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.

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

Original stories
Apart from the adventures of the Doctor's current incarnation (at that time the Fourth Doctor), Doctor Who Weekly also presented shorter stories by a different art and writing team, among them the then young and inexperienced comic writer Alan Moore and his later collaborator David Lloyd. 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 serving as "host" of the stories. The characters of Abslom Daak and Kroton eventually appeared in the main strip, and in the case of Daak, in other media.

After the Weekly had developed into Doctor Who Magazine, the 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.