Magazines

Doctor Who Magazine #414

DWM finds itself in a slightly awkward position at the minute, it seems to me. It can't start reporting on Matt Smith's era because David Tennant's is far from over (there's three Who specials, a full-length animation, two eps of Sarah Jane, and a surprise 'Project 3' still to come), despite reports covering the web with titbits from filming; but as Tennant's era is all in the can, with broadcast still a month or two away, it has no news on that front either. Russell T Davies' Production Notes are particularly meaningless these days because of that -- we want to hear what Mr Moffat has to say about work on the new series, not Davies' endless (almost literally, it seems) musings on leaving.

It leaves the whole thing feeling a bit neutered, quite frankly, a problem it didn't have in the run up to Chris Eccleston's era beginning -- with no exiting Doctor, the mag was free to publish bits of news and whatnot about the forthcoming series. Same for Tennant's, actually, because serious work (well, filming) didn't commence until after the regeneration was shown on screen. Surely they don't really think fandom are dumb enough to not realise Smith's era is already underway? Where's the news of writers, directors, which episodes have been/are being filmed?

While celebrating it's 30th anniversary this month, it seems DWM has finally hit a production team-enforced nadir. One can only hope that things return to their previous high standard once the new team take over properly.