The BBC have confirmed that Elisabeth Sladen will reprise her role as Sarah Jane Smith, long-running companion to Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker_s Doctors, in one episode of the new season. Sladen becomes the first former regular actor from the original series to reprise their role in the new series. It will be the first time since the 20th Anniversary special in 1983, The Five Doctors, that Sladen has appeared in Doctor Who.

Behind the camera, noted actor/author Stephen Fry is to write Episode 11 of the next season! Fry is best known for his role as Jeeves in the Wooster and Jeeves series as well as Melchett in the classic comedy series Blackadder. He has starred in such films as Le Divorce and Gosford Park, as well as recently providing the voice of the Book in the film adaptation of The HitchHiker_s Guide to the Galaxy (written of course by former Doctor Who script writer Douglas Adams). Fry has appeared in Doctor Who previously, starring in the 2001/2002 internet drama Death Comes to Time as the Minster of Chance. Fry is also a successful author and writer, having written such best-selling novels as Making History (a time-travel paradox story) and the screenplay to the film Bright Young Things, to name but two things he_s written. Fry is a lifelong Doctor Who fan, but this will be his first written work for the series.

In other returning cast-member news, it is also confirmed that Penelope Wilton, who played Harriet Jones in the two-part Aliens of London last season, will reprise her role in The Christmas Invasion, with the character now Prime Minister. Camille Coduri (Jackie) and Noel Clarke (Mickey) will also return for The Christmas Invasion while John Barrowman is expected to re-join the cast much later in the season.

Outpost Gallifrey: The Doctor Who News & Information Magazine