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.

David Tennant today launched The Waters of Mars, which airs on Sunday November 15 at 7pm on BBC One. The episode is the second Doctor Who special to be screened this year, and Tennant will also star in two more shows before bowing out at Christmas.

Tennant said he was excited for new Doctor Matt Smith, saying: "I remember how exciting it was starting out on this kind of a journey and nerve-wracking. I'm jealous that he's going through that now - but it couldn't happen to a nicer chap. I'm looking forward to not knowing what happens next. I'm looking forward to being a viewer again."

Of the special, Tennant said: "The Doctor finds himself in a situation where he knows what the end is. It's all about whether he can un-knit the inevitable. With this particular Time Lord's life coming to an end, if he starts fiddling with the fundamentals of time and space, it might lead to his undoing."



Tennant said: "The Doctor now knows incontrovertibly that he's running from his own demise." He described shooting the final scenes as "emotional" but said that as they were filmed out of sequence, the situation did not get too weepy. The actor said the last line he said as the Doctor was: "'You two, with me, spit spot'... so it was robbed of any epic quality. It was very emotional saying cheerio. Filming the final scene was very, very sad. There's lots of scenes in the final, final story that are very sad and were very sad to play."

Tennant spoke about the big opportunities that arose in killing off the current tenth incarnation of the Doctor, to take the story "to places we've never quite been before". He said: "It allows it to be bigger and more epic and wilder... and sadder."

Tennant said he had originally felt under some pressure in taking on the role, saying: "It means so much to so many people. It meant so much to me." He said the bit he would miss the most was "when the new script comes. That was always such a thrill. It was always surprising." Asked if he felt he was in danger of becoming typecast, Tennant said: "I seem to have managed to do quite a variety of things while I've been doing Doctor Who. I haven't felt that it has been anything other than a positive." The star said he had his own sonic screwdriver which he kept locked up in a "secure location" in case his house was burgled.

On playing the role, he said: "You're not really expected to follow what went before, you're sort of expected to go your own way and mess it up a little bit the Doctor is different each time. You know James Bond is always James Bond and Tarzan is always Tarzan and Sherlock Holmes is always Sherlock Holmes but the Doctor is up to you, it's a blank sheet and you can scribble all over it, it's up to you."

He compared the job to being the United States president, saying: "You always get to be called the Doctor."

At the launch, Executive producer Russell T Davies confirmed The Waters of Mars will be dedicated to former producer Barry Letts. Davies paid tribute to his predecessor saying "He was one of the finest producers of Doctor Who and many programmes.. He used to do the Sunday afternoon classic serials and he actually produced the Jon Pertwee years. And then he cast Tom Baker. He cast Lis Sladen as well. He was an extraordinary figure in Doctor Who history and in pop culture – and he passed away, sadly. So, of course, we wanted to have that tribute to him on screen."

The launch has been covered by BBC News, The Guardian and BBC Newsbeat.

Journalist Ian Wylie has posted the full transcript of the press launch with Tennant and Davies on his blog.

The BBC is today celebrating the 75th Anniversary of its Maida Vale studios, best known to Doctor Who fans as the home of the Radiophonic Workshop. A series of programmes being broadcast across the entire BBC radio network will celebrate the role the studios have had in the cultural life of the country, many including music from the classic series of Doctor Who.

The Radiophone Workshop was involved with the series from the very start when, in 1963 the unit were given the task of realising composer Ron Grainer's theme tune for the upcoming television series. Working in Maida Vale, Delia Derbyshire created the sound which has become one of the most recognisable themes in British television.. The Workshop was responsible for most of the sound effects used in the series throughout it's entire run and it was in these studios that such iconic sounds as the TARDIS materialisation and the sound of the Sonic screwdriver were created. The workshop provided much incidental music for the programme including every score from 1980 to 1985.

The Maida Vale studios were also used to broadcast news across Europe during the Second World War and were the home of Radio 1's Peel Sessions from 1967 until 2004. They also hosted early radio performances from such acts as The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and David Bowie, drama recordings for Radio 3 and Radio 4 including Dr Zhivago and King Lear and Bing Crosby made his last recording session in the studios in 1977.