Doctor Who Magazine #405

Issue 405 of Doctor Who Magazine was released today and is now on sale across the United Kingdom and Ireland. This issue features an exclusive interview with Matt Smith who will be taking on the role of The Eleventh Doctor in 2010. You can read the press release for the magazine below:

The Eleventh Doctor Speaks... in DWM 405!

Following in the tradition of previous Doctors, Paul McGann, Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant, the Eleventh Doctor Who – Matt Smith – has given his first interview to the official Doctor Who Magazine.

In Issue 405 (published Thursday 5 February 2009), Matt talks exclusively in his only interview since getting the role...

On how he plans to go about playing a 950-year-old Time Lord:
“The script is where it starts, it’s always about the words, and luckily we’re in the hands of Steven Moffat [Doctor Who’s incoming Head Writer], who has this show ingrained in his soul and searing through his blood. It’s really born into his whole fabric – and that’s the job for me over the next few months, to make this show part of my fibre. I think Steven is going to be the main creative source for me, and we’re going to discover it together – who the Doctor is in Steven’s mind and words, coupled with pockets of my personality, my history, my life, and the man and the human being that I am. I’ve got a meeting with Piers [Wenger, executive producer] next week to discuss that, but I think we’ll start rehearsing and, you know, just sit around Piers’ or Steven’s kitchen table, read the scripts together, talk about the part. We’ll talk about my intentions, their intentions, how we feel it can fly, and sing, and be as brilliant and as Doctor-y and as excellent as it can be.”

On what he might wear as the Doctor:
“I’m a big fan of long coats and rather dashing scarves in everyday life, so who knows? For the audition, I rocked up in whatever, so I think they’re having to tone down what I wear in real life for the Doctor! I am a rather elaborate dresser. That’s what’s lovely, there are all these exciting things – what’s he going to wear, what’s he going to do in his first scene with his companion, which monsters will he meet, will he meet the Daleks? This show is so alive, it really is. I can’t ever quite forget that I’m the Doctor – which is weird, because it’s still so far away. But it’s always there in my subconscious, because it’s the Doctor! It’s like, there’s Sherlock Holmes, James Bond, and Doctor Who. It has resonance in our cultural fabric.”

Also in DWM 405:

NEW DOCTOR DAY!
Showrunner-in-waiting Steven Moffat shares exclusively with DWM readers just what it's like to cast a new Doctor Who in Production Notes.

REALITY TV?
Remember the Zygon gambit? The Yeti in the Underground? Or that, frankly, unmissable invasion by thousands of Daleks after Earth was transported billions of miles across space? DWM investigates why so many people in the Doctor Who universe, apparently, don't!

SUSIE CUES!
She's worked on some of the most highly-acclaimed Doctor Who stories of all time! Susie Liggat talks candidly to DWM about her experiences as the producer of the UK's best-loved drama series.

ANTIMATTER MATTERS!
It could mean the end of the universe! The Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith journey to the furthest reaches of space and encounter anti-matter monsters as The Fact of Fiction revals some surprising secrets about 1975's Planet of Evil.

DAY OF THE LOKHUS!
Can the Doctor and Majenta prevent the Day of the Lokhus? And what will become of Maxwell Edison? Find out in the final thrilling part of DWM's latest comic strip, The Stockbridge Child by Dan McDaid, with art by Martin Geraghty.

DEAR MATT SMITH...
Neil Harris writes an open letter to Eleventh Doctor Matt Smith, full of helpful – and not so helpful! – advice, in You Are Not Alone.

DWM turns the tables on the BBC's 'Doctor Who correspondent' as we ask the questions of the one-and-only Lizo Mzimba in Who on Earth Is!

Plus! News, previews, reviews, competitions and more!

Doctor Who Magazine #405 is out now at the price of £3.99. Issue #406 of the magazine will be released on the 5th of March and will feature the latest news, interviews and the monthly comic strip.