Doctor Who Magazine Discussion

A thread for discussing all things Doctor Who Magazine—the number one place for interviews, behind-the-scenes features, and other fun articles across the Whoniverse!

Are you a subscriber or a casual reader? When did you first hear about the magazine, and which issue was your first? What’s your favourite interview, article, or regular feature? What do you think about the comic strips?

I subscribe to the digital edition of DWM (mostly because I don’t trust the Finnish mail system to deliver the physical copy to my mailbox in time) and read every issue periodically if I have time to spare. It is one of the few magazines I read in its entirety, as I find it fascinating to acquire new knowledge regarding everything related to Doctor Who! I find it incredible how it has been going on non-stop since 1980, even during the Wilderness Years with no new Who on TV, and how they consistently manage to find fresh stuff to write about.

I first discovered the magazine when a friend of mine (who knows I’m a Whovian but isn’t one himself) visited London and brought with him the latest issue of DWM as a gift for me upon his return (I believe it was issue #471). I instantly fell in love with it and decided to subscribe; I haven’t looked back since!

All articles on new episodes are my favourites, as are the interviews with people associated with the show. The in-depth articles exploring some more obscure areas of the fandom are also favourites of mine. I usually read the juicy stuff (i.e., RTD’s letter, the production diary, and the new episode previews) first before social media spoils it all for me, and I leave the reviews and other stuff at the back for last.

I find the comic strip wildly uneven in quality. I tend to read it every issue, but since I am used to the style of Marvel/DC comics, they do feel a bit simple and brief at times. I think I’d like them better if I read an entire comic storyline at once (in a collection or something similar) rather than in short snippets throughout every issue of the magazine.

What are your thoughts on the magazine?

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I too subscribe to the digital edition, mostly because I know I would hoard them all and I don’t have space to keep them :sweat_smile:

And I also jump straight to Letter from the Showrunner and read that as soon as it drops, and then kind of leave it until I have some spare time and then devour the whole issue.

Lately I’ve been neglecting them, and they are sitting unread in my app because I’ve been doing too many other things. It’s quite hard to keep track of which ones I’ve finished. Maybe I should add them to the site… :smile:

It’s a great resource, I absolutely love it. One day I may advertise the site in it, that should get a few more members! Maybe if we all write in to the letters page about this site I can get some free advertising :smiley:

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As I was reading 13’s DWM comics I also read a lot of other bits of the magazines they were in and really enjoyed them. Especially loved reading interviews with cast members and costume designers. And I really enjoyed the comics, definitely found that I liked them more than her Titan comics. May try to start keeping up with new issues. Also still desperately want to buy a copy of this one because I love this cover so much and if I ever get the chance to go to a convention that Jodie or Mandip are at I’d get it signed.

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That’s a great idea actually! We should write in and inform everyone about this lovely site!

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Maybe wait until I have my new logo :eyes: shouldn’t be long now…

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I have been collecting DWM since the early 90s and love it. It’s been through almost as many eras as the series and yet has never failed to deliver entertaining and thoroughly absorbing articles.

The comic strip is a highlight but has recently suffered from financial reason forcing it to cut back the number of pages which has made the stories a bit limited (Liberation of the Daleks suffered from this a lot).

A new DWM popping through my door every 4 weeks is a real highlight of the month.

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I never really got into DWM. Living in the states, it never caught my eye. I’ve read most of the collected comic stories, but not much else. Archive has the first 200 issues (Doctor Who Magazine Archive : Doctor Who Magazine : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive), so I might start reading those. Might be fun to have a thread discussing each issue and how opinions within fandom have changed over the years. But as of yet, this is an aspect of the Whoniverse that I’ve never delved into.

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Bumping this topic to say…

All 603 (plus issue 0) of the regular Doctor Who Magazine are now on TARDIS Guide!

For now they are just here so you can mark which ones you own, but we will be adding links to the respective Comics and Short Stories as we go.

Big thanks to @ineffyble for the initial spreadsheet and @Tian for checking it over.

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Is there a way of bulk ‘owning’ them as 600 issues is a lot to click (I probably only have 500 or so, as I’m missing many from the earlier years but still)…

Not at the moment…

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583 is for some reason between 596 and 597

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Oooh, this is lovely! Makes this awesome corner of Who fandom even more awesome (and complete!). Well done, everyone!

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Almost all dates were off and I had to fix them manually. It is probably I who made a mistake.

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Well luckily the mistake happened to be on the one issue that I’m totally obsessed with and instantly went to add to my wishlist lol

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Hehe. I have told @shauny about it and he can probably fix it :slight_smile:

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Fixed! Thanks for letting me know :blush:

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Oh and definitely do this please :smiley:

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