In this special issue, DWM brings together Jo Grant actress Katy Manning with one of her biggest fans, Doctor Who writer and actor Mark Gatiss. Mark remembers the first time he saw Katy on screen in her début adventure, 1971’s Terror of the Autons…

Mark: “I remember it as if it were yesterday. I have very, very particular memories of those first few stories. I was so frightened of that little troll doll –”

Katy: “It’s still pretty ghastly. (Shudders) It had pointed teeth, and the way it walked –”

Mark: “I was four years old. Your early memories tend to be either something amazing, or something very traumatic. Usually traumatic.”

Katy: “But it was an extraordinary episode. I loved it as an introduction, because Jo was quite different. She was just ordinary, really. She had no special talents. You watch Jo, literally straight out of school, saying, ‘I didn’t say I passed,’ [in response to the Doctor’s ‘I thought you took an A-level in Science?’] – which I thought was a great line to give anybody!”

Mark: “It’s absolutely true to say that everybody has their Doctor and their time, and I just can’t remember there not being a time when Jon and Katy were it for me. I revisit them often, especially in trouble times – or on wintery afternoons. Like I did the other day. ‘Ooh, I think I might have a glass of sherry and a mince pie, and watch Planet of the Daleks, because it’ll make me feel good.’ I know I sound like I’m about a hundred years old –”

Katy: “Leave that to me. (Laughs) But she was very young, Jo, which was so lucky, because I got to grow up. The writers were very clever. They saw I was growing up, so Jo grew up with me.”

Mark: “And I grew up with Jo.”

You can read the full interview inside the new magazine…

ALSO INSIDE THIS ISSUE…

A FREE Doctor Who comic, *Sub Zero, featuring the Third Doctor and the Daleks, originally presented in 1972!

PLUS…

• TERRANCE DICKS INTERVIEWED!
  A chat with Doctor Who’s masterful writer, genius script editor, prolific novelist and creator of the Time Lords.
• DOCTOR WHO IN THE 1970s!
  An exploration of how Doctor Who reflected the real world during the 1970s.
• TIME CAPSULE!
  We vworp back to revisit what was happening during a single month in Doctor Who history: November 1977.
• DOORWAY TO HELL!
  Part One of a brand-new comic strip adventure, set in 1973, written by Mark Wright and illustrated by Staz Johnson.
• THE BRAIN OF MORBIUS!
  1970s Doctor Who meets Gothic horror, as the TARDIS lands on Karn in this issue’s Fact of Fiction.
• THE DWM REVIEW!
  A look back of the 2016 Christmas Special The Return of Doctor Mysterio, plus all the latest audio releases.
• PREVIEWS!
  A look ahead to all the latest Doctor Who CD and book releases, coming soon.
• AND! All the latest official news, competitions, and answers to The Watcher’s Christmas Quiz.

Doctor Who Magazine #508 is on sale from Thursday 12 January, price £5.99.