By Alistair McGown

Telos Publishing

The year-by-year chronicle of homemade fanzines that were published during Doctor Who’s original run.

There’s something significant about Alistair McGown’s history of Doctor Who fanzines looking so splendid in its hardback glory with varnished finish – it shows just how far things have come since the ‘underground press’ for the show began. In truth, it should be a collection of photocopied sheets, the headlines created with Letraset transfers and suggestion of correction fluid fixes under some words.

I came late to the fanzine party, and as such, much of what I learnt in this year-by-year was educational rather than during any nostalgia triggers. In his introduction, McGown shares that around 300 different fan titles were created, amassing an impressive collective 1,000 issues. It can’t have been an easy job cataloguing such a collection, but through perseverance we have a definitive history of this media type.

Along the journey we learn about the creation of fan clubs, the cease-and-desist letters, the catalyst of the Longleat 1983 weekend, and sometimes just dogged determination to publish and be damned. Many of the covers are reproduced, displaying a huge range of styles, imagination and talent.

Verdict: Niche for sure, how wonderful that the fanzine is getting such VIP treatment to further legitimise its place in fandom history. 8/10

Nick Joy

Click here to order from Telos