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.

Actor Velile Tshabalala has also been cast in The Next Doctor. playing the role of Rosita, who is an East Londoner. Rosita begins the special as a companion to the other Doctor (David Morrissey), before she starts helping the Doctor (David Tennant) instead.

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. This, however, is contradicted by Russel T Davis himself in the book "The Writer's Tale", where he has established the 2008 Christmas Special The Next Doctor as the fourteenth episode of the fourth 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."


 * It is also rumoured that Patrick Stewart will be playing the Renegade Time Lord The Monk. Stewart has apparently expressed an interest in playing in the show and was even rumoured to be playing Davros in 2008's Journey's End.