The Year Ahead was the one-hundred-and-nineteenth instalment of Doctor Who?. It was printed in DWM 182 with a cover date of 25 December 1991.
Summary[]
The Doctor's lives are followed into the future: 1992.
Characters[]
- First Doctor
- Seventh Doctor
- Ben Jackson
- Polly Wright
- Sil
- Loyd Grossman
- Rainbow Dalek
- Dalek
- Cyberman
- Ice Warrior
- Sea Devil
- Nimon
- Tester
- DWM employee
Worldbuilding[]
- In January 1992, Dapol team-up with the manufacturers of My Little Pony to create Rainbow Daleks. Its packaging states they come with soap and bubble "action". One Dalek tells a tester of the product "You will be washed!".
- In March 1992, the Exhibition of Really Useless Ideas Used on Dr Who opens in Shrewsbury. A Nimon tells visitors that John and Gillian were unavailable but that Ben and Polly can fill their shoes.
- Also at the exhibition is a Sea Devil string vest display and a Quark and Chumbley role-play section.
- In April 1992, the Doctor returns to the screens on Through the Keyhole. The host finds a cloister bell in one corner of a bedroom before handing back to David.
- In June 1992, at long last, Dr Who: The Movie opens. It stars a multitude of "proposed" Doctors: one played by Donald Sutherland, one played by John Cleese, one played by Dudley Moore and one played by Rutger Hauer. It also stars Kevin Davies as the Doctor, causing moviegoers to exclaim "Who?" in unison.
- In September 1992, following important studies like "How many times has the Doctor been seen eating in the series?" and "How many times has the Doctor been seen singing in the series?", DWM prepares to answer the question "How many times has the Doctor been seen blinking since 1963?". It gets off to a rocky start as the conductor of the research confuses a squint for a blink and loses count.
- In October 1992, following the success of the Dan Dare TV series, the BBC announce the return of Doctor Finlay, another classic 1960s series about a doctor.
- In November 1992, several monsters including Daleks, Cybermen, Ice Warriors, Sea Devuks and Sil celebrate the programme's 29th anniversary by extracting the Earth's magnetic core. However, none of them know what to do with it.
Notes[]
- This story is a kind of sequel to The Year Ahead? which covered a potential 1991.
- As a result of the fact that DWM 182's three-panel Doctor Who? story remains intact, this marks the first time a second Doctor Who? story appeared over the course of a single issue.
- This marked the first Doctor Who? story published in black-and-white since DWM 145's instalment.
- This story marked the sole appearances of Ben Jackson, Polly Wright, Sil and the Nimon in the Doctor Who? series.
- This story accompanied an article written by Gary Russell in which he predicted the future of Doctor Who into 1992 within the same issue.
