The best Doctor Who fanzine is back: Vworp Vworp! returns with its sixth issue later this month!

Edited and designed by Colin Brockhurst and published by Gareth Kavanagh, this 180-page issue celebrates the genesis of the show in 1963, with a host of features and interviews with talent from both sides of the camera. And I’ve been lucky enough to contribute, speaking to Scott Gray and Martin Geraghty — but I’m getting ahead of myself here…

With three fabulous covers from Robert Hack (Cover A), Jeff Cummins (Cover B), and Andrew Orton and Colin Brockhurst (Cover C) to choose from and an exclusive DVD, get ready for a deep dive into the very best art, interviews, and fan scholarship as we rapidly approach the 60th anniversary of Doctor Who on 23rd November 2023.

Highlights of issue 6 include:

• THE WAIF FROM SPACE – we catch up with CAROLE ANN FORD to discuss her memories of the earliest days of Doctor Who and the joys and frustrations of playing the Doctor’s granddaughter.
• We take in THE VIEW FROM THE GALLERY, as Andrew Orton painstakingly reconstructs the sets and conditions for the filming of An Unearthly Child sixty years ago in Lime Grove Studios.
• Exclusive interviews with MARK GATISS and actor BRIAN COX, discussing the making of their 2013 hymn to the Hartnell era, An Adventure in Space and Time.
• DESPERATELY SEEKING REG – Vworp Vworp!’s editor Colin Brockhurst turns detective, seeking the trail of the very first actor to grace Doctor Who, the mysterious REG CRANFIELD.
• Who was THE FAMILY WHO? We take a deep dive into the lives of Doctor Who’s first family, the Hartnells, with recollections from his daughter ANNE CARNEY and a rare interview with Bill’s wife, HEATHER HARTNELL.
• Brand new interviews with vision mixer CLIVE DOIG and the Radiophonic Workshop’s BRIAN HODGSON, two television pioneers who broke new ground working on 1963’s 100,000BC.
• HUNTERS OF THE BURNING STONE – we go behind the scenes of Doctor Who Magazine’s seminal 50th anniversary celebration comic strip with writer SCOTT GRAY and artist MARTIN GERAGHTY. (Yep, this is by me, but don’t let that put you off. It’s been a real privilege writing for the fanzine and of course interviewing these comic book giants.)
• In-depth, illustrated articles on several of Doctor Who’s 1963 pioneers, including JACQUELINE HILL, ANTHONY COBURN, DAVID WHITAKER, NORMAN KAY, REX TUCKER and FRED RAWLINGS… and much more!

Also, as well as short stories by JOHN DORNEY and JOHN PEEL, Vworp Vworp! #6 features three brand new comic strips featuring the First and Fifteenth Doctors:

• THE NIGHT BEFORE – the Doctor and Susan navigate the strange phenomenon of Beatlemania! Written by Tim Quinn with art by Tim Keable.
• OVERDUE – a curious history book on the shelves of Shoreditch Library spells danger for the Doctor and Susan. Written by Lance Parkin with art by Faiz Rehman.
• HISTORY, BANGS AND STINKS – It’s 1963 and there’s a new Doctor at Coal Hill School, just not the one we were expecting! Written by Paul Ebbs with art by Simon Brett.

Vworp Vworp!‘s free gift this time is a DVD packed with brand new animations and archive features exploring the genesis of the show, intriguing what ifs and sidesteps into the unknown! Expect:

• A MEETING ON THE COMMON – A dynamic, 18 minute animation of the much loved alternative opening to Doctor Who, as told by David Whitaker in his classic 1964 novelisation Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks. Directed and animated by Mel Meanley, adapted by Ian Winterton and starring Stephen Noonan (the Doctor), Adam Grayson (Ian), Helen Stirling-Lane (Barbara) and Kerry Ely (Susan).

• WE FLAME TO PLEASE – Ever wondered what Doctor Who getting the Hanna-Barbera treatment would have looked like back in 1966? Wonder no longer, with this lovingly written and animated homage to the golden age of children’s animation from Graham Kibble-White. Join Dr Who on a visit to the Stone Age, complete with repeating background and laughter track, starring Siobhan Gallichan as Dr Who, with Adam Grayson, Helen Stirling-Lane and Stephen Noonan.
• INTERLUDE ON TOTTER’S LANE – A short drama written by Andy Lane, exploring the consequences of life with the Doctor and why he must never go back to the very beginning. Starring Peter Purves as Steven Taylor and Siobhan Gallichan as the Doctor. Presented as a ‘telesnap reconstruction’.

• AN AUDIENCE WITH WARIS HUSSEIN – A career retrospective with Doctor Who’s very first director, the BAFTA and Emmy winning Waris Hussein, in conversation with Matt Charlton. Recorded at VideOdyssey Studios, Liverpool, in 2019.

Order Vworp Vworp! #6, price £12.99, from vworpvworp.co.uk now. The issue ships worldwide from late November onwards.