Issue 2 of the Canadian fanzine Whotopia is out; it includes such features "20 Questions with Louise Jameson," "Season 5: The Year of the Monsters," "The Making of Doctor Who Recons Part II," "The Scream of The Shalka Overview" and other highlights. For more details visit http://whotopia.tvheaven.com. (Thanks to Bob Furnell)

January 18th's BBC Radio Five Live's "Brief Lives" show (an obituary programme) featured a segment on Dinsdale Landen ("The Curse of Fenric"), featuring an interview with his wife discussing his work on Fenric. (Thanks to Chris Patient)

New Who producer Russell T. Davies will appear on the UK arts television magazine show "The South Bank Show" on February 8 at 22:45, according to their website as well as an appearance by the show's presenter Melvin Bragg on the "Today with Des and Mel" show. Says the South Bank site, "Can television drama still explore the state of the nation? Is there a place for politics in television drama? Just how truthful is docudrama? These are just some of the questions explored in the second programme in this two-part South Bank Show Special. Revealing the secrets and craft behind their work are some of this country's leading writers including Paul Abbott, Tony Marchant and Russell T Davies. With exclusive footage from several up-and-coming dramas for 2004, contributions from actors, directors and commissioning editors, this is an in-depth look at whether television drama can still break new boundaries in a medium dominated by reality TV and lifestyle shows." (Thanks to Ben Morris and Vin Marsden Hendrick)

Cosgrove Hall, the animators behind "The Scream of the Shalka," have won the award for Best Digital Animation -- the award Outpost Gallifrey previously noted it was nominated for -- at the Blue Chip Awards, the digital industry awards for the North West.

Further to our report last week about forthcoming audio release details from the BBC Radio Collection, Michael Stevens of BBC Audiobooks has put out the following call for material for the second volume of Doctor Who at the BBC, due out this summer. "If anyone out there has off-air recordings of radio programmes from the 1960s to the 1990s," says Stevens, "we'd love to hear from you. Although a lot of stuff is in the archive, an amazing amount is not. Amongst the radio things we'd love to include in a future release are William Hartnell's appearance on Desert Island Discs, Moviegoround featuring Doctor Who and the Daleks, Nicholas Courtney on Today in 1974, and anything featuring Patrick Troughton - but there are tons of other things we know were broadcast but are no longer held. If you were one of those who excitedly taped the merest mention of Who on the air, and would be prepared to loan us the tapes for a short while, please get in touch with us. Email radio.collection@bbc.co.uk putting DWATBBC as the subject header, or write to Doctor Who at the BBC, BBC Audiobooks, St James House, The Square, Lower Bristol Road, Bath BA2 3BH. We'd be delighted to give you a credit in the sleeve and a copy of the finished release. Please, though, don't send us any Dead Ringers clips - we're all sorted for them!" Meanwhile, Planet Who reports that an audio release of the Patrick Troughton serial The Invasion is due out in November 2004 on CD; we don't have any independent confirmation of such at this time.

Paul McGann has a few things to say about the new Doctor Who series, in an interview with SFX Magazine. "I'm not being disingenuous now when I say that I've heard nothing," says McGann in response to reports he is being courted to appear in the series, either in a cameo appearance or as a regular. "And I'm unlikely to hear anything, except that they'll probably ask me to go back and do the regeneration, which I'd be happy to do. But if I was them, I wouldn't pick me. I think if somebody wants it more - and again, this is purely, purely rumour, so this could be nonsense, but not only have I heard that David Warner is up for it, but he really wants to do it. And if that's the case then they should give it to him, because you can't beat that. You can't beat passion. While I'd be into it... I've got to be really careful what I say here... I might not have the same passion that Warner would, to be brutally honest, simply by dint of the fact that I've done it before. If I was to get offered it, then I would have to be absolutely certain, and I would have to seek guarantees, that I could do the things I wanted to do in 1996, approach it the way we thought we might before. It would be unfinished business." The new issue of SFX goes on sale on February 18. (Thanks to Nick Setchfield)

Updated 1800 GMT: An update for our North American readers on the latest DVD releases. Following this March's release of the already-announced The Seeds of Death (Patrick Troughton) and The Three Doctors (Jon Pertwee, Patrick Troughton and William Hartnell), Outpost Gallifrey has learned that the next two DVD releases here will be The Curse of Fenric (Sylvester McCoy) and The Two Doctors (Colin Baker with Patrick Troughton). We've since confirmed that both will be released on June 1; later this week we will likely have further details as well as cover art for both.

Meanwhile, we have also been informed of developments later in the year: on the boards for the second half of the year or early in 2005, according to the BBCAmerica Shop (at least currently, subject to change as usual) are The Visitation(Peter Davison), Pyramids of Mars (Tom Baker) and The Green Death (Jon Pertwee) as well as The Beginning, which includes the stories An Unearthly Child, The Daleks and The Edge of Destruction. While no new boxed sets have been planned, this might be indication that at least, should "The Beginning" be released in the UK (there has been no confirmation about such from Worldwide), it would also be released in the US & Canada. This is also important to fans outside of North America because it reaffirms rumors that those discs are indeed being planned for later in 2004 or early 2005 in the UK (since BBC America will be following the UK releases instead of creating their own releases, a la "Key to Time".) Surprisingly, no word as yet on the status of Earthshock, the Peter Davison story that was released late last year in the UK. As always, all of this -- except for the June releases -- should be taken as "speculative" (whatever that means to you) until it's confirmed. (Thanks to BBC America Shop, Rob Hunter, Jason Prilby)

Big Finish's The Creed of the Kromon is now in release; this is the first story with new companion C'Rizz (Conrad Westmaas).

In addition to the online clip showing, a short clip consisting of some of the title sequence, the episode title, and some Daleks in conversation from episode two of The Daleks' Master Plan was shown on the BBC digital channel BBC Three as part of the Liquid News entertainment news show. The report said that it was the "exclusive" first showing (which was at about 19:45 GMT on January 15.) (Thanks to Phil Pizzey)

The Earthbound Timelords group, an online Doctor Who literary/educational collection, has embarked on the Doctor Who Fanzine Preservation Project. The goal of the Project is to save old Doctor Who fanzines from the garbage cans and dust bins and to try to preserve as many as possible for the long term use of Doctor Who researchers and historians. The EBTL site link features the goals and mission of the project. Keeping records of the history of Doctor Who fandom may not seem important to some at first, but this sort of archiving is extremely useful and Outpost Gallifrey fully supports it; check out the site and let them know if you can help! (Thanks to Nick Seidler)