Manchester University Press will be publishing Terry Nation, a book about the life of the creator of the Daleks, "Blake's 7" and other icons, written by Jonathan Bignell and Andrew O'Day, in late spring 2004. Says the press info: "Terry Nation was a prolific writer for television, specialising in science fiction adventure. This book charts his television career, focusing on Dalek and other stories for 'Doctor Who', the post-apocalyptic drama 'Survivors', and the space adventure 'Blake's 7'. As well as analysing programmes in detail, the book discusses Nation's collaborations with the producers, script-editors and directors who brought his work to the screen. Illustrations feature rarely-seen stills from key episodes." To be placed on Manchester's mailing list for further info, send email here. (Thanks to Andrew O'Day)

BBCi today confirmed our story from the weekend that The Wheel in Space will be out on CD in 2004. Meanwhile, according to the folks at the Galaxy 4 shop, the new Tales From the TARDIS CD and the previously released Death Comes to Time will be released as MP3-CD's in April; "Tales" is currently an unknown commodity but we believe it might include the previously released "Short Trips," "Earth and Beyond" and "Out of the Unknown" only available on cassette. (No word on a release of "Tales" as a normal CD.) Galaxy 4 also says that the BBC "intend to issue ALL the incomplete stories on CD including the ones previously released with BBC Video titles such as The Ice Warriors, The Invasion and The Tenth Planet. This is so that fans can hear the stories complete without having to swap between formats." (Thanks to BBCi, Galaxy 4)

Author David Bishop kindly supplied to the Outpost Gallifrey Forum's readers the revised version of the blurb for his forthcoming BBC Books novel Empire of Death (the one we featured a few days ago, taken from the distributors' publication, was an earlier draft.) The corrected version is as follows:

Reeltime Pictures has released on DVD their independent video Mindgame, written by Terrance Dicks and starring Sophie Aldred (Ace) and Miles Richardson; the story isn't directly related to Doctor Who but features the Draconians and Sontarans, and Aldred plays "an 'Ace'-like character". The sequel story Mindgame Trilogy will be released separately. The "Mindgame" disc contains a new extended "making of" documentary and photo gallery. At right is a thumbnail of the cover of this DVD. (Thanks to Galaxy 4)

Doctor Who websites will be the focus of an article on BBC Radio Wales' Mousemat, a weekly radio programme discussing home computing and the internet. Each week they chat about websites on a particular topic, and in the programme that goes out on November 19, between 1803GMT and 1830GMT on BBC Radio Wales, they'll be discussing Doctor Who sites (hmm... wonder if they'll mention us here!) For those in the UK outside of Wales it's on Sky Channel 867 and it's also available online at www.bbc.co.uk/radiowales. (Thanks to Damon Querry)

Rob Dunlop of Argolis Productions contacted Outpost Gallifrey to let us know that the charity audio CD production of The Nightmare Fair released earlier this year to raise money for Sense (a deaf-blindness and associated disability organization) -- chosen by former Doctor Who script editor Anthony Read -- raised ú403 for this worthy cause. Copies are still available at www.argolis.co.uk. (Thanks to Rob Dunlop)

The latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine apparently features a story about Radio Times reprinting their "10th Anniversary Doctor Who Special", overseen by members of the DW Restoration Team. Some of the original photos have since gone missing, but where possible they're reprinting them either exactly as they were or with slight variations, from photos taken at the same shoot. The odd one or two pics might have to be scanned in from the original special. The original release from 1973 is incredibly rare and it'l be very exciting for most fans to finally be able to see what it looked like (and see how all the Hartnell stories are listed with the titles taken from their first episodes!) (Thanks to Jim Sangster for letting us know...)

UKGold will be broadcasting their "Doctor Who @40 Weekend" from 7am to 7pm on both Nvoember 22 and 23, according to Radio Times. There don't seem to be any specific time slots for the programming, but Sky's customer magazine apparently states the weekend starts at 9.00am, so it's safe to presume the ongoing omnibus repeats will be running Saturday and Sunday mornings. Meanwhile, the BBC 4 channel will be rebroadcasting the "Alchemists of Sound" TV documentary on November 23 at 7pm. The issue of Radio Times published this week has a small (text only) plug for their forthcoming 16-page anniversary supplement due out next week, mentioning exclusive interviews and photos. Finally, the TV guide section of The Observer, OTV, yesterday included "The Scream of the Shalka" in its pick of the day selection for Thursday's TV, complete with the postcard image of the animated Doctor (played by Richard E. Grant) and the slightly odd implication that BBCi can be watched on satellite. (Thanks to Phillip Madeley, Steve Tribe)

Comic and SF author Neil Gaiman, on his online blog today, posted a response to a question, which was "Russel T. Davies has suggested that the first season of new Doctor Who episodes will include 13 episodes at 45 minutes apiece. Any chance you would write an episode if asked?" Gaiman's answer: "If I have time, certainly. (It took five years to find time to write a Babylon 5 episode, of course...)" Gaiman recently penned the foreword for the forthcoming Telos Doctor Who novella "Eye of the Tyger" so he's obviously very familiar with the show... (Thanks to Steve Manfred)

New series producer Russell T. Davies today attended a literary festival in Hull, UK, where some interesting bits of information came to light. Davies said that there is no concrete plan for the series at thsi stage, other than an outline (that will likely remain consistent) - nothing is set in stone apart from the fact that the series is coming back. The Doctor has not been cast yet. No master plan to bring the show back was in the offing; it just sort of happened, as a consequence of Davies repeatedly telling the BBC that he'd only work with them if he got to do Doctor Who. There's a production meeting on December 8th; things may start inching ahead around then. There will be other writers on the show but they'll be writing to specific briefs Davies sets. There will be a mix of stories; the whole spectrum of stuff from the old series, plus some new types of stories. Davies mentioned "Sapphire & Steel-type stories" involving shenanigans with time as one possible type of story. The reason BBC Wales are doing it is part of a wider plan to turn Wales into a production centre for television. Davies said that the series would likely consist of 13 45-minute episodes, most of which will be single stories. There are, at the moment, three two-parters, though that number may change according to how the budget plays out. He also said that we need to give Mal Young more credit for bringing back the series - it turns out that nearly every year, he's been coming up with budgeting plans and trying to get the series made. And people shouldn't just judge him by the fact that he produces Casualty and EastEnders - he also does less mass-market stuff like Dalziel and Pascoe, which tends to get overlooked. Doctor Who, he said, is a prestigious thing for the BBC - they're giving them an unheard-of 13 weeks of prep time, for instance, and it's envisaged as a series that will "run and run," in the manner of Casualty... a flagship programme. (Thanks to Stephen Graves, Paul Hayes, Ted Prendergast)