The Basics - Issue 195, 20 January 1993. The front cover has a photo from The Two Doctors, which is the subject of this issue's Archive. More free postcards are given away inside.

Indicia - "They spend thousands of pounds restoring us to glorious colour," growled Azal darkly, "and yet I still have a stupid fuzzy blue line around me everytime I move!"

News And Views - There are rumours that BBC Home Video may consider producing a special Thirtieth Anniversary drama production, with a strong cast and a popular director. Rumours also abound that Eric Saward will be writing the novelisations of his two Eighties Dalek adventures for Target.

New Fiction - The Brief Encounter "In The Community" sees Ace meet the girl from Remembrance of the Daleks some twenty years on. This issue's Prelude is for Transit.

Reviews - Off The Shelf reviews The Universal Databank ("the most worthless, inconsequential and ultimately pointless waste of tree pulp ever put on a shop's shelf") and Transit ("a great science fiction novel masquerading as a totally awful DW book").

Boxpops - Parts One to Four of Genesis of the Daleks are repeated on BBC2 from Friday 8 to Friday 29 January at 7.15pm. ITV companies Carlton, Meridian, Westcountry and GMTV begin broadcasting on 1st January.

Top of the pop charts throughout January 93 was the continuing I Will Always Love You.

Skaro Says - Although this is now from his era, Si Hunt remembers nothing about this issue apart from the cover! He was disappointed though with the saccharine and inferior cover version of such a great song (I Will Always Love You). Similarly, the only thing that Andrew Curnow can remember is the cover! Jason Thompson also remembers the cover, and remembers being excited that there was a story called The Two Doctors, with the Archive making it look quite good. Logo Polish remembers the Archive Extra on A Fix With Sontarans, including a couple of screen grabs. James Lindsay recalls buying this issue the day college finished for Christmas. He remembers the cover, the free postcards, the Laurence Payne interview and the Transit Prelude. He never usually read the Brief Encounters, but he did buy the Universal Databank.

Critique - As I'm sure I've mentioned previously in these critiques, the fiction aspects of the magazine have usually tended to be my least favourite items. However, as with all rules there are exceptions, and this issue's Brief Encounter is one that I retained a good memory of. To see the effect on normal human beings of their involvement with the Doctor is something the new series has picked up on to great effect, and is something the original TV series rarely concerned itself with, but the seeds of modern Who are already being sown here in my opinion. Something else that would be picked up years later, but in the magazine itself this time, is the mini-Archive on In A Fix With Sontarans - with the Archive Extras on various spin-offs becoming a regular fixture a decade later as the Archives were winding down. The annual review of the year just gone (1992 here) and glimpse ahead to the 30th anniversary year makes for a good read, and, somewhat ironically given the time of writing this article, What The Papers Said covering the end of the Tom Baker era and the casting of Peter Davison, fits in nicely with the recently released New Beginnings DVD boxed set!