Review Doctor Who in Print!

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
The behind the scenes books started to appear in earnest then.....

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This one went behind the scenes of The Visitation......
 

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
and this one went behind the scenes of Kinda...


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It was incredibly pretentious and basically incomprehensible, using incredibly long words, seemingly for the sake of it.


Quotes from it were used during the story Dragonfire, with the "Auxiliary performance codes" scene........
 
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Gavin

Member: Rank 6
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Then there were these, just as Tom Baker was leaving....

This went through reprints, eventually become an omnibus single volume....

and somebody has now done a New Who version......


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Oooh. I'm gonna have to go looking for the New Who Programme Guide. Unfortunately it will be out of date since there's new episodes appearing all the time (hopefully for a long time to come).
 

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
The twentieth anniversary brought us this handsome tome......

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Unfortunately, as one critic has pointed out, Peter Haining then went on to essentially keep rewriting the same book for years to come under various titles!
 

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
Jeremy Bentham, who had written all of the factual articles for the early Doctor Who Weeklies, then brought us this volume, presumably meaning it to be the first in a series, taking us up to the end of the Hartnell era....



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It did include, for the first time ever, a selection of telesnaps, from The Power of the Daleks, making fandom aware of their existence for the first time.
 

Gavin

Member: Rank 6
VIP
It's interesting to think that many of those books about the history of the show would have been written by people who had to rely on only their memories of many of the missing episodes (more then than there are now). And probably not even the telesnap/audio versions to help them.
 

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
JNT decided that he was well heeled enough to write us the definitive - and very thin - tome on the Doctors (with a lot of help from Ian Levine).....


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going on to write a second - equally thin - volume, the companions....


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Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
It's interesting to think that many of those books about the history of the show would have been written by people who had to rely on only their memories of many of the missing episodes (more then than there are now). And probably not even the telesnap/audio versions to help them.

Yes, I think that there were a fan glitterati that became the only voices for a while. Jeremy Bentham was certainly one - and he told us that The Celestial Toymaker was pure brilliance and that The Gunfighters was easily the most badly made and worst ever Doctor Who story - bar none. And his became the voice of authority for many years.

Finally, when fandom at large got a chance to see or hear these stories for themselves, a general reappraisal took place. :emoji_alien:
 

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
I would love to have been there on the day that Eric Saward sat down with JNT in his office, Gary Downie, partner and production unit manager, in the background, with Eric desperately wishing to discuss the latest script problems - only to have JNT swivel in his chair, turn to Eric and say: "You know what my show needs, more than anything!"

"What's that?" asked Eric, his throat dry.

"A cook book!" practically screamed John, the colours on his shirt dazzling and hurting Eric's eyes.

"Here's one I wrote earlier!" shmoozed Gary quietly in the background with his silkily soft voice....


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A single, solitary tear ran painfully down Eric's face and he knew that somehow, someway, he had to get out of this madhouse...
 

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
This was a guidebook written by American fans about all the various filming locations in the U.K. throughout the history of the show - and how to get to them.

It was apparently riddled with errors though, including their advice to "get a taxi from London" to travel 260 or so miles to some obscure place.


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It has never been reprinted.
 

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
The Doctor Who Technical Manual explained to us how to build our own Tardis and K9 etc.

I am still trying. And failing.

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Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
Yes, I keep coming up against that too. It's an absolute nightmare!

Either it is a printing error and that pertinent fact was left out of the manual - or (more likely) the author of the book just didn't give a damn as to the potential repercussions, especially when building it relatively on or near the millennium of a new century.

The last thing I - or anyone - needs is my new, custom built time/space vessel turning the planet inside out, making everything on said planet cease to exist!

But hey! If it sells a few more copies, who gives a damn? I think that that was the attitude when they printed this irresponsible tome

Disgusting..
 

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
The twentieth anniversary had brought us the Radio Times anniverasary special....


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Along with the front cover of the magazine itself.....


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Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
The same author started churning out multitudes of these magazines with cardboard covers, purporting almost to be books - and certainly being charged at the same price as books - with the page count of a magazine.

The same author did the same with Star Trek "spotlight on" - files magazines.....


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Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
Peter Haining marched on, deciding that the twenty first anniversary needed a special book too.

Rather than pay royalties on too many photographs, he asked fans to send in their drawings without paying them anything to illustrate most of the interior of the book.

The fans complied.....


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