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April 8th, 2018 62 comments

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Doctor Who Magazine Issue 524

RUSSELL T DAVIES, STEVEN MOFFAT, PAUL CORNELL AND JENNY T COLGAN DISCUSS THEIR NEW TARGET BOOKS IN THE LATEST ISSUE OF DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE

Steven Moffat tells DWM: “I asked [Russell] why he was doing a novelisation, and he said, ‘Because when we’re very old, this will matter more to us than the show.’ Well, fair enough. But also, The Day of the Doctor was such a monster of a show to do, and almost certainly the biggest success I’ll ever have – so I wasn’t letting someone else do the final lap!”

Also in this issue…

RUSSELL T DAVIES

The former showrunner returns to write this issue’s Production Notes column.

GALLIFREY ONE

Inside the Los Angeles convention that’s renowned as one of the greatest Doctor Who events in the world.

DOCTOR WHO INFINITY

An exclusive preview of the ambitious new game starring Michelle Gomez as Missy and Ingrid Oliver as Osgood.

OUT OF THE TARDIS

Impressionist and Doctor Who fan Jon Culshaw answers randomly selected questions from the TARDIS tin.

PETER MILES

The life and career of the actor who played Nyder in the classic 1975 story Genesis of the Daleks.

BBC RECORDS & TAPES

All the Doctor Who releases from the record company run by the BBC from the late 1960s to the early 1990s.

DOCTOR WHO LOGOS

The untold story behind the creation of Doctor Who’s 2010-17 logo.

KLAUS JOYNSON

The DJ and drummer is interviewed about his remarkable Doctor Who-themed album New Adventures in Time & Space.

COSPLAY

Christel Dee’s guide to cosplaying the Doctor’s distinctive orange spacesuit.

THE FACT OF FICTION

Exploring the hidden depths to the 2015 story Sleep No More.

THE CLOCKWISE WAR

Part one of a new comic strip adventure written by Scott Gray and illustrated by John Ross.

PLUS…

News, previews, book and audio reviews, competitions, The Blogs of Doom and much more!

Doctor Who Magazine 524 is on sale now, price £5.99.

You can keep up to date with Doctor Who magazine, see larger images of this and other covers on their Facebook Page Here Or you can now follow them on twitter.

Information can also be found on their website www.doctorwhomagazine.com


Categorised under: Doctor Who Magazine, Magazine

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62 comments

  • Stevennn

    April 10th, 2018 - 7:57am

    I’ve got ever Doctor Who Magazine since December 1999; I’ve subscribed since 2013 and I usually sit for hours reading it once it’s through the door. I flicked through this on Thursday and I haven’t picked it up since. I’m glad I’m not the only one who thinks it’s getting a bit stale under the new editor.

    Reply
  • Derek Hicks

    April 7th, 2018 - 7:07am

    6 pages on a convention! 4 on jon culshaw another 4 on cosplay, and an article on music that was covered in a special edition last year. Come on! And the Fact of Fiction is incoherent. I think I`ll stick to the Complete History.

    Reply
    • Anonymous

      April 8th, 2018 - 10:44am

      It is a shame that UK conventions and comic cons don’t get featured at all when it is a British show.

    • Anonymous

      April 8th, 2018 - 10:55am

      Yes this use to be a very good mag, but now I’d only read a couple of articles, the mag gets more desperate with things to fill it with, wouldnt waste money on it any more.

    • Demdike@CultLabs

      April 8th, 2018 - 3:44pm

      It’s the worst issue in memory as far as i’m concerned.

      Even the Fact of Fiction is Sleep No More.

      No chance i would have bought it had i not been a subscriber. That’s the first time i’ve ever said that in all the years the mag has been going.

    • Derek Hicks

      April 8th, 2018 - 11:01pm

      Please put `Fact of Fiction` back as it was.

    • 100,000 BC

      April 12th, 2018 - 12:38pm

      Eh, I think that anything that’s run as long as DWM has will have dips in quality, and right now, when the old era seems long gone and we don’t really have any information about the new era, seems like the time for that.
      I do think it’s a mistake not having any regular columns, as they can provide something to talk about whatever the state of the show is, like Jac Rayner in Relative Dimensions – and whatever happened to the Time Team?? I mean, we have Christel’s cosplay column, but that only applies to a very specific sort of fan, rather than being something that everybody can read with interest.
      Perhaps they could do a second “Production Notes” column, which alternates between people from Titan, Big Finish etc.

  • The Flying Shark

    April 5th, 2018 - 6:50pm

    Really like this issue, the redesign is a bit blocky in places but it’s the most satisfied I’ve been with one of Marcus Hearn’s issues.

    Reply
  • The Gallifreyan Whovian

    April 5th, 2018 - 4:45pm

    Something which everyone’s overlooked here (cover wise) is that they’ve used a nice new high-res unreleased image of 11 from the ‘Cold War’ photoshoot. Nice touch DWM, you guys should do that more often!

    Reply
    • Pip’s Plinth

      April 5th, 2018 - 5:40pm

      10 from The Waters of Mars is unreleased too

  • Doctor Mysterio

    April 4th, 2018 - 5:06am

    I still enjoy the magazine and get it each month tbh. However, I have also noticed that whenever I show it to non-Who fans they are usually completely surprised about how much content there is and how much merchandise is available each month. The only feature almost everyone questions as to why it is in there is the comic strip, which I have to say I have been skipping over for some time myself. Perhaps more standalone stories would appeal to me more but I’m not sure.
    As for the cosplay tips, they also feel out of place in the magazine where most of the content is more mature. Maybe an occasional box out on the letters page would have sufficed, if they must, but it certainly shouldn’t be on the cover as a selling point.

    Reply
  • Anonymous

    April 4th, 2018 - 4:52am

    If there has to be any cosplay tips, why mention it on the cover – it just sounds tacky, and the feature itself seems too linked to the ironically named ‘fan show’ that no one is really a fan of. Is there a better sounding name for ‘cosplay’ that doesn’t make people dressing up as their favourite characters sound infantile?

    Reply
    • John Baker

      April 4th, 2018 - 11:13am

      Costume
      Dress-Up
      Wearing

    • Anonymous

      April 6th, 2018 - 9:31pm

      It’s EXTREMELY tacky… and the fan show, god what dribble they come up with, I’ve seen better online presence from a hard boiled egg…

  • Eoghan D

    April 3rd, 2018 - 5:57pm

    People are complaining about the cosplay, not a fan of it myself but what’s really bothering me after last month was that terrible tardis tin interview feature; useless questions! The magazine is brilliant but even better if they reduced the amount of padding in each issue!

    Reply
    • Mr DVD

      April 4th, 2018 - 12:03pm

      The Tardis tin was something the magazine did years ago. The new editor must have liked it so brought it back.

  • whovian

    April 3rd, 2018 - 5:48pm

    I’m sorry, but someone’s got to say it. If Christopher Eccelston wants to distance himself from Doctor Who, why is he even on the cover? After what I’ve heard and read over the last few days, it’s surprising to me that he allows th BBC to still use his image even though “they blacklisted” him.

    Reply
    • booboo

      April 3rd, 2018 - 5:53pm

      probably part of his contract from day one, if he approved that image (and all other seen images) at the time the BBC and licence holders can use it indefinitely

      same reason character can keep releasing his already approved figure, if they were to do a completely new sculpt he could refuse it

  • Demdike@CultLabs

    April 3rd, 2018 - 1:53pm

    I quite like that cover to be honest.

    Reply
    • Demdike@CultLabs

      April 3rd, 2018 - 2:00pm

      It’s also interesting that the most popular two Doctors – David and Matt – are slightly in front of the other two.

    • Big Bang Two

      April 3rd, 2018 - 3:17pm

      Not really, it just makes for a better composition.

    • Doctor Stu

      April 3rd, 2018 - 7:01pm

      Tenant should be front and center

    • G

      April 3rd, 2018 - 8:55pm

      Not particularly. All they have done is order the Doctors chronologically (9, 10, 11, 12).

  • Anonymous

    April 3rd, 2018 - 12:03pm

    Great to finally see a good cover art for the first time in ages. Would be better if the logo weren’t gold though. I guess they have no choice there..

    Reply
  • The Legend Doctor

    April 3rd, 2018 - 11:04am

    Guys, You’ve got to realise that Series 11 has been kept under wraps by Chris Chibnall and Doctor Who Magazine is BBC Studios’ Official Doctor Who Magazine, so obviously they wont spoil anything for Series 11 if Chris Chibnall has said no leaks just yet, the covers will probably get massively better when the series starts or even a few months before when we get a TARDIS Interior reveal and Jodie’s Sonic, I’m sure we’ll see her on the front cover pointing it! So don’t feel sad that your not seeing in your opinion “rubbish covers” It’s actually not that bad in my opinion,

    Reply
    • Anonymous

      April 3rd, 2018 - 12:32pm

      I think the covers have been 10/10 since the relaunch. Much better than the plain ones.

    • G

      April 3rd, 2018 - 8:57pm

      You can tell that the DWM team are getting more creative with the covers. Since the relaunch, I think the new logo has made the cover more focused and has allowed for the cover designer to have the freedom to be more creative.

  • Alex

    April 3rd, 2018 - 10:09am

    Ok, seriously, this is a magazine for fans, and fans make a wide array of people. There’s always been stuff to skip in the magazine, and this is nothing new.

    Reply
    • Doctor Stu

      April 3rd, 2018 - 10:37am

      Exactly, I don’t read any of the cosplay stuff because it’s not something that interests me at all but I’m not going to suddenly say oh let’s bin the whole magazine because there’s something in it I don’t want to read. Just like I didn’t completely write off Doctor Who when stupid parts like ‘permission to squee, his name is doctor who and the whole of in the forest of the night happened’

  • Judooning

    April 3rd, 2018 - 9:30am

    I have seen no change in the way articles are written and presented from the last issue to the issues I bought in 2013 to 2017 (Bought my first issue when it was the 50th Anniversary special).
    People are now judging the whole magazine based on a new feature of cosplay?

    Reply
    • Alex

      April 3rd, 2018 - 10:09am

      Apparently.

  • Bern

    April 3rd, 2018 - 9:14am

    100% agree with comments below. Cosplay & blogs of doom are both utter rubbish and filling in pages where we used to get interesting facts on the show – I’ve not read Time Team for last couple of years as that seemed pointless so now it’s getting to approx half the mag that I skip past… something needs to be done!

    Reply
    • Shaun

      April 3rd, 2018 - 10:32am

      …Hmmm – hyperbole is alive and well “…getting to approx. half the mag”. 7 pages out of 80+ … not even 10%! I find the tendency to moan in these comments a bit sad. I’ve read the magazine since it was Doctor Who Weekly and there have been many things over the years that have enamoured me and many things that I’ve been less bothered about. I’m not that keen on the cosplay articles and blogs of doom, but it doesn’t bother me – the rest of the content more than makes up for it in my opinion. All fans are different and I like the fact that the magazine celebrates many different angles, and always has done. What we could do with are more B&W photos of fish people with red-edged eyes!

    • Mr DVD

      April 4th, 2018 - 12:12pm

      I don’t understand why the magazine didn’t see fit to bring back the original ‘Time Team’ to review and comment on ‘The Enemy of the World’ and ‘The Web of Fear’. It may have brought new and fresh analysis from there original viewing of audio and telesnaps.

  • Jack Snelling

    April 3rd, 2018 - 8:56am

    Since Tom left as editor, something is happening to the mag. The content is varying in quality and this cover doesn’t look great. As well as this, the spines of the issues used to all have different colours for the issue number but now they just seem to be the same each issue. I hope the quality can get better

    Reply
    • Alex

      April 3rd, 2018 - 9:40am

      To be fair, across the whole show there’s been dodgy covers, I’d hardly say this one bad cover is indicative of an endemic.

  • John Baker

    April 3rd, 2018 - 8:15am

    Is it just me or I didn’t buy a single issue last year, apart from when series 10 was on and you got previews, but now has something happened to the mag, it seems off, I know they changed the editors but this seems wrong (it’s not the logo)

    Reply
  • Derek Hicks

    April 3rd, 2018 - 5:26am

    I fear the mag is turning into a fanzine. And all the `special editions` and `essentials` are becoming very repetitious. They`ve even ruined my favourite article ` Fact of Fiction`. Such a shame, I`ve been buying the mag since issue 1 and this is the most disappointed I`ve been with the content. Maybe it`s just age. Hey nonny.

    Reply
    • Anonymous

      April 3rd, 2018 - 7:00am

      It’s just your age.

    • WhovianNews

      April 3rd, 2018 - 7:17am

      No, it’s not your age. I’m 14, and I completely agree. The covers and content has declined intensely with quality since the previous editor left.

    • John Baker

      April 3rd, 2018 - 8:16am

      The did change editior recently
      Has this got something to do with it

    • Derek Hicks

      April 3rd, 2018 - 1:09pm

      What are cosplay going to give us next? Adric`s pyjamas?

    • Anonymous

      April 3rd, 2018 - 1:18pm

      Whoviannews its your age too

  • Anonymous

    April 3rd, 2018 - 2:31am

    I must say, The more things I see it on the more I love the new 2018 logo…

    Reply
  • ed

    April 2nd, 2018 - 9:09pm

    Cosplay is attract the real young readers who just look at the pix. Didn’t DOCT RHWO ADVENTURES mag close-down?

    BTW Love the TARGET new books’ covers. Great retro. Who is the artist?

    Reply
    • Anonymous

      April 2nd, 2018 - 11:03pm

      I know. It’s like YouTube never happened… Do we really need this in the magazine? Something seems to have gone wrong after many years of getting things right. Is this a new direction for the entire brand I wonder?

    • Tom Baker Plush

      April 2nd, 2018 - 11:54pm

      I don’t think it’s a bad thing tbh. It’s there for the people who want to read it and would get something out of it, those who don’t wanna read it don’t have to. It’s opening the magazine up to a wider audience and that can’t be a bad thing

  • Anonymous

    April 2nd, 2018 - 6:53pm

    This cover looks very badly cobbled together

    Reply
  • Thommo

    April 2nd, 2018 - 5:57pm

    Wish they would ditch the Cosplay article. Utterly pointless, cheap filler.

    Reply
    • Mr DVD

      April 2nd, 2018 - 6:16pm

      Also my least favourite thing in the magazine.

    • Luke

      April 2nd, 2018 - 6:53pm

      Some of us who do cosplay are very appreciative of it and find it a welcome addition – there’s plenty more in the magazine for you if you don’t like it, it’s meant to cater to all fans.

    • MJS

      April 2nd, 2018 - 10:37pm

      Sorry. In almost 40 years of this mag, cosplay tips is one of the worst additions ever. As is the Blog of Doom. Some changes are not for the best

    • Doctor Mysterio

      April 2nd, 2018 - 11:00pm

      I agree – there seems to be an attempt to dumb down the magazine lately, I assume to attract younger readers. Not sure why they think younger readers would ignore mature, interesting and intelligent content and only go for art galleries and cosplay tips. Perhaps they should give them a bit more credit.

    • Pip’s Plinth

      April 2nd, 2018 - 11:32pm

      Definitely agree. Cosplay articles belong in Doctor Who Adventures (yes, I know it is no longer published, but I’m certain a magazine for younger readers will be launched at some point in the Jodie Whittaker era). I think the problem is that since DWA was dropped, DWM feel the need to cater to both younger and older readers in the one magazine, which personally I’m not overly fond of.

    • THE ERGON

      April 2nd, 2018 - 11:42pm

      If the time team feature isn,t in again or a decent interview i shall not be purchasing again.

    • Anonymous

      April 3rd, 2018 - 12:38am

      Yall need to remember that doctor who is a show aimed at everyone. Kids and adults.

    • Anonymous

      April 3rd, 2018 - 2:38am

      The weird thing is that younger readers won’t even understand/appreciate the references in the Blogs of Doom. Maybe they’ll like the cosplay stuff but it’s too basic to really interest anyone who is already an experienced cosplayer

    • John Baker

      April 3rd, 2018 - 9:33pm

      Here’s the problem
      Doctor who magizine is for a grown up audience but welcomes kids (like an Scottish pub restaurant). Kids can read if they want, but the core audience is 18-49. keep it that way, there is reason doctor who adventures stopped

    • Anonymous

      April 6th, 2018 - 9:40pm

      The magazine got stale when they fired Nick Pegg (a man who I funnily happen to agree with on his last “Wotcha” article) and if people are offended by my choice I dare them to look me in the eye and end my life…

  • The Impossible Boy

    April 2nd, 2018 - 5:03pm

    I find it funny (and this isn’t a dig this is just a coincidental thing I find funny) how since the logo has changed on the magazine, Jodie Whittaker herself hasn’t been on the cover, you’d think she would be on the cover of this one or last month’s. Haha.

    Reply
    • Anonymous

      April 3rd, 2018 - 2:27am

      The only images of jodie in costume available have already been used, before the new logo was revealed, shes not on this cover as none of the target books released feaure her doctor (not including a small section at the end of TUAT) which is hardly noteworthy, Im sure when we get closer to the series it’ll be hard keeping her, the companions and new, series 11 monsters off the covers…

  • bryan

    April 2nd, 2018 - 4:31pm

    ooh that cover is nice. very Quadrophenia. Really looking forward to this. hope there are more novelizations to come. Will be an interesting read.

    Reply

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