Sheila Dunn, the lovely actress whose Doctor Who roles included smaller parts as Blossom LeFavre ("The Daleks' Master Plan") and a phone operator ("The Invasion") before taking the guest star role as assistant/scientist Petra Williams in the Jon Pertwee classic "Inferno", died on March 3. Dunn had been married to the late director Douglas Camfield, who died in 1984 and had directed all three stories. (Thanks to Ben Jolly, Phillip Madeley)

There have been a few reports of faults and problems with playing the March North America DVD releases, The Seeds of Death and The Three Doctors. If you have trouble with your DVDs, send email tocustomerservice@bbc.co.uk and let them know, whether you bought the discs from BBC America Shop or not. Let them know where you bought the DVD from, in what way it's faulty, and what make and brand of DVD player you use; any information given them to help narrow down this problem will help avoid problems in future and they may be able to tell you how to get a replacement disc. (Thanks to Steve Manfred)

Below are both the final version of the cover illustration for the forthcoming BBC Radio Collection CD release of The Wheel in Space -- which for the first time will be narrated by Wendy Padbury -- and the provisional (and possibly final) cover for the UK DVD release of The Green Death, both due in May. Click on each for a larger version. Update: we now have the final version of the "Green Death" cover, which artist Clayton Hickman sent us to update the provisional one; click on it below! (Thanks to Tenth Planet, Clayton Hickman)

According to the Green Guide TV Guide in Melbourne, Australia, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation will not be screening The War Games, the final Patrick Troughton story, due to the BBC being "unable to resolve the TV rights of the Daleks with Terry Nation's agents," despite the fact that a Dalek appears only in a glimpse in part ten. Notably, the ongoing rights issues (which are more for Nation's entire estate, versus simply the Daleks themselves) has not stopped the ABC screening William Hartnell's three Dalek stories in the recent past. (Thanks to Glenn Robinson)

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.

The BBC Radio Collection will soon release Douglas Adams at the BBC, "an A to Z of Douglas Adams' career at the BBC," a tribute to the life and work of the famous British author among whose many accomplishments are the immortalThe Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy, and script editing and three screenplays for "Doctor Who". The release (2 CD's according to the BBC Shop, but 3 CD's according to Adams biographer MJ Simpson) will include archive clips and radio interviews with linking narration by Simon Jones (who played Arthur Dent on TV and on the radio). Says Simpson: "Among the gems on offer are: all three of DouglasÆ Burkiss Way sketches including æKamikazeÆ; extracts from Last Chance to See; æSheilaÆs EarÆ, the infamous ælostÆ mini-episode of HitchhikerÆs Guide; the æParanoid SocietyÆ sketch from the BBC2 broadcast of the Footlights revue Chox; Douglas singing on the John Dunn show; Douglas on Quote...Unquote; and a slew of other appearances, writing credits and interviews. Also included is So Long and Thanks for All the Fish, the Radio 4 tribute programme to Douglas from September 2001." The CD release is due out on September 6. (Thanks to MJ Simpson and Magrathea; thanks to Rich Kirkpatrick for letting us know!)

A new article on the restoration of The Green Death for its forthcoming DVD release has been uploaded at the Restoration Team site. "2004's third DVD release is 'The Green Death'," says the article, "which, as 'the one with the giant maggots,' is one of the few Doctor Who stories remembered by the general public and is well deserving of its status as a true classic." You can read it at the RT site now.

As we reported yesterday, the Dalek Tin is indeed being discontinued; however, according to BBCi, both Power of the Daleks and Evil of the Daleks will be released individually on CD on August 2.

The MP3 CD release of The Daleks' Master Plan will be out in March in Australia & New Zealand (thanks to Liam McNicholas)