REFERENCING THE DOCTOR

Through the Magic Door

Its enigmatic title promises mystery – yet Doctor Who is perhaps the most forensically documented TV series of all time.

THE HISTORY OF DOCTOR WHO

An imminent production handover prompted story editor Dennis Spooner to create the first Doctor Who episode guide.

Mac Books

The seminal Making of Doctor Who was published in 1972. Its co-author was Malcolm Hulke, a man who divided his career between writing episodes of television series and compiling guide books...

Special Occasion

In 1973 the 10th anniversary of Doctor Who was celebrated with a souvenir issue of the BBC’s listings magazine, Radio Times.

MONSTER MASH

The long tradition of highly illustrated Doctor Who reference books can be traced back to a treasured series edited by Terrance Dicks in the 1970s.

STINFO MANIACS

In the days before Doctor Who Magazine, the devotees of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society went to extraordinary lengths to chart the history of their favourite programme.

THE FOUNDATION TRILOGY

In the 1970s, television series were generally seen as disposable products, unworthy of in-depth cataloguing. In the early 1980s, a pair of Doctor Who books by Jean-Marc Lofficier led to a new approach...

MAKING HISTORY

Doctor Who’s first coffee-table book, 1983’s A Celebration, was a publishing phenomenon that accidentally turned author Peter Haining into the show’s ‘official historian’.

TEXTING THE DOCTOR

The most serious, and arguably the most challenging, books about Doctor Who are the numerous cultural studies texts that have appeared since the early 1980s.

MAIL ORDER MAN

For two decades, John Fitton provided an essential service to Doctor Who fans – supplying books and other merchandise direct to their doors.

THE STUFF OF LEGEND

In 1986 Jeremy Bentham earned a place among Doctor Who’s gamechanging authors with a book that featured unprecedented analysis of the William Hartnell era.

The Power of Three

David J Howe, Mark Stammers and Stephen James Walker are jointly responsible for more Doctor Who reference books than any other authors.

Inside the ARCHIVES

With the television series seemingly over, Doctor Who Magazine provided dedicated fans with the most detailed series of retrospective articles it had ever attempted.

A Brief History of Time

Some of Doctor Who’s most dedicated fans and historians have spent years trying to untangle the series’ haphazard continuity.

THE PUBLISHER’S TALE

BBC Books’ Albert DePetrillo explains how Doctor Who’s range of official non-fiction continues to evolve.

THE INDIE SCENE

The advent of digital printing technology has transformed the world of short run, niche publishing. This quiet revolution has left Doctor Who fans spoilt for choice…

WRITERS’ TALES

Written by Russell T Davies and long-time Doctor Who Magazine contributor Benjamin Cook, The Writer’s Tale is a unique chronicle of the series’ twenty-first century production.

GRAPHIC DETAIL

In recent years, ‘infographics’ have brought a new dimension to the presentation of information and data about Doctor Who’s rich and varied history.

THE BOOKKEEPER

Doctor Who’s account brand manager Edward Russell is the ultimate authority on what goes into a reference book.

Historical Accuracy

Doctor Who: The Complete History is arguably the most ambitious reference work ever compiled about this, or any other, television series.

What’s in a Name?

The research that goes into Doctor Who reference books and magazines has helped to define the series itself.

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