Issue #347 of Doctor Who Magazine will be out on August 19. The following is the press release for the new issue; click on the thumbnail image for a larger version of the cover. (Thanks to Clayton Hickman/DWM)

BBC Four is reshowing its documentary on the 1960s, Fantasy TV, including Doctor Who clips, this Saturday night at 8pm. Still no news of a non-digital showing, though! (Thanks to Steve Tribe)

Roadshow New Zealand have announced in their monthly e-Newsletter that The Green Death won't be out on DVD until September, a full month after its release on DVD in Australia. (Thanks to David French)

The official Doctor Who website features an interview with Gary Russell of Big Finish, where Russell notes that Mary Tamm will be returning for the second series of Gallifrey audios due out next year (see our earlier story, July 22). Tamm will reprise the role of Romana for at least one chapter, where she will feature together with Lalla Ward... if we can have the Five Doctors, surely the Two Romanas is possible too!

The new series is mentioned in WM, the weekly womens' section of the "Western Mail". On page 13, in a column that lists what the editors think is
currently cool and not so cool, the new series currently heads the "Tomorrow's World" cool section with the following item: "Dr. Who: Midnight filming all over Cardiff, snatched sightings of Billie Piper and Christopher Ecclestone ... ooh, the excitement of the new BBC Wales series. We can't wait for the first episode..." (Thanks to John Campbell Rees)

The Western Morning News on August 9 ran an article, "Popular Daleks escape Dr Who extermination" which focuses more on reactions to the reports of Daleks appearing. It quotes fan John Swithinbank from Seaton, a Dalek model owner: "I'm over the moon, really. I have missed them in a way - for years they have been part of my life. I have been interested in them since I was eight years old." But, he says, "They can't just give us a taste of the Daleks and that be that. It's got to be interesting to see what sort of form they will take - whether they will be made to look like the ones in the old series or whether they will be more high-tech. It's a good opportunity really to bring the Daleks into the modern age, by making them able to fly or something. Anything to step them up from rolling along on casters!"

An edition of this weekend's Daily Sport featured a full page color cover photo of Billie Piper in the buff, or nearly... apparently recycling older paparazzi photos. The story mentions that she and husband Chris Evans "are currently on holiday in the Seychelles," which is either noting a brief break in her filming, or a trip they took in January (according to the Daily Record.) And lest we think Doctor Who isn't back in the public eye, the title of the story is "Dr. Who Babe Sunbathes Topless".

Mad Norwegian Press has announced that its next Faction Paradox book Warlords of Utopia and the re-release of Lawrence Miles' Dead Romance have both been delayed one month; they'll each be out in October. (Thanks to Lars Pearson)

BBC News featured an article yesterday about veteran Doctor Who actor John Scott Martin, one of the troupe of four actors who played Daleks throughout the run of the original series... who has offered to step into the costume again for the 2005 Doctor Who series. The article says Martin would be happy to reprise the role if asked. "I really enjoyed doing it before," he told BBC News Online. "I would happily run around as a Dalek again." Martin and his fellow actors were required to "squeeze into a wooden or metal costume, then scuttle around to simulate the Dalek gliding on three caster wheels," and the heat of the costume meant that inside the Dalek's terrifying shell "you would find the actor dressed in only a T-shirt and swimming trunks." "It could be difficult at times and I'm not as fit as I used to be, but I'm sure I could do it again," Scott Martin told BBC News. According to a BBC spokeswoman, there has been no decision made on whether the Daleks would be automated or operated by actors in the forthcoming new series. The Registerand the Telegraph also have the story.

Meanwhile, Outpost Gallifrey has learned that John Scott Martin will appear on Wednesday morning's GMTV program at 6:50am and "some time after 8am". (Thanks to Gavin Collinson, Paul Engelberg, Steve Tribe)

The Sci Fi Online site features a new update on possible UK DVD releases in 2005. The site picks up on Outpost Gallifrey's previous reports that The Claws of Axos will be part of the 2005 schedule and backtracks a bit on their previous report that The Mind Robber will be the first 2005 release (it's now a "contender" for early 2005 according to the site), but also adds the name of the William Hartnell serial The Web Planet to the list of possible releases. (The article notes that the story "will pose a few problems for the VidFIRE video estimation process due to the smearing applied to the æexteriorÆ shots, something that the software may have problems processing.") Members of the Restoration Team have noted that the first DVD release of 2005 will be "interesting" and will definitely be in color... it will not, however, be a set of the new TV series' episodes, because they won't have been broadcast by then.

Another story on the same site says claims one of the features on the Lost in Time DVD collection release coming soon will be film inserts from episode 1 of The Space Pirates, which were not previously known widely to exist. We have yet to see any official confirmation of this, however.

Lots of reports coming in from the various press outlets building on rumors that the Daleks, now confirmed as being in the series in the first season, will be given legs in the new series. "Show bosses are looking at the exterminators being able to climb stairs, fly and hover," says The Sun (obviously not being aware that the Daleks hovering was established in the original series, in "Remembrance of the Daleks"). "Their legs may be like those of Star Wars robot R2D2. Or the BBC could use our ideas -and have the Doctor's enemy with Penny Lancaster pins or Hobbit-like tootsies from The Lord of the Rings." Tim Hancock of the estate of Terry Nation is quoted as saying, "We all accept that the Daleks were designed in the early Sixties and need to be updated. They have got to be able to move, be mobile, but they have also got to retain the initial look of the original Daleks about them." The Daily Telegraph notes about the various Dalek stories, "Whoever's in charge of the PR for the new Dr Who series has been doing a knockout job" and notes about the various press leaks involving the negotiations around bringing the nasty metal monsters back. Various other news journals including the Register (with a second article here), Ananova and local media. (Thanks to Steve Tribe, Mark Healey, Paul Engelberg)

The new issue of Heat Magazine features what is certainly a major spoiler about the new season... if it's true (and we certainly don't vouch for the validity of anything reported in the article at all; we merely bring it to your attention!) Click on the spoiler tag to read the brief article clip, and don't say we didn't warn you. (Thanks to Ian Wheeler)