Big Finish has released the final cover design for the upcoming Seventh Doctor release, Noctorne, starring Sylvester McCoy as the Doctor, Sophie Aldred as Ace and Philip Olivier as Hex.

Also available is the cover art for the upcoming Fifth Doctor adventure Circular Time, starring Peter Davison as the Doctor and Sarah Sutton as Nyssa.

Circular Time is scheduled for release in January 2007, Nocturne in February.

Doctor Who author Craig Hinton, a longtime contributor to the Virgin and BBC Books novel lines and Big Finish's audio ranges, has died. He was 42.

Hinton first became known for his articles about various sci-fi television programmes, including Doctor Who and Star Trek. He was also for a time editor of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society's journal Celestial Toyroom. This work brought him to the attention of the editor of Doctor Who Magazine, who offered him the role of reviewing merchandise for the magazine's Shelf Life section. It was whilst writing for the magazine that Hinton had his first novel, The Crystal Bucephalus, published as part of Virgin Publishing's Missing Adventures range. The book - which Hinton often referred to as "The Crystal Bucket" - was originally submitted for Virgin's New Adventures, and 50,000 words of this version were written before the change was made.

This novel was followed by a further Missing Adventure, Millennial Rites in 1995, and then by Hinton's only New Adventure in 1996, GodEngine, which featured the Ice Warriors as well as oblique appearances by the Daleks.

Following Virgin's loss of their licence to produce Doctor Who novels, Hinton began submitting proposals to BBC Booksand in 2001 they published his novel The Quantum Archangel as part of their Past Doctor Adventures range. This was followed in 2004 by the novel Synthespians, which again had started life as a proposal for the current incumbent Doctor before being altered to feature a previous Doctor. Synthespians also came into difficulties when an image of the television show Dynasty was used on the cover: the cover's creators had arranged for permission to use the copyrighted image, but had neglected to arrange permission to alter it, and so at the last minute a replacement cover had to be produced. It is this that appeared on the cover of the novel.

Hinton also wrote for Big Finish, with the Doctor Who audio play Excelis Decays being produced in 2002 and theTomorrow People play The Lords of Forever in 2005. He also contributed short stories to a variety of Big Finish's short fiction collections.

Hinton spoke often of having coined the term "fanwank" in some of his past reviews to refer to novels or stories that relied heavily on past continuity. Ironically, the term would often be applied to Hinton's own work, which frequently incorporated a great deal of Doctor Who history; Hinton himself embraced the label.

His most recent published work consisted of reviews of the 2006 Doctor Who episodes, published in Second Flight: Back to the Vortex II by Outpost Gallifrey's editor Shaun Lyon. Hinton formed part of the international panel of reviewers giving their thoughts on each episode for the book, which was released less than a fortnight before his death. At the time of his death, Hinton was working with co-writer Chris McKeon on a project called Time's Champion, a novel based on a former BBC Books submission of his which would have explained the circumstances surrounding the Sixth Doctor's regeneration. Hinton intended to publish the completed project online, and McKeon intends to complete the work in memory of Hinton and make it available to fans.

Hinton, an active and popular member of the Doctor Who fan community since the 1980s, was a regular poster on the Outpost Gallifrey forum since its inception in 2001. A memorial thread has been opened on the forum to leave tributes and share memories.

Outpost Gallifrey would like to offer its sincere condolences to all of Hinton's family and friends.

(Some details sourced from Wikipedia; additional reporting by Paul Hayes & Arnold T. Blumberg. Photograph is of Craig from the Gallifrey 2005 convention.)

The new series soundtrack CD is officially released by Silva Screen Records on Monday, December 4, although pre-ordered copies have already started arriving.

It comprises 31 tracks by composer Murray Gold, taken from Series 1 and 2. The first and last tracks are the title music (listed as TV Version at 41" and Album Version at 2' 36").

Neil Hannon, from The Divine Comedy, sings Song For Ten, which featured in The Christmas Invasion but was sung then by Tim Phillips, and Love Don't Roam from the forthcoming Christmas special The Runaway Bride.

It comes with a 16-page illustrated booklet that has an introduction by series executive producer Julie Gardner and track notes by Gold.

The initial pressing comes in a slipcase bearing the legend "Collector's Limited Edition" and has an exclusive badge (inside the CD case) with the cover image of Billie Piper and David Tennant and the series logo.

Downloadable samples from three of the tracks are available from the website.

BBC Audiobooks has issued a full press release for the three audio CD readings of the recent Doctor Who novels The Feast of the Drowned, The Resurrection Casket and The Stone Rose due on 3 July. Details are below. (Thanks to Lucy Groom/BBC Audiobooks)

According to Amazon.co.uk, there has been a change to the lineup of Tenth Doctor novels planned for 21 September release. Now listed along with Stephen Cole's The Art of Destruction and Mike Tucker's The Nightmare of Black Island, is The Price of Paradise by Colin Brake, replacing Jacqueline Rayner's previously announced "The Last Museum". The details on Brake's book are in the outset box, below.

Amazon.co.uk is also listing an 6 November MP3-CD release from BBC Audiobooks of Doctor Who Reconstructed: The Highlanders, which will be the second release in the Reconstructed range, following 2005's "The Power of the Daleks". Details listed below.

Big Finish has announced some new developments for their late 2006/early 2007 Doctor Who audio releases.Maureen O'Brien, who played the role of companion Vicki in seasons 2 and 3 of the classic series, will guest star alongside Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant (the sixth Doctor and Peri) in the January 2007 audio The Year of the Pig by Matthew Sweet; her character, Miss Alice Bultitude is "A dotty collector of theatrical ephemera". Also appearing in the story are Blake's 7 actor Michael Keating, who previously starred in the Big Finish audio "The Twilight Kingdom," andAdjoa Andoh, who starred in this season's Doctor Who TV episode "New Earth" as Sister Jatt of the Sisters of Plenitude. Says DWM, "The story is set nineteenth-century Ostend, where the Doctor and Peri become embroiled in an attempt to locate theatre legend Toby the Sapient Pig." Paul Brooke also stars as Toby.

Two additional guest stars from the new series will make appearances in this year's July release, The Nowhere Placeby Nicholas Briggs, featuring Colin Baker and Maggie Stables as the Sixth Doctor and Evelyn: Martha Cope, seen in "Bad Wolf" as the Controller, and John Schwab, who played Bywater in "Dalek".

Finally, this September will see the story The Reaping by Joseph Lidster, featuring Baker and Bryant. Making a guest appearance in the story is actress Claudia Christian, star of the cult favorite "Babylon 5" for four years as Susan Ivanova; Christian here plays Peri's mother Janine Foster. Also starring in the episode is "Terrahawks" actress Denise Bryer. "The Reaping" is linked to the other September release, "The Gathering".

Big Finish has new word of the third batch of its Gallifrey miniseries today. "The first instalment of third and final series of Gallifrey will be released in May 2006. The series is set to bring the Time Lord saga to a dramatic climax. Gallifrey Series Three will star Lalla Ward as Romana, Louise Jameson as Leela, John Leeson as K9 and Mary Tamm as the evil Pandora who inhabits the body of the first Romana. Picking up scant weeks after the end of the previous series, the new set of five plays sees President Romana beleaguered and losing the civil war begun by the ancient Gallifreyan Imperiatrix, Pandora. Pandora is using a reconstituted body that of Romana's first incarnation, giving her access to everything a President could need to wage war, and threaten the other Trans Temporal Powers. As if that wasn't enough to deal with, Romana and her loyal followers will also have to contend with the aftermath of the Dogma Virus and those behind its release, the enigmatic Free Time conspirators." Also released today are covers for Nev Fountain's The Kingmaker released in April (starring Peter Davison, Nicola Bryant and Caroline Morris) and Simon Guerrier's The Settling in May (starring Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred and Philip Olivier); they can both be found on the Release Guide page here.

BBC Audiobooks have issued a press release for The Dalek Conquests, a new CD release that we first reported on in December. The release is attached below and the cover illustration for the release is at right; click on the thumbnail image for a larger version.