Doctor Who Magazine 498

The Tenth Doctor and Donna Noble are returning for a brand new audio series and David Tennant and Catherine Tate are thrilled to be back in the TARDIS…

DWM asks the actors themselves whether the scripts for their new audio series capture the past or reimagine it:

“I think they do and they don’t,” David Tennant ponders. “Each episode on TV would go to a slightly different place, and have a slightly different set of criteria, and tell a story in a slightly different way. I think, in that sense, they’re very representative of the shows that we did on TV. Obviously, the characters are the same, and they have that relationship that you will, I’m sure, recognise. But they’ve been put into some slightly different, new situations, with new types of stories.”

“And a new way of telling the story,” adds Catherine Tate, “because this is audio. But obviously, by necessity, the convention of an episode is going to be the same, isn’t it: you arrive somewhere, something goes wrong, and then it’s all okay again. But I think these ones have been really original, and very fun to do.”

“Yes, it’s telling stories in a slightly different way,” David Tennant agrees. “But you’ll certainly recognise the same show, if you’re listening to these. When you put your headphones on, you’re going to recognise the world you’re in.”

ALSO INSIDE THIS ISSUE...

• YOU ARE KIDDING ME?!
DWM previews the Tenth Doctor and Donna’s first three audio adventures: Technophobia, Time Reavers and Death and the Queen.
• ROBERT BANKS STEWART
A tribute to the Doctor Who writer who died recently, and was responsible for 1975’s Terror of the Zygons and 1976’s The Seeds of Doom.
• JOHN LEESON
The man behind the voice of K9 talks about his long and varied career.
• SADIE MILLER
The daughter of Sarah Jane actress Elisabeth Sladen, Sadie chats to DWM about her new Lethbridge-Stewart novel, Moon Blink.
• ASK STEVEN MOFFAT
Doctor Who’s showrunner Steven Moffat answers readers’ questions
• THE WITCH HUNT CONTINUES…
…in the second part of our brand-new comic strip adventure, Witch Hunt, written by Jacqueline Rayner and illustrated by Martin Geraghty.
• SHARING THE LOVE
In her column, Relative Dimensions, Jacqueline Rayner gives advice on how to go about introducing your loved ones to Doctor Who.
• ANGEL INTERCEPTOR The Time Team welcome the return of River Song and the Weeping Angels return in this month's episodes, The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone.
• FOUR TO DOOMSDAY
A frog-like alien with delusions of divinity makes a return to planet Earth, in this issue’s Fact of Fiction. THE EVIL OF THE DALEKS In Missing in Action, we delve into this seven-part classic story which is mostly missing from the archives
• COMING SOON
DWM previews all the latest Doctor Who CD and book releases.

PLUS! All the latest official news, reviews, competitions and The DWM Crossword.

Doctor Who Magazine 498 is on sale now

Doctor Who Magazine Special Edition - Special Effects

The latest Doctor Who Magazine Special Edition celebrates the series’ greatest special effects and meets the people who created them. From the trailblazers of the 1960s to the digital artists of today, this is the story of Doctor Who’s journeys into the impossible. Highlights include:

Interviews with visual effects designers Peter Day (Fury from the Deep, The Dæmons, Genesis of the Daleks), Tony Harding (The Invisible Enemy, The Awakening), Mat Irvine (The Face of Evil, Warriors’ Gate), Peter Logan (Destiny of the Daleks, Kinda), Colin Mapson (Image of the Fendahl, Time and the Rani) and Eric Alba (the TV Movie) plus crew members Ian Gosling (The Curse of Peladon, The Green Death) and George Reed (The Seeds of Doom, The Talons of Weng-Chiang). Rare and previously unseen images from the scrapbooks of visual effects designer Ian Scoones (Pyramids of Mars, City of Death). Guides to techniques by BAFTA-winning visual effects designer Mike Tucker. Visual effects producers Will Cohen and Dave Houghton reveal the stories behind Doctor Who’s adoption of twenty-first century effects.

Inside the making of Heaven Sent with the teams from BBC Wales, Milk VFX and Millennium FX. Grant Hewlett of axisVFX on the making of Flatline and The Husbands of River Song. Afterword by Oscar-winning visual effects supervisor Paul Franklin (Inception, Interstellar).

This lavish 100-page Special is edited by Marcus Hearn. “Doctor Who has been pioneering television visual effects for more than 50 years,” he says. “It was our aim to cover as much of that incredible legacy as possible. In many ways it’s an alternative history of the series itself, brought to life by some amazing photographs, designs and sketches.”

Doctor Who Magazine Special Edition: Special Effects is on sale now

The events of the last series restored the Time Lords, and their home planet Gallifrey, to the forefront of Doctor Who. We’ve brought together that mythology and production information in a guide that covers everything you need to know – from The Time Meddler in 1965 to Hell Bent in 2015.

It seems like yesterday. If you’d have said ‘ten years’, I’d have said, ‘Yeah, that’s about right.’ But it’s actually 20! I remember every bit of it. It’s an anniversary, isn’t it? We love anniversaries in magazines, and we love anniversaries on the telly.

Those of us who were involved in it, when on the occasions that we do get to meet and talk about it in front of an audience, even four or five years ago... Phil Segal was there, and Yee Jee was there, and Daphne was there, Eric Roberts was there… we all met and there was a proper reunion and we talked about it, and I think the feeling then between us, and the audience agreed, was that yes, flawed it might have been, and a long shot it certainly was, and in the end it failed its chief function which was to go to a series, but... all things considered it was a good idea and it played its part in restoring the momentum enough. It kept Doctor Who going. Ten years later, it came back. And Russell T Davies [showrunner 2005-10] gave the nod, in subtle ways, to it.

Well, I said, ‘Doctor Who? I don’t think that’s really my sort of stuff.’ But my wife was listening, and when she heard that it was the 50th anniversary, she said, ‘You’ve got to be f***ing joking! You’re doing it! So I’ve really for her to thank. I’m really pleased I did it, because it opened up a whole new era for me. A whole new era.

I was often asked, ‘Are you going to do anymore? And I said, ‘Well, I don’t think so. I’m not ruling it out, but unless somebody comes up with a real stonker of an idea that would involve him again… But the thing is that you can’t plan careers. You think, ‘That’s the way to play it’, but it’s not necessarily the case at all. If you follow your nose, that’s often the way to play it. And that’s exactly how I feel about this. I mean, I really have enjoyed every second of it. I mean it.

River has to interact with the Eighth Doctor to save him, to help him. When she’s figured out how she can do that without having to be physically present in front of him, alongside helping him, she can then tease and flirt a little bit, because she knows she’s safe, and she knows she hasn’t overstepped a boundary, or changed his or her future in any way by that actual physical interaction. So she can then have fun! She’s in control.

What the Doctor says to River when he realises her acumen, her calibre, is ‘Wow, hang on a minute – where did you pick up all this?! For an amateur, you ain’t half clever'. He says, ‘Any time you fancy joining me, I could always do with a pair of hands’. He realises, almost instantly, how clever she is. ‘If you’re ever stuck for a trip round the universe helping me out, you’re on.’ So there’s that lovely playfulness as well. Of course, he’s doing it in blissful ignorance. And she’s trying not to appear too clever, and give the game away, but of course she has to save his life. So it’s great. It’s childish, but it’s great fun.

Peter Capaldi’s second series contains some of the greatest moments in the show’s history, but we’ve also explored many other corners of the Doctor Who universe. We’ve included as much as we can from a diverse year – everything from The Underwater Menace to Doctor Who: The Fan Show.

There’s a very different dynamic. As you’ll see, she doesn’t know it’s him at first. She can’t be convinced that it is, so she’s sort of not interested in him! He gets a taste of his own medicine, from her. She treats him very coldly, and flirts with a lot of other people in front of him. He doesn’t get any flirting, which I think upsets him. Eventually – finally! – she recognises him. But then another element comes into play and… well, you’ll have to wait and see. But it’s fun...

The whole episode’s quite big. It’s huge, actually – but also there’s a sadness, a romance, and a tragedy to Episode 12. It’s just so romantic. It’s very effective. And I loved all the stuff on one particular set. I was very excited. It looks so modern – a Kubrick-y kind of vibe. It was very nice. We’re in a very interesting place, because we’re competing with bigger shows, frankly. Most American shows have four times the budget per episode that we have, but that’s what we’re up against. We’re competing with Game of Thrones… This is traditional for Doctor Who, but it goes to show what this amazing production team can achieve.