The fifth issue of the Doctor Who Chronicles, a bookazine series from the makers of Doctor Who Magazine, covers 1967, the first full year with Patrick Troughton’s Second Doctor! Having recently made his debut as the Second Doctor, Troughton made the role his own, fighting such foes as the Daleks, Yeti and the Great Intelligence, Cybermen (twice in 1967 alone), and Macra. However, Doctor Who’s…

I will say this for Chris Chibnall — I think he thought he at least gave Graham and Ryan a good send off in Revolution of the Daleks. I think his intentions were good and they were not unceremoniously dumped when leaving the show. That is to his credit.  This is undoubtedly in large part because he created the characters in the first place. If a producer creates the companions, he or she…

We’ve been gifted some real treats over the last few years. From 2017’s The Power of the Daleks animation to the most recent, Fury From The Deep, we’ve had some nice classic adaptations over the last few years. But as much as the BBC seem to be publicising it, these are far from the first classic Doctor Who animations. So let’s look at the history of the animated episodes and at the Classic…

BBC America has announced it will screen the animated version of The Faceless Ones in early October – the first time this animation has been screened on a commercial channel, either in the USA or UK.

This Second Doctor story is largely missing from the BBC archives, but its soundtrack survives, and, paired with animation, was recently released on DVD and Blu-ray. It stars Patrick Troughton’s…

If you’re searching for a slice of the Second Doctor era, we have just the ticket: this reading of The King of Golden Death, narrated by Anneke Wills, who played Polly, companion to Patrick Troughton’s incarnation of the Time Lord.

The story originated in the Doctor Who Annual1968, the first annual to star the Second Doctor, featuring eight short stories and two comic strips. This reading…

An updated animation of The Power of the Daleks has been announced, due out on DVD and Blu-ray in July, but some of you will have spotted a curious special feature: The Highlanders, listed as “additional bonus material”.

So what exactly is this?

While many will no doubt be hoping for some form of reconstruction of the entirely-missing four-part serial, this is, in fact, the audio soundtrack.

A new Special Edition of The Power of the Daleks will be released in July 2020, and will include new material including documentaries about the Daleks, an edition of Whicker’s World from January 1968, and Patrick Troughton’s earliest surviving TV appearance.

As the Second Doctor’s debut story, The Power of the Daleks‘ status as an entirely missing serial is especially sad; fortunately, in…

The Underwater Menace is the next Doctor Who story to get the Vinyl Who treatment, meaning its narrated TV soundtrack will be available in a special LP set.

In The Underwater Menace, the TARDIS arrives on a volcanic island above the lost city of Atlantis. The Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton) learns of Professor Zaroff’s (Joseph Furst) insanely dangerous plan to raise the city of Atlantic from…

The covers for the DVD, Blu-ray, and steelbook releases for the upcoming animation of the missing Doctor Who serial, The Faceless Ones, have been revealed… and they’re pretty gorgeous. We especially like the steelbook, which puts the TARDIS in the path of an incoming airplane – exactly how the story starts.

This Second Doctor adventure is mostly missing from the BBC archives, though we do at…

His handwriting deteriorated as his rage overmastered him. The end of the letter was a filthy, blotchy scrawl. And what’s more, he wanted a cigarette. Combined, these factors made for a messy signature.

25th December, 1968 

Sir, 

I regard your proposed interference with my project as another piece of insufferable impertinence. As I am financing it myself, I am not taking a shilling from…

Monday 23rd December 2019 – their last and their busiest day of the year. A slightly shabby community hall on a dark and cold evening and it’s been raining all day, without pause and without mercy. The hall is almost full. People arriving, soaked; sitting, looking shell-shocked, talking hesitantly to the staff, collecting their filled bags, leaving with muttered thanks, through the double doors…

There’s a line said by Polly Wright (Anneke Wills) in The Faceless Ones, her and Ben Jackson’s (Michael Craze) last serial, which particularly sticks in the mind: “You don’t think my friends will forget me like that, do you?”

It’s a fair concern: the last companion to leave, Dodo (Jackie Lane), was kicked off stage quite unceremoniously in The War Machines (1966), Polly and Ben’s introductory…

For some time, the Doctor Who Companion has promised readers a project that caters for fans of all eras. This week, that project will launch. So what exactly is it? How long will it run for? And what’s with the hold-up?

Throughout the rest of the year, we’ll be publishing reviews of every single season of Doctor Who, all the way from Season 1 (1963- 64), starring William Hartnell’s First…

As DWC reported in May, a set of 21 rare colour images from Patrick Troughton’s debut as the Second Doctor went up for sale this month. But nobody could have predicted how much they’d fetch.

The images come from The Power of the Daleks, which was broadcast during November and December 1966. They were owned by the late production designer and art director, Derek Dodd, who made set plans for The…