Anthony Stewart Head, best known as Giles on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and known to Doctor Who fans for his turn as Grayvorn in the "Excelis" series from Big Finish, was voted the audience's favorite to play the next Doctor in a Radio Times poll, beating runners-up Alan Rickman, Stephen Fry, Alan Davies and Ian Richardson. "I'm in very good company - good God, I beat Alan Rickman," said Head. "I suppose I would be a logical choice to play the Doctor just because Giles, my character in Buffy, has the same light and dark sides and quirkiness as Doctor Who." He said his favorite Doctor was Patrick Troughton "because you never knew what was going on inside his Doctor." The article on the BBC's website noting the Radio Times poll results also features comments from writer Russell T. Davies; you can read it by clicking here(or here to read a similar story on Yahoo!). (Thanks to everyone who wrote in with comments)

Members of Parliament have chosen Stephen Fry as the actor they most want to become the next Doctor, in a poll carried out by BBC Worldwide and announced on the BBC Press Office' website. 130 MP's responded to the questions, "many showing huge enthusiasm for this uniquely British institution". Fry beat Alan Rickman, Bill Nighy, David Jason and former Doctor Tom Baker. 78 names were suggested including Eddie Izzard, Hugh Laurie, David Bowie, Zoe Wanamaker, Joanna Lumley, Dawn French, Kate O'Mara, Patricia Routledge... and even a few non-actors such as William Hague (former senior Conservative MP), Jeremy Paxman, Iain Duncan Smith, and John Peel. The Daleks were voted the scariest monsters; Tom Baker was voted the best Doctor; and in a question asking "Doctor Who is an example of Great British Television becauseà?", the frontrunner in that category was "because it was innovative, groundbreaking, original, unique and creative." Check out the full press release by visiting the Press Office site. (Thanks to Steve Tribe)

Journalist Matthew Sweet penned an article on the 40th anniversary of Doctor Who for the Independent on November 16, which has only now been made available to readers online. Click here to read the article. Very importantly, the article mentions the return of the series with some interesting information: "There'll be at least one important difference, though, between the programme's 20th and 21st-century incarnations," Sweet writes. "The new Doctor Who will be one of the BBC's flagship programmes. [Producer Russell T.] Davies and his co-conspirator, Mal Young, Controller of Continuing Drama Series, have secured a commitment to five series of 13, 45-minute episodes. They'll be able to afford an expensive actor for the lead role. They'll get billboard ads, Radio Times covers and publicity spots across the media. The original programme rarely enjoyed such security." The article then goes on to mention that "Russell T Davies has his first production meeting on 8 December." While we have no idea how definite any of this information is, it certainly breeds speculation that the BBC is fully committing itself to the production, and that good times may indeed be ahead.

UK Gold presents its Doctor Who @40 Weekend to celebrate the anniversary in just a few short days. The This Week in Doctor Who column -- which we host a mirror of at Outpost Galilfrey -- today has the complete, detailed breakdown of the schedule, which indlues all of the documentaries and inserts that are part of the weekend. Click hereto take a look at the detailed schedule. Meanwhile, Outpost Gallifrey has received word about the content of the original shorts; each will feature interviews with the Doctors where possible along with members of the cast and crew and fans, including Colin Baker, Peter Davison, Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann, Katy Manning, Louise Jameson, Sophie Aldred, Verity Lambert, Nicola Bryant, Nicholas Courtney and Peter Purves, plus the following specials, all presented by K-9 himself!

• 1963 The year of Dr Who: Martin Luther. Aldermaston. Kennedy and the birth of the teatime classic. At about teatime on Saturday 23rd November 1963, a mysterious time traveller known only as Dr Who appeared on the nation's screens ... little did we know that a legend was in the making. This short film looks at the origins of the series in the pursuit of scientific education and awareness. Same timelord time, same timelord channel.
• The Timelady: Arabella Weir is the first female doctor in the latest audio adventure and the subject of the female doctor has been a raging controversy for years ... so why is regeneration among the last bastions of sexual segregation.
• Monstermania: For many of us our first Dr Who was seen through closed hands or from the safe confines from behind the sofa rather than in front of the fire. We take a journey through some of the most popular adversaries from 40 years of time travel.
• Don't Mention Mel: Comedian Andre Vincent recalls his adolescent awakenings alongside various doctor's assistants - Jo (Katy Manning), Louise Jamieson (Leela) and, not forgetting Ace (Sophie Aldred) but strangely steering clear of Bonnie Langford's (Mel).
• The Theme Music: The Chalkenwell Ladies Drum & Bass League on the classic theme music and the contribution of Ron Grainer and Delia Derbyshire of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop to electronica.
• The Cancellation Crisis: Paul McGann was the eighth Doctor but does he count and now that the series is coming back what can we expect from the modern day timelord.
• The Timelord's Coming Home: The Doctor stopped in 1987 but why? We look back at the cancellation crisis and the hiatus of the 1985 season and the factors that contributed to the killing of Dr Who and the parallel lives of the Doctor since.

The fanzine of Canada's Doctor Who Information Network, Enlightenment celebrates the anniversary with a 52-page issue written entirely by author Lance Parkin ("Trading Futures"). The article, "A Forty Year Adventure In Time and Space" is a year-by-year examination of Doctor Who, with observations on the Doctor Who franchise over the past four decades. The introduction is by Lloyd Rose ("Camera Obscura") with a full colour wraparound cover by BBC Radio Collection artist Max Ellis. To order, visit www.dwin.org.

The Friday, November 21 edition of Blue Peter will be devoted to celebrating the 40th anniversary of Doctor Who. The programme, to be broadcast live, will celebrate some of the classic Doctor Who monsters, featuring clips from the show, and will feature a competition to win various prizes. The Hyde Fundraisers group will be taking part in the show as well. Meanwhile, the next day, Saturday November 22, the Museum Of Film & Photography will play host to a celebration of Doctor Who which will include special Dr Who screenings. These include 'The Horns Of Nimon' featuring Tom Baker and the first sixties Dalek film starring Peter Cushing, 'Dr Who & The Daleks'. (Thanks to Kevin Taylor)

BBCi has debuted the first episode of The Scream of the Shalka by Paul Cornell, starring Richard E. Grant as the Doctor, Sophie Okonedo as Alison Cheney, with Diana Quick, Craig Kelly and Derek Jacobi. It's fully-animated using Flash technology and can be seen on your computer by visiting the BBCi site. There are stories about the launch in the popular media as well, including at Empire Online, the Manchester Evening News and Reuters. Visit the BBCi site and enjoy the first episode!

Big Finish has released details about its forthcoming four-part miniseries caleld Gallifrey, to be released on audio next year and starring Lalla Ward as Romana and Louise Jameson as Leela. Says director/producer Gary Russell: "I've always loved the Doctor's home planet and feel that the actual society therein was never explored very deeply on TV. Oh we saw a few High Council meetings, and the odd assassination but I've always wanted to find out how the hierarchy ticks. How they cope under pressure. What Time Lords actually do all day long, and why. How do they cope with a Madame President with a somewhat more shady past than most of her predecessors, with a friend like Leela an off-worlder with a very different cultural heritage. I always felt, perhaps during the Tom Baker era, that an opportunity was missed by not stranding the Doctor on his home planet for a season. The Deadly Assassin and Invasion of Time so diluted the mystery of the Time Lords and yet added so many new layers to their story, I feel it would have been nice to discover a bit more. In the case of this mini-series, with no Doctor around, we might learn a few secrets that we've otherwise only had hints of before. I imagine this series to be The West Wing meets Spooks to some extent, with a dash of The Sopranos perhaps."

The first chapter is Weapon of Choice by Alan Barnes, which focuses on political bickering between the races who have some mastery over time, and a terrible super weapon that could erase entire continuums. But who developed the weapon, and will they use it? Part two is Square One by Stephen Cole, in which Leela goes under cover to attempt to expose the traitors who are attempting to destroy the d?tente that exists, tenuous as it is, between the temporally-capable species. Justin Richards penned part three, The Inquiry where Romana's methods in dealing with the other races come under the scrutiny of the Gallifeyan hierarchy. The final chapter is A Blind Eye by Alan Barnes, in which Romana must deal with exactly that which she has been afraid of: Someone is taking advantage of the space/time vortex and changing timelines to suit themselves... Says Russell, "Both Lalla and Louise were very excited by the ideas we discussed during Zagreus, and hopefully a couple of other familiar voices may crop up from time to time, including John Leeson as the voice of a K9 or two!" (Thanks to Big Finish)

LibDem MP Bob Russell today said in the House of Commons that he was "delighted" Doctor Who is coming back, referring to its past success and contribution to the British economy. (Thanks to Ian Wheeler)