Various online retailers sources are reporting that audio readings of the first three Doctor Who books to feature the Tenth Doctor will be released next April alongside the books.

The Doctor Who Christmas special, now confirmed to be shown on Christmas Day on BBC One, will be followed immediately afterwards by an interactive adventure available via digital receivers. This mini-story has been written by Gareth Roberts, best known to Doctor Who fans for writing seven original Doctor Who novels for Virgin Publishing during the 1990s and the recent Ninth Doctor book Only Human for BBC Books. He also scripted Pain Killers for Season Two of Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) in 2001 as well as co-writing Whatever Possessed You? with Charlie Higson.

The writers for Season Two of Doctor Who are once again mainly made up of contributors to various Doctor Who book ranges. As in 2005, Russell T Davies, Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss will all be contributing scripts, and are being joined by Matt Jones who wrote the Doctor Who novel Bad Therapy for Virgin in 1997 and the Bernice Summerfield novel Beyond the Sun which was published later the same year. The remaining scripts are being penned by Toby Whithouse, Tom MacRae and comedian Stephen Fry.

Big Finish have announced that the next season of Bernice Summerfield releases will consist of six audio dramas (up from four) and three books, with the range now joining the recent Doctor Who spin-off novels under the New Worlds banner. The outstanding items originally due for release in 2005 will now be released early in 2006.

The company have also let slip that one of the forthcoming books will be written by Ben Aaronovitch who wrote Remembrance of the Daleks for the Doctor Who television series in 1988 and whose contributions to the New Adventures range of Doctor Who novels in the 1990s (Transit / The Also People / So Vile a Sin) are controversial, popular, and difficult to find respectively!

With Doctor Who: Short Trips — A History of Christmas due for release this month, Big Finish have made Stewart Sheargold's story The Feast available for download on their website.

Magic Bullet have revealed that a second Faction Paradox audio drama, again written by series creator Lawrence Miles, has been recorded. The Ship of a Billion Years will once again see Gabriel Woolf reprise his Doctor Who role of Sutekh the Destroyer and will be released in 2006.

The Quest Continues, a novelisation based on the new second season of Shoebox Zoo, is due out from Penguin in March.

The first in a series of books based on the new CGI Captain Scarlet series is due out from Puffin in February. The first title is a novelisation of the opening two-part story Instrument of Destruction.

Telos have announced details of the ninth novella in their Time Hunter series. The Albino's Dancer, by Dale Smith, will be published in April 2006.

The first three Doctor Who novels to feature the Tenth Doctor are due out in April 2006 — presumably around the date of the new season on BBC One.

There is still no news on whether there will be any further titles in the existing range of paperback Doctor Who novels. Given that the last novel to be announced is due out in December, it would now appear extremely unlikely that anything new will be on the shelves before mid-2006 at the very earliest...

The prologue to the New Worlds novel Project: Valhalla is now available to read on the Big Finish website.

Details have been revealed in the latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine (Issue 361) of the first three books to feature the adventures of the Tenth Doctor.

The three titles are: The Genesis Casket, The Untimely Prophet and Feast of the Drowned, and will be written by Justin Richards, Jacqueline Rayner and Stephen Cole respectively.

There is currently no news on when they will be published, or on the fate of the existing range of Previous Doctor Adventures.

The prologue to the New Worlds novel The Coming of the Queen is now available to read on the Big Finish website.

Both of the Iris Wildthyme audio dramas have now slipped back a month in the schedules, with the Bernice Summerfield anthology Something Changed moving back to November.

Further information has been released on a number of forthcoming Space: 1999 titles from Powys Media.

The previously announced Year Two omnibus is now set for release this autumn along with David A McIntee's original novel Born for Adversity which will be set after the conclusion of the television series. The Shepherd Moon anthology is due out early in 2006.

Powys have also revealed details of Miss Freedom, their third original novel to be based on The Prisoner. The book is being written by Andrew Cartmel, best known for his association with Doctor Who on which he was script editor between 1987 and 1989. He also wrote three highly-acclaimed Doctor Who novels for Virgin Publishing's New Adventures range in the 1990s.

The second volume of scripts from The Prisoner has now slipped back to December.

After a further delay, the first in the new series of New Worlds books based on various aspects from the Doctor Who audio dramas was finally released in July. And to publicise the release of the Wildthyme on Top anthology, Big Finish have made Justin Richard's Most Horrid available to download from their website.

Details have been announced of several of the hardback Doctor Who anthologies to be published by Big Finish during 2006. Short Trips: Farewells, edited by Jacqueline Rayner, will be published in March with Short Trips: Centenarian, edited by Ian Farrington, being released in the September.

Mad Norwegian have revealed that Lance Parkin's A History of the Universe, a timeline of events in the Doctor Who television series, books and audio dramas, has now been pushed back to later in the year.

It's been reported that the June Doctor Who novel, The Gallifrey Chronicles by Lance Parkin, has been selling substantially better than recent titles, resulting in a number of retailers having problems in fulfilling orders. As yet there is no news on whether the book will be reprinted, or even whether further titles will be commissioned beyond December.

The three New Worlds spin-off books from the Doctor Who audio dramas have now all moved back a month in the release schedules.

Big Finish have also put up Trevor Baxendale's short story Making History on their website to publicise the release of Doctor Who: Short Trips — A Day in the Life.

The first in a series of releases based on the children's fantasy series Shoebox Zoo has been announced. Shoebox Zoo: Marnie's Quest, a novelisation of Season One by Kay Woodward, is due out in September with further titles to follow in 2006.

Details have now been announced of the three Ninth Doctor Doctor Who novels to be released by BBC Books in September. Only Human will see a return to Doctor Who novel writing by Gareth Roberts, whose last book was The Well-Mannered War for Virgin way back in 1997. The Deviant Strain will be written by Justin Richards, with the third title being The Stealers of Dreams by Steve Lyons.

As with the first three titles, these will all be released in hardback at £6.99.

Also on the cards from BBC Books is a hardback script book, to be published in October, which will contain all of the shooting scripts to the thirteen episodes from the current season.

publishingnews.co.uk has reported that the initial print of the first three Ninth Doctor Doctor Who novels was 100,000 copies, with an extra 75,000 being printed even before the books officially hit the shelves.

With many online outlets and high-street retailers (including the major supermarkets) offering the books at significant discounts, it would appear that the future of this range, at least, is secure for the forseeable future. What is less certain, however, is how the astonishing sales of the new range will impact upon the Previous Doctor Adventures series of novels. With sales of those books rumoured to be around 7-10,000 copies prior to the start of the new series, and with no further titles having been commissioned beyond Atom Bomb Blues in December, the future for novels based on the old series would now appear to be uncertain at best.

Unsurprisingly, the current fascination with the works of Douglas Adams sees Pan releasing a volume in July containing all of the scripts for the new Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy radio series.

The first volume of scripts from The Prisoner is now available, with the second volume due out in October.

The three New Worlds spin-off books from the Doctor Who audio dramas are being released monthly from May, beginning with Wildthyme On Top. The two Iris Wildthyme audio dramas starring Katy Manning will be issue in October and November.

Details have also been announced of the future plans for the Bernice Summerfield range.

2005's anthology is Something Changed, edited by Simon Guerrier, the novel will be The Tree of Life, written by Mark Michalowski, and the volume of three novellas will contain stories by Rebecca Levene, Paul Sutton and Dave Stone.

There will also be five new audio dramas released in 2005, will plans already being made for the 2006 titles.

A BBC press release has revealed that a further three Ninth Doctor novels will be released before the end of 2005. However, in an extraordinary turn of events, it appears that the end may already be in sight for the Ninth Doctor Adventures range, despite the fact that the first three titles aren't being released until May.

After the resounding ratings success of the first episode, Rose, the BBC were quick to announce the commission of a Christmas Special and a full thirteen-part second season. This announcement was followed, mere hours later, by the news that Christopher Eccleston would not be continuing in the role of the Ninth Doctor for fear of typecasting.

It's been revealed in the latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine (Issue 355) that Big Finish have had their licence to produce Doctor Who anthologies extended.

Mad Norwegian have revealed that Faction Paradox: Warring States will now be released in May.

Lance Parkin's Doctor Who: The Gallifrey Chronicles has now been moved back in the schedules to June, the month after the publication of the first three Ninth Doctor novels.

It is currently expected that the new television series, with Christopher Eccleston as the Ninth Doctor, will begin on BBC One on Saturday 26 March.

Released this month is an MP3-CD containing an unabridged reading of David Whitaker's classic novelisation Doctor Who and the Daleks. Interestingly, the book is written in the first person — from Ian Chesterton's perspective — and is read by William Russell who played the part on television way back in the 1960s. The cover art is taken from the 1973 Target Books edition.

Big Finish have announced that they will be releasing three books in 2005 under the New Worlds banner which will be based on characters and situations created for the Doctor Who novels and audios.

Wildthyme on Top will be an anthology of stories featuring the character of Iris Wildthyme who has so far appeared in four novels by Paul Magrs, who will be editing the collection. Big Finish will also be releasing two audio plays featuring the character, and she will again be voiced by Katy Manning who has already played Iris in a number of Doctor Who and Bernice Summerfield plays.

Project: Valhalla, written by Cavan Scott and Mark Wright, will feature the covert organisation that appeared in the Doctor Who audio plays Project: Twilight and Project: Lazarus.

Finally, The Coming of the Queen, by Iain McLaughlin and Claire Bartlett, will be about Erimem, the Egyptian Queen who was created for the audio play Doctor Who: The Eye of the Scorpion, and who first appeared in print in the Telos novella Doctor Who: Blood and Hope.

Mad Norwegian have announced that the fifth novel in their Faction Paradox series will be Erasing Sherlock by Kelly Hale. It is expected to be published late in 2005.

It's been announced that the BBC's first three Doctor Who books to feature the Ninth Doctor and Rose Tyler will be published simultaneously on 19th May. This is expected to be about halfway through the thirteen-week run of the new television series which, it is currently thought, will start broadcasting on BBC One at the end of March.

Lance Parkin's updated version of Doctor Who: A History of the Universe has slipped back to July to allow the inclusion of details up to the final Eighth Doctor Adventure from BBC Books.

Powys Media's first novel based on The Prisoner is now due to be released in March.

To publicise the release of Doctor Who — Short Trips: A Christmas Treasury, Big Finish have put up Karen Dunn's UNIT Christmas Parties: Ships that Pass on their website.

Telos have announced details of the sixth novella in their Time Hunter series.

Echoes, by Iain McLaughlin and Claire Bartlett, will be published in March. As usual, the title will be available as a paperback and limited edition hardback.