As part of the BBC's upcoming "Summer of the Sixties" season, a program set for broadcast in June, Time Shift - Fantasy Sixties will feature Doctor Who clips, among others. The BBC has posted a press release about the broadcast. (Thanks to Phillip Madeley)

A few press mentions, with thanks to Paul Engelberg, Steve Tribe, Ed Stradling and Andrew Foxley:

The town of Penarth could soon be the new home of the Doctor, according to the This is Penarth website. New Doctor Christopher Eccleston has "been spotted property shopping in the town. The acclaimed star, who is taking on the title role of the cult science fiction television series, was seen looking at exclusive homes at Penarth Marina on Saturday." The article states that "it is understood that most of the shooting will be done around Wales, co-ordinated in BBC Llandaff, and it is known that the BBC has a policy for housing their actors close to the place of filming."

A May 9 article in the Sunday Times discusses the new season of "Coupling" and writer Steven Moffat, who's penning two episodes of the forthcoming Doctor Who series. "Not that Moffat need worry about returning to America for work," says the article. "He has other projects to keep him busy, like working on the new Doctor Who, for instance. He says it will be much like it always was but with more laughs and less shaky walls. 'There's no point in doing it if it isn't the same, so it will be the way you remember it when you were 11 -though I'm not sure if Bacofoil will take over the world,' says Moffat." The article mentions he'd written a Dalek into episode two of "Coupling" before he was offered the Doctor Who job (Oliver runs a sci-fi book shop).

Keith Aitken's editorial in the May 6 Express on the Daleks in the new series is called "BBC is Right to Pay Up." Says the article, "Can't share, I'm afraid, in the hoo-hah over the Beeb shelling out a quarter of a million to the estate of Terry Nation for the right to revive his brilliant creation, the Daleks, in its new version of Doctor Who. The BBC knows it wouldn't be Doctor Who without Daleks. That's the measure of Nation's genius in rising above his budget to create a monster that, uniquely, didn't look like an actor in a rubber suit, and which is still the scariest sci-fi baddie of all."

Empire Online has this bit about the Daleks on their website: "Daleks Can Fly? We know it's not film, but it is intriguing. There are reports that the Daleks, set to return in the new Doctor Who series, will have acquired some new abilities, including the ability to fly. While we are having rather confused visions of flying dustbins as a result, this would put paid to the Dalek's central weakness: namely, that one could generally escape them by running upstairs."

The Liverpool Echo ran a piece on Monday called "Former Brookside producer hailed as a prize soap star" referring to new Doctor Who producer Mal Young's at the UK television soap awards, to be televised on ITV1 this Wednesday. Says the article, "Young scooped a special achievement award at the British Soap Awards on Saturday night. The Huyton-born executive spent many years on the now-axed soap Brookside, working his way up from design assistant to producer. Young, 46, is now one of the most powerful men in TV with control over 500 hours of BBC programming every year." There's no mention of Doctor Who in the article, of course. (Thanks to Kenny Davidson)

Doctor Who Loves Ya Baby is the title of an article from May 2's Sunday Mirror which identifies and profiles former "Heartbeat" actress Clare Calbraith, girlfriend of new Doc Christopher Eccleston. Says the article, "The pair are smitten after a string of dates and nights together. The actor, 40, swept the pretty brunette off her feet when they met at a theatre while performing in different plays. Pals say the former Cracker star has been 'like a schoolboy in love' ever since and has hardly let her out of sight." (Thanks to Andrew Harvey)

The Northern Echo ran a story entitled The emotional dimension on May 5, in which the author bemoans recent choices of phrase by Eccleston in the press. "My heart sank when Christopher Eccleston was announced as the new Dr Who," she writes. "He always makes such heavy weather of everything ... We turn on programmes like Dr Who for a bit of escapism." (Thanks to Paul Engelberg)

The Irish Examiner is the latest site to pick up on the JK Rowling / Doctor Who story repored earlier.

May 4's Express picked up on the Dalek rights story, which we reported yesterday, stating that "the BBC had to broker a ú250,000 deal with the estate of the show's creator, which some might say was ex-tor-tion-ate!" The deal is said to have been concluded last month and the Express says that now "the deal means that the formidable baddies can get ready to terrify an entirely new generation." Interestingly, the article says that Eccleston is signing what they call a "three-year megadeal". (Thanks to Paul Engelberg)

Is the secret about to come out? CNN reports that the Mona Lisa will be X-rayed to help solve issues with warping... will they find some felt-tip handwriting left by the Doctor in "City of Death"? Only time will tell...

Says April 29's Daily Star, the Daleks are on the march... to exterminate motoring hassle. The article "We Are Traffic Daleks" discusses a new series of mobile cones that will help traffic experts cut the risks involved in closing off roads by rolling in the markers. "Each 'Dalek' - on a robotic three-wheeled base - is deployed from a control truck by an operator with a laptop. The leading Dalek, equipped with a Global Positioning System satellite navigation receiver, leads a herd of less sophisticated units into place. All the operator has to do is mark the positions of the cones on the computer screen. Dalek No 1 then trundles off to its location guided by the GPS system, and tells the other units where to go by radio. 'Deploying and retrieving highway markers on open roads is hazardous so the robots will reduce risks for workmen,' said Nebraska engineer Shane Farritor, who created the cones. 'Our tests proved these robots can work in teams to provide traffic control.' The challenge now is to cut the cost of the markers so that road authorities can afford them." The Guardian also picked up the story on April 30, saying "the Dalek parallels are spooky. Think about it. Both conical. Both automata. Both incapable of climbing stairs. Both hell-bent on world domination at all costs, and/or making a useful and possibly life-saving contribution in a traffic-management setting. And both controlled by an evil, shrivel-faced mastermind with a screechy voice. Well, the cones are controlled by GPS, actually. A road worker releases them from a truck, then passes instructions from a laptop computer to a lead robot, or "shepherd", which is then followed slavishly by all the other robots, or "sheep", until they're all in position across the highway (or "grassy meadow"). And all for $200 each."

Today's Daily Express notes that the new Doctor Who series may indeed be "the jewel in the crown of the BBC Christmas schedule," proposing that BBC1 will launch the series early, screening the first episode on Christmas Day 2004. There have been rumors of broadcast in early January, but this is the earliest report so far. "The Doctor Who project has lifted off with the kind of momentum no-one could have anticipated," the Daily Express quotes an unnamed source. "I don't think anyone knew how interested people would be or indeed what a huge fan base there is. The BBC are already working out what to put where and Doctor Who is on top of the list for Christmas Day." The article says that a decision on casting for Rose Tyler is still yet to be made, and states that Anna Friel ("Brookside") and Keeley Hawes ("Spooks") are two of the finalists... and also mentions that the Doctor will, in the first episode, battle "one of his most fearsome enemies - the terrifying automatons," obviously a slight misquote but definitely referring to the reported appearance of the Autons in the first story. Indeed, today's Daily Star also refers to the launch in an article entitled "Guess Who's On Xmas TV," which says that BBC1 chief Lorraine Heggessey is "turning to three old favourites with a new look in a bid to win the festive ratings battle" and mentions that the Doctor will battle the Autons in the first episode. It also features some of the same quotes as the Daily Express article. These reports have been picked up today by the Sky Television news service and Sky's online Sky News newsfeed, as well as online at Yahoo! UK News, quoting the Sky News reports, and Digital Spy. (Thanks to Paul Engelberg and everyone who wrote in to let us know!)

JK HASN'T GOT THE TIMELORD says today's Daily Record, which quotes the recent Doctor Who Magazine interview (yet another press pickup from the DWM story) as saying that Harry Potter creator/author J.K. Rowling has "turned down the chance to bring some magic to the new Dr Who series." Says the article, the BBC wanted her to write an episode, but she's too busy writing the sixth Harry Potter novel, due out next summer. The interview that DWM conducted with producer Russell T Davies quoted him as saying, "I asked JK Rowling if she would like to write an episode for the new series. But she told me she was amused by the suggestion but simply doesn't have the time... I wanted her to write just one episode, but unfortunately she had to turn it down. She told me she was absolutely charmed to have been asked but was so busy at the moment she just couldn't accept. It was slightly disappointing to say the least." You can actually read the whole interview in this month's DWM.

According to a news report in today's Daily Star, the rights issues between the BBC and the estate of Terry Nation, which owns the Daleks, has been sorted. "Doctor Who's most memorable foes are to return to the BBC in a deal worth ú250,000," says the article, which mentions that the BBC jointly owns the rights to the Daleks with Nation, who died in 1997, but it still needed permission to feature them in the new show. Says the article, "Show producers are already having fun giving the Daleks more powers. The formerly floor-bound machines will be able to fly. Also under discussion is a plot in which they try to take over London," which could possibly be referring to one of the story titles previously announced (the two parter at episodes four & five). All of this "signals the BBC's firm intention to make the sci-fi series even more successful than it was the first time around," says the article, which notes that each episode is running to a ú1 million budget - more than the BBC has ever spent on a drama. (Thanks to Paul Engelberg)