Series 4 (Doctor Who)

The 2009 Specials will be broadcast between the end of Series 4 and the beginning of Series 5. Five specials will be broadcast at various points in 2008-2009. Of the five specials, one has been scheduled for Christmas 2008, one for Easter 2009, and one for Christmas 2009, leaving the other two unscheduled. These five specials will be overseen by Davies and Julie Gardner, but traditional line producer, Phil Collinson will not be returning for them. All will reportedly star David Tennant.

Christmas 2008
The 2008 Christmas Special is titled The Next Doctor. The Cybus Cybermen are known to be returning. Also, actors Dirvla Kirwan and David Morrissey are involved, as is a probable setting of Victorian England. ''Setting confirmed as Christmas Eve 1851 by a trailer shown at a San Diego Comic Convention in 2008. The trailer also showed what appeared to be a Dalek at one point.''

Series numbering
Although it was initially thought that the "interval" season of specials might come to be known as Series 5, or Series 4.5, however at present it appears that the BBC will not be assigning a series "number" to the specials, much as the previous Christmas specials and mini-episodes do not technically belong to any particular season.

Writers
Russell T Davies is solely writing only the Christmas 2008 special and two others, but will co-write the others. One of the specials will be co-written by Gareth Roberts, and one will be co-written by Phil Ford. These particular specials will be historic in that they will be the first two episodes of the BBC Wales production of Doctor Who to formally credit a co-writer. With the inclusion of Ford, 2009 will mark the fifth straight year that Doctor Who has included at least one new writer for the show, and make Ford the only writer other than RTD himself to write for Torchwood, The Sarah Jane Adventures and Doctor Who.

Rumours

 * The Sun newspaper in the UK has reported Paul McGann is to make an appearance as the Eighth Doctor in an episode.
 * On September 12, the BBC quashed the story of the McGann casting. A spokeswoman is quoted as saying: "There is no truth to the story at all." [|See Story]