By Philip Bates & Andy Frankham-Allen

Candy Jar, out now

A truly comprehensive guide to the Doctor’s companions in all media…

Long term readers of SFB may recall that ten years ago, or so, we were not overly impressed with the first edition of this book, released for the 50th anniversary. It is a great pleasure to note that this completely overhauled and revised edition deals with all of the areas that seemed lacking, and provides a guide to everyone from Susan Foreman through to Anita Benn.

The format is simple – each Doctor’s companions get an entry (so someone like Clara Oswald has some with the 11th and some with the 12th) which purely covers their screen stories, and then in an Extended Universe section, we learn about their off-screen adventures, as well as about all those who were created for the books / comic strips / audios. The screen section gets very detailed in places – at times they read like extended synopses of the episodes from the character’s viewpoint rather than perhaps looking at a particular trait and seeing how that is dealt with across the adventures – and Bates doesn’t hesitate to pick up on inconsistencies, contradictions or plain simple errors. This is particularly noticeable in the screen sections – you expect the peripheral tales to be rendered moot or “uncanonical” by what happens on TV, not so much the broadcast material.

It’s the sort of book that’s a labour of love, and what it lacks in illustrations, it more than makes up for in detail. I hope an electronic version will become available to aid with searching through, but that’s a minor quibble.

Verdict: A fascinating trawl through 61 years of Doctor Who history. 10/10

Paul Simpson

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