The MediaGuardian.co.uk website has unveiled this year's front cover for the Christmas double edition of the BBC's Radio Times listings magazine. The Christmas special of the Radio Times is a festive tradition in the UK, eagerly awaited and usually the magazine's biggest-selling issue of the year. Usually the special features a generic Christmas scene on the front cover, but occasionally particular programmes are featured - as Doctor Who was in 2005, which was considered to be a great honour for the series.

This year, the magazine has produced two alternate covers, both of a similar design. One features Father Christmas and a wind-up toy of some dancers, representing the BBC's successful Strictly Come Dancing series. The second cover features a Dalek toy in place of the dancers, highlighting Doctor Who's key role in the BBC's Christmas schedules across a range of programming.

SPACE have confirmed both parts of The End of Time will be broadcast in Canada on Saturday 2nd January 2010.

The final two episodes of David Tennant's tenure as The Doctor will be transmitted back to back with Part One at 8pm and Part Two starting at 9.20pm. Both episodes will be preceded by a repeat of the first three specials, The Next Doctor, Planet of the Dead and The Waters of Mars making a total of seven hours of Doctor Who on the channel.

And if that is not enough Doctor Who, the entire series of Torchwood Children of Earth will be shown earlier in the day.

BBC America has confirmed they will show the final part of The End of Time on January 2nd, 2010 at 8pm ET.

The showing, just one day after the UK showing, will complete the three week run of specials with the Waters of Mars showing on December 19th and The End of Time Part One on 26th December.

An additional 695,000 viewers watched the BBC Three repeat of The Waters of Mars, according to official figures issued by BARB this week. The programme rated as the 4th highest watched on the channel for the week.

Over 550,000 have now watched the programme on the BBC iPlayer. When all ratings are added together The Waters of Mars has now been watched by 11.5 million people.

Full Ratings data and Audience analysis for the Specials can be found in Gallifrey Base.

The BBC Press Office has confirmed the scheduling of The End of Time, the two-part final adventure for David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor. Part one will be shown from 6pm to 7pm on Christmas Day, Friday the 25th of December. Part two follows from 6.40-7.55pm the following Friday, 1st January 2010 - New Year's Day.

In other news, the latest edition of Radio Times has confirmed the casting of Claire Bloom and Brian Cox in The End of Time.

Claire Bloom's casting has been rumoured in many press reports over the last few months but this is the first official confirmation from the BBC that she is in the episode. She has a long career in film and Television appearing with Charlie Chaplin in the 1952 film Limelight for which she won the BAFTA for Best Newcomer. She later won the Best Actress BAFTA for the 1986 film Shadowlands. She is a renowned Shakespearian actress who received great acclaim for her portrayal of Ophelia in Hamlet when she was just seventeen.

Brian Cox provided the voice over for the Ood elder seen in the End of Time trail at the end of The Waters of Mars and was the mystery guest star refered to by Russell T Davies in his Production Notes in DWM. Cox is best known for his role as Hannibal Lecktor in the 1986 film Manhunter as well many Hollywood films and also for his work with the Royal Shakespeare Company. He won the Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie for Nuremberg in 2001.

David Tennant's starring role in Hamlet can be seen on BBC Two on Boxing Day, Saturday 26 December from 5.05-8.10pm. and the Catherine Tate special, Nan's Christmas Carol, can be seen on BBC One on Christmas Day at 10.30pm.

Gadget The Robot has gone on display at the Doctor Who Exhibition in Coventry in the West Midlands.

The exhibition, which has an extended run until January, now features the Robot along with other props and costumes from The Waters of Mars including The Water Zombie and the costume of Captain Adelaide Brooks.

Visitors to the exhibition at Coventry Transport Museum, can also see Bessie, the Third Doctor's yellow roadster car and Jon Pertwee's costume.

Chief executive of the museum, Gary Hall, said: "The Doctor Who exhibition has been a big hit, with visitors coming again and again to see the exhibition. Getting new props for Christmas provides our visitors with a fantastic opportunity to visit the exhibition during Christmas holidays. We would urge people not to miss out on seeing the fantastic new props and costumes and posing next to Bessie for a photograph."

Note that although there is a charge to see the Doctor Who Exhibition, entry to the general museum is free. Visitors can see Bessie for nothing.

Doctor Who once again graces the front cover of the next issue of the Radio Times (5-11 Dec 2009); this edition features a three page preview for "The End of Time", including interviews with Bernard Cribbins and Russell T Davies who reveals that John Simm is back as the Master, the Doctor’s arch nemesis for nearly four decades.

Davies tells how he wasn't daunted by the inconvenience of having killed off the Master in 2007 – this is sci-fi, after all: “It’s personal for the Doctor. The Master is his enemy, his opposite, and yet so tantalisingly close to being his soul mate. There’s something epic about their sheer existence – the last two survivors of an ancient race. It’s a clash of the titans. Both of them heading for death, and yet both determined to survive – at any cost!”

Radio Times is on sale in the UK from Saturday.

You can find a gallery of previous Doctor Who covers on the Radio Times website.

The British Board of Film Classification has cleared not only The Waters of Mars for DVD release, but also the two parts of The End of Time.

The Waters of Mars has been given a 12 certificate meaning, in the opinion of the Board, the story is not suitable for anyone under that age. No one under 12 can rent or buy the DVD in the UK.

Both parts of The End of Time get a PG certificate meaning the programme is generally suitable for family viewing, but parents should consider the content before showing it to younger or sensitive children. Details submitted include the running time, which for Part One is 59 minutes 42 seconds with the final Tennant episode clocking in at 72 minutes 47 seconds.

Two new Confidential titles are revealed which are listed in the spoiler box below.

Also cleared is a 21 minute feature Doctor Who at Comic-Con International 2009. This may be a feature to be included in the Specials Box Set. The Comic Con was attended by David Tennant and Russell T Davies and saw the first screening of a promo for The End of Time.

The BBFC has also cleared four items believed to be connected to the mysterious Special Project 3 mentioned by Davies in his production notes in DWM.

Final figures issued by BARB show the UK premiere of The Waters of Mars was watched by 10.32 million people.

On BBC1 the programme got 9.94 million watching, making it the second most watched programme of the week on the channel, just behind Strictly Come Dancing. However an additional 376,000 watched the simulcast on BBC HD. If these figures are combined then the rating is pushed above ten million and makes the programme the 5th most watched on British Television for the week. It got higher ratings than all the Soaps and was only beaten by the ratings juggernauts The X Factor, Strictly Come Dancing and I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here.

If the HD figures are included in the total then the rating makes The Waters of Mars one of only 9 out of 754 episodes of Doctor Who to have made the top five programmes for the week. In terms of raw ratings, it is the episode with the 95th highest rating on first showing. Since the series returned in 2005 only four episodes have beaten this rating.

On Multichannel Television the HD showing is the biggest audience ever achieved by BBC HD, nearly 100,000 higher than the second placed programme. On BBC Three, Doctor Who Confidential was watched by 0.63 million with an additional 100,000 watching on BBC HD. This gave the episode a total rating of 0.73 million and made it the 19th most watched programme on Multi Channel TV for the week.

The BBC Press Office has published its official preview of Christmas programming on the BBC, including a heavy emphasis on the forthcoming two-part Doctor Who special, "The End of Time", which will see the departure of David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor. The release states:

Highlights of this year's offering include David Tennant's final farewell in a two-part special of Doctor Who called The End Of Time. The Doctor's oldest enemy – the Master (John Simm) – returns alongside former companion Donna (Catherine Tate) and old favourite Wilf (Bernard Cribbins), as the entire human race faces its last ever Christmas – unless the Doctor can save the day.

A fuller preview of both episodes appears in the Network TV Programme Information release for weeks 51 and 52. This is available here, and contains some minor spoilers. It is also reproduced in the spoiler box below.