This week marks the eighth anniversary since the release of the first ever issue of Doctor Who Adventures.

To celebrate this milestone, we caught up with editor, Moray Laing, to discover more about the process of producing each edition, its recent record sales and what the future holds for the magazine.

Thanks to Moray for answering our questions – read the full Q&A below and follow him on Twitter @moraylaing_DWA!

The latest issue of Doctor Who Adventures, featuring lots of Ood facts, is on sale now.

Q. Hey, Moray. Firstly, how did your involvement with DWA originally come about?
A. Hello! I was working in children’s magazines as a writer at BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the BBC, at the time. After the success of the rebooted Doctor Who series in 2005, we decided to publish a magazine about Doctor Who for the pre-teen market. My initial involvement was coming up with loads of ideas along with the publisher and marketing team about what a young Doctor Who magazine could be about. I’ve always loved Doctor Who – I grew up and practically learned to read with Doctor Who Weekly and the Target books, so I had a clear idea of what we could do with it. Eight years on, I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve done.

Q. What’s a ‘typical’ day at the office like for you in your role as DWA Editor?
A. It varies, but there’s never a dull moment. There’s a lot of reading and planning – and being inspired by what the team constantly produce! It’s great fun putting a magazine together containing monsters! The production of the magazine – like any magazine – has to run like clockwork otherwise we’d never publish a magazine. We have writing deadlines, design deadlines, and the final press day deadlines – that final deadline is the day when the whole issue has to be sent to the printers. We talk about Doctor Who a lot too, because we all love it!

Q. What do you set out to achieve with each new issue?
A. Every issue of Doctor Who Adventures has to be exciting, entertaining and fun. One big adventure for the reader. You want the reader to lose themselves in the facts about the programme, enjoy the comic strip, learn loads of secrets and gain something new from it. Something interactive on the page too – maybe a quiz or something to tick off. Our readers like to make their mark on the page! We get loads of drawings every week – and loads of pictures of their collections of magazines and posters on their walls. We basically want to inspire and entertain children with facts about Doctor Who.

Q. As DWA is aimed at the show’s younger viewers, are there any “guidelines” you have to follow to ensure you achieve these aims?
A. We always follow BBC editorial policy, but like any publisher of children’s magazines, we are obviously very careful about the content we produce. The tone of the magazine has to be pitch perfect for the market, otherwise you’d alienate your audience (no pun intended). There can be some sad concepts in Doctor Who, particularly with regard to loss, so I am always mindful of this when, say, featuring a story about River or Rose. But basically, we like to celebrate the monsters and the adventures and marvel at them, along with the reader.

Q. How many people contribute to the process of putting one issue of the magazine together?
A. You might be surprised to learn we’re a relatively small editorial team – two of us write the magazine, one person designs it and we have a production editor who works on the more technical bits of putting a magazine together! There’s also a publisher and editorial director that I work closely with and beyond that we have production, marketing and advertising departments. We also commission a comic strip – this is brilliant because these are exciting unseen adventures for the Doctor and Clara! And then of course there’s the Alien Babies too, which always makes us laugh and it is very popular.

Q. How much say do the production team and ‘the powers that be’ have in what makes it into each issue?
A. The production team are across everything we publish – we’re dealing with their characters, after all. They’ve always been incredibly supportive of everything we’ve done with the magazine since the launch in 2006. Their biggest involvement every issue is with the comic strip. The BBC like to see what we’re going with the Doctor and Clara, and rightly so! It’s really helpful so that we avoid duplicating upcoming stories.

Q. As DWA is released fortnightly, how far in advance are you planning and creating the forthcoming issues?
A. I love to plan so I have plans across the whole year. We have a Doctor Who gift with each issue and we have them booked up quite far in advance. It makes planning easier, so we can tie it in with the editorial if appropriate.

Q. As DWA turns 8 years old, what factors would you say have contributed to its ongoing popularity?
A. We have all the characters and monsters from a visually strong and exciting series to play with. It’s an exciting brand with a lead character who can evolve and change and take you somewhere different all the time. We stand out in the market and there’s nothing like it.

Q. In recent months you’ve experimented with interactive issues and content. Are there any plans for similiar features in the future?
A. Yes, indeed! We’ve worked with Blippar – a free app that you can download – to create some really great interactive material, which has been great to work with. Want to turn yourself into an Ood and get extra monster pictures? Then Blipp the magazine! We were having this content every issue to start with, but we’ve moved it to every other issue for now. We also did a 3D issue around the 50th anniversary episode which tied in nicely with the story.

Q. DWA achieved record sales last year. How are you planning on maintaining this success?
A. We’ll maintain this by providing readers with great Doctor Who content! We share exclusive secrets from the set – it’s the place for young fans to get all the info they want to know about the series. Obviously, with a new Doctor arriving on our screens soon there will be loads of excitement around this later in the year too. We’re an official magazine and readers know they can rely on us for all the best facts about the show.

Q. Finally, what does the future, and beyond, hold for DWA?
A. We’ll continue to publish a magazine about Doctor Who while there’s demand for it! We’re planning loads of fun and exciting new features for the return of the series later in the year and have got some amazing gifts coming up. We’ve also got a digital version of the magazine (available to download from HERE and HERE), which is great. I would like to think that Doctor Who Adventures will run forever. If only we had a TARDIS – we could pop forward and see for ourselves!

See the latest Doctor Who products on sale now via our merchandise section!