Last, but most certainly not least... Outpost Gallifrey spoke to Rob Shearman, one of the four new series writers announced recently, about his thoughts on the casting of Christopher Eccleston as the new Doctor. "About a year or so ago," Shearman told the Outpost, "my wife and I were spellbound watching The Second Coming on TV. 'This is by Russell T Davies,' I told her - and, in a vain attempt to convince her I was as good a writer by connection, said, 'He's a Doctor Who fan, you know.' My wife - who is not like you or I - grunted non-committally. At the first commercial break, I said, 'Wouldn't it be great if this was Doctor Who? Back on the telly?' and she grunted again. At the next break I sallied with a 'And wouldn't it be great if he was the Doctor?' And, to my surprise, she didn't grunt, but agreed. Because she'd realised as I had that Christopher Eccleston is the perfect choice to play the Doctor. Extraordinary - someone entirely 'other', who'll always stand out from the crowd. Charismatic - if he can pull off being a modern day Jesus, you know he can pull off a modern day Time Lord too. Capable of great passion, anger, and warmth. And, obviously, an astonishingly good actor. I can't tell you how delighted I am to be writing for such a talent. And my wife is jolly pleased too." You can read comments from the other three newly commissioned writers -- Mark Gatiss, Steven Moffat and Paul Cornell -- in the past few days' editions of the new series news column.

The hype surrounding the Eccleston casting continues, and Outpost Gallifrey continues to keep you updated...

An article in today's The Guardian discusses that BBC shows are 'dominating' the British Academy of Film & Television Awards (BAFTAs) this year. New Doctor Christopher Eccleston has been nominated for Russell T. Davies' "The Second Coming" (originally broadcast on ITV), while one of the recent contenders to play the Doctor, Bill Nighy, was nominated for "State of Play" on BBC1, as was actor David Morrissey. Also nominated was Jim Broadbent (for BBC1's "The Young Visiters"), who portrayed one of the future Doctors in the 1999 comic relief presentation "The Curse of Fatal Death". The BAFTA nominations are also mentioned in the Independent and the Telegraph, and the Telegraph discusses Eccleston's casting in Doctor Who.

In another Guardian article titled "Who dares, wins," Andy Bodle discusses the phenomenon of Doctor Who, it's fans and longevity, as he points out "When Christopher Ecclestone steps out of the Tardis next spring, Doctor Who, scourge of fibreglass lumps everywhere, will have been off our screens for 16 years". The article includes quotes from Mark Gatiss (League of gentlemen and new series writer), Nev Fountain (Dead Ringers), Will Baker (Kylie Minogue's creative consultant), and Clayton Hickman (Doctor Who Magazine) who makes the following interesting assertion: "The Doctor Who mafia. That's why the show's coming back. If it wasn't for all the fans in high places, it would just have faded away." In the print edition the piece is accompanied by a caricature/sketch of Eccleston stepping into the TARDIS. Also mentioned in the article is the monthly London Tavern fan gatherings. In another article in the Guardian, Matthew Norman's "Diary" column, the writer refers back to a diary piece in October 7 2003 when, he apparently, mentioned that a campaign was announced "to prevent Alan Davies becoming the new Doctor Who" and went on to suggest that there were "rumours that Christopher Eccleston" was interested. Norman goes on to modestly point out that "at this stage, it's too early to be sure how this uncanny piece of prescience came about". The print edition also carries a cartoon about showing a Dalek and captioned "THE GOVERNMENTS CHOICE FOR THE NEW BBC CHAIRMAN." You can see them all tomorrow at the Cuttings Archive. (Thanks to Roger Anderson, John Cooper)

The official Doctor Who site at BBCi has a photo gallery of Eccleston's various television and film appearances; check it out, there's some good stuff!

As we mentioned yesterday, even some of the big American broadcasters are now mentioning the casting of Eccleston. "Fox Report" anchor Shepard Smith, a nightly report on the Fox News Channel, mentioned the return of the show and the casting. (Thanks to Carl Kleffman)

Clarification on our mention the other day about Eccleston's position on the OK! Celebrity Chart... Peter Nolan wrote in to let us know that the OK! Chart is based on column inches. "Basically they read every article in every newspaper in a given week and count up the number of inches of text about each person. So only one person has had more written about them in the UK newspapers this week!"

An upcoming edition of the BBC2 educational program Schools: Watch features an episode called "Toys with Magic Granddad," in which a grandfather and kids "explore toys from 1969, have tea with a Jamaican family and watch Dr Who." It's on Tuesday March 30 at 10:50. (Thanks to Steve Freestone)

A report in today's Daily Mirror suggests that the BBC South video project being undertaken by Bill Baggs (of BBV) has been shelved due to the arrival of the new Doctor Who series. We contacted Bill Baggs, who let us know that the project was not scrapped and he's still working on it. There are rumors that Alan Cumming was approached to take part although nothing has been confirmed at this time. (Thanks to Kenny Smith, Bill Baggs)

Outpost Gallifrey spoke to Steven Moffat, writer of two episodes for the forthcoming first season of the new Doctor Who series, about the Christopher Eccleston announcement. "It's a fantastic casting," Moffat told us. "Not just because he's a brilliant actor, though clearly he is, but because he'll bring people to the audience, who wouldn't touch the show with a barge pole otherwise. The morning of the announcement, I went into the Coupling rehearsals, and the cast - trendy lovelies that they are, hardly the natural Who audience - were bouncing around about the news. Clearly rather more excited about that than the fact that a good friend of theirs was now writing it. So I sacked them all." We look forward to Mr. Moffat's sense of humor shining through in the upcoming season!

According to DWM editor Clayton Hickman, "Due to circumstances beyond DWM's control, 'The Iron Legion', the first volume of collected comic strips from Panini Books has been delayed by several weeks. Originally due out in late March, the Graphic Novel will now hit UK shops on or around April 15. Apologies for the delay, but there have been certain printing problems which needed to be solved before we were happy for the book to be released to shops. We've spent many months ensuring that the comic strips collected here look their very best, and the printing also needed to be top-notch to do them justice. We hope you'll agree that the delay was worth it when you see the finished item." (Thanks to Clayton Hickman/DWM)

Issue #342 of Doctor Who Magazine will be out April 1. Included in the next issue are comments from Christopher Eccleston on winning the role of the Doctor as well as notes from Russell T. Davies and producer Phil Collinson; the first part of the "Marco Polo" telesnap archive; Alan Barnes writes about "The Evil of the Daleks" in The Fact of Fiction; the Time Team revisits the newly discovered episode of "The Daleks' Master Plan" with commentary by Andrew Pixley; part three of Pixley's "Scheduled for Success" column; the climax of the comic strip "Bad Blood"; plus the usual reviews and previews. (Thanks to Clayton Hickman)

Today's "The Guardian" features an article entitled "Why I Love William Hartnell" by Matthew Bell on page 23 of the G2 section. (Thanks to Richard Allison)

The current issue of The Wisden Cricketer (number 7, April), features an article on cricket in film and TV written by Huw Turbervill, with an accurate and affectionate short review of Black Orchid, taking it to task only for some of the minor cricket details being wrong! (Thanks to Paul Cornell)

Updated March 24, 1600 GMT.  Outpost Gallifrey's comprehensive list of press coverage and press links for the Christopher Eccleston casting has been updated and is here below (with thanks to Steve Tribe, Andrew Harvey, Jon Preddle, Roger Anderson, Chuck Foster, Robert Byrne, Paul Engelberg, Kenny Davidson, Scott Woodard and DWAS):

BBC Drama Faces: an in-depth look at Christopher Eccleston, including his work, some personal background and other facts.

scifi.com (Sci Fi Wire) Portsmouth Today Cinescape News Wales Globe and Mail (Canada) CBC (Canada) Empire Online BBC Radio 1 Telegraph Sunday Buffalo News (USA) The Scotsman (original report) BBC Entertainment News BBC News Melbourne Herald Sun ITV Ireland Online Manchester Online Daily Record The Times Belfast Telegraph Breaking News (Ireland) UTV Internet Yahoo! CultTV New York Times BBC Press Office (release) nzoom RTE Interactive HELLO! Magazine Online Ireland ABC Australia feMail

Winston Salem Journal New Zealand Herald Daily Record Stuff New Zealand Borsa Italia Express India The Scotsman (March 20 update) The Mirror Sky News The Sun BBCi (official Doctor Who site) Reuters The Guardian Telegraph.co.uk with details     on the last-minute casting Teletext Slashdot Ananova Ananova (3/22) Sydney Morning Herald New Zealand Herald Daily Record (new banner) Teletext (fan reaction) morons.org Oman Observer FilmForce Digital Spy Khaleej Times MyTelus