Two further readings based on Doctor Who novelisations have now started to appear in online listings. Logopolis and Castrovalva, both scripted and eventually novelised by Christopher H Bidmead, are due to be released in February and March 2010 respectively and see the departure of the Fourth Doctor and the introduction of the Fifth. Readers for the two release have not yet been announced.

An original audio book supposedly featuring the Eleventh Doctor has also started appearing in various places, although there is as yet no confirmation of the title, writer or narrator. One fact which has been revealed, however, is that David Tennant will be narrating the original Tenth Doctor story The Last Voyage, currently due for release in January, shortly after the transmission of the Tenth Doctor's final television adventure.

The Judgment of Sutekh, the latest in the series of original audio dramas based on concepts from the Doctor Who books written of Lawrence Miles, has finally gained a release date and will be available from later this month.

The sixth release in the series of original audiobooks featuring the Tenth Doctor has now started to appear in online catalogues. The Last Voyage, written by Dan Abnett, is currently due to be released in January 2010. As yet there is no news on who will be narrating the story. As the final television episodes featuring David Tennant are due to be shown over Christmas, this will, in all probability, be the final entry in the range to feature the Tenth Doctor.

Frazer Hines has recently revealed that he will be narrating an audiobook version of Doctor Who and the Ice Warriors, a new entry in the range of readings based on the Target novelisations. As yet there is no news on when it is due to be released.

Four further novelisations based on Season 1 of Merlin have now started to appear in online catalogues. The Labyrinth of Gedref and The Death of Arthur are both released in hardback as part of the 12+ range in March and May 2010 respectively, with two paperback books in the 7-9 range also being released in the same months. Details of the authors and even the total number of episodes being novelised are as sketchy as for the recently released titles, so if anyone can fill in the blanks regarding any of the Merlin books, please get in contact...

The mystery author behind the forthcoming novelisation of The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith has been revealed as Gareth Roberts, who has written the scripts to the story. Season 3 of the television series (the first to be produced in HD) is due to begin on 15 October, with The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith due to be shown on 29/30 October. Of major interest to Doctor Who fans is that the story features a major guest role for David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor.

A new edition of The Writer's Tale, the tome which chronicled a year's worth of email correspondence between Doctor Who writer Russell T Davies and Benjamin Cook, is due to be released in January 2010. The new version is published in paperback and will include an extra 300 pages covering the writing of the last of the Tenth Doctor's adventures.

Also now appearing in online listings are two other new items. The first is an audiobook based on Terrance Dick's novelisation of The Three Doctors, the tenth anniversary Doctor Who story which was broadcast in 1973. Barring changes to the release schedule, it should be available in January 2010. The second is 2010's book for the Quick Reads scheme. Written by Justin Richards, Code of the Krillitanes is currently due to be published in March 2010, and will be one of the final novels to feature the Tenth Doctor.

The full line-up of contributors to the Secret Histories anthology has now been revealed: Lance Parkin, Paul Farnsworth, Jim Smith, Eddie Robson, Cody Schell, Mark Michalowski, Jonathan Dennis, Richard Freeman and Nick Wallace.

Meanwhile, issue 6 of Big Finish's online Vortex magazine has revealed that January 2010's Companions Chronicle audiobook will be Bernice Summerfield and the Criminal Code, which will feature Benny and the Seventh Doctor.

Also of note is that Big Finish have recently launched a Big Finish for a Fiver campaign, which sees some of their range of audio dramas permanently reduced in price to just £5. Included are the series of six Bernice Summerfield plays which were adapted from the New Adventures novels, and the four original stories which made up Season 2.

The forthcoming Iris Wildthyme anthology, The Panda Book of Horror, now has a provision release date of November 2009. The same month will also see the release of the audio drama Iris Wildthyme and the Claws of Santa from Big Finish Productions.

Some further details of the new ranges of Merlin books have now become available, via the Kids at Random House website. As expected, the paperback novelisations are aimed at 7-9 year-olds, while the hardback series is targeted at the slightly older 12+ market.

The audiobooks based on Judgement of the Judoon and The Slitheen Excursion been moved back until early in 2010, while Doctor Who and the Dalek Invasion of Earth has been delayed again until November. David Tennant has been announced as the narrator to the forthcoming original audiobook The Day of the Troll.

Anyone with easy access to a branch of Poundland or The Works may want to be on the lookout for a new Short Trips CD which has recently started to appear. Priced, unsurprisingly, at just £1, it contains the abridged readings of Paul Magrs' Old Flames and Steve Lyons' Freedom, both of which were originally included on the double-cassette release of the same name in 1998. Old Flames is read by Nicholas Courtney, while Sophie Aldred narrates Freedom.

Finally, Big Finish Productions are currently offering an exclusive Companion Chronicles audiobook to readers of Doctor Who Magazine, with the latest issue (#411) including a special code which can be used to download The Mists of Time from the Big Finish website until October. The ninety-minute story is narrated by Katy Manning and features the Third Doctor and Jo Grant.

A brand-new Bernice Summerfield short story anthology has been announced by Big Finish Productions. Secret Histories, edited by Mark Clapham, is currently due to be published in December 2009.

Also of note is that Big Finish have recently launched a Big Finish for a Fiver campaign, which sees some of their range of audio dramas permanently reduced in price to just £5. Included are the series of six Bernice Summerfield plays which were adapted from the New Adventures novels, and the four original stories which made up Season 2.

The next release in the ongoing series of Faction Paradox audio plays from Magic Bullet Productions will be The Judgment of Sutekh. As usual, the story has been scripted by series creator Lawrence Miles.

A new Iris Wildthyme audio drama has been announced for release in time for Christmas 2009. Titled The Claws of Santa, the story is written by Cavan Scott and Mark Wright, and will, as ever, see Katy Manning reprising her regular role as Iris.

A special short story has been uploaded to the BBC's official Doctor Who website to tie in with the fortieth anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. Blue Moon, written by Oli Smith is a four-part story featuring the Tenth Doctor.

The forthcoming audiobooks narrated by Elisabeth Sladen have now been moved back to October, while this year's sole novelisation has finally gained a title online. Unsurprisingly, the Doctor Who crossover story will be called The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith, although there is still no news of who has actually written the book.

Completely under the radar of this site, American company FTL Publications have acquired a licence to publish original novels based on the 1960s Supermarionation series Thunderbirds, with the first two titles having been released in 2008. Countdown to Action! and Action Alert! are both written by Joan Marie Verba, with a third novel, Deadly Danger!, due to be released this summer.

With the final cover now being released, the five contributors to Consequences, the Torchwood anthology published in October, have been revealed as James Moran, Joseph Lidster, Andrew Cartmel, Sarah Pinborough and David Llewellyn.

Readers of the recently axed line of Short Trips anthologies from Big Finish Productions may be interested in The Doctor Who Stories, a hardback collection of short stories being published by BBC Children's Books in September.

The majority of the collection is culled from the series of Files books published by Penguin Character Books, and as usual with current Doctor Who fiction is aimed at a younger age range. More discerning readers may wish to check out the Doctor Who Storybook 2010 from Panini which, like previous years, will once again be packed full of new stories written by people who have worked on the television series. Also due for release shortly is The Official Annual 2010 — available for just £1 in all good bookshops just after Christmas!

Contrary to what has already been revealed, the five-part Hornets' Nest will apparently be a series of full-cast audio dramas, although in an attempt to save face, we should point out that all five have been scripted by the Doctor Who book-writing author Paul Magrs. Ahem...

And after a short delay, the four seperate stories included in The Story of Martha are now available to be bought from Audible and iTunes.

With the first CD from the tenth season of Bernice Summerfield audios just released, Big Finish Productions have announced that their long-awaited non-fiction title Bernice Summerfield: The Inside Story will finally be released in August 2009. Priced at £29.99, Simon Guerrier's tome looks back at all of Benny's adventures since her debut appearance in Doctor Who: Love and War in November 1992, and if it's half as good as the earlier volume about the company's first fifty Doctor Who audio dramas, it should be prove to be an essential purchase.

Obverse Books have announced that after the successful launch of Iris Wildthyme and the Celestial Omnibus, a second anthology of stories, to be titled The Panda Book of Horror, will be released towards the end of the year. The company are currently accepting submissions, so budding authors should check out their website ASAP.

Anyone who grew up reading the Doctor Who novelisations from Target might find it worthwhile to tune in to BBC Radio 4 on Tuesday 23 June, when the station will be broadcasting On The Outside It Looked Like An Old Fashioned Police Box, a thirty-minute programme on the long-running series of books.

Presented by Mark Gatiss, it is currently scheduled for 1130 in the morning, but should also be available for seven days after broadcast via the BBC iPlayer.

The full programme information details for the documentary are reproduced below.

Doctor Who writer and fanatic Mark Gatiss presents a feature exploring the hugely popular Doctor Who novelisations published by Target books in the Seventies and Eighties.

In an age before DVD and video, the Target book series of Doctor Who fiction was conceived as the chance for children to "keep" and revisit classic Doctor Who stories. They were marketed as such, written in a highly visual house style.

Descriptive passages did the work of the TV camera with the scripts more or less faithfully reproduced as dialogue. They were as close to the experience of watching as possible and were adored by a generation of children who grew up transfixed by the classic BBC series.

Target Doctor Who books became a children's publishing phenomenon selling more than 13 million copies worldwide. From 1973 until 1994, the paperbacks were a mainstay of the publishing world. From humble beginnings they grew into a list running to 156 titles, shaping the reading habits of a generation.

The audiobook based on the Doctor Who and the Dalek Invasion of Earth novelisation has now had its release date moved back by another month to August 2009.

Elisabeth Sladen has now been confirmed as the narrator of the two original Sarah Jane Adventures audiobooks which are due to be released in September 2009.

Of major interest this month is that details of Doctor Who: Hornets' Nest, which has been popping up for pre-order on various online sites over the past few months, have finally started to become available. The five CDs in the series are original audiobooks narrated by Tom Baker, with contributions from Nicholas Courtney — presumably as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. This marks a first for BBC Audiobooks whose original Doctor Who releases have previously been limited to the series featuring the Tenth Doctor, and would appear to be in a similar style to the Companion Chronicles series from Big Finish Productions. Details of the writers for the five tales have yet to be announced. The first two CDs are due to be released in September 2009 with one further CD following each month until December.

A few further details of previously announced Doctor Who audiobooks have also now come to light.

The Day of the Troll, October's original Tenth Doctor story, has been written by Simon Messingham, while Nicholas Briggs' reading of the recently-published Prisoner of the Daleks will apparently be unabridged — regular buyers of the Tenth Doctor book readings will be aware that to date they have all been abridged, so as to fit onto two CDs. There is as yet no news on whether Prisoner of the Daleks is just a one-off or if it marks a slight change in direction for BBC Audiobooks. Finally, Michelle Ryan, recently seen in the television series as Lady Christina de Souza in Planet of the Dead, has been announced as the narrator for July's original Tenth Doctor audiobook The Rising Night.

A few more details about September's two original Sarah Jane Adventures audiobooks have now become available. The White Wolf has been written by Gary Russell, while The Shadow People is by Scott Handcock.

Meanwhile, details of a new novelisation based on a story from the forthcoming Season 3 of the television series has appeared on the Amazon.co.uk website. In a surprising move, the blurb reveals that the story is due to feature Sarah's wedding, and as has recently been announced by the BBC, the very same story will also include David Tennant in one of his final appearances as the Tenth Doctor — the first time the Doctor has been seen in new footage in any of the Doctor Who spin-offs.

Big Finish Productions have announced that their Short Trips range of Doctor Who short story anthologies will end in May 2009 with the release of Re: Collections, a special omnibus containing one story from each of the first twenty-eight volumes.

In a statement released in mid-April, the company said that their licence to release the books is due to expire. It is not yet known if this is in any way connected with the unexpected appearance in various online catalogues of The Doctor Who Stories, an anthology due to be released by BBC Children's Books in September 2009.

As long-term readers of Doctor Who books will be aware, the Short Trips anthologies were the only ongoing series of published Doctor Who fiction which featured characters from the old television series and which weren't aimed squarely at the children's market. Despite continual promises from BBC Books that plans for the return of the Previous Doctor Adventures novels were advancing, it is now four-and-a-half years since the final title in that range was published.

Anyone expecting the audiobook of Doctor Who and the Dalek Invasion of Earth to fall through their letterbox this month will have to wait slightly longer than expected as the release date has now slipped back to July. On a more positive note, Rula Lenska (Styles in Resurrection of the Daleks) has been confirmed as the narrator for July's The Happiness Patrol, while Sir Derek Jacobi (Professor Yana / The Master in Utopia) will be lending his undoubted vocal talents to the reading of The Mind Robber in August.

Freema Agyeman has now been confirmed as the narrator for the abridged release of The Story of Martha in June. Meanwhile, details of the audiobooks for release in September 2009 have now started to appear online. The fifth title in BBC Audiobooks' range of original audio stories featuring the Tenth Doctor will be The Day of the Troll, while an abridged version of Trevor Baxendale's Prisoner of the Daleks is also due for release the same month and will be narrated by Nicholas Briggs.

Issue 407 of Doctor Who Magazine revealed that Big Finish Productions have been unable to reach agreement with Wally K Daly for his abandoned Season 23 story The Ultimate Evil to be adapted as part of their forthcoming Lost Stories range of audio dramas, meaning that the Target novelisation will remain the only version of the story available.

The Lost Stories will kick-off with the release of The Nightmare Fair and Mission to Magnus in November and December 2009 respectively — the two other "missing" stories novelised by Target Books.

The fourth and final Bernice Summerfield audio drama for 2009 will be Secret Origins by Eddie Robson.

Two further titles based on episodes from Season 1 of the BBC television series have now appeared in online catalogues for release in October 2009. The Mark of Nimueh and The Poisoned Chalice will both be released as part of Bantam Books' hardback range, but as with the other titles there is currently no information available regarding the writers, or even how this series of books will differ from the paperbacks.

As expected, two new audiobooks based on The Sarah Jane Adventures have now started to appear in online catalogues for release in September 2009, which is around the time that Season 3 of the television series is due to start airing on CBBC. As yet there is no news on either the titles or the writers.

Big Finish Productions have announced details of 2009's first three Bernice Summerfield audio dramas. Released monthly from June, the three titles are: Glory Days by Nick Wallace, Absence by Daniel O'Mahony, and Venus Mantrap by Mark Clapham & Lance Parkin.

Details of two further Merlin books have now started to appear in online catalogues. A Fighting Chance and Sword and Sorcery are both released as part of the paperback range from Bantam Books, with both titles due to be published in November 2009. As yet there are no details about the authors, or any confirmation of which particular episodes are novelised.

The narrators for 2010's two original Torchwood audiobooks have been revealed in the past few days, with Eve Myles reading Joseph Lidster's In the Shadows, and Gareth David-Lloyd due to read Brian Minchin's The Sin Eaters.

All reports in this section refer to book and audiobook releases based on science fiction television series from the United States.

• Highlander
  Big Finish Productions have finally revealed details of their forthcoming series of original audiobooks based on the 1990s television series.
  
  The four titles are: The Lesson by Trevor Baxendale, Love and Hate by Colin Harvey, The Secret of the Sword by Jonathan Clements, and Kurgan Rising by Cavan Scott & Mark Wright.
  
  The CDs will be released at the rate of one a month from April 2009, and are all narrated by Adrian Paul, who played Duncan MacLeod in the television series. All four stories are set between the movies Highlander: Endgame and Highlander: The Source.

Another month, another new Doctor Who audiobook on the schedules. The latest audio based on one of Target's Doctor Who novelisations to appear in online listings is Peter Ling's The Mind Robber, which is currently due to arrive on shelves in August 2009. Meanwhile, Elisabeth Sladen has been revealed as the reader of June's Doctor Who and the Planet of the Spiders.

Also due out the same month as The Mind Robber, is an abridged reading based on Simon Guerrier's Tenth Doctor novel The Slitheen Excursion.

Details have now been announced of the forthcoming Iris Wildthyme and the Celestial Omnibus anthology, which is due to be published by Obverse Books in April this year.

As well as featuring new stories from Steve Lyons, Mags L Halliday, Mark Wright & Cavan Scott, Stuart Douglas, Phil Purser-Hallard, Paul Magrs, Steven Wickham, Cody Schell, Jonathan Dennis, Stewart Sheargold and Steve Cole, the book will also feature an introduction by Katy Manning, who plays the part of Iris in the audio dramas from Big Finish Productions. The cover art is by former Doctor Who costume designer June Hudson.

After a highly successful first season on BBC One last autumn, Season 2 of the fantasy drama looks like it will be accompanied by a merchandising push similar to that for Primeval, with various items due to be released by Bantam Books in September 2009. Of most interest here are four fiction books, the first two of which are paperbacks titled The Magic Begins and Potions and Poison. Both books contain novelisations of two episodes from Season 1. The exact nature of the remaining two titles is less clear, however, with The Dragon's Call and Valiant being named after the first two television episodes, both of which are novelised together in The Magic Begins. Details of the authors have yet to be revealed.

Despite previously stating that they would not produce any audio dramas based on unproduced Doctor Who television scripts, Big Finish Productions have recently announced The Lost Stories series, which will be released on CD from January 2010.

While original audio dramas are generally outside the remit of this site, old readers of the Target Doctor Who novelisations will instantly be thinking of the unproduced scripts to Season 23 of the television series, and it probably won't come as any surprise to learn that the first two titles will be The Nightmare Fair and Mission to Magnus. Both of those stories were novelised by Target Books in 1989 as part of the short-lived Missing Stories series, but as yet there is no news on whether the third title from that range, Wally K Daly's The Ultimate Evil, will also be produced.

The next release in the ongoing series of Faction Paradox audio plays from Magic Bullet Productions has been announced as Ozymandias. As usual, the story has been scripted by series creator Lawrence Miles.

The third in the series of Time Hunter audiobooks from Fantom Films has been released this month. The Tunnel at the End of the Light, written by Stefan Petrucha, was originally published by Telos in 2004 and the 3×CD audio has been narrated by ex-Doctor Who actress Mary Tamm.

Also of note is that the first two releases in the series are finally available as downloads from audible.co.uk and iTunes, with The Tunnel at the End of the Light due to be made available shortly.

All reports in this section refer to book and audiobook releases based on science fiction television series from the United States.

• Highlander
  In a surprise move, the latest podcast from Big Finish Productions has let slip that the company will be releasing a new series of audiobooks based on the 1990s television series. A little further digging by various people online has established that there will be four titles and that Adrian Paul, who played Duncan MacLeod in both the TV series and the two most recent movies, is involved in the project. Also recently announced by Big Finish is a series of six original Robin Hood audiobooks which will tie in with the broadcast of Season 3, currently expected to begin on BBC One at some point in the next couple of months. All six titles are read by members of the television cast.
• Stargate SG-1 / Stargate Atlantis
  And as if Big Finish aren't busy enough with their new projects, a second season of Stargate audiobooks is due to be released from May 2009. The first release will be Stargate SG-1: First Prime which has been written by James Swallow and read by Christopher Judge.

Details of the Doctor Who audiobooks due for release in July have now become available.

Graeme Curry's The Happiness Patrol is the latest Target novelisation to get the audio treatment, and is the first title featuring the Seventh Doctor to be released. The Rising Night by Scott Handcock is the fourth in BBC Audiobooks' range of original stories and, as revealed in the latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine (#405 - out now!), stories from this point on will feature the Tenth Doctor travelling on his own. Last but not least, July also sees the release of an abdridged reading based on Colin Brake's Judgement of the Judoon, which is due to be published in hardback in April. Narrators have yet to be announced for the three titles.

An audiobook reading of Dan Abnett's The Story of Martha has now started to appear in online listings for release in June 2009. Meanwhile, the readers for the three audios based on September 2008's three books have been revealed as David Troughton (Ghosts of India), Russell Tovey (The Doctor Trap) and Debbie Chazen (Shining Darkness).

The most recent Faction Paradox novel, Newtons Sleep by Daniel O'Mahony, has now been made available as a free PDF download from the Random Static website.

Three new Torchwood books for release in October 2009 have now started to appear in online listings. The titles are: The Undertaker's Gift by Trevor Baxendale, Risk Assessment by James Goss, and the anthology Consequences. Also appearing online are the first details of another original audiobook. The Sin Eaters, by Brian Minchin, is due to be released in May 2009.

In other Torchwood news, as well as the five-part Children of Earth, which is due to be shown on BBC One later this year, there will also be a further three radio plays, following up 2008's Lost Souls.

A number of new Doctor Who audio books have now started to show up in online listings. The next two titles based on the Target novelisations to be released would appear to be Doctor Who and the Dalek Invasion of Earth in May, and Doctor Who and the Planet of the Spiders in June. Meanwhile, the next two readings based on the New Series Adventures will be Beautiful Chaos and The Eyeless, currently showing as due for release in March and May 2009 respectively. Readers of the five titles have still to be announced.

Catherine Tate has now been confirmed as the narrator of February's completely new audio book The Nemonite Invasion.

Finally, July 2009's Doctor Who audio drama from Big Finish Productions looks to be of interest to readers of the Eighth Doctor's adventures since 1997. The Company of Friends is to be made up of four individual episodes, each of which will see the Eighth Doctor accompanied by a different travelling companion. Benny's Story, written by Lance Parkin, will see the return of book companion Bernice Summerfield — voiced as usual by Lisa Bowerman — who appeared in the New Adventures novels between 1992 and 1997 before being spun-off into her own range of books and audio adventures. Fitz's Story, written by Stephen Cole, will star ex-EastEnders actor Matt di Angelo as Fitz Kreiner, who appeared in the Eighth Doctor Adventures novels between 1998 and 2005.