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Due to COVID related issues, 2021 was a lean year for DWCA Publications output. Our apologies to all club members for the delays and thank you for your patience! Thankfully we are back on track for 2022 with a whole swag of exciting releases coming your way this year, starting with the long-delayed Data Extract 250-251 double issue.

Shipping to all club members in March, it features an exclusive interview with Katy Manning on her long connection to Australia, Pete McTighe takes us behind the scenes on the short films made for the Blu-ray collection releases, a tribute to Louise Pajo (Gia Kelly from Seeds of Death), written by her in her final days, a look at the real world Future Library, DE founder Dallas Jones looking at DE history and his own fandom origins, Craig Land’s epic comic as past companions team up to take on the Master, the Jason Towers comic telling the true story of Colin Baker climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge, UK correspondent Bel Bailey-Melouney takes us behind the scenes on Time Fracture and tours the filming locations of Flux, Dom Kelly looks back over series 11 and 12 to bring us a timely exploration of the Thirteenth Doctor, Tim Darby counts down tales of Gallifrey, Roger Reynolds introduces us to the Doctor’s neighbor at 78 Totters Lane and Lethbridge-Stewart joins the Time War.

Further releases throughout 2022 will include DE 252 (June), DE 253 (September), DE 254 (December), Zerinza Volume 6 (December) as well as the novel Trash Island by Dom Kelly (the first release in our new ongoing Eleanor series).

The Doctor Who Club of Australia has been quiet for some time due to a number of challenges related to COVID-19, but as the world begins to re-emerge so are we, with exciting plans ahead for 2022. DWCA Day Events for Sydney are back for 2022, with the following dates booked and more details to be announced soon regarding the programs (and special guests!) for these. In the meantime you can add 27 March, 8 May, 21 August, 9 October and 20 November 2022 to your calendar and plan to catch up once again with your fellow Whovians!

The DWCA Sydney Online Tavern is on 26 November, starting at 7 pm and running through to 9 pm.
If you’d like to take part, just before 7 pm please go to the DWCA Sydney Local Group on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/153888718054009

There you will see that I will have posted a link to the video room for Tavern that night. The video room will be called Dallas Room as this is the only way to get to the room. There will be lots to talk about with four chapters into the epic FLUX. Plus, don’t forget, if you can please, bring along 5 questions for the pub quiz part of the evening! Hope to see you there!

Happy 58th Anniversary everyone! And talking of anniversaries – own very own Dallas Jones has been working hard to figure out just what the exact anniversary date should be for the DWCA publication Data Extract…

Dating Data Extract – by Dallas Jones

The anniversary date of the beginning of Data Extract (DE) (or as it was known at its inception – Australasian Doctor Who Newsletter) is currently lost in the mists of time unless I can borrow a TARDIS. The only three people at its birth were me, Tony Howe and his mother, Rosemary. Unfortunately, Rosemary has passed away and it is down to my and Tony’s memory of those 41 years ago.

There is no documentation of the printing of the first DE as Tony printed it in his garage on a printer that the Sydney University Science Fiction Association (SUSFA) owned, he did have a diary of what he printed but did not start that until a few years later. As I was working for Telecom Australia at the time in a 9-to-5 job I could not do the newsletter during the week, other than gathering news and typing info up on my poor manual ribbon typewriter, which I had bought as a student in high school 10 years before. I needed access to Tony’s Remington golf-ball typewriter to type the issue up as it used a different process that produced clear crisp type. The only other documentation that would have provided dates would have been the receipts that would have been given to Tony for payment of the first posting of DE which went out with issue 17 of Zerinza. Unfortunately, such documentation is either lost or is somewhere buried in either Tony’s or my home.

Last year for the fortieth anniversary of DE it was published that November 24th was the anniversary date. This was based on the information, that appeared in the first issue, advising of Tom and Lalla’s upcoming marriage. So for the fortieth, I checked online and found that this event was reported in the UK newspapers on November 19th. I assumed that DE was posted with Zerinza the following Monday and thus the date of November 24th was arrived at. Since then I have checked with Tony and he is not sure on which day he posted Zerinza (which included the first issue of DE for free as a promotional offer launching the club’s newsletter with a subscription form) after DE was printed, so I assume the posting day as the 24th is incorrect and what day it was posted is currently not specifically known. So the best date to celebrate DE beginning would have been on the date on which it was probably printed Sunday, November 23rd.

Originally many years ago, without doing much checking, I thought that and printed that DE went out in October, I at that time forgot to look at the issue to see that it clearly had November on the front page. The October date had been mixed up in my mind as this was the time when I decided I wanted to help the club and do a newsletter and I spoke to Tony to get his approval to class any newsletter as a CLUB one and if it was OK if he could help me with printing it and promoting it. So DE came into fruition as an idea in October and into reality in November.

In the last few weeks with the 41st anniversary of DE coming up, I decided to see if I could further confirm this date and I spoke to Tony and he did some checking and advised me that he had found that on page 18 of Zerinza 17 it stated: “Since the newsletter was printed more news – another companion Nyssa…”. I looked at my copy to confirm this and I then followed up on the internet and found that the report of Nyssa as a companion was announced in the UK on Saturday, November 22nd. Thus the preparation of DE, ready to be printed, had to have been finished by the latest on Sunday 23rd during the day for me to have seen the completed printed issue on Sunday, otherwise the info about Nyssa would have been included. This means that the information about Nyssa came in after DE had been printed on November 23rd and before the last page of Zerinza was printed, sometime in the next couple of days, and Zerinza was posted, with DE included, later that week.

So Happy Anniversary Doctor Who and Happy Anniversary to Data Extract as well!

Dear Club Members – thank you so much for hanging in there during the Pandemic!

On Sunday 21 November 2021, the DWCA will be hosting its first day event since lockdown first started. Starting at 11 am and running through to 4 pm, this gathering will be taking place at our usual venue: Club Burwood, 97 Burwood Road, Burwood NSW 2134, . The DWCA Shop will operating during this time, letting you catch up on on items you may have put off and get ready for Christmas. Due to continuing government and venue restrictions, a maximum of 35 people in addition to the Committee will be able to attend on the day and all over the age of 16 will need to be able to provide proof of full vaccination. We strongly urge those wishing to attend to pre-purchase tickets via the club’s website at the link above.

Our Annual General Meeting will be running from 4pm through to 5pm. For those of you who wish to participate but do not fell able to attend in person, you will be able to participate via video hookup (link to be sent to members on Saturday 20th November).

Nominations for office bearer positions have now closed. The Returning Officer has received the following nominations:

President – Jon Andersen
Vice President – Darran Jordan
Treasurer – Brad Harrison
Secretary – Roger Reynolds

We hope to see you there on Sunday 21 November.

In Australia the last few years have seen each new episode of Doctor Who paired with an episode of the commentary show Whovians, featuring Rove McManus and team. Unfortunately the COVID-19 pandemic put pay to plans for more Whovians on the ABC to accompany the Flux story… fortunately for Australian fans the DWCA’s Newcastle Local Group has that covered! You can join their team on Zoom after each episode of Doctor Who: Flux airs on the ABC on Monday nights – where they will be running a Whovian Panel to discuss the events of each episode, share theories and partake in audience participation. The show will be called Zooming Whovians and has been set up as a Doctor Who Club – Newcastle Group event – so please join the excitement from 8:30 pm onwards every Monday night for the next six weeks. Just follow the Zoom link below straight after watching the new episode on the ABC to enjoy the show and take part in the conversation:
https://charlessturt.zoom.us/j/68053433630

Doctor Who returns to Australian screens with the new series premiere on Monday 1 November. While timed to coincide with All Hallows Eve in the UK, the time difference means it won’t screen here for Halloween. Instead, it will be available to stream from 6.20 am (AEDT) on ABC iview and will screen at 7.30 pm on ABC TV Plus. This whole series will comprise of one epic six-part adventure taking the Doctor and her friends to the edge of the universe and beyond, in a battle for survival. Make sure you tune in to discover what the Flux is and what it all means for the Doctor (plus, the Sontarans and Weeping Angels return)!

Due to COVID-19 and lockdown restrictions, this year’s DWCA Annual General Meeting (AGM) will be held online. The date for the AGM is 4 pm AEST on Sunday 21 November 2021. It will be available for all club members to attend via the freely available online conferencing software BigBlueButton, https://demo.bigbluebutton.org/, which has a built-in poll function for taking votes. The same conferencing software was successfully used for the 2020 AGM. The agenda for the AGM will include the President’s Report, the Treasurer’s Report and the Election of Office Bearers. With an online format you can log in no matter where you are geographically, so we would encourage all club members to attend.
Nominations for office bearers must be received by 22 October and the list of Nomineees will be published by 7 November, ahead of the AGM. The relevant form to nominate can be found here. Completed nomination forms should be mailed to the Returning Officer via this address:

PO Box 870
Epping  NSW 1710

An email with the invite code will be sent out to members the day before (Saturday 20 November).

The milestone celebration for Data Extract 250 will now be even bigger, consisting of a double issue, combined with 251, due to go out to members as soon as lockdown restrictions are eased in NSW, Australia. This bumper issue will be jam packed with a unique swag of exciting content, including:

News – a look at recent announcements and events relating to the Whoniverse
Regional Transmissions – checking in to see what local groups have been up to during lockdown
Timeline – a decade by decade look at Doctor Who in Australia from the 1960s to the 2010s
Katy Manning interview – an exclusive interview with club patron Katy Manning on her long connection to Australia
Remembering Louise Pajo – the actress who portrayed Gia Kelly in Seeds of Death reflects on her life in her final days; a tribute to a great actress and wonderful person, provided in her own words
In Memoriam – paying tribute to those recently lost to the Doctor Who community
Extracting Data Part Two – Dallas Jones concludes his reflections on the history of firsts seen in Data Extract
The Future Library – an exclusive interview with Scottish artist Katie Paterson and her Future Library project, making science fiction real
Becoming a fan – DE founder Dallas Jones reflects on how he first became a Doctor Who fan
The League of Extraordinary Companions – Craig Land’s epic comic script is brought to life by artists Steve Panozzo, Manuel Bouw, David Blewer, Jason Towers, Tessa Corrigan and River Tran
Old Sixie and the Bridge of Doom – the true story of how Colin Baker climbed the Sydney Harbour Bridge is brought to life with stunning art by Jason Towers
Lethbridge-Stewart and the War of Time – a new story exploring the Brigadier’s exploits during the Time War
A Fracture in Time – behind the scenes of the Doctor Who experience Time Fracture with UK correspondent Bel Bailey-Melouney
God is a Woman – a new article from Dom Kelly on the legacy of Jodie Whittaker
Junkyard – a look at recent fan opinions on the ever expanding Whoniverse
Countdown – Tim Darby counts down the top five Gallifrey stories

Remember that Data Extract is for DWCA members only, so please ensure your membership is up to date so you don’t miss out on this very special publication.

On 29 July 2021, the BBC announced that Chris Chibnall would be stepping down from his role as showrunner for Doctor Who and Jodie Whittaker would also be leaving her role as the Thirteenth Doctor. For the remainder of 2021 fans can look forward to a six part event serial. In 2022 this will be followed by three specials, the third and final special being a feature length adventure to farewell Jodie Whittaker, leading into the Doctor’s regeneration. With 2023 being the 60th anniversary of Doctor Who, many fans were speculating as to what the future was likely to hold… that is until the BBC announced that Russell T Davies would once again be taking the helm, both for the show’s 60th Anniversary and onto further series beyond.

Current showrunner Chris Chibnall stated: “It’s monumentally exciting and fitting that Doctor Who’s 60th anniversary will see one of Britain’s screenwriting diamonds return home. Russell built the baton that is about to be handed back to him – Doctor Who, the BBC, the screen industry in Wales, and let’s be honest everyone in the whole world, have so many reasons to be Very Excited indeed about what lies ahead.”

Russell T Davies was of course the showrunner who oversaw the successful return of Doctor Who in 2005. He worked with two Doctors, Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant, during his tenure. During that time he also launched successful spin-off shows The Sarah Jane Adventures and Torchwood. Needless to say, he is certainly a safe pair of hands to oversee the anniversary milestone. More than that, his approach to Doctor Who in the past has always been about pushing it forward, as exemplified by his decision not to start the relaunch in 2005 with a regeneration scene. All of which suggests that he will be looking toward new horizons for the show when he comes back to it in 2023.

“I’m beyond excited to be back on my favourite show,” Davies himself stated. “But we’re time-travelling too fast, there’s a whole series of Jodie Whittaker’s brilliant Doctor for me to enjoy, with my friend and hero Chris Chibnall at the helm – I’m still a viewer for now.”