Doctor Who: Finale Synopsis, Special/2012 Details Revealed

There are just two episodes of Doctor Who's sixth season left to air on BBC One, so in a fortnight's time the programme will be gone from our screens once more. Nevertheless, Doctor Who Magazine have provided some tantialising details on the finale The Wedding of River Song, this year's Christmas special, and when the next season will begin airing:

• First up, the exciting synopsis for Episode 13 from DWM, who are more giving context to the story than telling us what to expect regarding River, the wedding or the Doctor's death: "The city of London, 22 April 2011- soaring buildings, glittering and mighty under a perfect blue sky, and life tumbling onto pavements below. And horse-drawn Roman chariots driving through the streets. And a Victorian steam train on a monorail...hang on, like in a sci-fi city, but with Romans and steam trains? And hot air balloons? And pterodactyls? And Charles Dickens appearing on BBC One's Breakfast? Something isn't quite right...In Buckingham Senate, at 5.02pm, Holy Roman Emperor Winston Churchill calls for his soothsayer to be fetched from the Tower. Greying, unkempt, older, tireder, but unmistakably- it's the Doctor. "Tick tock goes the clock," Winston tells him, "but they don't, do they? The clocks never tick." It's always 5.02pm these days. All of history is happening at once. "What happened to time?" asks Winston. The answer, it seems, is a woman..." The Wedding of River Song sees returns from Karen Gillian, Arthur Darvill, Alex Kingston, and Frances Barber (all of whom will make their most recent appearances in this week's Closing Time), as well as Simon Callow's Charles Dickens (The Unquiet Dead), Simon Fisher-Becker's Dorium Maldovar (The Pandorica Opens, A Good Man Goes To War), Richard Hope's Silurian scientist (Cold Blood), Ian McNeice's Winston Churchill (Victory of the Daleks, The Pandorica Opens) and the Silence. All those cast names have been released by DWM, and we're assured by the mag all this tells us very little about the story in question's plot...
• The new issue (439) also reveals the names of some of the 2011 Christmas Special's cast: Outnumbered mum Claire Skinner and comedians Bill Bailey and Alexander Armstrong will feature in the hour-long episode, focusing on a pair of children's evacuation during World War Two to a house with a caretaker sporting a bow tie and where their Christmas present is big and blue and box-shaped!
• Finally, DWM Editor Tom Spilsbury reveals in the Editorial section that "the show will return in Autumn 2012", confirming Steven Moffat's plan to begin airing Season Seven later in the year to help tie-in with the fiftieth anniversary of the programme in 2013. It's unconfirmed whether an entire season and a Christmas Special will be shown next year, or whether we'll get a few episodes before Christmas, the Special, then the remainder of Series 7 and likely another bumper-season in 2013, but at least we now know some details about the programme's future directions.

Doctor Who's final two episodes air this Saturday and next Saturday, and meanwhile the fifth and final season of The Sarah Jane Adventures commences on Monday October 3rd.