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andrew_j_r's review against another edition
5.0
This book goes into the history of the first three series of Doctor Who in a ridiculous amount of detail. I am a lifelong fan and there is loads of stuff in here that I just did not know (and also discovered that Paul from the Cadmium 2 podcast had read in in preparation for the shows, given how often his so-called spontaneous observations turned out to be word for word quotes from this book!) and I have to say it is brilliantly researched and fascinating. I am rewatching the DVDs of the series in order (including the extras) and there is stuff in this book that is not mentioned at all.
Very impressed, will continue to read more in the series.
Very impressed, will continue to read more in the series.
nwhyte's review against another edition
http://nhw.livejournal.com/796625.html[return][return]The authors state firmly that they have provided "the most comprehensive, wide-ranging and at times almost shockingly detailed handbook to Doctor Who that you might ever conceivably need" and though it is a pretty large claim, I think they have succeeded. As well as description of each story, evaluation of how well it succeeded, and variably straight-faced attempts to reconcile continuity issues, there is some very good analysis of just how Doctor Who fitted into the BBC and British culture in general, and what its influences, both inward and outward, were. I should have spotted some of this - for instance, the foreshadowing of things later used in Blake's Seven in The Keys of Marinus; or the influence of J.R.R. Tolkien on The Daleks. I especially liked the embedding of long essays on specific broader topics in boxes inside the story-by-story narrative. This is a difficult trick to pull off, but they've done it well, including topics like the true history of the Daleks (twice), unpacking the classical roots of The Myth Makers, and explaining Z Cars.
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