Doctor Who Magazine

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Doctor Who Magazine
Doctor Who Weekly #1, cover dated 17 October 1979
Doctor Who Weekly #1, cover dated 17 October 1979
Editor Clayton Hickman
Categories Science fiction television
Frequency 4 weekly
First Issue 12 October 1979
Company Panini Comics
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Website Panini listing
ISSN 0957-9818

Doctor Who Magazine (abbreviated as DWM) is a magazine devoted to the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Its current editor is Clayton Hickman.

Contents

[edit] History

Officially sanctioned by the BBC, the magazine began life as Doctor Who Weekly in 1979, published by the UK arm of Marvel Comics. The first issue's cover date was 17 October, with a cover price of 12p; however, due to the practice of forward dating magazine covers to provide greater longevity on the shelves, its actual release date was 12 October.

The magazine moved from weekly to monthly publication with #44 in September 1980, becoming Doctor Who (the tagline A Marvel Monthly was not part of the name, but simply a description which appeared on many of Marvel UK's monthly titles at that point) and a cover price of 30p. The title changed to Doctor Who Monthly with #61 and Doctor Who Magazine with #85 in February 1984. In 1990 it started appearing once every four weeks (13 times a year). Despite the BBC discontinuing production of Doctor Who in 1989, the magazine continued to be published, providing new adventures in the form of comics. The television programme was revived in 2005, providing a new generation of fans which the magazine is seeking to attract.

Originally geared towards children, DWM has grown into a more mature magazine exploring the behind-the-scenes aspects of the series. Due to its longevity, it is seen as a source of 'official' and exclusive information, sharing a close relationship with the television production team and the BBC. In 2006, however, it lost its exclusivity when BBC Worldwide launched its own comic, Doctor Who Adventures, aimed at a younger audience.

DWM is now published by Panini Comics, which purchased the title along with the rest of the Marvel UK catalogue in 1995. Panini has begun to digitally restore and reprint older DWM comics in trade paperback format. Six volumes have been printed so far: two featuring the comics adventures of the Fourth Doctor, one with the adventures of the Fifth Doctor, and three (of a planned series of four) focusing on the Eighth Doctor. Panini also published a one-shot magazine-format reprinting of the complete Ninth Doctor strips in 2006.

[edit] Content

DWM features an ongoing comic starring the current incarnation of the Doctor, though for a period between 1989 and 1996, when the series was off the air, it featured previous Doctors. Notable writers and artists who have worked on the comic include John Wagner, Pat Mills, Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons, Mike McMahon and John Ridgway. Selected stories from the comic were also reprinted in North America by Marvel Comics. Supporting characters that have crossed over from the comic to other spin-off media include Frobisher, the shape-changing companion of the Sixth and Seventh Doctors; Abslom Daak, the Dalek Killer; and the villainous Beep the Meep.

The magazine has also featured other comics over the years, most notably "Doctor Who?", a humorous look at the series by Tim Quinn and Dicky Howett. This was principally a three-panel comic strip, though occasionally page-long parodies were featured. In the 1990s a secondary serious comic was featured on the inside cover; for many issues this was "The Cybermen", a series of tales set on Mondas prior to the events of The Tenth Planet, explaining the back-history of the Cybermen. The TV21 comic "The Daleks" was also resurrected, continuing the story from where it had left off by showing the Daleks attacking Earth; it was drawn in the same style as the 1960s original.

Other regular features of the magazine include the news section "Gallifrey Guardian", which has run since nearly the beginning of the magazine; the letters page "DWMail"; reviews of television episodes (in "After Image") and merchandise (in "Off The Shelf", known for a time as "Shelf Life"); the "Matrix Data Bank" page, where readers' Doctor Who questions are answered; the "Time Team", which involves four fans watching every Doctor Who story in order from the beginning; and a regular column by new series showrunner Russell T. Davies.

The format has changed over the years, but the news, letters, reviews, and comic strip have all been present consistently since the early 1980s.

The magazine also features interviews with the cast and crew of the television show (including the classic episodes), and reports from the set of the current series, written by Benjamin Cook or Jason Arnopp. The behind-the-scenes stories of all of the classic-series episodes have been documented in Andrew Pixley's "DWM Archives", and detailed analysis of certain significant serials are covered in "The Fact of Fiction", usually written by former DWM editor Alan Barnes. "Off the Shelf" is currently written predominantly by Vanessa Bishop and Matt Michael. Previous reviewers include Dave Owen, the late Craig Hinton (who went on to write Doctor Who novels), and Gary Russell, who subsequently became the magazine's editor.

[edit] Editors

[edit] Collections

Panini have been collecting the comic sections of the magazines into a number of trade paperbacks:

  • Fourth Doctor:
    • The Iron Legion (written by Pat Mills/John Wagner (1-16 and 19-34) and Steve Moore (35-38), with art by Dave Gibbons (1-16 and 19-38), 1979-1980, tpb, 2004, ISBN 1904159370):
      • "The Iron Legion" (#1-8)
      • "City of the Damned" (#9-16)
      • "The Star Beast" (#19-26)
      • "Dogs of Doom" (#27-34)
      • "The Time Witch" (#35-38)
    • Dragon's Claw (written by Steve Moore (39-52) and Steve Parkhouse (53-60), with art by Dave Gibbons (39-57 and 60) and Mike McMahon/Adolfo Buylla (58-59), 2005, ISBN 1904159818)
      • "Dragon’s Claw" (#39-45)
      • "The Collector" (#46)
      • "Dreamers of Death" (#47-48)
      • "The Life Bringer" (#49-50)
      • "The War of Words" (#51)
      • "Spider-God" (#52)
      • "The Deal" (#53)
      • "End of the Line" (#54-59)
      • "The Freefall Warriors" (#56-57)
      • "Junkyard Demon" (#59)
      • "The Neutron Knights" (#60)
  • Fifth Doctor:
    • The Tides of Time (written by Dez Skinn (17-18) and Steve Parkhouse (61-84 and 86-87) with art by Paul Neary (17-18), Dave Gibbons (61-69), Mick Austen (70-83) and Steve Dillon (84 and 86-87), 212 pages, 2005, ISBN 1904159923):
      • "Timeslip" (#17-18)
      • "Tides of Time" (#61-67)
      • "Stars fell on Stockbridge" (#68-69)
      • "The Stockbridge Horror" (#70-75)
      • "Lunar Lagoon" (#76-77)
      • "4-Dimensional Vistas" (#78-83)
      • "The Moderator" (#84 and 86-87)
  • Eighth Doctor:
    • End Game (written by Alan Barnes, with pencils by Martin Geraghty and inks by Robin Smith/Robin Riggs, 212 pages, ISBN 1905239092)
    • The Glorious Dead (written by Scott Gray (273-276), Adrian Salmon (277), Alan Barnes (278-283), Scott Gray (284-299), with pencils by Martin Geraghty (273-276 and 278-282 and 287-296) and inks by Robin Smith (273-276 and 278-282 and 287-296) and Fareed Choudhury (278-286), with art by Adrian Salmon (277 and 284-286), Roger Langridge (283 and 287-299), 244 pages, 2006, ISBN 1905239440):
      • "The Fallen" (#273-276)
      • "Unnatural Born Killers" (#277)
      • "The Road to Hell" (#278-282)
      • "TV Action!" (#283)
      • "The Company of Thieves" (#284-286)
      • "The Glorious Dead" (#287-296)
      • "The Autonomy Bug" (#297-299)
      • "Happy Deathday"
      • "Throwback: The Soul of the Cyberman"
      • "Ship of Fools"
    • Oblivion (by Scott Gray (300-304, 306, 308-310, 312-317, 319-228), with penciles by Martin Geraghty (300-304, 306, 308-310 and 323-328), and inks by Robin Smith (300-304, 306 and 308-310) and David A. Roach (323-328), with art by Lee Sullivan (312-317), John Ross (319-222), 228 pages, 2006, ISBN 1905239459):
      • "Ophidus" (#300-303)
      • "Beautiful Freak" (#304)
      • "The Way of All Flesh" (#306 and 308-310)
      • "Children of the Revolution" (#312-317)
      • "Uroborus" (#319-222)
      • "Oblivion" (#323-328)
      • "Character Assassin"

[edit] See also

[edit] External links


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