Interesting rumor, take with a grain of salt: a radio update on New Zealand's Newstalk 1ZB on Tuesday morning stated that the first new Doctor Who episode would be filmed in that country, at Mount Ruapehu. The mountain (seen most recently in the "Lord of the Rings" films) is one of New Zealand's more popular ski resort areas. Of course, Outpost Gallifrey doubts that this is any more than simple wishful thinking, as location scouting for any new series is likely not to have yet begun. Update: Mount Ruapehu also features in the first episode of "The Scream of the Shalka" so it's likely this is where the confusion lies, mistaking "Shalka" for the new series. (Thanks to Campbell Pentney, and Jeff Murray for the addendum)

Sunday night's Adult Swim block of programming on the Cartoon Network featured a tribute to Doctor Who's anniversary. The brief announcement, at the end of the "Sealab 2021" animated program, featured a voiceover with some artwork (silhouettes of various iconic images from the show.) Obviously there's a Doctor Who fan in the office, there... (Thanks to Graeme Burk, Mike Fuller)

New items in the papers today: icLiverpool celebrates the 40th anniversary in an article that includes comments from several Doctors, including Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy. "I think the next Doctor should be a woman - Dawn French," said Colin. "She'd be fabulous, but I don't know if they'd have the bottle to do it this time." icWales also chimes in with anarticle about the show which includes comments from Russell T. Davies, in which he comments about being bombarded with personal e-mails from 'fans' demanding the return of the Daleks Cybermen, and so forth! The article speculates that there will be seven episodes, but this is speculative. (Thanks to Steve Tribe)

The British Board of Film Classification website is listing the following extras for the forthcoming DVD release of The Visitation starring Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton, Janet Fielding and Matthew Waterhouse, due out in January:


These items include the half-hour interview segment with director Peter Moffatt, a featurette about the scoring of the episode and other items. More when it's available.

The Reuters news service on Sunday ran a feature story on the anniversary, including mention of "Shalka" and the new show.

In the European edition of the Sunday Express (and presumably in the UK version as well), there were two brief mentions of Doctor Who. One was in the Pub Quiz: one question was "Which TV series started on 23 November 1963 with William Hartnell in its title role." The other was a half page interview with Tom Baker, in which he talked about the series. Said Baker: "When I was doing Who, I didn't have to do any acting. It was just me, reading the lines." Also, Sunday's "User Friendly" comic strip in the US featured a guest appearance by a Dalek! Also, a news item is available onYahoo UK/Ireland discussing the "Scream of the Shalka" webcast. (Thanks to Rollo Martin, Tom Beck, David French)

The ic North Wales site has a three-page article today on the 40th anniversary of Doctor Who, a summary of the show and it's connections with the Welsh. Interestingly, says the article, "The absence of a special Dr Who weekend of programmes dedicated to the time travelling doctor marks a bizarre scheduling decision which is entirely in keeping with the BBC's love/hate relationship with the adventurous Time Lord," omitting the fact that UK Gold did exactly that all weekend. You can read the full article by going here. (Thanks to Steve Tribe, Andrew Harvey)