Our sources have indicated that an announcement of the airdate is soon forthcoming... and that airdate will be March 26, 2005. We know that the airdate will be prefaced by a series of radio trailers aired on the BBC7 digital radio network (among other promotional being done elsewhere), and are told that this is the date currently being touted around that radio campaign. Though there have been recent reports speculating earlier, or later, airdates (ITV's Teletext service previewed upcoming shows for 2005, for example, stating viewers should "expect [Doctor Who] in February"), Outpost Gallifrey is fairly certain that this late March airdate will be the one. (Though of course this is NOT official confirmation of an airdate; this date could still be wrong!) There are also rumors that the new issue of Doctor Who Magazine may feature the actual airdate as well. More as we get it.

From the Sunday Mirror (January 1): "Never has a TV series been so shrouded in secrecy," referring to the new series, "but soon we"ll be able to see how Christopher Eccleston fares as the travelling timelord, and whether Billie Piper measures up as his assistant. A few facts have emerged. The Tardis, which transports the Doctor through time and the universe, is made of coral on the inside and is a living organism which can grow and change shape. But don"t worry, the outside still looks like an old blue police box. On his journeys he will come across Simon Callow as Charles Dickens and Zoe Wanamaker as a very old woman. There is also more than a hint of romance this time around. Eccleston says: 'Doctor Who has two hearts and they can both be broken.' Ahhh." The comment about the TARDIS being "made of coral on the inside" has raised some eyebrows from Doctor Who fans online.

Item to watch in the US: BBC America is advertising the airing of "The Canterbury Tales" beginning Saturday, January 8th, at 8pm. The episode in which new series companion Billie Piper features, 'The Miller's Tale' is scheduled to first air on Jan 29, 2005.

The Sunday Independent (January 2) called Billie Piper a "talent to watch." "Billie Piper is out to prove her mettle as Doctor Who's new sidekick," says the article. Also, the Sunday Times (January 2) noted the BBC was "is in full charter-renewal mode. ... Then there is the BBC's remake of Doctor Who (BBC1), with Christopher Eccleston as the time lord. 'Everyone was expecting him to be dour, and he's so funny. I think we can do extraordinary things with it,' says the writer, Russell T Davies. 'It's classy, eccentric, there's a lot of satire, and I think it's going to work.'"

Billie Piper's film Spirit Trap will be premiered at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival in the spring, before a general release across Britain and the United States. Piper and Luke Mably star in the supernatural chiller based around scary goings on in a seedy London student bedsit land, alongside Sam Troughton and Russian rock star Alsou.

From a syndicated interview with fifth Doctor Peter Davison that circulated around January 1: "People keep asking if I've got any inside information," he says. "But I don't at all. I do the odd convention from time to time, and I still play the Doctor on audio CDs but that's it. I'll be very interested to see it myself. Hopefully, it will have more money spent on it than they spent on ours. I remember it as a lot of running up and down corridors. And a lot of acting with people who weren't there because of blue screen. I was saving the world though. But it's certainly got very good writers now. A lot of the writers, like A League Of Gentlemen"s Mark Gatiss, are Doctor Who fans and have been for many, many years. So it should be good."

Interested in which story producer Russell T Davies really enjoys? From an article in January 1's The Guardian about Davies' favorite TV programs: "Doctor Who: The Ark In Space. Nothing creates terror and claustrophobia like the good old-fashioned walls of a BBC studio. You can almost hear the cameras hum. The regular cast make bubble-wrap truly terrifying, but in the unfamous, unsung guest cast, there are heroes. An actor called Wendy Williams creates a character who is frigid, humourless, ruthless, and eventually, through contact with the Doctor, completely human. I must have watched this a hundred times. It's not enough."

(Thanks to Paul Engelberg, Peter Weaver, Mark Askren, Mike Maddox, "Odoru Tardis" and others for these reports)

One very small piece of casting news is hidden in the latest edition of Radio Times today (8û14 January). Tamsin Greighas 'a cameo appearance' in the new series, according to the magazine. She is the voice of Debbie Aldridge in The Archers on BBC Radio 4, and has starred in Green Room (Channel 4, 2004), Black Books (Channel 4, 2000û) and Neverwhere (1996 on BBC2), as well as the film "Shaun of the Dead" (starring fellow new series guest star Simon Pegg) last year. (Thanks to Steve Tribe)

Illustrators Lee Binding and Clayton Hickman have completed a new cover for the UK DVD release of The Five Doctors, which was originally issued years ago with a different cover design than the current releases. The official Doctor Who site has both low- and high-resolution covers available for download; click here to download them.

Thanks to Tenth Planet we have a higher-resolution copy of the cover illustration for the forthcoming DVD release ofThe Mind Robber which we posted on Sunday. Click here to view the hi-res version (note: file is nearly 100k).

The BBC Shop website has revealed the cover illustration for the forthcoming UK DVD release of The Mind Robber starring Patrick Troughton, due out in March 2005. Click on the thumbnail for a larger version of the cover. (Thanks to David Howe)

Noel Clarke (Mickey) is interviewed in the December 18 Daily Express 'Saturday' magazine. Whilst he mostly comments about the upcoming 'Auf Wiedersehen Pet' TV special he is in, he does mention, very briefly, his role in Doctor Who "...as Mickey, the boyfriend of Rose Tyler (Billie Piper). The two have been romantically linked off-screen, but Noel bats off questions about offering Billie a shoulder to cry on after her split with husband Chris Evans, which happened during filming. "We do our job and we go home," he says. "All I do know is that Billie is great, very down to earth. She is a brilliant actress and seriously underrated. So what about the kissing scene? Who doesn't like doing kissing scenes?" he jokes. "They were fine! And my girlfriend doesn't mind me kissing Billie... she knows it's only work!" (Thanks to Peter Weaver)

The Chicago Tribune Discussed in a December 17 article the return of the series in its "Television: The Watcher" section by Maureen Ryan. "Get Your Geek On Again: I'm sure more alert sci-fi mavens have known about these development for months, but a new 'Babylon 5' feature starts filming in April, according to comingsoon.net, and filming has already begun on a new "Dr. Who" series, featuring Christopher Eccleston as the newest doctor. No U.S. channel has yet lined up the rights to air the new Who, which will hits British TV next year, according to gallifreyone.com, which is now my main source for the latest "Who" info. The original series ran from 1963 to 1989, and as most Who fans know, Tom Baker was the best Doctor, followed by Peter Davison and Jon Pertwee. Anyway, I hope the new series is better than the 1996 one-off "Dr. Who" movie that starred Paul McGann, an actor I otherwise like a lot. It wasn't his fault that the TV movie, an attempt perhaps to sex up the venerable British series, was mostly a mess (Eric Roberts as the villain? Never a good sign.). But I'm hoping the BBC raises the bar with Eccleston's outing as the good Doctor." (Our thanks to Maureen Ryan at the Chicago Tribune for the plug for Outpost Gallifrey, and Paul Engelberg for the news)

Russell T Davies was interviewed on a regional ITV1 broadcast of The Afternoon Show on December 15 for the eager TV audience of freelancers, students and the unemployed. There were some behind-the scenes clips of "Casanova" were shown, with David Tennant commenting on how great the script is, and how nice a person Russell is. Davies was then interviewed by the host Eamonn O'Neal, and talked about his work on Chucklevision and Mine All Mine, before moving on to Doctor Who, and how it mustn't be aimed simply at the audience who grew up with it. "I think that's the most important thing," Davies said, "if we were doing it for nostalgia, just to look back and make a pastiche of what was, I'd think - what was the point of that? I fell in love with that programme when I was 8 years old, and it actually made me fall in love with television full stop. And I'm still here, 'twenty' years later. It's aiming for those 8 year olds who sit there now: who want something like that. I mean, they've got American things like Buffy, but (it's important) to have something set in Britain, that's really British." Davies also said that the discussions about the use of the Daleks went all the way to the controller of BBC1, who was insistent that they were included, "Because everyone loves them." And when wrapping up, O'Neal stated that both Casanova and Doctor Who would start in March,... and Russell didn't contradict him. (Thanks to David John Parker)

We've received the cover illustration for February 2005's CD release of the audio soundtrack of The Underwater Menace, the adventure starring Patrick Troughton, Frazer Hines, Anneke Wills and Michael Craze. Click on the thumbnail for a larger version. (Thanks to Stephen Roddam, Mark Backhurst)

At right is the cover illustration for the forthcoming Script Doctor book by former series script editor Andrew Cartmel, featuring an introduction by Sylvester McCoy, sent to us by the Galaxy 4 retail shop. "Script Doctor" is Cartmel's memoir of his time working on the show as script editor during the McCoy era. Click on the thumbnail for a larger version. (Thanks to Galaxy 4 for the cover illustration!)

A few updates we can pass along: in the third episode (still tentatively called "The Unquiet Dead"), we can attach two confirmed actors with their roles -- Eve Miles plays Gwyneth and Alan David plays Gabriel Sneed -- while a new name,Meic Povey, plays The Driver. Also, Paul McFadden is the sound editor for the new series; his credits include "Agent Cody Banks 2," "Waking the Dead" and "Captain Corelli's Mandolin," and he was nominated for an MPSE Golden Reel award and won a BAFTA Wales award for his work on the film "Veronica Guerin" with Cate Blanchett. Also, the latest issue of Dreamwatch magazine mentions the name of an alien race apparently appearing in Paul Cornell's episode (the one they note as "Death Day" although this is not the title): the race is called the Vanishers. December 15 update: I'm told this is also not correct, there is no race called the Vanishers in this story.