The Black Archive #65: The Myth Makers
by Ian Potter (Obverse Books, 2023)
A deeply researched study in authorship. Potter debunks production myths, compares iterations of text, and reconstructs the development of The Myth Makers from commissioning to recording. While the detailed biography of writer Donald Cotton is especially welcome, numerous typos undermine the scholarship.
Doctor Who: The Church on Ruby Road
by Russell T. Davies; dir. Mark Tonderai (BBC, 2023)
Davies scripts a bonhomous if heavy-handed, found-family Christmas special that rattles along while re-treading old ground (his own Whoeuvre plus a sing-and-dance tribute to Labyrinth). Ncuti Gatwa takes the Doctor’s zest for life and channels it into a more tactile, people-friendly persona.
Doctor Who: The Giggle
by Russell T. Davies; dir. Chanya Button (BBC, 2023)
Neil Patrick Harris exudes menace as the Toymaker, yet the magnitude of his power (alluded to by the fate of the Master and the Guardians) is undermined by the utterly facile nature of the games chosen. Inexplicably, Ncuti Gatwa debuts without pants.
Doctor Who: Wild Blue Yonder
by Russell T. Davies; dir. Tom Kingsley (BBC, 2023)
A worthwhile experiment, Midnight-ish in nature with perhaps a spot too much ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ thrown in (the more grotesque shapeshifting tending to detract from the central concept). Not a lot of re-watch value except for the evil doppelgänger acting.
Doctor Who: The Star Beast
by Russell T. Davies; dir. Rachel Talalay (BBC, 2023)
Russell T. Davies returns to Doctor Who as if on a season pass he misplaced for fifteen years, and brings David Tennant and Catherine Tate along for the ride, scripting a fun, tonally frivolous special that nevertheless checks assumptions at every turn.
Doctor Who: The Gunfighters
by Donald Cotton (Target, 1985); audiobook read by Shane Rimmer (BBC, 2013)
As daring an experiment as Cotton’s original script (and even more so in audiobook form with Rimmer’s total commitment to cowboy drawl). Superbly witty on a line-by-line level, and unlike so much of the Doctor Who canon the prose has independent merit.
Doctor Who: Time Crash
by Steven Moffat; dir. Graeme Harper (BBC, 2007)
An 8-minute charity special that should very much be considered canonical. Moffat’s mini-script is first-rate, pairing the Fifth and Tenth Doctors in a humorous yet sentimental melding of eras (thus also director Graeme Harper). David Tennant and Peter Davison work brilliantly together.
The Who Adventures: The Art and History of Virgin Publishing’s Doctor Who Fiction
by David J Howe (Telos, 2021)
The painstaking history of a publishing enterprise whose workings will be of limited interest to most readers. Howe includes lengthy biographical notes on everyone concerned. Diligently researched but for the most part textual deadweight cluttering and detracting from the coffee-table art component.
Doctor Who: Voyager
by Steve Parkhouse; ill. John Ridgway; colours Gina Hart (Marvel, 1985)
Frobisher is introduced, joining a more proactive, less bombastic Sixth Doctor in an adventure trippy enough to have rounded out The Trial of a Time Lord. A preponderance of dark hues serves to foreground the SF (and make Baker’s coat blend in!).
Doctor Who: The Time of the Doctor
by Steven Moffat; dir. Jamie Payne (BBC, 2013)
Ending Matt Smith’s tenure with a Christmas special was a brave choice, but one that pays off. The story is chaotic and full of holes, yet Smith himself is quite brilliant as the ancient but ever-young-at-heart friend of children. A fitting farewell.