DWM backup comic stories

In the early days of Doctor Who Magazine, short backup comic stories appeared in addition to the issue's main story. These strips typically did not include the Doctor and tended to focus on other characters within the wider Doctor Who universe. Most backup comic stories were published prior to 1982, and so were printed in issues that otherwise featured the Fourth Doctor.

The term "DWM backup comic story" does not actually designate a formalised series. There was never a masthead featuring the term, and there was no particular consensus as to which strips could be considered "backups".

On this wiki, the term means any strip appearing in any issue of DWM or its predecessors which: Therefore, strips under the Tales from the TARDIS banner, or TV21 Dalek Chronicles reprints are not covered by this article.
 * is set in the DWU
 * doesn't feature the Doctor, or at least doesn't use him as the main protagonist
 * is original to the pages of DWM

Overview
Because the format of Doctor Who Weekly originally included a greater concentration of comic strips, there were initially two creative teams. One group — Dave Gibbons, Pat Mills and John Wagner — was assigned to the "main" strip. This was the strip that was often featured on early covers and involved the Fourth Doctor. It then fell to another team which featured a number of creatives, but initially Alan Moore, Steve Moore and David Lloyd, who made strips that didn't involve the Doctor. These tended to feature well-known villains, such as the Daleks - and later the Cybermen and Sontarans - among others. These appeared regularly until issue 59 with the Doctor often serving as "host" of the stories by appearing in the opening and closing frames as a kind of narrator. Occasionally, the strip produced brand new characters, like Abslom Daak and Kroton, who would eventually be worked into the main strip.

DWM #64's The Fires Down Below was the swansong of the original concept of the backup strip in the pages of DWM. Secondary stories that appeared thereafter were not original, but rather reprints from TV Century 21 or, more rarely, TV Comic. The original concept of the Disregarding "special issues" of DWM, the next time a non-Doctor story appeared in the regular series was a few similar attempts was effectively the death knellAfter Weekly changed its name to Doctor Who Magazine, back-up strip was used largely as a standalone prelude adventure that would be picked up or referenced in the main Doctor-led (usually epic) comic strip, or when a continuing story got waylaid by production difficulties.

Re-prints
Doctor Who Weekly also presented some reprints. It re-published black and white versions of the The Dalek Chronicles as The Dalek Tapes, and entirely unrelated original Marvel Comics science fiction stories and adaptations of classic works as "Tales from the TARDIS". The Doctor also introduced these.

Doctor Who Magazine

 * 1-4: Return of the Daleks
 * 5-7: Throwback: The Soul of a Cyberman
 * Introducing Kroton.


 * 8: The Final Quest
 * Sontarans.


 * 9-11: The Stolen TARDIS
 * 12: K9's Finest Hour
 * 13-14: Warlord of the Ogrons
 * 15-16: Deathworld
 * Ice Warriors and Cybermen.


 * 17-20: Abslom Daak... Dalek Killer
 * 21-22: Twilight of the Silurians
 * 23-24: Ship of Fools
 * Kroton.


 * 25-26: The Outsider
 * Sontaran.


 * 27-30, 44-46: Star Tigers
 * Abslom Daak.


 * 31-34: Yonder... The Yeti
 * 35-38: Black Legacy
 * Cybermen.


 * 40-43: Business as Usual
 * Autons.


 * 47: Star Death
 * Rassilon and the Time Lords.


 * 48: Touchdown on Deneb-7
 * K9 solo.


 * 49: Voyage to the Edge of the Universe
 * Azal.


 * 50: Crisis on Kaldor
 * Sandminer robots.


 * 51: 4-D War
 * Time Lords.


 * 56: The Greatest Gamble
 * The Celestial Toymaker.


 * 57: Black Sun Rising
 * Time Lords.


 * 58, DWMS Winter 1981: Skywatch-7
 * A Zygon.


 * 59: The Gods Walk Among Us
 * Sontaran.


 * DWMS Winter 1981: Tales of the Time Lords: Minatorius
 * 61: Devil of the Deep
 * Sea Devil.


 * 64: The Fires Down Below
 * UNIT, Dominators and Quarks.


 * DWMS Summer 1982: The Fabulous Idiot
 * Ivan Asimoff.


 * DWMS Summer 1982: A Ship Called Sudden Death
 * Free-Fall Warriors.


 * DWMS Holiday 1992: City of Devils
 * Sarah Jane Smith and the Silurians.


 * 183: Conflict of Interests
 * Foreign Hazard Duty and Sontarans.


 * The Cybermen
 * 215-220: The Dead Heart
 * 221-223: The Flesh Unbound
 * 224-226: The Black Sky
 * 227-229: The Hungry Sea
 * 230-233: The Dark Flame
 * 234: The Future Perfect
 * 235-238: The Ugly Underneath


 * 249-254: Return of the Elders
 * a continuation of The Dalek Chronicles


 * 277: Unnatural Born Killers
 * Kroton and Sontarans.


 * 311: Character Assassin
 * The Master in the Land of Fiction.


 * 318: Me and My Shadow
 * Shayde and Fey Truscott-Sade.