The UK casting newsletter PCR (Professional Casting Review) today contains the following information: the casting director on the new Doctor Who series is Andy Pryor, whose casting credits include "Long Time Dead," "Beautiful Thing," "Trainspotting TV: The Long Firm," "Cutting It," "Linda Green" and "In a Land of Plenty," among others. The PCR article also mentions that shooting for the series "is anticipated for late spring" meaning that the production is a bit further along than previously believed. OG speculates that, because of this, an announcement of a new Doctor is probably due within the next month or two.

According to Tenth Planet, the recent BBC limited edition audio Dalek Tin - which included "The Power of the Daleks," "The Evil of the Daleks" and "My Life as a Dalek" all on CD - has now been deleted by the BBC Radio Collection. The individual releases (at least the first two) will likely be available individually in the future, but not as this boxed edition.

Terrance Dicks, Matthew Waterhouse and Peter Moffatt recently were in studio recording commentary on "State of Decay" for DVD, though no release has yet been planned.

Bill Nighy, long noted as a choice of new producer Russell T. Davies to play the Doctor, is apparently not interested, Nighy's wife Diana Quick stated after a performance of her play "After Mrs. Rochester" at the Richmond Theatre recently. Quick -- who starred as Prime in BBCi's "The Scream of the Shalka" -- was quoted by our correspondent as Nighy having been offered the role of the Doctor, but turned it down. Nighy also delivered a cryptic acceptance speech at the Evening Standard Film Awards on February 5; picking up the gong for Best Comedy Performance (for playing an ageing rocker in Love Actually), Nighy pointed out that recently he's played both a vampire and a zombie before noting: 'I've reached that difficult age where I can only play men from different dimensions.' Although it was recently announced that he has been cast as Slartibartfast in the Hammer & Tong film adaptation of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, could he also have been hinting at something dearer to our hearts? While this is second-hand information, OG felt it reliable enough to report as things are indeed progressing behind the scenes. (Thanks to Trevor Dobbin, Jim Sangster)

The Green Death, the final story of season 10 and the last to feature Katy Manning as Jo Grant, will be the next DVD release in the UK after "Pyramids of Mars," likely out May 10. The DVD includes commentary from Manning, Terrance Dicks and Barry Letts, as well as interviews with effects designer Colin Mapson, writer Robert Sloman and actor Stewart Bevan (Clifford Jones), as well as "Global Conspiracy", a featurette described as "Man Alive's original 70's environmental reporter, Terry Scanlon, revisits Llanfairfach thirty years on, where troubles seem to be resurfacing..." A short piece called "What Katy Did Next" which was announced as an extra by the British Board of Film Classification will not be on the disc due to space issues (not rights issues as we originally mentioned; the disc producers asked for 45 minutes of extras and the Restoration Team was forced to leave off 10 minutes including this and an easter egg compilation of continuity announcements; hopefully they can be included on a future disc.) The release will be a single disc.

Several (likely erroneous) reports online have insinuated that magician Paul Daniels will be the next Doctor. Says an article at people.co.uk, "TV chiefs have already talked to Daniels, 65, famous for his catchphrase 'You'll like it; not a lot, but you'll like it.' A source said: 'Paul may seem an extraordinary choice, but he would make a very entertaining Time Lord. He may even be able to use his magic to defeat enemies like the Daleks and Cybermen.'" The article also mentions the names Shane Richie, Stephen Fry and Eddie Izzard. As usual, we'd advise you to take this with a grain of salt.

Phil Collinson, formerly a producer on "Born and Bred," "Linda Green" and the paranorma drama "Sea of Souls" currently airing on BBC1, is the new producer of the forthcoming Doctor Who series, joining Russell T. Davies, Mal Young and Julie Gardner. "I am delighted to be joining the team bringing back such an iconic and exciting series," Phil told Doctor Who Magazine. "I'm going to relish terrifying a whole new generation and putting such a well-loved character back on our TV screens where he belongs." In the latest issue of DWM, Russell T Davies notes that 13 episodes will be made, and he will be writing seven of them; the other six writers will be announced in only a few short weeks in issue 341 of DWM -- Outpost Gallifrey has been asked not to reveal them, though we do know the list (and that one original writer had a change of heart and decided not to submit a script after all.) He also notes that "Rose is only the first of the companions we've got planned," suggesting more companions will be added to the mix. Russell noted that he will be writing a regular column for the magazine starting with issue 341.

January 18th's BBC Radio Five Live's "Brief Lives" show (an obituary programme) featured a segment on Dinsdale Landen ("The Curse of Fenric"), featuring an interview with his wife discussing his work on Fenric. (Thanks to Chris Patient)