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.

Both Doctor Who Magazine #341 and an internal BBC magazine, Ariel, have announced the writers signed for the first season of the new Doctor Who series. Joining producer Russell T. Davies, who will pen 8 episodes himself, are:

• Mark Gatiss, best known as the writer and co-creator of "The League of Gentlemen" and the author of several Doctor Who stories including the novels "Last of the Gaderene," "St. Anthony's Fire," "The Roundheads" and "Nightshade" and the Big Finish audios "Phantasmagoria" and "Invaders from Mars," and who penned several of the P.R.o.B.e. videos for BBV
• Steven Moffat, the creator of BBC2's popular comedy series "Coupling" which won "Sitcom of the Year" at the British Comedy Awards, and whose previous Doctor Who credit was the teleplay for the Comic Relief special "The Curse of Fatal Death" with Rowan Atkinson, Julia Sawalha and Jonathan Pryce
• Paul Cornell, the popular writer whose work includes episodes of "Casualty," "Wavelength," "Doctors," "Children's Ward" and "Springhill," and whose Doctor Who works include such novels as "Happy Endings," "Love and War," "The Shadows of Avalon" and both the screenplay for and novelisation of BBCi's "The Scream of the Shalka"
• Rob Shearman, an acclaimed playwright and stage writer who has written Big Finish's most popular Doctor Who audio teleplays including "The Holy Terror," "The Chimes of Midnight," "Jubilee," "Scherzo" and "Deadline," and who was awarded Writer of the Year at 2003's Doctor Who Magazine awards in London in November

Producer Mal Young told Ariel, "I've never received so many requests from writers and actors to be involved in a drama series, as I have had for Doctor Who." Added producer Julie Gardner, "Finding writers for the new series of Doctor Who has been one of the best jobs I've ever had. The talent available was exceptional." Davies himself noted that he believes that he has "the best people in the business now working on the best show. They'll be writing stories ranging across the whole of time and space. The Doctor and Rose already have the best allies on their journey - brilliant writers with brilliant scripts. It's an honour to work with these people who are so talented; they shouldn't be allowed to travel together!" Outpost Gallifrey has learned that one of these newly confirmed writers will pen two scripts for Davies; another unnamed participant decided to withdraw at an earlier time (solely due to schedule complications). All are said to be working off of "very basic" ideas - rather than full outlines, as has been reported elsewhere - from Davies, who will generate the major framework of the first series and is leaving the actual details to these experienced TV writers. Filming on the new series begins "in the spring." More details as we get them. (Thanks to BBCi and 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!)

Outpost Gallifrey has received the cover illustration for the forthcoming novel Halflife by Mark Michalowski from BBC Books. "To lose your memory once may be regarded as a misfortune," says the press info, "to lose it twice looks like carelessness. The Doctor's forgotten why he came to the colony world of Espero in the first place, but he's sure it was something important. Before long, he's engaged in the search for a time-bomb that could have consequences not only for Espero, but also for the Doctor himself... and his missing past." The Eighth Doctor, Fitz and Trix MacMillan novel will be out in April. Click on the thumbnail for a larger version. (Thanks to Mark Michalowski)

The new issue of Doctor Who Magazine confirms the forthcoming releases of Tales From the TARDIS, Volumes 1 & 2, which are both "MP3-CD" releases (not standard issue CD's, but instead featuring MP3 computer files on them) and are due out on July 5. As previously noted, the first volume includes "The Curse of Peladon" read by Jon Pertwee, "Kinda" read by Peter Davison, "Attack of the Cybermen" read by Colin Baker, the "Out of the Darkness" short story collection read by Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant, and the "Short Trips" anthology collection read by Nick Courtney and Sophie Aldred. Volume 2 features "Planet of the Daleks" read by Jon Pertwee, "Warriors of the Deep" read by Peter Davison, "Vengeance on Varos" read by Colin Baker, and two readings by Paul McGann, "Earth and Beyond" and the 1996 TV movie novelization. A small thumbnail of the cover is at right. DWM also confirms June 7 for the release of the MP3-CD version of Death Comes to Time and August 2 for the regular BBC Radio Collection audio soundtrack release The Crusade. (Thanks to Galaxy 4)

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.

Something we missed during our couple of weeks down around the convention: Iron Legionis the first of DWM's new reprints of classic Doctor Who comics from the pages of the magazine of yesteryear. "Enter worlds where robot centurions defend the mighty Roman Empire, where love is punishable by death, where the colonists of New Earth live in fear of the vicious Wereloks, where a simple request for a cup of tea could lead to the end of everything, and where your best hope of escape is the 5A bus... Join the Doctor, that immortal traveller in time and space, on five of his wildest and wittiest comic strip adventures - The Iron Legion, City of the Damned, The Star Beast, Dogs of Doom and The Time Witch." Featuring work from the award-winning Dave Gibbons (Watchmen), Pat Mills and John Wagner (Judge Dredd, Strontium Dog), and Steve Moore (Abslom Daak), these five classic strips from the pages of Doctor Who Weekly have been digitally restored for the 21st century and are reprinted for the very first time in their original, black and white format, on glossy paper. Panini Books (publishers of DWM) will release this in March, with more to come later.

While producer Russell T. Davies continues to work on the new Doctor Who series, another of his productions has been shipped to America: the USA Network has remade Touching Evil, a 1997 ITV serial that Davies wrote scripts for, with Bruce Willis serving as the executive producer for this new show. In an interesting twist, one of the producers of the new version is Antony Root, who was script editor on Doctor Who in the early 1980's. The US version of "Touching Evil" will be out in March.

Out on March 4 is Issue 341 of Doctor Who Magazine, featuring part two of the interview with Lalla Ward; the first of Russell T. Davies' production diaries on the new series; Daniel O'Mahony's coda to "Accidental Tourist"; part four of the comic strip "Bad Blood"; Andrew Pixley's Archive Extras focuses on "The Ultimate Adventure"; plus information on the new series writers and, as Outpost Gallifrey has learned, word of an important discovery from the show's first season that has been rumored about for the past several weeks. Meanwhile, out March 18 is The Complete First Doctor, the sixth in their series of special editions focusing on a particular era of the show, including photographs and reviews and an afterword by Verity Lambert. Covers for both are below.