The American cable network Sci Fi Channel has announced that they have secured the rights to air Series Three starting in the summer of 2007, according to a note on their Doctor Who page. Sci Fi completed the airing of Series Two with the double-bill of "Army of Ghosts" and "Doomsday" last night.

Series Three will air on the BBC in the UK this coming Spring; if this plan by Sci Fi in the US holds, it will be the earliest turnaround of episode broadcasts since the start of the new series (Series One having taken a full year; Series Two, six months).

Outpost Gallifrey has learned that the new trailer for The Sarah Jane Adventures will air on BBC1 on the following days and times:

• Monday 25 December - 8.00pm
  
• Tuesday 26 December - 11.53am
  
• Thursday 28 December - 5.05pm
  
• Friday 29 December - 11.42am

The people at KTEH 54, San Jose, CA http://www.kteh.org have sent out a press release heralding their acquisition of the Christopher Eccleston Doctor Who episodes, making them the first public TV station to publicize that they purchased this package. It is expected that public TV stations will get Doctor Who in a one-hour block - the unedited episodes followed by a cut-down version of the relevant Doctor Who Confidential episode. Says the article, "Doctor Whoreturns to KTEH after an absence of over four years. When the series last ran, KTEH had aired the equivalent of 7703 episodes (Over 10 times more than the BBC actually produced!!) as well as producing around a dozen Doctor Whorelated interviews. Beginning on April 13, 1981, Doctor Who captured the attention of the viewers of the San Francisco Bay Area, with the series being shown every weeknight, and full stories every Saturday night. Doctor Who last aired in January of 2003, and was a victim of budget problems and declining funding from the viewing public." A Teaser is available at http://www.dvillage.org/KTEH/DW-Teaser.mov.

A new 30 second long trailer for The Runaway Bride has now broadcast on BBC channels, showing many more clips from the episode.

Meanwhile, the BBC's childrens news programme Newsround featured more interviews with the cast, and also broadcast its own exclusive new clips from the episode in their BBC1 edition this afternoon.

David Tennant: "The Doctor losing Rose was a really big moment for him, and it would be a bit wrong if we just came back and said he's fine now, he's forgotten all about that."

Russell T Davies: "He's heartbroken, absolutely devastated because the love of his life has disappeared. But at the same time I don't want to give viewers on Christmas Day at 7 o'clock an hour's worth of weeping."

Catherine Tate: "They're such different characters, this is in no way a replacement for Rose or anything like that, it's just the next chapter in the Doctor's journey, because he needed a mission, and this was a mission, and it snaps him out of it a little bit."

The crew then when on to say what we can expect from series three (see spoiler section below).

The Doctor Who special can be found online at the CBBC website.


Other coverage of Doctor Who today included a mention of the press screening on the morning's edition of Newsround, which also briefly showed the talking cyberhelmet in an item about buying presents. And ITV1's GMTV also covered the press screening, with television critic Richard Arnold waxing lyrical on how good the Christmas special will be (and bemoaning the fact he missed the press screening himself!)

Six days and counting ...

United Kingdom

A timely reminder to viewers in the UK that 2005's Doctor Who Christmas special The Christmas Invasion (starring David Tennant and Billie Piper and directed by James Hawes) is being repeated on BBC1 today at 4.25-5.25pm. This is the first time in many years that BBC1 has broadcast a Doctor Who repeat.

A repeat of episode 11 of Robin Hood, directed by Graeme Harper, follows straight after. Interestingly, this episode is called Dead Man Walking, the working title for episode 9 (Random Shoes) of Torchwood and the actual title of episode 9 of Torchwood: Declassified.

In a late change of schedule (according to Sky's EPG), the BBC3 repeat of Robin Hood at 7.00pm and the followingTorchwood Declassified at 7.45pm have now been replaced with a showing of last year's one-hour special Doctor Who Confidential, One Year On, which was first broadcast on BBC3's Doctor Who Night on 9th April.

The current issue of the Radio Times (16-22 December, the one with Tennant as the Doctor on the cover) has a two-page article about this year’s Christmas special The Runaway Bride (starring Tennant and Catherine Tate and directed by Euros Lyn), which starts thus:

"The traditional family Christmas. It used to go roughly like this: presents, relatives, turkey/trimmings, snooze, argue over what to watch on telly. Now it’s easier: presents, relatives, turkey/trimmings, snooze, Doctor Who Christmas special. How great is that?" How great indeed!

United States

The Sci-Fi Channel's Christmas Movie Marathon includes a broadcast of The Christmas Invasion on Christmas Day at 3:00 p.m. ET. They have slotted 90 minutes for the movie so it will remain as close to the original broadcast as is possible.

Canada

French language cable and satellite channel Ztele from Quebec, Canada, will be repeatingL'invasion de Noel (The Christmas Invasion) at 11:00pm EST on Friday December 22nd, 2006. A repeat showing of Le Seigneur du temps (the 1996 TV Movie) will follow at 12:00am EST. There are no plans for an English-language repeat of The Christmas Invasion on the CBC.

(Additional reporting from Chuck Foster, Bill Albert, Mike Doran.)

A schedule change/addition is soon to come into effect at Canadian cable and satellite channel BBC Kids. Effective January 1st, 2007, Doctor Who will run Monday - Friday at 10:00pm ET, 2:00am ET and 5:00am ET (two episodes per night). The Saturday and Sunday complete stories will continue at 2:00am ET. BBC Kids is currently airing Peter Davison episodes Monday to Friday andSylvester McCoy episodes on the weekends.

BBC1 have broadcast the first trailer dedicated to the forthcoming Christmas Day episode The Runaway Bride, just before this week's Robin Hood. The 20-second trailer showed a montage of clips from the episode, leading up to a triumphant voiceover declaring, "I shall descend upon this earth and shine."

This is the same trailer that has been available on day twelve on the advent calendar from the Official Doctor Who website.

Doctor Who is off of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation for the Christmas holidays but ratings are now in for the first eight episodes of Series Two. This year the CBC is broadcasting Doctor Who on Monday nights at 8:00pm (8:30pm in Newfoundland and Labrador). Doctor Who is scheduled against different competition in different time zones. Some of the shows Doctor Who has been up against are: Prison Break (Global/FOX), Corner Gas (CTV), regional hockey (SNET) and in many larger markets Battlestar Galactica(CHUM/CITY). The ratings for each episode are as follows:

October 9th - New Earth - 530 000
October 16th - Tooth and Claw - 371 000
October 23th - School Reunion - 493 000
November 6th - The Girl in the Fireplace - 535 000
November 13th - Rise of the Cybermen - 520 000
November 20th - The Age of Steel - 466 000
November 27th - The Idiot's Lantern - 442 000
December 4th - The Impossible Planet - 536 000

Doctor Who was pre-empted on October 30th for part two of the mini-series Above and Beyond. Doctor Who will return to the CBC on January 15th, 2007 with "The Satan Pit".

For discussion of the Canadian broadcasting of Doctor Who, please visit this thread in our forum.

(With thanks to Rod Mammitzsch and DWIN)

The BBC have confirmed that Torchwood is to return for a second series but this time it will premiere exclusively on BBC Two. Filming will start in Spring 2007.

BBC2 Controller, Roly Keating said the show had been: "Inventive, intelligent and unpredictable.Torchwood is a brilliant piece of 21st century fantasy drama. I'm delighted that its second series will be premiering on the channel."

Julian Bellamy, Controller of BBC Three, said: "Breaking all records on BBC Three is no mean feat and we've been proud to help build Torchwood into one of the most talked-about and eagerly-anticipated series of recent years."

Jane Tranter, the Controller of BBC Fiction, said: "Torchwood is a modern and innovative drama that has truly captured the imagination of its audience, and we are very excited that there will be more of the adrenaline-fuelled, action-packed adventures of our team of Torchwood heroes."

Russell T Davies said: "The whole team is bristling with ideas and we are delighted that Cardiff is going to be home to more monsters and mayhem."

For reaction to this news, and to add your own, please visit this thread in our forum.

Rival BBC channels are fighting for screening rights to a second series of Cardiff-based sci-fi hit Torchwood, according to a report from the South Wales Echo.

The report points out that a second series has not been officially commissioned for the Doctor Who spin-off, but claims that scripts are already being prepared and that "both BBC Two and BBC Three are fighting for the right to screen it first - with writer Russell T Davies pushing for a slot on BBC One."