A Letter from the Doctor (series)

A Letter from the Doctor were short, in-universe letters "written" by DWU characters, typically, but not limited to, the Doctor. Beginning in the first issue of Doctor Who Weekly, A Letter from the Doctor remained a recurring feature for the first dozen or so issues, eventually being devolved into an occasional feature thereafter being reserved for celebrating milestones in the publication's history.

Originating in the Fourth Doctor's role as the "host" of Doctor Who Weekly, the stories often (but not always) treated Doctor Who Magazine as an in-universe periodical. The letters were associated with their distinctive sign-off "happy times and places".

Original letters
For reasons of production, the original few issues of Doctor Who Weekly were mostly created before the first issue's publication, meaning they didn't have material for the letters feature Who Cares! (in which readers would write in to the magazine and its host, the Fourth Doctor). Instead, to preempt Who Cares! these issues had letters to the readers from the Doctor, inviting them to write him back. These original stories were actually written by Dez Skinn, but he kept it a secret to keep the illusion that "the Doctor" had actually written them.

The letters tied together the Doctor's curatorial role across the magazine, mentioning the concurrent DWM comic stories, Tales from the TARDIS and the DWM backup comic stories (the latter two of which also directly featured him in the role of host). After Who Cares! began as a feature in DWM 7, the letters continued for 9 issues of Skinn's editorship as the Doctor took on a more traditional British comics host role in his Who Cares! appearances.

New-look Weekly letters
Doctor Who Weekly' "new-look" which debuted in DWM 26 brought back the Doctor's letters with a dedicated box on the inner cover to each issue. Shorter and less frequently featuring the Doctor's personality as time went on, these letters were replaced in DWM 50 and onwards with non-fictional letters from the magazine's editors at the start of each issue. Per the magazine's credits, these letters were likely written by either editor Paul Neary or assistant editor Jenny O'Connor.

Like the previous sequence of letters, the Doctor acted here as the magazine's host, with the letters discussing his role in curating the DWM comic stories, DWM backup comic stories, DWM prose stories, Dr. Who's Time Tales, and The Dalek Tapes. From DWM 43 onwards, the sign-off "happy times and places" was replaced with "have fun!".

One-off editorial throwbacks
For special occasions, later issues of Doctor Who Magazine reverted the editor's letter into a fictional throwback to A Letter from the Doctor.

2000s Storybooks
A Letter from the Doctor was revived for the Annual-style publication, the Doctor Who Storybook. Most of the letters to date have been written by the show's producer and lead writer, Russell T Davies, with the exception of the Doctor Who Storybook 2009, when the letter was written by newly appointed showrunner Steven Moffat.

The letter in the Doctor Who Storybook 2010 — written again by Davies — was different in format from the others, appearing to be the transcription of a garbled transmission from the Doctor. It includes snippets of dialogue from Tenth Doctor television episodes going back to the incarnation's very first words. Because of this format, it was believed the first words of the letter, "Don't forget me", might have been the last words of the Tenth Doctor in The End of Time; instead, these were his final words to Sarah Jane Smith in The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith.

Peter Capaldi's letters
First in the issue announcing his role as the Twelfth Doctor and later in the celebratory DWM 500, Peter Capaldi wrote letters published in DWM in the style of A Letter from the Doctor.

Doctor Who Adventures
When Panini Comics began publishing Doctor Who Adventures in 2015, they updated the magazine to be a "sister publication" to Doctor Who Magazine, with elements evoking DWM's more child-oriented origins as Doctor Who Weekly. Alongside the UNIT Command Centre feature taking queues from UNIT Hotline, letters from the Twelfth Doctor in the same format and style as Weekly's letters appeared at the start of each issue.

A Letter from the Producer
Starting in 2022, a non-fiction DWM feature by Russell T Davies has homaged A Letter from the Doctor in name and artwork.