A Letter from the Doctor (series)

A Letter from the Doctor were short, in-universe letters "written" by DWU characters, typically, but not limited to, the Doctor. Beginning in the first issue of Doctor Who Weekly, A Letter from the Doctor remained a recurring feature for the first dozen or so issues, eventually being devolved into an occasional feature thereafter being reserved for celebrating milestones in the publication's history.
Originating in the Fourth Doctor's role as the "host" of Doctor Who Weekly, the stories often (but not always) treated Doctor Who Magazine as an in-universe periodical. The letters were associated with their distinctive sign-off "happy times and places".
== Stories ==
=== Original letters ===
For reasons of production, the original few issues of Doctor Who Weekly were mostly created before the first issue's publication, meaning they didn't have material for the letters feature Who Cares! (in which readers would write in to the magazine and its host, the Fourth Doctor). Instead, to preempt Who Cares! these issues had letters to the readers from the Doctor, inviting them to write him back. These original stories were actually written by Dez Skinn, but he kept it a secret to keep the illusion that "the Doctor" had actually written them.
The letters tied together the Doctor's curatorial role across the magazine, mentioning the concurrent DWM comic stories, Tales from the TARDIS and the DWM backup comic stories (the latter two of which also directly featured him in the role of host). After Who Cares! began as a feature in DWM 7, the letters continued for 9 issues of Skinn's editorship as the Doctor took on a more traditional British comics host role in his Who Cares! appearances.
# 	Title 	Author 	Main character
1 	DWM 1 	Dez SkinnMy Travels With A Time Lord: Finally getting Doctor Who in his own title	Fourth Doctor
2 	DWM 2 	Dez SkinnMy Travels With A Time Lord: Finally getting Doctor Who in his own title	Fourth Doctor
3 	DWM 3 	Dez SkinnMy Travels With A Time Lord: Finally getting Doctor Who in his own title	Fourth Doctor
4 	DWM 4 	Dez SkinnMy Travels With A Time Lord: Finally getting Doctor Who in his own title	Fourth Doctor
5 	DWM 5 	Dez SkinnMy Travels With A Time Lord: Finally getting Doctor Who in his own title	Fourth Doctor
6 	DWM 6 	Dez SkinnMy Travels With A Time Lord: Finally getting Doctor Who in his own title	Fourth Doctor
7 	DWM 7 	Dez SkinnMy Travels With A Time Lord: Finally getting Doctor Who in his own title	Fourth Doctor
8 	DWM 8 	Dez SkinnMy Travels With A Time Lord: Finally getting Doctor Who in his own title	Fourth Doctor
9 	DWM 9 	Dez SkinnMy Travels With A Time Lord: Finally getting Doctor Who in his own title	Fourth Doctor
10	DWM 10	Dez SkinnMy Travels With A Time Lord: Finally getting Doctor Who in his own title	Fourth Doctor
11	DWM 11	Dez SkinnMy Travels With A Time Lord: Finally getting Doctor Who in his own title	Fourth Doctor
12	DWM 12	Dez SkinnMy Travels With A Time Lord: Finally getting Doctor Who in his own title	Fourth Doctor
13	DWM 13	Dez SkinnMy Travels With A Time Lord: Finally getting Doctor Who in his own title	Fourth Doctor
14	DWM 14	Dez SkinnMy Travels With A Time Lord: Finally getting Doctor Who in his own title	Fourth Doctor
15	DWM 15	Dez SkinnMy Travels With A Time Lord: Finally getting Doctor Who in his own title	Fourth Doctor
16	DWM 16	Dez SkinnMy Travels With A Time Lord: Finally getting Doctor Who in his own title	Fourth Doctor
=== New-look Weekly letters ===
Doctor Who Weekly "new-look" which debuted in DWM 26 brought back the Doctor's letters with a dedicated box on the inner cover to each issue. Shorter and less frequently featuring the Doctor's personality as time went on, these letters were replaced in DWM 50 and onwards with non-fictional letters from the magazine's editors at the start of each issue. Per the magazine's credits, these letters were likely written by either editor Paul Neary or assistant editor Jenny O'Connor.
Like the previous sequence of letters, the Doctor acted here as the magazine's host, with the letters discussing his role in curating the DWM comic stories, DWM backup comic stories, DWM prose stories, Dr. Who's Time Tales, and The Dalek Tapes. From DWM 43 onwards, the sign-off "happy times and places" was replaced with "have fun!".
# 	Title 	Author	Main character
1 	DWM 26	TBA 	Fourth Doctor
2 	DWM 27	TBA 	Fourth Doctor
3 	DWM 28	TBA 	Fourth Doctor
4 	DWM 29	TBA 	Fourth Doctor
5 	DWM 30	TBA 	Fourth Doctor
6 	DWM 31	TBA 	Fourth Doctor
7 	DWM 32	TBA 	Fourth Doctor
8 	DWM 33	TBA 	Fourth Doctor
9 	DWM 34	TBA 	Fourth Doctor
10	DWM 35	TBA 	Fourth Doctor
11	DWM 36	TBA 	Fourth Doctor
12	DWM 37	TBA 	Fourth Doctor
13	DWM 38	TBA 	Fourth Doctor
14	DWM 39	TBA 	Fourth Doctor
15	DWM 40	TBA 	Fourth Doctor
16	DWM 41	TBA 	Fourth Doctor
17	DWM 42	TBA 	Fourth Doctor
18	DWM 43	TBA 	Fourth Doctor
19	DWM 44	TBA 	Fourth Doctor
20	DWM 45	TBA 	Fourth Doctor
21	DWM 46	TBA 	Fourth Doctor
22	DWM 47	TBA 	Fourth Doctor
23	DWM 48	TBA 	Fourth Doctor
24	DWM 49	TBA 	Fourth Doctor
=== One-off editorial throwbacks ===
For special occasions, later issues of Doctor Who Magazine reverted the editor's letter into a fictional throwback to A Letter from the Doctor.
# 	Title 	Author	Main character
TBA	DWM 154	 	Seventh Doctor
TBA	DWM 311	 	
=== Doctor Who Storybook ===
A Letter from the Doctor was revived for the Annual-style publication Doctor Who Storybook. All but the letter in the 2009 Storybook, written by newly appointed showrunner Steven Moffat, were written by the show's producer and lead writer Russell T Davies.
The letter in the 2010 Storybook was different in format from the others, appearing to be the transcription of a garbled transmission from the Doctor. It includes snippets of dialogue from Tenth Doctor television episodes going back to the incarnation's very first words. Because of this format, it was believed the first words of the letter, "Don't forget me", might have been the last words of the Tenth Doctor in The End of Time; instead, these were his final words to Sarah Jane Smith in The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith.
#	Title 	Author 	Main character
1	Storybook 2007	Russell T Davies	Tenth Doctor
2	Storybook 2008	Russell T Davies	Tenth Doctor
3	Storybook 2009	Steven Moffat 	Tenth Doctor
4	Storybook 2010	Russell T Davies	Tenth Doctor
=== Peter Capaldi's letters ===
First in the issue announcing his role as the Twelfth Doctor and later in the celebratory DWM 500, Peter Capaldi wrote letters published in DWM in the style of A Letter from the Doctor.
#	Title 	Author	Main character
1	DWM 464	 	Peter Capaldi
2	DWM 500	 	Peter Capaldi
=== Doctor Who Adventures ===
When Panini Comics began publishing Doctor Who Adventures in 2015, they updated the magazine to be a "sister publication" to Doctor Who Magazine, with elements evoking DWM's more child-oriented origins as Doctor Who Weekly. Alongside the UNIT Command Centre feature taking queues from UNIT Hotline, letters from the Twelfth Doctor in the same format and style as Weeklys letters appeared at the start of each issue.
=== A Letter from the Producer ===
Starting in 2022, a non-fiction DWM feature by Russell T Davies has paid homage to A Letter from the Doctor in name and artwork.
=== Doctor Who annuals ===
The official 2024 Doctor Who annual featured an instalment in this series featuring the Fourteenth Doctor. 
#	Title 	Author 	Main character 	
1	DWAN 2024	Paul Lang	Fourteenth Doctor	
== Footnotes ==
Category:Prose fiction overviews
Category:Doctor Who Magazine