The Making of Doctor Who

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2346474.html

This is a hugely important book for me. When I first read it in 1976 (aged 9), it hadn't previously occurred to me that you could write about stories as well as writing stories, and I also had no idea that Doctor Who had started years before I was born. The bits about how a TV programme is made rather bounced off me at the time (which is ironic given the amount of TV work I actually do these days), but the establishment of Who history here, with semi-canonical names given to the pre-Savages stories for the very first time, remains fascinating as a process - and also to observe what is left out (the six episodes of The Wheel in Space, for instance, are brushed off in seven lines).

Now that I have a copy of the first edition from 1972 as well, it's interesting to compare and contrast. I sense that Dicks took a pretty heavy hand in rewriting almost every chapter of Hulke's original text, sometimes from scratch, sometimes (the chapters on the Daleks and "How To Make A Monster") just with a light touch of editorial improvements. Gone is the nonsense about the Doctor's real name being ∂³∑x², let alone the bizarre postscript from the Rev. John D. Beckwith, Chaplain to the Bishop of Edmonton; but in comes plentiful cross-referencing to the Target novelisations, which of course were very new then and had not been around at all in 1972.

There is huge nostalgia value to it anyway, but I also think that for what it is trying to be, it is still a good book, and the foundation of Whovian reference books ever since. ( )

It's cute; it's definitely written for a younger audience. It's interesting perspective-wise since they're ALREADY raving about how long-running the show is barely halfway through its life, not even counting the new series. It's also kind of fun to read about how TV was made then - if you know or care anything about how TV is made now. ( )

The value of this book is as a piece of memorabilia: not as a serious read on Dr. Who.

I'm not trying to be disrespectful of this book - I like it. But it's a children's book: an adult who picked up this book, hoping for a in-depth, insightful look into the series, would be bound to be dissapointed.

However, it must be said that it does have a few amusing, entertaining bits of trivia - and it's a very fast read - so it wouldn't be a total loss. Especially not to a devoted Dr. Who fan! ( )

http://nhw.livejournal.com/890843.html

This is the first edition, which states on the first page, "Doctor Who has now been running over eight years, which makes it one of the most successful shows on British television." It is very much aimed at a younger audience; quite a long chapter, for instance, on how a television programme is actually made, what the director does, etc.

One section which was completely changed in the second edition was the re-telling of the Doctor's televised adventures as a continuous narrative, presented as memoranda from the files of the Time Lords and of UNIT. (The second edition simply presented each story separately in a list, as all serious Doctor Who reference books have done since.) This section is preceded by the indictment and initial defence for the Doctor at the end of The War Games, revealing also the Doctor's "real name".

Anyway, certainly superseded in usefulness by pretty much every work of reference on Doctor Who published since, but very nice to have. ( )