Not our name, but our passion
TARDISbound by Piers D. Britton was published in 2009 and contains seven in-depth essays on various aspects of Doctor Who.
Unlike many of these critical analyses of Doctor Who this volume considers the extended media in its essays. This allows for a much fuller analysis of each topic. The essays are very academic in their approach and cover such diverse topics as aesthetics, ethics, running strands and broken threads, masculinities and companion dynamics. 8 out of 10.
Operation H.A.T.E. by Richard Franklin is an adaption of the unpublished novel that with the cancelation of the Companions of Doctor Who series by Target never saw print. Dur to BBC copyright issues the novella was unable to use the licensed Doctor Who characters. There was an abridged audio recording of the original story produced under the original tile as The Killing Stone.
The novella features the very familiar Doctor Who characters albeit with different names due to licensing restrictions. Instead of Yates, The Master, The Doctor, Benton and The Brigadier we get M. Franklin, The General, Professor Cosmos, Moriarty and Warrant Officer Briggs. The abridged audio reading of the original script does use the original character names and is much easier to get into the story.
This book version does not flow well and does take you out of the narrative with the side-step of characters. 5.5 out of 10.
This volume of collected short stories from Doctor Who Magazine was available by print on order from Lulu Publishing. This may be an unofficial non-authorized edition as I cannot find anything online about it. All of the stories are from the magazine or yearbooks.
Buyer beware when purchasing this type of item from Lulu as it may very well be a pirated volume where the original authors do not get their due royalties. The stories in the volume are quite short with the longer stories broken down into two or three part installments. There are 31 stories included in the rather thick volume (408 pages). As with most anthologies the quality of the stories vary but the mix of authors is quite impressive including such luminaries as Gareth Roberts, Andrew Cartmel, Mark Gatiss, Dan Abnett, Terrance Dicks, John Lucarotti, David Whitaker, Marc Platt, Paul Cornell and others. 8 out of 10.
The Black Archive is a series of monographs each one analyzing an individual Doctor Who story. The monographs are published by Obverse Books. Volume #49 The Night of the Doctor was written by James Cooray Smith.
This series of monographs are a great way to delve into your favorite stories. The monograph has both in-universe summaries and Doyalist analysis of the story. I am particularly happy that this short seven minute episode gets the Black Archive treatment as it is a favorite of mine. I hope that Time Crash, Pond Life and some of the other shorts also get monographs. 8 out of 10.
The 12th Doctor Edition of the Essential Guide written by the stalwart Justin Richards was published in 2016 updating the 2013 edition.
This is another example of the numerous historical guides made for the new fans to the series. This lavishly illustrated edition has text describing many aspect of the televised series. Unfortunately like many of these guides there is zero mention of any of the extended media portions of the Whoniverse. Good for what it is but superficial for the serious fan. 7 out of 10.
