And the tenth Doctor is... On Friday night, the BBC confirmed weeks of widespread rumors that actor David Tennant will be replacing the departing Christopher Eccleston as the new Doctor Who. Eccleston, who bowed out after completing work on the first season's demanding filming schedule, may or may not appear in the yet-to-be-filmed Christmas special, depending on how one reads the BBC's statement (series producer Russell T. Davies is quoted as saying, "I'm delighted that new, young viewers can now have the complete Doctor Who experience, as they witness their hero change his face!"). Whether or not Eccleston's Doctor regenerates onscreen, Tennant will make his first appearance in the Christmas special; Billie Piper will continue in the role of Rose Tyler for the entire second season. Tennant has stated in past interviews that he's a fan of the show himself, and in the BBC's press release he says, "I grew up loving Doctor Who and it has been a lifelong dream to get my very own TARDIS." Filming will take place in Cardiff again this summer. Source: BBC

New Babylon 5 novels, comics on the way. Warner Brothers has given Babylon 5 licensee Mongoose Publishing - the makers of the B5 role playing game and supplements - the thumbs-up to publish a new series of original novels and graphic novels set in the B5 universe. Mongoose says the new stories will "delve into never-explored areas" of the storyline, with the first titles appearing in the fourth quarter of this year. No information on authors or artists, or any involvement from B5 creator J. Michael Straczynski, has been officially announced, though British comics writer Tony Lee (a veteran of X-Men Unlimited and Mongoose's own Starship Troopers comics) has announced that he'll be writing the first story, and the it will be drawn by Sam Hart, who has also worked on the Starship Troopers comic. Since Warner Brothers owns Babylon 5, it technically doesn't need Straczynski on board to launch any new projects, though Tony Lee says the he has attempted to contact JMS. Sources: Mongoose Publishing, TonyLee.co.uk

Doctor Who renewed on audio. Big Finish Productions announced this week that their license to produce original Doctor Who audio dramas and short story anthologies in print has been extended through the latter half of 2008. In a statement, Big Finish producer Gary Russell reveals that the audio productions will continue to focus on the fifth through eighth incarnations of the Time Lord, with no mention of trying to entice departing ninth Doctor Christopher Eccleston to join the fold; according to Big Finish producer John Ainsworth, the BBC is licensing all characters and situations from the new series as a separate entity from the original series, which even precludes the possibility of "prequel" stories leading up to the ninth Doctor's reign. For the same reasons, even without the restrictions of having to hire the actors in question, Big Finish's short story compilations will focus exclusively on the first eight Doctors as well. Source: Big Finish Productions, Outpost Gallifrey

The inventor of video games speaks out. The inventor of the Magnavox Odyssey (and savior of the nearly-cancelled Odyssey²), the world's first home video game system, finally gets a chance to have his say. Ralph Baer has put a combination of his autobiography and his technical journals down in writing in Videogames: In The Beginning, illustrated with copious photos, rare video stills, patent and design documents, and much, much more. theLogBook.com's webmaster has gotten a chance to look at a pre-release edition of the book, and it's worth every penny - and reveals tons of previously unknown history from the early days of interactive gaming. You can pre-order Videogames: In The Beginning now from theLogBook.com.

Videogames: In The Beginning
by Ralph H. Baer

Hitchhiking concludes on BBC Radio. Just days after The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy appears in movie theaters, the voyage ends for the original cast of the classic BBC radio series that started it all. May 3rd will see the premiere of the "Quandary Phase" - a four-episode adaptation of Douglas Adams' novel So Long And Thanks For All The Fish, which will be followed immediately by the "Quintessential Phase" adapting Mostly Harmless into four episodes; both of these "phases" are already scheduled for CD release with extra material, and can be found in theLogBook.com's Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy Store. The final eight episodes will feature an all-star lineup of Hitchhiker's Guide veterans, from the surviving original radio cast to Sandra Dickinson and David Dixon - Trillian and Ford, respectively, from the BBC's 1981 TV adaptation of the Hitchhiker's Guide, and Rula Lenska from the original radio series. Also, the "Tertiary Phase" - already covered in our TheatEar guide to the series - has been nominated for a coveted Sony Radio Academy Award, honoring excellence within the field of U.K. radio. Source: BBC

Who's Silverman? To find that out, we'll probably have to grab Ben Folds' first full-length studio album since 2001's Rockin' The Suburbs. Folds has released a steady stream of short EPs since then, and it looks like at least one of those songs has made the cut on the new album. You can pre-order Ben Folds' Songs For Silverman in time for its release next week from theLogBook.com.