Listeners to BBC Radio Five Live before 9am UK time this morning were treated to the new Doctor Who series theme tune by Murray Gold; reports are also in that a snippet of the tune was played on Chris Moyles' show on Radio 1 this morning. The broadcast of the Breakfast show will likely be on Radio Five Live's website very shortly; select the listening button and then "Listen Again" for Tuesday morning and you should be able to catch it. Update 8 March 1500 GMT: It's now on the FiveLive website; it's at about the 2:39:30 mark in the show. The show also discusses the downloading of "Rose".

The British Board of Film Classification has released details on the extras for the forthcoming UK DVD release of The Claws of Axos, due in May, as follows:

The rumor mills have been working overtime this weekend on news that the first episode of the series, Rose, has been leaked on the internet, courtesy an unidentified employee of a foreign broadcaster of the show. We weren't going to mention it originally, in order to help keep this from becoming even more widely known, but BBC News and other news services made that a moot point. Obviously, Outpost Gallifrey isn't going to tell you how or where to download it, but don't be surprised if you find reviews all over the web.

BBC News itself addresses the leak of "Rose" in a story that also reveals that Christopher Eccleston emailed Russell T Davies about the role. "He e-mailed me and said if we were looking for a Doctor Who, he'd be interested," Davies told Radio Times according to the news article. "It was gobsmacking because you think he's going to be doing Hamlet all the time. Which, come to think of it, he was." It says that episodes 1 and 2 were written before he was cast. "So I'd established a template for what I wanted, which fitted Chris perfectly. That was a happy accident - we both wanted to strip it down, make it more down-to-earth."

In an interview with today's Media Guardian, new series producer Russell T Davies explains how producing the new series of Doctor Who is a lifelong dream come true. When they approached him, "I worried they meant a cheap pastiche version, or an ironic version, but it was the real deal - Saturday night, proper budgets. All those things you think you'd have to fight for. Astonishing." The interview discusses his work on previous shows such as Children's Ward, Queer as Folk and Mine All Mine, as well as his thoughts on being a child transfixed by Doctor Who. "When I was eight, walking home from school down Hendrefoilan Avenue, I always used to think 'I could turn round the corner and the Tardis would be there - and I would run inside and I would fight alongside the Doctor.' It was the one programme that encouraged you to make up stories. The Tardis could land in the everyday world and no other science-fiction programme would do that. You were never going to be a member of the crew on the Enterprise when you were eight years old: it was in the future and they were the navy. Even if we don't get an audience, I hope there will be some eight-year-olds sitting there thinking the same thing. That's when I fell in love with it. I was transfixed." Read the full interview at the website.

A report in today's Observer discusses the obsession of fans with Doctor Who, framed in the context of the return of the series. It includes comments from Russell T Davies ("If we had tried to be ironic we would have died a death") and notes that there are only a few thousand fans of Doctor Who that are considered active or interested. (Strange, Outpost Gallifrey's front page got over 17,000 unique visitors last Thursday!) The report talks about websites and fandom and Doctor Who Magazine (in fact, noting DWM's circulation is "around 30,000") and how the new show, based on a preview is "not, and never will be - how shall I put this? - Doctor Who." You can read the whole article at that site.

The Ain't It Cool website, a major source of online film gossip, has published several negative reviews of the first episode of the new series along with a positive one, based upon the recent leak of an episode on the Internet.

An article in today's Times discusses the Daleks who apparently are upgraded: "In previous series of Doctor Who, the Daleks were warlike metal aliens engineered by the evil Davros on the planet Skaro. They were beings of ruthless logic with one small but significant flaw: you could evade them by running up a flight of stairs. The upgraded versions take to the air using rocket-boosters, enhancing their ability to exterminate, exterminate. The new Daleks are also bigger than the ones last seen in 1989 and have more lethal weaponry than the old guns that resembled sink plungers. But fans will have to wait: the evil forces do not appear in the first episode, to be shown on BBC1 on Easter Saturday." It also contains ver minor spoilers about the first episode.

Another Times article, much more in depth, discusses the upgrading of the Doctor Who series itself. "For 25 years, Doctor WhoÆs creaky charm captivated a nation," the article says. "Now Russell T Davies has polished it up, with slick effects and an even slicker script." It notes that the scripts themselves are "slick, witty and, most important of all, fresh. They also have Davies the MouthÆs fingerprints all over them. The DoctorÆs slightly deranged monologue sounds suspiciously like Russell T himself." The article notes that the new series has "about 800" special effects. Says The Mill's Robin Shenfield, "I'm pretty sure nothing of this scale has ever been attempted ù certainly nothing British." Mike Tucker, who's doing miniature-effects on the series, says the original show "was always pushing against the boundaries of its budget, trying to do stuff it couldnÆt possibly achieve. They would try to make the Loch Ness monster attack a village, or theyÆd have an attack with a horde of Daleks when they had only three Dalek props. It was one of its great charms. But then Star Wars came along and raised the game. These days, kids are so effects-literate." The article discusses how CGI effects have been implemented, and gives some spoilers about the new show (protected by our Spoiler tag, below), as well as noting that "Doctor Who is a huge gamble for the BBC. It will probably go out in its old slot, early on Saturday evening," noting that it will happen at the end of March.

The CBC network in Canada this evening aired a teaser trailer for the new series during a broadcast of "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets," which displayed the previously announced (but not then fully confirmed) broadcast date of April 5, 2005, at 8:00pm. So it's true, Canada will indeed get the series about 10 days after the UK broadcast.

Sylvester McCoy is currently appearing in the play "Arsenic and Old Lace," touring the UK as Doctor Einstein, and BBC Wiltshire recently did an interview with him which can be listened to in RealAudio format; click on the website for details. (Thanks to Dan Garrett)

DWM confirms the release of "The Crusade" on Monday 2 May from the BBC Radio Collection. It's narrated by William Russell, who is also interviewed as a 20-minute bonus feature on the second disc.

Peter Hamilton, a long-time film cameraman with the BBC who worked on a variety of Doctor Who serials, died on March 1, due to unspecified reasons. Hamilton worked on many stories including "The Reign of Terror," "The Dalek Invasion of Earth," "The Web Planet," "The Crusade," "The Myth Makers," "The Daleks' Master Plan," "The Moonbase," "The Macra Terror," "The Tomb of the Cybermen," "The Dominators," "The Time Monster" and "Carnival of Monsters." Funeral services are planned for March 9 in Brixham. Also, Leonard Trolley, who played Superintendent Reynolds in the Patrick Troughton story "The Faceless Ones," died at the end of February; he was 87. (Thanks to Kevin Lyons, Neil Marsh)

While there's nothing confirmed, a report on the usually very reliable DVD Times website notes that the new series may be getting a DVD release in October. "It seems the BBC want to get the first series on to the shelves in time for Christmas," says the report. Again, there's no word on anything official, but this does match the rumors that Outpost Gallifrey has been hearing the past few weeks. (Thanks to Greg Deeter)

Product Enterprises and Scificollector have joined forces to bring the long awaitedTalking Davros toy to light, after repeated delays and production cancellations, as an exclusive at the Scificollector website. "There will only ever be one limited edition production run and there will be no more than 10,000 units produced," says the press information, which also notes it will be out in September 2005. See the website for further details. (Thanks to Steven Scott)

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.