The first official Series Two casting confirmations have come in today via the official Doctor Who website, as follows:

As previously rumoured, Elisabeth Sladen has been confirmed to be returning to her original series role of Sarah Jane Smith, companion to the third and fourth Doctor, officially the first 'classic' Doctor Who actor to be reprising a role for the new series. A separate BBC news article today confirmed Sladen's role in the series.

Anthony Stewart Head of "Buffy" fame will be in the second series. Head has already participated in several Doctor Who projects including BBC Online's "Death Comes to Time" and Big Finish's "Excelis" miniseries, and was among the many actors originally mentioned as contenders for the role of the Doctor in 2003/04.

Penelope Wilton will return to the role of Harriet Jones, the brave MP of Flydale North and future British Prime Minister from last year's "Aliens of London" and "World War Three". It is rumoured that her character has already become the leader of Britain's government, and she will star in "The Christmas Invasion".

Adam Garcia, an Australian actor whose films include "Riding In Cars With Boys" and "Coyote Ugly" and nominee for the 1999 Laurence Olivier Theatre Award for Best Actor in a Musical for his performance in "Saturday Night Fever," will also star in series two.

Also confirmed for the second series, besides Tennant and Piper, are Camille Coduri as Jackie and Noel Clarke as Mickey, both announced earlier in the year.

The official Doctor Who website today has confirmed the start of production on the second series of Doctor Who. While there has been some production going on since last Friday, 22 July, David Tennant and Billie Piper officially start production on the series today, July 25, working on both the second series and Christmas special.

The tenth Doctor's costume has been officially unveiled: a long brown coat and pinstriped suit with tie, more reminiscent of past Doctors like Jon Pertwee than last year's street-clothed Eccleston. Says Tennant to the BBC site about his new costume, "I think we've come up with something distinctive that's both timeless and modern, with a bit of geek chic and of course, a dash of Time Lord! Most importantly Billie tells me she likes it û after all she's the one who has to see me in it for the next nine months! "

Billie Piper comments to the official site, "I'm thrilled to be stepping back into the role of Rose. We plan to make series two even bigger and better and challenge the viewers' imaginations like never before. Wait until you get a load of the new doctor!" Says executive producer Russell T Davies, "We were delighted and honoured by the first series' success, and we can promise new thrills, new laughs, new heartbreak, and some terrifying new aliens. The Doctor and Rose are destined to meet Queen Victoria, an evil race of Cat Women, and the dreaded Cybermen. 2006 is going to be scarier than ever!" The holiday special "The Christmas Invasion" will be filmed first, with production today starting in London and later continuing in Wales, mostly in Cardiff: "Christmas becomes a time of terror for Planet Earth, as the whole of mankind falls under the shadow of the alien Sycorax. Rose needs the Doctor's help, but can she trust a man with a new face?"

One other important news item: the news reports with cast and crew information (see separate story) confirm thatStephen Fry will indeed write one episode, very likely episode 11; previously this had only been reported as a rumour.

Some details from this past weekend's Invasion V convention, where actors Noel Clarke (Mickey) and John Barrowman (Jack) appeared. Both actors said they would definitely be returning to the series, although there was no news for Barrowman on when; Noel would be joining the cast for the filming of the special, "The Christmas Invasion" on Monday. Mickey is revealed to be a car mechanic, and his character will be developed significantly (but, of course, Noel wasn't saying anything specific about this!)

Barrowman revealed that there were several endings originally planned for "The Parting of the Ways," some clearly before they knew they were going to regenerate the Doctor or get a sense of how successful the series would be, but in all versions Jack would not have immediately re-joined the crew (in fact, one early version ended with Rose actually dying from the effects of the Time Vortex!) Both said they'd had no idea Eccleston would be leaving. Another outtake from episode 13: apparently on the second take of Jack's farewell kiss, John kissed Billie as normal, and then, when it came to Chris, gave him a full-on snog...which Chris, getting the joke, just on followed through, with them both ending up, still entwined, rolling around on the floor, the cameraman desperately trying to keep up with them...

Barrowman said he has recorded commentaries for episodes 9, 10 and 11 (with Julie Gardner and Annette Badland) for the DVD boxed set due out in November, which will include commentaries on all 13 episodes. He doubted the shot excised from "Bad Wolf" (the 'bum shot') would make it to the DVD given the 12 certificate (though he hinted that a check of his website in the future wouldn't go unrewarded.

As previously noted, filming on the second season of "Doctor Who" began Friday, July 22; here's a brief rundown of some of the news items and rumours Outpost Gallifrey has picked up over the past few days:

Studio work was done on the first day, as opposed to the location work done last year (which is why there are no on-location photos being taken with anything of importance, only some brief glimpses of production trailers). Piper and Tennant were spotted by the British press on Friday, hence the photograph at right (click for a larger view) showing the two leaving the studio in Newport. Word is that the production has already left Newport for location filming on Monday.

Several news reports suggest that Stephen Fry will be penning an episode of the new series as previously reported; Fry was said to be at the studio on Friday as production got underway.

Filming on Friday July 22 was said to take place at Tredegar House in Newport, where the Doctor Who team had filmed a scene with a Prime Minister. (No word as yet on whether Penelope Wilton is returning as Harriet Jones, but that could certainly be fun...)

There are rumours that an episode will be filmed at Duffryn High School in Newport at some point during August; speculation persists that this will have something to do with the (currently) third episode, "School Reunion".

Russell T Davies spoke recently on "Newsround" and said that "The Christmas Invasion" would involve a new monster as well as all the Christmas trimmings "including Reindeer and snow". He also mentioned that Rose would be finding difficult to come to terms with the new Doctor.

There are currently rumours circling - again, none confirmed - that one of the episodes is entitled "The Sunshine Camp," perhaps the first episode. As always, treat these as speculative in the absence of concrete information...