Doctor Who
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Doctor Who Magazine
Doctor Who Magazine (sometimes abbreviated as DWM) is a magazine that is devoted to the long-running television series Doctor Who.
Officially sanctioned by the BBC, the magazine began life as Doctor Who Weekly. First published on Thursday 11th otober 1979 (with a cover date of 17th October 1979) it was published by the UK arm of Marvel Comics and cost just 12p.
With issue number 44, in September 1980, the magazine moved from a weekly to a monthly publication, becoming Doctor Who with a cover price of 30p. However, the title changed name again with issue number 61 and became Doctor Who Monthly, while in issue 85 the name changed to The Official Doctor Who Magazine. Issue number 99 saw the magazine change it's name again, this time to The Doctor Who Magazine while in issue 107 it was changed to simply Doctor Who magazine where it has remained untill this day.
Originally geared towards the childrens market, DWM has grown into a more mature magazine exploring the behind-the-scenes aspects of the series. Despite the BBC discontinuing the production of Doctor Who in 1989 the magazine continued to be published with new adventures in the form of comics. However, with the reviving of the show in 2005, the magazine has attracted a new generation of fans.
Due to it's longevity, the magazine is seen as a source of 'official' and exclusive information, sharing a close relationship with the television production team and the BBC. However, in 2006 the agazine lost it's exclusivity when the BBC Worldwide launched it's own comic, Doctor Who Adventures, aimed at a younger audience.
Doctor Who Monthly is now published by Panini Comics, which purchased the title along with the rest of the Marvel UK catalogue in 1995. In April 2010 the magazine confirmed in issue 420 that Doctor Who Magazine now holds the Guinness World Record for the Longest running magazine Based on a Television Series.
Content of the magazine features an arrary of different topics. The magazine features interviews with the cast and crew of the television series, old and new, and reports on the current set of the show.
The behind-the-scenes stories of all the 1963 - 1989 episodes have all been documented in DWM's Archive, while detailed analysis of certain significant serials are covered in The Fact of Fiction section.
DWM features an ongoing comic starring the current incarnation of the Doctor. However, through the period between 1989 and 1996, when the series was off air, the comic featured previous Doctors.
In the 1990's, a secondary serious comic was featured on the inside cover, for many issues this was 'The Cybermen', a series of tales set on Mondas prior to the events of The Tenth Planet, explaining the back-history of the Cybermen.
The TV Century 21 comic 'The Daleks' was also reurrected, continuing the story from where it had left off by showing the Daleks attacking Earth, it was drawn in the same style as the 1960's original.
Other regular features of the magazine include the news section 'Gallifrey Guardian', which has run almost from the beginning of the magazine. The letters page 'Galaxy Four', which fetures a small section called 'Ask DWM' where readers get to ask their burning questions of the show. Reviews of the show and it's merchandising are covered in 'the DWM Review' section.
The 'Time Team' involves four fans of the show watching every Doctor Who story in order from the beginning and since production restarted.
The format has changed over the years, but the News, Letters, Reviews, and Comic Strip have all been present consistently since the early 1980s.