Comedian Phil Jupitus has announced a Doctor Who Special edition of the comedy panel music show Never Mind The Buzzcocks, which will feature David Tennant as the guest presenter; the show will also sees Bernard Cribbins on Phil's own team, alongside presenter Jo Whiley, whilst Noel Fielding's team will have Catherine Tate with singer Jamie Cullum.

No broadcast date has been announced as yet, though it is expected to be in the week leading up to Christmas Day.

The BBC Press Office have released details for the broadcast of the animated Doctor Who adventure Dreamland. Episode One will premiere on Saturday 21st November on the BBC's Red Button service, and the subsequent five episodes each day thereafter. The episodes will be available all day on Sky and Virgin, with a limited service on Freeview. The episodes will also be available from the BBC's Doctor Who website, which will be enhanced by a brand new comic reader application.

David Tennant is to make his US television debut when he plays the title character in a hour long pilot for NBC called Rex Is Not Your Lawyer.

Tennant plays Rex Alexander, a top Chicago lawyer who begins suffering panic attacks and takes up coaching clients to represent themselves in court.

Written by Andrew Leeds and David Lampson the pilot is directed by David Semel, who directed the pilots for "Heroes" and "Life". The project has been in development for two years with casting for the lead actor taking place over several months until Tennant clinched the role in August.

Tennant will hope to follow the success of another established British TV actor with virtually no American TV experience, Hugh Laurie, as the lead on Fox's medical drama "House."

The British Board of Film Classification has passed the extras for two upcoming DVD releases.

The Curse of Peladon. Confirmed UK release 4th January 2010

• The Peladon Saga:Part One:The Market and the Miners
• Jon and Katy
• Photo Gallery
• Storyboard Comparison
• Warriors of Mars

The Masque of Mandragora. Expected UK release 8th February 2010

• Bigger on the inside
The story was the first to use the wood-panelled secondary control room.
• The Secret of the Labyrinth
• Photo Gallery
• Beneath the Masque of "The Masque of Mandragora"
• Now and Then - The Locations
The Story was filmed at Portmeirion in Gwynedd, Wales.
• Trails and Continuity

TV Tonight blog reports The Waters of Mars will make its Australian debut on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation during the week beginning Sunday 6 December 2009 on ABC1. This follows the ABC 'fast-tracking' the last two Doctor Who specials broadcast in the UK.

TV Tonight also reports that Torchwood: Children of Earth will make its Australian free-to-air debut during the week beginning Sunday 3 January 2010 on ABC2.

Update 8 Nov: TV Tonight has since confirmed that 'The Waters of Mars' will indeed debut on ABC1 on Sunday 6 December 2009 at 7.30pm.

Thanks to TV Tonight.

The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith received an AI score of 87 for Part One and 89 for Part Two. Both episodes got the highest AI scores on any of the main four channels for the two days.

The two scores are the highest received for the series which also received the highest viewing figures on BBC one at this timeslot for this year.

The Appreciation Index, or AI, is a measure of how much the audience liked the programme. It is a score out of 100, based on responses from a carefully selected panel including a large childrens section. The average score for children's television is 72. A score in excess of 85 is regarded as excellent while a score below 60 is poor.

Doctor Who is up for an award from The Writers' Guild of Great Britain.

It has been nominated in the television drama series category, where it faces competition from fellow BBC series Being Human and Little Dorrit.

The awards will be announced on November 29 at the Free Word Centre in London.

Series Three of Doctor Who was named best TV series in the guild awards of 2007, while in 1975 season 11 of the show (Jon Pertwee's last series, which aired between December 1973 and June 1974 and comprised The Time Warrior, Invasion of the Dinosaurs, Death To The Daleks, The Monster of Peladon and Planet of the Spiders) won a guild award for best writing in a children's serial.

The guild is a trade union for professional writers and the awards are deemed to be special because the work of writers is honoured by their peers and colleagues.

It follows the news that spin-off series The Sarah Jane Adventures has been nominated for a Children's BAFTA. These awards will, again, be given on November 29 in London.

(Thanks to John Bowman)

With attention on the outgoing Doctor with the press launch of The Waters of Mars, incoming Executive producer Steven Moffat has been talking about the new series currently being filmed with new Doctor Matt Smith. Interviewed by Ben Cooke, at the Screenwriters' Festival in Cheltenham, Moffat described Smith as simply "the best". "He's all the things you'd expect, including ancient," and described the new Doctor as "someone you can't take your eyes off". Moffat confirmed he will be writing six episodes of the new series.
A full transcript can be found at Digital Spy


Meanwhile outgoing Doctor David Tennant will be a guest on next Monday's Graham Norton show on BBC One. Tennant has also been talking to PBS about his new role as host of Masterpiece Contemporary.

Steve Roberts of the DVD Restoration team has been giving details of the processes involved in returning colour to Doctor Who stories which currently only exist in black and white. Speaking at an event sponsored by the Doctor Who Information Network. Roberts talked about work being done on the Mind of Evil as well as discussing future plans for the classic range with all complete stories due for release by November 2013, the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who. He confirmed there are no plans for any further animated restorations of lost episodes, nor any plans to issue any more partial stories.

John Barrowman has been sitting in for Elaine Paige on her Sunday afternoon BBC Radio 2 show. He read out an e-mail asking if he knew if Torchwood was coming back or not. He said that they were currently 'in negotiations' and that he hoped Torchwood would be back some time in the future. Barrowman has released his new memoirs I Am What I Am, which covers the last three years and includes behind the scenes secrets and gossip from the sets of Doctor Who and Torchwood, complete with behind the scenes photos of the cast.

Finally, obits for Barry Letts have now been posted in the Independent as well as on the BBC Doctor Who site. As reported below, it was confirmed at the press launch that The Waters of Mars will be dedicated to Letts.

The second part of The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith, was watched by 1.1 million viewers, with an audience share of 9.6%.

This is again far above the average for the timeslot. The programme inherited an audience of 0.3 million and built it to 0.9 million for the first quarter hour and 1.2 million for the second.

The highest rated programme on BBC One in this timeslot, this year, prior to The Sarah Jane Adventures was Outback8 on 2nd January, which got 0.71 million watching.

Final figures will include those who record the programme and watch it within seven days, and will be released by BARB in two weeks time.

Following the release of the UK transmission date, BBC America has confirmed The Waters of Mars will air in the US on Saturday December 19 at 9:00pm ET/PT.

Tennant's final two stories will then air over the holiday season as a two-part special. Airdates will be released in early December.

The BBC will release The Waters of Mars and the two-part finale on DVD and Blu-ray on Tuesday, February 2, 2010 both as individual releases and also as part of a 5 disc specials collection including The Next Doctor and Planet of the Dead.