He said that the episode would feature a “famous historical figure” battling a monster.

It is important to note that The Sun regularly makes “facts” up in order to get more readers – the “insider” suggesting that the figure is Sir Edmund Blackadder is most likely invented.

In addition, former James Bond actor Timothy Dalton has been cast as ‘The Narrator’.

Episodes 3 and 4 feature Souad Faress, Gregg Sulkin, Eleanor Tomlinson, Toby Parkes, Rai Rajani and Kate Fleetwood.

Episodes 5 and 6 feature Zienia Merton.

Episodes 7 and 8 feature Floella Benjamin, Adam Gillen, Donald Sumpter, Tony Boncza, Amelia Clarkson and Callum Blue.

Episodes 9 and 10 feature Suranne Jones, Jeff Rawle and Liza Sadovy.

Lizo Mzimba also appeares.

In addition, Russell has all but said that there is a confirmed fourth series of The Sarah Jane Adventures.

It also has an intriguing article by Graham Kibble-White which examines whether Doctor Who is actually “good” television.

After the fourth part of The Age of Ice, the rest is regulars: You Are Not Alone, the Time Team examining Ghost Light, the Watcher examining the Fifth Doctor, The Fact of Fiction examining The Tomb of the Cybermen, Gary Gillatt examining The War Games, and a one-page interview with Katy Manning.

Secondly, the costume for Matt Smith’s Doctor has been announced, and can be seen below.

Day One

BBC One: 5.9 million viewers; 25.8% audience share; 5th most watched programme of the day; Appreciation Index 88

BBC HD: 97,000 viewers

BBC Three repeat: 214,000 viewers; 3.9% share

Day Two

BBC One: 5.6 million viewers; 24% share; most watched programme of the day; AI 90

BBC HD: 82,000 viewers

BBC Three repeat: 282,000 viewers; 5.8% share

Day Three

BBC One: 5.9 million viewers; 27.1% share; 3rd most watched programme of the day; AI 90

BBC HD: 105,000 viewers

BBC Three: 225,000 viewers

Day Four

BBC One: 6.2 million viewers; 27.0% share; 2nd most watched programme of the day; AI 91

BBC HD: 82,000 viewers

BBC Three: 232,000 viewers

Day Five

BBC One: 5.8 million viewers; 26.7% share; 4th most watched programme of the day; AI 90

BBC HD: 95,000 viewers

BBC Three repeat: 333,000 viewers

The final figures will be posted here as soon as possible.

On Thursday, the BBC announced that “Adelaide is head of the Mars Base and doesn’t take kindly to an uninvited appearance by The Doctor” and that Peter O’Brien’s character is called Ed, Adelaide’s second in command.

The big article is by Simon Kinnear, about the presence of money in Doctor Who, and how it affects the Doctor’s universe. The seven-page feature is quite interesting; it goes through the show chronologically, from the Doctor’s tax-dodging in The Reign of Terror to Planet of the Ood.

An interview with Julie Gardner looking back on her time on Doctor Who follows for three pages, then the third part of The Age of Ice.

However, the next part is Doctor Who Latest‘s favourite: the exciting preview for Torchwood: Children of Earth, the five-part series that will air over one week this July.

The magazine also has all the news, the reviews and the Watcher’s Guide to the Fourth Doctor. It is out tomorrow priced £3.99.

For many, this will come as an enormous surprise. For some, probably not so much. Two years ago, I shut down the day-to-day operations of the Outpost Gallifrey website, retaining its News Page as a continuing entity administered by news editors, as well as the Forum run by a moderator team. But all good things must come to an end, and several months ago, I began planning the eventual shutdown of the website and forum by taking a first step: the cessation of taking paid patron memberships, in order to run down the cash coffers (which I projected could last around five to six months without any additional input from new or renewing members — current patrons were simply extended indefinitely as we announced). At the end of July, any remaining funding (expected to be very little, if any) will be donated to a noted charity, save for costs for the one item that *will* (and actually must) continue to function at gallifreyone.com — the web space for our long-running Doctor Who convention, Gallifrey One, which enters its twenty-first iteration next February.

Since 1996, Outpost Gallifrey has served as a valuable source of news and information in the online world. Since 2001, the Doctor Who Forum has created an enormous sense of community amongst Doctor Who fans, far longer than I (or perhaps anyone) ever anticipated. When the BBC shut its own DW forums down, we underwent massive growth that created the largest focus for online Doctor Who discussion and debate in cyberspace, and I’m very proud of that fact. Of course, the announcement of the new series in 2003 certainly helped that, and its debut has seen our profile rise exponentially. But as they say, it’s better to go out on a high, which is exactly what we’re doing. Some may wonder if there is a catalyst for this decision, when in fact it’s nothing but a simple and straightforward desire to move onto other things… a decision I made several months ago, counselled by many friends and supporters for a long time.

People will wonder out loud: why don’t we spin it off, or why don’t I pass it along to others? Simply put, Outpost Gallifrey is nothing but a concept, a concept I created, but which now rests in the hands of the fans who utilize it every day. It’s a title, and you don’t need a title to continue… you already have the community. Like our site and forum, the Internet has grown exponentially. There are other communities to visit on the Internet, obviously, and we encourage you to visit them. But of course, if these communities do not serve your needs (and we expect many won’t), we encourage you to take the course that I did 13 years ago: create your own space. This is, in fact, why we’re giving notice to the Forum community two months early — sufficient time for our members to find their own direction, to create new communities, new forums, and perhaps utilize new methods of communication. Through the friendships and community you’ve created here.

Outpost Gallifrey (and its Forum) have always remained near and dear to my heart. We’ve been a powerful voice in the online Doctor Who world, collectively, and the powers that be have listened (and continue to be active, if invisible, readers of what has been said). We’ve helped influence the course of the Doctor Who universe, through fan interaction with Big Finish Productions, BBC Books, independent publishers and even the Doctor Who Production Team. And we’ve made terrific friends throughout the world, from inside the BBC to inside the homes of tens of thousands of fans in the US, UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and elsewhere.

I am eternally grateful to everyone who made this site and forum a reality, from a spectacular team of administrators and moderators (led by the phenomenal efforts of Steve Hill) in our Forum, to our brilliant news editors who have kept the News Page updated as often as possible with the latest from the world of Doctor Who, to everyone else who has supported us and made us the biggest and most popular fan-run site on the Internet for the past thirteen years, through good times and bad. Thank you, everyone.

It is still unknown what will happen to the community, though many fans are talking of splinter forums, and moderator Steven W Hill is planning to launch Gallifrey Base, which will not retain any of the Doctor Who Forum’s accounts or posts.

Children of Earth will air on the week commencing 20 July, with Planet of the Dead airing on the following Sunday.

Executive producer Steven Moffat said, “We saw some amazing actresses for this part, but when Karen came through the door the game was up. Funny, and clever, and gorgeous, and sexy. Or Scottish, which is the quick way of saying it. A generation of little girls will want to be her. And a generation of little boys will want them to be her too.”

Series 5 starts production in July and will begin broadcasting in spring 2010.

In the BAFTA Cymru Awards, Euros Lyn won the Best Director Award for Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead, while Russell T Davies won Best Writer for Midnight. Two other BAFTA Cymru Awards were for Midnight: the sound team recieved the Best Sound Award, while Philip Kloss won in the Best Editor category.

In the BAFTA Craft Awards, Philip Kloss also won an award for his editing of Series Four, while the visual effects team at the Mill picked up the award for visual effects for The Fires of Pompeii.

Also announced are June Whitfield playing ‘Minnie Hooper’ and David Harewood.

The BBC HD channel had its highest audience figure for the episode, with 200,000 viewers tuning in.

The Sunday BBC3 repeat was seen by an additional 0.91 million viewers – approximately 90-95% of these were new viewers – and had an AI of 89.