TIMEFRAME – THE ILLUSTRATED HISTORY
Released to celebrate 30 years of Doctor Who, Timeframe now looks a little
old-fashioned, a bit simple. But those artworks and pictures were etched into
my memory in a living, vivid way. I was eight years old and poured through the
book, time and time again, wondering about those stories I’d never seen. The
photo-strip from Paradise Towers with
the Doctor saying hello to the Kangs felt so frightening, the prose below
reading like a ghostly echo of a missing childhood. Some of those book cover
paintings, I’d love to have prints of now:
Time and the Rani looked astonishing, The
Hand of Fear so dynamic and the page split between The Rescue and The Romans
I absolutely loved. Perhaps best of all was The Mutants, the monster being so
frightening, it took me almost 25 years to notice the blue crystal in the
foreground. I took this book to a few conventions in the late 90s / early 00s.
Now, its torn cover and ripped pages conceal autographs of Elisabeth Sladen,
Bonnie Langford, Peter Purves and Anthony Ainley amongst others. It is utterly
treasured.
THE DOCTOR WHO
MAGAZINE 30TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL
Yes, I know it’s a mock-up of the Radio Times 10th
Anniversary Special but I singularly failed to be alive when that was released.
My totem of all Doctor Who knowledge ever was this magazine, cover adorned with
my Doctor. It is such a simple design
but completely beautiful. Exciting synopses and evocative photographs decorate
every page. Whistle-stop interviews with each Doctor and companion lie within,
the perfect length for this small boy to devour. The magazine was my Bible.
Then, awfully, and I don’t know how, I lost the cover. It must have come free
from its staples and the magazine was tarnished for good. Years later, I
bequeathed my Bible to a University friend who’d just discovered the wonder of
the series through the revival and was interested in the old episodes. It went
to a good home. And two years ago, I found a copy online. eBay is a wonderful
thing! What a joy to have rediscovered a thing from the past, which is what the
modus operandi of the magazine itself actually was.
THE DOCTOR WHO
TELEVISION COMPANION
1998. I discover a new Bible. Those bastions of Who lore, Howe and Walker, publish The Best Book Ever. Since then, it has been
republished unofficially, without the logo or photographs. It has also been
amended, added to and improved. To my mind though, that 1998 tome was the apex
of Doctor Who non-fiction. Every story was reviewed from a number of
perspectives, including contemporaneous and modern reactions. There was a full
list of cast credits for every story, a list of crewmembers, Things We Probably Never Knew about a
story, Things to Watch Out For in a story, a
list of cliff-hangers. It was the best guidebook the show has ever had,
including the Jan Marc-Lofficier publications, including The Legend. It has been so well-read at my house that the cover has
gone, the spine is damaged – indeed completely broken - but I will never be rid
of it. It almost means as much as the series to me.
DEATH TO THE DALEKS
The Target books do not warm the cockles of my heart quite
as much as fans of a certain generation. I did enjoy, however, seeing them as I
was growing up in second hand shops and wondering at the treasured words within
that older fans must have enjoyed so much in their youth. But Death to the Daleks is something of a
special case. I was on holiday in Cornwall – Mousehole to be precise - with my
grandparents and one of my younger brothers. Where my mother and father were, I
can’t tell you. Where my other brothers were is an even bigger mystery. But at
night, in a strange caravan with a younger brother and grandparents for
company, I needed a book. So off we went to the second-hand book shops that
frequent tiny villages such as Mousehole. There was one solitary, lonely Doctor
Who book, and a story I’d already seen but not much enjoyed: Death to the Daleks. I read it in less
than a week and loved every single page. I had completely forgotten the gallant
self-sacrifice at the end; the trip through the city of the Exxilons was
tremendously exciting; and… ZOMBIES! How had I not seen this story before? I
went home and watched it. And you know, it really was as good as the book. What a fabulous show Death to the Daleks is. The novel had shown me another side of the
TV show. The fact that it’s got the best cover art in the history of books is
the icing on the cake.
THE BRILLIANT BOOK
A recent edition to the list of brilliant books has got to
be… The Brilliant Book. It was the sort of annual we always wanted but never
got. Interviews, episode synopses, statistics and best of all… a mysterious cryptic
taste of things to come! There would be another edition the following year but
it was smaller and less tangibly… brilliant. The following year saw only half a
season on TV – not enough to fill a brilliant book - and so the Brilliant books
were no more. But in 2010, we were at the start of an exciting, new era and it
seemed like an exciting new better-than-the-annual book range was about to be launched.
It wasn’t to last. But that first one was stupidly exciting. It remains a thing
of beauty, the individual episode illustrations by Lee Binding worth the asking
price alone.
THE CRUSADE – THE SCRIPT
BOOK
My brother Jim knows how much I love The Crusade. I always have. I loved The Wheel of Fortune for a long, long time. The Hartnell Years VHS was watched time and again to experience
those wonderful 25 minutes. Then The Lion
turned up and that beautiful VHS boxset was watched over and over again too. Lost in Time yielded some remastered
editions, again watched repeatedly. I can shamelessly quote so very many
passages of The Crusade. “It is the devil’s own embrocation.” “We are the only
day and night for you, hunter.” “Perhaps I should ride with craftsmen and leave
my knights at home.” Oh, what great beauty that script held! And one birthday,
from the other side of the country, comes a little parcel from my brother and
it contains a long since deleted edition of The
Crusade script book. He lives in Norwich; I in Oldham. Getting the book in
the post let me know he was still there with me. It remains one of my most
treasured paperbacks.
THE SCALES OF
INJUSTICE / BUSINESS UNUSUAL
Gary Russell’s contribution to the Doctor Who mythos is
gargantuan. Not only did he mastermind the first 92 Big Finish releases – and
weren’t they just classics? – but he ran the magazine, wrote comic strips,
reviews, and of course, novels. Gary’s novels are always page-turners. He
doesn’t go in for poetry but, like Terrance Dicks, he writes rattling good
yarns and I love them all! Invasion of
the Cat People; Beautiful Chaos; Big Bang Generation. If it’s got Gary’s
name on it, it’ll fly by! This pair of books come as a twinset. There are
recurring characters which purposely bind the Virgin and BBC novels’
continuities together. Gary has such a great handle on the Silurians and the
Autons and other continuity references abound in both novels, but they are done
to enrich the world of Doctor Who. (We hear of the links between UNIT and
Counter-Measures, for example.) Gary’s books are as thrilling as any Who novel and
only those fans without a heart pooh-pooh them. He has no agenda except to
entertain and entertain he most certainly does! Thanks Gary.
WHO ON EARTH IS TOM
BAKER?
1997. I am 12 years old and Tom Baker is coming to Oldham! He
is publicising his autobiography and he’s going to be in Hammicks bookshop
until 4:00pm. Unfortunately, I’m at school until 3:30pm and Hammicks is a
twenty-minute bus ride away. I race for the bus. It’s late. I sit on it
desperate for the driver to put his foot down. He doesn’t. I race from the bus
stop through the shopping centre, up the escalators and into Hammicks. And Tom’s
gone.
I am devastated.
Three months later, Christmas Day arrives. I have long since
forgotten the Tom Baker Hammicks debacle and am jollily opening my presents.
When what should I come across? Of course, my Dad had been to Hammicks. Of
course, he had got Tom’s autograph. And of course, it was addressed to me. It
was the first Christmas present to make me cry.
I read the book a good while later. It is blisteringly funny. Every Doctor Who fan should read it!
THE ENGLISH WAY OF
DEATH
I’d heard a lot about Gareth Roberts’s books. His novels
held the top four positions in the DWM 1998 survey. The top four! And The English Way
of Death had a reputation like no other. Could it live up to it? It did.
And then some! Roberts writes Season 17 stories without any bad bits. In short,
his three Tom Baker novels are as good as City
of Death. But The English Way of
Death is the best. I’m thrilled that it has been re-issued for others to
enjoy. And the Big Finish release has Tom bloody Baker in it! The book’s the
best though. And the illustrations are gorgeous!
THE BLOOD CELL
A recent mega-hit for me and a novel with a very unusual
structure. It is told from the perspective of the prison governor and we see
the Doctor through his eyes. It’s a wise move from James Goss who was writing
this before Peter Capaldi’s first season had even been made. Surprisingly, he
gets Peter’s Doctor down to a tee. He’s flippant, sarcastic, brilliant and
beneath the surface, immeasurably kind. The unique narrative viewpoint draws
one into the book and then pulls one through it. In fact, it’s a non-stop
adventure yarn disguised as a diary. Once it gets under your skin, you can’t put
The Blood Cell down. Hugely
recommended!
THE NEW AUDIO
ADVENTURES
One of the best non-fiction Doctor Who books ever published
in that it is so candid! It wouldn’t
happen these days. But this was a time when Eric Saward, Gary Downie, even Colin
Baker were beginning to give warts-and-all interviews to DWM. Similarly, this
compelling book pulls no punches. We hear why Jonathan Blum only wrote one
script; what the nightmare of Minuet in
Hell was; and of the disastrous period making Neverland
and Real Time and why Neverland was released three weeks late.
It is full of gossip. And who doesn’t
enjoy a smattering of Celebrity Who Fan Goss?
And that's your lot for now! There are so many fabulous Doctor Who books, that maybe this deserves a follow-up piece? Whilst I'm here though, I'd like to give honourable mentions to:
- Mike Tucker and Robert Perry's Matrix, which is haunting and dark and the only Who novel I've read twice.
- the recent Whographica which is an astonishing piece of work and perfect toilet reading (surely the only true litmus test of a great publication). I could stare at it all day.
- The Twelve Doctors of Christmas has got to be another perfect Doctor Who treasury- beautifully illustrated with 12 cracking tales within. I think it'll come off the shelf every Christmas in my house...
I'm sure we all have our favourites. Why not let us know what yours are in the comments box below? We'd love to hear from you!
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