The final three episodes of Torchwood, the spinoff series starring John Barrowman as Captain Jack, will be shown over the next two weeks. Episode 11, Combat, written by Doctor Who series one and two star Noel Clarke, will be broadcast on Sunday 24 December at 9:30pm on BBC Three. However, the final two episodes will be featured not on their usual Sunday, but instead on New Years Day, Monday 1 January, with episode 12, Captain Jack Harkness, shown at 9:30pm and episode 13, End of Days airing immediately thereafter at 10:20pm. (The BBC says the finale is called "End of Days" but previous reports suggest "Apocalypse"; we're waiting for verification.) The "Declassified" documentaries will be shown early Tuesday morning on BBC Three, repeated later in the week. Below are the BBC press releases for all three episodes; also, check out our handy Broadcast Calendar on the left side of the Outpost's news page (click on the country flag to bring up the broadcast list.) As we previously reported, the second series of Torchwood will start shooting in the spring.

SFX have added a spoiler-free review of The Runaway Bride to their website. "There's a bit of The 39 Steps in there and a heavy dumping of screwball comedy too," writes reviewer Steve O'Brien. "Never in two years of peacock Doctor Who and in 26 years of pawn shop Who have we seen anything as jaw-slackening as this sequence. Russell T Davies knows that for Doctor Who to compete on Christmas Day it has to run with its balls out to compete for people's attention in a pissed-up living room, in a way Saturday Who doesn;'t have to." The reviewer comments that Catherine Tate "really makes The Runaway Bride" and that Tennant is "as good as ever, and has even toned down some of the face-gurning and Over Emphasis Of Certain Words." The full review can be foundhere. (Thanks to Ian Berriman at SFX)

The BBC's official tie-in website for The Sarah Jane Adventures has gone live. The site reveals the series logo and includes videos of Sarah Jane's collection of alien objects, access to her desktop computer, and information on a Mr Smith.

The site's content is, however, limited to UK IPs only; readers from outside the UK are redirected to an FAQ explaining that the content is restricted to the UK "for rights reasons".

The Sarah Jane Adventures, staring Elisabeth Sladen, begins on New Year's Day at 4.50pm on BBC One.

The Sun has revived the story doing the rounds a while ago that Christopher Eccleston is tipped for the lead role in a remake of 1960s cult TV show The Prisoner.

The article says filming on the joint Sky One/Granada TV/AMC production will begin in the spring, with the programme showing worldwide in January 2008.

There is no comment from Eccleston or his agent, Lorraine Hamilton, in the piece to either confirm or deny his involvement.

To the side of the online article are links to "related stories", including a slideshow from The Runaway Bride.

Also in The Sun is a lengthy interview with Billie Piper in which the actress talks about anorexia, therapy, life as a pop princess and the impact of Doctor Who on her marriage to Chris Evans.

In addition, it refers to her split this week from boyfriend and law student Amadu Sowe, repeating her statement: "I've always tried to shield Amadu from the showbusiness world and public glare that I've learnt to live with over the years.

"I'm afraid that means I'm just not comfortable talking about our relationship or the finer points of it."

The feature finishes by referring to her forthcoming roles in The Ruby In The Smoke and Mansfield Park, with a closing quote from Piper: "I feel a bit more in control of my life than I ever have done - that's a great feeling, I’m really happy about it."

BBC1's Breakfast also covered yesterday's press screening of The Runaway Bride this morning. As with Wales Today last night, the recorded item featured interviews with David Tennant, Catherine Tate and Sarah Parish talking about making the Christmas special.

On the Doctor's surprise at the Bride's appearance in the TARDIS, Tennant said: "I think he's used to his companion being rather grateful for being shown around the universe and shown the sights, but Donna couldn't be less interested. It's an interesting new dynamic for the show."

Catherine Tate commented on several ideas she'd put forward for her characterisation which had been turned down, though she jokinging said that the "comedy teeth" were given to Sarah Parish instead! She also re-iterated that she would have loved to have been an assistant but wasn't asked!

Sarah Parish commented on her role as the villainess: "I think it's the biggest real monster that Doctor Who has ever done. They've done big CGI monsters but this was actually made ... It was a good four hours costume call in the morning for the prosthetics, then an hour and a half to get it off."

Tennant: "It's only the second Christmas that Doctor Who's ever done, but people already seem to be expecting it as part of their Christmas Day lineup, so that's quite nice and I hope that everyone will tune in!"

The item was accompanied by a number of clips from the episode, plus some still photographs of the principal villainess,The Empress of the Racnoss played by Parish in full glory. Some of these photos have now been featured on theBBC News website and the official Doctor Who website. The BBC Breakfast segment is also available to watch online from the BBC News website (real player) - this includes the clips if you want to avoid seeing them!

The people at KTEH 54, San Jose, CA http://www.kteh.org have sent out a press release heralding their acquisition of the Christopher Eccleston Doctor Who episodes, making them the first public TV station to publicize that they purchased this package. It is expected that public TV stations will get Doctor Who in a one-hour block - the unedited episodes followed by a cut-down version of the relevant Doctor Who Confidential episode. Says the article, "Doctor Whoreturns to KTEH after an absence of over four years. When the series last ran, KTEH had aired the equivalent of 7703 episodes (Over 10 times more than the BBC actually produced!!) as well as producing around a dozen Doctor Whorelated interviews. Beginning on April 13, 1981, Doctor Who captured the attention of the viewers of the San Francisco Bay Area, with the series being shown every weeknight, and full stories every Saturday night. Doctor Who last aired in January of 2003, and was a victim of budget problems and declining funding from the viewing public." A Teaser is available at http://www.dvillage.org/KTEH/DW-Teaser.mov.

BBC Worldwide has struck a licensing deal with popular bit-torrent provider Azureus to distribute legal episodes of Doctor Who to United States users early next year. The programme will be one of a number of high profile BBC titles available via Azureus' new Zudeo client software. The deal marks a significant first step for the broadcaster in Peer-to-Peer distribution.

Which episodes will be carried, and what costs will be involved, has yet to be announced. The current series is airing in the US on the Sci-Fi Channel, BBC America and soon in select markets on PBS. The classic series is airing only in a few US markets.

This story is being reported by Wired.com. Thanks to Panodk from our forum for the initial link to Business Wire'sreport.

Update, Dec 20th: Further news links on this story: BBC News and The Guardian.

As previously reported, BBC Audio is releasing The Gunfighters on CD on February 5, 2007. The full soundtrack is narrated by Peter Purves (Steven). The official cover blurb and illustration are below; click on the thumbnail for a larger version. (Thanks to Paul Taylor/Tenth Planet)

A new 30 second long trailer for The Runaway Bride has now broadcast on BBC channels, showing many more clips from the episode.

Meanwhile, the BBC's childrens news programme Newsround featured more interviews with the cast, and also broadcast its own exclusive new clips from the episode in their BBC1 edition this afternoon.

David Tennant: "The Doctor losing Rose was a really big moment for him, and it would be a bit wrong if we just came back and said he's fine now, he's forgotten all about that."

Russell T Davies: "He's heartbroken, absolutely devastated because the love of his life has disappeared. But at the same time I don't want to give viewers on Christmas Day at 7 o'clock an hour's worth of weeping."

Catherine Tate: "They're such different characters, this is in no way a replacement for Rose or anything like that, it's just the next chapter in the Doctor's journey, because he needed a mission, and this was a mission, and it snaps him out of it a little bit."

The crew then when on to say what we can expect from series three (see spoiler section below).

The Doctor Who special can be found online at the CBBC website.


Other coverage of Doctor Who today included a mention of the press screening on the morning's edition of Newsround, which also briefly showed the talking cyberhelmet in an item about buying presents. And ITV1's GMTV also covered the press screening, with television critic Richard Arnold waxing lyrical on how good the Christmas special will be (and bemoaning the fact he missed the press screening himself!)

Six days and counting ...