According to "This Week in Doctor Who", Norwegian Public Broadcaster NRK is confirming in email responses that they have bought the rights to air the new Doctor Who series. It will probably air on NRK2 starting in September. Meanwhile, Singapore Airlines will be broadcasting the first episode, "Rose" throughout August on their 747 planes (on channel 28 of their TV video-on-demand service).

Tom Baker's appearance as Anatole Blaylock in Remington Steele ("Hounded Steele") will be released in the U.S. as part of the Region 1 release of Season 2 on November 8th, according to the TV Shows on DVD website.

The Cinemas Online site has several stills of Billie Piper's appearance in the forthcoming film "Spirit Trap". There's also more coverage of Billie's refusal to attend the film's premiere, which we reported a few days ago, at IC South London,Ananova, Sky News.

In today's BBC News article "Why the future could be British": "Science-fiction and fantasy are hard to escape at the moment and it's the British writers winning the plaudits. Why? The films are tops at the box office, the books dominate the best-seller lists and on the TV the revived Doctor Who has pleased old fans and won a generation of new ones. Science fiction is booming and the British writers are leading the pack. For the first time in its 63-year history, all the writers nominated for the prestigious Hugo award for the best novel are British."

Stuff.co.nz has a profile of Mary MacLachlan, WETA Workshop model maker and fan of the series (which mentions the traveling Inside the TARDIS tour).

(Thanks to Paul Engelberg, Steve Tribe, Ian Golden, Benjamin Elliott, Vaughan Bilcock, Richard Kirkpatrick)

With the second series of Doctor Who about to bring back the Cybermen, this is far too coincidental: scientists have announced they've discovered a body beyond the orbit of Pluto that could in fact be the solar system's 10th planet;Space.com has a detailed article about the possibility of planethood for the object, temporarily named 2003 UB313. If they name it Mondas, be very afraid... (Thanks to Mark Askren, Jeremy Bead)

Recapping some of the recent developments in the press in Australia:

The Age calls John Barrowman "a man's man ... a new kind of hero with a flexible sexuality" according to writer Tim Hunter. "The new series of Doctor Who has grown up. ... It is also a lot more sophisticated than the classic series and not just in terms of effects and technology. There's a great deal of cleverness in the scripts, in the humour, the characters and their relationships. You need not look any further than the Doctor's new companion, Captain Jack Harkness, for evidence of that." The story interviews Barrowman about his experiences on the show. "Women like to look at good-looking men and men like to look at good-looking men. The amount of letters I've received via my website and agent from men watching the show with their wives, and making the joke at the end of the letter - I kid you not - 'If anyone could turn me, my wife and I decided, Captain Jack could!'" ABC.net.au also featured a story about Barrowman, noting that "John Barrowman was better known as a Broadway and West End darling when he was given the role of 51st Century time agent Captain Jack Harkness in the new series of Doctor Who. As an American actor based in London, John never expected this chance to feature in one of his favourite childhood shows, but as a long-time fan of the Doctor, he was overjoyed at the news."

The Sydney Morning Herald last week praised "Boom Town": "Was Doctor Who, before this revival, ever quite so humorous? Tonight, the Time Lord, Rose and Jack land the Tardis in Cardiff, a city that has a scar in the rift (a closed time rift apparently useful for powering up the batteries of the Tardis) that runs through the heart of the city. Mickey Smith travels to Cardiff at Rose's request with her passport - a redundant document really, given her habit of intergalactic travel. The down time promises to give Rose and Mickey a chance to work through some relationship issues, until the true identity of the city mayor - who has approved plans to build a nuclear reactor in the middle of Cardiff - is uncovered. Annette Badland is brilliant as the conniving and vicious Slitheen, occupying the body of Margaret Blaine." Last week's The Age (28 July) also reviewed the episode: "Make the most of Doctor Who, because he's not long for this world. Christopher Eccleston, that is, the man who has breathed new life into the first genuinely intergalactic TV brand. Soon we'll have David Tennant, and, like me, if you've been grateful to old jug-ears - as he almost gets called in tonight's episode - then wallow in his over-acting for a few more weeks. Tonight brings back an old friend who almost manages to plunge the doctor into a vat of moral ambi-guity. In the end it's not that complicated. When he gets the better of the Mayor of Cardiff - really - she asks him: "What did I do to you?" To which he replies: "Try to kill me and destroy this planet." So it seems quite reasonable that she should get a taste of her own medicine. Russell Davies, the man behind this new incarnation of Doctor Who, has a lot of fun with this episode. There's a rift in time and space - of course, what else could there be? It is Doctor Who, after all - and all sorts of weird and very wonderful devices, including a pan-dimensional surfboard. Every surfer should have one. See you at Bells Beach in the year 3000?" The Sunday Herald Sun said of the episode, "This engaging and witty series seems to reach new heights each week. This week, the Tardis is parked on a time rift in the center of Cardiff to refuel, and the Doctor is horrified to discover the mayor of the city is none other than porky Margaret Blaine (the excellent Annette Badland), the matriarch and last surviving member of the murderous alien Slitheen family."

Last week's "The Doctor Dances" also rated a comment from The Herald: "It's wartime London and the Blitz is growing in intensity. As last week's episode ended, the Empty Child was walking menacingly towards Nancy the street urchin while the zombie army of dead gas mask children was coming to life and advancing on the Doctor. Now the child plague is spreading alarmingly. That's one corner of this story, while Richard Wilson (One Foot in the Grave) takes another and Rose Tyler, the doctor's companion, is falling for the handsome intergalactic conman, Group Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman). Strains of Glenn Miller's Moonlight Serenade prompt Rose to taunt the Doctor about his lack of dancing ability. Stand by for a delightful finish as the Doctor gets In the Mood."

On 29 July the Sydney Morning Herald ran a feature on the now-ended "Inside the TARDIS" tour. "There's a huge difference between what we're doing on this show and a convention, where you have hundreds and hundreds of fans from all sorts of walks of life," says Katy Manning. "There's hardly anybody, whether it be in the '60s, '70s, '80s or '90s, who hasn't experienced the Tardis or doesn't know about Doctor Who. A lot of blokes have said to me, 'Do you realise you were my first fantasy?'" Manning also appeared on the Australian version of This Is Your Life which was dedicated to her partner Barry Crocker. The Courier Mail interviewed Sylvester McCoy on location during the tour, on 23 July. "Crossing time zones should be a breeze for actor Sylvester McCoy, who traversed the universe for three years as Dr Who. Apparently not. Having just arrived in Melbourne from London, he is disoriented and confesses to having no idea what day it is. The confusion continues when he can't remember the last time he was in Australia for a Dr Who convention. ... 'Could it have been five years ago? Um, I can't really remember'." McCoy says that "I have been all over the world with Dr Who. I've done conventions, I've done cruises, I've done everything. It has changed my life. I love travelling and it has enabled me to do so."

The Age on 21 July reviewed "Dalek": "I never thought I'd see the day when a Dalek - one of the Doctor's most bloodthirsty adversaries - would turn into a kind of namby-pamby existentialist. In episode six of the new series, the evil genetic freak learns that it is the last of its kind - the sole survivor of a devastating time war. In a low voice it laments, 'I am alone in the universe'. Now, this isn't meant to be comedy, but it's a laugh-out-loud moment. It belongs in bad alternative theatre, not the more mature entertainment that the revamped series of Doctor Who is striving to be. It is an uneven production that wears its heart on its sleeve. This is probably most apparent in the characterisation of the Doctor. Previous Doctors tended to be foppish, aloof and imperious. Christopher Eccelston's Doctor wears black and looks like a heavy in a Guy Ritchie film. He is volatile, manic, insecure and proudly working class. With his Mancunian accent and cropped hair, he could be a truck driver in The Bill. Eccleston makes for a solid contemporary Doctor. When he first encounters the dreaded Dalek of episode six, his fear is palpable. Eccleston makes you feel that the years of time travelling have messed with his head and that deep down this Doctor is sad, lonely and jaded. Saving the universe from alien tyrants has come at a substantial personal cost. It all gives this series an emotional clout the old program never had. ... The problem lies with the scripts. The plotting of the episodes is wildly uneven. ... The real marvel of this venerable program is not that the Doctor is able to regenerate; the real miracle is that the program itself has regenerated and found a fresh audience more than 40 years after it all began."

(Thanks to Steve Tribe, Paul Engelberg, Adam Kirk, Michael Davoren)

In addition to the Newsround and Wales Today programmes yesterday, there was additional Doctor Who coverage on the BBC's news channel, News 24 on Monday 1 August. Featured as the 'and finally' item at the end of the hourly news roundups, the report included the brief interview with David Tennant (as on Wales Today - but minus Billie) and a fan perspective from Anthony Wainer of DWAS, who noted Doctor Who "was all about change" when asked if the series would remain as popular with Tennant. At approximately 8.50pm, actor Nick Courtney from the classic series was live in studio talking about the success of the series against a new series logo backdrop.

More mentions of filming starting on the second series at BBC Radio 1, The Scotsman, IC Wales, The Daily Mail; more on the show being voted Best Fantasy TV Series by SFX at The Mirror.

Hollywood News previews Billie Piper's new movie "Spirit Trap": "Four young students move into an old unoccupied mansion. Tom is a smart and cocky drug dealer, and Adele is his feisty and sexual girlfriend. Jenny is a good-natured girl with clairvoyant powers, and Nick is a kind and sensitive art student. Inside, the four students meet their fifth housemate, Tina, a beautiful, exotic and mysterious girl. Strange things start to happen when Nick gets an old Russian Spirit Clock working again. Mobile phones stop working. They hear mysterious noises and Jenny begins to see things in the house --shadows of torches on the walls and an angry mob in Edwardian clothes that nails a man to the floor. The living nightmare deepens as Jenny, Nick and Tina try to escape the house but are transported back inside the moment they step out. The spirits pit the students against each other as we discover the dark secrets of their pasts. The boundary between the real world and the afterlife are no longer clear and as time runs out, they must find a way to escape and avoid being trapped with the spirits forever. ... I haven't got any stills from the film yet, but we're promised some by the end of the week, along with the poster, but here, we have a look at the first trailer for the film, which is going up against Michael Bay's THE ISLAND when it's released in the UK on August 12th. Beware, this baby contains acts of horror, a litte gore and nudity (wahey!)."

However, according to Wednesday morning's The Mirror, the producers of "Spirit Trap" "cannot get Dr Who star Billie Piper to attend the premiere of her debut movie -forcing them to scrap the glittering opening night. Billie, 22, takes the lead as a psychic student in Brit horror flick Spirit Trap and is its only big name. Director David Smith and the cast are said to be angry and upset after Billie would not be pinned to a date in London. A film source said: 'Billie has lots of commitments but that's cold comfort to her co-stars, crew and director. If she can't make the premiere, there's no point.' Some insiders fear Billie, right, wants to distance herself from the film because of weak reviews. Her spokeswoman declined to comment."

(Thanks to Steve Tribe, Paul Engelberg, Richard Allison)

The BBC official Doctor Who website has a short piece from Wales Today on the start of production of the second series; the video is playable with Windows Media or Real Player.

A new BBC News report today confirms the start of production last week. "New Doctor Who star David Tennant said it was 'pretty daunting' to play the sci-fi character, as filming of new episodes began in Cardiff. Ex-Casanova star Tennant, 34, said it was an intimidating role because 'the series is so huge. I'm aware of all that but I try to keep it in my back pocket and just get on with the job,' he added. A 13-part series of the BBC TV show will follow a Christmas special, with scenes shot in London on Friday. Tennant, a long-term Doctor Who fan, also said he was excited about beginning work on the show. 'It's great - you get to play a Time Lord and have a Tardis. You can't knock that,' he said. ... The 60-minute Christmas special tells of the earth being under threat from alien Sycorax and features actress Penelope Wilton. The Cybermen will return in the new series, and the Doctor and Rose will meet Queen Victoria and an evil race of Cat Women. One episode will be written by comedian Stephen Fry while The League of Gentleman star Mark Gatiss will once again contribute to the writing." Meanwhile, the Irish Examiner and Manchester Online ran much the same story, but noted that "the makers of the hit TV series took over a restaurant in the Mermaid Quay area of Cardiff Bay for a morning shoot."

In addition to the Newsround video interview above, the CBBC Newsround website features an interview with Tennant. "It's great to get to play a TimeLord and have a Tardis," he told CBBC, adding that he was also a bit scared.

BBC Radio 4's PM had David Tennant on radio today, along with Billie Piper praising him and a short statement that filming in a Chinese restaurant in Cardiff today is standing in for a nightclub in the year five billion! It's on the Radio 4 website(under Listen Again for PM; it's at 53:48 to 56:36 approximately.)

There was also a short two minute feature on the filming in Cardiff today on BBC Five Live's midday news; it didn't reavel much, but does have a short chat with David Tennant. Listen to it on the Five Live website (under Listen Again for Midday News MON, the Doctor Who piece is at the end at 00.56.31.)

There were several more mentions today of the SFX reader poll voting "Doctor Who" the best UK fantasy series of all time, including in The Sun, Female First,

In today's Daily Star: "Billie's A Real Doll. Doctor Who babe Billie Piper left toy bosses panting when they were ordered to make a doll of her. They spent hours working out the shapely star's measurements so the toy version of Rose Tyler looks just like the real thing. Show bosses have lined up a series of special moveable models of Rose and the Doc in time for the Christmas rush. And their greatest enemies The Daleks and the Slitheens will also be flying off the shelves. Workers at Character Options, who had the task of making a model of 22-year-old Billie, had the best job of all. One joked: 'Let's just say the sculptors particularly enjoyed creating Rose. I can't think why!' However, fans will spot one glaring error. The Doctor doll is of Christopher Eccleston, 41, who quit as the Timelord to be replaced by David Tennant, 34. Toy manufacturers have to work months in advance and made their figure before they heard he had left. A doll of Tennant will be released next year."

(Thanks to Steve Tribe, Paul Engelberg, Jamie Austin, Ian Potter, Mike Humphreys, David Traynier)

David Tennant and Billie Piper spoke to BBC One's Newsround at 5.25pm on Monday (1 August), at slightly greater length than the interviews that appeared on the main BBC News programmes. It's about five minutes into the eight-minute programme, which is available on the CBBC website to view in Real Player for twenty-four hours until about 5.25pm BST Tuesday. The following is a brief transcript (with thanks to Steve Tribe).

Outpost Gallifrey will be catching up over the next week on the press coverage that happened throughout July; there was a lot of it, but very little was actually consequential, so we've kept the news page updated with the major stories in the meanwhile. Here's some of the highlights of press coverage from this past week:

The Sun featured an article about the start of production with some photos (collected from the official press photographers Outpost Gallifrey has linked to over the past several days). "The Time Lord clutches the hand of assistant Rose Tyler, played by Billie Piper, as they film on a South London council estate," says the sun, which shows a wintry TARDIS scene and robotic Santas. "David [Tennant], 33, donned a natty pinstripe suit for one scene with Billie [Piper], 22 - before changing into a leather jacket." The Daily Star also covered the start of filming, asking "Who else but the Doctor could conjure up wintry scenes like these slap-bang in the middle of summer? While Britain lurches from heatwaves to tornados, the Doc's sexy sidekick Rose is wrapping up warm... Piper looks chilled to the bone as she shoots a special festive edition of the sci-fi smash. ... These new shots of the Doctor clasping hands with Rose seem to show that things are set to pick up where they left off. Pictured on a south London housing estate, the Timelord and Rose looked very close as they filmed a Christmas special." More coverage of the start of production at ITV, Channel 4, Digital Spy,Regional Film and Video, CBBC,

BBC News says that "he's been a dandy, an Edwardian cricketer and most famously wore a long scarf. Doctor Who's togs change as he regenerates. And the latest Time Lord is kitted out in high fashion. Flamboyant. Garish. Bizarre. Seldom does Time Lord fashion make it to the High Street. Until now. When David Tennant takes over the role later this year, it will be in what he describes as 'geek chic'." The article describes the cocstume as "the type of man Kate Moss might date, kitted out in a brown pin-stripe suit, white shirt - unbuttoned at the collar - a loose tie and scruffy white Converse trainers. The ensemble, put together by a freelance costume designer, is finished off with a long brown trench coat, a cross between old hack's Mac and flasher attire. The suit is skinny and crumpled - much tighter and Norman Wisdom will be demanding copyright. The look is just-got-out-of-bed, dragged-through-a-hedge-backwards, only-thing-I-could-find. It's Franz Ferdinand cum Kaiser Chiefs. But is it Time Lord? Does it have the gravitas, the power and the magic that goes with such an eminent position? Will it make the Slitheen, the Autons and the Gelth quake in their boots, or will it simply reduce the Daleks to helpless laughter? Only time will tell, but the new look should further cement the popularity of the series." The Guardian says that "last season was all rather jolly (RIP Christopher Eccleston), but the next one is already winning, fashion-wise - not something one thought one would ever say about a show associated with weird hats and 70s perms. The lovely David Tennant has wisely ditched the leather jacket, a garment loaded with embarrassing 'rocker dad' connotations, and kitted himself out in a charming tweedy suit with white trainers. For some reason, the BBC has dubbed it 'geek chic', as if any man not wearing an Asbo hoodie must be a nerd. And we pay our licence fee to these ignoramuses? So Saturday evenings will now be spent leching over - sorry, watching - TV. Sorry, swains." Additional mentions of this at Media Guardian, The Times, Manchester Evening News, The Daily Record, The Herald (Glasgow), The Scotsman, The Western Mail, Ananova, The Daily Mail, The Examiner, Ireland Online, Megastar, Glasgow Evening Times, Syfyportal,Hello Magazine, IC Wales, Sky News. (Note that some of these also feature comments about the start of production.)

The official Doctor Who website has a feature article on some of the new toys due out later this year, including a 12" remote control Dalek, action figures of the Doctor, Rose and a Slitheen, character walkie-talkies, sonic screwdrivers, Sound Effects mugs, a talking TARDIS moneybank with speech and a TARDIS desk Phone Flasher.

David Tennant says he wants to be the first naked Time Lord. The actor has joked he would love to film a whole series with nothing but computer technology to protect his modesty: "I'm going to be nude throughout. It's a whole new thing, with a bit of pixelation around the groin." But seriously, he says, he does have a new costume. Tennant tells the Sun: "Casanova and the Doctor have a similar joy and wit about them. There is less sh**ging in 'Doctor Who', but who knows? We might change that, too!" Also reported at Female First. Also CBBC has a poll where you can vote on the Doctor's new costume.

The BBC Press Office last week put out a press release with highlights of David Tennant's interview in the new issue of DWM, in which Tennant notes that he's paid a bit of attention online. "Well, when I was announced, I admit, I did go on [Doctor Who website] Outpost Gallifrey to have a quick look, because I just couldn't help myself, and everyone was encouraging me to go on and see what the fans were saying about me. So I went on there and the first comment I read was very nice, and the next comment was terribly flattering, and then the next one said something like 'I can't bear the sight of him!' And the one after that said 'Who?' The one after that said 'I'd rather have David Morrissey.' The one after that said 'That's it! The dream is finished! Somebody who looks like a weasel could never play the Doctor! It's over!' And then I thought to myself that maybe it's best not to read this sort of thing too much!" Naturally, Tennant's comments -- obviously meant as a side note -- were taken by the media and turned into a major story, reported in BBC News, Daily Record, Western Mail, the City Beat, U.TV, Evening Standard, Daily Post, Monsters and Critics, RTE, and in print editions. (Outpost Gallifrey wishes to remind everyone that a couple negative comments on the forum do not reflect the opinions of this website or the opinions of fans and fandom in general.)

Other items: The Stage features a report about dramas dominating ITV's autumn schedule in the wake of their catastrophic fall opposite Doctor Who this spring; Sunday Life features a short piece about an actress, Lisa Hogg, who says she auditioned for Doctor Who when it looked like Billie Piper was set to leave; The Sun mentions today that Billie Piper's role in the forthcoming autumn BBC1 serial "Much Ado About Nothing" features her as a 'sexy weathergirl'; theHexham Courant discusses a local school production "Return to the Forbidden Planet" featuring a Dalek; and more mentions of Queen Elizabeth II being a fan at The Mirror, Ananova, Female First.

(Thanks to Paul Engelberg, Steve Tribe, Chuck Foster, Andrew Harvey, Paul Hayes, Mustafa Hirji, Paul Greaves, John Bowman, Mark Healey)

According to today's Mirror, Queen Elizabeth II has ordered a DVD box set of the latest Dr Who series for her summer holiday. "She has become a huge fan of the hit BBC show starring Christopher Eccleston - and she was hugely disappointed when the actor quit after his first stint as the Time Lord," says the article. She "is also a fan of the Daleks and she intends to while away August evenings watching the series at her Scottish residence. A Buckingham Palace source said: 'The Queen loves the programme and has requested a full set of DVDs. She has asked the BBC to send her copies so she can watch the series again during her stay at Balmoral.'" (Thanks to Peter Anghelides)

Photo copyright © BBC; for more photos, visit the official BBC website.