Issue 363 of Doctor Who Magazine is now available, and we have a large-size version of the cover illustration (click on the thumbnail for a larger version) and the press release, below (with thanks to Tom Spilsbury):

Outpost Gallifrey has learned the specifics of the Children in Need Doctor Who special airing next week. The special mini-episode is actually 3 and 1/2 minutes long, and will begin at exactly 9:06pm during the telethon (though of course there is always room for slight variation in the timing). Additionally, we've learned that K9 will be in the studio joining the presenters for the evening. As always, this information is subject to change up to air time!

BBC Radio Jersey recently interviewed the director of the special, who said it's set immediately after the end of The Parting of the Ways, is set in the TARDIS, and is "a real episode that links the last series to the new one and is part of Series Two." The interviewer on Radio Jersey said they filmed it only in the last two weeks in Cardiff: "So I don't know what’s in it, I don't know how long it is but I do know it's a scene between Billie Piper in the TARDIS and it's the moment David Tennant materialised at the end of the last series."

At right is a thumbnail image of the box art for The Beginning, due out in January, as posted on the ChoicesDirect DVD retailer website. While this might not be a final version, it is indicative of the way the box will contain individual packages for each of the first three Doctor Who stories being released in this set, "An Unearthly Child," "The Daleks" and "The Edge of Destruction".

Doctor Who on DVD has reached the Netherlands, as a boxed set featuring four Tom Baker stories has been released: "Horror of Fang Rock," "The Ark in Space," "Pyramids of Mars" and "The Robots of Death". Each were released in separate cases inside the box and consist of the same material as in the UK releases, but are subtitled in Dutch, along with the information booklet released alongside each story. The boxed set was published by Memphis Belle International B.V in cooperation with 2Entertain. There is currently no word on whether this will continue or is simply a one-shot release. (Thanks to Bas Pierik)

BBC News today covered the world premiere of "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" which David Tennant (who plays the role of Barty Crouch Jr. in the film) attended. The david-tennant.com fan site has some pictures including video snaps of news reports. Also, CBBC News called Tennant one of the night's "biggest crowd-pleasers".

The Sun had a story last Friday with a picture story about filming for the new series that took place the day before in London. In the piece, which featured two photos of David Tennant with Billie Piper, a BBC insider described the chemistry on-screen between them as "explosive". The newsprint edition had the photos in mono, but you can see them in glorious colour at the Sunwebsite. Friday's Daily Star, meanwhile, said that "The new Doctor Who is a real scream - as in funny, not scary. Dishy David Tennant couldn't stop clowning as he filmed on location in London. And he had co-star Billie Piper in hoots of laughter, larking about between takes of the hit BBC sci-fi series. Gorgeous Billie, 23, grinned away at the antics of David, 34, who takes over the role on Christmas Day - just what the Doctor ordered."

The BBC TV Moments website is currently taking votes on the best show of 2005. A special with the results will be hosted by Jonathan Ross in December.

Sky Showbiz has eleven photographs posted up from filming this week. "If you simply can't wait for the next series of Doctor Who to start, then at least you can feast your eyes on a bit of on-set action," says the report. "We've sniffed out some photos of the new Doc David Tennant starring alongside Billie Piper - and it looks like they're having some fun. Frankly we can't get enough of this new version of the Timelord, complete with his baseball boots. Sure, he's not a conventional Brad Pitt-style handsome... but there is something highly fanciable about Mr Tennant in his long brown tweed coat. And of course, Billie looks as cute and pretty as ever, and certainly seems to have taken to Christopher Ecclestone's replacement. Have a peek through the gallery above - and stress not, it doesn't spoil anything."

The website of Manners McDade Artist Management (website) reveals that "Murray Gold is currently working on the music for the second series of Dr Who which will be recorded by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, as well as writing the music to the third series of Shameless."

According to the trade journal The Bookseller, Panini Books' Doctor Who Annual 2006 continues its sales success, spending a third week back in the Top 20 Children's Books chart compiled by Nielsen BookScan for the trade journal The Bookseller. The chart shows a steady increase in sales as Christmas approaches, with over 2,000 units sold the week ending 15 October, 2,500 the week of 22 October, and 3,400 the week of 29 October. These figures compare very favourably with other titles in the chart, including various Star Wars and Harry Potter books, all with weekly sales of between 2,500 and 8,000, although everything is dwarfed by the latest Lemony Snicket release, which is currently shifting 20,000 copies each week.

The Sun on Sunday called Billie Piper's new Shakespeare foray, "Much Ado About Nothing" its Best Drama of the evening. Piper plays Hero, a weather girl based on the original Shakespeare character. The Derby Evening Telegraphyesterday noted a "more feminist contemporary ending to the play, which pleased Billie Piper enormously. 'I was thrilled to find out that Hero, in this version, makes such a liberating choice in the end,' she said. 'She starts out very green, very young, but in the course of the play she becomes more certain of who she is. The original Hero just wouldn't sit happily in this century, for the simple reason that it's acceptable and expected now for young girls to be their own people.'" The Independentsays of her performance, "The subsequent mood shift when Hero is humiliated at the altar is somewhat inconceivable, since all that precedes it has been regional TV-lite. Even so, the dramatic purity of the moment will not be denied, not least because the performances of Piper, Parish and Lewis are more than enough to finesse a sudden change of gear that confronts us with serious questions about love and its ugly twin, jealousy." TheGuardianreviews "Much Ado About Nothing": "The Shakespeare season is inventive, often wildly so, brave, and occasionally interesting. It is also a tragic failure and a dreadful waste of money. Perhaps it's a failure that will, with a bit of luck, send the drama department back to the Arden and the Oxford texts to discover that you don't need to 'reinterpret' Shakespeare. Here's a radical thought: why not just perform the plots as written, and let the lines speak for themselves? Brush up your Shakespeare, start quoting him now ..."

The Arts section of Saturday's Daily Telegraph today (Saturday 5 November) has a lengthy appreciation of Billie Piper, "who has the nation's heart in her pocket", ahead of her appearance on Monday in the first of the BBC's Shakespeare reworkings. Of her part in Doctor Who, Craig McLean says, "Piper is perfect in the role of Dr Who's sidekick Rose Tyler, conveying a winning mix of streetwise pluck, cool glamour and a kind of been-there, done-that savvy." The same article also features a celebration of Piper in verse, written by poet Ian McMillan, part of which reads: "And as Doctor Who's mate she screamed like a good 'un,/Waltzed through dimensions not missing a beat./And I disagree that her acting was wooden;/She made Saturday teatime a timeskipping treat." Interestingly, the following is stated: "The Corporation has also reportedly locked her in to a third series of Dr Who with a lucrative golden handcuffs deal. How's that for a comeback?" Has Piper been signed to a third year, perhaps?

Piper is going to be the first interviewee on estranged husband Chris Evans's forthcoming TV show, according to The Sun this past Saturday. The newspaper's showbiz section Bizarre says he asked her to appear on ITV1 show OFI Sunday as a favour to him, as he continues his comeback in the world of entertainment. It quotes an insider as saying: "It's going to be a strange interview, cringeworthy even. Chris knows everything about Billie - but then she knows everything about him too. If he asks her anything too controversial she could come back with a real dig at him. I think he will steer clear of any sex questions in case he implicates himself in any way. I imagine it's going to be more of a love-in than a warts-and-all chat. It shows how supportive Billie is of him, agreeing to do the show. But she's terrified he might try to slip in the odd embarrassing question to trip her up. The show is live so anything could happen." The piece is illustrated with colour headshots of Evans and Piper and the programme airs on November 20 at 10.30pm. Also reported at Digital Spy.

The Sunday Mail interviews first and second-series writer Steven Moffat. "The Scot behind Dr Who's scariest episode has warned the next series will be even more terrifying," says the article. "Writer Steven Moffat is working on the new episodes starring David Tennant as the Doctor and says petrified viewers will once again be peering out from behind the sofa. This is bad news for the parents whose complaints about the last series forced the BBC to issue a warning it was not suitable for children under eight. Steven, 44, scripted the sinister two-part tale about a plague-infected 'gas-mask boy' for the last series. Many fans hailed the terrifying Empty Child episodes and the boy's chilling line: 'Are you my mummy?' as the stand-out of the series. But Steven promises the new shows will be every bit as spooky. He said: 'I liked that the last series was scary. To children, scary is a recommendation.' ... Like the new Doctor, Steven is originally from Paisley and both men were boyhood fans of the show - which has led Steven to offer some advice to his fellow Buddy. 'I tried to switch off from being a fan. You have to want to subvert it a bit and not treat it like a wonderful china ornament. David Tennant has that problem, too, now. He was concerned what he was going to wear as the Doctor because he might go into total 'fan-out'.'" Moffat also notes that "My story might have been scarier for adults than children. Kids are at home with the idea of creepy children, which is naturally more worrying to adults. The Empty Child is fundamentally frightening because there's no reasoning with it. It's coming to destroy you and it can't be persuaded out of it. Even the Daleks will stop for a chat. My view of how you ought to do Dr Who is that you keep the mystery going right to the very end, so that the Doctor can continue to be the investigator. 'This is why I don't care for bringing back old enemies. The mystery has gone from them and I wanted a big mystery. I want you to get to the end of part one thinking, 'I have no idea what is going on'." The article also talks about John Barrowman's character and Moffat's history in writing.

icWales reported Saturday on the shortage of new series merchandise from Character Options. Stock has been reaching UK high street and online retailers in very limited numbers of the last few weeks and has been selling out immediately. Retailers in the icWales report comment that "Every year there's always one toy which they don't make enough of and this year it's definitely the remote-controlled Daleks," and Charcter Options "said deliveries were being made to shops on a daily basis but he could not guarantee stock would reach all the shops in time for Christmas... 'We are shipping big quantities and more stock will arrive in the run-up to Christmas but demand is huge'." However, "the Toy Retailers Association, which placed the remote-controlled Dalek in its list of dream toys for 2005, said it was too early to predict any shortages." icWales also has a guide to the Character Options merchandise. Manchester Online notes "the Dr Who toy range was also performing well" while Sharecast says that "Character Group, the toy maker, managed to drag itself out of losses by the end of the year and said the stronger trend was set to continue, with new Little Britain and Doctor Who toys set to boost sales."

Manchester Evening News says that Christopher Eccleston is getting "back to his roots". "He's known to hate the trappings of showbiz life. So it's no surprise that, having left his hugely popular Dr Who role, Christopher Eccleston's latest project sees him back to his gritty northern roots. The Salfordian, who last week won Most Popular Actor at the National TV Awards, but failed to turn up to the glitzy ceremony to collect the gong, has narrated a documentary about a priceless archive in his home city that will be screened for the first time at next week's Salford Film Festival. It tells the incredible story of the world-famous Working Class Movement Library on The Crescent. Ruth and Eddie Frow created the lib- rary after they met in the 1950s, driving all over Britain in their Morris Minor collect- ing objects relating to labour history. The archive includes 50,000 books, pamphlets and periodicals and 2,000 items of memorabilia. Christopher, raised in Little Hulton, was happy to be narrator for no fee, and there are plans to release the 25-minute film on DVD before the end of the year. The film festival, which runs from Friday to Sunday next week, will also host Salford's first ever world film premiere, of murder mystery The Truth, at The Red Cinema, Salford Quays on Friday, November 11."

The Borehamwood Times discusses an unearthed recording of an interview done over thirty years ago with Peter Cushing, who played the role of Dr. Who in the two 1960's films. "Ironically, Peter found himself playing an iconic TV character in the movies," says the article. Quoting Cushing, "I was asked to play Dr Who in two films as they thought my name would sell more tickets than William Hartnell, who portrayed the character on the small screen," he said. "To be honest, I had never seen the series so I based my interpretation on an eccentric scientist."

The new DVD release of The Quatermass Experiment 2005, the live version, is of interest to Doctor Who fans, primarily due to the presence of David Tennant in the cast. The 45-minute documentary includes reference to the moment David Tennant announced the news of his appointment as the Tenth Doctor - with other cast members sensing something was happening - while a short 5 minute interview with actor Jason Fleming discusses his father Gordon Fleming's involvement in the two 1960's Doctor Who films, with a comical story about his approach to the new Doctor Who production team.

Other news clips: more confirmation of the Christmas special airing on Christmas Day at The Register, icWales, The Sun, The Great Link;icWales is reporting that BBC Wales is being criticised for spending over UKP 600,000 on cab fares in recent years "due to all the extra work from winning top network commissions such as the new Doctor Who!"; more reports on David Tennant's sighting escorting Sophia Myles at Sky Showbiz, Digital Spy; and Cinescapefeatures a brief article about John Debney, composer of the soundtrack for the 1996 TV movie.

(Thanks to Steve Tribe, Paul Engelberg, Peter Weaver, John Bowman, Mark Jones, Robert Booth, Richard Kirkpatrick, Steve Freestone)