Future Imperfect

ADVENTURES IN THE FUTURE

THE ESSENTIAL DOCTOR WHO

SPOILERS!

Looking for meaningful predictions about the fate of humanity? The future according to Doctor Who has been just as illuminating about life in the present day…

The Savages

THE TARDIS MATERIALISES ON A DESOLATE, ROCKY island

IMPOSTOR

A long-lost ITV production from 1962 offers tantalising clues about some of the most influential episodes in Doctor Who’s history.

The Ice Warriors

THE TARDIS MATERIALISES IN A WINTRY LANDSCAPE of deep

RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE

According to the writers of Doctor Who in the 1960s and early 70s, our future would be dominated by power-mad computers intent on subjugating the human race…

THE ENEMY OF THE WORLD

THE YEAR IS 2018. THE TARDIS ARRIVES IN THE Cedar district

FEDERATION AND EMPIRE

The early 1970s serials established the series’ first coherent chronology of Earth’s future, tracing the rise and fall of the Earth Empire over the course of 500 years.

THE MUTANTS

THE DOCTOR IS GIVEN AN ASSIGNMENT BY THE Time Lords

WHO LICENSED YOU TO SLAUGHTER PEOPLE?

The 1977 story The Face of Evil is best remembered for introducing the Doctor’s untamed companion Leela. As Subhadra Das explains, however, there may be more to this serial than meets the eye…

THE SUN MAKERS

AT SOME UNSPECIFIED POINT IN EARTH’S FUTURE, the planet’s

TOMORROW’S WORLD

One of Doctor Who’s most progressive script editors, Christopher H Bidmead weaved some challenging scientific principles into the series’ narratives…

The Leisure Hive

ON RELATIVE EARTH DATE 2250, THE VIOLENT ambition of

GANGSTERS’ PARADISE

The late David Fisher wrote a number of outstanding scripts for Doctor Who, culminating in the 1980 story The Leisure Hive. Nine years later he shared his memories of the series with Doctor Who Magazine. These are highlights and previously unpublished extracts from that conversation.

TERMINUS

UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF THE BLACK GUARDIAN, the Doctor’s

DOORWAY TO THE FANTASTIC

Stephen Gallagher, writer of Warriors’ Gate and Terminus, describes the challenges he faced in realising his ambitious visions of the future.

FRONTIOS

SLIPPING FORWARD INTO THE DISTANT FUTURE, the TARDIS

Fashioning the FUTURE

In creating the costumes for Doctor Who’s future societies, designers have often sought inspiration from the past…

VENGEANCE ON VAROS

ON 23RD-CENTURY VAROS, A PLANET IN THE constellation

PREDICTIVE TEXT

The freedom offered by the printed word has allowed some of Doctor Who’s most advanced and spectacular visions of the future.

PARADISE TOWERS

“WELCOME ONE AND ALL TO PARADISE TOWERS, which will

BRAVE NEW WORLDS

The audio productions created by Big Finish feature a vast number of previously unexplored planets. These include some of the most intriguing future societies in the Doctor Who universe…

THE LONG GAME

THE DOCTOR BRINGS ROSE TYLER AND ADAM Mitchell to the

Future Feline

Of the many characters the Doctor has met in the far future, among the most memorable is the cat nun Hame, played by Anna Hope.

GRIDLOCK

INTENDING TO SHOW MARTHA JONES THE glittering spires

BUILDING THE FUTURE

Doctor Who’s supervising art director describes the role concept illustrations play in the production of futuristic episodes.

PLANET OF THE OOD

ARRIVING ON THE SNOWBOUND OOD-SPHERE IN the year 4126

BRAIN DRAIN

Writer Keith Temple explains how he created a 42nd-century world for the 2008 adventure Planet of the Ood.

THE REBEL FLESH/ THE ALMOST PEOPLE

BY THE 22ND CENTURY, THE 13TH-CENTURY monastery of

CHRONICLES of the FUTURE

Piecing together available evidence as presented in the Doctor Who Magazine comic strips, this is a chronological overview of the most notable future events…

SLEEP NO MORE

THE 38TH CENTURY: TRITON, ONE OF THE MOONS of Neptune

TWISTED ENGINEERING

Production designer Michael Pickwoad shaped the future for the Eleventh and Twelfth Doctors in more than 60 episodes. “I always tried to make Doctor Who as classy as any feature film,” he says.

SMILE

ON THE DISTANT FUTURE, THE EARTH IS DYING AND, under

LOST IN SPACE

They say that perceptions of time alter as we get older. That’s certainly true of Doctor Who, as it travels further into its own future…