2004 will see some great stuff from the BBC Radio Collection. As previously announced, this year's first BBC audio release is Fury From the Deep, due out February 2, narrated by Frazer Hines. The audio release of The Wheel in Space is due out on CD on May 4; for the first time, Wendy Padbury (Zoe) narrates a story, having recorded her material on January 15 according to the BBCi site. Meanwhile, the re-release of Death Comes to Time in MP3 format has been pushed back to June 7, while The Crusade will be released on August 2 (likely with narration by William Russell, but that hasn't yet been confirmed). Details have also been revealed about the two Tales from the TARDISvolumes, now due out July 5; they both feature material only previously released on cassette. Volume one of "Tales" features the audio readings of the novelizations of "The Curse of Peladon" (by Jon Pertwee), "Kinda" (by Peter Davison) and "Attack of the Cybermen" (by Colin Baker), as well as two short-story collections, "Out of the Darkness" read by Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant and "Short Trips" read by Nicholas Courtney and Sophie Aldred. Volume two of "Tales" features readings of the novelizations of "Planet of the Daleks" (by Jon Pertwee), "Warriors of the Deep" (by Peter Davison) and "Vengeance on Varos" (by Colin Baker), as well as Paul McGann's reading of Gary Russell's "The Novel of the Film" and of the short story collection "Earth and Beyond". Finally, BBC Radio Collection will release a second volume of "Doctor Who at the BBC" sometime in the autumn. (Thanks to BBCi and Planet Who)

Lance Parkin, author of several acclaimed Doctor Who novels including "Father Time," "The Infinity Doctors" and "Just War," will be penning the third Faction Paradox novel. Entitled Warlords of Utopia, the novel is the third in Mad Norwegian Press' series of books concerning the time-travelling voodoo cult first created by Lawrence Miles for the BBC Books Doctor Who novel range. Parkin's book "is a generational story in which every parallel reality where Rome conquered the world finds itself warring against every parallel reality where Nazi Germany dominated the globe. The book serves to reintroduce crucial elements concerning the Warùthe ongoing conflict between major powers in the Faction Paradox seriesùpaving the way for major War developments in the Faction Paradox book line." The novel is due out in August 2003. (Thanks to Lars Pearson)

The January 12 edition of the Express newspaper mentioned the possibility of Tom Baker taking a role in the next series of the UK drama Monarch of the Glen. "Baker, 69 - famed for his striped scarf and poodle hair as the Doctor," says the article, "is in talks to become a regular on hugely popular BBC Scottish-set drama... The feelgood Highland series stars Susan Hampshire and Hamish Clark and has attracted a staggering 50 million viewers around the world. The larger-than-life Baker is seen as a suitably high-profile name to fill the gap left by Good Life actor Briers. 'Tom Baker would fit into the mould of an eccentric Highland character brilliantly,' says our source. 'He was initially reluctant to do the series because of the large amount of filming which takes place in Scotland, but now is very interested.'" (Thanks to Mark Askren)

The Doctor Who Appreciation Society has announced publication of its 40th anniversary drabble collection Who XL by Ian Wheeler. The book will include one drabble (or piece of writing exactly 100 words long) for each of the Doctor's TV adventures. Contributors include Colin Baker, Nicholas Courtney, Dave Stone, Andrew Pixley, John Freeman, Jean-Marc Lofficier and Gareth Preston, each explaining why a particular Doctor Who story is important to them. Details of ordering will soon appear on the DWAS website; a portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Foundation for the Study of Infant Death. (Thanks to Ian Wheeler)

BBC Wiltshire feature a new interview with new series producer Mal Young regarding current plans for the new show. Some of the highlights, as transcribed by the Dark Horizons website, are as follows; you can find a RealAudio version of the interview at BBC Wiltshire site. (Thanks to BBC Wiltshire and Dark Horizons).

Shalka animators Cosgrove Hall have been nominated for a Blue Chip award, the digital industry award for the North West, for the BBCi webcast animated serial.

Episode two of the lost Doctor Who serial The Daleks' Master Plan, entitled "Day of Armageddon," has been recovered in its entirety and has been returned to the BBC's archives, according to Steve Roberts of the Doctor Who Restoration Team. The episode stars William Hartnell, the first Doctor, with companions Steven (Peter Purves) and Katarina (Adrienne Hill), along with Space Special Security agent Bret Vyon (played by Nicholas Courtney, who would later return to the series as the Brigadier)... indeed, the most notable fact about the episode may be that it's the first and only complete episode to feature footage of both Katarina and Bret Vyon (who have only been seen in very short extant footage since the story was wiped in the 1970's).

Says Roberts: "I was contacted on Tuesday via the RT Website address by the former Head of Engineering at Yorkshire Television, who told me that he thought that the time was right to return two cans of Doctor Who film that he had "borrowed" from a pile of junk he was asked to dispose of whilst a trainee BBC engineer in the early seventies. The first was a copy of 'The Expedition' from the first Dalek story... but the second was 'Day of Armageddon', the second episode of 'The Daleks' Master Plan'! I've just watched the episode and it's fantastic - you get to see Katarina, more of Bret Vyon, the alien delegates (including, of course, Celation, who we only ever had a single picture of!) and the Doctor disguised as Zephon stealing the Taranium Core!"

Outpost Gallifrey's Doctor Who Episode Guide entry for "The Daleks' Master Plan - click here

Says the official press release: "Doctor Who episodes have a history of being returned from slightly strange places and in the past they have been found in such diverse locations as a church basement, a car boot sale and even a jumble sale in New Zealand! The latest find is no exception, as the episode is literally a gift from the opposition - in this instance from Francis Watson, Head of Engineering at Yorkshire Television in Leeds. As a young engineer working for the BBC in the early seventies, Watson had been given the task of clearing out a room full of junk at the CorporationÆs Television Film Studios in Ealing. Among the rubbish were two 16mm cans marked Doctor Who, which Watson saved from destruction so that he could watch them on the projector at his local film club. For over thirty years and through two house moves, he kept the films safe and now feels that the time has come to return them to the BBC. Watson says that he has always felt slightly embarrassed about ôborrowingö the films, but he can be assured that, thirty years on, both the BBC and fans of the series will be only too happy about it, for his minor indiscretion as a junior engineer undoubtedly ensured the episodeÆs survival. The second of WatsonÆs film cans contained a poor-quality episode of The Expedition, an episode of the very first Dalek adventure, of which the BBC already has a master copy. Day of Armageddon is a great find however, as it is a crucial episode which helped to set up the ambitious twelve part story, a classic space-opera romp through space and time which sees the Doctor and his companions try to thwart the traitorous æGuardian of the Solar SystemÆ, Mavic Chen, and his Dalek allies - culminating in the destruction of time itself! Importantly for both fans and historians alike, this second episode contains scenes with several characters for which very little visual reference material still exists - in fact only a single, blurry photograph of the alien leader Celation is known to have survived in a private photograph collection."

The recovery of Day of Armageddon comes almost five years after the previous missing episode, "The Lion," the first chapter of the serial "The Crusade," was recovered from a film collector in New Zealand, and returned to the BBC via the Restoration Team. More details as we get them. (Thanks to Steve Roberts, Julian Knott and the Restoration Team)