Hello - almost at the end of the week and no update as yet but that's because there are so many cuttings being readied that it's taking quite a while.

On a rough count the total is nudging 90 and heading for the 100 mark, probably the largest update ever here but do correct me if I'm wrong! :-)

It includes a wide range of items covering Doctor Who from the 1960's up to last week. Many cuttings cover the new series but quite a few are from earlier eras and these include some very interesting, and rare, articles from the early 1970s.

A lot of these older cuttings have required a fair amount of restoration and cleanup work much of which has been very time consuming indeed. This will take at least another day and then it'll be a matter of building pages, writing details and adding all of these these to the site.

All very much worth waiting for I think!

Right, it's back to the grind for me...

Roger :-)

Published @ 5:14 PM (UK local time)

There are a number of new news stories on our New Series News page today you might want to comment on here including recent press reports, information in the new DWM, Doctor Who Confidential and the appointment of Mal Young's successor.

Meanwhile we're scanning a lot of recent articles and readying them for an update next week - it's gonna be a biggie!

Published @ 10:17 PM (UK local time)

I decided to start to tackle the ever growing pile of newspaper and magazine cuttings on my desk over the weekend - it's BIG!

So, in between watching the odd episode from the Lost in Time DVD and doing all the other 'life' things you have to do I started the scanning. It's a big job as a result of the sudden recent 'splurge' of articles, including one in Sunday's Observer (UK) - a full broadsheet page interview with Russell T Davies.

I'll continue to scan over the next few days until I'm happy that the pile is down to a manageable size again (it never disappears) and then I intend to switch my attention to Season 7 Radio Times coverage. Yes, I'm pleased to mention that this much neglected core area of The Cuttings Archive is due to be updated. I'd love to get all seasons done before the debut of the new series here in the UK next March (it increasingly looks like it'll be a Saturday in the third or fourth week of March) but I have my doubts about whether that'll be possible - we'll see.

I can also confirm that the Lost in Time DVD is every bit as good as I thought it would be although I haven't managed to get beyond the first disc yet! Isn't Day of Armageddon great? A while back I knew about some people who had managed to get their hands on VHS copies of the episode but I really couldn't see the point. After all it was coming out on DVD and you can now see it in a high-quality format, beautifully restored by the ever wonderful Restoration Team, and with an excellent commentary by Peter Purvis, Raymond Cusick and Kevin Stoney.

They have some interesting things to say and Peter is great at asking questions and reminding Kevin and Ray of little facts about the story and this era in general. They also say some interesting things about the new series and in particular the design of the new Daleks, given Cusick is the original designer of the Daleks you can't get much more authoritative than him on the subject! Gary Russell and Julian Glover also provide an excellent commentary on The Wheel of Fortune, my only regret with these commentaries is that time and budgets didn't stretch to their being more; I'd love to have heard Peter, Kevin and Ray commenting on Counter Plot and Escape Switch as well but that's a minor quibble and it's a brilliant package!

It just proves that it's worth waiting for good things sometimes and the anticipation makes it all the more enjoyable too. Now I'm off to watch Escape Switch and The Final Test and then it'll be some wonderful Troughton episodes later on...

Roger :-)

Published @ 8:30 AM (UK local time)

I've got slightly behind this week as a result of a complete idiot crashing into my car (a cherished Mini no less!) on Tuesday so please bear with me as I catch up with things. For those who are bothered I'm fine and the car will be fine (perhaps even better) once it's been fixed - there was a witness and the other person has accepted it was is fault. LOL, he was a bit shocked when he heard how much repairs would be though!

Anyway, I'll now stick to Doctor Who for the rest of these comments (I'm tempted to mention recent world events but I think that's best avoided here). So, as you may have noticed on the New Series News page I've added some (although I say it myself) fantastic high-quality scans of the BBC promotional postcard featuring Billie Piper and Christopher Eccleston. I believe these are probably by far the best copies available online - another first for The Cuttings Archive.

There are also details of a couple of recent articles on the series, one of which, in The Sun, seems directly drawn from online comment about the new series logo - careless talk?

I should add some new cuttings in the next week or so, so look out for these.

All the very best

Roger :-)

Published @ 11:55 PM (UK local time)

WOW - that's about it really!

(If you don't know what I'm referring to take a look at our New Series News page and follow the link to The Sun website.

Well, BIG spoilers with this story but what do you think?

Could this be a lone Dalek as rumour has it or will there be an army of them... trying to avoid spoilers here... let's take it to "comment" so don't click on that unless you want to see potential spoilers!

ADDITION @ 1PM (UK): a photograph of the new Dalek has been added to the news item.

Roger :-)

Published @ 1:56 AM (UK local time)