1990
“It’s all just a little bit of history repeatin’.” “1990 was the brainchild of Wilfred Greatorex, and conceived as literally ‘1984 plus six’; a series that...
Planet of Fire
“Fire! I want you to burn!” I wound up with a VHS copy of most of Planet of Fire in early 1990. It was an unlikely choice for only the sixth story I had even...
Genesis of the Daleks
“It’s time to start all over, make a new beginning.” As I’ve said before here, sometimes the most celebrated Doctor Who stories are both the hardest and the...
ESREVER NI EMIT
“But is tomorrow yesterday? Or has it been and gone today? I wish someone would say.” George Kaufman and Moss Hart’s 1934 play Merrily We Roll Along is the...
TIME IN REVERSE
“But is tomorrow yesterday? Or has it been and gone today? I wish someone would say.” In the July 1994 cover dated issue of Doctor Who Classic Comics1 Marvel...
Journey’s End
“You’re my number one, I’d do anything for you.” Only a handful of Doctor Who episodes have reached #1 in the television charts for the week they were first...
Boom Town
"Boom boom boom boom, I’m gonna shoot you right down, right off your feet. Take you home with me. Put you in my house.” Anniversaries fly by once you’re a...
The Time Warrior
Attentive readers of this newsletter, assuming it has any, will have been expecting Genesis of the Daleks next. It was, after all, on the same tape as last...
The Sontaran Experiment
“Experiment - make it your motto day and night. Experiment - and it will lead you to the light.” At the end of 1989, and with exquisite timing, I went to my...
"Memories are made of this."
“A man is the sum of his memories, you know. A Time Lord even more so.” But not my memories. The second of our short series of pieces about the most recent...
Ncuti Doc Thing
To start with this week, here’s a time capsule; something I wrote for The Guardian back when Ncuti Gatwa‘s casting as the New Doctor Who was announced. Some...
Survival
“Cat People. Putting out the fire.” Doctor Who fandom has long done easy jokes about the final serial of the final twentieth century series of Doctor Who...
The Curse of Fenric
The Burial of the Dead By the time The Curse of Fenric was transmitted, Doctor Who’s immediate fate was already sealed. Sealed like a tomb. Or in a flask....
"Pain is so close to pleasure. Oh yeah. Sunshine and rainy weather? Go hand-in-hand together, all your life."
A guest post this week, from the brilliant Graeme Burk, whose remarkable Sydney Newman book can be bought here and also at less evil places. Jim’s Psychic...
The Ark in Space
“I’m forever blowing bubbles.” Someone with whom I used to work in the decade or so that I dwelled within an often cold and sterile corporate ecosystem had a...
The Ultimate Adventure
“Business is business. We always aim to please.” As the 1980s came to a close theatre impresario Mark Furness was enjoying success with his stage version of...
Nemesis of the Daleks
Printed in for four monthly episodes from August to November 1989, Nemesis of the Daleks (reprint available here) was the sole Doctor Who Magazine comic...
Ghost Light
“The monkey house is nearly full, but there’s room enough for you.” It’s the twentieth anniversary of the return of Doctor Who this week. Twenty years since...
"Names that will live forever."
We have a guest post this week, from writer Jonathan Morris, whose diverse credits in many media include Doctor Who audios, books and comic strips - but also...
Battlefield
“We’re knights of the round table, we dance whene'er we're able. We do routines and chorus scenes, with footwork imp-ecc-able.” Battlefield is a serial that...
