Sophie Okonedo, who recently starred as Alison in the animated Doctor Who serial "Scream of the Shalka," was nominated for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role and as part of Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture for the film "Hotel Rwanda" as part of the Screen Actors' Guild Awards, being presented in early February. (Thanks to Joey Reynolds)

The new series trailer originally shown as a downloadable RealPlayer clip online, was broadcast on the BBC1 network ((complete with BBC ONE bottom left logo) on January 1 at approximately 9:03pm. While the vast majority of the trailer was identical to (but much clearer and more robust than) the web version, the appearance of the logo was slightly different, complete with spinning blue circle-style graphics. Outpost Gallifrey has been told that you can expect to see this trailer rebroacast very soon (and we'll bring you the information on when as soon as we get it!)

Word from the BBC over the weekend: many sections of its online presence will be closed or dramatically scaled back, including sports and local history sections and the popular Cult area... but not the Doctor Who portion of the site. Indeed, according to the Media Guardian on Sunday, "A cult TV and film site devoted to shows such as The Simpsons and Buffy will be pruned to concentrate on upcoming BBC shows like Dr Who." In other words, while the Cult section is being scaled back, the Doctor Who portion of the site will continue (albeit with likely changes) to focus on the new series.

The recent installment of Radio Times magazine features a gag photo with the Daleks settling down for Christmas dinner. Says BBCi: "The metal meanies seem to be enjoying a traditional mix of of turkey, stuffing, sprouts and carrots - but have foregone roast potatoes in favour of mountains of the fluffiest mash you have ever seen. Well, they do have rather good whisk attachments, we guess." You can view it on the BBCi site by clicking here. (Thanks to BBCi)

The official Doctor Who website today features a brief clip from the BBC's Winter Highlights promotion featuring the new Doctor Who TV series... the first official footage shown from the new show. You can see it at the official site; it's in RealPlayer format.

The official site has some further details on the forthcoming documentary series Doctor Who Confidential, which we first discussed in a news report in early October. The details come in the form of an interview with executive producer Mark Cossey. "Confidential is its own beast," Cossey told the official site. "[I]t will be more observational than the others, more of a documentary but with an entertainment edge. Like Doctor Who, we just want to tell a good story and give the audience an insight into the legend that is Doctor Who." It mentions that the access of the documentary team to the production is rather extensive, and will focus almost exclusively on the new show. There is no word as to whether it will be released on DVD or not with the first season of the new series.

The official Doctor Who website today launches their newest photonovel, with telesnap photos from the missing Patrick Troughton serial The Evil of the Daleks, also the debut story of companion Victoria Waterfield (Deborah Watling).Click here to look at part one.

The official Doctor Who website features an interview with Gary Russell of Big Finish, where Russell notes that Mary Tamm will be returning for the second series of Gallifrey audios due out next year (see our earlier story, July 22). Tamm will reprise the role of Romana for at least one chapter, where she will feature together with Lalla Ward... if we can have the Five Doctors, surely the Two Romanas is possible too!

The Sci Fi Online site features a new update on possible UK DVD releases in 2005. The site picks up on Outpost Gallifrey's previous reports that The Claws of Axos will be part of the 2005 schedule and backtracks a bit on their previous report that The Mind Robber will be the first 2005 release (it's now a "contender" for early 2005 according to the site), but also adds the name of the William Hartnell serial The Web Planet to the list of possible releases. (The article notes that the story "will pose a few problems for the VidFIRE video estimation process due to the smearing applied to the æexteriorÆ shots, something that the software may have problems processing.") Members of the Restoration Team have noted that the first DVD release of 2005 will be "interesting" and will definitely be in color... it will not, however, be a set of the new TV series' episodes, because they won't have been broadcast by then.

Another story on the same site says claims one of the features on the Lost in Time DVD collection release coming soon will be film inserts from episode 1 of The Space Pirates, which were not previously known widely to exist. We have yet to see any official confirmation of this, however.

The official Doctor Who site has started a daily series with photos from the production of the new series, a series they're calling WhoSpy! The photo and caption confirms that it's the fourth episode -- perhaps pat one of "Aliens of London"? -- that is currently being filmed. While it's only starting right now, there is one shot of a clapper-board used for the first day's filming, with more promised in the days to come. Also, they've condensed the relevant part of today's BBC Wales interview into a streaming media file for UK fans (broadband); we're told the video clip will work for non UK viewers, but only in narrowband. Make sure you check it out - and keep going back daily for the new production photo!