February Books 3) About Time: The Unauthorised Guide to Doctor Who, 1966-1969

[nwhyte]

3) About Time: The Unauthorised Guide to Doctor Who, 1966-1969, by Tat Wood and Lawrence Miles (.co.uk, .com)

I read the first in this series last month: a wonderful cornucopia of facts and analysis of the early years of everyone's favourite Time Lord. I think the second volume, dealing with the last two William Hartnell stories and the Patrick

Comments

[londonkds]

They're good, but the "second" volume is actually the most recent published - it went 3 4 5 1 2 with 6 to come. The difference in order was apparently because it was thought that the volumes for Three and Four would sell best.

Some reports have it that Wood alone is writing volume 6, apparently because Miles hates C Baker- and McCoy-eras Who so much that he either can't be bothered or can't remain printable on the subject.

[getawaywithit]

Wood's definitely writing volume 6 alone (the ad at the back of volume 2 says so), but apparently it's because the problems of having two co-writers on a project that size were becoming too much, and so Miles stepped out - he'd been doing less than Wood anyway, which is why the names changed order for this volume. That's the official line according to Lars Pearson (the publisher) on OG, anyway.

On the more general point, I think 3 will be a bit of a disappointment - as the first one, they seem to have underestimated the amount they could get away with including, so it's pretty sparse in points - but 4 and 5 are both good, IMO, especially as the authors post a 'defence' and 'prosecution' critique for the more contentious stories.

[lizbee]

Colin Baker's narration of The Macra Terror is terrible not because Colin Baker is reading it but because John Nathan Turner wrote it

In an uncertain world, it's good to have these certainties.

[inuitmonster]

There is learned discussion of i) whose accent is the worst in the entire history of Doctor Who,

It's not Accent Boy, that's all I'm saying.

The Third Man is set in Vienna, not Berlin, which was divided into four parts, not three.

In the film, isn't it effectively divided into FIVE zones - one for each occupying power, and then a central jointly patrolled zone?

[nwhyte]

Indeed, you're right.