RTnuwhoRelive the adventures of TV’s Dr Who in this fact-filled guide to the last eight years. Or something like that.

If you enjoyed The Wonderful Book 1965 – the mickey-take of Clayton Hickman’s 2011 extravaganza – then you’ll probably already have signed up for a copy of this follow-up, which takes the format of the 1973 Radio Times special and uses it to poke fun, in a gentle but quite firm way, at some of the idiocies of the revamped Doctor Who.

Working off the basis that the show only started in 2005, this has the same sort of errors regarding the history of the new show that its predecessor demonstrated for the first 10 years of the classic series. The episode titles range from the slightly silly to those which are positively genius, and the descriptions match. When you get to the series six stories, you’ll either throw your hands up in despair (“that such inanities could see print” to quote an infamous review of The Completely Useless Encyclopaedia), or laugh out loud.

One of the best skewerings is left for the end. The original magazine showed you how to build a Dalek. This shows you how not to, using Asylum of the Daleks as its source…

There is some terrific artwork – DWM updated the cover of the 1973 magazine for an issue years back, but this takes it to a whole new (Nestene?) dimension; the changing face of Doctor Who morphs Eccleston into Tennant into Smith; and the portrait of Alex Kingston as River Song is very effective.

Verdict: If you’ve not got a sense of humour about the show, then avoid this like the plague; for everyone else, it’s highly recommended. 8/10

Paul Simpson 

 

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