Big Finish's The Creed of the Kromon is now in release; this is the first story with new companion C'Rizz (Conrad Westmaas).

2004 will see some great stuff from the BBC Radio Collection. As previously announced, this year's first BBC audio release is Fury From the Deep, due out February 2, narrated by Frazer Hines. The audio release of The Wheel in Space is due out on CD on May 4; for the first time, Wendy Padbury (Zoe) narrates a story, having recorded her material on January 15 according to the BBCi site. Meanwhile, the re-release of Death Comes to Time in MP3 format has been pushed back to June 7, while The Crusade will be released on August 2 (likely with narration by William Russell, but that hasn't yet been confirmed). Details have also been revealed about the two Tales from the TARDISvolumes, now due out July 5; they both feature material only previously released on cassette. Volume one of "Tales" features the audio readings of the novelizations of "The Curse of Peladon" (by Jon Pertwee), "Kinda" (by Peter Davison) and "Attack of the Cybermen" (by Colin Baker), as well as two short-story collections, "Out of the Darkness" read by Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant and "Short Trips" read by Nicholas Courtney and Sophie Aldred. Volume two of "Tales" features readings of the novelizations of "Planet of the Daleks" (by Jon Pertwee), "Warriors of the Deep" (by Peter Davison) and "Vengeance on Varos" (by Colin Baker), as well as Paul McGann's reading of Gary Russell's "The Novel of the Film" and of the short story collection "Earth and Beyond". Finally, BBC Radio Collection will release a second volume of "Doctor Who at the BBC" sometime in the autumn. (Thanks to BBCi and Planet Who)

Big Finish has released the cover illustration and details for January's The Creed of the Kromon, the second in the new "season" of Paul McGann Eighth Doctor adventures; the blurb is below (click on the thumbnail for a larger version of the cover). Meanwhile, Big Finish revealed to DWM that its third series of Dalek Empire audios, six parts in total, will debut in May; also debuting at the same time will be a large-format script book for all eight plays of the first two seasons. "As well as the scripts themselves, there will be lots of extra bits and bobs, including cut scenes and alternative storylines," says writer Nicholas Briggs. 'I'm also going to do an ongoing commentary for each episode, although it'll be done in a Q&A interview format. Hopefully that'll get to the nub of what people actually want to know, and cut down on the waffle!" Concerning the stories themselves: "I've had the basic storyline mapped out for a while now, but in writing it I found it's taken on a life of its own. Some of the old characters will be returning, but there'll also be plenty of new ones. ... [The Daleks] are even nastier. They've become even more desperate - and even more cunning..." Finally, a newtrailer has been issued for the February audio release, The Natural History of Fear.

In another development, Big Finish's Bernice Summerfield series (featuring the further adventures of the former Doctor Who book companion) continues in both books and audios throughout 2004 and 2005, with four CDs and four hardback books due in 2004: April sees the release of a novel, followed in July by a collection of three novellas in one volume; another anthology edited by Paul Cornell follows in September, and a book similar in format to Big Finish's recent "Inside Story" written by Ian Farrington due in November, which will begin with Benny's first appearance in Love and War, and cover all her other appearances in books and audios. Meanwhile, Gary Russell told Outpost Gallifrey that the appearance of two new items on Amazon is incorrect: "I have emailed Amazon to point out that no such titles exist and have asked them to remove them . I'm not sure what would happen if you tried ordering them from Amazon. Who knows what one might get!! No one at Big Finish has supplied Amazon with these titles and whilst it's always nice to see our stuff offered by Amazon, in this case, I'm afraid neither The Swan Princess nor The Giant Robots are actually Big Finish/Bernice Summerfield titles." Finally, Big Finish posted the cover and blurb for The Axis of Evil, the latest CD offering, due out in January. (Thanks to Simon Catlow, Gary Russell, Big Finish)

Big Finish has released details about its forthcoming four-part miniseries caleld Gallifrey, to be released on audio next year and starring Lalla Ward as Romana and Louise Jameson as Leela. Says director/producer Gary Russell: "I've always loved the Doctor's home planet and feel that the actual society therein was never explored very deeply on TV. Oh we saw a few High Council meetings, and the odd assassination but I've always wanted to find out how the hierarchy ticks. How they cope under pressure. What Time Lords actually do all day long, and why. How do they cope with a Madame President with a somewhat more shady past than most of her predecessors, with a friend like Leela an off-worlder with a very different cultural heritage. I always felt, perhaps during the Tom Baker era, that an opportunity was missed by not stranding the Doctor on his home planet for a season. The Deadly Assassin and Invasion of Time so diluted the mystery of the Time Lords and yet added so many new layers to their story, I feel it would have been nice to discover a bit more. In the case of this mini-series, with no Doctor around, we might learn a few secrets that we've otherwise only had hints of before. I imagine this series to be The West Wing meets Spooks to some extent, with a dash of The Sopranos perhaps."

The first chapter is Weapon of Choice by Alan Barnes, which focuses on political bickering between the races who have some mastery over time, and a terrible super weapon that could erase entire continuums. But who developed the weapon, and will they use it? Part two is Square One by Stephen Cole, in which Leela goes under cover to attempt to expose the traitors who are attempting to destroy the d?tente that exists, tenuous as it is, between the temporally-capable species. Justin Richards penned part three, The Inquiry where Romana's methods in dealing with the other races come under the scrutiny of the Gallifeyan hierarchy. The final chapter is A Blind Eye by Alan Barnes, in which Romana must deal with exactly that which she has been afraid of: Someone is taking advantage of the space/time vortex and changing timelines to suit themselves... Says Russell, "Both Lalla and Louise were very excited by the ideas we discussed during Zagreus, and hopefully a couple of other familiar voices may crop up from time to time, including John Leeson as the voice of a K9 or two!" (Thanks to Big Finish)

BBCi today confirmed our story from the weekend that The Wheel in Space will be out on CD in 2004. Meanwhile, according to the folks at the Galaxy 4 shop, the new Tales From the TARDIS CD and the previously released Death Comes to Time will be released as MP3-CD's in April; "Tales" is currently an unknown commodity but we believe it might include the previously released "Short Trips," "Earth and Beyond" and "Out of the Unknown" only available on cassette. (No word on a release of "Tales" as a normal CD.) Galaxy 4 also says that the BBC "intend to issue ALL the incomplete stories on CD including the ones previously released with BBC Video titles such as The Ice Warriors, The Invasion and The Tenth Planet. This is so that fans can hear the stories complete without having to swap between formats." (Thanks to BBCi, Galaxy 4)

According to the Galaxy 4 shop website, the BBC Radio Collection release of The Wheel in Space starring Patrick Troughton has been set for May 2004. This would be their second release of 2004; nothing, however has yet been confirmed. (Thanks to Galaxy 4, Richard Mawson)

Big Finish has released the cover illustration and blurb for Scherzo, December's Doctor Who play with only two cast members; click on the thumbnail below left for a larger version. Also in release is the cover illustration for the forthcoming "Doctor Who: The Audio Scripts - Volume Three" which includes the scripts of "Spare Parts," "The Spectre of Lanyon Moor," "The Rapture" and "The Chimes of Midnight"; click the thumbnail below right. Meanwhile, several details about new and forthcoming products: The Inside Story by Benjamin Cook, the new hardcover about the first four years of Big Finish audios, is now in release (and what a lovely book it is, too). Also out is Master by Joseph Lidster, although apparently the first of the two CD's in some packages has a fault preventing it from playing (Big Finish asks on itswebsite to contact them with details and they'll replace it). Also out is The Wormery by Paul Magrs & Stephen Cole, the 51st story, which surprisingly has been issued before the release of the anniversary story, "Zagreus"; but the sixth Unbound serial, Exile was delayed until this week due to German holidays!