The Big Finish website has been updated with a lot of new information including the following; note that you can see all of the covers and cover blurbs for everything listed below now on our Forthcoming Releases page:

• Short Trips: The twelfth book, Short Trips: Seven Deadly Sins now has a cover illustration and cover blurb. Big Finish has also officially announced Short Trips: A Day in the Life edited by Ian Farrington; the cover blurb and illustration plus writer and story list are now on the releases page.
• Catch-1782: This Sixth Doctor tale by Alison Lawson will be the second of several stories next year with Bonnie Langford as Mel; the cover illustration is now online. The story Unregenerate! by David A McIntee, due out in June, will also feature Langford playing Mel, but this time alongside the Seventh Doctor.
• UNIT Series: Provisional covers (subject to change) for all four volumes are now on the releases page. Nicholas Courtney is currently only appearing in the first story (though the cast lists for parts three and four haven't been updated.)
• The Juggernauts: You can now listen to a preview of this story online on the Big Finish website.
• A Storm of Angels: This seventh Unbound CD will not be released until January due to post-production issues ("The sound and music requirements of this play have proved to be particularly demanding and, despite much planning and preparation, this has taken us all rather by surprise. In fact the complete post production time on A Storm of Angels has turned out to be almost three times as long as it normally takes for a double CD release.")

Visit the Releases page for more details.

At right is the cover illustration for the forthcoming Script Doctor book by former series script editor Andrew Cartmel, featuring an introduction by Sylvester McCoy, sent to us by the Galaxy 4 retail shop. "Script Doctor" is Cartmel's memoir of his time working on the show as script editor during the McCoy era. Click on the thumbnail for a larger version. (Thanks to Galaxy 4 for the cover illustration!)

A few updates we can pass along: in the third episode (still tentatively called "The Unquiet Dead"), we can attach two confirmed actors with their roles -- Eve Miles plays Gwyneth and Alan David plays Gabriel Sneed -- while a new name,Meic Povey, plays The Driver. Also, Paul McFadden is the sound editor for the new series; his credits include "Agent Cody Banks 2," "Waking the Dead" and "Captain Corelli's Mandolin," and he was nominated for an MPSE Golden Reel award and won a BAFTA Wales award for his work on the film "Veronica Guerin" with Cate Blanchett. Also, the latest issue of Dreamwatch magazine mentions the name of an alien race apparently appearing in Paul Cornell's episode (the one they note as "Death Day" although this is not the title): the race is called the Vanishers. December 15 update: I'm told this is also not correct, there is no race called the Vanishers in this story.

Details have been announced for Big Finish's forthcoming Short Trips 13: A Day in the Life, edited by Ian Farrington, due out in the spring of 2005. Included in the anthology are "Making History" by Trevor Baxendale, "A Life in the Day" by Xanna Eve Chown, "The Last Broadcast" by Matthew Griffiths, "How You Get There" by Simon Guerrier, "One Wednesday Afternoon" by Alison Jacobs, "Terror of the Darkness" by Joseph Lidster, "Undercurrents" by Gary Merchant, "The Heroine, the Hero and the Megalomaniac" by Ian Mond, "Sold Out" by Danny Oz, "Morphology" by Phil Pascoe, "Visiting Hours" by Eddie Robson, "After Midnight" by Andy Russell, "Before Midnight" by Andy Russell, and "Waiting for Jeremy" by Richard Salter. (Thanks to DWM)

The latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine, #351, has reached subscribers. While no preview of this issue was issued this month, we have a scan below of the cover as well as the free CD that was included, featuring two short pieces from Big Finish: the standalone UNIT audio "The Coup" by Simon Guerrier starring Nicholas Courtney, and a Bernice Summerfield audio featuring the Cybermen starring Lisa Bowerman. Also in the issue are interviews with Paul McGann and Daphne Ashbrook from the TV Movie and all the usual features. This will also be the last issue in this format, as #352 will have a new cover design and carry expanded coverage of the new series. (Thanks to Steve Tribe)

Update Dec. 9, 2200 GMT: The editors of Doctor Who Magazine have provided us with a larger scan of the cover; click below left. Also included in the issue is an interview with new series make-up artist Davy Jones; part six of the comic strip "The Flood," part two of the Archive Extra "Doctor Who on the Radio" and more.

A BBC press release today discusses the new BBC Radio 4 sci-fi comedy Nebulous with many connections to Doctor Who: written by Graham Duff (writer of Big Finish audio "Faith Stealer"), starring new series writer/actor Mark Gatiss, David Warner (the Doctor in Big Finish's "Sympathy for the Devil"), Rosie Cavaliero (who played Cassie in the audios "Project: Twilight" and "Project: Lazarus") and Graham Crowden (Soldeed in "The Horns of Nimon") and directed by Dalek perennial Nicholas Briggs. The broadcast starts January 6 at 11pm on Radio 4. (Thanks to Paul Hayes, Steve Tribe)

Several weeks ago we were told that online retail sites were carrying a product called Doctor Who Reconstructed, but no further details. The new issue of DWM expands on that: a series of MP3-CD's which blend both the original audio soundtracks of missing stories with telesnap photos, much akin to the current fan-produced reconstructions (and likely much like the recent MP3-CD release of "Death Comes to Time"). The first story in release will be "Power of the Daleks" and is due on June 6, 2005. (Thanks to DWM)

While previous reports had him in the show, then not available due to scheduling issues, Outpost Gallifrey has learned that comic actor Simon Pegg of "Spaced" fame will be in the new series after all, according to a report today from the Spaced Out site. "And after a slight hiccup in time," Pegg wrote in an email to the Spaced Out administrators two days ago, "I am now confirmed to appear in Dr. Who. I travel to Cardiff to commence filming with Chris Ecclestone and Billie Piper this week." Later in the email, a wry comment: "I am not playing Young Davros." There is currently no word on the role Pegg will play (he was originally to take the role of a... relative of Rose Tyler) but it will likely be in either episode 7 or the two-parter episodes 9 and 10. (Thanks to Paul Blewett and the Spaced Out forums)

The DWAS now have Christmas cards packs available to buy online for people in the UK; click here for details. (Thanks to Chuck Foster)

BBC Radio 4 is repeating the Afternoon Play BlueVeils and Golden Sands, about Delia Derbyshire's work on the Doctor Who theme, on New Year's Eve, at 2.15pm. It'll be available to listen to for a week after via Auntie's listen again feature at www.bbc.co.uk/radio4. Meanwhile, on BBC7, The Paradise of Death is on Sundays at 6pm and midnight. The first part aired on the Sunday just gone. (Thanks to ?hil Creighton)