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)

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)

The newest issue of DWM features the complete 2004 schedule of releases from BBC Books, which includes the following releases. Details on several of the books ("Sometime Never," "Scream of the Shalka," "Empire of Death" and "Eleventh Tiger") have already been released, including blurbs and some covers; visit our release guide for those details. The new information on the books is as follows (with several updates to the original story noted in red):

• Sometime Never by Justin Richards (January)
• The Scream of the Shalka by Paul Cornell (February)
• Empire of Death by David Bishop (March) - Fifth Doctor and Nyssa tale set in Victorian England; the Doctor becomes Queen Victoria's advisor and investigates mysteries from beyond the grave
• Halflife by Mark Michalowski (April) - A standalone Eighth Doctor adventure with no ongoing arc threads. It's set on an Earth colony in the future, where th Doctor takes up smoking and drinking and generally behaves very oddly (The novel is called "Halflife" not "Half Life" according to author Michalowski)
• The Eleventh Tiger by David McIntee (May) - First Doctor pseudo-historical set in nineteenth century China with Ian, Barbara and Vicki
• The Tomorrow Windows by Jonathan Morris (June) - A Hitch-Hiker-eque romp in the company of the Eighth Doctor Fitz, and Trix... and then there's a guest appearance from the current Mayor of London Ken Livingstone
• Synthespians by Craig Hinton (July) - Sixth Doctor and Peri story set on a space station in the far future; kind of "Dynasty" meets "Spearhead from Space" and also allows the Sixth Doctor to behave at his most theatrical
• The Sleep of Reason by Martin Day (August) - An Eighth Doctor adventure, also featuring Fitz and Trix, set in a mental asylum in present day Britain, a dark tale of evil and insanity... DWM reported this novel as being titled "Dreams Never End"; author Martin Day contacted OG to inform us that "The Sleep of Reason" is indeed the correct title and that "Dreams Never End" was a working title when the article was written
• The Algebra of Ice by Lloyd Rose (September) - Seventh Doctor and Ace story set on Earth
• The Deadstone Memorial by Trevor Baxendale (October) - A dark ghost tale set on contemporary Earth with the Eighth Doctor (the DWM report said "Dreadstone Memorial"; author Trevor Baxendale emailed OG to let us know of the proper spelling)
• The Indestructible Man by Simon Messingham (November) - Second Doctor, Jamie and Zoe novel; fans of Gerry Anderson's Supermarionation series may recognise echoes of his work in here

Meanwhile, range consultant/editor Justin Richards discusses the rumors that the novel series might come to an end. "There's no notion of stopping and never has been, whatever the rumours," says Richards. "The cutback to one a month was partly forced on us by our American distributor going bust, which meant we had a warehouse full of books and there wasn't physical space to store anymore. So that was a pragmatic decision which came at a time when we needed people who normally worked on the novels to work on The Legend and The Dalek Survival Guide. Now we're waiting to see what happens with the new series. We're commissioned up to Febuary 2005 and we'll hang fire a bit now and see what develops. I know that people doing the series are keen to tie in with the books. My feeling is that we won't do novelisations - simply because people don't these days. That's not to say we wouldn't do an annotated script book of instance or original novels which use whoever the new TV Doctor might turn out to be." Meanwhile, Chris Boucher's novelMatch of the Day featuring the Fourth Doctor and Leela, confirmed some time ago, was pushed back to February 2005. (Thanks to DWM, Trevor Baxendale, Martin Day, Mark Michalowski, David McIntee, John Laurent, Dave Master)