With 3,000 questions drawn from 50 years of on-screen Doctor Who, this quiz tome is quite the most comprehensive of its type.

As an editor, author and scriptwriter, as well as a regular Doctor Who Magazine columnist, Jacqueline Rayner is well qualified to pose the questions and sets herself the target of having one at least one question related to each televised story.

The book is structured in rounds of fifteen questions, each broken into three subsections of increasing difficulty, from relatively easy through to downright impossible.

Drawing both on the fiction of the show as well as the facts of its production, readers aiming for a high score will need to be acquainted with cast, crew and even BBC story production codes.

Interestingly, there are a number of questions in the mix that follow the paths not travelled. Would be companions and notable unmade stories generate answers bound to separate the casual fan from the more devoted.

There is also plenty of word play on offer, as story title initials, missing vowels and ‘Only Connect‘ style groups of clues offer a further way to tax the brain and force some lateral thinking. It is a mental workout that we are sure the Doctor himself would approve of. There is a definite sense of humour evident too; perhaps our favourite round from the whole book has to be ‘Villain’s Christian Names’.

Whether used to challenge your friends or just yourself, The Official Quiz Book is a great deal of fun that will keep you engaged for hours. Also, concealed in the defeat of failing to answer the trickier of these questions is an education on the programme we all love which makes this book doubly worth the investment.

Released on Thursday 28 August 2014 by BBC Books.

> Follow Ian McArdell on Twitter.

What did you think of the audio story? Let us know below…