Sutton), and is believed to be playing a character named 'Clone Worker' in Doctor Who. [Vickers's entry at Amanda Howard Associates].
Mark Bonnar's credits include timey-wimey series Paradox (D.S. Ben Holt), and recurring roles in Casualty (Bruno Jenkins) and The Bill (Ray Moore). His role in Doctor Who is currently unknown. [Bonnar's entry at Hatton McEwan]
Filming for this block is drawing to a close, with Matthew Graham tweeting: "My DW 2-parter finishes shooting end of this week. They will be glad to come in out of the perishing cold. Poor dears."
Tuesday, 4 January 2011 - Reported by Chuck Foster
Two more guest stars have been confirmed online for the Neil Gaiman-penned episode three of the next series, directed by Richard Clark.
Spotlight have listed Adrian Schiller as playing the character "Uncle" in the story. Schiller has recently played Noah Zeitler in BBC Series Silk, and has previously appeared in sci-fi/fantasy projects Being Human (Hennessey) and Going Postal (Mr Gryle).
As one might expect, an "Uncle" implies an "Auntie", and that role has been confirmed by United Agents as being played by Elizabeth Berrington. Berrington plays regular character Ruby in Waterloo Road, and sci-fi/fantasy-wise played nurse Nicola in Psychoville; she also appeared over the festive period as Terry in Jo Brand's Christmas Cracker.
The two join Suranne Jones, reported last year as playing the character Idris.
The Evening Times has revealed that Jimmy Vee will be rejoining Doctor Who for the forthcoming series, saying "details of who or what he’s playing are top secret". He is probably most notable for playing The Moxx of Balhoon in The End of the World and Bannakaffalatta in Voyage of the Damned, as well as playing various other characters in The Sarah Jane Adventures.
BBC America have posted the trailer for the 2011 series of Doctor Who to their Anglophenia blog. The trailer originally aired after the end credits of A Christmas Carol. The next series of Doctor Who is expected to air sometime in Spring. You can read our summary guide for series 6/32 by clicking here.
Update (29/12) BBC America have also been playing a specially made promo video featuring The Doctor and Amy Pond on their network:
Friday, 24 December 2010 - Reported by Chuck Foster
CNN have reported that plans are afoot to broadcast the sixth series of Doctor to the United States within hours of airing in the United Kingdom.
Addressing the issue of fans downloading episodes via the Internet way ahead of their broadcast in the USA, the vice president of programming at BBC America, Richard de Croce, said:
(It) means fans love the shows so much they can't wait to see them.
And that's the world we live in, in terms of technology, quite honestly. So let's air these shows as quickly as we can post the UK's transmission.
Plans are in the works for season six of "Doctor Who" to be broadcast the same day in the United States as well.
Tomorrow's broadcast of A Christmas Carol will be the first time American fans will be able to watch Doctor Who on the same evening as those in the UK, with Australia and Canada following suit a day later.
However, Doctor Who hasn't always aired first in the UK; the 1996 TV Movie aired in the USA and Canada a couple of weeks before the BBC, and back in 1983 some American fans actually got to see the 20th Anniversary story The Five Doctors on PBS two days before those in the United Kingdom!
Thursday, 2 December 2010 - Reported by Chuck Foster
Filming commenced last week on Block 3 of the next series of Doctor Who, with the cast and crew working inside Cardiff Castle. Meanwhile, this week sees a visit to another old filming haunt Caerphilly Castle. The current block is believed to be for episodes five and six of the series, penned by Matthew Graham (see our earlier article for more details).
Photos from the location at Cardiff Castle (24-25 Nov 2010)
Yet again the DW production crew descend on a snowy Caerphilly Castle. Back in January they were there for The Vampires of Venice and now the current block again makes use of one of the largest castles in the UK.
After hearing about the base in the car park the kids and I headed down for a gander, just like we had before. We parked in town, walked through the precinct and headed up to the castle. Sitrep - cold and icy underfoot. On the way up we could see a panalux van or two by the main gate and plenty of activity too. Lots of people on site, so this looked like it was going to be a big shoot.
As we got closer, a silver car pulled past us and out got Karen Gillan. She was well wrapped up but it was easy to spot her flame red hair in the bright sun. She rushed up into the castle and we followed slowly behind, paying our £10 entry fee on the way.
Walking up the hill we could see metal girder-like props on the the floor by the side of the buildings, some were getting a last minute spray to finish them off. By then I realised it was very early in the shoot. Walking through the east inner gatehouse it was obvious that this was where all the action was going to take place. Kit and wires galore in the buildings on both sides of entry.
Carrying on we looked around the rest of the location. Nothing was happening in the Great Hall at the time we were there (10am) but as time went on it looked like some kit was being placed in there. Towards the back of the castle a number of plastic container drums were being stacked, they seemed out of place for a castle setting but then again so did the girders.
Every now and then people would come out to the concession table for a cup of something warm. At one point we saw a trio of male cast members in orange trousers. At first I thought they were boiler suits but then noticed they all had what looked like white tunics poking out from under their winter coats.
We wandered round the castle a bit more and found our way into the upper corridor which runs along the back of the great hall. This was used for part of the chase in VOV but today didn't seem to be dressed or lit for filming. It does however lead to the side entrance to the upper levels of the east inner gatehouse but that doorway seemed to be locked. So no luck there then.
Venturing back into the inner keep we saw a couple of strapping lads carrying kit up into the north west (lady's) tower. As there seemed to be no one up there, we had a wander up there too. This leads up to a balcony area that looks out onto the keep and further up to a circular room. This is where the kit ended up. There also seemed to be a large round wooden stucture in that room too which may be part of the episode.
While we were in the shop, a quad bike which they were using to get a round on the icy ground drove past. On the back was a silver cylinder, approx 1.5m high and 0.5m across with two clock/dial/gauges on it. It looked like it would be part of some larger machine and certainly fit with the other set props we'd seen earlier.
So thats my report for today, I doubt filming will be visible when it starts and its quite possible they'll be there after the castle closes at 4pm today and maybe into tomorrow too. One final thing. Its bloody cold at the moment, spare a thought for the crew who work hard in all weathers to bring us our favourite TV show. It was -4°c when we arrived; it will warm up slightly but it'll be much colder later.
Photos from the location at Caerphilly Castle (30 Nov, 1 Dec 2010)
In casting news, directory Spotlight has indicated a couple of actors that will also appear in these episodes: Marshall Lancaster (Chris Skelton from Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes) is listed as playing a character called 'Buzzer', whilst Sarah Smart (Anne-Britt Hoglund from Wallander) will play 'Jennifer Lucas'.
Wednesday, 1 December 2010 - Reported by Chuck Foster
The Curtis Brown Literary and Talent Agency have cited a credit for Doctor Who on their profile of director Peter Hoar; the entry reports that he will be directing a "one-off Special of the popular series to be broadcast over the Easter weekend", a one hour long story written by Steven Moffat and produced by Marcus Wilson.
There is no other confirmation on the details listed; filming for the new series during November saw the completion of the opening story penned by Steven Moffat, and then moved onto Matthew Graham's two-part story (as reported by the writer), so the production date given remains unclear at present.
The positioning of such a special within the series is also uncertain - though Doctor Who traditionally broadcasts from around Easter, 2011 sees the weekend fall later in April (22nd-25th); this might suggest that an earlier Spring start to Series Six, but previous years have shown that any such decision is unlikely to be confirmed until a few weeks before transmission.
Update: since the news item was published, the profile listing has now been adjusted to read "Director of a single episode to be broadcast in 2011".
Wednesday, 17 November 2010 - Reported by Chuck Foster
Filming for the new series of Doctor Who has now commenced at the Valley of the Gods in South-Eastern Utah. Matt Smith (who had reportedly arrived in Utah after his appearance on The Late Late Show at around midnight), Karen Gillan, Arthur Darvill, Alex Kingston and Mark Sheppard were all spotted during the course of the day's activities.
One scene observed included Amy being chased by MIBs in a Cherokee Jeep.
Filming is expected to continue in Utah until the 19th November.
Back in December we reported that director Peter Hoar had been listed by the Curtis Brown Literary and Talent Agency as working on an episode of Doctor Who for 2011.
Steven Moffat has announced changes to the episode order for the 2011 series of Doctor Who.
Filming for the Matthew Graham-penned episodes five+six returned to Cardiff Castle today, where three of its guest stars were spotted on-site in the story being directed by Julian Simpson.
Filming for the new series of Doctor Who has now commenced at the Valley of the Gods in South-Eastern Utah. Matt Smith (who had reportedly arrived in Utah after his appearance on 
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