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

Radio Times are presenting their second Torchwood-oriented Twitter viewing event tonight, this time focussing on the arrival of Jack's former colleague Captain John Hart.


John Barrowman will be tweeting his thoughts during the viewing alongside co-stars Naoko Mori, Burn Gorman and Gareth David-Lloyd, after which they will be participating in a live Q&A.

Class Volumes Three and Four will be available for digital download and also in a limited edition CD box set (only 1000 of each volume will be pressed); they can now be pre-ordered from the Big Finish website, with the CD set available at a discounted price until general release (all CD purchases from website unlock a download exclusive from both their website and app).

Big Finish have released the next chapter of their Time War series, with a new four story boxed set featuring the very first Gallifreyan we met in Doctor Who ...


Actor Carole Ann Ford commented:

Script Editor Matt Fitton added:


Doctor Who: Susan's War is available as a four-disc collector’s edition box set to preorder from Amazon, or to purchase now from Big Finish as a CD set or digital download.

The latest release from Terraqueous Distributors is The Unofficial Master Annual 2074.

The annual is 136 pages, featuring stories and illustrations produced by fans, as well as contributions from well-known names such as Alister Pearson, Smuzz, and Andy Walker.

The Master annual was originally announced last November, with a call for contributors. The following is an excerpt from the writer's guidelines: The Master is the Anti-hero. Sometimes saving people, not because of compassion or moral values, but because it suits whatever agenda he has. Of course, he can also be the villain, remember that meddlesome Doctor isn't around - and that's when villains come out on top.

The focus of the annual is the original Master portrayed by Roger Delgado. The cover artwork is a homage to the first-ever Dr Who annual that was released in 1965 by World Distributors. The cover was illustrated by Paul Cooke and features original characters from the stories in the annual.

The publication follows The Unofficial Dr Who Annual 1972 and The Unofficial Dr Who Annual 1987, which featured stories and illustrations produced by fans, as well as celebrity contributions from the worlds of Doctor Who.

The Unofficial Master Annual 2074 is available from Lulu at the print-on-demand price of £23.32 plus shipping costs). The annual is a not-for-profit publication, and none of the money paid by purchasers goes to the publisher or to any of the contributors.

The Unofficial Doctor Who Annual 1987 is also available, but will be retired later this year.

Later this year, Terraqueous Distributors will be releasing their fourth annual. This time the focus will be on the seventh Doctor. If you would like to contribute to the seventh Doctor annual, please send an email to: doctorwhoannual@aol.co.ukDetails on the Terraqueous Distributors FaceBook page

Big Finish have released the next in their regular range of Doctor Who adventures, featuring Colin Baker aa the Doctor:


Actor Colin Baker commented:

Listen to the Trailer

Doctor Who: Cry of the Vultriss is now available to purchase on CD, or as a digital download from Big Finish.

The next shared Doctor Who viewing organised by Doctor Who Magazine's Emily Cook takes place this evening (UK) in celebration of Peter Capaldi's birthday:


The Twitter discussion will include insights from writer Steven Moffat, director Rachel Talalay and the embodiment of the Veil, Jami Reid-Quarrell.



There is also a special message from the Doctor himself, Peter Capaldi, in advance of the discussion:

As promised, ahead of today's #HellofaBird watchalong with @StevenWMoffat, @rtalalay and @JReidQ...

Here's A NOTE FROM PETER CAPALDI! ⭐️#DoctorWhoLockdown pic.twitter.com/52AmBUVKhw

— Emily Cook (@Emily_Rosina) April 14, 2020

The classic series writer Pip Baker has died at the age of 91.

Pip Baker, along with his wife and writing partner Jane, was one of the best-known writers from the mid 80's era of Doctor Who, writing eleven episodes for the series. Together they created the Rani, a female Time Lord scientist who was brought to life so vividly by the late Kate O'Mara, as well a creating the companion Mel.

Pip and Jane Baker began writing together in the 1960s working on the films The Painted Smile, The Break, The Night of the Big Heat and Captain Nemo and the Underwater City. On Television, they worked on the children's thriller Circus as well as episodes of Z-Cars and Space 1999.

In 1985 they were commissioned by producer John Nathan Turner to write for the first full series of the Sixth Doctor, Colin Baker, producing the story Mark of the Rani. The story was well received and the couple returned the following year to pen Terror of the Vervoids The third segment of the Trial of a Time Lord Season, envisaged as a whodunnit in space.

Later that year the couple were called in following the departure of the then Script editor Eric Saward, who left following a disagreement with Nathan Turner. Saward had withdrawn his script for the final episode of the season leaving the Bakers to come up with an alternative ending, without access to anything already written, and without creating anything which needed a new set to be built. They had just three days to come up with a script capable of concluding a season they had very little part in conceiving.

In 1988 Pip Baker told Doctor Who Magazine about some of the problems they encountered. After the transmission of the season, Phi and Jane Baker found themselves defending their scripts on the BBC's feedback programme Open Air, facing criticism from some fans including future showrunner Chris Chibnall.

The Bakers returned to Doctor Who at the start of the next season, introducing the seventh Doctor in Time and the Rani, a script which brought back their most enduring creation The Rani.

In the early 1990's they created the children's programme Watt on Earth which ran for 24 episodes on BBC One.

Jane Baker died in 2014. Pip Baker died this morning after being ill for some time following a fall.

Last night's shared viewing of The Doctor's Wife on Twitter was introduced by a new specially written scene featuring Arthur Darvill reprising his role as Rory Williams, updating his diary with events about to occur ...


The minisode was written by Neil Gaiman with special music composed by Blair Mowat, who has also made the short score available to listen to via Soundcloud.




Recent #DoctorWhoLockdown extras have included a special introduction to The Day of the Doctor by Strax, a sequel to Rose, Revenge of the Nestene, a short story to accompany Rose, The Raggedy Doctor by Amelia Pond.

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The next shared Doctor Who viewing organised by Doctor Who Magazine's Emily Cook takes place this evening (UK):


As with previous discussions, author Neil Gaiman will be giving insights on his episode, this time joined by director Richard Clark and the voice of House, Michael Sheen.

Neil Gaiman also hinted on Twitter:




Don't forget that there is another shared viewing of Silver Nemesis with Sophie Aldred at 6:00pm BST as part of online Time Space Visualiser convention taking place this afternoon on YouTube.