CBC Television announced today that Canada will see series two of Doctor Who this coming October. "New Earth," the first episode of the new season, will premiere on Monday, October 9 at 8:00pm (8:30pm in Newfoundland); further episodes will likely air weekly on Monday nights. (Last season's episodes aired on Tuesdays.) More information about the network's fall schedules can be found here.

The BBC Press Office issued Programme Information (link) for 17-23 June on Friday, with an interview with guest starMarc Warren leading the promotion for episode 10, Love & Monsters, to be aired on 17 June. The actor, who plays Elton Pope in Love & Monsters, notes that "Elton is looking for the Doctor, who he last saw when he was four years old when his mother died, and has been searching for him ever since. He meets a group of people who get together every week to talk about their sightings of the Doctor with an aim of trying to find him, and they become great friends." Warren says that he was "gobsmacked" when he first read the script - "it was all this Elton kid... I couldn't really believe it. It must be quite unusual for Doctor Who to have a [guest] part that's so central - but it definitely worked out well for me." Also released by the Press Office is the Programme Copy for the episode (link) which is reproduced below.

Fans in Australia finally have a debut date for series two of Doctor Who, according to an email sent to a fan by the Audience & Consumer Affairs department of ABC Television reported at the Doctor Who Club of Australia site. According to the note, ABC has recently completed negotiations for rights to show the second series, which will begin on Saturday 8 July at 7.30pm, presumably with "The Christmas Invasion" followed by the thirteen episodes of series two. The ABC website will hopefully soon have details about further scheduling. (Thanks to Adam Kirk and the DWCA)

There is no feature for the ninth new episode of the season, The Satan Pit, in this week's Programme Information releases from the BBC Press Office. The programme copy for the episode, however, located here, has the actual blurb for the episode as follows.

Here's a quick recap of the major news items of the past few days; the rest of the press from the past eight days will be included in a proper (and quite large) TARDIS Report column on Sunday.

Latest Schedule Changes

The first showing of The Age of Steel this Saturday on BBC One is now confirmed in a 50-minute 6.35pm to 7.25pm timeslot, overlapping with CBBC's repeat of Totally Doctor Who 6 from 6.30pm that evening. Doctor Who Confidential follows immediately at 7.25pm on BBC Three, repeated on Sunday night/Monday morning at 3.25 am. A Cut Down version will be shown on Sunday 21st at 7.45pm and on Friday 26th at 9.45pm - both of these follow repeat showings of 'The Age of Steel' at 7pm and 9pm. There are also two more chances to see BBC Four's Time Shift documentary, Machine Men, on Friday 19th/Saturday 20th at midnight and 2.50am.

BBC Three's weekday evening repeats of Series Two begin on Monday 22nd at 7pm with New Earth (not The Christmas Invasion) and continue through to Rise of the Cybermen at 7pm on Friday 26th, ahead of that evening's 9pm repeat of The Age of Steel. There have been wildly different versions of BBC Three's schedule available from the Radio Times website and other online listings guides. The print version of Radio Times, however, lists five editions of Confidential Cut Down at 7.45-8.00pm each evening, covering first showings in this format of New New Doctor, Fear Factor and Friends Reunited, as well as Script to Screen and Cybermen. Since this is the schedule that seems to make the most sense, it's the one Outpost Gallifrey is using in our Broadcast Calendar on this page, although it obviously remains subject to change. It is not known whether these BBC Three repeats will include the red-button commentary now available on BBCi with the regular Sunday and Friday repeats.

Radio Times

This week's Radio Times selects The Age of Steel as its 'Drama of the Week', calling it "very possibly the best episode yet". A sequence from the episode is also Alison Graham's 'Moment of the Week', with her short write-up managing a fairly comprehensive spoiler for the scene in question. The magazine also previews the episode as "the best yet", commenting that David Tennant is "such a good actor. It's instructive to see how utterly at home he is in a role he's made his own. Frankly, it's impossible not to sigh in sheer admiration." The episode listing runs: "The continuation of last week's story. Terror mounts as the Cybermen seize London. Can a daring raid stop them in their tracks?" The accompanying 'Doctor Who Watch' feature is just one page this week, most of which focuses on Mickey Smith, with Noel Clark commenting that this is the episode "where his development really takes shape. He sees what he could become and he becomes it." The same page (and the magazine's cover, the seventh cover mention in eight weeks) promotes the latest selection of free stickers, which this week come glued to Mickey's face on the Doctor Who Watch page. There's also another letter, this time praising School Reunion and The Girl in the Fireplace as giving "a moving new dimension to an already timeless character." Finally, a three-page article on this year's BAFTA winners includes photos of and comments from David Tennant, Russell T Davies and Billie Piper. The Radio Timeswebsite has a number of photographs and video footage of the BAFTA-carrying stars at the after-show gathering. The site's Doctor Who section (link here) has been updated to include a Cybermen photo gallery and a competition running until 2 June to win Dalek posters and an iPod nano.

Blue Peter and Other TV Coverage

Monday's Blue Peter feature on the Cybermen can be seen online from the official site or from the Blue Peter site. Following that feature, K-9 made a very brief appearance on Tuesday's edition of Blue Peter to confirm that he will be accompanying presenter Gethin at the 'Bark in the Park' event - details at the Blue Peter website. In next Tuesday 23 May's edition, "Gethin investigates the real-life story of the invention which inspired the clockwork monsters" in The Girl in the Fireplace.

As Outpost Gallifrey reported on 27 April, David Tennant has donated a signed script to a charity sale in a church in Scotland, and the story has since been covered in a number of press and online reports, including CBBC Newsround on Tuesday. The next day's BBC One edition of Newsround included a quick report on the story, played over clips from The Christmas Invasion.

Noel Clarke was scheduled to "takes time out to chat about his Doctor Who character" on GMTV's Entertainment Today from 8.35am on Friday 19 May.

The Age of Steel Pre-publicity

There have, so far, been no trailers for The Age of Steel on BBC television this week, although the episode (and its earlier timeslot) has been promoted by continuity announcers during several programme links.

The official website was updated on Tuesday lunchtime, its new flash-animated homepage accompanied by the sound of marching Cybermen and links to some of the series' spin-off websites (Cybus Industries and Vitex). The photo gallery for the Cybermen story has been expanded to 37 pictures, and a range of sounds are avaiable for download, as well as Tardisode 6 and a Fear Factor rating of 5 (Terrifying).

Guest star Roger Lloyd Pack has been interviewed by BBC Norfolk, including a slide-show from the episode this weekend.

BBC One's listings for the week say of The Age of Steel: "The Cybermen take control of London and start converting the populace. While Jackie falls under Lumic's control, the Doctor, Rose and Mickey are reduced to fugitives in a world of terror. A last, desperate attack on the Cyberfactory is their only chance - but will they all survive?" (Link here) The same site says of this week's Totally Doctor Who: "Camille Coduri, better known as Rose Tyler's mum, Jackie, is back for more juicy gossip. Plus Andrew Hayden-Smith joins us on the sofa to talk acting, presenting and Cybermen! The Companion Academy turns up the heat as the cadets are put through another testing task when they are told to Face Your Fears. Liz takes a trip to The Mill, where the amazing computer generated Doctor Who effects are brought to life. And we go totally behind the scenes to see how a BIG explosion can be done on a very small scale."

In this week's Heat magazine, reviewer Chris Longridge notes that: "You won't be too shocked to learn that the gang survive last week's cliffhanger. With Trigger from Only Fools and Horses poised to take over the city via his earpods (imagine what he could do with an earpod nano), the Doctor infiltrates his robofactory - formerly known as Battersea Power Station - while Mickey literally has a word with himself and bucks up enough to finally do something useful." He gives The Age of Steel 5 stars, and Heat places it at number 9 in its Top 10 Best TV Shows of the week.

Closer magazine writes that: "The Doctor, Mickey ad Rose are still stranded in parallel London, and those pesky Cybermen are still clunking around the capital, trying to "upgrade" the population. The Doctor and his merry band of resistance fighters must launch one last dangerous assault to save the day. It's a tough episode for Rose too as she sufers not one, but two, heartbreaking goodbyes."

Star magazine has The Age of Steel as one of their Picks of the Day - "In the conclusion of this two-part episode, the dreaded Cybermen are running amok in London. Jackie is already under Lumic's control. Meanwhile the Doc, Rose and Mickey are fleeing for their lives. Their only hope for survival is an attack on the Cyber factory."

Other Press Items

Broadcast Now reports that "BBC1 is the UK’s most creative channel, according to Broadcast’s first Creative Report, an analysis of the most acclaimed British programmes, producers and broadcasters over the last year." The report says that "the channel's dominance in the drama series category is fuelled by hits such as Doctor Who and Bleak House." Doctor Who takes third place (behind Sex Traffic and Little Britain) in its chart of the top 10 most creative programmes, and topping the list of most creative new programmes (first shown in 2005). The report surveyed 300 programmes, taking into account awards wins and nominations over the 12 months to May 2006.

Great news for all Russell T Davies fans and British viewers who grew up watching Children's BBC in the early 1990s. Davies's two highly-regarded children's fantasy serials, 1991's Dark Season and 1993's Century Fallsare due to be released on Region 2 DVD in the UK by 2entertain Ltd on July 17. Dark Season, Davies's first full drama script for television, co-stars a young Kate Winslet, while according to former Children's BBC presenter Andi Peters on BBC Four's Russell T Davies - Unscripted documentary in 2005, Century Falls was regarded as so potentially disturbing for younger viewers by BBC bosses that they forbade any repeat screening. Neither serial has been released on VHS or DVD before, and while Dark Season was repeated on BBC One in 1994 and the CBBC Channel in 2001, Century Falls has remained in the vaults since 1993.

Various sources are reporting that on Saturday, ITV suffered the worst audience share in its history. Says the MediaGuardian (http://media.guardian.co.uk/overnights/story/0,,1775328,00.html subscription link): "Saturday's FA Cup final has been dubbed the greatest ever and the BBC1's near three hours of nailbiting live football helped condemn ITV1 to its worst ever daily audience share. ITV1 had a share on Saturday of just 11.8%, half a percentage point lower than its previous record low on July 2 last year, when BBC1 was showing live coverage of Live 8... Overall, BBC1 had an all-day share of 36.4% against ITV's 11.8%. Channel 4 came third, with 8.1%, followed by BBC2, 7.4%, and Channel Five, with 5.2%."

Says BBC News Online's coverage: "An ITV1 spokesman said: 'A big sporting occasion like the FA Cup Final will often cause a ratings blip.' A BBC One spokesman said: 'We are delighted that the thrilling FA Cup Final and the Cybermen's return to Doctor Who proved a winning combination to BBC One viewers.' Some 8.6 million watched Doctor Who. Last week, ITV announced plans to axe a string of programmes in a bid to refresh its main channel's schedule."

(Thanks to Paul Engelberg, Paul Hayes, Peter Weaver, John Bowman)

This week's Programme Information from the BBC Press Office previews the episode The Impossible Planet with an interview with Will Thorp, guest starring as Toby in both this episode and the second-half airing the following week, "The Satan Pit". "Former Casualty and Strictly Come Dancing star Will Thorp is drawn to the dark side in the second, two-part story of this season's Doctor Who. In The Impossible Planet and The Satan Pit he plays Toby, an archaeologist in a team of space explorers from Earth trapped on a planet in the orbit of a Black Hole. After leaving Casualty's Holby General, and honing his dancing skills on Strictly Come Dancing, Bristol-born Will could hardly believe his luck when he received a couple of scripts from Doctor Who executive producer and lead writer Russell T Davies and producer Phil Collinson. It didn't take much for him to decide to accept the part. 'I would have said 'yes' to it whatever [the part] was,' says Will. 'It was the fact that it was Doctor Who! I read the script and it was a fantastic part, especially as I had previously been playing a regular role of a cheeky chappy - he's an intense, moody guy. To be sent a couple of scripts doesn't happen that often, and certainly not for something like that. I feel really lucky to have got the role.' In the two-part story, penned by Matt Jones, the Doctor and Rose arrive on a desolate planet in the orbit of a Black Hole, and soon find themselves trapped with Will's character, Toby. 'Toby is a twenty-something uptight archaeologist, and he's one of a crew of space explorers,' explains Will. 'They've been on a mission in space, exploring certain planets, and they get stuck on this planet which is right next to a Black Hole. Bits of the planet are coming off and being sucked into the Hole, which make it impossible for them to leave, so they set up base there. They've made a space station, and have basically spent the last couple of years just exploring the planet, digging and seeing what is around. And it seems that there have been signs of life in the past - that there was a life form millions and millions of years ago.' The group come to realise that they are in danger, as something ancient beneath the planet's surface begins to awake, and it's soon a race against time for the Doctor and Rose to prevent them all from being sucked into oblivion. And for Will, the experience of working on Doctor Who was, indeed, almost out of this world. 'It was surreal, really! You're kind of sat there, with the Tardis in the corner, a couple of Cybermen stacked up… I had to keep on pinching myself to make sure it was real. It was like being in the playground,' Will says laughing. 'Can we play on the Tardis for 20 minutes before we do any work?' A massive Doctor Who fan, Will watched Tom Baker (the Fourth Doctor) as he grew up, and made sure that he tuned in for the series' return last year. 'I watched the very first episode and I thought it was great. When you bring back a series and it's been successful, there's a risk it can flop, but I think because it has someone like Russell T Davies, executive producer Julie Gardner and Phil Collinson behind it, what they managed to do, which is incredible, is that they captured the essence of Doctor Who. They won the Bafta recently, which was brilliant, and it will just go from strength to strength. Every episode in this series is a winner.' Currently, Will is on an 18-week national tour, performing in the play Strangers On A Train, a psychological thriller which was made into a film by Alfred Hitchcock in 1951. But Will can't shake off the Doctor Who connection. 'Funnily enough, I'm working with Colin Baker [the Sixth Doctor] – he's in the play. So that was really strange - I finished seven weeks filming Doctor Who, I had one day off, started rehearsing the play, and I'm with one of the old Doctors. It was weird – a very small world'"

The Programming Information document for Saturday 3 June features details on the episode as noted below.

This week's Programme Information from the BBC Press Office previews the episode The Idiot's Lantern on 27 May with an interview with Mark Gatiss on page 11 of the Features article (note: PDF file); the article includes at least one picture spoiler. Says Gatiss on how the story came about, '[Lead writer] Russell [T Davies] asked me to do a Fifties story. It was originally meant to be much more rock 'n' roll but everyone loved the notion of the Coronation – it's one of those big, gettable 'front-of-the Radio-Times' ideas so we settled on 1953. I've always loved old TV and the early BBC days at Ally Pally so it was lovely to use all that – and very appropriate to have a monster that gets at you via your telly! It's a very atmospheric episode and Euros [Lyn], the director, has shot it in a semi-noirish, Fifties style which is terrific.' Gatiss says his writing on the series is 'a dream come true. Last year it was so unreal, this year everyone's found their feet a lot more, I think, but because the show's an established hit there's that extra pressure to top the success. It's just brilliant to be part of a vibrant, modern show that's still absolutely the Doctor Who we grew up with and loved.' Gatiss notes that he loves 'the historical stories. They were always my favourites in old Doctor Who. I'm hoping that the 'Gatiss by gaslight' becomes an annual fixture! I wouldn't rule out doing a modern-day story but I do have so much fun popping back in time. Having said that, I didn't know as much about the Fifties as I do about Victoriana so I had to do quite a bit of research, but that was delightful. So many people remember the Coronation. I talked to my Dad and some older friends and they all have a version of the 'everyone crowded into one room' story which is at the heart of the episode.' He notes that 'You have to be much more aware of the feel of the whole season. You don't want the leads to be jarringly different in each story just because there's a different writer. What's great about this season is that there's so much variety, with lots of different types of adventure: scary, funny, sad and some that are very, very moving.'

The Programming Information document (also PDF) for Saturday 27 May shows the episode returning to the 7pm timeslot. Details on the episode are noted below.

Program information for Week 21 released this afternoon by the BBC Press Office shows that this year's Eurovision Song Contest has had a similar effect to last year, with The Age of Steel moving from Doctor Who's re-established 7pm slot to a 6.40pm start on Saturday 20 May. (There is no word yet of a start time for Doctor Who Confidential on BBC Three that evening.) Last year, "The Doctor Dances" was moved back due to the contest (with a notable drop in viewing figures observed because of the time shift).

Meanwhile, the episode merits a three-page article in the week's highlights(note: PDF file), this week concentrating on the roles of Noel Clarke as Mickey Smith and guest star Andrew Hayden-Smith. 'I think that the Doctor and Mickey do forge a new friendship but it's based on respect,' says Clarke. 'Mickey earns his respect in the Christmas episode and they get to know each other a bit more after that. Mickey's changed as much as the Doctor in terms of becoming a new person but still being [essentially] the same.' He thinks Mickey finally comes into his own this season, becoming braver and more confident than he's seemed before. 'Mickey has to step up to the plate and become a man, so some of the challenges he faces aren't just the monsters that he comes across but also his own fear, really,' Noel explains. 'I think a lot of things that he's involved in [with the Doctor and Rose] help him come to terms with his own uncertainties and really change him. 'He's being tested the whole time, maybe because the Doctor knew that the potential was in him to change.' And what of the relationship between Rose and Mickey? 'Your guess is as good as mine!' laughs Noel.'I think they're in the same sort of on/off situation they always seem to be in; it's never really resolved and you never really figure out what's going on!' He says that 'When you work with someone like [lead writer] Russell [T Davies] and the writers that have worked on Doctor Who, you can only learn from them. Even if your material is different in its content, the tricks and the skills you pick up from them are things that, hopefully, I can put across in whatever I do.' Actor Andrew Hayden-Smith, who guest stars in the next two episodes, syas that he 'suggested that my agent get in touch with the production because I really enjoyed the last series. Funnily enough, they had been watching me on CBBC the night before I put the call in. I went in for an audition, read one of the scenes, and got a call to say I'd got the part a couple of days later.' Of his character, he notes that 'Jake is in a gang fighting against a company called Cybus Industries, which is turning humans into Cybermen,' explains Andrew. 'I didn't see the original Cybermen, but my sister told me that she was terrified of them -- so she is pretty excited that I am involved in fighting them.' Playing an action hero was a new, but exciting, for him. 'It was great!' Andrew enthuses.'There was a lot of running about on the moors in Cardiff, so I had to get quite fit.' The first day of filming was exhilarating, but very demanding, not least because of the fact that the scenes are filmed completely out of sequence. 'It was very scary because it's Doctor Who!' exclaims Andrew with a laugh. 'It was just really exciting. My first day on set was in London, on the South Bank. It was pretty strange because I was filming my last scene [The Age Of Steel], so I had to imagine that I had done all the action scenes which was pretty strange. It was OK, though, as everyone was lovely.' So how does Andrew think his fans will react to his new role? 'I don't know – I'm a bit nervous about it!' he confesses.'The kids who watch me now probably don't remember me from Byker Grove, and won't realise that I've acted before, so I'm a bit nervous about how I come across in it. I hope it's all right!' And would Andrew have liked the opportunity to play a Cyberman himself? 'No, I'm quite happy fighting them, I think,' he says with a laugh. 'I definitely prefer to be a goodie than a baddie!'

There are also further episode details in the Saturday document (also a PDF), as noted below.

This week's Programme Information for 13-19 May from the BBC Press Office (note: PDF file) includes two two-page features promoting the upcoming two-part Cyberman story, The Rise of the Cybermen / The Age of Steel.

The first focuses on actor Roger Lloyd Pack in his role as John Lumic, "a man on an unrelenting mission to take over the world". "I play a kind of evil genius who is creating an army of Cybermen in order to make himself immortal," explains Lloyd Pack. "He's trying to get governments and people to go along with his plans, and Doctor Who tries to stop him. It was a curious affair, because about a week after I agreed to do the part I broke my ankle. I couldn't walk without a stick, and was in plaster for a while, but it didn't interfere with the part because the role was in a wheelchair! I think God must have been saying 'I'm going to give you a nice job, but I'm going to break your ankle as well!' I was taking research a little bit further than I usually do!" It says that Lloyd Pack was on tour with a theatre production in Sheffield, and so missed most of the last series, but as for the original series, "Of course I watched it! I was a kid when it came out -- I saw the very first Doctor Who. William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, were my Doctors… I sort of lapsed a bit, but I saw all of the different Doctor Whos at some point." He thinks the new Cybermen are more formidable than ever. "I did see the Cybermen the first time around, but these new ones are quite impressive," Lloyd Pack confirms. "They are quite scary -- a little light comes out when they speak. That aspect of Doctor Who is obviously a lot more effective now than it was before." As for working with the director, Graeme Harper, "I've worked with him before doing a series with Dennis Waterman some years back. He's a very nice man, very good to work with. It was extremely cold on set, as we filmed in the warehouse in Newport, and quite technical, because some of the scenes were set in a space ship. I enjoyed the whole experience actually."

Writer Tom MacRae is interviewed for the second article, for whom bringing back the Cybermen was "probably the most exciting things that has ever happened to me". Asked how he got the job of writing for the new series, Tom puts it down to "...a bit of good luck, a bit of good placement, and, hopefully, a bit of being good at writing. I've known [lead writer] Russell [T Davies] for a long time, and I happened to have a certain profile with [Controller BBC Drama Commissioning] Jane Tranter and [Head Of Drama Serials] Laura Mackie when she was still at the BBC, and they were all happy for me to do it." He admits that it was actually helpful to have some boundaries to work within when coming up with the idea for the story. "When you're dealing with something like the Cybermen, the rules are in place for the sort of thing that you expect to happen so that immediately suggests stories. It's very different from coming up with your own monster and setting. As soon as it's a Cyberman story it's going to be about a certain set of things, so that was very clear from the start. Russell had heard one of Mark Platt's Big Finish Doctor Who audio stories, called Spare Parts, and he was inspired by that to do a new origins story for the Cybermen. [Our story] was never based on Spare Parts, because we very quickly went off in a different direction. Spare Parts was about a dying world where people had to become Cybermen or they'd die, whereas the story that we did became about people choosing to become this thing, and it actually becoming this seductive idea, rather than a scary, last-chance, life-or-death thing. And you've also got the family story of Rose which grounds it on a simple level. "He says doesn't remember the original series very clearly. "I remember a long time ago, before Russell was ever doing this, we had a conversation about how you would bring Doctor Who back, and he said the [central] idea to the story is that something's happening, and the Doctor appears in the middle of it. Now and again you break that rule, and the Doctor does become the story, but as a general principle, there's stuff going on and the Doctor appears. I'd never really analysed it before so I don't approach it as a show that I watched when I was a kid... I see it as being something very different." As for what parts of the episode he took part in beyond the writing, "I'm not entirely sure what scenes I saw as there were just lots of Cybermen marching up and down the street! I think I probably saw about four or five scenes-worth of stuff. Blue Peter were filming when I went down for one of the street shoots in Cardiff, and the presenter was dressed as a Cyberman doing a behind-the-scenes piece. They interviewed me and I got a Blue Peter badge, which I was very happy about!"

"Rise of the Cyberman" is also confirmed as airing at 7pm on Saturday 13 May, according to the BBC programme info sheet (note: PDF file), which has the feature blurb for the episode, reproduced below. (Thanks to Steve Tribe)