The Basics - Issue 147, April 1989. The main photo on the front cover is from The Sea Devils. There are four extra colour pages for this issue only, back up to 40 pages, for no extra cost. From this issue, Gary Gilbert is credited with Design Assistance.

News And Views - The third writer announced for Season 26 is newcomer Rona Munro. No old monsters are as yet scheduled to re-surface in the new season. The Ark in Space was released on VHS in Australia at the end of January - no British release dates for further DW videos have been announced. The Ultimate Adventure stage play opens on March 23rd, written by Terrance Dicks and with the Doctor being played by Jon Pertwee - Colin Baker having turned down the role. SuperChannel have begun transmitting DW again in double episode format on Sunday mornings. Season 24 was sold to Japan in January. The final part of The Greatest Show In The Galaxy had 6.6 million viewers - the highest figure since Revelation of the Daleks almost four years earlier.

Review - The Greatest Show In The Galaxy is reviewed - "sheer brilliance; the best story since Caves of Androzani".

Notables - There is an eight page, full colour, pullout guide to Season 25, and an obituary to Terence Dudley, who passed away on Christmas Day 1988.

Other Regulars - The complete comic strip, Follow That TARDIS!, features The Meddling Monk and the Sleeze Brothers and is drawn by five artists.

Boxpops - Top of the pop charts in April 89 were the continuing Like A Prayer and Eternal Flame by the Bangles.

Critique - This would have been the last issue I got for almost six months (as explained last time), and was a good one to finish on. The extra colour pages were used well on an eight page fold out guide to Season 25, which went into much more detail about the making of the stories than we had ever seen at that time in the magazine - a real pointer of things to come in future years. I never knew that Colin Baker had actually turned down the role of the Doctor for the stage play, which makes it all the more unusual that shortly afterwards he would take over from Jon Pertwee. The comic strip was quite good fun for a one-off, and I like the way the Sleeze Brothers are peeking out of the front cover! The summing up of Greatest Show as quoted above seems somewhat over-enthusiastic to me!
Paying the Bills