The following information was part of the BBC Books "New Books and Backlist" catalogue available at the London Book Fair this week, and discusses the BBC "classic" Doctor Who novels due for the second half of the year. Note that this is just preliminary information and obviously may be subject to change. (Thanks to Steve Tribe)

Televisual magazine this week has a feature on the new series along with photographs. In the article, writer Steven Moffat says, "I don't think the fact that we're in a post Star Wars era is an issue, but matching Buffy is. Doctor Who was never a space drama anyway, it was about horror: dark shadows and creepy monsters lurking just around the corner." Russell T Davies says his blueprint is Buffy and today's audience needs emotional content. He also mentions the planet Zog example as seen elsewhere. The article suggests the budget per episode is ú600K (UK Pounds) "He (Ecclestone) is not like Tom Baker, but what the have in common is that they can go around being as funny and daft and gormless as they like, but you still take them seriously because they're fundamentally both scary, impressive men," says Davies. Edward Thomas, designer of the new TARDIS interior says that he and Russell thought the original console room from 63 was the most impressive so kept it in mind but "went back to nature" with the design. Will Cohen of The Mill claims this is the largest number of effects shots ever for a UK TV drama. The Geith ("The Unquiet Dead") is described as a trail of ectoplasm while Cassandra ("The End of the World") is "a piece of stretched skin supported by two poles that needs constant moisturising in order to survive" and is translucent. In fact, the End Of The World has one fifth of all the fx shots in the series! Also noted, the Slitheen ("Aliens of London") are prosthetics for close ups, and computer generated images for wide shots. Finally, it notes that sales to the US may have been hampered by the decision not to shoot in high definition, though the special effects burden has been considerably reduced as a result.

Ever noticed how the new series logo looks rather like a taxicab sign? The Guardian on March 16 thinks so. "Far be it from us to cast aspersions on the hype-tastic new Doctor Who, powered by a thousand tabloid Billie Piper stories and the slavering of sci-fi fans everywhere, but isn't there something a little familiar - a little earthbound - about its logo?" the Guardian asks. Are they "the only one to notice the uncanny similarity between the new Who signage and the little orange lights that twinkle on taxis? What can it mean? That taxi drivers are like Time Lords in that they both take ages to get anywhere? That their average age is 900 years old? That they won't go south of the river? Or has the new logo been inspired by some BBC execs' favourite mode of transport? There are, as the good Doctor might say himself, no such things as coincidences."

The Guardian also confirms Billie Piper will be taking to Shakespeare, as we previously reported. "Billie Piper, who also appeared in one of the Canterbury Tales adaptations and later this month will star as Doctor Who's sidekick, Rose, said last week that she had landed the role of Hero in A Midsummer Night's Dream. The play, adapted by the screenwriter Peter Bowker, will be set in a holiday park," says media correspondent Owen Gibson.

According to a Northern Ireland TV website, "a day-long event celebrating the classic science fiction series, Doctor Who, which is returning to British TV screens over the Easter period, will be held at Queen's University this weekend. Organised by the University's Science Fiction and Fantasy Society, the event comes just one week before the meddlesome Time Lord makes a come back, this time in the guise of Christopher Eccleston." The event, in aid of the Northern Ireland Chest, Heart and Stroke Association, will begin at 11am in room G06, Peter Froggatt Centre and admission is free.

We've gotten word of a new 20 second teaser, in addition to the major trailers shown today; the teaser aired this afternoon at approximately 5.25pm immediately preceeding children's show "Newsround" as part of the "Children's BBC" strand of programming. The trailer is set in the TARDIS (which is in flight) with a silent Doctor standing next to Rose throughout. Rose addresses the viewer direct: "I've got a choice: Stay at home with my Mum...my boyfriend...my job... Or chuck it all in for danger...and monsters...and life or death. What do you think?"

Lorraine Heggessey, BBC1 controller, "signed off her valedictory season launch today - defiantly summing up her reign by saying, 'I did it my way,'" says the Guardian's Tara Conlan. "Revealing she will leave the channel by the first week in May, Ms Heggessey said she will take a few weeks' holiday to 'have a rest, read books and go to the gym' before joining Talkback Thames as its chief executive." The article doesn't mention Doctor Who, but it does bode well for the woman who announced a new Doctor Who series to the world.

(Thanks to Stuart Ian Burns, Jamie Austin, Paul Shields, Faiz Rehman, Paul Engelberg, Steve Tribe, Michael Blumenthal)

BBC Books will be issuing The Legend Continues by Justin Richards in October 2005, a new and fully updated paperback version of his "Doctor Who: The Legend" hardcover released in 2003. "Fully revised and updated to include the new Doctor, Christopher Eccleston, this epic publication takes the reader on a journey through four decades of TV history, covering every one of the TV stories," says the information printed on BBC Books materials distributed this weekend at the London Book Fair. (Thanks to Graham Kibble-White, David Howe)

BBC Radio Wales will be broadcasting a three-part documentary on Doctor Who, and in particular it's connections with Wales, beginning on March 26. The documentary will feature interviews with Katy Manning (Jo), Philip Madoc ("The Brain of Morbius") and Richard Bignell ("Doctor Who on Location") and will discuss the success of the Daleks and much more. Here's the press information: "The program looks at the various Welsh connections with Dr. Who over the past 40 or so years, tying in with the new series which has been built almost entirely in Wales (Welsh writers, production team, directors and made by BBC Wales.)... We'll look at the story of Terry Nation, the Cardiff born writer who invented the Daleks and we'll also revisit all the old Welsh locations - the parts of Snowden that doubled for Tibet and was populated (briefly) with Yetis, the holiday camp that turned up in another series and the coal mine filled with giant maggots for the Green Death. Also we want to speak to the creative Welsh talents that played their part in making the series a success. As well as this we will be speaking to the key people in the new production (writer Russell T Davies and new Doctor, Christopher Eccleston for example) and going behind the scenes and visiting the set to give a tantalising glimpse of the new series. We talk to people about getting a sense of what it was like working on those series, particularly the Troughton years, the demands of the series, the esteem it was held in and the fun of making this ground breaking but bizarre sci-fi series. We have some fantastic anecdotes from other actors who have worked on Who and even some lost interview footage with Jon Pertwee! It will compare the new computer generated, effect-heavy show, with a million pound an episode budget to earlier productions, and to get a sense of how it was made back in the 70s. We will look at what made it special and what the new one has to do to capture the spirit and magic of the original. Also the hard work that goes into keeping the fantasy "real" to an audience." Fans will be able to listen to the Radio Wales documentary via the Radio Wales website. (Thanks to Richard Bignell)

Play.com is listing Travels in Time and Space as the 2005 BBC Radio Collection tin, due on November 7, 2005. Included in the package, according to the site, is the already-announced "Doctor Who In An Exciting Adventure With the Daleks" novelization reading by William Russell, along with two others, "Doctor Who and the Zarbi" (aka The Web Planet) and "Doctor Who and the Crusaders" (aka The Crusade). No word as yet if this is a confirmed release. (Thanks to Justin Thomas)

Last Friday, BBC1 began showing a new Doctor Who series teaser trailer in which the TARDIS was shown dematerialising in some kind of underground pedestrian walkway slowly filling with a fire ball. It was first shown mid-day during afternoon programs, and then again before the news that evening prior to the Comic Relief telethon (before which they also showed one of the existing teasers of Billie in the control room.) The trailer has been added to the official site, on this page.

The official site has an online RealMedia interview with Christopher Eccleston, taken at last week's press launch of the new series.

This morning (14 March)'s Media Guardian has a report on bbc.co.uk's plans for the official Doctor Who site and its importance for the success of the new series. The relaunched site is described as "one of the BBC's most ambitious online projects to date [...] the series will depend on its official online companion to hook a new generation of viewers." As well as noting plans to include the various elements of online viewing already reported here and in DWM, the piece notes that "['Rose'] features a conspiracy theorist who has been following the Doctor's exploits through time [...] the lines between fantasy and reality are blurred further by making his site available to fans on the BBC website." The print version is illustrated with a photograph of the Moxx of Balhoon, and the story is available online here.

The Culture programme on BBC2 on March 17 at 7:00pm will be running a feature on the return of Doctor Who (advertised with the standard promo shot of Eccleston lounging against the TARDIS in this week's Radio Times). The program will be repeated at 11:20pm. Details available at the Culture website.

BBC7 has some audio teasers going out this week, a taster for the new series, though there will also be a full-length radio trailer with Christopher Eccleston himself next week. The current run of the teasers begin today, Monady March 14, and run through next Sunday, March 20; non-listeners may be able to catch them at the BBC7 website.

Today's Times ran a piece about Cardiff Millennium Stadium, including a few side mentions of its use in a future new Doctor Who series episode.

(Thanks to Paul Engelberg, Steve Tribe, John Bowman, Andrew Harvey, Dave Tanner, John Leivers, Alistair Moore, Matthew Godley, Martin Montague)

Further to our story on March 10 regarding the upcoming issue of Digit Magazine, the magazine has issued several photos online from its story, "Exclusive: Doctor Who Effects Secrets Revealed," a six-page article in the April issue revealing "the digital special effects techniques behind the much-hyped Doctor Who series. It also features exclusive images from the series." "In a word, the new Doctor Who is amazing. The result has been the creation of over 1,000 effects shots for the 13 episodes - with episode two accounting for a staggering 200 effects shots in just 45 minutes," says Matthew Bath, editor in chief. Says series visual effects producer Will Cohen, "[The Oscar-winning] Gladiator had 100 effects shots which we did in six-months. We've had nine months to do 10 times that number. It's like nothing that has been seen before on British television." The magazine has printed several spoiler images, including a wireframe drawing of a CGI monster from "The End of the World," episode 2, as well as completed versions. You can pick up the latest issue of Digit in bookshops this week. (Thanks to Matthew Bath)

Some title updates courtesy the new SFX Special magazine release. According to the issue, the fifth episode is now calledWorld War Three and the sixth episode may bear the single word title, Dalek. There is still no word on final titles for episodes 8 or 12.

More on forthcoming plans from BBC Books on their "New books and backlist" catalogue released at the London Book Fair. Besides the release of "The Legend Continues" by Justin Richards (see separate news item today), there will be three further Ninth Doctor and Rose hardback novels published in September 2005. According to the new BBC Books "New books and backlist" catalogue, "the contents [...] are a closely guarded secret [...] excitement, danger and excitement await". October sees the release of "The Legend Continues," updated to include the new series, while Gary Russell's August Past Doctor novel has been renamed Spiral Scratch and Terrance Dicks's October 2005 novel is confirmed asWorld Game. (Thanks to Steve Tribe)