Doctor Who Magazine/2012

Doctor Who Magazine's 2012 issues spanned from issue 442 to issue 454 and were published every four weeks by Panini Comics.

Tom Spilsbury continued as editor of the magazine.

Issue 442 had a cover price of four pounds 99 pence (£4.99) and cover artwork specially commissioned from artist Vince McInoe. The inspiration was the Christmas 1923 issue of Radio Times (which had previously been updated for the Christmas 1994 edition with art provided by Bob Venerables). The increased cover price reflected the increased page count of 100 pages with a seasonal theme and extended coverage of The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe.

Issue 443 saw a return to the regular cover price of four pounds 50 pence (£4.50) for 84 pages for the remainder of the year following the previous issue's 100 page Christmas Special.

A major interview with Robert Banks Stewart in issue 443 saw the first release of the year to feature variant covers. Both covers featured the Fourth Doctor, but with luminous orange lettering for a Terror of the Zygons theme and green for The Seeds of Doom.

Issue 444 followed the recent decade cover themes of 60s and 70s with a 80s theme and Sophie Aldred (Ace) interview. Also cover noteworthy is the flash reading “The world’s No1 top selling sci-fi monthly magazine” that would feature throughout the year.

With news that the Series 7 episode Asylum of the Daleks will feature every type of Dalek ever seen on screen, issue 447 featured a special fold out cover (by Gavin Rymill) with no less than nineteen different Daleks and an identification guide inset.

Issue 450 with an increased cover price to £4.99 (UK), was a bumper 100 page issue that featured a tribute to actress Caroline John who played companion Liz Shaw as well as a number of Patrick Troughton weighted features.

Issue 454 was cover dated "Winter 2012 / 2013" this was the the first issue of the magazine to bear a seasonal cover date since DWMS Summer 1995. The somewhat unusual cover date was necessitated by the return to month-only cover dates on issue 450. Since Doctor Who Magazine is published on a 4 week schedule rather than a monthly schedule it has 13 issues a year. Issue 454 was the "odd" issue of the year that did not fit the month-named cover date for 2012.

Premiums offered to readers this year included;

Issue 443 free download of the first episode of The Foe from the Future a new Fourth Doctor adventure by Robert Banks Stewart.
Issue 448 free exclusive download of The Revenants – a brand new audio adventure featuring William Russell (Ian Chesterton) and Sharon Small.
Issue 450 was bagged and included a giant double-sized poster featuring on one side the Ninth, Tenth and Eleventh Doctors and on the other the recent Dalek photo-montage used on the cover of issue 447.