by Daryl Joyce

Telos, out September 8

Widescreen depictions of the Doctor’s travels over the last 60 years.

Daryl Joyce’s artwork has been seen in many different media over the past few years, taking information from the original TV series of Doctor Who and extrapolating it to present imagery that is truly cinematic in scope. For this new collection from Telos, “cinematic” is the key word – The Illustrated Journey is a mix of old and new paintings all presented in a widescreen format (so adjusted as necessary from previous appearances) to give us a sense of the huge scale of the universe in which the Doctor and his friends travel.

There’s illustrations from every single 20th century adventure – from An Unearthly Child (or 100,000 BC as Stephen James Walker’s captions insist on calling it) through to the TV Movie – and then a further 50 pages taking us through from Rose to The Power of the Doctor. Some are clearly based on shots from the final episodes, others are what Mock the Week would have called Scenes We’d Like to See, allowing the power of Joyce’s imagination to fill in what the effects of the time simply couldn’t. The “classic” Doctors are all depicted (sometimes only from behind) as well as a sprinkling of companions and foes; for the 21st century, we get a couple of companions – notably a huge image of Clara – but no Doctors. (Oh – and don’t forget to check out every single spread: there’s a nice treat in store.)

Short introductions to each season for the older series are replaced with one per Doctor for the Eighth Doctor onwards; the book itself is prefaced with a foreword by Sophie Aldred, as well as an artist’s introduction and a publisher’s note which explains that the titles generally accepted for the first three serials from 1963-4 and the latter two segments of The Trial of A Time Lord are not being used (so don’t look for An Unearthly Child or Terror of the Vervoids!). The book closes with a discussion of Joyce’s process, and draft illustrations, many of which don’t appear in the final paintings.

Verdict: If Andrew-Mark Thompson’s This is a Fake is the most unusual book to come out for the 60th, this is certainly one of the most visually stunning. 10/10

Paul Simpson

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