The Doctor Who Companion

The Ninth Doctor (Christopher Eccleston) and Rose Tyler (Billie Piper) have been bouncing back and forth between the Powell Estate, and the mystery behind all this is finally solved in Thirteen O’Clock, by Robert Valentine. Directly continuing from Pandemonium, the TARDIS arrives at the Tyler home residence but with Jackie and other neighbours having vanished… except for Milton Fry (Will Chitty).…

Alex Kingston, aka the Doctor’s wife, River Song, has recalled her last days filming Doctor Who, notably that her final scenes kept making her and Twelfth Doctor actor, Peter Capaldi, cry! Despite this, she didn’t actually know The Husbands of River Song would be River’s last episode. She explains: “Well, I didn’t know! I knew obviously from the storyline that they end up at Darillium and that…

Following the discovery of episodes of The Daleks’ Master Plan by film collector preservation team, Film is Fabulous!, its founder has stated that they do not have any more episodes of Doctor Who — but more could certainly turn up in the future. John Franklin told fans that the charitable trust categorically does “not have any missing episodes of Doctor Who“, though he explains that some private…

Former Doctor Who showrunner, Russell T Davies, was asked why he left the role, but his answer was pretty abrupt — which likely doesn’t surprise anyone. At the Attitude Awards in London, The Mirror asked Davies why he left Doctor Who, and he replied: “Time to move on, that’s all.” Yes, well, quite. Six words? The Tenth Doctor would be proud. The Mirror suggests that this response “seemingly…

“I’m bringing four stowaways, or pirates, up from the hold.” A passenger ship adrift in space, something trying to enter it in order to retrieve an item hidden aboard, and one or two people with a secret, or agenda, of their own… The plot to Star Flight is a really very simple fare: the synopsis for the story, though, makes it seem a good deal more complex. Indeed, it possibly gives a viewer…

Twelfth Doctor actor, Peter Capaldi, has implied that he had the option of staying on Doctor Who after then-showrunner, Steven Moffat, left and was replaced by Chris Chibnall. However, he wasn’t sure its direction suited his incarnation — and of course, a lot of the people he’d been working with were also going. He reflected: “I just wasn’t sure that it was going to go in the direction that I……

Former showrunner, Steven Moffat, has reaffirmed that Doctor Who will return to screens at some point, as production teams are likely “lining up” to bring the franchise back. Speaking on The Peter Purves Podcast (yes, that Peter Purves — First Doctor companion, Steven Taylor), Moffat assured anxious fans: “There are already people lining themselves up to try and get the show. [I’m not sure…

Candy Jar Books has announced the upcoming release of 100 Objects of ‘90s Children’s TV, a mammoth publication celebrating a whole decade of kids’ television, and including a chapter on Doctor Who during its “wilderness years”. It also features looks at Russell T Davies’ Dark Season and Steven Moffat’s Press Gang. How do I know that? I was lucky enough to proof-edit it! The book plunges readers…

It’s with great sadness that we have to report the passing of Doctor Who legend, prolific writer and editor, and all-round nice guy, Justin Richards, who has died at the age of just 64. His family has revealed that Richards has been battling early-onset fronto-temporal dementia for about a decade. Justin wrote a massive amount of Doctor Who, and served as the Creative Consultant for the BBC…

Former Doctor Who showrunner, Russell T Davies, says he has no regrets about his time on the franchise. During an interview, Davies was asked whether, if he had a TARDIS, he go back in time and change anything he did during his time at the helm of Doctor Who a second time. Russell replied: “Nothing. I loved what I did. I mean, I’d grab that TARDIS and take flight to Mars, frankly – all the…

A new book by Lizbeth Myles examines the politics of Doctor Who, picking up on themes of colonialism, environmentalism, and much more. You may know Myles for writing Breaking Bubbles and Other Stories (well, the “Breaking Bubbles” part of it anyway), The Seas of Titan, The Grey Man of the Mountain, and more for Big Finish, as well as the Black Archive entry for The Ambassadors of Death. Her new…

A while back, I posited that Jon Pertwee’s first season of Doctor Who was possibly the best overall season of the classic era. The deciding factor was that there were only four stories and three of them were excellent. That meant that roughly 75% of the season was excellent — a tough percentage to beat. But of course, there are a couple of valid challengers to it, like Season 13, but all that was…

Thirteenth Doctor actress, Jodie Whittaker, has reaffirmed that she’d return to Doctor Who any time — simply because she loves it! Whittaker said: “I have never ever had to hide my absolute love for Doctor Who and I have said in every single interview that was ever asked, I would always say yes [to returning] and everyone knows that is what I will feel; I will love Doctor Who until the day I…

Twelfth Doctor actor, Peter Capaldi, is sure that Doctor Who will be back on our screens at some point, but once it does, it might look a bit different. After the announcement that Russell T Davies has left the post of showrunner and Doctor Who is being put out to tender, there was some panic about the programme being potentially cancelled. However, Capaldi says he think the show “will be the…

Russell T Davies is set to release a memoir, The Queerest of Folk: A Life in Television, which includes behind-the-scenes details of his time on Doctor Who. Needless to say, it’s bound to be an interesting read… Though the blurb mentions his helping to bring Doctor Who back to screens in 2005, it doesn’t say anything about his return for the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Doctors’ (respectively David…

The Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) and Sarah Jane Smith (played originally by Elisabeth Sladen, but here, a role taken on by her daughter, Sadie Miller) are off travelling into the future! Following their adventures with UNIT in The Ministry of Death, we have three standalone two-parters in the second volume of 4DA Series 15. All set during Season 13, these stories stay true to the vision of Philip…

Though the future of Doctor Who is in turmoil, Alex Kingston has put forward two actors who she’d like to see as the next incarnation of the Doctor. Kingston played River Song, the Doctor’s wife, daughter of Amy Pond and Rory Williams, from 2008 to 2015 on TV and continues to do so on audio. No one quite knows what’s in store for Doctor Who, but when asked about who might play the lead role,…