It is that time of year again, when we make another issue of The Tides of Time available as a free download on this site in PDF format. Something else is happening too, or ought to be, but we’ve not had a special Doctor Who episode on Christmas Day for two years now. Bah. Humbug. I hope the Ghost of Christmas Future was right about the fate of those night shoots in Bristol a few weeks ago. Spoilers, Sweetie, says a voice I imagine in my ear.
Anyway… this is cover dated as the Christmas 2019 issue, but in the spirit of Doctor Who‘s current relationship with Christmas, don’t expect snow or tinsel or holly and ivy. Sam Sheppard’s article on Character Options figures will for many readers represent Christmas past, and maybe present too. We do have several reviews, including of Eric Saward’s novelizations of Resurrection of the Daleks and Revelation of the Daleks, two books which might be under trees this year – though the Target paperbacks forthcoming in July 2020 might fit stockings better. Target brings us to Terrance Dicks, who died in August, and a post-millenial fan reacts to two of his novelizations, foundational to an earlier generation’s fandom. There’s also a look at The Runaway, the Thirteenth Doctor’s first step into virtual reality.
We also look back over some of the past year as seen by the Oxford Doctor Who Society. Take the Varsity Quiz, set this year by James Ashworth of Oxford and Robin Bunce of Cambridge, and competed in Cambridge in May. In April the Oxford society celebrated thirty years with a party and dinner – we have reports on the event and a personal history of the society from someone who (to their surprise) has been around for most of it.
There is also fiction, poetry, and a leap back into past fantasy television with a look at 1970’s Timeslip.
The Tides of Time 