Polystyle Doctor Who Holiday Special 1973

It's a while since I brought you some images from a long-extinct magazine which featured Doctor Who, so here's a little look at some of the features which appeared in Polystyle's Doctor Who Holiday Special, dating back to 1973, which could have been yours for the princely sum of 10 new pence.

Polystyle were the publishers of TV Action, which ran a weekly Doctor Who strip. A previous general Holiday Special had featured a location photo-feature on the making of The Daemons. This new Special was put together around the making of Frontier in Space.

The majority of pages were filled with comic strips and text stories featuring the Third Doctor, as well as the usual cartoons and general knowledge items which used to help pad out the old World Distributors annuals. Attached here are the photo features, which included a number of portrait images of the key on-screen personnel of the time:

There is also a brief overview of the series to date for newer fans:

As with the earlier feature on The Daemons, there is a behind the scenes photo spread on what would have been the story in production when it was edited, Season 10's Frontier In Space:

The photographs clearly come from the final episode as they feature the Daleks. We also see Pat Gorman getting ready to play a Sea Devil in the Jo / Master hypnosis scene which opens Episode 6.

Other features include a piece on the Daleks...

And a photo gallery of monsters...

In the days before Doctor Who Weekly / Monthly / Magazine, such features were a rarity for fans. Unless you had managed to hold onto old copies of Radio Times (whose picture quality varied greatly) where else could you obtain photos of Fish People, Macra or Monoids?

The rest of the features were more fun in nature - games and quizzes designed to keep the young reader occupied on their wet week in Blackpool or Skegness.

There's a board game...

A quiz...

And a "Spot the Difference"...

Not bad value for 10p. That would be just under £2 today. DWM would be charging at least £9.99 for something similar today.

DWM Gothic Horror Special Edition

The latest Special Edition of DWM is based around the forthcoming Blu-ray release of Season 13, and the majority of features relate directly to those six stories. However, we also get a general introduction to the Gothic in the series, which goes up to more recent stuff like the Weeping Angels and episodes like The Haunting of the Villa Diodati.

There's an article on the old movies which inspired Season 13, from Forbidden Planet via The Mummy and Frankenstein to The Thing From Another World, and this extends to later stories of the genre such as The Hand of Fear (disembodied hand films) and The Talons of Weng-Chiang (Fu Manchu films).

Image of the Fendahl gets a article to itself - costume design - and naturally there's a piece on Robert Holmes. 

(We also have one on his nemesis Mary Whitehouse). 

A feature on the new model shots of the Skarasen provides an image from the Blu-ray optional replacement sequence where the creature emerges from the Thames. Looks a bit plasticky to me, but we'll have to see it in action.

There's another item on the restoration of the unused TARDIS arrival sequence from Terror of the Zygons.

Louis Marks is profiled, as are a number of the actors who were heard but not seen in the series around this time - Martin Friend (Styggron), Michael Spice (Morbius and Magnus Greel), Gabriel Woolf (Sutekh) and Peter Pratt (the Master).

Some fans revisit the village of Devesham to see if it's still full of androids (spoiler: it isn't) and we delve into the personal archive of director Christopher Barry and the production of The Brain of Morbius. (He really, really didn't want to do it...).

There's loads more, and the magazine is rounded off by some original fiction from Louise Jameson.

Plus, you get a free CD which features 15 extracts from audiobooks of TV stories, from The Daleks up to Rose.

The monthly magazine might not be up to much these days, but the Special Editions and the occasional bookazines remain well worth getting hold of.

Before I go, the Doctor Who official YouTube channel is going to be streaming the upscaled version of Terror of the Zygons tomorrow evening (Saturday 30th) to mark its 50th Anniversary.

PS: I've got some family birthday business to attend to this weekend which will inevitably mean that the next "Episodes" post will be delayed until Monday. See you then.

Cybermen: The Ultimate Guide

Just a reminder that the latest bookazine from Doctor Who Magazine is published on 22nd May (which means it might be in the shops by July - so order on-line) and we have an updated cover image. 

This one concentrates on the Cybermen, and looks like it has the same layout as the earlier Dalek publication: four pages on each story - the first about the development of the subject in terms of the story itself, the second a full page CG image relating to it, then two pages of behind the scenes stuff. Between each story piece is another feature on some other aspect of the subject - comic strips, audios, novels, writers, actors, artworks, design, etc.

They're not cheap, but if the Dalek guide was anything to go by then definitely recommended.

Tom Baker Bookazine

Fans of Tom Baker, which is pretty much all of us, have a wonderful Christmas present from Radio Times. Available to download for free, as of today, is a 64 page collection of archive interviews and profiles from the magazine's archive, lavishly illustrated with exclusive photographs. Of particular delight are the B&W studio shots from Tom's Doctor Who days.

Daleks- The Ultimate Guide

DWM have been producing a new range of bookazines since the 60th Anniversary. They have a uniform format and design - smaller than A4, with blue text on a white background for their covers, and coming in a cardboard slipcase. They are substantial volumes, with 224 glossy colour pages.

We had a long wait for the second release - "Into The Vortex" - which had a lengthy gap between publishing date and appearances in shops. However, this was quickly followed up with another release which I mentioned a few weeks back- "Daleks - The Ultimate Guide".

This volume runs through each Dalek story from The Daleks in 1963/4 to Eve of the Daleks in 2022, giving each a four page spread. 

The first page gives some background information about the making of the story, whilst the second features a full page CG image of a Dalek from that particular story - either the basic model or one unique to that particular adventure.

The other two pages outline the development of the creatures over time in narrative terms, highlighting how each story has added to their mythos.

The accompanying photographs are a mix of publicity stills and telesnaps.

The two 1960's Dalek movies have a couple of pages each to themselves, one of which is a big CG image (the Red Dalek from the first, and the Black Dalek from the second).

Stories in which Daleks cameo - from The Space Museum to Flux - get a smaller box-out to themselves.

In between each story feature we have a Dalek-related documentary item, of 2 - 4 pages, depending on the subject. Everything is covered from the spin-off items like toys, comics, audios, novels, action figures / figurines, comic strips and annuals to behind the scenes material - actors who have portrayed Davros, Dalek voice artistes, or how different directors have handled the props over the years. Naturally we have items on Terry Nation and Ray Cusick, and the Mechonoids get a feature to themselves as well. There are a few miscellaneous features as well, such as the story of how one particular movie prop was recently refurbished, or an item on the new CGI VFX on the recent Season 25 Blu-ray special edition of Remembrance of the Daleks.

Hopefully we will see more of them in the coming months. Obvious candidates for a bookazine include the subjects already covered by the previous range which began to appear from the 50th Anniversary onwards (Cybermen, Companions etc).

Sadly, it looks like the "Chronicles" range has been discontinued (perhaps due to a lack of Nu-Who, whereas these new publications can cover the full 60-odd years and therefore please fans of either era).

You may find it hard to spot these in the shops, but they can be ordered directly from Panini or an online retailer. 

I would highly recommend.

"Into the Vortex" Bookazine

DWM is publishing a new bookazine (magazook?) titled Into the Vortex. It had a publishing date of 26th September, but you'll be hard pushed to actually find it in a shop - so probably best order from Panini or some other on-line seller. (It's on e-bay already).

Still waiting for mine to arrive but it appears to act as very good beginners guide to the series. There's a brief word about every single story up to the S14 finale.

Other chapters consider the popular monsters, whilst others cover genres of story - making recommendations as to where you might want to dip in if new to Doctor Who. 

As a bookazine, rather than one of the occasional Special Editions, it is more expensive - RRP £19.99 - but it has more than 200 pages. 

Expect all the best stuff to be crammed into the first 100 pages, with far too much emphasis on more recent material. Sadly, that's what we get from officially sanctioned publications these days. Was horrified to see that the 2025 Official Calendar forces Hartnell / Troughton and Davison / C Baker to share months, whilst the Fourteenth gets a whole one to himself, despite only appearing in three episodes.

Doctor Who y la Guerra Espacial...

Somewhere in Spain in the late 1970's, some unknown artist was clearly inspired by Chris Achilleos' cover art for Malcolm Hulke's Doctor Who and the Space War. Commissioned to provide exciting artwork for a series of pulp sci-fi novels, they raided the Target book for three separate covers.

We have a Draconian, an Ogron and the Master's stolen police spaceship gracing Permiso Para Invadir La Tierra (Permission to Invade the Earth), Contrabandistas del Cosmos (Space Smugglers) and Cita en Ganimedes (Appointment on Ganymede).

The books number in their hundreds, and hail from a publisher known as Bruguera. I came across them on an internet archive site. There is another cover which features a well-known pepper-pot shaped robotic figure...

As well as the ciencia ficcion novels, there are hundreds of supernatural / horror titles as well from the same source. Other artwork steals come from the original Star Wars, Creature from the Black Lagoon, This Island Earth, It! The Terror from Beyond Space, Flash Gordon and many, many others. It's great fun identifying all the movies which the artists have raided for their imagery.

DWM Novelisations Bookazine

There's a new bookazine from DWM out this week - primarily an in-depth look at the novelisations of all of the televised stories from An Unearthly Child to The Church on Ruby Road. 

This means mainly the Target range, but we also get the various foreign versions plus some spin-off material like Downtime, Scream of the Shalka and The Pescatons.

Novels of The Sarah Jane Adventures episodes which were televised are also included.

It goes right up to date with the recent novelisations of the 60th Anniversary Specials and Ncuti Gatwa's Christmas debut.

The main focus, however, are the books of the classic era, as everyone of these was published - often more than once.

Each story is covered, with the different reissue covers. Some of the newer authors give their favourites of the classic releases.

We also have larger features on a few of the main writers for the Target range - David Whitaker, Donald Cotton, Gerry Davis, Terrance Dicks, Malcolm Hulke, Ian Marter, Philip Hinchcliffe, Eric Saward, Chris Bidmead, Peter Grimwade and Pip & Jane Baker.

Towards the back there's a brief look at the audiobooks as well.

If you have The Target Book, you'll love this. Unlike that tome, this covers non-Target versions of the novels. It's certainly a visual treat, with some larger versions of the cover art (including some unused covers).

As a bookazine, it isn't covered by any subscription so you'll have to order it separately like the yearly Chronicles. RRP is £11.99.

The publication comes with a free audiobook. Bizarrely, mine was a non-televised adventure, and not even one of the semi-canonical spin-offs - so nothing to do with the content of the bookazine. 

It's a Thirteenth Doctor story - presumably one which failed miserably to sell - which will be headed, unopened, straight to a local charity shop.

TV Sci-Fi Monthly

TV Sci-Fi Monthly was a very short-lived glossy poster magazine from 1976. Published by a company named Sportscene, it lasted only 8 issues - and this might have been down to the subject matter it elected to include. 

Whilst Star Trek was hugely popular and featured in every issue, the magazine opted to concentrate on other series that didn't have quite the same impact. You could say it hitched its wagon to the wrong horses.

Of the two series which also manage to get a feature every issue, The Six Million Dollar Man got very good ratings, but the same couldn't be said of Space:1999...

Doctor Who was only featured in two of the issues. No.1 had a single page item on the Daleks:

The big image came from Genesis of the Daleks and, unfortunately, was one from studio rehearsals - with the lips on Michael Wisher's Davros mask absent.

The only other issue with Doctor Who content was No.4:

This time it was a proper feature, concentrating on behind the scenes information, as well as providing the usual overview / introduction for readers who might not be that familiar with the series.

On the back page was a nice big colour Zygon portrait.

Doctor Who Chronicles 1963/4

The latest issue of the year-by-year Chronicles publications from DWM arrived today. Despite the Colin Baker era still lacking representation, this one returns to the Hartnell era. We now have two consecutive Chronicles for him, covering 1963 - 1965.

Naturally, 1963 could never justify a bookazine of its own so they've made the new one 1963-64, meaning it covers all the stories from An Unearthly Child to The Dalek Invasion of Earth.

The four lead actors are all profiled, with images from their many non-Doctor Who roles.

The regular features are all present and correct. These include a diary of the year; brief overviews of the stories broadcast during the year(s); studio production; location production; design; and special effects:

There is also a look at the merchandise for the period - which was dominated by the Daleks at Christmas 1964, though the Voord also got a look in with the sweet cigarette cards.

There's usually a look at the Annual but, of course, there wasn't one that first Christmas. 

The latter section has the usual look at the programme in the press, and what else was on TV at the time. 

I've been a huge fan of these publications ever since the first one (covering 1975). They may not be cheap (£11.99 in the shops) but I think they are well worth it for the context in which they place the programme. I think they make an ideal compliment to the Complete History partwork, which concentrated on the nuts and bolts of writing and production.

Hopefully they'll concentrate on the classic era. The only recent Chronicle was for 2007, and it's noticeable that it's the only back issue they still have unsold copies of on the Panini website. The nostalgia factor certainly comes into play with these.

The actual release date for this latest issue was 8th June, and I'm assuming that no-one picked up on the fact that this was Colin's 80th birthday - otherwise it would have been nice to have released the 1984 Chronicle yesterday, and kept this one back for November and the 60th Anniversary.

Famous (Doctor Who) Monsters of Filmland

The infamous Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine - latterly just Famous Monsters - had featured the odd photograph of a Doctor Who monster in the past, but in July 1979 it gave us a major feature, including the front cover. This was issue 155 of a publication which had been running since 1958. Published by James Warren, it was edited by one-time actor Forrest J Ackerman. He became famous for his dreadful puns and cringeworthy "funny" photo captions. The magazine featured the Universal Horror movies prominently to start with, but quickly expanded to cover all manner of horror and science fiction film and (occasionally) television. It tended towards image over text, with the accompanying pun-filled articles kept relatively brief. However, Doctor Who merited a full 13 pages in this particular issue.

Issue 155 had more than its fair share of sci-fi, as it also included pieces on the Italian Star Wars rip-off Starcrash, and the first Alien film.

"The Four Faces of Dr Who" was designed as an introductory feature for the wider American market which might not be familiar with the series. The previous year had seen the sale of Tom Baker's first four seasons to Time-Life for screening in the States.

A few early stories were covered by a very brief synopsis (the first five of Season One), and some of the better known monsters were profiled (plus some more obscure ones like the Chameleons).

The Ice Warriors were renamed "Ice Monsters", for some reason - and never even managed to get a picture in the magazine.

It should be noted that FMoF was printed on very poor quality paper, and you will have seen that all the images were B&W only.

Aware of their regular readership, the feature ensured that references were made to horror stars such as Boris Karloff and Peter Cushing. The latter significantly, as the feature had a separate section on the Dalek movies in which he had starred. When it came to the Yeti, it mentioned that he had also met The Abominable Snowmen in the Hammer film version of the lost Nigel Kneale TV play - The Creature - in which he had also featured. Similarities of plot to horror movies were often pointed out. The Autons were likened to the android workers in Futureworld for instance (though the Mechanics from The Android Invasion would have been a better fit).

The images selected to illustrate the feature were mostly from earlier Tom Baker stories (Seasons 12 - 14), though there were a couple of Hartnell ones as well. The picture of Baker on the cover came from Image of the Fendahl, and the one on the first page of the main article came from The Sun Makers, both Season 15 stories and therefore the most recent images.

The only Troughton photo was the inclusion of some Cybermen from The Moonbase on the weirdly tinted cover, and for Pertwee it was the Axon Man on the first page of the feature and a pair of Daleks from Planet of the Daleks. A Dalek also featured on the cover. Some UK publications of the '70's we have looked at recently were Dalek-free (presumably due to additional image copyright costs).

The feature also gave readers a list of story titles with episode lengths. It employed the generally accepted titles apart from The Reign of Terror, which it called "The French Revolution". Nothing really wrong with that, though, as it was a popular alternative title used by fandom for many years.

The list stopped with Season Seven, however. If you didn't know the series, then it did provide a reasonably good introduction, giving an idea of the nature and scope of the programme - though you might have been forgiven for thinking that Tom Baker was Doctor throughout. If you wanted to delve deeper into the Doctor Who universe, there were some novelisations you could buy, which readers were pointed towards:

It should be said, about one third of every issue of FMoF comprised adverts - for horror related products such as the Aurora Universal Monsters model kits, posters, rubber masks and 8mm home movies, but also a great many joke-shop items.

As mentioned, there was a separate four page section devoted to the Peter Cushing Dalek movies, which had been shown in the USA but hadn't made much of an impact there. The images all derived from the first film: Dr Who and the Daleks.

Next time - a quick look at the short-lived poster magazine TV Sci-Fi Monthly.