A general roundup of some of the press coverage from the past two weeks (courtesy Paul Engelberg, Paul Hayes, Mark Irwin, Steve Stratford and Roger Anderson):

Billie Piper is in this week's Arena magazine in a photo shoot, where she also discusses the new series and her husband, Chris Evans, from whom she is separated. "Chris is a genius and anyone who spends time with him is lucky," she told Arena. "I always thought it was weird, exes that hung out. But now I'm doing it myself I understand it. We've been through a lot. There's been no pressure. It's almost nicer now because there are no harboured feelings, no resentment. We're still best buds. More pictures and the full feature appear in the April issue.

Over budget and behind schedule? That's what March 2's issue of The Sun says. "The show ... will struggle to meet its scheduled March 26 debut date. A source said: 'There were ten extra days of shooting with special effects and that cost a fortune.'"

It's apparently all about the Daleks, according to the Liverpool Daily Post on March 2, in preparation for the new series. "EXTERMINATE! Exterminate! Dalekmania threatened to take over the universe. After giving Dr Who a lot of bother and forcing Britain's under-10s to quiver behind the sofa, these weird alien invaders became the thing to have, whether in toys, comics, books or on television. They even had their own comic strip series which ran in TV Century 21 for 104 issues - not bad for what were essentially dustbins on wheels."

Drama is to play a greater role in BBC daytime television, according to The Stage. The BBC's new drama unit in Birmingham is producing a series of ten short stories from up-and-coming writers due to broadcast later this year called Brief Encounters, which "aims to give new talent an opportunity to develop their scripts with the help of experienced mentors" including EastEnders writer Tony Jordan, Andrew Davies, who adapted Pride and Prejudice, and... new series producer Russell T Davies. The report also notes that Head of Daytime, Alison Sharman, is "tipped as favourite to become controller of BBC1, after Lorraine Heggessey resigned from the position to take over as chief executive of independent production company TalkBack Thames". Heggessey, of course, is the BBC1 Controller whose comments to the media in September 2003 were the first official word that Doctor Who was returning.

John Barrowman ("Captain Jack Harkness") will be appearing in the Royal National Theatre's revival of Anything Goes, which is scheduled to play Los Angeles' Ahmanson Theatre later this year, with John Barrowman repeating his London role of Billy Crocker. "And it's not hard to imagine the production moving on from there to New York," says Broadway.com.

Attitude Magazine, magazine for "gay professionals," recently featured a large article on Doctor Who, headlined with Who's the Daddy. It covered the age old topic of why Doctor Who is a 'gay pastime' and it also covered the programmes appeal in general.

In their latest installment of "Features," a weekly promotional circular, for Week 9 of the year, the BBC Press Office have photos and promotion for Doctor Who... although not as a current series, but as part of the "Coming Soon" section. "Christopher Eccleston plays Doctor Who in a new, 13-part series for BBC One," says the document. "Billie Piper, who made her acting debut in the critically-acclaimed Canterbury Tales - The Miller's Tale, stars alongside Eccleston as the Doctor's companion, Rose Tyler. Traveling through time and space, the Doctor and Rose come face to face with a number of new and exciting monsters - as well as battling with the Doctor's arch-enemy, the Daleks! The series also features Penelope Wilton, Noel Clarke, Annette Badland, Camille Coduri, John Barrowman, Richard Wilson, Simon Pegg and acclaimed theatre, film and television actor Simon Callow." The document also features a mention of Doctor Who exec producer Russell T Davies' other serial, "Casanova," as well as Paul McGann's turn as Colonel MacNab in "Kidnapped" (see separate story). (Thanks to Paul Hayes)

There's obviously a fan of Doctor Who on the staff at Saturday Night Live, the popular and long-running American comedy sketch series, as the show gets its second reference this season! On tonight's (February 5) installment, guest host Paris Hilton introduced a segment on phone sex for SF/fantasy fans; it featured genre-based jokes on 'Star Trek' and 'Lord of the Rings' to name a few. Hilton ended the skit by saying "Operators are standing by. Who knows, one of them might be me. Does 'Doctor Who' turn you on, baby? Well, I'm getting into my TARDIS right now. Oooh! I'd better put on my big floppy hat and scarf. I hope I don't find any Daleks here. Are you a Dalek, baby? Do you want to exterminate me? Call today." A screen capture is attached at right. (Thanks to Michael S. Lucart, Steve Manfred, Kevin Schultz)

Today's issue of The Sun features an article concerning Rose Tyler (Billie Piper) and the Daleks, including a photograph of an exploded Dalek, a strange flesh-colored alien, and the usual comments about how the Daleks are back because of the newspaper's "campaign" to bring them back (which is incorrect.) Click on the link to check out the photographs. Meanwhile, the print edition of the Sun on January 29 ran a large article and accompanying photo of Billie hugging the blue alien we showed you in a photo late last summer while the actor was on break. (Thanks to everyone who wrote in to let us know!)

BBC Worldwide today issued a press release announcing a deal with Character Options to become the master licensee for toy products for the new Doctor Who series. The press release is reprinted below. (Thanks to Steve Tribe)

Attention readers: a redesign of the New Series News Page with individual pages for each episode of the new series is coming very soon, as well as a long-awaited update to the Photo Gallery. Sorry for the delays... with the Gallifrey convention and my book taking up much of the time, OG updates are not as often as I'd like. Still, thanks for your continued support!

A report in today's Daily Mirror (echoed by other services) say that the new series has been hit by a shortage of dwarf actors because of the filming of two films, "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and the next Harry Potter film. "It's very difficult to employ persons of restricted growth when, as our producer Phil Collinson says, `Bloody Gringotts and the Chocolate Factory are filming at the same time'," executive producer Russell T Davies has been quoted by the Mirror as saying. Outpost Gallifrey has learned that this is, in fact, simply a quote from the latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine and, in fact, is from the filming sessions several months ago (which we reported on with photos taken from an on-location shoot.) (Thanks to Paul Engelberg, Steve Tribe, Chuck Foster, Sean Bradshaw, Kenny Smith, David Collins)

The Scottish Sunday Herald ran a feature in their magazine on January 9 called "101 Big Events of 2005". The introduction features a large picture of Moses holding the Ten Commandments. The byline begins "Thou shalt watch enraptured as Dr Who returns to the small screen!" The section of the article concerning Doctor Who read as follows: "#74 - DOCTOR WHO. Fifteen years after it was taken off the air, Dr Who is remembered as a defining piece of cult television. The programme was actually much bigger than that, a mainstream popular success sustained over 26 years, which only went into decline when the writers began catering to a niche market of sci-fi freaks and not the majority of the British public. In 2005 Dr Who will be returned to BBC primetime by a well-selected team of specialists - chiefly long-time aficionado and gifted populist TV writer Russell T Davis (Queer As Folk). Davis has hired like-minded talents to script the 13 new episodes, including League of Gentlemen co-founder and former Dr Who fan-fiction writer, Mark Gatiss. 'It's a brilliant reinvention,' Gatiss has promised. 'I'm not just saying that. Very funny, very scary. A great piece of television.' And the more you hear, the greater it sounds. The brilliant character actor Christopher Eccleston will be the new Doctor - that curious, inscrutable, vaguely unsettling alien time-traveller who defends humanity for his own whimsical reasons. Billie Piper will be his sidekick. Simon Pegg of Shaun Of The Dead will appear. There will be episodes set in the forties and the Victorian era. Simon Callow will be Charles Dickens who helps save the world from alien infestation. And there will be Daleks." (Thanks to Francis O'Dowd, John Bollan)

Today's edition of the Guardian newspaper features an article (available online here) called "50 must-sees for spring" that names the new Doctor Who series at #5. Says the article, "Few people under the age of 30 will remember Tom Baker at his most magnetic, as the Dalek-thwarting timelord. Their parents may claim to this day that the hirsute one was not a patch on William Hartnell or Patrick Troughton, that he whimpered in the wake of the mighty Jon Pertwee. The real nippers probably think that Peter Davison was the best. One thing is sure, however: by the time Sylvester McCoy succeeded Colin Baker in 1984, the doctor's bankable days were over, the plots - and sets - too flimsy to convince in a post-Spielberg world. Four decades on from the first shows the BBC is bringing the doctor back and the signs for success are good, with the brilliant Russell T Davies on writing duty. A massive Doctor Who fan of old, he promises 'full-blooded drama' and storylines which are 'fun, exciting, contemporary and scary', while Christopher Eccleston should have just the right balance of bit-of-rough charm and glowering, Messianic intensity to merit the shabby great coat and (we hope) loop-the-loop scarf. Billie Piper in the role of his assistant, Rose Tyler, will doubtless help keep teenage boys of all ages happy."

The ever-reliable Sun newspaper this morning made note of the return of Doctor Who, with Billie and Christopher starring "in tonight's long-awaited return of the BBC1 sci-fi series." Of course, the show isn't starting today at all... as we've said, you can still look for it in late March (or so the rumors go.) The Sun also claims that the Daleks "are back also, after a Sun campaign" (which of course, the paper had nothing to do with.) (Thanks to Colin John Francis)