Who Goes There

[louisedennis]

I'm guessing Who Goes There by Nick Griffiths was supplied by a relative. I don't think it is the kind of book I would purchase myself any more. I spent a lot of the book trying to puzzle out what exactly it was trying to do. Ostensibly its the tale of Griffiths' visits to various Doctor Who locations.

Comments

[gregmce]

Wow. This book sounds amazing...ly bad. A slow motion car crash of a guidebook. I find myself kind of hoping to see a copy at Gally next year just so I can flip through and marvel at the badness, but then be able to walk away from it. Fortunately your copy was a gift, at least.

I like to think, based on your description, that there's a sequel written by his wife called, "Why my husband is horrible to travel with and I'm realizing that he's not all that and oops he just fell off a cliff."

[louisedennis]

His wife comes across as a saint (albeit one with a temper and the ability to stand up for herself). To do him credit, he recognizes that fact :-)

It must be said I swung rapidly between thinking it was a cynical money-making exercise and thinking I was just being a very harsh judge because I found the tone so off-putting. I have no idea really. I didn't enjoy it, but I can imagine that if you like his writing style, you would.

[parrot_knight]

I think that this book (which I've not read) is more a piece of personality journalism than anything else, somewhat like an extended newspaper column. It seems very much a mainstream book, with Doctor Who as part of the bedrock of identity and nostalgic affection for those of us who are somewhere around the age of forty, to be lightly mocked in celebration. For a serious guidebook, the committed fan is going to dig out Richard Bignell's Doctor Who On Location, supplemented by Chuck Foster's online locations guide. This one is written as disposable entertainment, I suspect.

[louisedennis]

That makes a lot of sense actually. I was vaguely puzzled by the brief summaries of Who plots accompanying the locations wondering who on Earth thought that anyone purchasing the book would need such - although given the divide I sometimes feel between the Old and the Nu Who fan...

Is there really a mainstream market for this kind of thing though? I can see that Dalek I Loved You marketed as a memoir of a seventies childhood might gain a wider audience but honestly a middle-aged Who fan touring Dr Who locations? There are odd bits in the book where he talks about discovering the quirky side of the British countryside but for that to suceed he really needed to be, well, keener on meeting people and more interested in the other sites along the way. As it was, he seemed much too focused on the destination, as opposed to the journey.