Doctor Who: Now We Are Six Hundred: A Collection of Time Lord Verse

This is probably the first BBC-endorsed collection of Time Lord verse; I’m sure there are Time Lords on the internet who have made their own fan poetry. This collection draws on the A. A. Milne volume “Now We Are Six” for inspiration, and many of the poems are subtitled “After ‘such and such poem’” to make the parallel clear for readers familiar with these poems.

Given that I am not familiar with the Milne collection, I probably didn’t appreciate the parallels as much as another reader might, but I liked the idea and the effort put into it, even if the poems themselves were not High Poetry. I’m usually a little skeptical of poems that rely on chopping out syllables with apostrophes to make lines scan. My favourite poems in the collection were To Her Coy Doctor, The Guide Dog, Full Stop, and The Five Doctors.

The poems are liberally illustrated by Russell T. Davies, who in addition to being the mastermind who brought Who back to our screens is a pretty clever cartoonist! The illustrations were actually my favourite part of the collection; I’d love a book of just his Who art!

This book is probably best suited for the completist Whovian, ideally one who has read Milne too. And while I wasn’t madly in love with all of the poems, I think I might have to try my own hand at some Who poetry and art, so full credit to this book for being an inspiration in that regard. ( )

https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3070704.html

A short collection of poems by James Goss, with illustrations by former show-runner Russell T. Davis, all more or less based on similar poems by A.A. Milne. The concept is very cute, and I like that fact that the subject matter of the poems bridges both Old Who and New Who. James Goss is one of my favourite Who writers. However, it didn’t entirely work for me - perhaps it is too long since I last read Now We Are Six. ( )