One of my earliest childhood memories was the first episode of Doctor Who where Ian and Barbara wander into the Tardis looking out for Susan who appeared to be inside. Here they meet the Doctor and in disbelief go off into time and space for adventures with a renegade Time Lord (not that we knew that for some years).
The Daleks, Cybermen, the Zarbi, Sontarans and many, many more were to scare and thrill us over the next 53 years in what is now the longest running science fiction series of all time.
It should come as no surprise that Doctor Who also has the longest running tie in Magazine to go with it. Launched in 1979 as a weekly comic by Marvel UK, Tom Baker, the current Doctor at the time enthusiastically joined in the promotion.
The first issue sold 150,000 copies but only lasted 43 issues in the weekly format before becoming the monthly magazine that we have today.
The eighties were hard on the British comics industry, even Marvel were having problems so a decision was made to produce the monthly which has been a success over the years and kept the TV show alive even when the Doctor disappeared off the telly for a few years.
The latest landmark issue is a joy to read. You actually get a package containing not one but two magazines, the extra journal covering the history of the magazine plus a giant poster of the current Doctor, Peter Capaldi and for younger readers there is a sheet of stickers.
The magazine has never been just articles and features. There has always been a comic strip and this issue sees the return of Dave Gibbons amongst the contributing artists for a complete 20 page story written by Scott Gray.
According to the publishers Doctor Who Magazine has sold over 14 million copies in it's lifetime.
Here's to another 500 issues!
Whilst we wait for the new series here's a clip of my favourite Doctor: Patrick Troughton.
Who was your favourite Doctor?
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