Doctor Who Magazine 515

Saturday, 22 July 2017 - Reported by Chuck Foster

The next issue of Doctor Who Magazine takes a look back over the last several years of Doctor Who, as its outgoing head writer Steven Moffat leaves the show with this year's Christmas Special.

With his first contribution to the show in 2004, The Empty Child, did he expect to still be writing for the series some thirteen years later?

No, God, no!. God, no! I also didn’t think I’d do the showrunning job for more than three years, and I’m here after six series. Yes, I’ve been writing Doctor Who stories since 2004. That’s a hell of a long time. When I wrote The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances, I wondered if I’d ever write another Doctor Who story. I was very keen to, I really wanted to. I remember asking, ‘Would you have me back next year...?’

What's next for the writer?

I’m looking forward to the idea of not having to automatically say no to everything else! Whether that’s writing jobs, or weekends away. I can write different things. I’m looking forward to that, hugely. But I am so glad it happened. I’d have been miserable if I’d never got to write Doctor Who! It’s been amazing. Of course it’s been amazing.

Also inside this issue:

PRODUCTION NOTES Steven Moffat writes his final column for DWM, and his last-ever Doctor Who words!
THE TOP 20! A look back at 20 amazing things about the Steven Moffat era of Doctor Who – plus tributes from Russell T Davies, Chris Chibnall, Mark Gatiss and many others...
THE EMPIRE OF MARK GATISS The concluding part of our all-encompassing interview with actor/writer Mark Gatiss!
THE PARLIAMENT OF FEAR There’s a brand-new adventure for the Doctor and Bill Potts in Part 1 of a new comic strip story, written by Scott Gray, with art by Staz Johnson.
RISE AND FALL Reviews of the 2017 series, and the season finale World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls.
TURNED UP TO ELEVEN The Fact of Fiction examines the Eleventh Doctor’s début adventure, 2010’s The Eleventh Hour!
REVIEWS The latest DVD and audio releases are put under the microscope.
COMING SOON Previews of all the latest Doctor Who CD and book releases.
PLUS! All the latest official news, the Watcher’s column, prize-winning competitions, the DWM crossword, the 2017 Season Survey – and much, much more!

Doctor Who Magazine issue 515 is on sale from Thursday 27 July.

FILTER: - DWM - Magazines - Merchandise - Steven Moffat

The Essential Doctor Who: Adventures in Space

Wednesday, 21 June 2017 - Reported by Marcus

The TARDIS doesn’t just travel through time – stories set in space have been an essential part of Doctor Who for six decades. The inhospitable void between the stars has served as the backdrop to epic space operas and nerve-racking thrillers, while harboring some of the most fearsome adversaries the Doctor has ever encountered.

Panini’s latest entry in the Essential Doctor Who series navigates a revealing course through the space lanes of Doctor Who, with all-new articles, rare images and exclusive interviews with:

Bob Baker (co-writer of The Three Doctors, The Invisible Enemy and many more)
Nick Bullen (costume designer for The Space Pirates)
Jamie Mathieson (writer of Oxygen)
Pat Mills (comics legend and co-writer of The Song of the Space Whale)
Hayley Nebauer (costume designer for the 2017 series)
Louise Page (costume designer for the Ninth and Tenth Doctors)
Charles Palmer (director of Oxygen)
Sid Sutton (Doctor Who title sequence designer)

Other highlights include a look at the groundbreaking model shoot for The Trial of a Time Lord, a fresh insight into the career of the show’s original story editor David Whitaker and guides to acclaimed stories such as The Daleks’ Master Plan and The Ark in Space.

Editor Marcus Hearn says:

Oxygen showed that space is one of the most hostile environments the Doctor has ever visited. This issue goes behind the scenes on that episode, and many of the preceding stories that belong in the same tradition. Bring a smartsuit – it’s dangerous out there!

The Essential Doctor Who: Adventures in Space is on sale now price £9.99.

FILTER: - Magazines

Vworp Vworp! Volume 3

Sunday, 12 February 2017 - Reported by Marcus

Volume 3 of Vworp Vworp! has just been released and contains an exclusive in-depth interview with comics writer Alan Moore, a free Dalek CD, new comic strips, and much more.

The special bumper 208-page edition explores Alan Moore’s Doctor Who backup strips, published in Doctor Who Weekly and Monthly in 1980 and 1981. Featuring the Cybermen, the Autons and the Time Lords, these strips were not only Alan’s very first professional work, but would go on to influence both comics and Doctor Who in ways he could never have foreseen.

Moore recalls his 1980 tale, Black Legacy:

I decided that if I couldn’t use Daleks then the next biggest Doctor Who enemy would probably be the Cybermen... As I understood it, the main part of the Cybermen ethos was efficiency, and a kind of a hygiene. Physical and mental disease would be completely unknown to the Cybermen. So I thought, what if there was something that could reintroduce these forgotten terrors to this race that has evolved beyond the fear of mental and physical illness?

Moore also shares his idea for the ultimate Doctor Who TV story, and the magazine talks to the artists who worked on Moore’s Doctor Who strips, John Stokes and V for Vendetta’s David Lloyd.

The magazine also features a brand new full-cast audio play written by Kaldor City’s Alan Stevens, with sound design by Alistair Lock. This one-off homage is available only with Vworp Vworp! and is inspired by The Mechanical Planet, a comic strip published in 1965. The play stars David Graham, beloved as Parker from Thunderbirds, and who, alongside Peter Hawkins, provided the original voice of the Daleks from their first appearance in 1963 through to the epic story The Daleks’ Master Plan. As the Golden Emperor of the Daleks, David voices a Dalek for the first time since 1966. The cast is completed by Sasha Mitchell, best remembered as Arlen, the Federation officer who brought down Blake’s 7 in the final shocking episode transmitted just over 25 years ago. The Mechanical Planet is only available with the magazine on CD and, for a lucky few with the TV Century 21 issue cover, a proper vinyl 7-inch record, created in homage to the brilliant 1965 Century 21 record that featured highlights from the final episode of The Chase with narration by David Graham.

Also in this edition

THE DALEK CHRONICLES RETURN:

Ron Turner

Lee Sullivan

Charlie Kirchoff

BRAND NEW COMIC STRIPS:

Tim Quinn

Tim Keable

The Woman Who Killed the Doctor

Daniel O’Mahony

Steve Andrew

John Peel

Baz Renshaw

TV CENTURY 21:

Stephen Baxter

Alan Stevens

Fiona Moore

Richard Jennings

Eric Eden

Ron Turner

Tat Wood

Stephen Laws

Jeremy Bentham

Matthew Sweet

David Quantick

TARGET BOOKS:

Nicholas Pegg

THE AGE OF CHAOS:

Colin Baker

Gary Russell

John M Burns

Barrie Mitchell

DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE EDITORS INTERVIEWED: Featuring John Freeman, Gary Russell, Marcus Hearn, Alan Barnes, Clayton Hickman, Peter Ware and Tom Spilsbury in conversation.
BRIEF ENCOUNTERS:

Richard Starkings

Lee Sullivan,

Paul Cornell

Ben Aaronovitch

Andrew Cartmel

Matthew Waterhouse

Arnold Schwartzman

Peter Archer

Issue number: 3 is out now price: £9.99 and can be ordered from the Magazine website.

FILTER: - Magazines

Radio Times features interview with Peter Capaldi

Tuesday, 22 November 2016 - Reported by Chuck Foster

Radio Times (26 Nov - 2 Dec 2016) (Credit: Radio Times)

The latest edition of the Radio Times, out today, features an interview with Peter Capaldi in the lead up to this year's Christmas Special, The Return of Doctor Mysterio.

The interview covers a variety of his views, including on being an older Doctor and how he sees the character. Commenting about how some feel that the show has now become too complicated for younger viewers, he said:

The thing about Doctor Who is the constitution of the audience. It covers a huge age range, so you have to entertain little kids and you have to entertain hipsters and students, and middle-aged men who should know better. So sometimes there is a kind of metaphysical and intellectual aspect to it, which is more to the fore than other times. But generally we just blow up monsters. There are some moments when you feel, that’s a little bit silly, or that’s a bit mawkish or whatever, but then you realise, that’s for children. You would be a fool not to play to them, because it’s their show.

The magazine also features a competition to win the piece of artwork below, taken from their Capaldi photoshoot; readers will need to answer four questions, with the first appearing in this week's and the rest over the next threw consecutive issues.

Radio Times - photoshoot artwork (26 Nov - 2 Dec 2016) (Credit: Radio Times)

FILTER: - Magazines - Peter Capaldi - Radio Times

The Essential Doctor Who 9 - Invasions of Earth

Tuesday, 1 November 2016 - Reported by Chuck Foster

Panini have announced the latest in their ongoing Doctor Who Essentials series of special magazines:

The Essential Doctor Who 9 - Invasions of Earth (Credit: Doctor Who Magazine)

The makers of Doctor Who Magazine continue their lavish series of bookazines with a 116-page issue celebrating some of the most memorable episodes in the series history.

Invasions of Earth includes interviews with:

Other highlights include a tribute to Nicholas Courtney, a look at Terry Nation’s original storyline for The Dalek Invasion of Earth, Jon Pertwee’s unmade story The Spare-Part People and much more.

Editor Marcus Hearn says:

Invasions of Earth have been central to Doctor Who since 1964. It was a big subject for us to tackle, but we’ve managed to cover almost every major era of the series with some fascinating articles and plenty of rare images. This is the story of our planet’s most epic battles!

The Essential Doctor Who: Invasions of Earth is on sale now at WH Smith and all good newsagents.

FILTER: - DWM - Magazines - Merchandise

Doctor Who Magazine 504

Thursday, 22 September 2016 - Reported by Chuck Foster

The latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine is on general release today, and this month celebrates the first appearance of the Cybermen some 50 years ago.

Doctor Who Magazine issue 504 (60s Cybermen) (Credit: DWM)

Doctor Who Magazine issue 504 (60s/70s Cybermen) (Credit: DWM)

Doctor Who Magazine issue 504 (80s Cybermen) (Credit: DWM)

Doctor Who Magazine issue 504 (21st Century Cybermen) (Credit: DWM)

Costume designer Alexandra Tynan gave the original Cybermen their distinctive look for their first appearance in The Tenth Planet in 1966:

People often come up to me and say, ‘I think your Cybermen were the most frightening,’ I looked at them yesterday, when I re-watched The Tenth Planet, and I thought, ‘I suppose they are a bit scary.’ At the time, they got a lot of press, some of it very negative. Angry parents said that we were scaring the bejesus out of their kids. Am I personally responsible, with my Cybermen, for a whole generation of disturbed people? The number of adults who have come up to me and said, ‘Your Cybermen terrified me when I was a child,’ and I have apologised a thousand times...

Despite this, 50 years on in 2016, the Cybermen are still going strong...

At the time, I had no idea that my Cybermen would prove so iconic – none of us did – but I am overwhelmed by the fact that they became such an icon, and I’m really glad that I didn’t know at the time. I look back now and think how privileged I am to have had the opportunity to do something that has lasted for so long, and I enjoy every minute of talking to people about it. It makes me laugh. I think on my tombstone it will say, ‘She designed the Cybermen,’ and I’m okay with that. Cyber-Mum! Yes, I like it. I do love the Cybermen,” she concludes, “and I thank them for what they did for me.

Also inside this issue:

CYBER-PLANS - Discover the inside story of the Cybermen’s many campaigns...
EVOLUTION OF THE CYBERMEN - We examine the changes in Cyber-evolution, including some variants that were barely glimpsed on screen.
JAMI REID-QUARRELL - We chat to Colony Sarff actor Jami Reid-Quarrell about playing a physically demanding role.
MOVING IN - The Doctor goes domestic in our brand-new comic strip adventure, Moving In, written by Mark Wright and illustrated by John Ross.
STEVEN MOFFAT - Readers ask the Doctor Who showrunner their burning questions.
TIME TEAM - There’s a mystery to solve in nineteenth-century France as the Doctor and Amy have a brush with history when they meet Vincent van Gogh in this month’s episode, Vincent and the Doctor.
SILVER NEMESIS - The Cybermen return for Doctor Who’s silver anniversary in this issue’s Fact of Fiction.
COMING SOON - Previews of all the latest Doctor Who CD and book releases.

PLUS! All the latest official news, reviews, competitions, The DWM Crossword… and FOUR variant Cybermen covers to collect!

FILTER: - DWM - Magazines - Merchandise

DWM Essentials 8 - Adventures in History

Thursday, 9 June 2016 - Reported by Chuck Foster

Panini have announced the latest in their ongoing Doctor Who Essentials series of special magazines:

The Essential Doctor Who #8 - Adventures in History (Credit: Doctor Who Magazine)

The Essential Doctor Who Issue 8: Adventures in History

Panini’s acclaimed bookazine series The Essential Doctor Who continues, with a lavish 116-page issue about the Doctor’s journeys into Earth’s past.

Adventures in History includes interviews with:

Artist Jeff Cummins (Doctor Who Discovers)
Story editor Gerry Davis (The Highlanders)
Actor Bernard Kay (The Crusade)
Costume designer Odile Dicks-Mireaux (The Visitation)
Writer John Lucarotti (The Aztecs)
Writer Jamie Mathieson (The Girl Who Died)
Actor Ian McNeice (Victory of the Daleks)
Director Saul Metzstein (Dinosaurs on a Spaceship)
Writer Marc Platt (Ghost Light)
Story editor Donald Tosh (The Massacre of St Bartholomew’s Eve)
Artist George Underwood (The Doctor Who Dinosaur Book)
Actress Anneke Wills, who played Polly in The Smugglers and numerous other stories.

Elsewhere in this packed issue, Andrew Pixley reveals Donald Cotton’s notes for the 1965 story The Myth Makers, timelines chart the Doctor’s adventures from the creation of the Earth through to 1963, and 15 trips into history are revisited, from the era of the First Doctor right through to that of the Twelfth.

Editor Marcus Hearn says:

History in Doctor Who is about much more than the purely historical stories that were made in the 1960s. We decided to follow the Doctor’s entire journey through Earth history, with some of our best writers and designer Peri Godbold as our guides. We’ve never done anything quite like this before, and some of the rare pictures we’ve uncovered are amazing.

The Essential Doctor Who: Adventures in History is on sale now at WHSmith and all good newsagents.

FILTER: - DWM - Magazines - Merchandise

Doctor Who Magazine 499

Thursday, 28 April 2016 - Reported by Chuck Foster

Doctor Who Magazine Issue 499 (Credit: DWM)

The latest edition of Doctor Who Magazine has been published today, and as a new exhibition on Target books opens at the Cartoon Museum in London takes look back at the history of Doctor Who book cover art. The first regular artist on the range, Chris Achilleos, tells the magazine on how he established a new visual style for Doctor Who:

I didn’t need direction – I knew how to do a cover. I was always very aware that a book cover needs to be attractive – almost interactive, in a way – so that you’re drawn to pick it up in a shop. I still think they work as good punchy covers.

Target book fan and modern-day Doctor Who writer Mark Gatiss has much affection for the artwork:

The Three Doctors was my first and perhaps still my favourite. The incredibly evocative orange and green luridness of Omega’s deadly fingers, the Doctors themselves in grave monochrome. I still get a Proustian rush from seeing these images.

Also inside the issue:

PRODUCTION NOTES: Doctor Who’s executive producer Brian Minchin tells DWM about the operation to reveal the identity of the Doctor's new companion...
WHO WANTS TO LIVE FOREVER? DWM investigates what it is to be immortal in the Doctor Who universe.
NIGHT TO REMEMBER: Ahead of a very special Fact of Fiction next issue on The Day of the Doctor, DWM looks back at the most unexpected Doctor Who story of all time
GATEWAY TO THE UNIVERSE: The Fourth Doctor, Romana, Adric and K9 try to find a way out of E-Space in this month’s Fact of Fiction on 1981's Warriors' Gate...
BACK IN THE SISTERHOOD: We ask Clare Higgins, High Priestess of the Sisterhood of Karn, if Ohila could be the Doctor’s mother?
THE WITCH IS FAMILIAR... in the third part of our brand-new comic strip adventure, Witch Hunt, written by Jacqueline Rayner and illustrated by Martin Geraghty.
DRESS FOR THE OCCASION: Jacqueline Rayner talks about the challenges of dressing her boys up as the Doctor, in her column, Relative Dimensions.
DOCTOR, I MARRIED HIM! An increasing number of couple are incorporating Doctor Who into the most important day of their lives. But why? DWM investigates...
FISHY BUSINESS: There’s something fishy going on under Venice, as the Time Team watch The Vampires of Venice...
COMING SOON: DWM previews all the latest Doctor Who CD and book releases.
DREAM WORLD: Russell T Davies returns to BBC Wales with his production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream...

PLUS! All the latest official news, reviews, competitions and The DWM Crossword

FILTER: - DWM - Magazines - Merchandise

Doctor Who Magazine 497

Thursday, 3 March 2016 - Reported by Chuck Foster

Doctor Who Magazine issue 497 (Credit: Doctor Who Magazine)

The latest edition of Doctor Who Magazine is out today, and celebrates the twentieth anniversary of the TV Movie, featuring new interviews with Daphne Ashbrook, Eric Roberts, Yee Jee Tso, Gordon Tipple and the Eighth Doctor himself, Paul McGann!

The 56-year-old actor can’t quite believe how quickly 20 years have flown by:

It seems like yesterday. If you’d have said ‘ten years’, I’d have said, ‘Yeah, that’s about right.’ But it’s actually 20! I remember every bit of it. It’s an anniversary, isn’t it? We love anniversaries in magazines, and we love anniversaries on the telly.

The actor also acknowledges how, in hindsight, the pilot for a series which never materialised did play its part in Doctor Who’s legacy:

Those of us who were involved in it, when on the occasions that we do get to meet and talk about it in front of an audience, even four or five years ago... Phil Segal was there, and Yee Jee was there, and Daphne was there, Eric Roberts was there… we all met and there was a proper reunion and we talked about it, and I think the feeling then between us, and the audience agreed, was that yes, flawed it might have been, and a long shot it certainly was, and in the end it failed its chief function which was to go to a series, but... all things considered it was a good idea and it played its part in restoring the momentum enough. It kept Doctor Who going. Ten years later, it came back. And Russell T Davies [showrunner 2005-10] gave the nod, in subtle ways, to it.

Other featues inside this special TV Movie-themed issue include:

The TV Movie's lasting legacy: DWM explores how the 1996 venture influenced the revival of the series which would follow in 2005.
Daphne Ashbrook interview: Grace Holloway actress Daphne Ashbrook reminisces about kissing the Doctor, and how the TV Movie made her fall in love with Doctor Who.
Yee Jee Tso interview: Yee Jee Tso who played Chang Lee looks back on the time when he collaborated with the Master.
Jo Wright interview: Executive producer Jo Wright reveals how getting the TV Movie off the ground proved to be an almost impossible challenge.
Eric Roberts interview: Hollywood star Eric Roberts talks about giving the Master a whole new lease of life in 1996.
Gordon Tipple interview: Gordon Tipple delves into his ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ appearance as the ‘old’ Master in the TV Movie.

Also:

Ask Steven Moffat: Doctor Who’s showrunner Steven Moffat answers readers' questions.
We're going on a Witch Hunt: ...in part one of our brand-new comic strip adventure, Witch Hunt, written by Jacqueline Rayner and illustrated by Martin Geraghty.
The Test of a modern audience: Jacqueline Rayner revisits the TV Movie with her twin boys and gives their verdicts in her column, Relative Dimensions.
Time Team: What will the Time Team make of Winston Churchill’s new allies in Victory of the Daleks?
The Power of Kroll: The Doctor and Romana face a huge problem when they land on the third moon of Delta Magna, in this issue’s Fact of Fiction.
Dinosaurs on a Spaceship: DWM puts one of new showrunner Chris Chibnall’s previous episodes under the spotlight.
Coming Soon: DWM previews all the latest Doctor Who CD and book releases.

Plus all the latest official news, reviews, competitions and The DWM Crossword.

FILTER: - DWM - Magazines - Merchandise

The Essential Doctor Who: Davros and other Villains

Friday, 20 November 2015 - Reported by Chuck Foster

The latest of the "Essential" special edition magazines from the makers of Doctor Who Magazine has been published, focussing on masterminds and megalomaniacs...

The Essential Doctor Who: Davros (Credit: Panini)

Panini’s lavish series of bookazines – The Essential Doctor Who – continues with a 116-page issue devoted to Davros and Doctor Who’s other notorious villains.

Editor Marcus Hearn said:

The last issue dealt with monsters, so this time we’re turning our attention to the Doctor’s humanoid adversaries. Davros made a huge impact in the recent story The Magician’s Apprentice/The Witch’s Familiar, so he leads the charge!

Davros and Other Villains includes exclusive interviews with Davros actors Terry Molloy and David Gooderson, Andy Wisher (son of original Davros actor Michael Wisher), Peter Miles (Nyder in Genesis of the Daleks) John Challis (Scorby in The Seeds of Doom), Paul Darrow (Tekker in Timelash) and 1960s companion Anneke Wills. We reveal the story behind the stage play The Trial of Davros and examine the careers of Kevin Stoney (Mavic Chen in The Daleks’ Master Plan and Tobias Vaughn in The Invasion), Michael Gough (the Toymaker in The Celestial Toymaker), Tony Beckley (Harrison Chase in The Seeds of Doom) and Roger Lloyd Pack (John Lumic in Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel).

The centrepiece of this issue is an epic countdown of the 50 most villainous plots in Doctor Who history, from the early black-and-white episodes to the most recent series. What will be number one?

The Essential Doctor Who: Davros and Other Villains is on sale now.

FILTER: - DWM - Magazines

Previous 10 Stories

Doctor Who Magazine 515

The Essential Doctor Who: Adventures in Space

Vworp Vworp! Volume 3

Radio Times features interview with Peter Capaldi

The Essential Doctor Who 9 - Invasions of Earth

Doctor Who Magazine 504

DWM Essentials 8 - Adventures in History

Doctor Who Magazine 499

Doctor Who Magazine 497

The Essential Doctor Who: Davros and other Villains

This Week in Doctor Who

ARCHIVE

FILTER