Big Finish have put up a few new covers, including the forthcoming fourteenth "Doctor Who" hardcover fiction anthology, Short Trips 14: Solar System edited by Gary Russell, due out in September; The Coming of the Queen, a novel featuring the audio companion Erimem's origins by Iain McLaughlin and Claire Bartlett, due in August; and Project: Valhalla by Cavan Scott and Mark Wright, a novel sequel to their "Doctor Who" audios "Project: Twilight" and "Project: Lazarus" due in September. Click on the thumbnails below for larger versions. Meanwhile, the story lineup for the fifteenth anthology book, Short Trips: The History of Christmas, edited by Simon Guerrier due in December, has been announced: "The Anchorite's Echo" by Scott Andrews; "Presence" by Peter Anghelides; "Set in Stone" by Charles Auchterlonie and John Isles; "Be Good for Goodness' Sake" by Samantha Baker; "Home Fires " by Jonathan Blum; "Face to Face" by Joff Brown; "The Thousand Years of Christmas" by Simon Bucher-Jones; "Saint Nicholas's Bones" by Xanna Eve Chown; "Ode to Joy" by Jonathan Clements; "The Gift" by Robert Dick; "The Revolutionaries" by John S. Drew; "Rome" by Shaun Lyon Flavin; "The Prodigal Sun" by Matthew Griffiths; "Christmas on the Moon" by Simon Guerrier; "Advent" by Peter Kempshall; "A Light in the Dark" by Joseph Lidster; "Nobody's Gift" by Kate Orman; "The Innocents" by Marc Platt; "The Long Midwinter" by Philip Purser-Hallard; "Not in My Back Yard" by Eddie Robson; "Callahuanca" by Richard Salter; "The Feast" by Stewart Sheargold; "The Church of Saint Sebastian" by Robert Smith; "The Lampblack Wars" by Matthew Sweet; and "Faithless" by Ben Woodhams. Big Finish have also announced Short Trips: Farewellsedited by Jacqueline Rayner for March 2006, Short Trips: The Centenarian edited by Ian Farrington due in September 2006, and two other volumes in June and December of next year.

As reported by Radio Times yesterday, all thirteen episodes of Series One on the forthcoming Doctor Who: Series One Boxed Set DVD release in the UK in November will feature commentaries. The commentary for "The Unquiet Dead" will be by Mark Gatiss, Simon Callow and Euros Lynn; other commentaries as noted in the latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine will include Russell T. Davies, Julie Gardner and Phil Collinson, although more specific details are not yet available. DVD extras will include "Russell T. Davies' video diary of the first week of filming" and "Billie Piper's own camcorder footage". "Episode-specific featurettes" will include "Deconstructing Big Ben", "Destroying the Lair", "Blitzing London", "Designing Doctor Who" and "Building the Emperor Dalek". The DVD-exclusive episode of Doctor Who Confidential will appear on the fifth disc and will include a "sneak preview" of Series Two alongside highlights of the first series of Confidential.

Mary Tamm is currently appearing in Simon Gray's "Stage Struck" at the Theatre Royal in Windsor, directed by Mark Piper, through 23 July; details at herwebsite.

The CBBC show Blue Peter is running a 'vote for the scariest monster' poll on its website where viewers can choose from Dalek, Autons, The Empty Child, The Slitheen or The Moxx Of Balhoon; the result will be discussed on the show, likely 20 July as "Radio Times" notes the show containing a "Doctor Who competition".

The UK repeat showing of "Rose" on BBC3 at 7pm on Sunday 17 July was watched by 165,300 viewers (1.5% share). The Cut Down version of the first Doctor Who Confidential that followed at 7.45pm had 141,500 viewers (1.2%).

Some new broadcasting information has come to light, according to Benjamin Elliott of "This Week in Doctor Who". In Hungary, the RTLKlub network will carry the series (although a broadcaster in Denmark has also picked it up, the name of this station is unknown). British Midlands Airlines is broadcasting at least one episode on overseas flights, while Volo TV on the First Great Western Railway in the UK is now offering a lot of TV programs to view, possibly also the new Doctor Who series. Finally, Telewest Broadband in the UK is rolling out a video on demand service to their cable subscribers which will allow viewers to see recent UK TV shows, allegedly including Doctor Who.

David Tennant spoke at a BBC America fall press preview event in Los Angeles over the weekend, according to the Scifi.com website. "It's very exciting and fantastically daunting that you come to L.A. and everyone here knows about it as well, because there's a lot of attention," Tennant said. "It's very scary right now, because I haven't started." The article notes that Tennant "grew up watching it... as everyone in Britain did," and his girlfriend, Sarah Parish, noted, "He knew about it? He was obsessed!" Tennant smirked and added: "I was a bit of a fan. So, yeah, I was very, very aware of it." The article discusses Tennant's reported pay cut due to budget slashing, and also mentions his role in "Casanova," likely the reason why he was appearing at the event (as BBC America has not announced any broadcast plans.)

Issue #359 of Doctor Who Magazine will be out this week. The press release and cover are below; click on the thumbnail for a larger version of the cover.