Hitchhikers CD!Bookmark and Share

Wednesday, 18 August 2004 - Reported by Shaun Lyon
The BBC Press Office has announced here that the forthcoming third Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy radio series, based on the work of Douglas Adams, will be out on CD and cassette on October 28. (Thanks to Steve Tribe)




FILTER: - Press

Charity AppealBookmark and Share

Wednesday, 18 August 2004 - Reported by Shaun Lyon
Author Mags Halliday ("History 101") is working with a charity event this coming weekend at the Discworld convention to raise money for the Sudan Emergency Appeal... involving a Buffy musical! Click here for details!




FILTER: - Press

SFX: We Want YouBookmark and Share

Wednesday, 18 August 2004 - Reported by Shaun Lyon
SFX Magazine is asking readers to send in designs for the new Daleks... what fans think they'd like to see. Click hereto be taken to SFX Magazine's website, where you can find out details about how to submit your design. (Thanks to Ian Berriman at SFX)




FILTER: - Magazines

BBC Site Update and e-BookBookmark and Share

Wednesday, 18 August 2004 - Reported by Shaun Lyon
The Empire of Glass, Andy Lane's First Doctor, Vicki & Steven novel published originally by Virgin, will be the next e-book given the treatment (later this year) on the official site... which has just undergone a spiffy refit and features some brand new design work.




FILTER: - Books

Morgan on the DaleksBookmark and Share

Wednesday, 18 August 2004 - Reported by Shaun Lyon
Andrew Morgan, director of "Remembrance of the Daleks" and "Time and the Rani," had some choice words for the Times on August 14. "As the director most recently embroiled with the Daleks... I have some inside knowledge of their anatomy -in particular their means of propulsion. While castors are quite efficient on studio floors, I felt we were courting disaster when one of the 1988 locations for a major battle was to be a cobbled street near Waterloo. However, the designer produced some all-terrain Daleks equipped with wheelbarrow wheels. I was delighted with this solution until filming began and the Dalek "operators" experienced great difficulty in climbing inside. There was no room for their feet and the enlarged wheels. The Daleks were completely and very effectively immobilised. Thankfully I was much more successful in a later scene, when I managed to film them going upstairs." That should take care of any doubts that the Daleks are incapable of stair travel... although it certainly might present an out for the Doctor at a later date!




FILTER: - Press

Big Finish UpdateBookmark and Share

Wednesday, 18 August 2004 - Reported by Shaun Lyon
Big Finish has announced some new projects coming up later this year and early 2005, both on their website and in the new issue of DWM. The tenth Short Trips volume, called Short Trips: 2040 edited by John Binns features short fiction including "Nuclear Option" by Richard Salter, "Separation" by Tara Samms, "Thinking Warrior" by Huw Wilkins, "Cateogorical Imperative" by Simon Guerrier, "Observer Effect" by Lance Parkin, "The Baron Wastes" by Alexander Leithes, "Daisy Chain" by Xanna Eve Chown, "Sustainable Energy" by Matthew Griffits, "Culture War" by Kate Orman, "Artificial Intelligence" by Andy Campbell, "/Carpenter/Butterfly/Baronet" by Gareth Wigmore, "Outsourcing" by Marc Platt, "Anteus" by Rebecca Levene, "The Last Emperor" by Jacqueline Rayner and "The Ethereal" by John Binns. The cover and cover blurb are below. Due out at the end of the year, in December, is Her Final Flight by Julian Shortman, a Seventh Doctor story that will be sent exclusively to Big Finish subscribers (much in the same way "The Maltese Penguin" was done two years ago). We also have cover illustrations and back cover blurbs for Caerdroia, the third Paul McGann serial of the new batch; and The Scripts Volume 4 featuring scripts from "Omega," "Davros," "Master" and "Zagreus".

The eleventh Short Trips volume, Short Trips: A Christmas Treasury edited by Paul Cornell, features short stories by Peter Adamson, Peter Anghelides, Paul Beardsley, Vanessa Bishop, Andy Campbell, Stephen Cole, Paul Condon, Martin Day, Terrance Dicks, Val Douglas, Karen Dunn, Stephen Fewell, Matthew Griffiths, Simon Guerrier, Shaun Lyon, Juliet McKenna, Jackie Marshall, Mark Michalowski, Lawrence Miles, Jonathan Morris, Neil Perryman, Marc Platt, Ian Potter, Cavan Scott, Darren Sellars, Dave Stone, Nick Wallace and Mark Wright. Editor Cornell told Outpost Gallifrey, "It's going to be quite a hefty collection, perhaps not quite as big as some of BF's recent 100,000 word anthologies, but large nevertheless, and packed full of Christmassy goodness! There's stuff that's bouncy and merry, stuff that's bittersweet, a bit of stuff that's actually pretty bleak, and some stuff that explores that M.R.James 'Ghost Story at Christmas' kind of feel. I won't pick more than one favourite here, but Steve Cole's story is like something out of Brecht, and it just blew me away. I'm trying for that comfortable, warm feeling that Who fans of a certain age associate with autumn, and it's not all fiction: it really is a treasury. There's a 'suitable for all ages' tag on it, too, because I think something with 'Christmas' on the cover should only run the risk of boring children (through prose that's too adult) rather than exposing them to stuff that's too mature for them. And there's a pattern to it that should reveal itself gradually if you dip in, or as a shape if you read it right through."

Meanwhile, a new batch of audios has been announced for 2005. April sees the release of Three's A Crowd by Colin Brake ("Escape Velocity"), a Fifth Doctor story; May features Catch-1782, a Sixth Doctor story; and John Ostrander's delayed Seventh Doctor tale Dead Man's Hand with Ace and Hex is due in June. July features two Eighth Doctor serials, entitled Terror Firma and Clockwerks; and August sees the release of Caroline Symcox's The Council of Nicea, a Fifth Doctor story. According to the new DWM, a story called The Time Sprite by Alison Lawson is on the schedule in May; it's likely that "Catch-1782" is the same story with a new title. The Gallifrey serials, previously mentioned here, also now have a release date: April through August 2005. Mary Tamm is, as rumored, reprising the role of Romana I alongside Lalla Ward (Romana II), John Leeson (K9) and Louise Jameson (Leela); you can visit the Big Finish website for more details. (Thanks to Big Finish, DWM, Steve Tribe)
CAERDROIA, by Lloyd Rose
Self-exiled to a new universe, separated from his TARDIS, opposed and manipulated by the Divergence and their agent the Kro'ka, the Doctor has been struggling to work out the nature of the cosmic game in which he's an unwilling pawn. Now, at last, he has a chance to find the answer and regain the TARDIS!

Threatened and desperate, the Kro'ka abandons his behind-the-scenes machinations to confront the Doctor directly. But will both of them lose their way in the maze of the strange world in which they find themselves? A world in which a clock may have a cuckoo but no hands, a labyrinth imprisoning a paradox, and a Garden of Curiosities reveals something the Doctor has never seen before.

As the Doctor faces these challenges, Charley and C'rizz provide valuable help. But with the TARDIS itself at stake, the Doctor reaches deep inside himself to find some surprising new allies


DOCTOR WHO: THE AUDIO SCRIPTS - VOLUME FOUR
Presented in this book are the original scripts for four of Big Finish's most popular stories three adventures which made up a loose trilogy of returning villain stories, and Big Finish's 2003 Doctor Who anniversary special, Zagreus.

Peter Davison starred in Omega, penned by Dead Ringers writer Nev Fountain. The story saw the return of the misguided Time Lord played by Ian Collier.

Lance Parkin's Davros matched Colin Baker's Doctor against Terry Molloy's incarnation of the Daleks creator.

From the Seventh Doctor run is Master, written by Joseph Lidster, and starring Sylvester McCoy and Geoffrey Beevers.

Rounding this collection off is Zagreus, Big Finish's contribution to Doctor Who's 40th anniversary. The play not only saw a pivotal chapter in the on-going Eighth Doctor story arc, it also brought together many of Big Finish's regular Doctor Who actors Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann and many, many more.


SHORT TRIPS: 2040, edited by John Binns
Fourteen brand new stories to give you a taste of your future.

This collection features stories from many of the best authors of Doctor Who on television, on audio and in print, including Marc Platt, Lance Parkin, Kate Orman, Jacqueline Rayner, Rebecca Levene, and Tara Samms.

2040 is compiled and edited by John Binns, who edited the previous Short Trips collections Life Science, Steel Skies, and A Universe of Terrors.




FILTER: - Audio - DWM

New Series DirectorsBookmark and Share

Wednesday, 18 August 2004 - Reported by Shaun Lyon
The new issue of Doctor Who Magazine, issue #347 now on sale, notes that the director for the second "block" of episodes -- episodes 2 and 3, to be exact -- is Euros Lyn. His previous directing credits include "Cutting It," "Belonging III," "Casualty," "Pam Fi Duw?" and "Sunday Stories". Meanwhile, the director of photography will be Ernest Vincze, whose work incldues "Sea of Souls," "Holby City" and "Linda Green". The issue also notes that the visual effects supervisor will be David Houghton of MillTV, who also worked on the Doctor Who charity special "The Curse of Fatal Death". The magazine features an interview with Houghton and more detail about Lyn and Vincze.




FILTER: - Production - Magazines - Series 1/27

Space Pirates Info and New Stills!Bookmark and Share

Wednesday, 18 August 2004 - Reported by Shaun Lyon
As we previously reported, the forthcoming DVD release Lost in Time will feature 90 seconds of film from the long-lost Doctor Who serial The Space Pirates starring Patrick Troughton, film that was located, we have learned, in some old canisters of film from the series "Dad's Army". The film footage featuers model spacecraft shots and some live action "space walk" footage from the first episode. Through a coincidence, one of the people looking through the canisters was Ralph Montagu of the Doctor Who Restoration Team... who promptly returned the material to the archives so that it could be used on the DVD release. The new issue of Doctor Who Magazine has a bit more detail on this and a couple of photographs; meanwhile, Outpost Gallifrey has been sent two photographs unused by DWM which features the Beta Dart undocking from the Alpha 1 beacon, and Alpha 1's compartments drifting apart. Click on each below for a larger version. (Thanks to Steve Roberts and the Restoration Team)




FILTER: - DWM - Classic Series - Blu-ray/DVD

DWM 347Bookmark and Share

Thursday, 12 August 2004 - Reported by Shaun Lyon
Issue #347 of Doctor Who Magazine will be out on August 19. The following is the press release for the new issue; click on the thumbnail image for a larger version of the cover. (Thanks to Clayton Hickman/DWM)
DWM meets the monster-maker!

Yes, it's another issue of Doctor Who's Space Comic, crammed full with all the latest news gleaned from the offices of BBC Wales! Er, but no photos quite yet. Sorry.

Prosthetics wizard Neill Gorton tells us about his role on the new series, and which creatures he particularly admires from the original show! Producer Phil Collinson gives his thoughts on the latest cast-members to join the new series! We exclusively reveal the director for Block Two! Plus Russell T Davies arrives in Cardiff and spills the beans on the start of recording in a two-page Production Notes!

There's also the second part of a chat with former script editor Eric Saward, who reveals what he thinks was the worst Doctor Who story ever (it's one of his, apparently).

Meanwhile, the history of Doctor Who Magazine continues in the second part of Happy Times and Places?, as Shaun Lyon Hearn discovers how the magazine managed to survive, when the TV series itself fell quite a few hurdles back.

You can also find out how the Doctor's travels with Marco Polo conclude in the final part of the Telesnap archive; join the Time Team as they don kilts to watch Terror of the Zygons; find out what's Coming Up; and see how all the latest books, audios and DVDs have fared in our DWM Reviews.

Plus! Don't miss the second part of new comic strip adventure, The Flood, to discover just what the Cybermen are doing skulking around in Camden. We're sure they're not just there for the bargains and noodles ...

DWM 347 is on sale from Thursday 19 August 2004.




FILTER: - Magazines - DWM

Fantasy TV ReshowingBookmark and Share

Tuesday, 10 August 2004 - Reported by Shaun Lyon
BBC Four is reshowing its documentary on the 1960s, Fantasy TV, including Doctor Who clips, this Saturday night at 8pm. Still no news of a non-digital showing, though! (Thanks to Steve Tribe)




FILTER: - Broadcasting