Christmas News

The official Doctor Who site has some excerpts from a Radio Times story about Catherine Tate and her upcomingDoctor Who appearance in The Runaway Bride.

Coverage of the BBC's Christmas schedule at icWales includes mentions of The Runaway Bride and the adaptation of Philip Pullman's The Ruby in the Smoke starring Billie Piper. These programmes and the debut of The Sarah Jane Adventures are also mentioned in another icWales story focusing on critic Garry Bushell's dissatisfaction with the Christmas schedule. (Apparently family science fiction isn't enough for Bushell -- he wants a family comedy.)

And, still at icWales, there's another story about the strong sales of the Doctor Who Annual and the Doctor Who 3D Model Making Kit.

POST SCRIPT: Yet another icWales story mentions the surprise visit by a Dalek to the Cardiff Lord Mayor's Children's Christmas Party. Of course, the Dalek wasn't the first alien in the Cardiff Lord Mayor's office...

Series Three News

One scene in the 2007 series of Doctor Who will show the Doctor and his new assistant Martha Jones in bed together -- flirtatious but fully clothed. The scene appears in a preview seen by members of the press and covered by The Daily Mail, Monsters and Critics and UPI.

The Sun and Digital Spy cover the news that Jessica Stevenson will appear in Series Three.

People

The official Doctor Who website, CBBC Newsround, The Daily Mirror and Digital Spy discuss David Tennantwinning Doctor Who Magazine's "favourite Doctor" poll.

Tennant also made New Musical Express's 2006 "If Only They Rocked" list of the "most rock 'n' roll" people not currently performing in rock bands. Tennant was #3 on the list, after Andy Nicholson (former guitarist for the Arctic Monkeys) and Hungarian prime minister Ferenc Gyurcsány -- which explains why the story is covered by Hungarian underground newspaper Pestiside.hu.

Billie Piper will appear in the Christopher Hampton play Treats, touring in Windsor, Malvern, Bath and Richmond before a planned March transfer to the West End; it's mentioned at Whatsonstage.com and the Evening Standard.

On December 18, John Barrowman will be singing Christmas songs and musical theatre hits at Queen Elizabeth Hall, alongside the Crouch End Festival Chorus and the BBC Concert Orchestra; so reveals the Hornsey and Crouch End Journal and the Crouch End Festival Chorus's website.

The Daily Record, apparently confusing actor with character, upbraids Barrowman for Captain Jack's joke about British teeth in a recent episode of Torchwood.

Broadcasting
The BBC is developing a new Merlin series, which will air in the same 7:00 Saturday slot as Doctor Who and Robin Hood; BBC One chief Peter Fincham confirmed to The Stage that Merlin will not replace Doctor Who or Robin Hood, but join them in seasonal rotation. The story is also covered at Variety.

Digital Spy has a few small spoilers for upcoming episodes of Torchwood and a quote from the debut of The Sarah Jane Adventures.

Miscellaneous

The Daily Mirror includes Doctor Who in a list of great comebacks.

The Sun has picked up the story of fan Andrew Simpson's homemade Dalek threatening noisy students, previously mentioned in other sources.

The Hampstead and Highgate Express mentions The Very Best of The Navy Lark, starring Jon Pertwee, as one of its top audio picks this Christmas.

And finally, Metro's "Cool Video of the Day" is a demonstration of the scientific phenomenon of standing waves, which produces images similar to the old-school Doctor Who titles. (Metro's reporter says, "I keep expecting Jon Pertwee's head to come flying out at me from the centre of it," but hard-core geeks like this reporter will note that it's closer to the William Hartnell titles.)

(Additional material by Kenny Davidson; thanks to "Superted" of the Outpost Gallifrey forums.)

The official Doctor Who site has announced that the 1989 adventure Survival, starring Sylvester McCoy, will be released on DVD in April 2007. Survival was the last Doctor Who serial of the original series to be broadcast; it was also the final Doctor Who appearance of Anthony Ainley as the Master. Ainley's first appearances in the series will be released on DVD in January, in the "New Beginnings" collection.

Helen Raynor has donated an autographed copy of her script for Torchwood episode three, Ghost Machine, to theCardiff and District Samaritans. The script is signed by Raynor, John Barrowman, Eve Myles, Burn Gorman,Naoko Mori and Gareth David-Lloyd. It is being auctioned on eBay, and all proceeds will go towards running costs at the Cardiff Samaritans.

Doctor Who's Christmas special, The Runaway Bride, is scheduled to feature on BBC One's The Sign Zone in the early hours of 30 December. Running from 1.50am (yes, 1.50 in the MORNING!), the episode will be repeated with in-vision British Sign Language translations for the Deaf appearing in one corner. It's believed this is the first time Doctor Who has been broadcast in this way, following in the footsteps of other dramas such as Life on Mars and documentaries like The Blue Planet. No news as to whether this is something that will be carried over to the third series when it begins transmission in the spring.

The Sign Zone appears on BBC One weekdays in a post-midnight slot.

In the newest issue of Doctor Who Magazine (#377) some new details about the upcoming series of Doctor Whohave been revealed:

Episode Two Title
The episode, which features Dean Lennox Kelly in the lead guest role of William Shakespeare, will be titled "The Shakespeare Code".

Casting
Four new castings have been revealed: Jessica Stevenson will feature in Episodes Eight and Nine of Series Three.Carey Mulligan (Bleak House, The Amazing Mrs Pritchard), Lucy Gaskell (Cutting It, Vincent), Michael Obiora (The Bill, Hotel Babylon) and Finlay Robertson (NY-LON, Life Begins) will appear in Episode Ten of Series Three.

Director
Episode Ten will be directed by Hettie MacDonald, the first time a Doctor Who story will have been directed by a woman since 1985's "The Mark of the Rani".

The Daleks will be returning to the stage with the re-creation of their 12-part "lost" TV epic.

After October's successful production of "lost story" The Evil of the Daleks in Portsmouth, Interalia Theatre have been given the licence to produce the 1965/66 adventure The Daleks' Masterplan, of which only three episodes still exist.

As with Evil, it will be on at the New Theatre Royal, Guildhall Walk, Portsmouth. It is scheduled for sometime in October 2007 and will run for five performances - but it will be the company's last Doctor Who revival.

Spokesman Rob Thrush said: "Most of the team from Evil will be involved.

"Nick Scovell is again adapting the scripts and will play the Doctor. Obviously, there is a lot of cutting to do, so it'll be very different fom the runaround on TV, although the 'core' of the story - sorry! - will remain intact."

A draft still has to be submitted for approval by the estates of Dennis Spooner and Terry Nation.

Thrush added: "According to the terms of the licence, this, our fourth Doctor Who production, will be the very last one, so we intend to go out with a biggie!"

The company also previously staged The Web of Fear and Fury from the Deep in Portsmouth.

(With thanks to Rob Thrush)

Woolworths recently launched its new home-shopping catalogue The Big Red Book in time for the Christmas market (available instore now) and Doctor Who merchandise features prominently within its pages.

As well as radio-controlled Daleks and K-9, the sought-after Cyberman Voice Changer Helmet and popular TARDIS playset, the catalogue offers other Who goodies, including a Dalek Bottle Opener (with sound effects) and, exclusive to Woolworths, a 5-inch Doctor Who Figure Pack, which is featured as one of its "Top 10 Toys".

The Pink Paper continues its love affair with Doctor Who. Issue 913 included the Captain Jack Harkness action figure and the radio-controlled K-9 among its selection of "Serious toys for big girls and boys" in its "Christmas starts here" feature, which also offered readers a chance to win the aforementioned K-9, courtesy of Forbidden Planet.

Meanwhile, issue 914 has launched the paper's Readers' Awards 2007. Last year, David Tennant won in the "World's sexiest man" category, but has failed to be nominated this time round. However, Doctor Who has been nominated forBest TV show. You can vote here. It's category 44, in the Arts, media and culture section.

Issue 377 of Doctor Who Magazine is due out on 7th December; the following is a preview including the cover. Click on the thumbnail for a larger version.
(Thanks to Tom Spilsbury/DWM)

The BBC1 Christmas and New Year schedule has been confirmed by the BBC Press Office.

Christmas Day sees the Doctor Who special The Runaway Bride starting at the traditional time of 7pm on BBC1.

There is also a special Doctor Who Confidential on BBC1 earlier at 1pm, entitled Music And Monsters.

On New Year's Day The Sarah Jane Adventures begin with Invasion Of The Bane at 4.50pm.