Nicholas Pegg has worked with the Time Lords’ deadliest foe – the Daleks – since the BBC series was rebooted in 2005.
Under pen-name The Watcher, he launched an extraordinary attack on BBC Worldwide , which distributes the sci-fi show, and Panini, who publish the magazine.
For reasons that are not entirely clear, Pegg has included a coded message in the current edition of Doctor Who Magazine.
The first letter of each sentence in his column spells out, “Panini and BBC Worldwide are ****s.”
The digital version of the page has been altered and Pegg will not be returning to either job.
Fans have speculated he was annoyed about a decision not to release a DVD of Shada, an unaired serial of the show from 1979-80.
Pegg headed his Wotcha column, “the page that is not something to be shuffled off onto some stray boffin”.
He added a clue at the end, which reads: “If you look hard enough there is always something hidden in plain sight.”
A BBC Worldwide spokesman said: “The matter was raised with the publisher who have dismissed the writer.”
No surprise there.
It turns out Pegg was not due to be involved in the new series, starring Jodie Whittaker and Bradley Walsh. Perhaps he had just had enough of crouching inside a small metal dome, yelling “exterminate”. But there must be better ways to leave your job...
Via the Mirror by Nicola Methven
