There are several rumors making the rounds that Don Warrington has been cast in the role of "The President" in the two-part Cybermen story in the new season, though this has not been confirmed. Warrington has previously played the role of Rassilon, founder of Time Lord society, for Big Finish's audio plays and has been seen in numerous films and television series. More details soon...

More about "The Christmas Invasion" has been revealed in the latest issue of SFX Magazine by Russell T Davies. "I love the title," he tells the magazine. "What else could you call it? It will be a great, adventure that's really big in scale. It will be Christmassy – there's nothing I like more than a Christmas special set at Christmas! There's a big story in it for Rose as well as a massive threat to the Earth going on beneath the surface, so Christmas as usual!" Says the article, "With the Doctor still suffering the after-effects of his regeneration, the TARDIS returns to Earth, arriving back at Rose’s council estate. The festive period is just beginning, but the Doctor, recuperating in his pyjamas, is too ill to enjoy it, while his companion attempts to come to terms with the fact that her best friend has changed his identity. But as Rose shares some quality time with her family and friends (Camille Coduri is back as Jackie Tyler, along with Noel Clarke as Mickey), an alien force is stirring. The Sycorax invasion is beginning... So what else can we expect from the story? 'I can tell you that the words 'Arthur Dent' are said in the Christmas special,' reveals Davies, rather teasingly. 'It's got scary Christmas trees, Santa attacks, there's an invasion, and the Doctor stays in bed for a long, long time,' Billie Piper recently told the press. 'I am carrying most of the show.'"

The Mirror says that Billie Piper is "at the centre of a tug-of-love between the BBC and ITV... Since quitting the hit sci-fi show - as revealed by The Mirror last week - 23-year-old Billie has already been snapped up for two major new projects, one with each of the main channels. For ITV1, she will don a ribboned bonnet to play priggish Fanny Price in a new adaptation of Jane Austen's most controversial novel, Mansfield Park. ... Meanwhile, BBC bosses have got a secret project waiting in the wings for her. Our insider tells us: 'This is very, very different to Doctor Who. Billie has proven herself at the BBC, first with The Canterbury Tales, then as Rose in Doctor Who, and recently in Much Ado About Nothing. The camera loves her. She has the sort of face which comes across really well on screen. Any critic who claims she is only good at playing ditzy characters is wrong - there were some very dark scenes in Doctor Who which she handled really well. All her performances have been brilliant. We can't wait to work with her again.'" Of course, this is forgetting the fact that she's still working on the show... take this for what it's worth.

More reports of the lighting of Cardiff at icWales, Ham High News; the lighting also gets coverage on CBBC Newsround and the official site has a brief report and a link to a new, permanent clip from Wales Today on the Media Player (the Wales Today programme itself being only briefly available online).

Is Ross Kemp (who plays Grant Mitchell in "EastEnders") soon to be a guest star in the new series? The showbiz correspondent on HeartFM Radio seems to think so, noting in an 'exclusive' that he might be in the series, but we haven't heard anything about it elsewhere.

The official Doctor Who website has been updated with a Christmas theme today.

In The News has picked up the David Beckham story from yesterday; other print-only media to pick it up includes the Press Association and Newsquest Media Group (so expect it in a variety of papers by next week!) Also, Playbillmentions a December 19 holiday concert in which John Barrowman is slated to appear.

(Thanks to Steve Tribe, Paul Engelberg, Stephen James Walker and Chris Howell of The Great Link)

Russell T Davies updates readers on Torchwood in the new issue of SFX Magazine, as relayed by the website The Great Link. The interview notes that the show, about a "renegade bunch of investigators," will first be hinted at in "The Christmas Invasion" next month. More hints will follow throughout the second season. Davies will write two episodes of "Torchwood" which he says that, thanks to the expected watershed slot (9pm) for the show, "we can be a bit more visceral, more violent, and more sexual, if we want to. Though bear in mind that it’s very teenage to indulge yourself in blood and gore, and Torchwood is going to be smarter than that. But it’s the essential difference between BBC One at 7pm, and BBC Three at say, 9pm. That says it all -- instinctively, every viewer can see the huge difference there." Torchwood is still in the early stages of development, it says, but there will probably some production crossover with Doctor Who, "they’re two very different shows, so each will have its own identity." As Outpost Gallifrey previously reported, writers currently onboard for Torchwood are PJ Hammond (ITV’s Sapphire and Steel) and Chris Chibnall (BBC One’s Born and Bred). You can read more from Russell about Torchwood in the Christmas 2005 Issue of SFX Magazine. (Thanks to Chris Howell at The Great Link)

The Sun has an 'exclusive' today that notes that football star David Beckham is apparently a Doctor Who fan. "Victoria Beckham has splashed out on a book of Doctor Who screenplays for soccer star hubby Becks -- as he is 'completely ob- sessed' with the Time Lord. The ex-Spice Girl, 31, bought England skipper Becks a book of transcripts from the latest series starring Christopher Ecclestone [sic] and Billie Piper. Mum-of-three Posh showed her eye for a bargain by spotting the book, The Shooting Scripts, in a half-price sale. And if that wasn’t cut-price enough, staff at posh Knightsbridge store Harrods even gave an extra ten per cent discount because of her celebrity status. Real Madrid ace Becks and wife Victoria were in central London last Sunday. An insider said: 'They were in Harrods for a couple of hours. She had a good rummage and found the Dr Who book. Staff were expecting her to spend a fortune on designer gear — but she only bought the Russell T Davies scripts. She told the shop assistant that David was 'completely obsessed' with Dr Who. 'She said he knew everything about it and never missed an episode of the last series.'" Also reported at This Is London,Ananova.

The online edition of SFX Magazine features an interview with Anthony Stewart Head, who notes that he "love[s] it when papers say things stridently, whether they're right or wrong" about him playing the Master (he says he's shocked to hear it because it's not true!) But how was being in the show? "It was fantastic. And he's a blinding Doctor, David Tennant. For the first time in a long time, it's effortless. He's got it all, he really. He's literally born to play the part. He's got such an edge yet at the same time the humour, the comedy's just perfect. You're not watching anybody trying hard, it's just there. For me, this guy is just bang on! ... I suppose once you're in the genre, I suppose people just say, oh, you'd be good! I went up for the American TV movie, I went up for that a couple of time, and I saw various executives, but when I came back from Buffy, people would ask if I'd do it and I said, well, I think to do one sort of iconic sci-fi character every decade is probably enough. People'd get confused otherwise!" Was he approached for the role? "Yes. I don't know if they wrote this specifically with me in mind, but I think they thought it'd suit me. I must admit I enjoyed myself immensely. ... I can't even remember the character's name. Now I'm on tour, all my energies are channelled into that. Hmm, I don't know how much I'm allowed to say. My name is stamped all over the script so if anybody ever gets the script, they know it comes from me!" He says he met Russell T Davies at the readthrough, and that Davies is a fan of his work on 'Buffy'. "He's a great writer, Russell. He said how much of a fan he was and how pleased he was that I was doing it. I did the commentary for the Making Of on Radio 2 and there was a bit where they said they'd watched Buffy and modelled storytelling techniques on it."

More coverage of the purchase of the Dalek for £36,000 at Bonhams at People Daily Online China, The Scotsman,Edinburgh Evening News,

Tuesday night's drive show with Richard Bacon on London Capital Radio featured a guest appearance by "celebrity friend for the week" Anthony Stewart Head, who noted that he'd recently taken the train to Newport for a photo session for Doctor Who where he had met with old friends David Tennant and Billie Piper. Head said that Tennant was the "best Doctor since Patrick Troughton" and that he was natural at the role but was "steely when needed".

(Thanks to Steve Tribe, Paul Engelberg, Darren Hooker)

Outpost Gallifrey has received a press release from the National Space Centre in Leicester, where as we announced last month the BBC Doctor Who Exhibition previously in Brighton has been transported. Doctor Who: Up Close is the name of this new exhibit; the press release is below. You can find out more information about it at the Space Centrewebsite.

The BBC's website for the Children In Need charity event notes that the special Doctor Who mini-episode being broadcast on Friday 18 November after 9pm will be available for viewing on the web for an undefined period atthis website starting the same evening at 9:30pm. There is currently a trailer available on the website. This is only the second instance of the new Doctor Who series to be broadcast on the web (the first instance being last April's transmission of the episode "Dalek" as a test for new BBC technologies that was accidentally leaked to the public)... only the third time ever if you count the special The Curse of Fatal Death.