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Doctor Who: Battles in Time is a trading card game and magazine published by GE Fabbri Ltd under licence from the BBC in the UK.
Magazine
- Main article: Doctor Who: Battles in Time (magazine)
Following a successful regional trial of a Doctor Who magazine and trading cards in the UK, the title was launched nationally in September 2006 by GE Fabbri Ltd.
Originally planned as a work in fifty-two parts issued fortnightly, the title was expanded with the launch of the Devastator series of two-hundred and fifty new cards. These featured graphics from the recently aired Series Four, and extended the life of the magazine title.
Each issue of the magazine included the following regular features;
- Gameplay: (Game playing suggestions and card information)
- Card Clash: (Two cards pitched against each other in battle)
- FAQ: (Episode guide)
- Centre-spread Monster Foldout: (Featuring cover topic)
- Comic Strip: (all-new Tenth Doctor adventures)
- Brain Buster Puzzles
- Personality Test
- Behind the Scenes or Dalek Wars (Search and Find): (A two-page CGI construction of a Dalek battle with narrative and things to discover activity)
Comic stories
- The magazine included a regular fortnightly, four page, individually titled, comic strip adventure, all of which from Issue 7 were drawn by Lee Sullivan (an artist with a long-standing relationship with Doctor Who), written by Stephen Cole (former BBC Books range editor and writer), and featured the Tenth Doctor.
- Prior to issue 7 the comic strip was drawn by John Ross and saw a reprint of the magazines regional test edition.
- Tying in with the launch of GE Fabbri Ltd's follow-on title Doctor Who DVD Files in 2009, the supporting website [1] offered the online archived subscription service. (for a subscription fee of £3 per month, or £25 per year) Readers were given unlimited access to more than six hundred pages of the magazine as it was released and a further 150 pages that made up the comic strips.
Specials
In addition to the regular fortnightly parts, a number of special issues were published, mostly to promote the launch of the next expansion set of trading cards.
- Daleks vs Cybermen Special, a series 2 tie-in
- Time Invader Special, a series 3 tie-in
- Ultimate Monsters Special, a general tie-in themed around monsters from both the 1963 and 2005 versions of Doctor Who
- Devastator Special, a series 4 tie-in
Trading cards
Trading cards were issued with the magazine. They could be purchased separately from newsagent retailers or some specialist shops.
More details about trading cards can be found in:
International distribution
Due to licensing restrictions, Battles in Time is one of a number of Doctor Who-related publications that has not been distributed beyond the British Isles. The availability of the BiT archive online in conjunction with Doctor Who DVD Files marks the first official international distribution of this content.
Additional gallery
Collector's Tin
A Tenth Doctor card
