Stephen Cole will be returning to the novel fold next January, penning To the Slaughter, an Eighth Doctor novel from BBC Books. Says the new issue (#341) of Doctor Who Magazine, which announced it, "the Doctor and friends find themselves in Changing Rooms ... but on a planetary scale!" The issue promises news from editor Justin Richards about the future of the novel line, in light of the new series, in issue 342. (Thanks to DWM)

Issue #341 of Doctor Who Magazine is out and features news on an important discovery (one we've been waiting for the issue's release to report on): a full set of telesnaps from six of seven episodes of the lost Doctor Who serialMarco Polo have been recovered. "Marco Polo" is the only story from the show's first season that is missing completely from the archives, other than extensive behind-the-scenes photographic evidence... but not visuals from the actual broadcast itself. Fan Derek Handley was instrumental in the recovery, having contacted serial director Waris Hussein recently and discovered that Hussein did indeed have telesnaps from the six episodes he was responsible for directing in his possession (Hussein did not direct episode 4, "The Wall of Lies," and therefore does not possess telesnaps from the story.) The prints themselves are beautiful, and include such lost treasures as the legendary moving map that Mark Eden (as Marco Polo) narrated over during the story. The telesnaps - originally shot by John Cura as photographic evidence for the story's director, in the days far before VCRs - were arranged to be returned to the BBC and Hussein negotiated directly with Doctor Who Magazine to be able to run them; DWM will run all six episodes' telesnaps in sequence, one per issue, starting with #342. Hussein also possessed old videotapes of other items he directed for the BBC (but none of them are Doctor Who.) Further details on the recovery of the Marco Polo telesnaps can be found in this month's issue of DWM.

Both Doctor Who Magazine #341 and an internal BBC magazine, Ariel, have announced the writers signed for the first season of the new Doctor Who series. Joining producer Russell T. Davies, who will pen 8 episodes himself, are:

• Mark Gatiss, best known as the writer and co-creator of "The League of Gentlemen" and the author of several Doctor Who stories including the novels "Last of the Gaderene," "St. Anthony's Fire," "The Roundheads" and "Nightshade" and the Big Finish audios "Phantasmagoria" and "Invaders from Mars," and who penned several of the P.R.o.B.e. videos for BBV
• Steven Moffat, the creator of BBC2's popular comedy series "Coupling" which won "Sitcom of the Year" at the British Comedy Awards, and whose previous Doctor Who credit was the teleplay for the Comic Relief special "The Curse of Fatal Death" with Rowan Atkinson, Julia Sawalha and Jonathan Pryce
• Paul Cornell, the popular writer whose work includes episodes of "Casualty," "Wavelength," "Doctors," "Children's Ward" and "Springhill," and whose Doctor Who works include such novels as "Happy Endings," "Love and War," "The Shadows of Avalon" and both the screenplay for and novelisation of BBCi's "The Scream of the Shalka"
• Rob Shearman, an acclaimed playwright and stage writer who has written Big Finish's most popular Doctor Who audio teleplays including "The Holy Terror," "The Chimes of Midnight," "Jubilee," "Scherzo" and "Deadline," and who was awarded Writer of the Year at 2003's Doctor Who Magazine awards in London in November

Producer Mal Young told Ariel, "I've never received so many requests from writers and actors to be involved in a drama series, as I have had for Doctor Who." Added producer Julie Gardner, "Finding writers for the new series of Doctor Who has been one of the best jobs I've ever had. The talent available was exceptional." Davies himself noted that he believes that he has "the best people in the business now working on the best show. They'll be writing stories ranging across the whole of time and space. The Doctor and Rose already have the best allies on their journey - brilliant writers with brilliant scripts. It's an honour to work with these people who are so talented; they shouldn't be allowed to travel together!" Outpost Gallifrey has learned that one of these newly confirmed writers will pen two scripts for Davies; another unnamed participant decided to withdraw at an earlier time (solely due to schedule complications). All are said to be working off of "very basic" ideas - rather than full outlines, as has been reported elsewhere - from Davies, who will generate the major framework of the first series and is leaving the actual details to these experienced TV writers. Filming on the new series begins "in the spring." More details as we get them. (Thanks to BBCi and DWM)

The new issue of Doctor Who Magazine confirms the forthcoming releases of Tales From the TARDIS, Volumes 1 & 2, which are both "MP3-CD" releases (not standard issue CD's, but instead featuring MP3 computer files on them) and are due out on July 5. As previously noted, the first volume includes "The Curse of Peladon" read by Jon Pertwee, "Kinda" read by Peter Davison, "Attack of the Cybermen" read by Colin Baker, the "Out of the Darkness" short story collection read by Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant, and the "Short Trips" anthology collection read by Nick Courtney and Sophie Aldred. Volume 2 features "Planet of the Daleks" read by Jon Pertwee, "Warriors of the Deep" read by Peter Davison, "Vengeance on Varos" read by Colin Baker, and two readings by Paul McGann, "Earth and Beyond" and the 1996 TV movie novelization. A small thumbnail of the cover is at right. DWM also confirms June 7 for the release of the MP3-CD version of Death Comes to Time and August 2 for the regular BBC Radio Collection audio soundtrack release The Crusade. (Thanks to Galaxy 4)

Something we missed during our couple of weeks down around the convention: Iron Legionis the first of DWM's new reprints of classic Doctor Who comics from the pages of the magazine of yesteryear. "Enter worlds where robot centurions defend the mighty Roman Empire, where love is punishable by death, where the colonists of New Earth live in fear of the vicious Wereloks, where a simple request for a cup of tea could lead to the end of everything, and where your best hope of escape is the 5A bus... Join the Doctor, that immortal traveller in time and space, on five of his wildest and wittiest comic strip adventures - The Iron Legion, City of the Damned, The Star Beast, Dogs of Doom and The Time Witch." Featuring work from the award-winning Dave Gibbons (Watchmen), Pat Mills and John Wagner (Judge Dredd, Strontium Dog), and Steve Moore (Abslom Daak), these five classic strips from the pages of Doctor Who Weekly have been digitally restored for the 21st century and are reprinted for the very first time in their original, black and white format, on glossy paper. Panini Books (publishers of DWM) will release this in March, with more to come later.

Out on March 4 is Issue 341 of Doctor Who Magazine, featuring part two of the interview with Lalla Ward; the first of Russell T. Davies' production diaries on the new series; Daniel O'Mahony's coda to "Accidental Tourist"; part four of the comic strip "Bad Blood"; Andrew Pixley's Archive Extras focuses on "The Ultimate Adventure"; plus information on the new series writers and, as Outpost Gallifrey has learned, word of an important discovery from the show's first season that has been rumored about for the past several weeks. Meanwhile, out March 18 is The Complete First Doctor, the sixth in their series of special editions focusing on a particular era of the show, including photographs and reviews and an afterword by Verity Lambert. Covers for both are below.

Big Finish producers Jason Haigh-Ellery, Gary Russell and John Ainsworth had some interesting comments about future developments in the Big Finish range at the recent Gallifrey convention. On the Doctor Who front: the Gallifrey audio series will start being released at the end of March, with one release per month, and a sequel miniseries is being planned (that might feature a two-Romana story). Russell said he was keen on doing a story featuring the Toymaker (if Michael Gough could be persuaded to reprise the role), a Rani story (if Pip & Jane Baker could be persuaded to write it), another Dalek-less Davros story, and a third story featuring Nimrod and the Forge (which would likely be later in their current 2004-2007 contractual run). Tegan will not appear as Janet Fielding does not have an interest in reprising the role. The seventh, forthcoming Unbound serial is apparently a sequel to one of the first six, though this is not definite. Bernice Summerfield will likely not be appearing in the regular Doctor Who range anymore, as the Seventh Doctor and Ace now have Hex along. Sylvester McCoy noted that he would continue to do the audious "until he couldn't see the pages anymore" and Paul McGann is also quite happy to continue in the role as long as the scripts are good. Two additional forthcoming stories in the range were mentioned, likely the August & September 2004 stories: Medicinal Purposesfeaturing the Sixth Doctor and Evelyn, a historical set in Scotland with the grave diggers who invented the modern autopsy, and Dead Man's Hand with the Seventh Doctor, Ace and Hex, set in the American Wild West and featuring Wild Bill Hickok; additionally, a Colin Baker / Bonnie Langford story will be out later this fall, which would be grittier and more serious than the two previous Mel adventures.

On the book front, details on the authors featured in the May 2004 Short Trips: Life Science edited by John Binns were featured in the most recent DWM, which include "The Changes" by Gareth Wigmore, "The End" by Alexander Leithes, "The Age of Ambition" by Andrew Campbell, "A Star is Reborn" by Richard Salter, "Mortal Thoughts" by Trevor Baxendale, "Sea Change" by Kate Orman, "Jonah" by Todd Green, "Observation" by Ian Farrington, "The Reproductive Cycle" by Matthew Griffiths, "Syntax" by David Bailey, "A Rose by any other name" by Jim Mortimore, "Sight Unseen" by John Seavey, "Land Land" by Jonathan Morris, "Northern Sights" by Mark Stevens, and "The Destroyers" by Steve Lyons. The next one, Short Trips: Repercussions edited by Gary Russell is out in June, while Short Trips: Monsters edited by Ian Farrington is out in August.

In other developments, Big Finish will shortly be announcing a new audio series based on Sapphire and Steel, as contracts have been signed with the estate of PJ Hammond, and a series based on the adventures of Luther Arkwright (a ten-part miniseries from the 1980's written by Bryan Talbot). Big Finish is also keen to do audios based on Ultravioletand will be doing five one-off original SF/fantasy audio "pilots," one of which may develop into another continuing series. Their Bernice Summerfield line will also continue, with a single-volume collection of three novellas due out this summer (with stories told from three different perspectives, one Bernice, one Jason and one Adrian); also, one of the two original audio shorts from the long out of print "Buried Treasures" will appear as an extra on an upcoming Benny audio release. (Thanks to the OG Forum members who reported these developments.)

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.

Issue 340 of Doctor Who Magazine will be on sale February 5. Here's what you can expect from the next issue: DWM reveals the identity of Doctor Who's new television producer, while series writer Russell T Davies drops a few more hints about the show; "Ooh Lalla!," as Lalla Ward, gives DWM the warts-and-all story of her time in Doctor Who in the first part if a revealing new interview; "Channel Hopping," another installment of "Scheduled for Success" as Andrew Pixley discusses about the "Doctor?s greatest enemies... no, not the Daleks or the Cybermen, but The A-Team, Lost in Space and Coronation Street!"; Gareth Roberts peers through the police box doors, and attempts to construct the ultimate user's manual, in "Living in a Box"; the third part of the comic strip "Bad Blood"; it's the end of "It's the End"; plus all the regular news, reviews and features. (Thanks to Clay Hickman and DWM)