Who's Who?

"Who's who? Nobody knows.
He was here for just a while, but then he had to go.
Things they changed after he left, but never for the worst and always for the best"

This week I celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who, both with this hand drawn reaction of a Dave Gibbons panel and the essay that appears below, which is called “Tenacity".

I hope you enjoy it!

“Tenacity”
As we celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who, the excitement of thousands of fans, myself included - has almost taken on a life of its own, with most of the rest of the world along for the ride or at least aware that it all happened on “The Day of The Doctor”

But while we celebrate, I think it only right and fair that we should acknowledge the tireless efforts of so many people who kept the flame of Doctor Who burning all those years it was not on TV at all…

For all the authors writing challenging, interesting and entertaining novels

All the people making great audio plays and even some video spins offs starting well known cast members

And of course for all the fans that supported the show with a passion and endurance that defies belief

But the hub, the central point, the mission control if you prefer of all this activity has always been and always will be Doctor Who Magazine

Doctor Who Magazine has always been a very high quality publication, with in-depth and very considered articles and a fantastic comic strip

One has to admire the ability to find so many avenues of approach and topics of discussion to keep the quality that high in all the years that Doctor Who was not on tv, with no new episodes to talk about, but it does help that the TV show was suited to this kind of approach, a slow burning multi character development masterpiece

So I would like to propose that amongst everything else we celebrate the tenacity of everyone who helped to keep the flame of Doctor Who alive, without that effort, without that tenacity, the show would have not remained in the public eye and chances of the show returning (as obviously it eventually did) would have been much lesser

This is a clear and as positive statement that fandom can make a real difference and to bring something forward to even greater heights

The current Doctor Who show is a celebration in part on the basis of how passionate the fans are, and the people who work on the show tend to be fans themselves, and all they normally have one thing in common

Doctor Who Magazine

So let us thank everyone both behind and in front of the magazine, anyone who ever contributed Doctor Who Magazine to or ever brought a copy of Doctor Who Magazine in those “wilderness years” as all those people mean that we can all celebrate!

NEXT WEEK: WHAAAT?!