Big Finish has updated its pages with the cover illustration for the forthcoming audio release Scaredy Cat by Will Shindler, starring Paul McGann; and the forthcoming original short story anthology Wildthyme On Top edited by Paul Magrs, featuring the character Iris Wildthyme (as played by Katy Manning in the Big Finish audios). Click on the thumbnails below for larger versions. The Big Finish site also notes recent mailings and releases, including the first installment of the Sapphire and Steel range starring David Warner ("Sympathy For the Devil") and Susannah Harker ("Shada").

Big Finish posted a few updates today on forthcoming audio plays. The cover illustrations for Caroline Symcox's The Council of Nicaea and Joseph Lidster's Terror Firma are both now online; click the thumbnails below for a larger version. Also posted were details on a few other audio plays... December's Other Lives by Gary Hopkins features appearances by actorsRon Moody and "Tomorrow People" star Mike Holloway, while October'sScaredy Cat by Will Shindler features Arthur Bostrom from "Allo, Allo". Finally, Big Finish announced that the fourth UNIT play, The Wasting will see release in June. More details on the Big Finish website.

A few items of note for forthcoming material from Big Finish. Chapter four of the UNIT audio series will be released at the end of this month; "The Wasting" features the return of Nicholas Courtney as the Brigadier, and David Tennant-- soon to play the tenth Doctor on BBC television -- reprising his role of Colonel Brimmicombe-Wood from the Unbound audio "Sympathy for the Devil". "The Wasting" is also directed by Nicola Bryant (who plays Peri). Big Finish has also released details of its three "new worlds" spinoff books:Wildthyme on Top, the anthology featuring the character of bus-driving Time Lady Iris Wildthyme (played on audio by Katy Manning); The Coming of the Queen, a novel about the early life of Erimem, the current traveling companion of the Fifth Doctor and Peri played on audio by Caroline Morris; andProject: Valhalla, a sequel novel to the audios "Project: Twilight" and "Project: Lazarus" about the mysterious Forge. Details on all three are listed below. There's also some more concrete information about this year's Bernice Summerfield series release dates: the five audios this year will be released in May ("The Heart's Desire"), July ("The Kingdom of the Blind"), September ("The Lost Museum"), October ("The Crystal of Cantus") and December ("The Goddess Quandary").

Big Finish has issued details of the next year of its Bernice Summerfieldseries, continuing the spinoff adventures of the former Doctor Who novel companion from the Virgin New Adventures series. 2005 will see the release of the following audios, with exact dates TBA: David Bailey and Neil Corry penThe Heart's Desire (cover and blurb on the release calendar); Jacqueline Rayner writes The Kingdom of the Blind; Simon Guerrier writes The Lost Museum; Joseph Lidster pens The Crystal of Cantus; and Andy Russell writes The Goddess Quandary. Also in release: a novel by Mark Michalowski, The Tree of Life; the previously-rumored three-novella hardcover; and the short story anthology Something Changed edited by Guerrier. Also due out in early 2006 are two additional audios, with no attached authors: The Tartarus Gate and The Dyson Ring. Full details are in the release guide.

Big Finish has released many new details about its forthcoming releases over the next twelve months, above and beyond our April 3 news report from the latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine. The updates include the cover blurb forCatch 1782, due out later this month; the cover blurbs and illustrated covers for Three's a Crowd andUnregenerate!, the May and June 2005 releases; cover blurb for The Council of Nicea and Terror Firma in July and August; confirmation of Thicker Than Water in early September; blurbs for Live 34 and Scaredy Cat in late September and October; confirmation ofThe Kingmaker in November; the blurb for Other Lives in December; and three new audio confirmations: Pier Pressure by Robert Ross (sixth Doctor, January 2006), Night Thoughts by Ed Young (seventh Doctor, February 2006) and Time Works by Steve Lyons (eighth Doctor, March 2006), with blurbs for the January and March audios... all of these can be found below. Of note, besides Deborah Watling's guest appearance in "Three's a Crowd," the audio "Unregenerate!" features a guest appearance by Jennie Linden, who played Barbara in the "Dr. Who and the Daleks" film of the 1960's. Also confirmed is the title for the next "Doctor Who Unbound" serial starring David Warner and Nicholas Courtney: it's The Dark Palace and currently has no scheduled date. The two Iris Wildthyme audios starring Katy Manning also have names: they're Wildthyme at Large by Paul Magrs, due in October; and The Devil In Ms. Wildthyme by Stephen Cole, due in November. Two additional "Short Trips" hardcover anthologies have also been announced: September 2005 will see the release of Short Trips: Solar System edited by Gary Russell and December 2005 sees Short Trips: The History of Christmas edited by Simon Guerrier; the writer list for "Solar System" includes Eddie Robson, Stuart Manning, Jim Mortimore, Trevor Baxendale, Andy Russell, Alison Lawson, Craig Hinton, Richard Dinnick, Andrew Frankham and Dale Smith.

BBC Worldwide has now made available most of the back collection of Doctor Who soundtracks from BBC Audiobooks on the iTunes music store system owned by Apple. The offerings include many of the narrated episode soundtracks, as well as both collections ("Adventures in History" and "Yeti Attack!"), the "Slipback," "Death Comes to Time" and "Paradise of Death" radio dramas, both "Tales From the TARDIS" volumes and "Doctor Who at the BBC". You can find them in the Music Store on iTunes; you must have the software installed on your PC to use it. (Thanks to Shawn Fuller)

Amazon.co.uk now features the full cover illustrations for two forthcoming releases from BBC Audiobooks: , The Crusade, the season two classic starring William Hartnell due out on May 2 (narrated by William Russell), andThe Power of the Daleks Reconstructed, the MP3-CD release due out June 6 featuring the previously-released soundtrack for the serial as well as telesnap photos to play along with it in your CD-ROM (though for some reason, Amazon lists this as a "cassette" release). Click on the thumbnails below for each for a larger version; meanwhile, you can order them through Amazon (and help out Outpost Gallifrey) using the following links: Crusadeand Power. (Thanks to Dan O'Malley, Lonnie Readioff)

While it's not Doctor Who per se, the combined fourth and fifth (and final) radio series adapting former Doctor Who script editor Douglas Adams' The Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy books four and five, "So Long and Thanks for All The Fish" and "Mostly Harmless," as well as additional material especially written for radio, debuts on May 3 on BBC Radio 4. Returning cast members Simon Jones (Arthur Dent), Mark Wing-Davey (Zaphod), Susan Sheridan (Trillian), Geoffrey McGivern (Ford Prefect), Stephen Moore (Marvin) and William Franklyn (the Book) are joined for this final eight-episode installment by Hitchhikers' veterans Sandra Dickinson and David Dixon (who played Trillian and Ford in the 1970's television series), Stephen Fry (who plays the Book in the new film adaptation), Rula Lenska (who played Lintilla and her clones from the second radio series), Bill Paterson (the Arcturan pilot from episode 7 of the radio show), Roy Hudd (reprising compere Max Quordlepleen from Milliways) and Jonathan Pryce (reprising Zarniwoop), as well as appearances by "Absolutely Fabulous" actresses Jane Horrocks (as Fenchurch) and June Whitfield (as the Raffle Woman), Miriam Margolyes (as the Photocopier Woman), Indian actor Saeed Jaffrey (as the Man on the Pole) and American comedian Jackie Mason as the East River Creature. Meanwhile, the long-awaited film adaptation of the first book, "The Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy," opens later this month with Stephen Fry, "The Office" actor Martin Freeman, Mos Def, Zooey Deschanel, former "Doctor Who" Ninth Doctor candidate Bill Nighy (as Slartibartfast) and John Malkovich.

The latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine notes that Big Finish has renewed its licence from the BBC to continue to produce Doctor Who audio plays and Short Trips story collection through to Autumn 2008. Also noted in the issue is their forthcoming schedule of releases. After the next batch of stories, which includes Catch-1782 by Alison Lawson (with Colin Baker and Bonnie Langford), Three's a Crowd by Colin Brake (with Peter Davison) andUnregenerate! by David McIntee (with Sylvester McCoy and Bonnie Langford), the issue confirms that July's release will be The Council of Niceaby Caroline Symcox, starring Peter Davison, to be followed by Terror Firmaby Joseph Lidster, starring Paul McGann, India Fisher and Conrad Westmaas (presumably continuing the cliffhanger at the end of "The Next Life") in August, rescheduled from earlier. Thicker Than Water, which Outpost Gallifrey previously reported was a sequel to Paul Sutton's "Arrangements for War" written by the same author and starring Colin Baker, Maggie Stables and Bonnie Langford together for the first time, is due in "early September," because "late September" features Live 34 by James Parson and Andrew Stirling-Brown, a Seventh Doctor story. Scaredy Cat by Will Shindler is October's audio, starring Paul McGann; November will feature The Kingmaker by Nev Fountain, featuring Peter Davison and bearing both a regular cover as well as a second "special" cover available through Tenth Planet (like last year's "Caerdroia); and December sees the release of Other Lives by Gary Hopkins, starring Paul McGann. The issue also notes thatDeborah Watling, who played Victoria Waterfield during the Patrick Troughton era, will be the special guest star in "Three's a Crowd," playing the role of Auntie; and that David Warner and Nicholas Courtney will return in aneighth "Doctor Who: Unbound" serial written by Jonathan Clements, who penned their first story together, "Sympathy for the Devil".

The long-continuing Soldiers of Love audio series from MJTV, which began in the early 1990'sk from producer Mark Thompson, is about to publish its 14th and final installment. "Blood Ties" will bring the series to a close, with appearances by Nicholas Courtney and "Blake's 7" stars Gareth Thomas and Jacqueline Pearce. More information is available at theirwebsite. (Thanks to Mark J Thompson)