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Doctor Who - The Seventh Doctor Handbook
In what appears to be the final entry in the excellent Handbook series of
Doctor Who non-fiction books, the
all-too-brief era of Sylvester McCoy's Doctor Who is covered in great detail.
I've always been a fan of the Handbooks, but I eagerly awaited this particular
volume since - as opposed to the earlier years of the show, which have been
covered extensively - I have found information on the McCoy era very hard to
come by. Doctor Who: The Eighties, by the same
authors, was an excellent book in that department, as is this one. However, I
would've liked more information on the planned 27th season of Doctor Who, some
of which was covered in The Eighties. As the Sixth Doctor Handbook
examined an unfulfilled long-term plan for the character of Colin Baker's
Doctor, further investigation of what could have been would've been very welcome
in the Seventh Doctor Handbook - including the evolution from Lungbarrow
to Ghost Light and back
again.
However, almost making up for that gap is the extensive coverage of the 1996
Fox/Universal/BBC Worldwide television movie with Paul McGann, almost making
this book a Seventh-and-Eighth Doctor Handbook. Numerous insightful interviews
with producer Philip Segal are included, and in many ways, this portion of the
book is a must-read for anyone who managed to get through Jean-Marc Lofficier's
The Nth Doctor. Perhaps surprisingly, the New
Adventures novels, all but one of which featured the seventh Doctor, are given a
brief overview, with a slightly greater focus on some of the better and more
popular books (i.e. most of Paul Cornell's books and Lungbarrow). Many
of these sections are written by other authors entirely, who perhaps should've
gotten a cover credit too, as he seems to have penned quite a bit of the book's
chapters on merchandising and the original fiction.
Despite some gaps, it's a worthwhile read. And even though it seems to be
the thickest of the Doctor Who Handbooks, I felt that the Seventh Doctor
Handbook was scarcely long enough.
Reviewed by Earl Green
theLogBook.com webmaster
- Year: 1998
- Author: David J. Howe and Stephen James Walker
- Pages: 310
- Publisher: Virgin
- Genre: Non-fiction / behind-the-scenes
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