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A few Torchwood items and a number of slightly offbeat entries this time.TorchwoodThe Star-Ledger (New Jersey) reviews Torchwood’s “Sleeper”.UK SF Book News has a feature on the Torchwood comic in Titan Magazine’s Torchwood Magazine.And the Daily Record briefly reviews John Barrowman’s autobiography “Anything Goes”.Odd Who NewsPhilip Glenister tells the Western Mail that he watches The Sarah Jane Adventures, though he doesn’t quite remember the program’s name correctly:

Today, his favourite TV includes unexpected fare such as The Sarah Jane Mysteries — but that’s because of his two young daughters by his actress wife Beth Goddard; the family lives in East Sheen, Surrey, where fame hasn’t gone to his head, and where he enjoys a “normal suburban existence”.”Yes, The Sarah Jane Mysteries, it’s one of those series you think might not work — it’s an off-shoot of Doctor Who — but my girls adore it,” he says. “The girls are just getting into Doctor Who now. We never let them watch it before, because we thought they’d wake up with nightmares.”

Recent issues of two American magazines aimed at “fan culture” highlight Doctor Who and Torchwood actresses. Geek Monthly puts the return of Billie Piper to Doctor Who at #7 in its “Son of the BIG List: Our yearly roundup of Stuff That Rules”, and has an interview with Eve Myles. And Wizard lists Freema Agyeman at #16 in its list of the “Sexiest Women of TV”.Wales on Sunday quotes Coleen McLoughlin, the girlfriend of English football (soccer) player Wayne Rooney, as saying that she’d love to be the next Doctor Who companion.And io9 pronounces that Kroll, the giant octopus from the 1978 Doctor Who story The Power of Kroll, is the tallest of all giant monsters, looking down on puny creatures like Godzilla and the monster from Cloverfield.(Thanks to Larry Carter, and to “PolyG” and “Alia” of the Doctor Who Forum.)

Doctor WhoThe South Wales Evening Post reports that Doctor Who is filming at a disused library in Swansea. This filming is forSteven Moffat’s two-part story, which involves a mysterious abandoned library.The estate of Terry Nation, the writer who created the Daleks, has vetoed a humorous clip featuring a Dalek from being included on the forthcoming “Five Doctors” DVD. The clip, from a 1983 edition of BBC Breakfast, featured a Dalek being interviewed by astrologer Russell Grant, to the amusement of Peter Davison and Patrick Troughton. However, the Nation estate has forbidden the use of the clip, fearing that it detracts from the Daleks’ threatening image. The Sun andMetro both carry the story.TorchwoodBurn Gorman talks to iF Magazine about his character Owen Harper. “I hope that in series two he’s a changed man,” says Gorman.The Daily Mirror published a detailed preview of “To the Last Man” before it aired in the UK on Wednesday, and Digital Spy has a review.Digital Spy also has an article about the Torchwood interactive adventure hosted on bbc.co.uk/torchwood.The South Wales Echo has a story on Torchwood’s ratings success.PeopleThe Arran Banner, the newspaper of the Scottish Isle of Arran, has found a 16-year-old David Tennant in its archives. Young Tennant was on Arran 20 years ago filming a short play for the children’s series Dramarama. The article is accompanied by a small picture.Christopher Eccleston was one of three judges for BBC Four’s Pioneer World Cinema Award 2008. The award was given to the dark Spanish-language fantasy “Pan’s Labyrinth”; Variety and Digital Spy have the story.Another award panel, this one for the Red Planet Prize (awarded by Tony Jordan’s Red Planet Pictures for new writing talent in the UK), was composed of Jordan, Doctor Who executive producer Julie Gardner, Doctor Who actor and writer Mark Gatiss and polymath Stephen Fry (who appeared in the Doctor Who webcast “Death Comes to Time” and was scheduled to write a script for Doctor Who Series Two before scheduling commitments forced him to withdraw).The Stage covers the award.New Car Net recalls Third Doctor Jon Pertwee’s road safety public service film with the unforgettable slogan “Splink”. (If you don’t know what “Splink” means, there’s an old story with video on the BBC News site.)The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority has rejected two complaints about risqué advertisements for Billie Piper’sITV2 series “Secret Diary of a Call Girl”. The ASA ruled that the poster, which featured Piper wearing a bra and panties, was “not dissimilar to that which children would be exposed to in other advertising, for example for lingerie and designer fragrances.” The ruling can be read here; Brand Republic has a story (but requires free registration to read it).The Daily Mail finds it newsworthy to have a photographer follow Billie Piper and her husband Laurence Fox while they’re grocery shopping and walking the dog.Digital Spy has a story culled from John Barrowman’s recently published autobiography “Anything Goes”, in which Barrowman compares working with Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant. In the book, Barrowman writes: “I found the set to be a lighter one with David than it had been with Christopher in the lead role. I think David is a happier person, whereas I found Chris to be a bit angsty.” (Digital Spy miscorrects “angsty” to “angry”.)There are reviews of “Anything Goes” at Country Life magazine and the Daily Telegraph.TV Guide has published the second half of its interview with James Marsters; there’s less about his Torchwood role here, but Marsters speaks about other roles he’s playing.Leftist Internet magazine Spiked has cited Ofcom’s investigation into complaints about Catherine Tate’s Christmas special as an example of “institutionalized prudishness”, and notes that the 28 people who complained about the special represent 0.0004375% of the program’s audience.And This Is Hampshire has an interview with comedian Toby Hadoke, creator of “Moths Ate My Doctor Who Scarf”.(Thanks to Andrew Brookes, Sean Elliott and Ben Rawson-Jones.)

A new 90-second trailer for Series Four will start showing at cinemas across the UK from February 1, it has been reported.

According to Digital Spy, it will run at Empire, Odeon and Cineworld venues.

Naomi Gibney, the head of marketing at BBC Vision, is quoted as saying: “This is a great opportunity for the BBC to reach new audiences with an exciting preview of the new series of Doctor Who.”

Trailers for Voyage Of The Damned were shown at cinemas in December.

The BBC Press Office has now put online more details concerning the trailer. It says the deal is part of a BBC test with Carlton Screen Advertising to showcase BBC content. It covers 837 Odeon screens, 736 Cineworld screens and 142 Empire screens. The trailer will be shown before some of the most anticipated new releases, including Cloverfield, Juno, John Rambo and There Will Be Blood.

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The Restoration Team has updated its website with details about the forthcoming DVD releases of The Time Meddler and The Five Doctors – 25th Anniversary Edition in the UK.

In it, Steve Roberts reveals why VidFIRE hasn’t been employed on The Time Meddler. The process is normally used to give a video look to film recordings so that episodes appear as they did on transmission.

As previously reported by Outpost Gallifrey, extras on that disc will include a feature examining the comic strip adventures of the First Doctor, as well as a piece using audio recordings and the script to place in context the 12 seconds that are still missing from Checkmate – the final episode of the 1965 story – after they were cut by overseas censors before the print turned up.

The two-disc Five Doctors release will include the original version of the story, lasting 90 minutes, plus the special edition, which runs for 102 minutes. Screen grabs are used in the Restoration Team’s feature to illustrate the improvement in picture quality of this 1983 story.

Among the extras on the Five Doctors release are outtakes plus contemporaneous appearances by assorted cast members on the BBC TV shows Saturday Superstore, Blue Peter, Breakfast Time and Nationwide.

The Time Meddler is due out on February 4, while The Five Doctors – 25th Anniversary Edition is released on March 3.

The BBC Press Office has announced that Alex Kingston and Colin Salmon will appear as guest stars in writer Steven Moffat’s two-part story for the fourth series of Doctor Who, which is currently filming.

Kingston, who will play a character named in the press release as River Song, is best known for her regular role in the American television drama series ER. In the UK, she starred in the one-off dramas Moll Flanders and Boudecia for the ITV network. Salmon has been seen in a variety of roles in British film and television, including as the supporting character Charles Robinson in the James Bond films Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough and Die Another Day. His character in Doctor Who has not yet been named.

“Voyage of the Damned” has received both positive and negative reviews in the British press. The Daily Mirror (published before the special aired) calls it “a corker”, with “plenty of the Doctor’s joky humour, some nice Christmas gags and even a touching romance.” However, the reviewer at The Herald (Glasgow) complains that Kylie Minogue looked “matronly”. Sam Wollaston of The Guardian feels that Kylie “may be Kylie, but she’s no Freema or Billie.” The Daily Mirror gives a mixed review, praising the “brilliant psychedelic Pink Floyd-esque imagery” as well as “great baddies … and neat jokes”, but lamenting that “the plot was a mess, consisting mostly of one hi-tech chase scene after another, and it descended into noise and bluster.” And the Liverpool Echocalls it “a load of old tongue-in-cheek nonsense”.Tim Teeman, writing in The Times, goes further, saying that “Doctor Who sucks” and calling the show and its protagonist “lazy, predictable and indulgent.” But James Walton, writing in the Daily Telegraph ”can’t imagine how this episode could have done its job any better”, calling Voyage of the Damned “a winning mixture of wild imagination and careful writerly calculation.” And 10-year-old George Baker, whose TARDIS bedroom has been previously mentioned on this page, tells Newsround that the Christmas special was “BRILLIANT”: “I give it 10 out of 10 – and I cannot wait for the new series!”UPDATE: A few more reviews have come to light. The Sunday Times describes “Voyage of the Damned” as having “big-screen aspiration with small-screen production values and half a radio script.” However, The Stage says “Voyage of the Damned was well up to Doctor Who’s impeccably high standards, neatly combining comedy and thrills to stunning effect,” and The Observer says “Doctor Who was an oasis of cheeky nonsense and careless invention.”Before “Voyage of the Damned” aired, Billie Piper was quoted in the Aberdeen Press and Journal saying that she was looking forward to watching the Christmas special, and was envious of her once and future costar David Tennant: “I’m just gutted that I missed [Kylie Minogue]. I speak to David and he’s like, ‘I’ve got Kylie’s number on my phone.’ I want to be Kylie’s friend!” The Sun puts Minogue and Piper together in their list of 2007’s “top TV babes”. The Daily Mirrorhas a profile of Piper’s “great year”, and the Western Mail has a Q&A with the actress.Kylie Minogue’s role in the Christmas special got a lot of coverage in her native Australia, including the Courier Mail(Brisbane, twice), the Herald Sun (Melbourne), Macquarie National News (Sydney) and Sky News. The Daily Telegraph (Sydney) calls ”Voyage of the Damned” “the greatest Dr Who episode of all time” but also frets that some of Kylie’s younger fans may have been unable to tell fact from fiction, as did Sky News.Digital Spy provides “Ten Things You Never Knew About David Tennant” (although several items may be known to readers of this page).The Halifax Courier concludes its three-part history of Doctor Who. Part one was linked in the last press round-up, and you can now read parts two and three.Catherine Tate’s Christmas special has provoked some controversy. Ofcom, the UK’s independent media reglatory agency, will investigate complaints that the special contained excessive foul language and stereotypical portrayals of Northern Irish characters. The story is covered by The Times and The Daily Telegraph. Meanwhile, The New York Times has a largely positive review of Tate’s comedy series, as its third season airs on BBC America.The Manchester Evening News has a profile of Frazer Hines, who played the Second Doctor’s companion Jamie McCrimmon from 1966 to 1969.The Sun is claiming that Kylie Minogue’s sister Dannii is “tipped” for a role in Torchwood, and has a quote from John Barrowman; this story is also covered by Digital Spy, All Headline News and inthenews.co.uk as well as news sites based in India and Estonia, both of which refer to “Kylie Minogue’s successful stint on US TV show ‘Dr Who’”!Thanks to Greg Chapman and “PolyG” of the Doctor Who Forum.

I’ve been putting this off for too long!  Blogosphere here I come!  If you like Doctor Who then hopefully you’ll enjoy this blog.  Stay tuned for all the Doctor Who news and reviews you can handle.