Doctor Who


Book Description




TARDISbound


Book Description

'Doctor Who' has always thrived on multiplicty, unpredictability and transformation, it's worlds and characters kaleidoscopic and shifting, and 'Doctor Who"s complexity has grown. With its triumphant return to TV in 2005, it was made up of four different fictional forms, across three different media, with five actors simultaneously playing the eponymous hero. 'TARDISbound' is the first book to deal both with the TV series and with the 'audio adventures', original novels, and short story anthologies produced since the 1990s, engaging with the common elements of these different texts and with distinctive features of each. 'TARDISbound' places 'Doctor Who' under a variety of lenses, from examining the leading characteristics of these 'Doctor Who' texts, to issues of class, ethnicity and gender in relation to the Doctor(s), other TARDIS crew-members, and the non-human/inhuman beings they encounter. 'TARDISbound' also addresses major questions about the aesthetics and ethical implications of 'Doctor Who'.




Handbook: the Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to the Production of Doctor Who


Book Description

The complete guide to the production of Doctor Who from 1963 to 1996 - in one bumper volume! On their first publication, the Doctor Who Handbooks were hailed for their comprehensive behind the scenes exploration of the BBC's cult science fiction show Doctor Who. Now collected in a revised and updated edition, this book is the definitive guide to the background and production of a television classic. Authors David J Howe, Stephen James Walker and Mark Stammers spent a decade researching, and then a decade writing this acclaimed and in-depth look at the background to Doctor Who. Every Doctor's era is examined through articles and analysis, key decisions are documented, and the people involved in these decisions interviewed or quoted to create one of the most revealing behind the scenes books on the trials and tribulations of arguably the greatest cult show ever to grace Saturday evening television. Includes extensive interview quotes from all eight television Doctors, many of the actors and actresses who played their faithful companions, and literally dozens of production team members - producers, script editors, directors, designers and other behind-the-scenes staff - who brought the original series and the 1996 TV movie to the screen over a period of some thirty-three years. Features articles on the Doctor, his companions, the effects, the locations, the costume design, the script editing, the mythos behind the series and much, much more. Includes detailed script to screen examinations of one story from each for the first seven Doctors' eras, analysis of the media attention given to the series, plus an exhaustive breakdown of the production of the first three years of the show.




Doctor Who in Time and Space


Book Description

This collection of fresh essays addresses a broad range of topics in the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who, both old (1963-1989) and new (2005-present). The book begins with the fan: There are essays on how the show is viewed and identified with, fan interactions with each other, reactions to changes, the wilderness years when it wasn't in production. Essays then look at the ways in which the stories are told (e.g., their timeliness, their use of time travel as a device, etc.). After discussing the stories and devices and themes, the essays turn to looking at the Doctor's female companions and how they evolve, are used, and changed by their journey with the Doctor.




Watching Doctor Who


Book Description

Watching Doctor Who explores fandom's changing attitudes towards Doctor Who. Why do fans love an episode one year but deride it a decade later? How do fans' values of Doctor Who change over time? As a show with an over fifty-year history, Doctor Who helps us understand the changing nature of notions of 'value' and 'quality' in popular television. The authors interrogate the way Doctor Who fans and audiences re-interpret the value of particular episodes, Doctors, companions, and eras of Who. With a foreword by Paul Cornell.




Design for Doctor Who


Book Description

The long-running popular TV series Doctor Who is, Piers Britton argues, a 'uniquely design intensive text': its time-and-space-travel premise requires that designers be tirelessly imaginative in devising new worlds and entities and recreating past civilizations. While Doctor Who's attempts at worldbuilding are notorious for being hit-and-miss – old jokes about wobbly walls and sink plungers die hard – the distinctiveness of the series' design imagery is beyond question. And over the course of six decades Doctor Who has produced designs which are not only iconic but, in being repeatedly revisited and updated, have proven to be an ever-more important element in the series' identity and mythos. In the first in-depth study of Doctor Who's costumes, sets and graphics, Piers Britton offers an historical overview of both the original and the revived series, explores theoretical frameworks for evaluating Doctor Who design, and provides detailed analysis of key images. Case studies include the visual morphology of Doctor Who's historical adventures, the evaluative character of cosplay, and the ongoing significance for the Doctor Who brand of such high-profile designs as the Daleks and the TARDIS interior, the 'time-tunnel' title sequence, and the costumes of the Fourth and Thirteenth Doctors.




Now on the Big Screen


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Who Travels with the Doctor?


Book Description

Throughout the long-running BBC series Doctor Who, the Doctor has rarely been alone--his companions are essential. Male or (mostly) female, alien or (mostly) human, young or old (none as old as he), the dozens of companions who have travelled with him over the past 50 years have served as sympathetic proxies for the audience. Through their adventures the companions are perfected, facing danger and thus discovering their strengths and weaknesses. Yet they all pay a price, losing their innocence and sometimes their lives. This collection of new essays examines the role of the companion as an intermediate between viewers and the Doctor. The contributors discuss who travels with the Doctor and why, how they interact, how the companions influence the narrative and how their journeys change them.




The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror [17]


Book Description

The year's finest tales of terror Here is the latest edition of the world's premier annual showcase of horror and dark fantasy fiction. It features some of the very best short stories and novellas by today's masters of the macabre - including Peter Atkins, Cliver Barker, Glen Hirschberg, Joe Hill and Caitlin R. Kiernan. The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror also features the most comprehensive yearly overview of horror around the world, lists of useful contact addresses and a fascinating necrology. It is the one book that is required reading for every fan of macabre fiction.




Back to the Vortex


Book Description

"a gripping and hugely entertaining story that is difficult to solve and even more difficult to put down." - New Scientist At a London university, in 2010, a group of students meet in secret to conduct dangerous experiments that have already cost one person's life. They believe they are pushing the frontiers of physics but their experiments also blur the boundary between what's real and what's perceived - with horrifying results. Twenty-five years on in Manhattan, one of the surviving members of the club lives under a new name, Steel, in a world transformed by the ever-accelerating pace of technology. When a pregnant stranger, Skyler, is dumped on his doorstep with a sinister note, Steel finds himself in a race to restore her memory before they are both killed by an assassin with a terrifying gift. What is Skyler's connection to Steel's past life in London, and how much longer can he protect the world against the secret that he s guarded for decades? He must find out quickly - it is not just their lives at stake - but the very fabric of reality that hangs in the balance. The Looking Glass Club is a fast-paced SF thriller, exploring head-spinning themes in physics and philosophy, and is already being hailed by some as a classic in the making. In addition to being an addictive read, there is a competition associated with the book: solve the cryptic puzzles found between each chapter - left in a diary by a character from The Looking Glass Club - and one reader could win up to 1 million pounds sterling ($1.6m) in a prize competition being funded by book sales. See the book's website for details: www.TheLookingGlassClub.com