Come here. Gather round. All of us, c’mon. Yes, you too. Let’s huddle. Yes, I know, this issue of DWM is designed to welcome in new viewers – good, good, pull up a chair, hello – but this time, more than ever, let us gather. The old guard. Whether you’ve been here since the Cave of Skulls, or Rose Tyler going down to the basement with the lottery money, or Peter Capaldi punching a diamond wall for all eternity… We’ve seen a lot. And now here it comes again, change.
Let’s sit and consider, faithful viewers. I usually write these letters at home, but today, I’m in my office at Bad Wolf. On my desk, a script for 2025 containing the words ‘radiation,’ ‘moth’ and ‘skiffle.’ Down the corridor, rehearsals with Ncuti and Special Guest Star for our 13th episode. Below me, the six studios hum. We’re building a Hotel. And a Chamber. And a Hospital. But up here… I’ll close the door, and let us pause.
Look at Doctor Who. This show is nuts! It goes through the most seismic tectonic-plate-shifting changes while we cling on for dear life (when I lived in Los Angeles, we’d be told to keep a wheelie bin stacked full of tinned food, in case of earthquakes. Now, dear reader, might be the time to buy pilchards and beans). But this year could be different. Because it has an added component. More than ever before, now we have the raging voices of online. We have culture wars! I wonder what that would have been like in times gone past..?