Doctor Who: The Brilliant Book 2011

It is what the cover says: brilliant! Full of awesome pictures, lovely interviews and quotes, along with some surprising clues for the next season. A must read for any Doctor Who fan! ( )

Okay, it's a little weird to be reading a guide to the first series of eleventh Doctor adventures just after the last one has gone out, but whatever. The Brilliant Book 2011 is a charming guide to the 2010 series, but much more besides-- it's filled with interviews, original fiction, and goofy features like a map of Amy Pond's hometown of Leadworth, instructions for dancing like the Doctor, "twitbook" and updates from Rory's stag party. I appreciate that they got Brian W. Aldiss(!) to write fiction for the book, but "Umwelts for Hire" didn't entirely come off, I'm afraid. The book is gorgeous overall; I love Anthony Dry's collage illustrations for each episode, and Paul Lang's visual design is top-notch.

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1771372.html

Having read all but two of the Old Who annuals, and most of the new ones as well, I can say this is one of the best large-format annual-style books to be associated with the Who franchise. The core of it is a combination of two-page reviews of the 13 episodes of 2010, plus interviews with the cast and crew; but there are lots of joyous extras as well, including a page of teasers for the 2011 stories (only two of which I recognise) and a rather joyous look at the past appearances of vampires and other blood-sucking horrors in Who (including a lovely reference to The Chase).

There are also two original short stories, one of them being a brief but effective retake by David Llewellyn of Malcolm Hulke's prologue to Doctor Who and the Cave Monsters, the other a story of mind-altering drugs, exploration of inner space and a corrupt political system by none other than Brian Aldiss, who I had not identified as a Who fan before I got this book. Not totally successful as a story - Amy sidelined, Doctor slightly out of character, and odd pacing - but interesting all the same. This engagement of some of the major figures of the genre has happened under Moffatt rather than Davies; to pick only the most obvious examples, while ten years ago a Who novel by Moorcock and an episode by Gaiman would of course have seemed impossible, they would not have seemed a lot more likely five years ago either. Looking forward to the Second Doctor novel by ******* ******. ( )

Highly enjoyable book, which is essentially a hardback magazine without advertisements. It includes a variety of different articles, interviews and fiction.

Some of the more interesting parts include a page of what will happen in the 2011 series intermingled with flat out lies about the series, making it up to the reader to decide which they are hoping to occur.

I also enjoyed the production interviews with the cast and the crew. I imagine some of this is redundant for many, but as I have not seen the Confidential series, it was a lot of fun for me!

Note that the cover is slightly metallic, which comes off nicer than it sounds like it would. ( )