Some more Doctor Who items from the news, to help tide you over tillVoyage of the Damned:

Doctor Who is, of course, the highlight of most British television critics' Christmas recommendations. Caitlin Moran in The Times calls "Voyage of the Damned" "amazing" and "a doozy", says that Kylie Minogue is "merry and squeezable" and David Tennant "can give 110 per cent intergalactic sexbrain, even when hanging up-sidedown, wearing a space helmet, or standing on the other side of a wall." The television reviewers of the Western Mail,Scotland on Sundayand the Sunday Sun (Newcastle) also give Doctor Who top billing for Christmas.

Russell T. Davies has denied reports that Jennifer Saunders was being sought to play the Doctor, report the Daily Mirror and the Richmond and Twickenham Times. The Mirror quotes Davies as saying: "That is b*****ks. They sit there and make things up. I can tell you it's pure invention. We have never approached her, never spoken to her, never met her."

Minogue's involvement in the Christmas Special gets Doctor Who more international coverage: RTÉ (Ireland) and The Times of India have stories about the pop star's return to acting (although the Indian paper oddly reports false rumors from months ago about her playing a "sexy Cyberwoman").

The Radio Times' website has some video shot by the Doctor Who Confidential team of Tennant and Minogue posing for the Radio Times cover shoot.

Digital Spy and Yahoo! News have picked up the Times' story, previously reported here, about Christian Voice representative Stephen Green's complaint about the Doctor being portrayed as a messianic figure. No source has yet identified any other member of the "Christian groups", plural, cited in the original Times report. But one site, theFreethinker, has taken Green to task in an irreverent and highly amusing piece written by Andy Armitagecalled"Boo Who! The tears of a clown", with a spoof master of ceremonies introducing the whole confrontation as a pantomime, with Green as the villain of the piece, of course, having first been cunningly disguised as the Dame. There's one potential spoiler paragraph, but you're given adequate warning. But it's a hoot - complete with a mockup of Green dressed in orange wig and big frock. The same story has been picked up by MediaWatchWatch, another British blog, whose brief is to log attempts (usually by religious bodies) to stifle freedom of speech.

The Halifax Courier has published the first part of a survey of Doctor Who history. The first installment focuses on previous Christmas specials and theWilliam Hartnell years, and also has a poll in which you can vote for your favorite Doctor.

In a Scotland on Sunday story about the continuing popularity of Charles Dickens, Simon Callow speaks fondly of his role as Dickens on Doctor Who. And Joan Collins, speaking to the Sunday Mirror, denies earlier rumors that she'd been sought for a role in Doctor Who, but says "I'd love to be on Doctor Who - I think it's a fabulous piece of TV."

The Daily Mail has lots of details about Billie Piper's upcoming wedding to Laurence Fox. The Daily Express, meanwhile, presents readers with a 10-question Doctor Who trivia quiz in its television section.

Thanks to Bill Rudloff, and to "Cheshire Pete" and "PolyG" of the Doctor Who Forum.

The Daily Post is reporting that comments made by Executive Producer Russell T. Davies at the preview screening ofVoyage of the Damned have caused quite a stir.

When asked who from history he would like to see play the Doctor, Davies reportedly jokingly answered "Hitler. He was stern and strong. He would be great."

According to the story, some guests laughed, but others were shocked by the remark.

One fan later remarked: "Hitler carried out some of the world’s worst atrocities. He ordered the killing of millions of innocent people. I don’t want my kids thinking Hitler and Doctor Who are in any way the same."

When David Tennant was then asked the same question, he reportedly declined to answer.

Various sources in the UK media, including The Sun and Digital Spy, are reporting that 95 year-old Millvina Dean, the last surviving passenger of the sole voyage of the ill-fated passenger liner the Titanic in 1912, has criticised the BBC for setting the festive episode of Doctor Who aboard a replica space ship of the same name.

Dean - whose father drowned in the disaster - is quoted in The Sun as saying: "It is disrespectful to the dead and bereaved to make entertainment of such a tragedy." However, a BBC spokeswoman told the Daily Record newspaper that: "No offence was intended. Voyage of the Damned is set on a spaceship called The Titanic and not a boat."

Items from this year's Christmas special, Voyage of the Damned, are due to go on display in London from next Easter, according to the Doctor Who Exhibitions and Museum website.

They will be among other costumes, props and monsters from the series on show at the Museum Hall, beneath Earls Court Exhibition Centre.

This is not the first Doctor Who connection for Earls Court. In 1997, the Metropolitan Police put up a Tardis-style police box just outside the Underground station, with a closed-circuit TV camera in place of the rooflight.

David Tennant, John Simm and Kylie Minogue will help welcome in 2008 on Jools's Annual Hootenanny.

The pre-recorded BBC2 programme includes Minogue singing, with Tennant and Simm among the audience - and Tennant reportedly dancing and singing by the stage of rising star Kate Nash during her performance.

Several news sources cover the Hootenanny: Hello! magazine, The Daily Mirror and the Belfast Telegraph all mention Tennant, while the Sun,Sunday Express and Liverpool Echo all focus on Minogue's duet with Sir Paul McCartney.

The show airs from 11.05pm on New Year's Eve until 1.15am on New Year's Day.

Paul Cornell's new Doctor Who Christmas story, The Hopes and Fears of All the Years, is now available on the Daily Telegraph's website. Only one of the three illustrations by Mike Collins accompanies the web version; to see the other two, you'll have to buy the newspaper.

As previously reported, Cornell is running a competition to win the original art of Collins' illustrations on Facebook.

David Tennant will this weekend appear on BBC Two's highest rated programme, the motoring show Top Gear, as the guest on the regular "Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car" feature. The feature involves Tennant being tutored in driving a Chevrolet Lacetti around the programme's test track by their resident expert driver, the mysterious, always-helmeted "Stig". Tennant will then complete a timed lap of the circuit, which he will then analyse and discuss in studio with presenter Jeremy Clarkson, and his time will be ranked against those of other celebrities to have taken part in the feature.

Both Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper have previously taken part in the same item on the programme, although Tennant's time will not be directly compared with Eccleston's as his lap took place when a different model of car was being used for the feature.

Top Gear is on BBC Two this Sunday at 8pm. It is repeated at 12 midnight on Wednesday 26 December, and then again on BBC Three on Saturday 29 December at 7.20pm. It will also be available, to UK viewers, on the BBC's broadband iPlayer "watch again" service.

Tennant's participation is reported in several sources, including an article in the Daily Mail.

Weta Collectibles has revealed the latest in their line of Doctor Who statuettes. The statue depicts the Master, as played by Roger Delgado in the character's first appearance, Terror of the Autons. The one-sixth scale miniature shows the Master in his black suit, holding his Tissue Compression Eliminator and standing over the body of an inanimate Auton.

Weta has previously released a Dalek and Cybercontroller from the new series; the Master statuette is the first Weta release to depict an element from classic Doctor Who.

To see larger photographs of the statue, please click on the thumbnails below.

Thanks to Paul McDermott.

Broadcast magazine, the weekly magazine of the UK's television and radio industry, has released its "Hot 100 of 2007" list, and several Doctor Who people are on the list.

In the Talent category, Billie Piper comes in at #6 (the highest-ranking woman on the list). The magazine mentions her forthcoming return to Doctor Who, as well as her roles in "The Diary of a Call Girl", "Mansfield Park" and "The Shadow of the North".

In the Writers" category, Steven Moffat gets a nod at #11. Broadcast praises his "ingeniously playful" series "Jekyll" and his Doctor Who scripts, and notes his upcoming work on the Stephen Spielberg/Peter Jackson film adaptation of "Tintin". Moffat is also quoted about his first series, "Press Gang": "I'd love to do a return visit to the characters," he says. "They'll all be sad and fat, decaying in middle age."

Russell T. Davies has previously appeared in the Writers section of the Hot 100, but this year Broadcast recognizes his contributions as a producer, listing him at #1 in that category. The magazine notes Davies' hands-on involvement in every stage of Doctor Who and its spin-offs, and credits him with turning Doctor Who into one of the BBC's biggest brands. Jane Tranter says that Davies is "brilliant, totally rooted, extremely wise, irreverent and great fun to be with. And he's incredibly kind. His non-judgmental understanding of the nature of the human condition is written large in every piece of work he's ever done." (Tranter, who as Head of Drama at the BBC in 2003 was responsible for commissioning the return of Doctor Who to BBC television, is also in Broadcast's Hot 100. Now the BBC's Head of Fiction, she's the #1 entry in the Commissioners category.)

Finally, leading the field in Craft and Post-Production is Will Cohen of The Mill. The Mill contributed 2,897 effects shots to Doctor Who in 2007, and Cohen ensured that each of them was "better than good". Cohen says, "You've got to compete with computer games, the internet and DVDs. Viewers don't care whether effects are made for the cinema or TV - the work either stands up and holds its own or it doesn't."

Broadcast also listed Doctor Who as one of the top-rated dramas of 2007, excluding soaps. Based on overnight figures, the 31 March broadcast of "Smith and Jones", with 8.2 million viewers and a 39.5% share of the audience, was the eighth most viewed television drama of 2007, and the third highest ranking for a BBC program (surpassed by "Waking the Dead" and "New Tricks").

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