By Simon Guerrier

BBC Books, out September 28

A colourful, hardback Guinness Book of Records-style book of Doctor Who achievements for the fan who loves their facts and wants a glossary of Gallifreyan data at their fingertips.

Doctor Who fandom is something of a broad church (hey, is that why Chris Chibnall jumped aboard?) and the ongoing range of tie-in books continues to address all sections of the following. There’s a call-out on the cover of this book that describes it as ‘Official Timey-Wimey Edition’ and whether or not that makes you smile might be a good indication of how much you’re going to enjoy Simon Guerrier’s fun compendium of bizarre and unlikely facts.

My suspicion is that this will work best for the less-seasoned Doctor Who fan, maybe as a treat in their 2017 Christmas stocking. The 225 pages are split across 10 chapters and a detailed index to help you hone in on the appropriate fact. The chapter subjects are fairly obvious – The Doctor, companions, the TARDIS, Daleks, alien worlds (most have been the subject of Doctor Who Magazine Bookzines) – but what’s less obvious is the information shared.

Rather sensibly, Doctor Who is treated both as a TV show and an imagined universe, meaning that pages contain photos and facts about behind the scenes personnel and production dates as well as in-universe references to planets and characters as if they are real. I particularly appreciated the listing of the various awards that the show has won, and a section on the show’s music.

Unfortunately, as with any book written about an ongoing series, it can only be up-to-date to the point chosen as the cut-off. That cut-off appears to be the 2016 Christmas special, meaning that there’s no references to Peter Capaldi’s final season and there’s out-of-date stats like ‘Murray Gold composed the music for every one of the 131 episodes between Rose (2005) and The Return of Doctor Mysterio.’ It’s inevitable that this happens, submission deadlines being what they are, but is still a casualty of the timey-wimey nature of book production.

Verdict: Regale your friends and relatives after your turkey dinner this  Christmas –  who wrote the most episodes, who directed the most episodes and who was the most destructive companion? By the way, the shortest full episode of Doctor Who was the first part of 1968’s The Mind Robber. Who knew?* 7/10

Nick Joy

 

 

[*me – Ed.]