Revised and with a new introduction, ‘Blue Box Boy’ is the memoir of Doctor Who actor Matthew Waterhouse who played Adric, the teen companion who joined Tom Baker during his final series and continued into Peter Davison’s first before being memorably killed off.
After opening the Alien vault for his 2011 book of the same name, Empire’s Ian Nathan now lifts the lid on the Terminator film series.
When Doctor Who began its format was very fluid, with stories ranging from comedy to space opera. The TARDIS was more unpredictable and certainly not invulnerable, and most importantly the Doctor was clearly making it all up as he went along.
The world of Doctor Who has a fine tradition of anniversary publications. Given the level scrutiny the show has enjoyed in recent years, the trick is to find a unique angle to approach the material with. Wonderfully, BBC Books have achieved just that with The Doctor – His Lives and Times.
After his incredibly in-depth 2009 book The Making of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Charles Helfenstein has once again done a staggering amount of research into the world of James Bond, this time into the production of Timothy Dalton’s 007 debut, The Living Daylights.
After the 1996 TV Movie, and with no prospect of further onscreen adventures, BBC Books began a series of novels featuring the Eighth Doctor. These adventures took off into new worlds with fresh companions, creating their own continuity.
‘Night of the Whisper’ is a rare thing indeed, a non-televised adventure for the Ninth Doctor.
Other than the half a dozen novels and handful of comic strip appearances that appeared at the time, Christopher Eccleston’s short stint as the Time Lord has not seen much expansion. AudioGO tend to make audio adventures for the incumbent Doctor and Big Finish’ license precludes anything pre-2005.
Modern Doctor Who loves its literary spin-offs. Sometimes in-universe and sometimes not quite, we have had an adventure for Melody Malone (aka River Song) and a Christmas curtain raiser starring Madame Vastra, Jenny and Strax.
Neverwhere began life as a six-part BBC Two series in 1996. Sadly, a limited budget restrained its potential and it was in prose that the story truly came alive. Neil Gaiman, then known primarily for his comic work, is now a world-renowned author whose work straddles the worlds of prose, film and television. Neverwhere has never gone away though, with a comic version, stage adaptations and attempts at a movie in the intervening years.
If Season 25 experimented with the tone of Doctor Who, ‘The Greatest Show in the Galaxy’ counts as one of the more offbeat offerings, with ‘Paradise Towers’ writer Stephen Wyatt returning to provide a tale of sinister clowns, a Psychic Circus and an audience with an insatiable appetite.