BOOK CASE

Vintage novelisations, comic collections and fan theory is this month’s round-up of Doctor Who in print…

REVIEW BY STUART MANNING

BBC BOOKS, PANINI COMICS, MAD NORWEGIAN PRESS

REVIEWED THIS MONTH

n Space Helmet for a Cow 2 RRP $29.95 (US dollars)

n Running Through Corridors 2 RRP $19.95 (US dollars)

n Doctor Who In An Exciting Adventure with the Daleks, Doctor Who and the Zarbi, Doctor Who and the Crusaders RRP £9.99 each

n The Highgate Horror RRP £14.99

n Based on the Popular TV Serial RRP Free

Few television series are awarded the ongoing historical scrutiny of Doctor Who. Pity those long-forgotten household names of TV long past, looking down from the hereafter in dismay, wishing that an encounter with a pantomime seahorse dripping green paint might have spared them fading from memory. Compared to the many academic guides to Doctor Who’s history, Mad Norwegian Publishing has hit on a refreshing change of approach with its offbeat series Space Helmet for a Cow, which reaches the show’s modern era in its second volume.

Author Paul Kirkley’s style has the air of a particularly droll seminar, revelling in the show’s absurdities on both sides of the camera. Taking no prisoners, the story of Doctor Who becomes a springboard for witty asides and sotto-style put-downs, and – to Kirkley’s credit – most of them hit their target.

One of John Wood’s illustrations from the reprint of Doctor Who and the Zarbi.

The early sections, detailing Doctor Who’s socalled ‘wilderness years’ between cancellation and revival are ripe for satire – 15 purgatorial years of dubious rumour, bootleg fan videos and many a cautionary tale of couldawoulda- shoulda.