Review: Doctor Who: The Wonderful Book 1965 by Paul Smith

Oversized paperback, 53 pages
Published 2011
Acquired January 2012
Read December 2013

Doctor Who: The Wonderful Book 1965
by Paul Smith

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 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.

Review: Doctor Who: The Brilliant Book 2012 edited by Clayton Hickman

Hardcover, 162 pages
Published 2011
Acquired September 2012
Read September 2013

Doctor Who: The Brilliant Book 2012
edited by Clayton Hickman

Okay, the cover's not as nice, but in most other ways this is an improvement upon its already-quite-good predecessor. I remember not liking the 2011 series very much as it aired, but this book got me appreciating it-- even if the plots don't hang together, surely it's one of Doctor Who's most stylish and gorgeous-looking seasons? The episode guides are still good, but there's even better features than ever before:

• notes from Amy and Rory to the Doctor during their honeymoon(s)
• cut sequences from episodes (including a Fiddler on the Roof song in "The Impossible Astronaut," and all the drafts of "The Curse of the Black Spot"... including the ship-less one!)
• an explanation of the three-month gap between "The Impossible Astronaut" and "Day of the Moon" (complete with map)
• "The Changing Hats of Doctor Who"(!)
• a scrapbook of Madame Vastra's history (including Henry Gordon Jago reference)
• report cards for Rory, Mels, and Amy
• a Teselecta user's guide ("The Teselecta comes with a range of pre-programed dance moves for scenarios when it is required to dance convincingly.... NEVER attempt manual improvisation - IT CAN COST LIVES!")
• a TwoStreams Kindness Facility PR brochure
• The White Flag, the newspaper of the always-surrending planet of Tivoli
• Charles Dickens's twitter updates

Particularly awesome is a Neil Gaiman/Mark Buckingham comic strip prequel to "The Doctor's Wife" and the Doctor's job application for the department store in "Closing Time."

There's a real emphasis in here on how the show is made, which is both pleasing to someone like me and sure to inspire and thrill a whole new generation of younger fans. It's a shame that there don't seem to be any future Brilliant Books on the horizon-- no doubt a victim of the awful scheduling decisions that have plagued the show of later...

Review: Doctor Who: The Brilliant Book 2011 edited by Clayton Hickman

Hardcover, 131 pages
Published 2010
Acquired September 2012
Read August 2013

Doctor Who: The Brilliant Book 2011
edited by Clayton Hickman

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.