The Doctor Who Archives

The Doctor Who Archives was a series of short adaptations of Doctor Who television stories printed in Doctor Who Weekly and Doctor Who Magazine.

Stories
Like the Target novelisations, the short stories of The Doctor Who Archives faithfully reproduced the events of TV episodes. Since reruns were rare and many older episodes had been lost, these were often the only way for fans at the time to experience the stories. The writers of The Doctor Who Archives generally aimed for accuracy but inevitably added their own stylistic touches to the summaries, choosing which parts of the story to emphasise in their summaries. Each story was accompanied by still images from the episodes.

The amount of real-world information provided alongside the adaptations varied. Some stories were followed by a box summarising the TV story's cast and crew, while others, particularly those printed after DWM began its "Doctor Who Episode Guide" series in DWM 50, provided only the broadcast date or the names of the cast in parentheses. Notably, a review of The Krotons was printed as part of The Doctor Who Archives in DWM 58.

Doctor Who Weekly
DWM 1 included a real-world feature called "The Story of Dr Who", which provided a brief background to the series and an overview of its four eras. It noted, "Given this unique opportunity, we intend to create our own time machine and, starting next week, take you back, way way back to 1963 and re-tell in words and pictures those first adventures of the Doctor."

- "The Story of Dr Who"

Beginning with DWM 2, Doctor Who Weekly included a short story adaptation of every serial from seasons 1 and 2 in order. Each story title was preceded with "Doctor Who Story" and a number, as given in the chart below. The adaptations of An Unearthly Child, The Daleks, and The Edge of Destruction were credited to Jeremy Bentham.

While the weekly series ended with the first story of season 3 in DWM 25,

Return and Doctor Who Magazine
The introduction to The Celestial Toymaker in DWM 40 emphasised its continuity with the prior series of : "At last! The return of those classic tales from the Dr Who TV archives!" Short story adaptations of episodes again became more common as Doctor Who Weekly transformed into a monthly magazine beginning with DWM 44, which featured two adaptations in a single issue for the first time.

The Doctor Who Archives
The title The Doctor Who Archives first appeared in DWM 52. to be added