BBCi has named the forthcoming 40th anniversary of Doctor Who documentary on BBC-1: it's The Story of Doctor Who. The hour-long documentary is being produced in-house at the BBC, with Kevin Davies ("More Than Thirty Years in the TARDIS") acting as advisor. Actors and crew from the series will be interviewed and filming will take place over the next several weeks, with a target date of airing sometime in December. (Thanks to BBCi)

The latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine has further details about the forthcoming The Scream of the Shalka by Paul Cornell, the animated Doctor Who story debuting on the web in November. According to DWM, the full cast includes Richard E. Grant (the Doctor), Sophie Okonedo (Alison), Jim Norton (Major Thomas Kennett), Diana Quick (Prime), Craig Kelly (Joe), Anna Calder Marshall (Mathilda), Andrew Dunn (Max), Connor Moloney (Sgt. Graves), David Tennant and Ben Morrison (the Caretakers), and Derek Jacobi (the Master). Cornell mentions that his novelisation will add "loads of detail, including lines and scenes, and have huge depth"; the book will also feature an article on the making of the story and some interviews. (Thanks to DWM)

BBC Director General Greg Dyke announced today that the BBC will be opening up its archives of radio and television programs to be downloaded from the Internet. The new service, called the BBC Creative Archive, will be free and available to anyone not seeking to use the material for commercial purposes. "The BBC probably has the best television library in the world," said Dyke. "Up until now this huge resource has remained locked up, inaccessible to the public because there hasn't been an effective mechanism for distribution. But the digital revolution and broadband are changing all that. For the first time there is an easy and affordable way of making this treasure trove of BBC content available to all." There is no word about exactly what will be included in this Creative Archive, nor whether or not Doctor Who (which is a viable commercial property for the BBC) would be made available in any form on it, but it is certainly a change in philosophy for the originators of the show we celebrate here. (Thanks to Michael Zecca and Jonathan Baldwin for letting us know!)

The official website of Richard E. Grant, the actor confirmed yesterday as playing the Ninth Doctor, actually noted several weeks ago on its pages that Grant was playing the Doctor, and apparently news didn't reach us! The official site informs us that the title of the forthcoming animated webcast is The Scream of the Shalka by Paul Cornell, and states that the story is five episodes (other sources say six). The article also mentions, curiously, that Derek Jacobi is in it (in addition to his appearance in Big Finish's Unbound series, previously reported) as well as actress Sophie Okonedo (whose repetoire includes various film roles -- the Grant site mistakenly identifies her as Sophie Okinodod),Craig Kelly (Vince in the UK version of "Queer as Folk") and Diana Quick ("Brideshead Revisited"). The website also states that this animated project will eventually be released on DVD. None of this information has been confirmed yet by BBCi but has seen pretty wide discussion elsewhere. Meanwhile, Cornell has made further comments on Outpost Gallifrey's forum with some additional information on the webcast. "I'm going to hang onto doing Ninth Doctor stuff as long as they'll let me, and as long as there's stuff to be done," he says. "There's no regeneration sequence. We start a long time after that. Yes, there's a new companion. People have somehow seen this as doing down McGann, but I don't feel that it is at all. I love the Eighth Doctor. This is just a new start. This will be accessible to new viewers, but will hopefully please the old ones at the same time. There's nothing to get in the way for new viewers." He adds that the animation "is more like [BBCi's] Ghosts of Albion" and the script "is written to be watched rather than heard. One of the joys of this is being able to write lines like: 'hundreds of monsters surround the Tardis'. It also makes storytelling faster. ... And yes, it was written especially for Richard." (Thanks to the official Richard E. Grant website and Paul Cornell)

Doctor Who is indeed returning for the show's 40th anniversary, in a special new six-part audio webcast on BBCi. Following in the footsteps of the earlier animated webcasts "Death Comes to Time," "Real Time" and "Shada," the fourth webcast (still untitled) is written by Paul Cornell ("The Shadows of Avalon") and will star none other than popular British actor Richard E. Grant(who also played one of the future Doctors in the charity special "The Curse of Fatal Death"). Grant describes his interpretation as "something of a 'Sherlock Holmes in Space.'"

Cornell, posting on the Outpost Gallifrey forum, had this to say about the project: "This is the start of everything again, not the end. Don't be scared. The Ninth Doctor is Richard E. Grant, fully animated... fully animated, not Shada animated... Batmanlike rather than Shadalike. With a new companion, a new military liaison, new monsters, and a vastly starry cast!" Cornell says that "if the response is good enough, then there'll be more. (And listen: you *never know* where this could end up.)" Cornell goes on to confirm that this is indeed the official, BBC made and sanctioned Ninth Doctor, approved by all the requisite parts of the BBC that needed input on this. "Traditional but original is what we're going for," says Cornell. "Very Hinchcliffe/Dicks, but with no previously used elements and only a tiny smidge of continuity. This story starts after the Ninth Doctor's been in the job for several years. And quite a lot has happened to him. So there's room for all continuities to resolve themselves. And BBC Books has made a positive response, and are talking about stuff."

Apparently the story will completely disregard "Curse of Fatal Death" (this Ninth Doctor isn't Grant's Doctor in that charity satire.) Cornell says he is "honoured to have the chance to set the Doctor off on another forty years of adventures," said Paul. "Just wait until you hear Richard! He is the Doctor!" The story is set to debut in mid-November, in time to celebrate the show's 40th anniversary. (Thanks to BBCi and Paul Cornell)

In a post to the Outpost Gallifrey Forum, director Nicholas Pegg noted that the long-awaited BBCi debut of Shada, the third webcast with Paul McGann, Lalla Ward and John Leeson, would be on Friday, May 2. (Thanks to Nick Pegg)