The US-based Sci Fi Channel, in anticipation of the series' debut this Friday, March 17, has run several additionaltrailers for the series, two of which debuted during the channel's season finale night last Friday. One of the trailers notes that the Doctor is "not here to save the universe... He's just enjoying it while it lasts". So far, at least four different trailer spots have been discovered on the channel, but at the moment, only the original is online on the website.

The channel's website has also released a quick, web-only behind-the-scenes video featuring brief interview clips with executive producers Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner and producer Phil Collinson, some of which is shot in the TARDIS control room set. The video plays in Flash animation from the front page of the website.

Sci Fi Wire, the channel's online news service, ran a feature article today calling the timing "right" for the series to return. "Russell T. Davies, executive producer of the hit British SF series Doctor Who, told SCI FI Wire that his revival of the long-running BBC series came about after years of waiting for the right opportunity. 'I think the BBC had their eye on it as a very good property that could be resurrected,' Davies said in an interview. 'And the drama department as well as the controller of BBC1, wanted to work with me, which sounds very arrogant, but it's the truth. They'd been asking me to write all sorts of things; every year, they'd phone up and say, 'Do you want to want to adapt A Tale of Two Cities? or 'do you want to write another series about gay men?' [Davies was best known for his series Queer as Folk.] Or something like that, and every year I quite confidently (and cheekily) sat there and said, 'No, I just want to do Doctor Who!' The original Doctor Who was canceled in 1989 after 26 seasons, but continued to live on in novels, radio plays, audio dramas and a 1996 TV movie starring Paul McGann in the lead role. A number of producers had approached the BBC with their own ideas for a possible revival, but Davies insisted that he didn't have a direction in mind until after he came on board. 'Once they asked me to do it and commissioned me, I came up with my take on it, and the miracle from my point of view was that I was given a clean slate,' he said. Davies added: 'My only wariness in going to work for the BBC, especially on an in-house production, is that the BBC is a labyrinthine organization. I was very wary of the red tape, the committees, focus groups and all the systems that were in place. But, to my astonishment, I discovered that the opposite was true. When I did my treatment, I didn't have to go through 27 different committees, so I was given an enormous amount of freedom, and then they followed that up by backing it with a budget, which again was my worry. I didn't want to do a cheap version of Doctor Who, but the heads of various departments and the heads of certain channels all wanted the same thing, so everyone was in the right place, and I was lucky enough to be the one they wanted.' The first season of Doctor Who will debut on SCI FI Channel with episodes one ('Rose') and two ('The End of the World') airing back to back, starting at 9 p.m. ET/PT on March 17. 'We actually asked for that in this country [Great Britain],' Davies said. 'Mind you, we only asked for it, like, two weeks before transmission, when everything was fixed in stone, so they laughed us out of the building. But I think it's a brilliant idea!' As Doctor Who begins airing on SCI FI Channel, the show is currently wrapping production on its second season in South Wales and will air in the United Kingdom soon."

Finally... could a second-season airing be in the cards this year instead of next? Sci Fi recently confirmed that its flagship original series "Battlestar Galactica" would not be returning for its third season until October 2006, though its Friday night partner series, "Stargate SG-1" and "Stargate Atlantis" will in fact be back for their next seasons in July (as Sci Fi usually splits each season in two and runs the first half in the summer.) This has led to speculation that "Doctor Who" might, if its popularity warrants, be back for more episodes as early as this summer. As always, we must stress that nothing has been confirmed on this.

A second, 30-second trailer for the first season of the new Doctor Who series is now airing on the Sci-Fi Channel in advance of the show's debut on March 17. Noting that the Doctor is "over 900 years old" and is "a legendary adventurer through space and time," the trailer notes that the Doctor's "limitless power fuels an endless quest for ... the perfect vacation." "The British smash hit comes to Sci-Fi," says the advert, noting the premiere date. The trailer also uses a different logo altogether, reminiscent of the previous logo used throughout the late 1990's and early 2000's; a thumbnail is at right.

A BBC Press Office press release notes that Worldwide "has concluded a two-year agreement with SKAI, the new Greek terrestrial television channel launching on 1 April 2006, to televise over 500 hours of drama, factual and news and current affairs programming. The titles range from dramas such as Spooks and Doctor Who to documentaries, including Seven Wonders of the Industrial World, Space Odyssey - Voyage to the Planets and three history titles looking at the Ancient Wonders of Jerusalem, Greece and the Holy Land. In addition, the deal, which guarantees at least 250 hours of BBC programming a year for the next two years, includes some of the best titles from the BBC's wildlife and news and current affairs archives, with the most popular programmes from such titles as Panorama, Correspondent, Wildlife on One and Natural World. For SKAI it is important to be able to rely on a constant supply of programming of consistently high quality: 'SKAI aims to reach a large proportion of discerning viewers with a brand of highly successful and informative programming," said Dora Pakas, Managing Director of SKAI. 'We firmly believe that this partnership with BBC Worldwide will secure for our viewers a broad range of documentaries, dramas and factual programming that will educate, fascinate and entertain. We look forward to continuing this strong relationship with BBC Worldwide in the future,' she concluded. Ben Donald, BBC Worldwide Head of Northern Mediterranean, said: 'This deal includes an extraordinary range of quality television and shows the BBC at its very best - gripping family drama, epic historical documentaries, glorious wildlife programmes and insightful current affairs titles. It is fantastic to start our relationship with SKAI with such high-profile programming.'"

David Tennant has done an exclusive interview with the fans at the unofficial website david-tennant.com in which he reveals, "Billie and I are on set together all the time so she's my constant pal. We get on really well, she's very funny and we have a real laugh. It obviously helps to be working with someone that you get along with so well. ... It's not overwhelming. It's a bit weird, but it's not that bad, I can still travel on the tube. Obviously it is a bit strange that the press like to take an interest in things that I do. Billie has been great though because obviously she has been dealing with it since she was about 13 or something."

More reviews of Noel Clarke's film "Kidulthood" which opens Friday.EntertainmentWise says, "'Kidulthood' probably won't gain the international acclaim that 'Four Weddings' got but its imminent release in the UK has got the press excited and is a positive sign that there is a new era dawning for British filmmaking About as far away from 'Notting Hill' as you can get in terms of subject matter; geographically 'Kidulthood' couldn't be closer. Set just one change and a couple of stops on the tube away on the council estates of Ladbroke Grove, the film presents us with a day in the lives of a class of troubled teenage school children.... Written by Noel Clarke (winner of the Laurence Olivier Award for most promising new comer in 2003), who also plays Sam, and based on his real life experiences, this film feels like an honest portrayal of the lives of 'disadvantaged' teenagers in London. The film bursts with energy, driven on by the music of Dizzie Rascal and The Streets amongst others, and it ends perfectly with a scene equally infused with hope and despair. Check it out." Also, Times Online says "While the UK's film industry complains about the difficulty of financing local feature films, spare a thought for film-makers whose vision doesn't reflect that of London's film-funding establishment. After a near four-year struggle from first draft to screen, the director Menhaj Huda and actor-screenwriter Noel Clarke see their West London teenage grime drama Kidulthood released this week. .. Now that Kidulthood is finally released, Clarke is in demand as a screenwriter, with a major TV project in progress, while Huds is thinking big. 'My motivation comes from Luc Besson more than anyone else. He managed to change French cinema from being arty and sexy to cool, and he's still doing it with The Transporter and Unleashed. Look at Unleashed: filmed in Glasgow, virtually a British cast. Why can't we do films like that?'" TheFinancial Times says, the film "is pacy, racy and full of promise: 90 minutes in the company of multi-ethnic schoolkids doing what kids do in cruel Britannia. There are drugs, sex, bullying – girl-on-girl is even worse than boy-on-boy – and gang warfare. You believe every minute, just as you do when someone corners you in a dark alley and indicates an interest in banging your head into the ground. Menhaj Huda directed. Noel Clarke wrote the script and plays the main role. They should be given a sackful of money to make more films." However, The Evening Standard says, "We know that they will all suffer something like damnation. But the film is never put into an effective social or political context. What we get instead is a portrait of disaffected youth but with no clue about its cause or what we should do about it. Which isn't quite enough."

TV Zone magazine (issue 200) has an interview with Julie Gardner, executive producer of the new series. Some of it is online at their websitewhich notes, "The common thread linking these three programmes is the involvement of BBC Wales's Head of Drama, Julie Gardner. In taking on the Doctor Who commission, she has had a large part to play in the current vogue for TV drama – 'British' being the key word, as one of the distinctive features of the current wave of drama commissions is the move towards production in the regions… 'There's a determination to do more out-of-London production,' says Gardner. 'There is an absolute determination to represent as many areas of the UK as possible, which is absolutely right for a public service broadcaster. From where I sit, I think the most important thing is the stories that writers want to tell, and the confidence that I hope they now feel in coming to me with ideas that sound quite mad, or quite bold. Some of those stories are set in Cardiff, like Torchwood; at the same time, they can come to me with ideas like Casanova, that filmed out of Manchester and filmed in Venice and Dubrovnik. I think it's confidence, really; it just opens things up and gives people the flexibility to work wherever they want to, with the people they want to.'" The magazine also lists their TV Top 200 of the Best ('from iconic moments, to stand-out episodes, to classic series') and their number 1 is Doctor Who: An Unearthly Child: ""A police box in a junk yard - somewhere it has no business to be. And it definitely shouldn't be vibrating... Doctor Who really had to have the top slot - and not just because it defined the childhood of every member of the TV Zone team. Not just because it was the little series that lasted far longer than even its most fervent champions could have dreamed, and then refused to accept its death sentence and then came back in the process shook up every television industry expectation. It's more than that. It's one of the three great popular cultural myths of the last 200 years, along with James Bond and Sherlock Holmes. Star Trek fans will rail at its exclusion from that list... To the general public, Trek means Kirk and Spock and maybe Picard, and no-one has been foolish enough to suggest recasting them (yet). But you can recast Holmes, and Bond, and the Doctor, and they remain as as successful as ever, as new actors bring new aspects to the character that's grabbed the public's attention. And it all starts here. Two ordinary Humans, realising too late where their curiosity has led them. A frightened, paranoid old man, who's yet to experience the friendships that will turn him into a hero. A voyage into Time and Space that beat anything Hollywood had to offer, according to a reviewer at the time... and an episode that still enthralled when a Guardian reviewer finally saw it 18 years later, courtesy of a BBC2 repeat. The best moment in television's history? Well, possibly not. But the one that should definitely be cherished above all? Definitely."

(Thanks to Steve Tribe, Peter Weaver, and Paul Engelberg)

Now on the website of America's Sci-Fi Channel - on the front page, in fact - is the new trailer being shown on the network in anticipation of the March 17 launch date of the new series in the US. The video is available on the site via Flash animation (so you need to have the proper plug-in).

A new trailer debuted tonight on the US cable network, the Sci-Fi Channel, which will be showing the new series.

The channel's promotional campaign is entitled "Who Is..." and it features glimpses of the new series including the Doctor and Rose, the TARDIS (but not any clear shots of the interior), the Daleks, and scenes from various episodes, ending with a shot from "The End of the World" with the tagline "...coming in March."

This is the first sign of promotion for the new series, which debuts on March 17 on the Sci-Fi Channel, an NBC/Universal cable network airing in most of America.

The US-based Sci-Fi Channel has made a sudden change to its schedule for the premiere date of the new series on March 17: not one but twoepisodes will screen that night. Now scheduled at 9pm on Friday, March 17 isRose (episode 1) with The End of the World (episode 2) scheduled at 10pm the same night. Both episodes then repeat that night at 11pm and midnight, respectively, as well as at 11pm and midnight on Sunday, March 19. A rebroadcast of "The End of the World" also airs at 8pm on Friday, March 24, with the debut of episode 3, The Unquiet Dead at 9pm in the show's usual slot; "The Unquiet Dead" is repeated at midnight the same night as well as at midnight on Sunday, March 26. Finally, Aliens of London(episode 4) airs on Friday, March 31 at 9pm with a repeat at midnight (and, presumably, on Sunday, April 2, but no schedule is yet available for April).

Additionally, the Sci-Fi Channel has launched its new Doctor Who mini-sitefeaturing a brief "about" section with basic facts about the series; a "characters" section with biographies of the Doctor, Rose, Captain Jack, Mickey and Jackie (and the actors who play them) as well as the TARDIS; an episode guide to the first series; a photo gallery; and the channel's bulletin board about the series (which, not too surprisingly, contains an overwhelming number of Outpost Gallifrey Forum posters!) More will obviously be added if the show does well and continues to a second year.

As Outpost Gallifrey previously had reported, we now have confirmation from the Sci-Fi Channel, via their published schedules online, that the first season of the new series will debut in the US on Friday, March 17 at 9:00pm. "Rose" will air that night twice, in fact, once at 9pm and then three hours later at midnight, as well as on Sunday, March 19 at 11:00pm and then the following Friday, March 24 at 8:00pm. "The End of the World" then airs right after, on Friday, March 24 at 9:00pm and again at midnight, and then Sunday night (Monday morning) at midnight. Details on later showings into April will be coming soon.

With all the hype about America's acquisition of series one, there's been no official word on the status of the show's second series in Australia until now. ABC's Audience and Consumer Affairs has this to say about the series' status: "At this stage, the ABC has not yet secured the broadcast rights for the Doctor Who Christmas Special or the new series of Doctor Who. Having said this, it is highly likely that the ABC will purchase the rights and show the new series, and the Christmas special during 2006." (Thanks to Margaret Deutsch)

At long last... America will finally get the first season of the new Doctor Who television series, according to a press release on the official Doctor Who website. The US-based Sci-Fi Channel, owned by NBC Universal, has secured a deal to broadcast the 13 episodes in America starting in March, beginning on what Outpost Gallifrey believes is likely March 17 (the week after the season finales of the popular "Battlestar Galactica" and two "Stargate" shows), at 9:00pm Friday nights, and it will likely conclude at some point in mid-to-late June in time for Sci-Fi's summer premieres of those shows. The press release notes that Sci-Fi has an optionfor series two, likely to be acted upon after initial ratings come in.

In conjunction with the announcement, the press release also mentions the delay of the US DVD release of the first season, now rescheduled for July 2006 to follow the final broadcast of the show's first season. While no official announcement had recently come, speculation persisted that the DVDs had been pulled from their original February 14 release date. However, interestingly, the release of the DVD set is listed in Canada on Amazon.ca for February 14, perhaps indicative of a possible Canadian release on that date and having the US release follow five months later.

Also, missing from the announcement is any indication of the status of the classic Doctor Who series. BBC America previously pulled the broadcast of the classic series, opting not to renew broadcast rights (only two stations in the US currently show it, on long-term broadcast contracts) to sell both series together. It is likely that a new offer was made to Sci-Fi without the classic series, but the status of the 'old show' remains to be seen.

Date, Timeslot Notes: Where are we getting the March 17 date, people are asking? That's the week after the end of the current 'back ten episode' seasons of the "Stargate" and "Battlestar Galactica" series currently running on Sci-Fi, and we're told this will follow immediately. As Sci-Fi is preempting "Stargate Atlantis", what this means for the other shows on that night is anyone's guess -- i.e. whether or not "Stargate SG-1" or "Battlestar Galactica" continue in reruns or are pulled from the schedule -- but it's potentially an attempt to continue the ratings Sci-Fi currently has, as the channel has several shows now in production (including the sci-fi drama/comedy series "Eureka") that it might pair the series with; we simply don't know at this point.

Whither "Confidential"?: There is no official word on any potential airing of the "Doctor Who Confidential" documentary series that aired along with the UK run of the program (on BBC Three), though it is extremely unlikely that this was part of the package purchased. However, Sci-Fi is known for one-shot documentaries to introduce new shows, and some footage from the Confidential series could potentially be used if such a documentary were considered.

Press Clips: The Sci-Fi Channel has posted its news story about the acquisition; other reports have come from a variety of locations includingBBC News, United Press International, The Futon Critic, IF Magazine, TV Squad,Chicago Tribune, IGN Filmforce, Now Playing Mag, Cinescape, Gateworld, TV Shows on DVD, Addict3d,CBBC News, Entertainmentwise, Short News, Comingsoon.net, The Register, Dark Horizons, Hollywood Reporter, Web India, New Kerala, Menafn, Sci-Fi Online, Access Hollywood, Zap2It,Worldscreen, Digital Spy,
Morons.org, About.com. Also, the Associated Press has distributed the story and it's shown up so far in dozens of online editions of US print newspapers (all the same story, so we won't link them here).

The press release is below. Outpost Gallifrey will continue to keep you posted on this developing story.

(Thanks to Paul Engelberg, Steve Tribe, Rich Kirkpatrick, and the literallyhundreds of eager fans who've written into Outpost Gallifrey about the news... we suggest you visit our Forum, where the discussion has been running wild all day!)

Broadcasting

Doctor Who will be starting in Spain on the Digital Plus satellite platform from Thursday January 19. The series is being broadcast on the "People + Arts" channel (number 27 on the Digital Plus channel listing) which shows a range of BBC drama, comedy and entertainment shows. The first broadcasts are on Thursday 19th at 2230 spanish time (GMT+1) with a repeat at 0230 on the morning of the 20th; further showings will take place on Friday 20th at 0630 and 1500, with three more timeslots on Saturday 21st at 0600, 1400 and 2130. Although it's not clear if these are all repeats of the first episode this would be the usual pattern for the channel.

Radio Times

There's an assortment of items of interest to Doctor Who fans in the new edition of Radio Times (issue dated 14-20 January 2006), including how Russell T Davies came up with the Sycoraxic language. John Barrowman, aka Captain Jack, is granted a panel piece in a three-page feature about the ITV show Dancing On Ice, in which he is taking part. Headlined "Captain Jack of all trades", it looks at Broadway and West End productions he appeared in before Doctor Who, and mentions him co-hosting BBC1's The Sound of Musicals the same evening (Saturdays from 14 January). The article states, surprisingly, that Captain Jack is back in Doctor Who this year (which might simply be a misnomer) and will have his own show - Torchwood - which Barrowman denies will be an "X-rated Doctor Who". He says: "It's going to be Britain's answer to The X-Files, with the craft and the humour from This Life." In the Letters section, the Letter of the Week has an amusing suggestion as to what kind of man the new Doctor is, following on from the character's bid to find out in The Christmas Invasion: spending most of his time in bed; strange things issuing from his mouth when he opens it; spending the day wandering around in pyjamas after having a cup of tea - that makes him a teenager. It is illustrated with a Christmas Invasion publicity still of David Tennant and Billie Piper in costume in front of the Tardis with snow and Christmas tree.

On the next page, in the You Ask Us feature, a reader poses the questions was Sycoraxic based on a real language, was it backwards words, were there hidden messages, was it a real, functioning language such as Klingon, or were the actors making up gibberish? Russell T Davies, who scripted the Sycorax word for word, answers: "Sycoraxic was completely invented. I just made it up! But I did try to give it some logic, so that the same word always meant the same thing: 'Soo chack chiff!' means 'You're going to die!', which tends to get said a lot in Doctor Who. And I did try to parse the verbs, but it wasn't too rigorous - I don't think universities will be offering degrees in Sycoraxic any time soon!" It is accompanied by a picture of the Sycorax leader, with the caption VOICE OF DOOM "Soo chack chiff" yourself. In the One Final Question section at the back of the magazine, Patrick Stewart takes a swipe at journalists by denying that his new series Eleventh Hour is anything like an ITV version of "Doctor Who". Interviewer Benji Wilson asks him: "A newspaper journalist said it was like an ITV Doctor Who . . ." to which Stewart replies: "That couldn't be more wrong and only came about through some of your lazy colleagues seeing my name and the word 'science' in the same sentence, and the only thing they could think of was science-fiction. It has nothing to do with science-fiction and nothing to do with Doctor Who." He states there are no aliens, and that he plays a retired physicist working for the government as a scientific adviser out in the field. "My job is to investigate illegal, criminal, dangerous or bad science," he says.

On Music

The BBC Press Office has today released some details of the launch this afternoon of Blue Peter's 'Music Makers' competition, "a search to find 40 viewers passionate about music - to help make television history". The winners "will get the chance to work with top TV composer Murray Gold, of Doctor Who fame, and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra". More information is available at the Musicmakers website on BBC online, and the full press release can be read here, while Gold's interview on Blue Peter, in which he discussed both his new version of the theme and Delia Derbyshire's original, is currently available in full on the official Doctor Who website.

The official site also today has a brief interview with Murray Gold about the song used at the end of "The Christmas Invasion". "It's called 'Song for Ten' in honour of David Tennant being Doctor Ten," says Gold to the official site. "James Hawes mentioned in passing, while I was writing the score for TCI that he might need a song or two. I sang Jingle Bells and made my voice sound weird then performed the backing vocals on Song for Ten. I watched through the sequence lots of times and tried to find the sentiment that was true to the moment and express it lyrically. I wanted to hit that lovely moment when the Doctor and Rose smile at each other, and the lyric: 'You followed your star, cause that's what you are...' just leapt out. ... If you think it does have a Phil Spector way about it, I'm happy, because I adore him, and also the songs of Holland Dozier Holland who are the Lennon and McCartney of Motown. Phil Spector's often described as creating a 'Wall of Sound.' Big production, lots of timpani and strings and multi-tracked vocals. It's basically fantastic pop music. You just need lots of spare tracks." He notes that the song was sung by Tim Phillips, who he calls "a real upcoming talent. I wanted to nab him to sing a song in case next time he's too big. He's got an album out soon which he partly mixed in my studio. As I said, he and I performed backing vocals. I played the instruments. ... If there's ever an album of Doctor Who music from the series, I'm sure it would be on that."

Other Items

David Tennant was listed in third place in the February edition of the SCI-FI Channel's official magazine under "26 People to Watch in 2006" along with many other notable celebrities from television and film.

This Saturday's edition of The Guardian newspaper will be giving away a free DVD copy of "Let Him Have It", Christopher Eccleston's 1991 film debut in which he stars as Derek Bentley, the real-life story of how a 19 year-old was hanged for murdering a policeman who was shot by Bentley's friend when Bentley himself was already in police custody.

Also, MediaGuardian.co.uk's "Monkey" gossip column has another report about the "Doctor Who Adventures" magazine.

(Thanks to Steve Tribe, Paul Engelberg, John Bowman, Paul Hayes, Nigel Rainford, Frank Dana, Mike Mould and Brian Smith)