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)

Australia is about to lose the classic series. As Outpost Gallifrey has learned, the show will complete its run on Australia's ABC TV in a few weeks. The broadcasts on ABC started with "An Unearthly Child" (September 2003) and conclude with "Survival" (February 2006). We should have more about this story in the next few days.

Meanwhile, Canada has a second Doctor Who outlet: the first season of the new series (or at least, "Rose") has appeared on Quebec's Z-Tele network, according to their website. It's unclear if it's been dubbed or is merely subtitled.

Update: According to Ztele's website, the episodes are dubbed and they're showing at least the first three, "Rose," "The End of the World (La Fin Du Monde)" and "The Unquiet Dead (Des Morts Inassouvis)" during several airings each in January. The French language trailer is located here.

(Thanks to Craig Wellington, Sean McGuire, Benjamin Elliott, Doug A Scott)

Just in: previews of the forthcoming second series were shown at the tail end of "The Christmas Invasion" this evening on BBC1, including quick views of Sarah Jane Smith, the Cybermen, the cat people, Queen Victoria and other early season episodes. UPDATE: The official Doctor Who website has now posted the trailer shown at the end of the story!

The official site has also now posted a commentary track to go along with "The Christmas Invasion", an audio track featuring executive producers Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner and producer Phil Collinson, along with new pictures and video clips. You can check them out now at the official site.

We're also told that many users are currently having problems accessingAttack of the Graske, possibly due to an overwhelming amount of interest in the 'interactive' episode. Those of you with red buttons, keep trying!

A new trailer for The Christmas Invasion had a surprise airing on BBC One shortly before the 10 O'Clock News last night (Monday 19) and again at lunchtime today (Tuesday 20). Again lasting thirty seconds, it features a number of previously unseen clips, including Harriet Jones appealing on television for the Doctor's help, scenes of people in the streets apparently under the mental control of the invading force, a defiant Rose telling the Sycorax to "leave this planet in peace", and the pyjama-clad Doctor emerging from the TARDIS ("Did you miss me?") to confront the aliens. The trailer has yet to appear on the official website.

Monday night's Wales Today at 6.30pm on BBC One Wales carried a brief interview with Russell T Davies, looking back enthusiastically on a successful year and happily predicting that the children watching on Christmas Day "will remember it when they're seventy!"

Finally, David Tennant's interview on this week's Friday Night with Jonathan Ross is previewed today in a press releasefrom the BBC Press Office. The press release concentrates on Tennant's future plans, and he apparently tells Ross that he's here to stay: "As long as I don't get the sack, I'll do another series," which is the line he's taken when asked this question ever since his casting was announced. Tennant notes that "It's almost too exciting, all a bit daunting. It was the most successful TV show of the year; if it all goes wrong it's my fault ... I loved it when I was a kid. Tom Baker was the one I grew up with. ... It's a bit of a gamble. The danger is that you get stuck with it, but the only other option is you don't do it. I didn't want to be that guy. As long as I don't get the sack, I'll do another series."

(Thanks to Steve Tribe)

Showtime Arabia has apparently become the latest broadcaster to acquire the new Doctor Who series. The satellite service, which is owned by Viacom, will begin airing the first series on its StyleUK channel starting this Friday, 23 December, showing two episodes per weekend, one on Friday and one on Saturday. Showtime Arabia is broadcast throughout the Middle East. (Thanks to Phil Lentz)

As suggested in some online television listings, The Christmas Invasionwill have its first UK repeat on New Year's Day, Sunday 1 January, at 7.00pm on BBC Three. The official site has confirmed that this broadcast will again be followed by Attack of the Graske, available via the 'red button', which will be on BBCi between 8pm and midnight. (This suggests, although the BBC site does not clearly confirm it, that the interactive episode will be on for four hours on Christmas Day as well.)

The BBC Press Office has issued a press release with further information on the 'red-button episode' available to UK digital viewers after the broadcast of 'The Christmas Invasion' on Christmas Day. Attack of the Graske will be 'a pioneering mix of live action, state-of-the-art special effects (from multi-award-winning The Mill) and individual tasks' and will feature 'a series of challenges [in which] the viewer will be tested on all the skills necessary to keep the Universe safe – you'll even have a chance to fly the TARDIS!' There will be 'a series of tests using the arrow keys on their digital remote control, [and] viewers will be tested on observation, dexterity, memory and bravery', while 'the Doctor will be on hand to give advice, encouragement, and even step in when things go wrong'. The adventure will be on BBCi 'after the credits roll' on 'The Christmas Invasion'. There is no indication of how long 'Attack of the Graske' will remain available. The full text of the press release is below.