Doctor Who is once again playing a major part in the Radio Times' Christmas promotions and, although not on the cover of the Christmas issue itself, does feature on the cover of the Christmas preview issue (9 — 15 December).

Of more interest to readers of this site, however, is that, starting with the Christmas double-issue (23 December — 5 January), the magazine will be giving away two free Doctor Who audio books.

The promotion begins with the first half of David Tennant's reading of The Feast of the Drowned, with the remaining part in the next issue. David Tennant's reading of The Stone Rose will then be given away over the following two issues.

Viewers of the series should be aware that this year's Doctor Who Christmas Special, The Runaway Bride, is being shown on BBC One at 7pm on Christmas Day. New Year's Day sees the final two episodes of Torchwood being shown on BBC Three, with the broadcast of the one-hour pilot to The Sarah Jane Adventures on BBC One at 4.50pm the same afternoon. Details of all UK telefantasy programmes being shown on UK television can be found at the UK Sci-Fi TV Book Guide's sister site The Telefantasy Times, which is updated weekly.

Big Finish have now revealed details of their Bernice Summerfield releases for 2007. As ever, there will be six CD audio adventures and these will be supplemented by an original novel, short story anthology and collection of three novellas. All three of the books will be released in hardback. The long-awaited non-fiction book, Bernice Summerfield: The Inside Story, is also set to be released during the year to celebrate the fifteenth anniversary of Benny's first appearance in print.

The company have also announced a new short story competition. Unlike previous years, the winner will have a story published in one of their Doctor Who anthologies, rather than in the annual Bernice Summerfield collection. The competition is open to previously unpublished writers of all ages, with the winning story set to appear in one of the four Short Trips collections to be published in 2007. Full details of the competition can be found on the Big Finish website. The competition closes on 31 January.

Mad Norwegian have announced that Lance Parkin's unofficial Doctor Who chronology A History of the Universe has now sold out, although it may still be available to buy from some specialist retailers.

Doctor Who author Craig Hinton has died aged 42.

Between 1994 and 2004 he wrote five Doctor Who novels for both Virgin Publishing and BBC Books — the most recent being Synthespians^TM in July 2004 which featured the Sixth Doctor and the Autons.

As well as writing for the various Doctor Who novel ranges, Craig also contributed to the Big Finish range of Doctor Who and Tomorrow People audio adventures and, between 1993 and 1995, wrote the monthly 'Off the Shelf' reviews column for Doctor Who Magazine.

Details of the next three Doctor Who novels from BBC Books have started appearing at various online retailers. Released in April, the three titles are: The Last Dodo by Jacqueline Rayner, Sting of the Zygons by Stephen Cole and Wooden Heart by Martin Day.

Wooden Heart will be Martin Day's first Doctor Who novel since The Sleep of Reason in 2004, while the announcement of Sting of the Zygons looks to back up recent rumours that the popular aliens from the 1975 television story Terror of the Zygons will be returning in the next season of the television series. The only other appearance of the the Zygons was in Mark Morris's 1997 Doctor Who novel The Bodysnatchers.

Although not having been officially announced, a second Quick Reads novel titled Made of Steel is apparently due for release in May 2007. The author this time is Terrance Dicks.

Nick Wallace's Work in Progress, from the recent Bernice Summerfield anthology Collected Works, is now available to read on the Big Finish website.

Mark Gatiss' first Doctor Who novel, Nightshade, has now been uploaded to the BBC's Doctor Who website. As well as the usual formats, it is also being made available as a PDF file. The BBC have also taken the opportunity to add copies of The Dying Days, Human Nature, The Well-Mannered War, Lungbarrow, The Scales of Injustice, The Sands of Time and The Empire of Glass in the same format.

In other BBC Books news, details have emerged of three novels to be based on Torchwood, the Doctor Who spin-off series which starts on BBC Three later this month. Another Life, Border Princes and Slow Decay are due to published in January and are written by Peter Anghelides, Dan Abnett and Andy Lane respectively.

The next two releases in Big Finish's series of Doctor Who anthologies have been revealed as Short Trips: Time Signature and Short Trips: Dalek Empire. Time Signature was due for release in September (alongside the delayed Short Trips: The Centenarian) with Dalek Empire being released in December.

Mad Norwegian have announced that Erasing Sherlock will be the fifth and final novel in the Faction Paradox range. The series of Doctor Who spin-off books began in 2002 with The Book of the War.

Due to personnel changes behind the scenes at Big Finish, the company has announced that the non-fiction book Bernice Summerfield: The Inside Story has been temporarily removed from the schedules with a new release date expected to be announced soon.

Interestingly, the changes at Big Finish have also seen the departure of Doctor Who novel writer Gary Russell who has overseen the production of the Doctor Who audio plays since their start in 1999. According to the latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine (#373), his new job is at BBC Wales where he will apparently be a trainee script editor working on the Doctor Who television series, as well as liasing with BBC Worldwide over the Doctor Who and Torchwood fiction ranges — the first official hint that the forthcoming Doctor Who spin-off series will indeed be accompanied by a series of novels.

Details of the next three Doctor Who books to feature the Tenth Doctor and Rose Tyler have now started appearing at various online retailers. The Art of Destruction and The Price of Paradise will be written by Stephen Cole and Colin Brake respectively. The third title is The Nightmare of Black Island which is being written by Mike Tucker, whose writing experience has previously been limited to the exploits of the Seventh Doctor and Ace. Of late his contributions to the worlds of Doctor Who have been as Model Unit Supervisor on the television series. Another book, The Last Museum by Jacqueline Rayner, had previously been up for order at a number of sites but has since been replaced by The Price of Paradise.

In other BBC news, it's been revealed Season Three of the television series will once again draw heavily upon writers from the various ranges of Doctor Who books. As ever, Russell T Davies will be writing a handful of episodes, with prolific Who author Paul Cornell returning for a two-part story, having been too busy on other projects (including the new BBC One Robin Hood series) to contribute to Season Two. Steven Moffat will be returning for a third story, and contributing his first full episode to the television series will be Gareth Roberts. Roberts wrote seven Doctor Who novels for Virgin Publishing during the 1990s (including three highly popular adventures featuring the Fourth Doctor, Romana and K9), and has more recently written one of the last batch of Ninth Doctor novels (Only Human) as well as I Am a Dalek which was released last month. His episode for the television series will not be his first televised Doctor Who work, however, as he also scripted the interactive mini story Attack of the Graske which was broadcast on BBCi last Christmas immediately after the transmission of The Christmas Invasion. His other telefantasy credits include two episodes of the Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) re-make, including the standout episode of the series, Painkillers.

As a teaser for their newly-released Doctor Who anthology Short Trips: Farewells, Big Finish have put up a PDF file of one of the stories on their website. Father Figure is written by Steve Lyons and features the Second Doctor and Victoria Waterfield.

In a similar manner, Joseph Lidster's Prologue from the forthcoming Short Trips: The Centenarian has also been uploaded to the Big Finish website as a PDF file.

Details of the penultimate book in the Time Hunter series of Doctor Who spin-off books have finally been released. The Sideways Door will be the tenth book in the series and is being written by RJ Carter and Troy Riser.

The latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine (#368) has revealed that Doctor Who: Nightshade, the 1992 New Adventure featuring the Seventh Doctor and Ace, will be made available on the BBC's Doctor Who website later this year as an eBook. It will apparently be accompanied by extensive notes from author Mark Gatiss, as well as illustrations by Daryl Joyce.

Big Finish have announced a new Bernice Summerfield writing competition. As in previous years, a short story by one previously unpublished writer will be selected for inclusion in the next Bernice Summerfield anthology. All entries must be received by 31 May 2006, with full details and conditions being available from the Big Finish website.

In other Benny news, Jim Mortimore has revealed that his audio drama Last of the Drop Dead Divas has now been dropped from the schedules.

Lance Parkin's A History of the Universe, a timeline of events in the Doctor Who television series, books and audio dramas, was finally released during February. The book is apparently over twice the length of the edition released by Virgin Publishing way back in 1996.

It's been revealed that the audio readings of the first three Doctor Who novels featuring the Tenth Doctor will be read by the actor himself, David Tennant. All three titles are due to be released on CD in July.

To publicise the release of their two latest Professor Bernice Summerfield books, Big Finish have made the introductory chapter to Parallel Lives available on their website alongside Simon Guerrier's short story Inappropriate Laughter from Something Changed.

It's been announced that a Doctor Who title will be amongst the second batch of books being released as part of the Quick Reads initiative which is designed to encourage more people to read and, in particular, to appeal to adult learners.

I Am a Dalek is being written by Gareth Roberts and will feature one of the first prose appearances of the Tenth Doctor. All of the books will be under 128 pages in length and are being released in paperback, with the first batch of twelve released in March 2006 to tie in with World Book Day and the second batch in May 2006 to tie in with Adult Learners Week.

Fans of BBC One's Ghostwatch drama from 1992, which famously sparked a War of the Worlds-style outcry after many viewers believed that the apparent supernatural occurences were genuine, may be interested to know that a sequel will be appearing in print early in 2006. Written by original script writer Stephen Volk, 31/10 is included as part of Dark Corners, an anthology of his short stories.

Telos have announced that their Time Hunter range will wrap-up with the eleventh title, Child of Time, which is being penned by George Mann. Details of the penultimate volume have yet to be revealed.