The Scottish Sunday Herald ran a feature in their magazine on January 9 called "101 Big Events of 2005". The introduction features a large picture of Moses holding the Ten Commandments. The byline begins "Thou shalt watch enraptured as Dr Who returns to the small screen!" The section of the article concerning Doctor Who read as follows: "#74 - DOCTOR WHO. Fifteen years after it was taken off the air, Dr Who is remembered as a defining piece of cult television. The programme was actually much bigger than that, a mainstream popular success sustained over 26 years, which only went into decline when the writers began catering to a niche market of sci-fi freaks and not the majority of the British public. In 2005 Dr Who will be returned to BBC primetime by a well-selected team of specialists - chiefly long-time aficionado and gifted populist TV writer Russell T Davis (Queer As Folk). Davis has hired like-minded talents to script the 13 new episodes, including League of Gentlemen co-founder and former Dr Who fan-fiction writer, Mark Gatiss. 'It's a brilliant reinvention,' Gatiss has promised. 'I'm not just saying that. Very funny, very scary. A great piece of television.' And the more you hear, the greater it sounds. The brilliant character actor Christopher Eccleston will be the new Doctor - that curious, inscrutable, vaguely unsettling alien time-traveller who defends humanity for his own whimsical reasons. Billie Piper will be his sidekick. Simon Pegg of Shaun Of The Dead will appear. There will be episodes set in the forties and the Victorian era. Simon Callow will be Charles Dickens who helps save the world from alien infestation. And there will be Daleks." (Thanks to Francis O'Dowd, John Bollan)

We've received a brief report from the folks at TIMELESS, the Cardiff branch of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society, concerning filming in Cardiff this weekend on location for the new series. Click on the spoiler tags to check it out (with thanks to Timothy Farr for the info!)

The official Doctor Who site is currently running a competition to win a copy of "Match of the Day," the January 2005 BBC Books Fourth Doctor/Leela novel by Chris Boucher; meanwhile, the BBC Wiltshire site is running a competition to win a copy of the new BBC DVD "Horror of Fang Rock". Both competitions are, by BBC rules, open only to UK residents. Click on each link for more details.

The feature directing debut of Geoffrey Sax, director of the 1996 Doctor Who movie, placed No. 2 in the US Box Office this past weekend; "White Noise" opened with $24 million despite largely negative reviews and modest expectations. (Thanks to Richard Allison)

Doctor Who is featured in a new book, 'Fifty Key Television Programmes', an academic work edited by Glen Creeber of the University of Aberwystywth; the Doctor who section is written by Matt Hills. The book is distributed by Arnold Publishers in the UK and Oxford University Press in the USA. (Thanks to Steve Freestone)

Outpost Gallifrey has received a hazy but legible version of the cover illustration for the BBC Books novel To the Slaughter by Stephen Cole, due in February 2005. Click on the thumbnail for a larger version. Update - January 11: The official site has posted a clear version of the cover so we've replaced our original view with the official version. (Thanks to Jim Trenowden)

Today's edition of the Guardian newspaper features an article (available online here) called "50 must-sees for spring" that names the new Doctor Who series at #5. Says the article, "Few people under the age of 30 will remember Tom Baker at his most magnetic, as the Dalek-thwarting timelord. Their parents may claim to this day that the hirsute one was not a patch on William Hartnell or Patrick Troughton, that he whimpered in the wake of the mighty Jon Pertwee. The real nippers probably think that Peter Davison was the best. One thing is sure, however: by the time Sylvester McCoy succeeded Colin Baker in 1984, the doctor's bankable days were over, the plots - and sets - too flimsy to convince in a post-Spielberg world. Four decades on from the first shows the BBC is bringing the doctor back and the signs for success are good, with the brilliant Russell T Davies on writing duty. A massive Doctor Who fan of old, he promises 'full-blooded drama' and storylines which are 'fun, exciting, contemporary and scary', while Christopher Eccleston should have just the right balance of bit-of-rough charm and glowering, Messianic intensity to merit the shabby great coat and (we hope) loop-the-loop scarf. Billie Piper in the role of his assistant, Rose Tyler, will doubtless help keep teenage boys of all ages happy."

In the latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine, there are a few items of confirmation. From BBC Books: after publication of "The Gallifrey Chronicles" on 28 March, the next regular BBC Books release will be Barry Letts' "Island of Death" on 4 July. All three Ninth Doctor novels, as well as Justin Richards' Monsters and Villains, will now be published on Monday 19 May, to enable "some robust marketing". "Monsters and Villains," the previously announced non-fiction book, will include some new series material written specially by new series producer Russell T Davies. The three novels can be read in any order. The new logo will appear on all four books. And there's been decision yet on which logo will be used for the resumption of the regular book line. As for Big Finish news, Nicholas Briggs' new "Cybermen" miniseries is announced and confirmed for August to November; currently untitled it will feature some of the "Dalek Empire" cast and will have some links to the previous Cybermen adventure "Sword of Orion," "being about the different generations of the Cybermen." Actress Jennie Linden from the Dalek films will be in "Unregenerate!" in June, too.

The new issue of Doctor Who Magazine features some updates on casting for the new series. Besides confirming actors Zoe Wanamaker ('a part shrouded in secrecy... tabloid rumours [about the nature of the part] are completely untrue!'), Simon Pegg (in "The Long Game") and Tamsin Greig (also in "The Long Game"; says producer Phil Collinson, "the part she's playing will change the life of one of the TARDIS travellers... but I'm not saying how") which have been reported here previously, the magazine also confirms actor Richard Wilson, famed for his "I Don't Believe It" role of Victor Meldrew, will play the role of "the mysterious Doctor Constantine." Episode 6 by Rob Shearman also features Steven Beckingham as Polkowski, John Schwab ("The Order") as Bywater, Jana Carpenter ("Silent Witness") as Di Maggio, Nigel Whitmey ("Helen of Troy") as Simmons, Joe Montana ("The Bourne Identity") as the Commander andBarnaby Edwards from Big Finish's audio range as a Dalek. Episode 7, "The Long Game," features Christine Adams("NY-LON") and Anna Maxwell Martin ("Enduring Love") in unknown roles. And episode 8 by Paul Cornell featuresFrank Rozelaar-Green ("Micawber") as Sonny, Rhian James as Suzie, Eirlys Bellin ("The Magic Paintbrush: A Story From China") as Bev, Christopher Llewellyn ("The Black Dog") as Stuart, Natalie Jones ("Cadfael") as Sarah, andCasey Dyer as the boy. The issue also confirms musician Murray Gold as doing the incidental music and that the title for Mark Gatiss' episode is "The Unquiet Dead," both reported here previously. There's also a comment from exec producer Russell T Davies about the start date: "If you hear anyone, anywhere, quoting sources giving an authoritative date, they are merely guessing and trying to sound important" (which, by the way, we believe he was referring to print magazines and online speculation, not our reporting... we stand by the late March date simply because of the information we've gotten from people who are in the position to know.) (Thanks to Steve Tribe)

The ever-reliable Sun newspaper this morning made note of the return of Doctor Who, with Billie and Christopher starring "in tonight's long-awaited return of the BBC1 sci-fi series." Of course, the show isn't starting today at all... as we've said, you can still look for it in late March (or so the rumors go.) The Sun also claims that the Daleks "are back also, after a Sun campaign" (which of course, the paper had nothing to do with.) (Thanks to Colin John Francis)