EAGLE has a surprising number of connections with
Doctor Who. In the 1965 film
Doctor Who and the Daleks, based on the original TV serial from 1964, Peter Cushing as the Doctor is shown reading a copy of
EAGLE. Interviewed some years later by Chris Kelly for the
Clapperboard television show, Peter said that he had been a regular reader of
EAGLE.
In the mid sixties, three
Dalek annuals were produced by
Souvenir Press. The colour strips in these annuals and the covers were illustrated by Richard Jennings, a long time contributor to
EAGLE, who had drawn the
Storm Nelson and
Tommy Walls strips. The former
Dan Dare artist Bruce Cornwell also drew strips for the first two annuals. Jennings also drew a set of
Dalek sweet cigarette cards in 1964 and was the first artist to draw the
Dalek weekly strip for
TV Century 21 comic, beginning in January 1965. Eric Eden, another
Dan Dare artist (and writer), also drew this strip.
David Motton, who wrote the D
an Dare strip between 1962 and 1966, wrote several
Doctor Who scripts for
TV Comic in 1965 and two stories for the
Doctor Who Annual 1967. Another
EAGLE contributor, Pat Williams, who drew
Cavendish Brown M.S. and many factual strips for the weekly, drew several
Doctor Who strips for
TV Comic Holiday Specials and two for
TV Comic Annual 1968. He also drew a set of colour picture cards (and the cover for the picture card album) to be given free with
Wall's Sky Ray ice lollies in 1968. As
Wall's were not licenced to use the actor Patrick Troughton's image as the Doctor, Williams had to create a new likeness for the character. John M. Burns, who drew
Wrath of the Gods in the original
EAGLE, as well as
The Fists of Danny Pike, Dolebusters and a
Dan Dare adventure in the 1980s
EAGLE, drew a
Doctor Who strip for the
TV Comic Annual 1976 and a
Doctor Who Marvel Comic book
The Age of Chaos in 1994. In this book he worked with Barrie Mitchell, who had drawn
The Circus Wanderers and
Lightning Strikes Back in the final months of the original
EAGLE.
Harry Lindfield, who had drawn
Mark Question for
EAGLE drew
Doctor Who for
Countdown comic in 1970, before Gerald Haylock, who had drawn
Knights of the Road and
The Guinea Pig for
EAGLE took over
. He drew the strip between 1971 and 1973.
Dan Dare's creator Frank Hampson produced a large colour illustration for the
Radio Times Doctor Who Tenth Anniversary Special in 1973 and Frank Bellamy, who had illustrated
Dan Dare and
Heros the Spartan for
EAGLE, drew many short strip extracts from TV episodes of
Doctor Who for the
Radio Times in the mid seventies. Jim Baikie, who drew the
Dan Dare strip for the 1974
EAGLE Annual and would later draw
Bloodfang for the 1980s
EAGLE and a
Doomlord strip for the 1985
EAGLE Annual, drew several illustrations for
Doctor Who text stories for
Countdown and
TV Action Holiday Specials in the early seventies and
Doctor Who strips for their annuals.
Dave Gibbons moved from drawing
Dan Dare for
2000 A.D. comic in 1979 to draw
Doctor Who for the first 69 issues of
Doctor Who Magazine. The first story he drew was written by Pat Mills and John Wagner, who would later work on the first
Dan Dare story for the 1980s
EAGLE. Pat Mills
contributed a story called
The Song of the Space Whale for the
Doctor Who TV series in 1982, but it was never produced as Mills and the programme's script editor Eric Saward could not agree on certain elements of the story. It was later produced as a
Big Finish audio production in 2010 (retitled
The Song of Megaptera) and Mills has subsequently written more
Doctor Who stories for this range.
Andrew Skilleter, a founder member of the
Dan Dare Club from which our current society eventually emerged, illustrated forty nine covers from 1979 for the
Target novelisations of
Doctor Who adventures from the television series. He also illustrated
Doctor Who VHS covers, calendars, prints and the cover of the
Radio Times which featured the
Five Doctors anniversary special in 1983. He set up the
Who Dares publishing company in 1983, to publish
Doctor Who related material, but he also published Alastair Crompton's book about Frank Hampson
The Man Who Drew Tomorrow and the name of his company links Dan and the Doctor. He assisted Keith Watson on two
Dan Dare adventures for the
1980s
EAGLE, colouring one and colouring and partly inking the other. Keith himself, who worked on the
Dan Dare strip in both the original
EAGLE and the 1980s version, produced a full page illustration for David Banks' book about the
Cybermen from
Doctor Who in 1990, that was published by
Who Dares. Andrew Skilleter also contributed illustrations for this publication.
Grant Morrison wrote several
Doctor Who stories for
Marvel's Doctor Who Magazine in 1986
, before writing a
Dan Dare serial for
Revolver magazine in 1990 - 91.
There was almost a huge link between
Dan Dare and
Doctor Who in the 1990s when Colin Baker, who played the sixth Doctor, played Digby in a short audio drama made by some of the team who would later form
Big Finish Productions, who have made officially licensed
Doctor Who audios since 1999, in addition to adaptations of
Judge Dredd and
Strontium Dog from
2000 A.D. weekly and audio versions of lost
Avengers TV episodes, among other productions. The short
Dan Dare drama was made with the hope of getting financial support for a professionally produced serial, but it was not to be. The drama was written by Nicholas Briggs, who provides the voices for both the Daleks and the Cybermen in
Big Finish and B.B.C. Television
Doctor Who stories. It also featured David Banks, author of the
Cybermen book, who had played the Cyber Leader in the highly regarded
Doctor Who TV adventure
Earthshock, as Dan Dare and Nicholas Courtney, who had played Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart, one of the Doctor's best known companions in the TV series, played Sir Hubert Guest. Colin Baker is a self confessed fan of
Dan Dare and
EAGLE, despite being teased at school because he had the same name as a principal character in
EAGLE's long running text series
The Three 'J's. His predecessor as the Doctor, Peter Davison was also a boyhood fan of
EAGLE, revealing his enthusiasm in the first issue of the 1980s version.
Big Finish Productions eventually linked up with
Dan Dare when they
handled the distribution of
B7 Media's Dan Dare audio dramas from 2016 onwards.
John Ridgway drew a four part
Dan Dare strip for the new
EAGLE in 1990 and one for the
Dan Dare Holiday S
pecial the same year. He drew many
Doctor Who strips for the
Doctor Who Magazine between 1984 and 1993 and in 1991 he contributed a page to the
Comic Relief Comic in which Dan Dare and Digby met all the Doctors to date (up to and including Paul Mc Gann's portrayal). Another artist who also contributed to
Doctor Who strips in the
Magazine was Colin Andrew, who had drawn
Home of the Wanderers, The Guinea Pig and several factual strips for
EAGLE in the 1960s. John Freeman, who edited the
Doctor Who Magazine between 1990 and 1992, contributing to several
Doctor Who strips, wrote two
Dan Dare adventures that appeared in
Spaceship Away magazine in 2011 and 2017 and was employed as creative consultant on
B7 Media's Dan Dare audio series in 2016. Graham Bleathman has produced many
Dan Dare related cutaways and other illustrations for
Spaceship Away and a
Haynes Manual of spacecraft from
Dan Dare adventures. He also illustrated background scenes for the DVD cartoon release of the lost
Doctor Who serial
The Macra Terror, released in 2019. Martin Baines, who drew some
Dan Dare strips and illustrations for early issues of
Spaceship Away, has
subsequently illustrated several covers for the
Lethbridge Stewart series of books about the Doctor's popular companion. He has also illustrated covers for
Reeltime Pictures Doctor Who related DVDs releases, the cover of a book about
Doctor Who films published by
Telos and is soon to illustrate a forthcoming book about
Doctor Who objects
for
Candy Jar Books. He has recently illustrated a Dan Dare cover for
Comic Scene magazine to mark Dan's seventieth anniversary.
In addition to John Ridgway's page for the
Comic Relief Comic, there is one other occasion where the Doctor has met a version of Dan Dare. This was in the
Doctor Who New Adventures novel
The Dying Days, published in 1997 and written by Lance Parkin. Here the eighth Doctor (as portrayed by Paul McGann) meets a space hero called Alex Christian, which is an early name created by Marcus Morris for the character who Frank Hampson would develop into Dan Dare.
But one
EAGLE contributor actually wrote a televised
Doctor Who adventure. This was Peter Ling, creator of the previously mentioned
Three 'J's text serials, who wrote the 1968 story
The Mind Robber for Patrick Troughton's Doctor. Additionally it has often been claimed that Terry Nation's first
Dalek story for
Doctor Who was heavily influenced by Frank Hampson's first
Dan Dare story for
EAGLE and Kit Pedler, the co-creator of the Cybermen actually stated that they were inspired by Frank Hampson's Treens.
