Doctor Who is indeed returning for the show's 40th anniversary, in a special new six-part audio webcast on BBCi. Following in the footsteps of the earlier animated webcasts "Death Comes to Time," "Real Time" and "Shada," the fourth webcast (still untitled) is written by Paul Cornell ("The Shadows of Avalon") and will star none other than popular British actor Richard E. Grant (who also played one of the future Doctors in the charity special "The Curse of Fatal Death"). Grant describes his interpretation as "something of a 'Sherlock Holmes in Space.'"

Cornell, posting on the Outpost Gallifrey forum, had this to say about the project: "This is the start of everything again, not the end. Don't be scared. The Ninth Doctor is Richard E. Grant, fully animated... fully animated, not Shada animated... Batmanlike rather than Shadalike. With a new companion, a new military liaison, new monsters, and a vastly starry cast!" Cornell says that "if the response is good enough, then there'll be more. (And listen: you *never know* where this could end up.)" Cornell goes on to confirm that this is indeed the official, BBC made and sanctioned Ninth Doctor, approved by all the requisite parts of the BBC that needed input on this. "Traditional but original is what we're going for," says Cornell. "Very Hinchcliffe/Dicks, but with no previously used elements and only a tiny smidge of continuity. This story starts after the Ninth Doctor's been in the job for several years. And quite a lot has happened to him. So there's room for all continuities to resolve themselves. And BBC Books has made a positive response, and are talking about stuff."

Apparently the story will completely disregard "Curse of Fatal Death" (this Ninth Doctor isn't Grant's Doctor in that charity satire.) Cornell says he is "honoured to have the chance to set the Doctor off on another forty years of adventures," said Paul. "Just wait until you hear Richard! He is the Doctor!" The story is set to debut in mid-November, in time to celebrate the show's 40th anniversary.

The official site informs us that the title of the forthcoming animated webcast is The Scream of the Shalka by Paul Cornell, and states that the story is five episodes (other sources say six). The article also mentions, curiously, that Derek Jacobi is in it (in addition to his appearance in Big Finish's Doctor Who - Unbound series, previously reported) as well as actress Sophie Okonedo (whose repetoire includes various film roles -- the Grant site mistakenly identifies her as Sophie Okinodod), Craig Kelly (Vince in the UK version of "Queer as Folk") and Diana Quick ("Brideshead Revisited"). The website also states that this animated project will eventually be released on DVD. None of this information has been confirmed yet by BBCi but has seen pretty wide discussion elsewhere.

Meanwhile, Cornell has made further comments on Outpost Gallifrey's forum with some additional information on the webcast. "I'm going to hang onto doing Ninth Doctor stuff as long as they'll let me, and as long as there's stuff to be done," he says. "There's no regeneration sequence. We start a long time after that. Yes, there's a new companion. People have somehow seen this as doing down McGann, but I don't feel that it is at all. I love the Eighth Doctor. This is just a new start. This will be accessible to new viewers, but will hopefully please the old ones at the same time. There's nothing to get in the way for new viewers." He adds that the animation "is more like [BBCi's] Ghosts of Albion" and the script "is written to be watched rather than heard. One of the joys of this is being able to write lines like: 'hundreds of monsters surround the Tardis'. It also makes storytelling faster. ... And yes, it was written especially for Richard."

I think the thing to bear in mind, and what all my friends in TV production have immediately said when they heard the news, is that *this is the best chance to bring it back to live TV*. People are now talking about Who in offices again. The profile has risen. And it will again in November.

Originally posted by Mopower
Doctor Who? Yay! Now I don't need these sleeping pills anymore!

Originally posted by BizRodian
Ninth Doctor now huh? Geez, Eight sure didn't last long... which you know, actually pisses me off. I hate short runs... makes the show seem cheap. Since it says this Doctor 9 has been around a bit in this story, they can make a few more with 8 and have a proper switch over. I know a lot of people don't like 8's movie... but I think it belongs, and can't be written off like Cushing's movie can be.

Isn't there a limit on regenerations? like 13 or something? Of course, Doctor Who has screwed it's continuity almost as much as Star Trek in some cases, so whatever.

Originally posted by Chew
Anyone have any luck finding when/where the previous audio adventures are playing?

Originally posted by El-Kabong
So, tell me. . . do you threadcrap often? Or is this a special occasion?

Well, depends of you count the Big Finish audio productions and the BBC books. If that's the case, then Paul's been the ongoing Doctor for 7 or so years now.

Yeah, it would be keen to see him in a TV version again, but I'll take what I can get. If that happens to be a new Doctor, so be it.

If they can keep the Master going after his last regeneration, then I'm sure they can come up with something for the Doctor. In a big universe like that, there's got to be some sort of technobabble solution somewhere.

Anyone have any luck finding when/where the previous audio adventures are playing?

Originally posted by Norm de Plume
Bring back Tom Baker, the definitive Doctor Who!

Bring back Tom Baker, the definitive Doctor Who!

Doctor Who? Yay! Now I don't need these sleeping pills anymore!

Originally posted by BizRodian
Alsom having the Doctor just get shot just seemed terrible for some reason. Yes, the Dcotor gets into trouble a lot, but the way it happened just seemed totally senseless and (again) wrong.

You know, I thought this bit was brilliant. Here's the 7th Doctor, always planning, always 3 steps ahead of everyone, always playing the puppet master pulling the strings of the companions, of the bad guys, of everyone - and he get shot and 'killed' in a random drive-by shooting.

Totaly irony. I love it.