Warner Home Video has announced the release of The Sontaran Experiment starring Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen and Ian Marter, and The Invasion starring Patrick Troughton, Frazer Hines and Wendy Padbury, on DVD in North America, due out on March 6, 2007. The cover illustrations for both are below; click on each for a larger version.

As in the UK release, The Invasion will feature both episodes 1 and 4 - missing from the BBC archives - in a special fully-animated reconstruction by Cosgrove Hall, using the program's original soundtrack. Full details on each release, including lists of extras, are available at the website of the Doctor Who Restoration Team (articles for The Invasionand The Sontaran Experiment accessible).

Canada's CBC Television online shows Eps 8 - The Impossible Planet (Part 1) scheduled to air on CBC at 8PM EST tonight (December 4th) across Canada. The CBC is airing all of Series 2 every Monday. cbc.ca/doctorwho

In an interview with John Barrowman on SyFyPortal site (posted 26/11/06), he comments: "I will be in [season] three of Doctor Who," he said excitedly. "I will be in the last three episodes of four episodes, and the scripts are being written as we speak because I just got a text from Russell [T. Davies] telling me that he's finishing the script that Jack returns to Doctor Who."

"You will never see, you will never have Who crossing over into Torchwood," Barrowman exclaimed. "Doctor Who is for children, is a base for family viewing and children. Torchwood is not. The only person that will cross at this point will be Jack going back and forth, because Jack has a different persona in Doctor Who as he does in Torchwood, if that makes any sense. He's darker because of his circumstances and he'll change again when [he] comes in, or he might be darker when he comes back in Doctor Who. I dunno yet but, the Doctor will never come into Torchwood."

Although he said that he cannot comment on his upcoming Doctor Who episodes because they are still a work in progress, he did drop a couple of hints surrounding the rest of Torchwood.

"I'm sure at some point whether it be in Doctor Who or Torchwood you'll learn all of his back history," Barrowman said of Capt. Jack. "What I can tell you is that you will learn a lot about Jack in the next few episodes and towards the end of the [season]. And also that as you've noticed in the series thus far, everybody has a secret and you're going to find out more about their secret and how things start to unravel. And that was a hint."

Spanish public broadcaster TVE Clan began airing Series 1 of Doctor Who on its kids oriented digital terrestrial channel TVE Clan on 24 November. Episodes are airing weeknights at 8:15PM Central European Time, with repeats on the weekend.

At a recent fan event, Sophie Aldred revealed that she and Sylvester McCoy were scheduled to do the audio commentary for the as yet unannounced DVD of 1989 classic series adventure Survival. They had originally planned to make the the recording early in November, but had to postpone due to McCoy's busy schedule.

To coincide with the DVD release of The Invasion, The Guardian has a lengthy piece focusing on the VidFire process used on the story (whose year of transmission is erroneously given as 1969 instead of 1968).

Award-winning actress Jessica Stevenson is to star in the new series of Doctor Who, according to her online CVhosted by her agents.

Stevenson's previous credits include the film Shaun of the Dead, the Channel 4 cult series Spaced and the BBC comedyThe Royle Family. She is also due to star in the forthcoming Harry Potter film. Her CV lists her Doctor Who character as "Joan" in a story directed by Charles Palmer. (Thanks to Steve Tallach).

Perennial movie and TV website 'Ain't it cool news' has posted an interview with James Strong, Series 2 director of 'The Impossible Planet’ and ‘The Satan Pit.’ In it Strong discusses the issues with working on a SFX heavy set of episodes, and working on 'Who' altogether. Take a look at the interview here.

Peter Barkworth, who played Clent in The Ice Warriors (1967), has died at the age of 77. Barkworth also played Stephen in the Get Off My Cloud episode of the BBC sci-fi anthology series Out Of The Unknown, which featured the Tardis and a Dalek and aired in 1969.

He was probably most famous for the role of banker Mark Telford in the 1979 BBC serial Telford's Change, which co-starred Hannah Gordon, who played Kirsty inThe Highlanders in 1966/67. Barkworth left RADA the same year as his Ice Warriorsco-star Peter Sallis, who played Penley.

The cause of death was given as bronchopneumonia following a stroke. He died on 21 October in London. The story is reported at BBC News; The Times and The Guardian have obituaries.

Doctor Who confirmed its continuing massive popularity with the British public by dominating the National Television Awards for a second year running. The show, where the awards are voted for by the public, won the coveted Most Popular Drama category and David Tennant and Billie Piper took the Most Popular Actor and Actress prizes.

This was a repeat performance of last year's success, the only change being that it was Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor taking the Most Popular Actor award in 2005.

This year's ceremony took place at the Royal Albert Hall where Tennant was presented with his award by Dame Julie Andrews.

Accepting the award he said: "I think if my eight-year-old self could see me at the Royal Albert Hall winning a prize for playing the Doctor on telly, he would need a stiff shot of Irn-Bru."

He added: "I love my job. I'm so chuffed that others seem to love it too.

"Thank you for tuning in, that's why we make it."

Backstage, Tennant said on a television interview: "Thank goodness I didn't let the side down, eh? That would have been a tragedy.

"It's difficult to come into something that's been such a great success. It's a bit daunting, whether you're going to do as good a job as Chris. It means a lot."

Representing the show at the ceremony were Tennant, Piper, Noel Clarke and Camille Coduri.

Online press coverage includes BBC News (with a second article here), The Guardian, ITV News, and the Reuterspress agency.