The Doctor Who Companion

From Candy Jar Books comes this latest release in the long-running The Lucy Wilson Mysteries series of books aimed at younger readers. Written by DWC editor Philip Bates, The Three Lucys is the thirtieth in the range and marks the publisher’s fifteenth anniversary. I should probably begin by saying that, as a man of fifty-something whose idea of fun is a true crime documentary and bed at ten…

The BBC has released its Annual Report on its own successes and perhaps failings over the last year, and it includes an interesting caveat about the upcoming CBeebies Doctor Who animation. The series will be “inspired by the Whoniverse”, so might not actually feature the Doctor at all. The BBC’s Annual Report states: “Doctor Who spin-off series The War Between the Land and the Sea, made by Bad…

His Greatest Trick is an umbrella name for a set of four audio stories where the wonderful Derek Jacobi is your ally and friend… but the Master is most certainly not! The Grievance Bureau by Lizzie Hopley ‘Like many a top-class criminal, the Master has been caught on a misdemeanour. Both the Time Lords and the Daleks intend to destroy him forever but they can’t do it alone. Can the two sides of…

BBC Studios CEO Tom Fussell has confirmed that his production team will be making a strong bid for Doctor Who when it goes out to tender later this year. Chatting to Deadline, Fussell said: “We’ve been the producer for 60 years and we want to be the producer for another 60 years, so we will be going for that tender with gusto. We are in it to win it.” To be clear, BBC Studios hasn’t been the…

Jo Martin, who plays the so-called “Fugitive Doctor”, a forgotten incarnation of the Time Lord, says she thinks Doctor Who will continue for a very long time as the “stories are never going to end”. While reflecting on the future of the show, Martin says: “I’m hoping that Doctor Who carries on, because it has been [going for] decade upon decade, with generations upon generations growing up on…

16 years ago, PC Andy Davidson and his colleague DI Priya Sharma opened a case relating to the death of Martin Binns, a troubled Welshman found dead in his bath. The first person of interest they interviewed in March 2010 was Martin’s colleague Daniel Swanson, and on the police recording of their interview what can be heard is a man yet to emotionally process the loss of someone he know, and is…

Candy Jar Books has announced a special illustrated hardback edition of the Lethbridge-Stewart novel, Mutually Assured Domination, by Nick Walters. Alongside the novel, every copy will include an exclusive Dominators novella, The Miriamis Manoeuvre by Tim Gambrell, not available separately. Following the success of the acclaimed illustrated editions of Beast of Fang Rock and The Grandfather…

How do you decide which episode of Doctor Who is the best? You can’t. Realistically. We can all have personal favourites, but even then, comparing The Caves of Androzani to A Christmas Carol is extremely difficult as they’re entirely different beasts and they’re as good as each other. Ah, but that’s where IMDb comes in. It can advise us on what the general voting public thinks at least, as…

Twelfth Doctor actor, Peter Capaldi, has an idea about who he’d cast as the next Doctor in Doctor Who. Peter was at the O2 Silver Clef Awards 2026, raising money and the profile of the largest independent music therapy charity in the UK, and, when asked about who he’d like to be the next Doctor, he replied: “Oh, I don’t know. There’s lots of people I would… I always loved Frances de la Tour to…

Former Doctor Who showrunner, Steven Moffat, has shared his thoughts on the importance of prioritising entertainment over things like subtext and philosophy in storytelling. Steven was showrunner for the Eleventh and Twelfth Doctors’ (Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi, respectively) eras, and also wrote popular serials outside that time like The Empty Child/ The Doctor Dances, Silence in the Library/…

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…