The current BBC Controller of Fiction, Jane Tranter, is to leave her current post for a new job based in the United States. She will join BBC Worldwide as executive vice-president of programming and production, looking after its US scripted and reality business in Los Angeles.

Tranter was in charge of all BBC Drama output and was responsible for commissioning the return of Doctor Who in 2005. The current BBC Director of Vision,Jana Bennett described Tranter as an "unequalled force in British drama." She has reinvented family drama in Doctor Who, Robin Hood and Merlin and launched acclaimed contemporary series such as Spooks and Life on Mars as well as Cranford."

Tranter will be succeeded as the Controller of drama commissioning by Ben Stephenson, who has worked closely with Tranter in his current role of Head of Drama commissioning. A new Controller of Fiction will be appointed in the new year.

Posted By John Bowman

It was a huge hit at the box office - and now the Interalia Theatre production of The Dalek Masterplan is up for two awards.

The play, which was staged at the New Theatre Royal in Portsmouth last October, was the fourth and final "lost" Doctor Who adventure performed by the non-professional company, which reworked and condensed the 1965-66 12-part William Hartnell epic.

It proved to be a sell-out, and the daily paper for the Portsmouth area, The News, has included the play and two of its actors among the nominations this year for its prestigious awards that recognise and celebrate the local arts scene.

Nick Scovell, who played the Doctor, and James George, who portrayed Mavic Chen, are each nominated in the Best Actor category, while the play itself is among those in the Best Amateur Drama Production section.

Those who saw the play can vote for it online by clicking on this link and filling in the form. There are other categories but people do not have to vote in all of them.

The closing date for votes is Friday, October 10 and the winners will be announced at the awards ceremony to be held at the Kings Theatre in Southsea on Monday, November 10.

The official blog about the production, with exclusive photos and videos, can be found here.

Seventh Doctor Sylvester McCoy returns to BBC1 in October, guest-starring in an episode of the daytime drama series Doctors.

McCoy portrays an actor who once played a time traveller on children's television in a show called The Amazing Lollipop Man. He now finds his life consists of giving DVD commentaries and posing for photos in his old costume, though nowadays he can't do the buttons up.

The episode is written by David Semple, who told DoctorWhoNews.com: "Sylvester gives an extraordinary performance: funny, touching and incredibly inventive. He also manages to appear 40 years old in one scene and 60-something in the next, despite the fact that Doctors is shot in a day and he filmed the young scenes in the morning and the aged ones in the afternoon."

Doctors: The Lollipop Man is on BBC1 on Monday 13th October at 1.45pm.

Series Four of Doctor Who will debut tonight Friday September 19th on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation at 9:00pm EDT across Canada (9:30pm in Newfoundland). In some markets this will put Doctor Who in direct competition with Series Two ofTorchwood which is currently running on " style="color: rgb(44, 111, 154); text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; ">SPACE.

The CBC is launching Series Four with Partners in Crime. At this time there is no word on if or when the 2007 Christmas special Voyage of the Damnedwill air on CBC.

The CBC have updated their Doctor Who Websitefor Series Four.

Posted By John Bowman

Silva Screen Records is to release music from Series Four of Doctor Who in mid-November.

A news item on its website says the tracks, composed by Murray Gold, will include Song Of Freedom - the choral piece that marked the Daleks' defeat in Journey's End. The Doctor's Theme is another of the tracks, but no other titles are known yet.

The exact date of the CD's release has still to be announced.

Posted By John Bowman

Doctor Who Magazine reaches its 400th issue today in style, with eight extra pages and an exclusive photoshoot withDavid Tennant.

"I bought the first issue, in 1979," he tells DWM. "I just thought, at last! Why's this not happened before now? I was delighted."

Asked if he thinks the magazine could run for another 400 editions, Tennant replies: "You know, I'm tempted to say, 'If the television series continues,' but Doctor Who Magazine thrived when the series was nowhere to be seen, to be fair, so I can see no reason why it won't run and run. But hopefully the series will be there with the magazine, side by side, all the way. That's how it should be. Yeah, with me on the cover! Forever . . . "

Also in issue 400:

Executive producer Russell T Davies looks back over the past five years, in his most candid DWM interview ever

An exclusive competition where the prize is the chance to become a DWM reporter and go on the set of the TV series

Discover what dangers lie ahead for the Bannerman Road gang as DWM talks to writer Phil Ford and previews the new series of The Sarah Jane Adventures

Former editor Gary Gillatt takes an affectionate look at just what makes Doctor Who the best TV show ever

The Watcher casts a nostalgic eye over the past 400 issues as he charts the surprising, amusing and often bizarre history of Doctor Who Magazine

The Sixth Doctor, Colin Baker, joins The Time Team to watch the end of the epic 1986 adventure The Trial of a Time Lord

It's the start of a new era for the comic strip as the Doctor discovers a familiar face aboard a prison in space - Part One of Thinktwice is by Dan McDaid, with art by Martin Geraghty

A free, double-sided poster featuring an exclusive image of David Tennant on one side and every single cover of DWM on the other.

Posted By John Bowman

Russell T Davies and Benjamin Cook will be signing copies of their forthcoming book, Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale, at bookshops in England and Wales next month.

The dates, venues and times are as follows:

October 8: Waterstone's, Piccadilly, London, 6pm

October 9: Waterstone's, High Street, Birmingham, midday, and Waterstone's, Trafford Centre, Manchester, 6pm

October 10: Borders, Bristol, 12.30pm, and Borders, Cardiff, 5.30pm.

Only copies of the book will be autographed.

The 512-page tome is published by BBC Books on September 25.

Posted By John Bowman

The specially commissioned episode of Torchwood that was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 last Wednesday as part of Big Bang Day will be released by BBC Audio tomorrow.

Lost Souls will be available in CD and download formats.

The CD, which is 75 minutes long, will feature a bonus programme, Torchwood: All Access - a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the TV show - which was first broadcast on BBC Radio Wales and has interviews with Russell T Daviesand members of the TV series cast and crew.

The download will not have any extra material.

Russell T Davies's comments from his new book, excerpted in today's issue of The Times and reported yesterday on the Doctor Who News Page (see below) have been widely reproduced across the British media today. The two main angles being focused on are Davies's suggestion of actor Russell Tovey (Midshipman Frame in "Voyage of the Damned") as a possible Eleventh Doctor, and his idea of basing the 2008 Christmas special around an appearance by Harry Potter author JK Rowling.

BBC News, CBBC Newsround, Digital Spy, The Mirror and The Guardian, amongst many others, all make the Tovey casting suggestion the focus of their story, with Guardian columnist Daniel Martin suggesting that the next Doctor "...has to be someone with a massive future who's never had their one defining part."

Under the headline "Dr exterminates role for Rowling", The Sun make JK Rowling's non-appearance in the programme their focus of the story, as does another piece in The Guardian. Here Lindesay Irvine points out that: "it's not entirely certain that Rowling was tapdancing at the idea herself."

Meanwhile, The Times themselves have published the second part of their preview of "The Writer's Tale".