Russell T Davies updates readers on Torchwood in the new issue of SFX Magazine, as relayed by the website The Great Link. The interview notes that the show, about a "renegade bunch of investigators," will first be hinted at in "The Christmas Invasion" next month. More hints will follow throughout the second season. Davies will write two episodes of "Torchwood" which he says that, thanks to the expected watershed slot (9pm) for the show, "we can be a bit more visceral, more violent, and more sexual, if we want to. Though bear in mind that it’s very teenage to indulge yourself in blood and gore, and Torchwood is going to be smarter than that. But it’s the essential difference between BBC One at 7pm, and BBC Three at say, 9pm. That says it all -- instinctively, every viewer can see the huge difference there." Torchwood is still in the early stages of development, it says, but there will probably some production crossover with Doctor Who, "they’re two very different shows, so each will have its own identity." As Outpost Gallifrey previously reported, writers currently onboard for Torchwood are PJ Hammond (ITV’s Sapphire and Steel) and Chris Chibnall (BBC One’s Born and Bred). You can read more from Russell about Torchwood in the Christmas 2005 Issue of SFX Magazine. (Thanks to Chris Howell at The Great Link)

The Sun has an 'exclusive' today that notes that football star David Beckham is apparently a Doctor Who fan. "Victoria Beckham has splashed out on a book of Doctor Who screenplays for soccer star hubby Becks -- as he is 'completely ob- sessed' with the Time Lord. The ex-Spice Girl, 31, bought England skipper Becks a book of transcripts from the latest series starring Christopher Ecclestone [sic] and Billie Piper. Mum-of-three Posh showed her eye for a bargain by spotting the book, The Shooting Scripts, in a half-price sale. And if that wasn’t cut-price enough, staff at posh Knightsbridge store Harrods even gave an extra ten per cent discount because of her celebrity status. Real Madrid ace Becks and wife Victoria were in central London last Sunday. An insider said: 'They were in Harrods for a couple of hours. She had a good rummage and found the Dr Who book. Staff were expecting her to spend a fortune on designer gear — but she only bought the Russell T Davies scripts. She told the shop assistant that David was 'completely obsessed' with Dr Who. 'She said he knew everything about it and never missed an episode of the last series.'" Also reported at This Is London,Ananova.

The online edition of SFX Magazine features an interview with Anthony Stewart Head, who notes that he "love[s] it when papers say things stridently, whether they're right or wrong" about him playing the Master (he says he's shocked to hear it because it's not true!) But how was being in the show? "It was fantastic. And he's a blinding Doctor, David Tennant. For the first time in a long time, it's effortless. He's got it all, he really. He's literally born to play the part. He's got such an edge yet at the same time the humour, the comedy's just perfect. You're not watching anybody trying hard, it's just there. For me, this guy is just bang on! ... I suppose once you're in the genre, I suppose people just say, oh, you'd be good! I went up for the American TV movie, I went up for that a couple of time, and I saw various executives, but when I came back from Buffy, people would ask if I'd do it and I said, well, I think to do one sort of iconic sci-fi character every decade is probably enough. People'd get confused otherwise!" Was he approached for the role? "Yes. I don't know if they wrote this specifically with me in mind, but I think they thought it'd suit me. I must admit I enjoyed myself immensely. ... I can't even remember the character's name. Now I'm on tour, all my energies are channelled into that. Hmm, I don't know how much I'm allowed to say. My name is stamped all over the script so if anybody ever gets the script, they know it comes from me!" He says he met Russell T Davies at the readthrough, and that Davies is a fan of his work on 'Buffy'. "He's a great writer, Russell. He said how much of a fan he was and how pleased he was that I was doing it. I did the commentary for the Making Of on Radio 2 and there was a bit where they said they'd watched Buffy and modelled storytelling techniques on it."

More coverage of the purchase of the Dalek for £36,000 at Bonhams at People Daily Online China, The Scotsman,Edinburgh Evening News,

Tuesday night's drive show with Richard Bacon on London Capital Radio featured a guest appearance by "celebrity friend for the week" Anthony Stewart Head, who noted that he'd recently taken the train to Newport for a photo session for Doctor Who where he had met with old friends David Tennant and Billie Piper. Head said that Tennant was the "best Doctor since Patrick Troughton" and that he was natural at the role but was "steely when needed".

(Thanks to Steve Tribe, Paul Engelberg, Darren Hooker)

Outpost Gallifrey has received a press release from the National Space Centre in Leicester, where as we announced last month the BBC Doctor Who Exhibition previously in Brighton has been transported. Doctor Who: Up Close is the name of this new exhibit; the press release is below. You can find out more information about it at the Space Centrewebsite.

The BBC's website for the Children In Need charity event notes that the special Doctor Who mini-episode being broadcast on Friday 18 November after 9pm will be available for viewing on the web for an undefined period atthis website starting the same evening at 9:30pm. There is currently a trailer available on the website. This is only the second instance of the new Doctor Who series to be broadcast on the web (the first instance being last April's transmission of the episode "Dalek" as a test for new BBC technologies that was accidentally leaked to the public)... only the third time ever if you count the special The Curse of Fatal Death.

The editors of Doctor Who Magazine have sent us the cover illustrations and press blurbs for their two forthcoming Doctor Who specials, In Their Own Words (with interviews from past issues of DWM) and Endgame (the next comic strip compilation). The press releases and covers are below; click on the thumbnail for a larger version. (Thanks to Tom Spilsbury/DWM)

The BBC7 website lists an additional program in December having to do with Doctor Who (besides their broadcasts of "Shada" and "The Chimes of Midnight"): at 11:30am, My Life as a Dalek, the documentary hosted by Mark Gatiss that was released on CD in 2003 is broadcast. BBC7 also listsThe Selection on Saturday, 10 December at 9.00am, but we're told that this is actually the Shada broadcast; it's repeated at 8:00pm the same day and 3:00am the following morning. (Thanks to David Baker, Martin Dempsey)

Billie Piper will be a guest on ex-husband Chris Evans' new chat, OFI Sunday, show this Sunday night at 10:30pm on ITV1. "Chris Evans presents this live entertainment show which makes the most of the disappearing weekend. The presenter is joined by celebrity guest Billie Piper, who also happens to be his ex-wife, for games, chat and music. The latest gadgets are reviewed and a classic car is up for grabs in Laid Up - the only game show on TV for competitors who are injured."

UTV notes that, as follow up to the auction of a Dalek at Bonhams mentioned in yesterday's press clips news report, the final tally on the Dalek sold at the auction house was £36,000... more than three times what was expected. "The Dalek Supreme, from the 1970s series of Dr Who, was brought by communications agency Indeprod at a charity auction in aid of the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children. ... The Dalek was made from welding together the top half of another Dalek from a 1960s series of Dr Who and the bottom of one used in a BBC exhibition. It was expected to fetch between £7,000 and £10,000. The Dalek Supreme met its end in the Destiny of the Daleks in 1979 when it was blown up by a pyrotechnic flash - scorch marks are still visible under its interior seat. The prop was later used in Madame Tussaud`s Waxworks Museum for a Dr Who exhibition in 1980. A spokesperson for Indeprod said: 'We are delighted to have acquired a Dalek. We shall place it in our reception area for all to see and enjoy. We have been after a Dalek for years and this seemed to be the perfect opportunity, especially as the proceeds will go to the Great Ormond Street Hospital. We are also very pleased that the Dalek will stay in the country.' Auctioneers Bonhams claim the Dalek was quoted as saying: 'I am so relieved that I have found a new home without the risk of extermination, although I had dreamt of living with Billie Piper.'" Also covered at BBC News.

This weeks edition of The Pink Paper, #887, the UK's longstanding free LGB community newspaper, features a two page interview with Russell T Davies and producer Phil Collinson, covering RTD's attitudes to sexuality and the media, the new approach to Who, why Who has so many gay fans and the character of Captain Jack. They're also giving away 3 DVD sets of series one!

Other news clips: Monsters and Critics has a brief story about Charlotte Church which mentions "Torchwood" (since the early reports that she would be in the show, producers have denied them); SyFyPortal covers the Billie Piper issue, quoting from Outpost Gallifrey's news pages; Brand Republicnotes that Carphone Warehouse will sponsor Chris Evans' new ITV chat show which debuts with his ex-wife Billie Piper as his first guest

(Thanks to Paul Engelberg, Andrew Harvey, Matt Dale, Chris Hinchley)