Amazon UK is listing a May 1 release this year of Tomb of the Cybermen from BBC Audio. It is not known exactly what this release is comprised of, but it is possible that it's a re-release of the audio soundtrack of the serial that was prepared shortly before the episodes from the story were located and returned to the BBC archives over a decade ago (and subsequently released immediately thereafter). However, there might be additional material; we'll keep you posted. (Thanks to Kieran Seymour, Jason Rhoden)

Actor John Woodnutt, who appeared in four episodes of Doctor Who, recently passed away, according to a note on the Restoration Team Forum. Woodnutt, born in 1924, played Hibbert in "Spearhead from Space," the Draconian Emperor in "Frontier in Space," the Duke of Forgill and Zygon leader Broton in "Terror of the Zygons" and as Seron in "The Keeper of Traken," had an enormous career in British television and film for decades, including appearing in episodes of "Jeeves and Wooster," "The Bill," "The Tomorrow People," "Sherlock Holmes," "Adam Adamant Lives!," "The Avengers" and "Z Cars," and his last film role was in the movie "Dragonheart: A New Beginning".

With all the hype about America's acquisition of series one, there's been no official word on the status of the show's second series in Australia until now. ABC's Audience and Consumer Affairs has this to say about the series' status: "At this stage, the ABC has not yet secured the broadcast rights for the Doctor Who Christmas Special or the new series of Doctor Who. Having said this, it is highly likely that the ABC will purchase the rights and show the new series, and the Christmas special during 2006." (Thanks to Margaret Deutsch)

Outpost Gallifrey has learned that, while the planned DVD release of the first season of the new Doctor Who series has been delayed until July due to the acquisition of the series by the Sci-Fi Channel, fans in Canada can rest assured: the Complete First Series Boxed Set will be released there on February 14 as originally planned. (Obviously, eager fans in the US will still be able to import it.)

We've also now been told that there will be no change to the release plans in the US and Canada for the classic series titles -- which will continue to be released in March (which is the already-announced release of "The Beginning Boxed Set" containing the first three stories), June, September and November; the new series set has no effect on that whatsoever.

Also, below are thumbnails of the Complete First Season Boxed Set (the style that will be used in both the US and Canada): both the outer cover (which we've printed before) and the inside packaging; click on each for a larger version. (Thanks to Steve Manfred at the North American DVD/Video FAQ for the news)

Big Finish has just released two new hardcover books featuring the further adventures of Bernice Summerfield, the character originally created as a Doctor Who companion for the Virgin New Adventures books during the 1990's.Something Changed is a new anthology featuring original stories by Ben Aaronovitch, Simon Guerrier, James Swallow, Joseph Lidster, Pete Kempshall, Eddie Robson, John Isles, Ben Woodhams, Dave Hoskin, David Cromarty, Ian Farrington, Dave Stone, Sin Deniz, Jonathan Clements and Ian Mond. Also, Parallel Lives is a trilogy of novellas written by Rebecca Levene, Stewart Sheargold & Dave Stone, featuring the character and other original characters created for the series.

Meanwhile, Magic Bullet Productions has released the cover illustration for The True History of Faction Paradox, Volume Two: The Ship of a Billion Years, the new audio CD by Lawrence Miles featuring the further adventures of Faction Paradox, the time travelling voodoo cult originally created for the BBC Eighth Doctor novel series. The audio is released in early 2006 and stars Gabriel Woolf, who reprises his role as Sutekh from "Pyramids of Mars", with Julian Glover ("City of Death"), Isla Blair ("The King's Demons"), Wanda Opalinska, Jane Lesley and Peter Miles ("Genesis of the Daleks").

Cover illustrations for all three are below; click on each for a larger version.

Tenth Planet have sent us images of the new line of Character OptionsAction Figures, including two versions of the David Tennant Doctor, the Moxx of Balhoon, Cassandra, the Slitheen and the Sycorax Leader. Says their site, "This year Doctor Who gets a brand new line of Action Figures, below are Six of these soon to be released figures. Plus a list of other figures both 4" and 12" including playsets! These are officially released images by the BBC and Character Options. Wave One is scheduled for a February 2006 release." Click on each for a larger version.

At long last... America will finally get the first season of the new Doctor Who television series, according to a press release on the official Doctor Who website. The US-based Sci-Fi Channel, owned by NBC Universal, has secured a deal to broadcast the 13 episodes in America starting in March, beginning on what Outpost Gallifrey believes is likely March 17 (the week after the season finales of the popular "Battlestar Galactica" and two "Stargate" shows), at 9:00pm Friday nights, and it will likely conclude at some point in mid-to-late June in time for Sci-Fi's summer premieres of those shows. The press release notes that Sci-Fi has an optionfor series two, likely to be acted upon after initial ratings come in.

In conjunction with the announcement, the press release also mentions the delay of the US DVD release of the first season, now rescheduled for July 2006 to follow the final broadcast of the show's first season. While no official announcement had recently come, speculation persisted that the DVDs had been pulled from their original February 14 release date. However, interestingly, the release of the DVD set is listed in Canada on Amazon.ca for February 14, perhaps indicative of a possible Canadian release on that date and having the US release follow five months later.

Also, missing from the announcement is any indication of the status of the classic Doctor Who series. BBC America previously pulled the broadcast of the classic series, opting not to renew broadcast rights (only two stations in the US currently show it, on long-term broadcast contracts) to sell both series together. It is likely that a new offer was made to Sci-Fi without the classic series, but the status of the 'old show' remains to be seen.

Date, Timeslot Notes: Where are we getting the March 17 date, people are asking? That's the week after the end of the current 'back ten episode' seasons of the "Stargate" and "Battlestar Galactica" series currently running on Sci-Fi, and we're told this will follow immediately. As Sci-Fi is preempting "Stargate Atlantis", what this means for the other shows on that night is anyone's guess -- i.e. whether or not "Stargate SG-1" or "Battlestar Galactica" continue in reruns or are pulled from the schedule -- but it's potentially an attempt to continue the ratings Sci-Fi currently has, as the channel has several shows now in production (including the sci-fi drama/comedy series "Eureka") that it might pair the series with; we simply don't know at this point.

Whither "Confidential"?: There is no official word on any potential airing of the "Doctor Who Confidential" documentary series that aired along with the UK run of the program (on BBC Three), though it is extremely unlikely that this was part of the package purchased. However, Sci-Fi is known for one-shot documentaries to introduce new shows, and some footage from the Confidential series could potentially be used if such a documentary were considered.

Press Clips: The Sci-Fi Channel has posted its news story about the acquisition; other reports have come from a variety of locations includingBBC News, United Press International, The Futon Critic, IF Magazine, TV Squad,Chicago Tribune, IGN Filmforce, Now Playing Mag, Cinescape, Gateworld, TV Shows on DVD, Addict3d,CBBC News, Entertainmentwise, Short News, Comingsoon.net, The Register, Dark Horizons, Hollywood Reporter, Web India, New Kerala, Menafn, Sci-Fi Online, Access Hollywood, Zap2It,Worldscreen, Digital Spy,
Morons.org, About.com. Also, the Associated Press has distributed the story and it's shown up so far in dozens of online editions of US print newspapers (all the same story, so we won't link them here).

The press release is below. Outpost Gallifrey will continue to keep you posted on this developing story.

(Thanks to Paul Engelberg, Steve Tribe, Rich Kirkpatrick, and the literallyhundreds of eager fans who've written into Outpost Gallifrey about the news... we suggest you visit our Forum, where the discussion has been running wild all day!)

For reasons that have yet to be made clear, the release of the Series One Boxed Set in the US and Canada, originally scheduled for February 14 as announced by both the official Doctor Who website and Doctor Who Magazine, has been postponed. No explanation has been given, but Warner Home Video, the distributors of the discs, had not released any information on their distributors' site, and inquiries to BBC Video have gone unanswered. The TV Shows on DVDwebsite reports that they were informed by a BBC PR rep that there were "complications" with the set. We hope to have more information about a rescheduled date on this soon.

Broadcasting

Doctor Who will be starting in Spain on the Digital Plus satellite platform from Thursday January 19. The series is being broadcast on the "People + Arts" channel (number 27 on the Digital Plus channel listing) which shows a range of BBC drama, comedy and entertainment shows. The first broadcasts are on Thursday 19th at 2230 spanish time (GMT+1) with a repeat at 0230 on the morning of the 20th; further showings will take place on Friday 20th at 0630 and 1500, with three more timeslots on Saturday 21st at 0600, 1400 and 2130. Although it's not clear if these are all repeats of the first episode this would be the usual pattern for the channel.

Radio Times

There's an assortment of items of interest to Doctor Who fans in the new edition of Radio Times (issue dated 14-20 January 2006), including how Russell T Davies came up with the Sycoraxic language. John Barrowman, aka Captain Jack, is granted a panel piece in a three-page feature about the ITV show Dancing On Ice, in which he is taking part. Headlined "Captain Jack of all trades", it looks at Broadway and West End productions he appeared in before Doctor Who, and mentions him co-hosting BBC1's The Sound of Musicals the same evening (Saturdays from 14 January). The article states, surprisingly, that Captain Jack is back in Doctor Who this year (which might simply be a misnomer) and will have his own show - Torchwood - which Barrowman denies will be an "X-rated Doctor Who". He says: "It's going to be Britain's answer to The X-Files, with the craft and the humour from This Life." In the Letters section, the Letter of the Week has an amusing suggestion as to what kind of man the new Doctor is, following on from the character's bid to find out in The Christmas Invasion: spending most of his time in bed; strange things issuing from his mouth when he opens it; spending the day wandering around in pyjamas after having a cup of tea - that makes him a teenager. It is illustrated with a Christmas Invasion publicity still of David Tennant and Billie Piper in costume in front of the Tardis with snow and Christmas tree.

On the next page, in the You Ask Us feature, a reader poses the questions was Sycoraxic based on a real language, was it backwards words, were there hidden messages, was it a real, functioning language such as Klingon, or were the actors making up gibberish? Russell T Davies, who scripted the Sycorax word for word, answers: "Sycoraxic was completely invented. I just made it up! But I did try to give it some logic, so that the same word always meant the same thing: 'Soo chack chiff!' means 'You're going to die!', which tends to get said a lot in Doctor Who. And I did try to parse the verbs, but it wasn't too rigorous - I don't think universities will be offering degrees in Sycoraxic any time soon!" It is accompanied by a picture of the Sycorax leader, with the caption VOICE OF DOOM "Soo chack chiff" yourself. In the One Final Question section at the back of the magazine, Patrick Stewart takes a swipe at journalists by denying that his new series Eleventh Hour is anything like an ITV version of "Doctor Who". Interviewer Benji Wilson asks him: "A newspaper journalist said it was like an ITV Doctor Who . . ." to which Stewart replies: "That couldn't be more wrong and only came about through some of your lazy colleagues seeing my name and the word 'science' in the same sentence, and the only thing they could think of was science-fiction. It has nothing to do with science-fiction and nothing to do with Doctor Who." He states there are no aliens, and that he plays a retired physicist working for the government as a scientific adviser out in the field. "My job is to investigate illegal, criminal, dangerous or bad science," he says.

On Music

The BBC Press Office has today released some details of the launch this afternoon of Blue Peter's 'Music Makers' competition, "a search to find 40 viewers passionate about music - to help make television history". The winners "will get the chance to work with top TV composer Murray Gold, of Doctor Who fame, and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra". More information is available at the Musicmakers website on BBC online, and the full press release can be read here, while Gold's interview on Blue Peter, in which he discussed both his new version of the theme and Delia Derbyshire's original, is currently available in full on the official Doctor Who website.

The official site also today has a brief interview with Murray Gold about the song used at the end of "The Christmas Invasion". "It's called 'Song for Ten' in honour of David Tennant being Doctor Ten," says Gold to the official site. "James Hawes mentioned in passing, while I was writing the score for TCI that he might need a song or two. I sang Jingle Bells and made my voice sound weird then performed the backing vocals on Song for Ten. I watched through the sequence lots of times and tried to find the sentiment that was true to the moment and express it lyrically. I wanted to hit that lovely moment when the Doctor and Rose smile at each other, and the lyric: 'You followed your star, cause that's what you are...' just leapt out. ... If you think it does have a Phil Spector way about it, I'm happy, because I adore him, and also the songs of Holland Dozier Holland who are the Lennon and McCartney of Motown. Phil Spector's often described as creating a 'Wall of Sound.' Big production, lots of timpani and strings and multi-tracked vocals. It's basically fantastic pop music. You just need lots of spare tracks." He notes that the song was sung by Tim Phillips, who he calls "a real upcoming talent. I wanted to nab him to sing a song in case next time he's too big. He's got an album out soon which he partly mixed in my studio. As I said, he and I performed backing vocals. I played the instruments. ... If there's ever an album of Doctor Who music from the series, I'm sure it would be on that."

Other Items

David Tennant was listed in third place in the February edition of the SCI-FI Channel's official magazine under "26 People to Watch in 2006" along with many other notable celebrities from television and film.

This Saturday's edition of The Guardian newspaper will be giving away a free DVD copy of "Let Him Have It", Christopher Eccleston's 1991 film debut in which he stars as Derek Bentley, the real-life story of how a 19 year-old was hanged for murdering a policeman who was shot by Bentley's friend when Bentley himself was already in police custody.

Also, MediaGuardian.co.uk's "Monkey" gossip column has another report about the "Doctor Who Adventures" magazine.

(Thanks to Steve Tribe, Paul Engelberg, John Bowman, Paul Hayes, Nigel Rainford, Frank Dana, Mike Mould and Brian Smith)

BARB has now posted the final ratings data for the week ending on Christmas Day, showing an increase in viewing figures for The Christmas Invasion from 9.4 million in the overnights (originally published by ViewingFigures and BARB's own overnight estimates) to 9.84 million total viewers. As well as winning in its timeslot (against ITV1's Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? on 5.80m), the Christmas episode has ended up as the second most-watched programme of the day, behind BBC One's EastEnders (10.60m) but well ahead of ITV1's Coronation Street (8.83m, despite overnights showing a tie on 9.4m). Doctor Who was BBC One's fifth-placed programme of the week, behind four episodes of EastEnders; four high-rating episodes of Coronation Street make 'The Christmas Invasion' the ninth-placed programme of the week across UK television, with Doctor Who being the third most watched show, behind the two main soaps but 0.44m ahead of the highest-rated episode of Emmerdale. A more detailed breakdown of the figures is not yet available.

Also, the initial AI (Audience Appreciation Index) figure for the BBC Three repeat of "The Christmas Invasion" on January 1 has been reported as a very high 88, in fact more than the initial AI figures reported for the original broadcast on Christmas Day, which was 84. As with final ratings, final AI figures are computed later (with a significantly longer lead time, usually at least a month) and will be posted when available.