I don't think Sylv and Soph killed the Doctor Who franchise: the BBC sabotaged the show themselves, quite deliberately, because a couple of senior executives did not believe they should be producing science fiction, and yet despite their scheduling the show in a slot directly opposite ITV's highest rated soap opera with basically no promotion, the last season in 1989 actually saw a slight rise in viewer numbers. "The franchise" certainly wasn't killed: Doctor Who was no longer on TV, but the 1990s saw the production of more Doctor Who spin-off material than ever before, including two very successful lines of original novels (the first beginning in 1991) which gave us on average two new adventures a month for well over ten years, and later, of course, Big Finish Audio. To all intents and purposes, the hiatus of the TV show created the franchise, as the Doctor's adventures had to move into other mediums. As for the new series no longer being consecutive with the past-the final BBC Books novels were published as the series was returning to TV, and everyone involved was always very clear that this was a continuation, not a reboot. Yes, the 2005 season was very different to what we'd had in 1989 or 1996, but no more different than 1989 was to 1963. Doctor Who has always changed to suit the times it's being made in. The only reason the 2005 revival perhaps seems a little jarring is because it had actualy been off-air so the change seemed more sudden and noticeable rather than being a slow progression.

The Master may be evil, but I think Michael Grade and Jonathan Powell were in a whole different league.

I didn't know they shared the same birthday. Happy Late Birthday!

I finally got my copy of DWM #501 with the MEGA interview with Tom Baker. It's probably gonna take me at least to week to read and digest this missive. Even skimming over the book, I quickly remembered why Baker was such a great Doctor.

The arrival of the tenth Doctor on screen at Christmas 2005 marked the beginning of a period in which Doctor Who became phenomenally popular in the UK for several years, and this newfound status was reflected in the Doctor's fortunes in print, including comics. Sales of DWM rose to their highest levels in...well...ever, bringing the DWM strip to a larger audience than ever before, but that wasn't the only place the now young, charismatic and spiky haired Doctor's adventures could be found in strip form.

Collected edition of the tenth Doctor's DWM adventures.

On 5th April 2006, BBC magazines launched Doctor Who Adventures, a magazine for younger readers than the target audience of the more adult audience of the now quite pricey DWM, which provided features, puzzles, and of course comics based on the Doctor's adventures, initially every two weeks. As the show's popularity grew, the frequency changed to weekly in January 2008 (DWA #47) but reverted to fortnightly status with #322 in June 2013 (the publication having by now been licensed by BBC Worldwide to Immediate Media Ltd., who took it over with #248). Finally, in March 2015, the original DWA title was cancelled after 363 issues, only to be immediately relaunched as a monthly by DWM publishers Panini.



2006 also saw the launch of Doctor Who: Battles in Time, a fortnightly magazine published by GE Fabbri Ltd to tie-in with a new Doctor Who trading card game; as with the other publications, it featured a regular comic strip, and ran for 70 issues until 2009 (most of the strips were drawn by Lee Sullivan). The Doctor Who Annual continued to appear, too, now published by the BBC themselves (though it no longer carried any strip content), while Panini published four editions of the Doctor Who Storybook Annual (which did) between 2006 and 2009. And 2009 also saw the Doctor's return to American comics courtesy of IDW, who launched an ongoing series starring the tenth Doctor which ran for a grand total of sixteen issues...before inevitably being replaced by a relaunched version in 2011 featuring the 11th Doctor! The IDW series had only very limited distribtion in the UK though, not being carried by most of the smaller independent comic shops; it was widely rumoured, though never confirmed, that this was because of licensing issues, Panini perhaps resenting the additional competition when they were supposed to have exclusive rights to produce Doctor Who comics in Britain.

It's also notable that the tenth Doctor continued the tradition of having companions never seen on TV; Heather McCrimmon (a descendant of sixties TV companion Jamie) debuted in Doctor Who Adventures, while the unscrupulous Majenta Pryce succeeded TV companion Donna Noble in the DWM strip in 2009, and the duo of Matthew Finnegan and Emily Winter joined him in the IDW series.

I tend to agree, though admittedly, my appreciation or otherwise of the IDW stuff was somewhat hampered by my not being able to get hold of much of it, a situation I know a lot of British readers resented. It also seems unlikely that any of that material will be reprinted in the future.

I was also a fan of Majenta, so her recent reappearance in DWM's anniversary issue was a welcome one.

Very cool news.

Today is the 50th anniversary of the television debut of the Cybermen in part one of The Tenth Planet. Happy Birthday to the emotionless cyborgs from Mondas!