Dr Who regenerated online
Dr Who is to be regenerated once more -- this time courtesy of the Internet.
The hero of the world's longest-running science fiction series has visited many worlds, but next month he will visit the unexplored terrain of cyberspace with the BBC's first ever Internet-only broadcast. The half-hour audio drama Death Comes to Time will be distributed on Friday 13 July as a series of streaming media tracks.
The drama will have an interactive element, allowing listeners to post reviews and vote on whether the Doctor should return.
It will be the Doctor's first appearance since a TV movie in 1996. The Dr Who television series ran from 1963 until its cancellation in 1989, but thousands of fans still buy new Dr Who books and CDs and attend conventions.
Death Comes to Time will feature Sylvester McCoy reprising his role as the Doctor. He joins a mysterious Time Lord played by Stephen Fry to battle an alien warlord, played by John Sessions.
A number of creators and production companies have experimented with the Internet as a way of distributing entertainment, including Stephen King's abortive attempt to sell a serialised novel on Amazon.com.
So far, however, it remains difficult to make money from Internet broadcasting, and the Net has been most successful when accompanying more traditional media, such as the live Internet camera feeds accompanying the Big Brother television show.
Have your say instantly, and see what others have said. Click on the TalkBack button and go to the ZDNet news forum.
Let the editors know what you think in the Mailroom. And read other letters.