Paul Smith (17)

This fan-made book pastiches the Brilliant Books of Doctor Who, positing that such a thing existed for the first series back in 1964. It's good fun, with a guide to every story and the same mix of nonfiction and in-universe content. Only much of the "nonfiction" is made up-- such as every interview! These are good fun, such as William Russell talking about how he gets on with the ladies, or William Hartnell declaring his favorite story was The Keys of Marinus because he got two weeks off in show more the middle to go to Spain. There's also a worked-out geography for Marinus, which is actually kind of awesome, and the listed facts for each actor include their "first episode off"! I enjoyed "Tlotoxl's Portents!" a lot, which mixes real clues about the second season with fake ones, in a perfect aping of the same feature in the Brilliant Books or the Annuals/Storybooks. It's a brilliant recreation of a brilliant book for a brilliant era. show less

This book - available on download only at http://www.wonderfulbook.co.uk/ - has one of the more peculiar disclaimers one is ever likely to read:

"The contents of this book are entirely fabricated and should not be believed, not even the bits that say they are facts. All quotes by persons living or dead are not genuine and are intended for entertainment purposes only. They should not be taken as suggesting or reflecting the opinions then or since of anyone named in this book or concerned with show more the production of Doctor Who at any time, or even of the author of this book."

This is because the book is a combination of alternate fannish history and affectionate piss-take; what if the same creative spirit that moved Clayton Hickman and colleagues to produce last year's Brilliant Book of Doctor Who 2011 had animated the production team of 1964 to produce an annual along the same lines? In reality, of course, the first of the Doctor Who annuals came out a year later, and the production values and brand management of the time were very far removed from what we expect of any serious cult series today. But Paul Smith gets some good laughs from any reader who knows either the original first season, or the Brilliant Book, or preferably both, and also makes us think about how the way we are told what we are watching in 2011 has changed since 1963-4; and how it has stayed the same. show less

Paul Smith's second pastiche recreates the 1973 Radio Times 10th anniversary special for the 50th anniversary-- only it's written as if there never was any Doctor Who prior to 2005, so it's celebrating the "8th anniversary" instead. It mixes genuine tributes to the companions with muddled "facts" and episode synopses. I'm not familiar with the original in this case, but I enjoyed it regardless, particularly some of the brilliant artwork accompanying the companion tributes (especially the show more one for Rose). Some of the jokes wear thin, but the "make your own Dalek" feature skewering "Asylum of the Daleks" is worth the price of entry alone. show less

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2828067.html

This book's subtitle is A Comprehensive Guide to the Novelisations of Broadcast Doctor Who, and that's precisely what it is. It is only available as an interactive PDF where you can if you like (and I did) read through the entries in chronological order of publication rather than (as they are presented) in order of broadcast of the original story. For each novelisation, the gap in time between broad cast of the TV story and publication of the book is show more given (starting from -1 day, in the case of The Five Doctors) and the word count for all but the three most recent (shortest: Doctor Who - Planet of Giants, by Terrance Dicks; longest: Doctor Who - The Evil of the Daleks, by John Peel). There's then a listing of UK editions with images of the different covers, the blurb, the chapter titles, individual notes on each book including the fate of the original cover artwork where it is known, and then an account of foreign editions. It's full of odd little bits of trivia - why, for instance, did a Polish publisher decide in 1994 to translate Day of the Daleks, The Three Doctors, Revenge of the Cybermen and nothing else? I was also unaware that there are Australian novelisations of four Eleventh Doctor stories - The Eleventh Hour, Victory of the Daleks, The Time of Angels and The Lodger. Smith loses completist points, however, by including K9 and Company by Terence Dudley (as well as the Pescatons, the two Barry Letts Third Doctor audios and the Sixth Doctor missing stories) but omitting the Sarah Jane Adventures novelisations (which are actually not bad). Still, I mustn't complain; I don't have the time or energy to put this together and I am very glad that someone else does. You can download it for free. show less