Book review by Jon Preddle
A warning - don't try to head-butt this book. It might do irreparable damage
or leave a nasty bruise! (That will teach me to leave it on the edge of the
shelf above my bed during the night!) At 550-plus pages, this bumper volume is
the largest Doctor Who book ever published. Already having Virgin's
Programme Guide I was somewhat hesitant at first to bother with this new
book from the Howe & Walker writing partnership, but I was pleasantly
surprised to find that there is much in it that is new.
The book covers all televised stories including the 1996 TV Movie, dividing
each into bite-sized sub-headings. The bulk of the text appears in the
‘Analysis’ section, and consists of contemporary reviews from
newspapers and BBC audience research reports, plus more recent retrospectives
from well-known fanzines. Even good old TSV is given a considerable share. What
I found interesting was that fans generally pan the stories that the press
raved about, and vice versa!
In terms of the cast list, the Programme Guides (and the DWM
Archives) contains full uncredited casts lists, but the Companion only lists
the cast and crew credits as they appear on screen. This is actually a good
idea as it enables one to identify the cast on an episode by episode basis.
Sadly there are a few slip ups in identifying which of the Jon Pertwee episodes
credit him as ‘Dr Who’ and those as ‘Doctor Who’.
The ‘Popular Myths’ heading helps to dispel some of the nonsense
and bollocks that fandom has believed over the years, but in some cases the
authors seem to be stretching it just a little bit in order to include at least
something for every story (take the pointless entry about Tony Starr under
Planet Of The Daleks for example). Thankfully ‘Things You Probably
Never Knew’ does offer some interesting new facts that have not appeared
in previous Who books.
As for ‘Things To Look Out For’, I would like to ask David and
Stephen how they expect us to look out for specific highlights from the missing
episodes when chances are we will actually never get the opportunity to do so.
Hmm?
I don't think it is intended that this book be read from cover to cover - it
is, as the title suggests, a companion, a book to have at hand when viewing
Doctor Who episodes - and was probably designed more towards those
unfamiliar with the series. Even if it was, there is still a lot in it for the
hard-core fan. Just keep it safely secured at night. (Oh, and they've spelt
‘Stephen’ Spielberg's name wrong - again!) [4/5]
Book review by Brad Schmidt
At first, the idea of sitting watching Doctor Who armed with this hefty slab
amused me, until whilst watching The Web Planet I realised I was
consulting The Television Companion religiously to see how far away each
episode ending was. Reading like a heavily edited omnibus of all the Doctor Who
non-fiction books so far, albeit with much of the humour excised, this 500+
page volume is yet another production from David J. Howe and Stephen James
Walker - but by far the most essential Doctor Who reference work by anyone, ever.
What is most memorable about The Television Companion is the fact
that every story is given a balanced analysis - it's not decreed that Timelash
is bad, for example, rather the authors draw upon a wide variety of opposing
reviews spanning the years to present a genuinely interesting study of every
story - which is altogether far more interesting than cut-and-dried opinions.
The Television Companion is indispensable to all fans of the
television series, especially because of the detail in which the Hartnell and
Troughton stories are studied. The emphasis is no more in-depth than any other
era of the show, but seeing as many of their stories no longer exist, it's
highly rewarding and an admirable asset to a potentially video-biased read.
Almost a gravestone to televised Doctor Who, The Television Companion
is perfect for both mourning and celebrating the show; and utterly essential. [5/5]
TSV WRITERS IN THE TV COMPANION
There are no less than sixteen separate mentions of TSV in the pages of the
Television Companion. David J. Howe and Stephen James Walker (both
long-term subscribers to TSV), have selected quotes from various TSV reviews
going back as far as 1991, as well as of from course many other Doctor Who
fanzines, with which to illustrate the ‘Analysis’ section for each
story. To save you having to hunt through the book to find the TSV quotes,
here's a list of all the mentions.
- Guy Blythman: p.303-304, on the ending of The Seeds of Doom (TSV 43).
- Graham Howard: p.62 & 64, on the ‘firsts’ and the Monk in
The Time Meddler (TSV 33); p.96, assessing the worth of The War
Machines (TSV 28); p.131-132, on the Doctor's role in The Tomb of
the Cybermen (TSV 29); p.296-297, on the plot of The Android
Invasion. (TSV 44); p.545-546, on the TV Movie sets, visuals and
effects (TSV 48).
- Alistair Hughes: p.225, on the fun aspects and creature design of The
Sea Devils (TSV 48).
- Edwin Patterson: p.546, on that kiss and being half-human in the TV Movie
(TSV 49).
- Cameron Pritchard: p.201, summing up Terror of the Autons (TSV 28).
- Felicity Scoones: p.72-73, on the poetic roots of The Myth Makers (TSV 29).
- Paul Scoones: p.240, on the sub-plot in Carnival of Monsters (TSV
44); p.505-507, on missed opportunities, Bonnie Langford and Richard Briers in
Paradise Towers (TSV 50).
- Jeff Stone: p.133, on the ‘sheer magic’ of The Tomb of the
Cybermen (TSV 29).
- Bevan Thomas: p.40, on the first part of The Dalek Invasion of Earth
(TSV 22).
- Ken Tod: p.188, on the Silurian performances in Doctor Who and the Silurians (TSV 25).
- Nicholas Withers: p.536-537, on influences, location, costumes and the
Master in Survival (TSV 50).
