Doctor Who: 25 Glorious Years (1988)

I'm not sure what I was expecting from this book, but evidently I had very high standards for it. There's no denying that the author loves this subject matter (and hey, Doctor Who is a perfectly cool thing to like, so no shame there), but the whole book didn't really feel very substantial to me. He did get a lot of interviews, but there's so much ground to cover that everything is basically whittled down to "Oh, this was a great show to work on, and everyone made me feel welcome, and everyone wants to be on it." The chapters on merchandising and the lost shows were pretty interesting, but other than that it just seemed to be a puff piece. Perhaps the 50th anniversary book (if there is one) will be less repetitive and have more colourful anecdotes. That's probably what the book needed more of... I love hearing about things like practical jokes played on set, or just quirky habits that the actors had, or funny stories involving set pieces. That kind of thing is what makes insider books special. ( )