Doctor Who Magazine Issue 613 is out today

Inside this issue

• RUSSELL T DAVIES on the writers joining him for the Fifteenth Doctor’s second season.

• With Jon Pertwee’s debut season coming to Blu-ray, we speak to team behind the release about the remastered episodes and the Special Features included on the set.

• The Fugitive Doctor is back! JO MARTIN talks about stepping out from the shadow of the Thirteenth Doctor as she embarks on a series of her own adventures on audio.

• Script to Screen – exec producer JOEL COLLINS, production designer PHIL SIMMS, visual effects supervisor SEB BARKER and others explain how they built the Time Hotel.

• MICKEY LEWIS shares his experiences of playing some of the Doctor’s most terrifying adversaries.

• We take a look at the history of lost First Doctor adventure The Savages – soon to be released as an animation…

• Actor John Lord speaks about taking on the role of a Yeti – among his other roles.  

• A tribute to the Doctor Who work of designer Ken Ledsham.

• Join us as we play mobile game Lost in Time – including the crossover with Star Trek: Lower Decks.

• A fond look at the peculiarities of fan favourite Genesis of the Daleks.

• Gary Gillatt considers how dinosaurs have had a colossal impact on Doctor Who…

• Back to 1977… how script editor Robert Holmes was targeted by the tabloids!

• The Fact of Fiction looks at the concluding episodes of 1968’s The Dominators.

• The continuing adventures of the Doctor and Ruby in the comic strip!

Regular features

• Gallifrey Guardian – our news round-up including casting on the new series.

• Shelf Life – featuring reviews of the latest audio releases.

• Other Worlds – the essential guide to new stories in Doctor Who’s expanded universe.

• Prizes to be won including Blu-rays of Joy to the World and The Collection – Season 9! 

Doctor Who Magazine Issue 613 is on sale Thursday 30 January 2025  from panini.co.uk and WH Smith priced £7.99 (UK). 

Also available as a digital edition from pocketmags.com priced £6.99.

A Doctor Who charity auction, in partnership with Propstore, has been announced by the BBC.

The auction will open its digital doors to fans globally from 11th February until 25th February. Bidding for all lots will start at £100, giving fans from around the world the opportunity to own exclusive Doctor Who memorabilia.

Amongst the 150 lots, fans will have the chance to bid on Doctors’ and companions’ costumes and many more props featured in the series between 2005 and 2022 including:

• Tenth Doctor’s (David Tennant) Tuxedo Costume and Spares
• Eleventh Doctor's (Matt Smith) 'Closing Time' Costume
• Twelfth Doctor's (Peter Capaldi) 'Mummy on the Orient Express' Costume
• Thirteenth Doctor's (Jodie Whittaker) Costume
• Screen-matched ‘An Adventure in Space and Time’ TARDIS
• Screen-matched Traitor Dalek
• Photo-matched Gravel Cyberman Head
• Weeping Angel Statue
• Ood Head
• Rose Tyler's (Billie Piper) Top
• The Master's (John Simm) Jacket
• Me’s (Maise Williams) Costume
• C's (Stephen Fry) Costume
• Clara's (Jenna Coleman) Costume
• Donna's (Catherine Tate) Wedding Dress

With over 150 lots, bundling iconic props and costumes this is expected to be the biggest Doctor Who auction to date, with the net proceeds to go to BBC Children in Need, the BBC’s UK charity, which supports children in communities across the UK helping them to overcome challenges that they face.

Registration for the auction will open from January 28, 2025, on the Propstore website which also contains a full list of lots to be auctioned 

Registering for the auction will enter fans into a competition with the chance to win a bow tie from the Eleventh Doctor, Matt Smith. Terms and conditions apply

The BBC has confirmed the writers joining Doctor Who for the next series, the 41st since the creation of the series in 1963.

Juno Dawson is a #1 Sunday Times best-selling novelist, screenwriter and journalist, whose books include the global bestsellers, This Book is Gay and Her Majesty’s Royal Coven. Her debut short film was The Birth of Venus and she created the first official Doctor Who scripted podcast, Doctor Who: Redacted.

Dawson says:

Inua Ellams is a writer and curator, whose published books of poetry include Candy Coated Unicorns & Converse All Stars and The Actual. His first play, The 14th Tale, was awarded a Fringe First at the Edinburgh International Theatre Festival, and other plays include Barber Shop Chronicles, which played at the National Theatre, Three Sisters and The Half-God of Rainfall.

Ellams says:

Pete McTighe is a writer and Executive Producer on the forthcoming spin-off 'The War Between The Land And The Sea'. He has created, written or Exec'd dramas including 'The Pact' (BBC), 'The Rising' (Sky), 'A Discovery Of Witches' (HBO), and 'Wentworth' (Fox). He has written two episodes of Doctor Who for the thirteenth Doctor Kerblam! and Praxeus

McTighe says:

Sharma Angel-Walfall originally hails from Manchester and won the inaugural Channel 4 New Writing Award that set her off on her screenwriting journey. She has been in a number of writers’ rooms, including Rapman’s Supacell (Netflix), Sally Wainwrights's The Ballad of Renegade Nell (Disney+), A Town Called Malice (Sky) and Noughts & Crosses (BBC). She was a writing consultant on Paul Abbott’s Wolfe (Sky) and wrote an episode of Sharon Hogan’s Dreamland for Sky (starring Lilly Allen and Freema Agyeman).

Angel-Walfal says

The team is once more led by showrunner Russell T Davies who says:

Doctor Who returns on BBC One and Disney+ later this year.

The actor Christopher Benjamin has died at the age of 90. 

Christopher Benjamin is best known to Doctor Who fans for his virtuoso performance in the 1977 Fourth Doctor story The Talons of Weng-Chiang. He played Henry Gordon Jago the owner of the Palace Theatre who teams up with Professor George Litefoot, as played by Trevor Baxter, to help the Doctor defeat Magnus Greel and his acolyte Li H'sen Chang. 

The chemistry between Benjamin and Baxter ensured that the couple were given their own spin-off audio series by Big Finish, with fourteen series of Jago & Litefoot being released between 2010 and 2017. 

Benjamin's first appearance in Doctor Who was in the 1970 story Inferno, where he played Sir Keith Gold the director of the Inferno Project.

He was one of the few actors who appeared in both the original series and the revived 2005 series appearing with the Tenth Doctor in the 2008 story The Unicorn and the Wasp where he played Colonel Hugh Curbishley.

Born in Trowbridge in Wiltshire, Benjamin was a familiar face on British Television for over forty years. His passion for acting was developed while at school and he joined a local amateur group in Bath before doing his National Service. 

His professional debut was in repertory at the Manchester Library Theatre followed by a stint at the Salisbury Arts Theatre. He spent several seasons working at the Bristol Old Vic and was a regular performer for the Royal Shakespeare Company. 

His Television work included three appearances in the cult series The Prisoner and guest appearances in The Avengers, The Saint and Jason King. In 1967 he played Prosper Profond in the BBC's acclaimed series The Forsyte Saga. He was Sir Hugh Bodrugan in the original series of Poldark and Sir William Lucas in the 1995 version of Pride and Prejudice. 

Other series he appeared in include Heartbeat, Rosemary & Thyme, Midsomer Murders, Foyle's War, Leonardo, EastEnders, Treasure Island, Lovejoy, Magic Grandad, The Tomorrow People, London's Burning, Casualty, Maigret, Rumpole of the Bailey, Brass, King & Castle, Yes, Prime Minister, Casanova, The Diary of Anne Frank , Dempsey and Makepeace, Blott on the Landscape, Minder, Shoestring and The History of Mr. Polly.

Christopher Benjamin is survived by his wife, actress Anna Fox, and their three children.

The writer Barbara Clegg has died at the age of 98.

Barbara Clegg wrote the fifth Doctor story Enlightenment first broadcast in 1983.

Clegg was born in Manchester in March 1926 the niece of the founder of the Littlewoods empire. After graduating from Oxford she worked as an actress performing in many Shakespeare plays and touring across the UK and Australia

In the 1960s, she began writing for Radio starting with scripts for Mrs Dale's Diary.

Television followed where she contributed scripts for both Coronation Street and Crossroads. 

In 1981 she wrote her first Science Fiction story, The Chrysalids, adapted from the novel for Radio 4.

In 1983 she was asked to contribute a script for Doctor Who and therefore became the first woman to write a script for the series. The story would be the final one in the Black Guardian Trilogy.

It was the only script commissioned for the television series but one of her ideas Point of Entry was later used by Big Finish in the audio range. 

Barbara Clegg died on 7 January 2025

Issue 612 of Doctor Who Magazine is released today.

Inside this issue

• An in-depth look at the making of The War Games in Colour, including the brand-new model work and the Troughton/Pertwee regeneration sequence.

• EastEnders veteran RUDOLPH WALKER recalls his role in The War Games…

• Writer and exec producer STEVEN MOFFAT discusses Joy to the World, including scenes that never made it to screen.

• RUSSELL T DAVIES explains what connects The Pirate Planet, The Christmas Invasion’s ill-fated Danny Llewellyn and a branch of Marks and Spencer…

• Build your own half-scale Dalek with a new Doctor Who partwork. We talk to the team behind this exciting new project…

• Script to Screen – on the creation of BabyStation Beta – as seen in the 2024 season debut Space Babies.

• LISA BOWERMAN, JAMES GOSS and GARY RUSSELL reflect on the enduring appeal of archaeologist adventure Professor Bernice Summerfield.  

• In the second part of our coverage celebrating 50 years of stage play Seven Keys to Doomsday, we talk to JAMES MATHEWS who played companion Jimmy.

• The Memory Worm gets its teeth into YEE JEE TSO – Chang Lee in the 1996 TV movie.

• We look at how fandom reacted to the casting of BONNIE LANGFORD as companion Mel in 1986…

• ALISON ZRADA asks us what advice can be found in Doctor Who for New Year’s resolutions.

• The Fact of Fiction looks at the opening episodes of 1968’s The Dominators.

• The continuing adventures of the Doctor and Ruby in the comic strip!

Regular features

• Gallifrey Guardian – looking ahead to the 2025 series!

• Shelf Life – featuring reviews of the latest books and audio releases.

• Other Worlds – the essential guide to new stories in Doctor Who’s expanded universe.

• Prizes to be won including a special Blu-ray bundle! 

Doctor Who Magazine Issue 612 is on sale Thursday 2 January 2025  from panini.co.uk and WH Smith priced £7.99 (UK). 

Also available as a digital edition from pocketmags.com priced £6.99.

Toby Hadoke has published his annual memoriam of those who have delighted us both in front of and behind the scenes of Doctor Who and its extended worlds, who sadly died in 2024.

Doctor Who In Memoriam 2024

Tom Baker has been honoured by King Charles and made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE).

The award is given to the 90-year-old actor for services to Television.

The awards are issued twice a year, to mark the New Year and to mark the King's official birthday. The Order of the British Empire was created in 1917 by King George V to honour ordinary people, whose achievements previously went unrecognised. 

Other recipients of honours this year include Stephen Fry, who is made a Knight Bachelor for services to Mental Health Awareness, the Environment and Charity.

The actresses Sarah Lancashire, Anne Reid and Carey Mulligan have all been made Commanders of the Order of the British Empire for services to drama.

Carmen Munroe, who appeared in the Second Doctor story The Enemy of the World as Fariah has been made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire for services to drama.

The actor Eddie Marsan, who was in the Sarah Jane Adventures, has been made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, for services to drama. 

Overall 1204 honours were given for New Year. The awards will be presented by the King, or one of his counsellors of state, at a ceremony in 2025

Today marks fifty years since we first became acquainted with the fourth Doctor as played by Tom Baker.

Baker had briefly appeared the previous summer in the final episode of Planet of the Spiders but 28th December 1974 is when the fourth Doctor had his first adventure Robot. 

The episode was broadcast on BBC 1 at 5.35 pm following the Shari Lewis Show and the News and preceding Bruce Forsyth and the Generation Game. It had 10.8 million viewers. 

Baker would go on to play the Doctor in 173 episodes over 7 years, plus a notable return in the 2013 anniversary story The Day of the Doctor. He is the longest-serving Doctor to date.

To mark the anniversary Radio Times has produced a special digital bookazine edited by Stuart Manning, Tom Baker: 50 Years in Time and Space

The bookazine is free to download from www.radiotimes.com/tom-baker-bookazine/

In addition, Big Finish have released a special full-cast audio anniversary adventure, The Curse of Time. Starring Tom Baker, along with Sadie Miller (as Sarah Jane Smith) and Christopher Naylor (as Harry Sullivan), the story picks up at the end of Season 12, with the Doctor and his companions returning to Earth after the events of Revenge of the Cybermen. 

Doctor Who – The Fourth Doctor Adventures: The Curse of Time is now available to purchase for just £15.99 (collector's edition double CD with slipcase + download) or £12.99 (download only), exclusively from bigfinish.com

No Doctor I'm the Doctor! | Doctor Who | Robot

Rose Ayling-Ellis will be joining Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor in the upcoming season of Doctor Who, which will air in 2025.

Russell T Davies, Showrunner said:

Rose Ayling-Ellis, said:

This year, Ayling-Ellis has been made a Member of the Order of the British Empire for voluntary services to the Deaf community, and she became the first Deaf presenter of live sport at the Paralympic Games. She was also the subject of Who Do You Think You Are and appeared in Ludwig. She became the first ever deaf actress to play a deaf character in EastEnders and she won Strictly Come Dancing in 2021 subsequently winning the BAFTA TV Award for ‘Must-See Moment’ in 2022.

The series is produced by Bad Wolf with BBC Studios for the BBC and Disney Branded Television, and will air on BBC One and BBC iPlayer simultaneously in the UK, and exclusively on Disney+ outside of the UK where available.