Doctor Who has been entertaining fans for over sixty years now, and every anniversary has been marked with a celebration. For the show’s tenth and twentieth anniversaries, in 1973 and 1983, the iconic listings magazine Radio Times put out special celebratory editions.
Those two classic magazines, the pride and joy of many an older Who fan, including me, have now been restored and are due to be republished as collector’s edition hardback books, released this November by Big Finish Productions.
The magazines are packed with features, including interviews with Doctor Who actors and creatives, as well as original fiction by Daleks creator Terry Nation and series script editor Eric Saward.
Plus, Dan Dare creator Frank Hampson provided some rather splendid Dalek art for the Tenth Anniversary Special – another plus, even if the Dalek blueprints themselves aren’t considered much good.
Big Finish senior producer John Ainsworth said: “The 10th anniversary and 20th anniversary Radio Times specials were unique publications, marking Doctor Who‘s first two significant anniversaries. Both offered insights into the series and its history, and became treasured, well-thumbed reference works by all who bought them.
“The original publications are now rare to find, and – due to their magazine format – even rarer to find in good condition. So, it’s particularly exciting that Big Finish now has the opportunity to publish, for the first time, exact replicas of both these specials, in hardback volumes.
“Painstaking work has been carried out to restore photographs, and to make these specials accurate in every detail, replicating the original publications. These two books will become essential works in any Doctor Who library.”
• Expected in November, the Radio Times Doctor Who 10th and 20th Anniversary Specials are now available to pre-order for £25 each, or £45 for a multi-buy bundle of the two books, exclusively here
• The 10th Anniversary Special can be purchased here, and the 20th Anniversary Special can be purchased here
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
Categories: Books, Doctor Who, downthetubes News, Magazines, Other Worlds, Television
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One those covers says £1.5 on it, now Big Finish want £25. That might be about right for inflation but still who got that money for such trivia?
Next week weetabix re releases copies of their Who stuff? £25 with free loo roll?
Those are the original covers. There is a considerable difference in the price between publishing a mass market souvenir and a niche remastering like these hardback books. No-one is forcing you to buy everything.