The Handbook – Vol 2 (“Doctor Who”)

Everything you ever wanted to know about the cult BBC Television series Doctor Who (1963-1996).

On their first publication, the Doctor Who Handbooks were hailed as the best ever look behind the scenes of the BBC’s cult science fiction show Doctor Who. Now collected in two revised and updated editions, these books are the definitive guide to the background and production of a television classic. Alongside The Television Companion, which The Handbook is designed to complement, they provide just about everything you need to know about the show, its stars, its background, its stories and its monsters.

This volume focuses on the fourth to eighth Doctors. There are interviews with companions and script editors, features on locations and costumes, script-to-screen breakdowns of one story from each era (’The Brain of Morbius’, ‘The Five Doctors’, ‘Revelation of the Daleks’ and ‘Dragonfire’), and articles examining every aspect of the show, from the Doctor, to its mythology, to how it was transmitted and marketed.

This is the essential companion for every trip you will ever take into the TV universe of classic Doctor Who.

Volume 2 (Doctors 4-8): 567pp. 6×9 paperback.
ISBN: 978-1-84583-942-0
Published July 2016.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

David J Howe has been involved with Doctor Who research and writing for over 30 years. He has been consultant to a large number of publishers and manufacturers for their Doctor Who lines, and is author or co-author of over 30 factual titles associated with the show. He also has one of the largest collections of Doctor Who merchandise in the world. David was contributing editor to Starburst magazine for 17 years from 1984-2001. From 1994 he was book reviews editor for Shivers magazine until it ceased publication in 2008. In addition he has written articles, interviews and reviews for a wide number of publications, including Fear, Dreamwatch, Infinity, Stage and Television Today, The Dark Side, Doctor Who Magazine, the Guardian, Film Review, SFX, Sci-Fi Entertainment, Collectors’ Gazette, Deathray and the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

He edited the bi-monthly newsletter of the British Fantasy Society from 1992 to 1995, and also edited and published several books for them, including the British and World Fantasy Award shortlisted Manitou Man, a limited edition hardback and paperback collection of short fiction by horror author Graham Masterton. He also edited the BFS’s fortieth anniversary anthology, Full Fathom Forty, published in September 2011.

He wrote the book Reflections: The Fantasy Art of Stephen Bradbury for Dragon’s World Publishers and has contributed short fiction to Peeping Tom, Dark Asylum, Decalog, Dark Horizons, Kimota, Perfect Timing, Perfect Timing II, Missing Pieces, Shrouded by Darkness and Murky Depths, and factual articles to James Herbert: By Horror Haunted and The Radio Times Guide to Science Fiction. He wrote the screenplay for Daemos Rising, a film released on DVD by Reeltime Pictures in 2004.

He wrote about Doctor Who merchandise for Doctor Who Insider magazine, and contributed liner notes for AudioGO’s range of Doctor Who novelisation CDs.

He is currently Editorial Director of Telos Publishing Ltd, a UK based independent press specialising in horror/science fiction novellas, crime novels, and guides to a variety of film and TV shows. In 2006 the company won the World Fantasy Award for their publishing work, and in 2010 celebrated their tenth anniversary while also receiving the British Fantasy Award for Best Small Press.

Stephen James Walker became hooked on Doctor Who as a young boy, right from its debut season in 1963/64, and has been a fan ever since. He first got involved in the series’ fandom in the early 1970s, when he became a member of the original Doctor Who Fan Club (DWFC). He joined the Doctor Who Appreciation Society (DWAS) immediately on its formation in May 1976, and was an attendee and steward at the first ever Doctor Who convention in August 1977. He soon began to contribute articles to fanzines, and in the 1980s was editor of the seminal reference work Doctor Who – An Adventure in Space and Time and its sister publication The Data-File Project. He also became a frequent writer for the official Doctor Who Magazine. Between 1987 and 1993 he was co-editor and publisher, with David J Howe and Mark Stammers, of the leading Doctor Who fanzine The Frame. Since that time, he has gone on to write, co-write and edit numerous Doctor Who articles and books – including Doctor Who: The Sixties, Doctor Who: The Seventies, Doctor Who: The Eighties, The Doctor Who Yearbook 1996, The Handbook (originally published in seven separate volumes) and The Television Companion – and he is now widely acknowledged as one of the foremost chroniclers of the series’ history. He was the initiator and, for the first two volumes, co-editor of Virgin Publishing’s Decalog books – the first ever Doctor Who short story anthology range. More recently, for Telos Publishing he has edited the three-volume Talkback series of Doctor Who interview books and written a range of annual guide books to both 21st Century Doctor Who and Torchwood. He has a BSc (Hons) degree in Applied Physics from University College London, and his many other interests include cult TV, film noir, vintage crime fiction, Laurel and Hardy and an eclectic mix of soul, jazz, R&B and other popular music. Between July 1983 and March 2005 he acted as an adviser to successive Governments, latterly at senior assistant director level, responsible for policy on a range of issues relating mainly to individual employment rights. His working time is now taken up by his writing projects and by his role as co-owner and director of Telos Publishing. He lives in Kent with his wife and family.

Mark Stammers is a graphic designer by profession and a Doctor Who fan for many years. He has been fortunate enough to combine his work and passion by designing materials for the Doctor Who Appreciation Society and the award winning fanzine The Frame. He also designed a number of large format books for Virgin Publishing, including Blacklight – The Art of Andrew Skilleter, and Timeframe by David J Howe. He co-authored Doctor Who The Sixties, The Seventies and The Eighties with David J Howe and Stephen James Walker and The Companions with David J Howe. He also co-edited with Stephen James Walker two books of Doctor Who short fiction entitled Decalog and Decalog II.