A new Vworp Vworp! is always a treat to be savoured, but the team have outdone themselves with this superb sixth issue. The brainchild of editor and designer Colin Brockhurst and publisher Gareth Kavanagh, Vworp Vworp! started life as a publication celebrating Doctor Who Magazine, particularly its comic strip, but has since broadened its focus and, fittingly for this new edition released in the year of the programme’s diamond anniversary, travels back in time to examine An Unearthly Child.

You may think that the story of Doctor Who’s origins has been told very comprehensively before, not least in Paul Hayes’s impressive volume Pull to Open, but the team of writers assembled here find plenty of new things to say. There are in-depth articles on key players in the programme’s early months and years such as Jacqueline Hill, Anthony Coburn, and David Whitaker, as well as interviews with Carole Ann Ford and Waris Hussein. Andrew Orton brings us another of his stunningly realised recreations of Doctor Who’s sets, showing how they were all squeezed in to that small space at the unloved Lime Grove.  

The story of An Unearthly Child didn’t end in 1963, of course, so we also get pieces on the 1981 repeat, the VHS release, and the sadly still unreleased 2013 audio novelisation. The 50^th anniversary drama, An Adventure in Space and Time, is covered too, with an in-depth interview with Mark Gatiss, complete with abandoned scenes. And it’s wonderful to read Brian Cox’s memories of Sydney Newman, and his thoughts on how he might have approached playing the Doctor if the part had ever come his way.

There’s a very funny article by Tim Burrows who recalls his (surely unwise) decision to watch the epically disastrous Doctor Who Live: The Afterparty in 2013 alongside his new girlfriend. Romantics will be pleased to know that the relationship survived. Jonathan Morris brings us right up to date with an afterword lamenting the absence of the first story from BBC iPlayer.

Elsewhere, comic fans are catered for with three new strips (including an appearance by the Fifteenth Doctor) and a detailed feature from our own Philip Bates on Hunters of the Burning Stone, DWM’s celebratory 50^th anniversary strip, with input from writer Scott Gray and artist Martin Geraghty.

Vworp Vworp! has always rewarded buyers with a fine array of free gifts, and this issue we’re presented with a DVD consisting of three new animations, including David Whitaker’s very different opening to his novelisation Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks. My personal favourite was Andy Lane’s Interlude on Totter’s Lane, a tale involving the Doctor returning with Steven (voiced by Peter Purves) to that famous junkyard and unwittingly altering the course of Doctor Who history.

This weighty volume comes in at 180 pages so it’s impossible to give every contribution its due, but I was especially impressed by Colin’s detective work in unearthing previously unknown details about not only Reg Cranfield, the first person to appear on screen in Doctor Who as the policeman patrolling Totter’s Lane, but also Fred Rawlings, who played the same part in the pilot episode. Colin has also tracked down Larry Leake, who as a teenager co-founded William Hartnell’s fan club (the original, you might say) and is still a keen follower of the series today, as evidenced by the TARDIS shed in his garden.

The whole package is beautifully presented and includes several newly colourised photos. Whether fan-produced or licensed, Doctor Who publications don’t get any better than this. If I had one request to make of the team for future issues (of which I hope there’ll be many) it would be for slightly larger text. These old eyes are wearing a bit thin for some of those closely-printed pages…

Vworp Vworp #6 is a wonderful collection of research, insight, ephemera, and fun. Perhaps most importantly, it makes the reader appreciate even more just what those pioneers involved in the creation of Doctor Who achieved all those years ago.  

Vworp Vworp! #6 is available, price £12.99, from vworpvworp.co.uk. 

As excitement mounts at the onset of Doctor Who Series 14, one of the supporting players in the Thirteenth Doctor’s era has reminded us that his character could still be out there in the Whoniverse.

Craig Parkinson, who played the Grand Serpent in Doctor Who: Flux, was speaking in response to being asked how he remembers his time on the series:

“With so much love and fondness. I mean, talk about a juggernaut. That was incredible. Of course it was otherworldly, but to work with Jodie (Whittaker) and Mandip (Gill) on that was heaps and heaps of fun, and I think the way that Jodie left the show, it’ll be in people’s minds for a long, long time. But, you know, the Grand Serpent isn’t dead – he’s floating out there somewhere in space, so who knows?”

Viewers of Series 13 will recall that the Grand Serpent was an alien political figure who came to Earth and infiltrated UNIT in its early years, murdering those who stood in his way. Kate Lethbridge-Stewart had a lucky escape when a bomb was planted in her house as the Grand Serpent teamed up with the Sontarans to prepare for their invasion.

In truth, the reasons for the Grand Serpent’s extremely long-in-the-preparation nefarious scheme weren’t entirely clear to some folk, but Parkinson is an old hand at playing the role of a scheming villain and made for an entertaining baddie before he was stranded by Kate and Vinder on a lonely asteroid.

It’s always nice to hear that actors have enjoyed their time on Doctor Who and although, as we enter a bold new era for the programme, it seems unlikely that we’ll see more of the Grand Serpent, stranger things have happened.

Craig Parkinson has been promoting his drama, Mrs Sidhu Investigates, which airs on Drama in the UK, where he appears alongside Meera Syal.

As the dust settles following Doctor Who‘s 60th anniversary episodes, one question we were all pondering in the lead up to transmission is worth revisiting; namely, how come the Fourteenth Doctor shared the same face as the Tenth, albeit with a few more miles on the clock?

In amongst all that bi-generation business, it’s easy to forget that, back in those distant days of May 2022 when Tennant and Catherine Tate’s return was announced, this was the question that was most pressing on the Doctor Who hive mind. Russell T Davies took considerable delight in inviting us to wonder just how this was possible:

“They’re back! And it looks impossible – first, we announce a new Doctor, and then an old Doctor, along with the wonderful Donna, what on earth is happening? Maybe this is a missing story. Or a parallel world. Or a dream, or a trick, or a flashback.

“The only thing I can confirm is that it’s going to be spectacular, as two of our greatest stars reunite for the battle of a lifetime.”

The first hint at an explanation for the return of the Tenth Doctor’s face came in The Star Beast, when Donna urged the Doctor not to shoot off into the universe again:

“You could visit with my family. We could do outrageous things like have tea, and dinner, and a laugh.

“You’ve been given a second chance – you can do things different this time. So why don’t you do something completely new and have some friends?”

This theme was expanded on in The Giggle, the last of the specials, when Donna asks why the Doctor has never mentioned Melanie before. Telling him he never stops, she speculates:

“Maybe that’s why your old face came back. You’re wearing yourself out.”

This was firmed up later on in the episode when Donna tells the Doctor:

“I worked out what happened. You changed your face – and then you found me. D’you know why? To come home.” The Doctor replies:

“I fought all those battles for all those years. And now I know what for. This. I’ve never been so happy in my life.”

So that, it would seem, is the best answer we’re going to get. It’s not perhaps the most comprehensive explanation after RTD’s teasing about parallel worlds, dreams, and tricks, and it leaves us wondering if the Toymaker had any involvement. And that’s before we get to why the Doctor’s clothes changed at the same time as their appearance at the end of The Power of the Doctor…

What did you think of the programme’s answer to the mystery of the return of a past Doctor’s face? Let us know in the comments below.

2023 is, of course, the year of Doctor Who‘s 60th anniversary but it’s also notable for marking 50 years since the departure of Jo Grant, played by Katy Manning, who accompanied the Third Doctor for three seasons.

Katy Manning has maintained a strong connection to the series, appearing in numerous Big Finish audio dramas as well as returning to play the character on screen in The Sarah Jane Adventures story, The Death of the Doctor, and Thirteenth Doctor swansong, The Power of the Doctor, not to mention in trailers for Doctor Who: The Collection boxsets.

It’s clear she still looks back with a great deal of affection on her original finale at the conclusion of The Green Death, when Jo opted to make a new life with Professor Jones:

“But it was so touching because, when you look at it – and I don’t watch things from the past, to be honest with you – but when I’ve seen that, I actually still feel the emotion, even talking about it.

“Because I keep everybody that I’ve ever loved in my life, who’s gone, I keep them all with me, I don’t do all that completion.

“And so, when they start to talk about them, I suddenly get the feeling of how much they meant to me. And then I get a bit emotional.”

The story’s themes of concern for the environment and the actions of powerful corporations proved prescient, as Katy explains:

“And also, for me, having been the mad hippie, as everybody used to call us, who talked about the planet and the dangers that we were bringing to this planet by living the way that we live, which was going on in the ’60s, Barry Letts was also very concerned about all this. So it was a wonderful one to be involved with.”

Read the full interview with Katy Manning at Radio Times.

It’s been a good couple of years for The Daleks, as I think we should probably agree to call it now. We’ve had a beautifully illustrated edition of David Whitaker’s novel, a cinema re-release of the movie version, and (for UK viewers at least) the opportunity to watch the story on BBC iPlayer. And now, on the very day of the programme’s 60^th anniversary, this brand new colourised omnibus. How wonderful that, all these years after its first broadcast, what is arguably the most important story in Doctor Who’s long history should still attract this kind of care and attention.

When it was first announced, I wrongly assumed this would be along the lines of those feature-length versions of stories that would be shown, often over Christmas, in the 1970s (and which are now frequently included on the Blu-ray classic series box sets). It was a huge treat in those pre-home video years to enjoy the likes of The Green Death and Genesis of the Daleks again. But that was to vastly underestimate the ambition of video editor Benjamin Cook, who didn’t so much cut the episodes together as strip them down to their individual parts and reassemble them from a whole new set of plans.  

Russell T Davies said in this month’s Doctor Who Magazine that the editing would prove to be more controversial than the colouring, and he was probably right. The tale now rattles along at a relentless pace, with the swift cutting we’re all used to in the modern era but would have been unthinkable when the story was made. I found myself laughing at the production team’s gall in coming up with such a wholesale reimagining, though it surely won’t have been to everyone’s taste.

It’s a shame that there wasn’t room for the Magnedon, Doctor Who’s very first alien creature, and some moments of character and charm that weren’t strictly necessary to the story, such as the food machine sequence, were sacrificed. I could have done without retconning touches like the cloister bell and mention of Kaleds, but I will allow that most people watching would have expected to hear ‘EXTERMINATE!’ a few times, even if viewers of the original didn’t. I rather liked some of the more audacious touches, such as the Daleks cunningly writing Susan’s note, though I wish there’d been room for a new scene where a Dalek clutches a marker pen as another one criticises its handwriting.

When the Daleks made it on to the big screen in the 1960s, the posters promised it was a chance to see them IN COLOUR. It was a message the team behind this colourisation seemed to have taken to heart, because boy, was this colourful. Barbara’s blouse was so vibrant a shade of pink it’s a wonder the first Dalek to appear in the series wasn’t blinded, and I couldn’t take my eyes off those vivid yellow and red dials on the control panels. Colourisation technology has clearly come a long way since those early 1980s efforts, but I don’t think it’s unfair to say it’s not yet at the point where anyone watching this would think it was filmed in colour.

But what an achievement by Rich Tipple and his team, who slaved for hours using techniques which, though assisted by software, still largely have to be done manually. We’re used to seeing colour photos of 1960s silver and blue Daleks, but it was glorious to see them moving and interacting, and of course exterminating, here.

At the conclusion, we got a tantalising glimpse of The Keys of Marinus, The Web Planet, and lots of other 1960s stories in colour, including The Beatles’ Top of the Pops appearance. Can they really be planning to do them all? I’ll certainly be watching if they do, as well as looking forward to RTD going on The One Show to promote, say, the 68^th anniversary armed with the colourised version of The Gunfighters.  

Although full credit must go to those behind The Daleks in Colour, the final tributes have to be paid to the cast and crew of the original, who against all the odds, in the face of low expectations and working in the most unfavourable conditions, came up with a production that caught the public’s imagination in a way few programmes ever do.

For all the changes made in this new edit, it’s still possible to marvel at what they achieved. That sense of danger, that the travellers are in the most desperate peril, was never quite the same after those early stories. The mystery of just who the Doctor is, and the (wholly justified) feeling that he can’t be trusted. And of course the Daleks; menacing, calculating, and malevolent, and about to secure the programme’s future. The Daleks in Colour was a highlight of this very special month in Doctor Who history, and enabled us to enjoy this landmark story all over again.      

The Daleks in Colour can be viewed on BBC iPlayer.

A DVD, Blu-ray, and limited edition steelbook will be released in February 2024.  

A brand new audio play which returns to the world of Seventh Doctor adventure The Greatest Show in the Galaxy is set for release next month.

Children of the Circus is written by Kenton Hall, with songs by Christopher Guard, based on an idea by Barnaby Eaton-Jones (a friend of the DWC’s), and follows up Stephen Wyatt’s Season 25 story. The new release is produced by AUK Studios and reunites many performers from the original tale, including Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred, although this time they’ll be playing different roles.

The synopsis reads:

Once upon a time, there was a circus.

A Psychic Circus, to be precise. A glorious haven for the misfits of the universe.

But then, as is so often the way, it was hijacked by a trio of malevolent Gods.

Things grew unpleasant.

Now, years later, the Gods are gone, but the scars of those who survived the Circus remain. After all, you can’t change the past.

Unless you’re the Children of the Circus… and you’re willing to sing.

An impressive cast sees Christopher Guard star as Bellboy, Dee Sadler as Flowerchild and Ella, and Ian Reddington as Delios. Sophie Aldred plays Captain Gren and AJ, while Sylvester McCoy is the High Poet. 1980s pop legend and actress Toyah Willcox plays The Band of Infinite Harmony.

There will also be guest appearances from many of the cast from the original including Ricco Ross as The Ringmaster, Jessica Martin as Mags, Chris Jury as Deadbeat, Deborah Manship as Morgana, Gian Sammarco as Whizz Kid, Daniel Peacock as Nord, and Dean Hollingsworth as the Bus Conductor and Station Announcer.

Sylvester McCoy said:

“To return to the worlds of Stephen Wyatt’s imagination, but as a wholly new character called the High Poet, means I get to be involved with the Psychic Circus rather than fighting against it! As a lover of the circus myself, juggling this new role was a joy (though I’m sad I didn’t get to play the spoons).

“What fun to be reunited with all the wonderful cast from ‘The Greatest Show in the Galaxy’ again, 35 years later, and I hope you’ll all enjoy this time-sliding, sidestepping sequel from Barnaby Eaton-Jones and his bunch of clowns!”

Children of the Circus is released on 14th December 2023, exactly 35 years since the first episode of The Greatest Show in the Galaxy aired.

For full details visit AUK Direct, where the 2 x Limited Edition CD set is available to pre order for £19.99 + P&P.

The upcoming colourised version of the first Doctor Who story to feature the Daleks will include new dialogue, written by showrunner Russell T Davies and performed by the original Dalek voice actor David Graham.

The Daleks, which premieres on BBC4 on Thursday 23 November, is an edited, 75-minute version of the Terry Nation classic which has been colourised by a team led by Rich Tipple, accompanied by a new score from composer Mark Ayres.

The intriguing news that new material will be included comes in this month’s Doctor Who Magazine #597, where RTD says he’s “absolutely dedicated to the idea that the back catalogue of Doctor Who should be colourised – that’s my aim, and it has been since day one in the job.”

It’s not clear what form the new scene (or scenes) will take – the fact that the report describes it as ‘new dialogue’ indicates that it could involve the reuse of existing footage cut from the full seven-episode story with new sound added. But it’s not impossible it could be something more ambitious involving new filming. After all, the team behind An Adventure in Space and Time, the 2013 drama on the creation of Doctor Who which will be repeated after The Daleks, recreated scenes from the story.

Whatever it turns out to be, it’s wonderful to think that David Graham, now 98, will once again be heard voicing the Daleks, 60 years after he and Peter Hawkins first took to the microphone to create the iconic sound of the series’ legendary foes.

Viewers in the UK can watch The Daleks on BBC4 at 19:30 on Thursday 23rd November, after which it will be available on iPlayer. A DVD, Blu-ray, and limited edition steelbook is set for release in February 2024.

For many people, their first glimpse behind the scenes of Doctor Who came in the print versions of this book by Malcolm Hulke and Terrance Dicks. The first edition appeared in the Jon Pertwee era in 1972, with a second, significantly revised and updated version published in 1976 after Tom Baker had taken on the role.

BBC Audio have now expanded their library of Target adaptations with this new release which brings most of the content from both editions together, read by performers with longstanding connections to the series: Dan Starkey, Geoffrey Beevers, Jon Culshaw, Katy Manning, Louise Jameson, and Maureen O’Brien. It’s an ingenious idea which will surely have been welcomed by fans with fond memories of the original.

We must first address the cover, however, which I have to report presents issues. The most glaring one has to be that the Chris Achilleos illustration deployed, whilst wonderful, is from a different book altogether – the first edition of the similarly excellent The Doctor Who Monster Book from 1975. BBC Audio have traditionally shown a good insight into what their customers want from Doctor Who releases, so it seems odd they should make a deliberate howler like this. A new image, or perhaps some combination of those used on the two print editions, would surely have been preferable. Then there’s the clumsy way the lettering has been shunted off to the left and right of the logo, in a move which will surely bring graphic designers out in nightmarish cold sweats.

So beyond the cover, what can listeners expect from the content? There are summaries of the origins of the programme and the creation of the TARDIS and the Daleks, told with the kind of clarity and straightforward style that has always been the hallmark of Doctor Who novelisations. The writers know they are writing for a young audience and tell their tale with admirable pace and economy, whilst never talking down to the reader.

A highlight for me was the first edition’s use of ‘evidence’ from the Doctor’s trial to recount his adventures, which used the brilliant technique of presenting them in the form of court transcripts, retrieved from dusty Time Lord archives. Later, there are reports from the Brigadier to his superiors in Geneva for the UNIT-centric stories (“I took normal military action, set explosive charges in the caves, and totally destroyed the enemy. Instead of thanking me, the Doctor seemed quite displeased.”). All of this is accompanied by the kind of atmospheric music used in the Target novelisation audios.

The vast majority of this audio’s likely purchasers will already know the detail of Doctor Who’s origins and the history of the show’s adventures, of course, but that’s not the point. A large part of the appeal will be nostalgia for the print editions which were hugely influential in setting a pattern followed by non-fiction books ever since. There was so much less behind the scenes information available in the 1970s, and there will be many people listening to this release who first found out what terms like Producer and Script Editor meant, as well as what names such as Sydney Newman and Verity Lambert achieved, in the pages of The Making of Doctor Who.

It’s an audiobook that probably benefits from being listened to in small chunks rather than in one go, but the short chapter lengths and constantly changing narrators help ensure it never becomes monotonous.

All in all, it’s a tribute to the enduring legacy of Malcolm Hulke and Terrance Dicks that a book they wrote over 50 years ago should be given a new release in a different format now. Dicks lived long enough for him to have a sense of what he meant to generations of readers but one can only guess what Hulke, who died in 1979, would have made of it.

The Making of Doctor Who audiobook is a welcome release in this very special anniversary year for the programme. But let’s please have a change of cover for the second edition, eh?

The Making of Doctor Who is out now.

Ahead of the Doctor’s reunion with Donna Noble next month, fans are being invited to relive their adventures together in a global watchalong on Saturday 4th November 2023.

The marathon event, which will use the hashtag #DoctorDonnathon, kicks off at 09:45 UK time, presumably with 2006 Christmas special The Runaway Bride, although viewers could perhaps watch the teaser scene when Donna appeared in the TARDIS at the conclusion of Doomsday as an appetiser.

Donna joined the Tenth Doctor as a companion in Series 4 in 2008, crossing paths with the Time Lord in Partners in Crime. She travelled with the Doctor until that traumatic parting in Journey’s End, when her memory of all their adventures was wiped. Highlights of her era included the return of the Sontarans in The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky, spooky goings-on in a planet-sized library in Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead, and the prospect of a world without the Doctor in Turn Left.

The official Doctor Who website tells us that a planned-out schedule which allows for breaks in the epic 14-hour total run time will be released in advance. Viewers in the UK will be able to watch all episodes on the BBC iPlayer.

Catherine Tate will return to Doctor Who as Donna Noble in the 60th anniversary trio of episodes, starting with The Star Beast, later in November, reuniting with David Tennant, this time playing the Fourteenth Doctor.

Catherine Tate seems to have enjoyed filming her return to Doctor Who for this year’s 60th anniversary special episodes, but has confirmed that the programme isn’t exactly her specialist subject:.

The actress, who plays Donna Noble, said:

“I must make a full declaration – I don’t know anything about Doctor Who. I love it and I love being in it but I’m not the fan David Tennant is.”

There’s nothing wrong in that, of course – it’s not an actor’s job to know their Krotons from their Kamelion, and Tate has touched on this in other interviews.

Tate also says the show’s profile in the USA was a surprise to her:

“I didn’t realise it had a big audience in America. Compared to the Marvel films though, it’s pretty niche.”

Intriguingly, she also teases that viewers can expect significant advances since her original run in the series in the show’s special effects:

“We worked in a green studio, and it has come up a pace from when David and I had been on it before, I can tell you that. The budget and the scale and the studio have all increased.”

“Genuinely it used to be a tennis ball on a stick. And the director would say, ‘That’s a monster.’ Now the tennis balls and sticks are much bigger – they’re absolutely enormous now.”

Catherine Tate will return as Donna Noble alongside David Tennant in three special episodes of Doctor Who, expected to air in November 2023.