"Someone is kidnapping the Doctor’s friends, leading him towards the one place in all of time and space that he should never go." http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/04/03/more-doctor-who-plot-details-dribble-out-of-bbc-south-africa/ So Trenzalore for the Finale and not the 50th then. And maybe I'm getting cynical in my old age but I don't expect "friends" to refer to anyone other then Strax & Co.
No! It's going to be every companion going all the way back to Ian, Barbara, and Susan! Okay, seriously, yeah I agree with you that it's likely just going to be Vastra and her gang. I'd also add River in there, though that title has me wondering. I'll still be surprised if she's not in the episode, though. Also, I noticed they have changed the title of Gaiman's Cybermen episode.
"The Rings of Akhaten: The Doctor whisks Clara off to the planet Akhaten, where the inhabitants are holding a ceremony that demands a sacrifice…" This episode sounds very Classic Who to me.
Ooh, Cold War is set in the year I was born. The title of the last episode sounds interesting if true.
1983 is a particular spatial-temporal causal nexus. Quite a few things happened in 1983: http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/1983 Mark
This sounds remarkably like the ongoing comic plot of 'Prisoners of Time'. http://uk.ign.com/articles/2013/01/31/doctor-who-prisoners-of-time-1-review