DWAS Announces the Return of TARDIS Magazine

The Doctor Who Appreciation Society has announced the return of its magazine, TARDIS, last published in 2003.

Volume 16 of TARDIS will begin publication in the summer of 2020. Under the editorship of Robbie Dunlop, it will be an entirely commissioned features-based magazine, published three times per year as a vibrant A4 title. It will be available to all fans from DWAS’s company Space Rocket Ltd, with DWAS members given the opportunity to buy directly from the Society at a substantial discount. The publication we help continue the society tradition of supporting charities with each edition raising funds for a worthy cause.

TARDIS was one of the earliest Doctor Who Fan magazines (fanzines) and was first published in 1975 by Andrew Johnson. In the summer of 1976, the newly formed Doctor Who Appreciation Society took on the publication of the magazine. Over the next few years, TARDIS went from strength to strength. It started as hand duplicated title, soon acquiring ‘photo pages’ which were inserts produced by offset litho. Later on, TARDIS become professionally printed itself, and in 1979 it saw colour for the first time. TARDIS was always supplied as an addition to DWAS membership until it was absorbed into the Society’s newsletter ‘Celestial Toyroom’ in 1987. TARDIS subsequently ceased publication as CT itself moved away from its traditional newsletter format and became a magazine in its own right.

Between April 1997 and December 1998, the Society resurrected TARDIS as a quarterly publication alongside Celestial Toyroom but then retired the title again, with a brief return as a one-off special in 2003 celebrating the show’s 40th anniversary.

The world of Doctor Who fandom has changed beyond recognition since then, and nowadays there are very few printed fan magazines. Celestial Toyroom remains the staple of the DWAS’s own output giving air to a wide range of views. Many writers have started with items in CT before moving on to more mainstream publications including ‘Doctor Who Magazine’. DWAS has recognised the changing landscape and CTs sister publication, Cosmic Masque is now published as a download at their website. The Celestial Toyroom Annual is released principally as an eBook with a limited run print copy also available.

Announcing the return the Society said


The price and ordering information will be announced soon with the first issue of the new volume following shortly afterwards. In the meantime, Celestial Toyroom continues on its monthly publications schedule, giving members the opportunity to express their views on all aspects of Doctor Who. A new edition of Cosmic Masque, the fiction and reviews title, will also be released for download in the summer and a new ‘Celestial Toyroom Annual’ for 2021 is in the planning stages now.

For more information on the Doctor Who Appreciation Society, the world longest-running Doctor Who fan club, please visit www.dwasonline.co.uk. Enquiries about the new magazine can be made to tardis@dwasonline.co.uk