The fanzine of Canada's Doctor Who Information Network, Enlightenment celebrates the anniversary with a 52-page issue written entirely by author Lance Parkin ("Trading Futures"). The article, "A Forty Year Adventure In Time and Space" is a year-by-year examination of Doctor Who, with observations on the Doctor Who franchise over the past four decades. The introduction is by Lloyd Rose ("Camera Obscura") with a full colour wraparound cover by BBC Radio Collection artist Max Ellis. To order, visit www.dwin.org.

The Friday, November 21 edition of Blue Peter will be devoted to celebrating the 40th anniversary of Doctor Who. The programme, to be broadcast live, will celebrate some of the classic Doctor Who monsters, featuring clips from the show, and will feature a competition to win various prizes. The Hyde Fundraisers group will be taking part in the show as well. Meanwhile, the next day, Saturday November 22, the Museum Of Film & Photography will play host to a celebration of Doctor Who which will include special Dr Who screenings. These include 'The Horns Of Nimon' featuring Tom Baker and the first sixties Dalek film starring Peter Cushing, 'Dr Who & The Daleks'. (Thanks to Kevin Taylor)

BBCi has debuted the first episode of The Scream of the Shalka by Paul Cornell, starring Richard E. Grant as the Doctor, Sophie Okonedo as Alison Cheney, with Diana Quick, Craig Kelly and Derek Jacobi. It's fully-animated using Flash technology and can be seen on your computer by visiting the BBCi site. There are stories about the launch in the popular media as well, including at Empire Online, the Manchester Evening News and Reuters. Visit the BBCi site and enjoy the first episode!

Big Finish has released details about its forthcoming four-part miniseries caleld Gallifrey, to be released on audio next year and starring Lalla Ward as Romana and Louise Jameson as Leela. Says director/producer Gary Russell: "I've always loved the Doctor's home planet and feel that the actual society therein was never explored very deeply on TV. Oh we saw a few High Council meetings, and the odd assassination but I've always wanted to find out how the hierarchy ticks. How they cope under pressure. What Time Lords actually do all day long, and why. How do they cope with a Madame President with a somewhat more shady past than most of her predecessors, with a friend like Leela an off-worlder with a very different cultural heritage. I always felt, perhaps during the Tom Baker era, that an opportunity was missed by not stranding the Doctor on his home planet for a season. The Deadly Assassin and Invasion of Time so diluted the mystery of the Time Lords and yet added so many new layers to their story, I feel it would have been nice to discover a bit more. In the case of this mini-series, with no Doctor around, we might learn a few secrets that we've otherwise only had hints of before. I imagine this series to be The West Wing meets Spooks to some extent, with a dash of The Sopranos perhaps."

The first chapter is Weapon of Choice by Alan Barnes, which focuses on political bickering between the races who have some mastery over time, and a terrible super weapon that could erase entire continuums. But who developed the weapon, and will they use it? Part two is Square One by Stephen Cole, in which Leela goes under cover to attempt to expose the traitors who are attempting to destroy the d?tente that exists, tenuous as it is, between the temporally-capable species. Justin Richards penned part three, The Inquiry where Romana's methods in dealing with the other races come under the scrutiny of the Gallifeyan hierarchy. The final chapter is A Blind Eye by Alan Barnes, in which Romana must deal with exactly that which she has been afraid of: Someone is taking advantage of the space/time vortex and changing timelines to suit themselves... Says Russell, "Both Lalla and Louise were very excited by the ideas we discussed during Zagreus, and hopefully a couple of other familiar voices may crop up from time to time, including John Leeson as the voice of a K9 or two!" (Thanks to Big Finish)

LibDem MP Bob Russell today said in the House of Commons that he was "delighted" Doctor Who is coming back, referring to its past success and contribution to the British economy. (Thanks to Ian Wheeler)

BBC News has posted information about the imminent launch of BBCi's The Scream of the Shalka; click here to read the article. Among the details is a brief chat with Cosgrove Hall animation studio producer Steve Maher. (Thanks to Steve Tribe)

BBCi today opened a new page to cover official news details on the new TV series. Says BBCi: "This means that we can only report what has been officially announced by the BBC about the new series of Doctor Who. As the new series approaches our screens, we'll be keeping you up to date with its development and production. But we won't be reporting speculation or uncomfirmed rumours." Very kindly, they singled out Outpost Gallifrey in our coverage of the media frenzy surrounding the announcement and continued to recommend us for the latest scuttlebutt. We've always supported BBCi (and vice versa), and we'll continue to keep you posted on developments, news, and the latest rumor & speculation (clearly identified as such) here at the Outpost too. (Thanks to BBCi, and a nod to James, Rob, Ann & Daniel for their kind comments about my site...)

Manchester University Press will be publishing Terry Nation, a book about the life of the creator of the Daleks, "Blake's 7" and other icons, written by Jonathan Bignell and Andrew O'Day, in late spring 2004. Says the press info: "Terry Nation was a prolific writer for television, specialising in science fiction adventure. This book charts his television career, focusing on Dalek and other stories for 'Doctor Who', the post-apocalyptic drama 'Survivors', and the space adventure 'Blake's 7'. As well as analysing programmes in detail, the book discusses Nation's collaborations with the producers, script-editors and directors who brought his work to the screen. Illustrations feature rarely-seen stills from key episodes." To be placed on Manchester's mailing list for further info, send email here. (Thanks to Andrew O'Day)

BBCi today confirmed our story from the weekend that The Wheel in Space will be out on CD in 2004. Meanwhile, according to the folks at the Galaxy 4 shop, the new Tales From the TARDIS CD and the previously released Death Comes to Time will be released as MP3-CD's in April; "Tales" is currently an unknown commodity but we believe it might include the previously released "Short Trips," "Earth and Beyond" and "Out of the Unknown" only available on cassette. (No word on a release of "Tales" as a normal CD.) Galaxy 4 also says that the BBC "intend to issue ALL the incomplete stories on CD including the ones previously released with BBC Video titles such as The Ice Warriors, The Invasion and The Tenth Planet. This is so that fans can hear the stories complete without having to swap between formats." (Thanks to BBCi, Galaxy 4)