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August 18th, 2021 28 comments

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Doctor Who Magazine Issue 568

CHRIS CHIBNALL ON LEAVING DOCTOR WHO

Highlights of the new issue include:

  • Showrunner Chris Chibnall writes exclusively for DWM on why he and Jodie Whittaker are leaving Doctor Who.
  • A brand-new adventure for the Thirteenth Doctor and Yaz, written by Joy Wilkinson.
  • The complex story behind the destruction of Doctor Who episodes – and the culture surrounding their recovery.
  • New insights into the First Doctor’s missing serials from fans who remember watching them.
  • Jonathan Morris imagines a parallel universe where the missing episodes from the 1960s existed – and vice versa!
  • A detailed look at the Blackpool and Longleat exhibitions in the first half of the 1980s.
  • Apocrypha revisits a live Doctor Who performance staged at the Goodwood Motor Circuit in 1974.
  • Collectivity meets the fans lucky enough to own screen-used props.
  • The Fact of Fiction goes underground with the 1968 story The Web of Fear.
  • An exclusive first look at the forthcoming animation of The Evil of the Daleks.
  • Sufficient Data explores Doctor Who’s big ideas.
  • Previews, reviews, news, prize-winning competitions, Time and Space Visualiser and more.

Doctor Who Magazine Issue 568 is on sale from panini.co.uk and WH Smith from Thursday 19 August priced £5.99 (UK). Also available as a digital edition from pocketmags.com priced £4.99.


Categorised under: Doctor Who Magazine, Magazine

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28 comments

  • Dalek Eye Stalk

    August 18th, 2021 - 9:26pm

    Hmmm, might buy this copy. Haven’t bought Doctor Who Magazine for ages. I’m just not invested in Chibnall’s vision for the show. It’s not on a par writing wise with what’s come before in my opionion. Seems like he’s not happy just changing the show as it is now, but also changing it’s past too. Sloppy writing and poor acting combine to make a mess of a show.

    Reply
    • Mac

      August 19th, 2021 - 9:30am

      Thankfully he’s off.

      The next show runner has a job on there hands to fix his mess.

    • Dalekz

      August 19th, 2021 - 12:09pm

      I was glad when Moffatt left he had become so predictable and the show seemed to get worse as it went on he brought stuff back for fans only to waste it or do something annoying with it.

      Jodie’s time was refreshing as it dumped all that and tried something different which wasn’t for everybody okay but it wasn’t a mess.
      I agree with some of the critics about certain stories and some of the writing but I loved Jodie and there are some classic stories in there.

    • Dalek Eye Stalk

      August 19th, 2021 - 3:30pm

      I’ve bought the magazine. A great read, probably best issue for some considerable time. Much more focused on classic sixties Doctor Who.

  • Kevin225

    August 18th, 2021 - 12:34pm

    Subscriber copy arrived today. A Wednesday delivery for what seems to be the first time in ages. The simple things in life that make you smile!

    Reply
    • Demdike@CultLabs

      August 18th, 2021 - 7:16pm

      I hear ya Kevin.

      An early copy for me too.

  • Dalekz

    August 17th, 2021 - 11:58am

    I have enjoyed the Chibnall/Whittaker era, Doctor Who is about reinvention and trying new stuff and if you don’t like it something totally new will turn up in three years or so.
    I will miss Jodie especially as she has been a great Doctor but things change I can look forward to a new direction.

    Reply
    • the ergon

      August 17th, 2021 - 3:24pm

      I,m still holding out for Lydia west. Brilliant actress and an ideal candidate to replace jodie. I tried placing an early bet on her being the next doctor but none of the bookmakers were having any of it. Especially the ones that had their predictable choice lists that seemed too outlandish or too well known.

    • Doug Who

      August 17th, 2021 - 5:40pm

      I think my choice would be Nicola Walker. I’d like to see a Doctor that wasn’t just the breathless ‘wacky’ persona that seems to have characterised a lot of the modern Doctors. Actors performing eccentricity often never quite rings true for me.

      However I do wish Jodie Whittaker had stuck around to see how another show runner might have developed her Doctor.

    • the ergon

      August 17th, 2021 - 8:22pm

      I,m thinking thats down to how the actor chooses to play the part and the influence of the producer doug. I know what you mean with regards to wackiness and going OTT. They just need to restrain and tone down the Alien quality to get the balance right. Nothing is written they have to play it in their own regional accent which is something i wish jodie hadn,t done. I choose lydia because shes a phenomenal black actress who also just happens to have affiliations with Moffat and RTD which if offered should at least give her a shoe in and shes young and aspiring and could gauge interest with its female fanbase. They could easily opt for the older female actress further down the line. I like Nicola walker but shes just one busy bunny and i,m happy shes still doing The Robots for Big Finish also she does have an interest in the show. Going to watch her with Paul Mcgann in Annika.

    • Doug Who

      August 17th, 2021 - 11:29pm

      I think in the past (well the first four Doctors at least but also McCoy) actors played the same character with very different characterisations which developed over time. Hartnell’s Doctor changed remarkably in his three years and varied his performance throughout which I don’t think he’s given enough credit for. He was not just ‘the grumpy one’ that Moffat got so horribly wrong.

      The modern Doctors have all played the same character with remarkably similar characterisations, apart from Capaldi who seems to be based on a misunderstanding of the ‘crotchety’ aspect at the start at least. Smith has I think given the best performance in that context. For me, I don’t think it’s the alien aspect that’s the issue (in fact I think they’ve been too human) more they are playing an idea of what the Doctor used to be like (the forced eccentricity) that doesn’t actually reflect the nuances of Hartnell, Troughton, Pertwee and T. Baker in particular. It’s similar to how JNT (and Davison) based the 19th season on a misinterpretation of what early Hartnell stories were like, i.e. they were always squabbling but it was actually much more complex than that!

      I’d actually also like to see Jo Martin become the ‘full time’ Doctor – she was quite different to the other modern Doctors and a real contrast to Jodie. I’d like to see a slightly older Doctor as a contrast.

      I remember that interview with Jodie where she says her instincts were to play it differently but others (Chibnall?) told her to keep doing what she was doing. I’d love to know how she wanted to play it!

      Enough from me, I’m waffling on too much now!

    • Dalekz

      August 19th, 2021 - 12:11pm

      Cue lots of speculation of who going to be the 14th Doctor, then the Tardis explodes again and changes inside and out, we get a new set of instant companions as usual and the logo changes ruining the look of the Blu-ray sets.

  • Lewisfrisby

    August 17th, 2021 - 8:11am

    Wow cover looks amazing I also cant wait to see what cris chibnall thinks in that interview

    Reply
    • the ergon

      August 17th, 2021 - 10:59am

      The big question is who will replace him and will they restore it to an earlier format. Whoever it is i hope they give us a season mix of some long absent classic monsters like the return of The yeti, The Sea Devils, Tractators, Kraals, Terileptils or evenThe Jagaroth race whyllst still introducing new enemies and go back to 25-30 minutes with more cliffhangers . Unlike chibnall they don,t have to just be returning enemies from 21st century Who.
      I,d personally like to see the return of The Kandyman how he was originally envisioned

    • Gareth Pugh

      August 17th, 2021 - 12:44pm

      I’m not sure in this streaming world we have today that people would be up for consuming dramas in short 30m chunks so much now. Return of cliffhangers would be good – I thought that might be happening with Jodie’s first season where the end of the first story led into the second, with some jeopardy, but that wasn’t sustained. I think we WILL see a lot more of that across S13’s six part story.

    • The ergon

      August 17th, 2021 - 1:56pm

      I would think in this fast paced world fans might be up for these short sharp bites. They lapped up the we are the daleks animations. No different from a standard sitcom, soap or bbc3 doc. If there going to stream theyll stream.

    • the ergon

      August 17th, 2021 - 3:31pm

      Its only the same world we watch soaps, BBC3 docs and sitcoms in half hour format. I,d love them to revert back to that sort of running time. Alternatively 6-8 one hour standalone stories but then you don,t get those desired cliffhangers i miss from the classic era.

    • Anonymous

      August 17th, 2021 - 3:41pm

      Thing is, I don’t like Doctor Who being classed as a drama. It doesn’t suit the show. It shouldn’t conform to the same standards applied to gritty police dramas or the like.

      So I’d love a return to the serial to break away from the conventions of modern TV

  • The ergon

    August 16th, 2021 - 6:30pm

    Theres plenty to interest me here. Exhibitions,props and anything relating to lost stories always piques me.

    Reply
    • Doug Who

      August 16th, 2021 - 7:37pm

      Yes Ergon exactly the same here! You almost think if you wish hard enough the missing episodes will turn up…looks a good issue.

      It would be an absolute dream to own a screen-used prop from the Tom Baker years. Got near a couple of times and do have an unused prototype gun from ‘Kroll’ which is quite close!

      If you like the exhibitions look out for ‘Blackpool Revisited’ (shameless plug) in a couple of weeks. Six hundred pages of exhibition-related goodness put together by the lovely John Collier plus some illustrations by me!

    • the ergon

      August 16th, 2021 - 11:39pm

      Thanks doug i,ll be keeping my eye out for that. Makes you wonder if a lot of the Larger props IE The Timelash or one of the Cartes Rhymer modules were just dismantled or some lucky rich collector has them fitted up somewhere. I,d love some of that iconic 1970s weaponry and not just Doctor who either. I always liked those hand weapons koenig and the crew used in Space 1999 or something from the movie or US TV series Logans Run.

    • Dalekz

      August 17th, 2021 - 11:47am

      I’d love to know where some of the big stuff ended up like that huge stone face of Colin Baker.
      I saw that in Blackpool in the mid 80’s and I even have a photo of it still.
      I imagine things like the Timelash were junked as soon as filming finished as they were never to be used again and would cost the BBC a lot to store.

    • Doug Who

      August 17th, 2021 - 12:52pm

      I remember being told about the fabled skip outside the Blackpool exhibition where supposedly many costumes, props and scenery ended their days. One in particular sticks in the mind where Alpha Centauri was apparently dumped and apart from the head and some arms long since gone! Things were seen as ephemeral back then and not valued in the way they are now.

      I do remember reading about the fate of the Colin Baker ‘stone’ face but I can’t recall where now! I’m pretty sure it was at Longleat for a while.

      My dream props would be a Krynoid pod or the ‘Ancient and Worshipful Law’ book from ‘Shada’, which was on Ebay a few years ago for six hundred quid. If I’d only had the readies!

      There’s new Film and Sci Fi Museum opened in Milton Keynes so quite a few will be on show there! They have the original Moonbase Alpha model. And Neil Cole recently received a robot mummy head from ‘Pyramids of Mars’.

    • the ergon

      August 17th, 2021 - 3:00pm

      I don,t how much credence there might be to the blackpool skip to which you refer Doug. I just assumed props were passed back and forth from one exhibition to another until they had served their purpose and unless badly damaged were then were eventually auctioned off. Youre so right about ephemeral and you just have to shake your head in disbelief the way they junked items with that lack of foresight. That a lot of these items might hold value and would become a veritable treasure trove for any collectors and the like in the future.

    • the ergon

      August 18th, 2021 - 10:33am

      Stone actually being heavy polystyrene. If we are talking The face from the garden of fond memories.

  • Coleman.

    August 16th, 2021 - 6:27pm

    Nice to see the old boy on the cover of Dr Who again.
    I like to read anything regarding the lost stories, either the 1st or 2nd Doctor episodes.

    Reply
  • Onedaywillcomeback

    August 16th, 2021 - 5:09pm

    Due This week ?

    Reply
    • booboo

      August 16th, 2021 - 5:13pm

      yes

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